The implication of input data aggregation on upscaling of soil organic carbon changes

In regionalization studies the spatial resolution of driving data is often restricted by data availability or limited computational capacity. Method and level of spatial driver aggregation in upscaling studies are sources of uncertainty and might bias aggregated model results. The suitability of upscaled model results using aggregated driving data depends on both the sensitivity of the model to these model drivers and the scale of interest to which the model output will be aggregated. An important component of soil plant atmosphere systems is the soil organic matter content influencing GHG emissions and the soil fertility of croplands.The implications of driver aggregation schemes on different system properties of croplands have been examined in a scaling exercise within the joint research project MACSUR. In this study, meteorological driving data and data on soil properties on several aggregation levels have been used to calculate the organic carbon change of cropland soils of North Rhine-Westphalia with an ensemble of biogeochemical models.The results of this scaling exercise show that the aggregation of meteorological data has little impact on modeled soil organic carbon changes. However, model uncertainty increases slightly with decreasing scale of interest from NUTS 2 level to smaller grid cell size. Conversely, the aggregation of soil properties resulted in high uncertainty ranges constraining the predictable scale of interest for all models. The study gives an indication on adequate spatial aggregation schemes in dependence on the scope of regionalization studies addressing soil organic carbon changes

All-orders resummation for diphoton production at hadron colliders

We present a QCD calculation of the transverse momentum distribution of photon pairs produced at hadron colliders, including all-orders soft-gluon resummation valid at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy. We specify the region of phase space in which the calculation is most reliable, compare our results with data from the Fermilab Tevatron, and make predictions for the Large Hadron Collider. The uncertainty of predictions for production of diphotons from fragmentation of final-state quarks is examined.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures; minor change

High-Energy-Physics Event Generation with PYTHIA 6.1

PYTHIA version 6 represents a merger of the PYTHIA 5, JETSET 7 and SPYTHIA programs, with many improvements. It can be used to generate high-energy-physics `events', i.e. sets of outgoing particles produced in the interactions between two incoming particles. The objective is to provide as accurate as possible a representation of event properties in a wide range of reactions. The underlying physics is not understood well enough to give an exact description; the programs therefore contain a combination of analytical results and various models. The emphasis in this article is on new aspects, but a few words of general introduction are included. Further documentation is available on the web.Comment: 1 + 27 pages, submitted to Computer Physics Communication

La politique de désinflation en Hongrie entre 1995 et 2000

This paper aims to give a comprehensive overview of the disinflationary process in Hungary during the second half of the 1990s. After the implementation of the much needed "Bokros" stabilization program in early 1995, sustainable disinflation was proclaimed as the chief goal of Hungarian monetary policy in the medium and long run. The National Bank of Hungary's disinflationary strategy is analyzed from theoretical and empirical viewpoints. Emphasis is laid on the need for economic policy and, in particular, monetary policy to be credible. We also emphasize the central role that the prean- nounced crawling band will play in achieving low one-digit inflation in the years to come. The effects of financial liberalization, especially on the room for manoeuver of Hungarian monetary authorities, is also discussed.L'ambition du présent article est d'analyser la politique de désinflation menée en Hongrie durant la seconde moitié des années 1990. Après la mise en œuvre, au début de 1995, du programme de stabilisation dit "Bokros", dont le pays avait un urgent besoin, la désinflation soutenable devint officiellement le principal objectif de la politique monétaire hongroise à moyen et long termes. La stratégie de désinflation de la Banque nationale de Hongrie est analysée sous ses aspects à la fois théoriques et pratiques. L'auteur insiste sur la nécessaire crédibilité de la politique économique et de la politique monétaire en particulier. Il souligne également le rôle central que jouera le système de change à crémaillère annoncé à l'avance dans la lutte contre l'inflation. Enfin, il examine les effets de la libéralisation financière et notamment son impact sur la marge de manœuvre des autorités monétaires hongroises.Égert Bálazs. La politique de désinflation en Hongrie entre 1995 et 2000. In: Revue d'études comparatives Est-Ouest, vol. 31, 2000, n°3. Les communistes en Europe centrale. Le système éducatif en Russie. pp. 165-191

“If the Neighborhood Catches Fire, One Will Also Come to Grief”: Chinese Attitudes toward North Korea’s Confrontational Acts, 2009-2014

<p>This paper examines Chinese responses to North Korea’s confrontational acts in 2009-2014, such as the two nuclear tests, the three satellite launches, the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong incidents, and the various missile tests. It suggests that Chinese attitudes toward North Korean belligerence have considerably fluctuated, and the changes that occurred were not always of an incremental nature. In some cases, China adopted a less critical attitude, while on other occasions it judged Pyongyang’s conduct more harshly. The paper argues that China’s responses were shaped partly by the specific nature of the crises at hand, and partly by Beijing’s changing relations with the other major powers (the U.S., Russia, and Japan). It concludes that North Korea was partly able to take advantage of these patterns of Chinese behavior but its tactics often proved counterproductive.</p

Customizable real-time service graph mapping algorithm in carrier grade networks

Today the notion of Service Function Chaining (SFC) returns to the focus of technological development in the area of network management and design. Researchers focus on exploiting the advantages of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to bring SFC to a brand new level of fast and flexible, modern end-to- end service orchestration. The core of SFC architecture is the orchestration algorithm, which has ultimate decision making responsibility over compute and networking resource reservation. There are many sophisticated solutions for this task with long running times, so those cannot be executed real-time for every new request arriving within a few seconds. There is a lack of very fast (meta)heuristic orchestration algorithms to deal with enormous amount of service request. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate novel approaches to designing, evaluating and fine- tuning of real-time parameterizable orchestration algorithms for carrier grade networks