Predicting solar radiation based on available weather indicators

Solar radiation prediction models are complex and require software that is not available for the household investor. The processing power within a normal desktop or laptop computer is sufficient to calculate similar models. This barrier to entry for the average consumer can be fixed by a model simple enough to be calculated by hand if necessary. Solar radiation modeling has been historically difficult to predict and accurate models have significant assumptions and restrictions on their use. Previous methods have been limited to linear relationships, location restrictions, or input data limits to one atmospheric condition. This research takes a novel approach by combining two techniques within the computational limits of a household computer; Clustering and Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). Clustering helps limit the large observation space which restricts the use of HMMs. Instead of using continuous data, and requiring significantly increased computations, the cluster can be used as a qualitative descriptor of each observation. HMMs incorporate a level of uncertainty and take into account the indirect relationship between meteorological indicators and solar radiation. This reduces the complexity of the model enough to be simply understood and accessible to the average household investor. The solar radiation is considered to be an unobservable state that each household will be unable to measure. The high temperature and the sky coverage are already available through the local or preferred source of weather information. By using the next day\u27s prediction for high temperature and sky coverage, the model groups the data and then predicts the most likely range of radiation. This model uses simple techniques and calculations to give a broad estimate for the solar radiation when no other universal model exists for the average household --Abstract, page iii

Mission, Migration, and Christ Church in Vienna

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/firstfruitspapers/1068/thumbnail.jp

The mark of the moral:Beyond the sentimentalist turn

In light of recent empirical data, many psychologists and philosophers have turned away from rationalism about moral judgment and embraced sentimentalism. In the process, they have rejected the classical “moral signature” as a way of distinguishing moral from conventional norms in favor of a sentimentalist approach to carving out the moral domain. In this paper, we argue that this sentimentalist turn has been made prematurely. Although we agree that the experiments reveal that the classical approach is flawed, we propose to replace it with an alternative, according to which a norm is moral precisely if it is justifiable to all. This does not hold for most norms based on disgust or loyalty to a particular community. We accommodate the fact that such norms are not merely conventional by introducing a third domain, the domain of ethics. Our proposal reveals that (psychological) rationalism is still a viable option, as a lot of the experimental evidence that features emotions concerns the domain of ethics rather than morality

Migration in the Mediterranean

Die internationale Migration im Mittelmeerraum hat seit den 1990er Jahren einen tief greifenden Wandel erlebt, sie hat erheblich zugenommen, ist deutlich heterogener geworden und aus den ehemaligen Abwanderungsgebieten im Süden Europas sind selbst Regionen mit Zuwanderungsüberschuss geworden. Mit dem Anwachsen der Zahl an Asylbewerbern, Flüchtlingen und undokumentierten Migranten seit den 1990er Jahren werden diese Wanderungsbewegungen in europäischer Wahrnehmung zunehmend als Bedrohung empfunden. Zahlreiche EU-Staaten haben hierauf mit einer Verschärfung ihrer Zuwanderungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetze reagiert, während andere der Zuwanderung in den Arbeitsmarkt positiver gegenüber stehen und wiederholt illegale Zuwanderung nachträglich regularisiert haben. Gleichzeitig hat die Ausweitung der EU und die damit verbundenen Freizügigkeitsregelungen für die Niederlassung von EU-Bürgern in anderen Ländern zwischenzeitlich einen EUBinnenwanderungsraum geschaffen, der sich von den benachbarten nicht EU-Ländern abhebt und in den Medien auch als „Festung Europa“ bezeichnet wird, deren Südgrenze den Mittelmeerraum durchschneidet. Während die EU bestrebt ist, Migration selektiv zu steuern, haben die südlichen Nachbarregionen ein Interesse, Wanderung für ihre eigene Entwicklung zu nutzen. Diese Interessengegensätze zu einem gegenseitigen Nutzen zu vereinen ist u.a. Ziel der EuroMediterranen Partnerschaft, bei der Wanderungsfragen gegenwärtig einen Arbeitsschwerpunkt darstellen. Der Beitrag beschreibt den Verlauf der Wanderungsströme im Mittelmeerraum und die in den Mittelmeerländern ansässige nicht-einheimische Bevölkerung2 nach ausgewählten Ländern im Überblick und stellt die aktuellen Wanderungstrends in den Zusammenhang regionaler Entwicklungsunterschiede und divergierender demographischer Entwicklungen in der Region. Darüber hinaus werden die unterschiedlichen Ziele der aktuellen Wanderungspolitiken der Mittelmeeranrainer im Kontext der aktuellen internationalen Diskussion um die Ergebnisse der Global Commission on International Migration und dem Global Forum on Migration and Development zum Zusammenhang zwischen internationaler Wanderung und Entwicklung bzw. der Steuerung von Wanderung durch transnationale Kooperation analysiert und hinsichtlich möglicher künftiger Trends der internationalen Wanderung im Mittelmeerraum interpretiert.International migration in the Mediterranean has changed dramatically since the 1990s. It has increased significantly, become far more heterogeneous and the former countries of emigration of Southern Europe have become preferred destinations of immigration flows themselves. With the increase in the number of asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants since the 1990s, these migratory movements are increasingly perceived as a threat by many Europeans. Many EU countries have responded by tightening their immigration and residence laws, while others consider immigration into the labour market generally positively and have repeatedly regularised undocumented immigration flows. At the same time, the expansion of the EU and the related regulations on freedom of residence for EU citizens has created an internal migration space within the EU. Referred to in the media as “Fortress Europe”, this is separated from the neighbouring non-EU countries and has a southern border that cuts through the Mediterranean region. While the EU is striving to regulate migration selectively, its southern neighbours are interested in using migration to boost their own development. One of the goals of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, which is currently focusing on migration issues, is to unite these opposing interests for the benefit of all concerned. This article describes changes in the migration flows affecting the Mediterranean region, presents an overview of the foreign3 population in the Mediterranean countries based on selected examples and puts current migration trends into the context of regional development differences and divergent demographic developments in the region. It also analyses the different goals of the Mediterranean neighbouring countries’ current migration policies in the context of the recent international discussion on the results of the Global Commission on International Migration and the Global Forum on Migration and Development regarding the relationship between international migration and development as well as migration management through transnational cooperation. Further, the paper relates these policies to possible future trends in international migration in the Mediterranean region

Low-temperature plasma technology as part of a closed-loop resource management system

The results of this testing indicate that the agitated low-temperature plasma reactor system successfully converted carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen into gaseous products at residence times that were about ten times shorter than those achieved by stationary processing. The inorganic matrix present was virtually unchanged by the processing technique. It was concluded that this processing technique is feasible for use as part of a close-looped processing resource management system

Nuklearterrorismus: akute Bedrohung oder politisches Schreckgespenst?

'Mit der Angst vor weiteren terroristischen Anschlägen wachsen auch Ängste vor nuklearen Anschlägen, die besonderen Schrecken verbreiten. Dies hat vor allem damit zu tun, dass es um Massenvernichtungswaffen geht, aber auch mit dem Umstand, dass seit den Atombombenabwürfen auf Hiroshima und Nagasaki 1945 in zwischenstaatlichen Konflikten weltweit keine Nuklearwaffen mehr eingesetzt worden sind. Sie galten bislang als reine Abschreckungsmaßnahme und ihr Einsatz als tabu, zumal ein Staat mit entsprechenden - nuklearen - Vergeltungsschlägen zu rechnen hätte. Doch dieser handlungsleitende Mechanismus versagt im Fall von nichtstaatlichen Akteuren. Hinzu kommt, dass die heutigen Kommunikationstechnologien Terroristen vielfältige Möglichkeiten zur Vorbereitung und Koordinierung von Anschlägen eröffnen. Und auch zur Erlangung von einsatzfähigen Kernwaffen oder von nuklearen Komponenten zum Waffenbau scheinen die Hürden derzeit nicht sehr hoch. Wie groß die Gefahren tatsächlich sind, welche Art von (Kern-)Waffen überhaupt in den Hände von Terroristen gelangen könnten, untersucht Frank Sauer im vorliegenden Report. Diese Analyse erteilt unbegründeten Horrorszenarien eine Absage und ermöglicht die richtigen Maßnahmen zur Prävention.' (Autorenreferat

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

The functional and structural complexity of the myriad of cells in metazoan organisms arises from a small number of stem cells. Stem cells are characterized by two fundamental properties: self-renewal and multipotency that allows a stem cell to differentiate into virtually any cell type 1. The progression stem cell to differentiated cell is characterized by loss of multipotency, structural and morphological changes and the hierarchic activity of transcription factors and signaling molecules, whose activities establish and maintain cell-type specific gene expression patterns. At the molecular level, cell differentiation involves dynamic changes of the structure and composition of chromatin and the detection of those dynamic changes can provide valuable insights into the functional features of stem cells and the cell differentiation process 2,3. Chromatin is a highly compacted DNA-protein complex that forms when cells package chromosomal DNA with proteins, mainly histones 4. Stemcellness and cell differentiation has been correlated with the presence of specific arrays of regulatory proteins such as epigenetic factors, histone variants, and transcription factors 2,3,5