The development of a Low Carbon Economy is a vital instrument to encounter climate change and take into account the growing challenges of an increasing urbanization in China. Wuxi City in East China’s Jiangsu Provinc...
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The development of a Low Carbon Economy is a vital instrument to encounter climate change and take into account the growing challenges of an increasing urbanization in China. Wuxi City in East China’s Jiangsu Province is starting to implement a Low Carbon City Plan for safeguarding a sustainable development of the city until 2020 and beyond. This paper aims at estimating the impact of the Low Carbon City plan for Wuxi’s energy demand and CO2-emissions until 2050. Using an econometric energy supply and demand model to estimate and forecast the Wuxi energy and CO2-balance aggregates until 2050, it compares a scenario without specific Low Carbon City measures to reduce sectoral CO2-intensities to a Low Carbon scenario implementing these measures according to the Low Carbon City Plan until 2020 and beyond. The decomposition of the Kaya-identity reveals that the increase of per capita income has the largest impact on the growth of CO2-emissions and the decrease of energy intensity of Gross Value Added the largest impact on the reduction of CO2-emissions in Wuxi. A decrease of population and CO2-intensity of Primary energy supply only have average contributions. The decrease of energy intensity of Gross Value Added is due to energy efficiency gains in the single economic sectors, but to a large extent due to structural changes of the economy away from energy intensive sectors such as iron and steel, chemical industry or cement industry towards the energy extensive service sectors. A growing residential sector also reduces the industrial share of energy demand. Only following the assumed national trend with a shift from CO2-intensive industries to a CO2-extensive service economy, the Low Carbon goal of a 50% reduction of CO2-intensity of Gross Value Added compared to 2005 cannot be reached in Wuxi. Specific sectoral CO2 -intensity goals have to be successfully observed by the economic sectors in Wuxi, especially by the industry. The promotion of combined heat and power gen
Vietnam and China both are quickly emerging market economies in Asia. China has had an unprecedented economic growth in Asia for the past 30 years. Also, Vietnam’s GDP is increasing, but more slowly. However, Vietnam...
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Vietnam and China both are quickly emerging market economies in Asia. China has had an unprecedented economic growth in Asia for the past 30 years. Also, Vietnam’s GDP is increasing, but more slowly. However, Vietnam is starting to catch up. Against this background, this article assesses the question what the economic and environmental impacts in Vietnam would be, if the country followed China’s development path. Based on econometric analysis, it is shown that currently, Vietnam is lagging behind China in terms of economic growth for 11 years. Although Vietnam and China have a similar primary energy mix in the early 1980s, China is still massively relying on coal, whereas Vietnam starts to develop hydro power in the late 1980s on large scale. Due to a quick growth of per-capita income, per capita emissions in China are already catching up with those of North-European economies such as Denmark, Finland and Germany. The question arises, what if Vietnam followed China’s development path. Using econometric models of GDP and CO2-emissions, two scenarios for Vietnam are analyzed, a scenario following China’s development path and one alternative scenario pursuing the current development patterns until 2050. The results show that the additional impact of following China’s economic development path is minor. Vietnam would only have a 0.5% percentage point per annum higher GDP growth. In other words, Vietnam would grow relatively quickly anyway. However, following China’s development path also in terms of high CO2-emissions per capita, would increase the growth of CO2-emissions in Vietnam by 2.3 percentage points per annum and would lead to an increase of CO2-emissions in 2050 by 2.6 bn. tons compared with the scenario in which Vietnam sticks to its own development patterns. However, in that case, Vietnam also had a 25% lower per capita income compared with the scenario following China’s development path. Here, the people and government in Vietnam have to make a strategic cho
Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st Century. As greenhouse gas concentration of the atmosphere has reached the 400ppm threshold of a 2°C global warming on 9 May 2013 and irreversible ti...
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Climate change is one of the most important challenges of the 21st Century. As greenhouse gas concentration of the atmosphere has reached the 400ppm threshold of a 2°C global warming on 9 May 2013 and irreversible tipping points of the climatic system at some point of time have got even more likely, the question of the individual contribution to climate change becomes more and more virulent. For a long time, the absorption capacity of the environment has been regarded as limitless, and based on this perception, the economic entities used the environment for hundreds of years without constraints. Today, with progress of scientific knowledge, we are now aware of the possible negative impacts of climate change to environmental, economic and social systems on Earth. This awareness, however, did not lead to a significant change of individual behavior, because the perceived individual contribution to both the anthropogenic cause of climate change and its mitigation is still regarded as marginal. To encounter this misperception or “diffusion of environmental responsibility”, this article presents an alternative calculation of the individual contribution to climate change taking the incremental approach to a tipping point or a 2°C global warming threshold into account.
The pressure and temperature increase resulting from the impact of different threats onto target materials is analyzed with a unified laboratory-scale setup. This allows deriving qualitative information on the occurri...
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The pressure and temperature increase resulting from the impact of different threats onto target materials is analyzed with a unified laboratory-scale setup. This allows deriving qualitative information on the occurring phenomenology as well as quantitative statements about the relative effects sizes as a function of target material and threat. The considered target materials are steel, aluminum, and magnesium. As threats, kinetic energy penetrator, explosively formed projectile, and shaped charge jet are used. For the investigated combinations, the measured overpressures vary by a factor of up to 5 for a variation of the material, by a factor of up to 7 for a variation of the threat, and by a factor larger than 15for a simultaneous variation of both. The obtained results as well as the experimental approach are relevant for the basic understanding of impact effects and risks due to material reactivity. The paper combines two main aims. Firstly, to provide a summary of own prior work in a coherent journal article and, secondly, to review and discuss these earlier results with a new perspective.
Liver cancer,and in particular hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is a disease of rising prevalence and *** date,definitive treatment options include either surgical excision or ablation of the affected *** increasing resea...
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Liver cancer,and in particular hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is a disease of rising prevalence and *** date,definitive treatment options include either surgical excision or ablation of the affected *** increasing research on several pathways that could be involved in the progression of HCC,new elements within these pathways emerge as potential targets for novel *** WNT/β-catenin pathway favors the presence of M2 tumor-associated macrophages which in turn promote tumor growth and *** inhibition of this pathway is considered a good candidate for such targeted therapeutic ***,as Huang et al show in their recently published article,Calculus bovis which is used in traditional Chinese medicine can exert an inhibitory effect on theβ-catenin pathway and become a potential candidate for targeted pharmacotherapy against liver cancer.
Microglia are present throughout the central nervous system and are vital in neural repair,nutrition,phagocytosis,immunological regulation,and maintaining neuronal *** a healthy spinal cord,microglia are accountable f...
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Microglia are present throughout the central nervous system and are vital in neural repair,nutrition,phagocytosis,immunological regulation,and maintaining neuronal *** a healthy spinal cord,microglia are accountable for immune surveillance,however,when a spinal cord injury occurs,the microenvironment drastically changes,leading to glial scars and failed axonal *** this context,microglia vary their gene and protein expression during activation,and proliferation in reaction to the injury,influencing injury responses both favorably and unfavorably.A dynamic and multifaceted injury response is mediated by microglia,which interact directly with neurons,astrocytes,oligodendrocytes,and neural stem/progenitor *** a clear understanding of their essential nature and origin,the mechanisms of action and new functions of microglia in spinal cord injury require extensive *** review summarizes current studies on microglial genesis,physiological function,and pathological state,highlights their crucial roles in spinal cord injury,and proposes microglia as a therapeutic target.
Due to the continuously increasing building and construction industry,sand has become one of the most questioned raw materials ***,the available amount of sand suitable for concrete production is orders of magnitude l...
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Due to the continuously increasing building and construction industry,sand has become one of the most questioned raw materials ***,the available amount of sand suitable for concrete production is orders of magnitude lower that the demand and *** though desert sand is sufficiently available,it is not usable for realizing stable concrete due to its surface *** this background,the suitability of energy-efficient‘cold'dielectric barrier discharge plasma operated at atmospheric pressure for improving the properties of concrete produced from desert sand was investigated in this *** is shown that such plasma treatment allows for a certain roughening and re-shaping of sand *** a result,the mass flow of treated sand is decreased due to an improved wedging of sand *** leads to a certain increase in compressive strength of concrete *** though this increase is marginal,the suitability of the applied type of plasma for modification of the geometry and surface chemistry of sand grains was proven,showing its basic potential for the treatment and preconditioning of sand used for concrete,mortar or plastering.
The World Wide Web provides a wealth of information about everything, including contemporary audio and visual art events, which are discussed on media outlets, blogs, and specialized websites alike. This information m...
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The World Wide Web provides a wealth of information about everything, including contemporary audio and visual art events, which are discussed on media outlets, blogs, and specialized websites alike. This information may become a robust source of real-world data, which may form the basis of an objective data-driven analysis. In this study, a methodology for collecting information about audio and visual art events in an automated manner from a large array of websites is presented in detail. This process uses cutting edge Semantic Web, Web Search and Generative AI technologies to convert website documents into a collection of structured data. The value of the methodology is demonstrated by creating a large dataset concerning audiovisual events in Greece. The collected information includes event characteristics, estimated metrics based on their text descriptions, outreach metrics based on the media that reported them, and a multi-layered classification of these events based on their type, subjects and methods used. This dataset is openly provided to the general and academic public through a Web application. Moreover, each event’s outreach is evaluated using these quantitative metrics, the results are analyzed with an emphasis on classification popularity and useful conclusions are drawn concerning the importance of artistic subjects, methods, and media.
Fungi are known to be crucial in the formation and stabilization of soil organic matter through their exudates and dead residues(necromass). Yet, it remains unclear how fungi contribute to the persistence of carbon in...
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Fungi are known to be crucial in the formation and stabilization of soil organic matter through their exudates and dead residues(necromass). Yet, it remains unclear how fungi contribute to the persistence of carbon in soils over millennial scales across biomes. Here, this study fills the knowledge gap by linking fungal carbon stocks with minerals-associated carbon stocks across major biomes. A strong correlation between fungal biomass and reactive mineral-associated carbon stocks in soils across six biomes supports the substantial role of fungi in soil carbon persistence at the global level. High spatial resolution nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry revealed that fungi may stabilize carbon by forming organo-mineral associations through their close physical connection to reactive minerals and weathered nanoparticles. We propose a conceptual model that emphasizes the dualistic role of hypha-mineral interactions:(i) fungi accelerate organic matter decomposition by producing reactive oxygen species on the hypha-mineral interfaces, and(ii) fungi stabilize their residues on mineral surfaces, leading to millennial scale persistence of soil C. Concluding, fungi play a fundamental role in ecosystems that extends beyond the decomposition of persistent carbon. They are crucial in stabilizing carbon on mineral surfaces, thereby facilitating the long-term removal of carbon from rapid biotic cycling.
The properties of laser signals are affected by deformation of the optical fibre through which they are *** this deformation dependence is undesirable in telecommunication,it can be exploited for the construction of n...
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The properties of laser signals are affected by deformation of the optical fibre through which they are *** this deformation dependence is undesirable in telecommunication,it can be exploited for the construction of novel seismic sensors that fill a niche in data acquisition where traditional seismometer arrays would be difficult to *** includes densely populated urban centers,the oceans,volcanoes and the Earth’s polar *** notes complement a presentation on recent methodological developments and applications in fibre-optic *** first part is focused on the use of distributed fibreoptic sensing in cryosphere research,and specifically the investigation of the internal structure and seismicity of glaciers and ice *** second part is dedicated to recent advances in integrated fibre-optic sensing,with emphasis on novel measurement principles and sensitivity.
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