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Historical and future projected costs of capital for ten energy technologies across 176 countries
No full textAccelerating the deployment of clean generation technologies will be key to achieving global climate targets, yet accurately modelling the financial conditions they face is challenging. The cost of capital (or discount rate) is a key input for energy system models, which are used widely to explore future decarbonisation scenarios. Despite its importance, data on the cost of capital is typically outdated, closed-source and geographically concentrated. Even for countries with substantial technology deployment, accessing empirical data can be difficult, leading to the use of standard assumptions in modelling which can substantially bias results (due to the high capital intensity of clean technologies). Here, we provide estimates of the cost of capital for 10 generation technologies at a national level (including solar, wind, bioenergy, and natural gas with carbon capture) for 176 countries, for 2015 to 2030 spanning 27,640 data points. An interactive web tool available at wacc-forecaster.streamlit.app has also been produced to visualise estimates for given years, countries and technologies, making results more accessible to a range of audiences
Correction: Drop-weight impact of composite laminates: modelling the effect of a round-nosed versus a flat-ended impactor
No full textIn Table 1 of this article, the equation ω = 20−90˚ was incorrect and should have been ω = 2θ-90˚. Also, the labels (P1) to (P4) are not lined up on the right, (P2) needs to be under (P1), and for (P4), the left-hand bracket “(” obscures P.
The original article has been corrected
Correction to: Defining hyperphagia for improved diagnosis and management of MC4R pathway–associated disease: a roundtable summary
No full textAll roundtable participants received honorarium and travel reimbursements from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Authors were not paid for their participation in this manuscript. SBH is a medical advisory board member for Tanita Corporation, Amgen, Novo Nordisk, Versanis Bio, and Medifast and has served as an Amazon Scholar KC is a primary investigator for Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and her research group has received research support from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. BD is a consultant for Novo Nordisk and primary investigator for Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. APG has been a consultant for Evidera, Helsinn Healthcare, Idera Pharmaceuticals, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Soleno Therapeutics, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, and Veda Ventures; has been an advisory board member for Millendo Therapeutics and Radius Health; has been a member of the Data Safety Monitoring Committee for Novo Nordisk; has received speaker honoraria from Novo Nordisk and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; and has been a Principal Investigator for clinical trials sponsored by Millendo Therapeutics, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Soleno Therapeutics. AMH has received grants from the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative and Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is an advisory board member for Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the 2023 Novo Nordisk Pediatric Expert Obesity National, and Foundation for Prader-Willi Research USA. She is PI for clinical trials with Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Acadia Pharmaceuticals, NovoNordisk, and Eli Lilly. PK has participated on a safety board for and their institution has received funding for clinical trial research from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. JR is on speaker bureaus for Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is an independent consultant for Palatin Technologies. CLR’s institution has received research support from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. EvdA’s institution has received funding for clinical trial research from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. MW has received consulting fees and payment for educational events/lectures from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and their institution has received funding for clinical trial research from Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. JAY reports grant support from Soleno Therapeutics and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for obesity-related projects as well as material support for research from Hikma Pharmaceuticals plc and Versanis Bio. Regarding the article, Defining Hyperphagia for Improved Diagnosis and Management of MC4R Pathway–Associated Disease: A Roundtable Summary, the authors were informed after publication that two mentions of the gene SNORD116 would be more accurate if updated to SNORD115 (1). While the current reference does support SNORD116 having a role in food intake/body weight, the serotonin receptor regulation is reported specifically with SNORD115. (1) Qi Y, Purtell L, Fu M, Lee NJ, Aepler J, Zhang L, et al. Snord116 is critical in the regulation of food intake and body weight. Sci Rep. 2016;6:18614. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep1861
Large differences between UK black carbon emission factors
No full textIntroduction:
Black carbon (BC) is a pollutant that illustrates strong links between climate warming and adverse health effects from air pollution. No standardised measurement technique for BC emissions has been implemented, making emissions and estimates highly uncertain. In this study, we evaluate two UK-based BC emission factor databases calculated using two distinct.
Methods:
the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) and the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model database from IIASA. The scope of this investigation was limited to the 1 A (Fuel Consumption) NFR code, which comprised the largest BC-emitting activities in the UK. Comparisons were made between a reference NAEI value and a range of low (e.g., highest abatement, newest technology), medium, and high GAINS emission factors. The NAEI value sat outside the GAINS BC ranges across 64% of the selected 1 A sources, most evidently within industrial combustion. By comparison, PM2.5 and NOx emission factors within the same databases showed less frequent disagreement, with 26% and 46%, respectively, of the GAINS sources not overlapping with the NAEI reference. A complementary BC emissions estimate, using NAEI activity data, found the highest variance in emissions to be within industrial, domestic, and agricultural combustion sources. Overall, this paper highlights the need to understand the differences behind these BC emission factors and to bring them into closer alignment
Enhancing solar mini-grid utilisation in farming communities: crop strategies to reduce costs and improve energy access
No full textApproximately 80% of the global population without access to electricity live in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with rural areas disproportionately affected. Solar-powered mini-grids are being used to increase rural electrification. However, their deployment is hindered by high costs, low electricity demand, and limited incomes in rural households. Agriculture constitutes 70% of rural incomes in SSA and faces threats due to a reliance on rainfall coupled with low irrigation levels in the context of climate change. Irrigation loads have been suggested as a strategy to enhance the economic viability of solar mini-grids by boosting electricity demand: reducing the levelised cost of used electricity (LCUE) whilst improving farmer yields and incomes. This study investigates a case study in Tanzania, selected based on the amount of population without access to electricity, the potential for irrigation, and the prevalence of photovoltaic solutions in the least-cost pathways for rural electrification. The seasonality and timing of irrigation demand, as well as crop mixes, are varied to optimise for the lowest LCUE using the open-source modelling framework continuous lifetime optimisation of variable electricity resources. Evapo-transpiration and energy-system modelling are used to estimate energy demand. We find that adding irrigation loads has the potential to increase the LCUE and lower asset utilisation (load factor) when compared to residential loads but that, by selecting crops with longer growth periods, optimising irrigation timing, and implementing multiple planting seasons, the LCUE can be up to 7% less than residential-only systems with an increase seen in asset utilisation. LCUE values of 0.54–1.30 $/kWh were found: higher costs were associated with shorter crop-growth periods, single planting seasons, and poorly timed irrigation loads whilst lower costs were observed with bimodal cropping and solar-coordinated irrigation times. The research highlights that, when incorporating irrigation loads into rural-electrification strategies, specific factors should be considered to enhance their viability within mini-grids in SSA. We recommend to both policymakers and mini-grid developers to promote multiple planting seasons (bimodal cropping) and encourage optimal crop mixes where relevant alongside irrigation schemes and rural electrification projects as well as adopting the use of flexible tariffs for irrigation loads
Privacy policies and consumer data extraction: evidence from U.S. firms
No full textUsing a comprehensive dataset of privacy policies, firm characteristics, consumer tracking, and cybersecurity incidents, we document several stylized facts about the
heterogeneity of firms’ data extraction practices and the influence of privacy regulations. Rather than adopting standardized boilerplate privacy policies, we find substantial within-industry differences correlated with firms’ technical sophistication; firms engaging in data extraction have lengthier policies, seeking to hedge legal risks. Firms with intermediate technical sophistication appear to follow a ”collect and share” model, collecting large amounts of consumer data and sharing it with third-parties for processing, thus creating cybersecurity risks. Conversely, high sophistication firms appear to implement a “receive and process” model, consistent with a two-tier data market in which data flows from intermediate to high sophistication firms
Electrothermal instabilities observed by x-ray radiography of underwater sub-microsecond electrical explosions of aluminum, silver, and molybdenum wires
No full textWe present measurements of the wavelength of electrothermal instabilities (ETI) formed during underwater electrical explosions of aluminum (Al), silver (Ag), and molybdenum (Mo) wires. Wires were exploded using a ∼450 ns rise time and ∼120 kA amplitude current pulse delivered by a pulse generator. Images of the exploding wires were captured by multi-frame synchrotron radiography at the ID19 beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Resolvable ETI was observed only in Al and Ag wires after the vaporization phase, whereas no such instabilities were detectable in Mo wires. Fourier analysis revealed that the ETI wavelengths in Al and Ag wires were comparable within the spatial resolution error, despite their different minimal instability wavelengths, which were predicted to develop during the melting phase. These minimal wavelengths were calculated using the linear ETI development theory and the simulated average wire temperature. The latter was calculated using one-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, considering uniform current density across the wire cross-sectional area
Draft genome sequence of carbapenem-resistant <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> ST6260 isolated from the catheter tip of a female patient in Nepal
No full textKlebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic human pathogen, particularly associated with nosocomial infections and multidrug resistance. Here, we present a draft genome sequence of a carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae ST6260 isolated from the catheter tip of a female patient in a referral case received at Kathmandu Model Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
Holographic sensor for the rapid detection of milk adulteration
No full textMilk adulteration through dilution and the addition of nitrogen-rich chemicals is a persistent issue in the dairy industry, affecting product quality and consumer safety. Current monitoring techniques often rely on protein nitrogen content, which can be misrepresented by these additives. We report a reflective holographic sensor that can directly detect diluted milk by monitoring the shrinkage of the holographic grating, which induces a rapid and reversible blue shift of 34 nm across milk dilutions ranging from 10 to 100 vol%. The holographic milk sensor demonstrates high selectivity, remaining unaffected by variations in fat content, ionic strength, or pH. Testing with various casein suspensions reveals that the shrinkage effect is specifically triggered by calcium caseinate micelles, in marked contrast to free casein slurries in water. Moreover, adding melamine to artificially compensate for the nitrogen loss in diluted milk results in swelling rather than contraction. This holographic sensor offers a reliable and effective tool for quality control in the dairy industry
The role of sequence information in minimal models of molecular assembly
No full textSequence-directed assembly processes – such as protein folding – allow the assembly of a large number of structures with high accuracy from only a small handful of fundamental building blocks. We aim to explore how efficiently sequence information can be used to direct assembly by studying variants of the temperature-1 abstract tile assembly model (aTAM). We ask whether, for each variant, there exists a finite set of tile types that can deterministically assemble any shape producible by a
given assembly model; we call such tile type sets “universal assembly kits”. Our first model, which we call the “backboned aTAM”, generates backbone-assisted assembly by forcing tiles to be added to lattice positions neighbouring the immediately preceding tile, using a predetermined sequence of tile types. We demonstrate the existence of universal assembly kit for the backboned aTAM, and show that the existence of this set is maintained even under stringent restrictions to the rules of assembly. We compare these results to a less constrained model that we call sequenced aTAM, which also uses a predetermined sequence of tiles, but does not constrain a tile to neighbour the immediately preceding tiles. We prove that this model has no universal assembly kit in the stringent case. The lack of such a kit is surprising, given that the number of tile sequences of length N scales faster than both the number and worst-case Kolmogorov complexity of producible shapes of size N for a sufficiently large – but
finite – set of tiles. Our results demonstrate the importance of physical mechanisms, and specifically geometric constraints, in facilitating efficient use of the information in molecular programs for structure assembly