1,721,033 research outputs found

    Integrated Modelling Assessment of Low Carbon and Air Quality Plan Synergies

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    Climate Change and Air Quality are the most crucial environmental challenges for population health and our societies. Decision makers at different scales (European, national, and regional) define low carbon and air quality plans to reduce GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O) and air pollution precursors (NOx, NMVOC, NH3, SOx, primary PM2.5) emissions. Integrated Assessment Modelling is a methodology that can support decision makers. In this paper, we formalize a decision problem based on a multi-objective approach. The solution to the problem is the efficient low carbon and air quality emission reduction measure set for the Lombardy region, one of the most polluted areas in Europe, assuming the current energy legislation in 2030.Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors

    The cost of inaction in air pollution abatement policies

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    Two alternative air quality policies are compared: one is the application of only mandatory abatement measures from 2020 to 2030. The second is the definition of a more active and locally-based policy that will lead to a better air quality at the end of the decade. Using an integrated modelling system, we demonstrate that the active policy is quite more convenient from the economic viewpoint, at least for the specific situation of the Lombardy region, considered in the study. Improving particulate matter concentrations may however produce worse ozone values. A full view of all pollutants is thus necessary when planning for air quality at regional level.Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

    Optimal Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation

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    This work explores methods to address climate change by applying optimization techniques in a top-down approach. A decision model is proposed to minimize temperature anomalies compared to pre-industrial levels between 2025 and 2100 by varying greenhouse gases (GHG), namely CO2 and CH4. Two objective functions are minimized. The first one considers the overall sum of the temperature anomalies by 2100, while the latter minimizes the temperature anomaly at the end of the century. Two different emission trends are assumed: a gradual (gaussian) fall in emissions or a fast (exponential) decline. The reduction of GHG emissions is constrained to a set of IPCC scenarios identified by assessing economic, social, and technological trends in the next decades. The uncertainty analysis of the decision problem solutions suggests that temperature anomalies can be limited to the range of 0.8-2°C

    The cost of inaction in air pollution abatement policies

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    Two alternative air quality policies are compared: one is the application of only mandatory abatement measures from 2020 to 2030. The second is the definition of a more active and locally-based policy that will lead to a better air quality at the end of the decade. Using an integrated modelling system, we demonstrate that the active policy is quite more convenient from the economic viewpoint, at least for the specific situation of the Lombardy region, considered in the study. Improving particulate matter concentrations may however produce worse ozone values. A full view of all pollutants is thus necessary when planning for air quality at regional level.Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

    A top-down approach for climate change mitigation strategies

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    This research examined the effects of various GHG reduction policies on climate change via optimization techniques using a top-down approach. The aim was to examine how different aspects of policies to reduce CO2 and CH4 emissions would affect changes in temperature compared to pre-industrial levels from 2025 to 2100. The proposed top-down approach allows for the investigation of several factors that may influence the results: (i) the objective function, (ii) the reduction pathway, and (iii) the starting point of the optimization. Two different objective functions were minimized: the overall sum of the temperature between 2025–2100 and the value at 2100. The results were also compared in terms of the reduction trajectories: two different emission trends were assumed: a gradual (gaussian) fall in emissions or a fast (exponential) decline, starting in 2025, in 2030, and in 2035. The mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was limited to a certain range of scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These scenarios were determined by analyzing economic, social, and technical developments expected to occur in the next few decades. The analysis also included the interaction in global warming of air pollutant emission variations due to climate policies. The results revealed that exponential trajectories, depending on the initial year, can facilitate the stabilization of global temperatures below 1.5 °C. In contrast, gaussian trajectories were more likely to overtake this threshold if implementation is delayed beyond 2025

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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