Search results for "Tributi"
showing 10 items of 6415 documents
Enhanced Role of Transition Metal Ion Catalysis During In-Cloud Oxidation of SO2
2013
Global sulfate production plays a key role in aerosol radiative forcing; more than half of this production occurs in clouds. We found that sulfur dioxide oxidation catalyzed by natural transition metal ions is the dominant in-cloud oxidation pathway. The pathway was observed to occur primarily on coarse mineral dust, so the sulfate produced will have a short lifetime and little direct or indirect climatic effect. Taking this into account will lead to large changes in estimates of the magnitude and spatial distribution of aerosol forcing. Therefore, this oxidation pathway-which is currently included in only one of the 12 major global climate models-will have a significant impact on assessmen…
Cost and Financing of Education and its Impact on Coverage and Quality of Services and Efficiency and Equity in Sub-Saharan African Countries
2007
07052; In this chapter, we take mostly an international comparative perspective limited to Sub-Saharan African countries. First, we analyse first the macro picture and the public finance dimension, analyzing the systemic choices made in the distribution of public resources across levels and types of education. Second, we move to unit cost estimates and the factors accounting for their level in a given country and to their variation across the different countries of the region. Finally, we examine the implication of the choices made in the financial dimension upon outcomes (coverage and quality of educationl services), birnging issues of efficiency and equity into the analysis.
Compensatory strategies in processing facial emotions: evidence from prosopagnosia.
2006
We report data on the processing of facial emotion in a prosopagnosic patient (H.J.A.). H.J.A. was relatively accurate at discriminating happy from angry upright faces, but he performed at chance when the faces were inverted. Furthermore, with upright faces there was no configural interference effect on emotion judgements, when face parts expressing different emotions were aligned to express a new emergent emotion. We propose that H.J.A.'s emotion judgements relied on local rather than on configural information, and this local information was disrupted by inversion. A compensatory strategy, based on processing local face parts, can be sufficient to process at least some facial emotions.
Gaussian Mixture Models and Model Selection for [18F] Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Classification in Alzheimer’s Disease
2015
We present a method to discover discriminative brain metabolism patterns in [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) scans, facilitating the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. In the work, the term "pattern" stands for a certain brain region that characterizes a target group of patients and can be used for a classification as well as interpretation purposes. Thus, it can be understood as a so-called "region of interest (ROI)". In the literature, an ROI is often found by a given brain atlas that defines a number of brain regions, which corresponds to an anatomical approach. The present work introduces a semi-data-driven approach that is based on learning the charac…
On the Macroeconomic Effect of Extortion: An Agent-Based Approach
2021
This work proposes an agent-based approach to study the effect of extortion on macroeconomic aggregates, despite the fact that there is little data on this criminal activity given its hidden nature. We develop a Bottom-up Adaptive Macroeconomics (BAM) model that simulates a healthy economy, including a moderate inflation and a reasonable unemployment rate, and test the impact of extortion on various macroeconomic signals. The BAM model defines the usual interactions among workers, firms and banks in labour, goods and credit markets. Subsequently, crime is introduced by defining the propensity of the poorest workers to become extortionists, as well as the efficiency of the police in terms of…
An agent-based model to support the preliminary design and operation of heating and power grids with cogeneration units and photovoltaic panels in de…
2022
The increase in the energy demands of residential neighborhoods constitutes a huge challenge to be faced. A viable option lies in the insertion of both renewable energy production systems and cogeneration units within urban territories. On-site production allows for the satisfaction of the heating and electrical demands of end-users and favors the distribution of produced energy within the neighborhood, especially under the regulatory framework of energy communities. This paper proposes a tool to model heating and electricity networks integrated with cogeneration units and PV panels installed in urban areas. The tool accounts for the following possibilities: (i) energy flow management and p…
SW—Soil and Water
2002
Abstract Recent research has directed attention to the size distribution of eroded material because of its influence on deposition mechanics and in carrying capacity of pollutant materials. At first, in this paper the relationship between aggregate breakdown mechanism and erosion processes is briefly reviewed. Then the link between the clay enrichment ratio and the sediment delivery ratio at morphological unit scale is investigated. For 129 soil samples well distributed over the Sicilian Sparacia basin, the values for the experimental clay enrichment ratio calculated by the measured ultimate grain-size distributions are compared with the theoretical clay enrichment ratio values obtained by …
Regional income convergence in Colombia: population, space, and long-run dynamics
2022
We examine the trajectory of regional income dynamics in Colombia. Using data on all 33 Colombian departments from 2000 to 2016, we employ extensions of (spatial) Markov chains, space-time mobility measures, along with a fully weighted version of the distribution analysis approach. By considering these extensions, our analysis enables us to answer questions such as whether the role of spatial context influences the distributional dynamics of Colombian departments, or the magnitude of the moderating effect of department’s population. The inclusion of additional measures such as the asymptotic half-life of convergence provides additional results, informing on how long it would take to reach t…
Plasma lipid, apolipoprotein and Lp(a) levels in elderly normolipidemic women: Relationships with coronary heart disease and longevity
1995
The relation between plasma lipids and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the elderly is still debated, as well as the proposed role of lipoproteins as markers of longevity. In this study both normolipidemic elderly and middle-aged women with CHD showed higher triglycerides and apolipoprotein B levels and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I levels in comparison with age-matched subjects without CHD. In the middle-aged group, hypertension and HDL-cholesterol levels and, in the elderly group, only HDL-cholesterol levels were independently associated with CHD. No significant difference was found between a group of healthy centenarians and elderly and middle-age…
Effects of fasting on skeletal muscles and body fat of adult and old C57BL/6J mice
2021
Fasting improves metabolic health, but is also associated with loss of lean body mass. We investigated if old mice are less resistant to fasting-induce muscle wasting than adult mice. We compared changes in skeletal muscles and fat distribution in C57BL/6J mice subjected to 48-hour fasting at adult (6-month old) or old (24-month old) age. Old mice lost less weight (11.9 ± 1.5 vs 16.9 ± 2.8%, p 0.001) and showed less (p 0.01) pronounced muscle wasting than adult mice. Extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle force decreased only in adult mice after fasting. Serum IGF-1 levels were higher (p 0.01) and showed greater (p 0.01) decline in adult mice compared to old mice. Phosphorylation of 4EB…