• Energy Research
• 16. Peace & justice close
• CA close

The implementation of smart grid permits different system participants (e.g., distributed generations and loads) to interact in a rational and independent behavior to improve the distribution system (DS) performance. Each participant is recognized as a selfish decision maker that selects actions that improve its own payoff leading to conflicts with others. Therefore, further investigations are required to improve the decision making process outcomes. In this paper, a decentralized cooperative algorithm is developed to manage the multiparticipants DS operation. The proposed algorithm has been developed based on a correlated equilibrium game-theoretic approach. The outcomes of the proposed algorithm were compared with the traditional existing “best response” (BR) game-theoretic approach, which was utilized in similar multiparticipants DSs that converge to Nash equilibrium. The proposed algorithm is tested with two different case studies that were selected by the DS operator. The proposed algorithm was verified using a modified IEEE 123-bus test feeder. The test results showed a superior system performance compared with traditional BR techniques.

The COVID-19 pandemic has now affected everyone, threatening every aspect of our well-being with over 617597680 confirmed cases, including 6532705 deaths globally. The context of the Anthropocene is the backdrop for the novel, interlinked, systemic, and global threats. Anthropocene is a term proposed to designate the era in which human beings have become predominant drivers of planetary change, drastically altering the planet’s biosphere. The concept of global health diplomacy (GHD), which connects the domains of health and international relations, has a critical role in advancing human security. Thus, there is a need for new forms of diplomacy, which is critically important in this complex intermestic and interdependent Anthropocene era, where globalization has inevitably linked nations and population health. This paper introduces, analyzes, and attempts to define "Digital Global Health Diplomacy" (DGHD), which has gained great momentum during this COVID-19 pandemic with concurrent health and human security threats. The application of digital formats to the existing traditional structures for dialogue has become a more popular tool recently. Furthermore, digital means are being used during the COVID-19 pandemic to share the health diplomacy discourse at subnational, supranational, international, regional, and global platforms. DGHD reminds us again of the criticality of this multidisciplinary concept involving the contributions of diplomats, global health specialists, digital technology experts, economists, trade specialists, international law, political scientists, etc., in the global policymaking process. If used effectively by trained global health diplomats through innovative digital platforms, DGHD has a great scope of delivering results faster and has more reach than the traditional approach.

Previous research suggests that high anxiety sensitivity (AS) young adults are particularly sensitive to alcohol's dampening effects on their responses to arousal-induction challenge [Alcohol.: Clin. Exp. Res. 24 (2000) 1656.]. This sensitivity to alcohol reward may place high AS individuals at increased risk for alcohol abuse. Over-and-above alcohol's pharmacological effects, tension-reduction expectancies might contribute to alcohol's reactivity-dampening effects in high-AS individuals. The present study examined the role of alcohol and alcohol expectancy factors by activating expectancies experimentally. Forty-eight high-AS young adults were randomly assigned to one of three beverage conditions: alcohol (pharmacology plus expectancy), placebo (expectancy only), and control (no pharmacology and no expectancy). Following beverage consumption and absorption, participants underwent a 3-min voluntary hyperventilation challenge. Replicating and extending previous findings, participants in the alcohol condition showed dampened affective and somatic responses to the challenge, and marginally dampened cognitive responses to the challenge, compared to both placebo and control participants. However, placebo participants did not display dampened responses to the challenge relative to control beverage condition participants. Additional analyses suggested that activation of tension-reduction expectancies might have contributed to an "inverse placebo" effect among high-AS participants administered placebo. Implications of the results for future research and for the prevention and treatment of alcohol problems among high-AS individuals are discussed.

ABSTRACT: An important international Niagara River management issue concerns allocation of the average 202,000 cubic feet per second river discharge for hydroelectric power and scenic purposes. Major water diversions from Niagara Falls are necessary for power production. Flow is allocated by the 1950 Niagara Treaty which is intended to maximize power benefits and preserve and enhance the scenic fals spectacle. This paper examines the extent to which the Treaty objectives have been achieved. Based on analyses of government documents, engineering data, and falls‐viewing patterns, it is concluded that the 1950 Treaty led to enhancement of the falls spectacle and increased power generation. But significant additional power diversions probably are attainable without adverse effect upon the existing falls spectacle. Reducing daytime summer Horseshoe Falls flow and scheduling spring and autumn flow according to viewing patterns are possible means of increasing power diversions. Existing generating facilities could use considerably more water and the value of additional Niagara hydroelectricity is very high in terms of generation‐cost savings over alternative power sources. Because of the cultural importance of the falls, Treaty modifications to permit increased power diversions are not recommended without prior public opinion sampling and on‐site viewing experiments. These findings highlight the need for more careful study before long‐term international agreements are concluded and illustrate the need for more flexible treaty arrangements to permit periodic adjustments for changing conditions.

This research examines the leveraging of information, digital, and social media to increase peer interaction and participation in an energy conservation campaign. We analyzed a competition between 6500 students living in 20 residences across six university campuses in British Columbia to reduce energy consumption from a baseline level. Using a mixed methods approach, we sought to determine the overall effectiveness of the competition in reducing short and medium-term energy reduction and sought to uncover the motives for participation. We found that students tended to join the competition because multiple pathways of participation were available to them. Participants were motivated by the actions and stories of their friends and did not pay attention to the actions or competition scores of strangers. Our findings suggest that employing entertainment engagement that enables multiple pathways for participation with mechanisms for knowing the behavior of peers may be effective in shifting long-term energy consumption.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas emitted in significant volumes by the Pacific Ocean. However, the relationship between N2O dynamics and environmental drivers in the subtropical western North Pacific Ocean (STWNPO) remains poorly understood. We investigated the distribution of N2O and its production as well as the related mechanisms at the surface (0–200 m), intermediate (200–1500 m), and deep (1500–5774 m) layers of the STWNPO, which were divided according to the distribution of water masses. We applied the transit time distribution (TTD) method to determine the ventilation times, and to estimate the N2O equilibrium concentration of water parcels last in contact with the atmosphere prior to being ventilated. In the surface layer, biologically derived N2O (ΔN2O) was positively correlated with the apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) (R2 = 0.48), suggesting that surface N2O may be produced by nitrification. In the intermediate layer, ΔN2O was positively correlated with AOU and NO3− (R2 = 0.92 and R2 = 0.91, respectively) and negatively correlated with nitrogen sinks (N*) (R2 = 0.60). Hence, the highest ΔN2O value in the oxygen minimum layer suggested N2O production through nitrification and potential denitrification (up to 51% and 25% of measured N2O, respectively). In contrast, the deep layer exhibited a positive correlation between ΔN2O and AOU (R2 = 0.92), suggesting that the N2O accumulation in this layer may be caused by nitrification. Our results demonstrate that the STWNPO serves as an apparent source of atmospheric N2O (mean air−sea flux 2.0 ± 0.3 μmol m-2 d-1), and that nitrification and potential denitrification may be the primary mechanisms of N2O production in the STWNPO. We predict that ongoing ocean warming, deoxygenation, acidification, and anthropogenic nitrogen deposition in the STWNPO may elevate N2O emissions in the future. Therefore, the results obtained here are important for elucidating the relationships between N2O dynamics and environmental changes in the STWNPO and the global ocean.

Agriculture contributes significantly to anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs), with estimates of agriculture's contribution ranging from 10% to 25% of total global GHG emissions per year. The science regarding mitigating (reducing and removing) GHGs through agriculture is conflicting and inconclusive. However, the severity and urgency of climate change and its potential effects on food security demonstrate that we must include mitigation within food system planning frameworks. In British Columbia, Canada, the provincial government has established significant GHG reduction targets for its agencies, and has called on local governments to reduce their carbon footprints through a charter and incentive, as well as through growth management legislation. At the same time, local governments, are giving increased attention to development of local/regional agri-food systems. However, GHG mitigation efforts do not yet seem to factor into local agri-food system discussions. Although frameworks for reporting agriculture GHGs exist, local government measurement of agriculture mitigation is hampered by a lack of agriculture GHG inventories, limited data availability, and the inherent variability in agriculture emissions and removals due to the dynamic nature of farm ecosystems. With the goal of informing local governments and food system planners on the importance of agriculture GHG mitigation, this paper (1) reviews the science of GHGs, (2) describes sources of agriculture GHG emissions and illustrates potential mitigation practices, (3) discusses the variability of agriculture mitigation science, (4) highlights the importance of agriculture GHG inventories, and (5) emphasizes the necessity for local agriculture mitigation strategies.

<p>Federal energy regulatory commission (FERC) Order #2222 prescribes that distributed energy resources (DERs) with 100 kW or more capacity in aggregate should be allowed to participate in organized electricity markets. Most aggregation is via a combination of disparate DER technologies such as solar, wind, storage, electric vehicles, and smart load units. Another stumbling block to enabling participation of DERs in organized electricity markets is the energy limitation. However, there is a lack of aggregator models in the literature that gainfully allow aggregation of disparate DER technologies that are energy limited. To address this shortcoming, we proposed a disparate DER aggregator (DDA) planning model here, that overcomes energy limitation of DERs. The DDA planning model considers multiple revenue streams of (1) capacity credits; (2) energy revenues; and (3) ancillary services revenues. The proposed DDA planning model enables disparate DER technologies to collate and provide a firm power capacity and participate in the market capacity auction and receive capacity credits. This comprehensive DDA planning model considers the dynamic/temporary aggregations with other facilities through peer-to-peer (P2P) trade, and maximization of the net present value (NPV) revenues over the planning horizon. The developed model is tested on sample and practical large-scale case studies. Additional sensitivity analyses are performed, demonstrating the favourable performance and the business potential of the developed DDA planning model. </p>