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Although a crucial part of the federal government's legal arsenal against polluters in environmental enforcement actions, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is nevertheless an ambiguously and confusingly drafted statute requiring constant judicial interpretations of its application in litigation. Last year, several decisions delivered by the Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit have provided the latest interpretations, particularly further distinguishing between sections 107 and 113 claims, as well as clarifying apportionment and allocation of liabilities. This article discusses these decisions and tries to analyze their impact on future CERCLA litigations.

In face-to-face communication, eye gaze is known to play various roles such as managing the attention of interlocutors, expressing intimacy, exercising social control, highlighting particular speech content, and coordinating floor apportionment. For second language (L2) communication, one’s perception of eye gaze is expected to have more importance than for native language (L1) because eye gaze is assumed to partially compensate for the deficiencies of verbal expressions. This paper examines and clarifies the efficiency of the function of eye gaze in the coordination of floor apportionment through quantitative analyses of eye gaze during three-party conversations in L1 and L2. Specifically, the authors conducted ANOVA tests on the eye-gaze statistics of a speaker and two listeners during utterances while focusing on whether floor-switch occurs subsequent to the utterance. The analysis results show that the listener who is gazed at more by the speaker is more likely to be the next speaker with a higher probability in L2 than in L1 conversations. Meanwhile, the listeners gaze more at the speaker in L2 than in L1 conversation for both the utterances just before a floor switch and cases with no floor switch. These results support the observation that the eye gaze of the speaker is efficient for floor apportionment in L2 conversations and suggest that longer listeners’ eye gazes in L2 conversations also function efficiently in smooth floor apportionment.

This short paper makes the legal argument that adult immigrants should be allowed to enroll in a California adult-serving charter school and the charter school should be allowed to gain apportionment funding for these students, if the adult immigrant student does not have a U.S. high school diploma.

This paper offers an explanation for observed differences across countries in educational policies and in resulting interpersonal distributions of human capital. We analyse a generalequilibrium model in which, as a result of the apportionment of natural ability, nurturing, and publicly financed education, some people can be well endowed with human capital, whereas other people are poorly endowed with human capital. We assume that people can choose to be either producers or predators. Because an increase in a person’s human capital makes predation a less attractive choice for that person, it is possible that by using some of their human capital to educate the poorly endowed people the well endowed people can increase their own consumption. More interestingly, our theory predicts that, if producers are able to enforce a collective choice that takes advantage of the deterrent effect of allocating resources to guarding against predators, then the well endowed people prefer a relatively egalitarian educational policy that increases the human capital of all of the poorly endowed people. Such an educational policy either decreases the cost of deterring predation or makes deterrence possible. In contrast, if producers or small subsets of producers individually choose the amount of their resources to allocate to guarding, taking the ratio of predators to producers as given, then the well endowed people prefer an elitist educational policy that, if it has a redistributional component, decreases the number of poorly endowed people, thereby decreasing the number of predators, without increasing the human capital of the remaining poorly endowed people. These implications seem to be consistent with the facts about differences across countries in educational policy.

This paper reviews common challenges of taxing multinational firms, using Chile as a case study. We briefly describe key international tax avoidance methods: profit shifting to low-tax jurisdictions through transfer pricing and debt shifting. We discuss the prevalent policy to tax multinationals--the arm's length principle--and alternative proposals using apportionment formulas. Novel data from Chile show that multinationals make up a large share of GDP but report lower profit and effective tax rates than local firms. In 2011, Chile implemented a reform following OECD guidelines to enforce the arm's length principle. We discuss potential effects on tax collection and welfare.

A bibliometric analysis of published papers with the key words "positive matrix factorization" and "source apportionment" in 'Web of Science', reveals that more than 1000 papers are associated with this research and that approximately 50% of these were produced in Asia. As a receptor-based model, positive matrix factorization (PMF) has been widely used for source apportionment of various environmental pollutants, such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as well as inorganic cations and anions in the last decade. In this review, based on the papers mainly from 2008 to 2018 that focused on source apportionment of pollutants in different environmental media, we provide a comparison and summary of the source categories of typical environmental pollutants, with a special focus on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), apportioned using PMF. Based on the statistical average, coal combustion and vehicular emission, are shown to be the two most common sources of PAHs, and contribute much more to emissions than other sources, such as biomass burning, biogenic sources and waste incineration. Heavy metals were mainly from agricultural activities, industrial and vehicular emissions and mining activities. Quantitative source apportionment on pollutants such as VOCs and particulate matter were also apportioned, showing a prominent contribution from fossil-fuel combustion. We conclude that, aside from natural sources, abatement strategies should be focused on changes in energy structure and industrial activities, especially in China. Source apportionment of typical POPs including polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) is less comprehensive and further study is required.

“The Apportionment of Human Diversity” (1972) is the most highly cited research article published by geneticist Richard Lewontin in his career. This study’s primary result—that most genetic diversity in humans can be accounted for by within-population differences, not between-population differences—along with Lewontin’s outspoken, politically-charged interpretations thereof, has become foundational to the scientific and cultural discourse pertaining to human genetic variation. The article has an unusual bibliometric trajectory in that it is much more salient in the bibliographic record today compared to the first 20 years after its publication. Here, we show how the paper’s fame was shaped by four factors: 1) citations in influential publications across several disciplines; 2) Lewontin’s own popular books and media appearances; 3) the renaissance of population genetics research of the early 1990s; and 4) the serendipitous collision of scientific progress, influential books/papers, and heated controversies in the year 1994. We conclude with an analysis of Twitter data to characterize the communities and conversations that continue to keep this study at the epicenter of discussions about race and genetics, prompting new challenges for scientists who have inherited Lewontin’s legacy.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine public–private partnership (PPP) approaches for the construction of rental retirement villages in Australia and to allocate the investment proportions under a certain project return rate among three investors which are the government, private sectors and pension funds. The apportionment will achieve a minimum overall investment risk for the project. Design/methodology/approach Capital structure, particularly determination of investment apportionment proportions, is one of the key factors affecting the success of PPP rental retirement villages. Markowitz mean-variance model was applied to examine the investment allocations with minimum project investment risks under a certain projected return rate among the PPP partners for the construction of rental retirement villages. Findings The research findings validate the feasibility of the inclusion of pension funds in the construction of PPP rental retirement villages and demonstrate the existence of relationships between the project return rate and the investment allocation proportions. Originality/value This paper provides a quantitative approach for determination of the investment proportions among PPP partners to enrich the theory of PPP in relation to the construction of rental retirement villages. This has implications for PPP partners and can help these stakeholders make vital contributions in developing intellectual wealth in the PPP investment area while providing them with a detailed guide to decision making and negotiation in relation to investment in PPP rental retirement villages.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore older people’s food consumption experiences. Specifically, the paper seeks to provide understanding on the influence of food intake on consumer vulnerability and how this manifests within people’s lives. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an interpretive, exploratory approach, using in-depth interviews with 20 older consumers in the UK. Thematic analysis is conducted, establishing patterns and contradictions with the data. Findings The findings demonstrate how biological, psychological and social age-related changes can contribute to reduced food intake in later life. The loss of control over one’s consumption experiences as a result of inappropriate portion sizes acts as a source of both immediate and future vulnerability. Resultant food wastage can serve as an immediate reminder of negative associates with ageing, while the accumulative effect of sustained under-consumption contributes to increased frailty. As a result, consumer vulnerability can pervade other contexts of an individual’s life. Practical implications The research reveals opportunities for firms to use packaging development to reduce experiences of consumer vulnerability through reduced apportionment of packaged food products. However, this needs to be considered within a multi-demographic marketplace. Originality/value This paper contributes to literature by providing a unique lens with which to understand consumer vulnerability. The findings offer a developmental perspective on the experience of consumer vulnerability, revealing the stages of proximate, immediate, intermediate and ultimate vulnerability. This perspective has the potential to offer more detailed, nuanced insights into vulnerability in other contexts beyond food consumption.

The water agreement between Jordan and Israel, created as part of their peace treaty in 1994, set out detailed allocations terms to which both countries have respectively abided since its inception. But after two and a half decades, the water agreement terms no longer appear as equitable considering the social, economic, and environmental changes that have occurred in the region as a whole and within the two countries individually. This paper analyzes the status of the treaty terms in light of changes seen within both countries regarding the factors laid out by the United Nations as relevant to determining equitable apportionment among riparian nations. The analysis suggests that a renegotiation of the water agreement terms is warranted due in large part to changes in population and the availability of alternative water resources (desalination and treated wastewater). While no explicit recommendations are made as to what a future treaty's terms should include, this paper presents evidence of a changing ground reality that deserves greater consideration in reaching a more equitable and sustainable water agreement for the decades to come.

The most common method for standard essential patent (SEP) valuation and to determine a fair, reasonable and non-discriminative (FRAND) royalty rate is based on comparable license agreements. This method is relatively simple to apply, but has several disadvantages. Firstly, license agreements are often not comparable on important points. Secondly, they are usually based on a selection by the submitting party, who has an interest to select only favorable license agreements for comparison. And thirdly, those selected agreements might not result from a fair negotiation, because of possible market power by either of the two sides. In this paper, we therefore suggest how the present value added (PVA) methodology can be used to calculate the FRAND value of specific SEP technologies, avoiding biases that are intrinsically linked to the comparable licensing approach. The PVA approach can also serve as valuation methodology for the whole standard in the context of the Top-Down approach. To illustrate the approach, we present a simple interperiodical valuation model. To derive a FRAND royalty rate, we then suggest how the PVA created can be apportioned between the SEP holders and the implementer. The second contribution of this paper is therefore the normative discussion of the apportionment of the PVA. Finally, we show how the PVA methodology can be practically applied by running a hypothetical example of a full FRAND royalty estimation. The German legal framework has been chosen, since it is the European jurisdiction where an increasingly large number of legal disputes related to SEPs are adjudicated.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) represents a large increase in background risk for individuals. Like the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme events (e.g. financial downturns, natural disasters, and war) have been shown to change attitudes towards risk. Using a risk apportionment approach, we examine whether risk aversion as well as higher order risk attitudes (HORAs) (prudence and temperance) have changed during COVID-19. This methodology allows us to measure model-free HORAs. We include prudence and temperance as higher order measures, as these two have been largely understudied under extreme events but are determinants of decisions related to the health and financial domains. Once we account for socio-demographic characteristics, we find an overall increase in risk aversion during COVID-19. We also find similar results using a hypothetical survey question which measures willingness to take risks. We do not find changes in prudence and temperance using the risk apportionment methodology.

This paper addresses what it means to live with acutely restricted access to the city in the process of seeking urban asylum in post-apartheid South Africa. Our concept of apportionment specifies the gendered and racialised diminishment of space and time in the context of exclusionary and everyday violence. We focus on how the delineation and reduction of space and time is feminised, through the working lives of refugee and asylum-seeking women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who live in Cape Town. Their embodied experiences incorporate the resonance of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, further sharpening their careful movements across Cape Town’s segregated geographies. Drawing on our conversations with non-governmental organisations and self-employed women over a nine-month period in 2020, we highlight how the deferral of refuge compounds precarity, significantly affecting women and those who are sexually minoritised. In connecting how state apportionment maps onto urban apportionment we reveal how an ecology of violence – of spatialised segregation, xenophobia and sexual violence – establishes a corporeal power that constrains access to the city. Crucially, these women deploy counter practices of apportionment and their precisely attuned navigations add to our understanding of the agile repertoires of working the city.

Formula apportionment as a way to attribute taxable profits of multinationals across jurisdictions is receiving increased attention. This paper reviews existing literature and discusses experiences in selective federal states to evaluate the economic properties of formula apportionment relative to the current international tax regime that is based on separate accounting. It highlights major advantages, such as the elimination of profit shifting within multinational groups; and it discusses new distortions and the impact on tax competition. The analysis exploits different datasets to assess the direct revenue implications for individual countries under alternative formulas. The distributional effects across countries are found to be large, reflecting major discrepancies between where profits are currently attributed and where factors of production are located or sales take place. The largest losses appear in investment hubs (i.e. countries with a disproportionate ratio of foreign direct investment to GDP), while several large advanced countries are likely to gain. Developing countries gain most likely if employment receives a large weight in the formula; they also tend to benefit, on average, from a formula based on sales by destination.

Fuel sulfur emissions control areas have been established in a few marine coastal regions to reduce environmental impacts from combustion of high sulfur residual fuel oil (RFO). For example, in August of 2012, the U.S. began enforcing fuel sulfur limits on certain large commercial marine vessels up to 200 nautical miles (nm) of its coasts as part of a North American Emissions Control Area (NA-ECA), and in January of 2014, the U.S. began enforcing fuel sulfur limits on these vessels within up to 50 nm of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as part of the U.S. Caribbean Sea ECA (USCAR-ECA). This work evaluates ECA effectiveness at reducing PM2.5 from combustion of RFO by using both spatial analysis, comparing PM2.5 source apportionment at IMPROVE monitoring sites largely impacted by air from either inside or outside of an ECA, along with temporal analysis, comparing RFO combustion impacts pre and post ECA enforcement at sites largely impacted by air from inside an ECA. Source apportionment was performed using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) on chemically speciated PM2.5 data from 2009 to 2018. Results for 7 coastal U.S. IMPROVE sites influenced by marine air masses within the NA-ECA showed an annual mean reduction of PM2.5 from RFO combustion of 79.0% (range, 60.2% to 91.5%) when comparing impacts from the pre-ECA (RFO average 2.7% S) period of 2009-2011 to the ECA 0.1% fuel S period of 2015-2018. In contrast, the Virgin Islands, Big Bend, and Baengnyeong Island South Korea IMPROVE sites were impacted by RFO combustion and were largely or wholly influenced by air masses from outside of an emissions control area. These sites saw a statistically significant 14.0% increase, a 21.0% decrease, or no statistically significant change, respectively, when comparing time periods pre and post ECA enforcement.Implications: This study performs source apportionment on PM2.5 monitoring data to identify 10 sites impacted by residual fuel oil combustion, mainly from marine vessel fuel use. The paper then evaluates the effects of enforcement of marine vessel fuel sulfur emissions control areas at reducing ambient impacts of this source on PM2.5. This study uses both temporal analysis of the source apportionment results, comparing source impacts before and after enforcement of marine vessel fuel sulfur emissions control areas, and spatial analysis, comparing source impacts between sites largely impacted or not impacted by airmasses originating inside of marine vessel fuel sulfur emissions control areas.

espanolUn grupo de academicos asociados a la Tax Justice Network (TJN) ha propuesto recientemente la aplicacion de un tipo impositivo minimo efectivo internacional (METR) para las multinacionales. El METR se ha concebido como una version revisada y modificada del concepto de Impuesto minimo global de GloBE que actualmente persigue el Marco Inclusivo sobre BEPS de la OCDE/G20. Al Igual que GloBE, el METR ha sido dlsef\ado para funcionar como un amplio instrumento contra BEPS. Sin embargo, la asignacion internacional de derechos fiscales adicionales en relacion con los beneficios que han sido gravados a un nivel demasiado bajo, asi como el calculo del impuesto complementarlo, diferirian del enfoque GloBE. Mas concretamente, el METR se basaria en una formula de prorrateo para asignar los derechos de imposicion, y permitiria a las jurisdicciones pertinentes recaudar un impuesto complementarlo proporcional que se corresponda con su propio tipo del impuesto de sociedades. EnglishA group of scholars who are assoclated wlth True Justlce Network (TJN) has recently proposed to implementan lnternatlonal mlnlmum effective true rate (METR) for multlnatlonals. The METR has been concelved as a revlsed and modlfted verslon of the GloBE mlnlmum true concept currently pursued by the OECD/020 Inclusive Framework on BEPS. Like GloBE, the METR has been deslgned to operate as a broad lnstrument agalnst BEPS. But the lntematlonal allocatlon of addltlonal truelng rlghts regardlng proftts that have been trueed too low, as well as the calculatlon of the top-up true, would dlff er from the GloBE approach. More speclflcally, the METR would rely on formulalc apportlonment far allocatlng trueing rlghts, and lt would allow the relevant jurlsdlctlons to levy a proportional top-up true that corresponds to lts own corporate true rate. Thls paper analyses the compatlblllty of the METR concept wlth EU/EEA free movement rlghts. lt arrlves at the concluslon that the METR would give less rlse to instances of dlscrlmlnatlon - as understood in case law of the CJEU - than an unmodifted GloBE mlnlmum true. Moreover, lt Is posslble to adapt the METR rules so as to preserve the core concept whllst ensuring the near complete absence of dlsadvantageous tax treatment of cross-border situatlons. The remalning marginal lssues would then llkely be accepted as justlfted by the CIEU.

Purpose. The purpose of this paper was to determine motivational factors of structural changes in the agro-industrial sector of Ukraine, which will strengthen the ability of business entities to generate larger added value flows and increase efficiency through the development of strategic network partnerships. Methodology / approach. While writing the article the following methods were used: methods of economic and statistical analysis – to study the dynamic of indicators that reflect the results of sectoral structural changes of the enterprises’ activities in the sector of agriculture, forestry and fisheries of Ukraine during 2016–2019; critical analysis – to identify shortcomings in the legislative field of Ukraine, which deform motivational vectors, negatively affect the development of agro-industrial complex; morphological analysis and synthesis – to prove the feasibility of interpreting the term “network capital” in a narrow and broad sense; scientific abstraction and graphic visualization – to build the model of formation of network capital and use in the processes of organizational interaction of participants in a strategic business partnership; mathematical modelling – to formalize the conditions under which the network partnership participants will avoid manipulation by the expert environment in the apportionment of the costs and revenues from the implementation of business projects. Results. It has been studied the dynamic of indicators that reflect the results of the sectoral and structural changes in activities of Ukrainian enterprises in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector during 2016–2019. It has been highlighted shortcomings in the legislative field of Ukraine, which distort the vectors of motivational influence on the development of agro-industrial complex, causing the corruption schemes spread in the decisions and actions of economic agents. The essential content of the term “network capital” in a narrow and broad interpretation has been differentiated and the motivational basis for its increase by the business network participants has been highlighted. The processes of formation and use of network capital in the inter-organizational interaction of participants of strategic business partnership have been modelled. Nash equilibrium theory has been applied to increase the reliability of the position assessment of business network participants in the total costs and revenues apportionment and it has been proved that this forms the motivational basis for long-term cooperation. Originality / scientific novelty. The author’s interpretation of the term “network capital” in a broad and narrow sense with emphasis on motivational aspects of this capital increasing in the agro-industrial business network has been proposed. The model of network capital formation and use in the processes of organizational interaction of participants in a strategic business partnership has been constructed. There have been modelled the conditions under which the participants of the network partnership will avoid manipulation by the expert environment in the apportionment processes of costs and revenues from the business projects implementation, which will improve their motivation to cooperate. Practical value / implications. The main results of the study can be used for (i) elimination of some gaps in the institutional environment of Ukraine, which distort the motivational vectors of agricultural development; (ii) managing growth processes of network capital to increase the aggregate ability of business network participants to create new consumer value with high added value; (iii) improving the motivational basis for long-term cooperation of business network participants by increasing the reliability of their positions assessment in the total costs and revenues apportionment.

The paper presents an integrated approach for the apportionment of water and sediment sources and pathways in ungauged territories. The approach comprises various elements such as a large-scale semi-distributed hydrological and erosion model (using the SWAT tool), a statistical assessment of regular discharge data, the discrimination of runoff sources using end-member mixing analysis (EMMA), the apportionment of sediment sources using fingerprinting technique and sediment concentration and water discharge hysteresis rating curves analyses. The approach has been applied to Western Dvina River Basin (WDRB). The results discussed in the paper indicate main features of the water and sediment regime. The components of the presented framework provide a guide for detailed water and sediment studies making it an inexpensive way to develop a roadmap to understand important hydrological processes at a watershed scale.

During its 1969 session the Legislative Assembly of Alberta enacted a distribution formula for the future distribution of Alberta provincial legislative districts.' The Legislative Assembly acted upon the recommendation of a special bipartisan Committee of the Legislature established during the previous session, the function of which was to determine the most appropriate method of provincial legislative distribution for Alberta.2 The new scheme follows closely that used by Manitoba for provincial legislative distribution, namely the establishment of separate electoral quotas for urban and rural districts, with the urban electoral quota being a set number of voters above the rural quota. The task of delineating district boundaries is to be handled by an Electoral Boundaries Commission, semi-independent of the Legislative Assembly. The special Committee of the Legislature was set up initially to cope with the necessity of adjusting the representation in the legislature of Alberta's continually growing urban centres. The impetus for establishing this committee came mainly from the recognition on the part of the Social Credit government that it faced a possible distribution crisis over the locus of political power within the province if the present distribution scheme continued in existence. The demands for equal representation in the provincial legislature have stemmed from a growing awareness by interested civic groups, urban members of the legislature, and urban city councilmen of the increasing political and economic importance of the province's urban areas and the belief that urban needs were being ignored by a rurally dominated provincial legislature. This rural domination had been maintained throughout Alberta's history by the continuous over-representation of the rural provincial districts. Moreover, Alberta's urban leaders have been cognizant of successful attempts by American cities to achieve both federal and state apportionment based on a "one man, one vote" standard. During the course of formulating its recommendation the special committee received briefs from both urban and rural organizations. The rural view, which subsequently underlies the new redistribution scheme adopted by the legislature, is the traditional feeling among Alberta legislators towards distribution, namely, to overweight rural areas. This view appears to be a rationalization of Alberta's

Improving the travel efficiency of citizens and the operation efficiency of urban has always been the goal of Intelligent Transportation System. Due to the neglect of strong traffic demand and driving behaviour preferences, coupled with the insufficient of communication and computing power, the existing measures based on the centralized control of vehicles or mandatory traffic restrictions lead to the traffic efficiency dramatically deviates from the system optimum. Which puts forward an urgent demand for multi-vehicle collaborative apportionment, but also brings challenges. In this paper, a double-layer collaborative apportionment method for connected vehicles, 2L-CoV for short, is proposed under the assistance of Space-air-ground integrated networks. 2L-CoV includes the traffic flow scheduling in global-layer and the vehicle routing planning in local-layer. Firstly, a distributed collaborative framework based SAGIN is presented to make a large-scale of virtual vehicles can interact with each other. Then, at the global-layer, traffic flow is guided speedily by an improved back-pressure algorithm to complete traffic flow scheduling; at the local-layer, considering the driving behaviour preferences, a game evolution online learning approach based on dominant strategy is proposed to plan the vehicle routing. Finally, the simulation results show that 2L-CoV can effectively balance the traffic network, improves the network throughput, and reduces the total travel time.

There need to be continual improvements in the research methods used in cooking studies to benefit the ecological environment and human health. The literature must be systematically reviewed to facilitate the discovery, optimization, and rational design of cooking studies in the context of sustainable development goals. Thus, this paper raises several important design considerations for cooking studies that should be implemented in future measurements. Herein, 131 scientific articles were selected and analyzed according to four aspects: (1) influential factors, (2) cooking emissions, (3) health effects, and (4) source apportionment. The analysis led to the identification of representative test methods and a perspective on the future of research in the identified aspects.

A key aspect of radio spectrum sharing and compatibility studies is the modelling of interference levels seen by the receivers of one service from the transmitters of another service. In general, calculated interference levels must be below predetermined interference thresholds for sharing or compatibility to be considered feasible. Sometimes, the modelling must take account of interference sourced from services operating in the spectrum but not directly under investigation in the study. This may be done by apportioning the interference thresholds for a particular service between other radio services using, or with potential to use, the spectrum; a method termed service apportionment. Traditionally, equal apportionments for those services with the same regulatory status has been assumed. This is very simple but not necessarily spectrally efficient and may overestimate or underestimate the contribution to aggregate interference. This paper sets out an alternative approach. The apportionment assigned to the emerging IMT service is based on an analysis of the established radio interference environment. Specifically: the aggregate interference sourced from a deployment of fixed service (FS) links incident to a satellite receiver. Our analysis shows that the FS links under-utilise the conventional equal apportionment allowing for an inequality between the service apportionments assigned to IMT and FS and greater potential for a solution to this particular compatibility problem.

Understanding the significance of the distribution of genetic or phenotypic variation over populations is one of the central concerns of population genetic and ecological research. The import of the research decisively depends on the measures that are applied to assess the amount of variation residing within and between populations. Common approaches can be classified under two perspectives: differentiation and apportionment. While the former focuses on differences (distances) in trait distribution between populations, the latter considers the division of the overall trait variation among populations. Particularly when multiple populations are studied, the apportionment perspective is usually given preference (via F ST/G p. indices), even though the other perspective is also relevant. The differences between the two perspectives as well as their joint conceptual basis can be exposed by referring them to the association between trait states and population affiliations. It is demonstrated that the two directions, association of population affiliation with trait state and of trait state with population affiliation, reflect the differentiation and the apportionment perspective, respectively. When combining both perspectives and applying the suggested measure of association, new and efficient methods of analysis result, as is outlined for population genetic processes. In conclusion, the association approach to an analysis of the distribution of trait variation over populations resolves problems that are frequently encountered with the apportionment perspective and its commonly applied measures in both population genetics and ecology, suggesting new and more comprehensive methods of analysis that include patterns of differentiation and apportionment. peerReviewed

A decision maker who would rather apportion an independent risk in a state with a good lottery than in a state with a bad lottery is said to have a preference for risk apportionment (Eeckhoudt and Schlesinger in Am Econ Rev 96:280–289, 2006). In this paper, we propose a measure for the strength of nth-degree risk apportionment preference based on Pratt’s probability premium (Pratt in Econometrica 32:122–136, 1964). Under expected utility theory, we analyze the relationship between a greater preference for risk apportionment and both the Ross and Arrow–Pratt versions of comparative risk aversion.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary apportionment of safety targets for virtual balise detection using Global Navigation Satellite Systems. In addition to describing an enhanced functional architecture supporting the virtual balise concept and the requirements engineering process for the derivation of tolerable hazard rates, the paper provides a summary of requirements for virtual balise detection and GNSS positioning in support of virtual balise detection.

International audience; This paper investigates how welfare losses for facing high-order risk increases change when the risk environment of the decision maker is altered. To that aim, we define the nth-order utility premium as a measure of pain associated with facing the passage of one risk to a more severe one and we examine some of its properties. Changes in risk are expressed through the concept of stochastic dominance of order n. The paper investigates more particularly welfare changes of merging increases in risk, first ignoring background risks, then taking them into account. Merging increases in risk may be beneficial or not, depending on whether background risks are considered and how. The paper also provides conditions on individual preferences for superadditivity of the nth-order utility premium. The results confirm the importance and usefulness of two analytical concepts: mixed risk aversion and risk apportionment.

Identifying realistic pollution source profiles and quantifying the contributions of atmospheric particulate matter are crucial for the development of pollution mitigation strategies to protect public health. In this paper, we proposed a multivariate source apportionment model by using a Bayesian framework for latent source profiles to incorporate expert knowledge regarding emissions that can facilitate source profile estimation, and atmospheric effects, such as meteorological conditions, can improve source concentration estimations. This approach can maintain positivity and summation constraints for source contributions and profiles. Furthermore, available expert knowledge regarding source profiles is incorporated as prior knowledge to avoid restrictive assumptions regarding the presence or absence of chemical constituent tracers in source profile modeling. We used long-term PM2.5 measurements collected from two locations with different environmental characteristics in northern Taiwan to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed model and evaluated its performance by using simulated data.

Seoul, the capital city of Korea with over 10 million residents, has been experiencing serious air pollution problems. Previous studies on source apportionment of PM2.5 in Seoul are based on measurements of chemical compositions of PM2.5 from a single monitoring site. In this paper, we analyse PM2.5 concentration data collected from multiple sites in 24 districts of Seoul and estimate regional source profiles using Bayesian multivariate receptor model. The regional source profiles provide information for the identification of major PM2.5 sources as well as the regions relatively more seriously affected by each source than other regions. These regional characteristics relevant to PM2.5 can help establish effective, customised, region-specific PM2.5 control strategies for each region rather than general strategies that apply to every region of Seoul.

Air pollution caused by particulate matter has significantly improved in China in recent years since the implementation of a series of stringent clean-air regulations. However, surface ozone concentrations have increased, especially in developed city clusters, such as the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Sichuan Basin regions. Due to the complexity and nonlinearity of the ozone formation, accurately locating major sources of ozone and its precursors is an important basis for the formulation of cost-effective pollution control strategies. In this paper, the authors systematically summarize the reported results and outcomes of the methods and main conclusions of ozone source apportionment (regions and categories) in China from the published literature, based on observation-based methods and emission-based methods, respectively. The authors aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of ozone pollution and reliable references for the formulation of air pollution prevention policies in China.

This paper investigates how demand is apportioned to facilities by customers, given that they apply one of a number of utility functions according to which they satisfy their demand at the facilities. After delineating the basic decision-making process, a number of reasonable assumptions are formulated regarding the behavior of the utility functions after a scaling of their different parameters. The individual apportionment rules are examined so as to whether or not they satisfy these assumptions. The results are of importance for decision-makers that must use these utility functions when facing locational decisions.

Given the complexity of teams involved in creating AI-based systems, how can we understand who should be held accountable when they fail? This paper reports findings about accountable AI from 26 interviews conducted with stakeholders in AI drawn from the fields of AI research, law, and policy. Participants described the challenges presented by the distributed nature of how AI systems are designed, developed, deployed, and regulated. This distribution of agency, alongside existing mechanisms of accountability, responsibility, and liability, creates barriers for effective accountable design. As agency is distributed across the socio-technical landscape of an AI system, users without deep knowledge of the operation of these systems become disempowered, unable to challenge or contest when it impacts their lives. In this context, accountability becomes a matter of building systems that can be challenged, interrogated, and, most importantly, adjusted in use to accommodate counter-intuitive results and unpredictable impacts. Thus, accountable system design can work to reconfigure socio-technical landscapes to protect the users of AI and to prevent unjust apportionment of risk.

With the advancement in the technology, deployment of sensors in the industrial or public building is increasing rapidly. The basic aim is to obtain the data from the environment and decision making to the energy saving. The activities caused by the human results the undergoing negative change in the environment. There are many techniques available for decision making and consider the environmental factors solely which cause the energy consumption. However, user’s preferences are not adapted by the systems, but at energy consumption optimization, these systems are very successful. The end-users use the system which considers the factors and their wellbeing are get affected. The distributed generation is incorporated by the Smart Small Grid (SSG), communication network and the sensors for the more reliable, flexible and efficient grid. The energy saving system is presented in this paper which also adapts to the inhabitants preferences apart from environmental conditions consideration. The architecture of Multi-Agent System (MAS) and the agents are utilized for negotiation process performance between the users comfort preferences and optimization degree that according to these preferences, achievement of system is done. The energy consumption of 40% is obtained and in the inhabitants' behavior pattern, the algorithm was specialized. The 16.89% of reduction is obtained by the existing system and it was focused to obtain the agreement between the system and users for user preference satisfaction and the energy optimization is also performed at the same time.

Compound-specific stable isotope (CSSI) fingerprinting of sediment sources is a recently introduced tool to overcome some limitations of conventional approaches for sediment source apportionment. The technique uses the 13C CSSI signature of plant-derived fatty acids (δ13C-fatty acids) associated with soil minerals as a tracer. This paper provides methodological perspectives to advance the use of CSSI fingerprinting in combination with stable isotope mixing models (SIMMs) to apportion the relative contributions of different sediment sources (i.e. land uses) to sediments. CSSI fingerprinting allows quantitative estimation of the relative contribution of sediment sources within a catchment at a spatio-temporal resolution, taking into account the following approaches. First, application of CSSI fingerprinting techniques to complex catchments presents particular challenges and calls for well-designed sampling strategies and data handling. Hereby, it is essential to balance the effort required for representative sample collection and analyses against the need to accurately quantify the variability within the system. Second, robustness of the CSSI approach depends on the specificity and conservativeness of the δ13C-FA fingerprint. Therefore, saturated long-chain (>20 carbon atoms) FAs, which are biosynthesised exclusively by higher plants and are more stable than the more commonly used short-chain FAs, should be used. Third, given that FA concentrations can vary largely between sources, concentration-dependent SIMMs that are also able to incorporate δ13C-FA variability should be standard operation procedures to correctly assess the contribution of sediment sources via SIMMs. This paper reflects on the use of δ13C-FAs in erosion studies and provides recommendations for its application. We strongly advise the use of saturated long-chain (>20 carbon atoms) FAs as tracers and concentration-dependent Bayesian SIMMs. We anticipate progress in CSSI sediment fingerprinting from two current developments: (i) development of hierarchical Bayesian SIMMs to better address catchment complexity and (ii) incorporation of dual isotope approaches (δ 13C- and δ 2H-FA) to improve estimates of sediment sources.

This paper investigates how welfare losses for facing risks change as the risk environment of the decision-maker is altered. To that aim, we define the risk apportionment of order n (RAn) utility premium as a measure of pain associated with facing the passage from one risk to a riskier one. Changes in risks are expressed through the concept of stochastic dominance of order n. Three configurations of risk exposures are considered. The paper first shows how the RAn utility premium is modified when initial wealth becomes riskier. Second, the paper provides conditions on individual preferences for superadditivity of the RAn utility premium. Third, the paper investigates welfare changes of merging increases in risks. These results offer new interpretations of the sign of higher derivatives of the utility function.

This study uses a micro set of Chinese city-level data to understand the varying choices taken by municipal officials in their distribution of a minimum livelihood scheme. It explores the variation in the apportionment of allowances offered to disparate types of poor groups in poor versus wealthy cities. The paper argues that in China, where profits, modernisation, competition and globalisation have become significant to leaders at all levels, there is a logic undergirding welfare allocation that has nothing to do with the calculus that spurs its delivery in democracies, and yet that is more nuanced than stylised models of dictatorship/authoritarianism presume. The paper also demonstrates that, where lower echelons of governmental administration have the authority to make rules about the rationing of social assistance, urban finances appear to have an impact upon (or at least to correlate with) administrators’ allocational decisions to groups among the poor. This influence of municipal financial h...

International audience; Source apportionment is usually tackled with blind Positive/Non-negative Matrix factorization (PMF/NMF) methods. However, the obtained results may be poor due to the dependence between some rows of the second factor. We recently proposed to inform the estimation of this factor using some prior knowledge provided by chemists—some entries are set to some fixed values—and the sum-to-one property of each row. These constraints were recently taken into account by using a parameterization which gathers all of them. In this paper, a novel robust NMF approach able to cope with outliersis proposed. For that purpose, we consider the Huber loss function—a l2-l1 cost function—which is robust to outliers, contrary to the Frobenius norm classically met in NMF. We thus propose new update rules for the informed Huber NMF in the framework of the split gradient techniques. The choiceof the adaptive cutoff parameter—which links both single cost functions—is discussed along this paper. The proposed approach is shown to outperform state-of-the-art methods on several source apportionment simulations involving various input SNRs and outliers.

The non-negative matrix factorization has been used in many disciplines of research, where the number of factors plays a crucial role. However, a fully data-driven method for determining the number is yet not available in the literature. Based on the fact that the most appropriate number of factors should generate the best prediction, in this paper we propose a selection method using a two-step delete-one-out approach, called twice cross-validation. This method is easy to implement and is fully data-driven. It also works when constraints are imposed on the factorization including the sparsity. Intensive simulations and real data analyses suggest that the proposed method performs well in most cases and can select the number of factors correctly when the number of factors is much less than the dimension of variables and the sample size is reasonably large. As an important application, the proposed method is used for source apportionment of air pollution in Singapore, and provides physically reasonable source profiles.

As we all know, geochemical data usually contain outliers and they are heterogeneous, which will severely affect the use of receptor models based on classical estimates. In this paper, an advanced modified RAPCS-RGWR (robust absolute principal component scores-robust geographically weighted regression) receptor model was introduced to analyze the pollution sources of eight heavy metals (Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Ni, Cu, Zn) in a city of southern China. The results showed that source identification and source apportionment are more consistent by this advanced model even though the soil types and farming patterns are diverse. Moreover, this model decreased the occurrence of negative values of the source contribution. For these reasons, the pollution sources were classified into five types by the new model in the study area: agricultural sources, industrial sources, traffic sources, comprehensive sources, and natural sources. (1) The contributions of agricultural sources to Cr and Ni were 243.36% and 242.61%, respectively; (2) the contribution of industrial sources to Cd was 79.25%; (3) the contribution of traffic sources to Cu was 100.31%; (4) the contributions of comprehensive sources to Hg, Pb, and Zn were 253.90%, 242.31%, and 93.32%, respectively; and (5) the contribution of natural sources to As was 208.21%. Overall, the RAPCS-RGWR receptor model improved the validity of the receptor models. It is of great realistic significance to understand and popularize the advanced model in soil source apportionment in agricultural land.

This paper aims to identify the chemical fingerprints of potential PM2.5 sources and estimate their contribution to Thessaloniki port-city's air quality. For this scope, Positive Matrix Factorization model was applied on a comprehensive PM2.5 dataset collected over a one-year period, at two sampling sites: the port and the city center. The model indicated six and five (groups of) sources contributing to particle concentration at the two sites, respectively. Traffic and biomass burning (winter months) comprise the major local PM sources for Thessaloniki (their combined contribution can exceed 70%), revealing two of the major control-demanding problems of the city. Shipping and in-port emissions have a non-negligible impact (average contribution to PM2.5: 9-13%) on both primary and secondary particles. Road dust factor presents different profile and contribution at the two sites (19.7% at the port; 7.4% at the city center). The secondary-particle factor represents not only the aerosol transportation over relatively long distances, but also a part of traffic-related pollution (14% at the port; 34% at the city center). The study aims to contribute to the principal role of quantitative information on emission sources (source apportionment) in port-cities for the implementation of the air quality directives and guidelines for public health.

Technological approaches to carbon emission and air pollution data modelling consider where the issues are located and what is creating emissions. This paper argues that more focus should be paid to people—the drivers of vehicles or households burning fossil fuels (‘Who’) and the reasons for doing so at those times (‘Why’). We applied insights from social psychology (social identity theory and social cognitive theory) to better understand and communicate how people’s everyday activities are a cause of climate change and air pollution. A new method for citizen-focused source apportionment modelling and communication was developed in the ClairCity project and applied to travel data from Bristol, U.K. This approach enables understanding of the human dimension of vehicle use to improve policymaking, accounting for demographics (gender or age groups), socio-economic factors (income/car ownership) and motives for specific behaviours (e.g., commuting to work, leisure, shopping, etc.). Tailored communications for segmented in-groups were trialled, aiming to connect with group lived experiences and day-to-day behaviours. This citizen-centred approach aims to make groups more aware that ‘people like me’ create emissions, and equally, ‘people like me’ can take action to reduce emissions.

This paper investigates selected teaching/learning tools (essay, poster and exam), the experiences of learning Physiology, and peer assessment of group work activity by Zimbabwean undergraduate nursing students. Methods: Questionnaires and per observation were performed. Out of a total of 22 Zimbabwean Nursing students (2008–2009) 13 were female (59.1%). This differed from the general expected whole class DipHE male:female ratio of ca. 10:90%. Initially, there was a total of 7 (31.8% of the total) Zimbabwean students who wished to participate in the exercise overall. The rest followed except for one. The reinforcing of understanding, memory and application of Physiological principles was well performed and appreciated for the design of posters. Group work would, via task apportionment, tap member’s strengths and allow discussions of the areas that were poorly understood. The logical framework in a poster, referenced with pertinent papers, would enable one to determine and reflect on the individual patient’s journey. As Physiology was examinable, students desired to practice MCQ questions in order to attain a gist of the exam layout. Although the usefulness and assessment of essays was excellent, students perceived them as individualistic tasks and failed to appreciate that a good essay could also be constructed via apportionment of section writing tasks to student members within a group. The use of small groups in this study allowed students to appreciate the importance of Physiological knowledge to effectively interpret clinical inter-relationships.

This paper presents a general result on the random selection of an element from an ordered sequence of risks and uses this result to derive additive and cross risk apportionment. Preferences favoring an improvement of the sampling distribution in univariate or bivariate first-order stochastic dominance are those exhibiting additive or cross risk apportionment. The univariate additive and multiplicative risk apportionment concepts are then related to the notion of bivariate cross risk apportionment by viewing the single-attribute utility function of an aggregate position (sum or product of attributes) as a 2-attribute utility function. The results derived in the present paper allow one to further explore the connections between the different concepts of risk apportionment proposed so far in the literature.

This paper examines the rationale for and grounds and implications of Hobbes's redefinition of distributive justice as equity. I argue that this unprecedented reformulation served to ensure the justness of distributive laws. Hobbes acknowledges that the sovereign can distribute rights and goods iniquitously by failing to treat citizens as equals. However, he insists that improper allocations are not unjust, properly speaking – they do not `wrong' citizens. To support this claim, Hobbes puts forth the un-Aristotelian maxim that merit in distributive justice is due by grace alone. You deserve what the sovereign gives you: there is no desert prior to and independent of his allocation of rights. For Hobbes, distributive justice does not track but create merit. It follows that distributive laws cannot fail to give what is due (which would be unjust). This paper proceeds to analyze the nature of the limits equity sets to the apportionment of goods. I argue that these limits are moral and purely procedural: citi...

Soil heavy metal contaminated sites with multiple sources of pollution have caused worldwide public concern. However, the lack of correlation of risk assessment or source identification of heavy metal leads to unclear direction of source governance. Although previous studies have involved different risk assessment, few attempts have been made to establish a link between them. In order to design a comprehensive risk assessment system, it is necessary to identify the specific source risks and the correlation and comparison between environmental risk assessment. In this paper, a methodology was established by combining source apportionment of ecological risks and human health risks (SERA) to characterize the sources and source-specific risks of heavy metals in soil. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) model was used to identify and classify potential sources of heavy metals in the study area. According to the results, they will be incorporated into the environmental risk model to evaluate environmental risk of the identified sources of heavy metals. The results showed that concentrations of Cd and Hg were highly above the background values, indicating a moderate enrichment. It was worth noting that the source contributed ecological risk index (SCEI) of Hg, with the value of 51.16 contributed mainly by the pollutant sources of waste treatment, has reached moderate ecological risk. The SCEI of Cd contributed by industrial activities (the wastewater and dyeing process) showed the most predominant source of contribution. The source contributed human health risk index (SCHI) of As contributed most by pollutant sources of agriculture activities. Overall, the modified total health risk posed by soil heavy metals SCHI was 1.11E+00, showing potential risk to the residents. This study provides a new insight for the treatment of mutil-sources of soil heavy metal pollution and also some reference value for the improvement of the risk assessment system.the main finding: Exploring a methodology (SERA) to quantitatively characterize the relationship between pollutants sources and environmental risk assessment based on source contribution.

Reservoirs play an important role in the urban water supply, yet reservoirs receive an influx of large amounts of pollutants from the upper watershed during flood seasons, causing a decline in water quality and threatening the water supply. Identifying major pollution sources and assessing water quality risks are important for the environmental protection of reservoirs. In this paper, the principal component/factor analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA/FA-MLR) model and Bayesian networks (BNs) are integrated to identify water pollution sources and assess the water quality risk in different precipitation conditions, which provides an effective framework for water quality management during flood seasons. The deterioration of the water quality of rivers in the flood season is found to be the main reason for the deterioration in the reservoir water quality. The nonpoint source pollution is the major pollution source of the reservoir, which contributes 53.20%, 48.41%, 72.69%, and 68.06% of the total nitrogen (TN), phosphorus (TP), fecal coliforms (F.coli), and turbidity (TUB), respectively. The risk of the water quality parameters exceeding the surface water standard under different hydrological conditions is assessed. The results show that the probability of the exceedance rate of TN, TP, and F.coli increases from 91.13%, 3.40%, and 3.34%, to 95.75%, 25.77%, and 12.76% as the monthly rainfall increases from ≤68.25 mm to &gt, 190.18 mm. The risk to the water quality of the Biliuhe River reservoir is found to increase with the rising rainfall intensity, the water quality risk at the inlet during the flood season is found to be much greater than that at the dam site, and the increasing trend of TP and turbidity is greater than that of TN and F.coli. The risk of five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) does not increase with increasing precipitation, indicating that it is less affected by nonpoint source pollution. The results of this study can provide a research basis for water environment management during flood seasons.

The CARA program has been developed since 2008 by the French reference laboratory for air quality monitoring (LCSQA) and the regional monitoring networks to gain a better knowledge at the national level on the particulate matter (PM) chemistry and its diverse origins in urban environments. It results of strong collaborations with international-level academic partners, allowing to bring state-of-the-art, straightforward and robust results and methodologies within operational air quality stakeholders (and subsequently, decision makers). Here, we illustrate some of the main outputs obtained over the last decade thanks to this program, regarding methodological aspects (both in terms of measurement techniques and data treatment procedures) as well as acquired knowledge on the predominant PM sources. Offline and online methods are used following well-suited quality assurance and quality control procedures, notably including inter-laboratory comparison exercises. Source apportionment studies are conducted using various receptor modeling approaches. Overall, the results presented herewith underline the major influences of residential wood burning (during the cold period) and road transport emissions (exhaust and non-exhaust ones, all along the year), as well as substantial contributions of mineral dust and primary biogenic particles (mostly during the warm period). Long-range transport phenomena, e.g., advection of secondary inorganic aerosols from the European continental sector and of Saharan dust into the French West Indies, are also discussed in this paper. Finally, we briefly address the use of stable isotope measurements (δ15N) and of various organic molecular markers for a better understanding of the origins of ammonium and of the different organic aerosol fractions, respectively.