The impact of carbon disclosure mandates on emissions and financial operating performance

We examine the impact of a disclosure mandate for greenhouse gas emissions on firms’ subsequent emission levels and financial operating performance. For UK-incorporated listed firms a carbon disclosure mandate was adopted in 2013. Our difference-in-differences design shows that firms affected by the mandate reduced their emissions by about 8% relative to a control group of European firms. At the same time, our tests indicate that the treated firms experienced no significant changes in their gross margins. Taken together, our findings indicate that the reporting mandate had a real effect on the variable to be disclosed without adversely affecting the financial operating performance of the treated firms.

The supernova remnant W49B as seen with H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT

The supernova remnant (SNR) W49B originated from a core-collapse supernova that occurred between one and four thousand years ago, and subsequently evolved into a mixed-morphology remnant, which is interacting with molecular clouds (MC). Gamma-ray observations of SNR-MC associations are a powerful tool to constrain the origin of Galactic cosmic rays, as they can probe the acceleration of hadrons through their interaction with the surrounding medium and subsequent emission of non-thermal photons. We report the detection of a γ-ray source coincident with W49B at very high energies (VHE; E > 100 GeV) with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes together with a study of the source with five years of Fermi-LAT high-energy γ-ray (0.06–300 GeV) data. The smoothly connected, combined source spectrum, measured from 60 MeV to multi-TeV energies, shows two significant spectral breaks at 304 ± 20 MeV and 8.4−2.5+2.2 GeV; the latter is constrained by the joint fit from the two instruments. The detected spectral features are similar to those observed in several other SNR-MC associations and are found to be indicative of γ-ray emission produced through neutral-pion decay.

Laser Irradiated Foam Targets: Absorption and Radiative Properties

An experimental campaign to characterize the laser radiation absorption of foam targets and the subsequent emission of radiation from the produced plasma was carried out in the ABC facility of the ENEA Research Center in Frascati (Rome). Different targets have been used: plastic in solid or foam state and aluminum targets. The activated different diagnostics allowed to evaluate the plasma temperature, the density distribution, the fast particle spectrum and the yield of the X-Ray radiation emitted by the plasma for the different targets. These results confirm the foam homogenization action on laser-plasma interaction, mainly attributable to the volume absorption of the laser radiation propagating in such structured materials. These results were compared with simulation absorption models of the laser propagating into a foam target.

Cerium Doped Garnet Phosphors for Application in White GaN-based LEDs

ABSTRACTRecently, renewed interest has emerged for the development of visible light, down-converting phosphors for application in white light emitting diodes (LEDs). In such devices, a blue GaN LED can act as a primary light source, serving as an efficient pump to excite photoluminescence in a phosphor with subsequent emission occurring at lower energies. The combination of blue light from the LED chip and emission from the phosphor(s) produces white light. It was recently reported that a combinatorial approach to synthesize and screen potential inorganic phosphors for use in white LEDs could aid in identifying improved phosphors for blue to yellow down conversion. Solid state thin-film arrays (libraries) based on the garnet structure (A1−x,Bx)3−z(C1−y,Dy)5O12:Ce3+z, where A, B = Y, Gd, Lu, La; C., D = Al, Ga; x and y = 0 to 1.0; and z = 0.03, were synthesized, and x-ray diffraction was used to select library samples of the crystalline garnet phase. Libraries of these various garnets were then characterized spectroscopically and their properties compared to traditionally prepared bulk powder phosphors of similar composition. Emission and excitation trends show that as larger cations are substituted for Y (A = Y), emission and excitation are red-shifted and as larger cations are substituted for Al (C = Al), emission and excitation are blue-shifted. If smaller cations are substituted for Y and Al an opposite trend is observed. Temperature dependence photoluminescence measurements and emission/excitation trends are also examined.

Use of the Disk-of-least-confusion in X-ray Microanalysis

Whereas the spatial resolution for standard secondary electron (SEI) imaging in a scanning electron microscope or electron probe microanalyzer is related to the incident probe diameter, the spatial resolution for x-ray microanalysis is related to the convolution of the probe diameter with the spatial extent of the analyzed volume for a point probe. The latter is determined by electron scattering in the specimen and the subsequent emission of excited x-rays from the specimen. As such, it is possible that “What you see is not what you get”. This is especially true for instruments with high brightness electron sources (field emission). This problem is compounded by probe aberrations which at Gaussian image focus can produce significant electron tails extending tens of microns from the center of the probe.

A Unified Model for the Radio and Optical Images and Spectra of Nova V1974 Cyg 1992

A model for nova shells which is a combination of wind model and spherically symmetric, Hubble flow shell model, fits the light curve, image, and nebular line shape data for Nova V1974 Cyg 1992. The results show that after outburst the shell is ejected by a wind-like outflow with a linear velocity gradient, and that after 180 d this outflow stops. The shape of the elliptical inner boundary at this time determines the subsequent emission measure structure seen in images, light curves, and nebular line profiles.