University of Macau

About: University of Macau is a education organization based out in Macao, Macau, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Population. The organization has 6636 authors who have published 18324 publications receiving 327384 citations. The organization is also known as: UM & UMAC.

Macroeconomic impact of stranded fossil fuel assets

Abstract: Several major economies rely heavily on fossil fuel production and exports, yet current low-carbon technology diffusion, energy efficiency and climate policy may be substantially reducing global demand for fossil fuels1–4. This trend is inconsistent with observed investment in new fossil fuel ventures1,2, which could become stranded as a result. Here, we use an integrated global economy–environment simulation model to study the macroeconomic impact of stranded fossil fuel assets (SFFA). Our analysis suggests that part of the SFFA would occur as a result of an already ongoing technological trajectory, irrespective of whether or not new climate policies are adopted; the loss would be amplified if new climate policies to reach the 2 °C target of the Paris Agreement are adopted and/or if low-cost producers (some OPEC countries) maintain their level of production (‘sell out’) despite declining demand; the magnitude of the loss from SFFA may amount to a discounted global wealth loss of US$1–4 trillion; and there are clear distributional impacts, with winners (for example, net importers such as China or the EU) and losers (for example, Russia, the United States or Canada, which could see their fossil fuel industries nearly shut down), although the two effects would largely offset each other at the level of aggregate global GDP.

Fuzzy Adaptive Quantized Control for a Class of Stochastic Nonlinear Uncertain Systems

Abstract: In this paper, a fuzzy adaptive approach for stochastic strict-feedback nonlinear systems with quantized input signal is developed. Compared with the existing research on quantized input problem, the existing works focus on quantized stabilization, while this paper considers the quantized tracking problem, which recovers stabilization as a special case. In addition, uncertain nonlinearity and the unknown stochastic disturbances are simultaneously considered in the quantized feedback control systems. By putting forward a new nonlinear decomposition of the quantized input, the relationship between the control signal and the quantized signal is established, as a result, the major technique difficulty arising from the piece-wise quantized input is overcome. Based on fuzzy logic systems’ universal approximation capability, a novel fuzzy adaptive tracking controller is constructed via backstepping technique. The proposed controller guarantees that the tracking error converges to a neighborhood of the origin in the sense of probability and all the signals in the closed-loop system remain bounded in probability. Finally, an example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

A review of the pharmacological effects of Arctium lappa (burdock).

Abstract: Arctium lappa, commonly known as burdock, is being promoted/recommended as a healthy and nutritive food in Chinese societies. Burdock has been used therapeutically in Europe, North America and Asia for hundreds of years. The roots, seeds and leaves of burdock have been investigated in view of its popular uses in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In this review, the reported therapeutic effects of the active compounds present in the different botanical parts of burdock are summarized. In the root, the active ingredients have been found to “detoxify” blood in terms of TCM and promote blood circulation to the skin surface, improving the skin quality/texture and curing skin diseases like eczema. Antioxidants and antidiabetic compounds have also been found in the root. In the seeds, some active compounds possess anti-inflammatory effects and potent inhibitory effects on the growth of tumors such as pancreatic carcinoma. In the leaf extract, the active compounds isolated can inhibit the growth of micro-organisms in the oral cavity. The medicinal uses of burdock in treating chronic diseases such as cancers, diabetes and AIDS have been reported. However, it is also essential to be aware of the side effects of burdock including contact dermatitis and other allergic/inflammatory responses that might be evoked by burdock.