Spending on Pets: Tails from the Consumer Expenditure Survey

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. households own pets. There are about 218 million pets in the United States, not counting several million fish. Pet ownership crosses many demographic boundaries, with Americans of different ages and levels of wealth reporting spending on pets. Further, Americans spend a substantial amount of money on the care and feeding of their animals. Americans spent approximately $61.4 billion in total on their pets in 2011. On average, each U.S. household spent just over$500 on pets. This amounts to about 1 percent of total spending per year for the average household. Using information collected in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure (CE) Diary and Interview Surveys from 2007 to 2011, this article looks at the trends in spending by household or consumer unit, and examines which groups spent the most and the least on pets

Potential equivalence transformations for nonlinear diffusion-convection equations

Potential equivalence transformations (PETs) are effectively applied to a class of nonlinear diffusion-convection equations. For this class all possible potential symmetries are classified and a theorem on connection of them with point ones via PETs is also proved. It is shown that the known non-local transformations between equations under consideration are nothing but PETs. Action of PETs on sets of exact solutions of a fast diffusion equation is investigated.Comment: 10 page

Deuteron-equivalent and phase-equivalent interactions within light nuclei

Background: Phase-equivalent transformations (PETs) are well-known in quantum scattering and inverse scattering theory. PETs do not affect scattering phase shifts and bound state energies of two-body system but are conventionally supposed to modify two-body bound state observables such as the rms radius and electromagnetic moments. Purpose: In order to preserve all bound state observables, we propose a new particular case of PETs, a deuteron-equivalent transformation (DET-PET), which leaves unchanged not only scattering phase shifts and bound state (deuteron) binding energy but also the bound state wave function. Methods: The construction of DET-PET is discussed; equations defining the simplest DET-PETs are derived. We apply these simplest DET-PETs to the JISP16 $NN$ interaction and use the transformed $NN$ interactions in calculations of $^3$H and $^4$He binding energies in the No-core Full Configuration (NCFC) approach based on extrapolations of the No-core Shell Model (NCSM) basis space results to the infinite basis space. Results: We demonstrate the DET-PET modification of the $np$ scattering wave functions and study the DET-PET manifestation in the binding energies of $^3$H and $^4$He nuclei and their correlation (Tjon line). Conclusions: It is shown that some DET-PETs generate modifications of the central component while the others modify the tensor component of the $NN$ interaction. DET-PETs are able to modify significantly the $np$ scattering wave functions and hence the off-shell properties of the $NN$ interaction. DET-PETs give rise to significant changes in the binding energies of $^3$H (in the range of approximately 1.5 MeV) and $^4$He (in the range of more than 9 MeV) and are able to modify the correlation patterns of binding energies of these nuclei

Work on PETS Developed at CIEMAT

CIEMAT has been working on the RF power extractor so-called PETS (Power Extraction and Transfer Structure) for the CLIC Test Facility 3 (CTF3) since 2007. The first contribution has been installed at the Test Beam Line (TBL). Additionally, a new PETS configuration is presently under fabrication at CIEMAT and will be installed in the Test Module at CTF3. This paper describes the PETS prototypes design, fabrication and assembly techniques. The characterization of the devices with low RF power is also described.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, 10 references. Work presented in the LCWS1

PETS2009 and Winter-PETS 2009 results: a combined evaluation

This paper presents the results of the crowd image analysis challenge of the Winter PETS 2009 workshop. The evaluation is carried out using a selection of the metrics developed in the Video Analysis and Content Extraction (VACE) program and the CLassification of Events, Activities, and Relationships (CLEAR) consortium [13]. The evaluation highlights the detection and tracking performance of the authors’systems in areas such as precision, accuracy and robustness. The performance is also compared to the PETS 2009 submitted results

Katrina\u27s Animal Legacy: The PETS Act

This article discusses issues related to the federal Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006 (PETS Act), which was signed into law in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Issues discussed in this article include: Various problems concerning animal evacuations and sheltering that Hurricane Katrina brought to light; Provisions of the PETS Act and related laws and policies which were developed in response to the tragedies brought about by Hurricane Katrina; and Strengths and weaknesses of the PETS Act and recommends next steps to improve implementation of the PETS Act

Should Dogs and Cats be Given as Gifts?

Policies that state pets should not be adopted as gifts are prevalent at animal welfare organizations, despite the fact that this belief is unfounded. Denying adopters who intend to give the animals as gifts may unnecessarily impede the overarching goal of increasing adoptions of pets from our nations' shelter system. We found that receiving a dog or cat as a gift was not associated with impact on self-perceived love/attachment, or whether the dog or cat was still in the home. These results suggest there is no increased risk of relinquishment for dogs and cats received as a gift