Biodiversity and organic farming – where next after Curry?

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. The recent Curry Commission report recognised the need to provide incentives for the production of public goods in terms of the environment. This is a particular advantage for organic farming because its biodiversity benefit is no longer being seriously questioned and many, large NGOs have a positive policy attitude towards organic farming. However, to ensure a good deal for organic farming in any new development of agri-environment schemes, the organic sector needs to play a positive role, with careful consideration of all steps in the development of policy

Scattering of color dipoles: from low to high energies

A dipole-dipole scattering amplitude is calculated exactly in the first two orders of perturbation theory. This amplitude is an analytic function of the relative energy and the dipoles' sizes. The cross section of the dipole-dipole scattering approaches the high-energy BFKL asymptotics starting from a relatively large rapidity $\sim 5$.Comment: 13 pages, 10 postscript figures, typos correcte

Tree-like properties of cycle factorizations

We provide a bijection between the set of factorizations, that is, ordered (n-1)-tuples of transpositions in ${\mathcal S}_{n}$ whose product is (12...n), and labelled trees on $n$ vertices. We prove a refinement of a theorem of D\'{e}nes that establishes new tree-like properties of factorizations. In particular, we show that a certain class of transpositions of a factorization correspond naturally under our bijection to leaf edges of a tree. Moreover, we give a generalization of this fact.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Integrating In Dark Matter Astrophysics at Direct Detection Experiments

We study the capabilities of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment currently under construction at the Sanford Underground Laboratory, as a light WIMP detector. For a cross section near the current experimental bound, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR should collect hundreds or even thousands of recoil events. This opens up the possibility of simultaneously determining the physical properties of the dark matter and its local velocity distribution, directly from the data. We analyze this possibility and find that allowing the dark matter velocity distribution to float considerably worsens the WIMP mass determination. This result is traced to a previously unexplored degeneracy between the WIMP mass and the velocity dispersion. We simulate spectra using both isothermal and Via Lactea II velocity distributions and comment on the possible impact of streams. We conclude that knowledge of the dark matter velocity distribution will greatly facilitate the mass and cross section determination for a light WIMP.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; updated to synchronize with the Phys Lett B versio

Creating incentives for private infrastructure companies to become more efficient

The privatization of infrastructure companies is expected to bring about gains for customers by increasing the efficiency of the privatized company. Because many infrastructure industries are not competitive, attention has focused on the development of regulatory regimes that replicate the operation of competitive markets and so lead to efficiency gains. Less attention, however, has been paid to other institutional factors that encourage firms to operate efficiently. The authors study three institutional factors that can, in general, encourage efficiency: the threat of bankruptcy; internal controls brought about by executive remuneration schemes and the ability of shareholders to remove underperforming management; and external disciplines brought about by the operation of the market for corporate control and the threat of hostile takeover. Applying these three aspects of corporate governance to monopolistic infrastructure firms is not simple. Infrastructure regulation may allow privatized firms to avoid financial problems by raising prices, for example, thus sheltering them from the threat of bankruptcy. And shareholder control may be hindered by restrictions on the proportion of the shares that can be owned by any one shareholder. The authors offer examples of the ways in which different regulatory, institutional, and governance systems work in different countries, especially in relation to infrastructure companies; and provide a checklist of options that should be considered when designing the involvement of the private sector in infrastructure position.Payment Systems&Infrastructure,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Microfinance,Small and Medium Size Enterprises,Small Scale Enterprise,Private Participation in Infrastructure,Small Scale Enterprise,Microfinance,Economic Theory&Research,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism

Tasks of Philosophy in the Present Age RIAS-Lecture, June 9, 1952

Translators’ Abstract: This is a translation of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s recently discovered 1952 Berlin speech. The speech includes several themes that reappear in Truth and Method, as well as in Gadamer’s later writings such as Reason in the Age of Science. For example, Gadamer criticizes positivism, modern philosophy’s orientation toward positivism, and Enlightenment narratives of progress, while presenting his view of philosophy’s tasks in an age of crisis. In addition, he discusses structural power, instrumental reason, the objectification of nature and human beings, the reduction of both to mere means, and the colonization of scientific-technological ways of knowing and being—all of which continue to impact our social and political lives together and threaten the very existence of every living being. This speech is essential reading for Gadamer scholars interested in the social, political, and ethical dimensions of his thought and for those interested in bringing Gadamer into conversation with critical theor

Collider signatures of sterile neutrinos in models with a gauge-singlet Higgs

Sterile neutrinos have been invoked to explain the observed neutrino masses, but they can also have significant implications for cosmology and accelerator experiments. We explore the collider signatures of a simple extension of the Standard Model, where sterile neutrinos acquire their mass after electroweak symmetry breaking, via their coupling to a real singlet Higgs. In this model, heavy sterile neutrinos can be produced in accelerators from decays of the Higgs bosons. Their own decay can yield distinct signals, suggesting both the presence of an extended Higgs sector and the coupling of the singlet fermions to the latter. In the same scenario, a relic matter abundance arises from the decay of the singlet Higgs into weakly coupled keV sterile neutrinos. The coupling of the Higgs doublet to particles outside the Standard Model relaxes the current experimental bounds on its mass.Comment: v2: JHEP accepted version, 19 pages, 9 figure

An experimental and finite element study of the low-cycle fatigue failure of a galvanised steel lighting column

This paper presents the results of a low-cycle fatigue test on a lighting column. The wind induced vibration phenomena responsible for low cycle fatigue in such structures is discussed and the failure mechanism is examined. It was initially thought that poor quality weld detail was the major influence on the fatigue life of such columns. However, the significant role of the galvanised coating in the failure process is also highlighted. The experimental results are compared with those from a detailed 3D finite element model. Various methods of calculating hot-spot stresses at welded joints are examined and use of a simple peak stress removal approach is shown to produce significantly different values compared with the other methods examined

An experimental study of unsteady hydrodynamics of a single scull

The effect of hull dynamics on the hydrodynamic performance of a single scull is investigated via a combination of field trials and tank tests. The location of laminar-turbulent transition in unsteady flow is explored via several series of hot-film measurements on the bow of a full-scale single scull in unsteady flow in both towing tank and field-trial conditions. Results demonstrate that the measured real-world viscous-flow behaviour can be successfully reproduced in the tank using an oscillating sub-carriage to reproduce the surging motion measured in the field trials. It can be seen that there is a strong link between turbulence and acceleration; results show that the link is relatively insensitive to mean velocity, but that small changes in acceleration time-histories can have a marked effect, as can the presence of small waves. The impact of the location of laminar turbulent transition is investigated by way of a series of resistance tests, both with free transition and with transition forced by turbulence stimulation at two different locations. Results indicate that an aft movement of 200mm of the location of transition can reduce resistance by almost 0.5 per cent. Unsteady tests using the oscillating sub-carriage indicate that unsteady effects add around 3 per cent to the total mean resistance with free transition