Air Quality and the Public Trust

This paper puts forward a practical strategy for protecting and improving our air quality by combining three inter-related political concepts: 1) ethical principles underlying a well-ordered democratic society; 2) the role of the State as guardian of the public trust; and 3) the importance of citizen action in defining the nature of this trust and ultimately ensuring its protection. It is not intended to be a rigorous legal or philosophical argument. Rather, from the perspective of a public health advocacy organization, it is intended to serve as a useful initial framework within which to consider an agenda to promote healthy air quality. It uses the specific example of outdoor wood boilers to illustrate why this framework is needed and how it can provide useful guidance

Photoemission and the Origin of High Temperature Superconductivity

The condensation energy can be shown to be a moment of the change in the occupied part of the spectral function when going from the normal to the superconducting state. As a consequence, there is a one to one correspondence between the energy gain associated with forming the superconducting ground state, and the dramatic changes seen in angle resolved photoemission spectra. Some implications this observation has are offered.Comment: 4 pages, M2S conference proceeding

The Public Trust And Air Quality

As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the Clean Air Act, it is worthwhile to review the basic philosophical underpinnings that place limits on private ownership for the public good. This presentation will examine the Public Trust Doctrine, which dates back to the time of the Emperor Justinian, in relationship to protecting the public from the harmful effects of air pollution. It will focus on issues that have emerged since the 1970 Clean Air Act, such as exposures to environmental tobacco smoke. It will also focus localized situations in which significant exposures can occur in the surrounding population, such as the emerging health threat of outdoor wood boilers. A central concern in all these instances is what the primary responsibility of government should be as the keeper of the public trust

Gods, Men and Their Gifts: a Comparison of the Iliad , the Odyssey , the Aeneid and Paradise Lost

This dissertation is an examination of the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid and Paradise Lost based upon their similar depictions of gods and men, specifically in regard to their use of gifts. The procedure is lexical and thematic in approach. The word group around which the majority of the evidence is centered is the noun \u27gift\u27 and the verb \u27to give.\u27 The nature and use of gifts is examined in the four works under consideration. However, the evidence for the notion of gift-giving is not limited by a strict positivistic approach. Evidence from the texts that clearly includes the notion of gift giving is also supplied, though the terms are lacking. The themes which recur in this work are as follows: theodicy, the justification of God\u27s ways and gifts; the obligatory nature of gifts versus a conception of free gifts; the nature of the epic description of the divine-human relationship. The Introduction presents the challenge from Milton to compare his work to the ancient classical works. Each of the major works is then presented in an individual chapter. There then follows a chapter comparing the evidence from each epic. A concluding chapter summarizes the comparison and contrasts. I acknowledge modern scholarship and often challenge the views of certain scholars, not only regarding some of their interpretations of these works, but most of all regarding the terms of discussion that are assumed when discussing epics. I assume that works which are given great reverence, such as these, must be allowed to guide the formulation of the questions we ask of them. The terms \u27gift\u27 and \u27giving\u27 define the limits of classical epic and serve to explain the divine-human relationship which they all assume exists. I conclude that Milton has received the language and structure of gift-giving from classical epic and has transformed them by inserting his God into that language and structure. Gift-giving language and gift-giving structures must be transformed by Milton\u27s action, for His God is far more consistent and rational than the gods of classical epic

Odd Parity and Line Nodes in Heavy Fermion Superconductors

Group theory arguments have demonstrated that a general odd parity order parameter cannot have line nodes in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. In this paper, it is shown that these arguments do not hold on the $k_z = \pi/c$ zone face of a hexagonal close packed lattice. In particular, three of the six odd parity representations vanish identically on this face. This has potential relevance to the heavy fermion superconductor $UPt_3$.Comment: 5 pages, revte

Creating core CCS messages: Focus Group Testing and Peer Review of Questions and Answers from the IEAGHG Weyburn-midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project

AbstractThe publication in 2012 of Best Practices for Validating CO2 Geological Storage: Observations and Guidance from the IEAGHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project marked the culmination of 12 years of research at the Weyburn and Midale oilfields in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. From 2000 to 2012, close to 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were injected into depleted oil reservoirs during enhanced oil recovery operations (EOR); the measurement/monitoring research conducted with those EOR operations demonstrated that storage in deep geological formations is a safe and effective means of reducing GHG emissions. The wealth of results accumulated and disseminated during the Weyburn-Midale Project (WMP) has been important for CCUS and CCS project managers and researchers alike, but serious public concerns continue worldwide related to the safety of CO2 underground storage. In late 2012, the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute approached the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (managers of the WMP) to produce a “core messages” booklet that would offer answers to questions that persistently arise from the general public about carbon capture and storage, by incorporating the scientific information garnered over the life of the WMP. The booklet, What Happens When CO2 is Stored Underground: Q&A from the IEAGHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project was published in 2013 and engaged several steps in its development including a review of existing frequently asked questions on CCS; identification of additional questions and answers using WMP results; community focus group analyses of a completed draft of the booklet; a peer review of the booklet and the focus group responses by CCS communications experts; and, finally, a redrafted final publication