Economic Valuation for Wrongful Death

At common law, there was no right to recover damages for the wrongful death of another. North Carolina General Statutes § 28A-18-2, however, provides a cause of action for wrongful death in North Carolina, and provides the basis upon which damages may be awarded. The primary concerns of a plaintiff proceeding under the statute often center around proving those factors listed in the statute as possible components of the damage award. The difficulty inherent in a wrongful death action lies in reaching a fair and reasonable estimate of the lost income the decedent could have earned but for an untimely death, and the loss of such intangibles as decedent\u27s society and companionship. This article examines one method of offering evidence on those factors listed in section (b) of the statute, particularly loss of income and the value of services rendered by the decedent, through the use of an expert economist. Sections III and IV of the article present the approach of two expert economists to this task through the use of two hypothetical case studies

Online Music Piracy: Are Lawsuits The Best Approach?

In the age of digital technology, perfect copies of sound recordings may be easily made and shared in violation of copyright law.  Music piracy in the form of illegal downloading is a worldwide phenomenon that has a significant impact on the music industry.   In response to the perceived threat to the music industry, lawsuits have been filed in the United States and abroad based on copyright infringement for illegally downloading music. This paper examines copyright law, case law, and recent litigation.  In the wake of legal efforts to curtail illegal downloading, a survey of 112 undergraduate students was conducted in an effort to determine whether the lawsuits filed by the music industry are a deterrent to downloading music.  Potential solutions are proposed and economic consequences discussed

A Titanium Nitride Absorber for Controlling Optical Crosstalk in Horn-Coupled Aluminum LEKID Arrays for Millimeter Wavelengths

We discuss the design and measured performance of a titanium nitride (TiN) mesh absorber we are developing for controlling optical crosstalk in horn-coupled lumped-element kinetic inductance detector arrays for millimeter-wavelengths. This absorber was added to the fused silica anti-reflection coating attached to previously-characterized, 20-element prototype arrays of LEKIDs fabricated from thin-film aluminum on silicon substrates. To test the TiN crosstalk absorber, we compared the measured response and noise properties of LEKID arrays with and without the TiN mesh. For this test, the LEKIDs were illuminated with an adjustable, incoherent electronic millimeter-wave source. Our measurements show that the optical crosstalk in the LEKID array with the TiN absorber is reduced by 66\% on average, so the approach is effective and a viable candidate for future kilo-pixel arrays.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Journal of Low Temperature Physic

The Detector System for the Stratospheric Kinetic Inductance Polarimeter (SKIP)

The Stratospheric Kinetic Inductance Polarimeter (SKIP) is a proposed balloon-borne experiment designed to study the cosmic microwave background, the cosmic infrared background and Galactic dust emission by observing 1133 square degrees of sky in the Northern Hemisphere with launches from Kiruna, Sweden. The instrument contains 2317 single-polarization, horn-coupled, aluminum lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKID). The LEKIDs will be maintained at 100 mK with an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator. The polarimeter operates in two configurations, one sensitive to a spectral band centered on 150 GHz and the other sensitive to 260 and 350 GHz bands. The detector readout system is based on the ROACH-1 board, and the detectors will be biased below 300 MHz. The detector array is fed by an F/2.4 crossed-Dragone telescope with a 500 mm aperture yielding a 15 arcmin FWHM beam at 150 GHz. To minimize detector loading and maximize sensitivity, the entire optical system will be cooled to 1 K. Linearly polarized sky signals will be modulated with a metal-mesh half-wave plate that is mounted at the telescope aperture and rotated by a superconducting magnetic bearing. The observation program consists of at least two, five-day flights beginning with the 150 GHz observations.Comment: J Low Temp Phys DOI 10.1007/s10909-013-1014-3 The final publication is available at link.springer.co

Horn-Coupled, Commercially-Fabricated Aluminum Lumped-Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors for Millimeter Wavelengths

We discuss the design, fabrication, and testing of prototype horn-coupled, lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) designed for cosmic microwave background (CMB) studies. The LEKIDs are made from a thin aluminum film deposited on a silicon wafer and patterned using standard photolithographic techniques at STAR Cryoelectronics, a commercial device foundry. We fabricated twenty-element arrays, optimized for a spectral band centered on 150 GHz, to test the sensitivity and yield of the devices as well as the multiplexing scheme. We characterized the detectors in two configurations. First, the detectors were tested in a dark environment with the horn apertures covered, and second, the horn apertures were pointed towards a beam-filling cryogenic blackbody load. These tests show that the multiplexing scheme is robust and scalable, the yield across multiple LEKID arrays is 91%, and the noise-equivalent temperatures (NET) for a 4 K optical load are in the range 26\thinspace\pm6 \thinspace \mu \mbox{K} \sqrt{\mbox{s}}

A LEKID-based CMB instrument design for large-scale observations in Greenland

We present the results of a feasibility study, which examined deployment of a ground-based millimeter-wave polarimeter, tailored for observing the cosmic microwave background (CMB), to Isi Station in Greenland. The instrument for this study is based on lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) and an F/2.4 catoptric, crossed-Dragone telescope with a 500 mm aperture. The telescope is mounted inside the receiver and cooled to $<\,4$ K by a closed-cycle $^4$He refrigerator to reduce background loading on the detectors. Linearly polarized signals from the sky are modulated with a metal-mesh half-wave plate that is rotated at the aperture stop of the telescope with a hollow-shaft motor based on a superconducting magnetic bearing. The modular detector array design includes at least 2300 LEKIDs, and it can be configured for spectral bands centered on 150~GHz or greater. Our study considered configurations for observing in spectral bands centered on 150, 210 and 267~GHz. The entire polarimeter is mounted on a commercial precision rotary air bearing, which allows fast azimuth scan speeds with negligible vibration and mechanical wear over time. A slip ring provides power to the instrument, enabling circular scans (360 degrees of continuous rotation). This mount, when combined with sky rotation and the latitude of the observation site, produces a hypotrochoid scan pattern, which yields excellent cross-linking and enables 34\% of the sky to be observed using a range of constant elevation scans. This scan pattern and sky coverage combined with the beam size (15~arcmin at 150~GHz) makes the instrument sensitive to $5 < \ell < 1000$ in the angular power spectra

Patients\u27 perspectives of tuberculosis treatment challenges and barriers to treatment adherence in Ukraine: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES: To understand the challenges faced by patients with tuberculosis (TB) and factors that influence TB treatment adherence in Ukraine. DESIGN: Qualitative study. SETTING: TB treatment facilities in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty adults who had undergone treatment for drug-sensitive TB between June 2012 and August 2015. METHODS: We conducted semistructured, in-depth, individual interviews among a purposively selected clinical sample of patients previously treated for drug-sensitive TB. Interview content encompassed WHO\u27s framework for barriers to adherence to long-term therapies and included questions about patient preferences and motivators concerning treatment adherence. We examined treatment experience across strata defined by previously identified risk correlates of non-adherence. RESULTS: Among 60 participants, 19 (32.8%) were HIV positive, 12 (20.3%) had substance use disorder and 9 (15.0%) had not completed TB treatment. Respondents discussed the psychological distress associated with hospital-based TB care, as well as perceived unsupportive, antagonistic interactions with TB providers as major challenges to treatment adherence. An additional barrier to successful treatment completion included the financial toll of lost income during TB treatment, which was exacerbated by the additional costs of ancillary medications and transportation to ambulatory TB clinics. The high pill burden of TB treatment also undermined adherence. These challenges were endorsed among participants with and without major risk factors for non-adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight important barriers to TB treatment adherence in this study population and suggest specific interventions that may be beneficial in mitigating high rates of poor treatment outcomes for TB in Ukraine