Rigid prices: evidence from U.S. scanner data

This paper uses over two years of weekly scanner data from two small US cities to characterize time and state dependence of grocers' pricing decisions. In these data, the probability of a nominal adjustment declines with the time since the last price change. This reflects differences over time in the flexibility of prices charged by a single store for a given good. We also detect state dependence: The probability of a nominal adjustment is highest when a store's price substantially differs from the average of other stores. However, extreme prices typically reflect the selling store's recent nominal adjustments rather than changes in other stores' prices.Prices

Large-scale grid-connected renewable energy in Australia: Potential barriers, strategies and policy support mechanisms that may affect RE development from the perspective of energy specialists at a leading consultancy operating in the built environment in Australia

Barriers to renewable energy development in the past have been identified as high upfront costs with challenges around equity and debt financing, as well as limited legal frameworks and limited regulatory support. Although it is noted that barriers to development are country specific, as well as the solutions to overcome such barriers. Policy measures implemented in various countries to support renewable energy have been seen to have a marked impact on its development. The renewable energy industry in Australia is showing unprecedented growth with a drastic change in the energy landscape expected in the future, should all proposed developments come to fruition. Renewable energy in Australia is currently in its infancy though. It is expected that the planned integration of all the proposed developments in the National Electricity Market will result in certain barriers to development emerging at higher levels of integration. Australia's energy policy has taken significant steps to supporting the deployment of cleaner generation technologies, although hurdles at federal and state level have in the past frustrated the development of renewable energy. The history and status quo of renewable energy development in Australia has been investigated. The current framework and support structures in place as well as potential barriers have been reviewed. A qualitative investigation utilising a single case study approach was selected as the research method. The case investigated was the renewable energy division of a leading global engineering consultancy operating in Australia. The participants of the study included the senior management staff in the renewable energy division of the company. Standard open-ended interviews were conducted. The data was analysed by employing a method of pattern matching. The observed data from the interview process was analysed and compared against the expected pattern which had emerged from the literature. Potential barriers and support strategies have been outlined as a conclusion to the study. The study found federal energy policy to be favourable, but not vital for continued growth of RE development. It was acknowledged that a focus on grid infrastructure would be vital to avoid constricting asset development. The development of Renewable Energy Zones was considered a favourable strategy to overcoming barriers identified, although it was noted that community acceptance would be a significant consideration. Gas generation may form part of the future energy mix, but will be dependent on price and emergent technology. Pumped hydro power is expected to be an important compliment to renewable energy in future, to assist in addressing the technical barriers associated with high levels of non-synchronous generation in the network. A reform of the NEM may also be required to cater for a scenario of a significant penetration of renewable energy and is a topic recommended for future research

Regrowth: A Paradise Rec Center

Ben Campbell’s Regrowth Recreation Center is located on a site overlooking the new park in the center of the proposed East Village. Seeking to encourage exercise and healthy lifestyles, the center has areas for weight training, classroom instruction for yoga and other types of exercise, a basketball court, and both an indoor and outdoor pool. The building is conceived as a series of arms extending from a central core. A café and retail shop space on the ground floor help integrate the center with the new downtown

Measurement based entanglement under conditions of extreme photon loss

The act of measuring optical emissions from two remote qubits can entangle them. By demanding that a photon from each qubit reaches the detectors, one can ensure than no photon was lost. But the failure rate then rises quadratically with loss probability. In [1] this resulted in 30 successes per billion attempts. We describe a means to exploit the low grade entanglement heralded by the detection of a lone photon: A subsequent perfect operation is quickly achieved by consuming this noisy resource. We require only two qubits per node, and can tolerate both path length variation and loss asymmetry. The impact of photon loss upon the failure rate is then linear; realistic high-loss devices can gain orders of magnitude in performance and thus support QIP.Comment: Contains an extension of the protocol that makes it robust against asymmetries in path length and photon los

Adaptive strategies for graph state growth in the presence of monitored errors

Graph states (or cluster states) are the entanglement resource that enables one-way quantum computing. They can be grown by projective measurements on the component qubits. Such measurements typically carry a significant failure probability. Moreover, they may generate imperfect entanglement. Here we describe strategies to adapt growth operations in order to cancel incurred errors. Nascent states that initially deviate from the ideal graph states evolve toward the desired high fidelity resource without impractical overheads. Our analysis extends the diagrammatic language of graph states to include characteristics such as tilted vertices, weighted edges, and partial fusion, which arise from experimental imperfections. The strategies we present are relevant to parity projection schemes such as optical `path erasure' with distributed matter qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Typos corrected, nicer figures, neater notation and better rea

Androgen Receptor and Vasopressin Receptor (AVPR1a) Genetic Polymorphisms are not associated with Marital Status or Fertility among Ariaal Men of Northern Kenya

A growing body of scholarship implicates testosterone and vasopressin in male reproductive behavior, including in humans. Since hormones exert their effects through their respective receptors, an open question has been whether genetic polymorphisms in the androgen receptor and vasopressin 1a receptor (AVPR1a) impact human male social behavior. Here, we sought to test for associations between polymorphisms in the coding region of the androgen receptor and promoter region of AVPR1a in relation to marital status and fertility among pastoralist Ariaal men of northern Kenya. None of the three polymorphisms were related to marital status (single, monogamously married, polygynously married) or fertility (number of current living children). We discuss these null findings in light of existing data