Dirac particles in Rindler space

We show that a uniformly accelerated observer experiences a "thermal" flux of Dirac particles in the ordinary Minkowski vacuum

The History of Armand Trousseau and Cancer-Associated Thrombosis

“Je suis perdu; une phlegmatia qui vient de se déclarer cette nuit, ne me laisse aucun doute sur nature de mon mal.” —Armand Trousseau “I am lost; a phlebitis which has declared itself this night leaves me no doubt about the nature of my illness.

Anticipating Winter Weather with Next-Generation Satellite Sensors

No abstract availabl

A review of the Energy Productivity Center's Least-Cost Energy Strategy study

The Mellon Institute's Energy Productivity Center (EPC) has recently completed a study asking the question, "How would the nation have provided energy services in 1978 if its capital stock had een reconfigured to be optimal for actual 1978 energy prices?" Interest in this question is motivated by the unanticipated increases in oil prices since 1973. If policy makers are to learn from history it is important to know what would have happened if the increases in energy prices had been foreseen and if the nation had taken full advantage of that knowledge to minimize costs.EPC concludes that if the 1978 capital stock had been transformed in conformance with a least-cost principal for providing energy services, then, given actual 1978 energy prices and energy service demands, per capita energy service costs would have been reduced by 17%. Market shares of the various energy types would also have been affected substantially. For example, while the gas share of total energy service demand would have increased slightly from actual 1978 levels, the share of purchased electricity would have fallen from 30% to 17% of total energy service demand, and improvements in energy efficiency would have increased from 10% to 32%.EPC's findings have received considerable attention, both from the press and from policy makers. EPC interprets its results as indicating "... the direction in which we coul move to begin realizing some of the benefits of a least-cost strategy." The purpose of this report is to assess and evaluate the EPC methodology, data base, and results. Here we briefly summarize our principal findings

A Comparison of the Red Green Blue Air Mass Imagery and Hyperspectral Infrared Retrieved Profiles

The Red Green Blue (RGB) Air Mass imagery is derived from multiple channels or paired channel differences. Multiple channel products typically provide additional information than a single channel can provide alone. The RGB Air Mass imagery simplifies the interpretation of temperature and moisture characteristics of air masses surrounding synoptic and mesoscale features. Despite the ease of interpretation of multiple channel products, the combination of channels and channel differences means the resulting product does not represent a quantity or physical parameter such as brightness temperature in conventional single channel satellite imagery. Without a specific quantity to reference, forecasters are often confused as to what RGB products represent. Hyperspectral infrared retrieved profiles of temperature, moisture, and ozone can provide insight about the air mass represented on the RGB Air Mass product and provide confidence in the product and representation of air masses despite the lack of a quantity to reference for interpretation. This study focuses on RGB Air Mass analysis of Hurricane Sandy as it moved north along the U.S. East Coast, while transitioning to a hybrid extratropical storm. Soundings and total column ozone retrievals were analyzed using data from the Cross-track Infrared and Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder Suite (CrIMSS) on the Suomi National Polar Orbiting Partnership satellite and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aqua satellite along with dropsondes that were collected from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Air Force research aircraft. By comparing these datasets to the RGB Air Mass, it is possible to capture quantitative information that could help in analyzing the synoptic environment enough to diagnose the onset of extratropical transition. This was done by identifying any stratospheric air intrusions (SAIs) that existed in the vicinity of Sandy as the wind field expanded and the cloud pattern evolved into an atypical pattern

System average rates of U.S. investor-owned electric utilities : a statistical benchmark study

Using multiple regression methods, we have undertaken a statistical "benchmark" study comparing system average electricity rates charged by three California utilities with 96 other US utilities over the 1984-93 time period. Although system average electricity rates are much higher in California than for the national average, we conclude that use of such unadjusted prices provides no meaningful information on how one evaluates the performance of utility management. Rather, we find that average electricity prices are affected to a large extent by a number of factors outside direct and immediate management control, such as local costs of doing business, the availability of low-cost generation sources (e.g., hydro and coal), customer and service territory characteristics such as customer density, use per customer, and a number of regulatory and environmental factors. Once one controls for these various factors, the remaining impact of utility management on system average rates is rather modest, and for the California utilities the impact of utility management (relative to the national average) is insignificantly different from zero. This finding of no difference in prices, holding constant the effects of factors outside of California utilities' control, is robust, being sustained in a large number of alternative models and estimation methods.Financial support from San Diego Gas & Electric Company

Advanced Purchase Commitments for a Malaria Vaccine: Estimating Costs and Effectiveness

To overcome the problem of insufficient research and development (R&D) on vaccines for diseases concentrated in low-income countries, sponsors could commit to purchase viable vaccines if and when they are developed. One or more sponsors would commit to a minimum price that would be paid per person immunized for an eligible product, up to a certain number of individuals immunized. For additional purchases, the price would eventually drop to short-run marginal cost. If no suitable product were developed, no payments would be made. We estimate the offer size which would make the revenues from R&D investments on a malaria vaccine similar to revenues realized from investments in typical existing commercial pharmaceutical products, as well as the degree to which various contract models and assumptions would affect the cost-effectiveness of such a commitment for the case of a malaria vaccine. Under conservative assumptions, we document that the intervention would be highly cost-effective from a public health perspective. Sensitivity analyses suggest most characteristics of a hypothetical malaria vaccine would have little effect on the cost-effectiveness, but that the duration of protection against malaria conferred by a vaccine strongly affects potential cost-effectiveness. Readers can conduct their own sensitivity analyses employing a web-based spreadsheet tool.