Vertical integration, separation in the rail industry: a survey of empirical studies on efficiency

Whether vertical separation of the rail industry creates demonstrable performance and efficiency gains is an issue of ongoing economic analysis and public policy debate. To assist in consideration of the merits and disbenefits of vertical separation this paper provides a summary of the different studies that have been undertaken to gauge the effects of vertical separation on the rail industry, and analyses and codifies the main findings of this research. The evidence indicates that whether separation will improve efficiency of a jurisdiction’s rail industry, and the extent to which this will occur, depends upon a number of specific conditions including what range of services are being provided – that is, passenger and/or bulk or general freight –the intensity of track use, and the extent to which inter-modal competition exists. The research highlights the merits of undertaking preliminary analysis of the characteristics of a jurisdiction’s rail sector before initiating structural reform of this nature

Too good to be true: when overwhelming evidence fails to convince

Is it possible for a large sequence of measurements or observations, which support a hypothesis, to counterintuitively decrease our confidence? Can unanimous support be too good to be true? The assumption of independence is often made in good faith, however rarely is consideration given to whether a systemic failure has occurred. Taking this into account can cause certainty in a hypothesis to decrease as the evidence for it becomes apparently stronger. We perform a probabilistic Bayesian analysis of this effect with examples based on (i) archaeological evidence, (ii) weighing of legal evidence, and (iii) cryptographic primality testing. We find that even with surprisingly low systemic failure rates high confidence is very difficult to achieve and in particular we find that certain analyses of cryptographically-important numerical tests are highly optimistic, underestimating their false-negative rate by as much as a factor of $2^{80}$

The Reliability of A Colorimetric Test in Determining Gingival Inflammation

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141893/1/jper0564.pd

Calculations in supersymmetric quantum theories

Supersymmetric models which are based on ordinary quantum- mechanical systems, of the form originally suggested by Witten, are studied. Ground-state energy is chosen as a suitable measure of the extent of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking Insight into the mechanism by which such breaking can occur is also sought. Several existing methods for estimating ground state energies are reviewed and compared with the true value, and then some new methods are developed. At first, the canonical T'amiltonian formulation of the models is used, but later the path-integral approach is also considered. In the latter it is shown that the use of a larger family of classical solutions of the equations of motion than customary may be used to improve the normal semi classical calculation. Analogous solutions exist in CP(^n-1) model field theories. Classical, properties of these are discussed, and their potential use in semiclassical calculations similar to the quantum-mechanical ones indicated, Finally we return to super symmetric quantum, mechanics in order to generalise the original structure to cases with many degrees of freedom

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts during the First Advanced LIGO Observing Run and Implications for the Origin of GRB 150906B

We present the results of the search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with γ-ray bursts detected during the first observing run of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). We find no evidence of a GW signal for any of the 41 γ-ray bursts for which LIGO data are available with sufficient duration. For all γ-ray bursts, we place lower bounds on the distance to the source using the optimistic assumption that GWs with an energy of were emitted within the – Hz band, and we find a median 90% confidence limit of 71 Mpc at 150 Hz. For the subset of 19 short/hard γ-ray bursts, we place lower bounds on distance with a median 90% confidence limit of 90 Mpc for binary neutron star (BNS) coalescences, and 150 and 139 Mpc for neutron star–black hole coalescences with spins aligned to the orbital angular momentum and in a generic configuration, respectively. These are the highest distance limits ever achieved by GW searches. We also discuss in detail the results of the search for GWs associated with GRB 150906B, an event that was localized by the InterPlanetary Network near the local galaxy NGC 3313, which is at a luminosity distance of Mpc (z = 0.0124). Assuming the γ-ray emission is beamed with a jet half-opening angle , we exclude a BNS and a neutron star–black hole in NGC 3313 as the progenitor of this event with confidence >99%. Further, we exclude such progenitors up to a distance of 102 Mpc and 170 Mpc, respectively.United States National Science Foundation (NSF)Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) of the United KingdomMax-Planck-Society (MPS)State of NiedersachsenAustralian Research CouncilItalian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)Netherlands Organisation for Scientific ResearchCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research of IndiaScience & Engineering Research Board (SERB), IndiaMinistry of Human Resource Development, IndiaSpanish Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadConselleria d’Economia i CompetitivitatConselleria d’Educació Cultura i Universitats of the Govern de les Illes BalearsNational Science Centre of PolandEuropean CommissionRoyal SocietyScottish Funding CouncilScottish Universities Physics AllianceHungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA)Lyon Institute of Origins (LIO)National Research Foundation of KoreaIndustry CanadaProvince of OntarioBrazilian Ministry of ScienceFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Russian Foundation for Basic ResearchLeverhulme TrustMinistry of Science and Technology (MOST)Kavli FoundationNASA/NNX15AU74GRFBR/15-02-00532-iRFBR/16-29-13009-ofi-

All Over the Map: The Diversity of Western Water Plans

Water presents a complex challenge to western state governments. Water is scarcer in the West than in the East and western states face challenges unknown to eastern ones. The textual analysis of their state water planning summaries produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers between late 2008 and 2009 confirms the differences in their policy priorities. However, there is also a wide variance among western states’ policies as the diversity in their water plans show. Water planning is a challenge not only because of the variability of the resource but also because water basins do not map our local, regional, or state political divisions and many types of users compete for the resource. In addition, states have to conform to certain federal constraints, like the Endangered Species Act, tribal rights, or interstate compacts, which curtail their leeway in deciding how to allocate and manage their water. Even accounting for these external constraints, the content of western water plans varies substantially. A typical state plan includes from an inventory of water uses, demand projections, and management recommendations. But not all state plans conform to this scheme. Regarding length, topics covered, frequency at which they are updated, and public involvement, they are all over the map. Many reasons might be behind the disparity, but among those, the funding allocated to planning and the relative power of different interest groups are quite salient. Water planning is a necessary tool to manage water, particularly in a climate change scenario. Planning is a state task but we believe the federal government is in a good position to promote standardized data collection on state water supply and by offering grants to the states. Good information and an informed menu of possible choices is a realistic goal that could in theory achieve bipartisan consensus and move us closer to an integrated and sustainable water resources management

Mega Tsunami of the World Oceans: Chevron Dune Formation, Micro-Ejecta, and Rapid Climate Change as the Evidence of Recent Oceanic Bolide Impacts

This paper deals with the physical and environmental effects resulting from oceanic impacts by sizable comets, and the rates and risks associated with such cosmic impacts. Specifically, we investigate two sets of probable oceanic impact events that occurred within the last 5,000 years, one in the Indian Ocean about 2800 BC, and the other in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Australia) about AD 536. If validated, they would be the most energetic natural catastrophes occurring during the middle-to-late Holocene with large-scale environmental and historical human effects and consequences. The physical evidence for these two impacts consists of several sets of data: (1) remarkable depositional traces of coastal flooding in dunes (chevron dunes) found in southern Madagascar and along the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, (2) the presence of crater candidates (29-km Burckle crater about 1,500 km southeast of Madagascar which dates to within the last 6,000 years and 18-km Kanmare and 12-km Tabban craters with an estimated age of AD 572±86 in the southeast corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria), and (3) the presence of quench textured magnetite spherules and nearly pure carbon spherules, teardrop-shaped tektites with trails of ablation, and vitreous material found by cutting-edge laboratory analytical techniques in the upper-most layer of core samples close to the crater candidates. Although some propose a wind-blown origin for V-shaped chevron dunes that are widely distributed around the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and in the Gulf of Carpentaria, we have evidence in favor of their mega tsunami formation. In southern Madagascar we have documented evidence for tsunami wave run-up reaching 205 m above sea-level and penetrating up to 45 km inland along the strike of the chevron axis. Subtly the orientation of the dunes is not aligned to the prevailing wind direction, but to the path of refracted mega-tsunami originating from Burckle impact crater. The results of our study show that substantive oceanic comet impacts not only have occurred more recently than modeled by astrophysicists, but also that they have profoundly affected Earth’s natural systems, climate, and human societies. If validated, they could potentially lead to a major paradigm shift in environmental science by recognizing the role of oceanic impacts in major climate downturns during the middle-to-late Holocene that have been well documented already by different techniques (tree-ring anomalies, ice-, lake- and peat bog-cores)

Burckle abyssal impact crater: Did this impact produce a global deluge?

We have found an impact crater that is likely < 6000 years old. Burckle crater is in the central Indian Ocean on the edge of a fracture zone at 30.87° S 61.36°E. The crater is 29±1 km wide and is the inferred source of layers with high magnetic susceptibility in 3 deep sea cores. Each layer goes to the top of the core. Two out of 3 of the cores have basal Pleistocene ages and the basal age of the third is unknown. The high susceptibility layers contain broken plagioclase, spinel periodotite, and chrysotile asbestos. One sample contains pure Ni with drops of oxidized Ni. Because pure Ni melts at 1453°C, it is very likely that the drops formed during an impact. The high susceptibility layers from 2 cores are over 5 times thicker than they should be for a 29 km wide source crater. We also find that a 29 km wide source crater cannot vaporize enough seawater to produce meters of rain, even in a restricted region between 4750 and 7250 km from the crater. Thus, we infer that Burckle crater was produced as part of a Shoemaker-Levy type impact of a comet. The fragmented comet also produced two other large impact centers, one in the northwest Pacific and another in the central eastern Pacific. Where the rainout from these impact centers overlaps, we see deluge events that are over a week long. The impact event also produced devastating tsunamis, winds, and associated social upheaval. We date the event to around 2807 B.C