The Case for High Speed Rail

There is currently a wave of high speed rail proposals sweeping through Europe, amounting to some 7000 route kilometres of new construction and 8000 of upgraded track and costing of the order of 58 billion ecu (in 1985 prices). There is therefore an urgent need for a careful assessment of the costs and benefits, both of the network as a whole and of the individual component parts of it. The principal benefits of high speed rail are taken to be the revenue, traffic and time savings it generates; relief of congestion , accidents and environmental effects of other modes of transport and its alleged local and regional development benefits. Clearly many of these benefits depend on how far it really does divert traffic from these modes as opposed to generating totally new trips. At the same time, high speed rail schemes have significant environmental costs. Evidence on all of these issues is examined, and it is concluded that the evidence for environmental and development benefits is limited, although in the former case in particular much depends on the exact circumstances. Given the wide variety of options in terms of speeds and mix of upgrading versus new construction, careful appraisal is very important, and a traditional transport cost-benefit analysis and environmental impact assessment appear well equipped to capture the main costs and benefits. The conclusion is that there is likely to be a good case for a core network linking the major cities of Western Europe in the middle distance range, but beyond that, upgrading of existing infrastructure and development of new technology may provide a more cost-effective solution

Phase Dynamics of Two Entangled Qubits

We make a geometric study of the phases acquired by a general pure bipartite two level system after a cyclic unitary evolution. The geometric representation of the two particle Hilbert space makes use of Hopf fibrations. It allows for a simple description of the dynamics of the entangled state's phase during the whole evolution. The global phase after a cyclic evolution is always an entire multiple of $\pi$ for all bipartite states, a result that does not depend on the degree of entanglement. There are three different types of phases combining themselves so as to result in the $n \pi$ global phase. They can be identified as dynamical, geometrical and topological. Each one of them can be easily identified using the presented geometric description. The interplay between them depends on the initial state and on its trajectory and the results obtained are shown to be in connection to those on mixed states phases.Comment: 9 figures, slightly different version from the accepted on

The twistor geometry of three-qubit entanglement

A geometrical description of three qubit entanglement is given. A part of the transformations corresponding to stochastic local operations and classical communication on the qubits is regarded as a gauge degree of freedom. Entangled states can be represented by the points of the Klein quadric ${\cal Q}$ a space known from twistor theory. It is shown that three-qubit invariants are vanishing on special subspaces of ${\cal Q}$. An invariant vanishing for the $GHZ$ class is proposed. A geometric interpretation of the canonical decomposition and the inequality for distributed entanglement is also given.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX

Book review: Making Documentaries and News Features in the Philippines

Kenny, James & Isabel, 1996 Making Documentaries and News Features in the Philippines, Anvil Publishing, Manila. ISBN 971-27-0568-4 Review Essay by Chris Nash The Kennys take a very broad approach to the definition of documentary, including even the ten-minute segments that make up programs like 60 Minutes. This is undoubtedly wise in the context of the Philippines and most Asian, indeed international, film and video distribution systems. There is little or no arthouse cinema distribution, traditionally the mainstay of documentary film, and television infotainment very rarely gets anywhere near independent, in-the-field investigation of an issue, which is perhaps the best definition of documentary that doesn\u27t get embroiled in arguments about form and genre

Hydrographic Study of Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Effluent in the Piscataqua River of Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Report of Findings from the December 10 – 14, 2012 Study Period

In order to assist the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) evaluate the impact of treated wastewater effluent from Peirce Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) to the Lower Piscataqua River and Portsmouth Harbor a hydrographic dye study was conducted in December 2012 in Portsmouth, NH. Eight (8) shellfish cages with American oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) were deployed both upstream and downstream of the Peirce Island WWTP in the Piscataqua River, Little Harbor, and the entrance of Little Bay. Eight (8) mini CTDs that monitor conductivity/salinity, temperature, and depth, and six (6) moored fluorometers, which measure dye tagged effluent from the Peirce Island WWTP were attached to the subsurface cages. A fifty (50) gallon mixture of Rhodamine WT dye and distilled water was injected into WWTP on December 11, 2012 for a half tidal cycle (approximately 12.4 hours). Additionally, boat tracking fluorometers connected with a mobile geographic information system (GIS) were used to measure dye levels on the surface in situ and in real time. Microbiological analyses of fecal coliform (FC), male-specific coliphage (MSC), Norovirus (NoV) genogroup I (GI) and genogroup II (GII), and Adenovirus (AdV) were conducted on WWTP influent and effluent composite samples collected with automated samplers to determine the WWTP efficiency in reducing indicator bacteria and viruses. Microbiological sampling and testing of oysters and mussels from the eight (8) sentinel cages was conducted to assess the impact of WWTP effluent on shellfish growing areas and growing area classifications. Prior to conducting the study, the assumption was that the FDA’s recommended minimum dilution of 1000:1was not applicable in this situation because the recommended dilution is based on a WWTP having at least secondary treatment. The microbiological findings in shellfish samples, wastewater samples from the Peirce Island WWTP, and the results of the dye study, confirm that a minimum of 1,000:1 dilution with respect to Peirce Island WWTP is currently not applicable for this WWTP. The FDA and NHDES recommend continued MSC testing of wastewater samples from the WWTP before and after the WWTP upgrade. The FDA and NHDES recommend a future field study after the WWTP upgrade in order to delineate the 1,000:1 dilution zone

The utility of unmanned probes in lunar exploration

Utility of unmanned probes of Ranger or Surveyor class in Apollo exploration program - Lunar scientific exploratio