A pragmatic approach to evaluate alternative indicators to GDP

The serious economic crisis broken out in 2008 highly stressed the limitations of GDP used as a well-being indicator and as a predictive tool for economy. This induced the need to identify new indicators able to link the economic prosperity of a country to aspects of sustainable development and externalities, both positive and negative, in the long run. The aim of this paper is to introduce a structured approach which supports the choice or the construction of alternative indicators to GDP. The starting point is the definition of what a well-being indicator actually should represent according to the Recommendations of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Then the paper introduces a systematic procedure for the analysis of well-being indicators. The different phases of this procedure entail the checking of indicators technical properties and their effect on the representational efficacy. Finally, some of the most representative well-being indicators drawn from the literature are compared and a detailed application example is propose

Energetic particle influence on the Earth's atmosphere

This manuscript gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the effects of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) onto the whole atmosphere, from the lower thermosphere/mesosphere through the stratosphere and troposphere, to the surface. The paper summarizes the different sources and energies of particles, principally galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), solar energetic particles (SEPs) and energetic electron precipitation (EEP). All the proposed mechanisms by which EPP can affect the atmosphere are discussed, including chemical changes in the upper atmosphere and lower thermosphere, chemistry-dynamics feedbacks, the global electric circuit and cloud formation. The role of energetic particles in Earth’s atmosphere is a multi-disciplinary problem that requires expertise from a range of scientific backgrounds. To assist with this synergy, summary tables are provided, which are intended to evaluate the level of current knowledge of the effects of energetic particles on processes in the entire atmosphere

The intergration of liquid and solid muon absorbers into a focusing magnet of a muon cooling channel

This report describes how one can integrate the muon absorber with the focusing coils of a SFOFO muon cooling channel [1]. The absorber material must be a low Z material that reduces the muon momentum with minimum scattering. The best materials to use for muon ionization cooling absorbers are hydrogen, helium, lithium hydride, lithium, and beryllium. Hydrogen or helium in an absorber would normally be in the liquid state. Lithium hydride, lithium, and beryllium would normally be in the solid state. This report limits the absorber materials discussed to hydrogen, helium, lithium, and beryllium. In order to achieve the same level of ionization cooling with a solid absorber as a liquid hydrogen absorber, the beta of the muon beam must be reduced more than a factor of two. This affects both the designs of the absorber and the magnet around it. Reducing the beam beta reduces the momentum acceptance of the channel. Integration of a liquid hydrogen absorber and solid absorbers with a superconducting focusing solenoid is discussed. The choice of absorber material affects the design of the superconducting focusing magnet and the superconductor that is used to generate the magnetic field