Safety at what price? : setting anti-terrorist policies for checked luggage on US domestic aircraft

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-46).In this thesis, we considered the costs and benefits of implementing Positive Passenger Bag Match (PPBM) - an anti-terrorist measure to keep bombs out of checked luggage - on US domestic passenger flights. We constructed a stochastic model for comparing the cost-effectiveness of three alternative approaches to PPBM: no PPBML implementation; a PPBM implementation that is applied to 5% of passengers; and a full (100%) implementation of PPBM. We made ranges of estimates concerning the level of terrorist risk, the costs of PPBM operation, the consequences of successful terrorist bombings, and the anti-terrorist effectiveness of both the partial and full PPBM implementations. Calculations showed that there were circumstances under which each policy was the most cost-effective of the three. Of the three options, not implementing PPBM at all was the most cost-effective approach for the largest percentage of the scenarios considered. We found that 5% PPBM captured the next largest portion of the scenarios, and was generally the optimal strategy when annual PPBMI operation costs were low, when 5% PPBM anti-terrorist effectiveness was high, and when the consequences of successful bombings were severe. We found 100%(. PPBM to be the optimal strategy for most scenarios which involved highly costly terrorist bombings, a high level of terrorist risk, and a 100% PPBM policy that provided much added security over 5% PPBM.by Jonathan E.W. Cohen.S.M

Monetary benefits of preventing childhood lead poisoning with lead-safe window replacement

Previous estimates of childhood lead poisoning prevention benefits have quantified the present value of some health benefits, but not the costs of lead paint hazard control or the benefits associated with housing and energy markets. Because older housing with lead paint constitutes the main exposure source today in the U.S., we quantify health benefits, costs, market value benefits, energy savings, and net economic benefits of lead-safe window replacement (which includes paint stabilization and other measures). The benefit per resident child from improved lifetime earnings alone is $21,195 in pre-1940 housing and$8,685 in 1940-59 housing (in 2005 dollars). Annual energy savings are $130 to$486 per housing unit, with or without young resident children, with an associated increase in housing market value of $5,900 to$14,300 per housing unit, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Net benefits are $4,490 to$5,629 for each housing unit built before 1940, and $491 to$1,629 for each unit built from 1940-1959, depending on home size and number of windows replaced. Lead-safe window replacement in all pre-1960 U.S. housing would yield net benefits of at least $67 billion, which does not include many other benefits. These other benefits, which are shown in this paper, include avoided Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, other medical costs of childhood lead exposure, avoided special education, and reduced crime and juvenile delinquency in later life. In addition, such a window replacement effort would reduce peak demand for electricity, carbon emissions from power plants, and associated long-term costs of climate change.Lead Poisoning, IQ, Energy Efficiency, Cost Benefit Analysis, Housing, Climate Change

Optimal distillation of a GHZ state

We present the optimal local protocol to distill a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state from a single copy of any pure state of three qubits.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 2 figures. Published version, some references adde

Bolometric luminosities and infrared properties of carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds and the Galaxy

Broad band J, H, K photometry and narrow band CO and H_2O indices have been obtained for 89 luminous red stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and 21 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), chosen largely from the sample of Blanco, McCarthy, and Blanco. Most are known to be carbon stars, and their infrared properties are compared with new observations of 33 galactic carbon stars. The bolometric luminosity distributions of an unbiased sample of Magellanic Cloud carbon stars are compared with those predicted from evolutionary calculations by Renzini and Voli for double shell burning stars undergoing He shell flashes. The observed and theoretical distributions disagree markedly: nearly all the observed stars have lower luminosities than even the faintest theoretical carbon star. In addition, we find many fewer than expected high luminosity stars with initial mass greater than 3 M_⊙. Possible explanations for this include a steep initial mass function for intermediate mass stars, a star formation rate significantly higher in the past than at present, or a neglected physical effect, such as underestimation of the importance of mass loss. Nevertheless, it appears that the hypothesis that He shell flashes lead to a dredge-up of carbon into the envelope, which results in a carbon star, can be maintained, if dredging occurs after fewer shell flashes than are predicted by presently available stellar evolutionary calculations. The colors and indices of the late M giants in the LMC field are similar to those of late M giants in the Galaxy. The narrow band infrared data are interpreted qualitatively in terms of the effects of molecular band absorption, which also strongly influences the infrared broad band colors of carbon stars. The small differences in the color-color relationships of the SMC and LMC samples are consistent with the differences in heavy metal abundance between the LMC, SMC, and Galaxy

Pushing Moral Buttons: The Interaction Between Personal Force and Intention in Moral Judgment

In some cases people judge it morally acceptable to sacrifice one person’s life in order to save several other lives, while in other similar cases they make the opposite judgment. Researchers have identified two general factors that may explain this phenomenon at the stimulus level: (1) the agent’s intention (i.e. whether the harmful event is intended as a means or merely foreseen as a side-effect) and (2) whether the agent harms the victim in a manner that is relatively “direct” or “personal”. Here we integrate these two classes of findings. Two experiments examine a novel personalness/directness factor that we call personal force, present when the force that directly impacts the victim is generated by the agent’s muscles (e.g., in pushing). Experiments 1a and b demonstrate the influence of personal force on moral judgment, distinguishing it from physical contact and spatial proximity. Experiments 2a and b demonstrate an interaction between personal force and intention, whereby the effect of personal force depends entirely on intention. These studies also introduce a method for controlling for people’s real-world expectations in decisions involving potentially unrealistic hypothetical dilemmas.Psycholog

Phase II prospective randomized trial of weight loss prior to radical prostatectomy.

BACKGROUND:Obesity is associated with poorly differentiated and advanced prostate cancer and increased mortality. In preclinical models, caloric restriction delays prostate cancer progression and prolongs survival. We sought to determine if weight loss (WL) in men with prostate cancer prior to radical prostatectomy affects tumor apoptosis and proliferation, and if WL effects other metabolic biomarkers. METHODS:In this Phase II prospective trial, overweight and obese men scheduled for radical prostatectomy were randomized to a 5-8 week WL program consisting of standard structured energy-restricted meal plans (1200-1500 Kcal/day) and physical activity or to a control group. The primary endpoint was apoptotic index in the radical prostatectomy malignant epithelium. Secondary endpoints were proliferation (Ki67) in the radical prostatectomy tissue, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio, body composition, and serum PSA, insulin, triglyceride, cholesterol, testosterone, estradiol, leptin, adiponectin, interleukin 6, interleukin 8, insulin-like growth factor 1, and IGF binding protein 1. RESULTS:In total 23 patients were randomized to the WL intervention and 21 patients to the control group. Subjects in the intervention group had significantly more weight loss (WL:-3.7 ± 0.5 kg; Control:-1.6 ± 0.5 kg; p = 0.007) than the control group and total fat mass was significantly reduced (WL:-2.1 ± 0.4; Control: 0.1 ± 0.3; p = 0.015). There was no significant difference in apoptotic or proliferation index between the groups. Among the other biomarkers, triglyceride, and insulin levels were significantly decreased in the WL compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS:In summary, this short-term WL program prior to radical prostatectomy resulted in significantly more WL in the intervention vs. the control group and was accompanied by significant reductions in body fat mass, circulating triglycerides, and insulin. However, no significant changes were observed in malignant epithelium apoptosis or proliferation. Future studies should consider a longer term or more intensive weight loss intervention

"Antiscepticism and Easy Justification" - Ch 5 of Seemings and Epistemic Justification

In this chapter I investigate epistemological consequences of the fact that seeming-based justification is elusive, in the sense that the subject can lose this justification simply by reflecting on her seemings. I argue that since seeming-based justification is elusive, the antisceptical bite of phenomenal conservatism is importantly limited. I also contend that since seeming-based justification has this feature, phenomenal conservatism isn’t actually afflicted by easy justification problems

Predictive validity of the UK clinical aptitude test in the final years of medical school:a prospective cohort study

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sustainable Drag Reduction in Turbulent Taylor-Couette Flows by Depositing Sprayable Superhydrophobic Surfaces

We demonstrate a reduction in the measured inner wall shear stress in moderately turbulent Taylor-Couette flows by depositing sprayable superhydrophobic microstructures on the inner rotor surface. The magnitude of reduction becomes progressively larger as the Reynolds number increases up to a value of 22% at Re=8.0×10[superscript 4]. We show that the mean skin friction coefficient C[subscript f] in the presence of the superhydrophobic coating can be fitted to a modified Prandtl–von Karman–type relationship of the form (C[subscript f]/2)[[superscript -1/2] = Mln (Re(C[subscript f]/2)[[superscript 1/2]) + N + (b/Δr)Re(C[subscript f]/2)[superscript 1/2] from which we extract an effective slip length of b ≈ 19  μm. The dimensionless effective slip length b[superscript +] = b/δ[subscript ν], where δ[subscript ν] is the viscous length scale, is the key parameter that governs the drag reduction and is shown to scale as b[[superscript +] ~ Re[superscript 1/2] in the limit of high Re.United States. Office of Naval Research (Contract 3002453814