An Assessment of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives

Chart Accompanying: An Assessment of Cross-National Regulatory Burden Comparisons

The Article compares several rankings systems for national regulatory compliance costs. It finds the ranking systems are limited to differentiating between those countries least burdened by regulation from those most burdened by regulation. It concludes the rankings could be an important tool for deciding which countries would be the most promising for regulatory burden reduction initiatives

Student-led Online Debate, using Work Groups (myBU).

Using User Groups and Discussion Boards for fully-online mature students to debate emotive subject of Globalisation

Supermassive Black Holes: Connecting the Growth to the Cosmic Star Formation Rate

In this Letter, we present a model connecting the cosmic star formation rate (CSFR) to the growth of supermassive black holes. Considering that the evolution of the massive black hole is dominated by accretion (Soltan's argument) and that the accretion process can be described by a probabilistic function directly regulated by the CSFR, we obtain the evolution of the black hole mass density. Then using the quasar luminosity function, we determine both the functional form of the radiative efficiency and the evolution of the quasar duty-cycle as functions of the redshift. We analyze four different CSFRs showing that the quasar duty-cycle, $\delta(z)$, peaks at $z\sim 8.5-11$ and so within the window associated with the reionization of the Universe. In particular, $\delta_{\rm max}\sim 0.09-0.22$ depending on the CSFR. The mean radiative efficiency, $\bar\eta(z)$, peaks at $z\sim 0.1-1.3$ with $\bar\eta_{\rm max}\sim 0.10-0.46$ depending on the specific CSFR used. Our results also show that is not necessary a supercritical Eddington accretComment: accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters (5 pages, 6 figures), Some typos fixed; MNRAS Letters 17 Aug 201

Probabilistic structural analysis methods of hot engine structures

Development of probabilistic structural analysis methods for hot engine structures at Lewis Research Center is presented. Three elements of the research program are: (1) composite load spectra methodology; (2) probabilistic structural analysis methodology; and (3) probabilistic structural analysis application. Recent progress includes: (1) quantification of the effects of uncertainties for several variables on high pressure fuel turbopump (HPFT) turbine blade temperature, pressure, and torque of the space shuttle main engine (SSME); (2) the evaluation of the cumulative distribution function for various structural response variables based on assumed uncertainties in primitive structural variables; and (3) evaluation of the failure probability. Collectively, the results demonstrate that the structural durability of hot engine structural components can be effectively evaluated in a formal probabilistic/reliability framework