14,220 research outputs found
Cost-Benefit Analysis Under Uncertainty
In what follows we provide a conceptually correct procedure for determining whether a risky project passes the "potential Pareto improvement" welfare criterion which forms the normative basis of cost-benefit analysis. In this approach the role of secondary markets in providing opportunities for redistributing risk is made transparent and the modifications necessary when such markets do not exist are suggested.
On the growth of the Betti sequence of the canonical module
We study the growth of the Betti sequence of the canonical module of a
Cohen-Macaulay local ring. It is an open question whether this sequence grows
exponentially whenever the ring is not Gorenstein. We answer the question of
exponential growth affirmatively for a large class of rings, and prove that the
growth is in general not extremal. As an application of growth, we give
criteria for a Cohen-Macaulay ring possessing a canonical module to be
Gorenstein.Comment: 12 pages. version 2: includes omitted author contact informatio
Presentations of rings with non-trivial semidualizing modules
Let R be a commutative noetherian local ring. A finitely generated R-module C
is semidualizing if it is self-orthogonal and satisfies the condition
Hom_R(C,C) \cong R. We prove that a Cohen-Macaulay ring R with dualizing module
D admits a semidualizing module C satisfying R\ncong C \ncong D if and only if
it is a homomorphic image of a Gorenstein ring in which the defining ideal
decomposes in a cohomologically independent way. This expands on a well-known
result of Foxby, Reiten and Sharp saying that R admits a dualizing module if
and only if R is Cohen--Macaulay and a homomorphic image of a local Gorenstein
ring.Comment: 16 pages, uses XY-pic; v.2 reorganized, main theorem revised,
examples adde
Impulsive Heating of Solar Flare Ribbons Above 10 MK
The chromospheric response to the input of flare energy is marked by extended
extreme ultraviolet (EUV) ribbons and hard X-ray (HXR) footpoints. These are
usually explained as the result of heating and bremsstrahlung emission from
accelerated electrons colliding in the dense chromospheric plasma. We present
evidence of impulsive heating of flare ribbons above 10 MK in a two-ribbon
flare. We analyse the impulsive phase of SOL2013-11-09T06:38, a C2.6 class
event using data from Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on board of Solar
Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar
Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) to derive the temperature, emission measure and
differential emission measure of the flaring regions and investigate the
evolution of the plasma in the flaring ribbons. The ribbons were visible at all
SDO/AIA EUV/UV wavelengths, in particular, at 94 and 131 \AA\ filters,
sensitive to temperatures of 8 MK and 12 MK. Time evolution of the emission
measure of the plasma above 10 MK at the ribbons has a peak near the HXR peak
time. The presence of hot plasma in the lower atmosphere is further confirmed
by RHESSI imaging spectroscopy analysis, which shows resolved sources at 11-13
MK associated with at least one ribbon. We found that collisional beam heating
can only marginally explain the necessary power to heat the 10 MK plasma at the
ribbons.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure
Space Station Freedom Beta Gimbal Control via Sensitivity Models
Tracking control of the Space Station Freedom solar array beta gimbals is investigated. Of particular interest is the issue of control in the presence of uncertainty in gimbal friction parameters. Sensitivity functions are incorporated into the feedback loop to desensitize the gimbal control law to parameter variations. Simulation results indicated that one such sensitivity function improves the closed-loop performance of the gimbals in the presence of unexpected friction parameter dispersions
A review of bovine Johne's disease control activities in 6 endemically infected countries
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is endemic in the bovine populations of many countries and can cause a significant reduction in animal welfare and production efficiency making control desirable. Effective control has proved very difficult to achieve despite multiple regionally coordinated programmes being in existence since the 1920s. The international community increasingly recognises the value in learning from the collective experiences of existing programmes to improve the effectiveness of control. The aim of this review is to outline key aspects of bovine Johne's disease control activities across 6 endemically infected countries to facilitate comparison of current international practice. The background, control activities and monitoring components of programmes in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America were individually reviewed. Factual accuracy of each review was checked by individuals involved in the respective programmes before the reviews were condensed and combined into a single document presented here, with the complete reviews of each programme available as supplementary material. There was considerable heterogeneity in key aspects of control activity design including goals, responses to declining participation, herd classification, recommended control measures and associated test requirements. The data presented will be of interest to organisations that are involved in developing new or existing regionally coordinated BJD control activities
Laser diode initiated detonators for space applications
Ensign Bickford Aerospace Company (EBAC) has over ten years of experience in the design and development of laser ordnance systems. Recent efforts have focused on the development of laser diode ordnance systems for space applications. Because the laser initiated detonators contain only insensitive secondary explosives, a high degree of system safety is achieved. Typical performance characteristics of a laser diode initiated detonator are described in this paper, including all-fire level, function time, and output. A finite difference model used at EBAC to predict detonator performance, is described and calculated results are compared to experimental data. Finally, the use of statistically designed experiments to evaluate performance of laser initiated detonators is discussed
New Perspective on Passively Quenched Single Photon Avalanche Diodes: Effect of Feedback on Impact Ionization
Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are primary devices in photon counting systems used in quantum cryptography, time resolved spectroscopy and photon counting optical communication. SPADs convert each photo-generated electron hole pair to a measurable current via an avalanche of impact ionizations. In this paper, a stochastically self-regulating avalanche model for passively quenched SPADs is presented. The model predicts, in qualitative agreement with experiments, three important phenomena that traditional models are unable to predict. These are: (1) an oscillatory behavior of the persistent avalanche current; (2) an exponential (memoryless) decay of the probability density function of the stochastic quenching time of the persistent avalanche current; and (3) a fast collapse of the avalanche current, under strong feedback conditions, preventing the development of a persistent avalanche current. The model specifically captures the effect of the load’s feedback on the stochastic avalanche multiplication, an effect believed to be key in breaking today’s counting rate barrier in the 1.55–μm detection window
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