Models for Galactic cosmic-ray propagation

A new numerical model of particle propagation in the Galaxy has been developed, which allows the study of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray production and propagation in 2D or 3D, including a full reaction network. This is a further development of the code which has been used for studies of cosmic ray reacceleration, Galactic halo size, antiprotons and positrons in cosmic rays, the interpretation of diffuse continuum gamma rays, and dark matter. In this paper we illustrate recent results focussing on B/C, sub-Fe/Fe, ACE radioactive isotope data, source abundances and antiprotons. From the radioactive nuclei we derive a range of 3-7 kpc for the height of the cosmic-ray halo.Comment: Invited talk at the 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly (Warsaw 2000); 10 pages including 10 ps-figures and 2 tables, latex2e, uses cospar.sty. To appear in Advances in Space Research 2001. More details can be found at http://www.gamma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/~aws/aws.htm

Incomplete Markets and Financial Innovation: Consequences for Risk-Sharing, Household Welfare, and Portfolio Choice

The dissertation consists of three chapters measuring the degree of risk-sharing in a panel of US households, and its impact on welfare and portfolio choice. Conventional wisdom suggests financial innovation improves risk-sharing by completing markets and lowering transaction costs--households engage in risk-sharing to insure against idiosyncratic income shocks to improve their own welfare. In the first chapter, using household level income and imputed consumption data, I find that households\u27 ability to smooth permanent shocks has slightly increased while transitory insurance remained unchanged. However, I find that participating households have higher consumption insurance. Their ability to insure permanent shocks has improved while their ability to insure transitory shocks has decreased. I also document a change in the composition of risk where the variance of transitory shocks is increasing while the variance of permanent shocks is decreasing. I find significant heterogeneity among households. These results are robust to different income and consumption measurements. In the second chapter, I investigate the welfare and life satisfaction consequences of incomplete markets in a subset of US households. I use a set of parameters describing households\u27 economic environments in terms of income growth, income risk, and transmission risk. I find that changes in risk-sharing have significant implications for household welfare. Cross-sectional differences in risk-sharing environment result in significantly different welfare criteria. I then use IV-regressions to separate the impact of permanent and transitory income and consumption shocks on life satisfaction. As suggested by consumption insurance theory, I find that transitory shocks have no effect on life satisfaction while permanent shocks do. This result suggest that risk-sharing environments have important consequences for households\u27 well-being as well as a significant degree of insurance despite incomplete markets. In the third chapter, I consider the implications in consumption insurance for portfolio choice. Having documented a significant degree of risk sharing, I find that households experiencing positive labor income shocks invest more in risky assets. However permanent shocks are used to increase housing investment, evidenced by the increased allocation towards secured debts. Furthermore, transitory shocks are used to decrease households liabilities, evidenced by the decreased latent unsecured debt allocation

Using an Importance-Performance Analysis of Summer Students in the Evaluation of Student Health Services.

Hitherto, students have not evaluated the importance and performance of services provided by the student health service (SHS) at East Tennessee State University. An evaluation could provide valuable feedback to providers and administration. In 2001, there were 944 student visits in the summer sessions. Approximately 256 students were offered a survey containing an Importance-Performance scale of which 151 (59.0%) responded. The I-P scale rates the importance students place on healthcare services and the performance of the SHS in delivering services (i.e., patient satisfaction). Based on mean scores, students reported high importance, high performance on urgent care, pharmacy and patient education. Contraception education, laboratory and nutrition education were rated as low importance, high performance. Alcohol education was rated as low importance, low performance. The student health service at ETSU may use the results of this study to expand, reduce or modify services. Further research of students in other semesters is needed

Harfleur – La Porte de Rouen

La Porte de Rouen est un ensemble monumental dont l’aménagement a débuté pendant la guerre de Cent Ans pour protéger l’arsenal royal des incursions anglaises. En 1399, le roi Charles VI fait terminer la fortification de la ville et du port militaire de Harfleur. Le chantier s’achève par l’édification de la porte aux Cerfs qui marque la limite orientale du Clos aux Galées ou arsenal royal. La porte est constituée par deux tours en fer à cheval, encadrant un passage couvert surveillé par une sa..

Harfleur – La Porte de Rouen

Identifiant de l'opération archéologique : 4244 Date de l'opération : 2006 (EX) Dans le cadre du projet de réhabilitation de l'entrée sud-est d'Harfleur, la municipalité a souhaité que soient organisées sur le site de la Porte de Rouen des recherches archéologiques et des chantiers d'études et de restauration du bâti, avec la participation de la population locale (Fig. n°1 : Plan de masse du bâti et des sondages). La Porte de Rouen est un ensemble monumental édifié pendant la guerre de Cent..

Experimental constraints on the astrophysical interpretation of the cosmic ray Galactic-extragalactic transition region

The energy region spanning from $\sim 10^{17}$ to $\lesssim 10^{19}$ eV is critical for understanding both, the Galactic and the extragalactic cosmic ray fluxes. This is the region where the propagation regime of nuclei inside the Galactic magnetic environment changes from diffusive to ballistic, as well as the region where, very likely, the most powerful Galactic accelerators reach their maximum output energies. In this work, a diffusion Galactic model is used to analyze the end of the Galactic cosmic ray spectrum and its mixing with the extragalactic cosmic ray flux. In particular, we study the conditions that must be met, from the spectral and composition points of view, by the Galactic and the extragalactic fluxes in order to reproduce simultaneously the total spectrum and elongation rate measured over the transition region by HiRes and Auger. Our analysis favors a mixed extragalactic spectrum in combination with a Galactic spectrum enhanced by additional high energy components, i.e., extending beyond the maximum energies expected from regular supernova remnants. The two additional components have mixed composition, with the lowest energy one heavier than the highest energy one. The potential impact on the astrophysical analysis of the assumed hadronic interaction model is also assessed in detail.Comment: 37 pages, 20 figure