5,246 research outputs found
The Collaborative Development of New CFD Methods Adapted for Tilt Rotor Aircraft in the HiPerTilt Project
No abstract available
Environmental Mechanism Designs in a New Order of Regulatory Capitalism
Complexity of environmental programs is most apparent with information asymmetries, making the design of efficient mechanisms particularly challenging. As developed theoretically in this paper, a new regulatory capitalism paradigm mating voluntary agreements with environmental education can produce outcomes at least as efficient as voluntary agreements alone. Such a design exploits a key difference between voluntary agreements versus educational programs in terms of their impact on agents' incentive compatibilities. Specifically, in a principal-agent model, voluntary agreements are associated with an incentive-compatibility constraint, whereas educational programs are not. The efficient bundle will likely consist of a set of education programs and voluntary agreements. With the new order of regulatory capitalism, it is time to concentrate on removing barriers yielding inefficient mono-mechanism design and start constructing multidimensional incentives to efficiently allocate effort toward environmental and economic goals.Command and control, environmental education, environmental policy, voluntary agreements, Environmental Economics and Policy,
Discrete Lie Advection of Differential Forms
In this paper, we present a numerical technique for performing Lie advection
of arbitrary differential forms. Leveraging advances in high-resolution finite
volume methods for scalar hyperbolic conservation laws, we first discretize the
interior product (also called contraction) through integrals over Eulerian
approximations of extrusions. This, along with Cartan's homotopy formula and a
discrete exterior derivative, can then be used to derive a discrete Lie
derivative. The usefulness of this operator is demonstrated through the
numerical advection of scalar fields and 1-forms on regular grids.Comment: Accepted version; to be published in J. FoC
Radiation-induced insulator discharge pulses in the CRRES internal discharge monitor satellite experiment
The Internal Discharge Monitor (IDM) was designed to observe electrical pulses from common electrical insulators in space service. The sixteen insulator samples included twelve planar printed circuit boards and four cables. The samples were fully enclosed, mutually isolated, and space radiation penetrated 0.02 cm of aluminum before striking the samples. Pulsing began on the seventh orbit, the maximum pulse rate occurred on the seventeenth orbit when 13 pulses occurred, and the pulses slowly diminished to about one per 3 orbits six months later. After 8 months, the radiation belts abruptly increased and the pulse rates attained a new high. These pulse rates were in agreement with laboratory experience on shorter time scales. Several of the samples never pulsed. If the pulses were not confined within IDM, the physical processes could spread to become a full spacecraft anomaly. The IDM results indicate the rate at which small insulator pulses occur. Small pulses are the seeds of larger satellite electrical anomalies. The pulse rates are compared with space radiation intensities, L shell location, and spectral distributions from the radiation spectrometers on the Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite
Fat transforms ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid-catalysed N-nitrosation
<b>Background</b>: The major potential site of acid nitrosation is the proximal stomach, an anatomical site prone to
a rising incidence of metaplasia and adenocarcinoma. Nitrite, a pre-carcinogen present in saliva, can be
converted to nitrosating species and N-nitroso compounds by acidification at low gastric pH in the presence
of thiocyanate.
<b>Aims</b>: To assess the effect of lipid and ascorbic acid on the nitrosative chemistry under conditions simulating
the human proximal stomach.
<b>Methods</b>: The nitrosative chemistry was modelled in vitro by measuring the nitrosation of four secondary
amines under conditions simulating the proximal stomach. The N-nitrosamines formed were measured by gas
chromatography–ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry, while nitric oxide and oxygen levels were measured
amperometrically.
<b>Results</b>: In absence of lipid, nitrosative stress was inhibited by ascorbic acid through conversion of nitrosating
species to nitric oxide. Addition of ascorbic acid reduced the amount of N-nitrosodimethylamine formed by
fivefold, N-nitrosomorpholine by .1000-fold, and totally prevented the formation of N-nitrosodiethylamine
and N-nitrosopiperidine. In contrast, when 10% lipid was present, ascorbic acid increased the amount of Nnitrosodimethylamine,
N-nitrosodiethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine formed by approximately 8-, 60- and
140-fold, respectively, compared with absence of ascorbic acid.
<b>Conclusion</b>: The presence of lipid converts ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid nitrosation. This
may be explained by nitric oxide, formed by ascorbic acid in the aqueous phase, being able to regenerate
nitrosating species by reacting with oxygen in the lipid phase
Teegi: Tangible EEG Interface
We introduce Teegi, a Tangible ElectroEncephaloGraphy (EEG) Interface that
enables novice users to get to know more about something as complex as brain
signals, in an easy, en- gaging and informative way. To this end, we have
designed a new system based on a unique combination of spatial aug- mented
reality, tangible interaction and real-time neurotech- nologies. With Teegi, a
user can visualize and analyze his or her own brain activity in real-time, on a
tangible character that can be easily manipulated, and with which it is
possible to interact. An exploration study has shown that interacting with
Teegi seems to be easy, motivating, reliable and infor- mative. Overall, this
suggests that Teegi is a promising and relevant training and mediation tool for
the general public.Comment: to appear in UIST-ACM User Interface Software and Technology
Symposium, Oct 2014, Honolulu, United State
Facing Up to Unpalatable Evidence for the Sake of Our Patients
Paul Mullen discusses Seena Fazel and colleagues' paper on the association between violent behavior and having been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder, and its implications for care of these individuals
Racial Disparities in Intravenous Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Use Persist at Primary Stroke Centers.
BACKGROUND: Primary stroke centers (PSCs) utilize more recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) than non-PSCs. The impact of PSCs on racial disparities in rt-PA use is unknown.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2004 to 2010, limited to states that publicly reported hospital identity and race. Hospitals certified as PSCs by The Joint Commission were identified. Adults with a diagnosis of ischemic stroke were analyzed. Rt-PA use was defined by the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision procedure code 99.10. Discharges (304 152 patients) from 26 states met eligibility criteria, and of these 71.5% were white, 15.0% black, 7.9% Hispanic, and 5.6% other. Overall, 24.7% of white, 27.4% of black, 16.2% of Hispanic, and 29.8% of other patients presented to PSCs. A higher proportion received rt-PA at PSCs than non-PSCs in all race/ethnic groups (white 7.6% versus 2.6%, black 4.8% versus 2.0%, Hispanic 7.1% versus 2.4%, other 7.2% versus 2.5%, all P
CONCLUSIONS: Racial disparities in intravenous rt-PA use were not reduced by presentation to PSCs. Black patients were less likely to receive thrombolytic treatment than white patients at both non-PSCs and PSCs. Hispanic patients were less likely to be seen at PSCs relative to white patients and were less likely to receive intravenous rt-PA in the fully adjusted model
Geometrical Defects in Josephson Junction Arrays
Dislocations and disclinations in a lattice of Josephson junctions will
affect the dynamics of vortex excitations within the array. These defects
effectively distort the space in which the excitations move and interact. The
interaction energy between such defects and excitations are determined and
vortex trajectories in twisted lattices are calculated. Finally, possible
experiments observing these effects are presented.Comment: 26 pages including 5 figure
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