Climate Engineering: Cost benefit and beyond

International efforts on abating climate change, focusing on reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, have thus far proved unsuccessful. This motivates exploration of other strategies such as climate engineering. We modify the Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the Economy (DICE), and use it in a cost-benefit analysis of climate engineering specifically deposition of sulphur in the stratosphere. The model simulations show that climate engineering passes a cost-benefit test. The cost of postponing climate engineering by 20-30 years is relatively low. Going beyond these standard cost-benefit analyses, climate engineering may still fail. Voters may dislike the idea of climate engineering; they do not like the idea of tampering with nature, and their dislike stands independent of outcomes of cost-benefit analyses.Climate change; climate engineering; cost-benefit analyses; public choice.

Bright Beginnings: Quick Tips for Occupational Therapists in the Level II Nursery

In 2004 there were 790 infants born prematurely in Wyoming (Freudenthal, 2006). Currently, the highest level of infant care available in Wyoming is a Level II nursery. In Wyoming, infants born prematurely with special medical needs are typically transported to specialized NICU\u27s in surrounding states. The limited contact that medical staff, including occupational therapists (OT\u27s), in rural facilities have with critically or moderately ill infants creates a lack of competency with the unique medical care needs of the infants. According to Gordon (2003) nearly half of America\u27s babies start out their lives in a rural community (p. 3). Furthermore, research indicates that the provision of care in rural areas is substandard to care in urban/suburban areas due to lack of adequate training and resources secondary to a lower population of infants born prematurely. Gordon (2003) also indicated that such deficiencies in training have less impact in urban and suburban areas, which have seen a proliferation of level II units. Outcomes of infants born in suburban areas are superior to those of neonates born in rural locations (p 3). Research supported a need for a resource guide for OT\u27s who provide care to infants born prematurely in Level II nurseries in rural areas. The development of the resource guide is based on an extensive literature review; guided visits to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a rural Level II nursery; personal experience in NICU and rural Level II nursery environments; and discussions with medical professionals within both settings. The authors were able to identify the areas of need to be included within the product portion of the scholarly project. Knowles\u27 Theory of Andragogy was used in the development of the resource guide. Based on the results from the literature review, it was found that OT\u27s possess a need for resource guide to be utilized while caring for infants born prematurely in a rural Level II nursery. Further findings from the literature indicated that the needs ofthe infant, parent, and therapist require equal consideration in order for care to be most effective (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2006). The specific needs of the infant, parent, and therapist identified within the literature where addressed within the product portion of the scholarly project. Bright Beginnings: Quick Tips/or Occupational Therapists in the Level II Nursery is intended to be used by the OT throughout the evaluation and treatment process of the infant born prematurely

What are the potentials of group occupations for adult asylum seekers?

The article uses the scoping studies approach to explore the current literature on group occupation with adult asylum seekers. Two research questions related to this topic are addressed: whether group occupation has the potential to promote occupational engagement, and whether it is meaningful for adult asylum seekers. In order to answer these questions, we referred to the Canadian model of occupational performance and engagement (CMOP-E) and its description of the interaction between environment, group occupations and asylum seekers. We conclude that group occupation both promotes occupational engagement and is meaningful for the participants, as the group is a regular occupation which provides relevant activities, a place to learn, create social bonds, experience happiness and a sense of being understood

A Model of Pricing in the Sharing Economy: Pricing Dynamics with Awareness-Generating Adoptions

We develop a model of providers operating on a Sharing Economy platform where consumers first become aware of a product or service, and then consider adopting it. Past adoptions increase the likelihood that future consumers will discover the provider, but awareness also decays over time. We exhibit that pricing dynamics for products and services of short life span are consistent with penetration pricing. For products with longer life spans, the relationship between population awareness and price is non-monotonic, and consistent with a tipping point in the adoption process. Providers price higher when they have either achieved high awareness or have been positioned in a market niche. Fees levied by the platform adhere to the double-marginalization effect. Our model positively explains empirical observations, including the significant price fluctuation and the emergence of niche and superstar providers

On-the-Fly Establishment of Multi-hop D2D Communication based on Android Smartphones and Embedded Platforms: Implementation and Real-Life Experiments

Masteroppgave informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi - Universitetet i Agder, 2015(Konfidensiell til/confidential until 01.07.2020

Modelling of Ocean Waves with the Alber Equation:Application to Non-Parametric Spectra and Generalisation to Crossing Seas

The Alber equation is a phase-averaged second-moment model for the statistics of a sea state, which recently has been attracting renewed attention. We extend it in two ways: firstly, we derive a generalized Alber system starting from a system of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations, which contains the classical Alber equation as a special case but can also describe crossing seas, i.e. two wavesystems with different wavenumbers crossing. (These can be two completely independent wavenumbers, i.e. in general different directions and different moduli.) We also derive the associated 2-dimensional scalar instability condition. This is the first time that a modulation instability condition applicable to crossing seas has been systematically derived for general spectra. Secondly, we use the classical Alber equation and its associated instability condition to quantify how close a given non-parametric spectrum is to being modulationally unstable. We apply this to a dataset of 100 non-parametric spectra provided by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, and find the vast majority of realistic spectra turn out to be stable, but three extreme sea states are found to be unstable (out of 20 sea states chosen for their severity). Moreover, we introduce a novel "proximity to instability" (PTI) metric, inspired by the stability analysis. This is seen to correlate strongly with the steepness and Benjamin-Feir Index (BFI) for the sea states in our dataset (>85% Spearman rank correlation). Furthermore, upon comparing with phase-resolved broadband Monte Carlo simulations, the kurtosis and probability of rogue waves for each sea state are also seen to correlate well with its PTI (>85% Spearman rank correlation)

What Makes Dependency on Homecare Bearable? A Phenomenological Study

Becoming dependent on homecare in old age is a radical life change that requires complex adaption. The purpose of this study was to explore the existential dimension of being dependent on homecare with a particular focus on what makes dependency bearable. In total, 15 older people living in Denmark or Norway were interviewed using a phenomenological approach. The material was analyzed employing Max van Manen’s meaning-giving approach coined “Phenomenology of practice.” During the analysis, four themes emerged: pure acceptance of an inevitable situation, acting independently as much as possible, negotiating to receive good care, and gratitude toward caring caregivers. The results point to a need for respectful and individualized homecare leveling out the subordinate position in which dependency on homecare tends to place older people

Laboratory evidence of freak waves provoked by non-uniform bathymetry

We show experimental evidence that as relatively long unidirectional waves propagate over a sloping bottom, from a deeper to a shallower domain, there can be a local maximum of kurtosis and skewness close to the shallower side of the slope. We also show evidence that the probability of large wave envelope has a local maximum near the shallower side of the slope. We therefore anticipate that the probability of freak waves can have a local maximum near the shallower side of a slope for relatively long unidirectional waves. Copyright 2012 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Phys. Fluids 24, 097101 (2012

Approaches to Studying: A Cross-Sectional Comparison of Occupational Therapy Students in Six Education Programs in Norway

Students’ approaches to studying have been associated with their academic performance. Although previous research suggests that the cultural and educational context may influence approaches to studying, few studies have investigated differences in study approaches across education programs. The aim of this study was to examine whether approaches to studying differed among occupational therapy students enrolled in six different educational programs in Norway. From a population of 308 students, 187 first-year occupational therapy students in six educational programs in Norway were recruited. The students provided their sociodemographic information and completed the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST), and group differences were analyzed with Chi-square tests and one-way analyses of variance. Scores on the deep and surface approach scales did not differ significantly among the students in the six educational programs, while there was an overall difference in scores on the strategic approach scale. Group differences regarding the subscales were minor, and only a few of the pairwise differences reached statistical significance. Differences at the education program level appear not to be important for the interpretation of differences in study approaches among students