On Blocking Coalitions: Linking Mas-Colell with Grodal-Schmeidler-Vind

In this paper we investigate the question of how many coalitions of a given relative size would block a non-Warlasian allocation in large finite economies. It is shown that in finite economies, if a Pareto optimal allocation is bounded away from being Walrasian, then, for any two numbers α, β between 0 and 1, the proportion of blocking coalitions in the set of all coalitions with relative size between α and β, is arbitrarily close to 1/2, as the number of individuals in the economy becomes large.

Towering over Babel: Worlds Apart but Acting Together

In this paper we propose a new class of tests for the martingale difference hypothesis based on the moment conditions derived by Bierens (1982). In contrast with the existing consistent tests, the proposed test has a standard limiting distribution and is easy to implement. Comparing with the commonly used autocorrelation- and spectrum-based tests, it has power against a much larger class of alternatives that may be serially correlated or uncorrelated. Moreover, this test does not rely on the assumption of conditional homoskedasticity and requires a weaker moment condition. Our simulations confirm that the proposed test is powerful against various linear and nonlinear alternatives and is quite robust to the failure of higher-order moments. Our empirical study on exchange rate returns also shows that the conclusion resulted from the proposed test is different from that of the conventional tests.

Evaluating Differences in Household Subsistence Harvest Patterns between the Ambler Project and Non-Project Zones

Western Alaska is one of largest inhabited, roadless areas in North America and, indeed, the world. Access, via a new road that would transverse Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR), to a mining district in a vast roadless section of northwest Alaska has been proposed. Given the potential effects of the road on nearby communities, we analyzed how communities connected to the road system compare to their unconnected counterparts. Specifically, using zero inflated negative binomial models, we analyzed subsistence harvest data to understand factors that influence subsistence production at the household level. We found substantial difference in these factors between communities near the proposed road (project zone (PZ) communities and a comparable set of road accessible communities outside the region, and were affected by household characteristics such as the gender of the head of household, number of children, and income. Total subsistence production of project zone communities was 1.8 – 2.5 times greater than that of non-project zone communities. Communities with a higher percentage of Alaska Native residents had greater per capita subsistence harvests. Higher household income levels were associated with lower subsistence harvest levels. Roads can provide access for hunters from outside the region to traditional subsistence hunting grounds used by local residents that would not be very accessible if not for the road. Our proxy for competition (number of nonlocal moose hunters) indicates that resident moose harvest amounts are inversely related to the number of hunters in a particular area. If subsistence harvest patterns for project zone communities currently off the road changed to mirror existing non-project zone harvests due to the road, the financial cost would be USD $6,900 – 10,500 per household per year (assuming an$8/lb. ‘replacement’ cost for subsistence harvests). This represents about 33% of the median household income. Taken together, our results suggest that the proposed road should be expected to substantially impact subsistence production in communities that are not currently connected to the road system. The scale of our data did not allow for the comparison of the impacts of the different proposed routes but the impacts of different routes is likely minor in relation to the presence or absence of the proposed roadFigures / Tables / Abstract/Executive Summary / Acknowledgments / Introduction / The Proposed Road and Mine / Study Area / Communities / Background / Modeling Household Harvest / Conclusions / Literature CitedYe

PREDICTING ACTIVATION OF EXPERIMENTS INSIDE THE ANNULAR CORE RESEARCH REACTOR

The objective of this thesis is to create a program to quickly estimate the radioactivity and decay of experiments conducted inside of the Annular Core Research Reactor (ACRR) at Sandia National Laboratories and eliminate the need for users to write code. This estimation is achieved by using MCNP to model the neutron fluxes in the reactors central cavity where experiments are conducted using one of the four possible neutron spectra available in the ACRR. The desired neutron spectrum, experiment material composition, and reactor power level are then input into CINDER2008 burnup code to obtain activation and decay information for every isotope generated. DREAD creates all of the files required for CINDER2008 through user selected inputs in a graphical user interface and executes the program for the user and displays the resulting estimation for dose rate at various distances. The DREAD program was validated by weighing and measuring various experiments in the different spectra and then collecting dose rate information after they were irradiated and comparing it with the dose rates that DREAD predicted. The program provides results with an average of 17% higher estimates than the actual values and takes seconds to execute

Cutaneous Basophilic Hypersensitivity Response to Fungal Antigens in Guinea Pigs

Guinea pigs infected with Trichophyton mentagrophytes developed a cutaneous fungal lesion and became skin test positive to fungal antigen (trichophytin). The cutaneous fungal lesion, while thought to be a cell-mediated response, differed histologically from the skin test site. Basophils were not demonstrated in biopsies of cutaneous fungal lesions, whereas basophils were numerous in biopsies of trichophytin skin test sites. When sensitization to trichophytin was accomplished by injection of hypha in complete Freund's adjuvant instead of infecting with live fungus, basophils could not be demonstrated in skin test sites. This report demonstrated that guinea pigs could be primed for cutaneous basophilic hypersensitivity (CBH) responses by infection with live fungus

On the Difficulty of Manhattan Channel Routing

We show that channel routing in the Manhattan model remains difficult even when all nets are single-sided. Given a set of n single-sided nets, we consider the problem of determining the minimum number of tracks required to obtain a dogleg-free routing. In addition to showing that the decision version of the problem isNP-complete, we show that there are problems requiring at least d+Omega(sqrt(n)) tracks, where d is the density. This existential lower bound does not follow from any of the known lower bounds in the literature