An Empirical Study of Review Mechanisms in Environmental Regimes

This report is part of a large scale comparison of how implementation review mechanisms (IRMs) are used in international environmental agreements. Broadly, IRMs are the means by which data is exchanged and gathered, reviewed and assessed in the context of an international agreement, and by which problems of compliance and inadequate performance are managed. Here we describe the data protocol that is being used in assembling a database of review mechanisms and explain the rationale behind all the major questions in the protocol. The protocol consists of questions about the general features of agreements as well as more focussed questions concerning: how information relating to national performance and compliance is gathered and disseminated; how that information is assessed; and the means by which the parties and the agreement respond to potential problems of noncompliance and inadequate performance. The database is useful in part because it organizes information about different international environmental agreements into a comparable format and thus aids in the selection of appropriate cases and comparisons for further research. It is also useful because it can aid in the testing of hypotheses about which aspects of international agreements and review mechanisms lead agreements to be more effective. We are now using it for both purposes, in addition to extending the number of cases in the database. To date, over fifty cases have been coded using the protocol. Here we also report some observations and hypotheses derived from working with the data from those cases. These include: 1) a hypothesis that review mechanisms tend to grow as needed to fulfill demand for specific functions; 2) a hypothesis that review mechanisms might help the parties to an agreement address various forms of complexity that arise in negotiating and managing international agreements; 3) a questions as to whether and how often institutions that are formally outside a particular agreement but with competence or power in the issue-area de facto provide the review mechanisms for the agreement; 4) a question as to whether review mechanisms make their largest contribution to effectiveness when the obligations of an agreement are precise or vague; 5) a question as to whether in practice some of the functions of review mechanisms are performed by dispute resolution mechanisms, which tend to be formally created in most international agreements (but appear to be rarely used in environmental agreements)

Noncommutative Plurisubharmonic Polynomials Part I: Global Assumptions

We consider symmetric polynomials, p, in the noncommutative free variables (x_1, x_2, ..., x_g). We define the noncommutative complex hessian of p and we call a noncommutative symmetric polynomial noncommutative plurisubharmonic if it has a noncommutative complex hessian that is positive semidefinite when evaluated on all tuples of n x n matrices for every size n. In this paper, we show that the symmetric noncommutative plurisubharmonic polynomials are precisely the noncommutative convex polynomials with a noncommutative analytic change of variables; i.e., a noncommutative symmetric polynomial, p, is noncommutative plurisubharmonic if and only if it has the form p = \sum f_j^T f_j + \sum k_j k_j^T + F + F^T where the sums are finite and f_j, k_j, F are all noncommutative analytic. We also present a theory of noncommutative integration for noncommutative polynomials and we prove a noncommutative version of the Frobenius theorem. A subsequent paper by Greene proves that if the noncommutative complex hessian of p takes positive semidefinite values on a "noncommutative open set" then the noncommutative complex hessian takes positive semidefinite values on all matrix tuples. Thus, p has the form above. The proof in the subsequent paper draws on most of the theorems in this paper together with a very different technique involving representations of noncommutative quadratic functions.Comment: 24 page

Some congruences involving central q-binomial coefficients

Motivated by recent works of Sun and Tauraso, we prove some variations on the Green-Krammer identity involving central q-binomial coefficients, such as $$\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}(-1)^kq^{-{k+1\choose 2}}{2k\brack k}_q \equiv (\frac{n}{5}) q^{-\lfloor n^4/5\rfloor} \pmod{\Phi_n(q)},$$ where $\big(\frac{n}{p}\big)$ is the Legendre symbol and $\Phi_n(q)$ is the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial. As consequences, we deduce that \sum_{k=0}^{3^a m-1} q^{k}{2k\brack k}_q &\equiv 0 \pmod{(1-q^{3^a})/(1-q)}, \sum_{k=0}^{5^a m-1}(-1)^kq^{-{k+1\choose 2}}{2k\brack k}_q &\equiv 0 \pmod{(1-q^{5^a})/(1-q)}, for $a,m\geq 1$, the first one being a partial q-analogue of the Strauss-Shallit-Zagier congruence modulo powers of 3. Several related conjectures are proposed.Comment: 16 pages, detailed proofs of Theorems 4.1 and 4.3 are added, to appear in Adv. Appl. Mat

Lipid Transfer Inhibitor Protein (Apolipoprotein F) Concentration in Normolipidemic and Hyperlipidemic Subjects

Lipid transfer inhibitor protein (LTIP) is an important regulator of cholesteryl ester transfer protein function. We report the development of an immunoassay for LTIP and its use to quantify LTIP in plasma of varying lipid contents. A rabbit antibody against bacterially produced recombinant LTIP detected two LTIP isoforms in plasma differing in carbohydrate content. This antibody was used in a competitive, enzyme-linked immunoassay that uses partially purified LTIP bound to microtiter plates. To optimize LTIP immunoreactivity, plasma samples required preincubation in 1% Tween-20 and 0.5% Nonidet P-40. In normolipidemic plasma, LTIP averaged 83.5 mg/ml. LTIP was 31% higher in males than in females. LTIP was positively associated with HDL cholesterol in normolipidemic males but not in females. In hypertriglyceridemic males, LTIP was only 56% of control values, whereas in hypertriglyceridemic females, LTIP tended to increase. Additionally, in males with normal cholesterol and triglyceride (TG) ≤ 200 mg/dl, LTIP varied inversely with plasma TG. Overall, we have confirmed the negative association between plasma TG levels and LTIP previously suggested by a small data set, but now we demonstrate that this effect is seen only in males. The mechanisms underlying this gender-specific response to TG, and why LTIP and HDL levels correlate in males but not in females, remain to be determined

Gravitating Instantons In 3 Dimensions

We study the Einstein-Chern-Simons gravity coupled to Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in three dimensional Euclidean space with cosmological constant. The classical equations reduce to Bogomol'nyi type first order equations in curved space. There are BPS type gauge theory instanton (monopole) solutions of finite action in a gravitational instanton which itself has a finite action. We also discuss gauge theory instantons in the vacuum (zero action) AdS space. In addition we point out to some exact solutions which are singular.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, title has changed, gravitational instanton actions are adde

Key polynomials and a flagged Littlewood—Richardson rule

AbstractThis paper studies a family of polynomials called key polynomials, introduced by Demazure and investigated combinatorially by Lascoux and Schützenberger. We give two new combinatorial interpretations for these key polynomials and show how they provide the connection between two relatively recent combinatorial expressions for Schubert polynomials. We also give a flagged Littlewood—Richardson rule, an expansion of a flagged skew Schur function as a nonnegative sum of key polynomials

On the offset of barred galaxies from the black Hole MBH-σ relationship

We use collisionless N-body simulations to determine how the growth of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) influences the nuclear kinematics in both barred and unbarred galaxies. In the presence of a bar, the increase in the velocity dispersion σ (within the effective radius) due to the growth of an SMBH is on average �10%, whereas the increase is only �4% in an unbarred galaxy. In a barred galaxy, the increase results from a combination of three separate factors: (1) orientation and inclination effects; (2) angular momentum transport by the bar that results in an increase in the central mass density; and (3) an increase in the vertical and radial velocity anisotropy of stars in the vicinity of the SMBH. In contrast, the growth of the SMBH in an unbarred galaxy causes the velocity distribution in the inner part of the nucleus to become less radially anisotropic. The increase in σ following the growth of the SMBH is insensitive to a variation of a factor of 10 in the final mass of the SMBH, showing that it is the growth process rather than the actual SMBH mass that alters bar evolution in a way that increases σ.We argue that using an axisymmetric stellar dynamical modeling code to measure SMBH masses in barred galaxies could result in a slight overestimate of the derived MBH, especially if a constant M/L ratio is assumed. We conclude that the growth of a black hole in the presence of a bar could result in an increase in σ that is roughly 4%–8% larger than the increase that occurs in an axisymmetric system. While the increase in σ due to SMBH growth in a barred galaxy might partially account for the claimed offset of barred galaxies and pseudo bulges from the MBH–σ relation obtained for elliptical galaxies and classical bulges in unbarred galaxies, it is inadequate to account for all of the offset