Global Climate Change and the Equity-Efficiency Puzzle

There is a broad consensus that the costs of abatement of global climate change can be reduced efficiently through the assignment of quota rights, and through international trade in these rights. But there is no consensus on whether the initial assignment of emission permits can affect the Pareto-optimal global level of abatement. This paper provides some insight into the equity-efficiency puzzle. Qualitative results are obtained from a small-scale model, and then quantitative evidence of separability is obtained from MERGE, a multi-region integrated assessment model. It is shown that if all the costs of climate change can be expressed in terms of GDP losses, Pareto-efficient abatement strategies are independent of the initial allocation of emission rights. This is the case sometimes described as "market damages". If, however, different regions assign different values to non-market damages such as species losses, different sharing rules may affect the Pareto-optimal level of greenhouse gas abatement. Separability may then be demonstrated only in specific cases (e.g. identical welfare functions or quasi-linearity of preferences or small shares of wealth devoted to abatement)International climate policy; Global climate change

Adding rotation to translation: percepts and illusions

This study investigated how the perception of a translating object is affected by rotation. Observers were asked to judge the motion and trajectory of objects that rotated around their centroid while linearly translating. The expected percept, consistent with the actual dynamics used to generate the movie sequences, is that of a translating and rotating object, akin to a tumbling rugby ball. Observers, however, do not always report this and, under certain circumstances, perceive the object to translate on an illusory curved trajectory, similar to a car driving on a curved road. The prevalence of veridical versus nonveridical percepts depends on a number of factors. First, if the object's orientation remains within a limited range relative to the axis of translation, the illusory, curved percept dominates. If the orientation, at any point of the movie sequence, differs sufficiently from the axis of translation, the percept switches to linear translation with rotation. The angle at which the switch occurs is dependent upon a number of factors that relate to an object's elongation and, with it, the prominence of its orientation. For an ellipse with an aspect ratio of 3, the switch occurs at approximately 45°. Higher aspect ratios increase the range; lower ratios decrease it. This applies similarly to rectangular shapes. A line is more likely to be perceived on a curved trajectory than an elongated rectangle, which, in turn, is more likely seen on a curved path than a square. This is largely independent of rotational and translational speeds. Measuring perceived directions of motion at different instants in time allows the shape of the perceived illusory curved path to be extrapolated. This results in a trajectory that is independent of object size and corresponds closely to the actual object orientation at different points during the movie sequence. The results provide evidence for a perceptual transition from an illusory curved trajectory to a veridical linear trajectory (with rotation) for the same object. Both are consistent with special real-world cases such as objects rotating around a centre outside of the object so that their orientation remains tangent to the trajectory (cheetahs running along a curve, sailboats) or objects tumbling along simple trajectories (a monkey spinning in air, spinning cars on ice). In certain cases, the former is an illusion. </jats:p

SPARCS: Stream-processing architecture applied in real-time cyber-physical security

In this paper, we showcase a complete, end-To-end, fault tolerant, bandwidth and latency optimized architecture for real time utilization of data from multiple sources that allows the collection, transport, storage, processing, and display of both raw data and analytics. This architecture can be applied for a wide variety of applications ranging from automation/control to monitoring and security. We propose a practical, hierarchical design that allows easy addition and reconfiguration of software and hardware components, while utilizing local processing of data at sensor or field site ('fog computing') level to reduce latency and upstream bandwidth requirements. The system supports multiple fail-safe mechanisms to guarantee the delivery of sensor data. We describe the application of this architecture to cyber-physical security (CPS) by supporting security monitoring of an electric distribution grid, through the collection and analysis of distribution-grid level phasor measurement unit (PMU) data, as well as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) communication in the control area network

Bach speaks: A cortical "language-network" serves the processing of music

The aim of the present study was the investigation of neural correlates of music processing with fMRI. Chord sequences were presented to the participants, infrequently containing unexpected musical events. These events activated the areas of Broca and Wernicke, the superior temporal sulcus, Heschl's gyrus, both planum polare and planum temporale, as well as the anterior superior insular cortices. Some of these brain structures have previously been shown to be involved in music processing, but the cortical network comprising all these structures has up to now been thought to be domain-specific for language processing. To what extent this network might also be activated by the processing of non-linguistic information has remained unknown. The present fMRI-data reveal that the human brain employs this neuronal network also for the processing of musical information, suggesting that the cortical network known to support language processing is less domain-specific than previously believed

Quasi-Normal Modes of Brane-Localised Standard Model Fields

We present here a detailed study of the quasi-normal spectrum of brane-localised Standard Model fields in the vicinity of D-dimensional black-holes. A variety of such backgrounds (Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom and Schwarzszchild-(Anti) de Sitter) are investigated. The dependence of the quasi-normal spectra on the dimensionality D, spin of the field s, and multipole number l is analyzed. Analytical formulae are obtained for a number of limiting cases: in the limit of large multipole number for Schwarzschild, Schwarzschild-de Sitter and Reissner-Nordstrom black holes, in the extremal limit of the Schwarzschild-de Sitter black hole, and in the limit of small horizon radius in the case of Schwarzschild-Anti de Sitter black holes. We show that an increase in the number of hidden, extra dimensions results in the faster damping of all fields living on the brane, and that the localization of fields on a brane affects the QN spectrum in a number of additional ways, both direct and indirect.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

HIV/AIDS and the Agricultural Sector: Implications for Policy in Eastern and Southern Africa

This paper draws upon development economics theory, demographic projections, and empirical evidence to consider the likely consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic for the agricultural sector of the hardest-hit countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. We identify four processes that have been underemphasized in previous analysis: 1) the momentum of long-term population growth rates; 2) substantial underemployment in these countries’ informal sectors; 3) steady declines in land-to-person ratios in the smallholder farming sectors; and 4) effects of food and input marketing reforms on shifts in cropping patterns. The paper concludes that the conventional wisdom encouraging prioritisation of labour-saving technology or crops has been over-generalised, although labour-saving agricultural technologies may be appropriate for certain types of households and regions. The most effective means for agricultural policy to respond to HIV/AIDS will entail stepping up support for agricultural science and technology development, extension systems, and input and crop market development to improve the agricultural sector’s potential to raise living standards in highly affected rural communities. Agricultural productivity growth may also help to overcome poverty-related factors that may interact with the disease to magnify its effects.Health Economics and Policy,

Feldspar-Provenance Dates in a Stratigraphic Section of Till in Gahanna, Ohio

Author Institution: Department of Geology and Mineralogy and The Institute of Polar Studies, The Ohio State UniversityThe internal layering and provenance of feldspar in 3 tills and in one outwash deposit at Gahanna, Ohio, were studied by determining pebble lithologies and Rb-Sr dates of feldspar. Variations in lithology of pebbles and in the Rb-Sr ratios of feldspar in the 125—250 micrometer fractions reveal discontinuities which divide the upper 2 tills into 2 subunits each. Each of the lower subunits appears to be more homogeneous than the upper ones based on comparisons of standard deviations. This suggests the lower subunits may be basal or lodgement till and the upper subunits may be ablation till. Feldspar-provenance dates in till of the mid western United States are expressions of the proportion of mixing of feldspar grains originating from the Superior (2.7 b. y.) and Grenville (1.07 b. y.) structural provinces of the Canadian Precambrian Shield. The Rb-Sr dates of feldspar in the layers of till and outwash of the Gahanna section are so variable that average dates cannot be used to distinguish among them. The lack of systematic stratigraphic variation of provenance dates indicates the feldspars are heterogeneous mixtures of the two Precambrian components. Approximately 90% of the dates have values between 1.0 and 1.5 b.y., which demonstrates the dominance of feldspar derived from the Grenville Province. Four samples whose dates are less than 1.0 b. y. contain younger feldspar presumably derived from sandstone of late Paleozoic age