Stability of the Magnetic Monopole Condensate in three- and four-colour QCD

It is argued that the ground state of three- and four-colour QCD contains a monopole condensate, necessary for the dual Meissner effect to be the mechanism of confinement, and support its stability on the grounds that it gives the off-diagonal gluons an effective mass sufficient to remove the unstable ground state mode.Comment: jhep.cls, typos corrected, references added, some content delete

Cost effectiveness of bio-ethanol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Greece

The purpose of this study is to evaluate ethanol cost- effectiveness with regards to carbon dioxide emissions. Actually, bio-fuel production is only viable thanks to the tax credit policy resulting in economic ‘deadweight’ loss. The environmental performance is assessed under the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework. Economic burden to society to support the activity divided by avoided CO2 equivalent emissions indicates the bio-ethanol cost effectiveness. Agricultural feedstock supply that comprises of sugarbeets, grains and industrial processing sub-models are articulated in a regional sector model. The maximization of total welfare determines optimal crop mix for farmers and the best configurations for industry. This is illustrated for bio-ethanol produced by the ex-sugar industry in Thessaly, Greece. Life cycle activity analysis showed that, at the optimum, CO2 emission is reduced between 1 and 1.5 t of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton of ethanol. The unitary cost falls in the range of 100 to 250 euro per ton of CO2 and it is remarkably dependent on the agricultural policy scenario.Cost effectiveness, ethanol, mathematical programming, life cycle assessment, greenhouse gases

Liability of a Possessor of Premises to Public Officials for Physical Harm Caused by a Condition of the Premises - A Rule for Virginia

Although Virginia has established rules of liability for possessors of premises to trespassers, licensees, and invitees, the Supreme Court of Virginia has not addressed the possessor\u27s liability for conditions on the premises causing physical harm to public officials who are lawfully upon the premises by virtue of a privilege and without the possessor\u27s express permission or invitation. These officials include those who are authorized, but not required, by statutes or ordinances to be upon the premises, whether or not their employment requires it, e.g., firemen and policemen. Such officials are likely to be upon the premises at unexpected times and under unanticipated circumstances. Not included in this article are those public employees who are required by statutes or ordinances to be upon the premises at particular times, e.g., building inspectors or health department inspectors, and who are usually upon the premises at anticipated times and during normal business hours

Generic substitution: the use of medicinal products containing different salts and implications for safety and efficacy

In their quest to gain early entry of new generic products into the market prior to patent expiration, one of the strategies pursued by generic drug product manufacturers is to incorporate different salts of an approved active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in a brand company's marketed dosage form and subject such dosage forms to bioequivalence assessment. These initiatives present challenges to regulatory authorities where the decision to approve bioequivalent products containing such pharmaceutical alternatives must be considered in the light of safety and efficacy, and more particularly, with respect to their substitutability. This article describes the various issues and contentions associated with the concept of pharmaceutical alternatives, specifically with respect to the uses of different salts and the implications for safety, efficacy and generic substitution

Health Disparities Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Firefighters

ABSTRACT Background: Racial/ethnic minorities are substantially underrepresented in the fire service and this situation is unique when compared to similarly mentally and physically demanding and hazardous occupations such as the military and law enforcement. There is little systematic research to provide greater clarity about this significant disparity. The purpose of this study is to examine physical and behavioral health issues of racial/ethnic minority firefighters when compared to their white, non-Hispanic counterparts and potentially identify areas for future research that might assist in improving their substantial underrepresentation. Materials and Methods: We report the results of a secondary analysis of data combining the baseline evaluations of two different firefighter health studies, the Firefighter Injury and Risk Evaluation (FIRE) and Fuel 2 Fight (F2F) studies. Male career firefighters (N=1,404) were from 31 fire departments across the US and its territories. White, non-Hispanic firefighters comprised 72.5% of the sample (n=1,018) and 27.5% classified themselves as a racial/ethnic minority. Firefighters who agreed to participate comprised 94% (F2F) and 97% (FIRE) of those available and all underwent assessments including body composition, fitness, and general/behavioral health, and job satisfaction. Results: We examined differences in health and job status between minority and non-minority firefighters and between firefighters in minority- (MDCs) and white-dominated communities (WDCs). After adjusting for potential confounds, there were significant main effects for the individual minority status vs. non-minority status on both BMI and BF%, indicating that minority firefighters had significantly higher average BMI (28.8±0.3kg/m2) and BF% (24.7± 0.7%) when compared to their white, non-Hispanic colleagues (27.7±0.2kg/m2and 23.1±0.6% for BMI and BF%, respectively). Minority firefighters also were 59% more likely to be obese (adjusted [A]OR=1.59; 95% CI=1.16-2.18). Firefighters serving in MDCs reported significantly more poor health days (Mean±SE; 3.2±0.2 days) than firefighters serving in WDCs (2.8±0.2 days; p=0.038). In addition, minority firefighters reported significantly more poor health days (3.6±0.4 days) than their non-minority colleagues (2.8±0.2 days; p=0.003), while the interaction indicates that minority firefighters in MDCs reported more poor health days than the other groups (p Conclusions: Individual and community minority status (i.e., ethnic density effect) were both significantly associated with a number of important health status indicators, with racial/ethnic minority firefighters demonstrating greater risk for unfavorable body composition and more poor physical health days. In addition, minority firefighters in WDCs reported the highest prevalence of lifetime diagnosis of depression by a physician, while minority firefighters in MDCs had the lowest. Many of these health status indicators have recently been studied within the context of experiences with discrimination, demonstrating that racial discrimination is associated with greater risk for obesity, depression, and poor physical and mental health and could be contributing to health disparities and potentially negatively impacting racial/ethnic minority firefighter health, safety, and retention

Balloon-borne radiometer measurement of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude stratospheric HNO3 profiles spanning 12 years

Low-resolution atmospheric thermal emission spectra collected by balloon-borne radiometers over the time span of 1990–2002 are used to retrieve vertical profiles of HNO3, CFC-11 and CFC-12 volume mixing ratios between approximately 10 and 35 km altitude. All of the data analyzed have been collected from launches from a Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude site, during late summer, when stratospheric dynamic variability is at a minimum. The retrieval technique incorporates detailed forward modeling of the instrument and the radiative properties of the atmosphere, and obtains a best fit between modeled and measured spectra through a combination of onion-peeling and global optimization steps. The retrieved HNO3 profiles are consistent over the 12-year period, and are consistent with recent measurements by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier transform spectrometer satellite instrument. This suggests that, to within the errors of the 1990 measurements, there has been no significant change in the HNO3 summer mid-latitude profile

Modelling attitudes to climate change — an order effect and a test between alternatives

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. Quantum-like models can be fruitfully used to model attitude change in a social context. Next steps require data, and higher dimensional models. Here, we discuss an exploratory study that demonstrates an order effect when three question sets about Climate Beliefs, Political Affiliation and Attitudes Towards Science are presented in different orders within a larger study of n = 533 subjects. A quantum-like model seems possible, and we propose a new experiment which could be used to test between three possible models for this scenario

Lax pair tensors and integrable spacetimes

The use of Lax pair tensors as a unifying framework for Killing tensors of arbitrary rank is discussed. Some properties of the tensorial Lax pair formulation are stated. A mechanical system with a well-known Lax representation -- the three-particle open Toda lattice -- is geometrized by a suitable canonical transformation. In this way the Toda lattice is realized as the geodesic system of a certain Riemannian geometry. By using different canonical transformations we obtain two inequivalent geometries which both represent the original system. Adding a timelike dimension gives four-dimensional spacetimes which admit two Killing vector fields and are completely integrable.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe