Political risk in light rail transit PPP projects

Since 2003 public-private partnerships (PPPs) have represented between 10 and 13.5% of the total investment in public services in the UK. The macro-economic and political benefits of PPPs were among the key drivers for central government's decision to promote this form of procurement to improve UK public services. Political support for a PPP project is critical and is frequently cited as the most important critical success factor. This paper investigates the significance of political support and reviews the treatment of political risk in a business case by the public sector project sponsor for major UK-based light rail transit PPP projects during their development stage. The investigation demonstrates that in the early project stages it is not traditional quantitative Monte Carlo risk analysis that is important; rather it is the identification and representation of political support within a business case together with an understanding of how this information is then used to inform critical project decisions

Lie group weight multiplicities from conformal field theory

Dominant weight multiplicities of simple Lie groups are expressed in terms of the modular matrices of Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theories, and related objects. Symmetries of the modular matrices give rise to new relations among multiplicities. At least for some Lie groups, these new relations are strong enough to completely fix all multiplicities.Comment: 12 pages, Plain TeX, no figure

Occupational asthma: a review.

Occupational asthma is the most common form of occupational lung disease in the developed world at the present time. In this review, the epidemiology, pathogenesis/mechanisms, clinical presentations, management, and prevention of occupational asthma are discussed. The population attributable risk of asthma due to occupational exposures is considerable. Current understanding of the mechanisms by which many agents cause occupational asthma is limited, especially for low-molecular-weight sensitizers and irritants. The diagnosis of occupational asthma is generally established on the basis of a suggestive history of a temporal association between exposure and the onset of symptoms and objective evidence that these symptoms are related to airflow limitation. Early diagnosis, elimination of exposure to the responsible agent, and early use of inhaled steroids may play important roles in the prevention of long-term persistence of asthma. Persistent occupational asthma is often associated with substantial disability and consequent impacts on income and quality of life. Prevention of new cases is the best approach to reducing the burden of asthma attributable to occupational exposures. Future research needs are identified

Can a Lattice String Have a Vanishing Cosmological Constant?

We prove that a class of one-loop partition functions found by Dienes, giving rise to a vanishing cosmological constant to one-loop, cannot be realized by a consistent lattice string. The construction of non-supersymmetric string with a vanishing cosmological constant therefore remains as elusive as ever. We also discuss a new test that any one-loop partition function for a lattice string must satisfy.Comment: 14 page

Application of LANDSAT to the surveillance of lake eutrophication in the Great Lakes basin

The author has identified the following significant results. A step-by-step procedure for establishing and monitoring the trophic status of inland lakes with the use of LANDSAT data, surface sampling, laboratory analysis, and aerial observations were demonstrated. The biomass was related to chlorophyll-a concentrations, water clarity, and trophic state. A procedure was developed for using surface sampling, LANDSAT data, and linear regression equations to produce a color-coded image of large lakes showing the distribution and concentrations of water quality parameters, causing eutrophication as well as parameters which indicate its effects. Cover categories readily derived from LANDSAT were those for which loading rates were available and were known to have major effects on the quality and quantity of runoff and lake eutrophication. Urban, barren land, cropland, grassland, forest, wetlands, and water were included

Spin Susceptibility of the Topological Superconductor UPt3 from Polarized Neutron Diffraction

Experiment and theory indicate that UPt3 is a topological superconductor in an odd-parity state, based in part from temperature independence of the NMR Knight shift. However, quasiparticle spin-flip scattering near a surface, where the Knight shift is measured, might be responsible. We use polarized neutron scattering to measure the bulk susceptibility with H||c, finding consistency with the Knight shift but inconsistent with theory for this field orientation. We infer that neither spin susceptibility nor Knight shift are a reliable indication of odd-parity

Nucleation Induced Undulative Instability in Thin Films of nCB Liquid Crystals

A surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic--isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is actually based on a nucleation mechanism. Its characteristic wavelength does not depend markedly on film thickness, but strongly on the heating rate.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure