15,933 research outputs found
Towards a more inclusive and precautionary indicator of global sustainability
We construct a hybrid, economic indicator of the sustainability of global well-being, which is more inclusive than existing indicators and incorporates an environmentally pessimistic, physical constraint on global warming. Our methodology extends the World Bank's Adjusted Net Saving (ANS) indicator to include the cost of population growth, the benefit of technical progress, and a much higher, precautionary cost of current CO2 emissions. Future warming damage is so highly unknowable that valuing emissions directly is rather arbitrary, so we use a novel, inductive approach: we modify damage and climate parameters in the deterministic DICE climate-economy model so it becomes economically optimal to control emissions in a way likely to limit warming to an agreed target, here 2 degrees Celsius. If future emissions are optimally controlled, our ANS then suggests that current global well-being is sustainable. But if emissions remain uncontrolled, our base-case ANS is negative now and our corresponding, modified DICE model has an unsustained development path, with well-being peaking in 2065. Current ANS on an uncontrolled path may thus be a useful heuristic indicator of future unsustainability. Our inductive method might allow ANS to include other very hard-to-value, environmental threats to global sustainability, like biodiversity loss and nitrogen pollution
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Leveraging Epidemiology to Improve Risk Assessment.
The field of environmental public health is at an important crossroad. Our current biomonitoring efforts document widespread exposure to a host of chemicals for which toxicity information is lacking. At the same time, advances in the fields of genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, genetics and epigenetics are yielding volumes of data at a rapid pace. Our ability to detect chemicals in biological and environmental media has far outpaced our ability to interpret their health relevance, and as a result, the environmental risk paradigm, in its current state, is antiquated and ill-equipped to make the best use of these new data. In light of new scientific developments and the pressing need to characterize the public health burdens of chemicals, it is imperative to reinvigorate the use of environmental epidemiology in chemical risk assessment. Two case studies of chemical assessments from the Environmental Protection Agency Integrated Risk Information System database are presented to illustrate opportunities where epidemiologic data could have been used in place of experimental animal data in dose-response assessment, or where different approaches, techniques, or studies could have been employed to better utilize existing epidemiologic evidence. Based on the case studies and what can be learned from recent scientific advances and improved approaches to utilizing human data for dose-response estimation, recommendations are provided for the disciplines of epidemiology and risk assessment for enhancing the role of epidemiologic data in hazard identification and dose-response assessment
Exact condition on the Kohn-Sham kinetic energy, and modern parametrization of the Thomas-Fermi density
We study the asymptotic expansion of the neutral-atom energy as the atomic
number Z goes to infinity, presenting a new method to extract the coefficients
from oscillating numerical data. We find that recovery of the correct expansion
is an exact condition on the Kohn-Sham kinetic energy that is important for the
accuracy of approximate kinetic energy functionals for atoms, molecules and
solids, when evaluated on a Kohn-Sham density. For example, this determines the
small gradient limit of any generalized gradient approximation, and conflicts
somewhat with the standard gradient expansion. Tests are performed on atoms,
molecules, and jellium clusters. We also give a modern, highly accurate
parametrization of the Thomas-Fermi density of neutral atoms.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted at JC
Collective Excitations of Strongly Interacting Fermi Gases of Atoms in a Harmonic Trap
The zero-temperature properties of a dilute two-component Fermi gas in the
BCS-BEC crossover are investigated. On the basis of a generalization of the
Hylleraas-Undheim method, we construct rigorous upper bounds to the collective
frequencies for the radial and the axial breathing mode of the Fermi gas under
harmonic confinement in the framework of the hydrodynamic theory. The bounds
are compared to experimental data for trapped vapors of Li6 atoms.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Orbital-free Bond Breaking via Machine Learning
Machine learning is used to approximate the kinetic energy of one dimensional
diatomics as a functional of the electron density. The functional can
accurately dissociate a diatomic, and can be systematically improved with
training. Highly accurate self-consistent densities and molecular forces are
found, indicating the possibility for ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations
R-matrix Floquet theory for laser-assisted electron-atom scattering
A new version of the R-matrix Floquet theory for laser-assisted electron-atom
scattering is presented. The theory is non-perturbative and applicable to a
non-relativistic many-electron atom or ion in a homogeneous linearly polarized
field. It is based on the use of channel functions built from field-dressed
target states, which greatly simplifies the general formalism.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX2e, submitted to J.Phys.
The role of damped Alfven waves on magnetospheric accretion models of young stars
We examine the role of Alfven wave damping in heating the plasma in the
magnetic funnels of magnetospheric accretion models of young stars. We study
four different damping mechanisms of the Alfven waves: nonlinear, turbulent,
viscous-resistive and collisional. Two different possible origins for the
Alfven waves are discussed: 1) Alfven waves generated at the surface of the
star by the shock produced by the infalling matter; and 2) Alfven waves
generated locally in the funnel by the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. We find
that, in general, the damping lengths are smaller than the tube length. Since
thermal conduction in the tube is not efficient, Alfven waves generated only at
the star's surface cannot heat the tube to the temperatures necessary to fit
the observations. Only for very low frequency Alfven waves ~10^{-5} the ion
cyclotron frequency, is the viscous-resistive damping length greater than the
tube length. In this case, the Alfven waves produced at the surface of the star
are able to heat the whole tube. Otherwise, local production of Alfven waves is
required to explain the observations. The turbulence level is calculated for
different frequencies for optically thin and thick media. We find that
turbulent velocities varies greatly for different damping mechanisms, reaching
\~100 km s^{-1} for the collisional damping of small frequency waves.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa
Recent Decisions
Comments on recent decisions by William Fleming, Edward L. Burke, William J. Priebe, Anthony V. Amodio, Richard G. Dytrych, James Kalo, and John A. Pietrykowski
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