Horizons and Correlation Functions in 2D Schwarzschild-de Sitter Spacetime

The two-point correlation function, and the two point function for the field velocities, are computed for a massless minimally coupled scalar field in 2D Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime when the field is in the Unruh state. It is found that the field correlations grow linearly in terms of a particular time coordinate that is good throughout the spacetime, and that the rate of growth is equal to the sum of the black hole plus cosmological surface gravities. This time dependence of the two-point function results from additive contributions from each horizon component of the past Cauchy surface that is used to define the Unruh state. The velocity two-point function is similar to that in Minkowski space when the two points are not separated by either the black hole or cosmological horizon. It vanishes when one point is on the black hole horizon and one point is on the cosmological horizon. If the two points are separated radially but not temporally and one point is fixed on a horizon, then a peak always occurs. In addition, peaks sometimes develop when the two points are separated by a horizon.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figures; References added, small error in plot corrected (results unchanged

iRESM INITIATIVE UNDERSTANDING DECISION SUPPORT NEEDS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION --US Midwest Region?

The impacts of climate change are already affecting human and environmental systems worldwide, yet many uncertainties persist in the prediction of future climate changes and impacts due to limitations in scientific understanding of relevant causal factors. In particular, there is mounting urgency to efforts to improve models of human and environmental systems at the regional scale, and to integrate climate, ecosystem and energy-economic models to support policy, investment, and risk management decisions related to climate change mitigation (i.e., reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation (i.e., responding to climate change impacts). The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is developing a modeling framework, the integrated Regional Earth System Model (iRESM), to address regional human-environmental system interactions in response to climate change and the uncertainties therein. The framework will consist of a suite of integrated models representing regional climate change, regional climate policy, and the regional economy, with a focus on simulating the mitigation and adaptation decisions made over time in the energy, transportation, agriculture, and natural resource management sectors

Policies and practices of SHEA Research Network hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

To understand hospital policies and practices as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) conducted a survey through the SHEA Research Network (SRN). The survey assessed policies and practices around the optimization of personal protection equipment (PPE), testing, healthcare personnel policies, visitors of COVID-19 patients in relation to procedures, and types of patients. Overall, 69 individual healthcare facilities responded in the United States and internationally, for a 73% response rate

A Guide To How Business Schools Can Develop Academic Staff To Engage With Smes

The impetus for business schools to work with small firms is growing. At over 98% of the UK business population, it is essential that our education and research are relevant and useful to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and support their growth, sustainability, and resilience. The profound disruption of the global Covid-19 pandemic has consolidated this push to help bolster our small business population, as well as having profound impacts on the number of new small firms, their business models, products, and their digital transformation.Yet the take up of business school programmes among SMEs is historically low compared with larger companies. Leadership skills gaps in small firms persist, despite UK and devolved governments’ funding and focus.The Chartered Association of Business Schools (Chartered ABS) therefore invited academics from business schools around the UK to explore how schools can develop their staff to engage with SMEs. The working group’s focus was on identifying interventions to increase the amount of business school engagement with SMEs, while examining the barriers and how some schools have overcome them. It also explored enablers of engagement and based its recommendations around practice in Small Business Charter (SBC) awarded schools, and insights gained from relevant literature and policy documents. This working group has developed this report before and during the global pandemic, which has also hugely affected universities and business schools themselves.This document is designed primarily to be a practical aid to decision making for business school leaders, although it may be of interest to a wider stakeholder group, for example business engagement leads in universities, and the Small Business Charter Board.Following secondary research and case study development, and in acknowledgement of changing landscapes for both small firms and universities, recommendations have been proposed, which, for the most part, map onto the identified barriers and challenges. These recommendations are not Covid-specific, but have been evaluated in the light of the seismic changes to both small firms and business schools during this period, and are designed to support resilience and deeper collaborative relationships for recovery and growth. The significant list of recommendations is not proposed to be undertaken in its entirety; it is anticipated that readers will use this document as a resource and may well find some sections more relevant and useful than others. It is also likely that there are other staff development approaches which have proved successful to universities which are not captured here – the working group welcomes contributions which add to the recommendations made at the end of this report.</div

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Quantifying the effects of commercial clam aquaculture on C and N cycling : an integrated ecosystem approach

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Estuaries and Coasts 39 (2016): 1746–1761, doi: 10.1007/s12237-016-0106-0.Increased interest in using bivalve cultivation to mitigate eutrophication requires a comprehensive understanding of the net carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets associated with cultivation on an ecosystem scale. This study quantified C and N processes related to clam (Mercenaria mercenaria) aquaculture in a shallow coastal environment (Cherrystone Inlet, VA) where the industry has rapidly increased. Clam physiological rates were compared with basin-wide ecosystem fluxes including primary production, benthic nutrient regeneration, and respiration. Although clam beds occupy only 3% of the ecosystem’s surface area, clams filtered 7-44% of the system’s volume daily, consumed an annual average of 103% of the phytoplankton production, creating a large flux of particulate C and N to the sediments. Annually, N regenerated and C respired by clam and microbial metabolism in clam beds were ~3-fold and ~1.5-fold higher, respectively, than N and C removed through harvest. Due to the short water residence time, the low watershed load, and the close vicinity of clam beds to the mouth of Cherrystone Inlet, cultivated clams are likely subsidized by phytoplankton from the Chesapeake Bay. Consequently, much of the N released by mineralization associated with clam cultivation is ‘new’ N as it would not be present in the system without bivalve facilitation. Macroalgae that are fueled by the enhanced N regeneration from clams represents a eutrophying process resulting from aquaculture. This synthesis demonstrates the importance of considering impacts of bivalve aquaculture in an ecosystem context especially relative to the potential of bivalves to remove nutrients and enhance C sinks.This work was supported by Virginia Sea Grant (NA10OAR4170085, #R/71515W, #R/715168), the NSF GK12 Fellowship (DGE-0840804), the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program – Defense Coastal/Estuarine Research Program Project SI-1413, and NSF Virginia Coast Reserve LTER Project (DEB 0080381, DEB 0621014).2017-05-1

Reality or Illusion: The Importance of Creaming on Job Placement Rates in Job Training Partnership Act Programs

Critics of the Job Partnership Training Act of 1982 (JTPA) argue that most of its job placement success has been the result of the creaming of participants--that is, of serving individuals who are most employable at the expense of those most in need. Using a bivariate probit model of JTPA trainee selection and job placement success, this paper analyzes the selection of JTPA past recipients. It provides a first approximation of the importance of nonrandom selection on job placement rates. Creaming is found to take place within service delivery areas (SDAs), especially with respect to the avoidance of eligible high school dropouts, but private industry councils do not simply maximize their job placement rates. The authors estimate that, in the absence of creaming, placement rates in Tennessee would fall by 18 percent. But the major change would come in increased enrollment in urban areas, not in the socio-economic characteristic of enrollees within SDAs

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The elephant in the room?:Why spatial stigma does not receive the public health attention it deserves

In the context of health inequalities, spatial stigma refers to the ways that areas experiencing socioeconomic inequalities become negatively portrayed and labelled in public, official and policy discourses. With respect to the body of research on social determinants of health and health inequalities, and attention accorded to this issue in policy or practice, spatial stigma remains significantly under-represented compared with other possible causal factors. We suggest three explanations contributing to this neglect. First, the lack of research into spatial stigma originates from a more limited public health focus on the symbolic meanings of places for health, compared to their physical and social dimensions. Second, lay involvement and evidence of lived experiences of health inequalities continues to be under-represented in public health decision-making. Finally, it is the case that public health organizations may also be contributing to negative area portrayals in their communications of health inequalities. There are growing examples of social action being taken by groups of residents to resist this stigma through the promotion of more positive portrayals of areas and communities. Greater public health attention to this issue as well is likely to result in health gains and aid the development of more effective health inequalities strategies