Comparative Analysis of Decision-making Processes of the Developed Countries towards CO2 Emissions Reduction Target

This working paper aims to determine the most influential factors for countries' decision-making policies towards international negotiations on the climate change convention from the late 1980s to 1992. A thorough interview survey with the same questions posed to all the interviewees is organised to achieve this aim. This study selects five developed countries -- the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States -- to compare the decision-making process of each country. The author introduces six major factors that are likely to affect their decision-making: impact, economic cost, domestic politics, international politics, effectiveness of the convention, and learning. These factors are evaluated by those who were actually involved in the decision-making of their respective countries. It is concluded from the survey that (1) political leadership within the country was the major factor for the countries that played the leadership role in the negotiation, (2) pressure from other countries was the major factor for the countries that gradually became positive towards the negotiation, and (3) economic cost necessary to reduce the CO2 emissions was the major factor for the countries that oppose to the strong commitments in the convention. The structure of this paper is as follows: a brief background on the positions the five countries took during the negotiation, a description on the method of the interview survey, results of the survey and discussions obtained from the results

Statistical mechanics and large-scale velocity fluctuations of turbulence

Turbulence exhibits significant velocity fluctuations even if the scale is much larger than the scale of the energy supply. Since any spatial correlation is negligible, these large-scale fluctuations have many degrees of freedom and are thereby analogous to thermal fluctuations studied in the statistical mechanics. By using this analogy, we describe the large-scale fluctuations of turbulence in a formalism that has the same mathematical structure as used for canonical ensembles in the statistical mechanics. The formalism yields a universal law for the energy distribution of the fluctuations, which is confirmed with experiments of a variety of turbulent flows. Thus, through the large-scale fluctuations, turbulence is related to the statistical mechanics.Comment: 7 pages, accepted by Physics of Fluids (see http://pof.aip.org/

Numerical renormalization group study of random transverse Ising models in one and two space dimensions

The quantum critical behavior and the Griffiths-McCoy singularities of random quantum Ising ferromagnets are studied by applying a numerical implementation of the Ma-Dasgupta-Hu renormalization group scheme. We check the procedure for the analytically tractable one-dimensional case and apply our code to the quasi-one-dimensional double chain. For the latter we obtain identical critical exponents as for the simple chain implying the same universality class. Then we apply the method to the two-dimensional case for which we get estimates for the exponents that are compatible with a recent study in the same spirit.Comment: 10 pages LaTeX, eps-figures and PTP-macros included. Proceedings of the ICCP5, Kanazawa (Japan), 199

Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulations of a Jet Drilling an HI Cloud: Shock Induced Formation of Molecular Clouds and Jet Breakup

The formation mechanism of the jet-aligned CO clouds found by NANTEN CO observations is studied by magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations taking into account the cooling of the interstellar medium. Motivated by the association of the CO clouds with the enhancement of HI gas density, we carried out MHD simulations of the propagation of a supersonic jet injected into the dense HI gas. We found that the HI gas compressed by the bow shock ahead of the jet is cooled down by growth of the cooling instability triggered by the density enhancement. As a result, cold dense sheath is formed around the interface between the jet and the HI gas. The radial speed of the cold, dense gas in the sheath is a few km/s almost independent of the jet speed. Molecular clouds can be formed in this region. Since the dense sheath wrapping the jet reflects waves generated in the cocoon, the jet is strongly perturbed by the vortices of the warm gas in the cocoon, which breaks up the jet and forms a secondary shock in the HI-cavity drilled by the jet. The particle acceleration at the shock can be the origin of radio and X-ray filaments observed near the eastern edge of W50 nebula surrounding the galactic jet source SS433.Comment: 30 pages, 16 figure

Targeted Excited State Algorithms

To overcome the limitations of the traditional state-averaging approaches in excited state calculations, where one solves for and represents all states between the ground state and excited state of interest, we have investigated a number of new excited state algorithms. Building on the work of van der Vorst and Sleijpen (SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl., 17, 401 (1996)), we have implemented Harmonic Davidson and State-Averaged Harmonic Davidson algorithms within the context of the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG). We have assessed their accuracy and stability of convergence in complete active space DMRG calculations on the low-lying excited states in the acenes ranging from naphthalene to pentacene. We find that both algorithms offer increased accuracy over the traditional State-Averaged Davidson approach, and in particular, the State-Averaged Harmonic Davidson algorithm offers an optimal combination of accuracy and stability in convergence

Attenuation of ischemic liver injury by prostaglandin E<inf>1</inf> analogue, misoprostol, and prostaglandin I<inf>2</inf> analogue, OP-41483

Background: Prostaglandin has been reported to have protective effects against liver injury. Use of this agent in clinical settings, however, is limited because of drugrelated side effects. This study investigated whether misoprostol, prostaglandin E1 analogue, and OP-41483, prostaglandin I2 analogue, which have fewer adverse effects with a longer half-life, attenuate ischemic liver damage. Study Design: Thirty beagle dogs underwent 2 hours of hepatic vascular exclusion using venovenous bypass. Misoprostol was administered intravenously for 30 minutes before ischemia and for 3 hours after reperfusion. OP-41483 was administered intraportally for 30 minutes before ischemia (2 μg/kg/min) and for 3 hours after reperfusion (0.5 μg/kg/min). Animals were divided into five groups: untreated control group (n = 10); high-dose misoprostol (total 100 μg/kg) group (MP-H, n = 5); middle-dose misoprostol (50 μg/kg) group (MP-M, n = 5); low-dose misoprostol (25 μg/kg) group (MP-L, n = 5); and OP-41483 group (OP, n = 5). Animal survival, hepatic tissue blood flow (HTBF), liver function, and histology were analyzed. Results: Two-week animal survival rates were 30% in control, 60% in MP-H, 100% in MP-M, 80% in MP-L, and 100% in OP. The treatments with prostaglandin analogues improved HTBF, and attenuated liver enzyme release, adenine nucleotrides degradation, and histologic abnormalities. In contrast to the MP-H animals that exhibited unstable cardiovascular systems, the MP- M, MP-L, and OP animals experienced only transient hypotension. Conclusions: These results indicate that misoprostol and OP-41483 prevent ischemic liver damage, although careful dose adjustment of misoprostol is required to obtain the best protection with minimal side effects

A New Method to Calculate the Spin-Glass Order Parameter of the Two-Dimensional +/-J Ising Model

A new method to numerically calculate the $n$th moment of the spin overlap of the two-dimensional $\pm J$ Ising model is developed using the identity derived by one of the authors (HK) several years ago. By using the method, the $n$th moment of the spin overlap can be calculated as a simple average of the $n$th moment of the total spins with a modified bond probability distribution. The values of the Binder parameter etc have been extensively calculated with the linear size, $L$, up to L=23. The accuracy of the calculations in the present method is similar to that in the conventional transfer matrix method with about $10^{5}$ bond samples. The simple scaling plots of the Binder parameter and the spin-glass susceptibility indicate the existence of a finite-temperature spin-glass phase transition. We find, however, that the estimation of $T_{\rm c}$ is strongly affected by the corrections to scaling within the present data ($L\leq 23$). Thus, there still remains the possibility that $T_{\rm c}=0$, contrary to the recent results which suggest the existence of a finite-temperature spin-glass phase transition.Comment: 10 pages,8 figures: final version to appear in J. Phys.