19,616 research outputs found
The Federal Advisory Committee Act and Public Participation in Environmental Policy
This paper discusses the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and how it affects public participation in environmental decision-making. Passed in 1972 as one of the "openness in government" laws, FACA governs how the federal government seeks outside advice. It has had a profound influence on who participates in government decision-making, when they participate, how they participate, and what influence participation has on policy. FACA has had a number of notable successes. Primary among these has been its role in limiting the unbalanced influence of special interests, acting through advisory committees, on public policy-making. The advisory committees which the law governs have also achieved a number of the "social goals" of public participation, including: (1) educating the public, (2) bringing public values into government decision-making, (3) improving the substantive quality of decisions, (4) increasing trust in government institutions, and (5) reducing conflict. Often, advisory committees have given government relatively inexpensive access to experts and stakeholders in order to achieve these goals. However, FACA has also created�directly and indirectly�a number of "chilling effects" on public participation in environmental decision-making. First are procedural requirements which make it difficult for groups outside of government to become advisory committees, and thereby gain access to decision-making. Second are ambiguities in the law and its regulations which limit the willingness of public agencies to engage the public outside of FACA. And third are Clinton Administration policies which limit the number of advisory committees that agencies are allowed to establish. Taken together, these chilling effects create a paradox wherein agencies are reluctant to engage the public in decision-making outside of FACA but significant barriers keep groups (and agencies) from forming advisory committees under the Act. The paper concludes by recommending a streamlining of FACA's procedural requirements, a clarification of regulations and policies regarding what type of participation falls under FACA, and an elimination of administrative ceilings on advisory committee formation.
Guanxi and the organization of Chinese new year festivals in England
This article explores how Chinese diaspora communities use guanxi, a unique Chinese interpretation of personal relationships, in the organization of Chinese New Year (CNY) festivals in England. A case-study approach that incorporated mixed qualitative methods was used to investigate the interactions and interrelationships between the ethnic Chinese communities involved in the organization of CNY festivals in five English cities. The article argues that Chinese diaspora communities use their guanxi to establish collaboration at CNY festivals. However, the process of organizing CNY festivals has also exposed divisions among Chinese communities. The article proposes that guanxi has important implications for the relationships among Chinese diaspora communities in the context of CNY festivals. Although it facilitates collaboration and promotes solidarity among Chinese communities, it may also intensify competition for power. Diaspora festivals in general are a neglected area of research and this article is the first to study the organization of Chinese New Year festivals in detail
Planckian Axions in String Theory
We argue that super-Planckian diameters of axion fundamental domains can
naturally arise in Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory. In a theory
with axions , the fundamental domain is a polytope defined by the
periodicities of the axions, via constraints of the form . We compute the diameter of the fundamental domain in terms of
the eigenvalues of the metric on field space, and also,
crucially, the largest eigenvalue of . At large ,
approaches a Wishart matrix, due to universality, and we show that
the diameter is at least , exceeding the naive Pythagorean range by a
factor . This result is robust in the presence of constraints,
while for the diameter is further enhanced by eigenvector delocalization
to . We directly verify our results in explicit Calabi-Yau
compactifications of type IIB string theory. In the classic example with
where parametrically controlled moduli stabilization was
demonstrated by Denef et al. in [1], the largest metric eigenvalue obeys . The random matrix analysis then predicts, and we
exhibit, axion diameters for the precise vacuum parameters found in
[1]. Our results provide a framework for achieving large-field axion inflation
in well-understood flux vacua.Comment: 42 pages, 4 figure
Gravitational waves from plunges into Gargantua
We analytically compute time domain gravitational waveforms produced in the
final stages of extreme mass ratio inspirals of non-spinning compact objects
into supermassive nearly extremal Kerr black holes. Conformal symmetry relates
all corotating equatorial orbits in the geodesic approximation to circular
orbits through complex conformal transformations. We use this to obtain the
time domain Teukolsky perturbations for generic equatorial corotating plunges
in closed form. The resulting gravitational waveforms consist of an
intermediate polynomial ringdown phase in which the decay rate depends on the
impact parameters, followed by an exponential quasi-normal mode decay. The
waveform amplitude exhibits critical behavior when the orbital angular momentum
tends to a minimal value determined by the innermost stable circular orbit. We
show that either near-critical or large angular momentum leads to a significant
extension of the LISA observable volume of gravitational wave sources of this
kind.Comment: 80 pages, 28 figures, corrigendum versio
Cost effectiveness of option B plus for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in resource-limited countries: evidence from Kumasi, Ghana.
BackgroundAchieving the goal of eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission (MTCT) necessitates increased access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV-infected pregnant women. Option B provides ART through pregnancy and breastfeeding, whereas Option B+ recommends continuous ART regardless of CD4 count, thus potentially reducing MTCT during future pregnancies. Our objective was to compare maternal and pediatric health outcomes and cost-effectiveness of Option B+ versus Option B in Ghana.MethodsA decision-analytic model was developed to simulate HIV progression in mothers and transmission (in utero, during birth, or through breastfeeding) to current and all future children. Clinical parameters, including antenatal care access and fertility rates, were estimated from a retrospective review of 817 medical records at two hospitals in Ghana. Additional parameters were obtained from published literature. Modeled outcomes include HIV infections averted among newborn children, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), and cost-effectiveness ratios.ResultsHIV-infected women in Ghana have a lifetime average of 2.3 children (SD 1.3). Projected maternal life expectancy under Option B+ is 16.1Â years, versus 16.0Â years with Option B, yielding a gain of 0.1 maternal QALYs and 3.2 additional QALYs per child. Despite higher initial ART costs, Option B+ costs $785/QALY gained, a value considered very cost-effective by World Health Organization benchmarks. Widespread implementation of Option B+ in Ghana could theoretically prevent up to 668 HIV infections among children annually. Cost-effectiveness estimates remained favorable over robust sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsAlthough more expensive than Option B, Option B+ substantially reduces MTCT in future pregnancies, increases both maternal and pediatric QALYs, and is a cost-effective use of limited resources in Ghana
Review A space for grace: towards an aesthetics of preaching
CILLIERS J., (Stellenbosch: Sun Press, 2016), pp. 177, Price: R300, ISBN: 978-1-920689-93-
FOREVER
FOREVER is a short drama film following a time loop within a mysterious cabin that acts as a catalyst for the film\u27s own loop format, with the work repeating and building upon itself in a gallery setting. This is a culmination of a multimedia research process between cinematic arts and experimental media practices
Configuration control of seven-degree-of-freedom arms
A seven degree of freedom robot arm with a six degree of freedom end effector is controlled by a processor employing a 6 by 7 Jacobian matrix for defining location and orientation of the end effector in terms of the rotation angles of the joints, a 1 (or more) by 7 Jacobian matrix for defining 1 (or more) user specified kinematic functions constraining location or movement of selected portions of the arm in terms of the joint angles, the processor combining the two Jacobian matrices to produce an augmented 7 (or more) by 7 Jacobian matrix, the processor effecting control by computing in accordance with forward kinematics from the augmented 7 by 7 Jacobian matrix and from the seven joint angles of the arm a set of seven desired joint angles for transmittal to the joint servo loops of the arm. One of the kinematic functions constraints the orientation of the elbow plane of the arm. Another one of the kinematic functions minimizes a sum of gravitational torques on the joints. Still another kinematic function constrains the location of the arm to perform collision avoidance. Generically, one kinematic function minimizes a sum of selected mechanical parameters of at least some of the joints associated with weighting coefficients which may be changed during arm movement. The mechanical parameters may be velocity errors or gravity torques associated with individual joints
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Systematic Scatterometer Wind Errors Near Coastal Mountains.
Satellite scatterometers provide the only regular observations of surface wind vectors over vast swaths of the world oceans, including coastal regions, which are of great scientific and societal interest but still present challenges for remote sensing. Here we demonstrate systematic scatterometer wind errors near Hawaii's Big Island: Two counter-rotating lee vortices, which are clear in the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set ship-based wind climatology and in aircraft observations, are absent in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Remote Sensing Systems scatterometer wind climatologies. We demonstrate similar errors in the representation of transient Catalina Eddy events in the Southern California Bight. These errors likely arise from the nonuniqueness of scatterometer wind observations, that is, an "ambiguity removal" is required during processing to select from multiple wind solutions to the geophysical model function. We discuss strategies to improve the ambiguity selection near coastal mountains, where small-scale wind reversals are common
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