Lowering Consumer Search Costs Can Lead To Higher Prices

We demonstrate that regulations that lower consumer search costs and make them less heterogeneous across consumers can lead to higher prices charged by firms. We estimate the distribution of consumer search costs for 366 isolated retail gasoline markets, and find that reducing the mean and standard deviation by 20% and 48%, respectively, leads to price increases in 32% of markets and an average price increase of 5.2 cents per gallon across all markets. Thus, price transparency regulation that results in higher prices may not stem from collusion, but from an equilibrium with less consumer search

Aerosol-Cloud Interaction Determined by Both in Situ and Satellite Data Over a Northern High-Latitude Site

The first aerosol indirect effect over a clean, northern high-latitude site was investigated by determining the aerosol cloud interaction (ACI) using three different approaches; ground-based in situ measurements, combined ground-based in situ measurements 5 and satellite retrievals and using only satellite retrievals. The obtained values of ACI were highest for in situ ground-based data, clearly lower for combined ground-based and satellite data, and lowest for data relying solely on satellite retrievals. One of the key findings of this study was the high sensitivity of ACI to the definition of the aerosol burden. We showed that at least a part of the variability in ACI can be explained by 10 how different investigators have related dierent cloud properties to "aerosol burden"

Plant based dietary supplement increases urinary pH

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Research has demonstrated that the net acid load of the typical Western diet has the potential to influence many aspects of human health, including osteoporosis risk/progression; obesity; cardiovascular disease risk/progression; and overall well-being. As urinary pH provides a reliable surrogate measure for dietary acid load, this study examined whether a plant-based dietary supplement, one marketed to increase alkalinity, impacts urinary pH as advertised.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using pH test strips, the urinary pH of 34 healthy men and women (33.9 +/- 1.57 y, 79.3 +/- 3.1 kg) was measured for seven days to establish a baseline urinary pH without supplementation. After this initial baseline period, urinary pH was measured for an additional 14 days while participants ingested the plant-based nutritional supplement. At the end of the investigation, pH values at baseline and during the treatment period were compared to determine the efficacy of the supplement.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean urinary pH statistically increased (p = 0.03) with the plant-based dietary supplement. Mean urinary pH was 6.07 +/- 0.04 during the baseline period and increased to 6.21 +/- 0.03 during the first week of treatment and to 6.27 +/- 0.06 during the second week of treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Supplementation with a plant-based dietary product for at least seven days increases urinary pH, potentially increasing the alkalinity of the body.</p

Longitudinal stability augmentation of seaplanes in planing

The towing tank experiments conducted at Yokohama National University from November 30 to December 9 in 2005 suggested a new way of suppressing a dangerous coupled motion between heave and pitch called porpoising. The research in this paper was developed on the observations made in the experiments and conducted numerical simulations to further investigate the parametric design space. Two linear-time-invariant models were developed: rigid-body planing craft (conventional float planes or flying boats), and flexibly supported planing craft. The latter could simulate the new method found in the experiments for suppressing porpoising. In this study, the stability of the oscillatory motions was analyzed to see the effect of design variables on the inception of porpoising. The parametric study of flexibly supported float planes in the context of porpoising was a new contribution in the conceptual design of seaplanes

Analyzing the Effect of Intraseasonal Meteorological Variability and Land Cover on Aerosol-Cloud Interactions During the Amazonian Biomass Burning Season

High resolution aerosol, cloud, water vapor, and atmospheric profile data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are utilized to examine the impact of aerosols on clouds during the Amazonian biomass burning season in Rondnia, Brazil. It is found that increasing background column water vapor (CWV) throughout this transition season between the Amazon dry and wet seasons exerts a strong effect on cloud properties. As a result, aerosol-cloud correlations should be stratified by column water vapor to achieve a more accurate assessment of the effect of aerosols on clouds. Previous studies ignored the systematic changes to meteorological factors during the transition season, leading to possible misinterpretation of their results. Cloud fraction is shown generally to increase with aerosol optical depth (AOD) for both low and high values of column water vapor, whereas the relationship between cloud optical depth (COD) and AOD exhibits a different relationship. COD increases with AOD until AOD approx. 0.25 due to the first indirect (microphysical) effect. At higher values of AOD, COD is found to decrease with increasing AOD, which may be due to: (1) the inhibition of cloud development by absorbing aerosols (radiative effect) and/or (2) a retrieval artifact in which the measured reflectance in the visible is less than expected from a cloud top either from the darkening of clouds through the addition of carbonaceous biomass burning aerosols or subpixel dark surface contamination in the measured cloud reflectance. If (1) is a contributing mechanism, as we suspect, then a linear relationship between the indirect effect and increasing AOD, assumed in a majority of GCMs, is inaccurate since these models do not include treatment of aerosol absorption in and around clouds. The effect of aerosols on both column water vapor and clouds over varying land surface types is also analyzed. The study finds that the difference in column water vapor between forest and pasture is not correlated with aerosol loading, supporting the assumption that temporal variation of column water vapor is primarily a function of the larger-scale meteorology. However, a difference in the response of cloud fraction to increasing AOD is observed between forest and pasture. This suggests that dissimilarities between other meteorological factors, such as atmospheric stability, are likely to have an impact on aerosol-cloud correlations between different land-cover types

Stratifying Tropical Fires by Land Cover: Insights into Amazonian Fires, Aerosol Loading, and Regional Deforestation

This study analyzes changes in the number of fires detected on forest, grass, and transition lands during the 2002-2009 biomass burning seasons using fire detection data and co-located land cover classifications from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We find that the total number of detected fires correlates well with MODIS mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) from year to year, in accord with other studies. However, we also show that the ratio of forest to savanna fires varies substantially from year to year. Forest fires have trended downward, on average, since the beginning of 2006 despite a modest increase in 2007. Our study suggests that high particulate matter loading detected in 2007 was likely due to a large number of savanna/agricultural fires that year. Finally, we illustrate that the correlation between annual Brazilian deforestation estimates and MODIS fires is considerably higher when fires are stratified by MODIS-derived land cover classifications

Certifications Offered by Cost Estimating Organizations

There has been an increasing trend in professional and engineering circles to place greater emphasis on official credentials. These credentials commonly come in the form of certificates – documented recognition by a professional body that an engineer or other professional has the qualifications and technical knowledge to be a practitioner in that field. These certificates are somewhat analogous to merit badges in scouting – the certification is evidence that the holder has a certain minimum level of competence in the subject area. This review will help you decide what certifications are applicable to you and the requirements to obtain a certification

High (but Not Low) Urinary Iodine Excretion Is Predicted by Iodine Excretion Levels from Five Years Ago

Background: It has not been investigated whether there are associations between urinary iodine (UI) excretion measurements some years apart, nor whether such an association remains after adjustment for nutritional habits. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between iodine-creatinine ratio (ICR) at two measuring points 5 years apart. Methods: Data from 2,659 individuals from the Study of Health in Pomerania were analyzed. Analysis of covariance and Poisson regressions were used to associate baseline with follow-up ICR. Results: Baseline ICR was associated with follow-up ICR. Particularly, baseline ICR >300 mu g/g was related to an ICR >300 mu g/g at follow-up (relative risk, RR: 2.20; p < 0.001). The association was stronger in males (RR: 2.64; p < 0.001) than in females (RR: 1.64; p = 0.007). In contrast, baseline ICR <100 mu g/g was only associated with an ICR <100 mu g/g at follow-up in males when considering unadjusted ICR. Conclusions: We detected only a weak correlation with respect to low ICR. Studies assessing iodine status in a population should take into account that an individual with a low UI excretion in one measurement is not necessarily permanently iodine deficient. On the other hand, current high ICR could have been predicted by high ICR 5 years ago. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Exploring the differences in cloud properties observed by the Terra and Aqua MODIS Sensors

The aerosol-cloud interaction in different parts of the globe is examined here using multi-year statistics of remotely sensed data from two MODIS sensors aboard NASA&apos;s &lt;i&gt;Terra&lt;/i&gt; (morning) and &lt;i&gt;Aqua&lt;/i&gt; (afternoon) satellites. Simultaneous retrievals of aerosol loadings and cloud properties by the MODIS sensor allowed us to explore morning-to-afternoon variation of liquid cloud fraction (CF) and optical thickness (COT) for clean, moderately polluted and heavily polluted clouds in different seasons. Data analysis for seven-years of MODIS retrievals revealed strong temporal and spatial patterns in morning-to-afternoon variation of cloud fraction and optical thickness over different parts of the global oceans and the land. For the vast areas of stratocumulus cloud regions, the data shows that the days with elevated aerosol abundance were also associated with enhanced afternoon reduction of CF and COT pointing to the possible reduction of the indirect climate forcing. A positive correlation between aerosol optical depth and morning-to-afternoon variation of trade wind cumulus cloud cover was also found over the northern Indian Ocean, though no clear relationship between the concentration of Indo-Asian haze and morning-to-afternoon variation of COT was established. Over the Amazon region during wet conditions, aerosols are associated with an enhanced convective process in which morning shallow warm clouds are organized into afternoon deep convection with greater ice cloud coverage. Analysis presented here demonstrates that the new technique for exploring morning-to-afternoon variability in cloud properties by using the differences in data products from the two daily MODIS overpasses is capable of capturing some of the major features of diurnal variations in cloud properties and can be used for better understanding of aerosol radiative effects

Exploring Aerosols near Clouds with High-Spatial-Resolution Aircraft Remote Sensing During SEAC4RS

Since aerosols are important to our climate system, we seek to observe the variability of aerosol properties within cloud systems. When applied to the satelliteborne Moderateresolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), the Dark Target retrieval algorithm provides global aerosol optical depth (AOD; at 0.55 m) in cloudfree scenes. Since MODIS' resolution (500m pixels, 3 or 10km product) is too coarse for studying nearcloud aerosol, we ported the Dark Target algorithm to the highresolution (~50m pixels) enhancedMODIS Airborne Simulator (eMAS), which flew on the highaltitude ER2 during the Studies of Emissions, Atmospheric Composition, Clouds, and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys Airborne Science Campaign over the United States in 2013. We find that even with aggressive cloud screening, the ~0.5km eMAS retrievals show enhanced AOD, especially within 6 km of a detected cloud. To determine the cause of the enhanced AOD, we analyze additional eMAS products (cloud retrievals and degradedresolution AOD), coregistered Cloud Physics Lidar profiles, MODIS aerosol retrievals, and groundbased Aerosol Robotic Network observations. We also define spatial metrics to indicate local cloud distributions near each retrieval and then separate into nearcloud and farfromcloud environments. The comparisons show that low cloud masking is robust, and unscreened thin cirrus would have only a small impact on retrieved AOD. Some of the enhancement is consistent with clearcloud transition zone microphysics such as aerosol swelling. However, 3D radiation interaction between clouds and the surrounding clear air appears to be the primary cause of the high AOD near clouds