Canada's Nuclear Crossroads: Steps to a Viable Nuclear Energy Industry

Canada is at an energy and environmental crossroad. Fossil fuels cause environmental damage and the growth potential of large-scale hydroelectricity is limited. Policymakers are reconsidering the merits of nuclear power as both a low-carbon emitting and low-cost base load electricity source. While nuclear power may look like an attractive option, nuclear power must overcome problems such as the high and uncertain cost of construction, dealing with nuclear waste, reactor licensing and regulation, and the future of Canada’s nuclear reactor builder, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), a federal Crown corporation.economic growth and innovation, energy and environmental policy

Loss Aversion and Intertemporal Choice: A Laboratory Investigation

We present results from a laboratory study of loss aversion in the context of intertemporal choice. We investigate whether the provision of (windfall) endowments results in different elicited discount rates relative to subjects who earn income or earn and retain the income for a period before making intertemporal decisions. We hypothesize that loss aversion in an intertemporal choice yields higher discount rates among subjects earning and retaining. Our results support this hypothesis: among subjects who earn and retain their income we elicit substantially higher discount rates relative to those experiencing a windfall gain.intertemporal choice, discount rates, experiments

Man and machine thinking about the smooth 4-dimensional Poincar\'e conjecture

While topologists have had possession of possible counterexamples to the smooth 4-dimensional Poincar\'{e} conjecture (SPC4) for over 30 years, until recently no invariant has existed which could potentially distinguish these examples from the standard 4-sphere. Rasmussen's s-invariant, a slice obstruction within the general framework of Khovanov homology, changes this state of affairs. We studied a class of knots K for which nonzero s(K) would yield a counterexample to SPC4. Computations are extremely costly and we had only completed two tests for those K, with the computations showing that s was 0, when a landmark posting of Akbulut (arXiv:0907.0136) altered the terrain. His posting, appearing only six days after our initial posting, proved that the family of ``Cappell--Shaneson'' homotopy spheres that we had geared up to study were in fact all standard. The method we describe remains viable but will have to be applied to other examples. Akbulut's work makes SPC4 seem more plausible, and in another section of this paper we explain that SPC4 is equivalent to an appropriate generalization of Property R (``in S^3, only an unknot can yield S^1 x S^2 under surgery''). We hope that this observation, and the rich relations between Property R and ideas such as taut foliations, contact geometry, and Heegaard Floer homology, will encourage 3-manifold topologists to look at SPC4.Comment: 37 pages; changes reflecting that the integer family of Cappell-Shaneson spheres are now known to be standard (arXiv:0907.0136

Ankylosing Spondylitis: with special reference to its treatment by x-ray therapy

In this Thesis I have made a study of the aetiology, the symptomatology and the clinical and radiological signs presented by a series of cases of ankylosing spondylitis which I have personally observed.The treatment policy adopted is described and an attempt is made to assess the value of this treatment in relieving symptoms and in arresting the disease.Historical and pathological notes on the disease are included and recent advances in its aetiology and treatment are discussed