Urban water management: optimal price and investment policy under uncertainty

Australian urban water utilities face a significant challenge in designing appropriate demand management and supply augmentation policies in the presence of increasing water scarcity and uncertainty over future dam inflows. This paper considers the design of optimal demand management and supply augmentation policies for urban water. In particular, scarcity pricing is considered as a potential alternative to the predominant demand management policy of water restrictions. A stochastic dynamic programming model of an urban water market is developed based on data from the Australian Capital Territory. The model involves an explicit consideration of uncertainty via a probability distribution over dam inflows. Given a specification of the demand and supply for urban water, state dependent optimal price and investment policies are estimated. The results illustrate how the optimal urban water price varies inversely with the prevailing storage level and how the optimal timing of investment differs significantly between rain dependent and rain independent augmentation options.Public Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

Perimenopausal pneumococcal tubo-ovarian abscess--a case report and review.

BACKGROUND: Genital tract infections in females secondary to Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) are unusual. Tubo-ovarian abscess resulting from such an infection is a rare occurrence and diagnosis is not always easy. This report demonstrates the problems of recognizing this condition and summarizes the pathomechanism, investigations leading to a diagnosis and the subsequent management. CASE: A rare case of a tubo-ovarian abscess caused by pneumococcus, occurring in a previously healthy 48-year-old woman, is presented. The tubo-ovarian abscess may have developed insidiously and probably had an acute exacerbation prior to presentation. CONCLUSION: This case is unusual in that there were no identifiable initiating events for the source of the pneumococcal infection. Early recognition of a tubo-ovarian abscess is important in order to prevent the associated morbidity and mortality. This condition has the propensity to mimic a neoplasm

The Robertson v. Princeton Case: Too Important to Be Left to the Lawyers

Offers comments from eleven contributors on the Robertson family's donor rights suit against the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs for violation of donor intent. Explores its effects on and implications for the nonprofit sector

Ιστορική και πολεοδομική εξέλιξη της πόλης του Βερολίνου - Συγκριτική μελέτη αναβάθμισης υποβαθμισμένων περιοχών σε Αθήνα και Βερολίνο

130 σ.Αντικείμενο της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η ιστορική αναδρομή και πολεοδομική εξέλιξη της πόλης του Βερολίνου από την ίδρυσή της μέχρι σήμερα, όπως και η σύγκριση δύο πρώην υποβαθμισμένων περιοχών που αναβαθμίστηκαν τις τελευταίες δύο δεκαετίες, σε Βερολίνο και Αθήνα αντίστοιχα. Η περιγραφή αυτή έχει ως σκοπό την παρουσίαση της σπουδαιότητας και του ρόλου του Βερολίνου δια μέσου των αιώνων, την επισήμανση των πολιτικών, νομοθετικών και πολεοδομικών γεγονότων και εξελίξεων που έπαιξαν σημαντικό ρόλο στην πορεία του, καθώς και τον εντοπισμό ομοιοτήτων και διαφορών από την ανάλυση της σύγκρισης των δύο περιοχών μελέτης. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αποτελείται από έξι κεφάλαια. Στο Κεφάλαιο 1 δίνονται γενικές πληροφορίες για το Βερολίνο, περιγράφοντας τη γεωγραφική θέση και έκταση, το κλίμα, τον πληθυσμό, τα δημογραφικά στοιχεία και την διοικητική διαίρεση της πόλης. Στο Κεφάλαιο 2 παρουσιάζεται η ιστορική αναδρομή του Βερολίνου από την ίδρυση του το 1237 μέχρι και σήμερα, επισημαίνοντας τα σημαντικότερα ιστορικά γεγονότα. Στο Κεφάλαιο 3 αναλύονται πολεοδομικά σχέδια (Σχέδια Χρήσης Γης), που έπαιξαν σημαντικό ρόλο στην εξέλιξη του Βερολίνου, ως προς τον σκοπό, το περιεχόμενο και τις επιπτώσεις τους, περιγράφοντας παράλληλα την πολιτική, νομοθετική και πολεοδομική εξέλιξη της πόλης. Στο Κεφάλαιο 4 εξετάζεται η αναβάθμιση της περιοχή μελέτης Warschauer Straße του Βερολίνου. Στο Κεφάλαιο 5 εξετάζεται η αναβάθμιση της περιοχής μελέτης του Γκαζιού της Αθήνας. Στο Κεφάλαιο 6 περιλαμβάνονται τα συμπεράσματα και τα αποτελέσματα της σύγκρισης των δύο περιοχών μελέτης.Subject of the thesis is the historical overview and urban development of the city of Berlin from its foundation until today, as well as the comparison of two formerly degraded areas that have been upgraded over the past two decades, in Berlin and Athens respectively. This description is intended to show the importance and role of Berlin through the ages, highlight political, legislative and planning events and developments that played an important role in its course, and identify similarities and differences from the comparison analysis of the two study areas. This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 contains general information about Berlin, describing the geographical location and area, climate, population, demographics and administrative division of the city. Chapter 2 presents the historical overview of Berlin from its founding in 1237 until today, highlighting the most important historical events. In Chapter 3 we continue with the analysis of the aim, the contents, and the impact of urban plans (Land Use Plans), which played an important role in the evolution of Berlin, while describing the political, legislative and urban development of the city. Chapter 4 examines the upgrade of the study area Warschauer Straße, Berlin. Chapter 5 examines the upgrade of the study area of Gazi, Athens. Chapter 6 gives the conclusions and results of the comparison of the two study areas.Βασίλειος Σ. Βλάχο

The VIRUS-P Exploration of Nearby Galaxies (VENGA): Survey Design, Data Processing, and Spectral Analysis Methods

We present the survey design, data reduction, and spectral fitting pipeline for the VIRUS-P Exploration of Nearby Galaxies (VENGA). VENGA is an integral field spectroscopic survey, which maps the disks of 30 nearby spiral galaxies. Targets span a wide range in Hubble type, star formation activity, morphology, and inclination. The VENGA data-cubes have 5.6'' FWHM spatial resolution, ~5A FWHM spectral resolution, sample the 3600A-6800A range, and cover large areas typically sampling galaxies out to ~0.7 R_25. These data-cubes can be used to produce 2D maps of the star formation rate, dust extinction, electron density, stellar population parameters, the kinematics and chemical abundances of both stars and ionized gas, and other physical quantities derived from the fitting of the stellar spectrum and the measurement of nebular emission lines. To exemplify our methods and the quality of the data, we present the VENGA data-cube on the face-on Sc galaxy NGC 628 (a.k.a. M 74). The VENGA observations of NGC 628 are described, as well as the construction of the data-cube, our spectral fitting method, and the fitting of the stellar and ionized gas velocity fields. We also propose a new method to measure the inclination of nearly face-on systems based on the matching of the stellar and gas rotation curves using asymmetric drift corrections. VENGA will measure relevant physical parameters across different environments within these galaxies, allowing a series of studies on star formation, structure assembly, stellar populations, chemical evolution, galactic feedback, nuclear activity, and the properties of the interstellar medium in massive disk galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ, 25 pages, 18 figures, 6 table

The VIRUS-P Exploration of Nearby Galaxies (VENGA): Survey Design and First Results

VENGA is a large-scale extragalactic IFU survey, which maps the bulges, bars and large parts of the outer disks of 32 nearby normal spiral galaxies. The targets are chosen to span a wide range in Hubble types, star formation activities, morphologies, and inclinations, at the same time of having vast available multi-wavelength coverage from the far-UV to the mid-IR, and available CO and 21cm mapping. The VENGA dataset will provide 2D maps of the SFR, stellar and gas kinematics, chemical abundances, ISM density and ionization states, dust extinction and stellar populations for these 32 galaxies. The uniqueness of the VIRUS-P large field of view permits these large-scale mappings to be performed. VENGA will allow us to correlate all these important quantities throughout the different environments present in galactic disks, allowing the conduction of a large number of studies in star formation, structure assembly, galactic feedback and ISM in galaxies.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the "Third Biennial Frank N. Bash Symposium, New Horizons in Astronomy" held in Austin, TX, Oct. 2009. To be published in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, eds. L. Stanford, L. Hao, Y. Mao, J. Gree

An Analysis of the Environments of FU Orionis Objects with Herschel

We present Herschel-HIFI, SPIRE, and PACS 50-670 {\mu}m imaging and spectroscopy of six FU Orionis-type objects and candidates (FU Orionis, V1735 Cyg, V1515 Cyg, V1057 Cyg, V1331 Cyg, and HBC 722), ranging in outburst date from 1936-2010, from the "FOOSH" (FU Orionis Objects Surveyed with Herschel) program, as well as ancillary results from Spitzer-IRS and the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. In their system properties (Lbol, Tbol, line emission), we find that FUors are in a variety of evolutionary states. Additionally, some FUors have features of both Class I and II sources: warm continuum consistent with Class II sources, but rotational line emission typical of Class I, far higher than Class II sources of similar mass/luminosity. Combining several classification techniques, we find an evolutionary sequence consistent with previous mid-IR indicators. We detect [O I] in every source at luminosities consistent with Class 0/I protostars, much greater than in Class II disks. We detect transitions of 13CO (J_up of 5 to 8) around two sources (V1735 Cyg and HBC 722) but attribute them to nearby protostars. Of the remaining sources, three (FU Ori, V1515 Cyg, and V1331 Cyg) exhibit only low-lying CO, but one (V1057 Cyg) shows CO up to J = 23 - 22 and evidence for H2O and OH emission, at strengths typical of protostars rather than T Tauri stars. Rotational temperatures for "cool" CO components range from 20-81 K, for ~ 10^50 total CO molecules. We detect [C I] and [N II] primarily as diffuse emission.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures; accepted to Ap