On the use of Satellite Television in High Energy Physics

This paper assesses the feasibility of exploiting commercial satellite television technologies to broadcast video signals and data from major High Energy Physics facilities to collaborating institutes throughout the world.Comment: Invited talk at CHEP'98, Chicago, USA, August 31 - September 4, 199

INCENTIVE COMPATIBLE REFERENDA AND THE VALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS

Recent attempts to test the validity of the contingent valuation method have relied on laboratory-type experiments. In these experiments, willingness to pay responses in hypothetical choice experiments are compared with responses from choice experiments requiring actual payments. Often evidence of hypothetical bias is found. Critical for these experimental tests of hypothetical surveys is that the methodology used to elicit willingness to pay from subjects in the real-payment experiment be demand revealing. If it is not, then differences in responses to hypothetical and real valuation questions could be due to free-riding in the real-payment survey and not due to hypothetical bias in the hypothetical survey. This paper reports on experiments that implement a theoretically incentive-compatible revelation mechanism (a closed referendum) to elicit responses to valuation questions in both hypothetical and real experiments. As in earlier studies, evidence of an upward hypothetical bias is found.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Lightweight piston architecture

The invention is an improvement in a lightweight carbon-carbon composite piston, the improvement uses near-net shape knitted or warp-interlock preforms to improve the structural qualities of the piston. In its preferred embodiment, a one piece, tubular, closed-ended, knitted preform (a sock) of carbon fibers embedded within the matrix of the piston structure forms the crown, side wall, skirt and inner surface of the piston, and wrap-interlock preforms strengthen the piston crown and wrist pin bosses

Use Permits: A Hedonistic Approach Applied to Farmland in the Southeastern US

In the State of Georgia, any agricultural producer who wishes to pump more than 100,000 gallons of water a day for crop irrigation is required to have an irrigation permit. The permit stays with the land and in the event of sale the permit is transferred with the property. Until recently, permits were essentially granted freely to all applicants in the Flint River water basin, without limit. In 1999, however, with increasing demand for water from growing urban Atlanta and several years of drought in the Southeast, the state of Georgia placed a moratorium on the issuance of agricultural water permits in the Flint River basin. This research exploits this policy change within a hedonic pricing framework to estimate the value of irrigation rights in the Southeast US. While the value of irrigation rights has been studied extensively in the western US, differences in property rights and legal regimes, as well as a lack of established water-rights markets in the East, leave us with little information regarding the value of irrigation rights in this setting. Working Paper 06-4

Global Health Law: A Definition and Grand Challenges

It has been only recently that scholars have engaged in a serious discussion of public health law. This academic discourse examines the role of the state and civil society in health promotion and disease prevention within the country. There is an important emerging literature on the international dimensions of health, but no similar systematic definition and exposition of a field we call global health law. In this article we aim to fill this gap by defining global health law and characterizing the grand challenges. Given the rapid and expanding globalization that is a defining feature of today\u27s world, the need for a coherent system of international health law and governance has never been greater. We begin with a discussion of the health hazards posed by contemporary globalization on human health and the consequent urgent need for global health law to facilitate effective multilateral cooperation in advancing the health of populations equitably. We then offer a definition of the emerging field of global health law. After explicating the central features identified in our definition, we turn to an examination of the grand challenges – legal, political, and social – to reaching the full potential of global health law to advance human health in just and effective ways. Our definition of global health law follows, and the remainder of this section explains the salient aspects of the definition: Global health law is the study of the legal norms, processes, and institutions needed to create the conditions for people throughout the world to attain the highest possible level of physical and mental health. The field seeks to facilitate health-promoting behaviour among the key actors that significantly influence the public\u27s health, including international organizations, governments, businesses, foundations, the media, and civil society. Global health law should stimulate investment in research and development, mobilize resources, set priorities, coordinate activities, monitor progress, create incentives, and enforce standards. The field should be guided by the value of social justice, and seek equitable distribution of health services, particularly to benefit the world’s poorest populations. The domain of global health law primarily is concerned with (1) formal sources of public international law, including, for example, treaties establishing the authority and responsibility of states for the health of their populations and duties of international cooperation, and (2) formal subjects of international law, including states, individuals, and public international organizations. However, to be an effective global health governance strategy, global health law must evolve beyond its traditional confines of formal sources and subjects of international law. It must foster more effective collective global health action among governments, businesses, civil society and other actors. Accordingly, our definition of global health law is prescriptive as well as descriptive: it sets out the sort of international legal framework needed, but still unavailable, to empower the world community to advance global health in accordance with the value of social justice

Using Meta Analysis for Benefits Transfer: Theory and Practice

Meta-analysis, or the "study of studies", attempts to statistically measure systematic relationships between reported valuation estimates for an environmental good or service and attributes of the study that generated the estimates including valuation methods, human population and sample characteristics, and characteristics of the good or service itself. In this paper, we discuss the general theory behind and practice of the emerging use of meta-analysis for benefits transfer. If carefully conducted following systematic protocols for model development, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation, we believe that meta-analysis may prove to be a useful tool for benefits transfer in particular applications. However, before widespread application of this method, more convergent validity tests are needed. One of the greatest strengths of using meta-analysis for benefits transfer is the ability to combine and summarize large amounts of information from previous studies. This strength can also lead to one of the greatest weaknesses of this method which is the loss of important valuation details across time and space in the aggregation process. Thus, application of this method to policy questions and issues should always proceed with caution.

Cylindrical Crystal Imaging Spectrometer (CCIS) for cosmic X-ray spectroscopy

A "stigmatic" focusing, Bragg crystal spectrometer was developed and used for high spectral resolution X-ray emission line diagnostics on hot laboratory plasmas. The concept be applied at the focal plane of an orbiting X-ray telescope where it offers several advantages over conventional spectrometers, i.e., mechanical simplicity, high resolving power and sensitivity, simultaneous measurement of an extended segment of spectrum, and good imaging properties. The instrument features a simple, unambiguous, non-scanning spectrum readout that is not adversely affected by either spacecraft pointing error or source extent. The performance of the instrument is estimated in the context of the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysical Facility mission

Altruism Spillovers: Are Behaviors in Context-Free Experiments Predictive of Altruism Toward a Naturally Occurring Public Good?

This paper addresses the external validity of experiments investigating the characteristics of altruism in the voluntary provision of public goods. We conduct two related experiments that allow us to examine whether individuals who act more altruistically in the context-free environment are also more likely to act altruistically toward a naturally-occurring public good. We find that laboratory behavior can be predictive of contributions toward naturally-occurring goods, but not in a uniform way. In fact, parametric measures of altruism do a poor job of predicting which subjects are most likely to contribute to a naturally-occurring public good.

Developing Offset Banking Systems in Georgia

Offset banking involves a public or private entity investing in a project that has the effect of substantially reducing a targeted pollutant(s), such as sediment runoff, phosphorus, heavy metals, etc. This project is referred to as "the bank." The entity creating the bank receives "credits" for the associated reduction in pollutants, which it can then sell to publically-owned treatment works (POTWs) or other point source polluters facing high costs of meeting discharge standards. Trades can be allowed on a 1-to-1 basis: the buyer obtains one credit for each creditequivalent increase in pollution associated with his/her activities; or higher trading ratios can be required, e.g., 3:1, where the buyer must acquire (in this example) three credits for each creditequivalent increase in pollution associated with his/her activities. In this latter case trades result in actual environmental improvements.This paper addresses two major issues. The first refers to the steps required to establish a pilot project for one or more offset banking projects in Georgia. These steps are: identifying entities with incentives to purchase offset credits; identifying one or more entities that might establish a bank, and potential bank sites; establishing trading rules with appropriate local water quality management authorities; and obtaining approval of the proposed trading program from the U.S. EPA.The second major issue addressed in the paper is means by which an offset bank might be created. For this purpose, a brief survey is offered of existing water quality trading projects in the U.S.. Buyers of offset credits are virtually always point-source polluters (POTWs or industries). Point and non-point projects have been used as "banks" -- as a source for offset banking credits. Attention in this paper is focused on non-point sources that might serve as banks for pilot offset banking projects in Georgia. Both low- and high-technology alternatives that might be used for such projects are discussed.Notwithstanding incentive-related limitations on the number of point source polluters that might constitute the "demand" for offset credits discussed in section II, the authors have identified one entity (Fulton County) that may represent significant demand for credits, and they expect to identify others. Moreover, the authors argue that continued growth in Georgia, particularly in the Atlanta and Coastal areas of the State, will give rise to sufficient numbers of point source entities seeking new discharge permits to warrant interest in offset banking as a means of meeting increasingly stringent discharge restrictions at minimum cost. If or when enforcement of TMDLs gains strength in the State, needs for systems like offset banking will increase accordingly. These considerations, and the associated benefits to Georgians that might attend the establishment of offset banking programs in the State, serve as the rationale for the author's continued interest in exploring means by which pilot offset banking projects can be established in Georgia. Working Paper # 2003-00