Systematic Review of Supported Housing Literature 1993 – 2008

Supported housing for individuals with severe mental illness strives to provide the services necessary to place and keep individuals in independent housing that is integrated into the community and in which the consumer has choice and control over his or her services and supports. Supported housing can be contrasted to an earlier model called the “linear residential approach” in which individuals are moved from the most restrictive settings (e.g., inpatient settings) through a series of more independent settings (e.g., group homes, supervised apartments) and then finally to independent housing. This approach has been criticized as punishing the client due to frequent moves, and as being less likely to result in independent housing. In the supported housing model (Anthony & Blanch, 1988) consumers have choice and control over their living environment, their treatment, and supports (e.g., case management, mental health and substance abuse services). Supports are flexible and faded in and out depending on needs. Results of this systematic review of supported housing suggest that there are several well-controlled studies of supported housing and several studies conducted with less rigorous designs. Overall, our synthesis suggests that supported housing can improve the living situation of individuals who are psychiatrically disabled, homeless and with substance abuse problems. Results show that supported housing can help people stay in apartments or homes up to about 80% of the time over an extended period. These results are contrary to concerns expressed by proponents of the linear residential model and housing models that espoused more restrictive environments. Results also show that housing subsidies or vouchers are helpful in getting and keeping individuals housed. Housing services appear to be cost effective and to reduce the costs of other social and clinical services. In order to be most effective, intensive case management services (rather than traditional case management) are needed and will generally lead to better housing outcomes. Having access to affordable housing and having a service system that is well-integrated is also important. Providing a person with supported housing reduces the likelihood that they will be re-hospitalized, although supported housing does not always lead to reduced psychiatric symptoms. Supported housing can improve clients’ quality of life and satisfaction with their living situation. Providing supported housing options that are of decent quality is important in order to keep people housed and satisfied with their housing. In addition, rapid entry into housing, with the provision of choices is critical. Program and clinical supports may be able to mitigate the social isolation that has sometimes been associated with supported housing.National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Grant # (H133A050006

Conservation Payments under Risk: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Conservation payments can be used to preserve forest and agroforest systems. To explain landowners’ land-use decisions and determine appropriate conservation payments, it is necessary to focus on revenue risk. Marginal conditional stochastic dominance rules are used to derive conditions for determining the conservation payments required to guarantee that the environmentally-preferred land use dominates. An empirical application to shaded-coffee protection in the biologically important Chocó region of West-Ecuador shows that conservation payments required for preserving shaded-coffee areas are much higher than those calculated under risk-neutral assumptions. Further, the extant distribution of land has strong impacts on the required payments.agroforest systems, conservation payments, land allocation, portfolio diversification, risk, stochastic dominance

Conservation Payments under Risk: A Stochastic Dominance Approach

Conservation payments can be used to preserve forest and agroforest systems in developing countries. To explain landowners’ land-use decisions and determine the appropriate conservation payments, it is necessary to focus on risk associated with agricultural price and yield volatility. A theoretical framework is provided for assessing land-use allocation problems under risk and setting risk-efficient conservation payments when returns are not necessary normally distributed. Stochastic dominance rules are used to derive conditions for determining the conservation payments required to guarantee that the environmentally-preferred land use dominates, even when land uses are not considered to be mutually exclusive. An empirical application to shaded-coffee protection in the biologically important El Chocó region of West Ecuador shows that conservation payments required for preserving shaded-coffee areas are much higher than those calculated under the assumption of risk-neutrality. Further, the extant distribution of land has a strong impact on the required conservation payments.risk, conservation payments, land allocation, stochastic dominance, agroforest systems, portfolio diversification

Design and construction of a fresnel linear distiller

It was designed a Fresnel linear distiller based on optical calculations obtained from taking into account Lima's latitude value, Earth inclination angle and heat absorber cavity's dimensions. The 5.6 m^sup 2^ reflective surface concentrator of the distiller was constructed with 32 plane rectangular mirrors; the heat absorber cavity was made with a rectangular blackened aluminum tube 1 m long and installed 2.5 m over the plane of mirrors. The Fresnel linear distiller was installed at the University of Lima and experimental tests were performed during no cloudy summer days. There were measured ambient temperature, heat absorber cavity temperature, radiant flux and fresh water volume. From this, it was obtained a production of 0.89 liters/hour and 0.79 L/m^sup 2^, and it was calculated a total performance of 34.5% in desalting sea water. Finally, it is presented a comparison between Fresnel linear distiller (FLD) and parabolic trough distiller (PTD) with similar dimensions and characteristics. It is obtained that the last one produced almost 32% more fresh water than the former, but at the same time, the FLD is almost 20% cheaper than PTD. However, water cost production with both distillers using is almost the same

Future projections of hurricane intensity in the southeastern U.S.: sensitivity to different Pseudo-Global Warming methods

Tropical cyclones are prone to cause fatalities and damages reaching far into billions of US Dollars. There is evidence that these events could intensify under ongoing global warming, and accordingly disaster prevention and adaptation strategies are necessary. We apply Pseudo-Global Warming (PGW) as a computational cost-efficient alternative to conventional long-term modeling, enabling the assessment of historical events under future storylines. Not many studies specifically assess the sensitivity of PGW in the context of short-term extreme events in the United States. In an attempt to close this gap, this study explores the sensitivity of hurricane intensity to different PGW configurations, including a purely thermodynamic, a dynamic, and a more comprehensive modulation of initial and boundary conditions using the Weather and Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). The climate perturbations are calculated using two individual CMIP6 climate models with a relatively low and high temperature change and the CMIP6 ensemble mean, all under SSP5-8.5. WRF was set up in a two-way nesting framework using domains of 25 and 5 km spatial resolution. Results show that high uncertainties exist between the thermodynamic and dynamic approaches, whereas the deviations between the dynamic approach and the comprehensive variable modulation are low. Hurricanes modeled under the thermodynamic approach tend toward higher intensities, whereas the perturbation of wind under the dynamic approach may impose unwanted effects on cyclogenesis, for example due to increased vertical wind shear. The highest sensitivity, however, stems from the selected CMIP6 model. We conclude that PGW studies should thoroughly assess uncertainties imposed by the PGW scheme, similar to those imposed by model parameterizations. All simulation results suggest an increase in maximum wind speeds and precipitation for the high impact model and the ensemble mean. An unfolding of the inspected events in a warmer world could therefore exacerbate the impacts on nature and society

Model Unspecific Search in CMS

We present the results of a model independent analysis, which systematically scans the data taken by CMS for deviations from the Standard Model predictions. Due to the minimal theoretical bias this approach is sensitive to a variety of models for new physics. Events with at least one electron or muon are classified according to their content of reconstructed objects (muons, electrons, photons, jets and missing transverse energy). A broad scan of three kinematic distributions in those classes is performed by identifying deviations from Standard Model expectations, accounting for systematic uncertainties.Comment: Presented at the 2011 Hadron Collider Physics symposium (HCP-2011), Paris, France, November 14-18 2011, 2 pages, 3 figur

Mask aligner for ultrahigh vacuum with capacitive distance control

We present a mask aligner driven by three piezo motors which guides and aligns a SiN shadow mask under capacitive control towards a sample surface. The three capacitors for read out are located at the backside of the thin mask such that the mask can be placed in $\mu$m distance from the sample surface, while keeping it parallel to the surface. Samples and masks can be exchanged in-situ and the mask can additionally be displaced parallel to the surface. We demonstrate an edge sharpness of the deposited structures below 100 nm, which is likely limited by the diffusion of the deposited Au on Si(111).Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Complexity aversion in risky choices and valuations: Moderators and possible causes

In the age of digitalization and globalization, an abundance of information is available, and our decision environments have become increasingly complex. However, it remains unclear under what circumstances complexity affects risk taking. In two experiments with monetary lotteries (one with a stratified national sample), we investigate behavioral effects and provide a cognitive explanation for the impact of complexity on risk taking. Results show that complexity, defined as the number of possible outcomes of a risky lottery, decreased the choice probability of an option but had a smaller and less consistent effect when evaluating lotteries independently. Importantly, choices of participants who spent more time looking at the complex option were less affected by complexity. A tendency to avoid cognitive effort can explain these effects, as the effort associated with evaluating the complex option can be sidestepped in choice tasks, but less so in valuation tasks. Further, the effect of complexity on valuations was influenced by individual differences in cognitive ability, such that people with higher cognitive ability showed less complexity aversion. Together, the results show that the impact of complexity on risk taking depends on both, decision format and individual differences and we discuss cognitive processes that could give rise to these effects