2,914 research outputs found
Coyote crossings: the role of smugglers in illegal immigration and border enforcement
Illegal immigration and border enforcement in the United States have increased concomitantly for over thirty years. One interpretation is that U.S. border policies have been ineffective. We offer an alternative view, extending the current immigration-enforcement literature by incorporating both the practice of people smuggling and a role for non-wage income into a two-country, dynamic general equilibrium model. We state conditions under which two steady state equilibria exist: one with a low level of capital, but relatively little migration. We then analyze two shocks: a positive technology shock to smuggling services and an increase in border enforcement. In the low-capital steady state, the capital-labor ratio declines with technological progress in smuggling, while illegal immigration increases. In the high-capital steady state, a technology shock causes the capital-labor ratio to rise while the effect on migration is indeterminate. We show that an increase in border enforcement is qualitatively equivalent to a negative technology shock to smuggling. Finally, we show that a developed country would never choose small levels of border enforcement over an open border. Moreover, a high level of border enforcement is optimal only if it significantly decreases capital accumulation. In addition, we provide conditions under which an increase in smuggler technology will lead to a decline in the optimal level of enforcement.Emigration and immigration ; Mexico
Model selection in cosmology
Model selection aims to determine which theoretical models are most plausible given some data, without necessarily considering preferred values of model parameters. A common model selection question is to ask when new data require introduction of an additional parameter, describing a newly discovered physical effect. We review model selection statistics, then focus on the Bayesian evidence, which implements Bayesian analysis at the level of models rather than parameters. We describe our CosmoNest code, the first computationally efficient implementation of Bayesian model selection in a cosmological context. We apply it to recent WMAP satellite data, examining the need for a perturbation spectral index differing from the scaleinvariant (Harrison–Zel'dovich) case
Background Simulations of the Wide Field Imager of the ATHENA X-Ray Observatory
The ATHENA X-ray Observatory-IXO is a planned multinational orbiting X-ray
observatory with a focal length of 11.5m. ATHENA aims to perform pointed
observations in an energy range from 0.1 keV to 15 keV with high sensitivity.
For high spatial and timing resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations
the 640x640 pixel^2 large DePFET-technology based Wide field Imager (WFI) focal
plane detector, providing a field of view of 18 arcsec will be the main
detector. Based on the actual mechanics, thermal and shielding design we
present estimates for the WFI cosmic ray induced background obtained by the use
of Monte-Carlo simulations and possible background reduction measures.Comment: IEEE NSS MIC Conference 2011, Valencia, Spai
R&D on co-working transport schemes in Geant4
A research and development (R&D) project related to the extension of the
Geant4 toolkit has been recently launched to address fundamental methods in
radiation transport simulation. The project focuses on simulation at different
scales in the same experimental environment; this problem requires new methods
across the current boundaries of condensed-random-walk and discrete transport
schemes. The new developments have been motivated by experimental requirements
in various domains, including nanodosimetry, astronomy and detector
developments for high energy physics applications.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of the CHEP (Computing in High
Energy Physics) 2009 conferenc
OrgTrace – No Difference in Levels of Bioactive Compounds found in Crops from Selected Organic and Conventional Cultivation Systems
The objective of the present study was to compare the content of selected bioactive compounds in organically and conventionally grown crops, and to evaluate if the ability of the crops to synthesize selected secondary metabolites was systematically affected by growth systems across different growth years as well as soil types.
The results showed that contents of neither polyacetylenes and carotenoids in carrots, flavonoids in onions, nor phenolic acids in carrots and potatoes were significantly influenced by growth system. Thus it could not be concluded that the organically grown crops had higher contents of bioactive compounds than the conventionally grown. This indicates that giving preference to organic products because they contain more bioactive components is doubtfull. However, there are many other reasons for the consumer to choose organic food products, including: no pesticide residues in foods, animal welfare, and environmental protection
Validation of Geant4-based Radioactive Decay Simulation
Radioactive decays are of concern in a wide variety of applications using
Monte-Carlo simulations. In order to properly estimate the quality of such
simulations, knowledge of the accuracy of the decay simulation is required. We
present a validation of the original Geant4 Radioactive Decay Module, which
uses a per-decay sampling approach, and of an extended package for Geant4-based
simulation of radioactive decays, which, in addition to being able to use a
refactored per-decay sampling, is capable of using a statistical sampling
approach. The validation is based on measurements of calibration isotope
sources using a high purity Germanium (HPGe) detector; no calibration of the
simulation is performed. For the considered validation experiment equivalent
simulation accuracy can be achieved with per-decay and statistical sampling
- …