International photovoltaic program. Volume 2: Appendices

The results of analyses conducted in preparation of an international photovoltaic marketing plan are summarized. Included are compilations of relevant statutes and existing Federal programs; strategies designed to expand the use of photovoltaics abroad; information on the domestic photovoltaic plan and its impact on the proposed international plan; perspectives on foreign competition; industry views on the international photovoltaic market and ideas about the how US government actions could affect this market;international financing issues; and information on issues affecting foreign policy and developing countries

The evolution and development of visual perspective taking

I outline three conceptions of seeing that a creature might possess: ‘the headlamp conception,’ which involves an understanding of the causal connections between gazing at an object, certain mental states, and behavior; ‘the stage lights conception,’ which involves an understanding of the selective nature of visual attention; and seeing-as. I argue that infants and various nonhumans possess the headlamp conception. There is also evidence that chimpanzees and 3-year-old children have some grasp of seeing-as. However, due to a dearth of studies, there is no evidence that infants or nonhumans possess the stage lights conception of seeing. I outline the kinds of experiments that are needed, and what we stand to learn about the evolution and development of perspective taking

Earth‐Moon‐Mars Radiation Environment Module framework

[1] We are preparing to return humans to the Moon and setting the stage for exploration to Mars and beyond. However, it is unclear if long missions outside of low-Earth orbit can be accomplished with acceptable risk. The central objective of a new modeling project, the Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Exposure Module (EMMREM), is to develop and validate a numerical module for characterizing time-dependent radiation exposure in the Earth-Moon-Mars and interplanetary space environments. EMMREM is being designed for broad use by researchers to predict radiation exposure by integrating over almost any incident particle distribution from interplanetary space. We detail here the overall structure of the EMMREM module and study the dose histories of the 2003 Halloween storm event and a June 2004 event. We show both the event histories measured at 1 AU and the evolution of these events at observer locations beyond 1 AU. The results are compared to observations at Ulysses. The model allows us to predict how the radiation environment evolves with radial distance from the Sun. The model comparison also suggests areas in which our understanding of the physics of particle propagation and energization needs to be improved to better forecast the radiation environment. Thus, we introduce the suite of EMMREM tools, which will be used to improve risk assessment models so that future human exploration missions can be adequately planned for

Consumer credit information systems: A critical review of the literature. Too little attention paid by lawyers?

This paper reviews the existing literature on consumer credit reporting, the most extensively used instrument to overcome information asymmetry and adverse selection problems in credit markets. Despite the copious literature in economics and some research in regulatory policy, the legal community has paid almost no attention to the legal framework of consumer credit information systems, especially within the context of the European Union. Studies on the topic, however, seem particularly relevant in view of the establishment of a single market for consumer credit. This article ultimately calls for further legal research to address consumer protection concerns and inform future legislation

Time-varying perturbations can distinguish among integrate-to-threshold models for perceptualdecision making in reaction time tasks

Several integrate-to-threshold models with differing temporal integration mechanisms have been proposed to describe the accumulation of sensory evidence to a prescribed level prior to motor response in perceptual decision-making tasks. An experiment and simulation studies have shown that the introduction of time-varying perturbations during integration may distinguish among some of these models. Here, we present computer simulations and mathematical proofs that provide more rigorous comparisons among one-dimensional stochastic differential equation models. Using two perturbation protocols and focusing on the resulting changes in the means and standard deviations of decision times, we show that, for high signal-to-noise ratios, drift-diffusion models with constant and time-varying drift rates can be distinguished from Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes, but not necessarily from each other. The protocols can also distinguish stable from unstable Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes, and we show that a nonlinear integrator can be distinguished from these linear models by changes in standard deviations. The protocols can be implemented in behavioral experiments.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Neural Computatio