54,034 research outputs found
More order with less law: on contract enforcement, trust, and crowding
Most contracts, whether between voters and politicians or between house owners and contractors, are incomplete. “More law,” it typically is assumed, increases the likelihood of contract performance by increasing the probability of enforcement and/or the cost of breach. We examine a contractual relationship in which the first mover has to decide whether she wants to enter a contract without knowing whether the second mover will perform. We analyze how contract enforceability affects individual performance for exogenous preferences. Then we apply a dynamic model of preference adaptation and find that economic incentives have a nonmonotonic effect on behavior. Individuals perform a contract when enforcement is strong or weak but not with medium enforcement probabilities: Trustworthiness is “crowded in” with weak and “crowded out” with medium enforcement. In a laboratory experiment we test our model’s implications and find support for the crowding prediction. Our finding is in line with the recent work on the role of contract enforcement and trust in formerly Communist countries
Steady pressure measurements in the strap-on booster interference Region of 1/20 scale aslv configuration
Wind tunnel studies were carried out to obtain pressure distribution in the strap-on booster interference region of 1/20th scale Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle model configuration. Tests were done in the 1 .2m tunnel at NAL in the Mach number range of 0 .5 to 2.5 for the clean configuration as well as with spring housing attachments on the strap-on boosters. Both the model configurations with the boosters strapped on to the core vehicle in the horizontal plane (pitch) and in the vertical plane (yaw) were tested for incidences at 0, 4 and -4 deg. In addition pressure measurements were also done on the core vehicle
alone at Mach numbers 2.1, 2.5 and 3.0 for 0, +4 degree incidences. The test Reynolds number was varied from 0.7 to 1.3 millions based on the maximum diameter of the model.
The pressure distribution showed significant interference effects of boosters on the core vehicle. It is observed that the positive pressure peak associated with flow compression at the flare junction increases with increase in Mach number. In the pitch plane the normal force
distribution remains positive along the core vehicle whereas in the yaw plane it is of less magnitude
Solving ill-posed bilevel programs
This paper deals with ill-posed bilevel programs, i.e., problems admitting multiple lower-level solutions for some upper-level parameters. Many publications have been devoted to the standard optimistic case of this problem, where the difficulty is essentially moved from the objective function to the feasible set. This new problem is simpler but there is no guaranty to obtain local optimal solutions for the original optimistic problem by this process. Considering the intrinsic non-convexity of bilevel programs, computing local optimal solutions is the best one can hope to get in most cases. To achieve this goal, we start by establishing an equivalence between the original optimistic problem an a certain set-valued optimization problem. Next, we develop optimality conditions for the latter problem and show that they generalize all the results currently known in the literature on optimistic bilevel optimization. Our approach is then extended to multiobjective bilevel optimization, and completely new results are derived for problems with vector-valued upper- and lower-level objective functions. Numerical implementations of the results of this paper are provided on some examples, in order to demonstrate how the original optimistic problem can be solved in practice, by means of a special set-valued optimization problem
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Creative use of BIPV materials: barriers and solutions
Inventive use of photovoltaic (PV) materials in architecture can be developed through use of PV in artworks. This is particularly important in increasing the uptake of building-integrated building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), by developing novel methods of combining and installing PV materials. Current examples of PV artwork and design are examined, from small to large scale, to assess the current design limitations. The design of two PV artworks is discussed in detail, including an artwork that uses the principle of the luminescent solar concentrator (LSC), to show the way in which design hurdles are discovered and overcome. Challenges range from difficulties in obtaining small quantities of PV materials; the balance between efficiency and artistic effect; through to technical and siting issues that an artist must address when designing a functional PV structure. Methods of overcoming these barriers are explored, including the use of lumogen dyes in encapsulant materials
The use of happiness research for public policy
Research on happiness tends to follow a "benevolent dictator" approach where politicians pursue people's happiness. This paper takes an antithetic approach based on the insights of public choice theory. First, we inquire how the results of happiness research may be used to improve the choice of institutions. Second, we show that the policy approach matters for the choice of research questions and the kind of knowledge happiness research aims to provide. Third, we emphasize that there is no shortcut to an optimal policy maximizing some happiness indicator or social welfare function since governments have an incentive to manipulate this indicator
Desalination effluents and the establishment of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla Mayer, 1890 in the south-eastern Mediterranean
A decade long monitoring programme has revealed a flourishing population of the non-indigenous skeleton shrimp Paracaprella pusilla in the vicinity of outfalls of desalination plants off the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The first specimens were collected in 2010, thus predating all previously published records of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. A decade-long disturbance regime related to the construction and operation of the plants may have had a critical role in driving the population growth
Kahler Independence of the G2-MSSM
The G2-MSSM is a model of particle physics coupled to moduli fields with
interesting phenomenology both for colliders and astrophysical experiments. In
this paper we consider a more general model - whose moduli Kahler potential is
a completely arbitrary G2-holonomy Kahler potential and whose matter Kahler
potential is also more general. We prove that the vacuum structure and spectrum
of BSM particles is largely unchanged in this much more general class of
theories. In particular, gaugino masses are still supressed relative to the
gravitino mass and moduli masses. We also consider the effects of higher order
corrections to the matter Kahler potential and find a connection between the
nature of the LSP and flavor effects.Comment: Final version, matches the version published in JHE
Brick Walls and AdS/CFT
We discuss the relationship between the bulk-boundary correspondence in
Rehren's algebraic holography (and in other 'fixed-background' approaches to
holography) and in mainstream 'Maldacena AdS/CFT'. Especially, we contrast the
understanding of black-hole entropy from the viewpoint of QFT in curved
spacetime -- in the framework of 't Hooft's 'brick wall' model -- with the
understanding based on Maldacena AdS/CFT. We show that the brick-wall
modification of a Klein Gordon field in the Hartle-Hawking-Israel state on
1+2-Schwarzschild AdS (BTZ) has a well-defined boundary limit with the same
temperature and entropy as the brick-wall-modified bulk theory. One of our main
purposes is to point out a close connection, for general AdS/CFT situations,
between the puzzle raised by Arnsdorf and Smolin regarding the relationship
between Rehren's algebraic holography and mainstream AdS/CFT and the puzzle
embodied in the 'correspondence principle' proposed by Mukohyama and Israel in
their work on the brick-wall approach to black hole entropy. Working on the
assumption that similar results will hold for bulk QFT other than the Klein
Gordon field and for Schwarzschild AdS in other dimensions, and recalling the
first author's proposed resolution to the Mukohyama-Israel puzzle based on his
'matter-gravity entanglement hypothesis', we argue that, in Maldacena AdS/CFT,
the algebra of the boundary CFT is isomorphic only to a proper subalgebra of
the bulk algebra, albeit (at non-zero temperature) the (GNS) Hilbert spaces of
bulk and boundary theories are still the 'same' -- the total bulk state being
pure, while the boundary state is mixed (thermal). We also argue from the
finiteness of its boundary (and hence, on our assumptions, also bulk) entropy
at finite temperature, that the Rehren dual of the Maldacena boundary CFT
cannot itself be a QFT and must, instead, presumably be something like a string
theory.Comment: 54 pages, 3 figures. Arguments strengthened in the light of B.S. Kay
`Instability of Enclosed Horizons' arXiv:1310.739
Recurrence of Ganglion Cysts Following Re-excision
Previous studies have examined the recurrence of ganglion cysts after surgical excision at a rate of 4 to 40%. However, recurrence after revision surgical excision is unknown. The purpose of this study was to define the incidence of recurrent ganglion cysts in patients who underwent a 2nd excisional procedure.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cwicposters/1032/thumbnail.jp
Two-pore channels and disease
Two-pore channels (TPCs) are Ca2+-permeable endo-lysosomal ion channels subject to multi-modal regulation. They mediate their physiological effects through releasing Ca2+ from acidic organelles in response to cues such as the second messenger, NAADP. Here, we review emerging evidence linking TPCs to disease. We discuss how perturbing both local and global Ca2+ changes mediated by TPCs through chemical and/or molecular manipulations can induce or reverse disease phenotypes. We cover evidence from models of Parkinson's disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Ebola infection, cancer, cardiac dysfunction and diabetes. A need for more drugs targeting TPCs is identified
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