What went wrong with: "The Interaction of Neutrons With 7Be: "Lack of Standard Nuclear Physics Solution to the "Primordial 7Li Problem"", by M. Gai [arXiv:1812.09914v1]?

We comment here on results of the project aimed at measuring the 7Be(n,x) reactions at SARAF, Israel, in 2016, posted by M. Gai in [arXiv:1812.09914v1] without the knowledge of parts of the collaboration and against the explicit veto of the collaborators and the administration of the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. We address both the experimental shortcomings and the drawbacks in project conduction. M. Gais preprint is labeled as "on behalf of the SARAF Israel-US-Switzerland Collaboration", the author list is given as a reference to another unpublished contribution (cited as [27]) to the NPA8 conference in June 2017 in Catania). However, M. Gai did never have the right to report on unpublished proprietary data of the entire collaboration, and he was not authorized to act "on behalf of the collaboration". The contribution is declared as "accepted for publication", but in fact was retracted during the refereeing process. After several careful data evaluations, we have to state that the results of these measurements are not trustworthy and neither the given experimental data basis nor the corresponding data analysis can be improved further. Therefore, we requested to retract the posting immediately [arXiv:1904.03023]. We have to emphasize that, in our opinion, arXiv is not the appropriate platform for handling frictions in a collaboration. These problems should have been solved internally before publishing. Unfortunately, with his single-handed posting against the explicit disagreement of parts of the collaboration, M. Gai did not leave another possibility. With the present article, we expressed all our concerns and objections and we consider herewith the public discussion of this issue as closed.Comment: arXiv admin note: This version has been removed by arXiv administrators due to copyright infringemen

Calculation of the Regularized Vacuum Energy in Cavity Field Theories

A novel technique based on Schwinger's proper time method is applied to the Casimir problem of the M.I.T. bag model. Calculations of the regularized vacuum energies of massless scalar and Dirac spinor fields confined to a static and spherical cavity are presented in a consistent manner. While our results agree partly with previous calculations based on asymptotic methods, the main advantage of our technique is that the numerical errors are under control. Interpreting the bag constant as a vacuum expectation value, we investigate potential cancellations of boundary divergences between the canonical energy and its bag constant counterpart in the fermionic case. It is found that such cancellations do not occur.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Eur.Phys.J.

Vacuum structure of a modified MIT Bag

An alternative to introducing and subsequently renormalizing classical parameters in the expression for the vacuum energy of the MIT bag for quarks is proposed in the massless case by appealing to the QCD trace anomaly and scale separation due to asymptotic freedom. The explicit inclusion of gluons implies an unrealistically low separation scale.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Progress Report to the TNRC for Analysis of the Economics of Atrazine Remediation for Representative Grain Farms in the Aquilla Watershed, Hill County, Texas: Subtasks 4.0-4.4

Four alternative BMPs for atrazine remediation were reported by Harmon and Wang for the study area. The BMPs involved alternative incorporation practices, tillage operations, and sediment ponds. Harmon and Wang reported no statistical difference in corn yields under the alternative BMPs. An economic analysis of four alternative best management practices (BMPs) for atrazine remediation in Hill County, Texas, was performed by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) at Texas A&M University. Using the farm-level economic simulation model FLIPSIM, AFPC scientists analyzed the financial effects of the alternative BMPs on the Texas Blackland Prairie representative farm. This farm consists of 2,000 dryland acres, divided among corn (600 acres), sorghum (750 acres), wheat (250 acres), and native pasture (150 acres). This farm also maintains a small beef cowherd. Regularly updated, the AFPC maintains more than 80 farms across the nation that form the basis for probabilistic-based agricultural policy evaluation.Agricultural and Food Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Fragility of the Florida Panhandle\u27s Electrical Transmission Grid to Hurricanes

The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events from climate change necessitates understanding impacts on critical infrastructure, particularly electrical transmission grids. One of the foundational concepts of a grid’s resilience is its robustness to extreme weather events, such as hurricanes. Resilience of the electric grid to high wind speeds is predicated upon the location and physical characteristics of the system components. Previous modeling assessments of electric grid failure were done at the systems level with assumptions on location and type of specific components. To facilitate more explicit adaptation metrics, accurate component-level information is needed. In this study, we build and validate a dataset of location, physical characteristics, and age of transmission structures for nine counties in the Florida Panhandle. These component characteristics were then simulated for failure under a variety of scenarios using fragility curves. Hazus, a natural disaster simulation software from the Federal Emergency Management Administration, generated wind fields for the region of interest based on multiple return periods, and a damage-based Monte Carlo simulation then determined the failure rate of each transmission tower. Although modern transmission structures are built under the more stringent extreme wind loading construction standards, the prevalence of older, wooden transmission structures throughout the region poses a substantial risk to reliable electricity transmission during hurricane events from the Gulf of Mexico

STOCHASTIC EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS USING MULTIPLE UTILITY FUNCTIONS

Evaluating the risk of a particular decision depends on the risk aversion of the decision maker related to the underlying utility function. The objective of this paper is to use stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) to compare the ranking of risky alternatives using alternative utility functional forms.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

DISTRIBUTION CHOICE UNDER NULL PRIORS AND SMALL SAMPLE SIZE

Defining appropriate probability distributions for the variables in an economic model is an important and often arduous task. This paper evaluates the performance of several common probability distributions under different distributional assumptions when sample sizes are small and there is limited information about the data.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Stochastic efficiency analysis with risk aversion bounds: a simplified approach

A method of stochastic dominance analysis with respect to a function (SDRF) is described and illustrated. The method, called stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF), orders a set of risky alternatives in terms of certainty equivalents for a specified range of attitudes to risk. It can be applied for conforming utility functions with risk attitudes defined by corresponding ranges of absolute, relative or partial risk aversion coefficients. Unlike conventional SDRF, SERF involves comparing each alternative with all the other alternatives simultaneously, not pairwise, and hence can produce a smaller efficient set than that found by simple pairwise SDRF over the same range of risk attitudes. Moreover, the method can be implemented in a simple spreadsheet with no special software needed.Risk and Uncertainty,

Bounds on Lorentz and CPT Violation from the Earth-Ionosphere Cavity

Electromagnetic resonant cavities form the basis of many tests of Lorentz invariance involving photons. The effects of some forms of Lorentz violation scale with cavity size. We investigate possible signals of violations in the naturally occurring resonances formed in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. Comparison with observed resonances places the first terrestrial constraints on coefficients associated with dimension-three Lorentz-violating operators at the level of 10^{-20} GeV.Comment: 8 pages REVTe