16,663 research outputs found
Current legal and institutional issues in the commercialization of phosphoric acid fuel cells
Legal and institutional factors affecting the development and commercial diffusion of phosphoric acid fuel cells are assessed. Issues for future research and action are suggested. Perceived barriers and potential opportunities for fuel cells in central and dispersed utility operations and on-site applications are reviewed, as well as the general concept of commercialization as applied to emerging energy technologies
In defence of global egalitarianism
This essay argues that David Miller's criticisms of global egalitarianism do not undermine the view where it is stated in one of its stronger, luck egalitarian forms. The claim that global egalitarianism cannot specify a metric of justice which is broad enough to exclude spurious claims for redistribution, but precise enough to appropriately value different kinds of advantage, implicitly assumes that cultural understandings are the only legitimate way of identifying what counts as advantage. But that is an assumption always or almost always rejected by global egalitarianism. The claim that global egalitarianism demands either too little redistribution, leaving the unborn and dissenters burdened with their societies' imprudent choices, or too much redistribution, creating perverse incentives by punishing prudent decisions, only presents a problem for global luck egalitarianism on the assumption that nations can legitimately inherit assets from earlier generations â again, an assumption very much at odds with global egalitarian assumptions
Function-based Intersubject Alignment of Human Cortical Anatomy
Making conclusions about the functional neuroanatomical organization of the human brain requires methods for relating the functional anatomy of an individual's brain to population variability. We have developed a method for aligning the functional neuroanatomy of individual brains based on the patterns of neural activity that are elicited by viewing a movie. Instead of basing alignment on functionally defined areas, whose location is defined as the center of mass or the local maximum response, the alignment is based on patterns of response as they are distributed spatially both within and across cortical areas. The method is implemented in the two-dimensional manifold of an inflated, spherical cortical surface. The method, although developed using movie data, generalizes successfully to data obtained with another cognitive activation paradigmâviewing static images of objects and facesâand improves group statistics in that experiment as measured by a standard general linear model (GLM) analysis
How can a 22-pole ion trap exhibit 10 local minima in the effective potential?
The column density distribution of trapped OH ions in a 22-pole ion trap
is measured for different trap parameters. The density is obtained from
position-dependent photodetachment rate measurements. Overall, agreement is
found with the effective potential of an ideal 22-pole. However, in addition we
observe 10 distinct minima in the trapping potential, which indicate a breaking
of the 22-fold symmetry. Numerical simulations show that a displacement of a
subset of the radiofrequency electrodes can serve as an explanation for this
symmetry breaking
The strong-CP question in SU(3)_c X SU(3)_L X U(1)_N models
We analyze two recent models based on the gauge group
SU(3)SU(3)U(1) where each generation is not
anomaly-free, but anomaly cancels when three generations are taken into
account. We show that the most general Yukawa couplings of these models admit
of a Peccei-Quinn symmetry. This symmetry can be extended to the entire
Lagrangian by using extra fields in a very elegant way so that the resulting
axion can be made invisible.Comment: Latex, 8 pages, no figure
Correlation functions in ionic liquid at coexistence with ionic crystal. Results of the Brazovskii-type field theory
Correlation functions in the restricted primitive model are calculated within
a field-theoretic approach in the one-loop self-consistent Hartree
approximation. The correlation functions exhibit damped oscillatory behavior as
found before in the Gaussian approximation [Ciach at. al., J. Chem. Phys. {\bf
118}, 3702 (2003)]. The fluctuation contribution leads to a renormalization of
both the amplitude and the decay length of the correlation functions. The
renormalized quantities show qualitatively different behavior than their
mean-field (MF) counterparts. While the amplitude and the decay length both
diverge in MF when the -line is approached, the renormalized
quantities remain of order of unity in the same dimensionless units down to the
coexistence with the ionic crystal. Along the line of the phase transition the
decay length and the period of oscillations are independent of density, and
their values in units of the diameter of the ions are
and respectively.Comment: 21 pages including 9 figure
Distributing the burdens of climate change
Global climate change raises many questions for environmental political theorists. This article focuses on the question of identifying the agents that should bear the financial burden of preventing dangerous climate change. Identifying in a fair way the agents that should take the lead in climate mitigation and adaptation, as well as the precise burdens that these parties must bear, will be a key aspect of the next generation of global climate policies. After a critical review of a number of rival approaches to burden sharing, the paper argues that only a principled and philosophically robust reconciliation of three approaches to burden sharing (âcontribution to problemâ, âability to payâ and âbeneficiary paysâ) can generate a satisfactory mix of theoretical coherence and practical application
Time to endoscopic intervention in patients with upper gastrointestinal patients can be improved with pathway provision
BACKGROUND:Patients with upper gastrointestinal malignancy often require admission to hospital with dysphagia or jaundice requiring therapeutic endoscopy. Endoscopic intervention is often effective permitting rapid discharge. An efficient service would permit rapid discharge for patients who are often at the end of life. We noted that a majority of patients in hospital under the gastroenterological oncology were admitted with symptoms requiring therapeutic endoscopy.
METHODS:
We conducted an audit cycle of the inpatient days before and after pathway implementation.
A wait of 1 day was set as acceptable for patients with bleeding as defined by NICE guidance and we set an arbitrary standard of 2 days for patients without bleeding but requiring therapeutic endoscopy. Between the audit cycles, a pathway was built to accommodate these patients.
RESULTS:
Inpatient waits improved from a median of 3 days to 1 day. There was no difference in outcome between those presenting with bleeding and other symptoms or any difference in patients requiring different procedures.
CONCLUSIONS:
Waiting times for endoscopy can be improved with the introduction of a targeted pathway of cancer patients. Further issues including cost, quality of life and nutrition require further intervention
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