Understanding values associated with stormwater remediation options in marine coastal ecosystems: A case study from Auckland, New Zealand

This paper describes the design and implementation of a choice experiment to understand Aucklanders’ preferences for environmental qualities associated with the effects of urban run-off on marine coastal environments. Auckland’s coastal environments are affected by a range of ecological and human factors. While much research has been undertaken in the area of ecology, little is understood of human preferences for coastal environments and their management. An unlabelled choice experiment was developed with three environmental quality attributes specified at three broad coastal categories. The environmental qualities are ecological health, water clarity, and underfoot conditions. Willingness to pay estimates for these attributes indicates that respondents show a strong preference for improved environmental quality at outer coastal beach locations over middle and upper harbour locations. Water quality leads ecological health, then underfoot conditions in importance at beach locations. An application is discussed in which a hypothetical project consisting of policy and engineering components delivers changes in water quality and underfoot conditions in the Auckland upper harbour areas. A 95% confidence estimate of the money value of that change ranges from $783 m. to$ 1,122 b. The key outcome is demonstration of the choice experiment as a statistically robust and flexible approach to making sense of Aucklanders’ complex preferences for coastal ecosystem management.Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Constraining Warm Inflation with the Cosmic Microwave Background

We discuss the spectrum of scalar density perturbations from warm inflation when the friction coefficient $\Gamma$ in the inflaton equation is dependent on the inflaton field. The spectral index of scalar fluctuations depends on a new slow-roll parameter constructed from $\Gamma$. A numerical integration of the perturbation equations is performed for a model of warm inflation and gives a good fit to the WMAP data for reasonable values of the model's parameters.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, RevTeX

A weakly stable algorithm for general Toeplitz systems

We show that a fast algorithm for the QR factorization of a Toeplitz or Hankel matrix A is weakly stable in the sense that R^T.R is close to A^T.A. Thus, when the algorithm is used to solve the semi-normal equations R^T.Rx = A^Tb, we obtain a weakly stable method for the solution of a nonsingular Toeplitz or Hankel linear system Ax = b. The algorithm also applies to the solution of the full-rank Toeplitz or Hankel least squares problem.Comment: 17 pages. An old Technical Report with postscript added. For further details, see http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~brent/pub/pub143.htm

The Physical Role of Gravitational and Gauge Degrees of Freedom in General Relativity - II: Dirac versus Bergmann observables and the Objectivity of Space-Time

(abridged)The achievements of the present work include: a) A clarification of the multiple definition given by Bergmann of the concept of {\it (Bergmann) observable. This clarification leads to the proposal of a {\it main conjecture} asserting the existence of i) special Dirac's observables which are also Bergmann's observables, ii) gauge variables that are coordinate independent (namely they behave like the tetradic scalar fields of the Newman-Penrose formalism). b) The analysis of the so-called {\it Hole} phenomenology in strict connection with the Hamiltonian treatment of the initial value problem in metric gravity for the class of Christoudoulou -Klainermann space-times, in which the temporal evolution is ruled by the {\it weak} ADM energy. It is crucial the re-interpretation of {\it active} diffeomorphisms as {\it passive and metric-dependent} dynamical symmetries of Einstein's equations, a re-interpretation which enables to disclose their (nearly unknown) connection to gauge transformations on-shell; this is expounded in the first paper (gr-qc/0403081). The use of the Bergmann-Komar {\it intrinsic pseudo-coordinates} allows to construct a {\it physical atlas} of 4-coordinate systems for the 4-dimensional {\it mathematical} manifold, in terms of the highly non-local degrees of freedom of the gravitational field (its four independent {\it Dirac observables}), and to realize the {\it physical individuation} of the points of space-time as {\it point-events} as a gauge-fixing problem, also associating a non-commutative structure to each 4-coordinate system.Comment: 41 pages, Revtex

Carbohydrate carbon sources induce loss of flocculation of an ale-brewing yeast strain

Aims: To identify the nutrients that can trigger the loss of flocculation under growth conditions in an ale-brewing strain, Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC 1195. Methods and Results: Flocculation was evaluated using the method of Soares, EX. and Vroman, A. [Journal of Applied Microbiology (2003) 95, 325]. Yeast growth with metabolizable carbon sources (glucose, fructose, galactose, maltose or sucrose) at 2% (w/v), induced the loss of flocculation in yeast that had previously been allowed to flocculate. The yeast remained flocculent when transferred to a medium containing the required nutrients for yeast growth and a sole nonmetabolizable carbon source (lactose). Transfer of flocculent yeast into a growth medium with ethanol (4% v/v), as the sole carbon source did not induce the loss of flocculation. Even the addition of glucose (2% w/v) or glucose and antimycin A (0.1 mg lˉ¹) to this culture did not bring about loss of flocculation. Cycloheximide addition (15 mglˉ¹) to glucose-growing cells stopped flocculation loss. Conclusions: Carbohydrates were the nutrients responsible for stimulating the loss of flocculation in flocculent yeast cells transferred to growing conditions. The glucose-induced loss of flocculation required de novo protein synthesis. Ethanol prevented glucose-induced loss of flocculation. This protective effect of ethanol was independent of the respiratory function of the yeast. Significance and Impact of the Study: This work contributes to the elucidation of the role of nutrients in the control of the flocculation cycle in NewFlo phenotype yeast strains.Instituto Politécnico do Porto (IPP) - Fundo de Apoio à Investigação - Project P24/96 , P24/97.Programa Plurianual de Unidades de I&D-CIEA/ ISEP

Cyclotron effective masses in layered metals

Many layered metals such as quasi-two-dimensional organic molecular crystals show properties consistent with a Fermi liquid description at low temperatures. The effective masses extracted from the temperature dependence of the magnetic oscillations observed in these materials are in the range, m^*_c/m_e \sim 1-7, suggesting that these systems are strongly correlated. However, the ratio m^*_c/m_e contains both the renormalization due to the electron-electron interaction and the periodic potential of the lattice. We show that for any quasi-two-dimensional band structure, the cyclotron mass is proportional to the density of states at the Fermi energy. Due to Luttinger's theorem, this result is also valid in the presence of interactions. We then evaluate m_c for several model band structures for the \beta, \kappa, and \theta families of (BEDT-TTF)_2X, where BEDT-TTF is bis-(ethylenedithia-tetrathiafulvalene) and X is an anion. We find that for \kappa-(BEDT-TTF)_2X, the cyclotron mass of the \beta-orbit, m^{*\beta}_c, is close to 2 m^{*\alpha}_c, where m^{*\alpha}_c is the effective mass of the \alpha- orbit. This result is fairly insensitive to the band structure details. For a wide range of materials we compare values of the cyclotron mass deduced from band structure calculations to values deduced from measurements of magnetic oscillations and the specific heat coefficient.Comment: 12 pages, 3 eps figure

Structure of Fat Jets at the Tevatron and Beyond

Boosted resonances is a highly probable and enthusiastic scenario in any process probing the electroweak scale. Such objects when decaying into jets can easily blend with the cornucopia of jets from hard relative light QCD states. We review jet observables and algorithms that can contribute to the identification of highly boosted heavy jets and the possible searches that can make use of such substructure information. We also review previous studies by CDF on boosted jets and its measurements on specific jet shapes.Comment: invited review for a special "Top and flavour physics in the LHC era" issue of The European Physical Journal C, we invite comments regarding contents of the review; v2 added references and institutional preprint number

Ocean forests: breakthrough yields for macroalgae

The US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) MacroAlgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Research (MARINER) program is encouraging technologies for the sustainable harvest of large funding research of macroalgae for biofuels at less than $80 per dry metric ton (DMT). The Ocean Forests team, led by the University of Southern Mississippi, is developing a complete managed ecosystem where nutrients are transformed and recycled. The team’s designs address major bottlenecks in profitability of offshore aquaculture systems including economical moored structures that can withstand storms, efficient planting, managing and harvesting systems, and sustainable nutrient supply. The work is inspired by Lapointe who reported yields of Gracilaria tikvahiae equivalent to 127 DMT per hectare per year (compared with standard aquaculture systems in the range of 20 to 40 DMT/ha/yr). This approach offers the potential for breakthrough yields for many macroalgae species. Moreover, mini-ecosystems in offshore waters create communities of macroalgae, shellfish, and penned finfish, supplemented by visiting free-range fish that can increase productivity, produce quality products, and create jobs and income for aquafarmers. Additional benefits include reduced disease in fish pens, cleaning contaminated coastal waters, and maximizing nutrient recycling. Cost projections for a successful, intensive, scaled system are competitive with current prices for fossil fuels