Interactions of technology and society: Impacts of improved airtransport. A study of airports at the grass roots

The feasibility of applying a particular conception of technology and social change to specific examples of technological development was investigated. The social and economic effects of improved airport capabilities on rural communities were examined. Factors which led to the successful implementation of a plan to construct sixty small airports in Ohio are explored and implications derived for forming public policies, evaluating air transportation development, and assessing technology

A DYNAMIC GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS OF U.S. BIOFUELS PRODUCTION

With the rising global interest in energy security and climate change mitigation, biofuels have gained the prominent attention of researchers and policy makers. The U.S. has emerged as the leading producer of biofuels and is aiming for achieving a target of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022 under its updated renewable fuels standard (RFS2) policy. In this paper, we study the longer-term global implications of large-scale renewable fuels production in the U.S. We utilize the GTAP v7.1 data base and introduce a detailed breakdown of agricultural crops, first and second generation biofuels and by-products. We update this fully disaggregated data base to reflect the 2010 global economy, based on secondary data for the sectors and regions included. We adapt the Applied Dynamic Analysis of Global Economy (ADAGE) model developed by Ross (2009) into a recursive dynamic framework and introduce agriculture, biofuels, and land use linkages. We construct a dynamic baseline from 2010 through 2050 in five-year time steps. The dynamics in the model comes from growth in GDP, population, capital accumulation, labor productivity, growth in natural resource stocks, and technological changes in the energy intensive and agricultural sectors. We implement a representative RFS2 policy scenario in the U.S for 2025, using two alternative approaches: (i) RFS permits approach – which assumes biofuels and petroleum fuels are perfect substitutes after adjusting for energy content, and (ii) Target share of biofuels in transportation fuels approach – which treats biofuels and petroleum fuels as imperfect substitutes. Both approaches offer insights regarding potential policy impacts, particularly on the international market and indirect land use change. Because the share approach keeps the biofuels share fixed in the regions outside the U.S., it does not result in dramatic changes in the rest of the world. In the permits approach, however, the regions without a specific policy requiring a given level of biofuels tend to reduce biofuels consumption. This is a result of the reduction in relative price of petroleum products as U.S. policy increases demand for biofuels and reduces global demand for petroleum, making renewable fuels less cost-competitive in the rest of the world.ADAGE, Biofuels, Computable General Equilibrium, Recursive Dynamic, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Improving dialysis adherence for high risk patients using automated messaging: Proof of concept

AbstractComorbidities and socioeconomic barriers often limit patient adherence and self-management with hemodialysis. Missed sessions, often associated with communication barriers, can result in emergency dialysis and avoidable hospitalizations. This proof of concept study explored using a novel digital-messaging platform, EpxDialysis, to improve patient-to-dialysis center communication via widely available text messaging and telephone technology. A randomized controlled trial was conducted through Washington University-affiliated hemodialysis centers involving ESRD patients with poor attendance, defined as missing 2–6 sessions over the preceding 12 weeks. A cross-over study design evaluated appointment adherence between intervention and control groups. Comparing nonadherence rates eight weeks prior to enrollment, median appointment adherence after using the system increased by 75%, and median number of unintended hospitalization days fell by 31%. A conservative cost-benefit analysis of EpxDialysis demonstrates a 1:36 savings ratio from appointment adherence. EpxDialysis is a low-risk, cost-effective, intervention for increasing hemodialysis adherence in high-risk patients, especially at centers caring for vulnerable and low-income patients.</jats:p

Accretion Disk Spectra of the Ultra-luminous X-ray Sources in Nearby Spiral Galaxies and Galactic Superluminal Jet Sources

Ultra-luminous Compact X-ray Sources (ULXs) in nearby spiral galaxies and Galactic superluminal jet sources share the common spectral characteristic that they have unusually high disk temperatures which cannot be explained in the framework of the standard optically thick accretion disk in the Schwarzschild metric. On the other hand, the standard accretion disk around the Kerr black hole might explain the observed high disk temperature, as the inner radius of the Kerr disk gets smaller and the disk temperature can be consequently higher. However, we point out that the observable Kerr disk spectra becomes significantly harder than Schwarzschild disk spectra only when the disk is highly inclined. This is because the emission from the innermost part of the accretion disk is Doppler-boosted for an edge-on Kerr disk, while hardly seen for a face-on disk. The Galactic superluminal jet sources are known to be highly inclined systems, thus their energy spectra may be explained with the standard Kerr disk with known black hole masses. For ULXs, on the other hand, the standard Kerr disk model seems implausible, since it is highly unlikely that their accretion disks are preferentially inclined, and, if edge-on Kerr disk model is applied, the black hole mass becomes unreasonably large (> 300 M_solar). Instead, the slim disk (advection dominated optically thick disk) model is likely to explain the observed super-Eddington luminosities, hard energy spectra, and spectral variations of ULXs. We suggest that ULXs are accreting black holes with a few tens of solar mass, which is not unexpected from the standard stellar evolution scenario, and that their X-ray emission is from the slim disk shining at super-Eddington luminosities.Comment: ApJ, accepte

Fine-Scale Variations in Eucritic Pyroxene FeO/MnO: Process vs. Provenance.

Most asteroidal igneous rocks are eucrite-like basalts and gabbros, composed mostly of ferroan low- and high-Ca pyroxenes and calcic plagioclase, plus smaller amounts of silica (most commonly tridymite), ilmenite, chromite, troilite, Ca-phosphate, metal and sometimes ferroan olivine. Eucrite-like mafic rocks are fragments of the crusts of differentiated asteroids, and most are likely from 4 Vesta

Implementation of a Pulsed-Laser Measurement System in the National Transonic Facility

A remotely-adjustable laser transmission and imaging system has been developed for use in a high-pressure, cryogenic wind tunnel. Implementation in the National Transonic Facility has proven the system suitable for velocity and signal lifetime measurements over a range of operating conditions. The measurement system allows for the delivery of high-powered laser pulses through the outer pressure shell and into the test section interior from a mezzanine where the laser is free from environmental disturbances (such as vibrations and excessive condensation) associated with operation of the wind tunnel. Femtosecond laser electronic excitation tagging (FLEET) was utilized to provide freestream velocity measurements, and first results show typical data that may be obtained using the system herein described