MODELING THE DECISION TO BUY FLOOD INSURANCE: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS FOR COASTAL AREAS

A perennial question about the NFIP is: how can participation be increased? An empirical analysis reveals that in coastal areas the voluntary participation rate is only nine percent and identifies important determinants of the insurance purchase decision. It suggests that insurance will not discourage undesirable risk management practices in coastal areas.Risk and Uncertainty,

Large deployable antenna program. Phase 1: Technology assessment and mission architecture

The program was initiated to investigate the availability of critical large deployable antenna technologies which would enable microwave remote sensing missions from geostationary orbits as required for Mission to Planet Earth. Program goals for the large antenna were: 40-meter diameter, offset-fed paraboloid, and surface precision of 0.1 mm rms. Phase 1 goals were: to review the state-of-the-art for large, precise, wide-scanning radiometers up to 60 GHz; to assess critical technologies necessary for selected concepts; to develop mission architecture for these concepts; and to evaluate generic technologies to support the large deployable reflectors necessary for these missions. Selected results of the study show that deployable reflectors using furlable segments are limited by surface precision goals to 12 meters in diameter, current launch vehicles can place in geostationary only a 20-meter class antenna, and conceptual designs using stiff reflectors are possible with areal densities of 2.4 deg/sq m

A deep reinforcement learning based homeostatic system for unmanned position control

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has been proven to be capable of designing an optimal control theory by minimising the error in dynamic systems. However, in many of the real-world operations, the exact behaviour of the environment is unknown. In such environments, random changes cause the system to reach different states for the same action. Hence, application of DRL for unpredictable environments is difficult as the states of the world cannot be known for non-stationary transition and reward functions. In this paper, a mechanism to encapsulate the randomness of the environment is suggested using a novel bio-inspired homeostatic approach based on a hybrid of Receptor Density Algorithm (an artificial immune system based anomaly detection application) and a Plastic Spiking Neuronal model. DRL is then introduced to run in conjunction with the above hybrid model. The system is tested on a vehicle to autonomously re-position in an unpredictable environment. Our results show that the DRL based process control raised the accuracy of the hybrid model by 32%.N/

Fast Differential Emission Measure Inversion of Solar Coronal Data

We present a fast method for reconstructing Differential Emission Measures (DEMs) using solar coronal data. On average, the method computes over 1000 DEMs per second for a sample active region observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and achieves reduced chi-squared of order unity with no negative emission in all but a few test cases. The high performance of this method is especially relevant in the context of AIA, which images of order one million solar pixels per second. This paper describes the method, analyzes its fidelity, compares its performance and results with other DEM methods, and applies it to an active region and loop observed by AIA and by the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on Hinode.Comment: 22 Pages, 11 Figures; submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. This version (2) includes clarifications in the text and reflects improvements to the DEM cod

Modeling Grain Boundaries using a Phase Field Technique

We propose a two dimensional frame-invariant phase field model of grain impingement and coarsening. One dimensional analytical solutions for a stable grain boundary in a bicrystal are obtained, and equilibrium energies are computed. We are able to calculate the rotation rate for a free grain between two grains of fixed orientation. For a particular choice of functional dependencies in the model the grain boundary energy takes the same analytic form as the microscopic (dislocation) model of Read and Shockley.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

The agenda-setting relationship between the news media and public opinion: the case of global warming 1988-1992

This thesis is an investigation of the relationship between the mass media and public opinion. For just over twenty years, mass communication researchers have been studying this relationship under the rubric of agenda-setting. This thesis will embrace that approach. Agenda-setting is a term applied somewhat loosely to a class of research which seeks to unveil relationships between what the mass media portray as important and what the public considers to be important. This line of inquiry grew out of social scientists\u27 interest in the effects of the mass media on society. The central question in all agenda-setting studies is: Do the mass media influence what we think about, and what we consider to be important

Cwbr Author Interview: The Rebel Yell: A Cultural History

Interview with Craig A. Warren, Associate Professor of English and Prodessional Writing at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College Interviewed by Zach Isenhower Civil War Book Review (CWBR): Today the Civil War Book Review is happy to speak with Craig A. Warren, Associate Professor of English and Professional Writing at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. Professor Warren previously authored Scars to Prove It: The Civil War Soldier and American Fiction, and today we get to discuss his most recent book, The Rebel Yell: A Cultural History. Professor Warren, thank you for joining us today. Craig A. Warren: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it

AN ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF BEACH EROSION MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVES

This paper examines the relative economic efficiency of three distinct beach erosion management policies — beach nourishment with shoreline armoring, beach nourishment without armoring, and shoreline retreat. The analysis focuses on (i) the recreational benefits of beaches, (ii) the property value effects of beach management, and (iii) the costs associated with the three management scenarios. Assuming the removal of shoreline armoring improves overall beach quality, beach nourishment with shoreline armoring is the least desirable of the three alternatives. The countervailing property losses under a retreat strategy are of the same order of magnitude as the foregone management costs when the beneficial effects of retreat — higher values of housing services for those houses not lost to erosion — are considered. The relative desirability of these alternative strategies depends upon the realized erosion rate and how management costs change over time.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

EXPANDING THE NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM TO COVER COASTAL EROSION DAMAGE

The National Flood Insurance Program does not currently cover damage strictly attributable to coastal erosion. This paper uses the results of a nationwide survey of coastal property owners to estimate the demand for such insurance. We find that there is significant demand at prices in the range of current flood insurance premiums. Demand is influenced in the hypothesized way by increased measures of erosion risk as well as by insurance price and income.Land Economics/Use, Risk and Uncertainty,