18,836 research outputs found
Navigating the Confluence: Sources of Reconciliation Flowing Between the Human Right to Water and Economic Efficiency
The purpose of this research is to identify the confluence of the law and economics disciplines, using these distinct channels of scholarship not as an empirical vessel to determine the âvalueâ or âvaluelessâ nature of water, but rather as a means to reconcile externalities among interested parties and to identify management strategies that embrace sentiments of economic efficiency throughout the arena of global hydrocommerce. The various perspectives on water, particularly with regards to an increasing global population and demand for freshwater, elicits an intricate mosaic of tensions concerning the availability, accessibility, provision, and protection of this fundamental natural resource.
Billions of individuals around the world lack access to basic water and sanitation services. Despite the prevalence of these atrocities, access to water is both an individual human right and necessary for human survival. The legal basis for the human right to water, in terms of availability, quality, and accessibility, was adopted by the U.N. in its General Comment No. 15. Despite recognition by the U.N., more than 1.1 billion people do not have sufficient access to clean water, while 2.6 billion people have no provision for sanitation. Against this tragic and inexcusable backdrop, the public sector either lacks the financial resources to provide water or continues to operate water distribution schemes with undesirable inefficiency. From a pragmatic standpointâand to ensure that citizens have access to clean waterâthere exist circumstances, both in reality and in the text of the General Comment, whereupon governments should be compelled, or at least be encouraged, to solicit capital investment from the private sector in order to construct adequate water infrastructure and manage water distribution services.
Researchers estimate that over the next twenty years almost $22 trillion (USD) will be necessary to fully modernize global water delivery and wastewater systems. Water scarcity, an individualâs lack of access to clean water, arises due to economic and physical constraints, while being influenced by managerial, institutional, and political factors. At its core, the primary challenge for nations concerning their respective water distribution schemes is a lack of adequate financial resources. In developing countries, an estimated ninety-seven percent of all water distribution is managed by public-sector suppliers. The inept realities concerning these water distribution systems in developing countries, and the fact that over a billion people still lack access to this essential resource, suggests that governments retain at least some responsibility in the persistence of the global water crisis. Reconciliation is the next step in the human right to water argumentâfrom its theoretical origins to its pragmatic implementationâand may be realized through a law and economics analysis in support of private-sector participation in the delivery of water and funding for the provision of adequate infrastructure. Much like distinct tributaries to a mighty river, the legal and economic disciplines maintain differences in methodology, scientific approach, and objectives; but as these disciplines converge, their tributaries form the riverâs main stem, with potential to influence an entire watershed of jurisprudence
Channel noise induced stochastic facilitation in an auditory brainstem neuron model
Neuronal membrane potentials fluctuate stochastically due to conductance
changes caused by random transitions between the open and close states of ion
channels. Although it has previously been shown that channel noise can
nontrivially affect neuronal dynamics, it is unknown whether ion-channel noise
is strong enough to act as a noise source for hypothesised noise-enhanced
information processing in real neuronal systems, i.e. 'stochastic
facilitation.' Here, we demonstrate that biophysical models of channel noise
can give rise to two kinds of recently discovered stochastic facilitation
effects in a Hodgkin-Huxley-like model of auditory brainstem neurons. The
first, known as slope-based stochastic resonance (SBSR), enables phasic neurons
to emit action potentials that can encode the slope of inputs that vary slowly
relative to key time-constants in the model. The second, known as inverse
stochastic resonance (ISR), occurs in tonically firing neurons when small
levels of noise inhibit tonic firing and replace it with burst-like dynamics.
Consistent with previous work, we conclude that channel noise can provide
significant variability in firing dynamics, even for large numbers of channels.
Moreover, our results show that possible associated computational benefits may
occur due to channel noise in neurons of the auditory brainstem. This holds
whether the firing dynamics in the model are phasic (SBSR can occur due to
channel noise) or tonic (ISR can occur due to channel noise).Comment: Published by Physical Review E, November 2013 (this version 17 pages
total - 10 text, 1 refs, 6 figures/tables); Associated matlab code is
available online in the ModelDB repository at
http://senselab.med.yale.edu/ModelDB/ShowModel.asp?model=15148
Weighted Estimates for the Bergman and Szeg\H{o} Projections on Strongly Pseudoconvex Domains with Near Minimal Smoothness
We prove the weighted regularity of the ordinary Bergman and
Cauchy-Szeg\H{o} projections on strongly pseudoconvex domains in
with near minimal smoothness for appropriate generalizations of
the classes. In particular, the Muckenhoupt type condition
is expressed relative to balls in a quasi-metric that arises as a space of
homogeneous type on either the interior or the boundary of the domain .Comment: 40 pages, introduction reorganized and some typos correcte
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