Investing in Time-to-Build Projects With Uncertain Revenues and Costs: A Real Options Approach

Lagging public-sector investment in infrastructure and the deregulation of many industries mean that the private sector has to make decisions under multiple sources of uncertainty. We analyze such investment decisions by accounting for both multiple sources of uncertainty and the time-to-build aspect. The latter feature arises in the energy and transportation sectors, because investors can decide the rate at which the project is completed. Furthermore, two explicit sources of uncertainty represent the discounted cash inflows and outflows of the completed project. We use a finite-difference scheme to solve numerically the option value and the optimal investment threshold. Somewhat counterintuitively, with a relatively long time to build, a reduction in the growth rate of the discounted operating cost may actually lower the investment threshold. This is contrary to the outcome when the stepwise aspect is ignored in a model with uncertain price and cost. Hence, research and development efforts to enhance emerging technologies may be more relevant for infrastructure projects with long lead times

Diffusion-mediated nuclear spin phase decoherence in cylindrically porous materials

AbstractIn NMR or MRI of complex materials, including biological tissues and porous materials, magnetic susceptibility differences within the material result in local magnetic field inhomogeneities, even if the applied magnetic field is homogeneous. Mobile nuclear spins move though the inhomogeneous field, by translational diffusion and other mechanisms, resulting in decoherence of nuclear spin phase more rapidly than transverse relaxation alone. The objective of this paper is to simulate this diffusion-mediated decoherence and demonstrate that it may substantially reduce coherence lifetimes of nuclear spin phase, in an anisotropic fashion. We do so using a model of cylindrical pores within an otherwise homogeneous material, and calculate the resulting magnetic field inhomogeneities. Our simulations show that diffusion-mediated decoherence in a system of parallel cylindrical pores is anisotropic, with coherence lifetime minimised when the array of cylindrical pores is perpendicular to B0. We also show that this anisotropy of coherence lifetime is reduced if the orientations of cylindrical pores are disordered within the system. In addition we characterise the dependence on B0, the magnetic susceptibility of the cylindrical pores relative to the surroundings, the diffusion coefficient and cylinder wall thickness. Our findings may aid in the interpretation of NMR and MRI relaxation data

Farmer's attitudes affect piglet production parameters

Our results show that farmers' attitudes count: treating the animals humanely, investing in a favourable environment, and having a positive attitude towards new information and scientific research is associated with an above-average productivity on piglet farms. These attitudes, when implemented and concretized in practice, also benefit the animals through a higher standard of welfare

Shot Noise with Interaction Effects in Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes

We have measured shot noise in single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) with good contacts at 4.2 K at low frequencies ($f=600 - 850$ MHz). We find a strong modulation of shot noise over the Fabry-Perot pattern; in terms of differential Fano factor the variation ranges over 0.4 - 1.2. The shot noise variation, in combination with differential conductance, is analyzed using two (spin-degenerate) modes with different, energy-dependent transmission coefficients. No power law dependence of shot noise, as expected for Luttinger liquids, was found in our measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Strain-Rate Frequency Superposition in Large-Amplitude Oscillatory Shear

In a recent work, Wyss, {\it et.al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett., {\bf 98}, 238303 (2007)] have noted a property of `soft solids' under oscillatory shear, the so-called strain-rate frequency superposition (SRFS). We extend this study to the case of soft solids under large-amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS). We show results from LAOS studies in a monodisperse hydrogel suspension, an aqueous gel, and a biopolymer suspension, and show that constant strain-rate frequency sweep measurements with soft solids can be superimposed onto master curves for higher harmonic moduli, with the {\it same} shift factors as for the linear viscoelastic moduli. We show that the behavior of higher harmonic moduli at low frequencies in constant strain-rate frequency sweep measurements is similar to that at large strain amplitudes in strain-amplitude sweep tests. We show surface plots of the harmonic moduli and the energy dissipation rate per unit volume in LAOS for soft solids, and show experimentally that the energy dissipated per unit volume depends on the first harmonic loss modulus alone, in both the linear and the nonlinear viscoelastic regime.Comment: 10 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review E. Incorporates referee comment

Rationality as the Rule of Reason

The demands of rationality are linked both to our subjective normative perspective (given that rationality is a person-level concept) and to objective reasons or favoring relations (given that rationality is non-contingently authoritative for us). In this paper, I propose a new way of reconciling the tension between these two aspects: roughly, what rationality requires of us is having the attitudes that correspond to our take on reasons in the light of our evidence, but only if it is competent. I show how this view can account for structural rationality on the assumption that intentions and beliefs as such involve competent perceptions of downstream reasons, and explore various implications of the account

Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated microRNA Delivery into the Postnatal Mouse Brain Reveals a Role for miR-134 in Dendritogenesis in Vivo

Recent studies using primary neuronal cultures have revealed important roles of the microRNA pathway in the regulation of neuronal development and morphology. For example, miR-134 is involved in dendritogenesis and spine development in hippocampal neurons by regulating local mRNA translation in dendrites. The in vivo roles of microRNAs in these processes are still uninvestigated, partly due to the lack of tools enabling stable in vivo delivery of microRNAs or microRNA inhibitors into neurons of the mammalian brain. Here we describe the construction and validation of a vector-based tool for stable delivery of microRNAs in vivo by use of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV). rAAV-mediated overexpression of miR-134 in neurons of the postnatal mouse brain provided evidence for a negative role of miR-134 in dendritic arborization of cortical layer V pyramidal neurons in vivo, thereby confirming previous findings obtained with cultured neurons. Our system provides researchers with a unique tool to study the role of any candidate microRNA in vivo and can easily be adapted to microRNA loss-of-function studies. This platform should therefore greatly facilitate investigations on the role of microRNAs in synapse development, plasticity and behavior in vivo