Loss Aversion and Intertemporal Choice: A Laboratory Investigation

We present results from a laboratory study of loss aversion in the context of intertemporal choice. We investigate whether the provision of (windfall) endowments results in different elicited discount rates relative to subjects who earn income or earn and retain the income for a period before making intertemporal decisions. We hypothesize that loss aversion in an intertemporal choice yields higher discount rates among subjects earning and retaining. Our results support this hypothesis: among subjects who earn and retain their income we elicit substantially higher discount rates relative to those experiencing a windfall gain.intertemporal choice, discount rates, experiments

The Historic Landscape of Mendocino: what terms define the landscape of a Rural Historic Landscape?

In this study, the terms that define a Rural Historic Landscape were examined. The examination of these terms determined the selection of the appropriate terms to identify the landscape of a Rural Historic Landscape. A case study of the Historic District of Mendocino, California was used to review the effectiveness of the landscape terms. The identified landscape elements in and around the Historic District were then evaluated using the National Register of Historic Places Standards. The result of the evaluation was the determination that a Rural Historic Landscape does exist separately from the Historic District as a landscape but a complete Rural Historic Landscape does exist with the inclusion of the Historic District. The results of this study are the creation of a template of landscape terms for identifying the existence of Rural Historic Landscapes in conjunction with places designated as historically significant that is applicable at a local, state and national level and a verification that a Rural Historic Landscape

Urban ground-based thermography

Urban climates are driven by micro-meteorological processes associated with the complex urban form, materials, and land cover patterns. Given its close link to the surface energy balance, surface temperature observations are key to the improvement and evaluation of models. This work contributes to the application of ground-based thermography in urban settings as an observational method to further our understanding of urban climate processes. In this thesis, ground-based thermography observations are collected and interpreted in a unique way so that they are relatable to scales used by urban climate models and earth observation (EO) satellites. At two measurement sites (simplified outdoor scale model and complex central urban setting), variations in surface temperature are quantitatively linked to micro-scale features such as shadow patterns and material characteristics at unprecedented levels of detail. Previous studies with low level of detail have inferred these properties. The detected upwelling longwave radiation is corrected to surface temperature (Ts) using a novel, high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer (RT) approach. From multi-day observational evaluation, the atmospheric correction has 0.39 K mean absolute error. Ground-based observations are combined with a comprehensive 3D radiative transfer model, enabling detailed simulation of EO land surface temperature (TsEO). For a mainly clear-sky summer day, TsEO at night underestimates the unbiased “complete” surface temperature (Tc) by 0.5 – 1 K, is similar to Tc during morning and evening, and for other times varies significantly with view angle (up to 5.1 K). Generally, view angle variation is smaller than prior studies as they typically use simpler geometry and temperature descriptions, and lack vegetation. Here, the observational basis and high-resolution modelling in a real central urban setting serves as a benchmark for future improvements of simplified model parameterisations

Assessing the long-distance repellency of long-lasting insecticide netting to a suite of post-harvest insects

Insects are our main competitors for food on the planet (1). In fact, growers lose 10-30% of crops during storage, processing, and marketing after harvest each year to stored product insects (2,3). Challenges to current management include increasing insecticide resistance to phosphine (4), which is the most common insect fumigant. Another challenge has been an increasing demand for organic or low insecticide-input products by consumers (5). To meet these challenges we came up with an alternative management approach, a long lasting insecticide netting (LLIN). Insecticide-treated nets have been widely used as a tool for malaria vector control in tropical regions since the early 1990s (6). These nets are typically treated with a pyrethroid insecticide, such as permethrin or deltamethrin, which repel, incapacitate, and kill mosquitoes that land on the nets. Researchers have recently begun exploring the use of LLINs for management of agricultural pests in high value specialty crops (7). More recently, work with LLINs in post-harvest settings has demonstrated that this tool can induce mortality, as well as significantly decrease the movement and dispersal capacity of post-harvest insects (8). Some possible uses for LLIN include being used to line windows, vents, eaves, or other openings into food facilities. However, anecdotal evidence from IPM practitioners has suggested that pyrethroids, which the LLIN contains, may be repellent to specific groups of insects. In order for LLIN to be an effective tool at intercepting and preventing infestation by stored product insects, we must demonstrate that the netting is not repellent to a range of post-harvest insects

Method of Detecting System Function by Measuring Frequency Response

Real time battery impedance spectrum is acquired using one time record, Compensated Synchronous Detection (CSD). This parallel method enables battery diagnostics. The excitation current to a test battery is a sum of equal amplitude sin waves of a few frequencies spread over range of interest. The time profile of this signal has duration that is a few periods of the lowest frequency. The voltage response of the battery, average deleted, is the impedance of the battery in the time domain. Since the excitation frequencies are known, synchronous detection processes the time record and each component, both magnitude and phase, is obtained. For compensation, the components, except the one of interest, are reassembled in the time domain. The resulting signal is subtracted from the original signal and the component of interest is synchronously detected. This process is repeated for each component

Acute Jaundice in a Six-year-old: An Unusual Presentation of Atypical Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a rare vasculitis of childhood that is critical to recognize and treat due to associated morbidity and mortality. A six-year-old male presented to our emergency department (ED) afebrile but with reported recent fevers. Exam revealed jaundice and erythematous tongue with papules, and laboratory studies indicated a direct hyperbilirubinemia. Admitted for evaluation, he developed continuous fever, increasing maculopapular rash, and subsequent desquamation of hands and feet. He ultimately met criteria for incomplete KD, was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin, and avoided cardiac complications. This presentation of incomplete KD with hyperbilirubinemia is rare because the patient was afebrile at ED presentation

W.J.D. Dempster (1876-1964)

William John Duncan Dempster, veteran of 37 years' northern service with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was born in Wales on October 21, 1876. Emigrating to Canada as a young man, he joined the N.W.M.P. in 1897 and the next year was posted to the Yukon, where he spent the rest of his career. Between 1898 and 1934, Dempster served in a dozen different Yukon communities, but his name received national attention in connection with the famous "Lost Patrol" of 1910-1911. ... The patrol of 1910-1911, of which Dempster was not a member, was commanded by Inspector F.J. Fitzgerald. ... When Fitzgerald did not arrive at Dawson as expected, Dempster, then a corporal, was sent out with two other members of the force and an Indian guide to find and rescue the patrol. ... On March 21 and 22 he discovered the bodies. After this disaster Dempster was ordered to make the route safe for future patrols, and thus he spent much of the winter of 1912-1913 establishing supply caches, building shelter cabins, and blazing the trail by making "lobsticks" - trees stripped bare except for their top branches and two branches sticking out lower down, to make them evident as trail markers - something that might have saved Fitzgerald's life had it been done earlier. It was ironic that Fitzgerald's name became better known in southern Canada than Dempster's, for it was Dempster who set the record for fastest patrol over the route - 19 days in connection with the Lost Patrol, and later, in 1920, 14 days over the same ground. But unlike Fitzgerald, Dempster avoided the publicity associated with disasters, for he did not take unnecessary chances in an attempt to set records, and he was not too proud to employ Indian guides or admit the fact on the rare occasions when he lost his way. ... Before he died on October 25, 1964, at the age of 88, he had the satisfaction of knowing that the new road from Dawson to Aklavik was to be named, in his honour, the Dempster Highway