Improved relay optical element for spectroradiometer using cryogenically cooled detector

By coating half of one element in the relay optical system of a spectroradiometer with a very high emissivity paint, the effect of the reflected radiation from the back of the filter wheel is eliminated optically. This causes the detector to view a constant level of radiation, regardless of how the reflectivity of the back of the filter wheel changes

The Role of Tradable Permits in Water Pollution Control

This paper was prepared as a conceptual framework to stimulate discussions on the role and applicability of tradable permits in water pollution control among participants of the Technical Seminar on the Feasibility of the Application of Tradable Water Permits for Water Management in Chile (13-14 November 2003 in Santiago de Chile). In Chile, water pollution is a major problem. Until recently, existing regulations to control water pollution consisted mainly of non-market based instruments. Innovative instruments are now being explored via a recent national law for tradable emission/discharge permits. The instrument of tradable discharge permits is one of several market-based instruments used in water management and pollution control. Tradable discharge permits are actually among the most challenging market-based instruments in terms of both their design and implementation. Experience to date with tradable discharge permits for water pollution control has been limited and mainly comes from several regions of the US and Australia. The paper at first introduces tradable permits as part of an overall taxonomy of economic instruments in the field of water management. In this context, three fundamentally different fields of application of tradable permits systems relating to water are presented: tradable water abstraction rights, tradable rights to water-based resources and tradable water pollution rights. The remaining of the paper deals exclusively with the latter category, i.e. tradable water pollution rights, their role and applicability in water pollution control

Regulation of Water Supply in Germany

Wasserversorgung, Privatisierung, Regulierung, Deutschland, Water supply, Privatization, Regulation, Germany

Generalized Entropies

We study an entropy measure for quantum systems that generalizes the von Neumann entropy as well as its classical counterpart, the Gibbs or Shannon entropy. The entropy measure is based on hypothesis testing and has an elegant formulation as a semidefinite program, a type of convex optimization. After establishing a few basic properties, we prove upper and lower bounds in terms of the smooth entropies, a family of entropy measures that is used to characterize a wide range of operational quantities. From the formulation as a semidefinite program, we also prove a result on decomposition of hypothesis tests, which leads to a chain rule for the entropy.Comment: 21 page

‘Dear Friend’: The Practice of Nonviolence in Gandhi’s Letters to Hitler

At the onset of World War II, Mohandas Gandhi wrote two separate letters to Adolf Hitler. Though neither letter ever reached the Führer, both are readily accessible, via Internet, to 21st Century readers, for whom the content of the letters may prove both alarming and instructive. Why did Gandhi address the chief Nazi as his ‘Dear Friend’? Why did he write with such profound respect and humility when addressing a man accused of ‘monstrous’ acts? Did he really believe his appeals would persuade Hitler to end the war? This article will examine Gandhi’s letters to Hitler as notable examples of the Mahatma’s everyday practice of peace. His sympathetic approach to the Führer, models a deep practice of nonviolent values which, while quite shocking to those of us working in today’s ‘woke’ environment, can, if we approach it with open minds, provide an opportunity to explore the strategic value of Gandhi’s principled methods. Understanding the nonviolent strategy we find deeply embedded in these short letters can offer us useful guidance on how to talk to people we disagree with, how to restore community relationships in our increasingly fractured and polarised societies, and how to establish today’s truths as we understand them in a world where the existence of truth is increasingly debated. If we approach our opponents as ‘dear friends’, we can restore and rebuild nonviolence as the foundation of our own peace praxis