Resemblance As Repleteness: A Solution To Goodman’s Problem

In this paper I consider the view that Goodman altogether rejects the notion of resemblance in depiction. I argue that, although Goodman’s case seems to be a decisive challenge, he can in fact hold a positive view of resemblance if we weaken the standard usage of the word ‘resemblance’. The result of this is that Goodman’s commitment to the notion of repleteness enables him to say that pictures can and do resemble their subjects, as resemblance relies on the relative complexity of the depiction

Working as one: a road map to disaster resilience for Australia

This report offers a roadmap for enhancing Australia’s disaster resilience, building on the 2011 National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. It includes a snapshot of relevant issues and current resilience efforts in Australia, outlining key challenges and opportunities. Overview Natural disasters cause widespread disruption, costing the Australian economy $6.3 billion per year, and those costs are projected to rise incrementally to$23 billion by 2050. With more frequent natural disasters with greater consequences, Australian communities need the ability to prepare and plan for them, absorb and recover from them, and adapt more successfully to their effects. Enhancing Australian resilience will allow us to better anticipate disasters and assist in planning to reduce losses, rather than just waiting for the next king hit and paying for it afterwards. This report offers a roadmap for enhancing Australia’s disaster resilience, building on the 2011 National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. It includes a snapshot of relevant issues and current resilience efforts in Australia, outlining key challenges and opportunities. The report sets out 11 recommendations to help guide Australia towards increasing national resilience, from individuals and local communities through to state and federal agencies

On the chemical composition of Titan's dry lakebed evaporites

Titan, the main satellite of Saturn, has an active cycle of methane in its troposphere. Among other evidence for a mechanism of evaporation at work on the ground, dry lakebeds have been discovered. Recent Cassini infrared observations of these empty lakes have revealed a surface composition poor in water ice compared to that of the surrounding terrains --- suggesting the existence of organic evaporites deposits. The chemical composition of these possible evaporites is unknown. In this paper, we study evaporite composition using a model that treats both organic solids dissolution and solvent evaporation. Our results suggest the possibility of large abundances of butane and acetylene in the lake evaporites. However, due to uncertainties of the employed theory, these determinations have to be confirmed by laboratory experiments.Comment: Icarus, in pres

The Impact of a Non-ionic Adjuvant to the Persistence of Pesticides on Produce Surfaces

Adjuvants can enhance the performance of the pesticide active ingredients in many ways including decreasing surface tension and reducing evaporation. Understanding how adjuvants effect pesticide behavior (e.g., surface persistence) is crucial for developing effective pesticide formulations, as well as facilitating the development of effective approaches to reduce pesticide residues from the surface of fresh produce post-harvest. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of a non-ionic surfactant, Surf-Ac 910, on the persistence of two model pesticides, thiabendazole and phosmet on apple surfaces. The result shows that the addition of Surf-Ac 910 increased both the maximum wetted area and evaporation rate of thiabendazole, a systemic pesticide, and phosmet, a non-systemic pesticide. Utilizing surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to explore the surface and penetrative behaviors of thiabendazole and phosmet revealed that the addition of Surf-Ac 910 influenced the Raman signal of pesticides as well. The addition of Surf-Ac 910 decreased the Raman signal intensity when added to phosmet but did not affect the Raman signal intensity when added to thiabendazole. In terms of penetration, the addition of Surf-Ac 910 did not affect the penetration depth of phosmet but slightly increased the penetration depth of thiabendazole. These findings were true for both short-term, 40 minutes, and long-term, 3 days, exposure. Next, the effects of adjuvants on the removal of pesticide residues were investigated. Common household materials, such as baking soda, were effective at removing surface pesticide residues. After testing a variety of baking soda concentrations and starch granules, 2% baking soda and 2% corn starch were found to be the most effective baking soda concentration and starch granule respectively. 2% corn starch was the most effective removal method overall, with 99% of pesticide with/without adjuvant removed in just 5 minutes of wash time. Overall, this study demonstrated that although adjuvant Surf-Ac 910 could affect the surface persistence of pesticides, washing with common household materials such as 2% corn starch can be used as an effective, safe, and economic way to reduce pesticide exposure through fresh produce

Validation of Numerical Two-Fluid and Kinetic Plasma Models

This was a four year grant commencing October 1, 2003 and finishing September 30, 2007. The funding was primarily used to support the work of the Principal Investigator, who collaborated with Profs. Scott Parker and John Cary at U. Colorado, and with two students, N. Xiang and J. Cheng also of U. Colorado. The technical accomplishments of this grant can be found in the publications listed in the final Section here. The main accomplishments of the grant work were: (1) Development and implementation of time-implicit two-fluid simulation methods in collaboration with the NIMROD team; and (2) Development and testing of a new time-implicit delta-f, energy-conserving method The basic two-fluid method, with many improvements is used in present NIMROD calculations. The energy-conserving delta-f method is under continuing development under contract between Coronado Consulting, a New Mexico sole proprietorship and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Radioactivity and thermalization in the ejecta of compact object mergers and their impact on kilonova light curves

One of the most promising electromagnetic signatures of compact object mergers are kilonovae: approximately isotropic radioactively-powered transients that peak days to weeks post-merger. Key uncertainties in modeling kilonovae include the emission profiles of the radioactive decay products---non-thermal beta- and alpha-particles, fission fragments, and gamma-rays---and the efficiency with which they deposit their energy in the ejecta. The total radioactive energy and the efficiency of its thermalization sets the luminosity budget and is therefore necessary for predicting kilonova light curves. We outline the uncertainties in r-process decay, describe the physical processes by which the energy of the decay products is absorbed in the ejecta, and present time-dependent thermalization efficiencies for each particle type. We determine the net heating efficiency and explore its dependence on r-process yields---in particular, the production of translead nuclei that undergo alpha-decay---and on the ejecta's mass, velocity, composition, and magnetic field configuration. We incorporate our results into new time-dependent, multi-wavelength radiation transport simulations, and calculate updated predictions of kilonova light curves. Thermalization has a substantial effect on kilonova photometry, reducing the luminosity by a factor of roughly 2 at peak, and by an order of magnitude or more at later times (15 days or more after explosion). We present simple analytic fits to time-dependent net thermalization efficiencies, which can easily be used to improve light curve models. We briefly revisit the putative kilonova that accompanied gamma ray burst 130603B, and offer new estimates of the mass ejected in that event. We find that later-time kilonova light curves can be significantly impacted by alpha-decay from translead isotopes; data at these times may therefore be diagnostic of ejecta abundances.Comment: Submitted to ApJ; comments welcom

Income and Asset Disclosure Systems: Establishing Good Governance through Accountability

Financial declarations or income and asset disclosures (IADs) are quickly becoming an important tool for anticorruption agencies and governments to fight corruption. IAD systems can play two important roles within a broader framework of good governance: prevention and enforcement. In an effort to discover how best to design and implement an IAD system, the analysis conducted suggests that countries ultimately must design a system that best complements the environment in which it will function. However, there are several key principles that policy makers and practitioners need to consider: limit the number of filers to improve the odds of success, set modest and achievable expectations, provide resources commensurate with the mandate, prioritize verification procedures to align with available resources, and balance privacy concerns with public access to declarations.income, asset, disclosures, governance, accountability, financial declartations, corruption, anticorruption, privacy, public access