Precision Electroweak Physics at the Tevatron

An overview of Tevatron electroweak measurements performed by the CDF and D0 experiments is presented. The current status and future prospects for high precision measurements of electroweak parameters and detailed studies of boson production are highlighted.Comment: Invited talk at the XXVI Physics in Collisions Conference (PIC06), Buzios, Brasil, July 2006, 13 pages, LaTex, 26 eps figures, PSN THUPL0

Specialisation: Pro and Anti-Globalizing 1990-2002

Specialization alters the incidence of trade costs to buyers and sellers, with pro-and anti-globalizing effects on 76 countries from 1990-2002. The structural gravity model yields measures of Constructed Home Bias and the Total Factor Productivity effect of changing incidence. A bit more than half the world's countries experience declining constructed home bias and rising real output while the remainder of countries experience rising home bias and falling real output. The effects are big for the outliers. A novel test of the structural gravity model restrictions shows it comes very close in an economic sense.

Addition of Sodium Bicarbonate to Irrigation Solution May Assist in Dissolution of Uric Acid Fragments During Ureteroscopy

Introduction: We hypothesized that adding sodium bicarbonate (bicarb) to normal saline (NS) irrigation during ureteroscopy in patients with uric acid (UA) nephrolithiasis may assist in dissolving small stone fragments produced during laser lithotripsy. In vitro testing was performed to determine whether dissolution of UA fragments could be accomplished within 1 hour. Materials and Methods: In total 100% UA renal calculi were fragmented, filtered, and separated by size. Fragment sizes were <0.5 mm and 0.5 to 1 mm. Similar amounts of stone material were agitated in solution at room temperature. Four solutions were tested (NS, NS +1 ampule bicarb/L, NS +2, NS +3). Both groups were filtered to remove solutions after fixed periods. Filtered specimens were dried and weighed. Fragment dissolution rates were calculated as percent removed per hour. Additional testing was performed to determine whether increasing the temperature of solution affected dissolution rates. Results: For fragments <0.5 mm, adding 2 or 3 bicarb ampules/L NS produced a dissolution rate averaging 91% ± 29% per hour. This rate averaged 226% faster than NS alone. With fragments 0.5 to 1 mm, addition of 2 or 3 bicarb ampules/L NS yielded a dissolution rate averaging 22% ± 7% per hour, which was nearly five times higher than NS alone. There was a trend for an increase in mean dissolution rate with higher temperature but this increase was not significant (p = 0.30). Conclusions: The addition of bicarbonate to NS more than doubles the dissolution rate of UA stone fragments and fragments less than 0.5 mm can be completely dissolved within 1 hour. Addition of bicarb to NS irrigation is a simple and inexpensive approach that may assist in the dissolution of UA fragments produced during ureteroscopic laser lithotripsy. Further studies are needed to determine whether a clinical benefit exists

The Effects of Water Quality and Quantity on the Fauna of a Non-Glacial Alaskan River

Completion reportThe work upon which this report is based was partially supported by funds provided by the U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Water Resources Research, as authorized under the Water Resources Research Act of 1964. Project Number: A-010-ALAS Agreement Number: 14-01-0001-162

The National Security Process and a Lawyer’s Duty: Remarks to the Senior Judge Advocate Symposium

September 11 changed so much about our lives and how we perceive national security. Harold Lasswell, in an earlier context, described the sharing of danger throughout society as the “socialization of danger,” which he wrote was a permanent characteristic of modern violence; but not for America until September 11. The socialization of danger has made ordinary citizens participants in the national security process in a way not previously experienced. In addition, it has brought relatively unknown federal agencies, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control, to the forefront of national security planning and response. And both of these occurrences have emphasized the importance of viewing terrorism and cyber security as problems requiring effective vertical and not just horizontal process. Where most national security problems require coordination amongst federal agencies, homeland security is equally about coordination between federal, state, and local actors down to the level of first responder and the technician who spots the first medical anomaly. This vertical process will test the manner in which information is shared, resources allocated, and perhaps the level at which decisions of life and death, heretofore made by the President, are taken. Constitutional democracy also means that all decisions are made according to law. And that means that sound Executive process must incorporate timely and competent legal advice. In some cases, legal review is dictated by statute, as in the case of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which requires the attorney general, or his designee, to approve requests for electronic surveillance or physical search before they are submitted to the FISA court. In other cases, the President has directed a specific process to ensure legal review in areas historically prone to peril, including certain intelligence activities. However, the majority of legal advice within the national security process is not directed, but is the product of practice, custom, and personal interchange between lawyer and client. That means that good process requires personal persuasion, presence, and value added, or the lawyer will find he or she is only contributing to decisions where legal review is mandated and then only as the last stop on the bus route. Constitutional democracy does not rest on such process

Decision-Making and Statistical Standards

NASA speech on use of statistical methods in governmental decision makin