Observations of Uranus' satellites: Bibliography and literature search

A literature search has yielded more than 10,000 observations of the satellites of Uranus made from 1787 to 1985. The type (photographic, micrometer) and the number of observations are tabulated in 5 year increments and a complete bibliography is provided

Seroepidemiological studies of herpesvirus-associated diseases of marine turtles: Fibropapillomatosis and lung-eye-trachea disease

We have developed immunological tests that can identify marine turtles in Florida (green and loggerhead) that have been exposed to the LETV herpesvirus. The seroepidemiological data collected provides critical evidence about the relationship between infection with the FP-associated herpesvirus and the LETV herpesvirus. The data supports the hypothesis that LETV and FPHV infections are independent infections of marine turtles. The data shows that wild green turtles in Florida are exposed to the LETD-associated herpesvirus, which is the first description ofLETV infection in free-ranging marine turtles. To our knowledge, the antigenic proteins identified in this study are not only the first proteins from a reptilian herpesvirus to be cloned and expressed, but they represent the first reptilian herpesvirus proteins to be identified as immunogenic in their host species. (16 page document

Formation and Evolution of Binary Asteroids

Satellites of asteroids have been discovered in nearly every known small body population, and a remarkable aspect of the known satellites is the diversity of their properties. They tell a story of vast differences in formation and evolution mechanisms that act as a function of size, distance from the Sun, and the properties of their nebular environment at the beginning of Solar System history and their dynamical environment over the next 4.5 Gyr. The mere existence of these systems provides a laboratory to study numerous types of physical processes acting on asteroids and their dynamics provide a valuable probe of their physical properties otherwise possible only with spacecraft. Advances in understanding the formation and evolution of binary systems have been assisted by: 1) the growing catalog of known systems, increasing from 33 to nearly 250 between the Merline et al. (2002) Asteroids III chapter and now, 2) the detailed study and long-term monitoring of individual systems such as 1999 KW4 and 1996 FG3, 3) the discovery of new binary system morphologies and triple systems, 4) and the discovery of unbound systems that appear to be end-states of binary dynamical evolutionary paths. Specifically for small bodies (diameter smaller than 10 km), these observations and discoveries have motivated theoretical work finding that thermal forces can efficiently drive the rotational disruption of small asteroids. Long-term monitoring has allowed studies to constrain the system's dynamical evolution by the combination of tides, thermal forces and rigid body physics. The outliers and split pairs have pushed the theoretical work to explore a wide range of evolutionary end-states.Comment: 42 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the Asteroids 4 boo

Ownership and financing of infrastructure : historical perspective

The authors summarize the rich and varied experiences of private and public provision of urban services in France, Great Britain, and the United States over the past 100 years. Their main focus is on experiences in the United States and on shifts back and forth between the public and private sectors. A few of their observations: (i) The values of politically important actors as well as the working of government, political, and legal institutions have shaped decisions about infrastructure development, the sorts of public goods demanded, and the roles played by private firms. (ii) The range of choices that has historically been made with respect to the ownership, financing, and operation of different infrastructures has been far too varied to be encompassed by simple distinctions between"public"and"private."(iii) Throughout the world, many infrastructures owned and operated by governments have been built by private firms. (iv) In the United States, private firms and property-owners associations of various sorts have owned outright both toll roads and residential streets. Private firms have also collected solid wastes and provided urban transport under a range of franchise, contracting, and regulatory arrangements. The situation with mass transit has been similar in Great Britain. Although water works facilities in France are predominantly government-owned, private firms operate and manage most systems under an array of contracting and leasing arrangements. (v) Even when facilities have been owned by private firms, direct competition has been of limited importance in the provision of many kinds of infrastructure. But market discipline can arise from other sources. (vi) Privatization can get government bureaucracies out of the business of performing entrepreneurial activities for which they may be poorly suited. When market forces are weak, however, and important public interests are at stake, strengthening government institutions may be a prerequisite for successful privatization. (vii) In the electric utility industry, private firms played a far greater role in U.S. electric utilities than in Great Britain, in part because of different views about appropriate roles for government in providing essential services. For similar reasons, the state played a much larger role in furnishing telecommunications services in France than in the United States. (viii) Beliefs about the"publicness"of different goods and services have helped shape the character of regulatory franchise, and contracting arrangements. When a good is seen as mainly private, it is easier for private service providers to be compensated mainly by user fees and for most decisions about price, output, and quality, no matter what the role played by private firms in actually providing services. (ix) Goods defined as"public"have often been provided free to users, even though it would have been easy to exclude nonpayers. Examples in the United States include interstate highway systems, public parks, public libraries, and police and fire protection. Free services have been provided because it is believed that in these domains market relationships should not apply - and that denying nonpayers the public services would be a denial of rights. (x) In Great Britain and the United States, the contracting out of public services has been both supported and opposed because of its potential to break the power of public sector unions and to cut workers'pay. In the United States, privatization has also come under attack on the grounds that opportunities for minority employment may be reduced.Regional Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Decentralization,Public Sector Management and Reform,Urban Governance and Management,Public Sector Management and Reform,Urban Governance and Management,Regional Governance,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Public Sector Economics&Finance