Cathode for use with low density gases

Method for preventing deterioration of mixed oxide cathodes in low density gas tubes caused by ion bombardment is discussed. Construction of cathode is described and illustration is furnished. Electron emission through space charge to neutralize ion-filled regions is basic process

Prevention of cathode damage from positive ion bombardment

Mixed alkaline earth oxide compounds deposited into hole at cathode surface center prevent ion back bombardment damage to cathode by reducing oxide layer and by creating metallic diffusion along sides of hole for enhanced electron emission

Australasian environmental economics: contributions, conflicts and ‘cop-outs’

Australian and New Zealand environmental economists have played a significant role in the development of concepts and their application across three fields within their subdiscipline: non-market valuation, institutional economics and bioeconomic modelling. These contributions have been spurred on by debates within and outside the discipline. Much of the controversy has centred on the validity of valuations generated through the application of stated preference methods such as contingent valuation. Suggestions to overcome some shortcomings in the work of environmental economists include the commissioning of a sequence of non-market valuation studies to fill existing gaps to improve the potential for benefit transfer.bioeconomic modelling, institutional economics, non-market valuation, Environmental Economics and Policy,

The Power of LOCCq State Transformations

Reversible state transformations under entanglement non-increasing operations give rise to entanglement measures. It is well known that asymptotic local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are required to get a simple operational measure of bipartite pure state entanglement. For bipartite mixed states and multipartite pure states it is likely that a more powerful class of operations will be needed. To this end \cite{BPRST01} have defined more powerful versions of state transformations (or reducibilities), namely LOCCq (asymptotic LOCC with a sublinear amount of quantum communication) and CLOCC (asymptotic LOCC with catalysis). In this paper we show that {\em LOCCq state transformations are only as powerful as asymptotic LOCC state transformations} for multipartite pure states. We first generalize the concept of entanglement gambling from two parties to multiple parties: any pure multipartite entangled state can be transformed to an EPR pair shared by some pair of parties and that any irreducible $m$ $(m\ge 2)$ party pure state can be used to create any other state (pure or mixed), using only local operations and classical communication (LOCC). We then use this tool to prove the result. We mention some applications of multipartite entanglement gambling to multipartite distillability and to characterizations of multipartite minimal entanglement generating sets. Finally we discuss generalizations of this result to mixed states by defining the class of {\em cat distillable states}

Household perceptions of climate change and preferences for mitigation action: the case of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in Australia

This study aims to show how Australian households perceive climate change and what they are prepared to do to reduce the harmful effects of climate change. A web-based survey in November 2008 asked approximately 600 New South Wales households about their willingness to pay additional household expenses caused by the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) proposed by the Australian government. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), a widely used non-market valuation technique, was applied. Results of the study show there is a positive demand to mitigate climate change in Australia resulting from a wish to avoid climate change. Households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for climate change was, however, significantly curbed as households was uncertain about the extent of climate change and whether climate change policies are effective. Australian household support for the CPRS is influenced by schemes of other major greenhouse gas emitting countries (global co-operation). Only when people who didn’t answer the survey are assumed to value climate change mitigation the same as people who did answer the survey, do the benefits of the CPRS, as estimated by respondents’ WTP, exceed its costs.Contingent valuation, climate change, Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, willingness to pay, uncertainty, Australia, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Valuing ecosystem resilience

The concept of ecosystem resilience is being increasingly discussed as a driver of biodiversity values. It implies that marginal deteriorations in ecosystem conditions can abruptly result in non-marginal and irreversible changes in ecosystem functioning and the economic values that the ecosystem generates. This challenges the traditional approach to the valuation of biodiversity, which has focused on quantifying values attached to individual species or other elements of ecosystems. As yet, little is known about the value society attaches to changes in ecosystem resilience. This paper investigates this value. A discrete choice experiment is used to estimate implicit prices for attributes used to describe ecosystem resilience using the Border Ranges rainforests in Australia as an example. We find evidence that implicit prices for the attributes describing ecosystem resilience are positive and statistically significantly different from zero.ecosystem resilience, discrete choice experiments, implicit prices, willingness to pay space, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Scale and scope effects on communities’ values for environmental improvements in the Namoi catchment: A choice modelling approach

This report presents results of research designed to investigate variations in willingness to pay (WTP) estimates across different scales and scopes of environmental investments. The goal is to help catchment management authorities better prioritise their natural resource management actions at both catchment and farm levels. Five split samples were used to test for scale and scope effects. A choice-modelling (CM) analysis was used to elicit household WTP for improvements in environmental quality attributes in the Namoi catchment. The approach was developed so that value estimates could be more accurately transferred between different action scopes.choice modelling, scale effect, scope effect, embedding, non-market valuation, catchment planning, environment., Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Cost-Benefit Analysis of the protection of Malleefowl in the Lachlan Catchment

A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of an investment in the protection of malleefowl and associated native vegetation in the Lachlan Catchment’s central-west yielded a benefit-cost ratio of 1.4. The CBA is based on project expenditures over the past four years coupled with benefit estimates from a recent Choice Modelling study in the Lachlan Catchment. The project targets the protection of malleefowl on private land which has not yet been surveyed but where the species is known to be present. The CBA is subject to significant uncertainty due to a lack of available data. Nonetheless, sensitivity analysis indicates that the BCR is consistently larger than unity, if marginal in some cases. This suggests that the project is a worthwhile investment at this early stage. Furthermore, greater gains may be achieved by addressing the numerous threats facing the species and its habitat. The increased cost of such an investment may be more than offset by the gains in benefits due to relatively conservative assumptions associated with the benefit calculations in the BCA.Cost-benefit analysis, Benefit-cost ratio, Choice modelling, Malleefowl, Lachlan Catchment, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Ordering effects and strategic response in discrete choice experiments

This study explores ordering effects and response strategies in repeated binary discrete choice experiments (DCE). Mechanism design theory and empirical evidence suggest that repeated choice tasks per respondent introduce strategic behavior. We find evidence that the order in which choice sets are presented to respondents may provide strategic opportunities that affect choice decisions (‘strategic response’). The findings propose that the ‘strategic response’ does not follow strong cost-minimization but other strategies such as weak cost-minimization or good deal/ bad deal heuristics. Evidence further suggests that participants, as they answer more choice questions, not only make more accurate choices (‘institutional learning’) but may also become increasingly aware of and learn to take advantage of the order in which choice sets are presented to them (‘strategic learning’).discrete choice experiments, incentive compatibility, mixed logit models, ordering effects, repeated binary choice task, response strategies, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Effects of alternative elicitation formats in discrete choice experiments

An elicitation format prevalently applied in DCE is to offer each respondent a sequence of choice tasks containing more than two choice options. However, empirical evidence indicates that repeated choice tasks influence choice behavior through institutional learning, fatigue, value learning, and strategic response. The study reported in this paper employs a split sample approach based on field surveys using a single binary elicitation format with a majority vote implementation as the baseline to expand the research on effects of sequential binary DCE formats. We provide evidence for effects caused by institutional learning and either strategic behavior or value learning after respondents answered repeated choice questions. However, we did not find any indications for strategic behavior caused by awareness of having multiple choices. The choice between a sequential and a single elicitation format may thus imply a trade-off between decreased choice accuracy and potentially increased strategic behavior due to an incentive incompatible mechanism. Further research is needed to explore strategic behavior induced by incentive incompatible elicitation formats using alternative approaches that are not compromised by a confounded baseline, that facilitate the differentiation between value learning and strategic behavior, and that allow the use of less restrictive model specifications. Such research should also investigate the effects of varying incentives induced by the order in which choice questions are presented to respondents.discrete choice experiments, split sample approach, elicitation format, incentive compatibility, strategic behavior, learning effects, panel mixed logit models, Environmental Economics and Policy,