Preference Reversal, Real-World Lotteries, and Lottery-Interested Subjects

Preference reversal, or choice/reservation-price inconsistency, has been documented experimentally for certain types of lotteries. We argue that the relevance of these findings for real-world markets is uncertain because the type of objects used cannot exist on a market and because the extent to which the subjects had any real interest in the objects is unknown. Using real-world lotteries, we have tested choice/price consistency on subjects who prefer lotteries to cash. Preference reversal was observed, but the frequency was much lower than in earlier experiments. There were no differences between subjects who qualify as ""lottery interested"" and those who did not.

TNT07 MIO San Francisco Bay, atmospheric effects after action report

The authors participated in four Tactical Network Topology Marine Interdiction Operations (TNT MIOs) during FY 2007. The overall goals of the authors TNT MIO studies were (1) to provide military and law enforcement personnel with real time and future information on how the environment will affect marine interdiction operations and (2) to develop, verify and improve models and procedures used in (1) by comparing predictions with actual in situ observations. Similar to earlier TNT MIO experiments, the authors addressed how environmental factors affect the transmission of radiation in the visible and radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. But, unlike the earlier experiments, more emphasis was placed on other environmental effects such as winds, sea state, tides and other weather factors. By developing a system to provide the relevant personnel with this information we hope to (1) enhance overall situational awareness, (2) enhance mission planning and safety and (3) provide an advantage over any potential adversaries who might not consider these atmospheric effects. For this project we made in situ measurements of atmospheric conditions as and also incorporated a large amount of outside information to give a better picture of the environmental conditions that affected the MIO. In addition to providing weather briefings in the mornings of the operations, several environmental products were made available via the experimental networks. These products included results of visibility and radar range model predictions developed especially for these experiments as well as more general products downloaded from the World Wide Web. The data collection efforts were successful and allowed verification and improvement of the effects models.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Bridge over troubled water?:Migration, social capital and the welfare state

The problem of integrating non-Western immigrants into Western welfare states is the focus of this paper. To address this issue, we suggest a social capital approach in which we apply the conceptual pair of bridging social capital (BR), which connects an individual to the broader social structure, and bonding social capital (BO), which closely binds an individual to his or her narrow social group. By this we hope to grasp both the sunny and the more shadowy side of network cooperation and trust in relation to the integration of immigrants. Our data, on non-Western immigrants in Denmark, show a positive relationship between the levels of bridging and bonding capital, suggesting that bonding social capital in the immigrant group does not seem to impede the establishment of the bridging social capital needed for integration

Red Supergiant Stars as Cosmic Abundance Probes: NLTE Effects in J-band Iron and Titanium Lines

Detailed non-LTE calculations for red supergiant stars are presented to investigate the influence of NLTE on the formation of atomic iron and titanium lines in the J-band. With their enormous brightness at J-band red supergiant stars are ideal probes of cosmic abundances. Recent LTE studies have found that metallicities accurate to 0.15 dex can be determined from medium resolution spectroscopy of individual red supergiants in galaxies as distant as 10 Mpc. The non-LTE results obtained in this investigation support these findings. Non-LTE abundance corrections for iron are smaller than 0.05 dex for effective temperatures between 3400K to 4200K and 0.1 dex at 4400K. For titanium the non-LTE abundance corrections vary smoothly between -0.4 dex and +0.2 dex as a function of effective temperature. For both elements, the corrections also depend on stellar gravity and metallicity. The physical reasons behind the non-LTE corrections and the consequences for extragalactic J-band abundance studies are discussed.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Whole body imaging using 18-Fluorine Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) with or without contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) in dignosing arteritis

Introduction: Takayasu’s Arteritis and Horton’s Arteritis are two rare cases of autoimmune complex diseases resulting in sterile inflammatory reactions affecting the wall of large and medium sized arteries. Various radiological and interventional methods employed are inconclusive and become diagnostic only when complications begin to set in. The new non-invasive hybrid Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography (PET/CT) using 18Florine-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) imaging technique could detect arteritis in an early clinical stage when routine conventional cross-sectional imaging was inconclusive. Method: Two cases from Klagenfurt Hospital, Austria and Milan General Hospital, Italy were compared with image acquisition being done in the respective hospitals. In Klagenfurt, PET/CT image acquisition was performed using intravenous contrast administration and in Milan, CT parameters were used as attenuation correction and anatomical correlation of PET images. Results: CT performed using both methods, with or without iodinated contrast media, were useful in detecting arteritis. Conclusion: It is concluded that PET/ CT aside from being a useful tool in cancer imaging, is also useful for pyrexia of unknown origin. PET/CT should be employed early in managing this clinical condition where arteritis is a possible diagnosis