CLEANING A RIVER: AN ANALYSIS OF VOLUNTARY JOINT ACTION

Abstract River pollution creates negative externalities to downstream water users. In this paper, we analyze how voluntary joint action of water users can improve pollution abatement when optimal treatment cannot be enforced. We model a transboundary pollution game with a unidirectional pollutant flow. Players are identical except for their location along the river. We find that, surprisingly, the location of coalition members has no impact on coalition stability. Location does, however, affect overall welfare. The more upstream the members of the coalition are, the higher is the overall welfare because the positive externalities of cleaning accrue to a larger number of downstream water users.     

FROM THE GOLDEN AGE TO THE NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE: FISHERY MODELING IN THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY

ABSTRACT. If the Golden Age of fishery modeling is over, the New Industrial Age is beginning. In this new age (the early decades of the 21st century), we¹ expect to see increasing use of high‐level modeling tools, assessments closely tailored to each stock and its data, more multi‐agency collaboration, wider use of multiple‐model assessments, and extensive peer review of stock assessments. We hope that fishery management, as well, will be seen as a proper object of peer review, from which it should benefit substantially. We believe that increasing attention will be paid to financial efficiency, both in shaping data collection programs and in specifying what information must be modeled to effect management. If presently depleted stocks start to recover, analysts will be required to examine in more detail the dynamics of increasing stocks. That would constitute a pleasant duty, and one that may yield new insights in population biology.     

Dense packing of binary and polydisperse hard spheres

The packing of binary and polydisperse unimodal and bimodal ensembles of hard spheres in the limit of high pressure is studied using a sequential addition algorithm. Upon fixing the number of particles, and their size distribution, the average (maximum) packing fraction is determined for systems of up to 20 000 particles. The structures obtained correspond to amorphous states close to the dense random close packing density. Binary distributions obtained are denser than the equivalent monodisperse distribution and agree with the theoretical prediction for an infinite size ratio limit. Unimodal normal and lognormal polydisperse distributions obtained compare favourably with available simulation and experimental data. Results for bimodal lognormal distributions are presented. In all cases it is seen how an increase in polydispersity increases the packing fraction of the system. The results can be employed to gain insight into optimal formulations for dense emulsions.