Property Rights, Theft, and Efficiency: The Biblical Waiver of Fines in the Case of Confessed Theft

In this paper we show that costs associated with infractions of property rights, such as theft, can be reduced by imposing lower penal-ties on individuals who admit to such infractions and make restitution. We find that the socially optimal penalty on a confessed thief may be zero (complete amnesty) or even negative – a person may be given a reward for confessing a theft. The benefits of amnesties were apparently recognized in ancient times and they constitute part of Biblical Law. Moreover, such amnesties have also been informally incorporated into modern legal systems, wherein leniency (a form of partial amnesty) is generally shown to individuals who confess their infractions.

Club Theory and The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community (in Hebrew)

This paper applies club theory to the behavior of the ultra-orthodox Jewish community in Israel by using different assumptions than those that have been employed by Berman (1998, 2000). Berman's model explains the extraordinarily length of the period years that ultra-orthodox Jews devote to studying in yeshiva (and thereby do not enter the labor force). He views this as sacrifice (commitment) required by the community in order to prevent outsiders from free riding on the highly subsidized services given to the community members. We argue that some of the assumptions and implications of Berman's model are not consistent with the revealed behavior of the ultra-orthodox community. By modifying these assumptions we derive an alternative model. The results of our model are significantly different from Berman's model both in terms of their explanation of the phenomenon of long yeshiva studies, and their implicit implications for effective policies aimed at conscripting yeshiva students to the army.

Robust Control for the Mercury Laser Altimeter

Mercury Laser Altimeter Science Algorithms is a software system for controlling the laser altimeter aboard the Messenger spacecraft, which is to enter into orbit about Mercury in 2011. The software will control the altimeter by dynamically modifying hardware inputs for gain, threshold, channel-disable flags, range-window start location, and range-window width, by using ranging information provided by the spacecraft and noise counts from instrument hardware. In addition, because of severe bandwidth restrictions, the software also selects returns for downlink

Ada style guide (version 1.1)

Ada is a programming language of considerable expressive power. The Ada Language Reference Manual provides a thorough definition of the language. However, it does not offer sufficient guidance on the appropriate use of Ada's powerful features. For this reason, the Goddard Space Flight Center Ada User's Group has produced this style guide which addresses such program style issues. The guide covers three areas of Ada program style: the structural decomposition of a program; the coding and the use of specific Ada features; and the textural formatting of a program

White Matter Hyperintensities in Parkinson’s Disease: Do They Explain the Disparity between the Postural Instability Gait Difficulty and Tremor Dominant Subtypes?

Background: Brain white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) commonly observed on brain imaging of older adults are associated with balance and gait impairment and have also been linked to cognitive deficits. Parkinson’s disease (PD) is traditionally sub-classified into the postural instability gait difficulty (PIGD) sub-type, and the tremor dominant (TD) sub-type. Considering the known association between WMHs and axial symptoms like gait disturbances and postural instability, one can hypothesize that WMHs might contribute to the disparate clinical sub-types of patients with PD. Methods: 110 patients with PD underwent a clinical evaluation and a 3T MRI exam. Based on the Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale, the patients were classified into motor sub-types, i.e., TD or PIGD, and scores reflecting PIGD and TD symptoms were computed. We compared white matter burden using three previously validated methods: one using a semi-quantitative visual rating scale in specific brain regions and two automated methods. Results: Overall, MRI data were obtained in 104 patients. The mean WMHs scores and the percent of subjects with lesions in specific brain regions were similar in the two subtypes, p = 0.678. The PIGD and the TD scores did not differ even when comparing patients with a relatively high burden of WMHs to patients with a relatively low burden. Across most of the brain regions, mild to moderate correlations between WMHs and age were found (r = 0.23 to 0.41; p<0.021). Conversely, no significant correlations were found between WMHs and the PIGD score or disease duration. In addition, depressive symptoms and cerebro-vascular risk factors were similar among the two subtypes. Conclusions: In contrast to what has been reported previously among older adults, the present study could not demonstrate any association between WMHs and the PIGD or TD motor sub-types in patients with PD

On the Short Distance Part of the QCD Anomaly Contribution to the b --> s eta' Amplitude

In addressing the B --> eta' K puzzle, there has been a considerable hope in the literature to resolve it by the QCD anomaly contribution to the b --> s eta' amplitude. This contribution corresponds to the electroweak b --> s g* g* transition followed by the off-shell gluon fusion g* g* --> eta'. In the present paper we perform a critical reassessment of this issue. We show that for the hard virtual gluons in a loop there is a well defined short distance amplitude corresponding to a remnant of the QCD anomaly. However, we find that it cannot account for the measured amplitude. In addition, we point out that the reduction of the gluon fusion vertex for the off-shell gluons is compensated by an absence of the claimed suppression in the electroweak vertex, and that some nonperturbative contributions related to the QCD anomaly may still be viable in explaining the physical B --> eta' K amplitude.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX + elsart.cls, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Theories of Technological Progress and the British Textile Industry from Kay to Cartwright

Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaLa industria textil británica continúa en el centro del debate sobre la revolución industrial. Las innovaciones técnicas en el período produjeron una aceleración extraordinaria del crecimiento del output y una considerable reducción de los precios de los tejidos. En este trabajo presentamos un estudio de la comunidad de los inventores responsables de la transformación tecnológica, lo que nos permite alcanzar una serie de conclusiones nuevas sobre el ritmo y dirección de la actividad innovadora durante la revolución industrialThe cotton textile industry remains central to all accounts of the first industrial revolution. Innovations in this period precipitated an extraordinary acceleration in the growth of output and a steep decline in the cost of producing all varieties of cloth. In this paper we outline an explanation through an analysis of the community of inventors responsible for the technological transformation, which enables us to offer some generalizations of the pace and pattern of the inventive activity in this period.Publicad