Poverty Growth in Scandinavian Countries: A Sen Multi-decomposition

We show in this paper that the growth rate of the Sen index is multi-decomposable, that is, decomposable simultaneously by groups and income sources. The multi-decomposition of the poverty growth yields respectively: the growth rate of the poverty incidence (poverty rate) decomposed by groups, the growth rate of the poverty depth (poverty gap ratios) decomposed by sources and groups, and the growth rate of inequality decomposed by sources and groups. We demonstrate that the multi-decomposition is not unique. It is mainly dependent on poverty lines defined on the space of income sources. An application to Scandinavian countries shows that poverty lines based on non-correlation between the sources of incomes imply serious underestimation of the contribution levels of the different components of the global poverty growth. The main contribution of our paper is to pay a particular attention to the poverty growth and its source components in order to avoid underestimation of poverty growth.

Multidimensional Poverty in Pakistan: Case of Punjab Province

This paper applies Alkire & Foster (2007) approach for measuring the multidimensional poverty. The data set used in the study is Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2003-04 of Punjab, Pakistan. Eight dimensions used in the study are Housing, Water, Sanitation, Electricity, Assets, Education, Expenditure, and Land. Results shows that at cut off K=2; Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Rahimyar Khan, Kasur, Okara and Lodhran respectively are the most multidimensionally poor districts of Punjab whereas, Gunj Buksh Town Lahore, Ravi Town Lahore, Cantt Town Lahore, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Allama Iqbal Town Lahore, Gujranwala and Jhelum are the least deprived Towns/Districts of Punjab province. Dimension wise breakdown shows that Land deprivation, expenditure, sanitation, housing and education are respectively the major contributors among overall multidimensional poverty.Multidimensional Poverty, Pakistan, MDGs

Laparoscopy Pneumoperitoneum Fuzzy Modeling

Abstract: Gas volume to intra-peritoneal pressure fuzzy modeling for evaluating pneumoperitoneum in videolaparoscopic surgery is proposed in this paper. The proposed approach innovates in using fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory for evaluating the accuracy of the prognosis value in order to minimize or avoid iatrogenic injuries due to the blind needle puncture. In so doing, it demonstrates the feasibility of fuzzy analysis to contribute to medicine and health care. Fuzzy systems is employed here in synergy with artificial neural network based on backpropaga tion, multilayer perceptron architecture for building up numerical functions. Experimental data employed for analysis were collected in the accomplishment of the pneumoperitoneum in a random population of patients submitted to videolaparoscopic surgeries. Numerical results indicate that the proposed fuzzy mapping for describing the relation from the intra peritoneal pressure measures as function injected gas volumes succeeded in determinining a fuzzy model for this nonlinear system when compared to the statistical model

Noncommutative gauge theory and symmetry breaking in matrix models

We show how the fields and particles of the standard model can be naturally realized in noncommutative gauge theory. Starting with a Yang-Mills matrix model in more than 4 dimensions, a SU(n) gauge theory on a Moyal-Weyl space arises with all matter and fields in the adjoint of the gauge group. We show how this gauge symmetry can be broken spontaneously down to SU(3)_c x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Q (resp. SU(3)_c x U(1)_Q), which couples appropriately to all fields in the standard model. An additional U(1)_B gauge group arises which is anomalous at low energies, while the trace-U(1) sector is understood in terms of emergent gravity. A number of additional fields arise which we assume to be massive, in a pattern that is reminiscent of supersymmetry. The symmetry breaking might arise via spontaneously generated fuzzy spheres, in which case the mechanism is similar to brane constructions in string theory.Comment: 29 page

The Concept of Multidimensional Poverty: Accounting for Dimensional Poverty

Increasing efforts have recently been directed towards the question of how to incorporate the idea of a multidimensional poverty concept into traditional poverty measurement. In response, several suggestions have been made to derive different classes of multidimensional poverty measures. In this paper we focus on five axiomatically derived classes of multidimensional poverty measures. Each of these classes follow the unidimensional approach to progressively weight the respective distances to the threshold levels in order to account for poverty intensity. In this paper we claim that this approach, though reasonable in a unidimensional setting, does not suffice in a multidimensional setting. An additional aspect of poverty intensity should be considered which we denote as dimensional poverty: the number of dimensions in which individuals are deprived. There exists no luminous explanation why a weighting scheme should account for one aspect of poverty intensity while at the same time ignoring the other one. In this paper we introduce a multiple cutoff method to identify the poor which allows us to extent the five classes of poverty measures to include an additional weighting scheme in order to account for dimensional poverty. We find that the additional weight has no effect on the axiomatic basis of the classes of poverty measures other than a partial violation of the well-known subgroup decomposability axiom.Multidimensional Poverty, Multidimensional Poverty measures, Axiomatic Approach, Poverty Intensity

The baryon vertex with magnetic flux

In this letter we generalise the baryon vertex configuration of AdS/CFT by adding a suitable instantonic magnetic field on its worldvolume, dissolving D-string charge. A careful analysis of the configuration shows that there is an upper bound on the number of dissolved strings. This should be a manifestation of the stringy exclusion principle. We provide a microscopical description of this configuration in terms of a dielectric effect for the dissolved strings.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures. V2: reference added. V3: version to appear in JHE