A binary nature of the marginal CP star Sigma Sculptoris

The A2 V star σ Scl was suspected of being a low-amplitude rotating variable of the Ap-type star by several authors. Aiming to decide whether the star is a variable chemically peculiar (CP) star, we searched for the photometric and spectroscopic variability, and determined chemical abundances of σ Scl. The possible variability was tested using several types of periodograms applied to the photometry from Long-Term Photometry of Variables project (LTPV) and Hipparcos. Sixty spectrograms of high signal-to-noise (S/N) were obtained and used for chemical analysis of the stellar atmosphere and for looking for spectral variability that is symptomatic for the CP stars. We did not find any signs of the light variability or prominent chemical peculiarity, that is specific for the CP stars. The only exception is the abundance of scandium, which is significantly lower than the solar one and yttrium and barium, which are strongly overabundant. As a by-product of the analysis, and with the addition of 29 further spectra, we found that σ Scl is a single-lined spectroscopic binary with orbital period of 46.877(8) d. We argue that σ Scl is not an Ap star, but rather a marginal Am star in SB1 system. The spectral energy distribution of the binary reveals infrared excess due to circumstellar material.Fil: Janík, Jan. Masaryk University; República ChecaFil: Krtička, Jiří. Masaryk University; República ChecaFil: Mikulášek, Zdeněk. Masaryk University; República ChecaFil: Zverko, Juraj. Masaryk University; República ChecaFil: Pintado, Olga Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Departamento de Geología. Cátedra Geología Estructural. Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica; Argentin

Approaches to Estimating the Health State Dependence of the Utility Function

If the marginal utility of consumption depends on health status, this will affect the economic analysis of a number of central problems in public finance, including the optimal structure of health insurance and optimal life cycle savings. In this paper, we describe the promises and challenges of various approaches to estimating the effect of health on the marginal utility of consumption. Our basic conclusion is that while none of these approaches is a panacea, many offer the potential to shed important insights on the nature of health state dependence.

Liberal market economies, business, and political finance: Britain under New Labour

The extent and nature of business financing of parties is an important feature of political finance. Britain’s transparent and permissive regulatory system provides an excellent opportunity to study business financing of parties. Business donations have been very important to the Conservative party over the last decade, and of only marginal importance to Labour. Unlike other Conservative contributors, business donors are more likely to contribute when the party is popular. In contrast to the previous period of Conservative government, the biggest British businesses tended to abstain from political finance under New Labour. However, their bias towards the Conservatives is affected by the party’s popularity and the closeness of an election. Britain shares the political importance of business financing of parties and its mixture of ideological and pragmatic motivations with other liberal market economies. However, in Britain the bias towards the right is much stronger and the role of big business more marginal

Influence of hydrodynamic processes on the fate of sedimentary organic matter on continental margins

Understanding the effects of hydrodynamic forcing on organic matter (OM) composition is important for assessment of organic carbon (OC) burial in marginal seas on regional and global scales. Here we examine the relationships between regional oceanographic conditions (bottom shear stress), and the physical characteristics (mineral surface area and grain size) and geochemical properties (OC content [OC%] and carbon isotope compositions [13C, 14C]) of a large suite of surface sediments from the Chinese marginal seas to assess the influence of hydrodynamic processes on the fate of OM on shallow continental shelves. Our results suggest that 14C content is primarily controlled by organo‐mineral interactions and hydrodynamically driven resuspension processes, highlighted by (i) positive correlations between 14C content and OC% (and surface area) and (ii) negative correlations between 14C content and grain size (and bottom shear stress). Hydrodynamic processes influence 14C content due to both OC aging during lateral transport and accompanying selective degradation of OM associated with sediment (re) mobilization, these effects being superimposed on the original 14C characteristics of carbon source. Our observations support the hypotheses of Blair and Aller (2012, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev‐marine‐120709‐142717) and Leithold et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.10.011) that hydrodynamically driven sediment translocation results in greater OC 14C depletion in broad, shallow marginal seas common to passive margin settings than on active margins. On a global scale, this may influence the extent to which continental margins act as net carbon sources and sinks. Our findings thus suggest that hydrodynamic processes are important in shaping the nature, dynamics, and magnitude of OC export and burial in passive marginal seas

Effects of Strain coupling and Marginal dimensionality in the nature of phase transition in Quantum paraelectrics

Here a recently observed weak first order transition in doped SrTiO3 is argued to be a consequence of the coupling between strain and order parameter fluctuations. Starting with a semi-microscopic action, and using renormalization group equations for vertices, we write the free energy of such a system. This fluctuation renormalized free energy is then used to discuss the possibility of first order transition at zero temperature as well as at finite temperature. An asymptotic analysis predicts small but a finite discontinuity in the order parameter near a mean field quantum critical point at zero temperature. In case of finite temperature transition, near quantum critical point such a possibility is found to be extremely weak. Results are in accord with some experimental findings on quantum paraelectrics such as SrTiO3 and KTaO3.Comment: Revised versio

Intra-Industry Trade in Agricultural and Food Products: The Case of Ukraine

We present an analysis of agricultural and food trade in Ukraine over the period 1996-2002 focusing on different aspects of intra-industry trade. We estimated Grubel-Lloyd and marginal IIT indexes to examine the relevance of intra-industry trade between Ukraine and its trading partners and the changes in nature of trade flows over time. The results indicate that the major part of agro-food trade is of the inter-industry type, and thus a product of underlying comparative advantages. The low level of index seems to be typical for primary sectors in comparison to industries with higher product differentiation. Also marginal IIT appears to be low, the structure of the changes in agro-food trade flows between Ukraine and its trading partners during the analyzed period is shown to be predominantly intraindustry. These results imply that the restructuring process, associated with trade liberalization of Ukraine on bilateral and multilateral level, will induce higher adjustment costs than in an intra-industry trade environment.intra-industry trade, marginal intra-industry trade, agro-food products, Ukraine, International Relations/Trade, F14, Q17,

Approaches to Estimating the Health State Dependence of the Utility Function

If the marginal utility of consumption depends on health status, this will affect the economic analysis of a number of central problems in public finance, including the optimal structure of health insurance and optimal life cycle savings. In this paper, we describe the promises and challenges of various approaches to estimating the effect of health on the marginal utility of consumption. Our basic conclusion is that while none of these approaches is a panacea, many offer the potential to shed important insights on the nature of health state dependence.insurance, health, state dependence, marginal utility

Welfare Measurement and Public Goods in a Second Best Economy

This chapter concerns welfare measurement in economies, where the government raises revenue by means of distortionary taxation. A major issue is the treatment of (state-variable) public goods in the context of social accounting. Although the marginal value that the government attaches to a public good is model-specific (as it depends on the exact nature of the underlying decision-problem), the analysis explains how the direct resource cost of providing increments to the public good and the marginal cost of public funds can be used to measure this marginal value. The first part of the chapter is based on a representative-agent growth model with linear taxation, whereas the second part addresses a model with heterogeneous agents and nonlinear taxation. The latter model also provides a framework for analyzing redistribution in the context of social accounting, and enables me to compare the results with those that would follow in a first best resource allocation.Social accounting; second best; public goods