Economic Geography and Wages

This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995). We identify the agglomeration benefits off the spatial variation in firm level nominal wages. Unusually detailed intermediate input data allow us to more accurately capture spatial input/output linkages than in previous studies. We take account of the location of input suppliers to estimate cost linkages; and the location of demand from final consumers and other firms to estimate demand linkages. The results show that the externalities that arise from demand and cost linkages are quantitatively important and highly localized. An understanding of the extent and strength of spatial linkages is crucial in shaping policies that seek to influence regional development.agglomeration, economic geography, vertical linkages.

Leptospirosis: An Update - Part 1 Of 2: Etiology, Ecology, Epidemiology, Prophylaxis And Contro / Leptospirose: Uma actualização - Parte 1 De 2: Etiologia, Ecologia, Epidemiologia, Profilaxia e Controlo

Leptospirosis belongs to the category of neglected infectious diseases and, due to its great epidemic potential, its local distribution in tropical regions is of extreme importance. It is a worldwide public health problem, known for the emergence and reappearance of the disease, lack of sanitary conditions and abandonment of the disease. Human infections usually occur after skin contact with soil and/or water contaminated by the urine of chronically infected mammals. The clinical manifestations of the disease range from mild fever, chills and flu-like symptoms to acute forms of the disease. Based on these brief considerations, this article - part 1 of 2 - aims to discuss the biological, ecoepidemiological, prophylactic and control aspects of leptospirosis in Brazil

High-gain antenna with singly-curved reflector

Reflector collects energy over large region of space and focuses it toward small region where antenna feed is located. When incident energy is in form of plane wave, logical choice for shape of reflecting surface is paraboloid which converts plane wave into spherical wave that converges at a point

Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 346)

This bibliography lists 134 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System during Jan. 1991. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and psychology, life support systems and controlled environments, safety equipment, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, and flight crew behavior and performance

Identification of Brucella by MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry. Fast and Reliable Identification from Agar Plates and Blood Cultures

BACKGROUND: MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) is a reliable method for bacteria identification. Some databases used for this purpose lack reference profiles for Brucella species, which is still an important pathogen in wide areas around the world. We report the creation of profiles for MALDI-TOF Biotyper 2.0 database (Bruker Daltonics, Germany) and their usefulness for identifying brucellae from culture plates and blood cultures. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We created MALDI Biotyper 2.0 profiles for type strains belonging to B. melitensis biotypes 1, 2 and 3; B. abortus biotypes 1, 2, 5 and 9; B. suis, B. canis, B ceti and B. pinnipedialis. Then, 131 clinical isolates grown on plate cultures were used in triplicate to check identification. Identification at genus level was always correct, although in most cases the three replicates reported different identification at species level. Simulated blood cultures were performed with type strains belonging to the main human pathogenic species (B. melitensis, B. abortus, B. suis and B. canis), and studied by MALDI-TOF MS in triplicate. Identification at genus level was always correct. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: MALDI-TOF MS is reliable for Brucella identification to the genus level from culture plates and directly from blood culture bottles

Probability representation and quantumness tests for qudits and two-mode light states

Using tomographic-probability representation of spin states, quantum behavior of qudits is examined. For a general j-qudit state we propose an explicit formula of quantumness witnetness whose negative average value is incompatible with classical statistical model. Probability representations of quantum and classical (2j+1)-level systems are compared within the framework of quantumness tests. Trough employing Jordan-Schwinger map the method is extended to check quantumness of two-mode light states.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, PDFLaTeX, Contribution to the 11th International Conference on Squeezed States and Uncertainty Relations (ICSSUR'09), June 22-26, 2009, Olomouc, Czech Republi

Distributed simulation with COTS simulation packages: A case study in health care supply chain simulation

The UK National Blood Service (NBS) is a public funded body that is responsible for distributing blood and asso-ciated products. A discrete-event simulation of the NBS supply chain in the Southampton area has been built using the commercial off-the-shelf simulation package (CSP) Simul8. This models the relationship in the health care supply chain between the NBS Processing, Testing and Is-suing (PTI) facility and its associated hospitals. However, as the number of hospitals increase simulation run time be-comes inconveniently large. Using distributed simulation to try to solve this problem, researchers have used techniques informed by SISO’s CSPI PDG to create a version of Simul8 compatible with the High Level Architecture (HLA). The NBS supply chain model was subsequently divided into several sub-models, each running in its own copy of Simul8. Experimentation shows that this distri-buted version performs better than its standalone, conven-tional counterpart as the number of hospitals increases

SNARE proteins as molecular masters of interneuronal communication

In the beginning of the 20th century the groundbreaking work\ud of Ramon y Cajal firmly established the neuron doctrine, according to which neurons are the basic structural and functional units of the nervous system. Von Weldeyer coined the term “neuron” in 1891, but the huge leap forward in\ud neuroscience was due to Cajal’s meticulous microscopic observations of brain sections stained with an improved version of Golgi’s la reazione nera (black reaction). The latter improvement of Golgi’s technique made it possible to visualize the arborizations of single neurons that were “colored brownish black even to their finest branchlets, standing out with unsurpassable clarity upon a transparent yellow background. All was sharp as a sketch with Chinese ink”. The high quality of both the visualization of individual nerve cells and the work performed on studying the anatomy of the central nervous system lead Ramon y Cajal to the conclusion that axons output the nervous impulses to the dendrites or the soma of other target neurons