Explaining Inequality Between Countries: The Declining Role of Political Institutions

Within the fundamental determinants of cross-country income inequality, ‘humanly devised’ political institutions represent a hallmark factor that societies can influence, as opposed to, for example, geography. Focusing on the portion of inequality explainable by differences in political institutions, we decompose annual cross-country Gini coefficients for 95 countries (representing 85 percent of the world population) from 1960-2012. Since 1988, inequality has marginally decreased (from a Gini of 0.525 to 0.521) but the portion that cannot be explained by political institutions has increased substantially (from 0.411 to 0.459). Specifically, the explanatory power of institutions fell rapidly from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. This result prevails when using alternative variables, expanding the sample, weighting countries by population size, and controlling for the remaining fundamental determinants of income: culture and education. Over the same timeframe, the explanatory power of geographical conditions has been rising. This phenomenon appears to be global and is unlikely to be driven by contemporary regional events alone, such as the fall of the Soviet Union, Asian success stories (e.g., China), or institutional monocropping in Africa. A corollary of our finding implies that, if we hold societies responsible for their political institutions, inequality has become notably less fair since the late 1980s

Styles, textural evolution, and sulfur isotope systematics of Cu-rich sulfides from the Cambrian Whalesback volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, central Newfoundland, Canada

The Whalesback Cu-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit in the Newfoundland Appalachians is a highly deformed deposit found on a steep limb of a closed and boudinaged overturned fold. The deposit was intensely deformed at low temperature but medium pressure (>175 MPa) during the accretion of the composite Lushs Bight oceanic tract-Dashwoods terrane onto the Humber margin at ca. 480 Ma. The ore mineralogy consists of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, and pyrite with lesser sphalerite and trace Ag, Bi, and Hg tellurides. Four styles of sulfide mineralization are present: (1) disseminated (5%); (2) vein (50%); (3) breccia (25%); and (4) semimassive to massive (20%). Independent of mineralization style, massive pyrite and pyrrhotite (and some chalcopyrite) are commonly parallel to main S2 schistosity in the deposit, whereas late chalcopyrite piercement veins occur at a high angle to S2. The progressive increase in pressure and temperature produced a remobilization sequence wherein sphalerite was the first sulfide phase to cross the brittle-ductile boundary, followed by pyrrhotite and, finally, chalcopyrite. Maximum temperature was not high enough for the pyrite to cross the brittle-ductile boundary. Instead, pyrite grains were incorporated and transported by pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite during the ductile remobilization events, rounding and fracturing them. Remobilization of the sulfides occurred mainly by plastic flow, but some solution transport and reprecipitation is locally observed. In situ secondary ion mass spectrometry sulfur isotope geochemistry of sulfides yielded values of δ34S ranging from 2.7‰ to 4.7‰ for pyrite, 2.1‰ to 4.0‰ for pyrrhotite, and 1.3‰ to 4.7‰ for chalcopyrite. Sulfur isotope modeling suggests that at least 60% of the sulfur was derived from leaching of igneous rocks (i.e., basalts), with the remainder derived from thermochemical sulfate reduction of seawater sulfate during alteration of the basalts by seawater. At the deposit scale, sulfur isotopes retained their original signature and did not reequilibrate during the secondary deformation and remobilization events.PostprintPeer reviewe

Experimental and Theoretical (e,2e) Ionization Cross Sections for a Hydrogen Target at 75.3 eV Incident Energy in a Coplanar Asymmetric Geometry

Very recently it was shown that the molecular three-body distorted wave (M3DW) approach gives good agreement with the shape of the experimental data for electron-impact ionization of H2 in a coplanar symmetric geometry, providing the incident electrons have an energy of 35 eV or greater. One of the weaknesses of these studies was that only the shape of the cross section could be compared to experiment, since there was no absolute or relative normalization of the data. Here we report a joint experimental/theoretical study of electron-impact ionization of H2 in a coplanar asymmetric geometry where the energy of the incident electron was fixed, and different pairs of final state electron energies were used. In this case, the experimental data can be normalized such that only one renormalization factor is required. It is shown that the M3DW is pretty good in agreement with experiment. However, a better treatment of polarization and exchange between the continuum and bound state electrons is required before quantitative agreement between experiment and theory is achieved

Adolescent obesity, educational attainment, and adult earnings

We estimate the effects of being obese during adolescence on the likelihood of high school graduation, post-secondary educational attainment and labour market earnings as an adult (over 13 years later). We use longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health), conducted by the Carolina Population Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This is a nationally representative sample of students in grades 7 through 12 for the 1994-1995 first wave survey. Three subsequent waves of follow-up interviews occurred in 1996, 2001-2002 and finally in 2007-2008, when the sample was aged 25-31. Probit and linear regression models with a large set of controls (to minimize any bias that may result from omitting factors related to both adolescent obesity and adult outcomes) are fitted to carry out analyses separately by gender or racial groups. Pathological body weights are most notably present among males, blacks and Hispanics, suggesting possibility that diverging obesity effects may be found across race and gender groups. Unlike some prior research, we find no significant effects of adolescent obesity on high school graduation, but for some demographic groups, negative effects are found on college graduation and future income. Policy implications are discussed. © 2014 Taylor & Francis

Earth Science Datacasting v2.0

The Datacasting software, which consists of a server and a client, has been developed as part of the Earth Science (ES) Datacasting project. The goal of ES Datacasting is to provide scientists the ability to automatically and continuously download Earth science data that meets a precise, predefined need, and then to instantaneously visualize it on a local computer. This is achieved by applying the concept of podcasting to deliver science data over the Internet using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) XML feeds. By extending the RSS specification, scientists can filter a feed and only download the files that are required for a particular application (for example, only files that contain information about a particular event, such as a hurricane or flood). The extension also provides the ability for the client to understand the format of the data and visualize the information locally. The server part enables a data provider to create and serve basic Datacasting (RSS-based) feeds. The user can subscribe to any number of feeds, view the information related to each item contained within a feed (including browse pre-made images), manually download files associated with items, and place these files in a local store. The client-server architecture enables users to: a) Subscribe and interpret multiple Datacasting feeds (same look and feel as a typical mail client), b) Maintain a list of all items within each feed, c) Enable filtering on the lists based on different metadata attributes contained within the feed (list will reference only data files of interest), d) Visualize the reference data and associated metadata, e) Download files referenced within the list, and f) Automatically download files as new items become available

Abundance and species diversity hotspots of tracked marine predators across the North American Arctic

Aim: Climate change is altering marine ecosystems worldwide and is most pronounced in the Arctic. Economic development is increasing leading to more disturbances and pressures on Arctic wildlife. Identifying areas that support higher levels of predator abundance and biodiversity is important for the implementation of targeted conservation measures across the Arctic. Location: Primarily Canadian Arctic marine waters but also parts of the United States, Greenland and Russia. Methods: We compiled the largest data set of existing telemetry data for marine predators in the North American Arctic consisting of 1,283 individuals from 21 species. Data were arranged into four species groups: (a) cetaceans and pinnipeds, (b) polar bears Ursus maritimus (c) seabirds, and (d) fishes to address the following objectives: (a) to identify abundance hotspots for each species group in the summer–autumn and winter–spring; (b) to identify species diversity hotspots across all species groups and extent of overlap with exclusive economic zones; and (c) to perform a gap analysis that assesses amount of overlap between species diversity hotspots with existing protected areas. Results: Abundance and species diversity hotpots during summer–autumn and winter–spring were identified in Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, Amundsen Gulf, and the Beaufort, Chukchi and Bering seas both within and across species groups. Abundance and species diversity hotpots occurred within the continental slope in summer–autumn and offshore in areas of moving pack ice in winter–spring. Gap analysis revealed that the current level of conservation protection that overlaps species diversity hotspots is low covering only 5% (77,498 km 2 ) in summer–autumn and 7% (83,202 km 2 ) in winter–spring. Main conclusions: We identified several areas of potential importance for Arctic marine predators that could provide policymakers with a starting point for conservation measures given the multitude of threats facing the Arctic. These results are relevant to multilevel and multinational governance to protect this vulnerable ecosystem in our rapidly changing world

OECD principles on water governance in practice:an assessment of existing frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America

Through the lens of the 12 OECD Principles on Water Governance, this article examines six water resources and water services frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America to understand enhancing and constraining contextual factors. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze each framework against four criteria: alignment; implementation; on-ground results; and policy impact. Four main target areas are identified for improving water governance: policy coherence; financing; managing trade-offs; and ensuring integrity and transparency by all decision makers and stakeholders. Suggestions are presented to support practical implementation of the principles through better government action and stakeholder involvement.No Full Tex

Quantum Oscillation Studies of the Fermi Surface of LaFePO

We review recent experimental measurements of the Fermi surface of the iron-pnictide superconductor LaFePO using quantum oscillation techniques. These studies show that the Fermi surface topology is close to that predicted by first principles density functional theory calculations, consisting of quasi-two-dimensional electron-like and hole-like sheets. The total volume of the two hole sheets is almost equal to that of the two electron sheets, and the hole and electron Fermi surface sheets are close to a nesting condition. No evidence for the predicted three dimensional pocket arising from the Fe $d_{z^2}$ band is found. Measurements of the effective mass suggest a renormalisation of around two, close to the value for the overall band renormalisation found in recent angle resolved photoemission measurements.Comment: Submitted to Physica C special issue on iron-pnictide superconductor