The debates on the representative firm and increasing returns: Then and now

The paper reviews the debates on the representative firm and increasing returns which were initiated by Claphamís ìEmpty economic boxesî in 1922 and completed in the March 1930 symposium edited by Keynes in the Economic Journal with contributions by D.H. Robertson, G.F. Shove and P. Sraffa. The debates centred around the link between theory and reality and the compatibility of competitive price theory with increasing returns. These particular issues have surfaced again in the development of neoclassical endogenous growth theory from the 1980s on. We argue that the criticisms raised by Young and Sraffa in the 1920s are especially relevant for the new developments.

Beam Test of a Segmented Foil SEM Grid

A prototype Secondary-electron Emission Monitor (SEM) was installed in the 8 GeV proton transport line for the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab. The SEM is a segmented grid made with 5 um Ti foils, intended for use in the 120 GeV NuMI beam at Fermilab. Similar to previous workers, we found that the full collection of the secondary electron signal requires a bias voltage to draw the ejected electrons cleanly off the foils, and this effect is more pronounced at larger beam intensity. The beam centroid and width resolutions of the SEM were measured at beam widths of 3, 7, and 8 mm, and compared to calculations. Extrapolating the data from this beam test, we expect a centroid and width resolutions of 20um and 25 um, respectively, in the NuMI beam which has 1 mm spot size.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Two-parameter neutrino mass matrices with two texture zeros

We reanalyse Majorana-neutrino mass matrices M_nu with two texture zeros, by searching for viable hybrid textures in which the non-zero matrix elements of M_nu have simple ratios. Referring to the classification scheme of Frampton, Glashow and Marfatia, we find that the mass matrix denoted by A1 allows the ratios (M_nu)_{mu mu} : (Mnu)_{tau tau} = 1:1 and (M_nu)_{e tau} : (Mnu)_{mu tau} = 1:2. There are analogous ratios for texture A2. With these two hybrid textures, one obtains, for instance, good agreement with the data if one computes the three mixing angles in terms of the experimentally determined mass-squared differences Delta m^2_21 and Delta m^2_31. We could not find viable hybrid textures based on mass matrices different from those of cases A1 and A2.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, minor changes, some references adde

The role of contralesional dorsal premotor cortex after stroke as studied with concurrent TMS-fMRI

Contralesional dorsal premotor cortex (cPMd) may support residual motor function following stroke. We performed two complementary experiments to explore how cPMd might perform this role in a group of chronic human stroke patients. First, we used paired-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to establish the physiological influence of cPMd on ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1) at rest. We found that this influence became less inhibitory/more facilitatory in patients with greater clinical impairment. Second, we applied TMS over cPMd during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in these patients to examine the causal influence of cPMd TMS on the whole network of surviving cortical motor areas in either hemisphere and whether these influences changed during affected hand movement. We confirmed that hand grip-related activation in cPMd was greater in more impaired patients. Furthermore, the peak ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex activity shifted posteriorly in more impaired patients. Critical new findings were that concurrent TMS-fMRI results correlated with the level of both clinical impairment and neurophysiological impairment (i.e., less inhibitory/more facilitatory cPMd-iM1 measure at rest as assessed with paired-coil TMS). Specifically, greater clinical and neurophysiological impairment was associated with a stronger facilitatory influence of cPMd TMS on blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in posterior parts of ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex during hand grip, corresponding to the posteriorly shifted sensorimotor activity seen in more impaired patients. cPMd TMS was not found to influence activity in other brain regions in either hemisphere. This state-dependent influence on ipsilesional sensorimotor regions may provide a mechanism by which cPMd supports recovered function after stroke

A NOVEL STUDY EXAMINING COGNITIVE-MOTOR INTERFERENCE AFTER ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION

The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of examining cognitive motor interference (CMi) in athletes following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) and return to sport through electroencephalography (EEG) and three-dimensional motion capture recordings. A 128-electrode EEG system is used to track brain wave patterns for specific biomarkers of CMi during sitting and balance tasks. An 8-camera Optitrack system is used to obtain three-dimensional kinematics during anticipated and unanticipated drop vertical jumps. Preliminary EEG N200 amplitudes (ACL: -4.99 ± 2.39; Control: -7.75 ± 5.83) and peak knee flexion (ACL: 93.29 ± 12.92°; Control: 92.87 ± 7.17°) during dual-task and unanticipated landings, respectively, demonstrate the feasibility of this study. Future work will continue to assess the effect of CMi on risk factors for secondary ACL injury

The role of contralesional dorsal premotor cortex after stroke as studied with concurrent TMS-fMRI.

Contralesional dorsal premotor cortex (cPMd) may support residual motor function following stroke. We performed two complementary experiments to explore how cPMd might perform this role in a group of chronic human stroke patients. First, we used paired-coil transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to establish the physiological influence of cPMd on ipsilesional primary motor cortex (iM1) at rest. We found that this influence became less inhibitory/more facilitatory in patients with greater clinical impairment. Second, we applied TMS over cPMd during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in these patients to examine the causal influence of cPMd TMS on the whole network of surviving cortical motor areas in either hemisphere and whether these influences changed during affected hand movement. We confirmed that hand grip-related activation in cPMd was greater in more impaired patients. Furthermore, the peak ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex activity shifted posteriorly in more impaired patients. Critical new findings were that concurrent TMS-fMRI results correlated with the level of both clinical impairment and neurophysiological impairment (i.e., less inhibitory/more facilitatory cPMd-iM1 measure at rest as assessed with paired-coil TMS). Specifically, greater clinical and neurophysiological impairment was associated with a stronger facilitatory influence of cPMd TMS on blood oxygenation level-dependent signal in posterior parts of ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex during hand grip, corresponding to the posteriorly shifted sensorimotor activity seen in more impaired patients. cPMd TMS was not found to influence activity in other brain regions in either hemisphere. This state-dependent influence on ipsilesional sensorimotor regions may provide a mechanism by which cPMd supports recovered function after stroke

Methane adsorption on graphene from first principles including dispersion interaction

The methane-graphene interaction is studied using density functional theory complemented with a semiempirical dispersion correction scheme (DFT-D), an ab initio van der Waals density functional (vdW-DF) ansatz as well as using Møller Plesset perturbation theory (MP2). The adsorption energy of 0.17 eV and the molecular distance of 3.28 Å obtained from the MP2 calculations are close to the experimental data, while the vdW-DF scheme results either in a realistic adsorption energy or a realistic adsorption geometry, depending on the underlying exchange-correlation functional. The present implementation of DFT-D overbinds about as much as bare DFT calculations underbind, but yields a meaningful adsorption height

In situ\textit{In situ} hydride breathing during the template-assisted electrodeposition of Pd nanowires

We investigated the structural evolution of electrochemically fabricated Pd nanowires $\textit{in situ}$ by means of grazing-incidence transmission small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering (GTSAXS and GTWAXS), x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and 2-dimensional surface optical reflectance (2D-SOR). This shows how electrodeposition and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) compete and interact during Pd electrodepositon. During the bottom-up growth of the nanowires, we show that $\beta$-phase Pd hydride is formed. Suspending the electrodeposition then leads to a phase transition from $\beta$- to $\alpha$-phase Pd hydride. Additionally, we find that grain coalescence later hinders the incorporation of hydrogen in the Pd unit cell. GTSAXS and 2D-SOR provide complementary information on the volume fraction of the pores occupied by Pd, while XRF was used to monitor the amount of Pd electrodeposited.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 4 appendice