Kinetic Theory and Hydrodynamics of Dense, Reacting Fluids far from Equilibrium

The kinetic theory for a fluid of hard spheres which undergo endothermic and/or exothermic reactions with mass transfer is developed. The exact balance equations for concentration, density, velocity and temperature are derived. The Enskog approximation is discussed and used as the basis for the derivation, via the Chapman-Enskog procedure, of the Navier-Stokes-reaction equations under various assumptions about the speed of the chemical reactions. It is shown that the phenomenological description consisting of a reaction-diffusion equation with a convective coupling to the Navier-Stokes equations is of limited applicability.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Chemical Physic

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

The Digital Anatomist Foundational Model Server

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Integrable SU(m|n) supersymmetric electronic models of strong correlations

We generalize the SU(2|2) supersymmetric extended Hubbard model of 1/r2 interaction to the SU(m|n) supersymmetric case. Integrable models may be defined on both uniform lattice and non-uniform one dimensional lattices. We study both cases in detail and present the ground state wavefunctions and energy spectra of these models.Comment: 24 pages, Late

Legitimating Inequality: Fooling Most of the People All of the Time

Over the three decades leading up to the crisis of 2008, inequality dramatically increased in the United States and Great Britain. What stands out, but is seldom noted, is that this occurred within democracies where the relative losers -- the overwhelming majority -- could in principle have used the political system to block or reverse rising inequality. Why did they not do so? A glance at history reveals that peoples have only very infrequently contested inequality because they were led to believe that their inferior status in terms of income, wealth, and privilege was just, that it was not really so bad, or that it was necessary for their future wellbeing. Ideological systems legitimated a status quo of inequality, or in more modern times even increasing inequality. This article surveys the manner in which inequality has been historically legitimated, first predominantly by religion, then predominately by economic thought. Attention is then focused on the manner in which contemporary economic science and its popular interpretations in the media have served to legitimate inequality in the U.S. since the mid-1970s. The paper concludes with a reflection on the unique conditions that enable the legitimation of inequality to be delegitimated.Ideology, class power, utility of poverty, trickle down, vertical social mobility

PRIVATIZING MARKETS FOR HETEROGENEOUS, EXPERIENCE GOODS: COFFEE IN NORTHWEST CAMEROON

Reform and privatization of administratively controlled marketing parastatals is always a thorny issue. Reform of public coffee parastatals is one of the most fascinating-and trickiest-exercises in free-market development. Coffee, a heterogenous, experience good, undergoes several processing stages with imperfect quality control, leading to agency problems. Successful privatization must address these problems. This paper analyzes the reform and partial privatization of the North West Cooperative Association (NWCA) parastatal in Cameroon. A conceptual, principal-agent framework informs the analysis. In an interesting twist, the reforms structured the marketing chain so that farmers are the residual claimants to profits from international sales, in effect making them the principals. As is suggested by the conceptual framework, empirical work confirms that farmers as principals have reinvested in coffee quality. However, the evidence also shows that agency problems still exist at later stages of the marketing chain. This is consistent with the principal-agent framework, since incentive-compatible contracts are not used in this marketing chain. The paper concludes by drawing more general lessons about how incomplete information and incentive structure issues arising from imperfect markets might be handled within the context of market liberalization.Marketing,