Charter Cities And The Aerotropolis In Colombia

Based on its income per capita, Colombia meets the World Bank criteria for classification as an upper middle income country, but it still has many of the earmarks of a developing country, including its high poverty rate (45%), high infant mortality (16 deaths per 1000 live births), and lower life expectancy (74 years) than most developed countries. The capital city, Bogota, contains one-fifth of Colombia’s population, which is typical of the “urban giantism” of developing countries. Colombia’s income inequality is acute, with the lowest decile of households receiving 0.8% of household incomes, while the highest decile receives 45%. This results in a Gini coefficient of 58 - the ninth highest in the world. The paradox is that while Colombia’s per-capita GDP and GNI indicate that it is an upper-middle income country, its poverty, income inequality, infant mortality rate, and other socioeconomic indicators look very much like those of a low-income country. This raises an interesting question: “How can Colombia continue its development, presumably toward becoming a high-income country, while it is addressing its disproportionate poverty levels and income inequality?” This paper investigates the prospects and challenges of implementing two relatively new ideas in economic development. The first is the use of Paul Romer’s idea of charter cities to enhance economic development in Colombia. Charter cities could be used to create more dynamic enterprise zones than now exist in Colombia. Romer advocates that countries set aside currently uninhabited city-size special reform zones to be charter cities. These cities would have a charter or constitution which specifies the governing rules - good rules (or institutions) - which would be supportive of entrepreneurial activity and a robust business climate. Charter cities could presumably be like a “clean slate” without all the developing-country plethora of rules and regulations that hinder development in established cities such as Cairo and Mumbai. Romer cites the example of Hong Kong as an extraordinarily successful early type of charter city which was governed by different rules for 99 years before it was ceded back to the People’s Republic of China by Great Britain in 1997. The second type of development tool for Colombia explored in this paper is John Kasarda’s “aerotropolis.” An aerotropolis is a city built around an airport. Traditional cities sprang up around existing trade routes along navigable waterways or where road and railroads met and crossed. The twenty-first century equivalent of that, according to Kasarda, is where “highways in the sky” interact with productive facilities on the ground at or near airports to be part of an ever-growing global supply chain. In this paper, some possible locations for charter cities and aerotropolises in Colombia are explored and their economic impact is assessed. The paper concludes that both can assist Colombia in reducing poverty and income inequality, but with certain qualifications. It also suggests that a hybrid of the two, an aerotropolis that is also a charter city, can significantly contribute to Colombia’s economic development

Occupational Status and Health Transitions

We use longitudinal data from the 1984 through 2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how occupational status is related to the health transitions of 30 to 59 year-old U.S. males. A recent history of blue-collar employment predicts a substantial increase in the probability of transitioning from very good into bad self-assessed health, relative to white-collar employment, but with no evidence of occupational differences in movements from bad to very good health. These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity analyses. The results suggest that blue-collar workers "wear out" faster with age because they are more likely, than their white-collar counterparts, to experience negative health shocks. This partly reflects differences in the physical demands of blue-collar and white-collar jobs.occupations, physical demands, health

Porophyllum pygmaeum (Asteraceae), a Distinctive New Species from Southern Nevada

Porophyllum pygmaeum is a new species from coarse calcareous soils of the Desert National Wildlife Range in Clark Co., Nevada. It has subterete leaves that contain a continuous double layer of palisade mesophyll surrounding a central area of larger, achlorophyllous, polyhedral parenchyma cells and veins. The hollow foliar oil glands lie just below the abaxial epidermis and are deeply invaginated within the parenchyma layers. Porophyllum pygmaeum is a tetraploid (n = 24) perennial herb that apparently is most closely related to P. greggii a hexaploid herbaceous species of western Texas with much longer and narrower leaves. In its fleshy subterete leaves P. tridentatum resembles the subshrubby P. tridentatum of Baja California from which it differs by its chromosome number (n = 15 in P. tridentatum) by its dwarf herbaceous habit, by leaves that are always entire and that bear several pairs of submarginal glands, and by much longer achenes. The new species apparently is not closely related to P. gracile the only other species of that occurs in southern Nevada and adjacent regions of Arizona and California

Occupational Status and Health Transitions

We use longitudinal data from the 1984 through 2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how occupational status is related to the health transitions of 30 to 59 year-old U.S. males. A recent history of blue-collar employment predicts a substantial increase in the probability of transitioning from very good into bad self-assessed health, relative to white-collar employment, but with no evidence of occupational differences in movements from bad to very good health. These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity analyses. The results suggest that blue-collar workers “wear out” faster with age because they are more likely, than their white-collar counterparts, to experience negative health shocks. This partly reflects differences in the physical demands of blue-collar and white-collar jobs.

Occupational Status and Health Transitions

We use longitudinal data from the 1984 through 2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how occupational status is related to the health transitions of 30 to 59 year-old U.S. males. A recent history of blue-collar employment predicts a substantial increase in the probability of transitioning from very good into bad self-assessed health, relative to white-collar employment, but with no evidence of occupational differences in movements from bad to very good health. These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity analyses. The results suggest that blue-collar workers wear out faster with age because they are more likely, than their white-collar counterparts, to experience negative health shocks. This partly reflects differences in the physical demands of blue-collar and white-collar jobs

Summary Report of PQRI Workshop on Nanomaterial in Drug Products: Current Experience and Management of Potential Risks

At the Product Quality Research Institute (PQRI) Workshop held last January 14-15, 2014, participants from academia, industry, and governmental agencies involved in the development and regulation of nanomedicines discussed the current state of characterization, formulation development, manufacturing, and nonclinical safety evaluation of nanomaterial-containing drug products for human use. The workshop discussions identified areas where additional understanding of material attributes, absorption, biodistribution, cellular and tissue uptake, and disposition of nanosized particles would continue to inform their safe use in drug products. Analytical techniques and methods used for in vitro characterization and stability testing of formulations containing nanomaterials were discussed, along with their advantages and limitations. Areas where additional regulatory guidance and material characterization standards would help in the development and approval of nanomedicines were explored. Representatives from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), Health Canada, and European Medicines Agency (EMA) presented information about the diversity of nanomaterials in approved and newly developed drug products. USFDA, Health Canada, and EMA regulators discussed the applicability of current regulatory policies in presentations and open discussion. Information contained in several of the recent EMA reflection papers was discussed in detail, along with their scope and intent to enhance scientific understanding about disposition, efficacy, and safety of nanomaterials introduced in vivo and regulatory requirements for testing and market authorization. Opportunities for interaction with regulatory agencies during the lifecycle of nanomedicines were also addressed at the meeting. This is a summary of the workshop presentations and discussions, including considerations for future regulatory guidance on drug products containing nanomaterials

Occupational Status and Health Transitions

We use longitudinal data from the 1984 through 2007 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine how occupational status is related to the health transitions of 30 to 59 year-old U.S. males. A recent history of blue-collar employment predicts a substantial increase in the probability of transitioning from very good into bad self-assessed health, relative to white-collar employment, but with no evidence of occupational differences in movements from bad to very good health. These findings are robust to a series of sensitivity analyses. The results suggest that blue-collar workers “wear out” faster with age because they are more likely, than their white-collar counterparts, to experience negative health shocks. This partly reflects differences in the physical demands of blue-collar and white-collar jobs.occupations; physical demands; health; PSID