Colonization, Institutions, and Inequality: A Note on Some Suggestive Evidence

What is the kind of institutions that affect economic inequalities? Using a database on national income inequality for 73 non-European countries, we show that \'good governance\' not only contributes to the level of income but also to a more equal distribution by increasing the income share of the middle class. Beside this effect of the quality of capitalist institutions, we also find an inverted U relationship between inequalities and the extent of European settlement. We finally find a large and robust correlation between the pre-colonial population density and the present equality of income distribution. We argue that this latter correlation may have to do with institutional dimensions that are not captured by usual measures of institutional quality in available databases. Countries which were more densely populated in 1500 have indeed worse \'governance\' but give larger income shares to the poor. They had more structured pre-colonial States, more often resisted to colonisation, and more often adopted a mixed economic system. Many of them in fact ended with a more equal land distribution. The equality in the distribution of landholdings does appear as an important determinant of the overall equality of income and of poverty which is independent from \'usual\' governance issues.Colonization, Inequalities, Institutions, Development

Effect of citronella and chlorpyrifos on oviposition of calliphorid flies in decomposing rabbit carcasses

The independent influences of citronella and chlorpyrifos on oviposition and duration for completing life cycles for Chrysomya megacephala and C. rufifacies on decomposing rabbit carcasses in Johor Bahru were studied in view of its application for forensic entomological assessment of postmortem interval (PMI). Twelve male rabbit carcasses were equally divided into control, citronella-treated and chlorpyrifos -treated groups and left to decompose for 14 consecutive days. Results revealed that C. megacephala was the first necrophagous fly to oviposit followed by C. rufifacies in all the control and citronella treated carcasses. The initial oviposition of C. megacephala was significantly delayed by 4-6 hours in all the citronella treated carcasses (p<0.05) although significant prolongation in the duration for completing its life cycle was not observed. In contrast, delay in the initial oviposition as well as prolongation in the duration of life cycle for C. rufifacies in citronella treated carcasses were not observed. Although delayed in oviposition was observed for the chlorpyrifos treated carcasses, the eclosion of the eggs were not successful hence rendering inability to identify the fly species that oviposited. Since forensic entomological baseline data for Johor as well as the individual influences of citronella and chlorpyrifos on oviposition and completion of life cycle for C. megacephala and C. rufifacies have not been reported, the results reported here may prove useful for estimating PMI via entomological assessment within this region, especially whenever these two chemical agents are suspected to be present

Ce que les bibliothécaires disent de leur quartier

Ce rapport contient les principaux éléments d’une enquête menée dans le réseau de la lecture publique de Plaine commune. Il résulte principalement de l’analyse de 75 entretiens approfondis - d’une durée d’entre 1h30 et 2h - réalisés auprès de bibliothécaires. La plupart de ces entretiens ont été réalisés entre le mois d’octobre 2008 et le mois de juin 2009 dans les locaux des 23 bibliothèques du réseau et dans les 8 villes qui composent la communauté d’agglomérations. Cette enquête fait partie d’un projet de recherche plus vaste mis en oeuvre par une équipe d’étudiants et de chercheurs du Centre de sociologie des pratiques et des représentations politiques (CSPRP, Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7) et de l’Institut de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux sociaux (IRIS, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales). Les analyses et les interprétations auxquels les entretiens ont donné lieu sont également le résultat des observations de terrain, des entretiens et du travail documentaire réalisé dans le cadre de cette recherche plus vaste. L’objet de cette recherche plus large est de comprendre les rapports entre les bibliothèques et leurs quartiers et, en arrière plan, d’éclairer le rapport des classes populaires à l’écrit. Dans ce cadre, l’enquête auprès des bibliothécaires de Plaine Commune dont nous présentons ici les principaux résultats vise plus précisément à décrire les représentations que les personnels des bibliothèques se font de leurs missions et des quartiers dans lesquels ils travaillent

Dissipation in monotonic and non-monotonic relaxation to equilibrium

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study field free relaxation from a non-uniform initial density, monitored using both density distributions and the dissipation function. When this density gradient is applied to colour labelled particles, the density distribution decays to a sine curve of fundamental wavelength, which then decays conformally towards a uniform distribution. For conformal relaxation, the dissipation function is found to decay towards equilibrium monotonically, consistent with the predictions of the relaxation theorem. When the system is initiated with a more dramatic density gradient, applied to all particles, non-conformal relaxation is seen in both the dissipation function and the Fourier components of the density distribution. At times, the system appears to be moving away from a uniform density distribution. In both cases, the dissipation function satisfies the modified second law inequality, and the dissipation theorem is demonstrated

Utilisation d'une Table Interactive avec objets Tangibles pour apprendre à l'école : études empiriques en milieu écologique

International audienceWe describe in this article the results of three-years study of using a Tangible Tabletop Interface (TTI) for the development of student learning in spatial reasoning abilities. In partnership with the French Department of Education and teachers, we have designed and built a serious game in mathematics, called The Game of Towers for the TangiSense 2 interactive tabletop. Then, we conducted « in the wild » experiments with 68 students. As part of a first study, we compared the learning outcomes of two groups of students (Gr. Traditional vs. Gr. TTI). The results of this study have encouraged us to make a second experiment. In the latter, we analyzed child participation (physical and verbal) and the social modes of knowledge co-construction when they played the game on the TTI. The results showed that students improved their performance by playing the game on the TTI and collaborated through externalization and conflict-oriented consensus.Nous décrivons dans cet article, les résultats de trois années d’études sur l’utilisation d’une Table Interactive avec objets Tangibles (TIT) pour le développement des capacités de raisonnement spatial d’élèves de Cours Préparatoire (CP). Pour cela nous avons, avec l’aide d’enseignants et d’une conseillère pédagogique, conçu et développé le Jeu des Tours pour la table interactive TangiSense 2. Nous avons ensuite mené des expérimentations en milieu écologique avec 68 élèves. Dans le cadre d’une première étude, nous avons comparé les résultats d’apprentissage de deux groupes d’élèves (Gr. Traditionnel vs. Gr. TIT). Les résultats de cette étude nous ont encouragé à en réaliser une seconde. Dans cette dernière, nous avons analysé la participation des élèves (physique et verbale) et la manière dont ils construisaient leurs connaissances en groupe lorsqu’ils jouaient au Jeu des Tours sur la TIT. Les résultats ont montré que les élèves amélioraient leurs performances en jouant sur la TIT et, collaboraient à travers l’externalisation et la recherche d’un consensus orienté par le conflit

The instantaneous fluctuation theorem

We give a derivation of a new instantaneous fluctuation relation for an arbitrary phase function which is odd under time reversal. The form of this new relation is not obvious, and involves observing the system along its transient phase space trajectory both before and after the point in time at which the fluctuations are being compared. We demonstrate this relation computationally for a number of phase functions in a shear flow system and show that this non-locality in time is an essential component of the instantaneous fluctuation theorem