IS THERE A PH.D. GLUT IN ECONOMICS IN ACADEMIA?

The academic market for Ph.D. economists in academia works like any other semi heavily regulated market with a large element of government ownership and with large time lags in supply: there are shortages and surpluses, but these tend to be self correcting, with enough time allowed for adjustments. Contrary to the claims of some, there is no such thing as a chronic glut.oversupply; academic market; market process; glut; Austrian economics

Adaptation kinetics in bacterial chemotaxis

Cells of Escherichia coli, tethered to glass by a single flagellum, were subjected to constant flow of a medium containing the attractant alpha-methyl-DL-aspartate. The concentration of this chemical was varied with a programmable mixing apparatus over a range spanning the dissociation constant of the chemoreceptor at rates comparable to those experienced by cells swimming in spatial gradients. When an exponentially increasing ramp was turned on (a ramp that increases the chemoreceptor occupancy linearly), the rotational bias of the cells (the fraction of time spent spinning counterclockwise) changed rapidly to a higher stable level, which persisted for the duration of the ramp. The change in bias increased with ramp rate, i.e., with the time rate of change of chemoreceptor occupancy. This behavior can be accounted for by a model for adaptation involving proportional control, in which the flagellar motors respond to an error signal proportional to the difference between the current occupancy and the occupancy averaged over the recent past. Distributions of clockwise and counterclockwise rotation intervals were found to be exponential. This result cannot be explained by a response regular model in which transitions between rotational states are generated by threshold crossings of a regular subject to statistical fluctuation; this mechanism generates distributions with far too many long events. However, the data can be fit by a model in which transitions between rotational states are governed by first-order rate constants. The error signal acts as a bias regulator, controlling the values of these constants

The Trolley: a Libertarian Analysis

In the trolley case, an individual is faced with killing one man in order to save five equally innocent people. This philosophical conundrum pits deontology (do not murder) against utilitarianism (saving lives). Numerous non-libertarian commentators have weighed in on this challenge. The present paper offers a libertarian analysis of this case

Facet-sparing lumbar decompression with a minimally invasive flexible MicroBlade Shaver® versus traditional decompression: quantitative radiographic assessment.

BackgroundLaminectomy/laminotomy and foraminotomy are well established surgical techniques for treatment of symptomatic lumbar spinal stenosis. However, these procedures have significant limitations, including limited access to lateral and foraminal compression and postoperative instability. The purpose of this cadaver study was to compare bone, ligament, and soft tissue morphology following lumbar decompression using a minimally invasive MicroBlade Shaver® instrument versus hemilaminotomy with foraminotomy (HL).MethodsThe iO-Flex® system utilizes a flexible over-the-wire MicroBlade Shaver instrument designed for facet-sparing, minimally invasive "inside-out" decompression of the lumbar spine. Unilateral decompression was performed at 36 levels in nine human cadaver specimens, six with age-appropriate degenerative changes and three with radiographically confirmed multilevel stenosis. The iO-Flex system was utilized on alternating sides from L2/3 to L5/S1, and HL was performed on the opposite side at each level by the same investigator. Spinal canal, facet joint, lateral recess, and foraminal morphology were assessed using computed tomography.ResultsSimilar increases in soft tissue canal area and decreases in ligamentum flavum area were noted in nondiseased specimens, although HL required removal of 83% more laminar area (P < 0.01) and 95% more bone resection, including the pars interarticularis and facet joints (P < 0.001), compared with the iO-Flex system. Similar increases in lateral recess diameter were noted in nondiseased specimens using each procedure. In stenotic specimens, the increase in lateral recess diameter was significantly (P = 0.02) greater following use of the iO-Flex system (43%) versus HL (7%). The iO-Flex system resulted in greater facet joint preservation in nondiseased and stenotic specimens. In stenotic specimens, the iO-Flex system resulted in a significantly greater increase in foraminal width compared with HL (24% versus 4%, P = 0.01), with facet joint preservation.ConclusionThe iO-Flex system resulted in significantly better decompression of the lateral recess and foraminal areas compared with HL, while preserving posterior spinal elements, including the facet joint

Consequences of the Factorization Hypothesis in pbar p, pp, gamma p and gamma gamma Collisions

Using an eikonal analysis, we examine the validity of the factorization theorem for nucleon-nucleon, gamma p and gamma gamma collisions. As an example, using the additive quark model and meson vector dominance, we directly show that for all energies and values of the eikonal, that the factorization theorem sigma_{nn}/sigma_{gamma p} = sigma_{gamma p}/sigma_{gamma gamma} holds. We can also compute the survival probability of large rapidity gaps in high energy pbar p and pp collisions. We show that the survival probabilities are identical (at the same energy) for gamma p and gamma gamma collisions, as well as for nucleon-nucleon collisions. We further show that neither the factorization theorem nor the reaction-independence of the survival probabilities depends on the assumption of an additive quark model, but, more generally, depends on the opacity of the eikonal being independent of whether the reaction is n-n, gamma p or gamma gamma.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex, no figures. Expanded discussion, minor correction