Panama's growth diagnostics

"In this context, the objective of the paper is to propose a set of recommendations on whatneeds to be done in order to assure success of the current growth strategy. We have nodoubts on the value of strengthening Panama´s geographical comparative advantage withthe Canal´s expansion. The key question is to identify the additional steps which could promote growth in the non-canal economy. In addition to making growth more sustainable,growth acceleration in the traditional sectors can result in a reduction of inequality, whichis extremely high in Panama.To answer these questions the paper proceeds in the following way. Section 2 discussessome key features of Panama´s economic structure that are important for the analysis.Section 3 analyzes Panama´s growth using conventional techniques. In particular, we lookat the role of the `fundamental´ determinants of growth, such as institutions, geography,and human capital. Also, the time series analysis shows that growth has experiencedreversals while a standard sources-of-growth decomposition suggests that Panama has asevere productivity problem. Sections 4 to 8 deal with the GDM. Section 4 presents somegeneral evidence from the Investment Climate Survey (ICS) on the main concerns ofPanama´s entrepreneurs. Section 5 discusses all the problems that could imply low socialreturns to investment. Section 6 analyzes the issues related to problems of appropriability.Section 7 introduces the problems of self-discovery, and Section 8 looks at financingissues. Section 9 concludes"Crecimiento Económico, Panamá

Determination of the range of safe-comfortable lifting postures using the aesthetic ergonomics theory

Past research indicates that, in general, individuals performing material handling tasks tend to underestimate lower back stress, i.e. L5/S1 disk compression, adopting free style lifting postures that often results a greater biomechanical stress in the lower back, increasing their potential risk of developing low back injuries in the short, mid and long terms.;The main objective of this research was to identify within theoretically safe workstation layouts, the subgroup of layouts that would lead workers to adopt cognitively comfortable and at the same time physically safe lifting postures. This research objective was achieved through the use of the Aesthetic Ergonomics Dual process discipline deployed in 2 interlinked stages: (1) the development, implementation and analysis of a survey where 121 experienced workers identified important cognitive factors and attributes which lead them to adopt perceived comfortable starting lifting postures in the sagittal plane, and (2) the design, implementation and analysis of a laboratory experiment where 20 workers experienced in material handling performed 12 different lifting, using a magnitude estimation scale to rate their perceived comfort at each lifting task. All lifting tasks were designed based on a lifting index, LI, which was set equal to one (1) according to the 1981 NIOSH Lifting guide.;Results of this study indicated that independent of horizontal reaches and container weights, workstations should be designed with a vertical height of approximately 30 inches. When compression and shear forces on the L5/S1 disc and subjects\u27 average heart rate were considered in the analysis, the results support the recommendation that 30 inches should be the preferred vertical height in the design of workstations where lifting is frequently performed. The highest vertical height evaluated, 45 , was associated with lifting tasks that posed a significantly higher physical demand on subjects\u27 shoulders, depicted as an inconsistency between subjects\u27 perceived comfort for 45 and this height\u27s corresponding average shear and compressive forces estimates for subjects\u27 L5/S1 disc. It was also found that average subject\u27s perceived comfort decreased as the weight of the object lifted increased, is independent of the horizontal distance of the lift. However, the weight of the object lifted resulted in a significant increase in the subjects\u27 estimated L5/S1 compression force with an increase in the height, which indicates that the counterpart nested factor in Zn, the horizontal distance, had a decreasing contribution as the vertical distance increased. In that matter, the vertical height found to have a greater potential impact on reducing the estimated L5/S1 was 30 inches

Hope in School Gardens: The Amherst School Gardens Project

The Amherst School Gardens Project connects UMass Amherst Stockbridge undergraduate students to Amherst Public Elementary Schools in order to facilitate shared learning in the outdoor classroom. Our mission is to provide elementary school level children with hands on gardening experience, empowering knowledge of their foods’ origins, lessons that correspond with the U.S. Department of Education’s “Common Core State Standards,” and a community that encompasses the varying citizens of Amherst. The environmental, social, and economic implications of this program are boundless. In essence, the project transforms inert grass lawns on Amherst elementary school sites into productive gardens contributing to the biodiversity of the ecosystems they exist within, simultaneously educating children about the food systems that they are a part of. This invites them to explore sustainable practices, creating a greater demand for these within many of the systems we exist in. The result is an increase in interest regarding environmental impact and science in general, as well as a greater consumption of vegetables/fruits in-school/at home demonstrated through personal observations and affirmed by a number of scientific studies

Vortex solutions of the Lifshitz-Chern-Simons theory

We study vortex-like solutions to the Lifshitz-Chern-Simons theory. We find that such solutions exists and have a logarithmically divergent energy, which suggests that a Kostelitz-Thouless transition may occur, in which voxtex-antivortex pairs are created above a critical temperature. Following a suggestion made by Callan and Wilzcek for the global U(1) scalar field model, we study vortex solutions of the Lifshitz-Chern-Simons model formulated on the hyperbolic plane, finding that, as expected, the resulting configurations have finite energy. For completeness, we also explore Lifshitz-Chern-Simons vortex solutions on the sphere.Comment: Published version, added appendix on electromagnetic duality in Lifshitz system

Measuring the vulnerability of the Uruguayan population to vector-borne diseases via spatially hierarchical factor models

We propose a model-based vulnerability index of the population from Uruguay to vector-borne diseases. We have available measurements of a set of variables in the census tract level of the 19 Departmental capitals of Uruguay. In particular, we propose an index that combines different sources of information via a set of micro-environmental indicators and geographical location in the country. Our index is based on a new class of spatially hierarchical factor models that explicitly account for the different levels of hierarchy in the country, such as census tracts within the city level, and cities in the country level. We compare our approach with that obtained when data are aggregated in the city level. We show that our proposal outperforms current and standard approaches, which fail to properly account for discrepancies in the region sizes, for example, number of census tracts. We also show that data aggregation can seriously affect the estimation of the cities vulnerability rankings under benchmark models.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS497 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org