Persistent inequality when learning requires a minimal standard of living

This paper studies the persistence of wealth and utility inequality in a dynamicmodel of skill acquisition with complete credit markets and rational, perfectly altruistic,dynastic utility-maximization, when efficient learning requires a minimal standardof living. The main result is that, if the minimal standard of living is not triviallysmall, at any stationary equilibrium without intergenerational mobility there are?poor?, unskilled and ?rich?, skilled dynasties. Members of rich dynasties inherit morefrom their parents than members of poor dynasties. The former in general acquireskill, while the latter remain unskilled, and - most importantly - members of rich familiesalso enjoy strictly higher utility than members of poor dynasties. This paper studies the persistence of wealth and utility inequality in a dynamicmodel of skill acquisition with complete credit markets and rational, perfectly altruistic,dynastic utility-maximization, when efficient learning requires a minimal standardof living. The main result is that, if the minimal standard of living is not triviallysmall, at any stationary equilibrium without intergenerational mobility there are?poor?, unskilled and ?rich?, skilled dynasties. Members of rich dynasties inherit morefrom their parents than members of poor dynasties. The former in general acquireskill, while the latter remain unskilled, and - most importantly - members of rich familiesalso enjoy strictly higher utility than members of poor dynasties

The Witt Ring of a Curve with Good Reduction over a Non-dyadic Local Field

In this work, we present a generalization to varieties and sheaves of the fundamental ideal of the Witt ring of a field by defining a sheaf of fundamental ideals $\tilde{I}$ and a sheaf of Witt rings $\tilde{W}$ in the obvious way. The Milnor conjecture then relates the associated graded of $\tilde{W}$ to Milnor K-theory and so allows the classical invariants of a bilinear space over a field to be extended to our setting using \'etale cohomology. As an application of these results, we calculate the Witt ring of a smooth curve with good reduction over a non-dyadic local field

Ontology-Based MEDLINE Document Classification

An increasing and overwhelming amount of biomedical information is available in the research literature mainly in the form of free-text. Biologists need tools that automate their information search and deal with the high volume and ambiguity of free-text. Ontologies can help automatic information processing by providing standard concepts and information about the relationships between concepts. The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) ontology is already available and used by MEDLINE indexers to annotate the conceptual content of biomedical articles. This paper presents a domain-independent method that uses the MeSH ontology inter-concept relationships to extend the existing MeSH-based representation of MEDLINE documents. The extension method is evaluated within a document triage task organized by the Genomics track of the 2005 Text REtrieval Conference (TREC). Our method for extending the representation of documents leads to an improvement of 17% over a non-extended baseline in terms of normalized utility, the metric defined for the task. The SVMlight software is used to classify documents

The Construction and Operation of a Reaction Time Machine

The Encyclopedia Britannica states that One of the cardinal problems of psychophysics is the measurement of the duration of the mental processes . To accomplish this purpose it is necessary to have a chronograph or chronoscope measuring in small fractions of a second with connections suitable to the experiment

Updated estimate of the duration of the meningo-encephalitic stage in gambiense human African trypanosomiasis

Background: The duration of the stages of HAT is an important factor in epidemiological studies and intervention planning. Previously, we published estimates of the duration of the haemo-lymphatic stage 1 and meningo-encephalitic stage 2 of the gambiense form of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), in the absence of treatment. Here we revise the estimate of stage 2 duration, computed based on data from Uganda and South Sudan, by adjusting observed infection prevalence for incomplete case detection coverage and diagnostic inaccuracy. Findings: The revised best estimate for the mean duration of stage 2 is 252 days (95% CI 171–399), about half of our initial best estimate, giving a total mean duration of untreated gambiense HAT infection of approximately 2 years and 2 months. Conclusions: Our new estimate provides improved information on the transmission dynamics of this neglected tropical disease in Uganda and South Sudan. We stress that there remains considerable variability around the estimated mean values, and that one must be cautious in applying these results to other foci

Development of a Molecular Genetic Method for Characterizing Amphibian Diets

DEVELOPMENT OF A MOLECULAR GENETIC METHOD FOR CHARACTERIZING AMPHIBIAN DIETS.Alexander Funk* and Todd W. Pierson, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville, [email protected] Dietary studies can provide key insights into the ecology and behavior of animals. Methods common in dietary studies of amphibians (e.g., gastric lavage, fecal analysis, dissection) often fail to identify prey beyond the level of Order, are time intensive, and can be biased against soft-bodied prey. Here, we are developing a DNA metabarcoding assay to characterize amphibian diets from non-invasive fecal samples. In DNA metabarcoding, barcoding loci from mixed community samples (e.g., feces) are sequenced on a next-generation sequencing platform, and resulting reads are used to identify members of that community (e.g., diet composition). To validate this method, we will prepare COI amplicon libraries from 27 fecal samples collected from wild Blue Ridge two-lined salamander (Eurycea wilderae) during the breeding season. We will sequence these reads on an Illumina MiSeq and compare resulting reads against a reference library of sequences of known identity to characterize invertebrate diet composition. Some of our samples are derived from male E. wilderae with two alternative reproductive tactics-“searching” and “guarding”. Because the latter is more likely to be found in aquatic habitats in the breeding season, we expect to find a great representation of aquatic invertebrates in its diet. We hope that this method will prove to be more accurate and efficient than previous methods, providing a new, versatile tool with which amphibian diets can be characterized and compared

A Mere Youthful Indiscretion? Reexamining the Policy of Expunging Juvenile Delinquency Records

Recent studies by the U.S. Department of Justice have found that, while adult violent crime rates continue to drop, today\u27s juvenile offenders are the fastest growing segment among violent criminals. The unprecedented increase in juvenile criminality is expected to result in a dramatic increase in the overall rate of violent crime as these juveniles approach majority. Funk argues that most states have not adapted to the troubling reality that the juvenile offenders of today are not the hubcap-stealing youths of days gone by, and that chronic adult criminality is predicated on violent and repeated acts of juvenile delinquency. These jurisdictions retain statutory provisions that allow for, or mandate, the expungement of juvenile crime records once the juvenile reaches a certain age. This policy\u27s stated goal is to allow the juvenile offender to enter adulthood with a clean slate, thereby shielding him from the negative effects of having a criminal record. The author conducts an exhaustive analysis and critique of this policy, examining its philosophical origins, the rehabilitative ideal on which it is premised, and its theoretical and practical impact. He argues that even if one accepts the notion that those who have committed a juvenile indiscretion will outgrow their reckless behavior, it remains necessary to differentiate between those who in fact can be rehabilitated and those whose rehabilitative potential is negligible, a task not accomplished by most contemporary expungement statutes

SLIDES: “Human Sustainability” in Natural Resources Industries: The New Frontier in Compliance, Social Responsibility, Disclosure, and Transparency

Presenter: T. Markus Funk, Partner, Perkins Coie 21 slide

\u3ci\u3eAcrobasis\u3c/i\u3e Shoot Moth (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Infestation-Tree Height Link in a Young Black Walnut Plantation

Acrobasis shoot moth infestations were evaluated in a young black walnut progeny test for 4 years, from ages 3 to 6. Infestation levels were greatest on the largest trees in the fourth and fifth year after plantation establishment, and were declining by the sixth year. Acrobasis infestation appears to be a problem primarily on young trees less than 2.5 m in height. There was no evidence for genetic resistance to Acrobasis infestation in black walnut