The Genuine Savings Criterion and the Value of Population

Arrow, Dasgupta and Maler demonstrate thatin any dynamic model of the economy with changing population, population should properly be one of the state variables of the system. It enters both in the maxim and, at least under total utilitarianism, and into the production function in one way or another. If population growth is exponential and there are constant returns to scale, then a simple transformation to per capita variables can be used to eliminate one state variable. However, this simple transformation cannot be made if growth is not exponential, as it obviously is not and cannot be. If the growth of population is exogenous, then introducing it into the system does not affect the optimal policy. However, if one asks whether the system is sustainable, in the sense of at least maintaining total welfare (integral of discounted utilities), then the criterion is that the value of the rates of change of the state variables is non-negative, so that the shadow price of population becomes relevant. In this paper, we derive explicit formulas in a simple model, showing that the rate of growth of per capita capital is not the correct formula but must have other terms added to it. We also study the question under an alternative criterion of long-run average utilitarianism.

Puppeteering as a metaphor for unpacking power in participatory action research on climate change and health

The health impacts of climate change are distributed inequitably, with marginalized communities typically facing the direst consequences. However, the concerns of the marginalized remain comparatively invisible in research, policy and practice. Participatory action research (PAR) has the potential to centre these concerns, but due to unequal power relations among research participants, the approaches often fall short of their emancipatory ideals. To unpack how power influences the dynamics of representation in PAR, this paper presents an analytical framework using the metaphor of ‘puppeteering’. Puppeteering is a metaphor for how a researcher-activist resonates and catalyses both the voices (ventriloquism) and actions (marionetting) of a marginalized community. Two questions and continuums are central to the framework. First, who and where the puppeteer is (insider and outsider agents). Second, what puppeteering is (action and research; radical and managerial). Examples from climate change and health research provide illustrations and contextualizations throughout. A key complication for applying PAR to address the health impacts of climate change is that for marginalized communities, climate change typically remains a few layers removed from the determinants of health. The community’s priorities may be at odds with a research and action agenda framed in terms of climate change and health

Toward resourcefulness: pathways for community positive health

Communities are powerful and necessary agents for defining and pursuing their health, but outside organizations often adopt community health promotion approaches that are patronizing and top-down. Conversely, bottom-up approaches that build on and mobilize community health assets are often critiqued for tasking the most vulnerable and marginalized communities to use their own limited resources without real opportunities for change. Taking into consideration these community health promotion shortcomings, this article asks how communities may be most effectively and appropriately supported in pursuing their health. This article reviews how community health is understood, moving from negative to positive conceptualizations; how it is determined, moving from a risk-factor orientation to social determination; and how it is promoted, moving from top-down to bottom-up approaches. Building on these understandings, we offer the concept of ‘resourcefulness’ as an approach to strengthen positive health for communities, and we discuss how it engages with three interrelated tensions in community health promotion: resources and sustainability, interdependence and autonomy, and community diversity and inclusion. We make practical suggestions for outside organizations to apply resourcefulness as a process-based, place-based, and relational approach to community health promotion, arguing that resourcefulness can forge new pathways to sustainable and self-sustaining community positive health

Delivering the promise of Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction in fragile and conflict-affected contexts (FCAC): A case study of the NGO GOAL's response to the Syria conflict

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) has helped to reduce global disaster risk, but there has been a lack of progress in disaster risk reduction (DRR) for people living in fragile and conflict affected contexts (FCAC). Given the mounting evidence that DRR cannot be implemented through conventional approaches in FCAC, serious efforts must be made to understand how to meet SFDRR's goals. This paper offers a case study of international non-governmental organization GOAL's programming that responds to the protracted crisis in Syria, with a critical discussion on SFDRR and how to adapt humanitarian relief and disaster resilience

Angular Dependence of the High-Magnetic-Field Phase Diagram of URu2Si2

We present measurements of the magnetoresistivity RHOxx of URu2Si2 single crystals in high magnetic fields up to 60 T and at temperatures from 1.4 K to 40 K. Different orientations of the magnetic field have been investigated permitting to follow the dependence on Q of all magnetic phase transitions and crossovers, where Q is the angle between the magnetic field and the easy-axis c. We find out that all magnetic transitions and crossovers follow a simple 1/cos(Q) -law, indicating that they are controlled by the projection of the field on the c-axis

Searching for a BNP standard: Glycosylated proBNP as a common calibrator enables improved comparability of commercial BNP immunoassays

AbstractBackgroundCirculating B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is widely accepted as a diagnostic and risk assessment biomarker of cardiac function. Studies suggest that there are significant differences in measured concentrations among different commercial BNP immunoassays. The purpose of our study was to compare BNP-related proteins to determine a form that could be used as a common calibrator to improve the comparability of commercial BNP immunoassay results.MethodsBNP was measured in 40 EDTA-plasma samples from acute and chronic heart failure patients using five commercial BNP assays: Alere Triage, Siemens Centaur XP, Abbott I-STAT, Beckman Access2 and ET Healthcare Pylon. In parallel with internal calibrators from each manufacturer, six preparations containing BNP 1–32 motif a) synthetic BNP, b) recombinant BNP (E. coli), c) recombinant nonglycosylated proBNP (E. coli), d) recombinant His-tagged (N-terminal) nonglycosylated proBNP (E. coli), e) recombinant glycosylated proBNP (HEK cells), and f) recombinant glycosylated proBNP (CHO cells) were also used as external calibrators for each assay.ResultsUsing the internal standards provided by manufacturers and for five of six external calibrators, up to 3.6-fold differences (mean 1.9-fold) were observed between BNP immunoassays (mean between-assay CV 24.5–47.2%). A marked reduction of the between-assay variability was achieved, when glycosylated proBNP expressed in HEK cells was used as the common calibrator for all assays (mean between-assay CV 14.8%).ConclusionsOur data suggest that recombinant glycosylated proBNP could serve as a common calibrator for BNP immunoassays to reduce between-assay variability and achieve better comparability of BNP concentrations of commercial BNP immunoassays

Informality, violence, and disaster risks: Coproducing inclusive early warning and response systems in urban informal settlements in Honduras

Anticipatory disaster risk reduction (DRR) is an essential human right for the ~1 billion people living in informal settlements who are disproportionately exposed to climate-related hazards due to their high vulnerability. Participatory approaches are recognized as being critical for effective and sustainable disaster prevention, mitigation, and preparation through to response, but research on how to coproduce anticipatory DRR with people living and working in informal settlements is scant. Their exclusion is even more pronounced in challenging contexts, such as those characterized by social-political fragility and violence. As a result, a significant portion of the global population is left behind in best practices tied to global DRR ambitions, with DRR actions working neither with nor for the people most at risk. The signal case of urban informal settlements controlled by territorial gangs in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, illustrates the need for new thinking on how to inclusively mitigate, prepare for, and respond to natural hazard-related disasters. Our research examines the coproduction of early warning systems linked with response capacities for floods and landslides through the case study of the international NGO GOAL's work across the city with a focus on nine urban informal settlements with high levels of territorial gang violence. We explore how GOAL navigated informality and violent conflict to support the early warning and response system as an inclusive social process rather than a technical exercise. We identify four cross-cutting strategies employed by GOAL in support of local vulnerability reduction and capacity building based on a local systems approach. This research breaks new ground in identifying how to bridge the gap between knowledge and action in designing inclusive and sustainable early warning and response systems together with the millions of people around the world affected by the intersection of informality, violence, and disaster risks

Analyzing circadian expression data by harmonic regression based on autoregressive spectral estimation

Motivation: Circadian rhythms are prevalent in most organisms. Identification of circadian-regulated genes is a crucial step in discovering underlying pathways and processes that are clock-controlled. Such genes are largely detected by searching periodic patterns in microarray data. However, temporal gene expression profiles usually have a short time-series with low sampling frequency and high levels of noise. This makes circadian rhythmic analysis of temporal microarray data very challenging

No association between islet cell antibodies and coxsackie B, mumps, rubella and cytomegalovirus antibodies in non-diabetic individuals aged 7–19 years

Viral antibodies were tested in a cohort of 44 isletcell antibody-positive individuals age 7–19 years, and 44 of their islet cell antibody-negative age and sex-matched classmates selected from a population study of 4208 pupils who had been screened for islet cell antibodies. Anti-coxsackie B1-5 IgM responses were detected in 14 of 44 (32%) of the islet cell antibody-positive subjects and in 7 of 44 (16%) control subjects. This difference did not reach the level of statistical significance. None of the islet cell antibody-positive subjects had specific IgM antibodies to mumps, rubella, or cytomegalovirus. There was also no increase in the prevalence or the mean titres of anti-mumps-IgG or IgA and anti-cytomegalovirus-IgG in islet cell antibody-positive subjects compared to control subjects. These results do not suggest any association between islet cell antibodies, and possibly insulitis, with recent mumps, rubella or cytomegalo virus infection. Further studies are required to clarify the relationship between islet cell antibodies and coxsackie B virus infections

Heavy Meson Description with a Screened Potential

We perform a quark model calculation of the $b\bar{b}$ and $c\bar{c}$ spectra from a screened funnel potential form suggested by unquenched lattice calculations. A connection between the lattice screening parameter and an effective gluon mass directly derived from QCD is established. Spin-spin energy splittings, leptonic widths and radiative decays are also examined providing a test for the description of the states.Comment: 17 pages, no figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.