7,414 research outputs found

    International capital mobility in an era of globalisation: adding a political dimension to the 'Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle'

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    The debate about the scope of feasible policy-making in an era of globalisation continues to be set within the context of an assumption that national capital markets are now perfectly integrated at the international level. However, the empirical evidence on international capital mobility contradicts such an assumption. As a consequence, a significant puzzle remains. Why is it, in a world in which the observed pattern of capital flows is indicative of a far from globalised reality, that public policy continues to be constructed in line with more extreme variants of the globalisation hypothesis? I attempt to solve this puzzle by arguing that ideas about global capital market integration have an independent causal impact on political outcomes which extends beyond that which can be attributed to the extent of their actual integration

    Some integrals ocurring in a topology change problem

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    In a paper presented a few years ago, De Lorenci et al. showed, in the context of canonical quantum cosmology, a model which allowed space topology changes (Phys. Rev. D 56, 3329 (1997)). The purpose of this present work is to go a step further in that model, by performing some calculations only estimated there for several compact manifolds of constant negative curvature, such as the Weeks and Thurston spaces and the icosahedral hyperbolic space (Best space).Comment: RevTeX article, 4 pages, 1 figur

    We Could, but Should We? Ethical Considerations for Providing Access to GeoCities and Other Historical Digital Collections

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    We live in an era in which the ways that we can make sense of our past are evolving as more artifacts from that past become digital. At the same time, the responsibilities of traditional gatekeepers who have negotiated the ethics of historical data collection and use, such as librarians and archivists, are increasingly being sidelined by the system builders who decide whether and how to provide access to historical digital collections, often without sufficient reflection on the ethical issues at hand. It is our aim to better prepare system builders to grapple with these issues. This paper focuses discussions around one such digital collection from the dawn of the web, asking what sorts of analyses can and should be conducted on archival copies of the GeoCities web hosting platform that dates to 1994.This research was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the US National Science Foundation (grants 1618695 and 1704369), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Start Smart Labs, and Compute Canada

    Genetic diversity of the rain tree (Albizia saman) in Colombian seasonally dry tropical forest for informing conservation and restoration interventions

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    Albizia saman is a multipurpose tree species of seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs) of Mesoamerica and northern South America typically cultivated in silvopastoral and other agroforestry systems around the world, a trend that is bound to increase in light of multimillion hectare commitments for forest and landscape restoration. The effective conservation and sustainable use of A. saman requires detailed knowledge of its genetic diversity across its native distribution range of which surprisingly little is known to date. We assessed the genetic diversity and structure of A.saman across twelve representative locations of SDTF in Colombia, and how they may have been shaped by past climatic changes and human influence. We found four different genetic groups which may be the result of differentiation due to isolation of populations in preglacial times. The current distribution and mixture of genetic groups across STDF fragments we observed might be the result of range expansion of SDTFs during the last glacial period followed by range contraction during the Holocene and human‐influenced movement of germplasm associated with cattle ranching. Despite the fragmented state of the presumed natural A. saman stands we sampled, we did not find any signs of inbreeding, suggesting that gene flow is not jeopardized in humanized landscapes. However, further research is needed to assess potential deleterious effects of fragmentation on progeny. Climate change is not expected to seriously threaten the in situ persistence of A. saman populations and might present opportunities for future range expansion. However, the sourcing of germplasm for tree planting activities needs to be aligned with the genetic affinity of reference populations across the distribution of Colombian SDTFs. We identify priority source populations for in situ conservation based on their high genetic diversity, lack or limited signs of admixture, and/or genetic uniqueness

    “My Future is Now”: A Qualitative Study of Persons Living With Advanced Cancer

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    Objectives: Advance care planning (ACP) enables individuals to deliberate about future preferences for care based upon their values and beliefs about what is important in life. For many patients with advanced cancer, however, these critical conversations do not occur. A growing body of literature has examined the end-of-life wishes of seriously ill patients. Few studies have explored what is important to persons as they live with advanced cancer. The aim of the current study was to address this gap and to understand how clinicians can support patients’ efforts to live in the present and plan for the future. Methods: Transcriptions of interviews conducted with 36 patients diagnosed with advanced cancer were analyzed using immersion–crystallization, a qualitative research technique. Results: Four overarching themes were identified: (I) living in the face of death, (II) who I am, (III) my experience of cancer, and (IV) impact of my illness on others. Twelve subthemes are also reported. Significance of Results: These findings have significant implications for clinicians as they partner with patients to plan for the future. Our data suggest that clinicians consider the following 4 prompts: (1) “What is important to you now, knowing that you will die sooner than you want or expected?” (2) “Tell me about yourself.” (3) “Tell me in your own words about your experience with cancer care and treatment.” (4) “What impact has your illness had on others?” In honoring patients’ lived experiences, we may establish the mutual understanding necessary to providing high-quality care that supports patients’ priorities for life

    Taylor dispersion of gyrotactic swimming micro-organisms in a linear flow

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    The theory of generalized Taylor dispersion for suspensions of Brownian particles is developed to study the dispersion of gyrotactic swimming micro-organisms in a linear shear flow. Such creatures are bottom-heavy and experience a gravitational torque which acts to right them when they are tipped away from the vertical. They also suffer a net viscous torque in the presence of a local vorticity field. The orientation of the cells is intrinsically random but the balance of the two torques results in a bias toward a preferred swimming direction. The micro-organisms are sufficiently large that Brownian motion is negligible but their random swimming across streamlines results in a mean velocity together with diffusion. As an example, we consider the case of vertical shear flow and calculate the diffusion coefficients for a suspension of the alga <i>Chlamydomonas nivalis</i>. This rational derivation is compared with earlier approximations for the diffusivity

    Combining gravity with the forces of the standard model on a cosmological scale

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    We prove the existence of a spectral resolution of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation when the underlying spacetime is a Friedman universe with flat spatial slices and where the matter fields are comprised of the strong interaction, with \SU(3) replaced by a general \SU(n), n≄2n\ge 2, and the electro-weak interaction. The wave functions are maps from R[4n+10]\R[4n+10] to a subspace of the antisymmetric Fock space, and one noteworthy result is that, whenever the electro-weak interaction is involved, the image of an eigenfunction is in general not one dimensional, i.e., in general it makes no sense specifying a fermion and looking for an eigenfunction the range of which is contained in the one dimensional vector space spanned by the fermion.Comment: 53 pages, v6: some typos correcte

    Nonlinear equation for curved stationary flames

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    A nonlinear equation describing curved stationary flames with arbitrary gas expansion Ξ=ρfuel/ρburnt\theta = \rho_{{\rm fuel}}/\rho_{{\rm burnt}}, subject to the Landau-Darrieus instability, is obtained in a closed form without an assumption of weak nonlinearity. It is proved that in the scope of the asymptotic expansion for ξ→1,\theta \to 1, the new equation gives the true solution to the problem of stationary flame propagation with the accuracy of the sixth order in ξ−1.\theta - 1. In particular, it reproduces the stationary version of the well-known Sivashinsky equation at the second order corresponding to the approximation of zero vorticity production. At higher orders, the new equation describes influence of the vorticity drift behind the flame front on the front structure. Its asymptotic expansion is carried out explicitly, and the resulting equation is solved analytically at the third order. For arbitrary values of Ξ,\theta, the highly nonlinear regime of fast flow burning is investigated, for which case a large flame velocity expansion of the nonlinear equation is proposed.Comment: 29 pages 4 figures LaTe

    Magnetic Properties of Linear Chain Systems: Metamagnetism of Single Crystal Co(pyridine)\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eCl\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e

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    The metamagnetic behavior of the low temperature properties of single crystal Co(pyridine)2Cl2 is discussed. At 1.25 K oriented single crystals exhibit a two‐step metamagnetic transition at applied fields ∌0.8 and 1.6 kG along the b‐axis, a single transition at ∌0.7 kG for applied fields along the a∗ axis, and a single transition at ∌4.2 kG for an applied field along the c axis. Just above the transition fields a moment of 2ÎŒB/Co atom is measured for B0 parallel to the a∗ axis or b axis, and 0.4ÎŒB/Co atom is measured for the B0 parallel to the c axis. A large field dependent moment is observed at high fields. Many features of this compound closely mirror the behavior of CoCl2⋅2H2O. However, the Co(pyridine)2Cl2 has a much smaller interchain exchange, so that many features can be examined at lower fields. The basic features are consistent with a six‐sublattice model for the ordered antiferromagnetic system. Measurements of magnetic moment versus temperature show that Co(pyridine)2Cl2 does not obey a Curie–Weiss law even at relatively high temperatures

    Coupling nonpolar and polar solvation free energies in implicit solvent models

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    Recent studies on the solvation of atomistic and nanoscale solutes indicate that a strong coupling exists between the hydrophobic, dispersion, and electrostatic contributions to the solvation free energy, a facet not considered in current implicit solvent models. We suggest a theoretical formalism which accounts for coupling by minimizing the Gibbs free energy of the solvent with respect to a solvent volume exclusion function. The resulting differential equation is similar to the Laplace-Young equation for the geometrical description of capillary interfaces, but is extended to microscopic scales by explicitly considering curvature corrections as well as dispersion and electrostatic contributions. Unlike existing implicit solvent approaches, the solvent accessible surface is an output of our model. The presented formalism is illustrated on spherically or cylindrically symmetrical systems of neutral or charged solutes on different length scales. The results are in agreement with computer simulations and, most importantly, demonstrate that our method captures the strong sensitivity of solvent expulsion and dewetting to the particular form of the solvent-solute interactions.Comment: accpted in J. Chem. Phy
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