An Alternative Approach to the Existence of Sunspot Equilibria

This paper offers an alternative approach to the existence of sunspot equilibria. The economy has a single perishable good and fiat money within an overlapping generations framework with two possible extraneous events. The analysis uses the dynamic adjustment of market prices during voluntary trade to establish paths of current spot prices whose limit points are rational expectations equilibria. The paper shows that there is a sub-set of paths whose limit points are self-fulfilling if they are perfectly correlated with extraneous events. It is this sub-set that constitutes sunspot equilibria. Two implications of this approach follow: (a) the likelihood of this existence is generally low; and (b) adding an asset (or a commodity) to the economy invalidates the demonstration of existence.Sunspot equilibria, extrinsic uncertainty, dynamic stability

Frameworks for Accountability: How Domestic Tort Law Can Inform the Development of International Law of State Responsibility in Armed Conflicts

The development of international law of state responsibility in warfare thus far has either implicitly relied on tort law and theory as a means of comprehending elements of liability, or explicitly suggested that reparations in international law could follow domestic tort law in form and substance. In this Article, I argue that both approaches raise concerns about coherence and clarity and suggest that a Contextual Reliance Approach is required. Accordingly, the principles and concepts underlying domestic tort law can be adapted and applied to international law of state responsibility, but the unique features of warfare must be accounted for. In doing so, the Contextual Reliance Approach crystalizes the boundaries and unique functions of tort law and international law of state responsibility. By deploying the Contextual Reliance Approach, I clarify four main contested doctrinal and theoretical issues in the field of international law of state responsibility during warfare. First, the right to reparations under international law should only be extended to states. Second, duty to make reparations should only arise when a loss is inflicted by infringing the law of war. Third, fully correcting wrongs requires distinguishing between just and unjust wars, imposing compensatory damages for the former but allowing additional aggravated damages for the latter, while maintaining a prohibition on punitive damages. Fourth, global damages can be awarded, but only for losses that cannot be quantified based on market value

A Family Is What You Make It? Legal Recognition and Regulation of Multiple Parents

Multiparental family structures, in which there are more than two parents, are becoming increasingly common. Thus, they defy the social and legal conception of the nuclear family. Yet, despite the growing number of multiparental families, their legal status in most jurisdictions is not recognized, leaving various issues unaddressed and potentially risking the children’s best interests. This paper examines how the legislatures and courts of California, Canada, and the U.K. recognize and regulate multiparental families. It shows that the treatment of multiparental families varies from non-recognition of any status, through regulation of the multiparental family, to the recognition of the multiparental family based on parental agreements. The paper identifies five distinct categories of multiparental family structures, and suggests that the allocation of parental status should be made possible to each of these structures. To do so, it is suggested that the allocation of parental status will not be determined by traditional doctrines. Rather, it should be guided by both the intentions of the parties to the parental agreement, and the child’s best interests

Leupeptin reduces impulse noise induced hearing loss

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exposure to continuous and impulse noise can induce a hearing loss. Leupeptin is an inhibitor of the calpains, a family of calcium-activated proteases which promote cell death. The objective of this study is to assess whether Leupeptin could reduce the hearing loss resulting from rifle impulse noise.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A polyethelene tube was implanted into middle ear cavities of eight fat sand rats (16 ears). Following determination of auditory nerve brainstem evoked response (ABR) threshold in each ear, the animals were exposed to the noise of 10 M16 rifle shots. Immediately after the exposure, saline was then applied to one (control) ear and non-toxic concentrations of leupeptin determined in the first phase of the study were applied to the other ear, for four consecutive days.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Eight days after the exposure, the threshold shift (ABR) in the control ears was significantly greater (44 dB) than in the leupeptin ears (27 dB).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Leupeptin applied to the middle ear cavity can reduce the hearing loss resulting from exposure to impulse noise.</p

Tort Liability for Belligerent Wrongs

Most legal systems deny civilians a right to compensation for losses they sustain during belligerent activities. Arguments for recognising such a right are usually divorced, to various degrees, from the moral and legal underpinnings of the notion of inflicting a wrongful loss under either international humanitarian law or domestic tort law. My aim in this article is to advance a novel account of states’ tortious liability for belligerent wrongdoing, drawing on both international humanitarian law and corrective justice approaches to domestic tort law. Structuring my account on both frameworks, I argue that some of the losses that states inflict during war are private law wrongs that establish a claim of compensation in tort. Only in cases where the in bello principles are observed can losses to person and property be justified and non-wrongful. Otherwise, they constitute wrongs, which those who inflict them have duties of corrective justice to repair

Is management of risk sharing by banks a cause for bank runs?

A bank, acting as a central planner under aggregate full certainty, optimizes liquidity allocation by sharing risk between discrete number of depositors. This paper demonstrates the following. (a) It is sufficient to rule out a bank run if all depositors inform the bank their types, patient or impatient, in advance, in a noncommittal manner. There cannot be a bank run because depositors’ strategic behaviour induces the bank to act as a central planner under aggregate full certainty. (b) The impossibility of a bank run is consistent with the price mechanism in partial equilibrium; but it may be inconsistent with the price mechanism in general disequilibrium. (c) The paper concludes that the management of risk sharing by banks is not a cause for bank runs

Tort Liability, Combatant Activities, and the Question of Over-Deterrence

Immunity from tort liability for losses that are inflicted during warfare is often justified by a supposedly intuitive concern: without immunity, states and combatants will be over-deterred from engaging in combat. In this article, I test this common perception using three frameworks. First, I theoretically analyze the impact of tort liability on relevant state actors’ incentives to engage in warfare. This analysis suggests that tort law is likely to under-deter state actors in relation to their decisions on whether and how to conduct hostilities. Second, I test this conclusion through an original mixed-methods exploratory research, using Israel as a test case. My findings reveal that while tort liability under-deters state actors from engaging in warfare, it can prompt them to implement regulatory measures to minimize the state’s liability. Third, I offer a legal history analysis, exploring why Israel established an immunity from tort liability for losses it inflicts during combat in 1951, and why and how this immunity has expanded since. I show that as the Israel-Palestine conflict prolonged and intensified, state actors began viewing Palestinians’ tort claims as a civilian means of warfare and immunity from liability as the weapon needed for defending Israel’s interests

Consequences of Artificial Light at Night: The Linkage between Chasing Darkness Away and Epigenetic Modifications

Epigenetics is an important tool for understanding the relation between environmental exposures and cellular functions, including metabolic and proliferative responses. At our research center, we have devolved a mouse model for characterizing the relation between exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) and both global DNA methylation (GDM) and breast cancer. Generally, the model describes a close association between ALAN and cancer responses. Cancer responses are eminent at all light spectra, with the prevalent manifestation at the shorter end of the visible spectrum. ALAN-induced pineal melatonin suppression is the principal candidate mechanism mediating the environmental exposure at the molecular level by eliciting aberrant GDM modifications. The carcinogenic potential of ALAN can be ameliorated in mice by exogenous melatonin treatment. In contrast to BALB/c mice, humans are diurnal species, and thus, it is of great interest to evaluate the ALAN-melatonin-GDM nexus also in a diurnal mouse model. The fat sand rat (Psammomys obesus) provides an appropriate model as its responses to photoperiod are comparable to humans. Interestingly, melatonin and thyroxin have opposite effects on GDM levels in P. obesus. Melatonin, GDM levels, and even thyroxin may be utilized as novel biomarkers for detection, staging, therapy, and prevention of breast cancer progression

Effects of the colour of photophase light on locomotor activity in a nocturnal and a diurnal South African rodent

Many physiological and behavioural responses to varying qualities of light, particularly during the night (scotophase), have been well documented in rodents. We used varying wavelengths of day-time (photophase) lighting to assess daily responses in locomotor activity in the nocturnal Namaqua rock mouse (Micaelamys namaquensis) and diurnal four-striped field mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio). Animals were exposed to three light–dark cycle regimes: a short-wavelength- (SWLC, blue), a medium-wavelength- (MWLC, green) and a long-wavelength light–dark cycle (LWLC, red). Overall, daily locomotor activity of both species changed according to different wavelengths of light: the diurnal species displayed most activity under the SWLC and the nocturnal species exhibited the highest levels of activity under the LWLC. Both species showed an increase in diurnal activity and a decrease in nocturnal activity under the LWLC. These results indicate an attenuated responsiveness to long-wavelength light in the nocturnal species, but this does not appear to be true for the diurnal species. These results emphasize that the effect of light on the locomotor activity of animals depends on both the properties of the light and the temporal organization of activity of a species.http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishinghj2019Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog