Saving by buying ahead : stockpiling in response to lump‐sum payments

By purchasing larger quantities of goods and saving them for future consumption households are able to reduce transaction costs and acquire goods at a lower price per unit, presuming they can manage the transportation and storage costs. This study uses variations in state income tax refunds over time to estimate consumption responses to lump‐sum payments. Households purchase around 20 per cent more of easily stored toilet paper in the months in which tax refunds are issued, but do not increase purchases of perishables such as bread and eggs. In addition to purchasing more goods at a lower per‐unit price, households also appear to increase the time until their next purchase, which implies that they are saving goods for consumption over time. These in‐kind savings allow people to smooth their consumption over time, much like pecuniary savings. Government payments that provide lump‐sum payments can benefit consumers by providing additional liquidity to buy and store goods at a lower cost

Reaction-Diffusion System in a Vesicle with Semi-Permeable Membrane

We study the Schloegl model in a vesicle with semi-permeable membrane. The diffusion constant takes a smaller value in the membrane region, which prevents the outflow of self-catalytic product. A nonequilibrium state is stably maintained inside of the vesicle. Nutrients are absorbed and waste materials are exhausted through the membrane by diffusion. It is interpreted as a model of primitive metabolism in a cell.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

A method of eta' decay product selection to study partial chiral symmetry restoration

In case of chiral U_A(1) symmetry restoration the mass of the eta' boson (the ninth, would-be Goldstone boson) is decreased, thus its production cross section is heavily enhanced. The eta' decays (through one of its decay channels) into five pions. These pions will not be correlated in terms of Bose-Einsten correlations, thus the production enhancement changes the strength of two-pion correlation functions at low momentum. Preliminary results strongly support the mass decrease of the eta' boson. In this paper we propose a method to select pions coming from eta' decays. We investigate the efficiency of the proposed kinematical cut in several collision systems and energies with several simulators. We prove that our method can be used in all investigeted collision systems.Comment: Talk at the VI Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Kiev, September 14-18, 2010. 6 pages, 3 figures. This work was supported by the OTKA grant NK73143 and M. Csanad's Bolyai scholarshi

Escherichia coli MazF Leads to the Simultaneous Selective Synthesis of Both “Death Proteins” and “Survival Proteins”

The Escherichia coli mazEF module is one of the most thoroughly studied toxin–antitoxin systems. mazF encodes a stable toxin, MazF, and mazE encodes a labile antitoxin, MazE, which prevents the lethal effect of MazF. MazF is an endoribonuclease that leads to the inhibition of protein synthesis by cleaving mRNAs at ACA sequences. Here, using 2D-gels, we show that in E. coli, although MazF induction leads to the inhibition of the synthesis of most proteins, the synthesis of an exclusive group of proteins, mostly smaller than about 20 kDa, is still permitted. We identified some of those small proteins by mass spectrometry. By deleting the genes encoding those proteins from the E. coli chromosome, we showed that they were required for the death of most of the cellular population. Under the same experimental conditions, which induce mazEF-mediated cell death, other such proteins were found to be required for the survival of a small sub-population of cells. Thus, MazF appears to be a regulator that induces downstream pathways leading to death of most of the population and the continued survival of a small sub-population, which will likely become the nucleus of a new population when growth conditions become less stressful

Galeorhinus galeus, Tope

Tope (Galeorhinus galeus) is a medium-sized (to 200 cm total length) bentho-pelagic shark, widespread in temperate waters in most oceans. It is present across the Northeast, Eastern Central, Southwest, and Southeast Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, the Eastern Indian, and across all of the Pacific, except in the Northwest Pacific. It occurs on continental shelves and upper to mid slopes from shallow inshore to well offshore to depths of 826 m, though most frequently to depths of 200 m. Genetic and tagging data support up to six separate subpopulations of Tope and while the species makes extensive movements within each of the subpopulations, there is no evidence of mixing between them. Tope has a particularly low biological productivity with a late age-at-maturity and triennial reproductive cycle. It is caught globally as target and bycatch in industrial and small-scale demersal and pelagic gillnet and longline fisheries, and to a lesser extent in trawl and hook-and-line fisheries. Tope is often retained for the meat and fins but is discarded or released in some areas, in line with regional management measures. Steep subpopulation and stock reductions of >80% over the past three generation lengths (79 years) have occurred in the Southwest Atlantic, southern Africa, and Australia. In the Northeast Atlantic, the subpopulation is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 76% over the past three generation lengths (79 years). The New Zealand stock is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 30?49% over the past three generation lengths (79 years). In the Northeast Pacific, a dramatic decline in the subpopulation occurred in the early 1940s, with no recovery until 1997?2004 when localized management led to a localized increase in abundance. The consistent steep subpopulation reductions across most of the analyzed subpopulations and stocks together with the lack of movement between the subpopulations are cause for serious concern. Management in Australia, probably aided by the immigration of large mature animals from New Zealand, appears to have stabilized that stock since 2000. The subpopulation in the Northeast Atlantic has been stable in recent years, possibly due to management measures, and there is some recovery in part of the Northeast Pacific. Release of this species is mandatory since 2011 off Canada. Release is mandatory in European Union waters for line-caught Tope. The global population is estimated to have undergone a reduction of 88% with the highest probability of >80% reduction over the last three generations (79 years) due to levels of exploitation, and Tope is assessed as Critically Endangered A2bd.Fil: Walker, T. I.. University of Melbourne; AustraliaFil: Rigby, C. L.. James Cook University; AustraliaFil: Pacoureau, N.. University Fraser Simon; CanadáFil: Ellis, J.. No especifíca;Fil: Kulka, D. W.. No especifíca;Fil: Chiaramonte, Gustavo Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Herman, K.. Georgia Aquarium; Estados Unido