Meritocracy and the inheritance of advantage

We present a model where more accurate information on the background of individuals facilitates statistical discrimination, increasing inequality and intergenerational persistence in income. Surprisingly, more accurate information on the actual capabilities of workers leads to the same result - firms give increased weight to the more accurate information, increasing inequality, which itself fosters discrimination. The rich take advantage of this through educational investments in their children, and mobility decreases as a consequence of an increase in the ability to reward talent. Using our model to interpret the data suggests that a country like the US might indeed be a land of opportunity for the sufficiently able, as conditional on ability background may have relatively little effect. Nevertheless the US has a relatively low degree of intergenerational mobility precisely because meritocracy facilitates a high correlation of ability with background

Effectively four-dimensional spacetimes emerging from d=5 Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity

Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity in five-dimensional spacetime provides an excellent example of a theory that, while including higher-order curvature corrections to General Relativity, still shares many of its features, such as second-order field equations for the metric. We focus on the largely unexplored case where the coupling constants of the theory are such that no constant-curvature solution is allowed, leaving open the question of what the vacuum state should then be. We find that even a slight deviation from the anti-de Sitter Chern-Simons theory, where the vacuum state is five-dimensional AdS spacetime, leads to a complete symmetry breakdown, with the fifth dimension either being compactified into a small circle or shrinking away exponentially with time. A complete family of solutions, including duality relations among them, is uncovered and shown to be unique within a certain class. This dynamical dimensional reduction scenario seems particularly attractive as a means for higher-dimensional theories to make contact with our four-dimensional world.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. v2: New section on geometrical significance of solutions. Final version for CQ

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy as a complication of an epileptic status

Introducción. Las complicaciones cardiológicas son la causa más frecuente de mortalidad en el estado epiléptico. La miocardiopatía de Takotsubo es una entidad descrita recientemente, que puede aparecer en numerosas emergencias médicas, entre ellas el estado epiléptico. Caso clínico. Se presenta un caso de miocardiopatía de Takotsubo en el contexto de un estado epiléptico y se revisan casos similares descritos en la literatura científica, especialmente la semiología y etiología de las crisis epilépticas, los datos epidemiológicos de los enfermos, las alteraciones en el electrocardiograma y las complicaciones ocurridas. La paciente, una mujer de 43 años, se recuperó por completo tanto cardiológica como neurológicamente, y no tuvo recurrencias en un año de seguimiento. Conclusión. La miocardiopatía de Takotsubo es una complicación grave y tratable que puede ocurrir en el estado epilépticoIntroduction. Cardiological complications are the most frequent cause of mortality in the epileptic status. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a recently reported condition that can appear in a number of medical emergencies, including epileptic status. Case report. We present a case of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy within the context of an epileptic status and we also review similar cases reported in the literature. Special attention is given to the semiology and aetiology of the epileptic seizures, patients’ epidemiological data, the alterations noted in the electrocardiogram and the complications that occurred. The patient, a 43-year-old female, recovered completely both cardiologically and neurologically, and did not suffer any relapses during the one-year follow-up. Conclusion. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a severe, treatable complication that can occur in the epileptic statu

A fluorescence-activatable reporter of flavivirus NS2B–NS3 protease activity enables live imaging of infection in single cells and viral plaques

The genus Flavivirus in the family Flaviviridae comprises many medically important viruses, such as dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV), and yellow fever virus. The quest for thera- peutic targets to combat flavivirus infections requires a better understanding of the kinetics of virus–host interactions during infections with native viral strains. However, this is precluded by limitations of current cell-based systems for monitoring flavivi- rus infection in living cells. In the present study, we report the construction of fluorescence-activatable sensors to detect the activities of flavivirus NS2B–NS3 serine proteases in living cells. The system consists of GFP-based reporters that become fluo- rescent upon cleavage by recombinant DENV-2/ZIKV proteases in vitro. A version of this sensor containing the flavivirus inter- nal NS3 cleavage site linker reported the highest fluorescence activation in stably transduced mammalian cells upon DENV-2/ ZIKV infection. Moreover, the onset of fluorescence correlated with viral protease activity. A far-red version of this flavivirus sensor had the best signal-to-noise ratio in a fluorescent Dulbec- co’s plaque assay, leading to the construction of a multireporter platform combining the flavivirus sensor with reporter dyes for detection of chromatin condensation and cell death, enabling studies of viral plaque formation with single-cell resolution. Finally, the application of this platform enabled the study of cell-population kinetics of infection and cell death by DENV-2, ZIKV, and yellow fever virus. We anticipate that future studies of viral infection kinetics with this reporter system will enable basic investigations of virus–host interactions and facilitate future applications in antiviral drug research to manage flavivi- rus infections.International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Grant CRP/CRI18-02.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias de la Salud::Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Tropicales (CIET)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Salud::Facultad de Microbiologí

Reactivity Indexes and Structure of Fullerenes

The discovery of fullerenes and their production in measurable quantities launched many studies about their reactivity and possible applications. Their peculiar structure opened possibilities for their study, initially replacing carbon atoms with alternative atoms. The surface also offers the possibility of attaching several species and the interior of their hollow structure represents a challenge because of the possibility of confining elements or molecules that may become less stable when attached to the exterior of the cage. These modifications may considerably affect both chemical and physical properties. In this chapter, we propose the encapsulation of 3–10 nitrogen atoms as aggregates inside the C70 cage. We also study the structures and reactivity indexes and the stabilization conferred as a result of being part of the fullerene. These aggregates are mainly of interest because of their possible application as energetic materials

Icephobic and anticorrosion coatings deposited by electrospinning on aluminum alloys for aerospace applications

Anti-icing or passive strategies have undergone a remarkable growth in importance as a complement for the de-icing approaches or active methods. As a result, many efforts for developing icephobic surfaces have been mostly dedicated to apply superhydrophobic coatings. Recently, a different type of ice-repellent structure based on slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) has attracted increasing attention for being a simple and effective passive ice protection in a wide range of application areas, especially for the prevention of ice formation on aircrafts. In this work, the electrospinning technique has been used for the deposition of PVDF-HFP coatings on samples of the aeronautical alloy AA7075 by using a thickness control system based on the identification of the proper combination of process parameters such as the flow rate and applied voltage. In addition, the influence of the experimental conditions on the nanofiber properties is evaluated in terms of surface morphology, wettability, corrosion resistance, and optical transmittance. The experimental results showed an improvement in the micro/nanoscale structure, which optimizes the superhydro-phobic and anticorrosive behavior due to the air trapped inside the nanotextured surface. In addi-tion, once the best coating was selected, centrifugal ice adhesion tests (CAT) were carried out for two types of icing conditions (glaze and rime) simulated in an ice wind tunnel (IWT) on both as-deposited and liquid-infused coatings (SLIPs). The liquid-infused coatings showed a low water adhesion (low contact angle hysteresis) and low ice adhesion strength, reducing the ice adhesion four times with respect to PTFE (a well-known low-ice-adhesion material used as a reference).Project RTI2018-096262-B-C41-MAITAI, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF 'A way of making Europe'. Grant PRE2019-090656: funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ESF 'Investing in your future'. Project PJUPNA1929 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF 'A way of making Europe' and by BEI