Measuring welfare changes from commodity price stabilization in small open economies

The authors extend the widely used Newbery and Stiglitz (1981) approach to measuring welfare changes from commodity price stabilization to a general equilibrium setting. They derive the welfare changes in terms of net consumer and producer surplus, rather than in terms of producer income as in the Newbery and Stiglitz approach. The authors present formulas for measuring the welfare changes for domestic price stabilization achieved through profitable storage (as assumed by Newbery and Stiglitz) and for stabilization through a variable tariff scheme. These formulas differ significantly, so it is inappropriate to use the Newbery and Stiglitz formula to justify the use of domestic price controls such as a variable levy. In recent years, governments in many developing countries have liberalized their trade policies in the pursuit of improved economic performance. But this has exposed their economies to variations in international prices and raised questions about the desirability of domestic price stabilization programs. A popular mechanism for this purpose is a variable import levy scheme. The authors'analysis confirms that domestic welfare is lower under trade policies that stabilize domestic prices, as such policies serve only to shift the price uncertainty from producers and consumers to the government budget - while incurring the social costs of the distortionary tariffs and subsidies. The authors focus on a comparison of the welfare effects of price stabilization under a variable tariff scheme and storage, but suggest a better option: to use financial instruments for hedging against commodity price risks. This requires that there be no capital controls - one of the main reasons private insurance is seldom undertaken in developing countries.Economic Theory&Research,Insurance&Risk Mitigation,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies

Anomaly Mediation and Dimensional Transmutation

We show how a sparticle spectrum characteristic of anomaly mediation can arise from a theory whose Lagrangian contains no explicit mass scale. The scale of supersymmetry breaking is governed by the gravitino mass, which is the vacuum expectation value of the F-term of the conformal compensator field, and the tachyonic slepton problem is resolved by the breaking of a U(1) gauge symmetry at a scale determined by dimensional transmutation.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. v2 has added preprint number and acknowledgement

Giving in Illinois, 2015

Illinois is home to over 5,200 grantmaking foundations spanning all types—independent or family, corporate, community, and operating—sizes, and issue areas. The community includes many foundations that only give locally or within the state, as well as those that fund nationally and even internationally. The following analysis provides an overview of the scale and composition of the Illinois foundation community and an examination of how Illinois foundations have fared relative to U.S. foundations in general over the past decade

Kondo lattice model: Unitary transformations, spin dynamics, strongly correlated charged modes, and vacuum instability

Using unitary transformations, we express the Kondo lattice Hamiltonian in terms of fermionic operators that annihilate the ground state of the interacting system and that represent the best possible approximations to the actual charged excitations. In this way, we obtain an effective Hamiltonian which, for small couplings, consists in a kinetic term for conduction electrons and holes, an RKKY-like term, and a renormalized Kondo interaction. The physical picture of the system implied by this formalism is that of a vacuum state consisting in a background of RKKY-induced spin correlations, where two kinds of elementary modes can be excited: Soft neutral modes associated with deformations of the spin liquid, which lead to very large low-temperature values of the heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility, and charged modes corresponding to the excitation of electrons and holes in the system. Using the translational and spin rotational symmetries, we construct a simple ansatz to determine the charged excitations neglecting the effects of the spin correlations. Apart from the `normal', uncorrelated states, we find strongly correlated charged modes involving soft electrons (or holes) and spin fluctuations, which strongly renormalize the low-energy charged spectrum, and whose energy becomes negative beyond a critical coupling, signaling a vacuum instability and a transition to a new phase.Comment: 35 pages, revtex 3.

The Effective Potential, the Renormalisation Group and Vacuum Stability

We review the calculation of the the effective potential with particular emphasis on cases when the tree potential or the renormalisation-group-improved, radiatively corrected potential exhibits non-convex behaviour. We illustrate this in a simple Yukawa model which exhibits a novel kind of dimensional transmutation. We also review briefly earlier work on the Standard Model. We conclude that, despite some recent claims to the contrary, it can be possible to infer reliably that the tree vacuum does not represent the true ground state of the theory.Comment: 23 pages; 5 figures; v2 includes minor changes in text and additional reference

Observation of Neutrons with a Gadolinium Doped Water Cerenkov Detector

Spontaneous and induced fission in Special Nuclear Material (SNM) such as 235U and 239Pu results in the emission of neutrons and high energy gamma-rays. The multiplicities of and time correlations between these particles are both powerful indicators of the presence of fissile material. Detectors sensitive to these signatures are consequently useful for nuclear material monitoring, search, and characterization. In this article, we demonstrate sensitivity to both high energy gamma-rays and neutrons with a water Cerenkov based detector. Electrons in the detector medium, scattered by gamma-ray interactions, are detected by their Cerenkov light emission. Sensitivity to neutrons is enhanced by the addition of a gadolinium compound to the water in low concentrations. Cerenkov light is similarly produced by an 8 MeV gamma-ray cascade following neutron capture on the gadolinium. The large solid angle coverage and high intrinsic efficiency of this detection approach can provide robust and low cost neutron and gamma-ray detection with a single device.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods,

Screening for atrial fibrillation – a cross-sectional survey of healthcare professionals in primary care

Introduction: Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) in primary care has been recommended; however, the views of healthcare professionals (HCPs) are not known. This study aimed to determine the opinions of HCP about the feasibility of implementing screening within a primary care setting. Methods: A cross-sectional mixed methods census survey of 418 HCPs from 59 inner-city practices (Nottingham, UK) was conducted between October-December 2014. Postal and web-surveys ascertained data on existing methods, knowledge, skills, attitudes, barriers and facilitators to AF screening using Likert scale and open-ended questions. Responses, categorized according to HCP group, were summarized using proportions, adjusting for clustering by practice, with 95% C.Is and free-text responses using thematic analysis. Results: At least one General Practitioner (GP) responded from 48 (81%) practices. There were 212/418 (51%) respondents; 118/229 GPs, 67/129 nurses [50 practice nurses; 17 Nurse Practitioners (NPs)], 27/60 healthcare assistants (HCAs). 39/48 (81%) practices had an ECG machine and diagnosed AF in-house. Non-GP HCPs reported having less knowledge about ECG interpretation, diagnosing and treating AF than GPs. A greater proportion of non-GP HCPs reported they would benefit from ECG training specifically for AF diagnosis than GPs [proportion (95% CI) GPs: 11.9% (6.8–20.0); HCAs: 37.0% (21.7–55.5); nurses: 44.0% (30.0–59.0); NPs 41.2% (21.9–63.7)]. Barriers included time, workload and capacity to undertake screening activities, although training to diagnose and manage AF was a required facilitator. Conclusion: Inner-city general practices were found to have adequate access to resources for AF screening. There is enthusiasm by non-GP HCPs to up-skill in the diagnosis and management of AF and they may have a role in future AF screening. However, organisational barriers, such as lack of time, staff and capacity, should be overcome for AF screening to be feasibly implemented within primary care

The interaction between KSHV RTA and cellular RBP-Jκ and their subsequent DNA binding are not sufficient for activation of RBP-Jκ

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) replication and transcription activator (RTA) is necessary and sufficient for the switch from KSHV latency to lytic replication. RTA activates promoters by several mechanisms. RTA can bind to sequences in viral promoters and activate transcription. In addition, RTA interacts with the cellular recombination signal sequence-binding protein-J kappa (RBP- Jκ), a transcriptional repressor, converts the repressor into an activator and activates viral promoters via RBP- Jκ. Because RBP- Jκ is required for RTA to activate lytic replication, it is important to understand how RTA cooperates with RBP- Jκ protein to activate KSHV lytic replication program. Previously, we identified an RTA mutant, RTA-K152E, which has a defect in its direct DNA-binding activity. In this report, the effect of the mutant RTA on KSHV activation via RBP- Jκ protein is examined. We demonstrate that RTA-K152E interacts with RBP- Jκ physically and the mutant RTA and RBP-Jκ complex binds to target DNA properly in vivo and in vitro. However, the complex of RTA-K152E and RBP- Jκ does not activate transcription. Furthermore, the RTA mutant (RTA-K12E) inhibits cellular Notch-mediated RBP- Jκ activation. These data collectively suggest that the complex between KSHV RTA and cellular RBP- Jκ and the subsequent DNA binding by the complex are not sufficient for the activation of RBP- Jκ protein. Other factor(s) whether additional cofactor(s) in the complex or the intrinsic conformation of RTA, are predicted to be required for the activation of RBP- Jκ protein by RTA