Can we create a human from scratch?

Do you know who Frankenstein is? Probably yes, but I would like to remind you. Victor Frankenstein is the protagonist of the novel, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus." In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is a young student from Geneva. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2868

Growth with Equity in East Asia?

Rapid growth and structural change have reduced poverty in East Asian economies. Income inequality has been low in Korea and Taiwan, but has risen in recent years with economic liberalization. In the Southeast Asian economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, poverty has declined, while income inequality trends have varied, rising most clearly in Thailand. With its strengthened (private) property rights, market liberalization and sustained rapid growth, China has also experienced increased inequality despite considerable poverty reduction. Hence, the common claim of egalitarian growth in East Asia may have been exaggerated, especially since the 1990s.East Asia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, inequality, poverty

MALAYSIA´S SEPTEMBER 1998 CONTROLS: BACKGROUND, CONTEXT, IMPACTS, COMPARISONS, IMPLICATIONS, LESSONS

Unlike the other East Asian economies which sought IMF emergency credit facilities after borrowing heavily from abroad, the Malaysian authorities simply never had to go to the Fund as prudential regulations introduced earlier had limited foreign borrowings, especially short-term credit. Instead, its crisis was due to massive portfolio investment inflows into the stock market. With the crisis, currency depreciation and stock market declines formed a vicious cycle, exacerbated by contagion and policy responses as well as official rhetoric undermining market confidence, especially in the latter half of 1997. From December 1997, the adoption of more orthodox pro-cyclical policies made the downturn worse. Before mid-1998, new fiscal measures were adopted to reflate the economy, later augmented by the currency and capital control measures from September. Looking at the crisis in August 1998, when the United States still showed little inclination to do anything to improve the situation, the Malaysian measures made good sense. The September 1998 Malaysian controls were undoubtedly well designed and effective in closing down the offshore ringgit market without discouraging greenfield foreign direct investment. The Malaysian experience shows that imposing emergency capital controls on outflows did not have the disastrous effects its opponents claim it would. But, coming 14 months after the crisis began, they were too late to stem capital flight, which had already taken place, resulting in the 80 per cent collapse of the stock market index. The capital controls were amended in February 1999 and ended in September 1999. They prevented more capital from leaving owing to the uncertainty induced by the economic and political developments of early September 1998. All the crisis economies turned around from late 1998, while Malaysia took longer, recovering from the second quarter of 1999. The recovery was stronger than in Thailand and in Indonesia in 1999 and 2000, although it lagged behind that in the Republic of Korea. The Governments of the Republic of Korea and Malaysia were bolder in their fiscal reflationary efforts, and also worked faster at bank re-capitalization and corporate restructuring. The pre-Y2K demand for electronics helped Malaysia and the Republic of Korea more than the others. Malaysia also benefited from higher petroleum and palm oil prices, while the depth of the 1998 recession in Southeast Asia was partly due to El Nino weather effects on agricultural output, and not just the currency and financial crises.

Dynamics of a two-dimensional vapor bubble confined between superheated or subcooled parallel plates

The dynamics of a long, two-dimensional vapor bubble confined in the gap between two superheated or subcooled parallel plates is analyzed theoretically. The unsteady expansion and/or contraction of the bubble is driven by mass transfer between the liquid and the vapor. The analysis uses the approach developed by Wilson et al. J. Fluid Mech. 391, 1 1999 for a situation with 'large' gaps and 'small' superheating or subcooling to consider a situation with small gaps and large superheating or subcooling in which the mass transfer from or to the semicircular nose of the bubble is comparable to that from or to the thin liquid films on the plates. In order to permit a semi- analytical treatment the analysis is restricted to low Prandtl number liquids. When both plates are superheated the bubble always expands. In this case there are two possible constant-velocity continuous-film solutions for the expansion of the bubble, namely, an unstable fast mode and a stable slow mode. The evolution of the bubble is calculated numerically for a range of values of the parameters. In particular, these calculations show that eventually the bubble expands either with the constant velocity of the slow mode or exponentially. When both plates are subcooled the bubble always collapses to zero length in a finite time. When one plate is subcooled and the other plate is superheated the situation is rather more complicated. If the magnitude of the subcooling is less than that of the superheating then if the magnitude of the subcooling is greater than a critical value then a variety of complicated behaviors including the possibility of an unexpected 'waiting time' behavior in which the bubble remains almost stationary for a finite period oftime can occur before the bubble eventually collapses to a finite length in an infinite time, whereas if it is less than this critical value then the bubble always expands and eventually does so exponentially. If the magnitude of the subcooling is greater than that of the superheating then the bubble always collapses to zero length in a finite time

Why Dowry Payments Declined With Modernisation in Europe but are Rising in India

In contrast to most dowry oriented societies where payments have declined with modernisation, those in India have undergone significant inflation over the last five decades.This paper explains the difference between these two experiences by focusing on the role played by caste.The theoretical model contrasts caste and non-caste based societies: in the former, there exists an inherited component to status (caste) which is independent of wealth, while in the latter, wealth is the primary determinant of status.Modernisation is assumed to involve two components: increasing average wealth and increasing wealth dispersion within status (or caste) groups.The paper shows that, in caste-based societies, the increases in wealth dispersion which accompany modernisation necessarily lead to increases in dowry payments, whereas in non-caste case based societies, increased dispersion has no real effect on dowry payments and increasing average wealth causes the payments to decline.marriage;costs

Bergmann-Thomson energy-momentum complex for solutions more general than the Kerr-Schild class

In a very well-known paper, Virbhadra's research group proved that the Weinberg, Papapetrou, Landau and Lifshitz, and Einstein energy-momentum complexes ``coincide'' for all metrics of Kerr-Schild class. A few years later, Virbhadra clarified that this ``coincidence'' in fact holds for metrics more general than the Kerr-Schild class. In the present paper, this study is extended for the Bergmann-Thomson complex and it is proved that this complex also ``coincides'' with those complexes for a more general than the Kerr-Schild class metric.Comment: RevTex, 12 page

Why the Marriage Squeeze Cannot Cause Dowry Inflation

It has been argued that rising dowry payments are caused by population growth.According to that explanation, termed the `marriage squeeze', a population increase leads to an excess supply of brides since men marry younger women.As a result, dowry payments rise in order to clear the marriage market.The explanation is essentially static; unmarried brides do not re-enter the marriage market.This paper demonstrates that the marriage squeeze argument cannot explain dowry inflation in a proper dynamic framework.In fact, when women, who do not find matches at the `desirable' marrying age, re-enter the marriage market as older brides, (as is the case in areas undergoing dowry inflation), the marriage squeeze argument is shown to imply dowry deflation.population dynamics;marriage;costs

GROWTH AFTER THE ASIAN CRISIS: WHAT REMAINS OF THE EAST ASIAN MODEL?

This paper focuses on the prospects for sustained development in the four East Asian economies most adversely affected by the crises of 1997/98. These include all three second-tier South-East Asian newly industrializing countries (NICs) – Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand – as well as the Republic of Korea, the most adversely affected of the first-generation newly industrialized economies (NIEs). The first section critically examines the East Asian model presented by the World Bank’s “East Asian Miracle” (1993). The study emphasizes the variety of East Asian experiences. The three second-tier South-East Asian experiences are shown to be quite distinct from, and inferior to, those of the first-generation NIEs, especially the Republic of Korea and Taiwan Province of China. The circumstances leading to the onset of the East Asian crises of 1997/98 are then reviewed to assess whether and how the East Asian “models” may have contributed to the crises. Macroeconomic indicators in Malaysia and the three most crisis-affected economies – i.e. Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand – are reviewed to establish that, despite some misdemeanours, the crises cannot be attributed to macroeconomic profligacy. After reviewing the causes of these crises, the role of international financial liberalization and the reversal of capital inflows are emphasized. Nevertheless, the trend towards further financial liberalization continues. Malaysia is shown to have been less exposed as a result of restrictions on foreign borrowings as well as stricter bank regulations, but more vulnerable owing to the greater role of capital markets compared to the other three economies in the region. The role of the IMF and financial market expectations in exacerbating the crises is also considered. The emerging discussion begins by asserting that economic recovery in East Asia since 1999 – especially in Malaysia and the Republic of Korea – has been principally due to successful reflationary measures, both fiscal and monetary. The main institutional reforms currently claimed as urgent to protect the four affected economies from future crises and to return them to their previous high growth paths are critically assessed. It is argued that the emphasis by the IMF and the financial media on corporate governance reforms has been misguided and that such reforms are not really necessary for recovery. Instead of the Anglo-American-inspired reforms currently proposed, reforms should create new conditions for further “catching-up” throughout the region. Although the prospects for reform of the international financial system remain dim, a reform agenda in the interests of the South is outlined. Globalization, including international financial liberalization, has reduced the scope for selective interventions so crucial to the catching-up achieved during the East Asian miracle years. However, the process has been uneven and far from smooth, leaving considerable room for similar initiatives more appropriate to new circumstances. In any case, it is unlikely that globalization will ever succeed in fully transforming all other national economic systems along Anglo-American lines. The emerging hybrid systems have not really advanced late development efforts. There is an urgent need to understand better the full implications of globalization and liberalization in different circumstances so as to identify the remaining scope for national developmental initiatives.

The Economics of Dowry Payments in Pakistan

Although there are numerous studies of the dowry phenomenon in India, research pertaining to the custom in the rest of South Asia is sparse.The aim of this paper is to study dowry payments in Pakistan.Several interpretations for dowry are distinguished using a simple theoretical framework and the predictions of this model are tested using recent data from Pakistan.The investigation concludes that despite religious and cultural differences, the phenomenon of dowry in Pakistan appears to occur for reasons which are similar to those in India.That is, in rural areas it seems to be the more traditional pre-mortem inheritance, whereas in urban areas the payment has transformed into a groomprice.Dowry;Marriage;Gender;Household

Process pattern of heterogeneous gas hydrate deposits dissociation

Purpose. Justification of the effective dissociation process parameters of heterogeneous gas hydrate deposits and elaboration of their classification according to the thermal energy consumption. Methodology. The methodological basis of the conducted complex research is the analysis and synthesis of literary sources, devoted to studying the peculiarities and thermobaric properties of gas hydrates, analytical calculations and laboratory experiments on the thermal energy consumption for the efficient decomposition of gas hydrates, experimental studies of the hydrate formation process and gas hydrate deposits of the mottled structure dissociation. Findings. The parameters of formation and stable gas hydrate occurrence in natural environment, which should be taken into account when developing gas hydrate deposits, are substantiated. The existing classification of gas hydrate deposits in sedimentary rocks is analyzed. The regularities of the gas hydrate deposits dissociation process and methane gas production, depending on the percentage of rock intercalations content, are established. The volumes of analysis zones and gas output from heterogeneous gas hydrate deposits are determined. The amount of thermal energy that is necessary to be consumed to produce 1000 m3 of hydrated gas during the gas hydrate deposits development, is calculated. Originality. It is established that the thermal energy consumption on the dissociation process in order to obtain methane gas varies with a parabolic dependency with an increase in the rock intercalations proportion in the gas hydrate deposit. A new classification of gas hydrate deposits, based on the content of rock intercalations and the amount of spent thermal energy for gas hydrate dissociation, has been developed. Practical value. The results of studies with sufficient accuracy for practical application may be used in the development of the Black Sea gas hydrate deposits in order to obtain natural gas. The revealed dependencies of the methane gas output on the rock intercalation share are a tool for determining the effective application of technologies for the gas hydrate deposit development.Мета. Обґрунтування параметрів ефективного процесу дисоціації неоднорідних газогідратних покладів і розробка їх класифікації за затратами теплової енергії. Методика. Методичною основою проведених комплексних досліджень є аналіз і узагальнення літературних джерел, присвячених вивченню особливостей і термобаричних властивостей газових гідратів, аналітичні розрахунки й лабораторні екс- перименти щодо затрат теплової енергії для ефективного розкладання газогідратів, експериментальні дослідження процесу гідратоутворення й дисоціації газогідратних покладів неоднорідної структури. Результати. Обґрунтовані параметри формування й стабільного існування газогідратів у природних умовах, що необхідно враховувати при розробці газогідратних родовищ. Проаналізовані існуючі класифікації покладів газових гідратів в осадових породах. Встановлені закономірності процесу дисоціації газогідратних покладів і одержання газу метану в залежності від процентного вмісту породних включень. Визначені об’єми зон розкладання й вихід газу із неоднорідних газогідратних покладів. Розрахована кількість теплової енергії, що необхідно затратити для одержання 1000 м3 гідратного газу при розробці газогідратних родовищ. Наукова новизна. Встановлено, що затрати теплової енергії на протікання процесу дисоціації для одержання газу метану змінюються за параболічною залежністю зі збільшенням частки породних включень у газогідратному покладі. Розроблена нова класифікація газогідратних покладів за вмістом породних включень і кількістю затраченої теплової енергії на дисоціацію газогідрату. Практична значимість. Результати досліджень із достатньою для практичного застосування точністю можуть використовуватися при розробці газогідратних родовищ Чорного моря з метою отримання природного газу. Виявлені залежності виходу газу метану від частки породних включень є інструментарієм для визначення ефективної області застосування технологій розробки покладів газових гідратів. Ключові слова: газогідратний поклад, неоднорідність, класифікація, породні включення, дисоціація, затрати енергіїЦель. Обоснование параметров эффективного процесса диссоциации неоднородных газогидратных залежей и разработка их классификации по затратам тепловой энергии. Методика. Методической основой проведенных комплексных исследований является анализ и обобщение литературных источников, посвященных изучению особенностей и термобарических свойств газовых гидратов, аналитические расчеты и лабораторные эксперименты по затратам тепловой энергии для эффективного разложения газогидратов, экспериментальные исследования процесса гидратообразования и диссоциации газогидратных залежей неоднородной структуры. Результаты. Обоснованы параметры формирования и стабильного существования газогидратов в природных условиях, что необходимо учитывать при разработке газогидратных месторождений. Проанализированы существующие классификации залежей газовых гидратов в осадочных породах. Установлены закономерности процесса диссоциации газогидратных залежей и получения газа метана в зависимости от процентного содержания породных включений. Определены объемы зон разложения и выход газа из неоднородных газогидратных залежей. Рассчитано количество тепловой энергии, которую необходимо затратить для получения 1000 м3 гидратного газа при разработке газогидратных месторождений. Научная новизна. Установлено, что затраты тепловой энергии на протекание процесса диссоциации для получения газа метана изменяются по параболической зависимости с увеличением доли породных включений в газогидратной залежи. Разработана новая классификация газогидратных залежей по содержанию породных включений и количеству затраченной тепловой энергии на диссоциацию газогидрата. Практическая значимость. Результаты исследований с достаточной для практического применения точностью могут использоваться при разработке газогидратных залежей Черного моря с целью получения природного газа. Выявленные зависимости выхода газа метана от доли породных включений являются инструментарием для определения эффективной области применения технологий разработки залежей газовых гидратов.The presented results were obtained in the framework of the complex implementation of research papers GP-473 “Development of scientific principles of phase transformations of technogenic and natural gas hydrates and creation of the newest technologies of their extraction” (State registration No. 0115U002294) and GP-487 “Scientific substantiation and development of energy saving and low waste technologies of hydrocarbon and mineral raw materials extraction” (State registration No. 0116U008041)