Centripetal Forces in China's Economic Takeoff

This paper uses provincial time series data from the People's Republic of China to empirically investigate two propositions relating to economic development: (i) that economic takeoff--or an acceleration in economic growth--is associated with inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), possibly through technological transfer; and (ii) that takeoff is accompanied, at least in the short term, by widening income inequality. The results indicate that FDI flows have increased the rate of convergence in per capita incomes across China's provinces. However, the pattern of FDI, which has gone mainly to the relatively wealthy provinces, has caused different provinces to converge toward different steady states. . Copyright 2002, International Monetary Fund

Fractional Hereditariness of Lipid Membranes: Instabilities and Linearized Evolution

In this work lipid ordering phase changes arising in planar membrane bilayers is investigated both accounting for elas- ticity alone and for effective viscoelastic response of such assemblies. The mechanical response of such membranes is studied by minimizing the Gibbs free energy which penalizes perturbations of the changes of areal stretch and their gradients only [1]. As material instabilities arise whenever areal stretches characterizing homogeneous configurations lie inside the spinoidal zone of the free energy density, bifurcations from such configurations are shown to occur as oscillatory perturbations of the in-plane displacement. Experimental observations [2] show a power-law in-plane viscous behavior of lipid structures allowing for an effective viscoelastic behavior of lipid membranes [3], which falls in the framework of Fractional Hereditariness. A suitable generalization of the variational principle invoked for the elasticity is applied in this case, and the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is found together with a set of bound- ary and initial conditions. Separation of variables allows for showing how Fractional Hereditariness owes bifurcated modes with a larger number of spatial oscillations than the corresponding elastic analog. Indeed, the available range of areal stresses for material instabilities is found to increase with respect to the purely elastic case. Nevertheless, the time evolution of the perturbations solving the Euler-Lagrange equation above exhibits time-decay and the large number of spatial oscillation slowly relaxes, thereby keeping the features of a long-tail type time-response.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, special issu

Absence of long-range superconducting correlations in the frustrated 1/2-filled band Hubbard model

We present many-body calculations of superconducting pair-pair correlations in the ground state of the half-filled band Hubbard model on large anisotropic triangular lattices. Our calculations cover nearly the complete range of anisotropies between the square and isotropic triangular lattice limits. We find that the superconducting pair-pair correlations decrease monotonically with increasing onsite Hubbard interaction U for inter-pair distances greater than nearest neighbor. For the large lattices of interest here the distance dependence of the correlations approaches that for noninteracting electrons. Both these results are consistent with the absence of superconductivity in this model in the thermodynamic limit. We conclude that the effective 1/2-filled band Hubbard model, suggested by many authors to be appropriate for the kappa-(BEDT-TTF)-based organic charge-transfer solids, does not explain the superconducting transition in these materials.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. Revised version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Kimberlite from Rajmahal magmatic province: Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic evidence for Kerguelen plume derived magmas

Previous studies showed that the Rajmahal-Sylhet-Bengal (RSB) flood basalt province (117 ± 2 Ma) in eastern India was spatially close to the active Kerguelen hotspot about 118 Ma ago. Yet, it could not be unequivocally correlated to this hotspot due to wide variation in isotopic compositions of both the RSB and Kerguelen plateau basalts. However, we report Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions (87Sr/86Sri: 0.70535 to 0.70561; εNd(T): -2.6 to -3.2; 206Pb/204Pbi: 17.88 to 18.07) of a co-eval (116 ± 2 Ma) Group II kimberlite from this flood basalt province that is identical to recently identified pristine Kerguelen plume basalts from the Kerguelen Plateau/Archipelago and Broken Ridge. This suggests that the Kerguelen hotspot could indeed be responsible for the ˜117 Ma magmatic activity in Eastern India

A Dimensionally-Reduced Nonlinear Elasticity Model for Liquid Crystal Elastomer Strips with Transverse Curvature

Liquid Crystalline Elastomers (LCEs) are active materials that are of interest due to their programmable response to various external stimuli such as light and heat. When exposed to these stimuli, the anisotropy in the response of the material is governed by the nematic director, which is a continuum parameter that is defined as the average local orientation of the mesogens in the liquid crystal phase. This nematic director can be programmed to be heterogeneous in space, creating a vast design space that is useful for applications ranging from artificial ligaments to deployable structures to self-assembling mechanisms. Even when specialized to long and thin strips of LCEs -- the focus of this work -- the vast design space has required the use of numerical simulations to aid in experimental discovery. To mitigate the computational expense of full 3-d numerical simulations, several dimensionally-reduced rod and ribbon models have been developed for LCE strips, but these have not accounted for the possibility of initial transverse curvature, like carpenter's tape spring. Motivated by recent experiments showing that transversely-curved LCE strips display a rich variety of configurations, this work derives a dimensionally-reduced 1-d model for pre-curved LCE strips. The 1-d model is validated against full 3-d finite element calculations, and it is also shown to capture experimental observations, including tape-spring-like localizations, in activated LCE strips

Anatomical knowledge retention in physiotherapy students: A preliminary assessment

Introduction: Anatomical knowledge and understanding are key components of physiotherapy education and practice. Traditionally, anatomy has been taught as a foundation stream within the first year(s) of physiotherapy education. This curricular model is based on the assumption that further learning in subsequent years builds upon the knowledge gained in the early stages of the program. However, the retention rate in all basic sciences has often been called into question. In anatomy, several studies suggest that anatomy knowledge endures considerable attrition, highlighting the need for the evaluation of retention rates. This paper aimed at making a preliminary assessment of the knowledge and retention of anatomy among physiotherapy students. Materials and Methods: We used a carpal bone identification test and assessed 129 first year and 113 fourth year physiotherapy students. Results: 20% of the students managed to identify all bones while 47% were able to identify more than five bones. The best recognised bones were pisiform and scaphoid while the most difficult to identify were trapezium and trapezoid. Conclusion: Overall, first year students performed better than their fourth year counterparts which suggested attrition of anatomical knowledge. Educational strategies based on revision, integration and clinical application of anatomy could contribute towards the decrease of attrition of anatomical knowledge