Atomic Data for Permitted Resonance Lines of Atoms and Ions from H to Si, and S, Ar, Ca and Fe

We list vacuum wavelengths, energy levels, statistical weights, transition probabilities and oscillator strengths for permitted resonance spectral lines of all ions of 18 astrophysically important elements (H through Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe). Using a compilation of experimental energy levels, we derived accurate wavelengths for 5599 lines of 1828 ground-term multiplets which have gf-values calculated in the Opacity Project. We recalculated the Opacity Project multiplet gf-values to oscillator strengths and transition probabilities of individual lines. For completeness, we added 372 resonance lines of NeI, ArI, FeI and FeII ions which are not covered by the Opacity Project. Intercombination and forbidden lines are not included in the present compilation.Comment: 6 pages of text, latex, 1 figure, 4 tables; tables in ASCII format available at ftp://asta.pa.uky.edu/dima/lines/ or at http://www.pa.uky.edu/~verner/atom.html Accepted by Atomic Data Nucl. Data Table

The dynamics of poverty and its determinants - the case of the Northeast of Brazil and its states

In the northeast region of Brazil, the poverty picture of the past two decades reveals large fluctuations in the poverty level, and poverty depth. Findings based on the Brazilian annual household survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Amostra Domiciliar, PNAD) datasets from 1981-99 reveal that individual characteristics such as education, experience, and labor market association of the household head are important correlates of poverty. Taking these into account, data reveal that a Nordestino (northeasterner) is 24percentage points more likely to fall below the indigent poverty line than other Brazilians. Analyses also reveal large differences in poverty levels by education, and these differences have increased over time. The authors observe that the probability of being poor is decreasing with increasing educational attainment. The gender of the household head does not matter for poverty, according to the poverty profile. But when the authors control for education and other individual characteristics, female-headed households have a much larger likelihood of being poor than male-headed households. Household size also matters for poverty. Larger households are more likely to experience poverty than smaller households, and the effect is concave. Moreover, households with children under age 5 appear more likely to fall below the poverty line, than families with no children below age 5. The presence of old-aged people (above 65 years) in the household is an important factor contributing to poverty reduction.Poverty Reduction Strategies,Services&Transfers to Poor,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Poverty Assessment,Safety Nets and Transfers,Rural Poverty Reduction,Services&Transfers to Poor,Achieving Shared Growth

Intersectoral dynamics and economic growth in Ecuador

The authors analyze sectoral growth in Ecuador, using multivariate co-integration analysis. They find significant long-run relationships between the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors. Moreover, they are able to derive dynamic sector models that combine the short-run links between the three sectors with long-run dynamics. When disaggregate the three sectors into their intra-sectoral components, they discover many interesting relationships that contribute to a better understandingof inter- and intra-sectoral dynamics in the context of Ecuadorian economic growth. Their findings suggest that more attention should be paid to inter-dependencies in sectoral growth, since an improved understanding of inter-sectoral dynamics may facilitate the implementation of policy aimed at increasing economic growth in Ecuador. There appears to be no direct link between the oil sector, and the non-oil industrial sectors. But strong evidence supports co-integration between the oil industry, and financial services, as well as between the oil industry, and public services. This means, among other things, that the oil industry is likely to affect other sectors through the financial sector, the public sector, or both.Economic Theory&Research,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Poverty Assessment,Achieving Shared Growth,Environmental Economics&Policies

Migration and human capital in Brazil during the 1990s

Nearly 40 percent of all Brazilians have migrated at one point and time, and in-migrants represent substantial portions of regional populations. Migration in Brazil has historically been a mechanism for adjustment to disequilibria. Poorer regions and those with fewer economic opportunities have traditionally sent migrants to more prosperous regions. As such, the southeast region, where economic conditions are most favorable, has historically received migrants from the northeast region. Migration should have benefited both regions. The southeast benefits by importing skilled and unskilled labor that makes local capital more productive. The northeast can benefit from upward pressures on wages and through remittances that migrant households return to their region of origin. The northeast of Brazil is a net sender of migrants to the southeast. In recent years a large number of people moved from the southeast to the northeast. Compared with northeast to southeast (NE-SE) migrants, southeast to northeast (SE-NE) migrants are less homogeneous regarding age, wage, and income. SE-NE migrants are on average poorer and less educated than the southeast average, while NE-SE migrants are financially better off and higher educated than the northeast average. The authors find that the predicted returns to migration are increasing with education for SE-NE migrants and decreasing for NE-SE migrants. They further observe that the returns to migration have been decreasing for NE-SE migrants and increasing for SE-NE migrants between 1995 and 1999. This finding helps explain migration dynamics in Brazil. While the predicted positive returns to migration for NE-SE migrants indicate that NE-SE migration follows in general the human capital approach to migration, the estimated lower returns to migration for SE-NE may indicate that nonmonetary factors also play a role in SE-NE migration.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Anthropology,Human Migrations&Resettlements,Public Health Promotion,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Anthropology,Voluntary and Involuntary Resettlement,Human Migrations&Resettlements,International Migration

Oil, agriculture, and the public sector: linking intersector dynamics in Ecuador

In a recent paper, Fiess and Verner (2000) analyse sectoral growth in Ecuador and find significant long-run and short-run relationships between the agricultural, industrial and service sectors. They take this as evidence against the dual economy model which rules out a long-run relationship between agricultural and industrial output and show further that a more detailed picture of the growth process can be discovered, once the agricultural, industrial and service sectors are disaggregated further into intrasector components. This paper extends their initial results and provides insight from a multivariate cointegration analysis of intrasector components. The authors are able to identify three cointegrating relationships, each of which has its own meaningful economic interpretation: Two cointegration relationships capture the direct and indirect effects of the"petrolization"of the Ecuadorian economy. A third relationship clearly indicates a link between agriculture and industrial activity. Since this third cointegrating relationship seems to coincide in time with the trade liberalisation at the end of the 1980s, promoting agriculture appears to be an important way to promote sustainable economic growth in Ecuador.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Statistical&Mathematical Sciences,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Achieving Shared Growth

High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy of the Interstellar Medium: Structure at the Oxygen Absorption Edge

(Abbrev.) We present high-resolution spectroscopy of the oxygen K-shell interstellar absorption edge in 7 X-ray binaries using the HETGS onboard Chandra. Using the brightest sources as templates, we found a best-fit model of 2 absorption edges and 5 Gaussian absorption lines. All of these features can be explained by the recent predictions of K-shell absorption from neutral and ionized atomic oxygen. We identify the K alpha and K beta absorption lines from neutral oxygen, as well as the S=3/2 absorption edge. The expected S=1/2 edge is not detected in these data due to overlap with instrumental features. We also identify the K alpha absorption lines from singly and doubly ionized oxygen. The OI K alpha absorption line is used as a benchmark with which to adjust the absolute wavelength scale for theoretical predictions of the absorption cross-sections. We find that shifts of 30-50 mA are required, consistent with differences previously noticed from comparisons of the theory with laboratory measurements. Significant oxygen features from dust or molecular components, as suggested in previous studies, are not required by our HETGS spectra. With these spectra, we can begin to measure the large-scale properties of the ISM. We place a limit on the velocity dispersion of the neutral lines of <200 km s^{-1}, consistent with measurements at other wavelengths. We also make the first measurement of the oxygen ionization fractions in the ISM. We constrain the interstellar ratio of OII/OI to ~0.1 and the ratio of OIII/OI to <0.1.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (Vol. 612, September 1 issue