Inequalities, public education expenditures and intergenerational mobility

This paper shows that, depending on the initial distribution of material wealth and that of individuals' abilities, economies converge in the long-run towards different levels of the size of the skilled workforce, and average wealth. Furthermore, unless the income tax rate is too high, the increase in total public funds is associated, in the long-run, with a higher net mobility, a larger fraction of skilled workers, and higher levels of wealth of all the dynasties. In addition, the reallocation of public expenditures from basic to advanced education can result in a lower mobility, a lower long-run size of skilled workforce, and a lower long-run level of wealth held by rich dynasties, if the transfer of resources comes at the expense of excessively lowering the quality of education at the basic schooling level.

Credit constraints in education: Evidence from international data

This paper tests empirically the credit-constraints thesis by using cross-country data on secondary and higher-education enrolment rates. Contrary to some previous works in this direction, we find several pieces of evidence that support the importance of such a thesis. First, controlling for the effects of both economic development and educational inequality, we find that school enrolments are negatively correlated with income inequality and positively correlated with financial-market development. Second, these correlations are robust to the specific country-effects, the composition of the sample of countries, and the inclusion of public education expenditures. Finally, public education expenditures are significantly correlated with school enrolment ratios. Distinguishing developed countries from developing ones reveals that the effects of both social and material factors are larger in rich countries than in poor ones. Our estimation results also show that the way public expenditures are allocated across educational levels affects enrolment ratios in higher educational stages. Specifically, countries where expenditure allocations are biased in favour of the advanced stages of education at the expense of the basic levels also experience low enrolment ratios in the higher levels of education.borrowing constraints, educational inequality, education expenditures, empirical estimations

STR: a student developed star tracker for the ESA-LED ESMO moon mission

In the frame of their engineering degree, ISAE’s students are developing a Star Tracker, with the aim of being the core attitude estimation equipment of the European Moon Student Orbiter. This development goes on since several years and is currently in phase B. We intend to start building an integrated breadboard for the end of the academic year. The STR is composed of several sub-systems: the optical and detection sub-system, the electronics, the mechanics and the software. The optical detection part is based on an in-house developed new generation of APS detectors. The optical train is made of several lenses enclosed in a titanium tube. The electronics includes a FPGA for the pre-processing of the image and a microcontroller in order to manage the high level functions of the instrument. The mechanical part includes the electronics box, as well as the sensor baffle. The design is optimized to minimize the thermo-elastic noise of the assembly. Embedded on ESMO platform, this Star Tracker will be able to compute the satellite‘s attitude, taking into account the specific requirements linked to a Moon mission (illumination, radiation requirements and baffle adaptation to lunar orbit). In order to validate the design, software end-to-end simulation will include a complete simulation of the STR in its lunar dynamic environment. Therefore, we are developing a simple orbital model for the mission (including potential dazzling by celestial bodies)

Education and economic growth: the role of public expenditures allocation

We show in this paper that GDP per-capita growth is more likely affected by the accumulation of education at the higher schooling levels in both OECD and DCs. However, in terms of the public funds allocation, this result does not prevent public education expenditures to be reallocated from higher toward basic schooling levels in DCs. Indeed, such a reallocation would improve the quality of education at the basic stages of education, which should be, in turn, accompanied by a faster accumulation of human capital at the higher schooling stages and faster economic growth.expenditures allocation, economic growth

Micro-meteoroid seismic uplift and regolith concentration on kilometric scale asteroids

Seismic shaking is an attractive mechanism to explain the destabilisation of regolith slopes and the regolith migration found on the surfaces of asteroids (Richardson et al. 2004; Miyamoto et al. 2007). Here, we use a continuum mechanics method to simulate the seismic wave propagation in an asteroid. Assuming that asteroids can be described by a cohesive core surrounded by a thin non-cohesive regolith layer, our numerical simulations of vibrations induced by micro-meteoroids suggest that the surface peak ground accelerations induced by micro-meteoroid impacts may have been previously under-estimated. Our lower bound estimate of vertical accelerations induced by seismic waves is about 50 times larger than previous estimates. It suggests that impact events triggering seismic activity are more frequent than previously assumed for asteroids in the kilometric and sub-kilometric size range. The regolith lofting is also estimated by a first order ballistic approximation. Vertical displacements are small, but lofting times are long compared to the duration of the seismic signals. The regolith movement has a non-linear dependence on the distance to the impact source which is induced by the type of seismic wave generating the first movement. The implications of regolith concentration in lows of surface acceleration potential are also discussed. We suggest that the resulting surface thermal inertia variations of small fast rotators may induce an increased sensitivity of these objects to the Yarkovsky effect.Comment: Accepted for publication in Icaru

Human capital investment and growth: A dynamic education model

The paper aims to explicitly determine the distribution of human capital across hierarchic educational stages along the transition process, and to analyse the determinants of its evolution. We apply optimal control principles in a model of endogenous growth with two successive stages of education. We show that with initial relative scarcity of advanced human capital, the duration of studies at the advanced level should increase until reaching its equilibrium level. We also find that, by raising the duration of studies at the advanced schooling level, improvements in the quality of education at this level also enhances the economy’s growth rate, both in the transition and in the long-run.Human capital investment; growth; a dynamic model

Second Language Acquisition in the Era of Technology and Artificial Intelligence: Exploring New Frontiers

This portfolio is the capstone project of the Master of Second Language Teaching program. It offers perspectives and insights into major themes of importance to the writer. It begins with a general introduction pertaining to the writer’s education and teaching background, his goals for joining the program and an overall reflection of this experience. Following this is the writer’s teaching philosophy comprised of a description of professional environment and a teaching philosophy statement centered on the principles of multimodality, authenticity, and collaboration. The second section of this portfolio is entitled hands-on teaching experience where the writer presents and reflects on a project he carried out with his students on the issue of intercultural competence via virtual exchange. The third section is dedicated to the writer’s position paper about artificial intelligence in second language acquisition, focusing specifically on Chat-GPT in the context of Arabic as a foreign language. The portfolio concludes with a statement of future goals and plans

Catalytic Opportunities in the Flavor and Fragrance Industry

Because catalytic processes produce in general less residues than conventional stoichiometric ones, they are advantageous for the environment. This short review will focus on new opportunities for catalysis in the field of terpene transformation, citral and ionones synthesis, and macrocyclic vs. aromatic musks