A critical perspective on heterodox production modeling

Production and distribution needs a proper place in heterodox economics. It has recently been suggested that the construction of production models needs to be empirically grounded. Also it has been stated that empirically grounded production models must be circular production models. This argument then marginalizes the contributions of important economists in heterodox thought. The paper will argue that heterodox production models need not be perfectly circular to make important contributions for heterodox production theory. Furthermore, it will be argued that models which consist of elements of hierarchial structures of production put emphasis on out of equilibrium traverse processes and historical time.Heterodox Economic Theory; Heterodox Price and Production Modeling

The Regional Benefits of the Employer of Last Resort Program

The Employer of Last Resort (ELR) program is a New Deal type of program to provide a government position for anyone seeking work. Unlike private industries who compete over prices and wages, the ELR “industry” is not meant to compete with the private sector; rather it provides public services that are not offered by the private sector. The task here is to estimate the private sector effects of the implementation of the ELR program for the State of Missouri.Employer of Last Resort; Input-output Modeling; Heterodox Microfoundations of Macroeconomics

The Making of a Good Society: Economic Freedom, Instrumentalism, and Government Control

The article discusses the incompatibility of promoting individual interests of capitalists and workers with the promotion of macroeconomic goals of society. The article implements the ``instrumental method'' developed by Adolph Lowe, and articulates the separation of microeconomic goals with macroeconomic objectives. Using full employment as a case study, the article articulates the proper role for government in achieving and maintaining full employment in a capitalist society. Further it is seen that such an approach also promotes the self interests of capitalists. The approach taken in this article offers an alternative to the failed policies of neoliberalism.Instrumentalism, instrumental inference, neoliberalism, F.A. Hayek, Adolph Lowe, full employment, unemployment, employer of last resort

Pattern Formation by Boundary Forcing in Convectively Unstable, Oscillatory Media With and Without Differential Transport

Motivated by recent experiments and models of biological segmentation, we analyze the exicitation of pattern-forming instabilities of convectively unstable reaction-diffusion-advection (RDA) systems, occuring by means of constant or periodic forcing at the upstream boundary. Such boundary-controlled pattern selection is a generalization of the flow-distributed oscillation (FDO) mechanism that can include Turing or differential flow instability (DIFI) modes. Our goal is to clarify the relationships among these mechanisms in the general case where there is differential flow as well as differential diffusion. We do so by analyzing the dispersion relation for linear perturbations and showing how its solutions are affected by differential transport. We find a close relationship between DIFI and FDO, while the Turing mechanism gives rise to a distinct set of unstable modes. Finally, we illustrate the relevance of the dispersion relations using nonlinear simulations and we discuss the experimental implications of our results.Comment: Revised version with added content (new section and figures added), changes to wording and organizatio

Hot Jupiters in binary star systems

Radial velocity surveys find Jupiter mass planets with semi-major axes a less than 0.1 AU around ~1% of solar-type stars; counting planets with $a$ as large as 5 AU, the fraction of stars having planets reaches ~ 10% {Marcy,Butler}. An examination of the distribution of semi-major axes shows that there is a clear excess of planets with orbital periods around 3 or 4 days, corresponding to a~0.03$ AU, with a sharp cutoff at shorter periods (see Figure 1). It is believed that Jupiter mass planets form at large distances from their parent stars; some fraction then migrate in to produce the short period objects. We argue that a significant fraction of the `hot Jupiters' (a<0.1 AU) may arise in binary star systems in which the orbit of the binary is highly inclined to the orbit of the planet. Mutual torques between the two orbits drive down the minimum separation or periapse r_p between the planet and its host star (the Kozai mechanism). This periapse collapse is halted when tidal friction on the planet circularizes the orbit faster than Kozai torque can excite it. The same friction then circularizes the planet orbit, producing hot Jupiters with the peak of the semimajor axis distribution lying around 3 days. For the observed distributions of binary separation, eccentricity and mass ratio, roughly 2.5% of planets with initial semimajor axis a_p ~ 5au will migrate to within 0.1au of their parent star. Kozai migration could account for 10% or more of the observed hot Jupiters.Comment: accepted to ApJ main journal, added one figure and expanded discussion

Regulatory activity revealed by dynamic correlations in gene expression noise

Gene regulatory interactions are context dependent, active in some cellular states but not in others. Stochastic fluctuations, or 'noise', in gene expression propagate through active, but not inactive, regulatory links^(1,2). Thus, correlations in gene expression noise could provide a noninvasive means to probe the activity states of regulatory links. However, global, 'extrinsic', noise sources generate correlations even without direct regulatory links. Here we show that single-cell time-lapse microscopy, by revealing time lags due to regulation, can discriminate between active regulatory connections and extrinsic noise. We demonstrate this principle mathematically, using stochastic modeling, and experimentally, using simple synthetic gene circuits. We then use this approach to analyze dynamic noise correlations in the galactose metabolism genes of Escherichia coli. We find that the CRP-GalS-GalE feed-forward loop is inactive in standard conditions but can become active in a GalR mutant. These results show how noise can help analyze the context dependence of regulatory interactions in endogenous gene circuits

Relationship of serum prolactin with severity of drug use and treatment outcome in cocaine dependence.

RATIONALE: Alteration in serum prolactin (PRL) levels may reflect changes in central dopamine activity, which modulates the behavioral effects of cocaine. Therefore, serum PRL may have a potential role as a biological marker of drug severity and treatment outcome in cocaine dependence. OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether serum PRL levels differed between cocaine-dependent (CD) subjects and controls, and whether PRL levels were associated with severity of drug use and treatment outcome in CD subjects. METHODS: Basal PRL concentrations were assayed in 141 African-American (AA) CD patients attending an outpatient treatment program and 60 AA controls. Severity of drug use was assessed using the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). Measures of abstinence and retention during 12 weeks of treatment and at 6-month follow-up were employed as outcome variables. RESULTS: The basal PRL (ng/ml) in CD patients (9.28+/-4.13) was significantly higher than controls (7.33+/-2.94) (t=3.77, P\u3c0.01). At baseline, PRL was positively correlated with ASI-drug (r=0.38, P\u3c0.01), ASI-alcohol (r=0.19, P\u3c0.05), and ASI-psychological (r=0.25, P\u3c0.01) composite scores, and with the quantity of cocaine use (r=0.18, P\u3c0.05). However, PRL levels were not significantly associated with number of negative urine screens, days in treatment, number of sessions attended, dropout rate or changes in ASI scores during treatment and at follow-up. Also, basal PRL did not significantly contribute toward the variance in predicting any of the outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Although cocaine use seems to influence PRL levels, it does not appear that PRL is a predictor of treatment outcome in cocaine dependence

The Regional Benefits of the Employer of Last Resort Program

The Employer of Last Resort (ELR) program is a New Deal type of program to provide a government position for anyone seeking work. Unlike private industries who compete over prices and wages, the ELR “industry” is not meant to compete with the private sector; rather it provides public services that are not offered by the private sector. The task here is to estimate the private sector effects of the implementation of the ELR program for the State of Missouri