Economic growth and equality of opportunity

In this paper we argue that a better understanding of the relationship between inequality and growth can be obtained by shifting the analisys from the space of final achievements to the space of opportunities. To this end, we introduce the Opportunity Growth Incidence Curve, that can be used to evaluate the income dynamics of specific groups of the population and to infer the role of growth in the evolution of inequality of opportunity over time. By employng a rank dependent social welfare function we provide a rigorous normative justification for the use of the OGIC: we obtain suitable dominance conditions and we show how they can be interpreted in terms of OGIC dominance. We also propose an index that can be used to measure the impact of growth in terms of ooopotunity redistribution. Finally, we provide two empirical illustrations, for Italy and for Brasil, which show the potentials of the tools we have introduced.INCOME INEQUALITY, INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, ECONOMIC GROWTH

The ethics of pharmaceutical industry relationships with medical students

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Little research has been done on the extent of the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and medical students, and the effect on students of receiving gifts. Potential harms to patients are documented elsewhere; we focus on potential harms to students. Students who receive gifts may believe that they are receiving something for nothing, contributing to a sense of entitlement that is not in the best interests of their moral development as doctors. Alternatively, students may be subject to recognised or unrecognised reciprocal obligations that potentially influence their decision making. Medical educators have a duty of care to protect students from influence by pharmaceutical companies.Wendy A Rogers, Peter R Mansfield, Annette J Braunack-Mayer and Jon N Jureidin

Isotope effect on the E2g phonon and mesoscopic phase separation near the electronic topological transition in Mg1-xAlxB2

We report the boron isotope effect on the E2g phonon mode by micro-Raman spectroscopy on the ternary Mg1-xAlxB2 system, synthesized with pure isotopes 10B and 11B. The isotope coefficient on the phonon frequency is near 0.5 in the full range decreasing near x = 0. The intraband electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling, for the electrons in the sigma band, has been extracted from the E2g line-width and frequency softening. Tuning the Fermi energy near the electronic topological transition (ETT), where the sigma Fermi surface changes from 2D to 3D topology the E2g mode, shows the known Kohn anomaly on the 2D side of the ETT and a splitting of the E2g phonon frequency into a hard and soft component from x = 0 to x = 0.28. The results suggest a minor role of the intraband phonon mediated pairing in the control of the high critical temperature in Mg1-xAlxB2. The common physical features of diborides with the novel multigap FeAs-based superconductors and cuprates is discussed.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

A Phase Transition for Circle Maps and Cherry Flows

We study $C^{2}$ weakly order preserving circle maps with a flat interval. The main result of the paper is about a sharp transition from degenerate geometry to bounded geometry depending on the degree of the singularities at the boundary of the flat interval. We prove that the non-wandering set has zero Hausdorff dimension in the case of degenerate geometry and it has Hausdorff dimension strictly greater than zero in the case of bounded geometry. Our results about circle maps allow to establish a sharp phase transition in the dynamics of Cherry flows

Effect of decorrelation on 3-D grating detection with static and dynamic random-dot stereograms

Three experiments examined the effects of image decorrelation on the stereoscopic detection of sinusoidal depth gratings in static anddynamic random-dot stereograms (RDS). Detection was found to tolerate greater levels of image decorrelation as: (i) density increasedfrom 23 to 676 dots/deg2; (ii) spatial frequency decreased from 0.88 to 0.22 cpd; (iii) amplitude increased above 0.5 arcmin; and (iv) dotlifetime decreased from 1.6 s (static RDS) to 80 ms (dynamic RDS). In each case, the specific pattern of tolerance to decorrelation couldbe explained by its consequences for image sampling, filtering, and the influence of depth noise

Effect of decorrelation on 3-D grating detection with static and dynamic random-dot stereograms

Three experiments examined the effects of image decorrelation on the stereoscopic detection of sinusoidal depth gratings in static anddynamic random-dot stereograms (RDS). Detection was found to tolerate greater levels of image decorrelation as: (i) density increasedfrom 23 to 676 dots/deg2; (ii) spatial frequency decreased from 0.88 to 0.22 cpd; (iii) amplitude increased above 0.5 arcmin; and (iv) dotlifetime decreased from 1.6 s (static RDS) to 80 ms (dynamic RDS). In each case, the specific pattern of tolerance to decorrelation couldbe explained by its consequences for image sampling, filtering, and the influence of depth noise

Photocatalytic degradation of dyes by using a membrane reactor

Dyes are organic compounds used in textile, food and drug industries, and their abatement represents one of the main problems in the treatment processes because generally they are very stable toxic compounds. In this work, two commercial azo-dyes, i.e. Congo Red (C32H22N6Na2O6S2) and Patent Blue (C27H31N2NaO6S2), in aqueous solution were degraded in a photocatalytic membrane reactor by using TiO2 Degussa P25 as the catalyst. Different system con\ufb01gurations and irradiating sources were studied, and the in\ufb02uence of some operational parameters such as the pressure in the membrane cell and the initial concentration of the substrates was determined. A comparison between suspended and entrapped TiO2 was also done. The experimental results showed a satisfactory degradation ef\ufb01ciency of the photocatalytic membrane process. The in\ufb02uence of various parameters (e.g. feed concentration, recirculation rate) has been discussed to obtain high reaction rates, operating stability and high membrane rejection, both for substrates and by-products. Congo Red was photodegraded with higher rate under the same experimental conditions probably due to its higher adsorption onto the catalyst surface. It was possible to treat successfully highly concentrated solutions (500 mg/L) of both dyes by means of a continuous process obtaining good values of permeate \ufb02uxes (30\u201370 L/m2 h); this could be interesting for industrial applications. The reactor containing the suspended photocatalyst was signi\ufb01cantly more ef\ufb01cient than the reactor containing the catalyst entrapped into the membrane

Computation of Effectiveness Factors for Partially Wetted Catalyst Pellets using the Method of Fundamental Solution

Trickle Bed Reactors Are Widely Used in Many Process Industries. the Catalyst Particles Are Often Incompletely Wetted Especially in the Trickling Flow Regime and Hence to Design These Reactors, the Effectiveness Factor of Partially Wetted Catalyst Needs to Be Calculated Accurately. Numerical Solutions by Traditional Methods Are Time Consuming and Not Very Accurate, Especially for Some Commonly Used Complex Catalyst Shapes Such as Trilobes, Quadrilobes Etc. the Paper Presents a Novel Numerical Solution for These Problems based on the Method of Fundamental Solutions. the Advantage of the Method is that It Involves Only Boundary Collocation and Can Be Applied to Catalysts of Any Shape. Further the Method Provides an Accurate Estimate of the Gradient of the Concentration Profiles and This Information Can Be Related Directly to the Effectiveness Factor. This Accuracy of the Method is Demonstrated for Two Dimensional (2-D) and Axisymmetric Problems for a Linear Kinetics. Illustrative Results Are Presented for Some Complex Shapes under Partial Wetting Conditions. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All Rights Reserved

From stem cells to bone-forming cells

Bone formation starts near the end of the embryonic stage of development and continues throughout life during bone modeling and growth, remodeling, and when needed, regeneration. Bone-forming cells, traditionally termed osteoblasts, produce, assemble, and control the mineralization of the type I collagen-enriched bone matrix while participating in the regulation of other cell processes, such as osteoclastogenesis, and metabolic activities, such as phosphate homeostasis. Osteoblasts are generated by different cohorts of skeletal stem cells that arise from different embryonic specifications, which operate in the pre-natal and/or adult skeleton under the control of multiple regulators. In this review, we briefly define the cellular identity and function of osteoblasts and discuss the main populations of osteoprogenitor cells identified to date. We also provide examples of long-known and recently recognized regulatory pathways and mechanisms involved in the specification of the osteogenic lineage, as assessed by studies on mice models and human genetic skeletal diseases