On procedures for measuring deprivation and living standards of societies in a multi-attribute framework

When a society's overall deprivation or living standard is assessed in a multi-attribute framework, the following procedure is often used. First, for each attribute, a summary index is constructed to reflect a society's performance in relation to this attribute. Then, an indicator of the overall performance of the society in terms of all the attributes together is constructed. This paper discusses a difficulty associated with this procedure. We show that the difficulty lies in its inability to reconcile two highly attractive ethical principles - the first reflecting a requirement of treating individuals symmetrically and the second reflecting a requirement for equity-sensitivity. This problem implies that this widely-used procedure must lead to possibly untenable conclusions, and that it is necessary to adopt alternative procedures. The alternative procedure must permit describing a society's overall deprivation or living standard as an aggregate of the comprehensive deprivations or living standards experienced by the individuals in the society. Working Paper 08-0

Axiomatic Bargaining Theory on Opportunity Assignments

This paper discusses issues of axiomatic bargaining problems over opportunity assignments. The fair arbitrator uses the principle of "equal opportunity" for all players to make the recommendation on re- source allocations. A framework in such a context is developed and several classical solutions to standard bargaining problems are reformulated and axiomatically characterized. Working Paper 06-4

Characterising competitive equilibrium in terms of opportunity

This paper analyses alternative profiles of opportunity sets for individuals in an exchange economy, without assuming that individuals’ choices reveal coherent preferences. It introduces the concept of a ‘market-clearing single-price regime’, representing a profile of opportunity sets consistent with competitive equilibrium. It also proposes an opportunity-based normative criterion, the Strong Opportunity Criterion, which is analogous with the core in preference-based analysis. It shows that every market-clearing single-price regime satisfies the Strong Opportunity Criterion and that, in the limit as an economy is replicated, only such regimes have this property

Effects of a lactobacillus reuteri BR11 mutant deficient in the cystine-transport system in a rat model of inflammatory bowel disease

The final publication is available at link.springer.comBACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract associated with altered composition of the gut microbiota. Lactobacillus reuteri BR11 (BR11) has recently been reported to reduce the severity of experimental IBD because of its probiotic properties possibly attributed to a mechanism of thiol production via its unique cysteine/cystine-transport system. AIM We compared BR11 and a BR11 mutant deficient in the cystine-uptake system (PNG201), for their capacity to reduce the severity of experimental colitis. METHODS Male Sprague–Dawley rats (n = 8 per group) were gavaged (1 ml/day) with skim milk, BR11 or PNG201 (1 × 109 CFU/ml) for 12 days. Rats consumed either water or 2% dextran sulfate sodium in drinking water from days 6 to 12 to induce colitis. Metabolism data, disease activity index, intestinal mucin profile, and histological analyses were assessed and compared by ANOVA. RESULTS Assessed histologically, DSS administration resulted in significant colonic deterioration, including loss of crypt area and increased damage severity. BR11 administration only partially alleviated the DSS effects, with a minor improvement in crypt area (P 0.05) against the DSS control for any of the end-points. However, the mutant strain induced significantly greater (P < 0.05) histological severity compared with BR11-treated colitic animals, indicative of possible exacerbation of colitis. CONCLUSIONS The cystine-uptake system only minimally affects the biological effects of BR11, as evidenced by histological and macroscopic colitic changes.Haydn L. Atkins, Mark S. Geier, Luca D. Prisciandaro, Ashok K. Pattanaik, Rebecca E. A. Forder, Mark S. Turner, Gordon S. Howart

Small-scale cosmic ray anisotropy observed by the GRAPES-3 experiment at TeV energies

GRAPES-3 is a mid-altitude (2200 m) and near equatorial ($11.4^{\circ}$ North) air shower array, overlapping in its field of view for cosmic ray observations with experiments that are located in Northern and Southern hemispheres. We analyze a sample of $3.7\times10^9$ cosmic ray events collected by the GRAPES-3 experiment between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2016 with a median energy of $\sim16$ TeV for study of small-scale ($<60^{\circ}$) angular scale anisotropies. We observed two structures labeled as A and B, deviate from the expected isotropic distribution of cosmic rays in a statistically significant manner. Structure `A' spans $50^{\circ}$ to $80^{\circ}$ in the right ascension and $-15^{\circ}$ to $30^{\circ}$ in the declination coordinate. The relative excess observed in the structure A is at the level of $(6.5\pm1.3)\times10^{-4}$ with a statistical significance of 6.8 standard deviations. Structure `B' is observed in the right ascension range of $110^{\circ}$ to $140^{\circ}$. The relative excess observed in this region is at the level of $(4.9\pm1.4)\times10^{-4}$ with a statistical significance of 4.7 standard deviations. These structures are consistent with those reported by Milagro, ARGO-YBJ, and HAWC. These observations could provide a better understanding of the cosmic ray sources, propagation and the magnetic structures in our Galaxy

Green electrochemical template synthesis of CoPt nanoparticles with tunable size, composition, and magnetism from microemulsions using an ionic liquid (bmimPF6)

Altres ajuts: Substrates have been prepared in IMB-CNM (CSIC),supported by the (CSIC) NGG-258 project.Electrodeposition from microemulsions using ionic liquids is revealed as a green method for synthesizing magnetic alloyed nanoparticles, avoiding the use of aggressive reducing agents. Microemulsions containing droplets of aqueous solution (electrolytic solution containing Pt(IV) and Co(II) ions) in an ionic liquid (bmimPF) define nanoreactors in which the electrochemical reduction takes place. Highly crystalline hcp alloyed CoPt nanoparticles, in the 10-120 nm range with a rather narrow size distribution, have been deposited on a conductive substrate. The relative amount of aqueous solution to ionic liquid determines the size of the nanoreactors, which serve as nanotemplates for the growth of the nanoparticles and hence determine their size and distribution. Further, the stoichiometry (PtCo) of the particles can be tuned by the composition of the electrolytic solution inside the droplets. The control of the size and composition of the particles allows tailoring the room-temperature magnetic behavior of the nanoparticles from superparaparamagnetic to hard magnetic (with a coercivity of H = 4100 Oe) in the as-obtained state. © 2014 American Chemical Society