Sraffian research programmes and unorthodox economics

This paper provides an overview of the main currents in the development of the intellectual project inaugurated by Piero Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Five research programmes are detailed (together with some further extensions): the nature and significance of long-period equilibria; the Cambridge Growth Equation and the monetary determination of interest, as alternative theories of distribution; the Sraffa-Keynes synthesis; and the critique of marginalism. The paper also sketches the relations between the Sraffian project and other unorthodox strands in economics. Future prospects for orthodoxy and non-orthodoxy are canvassed. A substantial literature survey is included. Some day economics may become a science. (attributed to J.M. Keynes, 1932: Rymes, 1989, p. 83)

Search for resonances decaying to e+ jet in e+ p interactions at HERA

The e^+ jet invariant mass spectrum produced in the reaction e^+ p -> e^+ X has been studied at a center-of-mass energy of 300 GeV. The data were collected using the ZEUS detector operating at the HERA collider, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 47.7 pb^{-1}. The observed mass spectrum is in good agreement with Standard Model expectations up to an e^+ jet mass of 210 GeV. Above this mass, some excess is seen. The angular distribution of these events is typical of high-Q^2 neutral current events and does not give convincing evidence for the presence of a narrow scalar or vector state. Limits are presented on the product of cross section and branching ratio for such a state and are interpreted as limits on leptoquark or R-parity-violating squark production. Specific leptoquark types are ruled out at 95% confidence level for coupling strength lambda=0.3 for masses between 150 and 280 GeV

Regular Wine Consumption in Chronic Heart Failure: Impact on Outcomes, Quality of Life, and Circulating Biomarkers

Background-Moderate, regular alcohol consumption is generally associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events but data in patients with chronic heart failure are scarce. We evaluated the relations between wine consumption, health status, circulating biomarkers, and clinical outcomes in a large Italian population of patients with chronic heart failure enrolled in a multicenter clinical trial. Methods and Results-A brief questionnaire on dietary habits was administered at baseline to 6973 patients enrolled in the Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell'Insufficienza Cardiaca-Heart Failure (GISSI-HF) trial. The relations between wine consumption, fatal and nonfatal clinical end points, quality of life, symptoms of depression, and circulating biomarkers of cardiac function and inflammation (in subsets of patients) were evaluated with simple and multivariable-adjusted statistical models. Almost 56% of the patients reported drinking at least 1 glass of wine per day. After adjustment, clinical outcomes were not significantly different in the predefined 4 groups of wine consumption. However, patients with more frequent wine consumption had a significantly better perception of health status (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire score, adjusted P<0.0001), less frequent symptoms of depression (Geriatric Depression Scale, adjusted P=0.01), and lower plasma levels of biomarkers of vascular inflammation (osteoprotegerin and C-terminal proendothelin-1, adjusted P<0.0001, and pentraxin-3, P=0.01) after adjusting for possible confounders. Conclusions-We show for the first time in a large cohort of patients with chronic heart failure that moderate wine consumption is associated with a better perceived and objective health status, lower prevalence of depression, and less vascular inflammation, but does not translate into more favorable clinical 4-year outcomes. Clinical Trial Registration-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT0033633