Measuring polarization by reduced-form indices

An abbreviated or reduced-form monotonic polarization index is an increasing function of the between-group term and a decreasing function of the within-group term of a population subgroup decomposable inequality index. The between-group term represents the „identification? component of polarization and the within-group term can be regarded as an inverse indicator of the „alienation? component of polarization. An ordering for ranking alternative distributions of income using such polarizations indices has been developed. Several polarization indices of the said type have been characterized using intuitively reasonable axioms. Finally, we also consider the dual problem of retrieving the inequality index from the specified form of a polarization index.Polarization, ordering, axioms, indices, characterization, duality.

Radiating Collapse with Vanishing Weyl stresses

In a recent approach in modelling a radiating relativistic star undergoing gravitational collapse the role of the Weyl stresses was emphasised. It is possible to generate a model which is physically reasonable by approximately solving the junction conditions at the boundary of the star. In this paper we demonstrate that it is possible to solve the Einstein field equations and the junction conditions exactly. This exact solution contains the Friedmann dust solution as a limiting case. We briefly consider the radiative transfer within the framework of extended irreversible thermodynamics and show that relaxational effects significantly alter the temperature profiles.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to IJMP-

The King-Denborough syndrome in the paediatric patient.

King Denborough syndrome is a rare myopathy with characteristic skeletal and craniofacial abnormalities and a susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia (MH). We describe the management of two children with a diagnosis of King Denborough syndrome. The first case is that of a 23-month-old term male infant requiring repair of a cleft palate. After flushing the anaesthetic machine, infusions of remifentanil at 0.25 μ/kg/min and propofol at 12 mg/kg/hr were commenced. These were subsequently changed to 0.40 μ/kg/min and 10 mg/kg/hour followed by 8 mg/kg/hour respectively. The case proceeded uneventfully and the patient was managed in the ward postoperatively. The second case was a three-year-old, 5.7kg, former 34-week premature male infant with a dysplastic kidney and hydronephrosis, and recurrent urinary tract infections requiring ureteric re-implantation and repair of the hypospadias. Cardiac echocardiography confirmed the atrial septal defect (ASD: secundum type). Remifentanil and propofol were also used for this case. The patient was fully awake within 10 minutes and managed in the ward postoperatively. These case reports describe the successful use of total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol and remifentanil in paediatric patients who are susceptible to MH

A new algorithm for anisotropic solutions

We establish a new algorithm that generates a new solution to the Einstein field equations, with an anisotropic matter distribution, from a seed isotropic solution. The new solution is expressed in terms of integrals of an isotropic gravitational potential; and the integration can be completed exactly for particular isotropic seed metrics. A good feature of our approach is that the anisotropic solutions necessarily have an isotropic limit. We find two examples of anisotropic solutions which generalise the isothermal sphere and the Schwarzschild interior sphere. Both examples are expressed in closed form involving elementary functions only.Comment: 16 pages, to appear in Pramana - J. Phy

Inflation driven by causal heat flux

We find a simple inflationary solution in an inhomogeneous spacetime with heat flux. The heat flux obeys a causal transport equation, and counteracts the inflationary decrease of energy density. At late times, the heat flux tends to zero and the fluid approaches the equation of state $p=-\rho$.Comment: Latex 5 pages; to appear Gen. Rel. Gra