Big Mac parity, income, and trade

Nontraded inputs account for the lion's share of a Big Mac price (Ong 1997, Parsley and Wei 2003). Major departures from Big Mac PPP may then be explained by the Balassa-Samuelson income differences effect, as shown e.g. by Click (1996). But it has been argued that Click''s result is not robust to changing estimation methods, sample of countries, and time period (Fujiki and Kitamura 2003). Here we address a key theoretical distinction between high and low income countries for the Balassa-Samuelson effect to be properly evaluated. Since this distinction is missing in Click''s analysis, we revisit his finding and take a sample which is distinct (in terms of both set of countries and time period) to meet Fujiki-Kitamura''s criticism. We find that distinguishing high from low income makes no harm to Click''s result. But we also find that openness to trade (viewed as a proxy for trade barriers) helps to explain departures from Big Mac PPP.

シシュウ ソシキ コウセイ サイボウ ニ オケル TLR ヲ カイシタ エンショウ ハンノウ セイギョ ノ カイセキ

K. Mori, M. Yanagita, S. Hasegawa, M. Kubota, M. Yamashita, S. Yamada, M. Kitamura, and S. Murakami, “Necrosis-induced TLR3 Activation Promotes TLR2 Expression in Gingival Cells”, J DENT RES August 2015 94: 1149-1157, first published on June 4, 201

Rigid cyclic polymer in solution: Cycloamylose tris(phenylcarbamate) in 1,4-dioxane and 2-ethoxyethanol

Terao K., Asano N., Kitamura S., et al. Rigid cyclic polymer in solution: Cycloamylose tris(phenylcarbamate) in 1,4-dioxane and 2-ethoxyethanol. ACS Macro Letters, 1(11), 1291-1294, October 18, 2012. Copyright © 2012, American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/mz3004506

Chain Dimensions and Stiffness of Cellulosic and Amylosic Chains in an Ionic Liquid: Cellulose, Amylose, and an Amylose Carbamate in BmimCl

Jiang X., Kitamura S., Sato T., et al. Chain Dimensions and Stiffness of Cellulosic and Amylosic Chains in an Ionic Liquid: Cellulose, Amylose, and an Amylose Carbamate in BmimCl. Macromolecules, 50(10), 3979-3984, May 8, 2017. Copyright © 2017, American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.7b00389

Local conformation and intermolecular interaction of rigid ring polymers are not always the same as the linear analogue: Cyclic amylose tris(phenylcarbamate) in θ solvents

Asano N., Kitamura S., Terao K.. Local conformation and intermolecular interaction of rigid ring polymers are not always the same as the linear analogue: Cyclic amylose tris(phenylcarbamate) in θ solvents. Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 117(32), 9576-9583, July 23, 2013. Copyright © 2013, American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/jp406607w

セルフケアヨボウザイリョウヘノS-PRGフィラーオウヨウニヨルStreptococcus mutansノウショクゲンセイヨクセイコウカノケントウ

Nomura, R., Kitamura, T., Matayoshi, S. et al. Inhibitory effect of a gel paste containing surface pre-reacted glass-ionomer (S-PRG) filler on the cariogenicity of Streptococcus mutans. Sci Rep 11, 23495 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02924-6.Matayoshi, S., Nomura, R., Kitamura, T. et al. Inhibitory effect of toothbrush monofilament containing surface pre-reacted glass-ionomer (S-PRG) filler on Streptococcus mutans. Sci Rep 11, 211 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80646-x

Supersymmetric Particle Production at HERA

In the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model and the $R$-parity breaking model, we investigate various production processes of the supersymmetric partner at HERA energies. Our emphasis is paid upon the scalar top quark, the partner of top quark, characterized by its lighter mass than the top quark and other scalar quarks in a model. We propose experimentally feasible approaches to search for clean signals of the stop from either its production or decay processes.Comment: 30 pages, LaTeX, 21 figures available upon reques

Technique for microswitch manufacture

A five-step technique for microswitch manufacture is described: (1) A clad board is inlaid with a precious metal and the board is pressed. (2) One end of the fixed contact containing a precious metal inlay section is curved, and this edge of the precious metal inlay section becomes a fixed contact. (3) Inserts are formed in the unit body and terminal strips are placed through the top and bottom of the base and held. (4) The unit body is held by the base and the sequential contact strips are cut off. (5) Movable stripes are attached to the support of the terminal strips on the movable side and movable contacts are placed opposite the fixed contacts

A 1000 AU Scale Molecular Outflow Driven by a Protostar with an age of <4000 Years

To shed light on the early phase of a low-mass protostar formation process, we conducted interferometric observations towards a protostar GF9-2 using the CARMA and SMA. The observations have been carried out in the CO J=3-2 line and in the continuum emission at the wavelengths of 3 mm, 1 mm and 850 micron. All the continuum images detected a single point-like source with a radius of 250+/-80 AU at the center of the previously known ~3 Msun molecular cloud core. A compact emission is detected towards the object at the Spitzer MIPS and IRAC bands as well as the four bands at the WISE. Our spectroscopic imaging of the CO line revealed that the continuum source is driving a 1000 AU scale molecular outflow, including a pair of lobes where a collimated "higher" velocity red lobe exists inside a poorly collimated "lower" velocity red lobe. These lobes are rather young and the least powerful ones so far detected. A protostellar mass of M~<0.06 Msun was estimated using an upper limit of the protostellar age of (4+/-1)x10^3 yrs and an inferred non-spherical steady mass accretion rate of ~10^{-5} Msun/yr. Together with results from an SED analysis, we discuss that the outflow system is driven by a protostar whose surface temperature of~3,000K, and that the natal cloud core is being dispersed by the outflow.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa