Bairoch revisited. Tariff structure and growth in the late 19th century

This paper revisits Bairoch’s hypothesis that tariffs were positively associated with growth in the late 19th century, as confirmed recently by a new generation of quantitative studies (see O`Rourke (2000), Jacks (2006) and Clements-Williamson (2002, 2004)). This paper highlights the importance of the structure of protection in the relation between trade policy and growth and its potential growth-promoting impact. Evidence is based in a new data base on industrial tariffs for the 1870`s. First results, based on these findings, show that protection was only positive for a “rich club” if we include in this group New Settler countries which grew rapidly in the late 19th century. Leaving out these countries, which protected mainly for fiscal reasons, the evidence shows that more protection, indicated by total average and manufacture tariff average, implied more un-skilled inefficient protection and less growth and this is especially true for the poor countries in the late 19th century.Tariffs and growth, Tariff structure, Late 19th Century

Women's reproductive rights in the inter-American system of human rights: conclusions from the Field, June - September 2014

The Inter-American System of Human Rights has proven to be a forum for the advancement of women’s reproductive rights in the Inter-American region. However, the Inter-American System faces significant challenges in promoting structural transformative change that enables women’s enjoyment of their reproductive health rights. This report examines three reproductive rights cases from the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: María Mamerita Mestanza Chávez v. Peru; Paulina Ramirez Jacinto v. Mexico; and Artavia Murillo et al. v. Costa Rica. In the summer of 2014, interviews were conducted with representatives in each of the case study countries, with the objective of the research being two-fold: (1) to understand how each of the cases developed, and the subsequent challenges and advancements; and (2) to learn from these cases in order to suggest recommendations for how actors can make better use of the Inter-American System as one of several avenues for protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s reproductive rights. The report first discusses challenges in implementing women’s reproductive health rights, and then explores how the Inter-American System can strengthen its work on women’s reproductive health rights

Morphological considerations of the human hyoid bone

This study combines the anthropological focus upon skeletal variation with the pathological interest in trauma to reveal the immense variation and complexity in laryngeal structures. Further, this study dispels the notion of a causal relationship between advancing age and fusion of the hyoid bone. Anthropological studies of hyoid anatomy are rare, primarily focusing upon correlating fusion with advancing age (see O\u27Halloran and Lundy, 1987) and secondly upon discerning aspects which contribute to hyoid fracture (see Pollanen et al., 1995; Pollanen and Chiasson, 1996; Pollanen and Ubelaker, 1997). These examinations fail to address the true morphological variability that characterizes the hyoid

Primordial Entropy Production and Lambda-driven Inflation from Quantum Einstein Gravity

We review recent work on renormalization group (RG) improved cosmologies based upon a RG trajectory of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) with realistic parameter values. In particular we argue that QEG effects can account for the entire entropy of the present Universe in the massless sector and give rise to a phase of inflationary expansion. This phase is a pure quantum effect and requires no classical inflaton field.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, IGCG-07 Pun

The Particularity of the Gospel: Good News for Changing Times

Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou, who changest not, abide with me. In this transitional period of modern history when change and change by revolution are the order of the day, the plaintive plea of the popular hymn seems to assume an ever more urgent note. But the question is this: How effectively, if at all, can the notion of the unchangeableness of God expressed in this hymn aid an atomic age society in coping with population explosions, sexual, racial, and campus revolutions, and the threat of worldwide nuclear annihilation? Can men of our time indeed experience good news through declarations of God\u27s immutability

Scale-dependent metric and causal structures in Quantum Einstein Gravity

Within the asymptotic safety scenario for gravity various conceptual issues related to the scale dependence of the metric are analyzed. The running effective field equations implied by the effective average action of Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) and the resulting families of resolution dependent metrics are discussed. The status of scale dependent vs. scale independent diffeomorphisms is clarified, and the difference between isometries implemented by scale dependent and independent Killing vectors is explained. A concept of scale dependent causality is proposed and illustrated by various simple examples. The possibility of assigning an "intrinsic length" to objects in a QEG spacetime is also discussed.Comment: 52 page

The storyteller, the scribe, and a missing man : Hidden influences from printed sources in the Gaelic tales of Duncan and Neil MacDonald

The Scottish Gaelic tradition bearer Duncan MacDonald1 (1883-1954) was one of the most remarkable storytellers of twentieth-century Europe.2 He piqued the interest of a host of ethnologists in the later years of his life because of his considerable repertoire of traditional knowledge. They were especially interested in his ability to tell certain tales of his--particularly those with ties to older literary versions in manuscripts3--in a virtually identical fashion from recitation to recitation. During a period when scholars were admitting that the conservatism of Gaelic oral tradition had been perhaps exaggerated at times (see O Duilearga 1945), Duncan MacDonald's abilities were seen as an acquittal of the seanchaidh.4 It became clear that it was possible in certain cases for the surface forms of language, not just plot, to survive down through the ages in an almost unaltered form. MacDonald's genealogy (see Matheson 1977), with its ties to the hereditary poets and historians of Clann Domhnaill of Sleat, suggested that he was an approximation of the kind of professional Gaelic storyteller that would have been an institution in earlier times.Issue title: In Memoriam John Miles Foley January 22, 1947-May 3, 2012

Surfaces with boundary: their uniformizations, determinants of Laplacians, and isospectrality

Let \Sigma be a compact surface of type (g, n), n > 0, obtained by removing n disjoint disks from a closed surface of genus g. Assuming \chi(\Sigma)<0, we show that on \Sigma, the set of flat metrics which have the same Laplacian spectrum of Dirichlet boundary condition is compact in the C^\infty topology. This isospectral compactness extends the result of Osgood, Phillips, and Sarnak \cite{OPS3} for type (0,n) surfaces, whose examples include bounded plane domains. Our main ingredients are as following. We first show that the determinant of the Laplacian is a proper function on the moduli space of geodesically bordered hyperbolic metrics on \Sigma. Secondly, we show that the space of such metrics is homeomorphic (in the C^\infty-topology) to the space of flat metrics (on \Sigma) with constantly curved boundary. Because of this, we next reduce the complicated degenerations of flat metrics to the simpler and well-known degenerations of hyperbolic metrics, and we show that determinants of Laplacians of flat metrics on \Sigma, with fixed area and boundary of constant geodesic curvature, give a proper function on the corresponding moduli space. This is interesting because Khuri \cite{Kh} showed that if the boundary length (instead of the area) is fixed, the determinant is not a proper function when \Sigma is of type (g, n), g>0; while Osgood, Phillips, and Sarnak \cite{OPS3} showed the properness when g=0.Comment: Further Revised. A technical error is corrected; the sections devoted to the proof of the insertion lemma and the separation of variables method are completely rewritten. (Sections 4, 5, and 6 in this revised version.) A lot of changes, corrections, and improvements are made throughout the paper. No mathematical change in the main theorems listed in the introductio

On Silhouettes, Surfaces and Sorensen

In his book “Seeing Dark Things” (2008), Roy Sorensen provides many wonderfully ingenious arguments for many surprising, counter-intuitive claims. One such claim in particular is that when we a silhouetted object – i.e. an opaque object lit entirely from behind – we literally see its back-side – i.e. we see the full expanse of the surface facing away from us that is blocking the incoming light. Sorensen himself admits that this seems a tough pill to swallow, later characterising it as “the most controversial thesis of the book” (2011, p199). I will argue against Sorensen’s controversial thesis and in favour of what seems to me to be a much more natural and commonsensical alternative: when we see a silhouetted object, what we see is its edge and only its edge – so we do not see its entire back-side

A diversity of dusty AGN tori: Data release for the VLTI/MIDI AGN Large Program and first results for 23 galaxies

The AGN-heated dust distribution (the "torus") is increasingly recognized not only as the absorber required in unifying models, but as a tracer for the reservoir that feeds the nuclear Super-Massive Black Hole. Yet, even its most basic structural properties (such as its extent, geometry and elongation) are unknown for all but a few archetypal objects. Since most AGNs are unresolved in the mid-infrared, we utilize the MID-infrared interferometric Instrument (MIDI) at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) that is sensitive to structures as small as a few milli-arcseconds (mas). We present here an extensive amount of new interferometric observations from the MIDI AGN Large Program (2009 - 2011) and add data from the archive to give a complete view of the existing MIDI observations of AGNs. Additionally, we have obtained high-quality mid-infrared spectra from VLT/VISIR. We present correlated and total flux spectra for 23 AGNs and derive flux and size estimates at 12 micron using simple axisymmetric geometrical models. Perhaps the most surprising result is the relatively high level of unresolved flux and its large scatter: The median "point source fraction" is 70 % for type 1 and 47 % for type 2 AGNs meaning that a large part of the flux is concentrated on scales smaller than about 5 mas (0.1 - 10 pc). Among sources observed with similar spatial resolution, it varies from 20 % - 100 %. For 18 of the sources, two nuclear components can be distinguished in the radial fits. While these models provide good fits to all but the brightest sources, significant elongations are detected in eight sources. The half-light radii of the fainter sources are smaller than expected from the size ~ L^0.5 scaling of the bright sources and show a large scatter, especially when compared to the relatively tight size--luminosity relation in the near-infrared.Comment: A&A in press; 93 pages, 63 figures, 39 tables; data available only via CD