The causes of government and the consequences for growth and well-being

Using a large cross-country data set, the authors examine the factors that cause governments to grow, and analyze how the size of government affects growth, whether measured as income growth or other measures of well-being, such as infant mortality and life expectancy. They find no robust link between government size and per capita income. The factors they find to be important in explaining government size are relative prices, the age-dependency ratio, how long a country has been independent, relative political freedom, and openness in trade. Their results also partially support the view that governments use consumption to buffer external risk, especially in low-income countries. As for how government size affects growth, they find a robust and significant negative relationship between growth and government size, as measured by consumption. Policy distortions, predictably, also have a negative effect on growth. But the positive effects of well-functioning institutions and high quality in government bureaucracies can offset the negative influence of large government size alone. Finally, they find that social-sector spending can exert a positive influence by reducing infant mortality and raising life expectancy. Better income distribution, higher per capita income, higher per capita income growth, and more political freedom have the same positive effect on those two measures of well-being.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,National Governance,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Knowledge Economy,Knowledge Economy,Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance,Economic Theory&Research,Inequality

Relationship between starting and finishing position in World Cup BMX racing

The BMX start is one of the most important aspects of BMX racing and has been deemed by coaches as one of the strongest determining factors of finish line placing. The present study analysed the correlation between elite BMX riders and their relative position at the start of a BMX race in relation to finish line placing. Data from 348 riders results in 175 elite races in the four 2012 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) world cup events were analysed. Time gates were placed in four positions around each BMX track and the data sets were analysed using Kendall's tau-b bivariante correlation. A strong correlation was established at the second time gate for both males (t=0.581, P<0.01) and females (t=0.571, P<0.01). The correlation between riders' final placing was greater in positions 1st to 3rd (t=0.586, P <0.01. 4th to 8th t=0.249, P <0.01) compared to riders placed 4th to 8th (t=0.519, P <0.01. 4th to 8th t=0.372, P <0.01.) for both male and female riders respectively. In conclusion, a strong correlation exists between riders position 8-10 s into a race. Therefore, focusing on a riders' ability to gain placings at the start of a race will have an effect on their finish line position.N/

Polarization of interacting bosons with spin

We demonstrate rigorously that in the absence of explicit spin-dependent forces one of the ground states of interacting bosons with spin is always fully polarized -- however complicated the many-body interaction potential might be. Depending on the particle spin, the polarized ground state will generally be degenerate with other states, but one can specify the exact degeneracy. For T>0 the magnetization and susceptibility necessarily exceed that of a pure paramagnet. These results are relevant to recent experiments exploring the relation between triplet superconductivity and ferromagnetism, and the Bose-Einstein condensation of atoms with spin. They eliminate the possibility, raised in some theoretical speculations, that the ground state or positive temperature state might be antiferromagnetic.Comment: v4: as published in PR

An Integrated Tracker for STAR

The STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider RHIC studies the new state of matter produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions and the spin structure of the nucleon in collisions of polarized protons. In order to improve the capabilities for heavy flavor measurements and the reconstruction of charged vector bosons an upgrade of the tracking system both in the central and the forward region is pursued. The integrated system providing high resolution tracking and secondary vertex reconstruction capabilities will use silicon pixel, strip and GEM technology.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 9th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2006), Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, May 30 - June 3, 200

Inclusive Hadron Production in p+p Collisions at STAR

The STAR experiment at RHIC has measured a variety of inclusive hadron cross sections in $p+p$ collisions at Sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. Measurements of the differential cross section for inclusive charged pion production at mid rapidity and for inclusive neutral pion production at forward rapidity (3.0 < eta < 4.2) as well as the first preliminary result from STAR for the differential cross section for inclusive neutral pion production near mid rapidity are presented. These cross sections are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and can provide constraints on the pion fragmentation functions. Good agreement between data and pQCD has been found for all three cross sections.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to be published in the Proceedings of the 9th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2006), Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, May 30 - June 3, 2006, v2 with updated reference

Elevated serum ferritin levels in the pediatric intensive care unit

Background: &nbsp; Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening inflammatory condition caused by dysregulation of the immune system. HLH can develop in children with a variety of underlying causes including genetic cause, infection, autoimmune diseases, malignancy, etc. The symptoms of HLH are often similar to other conditions such as bacterial sepsis or systemic inflammatory response syndrome. This is a problem as the similarities among those different diseases make it difficult for the doctors to diagnose HLH and this can possibly lead to a delay in treatment. 50-75% mortality is reported in patients with secondary HLH (non-inherited) who do not receive treatment. Elevated serum ferritin level, referred to as hyperferritinemia, is the most characteristic feature of HLH and may be helpful in diagnosing HLH apart from other illnesses. This research investigates the incidences of patients with elevated serum ferritin level at the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of Alberta Children’s Hospital from 2014-2018 to gain a better understanding of HLH and hyperferritinemia. &nbsp; Objectives: &nbsp; The objectives of the study are i. identify diseases associated with hyperferritinemia on the PICU; ii. predict which PICU patient with hyperferritinemia is at risk to develop HLH during PICU admission; and iii. determine mortality risk in patients with hyperferritinemia and HLH at the PICU. Methods: This project is a retrospective chart review. A literature review was performed on the topic of hyperferritinemia and HLH, and relevant variables were identified for creating a Redcap database. Patient charts and medical records were examined for data collection of different elements including diagnosis, laboratory values, treatments, and survival status. Data of 91 patients who presented with hyperferritinemia in PICU from 2014 to 2018 is being examined. Results: Although this study is currently in progress, it is anticipated to provide insight into the features associated with hyperferritinemia and determine patients with hyperferritinemia who are at risk of developing HLH. Conclusion: Overall, the findings from this study may contribute to better understanding of hyperferritinemia and HLH in pediatric patients and contribute to decreasing mortality and morbidity of patients with hyperferritinemia and HLH. &nbsp

Experimentally realizable characterizations of continuous variable Gaussian states

Measures of entanglement, fidelity and purity are basic yardsticks in quantum information processing. We propose how to implement these measures using linear devices and homodyne detectors for continuous variable Gaussian states. In particular, the test of entanglement becomes simple with some prior knowledge which is relevant to current experiments.Comment: 4 pages, This paper supersedes quant-ph/020315

Identification of a rhythmic firing pattern in the enteric nervous system that generates rhythmic electrical activity in smooth muscle

The enteric nervous system (ENS) contains millions of neurons essential for organization of motor behavior of the intestine. It is well established that the large intestine requires ENS activity to drive propulsive motor behaviors. However, the firing pattern of the ENS underlying propagating neurogenic contractions of the large intestine remains unknown. To identify this, we used high-resolution neuronal imaging with electrophysiology from neighboring smooth muscle. Myoelectric activity underlying propagating neurogenic contractions along murine large intestine [also referred to as colonic migrating motor complexes, (CMMCs)] consisted of prolonged bursts of rhythmic depolarizations at a frequency of ∼2 Hz. Temporal coordination of this activity in the smooth muscle over large spatial fields (∼7 mm, longitudinally) was dependent on the ENS. During quiescent periods between neurogenic contractions, recordings from large populations of enteric neurons, in mice of either sex, revealed ongoing activity. The onset of neurogenic contractions was characterized by the emergence of temporally synchronized activity across large populations of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. This neuronal firing pattern was rhythmic and temporally synchronized across large numbers of ganglia at ∼2 Hz. ENS activation preceded smooth muscle depolarization, indicating rhythmic depolarizations in smooth muscle were controlled by firing of enteric neurons. The cyclical emergence of temporally coordinated firing of large populations of enteric neurons represents a unique neural motor pattern outside the CNS. This is the first direct observation of rhythmic firing in the ENS underlying rhythmic electrical depolarizations in smooth muscle. The pattern of neuronal activity we identified underlies the generation of CMMCs