Inequality and Economic Prosperity: What Accounts for Social Justice and Inclusive Growth? Bertelsmann Stiftung Impulse #2015/03

There is much debate nowadays on the massive problem of rising social and economic inequalities. Many studies criticize the disturbingly unequal distribution of income and wealth – within nations and across countries. Such rising inequality often not only contradicts fundamental principles of social justice, as it undermines the idea of equal opportunity, but can also have negative effects on growth. Both dimensions – social inequality and growth – are interrelated. Only when this relationship is taken seriously is it possible to give meaning to the notion of “inclusive growth” and to attach a clear political agenda to it. Otherwise the concept remains empirically intangible and politically irrelevant. This paper will therefore first discuss the concept of inclusive growth by outlining the potential positive-sum-relationship between greater social inclusiveness and economic prosperity. It is important to see that reducing inequalities can be conducive to growth. The paper then looks at what governments could do to reduce inequalities in several key area

Social Justice in the OECD – How Do the Member States Compare? Bertelsmann Stiftung Sustainable Governance Indicators 2011

A cross-national comparison of social justice in the OECD shows considerable variation in the extent to which this principle is developed in these market-based democracies. According to the methodology applied in this study, Iceland and Norway are the most socially just countries.1 Turkey, which ranks among the bottom five in each of the six targeted dimensions, is the OECD’s least socially just country. The findings of the cross-national study can be summarized as follows: The north European states comprise a league of their own. Leading by far on the Justice Index, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland achieve particularly good results in the dimensions of “access to education,” “social cohesion” and “intergenerational justice.” Yet even in Scandinavia, there are some areas in want of action. Despite its overall strong showing, Sweden, for example, struggles with a rate of youth unemployment three times as high as the general unemployment rate. Most central and northwestern European states rank in the upper midrange, although the Netherlands (6), Switzerland (7) and France (10) rank higher than Germany (14). The east-central European OECD members Hungary (17), Poland (20) and Slovakia (24) rank in the lower midrange together with their southern European neighbors. The high-ranking outlier here is the Czech Republic (11) due to its very low poverty levels in cross-national comparison. All southern European countries lie considerably below the OECD average, with Turkey and Greece in the bottom group of the ranking. In both these countries, fair access to education and intergenerational justice (i.e., equity in burden-sharing across generations) are particularly underdeveloped. Canada (9) is the top performer among the non-European OECD states. Its high ranking can be attributed to strong results in the areas of education, labor market justice and social cohesion. Australia (21), despite its relatively inclusive labor market, is struggling with larger problems in poverty prevention and educational justice, and is therefore lagging behind in terms of creating a sound framework for social justice. Japan (22) and South Korea (25), where income poverty is relatively spread, fail to rank above the bottom third of the Justice Index. Japan also receives particularly low marks for intergenerational justice

biobambam: tools for read pair collation based algorithms on BAM files

Sequence alignment data is often ordered by coordinate (id of the reference sequence plus position on the sequence where the fragment was mapped) when stored in BAM files, as this simplifies the extraction of variants between the mapped data and the reference or of variants within the mapped data. In this order paired reads are usually separated in the file, which complicates some other applications like duplicate marking or conversion to the FastQ format which require to access the full information of the pairs. In this paper we introduce biobambam, an API for efficient BAM file reading supporting the efficient collation of alignments by read name without performing a complete resorting of the input file and some tools based on this API performing tasks like marking duplicate reads and conversion to the FastQ format. In comparison with previous approaches to problems involving the collation of alignments by read name like the BAM to FastQ or duplication marking utilities in the Picard suite the approach of biobambam can often perform an equivalent task more efficiently in terms of the required main memory and run-time.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Muscle contractibility and protein turnover

Skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle contraction, protein turnover and other research are reported

Skeletal muscle metabolism in hypokinetic rats

Muscle growth, protein metabolism, and amino acid metabolism were studied in various groups of rats. Certain groups were adrenaliectomized; some rats were suspended while others (the controls) were weight bearing. Results show that: (1) metabolic changes in the extensor digitorum longus muscle of suspended rats are due primarily to increased circulating glucocorticoids; (2) metabolic changes in the soleus muscle due to higher steroid levels are probably potentiated by greater numbers of steroid receptors; and (3) not all metabolic responses of the soleus muscle to unloading are due to the elevated levels of glucocorticoids or the increased sensitivity of this muscle to these hormones

Frequency-response techniques for documentation and improvement of rotorcraft simulators

Pilot-in-the-loop characterizations are most naturally formulated in terms of end-to-end frequency responses, so a frequency-response-based method is the natural approach to assessing simulator dynamic fidelity. A comprehensive frequency-response approach used heavily by Ames Research Center researchers was described, and results were presented from a number of simulator fidelity assessment studies. Those studies included UH-60 mathematical model validation and upgrade, ASTOVL linear model extraction, and documentation of the Vertical Motion Simulator (at Ames Research Center) motion and visual system characteristics

Policy Performance and Governance Capacities in the OECD and EU. Sustainable Governance Indicators 2018. Bertelsmann Studies

This year marks the release of the third edition of the Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI). The highly developed industrial nations continue to face enormous challenges, due not only to aftereffects of the global economic and financial crisis and the associated labor-market and sociopolitical upheavals. In other areas too, these nations look forward to a future rife with complex problems. Aging and shrinking populations, environmental and climatic changes, and social, cultural and technological shifts are placing democracies under massive pressure to adapt. As early as the first edition of the SGI, it was evident that despite often-similar reform pressures, political systems’ approaches and track records show significant variance. And in times of advancing globalization, the need for effective governance driven by capable leadership remains important. The previous SGI editions have also underscored the fact that this steering capability depends critically on the ability to combine short-term responsiveness with long-term resolve in policymaking

Social Justice in the EU – Index Report 2016 Social Inclusion Monitor Europe

1. Social justice in the EU – participation opportunities have improved in the majority of EU member states, but are still a long way behind precrisis levels Social justice has improved slightly in the majority of EU member states compared with last year’s Social Justice Index (SJI 2015). It appears that, after years of decline, the majority of countries reached their lowest point between 2012 and 2014. Whether the improvement is a genuine, stable turnaround or just a slight temporary easing will only become apparent in future reports. At least the downward trend observed since 2008 in terms of equal participation opportunities has halted in the majority of member states. However, even seven years after the global economic crisis first hit, participation opportunities in the vast majority of EU states – with a few exceptions – are still noticeably worse than before the crisis. Only five of the 28 EU countries – the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, the UK, and Poland – are showing moderate improvements in terms of participation opportunities, compared with the situation before the economic and financial crisis

Commentary on Space Propulsion Activities

Space propulsion systems required to launch large payloads - General commentar