Distributional impacts of carbon taxation and revenue recycling: a behavioural microsimulation. ESRI WP626, June 2019

Carbon taxation is a regressive policy which contributes to public opposition towards same. We employ the Exact Affine Stone Index demand system to examine the extent to which carbon taxation in Ireland reduces emissions, as well as its distributional impacts. The Engel curves for various commodity groupings are found to be non-linear, which renders the particular demand system we have chosen more suitable than other methods found in the extant literature. We find that a carbon tax increase can decrease emissions, but is indeed regressive. Recycling the revenues to households mitigates these regressive effects. A targeted allocation that directs the revenues towards less affluent households is found to reduce inequality more than flat allocation that divides the revenues equally amongst all households; however both methods are capable of mitigating the regressive effects of the tax increase

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is defined by the presence of an orifice in the diaphragm, more often left and posterolateral that permits the herniation of abdominal contents into the thorax. The lungs are hypoplastic and have abnormal vessels that cause respiratory insufficiency and persistent pulmonary hypertension with high mortality. About one third of cases have cardiovascular malformations and lesser proportions have skeletal, neural, genitourinary, gastrointestinal or other defects. CDH can be a component of Pallister-Killian, Fryns, Ghersoni-Baruch, WAGR, Denys-Drash, Brachman-De Lange, Donnai-Barrow or Wolf-Hirschhorn syndromes. Some chromosomal anomalies involve CDH as well. The incidence is < 5 in 10,000 live-births. The etiology is unknown although clinical, genetic and experimental evidence points to disturbances in the retinoid-signaling pathway during organogenesis. Antenatal diagnosis is often made and this allows prenatal management (open correction of the hernia in the past and reversible fetoscopic tracheal obstruction nowadays) that may be indicated in cases with severe lung hypoplasia and grim prognosis. Treatment after birth requires all the refinements of critical care including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation prior to surgical correction. The best hospital series report 80% survival but it remains around 50% in population-based studies. Chronic respiratory tract disease, neurodevelopmental problems, neurosensorial hearing loss and gastroesophageal reflux are common problems in survivors. Much more research on several aspects of this severe condition is warranted

AI Literature Review Suite

The process of conducting literature reviews is often time-consuming and labor-intensive. To streamline this process, I present an AI Literature Review Suite that integrates several functionalities to provide a comprehensive literature review. This tool leverages the power of open access science, large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing to enable the searching, downloading, and organizing of PDF files, as well as extracting content from articles. Semantic search queries are used for data retrieval, while text embeddings and summarization using LLMs present succinct literature reviews. Interaction with PDFs is enhanced through a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). The suite also features integrated programs for bibliographic organization, interaction and query, and literature review summaries. This tool presents a robust solution to automate and optimize the process of literature review in academic and industrial research.Comment: 7 Pages, 5 figures, Keywords: Literature Review, Artificial Intelligence, Text Embeddings, Large Language Model

Tecnología de información & productividad en América latina (Information technology & production in Latin America)

Se investiga en que grado el total de gastos de Tecnología de información y las inversiones de software/hardware, tienen impacto sobre la productividad en países de Latinoamérica, se pretende averiguar como la productividad puede ser aumentada en respuesta a estas variables. Aunque literaturas anteriores hayan investigado en países desarrollados las preguntas respecto a si la Tecnología de Información tiene impacto sobre la productividad de un pais, en países con economía emergente han sido pocas las investigaciones. Un mejor entendimiento de cómo la productividad de una nación es afectada por la tecnología de información puede ayudar a los políticos a inventar mejores estrategias de promover el crecimiento. Es importante para empresas multinacionales en economías de mercado emergente, saber cuando invertir en tecnología de información para alcanzar los niveles mas eficientes de producción. La relación postulada entre la Tecnología de Información y la productividad de un país es examinada usando el método estadístico de regresión linear, dónde las variables Dependientes son representadas por: El Producto Interno Bruto y la Inversión del Gobierno; las variables independientes las representan: La Información, Comunicación y Tecnología, la inversión de Tecnología de Información en Educación y en Software/Hardware en los países seleccionados. The purpose of this investigation its whether total ICT spending, Software/Hardware spending, and IT variables have varying degrees of impact on country productivity in Latin American. I predict that productivity could be increased in response to any of these variables. Although previous literature has investigated these questions for developed countries, questions of whether information technology has any impact on a country’s productivity has received little attention in emerging market economies. A better understanding of how productivity of a nation is affected by information technology can help policymakers devise better strategies to promote high and stable economic growth. It is also important for multinational companies operating in emerging market economies to know how much to invest in information technology in order to achieve the most efficient levels of production. Yearly information technology data are obtained from Digital Planet of the Global Research organization, the productivity indicators are obtained from the international Financial Statistics publications of the international Monetary fund. The postulated relationship between IT and country productivity is examined using a linear regression method

Entomological characterization of malaria in northern Colombia through vector and parasite species identification, and analyses of spatial distribution and infection rates

Background: Malaria remains a worldwide public health concern and, in Colombia, despite the efforts to stop malaria transmission, the incidence of cases has increased over the last few years. In this context, it is necessary to evaluate vector diversity, infection rates, and spatial distribution, to better understand disease transmission dynamics. This information may contribute to the planning and development of vector control strategies. Results: A total of 778 Anopheles mosquitoes were collected in fifteen localities of Córdoba from August 2015 to October 2016. Six species were identified and overall, Anopheles albimanus was the most widespread and abundant species (83%). Other species of the Nyssorhynchus subgenus were collected, including Anopheles triannulatus (13%), Anopheles nuneztovari (1%), Anopheles argyritarsis (&lt; 1%) and two species belonging to the Anopheles subgenus: Anopheles pseudopunctipennis (3%) and Anopheles neomaculipalpus (&lt; 1%). Four species were found naturally infected with two Plasmodium species: Anopheles nuneztovari was detected naturally infected with Plasmodium falciparum and Anopheles pseudopunctipennis with Plasmodium vivax, whereas An. albimanus and An. triannulatus were found infected with both parasite species and confirmed by nested PCR. Conclusions: In general, the obtained results were contrasting with previous studies in terms of the most abundant and widespread collected species, and regarding infection rates, which were higher than those previously reported. A positive relationship between mosquito local abundance at the locality level and human infection at the municipality level was found. Mosquito local abundance and the number of houses with mosquitoes in each village are factors explaining malaria human cases in these villages. The obtained results suggest that other factors related to the apparent variation in malaria eco-epidemiology in northern Colombia, must be identified, to provide health authorities with better decision tools aiming to design control and prevention strategies

Computational modeling of the mechanical modulation of the growth plate by sustained loading

This paper presents a computational model that describes the growth of the bone as a function of the proliferation and hypertrophy of chondrocytes in the growth plate. We have included the effects of the mechanical loads on the sizes of the proliferative and hypertrophic areas, the number of proliferative chondrocytes and the final size of the hypertrophic chondrocytes. The validation of the model was performed with experimental data published on other investigations about proximal tibia of rats, subjected to sustained axial stresses of 0.1 MPa, 0.0 MPa, -0.1 MPa and −0.2 MPa. Growth was simulated during 23 days, obtaining numerical errors between 2.77% and 3.73% with respect to experimental growth rates. The results obtained show that the model adequately simulates the behavior of the growth plate and the effect of mechanical loads over its cellular activity