International Trade and Inequality

The impact of globalization on equality has become a serious concern for many countries. More evidence that challenges the theoretical prediction of positive impact of international trade on income distribution has increasingly become available recently. This paper addresses this subject, surveying the empirical findings on the impact of international trade on inequalities from various perspectives. The survey reveals that an increase in trade openness by developing countries appears to have contributed to narrowing the development gap vis-à-vis developed countries, while its impacts on income gap between developing countries are not clear. The impacts of increased trade or trade liberalization on within-country inequalities are mixed. In some cases, trade liberalization improved wage-inequality, but in some other cases, the opposite pattern was observed. Similar mixed patterns are found for regional inequalities. These mixed findings are consistent with the fact that theoretical predictions are also mixed. One reason for the mixed findings is the impact of other factors affecting inequalities, including labor market conditions, inflow of capital, and policy reforms. Government needs to implement appropriate policies to deal with the inequalities. Two of the most important are policies to promote human resource development and policies on income redistribution. The former improves quality of labor, with the support from a well-functioning and flexible labor market. The latter covers policies on social safety net or on tax system. The safety net pays some portion of adjustment costs borne by workers who are adversely e tax system (e.g., progressive and inheritance tax) helps distribute income more equally between the rich and the poor

The Role of Multinational Firms in International Trade: The Case of Japan

This paper examines the role of multinational firms in international trade using firm-level panel data for Japanese firms between 1994 and 2000. Our results indicate that multinational firms dominate Japanese trade. In 2000, only 12.4 percent of Japanese firms were multinationals but they accounted for 93.6 and 81.2 percent of Japanese exports and imports, respectively. We found that multinational firms emerged from being exporters/importers. These results imply that firms do not make the choice of either exporting or undertaking FDI, contrary to the findings of previous studies. Rather, exporters make a decision on whether or not to undertake FDI.Multinational Firms, Foreign Direct Investment, International Trade, Intra-firm Trade

Reaction cross sections of the deformed halo nucleus 31Ne

Using the Glauber theory, we calculate reaction cross sections for the deformed halo nucleus $^{31}$Ne. To this end, we assume that the $^{31}$Ne nucleus takes the $^{30}$Ne + $n$ structure. In order to take into account the rotational excitation of the core nucleus $^{30}$Ne, we employ the particle-rotor model (PRM). We compare the results to those in the adiabatic limit of PRM, that is, the Nilsson model, and show that the Nilsson model works reasonably well for the reaction cross sections of $^{31}$Ne. We also investigate the dependence of the reaction cross sections on the ground state properties of $^{31}$Ne, such as the deformation parameter and the p-wave component in the ground state wave function.Comment: 7 pages, 6 eps figure

Ataxia-Telangiectasia Mutated and the Mre11-Rad50-NBS1 Complex:Promising Targets for Radiosensitization

Radiotherapy plays a central part in cancer treatment, and use of radiosensitizing agents can greatly enhance this modality. Although studies have shown that several chemotherapeutic agents have the potential to increase the radiosensitivity of tumor cells, investigators have also studied a number of molecularly targeted agents as radiosensitizers in clinical trials based on reasonably promising preclinical data. Recent intense research into the DNA damage-signaling pathway revealed that ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and the Mre11-Rad50-NBS1 (MRN) complex play central roles in DNA repair and cell cycle checkpoints and that these molecules are promising targets for radiosensitization. Researchers recently developed three ATM inhibitors (KU-55933, CGK733, and CP466722) and an MRN complex inhibitor (mirin) and showed that they have great potential as radiosensitizers of tumors in preclinical studies. Additionally, we showed that a telomerase-dependent oncolytic adenovirus that we developed (OBP-301 [telomelysin]) produces profound radiosensitizing effects by inhibiting the MRN complex via the adenoviral E1B55kDa protein. A recent Phase I trial in the United States determined that telomelysin was safe and well tolerated in humans, and this agent is about to be tested in combination with radiotherapy in a clinical trial based on intriguing preclinical data demonstrating that telomelysin and ionizing radiation can potentiate each other. In this review, we highlight the great potential of ATM and MRN complex inhibitors, including telomelysin, as radiosensitizing agents

Pollination Requirements of Macadamia

The purpose of this work was to study the floral morphology and behavior of macadamia, especially regarding pollination; determine whether commercial varieties are self-fertile or self-sterile; seek suitable pollenizers if self-sterility was found; and determine the role of pollen vectors. pollen grains from a different variety, placed on marked style tips of an isolated self-incompatible variety and left unbagged, show a highly significant increase in initial set. This indicates that some measure of stickiness is present in either the pollen grain or stigma before the stigma becomes capable of causing pollen germination. Partial self-incompatibility was found in the majority of local trees of macadamia. However, several varieties were found which appeared to be almost completely self-compatible. In two orchards which were studied, the predominant pollen vectors of macadamia were insects. Wind pollination could not be wholly discounted, however, because enormous amounts of pollen are discharged by the flowers. The pollen-collecting honeybee is the most active insect on macadamia flowers. It is also the only insect that comes into regular contact with the stigmatic areas of the style

Extratropical Large-Scale Traveling Weather Systems in the Southern Hemisphere on Mars

From late-autumn through early-spring, the middle- and high-latitudes of both hemispheres of Mars and its predominantly carbon-dioxide atmosphere support mean equator-to-pole thermal contrasts, and then, support a strong mean westerly polar vortex. Observations from orbiting spacecraft indicate that this intense mean baroclinicity-barotropicity supports large-scale eastward traveling weather systems (i.e., transient, traveling synoptic-period waves, on the order of the Rossby deformation scale). On Earth, extratropical weather disturbances arise from wind-shear instabilities, and these are critical components of the terrestrial global circulation. So it is the case for Mars. Large-scale traveling weather systems on Mars serve as agents in the transport of heat, momentum and scalar and tracer quantities (e.g., atmospheric dust, watervapor, ice clouds, chemical species, etc). Such weather systems interact with other large-scale atmospheric circulation components, namely, quasi-stationary (i.e., forced Rossby) modes; global thermal tidal modes; and then, upon large-/continental- geographical scales, upslope/ down-slope flows amongst high relief, low relief, impact basins, and volcanic rises, and more. The character of Mars' traveling extratropical weather disturbances in its southern hemisphere during late winter through early spring is investigated using a high-resolution Mars global climate model (i.e., Mars GCM), and one from the Agency's Mars Climate Modeling Center (MCMC) based at the NASA Ames Research Center. The climate model includes several complex atmospheric physical packages. With such physics modules, our global climate simulations present comparatively well with observations of the planet's current water cycle (Haberle et al.,2019). The climate model is "forced" with an annual dust cycle (i.e., nudged based on MGS/TES observations). Compared to the northern-hemisphere counterparts, the southern synoptic-period weather disturbances and accompanying frontal waves have smaller meridional and zonal scales, and are less intense. Influences of the zonally asymmetric (i.e., east-west varying) topography on southern large-scale weather are investigated, in addition to large-scale up-slope/down-slope flows and the diurnal cycle. A southern storm zone in late winter and early spring presents in the western hemisphere via orographic influences from the Tharsis highlands, and the Argyre and Hellas impact basins. Geographically localized transient-wave activity diagnostics are constructed that illuminate dynamical differences amongst the simulations and these are presented