Ultrafast evolution and transient phases of a prototype out-of-equilibrium Mott-Hubbard material

The study of photoexcited strongly correlated materials is attracting growing interest since their rich phase diagram often translates into an equally rich out-of-equilibrium behaviour. With femtosecond optical pulses, electronic and lattice degrees of freedom can be transiently decoupled, giving the opportunity of stabilizing new states inaccessible by quasi-adiabatic pathways. Here we show that the prototype Mott-Hubbard material V2O3 presents a transient non-thermal phase developing immediately after ultrafast photoexcitation and lasting few picoseconds. For both the insulating and the metallic phase, the formation of the transient configuration is triggered by the excitation of electrons into the bonding a1g orbital, and is then stabilized by a lattice distortion characterized by a hardening of the A1g coherent phonon, in stark contrast with the softening observed upon heating. Our results show the importance of selective electron-lattice interplay for the ultrafast control of material parameters, and are relevant for the optical manipulation of strongly correlated systems. \ua9 The Author(s) 2017

The historical origins of corruption in the developing world: a comparative analysis of East Asia

A new approach has emerged in the literature on corruption in the developing world that breaks with the assumption that corruption is driven by individualistic self-interest and, instead, conceptualizes corruption as an informal system of norms and practices. While this emerging neo-institutionalist approach has done much to further our understanding of corruption in the developing world, one key question has received relatively little attention: how do we explain differences in the institutionalization of corruption between developing countries? The paper here addresses this question through a systematic comparison of seven developing and newly industrialized countries in East Asia. The argument that emerges through this analysis is that historical sequencing mattered: countries in which the "political marketplace" had gone through a process of concentration before universal suffrage was introduced are now marked by less harmful types of corruption than countries where mass voting rights where rolled out in a context of fragmented political marketplaces. The paper concludes by demonstrating that this argument can be generalized to the developing world as a whole

Finance and Growth: What we Know and What we Need to Know

In modern economies finance underpins virtually every economic transaction that takes place. When we go to the supermarket, we usually pay using credit or debit cards issued by commercial banks (or the supermarkets themselves). Even when we pay using cash, we have to first find an ATM in order to withdraw the necessary bank notes. The banking system, which includes commercial banks as well as the central bank (the Bank of England in the UK), provides the payments system which makes economic exchange possible. It is hard to imagine what economies would look like without ‘money’–broadly defined as anything that is used in exchange for goods and services and the settlement of debt. Besides providing the means of payment, which underpins all economic transactions, the financial system provides a link between current and future output and consumption. When we borrow from a bank to buy a car, we are essentially bringing forward consumption against future income. This is made possible because financial intermediaries, like banks, raise funds from surplus units (those economic agents whose income is greater than their current expenditure) and pass them on as loans to deficit units (those economi

Vascular Endothelial Over-Expression of Human Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase (Tie2-sEH Tr) Attenuates Coronary Reactive Hyperemia in Mice: Role of Oxylipins and ω-Hydroxylases

Cytochromes P450 metabolize arachidonic acid (AA) into two vasoactive oxylipins with opposing biologic effects: epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and omega-(ω)-terminal hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs). EETs have numerous beneficial physiological effects, including vasodilation and protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury, whereas ω-terminal HETEs induce vasoconstriction and vascular dysfunction. We evaluated the effect of these oxylipins on post-ischemic vasodilation known as coronary reactive hyperemia (CRH). CRH prevents the potential harm associated with transient ischemia. The beneficial effects of EETs are reduced after their hydrolysis to dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs) by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). ω-terminal HETEs are formed by ω-hydroxylase family members. The relationship among endothelial over-expression of sEH (Tie2-sEH Tr), the changes in oxylipins it may produce, the pharmacologic inhibition of ω-hydroxylases, activation of PPARγ, and CRH response to a brief ischemia is not known. We hypothesized that CRH is attenuated in isolated mouse hearts with endothelial sEH over-expression through modulation of oxylipin profiles, whereas both inhibition of ω-hydroxylases and activation of PPARγ enhance CRH. Compared to WT mice, Tie2-sEH Tr mice had decreased CRH, including repayment volume, repayment duration, and repayment/debt ratio (P < 0.05), whereas inhibition of ω-hydroxylases increased these same CRH parameters in Tie2-sEH Tr mice. Inhibition of sEH with t-AUCB reversed the decreased CRH in Tie2-sEH Tr mice. Endothelial over-expression of sEH significantly changed oxylipin profiles, including decreases in DHETs, mid-chain HETEs, and prostaglandins (P < 0.05). Treatment with rosiglitazone, PPARγ-agonist, enhanced CRH (P < 0.05) in both Tie2-sEH Tr and wild type (WT) mice. These data demonstrate that endothelial over-expression of sEH (through changing the oxylipin profiles) attenuates CRH, whereas inhibition of ω-hydroxylases and activation of PPARγ enhance it