Concordant Convergence Empirics

We present a new model to test the convergence hypothesis based on the ideas of concordance and then employ the model to test empirically for GDP per capita convergence across 97 countries. Our results suggest the presence of switching, while there is more ‘strong divergence’ than ‘strong convergence’.Convergence; Concordance; Income per capita.

Convergence towards a Steady State Distribution

The convergence literature frequently presupposes some unidentified steady state distribution. This paper presents a new method to identify the presence and rate of convergence to a steady state distribution. The method is illustrated with application to UK regional male wages.Convergence; Steady state; Average UK regional male wages

Unique case of inverted papilloma of septum with nasopharyngeal carcinoma:Is it a metachronous tumour?

Inverted papilloma is a rare and benign tumour. It affects the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, has a high rate of recurrence and is associated with malignant transformation. Only few cases of a poorly differentiated carcinoma arising from inverted papilloma have been reported, none of which in the nasopharynx. We report a case of a 37-year-old female, who presented originally in 2012 with inverted papilloma of the nasal septum which was surgically resected. Nasopharyngeal biopsy from 2014 was reported as carcinoma in situ and treated with local endoscopic resection. Three years later she presented with a solitary lesion of the right Eustachian tube opening, confirmed as invasive poorly differentiated carcinoma. Imaging revealed T4 N2b M0 malignancy with skull base and prevertebral space invasion, likely extension into right temporal lobe and malignant adenopathy. Although rare, malignant transformation of inverted papilloma in unusual places should be considered during workup and monitoring of patients

Patterning nonisometric origami in nematic elastomer sheets

Nematic elastomers dramatically change their shape in response to diverse stimuli including light and heat. In this paper, we provide a systematic framework for the design of complex three dimensional shapes through the actuation of heterogeneously patterned nematic elastomer sheets. These sheets are composed of \textit{nonisometric origami} building blocks which, when appropriately linked together, can actuate into a diverse array of three dimensional faceted shapes. We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that: 1) the nonisometric origami building blocks actuate in the predicted manner, 2) the integration of multiple building blocks leads to complex multi-stable, yet predictable, shapes, 3) we can bias the actuation experimentally to obtain a desired complex shape amongst the multi-stable shapes. We then show that this experimentally realized functionality enables a rich possible design landscape for actuation using nematic elastomers. We highlight this landscape through theoretical examples, which utilize large arrays of these building blocks to realize a desired three dimensional origami shape. In combination, these results amount to an engineering design principle, which we hope will provide a template for the application of nematic elastomers to emerging technologies

Convergence across Spanish Provinces:Cross-section and Pairwise Evidence

Distribution free statistics are employed to investigate biennial income per capita convergence across 52 Spanish provinces over the period 1955-1997. Based upon ideas of concordance and discordance that capture convergence and divergence properties, the paper presents results that suggest convergence is dominant for the full sample over the entire period, swings in this trend between convergence and divergence are present and switching in rank does take place. When provinces are analysed in pairs some show strong evidence of divergence.Convergence; Steady state; Average UK regional male wages

A statistical development of fixed odds betting rules in soccer

Two simple but seemingly profitable betting rules for betting on the away win in association football are developed. One rule is consistent with avoiding those games in which there is a clear favourite. The second rule is based directly on modelling bookmaker odds and assessing the residuals under the fitted model. Contrary to previous research the betting rule using the residuals suggests avoiding betting on those games where there are large discrepancies between bookmaker odds and predicted-model odds

Constraints on the correlation between QSO luminosity and host halo mass from high-redshift quasar clustering

Recent measurements of high-redshift QSO clustering from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey indicate that QSOs at z~4 have a bias b~14. We find that this extremely high clustering amplitude, combined with the corresponding space density, constrains the dispersion in the L-Mhalo relation to be less than 50% at 99% confidence for the most conservative case of a 100% duty cycle. This upper limit to the intrinsic dispersion provides as strong a constraint as current upper limits to the intrinsic dispersion in the local M_BH-sigma relation and the ratio of bolometric to Eddington luminosity of luminous QSOs.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Minor revisions to address questions from referee. References update