The poverty impact of rural roads : evidencefrom Bangladesh

The rationale for public investment in rural roads is that households can better exploit agricultural and nonagricultural opportunities to use labor and capital more efficiently. But significant knowledge gaps remain as to how opportunities provided by roads actually filter back into household outcomes and their distributional consequences. This paper examines the impacts of rural road projects using household-level panel data from Bangladesh. Rural road investments are found to reduce poverty significantly through higher agricultural production, higher wages, lower input and transportation costs, and higher output prices. Rural roads also lead to higher girls'and boys'schooling. Road investments are pro-poor, meaning the gains are proportionately higher for the poor than for the non-poor.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Rural Roads&Transport,Economic Theory&Research,Rural Transport,Rural Poverty Reduction

A Neuron as a Signal Processing Device

A neuron is a basic physiological and computational unit of the brain. While much is known about the physiological properties of a neuron, its computational role is poorly understood. Here we propose to view a neuron as a signal processing device that represents the incoming streaming data matrix as a sparse vector of synaptic weights scaled by an outgoing sparse activity vector. Formally, a neuron minimizes a cost function comprising a cumulative squared representation error and regularization terms. We derive an online algorithm that minimizes such cost function by alternating between the minimization with respect to activity and with respect to synaptic weights. The steps of this algorithm reproduce well-known physiological properties of a neuron, such as weighted summation and leaky integration of synaptic inputs, as well as an Oja-like, but parameter-free, synaptic learning rule. Our theoretical framework makes several predictions, some of which can be verified by the existing data, others require further experiments. Such framework should allow modeling the function of neuronal circuits without necessarily measuring all the microscopic biophysical parameters, as well as facilitate the design of neuromorphic electronics.Comment: 2013 Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers, see http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=681029

Effect of Warm Rolling on the Evolution of Microstructure, Microtexture and Mechanical Properties of Commercial Grade Duplex Steel

AbstractThe effect of warm rolling on the evolution of microstructure, microtexture and mechanical properties of a duplex stainless steel (DSS) was investigated. For this purpose, the DSS alloy was warm rolled at 625°C up to 90% reduction of thickness. Development of ultrafine lamellar morphology with alternate arrangement of the two phases was revealed during warm rolling. The ferrite in DSS developed stronger RD-fiber (RD//<110>) than ND-fiber (ND//<111>) while austenite in DSS showed pure metal or copper type texture. The DSS in the as warm-rolled condition showed tremendous increase in ultimate tensile strength to∼1.4GPa. The present results demonstrate that warm rolling can be used successfully for developing ultrahigh strength DSS

Influence of folate on arterial permeability and stiffness in the absence or presence of hyperhomocysteinemia

Journal ArticleElevation of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood.1 Worldwide, the most common cause of mild hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is deficiency of folate.2,3 Some4-8 but not all9,10 studies suggest that folate deficiency contributes to cardiovascular disease in a manner that is independent of its ability to elevate plasma tHcy.11 We have reported that HHcy evoked by folate depletion increases arterial permeability and stiffness in rats.1

September the 11th 2001 and Security Dilemma

Security and insecurity are complex concepts that states have problem in defining them in different conditions. Complexity of the concepts comes out of security dilemma which states face when they seek to recognize enemy and scale of threat that the enemy may cause. Events of September the 11th formed a new condition in which United States faced the security dilemma that had not risen from a specific country but the enemy that was not recognizable and did not behave like states. United States attempted to solve the mentioned security dilemma by defining enemy, its threats and the new condition after events of September the 11th. This article, in order to explain the security dilemma of the United States after events of the September the 11th, is written in two parts; the first part is to explain security dilemma and the approaches that have been given to solve it and the second part tends to explain the security dilemma that United States faced after terrorist attacks of September the 11th 2001. Keywords: Security dilemma; Terrorism; United States; September the 11thRésumé: La sécurité et l'insécurité sont des concepts complexes et les Etats ont des difficultés à les définir dans des conditions différentes. La complexité des concepts vient du dilemme de sécurité auquel les Etats font face quand ils cherchent à reconnaître l'ennemi et l'ampleur de la menace que l'ennemi peut causer. Les événements du 11 septembre a formé une nouvelle condition, dans laquelle les États-Unis ont fait face à un dilemme de sécurité qui ne venait pas d'un pays spécifique, mais d'un ennemi non reconnaissable qui ne se comportait pas comme des États. Les États-Unis ont tenté de résoudre ce dilemme de sécurité par la définition de l'ennemi, de ses menaces et de la nouvelle condition après les événements du 11 septembre. Cet article, afin d'expliquer le dilemme de la sécurité des États-Unis après les événements du 11 septembre, est composé en deux parties: la première partie est d'expliquer le dilemme de sécurité et les approches qui ont été utilisées pour le résoudre et la deuxième partie tend à expliquer le dilemme de sécurité auquel les États-Unis font face après les attentats terroristes du 11 septembre 2001.Mots-clés: dilemme de sécurité; terrorisme; États-Unis; 11 septembr

September the 11th 2001 and Security Dilemma

Security and insecurity are complex concepts that states have problem in defining them in different conditions. Complexity of the concepts comes out of security dilemma which states face when they seek to recognize enemy and scale of threat that the enemy may cause. Events of September the 11th formed a new condition in which United States faced the security dilemma that had not risen from a specific country but the enemy that was not recognizable and did not behave like states. United States attempted to solve the mentioned security dilemma by defining enemy, its threats and the new condition after events of September the 11th. This article, in order to explain the security dilemma of the United States after events of the September the 11th, is written in two parts; the first part is to explain security dilemma and the approaches that have been given to solve it and the second part tends to explain the security dilemma that United States faced after terrorist attacks of September the 11th 2001. Keywords: Security dilemma; Terrorism; United States; September the 11thRésumé: La sécurité et l'insécurité sont des concepts complexes et les Etats ont des difficultés à les définir dans des conditions différentes. La complexité des concepts vient du dilemme de sécurité auquel les Etats font face quand ils cherchent à reconnaître l'ennemi et l'ampleur de la menace que l'ennemi peut causer. Les événements du 11 septembre a formé une nouvelle condition, dans laquelle les États-Unis ont fait face à un dilemme de sécurité qui ne venait pas d'un pays spécifique, mais d'un ennemi non reconnaissable qui ne se comportait pas comme des États. Les États-Unis ont tenté de résoudre ce dilemme de sécurité par la définition de l'ennemi, de ses menaces et de la nouvelle condition après les événements du 11 septembre. Cet article, afin d'expliquer le dilemme de la sécurité des États-Unis après les événements du 11 septembre, est composé en deux parties: la première partie est d'expliquer le dilemme de sécurité et les approches qui ont été utilisées pour le résoudre et la deuxième partie tend à expliquer le dilemme de sécurité auquel les États-Unis font face après les attentats terroristes du 11 septembre 2001.Mots-clés: dilemme de sécurité; terrorisme; États-Unis; 11 septembr

Old Mice Exhibit Greater Skeletal Muscle Cxcl10 Gene Expression

Advanced age is associated with impairments in glucose tolerance increasing the risk for metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes. Preliminary data from our lab demonstrates greater T-cell infiltration in the skeletal muscle with age and that depletion of T-cells improves glucose tolerance in old mice. The mechanisms responsible for increased T-cell recruitment to the skeletal muscles with age is not known. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether gene expression of the T-cell recruiting chemokine’s Cxcl10, Ccl5, and Ccl2 are altered with advanced age in mouse skeletal muscle. METHODS: 4 young mice (~6months) and 5 old mice (~24 months) were euthanized and the gastrocnemius was snap frozen and kept -80°C until further use. Muscles were homogenized and the RNA was extracted using the phenol chloroform method. After the extraction of the RNA, the complimentary DNA (cDNA) was synthesized and used for qPCR to assess the gene expression of Ccl2, Cxcl10, Ccl5, and 18s. The 18s gene was used as the endogenous control. Relative gene expression was determined using the delta delta CT method. Group differences were assessed with an independent sample t-test. RESULTS: All data are expressed as mean ± standard error. Relative Ccl2 gene expression was 1.76 ± 0.82 in young mice and 1.96 ± 0.59 in old mice (p=0.42). Relative Cxcl10 gene expression was 0.88 ± 0.24 in young mice and 13.86 ± 1.25 in old mice (p=0.04). Relative Ccl5 gene expression was 3.88 ± 3.34 in young mice and 1.32± 0.28 in old mice (p=0.21). CONCLUSION: Overall, this study suggests that Cxcl10 but not Ccl2 and Ccl5 gene expression is greater in the gastrocnemius muscle of old mice. These data suggest that increased production of Cxcl10 may be responsible for skeletal muscle T cell infiltration with age. Our study suggests that the T-cell recruiting chemokine Cxcl10 may be a target to preserve metabolic health in older adults

Non-Local Deformation of a Supersymmetric Field Theory

In this paper, we will analyse a supersymmetric field theory deformed by generalized uncertainty principle and Lifshitz scaling. It will be observed that this deformed supersymmetric field theory contains non-local fractional derivative terms. In order to construct such deformed N=1 supersymmetric theory, a harmonic extension of functions will be used. However, the supersymmetry will be only preserved for a free theory and will be broken by the inclusion of interaction terms.Comment: 12 pages, pulished versio