The Dynamic Effects of Disinflation Policies.

This paper investigates the effects of disinflation policies on key macroeconomic variables. Using postwar US data and episode techniques, we identify disinflation shocks as shocks that drive the inflation rate to a lower level in the long-run. We find that in the immediate aftermath of a disinflation policy, the economy enters in a persistent recession. The inflation rate increases above its long-run level and exhibits a positive hump-shaped response. A similar pattern is found for the nominal interest rate, which responds even more strongly in the short-run. We then show that the standard new Keynesian model fails to account for macroeconomic dynamics in disinflationary times. On the contrary a deep habit version of the model successfully accounts for the effects of disinflation policies.Disinflation policies ; Deep Habits ; New Keynesian Models.

Putting your money where your self is: Connecting dimensions of closeness and theories of personal identity

Studying personal identity, the continuity and sameness of persons across lifetimes, is notoriously difficult and competing conceptualizations exist within philosophy and psychology. Personal reidentification, linking persons between points in time is a fundamental step in allocating merit and blame and assigning rights and privileges. Based on Nozick's (1981) closest continuer theory we develop a theoretical framework that explicitly invites a meaningful empirical approach and offers a constructive, integrative solution to current disputes about appropriate experiments. Following Nozick, reidentification involves judging continuers on a metric of continuity and choosing the continuer with the highest acceptable value on this metric. We explore both the metric and its implications for personal identity. Since James (1890), academic theories have variously attributed personal identity to the continuity of memories, psychology, bodies, social networks, and possessions. In our experiments, we measure how participants (N = 1, 525) weighted the relative contributions of these five dimensions in hypothetical fission accidents, in which a person was split into two continuers. Participants allocated compensation money (Study 1) or adjudicated inheritance claims (Study 2) and reidentified the original person. Most decided based on the continuity of memory, personality, and psychology, with some consideration given to the body and social relations. Importantly, many participants identified the original with both continuers simultaneously, violating the transitivity of identity relations. We discuss the findings and their relevance for philosophy and psychology and place our approach within the current theoretical and empirical landscape

Orientation in Friedel-Crafts Acetylation of Nerolineand Its 6-Alkyl Homologues

The Friedel-Crafts acetylation of neroline in nitrobenzene medium is shown to result predominantly either in 1- or in 6-substitution,depending on the experimental conditions; as a byproduct, 1,6-diacetyl-2-methoxynaphthalene is obtained. Further,it is shown that 6-alkylated nerolines such as 6-propyl-2-methoxynaphthalene, are acetylated in position 1, even in nitrobenzene medium, and that 1,6-dialkylated nerolines such as 6-ethyl-2- methoxy-1-methylnaphthalene, can also be acetylated, whilst 1,6-dialkyl-2-naphthols are unable to undergo Nencki acylation reactions. In the course of this work, certain errors in the literature have been corrected

Orientation in Friedel-Crafts Acetylation of Nerolineand Its 6-Alkyl Homologues

The Friedel-Crafts acetylation of neroline in nitrobenzene medium is shown to result predominantly either in 1- or in 6-substitution,depending on the experimental conditions; as a byproduct, 1,6-diacetyl-2-methoxynaphthalene is obtained. Further,it is shown that 6-alkylated nerolines such as 6-propyl-2-methoxynaphthalene, are acetylated in position 1, even in nitrobenzene medium, and that 1,6-dialkylated nerolines such as 6-ethyl-2- methoxy-1-methylnaphthalene, can also be acetylated, whilst 1,6-dialkyl-2-naphthols are unable to undergo Nencki acylation reactions. In the course of this work, certain errors in the literature have been corrected

NLO-QCD Corrections to Dilepton Production in the Randall-Sundrum Model

The dilepton production process at hadron colliders in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model is studied at next-to-leading order in QCD. The NLO-QCD corrections have been computed for the virtual graviton exchange process in the RS model, in addition to the usual gamma, Z-mediated processes of standard Drell-Yan. K-factors for the cross-sections at the LHC and Tevatron for differential in the invariant mass, Q, and the rapidity, Y, of the lepton pair are presented. We find the K-factors are large over substantial regions of the phase space.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figure

Fitness landscape of the cellular automata majority problem: View from the Olympus

In this paper we study cellular automata (CAs) that perform the computational Majority task. This task is a good example of what the phenomenon of emergence in complex systems is. We take an interest in the reasons that make this particular fitness landscape a difficult one. The first goal is to study the landscape as such, and thus it is ideally independent from the actual heuristics used to search the space. However, a second goal is to understand the features a good search technique for this particular problem space should possess. We statistically quantify in various ways the degree of difficulty of searching this landscape. Due to neutrality, investigations based on sampling techniques on the whole landscape are difficult to conduct. So, we go exploring the landscape from the top. Although it has been proved that no CA can perform the task perfectly, several efficient CAs for this task have been found. Exploiting similarities between these CAs and symmetries in the landscape, we define the Olympus landscape which is regarded as the ''heavenly home'' of the best local optima known (blok). Then we measure several properties of this subspace. Although it is easier to find relevant CAs in this subspace than in the overall landscape, there are structural reasons that prevent a searcher from finding overfitted CAs in the Olympus. Finally, we study dynamics and performance of genetic algorithms on the Olympus in order to confirm our analysis and to find efficient CAs for the Majority problem with low computational cost

A MicroRNA Signature of Response to Erlotinib is Descriptive of TGFβ Behaviour in NSCLC

Our previous work identified a 13-gene miRNA signature predictive of response to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, erlotinib, in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer cell lines. Bioinformatic analysis of the signature showed a functional convergence on TGFβ canonical signalling. We hypothesized that TGFβ signalling controls expression of the miRNA genes comprising an erlotinib response signature in NSCLC. Western analysis revealed that TGFβ signalling via Smad2/3/4 occurred differently between erlotinib-resistant A549 and erlotinib- sensitive PC9 cells. We showed that TGFβ induced an interaction between Smad4 and putative Smad Binding Elements in PC9. However, qRT-PCR analysis showed that endogenous miR-140/141/200c expression changes resulted from time in treatments, not the treatments themselves. Moreover, flow cytometry indicated that cells exited the cell cycle in the same manner. Taken together these data indicated that the miRNA comprising the signature are likely regulated by the cell cycle rather than by TGFβ. Importantly, this work revealed that TGFβ did not induce EMT in PC9 cells, but rather TGFβ-inhibition induced an EMT-intermediate. These data also show that growth/proliferation signals by constitutively-activated EGFR may rely on TGFβ and a possible relationship between TGFβ and EGFR signalling may prevent EMT progression in this context rather than promote it

Self-government, memory and strife: Negotiating the past in selected villages of mountainous Evritania.

The thesis explores the effects of a particular past on a number of mountain villages in Evritania, Central Greece. Most fieldwork data are drawn from one of these villages, Agios Vissarios. In the thesis, the particular past refers both to a local history coincident with a national one, and to the ways in which this history is reconstructed in contemporary historical discourse. Two features are identified as dominating that past: a changing dynamic between the rural community and the 'outside' on the one hand, and the experience of civil strife on the other. The framework within which these features are examined is provided by 'self-government'. This entails detailing aspects of Ottoman rule in Evritania; the grass-root experiments with forms of local administration and arbitration in the 1930s & 1940s; and the effects of civil war which followed World War Two in Greece. Within this context the thesis considers how historical forces structure 'popular mentalities', like memory, and argues that aspects of village life today are predicated on the memory of its particular past. At the same time, the thesis illustrates one way in which anthropology and history can be fruitfully combined in the investigation of certain social phenomena. The Introduction elaborates on these key issues and outlines some methodological problems, the resolution of which are integral to the organization of data in the thesis and the overall argument. The ensuing two chapters detail the Present Ethnography of the fieldwork area, identifying specific social relations to highlight the interplay between the village and outside forces, and the legacy of civil war. The Past is then covered in two parts. In the first, self-government is located within a socio-historical context. The ways in which memory acts in historical discourse are explored against this background. In the following part, the war years (1940-50) are considered in terms of the wartime institutions of 'popular rule' and their ensuing codifications. The wider economic and legal significance of the institutions for Evritania are also discussed. The final chapters of the thesis integrate aspects of Past and Present. The civil war is reappraised and the relationship to emigration is investigated. In conclusion, a hypothesis is advanced to illustrate how - through memory - the experience of a particular past acts to create a conceptual dichotomy which lies at the base of a complex but enduring village identity