The failed promise of foreign direct investment: some remarks on ‘malign’ investment and political instability in former Soviet states

The policy of key international organisation continues to be informed by the assumption that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has an unambiguously positive effect on recipient nations. However, there is increasing evidence that, on a global scale, increased trade and investment flows from rich to poorer nations have not contributed to a convergence of levels of income and well-being. This is particularly apparent in the context of former Soviet states, many of which continue to experience a decline, in both relative and absolute terms, in per capita GDP alongside a diminution in the life expectancy of their populations. Examining data on FDI received by former Soviet States from 1997 to 2005, this paper notes, firstly, that these investments have been concentrated on a few, typical natural-resource-rich states. Secondly, it observes that even these resource-rich countries experienced massive fluctuations in terms of the amounts of FDI they received over this time period. Lastly, the paper examines the impact of FDI on a number of country risk indicators via a pooled regression model which includes data for twelve former Soviet countries, namely the Central and Eastern European States of Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine, and the Central Asian Republics of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This analysis indicates that FDI has either a marginally negative effect on individual country risk measures such as in the case of ‘Overall Country Risk’, or significantly negative effects as in the case of ‘Economic Risk’ and ‘Legal Risk’. The paper concludes that there is strong case for questioning the existing orthodoxy which argues that problems of transition can be overcome via increased FDI and which continues to advise former Soviet states to pursue foreign capital at all cost

Statistics of 3-dimensional Lagrangian turbulence

We consider a superstatistical dynamical model for the 3-d movement of a Lagrangian tracer particle embedded in a high-Reynolds number turbulent flow. The analytical model predictions are in excellent agreement with recent experimental data for flow between counter-rotating disks. In particular, we calculate the Lagrangian scaling exponents zeta_j for our system, and show that they agree well with the measured exponents reported in [X. Hu et al., PRL 96, 114503 (2006)]. Moreover, the model correctly predicts the shape of velocity difference and acceleration probability densities, the fast decay of component correlation functions and the slow decay of the modulus, as well as the statistical dependence between acceleration components. Finally, the model explains the numerically [P.K. Yeung and S.B. Pope, J. Fluid Mech. 207, 531 (1989)] and experimentally observed fact [B.W. Zeff et al., Nature 421, 146 (2003)] that enstrophy lags behind dissipation.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Replaced by final version accepted by Phys. Rev. Let

A review and comparative analysis of arsenic, cadmium, lead,and mercury in Thai rice, soil, chemical fertilisers and pesticides

Arsenic (As) and other heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) have adverse health implications as human carcinogens. Many studies have shown high concentration of some of these elements in rice. Their presence can be attributed to the application of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in the cultivation of the rice and residues from the soil. Thus, consumers that depend on rice as a staple may face potential health risks. There are regulatory controls in various countries to limit the amount of some of these metals in rice. In the European Union (EU) the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as amended, sets the maximum residue limit for arsenic and cadmium in white rice at 0.20 mg/kg. There was no limit for lead and mercury. In this research, rice, rice husk, soil, chemical fertilisers and pesticides were collected between January and March 2015 from Thailand. The levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury were compared with international and national standards. 43 rice, 41 rice husk and 42 soil samples were selected from paddy fields in the north of Thailand where the rice was grown in industrially uncontaminated soil. The heavy metal content of the rice samples was analysed using inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that the means of these heavy metal in rice were 1.8 ppb (range 0.5-4.0, n=43) for arsenic, 0.4 ppb (range 0.1-2.2) for cadmium, 1.0 ppb (range 0.4-2.0) for lead, and 0.1 ppb (range -0.03-0.3) for mercury. It also found that the average level of arsenic in rice was lower than the guideline limit of 200 ppb (equivalent 0.2 mg/kg) set out by the Codex Alimentarius for arsenic in white rice. Although cadmium, lead and mercury were detected in the rice, the levels of these trace elements were not significant. The means of the main trace elements in rice husk were as follows: arsenic: 2.0 ppb (range 0.5-4.6, n=41), cadmium: 0.3 ppb (range 0.1-0.8), lead: 0.7 ppb (range 0.76.1) and mercury: 0.1 ppb (range -0.0-0.7). The average concentration of heavy metals in soil was 17.9 ppb, (range 5.2-46.0, n=42) for arsenic, 0.8 ppb (range 0.3-3.0) for cadmium, 83.5 ppb (range 35.6-130.1) for lead, and 0.2 ppb (range 0.1-0.8) for mercury. In Thailand, the Pollution Control Department (PCD) specified a maximum limit of 3.9 mg/kg for arsenic in agricultural soil. At present, there is no record of heavy metal control in rice husk. The results indicated that the arsenic content (mean 17.9 ppb or 0.018 mg/kg) in the soil samples was relatively low compared to the permissible limit. The highest amount found was lead, with a concentration of 83.6 ppb, (equivalent of 0.08 mg/kg) although by reference to PCD (2016), this was well below the Thai acceptable limit of 400 mg/kg for lead in soil. A similar analysis of the 5 synthetic chemical fertilisers showed that the mean of arsenic was 56.1 ppb (range 0.0-158.7 ppb), cadmium: 2.5 ppb (range 0.1- 7.1 ppb), and lead: 4.1 ppb (range 0.8 -9.6), respectively. Mercury was not found in any of the synthetic fertilizers. Similarly, five pesticides were analysed and neither arsenic nor mercury was detected in any of the pesticide samples. However, the average value for cadmium was 0.1 ppb with no range and 0.7 ppb (range 0.5-0.8 ppb) for lead. It was found that both arsenic and lead concentrations were significantly lower in the rice than in the soil samples (p husk > rice. Regarding a risk assessment, it can be concluded from this study that a normal daily intake of selected Thai rice would not be a health concern for humans

Linear response theory around a localized impurity in the pseudogap regime of an anisotropic superconductor: precursor pairing vs the d-density-wave scenario

We derive the polarizability of an electron system in (i) the superconducting phase, with d-wave symmetry, (ii) the pseudogap regime, within the precursor pairing scenario, and (iii) the d-density-wave (dDW) state, characterized by a d-wave hidden order parameter, but no pairing. Such a calculation is motivated by the recent proposals that imaging the effects of an isolated impurity may distinguish between precursor pairing and dDW order in the pseudogap regime of the high-Tc superconductors. In all three cases, the wave-vector dependence of the polarizability is characterized by an azymuthal modulation, consistent with the d-wave symmetry of the underlying state. However, only the dDW result shows the fingerprints of nesting, with nesting wave-vector Q=(pi,pi), albeit imperfect, due to a nonzero value of the hopping ratio t'/t in the band dispersion relation. As a consequence of nesting, the presence of hole pockets is also exhibited by the (q,omega) dependence of the retarded polarizability.Comment: accepted in Phys. Rev.

Breakup coupling effects on near-barrier ⁶Li, ⁷Be and ⁸B + ⁵⁸Ni elastic scattering compared

New data for near-barrier 6Li, 7Be and 8B + 58Ni elastic scattering enable a comparison of breakup coupling effects for these loosely-bound projectiles. Coupled Discretised Continuum Channels (CDCC) calculations suggest that the large total reaction cross sections for 8B + 58Ni are dominated by breakup at near-barrier energies, unlike 6Li and 7Be where breakup makes a small contribution. In spite of this, the CDCC calculations show a small coupling influence due to breakup for 8B, in contrast to the situation for 6Li and 7Be. An examination of the S matrices gives a clue to this counter-intuitive behaviour

Internal structure of preformed Cooper pairs

In order to obtain information about the internal structure of the preformed pairs in the pseudogap state of high $T_c$ superconductors, we calculate the propagator of a singlet pair with center of mass coordinate $\mathbf{r}$, and relative distance $\pmb{\rho}$, by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation, representing the sum over repeated two-particle scattering events due to a distance dependent attraction. We define then a ``pair structure function'' $g_{P}(\mathbf{P},\pmb{\rho})$ that depends on the internal distance $\pmb{\rho}$ between the partners and on the momentum $\mathbf{P}$ of the pair. We calculate this function both for a local potential and $s-$wave symmetry of the order parameter and for a separable potential and $d-$wave symmetry of the order parameter. The influence of the center of mass momentum, strenght of the interaction, temperature, density of particles and of the pseudogap in the one-electron spectrum is studied for both cases.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX4, 8 EPS figure

Aphidophagous Coccinellids in Alfalfa, Small Grains, and Maize in Eastern South Dakota

In a 13-year study of aphidophagous coccinellids associated with alfalfa (Medicago sativa), maize (Zea mays), and small grain crops in eastern South Dakota, the following species were consistently associated with the crops: Hippodamia convergens, H. tredecimpunctata tibialis, H. parenthesis, Coleomegilla maculata lengi, Coccinella transversoguttata richardsoni, Cycloneda munda, and Adalia bipunctata. All species except A. bipunctata were associated with each of the three crops, while A. bipunctata occurred only in maize. Relative abundances of each species varied among crops and among years. Although only seven species were associated with the crops, additional species were captured on sticky traps stationed adjacent to sampled fields. The species diversity of immature coccinellids did not differ among crops but did differ among years. The diversity of adults differed among crops and years. The site from which samples were taken had no influence on the diversity of immatures or adults. Species relative abundances in alfalfa and small grains were more similar to each other than they were to relative abundances in maize

Who Gets the Credit? And Does it Matter? Household vs Firm Lending Across Countries

While theory predicts different effects of household credit and enterprise credit on the economy, the empirical literature has mainly used aggregate measures of overall bank lending to the private sector. We construct a new dataset from 45 developed and developing countries, decomposing bank lending into lending to enterprises and lending to households and assess the different effects of these two components on real sector outcomes. We find that: 1) enterprise credit raises economic growth whereas household credit has no effect; 2) enterprise credit reduces income inequality whereas household credit has no effect; and 3) household credit is negatively associated with excess consumption sensitivity, while there is no relationship between enterprise credit and excess consumption sensitivity.Financial Intermediation;Household Credit;Firm Credit

A Descriptive Study of the Population Dynamics of Adult \u3ci\u3eDiabrotica Virgifera Virgifera\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Artificially Infested Corn Fields

The influence of corn plant phenology on the dynamics of adult western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, populations was studied during 1988 and 1989 in com fields artificially infested with eggs. Fifty percent of adult emergence from the soil occurred by day 194 in 1988 and day 203 in 1989. In both years, adult emergence was synchronized with corn flowering, eggs were recovered in soil samples approximately four days after reproductive females were first observed in the population, and oviposition was essentially complete about 25 days after it began. The number of reproductive female beetle-days accumulating per m2 was similar in both years. Approximately two times as many eggs were laid in 1988 (1239 eggs 1m2) as in 1989 (590 eggs 1m2). The difference in egg density may have been caused by differences among years in the temporal synchrony of reproductive beetles with flowering corn. Daily survival rates of adults were high while corn was flowering; exhibited a gradual decline during grain filling; and decreased rapidly during the grain drying stage