Modes and models in disorders of consciousness science

The clinical assessment of non-communicative brain damaged patients is extremely difficult and there is a need for paraclinical diagnostic markers of the level of consciousness. In the last few years, progress within neuroimaging has led to a growing body of studies investigating vegetative state and minimally conscious state patients, which can be classified in two main approaches. Active neuroimaging paradigms search for a response to command without requiring a motor response. Passive neuroimaging paradigms investigate spontaneous brain activity and brain responses to external stimuli and aim at identifying neural correlates of consciousness. Other passive paradigms eschew neuroimaging in favour of behavioural markers which reliably distinguish conscious and unconscious conditions in healthy controls. In order to furnish accurate diagnostic criteria, a mechanistic explanation of how the brain gives rise to consciousness seems desirable. Mechanistic and theoretical approaches could also ultimately lead to a unification of passive and active paradigms in a coherent diagnostic approach. In this paper, we survey current passive and active paradigms available for diagnosis of residual consciousness in vegetative state and minimally conscious patients. We then review the current main theories of consciousness and see how they can apply in this context. Finally, we discuss some avenues for future research in this domai

Can Corruption Be Studied in the Lab? Comparing a Field and a Lab Experiment

This paper makes an attempt at testing the external validity of corruption experiments by moving from the lab in a developed country, to where it matters the most, the field in a developing country. In our experiment a candidate proposes a bribe to a grader in order to obtain a better grade. We find the direction and the magnitude of most treatment effects to be statistically indistinguishable between the lab and the field. In particular, increasing the graders’.wage reduces in both environments the probability to accept the bribe. Finally, we identify several micro-determinants of corruption (age, religiousness, ability). Le présent article essaie de tester la validité externe des expériences sur la corruption en quittant le laboratoire dans un pays développé pour le terrain dans un pays en développement, où la corruption importe encore plus. Dans notre expérience, un candidat offre un pot-de-vin à un correcteur afin d’obtenir une meilleure note. Nous trouvons que la direction et la magnitude de la plupart des effets de traitement sont statistiquement indistinctibles entre le laboratoire et le terrain. En particulier, augmenter la rémunération des correcteurs réduit la probabilité d’accepter le pot-de-vin aussi bien en laboratoire que sur le terrain. Enfin, nous identifions plusieurs micro-déterminants de la corruption (âge, religiosité, habilité).corruption, experimental economics, field experiments., corruption, économie expérimentale, expérience sur le terrain.

On the effects of formalization on taxes and wages: Panel evidence from Vietnam

Based on a unique panel dataset consisting of both formal and informal firms surveyed every other year from 2005 to 2013, this paper explores the benefits of formalization to the government and firm employees in Vietnam. We find that formalization benefits the government by increasing the amount and the likelihood of tax payments. Formalization also increases the wage level paid by firms that shift out of the informal sector, as well as the share of wages in value added. Our results are therefore supportive of governments' efforts to reduce the size of the informal sector by promoting formalization

On the benefits of formalization: Panel evidence from Vietnam

This paper examines the relationship between formalization and firm-level outcomes in Vietnam using a unique panel dataset. Results show that switching firms differ from informal nonswitching firms, confirming heterogeneity. We also find that becoming formal leads to increased profits, value added, and revenue. The performance of switching firms is higher than that of informal ones, but remains lower compared to non-switching formal firms. Our results suggest that the benefits of formalization materialize in the short term and persist over time. These benefits run through access to improved equipment, larger customer base, advertising, and business association membership, but not access to credit

Effective anti-corruption policy-making: What can we learn from experimental economics?

Experimental studies have shown that deterrence (monitoring and punishment) can be an effective anti-corruption policy. Even when they themselves stand to lose, policymakers may enact deterrence policies with real teeth ... However, policymakers' legitimacy is crucial: a given deterrence policy is more effective when chosen by an honest policymaker as opposed to a corrupt one

Anti-corruption policy-making, discretionary power, and institutional quality: An experimental analysis

We analyse policy makers' incentives to fight corruption under different institutional qualities. We find that 'public officials', even when non-corrupt, significantly distort anti-corruption institutions by choosing a lower detection probability when this probability applies to their own actions (legal equality), compared to a setting where it does not (legal inequality). As 'public officials' are on average equally corrupt with or without legal equality, an institutional setting with legal equality can be considered worse in reducing corruption. Finally, corruption is significantly lower when the detection probability is exogenously set, suggesting that the institutional power to choose detection can itself be corruptive

Consciousness and responsiveness: Lessons from anaesthesia and the vegetative state

peer reviewedPURPOSE OF REVIEW: The aim of this article is to review recent behavioural and neuroimaging studies in anaesthesia and the vegetative state. RECENT FINDINGS: These studies highlight possible dissociations between consciousness and responsiveness in both these states. SUMMARY: We discuss future avenues of research in the field, in order to improve the detection of awareness during anaesthesia and the vegetative state using neuroimaging and neurophysiologic techniques

Aptitude à la multiplication végétative de huit espèces forestières d'intérêt au Burkina Faso

La production de plants a été étudiée dans le cadre de la mise en place du plan de gestion de la forêt villageoise de Diouroum. Les informations délivrées par les villageois ont notamment permis d'identifier 26 espèces locales qui se multiplient végétativement. Trois méthodes de multiplication, simples et peu coûteuses, ont été testées ensuite, de mai à juillet 2004. Huit espèces locales ont été étudiées. Des travaux d'excavation ont montré le drageonnage chez Faidherbia albida, Balanites aegyptiaca et Diospyros mespiliformis. La production de plants de F. albida par bouturage de segments de racines atteint, après deux mois, un taux de réussite de 47%, pour un diamètre optimal de 1,5 à 2 cm. Les essais de marcottage aérien ont mis en évidence la possibilité de produire des plants d'Acacia macrostachya, Lannea microcarpa et Tamarindus indica. L'induction de drageons par blessures de racines n'a pas permis d'obtenir de résultats chez les quatre espèces testées (F. albida, B. aegyptiaca, D. mespiliformis et L. microcarpa), durant cette courte période d'observation. De même, les essais de marcottage aérien chez Acacia nilotica et Ficus platyphylla et de bouturage de segments de racines chez L. microcarpa ont apparemment échoué. Ces travaux préliminaires nécessitent des études complémentaires à diverses périodes et durant au moins une année entière. (Résumé d'auteur

Mining and economic development: Did China's WTO accession affect African local economic development?

This paper investigates China's influence on local economic development in 37 African countries between 1997 and 2007. We compare the average changes in economic growth, migration, spatial inequality, and welfare of mineral-rich districts, both prior and after China's WTO Accession, to the corresponding changes in districts without any mineral endowment. Using this exogenous variation, we show that during 2002-07, mining activities in response to the global commodity price-boom increased welfare as measured by spatial Sen Index but were insignificant for local economic growth, migration, and spatial inequality. Our findings suggest that policy needs to do more to improve the local benefits of positive external shocks (such as China's WTO Accession): it is not enough to assume, given Africa's high spatial inequality, that local economies will automatically benefit from higher national growth