Economic growth and equality of opportunity

In this paper we argue that a better understanding of the relationship between inequality and growth can be obtained by shifting the analisys from the space of final achievements to the space of opportunities. To this end, we introduce the Opportunity Growth Incidence Curve, that can be used to evaluate the income dynamics of specific groups of the population and to infer the role of growth in the evolution of inequality of opportunity over time. By employng a rank dependent social welfare function we provide a rigorous normative justification for the use of the OGIC: we obtain suitable dominance conditions and we show how they can be interpreted in terms of OGIC dominance. We also propose an index that can be used to measure the impact of growth in terms of ooopotunity redistribution. Finally, we provide two empirical illustrations, for Italy and for Brasil, which show the potentials of the tools we have introduced.INCOME INEQUALITY, INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, ECONOMIC GROWTH

Green synthesis of vanillin: Pervaporation and dialysis for process intensification in a membrane reactor

In the present work, two different membrane processes (pervaporation and dialysis) are compared in view of their utilization in a membrane reactor, where vanillin, which is probably the most important aroma of the food industry, is synthesized in a green and sustainable way. The utilized precursor (ferulic acid, which is possibly a natural product from agricultural wastes) is partially oxidized (photocatalytically or biologically) and the product is continuously recovered from the reacting solution by the membrane process to avoid its degradation. It is observed that pervaporation is much more selective towards vanillin than dialysis, but the permeate flux of dialysis is much higher. Furthermore, dialysis can work also at lower temperatures and can be used to continuously restore the consumed substrate into the reacting mixture. A mathematical model of the integrated process (reaction combined with membrane separation) reproduces quite satisfactorily the experimental results and can be used for the analysis and the design of the process

Freshwater Food Habits of Salvelinus malma (Walbaum) on Amchitka Island, Alaska

Stomach contents of 3,672 Dolly Varden char collected from September 1967 to November 1968 were examined to determine the food habits of this species. Of these, 3,100 (86%) had food in their stomachs. Aquatic invertebrates (Insecta and Crustacea) comprised over 90% of the diet. Food habits varied with habitat. Aquatic insects were most important in the diet of stream fish while aquatic insects and crustaceans were most important in the diet of lake fish. Food habits of lake fish were re- 1ated to lake bottom type and access to the sea. Fish in landlocked lakes fed primarily on aquatic insects, fish, and fish eggs. In lakes with access to the sea, crustaceans, followed by aquatic insects, were the major food items in those with firm bottoms adjacent to shore while aquatic insects, followed by crustaceans, were the major food items in those with muck bottoms adjacent to shore. As fish size increased, feeding activity decreased and aquatic insects became less important in the diet while crustaceans and fish became more important. During summer, feeding activity was highest for lake fish while it was highest during autumn and summer for stream fish. Aquatic insects were the dominant food item in summer while crustaceans and fish were dominant in spring and autumn. Mature and immature fish of similar size ate similar organisms. Mature fish, however, fed more sporadically prior to spawning. Feeding activity was highest during daylight hours. Dolly Varden selected larger food items, such as insects and amphipods and ignored small items such as nematodes and oligochaetes

An aceylcholinesterase/choline oxidase-based amperometric biosensor as a liquid chromatography detector for acetylcholine and choline determination in brain tissue

A liquid chromatography (LC) detector based on a fast response and sensitive bienzyme amperometric biosensor for acetylcholine (ACh) and choline (Ch) is described. The detector fabrication consisted of glutaraldehyde co-crosslinking of acetylcholinesterase and choline oxidase with bovine serum albumin on the Pt working electrode of a conventional thin-layer electrochemical flow cell. The influence of some experimental parameters (e.g. enzyme loading, thickness of the bienzyme layer, flow rate) on the detector characteristics has been studied in order to optimize the analyte response while minimizing band broadening and distortion. A mobile phase consisting of a phosphate buffer (I 0.1 M, pH 6.5) containing 5 mM sodium hexane sulphonate and 10 mM tetramethylammonium phosphate was found to give very satisfactory resolution and peak shape in ion-pair, reversed-phase LC. Linear responses were observed over at least four decades and absolute detection limits (at a signal to noise ratio of 3) were 12 and 27 fmole injected for Ch and ACh, respectively. After one month of intensive use in the LC system, the detector retained about 70% of its initial sensitivity. The potential of the described approach is demonstrated by the simultaneous determination of Ch and ACh in rat brain tissue homogenates

Sequential biological and photocatalysis based treatments for shipboard slop purification: A pilot plant investigation

This study investigated the treatment of a shipboard slop containing commercial gasoline in a pilot plant scale consisting of a membrane biological reactor (MBR) and photocatalytic reactor (PCR) acting in series. The MBR contributed for approximately 70% to the overall slop purification. More precisely, the biological process was able to remove approximately 40%, on average, of the organic pollution in the slop. Nevertheless, the membrane was capable to retain a large amount of organic molecules within the system, amounting for a further 30% of the influent total organic content removal. However, this affected the membrane fouling, thus resulting in the increase of the pore blocking mechanism that accounted for approximately 20% to the total resistance to filtration (2.85∙10 13 m −1 ), even if a significant restoration of the original membrane permeability was obtained after chemical cleanings. On the other hand, the biological treatment produced a clear solution for the photocatalytic system, thereby optimizing the light penetration and generation of highly oxidizing active oxygen species that enabled the degradation of bio-recalcitrant compounds. Indeed, low total organic carbon (TOC) values (<10 mg L −1 ) were achieved in the output of the photocatalytic reactor by means of only 60 Einstein (E) of cumulative impinging energy after the addition of K 2 S 2 O 8 . Overall, coupling the two processes enabled very high TOC removal (ca. 95%)

The Individual Poverty Incidence of Growth

The canonical approach to analyse the poverty impact of growth is based on the comparison of poverty before and after growth. Measurement tools endorsing this approach fail to capture the different experiences of poverty dynamic in the population: there can be groups of the population made poorer or non-poor made poor by growth. We propose an approach that allows measuring this individual poverty incidence of growth and show how it is related with existing models. We apply our framework to evaluate the poverty impact of growth in Indonesia, by comparing the 1993–2000 with the 2000–07 and 2007–14 growth spells

Effect of stacking interactions on charge transfer states in photoswitches interacting with ion channels

The activity of ion channels can be reversibly photo-controlled via the binding of molecular photoswitches, often based on an azobenzene scaffold. Those azobenzene derivatives interact with aromatic residues of the protein via stacking interactions. In the present work, the effect of face-to-face and t-shaped stacking interactions on the excited state electronic structure of azobenzene and p-diaminoazobenzene integrated into the Na V1.4 channel is computationally investigated. The formation of a charge transfer state, caused by electron transfer from the protein to the photoswitches, is observed. This state is strongly red shifted when the interaction takes place in a face-to-face orientation and electron donating groups are present on the aromatic ring of the amino acids. The low-energy charge transfer state can interfere with the photoisomerization process after excitation to the bright state by leading to the formation of radical species. </p

The classical Lenz vector and the two-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator

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A disposable amperometric biosensor for rapid screening of anticholinesterase activity in soil extracts

A disposable amperometric biosensor for the determination of anticholinesterase activity in soil extracts is described. The sensitive membrane was obtained by co-crosslinking acetylcholinesterase and choline oxidase with bovine serum albumin using glutaraldehyde. The anticholinesterase activity of the soil extract was measured using chronoamperometry at 650 mV vs. Ag/AgCl to monitor the biocatalytically produced H2O2 before and after the inhibition step. An inhibition percentage of 38 ± 4% was recorded for soil extracts spiked with 10 ppb of ethyl parathion. The device has the potential to be used as a gross sensor for the assessment of anticholinesterase activity in soil extracts