Macroeconomic effects of the Barcelona Initiative

This paper compares ex post and ex ante assessments of the macroeconomic effects of trade liberalization in the Mediterranean. Using implications from a standard Ramsey growth model augmented for anticipation and implementation effects, we pool cross section and time series data to estimate ex post the effects of trade liberalization on a set of Arabic Southern Mediterranean Partner countries (SMPCs). We find significant and robust evidence for positive effects on major macro variables and discuss the appropriate policies. Second, we review a number of computable general equilibrium (CGE) studies which aimed at assessing the macroeconomic impacts for the same countries ex ante. CGE projections are very much at odds with the econometric findings and the biases seem to be systematic for all macro variables. Third, we use ANOVA techniques to identify possible shortcomings both with respect to design and target country of the CGE study. We find that even well-designed CGE studies targeted to an average type of country do not seem to yield reliable results. Overall, our analysis suggests that there is no sound statistical evidence to believe that CGE analysis has been useful in assessing the macroeconomic effects of trade liberalization in the Mediterranean. But we find considerable econometric evidence to support the view that free trade policies have enhanced growth in the MENA region

Integration of cranial base and face in growing subject

Background: many papers investigate the role of the cranial base in facial development, but the results are not in agreement. This can be due to a difference between the central and lateral parts of the cranial base. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the relationship between the central and the lateral cranial base and the facial skeleton in pre-pubertal peak subjects and at the end of growth. Material/Methods: a total sample of 52 latero-lateral cranial teleradiographs were analyzed. To test the correlation between structures, the "Partial Least Square" analysis was performed. Geometric morphometric analysis were applied and partial least square analysis was used to test correlation. Integration was studied removing the effect of allometry. Results: facial skeleton has no significant relation with central cranial base. Facial skeleton has significant relationships with the lateral portion of the cranial base. This relationship is higher in the post-peak phase of growth. Conclusion: the Integration between facial structures and cranial base is significant. The Spatial orientation and shape of the facial structures are both influenced by cranial base. This is mainly due to the lateral portion of cranial base

Periodontal Regenerative Treatment of Intrabony Defects Associated with Palatal Grooves: A Report of Two Cases

A palatal radicular groove (PRG) is a morphological deformity, occurring during tooth development. It is usually located on the palatal aspect of maxillary incisors and frequently associated with periodontal or endodontic-periodontal lesions. Some treatment options were described for such lesions, including primary endodontic treatment and periodontal surgery and extraction with intentional replantation after removal of a PRG and endodontic treatment. The present paper reported two cases of PRG-associated deep intrabony defects, successfully treated with periodontal surgery with enamel matrix derivative (EMD) application and mechanical removal of PRGs, avoiding endodontic treatment or retreatment. The complexity of the diagnostic process was also discussed

The Planck Surveyor mission: astrophysical prospects

Although the Planck Surveyor mission is optimized to map the cosmic microwave background anisotropies, it will also provide extremely valuable information on astrophysical phenomena. We review our present understanding of Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds relevant to the mission and discuss on one side, Planck's impact on the study of their properties and, on the other side, to what extent foreground contamination may affect Planck's ability to accurately determine cosmological parameters. Planck's multifrequency surveys will be unique in their coverage of large areas of the sky (actually, of the full sky); this will extend by two or more orders of magnitude the flux density interval over which mm/sub-mm counts of extragalactic sources can be determined by instruments already available (like SCUBA) or planned for the next decade (like the LSA-MMA or the space mission FIRST), which go much deeper but over very limited areas. Planck will thus provide essential complementary information on the epoch-dependent luminosity functions. Bright radio sources will be studied over a poorly explored frequency range where spectral signatures, essential to understand the physical processes that are going on, show up. The Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, with its extremely rich information content, will be observed in the direction of a large number of rich clusters of Galaxies. Thanks again to its all sky coverage, Planck will provide unique information on the structure and on the emission properties of the interstellar medium in the Galaxy. At the same time, the foregrounds are unlikely to substantially limit Planck's ability to measure the cosmological signals. Even measurements of polarization of the primordial Cosmic Microwave background fluctuations appear to be feasible.Comment: 20 pages, Latex (use aipproc2.sty, aipproc2.cls, epsfig.sty), 10 PostScript figures; invited review talk, Proc. of the Conference: "3 K Cosmology", Roma, Italy, 5-10 October 1998, AIP Conference Proc, in press Note: Figures 6 and 7 have been replaced by new and correct version

Anatomical factors associated with gender recognizability: A study on intraoral standardized photographs

AIM: The aim of this research was to evaluate the possibility of identifying the sex of 1 subject through visual assessment of a frontal photograph of dentition, and to investigate if some morphological characteristics are related to sex determination. METHODS: 5 expert dentists, 5 non-expert dentists and 5 laypeople were made to watch 100 intraoral photographs for 5 seconds each and to establish their sex. The responses of the participants and the baseline characteristics of photographed dentitions were analyzed. RESULTS: The proportion of right answers was 56.0% \ub1 8.2% in the group of expert dentists, 65.0% \ub1 6.0% in the group of non-expert dentists and 58.6% \ub1 4.5% in the group of non-expert people. The round shape of maxillary central incisors was related to the female gender (P = .006). The male condition was correlated with poor oral hygiene for 4 observers. Female sex perception was correlated with round morphology of upper central incisors for 3 observers. CONCLUSION: No difference in the ability to determine the sex was registered among groups, suggesting that sex perception is not strongly influenced by the characteristics of dentition

On the Nature of Intrinsic Absorption in Reddened Seyfert 1 Galaxies

We discuss the origin of the ``dusty lukewarm absorber'', which we previously identified in the reddened Seyfert 1 galaxies NGC 3227 and Akn 564. This absorber is characterized by saturated UV absorption lines (C IV, N V) near the systemic velocity of the host galaxy, and is likely responsible for reddening both the continuum and the emission lines (including those from the narrow-line region) from these Seyferts. From a large sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies, we find that continuum reddening (as measured by UV color) tends to increase with inclination of the host galaxy. Furthermore, reddened, inclined Seyfert galaxies observed at moderate to high spectral resolution all show evidence for dusty lukewarm absorbers. We suggest that these absorbers lie in the plane of the host galaxy at distances > 100 pc from the nucleus, and are physically distinct from the majority of intrinsic absorbers that are outflowing from the nucleus.Comment: 14 pages, including 2 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (Letters

Filter design for the detection of compact sources based on the Neyman-Pearson detector

This paper considers the problem of compact source detection on a Gaussian background in 1D. Two aspects of this problem are considered: the design of the detector and the filtering of the data. Our detection scheme is based on local maxima and it takes into account not only the amplitude but also the curvature of the maxima. A Neyman-Pearson test is used to define the region of acceptance, that is given by a sufficient linear detector that is independent on the amplitude distribution of the sources. We study how detection can be enhanced by means of linear filters with a scaling parameter and compare some of them (the Mexican Hat wavelet, the matched and the scale-adaptive filters). We introduce a new filter, that depends on two free parameters (biparametric scale-adaptive filter). The value of these two parameters can be determined, given the a priori pdf of the amplitudes of the sources, such that the filter optimizes the performance of the detector in the sense that it gives the maximum number of real detections once fixed the number density of spurious sources. The combination of a detection scheme that includes information on the curvature and a flexible filter that incorporates two free parameters (one of them a scaling) improves significantly the number of detections in some interesting cases. In particular, for the case of weak sources embedded in white noise the improvement with respect to the standard matched filter is of the order of 40%. Finally, an estimation of the amplitude of the source is introduced and it is proven that such an estimator is unbiased and it has maximum efficiency. We perform numerical simulations to test these theoretical ideas and conclude that the results of the simulations agree with the analytical ones.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, version accepted for publication in MNRAS. Corrected typos in Tab.

Simulations of Galactic Cosmic Ray Impacts on the Herschel/PACS bolometer Arrays with Geant4 Code

The effects of the in-flight behaviour of the bolometer arrays of the Herschel/PACS instrument under impacts of Galactic cosmic rays are explored. This instrument is part of the ESA-Herschel payload, which will be launched at the end of 2008 and will operate at the Lagrangian L2 point of the Sun-Earth system. We find that the components external to the detectors (the spacecraft, the cryostat, the PACS box, collectively referred to as the `shield') are the major source of secondary events affecting the detector behaviour. The impacts deposit energy on the bolometer chips and influence the behaviour of nearby pixels. 25% of hits affect the adjacent pixels. The energy deposited raises the bolometer temperature by a factor ranging from 1 to 6 percent of the nominal value. We discuss the effects on the observations and compare simulations with laboratory tests.Comment: Experimental Astronomy, 2008, in pres

Bayesian methodology for probabilistic description of mechanical parameters of masonry walls

In consideration of the high vulnerability of the built environment, the assessment of seismic behavior of existing masonry buildings is a key topic in view of their retrofitting and reuse. Because masonry's behavior depends on complex nonhomogeneous, anisotropic, asymmetric, and nonlinear properties, the definition of suitable mechanical models is still a critical issue, especially for stone masonry. Structural analyses of existing masonry buildings in seismic-prone areas are thus significantly influenced by the adopted mechanical models and assumptions about their relevant masonry properties, which are characterized by large uncertainty. In this study, a procedure for the definition of masonry classes and probability density functions of relevant mechanical parameters, such as elastic modulus and shear modulus, is proposed. The general procedure is illustrated referring to a significant number of in situ double-flat-jack test results on stone masonry obtained by the authors during an ad hoc experimental campaign. Finally, combining information on masonry quality obtained by visual inspection with results of in situ tests, a Bayesian methodology is proposed for the updating of masonry mechanical parameters, thereby providing the basis for a more refined probabilistic assessment of the seismic risk index. DOI: 10.1061/AJRUA6.0001110. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Case for Optically-Thick High Velocity Broad Line Region Gas in Active Galactic Nuclei

A combined analysis of the profiles of the main broad quasar emission lines in both Hubble Space Telescope and optical spectra shows that while the profiles of the strong UV lines are quite similar, there is frequently a strong increase in the Ly-alpha/H-alpha ratio in the high-velocity gas. We show that the suggestion that the high velocity gas is optically-thin presents many problems. We show that the relative strengths of the high velocity wings arise naturally in an optically-thick BLR component. An optically-thick model successfully explains the equivalent widths of the lines, the Ly-alpha/H-alpha ratios and flatter Balmer decrements in the line wings, the strengths of CIII] and the lambda 1400 blend, and the strong variability of high-velocity, high-ionization lines (especially HeII and HeI).Comment: 34 pages in AASTeX, including 10 pages of figures. Submitted to Astrophysical Journa