Autocracies and Development in a Global Economy: A Tale of Two Elites

This paper studies how comparative advantage and the political elites' endowments shape long-run performance in an economy with imperfect political institutions. In a capital-scarce economy, an autocrat catering to the needs of landowners favours openness to trade at an early stage of development, while an autocrat complying with the preferences of capitalists chooses to shelter the economy from trade. The trade regime interacts with economic institutions, and with policies on capital mobility, to govern capital accumulation. A landed autocrat neglects to improve institutions and blocks foreign capital to maximize extractable rents, leading the economy towards stagnation. By contrast, a capitalist autocrat strengthens institutions, which promotes manufacturing TFP growth, gradually shifts the comparative advantage towards manufacturing and renders the economy attractive to foreign investors. Allowing for trade and foreign capital inflows are thus complementary policies that provide an environment of growth and development in the capital autocracy.

Tratamento da paralisia facial de Bell pela cortisona

Escola Paulista de MedicinaUNIFESP, EPMSciEL

Message in a bottle : a tale of two Triassic temnospondyl (labyrinthodont) femora from Tasmania

In 1997 the senior author, while exploring the antique shops of Hobart, found in Suffolk Park Antiques an intriguing small, nineteenth-century, clear glass bottle. Labelled as "message in a bottle", it did indeed contain a note on a slip, cut from a visiting card, together with a wafer-thin, sub-triangular piece of dark, porous material (pl. 1). The handwritten note read "section shaft humerus labryinthodont, sandstone quarry, Hobart, 1856, Tas Museum".A further annotation, written at right angles to the preceding note, appears to read "Pro R.S.T 1898-9". Pro R.S.T. is an abbreviated reference to the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, 1898-99. This issue of the journal included a short note by WH. Twelvetrees and WF. Petterd describing and illustrating two labyrinthodont bones from Tasmania lodged in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) collection. Here we trace the history of the two temnospondyl (labyrinthodont) bones, review the significance of these specimens and propose an explanation as to how part of one specimen came to be in the Suffolk Park Antiques sho

PACAP and migraine headache: immunomodulation of neural circuits in autonomic ganglia and brain parenchyma.

The discovery that intravenous (IV) infusions of the neuropeptide PACAP-38 (pituitary adenylyl cyclase activating peptide-38) induced delayed migraine-like headaches in a large majority of migraine patients has resulted in considerable excitement in headache research. In addition to suggesting potential therapeutic targets for migraine, the finding provides an opportunity to better understand the pathological events from early events (aura) to the headache itself. Although PACAP-38 and the closely related peptide VIP (vasoactive intestinal peptide) are well-known as vasoactive molecules, the dilation of cranial blood vessels per se is no longer felt to underlie migraine headaches. Thus, more recent research has focused on other possible PACAP-mediated mechanisms, and has raised some important questions. For example, (1) are endogenous sources of PACAP (or VIP) involved in the triggering and/or propagation of migraine headaches?; (2) which receptor subtypes are involved in migraine pathophysiology?; (3) can we identify specific anatomical circuit(s) where PACAP signaling is involved in the features of migraine? The purpose of this review is to discuss the possibility, and supportive evidence, that PACAP acts to induce migraine-like symptoms not only by directly modulating nociceptive neural circuits, but also by indirectly regulating the production of inflammatory mediators. We focus here primarily on postulated extra-dural sites because potential mechanisms of PACAP action in the dura are discussed in detail elsewhere (see X, this edition)

Ferromagnetic tunneling junctions at low voltages: elastic versus inelastic scattering at T=0KT=0 K

In this paper we analyze different contributions to the magnetoresistance of magnetic tunneling junctions at low voltages. A substantial fraction of the resistance drop with voltage can be ascribed to variations of the density of states and the barrier transmission with the bias. However, we found that the anomaly observed at zero bias and the magnetoresistance behavior at very small voltages, point to the contribution of inelastic magnon-assisted tunneling. The latter is described by a transfer parameter $T^{J}$, which is one or two orders of magnitude smaller than $T^{d}$, the direct transmission for elastic currents. Our theory is in excellent agreement with experimental data, yielding estimated values of $T^{J}$ which are of the order of $T^{d}$ / $T^{J}$ ~ 40.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures (in postscript format). PACS numbers: 72.25.-b, 73.23.-b, 72.10.D

Microbiological characterization of post-eruption “snowblower” vents at Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Microbiology 4 (2013): 153, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2013Microbial processes within the subseafloor can be examined during the ephemeral and uncommonly observed phenomena known as snowblower venting. Snowblowers are characterized by the large quantity of white floc that is expelled from the seafloor following mid-ocean ridge eruptions. During these eruptions, rapidly cooling lava entrains seawater and hydrothermal fluids enriched in geochemical reactants, creating a natural bioreactor that supports a subseafloor microbial “bloom.” Previous studies hypothesized that the eruption-associated floc was made by sulfide-oxidizing bacteria; however, the microbes involved were never identified. Here we present the first molecular analysis combined with microscopy of microbial communities in snowblower vents from samples collected shortly after the 2011 eruption at Axial Seamount, an active volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge. We obtained fluid samples and white flocculent material from active snowblower vents as well as orange flocculent material found on top of newly formed lava flows. Both flocculent types revealed diverse cell types and particulates when examined by phase contrast and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Distinct archaeal and bacterial communities were detected in each sample type through Illumina tag sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and through sequencing of the sulfide oxidation gene, soxB. In fluids and white floc, the dominant bacteria were sulfur-oxidizing Epsilonproteobacteria and the dominant archaea were thermophilic Methanococcales. In contrast, the dominant organisms in the orange floc were Gammaproteobacteria and Thaumarchaeota Marine Group I. In all samples, bacteria greatly outnumbered archaea. The presence of anaerobic methanogens and microaerobic Epsilonproteobacteria in snowblower communities provides evidence that these blooms are seeded by subseafloor microbes, rather than from microbes in bottom seawater. These eruptive events thus provide a unique opportunity to observe subseafloor microbial communities. - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fmicb.2013.00153/abstract#sthash.bg9RZMA7.dpufThis work was supported by a National Science Foundation Grant OCE-0929167 (to Julie A. Huber), a NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellowship (to Nancy H. Akerman), and a Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations Postdoctoral Fellowship (to Julie L. Meyer)