GDP Now Matters More Than Force

Most nations today beat their foreign policy drums largely to economic rhythms, but less so the United States. Most nations define their interests largely in economic terms and deal mostly in economic power, but less so the United States. Washington still thinks of its security mainly in traditional military terms and responds to threats mainly with force. The principal challenge for Washington, then, is to recompose its foreign policy with an economic theme, while countering threats in new and creative ways. The goal is to redefine "security" to harmonize with twenty-first-century realities

Lewis through a looking glass : public sector employment, rent-seeking, and economic growth

This paper argues that the labor transfer process outlined by the Lewis model (1954) can give rise to surplus labour - in the sense than the marginal product of labour is less that the wage - in the public part of the modern sector and that this may deprive the modern sector of its dynamism. Moreover, creating sheltered employment tends to be self-perpetuating. It creates and consolidates vested interests that seek to perpetuate the protected jobs. In the inverse of the Lewis model, the extent of surplus labour increases, rather than diminishes, over time.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Changes in sulfhydryl groups of honeybee glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase associated with generation of the intermediate plateau in its saturation kinetics

Honeybee and rabbit muscle GPDH were studied to obtain information at the chemical level regarding anomolous saturation kinetics of the honeybee enzyme. Results demonstrate that the enzyme's sulfhydryl groups are implicated in the process. Measured by DTNB titration, native honeybee GPDH has one less active SH than the native rabbit muscle enzyme and displays changes in overall sulfhydryl reactivity after preincubation with G-3-P or G-3-P plus NAD+. The total DTNB reactive sulfhydryls of rabbit muscle GPDH are not changed by preincubation with NAD+ or G-3-P; honeybee GPDH, under certain conductions of preincubation with these ligands, shows a decrease of two total DTNB reactive SH groups. This difference has been confirmed by an independent experiment in which the two enzymes were carboxymethylated with C-14 bromoacetic acid

Quenching of lamellar ordering in an n-alkane embedded in nanopores

We present an X-ray diffraction study of the normale alkane nonadecane C_{19}H_{40} embedded in nanoporous Vycor glass. The confined molecular crystal accomplishes a close-packed structure by alignment of the rod-like molecules parallel to the pore axis while sacrificing one basic principle known from the bulk state, i.e. the lamellar ordering of the molecules. Despite this disorder, the phase transitions observed in the confined solid mimic the phase behavior of the 3D unconfined crystal, though enriched by the appearance of a true rotator phase known only from longer alkane chains.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Percolation, depinning, and avalanches in capillary condensation of gases in disordered porous solids

We propose a comprehensive theoretical description of hysteresis in capillary condensation of gases in mesoporous disordered materials. Applying mean-field density functional theory to a coarse-grained lattice-gas model, we show that the morphology of the hysteresis loops is influenced by out-of-equilibrium transitions that are different on filling and on draining. In particular, desorption may be associated to a depinning process and be percolation-like without explicit pore-blocking effects.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Perioperative Hypothermia (33°C) Does Not Increase theOccurrence of Cardiovascular Events in PatientsUndergoing Cerebral Aneurysm SurgeryFindings from the Intraoperative Hypothermia for AneurysmSurgery Trial

The IHAST Trial randomized patients undergoing cerebral aneurysm surgery to intraoperative hypothermia or normothermia. Cardiovascular events were prospectively followed until 3-month follow-up and were compared in hypothermic and normothermic patients. Conclusion: In patients undergoing cerebral aneurysm surgery, perioperative hypothermia was not associated with an increased occurrence of cardiovascular events

Soft disks in a narrow channel

The pressure components of "soft" disks in a two dimensional narrow channel are analyzed in the dilute gas regime using the Mayer cluster expansion and molecular dynamics. Channels with either periodic or reflecting boundaries are considered. It is found that when the two-body potential, u(r), is singular at some distance r_0, the dependence of the pressure components on the channel width exhibits a singularity at one or more channel widths which are simply related to r_0. In channels with periodic boundary conditions and for potentials which are discontinuous at r_0, the transverse and longitudinal pressure components exhibit a 1/2 and 3/2 singularity, respectively. Continuous potentials with a power law singularity result in weaker singularities of the pressure components. In channels with reflecting boundary conditions the singularities are found to be weaker than those corresponding to periodic boundaries

Thermodynamics, Structure, and Dynamics of Water Confined between Hydrophobic Plates

We perform molecular dynamics simulations of 512 water-like molecules that interact via the TIP5P potential and are confined between two smooth hydrophobic plates that are separated by 1.10 nm. We find that the anomalous thermodynamic properties of water are shifted to lower temperatures relative to the bulk by $\approx 40$ K. The dynamics and structure of the confined water resemble bulk water at higher temperatures, consistent with the shift of thermodynamic anomalies to lower temperature. Due to this $T$ shift, our confined water simulations (down to $T = 220$ K) do not reach sufficiently low temperature to observe a liquid-liquid phase transition found for bulk water at $T\approx 215$ K using the TIP5P potential. We find that the different crystalline structures that can form for two different separations of the plates, 0.7 nm and 1.10 nm, have no counterparts in the bulk system, and discuss the relevance to experiments on confined water.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure

Back reaction of a long range force on a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background

It is possible that there may exist long-range forces in addition to gravity. In this paper we construct a simple model for such a force based on exchange of a massless scalar field and analyze its effect on the evolution of a homogeneous Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology. The presence of such an interaction leads to an equation of state characterized by positive pressure and to resonant particle production similar to that observed in preheating scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 6 color Postscript figures, LaTe