Capital’s humpback bridge: ‘financialisation’ and the rate of turnover in Marx’s economic theory

The article aims to shed light on the role played by the ‘rate of turnover’ of capital in Karl Marx’s economic theory. Oddly enough, such a concept has been neglected by the most part of Marx’s scholars and exegetes, as it is demonstrated by the small number of scientific works dealing with it. Yet, the rate of turnover is a key-category in Marxian analysis, as it enables Marx to address the impact of the improvement in finance and other unproductive industries on the capitalist process of creation (and realisation) of surplus-value. The evidence from the new philological edition of Marx and Engel’s writings (MEGA2) further strengthens this insight. The main goal of the paper is, therefore, threefold: first, to bridge the gap in the literature dealing with the Volume Two of Capital; second, to provide a re-definition of several Marxian concepts in the light of the role played by the rate of turnover of capital; third, to analyse the effect of the developments in the banking & finance industry on the turnover rate and, thereby, on the general rate of profit

Hand Gesture Recognition as Password to Open the Door with Camera and Convexity Defect Method

Computer Vision is one of reasearch that gets a lot of attention with many applications. One of the application is the hand gesture recognition system. By using EmguCV, will be obtained camera images from webcam camera. The Pictures will be disegmented by using skin detection method for decrease noises in order to obtain the information needed. The final project of this system is to implement the convexity defect method for extracting images and recognize patterns of hand gesture that represent the characters A, B, C, D, and E. The parameters used in pattern recognition of hand gesture is the number and length of the line connecting the hull and defects derived from the pattern of hand gesture

Financialization and the monetary circuit : a macro-accounting approach

This paper aims to cross-breed the standard monetary circuit accounting model with elements from the Post-Keynesian literature. The goals are: (i) to analyse the implications of credit-based household consumption fed by capital asset inflation for the soundness of a pure credit-money economy of production; and (ii) to provide a more sophisticated description of the working of modern financial systems than the one grounded in the usual 'bank-based vs. market based' distinction

Fluid circulation pattern inside La Soufrière volcano (Guadeloupe) inferred from combined electrical resistivity tomography, self-potential, soil temperature and diffuse degassing measurements

International audienceAfter a drastic decline in 1983, hydrothermal activity at La Soufrière lava dome (Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles) has been progressively increasing in the summit area since 1992, raising the threat of a renewed eruptive activity. To better constrain the geometry of the hydrothermal system, an extensive high-resolution self-potential survey was performed on the dome and three multi-method profiles combining electrical resistivity tomography, self-potential, ground thermometry and soil CO 2 diffuse degassing measurements were carried out to cover its southern periphery in January 2011. Results indicate that hydrothermal ascending flows are currently restricted to a proximal area including the dome and its very vicinity. The extension of hydrothermal alteration inferred from electrical resistivity tomography reflects the presence of a heat source just below the dome. A first-order correction of topography-related self-potential variations allows the identification of major hydrothermal fluid circulations pathways, as well as significant meteoric infiltration zones. Local shifting of hydrothermal fluids towards the dome periphery is favored by the presence of major axes. The regional La Ty fault appears as the major axis draining large volumes of hydrothermal and magmatic fluids. However hydrothermal activity remains confined inside a collapse structure surrounding the dome, that formed in the last 9000 years as a result of recurrent edifice collapses, the latest occurring at the onset of the 1530 AD eruption. The combination of these qualitative results with structural analysis leads to a synthetic model of magmatic and hydrothermal fluids circulation inside the dome, which may be useful for the assessment of potential hazards associated with a renewal of fluid pres-surization, and a possibly associated partial flank-failure

Requirement of a Membrane Potential for the Posttranslational Transfer of Proteins into Mitochondsria

Posttranslational transfer of most precursor proteins into mitochondria is dependent on energization of the mitochondria. Experiments were carried out to determine whether the membrane potential or the intramitochondrial ATP is the immediate energy source. Transfer in vitro of precursors to the ADP/ATP carrier and to ATPase subunit 9 into isolated Neurospora mitochondria was investigated. Under conditions where the level of intramitochondrial ATP was high and the membrane potential was dissipated, import and processing of these precursor proteins did not take place. On the other hand, precursors were taken up and processed when the intramitochondrial ATP level was low, but the membrane potential was not dissipated. We conclude that a membrane potential is involved in the import of those mitochondrial precursor proteins which require energy for intracellular translocatio

Concordancia entre el decir y el hacer

La autora hace un inteligente planteamiento de la crisis social como repercusión del desplazamiento a la nueva economía mundial. Abre el panorama de los escenarios posibles, sin descuidar el aspecto laboral, tan poco atendido en los tiempos actuales

Control of locomotion systems and dynamics in relative periodic orbits

The connection between the dynamics in relative periodic orbits of vector fields with noncompact symmetry groups and periodic control for the class of control systems on Lie groups known as `(robotic) locomotion systems' is well known, and has led to the identification of (geometric) phases. We take an approach which is complementary to the existing ones, advocating the relevance|for trajectory generation in these control systems|of the quali-tative properties of the dynamics in relative periodic orbits. There are two particularly important features. One is that motions in relative periodic orbits of noncompact groups can only be of two types: Either they are quasi-periodic, or they leave any compact set as t →±∞ (`drifting motions'). Moreover, in a given group, one of the two behaviours may be predominant. The second is that motions in a relative periodic orbit exhibit `spiralling', `meandering' behaviours, which are routinely detected in numerical integrations. Since a quantitative description of meandering behaviours for drifting motions appears to be missing, we provide it here for a class of Lie groups that includes those of interest in locomotion (semidirect products of a compact group and a normal vector space). We illustrate these ideas on some examples (a kinematic car robot, a planar swimmer)

Retargeted adenoviruses for radiation-guided gene delivery

The combination of radiation with radiosensitizing gene delivery or oncolytic viruses promises to provide an advantage that could improve the therapeutic results for glioblastoma. X-rays can induce significant molecular changes in cancer cells. We isolated the GIRLRG peptide that binds to radiation-inducible 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP78), which is overexpressed on the plasma membranes of irradiated cancer cells and tumor-associated microvascular endothelial cells. The goal of our study was to improve tumor-specific adenovirus-mediated gene delivery by selectively targeting the adenovirus binding to this radiation-inducible protein. We employed an adenoviral fiber replacement approach to conduct a study of the targeting utility of GRP78-binding peptide. We have developed fiber-modified adenoviruses encoding the GRP78-binding peptide inserted into the fiber-fibritin. We have evaluated the reporter gene expression of fiber-modified adenoviruses in vitro using a panel of glioma cells and a human D54MG tumor xenograft model. The obtained results demonstrated that employment of the GRP78-binding peptide resulted in increased gene expression in irradiated tumors following infection with fiber-modified adenoviruses, compared with untreated tumor cells. These studies demonstrate the feasibility of adenoviral retargeting using the GRP78-binding peptide that selectively recognizes tumor cells responding to radiation treatment

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

Intercomparison Exercise for Heavy Metals in PM10

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) has carried out an Intercomparison Exercise (IE) for the determination of heavy metals in particulate matter (PM10). The IE focussed on Lead (Pb), Arsenic (As), Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd), the heavy metals regulated by the 1st and 4th Daughter Directives for Air Pollution. Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr) and Zinc (Zn), the elements included in the EMEP programme together with Aluminium (Al), Cobalt (Co), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Vanadium (V) were also tested. Fourteen Laboratories, generally members of the Network of Air Quality Reference Laboratories (AQUILA), participated in the IE. The participants mainly used microwave digestion with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) or Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GF-AAS) for analysis as recommended in the reference method (EN 14902). However, a few participants used other methods: Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF), Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) and Voltammetry for analysis and vaporisation on hot plate before microwave digestion, Soxhlet extraction, high pressure or cold Hydrogen Fluoride methods for digestion. Each participant received 5 samples to be analysed: a liquid sample prepared by dilution of a Certified Reference Material (CRM), a solution of a dust CRM sample digested by the JRC13F, a sub-sample of a dust CRM that each participating laboratory had to digest and analyse, a solution prepared by JRC after digestion of an exposed filter and a pair of filters (one blank filter and one exposed filter) to be digested and analysed by each participant. For 89 % of all types of samples, the DQOs of the 1st and 4th European Directives (uncertainty of 25 % for Pb and 40 % for As, Cd and Ni) were met. All together, this is a very good score. The best results were obtained for the liquid CRM, dust CRM digested by JRC, dust CRM and filter digested by JRC with 92, 90, 96 and 93 % of DQOs being met, respectively. It was found that the DQOs were not met if the difference of acidity between test samples and participant calibration standards was high. Conversely, only 76 % of DQOs were met for the filter to be digested by each participant with (about 85 % for Cd and Ni, 73/64 % for Pb and As, the most difficult element to determine). The worst results were associated with special events: explosion in microwave oven during digestion for two participants, a wrong dilution factor used by one participant and a huge contamination in the blank filter for another participant. Among the two explosions, one of them was probably the effect of a lack of temperature control in the digestion vessel. For the other explosion, the microwave digestion and the digestion program advised by EN 14902 is to be questioned. Moreover, satisfactory results were obtained using Soxhlet extraction, high pressure method and cold Hydrogen Fluoride digestion methods which are not presented in EN 14902. The DQOs of As and Cd could not be met with EDXRF whose limit of detection was too high for these two elements and for Cd using Voltammetry which suffered a strong interference for this element. Regarding the methods of analysis, apart the points mentioned just before about EDXRF and Voltammetry, good results were observed using ICP-OES for Cd, Ni and Pb. A few discrepancies were also registered for GF-AAS and ICP-MS but they were created by the special events or acidity problem mentioned before. This shows that even though GF-AAS and ICP-MS are found suitable, the implementation by each participant may be responsible for important mistakes.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit