Is Menopause Optimal?

Various theories have been put forward to explain the fact that humans experience menopause while virtually no animals do. This paper aims to investigate one such theory: children provide a savings technology into old age, but as human babies are usually large and have long gestation periods, a substantial risk of death exists for the mother as she bears children. It seems therefore appropriate to impose a stopping rule for fertility. Given an objective (support for old age) and demographics (mortality of mother and children), an optimal age for menopause can be calculated. Using demographic data from populations that have seen little influence from modern medicine, this optimal age is compared to empirical evidence.

L'Hopital's Rule in Chemistry: Irreversible Morphing into Reversible Isothermal Expansions

L'Hopital's Rule is discussed in the cvase of an irreversible isothermal expansion.

Lee O Case's "Elements of the Phase Rule", Chapter 2

The second chapter of the Case text on the phase rule, this time dealing with two component systems, added to by the author, is presented here.

Does the Federal Reserve Follow a Non-Linear Taylor Rule?

The Taylor rule has become one of the most studied strategies for monetary policy. Yet, little is known whether the Federal Reserve follows a non-linear Taylor rule. This paper employs the smooth transition regression model and asks the question: does the Federal Reserve change its policy-rule according to the level of inflation and/or the output gap? I find that the Federal Reserve does follow a non-linear Taylor rule and, more importantly, that the Federal Reserve followed a non-linear Taylor rule during the golden era of monetary policy, 1985-2005, and a linear Taylor rule throughout the dark age of monetary policy, 1960-1979. Thus, good monetary policy is associated with a non-linear Taylor rule: once inflation approaches a certain threshold, the Federal Reserve adjusts its policy-rule and begins to respond more forcefully to inflation.

Lee O. Case's "Elements of the Phase Rule", Chapter 1, One component systems

One component systems are treated from the point of view of the Gibbs' phase rule.

Lee O Case's "Elements of the Phase Rule", Introduction and Explanation

This out of print 1939 manuscript, updated, is added to the literature with slight additions

Lee O Case's "Elements of the Phase Rule", Chapter 3

This is the last (third) chapter of the phase rule text, again altered by the author, addressing 3 and 4 compnent systems.