Extreme poverty and development: the role of state in the assurance of minimal existence conditions

This paper follows the idea of Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize of economic, about the role of State in the assurance of minimal existence condition, and aim to answer how countries of Latin America (specifically Brazil) and countries of Europe (specifically United Kingdom) deal with the assurance of this minimal existence conditions. According to Amartya Sen’s view, development must be seen as a process of expanding substantive freedoms, such expansion being the primary purpose of each society and the main mean of development. Substantive freedoms can be considered as basic capabilities allocated to individuals whereby they are entitled to be architects of their own lives, providing them conditions to “live as they wish”. These basic capabilities are divided by Amartya Sen in 5 (five) kinds of substantive freedoms, but for this article’s purpose, we will consider just one of this 5 (five) kinds, specifically the Protective Safety capability. Protective Safety capability may be defined as the assurance of basic means of survival for individuals who are in extreme poverty, at risk of starvation or hypothermia, or even impending famine. Among the means available that could be used to avoid such situations are the possibility of supplemental income to the needy, distributing food and clothing to the needy, supply of energy and water, among others. But how countries deal whit this protective safety? Aiming to answer this question, we selected the problem of “fuel poverty” and how Brazil and United Kingdom solve it (if they solve), in order to assess how the solution found impacts development. The analysis and the comparison between these countries will allow an answer to the question proposed.

Bound states of the Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau equation with a mixed minimal-nonminimal vector cusp potential

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

CERN LHC signals for a neutrino mass model with bilinear R-parity violating minimal anomaly mediated supersymmetry

We investigate a neutrino mass model in which the neutrino data is accounted for by bilinear R-parity violating supersymmetry with anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking. We focus on the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) phenomenology, studying the reach of generic supersymmetry search channels with leptons, missing energy and jets. A special feature of this model is the existence of long-lived neutralinos and charginos which decay inside the detector leading to detached vertices. We demonstrate that the largest reach is obtained in the displaced vertices channel and that practically all of the reasonable parameter space will be covered with an integrated luminosity of 10 fb(-1). We also compare the displaced vertex reaches of the LHC and Tevatron.

X-chromosome inactivation patterns in monozygotic twins and sib pairs discordant for nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate

Nonsyndromic clefts of the lip and/or palate are common birth defects with a strong genetic component. Based on unequal gender ratios for clefting phenotypes, evidence for linkage to the X chromosome and the occurrence of several X-linked clefting syndromes, we investigated the role of skewed X chromosome inactivation (XCI) in orofacial clefts. Our samples consisted of female monozygotic (MZ) twins (n = 8) and sister pairs (n = 152) discordant for nonsyndromic clefting. We measured the XCI pattern in peripheral blood lymphocyte DNA using a methylation based androgen receptor gene assay. Skewing of XCI was defined as the deviation in inactivation pattern from a 50:50 ratio. Our analysis revealed no significant difference in the degree of skewing between twin pairs (P = 0.3). However, borderline significant differences were observed in the sister pairs (P = 0.02), with the cleft lip with cleft palate group showing the most significant result (P=0.01). We did not find evidence for involvement of skewed XCI in the discordance for clefting in our sample of female MZ twins. However, results from the paired sister study suggest the potential contribution of skewed XCI to orofacial clefting, particularly cleft lip and palate. (C) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Heterologous microsatellite primer pairs informative for the whole genus Arachis

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Minimal volume regulation after shrinkage of red blood cells from five species of reptiles

Red blood cells (RBCs) from most vertebrates restore volume upon hypertonic shrinkage and the mechanisms underlying this regulatory volume increase (RVI) have been studied extensively in these cells. Despite the phylogenetically interesting position of reptiles, very little is known about their red cell function. The present study demonstrates that oxygenated RBCs in all major groups of reptiles exhibit no or a very reduced RVI upon -25% calculated hyperosmotic shrinkage. Thus, RBCs from the snakes Crotalus durissus and Python regius, the turtle Trachemys scripta and the alligator Alligator mississippiensis showed no statistically significant RVI within 120 min after shrinkage, while the lizard Tupinambis merianae showed 22% volume recovery after 120 min. Amiloride (10(-4) M) and bumetanide (10(-5) M) had no effect on the RVI in T merianae, indicating no involvement of the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger (NHE) or the Na(+)/K(+)/2Cl(-) co-transporter (NKCC) or insentive transporters. Deoxygenation of RBCs from A. mississippiensis and T merianae did not significantly affect RVI upon shrinkage. Deoxygenation per se of red blood cells from T merianae elicited a slow volume increase, but the mechanism was not characterized. It seems, therefore, that the RVI response based on NHE activation was lost among the early sauropsids that gave rise to modern reptiles and birds, while it was retained in mammals. An RVI response has then reappeared in birds, but based on activation of the NKCC. Alternatively, the absence of the RVI response may represent the most ancient condition, and could have evolved several times within vertebrates. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Asymptotics for Gegenbauer-Sobolev orthogonal polynomials associated with non-coherent pairs of measures

Inner products of the type < f, g >(S) = < f, g >psi(0) + < f', g'>psi(1), where one of the measures psi(0) or psi(1) is the measure associated with the Gegenbauer polynomials, are usually referred to as Gegenbauer-Sobolev inner products. This paper deals with some asymptotic relations for the orthogonal polynomials with respect to a class of Gegenbauer-Sobolev inner products. The inner products are such that the associated pairs of symmetric measures (psi(0), psi(1)) are not within the concept of symmetrically coherent pairs of measures.

Zeros of Gegenbauer-Sobolev Orthogonal Polynomials: Beyond Coherent Pairs

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Asymptotics for Jacobi-Sobolev orthogonal polynomials associated with non-coherent pairs of measures

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

On pairs of regular foliations in R(3) and singularities of map-germs

We study germs of pairs of codimension one regular foliations in R(3) . We show that the discriminant of the pair determines the topological type of the pair. We also consider various classifications of the singularities of the discriminant.

Minimal 3-3-1 model, lepton mixing and muonium-antimuonium conversion

The recent experimental results on neutrino oscillation and on muonium-antimuonium conversion require extension of the minimal 3-3-1 model. We review the constraints imposed on the model by these measurements and suggest a pattern of leptonic mixing, with charged leptons in a non-diagonal basis, which accounts for the neutrino physics and circumvents the tight muonium-antimuonium bounds on the model. We also illustrate a scenario where this pattern could be realized.

Robust CERN LHC Higgs boson search in weak boson fusion

We demonstrate that a CERN LHC Higgs boson search in weak boson fusion production with subsequent decay to weak boson pairs is robust against extensions of the standard model or minimal supersymmetric standard model involving a large number of Higgs doublets. We also show that the transverse mass distribution provides unambiguous discrimination of a continuum Higgs signal from the standard model.

Neutrino mixing and the minimal 3-3-1 model

In the minimal 3-3-1 model charged leptons come in a nondiagonal basis. Moreover, the Yukawa interactions of the model lead to a non-hermitian charged lepton mass matrix. In other words, the minimal 3-3-1 model presents a very complex lepton mixing. In view of this we check rigorously if the possible textures of the lepton mass matrices allowed by the minimal 3-3-1 model can lead or not to the neutrino mixing required by the recent experiments in neutrino oscillation.

Metric-scalar gravity with torsion and the measurability of the non-minimal coupling

The measurability of the non-minimal coupling is discussed by considering the correction to the Newtonian static potential in the semiclassical approach. The coefficient of the gravitational Darwin term (GDT) gets redefined by the non-minimal torsion scalar couplings. Based on a similar analysis of the GDT in the effective field theory approach to non-minimal scalar, we conclude that for reasonable values of the couplings the correction is very small.

DYNAMICAL SYMMETRY BREAKING IN A MINIMAL 3-3-1 MODEL

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)