Corruption and decentralization : what economists have to say about it

This paper deals with both theoretical and empirical aspects of the link between corruption and decentralization in both developing and emerging countries. Only mixed results can be drawn from the literature. Decentralization can help discipline "predative" governments, but only under certain conditions. Indeed, it depends on fiscal arrangements and political features that are likely to be different between countries. The way incentives to local governments are designed by the central governments also plays an essential role.

A century of research: what have we learned about the interaction of Trypanosoma cruzi with host cells?

Since the discovery of Trypanosoma cruzi and the brilliant description of the then-referred to "new tripanosomiasis" by Carlos Chagas 100 years ago, a great deal of scientific effort and curiosity has been devoted to understanding how this parasite invades and colonises mammalian host cells. This is a key step in the survival of the parasite within the vertebrate host, and although much has been learned over this century, differences in strains or isolates used by different laboratories may have led to conclusions that are not as universal as originally interpreted. Molecular genotyping of the CL-Brener clone confirmed a genetic heterogeneity in the parasite that had been detected previously by other techniques, including zymodeme or schizodeme (kDNA) analysis. T. cruzi can be grouped into at least two major phylogenetic lineages: T. cruzi I, mostly associated with the sylvatic cycle and T. cruzi II, linked to human disease; however, a third lineage, T. cruziIII, has also been proposed. Hybrid isolates, such as the CL-Brener clone, which was chosen for sequencing the genome of the parasite (Elias et al. 2005, El Sayed et al. 2005a), have also been identified. The parasite must be able to invade cells in the mammalian host, and many studies have implicated the flagellated trypomastigotes as the main actor in this process. Several surface components of parasites and some of the host cell receptors with which they interact have been described. Herein, we have attempted to identify milestones in the history of understanding T. cruzi- host cell interactions. Different infective forms of T. cruzi have displayed unexpected requirements for the parasite to attach to the host cell, enter it, and translocate between the parasitophorous vacuole to its final cytoplasmic destination. It is noteworthy that some of the mechanisms originally proposed to be broad in function turned out not to be universal, and multiple interactions involving different repertoires of molecules seem to act in concert to give rise to a rather complex interplay of signalling cascades involving both parasite and cellular components.

The allometry of non-employment. What can compositional data analysis tell us about labour market performance across the UK's regions?

The low levels of unemployment recorded in the UK in recent years are widely cited asevidence of the country’s improved economic performance, and the apparent convergence of unemployment rates across the country’s regions used to suggest that the longstanding divide in living standards between the relatively prosperous ‘south’ and the more depressed ‘north’ has been substantially narrowed. Dissenters from theseconclusions have drawn attention to the greatly increased extent of non-employment(around a quarter of the UK’s working age population are not in employment) and themarked regional dimension in its distribution across the country. Amongst these dissenters it is generally agreed that non-employment is concentrated amongst oldermales previously employed in the now very much smaller ‘heavy’ industries (e.g. coal,steel, shipbuilding).This paper uses the tools of compositiona l data analysis to provide a much richer picture of non-employment and one which challenges the conventional analysis wisdom about UK labour market performance as well as the dissenters view of the nature of theproblem. It is shown that, associated with the striking ‘north/south’ divide in nonemployment rates, there is a statistically significant relationship between the size of the non-employment rate and the composition of non-employment. Specifically, it is shown that the share of unemployment in non-employment is negatively correlated with the overall non-employment rate: in regions where the non-employment rate is high the share of unemployment is relatively low. So the unemployment rate is not a very reliable indicator of regional disparities in labour market performance. Even more importantly from a policy viewpoint, a significant positive relationship is found between the size ofthe non-employment rate and the share of those not employed through reason of sicknessor disability and it seems (contrary to the dissenters) that this connection is just as strong for women as it is for men

Studies about the atomic capabilities concept for linear control systems in physical multi-agent environments

This paper shows the impact of the atomic capabilities concept to include control-oriented knowledge of linear control systems in the decisions making structure of physical agents. These agents operate in a real environment managing physical objects (e.g. their physical bodies) in coordinated tasks. This approach is presented using an introspective reasoning approach and control theory based on the specific tasks of passing a ball and executing the offside manoeuvre between physical agents in the robotic soccer testbed. Experimental results and conclusions are presented, emphasising the advantages of our approach that improve the multi-agent performance in cooperative systems

A First approximation to the realism/idealism debate about the external world

El text intenta fer una primera aproximació al debat contemporani entre realistes i anti-realistes sobre el món empíric, centrant-se en les posicions de Putnam i Nagel. El seu objectiu principal és el d'entendre les motivacions de les posicions i l'estructura actual del debat, i el d'establir les característiques que hauria de tenir qualsevol posició satisfactòria

Adolescents' beliefs about marijuana use: a comparison of regular users, past users and never/occasional users.

A questionnaire investigating adolescents' opinions and experiences regarding marijuana use was administered to 163 adolescents and young adults (96 boys and 67 girls) aged 13 to 20 (mean age = 16.8, s.d. = 1.5). Items referred to marijuana and other substances' dangerousness, representations regarding the positive and negative consequences of marijuana use. Responses were compared according to marijuana use status (classified into never/occasional use, current regular use and past regular use). Results show that adolescents' opinions differ according to their experience with marijuana use. Current regular users evaluate marijuana as less dangerous, but alcohol and heroin as more dangerous in comparison with never/occasional and past users. Current and past users are more likely to define marijuana as a medical drug and a plant used in agriculture, and less likely to define it as an illegal drug. Current and past users evaluate marijuana use as a way to cope with stress, to relax to a greater extent than do never/occasional users do. The latter attribute more negative consequences to marijuana use such as diminished driving ability and school performance and a pathway to hard drugs.