170,146 research outputs found
Dimitrios Mavrokordatos Disproving the Hemostatic Myth of Aqua Binelli
No full text“Aqua Binelli” or “Aqua Balsamica Arterialis” was a hemostatic compound invented by the Italian Fedele Binelli in 1797. Its hemostatic properties were viewed as the solution to treating hemorrhage in cases of wounds and surgical operations. Those who opposed the compound were persuaded of its total lack of effectiveness, supporting the view that hemostasis could be achieved by exerting pressure on, stitching, and ligating a vessel. The publications of Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe, Professor at the University of Berlin and fervent advocate of Aqua Binelli, helped spread the use of the compound in Europe. In 1832, however, one of his students, a young Greek named Dimitrios Mavrokordatos, who became the first Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the newly established University of Athens in 1837, published in Würzburg his dissertation titled Observations on the Potency of Aqua Binelli (Weitere Nachrichten über das Binellische Wasser), where a completely different picture emerged relating to those applications of the compound that von Gräfe considered successful. The case of Mavrokordatos’ dissertation was a typical 19th-century scientific controversy between a young student and his teacher who enjoyed the support of his associates. Eventually, the myth of the hemostatic activity of Aqua Binelli was debunked. © The Author(s) 2020
Estimating causal effects when the treatment affects all subjects simultaneously: An application
No full textSeveral important questions cannot be answered with the standard toolkit of causal inference since all subjects are treated for a given period and thus there is no control group. One example of this type of questions is the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global warming. In this paper, we address this question using a machine learning method, which allows estimating causal impacts in settings when a randomized experiment is not feasible. We discuss the conditions under which this method can identify a causal impact, and we find that carbon dioxide emissions are responsible for an increase in average global temperature of about 0.3 degrees Celsius between 1961 and 2011. We offer two main contributions. First, we provide one additional application of Machine Learning to answer causal questions of policy relevance. Second, by applying a methodology that relies on few directly testable assumptions and is easy to replicate, we provide robust evidence of the man-made nature of global warming, which could reduce incentives to turn to biased sources of information that fuels climate change skepticism
Employment and Earnings Expectations of Jobless Young Skilled: Evidence from Italy
No full textThis paper uses an innovative survey instrument on employment and earnings quantitative expectations to measure the amount of job instability, insecurity, and earnings risk that jobless young skilled perceive. The survey was fielded in Italy, as one of the EU countries that suffered the highest increase in youth unemployment, and the data were merged with administrative records on local labor market conditions. The results show that Italian jobless young skilled perceive substantial job instability, insecurity and earnings risk, which correlate with several important choices and behaviors, and depend on individual characteristics rather than on local labor market conditions
Analysis of the Dreissena polymorpha gill proteome following exposure to dioxin-like PCBs: Mechanism of action and the role of gender
No full textPCBs are a persistent environmental problem due to their high stability and lipophilicity. The non-ortho- and the mono-ortho-substituted PCBs (dioxin-like-PCBs) share a common and well-described toxicity mechanism in vertebrates, initially involving binding to cytosolic AhRs. Invertebrate AhRs, however, show a lack of dioxin binding, and little information is available regarding the mechanism of toxicity of dl-PCBs in invertebrates. In this study, a proteomic approach was applied to analyse the variations in the pattern of the gill proteome of the freshwater mussel Dreissena polymorpha. Mussels were exposed to a mixture of dl-PCBs, and to perform a more in-depth evaluation, we chose to investigate the role of gender in the proteome response by analysing male and female mussels separately. The results revealed significant modulation of the gill tissue proteome: glycolysis and Ca2+ homeostasis appear to be the main pathways targeted by dl-PCBs. In light of the differences between the male and female gill proteome profiles following exposure to dl-PCBs, further in-depth investigations of the role of gender in the protein expression profiles of a selected biological model are required
A Micro‐econometric Analysis of Public Support to Private R&D in Argentina
No full textAbstract This paper investigates the relationship between government interventions to promote investments in innovation and firm‐financed R&D. Merging a unique panel data set on Argentinean firms in the 1990s with a data base on different types of public support received through the FONTAR (Fondo Tecnólogico Argentino) program, we estimate a fixed effects model and find evidence of a significant positive impact of FONTAR on private R&D. A 1 per cent increase in the amount received through FONTAR induces an average increase of 547.6 real pesos in annual R&D expenditures. The result is robust to the use of an instrumental variable estimator that controls for the potential bias induced by changes in the structure of the program. An analysis by type of financial support reveals that the impact is mainly due to targeted and fiscal credit with no evidence that funding received through matching grants has an additionality effect on private investments. This result is in line with the predictions of a simple theoretical model that investigates the impact of different policy interventions to promote investments in R&D. When firms’ preferences are not directly observable, the provision of direct subsidies is more likely to incur the risk of adverse selection attracting firms that would have invested in innovation even in the absence of public support or dismiss some of the non‐financed projects, thus leaving unchanged or decreasing the overall level of expenditures in R&D.Innovation and R&D, policy evaluation, panel data, O32, O38, C23,
Educational gender gap, inequality and growth: a gender sensitive analysis
No full textAdopting a gender-aware perspective, this paper investigates the controversial relationship of inequality and growth studying the effects of income disparity on the differences between male and female schooling in the presence of liquidity constraints and inefficient financial markets. In cultural contexts where male education is considered more profitable, financial markets’
inefficiency has biased effects on human capital accumulation; given the significant contribution of women’s education to economic prosperity, a theoretical model and a panel data analysis of sixty three countries for six five years periods from 1965 to 1994 show a negative impact of income inequality on economic growth through the disincentives to invest in female schooling. A financial markets’ reform to improve efficiency and increase available liquidity could offer an important
contribution to the closure of the gender educational gap
Economic Expectations and Satisfaction with Democracy: Evidence from Italy
No full textIn this article, we argue that individuals’ expectations about their future economic prospects are a crucial missing determinant of their degree of satisfaction with democracy. To investigate this link, we collected an original, nationally representative data set on young skilled unemployed Italians using the innovative quantitative expectations data methodology (Manski 2004). Controlling for current local labour market conditions with administrative province-level data and for a rich array of individual-level determinants, we show that those expecting greater job insecurity and instability have lower current satisfaction levels with democracy. By better conceptualizing and operationalizing individuals’ expectations, we advance the theoretical framework on satisfaction with democracy and show that expectations are an important and often overlooked determinant of the current level of satisfaction with democratic institutions
Mexico in the 1990s: the main cross-sectional facts
No full textThis paper describes the main cross-sectional facts on individual and household earnings, labor supply, income, consumption and wealth in Mexico in the decade of the 1990s. We use two different data sources: the Mexican Employment Survey (ENEU) and the Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH). The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we integrate the two surveys to provide a complete characterization of the changes in employment, wages, income, consumption and wealth in the 1990s. Second, we highlight some distinctive features that characterize the Mexican economy in this decade. In particular, we focus on the changes in the size of the informal sector and we study the relationship between changes in informality and changes in wage inequality. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
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