Economic growth and fertility rate cycles

This paper presents the global characterization of paths of optimal capital accumulation and fertility rate in a model of economic growth with endogenous fertility. The conditions for per capita capital to oscillate, to move monotonically, or to jump to steady state in the second period depend on the income elasticity of demand for children and the income elasticity of marginal utility of income. Movements in the optimal fertility rates are found to follow the movements in optimal capital to a certain extent.     

Confined Water in Amyloid‐Competent Oligomers of the Prion Protein

Conformational switching of the prion protein into the abnormal form involves the formation of (obligatory) molten‐oligomers that mature into ordered amyloid fibrils. The role of water in directing the course of amyloid formation remains poorly understood. Here, we show that the mobility of the water molecules within the on‐pathway oligomers is highly retarded. The water relaxation time within the oligomers was estimated to be ≈1 ns which is about three orders of magnitude slower than the bulk water and resembles the characteristics of (trapped) nano‐confined water. We propose that the coalescence of these obligatory oligomers containing trapped water is entropically favored because of the release of ordered water molecules in the bulk milieu and results in the sequestration of favorable inter‐chain amyloid contacts via nucleated conformational conversion. The dynamic role of water in protein aggregation will have much broader implications in a variety of protein misfolding diseases.     

Second harmonic generation in a disk shaped quantum dot in the presence of spin-orbit interaction

The second harmonic generation (SHG) coefficients for a disk shaped quantum dot (DSQD) in the magnetic field are studied in the presence of spin-orbit interactions (SOI). The spin-orbit terms we have used in our calculations are both Rashba and Dresselhaus. We have shown that the presence of SOI modifies the SHG terms. In addition, it has been shown that SOI coupling terms influence the spectrum of DSQD resulting in defined changes in the harmonic generation.