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Biomedical subjects

J L Simon

Publications and source records attributed to J L Simon.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Lebensraum: paradoxically, population growth may eventually end wars.

Population growth may progressively reduce 1 of the motives for making war. Namely, population growth threatens shortages of resources, and especially land. Impending shortages cause a search for ways to mitigate the shortages. The discoveries eventually produce greater availability of resources than if population growth and pressure on resources had never occurred. The argument runs as follows: 1) Rhetoric about resources scarcity induced by population density has often contributed to international conflict, even if economics has not been the main motive in making war. 2) In the pre-modern era, war to obtain land and other resources may sometimes have been an economically sound policy. 3) Politicians and others in industrially developed nations believe resources may still be a casus belli. 4) Land and other productive resources are no longer worth acquiring at the cost of war.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1985

On the optimum theoretical rate of population growth.

"The paper seeks intuitively-satisfying models of optimum population growth. The authors build upon Phelps's model of endogenous technical progress plus the Steinmann-Simon extension, which imply that the per-person consumption growth rate depends positively and linearly upon the population growth rate, without bound.... They suggest that the consumption rate ultimately turns downwards as population growth increases because of decreasing adoption of available technology as labor cheapens relative to capital, and as high population growth overtaxes people's will and ability to respond. Including a convex-downward function in the model yields sensible results." (summary in GER)

Demography↗
PubMed1980

Resources, population, environment: an oversupply of false bad news.

False bad news about population growth, natural resources, and the environment is published widely in the face of contradictory evidence. For example, the world supply of arable land has actually been increasing, the scarcity of natural resources including food and energy has been decreasing, and basic measures of U.S. environmental quality show positive trends. The aggregate data show no long-run negative effect of population growth upon the standard of living. Models that embody forces omitted in the past, especially the influence of population size upon productivity increase, suggest a long-run positive effect of additional people.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1980

[Increase of nitrates in underground aquifers: study of a karstic basin in the Dijon area].

The purpose of the study was to explain the enormous increase of nitrates in the waters of river Bèze (Côte-d'Or) belonging to a well-defined karstic basin. This paper deals with surface and underground waters, pedologic formations and their rock base. It consisted in listing the oligoelements involved in the enzymic processes of nitrate reduction, the microflora and in determining the kinetics of denitrification by column perfusion. The presence of biodegradable carbon compounds is the governing factor of denitrification; their rapid lass related to new agricultural processes and the excessive use of nitrogene fertilizers are responsible for the enormous increase of nitrates observed.

France↗
PubMed1976

[Denitrification of waters on the way from surface to underground levels in a karstic area].

The failure of the biological processes of waters' recycling in their passing through the soil occurs more and more frequently in calcareous areas. This led us to consider the problem of conditions necessary to the good development of the biological activity. This uses enzymatic reactions activated by chemical elements in very low concentrations: the oligo-elements. The experimental study, in drainage basin in a calcareous area, consisted in finding the percentage of oligo-elements in the waters, in the soils and in the parent rocks. This allowed us to draw a map of the probable lack of oligo-elements and thus to foresee the vulnerability of phreatic waters.

Calcium Carbonate↗
PubMed1975

Multiple cerebral abscesses complicating hepatopulmonary amebiasis.

A 3-year-old boy with hepatopulmonary amebiasis treated with chloroquine phosphate for 20 days subsequently was found to have three brain abscesses and responded to prolonged combined therapy with metronidazole and chloroquine phosphate. Cerebral amebiasis should be considered in any patient with amebic dysentery, hepatic abscess, or pulmonary involvement in whom signs or symptoms of central nervous system involvement appear. A prolonged course of appropriate therapy with periodic brain scanning for evidence of improvement is suggested.

Brain Abscess↗
PubMed1975

The welfare effect of an additional child cannot be stated simply and unequivocally.

There is no single calculable welfare effect of an additional person. Rather, there are many different judgments, which may be negative or positive. The welfare effect depends upon the particular economic situation the child will be born into, which point in his life-cycle one refers to, whether he is expected to have a positive effect upon his particular sort of economy and society during and after his lifetime, and most of all, on the kind of welfare criterion used. Furthermore, no matter which welfare criterion is used, the welfare effect of an added individual summarized over time is especially sensitive to the particular assumptions made.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Puzzles and further explorations in the interrelationships of successive births with husband's income, spouses' education and race.

When fertility is examined in the detail of individual parity progressions and birth-order transitions, important interactions between the effects of income and education are seen. Among the findings are: the negative effect of education on fertility is stronger at all parities for less educated compared to more highly educated women. Additional income has a more positive effect for more highly educated than for less educated women. For women with 0-8 years of education the effect of more income is positive when the family has no children but negative thereafter, but for college-educated women the effect of more income is positive. And additional income has a less positive (more negative) effect on fertility among nonwhites than among whites.

Adult↗