Vocational and Academic Education in High School: Complements or Substitutes

[Excerpt] A number of blue ribbon-panels have called for increases in the number academic courses required for graduation from high school and for lengthening the school day and the school year. Most states have adopted the first of these recommendations but not the second. With the amount of time a student spends in school remaining constant, increases in the number of required academic courses force reductions elsewhere. Which activities should be reduced? Should the reduction be made in study halls, music and fine arts,physical education, and life skills courses or should it come in vocational education? The answer to this question will not be the same for every student. High school graduates who do not want to go to college and plan to work immediately after graduating probably have very different feelings about course selection than a student who aspires to being an artist

Applying for Entitlements: Employers and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit

The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) is probably the most outstanding example of a generous entitlement program with a very low participation rate. Only about 10 percent of eligible youth hired are claimed as a tax credit by their employers. The causes of the low participation rates are analyzed by estimating a Poisson model of the number of TJTC-eligibles hired and certified during 1980, 1981, and 1982. Information costs, both fixed and variable, are found to be key barriers to TJTC participation. The cost- effectiveness of TJTC is low because of the stigma attached and the very high recruitment costs of hiring additional TJTC-eligibles. Because employers find it relatively cheap to certify after the fact eligible new employees who would have been hired anyway, this passive mode of participating in TJTC predominates

Applying for Entitlements: Employers and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit

The Targeted Jobs Tax Credit is probably the most outstanding example of a generous entitlement program with very low participation rates. Only about 10 percent of eligible youth are claimed. The causes of the low participation rate were analyzed by estimating a poisson model of the number of TJTC eligibles hired and certified during 1980, 1981 and 1982. Information costs, both fixed and variable, were found to be key barriers to TJTC participation. The cost effectiveness of TJTC is low because the stigma and recruitment costs of hiring additional TJTC eligibles are very high. Employers find it relatively cheap to passively certify eligible new hires who would have been hired anyway so this mode of participating in TJTC predominates

Do Some Employers Share the Costs and Benefits of General Training?

[Excerpt] One of the central propositions of the human capital theory of on-the-job training is that workers pay all the costs and receive all the benefits of general training (see Ehrenberg and Smith 1996, Filer, Hammermesh and Rees 1996, Borjas 1996, Kaufman 1986). Since general training raises a worker\u27s ability to be productive in other organizations as well as the one providing the training, the training firm must pay a wage commensurate with the trained worker\u27s new higher level of productivity if they are to prevent the loss of their trained workers. Since the workers, not the firm, get the benefits of the training, firms [will] provide general training only if they [do] not have to pay any of the costs (Becker 1962 p. 13). Since the training is of value to prospective trainees, equilibrium in the training market requires that employees pay for general on-the-job training by receiving wages below what could be received elsewhere (Becker 1962 p. 13) in a job offering no training. Is this correct? Do Workers pay all the costs of training in skills that are technically general (i.e. useful at other firms)--WPAC for short? Do workers receive all the benefits of general training ( WRAB for short)

Why Are Wage Profiles so Flat During the First Year on a Job?

This paper presents evidence that productivity net of general training costs rise 4 or 5 times more rapidly than wage rates during the first 2 years on a job. This occurs for three reasons. First, sorting, high job search costs and the reputational damages that result from premature separations cause workers to prefer front loaded compensation packages which reduce the likelihood of involuntary terminations. Second, due to progressive income taxation and poor access to credit, workers discount the future more heavily than employers. Front-loading compensation is, therefore, a relatively cheap way for employers to attract top quality new hires. Finally, the minimum wage and union contracts also tend to force flat wage profiles

Quantum backgrounds and QFT

We introduce the concept of a quantum background and a functor QFT. In the case that the QFT moduli space is smooth formal, we construct a flat quantum superconnection on a bundle over QFT which defines algebraic structures relevant to correlation functions in quantum field theory. We go further and identify chain level generalizations of correlation functions which should be present in all quantum field theories.Comment: 28 pages, published versio

Collaboration and Conflict in Transnationally-Dispersed Zimbabwean Families

Approximately one quarter of Zimbabwean adults left their country of birth during the past twenty years. These sojourners are increasingly dispersed as tightening immigration regimes in preferred destinations and fluctuating global opportunities lead them to places with fewer historical links to Zimbabwe. This dispersive process fractures many families between multiple international locations. Nevertheless, the idea of family remains centrally important to diasporans, who work with relatives around the world to care for children and elders, to acquire important documents like passports, and to prepare for an eventual return home. Following from performative and relational theorizations of kinship, this dissertation argues that collaborative projects are crucibles in which families are forged and reconfigured. This exploration of how dispersion shapes family life deploys three analytical lenses: history, space and technology. Contemporary journeys are historically linked to a century of dispossession and labor-migration in Southern Africa. Colonial governments used onerous “bioinformational regimes” to subjugate Africans and profit from their labor. Today, former colonial powers deploy similar technologies against descendants of subjugated populations in order to restrict access to opportunity that was produced and spatialized through colonial processes. Concurrently, contemporary diasporans build on the “transferable skills” received from previous generations of sojourners. For instance, they use “spatial subterfuge” and “collaborative parenting” to create families of choice—families which may not conform to either indigenous ideals or immigration regimes. Each of the many places where diasporans live is imbued with unique structures of opportunity and oppression. These localized social and economic conditions powerfully influence migrant outcomes and shape how they are able to engage in family projects. People in wealthy countries like Canada and the UK have more economic power than relatives in South Africa or Botswana. Women also find more plentiful opportunities than their husbands and brothers, while younger diasporans tend to fare better than parents and elder siblings. Emergent economic differences may upset expectations about how money and power should be distributed in families. Such disjunctures—combined with the challenge of negotiating overwhelming family needs in the context of scarcity—often leads to conflict between relatives. Distance also results in “separate development” as family members in various locations develop individuated friendships, routines, experiences and even beliefs. These new dimensions of life may be poorly understood by loved ones far away. Today, internet-mediated communications technologies are enabling people in dispersed families to salvage some of this lost relational immediacy. Social media like Facebook enable a degree of passive, contextual monitoring; while group chats on platforms like WhatsApp allow multinational conversations to unfold much as they do over the course of a leisurely weekend visit. New discursive registers like the “meme” even allow pluralistic discussions about important questions of collective interest, as everyone with a claim on being “Zimbabwean” creatively weighs in on the meaning of this identity, and as Zimbabweans of various backgrounds who live in divergent spaces debate whether the spoils of migration are worth its dangers and sacrifices. This dissertation accordingly examines how families negotiate the marked challenges of prolonged separation and international dispersion, and how these efforts relate to negotiations of identity and belonging in the broader Zimbabwean diaspora. These interlinked questions of collaboration and conflict, continuity and change, proximity and distance are similarly important in many other migrant communities, as increasingly restrictive immigration regimes and the fluctuating global economy shape who is able to move and where they may settle

Presence of rd8 mutation does not alter the ocular phenotype of late-onset retinal degeneration mouse model.

PurposeA spontaneous frameshift mutation, c.3481delC, in the Crb1 gene is the underlying cause of dysplasia and retinal degeneration in rd8 mice. The rd8 mutation is found in C57BL/6N but not in C57BL/6J mouse sub-strains. The development of ocular pathology in single knockout Ccl2-/-, Cx3cr1-/- and in double knockout Ccl2-/-, Cx3cr1-/- mice raised on a C57BL/6 background has been reported to depend on the presence of a rd8 mutation. In this study, we investigated the influence of the rd8 mutation on the retinal pathology that we previously described in the late-onset retinal degeneration (L-ORD) mouse model with a heterozygous S163R mutation in the C1q-tumor necrosis factor-related protein-5Ctrp5+/- gene that was generated on a C57BL/6J background.MethodsMouse lines carrying the Ctrp5 S163R and rd8 mutations (Ctrp5+/-;rd8/rd8), corresponding controls without the rd8 mutation (Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt), and wild-type mice with and without the rd8 mutation (Wtrd8/rd8 and Wtwt/wt, respectively) were generated by systematic breeding of mice in our L-ORD mouse colony. Genotyping the mice for the rd8 (del C at nt3481 in Crb1) and Ctrp5 S163R mutations was performed with allelic PCR or sequencing. Retinal morphology was studied with fundus imaging, histology, light microscopy, electron microscopy, and immunohistochemistry.ResultsGenotype analysis of the mice in L-ORD mouse colony detected the rd8 mutation in the homozygous and heterozygous state. Fundus imaging of wild-type mice without the rd8 mutation (Wtwt/wt) revealed no autofluorescence (AF) spots up to 6-8 months and few AF spots at 21 months. However, the accumulation of AF lesions accelerated with age in the Ctrp5+/- mice that lack the rd8 mutation (Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt). The number of AF lesions was significantly increased (p<0.001), and they were small and uniformly distributed throughout the retina in the 21-month-old Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt mice when compared to the age-matched controls. Wild-type and Ctrp5+/- mice with the rd8 mutation (Wtrd8/rd8 and Ctrp5+/-;rd8/rd8, respectively) revealed an integrated retinal architecture with well-defined outer segments/inner segments (OS/IS), outer nuclear layer (ONL), outer plexiform layer (OPL), and inner nuclear layer (INL). The presence of pseudorosette structures reported in the rd8 mice between the ONL and the INL in the ventral quadrant of the retina was not observed in all genotypes studied. Further, the external limiting membrane was continuous in the Ctrp5+/-;rd8/rd8 and Wtrd8/rd8 mice. Evaluation of the retinal phenotype revealed that the Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt mice developed characteristic L-ORD pathology including age-dependent accumulation of AF spots, development of sub-retinal, sub-RPE, and basal laminar deposits, and Bruch's membrane abnormalities at older age, while these changes were not observed in the age-matched littermate WTwt/wt mice.ConclusionsThe Wtrd8/rd8 and Ctrp5+/-;rd8/rd8 mice raised on C57BL/6J did not develop early onset retinal changes that are characteristic of the rd8 phenotype, supporting the hypothesis that manifestation of rd8-associated pathology depends on the genetic background. The retinal pathology observed in mice with the Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt genotype is consistent with the L-ORD phenotype observed in patients and with the phenotype we described previously. The lack of rd8-associated retinal pathology in the Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt mouse model raised on the C57BL/6J background and the development of the L-ORD phenotype in these mice in the presence and absence of the rd8 mutation suggests that the pathology observed in the Ctrp5+/-;wt/wt mice is primarily associated with the S163R mutation in the Ctrp5 gene

Mandibular Fracture in Conjunction with Bicortical Penetration, Using Wide-Diameter Endosseous Dental Implants

Prosthodontic rehabilitation of a patient with an atrophic edentulous mandible presents a significant challenge in restoring esthetics and function. The purpose of this clinical report is to describe fracture of an atrophic edentulous mandible opposing maxillary natural dentition in association with endosseous dental implants. The patient received two wide-diameter implants in the anterior mandible for an implant-assisted mandibular overdenture, in which the implants penetrated the inferior border of the mandible for bicortical stabilization. Three months following implant placement surgery, the patient experienced pain, swelling, and intraoral purulent drainage around the right implant. Panoramic radiograph revealed a fracture of the mandible through the right implant site and signs of infection around the left implant. The implants were removed surgically, and open reduction and fixation of the fracture site were undertaken using a titanium bone fixation plate. This clinical report demonstrates that placement of wide-diameter implants in conjunction with bicortical penetration in a severely atrophic edentulous mandible can risk fracture of the mandible.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79058/1/j.1532-849X.2010.00646.x.pd