Interfirm Job Mobility of Two Cohorts of Young German Men 1979 - 1990: An analysis of the (West-)German Employment Statistic Register Sample concerning multivariate failure times and unobserved heterogeneity

The OECD (1993) has documented that the majority of workers in industrialised countries can look forward to finding a stable employment relationship. However new entrants into the labor force experience high turnover. Promoting institutions which support longer tenures and worker participation (or ''voice`` in the firm) utilize strategies to encourage enterprise and employee efforts in skill formation and training. The results of the OECD (1993) study show that attachments between employee and employer are more likely to endure for Japanese, French and German workers. Furthermore Germany has the highest share of young new recruits who received any formal training from their employer. In Germany, 71.5 % of young new recruits were trained at any job within 7 years after leaving school, whereas in the U.S. only 10.2 % of young new recruits were similarly trained (cf. OECD 1993, 137). It is sometimes assumed that employment protection policies have been exogenously imposed and thus probably impair efficiency. However, research on the micro-economics of labor markets has shown that employers may be interested in long-term employment relationships (cf. Levine 1991). Here, the job training model focusing on the importance of human capital investment, specifically the job shopping and matching model stressing the process of information gathering through employment experience should be mentioned. In such models employment protection legislation has not only desirable distributional effects but also help to ensure efficient outcomes. Therefore, it is important to assess the relevance of micro- economic theories empirically. This paper provides an empirical analysis of job durations in Western Germany using information from two cohorts of new entrants to the labor force documented in the (West-)German employment statistic register sample (cf. Bender and Hilzendegen 1996). The appropriate empirical technique to study job length is event history or survival analysis. In labor market research, survival analysis has primarily focused on explaining the length of unemployment spells. Application of this technique to employment is less common 1 , because huge longitudinal data sets are needed. Apart from testing hypotheses about the effect of personal characteristics and labor demand variables (e.g. firm size and industry affiliation), we will assess the influence of heterogeneity of the members of the two cohorts on their duration profile. The applied model and estimation method allow for unobserved heterogeneity and correlation between the clustered failure times of one employee as well as for right-censored spells. Our analysis is not restricted to the beginning of the working life of the employees. The individual retirement decision is affected by employment protection and early retirement regulations which differ widely between the firms. The respective data are missing in the employment statistic register, so that the retirement decision cannot be modelled explicitly

Evidence of blood stage efficacy with a virosomal malaria vaccine in a Phase IIa clinical trial

Background Previous research indicates that a combination vaccine targeting different stages of the malaria life cycle is likely to provide the most effective malaria vaccine. This trial was the first to combine two existing vaccination strategies to produce a vaccine that induces immune responses to both the pre-erythrocytic and blood stages of the P. falciparum life cycle. Methods This was a Phase I/IIa study of a new combination malaria vaccine FFM ME-TRAP+PEV3A. PEV3A includes peptides from both the pre-erythrocytic circumsporozoite protein and the blood-stage antigen AMA-1. This study was conducted at the Centre for Clinical Vaccinology and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. The participants were healthy, malaria naïve volunteers, from Oxford. The interventions were vaccination with PEV3A alone, or PEV3A+FFM ME-TRAP. The main outcome measure was protection from malaria in a sporozoite challenge model. Other outcomes included measures of parasite specific immune responses induced by either vaccine; and safety, assessed by collection of adverse event data. Results We observed evidence of blood stage immunity in PEV3A vaccinated volunteers, but no volunteers were completely protected from malaria. PEV3A induced high antibody titres, and antibodies bound parasites in immunofluorescence assays. Moreover, we observed boosting of the vaccine-induced immune response by sporozoite challenge. Immune responses induced by FFM ME-TRAP were unexpectedly low. The vaccines were safe, with comparable side effect profiles to previous trials. Although there was no sterile protection two major observations support an effect of the vaccine-induced response on blood stage parasites: (i) Lower rates of parasite growth were observed in volunteers vaccinated with PEV3A compared to unvaccinated controls (p = 0.012), and this was reflected in the PCR results from PEV3A vaccinated volunteers. These showed early control of parasitaemia by some volunteers in this group. One volunteer, who received PEV3A alone, was diagnosed very late, on day 20 compared to an average of 11.8 days in unvaccinated controls. (ii). Morphologically abnormal parasites were present in the blood of all (n = 24) PEV3A vaccinated volunteers, and in only 2/6 controls (p = 0.001). We describe evidence of vaccine-induced blood stage efficacy for the first time in a sporozoite challenge study

Combining an HA + CU (II) site-targeted copper-based product with a pruning wound protection program to prevent infection with Lasiodiplodia spp. in grapevine

The genus Lasiodiplodia has been reported from several grape growing regions and is considered as one of the fastest wood colonizers, causing Botryosphaeria dieback. The aim of this study was to (i) evaluate the efficacy of Esquive®, a biocontrol agent, on vineyard pruning wound protection, applied single or, in a combined protection strategy with a new site-targeted copper-based treatment (LC2017), and (ii) compare their efficacy with chemical protection provided by the commercially available product, Tessior®. For two seasons, protectants were applied onto pruning wounds, while LC2017 was applied throughout the season according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pruning wounds of two different cultivars were inoculated with three isolates of Lasiodiplodia spp. Efficacy of the wound protectants, varied between both years of the assay and according to the cultivar studied but were able to control the pathogen to some extent. The application of LC2017 did not show clear evidence of improving the control obtained by the sole application of the other products tested. Nevertheless, LC2017 showed a fungistatic effect against Lasiodiplodia spp., in vitro, and has previously shown an elicitor effect against grapevine trunk diseases. Therefore, this combination of two protection strategies may constitute a promising long-term approach to mitigate the impact of Botryosphaeria diebackinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Goal-directed versus outcome-based financial incentives for weight loss among low-income patients with obesity: rationale and design of the Financial Incentives foR Weight Reduction (FIReWoRk) randomised controlled trial.

IntroductionObesity is a major public health challenge and exacerbates economic disparities through employment discrimination and increased personal health expenditures. Financial incentives for weight management may intensify individuals' utilisation of evidence-based behavioural strategies while addressing obesity-related economic disparities in low-income populations. Trials have focused on testing incentives contingent on achieving weight loss outcomes. However, based on social cognitive and self-determination theories, providing incentives for achieving intermediate behavioural goals may be more sustainable than incentivising outcomes if they enhance an individual's skills and self-efficacy for maintaining long-term weight loss. The objective of this paper is to describe the rationale and design of the Financial Incentives foR Weight Reduction study, a randomised controlled trial to test the comparative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of two financial incentive strategies for weight loss (goal directed vs outcome based) among low-income adults with obesity, as well as compared with the provision of health behaviour change resources alone.Methods and analysisWe are recruiting 795 adults, aged 18-70 years with a body mass index ≥30 kg/m2, from three primary care clinics serving residents of socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods in New York City and Los Angeles. All participants receive a 1-year commercial weight loss programme membership, self-monitoring tools (bathroom scale, food journal and Fitbit Alta HR), health education and monthly check-in visits. In addition to these resources, those in the two intervention groups can earn up to $750 over 6 months for: (1) participating in an intensive weight management programme, self-monitoring weight and diet and meeting physical activity guidelines (goal-directed arm); or (2) a ≥1.5% to ≥5% reduction in baseline weight (outcome-based arm). To maximise incentive efficacy, we incorporate concepts from behavioural economics, including immediacy of payments and framing feedback to elicit regret aversion. We will use generalised mixed effect models for repeated measures to examine intervention effects on weight at 6, 9 and 12 months.Ethics and disseminationHuman research protection committees at New York University School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) David Geffen School of Medicine and Olive-View-UCLA Medical Center granted ethics approval. We will disseminate the results of this research via peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and meetings with stakeholders.Trial registration numberNCT03157713

RENEWABLE ENERGY, A KEY TO INTEGRATING COMPETITIVE POLICIES WITH ADVANCED ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION STRATEGIES

Development of competitive policies and improvement of environment protection strategies are two basic trends of the development of the European Unique Market. Energy, also known as "industry bread", is basic product and strategic resource, where energy industry plays an obvious role in the economic and social development of any community. Traditional energy production is marred by three major drawbacks: it generates negative externalities by polluting; it is totally in the hands of the producers; hence, prices rise at their will, of fossil fuels such as oil and gas. Present study focuses on electric energy industry, yet bearing over the whole length of the chain producer-to-end-consumer, thus revealed as particularly complex. The question is do alternative energy sources meet the prerequisite of market being competitive meanwhile environment protection being highly observed. We identify limits in point, of the energy market; effects of market liberalization; entry barriers; interchangeability level of energy sources; active forces on the energy market. Competitive rivalry has been expressed as per market micro-economic analysis, based on Michael Porter's 5-forces model. It will thus be noticed that, morphologically, competition evolution depends firstly on the market type. For the time being, the consumer on the energy market stays captive, for various reasons such as: legislation; limits of energy transfer infrastructure; scarcity of resources; resources availability imbalance; no integrative strategy available, of renewable energy resources usage. Energy availability is vital for human society to function. Comparative advantages of renewable energy resources are twofold, as manifested: in terms of economics, i.e. improving competition by substitute products entered at the same time as new producers enter market; and in terms of ecology, by reducing CO2 emissions. As to energy production technology and transfer, the complementary nature will be noticed, of renewable energy resources, such nature manifesting itself as a 6th force, "the force of complementary products" apt to stimulate low competition on the energy market.competition, environment protection, renewable energy, strategy

Exploring psychologists' self disclosure practices and privacy management strategies on their personal Facebook profile : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, the level of transparency that social networking sites has brought to the world will no longer support an individual having a personal and a professional identity; the two will become one and the same. This is a concern for those in the psychological profession, where self-disclosure of a personal nature is not only not recommended but is often considered to violate ethical principles of the profession, and could result in negative consequences for both the clients and the psychologists. This study explores how psychologists manage the balance between the self-disclosing nature of social networking sites with the need to protect their privacy online. Psychologists (n=99) from the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists and the New Zealand Psychological Society were asked to complete a survey indicating their self-disclosure practices and privacy management strategies on their personal Facebook profiles. Results suggest that psychologists are relatively consistent in the rules they have in place about who they share their information with and the strategies they use to protect it. Of the participants, 10% were found to have fully public disclosure practices, with the remainder having moderately or strict practices. While psychologists are engaging in self-disclosures on Facebook they appear to be doing so with some privacy protection strategies in place

Mitigation and Beautification: Placing Rain Gardens in the KeyStone Neighborhood of Rock Island, Illinois

With new stormwater management regulations, cities are looking for strategies to reduce urban runoff, and rain gardens are one of several strategies that capture runoff and encourage infiltration and evaporation. In doing so, pollution from runoff is mitigated and combined sewer systems experience fewer overflow events. I argue as well that the implementation of rain gardens would act as a movement for neighborhood beautification. This research develops a new methodology for placing rain gardens that: 1) maximizes the aesthetic value of the gardens by favoring high-visibility locations and 2) targets locations that would best benefit from reduced stormwater runoff. The methods are developed and applied to the KeyStone Neighborhood of Rock Island, Illinois. A sample of 500 parcels was taken and each parcel in the study area has been evaluated and ranked based on a set of beautification criteria focusing on areas of high-visibility and scales of “beauty.” Using the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Stormwater Calculator, each parcel was again ranked according to the modeled percent change of runoff with the installation of a rain garden. The two ranks were then combined into a composite benefits score and mapped using ArcGIS software to display the parcel’s potential for neighborhood beautification and runoff reduction