What nudges will matter? An empirical study of female joblessness

The purpose of this empirical study is to use an interdisciplinary approach across labour economics, behavioural economics and social economics to explain female labour market statuses, in particular joblessness choices and conditions. We propose a new theoretical framework, based on Sen’s capability approach, new derived variables for the British Household Panel Survey and a new empirical methodology to estimate the probabilities of different labour market categories. Our results show that, in addition to the standard human capital variables, labour market statuses are markedly influenced by the interplay of environmental, social, psychological factors and personal views and values, such as disposition and conformity towards local social rules and to social relations’ (network) norms, degree of confidence and optimism, risk attitude, job and life satisfaction, preferences for the status quo and plans for the future. We find that the predicted probability of joblessness improves substantially when we move from the traditional into the multi- dimensional approach. Adding new variables to allow for more constraints and opportunities provides a richer and more refined view of factors affecting non employment and helps to recognize and explain better status of people within “similar” groups as well as to identify more accurately those people whose status in not in line with the “expected” (such as the employed against the odds and the voluntary” non- employed). We found that there are some clear idiosyncrasies across the different types of joblessness in particular when it comes to the category of carers, a unique feature of female joblessness. Our model predicts that being more embedded in a local community, having stronger values for family life and stronger ties with close “inactive” friends, facing potential income losses in changing labour market status (as measured by counterfactual labour income versus actual non labour income), are all factors that increase the odds of being a carer relative to being unemployed and that prompt carers to choose or preserve their status quo. Social environment matters in reinforcing personal attitude producing a sort of confirmation bias effect that suggests that social influence is more effective across similarly minded people. The results suggest that policies focused on areas where high levels of inactivity is present, working with large friendship groups within these areas could be used to motivate groups of individuals into work. Prospective financial losses (of receiving a labour income lower than non labour income if a carer became employed) increase the odds of being a carer while potential labour income gains would always decrease the odds of being carers versus any other category, particularly when the other categories are students and unemployed (i.e., those more potentially “attached” to the labour market). The results suggest a role for in work benefits such as the tax credits system, the national minimum wage and benefit reforms as policy options to help make work pay and provide incentives to work. Finally, designing active labour market policies that are more tailored to the characteristics of the individual job seeker could prove a fruitful avenue for policies such as the Work Programme

Experience on 3D Silicon Sensors for ATLAS IBL

3D silicon sensors, where plasma micro-machining is used to etch deep narrow apertures in the silicon substrate to form electrodes of PIN junctions, represent possible solutions for inner pixel layers of the tracking detectors in high energy physics experiments. This type of sensors has been developed for the Insertable B-Layer (IBL), an additional pixel layer that has been installed in ATLAS during the present shutdown of the LHC collider at CERN. It is presented here the experience in designing, testing and qualifying sensors and detector modules that have been used to equip part of the IBL. Based on the gained experience with 3D silicon sensors for the ATLAS IBL, we discuss possible new developments for the upgrade of ATLAS and CMS at the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC).Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, conference proceedings for International Workshop on Semiconductor Pixel Detectors for Particles and Imaging (PIXEL2014), will be published on JINS

Evolving Gene Regulatory Networks with Mobile DNA Mechanisms

This paper uses a recently presented abstract, tuneable Boolean regulatory network model extended to consider aspects of mobile DNA, such as transposons. The significant role of mobile DNA in the evolution of natural systems is becoming increasingly clear. This paper shows how dynamically controlling network node connectivity and function via transposon-inspired mechanisms can be selected for in computational intelligence tasks to give improved performance. The designs of dynamical networks intended for implementation within the slime mould Physarum polycephalum and for the distributed control of a smart surface are considered.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1303.722

Lightweight SFRC benefitting from a pre-soaking and internal curing process

The presented research program is focused on the design of a structural lightweight fiber-reinforced concrete harnessing an internal curing process. Pre-soaked waste red ceramic fine aggregate and pre-soaked artificial clay expanded coarse aggregate were utilized for the creation of the mix. Copper-coated steel fiber was added to the mix by volume in amounts of 0.0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. Test specimens in forms of cubes, cylinders, and beams were tested to specify the concrete characteristics. Such properties as consistency, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, static and dynamic modulus of elasticity, flexural characteristics, and shear strength were of special interest. The achieved concrete can be classified as LC12/13. A strength class, according to fib Model Code, was also assigned to the concretes in question. The proposed method of preparation of concrete mix using only pre-soaked aggregate (with no extra water) proved to be feasible.Web of Science1224art. no. 415

Creating a Successful Performance Compensation System for Educators

Offers recommendations for reforming teacher compensation systems and outlines important design elements of successful performance-pay plans

Ask, and shall you receive?: Understanding Desire Fulfillment in Natural Language Text

The ability to comprehend wishes or desires and their fulfillment is important to Natural Language Understanding. This paper introduces the task of identifying if a desire expressed by a subject in a given short piece of text was fulfilled. We propose various unstructured and structured models that capture fulfillment cues such as the subject's emotional state and actions. Our experiments with two different datasets demonstrate the importance of understanding the narrative and discourse structure to address this task