The determinants of Spanish language proficiency among immigrants in Spain

This article uses micro-data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes-ENI in Spanish) carried out in 2007 among immigrants in Spain. In recent years, Spain has received unprecedented immigration flows. A substantial number of immigrants cannot communicate adequately in the language of the country to which they immigrate. Among the multiple reasons for the lack of host language proficiency one can distinguish factors such as a low level of educational attainment, not having been provided with adequate opportunities to learn the host language, living in ethnic enclaves or having arrived at an older age. Language skills (including oral and written ability) play a crucial role in the determination of the immigrants’ social and economic integration in the host country. As a consequence, analyzing the source of foreign language acquisition is crucial for understanding the immigrants’ economic, social and political involvement. The results show that an increase in educational attainment is associated with a higher level of Spanish spoken proficiency. Language ability is also associated with the country or region of origin. The results show that immigrant men and women from the Maghreb and Asia, as well as men from Eastern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa show a significantly weaker command over spoken Spanish than Western Europeans.N/

The shadow value of employer-provided training

This paper adopts an equivalent income approach to calculate the economic value of training activities for workers. Using econometric regression analysis of individual self-reported job satisfaction (JS) and data from the European Community Household Panel dataset (ECHP), the paper shows that employer-provided training exerts a positive and significant effect on JS. On average, this effect is equivalent to a 17.7% increase in labour earnings. Boes and Winkelmann’s (2009) Generalized Ordered Probit for panel data is used to show that the determinants of JS as well as the equivalent income of training differ across the JS distribution.N/

NIMBUS-ERB instrument study

Characterization studies were performed on flight spare ERB wide field of view Earth flux sensors. Field of view sensitivity profiles were determined for total energy sensors with and without painted baffles. Similarly, sensors with filter domes were also characterized in terms of field of view. The transient response of sensors with filter domes was determined for both long wave and short wave radiation. Long wave radiation interacts directly with the quartz dome causing undesired responses. While short wave radiation was shown not to interact with the domes, modules as a whole exhibited a secondary response to bursts of short wave radiation indicative of a heating mechanism. How the results of this characterization can or should be applied to the data emanating from these sensors on ERB-6 and 7 is outlined

Master of Science

thesisLigaments and tendons undergo volume loss when stretched along the primary fiber axis, which is evident by the large, strain-dependent Poisson's ratios measured during quasistatic tensile tests. When continuum constitutive models have been used to describe ligament material behavior they have generally assumed incompressibility, which does not reflect the volume loss seen experimentally. We developed a strain energy equation that can predict both the nonlinear, transversely isotropic behavior as well as the large, strain-dependent Poisson's ratios seen experimentally. This hyperelastic constitutive model was implemented in the finite element solver FEBio and the quasistatic and time-dependent material behaviors were compared to a nearly incompressible constitutive model. The new model was able to predict uniaxial stress-strain behavior comparable to the nearly incompressible model and successfully predicted a large, strain-dependent Poisson's ratio. Biphasic simulations that represented the solid phase with the constitutive model predicted a large outward fluid flux and substantial stress-relaxation, suggesting that the viscoelastic behavior of ligaments and tendons can be predicted by modeling fluid movement when combined with a large Poisson's ratio

The Toolkit of economic sociology

In this brief paper I will argue that economic sociology would do well to follow the example of political economy in this respect and pay more attention to analytical economics and its ideas. Contemporary economic sociology, I argue, focuses far too much on social relations and views the impact of these as the explanation to most of what happens in the economy. What is wrong with this approach is that it disregards the importance of interests or the forces that drive human behavior, not least in the economy. What needs to be done – and this will be the red thread throughout this paper – is to combine social relations and interests in one and the same analysis. If we do this, I argue, we may be able to unite some of the basic insights from economics, with some of the basic insights from sociology (e.g. Swedberg 2003). As opposed to modern economics, economic sociology does not have a core of basic concepts and ideas, welded together over a long period of time. Instead economic sociology, mirroring sociology itself, consists of a number of competing perspectives, some more coherent than others. Many economic sociologists, for example, draw on social constructivist perspective, others on a Weberian perspective; some follow Mark Granovetter in emphasizing embeddedness, others Pierre Bourdieu in approaching the analysis of the economy with the concepts of field, habitus and different types of capital. The reader who is interested in an introduction to these different perspectives is referred to The Handbook of Economc Sociology (Smelser and Swedberg 1994; second edition forthcoming in 2005). In what follows I shall first discuss two of the most important concepts in modern economic sociology – embeddedness (including networks) and field. I will then proceed to a discussion of two concepts that I argue should be at the center of contemporary economic sociology: a sociological concept of interest and an interest-based concept of institutions

Variations in gene organization and DNA uptake signal sequence in the folP region between commensal and pathogenic Neisseria species

BACKGROUND: Horizontal gene transfer is an important source of genetic variation among Neisseria species and has contributed to the spread of resistance to penicillin and sulfonamide drugs in the pathogen Neisseria meningitidis. Sulfonamide resistance in Neisseria meningitidis is mediated by altered chromosomal folP genes. At least some folP alleles conferring resistance have been horizontally acquired from other species, presumably from commensal Neisseriae. In this work, the DNA sequence surrounding folP in commensal Neisseria species was determined and compared to corresponding regions in pathogenic Neisseriae, in order to elucidate the potential for inter-species DNA transfer within this region. RESULTS: The upstream region of folP displayed differences in gene order between species, including an insertion of a complete Correia element in Neisseria lactamica and an inversion of a larger genomic segment in Neisseria sicca, Neisseria subflava and Neisseria mucosa. The latter species also had DNA uptake signal sequences (DUS) in this region that were one base different from the DUS in pathogenic Neisseriae. Another interesting finding was evidence of a horizontal transfer event from Neisseria lactamica or Neisseria cinerea that introduced a novel folP allele to the meningococcal population. CONCLUSION: Genetic recombination events immediately upstream of folP and horizontal transfer have resulted in sequence differences in the folP region between the Neisseria species. This variability could be a consequence of the selective pressure on this region exerted by the use of sulfonamide drugs

Oral history interview with Louise White

Women\u27s oral history interview with Louise White. Her topic concerns the Cheney Public Library. Interviewer: Lee Swedber

Oral history interview transcript with Pat Coontz

Oral history interview transcript with Pat Coontz. Her topic concerns the development of Women\u27s programs and of the peace movement in Cheney. Interviewer: G. Lee Swedber

Sulphonamide resistant commensal Neisseria with alterations in the dihydropteroate synthase can be isolated from carriers not exposed to sulphonamides

BACKGROUND: Development of sulphonamide resistance in Neisseria meningitidis has been suggested to involve horizontal DNA-transfer from a commensal Neisseria species. In this study, we isolated commensal Neisseria from throat specimens and examined the isolates with respect to sulphonamide resistance. RESULTS: Three resistant clones were identified and the resistance phenotype could be explained by amino acid variations in their dihydropteroate synthase, the target molecule for sulphonamides. Some of these variations occurred in positions corresponding to previously detected variations in resistant N. meningitidis. CONCLUSIONS: Sulphonamide resistant commensal Neisseria were isolated from an environment not exposed to sulphonamides, suggesting that resistant Neisseria has become a natural part of the commensal throat flora