Commuting patterns and labor markets: a new regional classification for Louisiana

Regional classification and labor market study form an important part of any regional development efforts. Successful formation and implementation of developmental policies for a region requires a sound knowledge of the labor market situation and socioeconomic background of the region, which in turn leads ultimately to regional welfare. We find literature in the area of regional classification to be very inadequate. This study classifies Louisiana using a clustering approach in two different ways. First of all, Ward’s method has been used to classify Louisiana into labor markets based on two-way commuting flow between the parishes. Eight geographical clusters are formed and compared with eight Metropolitan Statistical Areas in Louisiana. Secondly, a regional classification for Louisiana is delineated based on four socioeconomic variables using K-means clustering method. Based on goodness-of-fit criteria, nine regional clusters have been formed

Distribution-Free Tests for Two-Sample Location Problems Based on Subsamples

Nonparametric tests for location problems have received much attention in the literature. Many nonparametric tests have been proposed for one, two and several samples location problems. In this paper a class of test statistics is proposed for two sample location problem when the underlying distributions of the samples are symmetric. The class of test statistics proposed is linear combination of U-statistics whose kernel is based on subsamples extrema. The members of the new class are shown to be asymptotically normal. The performance of the proposed class of tests is evaluated using Pitman Asymptotic Relative Efficiency. It is observed that the members of the proposed class of tests are better than the existing tests in the literature

A Class of Nonparametric Tests for the Two-Sample Location Problem

The two-sample location problem is one of the fundamental problems encountered in Statistics. In many applications of Statistics, two-sample problems arise in such a way as to lead naturally to the formulations of the null hypothesis to the effect that the two samples come from identical populations. A class of nonparametric test statistics is proposed for two-sample location problem based on U-statistic with the kernel depending on a constant ’a’ when the underlying distribution is symmetric. The optimal choice of ’a’ for different underlying distributions is determined. An alternative expression for the class of test statistics is established. Pitman asymptotic relative efficiencies indicate that the proposed class of test statistics does well in comparison with many of the test statistics available in the literature. The small sample performance is also studied through Monte-Carlo Simulation techniqu

SOME CLASSES OF NONPARAMETRIC TESTS FOR SPECIAL TWO-SAMPLE LOCATION PROBLEM BASED ON SUBSAMPLE EXTREMES

The special two-sample location problem is an important problem which is useful in comparing the performance of two measuring instruments. The problem of comparing the performances of two packing machines in which one machine may underfill the packets and the other may overfill the packets on an average, fits into special twosample location setup wherein one wishes to test for the point of symmetry versus an appropriate alternative. The only test available in the literature to the best of our knowledge is the class of tests due to Shetty and Umarani [13] which is based on U-statistics. In this paper, two classes of test statistics are proposed which are based on extremes of subsamples. The performances of the proposed classes of tests ar

AEROGEL – A Promising Building Material for Sustainable Buildings

The sustainable buildings can be defined as efficient buildings from the point of view of maintenance and operation costs, and of which value increases in time, through positive impact on the natural and social environment. The aim of rendering buildings sustainable can be achieved only by the production of new advanced materials, and by using them, especially at the glass surfaces, for more resistant envelopes at different external actions which may increase considerably the durability period of a building and may increase the energy efficiency through a high level thermal insulation. This paper, aims to explore the possibility of the use of Aerogels as a building material with reference to its chemical, physical characteristics and performance. The paper presents also an analytical application demonstrates that it is supposed to be an expensive method initially but is more advantageous, considering the low costs afterwards, mainly, because of reduced energy consumption. It talks about chemical adaptation of Aerogels for optical applications, chemical adaptation of Aerogels to thermal insulation and its various applications in Building Industry. Keywords: aerogel, sustainable building,, thermal insulation, life cycle cost

How can developing countries harness biotechnology to improve health?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The benefits of genomics and biotechnology are concentrated primarily in the industrialized world, while their potential to combat neglected diseases in the developing world has been largely untapped. Without building developing world biotechnology capacity to address local health needs, this disparity will only intensify. To assess the potential of genomics to address health needs in the developing world, the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, along with local partners, organized five courses on Genomics and Public Health Policy in the developing world. The overall objective of the courses was to collectively explore how to best harness genomics to improve health in each region. This article presents and analyzes the recommendations from all five courses.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>In this paper we analyze recommendations from 232 developing world experts from 58 countries who sought to answer how best to harness biotechnology to improve health in their regions. We divide their recommendations into four categories: science; finance; ethics, society and culture; and politics.</p> <p>Summary</p> <p>The Courses' recommendations can be summarized across the four categories listed above:</p> <p>Science</p> <p>- Collaborate through national, regional, and international networks</p> <p>- Survey and build capacity based on proven models through education, training, and needs assessments</p> <p>Finance</p> <p>- Develop regulatory and intellectual property frameworks for commercialization of biotechnology</p> <p>- Enhance funding and affordability of biotechnology</p> <p>- Improve the academic-industry interface and the role of small and medium enterprise</p> <p>Ethics, Society, Culture</p> <p>- Develop public engagement strategies to inform and educate the public about developments in genomics and biotechnology</p> <p>- Develop capacity to address ethical, social and cultural issues</p> <p>- Improve accessibility and equity</p> <p>Politics</p> <p>- Strengthen understanding, leadership and support at the political level for biotechnology</p> <p>- Develop policies outlining national biotechnology strategy</p> <p>These recommendations provide guidance for all those interested in supporting science, technology, and innovation to improve health in the developing world. Applying these recommendations broadly across sectors and regions will empower developing countries themselves to harness the benefits of biotechnology and genomics for billions who have long been excluded.</p

Behavioural science principles for scaling-up zero tillage wheat and maize in the Eastern Terai region of Nepal

Farmers have a set of convictions and tend to do what their forefathers had practiced. By identifying their beliefs and designing appropriate ways of upscaling to convince them of new and improved practices, we can improve the adoption of zero tillage technology for maize and wheat. Small and fragmented landholdings that resulted from the cultural system of distributing land to heirs are diverse in their cropping requirements. Moreover, farmers are risk-averse and do not believe easily in new technologies. Traditional extension approaches have not been effective in upscaling these technologies. A new way of thinking based on behavioural science can provide some insights and guidelines for improving the effectiveness of technology adoption. Understanding farmers' socioeconomic circumstances and their decision-making system at the household and society level can help in designing upscaling approaches. Approaches such as capitalising on social bonding, use of established technology leaders, and use of farmers' organizations can improve adoption. Recommended strategies include encouraging a comprehensive contracting system of service provision, using active community influential local leaders in technology expansion, taking group and social identity approaches in technology extension, and capacity building programs for service providers/operators and farmers to help raise confidence and to remove perceived barriers to technology adoption. &nbsp

Integrating genomics and metabolomics for scalable non-ribosomal peptide discovery.

Non-Ribosomal Peptides (NRPs) represent a biomedically important class of natural products that include a multitude of antibiotics and other clinically used drugs. NRPs are not directly encoded in the genome but are instead produced by metabolic pathways encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). Since the existing genome mining tools predict many putative NRPs synthesized by a given BGC, it remains unclear which of these putative NRPs are correct and how to identify post-assembly modifications of amino acids in these NRPs in a blind mode, without knowing which modifications exist in the sample. To address this challenge, here we report NRPminer, a modification-tolerant tool for NRP discovery from large (meta)genomic and mass spectrometry datasets. We show that NRPminer is able to identify many NRPs from different environments, including four previously unreported NRP families from soil-associated microbes and NRPs from human microbiota. Furthermore, in this work we demonstrate the anti-parasitic activities and the structure of two of these NRP families using direct bioactivity screening and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, illustrating the power of NRPminer for discovering bioactive NRPs

Fine Mapping of Genetic Variants in BIN1, CLU, CR1 and PICALM for Association with Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease

Recent genome-wide association studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have identified variants in BIN1, CLU, CR1 and PICALM that show replicable association with risk for disease. We have thoroughly sampled common variation in these genes, genotyping 355 variants in over 600 individuals for whom measurements of two AD biomarkers, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 42 amino acid amyloid beta fragments (Aβ42) and tau phosphorylated at threonine 181 (ptau181), have been obtained. Association analyses were performed to determine whether variants in BIN1, CLU, CR1 or PICALM are associated with changes in the CSF levels of these biomarkers. Despite adequate power to detect effects as small as a 1.05 fold difference, we have failed to detect evidence for association between SNPs in these genes and CSF Aβ42 or ptau181 levels in our sample. Our results suggest that these variants do not affect risk via a mechanism that results in a strong additive effect on CSF levels of Aβ42 or ptau181

A community resource for paired genomic and metabolomic data mining

Genomics and metabolomics are widely used to explore specialized metabolite diversity. The Paired Omics Data Platform is a community initiative to systematically document links between metabolome and (meta)genome data, aiding identification of natural product biosynthetic origins and metabolite structures.Peer reviewe