Changing wages and employment by skill in Taiwan, 1978-1996: The roles of education policy, trade, and immigration

Since the 1970s, Taiwan\u27s labor market has been characterized as a smooth functioning, highly integrated and nearly full employment market, which also enjoying high growth in labor earnings. Unlike most developed countries, the average unemployment rate in Taiwan was under 3 percent over the 1978--1996 period. Unskilled labor shortage problem has forced many industrial companies to move abroad where have cheaper labor costs. In 1990, the government began to invite foreign temporary unskilled workers from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Most foreign workers are in manufacturing and construction industries. About the same time, the Taiwan government also has been implementing several major educational reform policies. One policy was to increase the number of two-year and four-year colleges, causing the number of college graduates to increase dramatically since 1990;In this study, the impacts of these two labor supply shocks, i.e. foreign unskilled labor and local skilled labor, on the Taiwan labor market are examined using the 1978--1996 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan. The effects of Taiwan\u27s international trade on the relative labor demand shifts are also analyzed. We find there is little effect of imported foreign unskilled workers on employment and wages for both local skilled and unskilled workers. In the long run, foreign unskilled workers tend to be complements for both local skilled and unskilled workers. The increase in number of college graduates has, not surprisingly, reduced the returns to education for the young college graduates but not for the more experienced college graduates, suggesting that the average quality of college education has been declined and the young college graduates and more experienced college graduates are not close substitutes. Women\u27s share in every industry has been dramatically increased and the gender earnings gap in Taiwan was significantly reduced during this period, although wage differentials against women still persist. The lower-educated workers and women were favored in the prediction from the trade effect. However, the trend has been gradually shifted to the higher-educated workers

Comparative analysis of genome tiling array data reveals many novel primate-specific functional RNAs in human

BACKGROUND: Widespread transcription activities in the human genome were recently observed in high-resolution tiling array experiments, which revealed many novel transcripts that are outside of the boundaries of known protein or RNA genes. Termed as "TARs" (Transcriptionally Active Regions), these novel transcribed regions represent "dark matter" in the genome, and their origin and functionality need to be explained. Many of these transcripts are thought to code for novel proteins or non-protein-coding RNAs. We have applied an integrated bioinformatics approach to investigate the properties of these TARs, including cross-species conservation, and the ability to form stable secondary structures. The goal of this study is to identify a list of potential candidate sequences that are likely to code for functional non-protein-coding RNAs. We are particularly interested in the discovery of those functional RNA candidates that are primate-specific, i.e. those that do not have homologs in the mouse or dog genomes but in rhesus. RESULTS: Using sequence conservation and the probability of forming stable secondary structures, we have identified ~300 possible candidates for primate-specific noncoding RNAs. We are currently in the process of sequencing the orthologous regions of these candidate sequences in several other primate species. We will then be able to apply a "phylogenetic shadowing" approach to analyze the functionality of these ncRNA candidates. CONCLUSION: The existence of potential primate-specific functional transcripts has demonstrated the limitation of previous genome comparison studies, which put too much emphasis on conservation between human and rodents. It also argues for the necessity of sequencing additional primate species to gain a better and more comprehensive understanding of the human genome

Smart State Management

A method of smart state management to make a software stateful is disclosed. This method involves determining where to define states within a software using a classification learning mechanism

The role of linked building data (LBD) in aligning augmented reality (AR) with sustainable construction

Over the years, the construction industry has been evolving to embrace the delicate balance between buildings and a sustainable environment by optimizing resource use to create greener and more energy efficient constructions. Sustainable building design and optimization is a highly iterative and complicated process. This is mainly attributed to the complex interaction between the different heterogenous but heuristic construction processes, building systems and workflows involved in achieving this goal. Augmented Reality (AR) has rapidly emerged as a revolutionary technology that could play a key role towards improving coordination of sustainable design processes. AR makes possible the real-time visualization of a three-dimensional (3D) building prototype with linked design information in a real-world environment based on a two-dimensional drawing. From past research, it is evident that this technology relies heavily on a common data environment (CDE) that syncs all construction processes with their related building information in one central model. However, due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry, different domain experts generate and exchange vast amounts of heterogenous information using different software tools outside a CDE. This paper therefore investigates the performance gap that exists within Malaysia’s construction industry towards using linked building data (LBD) with AR to improve the lifecycle sustainability of buildings. The results of this study clearly delineate how current construction practices in Malaysia do not favor the use of AR however, stakeholder perception is positive towards adoption of workflows that link heterogenous building data to streamline AR with sustainable building design and construction

Ultra-sensitive UV solar-blind optical wireless communications with an SiPM

In this Letter, an SiPM with a dedicated cooling system suitable for receiving ultra-low-power solar-blind wavelengths is reported. This is designed to decrease the temperature of the detector from 21°C to –10°C, and the corresponding dark count rate (DCR) is reduced by approximately 10 dB. A 275 nm optical wireless communication (OWC) system is established using on–off-keying (OOK) modulation. Transmission rates ranging from 100 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/s are demonstrated with this cooled SiPM. The received power is as low as 30 pW (corresponding to 41.5 photons per bit) at a data rate of 1 Mbit/s and a bit error rate of 2.4 × 10–3