The measurement of low pay in the UK labour force survey

Consideration of the National Minimum Wage requires estimates of the distribution of hourly pay. The UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a key source of such estimates. The approach most frequently adopted by researchers has been to measure hourly earnings from several questions on pay and hours. The Office for National Statistics is now applying a new approach, based on an alternative more direct measurement introduced in March 1999. These two measures do not produce identical values and this paper investigates sources of discrepancies and concludes that the new variable is more accurate. The difficulty with using the new variable is that it is only available on a subset of respondents. An approach is developed in which missing values of the new variable are replaced by imputed values. The assumptions underlying this imputation approach and results of applying it to LFS data are presented. The relation to weighting approaches is also discussed

Hox-controlled reorganisation of intrasegmental patterning cues underlies Drosophila posterior spiracle organogenesis

10 páginas, 8 figuras. Material complementario del artículo esta disponible en http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/132/13/3093/DC1Hox proteins provide axial positional information and control segment morphology in development and evolution. Yet how they specify morphological traits that confer segment identity and how axial positional information interferes with intrasegmental patterning cues during organogenesis remain poorly understood. We have investigated the control of Drosophila posterior spiracle morphogenesis, a segment-specific structure that forms under Abdominal-B (AbdB) Hox control in the eighth abdominal segment (A8). We show that the Hedgehog (Hh), Wingless (Wg) and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (Egfr) pathways provide specific inputs for posterior spiracle morphogenesis and act in a genetic network made of multiple and rapidly evolving Hox/signalling interplays. A major function of AbdB during posterior spiracle organogenesis is to reset A8 intrasegmental patterning cues, first by reshaping wg and rhomboid expression patterns, then by reallocating the Hh signal and later by initiating de novo expression of the posterior compartment gene engrailed in anterior compartment cells. These changes in expression patterns confer axial specificity to otherwise reiteratively used segmental patterning cues, linking intrasegmental polarity and acquisition of segment identity.This work was supported by the `Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique' (CNRS), grants from `la Ligue Nationale Contre Le Cancer (équipe labellisée La Ligue)', `l'Association pour la Recherche contre le Cancer' (ARC), The Royal Society, The Welcome Trust, the `Minesterio de education y ciencia (BFU 2004 0 96) and ARC and EMBO long term fellowships to S. Merabet.Peer reviewe

An empirical analysis of the Swiss generalized system of preferences

The progressively introduced DFQFMA for LDCs has a positive effect on the size of LDCs preferential exports to Switzerland. Consequently, the DFQFMA has considerably improved market access for the worlds poorest countries. Eliminating tariffs (progressively) causes preferential agro-food and textile exports of LDCs to rise substantially. However, it has to be remarked that the success of the DFQFMA is limited to the agro-food and textile sectors and to a few countries. The descriptive analysis of agro-food exports indicates that trade liberalization is a success story merely for a few LDCs, namely Tanzania, Ethiopia, Côte dIvoire, Mozambique, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda. Those seven countries capture a total share of nearly 80 percent of LDCs agro-food exports to Switzerland. In the textile sector we observe an even higher degree of market concentration concerning LDCs preferential exports. Here, three countries, namely Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal, account for 98 percent of LDCs preferential textile exports. It also can be noted that the GSP is a useful supplement to duty-free tariffs (duty-free market access) under the WTO regime. For instance, 100 percent of LDCs agro-food exports from 2002 to 2011 entered Switzerland under reduced or duty-free tariffs. However, the share of preferential exports under the GSP was on average only 36 percent. In this context, the preference margin, which represents the main incentive to export under preferential conditions, compensates the costs of compliance associated with the GSP and yields an additional benefit for the importer has a consistent and positive effect on the level of the utilization rate. In particular, the application of the Heckman´selection model in article no. 1 makes clear that once trade contracts are established and an exporter has overcome bureaucratic obstacles in the form of proof of origin and proof of direct shipment, the preference margin appears as the main incentive to export under preferential conditions granted by the GSP. While the effect of the size of GSP eligible trade has a positive and significant effect in the case of the PPML estimations, the effect turned negative when the sample was restricted to positive values of the utilization rate in the case of the outcome equation of the Heckman selection model. This finding encourages our confidence that the preference margin acts as the main incentive for exporting under preferential conditions. However, to benefit from these preferential tariffs, the institutional quality of a given DC or LDC is of crucial importance. Additionally, we address the question of whether reciprocal trade preferences are more beneficial for DCs compared to non-reciprocal trade preferences. Because trade preferences under the Swiss GSP are offered to the country group of DCs as a whole, non-reciprocal trade preferences are not tailored to the export structure of a particular DC. Consequently, by switching from non-reciprocal to negotiated reciprocal trade preferences, DCs such as Tunisia expect to negotiate terms which are tailored to their export structure and better conditions than competitors from countries which are still beneficiaries of the GSP. The Tunisian case study reveals that the switch from the GSP to an FTA causes no significant advantage in most of the export sectors. This implies that switching from non-reciprocal to reciprocal trade preferences yields advantages in export sectors where Tunisia has comparative cost advantages. This is especially true for the textile sector and partly so for the agro-food sector

Организация и проведение аварийно-спасательных работ при ДТП с участием общественного транспорта

В статье описывается организация и проведение АСР при ДТП с участием общественного транспорта, рассматриваются действия спасателей в различных вариантах происшествия, описываются последовательность, и способы выполнения работ. Тhe article describes the organization and conduct of ASR in an accident involving public transport, examines the actions of rescuers in various versions of the incident, and describes the sequence and methods of performing the work

Measurement of the Topological Branching Fractions of the tau lepton at LEP

Using data collected with the L3 detector at LEP from 1992 to 1995 on the Z peak, we determine the branching fractions of the tau lepton into one, three and five charged particles to be: B(tau->(1-prong)) = 85.274 +- 0.105 +- 0.073 %, B(tau->(3-prong)) = 14.556 +- 0.105 +- 0.076 %, B(tau->(5-prong)) = 0.170 +- 0.022 +- 0.026 %. The first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The accuracy of these measurements alone is similar to that of the current world average

Search for R-parity Violating Decays of Supersymmetric Particles in e+e- Collisions at LEP

A search, in e^+e^- collisions, for chargino, neutralino, scalar lepton and scalar quark pair-production is performed, without assuming R-parity conservation in decays, in the case that only one of the coupling constants lambda_ijk or lambda''_ijk is non-negligible. No signal is found in data up to a centre-of-mass energy of 208GeV. Limits on the production cross sections and on the masses of supersymmetric particles are derived

Giant regular polyhedra from calixarene carboxylates and uranyl

Self-assembly of large multi-component systems is a common strategy for the bottom-up construction of discrete, well-defined, nanoscopic-sized cages. Icosahedral or pseudospherical viral capsids, built up from hundreds of identical proteins, constitute typical examples of the complexity attained by biological self-assembly. Chemical versions of the so-called 5 Platonic regular or 13 Archimedean semi-regular polyhedra are usually assembled combining molecular platforms with metals with commensurate coordination spheres. Here we report novel, self-assembled cages, using the conical-shaped carboxylic acid derivatives of calix[4]arene and calix[5]arene as ligands, and the uranyl cation UO22+ as a metallic counterpart, which coordinates with three carboxylates at the equatorial plane, giving rise to hexagonal bipyramidal architectures. As a result, octahedral and icosahedral anionic metallocages of nanoscopic dimensions are formed with an unusually small number of components

CMS Forward-Backward MSGC milestone

The CMS MF1 milestone was set in order to evaluate system aspects of the CMS forward-backward MSGC tracker, to check the design and feasibility of mass production and to set up assembly and test procedures. We describe the construction and the experience gained with the operation of a system of 38 MSGC detectors assembled in six multi-substrate detector modules corresponding to the geometry of the forward-backward MSGC tracker in CMS. These modules were equipped with MSGCs mounted side by side, forming a continuous detector surface of about 0.2 m2. Different designs were tried for these modules. The problems encountered are presented with the proposed solutions. Operation conditions for the 38 MSGCs are reported from an exposure to a muon beam at the CERN SPS. Gain uniformity along the wedge-shaped strip pattern and across the detector modules are shown together with the detection efficiency, the spatial resolution, alignment and edge studies

Performance studies of the CMS strip tracker before installation

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