Intergenerational Analysis of the Donating Behaviour of Parents and their Offspring

Using data drawn from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we explore the relationship between the donating behavior of parents and that of their children aged less than 18 which gives a direct insight into whether an intergenerational relationship in donating behavior exists. Furthermore, we exploit information relating to whether or not parents encourage their children to donate to charity by talking to them about donating to unveil information related to the intergenerational transmission of philanthropic behavior. Our findings suggest that an intergenerational correlation is only present in the absence of a control for whether the parent talks to the child about donating. The effect from the parent talking to their offspring is associated with an increased likelihood that the child donates by approximately 10 percentage points, a finding which is robust to a number of different estimation strategies

Early influences on saving behaviour: Analysis of British panel data

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society, we examine the saving behaviour of individuals over time. Initially, we explore the determinants of the saving behaviour of children aged 11–15. Our findings suggest that parental allowances/pocket money (earnings from part-time work) lower (increase) the probability that a child saves. There is also evidence that the financial expectations of the head of household have an influence on their offspring’s saving behaviour, where children of optimistic parents have a lower probability of saving by approximately 2 percentage points. However, there is no evidence of an intergenerational correlation in savings behaviour: the saving behaviour of parents appears to have no bearing on the saving decisions of their offspring. We then go on to explore the implications of the saving behaviour of children for their savings decisions in later life, specifically when observed in early adulthood. We find that having saved as a child has a large positive influence both on the probability of saving on a monthly basis and on the amount saved as an adult. This finding is robust to alternative empirical strategies including IV analysis where the most conservative estimates show that having saved as a child increases the probability of saving during adulthood by 12 percentage points

Full protection of superconducting qubit systems from coupling errors

Solid state qubits realized in superconducting circuits are potentially scalable. However, strong decoherence may be transferred to the qubits by various elements of the circuits that couple individual qubits, particularly when coupling is implemented over long distances. We propose here an encoding that provides full protection against errors originating from these coupling elements, for a chain of superconducting qubits with a nearest neighbor anisotropic XY-interaction. The encoding is also seen to provide partial protection against errors deriving from general electronic noise

Non-homologous end joining in class switch recombination: the beginning of the end

Immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR) is initiated by a B-cell-specific factor, activation-induced deaminase, probably through deamination of deoxycytidine residues within the switch (S) regions. The initial lesions in the S regions are subsequently processed, resulting in the production of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). These breaks will then be recognized, edited and repaired, finally leading to the recombination of the two S regions. Two major repair pathways have been implicated in CSR, the predominant non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and the alternative end-joining (A-EJ) pathways. The former requires not only components of the ‘classical’ NHEJ machinery, i.e. Ku70/Ku80, DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit, DNA ligase IV and XRCC4, but also a number of DNA-damage sensors or adaptors, such as ataxia–telangiectasia mutated, γH2AX, 53BP1, MDC1, the Mre11–Rad50–NBS1 complex and the ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR). The latter pathway is not well characterized yet and probably requires microhomologies. In this review, we will focus on the current knowledge of the predominant NHEJ pathway in CSR and will also give a perspective on the A-EJ pathway

Spin Susceptibility and Superexchange Interaction in the Antiferromagnet CuO

Evidence for the quasi one-dimensional (1D) antiferromagnetism of CuO is presented in a framework of Heisenberg model. We have obtained an experimental absolute value of the paramagnetic spin susceptibility of CuO by subtracting the orbital susceptibility separately from the total susceptibility through the $^{63}$Cu NMR shift measurement, and compared directly with the theoretical predictions. The result is best described by a 1D $S=1/2$ antiferromagnetic Heisenberg (AFH) model, supporting the speculation invoked by earlier authors. We also present a semi-quantitative reason why CuO, seemingly of 3D structure, is unexpectedly a quasi 1D antiferromagnet.Comment: 7 pages including 4 tables and 9 figure

High-contrast imaging constraints on gas giant planet formation - The Herbig Ae/Be star opportunity

Planet formation studies are often focused on solar-type stars, implicitly considering our Sun as reference point. This approach overlooks, however, that Herbig Ae/Be stars are in some sense much better targets to study planet formation processes empirically, with their disks generally being larger, brighter and simply easier to observe across a large wavelength range. In addition, massive gas giant planets have been found on wide orbits around early type stars, triggering the question if these objects did indeed form there and, if so, by what process. In the following I briefly review what we currently know about the occurrence rate of planets around intermediate mass stars, before discussing recent results from Herbig Ae/Be stars in the context of planet formation. The main emphasis is put on spatially resolved polarized light images of potentially planet forming disks and how these images - in combination with other data - can be used to empirically constrain (parts of) the planet formation process. Of particular interest are two objects, HD100546 and HD169142, where, in addition to intriguing morphological structures in the disks, direct observational evidence for (very) young planets has been reported. I conclude with an outlook, what further progress we can expect in the very near future with the next generation of high-contrast imagers at 8-m class telescopes and their synergies with ALMA.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science as invited short review in special issue about Herbig Ae/Be stars; 12 pages incl. 5 figures, 2 tables and reference

A geometric approach to time evolution operators of Lie quantum systems

Lie systems in Quantum Mechanics are studied from a geometric point of view. In particular, we develop methods to obtain time evolution operators of time-dependent Schrodinger equations of Lie type and we show how these methods explain certain ad hoc methods used in previous papers in order to obtain exact solutions. Finally, several instances of time-dependent quadratic Hamiltonian are solved.Comment: Accepted for publication in the International Journal of Theoretical Physic

New Physics and CP Violation in Hyperon Nonleptonic Decays

The sum of the CP-violating asymmetries A(Lambda_-^0) and A(Xi_-^-) in hyperon nonleptonic decays is presently being measured by the E871 experiment. We evaluate contributions to the asymmetries induced by chromomagnetic-penguin operators, whose coefficients can be enhanced in certain models of new physics. Incorporating recent information on the strong phases in Xi->Lambda pi decay, we show that new-physics contributions to the two asymmetries can be comparable. We explore how the upcoming results of E871 may constrain the coefficients of the operators. We find that its preliminary measurement is already better than the epsilon parameter of K-Kbar mixing in bounding the parity-conserving contributions.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Hopf algebras and Markov chains: Two examples and a theory

The operation of squaring (coproduct followed by product) in a combinatorial Hopf algebra is shown to induce a Markov chain in natural bases. Chains constructed in this way include widely studied methods of card shuffling, a natural "rock-breaking" process, and Markov chains on simplicial complexes. Many of these chains can be explictly diagonalized using the primitive elements of the algebra and the combinatorics of the free Lie algebra. For card shuffling, this gives an explicit description of the eigenvectors. For rock-breaking, an explicit description of the quasi-stationary distribution and sharp rates to absorption follow.Comment: 51 pages, 17 figures. (Typographical errors corrected. Further fixes will only appear on the version on Amy Pang's website, the arXiv version will not be updated.

The Intentional Use of Service Recovery Strategies to Influence Consumer Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour

Service recovery strategies have been identified as a critical factor in the success of. service organizations. This study develops a conceptual frame work to investigate how specific service recovery strategies influence the emotional, cognitive and negative behavioural responses of . consumers., as well as how emotion and cognition influence negative behavior. Understanding the impact of specific service recovery strategies will allow service providers' to more deliberately and intentionally engage in strategies that result in positive organizational outcomes. This study was conducted using a 2 x 2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design. The results suggest that service recovery has a significant impact on emotion, cognition and negative behavior. Similarly, satisfaction, negative emotion and positive emotion all influence negative behavior but distributive justice has no effect