How a Mandatory Activation Program Reduces Unemployment Durations: The Effects of Distance

In an experimental setting some Danish unemployed workers were assigned to an activation program while others were not. Unemployed who were assigned to the activation program found a job more quickly. We show that the activation effect increases with the distance between the place of residence of the unemployed worker and the place where the activation took place. We also find that the quality of the post-unemployment jobs was not affected by the activation program. Both findings confirm that activation programs mainly work because they are compulsory and unemployed don't like them.unemployment insurance, unemployment duration, experiment, activation programs

Content of fatty acids, vitamin E and carotenoids in milk and herbage as affected by sward composition and period of grazing

The quality of organic milk is affected by feed composition, and especially the high use of legumes has been identified as the reason for high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids and tocopherols in organic milk. Four different pastures composed of mainly white clover (WCL), red clover (RCL), lucerne (LUC) or chicory (CIK), respectively, were established to investigate the influence of sward composition on the milk quality of grazing cows. On three occasions during the grazing period (May, June and August), groups of 12 Holstein cows were grazing the pastures for two weeks. About 70% of the daily dry matter intake was pasture, and the remaining dry matter intake was a mixture of oats, hay and minerals (82%, 16%, 2%, respectively). The swards were sampled, and their feed quality as well as their composition of carotenoids, tocopherols and fatty acids was analysed. On each occasion, milk was sampled after two weeks of grazing, and the content of tocopherols and carotenoids as well as the composition of fatty acids was analysed. The overall feed quality expressed as IVOMD (in vitro organic matter disappearance) and NDF (neutral detergent fibre) was affected by period and to a lesser extent by forage type. The content of carotenoids was higher in RCL compared to the other forages, while no effect of period was observed. Alpha-tocopherol was neither affected by period nor by forage type. Fatty acid content, in particular content of linolenic acid, decreased during the grazing period, and it was highest in RCL, intermediate in CIK and lowest in WCL and LUC. Milk yield was neither affected by period nor by forage type. Milk fatty acid composition and content of alpha-tocopherol and carotenoids showed minor differences between forage types and sampling occasions. However, multivariate analysis of these data showed grouping according to sampling occasion, but no clear grouping according to forage types. Despite the differences in composition of forage and in composition of milk, it was not possible to predict milk content of specific fatty acids, carotenoids or tocopherols from the feed content of these compounds. This was partly explained by differences in feed digestibility. Comparison of the milk with previous studies showed higher concentrations of beneficiary compounds such as linolenic acid (12 mg/g fatty acids), conjugated linoleic acid (13 mg/g fatty acids), carotenoids (6 µg/g milk fat) and alpha-tocopherol (21 µg/g milk fat), and it was concluded that all the forages tested could be used in production of a milk with such properties

Basic linear algebra subprograms for FORTRAN usage

A package of 38 low level subprograms for many of the basic operations of numerical linear algebra is presented. The package is intended to be used with FORTRAN. The operations in the package are dot products, elementary vector operations, Givens transformations, vector copy and swap, vector norms, vector scaling, and the indices of components of largest magnitude. The subprograms and a test driver are available in portable FORTRAN. Versions of the subprograms are also provided in assembly language for the IBM 360/67, the CDC 6600 and CDC 7600, and the Univac 1108

Aluminium release from acidic forest soil following deforestation and maize cultivation in Ghana, West Africa

Acidic tropical soils often have high Al3+ concentrations in soil solutions, which can be toxic to plants and, thereby, reduce agricultural yields. This study focuses on the impact of deforestation and cultivation on the short and long-term Al geochemistry of acidic soils in Ghana, West Africa. Site-specific investigations were made at two sites covered with forest and one site cultivated with maize (Zea mays L.). The capacity of soil to resist acidification was investigated in a leaching experiment and the corresponding release of aluminium quantified. Field results revealed a significant aacidification and Al mobility in the root zone of the cultivated site as compared to the forest sites. The leaching experiment showed that further acidification would significantly enhance Al-release and, consequently, the presence of Al3+ in soil solution. It is concluded that deforestation and cultivation in the study area has resulted in increasing levels of Al3+ and a lowering of the soils capacity to resists further acidification. This may be critical in relation to land-use management and long-term agricultural productions

On-Line Learning with Restricted Training Sets: An Exactly Solvable Case

We solve the dynamics of on-line Hebbian learning in large perceptrons exactly, for the regime where the size of the training set scales linearly with the number of inputs. We consider both noiseless and noisy teachers. Our calculation cannot be extended to non-Hebbian rules, but the solution provides a convenient and welcome benchmark with which to test more general and advanced theories for solving the dynamics of learning with restricted training sets.Comment: 19 pages, eps figures included, uses epsfig macr

Analysis of the Copenhagen Accord pledges and its global climatic impacts‚ a snapshot of dissonant ambitions

This analysis of the Copenhagen Accord evaluates emission reduction pledges by individual countries against the Accord's climate-related objectives. Probabilistic estimates of the climatic consequences for a set of resulting multi-gas scenarios over the 21st century are calculated with a reduced complexity climate model, yielding global temperature increase and atmospheric CO2 and CO2-equivalent concentrations. Provisions for banked surplus emission allowances and credits from land use, land-use change and forestry are assessed and are shown to have the potential to lead to significant deterioration of the ambition levels implied by the pledges in 2020. This analysis demonstrates that the Copenhagen Accord and the pledges made under it represent a set of dissonant ambitions. The ambition level of the current pledges for 2020 and the lack of commonly agreed goals for 2050 place in peril the Accord's own ambition: to limit global warming to below 2 °C, and even more so for 1.5 °C, which is referenced in the Accord in association with potentially strengthening the long-term temperature goal in 2015. Due to the limited level of ambition by 2020, the ability to limit emissions afterwards to pathways consistent with either the 2 or 1.5 °C goal is likely to become less feasibl

Archived U-Pb (zircon) dates from southern New Brunswick

U-Pb (zircon) ages for eight samples from southern New Brunswick were determined during the early 1990's as part of a regional mapping and correlation program. Although most of the dates have been subsequently quoted in the literature through personal communications, and some preliminary isochron diagrams have been incorporated in papers, the results have not been published in their entirety. The units sampled and best estimates for their ages are the Lobster Brook Formation (554 ± 6 Ma), Leavitts Head Formation (554 ± 3 Ma), Ragged Falls Suite (553 ± 2 Ma), Mosquito Lake Road Formation (514 ± 2 Ma, maximum age), Bayswater Formation (436 ± 3 Ma), Centreton Granite (437 ± 3 Ma), felsic dyke of North Head, Grand Manan Island (396+3/-2 Ma), and Lake George Cupola, Lake George Mine (414 ± 2 Ma). RÉSUMÉ Des datations au U-Pb (à partir de zircon) de huit échantillons du Sud du Nouveau-Brunswick avaient été réalisées au début des années 90 dans le cadre d'un programme régional de cartographie et de corrélation. Même si la majorité des dates ont subséquemment été citées dans de la documentation par le biais de communications personnelles et que certains schémas isochrones préliminaires ont été incorporés dans des communications, les résultats n'ont pas été publiés dans leur intégralité. Les unités échantillonnées et leur meilleurs âges estimatifs comprennent la Formation de Lobster Brook (554 ± 6 Ma), la Formation de Leavitts Head (554 ± 3 Ma), le cortège de Ragged Falls (553 ± 2 Ma), la Formation de Mosquito Lake Road (514 ± 2 Ma, âge maximal), la Formation de Bayswater (436 ± 3 Ma), le granite de Centreton (437 ± 3 Ma), le dyke felsique de North Head, dans l'île Grand Manan (396+3/-2 Ma), et la coupole du lac George, à la mine du lac George (414 ± 2 Ma). [Traduit par la rédaction

Usual energy and macronutrient intakes in 2-9-year-old European children

OBJECTIVE: Valid estimates of population intakes are essential for monitoring trends as well as for nutritional interventions, but such data are rare in young children. In particular, the problem of misreporting in dietary data is usually not accounted for. Therefore, this study aims to provide accurate estimates of intake distributions in European children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional setting-based multi-centre study. SUBJECTS: A total of 9560 children aged 2-9 years from eight European countries with at least one 24-h dietary recall (24-HDR). METHODS: The 24-HDRs were classified in three reporting groups based on age- and sex-specific Goldberg cutoffs (underreports, plausible reports, overreports). Only plausible reports were considered in the final analysis (N=8611 children). The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Method was applied to estimate population distributions of usual intakes correcting for the variance inflation in short-term dietary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of underreporting (9.5%) was higher compared with overreporting (3.4%). Exclusion of misreports resulted in a shift of the energy and absolute macronutrient intake distributions to the right, and further led to the exclusion of extreme values, that is, mean values and lower percentiles increased, whereas upper percentiles decreased. The distributions of relative macronutrient intakes (% energy intake from fat/carbohydrates/proteins) remained almost unchanged when excluding misreports. Application of the NCI-Method resulted in markedly narrower intake distributions compared with estimates based on single 24-HDRs. Mean percentages of usual energy intake from fat, carbohydrates and proteins were 32.2, 52.1 and 15.7%, respectively, suggesting the majority of European children are complying with common macronutrient intake recommendations. In contrast, total water intake (mean: 1216.7 ml per day) lay below the recommended value for >90% of the children. CONCLUSION: This study provides recent estimates of intake distributions of European children correcting for misreporting as well as for the daily variation in dietary data. These data may help to assess the adequacy of young children's diets in Europe