Stepping Off the Wage Escalator: The Effects of Wage Growth on Equilibrium Employment

This paper emphasizes the role of wage growth in shaping work incentives. It provides an analytical framework for labor supply in the presence of a return to labor market experience and aggregate productivity growth. A key finding of the theory is that there is an interaction between these two forms of wage growth that explains why aggregate productivity growth can affect employment rates in steady state. The model thus speaks to an enduring puzzle in macroeconomics by uncovering a channel from the declines in trend aggregate wage growth that accompanied the productivity slowdown of the 1970s to persistent declines in employment. The paper also shows that the return to experience for high school dropouts has fallen substantially since the 1970s, which further contributes to the secular decline in employment rates. Taken together, the mechanisms identified in the paper can account for all of the increase in nonemployment among white male high school dropouts from 1968 to 2006. For all white males, it accounts for approximately one half of the increase in the aggregate nonemployment rate over the same period.

Co-producing principles to guide health research: an illustrative case study from an eating disorder research clinic

There is significant value in co-produced health research, however power-imbalances within research teams can pose a barrier to people with lived experience of an illness determining the direction of research in that area. This is especially true in eating disorder research, where the inclusion of co-production approaches lags other research areas. Appealing to principles or values can serve to ground collaborative working. Despite this, there has not been any prior attempt to co-produce principles to guide the work of a research group and serve as a basis for developing future projects. The aim of this piece of work was to co-produce a set of principles to guide the conduct of research within our lived experience led research clinic, and to offer an illustrative case for the value of this as a novel co-production methodology. A lived experience panel were recruited to our eating disorder research group. Through an iterative series of workshops with the members of our research clinic (composed of a lived experience panel, clinicians, and researchers) we developed a set of principles which we agreed were important in ensuring both the direction of our research, and the way in which we wanted to work together. Six key principles were developed using this process. They were that research should aim to be: 1) real world—offering a clear and concrete benefit to people with eating disorders, 2) tailored—suitable for marginalised groups and people with atypical diagnoses, 3) hopeful—ensuring that hope for recovery was centred in treatment, 4) experiential—privileging the ‘voice’ of people with eating disorders, 5) broad—encompassing non-standard therapeutic treatments and 6) democratic—co-produced by people with lived experience of eating disorders. We reflect on some of the positives as well as limitations of the process, highlighting the importance of adequate funding for longer-term co-production approaches to be taken, and issues around ensuring representation of minority groups. We hope that other health research groups will see the value in co-producing principles to guide research in their own fields, and will adapt, develop, and refine this novel methodology

The Methyltransferase WBSCR22/Merm1 Enhances Glucocorticoid Receptor Function and Is Regulated in Lung Inflammation and Cancer

Glucocorticoids (GC) regulate cell fate and immune function. We identified the metastasis-promoting methyltransferase, metastasis-related methyltransferase 1 (WBSCR22/Merm1) as a novel glucocorticoid receptor (GR) regulator relevant to human disease. Merm1 binds the GR co-activator GRIP1 but not GR. Loss of Merm1 impaired both GR transactivation and transrepression by reducing GR recruitment to its binding sites. This was accompanied by loss of GR-dependent H3K4Me3 at a well characterized promoter. Inflammation promotes GC resistance, in part through the actions of TNFα and IFNγ. These cytokines suppressed Merm1 protein expression by driving ubiquitination of two conserved lysine residues. Restoration of Merm1 expression rescued GR transactivation. Cytokine suppression of Merm1 and of GR function was also seen in human lung explants. In addition, striking loss of Merm1 protein was observed in both inflammatory and neoplastic human lung pathologies. In conclusion, Merm1 is a novel regulator of chromatin structure affecting GR recruitment and function, contributing to loss of GC sensitivity in inflammation, with suppressed expression in pulmonary disease

Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma)

The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0 -> K*0 gamma and Bs0 -> phi gamma has been measured using 0.37 fb-1 of pp collisions at a centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The value obtained is BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) = 1.12 +/- 0.08 ^{+0.06}_{-0.04} ^{+0.09}_{-0.08}, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third is associated to the ratio of fragmentation fractions fs/fd. Using the world average for BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma) = (4.33 +/- 0.15) x 10^{-5}, the branching fraction BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) is measured to be (3.9 +/- 0.5) x 10^{-5}, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0→K∗0μ+μ−

The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0→ K ∗0 μ + μ − are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions

Search for the decay Bs0→D*∓π±

A search for the decay Bs0→D*∓π± is presented using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0  fb-1 of pp collisions collected by LHCb. This decay is expected to be mediated by a W-exchange diagram, with little contribution from rescattering processes, and therefore a measurement of the branching fraction will help us to understand the mechanism behind related decays such as Bs0→π+π- and Bs0→DD- . Systematic uncertainties are minimized by using B0→D*∓π± as a normalization channel. We find no evidence for a signal, and set an upper limit on the branching fraction of B(Bs0→D*∓π±)<6.1(7.8)×10-6 at 90% (95%) confidence level

Measurements of the branching fractions of B+→ppK+ decays

The branching fractions of the decay B+ → pp̄K+ for different intermediate states are measured using data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb-1, collected by the LHCb experiment. The total branching fraction, its charmless component Mpp̄ < 2.85 GeV/c2 and the branching fractions via the resonant cc̄ states η c(1S) and ψ(2S) relative to the decay via a J/ψ intermediate state are [Equation not available: see fulltext.] Upper limits on the B + branching fractions into the η c(2S) meson and into the charmonium-like states X(3872) and X(3915) are also obtained

Measurement of B meson production cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at √s= 7 TeV

The production cross-sections of B mesons are measured in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using data collected with the LHCb detector corresponding to a integrated luminosity of 0.36fb−1. The B+, B0 and B0s mesons are reconstructed in the exclusive decays B+→J/ψK+, B0→J/ψK∗0 and B0s→J/ψϕ, with J/ψ→μ+μ−, K∗0→K+π− and ϕ→K+K−. The differential cross-sections are measured as functions of B meson transverse momentum pT and rapidity y, in the range 0 < pT<40GeV/c2 and 2.0<y<4.5. The integrated cross-sections in the same pT and y ranges, including charge-conjugate states, are measured to be σ(pp→B++X)=38.9±0.3(stat.)±2.5(syst.)±1.3(norm.)μb, σ(pp→B0+X)=38.1±0.6(stat.)±3.7(syst.)±4.7(norm.)μb, σ(pp→B0s+X)=10.5±0.2(stat.)±0.8(syst.)±1.0(norm.)μb, where the third uncertainty arises from the pre-existing branching fraction measurements

Observation of Bc+→J/ψDs+ and Bc+→J/ψDs*+ decays

The decays Bc+→J/ψDs+ and Bc+→J/ψDs*+ are observed for the first time using a dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3  fb-1, collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of √s=7 and 8 TeV. The statistical significance for both signals is in excess of 9 standard deviations. The following ratios of branching fractions are measured to be B(Bc+→J/ψDs+)/B(Bc+→J/ψπ+)=2.90±0.57±0.24, B(Bc+→J/ψDs*+)/B(Bc+→J/ψDs+)=2.37±0.56±0.10, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The mass of the Bc+ meson is measured to be mBc+=6276.28±1.44(stat)±0.36(syst)  MeV/c2, using the Bc+→J/ψDs+ decay mode