Why Do Individuals Choose Self-Employment?

This paper undertakes an analysis of the motivating factors cited by the self-employed in the UK as reasons for choosing self-employment. Very limited previous research has addressed the question of why individuals report that they have chosen self-employment. Two questions are addressed using large scale labour force survey data for the UK. The first concerns the extent to which the self-employed are self-employed out of necessity, opportunity, lifestyle decision or occupational choice. The second concerns the extent to which there is heterogeneity amongst the self-employed on the basis of the motivations that they report for choosing self-employment. Factor analysis reveals a number of different dimensions of entrepreneurship on the basis of stated motivation, but with no evidence that being 'forced' into entrepreneurship through economic necessity is a significant factor. Motivation towards entrepreneurship is therefore highly multidimensional. Multivariate regression analysis is employed using a method to control for self-selection into self-employment. This reveals significant differences between men and women, with women concerned more with lifestyle factors and less with financial gain. Market-directed 'opportunity' entrepreneurship is more strongly associated with higher educational attainment. Those joining family businesses appear not to value prior educational attainment. Public policy to promote entrepreneurship therefore needs to be tailored carefully to different groups.self-employment, entrepreneurship, motivation, occupational choice

Impact of Emergency Remote Teaching on University Students at a Public Institution in the United States

The educational experiences of university students participating in Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated using a survey instrument. Students found ERT stressful (89%) and indicated challenges from inadequate internet (91%), lack of privacy (45%), and increased amount of studying (3 hours more per week). Academic rank correlated with stress level during ERT, with freshmen (42%) reporting the highest stress level and seniors (48%) reporting minimal stress. Lack of faceto-face instruction, missing peer interaction and having to teach the course material to themselves were the top issues that students disliked with ERT. Respondents recognized the need for organization, selfmotivation, and increased interaction with other students and instructors as key factors for effectiveness and satisfaction of ERT instruction

Faculty Stress Factors at a Public University During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to education systems across the world. Faculty at a public university participated in a survey to aid in defining challenges and stress factors experienced with ERT. Eighty-three percent of faculty participating in the survey indicated they were stressed during the pandemic ERT. Linked stress factors included course organization satisfaction, capturing student learning, energy to move to an online format, translating lessons to online, and online teaching experience. Open-ended survey questions additionally identified faculty frustrations from the lack of student engagement, the amount of time to move to the ERT format, and the desire to decrease student enrollment numbers in courses when teaching in the online format. Clemson University gave faculty the option of utilizing a hybrid model of ERT course delivery during the pandemic, rotating students enrolled in a course for in-person class attendance during a portion of the semester, and this model appeared to elevate some of the issues related to student engagement

Solar Simulator Represents the Mars Surface Solar Environment

A report discusses the development of a Mars surface, laboratory-based solar simulator to create solar cells that can function better on Mars. The Mars Optimized Solar cell Technology (MOST) required defining the surface incident spectrum, developing an appropriate laboratory solar simulator measurement capability, and developing and testing commercial cells modified for the Mars surface spectrum

Pembuatan Briket Arang Daun Kelapa Sawit (Elaeis Guineensis Jacq.) Dengan Perekat Pati Sagu (Metroxylon Sago Rott.)

Increasing need of energy and decreasing of fuel supply requires human to discover alternative energy resources. Consequently, there should be a research to discover a new renewable energy source such as palm leaves waste. Oil palm\u27s leaves (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) are mostly the least used waste from oil palm plantation as an alternative energy resources. This research aims to discover the precise adhesive consentration rate in sago\u27s starch (Metroxylon sago Rott.) to make oil palm\u27s kernel, which are 97%:3%, 96%:4%, 95%:5%, 94%:6%, and 93%:7%. Based on analitycal result of oil palm\u27s leaves charcoal briquet research, the best quality briquet is the P1 composition which composed rate is 97%:3%, has 3,21% water content, 30,18% ashes content, 0,0022 g/s combustion rate, 20,73% evaporated substance rate, 54,46% carbon rate, and 5.114 cal/g heat value

A global view of the oncogenic landscape in nasopharyngeal carcinoma : an integrated analysis at the genetic and expression levels

Previous studies have reported that the tumour cells of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) exhibit recurrent chromosome abnormalities. These genetic changes are broadly assumed to lead to changes in gene expression which are important for the pathogenesis of this tumour. However, this assumption has yet to be formally tested at a global level. Therefore a genome wide analysis of chromosome copy number and gene expression was performed in tumour cells micro-dissected from the same NPC biopsies. Cellular tumour suppressor and tumour-promoting genes (TSG, TPG) and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-encoded oncogenes were examined. The EBV-encoded genome maintenance protein EBNA1, along with the putative oncogenes LMP1, LMP2 and BARF1 were expressed in the majority of NPCs that were analysed. Significant downregulation of expression in an average of 76 cellular TSGs per tumour was found, whilst a per-tumour average of 88 significantly upregulated, TPGs occurred. The expression of around 60% of putative TPGs and TSGs was both up-and down-regulated in different types of cancer, suggesting that the simplistic classification of genes as TSGs or TPGs may not be entirely appropriate and that the concept of context-dependent onco-suppressors may be more extensive than previously recognised. No significant enrichment of TPGs within regions of frequent genomic gain was seen but TSGs were significantly enriched within regions of frequent genomic loss. It is suggested that loss of the FHIT gene may be a driver of NPC tumourigenesis. Notwithstanding the association of TSGs with regions of genomic loss, on a gene by gene basis and excepting homozygous deletions and high-level amplification, there is very little correlation between chromosomal copy number aberrations and expression levels of TSGs and TPGs in NPC

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Understanding the Optically Variable Sky with SEQUELS in SDSS-III

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) is an SDSS-IV eBOSS subproject primarily aimed at obtaining identification spectra of ~220,000 optically-variable objects systematically selected from SDSS/Pan-STARRS1 multi-epoch imaging. We present a preview of the science enabled by TDSS, based on TDSS spectra taken over ~320 deg^2 of sky as part of the SEQUELS survey in SDSS-III, which is in part a pilot survey for eBOSS in SDSS-IV. Using the 15,746 TDSS-selected single-epoch spectra of photometrically variable objects in SEQUELS, we determine the demographics of our variability-selected sample, and investigate the unique spectral characteristics inherent in samples selected by variability. We show that variability-based selection of quasars complements color-based selection by selecting additional redder quasars, and mitigates redshift biases to produce a smooth quasar redshift distribution over a wide range of redshifts. The resulting quasar sample contains systematically higher fractions of blazars and broad absorption line quasars than from color-selected samples. Similarly, we show that M-dwarfs in the TDSS-selected stellar sample have systematically higher chromospheric active fractions than the underlying M-dwarf population, based on their H-alpha emission. TDSS also contains a large number of RR Lyrae and eclipsing binary stars with main-sequence colors, including a few composite-spectrum binaries. Finally, our visual inspection of TDSS spectra uncovers a significant number of peculiar spectra, and we highlight a few cases of these interesting objects. With a factor of ~15 more spectra, the main TDSS survey in SDSS-IV will leverage the lessons learned from these early results for a variety of time-domain science applications.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Ap

Effect of a care transition intervention by pharmacists: an RCT

Abstract Background Pharmacists may improve medication-related outcomes during transitions of care. The aim of the Iowa Continuity of Care Study was to determine if a pharmacist case manager (PCM) providing a faxed discharge medication care plan from a tertiary care institution to primary care could improve medication appropriateness and reduce adverse events, rehospitalization and emergency department visits. Methods Design. Randomized, controlled trial of 945 participants assigned to enhanced, minimal and usual care groups conducted 2007 to 2012. Subjects. Participants with cardiovascular-related conditions and/or asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were recruited from the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics following admission to general medicine, family medicine, cardiology or orthopedics. Intervention. The minimal group received admission history, medication reconciliation, patient education, discharge medication list and medication recommendations to inpatient team. The enhanced group also received a faxed medication care plan to their community physician and pharmacy and telephone call 3–5 days post-discharge. Participants were followed for 90 days post-discharge. Main Outcomes and Measures. Medication appropriateness index (MAI), adverse events, adverse drug events and post-discharge healthcare utilization were compared by study group using linear and logistic regression, as models accommodating random effects due to pharmacists indicated little clustering. Results Study groups were similar at baseline and the intervention fidelity was high. There were no statistically significant differences by study group in medication appropriateness, adverse events or adverse drug events at discharge, 30-day and 90-day post-discharge. The average MAI per medication as 0.53 at discharge and increased to 0.75 at 90 days, and this was true across all study groups. Post-discharge, about 16% of all participants experienced an adverse event, and this did not differ by study group (p > 0.05). Almost one-third of all participants had any type of healthcare utilization within 30 days post-discharge, where 15% of all participants had a 30-day readmission. Healthcare utilization post-discharge was not statistically significant different at 30 or 90 days by study group. Conclusion The pharmacist case manager did not affect medication use outcomes post-discharge perhaps because quality of care measures were high in all study groups. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov registration: NCT00513903 , August 7, 2007.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109686/1/12913_2014_Article_3640.pd

A bifunctional MOF catalyst containing metal-phosphine and Lewis acidic active sites

Funding: UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and CRITICAT Centre for Doctoral Training for financial support [Ph.D studentship to R. R. R. P; Grant code: EP/L016419/1].Post‐synthetic modification of the hafnium metal–organic framework MOF‐808(Hf) to include triarylphosphine ligands is reported. Sulfonated phenylphosphines are incorporated without oxidation to give a “MOF ligand” that can complex late transition metals such as Ir and Rh to give a bifunctional catalyst containing both metal–phosphine complexes and the Lewis acidic framework hafnium metal sites. The metallated phosphine‐bearing MOFs act as fully heterogeneous bifunctional catalysts for tandem reductive amination and hydroaminomethylation reactions.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Multi-Object, Fiber-Fed Spectrographs for SDSS and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We present the design and performance of the multi-object fiber spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and their upgrade for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Originally commissioned in Fall 1999 on the 2.5-m aperture Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, the spectrographs produced more than 1.5 million spectra for the SDSS and SDSS-II surveys, enabling a wide variety of Galactic and extra-galactic science including the first observation of baryon acoustic oscillations in 2005. The spectrographs were upgraded in 2009 and are currently in use for BOSS, the flagship survey of the third-generation SDSS-III project. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.35 million massive galaxies to redshift 0.7 and Lyman-alpha absorption of 160,000 high redshift quasars over 10,000 square degrees of sky, making percent level measurements of the absolute cosmic distance scale of the Universe and placing tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. The twin multi-object fiber spectrographs utilize a simple optical layout with reflective collimators, gratings, all-refractive cameras, and state-of-the-art CCD detectors to produce hundreds of spectra simultaneously in two channels over a bandpass covering the near ultraviolet to the near infrared, with a resolving power R = \lambda/FWHM ~ 2000. Building on proven heritage, the spectrographs were upgraded for BOSS with volume-phase holographic gratings and modern CCD detectors, improving the peak throughput by nearly a factor of two, extending the bandpass to cover 360 < \lambda < 1000 nm, and increasing the number of fibers from 640 to 1000 per exposure. In this paper we describe the original SDSS spectrograph design and the upgrades implemented for BOSS, and document the predicted and measured performances.Comment: 43 pages, 42 figures, revised according to referee report and accepted by AJ. Provides background for the instrument responsible for SDSS and BOSS spectra. 4th in a series of survey technical papers released in Summer 2012, including arXiv:1207.7137 (DR9), arXiv:1207.7326 (Spectral Classification), and arXiv:1208.0022 (BOSS Overview