A conversation with 590 nascent entrepreneurs

This paper summarizes interviews from 1998 with 590 individuals trying to create a business centered around five questions: “Who are you?”, “What are you trying to accomplish?”, “What have you and others put into the business?”, “What have you accomplished?”, “What remains to be done?” There is a great deal of heterogeneity across these Nascent entrepreneurs, but they tend to have more education than the general population. Growing up in a family in which one or both parents had a business does not seem to be an important determinant of entry into entrepreneurship for males, while it seems to be of some importance for females. Most of the nascent businesses are in retail and consumer services, and about 50 percent of nascent entrepreneurs expect to become employers within five years of the business’s birth. Most nascent entrepreneurs have already made personally-significant investments of time and money in their firms; and nearly all of them are saving for their firms out of non-business income. For about half of the sample, these investments have yielded a fully-specified product; and the remainder are still in the product development stage. Family and friends are an importance source of seed money for many Nascent Entrepreneurs. Formal credit markets have been requested for funds only by a minority of Nascent Entrepreneurs, and almost half of these applicants have been denied loans. About 40% of the Nascent Entrepreneurs believe that their businesses require significantly greater equity before they can attract external funds.Business ; Business enterprises

Percolation approach to phase transitions in high energy nuclear collisions

We study continuum percolation in nuclear collisions for the realistic case in which the nuclear matter distribution is not uniform over the collision volume, and show that the percolation threshold is increased compared to the standard, uniform situation. In terms of quark-gluon plasma formation this means that the phase transition threshold is pushed to higher energies.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures (PS), LaTeX2e using fontenc, amsmath, epsfi

The unbinding transition of mixed fluid membranes

A phenomenological model for the unbinding transition of multi-component fluid membranes is proposed, where the unbinding transition is described using a theory analogous to Flory-Huggins theory for polymers. The coupling between the lateral phase separation of inclusion molecules and the membrane-substrate distance explains the phase coexistence between two unbound phases as observed in recent experiments by Marx et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 138102 (2002)]. Bellow a critical end-point temperature, we find that the unbinding transition becomes first-order for multi-component membranes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 eps figure

Why Do Couples and Singles Save During Retirement?

While the savings of retired singles tend to fall with age, those of retired couples tend to rise. We estimate a rich model of retired singles and couples with bequest motives and uncertain longevity and medical expenses. Our estimates imply that while medical expenses are an important driver of the savings of middle-income singles, bequest motives matter for couples and highincome singles and generate transfers to nonspousal heirs whenever a household member dies. The interaction of medical expenses and bequest motives is a crucial determinant of savings for all retirees. Hence, to understand savings, it is important to model household structure, medical expenses, and bequest motives

Don't just look at the surface: When mucosa tells more than the skin

N/

A pesquisa em ensino de ciências na sala de aula : a visão de professores em serviço

Em projeto intitulado “Formação da área de ensino de ciências: memórias de pesquisadores no Brasil”, investigadores brasileiros opinaram sobre fatores determinantes na constituição dessa área no país, e sobre as características da pesquisa em ensino de Ciências. Ensejaram também novas questões de pesquisa, por exemplo: Como professores que atuaram, ou vêm atuando no ensino de Ciências, vêm praticando significações a respeito de procedimentos e resultados de pesquisa na área e suas possíveis implicações para o ensino de Ciências que têm praticado? Para responder a questão, docentes que vêm atuando nas últimas décadas em Física, Química e Biologia foram entrevistados. Os discursos dos entrevistados mostram que a maioria tem dificuldade em explicar o que entende por pesquisa na área, não nota seu impacto em sala de aula e ensaiam críticas as políticas educacionais vigentes no período

Acute effects of partial-body cryotherapy on isometric strength: maximum handgrip strength evaluation

The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of a single partial-body cryotherapy (PBC) session on the maximum handgrip strength (JAMAR Hydraulic Hand dynamometer). Two hundred healthy adults were randomized into a PBC group and a control group (50 men and 50 women in each group). After the initial handgrip strength test (T0), the experimental group performed a 150-second session of PBC (temperature range between -130 and 2160 degrees C), whereas the control group stayed in a thermo neutral room (22.0 +/- 0.5 degrees C). Immediately after, both groups performed another handgrip strength test (T1). Data underlined that both groups showed an increase in handgrip strength values, especially the experimental group (Control: T0 = 39.48 kg, T1 = 40.01 kg; PBC: T0 = 39.61 kg, T1 = 41.34 kg). The analysis also reported a statistical effect related to gender (F = 491.99, P <= 0.05), with women showing lower handgrip strength values compared with men (women = 30.43 kg, men = 52.27 kg). Findings provide the first evidence that a single session of PBC leads to the improvement of muscle strength in healthy people. The results of the study imply that PBC could be performed also before a training session or a sport competition, to increase hand isometric strength

Family and government insurance: Wage, earnings, and income risks in the Netherlands and the U.S.

We document new facts about risk in male wages and earnings, household earnings, and pre- and post-tax income in the Netherlands and the United States. We find that, in both countries, earnings display important deviations from the typical assumptions of linearity and normality. Individual-level male wage and earnings risk is relatively high at the beginning and end of the working life, and for those in the lower and upper parts of the income distribution. Hours are the main driver of the negative skewness and, to a lesser extent, the high kurtosis of earnings changes. Even though we find no evidence of added-worker effects, the presence of spousal earnings reduces the variability of household income compared to that of male earnings. In the Netherlands, government transfers are a major source of insurance, substantially reducing the standard deviation, negative skewness, and kurtosis of income changes. In the U.S. the role of family insurance is much larger than in the Netherlands. Family and government insurance reduce, but do not eliminate non-linearities in household disposable income by age and previous earnings in either country