Underpaid or Overpaid? Wage Analysis for Nurses Using Job and Worker Attributes

The nursing labor market presents an apparent puzzle. Hospitals report chronic shortages, yet standard wage analysis shows that nursing wages have increased over time and greatly exceed those received by other college-educated women. This paper addresses this puzzle. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) are matched with detailed job content descriptors from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET). Nursing jobs require higher levels of skills and more difficult working conditions than do jobs for other college educated workers. A standard CPS-only wage regression shows a registered nurse (RN) wage advantage of .22 log points compared to a pooled male/female group of college-educated workers. Control for O*NET job attributes reduces the RN gap to .08, while an arguably preferable nonparametric estimator produces a wage gap estimate close to zero. We conclude that nurses receive compensation close to long-run opportunity costs, narrowing if not resolving the RN wage-shortage puzzle.nursing, wage differentials, job attributes

Self-diffusion of rod-like viruses in the nematic phase

We measure the self-diffusion of colloidal rod-like virus {\it fd} in an isotropic and nematic phase. A low volume fraction of viruses are labelled with a fluorescent dye and dissolved in a background of unlabelled rods. The trajectories of individual rods are visualized using fluorescence microscopy from which the diffusion constant is extracted. The diffusion parallel ($D_{\parallel}$) and perpendicular ($D_{\perp}$) to the nematic director is measured. The ratio ($D_{\parallel}/D_{\perp}$) increases monotonically with increasing virus concentration. Crossing the isotropic-nematic phase boundary results in increase of $D_{\parallel}$ and decrease of $D_{\perp}$ when compared to the diffusion in the isotropic phase ($D_{iso}$).Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Europhysics Letter

Effect of cassava chips on quality of silage from fresh forage sorghum plus Cavalcade forage legume hay mixtures

Readers are free to share (to copy, distribute and transmit) and to remix (to adapt) the work under the conditions of Attribution, Noncommercial, and Share Alike (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)Two experiments investigated the effects on silage quality of adding cassava chips at a range of levels to a sorghum forage plus Cavalcade legume hay mixture at ensiling at the Experimental Farm, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Cavalcade hay was 15% of chopped sorghum fresh weight and cassava chips were added at 0, 5, 10 and 15% of chopped sorghum fresh weight. The first experiment utilized sorghum and Cavalcade main crops and the second used the ratoon crop of sorghum and 2nd cut of Cavalcade. Dry matter percentage of ensiled mixtures and silages increased (P<0.05) with an increase in cassava chip levels in both experiments, but CP and NDF concentrations decreased (P<0.05). Dry matter degradability increased (P<0.05) with an increase in cassava chip levels up to 10% in both main and ratoon/2nd cut silages. Digestible energy and metabolizable energy of both silages increased significantly with an increase in cassava chip levels up to 10% for main crop and 15% for ratoon/2nd cut crops. While addition of cassava chips improved digestibility and energy content of silage, it lowered CP concentration. Use of fresh Cavalcade instead of hay should increase the CP levels and should be investigated along with animal feeding studies to test acceptance and animal performance.Peer reviewe

An analysis of voice and language characteristics in an oral recall situation

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Cashew Production, Taxation, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau

Agriculture is the engine of Guinea-Bissau’s economy. The sector relies mainly on cashew nuts, rice, and the subsistence production of food crops. Cashews represent 90 percent of the country’s exports and the principal source of income in rural areas. Unfortunately, cumbersome administrative arrangements, weak legal systems, and an absence of credit often lead to high transaction costs for cashew buyers and exporters, which help decrease the farm-gate price of the raw nuts. This chapter provides a review of the cashew sector in Guinea-Bissau, as well as estimates of the likely impact of changes in farm-gate prices and export taxes on poverty among cashew producers and in the country as a whole. The chapter also notes that over the last three decades, the production of rice has significantly decreased in favor of cashew farming. This situation represents a threat to food security. For the rural sector to ensure food security and create new jobs, policymakers would need to adopt a coherent agrarian development strategy in the context of the PRSP, which would aim at rehabilitating and encouraging rice production, and also promoting the processing of raw cashews into exportable cashew kernels, in order to generate more value added in the cashew sector.Cashew nuts; export tax; poverty; Guinea-Bissau

Characteristics of White County, Tennessee burley tobacco producers, their use of selected tobacco production practices and extension contacts

The purpose of the study was to characterize White County, Tennessee hurley tobacco producers, their personal and farm operation characteristics, number and types of contacts producers had with the Agricultural Extension Service, and their use of selected tobacco production practices. The population for the study included all White County, Tennessee hurley tobacco producers in 1997. The Nth number random sample technique was used to randomly select 85 hurley tobacco producers to be included in the sample. The survey instrument used in the study was developed by the researcher with the assistance of Agricultural Extension Service specialists from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The instrument consisted of five main parts, including; (1) general information; (2) transplant production; (3) field practices; (4) information about the farmer; and (5) the number and types of contacts producers had with the Agricultural Extension Service. Personal interviews were scheduled between White County Extension Agents and White County hurley tobacco producers in order to complete the 1997 White County, Tennessee Hurley Tobacco Survey. The interviews were completed in the Fall of 1997 and returned to the Agricultural and Extension Education Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for analysis in Fall 1997. Following the completion of survey interviews, the survey instruments were returned to the Agricultural and Extension Education Department at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the survey data. These include frequencies, means, medians, and modes. Because of the low number of tobacco producers surveyed, actual numbers and percentages were reported and no statistical tests were run to determine relationships between dependent and independent variables. Major findings included the following: 1. Fifty-eight producers surveyed owned hurley tobacco quota pounds which averaged 9527 pounds per producer. 2. Fifty-four producers surveyed leased in hurley tobacco quota pounds which averaged 9419 pounds per producer. 3. Eighty-four producers grew an average of 5.4 acres of tobacco in 1997 and 45.2 percent of the producers grew 3.1 acres and more. 4. Seventy-one percent of the producers who produced tobacco transplants did so in conventional plant beds, and they accounted for 4 acres of plants per producer. Twenty-nine percent of the producers produced float system transplants, and they averaged 5.4 acres per producer. 5. A little more than eighty-five percent of the transplants purchased by White County tobacco producers were produced in float systems. 6. Twenty percent of the transplants purchased by White County tobacco producers were produced in another Tennessee County, compared to 57.1 percent that were produced in White County, and 22.9 percent produced in Kentucky. 7. Thirty-three percent of producers who took a soil sample did so every two years and less. The average soil sample frequency among all producers was 3.1 years. 8. Twenty-nine percent of White County producers topped their tobacco at the button to early flower stage. The average number of days between topping and cutting was 25 days among all producers. 9. The average age of White County, Tennessee hurley tobacco producers surveyed was 48.5 years. 10. Seventy-seven percent of the producers reported having a high school degree or above. 11. Thirty-eight percent of the producers were full-time farmers. 12. Forty-eight percent of the producers reported one or more visits to the Agricultural Extension Service office, with an average of 1.1 visits among all producers. 13. Fifty-three percent of White County tobacco producers reported one or more telephone calls to the Agricultural Extension Service office, with an average of 1.8 calls among all producers. 14. Forty-eight percent of the producers reported receiving one or more farm visits from the County Extension Agent, with an average of 2 visits received among all producers. 15. The average total Agricultural Extension Service contacts among all producers was 5.9 contacts during the previous 12 month period

Nearshore and inner shelf sedimentation on the east Coromandel coast, New Zealand

The east Coromandel coastline on the northeast coast of New Zealand has been characterised by localised erosion problems since its commercial subdivision. Increasing pressures have also arisen in recent years for possible use of the adjacent continental shelf as a repository for dredge and mining tailings, and extraction of commercial aggregate and mineral deposits. This has raised the question of dynamic links between the continental shelf and local beach systems I and resulting impacts on the coastline from such activities. The east Coromandel shelf study was therefore undertaken to investigate the modern and past shelf sedimentation processes, and relate these findings to local resource management issues. The results also contribute to the present international understanding of inner shelf sedimentation processes in 'storm-dominated' shelf environments. Surficial sedimentation patterns have been examined by a variety of methods, including: the use of sea-bed drifters and Aanderaa current meters to determine the shelf hydrodynamics; the collection of 563 samples to determine surface sediment textural patterns; a detailed examination of morphological features on the sea floor through a series of 3 side-scan sonar surveys in which 620 km of sonograph and echosounding trace have been obtained; diver surveys using depth of activity rods to provide information on the mobility of surface sediments under different sea conditions; the collection, of 174 km of continuous sub-bottom seismic profiles which have been used to determine sub-surface stratigraphic patterns; and an examination of the provenance of shelf sediments through a detailed examination of their light and heavy mineralogy. The east Coromandel coast is located on an active plate margin, resulting in the presence of a steep and rocky coastline fronted by a relatively narrow continental shelf (20 to 30 km wide), and a local geology dominated by Tertiary volcanics covered by a thin veneer of more recent volcanic air fall deposits. It is also located on a lee shelf in a mid-latitude zone of dominant westerly winds, with these prevailing weather patterns disrupted by high speed east to northeasterly winds associated with the infrequent passage of subtropical low pressure systems, occluded fronts, or more infrequent decaying tropical cyclones. This physiographic setting results in spatially and temporally highly variable sedimentation patterns, with sediment transport primarily controlled by the interaction of wave oscillatory and wind-generated currents during storm conditions. However, characteristics of tide-. and oceanic current-dominated conditions also occur in some areas. And conditions generally vary along the coast from being higher energy (current-dominated) on the southern exposed coast, to lower energy (wave- or current-dominated) on the northern embayed coastline. Shelf sedimentation is inferred to occur under three different scale events of fair weather, storm, and extreme storm conditions. The model proposed involves extreme storm conditions transporting large quantities of fine nearshore sands seawards onto the inner shelf surface, where they are slowly reworked along the shelf during annual storm events and back onshore during fair weather conditions. This latter onshore return of fine sands is proposed to result from an enhanced shear stress effect of long-period swell waves over coarse megarippled inner shelf sands. Shelf sedimentation patterns within the study area are inferred to have been primarily established by processes occurring at about the time sea level stabitised 6500 years B.P. At this stage, transgressive shelf sediments were reworked into equilibrium with the regional oceanographic conditions by the winnowing of fine sand from coarser material during storms, with the fine sands subsequently transported onshore by wave-induced currents during calm periods. Depending on the volume of sediments incorporated into transgressive sand bodies and the local shelf gradients, each embayment then developed into either an integral part of the shelf transport system (usually off large estuary systems), with fine shelf sands moving onshore and forming wide barrier spits, or a closed sedimentary system unaffected by shelf sedimentation patterns (pocket embayments). Shelf equilibrium was evidently attained by the fine sands forming a steep seaward dipping concave-up nearshore profile, and coarse sands developing a flatter inner shelf profile. An autochthonous mode of shelf sedimentation characterised the east Coromandel coast in early Holocene times, and is still evident under present conditions in most areas by the cyclical reworking of fine sands between the lower nearshore and inner shelf surfaces. Most east Coromandel embayments are, however, presently characterised by varying degrees of an allochthonous mode of shelf sedimentation. This involves the deposition of very fine grained, volcanic glass-enriched terrigenous sands, which are derived from either local catchments or Bay of Plenty river systems. The east Coromandel coast generally differs from most allochthonous shelf environments because the supply of terrigenous sediments has not as yet been sufficient to blanket the lower nearshore and inner shelf surfaces on the open ocean coastlines. Two separate modes of shelf sedimentation occur at present, with a nearshore inner shelf recycling of fine allochthonous shelf sands, and an open exchange of terrestrial autochthonous deposits from the upper nearshore surface to the mid shelf plain. The results of the study suggest that coastal erosion problems can largely be resolved by establishing stable incipient and frontal dune systems along the coast. and encouraging accretion by renourishment from adjacent infilling harbour deposits. The study has also shown that the dispersion of dredged sediments provides potential benefits to the coast in terms of promoting beach accretion, and that sand and mineral extraction can proceed without adverse coastal erosion effects, provided the extraction does not interfere with the natural shelf sedimentation system

Functional analysis of the von Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor and its role in tumourigenesis

Complex genotype-phenotype relations are a hallmark of VHL disease. Patients develop a wide range of tumours depending on how and where pVHL malfunctions. Thus it appears that the VHL tumour suppressor gene product must have multiple and tissue specific functions. pVHL interacts with the proteins Elongin C, Elongin B, and Cullin 2 in a complex referred to as the VCB-Cul2 complex. This complex displays structural analogy to the Skp1-Cdc53/Cul1-F-box protein (SCF) complex. As with its SCF counterparts, the VCBCul2 complex has been shown to constitute an E3 ligase, which serves to recruit protein substrates for degradation by the 26S proteasome. To date, only one such target has been firmly established, the transcription factor Hif-α (hypoxia inducible factor). Proteolytic degradation of Hif-α reflects a key cellular mechanism in the control of adaptive gene expression in response to changes in oxygen levels. While identification of Hif-α as a substrate for the VCB-Cul2 complex proves to be a crucial milestone in VHL biology, isolation of other proteins that are targeted for ubiquitination by VHL represent a major challenge. A proteomics approach was developed in an effort to expose unknown pVHL protein interactions, and thereby highlighting novel functions of the VHL tumour suppressor. One candidate protein is a 97-kDa ATPase called p97. p97 is a member of the AAA family of ATPase’s and is involved in a myriad of distinct cellular functions, interestingly among which include binding to poly-ubiquitin chains and facilitating substrate presentation to the proteasome. We show that p97 binds pVHL both in vitro and in vivo, and propose a model whereby p97 may facilitate presentation of ubiquitinated Hif-α to the 26S proteasome for subsequent degradation. We also demonstrate that, similar to pVHL, p97 can promote microtubule stability, and propose a model through binding to HDAC6, a histone deacetylase known to bind p97 and shown here to bind pVHL in vitro, that these proteins might be involved in the malfolded protein response, and that this potential function could be microtubule dependent. The proteomics approach also uncovered additional protein interactions, namely two uncharacterised proteins with homologues in S.Cerevisiae known to complex and constitute a critical RNA methyltransferase. We suggest that this co-precipitating complex is the mammalian orthologue and we provide preliminary data showing, in addition to the endogenous interaction, in vitro binding to pVHL. Finally we propose a model where, by means of its ability to negatively regulate the activity of this complex, pVHL could be involved in the mammalian stress-responsive pathway, thereby helping to explain, in part, the observation that the inability of renal cell carcinoma cells lacking VHL to exit the cell cycle upon serum withdrawal can be restored upon reintroduction of pVHL into these cells. In a second part to this thesis, pVHL intracellular dynamics have been studied. We demonstrate that pVHl19 and pVHL30 exhibit different localisation patterns, with pVHL30 residing primarily in the cytoplasm, and pVHl19 in the nucleus. We show that when pVHL30 is in the cytoplasm, it co-localises with microtubules, and that this localisation is altered upon microtubule destabilisation, which renders a strong nuclear signal for pVHL30. We conclude that pVHL intracellular dynamics are reflective, in part, by the stability of the microtubule network. This work contributed to an article in Nature Cell Biology. The third part of the results outlines the targeting of endogenous pVHL by RNA interference. Optimal conditions for VHL RNAi and a study on the cellular affects are presented. Hif-α regulation is investigated in the presence of VHL siRNA oligos, and the lack of Hif-α up-regulation discussed. Finally, positive regulation of phospho-cofilin, an important component in actin ctyoskeleton rearrangements, is demonstrated as the only positive read-out for VHL RNAi to date, and the implications this regulation by pVHL might have an cell shape changes and movement is briefly discussed

Uniparental progeny in Neurospora crassa

Seven ascospores from one ascus of a biparental mating were all the genotype of one parent. Neither mating type substitution nor mutation of the mating type explain this aberrant result