Unemployment, labor costs, and recessions: implications for the inflation outlook

Economists have been arguing about the connection between unemployment and infl ation for decades. Critics claim that the connection is unreliable and leads policymakers astray, while others argue that the relationship is useful for forecasting. We examine the more direct connections between elevated unemployment levels and the rate of increase in wage and labor costs, more generally. We fi nd that wage and labor cost growth has declined markedly following recent recessions. It has again declined sharply in the most recent recession. We also fi nd that compensation typically remains subdued during the initial phases of recent recoveries. This is again the case in the current recovery, making labor costs a significant restraining force on inflation going forward.Recessions ; Inflation (Finance) ; Inflation targeting

A study of stanines as a methodology in the identification of the potentially superior high-school student

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

From green to ethical consumers: What should you change in your advertisement to motivate them to buy ethical products?

This article introduces a two-dimensional model that aims to capture the complexity of motives of contemporary ethical consumers. The framework identifies four broad motivations for ethical consumption: Self-actualization, Hedonic, Conformity and Self-Orientation. To illustrate how the framework may be used, we present the results of two exploratory studies; the first examining the motivations of self-identifying ethical consumers (173 consumers from 27 nationalities), and the second analysing the primary motivating message of a set of 23 advertisements for ethical products from eight different countries. Our results indicate that while all four categories of motivation are salient to consumers, advertisers in our sample tended to focus their message on only one category of motivations (selfactualization)

From Green to Ethical Consumers: What Really Motivates Consumers to Buy Ethical Products?

Ethical consumers have evolved from boycotting to consuming and ethical consumption has attracted much attention from marketing researchers recently. Several studies have been conducted to understand what motivates consumers to buy certain ethical products such as fair trade, eco-friendly or animal-friendly. While a number of disparate, and primarily descriptive, studies have identified motivations of ethical consumers towards an array of different products and in a variety of contexts, researchers are yet to develop a more generalizable framework for understanding ethical consumption motivations. In this paper, we present a framework of four universal motivations to explain why consumers buy ethical products

Geographical Analysis of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and Associated Risk Factors in Douglas County, Nebraska

Background: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the sudden and unexpected death of a child less than one year of age without an identifiable cause. Known risk factors of SIDS include prone and side-sleeping positions, bed sharing, male sex, pre- and postnatal tobacco exposure, poverty, prematurity, low birth weight (1 Significance of Problem: In the United States, SIDS is the most common cause of death in infants between one month and one year of age with approximately 2,500 infant deaths caused by SIDS each year.1 The incidence of SIDS has decreased by more than 50% in the last 20 years largely due to the Back to Sleep campaign, which began in 1994. Unfortunately, in Nebraska, the mortality rate of SIDS has been higher than the national mortality rate every year since the campaign began in 1994, except in 2008, 2010 and 2013.2 Questions: If geographically mapped, will SIDS localize to specific regions of Douglas County? If SIDS is localized to specific regions of Douglas County, will associated risk factors concentrate in those areas? Experimental Design: SIDS rates and known risk factors of SIDS, such as inadequate prenatal care, tobacco use during pregnancy, prematurity, and low birth weight, were geographically mapped in Douglas County, Nebraska using geographical information system (GIS) technology. Data was obtained from the Health Data and Vital Statistics branch of the Douglas County Health Department using birth and death certificates from 2005-2014. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS software version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). P-values less than 0.05 are considered significant. Spearman correlations were used to analyze the associations between SIDS rates and known risk factors. Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests compared rates in East and West Northeastern regions to best performing regions for each risk factor. Conclusion: A strategy that aims to lower the rate of SIDS in Douglas County should focus on more accessible first trimester prenatal care and smoking cessation during pregnancy, especially for patients in the East Northeast and West Northeast regions, where these risk factors were significantly different from the best performing regions in Douglas County. By addressing modifiable risk factors such as access to early prenatal care and smoking cessation in areas of demonstrated need, the incidence of preterm births, low birth weights and SIDS in Douglas County could eventually decrease over time.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/emet_posters/1001/thumbnail.jp

A serological investigation of caseous lymphadenitis in four flocks of sheep

A double antibody sandwich ELISA developed by ID-DLO, Lelystad to detect Corynebocterium pseudotuberculosis infection was used on 329 sheep from four pedigree Suffolk flocks in which clinical cases of caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) had occurred. At subsequent necropsy, typical CLA lesions were seen in 133 sheep, and the diagnosis was confirmed on culture. Lesions were most commonly seen in lungs (n = 46), parotid lymph nodes (n = 44), prescapular lymph nodes (n = 38) and mediastinal lymph nodes (n = 31). The sensitivity of the ELISA test for detecting culture-positive sheep was 0.88, while the specificity of the test was 0.55. The antibody ELISA detected 87.5 per cent of sheep that had CLA lesions restricted to internal organs only. It was concluded that the ELISA test has a valuable role in detecting sheep with both clinical and subclinical CLA

Cyclin D1 and p16 expression in recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract Background Cyclin D1 and p16 are involved in the regulation of G1 checkpoint and may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Previous studies have examined the level of expression of cyclin D1 and p16 in primary untreated NPC but no such information is available for recurrent NPC. We set out in this study to examine the expression level of cyclin D1 and p16 in recurrent NPC that have failed previous treatment with radiation +/- chemotherapy. Patients and methods A total of 42 patients underwent salvage nasopharyngectomy from 1984 to 2001 for recurrent NPC after treatment failure with radiation +/- chemotherapy. Twenty-seven pathologic specimens were available for immunohistochemical study using antibodies against cyclin D1 and p16. Results Positive expression of cyclin D1 was observed in 7 of 27 recurrent NPC specimens (26%) while positive p16 expression was seen in only 1 of 27 recurrent NPC (4%). Conclusion While the level of expression of cyclin D1 in recurrent NPC was similar to that of previously untreated head and neck cancer, the level of p16 expression in recurrent NPC samples was much lower than that reported for previously untreated cancer. The finding that almost all (96%) of the recurrent NPC lack expression of p16 suggested that loss of p16 may confer a survival advantage by making cancer cells more resistant to conventional treatment with radiation +/- chemotherapy. Further research is warranted to investigate the clinical use of p16 both as a prognostic marker and as a potential therapeutic target