Technological Change and the Education Premium in Canada: Sectoral Evidence

It has been well documented that the education premium measured by the wage difference between university and high school graduates has remained constant over the past two decades in Canada. Despite this stable pattern at the aggregate level, skill-biased technology could have important implications for the inter-industry wage structure. In a multi-sector economy where technological innovations are skewed towards certain industries, imperfect labour mobility implies a positive relationship between the education premium and the technological change in industry. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Finance and the Labour Force Survey, the authors obtain empirical results that would appear to confirm this link: university graduates in research and development- intensive industries are better paid . Yet, this positive correlation is largely due to the fact that high-tech industries attract more professionals who are more educated than the average university graduate.Labour markets

Structure and Reactivity of Half-Sandwich Rh(+3) and Ir(+3) Carbene Complexes. Catalytic Metathesis of Azobenzene Derivatives

Traditional rhodium carbene chemistry relies on the controlled decomposition of diazo derivatives with [Rh2(OAc)4] or related dinuclear Rh(+2) complexes, whereas the use of other rhodium sources is much less developed. It is now shown that half-sandwich carbene species derived from [Cp*MX2]2 (M = Rh, Ir; X = Cl, Br, I, Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) also exhibit favorable application profiles. Interestingly, the anionic ligand X proved to be a critical determinant of reactivity in the case of cyclopropanation, epoxide formation and the previously unknown catalytic metathesis of azobenzene derivatives, whereas the nature of X does not play any significant role in −OH insertion reactions. This perplexing disparity can be explained on the basis of spectral and crystallographic data of a representative set of carbene complexes of this type, which could be isolated despite their pronounced electrophilicity. Specifically, the donor/acceptor carbene 10a derived from ArC(═N2)COOMe and [Cp*RhCl2]2 undergoes spontaneous 1,2-migratory insertion of the emerging carbene unit into the Rh–Cl bond with formation of the C-metalated rhodium enolate 11. In contrast, the analogous complexes 10b,c derived from [Cp*RhX2]2 (X = Br, I) as well as the iridium species 13 and 14 derived from [Cp*IrCl2]2 are sufficiently stable and allow true carbene reactivity to be harnessed. These complexes are competent intermediates for the catalytic metathesis of azobenzene derivatives, which provides access to α-imino esters that would be difficult to make otherwise. Rather than involving metal nitrenes, the reaction proceeds via aza-ylides that evolve into diaziridines; a metastable compound of this type has been fully characterized

Strong and Confined Acids Enable a Catalytic Asymmetric Nazarov Cyclization of Simple Divinyl Ketones

We report a catalytic asymmetric Nazarov cyclization of simple, acylic, alkyl-substituted divinyl ketones using our recently disclosed strong and confined imidodiphosphorimidate Brønsted acids. The corresponding monocyclic cyclopentenones are formed in good yields and excellent regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivities. Further, the chemical utility of the obtained enantiopure cyclopentenones is demonstrated

Sulfoxide-mediated Umpolung of alkali halide salts

A new protocol for the direct two-electron oxidative Umpolung of alkali halide salts is reported. This procedure, relying on the use of a commercially available sulfoxide as the oxidant, allows the electrophilic halogenation of carbonyl compounds as well as halolactonisation reactions to proceed from the corresponding sodium salts, at room temperature and under mild conditions

Magnetic cycles of the planet-hosting star tauBootis

We have obtained new spectropolarimetric observations of the planet-hosting star tauBootis, using the ESPaDOnS and NARVAL spectropolarimeters at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Telescope Bernard-Lyot. With this data set, we are able to confirm the presence of a magnetic field at the surface of tauBoo and map its large-scale structure over the whole star. The overall polarity of the magnetic field has reversed with respect to our previous observation (obtained a year before), strongly suggesting that tauBoo is undergoing magnetic cycles similar to those of the Sun. This is the first time that a global magnetic polarity switch is observed in a star other than the Sun; we speculate that the magnetic cycle period of tauBoo is much shorter than that of the Sun. Our new data also allow us to confirm the presence of differential rotation from the latitudinal shearing that the magnetic structure is undergoing. The differential rotation surface shear that tauBoo experiences is found to be 6 to 10 times larger than that of the Sun. We propose that the short magnetic cycle period is due to the strong level of differential rotation. With a rotation period of 3.0 and 3.9 d at the equator and pole respectively, tauBoo appears as the first planet-hosting star whose rotation (at intermediate latitudes) is synchronised with the orbital motion of its giant planet (period 3.3 d). Assuming that this synchronisation is not coincidental, it suggests that the tidal effects induced by the giant planet can be strong enough to force the thin convective enveloppe (though not the whole star) into corotation and thus to play a role in the activity cycle of tauBoo.Comment: MNRAS, in pres

Country characteristics and the incidence of capital income taxation on wages: an empirical assessment

This paper examines the incidence of corporate income taxes on wages using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for 13 OECD countries. Within a wage-bargaining framework, our econometric analysis shows that a substantial share of the corporate tax burden is shifted from capital to labour. However, the magnitude of this shift is influenced importantly by country characteristics affecting the process of wage determination, such as the degree of capital mobility, a country's relative influence over the world price of output and trade unions’ strength

The Dislocation of Brazil’s Capital: a Long-Standing Project

Dislocating the capital to Brazil’s interior highlands is a long standing project in the country’s history. The project was first linked to the transfer of the royal court from Lisbon to the Portuguese America, where a metropolis would be established in what until then had been a colonial purveyor of goods. Until 1953, the quest for a worthy capital involved many factors such as the establishment of a Portuguese empire in the Americas, Portugal’s repudiation of an Ancien Régime monarchy in the South Atlantic, the formation of a counter hegemony in a former colony, or the construction of a unified, republican, and modern Brazilian nation. As Lúcio Costa - the architect of the final iteration of Brazil’s new capital - once put it: “it was a century-old purpose, always postponed.

ACES: A Teleoperated Robotic Solution to Pipe Inspection from the Inside

This paper presents the definition of a teleoperated robotic system for non-destructive corrosion inspection of Steel Cylinder Concrete Pipes (SCCP) from the inside. A general description of in-pipe environment and a state of the art of in-pipe navigation solutions are exposed, with a zoom on the characteristics of the SCCP case of interest (pipe dimensions, curves, slopes, humidity, payload, etc.). Then, two specific steel corrosion measurement techniques are described. In order to operate them, several possible architectures of inspection system (mobile platform combined with a robotic inspection manipulator) are presented, depending if the mobile platform is self-centred or not and regarding the robotic manipulator type, namely a basic cylindrical manipulator, a self centred one, or a force-controlled 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) robotic arm. A suitable mechanical architecture is then selected according to SCCP inspection needs. This includes relevant interfaces between the robot, the corrosion measurement Non Destructive Testing (NDT) device and the pipe. Finally, possible future adaptation of the chosen solution are exposed