A Theory of Efficiency Wage with Community-Based Income Sharing

This paper uses efficiency wage theory and the existence of community based sharing to hypothesize that labor markets in developing countries have multiple equilibria--the same economy can be stuck at different levels of unemployment with different levels of wages. The result is constrained to poor economies where wage productivity models seem to be applicable and income sharing among the poor is prevalent. We establish a mutual reinforcement of income sharing and unemployment. That more unemployment leads to more income sharing is a logical extension of evidence and the fact that more sharing increases unemployment rates is established theoretically in our model. As a corollary, we show that within the same society, two different racial groups, that may be innately identical, can have different levels of unemployment and wages in equilibrium.

A Theory of Efficiency Wage with Multiple Unemployment Equilibria: How a Higher Minimum Wage Law Can Curb Unemployment

This paper uses efficiency wage theory and the existence of community-based sharing to hypothesize that labor markets in developing countries have multiple equilibria – the same economy can be stuck at different levels of unemployment with different levels of wages. The model is meant for developing economies where wage-productivity links are discernible and income-sharing among the poor is prevalent. It seems reasonable to posit that in such an economy more unemployment leads to more income sharing. The main results are generated combining this claim with a theoretical demonstration of the fact that more sharing increases unemployment rates. As corollaries, we show that (1) within the same society, two different racial groups that may be ex ante identical can have different levels of unemployment and wages in equilibrium and (2) the imposition of a legal minimum wage can raise employment.unemployment, efficiency wage, minimum wage law, racial differences, South Africa

Executive Functioning Outcomes Due to Various Cannabis Use Patterns in Adults

This study aimed to correlate cognitive functioning, specifically in the domains of memory and inhibition control, to number of days of cannabis use in adults (ages 20-40) and to examine whether gender, age, or average number of drinks per drinking day moderated these effects. Results from 79 participants were examined, 40 of whom had not ingested cannabis in the last 90 days (47.5% male) and 39 of whom had used cannabis in the past 90 days (48.72% male). Previous research showed conflicting results when looking between groups of adult cannabis users and non-users. Some studies showed an effect when the user group was heavy, chronic users. While other studies did not show an effect when assessing normal using adults (not clinical level chronic users). Research pertaining to adolescent cannabis use tended to have consistency when looking at cannabis use in unique ways that differed from a categorical analysis. Based on the previous research on cannabis use and executive functioning, this study looked at cannabis use as a continuous variable similar to the research on adolescents while assessing similar cognitive domains from both areas of research. A regression analysis was done in this study, controlling for age, gender and average number of drinks per drinking day, and did not show any significant associations between cannabis use frequency in the last 90 days and three different areas of executive functioning assessed. The current study was unable to associate increased levels of cannabis use to cognitive functioning, specifically in the domains of episodic memory, working memory and inhibition control. Future studies need to look at a sample of adult users specifically recruited for their cannabis use (as a continuous variable) in order to get an even distribution of cannabis use to examine how various levels of usage effects different domains of memory

Risk Averse and Disinclined: What COVID Prison Releases Demonstrate About the Ability of the United States to Reduce Mass Incarceration

"Risk Averse and Disinclined" builds upon prior findings produced last year through the Institute's publication ?"Examining Prison Releases in Response to COVID: Lessons Learned for Reducing the Effects of Mass Incarceration." Through this new report, researchers present case studies of six states?—?Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington?—?to gain a more in-depth view of what legal mechanisms were available to jurisdictions and the factors that influenced whether they were willing or able to use those mechanisms to release people from prison during the pandemic. The findings of this report show that although jurisdictions have the power to make releases from prison using back-end discretion, they are unlikely to use it due to risk aversion stemming from the fear of public and political backlash should anyone who is released go on to commit a serious crime. Thus, the authors continue to conclude that back-end release mechanisms offer only a modest opportunity to reduce mass incarceration. Instead, state-level carceral policies that focus on diffusing responsibility for back-end release and reduce incarceration in the first place have the greatest chance of achieving long-term reductions in prison populations

Salmonella and tomatoes

Outbreak information linking fresh tomato fruit to illnesses is reviewed in this chapter. While tomato fruit appear to support substantial proliferation of certain serovars of Salmonella enterica, detection of this pathogen in tomato plants prior to harvest is rare, and reports of Salmonella existence in tomato fruit still attached to field-grown plants are virtually non-existent. The bacterium is sensitive to UV and can be outcompeted by the native phytomicrobiota, which may explain its absence in field-grown crops. However, the persistence of certain serovars in fields and ponds of certain production areas is noted. Together with evidence of bacteria becoming internalized in tomato fruit during crop development likely through natural apertures, the presence of S. enterica in and around production fields suggests that an unusual weather event could lead to Salmonella contamination of fruit prior to harvest. The bacterium appears physiologically adaptive toward proliferation in tomato fruit. Once inside tomatoes, Salmonella is capable of sensing the availability of nutrients and physiological state of the fruit and differentially regulates specific genes. However, because Salmonella is an efficient nutrient scavenger, removal of multiple metabolic and regulatory genes was required to reduce its fitness within the fruit. Plants do not appear to recognize human enterics as pathogens, and their defenses treat them as endophytes

Evaluation of alternative preservation treatments (water heat treatment, ultrasounds, thermosonication and UV-C radiation) to improve safety and quality of whole tomato

Previously optimised postharvest treatments were compared to conventional chlorinated water treatment in terms of their effects on the overall quality of tomato (‘Zinac’) during storage at 10 °C. The treatments in question were water heat treatment (WHT = 40 °C, 30 min), ultrasounds (US = 45 kHz, 80 %, 30 min), thermosonication (TS =40 °C, 30 min, 45 kHz, 80 %) and ultraviolet irradiation (UV-C: 0.97 kJ m−2). The quality factors evaluated were colour, texture, sensorial analysis, mass loss, antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content, peroxidase and pectin methylesterase enzymatic activities, and microbial load reduction. The results demonstrate that all treatments tested preserve tomato quality to some extent during storage at 10 °C. WHT, TS and UV-C proved to be more efficient on minimising colour and texture changes with the additional advantage of microbial load reduction, leading to a shelf life extension when compared to control trials. However, at the end of storage, with exception of WHT samples, the antioxidant activity and phenolic content of treated samples was lower than for control samples. Moreover, sensorial results were well correlated with instrumental colour experimental data. This study presents alternative postharvest technologies that improve tomato (Zinac) quality during shelf life period and minimise the negative impact of conventional chlorinated water on human safety, health and environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Resistance Exercise Reverses Aging in Human Skeletal Muscle

Human aging is associated with skeletal muscle atrophy and functional impairment (sarcopenia). Multiple lines of evidence suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction is a major contributor to sarcopenia. We evaluated whether healthy aging was associated with a transcriptional profile reflecting mitochondrial impairment and whether resistance exercise could reverse this signature to that approximating a younger physiological age. Skeletal muscle biopsies from healthy older (N = 25) and younger (N = 26) adult men and women were compared using gene expression profiling, and a subset of these were related to measurements of muscle strength. 14 of the older adults had muscle samples taken before and after a six-month resistance exercise-training program. Before exercise training, older adults were 59% weaker than younger, but after six months of training in older adults, strength improved significantly (P<0.001) such that they were only 38% lower than young adults. As a consequence of age, we found 596 genes differentially expressed using a false discovery rate cut-off of 5%. Prior to the exercise training, the transcriptome profile showed a dramatic enrichment of genes associated with mitochondrial function with age. However, following exercise training the transcriptional signature of aging was markedly reversed back to that of younger levels for most genes that were affected by both age and exercise. We conclude that healthy older adults show evidence of mitochondrial impairment and muscle weakness, but that this can be partially reversed at the phenotypic level, and substantially reversed at the transcriptome level, following six months of resistance exercise training

Language Brokering in Adolescence: The Role of Racial-ethnic Discrimination and Cultural Mistrust on the Psychological Adjustment of Asian and Latino Language Brokers

Past studies on language brokering have examined how various individual and contextual factors influence the association between language brokering and mental health, but few studies have assessed how racial/ethnic discrimination or perceptions of cultural mistrust affect mental health outcomes. The goal of this study was to examine how experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and cultural mistrust influence mental health outcomes for Latino and Asian adolescent language brokers. Results indicated that brokering more frequently was associated with more depressive and social anxiety symptoms for youth who reported racial/ethnic discrimination from adults in school, and more depressive symptoms for youth who had moderate to high levels of cultural mistrust. Additionally, brokering more frequently was only associated with more depressive symptoms for Latino youth who reported discrimination. Overall, the findings suggest that racial/ethnic discrimination and perceptions of cultural mistrust may exacerbate psychological challenges among Latino and Asian adolescent language brokers and highlight the importance of further examining how interpersonal and systemic discrimination influence the development of brokering youth