Validation of the Wittgenstein Centre Back-projections for Populations by Age, Sex, and Six Levels of Education from 2010 to 1970

There have been few attempts at creating data series on levels of educational attainment of the adult population consistent across time and space by age and sex. They would be needed to estimate the role played by education and human capital in economic, technological, environmental models as correctly as possible. In 2007, Lutz et al developed a methodology to reconstruct (and project) levels of educational attainment based on the information contained in the base-year source of choice for the most recent period (Lutz et al. 2007a). The methodology was applied again in the framework of a new round of population projections published in 2014 online (www.wittgensteincentre.org/dataexplorer) and in the Oxford University book "World Population and Human Capital in the Twenty-First Century" edited by Lutz, Butz and KC. There, the coverage increased to 171 countries and the number of education categories to six. The back-projection methodology was applied to the updated base-year sample in 2010 to arrive at the reconstruction of levels of educational attainment by age and sex for the period 1970-2005. The purpose of this paper is to compare the reconstructed datasets to other existing sources of historical data on education, including the former reconstruction from 2007, collection and other reconstruction exercises. The validation of the Wittgenstein Centre back-projection model outcomes with available empirical data source enables the evaluation of our back-projection method for the establishment of harmonized and consistent time series on the educational composition of 171 countries in the world. In comparison, the most other available datasets suffer from severe flaws, hampering any valid trend and regression analysis on levels of educational attainment. The back-projection methodology is explained in Section 2 and Section 3 describes the collection of empirical data for the validation of the WIC 2015 dataset and associated challenges. The validation methodology and results are developed in Section 4. Detailed documentation about the country-specific validation is available from the Appendices

Evolution in prostheses for sprinters with lower-limb amputation

Depuis une quinzaine d'années, les progrès techniques en appareillage ont été le facteur déterminant de la progression des performances des sportifs amputés de membre inférieur. Pour l'amputé tibial, la prothèse de course comprend un manchon gel et une emboîture solidarisés par un accrochage distal ou un vide virtuel. Par ses qualités dynamiques, le pied en fibre de carbone, garni de pointes, assure des performances remarquables. Pour l'amputé fémoral, équipé des mêmes pieds prothétiques, le genou est à biellettes et à contrôle des phases d'appui et pendulaire. Par rapport au coureur valide, le temps d'appui sur le membre appareillé est raccourci tandis que celui sur le membre sain est allongé. L'asymétrie du sprint de l'amputé tibial est discrète. C'est le travail des extenseurs de hanche qui est la principale compensation au déficit de propulsion dû à l'amputation. Chez l'amputé fémoral, l'absence de genou aggrave l'asymétrie. L'extension totale du genou prothétique, précoce en fin de phase oscillante et persistant pendant toute la phase d'appui, impose une compensation par une augmentation d'extension de la hanche controlatérale. Les transferts de charge de travail entre côté amputé et sain, par l'intermédiaire d'une hyperlordose lombaire, mettent en jeu le bassin, le tronc et les épaules. Les amputés sportifs font progresser la recherche en appareillage. Leurs orthoprothésistes acquièrent avec eux un savoir-faire dont bénéficient leurs patients non-sportifs.For about 15 years, technical advances in prosthetic treatment have been the main factor in the increased performance of athletes with lower-limb amputation. For trans-tibial amputation, the prosthesis for sprinting is composed of a gel liner and a socket joined by a locking or virtual vacuum liner. Because of these dynamic properties, the carbon prosthetic foot equipped with tacks ensures outstanding performance. For trans-femoral amputation, a hydraulic swing and a stance control unit are added to the same prosthesis. In comparison with the able-bodied runner, athletes with amputation have smaller loading times in the prosthetic limb and larger ones in the sound limb. The length of the energy-storing prosthetic foot is determined by the “up-on-the-toes” running gait. The sprinting gait with trans-tibial amputation is almost symmetrical. The hip extensor effort is the main compensation of propulsion reduction with lower-limb amputation. With trans-femoral amputation, the lack of knee increases the asymmetry. The total prosthetic knee extension (early in late-swing phase and lasting during total stance phase) compensates with extension of both hips, especially the opposite one. The amputation and sound limb load transfer with lumbar hyperlordosis concern the pelvis, trunk and shoulders. Because of athletes with amputation, research in prosthetic treatment has progressed. The development of orthotics and prostheses for such athletes has benefited non-athletes with amputation

A Harmonized Dataset on Global Educational Attainment between 1970 and 2060 – An Analytical Window into Recent Trends and Future Prospects in Human Capital Development

We hereby present a dataset produced at the Wittgenstein Centre (WIC) containing comprehensive time series on educational attainment and mean years of schooling (MYS). The dataset is split by 5-year age groups and sex for 171 countries and covers the period between 1970 and 2010. It also contains projections of educational attainment to 2060 based on several scenarios of demographic and educational development. The dataset is constructed around collected and harmonized empirical census and survey data sets for the projection base year. The paper presents the principles and methodology associated with the reconstruction and the projection, and how it differs from several previous exercises. It also proposes a closer look at the diffusion of education in world regions and how the existing gaps in terms of generation, gender, and geography have been evolving in the last 40 years

A Unified Theoretical Description of the Thermodynamical Properties of Spin Crossover with Magnetic Interactions

After the discovery of the phenomena of light-induced excited spin state trapping (LIESST), the functional properties of metal complexes have been studied intensively. Among them, cooperative phenomena involving low spin-high spin (spin-crossover) transition and magnetic ordering have attracted interests, and it has become necessary to formulate a unified description of both phenomena. In this work, we propose a model in which they can be treated simultaneously by extending the Wajnflasz-Pick model including a magnetic interaction. We found that this new model is equivalent to Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) Hamiltonian with degenerate levels. This model provides a unified description of the thermodynamic properties associated with various types of systems, such as spin-crossover (SC) solids and Prussian blue analogues (PBA). Here, the high spin fraction and the magnetization are the order parameters describing the cooperative phenomena of the model. We present several typical temperature dependences of the order parameters and we determine the phase diagram of the system using the mean-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We found that the magnetic interaction drives the SC transition leading to re-entrant magnetic and first-order SC transitions.Comment: 30pages, 11figure

Differences in fighting behaviour between male morphs of the stag beetle Lucanus cervus

Chez de nombreuses espèces d'insectes en général et de coléoptères en particulier, les mâles présentent des caractères sexuels secondaires exubérants, liés à la taille corporelle des animaux par des relations allométriques complexes, non linéaires. Ces dernières sont responsables d'un polymorphisme chez les mâles et suggèrent l'existence de pressions de sélection variables, fonctions de la taille adulte et soutenues par des stratégies comportementales dépendantes aussi de la taille. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes intéressés aux relations existant entre les comportements agressifs et la taille corporelle du Lucane cerf-volant Lucanus cervus en développant une approche expérimentale. Cinq groupes de 10 mâles chacun ont été observés pendant 120 minutes et toutes les interactions agressives entre mâles ont été notées. La taille corporelle explique une large part de la hiérarchie linéaire détectée pendant la procédure expérimentale. Nos résultats suggèrent l'existence d'une taille corporelle seuil au delà de laquelle l'agressivité des mâles devient exacerbée. L'issue d'un combat entre mâles dépend fortement de la différence de taille entre les deux rivaux. Si l'agresseur est plus grand que l'agressé, le combat se solde très généralement en sa faveur alors que si l'agresseur est plus petit que l'agressé, l'issue du combat devient incertaine. Ainsi, au sein de notre population d'étude, la taille seuil d'agressivité correspond à la taille à partir de laquelle un animal présente une grande probabilité de rencontrer un animal plus petit que lui et de sortir vainqueur d'un combat.Non linear scaling relationships between extravagant characters and adult body size in numerous males of insects, particularly beetles, suggest that heterogeneous selection contexts shape differently the males according to their final body size and that behavioural tactics also depend on body size. We investigate the relationships between fighting behaviour and body size in the European Stag beetle Lucanus cervus using an experimental approach. In 5 experimental boxes, 10 different males were observed during 120 minutes and all male/male aggressive interactions were noted. Body size explained a large part of the linear hierarchy we detected during the experimental trials. Our results suggest the existence of a threshold body size determining the occurrence of exacerbated aggressive behaviour. The outcome of a male-male contest depends strongly on the body size difference between the two rivals. If the aggressor is the largest of the two males, he wins certainly the contest but the outcome of the contest becomes uncertain if the aggressor is the smallest of the two males. Therefore, in our population, the threshold body size of aggressivity corresponds to the size at which an animal has a high probability to fight with a smaller sufferer and then, to win the contest

Immigrants' educational attainment: A mixed picture, but often higher than the average in their country of origin

The immigrants living in France and the refugees who arrived in Austria are more educated than most of the population in their country of origin. By comparison with the population in the host country, the picture is more mixed: some groups, such as immigrants from Portugal living in France, are relatively low educated, while others, such as Romanians, have more frequently completed higher education than people born in France

PHARAO Laser Source Flight Model: Design and Performances

In this paper, we describe the design and the main performances of the PHARAO laser source flight model. PHARAO is a laser cooled cesium clock specially designed for operation in space and the laser source is one of the main sub-systems. The flight model presented in this work is the first remote-controlled laser system designed for spaceborne cold atom manipulation. The main challenges arise from mechanical compatibility with space constraints, which impose a high level of compactness, a low electric power consumption, a wide range of operating temperature and a vacuum environment. We describe the main functions of the laser source and give an overview of the main technologies developed for this instrument. We present some results of the qualification process. The characteristics of the laser source flight model, and their impact on the clock performances, have been verified in operational conditions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Review of Scientific Instrument

Novel mechanism of photoinduced reversible phase transitions in molecule-based magnets

A novel microscopic mechanism of bi-directional structural changes is proposed for the photo-induced magnetic phase transition in Co-Fe Prussian blue analogues on the basis of ab initio quantum chemical cluster calculations. It is shown that the local potential energies of various spin states of Co are sensitive to the number of nearest neighbor Fe vacancies. As a result, the forward and backward structural changes are most readily initiated by excitation of different local regions by different photons. This mechanism suggests an effective strategy to realize photoinduced reversible phase transitions in a general system consisting of two local components.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Collective effects in spin-crossover chains with exchange interaction

The collective properties of spin-crossover chains are studied. Spin-crossover compounds contain ions with a low-spin ground state and low lying high-spin excited states and are of interest for molecular memory applications. Some of them naturally form one-dimensional chains. Elastic interaction and Ising exchange interaction are taken into account. The transfer-matrix approach is used to calculate the partition function, the fraction of ions in the high-spin state, the magnetization, susceptibility, etc., exactly. The high-spin-low-spin degree of freedom leads to collective effects not present in simple spin chains. The ground-state phase diagram is mapped out and compared to the case with Heisenberg exchange interaction. The various phases give rise to characteristic behavior at nonzero temperatures, including sharp crossovers between low- and high-temperature regimes. A Curie-Weiss law for the susceptibility is derived and the paramagnetic Curie temperature is calculated. Possible experiments to determine the exchange coupling are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 13 color figures, published versio