A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Education on Social Capital

To assess the empirical estimates of the effect of education on social trust and social participation - the basic dimensions of individual social capital - a meta-analysis is applied, synthesizing 154 evaluations on social trust, and 286 evaluations on social participation. The publication bias problem is given special emphasis in the meta-analysis. Our statistical synthesis confirms that education is a strong and robust correlate of individual social capital. The meta-analysis provides support for the existence of a relative effect of education on social participation, and of a reciprocity mechanism between the dimensions of social capital. The analysis also suggests that the erosion of social participation during the past decades has coincided with a decrease of the marginal return to education on social capital. Finally, we find differences in the return to education between genders, between US and other nations, and variations for different education attainments.

Dissipative effects from transport and viscous hydrodynamics

We compare 2->2 covariant transport theory and causal Israel-Stewart hydrodynamics in 2+1D longitudinally boost invariant geometry with RHIC-like initial conditions and a conformal e = 3p equation of state. The pressure evolution in the center of the collision zone and the final differential elliptic flow v2(pT) from the two theories agree remarkably well for a small shear viscosity to entropy density ratio eta/s ~ 1/(4 pi), and also for a large cross section sigma ~ 50 mb. A key to this agreement is keeping ALL terms in the Israel-Stewart equations of motion. Our results indicate promising prospects for the applicability of Israel-Stewart dissipative hydrodynamics at RHIC, provided the shear viscosity of hot and dense quark-gluon matter is indeed very small for the relevant temperatures T ~ 200-500 MeV.Comment: Presentation at Quark Matter 2008. 4 pages, 3 figure

Higher Education and Membership of Voluntary Groups

This research uses the British National Child Development Study to examine the effect of higher education on individual membership of voluntary groups and organizations. Gender differences in the education effects are given emphasis. We apply parametric and nonparametric econometric methods to isolate the influence of confounding variables. There is strong evidence of education endogeneity in the female sample and we observe a negative education effect on women's group membership. Education endogeneity does not cause serious estimation bias in the male sample. Higher education is a significantly positive determinant of men's group membership. Further investigations from a mid-life perspective reveal that the boost of female participation in the workforce and their attitudes towards employment are key factors in the negative association between higher education and women's group membership. Our research provides clues for the divergence in the enrolment in higher education and social participation behavior in Western countries.

The efficiency of education in generating literacy: a stochastic frontier approach

The growing importance attached to education as a key factor to improve economic performance coupled with the persistent scarcity of resources for education makes it important that skills and literacy are produced efficiently. This paper provides an international comparison of the efficiency of literacy production. We find substantial differences between countries in levels of literacy, differences in literacy between education levels and differences in the efficiency of literacy production. There are some notable differences between more Anglo-Saxon countries and the Continental European countries. The findings suggest that in almost all countries the scope for efficiency improvements in education is large. So even without major increases in (public) funding, improvements in educational outcomes are achievable. We can get better value for the money we spend on education.

A Physical Realization of the Generalized PT-, C-, and CPT-Symmetries and the Position Operator for Klein-Gordon Fields

Generalized parity (P), time-reversal (T), and charge-conjugation (C)operators were initially definedin the study of the pseudo-Hermitian Hamiltonians. We construct a concrete realization of these operators for Klein-Gordon fields and show that in this realization PT and C operators respectively correspond to the ordinary time-reversal and charge-grading operations. Furthermore, we present a complete description of the quantum mechanics of Klein-Gordon fields that is based on the construction of a Hilbert space with a relativistically invariant, positive-definite, and conserved inner product. In particular we offer a natural construction of a position operator and the corresponding localized and coherent states. The restriction of this position operator to the positive-frequency fields coincides with the Newton-Wigner operator. Our approach does not rely on the conventional restriction to positive-frequency fields. Yet it provides a consistent quantum mechanical description of Klein-Gordon fields with a genuine probabilistic interpretation.Comment: 20 pages, published versio

A thin-film magnetoresistive angle detector

An overview is given of the results of our research on a contactless angle detector based on the anisotropic magnetoresistance effect (AMR effect) in a permalloy thin film. The results of high-temperature annealing treatment of the pemalloy film are discussed. Such a treatment suppresses the effects of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy that is present in a permalloy thin film and increases the AMR effect, thus improving the detector signal. The performance of the detector throughout a temperature range of 20 to 120 °C and the results of heat treatment at 125 °C for 1 week have been tested