Redundancies in an industry in transition: who gets fired and why? Evidence from one consumer-goods industry in Russia

Does employee productivity explain why during a period of crisis firms fired relatively more blue-collar than white-collar workers and why, when conditions improved, they began to hire relatively more blue collars? Are redundancies targeted towards the least productive workers? Was firms’ behaviour profit maximising? These questions are investigated in the extreme circumstances of the footwear industry in Russia in the period 1994-2000. Firms in this industry underwent a major upheaval in these years. Part of their response was to downsize the blue-collar workforce more severely than the whitecollars. Was this because (a) white collar employees had higher marginal productivity or (b) because the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs If it turns out that the marginal productivity of white collar employees was the higher, we could conclude that they were embodying more human capital (Becker, 1962); if they were no more productive than blue collars, this could mean that they had been privileged during downsizing for some institutional reasons, e.g. a prior commitment towards higher-ranking staff (Lazear, 1979; Lazear and Rosen, 1981). If it turns out that the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than their factor price ratio, this would suggest that the firms’ downsizing policies were consistent with profit-maximising precepts. Russian footwear is a suitable industry for investigation because there are many units, which use a standard technology, and with relatively little political interference. The paper uses Translog and Cobb Douglas production functions with ordinary least squares, two-step least squares and stochastic frontier analysis, both in a panel and in a cross-section setting. Results show that white collar employees were not only more productive than blue collar employees but also the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs. This suggests that even in a turbulent period and with a Soviet heritage, the firms behaved as profit-maximising agents. Institutional factors may also have operated, but they do not need to be invoked in explaining the data.Productivity, blue collars, white collars, transition, footwear

Redundancies in an industry in transition: who gets fired and why?

Does employee productivity explain why during a period of crisis firms fired relatively more blue-collar than white-collar workers and why, when conditions improved, they began to hire relatively more blue collars? Are redundancies targeted towards the least productive workers? Was firms’ behaviour profit maximising? These questions are investigated in the extreme circumstances of the footwear industry in Russia in the period 1994-2000. Firms in this industry underwent a major upheaval in these years. Part of their response was to downsize the blue-collar workforce more severely than the whitecollars. Was this because (a) white collar employees had higher marginal productivity or (b) because the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs If it turns out that the marginal productivity of white collar employees was the higher, we could conclude that they were embodying more human capital (Becker, 1962); if they were no more productive than blue collars, this could mean that they had been privileged during downsizing for some institutional reasons, e.g. a prior commitment towards higher-ranking staff (Lazear, 1979; Lazear and Rosen, 1981). If it turns out that the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than their factor price ratio, this would suggest that the firms’ downsizing policies were consistent with profit-maximising precepts. Russian footwear is a suitable industry for investigation because there are many units, which use a standard technology, and with relatively little political interference. The paper uses Translog and Cobb Douglas production functions with ordinary least squares, two-step least squares and stochastic frontier analysis, both in a panel and in a cross-section setting. Results show that white collar employees were not only more productive than blue collar employees but also the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs. This suggests that even in a turbulent period and with a Soviet heritage, the firms behaved as profit-maximising agents. Institutional factors may also have operated, but they do not need to be invoked in explaining the data

Effect of amaranth proteins on the RAS system: In vitro, in vivo and ex vivo assays

The aim of this work was to analyse the hypotensive effect of amaranthprotein/peptides on spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The mechanism of action of these peptides was studied in vivo and ex vivo. We also tested the effect of protection against gastrointestinal digestion (GID) exerted by an O:W emulsion on the integrity of the antihypertensive peptides. All samples tested produced a decrease in blood pressure (SBP). The animals treated with emulsion (GE) and emulsion+peptide (GE+VIKP) showed the most significant reduction in the SBP (42±2 mmHg and 35±2 mmHg, respectively). The results presented suggest that after GID, a variety of peptides with biological activities were released or were resistant to this process. These peptides play a role in the regulation of the SBP by acting on plasma ACE, plasma renin and the vascular system. These results support the use of amaranth protein/peptides in the elaboration of functional foods for hypertensive individuals.Fil: Suárez, Santiago. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Aphalo, Paula. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Rinaldi, Gustavo Juan. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Añon, Maria Cristina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; ArgentinaFil: Quiroga, Alejandra Viviana. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Criotecnología de Alimentos; Argentin

Perfil socioeconômico de consumo e grau de satisfação dos pacientes atendidos na clínica odontológica da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

TCC (graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro de Ciências da Saúde. Odontologia.Este trabalho objetivou determinar o perfil socioeconômico e de consumo dos pacientes atendidos nas clínicas odontológicas da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina e seu grau de satisfação, através de um questionário aplicado na Sala de Espera, contendo perguntas relativas aos indicadores sociais do entrevistado, ao critério de classificação econômica Brasil – Perfil do consumidor de produtos e serviços tecnológicos, e dados da utilização de serviços odontológicos e do grau de satisfação dos usuários. A análise de dados foi realizada através da escala nominal, com base em medidas estatísticas descritivas. Foram entrevistados 106 usuários, entre os março e abril de 2015, havendo predominância feminina (62,26%), com uma faixa etária principalmente composta por indivíduos dos 34 - 41 anos (20,34%), com Ensino fundamental 1 completo ou Fundamental 2 incompleto (29,24%). Houve prevalência da Classe B2 (41,50%). Os motivos mais frequentes de busca do serviço pelos usuários foram: Custo Elevado da Odontologia e o Encaminhamento de Unidades de Saúde, com 26,41%. Em relação ao grau de satisfação, a média foi de 1,03 (em escala de -2 até 2), sendo quesito de maior satisfação a Qualidade do Serviço Prestado (média 1,28) e menor grau de satisfação as Instalações e Equipamentos Utilizados no Serviço (com média 0,80). Assim, essa pesquisa contribuiu pela identificação do perfil socioeconômico e de consumo e do grau de satisfação dos usuários dos serviços das clínicas odontológicas da UFSC, embora novos estudos sejam necessários para melhor compreensão desses importantes fenômenos para o atendimento odontológico e para organização de serviços

Redundancies in an industry in transition: who gets fired and why? Evidence from one consumer-goods industry in Russia

Does employee productivity explain why during a period of crisis firms fired relatively more blue-collar than white-collar workers and why, when conditions improved, they began to hire relatively more blue collars? Are redundancies targeted towards the least productive workers? Was firms’ behaviour profit maximising? These questions are investigated in the extreme circumstances of the footwear industry in Russia in the period 1994-2000. Firms in this industry underwent a major upheaval in these years. Part of their response was to downsize the blue-collar workforce more severely than the whitecollars. Was this because (a) white collar employees had higher marginal productivity or (b) because the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs If it turns out that the marginal productivity of white collar employees was the higher, we could conclude that they were embodying more human capital (Becker, 1962); if they were no more productive than blue collars, this could mean that they had been privileged during downsizing for some institutional reasons, e.g. a prior commitment towards higher-ranking staff (Lazear, 1979; Lazear and Rosen, 1981). If it turns out that the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than their factor price ratio, this would suggest that the firms’ downsizing policies were consistent with profit-maximising precepts. Russian footwear is a suitable industry for investigation because there are many units, which use a standard technology, and with relatively little political interference. The paper uses Translog and Cobb Douglas production functions with ordinary least squares, two-step least squares and stochastic frontier analysis, both in a panel and in a cross-section setting. Results show that white collar employees were not only more productive than blue collar employees but also the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs. This suggests that even in a turbulent period and with a Soviet heritage, the firms behaved as profit-maximising agents. Institutional factors may also have operated, but they do not need to be invoked in explaining the data

Redundancies in an industry in transition: who gets fired and why? Evidence from one consumer-goods industry in Russia

Does employee productivity explain why during a period of crisis firms fired relatively more blue-collar than white-collar workers and why, when conditions improved, they began to hire relatively more blue collars? Are redundancies targeted towards the least productive workers? Was firms’ behaviour profit maximising? These questions are investigated in the extreme circumstances of the footwear industry in Russia in the period 1994-2000. Firms in this industry underwent a major upheaval in these years. Part of their response was to downsize the blue-collar workforce more severely than the whitecollars. Was this because (a) white collar employees had higher marginal productivity or (b) because the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs If it turns out that the marginal productivity of white collar employees was the higher, we could conclude that they were embodying more human capital (Becker, 1962); if they were no more productive than blue collars, this could mean that they had been privileged during downsizing for some institutional reasons, e.g. a prior commitment towards higher-ranking staff (Lazear, 1979; Lazear and Rosen, 1981). If it turns out that the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than their factor price ratio, this would suggest that the firms’ downsizing policies were consistent with profit-maximising precepts. Russian footwear is a suitable industry for investigation because there are many units, which use a standard technology, and with relatively little political interference. The paper uses Translog and Cobb Douglas production functions with ordinary least squares, two-step least squares and stochastic frontier analysis, both in a panel and in a cross-section setting. Results show that white collar employees were not only more productive than blue collar employees but also the technical rate of substitution of white collar labour with blue collar labour was greater than the factor price ratio of these two inputs. This suggests that even in a turbulent period and with a Soviet heritage, the firms behaved as profit-maximising agents. Institutional factors may also have operated, but they do not need to be invoked in explaining the data

The use of economic tools to develop a consensus on alcohol policies within and between jurisdictions

Alcohol policies encounter major problems because of the lack of consensus within and between jurisdictions. Tools that economists have developed in other contexts may be of use in addressing these problems. The consensus between neighboring jurisdictions can be facilitated when a jurisdiction with higher alcohol taxes and greater alcohol revenue offers to share part of that revenue with the neighbor with lower alcohol revenue and alcohol taxes. The final solution can result in both jurisdictions having larger revenues and in reduced alcohol consumption. Decreasing support for alcohol curbing policies within some jurisdictions could probably be reversed if such tools as revenue neutrality of alcohol taxes, heavier taxation of heavy drinkers, introduction of minimum prices and substitution of low-quality drinks with high-quality food and drinks were to be employed, and if greater attention were given to the determinants of alcohol needs and, in particular, of “happiness.

The use of economic tools to develop a consensus on alcohol policies within and between jurisdictions

Alcohol policies encounter major problems because of the lack of consensus within and between jurisdictions. Tools that economists have developed in other contexts may be of use in addressing these problems. The consensus between neighboring jurisdictions can be facilitated when a jurisdiction with higher alcohol taxes and greater alcohol revenue offers to share part of that revenue with the neighbor with lower alcohol revenue and alcohol taxes. The final solution can result in both jurisdictions having larger revenues and in reduced alcohol consumption. Decreasing support for alcohol curbing policies within some jurisdictions could probably be reversed if such tools as revenue neutrality of alcohol taxes, heavier taxation of heavy drinkers, introduction of minimum prices and substitution of low-quality drinks with high-quality food and drinks were to be employed, and if greater attention were given to the determinants of alcohol needs and, in particular, of “happiness.

Data supporting the cardiac mitochondria calcium handling in female normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats

In association with the published article "Mitochondrial calcium handling in normotensive and spontaneously hypertensive rats: correlation with systolic blood pressure levels", this data article contains information about calcium handling of cardiac mitochondria isolated from female of both rats strains (WKY and SHR). Dataset of mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) resistance to opening Ca2+-mediated, Ca2+ retention capacity (CRC), time constants and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) are showed.Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculare

FULL GPU Implementation of Lattice-Boltzmann Methods with Immersed Boundary Conditions for Fast Fluid Simulations

Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) has shown great potential in fluid simulations, but performance issues and difficulties to manage complex boundary conditions have hindered a wider application. The upcoming of Graphic Processing Units (GPU) Computing offered a possible solution for the performance issue, and methods like the Immersed Boundary (IB) algorithm proved to be a flexible solution to boundaries. Unfortunately, the implicit IB algorithm makes the LBM implementation in GPU a non-trivial task. This work presents a fully parallel GPU implementation of LBM in combination with IB. The fluid-boundary interaction is implemented via GPU kernels, using execution configurations and data structures specifically designed to accelerate each code execution. Simulations were validated against experimental and analytical data showing good agreement and improving the computational time. Substantial reductions of calculation rates were achieved, lowering down the required time to execute the same model in a CPU to about two magnitude orders.Fil: Boroni, Gustavo Adolfo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados; ArgentinaFil: Dottori, Javier Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones Científicas. Grupo de Plasmas Densos Magnetizados; ArgentinaFil: Rinaldi, Pablo Rafael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas; Argentin