Measures of labor underutilization from the Current Population Survey

The Current Population Survey (CPS) has been the source of official labor force statistics for the U.S. since its inception in March 1940. The best-known statistic calculated from CPS data is the unemployment rate. To be classified as unemployed, a person must have had no employment during the survey reference week, been available for work, and made specific efforts to find employment during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. The unemployment rate has proven to be a reliable indicator of overall labor market conditions and has performed quite well as a business cycle indicator. That does not mean, however, that everyone has been completely satisfied with the official figures. As a result, in the 1970s, a range of unemployment indicators known as U-1 through U-7 was introduced. In 1994, a redesigned CPS was fielded, and some of the survey changes affected series used as inputs in several of the U-1—U-7 measures. Consequently, BLS introduced a new set of “U’s” in 1995. The new U-1—U-6 range of alternative measures of labor underutilization offered an updated set of indicators that took advantage of newly collected information in the redesigned survey. This paper summarizes the rationale for the original and current ranges of alternative indicators. The paper also concludes that while the five alternatives to the official unemployment rate in the current U-1—U-6 range may represent varying views of labor resource underutilization, they show very similar patterns of change across the course of the business cycle.Employment, unemployment, unemployment rate, underemployment

Modeling radiation in particle clouds: On the importance of inter-particle radiation for pulverized solid fuel combustion

The importance of inter-particle radiation for clusters of gray and diffuse particles is investigated. The radiative cooling of each individual particle is found to vary strongly with its position in the cluster, and a mean radiative particle cooling term is proposed for single particle simulations of particle clusters or for high detail simulation, like Direct Numerical Simulations of small sub-volumes of large clusters of particles. Radiative cooling is shown to be important both for furnaces for coal gasification and coal combustion. Broadening the particle size distribution is found to have just a minor effect on the radiative particle cooling. This is particularly the case for large and dense particle clusters where there is essentially no effect of size distribution broadening at all. For smaller and more dilute particle clusters, the effect of distribution broadening is clear but still not dominant

The Effects of Perspective-Taking Training on Empathy Development in Adult Male Sex Offenders

Problem. Empathy training is considered a critical part of a sex offender program. Research has revealed that sex offenders are deficient in empathy, which may be a factor that contributes to their abusive behaviors. There is a surprising lack of research on empathy program outcomes, and there is a need to determine whether program formats are producing the desired outcomes. Research supports that sex offenders are deficient in perspective-taking, which is considered a critical part of the empathy process. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the inclusion of perspective-taking training in a traditional empathy-training module. Method. Two groups of 10 sex offenders were administered a traditional empathy training module. One group was selected randomly to receive an additional three sessions of perspective-taking training prior to the onset of the traditional empathy module. The group with additional perspective-taking training was predicted to have: (1) increased empathy skills, (2) decreased endorsement of cognitive distortions predisposing child sexual abuse and rape, and (3) a decreased use of narcissistic defenses. Six tests were administered before and after the empathy modules to measure these constructs. Analysis of Covariance was used to compare the means between the groups. An interview was performed with each subject after the empathy training, and a qualitative analysis was performed. Results. No differences appeared on the six pretests and posttests administered to the groups. The qualitative results revealed that additional perspective-taking training to the offenders\u27 naturalistic setting. The additional training may have contributed to a decrease in narcissistic features, increased awareness of societal denial of sexual crimes, and a utilization of perspective taking to decrease aggression. The additional training may have also created more significant emotional experiences for the group. Conclusions. Results reveal that perspective-taking training may be beneficial addition to a traditional empathy-training module More research is needed to confirm this finding

Eulerian and modified Lagrangian approaches to multi-dimensional condensation and collection

Turbulence is argued to play a crucial role in cloud droplet growth. The combined problem of turbulence and cloud droplet growth is numerically challenging. Here, an Eulerian scheme based on the Smoluchowski equation is compared with two Lagrangian superparticle (or su- perdroplet) schemes in the presence of condensation and collection. The growth processes are studied either separately or in combination using either two-dimensional turbulence, a steady flow, or just gravitational acceleration without gas flow. Good agreement between the differ- ent schemes for the time evolution of the size spectra is observed in the presence of gravity or turbulence. Higher moments of the size spectra are found to be a useful tool to characterize the growth of the largest drops through collection. Remarkably, the tails of the size spectra are reasonably well described by a gamma distribution in cases with gravity or turbulence. The Lagrangian schemes are generally found to be superior over the Eulerian one in terms of computational performance. However, it is shown that the use of interpolation schemes such as the cloud-in-cell algorithm is detrimental in connection with superparticle or superdroplet approaches. Furthermore, the use of symmetric over asymmetric collection schemes is shown to reduce the amount of scatter in the results.Comment: 36 pages, 17 figure

Evolving turbulence and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters

We discuss, using simple analytical models and MHD simulations, the origin and parameters of turbulence and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. Three physically distinct regimes can be identified in the evolution of cluster turbulence and magnetic fields. Firstly, the fluctuation dynamo will produce microgauss-strong, random magnetic fields during cluster formation and major mergers. Turbulent velocity of about 300 km/s can be maintained at scales 100-200 kpc. The magnetic field is intermittent, has a smaller scale of 20-30 kpc and average strength of 2 microgauss. Secondly, when major mergers end, turbulent speed and magnetic field undergo a power-law decay, decreasing in strength but increasing in scale by a factor of about two. Thirdly, smaller-mass subclusters and cluster galaxies produce turbulent wakes, with turbulent speeds and magnetic field strengths similar to those quoted above. The velocity scales are about 200 kpc and 10 kpc respectively, and the magnetic field scale is about 6 times smaller. Although these wakes may fill only a small fraction of the cluster volume, their area covering factor can be close to unity. So one can potentially reconcile observations that indicate the coexistence of turbulence with ordered filamentary gas structures, as in the Perseus cluster. Random Faraday rotation measure is estimated to be typically 100-200 rad/m^2, in agreement with observations. We predict detectable synchrotron polarization from cluster radio halos at wavelengths 3-6 cm, if observed at sufficiently high resolution (abridged).Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Replaced to match version accepted by MNRA