19,553 research outputs found
Pay Equity and Womenâs Wage Increases: Success in the States, a Model for the Nation
By 1989, twenty states had implemented programs to raise the wages of workers in female-dominated job classes in their state civil services. A study of these pay equity programs, conducted by the Institute for Women\u27s Policy Research and the Urban Institute, found that all twenty states were successful in closing the female/male wage gap without substantial negative side effects such as increased unemployment. The extent to which the states succeeded depended on many factors including how much money was spent, the proportion of women affected, and the standard to which female wages were raised. As women\u27s responsibilities for their families\u27 wellbeing increase, it is important to explore policies to raise women\u27s wages to levels that are free from discrimination or cultural devaluation. An American woman working full-time year-round in 1992 earned only 71 percent as much as her male counterpart. 1 This represents a substantial increase since 1982 when the wage ratio of female to male earnings was 62 percent. Approximately half of this increase is due to an increase in women\u27s real wages, 2 while the other half is due to a decrease in men\u27s real wages. 3 Despite this considerable advance, the wage gap remains; women still earn less than men even in the same occupations. 4 When different jobs of comparable worth--those requiring similar levels of skill, effort, responsibility, or knowledge--are compared it is even more common to find pay inequities. 5 The persistence of the wage gap compels attention for two ..
A system of relational syllogistic incorporating full Boolean reasoning
We present a system of relational syllogistic, based on classical
propositional logic, having primitives of the following form:
Some A are R-related to some B;
Some A are R-related to all B;
All A are R-related to some B;
All A are R-related to all B.
Such primitives formalize sentences from natural language like `All students
read some textbooks'. Here A and B denote arbitrary sets (of objects), and R
denotes an arbitrary binary relation between objects. The language of the logic
contains only variables denoting sets, determining the class of set terms, and
variables denoting binary relations between objects, determining the class of
relational terms. Both classes of terms are closed under the standard Boolean
operations. The set of relational terms is also closed under taking the
converse of a relation. The results of the paper are the completeness theorem
with respect to the intended semantics and the computational complexity of the
satisfiability problem.Comment: Available at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10849-012-9165-
Editorial: Woody plants and forest ecosystems in a complex worldâEcological interactions and physiological functioning above and below ground
International audienc
Luminous supersoft X-ray emission from the recurrent nova U Scorpii
BeppoSAX detected luminous 0.2-2.0 keV supersoft X-ray emission from the
recurrent nova U Sco ~19-20 days after the peak of the optical outburst in
February 1999. U Sco is the first recurrent nova to be observed during a
luminous supersoft X-ray phase. Non-LTE white dwarf atmosphere spectral models
(together with a ~0.5 keV optically thin thermal component) were fitted to the
BeppoSAX spectrum. We find that the fit is acceptable assuming enriched He and
an enhanced N/C ratio. This implies that the CNO cycle was active during the
outburst, in agreement with a thermonuclear runaway scenario. The best-fit
temperature is ~9 10^5 K and the bolometric luminosity those predicted for
steady nuclear burning on a WD close to the Chandrasekhar mass. The fact that
U~Sco was detected as a supersoft X-ray source is consistent with steady
nuclear burning continuing for at least one month after the outburst. This
means that only a fraction of the previously accreted H and He was ejected
during the outburst and that the WD can grow in mass, ultimately reaching the
Chandrasekhar limit. This makes U~Sco a candidate type Ia supernova progenitor.Comment: 4 pages, accepted by A&A Letters 15 June 199
Ground-state clusters of two-, three- and four-dimensional +-J Ising spin glasses
A huge number of independent true ground-state configurations is calculated
for two-, three- and four-dimensional +- J spin-glass models. Using the genetic
cluster-exact approximation method, system sizes up to N=20^2,8^3,6^4 spins are
treated. A ``ballistic-search'' algorithm is applied which allows even for
large system sizes to identify clusters of ground states which are connected by
chains of zero-energy flips of spins. The number of clusters n_C diverges with
N going to infinity. For all dimensions considered here, an exponential
increase of n_C appears to be more likely than a growth with a power of N. The
number of different ground states is found to grow clearly exponentially with
N. A zero-temperature entropy per spin of s_0=0.078(5)k_B (2d), s_0=0.051(3)k_B
(3d) respectively s_0=0.027(5)k_B (4d) is obtained.Comment: large extensions, now 12 pages, 9 figures, 27 reference
Factorization of 3-point static structure functions in 3D Yukawa liquids
In many-body systems the convolution approximation states that the 3-point
static structure function, , can
approximately be "factorized" in terms of the 2-point counterpart,
. We investigate the validity of this approximation in
3-dimensional strongly-coupled Yukawa liquids: the factorization is tested for
specific arrangements of the wave vectors and
, with molecular dynamics simulations. With the increase of the
coupling parameter we find a breakdown of factorization, of which a notable
example is the appearance of negative values of
, whereas the approximate factorized
form is restricted to positive values. These negative values -- based on the
quadratic Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem -- imply that the quadratic part of
the density response of the system changes sign with wave number. Our
simulations that incorporate an external potential energy perturbation clearly
confirm this behavior
Customized ion flux-energy distribution functions in capacitively coupled plasmas by voltage waveform tailoring
We propose a method to generate a single peak at a distinct energy in the ion
flux-energy distribution function (IDF) at the electrode surfaces in
capacitively coupled plasmas. The technique is based on the tailoring of the
driving voltage waveform, i.e. adjusting the phases and amplitudes of the
applied harmonics, to optimize the accumulation of ions created by charge
exchange collisions and their subsequent acceleration by the sheath electric
field. The position of the peak (i.e. the ion energy) and the flux of the ions
within the peak of the IDF can be controlled in a wide domain by tuning the
parameters of the applied RF voltage waveform, allowing optimization of various
applications where surface reactions are induced at particular ion energies
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