1,334 research outputs found

    Why do People Stay? Insider Advantages and Immobility

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    The low mobility of people in Europe is considered a problem for adjustment to asymmetric shocks and regional convergence in the European Monetary Union. We suggest a complement to the traditional migration theories, the insider advantages approach to explain why most Europeans prefer to stay. Staying immobile they have accumulated work- and leisure-oriented insider advantages that are location-specific and would be lost in the case of emigration. Therefore, the longer people have stayed - and the more insider advantages they have accumulated -, the less likely they are to move. Using a new micro dataset covering all people resident in Sweden in 1994 and their mobility experience since 1985, we find a strong positive duration dependence of the probability to stay. Traditional micro-economic characteristics prove helpful in explaining immobility, while regional macro-economic differences have surprisingly little impact on individual mobility decisions. A large proportion of the moves between Swedish labour markets seem to be related to specific life-course events rather than to pure labour market issues. Wieso ist die Mobilität der Arbeitskräfte innerhalb der Europäischen Union - aller Freizügigkeit zum Trotz - so gering? Traditionelle Theorieansätze vermögen die schwach ausgeprägte Wanderungsintensität der EU-Angehörigen nur begrenzt zu er - klären. Denn eigentlich sollten die teilweise beträchtlichen Einkommens - und Beschäftigungsunterschiede zu weit mehr Migration innerhalb der EU führen. In diesem Diskussionspapier entwickeln wir eine Idee, die sehr wohl zu erklären vermag, weshalb für die meisten Menschen "stehen" die bessere Alternative als "gehen" ist. Der Insider-Ansatz macht deutlich, weshalb für die individuelle Entscheidung eine grenz- und kulturraumüberschreitende Wanderung die Ausnahme und nicht die Regel ist. Die empirische Überprüfung mit Hilfe eines neuen originären Mikro-Datensets, das die gesamte schwedische Wohnbevölkerung enthält, bestätigt die These, dass die Verweil- dauer einen direkten positiven Einfluss auf die Verharrenswahrscheinlichkeit ausübt. Wer lange an einem Ort lebt, wird immer wahrscheinlicher an diesem Ort bleiben!Labor and Human Capital, F22, J60, R23,

    Equilibrium solutions of the shallow water equations

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    A statistical method for calculating equilibrium solutions of the shallow water equations, a model of essentially 2-d fluid flow with a free surface, is described. The model contains a competing acoustic turbulent {\it direct} energy cascade, and a 2-d turbulent {\it inverse} energy cascade. It is shown, nonetheless that, just as in the corresponding theory of the inviscid Euler equation, the infinite number of conserved quantities constrain the flow sufficiently to produce nontrivial large-scale vortex structures which are solutions to a set of explicitly derived coupled nonlinear partial differential equations.Comment: 4 pages, no figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

    Shifts in soil microbial community structure, nitrogen cycling and the concomitant declining N availability in ageing primary boreal forest ecosystems

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    AbstractPlant growth in boreal forests is commonly limited by a low supply of nitrogen, a condition that may be aggravated by high tree below-ground allocation of carbon to ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi and associated microorganisms. These in turn immobilise N and reduce its availability to plants as boreal ecosystems develop. Here, we studied a boreal forest ecosystem chronosequence created by new land rising out of the sea due to iso-static rebound along the coast of northern Sweden. We used height over the ocean to estimate ecosystem age and examined its relationship to soil microbial community structure and the gross turnover of N. The youngest soils develop with meadows by the coast, followed by a zone of N2-fixing alder trees, and primary boreal conifer forest on ground up to 560 years old. The young soils in meadows contained little organic matter and microbial biomass per unit area. Nitrogen was turned over at low rates when expressed per area (m−2), but specific rates (per gram soil carbon (C)) were the highest found along the transect. In the zone with alder, the amounts of soil C and microbial biomass were much higher (bacterial biomass had doubled and fungal biomass quadrupled). Rates of gross N mineralisation (expressed on an area basis) were highest, but the retention of added labelled NH4+ was lowest in this soil as compared to other ages. The alder zone also had the largest extractable pools of inorganic N in soil and highest N % in plant foliage. In the older conifer forest ecosystems the amounts of soil C and N, as well as biomass of both bacteria and fungi increased. Data on organic matter 14C suggested that the largest input of recently fixed plant C occurred in the younger coniferous forest ecosystems. With increasing ecosystem age, the ratio of microbial C to total soil C was constant, whereas the ratio of microbial N to total soil N increased and gross N mineralization declined. Simultaneously, plant foliar N % decreased and the natural abundance of 15N in the soil increased. More specifically, the difference in δ15N between plant foliage and soil increased, which is related to relatively greater retention of 15N relative to 14N by ECM fungi as N is taken up from the soil and some N is transferred to the plant host. In the conifer forest, where these changes were greatest, we found increased fungal biomass in the F- and H-horizons of the mor-layer, in which ECM fungi are known to dominate (the uppermost horizon with litter and moss is dominated by saprotrophic fungi). Hence, we propose that the decreasing availability of N to the plants and the subsequent decline in plant production in ageing boreal forests is linked to high tree belowground C allocation to ECM fungi, a strong microbial sink for available soil N

    First Stellar Abundances in the Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Sextans A

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    We present the abundance analyses of three isolated A-type supergiant stars in the dwarf irregular galaxy Sextans A from high-resolution spectra the UVES spectrograph at the VLT. Detailed model atmosphere analyses have been used to determine the stellar atmospheric parameters and the elemental abundances of the stars. The mean iron group abundance was determined from these three stars to be [(FeII,CrII)/H]=-0.99+/-0.04+/-0.06. This is the first determination of the present-day iron group abundances in Sextans A. These three stars now represent the most metal-poor massive stars for which detailed abundance analyses have been carried out. The mean stellar alpha element abundance was determined from the alpha element magnesium as [alpha(MgI)/H]=-1.09+/-0.02+/-0.19. This is in excellent agreement with the nebular alpha element abundances as determined from oxygen in the H II regions. These results are consistent from star-to-star with no significant spatial variations over a length of 0.8 kpc in Sextans A. This supports the nebular abundance studies of dwarf irregular galaxies, where homogeneous oxygen abundances are found throughout, and argues against in situ enrichment. The alpha/Fe abundance ratio is [alpha(MgI)/FeII,CrII]=-0.11+/-0.02+/-0.10, which is consistent with the solar ratio. This is consistent with the results from A-supergiant analyses in other Local Group dwarf irregular galaxies but in stark contrast with the high [alpha/Fe] results from metal-poor stars in the Galaxy, and is most clearly seen from these three stars in Sextans A because of their lower metallicities. The low [alpha/Fe] ratios are consistent with the slow chemical evolution expected for dwarf galaxies from analyses of their stellar populations.Comment: 40 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A

    Pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles from Au+Au collisions at the maximum RHIC energy, Sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV

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    We present charged particle densities as a function of pseudorapidity and collision centrality for the 197Au+197Au reaction at Sqrt{s_NN}=200 GeV. For the 5% most central events we obtain dN_ch/deta(eta=0) = 625 +/- 55 and N_ch(-4.7<= eta <= 4.7) = 4630+-370, i.e. 14% and 21% increases, respectively, relative to Sqrt{s_NN}=130 GeV collisions. Charged-particle production per pair of participant nucleons is found to increase from peripheral to central collisions around mid-rapidity. These results constrain current models of particle production at the highest RHIC energy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; fixed fig. 5 caption; revised text and figures to show corrected calculation of and ; final version accepted for publicatio

    Vegetation demographics in Earth System Models: A review of progress and priorities

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    Numerous current efforts seek to improve the representation of ecosystem ecology and vegetation demographic processes within Earth System Models (ESMs). These developments are widely viewed as an important step in developing greater realism in predictions of future ecosystem states and fluxes. Increased realism, however, leads to increased model complexity, with new features raising a suite of ecological questions that require empirical constraints. Here, we review the developments that permit the representation of plant demographics in ESMs, and identify issues raised by these developments that highlight important gaps in ecological understanding. These issues inevitably translate into uncertainty in model projections but also allow models to be applied to new processes and questions concerning the dynamics of real-world ecosystems. We argue that stronger and more innovative connections to data, across the range of scales considered, are required to address these gaps in understanding. The development of first-generation land surface models as a unifying framework for ecophysiological understanding stimulated much research into plant physiological traits and gas exchange. Constraining predictions at ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales will require a similar investment of effort and intensified inter-disciplinary communication

    Danish Foundation Models

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    Large language models, sometimes referred to as foundation models, have transformed multiple fields of research. However, smaller languages risk falling behind due to high training costs and small incentives for large companies to train these models. To combat this, the Danish Foundation Models project seeks to provide and maintain open, well-documented, and high-quality foundation models for the Danish language. This is achieved through broad cooperation with public and private institutions, to ensure high data quality and applicability of the trained models. We present the motivation of the project, the current status, and future perspectives.Comment: 4 pages, 2 table
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