Changing wages and employment by skill in Taiwan, 1978-1996: The roles of education policy, trade, and immigration

Since the 1970s, Taiwan\u27s labor market has been characterized as a smooth functioning, highly integrated and nearly full employment market, which also enjoying high growth in labor earnings. Unlike most developed countries, the average unemployment rate in Taiwan was under 3 percent over the 1978--1996 period. Unskilled labor shortage problem has forced many industrial companies to move abroad where have cheaper labor costs. In 1990, the government began to invite foreign temporary unskilled workers from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Most foreign workers are in manufacturing and construction industries. About the same time, the Taiwan government also has been implementing several major educational reform policies. One policy was to increase the number of two-year and four-year colleges, causing the number of college graduates to increase dramatically since 1990;In this study, the impacts of these two labor supply shocks, i.e. foreign unskilled labor and local skilled labor, on the Taiwan labor market are examined using the 1978--1996 Survey of Family Income and Expenditure in Taiwan. The effects of Taiwan\u27s international trade on the relative labor demand shifts are also analyzed. We find there is little effect of imported foreign unskilled workers on employment and wages for both local skilled and unskilled workers. In the long run, foreign unskilled workers tend to be complements for both local skilled and unskilled workers. The increase in number of college graduates has, not surprisingly, reduced the returns to education for the young college graduates but not for the more experienced college graduates, suggesting that the average quality of college education has been declined and the young college graduates and more experienced college graduates are not close substitutes. Women\u27s share in every industry has been dramatically increased and the gender earnings gap in Taiwan was significantly reduced during this period, although wage differentials against women still persist. The lower-educated workers and women were favored in the prediction from the trade effect. However, the trend has been gradually shifted to the higher-educated workers

Disruption of nNOS-NOS1AP protein-protein interactions suppresses neuropathic pain in mice

Elevated N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activity is linked to central sensitization and chronic pain. However, NMDAR antagonists display limited therapeutic potential because of their adverse side effects. Novel approaches targeting the NR2B-PSD95-nNOS complex to disrupt signaling pathways downstream of NMDARs show efficacy in preclinical pain models. Here, we evaluated the involvement of interactions between neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and the nitric oxide synthase 1 adaptor protein (NOS1AP) in pronociceptive signaling and neuropathic pain. TAT-GESV, a peptide inhibitor of the nNOS-NOS1AP complex, disrupted the in vitro binding between nNOS and its downstream protein partner NOS1AP but not its upstream protein partner postsynaptic density 95 kDa (PSD95). Putative inactive peptides (TAT-cp4GESV and TAT-GESVΔ1) failed to do so. Only the active peptide protected primary cortical neurons from glutamate/glycine-induced excitotoxicity. TAT-GESV, administered intrathecally (i.t.), suppressed mechanical and cold allodynia induced by either the chemotherapeutic agent paclitaxel or a traumatic nerve injury induced by partial sciatic nerve ligation. TAT-GESV also blocked the paclitaxel-induced phosphorylation at Ser15 of p53, a substrate of p38 MAPK. Finally, TAT-GESV (i.t.) did not induce NMDAR-mediated motor ataxia in the rotarod test and did not alter basal nociceptive thresholds in the radiant heat tail-flick test. These observations support the hypothesis that antiallodynic efficacy of an nNOS-NOS1AP disruptor may result, at least in part, from blockade of p38 MAPK-mediated downstream effects. Our studies demonstrate, for the first time, that disrupting nNOS-NOS1AP protein-protein interactions attenuates mechanistically distinct forms of neuropathic pain without unwanted motor ataxic effects of NMDAR antagonists

Smart State Management

A method of smart state management to make a software stateful is disclosed. This method involves determining where to define states within a software using a classification learning mechanism

Application of Random Walk Model for Timing Recovery in Modern Mobile SATCOM Systems

In a modern mobile satellite communication (SATCOM) system, a ground terminal receiver receives a radio frequency signal that is demodulated to generate a baseband digital signal waveform containing a self-clocking bit stream of digital data. The received baseband digital signal waveform is recovered and tracked using a timing recovery loop (TRL). The traditional TRLs use early-and-late gates, digital transition tracking, filter-and-square, and delay-and-multiply functions. In bit timing detection, the bit stream is self-clocking and the timing differential dithers about correct bit timing in the TRLs. For mobile satellite communication environments, the traditional TRLs drop lock when the loop signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is smaller than a threshold value or the residual Doppler frequency is larger than the operating loop bandwidth. After dropping lock, the traditional TRLs experience long hang up time due to the need to reacquire the timing pulses. Recently, random walk filters (RWF) have been adapted to improve the bit clock locking stability and are applied to recover bit timing information of a digital data stream. This chapter describes random walk model for timing jitter and discusses how RWF solution can address the timing recovery challenges in mobile satellite communication environments

Modulation of Serum Antinuclear Antibody Levels by Levamisole Treatment in Patients With Oral Lichen Planus

Background/PurposeSerum autoantibodies, including antinuclear antibodies (ANAs), have been found in patients with oral lichen planus (OLP). This study evaluated whether Taiwanese OLP patients had significantly higher frequencies of serum ANAs than healthy control subjects, and whether levamisole treatment could modulate the antibody levels.MethodsThis study used an indirect immunofluorescence technique to measure the baseline serum levels of ANA in a group of 583 Taiwanese OLP patients and 53 healthy control subjects. Seventy-nine ANA-positive OLP patients were treated with levamisole under a regular follow-up schedule in our dental clinic, and their serum ANA levels were measured after treatment.ResultsWe found that the frequencies of serum ANA in patients with OLP (23.2%), erosive OLP (EOLP, 23.8%), major EOLP (31.5%), and minor EOLP (18.1%) were all significantly higher than that (5.7%) in healthy control subjects. In addition, major EOLP patients had a significantly higher serum ANA positive rate than minor EOLP or non-erosive OLP patients. Of 135 ANA-positive OLP patients, 79 were treated with levamisole under a regular follow-up schedule. We found that treatment with levamisole for a period of 2–38 months (mean, 12 ± 9 months) effectively reduced the high mean serum ANA titer (557 ± 98) at baseline to an undetectable level (0) in all ANA-positive OLP patients, regardless of different high initial serum titers of ANA.ConclusionThere was a significantly higher frequency of serum ANA (23.2%) in Taiwanese OLP patients than in healthy control subjects. Treatment with levamisole for 2–38 months reduced the high serum ANA to an undetectable level, and significantly improved the signs and symptoms in all treated OLP patients