Is spatial mobility a reproduction mechanism of inequality? An empirical analysis of the job search behavior and the international mobility of students and re-cent graduates

Concentrating on the social origin, determinants of international mobility of students and recent graduates are identified, drawing on a combination of the microeconomic human capital model as well as the job-search-theory. The analysis is based on the Bavarian Graduate Study (Bayerisches Absolventen Panel, BAP), a representative data base for a wide array of fields of study at Bavarian universities and universities of applied sciences. Methods of multilevel modeling are employed to identify individual differences in the spatial mobility propensities of students and young graduates. First, analyzing the determinants of international mobility of students revealed the following associations. The younger the students, the higher the likelihood to study abroad. This propensity is also positively associated with parents’ status. Apart from that, students from universities display a significantly higher migration propensity than students from universities of applied sciences. Second, considering differences in the emigration propensities after graduation, our results imply that the likelihood of working abroad is contingent on a high social origin, being a single, graduating at a lower age. Furthermore, migration experiences in the past and competencies in foreign languages show a positive impact. Consequently, international mobility both during the studies and upon entrance into the labor market is significantly influenced by the social origin. In addition to this direct effect, the higher likelihood of students and graduates with a favorable social background to experience mobility in early stages increases their propensity to go abroad again indirectly, too, as a mediator. The same holds true for the readiness to move for a job as indicated by the radius considered when searching for a job. As a result, the range of opportunities resulting from the combined effects of a high social origin and previous migration experiences resembles a sophisticated mechanism contributing to the reproduction of social inequality.international mobility, students, graduates, social origin, inequality, job search

An Early Story of Kho Ping Hoo

Kho Ping Hoo (1926–1994) is the most well-known of all Indonesian writers of popular silat stories, largely set in China, which describe the adventures and romances of legendary heroes famed for their skill in martial arts. It is less well-known that he began his career writing critical stories about socio-economic conditions in the late 50s and early 60s. This paper discusses one of these stories. It places the story in the context of political developments of the time, in particular as they affected the Chinese Indonesian community. The paper argues that this story and one or two others like it come at the end of a tradition of Sino-Indonesian literature which had flourished from the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-1950s. After 1960, Chinese-Indonesian writers cease writing realist fiction of any kind and write either silat stories or romantic stories set in middle class urban environments

A class of recursive optimal stopping problems with applications to stock trading

In this paper we introduce and solve a class of optimal stopping problems of recursive type. In particular, the stopping payoff depends directly on the value function of the problem itself. In a multi-dimensional Markovian setting we show that the problem is well posed, in the sense that the value is indeed the unique solution to a fixed point problem in a suitable space of continuous functions, and an optimal stopping time exists. We then apply our class of problems to a model for stock trading in two different market venues and we determine the optimal stopping rule in that case.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures. In this version, we provide a general analysis of a class of recursive optimal stopping problems with both finite-time and infinite-time horizon. We also discuss other application

Evaluation of design recommendations for the development of wheelchair rugby sports-wear

Currently, wheelchair rugby athletes face the challenges of playing the sport without specifically designed sports-wear kit. A few designs and recommendations have already been proposed by researchers but none have made it to market yet. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a set of design recommendations for the development of wheelchair rugby sports-wear. This was done so that the products to be created are developed in collaboration with their potential users, responding to their particular needs and requirements. The evaluation was done through an online survey, where the athletes were presented with a visual representation of the design recommendations. The results indicate that the people questioned agree with the majority of the proposed designs and would be happy to have these improvements made to their current sports-wear. The most criticised recommendations were for the gloves, as they are the most important part of the kit, so it is important that they are adequate and allow for a good performance

Do pathogens from corneal scraping show their true colours better in bactec bottles?

Identification of causative organisms of clinically suspected microbial keratitis is very important so that appropriate targeted antimicrobial treatment can be offered to patients. The current routine method of corneal scraping specimens on to multiple agar culture plates for microbiological study is not really providing encouraging result. Our trial of modified technique of using BACTEC broth for three clinically suspected microbial keratitis cases worked 100% to identify the causative organisms in cases of microbial keratitis

On nucleon exchange mechanism in heavy-ion collisions at near-barrier energies

Nucleon drift and diffusion mechanisms in central collisions of asymmetric heavy-ions at near-barrier energies are investigated in the framework of a stochastic mean-field approach. Expressions for diffusion and drift coefficients for nucleon transfer deduced from the stochastic mean-field approach in the semiclassical approximation have similar forms familiar from the phenomenological nucleon exchange model. The variance of fragment mass distribution agrees with the empirical formula $\sigma^2_{AA}(t)= N_{\rm exc}(t)$. The comparison with the time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations shows that, below barrier energies, the drift coefficient in the semiclassical approximation underestimates the mean number of nucleon transfer obtained in the quantal framework. Motion of the window in the dinuclear system has a significant effect on the nucleon transfer in asymmetric collisions.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, submitted for publicatio