Does Disability Insurance Receipt Discourage Work? Using Examiner Assignment to Estimate Causal Effects of SSDI Receipt

We present the first causal estimates of the effect of Social Security Disability Insurance benefit receipt on labor supply using all program applicants. We use new administrative data to match applications to disability examiners, and exploit variation in examiners’ allowance rates as an instrument for benefit receipt. We find that among the estimated 23% of applicants on the margin of program entry, employment would have been 28 percentage points higher had they not received benefits. The effect is heterogeneous, ranging from no effect for those with more severe impairments to 50 percentage points for entrants with relatively less severe impairments.

Spatial, temporal and social dimensions of a ‘destination-in-motion’

• Purpose The purpose of our paper is to raise awareness of the mobilities paradigm by exploring the role of tourist mobilities in destination marketing. • Design/methodology/approach We use the context of the Jacobite steam train which runs in the Scottish Highlands. We draw on multiple qualitative methods including participant observation, interviews and netnography. • Findings We explore the spatial, temporal and social mobilities associated with the journey and the destination and reveal how a rail journey becomes a ‘destination-in-motion’ and, in turn, transforms what might otherwise be a neglected destination. • Practical implications We demonstrate how modes of transport which offer rich embodied experiences to visitors can present an important differentiation strategy and become core to a destination’s product and service portfolio. • Originality/value By approaching destination marketing from a mobilities perspective, our paper recognises the significance of human and object mobility to tourist experiences and offers a new perspective to existing research which biases a geographically-bounded understanding of destinations

Vitamin A in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with and without idiopathic intracranial hypertension

Journal ArticleWe quantified vitamin A in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, elevated intracranial pressure of other causes and normal intracranial pressure. Vitamin A could be detected by high-pressure liquid chromatography in most of the specimens. There was a significantly higher level of vitamin A in the cerebrospinal fluid of some patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Vitamin A toxicity may play a role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension

Organellar carbon metabolism is co-ordinated with distinct developmental phases of secondary xylem

Subcellular compartmentation of plant biosynthetic pathways in the mitochondria and plastids requires coordinated regulation of nuclear encoded genes, and the role of these genes has been largely ignored by wood researchers. In this study, we constructed a targeted systems genetics coexpression network of xylogenesis in Eucalyptus using plastid and mitochondrial carbon metabolic genes and compared the resulting clusters to the aspen xylem developmental series. The constructed network clusters reveal the organization of transcriptional modules regulating subcellular metabolic functions in plastids and mitochondria. Overlapping genes between the plastid and mitochondrial networks implicate the common transcriptional regulation of carbon metabolism during xylem secondary growth. We show that the central processes of organellar carbon metabolism are distinctly coordinated across the developmental stages of wood formation and are specifically associated with primary growth and secondary cell wall deposition. We also demonstrate that, during xylogenesis, plastid-targeted carbon metabolism is partially regulated by the central clock for carbon allocation towards primary and secondary xylem growth, and we discuss these networks in the context of previously established associations with wood-related complex traits. This study provides a new resolution into the integration and transcriptional regulation of plastid- and mitochondrial-localized carbon metabolism during xylogenesis

Longley Building: Reuse and Rehabilitation Feasibility Report

The southern, eastern, and northern façades (the principal façades) have a great amount of decorative masonry including granite, slate coursing, brownstone coursing, and brick veneer (Photo 2). All of these materials are in good condition, except for the brownstone, which is deteriorating in areas that are connected to a wrought iron balustrade. The surface of the brownstone is face-beded, and the corrosion of the iron in contact with the stone has caused oxide jacking. All of the masonry has environmental staining

The role of cellular antioxidant pathways in protecting neurons during photodynamic therapy

The effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) on neurons is an important consideration when treating cancers within or adjacent to the nervous system. The photosensitiser, meta-tetrahydroxyphenyl chlorin (mTHPC) is effective in destroying tumour cells but can spare neurons in culture. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of cellular antioxidant pathways in protecting neurons from damage during mTHPC-mediated PDT. Exposing cells to 4 µg/ml mTHPC-mediated PDT in a 3D culture system resulted in substantial cell death among tumour cells and glia, but survival of neurons. To investigate this phenomenon, prior to PDT neurons were treated with drugs to block antioxidant pathways; L-buthionine sulfoximine (L-BSO) depleted glutathione, and diethyldithiocarbamate (DDC) and 2-methoxyoestradiol (2MeOE2) were used to inhibit superoxide dismutase SOD 1 and SOD 2 respectively. Neuronal cell death was assessed 24 h later. Neuronal death following mTHPC-mediated PDT was significantly increased in the presence of either DDC or L-BSO compared to PDT-only controls. There was a slight increase in neuronal death following PDT in neurons treated with 2-MeOE2, but this was not statistically significant. Overall, inhibition of glutathione resulted in 63 ± 7 % of neurons dying and inhibition of SOD 1 resulted in 42 ± 7 % neuron death. These results suggest that the mechanism by which neurons show reduced sensitivity to mTHPC-mediated PDT involves endogenous antioxidant pathways, the blocking of which results in neuronal cell death. Of the antioxidant pathways investigated here it is apparent that glutathione and SOD 1 play an important role, whereas inhibition of SOD 2 had little effect. Further studies are required to understand fully the cellular mechanisms involved in protecting neurons during this treatment, and the culture system described here is a useful tool for such research. Ultimately, understanding the conditions under which neurons may be able to survive PDT or other oxidative damage is important in developing strategies for treating tumours within or adjacent to the nervous system, where avoidance of neuronal damage has the potential to reduce side effects

Drivers of Sediment Transport Across the Entrance to the Gippsland Lakes, Australia

Water Qualit

Does Delay Cause Decay? The Effect of Administrative Decision Time on the Labor Force Participation and Earnings of Disability Applicants

An influential body of research studies the labor supply and earnings of denied Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) applicants to estimate the potential employment and earnings of those awarded benefits. This research design implicitly treats employability as a stable applicant attribute that is not directly impacted by the process of applying for SSDI benefits. If, plausibly, applicants’ employment potential deteriorates while they are out of the labor force, then the labor force participation of denied applicants -- who spend an average of 10 months seeking benefits -- may understate their employment potential at the time of application. This paper tests whether the duration of SSDI applications causally affects applicants’ subsequent employment. We use a unique Social Security Administration workload database to identify exogenous variation in applicants’ initial decision times induced by differences in processing speed among the disability examiners to which they are randomly assigned. This variation significantly affects applicants’ total processing time but, importantly, is uncorrelated with their initial award and denial outcomes. We find that longer processing times reduce the employment and earnings of SSDI applicants in the years after their initial decision. A one standard deviation (2.4 month) increase in initial processing time reduces annual employment rates by 1 percentage point (3.2%) in years two, three and four post-decision. Extrapolating these effects to total applicant processing times, we estimate that the SSDI determination process directly reduces the post-application employment of denied applicants by approximately 3.6 percentage points (7%) and allowed applicants by approximately 5.2 percentage points (33%).Social Security Administrationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90514/1/wp258.pd

Diffusion of tungsten in chromium: Experiments and atomistic modeling

The solute diffusion of tungsten at low concentrations in chromium has been investigated both by experiments and computational methods. From finite-source diffusion experiments measured with an Electron Probe Micro Analyzer at temperatures from 1526 to 1676 K, it was found that the diffusivity of tungsten in chromium follows the Arrhenius relationship D=D[subscript 0]exp(-Q[over]RT), where the activation energy was found to be Q = 386 ± 33 kJ/mol. Diffusion of tungsten in chromium was investigated computationally with both the activation–relaxation technique (ART) and molecular dynamics (MD) using a hybrid potential. From ART, the effective diffusion activation energy was determined to be Q = 315 ± 20 kJ/mol based on a multi-frequency model for a monovacancy mechanism. From MD, the square displacement of tungsten was analyzed at temperatures between 1200 and 1700 K, and the diffusion activation energy was determined to be Q = 310 ± 18 kJ/mol. In spite of possible complications arising due to experimental compositions away from the dilute limit, the agreement between experiments and simulations falls within the calculated uncertainties, supporting a monovacancy mechanism for diffusion of tungsten in chromium.United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (Grant No. HDTRA1-11-1-0062)United States. Army Research Office (Grant No. W911NF-09-1-0422)Kwanjeong Educational Foundation (Korea)United States. Dept. of Energy (DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, Grant No. DE-FG02-97ER25308)Hertz Foundatio