An analysis of youth unemployment in the euro area

The paper starts by presenting some stylised facts on youth unemployment over the last two decades, both at the euro area and the country level. It shows that despite declining considerably over the last few years, youth unemployment has remained at a high level relative to other age groups in most euro area countries. The paper finds that there is a positive relationship between the share of young people in the total population and the youth unemployment rate, i.e. the smaller the share of young people in the population, the lower the risk of them being unemployed. At the same time, economic conditions are negatively correlated with the youth unemployment rate, i.e. the youth unemployment rate increases when the economic situation worsens. Moreover, robust results across the regression scenarios show that higher employment protection and minimum wages imply a higher youth unemployment rate, while active labour market policies (ALMPs) tend to reduce it. The results also indicate that the increasing share of services employment in total employment is helping to reduce unemployment among young persons. Furthermore, the increase in the youth inactivity rate, which is mainly due to the fact that there are more young people in education, is also linked to the overall decline in youth unemployment. Finally, as regards education, the results indicate that the number of years of education, the number of young people with vocational training and, to a lesser extent high scores in the PISA study, are associated with lower youth unemployment rates. The share of the young population not in school, however, is positively correlated with the unemployment rate. As youth unemployment is subject to certain country-specific features, each country should identify the relevant underlying sources of youth unemployment and react accordingly. Governments can make a positive contribution to the smooth transition of young persons fromeducation to the labour market by providing a well-functioning education system and labour market institutions that do not introduce distortions into the labour market. JEL Classification: I2, J11, J13, J21, J64.Youth, unemployment, employment, demographic trends, institutions, education.

Inflation forecasting in the new EU Member States

To the best of our knowledge, our paper is the first systematic study of the predictive power of monetary aggregates for future inflation for the cross section of New EU Member States. This paper provides stylized facts on monetary versus non-monetary (economic and fiscal) determinants of inflation in these countries as well as formal econometric evidence on the forecast performance of a large set of monetary and nonmonetary indicators. The forecast evaluation results suggest that, as has been found for other countries before, it is difficult to find models that significantly outperform a simple benchmark, especially at short forecast horizons. Nevertheless, monetary indicators are found to contain useful information for predicting inflation at longer (3-year) horizons. JEL Classification: C53, E31, E37, E51, E52, E62, P24Fiscal Policy, Inflation forecasting, information content of money, leading indicators, monetary policy, new EU member states

Discrimination of Colorless Fibers by UV-VIS Microspectrophotometry and Microspectrofluorimetry

Fiber evidence is frequently encountered in forensic casework, and part of a typical fiber analytical scheme involves the detailed study of the color and other physical properties, optical properties, and chemical composition of the fibers in question. Microspectrophotometry (MSP) is commonly used to provide objective color measurements of fibers, eliminating subjectivity that may be present in visual color examinations. MSP can produce color measurements over the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as emission spectra from fluorescence measurements. In this research, colorless fibers were analyzed by MSP, using both transmission measurements in the UV-VIS region and fluorescence measurements, to evaluate the discrimination achieved for these fibers specifically lacking spectral characteristics in the VIS region. A combined discrimination power of MSP, using transmission and emission, was determined for the colorless fibers. The collected transmission spectra allowed discrimination, specifically in the UV region, of colorless fibers of the same type, as well as colorless fibers of different types. The collected emission spectra increased discrimination of the fibers, particularly when the transmission spectra did not show differences. The discrimination power of MSP in combination with polarized light microscopy (PLM) was 99.0%, and the MSP spectra were able to discriminate fibers not previously distinguished by physical and optical properties. The use of microspectrophotometry, in the UV-VIS region and with fluorescence measurements, in forensic laboratories has the potential to increase the discrimination of fiber evidence, even when evidence has limited physical properties and similar optical properties

The Art of Performing Science

OCN 499 - Undergraduate Thesi

IMPORTANCE OF TRABECULAR BONE SCORE IN FRACTURE RISK PREDICTION IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS AND ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS.

One of the most deleterious eff ectsinduced by the chronic inflammation is bone loss.Fracture is one of the most common comorbidities in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, especially patients using glucocorticoids. Bone mineral density (BMD) by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the gold standard of diagnosing and monitoring osteoporosis but does not entirely explain the fracture risk in patients suffering from systemic inflammatory diseases. A number of fractures are observed in patients with T-scores, which are not in the osteoporotic range. Th is discrepancy may be related to alterations of bone quality and measurements of bone mineral density are overestimated. A challenge in clinical practice is to detect patients with a risk of having fractures although their BMD is in osteopenia. The trabecular bone score (TBS), novel texture parameter reflects degradation of trabecular bone and therefore could be used as another bone measure to predict the risk of fragility fracture. Little is known about the importance of TBS in fracture risk prediction in systemic inflammatory disease and about the influence of biologic treatment on TBS changes. Because the same cytokines are involved in local and systemic bone loss, it is rational to assume that biologics may influence bone turnover and systemic bone loss. Several new studies showed that therapies targeting specific cytokines and its signaling pathways with biologic DMARDs may protect the skeleton but outcomes in these clinical studies were based mostly on bone turnover markers and BMD changes. We compared the effects of biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) and conventional synthetic (cs) DMARDs (methotrexate) on BMD, bone turnover markers (BTM) and trabecular bone score (TBS) in patients suffering from active RA. Methods: A 12-month prospective trial in 105 active RA patients. Results: Treatment with bDMARDS led to increase of 1.7 % (p<0.05) in TBS but not on BMD. The greatest TBS increase (2.7%, p<0.05) was observed in premenopausal females treates with bDMARDs. No effect of csDMARDS on measured parameters was observed. Based on our observation and literature data TBS could contribute to fracture risk prediction especially in RA patients with osteopenia. Although several studies reported favorable actions of biologic therapies on bone protection, there are still unmet needs for studies regarding their actions on the risk of bone fractures

Dynamics of ferromagnetic nanomagnets with vortex or single-domain configuration

We study the dynamics of flat circular permalloy nanomagnets for 1.) magnetic vortex and 2.) single-domain configurations, using micromagnetic simulation. Dynamical studies for isolated vortex structures show that both the vorticity and the central polarity of the out-of-plane component can be switched fast (50-100 ps) and independently. Micromagnetic simulations of the switching process in thin cylindrical Permalloy (Py) nanoparticles with an initial stable single-domain state show nearly homogeneous single-domain behaviour followed by excitation of spin waves.Comment: 2 pages with 3 eps-figures, --> ICM2003 Rome 28.7.-1.8.03, --> JMM

Ensumar la ciutat: anàlisi antropològica de la construcció olfactiva sobre les condicions de salubritat a Catalunya en el segle XIX

Les topografies mèdiques-finals del segle XIX i primeres dècades del segle xx- són informes fets pels metges catalans que volien construir una"geografia mèdica" del país, qüestió fonamental per conèixer l"estat de la salut de la població; avui, aquests informes esdevenen un material de primer ordre per conèixer les condicions de vida en relació amb l"estat de salubritat no solament de les localitats estudiades sinó també de tota una època