Prevalence and substitution effects in tobacco consumption: A discrete choice analysis of panel data

This paper analyzes tobacco demand within a discrete choice framework. Using binomial and multinomial logit models with random effects, and an unbalanced panel data set of Norwegian households over a twenty year period, we first consider the decisions a) whether to smoke or not, and b) given the choice is to smoke, whether to smoke hand rolled or manufactured cigarettes. Next, we consider a multinomial logit framework, in which the households choose between no tobacco, only manufactured cigarettes, only hand rolled cigarettes, and a combination of manufactured and hand rolled cigarettes. In this process, we utilize the potential offered by panel data to investigate unobserved heterogeneity, which is crucial for commodities where consumers have different tastes and where users tend to become addicted. Using Maximum Likelihood in combination with bootstrap estimation of standard errors, we find that income and prices influence the 'type of tobacco choice probabilities' at least as strongly as the 'smoking/non-smoking probabilities'. Cet.par., an increase in the price of manufactured cigarettes could lead consumers to switch to hand rolled cigarettes, rather than quit smoking. Socio-demographic variables seem to be at least as important in explaining the discrete aspects of tobacco consumption as income and prices. Finally, we find significant unobserved household specific effects in the smoking pattern.Tobacco. Discrete choice. Panel data. Logit analysis. Heterogeneity. Bootstrapping

REVITALIZING A RURAL REGION'S ECONOMIC BASE

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

The Prehistory of Charlie Lake Cave

Article Summary by Jonathan C. Driver, May 2015               This paper and The Significance of the Fauna from the Charlie Lake Cave Site by Jonathan C. Driver, are excerpts from Early Human Occupation in British Columbia, an archaeological book published in 1996. In 1988 the annual meeting of the Canadian Archaeological Association was held in Whistler, B.C. As part of the meeting, Roy Carlson, a professor at SFU, organized a symposium on the early human presence in British Columbia. Knut Fladmark and I each gave a paper on our work at Tse’K’wa, based on the 1983 excavation season.             Although it was intended to publish the book quickly, there were various delays, and Fladmark and I went back to Tse’K’wa in 1990 and 1991 before the proceedings of the Whistler symposium were finally published in 1996. We updated our papers slightly based on the later excavations, but both of these papers really reflect our thinking prior to the full analysis of the material from 1990 and 1991.             Fladmark’s paper is a good introduction to the location and geology of the site, and it provides an account of the cultural materials recovered in 1983.             Driver’s paper summarizes the animal bones from the 1983 excavations, and devotes more time to considering how the wide variety of animals were brought to the site. I noted that the bison bone was found in locations with lower amounts of small mammals and birds and suggested that most of the smaller animals were brought to the site by non-human predators, such as owls

Polyatomic molecular Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations with Gaussian basis sets

Numerical methods have been used successfully in atomic Dirac-Hartree-Fock (DHF) calculations for many years. Some DHF calculations using numerical methods have been done on diatomic molecules, but while these serve a useful purpose for calibration, the computational effort in extending this approach to polyatomic molecules is prohibitive. An alternative more in line with traditional quantum chemistry is to use an analytical basis set expansion of the wave function. This approach fell into disrepute in the early 1980's due to problems with variational collapse and intruder states, but has recently been put on firm theoretical foundations. In particular, the problems of variational collapse are well understood, and prescriptions for avoiding the most serious failures have been developed. Consequently, it is now possible to develop reliable molecular programs using basis set methods. This paper describes such a program and reports results of test calculations to demonstrate the convergence and stability of the method

Entrepreneurship: Origins and Returns

We examine the origins and outcome of entrepreneurship on the basis of exceptionally comprehensive Norwegian matched worker-firm-owner data. In contrast to most existing studies, our notion of entrepreneurship not only comprises self-employment, but also employment in partly self-owned limited liability firms. Based on this extended entrepreneurship concept, we find that entrepreneurship tends to be profitable. It also raises income uncertainty, but the most successful quartile gains much more than the least successful quartile loses. Key determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur are occupational qualifications, family resources, gender, and work environments. Individual unemployment encourages, while aggregate unemployment discourages entrepreneurship.entrepreneurship, self-employment, spin-offs

All-electron molecular Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations: The group 4 tetrahydrides CH4, SiH4, GeH4, SnH4 and PbH4

A basis-set-expansion Dirac-Hartree-Fock program for molecules is described. Bond lengths and harmonic frequencies are presented for the ground states of the group 4 tetrahydrides, CH4, SiH4, GeH4, SnH4, and PbH4. The results are compared with relativistic effective core potential (RECP) calculations, first-order perturbation theory (PT) calculations and with experimental data. The bond lengths are well predicted by first-order perturbation theory for all molecules, but non of the RECP's considered provides a consistent prediction. Perturbation theory overestimates the relativistic correction to the harmonic frequencies; the RECP calculations underestimate the correction

Direct Identification of Acetaldehyde Formation and Characterization of the Active Site in the [VPO4].+/C2H4 Couple by Gas‐Phase Vibrational Spectroscopy

The gas‐phase reaction of the heteronuclear oxide cluster [VPO4].+ with C2H4 is studied under multiple collision conditions at 150 K using cryogenic ion‐trap vibrational spectroscopy combined with electronic structure calculations. The exclusive formation of acetaldehyde is directly identified spectroscopically and discussed in the context of the underlying reaction mechanism. In line with computational predictions it is the terminal P=O and not the V=O unit that provides the oxygen atom in the barrier‐free thermal C2H4→CH3CHO conversion. Interestingly, in the course of the reaction, the emerging CH3CHO product undergoes a rather complex intramolecular migration, coordinating eventually to the vanadium center prior to its liberation. Moreover, the spectroscopic structural characterization of neutral C2H4O deserves special mentioning as in most, if not all, ion/molecule reactions, the neutral product is usually only indirectly identified.DFG, 390540038, EXC 2008: UniSysCatDFG, 234149247, SFB 1109: Molekulare Einblicke in Metalloxid-Wasser-Systeme: Strukturelle Evolution, Grenzflächen und AuflösungTU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Transferrin variation and evolution of Alaskan reindeer and caribou, Rangifer tarandus L.

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to analyse transferrin variation in wild caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) and domestic reindeer (R.t. tarandus) from Alaska. Eighteen alleles were detected in caribou and ten alleles were detected in reindeer. The most common allele was Tf 1 with a frequency of 0.304 and 0.408 in caribou and reindeer, respectively. The allele frequency distributions were significantly different in reindeer and caribou. This finding, together with the absence in reindeer of nine alleles present in caribou, suggests that little genetic exchange has taken place between caribou and reindeer in Alaska. The allele frequency distribution in Alaska caribou and reindeer are compared with those for other populations of caribou and reindeer. This comparison indicates that Alaskan caribou as well as Eurasian reindeer have evolved from a common ancesteral population different from the ancesteral population of Peary cairbou (R.t. pearyi) and Svalbard reindeer (R.t. platyrhynchus)

Near room-temperature colossal magnetodielectricity and multiglass properties in partially-disordered La2NiMnO6

We report magnetic, dielectric and magnetodielectric responses of pure monoclinic bulk phase of partially-disordered La2NiMnO6, exhibiting a spectrum of unusual properties and establish that this system intrinsically is a true multiglass with a large magnetodielectric coupling (8-20%) over a wide range of temperatures (150 - 300 K). Specifically, our results establish a unique way to obtain colossal magnetodielectricity, independent of any striction effects, by engineering the asymmetric hopping contribution to the dielectric constant via the tuning of the relative spin orientations between neighboring magnetic ions in a transition metal oxide system. We discuss the role of anti-site (Ni-Mn) disorder in emergence of these unusual properties.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Slightly revised version of previous article in condmat: arXiv:1202.4319v

The Paleoindian Component at Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf39), British Columbia

Charlie Lake Cave (HbRf 39) is a stratified site in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, containing a flutedpoint component at the base of the excavated deposits. The small artifact assemblage includes a fluted point, stone bead, core tool, and retouched flake. A diverse associated fauna includes fish, birds, and mammals, indicating a more open environment than exists today. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the artifact assemblage was deposited about 10,500 years ago.   Article Summary by Jonathan C. Driver, May 2015             This was the first major publication about Tse’K’wa and it focuses on what for many people was the most exciting find at the site – a very early occupation of so-called “Paleoindian” people.             There continues to be considerable debate about when the first people came to the Americas. In the 1980’s (and continuing today), the weight of evidence supports a long-held belief that the ancestors of the indigenous peoples of the Americas made their initial migration from somewhere in northeast Asia.  However, the timing of this movement, the context in which it occurred, and the date are still contentious. (It is, of course, a simplification to describe this as a single event. There is plenty of evidence for a number of major migrations across the Bering Strait, and it is likely that there was a flow of people and ideas in both directions over thousands of years).             In the 1980’s, as today, virtually all archaeologists agree that “Paleoindian” cultures dating to the end of the last glacial period (about 12,000 BC) indicate a well-established population throughout the Americas by that time, although there is still considerable debate about when the first ancestors of Paleoindians arrived in the Americas.             While the way of life of these peoples must have varied across different environments found in North and South America, the most distinctive Paleoindian artifacts in North America are a kind of stone spear point, known as “fluted points”.  Fluted points were chipped from fine-grained rocks, such as chert, jasper and obsidian, and generally had a long, lanceolate outline. In order to fit the base of the point into the shaft of the spear, it was thinned by striking off some flakes that ran from the base towards the sharp tip, creating a shallow channel or “flute” on one or both surfaces of the stone spearpoint.             Fluted points have been found in association with extinct animals, most commonly woolly mammoth and extinct forms of bison, but also with horse and camel, primarily  in the central and western half of the USA. Due to different geological and soil conditions in eastern USA, most fluted point sites there do not preserve animal bone. In 1983 when a fluted point was found at Tse’K’wa, there was only one site in all of Canada where fluted points had been found in association with organic material that could be radiocarbon dated – at Debert, in Nova Scotia where charcoal in the soil provided some dates. Tse’K’wa was the first site in Canada that produced a fluted point in association with animal bones that had clearly been butchered by people – in this case an extinct form of bison – and the first site in Canada in which a fluted point was found at the bottom of a long sequence of later cultural periods. The unique soil conditions at the Tse\u27K\u27wa site have enabled archaeologists to use radio carbon dating on fluted points and animal remains to gain further insight into the lifestyles and timeline of early human occupation of Canada.             Also of significance was the location of Tse’K’wa just to the east of the Rockies. Archaeologists had proposed that one route into the Americas during the late ice age was between the Rocky Mountain glaciers to the west and the massive ice sheets that covered Canada to the east – this so-called “ice-free corridor” might have allowed early hunters to move from unglaciated areas of Siberia and Alaska into the vast uninhabited continents to the south of the ice. Although fluted points had been picked up from ploughed fields in BC and Alberta, before the excavations at Tse’K’wa none of them had been radiocarbon dated, and so it was difficult to relate them to known dates of glaciers and post-glacial landscapes