How a Mandatory Activation Program Reduces Unemployment Durations: The Effects of Distance

In an experimental setting some Danish unemployed workers were assigned to an activation program while others were not. Unemployed who were assigned to the activation program found a job more quickly. We show that the activation effect increases with the distance between the place of residence of the unemployed worker and the place where the activation took place. We also find that the quality of the post-unemployment jobs was not affected by the activation program. Both findings confirm that activation programs mainly work because they are compulsory and unemployed don't like them.unemployment insurance, unemployment duration, experiment, activation programs

Afgoldning af enkeltkirtler som strategi til håndtering af mild yverbetændelse

Behandling af yverbetændelse er ansvarlig for størstedelen af antibiotikaforbruget i økologisk mælkeproduktion. Ofte fravælges antibiotikabehandling af mild yverbetændelse. Ubehandlede køer udgør imidlertid en fortsat smitterisiko for de øvrige køer i besætningen. Afgoldning af en enkeltkirtel er ophørt malkning af én kirtel i laktationen, mens koens øvrige kirtler fortsat malkes. Hvis en mild yverbetændelse kan lokaliseres til en enkelt kirtel hos koen, kan afgoldning af denne kirtel medvirke til at mindske smitten til andre køer. Virkningen af afgoldning af enkeltkirtler på mælkeproduktionen og koens kliniske udvikling blev undersøgt ved et eksperimentielt studie i fem økologiske malkekvægsbesætninger med malkerobotter. Halvfjerds køer med forhøjet celletal blev tilfældigt fordelt på to forsøgsbehandlinger; kirtel-afgoldning eller fortsat malkning. Køerne blev løbende undersøgt klinisk og ydelsesdata blev udtrukket fra malkerobotterne. I de første par uger efter kirtel-afgoldning sås kirtelhævelse og mælkeløb. Derefter aftog hævelsen og blev løbende erstattet af kirtelsvind i månederne efter kirtelafgoldningen. En del af køerne udviklede alvorlige kliniske tegn som forhøjet temperature (13 pct.) og tegn på smerte (29 pct.). Der var et gennemsnitligt tab på ca. 4 kg mælk/dag ved kirtel-afgoldning. En lavere kirtel-ydelse forud for afgoldning var forbundet med et mindre produktionstab, men jo tidligere i laktationen kirtlen blev afgoldet, desto bedre kompenserede de øvrige kirtler for ydelsestabet

Strategies for Charging Electric Vehicles in the Electricity Market

This paper analyses different charging strategies for a fleet of electric vehicles. Along with increasing the realism of the strategies, the opportunity for acting on the regulating market is also included. We test the value of a vehicle owner that can choose when and how to charge; by presenting a model of four alternative charging strategies. We think of them as increasing in sophistication from dumb via delayed to deterministic and stochastic model-based charging. We show that 29% of the total savings from ‘dumb’ are due to delayed charging and that substantial additional gains come charging optimally in response to predicted spot prices, and – in some settings – additional gains from using the up and down regulating prices. Particularly, strategies are chosen from uncontrolled charging through deterministic optimization, to modelling the charging and bidding problem with stochastic programming. We show that all vehicle owners will benefit from acting more intelligently on the energy market. Furthermore, the high value of the stochastic solution shows that, in case the regulating price differs from the expected, the solution to the deterministic problem becomes infeasible

SHAPE selection (SHAPES) enrich for RNA structure signal in SHAPE sequencing-based probing data

Selective 2′ Hydroxyl Acylation analyzed by Primer Extension (SHAPE) is an accurate method for probing of RNA secondary structure. In existing SHAPE methods, the SHAPE probing signal is normalized to a no-reagent control to correct for the background caused by premature termination of the reverse transcriptase. Here, we introduce a SHAPE Selection (SHAPES) reagent, N-propanone isatoic anhydride (NPIA), which retains the ability of SHAPE reagents to accurately probe RNA structure, but also allows covalent coupling between the SHAPES reagent and a biotin molecule. We demonstrate that SHAPES-based selection of cDNA–RNA hybrids on streptavidin beads effectively removes the large majority of background signal present in SHAPE probing data and that sequencing-based SHAPES data contain the same amount of RNA structure data as regular sequencing-based SHAPE data obtained through normalization to a no-reagent control. Moreover, the selection efficiently enriches for probed RNAs, suggesting that the SHAPES strategy will be useful for applications with high-background and low-probing signal such as in vivo RNA structure probing

Full-length RNA structure prediction of the HIV-1 genome reveals a conserved core domain

A distance constrained secondary structural model of the ≈10 kb RNA genome of the HIV-1 has been predicted but higher-order structures, involving long distance interactions, are currently unknown. We present the first global RNA secondary structure model for the HIV-1 genome, which integrates both comparative structure analysis and information from experimental data in a full-length prediction with-out distance constraints. Besides recovering known structural elements, we predict several novel struc-tural elements that are conserved in HIV-1 evolution. Our results also indicate that the structure of the HIV-1 genome is highly variable in most regions, with a limited number of stable and conserved RNA sec-ondary structures. Most interesting, a set of long distance interactions form a core organizing struc-ture (COS) that organize the genome into three ma-jor structural domains. Despite overlapping protein-coding regions the COS is supported by a particu-lar high frequency of compensatory base changes, suggesting functional importance for this element. This new structural element potentially organizes the whole genome into three major domains protruding from a conserved core structure with potential roles in replication and evolution for the virus