Education Inequality, Human Capital Inequality and the Kuznets Curve

This paper develops an improved measure of human capital. Using a Mincer specification of human capital, the improved measure takes into consideration rates of returns to schooling, education quality, and school dropouts. The paper applies the improved measure to evaluate national and global human capital inequality and compares them with education inequality. Human capital Kuznets curves are evident when relative inequality measures are used while education Kuznets curves are found when absolute inequality measures are used. It is also found that while global education inequality has been declining over the past four decades, global human capital inequality remains largely steady.

Nonprofit Organizations and the Nevada Economy: An analysis of the employment, economic impact, and scope of the nonprofit sector in Nevada

The Nevada nonprofit sector plays an important role in the state’s economy. This research report examines the role of nonprofit organizations in the economy and details regional differences in terms of employment and economic impact in the state

Colitis Following Initiation of Sofosbuvir and Simeprevir for Genotype 1 Hepatitis C.

Sofosbuvir and simeprevir are used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1. Both drugs have been well-tolerated, with diarrhea noted in 6% cases with sofosbuvir, 16% with sofosbuvir plus simeprevir, and 0% with simeprevir. No prior reports exist of colitis secondary to either drug or their combination. We report a patient with no prior history of inflammatory bowel disease who developed significant bloody diarrhea within 2 weeks of sofosbuvir/simeprevir initiation. Colonoscopy and biopsy confirmed pancolitis, which responded to mesalamine and completion of sofosbuvir/simeprevir

Finite temperature Casimir pistons for electromagnetic field with mixed boundary conditions and its classical limit

In this paper, the finite temperature Casimir force acting on a two-dimensional Casimir piston due to electromagnetic field is computed. It was found that if mixed boundary conditions are assumed on the piston and its opposite wall, then the Casimir force always tends to restore the piston towards the equilibrium position, regardless of the boundary conditions assumed on the walls transverse to the piston. In contrary, if pure boundary conditions are assumed on the piston and the opposite wall, then the Casimir force always tend to pull the piston towards the closer wall and away from the equilibrium position. The nature of the force is not affected by temperature. However, in the high temperature regime, the magnitude of the Casimir force grows linearly with respect to temperature. This shows that the Casimir effect has a classical limit as has been observed in other literatures.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted by Journal of Physics

Observation of the single-electron regime in a highly tunable silicon quantum dot

We report on low-temperature electronic transport measurements of a silicon metal-oxide-semiconductor quantum dot, with independent gate control of electron densities in the leads and the quantum dot island. This architecture allows the dot energy levels to be probed without affecting the electron density in the leads, and vice versa. Appropriate gate biasing enables the dot occupancy to be reduced to the single-electron level, as evidenced by magnetospectroscopy measurements of the ground state of the first two charge transitions. Independent gate control of the electron reservoirs also enables discrimination between excited states of the dot and density of states modulations in the leads.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for Applied Physics Letter

A Synergistic Approach to Process Innovation

With the continuing globalisation of the economy comes increasing number of competitors. Consequently, products lifecycles has continued to fall as companies strive to out-manoeuvre one another by introducing product and service innovations to meet the needs of increasingly choosy customers. This has created a business environment where change has become widespread and persistent. As processes are the engines that power organisations to deliver the values required by customers, it becomes imperative that to have competitive edge, or even survive in this sort of business environment, these processes need to be not only adaptable to the changes but also be capable of inducing the changes that would benefit the organisations. To investigate the feasibility of adaptable and change inducing processes, the research presented in this paper explores the synergies amongst three techniques for problems solving and process improvement: Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, which is more commonly known by its Russian acronym, TRIZ; Theory of Constraints (TOC); and Lean Manufacturing.N/

Phosphorylation of androgen receptors at serine 515 is a potential prognostic marker for triple negative breast cancer

1.7 million cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year with 522,000 deaths. Molecular classifications of breast cancer have resulted in improved treatments. However, treatments for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) are lacking. Analysis of molecular targets for TNBC is a priority. One potential candidate is androgen receptor (AR) phosphorylation. This study assessed the role of AR phosphorylation at ser81/ser515 and their two upstream effectors, cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (pCDK1) and extracellular-regulated kinase 1/2 (pERK1/2) in 332 ductal breast cancer patients by immunohistochemistry. pERK1/2 combined with AR-515 associated with improved cancer-specific survival (CSS, p = 0.038), decreased size (p = 0.001), invasive grade (p < 0.001), necrosis (p = 0.003), b-lymphocytes (p = 0.020), molecular subtype (p < 0.001) and estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR)-status (p < 0.001). The cohort was therefore stratified into ER+ve and ER-ve patients. In ER+ve tumours, pERK1/2 combined with AR-515 associated with improved CSS (p = 0.038), smaller size (p = 0.004), invasive grade (p = 0.001), decreased b-lymphocytes (p = 0.013) and increased plasma cells (p = 0.048). In contrast, in TNBC patients, phosphorylation of AR-515 associated with poorer CSS (p = 0.007). pERK1/2 combined with AR-515 associated with decreased inflammation (p = 0.003), increased tumour stroma (p = 0.003) and tumour budding (p = 0.011), with trends towards decrease CSS (p = 0.065) and macrophage levels (p = 0.093). In Conclusions, AR-515 may be an important regulator of inflammation in breast cancer potential via ERK1/2 phosphorylation. AR-515 is a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for TNBC

Multiphoton entanglement through a Bell multiport beam splitter

Multiphoton entanglement is an important resource for linear optics quantum computing. Here we show that a wide range of highly entangled multiphoton states, including W-states, can be prepared by interfering single photons inside a Bell multiport beam splitter and using postselection. A successful state preparation is indicated by the collection of one photon per output port. An advantage of the Bell multiport beam splitter is that it redirects the photons without changing their inner degrees of freedom. The described setup can therefore be used to generate polarisation, time-bin and frequency multiphoton entanglement, even when using only a single photon source.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, carefully revised version, references adde

Multi-domain active sound control and noise shielding

This paper describes an active sound control methodology based on difference potentials. The main feature of this methodology is its ability to automatically preserve “wanted” sound within a domain while canceling “unwanted” noise from outside the domain. This method of preservation of the wanted sounds by active shielding control is demonstrated with various broadband and realistic sound sources such as human voice and music in multiple domains in a one-dimensional enclosure. Unlike many other conventional active control methods, the proposed approach does not require the explicit characterization of the wanted sound to be preserved. The controls are designed based on the measurements of the total field on the boundaries of the shielded domain only, which is allowed to be multiply connected. The method is tested in a variety of experimental cases. The typical attenuation of the unwanted noise is found to be about 20 dB over a large area of the shielded domain and the original wanted sound field is preserved with errors of around 1 dB and below through a broad frequency range up to 1 kHz. © 2011 Acoustical Society of Americ