1,462 research outputs found
Locational Determinants of Rural Non-agricultural Employment: Evidence From Brazil
By paying particular attention to the local economic context, this paper analyzes the determinants of non-agricultural employment and earnings in non-agricultural jobs. The empirical analysis is based on the Brazilian Demographic Census, allowing for disaggregated controls for the local economy. Education stands out as one of the key determinants of employment outcome and earnings potential. Failure to control for locational effects, however, can lead to biased estimation of the importance of individual and household-specific characteristics. The empirical results show that local market size and distance to population centers have a significant impact on non-agricultural employment prospects and earnings.Rural non-agricultural employment, economic geography, Latin America, Brazil
Time-dependent transport of electrons through a photon cavity
We use a non-Markovian master equation to describe the transport of Coulomb
interacting electrons through an electromagnetic cavity with one quantized
photon mode. The central system is a finite parabolic quantum wire that is
coupled weakly to external parabolic quasi-one-dimensional leads at . With
a stepwise introduction of complexity to the description of the system and a
corresponding stepwise truncation of the ensuing many-body spaces we are able
to describe the time-dependent transport of Coulomb-interacting electrons
through a geometrically complex central system. We take into account the full
electromagnetic interaction of electrons and cavity photons without resorting
to the rotating wave approximation or reduction of the electron states to two
levels. We observe that the number of initial cavity photons and their
polarization can have important effects on the transport properties of the
system. The quasiparticles formed in the central system have a lifetime limited
by the coupling to the leads and radiation processes active on a much longer
timescale.Comment: RevTeX (pdf-LaTeX) 11 pages with 12 jpg-figures include
Fish oil in infancy protects against food allergy in Iceland-Results from a birth cohort study
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesBACKGROUND: Consumption of oily fish or fish oil during pregnancy, lactation and infancy has been linked to a reduction in the development of allergic diseases in childhood. METHODS: In an observational study, Icelandic children (n = 1304) were prospectively followed from birth to 2.5 years with detailed questionnaires administered at birth and at 1 and 2 years of age, including questions about fish oil supplementation. Children with suspected food allergy were invited for physical examinations, allergic sensitization tests, and a double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge if the allergy testing or clinical history indicated food allergy. The study investigated the development of sensitization to food and confirmed food allergy according to age and frequency of postnatal fish oil supplementation using proportional hazards modelling. RESULTS: The incidence of diagnosed food sensitization was significantly lower in children who received regular fish oil supplementation (relative risk: 0.51, 95% confidence interval: 0.32-0.82). The incidence of challenge-confirmed food allergy was also reduced, although not statistically significant (0.57, 0.30-1.12). Children who began to receive fish oil in their first half year of life were significantly more protected than those who began later (P = .045 for sensitization, P = .018 for allergy). Indicators of allergy severity decreased with increased fish oil consumption (P = .013). Adjusting for parent education and allergic family history did not change the results. CONCLUSION: Postnatal fish oil consumption is associated with decreased food sensitization and food allergies in infants and may provide an intervention strategy for allergy prevention.European Commission
Landspitali University Hospital Science Fund
GlaxoSmithKline Icelan
Design and development of a low temperature, inductance based high frequency ac susceptometer
We report on the development of an induction based low temperature high
frequency ac susceptometer capable of measuring at frequencies up to 3.5 MHz
and at temperatures between 2 K and 300 K. Careful balancing of the detection
coils and calibration have allowed a sample magnetic moment resolution of
at 1 MHz. We will discuss the design and
characterization of the susceptometer, and explain the calibration process. We
also include some example measurements on the spin ice material CdErS
and iron oxide based nanoparticles to illustrate functionality
Reconstruction of Random Colourings
Reconstruction problems have been studied in a number of contexts including
biology, information theory and and statistical physics. We consider the
reconstruction problem for random -colourings on the -ary tree for
large . Bhatnagar et. al. showed non-reconstruction when and reconstruction when . We tighten this result and show non-reconstruction when and reconstruction when .Comment: Added references, updated notatio
Annual direct and indirect costs attributable to nocturia in Germany, Sweden, and the UK
OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to estimate the prevalence-based cost of illness imposed by nocturia (≥2 nocturnal voids per night) in Germany, Sweden, and the UK in an average year. METHODS: Information obtained from a systematic review of published literature and clinicians was used to construct an algorithm depicting the management of nocturia in these three countries. This enabled an estimation of (1) annual levels of healthcare resource use, (2) annual cost of healthcare resource use, and (3) annual societal cost arising from presenteeism and absenteeism attributable to nocturia in each country. RESULTS: In an average year, there are an estimated 12.5, 1.2, and 8.6 million patients ≥20 years of age with nocturia in Germany, Sweden, and the UK, respectively. In an average year in each country, respectively, these patients were estimated to have 13.8, 1.4, and 10.0 million visits to a family practitioner or specialist, ~91,000, 9000, and 63,000 hospital admissions attributable to nocturia and 216,000, 19,000, and 130,000 subjects were estimated to incur a fracture resulting from nocturia. The annual direct cost of healthcare resource use attributable to managing nocturia was estimated to be approximately €2.32 billion in Germany, 5.11 billion kr (€0.54 billion) in Sweden, and £1.35 billion (€1.77 billion) in the UK. The annual indirect societal cost arising from both presenteeism and absenteeism was estimated to be approximately €20.76 billion in Germany and 19.65 billion kr (€2.10 billion) in Sweden. In addition, in the UK, the annual indirect cost due to absenteeism was an estimated £4.32 billion (€5.64 billion). CONCLUSIONS: Nocturia appears to impose a substantial socioeconomic burden in all three countries. Clinical and economic benefits could accrue from an increased awareness of the impact that nocturia imposes on patients, health services, and society as a whole
Percolation in invariant Poisson graphs with i.i.d. degrees
Let each point of a homogeneous Poisson process in R^d independently be
equipped with a random number of stubs (half-edges) according to a given
probability distribution mu on the positive integers. We consider
translation-invariant schemes for perfectly matching the stubs to obtain a
simple graph with degree distribution mu. Leaving aside degenerate cases, we
prove that for any mu there exist schemes that give only finite components as
well as schemes that give infinite components. For a particular matching scheme
that is a natural extension of Gale-Shapley stable marriage, we give sufficient
conditions on mu for the absence and presence of infinite components
Strict inequalities of critical values in continuum percolation
We consider the supercritical finite-range random connection model where the
points of a homogeneous planar Poisson process are connected with
probability for a given . Performing percolation on the resulting
graph, we show that the critical probabilities for site and bond percolation
satisfy the strict inequality . We also show
that reducing the connection function strictly increases the critical
Poisson intensity. Finally, we deduce that performing a spreading
transformation on (thereby allowing connections over greater distances but
with lower probabilities, leaving average degrees unchanged) {\em strictly}
reduces the critical Poisson intensity. This is of practical relevance,
indicating that in many real networks it is in principle possible to exploit
the presence of spread-out, long range connections, to achieve connectivity at
a strictly lower density value.Comment: 38 pages, 8 figure
Adding Mirabegron to Solifenacin to Treat Overactive Bladder Has Little Impact on Post-Void Residual Volume or Urinary Retention Risk
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