Do Attitudes and Personality Characteristics Affect Socioeconomic Outcomes? The Case of Welfare Use by Young Women

We develop and estimate a model of social-psychological determinants of entry to the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, the primary cash welfare program in the United States for 60 years until replaced in 1996. The structural model holds that attitudes and personality characteristics influence a woman’s likelihood of becoming demographically and financially eligible for welfare and her willingness to bear the stigma of receiving benefits. These factors, in turn, affect the likelihood of actually going on welfare. We test for a relationship between social-psychological variables and welfare participation using data from the youngest cohorts of women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We estimate logit models of the probability of ever participating in AFDC up to age 25 and hazard models of the timing until first use of AFDC. The attitudes and personality characteristics in the empirical model are self-esteem, locus of control, attitudes toward school, attitudes toward women’s work and family roles, commitment to work, and aversion to accepting public assistance. We find strong associations between welfare use and several attitudes and personality characteristics, but most of the associations are not robust to the inclusion of exogenous personal and family background characteristics. Consistent, strong evidence suggests that more positive attitudes toward school lower the likelihood of using welfare and increase duration until first receipt.

INTEGRATED RAINFALL RUNOFF MODELLING IN SMALL URBANIZED CATCHMENTS

A concept for integrated modeling of urban and rural hydrology is introduced. The concept allows for simulations on the catchment scale as well as on the local scale. It is based on a 2-layer-approach which facilitates the parallel coupling of a catchment hydrology model with an urban hydrology model, considering the interactions between the two systems. The concept has been implemented in a computer model combining a grid based distributed hydrological catchment model and a hydrological urban stormwater model based on elementary units. The combined model provides a flexible solution for time and spatial scale integration and offers to calculate separate water balances for urban and rural hydrology. Furthermore, it is GIS-based which allows for easy and accurate geo-referencing of urban overflow structures, which are considered as points of interactions between the two hydrologic systems. Due to the two-layer-approach, programs of measures can be incorporated in each system separately. The capabilities of the combined model have been tested on a hypothetical test case and a real world application. It could be shown that the model is capable of accurately quantifying the effects of urbanization in a catchment. The affects of urbanization can be analyzed at the catchment outlet, but can also be traced back to its origins, due to the geo-referencing of urban overflow structures. This is a mayor advantage over conventional hydrological catchment models for the analysis of land use changes

INTEGRATED RAINFALL RUNOFF MODELLING IN SMALL URBANIZED CATCHMENTS

A concept for integrated modeling of urban and rural hydrology is introduced. The concept allows for simulations on the catchment scale as well as on the local scale. It is based on a 2-layer-approach which facilitates the parallel coupling of a catchment hydrology model with an urban hydrology model, considering the interactions between the two systems. The concept has been implemented in a computer model combining a grid based distributed hydrological catchment model and a hydrological urban stormwater model based on elementary units. The combined model provides a flexible solution for time and spatial scale integration and offers to calculate separate water balances for urban and rural hydrology. Furthermore, it is GIS-based which allows for easy and accurate geo-referencing of urban overflow structures, which are considered as points of interactions between the two hydrologic systems. Due to the two-layer-approach, programs of measures can be incorporated in each system separately. The capabilities of the combined model have been tested on a hypothetical test case and a real world application. It could be shown that the model is capable of accurately quantifying the effects of urbanization in a catchment. The affects of urbanization can be analyzed at the catchment outlet, but can also be traced back to its origins, due to the geo-referencing of urban overflow structures. This is a mayor advantage over conventional hydrological catchment models for the analysis of land use changes

Triptolide exhibits anti-inflammatory, anti-catabolic as well as anabolic effects and suppresses TLR expression and MAPK activity in IL-1β treated human intervertebral disc cells

Introduction: Increased levels of proinflammatory cytokines seem to play a pivotal role in the development of back pain in a subpopulation of patients with degenerative intervertebral disc (IVD) disease. As current treatment options are mostly limited to surgical interventions or conservative treatment, anti-inflammatory substances might offer a novel, more target-orientated therapeutic approach. Triptolide (TPL), a natural substance found in the Chinese medicinal herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook, has been demonstrated to possess anti-inflammatory effects in various cells, but no studies exist so far for the IVD. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of TPL on human IVD cells by analyzing changes in gene expression and underlying molecular mechanisms. Materials and methods: In order to investigate the anti-inflammatory, anabolic and anti-catabolic effect of TPL, dose-dependency experiments (n=5) and time course experiments (n=5) were performed on IL-1β prestimulated human IVD cells and changes in gene expression of IL-6/-8, TNF-α, PGE2S, MMP1/2/3/13, aggrecan and collagen-I/-II were analyzed by real-time RT-PCR. The molecular mechanisms underlying the effects observed upon TPL treatment were investigated by analyzing involvement of Toll-like receptors TLR2/4 (real-time RT-PCR, n=5), NF-κB, MAP kinases p38, ERK and JNK (immunoblotting and immunocytochemistry, n=4) as well as RNA polymerase II (immunoblotting, n=3). Results: Results showed that 50nM TPL exhibited an anti-inflammatory, anti-catabolic and anabolic effect on the mRNA level for IL-6/-8, PGE2S, MMP1/2/3/13, aggrecan, collagen-II and TLR2/4, with most pronounced changes after 18h for proinflammatory cytokines and MMPs or 30h for TLRs and matrix proteins. However, we also observed an up-regulation of TNF-α at higher concentrations. The effects of TPL did not seem to be mediated via an inhibition of NF-κB or a decrease of RNA polymerase II levels, but TPL influenced activity of MAP kinases p38 and ERK (but not JNK) and expression of TLR2/4. Conclusions: In conclusion, TPL may possess promising potential for the treatment of inflammation-related discogenic back pain in vitro, but its analgetic effect will need to be confirmed in an appropriate in vivo animal mode

Public policy and the promise of digital credit for financial inclusion

Digital credit products are characterized by a lending process that is instantaneous, automated, and remote. While digital credit has the potential to reach less collateralized, less mobile, and more remote cohorts of borrowers, there are also risks in relying on digital credit for financial inclusion. This paper investigates the digital credit policy environment and the extent to which it may support pro-poor digital credit market development using two types of documents: a set of 23 regulatory documents specifically mentioning either digital or online credit or lending, and another set of 298 informal documents relevant to digital credit based on a systematic web search. After reviewing the literature on the effects of credit expansion and automated credit scoring, we summarize the characteristics of the current digital credit regulatory environment in low- and middle-income countries. Our findings suggest that few regulations specifically target digital credit markets, and that the current regulatory environment may not support the full potential of digital credit to reach historically underserved credit consumers. Most countries do not explicitly target financial inclusion as part of their digital credit policies. However, we do find evidence that informal web documents consider financial inclusion to a greater extent than formal regulatory documents

Precision mass measurements of magnesium isotopes and implications on the validity of the Isobaric Mass Multiplet Equation

If the mass excess of neutron-deficient nuclei and their neutron-rich mirror partners are both known, it can be shown that deviations of the Isobaric Mass Multiplet Equation (IMME) in the form of a cubic term can be probed. Such a cubic term was probed by using the atomic mass of neutron-rich magnesium isotopes measured using the TITAN Penning trap and the recently measured proton-separation energies of $^{29}$Cl and $^{30}$Ar. The atomic mass of $^{27}$Mg was found to be within 1.6$\sigma$ of the value stated in the Atomic Mass Evaluation. The atomic masses of $^{28,29}$Mg were measured to be both within 1$\sigma$, while being 8 and 34 times more precise, respectively. Using the $^{29}$Mg mass excess and previous measurements of $^{29}$Cl we uncovered a cubic coefficient of $d$ = 28(7) keV, which is the largest known cubic coefficient of the IMME. This departure, however, could also be caused by experimental data with unknown systematic errors. Hence there is a need to confirm the mass excess of $^{28}$S and the one-neutron separation energy of $^{29}$Cl, which have both come from a single measurement. Finally, our results were compared to ab initio calculations from the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group, resulting in a good agreement.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Sex-specific hypnotic effects of the neuroactive steroid (3β,5β,17β)-3-hydroxyandrostane-17-carbonitrile are mediated by peripheral metabolism into an active hypnotic steroid

BACKGROUND: The novel synthetic neuroactive steroid (3β,5β,17β)-3-hydroxyandrostane-17-carbonitrile (3β-OH) blocks T-type calcium channels but does not directly modulate neuronal γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA METHODS: We used a combination of behavioural loss of righting reflex, neuroendocrine, pharmacokinetic, in vitro patch-clamp electrophysiology, and in vivo electrophysiological approaches in wild-type mice and in genetic knockouts of the Ca RESULTS: Adult male mice were less sensitive to the hypnotic effects of 3β-OH compared with female mice, and these differences appeared during development. Adult males had higher 3β-OH brain concentrations despite being less sensitive to its hypnotic effects. Females metabolised 3β-OH into the active GABA CONCLUSIONS: The sex-specific differences in the hypnotic effect of 3β-OH in mice are attributable to differences in its peripheral metabolism into the more potent hypnotic metabolite 3α-OH