Options of public income support for the unemployed in the Philippines and social protection

How can the income support for the unemployed Filipino workers be improved? The study analyzes both arguments in favor of, and against each of the following programs: unemployment insurance, unemployment assistance, severance pay, unemployment insurance savings accounts, public works, and self-employment programs. In doing so, it addresses the following questions: How does a candidate program interact with other labor market institutions? Does the program respond to a country's income shocks such as recessions, and natural disasters? Does the country have sufficient administrative capacity to carry out a program? Does the program fit into existing formal, and informal mechanisms of social risk management? Is there a risk of disrupting, or displacing existing mechanisms, such as transfers between family members? Is the program attuned to the prevailing norms, and culture? The study concludes that all programs have certain advantages, and disadvantages - an argument for the multiplicity of programs and flexibility of their use. Nonetheless, to enhance income protection, the paper proposes a two-prong approach: a) the expansion of public works, and b) the introduction of a new program - individual savings accounts, i.e., either as unemployment insurance savings accounts, or comprehensive savings accounts covering contingencies such as education, health, housing, and old age.Environmental Economics&Policies,Services&Transfers to Poor,Safety Nets and Transfers,Rural Poverty Reduction,Health Economics&Finance

Photodarkening of amorphous selenium under high pressure

The photodarkening phenomena of amorphous Se have been studied by the optical absorption coefficient, sound velocity and attenuation measurements. The light illumination at low temperatures induces the photodarkening, and the photodarkened state is completely recovered by annealing near 306 K corresponding to the glass transition temperature. The photodarkening is enhanced by application of pressure. The sound velocity decreases and the sound attenuation increases by the illumination at low temperature. These suggest that a structural disorder increases in the photodarkened state. Three stages are observed for the recovery process of the photodarkened specimen. The photodarkening and the recovery process are discussed on the basis of VAP (valence alternative pair) model.<br /

Phase Separation of a Fast Rotating Boson-Fermion Mixture in the Lowest-Landau-Level Regime

By minimizing the coupled mean-field energy functionals, we investigate the ground-state properties of a rotating atomic boson-fermion mixture in a two-dimensional parabolic trap. At high angular frequencies in the mean-field-lowest-Landau-level regime, quantized vortices enter the bosonic condensate, and a finite number of degenerate fermions form the maximum-density-droplet state. As the boson-fermion coupling constant increases, the maximum density droplet develops into a lower-density state associated with the phase separation, revealing characteristics of a Landau-level structure

Short-hairpin RNA library: identification of therapeutic partners for gefitinib-resistant non-small cell lung cancer.

Somatic mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor often cause resistance to therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitor in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we aimed to identify partner drugs and pathways that can induce cell death in combination with gefitinib in NSCLC cells. We undertook a genome-wide RNAi screen to identify synthetic lethality with gefitinib in tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistant cells. The screening data were utilized in different approaches. Firstly, we identified PRKCSH as a candidate gene, silencing of which induces apoptosis of NSCLC cells treated with gefitinib. Next, in an in silico gene signature pathway analysis of shRNA library data, a strong correlation of genes involved in the CD27 signaling cascade was observed. We showed that the combination of dasatinib (NF-κB pathway inhibitor) with gefitinib synergistically inhibited the growth of NSCLC cells. Lastly, utilizing the Connectivity Map, thioridazine was identified as a top pharmaceutical perturbagen. In our experiments, it synergized with gefitinib to reduce p-Akt levels and to induce apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Taken together, a pooled short-hairpin library screen identified several potential pathways and drugs that can be therapeutic targets for gefitinib resistant NSCLC

Quantum walks and orbital states of a Weyl particle

The time-evolution equation of a one-dimensional quantum walker is exactly mapped to the three-dimensional Weyl equation for a zero-mass particle with spin 1/2, in which each wave number k of walker's wave function is mapped to a point \vec{q}(k) in the three-dimensional momentum space and \vec{q}(k) makes a planar orbit as k changes its value in [-\pi, \pi). The integration over k providing the real-space wave function for a quantum walker corresponds to considering an orbital state of a Weyl particle, which is defined as a superposition (curvilinear integration) of the energy-momentum eigenstates of a free Weyl equation along the orbit. Konno's novel distribution function of quantum-walker's pseudo-velocities in the long-time limit is fully controlled by the shape of the orbit and how the orbit is embedded in the three-dimensional momentum space. The family of orbital states can be regarded as a geometrical representation of the unitary group U(2) and the present study will propose a new group-theoretical point of view for quantum-walk problems.Comment: REVTeX4, 9 pages, 1 figure, v2: Minor corrections made for publication in Phys.Rev.

The action of the mapping class group on the space of geodesic rays of a punctured hyperbolic surface

Let Σ be a complete finite-area orientable hyperbolic surface with one cusp, and let R be the space of complete geodesic rays in Σ emanating from the puncture. Then there is a natural action of the mapping class group of Σ on R. We show that this action is "almost everywhere" wandering

On-demand single-photon state generation via nonlinear absorption

We propose a method for producing on-demand single-photon states based on collision-induced exchanges of photons and unbalanced linear absorption between two single-mode light fields. These two effects result in an effective nonlinear absorption of photons in one of the modes, which can lead to single photon states. A quantum nonlinear attenuator based on such a mechanism can absorb photons in a normal input light pulse and terminate the absorption at a single-photon state. Because the output light pulses containing single photons preserve the properties of the input pulses, we expect this method to be a means for building a highly controllable single photon source.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in PRA. To be published in PR

Dynamic critical phenomena in the AdS/CFT duality

In critical phenomena, singular behaviors arise not only for thermodynamic quantities but also for transport coefficients. We study this dynamic critical phenomenon in the AdS/CFT duality. We consider black holes with a single R-charge in various dimensions and compute the R-charge diffusion in the linear perturbations. In this case, the black holes belong to model B according to the classification of Hohenberg and Halperin.Comment: 17 pages, ReVTeX4; v2: added references and discussio

Zonal Ultracentrifugation of β-Lactoglobulin and κ-Casein Complexes Induced by Heat

Abstract A zonal ultracentrifuge was used to isolate the heat-induced complexes of β -lactoglobulin and κ -casein. The complexes formed at 80C in sodium cacodylate buffer, pH 6.65, ionic strength 0.08, varied in size and composition, but moved as a single band in starch-gel electrophoresis. The maximum ratio in the complex was estimated to be 3 β -lactoglobulin:1 κ -casein. When a 1:1 mixture was heated at 110C the major component banded in 6.9% sucrose, had a sedimentation coefficient of 2.35, and moved as a single band in starch gel. At 140C, κ -casein was degraded extensively, and no complex could be detected. The complex formed at 90C from a 1:1 mixture in a synthetic serum containing calcium had a sedimentation coefficient of 39. For other mixtures in the presence of calcium the unreacted proteins could not be quantitatively separated from the complex. Zonal ultracentrifugation of heated skimmilk and colloidal calcium phosphate free milk failed to show a discrete complex peak