Selection into skill accumulation: evidence using observational and experimental data

This paper combines unique survey and experimental data to examine the determinants of self-selection into a vocational training program. Women residing in selected disadvantaged areas in New Delhi, India were invited to apply for a 6-month long free training program in stitching and tailoring. A random subset of applicants and non-applicants were invited to participate in a set of behavioral experiments and in a detailed socio-economic survey. We find that applicants and non-applicants differ both in terms of observables (captured using survey data) and also in terms of a number of intrinsic traits (captured via the behavioral experiments). Overall our results suggest that there is valuable information to be gained by dissecting the black box of unobservables using behavioral experiments.Labor Market Training Programs, Selection, Survey Data, Field Experiments, Risk, Competition

A Typology of Interorganizational Relationships: Implications for IS Design

We are currently witnessing an explosion in the number and variety of interorganizational relationships reported in the business press that are often described using buzzwords such as \u27partnership\u27 and strategic alliance\u27. Unfortunately, theory lags practice in the examination of this phenomenon that is increasingly becoming the model for success in many industries. From the perspective of Transaction Cost Economics, a dominant theoretical anchor, these interorganizational relationships are considered to fall between the well described extremes of market exchange and hierarchically controlled exchanges and belong to a less understood type termed the \u27hybrid\u27 (Clemons, Reddi, Row 1993, Hennart 1994). Information Technology (IT) is often the fundamental enabler of these non traditional forms of organizing (Quinn 1992) and a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon is indispensable to enable the effective exploitation of IT capabilities in such relationships. In an exploratory study to derive a process based understanding of interorganizational relationships in the distribution channel, we find evidence that interorganizational relationships can be classified into four distinct types. The four types differ significantly in the processes of operational control and boundary management as well as in the nature of information exchange and the role of information technologies. The results provide a greater understanding of action in interorganizational relationships and have implications for the design of interorganizational information systems (IOS)

Gaps That Matter: The Influence of Perspectives on IS Service Quality

It is now well established that firms need to make significant changes to organizational processes to derive advantages from the deployment of Information Technologies (IT). The strength of the interface between Information Systems providers (the IS group) and their users in organizations is a critical determinant of the firm\u27s ability to visualize, design and deploy appropriate IT solutions and make the necessary organizational design changes to utilize the investments in IT (Davenport 1992). While the creation of partnerships between IS groups and their users has often been highlighted as important to ensure effective IT implementation (Lasher, Ives, Jarvenpaa 1991), the critical dimensions along which the two groups need to be convergent and the impact of convergence on outcomes for users has received little attention. Using the theoretical lens of role theory, we examine the impact of convergence in perspectives on six key issues between IS groups and the users that they serve in three large organizations. Our results provide empirical support for the view that convergence in the perspectives of IS and user groups is associated with increased levels of Service Quality. One contribution of this study is the explication of key issues on which convergence of perspectives between IS and User groups is central to the improvement of the quality of services provided by the IS group

ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF THE LEAF EXTRACTS OF EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS

Objective: To investigate the antimicrobial activity and phytochemical analysis of Eucalyptus globulus leaves.Methods: The antimicrobial activity of the leaves of E. globulus extracted with acetone, ethanol and petroleum ether was studied using well diffusion method against the selected bacterial and fungal isolates. The antimicrobial susceptibility of the bacteria and fungi to various concentrations of the extract was evaluated by the micro broth dilution method. The preliminary phytochemical screening was performed in the acetone extract of E. globulus. The presence of functional groups in the acetone extract of the leaves of E. globulus was determined by Fourier to transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.Results: Results suggested that the acetone extract exhibited maximum antimicrobial activity against the tested bacteria and fungi when compared with ciprofloxacin and fluconazole respectively (standard antibiotics). Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) showed that the wells containing a concentration of 12.5 mg/ml and 6.25 mg/ml of acetone extract inhibited the bacteria and fungi effectively. Phytochemical screening of acetone extract of E. globulus showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, tannins, quinones, glycosides, steroids, terpenoids and leucoanthocyanides. FT-IR spectral analysis of the leaf extract of E. globulus showed the presence of functional groups such as–OH,-NH, C=O and–COOH.Conclusion: Thus to conclude, different plants and their formulations have been used in ayurveda to cure diseases for several decades. The findings of the study indicate the potential to exploit the leaves of Eucalyptus globulus in the treatment of microbial diseases

Severely Plastic Deformed Magnesium Based Alloys

Magnesium can be replaced with materials which experience strain controlled fatigue in their respective applications. Still, there are infrequent predicaments with utilizing magnesium alloys, comprising lower strength, fatigue life, ductility, toughness, and creep resistant attributes correlate with aluminum alloys. Some recent studies have been affirming that through the severe plastic deformation process, particularly equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) method promotes very significant ultra-grain refinement in bulk solids, which enhances the mechanical properties. ECAP with a 90° clockwise rotation around the billet axis between consecutive passes in route BC has improved the ductile characteristics with increased yield strength and rate of elongation which leads to a greater fatigue life because ultra-fine grain refinement can be able to resist the crack propagations. To attain the plasticity at higher temperature magnesium and its alloys are required to undergo extrusion operation before proceeding to the multiple pass ECAP at 200°C because the magnesium alloys exhibit a limited number of slip systems due to its hexagonal crystal structure

Assessment on Performance of Modified Long Shoals at Ennore

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchiv

Will they swim or sink? parental perception of water safety among their children

Introduction: The magnitude of drowning as one of the leading causes of death among children in Malaysia may have been underestimated. Little is known on the level of awareness on water safety among parents as it might be associated with appropriateness and adequacy of the supervision. This study aims to describe perceptions of water safety among parents of primary school children. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with 719 respondent conducted to obtain information on parents self-reported on their children’s water-involved activity and swimming ability, self-estimated ability to rescue their child and perceptions of the risk of drowning and water safety for their children. Results: The result revealed that about 21.6% of respondents did not perceive drowning as one of the unintentional injury leading causes of death among children. Parents reported that their children had experienced a near- drowning incident (16.1%), and only 12.2% of the child had attended a formal swimming lesson. Majority of the parents did not involve in any water safety program (98.7%), can’t swim (61.6%), not been certified in CPR (87.3%) and not confident (87.3%) to perform resuscitation (CPR). Respondents also perceived their children could swim (42.1%), and they felt confident when their child in the water (45.6%). There were statistical differences between parents who reported their child had a near-drowning experience with their perception of children’s swimming ability. Conclusion: An exploration of parent’s perception of water safety provided an overview of the need for promoting awareness on drowning risk and water safety education in this country

Sources and Toxicity of Mercury in the San Francisco Bay Area, Spanning California and Beyond.

This report synthesizes and evaluates published scientific literature on the environmental occurrence and biomagnification of mercury with emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA), California. Mercury forms various compounds, well known for their toxicity in humans and environmental ecosystems. Elemental mercury is transported and distributed by air, water, and sediments. Through the metabolic processes of algae and bacteria, mercury is converted into organic compounds, such as methylmercury (MeHg), which then bioaccumulates up through trophic levels. In fish, it is found primarily in skeletal muscle, while in humans, the primary target organs are the brain and kidneys. Health concerns exist regarding bioaccumulation of mercury in humans. This paper reviews the known anthropogenic sources of mercury contamination, including atmospheric deposition through aerial transport from coal burning power plants, cement production, and residual contaminants of mercury from gold mining, as well as mercury-containing waste from silver amalgams emitted from dental offices into waterways. Although tools exist for measuring mercury levels in hair, breast milk, urine, blood, and feces in humans, current diagnostic tools are inadequate in measuring total mercury load, including deposited mercury in tissues. Additionally, insufficient attention is being paid to potential synergistic impacts of mercury interaction with multipliers such as lead, cadmium, and aluminum. We provide specific data on methylmercury concentrations at different trophic levels, followed by recommendations for reducing the level of mercury in the SFBA in order to protect the health of humans and other species

Hi, how can I help you?: Automating enterprise IT support help desks

Question answering is one of the primary challenges of natural language understanding. In realizing such a system, providing complex long answers to questions is a challenging task as opposed to factoid answering as the former needs context disambiguation. The different methods explored in the literature can be broadly classified into three categories namely: 1) classification based, 2) knowledge graph based and 3) retrieval based. Individually, none of them address the need of an enterprise wide assistance system for an IT support and maintenance domain. In this domain the variance of answers is large ranging from factoid to structured operating procedures; the knowledge is present across heterogeneous data sources like application specific documentation, ticket management systems and any single technique for a general purpose assistance is unable to scale for such a landscape. To address this, we have built a cognitive platform with capabilities adopted for this domain. Further, we have built a general purpose question answering system leveraging the platform that can be instantiated for multiple products, technologies in the support domain. The system uses a novel hybrid answering model that orchestrates across a deep learning classifier, a knowledge graph based context disambiguation module and a sophisticated bag-of-words search system. This orchestration performs context switching for a provided question and also does a smooth hand-off of the question to a human expert if none of the automated techniques can provide a confident answer. This system has been deployed across 675 internal enterprise IT support and maintenance projects.Comment: To appear in IAAI 201