Incidence and Returns to Apprenticeship Training in Canada: the Role of Family Background and Immigrant Status

Immigrant men and women in Canada from recent arrival cohorts have especially low rates of having an apprenticeship credential when compared to either their counterparts from earlier arrival cohorts or the Canadian born. Among the native born, a second generation man is more likely to have completed an apprenticeship if his father’s generation of immigrant men in Canada (from the same source country) have a high probability of apprenticeship completion. The same effect is present for first generation men who arrived in Canada as children. However, this effect is not found for either first generation or second generation women. An analysis of earnings indicates a strong wage return from the completion of an apprenticeship in Canada is found for men. However, women who have completed an apprenticeship in Canada actually have lower weekly earnings than women with only a high school diploma. The empirical results suggest that the increased emphasis on university education in the selection of economic immigrants is creating an imbalance between the supply of both first and second generation immigrants with an apprenticeship, and the demand for workers with these credentials.Apprenticeships, Education, Immigration, and Second Generation

Characterizations of Four Interval Wavelet Sets and Algorithms

Wavelets are mathematical tools used to represent signals such as audio files, pictures, videos, and various other types of data. The theory of wavelets has recently attracted attention in Mathematics because of potential in applications. At this point, the field of wavelet theory is fairly mature, and the literature contains a body of techniques which are exploited to design wavelets. One of these techniques relies on the construction of wavelet sets. A wavelet set is a set whose successive translations and dilations partition a line. In practice, wavelet sets are tricky to construct. In fact, there is no known classification of wavelet sets consisting of more than three intervals available in the literature. In the present thesis, we will provide a complete characterization of wavelet sets of four intervals. Additionally, we will present two algorithms which are used to construct wavelet sets of four intervals

Probing the membrane-binding and effector function of Phage Shock Protein A and its homologue Vipp1

Stress response systems are prevalent throughout all organisms with several functioning to maintain the cell envelope. One widely distributed system in bacteria is the Phage Shock Protein (Psp) response which is involved in pathogenicity, biofilm and persister cell formation. Induced under conditions proposed to cause membrane (often Inner-Membrane, IM) stress, the Psp response appears to stabilize the IM and so prevent dissipation of the proton motive force. The central component, PspA, is a peripheral IM protein that acts as both the effector and negative regulator of the Psp response. PspA has a counterpart Vipp1, which functions for chloroplast envelope maintenance and thylakoid biogenesis in plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria. Mechanistic insight into how PspA and Vipp1 undertake their respective effector functions is limited but thought to be through their direct interactions with cellular membranes. Rigorously controlled, in vitro methodologies with lipid vesicles, purified proteins and peptides were established and used in this study, providing the first biochemical and biophysical characterisation of membrane binding by PspA and Vipp1. Direct membrane association of PspA and Vipp1 was shown to occur through their conserved N-terminal amphipathic helices. Both proteins are found to sense stored curvature elastic (SCE) stress and anionic lipids within the membrane. PspA has enhanced sensitivity for SCE stress while Vipp1 partitioning is most sensitive to membranes with a high net-negative charge. Experimental data points to alleviation of SCE stress by Amphiphatic Helix (AH) insertions as an attractive mechanism for membrane maintenance by PspA and Vipp1. Furthermore, by probing PspA’s regulatory role we show that its transcription inhibition, though binding to the transcription activator PspF, can be relieved upon bilayer exposure in a SCE stress specific manner. The identification of a physical, stress related membrane signal suggests a unilateral mechanism that promotes both membrane binding of PspA and a stress triggered induction of the Psp response.Open Acces

Immigrant Selection Systems and Occupational Outcomes of International Medical Graduates in Canada and the United States

We analyze the process of immigrant selection and occupational outcomes of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in the US and Canada. We extend the IMG relicensing model of Kugler and Sauer (2005) to incorporate two different approaches to immigrant selection: employer nomination systems and point systems. Analysis of the model indicates that point systems can allow IMGs to immigrate who would be unable to gain entry to the receiving country under an employer nomination system and who are subsequently unable to relicense and work as physicians in the receiving country. We apply the model to the case of IMGs migrating to the US and Canada since the 1960s and evaluate the empirical predictions from the model based on an analysis of the occupational outcomes of IMGs in Canada (where a point system has been in place) and in the US (where IMGs enter through employer nomination). In Canada, IMGs are less likely to be employed as a physician than are IMGs in the US and a large percentage of the IMGs in Canada either find work in lower skill occupations or are not employed. The empirical findings are consistent with our hypotheses based on the theoretical framework on the effects of immigrant selection systems on the probability of working as a physician in the two countries.physicians, immigration, occupation, skills, human capital

A FLEXIBLE PARAMETRIC GARCH MODEL WITH AN APPLICATION TO EXCHANGE RATES

International Relations/Trade, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Experimental Study of the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability on Inclined Interface

The RichtmyerMeshkov instability (RMI) is a hydrodynamic instability resulting from an impulsive acceleration of a density gradient. This instability was first described in the theoretical work of Richtmyer [2], and later in the experimental work of Meshkov [3]. The two primary ingredients for the RMI are an impulsive acceleration which takes the form of an instantaneous pressure gradient, and a fluid interface which generates a density gradient that is misaligned with the pressure gradient. To further our investigation of the RMI an initial condition experiment needed to be conducted. At the Texas A&M Shock Tube and Advanced Mixing Lab (STAML) there is a Mach 3 capable shock tube, used to study the RMI. It was necessary to study the initial conditions of the interface to understand its effects on the development of the RMI at post-shocked times. From this we were able to determine characteristic flow qualities present on the interface prior to the shock. Within the initial conditions investigation was a qualitative study conducted to determine the vorticity of the interface. The vorticity study was to show how much energy the shock wave deposits, and aid in development of a controlled perturbation of the interface. In the case of the qualitative vorticity study, little was learned due to problems encountered involving Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) imaging. However, a method for controlled perturbation techniques was discovered involving the flow characteristics at the interface

Chump Change, A Moral Tale of Misogyny and Accountability: A Screenplay

This Culmanating Project is a full-length motion picture screenplay titled Chump Change. Chump Change is a moral tale of the accountability that a young misogynist named Clay has to face when his long-suffering wife, Lena, pulls the rug out from under their marriage. As Clay struggles to put his life back together while fighting Lena for the custody of his son, he has to face up to his own responsibility for his plight. As Clay develops more consciousness about the darker side of his own nature, he searches for the answer to the question. 11 Can people really change? He aspires to enlightenment, but fears that his inability to create meaningful change may be insurmountable. Clay\u27s newfound self-awareness is put to the test when he starts to date the spunky Caitland. Caitland, by all accounts, seems to have it all together. She is self-confident, secure in her sexuality, and always one-step ahead of any game-playing that Clay tries to bring to the relationship. Clay falls hard for Cait, and finds strength and maturity in the example set by Cait, even when the pressures of a custody battle for his son are at their peak. But the weight of Clay\u27s past problems with women, authority, and ghosts of his childhood prove to be too much when Clay meets Cait\u27s overbearing father. Olay sees in Cait\u27s father his own botched upbringing and the man that he was destined to become had he not been forced out of his rut. Clay explodes in front of Cait\u27s parents, embarrassing Cait and effectively ending their relationship. It is the loss of Cait, finally, that teaches Clay that a little personal sacrifice is a small price to pay for maintaining important relationships. Chump Cha.nge\u27s themes of misogyny, layered symbolism, and dual interpretation were all inspired by other cinematic releases, as was it\u27s experimentation with a p rotagonist that may be unlikeable. These modern movies, Oleanna, Smoke, and In the Company of Men, influenced the style and content of the screenplay that is the core of the Culmanating Project. and are discussed at some length

The Redistribution of Argon Through a Metamorphic Cycle: Causes, Effects, and Consequences on Understanding Cooling Rates

40Ar/39Ar thermochronology is commonly used to constrain the timing, and rates, of cooling in exhumed metamorphic terranes. Metamorphic micas that crystallise at high temperatures are usually considered to lose 40Ar via thermally-activated volume diffusion, and the resulting age is commonly linked to temperature via Dodson’s closure temperature (Te) formulation. 40Ar/39Ar ages from many metamorphic terranes commonly do not fit within a chronological framework defined by other, higher T chronometers, such as U-Pb zircon, suggesting that linking age to temperature via pure open system diffusion may not always be a correct interpretation. The Western Gneiss Region of Norway documents isothermal decompression from high pressures (from -3.0 GPa to -1.0 GPa) at 700°C. White mica, biotite, amphibole, and feldspar single grain fusion and laser ablation 40Ar/39Ar ages yield a broad range that spans the known timing of the metamorphic cycle and that cannot be readily reconciled with models of simple thermal diffusion. Instead, the 40Ar/39Ar data record the cumulative effects of a complex interplay of processes that affected the rocks during decompression and exhumation. Recrystallization, deformation, partial melting, and fluid infiltration all acted to add or remove Ar from the system at different times in different lithologies. Samples that show significant recrystallization and deformation yield younger white mica but older biotite ages than more pristine samples. Furthermore, migmatisation acted to make biotite ages younger in the amphibolite-facies gneisses whereas fluid infiltration acted to increase biotite ages. Data from white mica breaking down to form a symplectite of biotite and plagioclase show that during recrystallization, Ar was not lost to the grain boundary, but instead becomes incorporated into biotite and plagioclase. These physical processes appear to have dominated over thermally-activated volume diffusion as the means by which Ar was (re)distributed within, and between, different lithologies. Overall, these data support the observation that 40Ar/39Ar ages from K-bearing minerals in high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic terranes may not always be interpretable as cooling ages and that metamorphic 40Ar/39Ar ages require careful assessment with respect to metamorphic stage and petrographic evolution

Training to fail

The corporate environment is considered the major deterrent to the success of corporate training and development programs. Most organizations will not take training and development seriously without support from CEOs. Many companies lack investment in training, while others refuse to accept process management, TQM and empowerment as the keys to reduced costs and improved productivity. Training and development must also be linked corporate strategy.<br /