Does better pre-migration performance accelerate immigrants' wage assimilation?

This paper analyzes wage assimilation of ethnic German immigrants to Germany. We use unique administrative data that include a standardized measure of immigrants' pre-migration wage based on occupation, industry, tenure, qualification, and the German wage structure. We find that immigrants experience a substantial initial wage disadvantage compared to natives. During their first 15 years in the host country they manage to close a considerable part of this gap, though assimilation is only partial. A 10% higher pre-migration wage translates into a 1.6% higher wage in Germany when also controlling for educational attainment, thus pointing at partial transferability of human capital acquired in the source country to the host country's labor market. We also find that wage assimilation is significantly accelerated for immigrants with a higher pre-migration wage. Our results are in line with strong complementarities between general skills and host country-specific human capital, in particular proficiency in the host country's language

Does better pre-migration performance accelerate immigrants' wage assimilation?

This paper analyzes wage assimilation of ethnic German immigrants to Germany. We use unique administrative data that include a standardized measure of immigrants' pre-migration wage based on occupation, industry, tenure, qualification, and the German wage structure. We find that immigrants experience a substantial initial wage disadvantage compared to natives. During their first 15 years in the host country they manage to close a considerable part of this gap, though assimilation is only partial. A 10% higher pre-migration wage translates into a 1.6% higher wage in Germany when also controlling for educational attainment, thus pointing at partial transferability of human capital acquired in the source country to the host country's labor market. We also find that wage assimilation is significantly accelerated for immigrants with a higher pre-migration wage. Our results are in line with strong complementarities between general skills and host country-specific human capital, in particular proficiency in the host country's language

Renewables grabbing : Land and resource appropriations in the global energy transition

The global land rush intersects with the global energy transition and the emergence of new renewable energy frontiers demanding vast amounts of land and other resources. This chapter provides an overview of the processes of land and resource grabbing associated with renewable energies and discusses the environmental injustices emerging in the global energy transition. After a brief examination of the multiple drivers of the global energy transition and their specific implications for resource and land grabbing, a sectoral perspective on the four major renewable energy sources describes the emergence of new energy-land frontiers: biofuels, hydropower dams, mega solar power, and wind parks. For each frontier, the chapter points to key resources required and appropriated and discusses the related environmental conflicts and justice concerns that are arising. Close examination of these conflicts provides important lessons for moving toward a socially just energy transition

SNP haplotype tagging from DNA pools of two individuals

BACKGROUND: DNA pooling is a technique to reduce genotyping effort while incurring only minor losses in accuracy of allele frequency estimates for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. RESULTS: We present an algorithm for reconstructing haplotypes (alleles for multiple SNPs on same chromosome) from pools of two individual DNAs, in which Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium conditions or other assumptions are not required. The program outputs, in addition to inferred haplotypes, a minimal number of haplotype-tagging SNPs that are identified after an exhaustive search procedure. CONCLUSION: Our method and algorithms lead to a significant reduction in genotyping effort, for example, in case-control disease association studies while maintaining the possibility of reconstructing haplotypes under very general conditions

Impact of Sensitization and Inflammation on the Interaction of Mast Cells With the Intestinal Epithelium in Rats

The density of intestinal mast cells has been reported to increase during inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). As mast cell mediators are known to increase the permeability of epithelial tight junctions, we hypothesized that antigen responses in sensitized animals might be enhanced under inflammatory conditions. This would contribute to a vicious circle by further enhancing the entry of luminal antigens into the colonic wall and thereby continuing the inadequate immune response during IBD. Therefore, one group of rats was sensitized against ovalbumin. In a second group of animals additionally a colitis was induced by rectal administration of 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS) dissolved in ethanol. Specimens from distal colon and jejunum (as intestinal segment located distantly from the inflamed area) were mounted in Ussing chambers to measure tissue conductance, short-circuit current (Isc) induced by antigen exposure and paracellular permeability (fluorescein flux). This was paralleled by determination of mast cell markers and tight junction proteins with immunofluorescence and qPCR. In contrast to the initial hypothesis, antigen-induced Isc was not upregulated, but tended to be downregulated in the tissues from the colitis animals, both in colon and in jejunum. Only in the jejunum mast cell degranulation evoked an increase in fluorescein flux. Mast cell density was not altered significantly in the colon of the colitis animals. In the jejunum, sensitization induced a strong increase in mast cell density, which was unaffected by additional induction of colitis. Expression of sealing tight junction components claudin-3 and -4 were increased on the protein level in the sensitized animals in comparison to non-sensitized animals. Additional induction of colitis evoked a downregulation of claudin-3 in both intestinal segments and an upregulation of claudin-4 in the jejunum. Consequently, these data indicate segment differences in mast cell – epithelium interaction, but no enhancement of ion secretion in the TNBS/ethanol model of acute colitis after prior sensitization

A utilização dos vídeos educacionais do YouTube na Licenciatura em Matemática: presencial e a distância

Esta pesquisa problematiza o uso de vídeos educacionais do YouTube na formação do professor de Matemática. Utilizou-se como instrumento de pesquisa um questionário misto (perguntas abertas e fechadas), tendo como sujeitos 67 acadêmicos da Licenciatura em Matemática das duas modalidades: 45 presencial e 22 a distância. Os dados foram analisados e apresentados em gráficos, tabelas e nuvens de palavras, indicando os altos índices de utilização de vídeos do YouTube, sendo 100% no curso a distância. Público também responsável pela maior quantidade de vídeos assistidos no semestre. Em relação à disciplina que origina a maior busca por vídeos está o cálculo seguido da Matemática. Considerando a popularização do YouTube, reflete-se sobre a necessária discussão pedagógica, no processo de formação do professor de Matemática

Microbial Diversity in the Eukaryotic SAR Clade: Illuminating the Darkness Between Morphology and Molecular Data

Despite their diversity and ecological importance, many areas of the SAR—Stramenopila, Alveolata, and Rhizaria—clade are poorly understood as the majority (90%) of SAR species lack molecular data and only 5% of species are from well-sampled families. Here, we review and summarize the state of knowledge about the three major clades of SAR, describing the diversity within each clade and identifying synapomorphies when possible. We also assess the “dark area” of SAR: the morphologically described species that are missing molecular data. The majority of molecular data for SAR lineages are characterized from marine samples and vertebrate hosts, highlighting the need for additional research effort in areas such as freshwater and terrestrial habitats and “non-vertebrate” hosts. We also describe the paucity of data on the biogeography of SAR species, and point to opportunities to illuminate diversity in this major eukaryotic clade. See also the video abstract above

MEET: A Monte Carlo Exploration-Exploitation Trade-off for Buffer Sampling

Data selection is essential for any data-based optimization technique, such as Reinforcement Learning. State-of-the-art sampling strategies for the experience replay buffer improve the performance of the Reinforcement Learning agent. However, they do not incorporate uncertainty in the Q-Value estimation. Consequently, they cannot adapt the sampling strategies, including exploration and exploitation of transitions, to the complexity of the task. To address this, this paper proposes a new sampling strategy that leverages the exploration-exploitation trade-off. This is enabled by the uncertainty estimation of the Q-Value function, which guides the sampling to explore more significant transitions and, thus, learn a more efficient policy. Experiments on classical control environments demonstrate stable results across various environments. They show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art sampling strategies for dense rewards w.r.t. convergence and peak performance by 26% on average.Comment: Accepted at ICASSP 202

CONSTRUINDO MAQUETES - UMA ESTRATÉGIA DIDÁTICA INTERDISCIPLINAR NO EIXO GEOMETRIAS: ESPAÇO E FORMA

Este trabalho tem por objetivo socializar e discutir os resultados de aprendizagem relacionados a uma estratégia didática: a construção de maquetes virtuais e físicas propostas no Curso de Licenciatura em Matemática a Distância (CLMD), da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Projeto Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB3/ PARFOR), no segundo semestre de 2012. O currículo, organizado por Eixos Temáticos, tem seu planejamento com enfoque interdisciplinar. O foco deste trabalho é o Eixo Geometrias: Espaço e Forma. A base teórica deste trabalho utiliza a teoria da interdisciplinaridade, apoiada em Almeida e Passini (2002), Oliveira e Velasco (2007), Lenoir (2012), Trindade (2013) e Mello (1998). A pesquisa caracteriza-se metodologicamente como um estudo de caso, com análise qualitativa sobre dados coletados no Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (Moodle), tais como os blogs dos polos e os registros nos portfólios virtuais, um dos instrumentos de avaliação propostos. Utiliza-se, para esta análise, a metodologia da Análise Documental (Ludke e Andre, 1986). Destaca-se, como resultado, que a estratégia didática ultrapassou os objetivos estabelecidos pelos professores, pois além dos conceitos geométricos, de física e de educação ambiental, a construção da maquete envolveu conhecimentos históricos e culturais da região em um trabalho colaborativo. Foi uma experiência significativa, segundo os registros dos próprios alunos pois, além de servir para construção da sua aprendizagem, a maquete foi utilizada pelos alunos que já atuam como professores nas suas práticas pedagógicas.Palavras-Chave: Educação a Distância; Maquete; Interdisciplinaridade. Aprendizagem significativa. Building Maquetes: Interdisciplinary Teaching Strategy in Axle and Shape of Space Geometry UFPel Abstract This paper aims at socializing and discussing the learning outcomes related to a teaching strategy: the construction of virtual and physical scale models proposed in the Mathematics Degree Distance Course (CLMD), from Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Project Open University in Brazil (UAB3/PARFOR) in the second half of 2012. The curriculum is organized by Thematic Groups, with interdisciplinary focus. The focus of this work is the Axis Geometries: Space and Shape. The theoretical basis of this work uses the interdisciplinary theory, supported by Almeida and Passini (2002), Oliveira and Velasco (2007), Lenoir (2012), Trindade (2013) and Mello (1998). The research is conducted methodologically as a case-study with a qualitative analysis of data collected in the Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle), such as learning centers blogs and records from the virtual portfolios, which are some of the proposed assessment tools. For this analysis, it is used the Document Analysis (LUDKE and ANDRE, 1986) methodology. It is important to emphasize that, as a result, the teaching strategy exceeded the objectives set by teachers, because, besides the geometrical concepts, physical and environmental education, the process of building a scale model has involved the places historical and cultural knowledge in a collaborative work. It was a meaningful experience, according to the students because, besides serving for the construction of their learning, the scale model was used by students who are working already as teachers in their pedagogical practice.Keywords: Distance Education; Mockup; Interdisciplinary; Meaningful learning