Unemployment and Hysteresis: A Nonlinear Unobserved Components A Nonlinear Unobserved Components A Nonlinear Unobserved Components A Nonlinear Unobserved Components A Nonlinear Unobserved Components Approach

A new test for hysteresis based on a nonlinear unobserved components model is proposed. Observed unemployment rates are decomposed into a natural rate component and a cyclical component. Threshold type nonlinearities are introduced by allowing past cyclical unemployment to have a different impact on the natural rate depending onthe regime of the economy. The impact of lagged cyclical shocks on thecurrent natural component is the measure of hysteresis. To derive anappropriate p-value for a test for hysteresis two alternative bootstrapalgorithms are proposed: the first is valid under homoskedastic errorsand the second allows for heteroskedasticity of unknown form. A MonteCarlo simulation study shows the good performance of both bootstrapalgorithms. The bootstrap testing procedure is applied to data fromItaly, France and the United States. We find evidence of hysteresis forall countries under study.Hysteresis, Unobserved Components Model, Threshold Autoregressive Models, Nuisance parameters, Bootstrap

La Sangre LLama

LA SANGRE LLAMA is an exhibition of paintings featuring works by Alicia Perez. The series of paintings are acrylic on canvas all 24 x 36 , and explore the contemporary Latino immigrant experience that often involves instability, acculturation, and loss of identity. The attire found on the subjects all vary in patterns and colors to represent different nationalities that fall under the umbrella of Hispanic Culture. Intentionally concealed faces in the paintings emphasize the belief that many Hispanic immigrants are frequently viewed as stereotypes, rather than individuals. LA SANGRE LLAMA, which translates to the blood beckons, affirms the notion that regardless of geographic location, a person\u27s roots will always remain where they began

Chemical reaction systems with toric steady states

Mass-action chemical reaction systems are frequently used in Computational Biology. The corresponding polynomial dynamical systems are often large (consisting of tens or even hundreds of ordinary differential equations) and poorly parametrized (due to noisy measurement data and a small number of data points and repetitions). Therefore, it is often difficult to establish the existence of (positive) steady states or to determine whether more complicated phenomena such as multistationarity exist. If, however, the steady state ideal of the system is a binomial ideal, then we show that these questions can be answered easily. The focus of this work is on systems with this property, and we say that such systems have toric steady states. Our main result gives sufficient conditions for a chemical reaction system to have toric steady states. Furthermore, we analyze the capacity of such a system to exhibit positive steady states and multistationarity. Examples of systems with toric steady states include weakly-reversible zero-deficiency chemical reaction systems. An important application of our work concerns the networks that describe the multisite phosphorylation of a protein by a kinase/phosphatase pair in a sequential and distributive mechanism

Program Evaluation of the Employee Health and Wellbeing Program

Health promotion and disease prevention are a focus of population health management. Without ongoing and rigorous evaluation, these programs may be in jeopardy of continuing. The purpose of this project was to conduct a descriptive population health- focused evaluation of a large-scale health system\u27s employee health and wellbeing program. Guided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) framework for program evaluation in public health and National Center for Organization Development guidelines, a nurse-led evaluation was conducted using 5 specific data sets emphasizing organizational structure, employee health offerings, employee surveys, Pathway to Excellence survey, and program contributions. A descriptive analysis was applied towards interpreting the organizational structure, and identifying all contributions to employee wellness. Inferential analysis was applied to identify correlations between survey results. The findings of the evaluation were mixed. The organizational structure of the program complied with CDC wellness program guidelines; of the 97 service departments surveyed, results revealed an 83.51% improvement in engagement, disengagement, satisfaction, best places to work, and customer satisfaction. The Pathway to Excellence survey results revealed a supportive organizational structure for a culture of wellness. The program contribution analysis showed that the health system provided accessible wellness and health promotion opportunities. Positive social change may result from this evaluation as the program is reinforced and the focus on employee wellness, health promotion, and disease prevention services are continued. As a result, the lives of employees, their families, and communities might be improved

Teaching foreign languages through audiovisual translation resources: teachers’ perspectives

In the past decade, techniques traditionally used in the audiovisual translation (AVT) industry have been applied to teaching foreign languages (FL) with promising results. Both teachers and researchers have provided useful data on various AVT typologies (i.e. subtitling, dubbing, audio description) in order to improve specific learning areas: vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension, pronunciation, intercultural awareness, etc. (Ibáñez & Vermeulen, 2014; Baños & Sokoli, 2015). The following study aims to provide information in two relevant areas identified in the field: (1) the direct experience of those teachers who have been using AVT techniques in the classroom in recent years, and (2) their perspectives on in the combination of FL and AVT in the future. A total of 56 respondents from Europe, the USA and Asia participated in the study, these being teachers of French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and Catalan as an FL. The results obtained are applicable to different languages and useful to any professional interested in using AVT in their classroom or carrying out further research