The impact of state appropriations and grants on access to higher education and outmigration

pre-printEducation policymakers at all levels of government have long been interested in finding ways to entice more students to go to college. This goal has been driven by the belief that, as people acquire more education, they not only reap personal benefits from their investment in education, but they also create spillover benefits for others in society (referred to by economists as "positive externalities") in ways such as raising their community's standard of living, reducing crime rates, and enhancing the region's quality of life

An examination of the reliability of prestigious scholarly journals: evidence and implications for decision-makers

In universities all over the world, hiring and promotion committees regularly hear the argument: “this is important work because it is about to appear in prestigious journal X”. Moreover, those who allocate levels of research funding, such as in the multi-billion pound Research Assessment Exercise in UK universities, often come under pressure to assess research quality in a mechanical way by using journal prestige ratings. This paper’s results suggest that such tendencies are dangerous. It uses total citations over a quarter of a century as the criterion. The paper finds that it is far better to publish the best article in an issue of a medium-quality journal like the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics than to publish the worst article (or often the worst 4 articles) in an issue of a top journal like the American Economic Review. Implications are discussed

New directions for institutional research

Publ. comme no 139, fall 2008 de la revue New directions for institutional researchIndexBibliogr. à la fin des texte

Rapid Cloning For Protein Crystallography Using Type IIS Restriction Enzymes

Recombinant proteins are used routinely in macromolecular crystallographic experiments. Efficiency in cloning thus becomes a valuable resource to a macromolecular crystallographer. The use of type IIS restriction enzymes (outside cutters) concurrent with ligation allows for rapid cloning. A vector can be modified easily to incorporate sites for outside cutters, such as BspQI or BsaI. Critical and unique to our cloning method is the upshift of reaction incubations to 50 °C where the ligase is inactivated while the restriction enzyme is still active. The result is that very low background of undesired cloning intermediates is observed. Multiple DNA molecules can be simultaneously joined with a simplicity and effectiveness that rivals overlap PCR when BsaI is used. Using type IIS enzymes thus provides great control, flexibility, and simplicity in cloning strategies