The Jamaican Female Skills Surplus and Earnings Deficit: A Holistic Explanation

This paper addresses the poor socio-economic performance of Jamaican females despite superior human capital. A holistic explanation exploring female lifestyle choices is advanced since discipline-specific theories fail to explain occupational clustering and the resulting earnings gap. It is hypothesized that both reflect lifestyle constraints, which may be linked to characteristics of the social environment. Since these constraints affect different groups of women differently, then policies designed to reduce occupational dis-similarity and female-male earnings gap must adapt a dis-aggregated analysis. Catherine Hakim’s model of female dis-aggregation and data from the World Bank’s Living Standards Measurement Survey, LSMS, are used to advance the underlying thesis

Bye-Bye Teacher-Scholar, Hello Teacher-Scholar ? Possibilities and Perils of Comprehensive Internationalization

This article develops the claim that the Teacher-Scholar Model (TS) is ill-suited for the strategy of comprehensive internationalization (CI) which strives for global learning. CI depends on student engagement with international people and organizations. Although non-research collaborations promise to integrate the largest numbers of undergraduate students, the popular TS Model prioritizes international research collaborations. The basis of this prioritization is the contested association of scholarship with better teaching, and more recently evidence-based practice. This article considers some of the consequences of this prioritization, and proposes an update to the TS Model. The update is informed partly by; lessons from service learning and other community focused activities; a non-research collaboration involving Haitian stakeholders from the non-profit and public sectors and thirty extremely poor Haitians with disabilities; and the perceptions of fifty-seven undergraduates from a Carnegie R2 University. The proposal is also informed by an illustration of how different merit models might impact faculty who work on non-research projects. This article demonstrates that even in cases where global learning is enhanced, and collaboratorsΓÇÖ goals are realized, the TS Model is likely to undervalue faculty work. The proposed update, the Teacher Scholar-Practitioner Model, (TSP) is consistent with evidence of complex knowledge flows between practice, scholarship, and teaching. This evidence, which confirms that practice can produce original knowledge and inform scholarship and teaching, is affirmed by examples from a few innovating institutions. Their uses of merit models that align with investments in social aspirational student learning can guide for advocates of comprehensive internationalization. ┬á┬á┬

Reviews

Technology‐based Learning Environments: Psychological and Educational Foundations edited by S. Vosniadou, E. De Corte and H. Mandl, volume 137 in NATO ASI Series F (Computer and Systems Sciences), Berlin, Springer‐Verlag, ISBN: 0–387–58253–3, 1994

THE INFLUENCE OF SIZE ON PERFORMANCE IN WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS

Thirty-seven female gymnasts, aged initially between 10 and 12 years, completed a mixed longitudinal study over 3.3 years to investigate the effect of size on gymnastic performance. Subjects were tested at four-monthly intervals on a battery of measures including structural growth, strength and gymnastic performance. The size of these gymnasts at 150 months had a varying effect on perfmmance. Performances of front and back rotations, as well as the twisting jump were significantly, 'but inversely related to the height and mass of the gymnast. The twisting jump was positively influenced by a high ratio of strength to body mass. Gymnasts with large bodies also took Ilonger to perform the v-sit action, thus indicating poorer performance. A theoretical model was developed to demonstrate the effect of size on the ability to perform generic gymnastic skills

Universal primers for HBV genome DNA amplification across subtypes: a case study for designing more effective viral primers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The highly heterogenic characteristic of viruses is the major obstacle to efficient DNA amplification. Taking advantage of the large number of virus DNA sequences in public databases to select conserved sites for primer design is an optimal way to tackle the difficulties in virus genome amplification.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we use hepatitis B virus as an example to introduce a simple and efficient way for virus primer design. Based on the alignment of HBV sequences in public databases and a program BxB in Perl script, our method selected several optimal sites for HBV primer design. Polymerase chain reaction showed that compared with the success rate of the most popular primers for whole genome amplification of HBV, one set of primers for full length genome amplification and four sets of walking primers showed significant improvement. These newly designed primers are suitable for most subtypes of HBV.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Researchers can extend the method described here to design universal or subtype specific primers for various types of viruses. The BxB program based on multiple sequence alignment not only can be used as a separate tool but also can be integrated in any open source primer design software to select conserved regions for primer design.</p

SNP@Evolution: a hierarchical database of positive selection on the human genome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Positive selection is a driving force that has shaped the modern human. Recent developments in high throughput technologies and corresponding statistics tools have made it possible to conduct whole genome surveys at a population scale, and a variety of measurements, such as heterozygosity (HET), <it>F</it>_<it>ST</it>, and Tajima's D, have been applied to multiple datasets to identify signals of positive selection. However, great effort has been required to combine various types of data from individual sources, and incompatibility among datasets has been a common problem. SNP@Evolution, a new database which integrates multiple datasets, will greatly assist future work in this area.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>As part of our research scanning for evolutionary signals in HapMap Phase II and Phase III datasets, we built SNP@Evolution as a multi-aspect database focused on positive selection. Among its many features, SNP@Evolution provides computed <it>F</it>_{<it>ST </it>}and HET of all HapMap SNPs, 5+ HapMap SNPs per qualified gene, and all autosome regions detected from whole genome window scanning. In an attempt to capture multiple selection signals across the genome, selection-signal enrichment strength (E_S) values of HET, <it>F</it>_<it>ST</it>, and <it>P</it>-values of iHS of most annotated genes have been calculated and integrated within one frame for users to search for outliers. Genes with significant E_Sor <it>P</it>-values (with thresholds of 0.95 and 0.05, respectively) have been highlighted in color. Low diversity chromosome regions have been detected by sliding a 100 kb window in a 10 kb step. To allow this information to be easily disseminated, a graphical user interface (GBrowser) was constructed with the Generic Model Organism Database toolkit.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Available at <url>http://bighapmap.big.ac.cn</url>, SNP@Evolution is a hierarchical database focused on positive selection of the human genome. Based on HapMap Phase II and III data, SNP@Evolution includes 3,619,226/1,389,498 SNPs with their computed HET and <it>F</it>_<it>ST</it>, as well as qualified genes of 21,859/21,099 with E_Svalues of HET and <it>F</it>_<it>ST</it>. In at least one HapMap population group, window scanning for selection signals has resulted in 1,606/10,138 large low HET regions. Among Phase II and III geographical groups, 660 and 464 regions show strong differentiation.</p

Cognitive function in childhood and lifetime cognitive change in relation to mental wellbeing in four cohorts of older people

Background: poorer cognitive ability in youth is a risk factor for later mental health problems but it is largely unknown whether cognitive ability, in youth or in later life, is predictive of mental wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cognitive ability at age 11 years, cognitive ability in later life, or lifetime cognitive change are associated with mental wellbeing in older people.Methods: we used data on 8191 men and women aged 50 to 87 years from four cohorts in the HALCyon collaborative research programme into healthy ageing: the Aberdeen Birth Cohort 1936, the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921, the National Child Development Survey, and the MRC National Survey for Health and Development. We used linear regression to examine associations between cognitive ability at age 11, cognitive ability in later life, and lifetime change in cognitive ability and mean score on the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and meta-analysis to obtain an overall estimate of the effect of each.Results: people whose cognitive ability at age 11 was a standard deviation above the mean scored 0.53 points higher on the mental wellbeing scale (95% confidence interval 0.36, 0.71). The equivalent value for cognitive ability in later life was 0.89 points (0.72, 1.07). A standard deviation improvement in cognitive ability in later life relative to childhood ability was associated with 0.66 points (0.39, 0.93) advantage in wellbeing score. These effect sizes equate to around 0.1 of a standard deviation in mental wellbeing score. Adjustment for potential confounding and mediating variables, primarily the personality trait neuroticism, substantially attenuated these associations.Conclusion: associations between cognitive ability in childhood or lifetime cognitive change and mental wellbeing in older people are slight and may be confounded by personality trait difference

Clebsch-Gordan Construction of Lattice Interpolating Fields for Excited Baryons

Large sets of baryon interpolating field operators are developed for use in lattice QCD studies of baryons with zero momentum. Operators are classified according to the double-valued irreducible representations of the octahedral group. At first, three-quark smeared, local operators are constructed for each isospin and strangeness and they are classified according to their symmetry with respect to exchange of Dirac indices. Nonlocal baryon operators are formulated in a second step as direct products of the spinor structures of smeared, local operators together with gauge-covariant lattice displacements of one or more of the smeared quark fields. Linear combinations of direct products of spinorial and spatial irreducible representations are then formed with appropriate Clebsch-Gordan coefficients of the octahedral group. The construction attempts to maintain maximal overlap with the continuum SU(2) group in order to provide a physically interpretable basis. Nonlocal operators provide direct couplings to states that have nonzero orbital angular momentum.Comment: This manuscript provides an anlytical construction of operators and is related to hep-lat/0506029, which provides a computational construction. This e-print version contains a full set of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients for the octahedral grou