The Wage Effects of Schooling under Socialism and in Transition: Evidence from Romania, 1950-2000

We estimate the impact of schooling on monthly earnings from 1950 to 2000 in Romania. Nearly constant at about 3-4 percent during the socialist period, the coefficient on schooling in a conventional earnings regression rises steadily during the 1990s, reaching 8.5 percent by 2000. Our analysis finds little evidence for either the standard explanations of such an increase in the West (labor supply movements, product demand shifts, technical change) or the transition-specific accounts sometimes offered (wage liberalization, border opening, increased quality of education). But we find some support for institutional and organizational explanations, particularly the high productivity of education in restructuring and entrepreneurial activities in a disequilibrium environment

Subtotal pancreatectomy for cancer: closure of the pancreatic remnant with staplers

This paper presents a 2-year series of 26 consecutive pancreatectomies for periampullary cancer where the pancreatic tail was closed with a stapler in order to avoid complications related to a pancreatico-digestive anastomosis. The follow-up period was 14 months or more. Seven patients developed operative complications. Pancreatic fistulas developed in 3 patients. The fistulas closed spontaneously in 2 of the patients after 2-4 months. Intraabdominal abscesses developed in 4 patients and required surgical drainage. In 1 of these patients, the abscess eroded a large vessel with a fatal outcome resulting in an operative mortality rate of 3.8%. A transient postoperative gastric stasis was observed in seven patients. Postoperative hospital median stay was 27 days (range 10-83 days). Eighteen patients have died after 4-30 months in recurrent disease and seven patients are alive after a follow-up period of 15-29 months. Pancreatic endocrine function seemed well preserved; diabetes mellitus has developed in only one patient. In conclusion, it appears that subtotal pancreatectomy with closure of the pancreatic remnant with staples gives a low morbidity and mortality. Although the conclusion should be tempered by the small number of patients, the results justify continued evaluation of this technique with long-term follow-up

IODP expedition 347: Baltic Sea basin paleoenvironment and biosphere

The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition 347 cored sediments from different settings of the Baltic Sea covering the last glacial–interglacial cycle. The main aim was to study the geological development of the Baltic Sea in relation to the extreme climate variability of the region with changing ice cover and major shifts in temperature, salinity, and biological communities. Using the Greatship Manisha as a European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) mission-specific platform, we recovered 1.6 km of core from nine sites of which four were additionally cored for microbiology. The sites covered the gateway to the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, several sub-basins in the southern Baltic Sea, a deep basin in the central Baltic Sea, and a river estuary in the north. The waxing and waning of the Scandinavian ice sheet has profoundly affected the Baltic Sea sediments. During the Weichselian, progressing glaciers reshaped the submarine landscape and displaced sedimentary deposits from earlier Quaternary time. As the glaciers retreated they left a complex pattern of till, sand, and lacustrine clay, which in the basins has since been covered by a thick deposit of Holocene, organic-rich clay. Due to the stratified water column of the brackish Baltic Sea and the recurrent and widespread anoxia, the deeper basins harbor laminated sediments that provide a unique opportunity for high-resolution chronological studies. The Baltic Sea is a eutrophic intra-continental sea that is strongly impacted by terrestrial runoff and nutrient fluxes. The Holocene deposits are recorded today to be up to 50 m deep and geochemically affected by diagenetic alterations driven by organic matter degradation. Many of the cored sequences were highly supersaturated with respect to methane, which caused strong degassing upon core recovery. The depth distributions of conservative sea water ions still reflected the transition at the end of the last glaciation from fresh-water clays to Holocene brackish mud. High-resolution sampling and analyses of interstitial water chemistry revealed the intensive mineralization and zonation of the predominant biogeochemical processes. Quantification of microbial cells in the sediments yielded some of the highest cell densities yet recorded by scientific drilling

Quantitative APT analysis of Ti(C,N)

A specially produced Ti(C,N) standard material, with a known nominal composition, was investigated with laser assisted atom probe tomography. The occurrence of molecular ions and single/multiple events was found to be influenced by the laser pulse energy, and especially C related events were affected. Primarily two issues were considered when the composition of Ti(C,N) was determined. The first one is connected to detector efficiency, due to the detector dead-time. The second one is connected to peak overlap in the mass spectrum. A method is proposed for quantification of the C content in order to establish the C/N ratio. A correction was made to the major C peaks, C at 6 and 12 Da, with the 13C isotopes, at 6.5 and 13 Da, according to the known natural abundance. In addition, a correction of the peak at 24 Da, where C and Ti overlap, is proposed based on the occurrence of single/multiple events for respective element. The results were compared to the results from other techniques such as electron energy loss spectroscopy, chemical analysis and X-ray diffraction. After applying the corrections, atom probe tomography results were satisfactory. Furthermore, the content of dissolved O in Ti(C,N) was successfully quantified. \ua9 2011 Elsevier B.V

Head injury triage in a sub Saharan African urban population

AbstractBackgroundInjuries are the ninth leading cause of death in the world and disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries. Head injury is the leading cause of trauma death. This study examines the epidemiology and outcomes of traumatic head injury presenting to a tertiary hospital in Malawi, in order to determine effective triage in a resource limited setting.MethodsThe study was conducted at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe Malawi during a three-month period. Vital signs and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) were prospectively collected for all patients that presented to the casualty department secondary to head injury. All head injury admissions were followed until death or discharge.ResultsDuring the three-month study period, 4411 patients presented to KCH secondary to trauma and 841 (19%) had a head injury. A multivariate logistic regression model revealed that GCS and heart rate changes correlated strongly with mortality. There is a four-fold increase in the odds of mortality in moderate versus mild head injury based on GCS.ConclusionIn a resource limited setting, basic trauma tools such as GCS and heart rate can effectively triage head injury patients, who comprise the most critically ill trauma patients. Improvements in head injury outcome require multifaceted efforts including the development of a trauma system to improve pre-hospital care

On the Potts model partition function in an external field

We study the partition function of Potts model in an external (magnetic) field, and its connections with the zero-field Potts model partition function. Using a deletion-contraction formulation for the partition function Z for this model, we show that it can be expanded in terms of the zero-field partition function. We also show that Z can be written as a sum over the spanning trees, and the spanning forests, of a graph G. Our results extend to Z the well-known spanning tree expansion for the zero-field partition function that arises though its connections with the Tutte polynomial

Revisiting the Local Scaling Hypothesis in Stably Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer Turbulence: an Integration of Field and Laboratory Measurements with Large-eddy Simulations

The `local scaling' hypothesis, first introduced by Nieuwstadt two decades ago, describes the turbulence structure of stable boundary layers in a very succinct way and is an integral part of numerous local closure-based numerical weather prediction models. However, the validity of this hypothesis under very stable conditions is a subject of on-going debate. In this work, we attempt to address this controversial issue by performing extensive analyses of turbulence data from several field campaigns, wind-tunnel experiments and large-eddy simulations. Wide range of stabilities, diverse field conditions and a comprehensive set of turbulence statistics make this study distinct