Vintage effects in human capital:Europe versus the United States

The standard assumption in growth accounting is that an hour worked by a worker of given type delivers a constant quantity of labor services over time. This assumption may be violated due to vintage effects, which were shown to be important in the United States since the early 1980s, leading to an underestimation of the growth of labor input (Bowlus and Robinson, 2012). We apply their method for identifying vintage effects to a comparison between the United States and six European countries. We find that vintage effects led to increases of labor services per hour worked by high-skilled workers in the United States and United Kingdom and decreases in Continental European countries between 1995 and 2005. Rather than productivity growth advantage of the US and UK, the primary difference with Continental European countries was human capital vintage effects instead

Imaging Mass Spectrometry: Hype or Hope?

Imaging mass spectrometry is currently receiving a significant amount of attention in the mass spectrometric community. It offers the potential of direct examination of biomolecular patterns from cells and tissue. This makes it a seemingly ideal tool for biomedical diagnostics and molecular histology. It is able to generate beautiful molecular images from a large variety of surfaces, ranging from cancer tissue sections to polished cross sections from old-master paintings. What are the parameters that define and control the implications, challenges, opportunities, and (im)possibilities associated with the application of imaging MS to biomedical tissue studies. Is this just another technological hype or does it really offer the hope to gain new insights in molecular processes in living tissue? In this critical insight this question is addressed through the discussion of a number of aspects of MS imaging technology and sample preparation that strongly determine the outcome of imaging MS experiments

Spatially resolved generation profiles for building, land and water-bound PV: a case study of four Dutch energy transition scenarios

Alongside a transition from steerable and centralized traditional electricity generation to intermittent and more decentralized renewable electricity generation from solar panels and wind turbines, Dutch energy transition scenarios project a widespread deployment of heat pumps and electric vehicles towards 2050. While clearly contributing to the decarbonization of the Dutch energy system, these developments impose challenges regarding electricity supply-demand mismatch and grid congestion. Spatially resolved electricity demand and supply profiles are required to gain a better insight into where and when such problems are likely to occur within the different scenarios. The present paper focuses on Dutch solar energy supply and features the construction of geodatabases of scenario-specific, spatially resolved electricity generation profiles for building, land and water-bound PV. Country-level PV capacities are geographically distributed based on spatial variance in roof PV potential and availability of suitable land and water use areas. Corresponding electricity generation profiles are constructed using historical meteorological measurements, a diffuse fraction model and a anisotropic transposition model. Empirically found performance ratio profiles are applied to account for a multitude of performance loss factors, including shading, dust and inverter efficiency. In 2050, building-bound capacity is projected to show only limited overlap with both land-bound and water-bound PV capacity. On the other hand, regions with considerable water-bound PV capacity also tend to show considerable land-bound PV capacity. Compared to the present-day situation, yearly country-level PV electricity generation is projected to be a factor 18.5, 15.7, or 7.7 higher in 2050 when respectively following the Regional, National or International Steering scenarios.</p

Wives’ part-time employment and marital stability in Great Britain, West Germany and the United States

Many hail wives’ part-time employment as a work—family balance strategy, but theories offer competing predictions as to the effects of wives’ employment on relationship stability. We use panel data to test these competing hypotheses among recent cohorts of first-married couples in Great Britain, West Germany 1 and the United States. We find effects of wives’ employment on marital stability var y across the countries. In West Germany with its high-quality part-time employment, couples where the wife works part time are significantly more stable. In the more liberal British and US labour markets, neither wives’ part- nor full-time employment significantly alters divorce risk. In the United States, however, mothers working part time have significantly lower divorce risk. West German and British husbands’ unemployment proves more detrimental to marital stability than wives’ employment. These results highlight the importance of the socioeconomic context in structuring the optimal employment participation of both partners

In Vivo Electroporation Enhances the Immunogenicity of an HIV-1 DNA Vaccine Candidate in Healthy Volunteers

DNA-based vaccines have been safe but weakly immunogenic in humans to date.We sought to determine the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of ADVAX, a multigenic HIV-1 DNA vaccine candidate, injected intramuscularly by in vivo electroporation (EP) in a Phase-1, double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial in healthy volunteers. Eight volunteers each received 0.2 mg, 1 mg, or 4 mg ADVAX or saline placebo via EP, or 4 mg ADVAX via standard intramuscular injection at weeks 0 and 8. A third vaccination was administered to eleven volunteers at week 36. EP was safe, well-tolerated and considered acceptable for a prophylactic vaccine. EP delivery of ADVAX increased the magnitude of HIV-1-specific cell mediated immunity by up to 70-fold over IM injection, as measured by gamma interferon ELISpot. The number of antigens to which the response was detected improved with EP and increasing dosage. Intracellular cytokine staining analysis of ELISpot responders revealed both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses, with co-secretion of multiple cytokines.This is the first demonstration in healthy volunteers that EP is safe, tolerable, and effective in improving the magnitude, breadth and durability of cellular immune responses to a DNA vaccine candidate.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00545987