Nonstandard Forms and Measures of Employment and Unemployment in Transition: A Comparative Study of Estonia, Romania, and Russia

This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available labor force statistics relied upon in most studies of transition economy labor markets. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of employment and unemployment. Our calculations show that measured rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways can produce alternative employment rates that are sharply higher in Russia but much lower in Romania and slightly lower in Estonia, and alternative unemployment rates that are sharply higher in Romania and moderately higher in Estonia and Russia.nonstandard, work, data, unemployment, Estonia, Russia, Romania

Nonstandard Forms and Measures of Employment and Unemployment in Transition: A Comparative Study of Estonia, Romania, and Russia

This paper looks behind the standard, publicly available employment and unemployment statistics that studies of transition economy labor markets have typically relied upon. We analyze microdata on detailed labor force survey responses in Russia, Romania, and Estonia to measure nonstandard, boundary forms and alternative definitions of labor force status. Our estimates show that measured employment and unemployment rates are quite sensitive to definition, particularly in the treatment of household production (subsistence agriculture), unpaid family helpers, and discouraged workers, while the categories of part-time work and other forms of marginal attachment are still relatively unimportant. We find that tweaking the official definitions in apparently minor ways can produce alternative employment rates that are sharply higher in Russia but much lower in Romania and slightly lower in Estonia, and alternative unemployment rates that are sharply higher in Romania and moderately higher in Estonia and Russia.employment, unemployment, Estonia, Romania, Russia

On the 2d Zakharov system with L^2 Schr\"odinger data

We prove local in time well-posedness for the Zakharov system in two space dimensions with large initial data in L^2 x H^{-1/2} x H^{-3/2}. This is the space of optimal regularity in the sense that the data-to-solution map fails to be smooth at the origin for any rougher pair of spaces in the L^2-based Sobolev scale. Moreover, it is a natural space for the Cauchy problem in view of the subsonic limit equation, namely the focusing cubic nonlinear Schroedinger equation. The existence time we obtain depends only upon the corresponding norms of the initial data - a result which is false for the cubic nonlinear Schroedinger equation in dimension two - and it is optimal because Glangetas-Merle's solutions blow up at that time.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures. Minor revision. Title has been change

An alternative approach to regularity for the Navier-Stokes equations in critical spaces

In this paper we present an alternative viewpoint on recent studies of regularity of solutions to the Navier-Stokes equations in critical spaces. In particular, we prove that mild solutions which remain bounded in the space $\dot H^{1/2}$ do not become singular in finite time, a result which was proved in a more general setting by L. Escauriaza, G. Seregin and V. Sverak using a different approach. We use the method of "concentration-compactness" + "rigidity theorem" which was recently developed by C. Kenig and F. Merle to treat critical dispersive equations. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first instance in which this method has been applied to a parabolic equation. We remark that we have restricted our attention to a special case due only to a technical restriction, and plan to return to the general case (the $L^3$ setting) in a future publication.Comment: 41 page

The dynamics of the 3D radial NLS with the combined terms

In this paper, we show the scattering and blow-up result of the radial solution with the energy below the threshold for the nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation (NLS) with the combined terms iu_t + \Delta u = -|u|^4u + |u|^2u \tag{CNLS} in the energy space $H^1(\R^3)$. The threshold is given by the ground state $W$ for the energy-critical NLS: $iu_t + \Delta u = -|u|^4u$. This problem was proposed by Tao, Visan and Zhang in \cite{TaoVZ:NLS:combined}. The main difficulty is the lack of the scaling invariance. Illuminated by \cite{IbrMN:f:NLKG}, we need give the new radial profile decomposition with the scaling parameter, then apply it into the scattering theory. Our result shows that the defocusing, $\dot H^1$-subcritical perturbation $|u|^2u$ does not affect the determination of the threshold of the scattering solution of (CNLS) in the energy space.Comment: 46page

A novel myelin P0–specific T cell receptor transgenic mouse develops a fulminant autoimmune peripheral neuropathy

Autoimmune-prone nonobese diabetic mice deficient for B7-2 spontaneously develop an autoimmune peripheral neuropathy mediated by inflammatory CD4+ T cells that is reminiscent of Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. To determine the etiology of this disease, CD4+ T cell hybridomas were generated from inflamed tissue–derived CD4+ T cells. A majority of T cell hybridomas were specific for myelin protein 0 (P0), which was the principal target of autoantibody responses targeting nerve proteins. To determine whether P0-specific T cell responses were sufficient to mediate disease, we generated a novel myelin P0–specific T cell receptor transgenic (POT) mouse. POT T cells were not tolerized or deleted during thymic development and proliferated in response to P0 in vitro. Importantly, when bred onto a recombination activating gene knockout background, POT mice developed a fulminant form of peripheral neuropathy that affected all mice by weaning age and led to their premature death by 3–5 wk of age. This abrupt disease was associated with the production of interferon γ by P0-specific T cells and a lack of CD4+ Foxp3+ regulatory T cells. Collectively, our data suggest that myelin P0 is a major autoantigen in autoimmune peripheral neuropathy

Mast cell lineage diversion of T lineage precursors by the essential T cell transcription factor GATA-3

GATA-3 is essential for T cell development from the earliest stages. However, abundant GATA-3 can drive T lineage precursors to a non–T cell fate, depending on Notch signaling and developmental stage. Here, overexpression of GATA-3 blocked the survival of pro–T cells when Notch-Delta signals were present but enhanced viability in their absence. In fetal thymocytes at the double-negative 1 (DN1) stage and DN2 stage but not those at the DN3 stage, overexpression of GATA-3 rapidly induced respecification to the mast cell lineage with high frequency by direct transcriptional 'reprogramming'. Normal DN2 thymocytes also showed mast cell potential when interleukin 3 and stem cell factor were added in the absence of Notch signaling. Our results suggest a close relationship between the pro–T cell and mast cell programs and a previously unknown function for Notch in T lineage fidelity