Corrigendum: Probiotics Reduce Health Care Cost and Societal Impact of Flu-Like Respiratory Tract Infections in the USA: An Economic Modeling Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2019.00980.]

Efficient and Mild Microwave-Assisted Stepwise Functionalization of Naphthalenediimide with α-Amino Acids

Microwave dielectric heating proved to be an efficient method for the one-pot and stepwise syntheses of symmetrical and unsymmetrical naphthalenediimide derivatives of α-amino acids. Acid-labile side chain protecting groups are stable under the reaction conditions; protection of the α-carboxylic group is not required. The stepwise condensation of different amino acids resulted in high yields of unsymmetrical naphthalenediimides. The reaction proceeds without racemization and is essentially quantitative.

Inequality and Human Capital in Appalachia: 1960-2000

This paper examines changes in the earnings distribution of men age 25-64 between 1960 and 2000 in Appalachia and in the remainder of the U.S. Because Appalachia is more rural than the remainder of the U.S. we also examine changes in the earnings distribution in rural vs. urban areas. Our central finding is that there have been large differences in the evolution of the earnings distribution in rural vs. urban areas and this is the principal reason that Appalachia’s earnings distribution differs to some degree from the remainder of the U.S. We find that the bottom of the earnings distribution increased in rural counties between 1960 and 1980 while there was a small decrease in the bottom of the earnings distribution in urban areas. Between 1980 and 2000, urban areas exhibited far more bifurcation of earnings than rural areas. The level and the return to education may play an important role in understanding these patterns. At the bottom of the distribution there was a large increase in education in rural areas relative to urban areas between 1980 and 2000. The relative rise at the top of the earnings distribution in cities is likely caused by men in the upper part of the earnings distribution being much more likely to have a college degree combined with a rapid rise in the return to college education

Are children 'normal'?

In his classic work on the economics of fertility, Becker (1960) suggests that children are likely “normal.” We examine this contention. Our first step is documenting an empirical regularity about the cross section of white married couples in the U.S.: when we restrict comparisons to households living in broadly similar locations (e.g., in expensive urban areas, or in rural areas), completed fertility is positively correlated with the husband’s income. Two alternative models rationalize the data—one in which children are “normal” and a second in which the observed pattern emerges solely as a consequence of rational sorting by households. In an effort to sort out causal effects, we undertake a rather specialized empirical exercise to analyze the localized impact on fertility of the mid-1970s increase in world energy prices—an exogenous shock that substantially increased men’s incomes in the Appalachian coal-mining region. We find that children are indeed “normal.”Demography

The role of location in evaluating racial wage disparity

A standard object of empirical analysis in labor economics is a modified Mincer wage function in which an individual's log wage is specified to be a function of education, experience, and an indicator variable identifying race. Researchers hope that estimates from this exercise can be informative about the impact of minority status on labor market success. Here we set out a theoretical justification for this regression in a context in which individuals live and work in different locations. Our model leads to the traditional approach, but with the important caveat that the regression should include location-specific fixed effects. Given this insight, we reevaluate evidence about the black-white wage disparity in the United States.Income distribution ; Wages ; Discrimination in employment

Are Children "Normal"?

We examine Becker's (1960) contention that children are "normal." For the cross section of non-Hispanic white married couples in the U.S., we show that when we restrict comparisons to similarly-educated women living in similarly-expensive locations, completed fertility is positively correlated with the husband's income. The empirical evidence is consistent with children being "normal." In an effort to show causal effects, we analyze the localized impact on fertility of the mid-1970s increase in world energy prices – an exogenous shock that substantially increased men's incomes in the Appalachian coal-mining region. Empirical evidence for that population indicates that fertility increases in men's income.economics of fertility, location choice, Appalachian fertility

Eagles Soar Past UMass-Lowell, 8-3

Eagles Soar Past UMass-Lowell, 8-3 Witkowski has career day at the plat

Case Management of Diabetes in the Virgin Islands

No abstract available

Demographics of the Gay and Lesbian Population in the United States: Evidence from Available Systematic Date Sources

There are thousands of studies on the gay and lesbian population. Because of the difficulty of sampling this population, most studies have used “convenience samples” for analysis. Until recently, it was extremely rare that survey data on gays and lesbians were collected from a known sampling frame, and equally rare that the same survey instrument was fielded to the gay and lesbian population and to a comparison group of other men and women. Comparative analysis of the gay and lesbian population has thus been difficult, and researchers have been properly reluctant to draw general inferences from available samples of gays and lesbians. This paper has two related objectives. First we provide an overview of standard social science data sources that now allow some systematic study of the gay and lesbian population in the United States. We consider how sexual orientation can be defined in each data source, and we note the potential sample sizes of gays and lesbians from each data source. Special attention is given to the important problem of measurement error, especially the extent to which individuals recorded as gay and lesbian are indeed recorded correctly. Our concern is that as gays and lesbians comprise a relatively small fraction of the population, modest measurement problems could lead to serious errors in inference. In examining gays and lesbians in multiple data sets we also achieve a second objective—we provide a set of statistics about the gay and lesbian population, relevant to several current policy debates