Multi-sector Labour Market Search: Interactions Between Unemployment Duration And Sectoral Shocks

This thesis comprises five chapters which are all concerned with the general theme of sectoral shocks and unemployment duration. The first chapter motivates the issues addressed in the thesis by establishing their relevance and originality. The chapter begins by showing that the interaction between sectoral shocks and unemployment duration has largely been ignored in the sectoral shocks debate. The importance of unemployment duration at the theoretical level is demonstrated and data are presented to establish the empirical relevance of the theory.;The second chapter constructs and analyses a two-sector model of labour market search in which unemployment duration is an endogenous variable. Structure is imposed on the search process by adopting the matching function framework. Probabilities of exiting unemployment are related to variation in the arrival rate of job offers rather than just the offer rejection rate. The third chapter tests this relationship between labour market tightness and the transition probability into employment using monthly data for three Canadian provinces. Testing methods use flexible spline regression and isotonic regression methods to avoid the imposition of extraneous restrictions. General concordance between theoretical assumptions and empirical facts is found, and non-linearity in the estimated relationship is evidence against a simple queuing model.;In the fourth chapter, a stochastic version of the model of chapter two is developed and applied to divergent patterns of unemployment durations in Alberta and Ontario. An objective test of the pertinence of the model is conducted using a Markov switching-regression estimation method. The estimation method recovers parameters of a recruitment intensity function, Markov transition probabilities, and probabilities over states. The results support the hypothesis that sectoral shocks have affected unemployment durations.;The subject of the final chapter is the behaviour of the unemployment rate following the 1982 recession. Two stylized facts are examined: the greater persistence in Canada relative to the United States and in Alberta relative to Ontario. The contributions of unemployment insurance policy and sectoral shocks to these patterns is evaluated and some support for the sectoral shocks explanation is obtained

Setting up and Managing Chain Initiatives

Chain coordination is growing in importance to maintain access to global markets and competitive advantage. Of particular interest is how to set up and manage an initiative in a chain. Much of the research in the area of chains is based on case study examples of initiatives to improve chain performance. While this research is very rich in providing details about what was done, there can be questions of how applicable it may be in other situations. This research aimed to provide some more generalisable results that may be applied in a range of different situations

A finger on the pulse of regeneration: insights into the cellular mechanisms of adult digit tip regeneration.

In mammals, multi-tissue regeneration is largely restricted to the distal portion of the digit tip and involves the formation of a blastema, a transient, proliferating cell mass that reforms the diverse tissues of the digit. Historically little was known about the mammalian blastema but with recent advances in single cell transcriptomic approaches and genetic lineage tracing, a more precise understanding of this critical structure has begun to emerge. In this review we summarise the cellular mechanisms underlying adult mammalian digit tip regeneration. We posit that understanding how some mammals naturally regenerate complex tissues will lead to strategies for enhancing regenerative abilities in humans

High performance compression of science data

Two papers make up the body of this report. One presents a single-pass adaptive vector quantization algorithm that learns a codebook of variable size and shape entries; the authors present experiments on a set of test images showing that with no training or prior knowledge of the data, for a given fidelity, the compression achieved typically equals or exceeds that of the JPEG standard. The second paper addresses motion compensation, one of the most effective techniques used in the interframe data compression. A parallel block-matching algorithm for estimating interframe displacement of blocks with minimum error is presented. The algorithm is designed for a simple parallel architecture to process video in real time

The Situational-Cognitive Model of Adolescent Bystander Behavior: Modeling Bystander Decision-Making in the Context of Bullying and Teen Dating Violence.

Objective: Despite the proliferation of bystander approaches to prevent aggression among youth, theoretical models of violence-related bystander decision making are underdeveloped, particularly among adolescents. The purpose of this research was to examine the utility of 2 theories, the Situational Model of Bystander behavior (SMB) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), for identifying mechanisms underlying adolescent bystander behavior in the context of bullying and teen dating violence (TDV). Method: Data were collected via face to face (local) and online (national) focus groups with 113 U.S. adolescents aged 14-18 and were subsequently analyzed using deductive and inductive coding methods. Results: Youth endorsed beliefs consistent with both the SMB and TPB and with additional constructs not captured by either theory. Adolescents reported a higher proportion of barriers relative to facilitators to taking action, with perceptions of peer norms and social consequences foremost among their concerns. Many influences on bystander behavior were similar across TDV and bullying. Implications: Findings are organized into the proposed Situational-Cognitive Model of Adolescent Bystander Behavior, which synthesizes the SMB and TPB, and supports the tailoring of bystander interventions. For teens, intervening is a decision about whether and how to navigate potential social consequences of taking action that unfold over time; intervention approaches must assess and acknowledge these concerns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved

Review of Published Chain Information System Research

This paper provides a review of the literature on chains and networks that examine inter-organisational information systems used to manage chains of organisations. Difficulty was found in finding out how organisations exchanged information to manage relationships with customers and suppliers in chains. Most research publications found were based on case studies and few looked at chains of three or more organisations. Substantial research over a greater time period was found on dyadic buyer-seller inter-organisational relationships (companies and either their customers or suppliers). Conclusions are made about how to describe inter-organisational information systems and suggestions for empirical chain research using comparative pairs for data collection and analysis

Adjusted estimates for time-to-event endpoints.

In the analysis of retrospective data or when interpreting results from a single-arm phase II clinical trial relative to historical data, it is often of interest to show plots summarizing time-to-event outcomes comparing treatment groups. If the groups being compared are imbalanced with respect to factors known to influence outcome, these plots can be misleading and seemingly incompatible with results obtained from a regression model that accounts for these imbalances. We consider ways in which covariate information can be used to obtain adjusted curves for time-to-event outcomes. We first review a common model-based method and then suggest another model-based approach that is not as reliant on model assumptions. Finally, an approach that is partially model free is suggested. Each method is applied to an example from hematopoietic cell transplantation

Amplification Dynamics of Platy-1 Retrotransposons in the Cebidae Platyrrhine Lineage

Platy-1 elements are Platyrrhine-specific, short interspersed elements originally discovered in the Callithrix jacchus (common marmoset) genome. To date, only the marmoset genome has been analyzed for Platy-1 repeat content. Here, we report full-length Platy-1 insertions in other New World monkey (NWM) genomes (Saimiri boliviensis, squirrel monkey; Cebus imitator, capuchin monkey; and Aotus nancymaae, owl monkey) and analyze the amplification dynamics of lineage-specific Platy-1 insertions. A relatively small number of full-length and lineage-specific Platy-1 elements were found in the squirrel, capuchin, and owl monkey genomes compared with the marmoset genome. In addition, only a few older Platy-1 subfamilies were recovered in this study, with no Platy-1 subfamilies younger than Platy-1-6. By contrast, 62 Platy-1 subfamilies were discovered in the marmoset genome. All of the lineage-specific insertions found in the squirrel and capuchin monkeys were fixed present. However, similar to 15% of the lineage-specific Platy-1 loci in Aotus were polymorphic for insertion presence/absence. In addition, two new Platy-1 subfamilies were identified in the owl monkey genome with low nucleotide divergences compared with their respective consensus sequences, suggesting minimal ongoing retrotransposition in the Aotus genus and no current activity in the Saimiri, Cebus, and Sapajus genera. These comparative analyses highlight the finding that the high number of Platy-1 elements discovered in the marmoset genome is an exception among NWM analyzed thus far, rather than the rule. Future studies are needed to expand upon our knowledge of Platy-1 amplification in other NWM genomes

Construct, Merge, Solve and Adapt: Application to the repetition-free longest common subsequence problem

In this paper we present the application of a recently proposed, general, algorithm for combinatorial optimization to the repetition-free longest common subsequence problem. The applied algorithm, which is labelled Construct, Merge, Solve & Adapt, generates sub-instances based on merging the solution components found in randomly constructed solutions. These sub-instances are subsequently solved by means of an exact solver. Moreover, the considered sub-instances are dynamically changing due to adding new solution components at each iteration, and removing existing solution components on the basis of indicators about their usefulness. The results of applying this algorithm to the repetition-free longest common subsequence problem show that the algorithm generally outperforms competing approaches from the literature. Moreover, they show that the algorithm is competitive with CPLEX for small and medium size problem instances, whereas it outperforms CPLEX for larger problem instances.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft