As Low Birth Weight Babies Grow, Can 'Good' Parents Buffer this Adverse Factor? A Research Note.

This research note combines two national Taiwanese datasets to investigate the relationship between low birth weight (LBW) babies, their family background and their future academic outcomes. We find that LBW is negatively correlated with the probability of such children attending university at the age of 18; however, when both parents are college or senior high school graduates, such negative effects may be partially offset. We also show that discrimination against daughters does occur, but only in those cases where the daughters were LBW babies. Moreover, high parental education (HPE) can only buffer the LBW shock among moderately-LBW children (as compared to very-LBW children) and full term-LBW children (as compared to preterm-LBW children).

Parental Education and Child Health: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Taiwan

This paper exploits a natural experiment to estimate the causal impact of parental education on child health in Taiwan. In 1968, the Taiwanese government extended compulsory education from six to nine years. From that year through 1973, the government opened 254 new junior high schools, an 80 percent increase, at a differential rate among regions. We form treatment and control groups of women or men who were age 12 or under on the one hand and between the ages of 13 and 20 or 25 on the other hand in 1968. Within each region, we exploit variations across cohorts in new junior high school openings to construct an instrument for schooling. We employ this instrument to estimate the causal effects of mother's or father's schooling on the incidence of low birthweight and mortality of infants born to women in the treatment and control groups or the wives of men in these groups in the period from 1978 through 1999. Parents' schooling, especially mother's schooling, does indeed cause favorable infant health outcomes. The increase in schooling associated with the reform saved almost 1 infant life in 1,000 live births, resulting in a decline in infant mortality of approximately 11 percent.

Catalytic undirected methylation of unactivated C(sp3)−H bonds suitable for complex molecules

In pharmaceutical discovery, the "magic methyl" effect describes a substantial improvement in the pharmacological properties of a drug candidate with the incorporation of methyl groups. Therefore, to expedite the synthesis of methylated drug analogs, late-stage, undirected methylations of C(sp3)-H bonds in complex molecules would be valuable. However, current methods for site-selective methylations are limited to activated C(sp3)-H bonds. Here we describe a site-selective, undirected methylation of unactivated C(sp3)-H bonds, enabled by photochemically activated peroxides and a nickel(II) complex whose turnover is enhanced by an ancillary ligand. The methodology displays compatibility with a wide range of functional groups and a high selectivity for tertiary C-H bonds, making it suitable for the late-stage methylation of complex organic compounds that contain multiple alkyl C-H bonds, such as terpene natural products, peptides, and active pharmaceutical ingredients. Overall, this method provides a synthetic tool to explore the "magic methyl" effect in drug discovery

Income and subjective well-being: Evidence from Singapore's first national non-contributory pension

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

The effect of non-contributory pensions on labour supply and private income transfers: Evidence from Singapore

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Tetra­aqua­bis­[1-(3-carb­oxy­phen­yl)-4,4′-bipyridin-1-ium-κN 1′]zinc bis­(4,5-carb­oxy­benzene-1,2-dicarboxyl­ate) 2.5-hydrate

In the complex cation of the title compound, [Zn(C17H13N2O2)2(H2O)4](C10H4O8)2·2.5H2O, the ZnII atom, lying on an inversion center, is coordinated by two N atoms from two N-(3-carb­oxy­phen­yl)-4,4′-bipyridin-1-ium ligands and four water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral geometry. The pyromellitate anion is double deprotonated. O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds connect the cations, anions and uncoordinated water mol­ecules into a three-dimensional supra­molecular network. One of the two lattice water molecules shows an occupancy of 0.25. An intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond is present in the anion

Intergeneration Transfer of Human Capital: Results from a Natural Experiment in Taiwan

We exploit a natural experiment to estimate the causal impact of parental education on educational outcomes of their children when they are high school seniors. In 1968, the Taiwanese government extended compulsory education from 6 to 9 years and opened over 150 new junior high schools at a differential rate among regions. We form treatment and control groups of women or men who were age 12 or under on the one hand and between the ages of 13 and 25 on the other hand in 1968. Within each region, we exploit variations across cohorts in new junior high school openings to construct an instrument for schooling. We employ this instrument to estimate the causal effects of mother’s and father’s schooling on their child’s college entrance examination test scores in the years 2000-2003, on the probability that the child attended college and on the rank of the college attended. The schooling of each parent does cause their child to experience better educational outcomes. A one-year increase in the schooling of either parent raises the probability that the child attends one of the top six colleges in Taiwan by approximately 10 percent.

Pressure Transient Analysis of Dual Fractal Reservoir

A dual fractal reservoir transient flow model was created by embedding a fracture system simulated by a tree-shaped fractal network into a matrix system simulated by fractal porous media. The dimensionless bottom hole pressure model was created using the Laplace transform and Stehfest numerical inversion methods. According to the model's solution, the bilogarithmic type curves of the dual fractal reservoirs are illustrated, and the influence of different fractal factors on pressure transient responses is discussed. This semianalytical model provides a practical and reliable method for empirical applications