The Dynamics of Women's Labour Supply in Developing Countries

This paper investigates cyclicality in women's labour supply motivated by the hypothesis that it contributes to smoothing household consumption in environments characterized by income volatility. We use comparable individual data on about 1.1 million women in 63 developing and transition countries merged with country-level panel data on GDP during 1986-2006. The scope of these data is unprecedented in the small but growing literature on labour markets in developing countries. We find that the within-country relationship of women's employment and income is, on average, negative in Asia and Latin America but positive in Africa. We suggest that amongst reasons why African women behave differently are that the conventional family structure with income pooling is less the norm, there are fewer opportunities for paid employment, and aggregate income shocks are more closely tied to rainfall variation. The findings are robust to controls for country-specific trends and potentially correlated shocks. In Asia and Latin America, characteristics that strengthen counter-cyclical responses include low education, being married, being married to men with low education, low wealth, no landownings, rural residence and fertility. These findings suggest that insurance motives underpin the dynamics of women's work participation. Examination of cyclicality in the distribution of employment across types suggests that recessions in every region are associated with a rise in self-employment amongst women. In Asia and Latin America, there is a parallel rise in paid employment and a sharp drop in non-employment. In Africa, there is a decline in paid employment which overwhelms the rise in self-employment and this is how total employment comes to decline. The results have potentially important implications for understanding labour markets, fertility timing and child outcomes.insurance, women's labour supply, added worker effect, business cycles, dynamics, Africa, Asia, Latin America

Resolving the radio nebula around beta Lyrae

In this paper we present high spatial resolution radio images of the puzzling binary system beta Lyrae obtained with MERLIN at 5 GHz. We find a nebula surrounding the binary with a brightness temperature of 11000+-700K approximately 40AU across. This definitively confirms the thermal origin of the radio emission, which is consistent with emission from the wind of the B6-8II component (mass loss of order of 10^-7 Msun per year), ionized by the radiation field of the hotter companion. This nebula, surrounding the binary, is the proof that beta Layrae evolved in a non-conservative way, i. e. not all the mass lost by the primary is accretted by the secondary, and present measurements indicate that almost 0.015Msun had been lost from the system since the onset of the Roche lobe overflow phase. Moreover, the nebula is aligned with the jet-like structures inferred from recent optical measurements, indicating a possible connection among them.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Spitzer And Herschel Multiwavelength Characterization Of The Dust Content Of Evolved H Ii Regions

We have analyzed a uniform sample of 16 evolved H II regions located in a 2 Degree-Sign Multiplication-Sign 2 Degree-Sign Galactic field centered at (l,b) = (30 Degree-Sign , 0 Degree-Sign ) and observed as part of the Herschel Hi-GAL survey. The evolutionary stage of these H II regions was established using ancillary radio-continuum data. By combining Hi-GAL PACS (70 {mu}m, 160 {mu}m) and SPIRE (250 {mu}m, 350 {mu}m, and 500 {mu}m) measurements with MIPSGAL 24 {mu}m data, we built spectral energy distributions of the sources and showed that a two-component gray-body model is a good representation of the data. In particular, wavelengths \u3e70 {mu}m appear to trace a cold dust component, for which we estimated an equilibrium temperature of the big grains (BGs) in the range 20-30 K, while for {lambda} \u3c 70 {mu}m, the data indicate the presence of a warm dust component at temperatures of the order of 50-90 K. This analysis also revealed that dust is present in the interior of H II regions, although likely not in a large amount. In addition, the data seem to corroborate the hypothesis that the main mechanism responsible for the (partial) depletion of dust in H II regions ismore » radiation-pressure-driven drift. In this framework, we speculated that the 24 {mu}m emission that spatially correlates with ionized gas might be associated with either very small grain or BG replenishment, as recently proposed for the case of wind-blown bubbles. Finally, we found that evolved H II regions are characterized by distinctive far-IR and submillimeter colors, which can be used as diagnostics for their identification in unresolved Galactic and extragalactic regions.« les

Automated detection of extended sources in radio maps: progress from the SCORPIO survey

Automated source extraction and parameterization represents a crucial challenge for the next-generation radio interferometer surveys, such as those performed with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its precursors. In this paper we present a new algorithm, dubbed CAESAR (Compact And Extended Source Automated Recognition), to detect and parametrize extended sources in radio interferometric maps. It is based on a pre-filtering stage, allowing image denoising, compact source suppression and enhancement of diffuse emission, followed by an adaptive superpixel clustering stage for final source segmentation. A parameterization stage provides source flux information and a wide range of morphology estimators for post-processing analysis. We developed CAESAR in a modular software library, including also different methods for local background estimation and image filtering, along with alternative algorithms for both compact and diffuse source extraction. The method was applied to real radio continuum data collected at the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) within the SCORPIO project, a pathfinder of the ASKAP-EMU survey. The source reconstruction capabilities were studied over different test fields in the presence of compact sources, imaging artefacts and diffuse emission from the Galactic plane and compared with existing algorithms. When compared to a human-driven analysis, the designed algorithm was found capable of detecting known target sources and regions of diffuse emission, outperforming alternative approaches over the considered fields.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

New ATCA, ALMA and VISIR observations of the candidate LBV SK-67266 (S61): the nebular mass from modelling 3D density distributions

We present new observations of the nebula around the Magellanic candidate Luminous Blue Variable S61. These comprise high-resolution data acquired with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), the Atacama Large Millimetre/Submillimetre Array (ALMA), and VISIR at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The nebula was detected only in the radio, up to 17 GHz. The 17 GHz ATCA map, with 0.8 arcsec resolution, allowed a morphological comparison with the H$\alpha$ Hubble Space Telescope image. The radio nebula resembles a spherical shell, as in the optical. The spectral index map indicates that the radio emission is due to free-free transitions in the ionised, optically thin gas, but there are hints of inhomogeneities. We present our new public code RHOCUBE to model 3D density distributions, and determine via Bayesian inference the nebula's geometric parameters. We applied the code to model the electron density distribution in the S61 nebula. We found that different distributions fit the data, but all of them converge to the same ionised mass, ~0.1 $\rm M\odot$, which is an order of magnitude smaller than previous estimates. We show how the nebula models can be used to derive the mass-loss history with high-temporal resolution. The nebula was probably formed through stellar winds, rather than eruptions. From the ALMA and VISIR non-detections, plus the derived extinction map, we deduce that the infrared emission observed by space telescopes must arise from extended, diffuse dust within the ionised region.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Authors list corrected. In press in MNRAS. RHOCUBE code available online ( https://github.com/rnikutta/rhocube

The Luminous Blue Variable RMC127 as seen with ALMA and ATCA

We present ALMA and ATCA observations of the luminous blue variable \rmc. The radio maps show for the first time the core of the nebula and evidence that the nebula is strongly asymmetric with a Z-pattern shape. Hints of this morphology are also visible in the archival \emph{HST} $\rm H\alpha$ image, which overall resembles the radio emission. The emission mechanism in the outer nebula is optically thin free-free in the radio. At high frequencies, a component of point-source emission appears at the position of the star, up to the ALMA frequencies. The rising flux density distribution ($S_{\nu}\sim \nu^{0.78\pm0.05}$) of this object suggests thermal emission from the ionized stellar wind and indicates a departure from spherical symmetry with $n_{e}(r)\propto r^{-2}$. We examine different scenarios to explain this excess of thermal emission from the wind and show that this can arise from a bipolar outflow, supporting the suggestion by other authors that the stellar wind of \rmc is aspherical. We fit the data with two collimated ionized wind models and we find that the mass-loss rate can be a factor of two or more smaller than in the spherical case. We also fit the photometry obtained by IR space telescopes and deduce that the mid- to far-IR emission must arise from extended, cool ($\sim80\,\rm K$) dust within the outer ionized nebula. Finally we discuss two possible scenarios for the nebular morphology: the canonical single star expanding shell geometry, and a precessing jet model assuming presence of a companion star.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (minor revision included

Spinal hydatidosis relapse: a case report

Human cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonosis caused by the larval stage of the Echinococcus granulosus and the most common sites affected are the liver and lung in approximately 80–90% of cases. The hydatid bone represents the 0.5–2.5% of all cases and localization cord is present about 50% of the time. This benign and commonly asymptomatic disease may simulate an aggressive malignancy because of osseous destruction and aggressive extension. We report a case of a 42-year-old male patient, presented with an unusual spinal hydatidosis relapse, related to anthelmintic drug therapy withdrawal after 10-year treatment. The man had previous excision of chest and hepatic hydatid cysts (resp., 10 and 3 years ago) and after primary mediastinal and spinal involvement (3 years ago) he was lost to follow-up and discontinued drug therapy. The patient underwent surgery and the postoperative histopathology confirmed the diagnosis. The patient recovered with no complications. Despite significant progress in diagnostic imaging, pharmacological and surgical therapy, spinal CE remains associated with high morbidity

Aural Foreign Bodies in Children

Background: Pediatric aural foreign bodies (FB) are relative medical emergencies. Primary care physicians, pediatricians, and otorhinolaryngologists commonly encounter them. Objective: The objective was to carry out a retrospective analysis of pediatric aural FB managed in otorhinolaryngology department of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A total of 157 children with aural FB managed at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria, from January 2015 to December 2018 were reviewed with regard to the type of FB, location, in the ear, methods of removal,  complications, age, and sex. Results: Of the 157 children, 54.1% were males and 45.9% females. Male: female ratio was 1.2:1. Ninety‑five (60.5%) were below the age of 5 years, 46 (29.3%) were 6–10 years of age, and 16 (10.2%) were in the age group of 11–15 years. The most common objects were beads, papers, and cotton. Most presentations (86%) were within 24 h. Seven patients (4.5%) required surgical removal under general anesthesia. Most of the patients (92.4%) had no complications. Morbidities include bleeding from the ear canal 6 (3.8%), canal abrasions/lacerations 4 (2.5%), and tympanic membrane perforations 2 (1.3%). Conclusion: Aural FBs are common conditions in children in our environment. Most of these can be successfully removed by skillful personnel,  adequate immobilization, and proper instrumentation. Pediatricians, family physicians, and other health workers should not hesitate to refer to otorhinolaryngologists, uncooperative/apprehensive children, those with a history of attempted removal by their parents or caregivers, or FB whose contour, composition and position in the canal cannot be fully assessed. Keywords: Aural, children, foreign bodie

SCORPIO-II: Spectral indices of weak Galactic radio sources

In the next few years the classification of radio sources observed by the large surveys will be a challenging problem, and spectral index is a powerful tool for addressing it. Here we present an algorithm to estimate the spectral index of sources from multiwavelength radio images. We have applied our algorithm to SCORPIO (Umana et al. 2015), a Galactic Plane survey centred around 2.1 GHz carried out with ATCA, and found we can measure reliable spectral indices only for sources stronger than 40 times the rms noise. Above a threshold of 1 mJy, the source density in SCORPIO is 20 percent greater than in a typical extra-galactic field, like ATLAS (Norris et al. 2006), because of the presence of Galactic sources. Among this excess population, 16 sources per square degree have a spectral index of about zero, suggesting optically thin thermal emission such as Hii regions and planetary nebulae, while 12 per square degree present a rising spectrum, suggesting optically thick thermal emission such as stars and UCHii regions.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted by MNRA

IC 4406: a radio-infrared view

IC 4406 is a large (about 100'' x 30'') southern bipolar planetary nebula, composed of two elongated lobes extending from a bright central region, where there is evidence for the presence of a large torus of gas and dust. We show new observations of this source performed with IRAC (Spitzer Space Telescope) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The radio maps show that the flux from the ionized gas is concentrated in the bright central region and originates in a clumpy structure previously observed in H_alpha, while in the infrared images filaments and clumps can be seen in the extended nebular envelope, the central region showing toroidal emission. Modeling of the infrared emission leads to the conclusion that several dust components are present in the nebula.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; v.2 has changes in both figures and content; preprint forma