Equilibrium fluctuations for gradient exclusion processes with conductances in random environments

We study the equilibrium fluctuations for a gradient exclusion process with conductances in random environments, which can be viewed as a central limit theorem for the empirical distribution of particles when the system starts from an equilibrium measure

Vulnerabilities and Economic Wellbeing of Hispanic in non-Metro Missouri

Includes bibliographical references.Paper presented at American Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island, July 24-27, 2005.Non-metro Missouri has observed a net in-migration in the last decennial period and great part of these immigrants are Latinos (Lazos and Jeanetta). The literature contends that Latinos are being pulled into the rural areas by large agricultural operations and pushed out of urban areas by harsh immigration laws, and low job availability. The "context of reception" (Portes and Rumbaut) of communities where Latino newcomers settle impacts on how well they can integrate to the economy and settle as residents. This research addresses the factors explaining vulnerabilities faced by Latinos, and their economic conditions in non-metro Missouri, using the 2000 Census and Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) as well as county level data on racial profiling and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) database. The livelihoods framework (Chambers and Conway; Valdivia and Gilles; Bebbington; Ellis), a focus on capabilities, capitals, and the enabling context frames the study of the vulnerability of Latinos with respect to economic success. Racial profiling is a measure of the enabling context in communities. Regression of US born Latino wages on educational attainment, English interacting with education, work experience and mobility are significant. For foreign born Latinos significant factors are education, the interaction of education and good and low English ability, gender, work experience, racial profiling, and mobility. Being a foreign born Latina, racial profiling and mobility have all negative effects on earnings. Both low and high English ability interacting with education has a positive impact. Mobility's negative effect suggests further study of moving, which may be related to the Context of Reception.The support of the MU's Cambio Center, and the Strategic Initiatives Research Grant from the University of Missouri Systems are appreciated and made possible part of this study

The importance of social networks on Latino Immigrants' Well-being in Rural Missouri

Presentation made at Latinos in the Heartland (8th : 2010 : St. Louis, Mo.) and published in the annual conference proceedings.Latino immigrants have been changing their settlement and migration patterns. Recent immigration has seen a different breed of immigrants headed to rural areas, composed of both genders and settled longer in receiving communities. This recent wave of immigration into the rural areas has been raising concerns about resource distribution and use. Recently, monumental efforts have been put into research on Latinos' economic wellbeing because of its potential to disperse widespread fears of opportunism by Latino immigrant and point out alternative avenues of economic integration into the community. Recent research has shown that immigrant workforce is vital to the economic development of the communities receiving them. Besides contributing positively to the generation of income in the community, immigrants infuse these towns with diversity, which is vital to the socioeconomic survival of communities. On the opposite side, some researchers claim that immigrants have been changing most of the small cities they have located in by draining city resources and altering the quality of life. However, the claim that Latino immigrants overwhelm social welfare services to sustain their well-being seems a little bit confusing because current law does not provide for it. A pertinent question is: in light of all these changes, how are immigrants sustaining or improving their well-being. One avenue pointed out by the literature is that Latinos use their social networks for survival in these communities. This approach suggests that besides cost-benefit analysis, individuals factor into their decisions the ability to obtain help from social resources in order to make a living in these communities. Therefore, this study adopts the stance that social networks are really important, and our objective is to assess the impact of these social networks on immigrants' well-being in both Latino and selected Missouri rural communities. Using Sustainable Livelihoods framework as a starting point, this research intends to assess Latinos' well-being in these communities. In this study, a self-defined well-being measure, subjective well-being, is used as the dependent variable. For the independent variables, besides demographic variables, social capital is used as a proxy for social networks. Additionally, better measures of ethnicity and context of reception variables are introduced to help assess both the impact of Latinos in the community as well as the perception that Latinos have of their receiving communities. The study uses ordered probit regression methods to assess the impact of social network use on well-being of Latinos and comparatively assess the differential impact of social networks on Latino immigrants? well-being due to the type of work that they have, irrespective of the areas in which they live

Acculturation, Context of Reception and Capitals Affecting Economic Integration of Latino Newcomers to the Midwest in 2009

Presentation made at Latinos in the Heartland (9th : 2011 : Columbia, Mo.) and published in the annual conference proceedings.Latino immigration to rural areas of the Midwest increased during the 1990s. Through the period 2008-2009 a household survey was conducted in three regions of the Midwest experiencing distinct labor pull factors. The questionnaire was developed using a livelihoods strategies framework. This framework acknowledges the impact of economic variables, as well as social-cultural factors, due to the characteristics of the newcomers, Latino households, which often are foreign born. Unique characteristics of this ethnic group, foreign born, of a rural origin, with lack of English ability, and cultural norms of reciprocity and informal networks, are some of the factors why the sustainable livelihoods framework can contribute to our understanding of what makes it possible for Latinos to settle and integrate. A proxy for the ability to integrate is the income earnings from employment in the community. A semi-log OLS model is specified to measure the effect of capitals, acculturation, and subjective measure of community climate on Latino newcomers' income earnings. Income earnings are used as a proxy for economic accumulation for the dependent variable. A logarithm of wages of individual i is regressed on a vector of capitals of individuals Xi and a vector of perceptions of community characteristics Zt hypothesized to affect the ability of a Latino immigrant to generate income in three regions. The inverse Mill's ratio λ is included to account for selection bias. Thus, the estimations is: L(wage) = βXi + αZt + λ(cπ) + ε where I =1,2 ... n and t = 1,2,3. Here, the β and α are vectors of unknown parameters; and ε represents the error term. X vector includes capitals; three acculturation measures; cultural identity; legal status and individual characteristics. The Z vector includes social networks and a community climate proxy. Data for this study includes three regions of Missouri, obtained from a household survey of 460 Latino/a individuals in non-urban areas of Missouri, collected in 2009. Previous study shows that most Latino immigrants move in search of work, and mobility has a negative impact on foreign-born Latino's income. Thus, mobility is hypothesized to have a negative impact on the income of those Latinos that are not properly documented, given that they are more likely to be foreign born. A composite measure of the social capital is hypothesized to have a positive effect on earnings. Preliminary study shows that integration and assimilation categories of acculturation are positively correlated with well-being; therefore these are hypothesized to affect income positively. We expect context of reception to have a negative effect on earnings, social capital to have a positive effect, education is expected to have a positive effect on earnings, and acculturation (bicultural and assimilation) a positive effect. Gender is expected to have a negative effect on income earnings. The results are expected to influence our understanding of how assets and community context, acculturation and agency influence economic integration of Latinos in their community. This study is also expected to inform the public debate and current policy aimed at immigrants in general

Equalização para Sistemas OFDM Óptico

Na ´ultima d´ecada a t´ecnica OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex ) tem ganhado cada vez mais espa¸co nas comunica¸coes com e sem fio. A ´area das comunica¸coes ´opticas tamb´em se desenvolveu bastante nos ´ultimos anos. Recentemente iniciou-se a jun¸cao destes dois recursos: a t´ecnica OFDM e o canal ´optico. Dentro deste panorama, este trabalho se propoe a estudar a conjuga¸cao destes dois recursos e propor um sistema ´optico simples, onde a compensa¸cao de dispersao e o alocamento de banda ficam sob a resposabilidade da OFDM aplicando a t´ecnica de equaliza¸cao de canal utilizando tons piloto. A esta t´ecnica ´e dado o nome de OOFDM (Optical OFDM). Neste trabalho foi considerado um sistema ´optico de fibra monomodo padrao com modula¸cao de intensidade e detec¸cao direta (IM-DD - Intensity Modulation - Direct Detection), visando deixar a parte ´optica simples. Na transmissao OFDM foi utilizada a simetria hermitiana, para a transmissao em banda base, mapeamento 16-QAM e a aloca¸cao variada atrav´es do bit loading. Para corrigir a dispersao do canal foi implementada uma estima¸cao e equaliza¸cao de canal atrav´es de tons piloto e interpola¸cao linear. O sistema foi simulado e os resultados mostraram a possibilidade de uma transmissao em 20 km de fibra com taxa de 47 Gbps com BER ≈ 10−5 e EVM ≈ −22 dB. Os resultados possibilitam a atua¸cao desta t´ecnica em redes metropolitanas e como solu¸cao para enlaces de ´ultima milha em altas taxas de bits

Abordagem em Saúde Pública da Associação do Conhecimento, condição Periodontal e Controle Glicêmico de Pacientes Diabéticos Tipo 2

Introdução: O controle da periodontite auxilia a prevenção e o controle do diabetes mellitus (DM), e a compreensão dessa relação tem potencial de provocar mudanças na política de saúde. Objetivo: Verificar, em pacientes diabéticos, hábitos de higiene bucal; encaminhamento, assiduidade e histórico de atendimento odontológico; características clínicas bucais auto-observadas que possam estar relacionadas com a manifestação de periodontite; controle glicêmico do DM e sua relação com a periodontite; conhecimento sobre a doença periodontal (DP) e sua interação com o DM. Métodos: Foi realizada uma pesquisa epidemiológica analítica transversal, com 288 pacientes portadores de DM tipo 2 de ambos os sexos, não fumantes, com idade ≥18 anos e com pelo menos um dente. Utilizou-se um questionário estruturado validado para a coleta dos dados. Num segundo momento, foram selecionados, do total da amostra, apenas os 216 pacientes que possuíam exames de sangue recentes com hemoglobina glicada (HbA1c). O controle adequado do DM foi considerado com HbA1c ≤7%. Realizou-se análise estatística descritiva e regressões logísticas simples e múltipla. Resultados: Para a população estudada, mais de 90% dos pacientes relataram escovar os dentes duas vezes ao dia ou mais; mais de 60% informaram ter visitado um dentista no último ano; aproximadamente 80% já realizaram tratamento para DP; a taxa de encaminhamento médico para tratamento odontológico foi entre 13 e 15%; e mais ou menos metade dos pacientes apresentava periodontite. Pacientes com maior escolaridade, que utilizam fio dental diariamente, com periodontite e que receberam tratamento para essa doença apresentaram mais chances de ter recebido informações sobre o que é DP (p2). Pacientes com maior escolaridade e com mais tempo de diagnóstico do DM apresentaram maior chance de ter recebido explicação sobre a relação entre DP e DM (p2). Dentre os 216 pacientes que possuíam exame de sangue com taxa de HbA1c, 59,72% estavam com o DM controlado. Não foi observada associação significante (p=0,603) entre controle de HbA1c e presença de periodontite. Com referência aos pacientes com periodontite, também não foi encontrada associação entre controlar a HbA1c, ter sido informado sobre DP (p=0,921) e conhecer a sua relação com o DM (p=0,650). Conclusão: Os pacientes diabéticos deste estudo apresentaram hábitos adequados de higiene bucal, frequência de atendimento e tratamento odontológico, e a menor parte da amostra recebeu encaminhamento médico para o dentista. Foi observada relação entre conhecimento sobre DP e escolaridade, saúde bucal e tratamento odontológico. Não foi encontrada relação entre periodontite e controle glicêmico do DM

Migration to rural communities in the Midwest : economic wellbeing and women at the household level

Includes bibliographical references.Migration patterns are changing from large metropolis to rural towns. Rather than temporary migration of male heads of households the patterns are now for families to migrate in various stages. Rural Missouri towns have attracted newcomers. Foreign born Hispanics in non metro Missouri have low income earnings, and education, mobility and being woman have a negative effect on income earnings, as regression results show. The livelihoods of rural newcomers are vulnerable, with low income, multiple adults working in the households and with limited English proficiency. This is consistent with the life stories of women in a small town near a meat processing plant in Missouri.Cambio Center Strategic Research Initiative ProjectThis work was partially funded by the Cambio Center Strategic Research Initiative Project

Rare events for Cantor target sets

We study the existence of limiting laws of rare events corresponding to the entrance of the orbits on certain target sets in the phase space. The limiting laws are obtained when the target sets shrink to a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure. We consider both the presence and absence of clustering, which is detected by the Extremal Index, which turns out to be very useful to identify the compatibility between the dynamics and the fractal structure of the limiting Cantor set. The computation of the Extremal Index is connected to the box dimension of the intersection between the Cantor set and its iterates