Comparison of Invariant Metrics

We estimate the boundary behavior of the Kobayashi metric on \C\sm\set{0,1}. We also compare the Bergman metric on the ring domain in \C^{2} to the Bergman metric on the ball.Comment: submitted. Version 2: added grant acknowledgemen

Convergence or Divergence? Immigrant Wage Assimilation Patterns in Germany

Using a rich German panel data set, I estimate wage assimilation patterns for immigrants in Germany. This study contributes to the literature by performing separate estimations by skill groups and controlling for a wide range of socio-economic background variables. It aims to answer the question whether Germany can be considered an attractive host country from an immigrant's perspective. Comparisons with similar natives reveal that immigrants' experience earnings profiles are flatter on average, although clear differences show up among skill groups. The effect of time spent in the host country is significantly positive for all skill groups and thus partly offsetting the diverging trend in the experience earnings profiles. Still, wage differences between natives and immigrants remain. They are particularly noticeable for highly skilled immigrants, the group needed most in Germany's skill intensive labor market. Separate estimations for immigrant subgroups confirm the general validity of the results

Systematic Review of Potential Health Risks Posed by Pharmaceutical, Occupational and Consumer Exposures to Metallic and Nanoscale Aluminum, Aluminum Oxides, Aluminum Hydroxide and Its Soluble Salts

Aluminum (Al) is a ubiquitous substance encountered both naturally (as the third most abundant element) and intentionally (used in water, foods, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines); it is also present in ambient and occupational airborne particulates. Existing data underscore the importance of Al physical and chemical forms in relation to its uptake, accumulation, and systemic bioavailability. The present review represents a systematic examination of the peer-reviewed literature on the adverse health effects of Al materials published since a previous critical evaluation compiled by Krewski et al. (2007). Challenges encountered in carrying out the present review reflected the experimental use of different physical and chemical Al forms, different routes of administration, and different target organs in relation to the magnitude, frequency, and duration of exposure. Wide variations in diet can result in Al intakes that are often higher than the World Health Organization provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI), which is based on studies with Al citrate. Comparing daily dietary Al exposures on the basis of “total Al”assumes that gastrointestinal bioavailability for all dietary Al forms is equivalent to that for Al citrate, an approach that requires validation. Current occupational exposure limits (OELs) for identical Al substances vary as much as 15-fold. The toxicity of different Al forms depends in large measure on their physical behavior and relative solubility in water. The toxicity of soluble Al forms depends upon the delivered dose of Al+ 3 to target tissues. Trivalent Al reacts with water to produce bidentate superoxide coordination spheres [Al(O2)(H2O4)+ 2 and Al(H2O)6 + 3] that after complexation with O2•−, generate Al superoxides [Al(O2•)](H2O5)]+ 2. Semireduced AlO2• radicals deplete mitochondrial Fe and promote generation of H2O2, O2 • − and OH•. Thus, it is the Al+ 3-induced formation of oxygen radicals that accounts for the oxidative damage that leads to intrinsic apoptosis. In contrast, the toxicity of the insoluble Al oxides depends primarily on their behavior as particulates. Aluminum has been held responsible for human morbidity and mortality, but there is no consistent and convincing evidence to associate the Al found in food and drinking water at the doses and chemical forms presently consumed by people living in North America and Western Europe with increased risk for Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD). Neither is there clear evidence to show use of Al-containing underarm antiperspirants or cosmetics increases the risk of AD or breast cancer. Metallic Al, its oxides, and common Al salts have not been shown to be either genotoxic or carcinogenic. Aluminum exposures during neonatal and pediatric parenteral nutrition (PN) can impair bone mineralization and delay neurological development. Adverse effects to vaccines with Al adjuvants have occurred; however, recent controlled trials found that the immunologic response to certain vaccines with Al adjuvants was no greater, and in some cases less than, that after identical vaccination without Al adjuvants. The scientific literature on the adverse health effects of Al is extensive. Health risk assessments for Al must take into account individual co-factors (e.g., age, renal function, diet, gastric pH). Conclusions from the current review point to the need for refinement of the PTWI, reduction of Al contamination in PN solutions, justification for routine addition of Al to vaccines, and harmonization of OELs for Al substances

Statistical limit point theorems

It is known that given a regular matrix A and a bounded sequence x there is a subsequence (respectively, rearrangement, stretching) y of x such that the set of limit points of Ay includes the set of limit points of x. Using the notion of a statistical limit point, we establish statistical convergence analogues to these results by proving that every complex number sequence x has a subsequence (respectively, rearrangement, stretching) y such that every limit point of x is a statistical limit point of y. We then extend our results to the more general A-statistical convergence, in which A is an arbitrary nonnegative matrix

Calculating the Course: The Impact of Mathematical Research on the Undergraduate Mathematics Curriculum, 1930-1950

Research in mathematics impacted the undergraduate mathematics curriculum between 1930 and 1950. Though the scholarship on American higher educational history is vast, mathematics as a subject has largely been ignored by historians. Furthermore, those works that discuss changes in mathematics curricula do not engage research happening in high-level mathematics. A study of mathematics curricula reveals that higher educational institutions shifted their approach to undergraduate mathematics due to developments in research, major pedagogical movements, and external historical events. This IS draws on archives of course catalogues from two higher education institutions as well as articles written by mathematicians and mathematics educators in the early twentieth century. This project strives to bring studies of mathematical research closer to related studies in mathematics curriculum by considering the historical impact of such research on the undergraduate mathematics experience

The Azukawa Metric and the Pluricomplex Green Function.

This thesis grew out of a study of the Azukawa metric, which is defined in terms of the pluricomplex Green function. The two main questions we study are upper semicontinuity of the Azukawa metric and plurisubharmonicity of a generalized Green function. We also construct a number of examples: a domain where the Azukawa metric and the closely related Sibony metric are different; a domain where the Azukawa and Sibony metrics have different pointwise hyperbolicity behavior; a domain where the Green function can not be extended continously to the boundary; and a class of domains where we find an explict formula for the Auzkawa metric. Finally, in a joint theorem with Lina Lee we show that on a Skwarczynski complete domain, the Bergman space is infinite dimensional.Ph.D.MathematicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84548/1/zeagerc_1.pd