Decomposition of Sexual Orientation Wage Gap in Massachusetts and Alabama from 2001 to 2015

Sexual orientation wage gap has been an emerging topic in economic analysis. In United States, most of the research is focused on national level. However, given the deeply divided political ideologies on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) rights issues such as same-sex marriage legislation among different states, one might wonder whether the wage gap would be also different. In this paper, we take the first step to present a systematical comparison of the sexual orientation wage gap from the past 15 years between Massachusetts and Alabama, who are opposite sides on almost every issue regarding LGBT rights. We employed Ordinary Least Squared regression and Oaxaca decomposition to analyze the wage gap and found that there is a smaller sexual orientation wage gap in Massachusetts than in Alabama, and the wage is also closing faster in Massachusetts

Early Masseter to Facial Nerve Transfer May Improve Smile Excursion in Facial Paralysis

Background:. Masseter-to-facial nerve transfer has been shown to be an effective and safe treatment option in patients with acute and subacute facial palsy. The present article aims to characterize whether there is a benefit in early nerve transfers while minimizing other confounding variables; we present a study that consist of only patients with complete facial nerve paralysis resulting from intratemporal facial nerve resections. Methods:. Between 2012 and 2016, 7 masseter-to-facial nerve transfers were performed for complete facial nerve palsy after intratemporal proximal nerve resections. Pre- and postoperative photographic and video evaluations were performed using both the Sunnybrook facial grading scale and the MEEI FACE-gram software for more objective metric measurements. Statistical analysis was performed to determine which patient and surgical variables had significant effects on outcome. Results:. Mean 14-month follow-up revealed that patients who underwent nerve transfer prior to 6 months’ denervation achieved postoperative oral commissural excursion of 11.1 mm versus 6.5 mm in patients who underwent nerve transfer after 6 months (P = 0.003). Performing masseter-to-facial nerve transfer to the main facial nerve trunk resulted in a significantly higher improvement in the modiolus-philtral ratio (31.6% versus 6.1%) than selective transfer in patients (P = 0.01) at the latest follow-up. Conclusions:. Early masseter-to-facial nerve transfers, before 6 months of palsy duration, can potentially improve smile excursion and symmetry of open mouth smile. Additionally, truncal coaptations may provide improved tone over coapting to selective facial nerve branches. These findings necessitate larger studies regarding the importance of denervation time with fifth-to-seventh nerve transfers