A dynamic structural analysis of health and retirement

Dissertation is devoted to establishing a structural dynamic model of retirement behaviour of older workers in Norway with complete characterization of their choice sets and beliefs – explicitly dependent on health status, labour market state occupied in the previous period, outcome of job search process, household characteristics and two income indices. The first paper develops theoretical structure of the model and proceeds with estimation. In addition it studies substitution effect between early retirement and disability pension as two main exit routes from Norwegian labour market. The second paper contains a summary of the measures of quality of structural dynamic models and proposes two new approaches. One builds on McFadden’s rho while another is based on the exogenous policy change during the modelled period. The third paper is devoted to ongoing pension reform in Norway. Both labour market consequences, welfare and inequality implications are simulated on the bases of the developed structural model. My findings indicate that reform succeeds in providing older workers with incentives to postpone their retirements while increasing both social welfare and income inequality

Can Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Produce Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine?

In the last half a century, researchers and scientists discovered the application of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to clone mammalian embryos to produce a line of pluripotent stem cells for medical and laboratory use. This is a breakthrough technology that is applied to stem cell research, regenerative medicine, and cloning. Somatic cells are non-germ cells that are differentiated but provide the nuclei that are transferred to enucleated oocytes. The replacement of the nuclei results in a developing embryo that contains the genetic information of the donated nucleus, which can either be transplanted into a surrogate mother to produce a genetically similar offspring or grow in-vitro to extract embryonic stem cells (ESC). This process has made it possible for the cloning of numerous mammalian species, such as pigs, cattle, mice, and, recently, primates. Although success has been evident in mammals, human derivation of pluripotent embryonic stem cells has been difficult to obtain. The difficulty stems from the premature activation of the oocyte and the improper reprogramming of the donated nucleus. This paper focuses on the development of human nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells (ntESC) and its application in regenerative medicine. Studies done on primates provide information on the barriers of this procedure on humans and the proper modifications on regular SCNT protocol. The use of deacetylase inhibitor TSA, phosphate inhibitor caffeine, and HVJ-E for proper membrane fusion are only some of the recent methods found for proper nuclear reprogramming and embryonic development. Breakthroughs in the methylation of DNA and histones in mice provided insight to a barrier in human embryo development. As a result, derivation of embryonic stem cells was successful and tested for pluripotency. Insulin beta cells and cardiomyocytes have been produced using this modified SCNT protocol and hold great potential for the future of science. The use of nuclear transfer embryonic stem cells is important in the development of stem cells that can differentiate into specialized cells, such as neurons, that can potentially be used to cure disease, like Parkinson’s. Even more so, these cells will retain the genome of the patient and reduce immune incompatibility. The paper goes on to discuss the ethical issues that impede researchers from advancing in this area

Dependence of the SWR Linewidth on the Wavevector in Amorphous Thin Films

Work supported in part by the Central Research Project 01.08.B.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Multi-photon nonclassical correlations in entangled squeezed vacuum states

Photon-number correlation measurements are performed on bright squeezed vacuum states using a standard Bell-test setup, and quantum correlations are observed for conjugate polarization-frequency modes. We further test the entanglement witnesses for these states and demonstrate the violation of the separability criteria, which infers that all the macroscopic Bell states, containing typically $10^6$ photons per pulse, are polarization entangled. The study also reveals the symmetry of macroscopic Bell states with respect to local polarization transformations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Macroscopic Pure State of Light Free of Polarization Noise

The preparation of completely non-polarized light is seemingly easy: an everyday example is sunlight. The task is much more difficult if light has to be in a pure quantum state, as required by most quantum-technology applications. The pure quantum states of light obtained so far are either polarized or, in rare cases, manifest hidden polarization: even if their intensities are invariant to polarization transformations, higher-order moments are not. We experimentally demonstrate the preparation of the macroscopic singlet Bell state, which is pure, completely non-polarized, and has no polarization noise. Simultaneous fluctuation suppression in three Stokes observables below the shot-noise limit is demonstrated, opening perspectives for noiseless polarization measurements. The state is shown to be invariant to polarization transformations. This robust highly entangled isotropic state promises to fuel important applications in photonic quantum technologies.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Polarization-Entangled Light Pulses of 10^5 Photons

We experimentally demonstrate polarization entanglement for squeezed vacuum pulses containing more than 10^5 photons. We also study photon-number entanglement by calculating the Schmidt number and measuring its operational counterpart. Theoretically, our pulses are the more entangled the brighter they are. This promises important applications in quantum technologies, especially photonic quantum gates and quantum memories.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

High-visibility multi-photon interference of Hanbury Brown - Twiss type for classical light

Difference-phase (or Hanbury Brown - Twiss type) intensity interference of classical light is considered in higher orders in the intensity. It is shown that, while the visibility of sum-phase (NOON-type) interference for classical sources drops with the order of interference, the visibility of difference-phase interference has opposite behavior. For three-photon and four-photon interference of two coherent sources, the visibility can be as high as 81.8% and 94.4%, respectively. High-visibility three-photon and four-photon interference of space-time and polarization types has been observed in experiment, for both coherent and pseudo-thermal light.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure