Home Ownership, Job Duration, and Wages

We investigate the impact of home ownership on individual job mobility and wages in Denmark. We find that home ownership has a negative impact on job-to-job mobility both in terms of transition into new local jobs and new jobs outside the local labour market. In addition, there is a clear negative effect of home ownership on the unemployment risk and a positive impact on wages. These results are robust to different strategies for correcting for the possible endogeneity of the home owner variable.home ownership; job mobility; duration model

Graph theoretical approaches for the characterization of damage in hierarchical materials

We discuss the relevance of methods of graph theory for the study of damage in simple model materials described by the random fuse model. While such methods are not commonly used when dealing with regular random lattices, which mimic disordered but statistically homogeneous materials, they become relevant in materials with microstructures that exhibit complex multi-scale patterns. We specifically address the case of hierarchical materials, whose failure, due to an uncommon fracture mode, is not well described in terms of either damage percolation or crack nucleation-and-growth. We show that in these systems, incipient failure is accompanied by an increase in eigenvector localization and a drop in topological dimension. We propose these two novel indicators as possible candidates to monitor a system in the approach to failure. As such, they provide alternatives to monitoring changes in the precursory avalanche activity, which is often invoked as a candidate for failure prediction in materials which exhibit critical-like behavior at failure, but may not work in the context of hierarchical materials which exhibit scale-free avalanche statistics even very far from the critical load.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Grounding Dynamic Spatial Relations for Embodied (Robot) Interaction

This paper presents a computational model of the processing of dynamic spatial relations occurring in an embodied robotic interaction setup. A complete system is introduced that allows autonomous robots to produce and interpret dynamic spatial phrases (in English) given an environment of moving objects. The model unites two separate research strands: computational cognitive semantics and on commonsense spatial representation and reasoning. The model for the first time demonstrates an integration of these different strands.Comment: in: Pham, D.-N. and Park, S.-B., editors, PRICAI 2014: Trends in Artificial Intelligence, volume 8862 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 958-971. Springe

A review of non-pharmacologic approaches to enhance the patient experience in dermatologic surgery

Efforts to increase patient comfort by minimizing pain and anxiety have been shown to improve clinical outcomes, reduce pain thresholds, decrease analgesic requirements and complication risk, strengthen the physician-patient relationship, and increase overall patient satisfaction. Patients also have a strong preference for patient-centered communication and educational discussion with physicians. In recent years, the increasing emphasis on patient experience scores as a metric for quality care has had significant implications for physician practice and has reinforced attempts to provide more patient-centered care. Though different pharmacologic agents and techniques have been extensively reviewed in the dermatologic literature, there have been few studies of non-pharmacologic strategies for improving patient-centered care. This evidence-based review describes alternative techniques that have been suggested for use in dermatologic surgery. Mechanoanesthesia, cold therapy, verbal and audiovisual distraction, music, optimal needle insertion methods, hypnosis and guided-imagery, perioperative communication, and educational strategies have been reported to improve the patient experience in dermatologic surgery. These interventions are often cost-effective and easy to implement, avoid medication side effects, and serve as adjunct approaches to enhance patient comfort. This review examines the corresponding evidence for these nonpharmacologic strategies to provide a clinical resource for the dermatologic surgeon seeking to optimize the patient experience

The Role of Central Metabolism and Electron Transport in Biofilm Formation by Vibrio fischeri

Biofilms protect bacteria from environmental threats, including antibiotics; thus, biofilms formed during infections pose an increasing threat to human health. A natural model used to study biofilm formation in the context of a host is the symbiosis between Vibrio fischeri and its host, the squid Euprymna scolopes. Successful colonization depends on the formation of a biofilm and genes involved in making the polysaccharide matrix component, syp. In culture, biofilm phenotypes, including the formation of wrinkled colonies, similarly depend on syp. However, little is known about other factors that contribute to this phenotype. To expand the utility of currently available genetic tools, I developed a Tn5 transposon containing an outward facing lac promoter and a V. fischeri strain expressing lacI with which to control that promoter. To search for genes with previously uncharacterized roles in biofilm formation, I mutagenized the lacI-expressing biofilm-forming strain, and screened for mutants that failed to form wrinkled colonies. As expected, my screen for biofilm-defective smooth colonies yielded mutants of syp genes as well as other genes known to be required for biofilm formation. Several other mutants with disruptions in genes involved in central metabolism and electron transport we also isolated. Next, I shifted my attention to characterizing these mutant strains. Mutants lacking glnA, which encodes glutamine synthetase, exhibited a severe biofilm defect that could be rescued by the addition of glutamine, its product. A mutant defective for mdh (malate dehydrogenase) displayed an intermediate (diminished wrinkling) biofilm phenotype which could also be rescued by the addition of glutamine. Mutants lacking pck, which encodes PEP carboxykinase, also exhibited a severe biofilm defect, displaying not only a smooth colony phenotype but also adhering to the agar surface. I was unable to identify conditions that fully rescued the biofilm defect, but the addition of gluconeogenic carbon sources such as glucose abrogated the adherence phenotype. An sdhE mutant formed smooth colonies with small divots after prolonged growth, and an independently isolated sdhC mutant was similarly biofilm-defective; both mutants have defects in production of the succinate dehydrogenase complex. Of note was the phenotypes of three electron transport system mutants with insertions within two nqr (Na+-translocating NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) genes and the ubiG (ubiquinone biosynthesis) gene: these mutants exhibited an extreme ability to strongly adhere attach to each other and/or the agar surface under biofilm-inducing conditions. The nqr phenotype required the production of Syp polysaccharide. Together, my work indicates a link between the metabolic state of the cell and biofilm formation