The impact of computer use, computer skills and computer use intensity: evidence from WERS 2004

Computers and ICT have changed the way we live and work. The latest WERS 2004 provides a snapshot of how using ICT at the workplace has changed our working lives. Various studies have suggested that the use of a computer at work boosted earnings by as much as 20%. Others suggest this reported impact is due to unobserved heterogeneity. Using excellent data from the WERS employer-employee matched data we compare OLS estimates with those from estimations which include controls for establishments, industrial sectors and occupations and use control function, treatment effects models and Instrumental Variable estimation. We show that the results of OLS estimation grossly overestimate the return to computer use but that including occupation controls, reduces the return to between 3-10%. We explore the return on different IT skills and also find a return to the intensity of computer use as measured by the number of tasks a computer is used for

Whether to Hire Local Contract Teachers? Trade-off Between Skills and Preferences in India.

Whether to hire teachers locally on a contract basis, or via competitive examinations and training as government officials, is a major policy question in developing countries. Recruitment practices can have implications for the competence, motivation and the cost of teachers. This study relies on a Discrete Choice Experiment to assess the job preferences of a sample of 700 future elementary school teachers in the state of Uttarakhand in India. The students have been selected using either district-wide competitive examination or from a pool of locally hired, experienced contract teachers (para-teachers). Skills in English, Arithmetic and Vocabulary are also tested. We find a trade-off between skills and preferences, as teacher students hired using competitive examination have higher skills, but prefer posts in less remote regions. Most of the differences in job preferences between the two groups can be explained by geographic origin of the teachers, skills, experience and education.Education, Para-teachers, Discrete Choice Experiment, Skills, Preferences, India

Human capital and regional growth in Finland

Recent investigations of regional growth have paid a great attention to convergence of per-capita income. These studies have shown the human capital to be a significant factor in addition to labour force, capital and technical progress when explaining the economic growth. This paper examines the convergence, and in particular the impact of human capital on regional growth in Finland. We estimate a standard neoclassical growth model extended by a human capital accumulation. The regional growth for many sectors of the finnish economy is analysed on the basis of data consisting of 12 provinces during the period 1960-1995 and 88 subregions during the period 1988-1995. The human capital is measured by the education level of the labour force with three categories and, moreover, it is constructed a regional indicator of the educational level.

Education and Mobility

We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. The analysis is based on a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, and register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.education, mobility, labour market.

Mapping of interstellar clouds with infrared light scattered from dust: TMC-1N

Mapping of near-infrared (NIR) scattered light is a recent method for the study of interstellar clouds, complementing other, more commonly used methods, like dust emission and extinction. Our goal is to study the usability of this method on larger scale, and compare the properties of a filament using NIR scattering and other methods. We also study the radiation field and differences in grain emissivity between diffuse and dense areas. We have used scattered J, H, and K band surface brightness WFCAM-observations to map filament TMC-1N in Taurus, covering an area of 1dx1d corresponding to ~(2.44 pc)^2. We have converted the data into optical depth and compared the results with NIR extinction and Herschel observations of submm dust emission. We see the filament in scattered light in all three NIR bands. We note that our WFCAM observations in TMC-1N show notably lower intensity than previous results in Corona Australis using the same method. We show that 3D radiative transfer simulations predict similar scattered surface brightness levels as seen in the observations. However, changing the assumptions about the background can change the results of simulations notably. We derive emissivity by using optical depth in the J band as an independent tracer of column density. We obtain opacity sigma(250um) values 1.7-2.4x10^-25 cm^2/H, depending on assumptions of the extinction curve, which can change the results by over 40%. These values are twice as high as obtained for diffuse areas, at the lower limit of earlier results for denser areas. We show that NIR scattering can be a valuable tool in making high resolution maps. We conclude, however, that NIR scattering observations can be complicated, as the data can show relatively low-level artefacts. This suggests caution when planning and interpreting the observations.Comment: abstract shortened and figures reduced for astrop

Education and Mobility

We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. The analysis is based on a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, and register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.labour market, mobility, education

Effects of CASP8 mutations on radiotherapy and inflammatory responses in cancer cells

CASP8 mutations occur most commonly in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), with a mutation frequency of 10,7 %. Alterations in this gene have been shown to impair the effects of radiotherapy in HNSCC patients and are associated with poor overall survival. Thus, it is of great importance to identify the means cancer cells use to escape cell death and develop resistance to cancer therapies in order to find predictive markers. Caspase-8 is a cysteine protease, encoded by the CASP8 gene that plays a crucial role in both extrinsic apoptosis and inflammatory signaling, while acting as an inhibitor of necroptosis. In apoptotic signaling, the catalytic activation of Caspase-8 by cleavage and dimerization is required, while in inflammatory signaling, procaspase-8 acts as a scaffold for FADDosome formation independently from its catalytic activity. CASP8 mutations have a complex role in HNSCC; mutations have been shown to impair and inhibit death receptor-mediated cell death as well as to promote activation of NF-κB-dependent inflammatory signaling. Previous studies have shown that HNSCC-associated CASP8 mutations could inhibit the activation of apoptotic signaling and cell death following death receptor stimulation. Moreover, mutations have been shown to both impair and enhance the NF-κB- dependent inflammatory signaling, depending on the mutation site. These findings indicate the diverse functional properties of HNSCC-associated CASP8 mutations, rather than only being loss- of-function mutations. This thesis aimed to investigate the contributions of nine HNSCC-associated CASP8 mutations (L7V, L62P, R71T, S99F, L105H, D303G, S375*, T441I and Q465*) to radiotherapy response in cancer cells. In addition, the effects of CASP8 mutations on inflammatory signaling mediated by death receptor stimulation in cancer cells were studied. CASP8 mutations were generated by site-directed mutagenesis and cloned using Gateway cloning. HeLa CASP8-/- cells were then virally transduced with mutation plasmids. Created stable CASP8 mutation cell lines were irradiated, after which cell viabilities were measured using the MTT assay. The effects of CASP8 mutations on the cytokine and chemokine expression following irradiation and TRAIL treatment were analysed by qPCR. Based on the findings from this study, mutations T441I and Q465* exhibited higher cell viability following irradiation compared to WT CASP8, suggesting that these mutations could potentially impair the activation of cell death signaling after irradiation. Moreover, seven out of nine CASP8 mutants were more sensitive to irradiation than WT CASP8. This study also showed that most of the CASP8 mutants retained their ability to activate NF-κB-dependent inflammatory signaling following irradiation or death receptor stimulation by TRAIL. However, further studies are required to determine whether mutations T441I and Q465* have potential to act as predictive markers in HNSCC

Esofagusatresia ja lasten tehohoidon erityispiirteet : Koulutustilaisuus hoitotyön opiskelijoille

Opinnäytetyöni oli tuotekehitysprojekti, jonka tulostavoitteena oli suunnitella ja toteuttaa simulaatioharjoitus sekä luento Oulun ammattikorkeakoulun Sosiaali- ja terveysalan yksikön opiskelijoille aiheesta esofagusatresia ja lasten tehohoidon erityispiirteet. Kohderyhmänä olivat akuutti- ja tehohoitoon sekä perhekeskeiseen lasten hoitotyöhön syventävät opiskelijat. Simulaatiokoulutus on uusi opetusmuoto ja tutkitusti tehokas keino yhdistää opittu teoriatieto käytäntöön. Tavoitteenani oli kehittää syventävän vaiheen opiskelijoiden simulaatiokoulutusta Oulun ammattikorkeakoulussa. Harjoitusten avulla opiskelijat pääsevät opettelemaan käytännön taitoja ja he voivat myös tehdä virheitä turvallisessa ympäristössä. Laatutavoitteena oli tehdä harjoituksesta sekä luennosta selkeät, johdonmukaiset ja haastavat. Simulaatioharjoitus testattiin opiskelijaryhmällä koulutustilaisuudessa ja heiltä saadun kirjallisen palautteen mukaan harjoitus ja luento olivat tavoitteiden mukaisia ja ke kokivat harjoituksen tarpeelliseksi sekä hyödylliseksi. Harjoitus ja luento jäävät opettajien käyttöön, jotta he voivat hyödyntää niitä tulevaisuuden opetuksessa. Esofagusatresia on synnynnäinen epämuodostuma, joka vaatii tehohoitoa sekä lähes välitöntä kirurgista hoitoa. Suomessa syntyy vuosittain noin 20-25 vauvaa jolla on esofagusatresia. Halusin tuoda opiskelijoille harjoitukseen vastasyntyneen tutkimisen rinnalle jonkin uuden sairauden. Lasten tehohoitoon liittyy erityispiirteitä, jotka siellä työskentelevän tulee tunnistaa. Luennossa korostin näitä asioita ja herätin opiskelijoissa ajatuksen siitä, mitä lasten teho-osastolla työskenteleminen vaatii hoitajalta. Tuotteestani on hyötyä niin sairaanhoitajaopiskelijoille kuin hoitotyön opettajillekin, kuitenkin tärkeimpänä hyödynsaajana on potilas sekä hänen perheensä. Tavoitteeni on, että luennon ja simulaatioharjoituksen myötä tulevat hoitotyön ammattilaiset vievät oppimansa tiedot ja taidot mukanaan työelämään. Näin opetuksen hyöty menee lopulliselle kohderyhmälle.There was a clear need for this kind of lecture and simulation exercise in the School of Health and Social Care in Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The topic of my thesis is esophageal atresia and the special characteristics of intensive care of children. Because of general economic downturn there’s less funding for teaching too and alternative teaching methods are needed to ensure that the school produces competent professionals for social and health care sectors. It is important for the students to get good learning experiences, the latest research and exercises. The purpose was to plan and implement clear, concise and challenging simulation exercises and a lecture for the students of Oulu University of Applied Sciences. The thesis was crafted as a product development project and the target group was students specializing in acute and intensive care as well as family-oriented children care. The details based on current medical literature and research data. Anyone working in the intensive care of newborns must be knowledgeable about the special characteristics of the field. In the lecture I emphasized these issues and provoked some thoughts about how it is like to work in the intensive care unit for children. The simulation exercise was tested with a student group and based on their written feedback the target was met for both lecture and the exercise. My product will be useful for nursing students as well as for teachers in the field. The products are left for the teachers to utilize in future courses. Most useful it will anyhow be for the patient and the patient's family. I hope that with the help of the lecture and simulation exercise the coming professionals of health care will bring their skills and knowledge with them to their working units. This way the outcome of my study will propagate to the actual target group