Counterfactual Distributions with Sample Selection Adjustments: Econometric Theory and an Application to the Netherlands

Several recent papers use the quantile regression decomposition method of Machado and Mata (2005) to analyze the gender gap in log wages across the distribution. Since employment rates often differ substantially by gender, sample selection is potentially a serious issue for such studies. To address this issue, we extend the Machado-Mata technique to account for selection. In addition, we prove that this procedure yields consistent and asymptotically normal estimates of the quantiles of the counterfactual distribution that it is designed to simulate. We illustrate our approach by analyzing the gender log wage gap between men and women who work full time in the Netherlands. Because the fraction of women working full time in the Netherlands is quite low, this is a case in which sample selection is clearly important. We find a positive selection of women into full-time work and find that about two thirds of this selection is due to observables such as education and experience with the remainder due to unobservables. Our decompositions show that the majority of the gender gap across the log wage distribution is due to differences between men and women in the distributions of returns to labor market characteristics rather than to differences in the distributions of the characteristics themselves.Gender, quantile regression, selection

Bridging Nature and Artificial Intelligence for Smart Electronics Technology

The ever-developing world of artificial intelligence (AI) stands at the tip of a transformative breakthrough. Professor Martin Trefzer from the University of York and Professor Jim Harkin from Ulster University have introduced a revolutionary approach to neural network design. They work on an electronic system based on AI that forms the basis of the cross-disciplinary project called Nervous Systems, which aims to build electronic neuromorphic devices with an artificial intelligence system mirroring the adaptability and responsiveness of biological neural systems

Methods for point source analysis in high energy neutrino telescopes

Neutrino telescopes are moving steadily toward the goal of detecting astrophysical neutrinos from the most powerful galactic and extragalactic sources. Here we describe analysis methods to search for high energy point-like neutrino sources using detectors deep in the ice or sea. We simulate an ideal cubic kilometer detector based on real world performance of existing detectors such as AMANDA, IceCube, and ANTARES. An unbinned likelihood ratio method is applied, making use of the point spread function and energy distribution of simulated neutrino signal events to separate them from the background of atmospheric neutrinos produced by cosmic ray showers. The unbinned point source analyses are shown to perform better than binned searches and, depending on the source spectral index, the use of energy information is shown to improve discovery potential by almost a factor of two.Comment: pdfLaTeX, 16 pages, 12 figures. Submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Interactive Tool for Researching Large Unstructured Document Collections

Reviewing large document collections is an activity that arises commonly in certain professional contexts such as investigative journalism. Such document collections can arise in many use contexts such as investigative journalism; academic research; litigation, arbitration or other legal context; audit; research using document archives; etc. The collections may include a large number of documents, including scanned images of documents or handwritten documents, and are often devoid of structure or organization. This makes it difficult to sift through such collections and identify important pieces of information. This disclosure describes a tool that enables easier access to such collections and features that support review and research based on such document collections. Automated techniques such as optical character recognition, entity recognition, indexing, etc. are utilized to process the document collection to index the documents and to generate timelines, connection graphs, or other views on the collection. A user interface is provided that enables users to search the collection, view event timelines, make annotations, take notes, and collaborate with others. The described techniques facilitate sensemaking and can help surface latent insight

Time-Dependent Point Source Search Methods in High Energy Neutrino Astronomy

We present maximum-likelihood search methods for time-dependent fluxes from point sources, such as flares or periodic emissions. We describe a method for the case when the time dependence of the flux can be assumed a priori from other observations, and we additionally describe a method to search for bursts with an unknown time dependence. In the context of high energy neutrino astronomy, we simulate one year of data from a cubic-kilometer scale neutrino detector and characterize these methods and equivalent binned methods with respect to the duration of neutrino emission. Compared to standard time-integrated searches, we find that up to an order of magnitude fewer events are needed to discover bursts with short durations, even when the burst time and duration are not known a priori.Comment: LaTeX; 17 Pages, 4 figures; submitted to Astroparticle Physic

Nostalgic Masculinity: Homosocial Desire and Homosexual Panic in James Ellroy's This Storm

The second volume in James Ellroy's ‘Second LA Quartet’, This Storm (2019), offers a complex miscellany of war profiteering, fifth column sabotage, and institutional corruption, all of which is starkly projected against the sobering backdrop of the internment of Japanese-Americans. Whilst presenting Ellroy's most diverse assemblage of characters to date, the narrative is, nonetheless, principally centred on the intersecting bonds between men. Although the prevalence of destructive masculine authority in Ellroy's works has been widely discussed, what has often been overlooked are the specifically ‘homosocial’ dimensions of these relationships. Whilst these homosocial bonds are frequently energised and solidified by homophobic violence (both physical and rhetorical), this paper will argue that they are simultaneously wrought by ‘homosexual panic’; the anxiety deriving for the indeterminate boundaries between homosocial and homosexual desire. This panic is expressed most profoundly in This Storm in the form of corrupt policeman Dudley Smith. Haunted by a repressed homosexual encounter, Smith's paranoid behaviour and increasingly punitive violence derives from his inability to establish clear boundaries between his intense homosocial bonds and latent homosexual desires. Thus, whilst Ellroy's ‘nostalgic masculinity’ attempts to circumscribe the dimensions and inviolability of male identity, the paranoia and violence that underscores the various machinations of Ellroy's crooked cops ultimately exposes the fragility of such constructions

Artificial Neural Microcircuits for use in Neuromorphic System Design

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are one of the most widely employed forms of biomorphic computation. However (unlike the biological nervous systems they draw inspiration from) the current trend is for ANNs to be structurally homogeneous. Furthermore, this structural homogeneity requires the application of complex training & learning tools that produce application specific ANNs, susceptible to pitfalls like overfitting. In this paper, an alternative approach is suggested, inspired by the role played in biology by Neural Microcircuits, the so called “fundamental processing elements” of organic nervous systems. How large neural networks can be assembled using Artificial Neural Microcircuits, intended as off-the-shelf components, is articulated; before showing the results of initial work to produce a catalogue of such Microcircuits though the use of Novelty Search

The Global Flood Partnership Conference 2017 - From hazards to impacts

From 27 – 29 June 2017, the 2017 Global Flood Partnership Conference was held at the University of Alabama, U.S.A. More than 90 participants attended the conference coming from 11 different countries in 5 continents. They represented 56 institutions including international organisations, the private sector, national authorities, universities, governmental research agencies and non-profit organisations. Each year, floods cause devastating losses and damage across the world. Growing populations in ill-planned flood-prone coastal and riverine areas are increasingly exposed to more extreme rainfall events. With more population and economic assets at risk, governments, banks, international development and relief agencies, and private firms are investing in flood reduction measures. However, in many countries, the flood risk is not managed optimally because of a lack of scientific data and methods or a communication gap between science and risk managers. The Global Flood Partnership was launched in 2014 and is a cooperation framework between scientific organisations and flood disaster managers worldwide to develop flood observational and modeling infrastructure, leveraging on existing initiatives for better predicting and managing flood disaster impacts and flood risk globally. The conference theme was “From hazards to impacts” and participants had the opportunity to showcase their latest relevant research and activities. As usual, the advances and success stories of the Partnership were reviewed and the next steps to further strengthen the GFP were discussed. As in past meetings, participants had numerous opportunities to present their work, exchange ideas, and turn it into a lively and successful meeting. This included a "Marketplace of Ideas" session, "Ignite" talks, Problem-solving session, workshops, poster pitch session and breakout groups.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Nanometer Scale Dielectric Fluctuations at the Glass Transition

Using non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, dielectric properties were studied on 50 nanometer length scales in poly-vinyl-acetate (PVAc) films in the vicinity of the glass transition. Low frequency (1/f) noise observed in the measurements, was shown to arise from thermal fluctuations of the electric polarization. Anomalous variations observed in the noise spectrum provide direct evidence for cooperative nano-regions with heterogeneous kinetics. The cooperative length scale was determined. Heterogeneity was long-lived only well below the glass transition for faster than average processes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 embedded PS figures, RevTeX - To appear in Phys. Rev. Let