The Old Boy Network: Gender Differences in the Impact of Social Networks on Remuneration in Top Executive Jobs

Using an original dataset describing the career history of some 16,000 senior executives and mem-bers of the non-executive board of US, UK, French and German companies, we investigate gender differences in the use of social networks and their impact on earnings. There is a large gender wage gap: women (who make up 8.8 % of our sample) earned average salaries of $168,000 in 2008, only 70$241,000 earned by men. This is not due to differences in age, experience or education levels. Women are more likely than men to be non-executives, whose salaries are lower; nevertheless, a substantial gender gap still exists among executives. We construct measures of the number of currently influential people each individual has encountered previously in his or her career. We find that executive men’s salaries are an increasing function of the number of such individuals they have encountered in the past while women’s are not. Controlling for this discrep-ancy, there is no longer a significant gender gap among executives. These findings are robust to the use of different years, to the use of salaried versus non-salaried remuneration, and to the use of panel estimation to control rigorously for unobserved individual heterogeneity. In contrast to exec-utives, the salaries of non-executive board members do not display a significant gender wage gap, nor any gender difference in the effectiveness with which men and women leverage their links into salaries. This suggests that adoption of gender quotas for board membership, as has been enacted or proposed recently in several European countries, is unlikely to reduce the gender gap in earn-ings so long as such quotas do not distinguish between executive and non-executive board members

Intermediate temperature SOFC single cell test using Nd1.95NiO4+δ as cathode

This work deals with SOFC single cell tests using neodymium nickelate Nd1.95NiO4+δ as cathode material. This MIEC oxide exhibits high values of both surface exchange coefficient (k) and oxygen diffusion coefficient (D*), as well as high electronic conductivity, which result in an enhanced electrochemical activity with respect to classical materials. The SOFC cells were fabricated from an anode-supported electrolyte half-cell provided by InDEC B.V. Corporation, with a 36mmdiameter. The Nd1.95NiO4+δ cathode was prepared as a two-stage electrode consisting of a thin interlayer of several hundred nanometers covered by a thicker layer of dozens microns. The Nd1.95NiO4+δ oxide powders were synthesized using different routes in order to reduce the final annealing temperature, and to subsequently obtain submicronic powders. I–V characteristics of the single cells were investigated under hydrogen–air conditions. The power densities versus current densities curves are reported and the results of impedance spectroscopy measurements performed under these operating conditions are discussed

Mass transfer in Taylor flow: Transfer rate modelling from measurements at the slug and film scale

Mass transfer in non-reactive gas–liquid Taylor flow has been studied at the unit cell scale with high resolution non-invasive experimental techniques for a large variety of hydrodynamic regimes at high in- ertia (30 ≤ Re b ≤ 1430). The planar laser induced fluorescence with inhibition (PLIF-I) technique has been used to measure the local oxygen concentration fields in different liquid phases (tap water, water and Breox solutions at different concentrations) in order to vary the Schmidt number Sc . The concentration field can be separated into a film region, corresponding to the thin lubrication film extended all along the channel wall, and the remainder of the liquid which makes up the slug region. It has been found that even though the global mass transfer is mainly driven by the rate of transfer in the slug, the film plays a significant role as a source of oxygen, in addition to the bubble caps, to feed the slug. In the investigated circular capillary, fed by means of a T-mixer, two contrasted configurations have been observed in the liquid phase (slugs and films), depending on a critical bubble Reynolds number of ∼300, where the time-averaged concentration fields are found to differ considerably. For large Reynolds number, particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements have revealed low temporal fluctuations at the rear of the bubble, possibly due to the presence of adsorbed contaminants, that tends to increase mixing in the slug. Despite this difference, the mass transfer dynamics were found to be controlled in all cases by the intensity of the recirculating motion in the slug, which is directly related to the bubble velocity for these cases of thin films. A new scaling law has been proposed for the overall Sherwood number, based on Re b and Sc , which satisfactorily describes the overall mass transfer of the experimental results for Re b > 120 to an accuracy of ±11%

Mass transfer characteristics and concentration field evolution for gas-liquid Taylor flow in milli channels

The results of the recent experimental work performed by Butler et al. (2016, 2018) are analysed based on the dominant phenomena: (i) small scale convection by means of Taylor vortices in the liquid slugs and (ii) diffusion in lubrication film. A main result shown here is that the Taylor circulation frequency is able to reflect the global mass transfer rate in gas-liquid Taylor flow through an almost linear relationship, which emphasizes the interest of the circulating motion in the slug, and gives a very simple correlation to predict the kLa value (at large Schmidt number). A mechanism of flow behavior during the bubble formation at the T-mixer is proposed as a possible explanation of unexpected concentration areas (called “islands”). However, despite of these unusual concentration field structures in these cases, the mass transfer rate coefficient kLa is still accurately predicted by the Taylor circulation frequency in the slug

L'Estuaire (73)

Éditorial -- Présence autochtone à la Maison Louis-Bertrand -- Le métissage au Bas-Saint-Laurent (1685-1849) -- Transformation du tissu urbain de la ville de Rimouski entre 1948 et 2004 -- La Buick Jouvin-Desrosiers -- SECTION SPÉCIALISÉE: Denis Riverin et la Compagnie des pêches sédentaires au Canada : les difficultés d'implantation d'une industrie de la pêche en Nouvelle-France (suite et fin) -- CHRONIQUES: Vieux écrits : La grande « détresse » de 1816 -- Des livres à lire

Addiction

The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in France on injection equipment-sharing, while the secondary aims focused upon their impact on access to hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing and opioid agonist treatment (OAT). The COhort to identify Structural and INdividual factors associated with drug USe (COSINUS cohort) was a 12-month longitudinal study of 665 people who inject drugs (PWID), conducted in Bordeaux, Marseille, Paris and Strasbourg. We used data from face-to-face interviews at enrolment and at 6-month and 12-month visits. The participants were recruited in harm reduction programmes in Bordeaux and Marseille and in DCRs in Strasbourg and Paris. Participants were aged more than 18 years, French-speaking and had injected substances the month before enrolment. We measured the impact of DCR exposure on injection equipment sharing, HCV testing and the use of medications for opioid use disorder, after adjustment for significant correlates. We used a two-step Heckman mixed-effects probit model, which allowed us to take into account the correlation of repeated measures and to control for potential bias due to non-randomization between the two groups (DCR-exposed versus DCR-unexposed participants). The difference of declared injection equipment sharing between PWID exposed to DCRs versus non-exposed was 10% (1% for those exposed versus 11% for those non-exposed, marginal effect = -0.10; 95% confidence interval = -0.18, -0.03); there was no impact of DCRs on HCV testing and OAT. In the French context, drug consumption rooms appear to have a positive impact on at-risk practices for infectious diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

An Orthotopic Model of Glioblastoma Is Resistant to Radiodynamic Therapy with 5-AminoLevulinic Acid

Radiosensitization of glioblastoma is a major ambition to increase the survival of this incurable cancer. The 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) is metabolized by the heme biosynthesis pathway. 5-ALA overload leads to the accumulation of the intermediate fluorescent metabolite protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) with a radiosensitization potential, never tested in a relevant model of glioblastoma. We used a patient-derived tumor cell line grafted orthotopically to create a brain tumor model. We evaluated tumor growth and tumor burden after different regimens of encephalic multifractionated radiation therapy with or without 5-ALA. A fractionation scheme of 5 × 2 Gy three times a week resulted in intermediate survival [48-62 days] compared to 0 Gy (15-24 days), 3 × 2 Gy (41-47 days) and, 5 × 3 Gy (73-83 days). Survival was correlated to tumor growth. Tumor growth and survival were similar after 5 × 2 Gy irradiations, regardless of 5-ALA treatment (RT group (53-67 days), RT+5-ALA group (40-74 days), HR = 1.57, p = 0.24). Spheroid growth and survival were diminished by radiotherapy in vitro, unchanged by 5-ALA pre-treatment, confirming the in vivo results. The analysis of two additional stem-like patient-derived cell lines confirmed the absence of radiosensitization by 5-ALA. Our study shows for the first time that in a preclinical tumor model relevant to human glioblastoma, treated as in clinical routine, 5-ALA administration, although leading to important accumulation of PpIX, does not potentiate radiotherapy