Can You Swim in Waves? Children\u27s Swimming, Floating, and Entry Skills in Calm and Simulated Unsteady Water Conditions

Little is known about the transfer of swimming skills from indoor, flat, calm conditions to outdoor, wavy, unsteady conditions. The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in swimming, floating and entry skills in children between calm and simulated open water conditions. Sixty-six children, 11 years of age, were tested on two occasions, once in calm water and once in simulated open water conditions. Testing consisted of a 200 m time trial, a 3 min back floating test, a diving entry, and a rolling entry. The results show an 8% decrement in performance on the 200 m swim between calm and unsteady conditions for those who completed the 200 m under both conditions. When weaker swimmers, who only completed 50 m of the 200 m test distance were tested, the performance decrement rose to 14%. The diving entry, the rolling entry and the floating test had decrements of 16%, 21%, and 24%, respectively. We concluded that 11-year-olds should not be expected to reproduce swimming skills they have performed in calm water with the same proficiency in unsteady conditions during an emergency

The LOTTE system of tax microsimulation models

Microsimulation models of the LOTTE system are key tools for tax policy-making in Norway and are extensively used in the budget process. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the different modules in the LOTTE family – a non-behavioral tax-benefit model for personal income tax (LOTTESkatt), a labor supply model (LOTTE-Arbeid), and a model for distributional effects of commodity taxation (LOTTE-Konsum). In addition to providing descriptions of the designs of the three microsimulation models, we give examples of how the models are used in practical and academic work.The development and maintenance of the models in the LOTTE family are supported by the Ministry of Finance

Respiratory dysfunction three months after severe COVID-19 is associated with gut microbiota alterations

Background: Although coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is primarily a respiratory infection, mounting evidence suggests that the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is involved in the disease, with gut barrier dysfunction and gut microbiota alterations being related to disease severity. Whether these alterations persist and are related to long-term respiratory dysfunction remains unknown. Methods: Plasma was collected during hospital admission and after three months from the NOR-Solidarity trial (n = 181) and analysed for markers of gut barrier dysfunction and inflammation. At the three-month follow-up, pulmonary function was assessed by measuring the diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO ). Rectal swabs for gut microbiota analyses were collected (n = 97) and analysed by sequencing the 16S rRNA gene. Results: Gut microbiota diversity was reduced in COVID-19 patients with respiratory dysfunction, defined as DLCO below the lower limit of normal three months after hospitalisation. These patients also had an altered global gut microbiota composition, with reduced relative abundance of 20 bacterial taxa and increased abundance of five taxa, including Veillonella, potentially linked to fibrosis. During hospitalisation, increased plasma levels of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) were strongly associated with respiratory failure, defined as pO2 /fiO2 -(P/F ratio)Respiratory dysfunction three months after severe COVID-19 is associated with gut microbiota alterationsacceptedVersio

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Penger og kreativitet - hvilken effekt har monetære incentiver og gruppearbeid på prestasjon?

I 1962 var Sam Glucksberg en av de første som undersøkte hvilken effekt monetære incentiver har på prestasjon. Glucksberg viste at bruken av monetære incentiver virke hemmende på prestasjon når oppgaven som skal løses er en innsiktsoppgave. I 2012 skrev Joachim Ramm en masteroppgave hvor han undersøkte om resultatene fra Sam Glucksberg sitt eksperiment kunne gjenskapes. Videre undersøkte han om dette resultatet også gjelder når individer jobber sammen i par for å løse oppgaven. Han fant at parene presterte langt bedre enn individene som jobbet alene. Ramm klarte imidlertid ikke å gjenskape resultatene fra Glucksberg sitt eksperiment - incentiviserte og ikke-incentiviserte deltakere presterte like bra i Ramm sitt eksperiment. I denne masteroppgaven ønsker jeg å undersøke de samme problemstillingene omkring monetære incentiver, gruppearbeid og prestasjon som Joachim Ramm (2012) og Sam Glucksberg (1962), men med en annen tilnærming. Blant annet brukes en annen innsiktsoppgave - nipunktsproblemet - og flere detaljer omkring utførelsen av eksperimentet endres. Oppgaven deltakerne i eksperimentene til Glucksberg og Ramm skulle løse var stearinlysproblemet. Resultatene viser ingen total forskjell i prestasjon mellom individer og par, eller mellom incentiviserte og ikke-incentiviserte deltakere. Imidlertid finner vi en klar positiv effekt av gruppearbeid og en tydelig negativ effekt av monetære incentiver hos deltakere som klarer å løse nipunktsproblemet med tre streker

Alternatives to paying child benefit to the rich: means testing or higher tax?

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 implies that the US is effectively moving towards a general child benefit. However, the amount paid out is dependent on income, similar to schemes in several other countries. In the present paper, we argue that instead of suppressing the labour supply of middle income parents through withdrawing the transfer as a function of income, one should consider the obvious alternative of financing a generous universal child benefit by changing the overall income tax system. Implications of means testing relative to a tax financed universal alternative are discussed analytically in a piece-wise linear schedule. Moreover, we provide empirical illustrations of effects of child benefit design by combining information from behavioral and non-behavioral microsimulation models, representing the universe of Norwegian households. Results from both the analytical discussion and the simulations question the case for letting the child benefit be means tested.Financial support from the Ministry of Children and Equality is gratefully acknowledge

Validation of the discrete choice labor supply model by methods of the new tax responsiveness literature

The static structural discrete choice labor supply model continues to be a workhorse in the process of policy-making, extensively used by policy-makers to predict labor supply effects of changes in the personal income tax system. A widely used alternative to obtain estimates of individual tax responsiveness is to exploit the diversity of tax treatment generated by a tax reform to recover tax induced outcome differences in data. Response estimates obtained from analysis of tax reforms are less useful for describing effects of prospective policies, but represent an underexploited source of information for out-of-sample validation of labor supply models. The present study describes how estimates of responses in working hours and income, generated from a tax reform, can be used to validate a discrete choice labor supply model; thus, bringing together and providing guidance to how results of two main avenues of obtaining estimates of tax responsiveness can be compared and interpreted. We find that the discrete choice model used by Norwegian policy-makers performs well as measured by this type of validation

An up-to-date joint labor supply and child care choice model

Norwegian parents of preschool children base their care choices on a completely different choice set from their predecessor. Now there is essentially only one type of nonparental care – center-based care – and on the parental side fathers take a more pivotal role in early childhood care. In the present paper we develop and estimate a joint labor supply and child care choice model that takes account of these new characteristics, on the assumption that this model points to current and future modeling directions for several other economies too. Estimations suggest that the average wage elasticity for mothers is 0.25–0.30

Validation of the discrete choice labor supply model by methods of the new tax responsiveness literature

The static structural discrete choice labor supply model continues to be a workhorse in the process of policy-making, extensively used by policy-makers to predict labor supply effects of changes in the personal income tax system. A widely used alternative to obtain estimates of individual tax responsiveness is to exploit the diversity of tax treatment generated by a tax reform to recover tax induced outcome differences in data. Response estimates obtained from analysis of tax reforms are less useful for describing effects of prospective policies, but represent an underexploited source of information for out-of-sample validation of labor supply models. The present study describes how estimates of responses in working hours and income, generated from a tax reform, can be used to validate a discrete choice labor supply model; thus, bringing together and providing guidance to how results of two main avenues of obtaining estimates of tax responsiveness can be compared and interpreted. We find that the discrete choice model used by Norwegian policy-makers performs well as measured by this type of validation

An up-to-date joint labor supply and child care choice model

Norwegian parents of preschool children base their care choices on a completely different choice set from their predecessor. Now there is essentially only one type of nonparental care – center-based care – and on the parental side fathers take a more pivotal role in early childhood care. In the present paper we develop and estimate a joint labor supply and child care choice model that takes account of these new characteristics, on the assumption that this model points to current and future modeling directions for several other economies too. Estimations suggest that the average wage elasticity for mothers is 0.25–0.30