Who Benefits Most from a University Degree?: A Cross-National Comparison of Selection and Wage Returns in the US, UK, and Germany

Recent research on economic returns to higher education in the United States suggests that those with the highest wage returns to a college degree are least likely to obtain one. We extend the study of heterogeneous returns to tertiary education across multiple institutional contexts, investigating how the relationship between wage returns and the propensity to complete a degree varies by the level of expansion, differentiation, and cost of higher education. Drawing on panel data and matching techniques, we compare findings from the US with selection into degree completion in Germany and the UK. Contrary to previous studies, we find little evidence for population level heterogeneity in economic returns to higher education

NeuroML: A Language for Describing Data Driven Models of Neurons and Networks with a High Degree of Biological Detail

Biologically detailed single neuron and network models are important for understanding how ion channels, synapses and anatomical connectivity underlie the complex electrical behavior of the brain. While neuronal simulators such as NEURON, GENESIS, MOOSE, NEST, and PSICS facilitate the development of these data-driven neuronal models, the specialized languages they employ are generally not interoperable, limiting model accessibility and preventing reuse of model components and cross-simulator validation. To overcome these problems we have used an Open Source software approach to develop NeuroML, a neuronal model description language based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). This enables these detailed models and their components to be defined in a standalone form, allowing them to be used across multiple simulators and archived in a standardized format. Here we describe the structure of NeuroML and demonstrate its scope by converting into NeuroML models of a number of different voltage- and ligand-gated conductances, models of electrical coupling, synaptic transmission and short-term plasticity, together with morphologically detailed models of individual neurons. We have also used these NeuroML-based components to develop an highly detailed cortical network model. NeuroML-based model descriptions were validated by demonstrating similar model behavior across five independently developed simulators. Although our results confirm that simulations run on different simulators converge, they reveal limits to model interoperability, by showing that for some models convergence only occurs at high levels of spatial and temporal discretisation, when the computational overhead is high. Our development of NeuroML as a common description language for biophysically detailed neuronal and network models enables interoperability across multiple simulation environments, thereby improving model transparency, accessibility and reuse in computational neuroscience

The new political economy of higher education: between distributional conflicts and discursive stratification

The higher education sector has been undergoing a far-reaching institutional re-orientation during the past two decades. Many adjustments appear to have strengthened the role of competition in the governance of higher education, but the character of the sector?s emerging new political economy has frequently remained unclear. Serving as the introduction for the special issue, this article makes the case for a multidimensional strategy to probe higher education?s competitive transformation. In terms of conceptualizing the major empirical shifts, we argue for analyzing three core phenomena: varieties of academic capitalism, the discursive construction of inequality, and the transformation of hierarchies in competitive settings. With respect to theoretical tools, we emphasize the complementary contributions of institutional, class-oriented, and discourse analytical approaches. As this introduction elaborates and the contributions to the special issue demonstrate, critical dialog among different analytical traditions over the interpretation of change is crucial for improving established understandings. Arguably, it is essential for clarifying the respective roles of capitalist power and hierarchical rule in the construction of the sector?s new order

Relação entre autoavaliação vocal e dados da avaliação clínica em indivíduos disfônicos

OBJETIVO: associar os índices de autoavaliação vocal aos dados da avaliação clínica de indivíduos disfônicos. MÉTODOS: estudo observacional, analítico, retrospectivo. Foram analisados os prontuários de pacientes disfônicos atendidos em uma Clínica-Escola de Fonoaudiologia no período de 2007 a 2011. Foram levantados os dados referentes à autoavaliação vocal (índices de qualidade de vida em voz, desvantagem vocal e atribuição de nota referente ao impacto vocal), à anamnese (sexo, idade, profissão, tipo de queixa, tempo de queixa, tratamentos anteriores para a disfonia), à avaliação perceptivo-auditiva (qualidade vocal, grau de alteração, pitch, loudness, ressonância, articulação e coordenação pneumofonoarticulatória) e aos dados objetivos (tempos máximos fonatórios e relação s/z). Os dados foram tabulados e analisados estatisticamente. RESULTADOS: não houve diferença na comparação dos escores do protocolo de qualidade de vida em voz e índice de desvantagem vocal com as variáveis referentes a sexo, qualidade vocal, grau de alteração, pitch, ressonância, articulação, velocidade de fala e tipo de disfonia. Indivíduos que utilizam a voz profissionalmente e que já fizeram tratamentos anteriores para a disfonia apresentaram piores índices na autoavaliação vocal. Quanto à avaliação clínica, a incoordenação penumofonoarticulatória foi o único parâmetro que interferiu negativamente na autoavaliação. Não houve correlações entre os índices de autoavaliação vocal e as demais variáveis contínuas (idade, tempo de queixa, tempos máximos fonatórios e relação s/z). CONCLUSÃO: a autoavaliação vocal é uma impressão bastante subjetiva, e independe da maior parte dos dados coletados na avaliação clínica. Ser profissional da voz, já ter buscado outros tratamentos para a disfonia e apresentar incoordenação penumofonoarticulatória parece influenciar negativamente na autoavaliação do indivíduo acerca do impacto do distúrbio vocal em sua vida diária

What determines the motivation for further training? Results from a factorial survey among jobseekers

Publically sponsored further trainings for the unemployed are an important measure of active labour market policies (ALMP) in Germany. Current discussions within this context also focus on the willingness to participate, which is an important prerequisite for the success of the programs. Financial incentives may foster both participation and successful completion, thereby reducing opportunity costs of these measures. We investigate the question what factors determine the motivation to participate by conducting a CATI survey among around 4000 unemployed persons from the unemployment insurance system (Social Code III) and the means-tested basic income support system for needy recipients (Social Code II). We use a factorial survey - also known as vignette analysis - in combination with administrative data of the Federal Employment Agency (FEA), the latter providing detailed information about the individual labour market history. Multivariate analyses suggest that a program's duration, monthly bonus payments in addition to regular unemployment benefits, future job prospects and gratifications for successful completion influence the probability of participation mostly in the theoretically expected way