Gender equality and economic development : the role for information and communication technologies

The author focuses on the role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in improving gender equality, so as to enhance long-term economic growth. Employing OLS and IV panel regressions with country fixed-effects, he shows that increases in the level of ICT infrastructure tend to improve gender equality in education and employment. In addition, the author shows that education among the general population is important for improving gender equality. The results provide evidence indicating that gender equality in education is an important contributor to gender equality in employment. Lastly, the results show that economic development tends to lead to some improvements in gender equality in the labor market. Hence, the use of ICTs to improve gender equality in education and employment may initiate a continuous cycle of positive reinforcing feedback effects between gender equality in employment and economic development, leading to further improvements in both.Housing&Human Habitats,Gender and Development,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Housing&Human Habitats,Gender and Education,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Legal Products

Linking representative household models with household surveys for poverty analysis : a comparison of alternative methodologies

The authors compare three approaches to linking representative-household macro models with micro household income data in terms of their implications for measuring the poverty and distributional effects of policy shocks. These approaches are a simple micro-accounting method, an extension of that method to account for changes in employment structure, and the Beta distribution approach. Even though in the authors simulation exercises the three methods do not lead to fundamentally different results in absolute terms, they show that potential differences in the measurement of distributional and poverty effects of policy shocks can be very large.Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Services&Transfers to Poor,Environmental Economics&Policies,Inequality,Poverty Assessment,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research

Impacts of potential future sea level rise on the North branch of the Changjiang river estuary: Quantifying the saline water intrusion in the dry season

The phenomenon of global sea level rise (SLR) is undeniable; the 4th IPCC report summaries that the\ud average rise rate of global is 1.8 mm/y since 1961. It is widely taken for granted that SLR will have a severe impact on\ud saline water intrusion processes in estuarine areas. In this paper, by using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model\ud (MIKE21) and SLR scenarios of 0.5m, 1m and 2m, the impacts of potential future SLR on the North Branch of the\ud Changjiang River Estuary are evaluated by quantifying salinity changes in the dry season. The field data of tidal levels,\ud flow velocities and salinities are employed to validate the model, and the computed results match the observed values\ud well, which indicates that the validated model can provide reliable performances in reproducing the hydrodynamic and\ud saline water intrusion processes in the Changjiang River Estuary, then this validated numerical model was run with\ud present sea level as well as 0.5m, 1m and 2 m SLR scenarios in the dry season respectively. The computations show\ud that: i)the amplification of tidal levels in the upper reach of the South Branch is greater than that in the upper reach of\ud the North Branch with SLR; ii)the ebb and flood discharges in the upper cross-section of the North Branch both respond\ud to SLR with a significant increase trend, with the ebb flow split ratio of the North Branch increasing from 3.8% to\ud 10.3% in 2m SLR scenario; iii)the salinity in the North Branch presents a decrease trend with SLR, and the decreasing\ud extent in the upper reach is 11.4%-33.4%, which is obvious greater than that in the middle and lower reaches.\ud Consequently, it can be concluded that SLR enhances the ebb hydrodynamics and alleviates the saline water intrusion in\ud the North Branch

Prokaryotic expression, purification and immunogenicity analysis of CpsD protein from Streptococcus iniae

Streptococcus iniae is a major cause of serious bacterial infections in both fish and human beings. Capsular polysaccharide (CPS) of S. iniae is vital to evade phagocytic clearance of the host and serves as an important protective antigen of S. iniae infection in aquatic animals. The CpsD gene was determined to be highly conservative in capsule polysaccharide operon. Prokaryotic expression of the CpsD gene of a clinical isolate of S. iniae from channel catfish and immunogenic examination of the recombinant protein were first described in this essay. The recombinant protein was expressed in the form of inclusion bodies (IBs). Induction conditions in Escherichia coli were optimized with 0.6mM Isopropyl β-D-1-Thiogalactopyranoside at 37°C for 5h after the culture mid-log phase in Luria Bertani (LB) medium. The recombinant protein CpsD was thus expressed and purified by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC), yielding approximate 582.47 mg the protein per liter culture. Western blot analysis showed that the purified CpsD had reactogenicity. It will possibly reveal more details of capsule synthesis and capsule regulation during various stages of the S. iniae infectious process

Streamer Wave Events Observed in Solar Cycle 23

In this paper we conduct a data survey searching for well-defined streamer wave events observed by the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on-board the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) throughout Solar Cycle 23. As a result, 8 candidate events are found and presented here. We compare different events and find that in most of them the driving CMEs ejecta are characterized by a high speed and a wide angular span, and the CME-streamer interactions occur generally along the flank of the streamer structure at an altitude no higher than the bottom of the field of view of LASCO C2. In addition, all front-side CMEs have accompanying flares. These common observational features shed light on the excitation conditions of streamer wave events. We also conduct a further analysis on one specific streamer wave event on 5 June 2003. The heliocentric distances of 4 wave troughs/crests at various exposure times are determined; they are then used to deduce the wave properties like period, wavelength, and phase speeds. It is found that both the period and wavelength increase gradually with the wave propagation along the streamer plasma sheet, and the phase speed of the preceding wave is generally faster than that of the trailing ones. The associated coronal seismological study yields the radial profiles of the Alfv\'en speed and magnetic field strength in the region surrounding the streamer plasma sheet. Both quantities show a general declining trend with time. This is interpreted as an observational manifestation of the recovering process of the CME-disturbed corona. It is also found that the Alfv\'enic critical point is at about 10 R$_\odot$ where the flow speed, which equals the Alfv\'en speed, is $\sim$ 200 km s$^{-1}$

Neutrino-Deuteron Scattering in Effective Field Theory at Next-to-Next-to Leading Order

We study the four channels associated with neutrino-deuteron breakup reactions at next-to-next to leading order in effective field theory. We find that the total cross-section is indeed converging for neutrino energies up to 20 MeV, and thus our calculations can provide constraints on theoretical uncertainties for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. We stress the importance of a direct experimental measurement to high precision in at least one channel, in order to fix an axial two-body counterterm.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures (eps

Pair production of the heavy leptons in future high energy linear e^{+}e^{-} colliders

The littlest Higgs model with T-parity predicts the existence of the T-odd particles, which can only be produced in pair. We consider pair production of the T-odd leptons in future high energy linear $e^{+}e^{-}$ collider ($ILC$). Our numerical results show that, as long as the T-odd leptons are not too heavy, they can be copiously produced and their possible signals might be detected via the processes $e^{+}e^{-}\to \bar{L}_{i}L_{j}$ in future $ILC$ experiments.Comment: Discussions added, typos and references correcte

The Simplest Little Higgs

We show that the SU(3) little Higgs model has a region of parameter space in which electroweak symmetry breaking is natural and in which corrections to precision electroweak observables are sufficiently small. The model is anomaly free, generates a Higgs mass near 150 GeV, and predicts new gauge bosons and fermions at 1 TeV.Comment: 13 pages + appendix, typos corrected, version to appear in JHE

On the multiplicity of the O-star Cyg OB2 #8A and its contribution to the gamma-ray source 3EG J2033+4118

We present the results of an intensive spectroscopic campaign in the optical waveband revealing that Cyg OB2 #8A is an O6 + O5.5 binary system with a period of about 21.9 d. Cyg OB2 #8A is a bright X-ray source, as well as a non-thermal radio emitter. We discuss the binarity of this star in the framework of a campaign devoted to the study of non-thermal emitters, from the radio waveband to gamma-rays. In this context, we attribute the non-thermal radio emission from this star to a population of relativistic electrons, accelerated by the shock of the wind-wind collision. These relativistic electrons could also be responsible for a putative gamma-ray emission through inverse Compton scattering of photospheric UV photons, thus contributing to the yet unidentified EGRET source 3EG J2033+4118.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, conference on "The Multiwavelength Approach to Gamma-Ray Sources", to appear in Ap&S

Black hole thermodynamics with generalized uncertainty principle

In the standard viewpoint, the temperature of a stationary black hole is proportional to its surface gravity, $T_H=\hbar\kappa/2\pi$. This is a semiclassical result and the quantum gravity effects are not taken into consideration. This Letter explores a unified expression for the black hole temperature in the sense of a generalized uncertainty principle(GUP). Our discussion involves a heuristic analysis of a particle which is absorbed by the black hole. Besides a class of static and spherically symmetric black holes, an axially symmetric Kerr-Newman black hole is considered. Different from the existing literature, we suggest that the black hole's irreducible mass represent the characteristic size in the absorption process. The information capacity of a remnant is also discussed by Bousso's D-bound in de Sitter spacetime.Comment: 18 pages, great improvement on the first version; a Kerr-Newman black hole is considere