On the effects of ranking by unemployment duration

We propose a theory based on the firm's hiring behavior that rationalizes the observed significant decline of callback rates for an interview and exit rates from unemployment and the mild decline of reemployment wages over unemployment duration. We build a directed search model with symmetric incomplete information on worker types and non-sequential search by firms. Sorting due to firms' testing of applicants in the past makes expected productivity fall with duration, which induces firms to rank applicants by duration. In equilibrium callback and exit rates both fall with unemployment duration. In our numerical exercise using U.S. data we show that our model can replicate quite well the observed falling patterns, with the firm's ranking decision accounting for a sizable part

Supply Chain Management in Schwellenländern am Beispiel Ghana

Syfte med denna studie är att med utgångspunkter i aspekter av demokratibegreppet studera föräldrars val av utbildning för sina barn. Studien använder sig av en flerfaldig forskningsstrategi vilket innebär att en kombination av de båda ansatserna, kvantitativ och kvalitativ, nyttjas. Det empiriska underlaget utgörs av enkäter och intervjuer. Resultatet visar att föräldrars bakgrund påverkar valet av skola och att kunskapen angående skolval är differentierad. Det viktigaste motivet vid val av skola är föräldrars bedömningar av skolans kvalitet. Potentialen att uppfylla detta motiv för skolval begränsas av möjligheten att frångå närhetsprincipen. Föräldrainflytande som motiv är inte avgörande för val av skola, men inskränks inflytandet kan det utgöra orsak till skolbyte. Samband kan konstateras mellan resultaten och begreppen: valfrihet, föräldrainflytande, segregation, jämlikhet och likvärdighet. Dessa samband påverkar skolans demokratiska uppdrag

On the effects of ranking by unemployment duration

We propose a theory based on the firm’s hiring behavior that rationalizes the observed significant decline of callback rates for an interview and exit rates from unemployment and the mild decline of reemployment wages over unemployment duration. We build a directed search model with symmetric incomplete information on worker types and non-sequential search by firms. Sorting due to firms’ testing of applicants in the past makes expected productivity fall with duration, which induces firms to rank applicants by duration. In equilibrium callback and exit rates both fall with unemployment duration. In our numerical exercise using U.S. data we show that our model can replicate quite well the observed falling patterns, with the firm’s ranking decision accounting for a sizable part

Cycloaddition Reactions of the Diphosphenyl Complex (η5-C5Me5)(CO)2Fe-P=P-Mes* (Mes* = 2,4,6-tBu3C6H2) with Hexafluoroacetone. X-Ray Structure Analyses of (η5-C5Me5)(CO) Fe P(=PMes*)OC(CF3)2CO and (η5-C5Me5)(CO)2FePP(Mes*)OC(CF3)2

Weber L, Buchwald S, Lentz D, Preugschat D, Stammler H-G, Neumann B. Cycloaddition Reactions of the Diphosphenyl Complex (η5-C5Me5)(CO)2Fe-P=P-Mes* (Mes* = 2,4,6-tBu3C6H2) with Hexafluoroacetone. X-Ray Structure Analyses of (η5-C5Me5)(CO) Fe P(=PMes*)OC(CF3)2CO and (η5-C5Me5)(CO)2FePP(Mes*)OC(CF3)2. Organometallics. 1992;11(7):2351-2353.The diphosphenyl complex (eta-5-C5Me5)-(CO)2Fe-P=P-Mes* (Mes* = 2,4,6-tBu3C6H2) undergoes a [3 + 2] dipolar cycloaddition with hexafluoroacetone to give the metalla heterocycle (eta-5-C5Me5)(CO)-Fe-P(=PMes*)OC(CF3)2C(O) with a remarkably short Fe-P bond (2.084 (4) angstrom) and an exocyclic P=P bond. When stored in solution at -40-degrees-C, this complex partly rearranges to the metalated 1-oxa-2,3-diphosphetane (eta-5-C5Me5)(CO)2Fe-P-P(Mes*)OC(CF3)2. The molecular structures of both isomers were elucidated by single-crystal X-ray analyses

On the effects of ranking by unemployment duration

We propose a theory based on the firm’s hiring behavior that rationalizes the observed significant decline of callback rates for an interview and exit rates from unemployment and the mild decline of reemployment wages over unemployment duration. We build a directed search model with symmetric incomplete information on worker types and non-sequential search by firms. Sorting due to firms’ testing of applicants in the past makes expected productivity fall with duration, which induces firms to rank applicants by duration. In equilibrium callback and exit rates both fall with unemployment duration. In our numerical exercise using U.S. data we show that our model can replicate quite well the observed falling patterns, with the firm’s ranking decision accounting for a sizable part

Upscaling ground-based backpack gamma-ray spectrometry to spatial resolution of UAV-based gamma-ray spectrometry for system validation

Advances in the development of gamma-ray spectrometers have resulted in devices that are ideal for use in conjunction with the increasingly reliable systems of autonomously flying uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that have recently become available on the market. Airborne gamma-ray spectrometry (GRS) measurements have many different applications. Here, the technique is applied to a former uranium mining and processing site, which is characterized by relatively low specific activities and, hence, low count rates, requiring relatively large detectors and correspondingly big size UAVs. The future acceptance of the use of such UAV-based GRS systems for radionuclide mapping depends on their ability to measure absolute specific activities of natural radionuclides such as U-238 in near-surface soil that are consistent with the results of established and proven ground-based systems. To determine absolute specific activities on the ground, the gamma radiation data from airborne detectors must be corrected for attenuation caused by the flight altitude above ground. In recent years, mathematical procedures for altitude correction have been developed, that are specifically tailored to the working range of several tens of meters typical for UAVs. However, very limited experimental validation of these theoretical approaches is available. A very large dataset consisting of about 3000 UAV-based and 19,000 backpack-based measurements was collected at a low-grade uranium ore dump in Yangiabad, Uzbekistan. We applied different geostatistical interpolation methods to compare the data from both survey techniques by upscaling backpack data to airborne data. Compared to backpack systems, UAV-based systems have lower spatial resolution, so measurements average over larger areal units (or in geostatistical terminology: “spatial support”). Taking into account the change in spatial support, we illustrate that (1) the UAV-based measurements show good agreement with the upscaled backpack measurements and that (2) UAV surveys provide good delineation of contrasts of the relatively smooth U-238 specific activity distribution typical for former uranium mining and processing sites. We are able to show that the resolution of UAV-based systems is sufficient to map extended uranium waste facilities

Phosphate release contributes to the rate-limiting step for unwinding by an RNA helicase

RNA helicases function in numerous aspects of RNA biology. These enzymes are RNA-stimulated ATPases that translocate on RNA and unwind or remodel structured RNA in an ATP-dependent fashion. How ATP and the ATPase cycle fuel the work performed by helicases is not completely clear. The hepatitis C virus RNA helicase, NS3, is an important model system for this class of enzymes. NS3 binding to a single-/double-strand RNA or DNA junction leads to ATP-independent melting of the duplex and formation of a complex capable of ATP-dependent unwinding by using a spring-loaded mechanism. We have established an RNA substrate for NS3 that can be unwound in a single sub-step. Our studies are consistent with a model in which a single ATP binding and/or hydrolysis event sets the unwinding spring and phosphate dissociation contributes to release of the spring, thereby driving the power stroke used for unwinding

Activity of recombinant dengue 2 virus NS3 protease in the presence of a truncated NS2B co-factor, small peptide substrates, and inhibitors

Recombinant forms of the dengue 2 virus NS3 protease linked to a 40-residue co-factor, corresponding to part of NS2B, have been expressed in Escherichia coli and shown to be active against para-nitroanilide substrates comprising the P6-P1 residues of four substrate cleavage sequences. The enzyme is inactive alone or after the addition of a putative 13-residue co-factor peptide but is active when fused to the 40-residue co-factor, by either a cleavable or a noncleavable glycine linker. The NS4B/NS5 cleavage site was processed most readily, with optimal processing conditions being pH 9, I = 10 mm, 1 mm CHAPS, 20% glycerol. A longer 10-residue peptide corresponding to the NS2B/NS3 cleavage site (P6-P4') was a poorer substrate than the hexapeptide (P6-P1) para-nitroanilide substrate under these conditions, suggesting that the prime side substrate residues did not contribute significantly to protease binding. We also report the first inhibitors of a co-factor-complexed, catalytically active flavivirus NS3 protease. Aprotinin was the only standard serine protease inhibitor to be active, whereas a number of peptide substrate analogues were found to be competitive inhibitors at micromolar concentrations

Deciphering the molecular basis for nucleotide selection by the West Nile virus RNA helicase

The West Nile virus RNA helicase uses the energy derived from the hydrolysis of nucleotides to separate complementary strands of RNA. Although this enzyme has a preference for ATP, the bias towards this purine nucleotide cannot be explained on the basis of specific protein–ATP interactions. Moreover, the enzyme does not harbor the characteristic Q-motif found in other helicases that regulates binding to ATP. In the present study, we used structural homology modeling to generate a model of the West Nile virus RNA helicase active site that provides instructive findings on the interaction between specific amino acids and the ATP substrate. In addition, we evaluated both the phosphohydrolysis and the inhibitory potential of a collection of 30 synthetic purine analogs. A structure-guided alanine scan of 16 different amino acids was also performed to clarify the contacts that are made between the enzyme and ATP. Our study provides a molecular rationale for the bias of the enzyme for ATP by highlighting the specific functional groups on ATP that are important for binding. Moreover, we identified three new essential amino acids (Arg-185, Arg-202 and Asn-417) that are critical for phosphohydrolysis. Finally, we provide evidence that a region located upstream of motif I, which we termed the nucleotide specificity region, plays a functional role in nucleotide selection which is reminiscent to the role exerted by the Q-motif found in other helicases

Dengue Virus Targets the Adaptor Protein MITA to Subvert Host Innate Immunity

Dengue is one of the most important arboviral diseases caused by infection of four serotypes of dengue virus (DEN). We found that activation of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) triggered by viral infection and by foreign DNA and RNA stimulation was blocked by DEN-encoded NS2B3 through a protease-dependent mechanism. The key adaptor protein in type I interferon pathway, human mediator of IRF3 activation (MITA) but not the murine homologue MPYS, was cleaved in cells infected with DEN-1 or DEN-2 and with expression of the enzymatically active protease NS2B3. The cleavage site of MITA was mapped to LRR↓96G and the function of MITA was suppressed by dengue protease. DEN replication was reduced with overexpression of MPYS but not with MITA, while DEN replication was enhanced by MPYS knockdown, indicating an antiviral role of MITA/MPYS against DEN infection. The involvement of MITA in DEN-triggered innate immune response was evidenced by reduction of IRF3 activation and IFN induction in cells with MITA knockdown upon DEN-2 infection. NS2B3 physically interacted with MITA, and the interaction and cleavage of MITA could be further enhanced by poly(dA:dT) stimulation. Thus, we identified MITA as a novel host target of DEN protease and provide the molecular mechanism of how DEN subverts the host innate immunity