Foreign-Affiliate Activity and U.S. Skill Upgrading

There has been little analysis of the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on U.S. wage inequality, even though the presence of foreign-owned affiliates in the United States has arguably grown more rapidly in significance for the U.S. economy than trade flows. Using data across U.S. manufacturing from 1977 to 1994, this paper tests whether inward flows of FDI contributed to within-industry shifts in U.S. relative labor demand toward more-skilled labor. We generally find that inward FDI has not contributed to U.S. within-industry skill upgrading; in fact, the wave of Japanese greenfield investments in the 1980s was significantly correlated with lower, not higher, relative demand for skilled labor. This finding is consistent with recent models of multinational enterprises in which foreign affiliates focus on activities less skilled-labor intensive than the activities of their parent firms. It also suggests that if inward FDI brought new technologies into the United States, the induced technological change was not biased towards skilled labor.

Selective bond-breaking in formic acid by dissociative electron attachment.

We report the results of a joint experimental and theoretical study of dissociative electron attachment to formic acid (HCOOH) in the 6-9 eV region, where H- fragment ions are a dominant product. Breaking of the C-H and O-H bonds is distinguished experimentally by deuteration of either site. We show that in this region H- ions can be produced by formation of two or possibly three Feshbach resonance (doubly-excited anion) states, one of which leads to either C-H or O-H bond scission, while the other can only produce formyloxyl radicals by O-H bond scission. Comparison of experimental and theoretical angular distributions of the anion fragment allows the elucidation of state specific pathways to dissociation

A Landslide Climate Indicator from Machine Learning

In order to create a Landslide Hazard Index, we accessed rain, snow, and a dozen other variables from the National Climate Assessment Land Data Assimilation System. These predictors were converted to probabilities of landslide occurrence with XGBoost, a major machine-learning tool. The model was fitted with thousands of historical landslides from the Pacific Northwest Landslide Inventory (PNLI)

B->rho pi decays, resonant and nonresonant contributions

We point out that a new contribution to B decays to three pions is relevant in explaining recent data from the CLEO and BABAR collaborations, in particular the results on quasi-two-body decays via a rho meson. We also discuss the relevance of these contribution to the measurement of CP violations.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, few references and minor comments adde

Patenting and licensing of university research: promoting innovation or undermining academic values?

Since the 1980s in the US and the 1990s in Europe, patenting and licensing activities by universities have massively increased. This is strongly encouraged by governments throughout the Western world. Many regard academic patenting as essential to achieve 'knowledge transfer' from academia to industry. This trend has far-reaching consequences for access to the fruits of academic research and so the question arises whether the current policies are indeed promoting innovation or whether they are instead a symptom of a pro-intellectual property (IP) culture which is blind to adverse effects. Addressing this question requires both empirical analysis (how real is the link between academic patenting and licensing and 'development' of academic research by industry?) and normative assessment (which justifications are given for the current policies and to what extent do they threaten important academic values?). After illustrating the major rise of academic patenting and licensing in the US and Europe and commenting on the increasing trend of 'upstream' patenting and the focus on exclusive as opposed to non-exclusive licences, this paper will discuss five negative effects of these trends. Subsequently, the question as to why policymakers seem to ignore these adverse effects will be addressed. Finally, a number of proposals for improving university policies will be made

Sustained high-level expression of human factor IX (hFIX) after liver-targeted delivery of recombinant adeno-associated virus encoding the hFIX gene in rhesus macaques

The feasibility, safety, and efficacy of liver-directed gene transfer was evaluated in 5 male macaques (aged 2.5 to 6.5 years) by using a recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vector (rAAV-2 CAGG-hFIX) that had previously mediated persistent therapeutic expression of human factor IX (hFIX; 6%-10% of physiologic levels) in murine models. A dose of 4 × 1012 vector genomes (vgs)/kg of body weight was administered through the hepatic artery or portal vein. Persistence of the rAAV vgs as circular monomers and dimers and high-molecular-weight concatamers was documented in liver tissue by Southern blot analysis for periods of up to 1 year. Vector particles were present in plasma, urine, or saliva for several days after infusion (as shown by polymerase chain reaction analysis), and the vgs were detected in spleen tissue at low copy numbers. An enzyme-linked immunosorption assay capable of detecting between 1% and 25% of normal levels of hFIX in rhesus plasma was developed by using hyperimmune serum from a rhesus monkey that had received an adenoviral vector encoding hFIX. Two macaques having 3 and 40 rAAV genome equivalents/cell, respectively, in liver tissue had 4% and 8% of normal physiologic plasma levels of hFIX, respectively. A level of hFIX that was 3% of normal levels was transiently detected in one other macaque, which had a genome copy number of 25 before abrogation by a neutralizing antibody (inhibitor) to hFIX. This nonhuman-primate model will be useful in further evaluation and development of rAAV vectors for gene therapy of hemophilia B. © 2002 by The American Society of Hematology

Beam instrumentation for the Tevatron Collider

The Tevatron in Collider Run II (2001-present) is operating with six times more bunches and many times higher beam intensities and luminosities than in Run I (1992-1995). Beam diagnostics were crucial for the machine start-up and the never-ending luminosity upgrade campaign. We present the overall picture of the Tevatron diagnostics development for Run II, outline machine needs for new instrumentation, present several notable examples that led to Tevatron performance improvements, and discuss the lessons for future colliders