TOPCAT: Desktop Exploration of Tabular Data for Astronomy and Beyond

TOPCAT, the Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables, is an interactive desktop application for retrieval, analysis and manipulation of tabular data, offering a powerful and flexible range of interactive visualization options amongst other features. Its visualization capabilities focus on enabling interactive exploration of large static local tables - millions of rows and hundreds of columns can easily be handled on a standard desktop or laptop machine, and various options are provided for meaningful graphical representation of such large datasets. TOPCAT has been developed in the context of astronomy, but many of its features are equally applicable to other domains. The software, which is free and open source, is written in Java, and the underlying high-performance visualisation library is suitable for re-use in other applications.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, journal special issue on Scalable Interactive Visualizatio

Self-employment in Britain: when, who and why?

This work explores self-employment in Britain across recent years with a particular focus on when individuals became self-employed, who is more or less likely to enter self-employment and why individuals choose to enter self-employment. It complements previous microeconomic studies that focus on transitions into and out of selfemployment and presents new evidence on the returns to selfemployment and how these compare to the returns to paid employment. Lifetime employment history data from the British Household Panel Survey suggest that the large increase in self-employment in the 1980’s was due to increases in the inflow rate, while an increase in the outflow rate in the early 1990’s has stopped this trend. Panel data from the same source indicate that gender, parents occupation, assets and considering the work itself, the use of initiative or hours of work to be the most important aspect of a job emerge as key determinants of self-employment entry. Gender, age, occupation and elapsed duration in self-employment emerge as important determinants of selfemployment exit. Our analysis reveals that, all else equal, the selfemployed report higher levels of job satisfaction with pay and with the work itself than employees, but lower levels of satisfaction with job security

Health Research Access to Personal Confidential Data in England and Wales: Assessing any gap in public attitude between preferable and acceptable models of consent

England and Wales are moving toward a model of ‘opt out’ for use of personal confidential data in health research. Existing research does not make clear how acceptable this move is to the public. While people are typically supportive of health research, when asked to describe the ideal level of control there is a marked lack of consensus over the preferred model of consent (e.g. explicit consent, opt out etc.). This study sought to investigate a relatively unexplored difference between the consent model that people prefer and that which they are willing to accept. It also sought to explore any reasons for such acceptance. A mixed methods approach was used to gather data, incorporating a structured questionnaire and in-depth focus group discussions led by an external facilitator. The sampling strategy was designed to recruit people with different involvement in the NHS but typically with experience of NHS services. Three separate focus groups were carried out over three consecutive days. The central finding is that people are typically willing to accept models of consent other than that which they would prefer. Such acceptance is typically conditional upon a number of factors, including: security and confidentiality, no inappropriate commercialisation or detrimental use, transparency, independent overview, the ability to object to any processing considered to be inappropriate or particularly sensitive. This study suggests that most people would find research use without the possibility of objection to be unacceptable. However, the study also suggests that people who would prefer to be asked explicitly before data were used for purposes beyond direct care may be willing to accept an opt out model of consent if the reasons for not seeking explicit consent are accessible to them and they trust that data is only going to be used under conditions, and with safeguards, that they would consider to be acceptable even if not preferable

National innovation rates: the evidence for/against domestic institutions

Why are some countries more technologically innovative than others? The dominant explanation amongst political-economists is that domestic institutions determine national innovation rates. However, after decades of research, there is still no agreement on precisely how this happens, exactly which institutions matter, and little aggregate evidence has been produced to support any particular hypothesis. This paper will review the equivocating evidence for domestic institutions explanations of national innovation rates. Its survey will show that, although a specific domestic institution or policy might appear to explain a particular instance of innovation, they generally fail to explain national innovation rates across time and space. Instead, the empirical evidence suggests that certain kinds of international relationships (e.g. capital goods imports, foreign direct investment, educational exchanges) affect national innovation rates in the aggregate, and that these relationships are not themselves determined by domestic institutions. In other words, explaining national innovation rates may not be so much a domestic institutions story as it is an international story.technology; technological; innovation; politics; institutions; research

National Latino Leader? The Job is Open

Presents results of a survey of Latinos/Hispanics on whom they consider "the most important Latino leader in the country today," as well as their familiarity with prominent Latinos, by nativity and language

Real exchange rate dynamics in transition economies : a nonlinear analysis

We examine the behavior of the real exchange rates of nine transition economies during the 1990s. We propose an empirical model rationalized on the basis of standard economic models in the tradition of Mundell-Fleming-Dornbusch and Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson, allowing explicitly for real interest rate differentials and (implicitly) for productivity differentials to have an impact on real exchange rate equilibrium and employing nonlinear modeling techniques that are consistent with recently developed economic theories and observed regularities. Using a nonlinear multivariate generalization of the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition applied to our models, we also identify the permanent and temporary components of these real exchange rates implied by our estimates. The results have a natural interpretation and clear policy implications

Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History

Analyzes the demographic composition of voters in the 2008 elections and compares trends in voter participation rates and shares among all voters by race/ethnicity, gender, and age