Comparing the early research performance of PhD graduates in labor economics in Europe and the USA

This paper analyzes the early research performance of PhD graduates in labor economics, addressing the following questions: Are there major productivity differences between graduates from American and European institutions? If so, how relevant is the quality of the training received (i.e. ranking of institution and supervisor) and the research environment in the subsequent job placement institution? The population under study consists of labor economics PhD graduates who received their degree in the years 2000 to 2005 in Europe or the USA. Research productivity is evaluated alternatively as the number of publications or the quality-adjusted number of publications of an individual. When restricting the analysis to the number of publications, results suggest a higher productivity by graduates from European universities than from USA universities, but this difference vanishes when accounting for the quality of the publication. The results also indicate that graduates placed at American institutions, in particular top ones, are likely to publish more quality-adjusted articles than their European counterparts. This may be because, when hired, they already have several good acceptances or because of more focused research efforts and clearer career incentives.

Fuzzy set Theory and Quantum Chemistry

Es discuteixen breument algunes consideracions sobre l'aplicació de la Teoria delsConjunts difusos a la Química quàntica. Es demostra aqui que molts conceptes químics associats a la teoria són adequats per ésser connectats amb l'estructura dels Conjunts difusos. També s'explica com algunes descripcions teoriques dels observables quàntics espotencien tractant-les amb les eines associades als esmentats Conjunts difusos. La funciódensitat es pren com a exemple de l'ús de distribucions de possibilitat al mateix temps queles distribucions de probabilitat quàntiques

New insights on river water chemistry by using non-centred simplicial principal component analysis: a case study

The use of perturbation and power transformation operations permits the investigation of linear processes in the simplex as in a vectorial space. When the investigated geochemical processes can be constrained by the use of well-known starting point, the eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of a non-centred principalcomponent analysis allow to model compositional changes compared with a reference point.The results obtained for the chemistry of water collected in River Arno (central-northern Italy) have open new perspectives for considering relative changes of the analysed variables and to hypothesise the relative effect of different acting physical-chemical processes, thus posing the basis for a quantitative modelling

Statistical evidences of cyclic changes in volcanic gas chemistry composition by inverse modelling

The identification of compositional changes in fumarolic gases of active and quiescent volcanoes is one of the mostimportant targets in monitoring programs. From a general point of view, many systematic (often cyclic) and randomprocesses control the chemistry of gas discharges, making difficult to produce a convincing mathematical-statisticalmodelling.Changes in the chemical composition of volcanic gases sampled at Vulcano Island (Aeolian Arc, Sicily, Italy) fromeight different fumaroles located in the northern sector of the summit crater (La Fossa) have been analysed byconsidering their dependence from time in the period 2000-2007. Each intermediate chemical composition has beenconsidered as potentially derived from the contribution of the two temporal extremes represented by the 2000 and 2007samples, respectively, by using inverse modelling methodologies for compositional data. Data pertaining to fumarolesF5 and F27, located on the rim and in the inner part of La Fossa crater, respectively, have been used to achieve theproposed aim. The statistical approach has allowed us to highlight the presence of random and not random fluctuations,features useful to understand how the volcanic system works, opening new perspectives in sampling strategies and inthe evaluation of the natural risk related to a quiescent volcano

Exploring chromium (VI) dioxodihalides chemistry: is density functional theory the most suitable tool?

A comparative systematic study of the CrO2F2 compound has been performed using different conventional ab initio methodologies and density functional procedures. Two points have been analyzed: first, the accuracy of results yielded by each method under study, and second, the computational cost required to reach such results. Weighing up both aspects, density functional theory has been found to be more appropriate than the Hartree-Fock (HF) and the analyzed post-HF methods. Hence, the structural characterization and spectroscopic elucidation of the full CrO2X2 series (X=F,Cl,Br,I) has been done at this level of theory. Emphasis has been given to the unknown CrO2I2 species, and specially to the UV/visible spectra of all four compounds. Furthermore, a topological analysis in terms of charge density distributions has revealed why the valence shell electron pair repulsion model fails in predicting the molecular shape of such CrO2X2 complexes

Overeducation among European university graduates : a comparative analysis ot its incidence and the importance of higher education differentiation

The incidence of over-education is here assessed by applying some standard subjective and objective indicators and a new skill-based indicator of over-education to the national samples of eight European countries in the REFLEX survey. With the exception of Spain, the results reveal that over-education is a minor risk amongst European tertiary graduates. Yet, the contrast between the standard indicators and the skill-based indicator reveals the existence of an over-education of a moderate kind in countries with high tertiary attainment rates (Norway, Finland and Netherlands). Such a type of over-education does not come to the surface when applying the standard indicators. Our results also reveal the importance of higher education differentiation (i.e. field of study and branch of higher education) for understanding the risk of over-education. Graduates from humanistic fields, bachelor courses and vocational colleges are more exposed to over-education, though their disadvantage varies across-nationally to a significant extent.

CLIL Materials in Chemistry and English: Iodometric Titrations

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)Materials in Chemistry and English following the principles of CLIL / Content-based Instruction and Task-based Learning

Chemistry in Catalonia 1990-1995

The seven-year period studied here differs very little from the sixyear period described in the previous Report (1990-1995). Sustained growth was observed in almost all the indicators used to evaluate the resources invested and the scientific results obtained

Chemistry in Catalonia 1990-1995

The seven-year period studied here differs very little from the sixyear period described in the previous Report (1990-1995). Sustained growth was observed in almost all the indicators used to evaluate the resources invested and the scientific results obtained

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking in the limited enantioselective autocatalysis model: abyssal hydrotermal vents as scenario for the emergence of chirality in prebiotic chemistry

The emergence of chirality in enantioselective autocatalysis for compounds unable to transform according to the Frank-like reaction network is discussed with respect to the controversial limited enantioselectivity (LES) model composed of coupled enantioselective and non-enantioselective autocatalyses. The LES model cannot lead to spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking (SMSB) either in closed systems with a homogeneous temperature distribution or in closed systems with a stationary non-uniform temperature distribution. However, simulations of chemical kinetics in a two-compartment model demonstrate that SMSB may occur if both autocatalytic reactions are spatially separated at different temperatures in different compartments but coupled under the action of a continuous internal flow. In such conditions, the system can evolve, for certain reaction and system parameters, toward a chiral stationary state; that is, the system is able to reach a bifurcation point leading to SMSB. Numerical simulations in which reasonable chemical parameters have been used suggest that an ade- quate scenario for such a SMSB would be that of abyssal hydrothermal vents, by virtue of the typical temper- ature gradients found there and the role of inorganic solids mediating chemical reactions in an enzyme-like role. Key Words: Homochirality Prebiotic chemistry.

Identification of Ligands for the Tau Exon 10 Splicing Regulatory Element RNA Using Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry

We describe the use of dynamic combinatorial chemistry (DCC) to identify ligands for the stem-loop structure located at the exon 10-5'-intron junction of Tau pre-mRNA, which is involved in the onset of several tauopathies including frontotemporal dementia with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). A series of ligands that combine the small aminoglycoside neamine and heteroaromatic moieties (azaquinolone and two acridines) have been identified by using DCC. These compounds effectively bind the stem-loop RNA target (the concentration required for 50% RNA response (EC(50)): 2-58 μM), as determined by fluorescence titration experiments. Importantly, most of them are able to stabilize both the wild-type and the +3 and +14 mutated sequences associated with the development of FTDP-17 without producing a significant change in the overall structure of the RNA (as analyzed by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy), which is a key factor for recognition by the splicing regulatory machinery. A good correlation has been found between the affinity of the ligands for the target and their ability to stabilize the RNA secondary structure.

CLIL Materials in Chemistry and English: Iodometric Titrations

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)Materials in Chemistry and English following the principles of CLIL / Content-based Instruction and Task-based Learning

The impact of theoretical chemistry in Biology

Els avenços en les bases dels mètodes teòrics i l'espectacular desenvolupament de la potència de càlcul han fet possible progressar enormement en el somni dels fundadors de la química, és a dir, ser capaços d'estudiar amb mètodes computacionals el conjunt de processos químics. Actualment, la química teòrica està completant el darrer avenç: intentar esdevenir l'eina més recent per a comprendre la naturalesa química dels éssers vius. Aquesta revisió pretén mostrar com els mètodes de la química teòrica, originalment desenvolupats per a examinar molècules petites en fase gas, han evolucionat per a assolir la complexa descripció de sistemes biològics.

Construcción de un índice de calidad ocupacional (ICO) para el análisis de la inserción profesional de los graduados universitarios = Building an employment quality index (EQI) to analyse graduates’ access to the labour market

En este trabajo se propone la construcción de un índice de calidad ocupacional (ICO) a partir de los datos de la Encuesta de Inserción Laboral de los Graduados de las Universidades Catalanas realizada por la Agencia para la Calidad del Sistema Universitario de Catalunya (AQU), que ha de permitir un mejor análisis de la información que proporciona la encuesta y facilitar su comparación con estudios similares. La encuesta se realiza tres años después de la graduación. En este artículo, se utiliza la segunda encuesta realizada el año 2005 entre 11.456 graduados (52,63%) de la promoción 2001 (AQU, 2005, Serra-Ramoneda, 2007). El índice se ha elaborado a partir de los indicadores objetivos ‘tipo y duración del contrato laboral’, ‘retribución económica’, ‘adecuación entre la formación universitaria y el empleo’ a los que se otorga una puntuación ponderada según las respuestas dadas por los graduados. La suma de las puntuaciones se matiza con un coeficiente derivado del indicador subjetivo ‘satisfacción con el trabajo en general’. A partir de la información proporcionada por el índice, se realiza un análisis comparativo del nivel de calidad ocupacional que han logrado los graduados de áreas de conocimiento, ámbitos de trabajo, ramas de actividad y ubicaciones territoriales del empleo diferentes. Los resultados obtenidos permiten observar que entre los graduados catalanes los siguientes hechos son buenos predictores de la calidad de la ocupación: haber estudiado una carrera que no sea de Humanidades, ser un hombre, haber desempeñado durante la carrera un trabajo relacionado con los estudios, estar ocupado en la construcción, en instituciones financieras o en servicios a empresas, haber tenido algún tipo de movilidad por motivos de trabajo, trabajar fuera de Cataluña y hacerlo en empresas grandes, especialmente con más de 500 trabajadores. Finalmente, se presentan algunas reflexiones y propuestas que pueden resultar de interés para la orientación de los estudiantes y la planificación universitaria

Chemistry in Catalonia 1990-1995

The seven-year period studied here differs very little from the sixyear period described in the previous Report (1990-1995). Sustained growth was observed in almost all the indicators used to evaluate the resources invested and the scientific results obtained