What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run

Int. J. Med. Sci. 2011, 8 http://www.medsci.org 180 IInntteerrnnaattiioonnaall JJoouurrnnaall ooff MMeeddiiccaall SScciieenncceess 2011; 8(3):180-191 Research Paper A Comparative Effectiveness Study of Bone Density Changes in Women Over 40 Following Three Bone Health Plans Containing Variations of the Same Novel Plant-sourced Calcium Gilbert R. Kaats1, Harry G. Preuss2, Harry A. Croft3, Samuel C. Keith1, and Patti L. Keith1 1. Integrative Health Technologies, Inc., 4940 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209, USA; 2. Professor of Biochemistry, Physiology, Medicine, & Pathology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington D.C. 20057, USA; 3. Croft Research Group, San Antonio, TX, USA.  Corresponding author: Gilbert R. Kaats, Integrative Health Technologies, Inc., 4940 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas, 78209. Tel: (210)824-4200. Fax: (210) 824-4715 Email: grk@ihtglobal.com. © Ivyspring International Publisher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Reproduction is permitted for personal, noncommercial use, provided that the article is in whole, unmodified, and properly cited. Received: 2011.02.02; Accepted: 2011.02.25; Published: 2011.03.02 Abstract Background: The US Surgeon General’s Report on Bone Health suggests America’s bone-health is in jeopardy and issued a “call to action” to develop bone-health plans in-corporating components of (1) improved nutrition, (2) increased health literacy, and (3) in-creased physical activity. Objective: To conduct a Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) study comparing changes in bone mineral density in healthy women over-40 with above-average compliance when following one of three bone health Plans incorporating the SG’s three components. Methods: Using an open-label sequential design, 414 females over 40 years of age were tested, 176 of whom agreed to participate and follow one of three different bone-health programs. One Plan contained a bone-health supplement with 1,000 IUs of vitamin D3 and 750 mg of a plant-sourced form of calcium for one year. The other two Plans contained the same plant form of calcium, but with differing amounts of vitamin D3 and other added bone health ingredients along with components designed to increase physical activity and health literacy. Each group completed the same baseline and ending DXA bone density scans, 43-chemistry blood test panels, and 84-item Quality of Life Inventory (QOL). Changes for all subjects were annualized as percent change in BMD from baseline. Using self-reports of adherence, subjects were rank-ordered and dichotomized as “compliant” or “partially compliant” based on the median rating. Comparisons were also made between the treatment groups and two theo-retical age-adjusted expected groups: a non-intervention group and a group derived from a review of previously published studies on non-plant sources of calcium. Results: There were no significant differences in baseline BMD between those who volun-teered versus those who did not and between those who completed per protocol (PP) and those who were lost to attrition. Among subjects completing per protocol, there were no significant differences between the three groups on baseline measurements of BMD, weight, age, What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run By: OpenStaxCollege Cyclical unemployment explains why unemployment rises during a recession and falls during an economic expansion But what explains the remaining level of unemployment even in good economic times? Why is the unemployment rate never zero? Even when the U.S economy is growing strongly, the unemployment rate only rarely dips as low as 4% Moreover, the discussion earlier in this chapter pointed out that unemployment rates in many European countries like Italy, France, and Germany have often been remarkably high at various times in the last few decades Why does some level of unemployment persist even when economies are growing strongly? Why are unemployment rates continually higher in certain economies, through good economic years and bad? Economists have a term to describe the remaining level of unemployment that occurs even when the economy is healthy: it is called the natural rate of unemployment The Long Run: The Natural Rate of Unemployment The natural rate of unemployment is not “natural” in the sense that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit or boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit It is not a physical and unchanging law of nature Instead, it is only the “natural” rate because it is the unemployment rate that would result from the combination of economic, social, and political factors that exist at a time—assuming the economy was neither booming nor in recession These forces include the usual pattern of companies expanding and contracting their workforces in a dynamic economy, social and economic forces that affect the labor market, or public policies that affect either the eagerness of people to work or the willingness of businesses to hire Let’s discuss these factors in more detail 1/13 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run Frictional Unemployment In a market economy, some companies are always going broke for a variety of reasons: old technology; poor management; good management that happened to make bad decisions; shifts in tastes of consumers so that less of the firm’s product is desired; a large customer who went broke; or tough domestic or foreign competitors Conversely, other companies will be doing very well for just the opposite reasons and looking to hire more employees In a perfect world, all of those who lost jobs would immediately find new ones But in the real world, even if the number of job seekers is equal to the number of job vacancies, it takes time to find out about new jobs, to interview and figure out if the new job is a good match, or perhaps to sell a house and buy another in proximity to a new job The unemployment that occurs in the meantime, as workers move between jobs, is called frictional unemployment Frictional unemployment is not inherently a bad thing It takes time on part of both the employer and the individual to match those looking for employment with the correct job openings For individuals and companies to be successful and productive, you want people to find the job for which they are best suited, not just the first job offered In the mid-2000s, before the recession of 2008–2009, it was true that about 7% of U.S workers saw their jobs disappear in any three-month period But in periods of economic growth, these destroyed jobs are counterbalanced for the economy as a whole by a larger number of jobs created In 2005, for example, there were typically about 7.5 million unemployed people at any given time in the U.S economy Even though about twothirds of those unemployed people found a job in 14 weeks or fewer, the unemployment rate did not change much during the year, because those who found new jobs were largely offset by others who lost jobs Of course, it would be preferable if people who were losing jobs could immediately and easily move into the new jobs being created, but in the real world, that is not possible Someone who is laid off by a textile mill in South Carolina cannot turn around and immediately start working for a textile mill in California Instead, the adjustment process happens in ripples Some people find new jobs near their old ones, while others find that they must move to new locations Some people can a very similar job with a different company, while others must start new career paths Some people may be near retirement and decide to look only for part-time work, while others want an employer that offers a long-term career path The frictional unemployment that results from people moving between jobs in a dynamic economy may account for one to two percentage points of total unemployment The level of frictional unemployment will depend on how easy it is for workers to learn about alternative jobs, which may reflect the ease of communications about job prospects in the economy The extent of frictional unemployment will also depend to 2/13 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run some extent on how willing ...VNU Journal of Science, Economics and Business 26, No. 5E (2010) 11-23 11 Economic growth and changes in welfares during the economic reforms in Vietnam Dr. Nguyen Huy Hoang* Institute for Southeast Asia Studies, No 1, Lieu Giai, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam Received on 19 August 2010 Abstract. Over the past 20 years, with the reform policy called Doi Moi comprehensively applied to the economy, Vietnam has achieved great results in her economic development process. High rate of economic growth with average of 7-8% per annum sustained for almost nearly two decades has contributed to considerable increase in per capita income, from 180 USD in early 1990s to nearly 1,200 USD in 2010. With the considerable increase in per capita income, there was the improvement of the people’s general welfare. However, growth and development in the past 20 years has contributed to increase the gap between rich and poor. By using the qualitative method combined with the data explanatory analysis and the method of computing Gini index of inequality as well as growth model, the findings pointed that generally the income inequality in Vietnam during the 1998-2008 period (irrespective of the source of income) is in increasing tendency. In addition, based on the growth model estimation results, the study proved that the economic growth rate is in positively correlated to inequality in come. 1. Introduction * Over the past 20 years, Vietnam’s development has shown its mark in its economic history as the economy has restored macroeconomic stability to achieve high rate of growth and an impressive reduction of poverty (World Bank 2001). The achievements were resulted from the government’s efforts to recover the country from the deep socio- economic recession in late 1970s and early 1980s, which led the economy into hyperinflation and stagnation that caused deterioration in the people’s living standard, ______ * Tel: 84-983994104 E-mail: hoang – iseas@yahoo.com (1) The Vietnamese words Doi Moi is analogue to reform and is used as the official words in most documents. widespread poverty and severe damage of economic structure and infrastructure. Facing these difficulties, the government announced a renovation program called “Doi Moi” (1) (the pro-market policy) in late 1980s to restore the socio-economic conditions. Main aim of the Doi Moi was to implement the comprehensive socio-economic reforms that focused on transforming the country from the central planned toward market-oriented economy. The pivotal point of the “Doi Moi” was macroeconomic structural adjustments, microeconomic reforms and transition to a market-oriented economy in order to foster growth and to improve people living standards and welfare. To achieve these, the government implemented the reforms in both agriculture and industry, and gradually opened the N.H. Hoang / VNU Journal of Science, Economics and Business 26, No. 5E (2010) 11-23 12 economy to the outside world. With a high rate of economic growth attained, people’s welfare has changed. Poverty rate declined sharply as it is recognized that “almost no other country has recorded such a sharp decline in poverty in such a short period of time” (Government of Vietnam-Donor-NGO Poverty Changes in ultrastructure and the occurrence of permeability transition in mitochondria during rat liver regeneration Ferruccio Guerrieri 1, *, Giovanna Pellecchia 1 , Barbara Lopriore 1 , Sergio Papa 1 , Giuseppa Esterina Liquori 2 , Domenico Ferri 2 , Loredana Moro 3 , Ersilia Marra 3 and Margherita Greco 3 1 Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biology, University of Bari, Italy; 2 Department of Zoology, Laboratory of Histology and Comparative Anatomy, University of Bari, Italy; 3 Center for the Study of Mitochondria and Energy Metabolism (CNR) Bari, Italy Mitochondrial bioenergetic impairment has been found in the organelles isolated from rat liver during the prereplicative phase of liver regeneration. To gain insight into the mech- anism underlying this impairment, we investigated mito- chondrial ultrastructure and membrane permeability properties in the course of liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy, with special interest to the role played by Ca 2+ in this process. The results show that during the first day after partial hepatectomy, significant changes in the ultrastructure of mitochondria in situ occur. Mitochondrial swelling and release from mitochondria of both glutamate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase isoenzymes with an increase in the mitochondrial Ca 2+ content were also observed. Cyclosporin-A proved to be able to prevent the changes in mitochondrial membrane permeability properties. At 24 h after partial hepatectomy, despite alteration in mitochon- drial membrane permeability properties, no release of cyto- chrome c was found. The ultrastructure of mitochondria, the membrane permeability properties and the Ca 2+ content returned to normal values during the replicative phase of liver regeneration. These results suggest that, during the prereplicative phase of liver regeneration, the changes in mitochondrial ultrastructure observed in liver specimens were correlated with Ca 2+ -induced permeability transition in mitochondria. Keywords: liver regeneration; mitochondria ultrastructure; membrane permeability; calcium; cyclosporin-A. Seventy percent partial hepatectomy (PH) induces cell proliferation until the original mass of the liver is restored [1]. The tissue regeneration process consists of two phases: the prereplicative phase, the duration of which depends on the age of the animal [2,3] as well as on hormones and dietary manipulation [2,4] and the replicative phase, during which a sharp increase in DNA synthesis occurs with active mitosis [2]. In the light of early changes in ATP concentra- tion found in liver after PH, before activation of cell proliferation [5,6], mitochondria were investigated as they are directly involved in the process of liver regeneration [4,7–16]. Many mitochondrial functions, including oxidative phosphorylation [11–13] and generation of reactive oxygen species [14,15], were investigated in some detail in the prereplicative phase of liver regeneration. In isolated mitochondria, a decrease in the respiratory control index [12], ATP synthesis, probably due to a decrease in the ATPsynthase complex content [14], and glutathione content [13] as well as an increase in malondialdehyde production [14] ©2009 Ibbotson Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Ibbotson Associates, Inc. is a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. The Ibbotson name and logo are either trademarks or service marks of Ibbotson Associates, Inc. The information contained in this document is for informational purposes only and is the proprietary material of Ibbotson Associates. Reproduction, transcription, or other use, by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Ibbotson, is prohibited. Opinions expressed are as of the current date; such opinions are subject to change without notice. Ibbotson Associates, Inc. shall not be responsible for any trading decisions, damages, or other losses resulting from, or related to, the information, data, analyses or opinions or their use. July 2009 Page 1 Roger Ibbotson, Ph.D. Founder and Advisor, Ibbotson Associates, a Morningstar Company Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Zebra Capital Professor, Yale School of Management Peng Chen, Ph.D., CFA ® President, Ibbotson Associates, a Morningstar Company Are Bonds Going to Outperform Stocks Over the Long Run? Not Likely. Given the poor performance of stocks over the past year and the past decade, there has been ample discussion about the relative performance of stocks versus bonds. Some even argue that investors should allocate entirely to bonds, not only because bonds are the safer investments, but because they believe bonds will outperform stocks over the long run. In other words, if bonds can deliver higher returns with less risk, why bother with stocks? Table 1 shows the performance of the S&P 500 and Intermediate-Term and Long-Term Government Bonds over various time periods. Not only have the average annual stock returns been poor over the last 10 years, but relative to bonds, stock returns look mediocre over the last 20, 30, and even 40 years. Table 1: Compound Annualized Total Returns (%) Ending March 2009 S&P 500 IA SBBI Inter-Term Government Bond IIA SBBI Long-Term Government Bond 1 year: Starting April 2008 -38.09 6.24 14.32 5 year: Starting April 2004 -4.77 5.17 7.79 10 year: Starting April 1999 -3.00 6.31 8.20 20 year: Starting April 1989 7.42 7.39 9.61 30 year: Starting April 1979 10.30 8.57 9.93 40 year: Starting April 1969 8.70 8.03 8.79 Jan 1926 – March 2009 9.44 5.40 5.60 Source: Ibbotson By looking at the returns over the last 40 years, the argument that bonds might outperform stocks looks to be valid. But, one should view this with skepticism. First, note that over the 20-, 30-, and 40-year periods, stocks actually performed quite well, even if some bond categories did better. Over the very long term, it is no longer a contest. Chart 1 (on the next page) gives the results of the capital market returns over the last 83 years. During this longer period, stocks easily beat bonds. ©2009 Ibbotson Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Ibbotson Associates, Inc. is a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. The Ibbotson name and logo are either trademarks or service marks of Ibbotson Associates, Inc. The information contained in this document is for informational purposes only and is the proprietary material of Ibbotson Associates. Reproduction, transcription, or other use, by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Ibbotson, is This Provisional PDF corresponds to the article as it appeared upon acceptance. Fully formatted PDF and full text (HTML) versions will be made available soon. Impact of changes in diet on the availability of land, energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture Energy, Sustainability and Society 2011, 1:6 doi:10.1186/2192-0567-1-6 Karin Fazeni (fazeni@energieinstitut-linz.at) Horst Steinmueller (steinmueller@energieinstitut-linz.at) ISSN 2192-0567 Article type Original Submission date 10 November 2011 Acceptance date 9 December 2011 Publication date 9 December 2011 Article URL http://www.energsustainsoc.com/content/1/1/6 This peer-reviewed article was published immediately upon acceptance. It can be downloaded, printed and distributed freely for any purposes (see copyright notice below). For information about publishing your research in Energy, Sustainability and Society go to http://www.energsustainsoc.com/authors/instructions/ For information about other SpringerOpen publications go to http://www.springeropen.com Energy, Sustainability and Society © 2011 Fazeni and Steinmueller ; licensee Springer. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 Impact of changes in diet on the availability of land, energy demand, and greenhouse gas emissions of agriculture Karin Fazeni* 1 and Horst Steinmüller 1 1 Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU Linz), Altenbergerstrasse, 69, Linz, 4040, Austria ∗Corresponding author: fazeni@energieinstitut-linz.at Email addresses: KF: fazeni@energieinstitut-linz.at HS: steinmueller@energieinstitut-linz.at 2 Abstract Background: Recent scientific investigations have revealed a correlation between nutrition habits and the environmental impacts of agriculture. So, it is obviously worthwhile to study what effects a change in diet has on land use patterns, energy demand, and greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural production. This study calculates the amount of energy and emission savings as well as changes in land use that would result from different scenarios underlying a change in diet. Methods: Based on the healthy eating recommendations of the German Nutrition Society, meat consumption in Austria should decrease by about 60%, and consumption of fruits and vegetables has to increase strongly. Results: This investigation showed that compliance with healthy eating guidelines leads to lower energy demand and a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, largely due to a decrease in livestock numbers. Furthermore, arable land and grassland no longer needed for animal feed production becomes redundant and can possibly be used for the production of raw materials for renewable energy. The scenario examination shows that in the self-sufficiency scenario and in the import/export scenario, up to 443,100 ha and about 208,800 ha, respectively, of arable land and grassland are released for non-food uses. The cumulative energy demand of agriculture is lower by up to 38%, and the greenhouse ... that tends to reduce the natural rate of unemployment 8/13 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run The combined result of these factors is that the natural rate of unemployment was... may limit where business can be done, or whether businesses are allowed to be open during evenings or on Sunday 7/13 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run Whatever defenses may... or minimize recessions As Government Budgets and Fiscal 9/13 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run Policy discusses, this policy can be enacted by stimulating the overall buying