148 research outputs found
Outsourcing and Skill Imports: Foreign High-Skilled Workers on H-1B and L-1 Visas in the United States
No full textThis working paper looks in detail at the H-1B and L-1 visa programs for temporary employment in the United States. Based on official data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the US Department of State, H-1B and L-1 visa issuance rapidly increased in the late 1990s, followed by a marked slowdown after 2001. This points to the highly cyclical nature of both visa programs. Indian nationals and immigrants working in computer-related occupations dominate the H1-B and L-1 population in the United States, but these two groups are also found to be the most cyclical segment, with very large declines in inflows after 2001. The total population of H-1B visaholders in 2003 is estimated to range between 387,000 and 746,000, of which 160,000 to 306,000 were Indian nationals. As all data on H-1B/L-1 visaholders are gross numbers and gross jobs data for comparable categories are absent, the extent of the impact of these visa programs on the US labor market cannot be gauged precisely. A broad range of US industries and educational institutions are found to be employing H-1B recipients, with the IT industry being the dominant sector. Evidence of aggressive wage-cost cutting, including paying H-1B recipients only the legally mandated 95 percent of the prevailing US wage, is found among some H-1B employers, although no systematic abuse of the system is present.Outsourcing, offshoring, high-skilled labor, immigration, H1B/L-1 visas
Automatically transforming regularly structured linear documents into Hypertext
No full textAbstract Abstract ... ... Internal tree representation Input source Generate Linearized Linearized Hyperties DB (FIL) Input Parse tree representation Internal threaded ... ... Abstract Abstract Abstract Figure 6. Domain-specific translator design for the UMIACS database 222 R. FURUTA .(l L ... .)f ... .(f ... .DA ... .ep ... .(b L ... .(l L ... <space>* . ... .)b ... .ep ... .br ... .lp ... .pp ... .sp ... .(l L ... .(l .)l ... .)l ... Authors: ... Author: ... Title ... .b ... .b UMIACS ... .b CS ... .b TAME ... .b ... .(l L ... .(l L ... INIT CH CH_ID CH_TTL CH_AUT ABST_B ABST_C IN_FOOT State Description INIT initial state CH collect heading of abstract CH_ID collect id (TR numbers) within heading CH_TTL collect title of abstract CH_AUT collect author(s) of abstract ABST_B beginning abstract's text ABST_C collecting abstract's text IN_FOOT ignoring footnote within abstract Figure 7. DFA controlling the translation TRANSFORMIN..
Association of Antithrombin Activity with Plasma Aldosterone Concentration and Plasma Renin Activity in Pregnant Women
No full textObjective. To test the hypothesis that the blood antithrombin (AT) activity is correlated with the plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC), the plasma renin activity (PRA), and/or the PAC-to-PRA ratio during the late stage of pregnancy. Methods. The AT activity, PAC, and PRA were determined within 7 days prior to delivery in 47 women, consisting of 30 normotensive and 6 hypertensive women with singleton pregnancies and 11 normotensive women with twin pregnancies. Results. The median values of the 47 women were 86% of the normal activity level for the AT activity, 442 pg/mL for the PAC, 3.7 ng/mL/h for the PRA, and 108 pg/mL per ng/mL/h for the PAC-to-PRA ratio. Women with an AT activity ≤86% had a significantly lower PRA and a higher PAC-to-PRA ratio than women with an AT activity >86% (3.5 ± 3.0 vs. 6.6 ± 4.7 ng/mL/h for PRA, p = 0.008; 156 ± 109 vs. 97 ± 46 pg/mL per ng/h for PAC-to-PRA ratio, p = 0.021). The AT activity was significantly correlated positively with the PRA and negatively with the PAC-to-PRA ratio. Conclusions. The existence of a common pathophysiological background between a reduced AT activity and a reduced PRA during the late stage of pregnancy was suggested
Platelet aggregation in citrated whole blood of the first trimester of pregnancy
No full textBackground: It was recently suggested that platelet reactivity is reduced in early pregnancy. This study was performed to determine whether the citrated whole blood from 33 pregnant women in their first trimester showed spontaneous platelet aggregation and whether it differed in extent from that of 11 non-pregnant women. Methods: The platelet count and number of platelet aggregates (PA) were serially determined in the same citrated whole blood specimens at 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 min after blood sampling using a hematology analyzer. Results: The number of PA increased significantly at 30 min and thereafter in both groups, but was consistently lower for pregnant than non-pregnant women over the 90-min observation period. The platelet count decreased significantly in a time-dependent manner in both groups, but was significantly lower at 30 and 90 min for nonpregnant than pregnant women. The number of PA showed a significant positive correlation with net decrease in platelet count for both pregnant and non-pregnant women. PA counts were also significantly positively correlated with the mean platelet volume. Conclusion: Platelet reactivity monitored by the increase in number of PA and the fall in platelet count was reduced in early pregnancy compared with non-pregnant healthy controls
Association between nephrinuria, podocyturia, and proteinuria in women with pre-eclampsia
No full textAim: Podocyte depletion in the kidney is associated with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Pre-eclampsia (PE) increases the risk of ESKD in later life. This study was performed to determine whether nephrinuria (soluble nephrin in the urine) is correlated with proteinuria and/or podocyturia (podocytes in the urine) in PE women. Methods: Eighty-three urine samples, consisting of 45 and 38 samples from 27 normotensive and nine PE women, respectively, underwent simultaneous determination of nephrin, protein, and creatinine concentrations in the urine supernatant and quantitative analysis of podocyte-specific protein mRNA expression. This included podocin (Pod-mRNA) and nephrin (Nep-mRNA), using real-time polymerase chain reaction in the pelleted urine. Nephrinuria and proteinuria were corrected by creatinine concentration. Pod- and Nep-mRNA expression levels were corrected by GAPDH. Results: Nephrinuria, proteinuria, Pod-mRNA expression, and Nep-mRNA expression all increased with advancing gestation in PE women, while not in normotensive women. The nephrinuria was strongly correlated with proteinuria (R = 0.901, P < 0.001), Pod-mRNA expression level (R = 0.824, P < 0.001), and Nep-mRNA expression level (R = 0.724, P < 0.001) in urine samples from PE women, while the nephrinuria was significantly correlated with proteinuria alone (R = 0.419, P < 0.005) in urine samples from normotensive women. Conclusion: Nephrinuria reflected well the degrees of proteinuria and podocyturia in PE women. This suggested that increased nephrinuria/proteinuria was associated with podocyte loss in the kidneys of PE women
Platelet reactivity in twin pregnancies
No full textBackground: Gestational thrombocytopenia is more likely to occur in twin than singleton pregnancies. However, it is unclear whether platelets are more reactive in twin than singleton pregnancies. Methods: Changes in spontaneous platelet aggregation and concomitant fall in platelet count were examined over 90 min after blood sampling in 171 and 52 citrated whole blood (CWB) samples from 59 and 17 women with singleton and twin pregnancies, respectively. Soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) levels in the plasma were also determined. Results: CWB 60 min after blood sampling during 2nd trimester exhibited significantly larger numbers of platelet aggregates (1297 ± 1600 vs. 497 ± 432/μl, P = 0.040) concomitant with significantly greater net decrease in platelet count (152 ± 55 vs. 115 ± 45 × 10^9/μl, P = 0.036) in twin than singleton pregnancies, respectively. This was followed by significantly lower 3rd trimester platelet count (181 ± 43 vs. 229 ± 62 × 10^9/l, P = 0.009) with significantly greater mean platelet volume (8.0 ± 1.2 vs. 7.1 ± 1.1 fl, P = 0.021) in twin than singleton pregnancies, respectively. The 3rd trimester sP-selectin per platelet was significantly higher in twin than singleton pregnancies. Conclusions: Platelets were more reactive in the 2nd trimester of twin than singleton pregnancies. This enhanced platelet reactivity may explain the decreased platelet count in the 3rd trimester of twin pregnancy
Plasma Aldosterone Concentration and Plasma Renin Activity Decrease during the Third Trimester in Women with Twin Pregnancies
No full textObjective: Changes in the plasma aldosterone concentration (PAC) and the plasma renin activity (PRA) have not been extensively studied in women with twin pregnancies. Methods: The PAC and PRA levels were determined during the second and third trime-sters and on postpartum day 3 in 14 normotensive women with twin pregnancies and 80 normotensive and 7 preeclamptic women with singleton pregnancies. Results: In women with twin pregnancies, elevated PAC and PRA levels (598 ± 248 pg/mL and 10.0 ±4.7 ng/ mL/h, respectively) in the second trimester decreased significantly during the third trimester (to 396 ± 210 pg/mL and 3.5 ± 2.9 ng/mL/h, respectively), whereas the corre-sponding PAC increased significantly (from 421 ± 207 to 667 ± 371 pg/mL) and the PRA did not change significantly (from 7.3 ± 3.4 to 6.9 ± 4.2 ng/mL/h) in women with normal singleton pregnancies. These changes in the PAC and PRA levels in women with twin pregnancies resembled those in hypertensive women with singleton pregnancies. Conclusions: In women with twin pregnancies, both the PAC and PRA levels were significantly enhanced during the second trimester, whereas those in the third trimester were significantly reduced compared with those in women with normal singleton pregnancies
Serum levels of N-terminal fragment of precursor protein brain-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in twin pregnancy
No full textTwin pregnancy differs considerably from singleton pregnancy in many aspects and it is unknown how serum NT-proBNP level behaves in women with twin regnancies. Serum NT-proBNP levels were determined longitudinally at gestational weeks (GW) 24 and 35 in normotensive women with 13 twin and 99 singleton pregnancies. The effects of maternal demographic characteristics on NT-proBNP levels were also analyzed. The serum NT-proBNP levels (pg/ml) in twin pregnancies, which were not different from those in singleton pregnancies at 24 GW (26±15 vs. 40±27, respectively, P=0.0718), increased significantly (P=0.0038) and were significantly higher than those in singleton pregnancies at 35 GW (72±49 vs. 34±24, Pb0.0001). In the analysis including women with singleton pregnancies, the serum levels of NT-proBNP at 35 GW were significantly inversely correlated with pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and were significantly higher in nulliparous than multiparous women. Thus, women with twin pregnancy were likely to exhibit an increase in serum NT-proBNP levels in the late stage of pregnancy, especially in lean and nulliparous women. The relative greater blood volume expansion occurring in twin than in singleton pregnancies was considered to be responsible for this phenomenon
Scatterbrain masterpieces: short stories, poetry, jokes, cartoons, carnival editions
No full textStudent created magazine consisting of several drawings, poems, and short stories including: "Spectacular flight" by Mary Furuta, "Nisei learns to smile again" by Teiko Hamaguchi, "Small but solid" by Sam Himoto, "Terrific teens" by Rose Hiraoka, "Too young" by Toshi Iwasaki, "Glamour ain't hay" by Helen Kanemasu, "Alone with brother" by Natalie Nakamura, "17 a boy" by Mitsue Nishimura, "Pay off for victory" by Henry Ogawa, "Row row row" by Mitsy Oto, "Chance at bat" by George Sakamoto, "Murder in black" Nobu Tomita, "Bucky" by George Tanimoto, "Spring fever" by Marvin Uratsu.The Robert Billigmeier collection is comprised of materials collected during his work and stay at the Tule Lake incarceration camp conducting research for the University of California’s Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study (JERS). The collection includes: photographs taken during his time at Tule Lake; a scrapbook created by students at Tule Lake in 1942; camp publications; reports and manuscripts; and student writings. Several of the reports and manuscripts draw from the personality cards written by students in the Tule Lake incarceration camp
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