Ireland: An Example Of Best Practices In The Utilization of EU funds

Ireland holds the story of a successful evolution from the moment of its accession to the European Union up to the present day, achieving an impressive economic transformation that repositioned the country in the hierarchy of developed EU member states. The 37 years that passed from the moment of its accession were not characterized only by expansion periods, nor were they characterized by a rapid improvement in the economic indicators. Ireland was confronted with 2 oil crises and with a pro-cyclical fiscal expansion combined with salary increases, which had a negative impact on the economy. The budgetary consolidation, fiscal reform and moderate salaries established through a social partnership contributed to the rise in competitiveness, transforming Ireland into an attractive country for foreign direct investments. The measures taken at the national level created the necessary climate for the successful absorption of EU funds. Until the end of 1999, Ireland had absorbed 74.4% of the cohesion funds allocated and starting with 2000 the absorption rate raised to 92.1% of the amounts allocated until 2003 when Ireland didn’t meet anymore the criteria for assistance through the Cohesion Fund. Ireland focused on the implementation of transport and environment infrastructure projects, on the development of human resources and the improvement of education, succeeding in the same time to attract direct foreign investments in the high-tech industry from companies that had entered the single market. Ireland can provide, even after a summary analysis of the path followed to access EU funds, an example of best practices on the pragmatic approach and coherent policy elaboration designed to attract and implement EU funds, on the prioritization and guidance of the funds towards increased efficiency and the development of a healthy macroeconomic environment, on the creation of a partnership between the state, employers, unions, farmers, etc. in order to ensure credibility and support for government’s strategies.Ireland`s success story, best practices in the absorption of EU funds, Ireland`s development, cohesion funds in Ireland, structural funds in Ireland

The God-Camera of Theology and Memory in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick’s film The Tree of Life presents a personal and emotionally-laden memory play that is visually and symbolically “framed” by theological and biblical contexts that are both explicit and implicit. This paper explores how the film’s constantly moving camera and elliptical editing help to establish a trope for depicting how God moves in the lives of the characters. Through non-traditional film production and presentation techniques, Malick manifests a theme of “God as ultimate artist” who participates with us in the restoration of what is broken, and who makes “all things new”

Equidistribution results for singular metrics on line bundles

Let L be a holomorphic line bundle with a positively curved singular Hermitian metric over a complex manifold X. One can define naturally the sequence of Fubini-Study currents associated to the space of square integrable holomorphic sections of the p-th tensor powers of L. Assuming that the singular set of the metric is contained in a compact analytic subset of X and that the logarithm of the Bergman kernel function associated to the p-th tensor power of L (defined outside the singular set) grows like o(p) as p tends to infinity, we prove the following: 1) the k-th power of the Fubini-Study currents converge weakly on the whole X to the k-th power of the curvature current of L. 2) the expectations of the common zeros of a random k-tuple of square integrable holomorphic sections converge weakly in the sense of currents to to the k-th power of the curvature current of L. Here k is so that the codimension of the singular set of the metric is greater or equal as k. Our weak asymptotic condition on the Bergman kernel function is known to hold in many cases, as it is a consequence of its asymptotic expansion. We also prove it here in a quite general setting. We then show that many important geometric situations (singular metrics on big line bundles, Kaehler-Einstein metrics on Zariski-open sets, artihmetic quotients) fit into our framework.Comment: 40 page

Transcendence measures and algebraic growth of entire functions

In this paper we obtain estimates for certain transcendence measures of an entire function $f$. Using these estimates, we prove Bernstein, doubling and Markov inequalities for a polynomial $P(z,w)$ in ${\Bbb C}^2$ along the graph of $f$. These inequalities provide, in turn, estimates for the number of zeros of the function $P(z,f(z))$ in the disk of radius $r$, in terms of the degree of $P$ and of $r$. Our estimates hold for arbitrary entire functions $f$ of finite order, and for a subsequence $\{n_j\}$ of degrees of polynomials. But for special classes of functions, including the Riemann $\zeta$-function, they hold for all degrees and are asymptotically best possible. From this theory we derive lower estimates for a certain algebraic measure of a set of values $f(E)$, in terms of the size of the set $E$.Comment: 40 page

Entire pluricomplex Green functions and Lelong numbers of projective currents

Let $T$ be a positive closed current of bidimension (1,1) and unit mass on the complex projective space ${\Bbb P}^n$. We prove that the set $V_\alpha(T)$ of points where $T$ has Lelong number larger than $\alpha$ is contained in a complex line if $\alpha\geq2/3$, and $|V_\alpha(T)\setminus L|\leq1$ for some complex line $L$ if $1/2\leq\alpha<2/3$. We also prove that in dimension 2 and if $2/5\leq\alpha<1/2$, then $|V_\alpha(T)\setminus C|\leq1$ for some conic $C$.Comment: 9 page

ONLINE ASSESSMENT OF INTEREST RATE RISK

In addition to being of great importance to bank managers (due to the particular significance of Interest Rate to banking institutions: its fluctuation is, at the same time, a premise for success AND potentially fatal in case of inadequate management), Interest Rate Risk is of concern to any individual who possesses a financial portfolio (made up of loans, deposits, various investments, etc.), as any such portfolio may be endangered when exposed to fickle Interest Rates. Members of this latter category, however, are grossly neglected when it comes to availability of both information about and affordable or, better yet, free methods of protection against Interest Rate Risk. Approaches to Interest-Rate-Risk assessment, from the traditional, time-honored methods (maturity and repricing schedules) to the more complex and experimental ones, are at least partially suited for software implementation. Using the Internet as medium, fairly simple, yet effective methods of Interest-Rate-Risk assessment can be made available to a vast audience, including current and potential bank employees involved in risk management, individuals whose interest in the matter is academic or, quite simply, members of the general public aware of the implications of Interest-Rate variation upon their financial investments.Computerized Risk Management, Banking Risk, Interest Rate Risk, Gap Analysis, Duration Gap Analysis