Identification of relevant environmental descriptors

Based on previous experiences and a literature review the most relevant environmental descriptors were selected and tested by means of field experiments. These included: (i) the temperature-humidity index (THI), (ii) the cattle stocking system (rotational stocking, continuous stocking or strip-grazing), (iii) the botanical composition of the grasslands, (iv) the net grassland productivity in terms of Net Energy (NE) and/or energy-corrected milk (ECM) per unit grassland area, and (v) the behaviour of dairy cows within grazing herds as recorded with SensOor® technology

A macro-analysis of quality assessment in higher education

In most West European countries a quality control system for higher education is in a process of development. This article examines some general characteristics of the emerging structures, how quality is defined and what impact this definition has on internal evaluation.\ud \ud On the basis of a more substantive conceptualization of the term quality, the current trend of a quality control system in which quality is predominantly defined from one central power centre is questioned. Important methodological and substantive weaknesses inherent in this centralist model will be discussed.\ud \ud In the final section a shift towards a quality control system is advocated in which other interests and perspectives are taken into account

Diversification and stabilization in a resource-exporting country

The costs and benefits of export diversification in an old non-oil commodity exporting country are the subject matter of the following analysis. In chapter 2 the causal nexus from commodity price fluctuations to domestic disturbances is developed from well-established macro- and microeconomic theory-. As both structural change and multiple distortions are central to the argument, the analysis is promising only in a quantitative multisectoral general equilibrium framework applied to some appropriate country. The case of copper-exporting Chile will be studied here. The country model is described in chapter 3 and documented in the appendix. The model experiments used for determining the costs and benefits are also designed in chapter 3. The results are presented and discussed in chapter 4 and conclusions are drawn in chapter 5.

Norm-Establishing and Norm-Following in Autonomous Agency

Living agency is subject to a normative dimension (good-bad, adaptive-maladaptive) that is absent from other types of interaction. We review current and historical attempts to naturalize normativity from an organism-centered perspective, identifying two central problems and their solution: (1) How to define the topology of the viability space so as to include a sense of gradation that permits reversible failure, and (2) how to relate both the processes that establish norms and those that result in norm-following behavior. We present a minimal metabolic system that is coupled to a gradient-climbing chemotactic mechanism. Studying the relationship between metabolic dynamics and environmental resource conditions, we identify an emergent viable region and a precarious region where the system tends to die unless environmental conditions change. We introduce the concept of normative field as the change of environmental conditions required to bring the system back to its viable region. Norm-following, or normative action, is defined as the course of behavior whose effect is positively correlated with the normative field. We close with a discussion of the limitations and extensions of our model and some final reflections on the nature of norms and teleology in agency

Closure of the single fluid magnetohydrodynamic equations in presence of electron cyclotron current drive

In the presence of electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), the Ohm's law of single fluid magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is modified as ${\bf E} + {\bf v} \times {\bf B} = \eta( {\bf J} - {\bf J}_{\rm EC} )$. This paper presents a new closure relation for the EC driven current density appearing in this modified Ohm's law. The new relation faithfully represents the nonlocal character of the EC driven current and its main origin in the Fisch-Boozer effect. The closure relation is validated on both an analytical solution of an approximated Fokker-Planck equation as well as on full bounce-averaged, quasi-linear Fokker-Planck code simulations of ECCD inside rotating magnetic islands. The new model contains the model put forward by Giruzzi et al., Nucl. Fusion 39 (1999) 107, in one of its limits

No Need to Run Millions of Regressions

We argue that in modelling cross-country growth models one should first identify so-called outlying observations. For the data set of Sala-i-Martin, we use the least median of squares (LMS) estimator to identify outliers. As LMS is not suited for inference, we then use reweighted least squares (RLS) for our cross-country growth models. We identify 27 variables that are significantly related to economic growth. Subsequently, applying Sala-i-Martin's approach for the data set without outliers hardly reveals any additional information. Variables that are insignificant according to the RLS method are generally not significantly related to economic growth under the Sala-i-Martin approach.Sensitivity analysis, outliers, economic growth

Visualizing War

Popular artwork during the era of the Civil war can be placed into three broad categories. The first is a prewar theme of political discontent, in which political leaders were viewed as ineffective and ill-prepared to address the political challenges of the day. Additionally, this prewar theme was also characterized by a romanticized interpretation of war and unrealistic ideas about the nobility and honor of war. The second period is the wartime period in which the romanticized depictions of war disappeared as the harsh reality of prolonged civil war set in. Popular artwork was much more focused on the ugly realities of the war and not on fanciful notions of glory and honor that had pervaded prewar society. Finally, there is a postwar period which saw the slow return of the stylized and idealized representations of the American Civil War. While this change was not a rapid shift, the changes began to creep into art, as the immediate horror and suffering dimmed in the public eye. These idealized postwar portrayals of the American Civil War still exist today, though they do not represent a total regression to prewar idealism, as the human cost of the war is addressed in a stylized manner in the postwar period

Ownership structure and control in incomplete market economies with transferable utility

We consider an economy with incomplete markets and a single ¯rm and assume that utility can be freely transferred in the form of the ini- tially available good 0 (quasilinearity). In this particularly simple and transparent framework, the objective of a firm can be defined as the max- imization of the total utility of its control group C measured in units of good 0. We analyze how the size and the composition of C influences the rm's market behavior and state conditions under which the firm sells its output at prices which are at, above, or below marginal costs, respectively. We discuss the assumption of competitive price perceptions and point out important differences between the concepts of a Dreze and of a Grossman- Hart equilibrium that occur in spite of the close similarity of the formulas which define them.