The phantom of Palais Brongniart economic patriotism and the Paris stock exchange

French governments are famous for promoting national champions, notably by preventing foreign takeovers, but in 2005-2006, the Villepin administration allowed the New York Stock Exchange to take control of Euronext, a French-led pan-European company that includes the Paris Bourse. By mapping the public discourse surrounding this striking case of non-intervention, we explain why opponents of the transatlantic merger failed in their appeals to economic patriotism. Discursive strategies designed to justify discrimination against territorially defined outsiders ran into several hurdles, including weak patriotic sentiments for the company concerned; a lack of patriotic alternatives to the proposed merger; and the questionable patriotic credentials of those demanding intervention. Our findings advance research on the demand side of economic patriotism including its discursive dimension. Beyond that, they inform research on business-government relations, and on the political implications of corporate ownership structures. -- Französische Regierungen sind eigentlich dafür bekannt, dass sie einheimische Unternehmen vor Auslandsübernahmen schützen. Im Jahr 2005-2006 gestattete Villepins Regierung jedoch der New York Stock Exchange die Übernahme von Euronext, einer paneuropäischen Gesellschaft unter französischer Leitung, zu der auch die Pariser Börse gehört. Der öffentliche Diskurs zu diesem bedeutenden Fall von Nichtintervention gibt Aufschluss darüber, warum die Gegner der transatlantischen Fusion mit ihren Forderungen nach Wirtschaftspatriotismus scheiterten. Diskursiven Strategien zur Rechtfertigung von Diskriminierung gegen territorial definierte Außenseiter standen mehrere Hindernisse im Weg, etwa unzureichend ausgeprägte patriotische Gefühle für den Übernahmekandidaten, der Mangel patriotischer Alternativen zu einer transatlantischen Fusion und die mangelnde patriotische Glaubwürdigkeit derer, die eine staatliche Einmischung forderten. Der vorliegende Aufsatz ergänzt mit seinem diskursiven Schwerpunkt die aktuelle Forschung zu Wirtschaftspatriotismus. Außerdem trägt er zur Forschung über die Beziehungen zwischen Staat und Unternehmen und über die politischen Auswirkungen von Veränderungen in der Struktur von Unternehmenseigentum bei.

Multi-filter spectrophotometry simulations

To complement both the multi-filter observations of quasar environments described in these proceedings, as well as the proposed UBC 2.7 m Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT) redshift survey, we have initiated a program of simulated multi-filter spectrophotometry. The goal of this work, still very much in progress, is a better quantitative assessment of the multiband technique as a viable mechanism for obtaining useful redshift and morphological class information from large scale multi-filter surveys

A Case of Primary Gastric Melanoma Exhibiting a Rare BRAF V600R Mutation

Introduction: Malignant melanoma of the gastrointestinal tract is usually a metastasis from a cutaneous source. Primary gastric melanoma is an extremely rare clinical entity, with few reported cases worldwide. It is often advanced at time of diagnosis and is associated with a dismal outcome.Background: A 76 year old gentleman presenteded with a one month history of fatigue and exertional dyspnoea. Laboratory investigations indicated an anaemia, with a haemoglobin level of 11.0g/dl. Subsequent gastroscopy visualised a large, atypical, crater-like ulcerated lesion distal to the cardia in the proximal stomach.Provisional histology was suggestive of a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma but subsequent cyto-morphology and immunophenotyping were consistent with melanoma, with positive S100 protein, HMB45 and Melan A. Further molecular genetic testing revealed a V600R mutation in the BRAF gene, which is the first primary gastric melanoma with this mutation to be reported in the literature. Given the rarity of the findings, an extensive secondary work-up was undertaken, which concluded the diagnosis primary gastric melanoma.Discussion: Primary gastric melanoma is a rare disease that can present similarly to other upper gastrointesinal lesions, with weight loss, abdominal pain, malena, and anaemia. Given its rarity, the pathogenesis is poorly understood. Lesions are often endoscopically atypical. Important points to note would include the absence of a primary lesion, as supported by a full skin examination and PET-CT findings, which can help to delineate the limitation to the stomach, thus helping to inform subsequent management

The THOR effect : thyroid hormone offsets retinopathy

Objective Thyroid status has been implicated in macrovascular disease both in patients with and without diabetes, however its effect on microvascular complications has not been explored. We assessed the prevalence and time to development of diabetic retinopathy in patients with type 2 diabetes with and without thyroxine treatment. Research design and methods The prevalence of retinopathy was determined, in a retrospective cohort study from a secondary care referral diabetes clinic patients with type 2 diabetes and coexisting treated hypothyroidism (THD; n=147) and duration matched controls without hypothyroidism (DM2; n=383). Using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox Proportional Hazards regression model we estimated the time to development of retinopathy in the two groups. Results Prevalence of retinopathy was 27.9% in THD group, as compared to 55.1% in the DM2 group (p<0.001). THD were less than one- third as likely to have concurrent retinopathy than, DM2 patients (OR=0.32; 95% CI=0.21 to 0.48; p<0.001). There was a significant difference in the median time to retinopathy between THD and DM2 patients (21.0yrs vs. 13.0yrs: Log-Rank p<0.001). Risk of developing retinopathy in THD patients was two-fifths of that of DM2 patients (hazard ratio=0.418; p<0.001) in a time-dependent variable analysis. The risk of developing retinopathy was concomitantly lower for patients with longer duration of hypothyroidism and thyroxine treatment prior to diagnosis of diabetes (Hazard ratio=0.957:p= 0.004). Conclusion A significant sparing effect on development of retinopathy was noted in type 2 diabetic patients with concomitant hypothyroidism (on thyroxine). The exact mechanism(s) for these observations remain to be elucidated

An evaluation of Lolita and related natural language processing systems

This research addresses the question, "how do we evaluate systems like LOLITA?" LOLITA is the Natural Language Processing (NLP) system under development at the University of Durham. It is intended as a platform for building NL applications. We are therefore interested in questions of evaluation for such general NLP systems. The thesis has two, parts. The first, and main, part concerns the participation of LOLITA in the Sixth Message Understanding Conference (MUC-6). The MUC-relevant portion of LOLITA is described in detail. The adaptation of LOLITA for MUC-6 is discussed, including work undertaken by the author. Performance on a specimen article is analysed qualitatively, and in detail, with anonymous comparisons to competitors' output. We also examine current LOLITA performance. A template comparison tool was implemented to aid these analyses. The overall scores are then considered. A methodology for analysis is discussed, and a comparison made with current scores. The comparison tool is used to analyse how systems performed relative to each-other. One method, Correctness Analysis, was particularly interesting. It provides a characterisation of task difficulty, and indicates how systems approached a task. Finally, MUC-6 is analysed. In particular, we consider the methodology and ways of interpreting the results. Several criticisms of MUC-6 are made, along with suggestions for future MUC-style events. The second part considers evaluation from the point of view of general systems. A literature review shows a lack of serious work on this aspect of evaluation. A first principles discussion of evaluation, starting from a view of NL systems as a particular kind of software, raises several interesting points for single task evaluation. No evaluations could be suggested for general systems; their value was seen as primarily economic. That is, we are unable to analyse their linguistic capability directly

Sustainable economic growth for New Zealand: An optimistic myth-busting perspective

​Long-term vision is something we tend to avoid in New Zealand, with the possible exception of Māori, who have greater reason to focus on the development of their assets for future generations of mokopuna. But I will argue here that vision is essential to any strategy aimed at enhancing prosperity. It is my belief that we are poor because we choose to be poor, and that what holds us back are self-serving but dishonest myths.

The problems of offenders with mental disorders: A plurality of perspectives within a single mental health care organisation

Managers, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, unqualified staff and service users were interviewed for a qualitative study of risk management and rehabilitation in an inner city medium secure forensic mental health care unit. Different professional orientations to service user problems were identified. Doctors focused primarily on the diagnosis of mental disorder, which they managed mainly through pharmaceutical interventions. Psychologists were principally concerned with personal factors, for example service user insight into their biographical history. Occupational therapists concentrated mainly on daily living skills, and social workers on post-discharge living arrangements. Some front line nurses, held accountable for security lapses, adopted a criminogenic approach. Service users were more likely than professionals to understand their needs in terms of their wider life circumstances. These differences are explored qualitatively in relation to four models of crossdisciplinary relationships: monoprofessional self-organisation combined with restricted communication; hermeneutic reaching out to other perspectives; the establishment of interdisciplinary sub-systems; and transdisciplinary merger. Relationships between professions working in this unit, as portrayed in qualitative interviews, corresponded mainly to the first model of monoprofessional self-organisation. Reasons for restricted crossdisciplinary understanding, particularly the wide power/status differences between the medical and other professions, and between staff and patients, are discussed

How two pairs of gradient pulses give access to new information about molecular dynamics

Pulsed Gradient Nuclear Magnetic Resonance provides direct insight regarding the translational motion of spin-bearing molecules. These methods gain a second dimension when the simple gradient pulse pair is enhanced by a second pair. Where the motion encoding of the two pairs is opposite, flow effects are removed from the echo attenuation, making it possible to measure diffusion in the presence of shear flow, or to measure the stochastic part of dispersive flow, and in particular the velocity auto-correlation function. Where the gradient pulse pairs are stepped in independent dimensions, two-dimensional experiments become possible. One class (Fourier-Fourier) is the Velocity Exchange (VEXSY) experiment in which flow velocities may be correlated at different times. Another class (inverse Laplace-inverse Laplace) is the diffusion correlation (DDCOSY) or diffusion exchange (DEXSY) experiment. This approach has proven of particular value in ascertaining local anisotropies in globally isotropic systems, as well as in the model-free measurement of exchange effects