80 research outputs found
Demographic Change and Public Education Spending: A Conflict between Young and Old?
No full textDemographic change in industrial countries will influence educational spending in potentially two ways. On the one hand, the decline in the number of school-age children should alleviate the financial pressure. On the other hand, the theoretical/empirical literature has established that the concomitantly increasing proportion of elderly in the population can influence the propensity of politicians to spend on education. Using a panel of the Swiss Cantons for the period from 1990 to 2002, we find that the education system has exhibited little elasticity in adjusting to changes in the school-age population, and that the share of the elderly population has a significantly negative influence on the willingness to spend on public education.public finance, education finance, demographics, panel estimates, Switzerland
Does the exotic equal pollution? Landscape methods for solving the dilemma of planting native versus non-native plant species in drylands
No full textThere is a pressing need to resolve methods that can determine native versus non-native plant use in drylands, arid areas and indeed in more temperate areas around the world. This is because whilst plant introductions may have positive objectives they can have negative landscape and ecological impacts. A key discussion on this issue focuses on whether the use of non-native plant species can be considered to be pollution and pollutive, based on the concept that pollution can be regarded as ‘matter out of place’. There are many examples of nature based , e.g. radon or toxic waters but what this paper focuses on is the issue of human induced pollution in the form of planting. This paper aims to determine a number of methods based on sustainability principles and on those used in landscape and environmental impact assessment to determine when and where non-native plants could be used and where native plants should be used. These sometimes simple and sometimes more complex methods are determined by understanding the genius loci / sense of place, and the ‘nature’ of landscape. They are determined through the identity of landscape character, landscape quality, landscape value and sensitivity to change. A complex model using a matrix tool, determines plant use types by combining sensitivity to change of the landscape relative to the magnitude of change that would be caused through the use of non-native plant species
Does the exotic equal pollution? Landscape methods for solving the dilemma of planting native versus non-native plant species in drylands
No full textThere is a pressing need to resolve methods that can determine native versus non-native plant use in drylands, arid areas and indeed in more temperate areas around the world. This is because whilst plant introductions may have positive objectives they can have negative landscape and ecological impacts. A key discussion on this issue focuses on whether the use of non-native plant species can be considered to be pollution and pollutive, based on the concept that pollution can be regarded as ‘matter out of place’. There are many examples of nature based , e.g. radon or toxic waters but what this paper focuses on is the issue of human induced pollution in the form of planting. This paper aims to determine a number of methods based on sustainability principles and on those used in landscape and environmental impact assessment to determine when and where non-native plants could be used and where native plants should be used. These sometimes simple and sometimes more complex methods are determined by understanding the genius loci / sense of place, and the ‘nature’ of landscape. They are determined through the identity of landscape character, landscape quality, landscape value and sensitivity to change. A complex model using a matrix tool, determines plant use types by combining sensitivity to change of the landscape relative to the magnitude of change that would be caused through the use of non-native plant species
Transient dielectric functions of Ge, Si, and InP from femtosecond pump-probe ellipsometry
No full textTransient dielectric functions with a 120 fs time resolution of Ge, Si, and InP were acquired from 1.7 to 3.5eV with a femtosecond pump-probe rotating-compensator ellipsometer. The intensity of the pump laser (with 1.55, 3.10, or 4.65eV photon energy) was adjusted to create an initial near-surface carrier density of 10(20)cm(-3). In Ge, there is a significant (similar to 15%) decrease in the E-1 and E-1+Delta(1) critical point absorption and a Kramers-Kronig consistent change in the refractive index because photoexcited electrons at L block these transitions and reduce their amplitudes. Only a small redshift of the E-1 critical point is observed, which we attribute to lattice heating and exchange-correlation effects. Minimal changes were found for Si and InP, where electrons near Delta and Gamma do not participate in interband transitions between 1.7 and 3.5eV
Prokaryotic and eukaryotic unicellular chronomics
No full textAn impeccable time series, published in 1930, consisting of hourly observations on colony advance in a fluid Culture of E. coli, was analyzed by a periodogram and power spectrum in 1961. While the original senior author had emphasized specifically periodicity with no estimate of period length, he welcomed further analyses. After consulting his technician. he knew of no environmental periodicity related to human schedules other than an hourly photography. A periodogram analysis in 1961 showed a 20.75-h period, It was emphasized that "(...). the circadian period disclosed is not of exactly 24-h length." Confirmations notwithstanding, a committee ruled out microbial circadian rhythms based on grounds that could have led to a different conclusion, namely first, the inability of some committee members to see (presumably by eyeballing) the rhythms in their own data, and second, what hardly follows. that there were-too many analyses" in the published papers. Our point in dealing with microbes and humans is that analyses are indispensable for quantification and for discovering a biologically novel spectrum of cyclicities. matching physical ones. The scope of circadian organization estimated in 1961 has become broader, including about 7-day. about half-yearly, about-yearly and ex-yearly and decadal periodisms, among others. Microbial circadians have become a field of their own with eyeballing, yet time-microscopy can quantify characteristics with their uncertainties and can assess broad chronomes (time structures) with features beyond circadians. As yet only suggestive differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes further broaden the perspective and may lead to life's sites of origin and to new temporal aspects of life's development as a chronomic tree by eventual rhythm dating in ontogeny and phylogeny. (c) 2005 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.NIGMS NIH HHS [K06 GM013981, K06 GM013981-43, GM-13981
Performance and regulatory effects of non-compliant loans in German synthetic mortgage-backed securities transactions
No full textOver the term of a securitization transaction, the concept of non-compliance allows a securitizing bank to classify a securitized loan as materially non-compliant with certain transaction requirements. Such a loan becomes unqualified for loss allocation. Therefore, non-compliant loans can directly affect transaction performance and the extent of risk transfer achieved with the transaction. The concept of non-compliance is incorporated in many securitizations independent of the underlying assets or structure. In Germany, there are currently no specific regulations regarding this concept. However, a bank can use discretion when classifying a loan as non-compliant and could thus report non-compliant loans strategically. This hypothesis is tested and confirmed based on a unique data set. --Non-compliance,risk transfer,securitization
Appendix to 'Groups of units of orders in Q-algebras'
No full textIn the paper 'Groups of units of orders in Q-algebras' by A.L.S. Corner, the following result is proved: A finite group G is realisable as the group of units of an order in a Q-algebra if and only if G is a C2C4C6QDB-group and either (a) G has a direct factor of order 2, or (b) G admits a direct decomposition G=G0×G1×⋯×Gr, where G1,...,Gr are B-blocks and G0 is a C4QD-group which may be embedded as a subdirect product of copies of C4, Q, D in such a way that it contains the diagonal involution −1.
The author remarks that the final condition relating to the diagonal involution is not very pretty. He believes that it could be replaced by a more desirable requirement that there exists an element g0 of order 4 in G such that CG(g0) is a 2-group. In the appendix by Federico Menegazzo, the proof of the "more desirable'' requirement is provided
Maintaining the Own Responsibility
No full textThis chapter introduces an alternative concept against the dominating trend of a complete outsourcing of IT services, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). It argues that the undiscriminating adoption of this trend tends to reduce IT on a cost factor and neglects the importance of specific IT knowledge for the continuous improvement of business processes. Also, it neglects the importance of a “communication interface” between the IS users on the one hand and the software development and IT production on the other hand. In opposition to leading management trends, this chapter will present an approach that bases on an internal competence centre for IS and that demands a steady communication between the IT staff and the various departments. In this approach, only selected IT services are externalized and the continuing growth of specific IS knowledge is essential. This approach was developed since the end of the 1990s at the building society, with about 100 employees, in which the author is working.</jats:p
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