62 research outputs found
Comprehensive water resources management : a concept paper
No full textThe world is entering a period of intense competition for limited supplies of water for alternative uses - in agriculture, in urban and industrial supplies, for recreation, by wildlife, for human consumption, and to maintain environmental quality. Manifestations of this competition and our current ability to deal with it can be observed in many parts of the world. A large irrigation project in India does not operate because water has been diverted to the rapidly growing city of Pune. In China, industries are reducing their production because of water shortages. In California, selenium salts leached by irrigation are killing wildlife. Bank irrigation projects in Algeria are now competing with Bank urban water supply projects for the same water. Many proposed irrigation projects and most hydro project proposals are on hold because of environmental concerns. Until recently, the approaches taken in water planning management by planners in the developing countries and by analysts at the funding agencies were, by and large, appropriate and adequate to the task at hand. The increased competition for water, however, makes most of the project-by-project planning methods inadequate. The author discusses new approaches that are needed to integrate water resource use among different users and across different economic sectors.Water and Industry,Water Conservation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions
New book: \u3cem\u3eThe Ultimate Cartoon Book of Book Cartoons by the World\u27s Greatest Cartoonists\u3c/em\u3e
No full textAuthor and cartoonist Bob Eckstein describes the book as both an exuberant collection of cartoons and an enthusiastic love letter to books and bookstores. The cartoons celebrate and critique the literary world through the work of 33 of the masters of cartoon art, including Sam Gross, Roz Chast, Arnie Levin, Danny Shanahan, Peter Steiner, Mick Stevens, Nick Downes, Liza Donnelly, Bob Mankoff and Michael Maslin. Many of the cartoons have been published in the New Yorker, while others are published here for the first time
A Bayesian vector error corrections model of the U.S. economy
No full textThis paper presents a small-scale macroeconometric time-series model that can be used to generate short-term forecasts for U.S. output, inflation, and the rate of unemployment. Drawing on both the Bayesian VAR and vector error corrections (VEC) literature, the author specifies the baseline model as a Bayesian VEC. The author documents the model's forecasting ability over various periods, examines its impulse responses, and considers several reasonable alternative specifications. Based on a root-mean-square-error criterion, the baseline model works best, and the author concludes that this model holds promise as a workhorse forecasting tool.Forecasting ; Time-series analysis
Core inflation: a review of some conceptual issues
No full textThis paper reviews various approaches to the measurement of core inflation that have been proposed over the years using the stochastic approach to index numbers as a unifying framework. It begins with a review of how the concept of core inflation is used by the world’s major central banks, including some of the inflation-targeting central banks. The author provides a comprehensive review of many of the measures of core inflation that have been developed over the years and highlights some of the conceptual and practical problems associated with them.Inflation (Finance)
Differential patterns in comparative education discourse
No full textThis dissertation study argues that 'policy advice formation', as a discourse development, is a differentiated hybrid resultant from merger between comparative education and policy studies disciplines. Through discourse analysis based on John Creswell's format, this study identifies revisions, restatements and shifts in emphasis of theories, methodological models and challenge topics of comparative education and policy studies. Findings which display the development of policy advice formation' discourse. In conclusion, this study found differential patterns seemingly formed because of collaborative affects of standardization in education science knowledge expressed within discourse
Is close radiographic and clinical control after repair of acute type A aortic dissection really necessary for improved long-term survival?
No full textA best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was whether radiographic and clinical control after surgery for acute type A aortic dissection (AAD) is needed for improved long-term survival. Altogether, 118 relevant papers were identified using the reported search, of which seven represented the best evidence to answer the question. The author, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. We conclude that most patients after surgery for AAD remain at risk for dissection-related aortic complications. Late aortic growth is often slow and linear, but the occurrence of major aortic events is unpredictable and can initially present more than a decade postoperatively. Risk factors for rapid late aortic enlargement and reoperations include patent or partially thrombosed false lumen, large aortic size, Marfan syndrome and younger age. Whether performing a more extensive first procedure (e.g. aortic arch replacement±elephant trunk) can be translated into improved outcome and a lower incidence of aorta-related reoperations remains to be elucidated. Aortic reoperation rates range between 10% and 120 mmHg), including ?-blocker therapy, seems to decrease late aortic dilatation and the incidence of aortic reoperations. Close and careful lifelong surveillance of patients after AAD repair including radiographic and clinical controls to evaluate the status of the remaining aorta, and thus to facilitate adaptations of medical therapy and planning of timely reprocedures seems mandatory for improved long-term survival. A suggested timeframe for computed tomographic (CT) imaging after surgery for AAD is before discharge, at six and 12 months postdissection and, if stable, annually thereafter. Patients with large aneurysms (aortic diameter?50 mm) should be maintained at radiographic intervals of six months or less. If the thoracic aneurysm is moderate in size and remains stable over time, magnetic resonance imaging instead of CT-scanning is reasonable to minimize the patient's radiation exposure
Unobserved Ability and the Return to Schooling
No full textWe estimate a structural dynamic programming model of schooling decisions with unobserved heterogeneity in school ability and market ability on a sample taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Both the instantaneous utility of attending school and the wage regression function are estimated flexibly. The null hypothesis that the local returns to schooling are constant is strongly rejected in favor of a convex wage regression function composed of 8 spline segments. The local returns are very low until grade 11 (1% per year or less), increase to 3.7% in grade 12 and exceed 10% only from grade 14 to grade 16. The average return increases smoothly from 0.4% (grade 7) to 4.6% (grade 16). The convexity of the log wage regression function implies that those who obtain more schooling also experience higher average returns. We strongly reject the null hypothesis that unobserved market ability is uncorrelated with realized schooling attainments, which underlies many previous studies that have used OLS to estimate the return to schooling. The correlation between realized schooling and market ability is found to be positive and is consistent with the existence of a positive "Ability Bias". À partir d'un échantillon tiré du National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), nous estimons un modèle de programmation dynamique des choix d'éducation en présence d'hétérogénéité non observée dans les capacités scolaires et aptitudes sur le marché de l'emploi. L'utilité instantanée de la fréquentation scolaire ainsi que la fonction de salaire sont évaluées de façon flexible. L'hypothèse nulle que les rendements marginaux de l'éducation sont constants est catégoriquement rejetée en faveur d'une fonction de salaire convexe composée de huit segments de fonction d'approximation spline. Les rendements marginaux s'avèrent être très faibles jusqu'à la onzième année (1 % ou moins par an), augmentent jusqu'à 3,7 % pour la douzième année et dépassent les 10 % pour les années 14 à 16. Le rendement moyen augmente uniformément de 0,4 % (7ème année) à 4,6 % (16ème année). La convexité de la fonction de régression logarithmique du salaire implique que ceux qui atteignent un plus haut niveau de scolarisation obtiennent également de meilleurs rendements moyens sur le marché de l'emploi. Nous rejetons l'hypothèse nulle selon laquelle les aptitudes non observées sur le marché du travail ne sont pas corrélées avec les niveaux d'éducation atteints. Ce résultat va à l'encontre de ceux obtenus dans plusieurs études antérieures qui estimaient le rendement de l'éducation par la méthode des MCO. Nous trouvons une corrélation positive entre le niveau de scolarité atteint et les aptitudes sur le marché de l'emploi, confirmant ainsi l'existence d'un «Biais d'aptitude» positif.Return to Schooling, Dynamic Programming, Ability Bias, Discount Rate Bias, Rendements de l'éducation, Programmation dynamique, Biais d'aptitude, Biais de taux d'escompte
Beloved: a political composition
No full textThe emergent term, traumatic fiction describes the extraordinary violence inflicted on individuals and groups during a traumatic twentieth-century history which encompasses two world wars, various genocides, the Great Depression, and the Cold War. Traumatic fiction narratives mirror the neurosis of traumatic experience by distorting conventional narrative structures and using literary techniques like fragmentation, textual gaps, and repetition. They critique the social, economic, and political structures which make and maintain trauma. Traumatic fiction narratives focus on the problems of amnesia and memory in the construction of the historical narrative. It questions a "true" historical narrative by focusing on traditionally suppressed voices. Toni Morrison's novel, Beloved (1987) exemplifies this genre of traumatic fiction. However, critics have confused Toni Morrison's traumatic fiction writing style with music. Critics like Lars Eckstein, Peter J. Capuano, and Joanna Wolfe focus their analysis on Morrison's "jazzthetic" quality or the novel's similarities to a slave song; they also argue that the numerous songs incorporated in the novel make the musical quality of her writing essential to understanding this novel. By focusing on the supposed musical quality of her writing, critics have missed Morrison's political purpose. This paper argues that Beloved shows that the dominant white culture, historically contemptuous of the black experience, defines slavery in ways that create trauma for black Americans. Traumatic fiction, it suggests, allows Morrison to access the past and rewrite slavery's narrative. Traumatic techniques allow Morrison to transform her readers into co-witnesses so that a victim's trauma can be externalized, giving the victims much-needed distance from their trauma. That distance allows victims to revisit, reflect, rework, and retell history from a black perspective in order to transcend shame of slavery imposed by white society. Morrison uses traumatic fiction techniques because they provide a language, unmarked by white discourse, for Morrison to tell a black story of slavery that resists forgetting and silencing. Morrison challenges the seemingly authenticated historical story that upholds individualism in order to create room for a new black cultural memory that highlights community, which is its true story.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Kimberly Rose Rotte
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