Opening doors to the world : a new trade agenda for the Middle East

Published in the Arab countries, Iran and Turkey by the American University in Cairo Pres

Record of economic research on the Middle East and North Africa since 1990

Tema ovog završnog rada je analiza naprezanja i deformacija u toplinski opterećenoj konstrukciji. Prije same analize, koja se temelji na principima metode konačnih elemenata kratko je opisana zadana konstrukcija, te mehanička i toplinska svojstva materijala deformabilnih ploča korištenih u sklopu. Numerička analiza izvodi se u programskom paketu ABAQUS, te je stoga u ovome radu dan kratak osvrt na teorijsku podlogu navedenog programskog paketa. Također, opisani su korišteni trodimenzionalni elementi koji su korišteni u numeričkoj analizi. U analizi se koriste osnovni heksaedarski „brick“ elementi za toplinska i mehanička opterećenja, te superponirani elementi za termomehaničke primjene. Prije početka numeričke analize zadane konstrukcije, odabrani elementi su verificirani na poznatim problemima koje je uz određena pojednostavljenja moguće riješiti analitičkim putem. Numerička analiza rađena je za tri različita tipa toplinskog opterećenja, te su za svaki tip opterećenja opisani rubni uvjeti, stacionarnost ili tranzijentnost problema, te proces dobivanja konačne diskretizacije proračunskog modela analizom konvergencije. Nakon provođenja analize detaljnije su opisani dobiveni rezultati, te prikazane karakteristične raspodjele pomaka, naprezanja i temperatura.The subject of this final paper is analysis of stresses and strains in construction subjected to thermal load. Before the analysis, which is based on the principles of finite element method, a short description of given structure is provided, and mechanical and thermal properties of deformable plates used in assembly is given. Numerical analysis is carried out in software package called ABAQUS, so in this paper it is given a short overview of theoretical basis of specified software package. Finite elements used in numerical analyisis are also described. The analysis used basic three-dimensional hexahedron „brick“ elements for thermal and mechanical loads, and superimposed elements for thermomechanical applications. Before the numerical analysis of given construction, chosen elements are verified on known problems, which can be analytically solved with certain simplifications. Numerical analysis is done fore three different types of thermal load, and thus, for every type, are described boundary conditions, stationarity or transitivity, and the process of detirmining the final discretization of numerical model with convergence analysis. After the analysis is carried out, results are described in a more detailed manner, and also specific distributions of discplacements, stresses and temperatures are shown

2017 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Eleventh Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1011/thumbnail.jp

Against the Tide. A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done

Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions". It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us.\ud \ud The authors, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the "leitmotiv" claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science

Financial market efficiency : a study of the time series properties of the Jordanian stock market

The ASE has developed greatly since its establishment and has succeeded in accomplishing several of its goals by mobilising capital into the productive sectors of the economy. ASE appears to be well organised, attractive, and aims to attract international investments in order to increase the depth of the market. The aim of the study is to explore the efficiency of this emerging market and investigate the integration with other capital markets in the region. Conventional tests beside recent econometric techniques are implemented. The thesis starts with a review of the development of the efficient market hypothesis, followed by an overview of the development of the Jordanian Financial Market. The autocorrelation and runs test - runs up and down, distributions of runs by length, and runs above and below -are applied to the daily price indices of ASE to examine whether ASE is weak form efficient. The empirical results reflect significant positive dependency patterns in stock prices and suggest that the price behaviour in ASE does not follow the random walk model over time. However, further investigation is applied to find whether these results could be exploited, through technical analysis, to outperform the simple buy and hold policy. Filter rules and moving average techniques are used. Furthermore, and for the results of moving average techniques, standard statistical testing is extended through the use of bootstrap techniques. According to the moving average rule, buy and sell signals are generated by two moving averages of the level of the index (long and short period averages). The conditional returns on buy or sell signals from actual data are compared to the conditional returns from simulated series generated by a range of models (random walk with a drift, AR (1), and GARCH-(M)). The results of this part of the study generally suggest that technical analysis helps predict stock price changes in the Jordanian stock market. In the next part of the thesis, recent econometric Procedures are employed to investigate the behavioural properties of ASE indices. The Box-Jenkins estimation, irrespective of the index examined produced different models with a high prediction performance, violating the EM: H conditions. The unit-root test also confirmed these results as the return series for all indices did not exhibit unit root, and all processes were stationary. The GARCH-M(l, l) model is estimated and present mix results cross the indices. To a certain limit, the results support the existence of a significant link between conditional volatility and stock returns, and the conditional variance is found to change over time as a result of volatility clustering effects. The last part of the thesis applies the cointegration and Granger causality tests to investigate the concept of market integration and comovements. These techniques are applied using, firstly, the five Jordanian daily indices, and secondly, the weekly price indices for ten MENA (Middle East and North Africa) markets. The cointegration test between the Jordan index and every other market index is applied. Moreover, different groups of markets (GCC, Africa, and Europe) are composed and the cointegration test is applied for each group. Results suggest that the Jordanian stock market does not exhibit a long run relationship with most other markets, and there is an advantage for investors looking for diversification in the Middle East markets.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Influence of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behaviour and Organizational Performance in Public Administration Sector: Evidence from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (HKJ) faces internal and external challenges and hazards that pose significant encounters for HKJ. Such challenges cast a heavy shadow on several public sectors, the most important of which is the public health sector. However, this dissertation aimed to investigate the influence of Public Service Motivation on Ethical behavior and Organizational Performance in Jordanian public hospitals. This dissertation had been divided into two folds that filled numerous flagrant gaps in the arena of PSM. In the first fold, we investigated the influence of PSM on Ethical Behavior using three-level models via SEM. In the second fold, we contribute to the methodological linking between PSM and Organizational Performance using econometrics techniques

Volume 1, Nos. 3 & 4

Adler, Jonathan, E. “Excerpts from a Philosophy Class with Sixth Graders.” 107-114. Bateson, Gregory. “Why Do Things Get in a Muddle?” 14-16. Bruner, Jerome. “Thinking at the Internalization of Dialogue.” 34. Coleridge, S. T. “Coleridge on Democracy, Discussion, Philosophy and Education.” 70-73. Curtis, Barry. “Philosophy for Children in Hawaii.” 52-56. Cummings, Nancy Pekin. “Improving the Logical Skills of Fifth Graders.” 90-92. Dalin, George. “A Philosophy for Children Workshop for Chicago Teachers of the Gifted.” 40-42. Dell, Floyd. “The Child.” 49. Dewey, John. “Thinking and Experience.” 35. Dimnet, Ernest. “Philosophy in Childhood.” 43. DuPuis, Adrian. “Philosophy, Religion and Religious Education.” 60-63. Durkheim, Emile. “Learning to Reason.” 98-102. Edgeworth, Maria and Richard Lovell. “On Wit and Judgments.” 80-89. Fish, William C. “Review of Various Books by John Wilson.” 103-106. Forster, E. M. Exerpt from The Longest Journey. 69. Frankel, Henry. “Can We Help Children Think?” 76. Godwin, William. “Of Reasoning and Contention.” 93-94. Gosnell, Nelda. “Can We Help Children Think?” 74-76. Kant, Immanuel. “Kant on Avoiding Errors in Thinking.” 34. Karras, Ray W. “Final Evaluation of the Pilot Program in Philosophical Reasoning in Lexington Elementary School 197879.” 26-32. Kolenda, Konstantina. “Educating for Moral Strength.” 95-97. Luria, A. R. “Are Mental Categories Social in Nature?” 34. Martin, Jane Roland. “Thinking and Literacy.” 44-51. Matthews, Gareth. “Thinking in Stories.” 23. Mead, Margaret. “The Child, the Teacher, and the Culture.” 33. Metcalf, Lawrence. “The Failure to Promote Values or to Promote Valuing.” 36-39. Newark, Pomtpon, Lakes and Hilo. “What do Students Think of Philosophy for Children.” 57-59. Ryle, Gilbert. “Thinking and SelfTeaching.” 18-23. Staff. “Title IVC Adoption Grants.” 6468. Taba, Hilda. “The Problems in Developing Critical Thinking.” 77-80. Toulmin, Stephen; from Adrian DuPuis, A. Gray Thompson and Unknown. “On the Importance of the Concept of Meaning,” The New York Review. 35. Vygotsky, L. S. “Determining Children’s Potential Thinking Level, from Mind in Society. 33. Wilbur, Richard. “A Game of Catch,” from The New Yorker. 24-25. Woodbridge, Fredrick, J. E. “Philosophy and Education,” from Contrasts in Education. 33. Yang, Peter Mauhsui. “Teaching Philosophy to Children in Taiwan.” 10-13

Essays on conflict-induced displacement and gender in Colombia

Many reports highlight the fact that women’s and men’s experience of and response to conflict-induced displacement is highly differentiated (El-Bushra, 2000; Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, 2014; Gururaja, 2000; Levine et al., 2019). However, few studies in the economics literature consider gender-specific effects. The phenomenon of conflict-induced displacement is associated with shifts that would be expected to have differential impacts on the households in which women and men live. These shifts include the risk of experiencing poverty, access to services, as well as health and education outcomes, among others. Evidence on the gender dimensions of displacement is thus needed to understand the associations between the socio-economic characteristics of displaced persons, poverty, and vulnerability and to inform policy responses that create durable solutions. This dissertation contributes to the literature by applying a gender lens to the empirical analysis of the impacts of conflict-induced displacement. It focuses on the case of Colombia, a middle-income country with the second largest IDP population in the world. The study builds on evidence from various academic disciplines to estimate the effects of displacement on household structures, poverty, and gender norms

E-Governance: Strategy for Mitigating Non-Inclusion of Citizens in Policy Making in Nigeria

The Nigerian federation that currently has 36 states structure adopted the Weberian Public Administrative system before now as an ideal way of running government, which was characterized with the traditional way of doing things without recourse to the deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Today e-governance is seen as a paradigm shift from the previous way of governance. Research has shown that, the adoption and implementation of e-governance is more likely to bring about effective service delivery, mitigate corruption and ultimately enhance citizens’ participation in governmental affairs. However, it has been argued that infrastructure such as regular electricity power and access to the Internet, in addition to a society with high rate of literacy level are required to effectively implement and realize the potentials of e-governance for improved delivery of services. Due to the difficulties currently experienced, developing nations need to adequately prepare for the implementation of e-governance on the platform of Information Communication Technology (ICT). Hence, this study seeks to examine whether the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the context of Nigeria would mitigate the hitherto non-inclusion of citizens in the formulation and implementation of government policies aimed at enhanced development. To achieve the objective of the study, data were sourced and analyzed majorly by examining government websites of 20 states in the Nigerian federation to ascertain if there are venues for citizens to interact with government in the area of policy making and feedback on government actions, as a way of promoting participatory governance. The study revealed that the adoption and implementation of e-governance in the country is yet to fully take place. This is due to lack of infrastructure, low level of literacy rate and government inability to provide the necessary infrastructure for e-governance to materialize. The paper therefore, recommends among others the need for the Federal Government to involve a sound and clear policy on how to go about the adoption and implementation of egovernance through deliberate effort at increasing budgetary allocation towards infrastructural development and mass education of citizens