Noah\u27s Consonants

The title refers to he of the Ark as distinct from he of the dictionary. Noah\u27s Ark is a honeymoon haven for words because Noah only admits those words in which each consonant has a partner. In practice he\u27s even more picky, refusing entry to any such words with less than 3 different consonants (6 consonants in total). He also turns away hyphenated examples, phrases, coinages, palindromes, tautonyms and pair isograms. Here, we attempt to discover some of those words which have made it past Noah into the Ark

A validated set of tool pictures with matched objects and non-objects for laterality research

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging research has established that knowledge related to tool use and tool recognition is lateralized to the left cerebral hemisphere. Recently, behavioural studies with the visual half-field technique have confirmed the lateralization. A limitation of this research was that different sets of stimuli had to be used for the comparison of tools to other objects and objects to non-objects. Therefore, we developed a new set of stimuli containing matched triplets of tools, other objects and non-objects. With the new stimulus set, we successfully replicated the findings of no visual field advantage for objects in an object recognition task combined with a significant right visual field advantage for tools in a tool recognition task. The set of stimuli is available as supplemental data to this article

Spectral monitoring of AGNs: Preliminary results for Ark 564 and Arp 102B

We present preliminary results of the long term spectral monitoring of two active galactic nuclei with different broad line shapes: Ark 564 and Arp 102B. Ark 564 is a bright nearby narrow line Syfert 1 (NLS1) galaxy with relatively narrow permitted optical emission lines and a high FeII/H${\beta}$ ratio, while Arp 102B is a nearby broad-line radio galaxy with broad double-peaked Balmer emission lines. The spectra of Ark 564 were observed during 11-year period (1999-2009) and the spectra of Arp 102B in the 12-year period (1998-2009), with SAO 6-m and 1-m telescopes (Russia) and the GHAO 2.1-m telescope (Cananea, Mexico).Comment: Presented on "8th Serbian Conference on Spectral Line Shapes in Astrophysics". In revised version minor changes in the tex

Economic growth and labour productivity in Europe : half a century of east-west comparisons

This paper discusses the comparative productivity performance of Eastern and Western Europe since 1950. Firstly, it looks at the productivity estimates since the beginning of transition in 1989. Despite a decline in output, the turmoil of the late 1980s affected labour participation more strongly, so that labour productivity growth has been less affected than per capita income growth. Presently, there are signs of a renewed slowdown in productivity growth in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC’s), even though there is much diversity between the countries. Secondly an historical approach is adopted by taking into account the growth performance of CEEC’s for the period 1950-1989. The estimates suggest a long-term trend towards productivity slowdown in Eastern Europe beyond the slowdown in Western Europe since 1973. Indeed the growth path in the CEEC’s before transition can be characterised as “extensive growth”. Growth was based on rapid accumulation of resources without successful application of new technologies, which led to declining efficiency in the use of resources. It is argued that the present difficulties in closing the productivity and income gap between East and West are still partly due to the legacy of the past. Policies to improve work organisation, change production strategies, and strengthen quality of training are typically effective in the long run and will not materialise in immediate sustained gains in productivity. Thirdly the paper takes a look at the convergence and divergence trends in productivity since 1950. It outlines a continuous process of productivity divergence between Eastern and Western Europe, despite convergence within each of the two regions. It is argued that the brief episode of convergence since 1992 is primarily the result of the recovery of shock effects of the transition. A long term process of productivity convergence depends on the success by which the past process of extensive growth can be transformed into intensive growth, i.e., growth based on efficient resource use and successful adaptation of new technologies. This requires institution building to strengthen the effectiveness of product, labour and capital markets in the long run.

Accumulation, productivity and technology: measurement and analysis of long term economic growth

This paper provides a brief overview of the "state of the art" on research on the sources of long term economic growth. It is argued that, despite the enormous progress in development of the theory and empirics on long term economic growth, we are still not able to unambiguously distinguish between the determinants of growth. The distinction between accumulation, productivity and technology is a useful device to structure the debate, as the former two tend to emphasize the importance of investment and increased efficiency in use of resources, whereas the latter puts the contribution of invention and innovation change into the spotlight. However, the most powerful explanations of economic growth are those which combine these various aspects of growth with an explicit focus on historical, institutional and political factors in the growth process. To strengthen empirical research, the paper recommends greater attention for reconstruction of historical national accounts, the development of a broad range of technology indicators.