A spatial accuracy assessment of an alternative circular scan method for Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic

This paper concerns the Bernoulli version of Kulldorff’s spatial scan statistic, and how accurately it identifies the exact centre of approximately circular regions of increased spatial density in point data. We present an alternative method of selecting circular regions that appears to give greater accuracy. Performance is tested in an epidemiological context using manifold synthetic case-control datasets. A small, but statistically significant, improvement is reported. The power of the alternative method is yet to be assessed

Two-level negotiations in a fragmented system: Saudi Arabia's WTO accession.

Based on a case study of Saudi Arabia's WTO accession, the article offers a critique of conventional factor- and sector-based models of trade policy, proposing instead a two-level institutional account that is likely to be relevant for non-democratic states in general. Historically grown patterns of institutional fragmentation in both public and private sector in Saudi Arabia have made interest formation and the building of policy coalitions difficult. Various WTO-related economic reforms have therefore been held up as long as they were negotiated within the disjointed Saudi system. However, as soon as the Saudi leadership decided to directly follow the reform demands of its international negotiation partners, changes were rammed through rapidly - as institutional fragmentation of interests prevented an encompassing veto coalition against a comprehensive policy package which was in its substance imposed from outside. Fragmentation of state, business and relations between them can hence mean policy stalemate, but can also make for rapid policy adjustment under conditions of external pressure. In its conclusion, the article relates these findings to the institutionalist literature on trade in general.

3. The Decline of the Manor

The development of towns into commercial centers was soon accompanied by the decline of the old manorial system of agriculture and serfdom. Changes were taking place in methods of agricultural production, systems of land holding, and the quantity of land under cultivation. These changes came about as it became increasingly apparent that population growth was creating demands for the products of the soil which the old agricultural methods no longer could meet. [excerpt

‘But Who Will Bell the Cat?’: Deschamps, Brinton, Langland, and the Hundred Years’ War

This essay investigates the mutual use of the ‘belling the cat’ fable in Langland’s Prologue to Piers Plowman, in Thomas Brinton’s sermon from 1376, and in a cluster of poems about the Hundred Years War by Langland’s French contemporary, Eustache Deschamps. Although the fable was popular in their day, only these three authors offer it a specifically topical application, and each, the essay argues, uses it to critique administrative dysfunction and excessive taxation during the Hundred Years War. By teasing out this Anglo-French political context, the essay offers a new reading of Langland’s mouse’s exhortation of inaction before the Rodent Parliament as pointedly reflective of debates surrounding the war in the Good Parliament of 1376. It thus argues for Langland’s engagement with international, rather than only domestic, politics and for his participation in broader, cross-Channel literary currents, rather than purely insular ones

What Should the Federal Government Be Doing About Urban Economic Development?

The federal government should focus its policies towards economic development on areas in which the federal government has some unique advantages. Federal policy should: (1) discourage financial subsidies to specific large firms by state and local governments; (2) expand the federal role in economic development services in which national action has some special advantages, such as developing information on foreign markets, encouraging large national banks to be more involved in economic development, supporting the development of the "Information Superhighway," and encouraging new technology development; (3) provide modest support for state and local efforts to increase business productivity through technology extension efforts and customized job training programs; (4) encourage more and higher quality evaluation of state and local economic development programs; (5) support experiments that link economic development efforts with hiring the disadvantaged; (6) relax federal regulations, such as regulations on the cleanup of older industrial sites, that impede local economic development.urban, economic, development, federal, government, Bartik

Bloch oscillations, Zener tunneling and Wannier-Stark ladders in the time-domain

We present a time-domain analysis of carrier dynamics in a semiconductor superlattice with two minibands. Integration of the density-matrix equations of motion reveals a number of new features: (i) for certain values of the applied static electric field strong interband transitions occur; (ii) in static fields the complex time-dependence of the density-matrix displays a sequence of stable plateaus in the low field regime, and (iii) for applied fields with a periodic time-dependence the dynamic response can be understood in terms of the quasienergy spectra.Comment: 4 pages, 6 PostScript figures available from [email protected], REVTEX 3.

Spin noise spectroscopy in GaAs

We observe the noise spectrum of electron spins in bulk GaAs by Faraday rotation noise spectroscopy. The experimental technique enables the undisturbed measurement of the electron spin dynamics in semiconductors. We measure exemplarily the electron spin relaxation time and the electron Lande g-factor in n-doped GaAs at low temperatures and find good agreement of the measured noise spectrum with an unpretentious theory based on Poisson distribution probability.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure