127,679 research outputs found

    "Market Processes and Thwarting Systems"

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    This paper suggests that there are two longstanding views on business cycles and economic dynamics: One emphasizes endogenous stability plus exogenous disturbances, while the other focuses on endogenous instability plus institutional 'containing' or "thwarting" mechanisms. The latter tradition regards business cycles and economic instability as the natural and inherent consequence of self-interest-motivated behavior in complex economies with sophisticated financial institutions. In fact, it is the interaction between the system's endoge-nous dynamics and the effects of institutions and interventions which, if "apt," constrains the outcomes of capitalist market processes to acceptable outcomes. The endogenous instability view of the economy, in which institutional structures and interventions stabilize the fragile, essentially refutes Lucas: He asserts that the economy is a mechanism that transforms exogenous shocks (either random or unanticipated policy interventions) into business cycles, thus generating a growth equilibrium. Recent history has illustrated the flaws of laissez-faire theory as the postwar capitalist economies that have enjoyed consistently high levels of growth are big government interventionist economies. The challenge for the future is recognizing that market processes are deficient not only in their ability to maintain aggregate demand, but also as devices for assuring productive investment and a tolerable distribution of income.

    The Political-Economy of Argentina’s Debacle

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    In this paper I argue that political-economy considerations –and in particular the identity of the reformers- are central to understanding the Argentine crisis. During the 90®s the main political parties remained attached to populism, and no strong party emerged at the center of the political spectrum. This had two effects in the reform process. First, it severely deteriorated it (efficiency, corruption), reducing the support of the population. Second, when a series of shocks hit the economy the anti-reform camp tried to undo most reforms, and thus convey a message to the population about the “right” model of the world.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39980/2/wp594.pd

    Stability of graph communities across time scales

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    The complexity of biological, social and engineering networks makes it desirable to find natural partitions into communities that can act as simplified descriptions and provide insight into the structure and function of the overall system. Although community detection methods abound, there is a lack of consensus on how to quantify and rank the quality of partitions. We show here that the quality of a partition can be measured in terms of its stability, defined in terms of the clustered autocovariance of a Markov process taking place on the graph. Because the stability has an intrinsic dependence on time scales of the graph, it allows us to compare and rank partitions at each time and also to establish the time spans over which partitions are optimal. Hence the Markov time acts effectively as an intrinsic resolution parameter that establishes a hierarchy of increasingly coarser clusterings. Within our framework we can then provide a unifying view of several standard partitioning measures: modularity and normalized cut size can be interpreted as one-step time measures, whereas Fiedler's spectral clustering emerges at long times. We apply our method to characterize the relevance and persistence of partitions over time for constructive and real networks, including hierarchical graphs and social networks. We also obtain reduced descriptions for atomic level protein structures over different time scales.Comment: submitted; updated bibliography from v

    DAF-16/FoxO in Caenorhabditis elegans and its role in metabolic remodeling

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    DAF-16, the only forkhead box transcription factors class O (FoxO) homolog in Caenorhabditis elegans, integrates signals from upstream pathways to elicit transcriptional changes in many genes involved in aging, development, stress, metabolism, and immunity. The major regulator of DAF-16 activity is the insulin/insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) signaling (IIS) pathway, reduction of which leads to lifespan extension in worms, flies, mice, and humans. In C. elegans daf-2 mutants, reduced IIS leads to a heterochronic activation of a dauer survival program during adulthood. This program includes elevated antioxidant defense and a metabolic shift toward accumulation of carbohydrates (i.e., trehalose and glycogen) and triglycerides, and activation of the glyoxylate shunt, which could allow fat-to-carbohydrate conversion. The longevity of daf-2 mutants seems to be partially supported by endogenous trehalose, a nonreducing disaccharide that mammals cannot synthesize, which points toward considerable differences in downstream mechanisms by which IIS regulates aging in distinct groups

    Dark matter concentration in the galactic center

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    It is shown that the matter concentration observed through stellar motion at the galactic center (Eckart & Genzel, 1997, MNRAS, 284, 576 and Genzel et al., 1996, ApJ, 472, 153) is consistent with a supermassive object of 2.5×1062.5 \times 10^6 solar masses composed of self-gravitating, degenerate heavy neutrinos, as an alternative to the black hole interpretation. According to the observational data, the lower bounds on possible neutrino masses are mΜ≄12.0m_\nu \geq 12.0 keV/c2/c^2 for g=2g=2 or mΜ≄14.3m_\nu \geq 14.3 keV/c2/c^2 for g=1g=1, where gg is the spin degeneracy factor. The advantage of this scenario is that it could naturally explain the low X-ray and gamma ray activity of Sgr A∗^*, i.e. the so called "blackness problem" of the galactic center.Comment: ApJ, 500, 591 (1998), AASTEX, aasms4.sty, v2 reference adde

    Assessing the Impact of Strategic Global Entry from Cultural Research Perspective in Marketing: A Case of Oil and Gas Industry in Romania

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    Breaking into a new market is a classic path to business growth. Ability to understand consumption experience of consumers is a major concern of today’s marketers, most especially in view of the rise of experiential marketing approaches that seek to re-enchant people through consumption (Schmitt, 1999, 2003). Service businesses, in particular, are being urged to have a global view on what types of experiences to organize for consumers and how they should be provided. One of the entry strategy of a successful global organization is to research the market they are about to enter and most marketers are now turning to ethnographers. Ethnography has therefore, devised a compilation of retrospective and introspective consumer narratives called “big stories” in contrast to “small stories” Therefore, ethnography of consumption has evolved towards a double method featuring, on one hand, observations that generate “small stories” and, on the other, introspection that generates “big stories”. Ethnography of consumption has been strengthened by the shift from a researcher-devised retrospective narrative in an interview form to an introspective narrative that is produced, fine-tuned and diffused by the consumer in the shape of a text diary, audio diary or video diary (Caru and Cova, 2008). This non-empirical article is to detail the major roles of ethnographers when a company wants to enter an international market. Romania is the largest oil producer in Central and Eastern Europe with reserves of 956 million barrels. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Romania produced an average of 105.4 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2007, 0.12% of the world total and a change of 0.9 % compared to 2006. The country is a net oil importer, and according to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Romania consumed an average of 229.29 thousand barrels a day of oil in 2007, 0.27% of the world total and a change from 2006 of 10.44 tbpd. This non-empirical article is to look into the entry strategies of oil multinationals wishing to do business in Romani

    A comprehensive approach to the euro-area debt crisis

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    The euro area‘s sovereign debt crisis continues though significant steps have been taken to resolve it. This paper proposes a comprehensive solution to the crisis based on three pillars: a plan to restore banking sector soundness in the whole euro area, a resolution of sovereign debt crisis -including a revision of EU assistance facilities and a reduction of the Greek public debt- and a strategy to foster growth and competitiveness. The paper provides novel estimates and analysis focusing on the current situation of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain

    Anaesthesia and Intensive Care

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    The anaesthetist has seen his role steadily expand and it is hard to think of one medical specialty in which anaesthetists are not involved at least to some extent. We present a range of papers which demonstrates the breadth of anaesthesia: from its traditional realm in the operating theatre to critical care and resuscitation onto chronic pain and obstetric analgesia.peer-reviewe

    Interpreting the Outsider Tradition in British European Policy Speeches from Thatcher to Cameron

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    The article investigates how British European policy thinking has been informed by what it identifies as an ‘outsider’ tradition of thinking about ‘Europe’ in British foreign policy dating from imperial times to the presen. The article begins by delineating five phases in the evolution of the outsider tradition through a survey of the relevant historiography back to 1815. The article then examines how prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron have looked to various inflections of the outsider tradition to inform their European discourses. The focus in the speech data sections is on British identity, history and the realist appreciation of international politics that informed the leaders’ suggestions for EEC/EU reform. The central argument is that historically informed narratives such as those making up the outsider tradition do not determine opinion-formers’ outlooks, but that they can be deeply impervious to rapid change
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