Elections related cycles in publicly supplied goods in Albania

The phenomena of manipulation of the economy by the incumbent for electoral purpose are called Political Business Cycles (PBC), introduced by Nordhaus (1975). Using policy control economic instruments, as fiscal and monetary instruments, government may manipulate the economy to gain electoral advantage by producing growth and decreasing unemployment before elections. In addition to increased public expenditures, also the production/supply of certain publicly provided goods may score improvements. In Albania, production and supply of electricity (for the time span of our analyzes) was controlled by KESH (Korporata Energjitike Shqiptare - Albanian Energy Corporation) which is a quasi- monopoly in the supply of electricity in Albania, and it is publicly run. Throughout the transition, supply of electricity, due to various technical and economic reasons, has not been stable, and characterized by systematic interruption for households and businesses users, affecting their well-being and performance (electricity is a main source of energy for households, including heating and cooking). Therefore, it seems so that there is an incentive and rationale for the incumbent to use also the provision of electricity to impress the voters before elections, beside of the classical instruments of expenditures. In this paper we analyze consumption, production and import of electricity in Albania. Our hypothesis is that before elections, electricity consumption may increase above usual levels, followed by a contraction after elections. In our analysis we use modern standard econometric approach, used widely for research related to PBC. By ARMA modelling it is possible to prove if elections can explain changes in electricity production, in addition to the past history of the variable and the random error term. --Political Business Cycle,Electricity,Albania

A large scale hearing loss screen reveals an extensive unexplored genetic landscape for auditory dysfunction

The developmental and physiological complexity of the auditory system is likely reflected in the underlying set of genes involved in auditory function. In humans, over 150 non-syndromic loci have been identified, and there are more than 400 human genetic syndromes with a hearing loss component. Over 100 non-syndromic hearing loss genes have been identified in mouse and human, but we remain ignorant of the full extent of the genetic landscape involved in auditory dysfunction. As part of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium, we undertook a hearing loss screen in a cohort of 3006 mouse knockout strains. In total, we identify 67 candidate hearing loss genes. We detect known hearing loss genes, but the vast majority, 52, of the candidate genes were novel. Our analysis reveals a large and unexplored genetic landscape involved with auditory function

Ballistic Bunching of Photo-Injected Electron Bunches with Dielectric-Lined Waveguide

We describe a simple technique to passively bunch non-ultrarelativistics ($\lesssim 10$~MeV) electron bunches produced in conventional photoinjectors. The scheme employs a dielectric-lined waveguide located downstream of the electron source to impress an energy modulation on a picosecond bunch. The energy modulation is then converted into a density modulation via ballistic bunching. The method is shown to support the generation of sub-picosecond bunch train with multi-kA peak currents. The relatively simple technique is expected to find applications in compact, accelerator-based, light sources and advanced beam-driven accelerator methods.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figure

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF GOAL ALIGNMENT, INTERVENTIONS, AND MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS ON INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECTS

Innovation has become an important facet of engineering design, both in industry and the academy. Many senior-level engineering design courses encourage students to develop innovative solutions to open design projects from industry sponsors. Like industry, these academic problems are tackled by teams of students. Student teams that function at the highest level are more likely to reach the innovative solutions for which they are searching. The research presented in this work focuses on two main areas: (1) understanding what motivates engineers when working on innovative design projects and (2) determining the effects of goal alignment interventions on design teams working on innovative design projects. An exploratory survey was developed, validated, and administered to students in the capstone course at Clemson University to determine which motivational factors engineering students perceive to be most effective when working on innovative design projects. The initial results show that (1) “passing the class”, (2) “impressing the industry sponsors”, and (3) “making an ‘A’ in the class” are the three factors that most effectively promoted innovative design. Conversely, (1) “cash prizes”, (2) “increased project budget”, and (3) “receiving patents” are the three factors that least effectively promoted innovative design. A second exploratory study was conducted to determine if the effects of setting common goals could be quantified. Five of eighteen design teams were selected and guided to set common goals as a team during week five of their design experience. It was found that the teams that received interventions had an immediate increase in level of performance (p-value = 0.14) and motivation (p-value = 0.19) when compared to teams that did not receive interventions

Production, environment and biodiversity: Conflicting dairy discourses?

While farmers as private landowners are a prime target for native biodiversity conservation, they are also the focus of strong pressures to manage land for production. The pressure is particularly strong for dairy farmers who face a high capital outlay in the cost of land, dairy cows and milk company shares. This paper reflects on the messages that dairy farmers receive from the mass media about environment and production. It reports the results of a content analysis of articles from a popular New Zealand farmer magazine, and notes the news media reportage of a recent environmental policy initiative related to water quality. The aim of the content analysis was to compare the quantity of information that dairy farmers receive about environmental and production issues in a magazine that receives wide circulation within the dairy farming community

The Beauty Industry\u27s Influence on Women in Society

There has been a significant amount of research done on the effect that advertising in the fashion and beauty industry has on women. By creating advertisements with unrealistic images of beauty, it has resulted in anxiety, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence in many women. Most of these negative emotions stems from unhappiness among body and appearance. Less research has been performed relating to cosmetics and how this can have an influence on women, and how women can use cosmetics to manipulate their appearance. This paper first discusses the existing research that focuses on the cosmetic industry’s influence on women. From this research, a general survey was created in order to gather general information about a group of college student’s cosmetic usage, habits, and beliefs. The results indicate that college women are high users of cosmetics, are very aware of the cosmetic industry, and that some individual differences can have an effect on the choices a woman makes regarding cosmetics

Enthusing and inspiring with reusable kinaesthetic activities

We describe the experiences of three University projects that use a style of physical, non-computer based activity to enthuse and teach school students computer science concepts. We show that this kind of activity is effective as an outreach and teaching resource even when reused across different age/ability ranges, in lecture and workshop formats and for delivery by different people. We introduce the concept of a Reusable Outreach Object (ROO) that extends Reusable Learning Objects. and argue for a community effort in developing a repository of such objects