The globalization of U.S. business investment

This paper documents some key facts about foreign direct investment flows by U.S. businesses overseas and foreign businesses in the United States. We show how the pattern of flows has evolved, examine the sources and destination of these flows, document associated employment and productivity gains, and show how investment-related sales compare with traditional exports. While the United States is a net debtor to the rest of the world, direct investment overseas by U.S. businesses exceeds direct investment in the U.S. by foreign businesses. Furthermore, U.S. businesses seem to earn more on their foreign investments than foreign firms earn on their U.S. investments. The globalization of business investment is a long-standing phenomenon, but it has accelerated in recent years and become a source of concern for some, as it is intimately related to the debate on offshore outsourcing. Yet contrary to what some think, the bulk of U.S. investment overseas is in other high-income countries. And foreign investment in the U.S. has been an important source of employment growth in recent years.Investments, Foreign - United States

Openness and inflation

This paper reviews the evidence on the relationship between openness and inflation. There is a robust negative relationship across countries, first documented by Romer (1993), between a country's openness to trade and its long-run inflation rate. However, a key part of the standard explanation for this relationship—that central banks have a smaller incentive to engineer surprise inflations in more-open economies because the Phillips curve is steeper—seems at odds with the facts. While the United States is still not a very open economy by conventional measures, there are channels through which global developments may influence the nation's inflation. We document evidence that global resource utilization may play a role in U.S. inflation and suggest avenues for future research.Inflation (Finance) ; Trade ; Phillips curve

Questions on using control self assessment techniques on information systems development projects

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce, 1998Corporate Governance requires management to report to its stakeholders on Internal Control Systems. Corporate Governance is the system through which organisations are directed and controlled. To meet these requirements management needs a mechanism through which they can stay abreast of such control systems. The aim of this research is to evaluate whether such a mechanism can be provided for Information System Development (ISD) projects, through Control Self-Assessment questionnaire and / or workshop techniques. [Abbreviated abstract. Open document to view full version}MT201

Service-Learning in the United States and South Africa: A Comparative Analysis Informed by John Dewey and Julius Nyerere

As the prevalence of service-learning within higher education institutions grows across the globe there is value to explore, discuss, and describe the similarities and differences between the various expressions that are emerging. Such comparative analysis can deepen understanding of service-learning pedagogy, improve practice, and create a framework for future research. This paper compares service-learning in the United States and South Africa to understand Western-oriented and Africanized expressions of this promising teaching strategy. The analysis identifies three dimensions derived from the educational theories of John Dewey and Julius Nyerere and finds there is mutual agreement as to the value of developing civic-minded graduates. However, in the U.S., service-learning is supported primarily by nonprofit associations and stakeholders within higher education, whereas in South Africa, service-learning is a part of state mandated transformations for higher education

Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi

• Adagiorum chilias IV, centuriae VI-X; chilias V, centuriae I-II. [Adagia 3501-4151

Migrations of sandy beach meiofauna

The meiofauna at higher tide levels on a sheltered beach has been found to undergo vertical migrations correlated with the alternate drying and wetting of the sand during the tidal cycle. This movement may be modified by temperature differences between summer and winter and day and night. No major horizontal up/downshore movement of the meiofauna has been found during the tidal cycle and it appears that rain also has little effect on the meiofauna

The KELT-South Telescope

The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project is a survey for new transiting planets around bright stars. KELT-South is a small-aperture, wide-field automated telescope located at Sutherland, South Africa. The telescope surveys a set of 26 degree by 26 degree fields around the southern sky, and targets stars in the range of 8 < V < 10 mag, searching for transits by Hot Jupiters. This paper describes the KELT-South system hardware and software and discusses the quality of the observations. We show that KELT-South is able to achieve the necessary photometric precision to detect transits of Hot Jupiters around solar-type main-sequence stars.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure

Screening for diabetes mellitus in learners residing in the Belhar, Delft and Mfuleni communities of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Background Historically, children and adolescents have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes mellitus and it was thought that type 2 diabetes mellitus occurred only in adults. There are increasing reports of type 2 diabetes in children globally, with some as young as eight years old being affected. The average age of diagnosis in this group was 13 years. This has been attributed to the “epidemic” of overweight and obesity currently being observed in both developed and developing countries. There is a paucity of data on the incidence and prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in children compared with that for adults. Most studies reported to date have been clinic based. The few population-based studies that were carried out between 1965 and 1995 have shown a several-fold increase in the incidence rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus in South Africa has risen dramatically in the past two decades, with the highest prevalence rates being found in the adult population of Indian origin, followed by the African, Coloured (mixed ancestry) and White population groups.Objectives This study was undertaken to screen 10 to 16-year-old learners residing in three urban areas of Cape Town, South Africa for diabetes mellitus.Methods Fasting and casual blood glucose levels were measured using a commercial glucometer in 338 randomly selected schoolchildren aged from 10 to 16 from the urban communities of Belhar, Delft and Mfuleni in Cape Town. Early morning urine samples were also tested for the presence of glucose using dipsticks. Anthropometric measurements were carried out using standard procedures. A structured questionnaire on physical activity, demographics and diabetic status was administered to all participants. Overweight and obesity were estimated according to The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) criteria.Results A total of 15.7% of the learners were overweight and 6.2% were obese; 11.5% of the learners had a first-degree relative with diabetes and 29.9% had a second-degree relative with diabetes. Mean fasting and casual glucose values of 4.26 ± 0.63 mmol/l and 4.58 ± 0.79 mmol/l (pConclusionThese results suggest that population screening of children may not be viable, despite the increase in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus amongst various racial groups in South Africa.For full text, click here: SA Fam Pract 2006;48(6):16-16