International ethics and globalization

In the inherently anarchic international system the validity of moral principles is weakening. To overcome anarchy global governance is needed. It means efficient international institutions, but also pressures from the global civil society and the self-regulation of business. Multinational firms have the duty of cooperating in governance systems. They also have the duty of reconciling in their activity the two, equally legitimate claims of universalism and cultural relativism; i.e., applying universal moral principles and respecting local moral norms. Finally, multinationals must be guided by the principle of enhanced responsibility. However, although globalizing efforts are important in overcoming international anarchy and coordinating the protection of global commons, strong arguments support the notion that economic globalization does not promote sustainable development. Some form of localization of the economy is certainly needed. The challenge is to find a way towards more global governance with less economic globalization

The SCSE Organic Rankine engine

The engine is the heart of a Power Conversion Subsystem (PCS) located at the focal point of a sun-tracking parabolic dish concentrator. The ORC engine employs a single-stage axial-flow turbine driving a high speed alternator to produce up to 25 kW electrical output at the focus of each dish. The organic working fluid is toluene, circulating in a closed-loop system at temperatures up to 400 C (750 F). Design parameters, system description, predicted performance and program status are described

The SCSTPE organic Rankine engine

The organic Rankine cycle engine under consideration for a solar thermal system being developed is described. Design parameters, method of control, performance and cost data are provided for engine power levels up to 80 kWe; efficiency is shown as a function of turbine inlet temperature in the range of 149 C to 427 C

Universal Sampling Rate Distortion

We examine the coordinated and universal rate-efficient sampling of a subset of correlated discrete memoryless sources followed by lossy compression of the sampled sources. The goal is to reconstruct a predesignated subset of sources within a specified level of distortion. The combined sampling mechanism and rate distortion code are universal in that they are devised to perform robustly without exact knowledge of the underlying joint probability distribution of the sources. In Bayesian as well as nonBayesian settings, single-letter characterizations are provided for the universal sampling rate distortion function for fixed-set sampling, independent random sampling and memoryless random sampling. It is illustrated how these sampling mechanisms are successively better. Our achievability proofs bring forth new schemes for joint source distribution-learning and lossy compression

The Evaluation of American Compound Option Prices Under Stochastic Volatility Using the Sparse Grid Approach

A compound option (the mother option) gives the holder the right, but not obligation to buy (long) or sell (short) the underlying option (the daughter option). In this paper, we demonstrate a partial differential equation (PDE) approach to pricing American-type compound options where the underlying dynamics follow Heston’s stochastic volatility model. This price is formulated as the solution to a two-pass free boundary PDE problem. A modified sparse grid approach is implemented to solve the PDEs, which is shown to be accurate and efficient compared with the results from Monte Carlo simulation combined with the Method of Lines.American compound option; stochastic volatility; free boundary problem; sparse grid; combination technique; Monte Carlo simulation; method of lines

The co-evolution of emotional well-being with weak and strong friendship ties

Social ties are strongly related to well-being. But what characterizes this relationship? This study investigates social mechanisms explaining how social ties affect well-being through social integration and social influence, and how well-being affects social ties through social selection. We hypothesize that highly integrated individuals - those with more extensive and dense friendship networks - report higher emotional well-being than others. Moreover, emotional well-being should be influenced by the well-being of close friends. Finally, well-being should affect friendship selection when individuals prefer others with higher levels of well-being, and others whose well-being is similar to theirs. We test our hypotheses using longitudinal social network and well-being data of 117 individuals living in a graduate housing community. The application of a novel extension of Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models for ordered networks (ordered SAOMs) allows us to detail and test our hypotheses for weak- and strong-tied friendship networks simultaneously. Results do not support our social integration and social influence hypotheses but provide evidence for selection: individuals with higher emotional well-being tend to have more strong-tied friends, and there are homophily processes regarding emotional well-being in strong-tied networks. Our study highlights the two-directional relationship between social ties and well-being, and demonstrates the importance of considering different tie strengths for various social processes

The origin of interparticle potential of electrorheological fluids

The particles of electrorheological fluids can be modelled as dielectric spheres (DS) immersed in a continuum dielectric. When an external field is applied, polarization charges are induced on the surfaces of the spheres and can be represented as point dipoles placed in the centres of the spheres. When the DSs are close to each other, the induced charge distributions are distorted by the electric field of the neighbouring DSs. This is the origin of the interaction potential between the DSs. The calculation of this energy is very time consuming, therefore, the DS model cannot be used in molecular simulations. In this paper, we show that the interaction between the point dipoles appropriately approximates the interaction of DSs. The polarizable point dipole model provides better results, but this model is not pair-wise additive, so it is not that practical in particle simulations.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Nursing with the Heart of Christ

Within the nursing profession it is necessary for the nurse to learn to have love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity within his/her character. After reviewing numerous peer reviewed journals and personal examples, the following paper reveals how these traits – love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity – are beneficial within the nursing profession. The paper defines the mentioned characteristics, shows how they can be used and implemented within the nursing practice, demonstrates how their implementation leads to greater patient care, and then compares these traits and actions to the character and person of Christ