A multiregional endogenous growth model with forward looking agents

The paper presents a multiregional endogenous growth model designed for calibration with real world data and for numerical policy evaluation. It integrates four strands of research: (1) the Ramsey model of consumer behaviour, (2) Tobin's q-theory of investment, (3) Romer's theory of endogenous growth through horizontal product innovation, and (4) the Dixit-Stiglitz-Ethier theory of intra-industry trade. Integrating the latter into a multiregional model is also an essential ingredient of the New Economic Geography. Thus, the paper is related to this literature as well, but lacks another essential feature of this tradition; the model to be presented does not exhibit catastrophic agglomeration. A symmetric first nature will always generate a “flat earth†steady state equilibrium. The model has an arbitrary (possibly large) number of regions with a representative household and a production sector in each of them. There are three types of goods, non-tradable local goods, horizontally diversified tradables, and designs of tradable products that are the exclusive property of their producers (called “blueprintsâ€, for short). Goods are produced combining - in identical proportions for all three of them - four inputs, labour, capital local and tradable goods. Blueprint production benefits from a technological positive externality. Technologies and preferences are uniform across space. Beyond goods markets and real factor markets there is a frictionless global bond market. All markets are perfectly competitive except the tradables market, which is monopolistic in the familiar Dixit-Stiglitz-Ethier style. The engine of sustainable long run growth is the accumulation of blueprints. Agents act under perfect foresight. The paper explains the formal structure, the solution and calibration techniques and illustrates the application by a small example.

Seattle\u27s Seafaring Siren: A Cultural Approach to the Branding of Starbucks

Many corporate brands tend to be built on a strong foundation of culture, but very minimal research seems to indicate a thorough analysis of the role of an organizational\u27s culture in its entirety pertaining to large corporations. This study analyzed various facets of Starbucks Coffee Company through use of the cultural approach to organizations theory in order to determine if the founding principles of Starbucks are evident in their organizational culture. Howard Schultz\u27 book Onward was analyzed and documented as the key textual artifact in which these principles originated. Along with these principles, Starbucks\u27 Website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube page were analyzed to determine how Starbucks\u27 culture was portrayed on these sites. The rhetorical analysis of Schultz\u27 book Onward conveyed that Starbucks\u27 culture is broken up into a professional portion and a personal portion, each overlapping one another in its principles. After sifting through various tweets, posts and videos, this study found that Starbucks has created a perfect balance of culture, which is fundamentally driven by their values and initiatives in coffee, ethics, relationships and storytelling. This study ultimately found that Starbucks\u27 organizational culture is not only carrying out their initiatives that they principally set out to perform, but they are also doing so across all platforms while engaging others to do the same. Based on these findings, this thesis aims to test the permeation of culture in corporate brands while posing a challenge for future research to classify social media sites as a part of culture. Also, the findings of this study propose a re-examination of Kennedy and Deal\u27s culture types in order to adapt to Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies

The Literature and Study of the Jaiminīya Sāmaveda in Retrospect and Prospect

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Siegbert Uhlig (ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica. Vol. 3: He-N

 Review   

On the Simulation of Global Reputation Systems

Reputation systems evolve as a mechanism to build trust in virtual communities. In this paper we evaluate different metrics for computing reputation in multi-agent systems. We present a formal model for describing metrics in reputation systems and show how different well-known global reputation metrics are expressed by it. Based on the model a generic simulation framework for reputation metrics was implemented. We used our simulation framework to compare different global reputation systems to find their strengths and weaknesses. The strength of a metric is measured by its resistance against different threat-models, i.e. different types of hostile agents. Based on our results we propose a new metric for reputation systems.Reputation System, Trust, Formalization, Simulation

Steepest descent for a linear operator equation of the second kind with application to Tikhonov regularisation

Let H1 H2 be Hilbert spaces, T a bounded linear operator on H1 into H2 such that the range of T, R (T), is closed. Lrt T* denote the adjoint of T. In this paper, we review the generalised solution and method of steepest descent, for the linear operator equation, Tx=b,b E H2. Further, we establish the convergence of the method of steepest descent to the unique solution (T*T=.......

Modelling water vapor permeability through atomic layer deposition coated photovoltaic barrier defects

Transparent barrier films such as Al2O3 used for prevention of oxygen and/or water vapour permeation are the subject of increasing research interest when used for the encapsulation of flexible photovoltaic modules. However, the existence of micro-scale defects in the barrier surface topography has been shown to have the potential to facilitate water vapour ingress, thereby reducing cell efficiency and causing internal electrical shorts. Previous work has shown that small defects (≤ 3 μm lateral dimension) were less significant in determining water vapour ingress. In contrast, larger defects (≥ 3 μm lateral dimension) seem to be more detrimental to the barrier functionality. Experimental results based on surface topography segmentation analysis and a model presented in this paper, will be used to test the hypothesis that the major contributing defects to water vapour transmission rate are small numbers of large defects. The model highlighted in this study has the potential to be used for gaining a better understanding of photovoltaic module efficiency and performance

Cloning of a Carcinoembryonic Antigen Gene Family Member Expressed in Leukocytes of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients and Bone Marrow

The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) gene family belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily and can be subdivided into the CEA and pregnancy-specific glycoprotein subgroups. The basic structure of the encoded proteins consists of, in addition to a leader, one IgV-like and 2, 3, or 6 IgC-like domains. These domains are followed by varying COOH-terminal regions responsible for secretion, transmembrane anchoring, or insertion into the membrane by a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol tail. Here we report on the characterization of CGM6, a new member of the CEA gene subgroup, by complementary DNA cloning. The deduced coding region comprises 349 amino acids and consists of a leader, one IgV-like, two IgC-like domains, and a hydrophobic region, which is replaced by a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol moiety in the mature protein. CGM6 transcripts were only found thus far in leukocytes of chronic myeloid leukemia patients, in normal bone marrow, and in marginal amounts in normal granulocytes. The CGM6 gene product might, therefore, represent a myeloid marker. Analyses of CGM6 protein-expressing HeLa transfectants with monoclonal antibodies strongly indicate that the CGM6 gene codes for the CEA family member NCA-95