Real Wage Chronologies

We process information in a large number of wage contracts, signed over a period of several decades, to generate the long-run history of the real wage for each bargaining pair. We term these hitherto unexamined histories ‘chronologies’. We are able to generate 1574 continuous real wage chronologies and we examine the evolution of the real wage in each case. We explore the influence of productivity growth, the industrial relations record of the pair, the influence of industry and region as well as the initial wage on the growth of the real wage rate over the decades in the sample. We conclude that these economically important forces can be statistically discerned in the wage chronologies.wage chronologies, productivity, industrial relations, convergence

Optimal Contract Length for Voluntary Land Conservation Programs

In many parts of the world, deteriorating environmental conditions have led policy makers to develop policies and programs aimed at promoting conservation practices on lands devoted to agriculture. Such programs have been studied by environmental economists, but little research has been done on the usefulness of strategically varying the conservation contract's length. This paper uses theory and simulation to investigate the optimal contract length of land conservation programs when a policy maker tries to maximize the present discounted value of the stream of environmental benefits from the program. We find that contract length should vary with characteristics of the ecological processes that yield benefits from land retirement. Optimal contracts are longer when the environmental benefits in question things like woodland biodiversity take time to develop. However, it is not typically optimal to have the indefinitelylived contracts favored by some conservation groups, or even to offer contracts as long as the maturation period for the environmental services in question. In general, the optimal contract length depends on the trade off between an ecological effect (increasing the environmental benefits from one farmer) and an enrollment effect (increasing the number of farmers enrolled). Our findings also suggest that non-ecological regional characteristics (such as turnover rate and average farm income) could play an important role in the design of conservation programs.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Contract Duration and Indexation in a Period of Real and Nominal Uncertainty

A sample of 11885 wage agreements, reached in the Canadian unionized sector during 1976-2000, a period of high as well as exceptionally low inflation and substantial fluctuations in nominal and real uncertainty, is used to study the determinants of key provisions of contracts such as their duration and indexation clauses. Econometric techniques, which account for the interaction between duration and indexation, as well as the latent nature of the elasticity of indexation are used. Results obtained suggest that expected inflation, nominal and real uncertainty account for most of the secular and cyclical changes in contract provisions.contract duration, indexation, nominal, real uncertainty

Semi-Finite Forms of Bilateral Basic Hypergeometric Series

We show that several classical bilateral summation and transformation formulas have semi-finite forms. We obtain these semi-finite forms from unilateral summation and transformation formulas. Our method can be applied to derive Ramanujan's $_1\psi_1$ summation, Bailey's $_2\psi_2$ transformations, and Bailey's $_6\psi_6$ summation.Comment: 8 pages. accepted by Proc. Amer. Math. So

Homeland Insecurity

Homeland Insecurity is a project born out of a life’s worth of marginalization, internalized racism, and forced assimilation. It presents common experiences and emotions that are located between cultures, questioning what it means to inhabit a homeland that exists as a hybrid mental space. As I progress through life, my parents’ culture—my heritage—becomes more and more distant, yet like many non-white children of immigrants, I will continue to carry it in my face as a physical reminder of a life I do not know. Influenced by acculturation theory, my work explores this culture that never quite belonged to me to begin with—yet is still mine to lose. Through absence or erasure as visual motifs, I impart a sense of cultural displacement. While the experiences presented are rooted in my own, I attempt to assuage others with homeland insecurities, establishing commonalities throughout this identity

Oceanographic Instrument Simulator

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) established the Free Ocean Carbon Enrichment (FOCE) experiment to study the long-term effects of decreased ocean pH levels by developing in-situ platforms [1]. Deep FOCE (dpFOCE) was the first platform, which was deployed in 950 meters of water in Monterey Bay. After the conclusion of dpFOCE, MBARI developed an open source shallow water FOCE (swFOCE) platform located at around 250 meter of water to facilitate worldwide shallow water experiments on FOCE [1][2]. A shallow water platform can be more ubiquitous than a deep-water platform as shallow water instruments are less expensive (as it does not have to be designed to withstand the pressure at deep ocean depths) and more easily deployed (they can be deployed right along the coast). The swFOCE experiment is an open source platform, and MBARI has made the plans available online to anyone interested in studying shallow water carbon enrichment. There is a gateway node what is connected to four sensor nodes within the swFOCE. In order to test the sensor node individually, an idea of designing an Oceanographic Instrument Simulator is purposed. The Oceanographic instrument simulator (OIS), described in this paper provides the means for MBARI engineers to test the swFOCE platform without attaching the numerous and expensive oceanographic instruments. The Oceanographic Instrument Simulator simulates the various scientific instruments that could be deployed in an actual experiment. The Oceanographic Instrument Simulator (OIS) system includes the designed circuit board, Arduino Due and an SD Card shield. The designed circuit board will be connected to a computer through a USB cable, and be connected to MBARI’s swFOCE sensor node through a serial connection. When a query is given from the sensor node, the Arduino Due will parse the data given from the sensor node, search through the pre-installed data in the SD card and return the appropriate data back to the sensor node. A user can also manually set up the input current through a computer terminal window to control the simulated signals from the PCB

The relation of polynucleotide phosphorylase and growth of Escherichia coli

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1968 C443Master of Scienc

Tourists' experiences of recreation spaces in Australia's Wet Tropics

Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.People are increasingly engaging in recreational activities in nature. However, preferences for recreation opportunities are changing over time and among different people. Furthermore, different settings offer unique combinations of attributes; these attributes generate occasions for tourists to achieve particular recreation experiences, albeit tourists create experiences differently. The current study investigated tourists' travel reviews of recreation opportunities in Australia's Wet Tropics. Drawing on two land and activity categorization systems, the research explored tourists' reported experiences and interests across different natural environment leisure settings. The overall objective of the article was to explore the setting–experience relationship by identifying differences in tourists' reported experiences according to setting attributes and personal characteristics. Leximancer analysis of over 2,000 TripAdvisor reviews (posted 2010–2012) was conducted on 11 tourist attractions in far north Queensland. Overall, tourists describe their experiences of different Wet Tropics' leisure settings in a relatively similar manner, with some distinctive features highlighted for each attraction. In particular, tourists commented about a variety of visit components including natural elements, supporting infrastructure, experiential aspects, as well as their feelings/impressions. Furthermore, differences were noticed when the attraction visits were explored according to various personal characteristics. Findings from the study offer useful directions in further developing, promoting, and managing Wet Tropics attractions that offer diverse experiences in different recreation settings.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio