A “Managerial” Trade Union and Economic Growth

By setting up a simple Romer-type (1989) endogenous growth model embodying a political trade union (rather than the traditional economic labor union), this paper explores the effects of unionization on unemployment, growth and welfare by highlighting the essence of internal conflict within the union. It is shown that the conflicting interests between the leadership and membership within the union play a decisive role in the unemployment, growth and welfare effects of unionization. Given the fact that taxation, besides unions, is another potential candidate in explaining the poor performance of employment and economic growth, we re-examine the taxation effects within the growth model with equilibrium unemployment caused by the presence of the trade union and compare our findings with those for the traditional full-employment growth model. In addition, the dynamic properties of the unionized economy are also examined, with particular emphasis being placed on the role of the trade union in the formation of equilibrium indeterminacy.Managerial trade union, collective bargaining, unemployment, economic growth

Interest Rate Rules, Target Policies, and Endogenous Economic Growth in an Open Economy

This paper sets up an endogenous growth model of an open economy in which the monetary authority implements a gradualist interest-rate rule with targets for inflation and economic growth. We show that, under a passive rule, a monetary equilibrium exists and is unique; moreover, the equilibrium is locally determinate. Under an active rule, the open economy either generates multiple equilibria or does not have any equilibrium. If equilibria exist, the high-growth equilibrium is locally determinate while the low-growth equilibrium is a source. Besides these, the stabilization and growth effects of alternative target policies are also explored in this study.Nominal interest rate rules, gradualism, endogenous economic growth

A New Combined Boost Converter with Improved Voltage Gain as a Battery-Powered Front-End Interface for Automotive Audio Amplifiers

High boost DC/DC voltage conversion is always indispensable in a power electronic interface of certain battery-powered electrical equipment. However, a conventional boost converter works for a wide duty cycle for such high voltage gain, which increases power consumption and has low reliability problems. In order to solve this issue, a new battery-powered combined boost converter with an interleaved structure consisting of two phases used in automotive audio amplifier is presented. The first phase uses a conventional boost converter; the second phase employs the inverted type. With this architecture, a higher boost voltage gain is able to be achieved. A derivation of the operating principles of the converter, analyses of its topology, as well as a closed-loop control designs are performed in this study. Furthermore, simulations and experiments are also performed using input voltage of 12 V for a 120Wcircuit. A reasonable duty cycle is selected to reach output voltage of 60 V, which corresponds to static voltage gain of five. The converter achieves a maximum measured conversion efficiency of 98.7% and the full load efficiency of 89.1%

Hyperbaric oxygen upregulates cochlear constitutive nitric oxide synthase

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a known adjuvant for treating ischemia-related inner ear diseases. Controversies still exist in the role of HBOT in cochlear diseases. Few studies to date have investigated the cellular changes that occur in inner ears after HBOT. Nitric oxide, which is synthesized by nitric oxide synthase (NOS), is an important signaling molecule in cochlear physiology and pathology. Here we investigated the effects of hyperbaric oxygen on eardrum morphology, cochlear function and expression of NOS isoforms in cochlear substructures after repetitive HBOT in guinea pigs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Minor changes in the eardrum were observed after repetitive HBOT, which did not result in a significant hearing threshold shift by tone burst auditory brainstem responses. A differential effect of HBOT on the expression of NOS isoforms was identified. Upregulation of constitutive NOS (nNOS and eNOS) was found in the substructures of the cochlea after HBOT, but inducible NOS was not found in normal or HBOT animals, as shown by immunohistochemistry. There was no obvious DNA fragmentation present in this HBOT animal model.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The present evidence indicates that the customary HBOT protocol may increase constitutive NOS expression but such upregulation did not cause cell death in the treated cochlea. The cochlear morphology and auditory function are consequently not changed through the protocol.</p

Design And Fabrication of Condenser Microphone Using Wafer Transfer And Micro-electroplating Technique

A novel fabrication process, which uses wafer transfer and micro-electroplating technique, has been proposed and tested. In this paper, the effects of the diaphragm thickness and stress, the air-gap thickness, and the area ratio of acoustic holes to backplate on the sensitivity of the condenser microphone have been demonstrated since the performance of the microphone depends on these parameters. The microphone diaphragm has been designed with a diameter and thickness of 1.9 mm and 0.6 $\mu$m, respectively, an air-gap thickness of 10 $\mu$m, and a 24% area ratio of acoustic holes to backplate. To obtain a lower initial stress, the material used for the diaphragm is polyimide. The measured sensitivities of the microphone at the bias voltages of 24 V and 12 V are -45.3 and -50.2 dB/Pa (at 1 kHz), respectively. The fabricated microphone shows a flat frequency response extending to 20 kHz.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Critical success factors in digital publishing technology using an ANP approach

Digital publishing technology (DPT) has been recognized as one of the most important technologies for economic development. The purpose of the study is to develop an evaluation model based on analytic network process (ANP) approach to explore the critical success factors (CSFs) for the successful implementation of DPT. It can objectively identify related criteria of DPT, and then prioritize improvement criteria to the success of promoting DPT for government. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach, the Taiwan’s DPT is conducted. The results of this study could serve as a new method and offer insights to policy makers to indentify and prioritize CSFs for DPT implementations systematically. First published online: 03 Nov 201