52,327 research outputs found

    Scarring, Habituation and Social Exclusion: Work Histories in Secure and Insecure Employment

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    This paper analyses the impact of unemployment experiences on the life satisfaction of Australian workers in casual and permanent employment. Using panel data techniques, it was found that male permanent workers were scarred by previous unemployment. This contrasted with casual workers who seem habituated to the e€ects of past unemployment. Social norming e€ects were evident for permanent workers, unemployment scarred deeper when it was less of a general norm, this was not the case for casual workers. Social psychology research suggests that disadvantaged groups tend to prefer intragroup or intertemporal comparisons. Casual workers. habituation to past unemployment and lack of social norming could contribute to the process of social exclusion.

    Ballistic transport is dissipative: the why and how

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    In the ballistic limit, the Landauer conductance steps of a mesoscopic quantum wire have been explained by coherent and dissipationless transmission of individual electrons across a one-dimensional barrier. This leaves untouched the central issue of conduction: a quantum wire, albeit ballistic, has finite resistance and so must dissipate energy. Exactly HOW does the quantum wire shed its excess electrical energy? We show that the answer is provided, uniquely, by many-body quantum kinetics. Not only does this inevitably lead to universal quantization of the conductance, in spite of dissipation; it fully resolves a baffling experimental result in quantum-point-contact noise. The underlying physics rests crucially upon the action of the conservation laws in these open metallic systems.Comment: Invited Viewpoint articl

    An Introduction to Slice-Based Cohesion and Coupling Metrics

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    This report provides an overview of slice-based software metrics. It brings together information about the development of the metrics from Weiser’s original idea that program slices may be used in the measurement of program complexity, with alternative slice-based measures proposed by other researchers. In particular, it details two aspects of slice-based metric calculation not covered elsewhere in the literature: output variables and worked examples of the calculations. First, output variables are explained, their use explored and standard reference terms and usage proposed. Calculating slice-based metrics requires a clear understanding of ‘output variables’ because they form the basis for extracting the program slices on which the calculations depend. This report includes a survey of the variation in the definition of output variables used by different research groups and suggests standard terms of reference for these variables. Our study identifies four elements which are combined in the definition of output variables. These are the function return value, modified global variables, modified reference parameters and variables printed or otherwise output by the module. Second, slice-based metric calculations are explained with the aid of worked examples, to assist newcomers to the field. Step-by-step calculations of slice-based cohesion and coupling metrics based on the vertices output by the static analysis tool CodeSurfer (R) are presented and compared with line-based calculations

    Electrical-power-system data base for consumables analysis. Volume 2: Electrical equipment utilization

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    A catalogue is presented of space shuttle electrical equipment as used within a standardized data base for EPS consumables analyses. The general function and expected usage of each type of electrical equipment are described, and the usage of specific equipment of each type in the performance of EPS consumables analyses is defined

    A Review of the Monitoring of Market Power The Possible Roles of TSOs in Monitoring for Market Power Issues in Congested Transmission Systems

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    The paper surveys the literature and publicly available information on market power monitoring in electricity wholesale markets. After briefly reviewing definitions, strategies and methods of mitigating market power we examine the various methods of detecting market power that have been employed by academics and market monitors/regulators. These techniques include structural and behavioural indices and analysis as well as various simulation approaches. The applications of these tools range from spot market mitigation and congestion management through to long-term market design assessment and merger decisions. Various market-power monitoring units already track market behaviour and produce indices. Our survey shows that these units collect a large amount of data from various market participants and we identify the crucial role of the transmission system operators with their access to dispatch and system information. Easily accessible and comprehensive data supports effective market power monitoring and facilitates market design evaluation. The discretion required for effective market monitoring is facilitated by institutional independence.Electricity, liberalisation, market power, regulation

    The Spectral Evolution of Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810--197

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    (Abridged) We present a multi-epoch spectral study of the Transient Anomalous X-ray Pulsar XTE J1810-197 obtained with the XMM X-ray telescope. Four observations taken over the course of a year reveal strong spectral evolution as the source fades from outburst. The origin of this is traced to the individual decay rates of the pulsar's spectral components. A 2-T fit at each epoch requires nearly constant temperatures of kT=0.25 & 0.67 keV while the component luminosities decrease exponentially with tau=900 & 300d, respectively. One possible interpretation is that the slowly decaying cooler component is the radiation from a deep heating event that affected a large fraction of the crust, while the hotter component is powered by external surface heating at the foot-points of twisted magnetic field lines, by magnetospheric currents that are decaying more rapidly. The energy-dependent pulse profile of XTE J1810-197 is well modeled at all epochs by the sum of a sine and triangle function. These profiles peak at the same phase, suggesting a concentric surface emission geometry. The spectral and pulse evolution together argue against the presence of a significant ``power-law'' contribution to the X-ray spectrum below 8 keV. The extrapolated flux is projected to return to the historic quiescent level, characterized by an even cooler blackbody spectrum, by the year 2007.Comment: 12 pages, 6 Figures, Latex, emulateapj. To appear in the Astrophysical Journa
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