Against all odds : the life and music of Michel Petrucciani : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Massey University

Michel Petrucciani, jazz pianist and composer, was a major figure in the history of French jazz who achieved much critical and popular success in his short life span. In 1999 when he died at the age of 36, he was enough of a hero in his own country to warrant inclusion alongside Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in a series of postage stamps celebrating great jazz artists. He was one of only a handful of European jazz musicians to achieve success in the U.S. This thesis examines Petrucciani's life and music with particular emphasis placed on the evolution of his playing and composing styles through close analysis of selected piano solos and a range of compositions representing different periods of his career. An overview of his musical and personal life, as he battled with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare bone disease that prevents growth to adult size, is also included, along with a study of the influence of pianist Bill Evans on Petrucciani's playing

Local exclusion and Lieb-Thirring inequalities for intermediate and fractional statistics

In one and two spatial dimensions there is a logical possibility for identical quantum particles different from bosons and fermions, obeying intermediate or fractional (anyon) statistics. We consider applications of a recent Lieb-Thirring inequality for anyons in two dimensions, and derive new Lieb-Thirring inequalities for intermediate statistics in one dimension with implications for models of Lieb-Liniger and Calogero-Sutherland type. These inequalities follow from a local form of the exclusion principle valid for such generalized exchange statistics.Comment: Revised and accepted version. 49 pages, 2 figure

The spectroscopic study of an electrodeless discharge in argon at atmospheric pressure

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Optical and structural properties of InGaAs self assembled quantum dots

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Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity

This article develops a model which shows that bank deposit contracts can provide allocations superior to those of exchange markets, offering an explanation of how banks subject to runs can attract deposits. Investors face privately observed risks which lead to a demand for liquidity. Traditional demand deposit contracts which provide liquidity have multiple equilibria, one of which is a bank run. Bank runs in the model cause real economic damage, rather than simply reflecting other problems. Contracts which can prevent runs are studied, and the analysis shows that there are circumstances when government provision of deposit insurance can produce superior contracts.Deposit insurance ; Liquidity (Economics)

Willingness to pay for the conservation and management of wild geese in Scotland

In past times wild geese were an important resource, providing a source of meat, grease for lubrication and waterproofing, and feathers for bedding and arrow flights. Today, with the sale of goose meat no longer allowed in law, the only current market for geese is commercial shooting of non-endangered species such as the pink-footed goose. However, there are other benefits associated with geese which are not priced in the marketplace, but are valued. For example, some people positively value the opportunity to observe geese in the wild (a use-value), while others may take pleasure from simply knowing that they exist (a non-use value). These benefits cannot be provided by conventional markets because it would be prohibitively expensive to exclude people from watching geese and impossible to exclude them from caring about geese. In recent years a number of techniques such as Contingent Valuation (CV) and Choice Experiments (CE) have been established to establish the monetary values of non-market benefits. These techniques aim to measure the willingness to pay (WTP) of beneficiaries through the establishment of hypothetical markets

Productive efficiency in banking

Bank management ; Productivity

AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO DETERMINING THE ELASTICITY OF EXCESS DEMAND FACING THE UNITED STATES

The United States embarked on a policy assuming excess demands for commodities are elastic. Some analysts question the success of that policy and argue that excess demands for farm commodities are inelastic. The controversy is deepened because the two traditional techniques for determining excess demand elasticities yield opposing estimates. We use an alternative technique based on observed variation in commodity prices, production, and use. The point estimates show excess demands for wheat, coarse grains, soybeans, rice, and cotton are elastic. However, a one-sided bootstrap test cannot reject the null hypothesis that the excess demands for wheat, coarse grains, and soybeans are inelastic.Demand and Price Analysis,