Portable Common Execution Environment (PCEE) project review: Peer review

The purpose of the review was to conduct an independent, in-depth analysis of the PCEE project and to provide the results of said review. The review team was tasked with evaluating the potential contribution of the PCEE project to the improvement of the life cycle support of mission and safety critical (MASC) computing components for large, complex, non-stop, distributed systems similar to those planned for such NASA programs as the space station, lunar outpost, and manned missions to Mars. Some conclusions of the review team are as follow: The PCEE project was given high marks for its breath of vision on the overall problem with MASC software; Correlated with the sweeping vision, the Review Team is very skeptical that any research project can successfully attack such a broad range of problems; and several recommendations are made such as to identify the components of the broad solution envisioned, prioritizing them with respect to their impact and the likely ability of the PCEE or others to attack them successfully, and to rewrite its Concept Document differentiating the problem description, objectives, approach, and results so that the project vision becomes assessible to others

OPTION WEALTH AND BEQUEST VALUES: THE VALUE OF PROTECTING FUTURE GENERATIONS FROM THE HEALTH RISKS OF NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE

We devise a simple model of intergenerational altruism under uncertainty. We present an estimable form of the model that relies on a few, plausible, assumptions. We apply the model to data collected in a survey of Southern Nevadans concerning the proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nye County, NV. We find strong evidence of a bequest motive. Approximately one third of the option wealth lost by households near the repository can be attributed to costs to future generations.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

La evolución de las economías en el transcurso del tiempo

Nuevos enfoques en la historia económica de España y de América Latina. Homenaje a Robert W. Fogel y Douglas C. North, Premios Nobel de Economía 1993Editada en la Universidad Carlos IIIPublicad

Why Some Countries Are Rich and Some Are Poor

Professor North describes the difficulties encountered in promoting development: although economists are well aware of the conditions that promote productivity and creativity, only formal rules can be easily changed. Formal rules are but one part of a set of institutions in which people operate: informal norms of behavior and the enforcement mechanisms for both formal and informal rules have profound effects on human thought and activity. Economists have traditionally endeavored to impose simplistic sets of formal rules on developing countries; this model is largely ineffective because it ignores the role of culture and beliefs in shaping behavior. The difficult but effective alternative requires study of a society\u27s culture to understand ways in which the formal rules may be changed—consistent with the culture and belief system—to encourage productive and creative activity

Terriers Unleashed

This zine was created in Fall 2023 by the students in English 346: American Political Rhetoric with Dr. Douglass, and it captures their engagement with important issues at Wofford. Often, when we think of “politics,” we are thinking about party politics surrounding systems of state governance. However, this class was interested in politics as a broader category of activities that influence decision-making within communities. Our class asked: What does the Wofford we want to attend look like, and what changes could we advocate for in order to move toward that Wofford? Each student crafted a message intended to influence our community. This zine is a collection of artifacts capturing those messages, but it is only a record of the conversations, performances and other missives that we shared with real people

Color Sensitivity as a Test of Fatigue

Using the Cameron Tangimetric Campigraph four subjects were tested morning and evening to determine the size of the retinal fields for blue, red and green lights projected through an opaque screen. Morning and evening records were then compared to find the amount and character of the changes. Percentages of increase or decrease in the size of the fields were computed in terms of the distance along twelve radii from the fixation spot

Relevance of log crib research, renovation and development in Estonia and the world

In 1972 I was apprenticed to an elderly mountain man steeped in the traditions of log crib construction. Cyrus Paul Lewis taught me the skills of 18th and 19th century rough and finish carpentry as it pertained to folk architecture. The craft training of log construction added on top of several years experience as a modern day carpenter enabled me to build a company that restored houses and other log buildings all over the United States from 1974 to 2006. In 1978 I continued my formal education in anthropology and preservation specializing in log structures at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Having read all the authoritative works on log buildings and compared them to what I was learning in the field, it was obvious there were many gaps in the collective body of knowledge concerning the development and dissemination of log crib structures. During a brief first trip to Europe, it was easy to see that the log crib buildings in Alpine and northern Europe in no way resembled the American log cribs erected for three centuries by the settlers arriving on the American shores and those pushing west to establish their farms and build their houses. It became clear American scholarship had a long way to go in understanding the log crib, its development, technology and dissemination throughout the world much less in America. In 2009 a quest to fill in some of the gaps was begun. After four years of intense research with field trips to Turkey, southern Europe and ranging all the way north to the Scandinavian and Baltic countries ringing the Baltic Sea two findings became very clear. First, no one person can possibly conduct the massive research needed to fully understand origins, technology and dissemination of the world’s log cribs. Secondly, it was apparent, contrary to what had been declared in former publications, that Europeans did not transfer their log crib technologies intact to the eastern shores of the US. Rather only a small number of scattered details mixed with a few processes of material manufacturing and building commonly used in Europe were configured into what was to become an American log crib style almost from the first settlements.  These discoveries bore witness to the fallacy of single or two person research efforts that resulted in broad, sweeping declarations of origins and disseminations concerning log crib technologies. Most authors were not familiar with the professional training needed to fully understand the hands-on traditions of building with logs and have largely missed the facts concerning the developmental history of log buildings in a specific country and the world. Far more collaborative research between the multiple disciplines and experienced master craftsmen is needed. Even in Estonia further studies are needed to determine how the dual-purpose barn-dwelling developed and where it originated. With seven centuries of multiple foreign occupations responsible for bringing in many different types of technologies form their occupiers’ homelands, Estonia is a perfect research area for studying and tracking details of development within the country and tracing them back to their origins. Estonia is not the only country where a rich tradition of log construction needs further research. Further Continental and world-wide log crib studies are needed on a global basis. National surveys must be completed and all resulting data shared to a central data base and collated for developmental research to take place. This work is vital to the understanding of the origins, development and disseminations of log crib technologies throughout the world much less the US and the European Continent. The results of multiple global log crib research efforts will have far reaching effects in craft training, log crib technology training, and in reintroducing relative millennia’s old technologies in a modern day world rife with toxic fixes that do not work very well in new construction. New restoration techniques of wooden buildings will be learned and culled from the research. Environmental considerations that reduce CO2 levels, green house effects and increase local community cohesiveness all will benefit from global in-depth research efforts to fill in the missing information gaps in log crib development and technologies. In order for all this research to be coordinated, collated and disseminated, a single global organization dedicated to the study of log crib development must be formed. A new organization focused solely on ferreting out log construction histories, developing techniques of restoration, forest management and timber conservation is necessary in part to provide continued introductory and higher level job training for a log crib work force. The research and training is imperative if the world is to maintain and develop additional higher paying jobs, lower taxes, maintain existing log structures, wisely use limited natural resources in an efficient manner and better living conditions for millions of people. Keywords: log crib building, log crib research, technologies, tradition, vocational training, sustainabilit

A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

Neither economics nor political science can explain the process of modern social development. The fact that developed societies always have developed economies and developed polities suggests that the connection between economics and politics must be a fundamental part of the development process. This paper develops an integrated theory of economics and politics. We show how, beginning 10,000 years ago, limited access social orders developed that were able to control violence, provide order, and allow greater production through specialization and exchange. Limited access orders provide order by using the political system to limit economic entry to create rents, and then using the rents to stabilize the political system and limit violence. We call this type of political economy arrangement a natural state. It appears to be the natural way that human societies are organized, even in most of the contemporary world. In contrast, a handful of developed societies have developed open access social orders. In these societies, open access and entry into economic and political organizations sustains economic and political competition. Social order is sustained by competition rather than rent-creation. The key to understanding modern social development is understanding the transition from limited to open access social orders, which only a handful of countries have managed since WWII.