Army Supplies in the Forward Area and the Tumpline System: A First World War Canadian Logistical Innovation

Editor’s Note: In British Logistics on the Western Front, 1914–1919 (Praeger, 1998), Ian M. Brown documents the problems of maintaining an army in the field; throughout that war, supply lines were strained to get food, equipment and ammunition forward. Early problems of adequate supplies were replaced by an inability to get the items from depots to where they were required. Some of these latter problems were blamed on “establishments” and other force-structure problems caused by stripping logistical-support units to meet the manpower needs of the fighting units. The decision to dramatically reduce the size of the BEF divisions in France helped reduced pressures. By stripping a battalion out of each brigade, and using the men freed as replacements, the BEF maintained its paper strength in divisions (though, in fact, the strength went considerably down) and, more importantly, also reduced its overall logistical requirements. But, as Brown writes: The Canadian Corps successfully resisted this “downsizing” as its commander opposed the reduction vehemently. In fact, he managed to increase the effective size and strength of his divisions by using the manpower from the two [sic] Canadian divisions forming in Britain. This gave Haig a single very strong corps—four overstrength divisions amounting to some one hundred thousand men (forty-eight thousand infantry)—but it also gave his administration a supply problem, since the standard divisional pack could not supply a Canadian division. In spite of this trouble, it did not appear to cause great difficulty on the lines of communication. Indeed, it gets no mention in either the QMG’s or AG’s diaries.... (pp.165-166) Buried in this passage lay two secrets. The four-battalion brigades perhaps (too simply?) explain the use of the Canadian Corps as Haig’s “shock troops.” But as Brown notes, how the Canadians maintained these larger formations is not clear from British sources (p. 177). The answer to this secret must be sought elswhere. One answer in F.R. Phelan’s “tumpline.

Prospects for the agricultural sector in the Netherlands, Economic and technological explorations

The Dutch agricultural sector is greatly influenced by the global economy; the sector is very much focused on international trade. Every year, the agricultural sector generates an extensive positive export balance of over €20 billion (€23 billion in 2007). The proportion of agricultural products and food in total Dutch exports of goods and services is also fairly high (17%). A large proportion (around 70%) of the activities of the agro-complex is related to foreign sales, so there is heavy dependence on international trade

Seesaw neutrino masses and mixing with extended democracy

In the context of a minimal extension of the Standard Model with three extra heavy right-handed neutrinos, we propose a model for neutrino masses and mixing based on the hipothesis of a complete alignment of the lepton mass matrices in flavour space. Considering a uniform quasi-democratic structure for these matrices, we show that, in the presence of a highly hierarchical right-handed neutrino mass spectrum, the effective neutrino mass matrix, obtained through the seesaw mechanism, can reproduce all the solutions of the solar neutrino problem.Comment: Latex, 3pages. Uses espcrc2.sty. Talk given at the Europhysics Neutrino Oscillation Workshop - NOW 2000. To appear in Nucl. Phys. B, Proceedings Supplement

Dutch and Victorian approaches to land appraisal

Stiboka onderzoe

Bayesian analysis of ARMA models using noninformative priors

Parameters in ARMA models are only locally identified. It is shown that the use of diffuse priors in these models leads to a preference for locally nonidentified parameter values. We therefore suggest to use likelihood based priors like the Jeffreys' priors which overcome these problems. An algorithm involving Importance Sampling for calculating the posteriors of ARMA parameters using Jeffreys' priors is constructed. This algorithm is based on the implied AR specification of ARMA models and shows good performance in our applications. As a byproduct the algorithm allows for the computation of the posteriors of diagnostic parameters which show the identifiability of the MA parameters. As a general to specific modeling approach to ARMA models suffers heavily from the previous mentioned identification problems, we derive posterior odds ratios which are suited for comparing (nonnested) parsimonious (low order) ARMA models. These procedures are applied to two datasets, the (extended) Nelson-Plosser data and monthly observations of US 3-month and 10 year interest rates. For approximately 50% of the series in these two datasets an ARMA model is favored above an AR model which has important consequences for especially the long run parametersARMA Models;econometrics

Is Financial Literacy Improved by Participating in a Stock Market Game?

This study investigates the effectiveness of the Stock Market Game (SMG) in improving student scores on a general multiple-choice test covering basic financial concepts. Teachers in the test group used the Stock Market Game and a complementary curriculum in class while teachers in the control group did not. Students in both groups completed the same online pre- and post-tests, demographic surveys, and math aptitude tests. The results of ordinary least squares regression show that playing SMG along with teaching seven general lessons from the Learning from the Market curriculum improves student performance on the financial literacy assessment.Stock Market Game, financial literacy, student assessment

Fundamental time asymmetry from nontrivial space topology

It is argued that a fundamental time asymmetry could arise from the global structure of the space manifold. The proposed mechanism relies on the CPT anomaly of certain chiral gauge theories defined over a multiply connected space manifold. The resulting time asymmetry (microscopic arrow of time) is illustrated by a simple thought experiment. The effect could, in principle, play a role in determining the initial conditions of the big bang.Comment: 9 pages, REVTeX, v5: version publishe