Old chinese and friends: new approaches to historical linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area

List J-M, Starostin G, Yunfan L. “Old Chinese and Friends”: new approaches to historical linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area. Journal of Language Relationship. 2019;17(1-2):1-6

Chasing the Smokestack: Strategic Policymaking With Multiple Instruments

Empirical evidence suggesting that a considerable amount of horizontal strategic interaction exists amongst governments is important in light of recent devolutionary trends of many important public programs. The empirical approach in these studies typically relies on estimating reaction functions in a uni-dimensional policy framework, where a nonzero slope estimate is interpreted as evidence in support of strategic interactions. While this framework is a useful representation within certain contexts, it is potentially too restrictive; for example, in models of resource competition, localities may use multiple instruments in their recruiting pursuits, leading to potential strategic interactions across policy instruments. In this study, we first develop a simple theoretic construct that includes resource competition in a world of three-dimensional policy choice. The model suggests that while a zero-sloped reaction function may exist for any particular policy, this does not necessarily imply the absence of strategic interactions. We examine the implications of the model empirically using US state-level panel data over the period 1977-1994. The results suggest that important cross-policy strategic interactions exist, lending support in favor of the multi-dimensional framework, and indicate that uni-dimensional frameworks may present lower bound estimates of the degree of strategic interaction.

Evolutionary dynamics in the dispersal of sign languages

The evolution of spoken languages has been studied since the mid-nineteenth century using traditional historical comparative methods and, more recently, computational phylogenetic methods. By contrast, evolutionary processes resulting in the diversity of contemporary sign languages (SLs) have received much less attention, and scholars have been largely unsuccessful in grouping SLs into monophyletic language families using traditional methods. To date, no published studies have attempted to use language data to infer relationships among SLs on a large scale. Here, we report the results of a phylogenetic analysis of 40 contemporary and 36 historical SL manual alphabets coded for morphological similarity. Our results support grouping SLs in the sample into six main European lineages, with three larger groups of Austrian, British and French origin, as well as three smaller groups centring around Russian, Spanish and Swedish. The British and Swedish lineages support current knowledge of relationships among SLs based on extra-linguistic historical sources. With respect to other lineages, our results diverge from current hypotheses by indicating (i) independent evolution of Austrian, French and Spanish from Spanish sources; (ii) an internal Danish subgroup within the Austrian lineage; and (iii) evolution of Russian from Austrian sources

Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This study develops theory and uses a door-to-door fundraising field experiment to explore the economics of charity. We approached nearly 5000 households, randomly divided into four experimental treatments, to shed light on key issues on the demand side of charitable fundraising. Empirical results are in line with our theory: in gross terms, our lottery treatments raised considerably more money than our voluntary contributions treatments. Interestingly, we find that a one standard deviation increase in female solicitor physical attractiveness is similar to that of the lottery incentive¡ªthe magnitude of the estimated difference in gifts is roughly equivalent to the treatment effect of moving from our theoretically most attractive approach (lotteries) to our least attractive approach (voluntary contributions).

Solid state television camera system Patent

Solid state television camera system consisting of monolithic semiconductor mosaic sensor and molecular digital readout system

Color Transparency at COMPASS energies

Pionic quasielastic knockout of protons from nuclei at 200 GeV show very large effects of color transparency as -t increases from 0 to several GeV^2. Similar effects are expected for quasielastic photoproduction of vector mesons.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Cyclical and Market Determinants of Involuntary Part-Time Employment

We examine the determinants of involuntary part-time employment, focusing on variation associated with the business cycle and variation attributable to more persistent structural features of the labor market. Our theoretical framework distinguishes between workers' decision to seek part-time work and employer demand for part-time work hours, emphasizing demand and supply determinants of involuntary part-time work such as workplace technology, labor costs, and workforce demographics. We conduct regression analyses using state-level panel and individual data for the years 2003-2014. The results show that the combination of cyclical variation and the influence of market-level factors can explain virtually all of the variation in the aggregate incidence of involuntary part-time employment since the Great Recession

The effects of interactions between proline and carbon nanostructures on organocatalysis in the Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction

The non-covalent interactions of S-(-)-proline with the surfaces of carbon nanostructures (fullerene, nanotubes and graphite) change the nucleophilic-electrophilic and acid-base properties of the amino acid, thus tuning its activity and selectivity in the organocatalytic Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert (HPESW) reaction. Whilst our spectroscopy and microscopy measurements show no permanent covalent bonding between S-(-)-proline and carbon nanostructures, a systematic investigation of the catalytic activity and selectivity of the organocatalyst in the HPESW reaction demonstrates a clear correlation between the pyramidalisation angle of carbon nanostructures and the catalytic properties of S-(-)-proline. Carbon nanostructures with larger pyramidalisation angles have a stronger interaction with the nitrogen atom lone pair of electrons of the organocatalyst, thereby simultaneously decreasing the nucleophilicity and increasing the acidity of the organocatalyst. These translate into lower conversion rates but higher selectivities towards the dehydrated product of Aldol addition