Proposal for encoding Myanmar characters for Karen and Kayah in the UCS

This is a proposal to add characters to the international character encoding standard Unicode for minority languages using the Myanmar script. These additions were published in Unicode Standard version 5.1 in March 2008. This proposal includes characters for Western Pwo Karen, Eastern Pwo Karen, Geba Karen, and Kayah. Some changes were made after the proposal was written, so users should consult the latest Unicode code charts for the most up-to-date repertoire, accessible from:

Proposal for encoding Myanmar characters for Shan and Palaung in the UCS

This is a proposal to add characters to the international character encoding standard Unicode for Ossetian and Abkhaz in the Georgian script. These additions were published in Unicode Standard version 6.1 in January 2012

Revised proposal for encoding the Lanna script in the BMP of the UCS

This is a proposal to encode the Lanna script in the international character encoding standard Unicode. The name of the script was changed to "Tai Tham" by consensus of users in different countries. Tai Tham was published in Unicode Standard version 5.2 in October 2009. Tai Tham is used to write Northern Thai, Lue, and Khün, which are spoken in Northern Thailand, Myanmar, China and surrounding areas. It is also used for Lao Tham (Old Lao). The script is known by various names: Old Xishuangbanna Dai or Old Tai Lue in China, Khün in Myanmar, and Tua Mueang, Lanna, or Yuan in Thailand. Several changes have been made to the script since the proposal was written, so users should check the latest code charts, accessible from , and section 16.7 in the Unicode Standard

The Efficiency of Collective Bargaining in Public Schools

This paper develops a bargaining model of wage and employment determination for the public sectror. The solution to the model generates structural wage and employment equations that are estimated using data from New York State teacher-school district collective bargaining agreements. An advantage of this approach is that the major collective bargaining models (monopoly union, right to manage, efficient contracting, and inefficient contracting) are nested in the structural equations based on flexible functional forms and these models can be empirically tested as restrictions on estimated model parameters. The empirical results suggest that the allocation of resources generated by collective bargaining in New York State public schools is, by and large, not Pareto efficient. Furthermore, it is possible to estimate separate measures of union bargaining power over wages and employment. Empirically, it appears that union bargaining power over wages is around 0.53, while bargaining power over employment is around 0.71. In addition, the paper demonstrates the importance of controlling for the nature of the collective agreement when measuring the level of public services that flow to a community in the presence of a unionized public sector work force. Nous proposons un modèle de négociations collectives sur les salaires et l'emploi dans le secteur public. La solution de ce modèle implique des équations structurelles de détermination des salaires et d'emploi qui sont estimées à partir de données provenant des conventions colléctives des écoles publiques de l'état de New York. Notre approche a l'avantage d'englober tous les modèles majeurs de la littérature sur les négociations collectives (syndicat monopole, droit à gérer, négociations efficaces et négociations inefficaces) et de relier chaque modèle à une restriction d'égalité sur un ou plusieurs paramètres estimés. Nos résultats suggèrent que l'allocation des ressources spécifiée dans les conventions collectives des enseignants de l'état de New York n'est, en générale, pas efficace. De plus, notre approche nous permet d'estimer le pouvoir de négociationsur les salaires et sur l'emploi séparément. Nous trouvons un pouvoir de négociation sur les salaires de 0.53, et sur l'emploi de 0.71. Finalement, nous démontrons l'importance de contrôler le caractère endogène des salaires lors de l'analyse des flux des services publics dans un marché syndicalisé.Collective Bargaining, Efficient Contracting, Public Sector Union, Education, Négociations collectives, contrats efficaces, syndicat du secteur public, éducation

Service and spare parts

Service is the preparation, delivery and after-sales maintenance of machinery. It involves responsibilities for both the dealer and the purchaser

Generating Evidence to Guide Merger Enforcement

The challenge of effective merger enforcement is tremendous. U.S. antitrust agencies must, by statute, quickly forecast the competitive effects of mergers that occur in virtually every sector of the economy to determine if mergers can proceed. Surprisingly, given the complexity of the regulators task, there is remarkably little empirical evidence on the effects of mergers to guide regulators. This paper describes the necessity of retrospective analysis of past mergers in building an empirical basis for antitrust enforcement, and provides guidance on the key measurement issues researchers confront in estimating the price effects of mergers. We also describe how evidence from merger retrospectives can be used to evaluate the economic models used to predict the competitive effects of mergers.Corporate mergers, antitrust enforcement

The role and function of systemic collaborative intermediary organisations in urban system change: the case of the Cities Alliance

Misaligned, single actor and sector driven approaches result in urban system fragmentation which creates barriers to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The study argues for the alignment of the interests, resources and behaviours of actors to work together across local, national, regional and global urban system levels. This is an essential precondition for transitioning towards urban sustainability. It builds on the argument that systems change when developments at all levels link up and reinforce each other. The study contributes to the literature on the role of cross-sector collaboration and collaborative governance in urban sustainability transitions in three ways by: (1) extending the understanding on how intermediary functions are applied to scale urban collaborative governance; (2) developing the concept of a SCIO and a conceptual model for urban system change and describing the role of SCIOs to operationalise the conceptual model; and (3) contributing to the emerging understanding of how to make an abstract global agenda on collaboration, SDG Goal 17, more concrete by discussing the case of a global urban intermediary and multi-stakeholder partnership. It distinguishes between universal and systemic intermediary functions and discuss how these are applied across horizontal and vertical scales to foster collaborative governance and alignment. This contributes towards the understanding of how multi-level urban governance is organised and highlights the challenges and limitations encountered in scaling urban collaborative governance

Prolegomena to a Christian philosophy of penal justice

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study is to examine the Christian attitude toward penal justice as exemplified in the history of theology and in the works of certain contemporary theologians, in an effort to discover the necessary components of a Christian philosophy of penal justice. Although the redemption of the lost is a primary concern of the New Testament, there has been surprisingly little systematic consideration of this problem in Christian theology. This work is meant to be only a preliminary study of this critical area of theological and social concern. It is suggestive rather than conclusive, pointing up places in which further investigation, preferably of an interdisciplinary nature, is needed [TRUNCATED

Superior sperm competitors sire higher-quality young

The evolution of polyandry remains controversial. This is because, unlike males, in many cases multiple mating by females does not increase fecundity and inevitably involves some costs. As a result, a large number of indirect benefit models have been proposed to explain polyandry. One of these, the good sperm hypothesis, posits that high-quality males are better sperm competitors and sire higher-quality offspring. Hence, by mating multiply, females produce offspring of superior quality. Despite being potentially widely applicable across species, this idea has received little attention. In a laboratory experiment with yellow dung flies ( Scathophaga stercoraria ) we found that males that were more successful in sperm competition also had offspring that developed faster. There was no relationship between paternal success in sperm competition and the ability of offspring to survive post-emergence starvation. Since faster development times are likely to be advantageous in this species, our data provide some support for polyandry evolving as a means of producing higher-quality offspring via sperm competition