Development of Water Markets in the Yellow River Basin: A Case-Study of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

The Yellow River Basin Commission (YRCC) is struggling with demand and supply water imbalances due to inter-jurisdictional rivalries, and has consequently promoted the development of water rights trading to incentivize provinces from not exceeding their allocated withdrawals in the Yellow River Basin (YRB). This thesis employs the case of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to examine factors that facilitate or hinder market-based water rights allocation in the YRB. By reviewing scholarly literature, governmental reports and conducting interviews with governmental officials and water rights experts, it argues that two features of China’s water resource management shape water markets in Ningxia: asymmetric information and lack of coordination mechanisms. The flaws in the performance of Ningxia’s water rights transfer system – including inconsistency and lack of integration between the Yellow River Water Allocation Plan and abstraction permits; little consideration to groundwater and surface water linkages – stems from asymmetric information on hydrology and abstraction licenses and absence of formal mechanisms for cross-sectoral coordination. As economic development proceeds in the western interior regions along the Yellow River Basin, the pressure to reallocate water between agriculture to industry through inter sectoral water trading will increase. Consequently, trade-offs between energy vs food production, higher-value use vs equity & environmental flows as a result of tradable water rights is to some degree inevitable; however, collective action challenges of exclusion and coordination tied to mitigating these tensions will put the existing institutional framework governing water rights under growing pressure

A Novel Speculative Pseudo-Parallel \Delta\Sigma Modulator

We present a novel speculative pseudo-parallel \Delta\Sigma modulator structure, which almost halves the logic depth of the critical path in the pseudo-parallel Hatami structure. Following Hatami, our modulator calculates a block of n consecutive output bits in parallel, and then employs a parallelserial interface to output the bits at n times the modulator clock frequency. We circumvent the block-to-block dependence, which limits the clock speed of the Hatami structure, by speculatively calculating the outputs based on all possible output values of the previous block, and then selecting the correct one. We present cost and performance estimates for an initial implementation of the modulator, synthesized towards an FPGA and an ASIC technology

FACILITATING SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE TRANSLATION IN INNOVATION NETWORKS

In this paper we present a two year long interpretative case study based on a Living Lab project. The case study is used to in retrospect investigate cognitive and social translation in a doubly distributed innovation network. By identifying and empirically exemplify how translations occurred, we present insights of how to support cognitive and social translations in these kind of networks. Using the concepts from Yoo et al. (2009) we explore the research question: how can cognitive and social translation be supported in Living Labs? Based on the findings we conclude that Living Labs can support heterogeneous set of actors and knowledge resources by supporting cognitive translation with techniques such as scenarios, mock-ups and prototypes. By working with an iterative process the involved actors can be supported to materialize prior and new knowledge which can be translated between different communities of actors. By setting up and providing a common ground a trading zone can be established supporting the social translations within the network by offering a space where negotiation of interests and alignment of perspectives can be facilitated

The Dilemmas of Tax Coordination in the Enlarged European Union

This study evaluates the economic effects of corporate tax coordination in the enlarged European Union using a computable general equilibrium model and a comprehensive set of scenarios for both a common corporate EU tax base and for full harmonisation of tax bases and tax rates. Our main findings are as follows: (i) Corporate tax coordination can yield modest aggregate welfare gains, but the details of the coordination policies determine outcomes and economic gains cannot be taken for granted. (ii) All scenarios for coordination leave some EU Member States as winners and others as losers. An agreement on tax coordination is therefore likely to require elaborate compen¬sation mechanisms. (iii) The large and diverse country effects suggest that Enhanced Cooperation for a subset of the Member States may be the most likely route towards tax coordination. Coordination among a subset of relatively homogenous Member States will lead to less radical policy changes, but also to smaller gains. (iv) Identifying winners and losers from coordination for the purpose of a compensation mechanism may be problematic, since countries experiencing gains in GDP and welfare tend to lose tax revenues, and vice versa.

Användandet av Balanced Scorecard inom den svenska offentliga hälso- och sjukvården - förändringar i modellen samt organisatorisk tröghet

Syfte: Beskriva ett exempel på användandet av Balanced Scorecard inom den svenska offentliga hälso- och sjukvården samt beskriva förändringar kopplat till modellen. Syftet är även att beskriva den organisatoriska trögheten kopplat till användandet av Balanced Scorecard. Metod: Ett övervägande deduktivt val av metod med ett deskriptivt syfte. Vald metod har varit kvalitativ. Slutsatser: BSC används som ett mätsystem på avdelningen i uppsatsen. BSC har, enligt ledningen, underlättat målstyrningen. Dessutom fungerar det som bas i argumentationsinstrumentet gentemot högre instanser i organisationen. Det finns brister i medarbetarnas användning av mätsystemet vilket försvårar målstyrningen. Förändringar i modellen har skett vilket gör att användandet av BSC inte kan karaktäriseras som ett managementsystem. Det finns organisatorisk tröghet på den studerande avdelningen vilket förstärks av defensiva rutiner samt svårigheten att styra medarbetarna med hjälp av ett administrativt styrmedel som BSC

"En jävligt sopig straffskala": en rättssociologisk studie av barnpornografibrottets utformning och strafflatitud

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a deeper understanding of child pornography as a crime and its sentencing. The main purpose of the study is to relate the current debate regarding the sentencing connected to the crime of child pornography to a standpoint of sociology of law perspective on the law. As our starting point we have considered the question of Thomas Mathiesen, through sociology of law, of how social conditions affect the law, and through this attempt to gain a greater understanding of how social norms are reflected in the law concerning child pornography. The work consists of a review of legal sources and of two empirical studies. The first empirical study is a quantitative content analysis of legal rulings and the second study consists of six interviews with people with work-related knowledge of the child pornography offense. This work resulted in a discussion of the common sense of law, the societal affairs protected by the law and of the preventive effect of the sentencing. The common sense of law is discussed within the question of how legal rules are codified along with the prevailing norms. In terms of society's commitment to protect children the placement of the law concerning child pornography within the Penal Code is discussed in relation to the societal affairs protected by the law. Lastly the sentencing and how it corresponds to the public perception of the loathsomeness of the crime is debated. It is stated in the thesis that the social and formal norms interact but that the meaning of the social norm is hard to define

Optimal Monetary Policy in an Operational Medium-Sized DSGE Model

We show how to construct optimal policy projections in Ramses, the Riksbank’s open-economy medium-sized DSGE model for forecasting and policy analysis. Bayesian estimation of the parameters of the model indicates that they are relatively invariant to alternative policy assumptions and supports our view that the model parameters may be regarded as unaffected by the monetary policy specification. We discuss how monetary policy, and in particular the choice of output gap measure, affects the transmission of shocks. Finally, we use the model to assess the recent Great Recession in the world economy and how its impact on the economic development in Sweden depends on the conduct of monetary policy. This provides an illustration on how Rames incorporates large international spillover effects.

Monetary Policy Trade-Offs in an Estimated Open-Economy DSGE Model

This paper studies the transmission of shocks and the trade-offs between stabilizing CPI inflation and alternative measures of the output gap in Ramses, the Riksbank's empirical dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model of a small open economy. The main results are, first, that the transmission of shocks depends substantially on the conduct of monetary policy, and second, that the trade-off between stabilizing CPI inflation and the output gap strongly depends on which concept of potential output in the output gap between output and potential output is used in the loss function. If potential output is defined as a smooth trend this trade-off is much more pronounced compared to the case when potential output is defined as the output level that would prevail if prices and wages were flexible.

A Comparison of the Oxidation and Nitridation Properties of Selected Chromia- and Alumina-Forming Alloys at 800 degrees C

Three FeCrAl alloys and two chromia-formers (a stainless steel, and a Ni-base alloy) have been exposed in four environments (dry air, air + 20% H2O, 20% H-2 + 20% H2O + Ar and 95% N-2 + 5% H-2) for 168 h at 800 degrees C. The corroded samples were investigated by SEM/EDS, XRD and gravimetry, and the formation of CrO2(OH)(2)(g) was measured as a function of time using a denuder technique. The Fe-base alloy formed a Cr-rich protective oxide scale in dry air and wet air but suffered break-away oxidation in 20% H-2 + 20% H2O + Ar. In contrast, the Ni-base alloy suffered extensive NiO formation and internal oxidation in dry air and wet air but formed a protective chromia scale in 20% H-2 + 20% H2O. All three FeCrAl alloys formed protective alumina scales in dry air, wet air and 20% H-2 + 20% H2O + Ar. The FeCrAl alloy Kanthal APMT was severely nitrided in the 95% N-2 + 5% H-2 environment due to defects in the oxide scale associated with RE-rich inclusions which allowed nitrogen to enter the alloy. In contrast, the two Cr-lean FeCrAl alloys Kanthal EF101 and Kanthal EF100 did not suffer nitridation at all

The Influence of KCl and HCl on the High-Temperature Oxidation of a Fe-2.25Cr-1Mo Steel at 400\ua0\ub0C

The influence of alkali- and chlorine-containing compounds on the corrosion of superheater alloys has been studied extensively. The current paper instead investigates the corrosive effects of KCl and HCl under conditions relevant to waterwall conditions. A low-alloy (Fe-2.25Cr-1Mo) steel was exposed to KCl(s), 500\ua0vppm HCl(g) and (KCl + HCl) in the presence of 5%O2 and 20% H2O at 400\ua0\ub0C. The results indicate that alloy chlorination by KCl occurs by an electrochemical process, involving cathodic formation of chemisorbed KOH on the scale surface and anodic formation of solid FeCl2 at the bottom of the scale. The process is accompanied by extensive cracking and delamination of the iron oxide scale, resulting in a complex, convoluted scale morphology. Adding 500\ua0vppm HCl to the experimental environment (KCl + HCl) initially greatly accelerated the formation of FeCl2 at the scale/alloy interface. The accelerated alloy chlorination is attributed to HCl reacting with KOH at the scale surface, causing the cathodic process to be depolarized. A rapid slowing down of the rate of chlorination and corrosion in KCl + HCl environment was observed which was attributed to the electronically insulating nature of the FeCl2 layer which forms at the bottom of the scale, disconnecting the anodic and cathodic regions