Resource Nationalism in International Investment Law by Sangwani Patrick Ng’ambi

2016. Routledge. Pages: 187 ISBN 978-1-138-95158-

The Macroeconomics of Dollarization : A Cross-Country Examination of the Effects of Dollarization in Ecuador and El Salvador

This paper seeks to compare and contrast the effects of official dollarization on three broad macroeconomic variables: interest rates, inflation and GDP growth, in Ecuador and El Salvador. The paper will facilitate a better understanding of how the same alternative to monetary policy was expected to change the macroeconomic situation in two different countries with distinct pre-dollarization circumstances by analyzing the context in which the decision to dollarize was made, what happened before and after each country implemented the USD as official currency, and evaluating dollarization’s macroeconomic costs and benefits so as to provide a prescription for countries considering dollarization

Project Andvari: A Digital Portal to the Visual World of Early Medieval Northern Europe

Project Andvari is designed to provide integrated access to dispersed collections of northern European art and artifacts of the early medieval period (4th-12th centuries). Our goal is to create a digital portal offering aggregated search options and enhanced metadata. Funding is requested to convene an international workshop for humanities scholars, museum professionals, and technology experts to refine the conceptual design of the proposed research tool and identify its technological requirements in preparation for a pilot project. Ultimately, Project Andvari will facilitate interdisciplinary research in art, archaeology, history, and literary and religious studies of the northern periphery of medieval Europe. It will allow users to study visual culture across media and beyond traditional geographical and disciplinary boundaries. Its innovative application of search methods will promote analyses of relationships of artifacts and cultures, and help us discover the hitherto unnoticed

The Characteristics of Effective Environmental Education Programs - An exploration of the perceptions of environmental educators in Southern Ontario

The intensification of Ontario’s communities through recent policies such as the Greater Golden Horseshoe Growth Plan (GGH) will reduce the amount of local natural spaces for residents. Presently many of Ontario’s youth experience the natural world primarily by visiting environmental education centres. This study used sequential exploratory mixed methods to discover the perceptions of environmental educators concerning the realities of their daily practice. The first phase of the study utilized a grounded theory approach to construct an understanding of environmental education in Ontario. The interrelated themes of increasing environmental consciousness, evaluation of programs and centres, influence of visiting adults on program effectiveness, and programming were revealed. The second phase utilized the themes derived to construct an online survey in order to measure the actual practice of environmental educators compared to their perceived best methods. The results indicate that the scarcity of effective program and institutional evaluation, ineffective communication between supervising adults, and the conflict over pedagogical aims lead to some centres potentially only achieving mediocre increases in the environmental consciousness of the participants. The need for explicit, accessible areas where youth can engage in repetitive unstructured activities in the natural world is highlighted as an area for community stakeholders to focus their efforts on if pro-environmental behaviour is a desired trait in residents

Comprehensive Training and Evaluation on Deep Reinforcement Learning for Automated Driving in Various Simulated Driving Maneuvers

Developing and testing automated driving models in the real world might be challenging and even dangerous, while simulation can help with this, especially for challenging maneuvers. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has the potential to tackle complex decision-making and controlling tasks through learning and interacting with the environment, thus it is suitable for developing automated driving while not being explored in detail yet. This study carried out a comprehensive study by implementing, evaluating, and comparing the two DRL algorithms, Deep Q-networks (DQN) and Trust Region Policy Optimization (TRPO), for training automated driving on the highway-env simulation platform. Effective and customized reward functions were developed and the implemented algorithms were evaluated in terms of onlane accuracy (how well the car drives on the road within the lane), efficiency (how fast the car drives), safety (how likely the car is to crash into obstacles), and comfort (how much the car makes jerks, e.g., suddenly accelerates or brakes). Results show that the TRPO-based models with modified reward functions delivered the best performance in most cases. Furthermore, to train a uniform driving model that can tackle various driving maneuvers besides the specific ones, this study expanded the highway-env and developed an extra customized training environment, namely, ComplexRoads, integrating various driving maneuvers and multiple road scenarios together. Models trained on the designed ComplexRoads environment can adapt well to other driving maneuvers with promising overall performance. Lastly, several functionalities were added to the highway-env to implement this work. The codes are open on GitHub at https://github.com/alaineman/drlcarsim-paper.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted by the 26th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2023

Disequilibrium, adaptation and the Norse settlement of Greenland

This research was supported by the University of Edinburgh ExEDE Doctoral Training Studentship and NSF grant numbers 1202692 and 1140106.There is increasing evidence to suggest that arctic cultures and ecosystems have followed non-linear responses to climate change. Norse Scandinavian farmers introduced agriculture to sub-arctic Greenland in the late tenth century, creating synanthropic landscapes and utilising seasonally abundant marine and terrestrial resources. Using a niche-construction framework and data from recent survey work, studies of diet, and regional-scale climate proxies we examine the potential mismatch between this imported agricultural niche and the constraints of the environment from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. We argue that landscape modification conformed the Norse to a Scandinavian style of agriculture throughout settlement, structuring and limiting the efficacy of seasonal hunting strategies. Recent climate data provide evidence of sustained cooling from the mid thirteenth century and climate variation from the early fifteenth century. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Norse made incremental adjustments to the changing sub-arctic environment, but were limited by cultural adaptations made in past environments.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Das Vertrauen als Schlüsselwert in der modernen Organisationen

Vrednote odkrijemo, če se vprašamo, zakaj ljudje delajo to, kar delajo, saj naše vrednote definirajo naše odločitve. Vrednote so torej merilo posameznikove presoje, katero ravnanje je pravilno in katero napačno. Zaupanje lahko najsplošneje opredelimo kot določeno osebno pričakovanje in prepričanje (pozitivno oziroma negativno), da bodo drugi (npr. sodelavci, partnerji) delovali in se obnašali na določen (pričakovan) način. Sodobne organizacije izhajajo iz razumevanja zaupanja kot nujnega pogoja za medsebojno sodelovanje in skupinsko delo v organizaciji, ki omogoča uresničitev različnih procesnih inovacij. Cilj specialistične naloge je bil preveriti stopnjo zaupanja v podjetju Lisca Sevnica, d. d., ter predlagati možne izboljšave, ki bi vplivale na odnose med zaposlenimi in povečale zaupanje. Analizo smo izvajali na tretjini vseh zaposlenih v podjetju. Prišli smo do ugotovitve, da je stopnja zaupanja v podjetju zelo visoka. Zaposleni zaupajo tako podjetju kot tudi vodstvu in sodelavcem. Potrdili smo hipoteze, da je zaupanje ključna vrednota v sodobni organizaciji, da poveča uspešnost sodelovanja in lahko zmanjša transakcijske stroške. Nadzor nima negativnih vplivov na zaposlene in jih ne ovira pri delu. V podjetju prevladujejo dobri odnosi, ki so med drugim tudi posledica zaupanja med zaposlenimi. »Team building« oziroma skupinska dinamika je strukturirana skupinska aktivnost, katere namen je skozi izkušenjsko učenje na stimulativen, sproščen ali zabaven način izboljšati sodelovanje v timu in povečati zaupanje med sodelujočimi.Werte entdeckt man, wenn man sich die Frage stellt, warum Menschen so handeln, wie sie handeln, denn unsere Werte definieren unsere Entscheidungen. Werte sind daher ein Maßstab des individuellen Urteils und des richtigen bzw. falschen Handelns. Das Vertrauen kann generell als bestimmte persönliche Erwartung und Überzeugung (positive oder negative) definiert werden, damit die anderen (z.B. Mitarbeiter, Partner) nach Erwartungen handeln und sich dementsprechend benehmen. Gegenwärtige Organisationen gehen von dem Verstehen des Vertrauens aus als der notwendigen Bedingung für gegenseitige Mitarbeit und Teamarbeit in einer Organisation, was die Realisation verschiedener Prozessinnovationen ermöglicht. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, den Grad des Vertrauens in Firma Lisca Sevnica d.d. zu überprüfen und mögliche Verbesserungen vorzuschlagen, welche die Beziehungen zwischen den Mitarbeitern beeinflussen und das Vertrauen unter den Mitarbeitern steigern würden. Die Analyse wurde auf dem Drittel aller Angestellten in der Firma durchgeführt. Es wurde festgestellt, dass der Grad des Vertrauens in der Firma sehr hoch ist. Die Angestellten vertrauen sowohl der Firma als auch der Leitung und den Mitarbeitern. Es wurden die gestellten Hypothesen bestätigt, dass den Schlüsselwert einer gegenwärtigen Organisation das Vertrauen ist und dass dies den Erfolg der Mitarbeit steigert und die Transaktionskosten mindert. Die Aufsicht hat keine negativen Einflusse auf die Angelstellten aufgewiesen und hindert ihre Arbeit nicht. In der Firma herrschen gute Beziehungen, die unter anderem auch Resultat des Vertrauens unter den Angestellten sind. „Teambuilding“ bzw. Gruppendynamik ist eine strukturierte Gruppenaktivität mit der Absicht, durch das Erfahrungslernen auf eine anregende, ungezwungene und unterhaltende Art und Weise, die Mitarbeit im Team zu verbessern und das Vertrauen unter den Angestellten zu steigern