Neck Collar Assessment for People Living With Motor Neuron Disease: Are Current Outcome Measures Suitable?

A majority of people living with motor neuron disease (MND) experience weakness of the neck and as a result, experience head drop. This exacerbates problems with everyday activities (eating, talking, breathing, etc). Neck collars are often used to support head drop; however, these are typically designed for prehospitalization settings to manage and brace the cervical region of the spine. As a result, it has been recorded that people living with MND often reject these collars for a variety of reasons but most notably because they are too restricting. The current standardized outcome measures (most notably restricting cervical range of motion) used for neck collars are summarized herein along with whether they are suitable for a bespoke neck collar specifically designed for people living with MND

Diversification with volatility products

Recent changes to clearing-house regulations have promoted exchange-traded products offering risk premia previously accessible only over-the-counter. Thus, as correlations increase between equity, bonds and commodities, a new strand of research questions the benefits of home-grown diversification using volatility products. First we ask: “What expected returns will induce equity and bond investors to perceive ex-ante diversification benefits from adding volatility?” We call this the optimal diversification threshold. We derive the theoretical thresholds for minimum-variance, mean-variance and Black–Litterman optimization. Empirical analysis of US and European markets shows that volatility diversification is frequently perceived to be optimal, ex-ante, but these apparent benefits are almost never realized, being eroded by high roll and transaction costs. Exchange-traded volatility only proved an effective diversifier during the banking crisis. At other times long equity and bond portfolios diversified with volatility futures have not performed as well as those without diversification, or even those diversified with commodities

Rentier Statebuilding in a Post-Conflict Economy: The Case of Kosovo

Kosovo has been under various forms of international administration since 1999. Although the political dimension of this international experience has been widely studied by scholars — especially those associated with the critical theory of liberal peacebuilding — the economic dimension of international rule has received less attention. This article explores the economic dimension by linking insights from rentier theory with critical approaches to liberal peacebuilding and statebuilding. The postulate informing this article is that the sources of a state's income have an impact on its institutional development. The article discusses liberal peacebuilding through the lens of rentier theory, it analyses the economic management in the early years of the international administration of Kosovo, and describes and explores some of the unintended consequences of this massive international presence in Kosovo for the local economy

Is Privatisation in Post-conflict Kosovo Possible?

Post-conflict Kosovo contains approximately 350 socially owned enterprises (SOEs). Formal privatisation of these SOEs is not possible since Kosovo is not a sovereign state and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), despite being the ultimate authority in Kosovo, cannot legitimately effect permanent change of ownership upon Kosovo's SOEs. The solution to this problem has been to lease SOEs to private sector investors, therefore enabling private investors to take over control of an SOE while avoiding the need to determine true ownership of the SOE. The initial phase of privatisation offered SOEs to private investors under a ten year lease. This proved to be unsuccessful, attracting insufficient interest from private investors and was resisted by the incumbent management of SOEs. The second phase of privatisation using 99 year leases has been more successful; however, the overall scope of the privatisation program is limited by the fact that the majority of SOEs are not economically viable. Comparative Economic Studies (2006) 48, 326–350. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100111

Migrant remittances from the ethnic Albanian diaspora : evidence from Albania and Kosovo

This thesis considers the recent waves of outward migration from Albania and Kosovo, and the establishment of 'remittance dependent' economies in these countries. Two key issues relating to this state of 'remittance dependency' are considered in this thesis: Firstly, whether the flow of remittances into these two economies can be sustained over time, despite the fact that immigration restrictions in the main countries of the diaspora prevent the arrival of new 'remittance active' migrants from Albania and Kosovo. On this issue the findings in this thesis support the view that informal migration is both practical and economically viable. Therefore, the lack of legal migration options does not present a significant obstacle to any future flow of migration into the diaspora, which is needed to maintain the stock of remittance active migrants in the diaspora. Secondly, whether the flow of remittances into these two economies has resulted in any 'distortions' of the domestic economy, and whether these 'distortions' have had the effect of perpetuating the condition of 'remittance dependency'. On this issue, the rise and subsequent collapse of Albania's pyramid investment schemes was shown to be linked to the receipt of migrant remittances, with the collapse of these schemes prompting further waves of migration and further flows of remittances. However, the main emphasis of this thesis is on the distorting effects of remittances on the economy of Kosovo, here the receipt of remittances is shown to have a 'Dutch disease' effect upon the domestic economy, restricting the development of the traded goods sector and therefore perpetuating the condition of 'remittance dependency'.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Economic Sustainability of Post-conflict Kosovo

Kosovo is currently operating as an independent economic state, having severed the majority of economic links with the former Yugoslavia. This article explains why the Yugoslav dinar was replaced by the DM (in turn replaced by the Euro) as the new national currency of post-conflict Kosovo. Use of the DM, coupled with a relatively open trade policy, has resulted in a severe visible trade deficit. The stock of DM is continuously being replenished by the inflow of money both from the various international agencies operating in Kosovo and from remittances from Kosovars working abroad. The article argues that, even with the current low level of export earnings, the economy of Kosovo is economically sustainable, since the international presence in Kosovo is partly responsible for the high demand for imports. However, in the absence of a competitive export sector, the economy is still highly reliant upon the inflow of remittances, without which Kosovo would be unable to meet the costs of vital imports.

An Investigation of Electric Propulsion in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles through a Variable-Fidelity Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation Approach

The medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) plays a key role in both military and civilian applications around the world. However, in a world where electric UAVs are increasingly becoming the norm, the MALE UAV is still primarily powered by hydrocarbon fuels and its design is very much constrained by existing general aviation reciprocating engines. The aim of this study is to investigate the design effects resulting from incorporating electric propulsion systems in MALE UAVs, while also investigating the effects of modelling fidelity on the results. Reciprocating engine, hydrogen fuel cell and battery models are incorporated into a multidisciplinary design optimisation framework, with the aim of minimising the maximum take-off weight at various levels of modelling fidelity. The results show that hydrogen fuel cells can provide around 40% reduction in the aircraft's maximum take-off weight, while batteries are not capable of enabling long-endurance flight. It is further shown that the effects of modelling fidelity of the aerodynamics and structural wing weight models are more significant when the aircraft design being optimised is substantially different from the baseline configuration.Thesis in cooperation with the University of Sydney, Australia.Aerospace Engineerin

Volatility exchange-traded notes: curse or cure?

This paper investigates the trading, hedging and performance characteristics of VIX futures exchange-traded notes (ETNs) and discusses their pros and cons from the perspectives of the regulator, the issuer, and the non-speculative investor

The Albanian economy in transition The role of remittances and pyramid investment schemes

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:9350.4697(28) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo