Conduct disorder : the achievement of a diagnosis'

This paper explores the historical shapings behind the diagnosis of conduct disorders. We take as our point of purchase oppositional ways of knowing the subject of conduct disorder—as either pathologically motivated or as the victim of a repressive mandate to control disorderly conduct. We take our cue from Foucault's suggestion that the pursuit of singular motivations behind a phenomenon is not the most fruitful means of understanding its historical appearance. We explore the emergence of the individual with conduct disorder as an appearance contingent upon dispersed agencies of government—an artefact of dispersed technologies for channelling and directing a population

A Review of State-of-the-Art Large Sized Foam Cutting Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Technologies.

Purpose – Current additive rapid prototyping (RP) technologies fail to efficiently produce objects greater than 0.5?m3 due to restrictions in build size, build time and cost. A need exists to develop RP and manufacturing technologies capable of producing large objects in a rapid manner directly from computer-aided design data. Foam cutting RP is a relatively new technology capable of producing large complex objects using inexpensive materials. The purpose of this paper is to describe nine such technologies that have been developed or are currently being developed at institutions around the world. The relative merits of each system are discussed. Recommendations are given with the aim of enhancing the performance of existing and future foam cutting RP systems. Design/methodology/approach – The review is based on an extensive literature review covering academic publications, company documents and web site information. Findings – The paper provides insights into the different machine configurations and cutting strategies. The most successful machines and cutting strategies are identified. Research limitations/implications – Most of the foam cutting RP systems described have not been developed to the commercial level, thus a benchmark study directly comparing the nine systems was not possible. Originality/value – This paper provides the first overview of foam cutting RP technology, a field which is over a decade old. The information contained in this paper will help improve future developments in foam cutting RP systems

Using the Finite Element Method to Determine the Temperature Distributions in Hot-wire Cutting.

Hot-wire cutting is a common material removal process used to shape and sculpt plastic foam materials, such as expanded polystyrene (EPS). Due to the low cost and sculpt-ability of plastic foams they are popular materials for large sized (> 1 m³) prototypes and bespoke visual artefacts. Recent developments in robotic foam sculpting machines have greatly increased the ability of hot-tools to sculpt complex geometrical surfaces bringing the subject into the realm of subtractive rapid prototyping/manufacturing. Nevertheless foam cut objects are not being exploited to their full potential due to the common perception that hot-wires are a low accuracy cutting tool. If greater accuracy for hot-wires can be obtained, it could provide a low cost method of producing high value functional engineering parts. Polystyrene patterns for lost foam casting are one such possibility. A nonlinear transient thermal finite element model was developed with the purpose of predicting the kerf width of hot-wire cut foams. Accurate predictions of the kerfwidth during cutting will allow the tool paths to be corrected off-line at the tool definition stage of the CAM process. Finite element analysis software (ANSYS) was used to simulate the hot-wire plastic foam cutting. The material property models were compiled from experimental data and commonly accepted values found in literature. The simulations showed good agreement with the experimental data and thus the model is thought to be reliable. The simulations provide an effective method of predicting kerf widths, under steady state cutting conditions. Limitations and further developments to the model are described

Sticky Prices as Coordination Failure

This paper shows that nominal price rigidity can arise from a failure to coordinate price changes. If a firm's desired price is increasing in others' prices, then the gains to the firm from adjusting its price after a nominal shock are greater if others adjust. This "strategic complementarity" in price adjustment can lead to multiple equilibria in the degree of nominal rigidity. Welfare may be much higher in the equilibria with less rigidity. In addition, with multiple equilibrium degrees of rigidity, the economy may have several short-run equilibria but a unique long-run equilibrium.

Real Rigidities and the Non-Neutrality of Money

Rigidities in real prices are not sufficient to create rigidities in nominal prices and real effects of nominal shocks. And, by themselves, small frictions in nominal adjustment, such as costs of changing prices, create only small non-neutralities. But this paper shows that substantial nominal rigidity can arise from a combination of real rigidities and small nominal frictions. The paper shows the connection between real and nominal rigidity given the presence of nominal frictions both in general and for several specific sources of real rigidity: costs of adjusting real prices, asymmetric demand arising from imperfect information, and efficiency wages.

Comparing Average and Marginal Tax Rates Under the FairTax and the Current System of Federal Taxation

This paper compares marginal and average tax rates on working and saving under our current federal tax system with those that would arise under a federal retail sales tax, specifically the FairTax. The FairTax would replace the personal income, corporate income, payroll, and estate and gift taxes with a 23 percent effective retail sales tax plus a progressive rebate. The 23 percent rate generates more revenue than the taxes it replaces, but the rebate's cost necessitates scaling back non-Social Security expenditures to their 2000 share of GDP. The FairTax's effective marginal tax on labor supply is 23 percent. Its effective marginal tax on saving is zero. In contrast, for the stylized working households considered here, current effective marginal labor taxes are higher or much higher than 23 percent. Take our stylized 45 year-old, married couple earning $35,000 per year with two children. Given their federal tax bracket, the claw-back of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the FICA tax, their marginal tax is 47.6 percent. The FairTax imposes a zero marginal tax on saving meaning that reducing this year's consumption by a dollar permits one to increase the present value of future consumption by a dollar. In contrast, the existing federal tax system imposes very high marginal taxes on future consumption. For our stylized working households foregoing a dollar's consumption this year to uniformly raise consumption in all future years raises the present value of future consumption by only 45.8 to 77.4 cents, i.e., the effective marginal tax rates on uniformly raising future consumption via saving facing our households ranges from 22.6 percent to 54.2 percent. The FairTax also reduces most of our stylized households' remaining average lifetime tax rates - and, often, by a lot. Consider our stylized 30 year-old, single household earning$50,000. The household's average remaining lifetime tax rate under the current system is 21.1 percent. It's 16.2 percent under the FairTax.

Evaluation of on-farm labour saving strategies for optimisation of herd size that could be managed by one operator

End of project reportAlternative milking frequencies Once a day (OAD) milking throughout lactation of a herd (over 2 years, incorporating 24% heifers) resulted in loss in milk solids (MS) production of 17% per cow. Milking cows OAD in their 1st lactation does not adversely impact on milk production in the second lactation, when changed to twice a day (TAD) milking but may lead to a higher mastitis incidence. Changeover in milking frequency in mid lactation resulted in a similar yield of MS per cow for TAD milking for the full lactation (474 kg) and the TAD OAD group (TAD for the first 110 days and OAD for the remainder of the lactation) (469 kg). Thirteen times weekly milking in late lactation (omitting the Sunday evening milking) compared to twice daily milking every day had no effect on milk yield or composition and maximum SCC observed during the trial was 270x103 cells/ml. Once daily milking did not adversely affect the processability of milk. Once daily milking did not significantly increase milk SCC levels. Alternative calf rearing systems The improved efficiency increased herd size may be due to less use of buckets for calf feeding together with more frequent use of teat feeding from a container, automatic feeders and ad libitum feeding A study on OAD calf feeding (whole milk) demonstrated that calves can be reared with a OAD milk feeding system and weaned early (42 days) without adversely affecting performance There was no difference in the live-weight gain of calves on once daily feeding, twice daily feeding or once daily feeding going outdoors after 28 days Calf liveweight gain was greater with once daily feeding with milk replacer compared to once daily feeding with whole milk or once daily feeding with milk replacer going outdoors after 28 days Economic analysis of alternative milking systems When deciding on the type, size and level of technology in the milking parlour, the trade-off between labour requirement and cost and the initial capital investment requirement should be key in making the decision

Does It Pay, at the Margin, to Work and Save? -- Measuring Effective Marginal Taxes on Americans' Labor Supply and Saving

Building on Gokhale, Kotlikoff, and Sluchynsky's (2002) study of Americans' incentives to work full or part time, this paper uses ESPlanner, a life-cycle financial planning program, in conjunction with detailed modeling of transfer programs to determine a) total marginal net tax rates on current labor supply, b) total net marginal tax rates on life-cycle labor supply, c) total net marginal tax rates on saving, and d) the tax-arbitrage opportunities available from contributing to retirement accounts. In seeking to provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of fiscal incentives, the paper incorporates federal and state personal income taxes, the FICA payroll tax, federal and state corporate income taxes, federal and state sales and excise taxes, Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, Medicaid benefits, Foods Stamps, welfare (TAFCD) benefits, and other transfer program benefits. The paper offers four main takeaways. First, thanks to the incredible complexity of the U.S. fiscal system, it's impossible for anyone to understand her incentive to work, save, or contribute to retirement accounts absent highly advanced computer technology and software. Second, the U.S. fiscal system provides most households with very strong reasons to limit their labor supply and saving. Third, the system offers very high-income young and middle aged households as well as most older households tremendous opportunities to arbitrage the tax system by contributing to retirement accounts. Fourth, the patterns by age and income of marginal net tax rates on earnings, marginal net tax rates on saving, and tax-arbitrage opportunities can be summarized with one word -- bizarre.