Outward FDI and the Investment Development Path of a Late-Industrialising Economy - Evidence from Ireland

The Investment Development Path (IDP) hypothesis holds that a country’s net outward direct investment position is systematically related to its level of economic development. Ireland is an interesting test case because of the importance of inward FDI over the last three decades, the country's rapid recent FDI-fuelled growth, and the recent increase in outward FDI by Irish-owned multinationals. We find empirical support for the IDP concept for the Irish case. Our sectoral analysis shows up important differences between Ireland's outward FDI and the bulk of FDI occurring in the world economy however. Ireland's outward FDI flows are as yet almost exclusively horizontal and they go largely into non-internationally-tradable manufacturing and services sectors. Also, the firmspecific assets of Irish multinationals lie neither in R&D nor in the type of product differentiation associated with high advertising expenditures.Outward FDI, Investment Development Path, Ireland

Design and Analysis of Electromagnetic Interference Filters and Shields

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is a problem of rising prevalence as electronic devices become increasingly ubiquitous. EMI filters are low pass filters intended to prevent the conducted electric currents and radiated electromagnetic fields of a device from interfering with the proper operation of other devices. Shielding is a method, often complementary to filtering, that typically involves enclosing a device in a conducting box in order to prevent radiated EMI. This dissertation includes three chapters related to the use of filtering and shielding for preventing electromagnetic interference. The first chapter deals with improving the high frequency EMI filtering performance of surface mount capacitors on printed circuit boards (PCBs). At high frequencies, the impedance of a capacitor is dominated by a parasitic inductance, thus leading to poor high frequency filtering performance. Other researchers have introduced the concept of parasitic inductance cancellation and have applied this concept to improving the filtering performance of volumetrically large capacitors at frequencies up to 100 MHz. The work in this chapter applies the concept of parasitic inductance cancellation to much smaller surface mount capacitors at frequencies up to several gigahertz. The second chapter introduces a much more compact design for applying parasitic inductance cancellation to surface mount capacitors that uses inductive coupling between via pairs as well as coplanar traces. This new design is suited for PCBs having three or more layers including solid ground and/or power plane(s). This design is demonstrated to be considerably more effective in filtering high frequency noise due to crosstalk than a comparable conventional shunt capacitor filter configuration. Finally, chapter 3 presents a detailed analysis of the methods that are used to decompose the measure of plane wave shielding effectiveness into measures of absorption and reflection. Textbooks on electromagnetic compatibility commonly decompose shielding effectiveness into what is called the Schelkunoff decomposition in this work with terms called penetration loss, reflection loss, and the internal reflections correction term. In experimentally characterizing the shielding properties of materials, however, other decompositions are commonly used. This chapter analyzes the relationships between these different decompositions and two-port network parameters and shows that other decompositions offer terms that are better figures of merit than the terms of the Schelkunoff decomposition in experimental situations

CUTIS-SEQ, a flexible bilocus sequence typing scheme that provides high resolution of Cutibacterium acnes strains across all subspecies

Objectives: A `high resolution' Single Locus Sequence Typing (SLST) scheme has been described for the anaerobic skin bacterium Cutibacterium acnes that seemingly discriminates sequence types (STs) to a level commensurate with previously described Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) methods (MLST4; MLST8; MLST9). However, no quantifiable evaluation of SLST versus MLST for differentiation of C. acnes strains, especially in relation to the subspecies of the bacterium, known as C. acnes subsp. acnes (type I), C. acnes subsp. defendens (type II) and C. acnes subsp. elongatum (type III), has been performed which is vital given its increasing use. To address this, we examined the discriminatory power of SLST versus MLST with a large group of isolates representative of all subspecies. Methods: Simpson's index of diversity (D) was used for quantitative comparison of the resolving power of the SLST and MLST schemes for 186 isolates of C. acnes covering all three subspecies. Results: When strains were considered collectively, SLST and all three MLST approaches had similar D values > 90%. However, at the subspecies level there were significant differences between the methods, most strikingly a reduced discrimination of type II and type III strains (D <80%) by SLST versus MLST8, and to a lesser extent MLST4. The MLST9 method also performed poorly for type II strains (D <70%), but did display the best results for type I (D= 90%). By combining the SLST locus with the camp2 gene sequence to create a novel and flexible high-resolution Bilocus Sequence Typing (BLST) scheme, known as CUTIS-SEQ typing (CUTIbacterium acneS BilocuS sEQuence Typing), we achieved improved resolution at both species and, critically, subspp. levels. Conclusions: CUTIS-SEQ provides an opportunity to improve differentiation of C. acnes isolates by SLST without significantly impacting laboratory workload, or compromising application to complex biological communities. A CUTIS-SEQ isolate database is now available as part of the C. acnes PubMLST database at https://pubmlst.org

Impact of humanitarian assistance on Burmese civil society

The government of Canada indirectly contributed over $25,000,000 to the Nargis cyclone relief effort through multilateral contributions and matching grants to international NGOs. The Tripartite Core Group and NGOs have emphasized the possibility of a "stages of development” transition, from relief to recovery to development. This report offers a menu of options for Canadian funders to engage in Burma within current government policy. It also offers points of entry in the event of possible policy changes which could allow Canada to respond to the humanitarian crisis and more actively assist the development of democratic forces