Stock market wealth effects in an estimated DSGE model for Hong Kong

This paper develops and estimates an open economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model of the Hong Kong economy. The model features short-run price rigidities generated by monopolistic competition and staggered reoptimisation. The model is enhanced with wealth effects due to stock price dynamics, which we believe to be important. For this reason we adopt a perpetual youth approach. Model parameters and unobserved components are estimated with a Bayesian maximum likelihood procedure, conditional on prior information concerning the values of parameters.DSGE models; wealth effects; open economy; Hong Kong

Noncoherence of some lattices in Isom(Hn)

We prove noncoherence of certain families of lattices in the isometry group of the hyperbolic n-space for n greater than 3. For instance, every nonuniform arithmetic lattice in SO(n,1) is noncoherent, provided that n is at least 6.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 29 April 2008. V3: typographical correction

A decay detection system and its application to the omega meson

Imperial Users onl

Global isoform-specific transcript alterations and deregulated networks in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Extensive genome-wide analyses of deregulated gene expression have now been performed for many types of cancer. However, most studies have focused on deregulation at the gene-level, which may overlook the alterations of specific transcripts for a given gene. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is one of the best-characterized and most pervasive renal cancers, and ccRCCs are well-documented to have aberrant RNA processing. In the present study, we examine the extent of aberrant isoform-specific RNA expression by reporting a comprehensive transcript-level analysis, using the new kallisto-sleuth-RATs pipeline, investigating coding and non-coding differential transcript expression in ccRCC. We analyzed 50 ccRCC tumors and their matched normal samples from The Cancer Genome Altas datasets. We identified 7,339 differentially expressed transcripts and 94 genes exhibiting differential transcript isoform usage in ccRCC. Additionally, transcript-level coexpression network analyses identified vasculature development and the tricarboxylic acid cycle as the most significantly deregulated networks correlating with ccRCC progression. These analyses uncovered several uncharacterized transcripts, including lncRNAs FGD5-AS1 and AL035661.1, as potential regulators of the tricarboxylic acid cycle associated with ccRCC progression. As ccRCC still presents treatment challenges, our results provide a new resource of potential therapeutics targets and highlight the importance of exploring alternative methodologies in transcriptome-wide studies

"Assessing agglomeration economies in a spatial framework with endogenous regressors"

This paper is concerned with the influence of agglomeration economies on economic outcomes across British regions. The concentration of economic activity in one place can foster economic performance due to the reduction in transportation costs, the ready availability of customers and suppliers, and knowledge spillovers. However, the concentration of several types of intangible assets can boost productivity as well. Thus, using an interesting dataset which proxies regional productivity, we will assess the relative importance of agglomeration and other assets, controlling for endogeneity, spatial autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity at the same time. Our results suggest that agglomeration has a definite positive influence on productivity, although our estimates of its effect are dramatically reduced when spatial dependence and other hitherto omitted variables proxying intangible assets are controlled for.Agglomeration economies, intangible assets, endogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, spatial HAC estimation. JEL classification:C21, J24, R10, R11, R12.

Investigations Into Charitable Fundraising

Charitable giving in the U.S. totaled more than $300 billion in 2009, amounting to about 2% of GDP. These organizations depend on fundraising activities to generate donations from individuals who provide three-quarters of the funding for charitable organizations.Despite the size and scope of these operations, practical fundraising still relies heavily on rules-of-thumb and individual experience to design and run campaigns. These works aim to expand the understanding of fundraising through empirical and theoretical analysis. Leadership giving is the first fundraising practice explored. Leadership gifts are funds collected privately by a charity prior to announcing the campaign and accepting donations from the public. ``Seeds to Succeed' examines a theoretical model for leadership giving first put forth in Andreoni (1998).We implement his model in the laboratory and find that when fixed-costs are high leadership gifts can greatly increase the chances a project producing benefits for the public.Intriguingly, with low fixed-costs leadership giving can actually have a small negative effect on subsequent donations.The second chapter, ``Provision Point Mechanisms and the Over-provision of Public Goods', examines the use of contribution refunds by fundraisers.That rather simple tool of guarenteeing refunds theorectically provides fundraisiers the ability to extract a large amount of contributions.The result is that the expected outcome of the campaign is the collection of inefficiently large contributions.The predicted over-provision occurs in 82\% of the time in our laboratory environment.The final chapter, ``Fundraising Goals', looks at the role of announcements at the start of campaigns.We theorize that announcements improve contributions by reducing donor's uncertainty about the project.Large improvements are possible with up to a 73% increase in contributions and a large increase in the donor base.Experimental data supports the prediction that announced goals increase contributions.Reducing uncertainty did not have the effect of further increasing contributions but led to greater coordination of contributions around the goal.The improved coordination significantly increases donor welfare under an uncertainty reduction

An Investigation into the Implementation of National Curriculum Design and Technology in a State Secondary School

The thesis deals with the process of curriculum change initiated by the British government's decision to include a national curriculum requirement in its Education Reform Act of 1988. The particular focus is on the development of the subject of Design and Technology, which was the only new subject in the national curriculum, and which, in the secondary phase, was required to be taught cooperatively by teachers of several existing subjects. The thesis demonstrates the need to combine two approaches to curriculum change in order to understand the process. The first is that typified by the work of Goodson, who maintains that subjects develop through the activities of disparate interest groups. The second is that typified by the work of Fullan, who maintains that change will only be successful if those involved are enabled to construct their own meaning for the change. Combining these two approaches at school level (which is a development of the approach of Goodson, who deals mostly at national level), demonstrates the complexity of the change process, and the need for a change strategy that handles this complexity. In summary, the thesis is that the existence of many interest groups in the new area of design and technology in the national curriculum makes the processes of specifying the subject at national level, and implementing it at school level, difficult and controversial. For the processes of curriculum change to take place effectively, a strategy for change is required that recognizes the conditions within which teachers work, and the structures of organization and meaning that support their work. In the case of subject teachers in secondary schools, this means recognizing the influence of subject and departmental interest groups, as well as the influence of school organizational structures. Failure to apply such a strategy inhibits the change process and may result in outcomes that are less satisfactory then is desired

An analysis of the framing and representation of environmental and anthopogenic issues affecting the poor, in the Herald and The Weekend Post newspapers

This paper interrogates local South African news media coverage of environmental issues affecting the poor and marginalized, particularly in regard to issues such as pollution, water contamination and the destruction of natural habitats. As such, this study focuses on content from The Weekend Post and The Herald from 2010 onwards. Issues such as pollution, in its various forms (air, water and land), are often under reported and not discussed. Essentially, these issues become matters about which little-to-nothing is done, particularly when it affects the poor. This notion of ‘dumping’ or moving environmental issues to affect poorer or disadvantaged people (normally of colour), is known as ‘environmental racism’. This paper will explore the media’s role in regard to these environmental issues and how it depicts, emphasizes or de-emphasizes the importance and urgency of these issues, especially those issues affecting poor or working class people

Telling War Stories

Telling war stories reveal the truth of soldiering from the eyes of soldiers. This thesis is a project that aims to make that statement a reality for the soldier of today who has endured a different sort of war. This project consists primarily of a proposal addressed to the writing committee and English Department faculty of the United States Military Academy which seeks to establish a new curriculum allowing cadets to correspond with deployed Soldiers or veterans of the Global War on Terror, and assist them in the writing of their telling war stories. The sections which follow the proposal expound upon the pedagogical profit of fiction as a medium and collaborative learning as a teaching technique. The thesis ends with a piece of short fiction written by the author as an example of a telling war story