Worldhood Competence and Performance:\ud The Site for Wittgenstein"s Religious Language

It is common knowledge that Wittgenstein cannot be called\ud fundamentally a religious writer. All the same, he did not\ud dismiss the reality 'religion' as nonsense. It is opined here\ud that, Wittgenstein was very consistent in his references to\ud it. We strongly claim that religion was a subject of his\ud philosophical preoccupation positioned among his general\ud striking similes, arresting moments and connections of his\ud general methods. Religion gained occasional and/or\ud scattered referencing in his works (e.g. the notes of 1938,\ud the positioning of religion and/or theology as grammar in\ud the 'Philosophical Investigations (PI: 373; p.283), Zettel\ud and the later work 'Culture and Value). Despite the above,\ud we have to agree, with Wittgenstein, that his poetic\ud compositions are to be understood and seen in consistent\ud connections (PI: 122) even when they look disconnected

What can we learn about financial access from U.S. immigrants?

We find that wealthier and more educated immigrants are more likely to make use of basic banking services and other formal financial services. Holding these (and other) factors constant, we find immigrants from countries with more effective institutions are more likely to have a relationship with a bank and use formal financial markets more extensively. Institutional quality appears to be an important factor in both determining both the breadth and the depth of financial access. It can explain approximately 17 percent of the country-of- origin-level variation in bank account usage among immigrants in the U.S., after other characteristics, including wealth, education and income, are controlled for. Institutional quality is even more important for explaining more extensive participation in financial markets, accounting for 27 percent of the analogous variation. We examine various measures of institutional effectiveness and are careful to control for unobserved individual characteristics, including specifications with country fixed-effects.Immigrants ; Financial institutions ; Payment systems

Prospects for immigrant-native wealth assimilation: evidence from financial market participation

Because financial transactions are important for wealth accumulation, and rely on trust and confidence in institutions, the financial market behavior of immigrants can provide important insights into the assimilation process. Compared to the native-born, immigrants are less likely to own savings and checking accounts and these differences tend to persist over time. Our results suggest that a large share of the immigrant-native gap in financial market participation is driven by group differences in education, income, and geographic location. For a given immigrant, the likelihood of financial market participation decreases with higher levels of ethnic concentration in the metropolitan area.Financial institutions ; Immigrants ; Wealth

Increasing Achievable Information Rates via Geometric Shaping

Achievable information rates are used as a metric to design novel modulation formats via geometric shaping. The proposed geometrically shaped 256-ary constellation achieves SNR gains of up to 1.18 dB.Comment: Additional references have been adde

Eight-dimensional Polarization-ring-switching Modulation Formats

We propose two 8-dimensional (8D) modulation formats (8D-2048PRS-T1 and 8D-2048PRS-T2) with a spectral efficiency of 5.5 bit/4D-sym, where the 8 dimensions are obtained from two time slots and two polarizations. Both formats provide a higher tolerance to nonlinearity by selecting symbols with nonidentical states of polarization (SOPs) in two time slots. The performance of these novel 8D modulation formats is assessed in terms of the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized generalized mutual information. 8D-2048PRS-T1 is more suitable for high SNRs, while 8D-2048PRS-T2 is shown to be more tolerant to nonlinearities. A sensitivity improvement of at least 0.25 dB is demonstrated by maximizing normalized generalized mutual information (NGMI). For a long-haul nonlinear optical fiber transmission system, the benefit of mitigating the nonlinearity is demonstrated and a reach increase of 6.7% (560 km) over time-domain hybrid four-dimensional two-amplitude eight-phase shift keying (TDH-4D-2A8PSK) is observed

Does Female Schooling Reduce Fertility? Evidence from Nigeria

The literature generally points to a negative relationship between female education and fertility. Citing this pattern, policymakers have advocated educating girls and young women as a means to reduce population growth and foster sustained economic and social welfare in developing countries. This paper tests whether the relationship between fertility and education is indeed causal by investigating the introduction of universal primary education in Nigeria. Exploiting differences by region and age, the paper uses differences-in-differences and instrumental variables to estimate the role of education in fertility. The analysis suggests that increasing education by one year reduces fertility by 0.26 births.

On the Power Spectral Density of the GSM Signaling Scheme

In this paper, the Power Spectral Density of encoded Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) which is the Signaling Scheme of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is derived by a combined approach of the autocorrelation method and Markov Process. In the analysis, the Amplitude Modulated Pulse decomposition proposed by P. Laurent is employed to ease computation. Encoding of the message data utilizes Convolutional Code of rate1/2. Results are for both the uncoded and coded waveform comparing variation in power spread over a range of frequency

Energy expenditure and physiological responses to 60 minute Zumba aerobic sessions (group class versus home) in healthy adult females

This paper reviews the literature which has investigated the physiological responses and energy cost of aerobic fitness type exercises. The paper essentially targeted studies which recruited young healthy adults consisting predominantly of women. Results revealed that the exercise intensity attained in most of the studies (for example, popmobility, Curves, Zumba) were 50% to 80% of O2max and 60% to 95% of maximum heart rate (HRmax) which are within the guidelines of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendations for promoting cardiovascular fitness. However, some other fitness exercises like yoga, Pilates and NIA (Neuromuscular Integrative Activity) technique did not meet these recommendations. Benefits were also noted in terms of weight management with majority of the studies resulting in an energy expenditure greater than 300 kcals per workout session which is also within the ACSM recommended guidelines for attainment and maintenance of weight loss. Future studies should employ larger sample sizes and be conducted on the male population. In addition, to achieve more significant results or greater benefits, future research on aerobic fitness type exercises should be conducted for longer duration and investigations performed on differences between group and individual sessions. The purpose of this study was to determine (i) the maximum oxygen consumption and energy expenditure of young adult females during 60 minute Zumba sessions (group class and home based), (ii) that a Zumba session is a safe fitness activity which meets the ACSM recommendations and (iii) to identify any differences in energy cost of participating in a group Zumba session compared to a session performed at home. Fifteen healthy adult females from the University of Chester participated in this study. They performed two Zumba sessions during which their heart rates and ratings of perceived exertion were measured at five minute intervals. Each participant also performed a maximal oxygen consumption test and a linear regression equation was used to determine their O2 from the heart rate measurements obtained during the Zumba session. Data was analysed using Paired t tests to determine differences in %HRmax, METS and caloric expenditure values across trials (group versus home based sessions) and Wilcoxon’s test for O2max across trials. The results revealed that values were significantly higher (p < 0.05) for % O2max (mean ± SD: 59.1 ±19.2 % O2max versus 49.8 ± 16.9 % O2max), HRmax (68.7 ± 13 % HRmax versus 60.8 ± 8.2 % HRmax) and energy expenditure (363 ± 98.1 kcals versus 310 ±94.5 kcals) in the group sessions compared with the home based sessions respectively. Both home and group Zumba sessions meet ACSM recommended guidelines for cardiovascular fitness. They also elicit exercise intensities that fall within the recommended guidelines for ‘moderate’ levels of intensity, constituting Zumba as a safe fitness activity. Furthermore, higher values of exercise intensity and energy expenditure obtained in group sessions suggest that more energy is expended when performing Zumba in a group

Institutional quality and financial market development: evidence from international migrants in the U.S.

A growing body of theoretical and empirical work identifies the ability of a country’s institutions to protect private property and provide incentives for investment as a key explanation for the persistent disparity in financial market development. We add to this literature by analyzing the impact of institutions on financial development using data on the financial decisions of immigrants and the native-born in the U.S. While all of the individuals whose decisions we analyze face the same formal institutional framework in the U.S., immigrants bring with them varied experiences with institutions in their home countries. We find that immigrants who come from countries with institutions that are more effective at protecting property rights are more likely to participate in U.S. financial markets. ; The effect of home country institutions is very persistent and impacts immigrants for the first 25 years that they spend in the U.S. Evidence from variation in the effect of home country institutions by age at migration, suggests that individuals appear to learn about home country institutions before the age of sixteen, probably in the home and potentially at school, rather than through direct experience. These findings are robust to alternative measures of institutional effectiveness and to various methods of controlling for unobserved individual characteristics.Immigrants ; Financial markets

Bank crises and investor confidence

In addition to their direct effects, episodes of financial instability may decrease investor confidence. Measuring the impact of a crisis on investor confidence is complicated by the fact that it is difficult to disentangle the effect of investor confidence from coincident direct effects of the crisis. In order to isolate the effects of financial crises on investor confidence, we study the investment behavior of immigrants in the U.S. Our findings indicate that systemic banking crises have important effects on investor behavior. Immigrants who have experienced a banking crisis in their countries of origin are significantly less likely to have bank accounts in the U.S. This finding is robust to including important individual controls like wealth, education, income, and age. In addition, the effect of crises is robust to controlling for a variety of country of origin characteristics, including measures of financial and economic development and specifications with country of origin fixed effects.Financial crises