Deserts of Development: How God Shapes Leaders in the Wilderness

A wilderness experience in the life of a believer is often a tool used by God to shape him for some leadership position or specific calling. While the desert one is thrust into may be physical in nature or purely psychological, wilderness experiences share common characteristics and yet yield an array of differentiating results for those who travel through them. In order to examine how God shapes leaders in the wilderness, three case studies reveal how the individuals in each case grew in the leadership skills necessary for them to carry out their calling

Sri Lankan experiences of post-tsunami small business survival and recovery

This paper describes an short investigation of the impact of the tsunami in December 2004 on small family firms producing coir fibre in South East Sri Lanka, and their recovery one year after that catastrophic event. The initial research objective was to focus on the year-long recovery of these small firms, but after fieldwork undertaken over Xmas 2005 uncovered far greater destruction to coir-making facilities, such that personal survival, as much as any business recovery, still pre-occupied these firms' owners and their families, the study was broadened to include the management and distribution of aid to these small firms. Broad conclusions were threefold – firstly, such communities have strong local networks and high levels of social capital which come to the fore in times of crisis; secondly, that business recovery is dependent on infrastructural re-establishment; and thirdly, that the priorities and types of aid vary over time

On a foundation for Cournot equilibrium

We show in the context of a bilateral oligopoly where all agents are allowed to behave strategically the unexpected result that when the number of buyers becomes large the outcomes in a strategic market game do not converge to those at the Cournot equilibrium. However, convergence to Cournot outcomes is restored if the game is sequential: sellers move simultaneously as do buyers, but the former always move before the latter. This suggests that the ability to commit to supply decisions is an essential feature of Cournot equilibrium

A Critical Analysis of Neural Buddhism\u27s Explanation of Moral Transformation

As non-theistic arguments for morality become increasingly sophisticated and complex, they are harder to criticize without first admiring their skillful design and near-artistry. One such argument involves a relatively new innovation that is the child of naturalism and eastern philosophy—Neural Buddhism. Like two world-renowned designers collaborating on a new garment, Naturalism and Buddhism have come together in this distinct program to offer something inventive, especially in its explanation of moral transformation. However, this critical analysis will ultimately reveal that Neural Buddhism’s explanation of moral transformation is incapable of providing good answers to several compelling criticisms

Development of processes for the production of solar grade silicon from halides and alkali metals

High temperature reactions of silicon halides with alkali metals for the production of solar grade silicon in volume at low cost were studied. Experiments were performed to evaluate product separation and collection processes, measure heat release parameters for scaling purposes, determine the effects of reactants and/or products on materials of reactor construction, and make preliminary engineering and economic analyses of a scaled-up process

The general instability of eccentrically stiffened cylindrical shells under axial compression and lateral pressure

Instability of eccentrically stiffened cylindrical shells under axial compression and lateral pressur

Generalised knot groups distinguish the square and granny knots (with an appendix by David Savitt)

Given a knot K we may construct a group G_n(K) from the fundamental group of K by adjoining an nth root of the meridian that commutes with the corresponding longitude. These "generalised knot groups" were introduced independently by Wada and Kelly, and contain the fundamental group as a subgroup. The square knot SK and the granny knot GK are a well known example of a pair of distinct knots with isomorphic fundamental groups. We show that G_n(SK) and G_n(GK) are non-isomorphic for all n>1. This confirms a conjecture of Lin and Nelson, and shows that the isomorphism type of G_n(K), n>1, carries more information about K than the isomorphism type of the fundamental group. An appendix by David Savitt contains some results on representations of the trefoil group in PSL(2,p) that are needed for the proof.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, to appear in JKTR. v3: example of the target groups added; slight correction to the construction of the target groups; references updated; some changes to notation. v2: section 4.2 expanded to give overview of proo

Potential Economic Impacts of the Managed Haying and Grazing Provision of CRP

According to the Executive Order 12866, a qualitative and quantitative assessment for any Federal mandate resulting in annual expenditures of $100 million or more is required. This study determines how many of the approximately 34.5 million acres of CRP land is brought back in economic use, how that use is allocated between grazing and haying, and the economic impact.CRP, land allocation, economic impact, Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Land Economics/Use, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,