The economic impact of the Saldanha Steel Project on firms in the Saldanha

Bibliography: leaves 50-52.This paper examines whether the Saldanha Steel Project has made a significant impact on firms in the Saldanha/Vredenburg/Langebaan area. The building of the steel plant is the anchor project of a government regional policy initiative called the West Coast Investment initiative. The paper's examination begins with a theoretical overview of regional industrial policy in general and Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) in particular. It then contextualises the West Coast as a region earmarked as a SDI and describes the Iscor and Industrial Development Corporation's joint venture -- Saldanha Steel Project (SSP). A questionnaire survey sought to establish the impact that the Saldanha Steel Project was having on firm's activity and economic prospects in the West Coast Area. International experience as well as South Africa's previous experience points to key aspects of successful interventions in the space economy. Firstly, governments have to select areas and projects carefully. Projects chosen should reflect the market demand. Secondly, long term success will require that key or anchor projects not only succeed themselves, but that side-effects from anchor projects help promote the region's economic capacity, co-operation between economic players and the ability of the region to attract further investment. With this in mind, the process of constructing the steel plant and the SSP's procurement policy should seek to maximize the benefits to local firms. A questionnaire survey of local firms involved with the Saldanha Steel Project was the means by which information was collected. The responses of local firms dealt with business prospects in the area, experiences with the Saldanha Steel Project in the construction phase and the impact the project had on firms. The paper concludes that the Saldanha Steel Project did have some positive side effects for the local business community. Firms have adapted to become more competitive, learned how to deal with large industrial projects and the region has expanded the range of goods and services it is capable of delivering. The SSP's procurement policy supporting local firms had gone some way to improving local business' capacity. The paper identifies certain characteristics which make certain firms successful under the given circumstances, addresses problems local firms faced dealing with a large scale capital project and suggests measures to best help promote the prospects of local firms in future

Acidity: Modes of characterization and quantification

This paper provides an account of early historical developments in the characterization and quantification of acidity, which may be considered preliminary steps leading to the measurement of acidity. In this “pre-history” of acidity measurement, emphasis is laid on the relative independence of the rich empirical knowledge about acids from theories of acidity. Many attempts were made to compare and assess the strengths of various acids, based on concrete laboratory operations. However, at least until the arrival of the pH measure, the quantification attempts failed to produce anything qualifying as a measurement scale of a recognizable type. It is doubtful whether even pH qualifies as a true measure of acidity, when the full meaning of acidity is taken into account. In only few sections of chemistry there appears a succession of such opposing and contradictory views as in those about acid, alkali and salt (Kopp (1845), p. 1, our translation)

Loan Pricing under Basel II in an Imperfectly Competitive Banking Market

The new Basel Capital Accord (Basel II), published in its final form in June 2006, established new and revised capital requirements for banks. In this paper we analyze and estimate the possible effects of the new rules on the pricing of bank loans. We do that for the two approaches for capital requirements (Internal and Standardized) available to banks and make a distinction between retail (mainly households) and corporate customers. Our loan equation is based on a model of a banking firm facing uncertainty operating in an imperfectly competitive loan market. We use Israeli economic data and data of a leading Israeli bank, including probability of default of its retail and corporate customers. The main results indicate that high quality corporates and retail customers will enjoy a reduction in loan interest rates in (large) banks which, most probably, will adopt the IRB approach. On the other hand high risk customers will benefit by shifting to (small) banks which, most probably, will that adopt the Standardized approach

Contemporary Christian Spirituality: An “Encompassing Field”

Contemporary Christian spirituality, understood as both an experiential, lived-life phenomenon and an academic discipline gives a new-found universal perspective to the reflective Christian. It constitutes an encompassing, incorporative “field” through occupying a “give-and-take” inter-disciplinary place in a general academy of Spirituality and through repossession of its own traditions, insights and ecumenical spiritual landscape. These discoveries are further enhanced through contemporary Christian spirituality’s own critical appreciation of globalisation and postmodernism. Contemporary Christian spirituality, at its best, constitutes a world-appreciative openness that nevertheless sustains its own unique identity. In short, contemporary Christian spirituality offers a livedfaith and academic discipline that is globally conscious and universally aligned. It operates out of a credible contextual  rationale for our times

Contemporary Christian spirituality: a worldly embodiment

Contemporary renascent spirituality secures for itself a motif of materiality and physical embodiment. This embodiment pertains to renascent spirituality both as lived-life experience and particularly as contemporary academic discipline. The influential sources of an embodied spirituality are to be found in spirituality’s reflective self-understanding, the rich resources of the Christian tradition, the growing interest in lived Christian experience as such, and the post-Vatican II conciliatory spirit and momentum. Renascent spirituality not only accommodates and endorses embodiment and “worldly” materiality; it also realises a new wholeness and integration for Christian spirituality. While it might seem a commonplace to defend Christian spirituality’s embodied, incarnational reality, it is clear that spirituality has not always been so understood, even constituting a pejorative connotation at times as something essentially detached, disembodied and inferentially dualistic. Spirituality in its revived sense holds within itself and its inherited tradition the potential to critique such disembodiment while simultaneously securing the mystery and transcendent dimension of embodied Christian living

What are the most common reasons for return of ethics submissions? An audit of an Australian health service ethics committee

One of the key criticisms of the ethical review process is the time taken to decision, and associated resource use. A key source of delay is that most submissions are required to respond to at least one request for further information or clarification from the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). This study audited the request letters of a single Australian public health HREC using content analysis. Twenty-four submissions were analysed, including 355 individual request elements. Most submissions received a single request letter. There was a mean number of 14.2 (SD = 5.5) elements per letter for the first request and a mean of 2.1 (SD = 1.2) for subsequent requests. Administrative errors were the most common source of request for further information, occurring in all submissions. The second most common theme was the content of the Participant Information and Consent Form, occurring in 79% of submissions. Other common themes, present in over 50% of submissions, concerned: data collection and study procedures; general ethical considerations; recruitment and consent; site, setting or patient pool; research design and methodology; and data management and security. In terms of the general purpose of the HREC comments, 44% were direct corrections or specific requests for changes, 42% were asking for more information or clarification of existing information, and 14% were the HREC expressing concerns about an element of the study, without directly suggesting a change. Overall, the study provides some evidence to show that the quality of the submission (ensuring correct attachments, up to date documents, clear information etc.) could account for a significant proportion of the burden and delay associated with ethical review

Production of urban centralities for a global economy

Thesis (S.M. in Architecture Studies)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-104).Keywords: Monument, CBD, Office tower, Podium, Global economy, China. The Central Business District (CBD) is the monument of the regional urban condition. A monument, which is expressive of financial competence and global connectivity. A monument for capital accumulation. The CBD of the global city is a representational tool manifesting bureaucratic capability and economic ambition. Historically originating in the United States, the CBD grew in an organic manner out the city's core and thus articulated a natural tie between congestion and financial growth - embodied in the typological invention of the skyscraper. Today the CBD of the developing city rises as a "pure" device of the planning and political authorities, a projection of the western paradigmatic "downtown" models into foreign contexts that fail to embody or represent the idea of their city or the collective domain of its inhabitants. Manifested as a cluster of towers, this urban and architectural project has seemingly detached itself from both context and content and appears to be increasingly self-sufficient. Yet while the CBD plays an essential role as a designed urban element that expresses financial progress, this thesis would contest its emphasis on the production of aesthetic contrast and uniqueness, and propose to consider it first and foremost as an operative device with real economic and social validity - not merely a representation of business but a business and an urban asset by its own right. Thus this thesis proposes a strategic revision of the typical CBD models by formulating a set of principles to correspond with key planning and design based challenges, namely issues of: Dimensional, Social, Symbolic and Organizational. These principles would hypothetically promote the mediation of contrast between the global capitalist drive for geographical expansion and the local circumstances that are often facing a process of radical transformation, while maintaining the necessary morphological flexibility and programmatic structuring, which is fundamental for the proper operationally of the CBD. China's current economic rise, which is both facilitated by and materialized in an intensive process of national scale urbanization and centralization, will be used as the geographic, economic and social context of this thesis. Operating within the gap between the automatic production of monumentality through the CBD and the geographic and political structure of the region, this thesis would conclude with a master plan proposal for a new CBD for the rapidly developing regional city of Chang-Zhu-Tan, the newly constructed capital of Hunan province.by Yaacov Eyal Ruthenberg.S.M.in Architecture Studie

Towards an object-relations understanding of the borderline personality

Bibliography: leaf 188-192.This study aimed at providing a comprehensive Object-Relations understanding of the borderline personality. Towards that end theoretical issues related to the borderline concept were introduced and certain controversial aspects were briefly discussed. A review of the pertinent descriptive literature attempting to detail borderline symptomatology was presented. The enormous discrepancies, inconsistencies and contradictions evident in this area emerged from the strongly contrasting descriptions of the various workers in this field. A borderline symptom profile was introduced, based on both the descriptive literature review and the author's own experience, which served as a reference point for the dynamic formulations which followed. The theoretical formulations aimed at understanding a borderline personality structure were traced from their origins in Freud and Abraham. Melanie Klein was seen to play a central role in providing key conceptual tools for understanding borderline phenomena, and pertinent aspects of her theory were presented in some detail. Modern American and European contributions were then introduced and a division along environmental-intropsychic axes emerged with respect to borderline aetiology. The study concluded with a selective synthesis of this division, which was then applied to two of the author's own case studies. The role of fantasy, and the structuring of mental processes were specifically emphasised for arriving at an adequate understanding of the borderline personality

Ein frühes arsenikhaltiges Glas aus Thüringen

Es wird über die chemische Untersuchung eines in Thüringen bearbeiteten Glases aus der Zeit um 1700 berichtet. Es handelt sich um ein K₂O-CaO-Glas mit etwa 8 % AS₂O₃. Glaskrankheit und Läuterung werden im technologiehistorischen Zusammenhang erörtert