The economic dimensions of prolonged occupation: continuity and change in Israeli policy towards the Palestinian economy

- There is no Israeli economic policy towards the Palestinian people or the occupied territory; rather there is a policy to maintain occupation and administration of the Palestinian territory by whatever means available, including economic strategies; - Israeli strategies deployed since 1967 have included economic inducements to improve the quality of life, devolution, and other schemes focused on promoting individual welfare but not preventing communal poverty; - The Oslo Accords and the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations (PER) of 1994 formalized the de facto customs union in operation under occupation and locked in the adverse path of dependence of the Palestinian economy upon Israel; - Palestinian Authority institutions have been unable to establish sovereign or even autonomous institutions capable of expanding the space for economic policymaking and for economic polices promoting long-term development; - The effects of Israel’s dual strategy of skewed economic integration coupled with physical separation has led, over forty years, to divergence in per capita incomes between Israel and the territory, rather than the convergence promised by economic theory and the premises of the customs union; - Instead of continuing to repeatedly reform the facades of interim self-government, all efforts should aim to form the sovereign institutions for statehood; - New Israeli overtures under the heading of “economic peace” risk not only diverting attention from political processes, but also hark back to an era of Israeli domination of the Palestinian economy, which demonstrably failed; - Though the PER may have outlived its design and usefulness, it can only be superseded if a fundamentally different framework is envisaged, rooted in ensuring Palestinian sovereignty, statehood and economic viability; - A Palestinian economic strategy for sovereignty and peace would entail seeking recognition of the Palestinian economy as a separate customs territory, and would become the reference point for formulation of economic policy, institution-building, decision-making, and international economic relations; - Such a status would offer a platform for building a viable, vibrant and secure national economy for the envisioned State of Palestine, governed by a framework which adheres, among other principles, to the multilateral rules and disciplines embodied in the World Trade Organization; - Only through a Palestinian economic policy framework that is predicated on the separate, internationally recognized status of the economy of the occupied territory, which in turn helps to create the conditions to end occupation, can a viable Palestinian economy and a sovereign State emerge to deliver the promise of peace.Palestinian economy, occupied Palestinian territories

Applying Talent Management Practices by Management Involvement

Talent management has become more important because of a growing recognition that it helps to drive corporate performance, even though the exact impact is hard to quantify. This research focuses on the impact of management involvement on the nourishment of talent management in organizations. The research problem explains the role of management if any in improving the talent management concept in the organization. This research used a qualitative approach based on secondary data. The data was collected from previous study literature, textbooks, and scientific journals. The result of this research showed that good talent management consists of comprehensive development programs. Also, CEOs who maintain a focus on effective talent management strategy will find their organizations better prepared for today’s challenges and the inevitable but unknown opportunities for the future. This research contributes to filling the knowledge gap by reviewing the impact of senior management on talent management

MISSING AT RANDOM AND IGNORABILITY FOR INFERENCES ABOUT SUBSETS OF PARAMETERS WITH MISSING DATA

For likelihood-based inferences from data with missing values, Rubin (1976) showed that the missing data mechanism can be ignored when (a) the missing data are missing at random (MAR), in the sense that missingness does not depend on the missing values after conditioning on the observed data, and (b) the parameters of the data model and the missing-data mechanism are distinct; that is, there are no a priori ties, via parameter space restrictions or prior distributions, between the parameters of the data model and the parameters of the model for the mechanism. Rubin described (a) and (b) as the weakest simple and general conditions under which it is always appropriate to ignore the process that causes missing data . However, these conditions are not always necessary. Also, they relate to the complete set of parameters in the model, but we argue that it would be useful to have definitions of MAR and ignorability for a subset of parameters of substantive interest. We propose such definitions, and apply them to a variety of examples where the missing data mechanism is missing not at random, but MAR or ignorable for the parameter subset

Innovative Concept Model Design for Linking Physicians to the System of Patient-Centered Care with Advancing Technologies in the World of Diabetes

This concept paper applies the concepts of complex sociotechnical engineering systems to the care and management of type 2 diabetes. It also includes an innovative design model that integrates the existing ecosystem of care and management of diabetes. This model could potentially improve quality of care, create transparency of information between patient and physician and decrease the overall cost of care of diabetes

Local u'g'r'i'z' Standard Stars in the Chandra Deep Field-South

Because several observing programs are underway in various spectral regimes to explore the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S), the value of local photometric standards is obvious. As part of an NOAO Surveys Program to establish u'g'r'i'z' standard stars in the southern hemisphere, we have observed the central region of the CDF-S to create local standards for use by other investigators using these filters. As a courtesy, we present the CDF-S standards to the public now, although the main program will not finish until mid-2005.Comment: Accepted by AJ (scheduled for October 2003 issue). 26 pages, 5 tables, 5 figures. High resolution version of Figure 7 available at http://home.fnal.gov/~dtucker/Southern_ugriz/index.htm

Quenching of Exciton Recombination in Strained Two-Dimensional Monochalcogenides

We predict that long-lived excitons with very large binding energies can also exist in a single or few layers of monochalcogenides such as GaSe. Our theoretical study shows that excitons confined by a radial local strain field are unable to recombine despite electrons and holes coexisting in space. The localized single-particle states are calculated in the envelope function approximation based on a three-band k·p Hamiltonian obtained from density-functional-theory calculations. The binding energy and the decay rate of the exciton ground state are computed after including correlations in the basis of electron-hole pairs. The interplay between the localized strain and the caldera-type valence band characteristic of few-layered monochalcogenides creates localized electron and hole states with very different quantum numbers which hinders the recombination even for singlet excitonsResearch supported by the Spanish MINECO through Grant No. FIS2016-80434-P and the María de Maeztu Programme for Units of Excellence in Research and Development (MDM-2014-0377), the Fundación Ramón Areces, and the European Union Seventh Framework Programme under Grant Agreement No. 604391 Graphene Flagship. S. P. was also supported by the VILLUM FONDEN via the Centre of Excellence for Dirac Materials (Grant No. 11744

An optical fiber hydrogen sensor using a palladium-coated ball lens

A self-referenced optical fiber refractometer using a ball lens as a sensor head has been developed and characterized. A 350-μm ball lens created at the tip of a single mode fiber has been coated with a 40-nm optically thin layer of palladium that reacts with hydrogen to form a hydride, which has a lower reflectivity than pure palladium. Optical reflectance measurements from the tip of the ball lens were performed to determine the hydrogen response. The change in reflectivity is proportional to the hydrogen concentration in the range 0% to 1% hydrogen in air with a detection limit down to 10 ppm (1σ) in air. This technique offers a simple sensor head arrangement, with a larger sampling area (~40 times) than a typical single-mode fiber core. A statistical image analysis of a palladium film, with cracks created by accelerated failure, confirms that the anticipated sensor area for a ball lens sensor head has a more predictable reflectivity than that of a bare fiber core