Beyond Goods and Services: Competition Policy, Investment, Mutual Recognition, Movement of Persons, and Broader Cooperation Provisions of Recent FTAs involving ASEAN Countries

We discuss recent bilateral, regional, and country trade, partnership, and economic agreements involving both ASEAN as a single entity and individual ASEAN countries (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia) focusing on their reach beyond conventional trade in goods and services issues. What emerges is of a picture of ill-defined general commitments and precise undertaking, which vary from element to element and country pair to country pair. These agreements are recent, but they are numerous and more are under negotiation. We separately synthesize and evaluate provisions in five areas: competition policy, investment, mutual recognition, movement of persons, and broader cooperation.

Qualitative Analysis Software Applied to IS Research - Developing a Coding Strategy

In the past two decades, the IS research community underwent an intensive debate and fought hard to legitimise interpretive and qualitative research paradigms. Now that the war is over it is ironic that despite a knowledge of technology the IS literature has been slow to embrace software in order to support qualitative data analysis. In the broader social science field, a range of software support tools have emerged offering diverse functionality and a developing critical mass of appropriate literature. This paper sets out to consider how IS research can embrace QAS. Qualitative research has three distinct phases, namely data collection, data reduction and data display, with the later pair being most suitable for enhancement by QAS. Coding is central to QAS, but the IS field has been slow to develop rigourous coding schemas. Are there any frameworks within the IS literature that could by applied to such a task? The Qualitative Analysis Software must not be used without consideration for the research philosophy context, as a ‘package-led’ orthodoxy would regress the attempts to encourage quality research. Finally, the logical tests for measuring the quality of research (Yin, 1994) are reviewed and alternative tactics enabled by QAS are proposed

From Intranets to Wrestling Information Infastructures

This study explores intranets as information infrastructure and this conceptualization is supported by evidence from three interpretive case studies. If an intranet is considered as an infrastructure then it does not occur ‘de-nouvo’, it must wrestle with an ‘installed-base’ and over time extends as a new infrastructure. If this is the case what are the social arrangements that are embedded and give visibility to the Information Infrastructure? What are these existing ‘installed bases’ that an Intranet wrestles with? A qualitative analysis strategy exploiting qualitative analysis software enhances this research. This study concludes that web-based information resources are in fact an information infrastructure, which do not occur ‘de-nouvo’. They ‘wrestle’ with and extend the existing non-technical organisational communication structures, taking on their strengths and weaknesses. They also ‘plug’ into other technical infrastructures in a seamless way. Business processes are also inscribed on to the information infrastructure, but in a partial manner rather than full-automation. A model of this nature can help the IS professional to more purposively extend an Intranet to a business critical information infrastructure

Inscriptions on Intranets as Information Infastructures - Exposing the Cultivation Chasm

This study explores intranets as information infrastructure and considers critically the stakeholders, who are responsible for updating the intranet, and the associated organisational impact of their activity, in three interpretive case studies. Previous research indicates that web-based information resources are in fact an information infrastructure, which do not occur ‘denouvo’. They ‘wrestle’ with and extend the existing non-technical organisational communication structures, taking on their strengths and weaknesses. As information infrastructures, numerous social arrangements are embedded or inscribed, giving visibility to the Information Infrastructure. This paper explores the nature of these inscriptions and considers either the influence of the IS function (topdown) versus the end-user (bottom-up) contributions. A number of authors propose cultivation as the desirable middleground between top down and bottom-up lead implementations. The findings are discussed from a critical theory perspective by considering the emancipation of the end-user versus domination via the top-down paradigm

Early Life Socioeconomic Circumstance and Late Life Brain Hyperintensities : A Population Based Cohort Study

Funding: Image acquisition and image analysis for this study was funded by the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the participants of the Aberdeen 1936 Birth Cohort (ABC36), without whom this research would not have been possible.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Prediction of Depression in Individuals at High Familial Risk of Mood Disorders Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Objective Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable condition. First-degree relatives of affected individuals have a more than a ten-fold increased risk of developing bipolar disorder (BD), and a three-fold risk of developing major depressive disorder (MDD) than the general population. It is unclear however whether differences in brain activation reported in BD and MDD are present before the onset of illness. Methods We studied 98 young unaffected individuals at high familial risk of BD and 58 healthy controls using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans and a task involving executive and language processing. Twenty of the high-risk subjects subsequently developed MDD after the baseline fMRI scan. Results At baseline the high-risk subjects who later developed MDD demonstrated relatively increased activation in the insula cortex, compared to controls and high risk subjects who remained well. In the healthy controls and high-risk group who remained well, this region demonstrated reduced engagement with increasing task difficulty. The high risk subjects who subsequently developed MDD did not demonstrate this normal disengagement. Activation in this region correlated positively with measures of cyclothymia and neuroticism at baseline, but not with measures of depression. Conclusions These results suggest that increased activation of the insula can differentiate individuals at high-risk of bipolar disorder who later develop MDD from healthy controls and those at familial risk who remain well. These findings offer the potential of future risk stratification in individuals at risk of mood disorder for familial reasons

Standard Model Higgs boson production in association with a top anti-top pair at NLO with parton showering

We present predictions for the production cross section of a Standard Model Higgs boson in association with a top-antitop pair at next-to-leading order accuracy using matrix elements obtained from the HELAC-Oneloop package. The NLO prediction was interfaced to the PYTHIA and HERWIG shower Monte Carlo programs with the help of POWHEG-Box, allowing for decays of massive particles, showering and hadronization, thus leading to final results at the hadron level.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Equation of state and phonon frequency calculations of diamond at high pressures

The pressure-volume relationship and the zone-center optical phonon frequency of cubic diamond at pressures up to 600 GPa have been calculated based on Density Functional Theory within the Local Density Approximation and the Generalized Gradient Approximation. Three different approaches, viz. a pseudopotential method applied in the basis of plane waves, an all-electron method relying on Augmented Plane Waves plus Local Orbitals, and an intermediate approach implemented in the basis of Projector Augmented Waves have been used. All these methods and approximations yield consistent results for the pressure derivative of the bulk modulus and the volume dependence of the mode Grueneisen parameter of diamond. The results are at variance with recent precise measurements up to 140 GPa. Possible implications for the experimental pressure determination based on the ruby luminescence method are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure