A HAYEKIAN VIEW ON EUROPEAN UNION

The aim of this paper is to develop some general Hayek’s ideas on the European project. Hayek demonstrated and analyzed the presence of two types of social order - a spontaneous order and a built one. Spontaneous order is a feature of society and economic development around a principle of human action coordinator. European project represents the spontaneous order through the founding principles of the four freedoms - free movement of persons, goods, services and capital. With many regulations, bureaucracy, this order is closer to the order constructed by that social engineering. Following Hayek’s ideas I tried to emphasize some issues at European level and to achieve a correlation with the european reality and Hayekian theory.spontaneous order, rule of law, freedom, institutions

Who Stays and Who Leaves? Findings from a Three-Part Study of Teacher Turnover in NYC Middle Schools

This paper synthesizes findings from the Research Alliance's investigation of teacher turnover in New York City's public middle schools. These years are widely recognized as a critical turning point for students, and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) is pursuing a range of middle school improvement initiatives. The stability of the middle school teaching force has the potential to facilitate or complicate these efforts, yet there have been few studies of the rates and patterns of teacher turnover in the City's middle schools.This study provides the most current, comprehensive look at middle school teacher turnover to date. Drawing on a range of data sources -- including DOE human resource records from the last decade, a survey of over 4,000 full-time middle school teachers, and in-depth case studies in four middle schools -- this paper examines how long middle school teachers remain in their schools, how long they intend to stay, and what predicts whether or not they leave. It also explores how various aspects of teachers' work environment may influence these decisions. Among the key findings: Among middle school teachers who entered their school during the last decade, more than half left that school within three years -- significantly higher than the rates seen for elementary and high school teachers. Of the teachers who leave, most exit the NYC public school system altogether, and only about 1 in 10 transition to another grade 6-8 school. The findings point to several strategies that may be useful for increasing middle school teachers' lengths of stay

Identification of partial differential equation models for a class of multiscale spatio-temporal dynamical systems

In this paper, the identification of a class of multiscale spatio-temporal dynamical sys-tems, which incorporate multiple spatial scales, from observations is studied. The proposed approach is a combination of Adams integration and an orthogonal least squares algorithm, in which the multiscale operators are expanded, using polynomials as basis functions, and the spatial derivatives are estimated by finite difference methods. The coefficients of the polynomials can vary with respect to the space domain to represent the feature of multiple scales involved in the system dynamics and are approximated using a B-spline wavelet multi-resolution analysis (MRA). The resulting identified models of the spatio-temporal evolution form a system of partial differential equations with different spatial scales. Examples are provided to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method

Peptide mass fingerprinting using field-programmable gate arrays

The reconfigurable computing paradigm, which exploits the flexibility and versatility of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), has emerged as a powerful solution for speeding up time-critical algorithms. This paper describes a reconfigurable computing solution for processing raw mass spectrometric data generated by MALDI-TOF instruments. The hardware-implemented algorithms for denoising, baseline correction, peak identification, and deisotoping, running on a Xilinx Virtex-2 FPGA at 180 MHz, generate a mass fingerprint that is over 100 times faster than an equivalent algorithm written in C, running on a Dual 3-GHz Xeon server. The results obtained using the FPGA implementation are virtually identical to those generated by a commercial software package MassLynx

Consistent parameter identification of partial differential equation models from noisy observations

This paper introduces a new residual-based recursive parameter estimation algorithm for linear partial differential equations. The main idea is to replace unmeasurable noise variables by noise estimates and to compute recursively both the model parameter and noise estimates. It is proven that under some mild assumptions the estimated parameters converge to the true values with probability one. Numerical examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach are also provided

Identification of N-state spatio-temporal dynamical systems using a polynomial model

A multivariable polynomial model is introduced to describe n-state spatio-temporal systems. Based on this model, a new neighbourhood detection and transition rules determination method is proposed. Simulation results illustrate that the new method performs well even when the patterns are corrupted by static and dynamical noise

Multiscale identification of spatio-temporal dynamical systems using a wavelet multiresolution analysis

In this paper, a new algorithm for the multiscale identification of spatio-temporal dynamical systems is derived. It is shown that the input and output observations can be represented in a multiscale manner based on a wavelet multiresolution analysis. The system dynamics at some specific scale of interest can then be identified using an orthogonal forward leastsquares algorithm. This model can then be converted between different scales to produce predictions of the system outputs at different scales. The method can be applied to both multiscale and conventional spatio-temporal dynamical systems. For multiscale systems, the method can generate a parsimonious and effective model at a coarser scale while considering the effects from finer scales. Additionally, the proposed method can be used to improve the performance of the identification when measurements are noisy. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the proposed new approach

A cellular automata modelling of dendritic crystal growth based on Moore and von Neumann neighbourhood

An important step in understanding crystal growth patterns involves simulation of the growth processes using mathematical models. In this paper some commonly used models in this area are reviewed, and a new simulation model of dendritic crystal growth based on the Moore and von Neumann neighbourhoods in cellular automata models are introduced. Simulation examples are employed to find ap- propriate parameter configurations to generate dendritic crystal growth patterns. Based on these new modelling results the relationship between tip growth speed and the parameters of the model are investigated

Multiscale modelling and identification of a class of lattice dynamical systems

A new multiscale modelling framework is introduced to describe a class of lattice dynamical systems (LDS), which can be used to model natural systems involving multiphysics and the multi-resolution facets of a single spatio-temporal dynamical system. The emphasis of the paper is on the multi-resolution facets, with respect to the spatial domain, of a single spatio-temporal dynamical system by using a Haar wavelet decomposition technique. A multiscale identification method for such systems is then proposed, which can be considered as a dual of the multigrid method. The proposed identification method involves three steps: the system dynamics at some specific scale of interest are identified using a recursive least-squares algorithm; the residual is then projected onto coarser scales using Haar wavelets and the parameter estimation errors are minimized; and finally a coarse correction procedure is applied to the original scale. An outstanding advantage of the proposed identification method is a saving on the computational costs. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the proposed new approach

Keeping New Teachers: A First Look at the Influences of Induction in the Chicago Public Schools

Examines whether participation in a formal induction program can improve teachers' experiences and job satisfaction, and demonstrates that strong levels of mentoring and support for new teachers greatly improve their desire to continue teaching