Assessing the Aerosol Impact on Southern West African Clouds and Atmospheric Dynamics

By using COSMO-ART, highly resolved process study simulations for 2-3 July 2016 are conducted to assess the aerosol effect on the meteorological conditions of southern West Africa. The meteorological phenomenon Evening Monsoon Flow Enhancement (EMFE) is identified as highly susceptible to the aerosol direct effect, leading to a spatial shift of the EMFE front. In a second aerosol feedback chain the aerosol variation leads to a temporal shift of the stratus-to-cumulus transition

Identifying high school practices that impact post-secondary employment outcomes for students with mild-to-moderate learning disabilities

This study used input from former students of a high school district in San Jose CA to identify which high school practices improved the actual employment rate of these students two and three years after they left high school. Typically special education students are underemployed and unemployed after high school as compared to their general education counterparts. The high school practices that were studied included paid employment in high school, career counselling and coaching, vocational classes, knowledge of their disability and the necessary accommodations to compensate in the work world, a diploma or a certificate or a drop-out. Results found that knowledge of their necessary accommodations, possession of a driver\u27s license and paid employment in high school were some of the factors associated with more positive outcomes

A Six-Weeks Individualized Curriculum Guide in Construction Technology for Junior High School Students

The problem of this study was to develop a six-week self-contained module for teaching Construction Technology on residential house framing to junior high school students. The unit covered various areas of construction involving framing procedures. Three important areas of study have been developed. They include floor framing, wall framing and roof framing

Gobernanza del “espacio blanco”: desarrollo, identidad y procesos dinámicos para aumentar la sustentabilidad y la responsabilidad social

Sustentabilidade e responsabilidade social envolvem, de forma crescente, temáticas como identidade e qualidade de vida para entrar prontamente e de forma mais profunda nos processos de tomadade decisão, especialmente nos decisões intersetoriais. Para essa nova interação são necessários redesenhos e reformas de “governança”. Este artigo explora um case do sul da Bahia, no Brasil, onde um novo tipo de mecanismo de governança cruzada faz prever um direcionamento mais efetivo para os prementes desafios sociais, econômicos e ambientais do século XXI.Sustainability and social responsibility increasingly require ecological and social concerns like identity and quality of life to enter earlier and more deeply into the decision making process, especially intersector decisions. To accomplish this, new interaction designs and “governance” reforms are needed. This article explores a case in Southern Bahia, Brazil, where a new type of cross-sector governance mechanism holds promise for more effectively addressing pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges of the 21st century.Sustentabilidad y responsabilidad social envuelven, de forma creciente, temáticas como identidad y cualidad de vida para entrar rápidamente y de forma más profunda en los procesos de tomada de decisión, especialmente en las decisiones intersectoriales. Para esa nueva interacción son necesarios rediseños y reformas de “gobernanza”. Este artículo explorará un case del sud de Bahía, en el Brasil, donde un nuevo tipo de mecanismo de gobernanza cruzada hace prever un direccionamiento más efectivo para los permanentes desafíos sociales, económicos y ambientales del siglo XXI

Classifying Hedge Funds using k-means Clustering of Self-Organizing Maps: a return-based analysis of misclassification and the problem of style creep

Through an implementation of the 2-level-approach due to Vesanto & Alhoniemi (2000), this paper addresses a number of problems typically seen when visualized interpretation of Self Organizing Maps (SOM) are applied to derive a systematic classification system in the hedge fund literature. Normally, a trained SOM does not result in an exact depiction of the detected structures of the input data, and is therefore challenging for visual interpretations. The 2-level-approach overcomes this problem and assures a consistent clustering of neighboring output units, and therefore an objective classification scheme. Through an empirical application, such an objective classification is derived. Building on this, further analyses concerning the misclassification and style creep problems are conducted. Within the ten-year sample period (31.01.1999 to 31.12.2008), which comprises 2789 hedge funds, organized in eleven strategies, six classes can be identified. This six-class taxonomy is fairly robust to different sub-sample periods, topologies and data-samples. According to the classification system applied here, it is shown that most of the analyzed hedge funds are inconsistent in their self-declared strategies. Furthermore, evidence of undisclosed trading style changes over time is identified – specifically, it is shown that misclassified hedge funds are more likely to change their trading style.Self-Organizing Maps; Clustering; Klassifzierung; Hedge-Fonds; Style Creep