Voter attitudes to inter-party transfers in Northern Ireland: a median-difference analysis of inter-party transfers in the 1982 and 1998 Assembly elections

The impact of the 1998 peace agreement in Northern Ireland on electoral behaviour is analysed in this article by plotting median differences in inter-party transfers under the PR by Single Transferable Vote system used in 1998 and in 1982. There is clear evidence that moderate and militant nationalists have followed the lead of their party elites and have transferred lower preference votes to each other at higher levels and more consistently in 1998 than in 1982. Patterns of change within unionism are more complex. While there were some signs of a slightly increased willingness from pro-Agreement unionists to transfer to moderate nationalists and a fall in the percentage of transfers to anti-Agreement unionists, there was still considerable consistency of support between the unionist parties despite the split over the peace agreement

Your call: eBay and demand for the iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 was introduced into the UK market on 24th June 2010 to significant consumer interest. This clearly exceeded supply through conventional channels, since there was very extensive activity in terms of bidding on eBay auctions for the product. We monitored all eBay transactions on the iPhone 4 for six weeks from introduction, with total transactions amounting to around £1.5m. We analyse determinants of the winning bid in terms of characteristics of the phone, the seller and the buyer. Our most notable and novel finding relative to previous studies is a very significant premium over list price being paid in almost all cases, with positive uplift factors including whether the phone was unlocked and whether it could be sold overseas. Demand fell over time, as evidenced by lower achieved prices, but the fall in price was relatively modest. A significant premium of 32GB over 16GB versions is revealed.eBay auctions ; demand revelation ; auctions ; bidding ; short supply ; versioning JEL Classification: D44 ; L81 ; D12 ; L63

The Effect of Local Galaxy Surface Density on Star Formation for HI selected galaxies

We present the result of investigations into two theories to explain the star formation rate-density relationship. For regions of high galaxy density, either there are fewer star forming galaxies, or galaxies capable of forming stars are present but some physical process is suppressing their star formation. We use HI Parkes All Sky Survey's (HIPASS) HI detected galaxies and infrared and radio fluxes to investigate star formation rates and efficiencies with respect to local surface density. For nearby (vel<10000 km\s) HI galaxies we find a strong correlation between HI mass and star formation rate. The number of HI galaxies decreases with increasing local surface density. For HI galaxies (1000<vel<6000 km\s) there is no significant change in the star formation rate or the efficiency of star formation with respect to local surface density. We conclude the SFR-density relation is due to a decrease in the number of HI star forming galaxies in regions of high galaxy density and not to the suppression of star formation.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRAS 2 August 200

Interactive displays in medical art

Medical illustration is a field of visual communication with a long history. Traditional medical illustrations are static, 2-D, printed images; highly realistic depictions of the gross morphology of anatomical structures. Today medicine requires the visualization of structures and processes that have never before been seen. Complex 3-D spatial relationships require interpretation from 2-D diagnostic imagery. Pictures that move in real time have become clinical and research tools for physicians. Medical illustrators are involved with the development of interactive visual displays for three different, but not discrete, functions: as educational materials, as clinical and research tools, and as data bases of standard imagery used to produce visuals. The production of interactive displays in the medical arts is examined

A J-Spectral Factorization Approach to ℋ∞ Control

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of suboptimal solutions to the standard model matching problem associated with ℋ∞ control, are derived using J-spectral factorization theory. The existence of solutions to the model matching problem is shown to be equivalent to the existence of solutions to two coupled J-spectral factorization problems, with the second factor providing a parametrization of all solutions to the model matching problem. The existence of the J-spectral factors is then shown to be equivalent to the existence of nonnegative definite, stabilizing solutions to two indefinite algebraic Riccati equations, allowing a state-space formula for a linear fractional representation of all controllers to be given. A virtue of the approach is that a very general class of problems may be tackled within a conceptually simple framework, and no additional auxiliary Riccati equations are required

Preventive Self-Defense

Streaming video requires RealPlayer to view.The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Michael Doyle is Harold Brown Professor of United States Foreign and Security Policy at Columbia University, with a joint-appointment at the Law School and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He will lecture on the ethics of preventive self-defense.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent webpage, streaming video, photo

MathSBML: a package for manipulating SBML-based biological models

Summary: MathSBML is a Mathematica package designed for manipulating Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) models. It converts SBML models into Mathematica data structures and provides a platform for manipulating and evaluating these models. Once a model is read by MathSBML, it is fully compatible with standard Mathematica functions such as NDSolve (a differential-algebraic equations solver). Math-SBML also provides an application programming interface for viewing, manipulating, running numerical simulations; exporting SBML models; and converting SBML models in to other formats, such as XPP, HTML and FORTRAN. By accessing the full breadth of Mathematica functionality, MathSBML is fully extensible to SBML models of any size or complexity. Availability: Open Source (LGPL) at http://www.sbml.org and http://www.sf.net/projects/sbml. Supplementary information: Extensive online documentation is available at http://www.sbml.org/mathsbml.html. Additional examples are provided at http://www.sbml.org/software/mathsbml/bioinformatics-application-not

3D Printing of Stainless Steel for Engineering Applications

3-D metal printing has the potential to solve problems in the medical, prototyping, automotive, aerospace, defense, and other engineering industries. To reach the potential of any manufacturing process, the final product’s material characteristics and how the process affects those characteristics must be understood to meet the demands of industrial applications. There is a gap in standard testing information regarding metal based 3-D metal printing processes. The purpose of this research is to fill that gap of valuable information for this manufacturing process, so that its principles can be used to design better products. Fundamental tensile and compression tests were executed using American Society for Testing and Materials standard methods on printed parts whose process variables were adjusted independently. Heater power temperature per metal powder layer, layer thickness, and printing orientation of the part were changed to understand how varying the process affects the strength when elongated or compressed. These tests and factors were setup using a design of experiments method to reduce the fundamental research’s complexity and waste while retaining quality statistical results. Our research shows a strong interaction between the process variables and the resulting mechanical properties. This data can be utilized to design better quality parts

Exchange Rate Volatility and Export Margins.

This paper examines the effect of real exchange rate volatility on the intensive margin and the extensive margin of exports. Using highly disaggregated U.S. import data by product and country of origin, and a methodology that takes into account the possible endogeneity of volatility to trade, this paper finds that exchange rate volatility hinders trade by reducing the number of goods exported by countries. This result suggests that exchange rate volatility can make countries more dependent on a narrower set of export goods, particularly in developing economies with export concentration. Policy makers should take this effect into account when deciding their exchange rate regimes.