Artists and Unconstitutional Conditions: The Big Bad Wolf Won’t Subsidize Little Red Riding Hood’s Indecent Art

Recent developments in the area of academic freedom and artistic expression are examined, considering First Amendment protection for artistic expression as well as the particular problem of government funding of the arts

Environmental regulation in Indonesia

Since the early 1980s environmental regulation has received high priority in Indonesian policy making. Given Indonesia's dependence upon foreign donors for its economic program, external pressures inevitably played a significant role in stimulating this development. But internally generated factors were also of considerable importance. Mounting evidence of the economic and social costs of environmental degradation, the rise of a middle class, and the connection between environmental questions and other hotly contested political issues such as conflicts over land tenure and resources, the rights of workers, farmers and indigenous minorities, the demand for democratisation and greater press freedom all played a part in, moving the environment to centre stage

An Examination of the Relationship Between Firm Size, Growth and Liquidity in the Neuer Markt

With the increasing competitive importance of scientific innovations associated with the new economy it has become critical to understand the dynamics of its' firm growth during this early and potentially critical stage of development. This study analyses the relationship between firm size and growth for Neuer Markt firms from its inception in 1997 until 2000 Evidence supports the hypothesis that smaller firms on the Neuer Markt grew faster than larger firms. Further, by using an alternative specification for growth, this study provides evidence that liquidity constraints impact firm growth, even when controlling for firm size and age. Results further indicate that while smaller firms grew faster in the new economy, larger firms grew faster in the old economy, supporting the notion that smaller German firms may be playing a larger role than previously in bringing new technologies to the market place. -- Angesichts der zunehmenden Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Innovationen , die mit der "neuen Ökonomie" in Verbindung stehen, ist es wichtig geworden, die Wachtumsdynamik dieser Firmen in einem frühen und möglicherweise entscheidenden Entwicklungsstadium zu verstehen. Dieses Papier untersucht für Firmen am Neuen Markt die Beziehung zwischen Größe und Wachstum in der Zeit von 1997 bis 2000. Es gibt Hinweise, dass kleinere Firmen am neuen Markt stärker wachsen als große Unternehmen.. Desweiteren gibt es nach dieser Studie Anzeichen, dass Liquiditätsbeschränkungen das Firmenwachstum beeinflussen, selbst wenn man für Größe und Alter kontrolliert. Weiterhin wird nahegelegt, dass kleine Firmen in der "neuen Ökonomie" schneller als große Firmen wuchsen, während in der "alten Ökonomie" das umgekehrte galt. Dies unterstützt die Vorstellung, dass kleinere deutsche Firmen heute möglicherweise eine größere Rolle als früher spielen, wenn es darum geht, neue Technologien auf den Markt zu bringen.

Does the Bushveld-Vredefort system (South Africa) record the largest known terrestrial impact catastrophe?

The unique 2.05-Ga Bushveld and Vredefort complexes cover 100,000 sq km (diameter 400 km) on the otherwise stable Kaapvaal craton. Since the 1920's, workers have recognized that they are bracketed by the same units and were probably formed by related processes. Modern field studies and radiometric dates have provided no compelling evidence for different ages. Previous researchers invoked magmatic upthrust. Daly later attributed Vredefort to impact, but never applied his concept to the Bushveld. Subsequently, Vredefort yielded shatter cones, coesite and stishovite, and planar features; pseudotachylite (indistinguishable from Sudbury) was long known to be present. Other research concluded that at least four simultaneous impacts caused the Bushveld-Vredefort system. Three impacts formed overlapping Bushveld basins; the fourth made the Vredefort dome. The nature of intra-Bushveld 'fragments' and the properties of Rooiberg Felsite offer clues

Lake Tahoe bottom characteristics extracted from SHOALS lidar waveform data and compared to backscatter data from a Multibeam echo sounder

The waveforms recorded by airborne lidar bathymetry (ALB) systems are currently processed only for depth information. In addition to bathymetry, multibeam echo sounder (MBES) systems provide backscatter data in which regions of different acoustic properties are distinguishable. These regions can often be correlated to different bottom types. Initial attempts to extract equivalent data from the ALB waveforms have confirmed the expectation that such information is encoded in those waveforms. Water clarity, bathymetry, and bottom type control the detailed shapes of ALB waveforms in different ways. Specific features of a bottom-reflected signal can be identified, for example its rise-time and amplitude, and used for clustering and classifying the individual data points. Two data sets from Lake Tahoe are available for comparison: ALB data from the SHOALS (scanning hydrographic operational airborne lidar survey) system of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Simrad EM1000 MBES data from the USGS. Feature extraction, clustering, and classification of the SHOALS data reveals changes in the optical bottom reflectance characteristics that are echoed in the acoustic bottom backscatter properties

Disseminated neoplasia in blue mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, from the Black Sea, Romania

Disseminated neoplasia, also called leukemia or hemic neoplasia, has been detected in 15 species of marine bivalve mollusks worldwide. The disease is characterized by the presence of single anaplastic cells with enlarged nuclei and sometimes frequent mitosis, in hemolymph vessels and sinuses. The neoplastic cells gradually replace normal hemocytes leading to the increased mortality of animals. The neoplasia reaches epizootic prevalences in blue mussels, Mytilus trossulus, in some areas, whereas prevalences in Mytilus edulis are generally very low. Mytilus galloprovincialis was suggested to be resistant to the disease although very low prevalences were documented from Spain in the Atlantic Ocean and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. A case of disseminated neoplasia was discovered in M. galloprovincialis from among 200 specimens studied from the coast of the Romanian Black Sea. Histological preparation revealed the presence of large anaplastic cells with lobed nuclei. This observation extends the geographic range of marine bivalve mollusks with disseminated neoplasia to include the Black Sea

Shareholder Protection and the Cost of Capital Empirical Evidence from German and Italian Firms

We investigate implications for the cost of capital in a model with agency conflicts between inside and outside shareholders, where the severity of agency costs depends on a parameter representing investor protection. Using firm-level data for Italy and Germany we find significant differences in shareholder protection and its implications for the firm’s ownership structure and the cost of capital. Results indicate that concentrated inside ownership increases the cost of capital for Italian firms while having no significant impact on the cost of capital for German firms. Evidence also suggests bank influence in Germany may serve to reduce investor risk for outside shareholders. In contrast, the magnitude of capital stock distortions is found to be quite important in Italy. Overall, slow growth in continental Europe may be more closely linked to institutional differences in shareholder protection between countries rather than inside ownership of firms.Shareholder protection, ownership structure, cost of capital, agency costs, underinvestment