The Politics of Economic Reform in Thailand: Crisis and Compromise

What explains the varying responses by Thai governments to changes in the international economic environment over time. To answer this the paper emphasizes the link between the nature of the political structure/policymaking environment and the government’s reform capacity. Thailand’s political structure typically undercuts the government’s reform capacity in two way. First, it is difficult to get needed reforms on the political agenda. Second, it is even harder to push reforms through the policy process to implementation. During the 1980s, Thailand was able to overcome some of the challenges inherent in its political system via an informal compromise between party politicians and technocratic reformers. This ‘pork-policy compromise’ gave the government the capacity to adopt certain reforms—reforms that laid the foundation for the economic boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Changes in the political structure in the late 1980s brought an end to this compromise, thereby reducing the government’s reform capacity.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40024/3/wp638.pd

Delayed effects of oil exposure on fish

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are continuously added to aqueous environments through point source and non-point source pollution and can cause deleterious effects on exposed fish populations. Historically, studies have shown that acute PAH exposure causes only short-term effects in adult fish which were resolved when the exposure ended. Chronic exposure to PAHs, however -- even at the less susceptible juvenile and adult stages -- can cause a host of effects including lesions, lower body length and weight, and reduced swimming ability. More recently studies of embryonic fish have demonstrated that much lower PAH concentrations can cause lethal and sub-lethal effects on those embryos and can cause delayed effects on the fish that are not seen until adulthood. This study used zebrafish (Danio rerio) to examine the effects of 48-hour weathered crude oil exposure on both the embryonic fish exposed and the adult fish exposed as embryos but raised in clean water. Oil exposed embryos had increased mortality, pericardial edema, intracranial hemorrhage, and higher cytochrome P4501A (CYP1A) activity. Adult fish exposed as embryos had decreased critical swim speed and rounder hearts than the control fish. These effects may culminate in decreased fitness of the exposed fish population

Summation-By-Parts Operators and High-Order Quadrature

Summation-by-parts (SBP) operators are finite-difference operators that mimic integration by parts. This property can be useful in constructing energy-stable discretizations of partial differential vequations. SBP operators are defined by a weight matrix and a difference operator, with the latter designed to approximate $d/dx$ to a specified order of accuracy. The accuracy of the weight matrix as a quadrature rule is not explicitly part of the SBP definition. We show that SBP weight matrices are related to trapezoid rules with end corrections whose accuracy matches the corresponding difference operator at internal nodes. The accuracy of SBP quadrature extends to curvilinear domains provided the Jacobian is approximated with the same SBP operator used for the quadrature. This quadrature has significant implications for SBP-based discretizations; for example, the discrete norm accurately approximates the $L^{2}$ norm for functions, and multi-dimensional SBP discretizations accurately mimic the divergence theorem.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Comparison of Laryngographic Waveforms of an Adult and Child

The ability to accurately identify and differentially diagnose voice disorders is an important concern for the speech-language pathologist. This need has resulted in the development of methods which focus on identifying objective, reliable, valid procedures for assessing voice disorders (Costello, 1985). Several methods that allow direct observation of the laryngeal mechanism are invasive and time consuming. A method that is noninvasive and that provides valuable information about the vocal fold movement pattern is needed for clinical use

σ-Complexes of Copper(I)

Three new bent {CuL2} fragments of copper(I) supported by β–diketiminate ligands have been synthesised and characterised in the solid state, in solution and via DFT calculations. The suitability of these {CuL2} fragments to be used as precursors for the formation of σ-complexes with an E–H (E = B) or M–H (M = Zn, Al, Mg, Ca, Au, W) bond has been investigated. Their electronic properties and bent confirmation make them ideal fragments for the stabilisation of σ-complexes of copper(I). A range of σ-complexes of the type Cu–H–E and Cu–H–M (E = B, M = Zn, Al, Mg, Ca, Au) have been isolated and characterised in the solid state, in solution and via DFT calculations. In the case of E = B and M = Zn, Mg and Ca, an insight into their decomposition to 4 coordinate M(Ln)2 species’ (Ln = β–diketiminate ligand) has been summarised. Increased Cu---M bond character is observed when the heavier transition metal tungsten is employed, and these complexes can be considered as well defined heterobimetallic hydride species of Cu–H–W. The reactivity of heterobimetallics of the type Cu–H–E and Cu–H–M, whereby E = B and M = Zn, W has been investigated through ligand exchange reactions. σ-Complexes of Cu–H–Au, along with mixtures of isolable group 10 fragments and the gold hydride complex IPrAu–H (IPr = 1,3-di(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidine), have shown to be selective in the reduction of carbon dioxide to a formate equivalent with HBPin (HBPin = pinacolborane). In summary, this thesis provides new insights into the synthesis, characterisation, stability and reactivity of σ-complexes of copper(I).Open Acces

The Social Transmission of Attractiveness Stereotypes: An Investigation of Parental Expectations of Children\u27s Behavior

Eighty-six children from the Utah State University Child Development Laboratories and Hillcrest Elementary School and their parents participated in the study. The study focused on the use of attractiveness stereotyping used by children across four age groups. The study also analyzed the social transmission of attractiveness stereotypes from parents to their children. The study included two parts: 1) a play-preference measure, and 2) a social attribution measure. The stimuli were sketches of twelve children, six toys and six girls. The sketches of children included attractive, unattractive, mesomorphic, endomorphic, handicapped and nonhandicapped children. In the study we found that parents and children use attractiveness stereotypes. Further, parents and children utilized a beauty-is-good assumption when evaluating the children\u27s personalities and social tendencies from the sketches. Finally, we found that parents in this study expected their children to use a similar physical attractiveness hypothesis in their Social judgement