Refugee camp security : decreasing vulnerability through demographic controls

In the past, refugee camp security has been examined in many lights; however, the demographic make-up of camps has not been focused on. In this article, I present a quantitative model that examines attacks on refugee camps. I argue that the likelihood of an attack on a camp is affected by the demographic make-up of the camp. The primary demographic causes that affect vulnerability are the level of male population of the camp, age of camp residents, and the size of the camp. With the available data, I find that these demographic indicators are significant in determining the likelihood of an attack. Assessing what characteristics of camps and their populations increase the likelihood of an attack should serve as a guide to the implementation and organization of new refugee camps to ensure peace and stability for an already fragile community

The Future of Scholarly Communication in the Humanities: Adaptation or Transformation?

The paper suggests that the disaggregation of the core functions of scholarly publication will inevitably change communication in the humanities

Support for National Institutes of Health (NIH) Implementation of the Revised Public Access Policy

Comments submitted by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) in response to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) “Request for Information: NIH Public Access Policy” issued on March 31, 2008 (73 Federal Register 16881)

The Open Past Initiative : a discussion paper

The purpose of this paper is to initiate a discussion among librarians, publishers, and others of a potential initiative to digitize and disseminate the back-runs of scholarly journals

Economic policy implications of world demographic change

Demographic changes over the next 50 years will affect the world economy in many ways. Some of these effects will be beneficial. In developing countries, for example, falling birthrates will enable women to supply more paid labor and families to invest more in the education of each child. Other demographic changes will cause economic problems. In developed countries, population aging is likely to imply government pension systems cannot continue with their current rules. Population growth in developing countries could also change patterns of world trade and thereby reduce the wages of some workers in developed countries. ; Economists have argued that policy changes are needed to maximize the rewards of some demographic changes and reduce the negative impacts of others. For example, governments of developing countries may need to create more flexible labor markets if their increased female workforce is to find employment. The governments of many developed countries need to plan how much they will support the high number of retirees expected in the future and communicate this plan to workers. ; Johnson describes aspects of predicted world demographic changes that are likely to pose challenges for economic policy and explores how policy could react to these changes. He concludes that the economic effects of such changes will depend heavily on future government policy. In particular, the effect of population growth in developing countries will depend on whether their governments’ policies encourage economic growth. Government policy in developed countries will affect the size and distribution of problems created by population aging but will not be able to remove these problems altogether.Economic policy ; Demography

Central Limit Theorem and convergence to stable laws in Mallows distance

We give a new proof of the classical Central Limit Theorem, in the Mallows ($L^r$-Wasserstein) distance. Our proof is elementary in the sense that it does not require complex analysis, but rather makes use of a simple subadditive inequality related to this metric. The key is to analyse the case where equality holds. We provide some results concerning rates of convergence. We also consider convergence to stable distributions, and obtain a bound on the rate of such convergence.Comment: 21 pages; improved version - one result strengthened, exposition improved, paper to appear in Bernoull

How Closely Do Spouses Coordinate Thier Retirement Decisions?

This brief focuses on trends over the past two decades in employer- sponsored pension coverage. It explores who is covered by a pension plan and who is not, how much retirees receive in pension income, and how pension coverage and receipt have changed over time. This brief updates our previous work on this topic.

Non-equilibrium effects in high temperature chemical reactions

Reaction rate data were collected for chemical reactions occurring at high temperatures during reentry of space vehicles. The principle of detailed balancing is used in modeling kinetics of chemical reactions at high temperatures. Although this principle does not hold for certain transient or incubation times in the initial phase of the reaction, it does seem to be valid for the rates of internal energy transitions that occur within molecules and atoms. That is, for every rate of transition within the internal energy states of atoms or molecules, there is an inverse rate that is related through an equilibrium expression involving the energy difference of the transition

How Did Older Workers Fare in 2009?

Presents findings on 2009 unemployment and labor participation rates, length of unemployment, and earnings for workers age 55 and older, compared with past trends and with younger workers. Analyzes data by gender, race/ethnicity, education, and industry