Inward foreign direct investment and constitutional change in Scotland

Purpose - To undertake an analysis of the implications of potential Scottish independence for inward foreign direct investment (FDI), multinational enterprise strategies, and the local economy.<p></p> Design/methodology/approach - Takes a multidisciplinary approach drawing upon literature and evidence in the international business and management, political economy, and economic geography fields to analyze the role and impact of inward FDI in Scotland following possible Scottish independence.<p></p> Findings - Scotland continues as an attractive location for FDI, with greater diversity than hitherto. While the country’s comparative advantages in immobile natural resources provide some protection from uncertainty, weak embeddedness is a risk factor irrespective of independence. A range of transition costs of independence are identified, which could be high and of indeterminate duration, and some will be sector-specific. There are also new possibilities for tailoring of policies, and potential reindustrialization opportunities in renewable technologies. The foreign investors most vulnerable to political risks and uncertainties are those whose market scope is the rest of the UK (rUK) either as exporters or value chain integrators, in addition to the high political risk industries of energy, banking, and financial services and defence. Scottish subsidiaries’ significance within their parent MNE groups will also be a major factor in determining responses to political risks and uncertainties.<p></p> Originality/value - Specific focus upon the impact of potential independence on the foreign-owned sector as a major contributor to the Scottish economy.<p></p&gt

Stellar Differential Rotation and Coronal Timescales

We investigate the timescales of evolution of stellar coronae in response to surface differential rotation and diffusion. To quantify this we study both the formation time and lifetime of a magnetic flux rope in a decaying bipolar active region. We apply a magnetic flux transport model to prescribe the evolution of the stellar photospheric field, and use this to drive the evolution of the coronal magnetic field via a magnetofrictional technique. Increasing the differential rotation (i.e. decreasing the equator-pole lap time) decreases the flux rope formation time. We find that the formation time is dependent upon the geometric mean of the lap time and the surface diffusion timescale. In contrast, the lifetime of flux ropes are proportional to the lap time. With this, flux ropes on stars with a differential rotation of more than eight times the solar value have a lifetime of less than two days. As a consequence, we propose that features such as solar-like quiescent prominences may not be easily observable on such stars, as the lifetimes of the flux ropes which host the cool plasma are very short. We conclude that such high differential rotation stars may have very dynamical coronae

An inverse problem of reconstructing the electrical and geometrical parameters characterising airframe structures and connector interfaces

This article is concerned with the detection of environmental ageing in adhesively bonded structures used in the aircraft industry. Using a transmission line approach a forward model for the reflection coefficients is constructed and is shown to have an analytic solution in the case of constant permeability and permittivity. The inverse problem is analysed to determine necessary conditions for a unique recovery. The main thrust of this article then involves modelling the connector and then experimental rigs are built for the case of the air-filled line to enable the connector parameters to be identified and the inverse solver to be tested. Some results are also displayed for the dielectric-filled line

Comprehensive cosmographic analysis by Markov Chain Method

We study the possibility to extract model independent information about the dynamics of the universe by using Cosmography. We intend to explore it systematically, to learn about its limitations and its real possibilities. Here we are sticking to the series expansion approach on which Cosmography is based. We apply it to different data sets: Supernovae Type Ia (SNeIa), Hubble parameter extracted from differential galaxy ages, Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) data. We go beyond past results in the literature extending the series expansion up to the fourth order in the scale factor, which implies the analysis of the deceleration, q_{0}, the jerk, j_{0} and the snap, s_{0}. We use the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method (MCMC) to analyze the data statistically. We also try to relate direct results from Cosmography to dark energy (DE) dynamical models parameterized by the Chevalier-Polarski-Linder (CPL) model, extracting clues about the matter content and the dark energy parameters. The main results are: a) even if relying on a mathematical approximate assumption such as the scale factor series expansion in terms of time, cosmography can be extremely useful in assessing dynamical properties of the Universe; b) the deceleration parameter clearly confirms the present acceleration phase; c) the MCMC method can help giving narrower constraints in parameter estimation, in particular for higher order cosmographic parameters (the jerk and the snap), with respect to the literature; d) both the estimation of the jerk and the DE parameters, reflect the possibility of a deviation from the LCDM cosmological model.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure

A Renormalization Group for Hamiltonians: Numerical Results

We describe a renormalization group transformation that is related to the breakup of golden invariant tori in Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom. This transformation applies to a large class of Hamiltonians, is conceptually simple, and allows for accurate numerical computations. In a numerical implementation, we find a nontrivial fixed point and determine the corresponding critical index and scaling. Our computed values for various universal constants are in good agreement with existing data for area-preserving maps. We also discuss the flow associated with the nontrivial fixed point.Comment: 11 Pages, 2 Figures. For future updates, check ftp://ftp.ma.utexas.edu/pub/papers/koch

Nonlinear structures and thermodynamic instabilities in a one-dimensional lattice system

The equilibrium states of the discrete Peyrard-Bishop Hamiltonian with one end fixed are computed exactly from the two-dimensional nonlinear Morse map. These exact nonlinear structures are interpreted as domain walls (DW), interpolating between bound and unbound segments of the chain. The free energy of the DWs is calculated to leading order beyond the Gaussian approximation. Thermodynamic instabilities (e.g. DNA unzipping and/or thermal denaturation) can be understood in terms of DW formation.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Looking Good With Flickr Faves: Gaussian Processes for Finding Difference Makers in Personality Impressions

Flickr allows its users to generate galleries of "faves", i.e., pictures that they have tagged as favourite. According to recent studies, the faves are predictive of the personality traits that people attribute to Flickr users. This article investigates the phenomenon and shows that faves allow one to predict whether a Flickr user is perceived to be above median or not with respect to each of the Big-Five Traits (accuracy up to 79\% depending on the trait). The classifier - based on Gaussian Processes with a new kernel designed for this work - allows one to identify the visual characteristics of faves that better account for the prediction outcome

Ocular Fundus Photography as an Educational Tool

The proficiency of nonophthalmologists with direct ophthalmoscopy is poor, which has prompted a search for alternative technologies to examine the ocular fundus. Although ocular fundus photography has existed for decades, its use has been traditionally restricted to ophthalmology clinical care settings and textbooks. Recent research has shown a role for nonmydriatic fundus photography in nonophthalmic settings, encouraging more widespread adoption of fundus photography technology. Recent studies have also affirmed the role of fundus photography as an adjunct or alternative to direct ophthalmoscopy in undergraduate medical education. In this review, the authors examine the use of ocular fundus photography as an educational tool and suggest future applications for this important technology. Novel applications of fundus photography as an educational tool have the potential to resurrect the dying art of funduscopy

Aggregation of Markov flows I : theory

A Markov flow is a stationary measure, with the associated flows and mean first passage times, for a continuous-time regular jump homogeneous semi-Markov process on a discrete state-space. Nodes in the state-space can be eliminated to produce a smaller Markov flow which is a factor of the original one. Some improvements to elimination methods of Wales are given. The main contribution of the paper is to present an alternative, namely a method to aggregate groups of nodes to produce a factor. The method can be iterated to make hierarchical aggregation schemes. The potential benefits are efficient computation, including recomputation to take into account local changes, and insights into the macroscopic behaviour