On the effect of investment disputes on bilateral portfolio investment in emerging markets

This paper investigates the effect of arbitral proceedings on bilateral portfolio equity investments in emerging markets. Investment disputes may deter foreign investors as they reveal a government’s poor behavior towards foreign investors. The analysis investigates the effects of the first initiation of arbitral proceedings, the first outcome in favor of the investor, and the first outcome in favor of the respondent state of arbitration proceedings. The database is an unbalanced panel of 55 home and 36 host countries from 2001 to 2018. Estimations do not reveal an unconditionally significant effect of arbitral proceedings on bilateral portfolio equity holdings. The impact becomes significant considering the interplay with bilateral investment treaties and political risk

Bilateral investment treaties and sovereign default risk

This paper analyzes the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on sovereign bond returns of 25 emerging markets from 1993 to 2016. Under a BIT, foreign investors can use an international arbitration scheme to enforce compensation claims against the domestic government in case of direct or indirect expropriation. We focus on the so far unexplored effects of legal risk associated with BITs on sovereign creditworthiness. We find small unconditional effects of BITs on sovereign bond returns. Taking the heterogeneity of BITs and political regimes into account, we find robust and strong negative effects. In countries with high political risk of expropriation (measured by low executive constraints), we find that the implementation of investor-friendly BITs is associated with a significantly negative impact on sovereign bond returns, accounting for roughly 15% of bond returns’ standard deviation

Gerechtigkeit und Frieden bei Papst Franziskus im Horizont von Zärtlichkeit und Gewaltfreiheit

Der Artikel untersucht das Wirken und die Lehre von Papst Franziskus im Themenfeld „Frieden und Gerechtigkeit“. Basierend auf den Grundlagen, die seine Vorgänger gelegt haben, entwickelt Papst Franziskus eine radikalere Ablehnung tötender Gewalt als Mittel der Politik, lernt in der Ökumene von anderen Partnern und ist lehrmäßig stärker friedenstheologisch akzentuiert. Die theologischen Leitkategorien Liebe, Barmherzigkeit und Vergebung führen in der praktischen Konsequenz nicht nur zur Ablehnung der Todesstrafe, sondern auch zur Propagierung des Konzeptes „Aktiver Gewaltfreiheit“ für die katholische Kirche.This article analyzes the influence and the teachings of Pope Francis in the area of “peace and justice.” Based on the ideas of his predecessors, Pope Francis develops a more radical rejection of lethal violence of a means of politics, is open to learning from ecumenical partners, and dogmatically, he has emphasized a theology of peace. The practical implication of central theological categories of love, mercy, and forgiveness do not just lead to a repudiation of the death penalty, but also to the promotion of the concept of “active non-violence” for the Catholic Church

Blurring the Boundaries: Reflecting on PDS Roles and Responsibilities through Multiple Lenses

It is well documented that successful Professional Development School (PDS) initiatives are contingent on trusting relationships between the university and school districts

The impact of lesson study professional development on teacher self-efficacy and outcome expectancy

Doctor of PhilosophyCurriculum and Instruction ProgramsMargaret G. ShroyerThe purpose of this mixed methods case study was to examine the impact of lesson study professional development on teacher self-efficacy and outcome expectancy using Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as a framework (1977). The focus of this lesson study was implementing Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Thirteen K-6 teachers participated in the lesson study professional development, completed a pre/post Mathematics Teaching Efficacy and Expectancy Beliefs Inventory (MTEEBI) and completed ongoing journaling prompts while the researcher conducted observations throughout the process. Qualitative and quantitative data gathered in this research indicated the lesson study professional development had a positive impact on both self-efficacy and outcome expectancy of the teacher participants. Though the teachers possessed a satisfactory level of self-efficacy and outcome expectancy at the onset of the study, a measurable gain was evident. Comparison of the pre and post MTEEBI surveys, through statistical analysis using a Paired-Samples t-test, indicated a significant positive change in both self-efficacy and outcome expectancy scores. Though growth for both constructs was significant at the .05 level of probability, self-efficacy growth was greater than outcome expectancy. This finding is supported in historical research of the challenge of yielding outcome expectancy growth. The qualitative analysis of observations and journal prompts corroborated the MTEEBI results, indicating a majority of the teachers’ self-efficacy and outcome expectancy beliefs were positively impacted by the lesson study professional development. Bandura’s four sources of efficacy (mastery experiences, modeling, verbal/social persuasion, physiological responses) positively impacted personal self-efficacy, while three of the four sources (mastery experiences, modeling, physiological responses) impacted outcome expectancy. Qualitative data indicated mastery experiences were most critical for both constructs. Lesson study professional development is a natural catalyst for addressing Bandura’s four sources of efficacy and thus building self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. Given the demands of rigorous educational reform, lesson study professional development is a promising approach to positively impact teacher self-efficacy and outcome expectancy, through engaging Bandura’s four sources of efficacy to develop and strengthen these beliefs. Therefore lesson study ought to be a more frequent component of teacher professional development and teacher preparation

Quantum Eavesdropping without Interception: An Attack Exploiting the Dead Time of Single Photon Detectors

The security of quantum key distribution (QKD) can easily be obscured if the eavesdropper can utilize technical imperfections of the actual implementation. Here we describe and experimentally demonstrate a very simple but highly effective attack which even does not need to intercept the quantum channel at all. Only by exploiting the dead time effect of single photon detectors the eavesdropper is able to gain (asymptotically) full information about the generated keys without being detected by state-of-the-art QKD protocols. In our experiment, the eavesdropper inferred up to 98.8% of the key correctly, without increasing the bit error rate between Alice and Bob significantly. Yet, we find an evenly simple and effective countermeasure to inhibit this and similar attacks

TheMPO: A knowledge-based system for therapy planning in pediatric oncology

This article describes the knowledge-based system THEMPO (Therapy Management in Pediatric Oncology), which supports protocol-directed therapy planning and configuration in pediatric oncology. THEMPO provides a semantic network controlled by graph grammars to cover the different types of knowledge relevant in the domain, and offers a suite of acquisition tools for knowledge base authoring. Medical problem solvers, operating on the oncological network, reason about adequate therapeutic and diagnostic timetables for a patient. Furthermore, a corresponding patient record, also based on semantic networks and graph grammars, has been implemented to represent the course of therapy of an oncological patient