Worldhood Competence and Performance:\ud The Site for Wittgenstein"s Religious Language

It is common knowledge that Wittgenstein cannot be called\ud fundamentally a religious writer. All the same, he did not\ud dismiss the reality 'religion' as nonsense. It is opined here\ud that, Wittgenstein was very consistent in his references to\ud it. We strongly claim that religion was a subject of his\ud philosophical preoccupation positioned among his general\ud striking similes, arresting moments and connections of his\ud general methods. Religion gained occasional and/or\ud scattered referencing in his works (e.g. the notes of 1938,\ud the positioning of religion and/or theology as grammar in\ud the 'Philosophical Investigations (PI: 373; p.283), Zettel\ud and the later work 'Culture and Value). Despite the above,\ud we have to agree, with Wittgenstein, that his poetic\ud compositions are to be understood and seen in consistent\ud connections (PI: 122) even when they look disconnected

On the Power Spectral Density of the GSM Signaling Scheme

In this paper, the Power Spectral Density of encoded Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) which is the Signaling Scheme of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is derived by a combined approach of the autocorrelation method and Markov Process. In the analysis, the Amplitude Modulated Pulse decomposition proposed by P. Laurent is employed to ease computation. Encoding of the message data utilizes Convolutional Code of rate1/2. Results are for both the uncoded and coded waveform comparing variation in power spread over a range of frequency

Knowledge transfer in collaborations between foreign and indigenous firms in the Nigerian oil industry: the role of partners’ motivational characteristics

Previous empirical studies on determinants of inter-firm knowledge transfer have been largely focused on knowledge transfer between symmetrical partners, where there are relatively similar levels of knowledge sophistication and complementary knowledge transfer motives. Determinants of knowledge transfer between partners in asymmetric “market-exploitation” alliances, where there are large differences in capabilities, and in motives, of the collaborating partners, have been understudied. This paper presents a qualitative case-study-research of knowledge transfer in such collaborations in the Nigerian oil industry. Four cases of inter-firm collaborative arrangements between foreign and local indigenous firms in the industry were studied and analysed. Based on the results of the case-study research, this paper highlights the dominant role of partners’ motivational characteristics, as against, their cognitive characteristics in knowledge transfer process of asymmetric market-exploitation alliances. It develops set of theoretical propositions to expand understanding of the key determinants of learning/knowledge transfer

Talent management in the UK higher education institutions - setting a research agenda

As the changing landscape of UK higher education sector is propelling a transition towards greater competition among higher education institutions (HEIs), talent management is increasingly recognised as one of the most important human resource management issues in many of these higher education institutions. Yet, the nature of talent management in the UK HEIs has rarely been investigated. This paper evaluates the prospects of implementing talent management in the HE sector, with the aim of setting an agenda for an empirical research project on ‘Talent Management in the UK HEIs

Prospects for immigrant-native wealth assimilation: evidence from financial market participation

Because financial transactions are important for wealth accumulation, and rely on trust and confidence in institutions, the financial market behavior of immigrants can provide important insights into the assimilation process. Compared to the native-born, immigrants are less likely to own savings and checking accounts and these differences tend to persist over time. Our results suggest that a large share of the immigrant-native gap in financial market participation is driven by group differences in education, income, and geographic location. For a given immigrant, the likelihood of financial market participation decreases with higher levels of ethnic concentration in the metropolitan area.Financial institutions ; Immigrants ; Wealth

Institutional quality and financial market development: evidence from international migrants in the U.S.

A growing body of theoretical and empirical work identifies the ability of a country’s institutions to protect private property and provide incentives for investment as a key explanation for the persistent disparity in financial market development. We add to this literature by analyzing the impact of institutions on financial development using data on the financial decisions of immigrants and the native-born in the U.S. While all of the individuals whose decisions we analyze face the same formal institutional framework in the U.S., immigrants bring with them varied experiences with institutions in their home countries. We find that immigrants who come from countries with institutions that are more effective at protecting property rights are more likely to participate in U.S. financial markets. ; The effect of home country institutions is very persistent and impacts immigrants for the first 25 years that they spend in the U.S. Evidence from variation in the effect of home country institutions by age at migration, suggests that individuals appear to learn about home country institutions before the age of sixteen, probably in the home and potentially at school, rather than through direct experience. These findings are robust to alternative measures of institutional effectiveness and to various methods of controlling for unobserved individual characteristics.Immigrants ; Financial markets

Bank crises and investor confidence

In addition to their direct effects, episodes of financial instability may decrease investor confidence. Measuring the impact of a crisis on investor confidence is complicated by the fact that it is difficult to disentangle the effect of investor confidence from coincident direct effects of the crisis. In order to isolate the effects of financial crises on investor confidence, we study the investment behavior of immigrants in the U.S. Our findings indicate that systemic banking crises have important effects on investor behavior. Immigrants who have experienced a banking crisis in their countries of origin are significantly less likely to have bank accounts in the U.S. This finding is robust to including important individual controls like wealth, education, income, and age. In addition, the effect of crises is robust to controlling for a variety of country of origin characteristics, including measures of financial and economic development and specifications with country of origin fixed effects.Financial crises

What can we learn about financial access from U.S. immigrants?

We find that wealthier and more educated immigrants are more likely to make use of basic banking services and other formal financial services. Holding these (and other) factors constant, we find immigrants from countries with more effective institutions are more likely to have a relationship with a bank and use formal financial markets more extensively. Institutional quality appears to be an important factor in both determining both the breadth and the depth of financial access. It can explain approximately 17 percent of the country-of- origin-level variation in bank account usage among immigrants in the U.S., after other characteristics, including wealth, education and income, are controlled for. Institutional quality is even more important for explaining more extensive participation in financial markets, accounting for 27 percent of the analogous variation. We examine various measures of institutional effectiveness and are careful to control for unobserved individual characteristics, including specifications with country fixed-effects.Immigrants ; Financial institutions ; Payment systems

Public health risk status of the water supply frame work at Kwame Nkrumah (Postgraduate) Hall, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and environs

The aim of the study is to assess the public health risk status of the potable water supply framework at the Kwame Nkurumah Postgraduate Residence (PG) Hall, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN), Enugu State, Nigeria, and environs. Four potable water supply frame-works at the PG Hall, UNN, and exposed stagnant water were sampled and analysed in accordance with the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) Official Method of Analysis to detect their limits of chemical and microbial constituents with high public health risk. The samples comprised of tap water (A), tap-to-reservoir water (B), commercial sachet water (C) commercial bottled water (D) and exposed stagnant water (E). The nitrate levels of all the sources (except ‘B’) were above the World Health Organisation (WHO) limit (10.00 mg/L). Thus they could cause methaemoglobinemia in infants. Nitrate content of ‘B’ (6.99 mg/L) was significantly (p < 0.05) low, relative to that of ‘A’ (23.08 mg/L); and indicated microbial action. The physicochemical and microbial quality of the tap water differed significantly (p < 0.05) from that of the tap-to-reservoir water. All the pH, except that of ‘D’, were below WHO recommended pH range (6.5 to 8.5) for drinking water. ‘D’ was more or less a mineral concentrate, as its chemical constituents were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those of other samples. Total viable count (TVC) and coli form count of the reservoir water and sachet water (0.17 to 0.20 and 0.11 to 0.09 cfu/ml, respectively), indicated heavy microbial contamination. While ‘D’, was devoid of biological contamination. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were among the bacteria isolated. Taken together, the sampled potable water (except ‘A’ and ‘D’) was generally, of poor chemical and microbial quality; and may be considered unacceptable.Key words: Public health risk, potable water, physicochemical and microbial water quality, water pollution

Eight-dimensional Polarization-ring-switching Modulation Formats

We propose two 8-dimensional (8D) modulation formats (8D-2048PRS-T1 and 8D-2048PRS-T2) with a spectral efficiency of 5.5 bit/4D-sym, where the 8 dimensions are obtained from two time slots and two polarizations. Both formats provide a higher tolerance to nonlinearity by selecting symbols with nonidentical states of polarization (SOPs) in two time slots. The performance of these novel 8D modulation formats is assessed in terms of the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized generalized mutual information. 8D-2048PRS-T1 is more suitable for high SNRs, while 8D-2048PRS-T2 is shown to be more tolerant to nonlinearities. A sensitivity improvement of at least 0.25 dB is demonstrated by maximizing normalized generalized mutual information (NGMI). For a long-haul nonlinear optical fiber transmission system, the benefit of mitigating the nonlinearity is demonstrated and a reach increase of 6.7% (560 km) over time-domain hybrid four-dimensional two-amplitude eight-phase shift keying (TDH-4D-2A8PSK) is observed