Why Do Some Oil Exporters Experience Civil War But Others Do Not? – A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Net Oil-Exporting Countries

According to quantitative studies, oil is the only resource that is robustly linked to civil war onset. However, recent debates on the nexus of oil and civil war have neglected that there are a number of peaceful oil-rentier states, and few efforts have been spent to explain why some oilexporting countries have experienced civil war and others have not. Methodologically, the debate has been dominated by research using either quantitative methods or case studies, with little genuine medium-N comparison. This paper aims to fill this gap by studying the conditions of civil war onset among net oil exporters using (crisp-set) Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA). Considering a sample of 44 net oil exporters between 1970 and 2008, we test conditions such as oil abundance (per capita) and dependence, the interaction of ethnic exclusion and oil reserve locations (overlap) as well as the type of political regime (polity). Our results point to a combination of necessary and sufficient conditions that has been largely ignored until now: low abundance is a necessary condition of civil war onset. Two pathways lead to civil war: first, a combination of low abundance and high dependence and, second, a combination of low abundance and the geographical overlap of ethnic exclusion with oil reserve areas within autocracies.civil war, oil exports, resource curse, rentier state, QCA

Spin-polarized Quantum Transport in Mesoscopic Conductors: Computational Concepts and Physical Phenomena

Mesoscopic conductors are electronic systems of sizes in between nano- and micrometers, and often of reduced dimensionality. In the phase-coherent regime at low temperatures, the conductance of these devices is governed by quantum interference effects, such as the Aharonov-Bohm effect and conductance fluctuations as prominent examples. While first measurements of quantum charge transport date back to the 1980s, spin phenomena in mesoscopic transport have moved only recently into the focus of attention, as one branch of the field of spintronics. The interplay between quantum coherence with confinement-, disorder- or interaction-effects gives rise to a variety of unexpected spin phenomena in mesoscopic conductors and allows moreover to control and engineer the spin of the charge carriers: spin interference is often the basis for spin-valves, -filters, -switches or -pumps. Their underlying mechanisms may gain relevance on the way to possible future semiconductor-based spin devices. A quantitative theoretical understanding of spin-dependent mesoscopic transport calls for developing efficient and flexible numerical algorithms, including matrix-reordering techniques within Green function approaches, which we will explain, review and employ.Comment: To appear in the Encyclopedia of Complexity and System Scienc

Monitoring Three-Dimensional Packings in Microgravity

We present results from experiments with granular packings in three dimensions in microgravity as realized on parabolic flights. Two different techniques are employed to monitor the inside of the packings during compaction: (1) X-ray radiography is used to measure in transmission the integrated fluctuations of particle positions. (2) Stress-birefringence in three dimensions is applied to visualize the stresses inside the packing. The particle motions below the transition into an arrested packing are found to produce a well agitated state. At the transition, the particles lose their energy quite rapidly and form a stress network. With both methods, non-arrested particles (rattlers) can be identified. In particular, it is found that rattlers inside the arrested packing can be excited to appreciable dynamics by the rest-accelerations (g-jitter) during a parabolic flight without destroying the packings. At low rates of compaction, a regime of slow granular cooling is identified. The slow cooling extends over several seconds, is described well by a linear law, and terminates in a rapid final collapse of dynamics before complete arrest of the packing.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure

Understanding (professional) learning in online and distance work-based university degree courses: an exploratory study - Implications for curriculum design

This research investigated two online, distance, work-based learning (ODWBL) courses to identify how learning takes place in such courses and (related) workplaces, and which factors affect learning. The two courses were the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) and the Postgraduate Certificate in Medical and Health Care Education (MHCE), both taught at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). The research aimed to identify, what facilitated the knowledge transfer from the course to the workplace, specifically how students learned on an ODWBL course and then applied, used and shared the course knowledge in the workplace. The literature review positioned these two courses within the field of work-based learning, distance and online curriculum models, and teacher development in Higher Education (HE). I analysed how learning takes place in online courses and the workplace informed by Evans et al.’s (2010) recontextualisation framework. The research used a case study methodology and qualitative research (i.e., surveys, interviews, and participant reflections). My research findings which have implications for the design and delivery of ODWBL courses are: • All four types of Evans et al.’s (2010) recontextualisations are interlinked. • Learner engagement patterns and needs vary between different learners and activities which need to be considered in course pedagogic design and facilitation. • While a virtual learning community is important for some learners it should not be the only pedagogic design focus. • The transfer of knowledge from the online course to the workplace can be scaffolded and enhanced through authentic activities and assessments. While learning journeys can be scaffolded, the responsibility for learning success is ultimately the learners. The findings suggest a range of skills and approaches for learners to succeed. Finally, the depth of impact the learner achieves with recontextualising course knowledge in their workplace depends on whether their workplace culture is restrictive or expansive

Value co-creation in the digital factory – The empowered role of shop floor workers

There is a gap in the Business Process Management (BPM) literature addressing human and organizational factors in BPM practice in organisations. This research in progress paper proposes to identify organisational cultural factors and assess their impact on BPM success in an organization. The paper explores the extant literature on organisational culture in a BPM context and BPM culture. Shien’s model is selected as the most comprehensive model of organisation culture and is extended to include the dimensions of BPM culture as proposed by Schmiedel, Vom Brocke and Recker. In the conclusion a proposed field study exploring the validation of the dimensions of BPM culture is outlined

Lesen - Schreiben - Apparate

Beitrag während der Weimarer EDOC-Tage 201

Zuverlässigkeit und strukturelle Parameter von Verkehrsnetzen

Im Vortrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Zuverlässigkeit und gewissen strukturellen Parametern eines Verkehrsnetzes besteht. Das Verkehrsnetz wird hierzu als bewerteter Graph aufgefasst. Zur Analyse der Verkehrsnetzzuverlässigkeit werden die Kanten mit ihren Verfügbarkeiten (>Zuverlässigkeiten<) bewertet. Die Zuverlässigkeit des Verkehrsnetzes hat einen großen Einfluss auf die Beurteilung des Straßennetzes. Im Sinne einer Regressionsanalyse soll der Zusammenhang mit weiteren, speziell für die Betrachtung von Verkehrsnetzen entwickelten strukturellen Kenngrößen untersucht werden, das sind insbesondere die Dispersion des Verkehrsnetzes und die Unterentwicklung des Netzes. Aus der Vielzahl der theoretisch denkbaren Verkehrsnetzstrukturen spiegelt die Ring-Radius-Struktur die realen Straßennetze am besten wider. Solche Ring-Radius-Strukturen kommen in vielen Städten vor. Die Berechnung der Verkehrsnetzzuverlässigkeit erfolgt mittels eines Algorithmus, der auf dem Prinzip der vollständigen Enumeration aller möglichen Kombinationen der Verfügbarkeit bzw. Nichtverfügbarkeit der einzelnen Kanten basiert und die gewünschte Kenngröße exakt bestimmt. Obwohl der Algorithmus speziell auf eine möglichst geringe Rechenzeit ausgerichtet ist, bleibt das Verfahren doch numerisch recht aufwendig. An Hand von zehn verschiedenen Ring-Radius-Strukturen wird der Nachweis eines Zusammenhangs zwischen den strukturellen Kenngrößen und der Verkehrsnetzzuverlässigkeit geführt. Damit können mittels struktureller Bewertungen (die mit einem vergleichsweise geringen Aufwand an Input-Daten und Rechenzeit bestimmbar sind) Aussagen über die Zuverlässigkeit des Verkehrsnetzes getroffen werden

Towards many-class classification of materials based on their spectral fingerprints

Hyperspectral sensors are becoming cheaper and more available to the public. It is reasonable to assume that in the near future they will become more and more ubiquitous. This gives rise to many interesting applications, for example identification of pharmaceutical products and classification of food stuffs. Such applications require a precise models of the underlying classes, but hand-crafting these models is not feasible. In this paper, we propose to instead learn the model from the data using machine learning techniques. We investigate the use of two popular methods: support vector machines and random forest classifiers. In contrast to similar approaches, we restrict ourselves to linear support vector machines. Furthermore, we train the classifiers by solving the primal, instead of dual optimization problem. Our experiments on a large dataset show that the support vector machine approach is superior to random forest in classification accuracy as well as training time

Why do some oil exporters experience civil war but others do not?: investigating the conditional effects of oil

According to quantitative studies, oil seems the only natural resource that is robustly linked to civil war onset. However, recent debates on the nexus of oil and internal conflict have neglected the fact that there are a number of peaceful rentier oil states in existence. Few efforts have been made to explain why some oil-exporting countries have experienced civil war while others have not. We thus address this puzzle, by arguing that civil war risks depend on the specific conditions of oil production and how they come to structure state–society relations. Specifically, we expect that states that are either highly dependent on oil or who have problematic relations with oil regions are prone to civil war. However, these risks will be mitigated either when democratic institutions can manage conflicts peacefully or when abundant oil revenues can be spent in such a way as to buy peace. We test this conditional argument by comparing 39 net oil exporters, using a (crisp-set) Qualitative Comparative Analysis – a methodology particularly suited to test conditional relationships in medium-N samples. Our results largely confirm our conditional hypotheses. Conditions of oil production are ambiguous, and particular combinations thus explain the onset of civil war. Specifically, we find that high abundance is sufficient to ensure peace, while two distinct pathways lead to civil war: the combination of high dependence and low abundance, as well as the overlap of ethnic exclusion and oil reserves in non-abundant and non-democratic oil states