Mixed Methods: Using a Combination of Techniques to Assess Writing Ability

A productive ability such as writing can be assessed only through a candidate‘s performance on a task, giving rise to concerns about the reliability and validity of writing assessments. In this chapter, it is argued that a combination of different techniques can help improve the quality of an evaluation of writing ability. First, an indirect test can be applied to reliably assess specific components of the writing process (e.g., revision), adding to the validity of the assessment. Furthermore, an analytic rating procedure accompanied by anchor essays allows raters to reliably evaluate the content and overall structure of written pieces. And last, automated scoring techniques can be used to objectively score text features considered important to text quality. Combining these methods provides an evaluation that is solid and informativ

INTEGRATION OF TRADE AND DISINTEGRATION OF PRODUCTION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The last few decades have seen a spectacular integration of the global economy through trade. The rising integration of world markets has brought with it a disintegration of the production process, however, as manufacturing or services activities done abroad are combined with those performed at home. I compare several different measures of foreign outsourcing, and argue that they have all increased since the 1970s. I also consider the implications of globalization for employment and wages of low-skilled workers, and for trade and regulatory policy, such as labor standards.

Circular business strategies and supply chain finance in the Aruba waste sector : a case study of a small island jurisdiction

This paper focuses on possibilities and obstacles for a circular economy in the waste management sector in Aruba. The authors describe the Aruban economy and the consequences of its SIDS characteristics. The article defines concepts in the field of circular economy and presents a conceptual model for research in this area. Based on multimethod research, the paper argues that small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the waste sector in Aruba determine their financial needs partly on the opportunities offered by the international market and price developments. Financing often takes place from own resources or via a local bank. No examples of circular chain financing were identified. Chain cooperation takes place with partners within the existing holding or with international partners, whereby performance and hedging contracts are concluded to guarantee quality and delivery and to mitigate business risks such as price fluctuations on the world market. During the research, it became obvious that limitations resulting from Aruba’s small scale and ‘islandness’ – such as the limited goods flow, limited quantities of feed waste materials and financing facilities offered by the local banking sector, as well as insufficiently stimulating legislation and regulations, coupled with faltering knowledge circulation and social awareness – seriously hamper the development of circular entrepreneurism in Aruba. The article offers policy recommendations to mitigate the bottlenecks for sustainable development in Aruba.peer-reviewe

Validating specifications of dynamic systems using automated reasoning techniques

In this paper, we propose a new approach to validating formal specifications of observable behavior of discrete dynamic systems. By observable behavior we mean system behavior as observed by users or other systems in the environment of the system. Validation of a formal specification of an informal domain tries to answer the question whether the specification actually describes the intended domain. This differs from the verification problem, which deals with the correspondence between formal objects, e.g. between a formal specification of a system and an implementation of it. We consider formal specifications of object-oriented dynamic systems that are subject to static and dynamic integrity constraints. To validate that such a specification expresses the intended behavior, we propose to use a tool that can answer reachability queries. In a reachability query we ask whether the system can evolve from one state into another without violating the integrity constraints. If the query is answered positively, the system should exhibit an example path between the states; if the answer is negative, the system should explain why this is so. An example path produced by the tool can be used to produce scenarios for presentations of system behavior, but can also be used as a basis for acceptance testing. In this paper, we discuss the use of planning and theoremproving techniques to answer such queries, and illustrate the use of reachability queries in the context of information system development

Volume conduction and EEG measurements within the brain: A quantitative approach to the influence of electrical spread on the linear relationship of activity measured at different locations

When recording referentially brain field potentials with several electrodes at relatively small tip separations, a linear relationship between the simultaneously recorded signals may arise solely as a result of volume conduction (electrical spread). A method is described to quantify the linear relationship due to electrical spread in a situation with independent neuronal sources.\ud \ud In rat under urethane anaesthesia, records were made during theta activity in the hippocampus with two electrodes against a reference with electrode tip separations between 0–3 mm. Frequency analysis of EEG epochs and computation of coherence were carried out.\ud \ud As an estimate of linear relationship between the recorded signals due to electrical spread the mean value of coherence (cohm) of a frequency band outside the range containing most power of theta rhythm was calculated.\ud \ud The results show a fairly constant decay of cohm at increasing electrode separation, reaching a value of 0.1 at a distance varying between 0.8-1.4 mm. This means that neurones at a distance of 0.4–0.7 mm from a recording electrode make a contribution of −25 dB to a recorded signal of 0 dB.\ud \ud The results of a simple model of volume conduction producing linear relationship between two recorded signals are in good agreement with the experimental results.\ud \ud The influence of linear relationship of the activity of neurones on volume conduction properties and on coherence is discussed

Trade and Uneven Growth

We consider trade between two countries of unequal size, where the creation of new intermediate inputs occurs in both. We assume that the knowledge gained from R&D in one country does not spillover to the other. Under autarky, the larger country would have a higher rate of product creation. When trade occurs in the final goods, we find that the smaller country has its rate of product creation stowed, even in the long run. In contrast, the larger country enjoys a temporary increase in its rate of R&D. We also examine the welfare consequences of trade in the final goods, which depend on whether the intermediate inputs are traded or not.

Incentive Compatible Trade Policies

We consider a two country trade model with production uncertainty. If complete contingent markets do not exist, it is desirable for governments to adopt some trade policies to share the production risk. A full information policy involves income transfers across countries, which can be achieved by equal import tariffs and export subsidies. With incomplete information we consider incentive compatible trade policies, which are designed to be truth revealing while partially sharing the production risk. In this case the tariff in one country may differ from the export subsidy abroad.