Rhythms of social interaction: messaging within a massive online network

We have analyzed the fully-anonymized headers of 362 million messages exchanged by 4.2 million users of Facebook, an online social network of college students, during a 26 month interval. The data reveal a number of strong daily and weekly regularities which provide insights into the time use of college students and their social lives, including seasonal variations. We also examined how factors such as school affiliation and informal online friend lists affect the observed behavior and temporal patterns. Finally, we show that Facebook users appear to be clustered by school with respect to their temporal messaging patterns

Simulation of an Ethylene Flame with Turbulence, Soot and Radiation Modeling

This thesis will investigate soot models that are available in commercial codes. We will look at the effect of turbulence models, gravity, soot models and radiation. Simulations will be compared to Coppalle and Joyeux [1]. The flame is an ethylene air diffusion flame at a Reynolds number of 5700. Simulations show the SST turbulence model, one-step soot model and Rosseland radiation model including gravity agree well with experimental data (temperature and soot). Flamelet soot modeling from Carbonell et al. [2] and flamelet radiation modeling from Doom [3] has been incorporated and compared as well

Students’ Perceptions on Teacher Behaviour at College Level

The study sought to find out the relationship between how students perceive their teachers behaviour. Stratified random sampling techniques were used 244 under graduate students studying at different college affiliated to Burdwan University, Burdwan, West Bengal. Students’ Perception on teacher’s behavior tool (SPTB) was used as tool for collecting data on students’ perceptions on teacher behavior.  A trial test of 40 students using split-half reliability test was carried out which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.72 for SPTB. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-statistics were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. Findings show that the way students’ perceive their teachers’ in terms of knowledge of their subjects, personality, professional ethics ,communication ability, teaching methods and classroom management skills has a significant relationship with students’ attitude towards subject. Keywords: Teacher behaviour, College, Perceptio

Alien Registration- Golder, Ada (Presque Isle, Aroostook County)

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Precautionary credit lines: A means to contain contagion in financial markets?

The liberalization of capital accounts and the integration of financial markets in recent years have helped to spur growth in many emerging markets and have allowed global investors to diversify risks internationally. Furthermore, increased capita! mobility has helped to tame governments in their fiscal and monetary policies. Nevertheless, the Asian currency and financial crisis and its aftermath have revealed structural problems on the national as well as on the international level and have imposed significant costs on emerging markets as well as on the world economy. • Triggered by these developments, a broad international consensus has emerged to support reforms to strengthen the international financial system. The aim of these reforms will be to create an international financial system that captures the benefits of open and integrated financial markets, and at the same time minimizes the risk of financial crises to emerge and spread to other countries. While the former refers to the need for greater transparency, accountability and prudential regulation, the latter is concerned with the improvement of existing and the creation of new mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of financial crises. International institutions such as the IMF can contribute to the stability of the international financial system. A prominent proposal initially raised by the Clinton administration in fall 1998 designs the creation of a new crisis facility of the IMF to prevent contagion in financial markets. On its recent meeting of April 23, the IMF's Executive Board agreed to provide Contingent Credit Lines for its member countries. The goal of such a facility is to provide preventive credit lines to countries whose economies are fundamentally sound, but which are threatened by financial market contagion and which may lose access to capital markets. In the absence of contagion, these countries should therefore be able to rely on a sustained flow of capital from abroad. The new facility gives rise to a number of questions. First, the distinction between countries in need of ex ante policy adjustments and countries that follow sound economic policies, i.e., the eligibility for the new facility, must be resolved in advance. Second, projections about the likely financial requirements of such a facility and the consequences for the Fund's liquidity position are needed. Another issue relates to the question whether and how private and bilateral creditors should be involved in this new facility. Finally, there is a need for clear guidelines about the terms and conditions that would apply to this new facility. However, as shown in the paper, it will prove difficult to fulfill these criteria and to avoid additional problems related to a precautionary credit line. Based on this skeptical judgment, the paper explores a number of alternative means to foster the stability of the international financial system through a better involvement of private sector creditors. This could be achieved through the introduction of option-type mechanisms that would allow debtors to trigger liquidity support in the case of a crisis. A more radical approach would involve limits to creditors in cases when they would like to reduce their short-term exposure. Another avenue would comprise a reorganization of private claims, either by modifying bond contracts or by adapting bankruptcy procedures. The main task for policy makers, however, remains to increase transparency and improve supervision in financial markets and to pursue sound economic policies

The labor market performance of first-generation immigrants: Evidence for Switzerland

This paper is concerned with the study of the labor market performance of immigrants. The unemployment rate is used as an indicator and natives as the reference group for the analysis. The analysis proceeds in two steps. In a first step, probit regressions on the unemployment probabilities are estimated for the pooled crosssection of 1991 and 1995, taking into account nationality- and gender-specific differences. In a second step, and based on the finding that unemployment rates usually differ significantly across sectors, the asymmetry in the sectoral distribution of immigrants with respect to natives is assessed. The empirical results indicate that Swiss and males exhibit significantly lower unemployment probabilities than immigrants and females. Furthermore, immigrants from Non-European countries have not only a higher unemployment probability than natives, but also the largest asymmetry in the employment structure

An Exploration of the Interrelationships between Inclusive Education, School Structure and Flexibility, Collaboration and School Values

School improvement literature and research into inclusive education has advocated a more connected approach to developing an understanding of school effectiveness and inclusion (Florien & Rouse, 2001); yet, knowledge gaps exist in the understanding of how school structure, flexibility, collaborative practice and school values combine to create more inclusive schools. Recent inclusive education research emphasises the need to re-evaluate conceptual models of inclusion and how individual contexts combine process, structure and expertise, to personalise inclusive practice (Kinchella & Senior, 2008). Booth et al.’s (2002) Index for Inclusion proposed three dimensions that contribute to the development of inclusion, inclusive culture, inclusive policy and inclusive practice. Dyson et al. (2002) suggested that attempts to develop inclusive schools should pay attention to the development of ‘inclusive’ cultures and, particularly, to the building of some degree of consensus around inclusive values and development of general principles of school organisation and classroom practice. Concurrently, research by Pang (2004) on school structures suggested four binding forces that hold organisations together, cultural linkage, bureaucratic linkage, loose coupling and tight coupling. This thesis examines the interrelationship between inclusive education, school structure and flexibility, collaboration and school values. A two phase multiple case study approach is used; the first using 6 schools as exploratory case studies, then, 3 as descriptive case studies to help explore the profile of an inclusive school and the interrelationships between the four elements above. The exploratory case studies found a common emerging profile of inclusive schools. The subsequent phase two case studies present a description of the interrelationship between collaborative practices; inclusive schooling and school organisation manifest themselves in similar types of schools. Therefore, this thesis contributes to inclusive education knowledge by proposing how the emerging profiles of inclusive schools contributes to a conceptual model of inclusion that have both theoretical and applied school improvement implications