NGOs, Networking, and Problems of Representation.

Networking is currently recommended as particularly suitable for NGOs to improve performance and enhance impact. Since many NGOs are small and dispersed, networking is commonly seen as a coat-effective means to share information and spread knowledge about grassroots' needs, solutions and best practices. Also, networking is believed to strengthen NGO's ability to speak with one voice and to significantly increase their impact as policy negotiators and advocating agencies. However, while NGO-networking definitely has a potential to improve the undertakings of NGOs and grassroots' organizations in LDCs, much of this potential is not realized. NGOs have been found not to share information voluntarily as they are often fierce competitors for funds, market-shares and clients and - particularly - for the right to represent other, smaller NGOs. The so called 'NGO-community' is heterogenous and there is reason to doubt that it should have only one voice. Too much networking is done to boost the dominance of a few large and well-connected NGOs while too little networking is devoted to practical and grassroot-relevant efforts on the ground.

Tender offers versus block trades: empirical evidence

In this paper we test whether the determinant of a block trade and tender offer probabilities differ and whether the relative magnitude of the security and private benefits can explain the choice of transfer mode. We investigate the Swedish market for corporate control and use the wedge between cash flow rights and voting rights as a proxy for the incentives to extract private benefits. Our results indicate the importance of considering the control transfers through takeovers and block trades as two distinctive events. The likelihood of a public tender offer (block trade) decreases (increases) with the use of dual class shares. The results are consistent with our general hypothesis that the likelihood of block trades relative to public tender offers increases with the incumbent’s incentives to extract private benefits

Method for Identifying Actors in a Knowledge Based Cluster

The objective of the paper is to develop a method through which we can identify the actors (industrial, institutional and individual) who are active in technology development in the same or similar knowledge fields. The paper is, thus, aimed to make a methodological contribution to the literature, which has emerged on the systemic nature of innovation. The method involves broadening out from a starting point in a specific patent class, which corresponds as closely as possibly to the technological area of interest, to a set of related patent classes by using co-classifications and citations. After close scrutiny of both patent classes and patents, the actors in the new classes, as well as in the original class, are then identified. We try out the method on radio wave antennas for communication technology in Sweden. We find a range of firms and other actors in a whole set of industries, which bear little relation to one another in an input-output sense. Although we can not ascertain the extent of linkages or relations between these actors, our hypothesis is that they constitute a cluster around radio wave antenna technology in Sweden.knowledge-based clusters, indicators, patents, similar and complementary technologies, horisontal linkages, knowledge spillovers, actors

Mikä Jeesuksessa on juutalaisinta – Osa 1

Kirjoitus aloittaa projektin, jossa tarkastellaan Jeesuksen juutalaisuuden eri aspekteja. Projekti ilmestyy useampana sopivan mittaisena osana IESUS ABOENSIS -journalin peräkkäisissä numeroissa

Esipuhe suomalaiselle ja kansainväliselle lukijalle

Toisen IESUS ABOENSIS -journalin esipuh

Evaluation of Transportation/Air Quality Model Improvements Based on TOTEMS On-road Driving Style and Tailpipe Emissions Data

In June 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the “Operating Mode Distribution Generator” (OMDG) a tool for developing an operating mode distribution as an input to the Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator model (MOVES). The tool converts basic information about traffic operations – idle time, grade, and average speed – into an operating mode distribution. This tool is designed to make project-level analyses for CO and PM hot-spots easier to conduct with basic traffic activity data. This paper compares the operating mode distributions obtained from this tool with those measured on a vehicle instrumented with the Total On-Board Tailpipe Emissions Measurement System (TOTEMS). TOTEMS generates a wealth of data, including a vehicle’s speed, idle time, and link grade – all of the inputs necessary to run the OMDG. The comparison is made for 4 signalized intersections on an urban arterial in Burlington, Vermont. This analysis shows that the OMDG, when compared to 31 test runs of an instrumented vehicle, was more accurate under circumstances of no to low grade and higher congestion (higher stop time). Estimation inaccuracies are most critical for specific operating modes -- for CO under high VSP conditions; for PM10 under braking conditions (i.e. VSP \u3c0). This investigation has developed a method for quantitatively evaluating tools designed to simplify a mobile emissions analysis. Future work will include the development of models for estimating operating modes of a traffic stream using traffic microsimulation and highlighting those parameters that are most critical to calibrate for obtaining an accurate operating mode distribution estimate

Foreword for Finnish and Foreign Readers

Foreword to the second issue of IESUS ABOENSI