Interactive Web-Based Map: Applications to Large Data Sets in the Geosciences

Current advances in computer hardware, information technology and data collection techniques have produced very large data sets in a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. We must harness this opportunity to visualize and extract useful information from geophysical and geological data. We have taken the task of data mining by implementing a map-like approach over a web server for interrogating the data, using a client-server paradigm. The spatial-data is mapped onto a two-dimensional grid from which the user (client) can quiz the data with the map-interface as a user extension. The data is stored on the server, while the computational gateway separating the client and the server can be the front-end of an electronic publication, electronic classroom, a survey, or an e-business. We have used a combination of Java, Java3D, and Perl for processing the data and communicating between the client and the server. The user can interrogate the geospatial data over any particular region with arbitrary dimensions and then receive back relevant statistical analysis, such as the histogram plots and local statistics. We have applied this method for the following data sets: (1.) distribution of prime numbers (2.) two-dimensional mantle convection (3.) three-dimensional mantle convection (4.) high-resolution satellite reflectance data over multiple wavelengths (5.) molecular dynamics describing the flow of blood in narrow vessels. Using the map-interface, one can actually interrogate this data over the Internet.     

The business passenger niche: Comparing legacy carriers and southwest during a national recession

We examine how legacy and low-cost air carriers’ roles in serving business passengers in the US changed during the global economic recession from 2007. Quarterly data is examined to test the impact of a recession on the air travel behavior. We find that since 2007 business passengers represent a declining proportion of legacy carriers’ passenger volume, while they represent an increasing proportion of Southwest’s passengers. This trend suggests that Southwest’s market niche has shifted, and that the airline now plays a role similar to that of legacy carriers.     

民主的分级?对替代性概念的实证检验

一些颇具影响力的学者武断地认为：民主应该用二分法进行测量。这种观点不但从理论上而且从方法上都对使用级差法来测量民主的通行做法提出了挑战。此做法曾被那些从事民主研究的重量级方法论学家所推崇。本文拟提出几种实证检验方法，来评价各种竞争性策略。总的说来，有证据表明，等级测量法具有更高的效度和信度。因此，我们应该相信，特定案例与民主概念的对应在程度上是各不相同的——我们能够而且应该测量这种“程度”。     

Change and stability in public workforce development: a 10-year study of new officers in an urban police department

ABSTRACT

Workforce development is central to public management theory and practice. However, little is known about the impact that organizations have on public workforce development. This paper contributes by examining the attitudes, identities, and motivations of an entering cohort of police officers over a 10-year period. Analysing survey responses, the paper shows little evidence that the department radically remade entrants or that the fit between entrants and the department was a key determinant of attrition. Because police socialization is particularly intense, these findings suggest that public workforce development may be more determined by pre-entry selection and recruitment than by post-entry influences.     

Term-limit evasions and the non-compliance cycle

Executive term limits are evidently under stress in many jurisdictions. One mode in which they are evaded is through the formal revision or abrogation of a constitution. Such a process accelerates a pernicious cycle in which constitutional non-compliance begets constitutional instability, which in turn begets subsequent non-compliance. Such a non-compliance cycle is a core problem in law, and one that deserves more careful examination in various domains. This essay unearths original historical evidence of term-limit provisions and executive tenure in an effort to illuminate and evaluate the phenomenon. A background concern is that of international (and domestic) approaches to term-limit evasion. One intellectual response is that of militant democracy. The logic of that approach would imply the entrenchment and protection of term limits, which would presumably disrupt the cycle of non-compliance.

     

Global Innovative R&D Offshoring with Heterogeneous Labor: The Role of IPR‐Protection on Technology Transfer and the Brain Drain Effect

Using a North–South framework, this study proposes a theoretical general equilibrium model with multiple Northern firms offshoring innovative R&D to the South. Northern firms vary in their ability to manage Southern researchers, and Southern researchers vary in quality. Southern researchers of higher quality are more productive but also more likely to leave the firm and start a competing firm through imitation of the product. A strengthening of Southern IPR‐protection increases offshoring, global welfare, and innovation while eliminating employment opportunities for skilled Southern researchers. Therefore, stronger Southern IPR‐protection has the potential to contribute to the emigration of highly qualified researchers. The model then predicts the effects of changes to the Northern country as a result of this increased emigration. Increases in Northern technology increase offshoring and innovation while decreasing the amount of technology transferred. The effect of an increase in Northern researcher quality depends on the degree of the increase in productivity as a result of the higher quality workers.     

Garett Jones,Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

The Review of Austrian Economics -     

Analyzing the duration of IPOs from offering to listing using the Cox proportional hazards model

Portuguese Economic Journal - This study examines the duration from the offering to the listing of IPOs issued on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during the period lasting from 1995 to 2017....     

The pivotal roles of product knowledge and corporate social responsibility in event sponsorship effectiveness

The authors apply consumer theories of cognition to event marketing specifically in relation to corporate sponsorships. Upon conducting field surveys with attendees (n = 1636) at an international sporting event with a multinational sponsor, the authors demonstrate the pivotal roles that 1) attendees' knowledge regarding the sponsor's product, and 2) perception of the sponsor's commitment to corporate social responsibility have on successful event sponsorship. Specifically, structural model results show how attendees' knowledge of the event sponsor's products and perceptions of the sponsor as socially responsible enhance attendees' commitment to the sponsor and intentions to purchase the sponsor's products. These results provide scholars and managers with means of improving event marketing communications.