Oodi katusoiton ilolle

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

A new climatic periodisation of the Gold and Guinea Coasts in West Africa, 1750-1798 : a reconstruction of the climate during the slave trade era, including an analysis of the climatically facilitated Trans-Atlantic slave trade

Avsikten med studien är att producera den första rekonstruktionen av det västafrikanska klimatet mellan 1750 och 1798. Kunskapen om det västafrikanska klimatet före 1800-talet är till dags dato bristfällig, vilket gör det svårare att förstå framtida klimatvariationer. Det är bristen på instrumentell meteorologisk data (temperatur, regnmängd, och lufttryck), vilket i princip bara täcker det senaste århundradet, som är orsaken till att tidigare klimat är bristfälligt kartlagda. Klimatet och miljön är även sådana att proxydata från ’naturens arkiv’ (såsom t.ex. trädringar) har begränsad användning. Således är historiska dokument, främst från gästande kulturer/nationer/intressenter, innehållande deskriptiv information om vädret och klimatet, klimatforskarens viktigaste källa. Genom att använda tidigare, för det här syftet, oanvända källor påvisade den här undersökningen att klimatet i västra Afrika och Guldkusten (Ghana) har ändrats sedan 1700-talet. Monsunregnen var svagare och kortvarigare, speciellt den sekundära regnperioden under hösten var betydligt svagare än idag. Det förekom kraftiga årliga variationer i monsunregnen, men sett ur längre tidsperspektiv utmärktes torrare och blötare perioder. Studien kunde också visa en viss korrelation mellan det globala väderfenomenet El Niño och regnperiodens intensitet längs med kusten. Flera torrperioder sammanföll med tidigare registrerade El Niño sekvenser. Speciellt slutet av 1760-talet påverkades kraftigt av El Niño och även det globala klimatet verkar ha genomgått graftiga förändringar just dessa år. På basis av den nya klimatrekonstruktionen genomfördes också en jämförelse av klimatets inverkan på den transatlantiska slavhandeln från 1750 till 1798, en fråga som historikerna gjort anspelningar på i över 30 år. Utförseln av slavar från västra Afrika var som kraftigast under 1700-talets andra hälft. Analysen visade att slavhandeln delvis tilltog i samband med klimatanomalierna.

A rose is a rose is a rose? Defining significant properties of social science research data

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Tropical inselbergs: habitat types, adaptive strategies and diversity patterns

Inselbergs are isolated rock outcrops that rise abruptly above the surrounding plains. Granitic and gneissic inselbergs are geologically and geomorphologically old and occur throughout a broad spectrum of climatic zones. They form microclimatically and edaphically dry growth sites that support a highly specialized vegetation. Based on physiognomic criteria a number of habitat types can be distinguished that are widespread on inselbergs (e.g. ephemeral flush vegetation, monocotyledonous mats, rock pools). Three hot spots of global inselberg plant diversity can be identified which are both rich in species and endemics: a) southeastern Brazil, b) Madagascar and c) southwestern Australia.

Notas sobre a universidade e o conceito de formação em Max Horkheimer

O intuito deste texto pode ser retratado através de duas tarefas principais que se propõe. De um lado, realiza um balanço - limitado e parcial, na medida em que trata de um recorte bastante circunscrito - da reflexão da teoria crítica da sociedade de Max Horkheimer acerca do problema da universidade, notadamente, no período imediatamente posterior ao fim da Segunda Guerra Mundial, e do modo como se relaciona com o conceito de formação (Bildung), bastante caro à tradição da universidade alemã moderna. Completado esse passo, o qual estabelece laços com o papel ocupado pela socialização nessa ótica teórica, visa-se, ao final, delinear algumas reflexões preliminares a propósito da contemporaneidade que, entende-se, podem beneficiar-se do enfoque concedido ao problema, com base na situação singular em que o pensamento de Horkheimer foi formulado.

1998 Brock Baseball Team

1998 Brock Badger men's baseball team photo. Front Row (L to R): Bill Gillen, Ryan Villers, Greg Arbour, Mark Cheeseman, Andrew Tinnish, Rick Bottomley, Matt Fletcher, Brad Namtzu, Darryl Presley, Dan Pino, Grant Giffen, Mike Caruso, Mark Reilly Back Row (L to R): Jeff Lounsbury (Head Coach), Jayar Green, Creston Rudolph, Ryan Fisher, Jamie Trull, Stefan Strecker, Andrew Robb, Jeremy Walker, Ryan Johns, Matt Stezycki, Steve Lester, Fabio Del Rio, Jarrod Haase, Jess Dixon, Rick Falconer (Pitching Coach) Absent: Marc Purdy, Ian Bala, Marc LePage (Asst. Coach), Waybe Briggs-Jude (Asst. Coach)

Hipanoamérica y angloamerica : disparidades en la conducta social

UANL

Sharing a River

A group of agents located along a river have quasi-linear preferences over water and money. We ask how the water should be allocated and what money transfers should be performed. We are interested in efficiency, stability (in the sense of the core), and fairness (in a sense to be defined). We first show that the cooperative game associated with our problem is convex : its core is therefore large and easily described. Next, we propose the following fairness requirement : no group of agents should enjoy a welfare higher than what it could achieve in the absence of the remaining agents. We prove that only one welfare vector in the core satisfies this condition : it is the marginal contribution vector corresponding to the ordering of the agents along the river. We discuss how it could be decentralized or implemented.

Organizational Design of R&D Activities

This paper addresses the question of whether R&D should be carried out by an independent research unit or be produced in-house by the firm marketing the innovation. We define two organizational structures. In an integrated structure, the firm that markets the innovation also carries out and finances research leading to the innovation. In an independent structure, the firm that markets the innovation buys it from an independent research unit which is financed externally. We compare the two structures under the assumption that the research unit has some private information about the real cost of developing the new product. When development costs are negatively correlated with revenues from the innovation, the integrated structure dominates. The independent structure dominates in the opposite case.

Sharing a River among Satiable Countries

With diminishing global water reserves the problem of water allocation becomes increasingly important. We consider the problem of efficiently sharing a river among a group of satiable countries. Inducing countries to efficiently cooperate requires monetary compensations via international agreements. We show that cooperation of the other countries exerts a positive externality on the benefit of a coalition. Our problem is to distribute the benefit of efficiently sharing the river under these constraints. If the countries outside of a coalition do not cooperate at all, then the downstream incremental distribution is the unique compromise between the absolute territorial sovereignty (ATS) doctrine and the unlimited territorial integrity (UTI) doctrine. If all countries outside of a coalition cooperate, then there may not exist any distribution satisfying the UTI doctrine.