Great Shock Research Articles

Making the Most of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Abstracts Thomas Piketty’s monumental Capital in the Twenty-First Century has transported us to a higher understanding of the historical evolution of inequality. This essay attempts to inventory the different avenues of research, more or less promising, that scholars might usefully pursue when building on his work. The most important path to follow is the history of inequalities in income that Piketty and his team have flagged up so well, supported by the book’s history of the great shocks of the twentieth century and the political responses that they elicited. Less promising is the book’s emphasis on wealth, capital, and the rate of return. The best predictions of future inequality can be achieved by merging Piketty and his team’s history of those who hold the top 10 percent of income with works dedicated to the history of inequality within the lower 90 percent. It is also necessary to integrate other scholarship that has demonstrated that the sort of democratic system Piketty calls for would have positive effects on growth.

Performance of a suspended biofilter as a new bioreactor for removal of toluene

A suspended biofilter, as a new bioreactor, was constructed for removal of VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The biofilter bed (height of 30cm, diameter 16cm and working volume of 6.0L) was formed by applying suspended carrier with porous surface and the carrier itself has a density slightly lower than water. According to the results, it was found that the suspended biofilter was suitable to treat the toluene-contaminated stream. Since it could startup quickly, tolerate great transient shock loadings, and possess average removal efficiency higher than 90.2% in a toluene loading range of 11.0–58.5gm−3h−1. What is more, it also gained a maximum elimination capacity of 113.6gm−3h−1 at a toluene loading rate of 272.2gm−3h−1. The remarkable performance could be contributed to the rich bacterial communities for toluene degradation. A following 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis reveals that the communities contain high efficient toluene-degrading bacteria, i.e., Acinetobacter sp. Tol 5, Burkholderia, and Comamonadaceae. In addition, after a long-term operation of 141 days, no clogging was observed although there was a high biomass concentration in the biofilter bed. It demonstrated that this novel suspended biofilter overcome clogging and accumulation of biomass, which are the drawback of fixed biofilter.

Surface modification of a low-density ceramic for gas–solid separation

The surface of low-density ceramic (LDC) material was modified by using high-viscosity silica sol. The optimal preparation parameters for the sol were obtained using an orthogonal experimental design. The influence of the drying condition on the coating quality and even on the value of fine particulate matter after filtering (VFPM2.5) was studied. The coating morphology was characterized by using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicate that the VFPM2.5 decreased from 25.2μg/m3 to 0.3μg/m3. The regeneration performance of the LDC filter elements was significantly improved by the surface modification. The baseline pressure drop using the LDC with the coating is less than 138.61Pa. The results show that the coating makes a negligible effect on the pressure drop in comparison with the conventional method of modification. Moreover, the LDC with the coating demonstrated great isothermal oxidation performance and thermal shock resistance during the filtration process.

Value-at-Risk Estimation of Carbon Spot Market Based on the Combined GARCH-EVT-VaR Model

Based on the analysis of the dynamics of carbon price volatility, this article proposes to develop a combined extreme value theory and conditional variance based Value-at-Risk model (GARCH-EVT-VaR) for short-term risk measurement and estimation of the carbon spot market under the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The model is implied to the EUA spot market and compared with the traditional GARCH-VaR model, the empirical results show that the GARCH based model underestimates market risks by overlooking the great price shocks, but the GARCH-EVT based model has the ability to take those extreme jumps into its risk estimations.

Authentic Assessment and Evaluation: Paramount Means for the Maximization of Teaching and Learning

The rate of poor performance of students in Senior School Certificate of Education (SSCE), or in West African Education Certificate (WAEC) is quite alarming. Additionally, the poor performance of so many graduates in teaching profession is quite disturbing. I have heard many teachers exclaimed: “how did this or these student(s) arrive at senior class levels?” As a teacher in senior school level, I have also observed several students who could not make headway at senior level. I began to wonder whether they pass any of their primary and junior secondary classes at all. My greatest shock came when I was involved in an interview of a graduate with degree in Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineer who applied for a teaching post for Senior Secondary School I through III Mathematics. I was asked to set questions for both written and oral interview for him/her. I decided to set questions based on SSS I – III syllabus since he/she was to teach those classes, but was shocked that he/she could not attempt any of the questions except for a few in Junior class level. I was perplexed on what could be the cause. Among the responses that came to my head were lack of proper Assessment and Evaluation (A&E) of students on the part of teachers in the previous classes, exam malpractice or expo and lack of proper supervision in the exam hall, parents’ and peer pressure and students’ “false” ambitions. In this dilemma, I wish to begin with a phrase from Socrates. He believed that the “unexamined life is not worth living for man” or woman. Similarly, the art of teaching and learning without regular and authentic A&E is a useless or aimless exercise. Authentic A&E are unattainable in a situation where there is no good plan and implementation of general and specific curriculum outcomes and regular supervision of teachers and students. They are not realizable where there are bundles of teachers or educators that are not proficient in the teaching and learning process. Authentic assessment/evaluation is possible where teachers make use of good assessment strategies and tools. Every teacher or student needs improvement or growth because life is never static, but dynamic. In the Nigeria’s context and elsewhere, it can never be over emphasized that the issue of authentic A&E should be seen as indispensible measures for the maximization and high productivity in teaching and learning. Due to the page limit of this work, the issue of parents’/peer pressure and students’ “false” ambitions is beyond the scope of this work. For this reason, this paper will explores the concepts, purpose, goals, types, importance, methods, etc of assessment and evaluation. Finally, the author makes some recommendations for effective practice of assessment and evaluation at all levels of education but especially in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions for greater promotion of teaching and learning. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n7p31

New empirical evidence on income convergence

This paper aims at providing further evidence on stochastic income convergence for a group of 30 countries over a century long period, from 1900 to 2008, utilizing novel econometric methods for determining structural breaks and unit roots. Recent studies have noted the problem of low power and size distortions in unit root tests, and spurious rejections that plague unit root tests which treat structural breaks asymmetrically. The proposed methodology used in this paper enables robust detection and estimation of breaks, and reliable inference regarding the presence of unit roots conditional on the presence or absence of breaks. We find that the periods of War, the Great Depression and oil price shocks to be possible reasons for the occurrence of breaks. The unit root test results indicate limited evidence of stochastic income convergence. We find none of the current upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries to show convergence, while high-income countries such as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and USA show signs of convergence toward the world average.

China's North Korea Policy: Rethink or Recharge?

Abstract: There has been much speculation lately about a Chinese rethink on North Beijing has clearly been exasperated with Pyongyang. What is going on with Beijing's Pyongyang policy? Has there actually been a reassessment of the PRC's policy toward the DPRK? Is there a military component to this policy, and what do we know about planning by China's People's Liberation Army for a Korea contingency? This article answers those questions. ********** There has been much speculation lately about a Chinese rethink on North (1) Certainly, Beijing's exasperation with Pyongyang has been palpable. The degree of debate evident in the People's Republic of (PRC) over its policy toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in recent years is unprecedented and comes on the heels of a series of particularly provocative acts by Pyongyang. (2) Since 2006 these acts include a series of missile tests and nuclear tests each conducted apparently without prior notification or consultation with Beijing. Additionally, strains in bilateral relations were triggered by provocations such as the torpedoing of a Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy corvette, the Cheonan, and the shelling of Yeongpyong Island in 2010. Further strains in Beijing-Pyongyang ties followed the death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011, and the elevation of his son Kim Jong Un to the position of DPRK supreme leader. Perhaps the most recent provocation from the PRC perspective was the execution of Kim Jong Un's uncle, Jang Sung Taek, in December 2013. Jang appears to have been China's key interlocutor with the current North administration and his death came as a great shock to Beijing. Moreover, it raised questions about Pyongyang's policy direction and introduced uncertainties into the DPRK's relationship with the PRC. (3) China, of course, experienced its own leadership transition at the 18th Party Congress in November 2012 and the National People's Congress in March 2013 with the appointment of a generation of leaders. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary and PRC President Xi Jinping, while maintaining general continuity with the policies of his predecessor Hu Jintao, has sought to put his own imprimatur on the affairs of state, espousing a China Dream and proposing a new type of great power relationship with the United States. Do these changes include a revamped North Korea policy? Chinese officials appear to be changing the term they use to label the bloody struggle waged on the Peninsula six decades ago. During Vice President Li Yuanchao's visit to North Korea in July 2013 to commemorate the crucible of the China-North Korea alliance, Li purposely used the simple phrase Korean rather than the title that has been used for five decades, the War to Resist America and Aid Korea. (4) This semantic change may be as much about a public relations effort to improve relations with the United States as it is about signaling a change in the PRC's perceptions of Pyongyang or policy toward North Beijing appears eager not to antagonize the United States unnecessarily. But may also intend to signal to North Korea not to take its longtime ally for granted. In any event, a high level of frustration with North Korea endures and this has manifested itself in a remarkable public airing of anger and outrage by Chinese scholars, analysts, and members of the public. One episode in May 2012 triggered a particularly vitriolic reaction from Chinese netizens: the kidnapping of twenty-eight Chinese fishermen by North naval vessels. The story unleashed a torrent of anti-DPRK sentiment becoming one of the hottest trending topics in China's microblogging sites. (5) Although these open displays of deep disaffection with North Korea are genuine, they do not appear to signify a policy shift by Beijing toward Pyongyang. Indeed, the public airing of ire about China's North Korea problem has yet to translate into a sea change in Beijing's policy towards Pyongyang. …

Problems of intelligence services in the process of adapting to contemporary challenges, risks and threats

Intelligence services around the world conduct a continuous and hard battle to adjust to the new conditions created by contemporary challenges, risks, threats, and globalization. In spite of continuous efforts to improve the methodology and operation of the intelligence services, there have been security failures. Great shock to the global intelligence community came on 11 September 2001, when Al Qaeda carried out terrorist attacks on the territory of the United States of America. These terrorist attacks marked a turning point in the perception of national and global security in the world. All these changes have led to the emergence of various problems in adapting the intelligence services to the current security situation. In order to overcome the gap between the needs, current assets and capabilities of the intelligence services, it is necessary to insist on the continued development and improvement of the intelligence activity. This development need to involve both the redefining of the position of the intelligence services in the country, and the implementation of new operational methodology. This is the only way to keep up with modern challenges, risks and threats, whose exponents consistently aspire to advancing and finding new forms of threats, their maxim being: 'Maximum effect with minimum means'.

Left Radial Access Is Preferable to Right Radial Access for the Diagnostic or Interventional Coronary Procedures: A Meta-Analysis Involving 22 Randomized Clinical Trials and 10287 Patients

ObjectiveThe transradial approach has been used extensively for both diagnostic and interventional coronary procedures; however, there is no universal consensus hitherto on the optimal choice of radial access from either the left or the right artery. We therefore sought to meta-analyze available randomized clinical trials to compare the left with the right radial access for the diagnostic or interventional coronary procedures.Methods and ResultsFour electronic databases including the PubMed, EMBASE, Wanfang, and CNKI were searched up to April 2013. In total, there were 22 qualified randomized trials involving 5317 and 4970 patients assigned to the left and the right radial accesses, respectively. Data were extracted independently by two investigators. Analyses of the full data set indicated significant reductions in fluoroscopy time (seconds) (weighted mean difference; 95% confidence interval; P: −36.18; −53.28 to −18.53; <0.0005) and contrast use (mL) (−2.88; −5.41 to −0.34; 0.026) in patients with the left radial access compared to those with the right radial access, and there was strong evidence of heterogeneity but low probability of publication bias. The failure rate of radial access from the left was relatively lower than that from the right (odds ratio: 0.83; 95% confidence interval: 0.68−1.01; P = 0.064). Further in meta-regression analyses, body mass index was found to be a potential source of heterogeneity for both fluoroscopy time (regression coefficient: 35.85; P = 0.025) and catheter number (regression coefficient: 0.35; P = 0.018).ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate that left radial access is preferable to right radial access in terms of fluoroscopy time and contrast use for the diagnostic or interventional coronary procedures. The import of this study lies in its great shock to the concept of convenient radial access from the right artery.

Changes in Financial Market Regulations from Pre-Crisis to Post-Crisis Period in Singapore

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) was the greatest shock to the world financial system since the Great Depression eight decades earlier, and although it created problems globally, the main effects were felt in the financial markets of the USA and Europe. It has resulted in a plethora of studies examining its causes, and while there is general agreement on a list of contributing factors, there is less agreement on which of these were most important and the consequent implications for desirable or needed regulatory changes. Singapore has weathered the Asian financial crisis better than most Asian economies. Although Singapore has weathered the crisis better than many Asian nations, its close integration with the regional economies means that it could not walk away completely unscathed. This paper examines the roots of Singapore’s resilience and assesses Singapore’s policy responses to the crisis. It argues that Singapore has used the exchange rate and wage instruments effectively during the crisis. Despite the crisis, Singapore has pressed ahead with financial reforms including liberalising the Singapore dollar,to ensure the long-term competitiveness of its economy. The regulatory responses being driven internationally, and applied individually, by nations with highly developed financial systems involve a movement away from minimalist regulation and reliance on “light touch supervision” and market discipline, towards a more interventionist approach which many emerging markets tended to favor. Examples can be seen in a willingness to consider capital controls as part of macro-prudential policy and new requirements for minimum holdings of liquid assets by banks. A dilemma for policy makers in designing an optimal regulatory structure lies in the deficiencies of theory and empirical evidence relating to the stability and operations of financial markets. Many developed countries took unprecedented extreme measures because the potential damage to their financial systems was immense. A combination of high leverage and poor asset quality put the entire financial system on the brink of collapse. In terms of the regulatory response, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Monetary Authority of Singapore) recognized the importance of adapting to accommodate external conditions.Therefore, this project firstly gives the background of the financial crisis and then goes on to explain the impact it has had on the global economy with special focus on the economy of Singapore. It also illustrates the steps undertaken to mitigate the crisis and also lays down the regulatory reforms bought about post the financial crisis in Singapore.

FTL 2

NAND flash memory has been widely used to build embedded devices such as smartphones and solid state drives (SSD) because of its high performance, low power consumption, great shock resistance and small form factor. However, its lifetime and performance are greatly constrained by partial page updates, which will lead to early depletion of free pages and frequent garbage collections. On the one hand, partial page updates are prevalent as a large portion of I/O does not modify file contents drastically. On the other hand, general-purpose cache usually does not specifically consider and eliminate duplicated contents, despite its popularity. In this paper, we propose a hybrid approach called FTL 2 , which employs both logging and mapping techniques in flash translation layer (FTL), to tackle the endurance problem and performance degradation caused by partial page updates in flash memory. FTL 2 logs the latest contents in a high-speed temporary storage, called Content Cache to handle partial page updates. Experimental results show that FTL 2 can greatly reduce page writes and postpone garbage collections with a small overhead.

The unloved dollar standard: from Bretton Woods to the rise of China

The world dollar standard is an accident of history that greatly facilitates international trade and exchange-even trade not directly involving the United States. Since 1945, the dollar has been the key currency for clearing international payments among banks including interventions by governments to set exchange rates, the dominant currency for invoicing trade in primary commodities, and the principal currency in official exchange reserves. Although the strong network effects of the dollar standard greatly increases the financial efficiency of multilateral trade, nobody loves it. Erratic U.S. monetary and exchange rate policies have continually made foreigners unhappy. A weak and falling dollar led to the worldwide price inflations of the 1970s and contributed to the disastrous asset bubbles and global credit crisis of the noughties -- including the global credit crunch of 2008-09. Dollar weakness aggravated the postwar world's three great oil shocks in 1973, 1979, and 2007-08. After 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank's policy of keeping short-term interest rates near zero and out of alignment with emerging markets on the dollar standard's periphery, makes the international monetary system vulnerable to 'carry' trades: hot money inflows into the periphery that cause a loss of monetary control, commodity bubbles, and worldwide inflation . When these carry-trade bubbles suddenly unwind, they can result in huge swings in exchange rates and credit crunches. The asymmetrical nature of the dollar standard also makes many Americans unhappy because they cannot control their own exchange rate. Under the rules of the dollar standard game as explained in chapters 2 and 3 of this book, foreign governments may opt to set their exchange rates against the dollar while, to prevent conflict, the U.S. government typically does not intervene. Nevertheless, Americans often complain about how foreigners set their dollar exchange rates unfairly. Japan bashing in the late 1970s to the mid-1990s over the alleged under valuation of the yen, and China bashing in the new millennium over the alleged undervaluation of the renminbi, are two cases in point. Thus, while nobody loves the dollar standard, the revealed preference of both governments and private participants in the foreign exchange markets since 1945 is to continue to use it. As the principal monetary mechanism ensuring that international trade remains robustly multilateral rather than narrowly bilateral, it is a remarkable survivor that is too valuable to lose and too difficult to replace. This book provides historical and analytical perspectives on the different phases of the postwar dollar standard in order to better understand its resilience in spite of the great volatility in today's global monetary system. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/9780199937004/toc.html

Obituary: Kuan-Teh Jeang

Dear colleaguesOur loyal friend Kuan-Teh Jeang, “Teh” to friends and colleagues, passed away unexpectedly at the age of 54 on the evening of January 27, 2013. Great shock and sorrow was apparent in the avalanche of email messages by the very many international colleagues with whom Teh interacted over the years. Many of us came to know Teh as an energetic and gifted scientist for whom we had much respect and affection.

Numerical Simulation on the Dynamic Response of Buried Pipelines Subjected to Blast Loads

When the shock wave caused by explosion in geotechnical medium encountered buried pipeline, the buried pipeline may be destroyed. Use the LS-DYNA program to describe the deformation of buried pipelines under explosion ground shock. The results indicate that the process of the stress on pipe is instantaneous, and the back of buried pipelines against explosion center suffers greater instantaneous pulling stress in axis direction. The stress on the pipes, which is brought by the weaponary explosion, is involved with the distance between the pipe and explosion center and the diameter of pipe, among which the former involves greater. And the smaller pipe would get greater shock.

Disaster and Renewal: The Praxis of Shock in the Surrealist City Novel

Disaster and Renewal: The Praxis of Shock in the Surrealist City Novel

The Swiss Vote on Limiting Second Homes

The Alps have an important role in defining the Swiss national identity, and play a major part in forging the country’s image from the beginning of tourism in the 18th and 19th centuries. In a federalist country which assigns large decision powers to the cantonal and communal levels, local and national interests as to how to develop this particular space can profoundly diverge. The vote held on March 11th, 2012 on the Franz Weber initiative introducing a ban on building new holiday residences in touristic communes was a blatant example of such an opposition. The success of the initiative, albeit with a tiny majority, was a great shock; its territorial imprint was evident, drawing a line between alpine and prealpine cantons on one side, and mainland cantons on the other side. This paper proposes a spatial analysis of this vote and put it in context through a historical perspective. Indeed, of all the votes held since 1950 with an environmental or landscape component, we can find only one with the same territorial pattern – in 1965, “against inflation in the building industry” – as the 2012 vote. In all the other votes held on those subjects, other splits – linguistic, religious, or regional – manifested themselves, allowing the alpine populations to find allies. This paper asks thus the question as to whether the long-lived solidarity of mainland Switzerland with the Alps tends to dissipate.

Flow Field Simulation Analysis of the Inner Stack of Coal-Fired Power Plant

The flow field of inner stack of one coal-fired power plant in Shanghai was simulated. The results showed that there was a larger turbulent region at the upper parts of the entrance in the stack. The inner wall at the opposite of the entrance withstands a much greater shock, and this region is badly worn. The speed in the central and upper region is more stable. The stack is basically running in a vacuum state, which contributes to corrosion mitigation. The temperature shows a decrease trend with the increase of height in the range of 10°C. The temperature of the center part is slightly higher than the ambient part. And with the increase of the stack height, the radial temperature gradient increases.

Human Rights and the Helsinki Final Act: From USSR to Contemporary Russia

Let me begin this presentation with a tribute to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. In the years 1987, 1988, and 1989 I visited Moscow every few months and, from visit to visit I saw the totalitarian fog that had hung over the country lift. Undoubtedly, there were many people in the Soviet Union who contributed to that lifting of the fog, but it would not have happened if the person in the top leadership position in the country had not led the way. I believe that Gorbachev is one of the heroes of the cause of freedom in the Twentieth Century. In the 1960s I had occasion to ask an expert on the Soviet Union how long he thought the Soviet system would last. His response was: ‘‘Until the generation that reached political maturity after Stalin’s death gets to the top of the ladder.’’ I remembered that remark in 1985, when Gorbachev was elected and checked what his age was when Stalin died. I discovered that he had just turned 22. That left me with the question of whether Gorbachev could be considered to have been politically mature when he reached the age of 22. What I discovered a decade later, when I read Gorbachev’s Memoirs, is that he reached political maturity at a much earlier age, at the age of 6, to be precise. What he describes in his memoirs is the arrest, in the course of the 1937/1938 purges of his grandfather, in whose home he lived at that time, on a totally false charge of Trotskyism. He describes how the neighbors began shunning the family’s house ‘‘as if it were plague-stricken’’ and that the boys in the neighborhood avoided him. He adds: ‘‘All this was a great shock to me and has remained engraved in my memory ever since.’’

Howard E. Zimmerman (1926-2012)

Howard E. Zimmerman (1926-2012)

An integrated approach to optimizing skin delivery of cosmetic and pharmaceutical actives

The academic literature on skin delivery provides countless examples of scientific insights into specific aspects of the overall process. For the practical formulator, however, it is difficult to know how to combine such insights in a way that fits into the realities of commercial formulations. In this study, five key principles are combined into an integrated approach that can be applied to real-world formulations. Given the complexities of skin science, the integrated approach cannot be expected to be highly precise. Instead, it is intended as a way for a formulation team to balance the many conflicting issues. The predictions are sufficiently specific to be examined by those with the appropriate analytical resources and data on formulation efficacy. It is hoped that such challenges will allow the approach to be refined for the future.