Suchergebnisse

The OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program is part of the Oregon Department of Transportation's 10-year, $3 billion Oregon Transportation Investment Act (OTIA) program. In 2003, the Oregon Legislature enacted the third Oregon Transportation Investment Act, or OTIA III. The package includes $1.3 billion for bridges on the state highway system. During the next eight to 10 years, ODOT's OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program will repair or replace hundreds of aging bridges on major corridors throughout Oregon. Oregon Bridge Delivery Partners (OBDP) is a private-sector firm that has contracted with the Oregon Department of Transportation to manage the $1.3 billion state bridge program. OBDP, a joint venture formed by HDR Engineering Inc. and Fluor Enterprises Inc., will ensure quality projects at least cost and manage engineering, environmental, financial, safety, and other aspects of the state bridge program. During the first 12 months of execution, OBDP has developed a framework to integrate the myriad of tools previously developed by ODOT for the Program, including environmental-performance standards, a joint batched-programmatic biological opinion, environmental and engineering baseline reports, a comprehensive mitigation and conservation strategy, and a web-based GIS. The purpose of this framework is to identify environmental concerns early in the project-development process and communicate these concerns to design teams and regulatory agencies to promote environmental stewardship through impact avoidance and minimization. Innovative and creative use of technology has been a keystone to the framework. Environmental professionals input the relevant environmental data for a project in a comprehensive, online Pre-Construction Assessment (PCA) that links to a GIS database. The data are used to identify project challenges (e.g., archaeological sites or wetlands within the project footprint) and compile electronic reports to the regulatory agencies. Environmental metrics (such as exempted T and E species "take" and wetland mitigation debits/credits) are tracked using the GIS database. One system meets the needs of multiple stakeholders. Three "levels" of the PCA have been developed that coincide with the stages of project development. The initial submittal (Level 1 PCA) identifies critical environmental concerns and permitting constraints. The second submittal (Level 2 PCA) outlines the solutions to the earlier concerns. The final submittal (Level 3 PCA) includes the project specifications necessary to comply with the Program-specific and standard environmental permits. Phasing the submittals in this way allows early and continuous communication between the design teams and the regulatory agencies, thereby promoting environmental stewardship through collaboration and coordination. This electronic system allows the OBDP Environmental Team to verify that each environmental regulation is addressed, identify environmentally sensitive projects and project elements, track critical environmental metrics, and communicate with the regulatory community. The technological component of this framework has been a cornerstone of the Environmental Management System (EMS) developed for the Program. This system can be easily applied to other programs within ODOT and other DOTs.

The privatisation and commercialisation Decree No. 25 of 1988 (amended 1999) which provided the legal backing for the Technical Committee of Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC), began the major paradigm shift in the conceptualisation of public enterprises in Nigeria. The paper primarily examined the privatisation exercise in Nigeria since 1988. It also attempted to provide measures that will simplify the complex process of privatisation with the hope of lessening the probability of crisis. The paper considered the impact of privatisation on performance of privatised companies, changes in employment and the increase in the prices of commodities of the enterprises vis-à-vis their gross income towards the overall good governance of the Nigerian society.The data for the paper were mainly secondary; and were drawn from the financial statements of companies in the stock Exchange and other stock Exchange reports, Central Bank Bulletins, publications and published reports of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. Newspapers and publication of the Federal Office of Statistics are other sources. The data were analysed by trend analysis using absolute figures, percentages and ratios based on the past record on privatisation in Nigeria.However, the study discovered that only a few successful enterprises, Flour Mills, African Petroleum, National oil and Chemical Marketing Company Limited (NOLCHEM) were partially privatised. The commercialisation of enterprises such as National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Nigeria Telecommunications (NITEL) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), hardly showed any significant improvement in their operational and economic performance.The papers showed that employment levels were affected by privatisation. Between 1989 and 1993, the public sector accounted for more job losses than privatised companies. When privatised firms employment rose, public and private sectors still had lower employment levels. The sharp increase in prices between 1992 and 1994 did not create a sufficient increase in gross earnings for 1994. The results revealed that a reduction in public control would have an effect (at least in the short term) on prices. Profits increase but the extent to which this increase can attributed to reduction of government controls is not clear. Three banks witnessed sharp increase in investments and profitability immediately after privatisation, and there was a slight decrease before another increase. Results showed that privatisation has improved company performance, especially in the efficiency of resources utilisation. Higher profit to capital employed ratios has been witnessed since privatisation. Debt/Total Asset ratios have not been affected in any adverse way. Results from the study also revealed that price increases in excess of 200% occurred immediately after privatisation. This perhaps has an effect on the profits of the companies (especially those that still maintained monopoly status for a while.However, one fact is clear: the heydays of public enterprises in Nigeria are gone for good. It was on this note that the study concluded that privatisation is the appropriate economic recipe to achieve the much desired human development and good governance.

The fisheries policy of the Government of Seychelles was first drafted in 1986. At that time, both the industrial and artisanal fisheries in Seychelles were in a developmental stage and the policy reflected the needs to promote both the development and conservation of our marine resources as well as maximizing benefits. In 1985 the number of licenses issued for the industrial tuna fishery was 49 for the purse seiners and 165 for longliners with an annual purse seine catch of 130,000 tonnes. The total catch for the industrial purse seine fishery has continued to rise and peaked at around 407, 000 tonnes in the year 2003. The artisanal fishing fleet has declined from 410 vessels in 1985 to 330 in the year 2003, however, the nature of the fleet has changed dramatically. The artisanal fleet is now entirely mechanized and consists of larger and better equipped vessels with improved safety facilities. The total annual catch of the artisanal fishery has remained relatively constant since fisheries data has been collected, however increasing effort in terms of mandays at sea and the more accurate positioning systems currently used are a cause for concern. Lower recruitment of fish stocks and localized over-fishing has been noted in some of the fisheries data sectors. The change in both the industrial tuna fishery catch and the artisanal fleet composition is a direct reflection of the rapid rise of technological innovations to improve fishing effectiveness. In addition, the development of new fisheries and marine resource related operations such as the semi-industrial long-line fishery, crustacean fisheries and aquaculture have taken place. From the relatively simple fisheries, in terms of gear, positioning and fish finding technologies, in the mid eighties, fishing operations have progressed significantly to include modern fishing equipment, gears and improved boat design, with the support and development of the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA). With respect to the goals and objectives outlined in the 1986 Fisheries Policy in relation to development, management and research, the SFA has managed to achieve 2 these, within the present framework of the fisheries legislation and management policies. In the light of these, and other developments, a decision was taken to reformulate the Fisheries Policy and to bring it more in line with the changing nature of all aspects of fisheries in Seychelles. To continue maintaining the sustainability of all fisheries undertaken in Seychelles waters, increased emphasis needs to be placed on manpower development, monitoring, control and surveillance, research and management. Nevertheless the main points indicated in the past policy are still relevant and have been refined and expanded upon where necessary to reflect the move towards a fisheries policy that encompasses all present and future aspects of fisheries in Seychelles. Needless to say, this policy will be reviewed and updated whenever required to take into consideration new developments which may arise. ; Published

Does competition enhance productivity growth of a developing economy? Is global competition conducive to economic development? Especially, does competition with more advanced producers in the global market promote productivity growth of domestic producers in a developing country? If the answer is a conditional yes, what makes global competition conducive to productivity growth and economic development? Many researchers have been working to find a better answer to these, perhaps quite controversial, questions. The aim of this paper is to review recent empirical findings related to these questions, which have strong policy implications, and to offer some new evidence from Korean micro-data. The paper explores a plausible channel through which exporting could have made both a substantial and a persistent contribution to export-oriented economic growth in Korea and by extension other East Asian NIEs: namely, the spillovers (or externalities) of learning-by-exporting. Plant-level data for Korean manufacturing show that more export-intensive industries tend to have a higher productivity level. In addition, a substantial part of the variance in plant-level productivity is explained by the variance in industry-level export intensity. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that there exist spillovers of learning-by-exporting at least in some industries. As with the existence of the more usual intra-industry R&D spillovers, which are also demonstrated here, this raises the policy questions of how to get more benefits from such spillovers, whilst minimizing any side-effects from any policy intervention. As in the case of other types of positive externalities, in theory a market solution will lead to a sub-optimal level of externality-generating output (in this case exports), indicating that government action could improve upon the market outcome. This is the implicit logic behind the active role played by the Japanese government or by the Korean government at earlier stages of their economic development. (Needless to say, however, the existence of such externalities does not justify the abuse or misuse of government intervention in the market.) It should also be emphasized that competition in one segment of the market may not be a permanent substitute for competition in other areas. In other words, dynamic efficiency gains from competition in the export market cannot be fully realized and sustained without emerging competition in other areas of the economy. An export-oriented development strategy has been highly successful for Korea, and some other countries in East Asia, in the past, but lack of competition outside the export market, partly due to insufficient institutional development in areas such as the capital market, the labor market, and the market for corporate control, restricts the productivity gains from exporting. Perhaps this is one important lesson to be learned from the long economic stagnation in Japan and from the financial crisis in Korea and other East Asian NIEs.

<i>Definition:</i> ECLAMC ('Estudio Colaborativo Latino Americano de Malformaciones Congénitas') is a program for the clinical and epidemiological investigation of risk factors in the etiology of congenital anomalies in Latin-American hospitals, using a case-control methodological approach. It is a voluntary agreement among professionals lacking institutional base as well as designated budgets. ECLAMC has been usually funded by research-funding agencies rather than public health ministries. The National Research Councils of Argentina and Brazil have been the main sources of support during its 36 years of existence. Since vital and health statistics are unreliable in South America, ECLAMC collects all the information required for the denominators in a hospital-based sample of births. ECLAMC can be defined as a continental network of persons interested in research and prevention of birth defects. <i>History and Evolution:</i> From the institutional point of view, ECLAMC has had headquarters in diverse centers of Argentina and Brazil, but always as an independent research project, without a defined administrative link. ECLAMC began operating in 1967, as an investigation limited to the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and it gradually expanded until covering all the 10 countries of South America as well as Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Even though ECLAMC has maintained essentially the same original experimental design since 1967, due to the data accumulated by the program, the increasing experience as well as the development in science, technical modifications occurred including a DNA bank and a fully informatized data handling system. Since 1974 ECLAMC has been a founder member of the International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Monitoring Systems; since 1994 a WHO Collaborating Center for the Prevention of Congenital Malformations, and since 2000 a collaborating member of the NIH Global Netwok for Women's and Children's Health Research. <i>Methodology:</i> The maternity hospital network of ECLAMC examines around 200,000 births per year. All major and minor anomalies diagnosed at birth in infants weighing 500 g or more are registered according to a manual of procedures. The next non-malformed baby of the same sex born in the same hospital is selected as a control subject for each case. Thus, a one-to-one healthy control group matched by sex, time and place of birth is obtained. As a system of epidemic surveillance, ECLAMC systematically observes the fluctuations in the frequencies of different malformations and, in the case of an alarm for a probable epidemic of a given malformation, at a given moment, and given area, it acts to identify its cause. As termination of pregnancy has severe legal restrictions in South America, prevention of birth defects should concentrate on primary, preconceptional and tertiary measures. Tertiary measures aim to avoid complications of the affected patients from the medical, psychological, and social standpoints.

The aim of this article is to show the necessity of integrated efforts of the state, society and a person in order to overcome the increase of drug using in the country, especially among young people. So on the basis of numbers and facts, the analysis of the present situation has been done. The investigation shows that drug using is increasing rapidly and attempts to stabilize it have failed. On the basis of this situation an author draws the presumption which could be the background for prevention and stabilization of the situation in the country. In the author's opinion this presumption could become a part of strategic goals of the state policy in overcoming the drug using. Five presumptions have been excluded. All of them are related to the necessity to change the outlook of the state, society and a person towards drug using and its distribution. In the article a lot of attention is devoted to the role of society in the process of stabilization of drug using. On the basis of empiric data obstacles and barriers for successful prevention and arousing threat are shown. Critical opinion on the activities of the government and other institutions is given concerning the process of overcoming drug using. Reasons are given for the facts that efforts to overcome drug using by different institutions are not coordinated and have a lot of shortcomings as well as lack of scientific background. In the article principles are presented which could serve as a basis for prevention strategy of drug using and state policy in stabilization and overcoming drug using. There are six principles: 1. Development of intolerance against illegal drug distribution and drug using in general; 2. Support of antidrug tendencies (necessity to increase antidrug propaganda and support for those who dare speak against drug using); 3. Tolerance and respect for those who try to refuse drug using (patients); 4. Different ways of treatment and implementation of new methods in drug treatment; 5. Recognition and development of individual's rights and duties (meaning that in the process of prevention not only rights of drug user but also duties should be recognised); 6. Principle of applying (which could be applied to people avoiding treatment). In the author's opinion the application of all principles mentioned above could ensure long-term complex prevention work. The article is written using theoretical and empirical methods of investigation: a) analysis of scientific resources, international and national legislation; b) questionary answers by drug users; c) information from interviewing drug users and their relatives, synthesis data evolution. ; Straipsnyje analizuojamas valstybės, visuomenės ir asmens sutelktų pastangų reikalingumas, siekiant įveikti narkomanijos keliamas grėsmes. Išryškinama jos įveikimo strategija valstybinių uždavinių kontekstu, šeimos, mokyklos ir visuomenės integruotas vaidmuo eliminuojant narkomanijos keliamą grėsmę. Pateikiami narkomanijos įveikimo principai, metodai ir priemonės. Aptariami tyrimo rezultatai, gauti vasaros stovyklose, skirtose jaunimui, nukentėjusiam nuo narkotikų. Tuo siekiama prisidėti prie valstybės politikos, skirtos įveikti narkomaniją, ypač jaunimo tarpe, formavimo.

Traditional farming systems are declining rapidly in Portugal. These labour intensive and low productivity systems are incompatible with depopulation and ageing of rural areas. This lack of socio-economic sustainability endangers nature and landscape conservation. Agri-environmental measures, applied in European Union since 1994, can be seen as potential answer to that problem in the Portuguese case. But to be effective, these measures need to be part of an integrated strategy directed to mitigate depopulation. The NGOs and the official organisations related to nature and landscape conservation are aware of that and acknowledge it in the National Strategy for Nature and Biodiversity Conservation. This decline in the farming external benefits supply happens simultaneously with the increasing of its demand. General public, of all ages and socio-economic strata, wants rural nature and landscape conservation for use and nonuse purposes. Contingent Valuation studies conducted in the North of Portugal (Santos, 1997; Madureira, 2001) show a positive willingness to pay of visitors and general public to assure traditional agrarian landscape conservation. To preserve the rural cultural heritage is the main reason presented by the public to stand for landscape maintenance. Official data on land use and demographic trends, data on touristic demand for rural areas and empirical evidence on public preferences for rural nature and landscape attributes are used to witness these different directions in supply and demand for farming external benefits. A closer look to this divergence is taken for the case of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. This Region contains various typical landscapes where farmer's action shaped nature in a singular way. This feature attracts many tourists and visitants, which number is expected to grow, specially for Douro vineyards classified as Humanity Patrimony. But all of these landscapes are, to a more or less extent, risking being abandon or restructured to allow mechanisation. Afforestation it is also becoming an alternative pattern in soil occupation at the Region. Thus, this Region exemplifies very well the social and political choices that come up in the context presented in this communication: (1) Which landscapes to preserve? How much of it? And (2) How to do it? Use Beneficiary Pays Principle or Provider Gets based mechanisms? The first questions are mainly social issues, making evident the importance of getting information on public preferences for related political decisions. The second group asks for political choices, where the main challenge is to define and implement solutions capable of tuning in societal choices with local population and economic agents aspirations and resources. Without these solutions traditional landscape will disappear. Some face that as inevitability. But should it be so? The general public seems to disagree with that. And increasing touristic demand indicates opportunities for local development through farming external benefits valorisation. Bringing evidence and discussion on these questions is the main purpose of this communication.

The paper is based on a research project called "MUTEIS"(Macro-economic and Urban Trends in Europe's Information Society), a research project designed to get a better understanding of the different patterns of growth of cities and their ICT clusters in 12 urban regions across Europe. The research reveals developments over the 1990's, starting a few years before the dot.com hype, end ending with the first signs of the dot.com crises. The paper is based on the results of fieldwork in two different kind of regions in Finland, Ireland, Sweden and The Netherlands. One region being the national frontrunner in taking up ICT, the other being more remote, but apparently successful in ICT too. While Europe as a whole seems to have been slow in its transition towards the new, digital economy, these smaller European economies actually witnessed a rapid uptake in computer- and internet use and in ICT investment more generally over the second half of the 1990's, accompanied by a remarkable growth and employment performance over those same years. However, behind the aggregate stories of success, sometimes initiated by the private sector, sometimes by public authorities, we can see significant differences in the regional and urban development patterns in the field of ICT- and Internet use. We aim to get a better understanding of these disparities. What are the triggers for growth of an ICT-cluster? How does it affect the growth of the region - and vice versa? Which parameters constitute the critical factors for a region's success - or failure? What do the development roadmaps look like? Are they market-driven or government-driven, or rather based on new forms of partnership? How about the impact of the European and national institutional frameworks' Does policy matter? The quantitative part of the analysis is based on statistical data. It describes the size, composition and growth patterns of the ICT sectors over the 1990's. The paper reveals some interesting findings relative to the size, the location and the national hierarchy of urban regions themselves. This is followed by an in-depth analyses of qualitative differences between the ICT-clusters in the urban regions. This part of the paper is based on available data, existing documents and approx. 20 interviews in each region. The successful regions witnessed a more rapid diffusion of IST goods and services throughout their economies, appeared to be better equipped to exploit some of the new digital growth opportunities, adapted existing "old" economic activities to the new e-business environment and more generally learnt more from the new opportunities to exploit those advantages across the European Union. Furthermore, the national policy makers appeared to be more aware of the increasingly limited degrees of freedom of their national policy actions, liberalising more rapidly their national telecommunications monopolies.

Objective. To comprehensively review all published, peer-reviewed research on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) and tobacco cessation and prevention by exploring the validity of its constructs, the evidence for use of interventions based on the TTM, the description of populations using TTM constructs, and the identification of areas for further research. The three research questions answered were: "How is the validity of the TTM as applied to tobacco supported by research?" "How does the TTM describe special populations regarding tobacco use?" "What is the nature of evidence supporting the use of stage-matched tobacco interventions?" Data Source. Computer Database search (PsychInfo, Medline, Current Contents, ERIC, CINAHL-Allied Health, and Pro-Quest Nursing) and manual journal search. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria. All English, original, research articles on the TTM as it relates to tobacco use published in peer-reviewed journals prior to March 1, 2001, were included. Commentaries, editorials, and books were not included. Data Extraction and Synthesis. Articles were categorized as TTM construct validation, population descriptions using TTM constructs, or intervention evaluation using TTM constructs. Summary tables including study design, research rating, purpose, methods, findings, and implications were created. Articles were further divided into groups according to their purpose. Considering both the findings and research quality of each, the three research questions were addressed. Results. The 148 articles reviewed included 54 validation studies, 73 population studies, and 37 interventions (some articles fit two categories). Overall, the evidence in support of the TTM as applied to tobacco use was strong, with supportive studies being more numerous and of a better design than nonsupportive studies. Using established criteria, we rated the construct validity of the entire body of literature as good; however, notable concerns exist about the staging construct. A majority of stage-matched intervention studies provided positive results and were of a better quality than those not supportive of stage-matched interventions; thus, we rated the body of literature using stage-matched tobacco interventions as acceptable and the body of literature using non–stage-matched interventions as suggestive. Population studies indicated that TTM constructs are applicable to a wide variety of general and special populations both in and outside of the United States, although a few exceptions exist. Conclusions. Evidence for the validity of the TTM as it applies to tobacco use is strong and growing; however, it is not conclusive. Eight different staging mechanisms were identified, raising the question of which are most valid and reliable. Interventions tailored to a smoker's stage were successful more often than nontailored interventions in promoting forward stage movement. Stage distribution is well-documented for U.S. populations; however, more research is needed for non-U.S. populations, for special populations, and on other TTM constructs.

We are currently experiencing enormous growth in the methods, speed, coverage, and global reach connectivity. Voice and data transfer are reaching a threshold that takes them beyond into a new level of quality. However, European telecommunications market is experiencing a crisis today. There are several reasons for that - companies over - invested in infrastructure largely supported through debt and vendor financing before demand actually materialized and telecommunications licenses that were purchased by European carriers also had a huge impact on carrier's financial strength.In order to make a proper analysis of financial strength of telecommunications carriers in the European Union and Baltic countries it was important to get the necessary data that could be compared. However, financial statement forms as well as financial terms in the statements prepared by the companies were different, and that complicated the analysis.The analysis of the largest telecommunications carriers in the European Union ("Deutsche Telkom", "Telia", "France Telecom" and "British Telecommunications") and Baltic countries (AB "Lietuvos telekomas" (Lithuania), "Lattelekom" (Lalvia) and "Eesti Telefon" (Estonia)) showed that in 2001 a debt ratio of German, British and French companies (0.48, 0.55 and 0.77 accordingly) was higher than the debt ratio of other companies.Net profit ratio of AB "Lietuvos telekomas" and "Lattelekom" was the highest in 2001 (17%), while "Deutsche Telekom" and "France Telecom" suffered losses (-7% and -19% accordingly). In 2001 "France Telecom" and AB "Lietuvos telekomas" had the lowest expenses ratio (0.41 and 0.47 accordingly), and "Telia" expenses ratio was the worst (0.71). "Deutsche Telekom" and "France Telecom" bad the biggest probability of bankruptcy in 2001 (1.35 and 1.48 accordingly).Telecommunications companies such as "Deutsche Telekom", "France Telecom" and "British Telecom" that invested in 3G licences in 2000-2001 suffered huge losses. The main reasons for that were:A) Due to tough competition between the companies in European Union countries, telecommunications companies were forced to lower a profit margin;B) Forecast of telecommunications companies on capacity sales sharp increase was too optimistic and the investments to network infrastructure did not pay back;C) Purchase of 3G licences negatively influenced financial results of the companies.In addition, AB "Lietuvos telekomas" activities were analysed in order to forecast Lithuanian company opportunities in the liberalized telecommunications market, which will happen in 2003. The analysis showed that Lithuanian telecommunications market is growing rapidly as demand for telecommunications services is increasing. AB "Lietuvos telekomas" was financially strong, competitive, had a modem telecommunications network. new customer accounting and billing system, and was well prepared for the market liberalization. ; Straipsnyje nagrinėjama Lietuvos telekomunikacijų verslo reikšmė ir galimybės integruotis į Europos Sąjungos telekomunikacijų sistemą. Atlikta Baltijos regiono šalių (Lietuvos AB "Lietuvos telekomas", Latvijos "Lattelekom", Estijos "Ees ti Telefon") ir keturių didžiausių Europos Sąjungos šalių (Vokietijos "Deutsche Telekom", Švedijos "Telia", Prancūzijos "France Telecom" ir Didžiosios Britanijos "British Telecommunications") fiksuoto ryšio telekomunikacijų kompanijų svarbiausių finansinių rodiklių lyginamoji analizė.

In the framework of the European Union SEa Level Fluctuations (SELF) I and the SELF II Projects designed to study sea level variations around the Mediterranean and Black Seas, the Global Positioning System (GPS) technique was adopted to measure the ongoing crustal movements at tide gauge stations. Tide gauges measure sea-level variations with respect to a ground benchmark. In order to determine true sea-level variations of a few millimeters per year, it is necessary to estimate the ground vertical movement to a high degree of accuracy. Countries involved in the projects were Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Russia. In the period from 1993 to 1998 repeated observations at more than 28 tide gauges and at a number of reference and intermediate stations were conducted. GPS measurements were complemented by Water Vapor Radiometers (WVR) at selected sites. Individual campaigns were evaluated and analyzed and showed height variations in the millimeter-centimeter range. All data were processed following common standards using the Bemese Software in a unified analysis to generate a combined solution. Based on the normal equations of all of the campaigns, a combined solution for the SELF Projects sites was generated. In the analysis of multi-technique anchor sites to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame ITRF97, it is shown that vertical rates of different techniques may be of different sign with respect to each other and also with respect to the ITRF97 combination. Vertical rates are not reliable in general and even the restriction to the use of long the longtime series sites KOSG, ONSA, WTZR, MADR, GRAZ and MATE did not ensure significant and unique vertical rates. Nevertheless, they had to be used for the reference frame definition. The results of repeated gravity observations and the continuous GPS observations at Porto Corsini and Medicina were compared to the epoch-wise GPS campaigns and revealed that the vertical rates are in conformance with each other if taken over the same period in time. The impact of the WVR observations on tide gauge position variation estimation is shown to improve the vertical component in the case of baseline-wise observations with two WVRs by up to 50%. It is shown, that the time span is too short for epoch-type observations to resolve significant height variations. The estimated rates of about 0-20 mm/year are most likely explained by systematic and random errors in the GPS observations. The absolute gravity observations at selected tide gauges are accurate to +/-3 muGal and are in general agreement with the zero result from GPS. The main outcome of the SELF campaign observations therefore was the determination of a homogeneous zero-epoch data set and the creation of a database that includes the complete link from the GPS sites to the sea level in the five Mediterranean countries involved. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

ÖZETBu araştırmanın amacı; 4. Kuvvet olarak süreç içerisinde giderek güçlenen ve iletişimin tüm kollarına yayılan medyanın siyasi iletişim alanında etkin kullanımı ve tutundurma faaliyetlerinde oy verme davranışı üzerine olumlu etkisini incelemektir.Tezin giriş bölümünde Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'ndeki seçim sistemi ve aşamaları incelenmiştir. Seçim sistemindeki değişiklikleri, bunların olumlu ve olumsuz yansımalarını, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'ndeki toplumsal yapıyı ve bu yapı doğrultusunda toplumun nabzının daha iyi tutulması için yapılan medya merkezli araştırmalar, araştırmada ayrıca göz önünde bulundurulmuştur.Tezin ikinci bölümünde siyasi iletişim başlığının üzerinde durulmuştur. Siyasi iletişimin doğru yapılandırılması için gerekli verilerin nasıl elde edilebileceğini, hedef kitle üzerinde yapılan çalışma ve örneklerin tutundurma faaliyetlerinin yapılandırma sürecinde nasıl kullanıldığını Amerika Başkanlık Seçim Kampanyalarından alınan örneklerle incelenmiştir.Tezin son bölümlerinde ise örnek olay olarak ele alınan "Amerika 2000 Başkanlık Seçimleri" incelenmiştir. Adayların kampanyalarından verilen örneklerle siyasi iletişimin etkili ve doğru kullanımı irdelenmiş, bu süreçte yapılan hataların etkileri ve özellikle hedef kitlenin toplumsal bellek ve kültür farklılıklarının göz ardı edilmesinden doğan hatalı kampanya yapılandırmalarının sonuçları araştırılmıştır.Tezin bütününde sosyo-kültürel çözümleme yöntemi kullanılmış, toplumsal bellek kavramı irdelenmiş ve seçim kampanyalarının yapılandırma sürecinde dikkat edilmesi gereken noktalar üzerinde durulmuştur.SUMMARYThe media strenghtens itself as the Fourth Power in time to time and difuses to all branches of communication. The aim of this research is to investigate the positive influence of the effective usage of the media on the behavior of the voters. The introduction of the thesis involves the investigation of the voting system and the election stages in the USA, concerning the alterations of the election system, including their positive and negative reflections, the social construction of the USA, and the media oriented researches that are done to observe the tendencies of the society.The second part of the thesis studies the political communication by discussing how to find out the necessary data in order to build the political communication properly. It has been studied trough the example taken from the American Presidental Election Campaign that how the data necessary for efficent designing of political communication may be optained and how habituating activity of examples and studies they were completed on the targetmass are used during the process of designing. The last part of the thesis deals with the Presendential Election 2000 as an example,focusing to effective and proper usage of the political communication by giving examples from the campaigns of the candidates.On the other side,the influences of the mistakes done in this process, the results of the defective campaign construction raised by ignoring the cultural variations and social memory of the target population are also explained.The whole thesis uses the social analyze method to study the concept of the social memory and to discuss the critical points of the construction process of the voting system.

From at least 1893 economists have viewed income as an important determinant of government size and the hypothesis that government size increases with income is now enshrined in the literature as Wagner's Law. More recently, however, public choice economists and growth theorists have tended to reverse that causality by questioning whether government size is a constraint on (or promulgator of) economic growth. Typically, increases in government size arising from increased consumption are viewed as constraints on growth, while increases in size that arise from government investment are viewed as positive in their effect on growth. In this paper we are concerned with the two-way interrelationship between government size and income growth highlighted by these separate literatures and investigate this relationship in three distinct stages. In the first part of the paper we set out what has actually happened to the real size of government for twenty OECD countries over the period since 1970 and survey some of the newer factors and approaches used to explain its more recent evolution. The second part re-estimates the parameters of the demand curve for government allows us to speculate whether the changing pattern of government growth represents a break in the structure of the model determining government size or, more simply, represents a change in the variation of the underlying variables. We find that the same model works at least as well as it did in earlier periods with coefficients that are close to their earlier estimates. We follow this by estimating a simple growth model that highlights the size of government consumption in relation to income and output growth for the same countries over the same time period. Increases in size do appear to constrain economic growth. The third part of our paper recognizes that while each of the two causal relationships has received considerable attention in their own right, less attention has been given to effecting a separation of their co-mingled effects. To do so, we estimate the two relationships simultaneously in the context of our panel. This allows us assess whether ignoring the simultaneity of the two-way relationship seriously biases the measure of either the income effect (in determining government size) and/or the measure of government's effect on economic growth when each are estimated separately. While our discussion suggests that single equation estimates of the income elasticity in Wagner's Law may have been biased upwards (in absolute terms) and the constraining effect of government size on growth biased downwards, our three stage estimates finds only modest support in the data. The paper concludes by exploring the interrelationship between government size and government regulation. In particular, we test the hypothesis that the appearance of slower growth in government side is due to the increased substitution of indirect control of private production for direct governmental output. On cross sectional data, we find the opposite. In our sample, larger government size is associated with more rather than less regulation.

The first objective of this paper is an ex-post approach that tests the pull-side determinants of FDI inflows into SSA countries during the last two decades. To attain this objective, cross-section multiple regression analysis is employed over three sub-periods (1980-84, 1985-89 and 1995-1999), by treating five years average values of the both the dependent variable (per capita FDI inflows) and the theoretically postulated explanatory variables. For this purpose, thirty-four SSA countries are included in the sample of the study. From the estimated results, the most important determinant variables are natural resource potential, infrastructure, real GDP per capita (market size), exchange rate variability and the rate of inflation. The first three variables are playing positive role in attracting FDI, whereas the latter two are playing a negative role. Lending interest rate, cost of labour and the degree of openness are the factors that have negative relationship with FDI inflows in addition to the above variables during the first period, while weak governance has negative impact for the second period. In the third period, political instability, fiscal deficit, labour cost and corruption are factors that negatively affect FDI inflows. Due to the multicollinearity problem, the alternative use of human capital in place of income (during 1980-84 and 1995-99), and measure of the degree of openness in place of the natural resource potential (during 1995-99), both explained the FDI inflows positively. Interest rate was significantly determining FDI inflows into the SSA countries only during the period of high level of joint venture FDI. Unlike the early periods of 1980-84, in the recent period of globalization, relatively more open countries attract higher FDI. Under the hitherto circumstances, debt burden (unlike xi other developing regions) has played little role in hampering FDI, and tax incentives have little impact in attracting FDI for SSA countries. The second objective is concerned with testing the impacts of FDI on the economic growth of SSA countries directly, and through its impact on gross domestic saving, indirectly. To this end, simultaneous equation model in panel data is estimated by treating growth of output and gross domestic saving as endogenous variable and lagged value of FDI and other variables as exogenous variables. Data from twelve SSA countries over the period of 1987-98 was used for this test. The estimated result shows that FDI has negative but insignificant direct and total effect on the growth of output of the sample SSA countries, but it has positive indirect effect on the growth of output through domestic saving. As the assumption of efficient market and perfect mobility of factors of production doesn't hold in for the SSA countries, the impact of FDI on economic growth is unsatisfactory.

No abstract available ; Il lavoro presentato ? parte di un progetto che si propone di definire una metodologia per la georeferenziazione di carte storiche; lo scopo ? quello di fornire uno strumento per la valutazione dell?evoluzione del territorio sotto diversi aspetti: urbanistici, paesaggistici e vincoli di carattere politico-amministrativi. L?analisi di fonti cartografiche storiche di epoche diverse ha messo in evidenza una grande variet? nelle caratteristiche delle mappe esistenti: nella scala, nelle finalit?, nei tematismi rappresentati, nell?accuratezza dei dettagli; l?aspetto di maggior valenza storico-geografica sembra legato alla (presunta) fedelt? di rappresentazione. Il termine di paragone comune per le carte dei diversi periodi ? la situazione attuale dei territori rappresentati, pertanto una cartografia numerica del territorio di applicazione viene assunta come cartografia di riferimento della realt? del suolo alla data odierna: ad essa saranno rapportate le carte storiche prese in considerazione. Da uno studio effettuato su un campione di carte sono stati individuati alcuni criteri generali per la georeferenziazione, principalmente: ottenere dall?intera mappa originale una trasformata mediante deformazioni locali (operazioni di warping) che rendano possibile una sovrapposizione alla cartografia di riferimento, oppure rinunciare a tale operazione indirizzandosi invece verso la georeferenziazione locale di mappe di minore estensione estratte dall?originale. Nel poster viene presentato un esempio di trasformazione del primo tipo: una mappa storica, nella quale non viene fatto cenno ad alcun sistema di riferimento geografico ? stata georeferenziata per confronto con una cartografia numerica attuale, assumendo come punti di controllo alcuni elementi urbanistici riconoscibili sulla cartografia numerica e gi? presenti sulla mappa storica. La riproduzione (cm 26 x 19 circa) di una carta della citt? di Livorno del 1875 ? stata acquisita in formato TIFF mediante scanner piano con risoluzione di 400 dpi. Il risultato ? stato giudicato soddisfacente per i fini della sperimentazione; tale risultato, dopo una serie di prove a risoluzioni diverse, anche con ingrandimenti fotografici dell?originale, ? apparso un buon compromesso tra le dimensioni del file contenente l?immagine e la quantit? di informazione restituita. Come riferimento ? stata utilizzata una cartografia numerica vettoriale della zona (Carta2000, prodotta da Regione Toscana). Questa ? stata utilizzata per la georeferenziazione e registrazione della mappa storica usando un software commerciale che permette di stabilire la corrispondenza fra punti selezionati dei due data set, raster e vector, ed opera la trasformazione della mappa raster. Il risultato dell?operazione, la mappa raster orientata e deformata, ? mostrata in background nel poster e su di essa sono disegnati per riferimento e confronto alcuni temi estratti dalla carta numerica, principalmente le strade, le linee di costa, i luoghi storici e i luoghi di culto. Per la scelta dei punti di controllo sono state analizzate in dettaglio le due mappe ricercando elementi urbanistici che risultassero ben rappresentati in entrambe e per i quali l?esperienza diretta dei luoghi fornisce garanzia di affidabilit?.