Conclusions and Discussion Sample Clauses

Conclusions and Discussion. This work originated on the question of whether an effective gauge field would be induced by strain on the surface of a topological in- sulator. As is known this is the case in graphene which can be seen in many respects as a precursor of the actual topological insulators. It is known that elastic deforma- tions and geometrical corrugations in graphene can be de- scribed by and induced fictitious gauge field coupling to the electronic degrees of freedom [2]. The apparent para- dox that the strains do not break time reversal symmetry while magnetic fields do is solved in the graphene case by the fact that the induced fictitious field couples to the two Dirac cones with opposite signs and time reversal symme- try is preserved in the complete system. This mechanism will probably occur also in the case of weak topological insulators with an even number of Dirac cones at the sur- face. The response of a strong topological insulator to elastic deformations has to be different and remains to be studied. In this work we have seen an alternative way to generate gauge fields in a strong topological insulator and we have studied the modification of the energy spectrum caused by the gauge fields.

Conclusions and Discussion. The intention to increase wealth is among the key reasons for conflict – individuals, groups and nation states initiate and escalate predatory attacks on others to appropriate resources, to increase access to precious materials and territories controlled by others, or to benefit otherwise from what neighbors hold and produce. Even the mere anticipation of such predatory attacks can lead individuals, groups, and nation states to introduce a range of preventive measures, from legally-binding contracts to investing in military defense and pre-emptive strikes (Abbink & de Haan, 2014; ▇▇▇▇▇▇, 1978). The inevitable arms-race set in motion by predatory attacks can be excessively costly, reducing (rather than increasing) economic wealth and prosperity in both conflict initiators and responders (▇▇ ▇▇▇▇ et al., 2022). Already in the simple attacker-defender contest studied here, attackers on average lost 20.87% of their original wealth, and defenders 62.63%. Whereas both sides started out equally wealthy, attackers on average earned 111.73% more post-conflict than their defending counterparts. Next to using predatory attacks on others, individuals gain wealth through economic production, including technological innovation and investing in human capital. Individuals, groups, and nation states oftentimes face a tradeoff between investing in ‘peaceful’ economic production and ‘aggressive’ predation on what others have and produce. We modeled such tradeoffs under various cost levels and found that having rather than not having ‘peaceful’ production opportunities can indeed reduce overall conflict, and investment in predatory attacks in particular. We also found that when economic production becomes a more costly way to create wealth, predatory attacks become more rather than less likely. Our results therefore suggest that preventing renewed aggression would not only require opportunities for economic production but also opportunities that are comparatively easy to implement and realize. Indeed, both our model and our experiments revealed that while introducing costly production opportunities reduces the intensity of conflict, it does not eliminate predatory attacks. With the threat of predatory attacks looming, individuals continue to invest in defense and cannot fully focus on ‘peaceful’ creation of wealth through economic production (also see ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 1999). When peace is costly, wasteful conflicts emerge and persist, diminishing wealth and intensifying inequalitie...

Conclusions and Discussion. To answer our central research question, What perspectives do teachers in upper secondary and higher education have on self-regulated learning?, we identified, as a result of the analysis of the interviews, four perspectives: meaning-oriented and loose regulation, meaning-oriented and strong regulation, knowledge-oriented and loose regulation, and knowledge-oriented and strong regulation. It is remarkable that teachers from both secondary schools and university were found in each perspective. Another finding was that the different disciplines taught by the teachers were represented in every perspective. Furthermore, teachers in the perspectives characterized by loose regulation were somewhat younger on average and less experienced on average than the teachers in the perspectives characterized by strong regulation (see also Table 5). A comparison can be made between the outcomes of our study and the results obtained by ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al. (2002), who made a distinction between a narrow and a broad view on learning to learn. In Waeytens’ broad view, many elements can be found which are similar to those in our ‘meaning-loose’ perspective (1): the elements of task conception, where learning to learn is important, and the learner as the one responsible for many learning activities, and the capability of students. The narrow view has many elements in common with our ‘knowledge- strong’ perspective (4): a task conception where transferring information is important and the teacher is the one in control of most instructional activities. Differences between these two studies concern the two additional perspectives we found. This may be a result of the analysis, in which we introduced ‘regulation’ as a part of our own framework to analyze teachers’ perspectives. In the study by Bolhuis and Voeten (2004), traditional and process- oriented conceptions were distinguished. Unlike these researchers, we did not find mainly process-oriented views, e.g., with the focus mainly on learner regulation and knowledge as actively constructed by the learner. The majority of the teachers in our study appeared to have a knowledge-oriented view and about half of the teachers saw regulation as the teachers’ responsibility. Both these characteristics seem to fit better with a traditional conception than with a process-oriented view. This difference may be related to the instruments used to measure teachers’ conceptions. In Bolhuis’ study, a closed questionnaire was used in which every item c...

Conclusions and Discussion. For a long period of time, the idea prevailed that Dutch spatial planning is a public good that should be produced and managed by government authorities. However, the past decades have shown that governments are not always successful, as they tend to be inflexible and only slowly adapt to changing circumstances. Moreover, due to huge financial losses on their investments in public land development, local governments have become very reluctant and actually lack the money to continue with govern- ment-steered planning at the same scale as they used to do. Therefore, market-steered and self-regulated planning – defined as co-production in this article – have become attractive alternatives, at least from a government point of view. Co-production has been relatively uncommon in the field of Dutch public space, while shifting the responsibilities for public space away from the public sector is more generally accepted in liberal welfare states such as the United States. This paper has investigated three different forms of co-production of public space in NYC. The incentive zoning policy has led to the creation of over 500 publicly accessible spaces in a city that has a scarcity of available public space. Parks and squares that were run down in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Bryant Park and Times Square, have been redeveloped by means of additional tax raising in BIDs. The High Line is one more example in which new public space is created or existing public space is made more attractive through the involvement of individual citizens and corporations. However, opponents would claim that only a limited part of the population benefits from these new public spaces (▇.▇. ▇▇▇▇▇, 1995; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 2008; ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, 2014). This paper does not aim to advocate for the privatisation of public space. As indicated in the introduction, we feel there is a distinct difference between privati- sation and co-production. While the former is about handing over responsibility for public space to the market, the latter is about sharing costs, rights and responsibili- ties by individual citizens and/or non-state corporations. Although co-production might sound benign (as opposed to privatisation), we feel that it better reflects current trends of collaborative planning, in which more hybrid forms of cooperation between governments, markets and civil society occur. In this respect, we follow ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2014), who argues for a new, more nuanced narrative in public-space literature; one in which...

Conclusions and Discussion. Taking an overall look at Table 4.5, we notice the strong contrasts be- tween the three villages in terms of productivity, intensity, incorporation and food security. Nalang, with its relatively abundant land suitable for rice production, reaches its high production of rice per capita without high yields (tons/ha), without much external inputs, without great invol- vement in external markets and with robust options to keep up its basic (food security) independence. Dy Abra, on the other hand, focuses much on (timber) extraction and on non-rice agriculture that is fully fer- tilizer-based and export-oriented, with concomitant high indicator va- lues on capital intensity of agriculture and market incorporation, which would result in an acute crisis if these markets would fail (a very low ‘actual food autarky’). The high fertilizer application and high extraction per hectare point at risks of unsustainability, undermining the soils that should be the basis of the ‘organic option’ expressed by its high ‘poten- tial food autarky’. Tat, finally, squeezed as it is in its narrow valley be- tween very steep slopes, hence possessing neither Nalang’s paddy space nor Dy Abra’s space of rolling hills, appears to have used all its options already; it is hanging on with the highest intensity of agriculture, the highest production per hectare of agriculture and extraction, but low le- vels of food self-sufficiency and autarky. For Tat, the risk of unsustain- ability of its (forest) extraction and, invisible in the table, of its swidden agriculture too, spell a disaster scenario of hunger and out-migration. In the remainder of this section, these results will be put in a broader context. First, the outcomes of the standard MFA indicators will be compared with those of other case studies. Then, one of these case stu- dies will be used to discuss some of the rMFA indicators developed in this chapter. Finally, the relation between MFA and the more problem- oriented style of doing environmental science is explored. Table 4.6 shows a comparison with other cases and societies in terms of the two most important Eurostat MFA indicators. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇, studied by ▇▇▇▇▇ and ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ (2003), is one of the isolated Nicobar islands, In- dia, depending mainly on coconuts. SangSaeng, studied by ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ et al. (2003), is a small village in remote Northwest Thailand in which glutinous rice, gathering of NTFP and migrant labour are the mainstays of the economy. The table shows that our three v...

Conclusions and Discussion. ‌ Our results show how, in the argument-based deliberation dialogues investigated here, the similarity of agents’ initial arguments correlates with the likelihood that a dialogue ends in success. We found dialogues with high similarities of initial arguments are less likely to end in agreement than dialogues with low similarities of initial arguments, because the higher the similarity of initial arguments the less potential for agents to reach a point in the dialogue at which there exists at least one action that is agreeable to both

Conclusions and Discussion. This study through its analytical approach brings out thorough insight into the Scania basic warranty forecasting method. Investigations into the simplified forecast method CLIFF resulted in interpretation of differences in the rate of claim accumulation across different assembly units and regions. In general, vehicles sold to the America region (Middle and South America) are assembled in the Brazil assembly unit and for this set of vehicle population, claims are more delayed towards the end of basic warranty period. Nonetheless, claims are observed to be skewed towards the latter half of the basic warranty period for all vehicles. This trend conforms to the distribution of repair probability (t) mentioned in the description of main forecast method in SAS. Moreover, this same trend is observed irrespective of whether Lambda is computed based on the number of claims or the money value of claims. The historical dataset facilitates a detailed observation of delivery of vehicles, occurrence of claims, extent of finished warranty period, and trend of actual value of claims per vehicle as a function of time from the assembly of vehicle. Most importantly, this part of the work establishes key numbers – 23 months for the global truck production and 32 months for the global bus production – as a measure of time from the assembly period by which majority of the claims have been recorded and the value of claims per vehicle realizes at least 95% of its final value. Additionally, the examination of claims per vehicle against the share of finished warranty reconfirms the skewing of claims towards the end of basic warranty period. The study of vehicle delivery time and calculation of claims per vehicle with respect to vehicle delivery time leads to the conclusion that vehicles getting delivered early in time end up having higher value of claims per vehicle as compared to the vehicles getting delivered late in time. However, this trend is specific for the global truck population for the years 2007 to 2012. And the existing organizational knowledge at YQI group suggests that this trend might look different if figured out for other products or for other assembly months. The ANOVA exercise determines factors from vehicle and claim data which significantly affect the parameters used in main forecast method in SAS and thereby influence the outcome of forecast. Responsible department’ comes out to be the most significant factor which incidentally is already included in the for...

Conclusions and Discussion. Here, we confronted two teams with an attacker-defender contest. Both teams had the possibility to also increase their earnings peacefully through separate club goods. These club goods either delivered uncertain or certain contribution returns. Despite the expected value of club good contributions being the same under standard economic theory (assuming risk neutrality), we observed startling differences in behavior for both attackers and defenders. As hypothesized, when faced with uncertain returns from their local club goods, attackers reduced their overall contributions (H1a), displayed decreased coordination, and more frequently opted to invest nothing. In turn, they demonstrated improved conflict coordination and increased their overall investments in out-group attacks (H4a), being less likely to invest nothing into aggression. Not all resources saved from the break-down in club good contributions were moved into attack, however: Overall, attackers kept more resources and exhibited more free-riding when returns were uncertain. Similarly, defenders contributed less to their local club goods when faced with uncertain vs certain returns (H1b), kept more of their resources and increased their free-riding. We replicated earlier findings, showing that attacker groups are less often victorious than defender groups (H2) due to out-group attacks being overall less strong than in-group defense (H3). Indeed, defender groups exhibited a strategic response to increased aggression from attacker groups under uncertainty, investing more in in-group defense (H4b) and less in their local club good (H4c) when rival attackers had uncertain club good returns. Since defenders adjusted their defense spending to the aggression exhibited by attackers, attackers were not more successful under uncertainty despite increasing their attack investments. Due to the breakdown in contribution to their club good and their inability to increase their success at attack, attackers earned less under uncertainty than when club good returns were certain. Defenders’ earnings likewise declined when either their own or the attacker’s club goods was uncertain. Thus, environmental uncertainty increased wasteful conflict, leading to a decline in the overall social welfare, particularly when the attacker groups faced an uncertain club good.

Conclusions and Discussion. The analysis presented compares the incidence of intracranial injury and in-hospital mortality as well as costs associated with motorcycle-related hospitalizations on the basis of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation in the US. To do so, all injury- related hospitalizations for motor vehicle accidents associated with a motorcycle within three years of the HCUP NIS were analyzed for differences and associations in clinical and economic outcomes between the presence and absence of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation. The first null hypothesis is that there is no difference in intracranial injury rates on the basis of motorcycle helmet use legislation. Based on bivariate analysis, intracranial injuries are significantly higher in the absence of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation (p=0.0195; OR 1.20; 95% CI 1.022-1.418). Logit regression of the relationship between intracranial injury and universal motorcycle helmet use legislation demonstrated an estimated difference of 0.1577 and an adjusted odds ratio of OR 1.171 (95% CI 1.002-1.368) indicating that, in the absence of legislation, the odds of intracranial injury are significantly increased. As such, the author rejects the null hypothesis at the 5% level, indicating that the incidence of intracranial injury as a result of motorcycle-related crashes is different, i.e. higher, in the absence of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation. The second null hypothesis is that there is no difference in in-hospital mortality rates on the basis of motorcycle helmet use legislation. Based on bivariate analysis, in-hospital mortality is significantly higher in the absence of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation (p<0.0001; OR 3.825; 95% CI 3.061-4.781). Logit regression of the relationship between in-hospital mortality and universal motorcycle helmet use legislation demonstrated an estimated difference of 0.7746 and an adjusted odds ratio of OR 2.170 (95% CI 1.496-3.147) indicating that the presence of such legislation, versus its absence, significantly increases the likelihood of survival. As such, the author rejects the null hypothesis at the 5% level, indicating that the incidence of in-hospital mortality as an outcome associated with motorcycle-related hospitalizations is different, i.e. higher, in the absence of universal motorcycle helmet use legislation. The final null hypothesis is that there is no difference in inpatient costs on the basis of motorcycle helmet use legislation. Bas...