In his 1980 book, Mindstorms, Seymour Papert proposes using microworlds to help children learn mathematics like mathematicians. In a microworld like LOGO that is culturally rich in math, Papert claims that learning math can be as natural as learning French in France. Although the technology at the time was adequate, LOGO faltered due to improper implementation in the classroom. A newfound political interest in inquiry and computer literacy could breathe new life into Papert's vision. In contrast with the routinized approaches to introducing aspects of programming that, arguably, limited the trajectory for the implementation of programming in schools (Papert, 1980), this report explores what can and does happen in the first few minutes using a more open, student directed, approach to programming with high school physics students. A grounded theory approach led to connections with Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. / text

Working paper summarizing research into cataloging theory, history of science, mathematics, and information science. / The report summarizes a research program that has been investigating how catalogers, other Cultural Heritage information workers, World Wide Web/Semantic Web technologists, and the general public understand, explain, and manage resource description tasks by creating, counting, measuring, classifying, and otherwise arranging descriptions of Cultural Heritage resources within the Bibliographic Universe and beyond it.

Assessing the conditions of productivity of individual workers who process information and use IT has been a concern for many researchers. Prior studies have applied different theoretical foundations to study the relationship between IT use and productivity at individual level in post adoption scenarios and have provided mixed results. In the last decades, the proposition that there is a need for a set of factors to be changed in a synchronized fashion when using an IT system has received particular attention. Very little, however, is known about the configurations of these factors at individual level. To investigate this gap, we have designed a new research model of an information worker’s individual productivity when a more aligned IT system is used in a synchronized manner with both individual and organizational factors. The formulated research model is grounded on the complementarity theory, functioning here as a meta-theory guiding the linking of productivity theory, Kirton’s adaption-innovation theory, and several theoretical bodies on the structure of production processes and human resource management. The formulated model was tested in two empirical studies – a longitudinal quasi-randomized field experiment and an online experiment – conducted to investigate configurations of complementary factors that increase productivity when a new, more aligned IT system is used. Overall, the two studies shed important light on configurations of complementary factors and the improvement of the research design to study their impact on IT-enabled productivity. The obtained results contribute to the research that focuses on individual information worker IT-enabled productivity as well as research that rests on the complementarity theory with new configurations of complementary factors that, when matched correctly, can increase individual productivity of information workers. Eventually, the studies presented here advocate that further research is needed to increase our in-depth understanding of complementary factors and their impact on individual IT-enabled productivity of information workers.

LL.M. (International Law) / The after-effects of the Second World War (WWII) and the Cold War that followed engendered a radical paradigm shift in the collective accountability for international crimes. Indeed, institutions have been established to take stock of the catastrophic effects of wars and enable states to come to terms with their confrontational past. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials mainly focused on reigning in military leaders who perpetrated mass killings. These trials laid the foundation for a reconfiguration of the international criminal justice. This study argues that the complementarity principle in the classical sense and the prosecutorial strategy of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of only bringing to justice high-level perpetrators effectively creates an impunity gap if states are unwilling and unable to prosecute. Therefore, positive complementarity becomes necessary for the ICC to encourage states to prosecute both high and low-level perpetrators. In an endeavour to achieve this, TJ mechanisms become necessary as they provide a holistic approach, i.e. involvement of victims, provision of reparations and prosecution of offenders. The statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome statute) is said to have a so-called “catalysing effect” on domestic criminal justice systems by some authors mainly because the principal obligation to investigate and prosecute international crimes is entrusted to the domestic criminal justice systems. The ICC may exercise its prerogative over a case only if the states have not genuinely investigated or prosecuted the perpetrator. However, the catalysing effect of the complementarity principle can be discordant with transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms in post-conflict societies where justice might have to be compromised over peace and vice versa. This has been observed where measures such as amnesty, the use of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs), and pardons have been solicited by rebels or de facto holders of power, such as military chiefs, as a way of evading accountability.

Although borderline personality is characterized by a variety of interpersonal antecedents and consequences, interpersonal theory has yet to develop an adequate model of the disorder. It was hypothesized that considerations of non-interpersonal features that influence interpersonal behavior can inform the description of the interpersonal process associated with borderline personality. Specifically, it was proposed that borderline personality is not adequately conceptualized as characterized by rigid and extreme traits. Instead identity diffusion, or under-developed personality organization, characterizes the disorder, as do notable problems with perception and behavioral impulsivity. Three samples of dyads interacting in a collaborative task were compared using structural equation models of their traits and situational behavior from the perspectives of multiple raters. Two samples included dyads without a borderline interactant and one dyad had one person with and another without borderline personality features. It was hypothesized that dyads including borderline participants would manifest behavior that deviates from normative interpersonal processes. Results were consistent with hypotheses in suggesting that dyads without an individual who has borderline characteristics demonstrate very similar interpersonal patterns, whereas dyads with a borderline interactant deviate from normative interpersonal process. Specifically, borderline individuals appear to be hyper-perceptive of others’ efforts to control (dominate or submit to) them. With regard to affiliation (warmth vs. coldness), borderline individuals appear to have very different perceptions of their own interpersonal style than do individuals who know them, and unlike nonborderline individuals, these styles exert minimal influence on their behavior in interpersonal situations. These results suggest practical implications that vary across interpersonal dimensions. Data imply that clinicians should take seriously suggestions by borderline patients that they feel controlled. With regard to affiliation, data are consistent with the theory of identity diffusion in suggesting that borderline personality features are associated with a lack of stable interpersonal traits that influence behavior across situations, and the development of such a style is an important therapeutic target.

The evolution of adaptation depends on genetic and phenotypic variation, both of which are expected to be depleted in populations as a result of selection. Thus, understanding the maintenance of variation in fitness-related traits is of central importance in evolutionary biology as such processes can mitigate the constraining effects of adaptation on evolutionary change. Secondary sexual traits involved in attracting mates offer conspicuous examples of adaptation and are suggestive of strong directional selection, yet abundant variation is commonly observed both within and among populations. One explanation posits that variation in elaborate sexual traits might be maintained by fluctuating selection, such that episodes of intense selection are interspersed by periods in which variation is shielded from elimination, yet little is known about the processes that lead to such heterogeneity. In many cases, mate choice results from highly localized social interactions such that fine scale demographic variation may contribute to variation in patterns of sexual selection, especially when individuals' attractiveness is assessed in comparison to local conspecifics. Additionally, selection on sexual traits might fluctuate when the fitness consequences of mate choice depends on the complementarity of male and female characters, such as when offspring viability is influenced by the genetic relatedness of parents. In this dissertation, I examined demographic, behavioral, and genetic causes of variation in sexually-selected male plumage ornaments in a wild population of house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus). Over a five-year field study, I found that mate choice occurred largely within small social groups, the composition of which was influenced by active social sampling by males, suggesting that variation in male sexual traits may be maintained as a result of behaviors that enable individuals to shape their environment of selection. Additionally, using a panel of neutral molecular markers, I found that parental relatedness predicted multiple metrics of offspring fitness, and also affected the ability of neonates to buffer development from environmental variation, suggesting that inbreeding is likely to have pervasive effects on the evolution of adaptation. Taken together, these studies provide evidence of distinct processes that contribute to the maintenance of quantitative variation in sexual traits in this natural population.

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This thesis investigates the role of institutions and firm behaviours in international trade. Chapter 1 estimates a dynamic general equilibrium model of entry, exit, and endogenous productivity growth. Productivity is endogenous both at the industry level (firms enter and exit) and at the firm level (firms invest in productivity-enhancing activities). Three key findings emerge. First, there is no evidence of learning by exporting: the observed positive correlation between exporting and productivity operates entirely via the impact of exporting on productivity-enhancing investments. Restated, exporting decision raises productivity, but only indirectly by making investing in productivity more attractive. Second, there is evidence of learning by producing multiple products: product-mix raises productivity directly in addition to the investment channel. Third, there are strong complementarities among the product-mix, exporting and investment decisions. Finally, we simulate the effects of reductions in foreign tariffs. This increases exporting, investing, and wages. Productivity rises at the economy-wide level both because of the between firm reallocation effect and because of within firm increases in productivity. Chapter 2 incorporates credit constraints into amodel of global sourcing and heterogeneous firms. Following Antras and Helpman(2004), heterogeneous firms decide whether to source inputs at arm’s length or within the boundary of the firm. Financing of fixed organizational costs requires borrowing with credit constraints and collateral based on tangible assets. The party that controls intermediate inputs is responsible for these financing costs. Sectors differ in their reliance on external finance and countries vary in their financial development. The model predicts that increased financial development increases the share of arm’s length transactions relative to integration in a country. The effect is most pronounced in sectors with a high reliance on external finance. Empirical examination of country-industry interaction effects confirms the predictions of the model. Chapter 3 examines whether financial development facilitates economic growth by estimating the effect of financial development on reducing the costs of external finance to firms. The data reveal substantial evidence of decreasing returns to the benefit of financial development in industries that are more dependent on external finance and countries with less financial frictions.

This thesis investigates the role of institutions and firm behaviours in international trade. Chapter 1 estimates a dynamic general equilibrium model of entry, exit, and endogenous productivity growth. Productivity is endogenous both at the industry level (firms enter and exit) and at the firm level (firms invest in productivity-enhancing activities). Three key findings emerge. First, there is no evidence of learning by exporting: the observed positive correlation between exporting and productivity operates entirely via the impact of exporting on productivity-enhancing investments. Restated, exporting decision raises productivity, but only indirectly by making investing in productivity more attractive. Second, there is evidence of learning by producing multiple products: product-mix raises productivity directly in addition to the investment channel. Third, there are strong complementarities among the product-mix, exporting and investment decisions. Finally, we simulate the effects of reductions in foreign tariffs. This increases exporting, investing, and wages. Productivity rises at the economy-wide level both because of the between firm reallocation effect and because of within firm increases in productivity. Chapter 2 incorporates credit constraints into amodel of global sourcing and heterogeneous firms. Following Antras and Helpman(2004), heterogeneous firms decide whether to source inputs at arm’s length or within the boundary of the firm. Financing of fixed organizational costs requires borrowing with credit constraints and collateral based on tangible assets. The party that controls intermediate inputs is responsible for these financing costs. Sectors differ in their reliance on external finance and countries vary in their financial development. The model predicts that increased financial development increases the share of arm’s length transactions relative to integration in a country. The effect is most pronounced in sectors with a high reliance on external finance. Empirical examination of country-industry interaction effects confirms the predictions of the model. Chapter 3 examines whether financial development facilitates economic growth by estimating the effect of financial development on reducing the costs of external finance to firms. The data reveal substantial evidence of decreasing returns to the benefit of financial development in industries that are more dependent on external finance and countries with less financial frictions.

In this thesis some problems in mathematical programming have been studied. Chapter 1 contains a brief review of the problems studied and the motivation for choosing these problems for further investigation. The development of two algorithms for finding all the vertices of a convex polyhedron and their applications are reported in Chapter 2. The linear complementary problem is studied in Chapter 3 and an algorithm to solve this problem is outlined. Chapter 4 contains a description of the plant location problem (uncapacited). This problem has been studied in some depth and an algorithm to solve this problem is presented. By using the Chinese representation of integers a new algorithm has been developed for transforming a nonsingular integer matrix into its Smith Normal Form; this work is discussed in Chapter 5. A hybrid algorithm involving the gradient method and the simplex method has also been developed to solve the linear programming problem. Chapter 6 contains a description of this method. The computer programs written in FORTRAN IV for these algorithms are set out in Appendices Rl to R5. A report on study of the group theory and its application in mathematical programming is presented as supplementary material. The algorithms in Chapter 2 are new. Part one of Chapter 3 is a collection of published material on the solution of the linear complementary problem; however the algorithm in Part two of this Chapter is original. The formulation of the plant location problem (uncapacited) together with some simplifications are claimed to be original. The use of Chinese representation of integers to transform an integer matrix into its Smith Normal Form is a new technique. The algorithm in Chapter 6 illustrates a new approach to solve the linear programming problem by a mixture of gradient and simplex method.