Why some countries are so much richer than others is a question of central interest in economics. Low aggregate income per worker in poor countries is mostly accounted for by low labor productivity and high employment in agriculture. This thesis attempts to understand cross-country income difference through examining productivity differences at the sector level - in agriculture and in non-agriculture. Between rich and poor countries, there is a 45-fold difference in agricultural output per worker and a 34-fold difference in mean farm size. In the first chapter, I argue farmer's skill as a plausible explanation for these differences. The model features heterogeneity in innate agricultural skill, on-the-job skill accumulation, and span-of-control in agricultural production. I show that low total factor productivity (TFP) in poor countries not only induces more individuals with low innate skill to choose farming, but also reduces the incentive to accumulate skill. Between rich and poor countries, the model generates substantial difference in farmer's skill, which translates into differences in agricultural productivity and farm size distribution. Quantitatively, the calibrated model explains half of the cross-country differences in agricultural output per worker, and successfully replicates the size distribution of farms in both rich and poor countries. Cross-country productivity differences are asymmetric across sectors. The labor productivity gap between rich and poor countries in agriculture is twice as large as that in the aggregate, and ten times larger than that in non-agriculture. The second chapter shows that these sectoral productivity differences can arise solely from difference in aggregate TFP. I extend the framework in the first chapter to allow for different skill in non-agricultural production as well. Low TFP distorts the allocation of skills across sectors and discourages skill accumulation on the job. To discipline the initial skill distribution and skill accumulation, the model is calibrated to match earnings distribution and age-earnings profiles in both agriculture and non-agriculture in the U.S. The model's implications are then examined using a sample of 70 countries that covers a wide range of development. Between rich and poor countries, the model accounts for most of the productivity differences at the sector level - productivity difference in agriculture in the model is 1.8 times larger than those in the aggregate and 6 times larger than those in non-agriculture. As in the data, the share of farmer in the labor force in the model declines from 85 percent in the poorest countries to less than 2 percent in the richest countries. These results suggest that policy aiming at improving overall efficiency should be prioritized.

We study the aggregate gap between intended and actual fertility in 19 European countries and the US based on a cohort approach. This complements prior research that had mainly used a period approach. We compare the mean intended number of children among young women aged 20 to 24 (born in the early 1970s), meas ured during the 1990s in the Fertility and Family Surveys, with data on completed fertility in the same cohorts around age 40. In a similar manner, we compare the share who state that they do not want a child with actual cohort childlessness. Our exploration is informed by the cognitive-social model of fertility intentions devel- oped by Bachrach and Morgan (Popul Dev Rev 39(3):459-485, 2013). In all coun- tries, women eventually had, on average, fewer children than the earlier expectations in their birth cohort, and more often than intended, they remained childless. The results reveal distinct regional patterns, which are most apparent for childlessness. The gap between intended and actual childlessness is widest in the Southern Euro- pean and the German-speaking countries and smallest in the Central and Eastern European countries. Additionally, we analyze the aggregate intentions-fertility gap among women with different levels of education. The gap is largest among highly educated women in most countries studied and the educational gradient varies by region, most distinctively for childlessness. Differences between countries suggest that contextual factors-norms about parenthood, work-family policies, unemployment-shape women's fertility goals, total family size, and the gap between them.

Artificial Neural Networks have been widely probed by worldwide researchers to cope with the problems such as function approximation and data simulation. This thesis deals with Feed-forward Neural Networks (FNN's) with a new neuron activation function called Neuron-adaptive Activation Function (NAF), and Feed-forward Higher Order Neural Networks (HONN's) with this new neuron activation function. We have designed a new neural network model, the Neuron-Adaptive Neural Network (NANN), and mathematically proved that one NANN can approximate any piecewise continuous function to any desired accuracy. In the neural network literature only Zhang proved the universal approximation ability of FNN Group to any piecewise continuous function. Next, we have developed the approximation properties of Neuron Adaptive Higher Order Neural Networks (NAHONN's), a combination of HONN's and NAF, to any continuous function, functional and operator. Finally, we have created a software program called MASFinance which runs on the Solaris system for the approximation of continuous or discontinuous functions, and for the simulation of any continuous or discontinuous data (especially financial data). Our work distinguishes itself from previous work in the following ways: we use a new neuron-adaptive activation function, while the neuron activation functions in most existing work are all fixed and can't be tuned to adapt to different approximation problems; we only use on NANN to approximate any piecewise continuous function, while a neural network group must be utilised in previous research; we combine HONN's with NAF and investigate its approximation properties to any continuous function, functional, and operator; we present a new software program, MASFinance, for function approximation and data simulation. Experiments running MASFinance indicate that the proposed NANN's present several advantages over traditional neuron-fixed networks (such as greatly reduced network size, faster learning, and lessened simulation errors), and that the suggested NANN's can effectively approximate piecewise continuous functions better than neural networks groups. Experiments also indicate that NANN's are especially suitable for data simulation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Bibliography: leaves 182-198. Improvements in the current production system of inclusion bodies and the downstream processing sequence are essential to maintain a competitive advantage in the market place. Optimisation of fermentation is considered to improve production yield; then flotation as a possible inclusion body recovery method.

To be a fat woman is to experience a prolonged, personal battle with the body. The battle is enacted in a social context which is the site of remarkable consensus about the personal culpability of fat people for their bodily largeness; for women in particular the sanctions are especially powerful. In this research nine large women have engaged in a prolonged dialogue about the experience of being 'obese'. In the course of a feminist research endeavour, with a researcher who is similarly positioned, they have both contributed to and gained from a project which illuminates the experience of largeness alongside a critical examination of the discourses which shape body size.This dissertation critiques a dominant medical discourse which ignores conflicting research and supports a narrow view of health by simplistically linking increased body weight with poor health outcomes. Such is the hegemonic power of medicine that an examination of both nursing and popular literature in the area of study, reveals wide-spread acceptance of the notion that to be thin is to be healthy and virtuous, and to be fat is to be unhealthy and morally deficient. For nursing, the unquestioning obedience to medical teaching, raises serious questions about nursing's autonomy and separateness from medicine. Nurses have perpetuated an unhelpful and reductionist approach to their care of large women, in direct contradiction to nursing's supposed allegiance to a holistic approach to health care. Current strictures on women's body size and continued support for reduction dieting leave large women with the choice between two binary opposites; to diet or not to diet. Either choice has consequences which are traumatic and not health promoting. The experience of largeness emerges as a socially constructed disability in which many women are denied the opportunity to be fully healthy.

Melbourne, the capital of Victoria Australia leads the world in having the highest quality drinking water. The Victorian State Government has set targets for reducing per capita water consumption by 15%, 25% and 30% by 2010, 2015 and 2020 respectively and has announced stringent water restrictions to curtail water demand. In this resource constraint environment it is opportune to look for alternative sources of water to supplement Melbourne's traditional water supply. In Melbourne, legislation has been changed to make it possible to use rainwater harvested from domestic tanks for non potable purposes. The annual rainfall in Melbourne's metropolitan area varies from 450mm in the West to 850mm in the East to over 1000mm in the North East mountain ranges. The objectives of the current study are to develop a methodology to estimate the optimal size of the rainwater tank at a particular location considering the local rainfall, roof area, demand for water and the reliability of supply (supply security) required; to quantify the rainwater volume that could be harvested at site using domestic rainwater tanks to minimise pressure on the potable water supply secured from traditional catchment sources until the desalination plant is commissioned in 2013; to analyse the efficacy of rainwater tanks to reduce the stormwater runoff and improve the quality of the stormwater that will otherwise flow into urban drains and to estimate the cost effectiveness ratio and payback period of inst alling rainwater tanks. A simple water balance model was developed to calculate the tank size based on daily rainfall, roof area and the expected demand. The concept of 'reliability' was introduced to measure supply security. Rainfall data from 20 rainfall stations scattered around Melbourne were used to determine the variation in the rainwater tank size dependent on the above stated parameters. It was observed that to achieve the same supply reliability (90%) and to meet a specific demand (toilet and garden use), the tank size required in the western side of Melbourne is as high as 7 times as that required in the north-east side. As a result, the

Mineral flotation is the most widely used separation process applied for the concentration of metals sulphide particles from finely ground ores. However, flotation is a process that often has many problems which can affect its efficiency, mainly due to: • Variability of the feed stream characteristics • Inability to measure important process variables, such as the mineral floatability • A lack of understanding of the effect of circuit configuration and the mineral behaviour through the circuit The aim of this thesis is to investigate these issues using a steady state model applied to industrial data. The plants examined in this thesis were the Pillara Concentrator in Western Australia and the Charcas Concentrator in Mexico. In both cases the zinc circuit was surveyed to provide data for evaluation of simulation methods. The main characteristic of these ores is that the minerals are well liberated, and thus, the properties of flotation models can be evaluated without the confounding effects of composite particles. In terms of model building, there are a number of papers in the literature that offer models of various aspects of the flotation process such as chemistry, hydrodynamics, process kinetics, characterisation of the mineral flotation properties, and phase effects. The current JKMRC model methodology was developed in order to put together some of these aspects for the cases where the chemical environment remains constant. With aid of relatively simple well liberated ores this thesis investigates the combined use of plant data and batch cell flotation results from the various plant streams, as a means of determining additional properties of the process streams in the plant. It is shown that additional useful information is available for the batch tests. It is both an advantage and a problem that different types of data are obtained from the batch cells and the continuous plant cells. The ability of the models to predict is limited by the staged addition of reagent that change, as might be expected, the flotation properties of the ore. It is found for constant reagents and froth recovery that the models are capable of predicting the performance of parts of the industrial flotation plant. A recommendation for further work on the effects of froth recovery and reagents is made.

<p>Both blind and sighted persons may use echoes for detecting objects.</p><p>The effect of object size on echolocation was tested in a listening</p><p>experiment with 15 sighted participants. Noise burst of 500-ms were</p><p>generated and recorded in an ordinary room, with and without a</p><p>reflecting object. The diameter of the reflecting object was 0.25 or</p><p>0.50 m, and it was located at a distance of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 m from the</p><p>microphones. Pairs of sounds, one with and one without the object,</p><p>were presented to the listeners. Their task was to decide which of the</p><p>two sounds that were recorded with the reflecting object. The results</p><p>showed that it was harder to detect the 0.25 than the 0.5 m object, and</p><p>that performance generally decreased with distance. The auditory</p><p>angle, which is a function of the size to distance ratio, was found to</p><p>predict detection performance fairly well.</p><p>Sighted</p>

<p>The amount of various phosphorus (P) fractions in the sediment and the relationship between the amount of P and sediment particle size were investigated in a constructed wetland southwest of Linköping. Furthermore, the possible correlation between clay content in the sediment and distance from the inlet was investigated. Sediment samples were collected along three transects from the inlet to the outlet, with six samples in each transect. In order to measure the soluble P, an NH4Cl extraction was done. This was also analysed for total soluble P after oxidation with peroxodisulphate. The sediment was also analysed for total-P and organic P by drying, dispersion in a mortar and sieving followed by boiling in HCl. Analysis of phosphate-P in all extracts was done with an acid molybdate solution and ascorbic acid, forming a blue complex that was measured spectrophotometrically. There was no significant relationship between soluble P or soluble total-P and the proportion of clay in the sediment samples. This was also the case for total-P and organic-P. Generally, the levels of phosphorus in the sediment were low, which may result from too deep sediment samples, causing the settled P-rich sediment to be diluted by the terrestrial soil underneath the wetland. There was a low proportion of clay in the sediment (4 – 18 %), which made it difficult to detect any correlation with soluble-P content. When omitting the samples at the inlet (which were more influenced by vegetation than the others), a significant positive correlation between percentage of clay and distance from the inlet was detected, suggesting that clay particles were settling in the wetland.</p>

<p>The main purpose of this paper was to construct and try out a test that could measure the size of both the receptive and productive vocabulary. This was a joint project, done by three students at the C-level in English in 1997. Before the test was constructed the students looked into previous investigations and different test methods used. The project group chose the Yes/No method as their test format. 23 students in their second year of their education at a theorectical programme in upper secondary school and 16 adult students at Komvux took the test in this paper. The results of the test taken by the students showed that it is impossible for a language teacher to construct a reliable and valid test for measuring vocabulary size using the Yes/No method.</p>