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Background: Research shows that participation in outdoor adventure education (OAE) programs can confer individual educational, psychological, and social benefits that relate to college student thriving. Purpose: This qualitative study examined the experiences of college students who took a semester's leave to backpack the Appalachian Trail (AT) in order to understand how self-guided and immersive outdoor experiences can facilitate traits related to college student thriving. Methodology/Approach: We employed a longitudinal phenomenological approach and experience sampling to gain a holistic understanding of four college students’ experiences thru-hiking and transitioning back to college. The two primary sources of data included audio diaries and semi-structured pre-, mid-, and post-hike interviews. Findings/Conclusion: We found the self-guided and immersive nature of thru-hiking enabled participants to deal with immediate tasks while engaging in deep self-reflection about life on and off trail. Additionally, participants discovered how to integrate individual and broader group goals while also developing self-efficacy, self-confidence, and resilience when dealing with unforeseen circumstances. Implications: Our study suggests that providing opportunities for intensive and prolonged student-led and student-chosen outdoor experiences can meaningfully contribute to the development of traits related to interpersonal, intrapersonal, and academic components of college student thriving.

This article synthesizes literatures relating to the fields of andragogy and prison education. It is a key moment to reflect on teaching practices inside carceral settings. As Pell Grant availability for incarcerated students is set to expand dramatically, many college and university faculty are soon likely to be entering prisons as instructors for the first time. This article contends that the tenets of andragogy provide a useful framework for structuring prison education course syllabi, activities, assignments, and evaluation methods. With the aim of valuing students’ life experiences and assisting in the process of self-direction, andragogy can help combat some of the most harmful dynamics inside prisons, encouraging students to maintain an important degree of agency over their own learning.

Coagulopathy has proven to be a common complication of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, with evidence of elevated D-dimers and fibrin degradation products associated with an increased incidence of thromboembolism. Despite emerging evidence describing the coagulopathy and its clinical relevance in COVID-19, fewer studies have addressed the potential role of empiric therapeutic anticoagulation in this setting. We report the case of a patient admitted to our intensive care unit (ICU) with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19 whose clinical trajectory improved dramatically after initiation of a therapeutic dose of LMWH. The patient showed progressive elevation of fibrinogen and D-dimers despite a prophylactic dose of LMWH during her ICU stay. This was met with a moderate increase of troponin T-hs, an escalating need for vasopressors, and a progressive decrease in her P/F ratio despite preserved lung static compliance. Her platelet count was normal and had an elevated fibrinogen during the first week of ICU stay. The ECG was normal, and a bedside transthoracic echocardiogram showed no evidence of pulmonary embolism and a preserved EF with no regional wall motion abnormalities (RMWA). The chest X-ray was not dissimilar to previous exams, and the ABG showed hypoxia with normal pCO2 values. The decision was made to commence empiric therapeutic enoxaparin. The patient did not experience bleeding complications, and her clinical trajectory appeared to change dramatically. She was successfully extubated three days later and proceeded to clinical recovery and eventual discharge from the ICU. The available evidence shows that there is undoubtedly coagulopathy associated with COVID-19 with various subsequent forms of clinical manifestation described in the literature. Evidence also shows the benefits of heparin as an anticoagulant. From the discussion of this case report, however, it can be concluded that despite the plausible theoretical rationale, studies pertaining to the role of empiric therapeutic anticoagulation in this setting fall short of providing compelling evidence. Subsequently the role of empiric therapeutic anticoagulation in COVID-19 remains unclear with a pressing call for further research.

We test for the importance of nudges in improving student performance in introductory economics courses at UNC-Chapel Hill. We use a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of nudges in encouraging use of academic supports and (jointly) the use of these supports on academic performance. With our aggregated sample the average treatment effects take the correct sign but are uniformly statistically insignificant. This near-zero average effect masks large and significant effects of nudges among subgroups of individuals: females, first years, and individuals of color. Our results identify subgroup-activity pairings for which nudges work at the margin to encourage participation.

Although intermetallics with a $B2$-type crystal structure are typically brittle, a class of $B2$ intermetallics that demonstrates unusually high ductility has been reported. A set of recently developed $B2$-like quaternary precious metal-rare earth alloys also includes compositions with significant ductility. To predict ductility in these systems, we have adapted a computational energy-based metric based on slip systems and relative stability of planar defects, developed to predict ductility in $B2$ binary systems, for use with quaternary $B2$-like alloys. The computational metric successfully predicts the experimentally-determined ductility or brittleness of 15 $B2$-like quaternary precious metal-rare earth and refractory alloys.

We report the development of MuSCAT3, a four channel simultaneous imager installed on the 2m Faulkes Telescope North at Haleakala Observatory on Maui, Hawai’i. MuSCAT3 has a capability of 4-color simultaneous imaging in g (400–550 nm), r (550–700 nm), i (700–820 nm), and zs (820–920 nm) bands with four independent 2048×2048 pixel CCDs, each having a field of view of 9.1×9.1 arcmin2 with a pixel scale of 0.27 arcsec per pixel. The development of MuSCAT3 started from September 2019, and MuSCAT3 achieved its first light on September 28th, 2020. The Las Cumbres Observatory started science operations of MuSCAT3 since November 4th, 2020, although a part of its capabilities are still limited.

Las Cumbres Observatory is the only globally-distributed network of robotically-controlled telescopes. In 2018, we launched a program to overhaul the procedures by which network problems are detected, diagnosed and resolved. The program fostered numerous improvements, including new software tools to monitor active telescopes, documentation of recovery procedures, and daily reviews of operations problems. The benefit to users has been an increase in on-sky hours. We discuss the improvements we have made over the past two years. We emphasize the implementation of procedures ensuring problems are promptly addressed and completely resolved. We present our workflow as a model for how to manage a system of interconnected telescopes.

In Las Cumbres Observatory’s global network, the 1-meter telescopes are in greatest demand. Beginning in 2019, we undertook an investigation into the focus stability of these telescopes. We also refined the procedures for setting and maintaining optimal focus. The investigation showed the sensitivity of the telescopes’ optical components to temperature variations. The temperatures within the domes, as well as along the telescopes, are rarely stable for the first 80-120 minutes of science observations. A consequence is that start-of-night focus corrections must later be countered by additional corrections after thermalization. We report the various improvements to telescope focus that our investigation has spawned. The start-of-night focus corrections are now made immediately before science observations begin. Focus checks are now monitored during the night and trigger actionable alerts if they fail. Finally, we report on our effort to use the guide cameras as real-time focus sensors.

This paper examines the potential of thermodynamic modelling as a simple and inexpensive means for assessing phase stability in a series of non-equiatomic high entropy alloys and compares with CALPHAD calculations to demonstrate an appropriate level of simplifying assumptions. The modelling was motivated by alloys from the Al–Ti–Co–Ni–Fe–Cr system, which were produced by iteratively following the natural compositional segregation of the two-phase BCC + B2 microstructure present in a Al2TiCoNiFeCr alloy after casting and heat treatment. This produced a range of multicomponent B2-type alloys with different volume fractions of a BCC secondary phase. The solubility limits and traditional empirical thermodynamic driving forces for phase stability were investigated to explain the formation of the two phases. Limitations of prior semi-empirical models are highlighted, with advancements demonstrated by accounting for contributions from the effect of ordering on configurational entropy, the difference in enthalpy from intermetallic compounds, and thermal influences on both entropy and enthalpy. The new models are compared against the current leading thermodynamic modelling approach, CALPHAD, with excellent correlation. This work outlines a methodology to predict and design phase constitution in future high-performance BCC + B2 alloys and, more generally, it demonstrates the value of models with temperature-dependent thermodynamic quantities for exploring new, complex compositional regions.

The Rosetta software for macromolecular modeling, docking and design is extensively used in laboratories worldwide. During two decades of development by a community of laboratories at more than 60 institutions, Rosetta has been continuously refactored and extended. Its advantages are its performance and interoperability between broad modeling capabilities. Here we review tools developed in the last 5 years, including over 80 methods. We discuss improvements to the score function, user interfaces and usability. Rosetta is available at ., This Perspective reviews tools developed over the past five years in the macromolecular modeling, docking and design software Rosetta.

Objective To investigate if magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an accurate predictor for death or moderate-severe disability at 18-22 months of age among infants with neonatal encephalopathy in a trial of cooling initiated at 6-24 hours. Study design Subgroup analysis of infants ≥36 weeks of gestation with moderate-severe neonatal encephalopathy randomized at 6-24 postnatal hours to hypothermia or usual care in a multicenter trial of late hypothermia. MRI scans were performed per each center's practice and interpreted by 2 central readers using the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development injury score (6 levels, normal to hemispheric devastation). Neurodevelopmental outcomes were assessed at 18-22 months of age. Results Of 168 enrollees, 128 had an interpretable MRI and were seen in follow-up (n = 119) or died (n = 9). MRI findings were predominantly acute injury and did not differ by cooling treatment. At 18-22 months, death or severe disability occurred in 20.3%. No infant had moderate disability. Agreement between central readers was moderate (weighted kappa 0.56, 95% CI 0.45-0.67). The adjusted odds of death or severe disability increased 3.7-fold (95% CI 1.8-7.9) for each increment of injury score. The area under the curve for severe MRI patterns to predict death or severe disability was 0.77 and the positive and negative predictive values were 36% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions MRI injury scores were associated with neurodevelopmental outcome at 18-22 months among infants in the Late Hypothermia Trial. However, the results suggest caution when using qualitative interpretations of MRI images to provide prognostic information to families following perinatal hypoxia–ischemia. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00614744 .

Forcefields used in biomolecular simulations are comprised of energetic terms that are physical in nature, based on parameter fitting to quantum mechanical simulation or experimental data, or statistical, drawing off high-resolution structural data to describe distributions of molecular features. Combining the two in a single forcefield is challenging, since physical terms describe some, but not all, of the observed statistics, leading to double counting. In this manuscript, we develop a general scheme for correcting statistical potentials used in combination with physical terms. We apply these corrections to the sidechain torsional potential used in the Rosetta all-atom forcefield. We show the approach identifies instances of double-counted interactions, including electrostatic interactions between sidechain and nearby backbone, and steric interactions between neighboring Cβ atoms within secondary structural elements. Moreover, this scheme allows for the inclusion of intraresidue physical terms, previously turned off to avoid overlap with the statistical potential. Combined, these corrections lead to a forcefield with improved performance on several structure prediction tasks, including rotamer prediction and native structure discrimination.

The Las Cumbres Observatory operates a fleet of robotically controlled telescopes currently two 2m, nine 1m, and ten 0.4m telescopes, distributed amongst six sites covering both hemispheres. Telescopes of an aperture class are equipped with an identical set of optical imagers, and those data are subsequently processed by a common pipeline (BANZAI). The telescopes operate without direct human supervision, and assessing the daily and long-term scientific productivity of the fleet of telescopes and instruments poses an operational challenge. One key operational metric of a telescope/instrument system is throughput. We present a method of long-term performance monitoring based on nightly science observations: For every image taken in matching filters and within the footprint of the PANSTARRS DR1 catalog we derive a photometric zeropoint, which is a good proxy for system throughput. This dataset of over 250000 data points enables us to answer questions about general throughput degradation trends, and how individual telescopes perform at the various sites. This particular metric is useful to plan the effort level for on-site support and to prioritize the cleaning and re-aluminizing schedule of telescope optics and mirrors respectively.

In 2013, the state of North Carolina reformed its state Unemployment Insurance (UI) program by reducing the maximum number of payment weeks and reducing the maximum weekly insurance payment. This paper investigates two hypotheses associated with such reform. The first hypothesis is a moral-hazard argument: limiting or removing UI payments should boost job search effort by the unemployed and lead to more rapid return to employment. The second hypothesis is a labor-force participation incentive: given the job-search requirement for receiving UI payments, limiting or removing those payments should reduce those actively unemployed and increase those who exit the labor force. I use panel data created from the Current Population Survey to create time-varying transition probabilities between employed, unemployed and non-participating labor status for individuals aged 25-54. I test the difference in these transition probabilities for North Carolina against those for the rest of the US. Using an event study based on the implementation of UI reform in North Carolina, I find no evidence for the moral-hazard hypothesis but strong evidence of exit from the labor force in North Carolina associated with the UI reform. Simulations calibrated to historical North Carolina labor force statistics indicate that 80,000 workers transitioned from unemployment to non-participation at the time of the reform, while employment creation for the unemployed underperformed that in the rest of the US. I also consider the impact of this reform on employer behavior through analysis of job vacancies recorded by Help Wanted Online. The reform coincided with negative growth in help-wanted ads in North Carolina: this performance is a negative outlier in comparisons with the job-creation record in other United States. There is no indication that the reform triggered an increase in job creation.

A family of new high entropy, or compositionally complex, alloy brasses and bronzes has been developed with strengths and hardnesses considerably higher than those of conventional brasses and bronzes and exceptional compressive ductility. By utilising the extended solid solution range of the ternary Cu–Mn–Ni alloy system, stepwise additions of Al, Sn and/or Zn have been added to an equiatomic CuMnNi alloy base. The resulting fcc and bcc crystal structures often follow similar phase evolution trends to those observed in regular brasses and bronzes as Al, Sn and Zn solute contents increase. Due to specific structural ordering, some of these alloys exhibit respectable soft magnetic properties. Reported are the specific microstructures, phase evolution upon heat treatment, mechanical properties and observed basic magnetic response of these alloys.

In magnesium-based alloy systems, a stable disordered bcc phase is known to exist only in the Mg–Li-based system. However, it is known that Mg is an intense stabiliser of high temperature beta-rare earth phases (also disordered bcc) that often have a high solubility of Mg which can be sustained via quenching. This work focuses on stabilising Mg-rich beta-rare earth phases through targeted alloying additions of specific rare earth elements to generate more stable beta and alpha + beta Mg-based alloys. The mechanical properties present a large variation across small changes to the composition allowing for targeting desired properties for specific light-weight applications.

A key issue in macromolecular structure modeling is the granularity of the molecular representation. A fine-grained representation can approximate the actual structure more accurately, but may require many more degrees of freedom than a coarse-grained representation and hence make conformational search more challenging. We investigate this tradeoff between the accuracy and the size of protein conformational search space for two frequently used representations: one with fixed bond angles and lengths and one that has full flexibility. We performed large-scale explorations of the energy landscapes of 82 protein domains under each model, and find that the introduction of bond angle flexibility significantly increases the average energy gap between native and non-native structures. We also find that incorporating bonded geometry flexibility improves low resolution X-ray crystallographic refinement. These results suggest that backbone bond angle relaxation makes an important contribution to native structure energetics, that current energy functions are sufficiently accurate to capture the energetic gain associated with subtle deformations from chain ideality, and more speculatively, that backbone geometry distortions occur late in protein folding to optimize packing in the native state.

Forcefields used in biomolecular simulations are comprised of energetic terms that are physical in nature, based on parameter fitting to quantum mechanical simulation or experimental data, or statistical, drawing off high‐resolution structural data to describe distributions of molecular features. Combining the two in a single forcefield is challenging, since physical terms describe some, but not all, of the observed statistics, leading to double counting. In this manuscript, we develop a general scheme for correcting statistical potentials used in combination with physical terms. We apply these corrections to the sidechain torsional potential used in the Rosetta all‐atom forcefield. We show the approach identifies instances of double‐counted interactions, including electrostatic interactions between sidechain and nearby backbone, and steric interactions between neighboring Cβ atoms within secondary structural elements. Moreover, this scheme allows for the inclusion of intraresidue physical terms, previously turned off to avoid overlap with the statistical potential. Combined, these corrections lead to a forcefield with improved performance on several structure prediction tasks, including rotamer prediction and native structure discrimination.

This article explains how flawed intelligence assessments of Iraq's aluminum tubes became ‘Exhibit A’ in the Bush administration's case for the Iraq War. The assessments seem to have begun as a consequence of a debate within the administration over US Iraq policy in early 2001. The neoconservatives wanted intelligence that would help them argue for regime-change. A WINPAC ‘Red Team’ analyst analyzed the tubes using the same methodology as 1976's infamous Team B panel, which skewed intelligence to support neoconservative policies. The Red Team analyst erroneously concluded the tubes were for a nuclear program thus countering assessments that they had a non-nuclear purpose. After the attacks of September 11 and President Bush's embrace of regime-change, the Red Team tubes assessment began to become the official position of the Intelligence Community. In September 2002, the President cited the assessment publicly, forcing the Intelligence Community to adopt it as the majority position in the Iraq NI...

Transition economies, and especially those of the former Soviet Union, have used fixed exchange-rate policy as a nominal anchor for interest rates and inflation during recent decades. In this paper I demonstrate that the rigorous application of this policy in Ukraine over the period 1999–2005 did not in fact eliminate significant deviations of Ukrainian interbank interest rates from those on the London interbank market. Estimation using weekly data over the period 1999–2005 illustrates that the government’s “nominal anchor” policy vis a vis the US dollar was effective at eliminating the risk of currency depreciation. However, other risks related to convertibility and liquidity were either not addressed or exacerbated, and thus deviations from uncovered interest parity continued through the period. This has a clear policy implication: monetary and financial-sector policy should be coordinated to eliminate convertibility and liquidity risk as well as the risk of currency depreciation.

The present experiment investigated the relationship between laboratory measures of self-control and delay of gratification in children and explored several other factors that may influence self-control. In the self-control paradigm, 30 four-year-old children repeatedly chose between three reinforcers received after a delay and one reinforcer received immediately. A self-imposed delay modification allowed participants to reverse their choices to the smaller, less delayed reinforcer during the delay to the larger reinforcer. In the delay-of-gratification paradigm, the children received three reinforcers if they waited 20 min until the experimenter returned or one reinforcer if they terminated the trial by ringing a bell. A strong positive correlation between the proportion of self-control choices in the self-control paradigm and the wait times in the delay-of-gratification paradigm was found, suggesting concurrent validity between the two measures. In addition, the exposure to visual food cues had no consistent effect across participants on choice in either measure.

In the process of designing IMF-supported programs, IMF staff members prepare projections of the evolution of key macroeconomic variables for the participating country. These projections are based on countries’ initial situations, and are conditioned on the implementation of reforms and policy measures agreed in the context of programs. In this paper, we examine the accuracy of projections in 291 programs approved in the period 1993–2009. We focus on the projections of three macroeconomic variables (the ratios of the fiscal surplus to GDP and of external current account surplus to GDP, and real GDP growth) during the years immediately following the initiation of an IMF-supported program. We identify several potential reasons for divergence of projected from actual values: (i) mismeasured data on initial conditions; (ii) country-specific differences in forming projections, (iii) projections that do not reflect the dynamic time-series process of the actual data; (iv) policy forecast error; and (v) random errors in the actual data. Our data analysis suggests that the incomplete information on initial conditions and the country-specific differences in projection error are the largest contributors to discrepancies between projection and actual. We also consider whether the IMF’s forecasts have gotten more accurate in recent years; there is evidence that they have for the shortest horizons, but the quantitative impact on forecast error is small.

Objective To evaluate the relationship between maternal self-reported race/ethnicity and persistent wheezing illness in former high-risk, extremely low gestational age newborns, and to quantify the contribution of socioeconomic, environmental, and biological factors on this relationship. Study design We assessed persistent wheezing illness determined at 18-24 months corrected (for prematurity) age in survivors of a randomized trial. Parents/caregivers were surveyed for wheeze and inhaled asthma medication use quarterly to 12 months, and at 18 and 24 months. We used multivariable analysis to evaluate the relationship of maternal race to persistent wheezing illness, and identified mediators for this relationship via formal mediation analysis. Results Of 420 infants (25.2 ± 1.2 weeks of gestation and 714 ± 166 g at birth, 57% male, 34% maternal black race), 189 (45%) had persistent wheezing illness. After adjustment for gestational age, birth weight, and sex, infants of black mothers had increased odds of persistent wheeze compared with infants of nonblack mothers (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.9, 4.5). Only bronchopulmonary dysplasia, breast milk diet, and public insurance status were identified as mediators. In this model, the direct effect of race accounted for 69% of the relationship between maternal race and persistent wheeze, whereas breast milk diet, public insurance status, and bronchopulmonary dysplasia accounted for 8%, 12%, and 10%, respectively. Conclusions Among former high-risk extremely low gestational age newborns, infants of black mothers have increased odds of developing persistent wheeze. A substantial proportion of this effect is directly accounted for by race, which may reflect unmeasured environmental influences, and acquired and innate biological differences. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT01022580 .

I trace the dynamic impact of removal of textile quotas in the US on output, employment and plant closure in that industry. A dynamic theoretical model of firm-level decision-making is estimated with US Census manufacturing data and with industry-level demand-side data. Simulations performed with the estimated model provide a decomposition of the historical record into parts attributable to import competition, to technological progress, and to a secular real-wage increase. Plant closure and a fall in domestic prices are largely associated with technological progress, while downsizing, layoffs and reduction in domestic market share are associated with trade liberalization. The market-clearing domestic price of textiles is identified as a crucial channel in transmitting technology or import price shocks to layoffs and plant closure.

Quarterly evidence on participation in IMF programs for the period 1974-2003 is examined statistically using the techniques of hazard analysis and error-correction estimation. Three hypotheses are proposed and tested, and the results support a "revolving door" explanation of participation in IMF programs. First, an increase in cumulative prior participation in IMF programs is found to cause a reduction on average in the length of a new spell of participation. Second, the length of time between participation spells is reduced significantly with an increase in cumulative prior participation in IMF programs. Third, the evolution of reserve adequacy is shown to be significantly and positively affected by participation in IMF programs. The results depict a revolving door to IMF participation, and for those countries with prior participation the door revolves more rapidly. This result is shown to depend critically upon the mix of countries considered. The increase in recidivism is a phenomenon most strongly observed among the least developed countries, while the reduction in duration is more strongly observed in the emerging and transition economies. These results are derived while controlling for country-specific unobserved heterogeneity, year-specific demand effects, external shocks, and pre-existing policy distortions.

A novel, table-driven approach based on relational database technology is proposed for the design and early validation of cache coherence protocols. A protocol is specified as multiple communicating, multi-input, multi-output, finite-state machines each represented by a relational database table. The tables are automatically generated by solving relational calculus constraints specifying the protocol transactions. Early protocol validation prior to an implementation is performed by testing these tables for several protocol properties expressed using relational queries and database integrity constraints. The debugged tables are automatically mapped to a high-level hardware implementation while preserving their correctness. The proposed approach has been deployed at Fujitsu Systems Technology Division for the design of their next-generation multiprocessor and has been highly successful in reducing the overall protocol development time and has discovered several errors early in the design cycle. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We examine the impact of IMF programs on economic performance in 95 developing countries over the period 1993–2002. Three macroeconomic measures of economic performance are considered: the real per capita economic growth rate, the ratio of the fiscal surplus to GDP, and the ratio of the current account surplus to GDP. Three estimation techniques are used: censored-sample, full-sample instrumental-variable, and matching. Substantively, we find little statistical support that IMF programs contemporaneously improve real economic growth in participating countries, but stronger evidence of an improvement in economic growth in years following a program. We find that both the fiscal ratio and the current-account ratio improve contemporaneously with IMF participation relative to the counterfactual, with effects in succeeding years differing little from the impact effects. We conclude that the program-effect estimates of matching and other estimators will differ largely because of the sample included in estimation. Matching by its nature excludes country episodes associated with extreme values of the propensity score, while the instrumental-variable estimator includes those. If there is heterogeneity of performance response in extreme vs. moderate cases, the estimates differ systematically between the two techniques.

Daniel Trefler’s article in this journal (Daniel Trefler, 1995) is an excellent investigation of observed patterns and volumes of trade. He identifies the theoretical predictions of factorproportions models of international trade put forward by Eli F. Heckscher (1991), Bertil G. Ohlin (1991), and Jaroslav Vanek (1968) and summarizes these as the HOV model. These theoretical predictions lead to a number of “mysteries” when examined empirically— “mystery” being a code word for rejection by the data. He then introduces a number of extensions of the HOV model, and gauges empirically the extent to which the modified HOV model is rejected relative to each extension. For each extension, he examines the persistence of the mysteries; in his favored specification of country-specific neutral technological difference and preference for home goods in demand, the anomalies in the data are found to be greatly reduced. In this paper, I demonstrate that there are alternative explanations for the mysteries that Trefler identified. I indicate the features of the data that lead to the mysteries and provide an intuitive separation of the mysteries into those observed in the pattern of trade and those observed in the volume of trade. Econometric tests demonstrate that explanations other than those put forward by Trefler are better supported by the data. There are three specific contributions of this Comment. First, alternative explanations of the success of Trefler’s preferred specification in modeling variation in trade data are put forward. Second, a nonparametric method for calculating the degree of mismeasurement of factor scarcity is introduced and the improvement in explanatory power of that method is measured. Third, statistical comparison of an explanation of the observed antitrade bias rooted in factor-specific differences in domestic factor mobility with Trefler’s explanation based upon country-specific productivity differences and home bias in expenditures yields the conclusion that differences in domestic factor mobility is the preferred explanation. These results, taken together, suggest that theories designed to explain observed trade patterns and volumes should reexamine the proxy for factor scarcity derived in the HOV model and should allow for the impact of factor-specific differences in the domestic mobility of factors of production.

We describe the operational capabilities of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network. We summarize our hardware and software for maintaining and monitoring network health. We focus on methodologies to utilize the automated system to monitor availability of sites, instruments and telescopes, to monitor performance, permit automatic recovery, and provide automatic error reporting. The same jTCS control system is used on telescopes of apertures 0.4m, 0.8m, 1m and 2m, and for multiple instruments on each. We describe our network operational model, including workloads, and illustrate our current tools, and operational performance indicators, including telemetry and metrics reporting from on-site reductions. The system was conceived and designed to establish effective, reliable autonomous operations, with automatic monitoring and recovery - minimizing human intervention while maintaining quality. We illustrate how far we have been able to achieve that., 13 pages, 9 figures

The evolution of prices of three commodities at four market locations in Kyiv, Ukraine, is examined. The interconnected effects of increased market orientation and of privatization are separated and evaluated through use of an error-correction statistical methodology. The data cover the period from April 12, 1993 to December 31, 1996. There is significant evidence of price convergence due to arbitrage by buyers and sellers at these markets. There are also a secular trend toward greater market integration over time and a once-off reduction in price differentials associated with the privatization of formerly state shops. J. Comp. Econom., June 1999, 27(2), pp. 231–257. Department of Economics, Gardner Hall, CB 3305, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3305.

The paper models the multinational choice between foreign direct investment in and exporting to a domestic market as an equilibrium outcome of strategic play between domestic and foreign firms. Two cases are considered, one in which the domestic firm can precommit to output levels (as, for example, through investment in a distribution network), and one in which such precommitment is not possible. The domestic firm's strategy in the case of precommitment includes aggressive efforts to deter or divert foreign investment and results in fewer observed equilibria with foreign investment than would otherwise occur. Tariffs designed to switch the foreign decision from exporting to direct investment may lead instead to monopolization of the market by the domestic firm.

A key issue in macromolecular structure modeling is the granularity of the molecular representation. A fine-grained representation can approximate the actual structure more accurately, but may require many more degrees of freedom than a coarse-grained representation and hence make conformational search more challenging. We investigate this tradeoff between the accuracy and the size of protein conformational search space for two frequently used representations: one with fixed bond angles and lengths and one that has full flexibility. We performed large-scale explorations of the energy landscapes of 82 protein domains under each model, and find that the introduction of bond angle flexibility significantly increases the average energy gap between native and non-native structures. We also find that incorporating bonded geometry flexibility improves low resolution X-ray crystallographic refinement. These results suggest that backbone bond angle relaxation makes an important contribution to native structure energetics, that current energy functions are sufficiently accurate to capture the energetic gain associated with subtle deformations from chain ideality, and more speculatively, that backbone geometry distortions occur late in protein folding to optimize packing in the native state.

The People’s Republic of China has become increasingly important to the New Zealand economy since the start of economic liberalisation in China more than 30 years ago, particularly in the past decade. This paper is the first of three looking at the impact of China on the New Zealand economy. It examines China’s recent economic expansion and traces the channels through which this expansion and the subsequent increased demand for commodities have impacted on the New Zealand economy, concentrating on exports in the past decade. The second paper (Bowman & Conway, 2013) examines the outlook for China’s impact on the New Zealand economy through these same channels. The third paper (Osborn & Vehbi, 2013) quantifies the impact of China’s expansion and commodity demand on the New Zealand economy through the framework of an econometric model. This paper concludes that China’s expansion has had a large positive impact on the New Zealand economy, mainly through increased merchandise exports, but also through services exports, merchandise imports and other channels. Merchandise exports to China were equivalent to 3.3% of New Zealand’s nominal GDP in 2012, up from 0.8% in 2000. The trend increase in exports to China since 2000 has mainly been a result of higher volumes, with higher prices providing a boost to incomes. The increase in exports to China has generally not come at the expense of lower export volumes to other markets. Since 2001, dairy and forestry exports have outperformed the rest of the economy, contributing 7.9 percentage points to expenditure GDP growth, versus an expected contribution of only 1.9 percentage points if they grew at the same rate as the economy as a whole. Chinese demand has also been the main driver of increased dairy and forestry production recently and they have also outperformed the rest of the economy. Since 2008, the dairy and forestry industries have contributed 2.1 percentage points to real production GDP growth versus an expected contribution of 0.2 percentage points.

The People’s Republic of China has become increasingly important to the New Zealand economy since the start of economic liberalisation in China more than 30 years ago, particularly in the past decade. This paper is the second of three looking at the impact of China on the New Zealand economy. The first paper (Bowman and Conway, 2013) examined China’s recent economic expansion and traced the channels through which this expansion has impacted on the New Zealand economy, concentrating on China’s demand for commodities. This paper examines the sustainability of China’s economic growth and demand for commodities, and the impact that China is likely to have on the New Zealand economy in the next decade. The third paper (Osborn and Vehbi, 2013) quantifies the impact of China’s past expansion and commodity demand on the New Zealand economy through the framework of an econometric model. This paper concludes that while there are cyclical risks to China’s economic performance in the medium term, these risks are manageable; China’s economic growth is likely to ease to a more stable and sustainable rate over the next decade compared to the previous decade. However, demand for commodities is likely to remain high over this period, as urbanisation continues and incomes grow faster than other trading partners. A gradual shift in the driver of economic growth from investment to consumption is likely to transfer demand from hard to soft commodities. Dairy and meat consumption per capita are expected to grow as incomes increase and combined with China’s large population will result in significant impacts on global markets. China’s shortage of agricultural land and water resources will limit its supply response and, along with concerns about the quality of domestic production, result in a reliance on imports of agricultural products. New Zealand’s reputation for producing quality products and its efficient supply chains, which are already well established, put it in a good position to benefit. China’s growing share of New Zealand exports will continue to increase its contribution to New Zealand’s economic growth, despite a slowdown in China’s growth.

Trade in textiles and apparel is of special interest among international trade transactions. Removal of the final Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) quotas in 2005 brought about a division of textile- and apparel-exporting countries into groups of winners and losers. Turkey appeared as a successful country from the former category. Based firm-level data our empirical results suggest that while Turkish enterprises were more successful than most in adapting to the post-quota market in textiles and apparel, their performance paled relative to the performance of enterprises in areas not covered by the ATC. Producers that specialized in textiles and apparel during the ATC quotas removal period had ceteris paribus lower sales revenue and employment growth and a lower profit rate on average than those selling other products. The latter category of producers was also significantly more likely to fail during this period.

On 23 September 2007, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was named the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In his speech on that day (as reported in Weisman, 2007), he summarized the challenges facing the IMF as ‘relevance and legitimacy’. Eighteen months later, the final communique of the Group of Twenty (G20) meeting of April 2009 (G20, 2009) voted to triple IMF lending capacity and authorized a substantial expansion in the stock of special drawing rights in circulation. By the end of 2010, the IMF had partnered with the European Union (EU) to design and administer financial relief packages for Greece and Ireland (IMF, 2011). The IMF went in short order from a supernumerary role to a central place on the world stage. What brought about this shift?