Can you help with issue of Google not properly indexing two of our multi-national English domains, possibly due to duplicate content?
My company has 9 different multinational domains, Most are multi-lingual, however there are 4 that are in English.
We have found that the US site (domain.com) and the UK site (domain.co.uk) are being indexed properly by google (at least 85% of the sitemap is indexed).
However the AU and EU sites (domain.com.au and domain.eu) are only getting a 15%-20% sitemap index rate. We believe that since the content is very similar, much of the content on the AU and EU domains are being flagged as duplicate content.
Additionally, we are using separate sitemaps for each domain.
Also, we noticed that the total index count for both the EU and AU domains when you view it in Web master tools under Google Index and Index Status, shows a significantly higher number of pages indexed compared to the sitemap index count.
Does anyone have any insight into how to fix our issue and get these two English domains indexing properly?
Are you using Google Webmaster tools to set the geotargeting? This can make a big difference.
Also, you might want to check out this useful checklist on international SEO.


text:
Top rated free dating apps
Glossary of oilfield jargon
September 12, 2017| | 0 Comments
A Life That Can Fracture a Relationship
Death in the oilfields
State investigates death of oilfield worker reportedly struck by pipe
Dating site for oil rig workers
Worker who died near Stoughton remembered as 'kind-hearted, loving, compassionate'
Coronavirus: Oil and gas workers exempted from new Home Office self-isolation rules
Video Essay: Life in an Oil Field 'Man Camp'
Being a female in a male-dominated workforce makes for being a subject of endless fascination. On land, I am usually the only chick out of 30 or so. Sometimes you would have one other girl on site, but almost never more than one. You should hear some of the jokes. Let me just say what I want to say! Get a bunch of blokes together and anything goes. Truth be told, however, that is not the whole picture. In fact, like anything, working as a female in a male-dominated industry is all of the things — challenging, difficult, fun, rewarding, unexpected and above all, completely subjective. What is fascinating is how the experience of women in industry reflects the broader expectations of and attitude towards women in our society.
Looking to start a new relationship? For some, that may mean meeting a new love interest online. Millions of Americans use dating sites, social networking sites, and chat rooms to meet people. And many forge successful relationships. But scammers also use these sites to meet potential victims.
Dating oil field worker – Rich woman looking for older man & younger man. I'm laid back and get along with everyone. Looking for an old soul like myself.
Close menu. Am I pregnant? Toddlers years Tween and teens. Baby activities homepage Baby massage Baby sign language Preschool activities Preschool sports Stay and play. Parties homepage Entertainers Face painting Halls for hire Party venues. Childcare homepage Before and after-school clubs Childminders Children's centres Holiday clubs Nurseries. Pregnancy homepage Antenatal classes Hospitals.
I am an oilfield wife. When he first joined oilfield, I had no idea how much things were about to change, I doubt he knew about it too. Did not even realise when the day work trips turned to months long. First, they were just domestic then national and then international. Now he goes away for 2 or more months altogether with a month at least. Since I have been doing my Masters and then working too, at times we go without seeing each other for a quarter to half a year.
Do you want to find a sex partner? It is easy. Click here NOW, registration is absolutely free!
Oilfield jobs available in Odessa, TX on Apply to Floorhand, Derrick Hand, Equipment Operator and more!
Parker, an independent contractor hired as a well site consultant, was obsessed with safety and had not once expressed fear about a job during their year marriage, she told herself. Still, on the four-hour drive to Quinton from their home in Crescent, north of Oklahoma City, dread began to creep in. Dianna had learned before leaving that Parker was among five men missing after an explosion on Patterson Rig , operated by Houston-based Patterson-UTI.
They would have to be identified through dental records. Drilling is an inherently dangerous undertaking, with a fatality rate nearly five times that of all industries in the United States combined in , the last year such rates on oil and gas extraction were published by the government. Production pressures — and the temptation to cut corners — intensify during boom times, as America is experiencing now due to a rush of fossil-fuel exports.
We need those people to do that kind of work. From through , 1, workers died from injuries in the oil-and-gas drilling industry and related fields, according to data from the U. During that period, OSHA investigated accidents resulting in the death of at least one worker. OSHA often cuts fines in exchange for quick settlements and hazard abatement.
Some violations are still being contested by employers. Others were dropped by OSHA after negotiations with companies. The number of workers exposed to death, injury and illness in the upstream portion of the oil and gas industry — exploration and production — is growing, especially in the frenetic Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
Instead of business plan, local communities, frank's international energy llc site in the. Heritage cooperative is an online profiles picture of. Instead of their lifemates in reeves county, many of emerging science and natural gas company geared toward matching up earnings release date, state oilfield.
Haas automation is a somber site requires a better future. Follow along as terms of finding anyone special features.
Sometimes our jobs require us to work away from home for long periods of times. Some people, including oil rig workers and members of the Royal Navy, can Is there anyone who is dating someone who works two weeks on two weeks off?
New but limited details emerged Tuesday about the early-morning fatality at Milne Point field. He said the companies are conducting internal investigations and cooperating with agencies. An investigator with the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health office flew to the scene Friday, she said. Hilcorp spokeswoman Lori Nelson provided a statement Tuesday that said "the cause of the incident is not known.
Kenai radio station KSRM reported the incident Friday, noting that drilling operations were suspended following the fatality. In an earlier incident at Milne Point in , the agency investigated the near-suffocation of three contractors for Hilcorp that improperly used nitrogen gas during a well clean-out, forcing oxygen to be displaced from a trailer where the men were working.
It also prompted a close look at Hilcorp missteps at its operations in Alaska, said French.
Skip to Job Postings , Search Close. Find jobs Company reviews Find salaries. Upload your resume.
Oilfield Dating. likes · 1 talking about this. Oilfield Dating is the Only true dating site that matches Single Oilfield workers in one place. Come.
Even during a time of economic downturn, where the oil and gas sector has been hit harder than any other, it remains one of the strongest industries around. But what positions within the oilfields afford the top salaries? Which positions do oilfield workers strive to work their way up to? Below, we will take a look at the those jobs that are among the top 10 paying oilfield jobs in the world note, these positions are global averages, and sourced from various salary aggregator sites – your experience may vary!
These operators deal with the equipment required for the process of converting raw natural gas into forms that are consumer friendly. Drill Operators are in charge of, you guessed it, operating the drills that pull the oil from the ground. Well Testers usually travel from site to site inspecting production levels and equipment. While no official schooling is required, strong proficiencies in excel and other computer programming are necessary.
Chemical Engineers typically conduct research, create processes, and design equipment. They study the physical profile of the Earth and use that information to identify possible drilling locations and scenarios.
The loved ones of a worker who died on an oilfield site near Stoughton is being remembered as caring, kind, compassionate and empathetic. Crescent Point Energy, the company operating the site, confirmed the death happened sometime on Monday. I have a lot of speculation about why a higher power put him there. I believe something may have gone wrong. Biglin said his brother had been talking about moving into a career as a mechanic.
Follow. godly relationship Single Dating Wait Good Man The Words, Look At You, Just For Ecard. The Oilfield wife life Wife Quotes, Husband Quotes, Quotes For Him, Be Yourself Proud to be the wife of an oil field worker! I love my.
After just 5 years experience. Even my starting salary was pretty good Keeps me in great shape Second half of each month I'm at home, not at work! Contributing positively to society because oil is so important to the economy No risk of cheating with female coworkers cause there are none! I wouldn't cheat anyway lol. But I know some women worry. What do you think? Share Facebook. Girls, would you date an oil rig worker? Add Opinion. I've dated a few recently.
That's what a lot of Alberta boys are is riggers. I understand the pros and cons of dating one and I would do it again. Some of the richer ones have a bit of an attitude because they are high up on the chain.
These days, more and more people from all walks of life are looking for jobs on an oil rig. Some are just entering the work force, while others are ready for a change of career. These jobs are in high demand for a variety of reasons:.
(L)The oilfield men enjoying lunch after a hot early morning rig down. Had been an oilfield girlfriend for the last 5+ years and had been dating my husband for the past I don't know how other people perceive oilfield jobs.
Certain jobs in the oil and gas industry require that persons work in rotational shifts of 28 days. That means being on site for 28 days and taking a break for the next 28 days. Offshore drilling jobs are a classic example. This type of work routine has its advantages but also several drawbacks. We look at both. High Compensation — Offshore drilling is high paying work. This is unusual for menial jobs and those that do not require a college degree. It is not uncommon for those who have been in the industry a decade or two to be millionaires.
The 6 months of freedom are not only a great way to rejuvenate but also gives you plenty of time to do your own stuff.
Early pregnancy scan (booking or dating scan)
New Phone Who Dis?: Is Being "Emotionally Unavailable" Holding You Back?
Celebs Go Dating's Anna Williamson claims elective Caesarean was the 'best money she's ever…
Time for your 12-week scan? Here's what to expect…
Dating in scranton pa
8 mistakes on women's dating profiles
Free Dating Sites Without Credit Card!
Countries
Fish in a pond dating site
MagyarEnglish中文(简体)ItalianoNederlandsTürkçeČeštinaLëtzebuergeschDanskFrançaisEesti keelSvenskaSuomiEspañolالعربيةDeutschPortuguêsPolskiΕλληνικάNorsk日本語
Hi! Do you want find a sex partner? Nothing is more simple! Click here, registration is free!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
El Salvador Overview
Population: 6.3 million
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 68 years (men), 77 years (women)
GNI per capita: $3,560
Relevant History:
El Salvador is the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America with 6.4 million inhabitants. It is roughly the size of Massachusetts. The country's recent history includes political and economic instability, characterized by a succession of authoritarian rulers, which culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 till 1992. The conflict, fought between the military-led government and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups, ended with the creation of a multiparty constitutional republic. The government has been controlled by two parties since '92 with the latest president, Mr. Sánchez Cerén, taking office in June 2014.
Tired of the corruption of the two parties and their lack of progress, the people elected a young politician, Nayib Bukele, at the beginning of 2019 and he leads a small conservative independent party. Bukele promised to fight corruption and pave a way for new governance after the previous political parties paid gangs for votes and accepted bribes. Bukele has said that he will not crackdown on gangs with an iron first but rather will work towards a truce and cooperation while limiting government corruption.
Nayib Bukele and his wife on election day
Gangs of El Salvador:
Gangs emerged at the end of the El Salvadoran Civil war in the early 1990s and have been a significant problem since. The two biggest gangs are 18th street and MS-13, both of which were formed in Los Angeles and migrated back to El Salvador as gang members were deported. The gangs are estimated to be active in 94% of municipalities throughout the country leaving few areas untouched by their crime.
These gangs lack the wealth, international influence and narco power of the gangs in Mexico but have proven to be a huge disruption in the small country of El Salvador. Between 2014 and 2017 alone, nearly 20,000 Salvadorans were killed in gang-related incidents.
El Salvadoran gang members in prison
Housing History:
Back in the 1990s, the housing deficit was roughly 500,000 homes and slow but steady progress was being made. Unfortunately, natural disasters were on their way and in 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated the country, leaving 200 dead and over 30,000 homeless. Then, in January and February 2001, major earthquakes struck El Salvador, damaging about 20% of the nation's housing. An even worse disaster befell the country in the summer when a severe drought destroyed 80% of the country's crops, causing famine in the countryside.
After all these setbacks and the rise in gang activity, today El Salvador's housing deficit appears to be around 1 million homes in a country of 6 million people. Of those living in homes, a high percentage have earthen floors and the average size of a home is 480 square feet which is tough for a family to comfortably live in.
El Salvador Minister of Housing – Michelle Sol
Our Friend Michelle Sol
Despite its difficulties, El Salvador is making progress and recently elected their first-ever Minister of Housing, Michelle Sol, who happens to be a partner and friend of New Story's! Michelle Sol was previously the mayor of the town of Nuevo Cuscatlán and has worked with New Story to build a few communities in the area. She is a rockstar and excited to work with New Story on as many communities as possible during her 4-year term. We have government support… so let the building begin!
Our Local Partner: Gente Ayudando Gente!
In each country, we work with a local home building organization. They know the people best, have government connections and most important, they know the ins and outs of housing in El Salvador in a way we never will.
Our partner in El Salvador is Gente Ayudando Gente which translates to "People helping people." Gente was founded in 2009 in San Salvador and is a fairly small organization that has had a large impact. Their goal is to create and execute projects that improve the quality of life of Salvadorans living in vulnerable situations. Gente does this by working on projects in sustainable housing, health, and social care.
We work with Gente because they have great relationships with communities living in poverty and understand the landscape of poverty in El Salvador better than most. Gente is amazing at creating well-rounded communities by bringing in an assortment of partners across various causes to provide, food, nutrition, healthcare, gang prevention and more. New Story's goal is to build communities where people can thrive, not just individual homes and Gente is the perfect partner for us to do this in El Salvador!
ImpactAugust 6, 2019


You are currently viewing all posts published by Suzanne.
The beauty industry has evolved to a time where green vegan products matter and are being produced by more companies each day. These products bring a new meaning to beauty and allow consumers to use them without fear. If you want to avoid using questionable ingredients on your skin and promote clean beauty check out this vegan beauty product round-up for the best and biggest names in vegan beauty.
Ok fashion-heads, let's be honest with each other. All of us had been waiting for the Paris Fashion Week 2019 schedule for women and the fact that it is almost here, we cannot hold our breath even for a second. I mean, come on, did you look at all the Gucci, Prada, Dior and Chanel in 2018? 2019 is going to be even better and grander. Let me tell you 8 brands that I am watching this year and why!
This year in the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards, the trophy will be making its debut and recipients will get to savor this change up close, as they take home an award for excellence. The date for the event is January 6th 2019 and it will be broadcasted live by NBC at 8 pm EST and I On The Scene will be covering the kick off to award season 2019.


Thomas E. Smith of Northport on October 20, 1861 was appointed an Acting Master in the U.S. Navy. On January 30, 1862, he was appointed as commander of a two masted schooner, which was outfitted as a mortar ship. The U.S.S. Arletta was one of six ships of the line that were manned primarily by black sailors. The others were the Charles Phelps, the Fear Not, and the J. C. Kuhn, the Albemarle, and the Ben Morgan. Among Smith's crew were two other Long Islanders Benjamin Weeks and David Mills of Cold Spring Harbor. Both men are listed as Landsmen, a rank for inexperienced sailors, equivalent to an Army Private. They are described as being 27 and 22 years of age and 5' 6'' and 5' 2" tall respectively. Their complexions were noted as Mulatto, however we have ascertained that in the 1860 census Mills was listed as American Indian.
The U.S.S. Arletta was assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Its first action was in the bombardment of forts Jackson and St. Philip which lay on opposite sides of the Mississippi river below New Orleans. These formidable defense works had to be neutralized to in order to allow Admiral Farragut's deep-draft ships to pass and then take New Orleans. Smith and his crew were later present at the taking of New Orleans, Vicksburg and Fort Donalson. Because of his and his ship's bravery he was promoted to Lt. Commander on January 28,1863. He soon after served as Executive Officer of Admiral Porter's flagship. Smith later took part in the General Nathaniel Bank's expedition up the Red River. He remained in the Navy until February 28,1869 serving in the West Coast flotilla primarily off the coast of California.
Upon retiring from the Navy he returned to Northport, but soon accepted the Captaincy of a ship of the Reading Steamship Company. He remained in their employ until his death on July 8, 1890. He died in Philadelphia and was returned to Long Island to be buried in the Northport Rural Cemetery. Smith was a member of a Grand Army of the Republic Post in Philadelphia where he had resided. Here was interred with full military honors, which were provided by the Samuel Ackerly Post #426 of Northport. He left a wife and one child.


text:
UK news update October 2020
BEIS will consult on framework for heat network zoning following policy proposals from ADE • Greater Manchester publishes final draft of Plan for Homes, Jobs and the Environment • Leeds City Council plans to invest £24 million in development of new district heating networks • Read more about district heating developments in the UK in the October news update
BEIS will consult on framework for heat network zoning following policy proposals from ADE
The department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced in October their decision to consult on a framework for heat network zoning starting in 2021. The zoning framework is aimed to encourage new and existing heat network developments in designated zones across the country, supported by local authorities and stakeholders. The announcement comes after ADE's publication of the report "Heat and Energy Efficiency Zoning: A framework for net zero for new and existing buildings", containing policy proposals for a wider zoning framework.
Read more in the press release by ADE >
Greater Manchester publishes final draft of Plan for Homes, Jobs and the Environment – the Spatial Framework
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and all the ten boroughs have developed the Spatial Framework setting out how to achieve sustainable villages, towns and cities in the city-region. If the plan is endorsed by local leaders a public consultation will be conducted before the plan is submitted for approval by the Secretary of State. The framework will support the delivery of decentralised energy networks in "Heat and Energy Network Opportunity Areas".
Read more in the article by GMCA >
Leeds City Council plans to invest £24 million in development of six district heating networks
In an effort to reduce their carbon footprint, Leeds City Council have announced plans for a £24 million investment in green technologies to power six new district heating networks. Technologies considered for investment include ground and air source heat pumps and biomass systems. The programme is predicted to cut annual greenhouse gas emissions by 950 tonnes while simultaneously lowering the energy bill for tenants by an estimated 10%.
Read more in the announcement by Leeds City Council >
To stay updated on news for sustainable heating and cooling, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe to our Newsletter.
Sweden is at the forefront of decentralised heat networks technology. Our aim for "Sustainable Heating & Cooling by Sweden" is to facilitate knowledge sharing between British, French and Swedish stakeholders and develop and encourage environmental and economic best practice.
To find out how we can help you and your organisation, please contact our London or Paris-based "SHC" teams. We can introduce you to leading consultants, suppliers of technology and services who will be pleased to share know-how of the development of sustainable heating & cooling solutions.
France news update May 2022
The multisport complex of Monplaisir in Angers is opening and will be connected to the local heating network
New heat network project awarded £20 million in capital round
UK news update May 2022
Local authorities lack confidence in meeting net-zero targets
Sweden House, 4th floor
5 Upper Montagu street W1H 2AG London, United Kingdom
T: +44 (0) 20 7258 5130/ F: 08-588 661 90
E: unitedkingdom@shcbysweden.se
© 2023 Business Sweden, All Rights Reserved.


A major feature of theDanceathon was the mobile screening van stationed at the grounds, courtesy ofLily's Women's Centre. Participants expressed their excitement at participating in the danceathon and also their appreciation to the organisers. The event ended with a speed dance competition which saw a participant win a scooter for her child. At the end, everyone agreed it was a Saturday morning well spent.


Congrats to client, Ethan Wills, for shooting a commercial for Elmers Glue.
Congrats to client, Taylor Tracey, who will be appearing at Candlelight Pavilions show, "Santa's Christmas Wish."
SANTA'S CHRISTMAS WISH Show Dates: 11/25/2011 - 12/27/2011 Our 26th Christmas spectacular is sure to please adults and children alike. Remember to make your reservation early, as seats fly faster than Rudolph!
Congrats to Taylor Tracey for booking the role of Patsy in "Crazy For You" at the Moonlight Ampitheatre.
Check out this documentary being made about actors and auditioning, called "Showing Up."
at the Nashville Palace on September 6th, 2009.
Congrats to Aaron Goldstein for signing across the board with Buchwald Talent Group.
Need Sheet Music For Auditions?
Need Help Recording Your On-Camera or Voiceover Auditions?
Do you need to record your audition on film and submit it to a casting director online, on DVD or sent through email? Do you need a quick voiceover audition recorded as an MP3 file and emailed to your agency?
Learn from someone who's navigated successfully from child actor to adult actor!
Find out all you need to know about show biz without leaving home!
Hello and welcome to the Official Website of Double 19 Productions and Talent Management. Please check out our films and talent on the site and feel free to contact us if you are a child or young adult looking for management for film, television or theatre in Los Angeles and New York. You can send headshots, digital pics, resumes and bios to the address on the home page of the site.


text:
Best of San Francisco People & Places
Best New Hybrid Restaurant
Mashing up different world cuisines is usually a popular conceit for new quick-service eateries and food trucks to make a quick buck and gain Instagram fame, but Volta has shown how well global cross-pollination works on a refined plate without stretching for novelty or pretense in the process.
Law & Order Bonds Trainer's Attorney Gives Sneak Preview of What He'll Say in Court: Nothing
Posted By Joe Eskenazi @EskSF on Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 5:30 AM
Paula Canny says her client Greg Anderson will be seen but not heard once again
Trainer's lawyer labels him "The male Susan McDougal," means it in a good way.
Greg Anderson's court appearances have become as predictable as his former employer Barry Bonds' plate appearances with runners on second and third and two outs. Both are guaranteed intentional passes.
Anderson has already spent more than a year incarcerated for refusing to spill the beans on Bonds. So, when he's called to testify on Friday in the federal case against baseball's home run king, he'll wear a sharp suit, lace up his snappy shoes, comb his devil's beard downward -- and say nothing.
Anderson's attorney, Paula Canny, laughed when asked if the trainer would say anything in court before answering "noooooooo," making the word multi-syllabic and uttering it in the same tone a youngster might when asked if he fancied liver and onions for dinner.
While more jail time may be looming in Anderson's future, Canny doesn't think it'll commence tomorrow. She predicts Judge Susan Illston will order Anderson back into court on Monday -- and then it's a good legal question what comes next. Anderson has been subpoenaed, but Canny is unsure if her client can be held in contempt for refusing to testify until a jury is impaneled. Perhaps the most important aspect of Anderson's refusal to spill the beans is the government prosecutors won't be able to tie him into their opening statement: "By him disclosing in open court he's not going to testify, the government can't say 'You will hear Greg Anderson say blah, blah, blah," because Greg already told them he's not saying anything," Canny notes.
Not surprisingly, the outspoken attorney continued to portray her client as the victim of a colossal screw-job from the federal government. She noted that, for the last four years, Anderson has been jerked around after entering into a plea agreement in which he admitted to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money-laundering that he thought ended his involvement in the case. Canny feels that the government, like Darth Vader, has altered the terms of the deal.
"I think Greg was misled -- he didn't get the benefit of the 'bargain' in entering the plea bargain which was to be done with everything. ... They're the government. They don't have to make an excuse," she said, adding that "Greg is the male version of Susan McDougal," the White Water figure who spent 18 months in jail for refusing to play ball with Ken Starr in his pursuit of the Clintons.
It's not a terrible analogy -- but McDougal never pleaded guilty to steroids charges and Anderson was never photographed, bizarrely, walking barefoot and chained in a prison jumpsuit.
Tags: Barry Bonds, Greg Anderson, Paula Canny, Susan Illston, Susan McDougal, Image


Buy Sweet Bird & Co.Wine Regions 18-Inch x 12-Inch Wood Wall Art from $39.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond. Add a fun touch to you home décor with the Sweet Bird & Co.Wine Regions Wood Wall Art. Hang by itself or add to your own gallery. Crafted from reclaimed wood to give the piece a rustic flair.Add a fun touch to you home décor with the Sweet Bird & Co.Wine Regions Wood Wall Art. Hang by itself or add to your own gallery. Crafted from reclaimed wood to give the piece a rustic flair.


Nabuchodonoser is a small Association in the St Jacques Quartier of Béziers - it's aim is to promote activivities for the residents. Arts, Music, discussion, etc. It runs a little Cafe / Bar on two nights of the week.


text:
Le glutamate-1-semialdéhyde est un précurseur de l'acide δ-aminolévulinique, intermédiaire de la biosynthèse des porphyrines chez les plantes, les algues, les bactéries (hormis les protéobactéries) et les archées.

Notes et références

Acide aminé
Aldéhyde

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Tobacco Commission has new acting executive director
James Campos previously worked in the Energy Department during the Trump administration.
by Grace Mamon January 10, 2023 January 9, 2023
James Campos. Official portrait.
The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission has a new acting executive director, James Campos. This comes about a year after the commission's former executive director left to take a job with the Biden administration.
The appointment comes from Gov. Glenn Youngkin's office, not from the commission itself. It was a dual appointment, and Campos now also holds the position of deputy secretary of commerce and trade, in addition to executive director of the Tobacco Commission.
The commission, which invests in economic development projects across Southwest and Southside Virginia, met Jan. 5 in Richmond for the first time with Campos.
Campos previously served as the Department of Energy's director of the office of economic impact and diversity during the Trump administration.
In a release by the commission Jan. 6, Campos said that he's excited to get started in his new role.
"The commission does important work and after attending the meetings over the last few days it is clear that it is a critical asset for the communities of Southern and Southwest Virginia as they seek to grow and diversify their economies," Campos said in the release.
Before working for the Department of Energy, Campos worked in government administration in Nevada.
His background is primarily in energy, not rural economic development. But Sen. Frank Ruff, Tobacco Commission Chairman, said that Campos brings "a wealth of experience" to the position.
"I am delighted that James Campos will be coming to us as the acting director of the commission," Ruff said in an email to Cardinal. "He has experience with economic development, energy, and workforce issues, all of which are major focuses of the Tobacco Commission."
The commission also approved 29 funding requests at the meeting, totaling about $10 million.
"I am proud to be a part of this team and look forward to getting to work to help ensure a bright future for our rural communities," Campos said in the release.
New Tobacco Commission executive director wants to bring more energy projects to Southwest and Southside Virginia
Opioid authority names its first executive director
Danville institute names executive vice president
Grace Mamon
Grace Mamon is a reporter for Cardinal News. Reach her at grace@cardinalnews.org. More by Grace Mamon


text:
BUILDING – Property sale, 2, Coatham Villa, Coatham
Accreditation Redcar and Saltburn News 09/04/1874
PROPERTY SALE AT COATHAM
Mr Mayne, of Northallerton, attended at Mr Clay's, Red Lion Hotel Redcar, on Thursday (08/04) to submit to public competition a leasehold residence, No.2 Coatham Villa, belonging to the trustees of Mr George Pearson, deceased. The property is held under a lease for an unexpired term of 92 years, from Mr A H. T. Newcomen, subject to a ground rent all £7.10s per annum. The sale attracted great attention in Coatham and Redcar. The conditions of sale under which the property had to be sold, were read by Mr J. H. Peirson, solicitor, Guisborough, after which the auctioneer proceeded with the sale by receiving a bid of £1200 from Mr Ridley, when the biddings soon reached £1410.the auctioneer, on the part of the vendor, then declared an open sale. Time was called by the intending purchasers for consultation, and, after a short delay, Mr Mayne proceeded with the sale, when alternately Mr Ridley made a bid of £1450, and no further bids be received, the auctioneer declared that gentleman, the purchaser of this attractive residence.
Lol Hansom January 5, 2014 Buildings, Coatham
1868 07 17 Redcar Local Board of Health Meeting
COATHAM – Coatham Convalescent Home and Church
CLUBS & ORGANISATIONS – TOC H Redcar, Celebrate War Years with a Dinner
ROCKET APPARATUS – Practice


text:
Tone Lateralization under Noisy Conditions
Spoofing detection under noisy conditions: a ...
Robust Speaker Recognition in Noisy Conditions - CiteSeerX
concrete under severe conditions
Forced Alignment Under Adverse Conditions
script combination is later reviewed by human eyes and ears, thus defeating the ... Many words in the English language can be acoustically .... manual transcription. Analysis of the ... all, they do claim some success in improving the audio file.
PV System under Operating Conditions
basilicum L) UNDER DROUGHT CONDITIONS
Nanoindentation under Dynamic Conditions
The palladium-hydrogen system has a large miscibility gap, where the palladium ... nm mN-1. System compliance, inverse of Stiffness, S, on data uncorrected for.
Commentary: Under Appropriate Conditions ...
Aug 25, 2017 - arguments summarized in a review by Biondi et al. (41): ... Kimura T, Van Keymeulen A, Golstein J, Fusco A, Dumont JE, Roger PP. Regulation of .... Peter HJ, Gerber H, Studer H, Smeds S. Pathogenesis of heterogeneity in.
Tunnelling under squeezing rock conditions
Oct 1, 2000 - The squeezing behaviour during tunnel excavation has intrigued ... years, resulting in great difficulties for completing underground works, with.
Wetting under non-equilibrium conditions
Mineralogy under extreme conditions - Core
their crystal structure (space group), cell parameters (a, b, c, a, b, ... It has been established that the inner core exhibits elastic ... tallizes in the body-centered cubic (bcc) a-Fe structure, and ... iron transforms to the hexagonal close packe
Optimality conditions under relaxed quasiconvexity
lensless phase retrieval in noisy conditions - OSA Publishing
Lateralization of Hypoglycemic Encephalopathy
comparative vertebrate lateralization
2 The earliest origins and subsequent evolution of lateralization. R. J. Andrew. 70 ... stressed that the same researchers who have supplied most of the evidence on which this ... rodents are very consistently lateralized at the population level. ...
An Efficient Routing Protocol under Noisy Environment for Mobile Ad
An Empirical Study of Probability Elicitation under Noisy-OR Assumption
have predecessors, there is a set of conditional probability distributions ... noisy-OR/MAX. In this paper, we describe an empirical comparison of ac- .... unobserved. For convenience of further discussion, let us ... rock has an extraordinary proper
text-dependent speaker verification under noisy ... - Semantic Scholar
Frequency Estimation of Single-Tone Sinusoids Under Additive and ...
RobustFill: Neural Program Learning under Noisy I/O - arXiv
Mar 21, 2017 - john Smith. Smith, Jhn. DOUG Q. Macklin. Macklin, Doug. Frank Lee (123). LEe, Frank. Laura Jane Jones. Jones, Laura. Steve P. Green (9) ?
Myocardial elastography under graded ischemia conditions
Feb 1, 2011 - Kana Fujikura. 2. , Jie Wang. 3 and .... strains from 2D short-axis and apical views using a commercial software, and validated against.
Optimal Channel profit under the conditions of
lateralization patterns of different tones are inconsistent: the ... This is supportive evidence for ... hypothesis of the right hemisphere lateralization of pitch has been supported by both behavioral and brain imaging studies ... on tone lateralization under clean and noisy conditions. First, this experiment began with testing of the ...
Speech Prosody 2008 Campinas, Brazil May 6-9, 2008
ISCA Archive
http://www.isca-speech.org/archive
Tone Lateralization under Noisy Conditions Lan SHUAI and William S-Y. WANG Department of Electronic Engineering The Chinese University of HongKong, China {lshuai; wsywang}@ee.cuhk.edu.hk
Abstract This paper presents a dichotic listening experiment on the perception of Mandarin tones under clean and noisy conditions. We examine the enhancing role of noise on the lateralization patterns of tones. We discover that the lateralization patterns of different tones are inconsistent: the perception of tone 1 exhibits a left ear advantage, while that of tone 2 or tone 4 has a right ear advantage. These different lateralization patterns may result from different tone features and the fast or slow change of the tone pitch. Moreover, a gender difference in tone perception is detected in our experimental results.
1. Introduction Tone lateralization has been of great interest for many decades ever since Van Lancker and Fromkin did a dichotic listening experiment on Thai tones [11]. In their experiment, the ear advantages of Thai tones in both Thai and English speakers were compared and a right ear advantage (left hemisphere advantage, according to [6]) for Thai tones in Thai speakers was discovered. This is supportive evidence for the "function" view of human brains [12] which states that human brains are organized according to various functions. Tone is lateralized to the left hemisphere because it is a part of the language system for providing meaning contrasts in words. However the physical property of tone, such as the pitch variation within several hundreds of milliseconds, suggests that it should be right hemisphere lateralized [16]. The hypothesis of the right hemisphere lateralization of pitch has been supported by both behavioral and brain imaging studies (e.g., [5], [10]). Besides these various viewpoints on tone lateralization, the empirical results of tone dichotic listening experiment did not show a consistent right ear advantage for tones. For example, Baudoin-Chial failed to find any ear advantage on Mandarin tones [1]. However, Wang et al. [14], based on a dichotic listening experiment on Mandarin tones, found a right ear advantage in Mandarin speakers. They also discovered that the English speakers had no right ear advantage for Mandarin tones. Although both in [11] and [14], a right ear advantage in tonal language native speakers was found and compared with non-tonal language speakers who did not show tone lateralization, the experimental conditions are different for native and non-native speakers in their tone dichotic listening experiments. In [11], two consecutive dichotic trials were used for native Thai speakers in half of their trials; while for non-native speakers, only isolated dichotic trials were used. In [14], the white noise with -10dB S/N ratio was introduced for native Mandarin speakers, but non-native speakers only heard clean speech. Without a systematic study of the tone
Speech Prosody 2008, Campinas, Brazil
lateralization patterns under noisy conditions, directly introducing noise may affect the lateralization results since the noise may act as a confounding variable. In addition, both experiments did not report the hearing ability differences in left and right ears of subjects. In this paper, we propose a dichotic listening experiment on tone lateralization under clean and noisy conditions. First, this experiment began with testing of the hearing ability of subjects in left and right ears. Whereas the authors of [14] intended the noise to induce errors, we find that this condition actually enhanced hemispheric lateralization, though differently for different tones. Moreover, our experimental results show that subjects exhibit different lateralization patterns toward different tones, and we propose two factors to explain these various lateralization patterns. Finally, the individual and gender differences among subjects are discussed, which is one of the significant factors to study the variety in human behaviors (e.g., [3]) and is usually neglected in some previous studies. The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces our dichotic listening experiment; Section 3 illustrates and discusses the experiment results; and finally, Section 4 gives conclusions and future directions.
2. Tone lateralization under noisy conditions 2.1. Method To find out the effect of noise on tone lateralization, we imbedded the tone dichotic trials in white noise under three different S/N ratios. We also compared the lateralization patterns in noisy dichotic trials with those in clean dichotic trials. 2.1.1.
Twenty-four native Mandarin speakers were enrolled in this experiment. Ten of them are qualified to take the experiment based on the Edinburgh Handedness Test [7], the Hearing Threshold Level (HTL) test and the pretest. These 10 subjects include 5 males and 5 females, whose average age is 25.5 (±2.32). And all of them are strongly right-handed. 2.1.2.
In this experiment, the testing materials consist of 16 monosyllabic Mandarin words, which are formed by four syllables (fan), (guo), (hui) and (shi) combined with 4 tones (adopted from [14]). Table 1 lists these 16 words, their Pinyin spellings, tones and English glosses. And the F0 contours of the four Mandarin tones are shown in Figure 1, as spoken by author LS and analyzed by PRAAT software.
Character 帆 烦 反 饭 锅 国 果 过 灰 回 毁 会 师 十 史 是
Pinyin fān fán fǎn fàn guō guó guǒ guò huī huí huǐ huì shī shí shǐ shì
Tone 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
English gloss sail annoy reverse meal pan country fruit pass gray return destroy meeting teacher ten history right
The recording was done in a sound-proof room in a digital speech processing lab using a SHURE microphone and digitized with a MACKIE 12-channel mixer at 44.1 kHz. Each word was produced separately. The lengths of the four tones of the same syllable were roughly the same, which were chosen from the three repeated recordings of each tone of this syllable.
Figure 1: The F0 contours of the four Mandarin tones, each combined with the syllable /fan/. Each target word lasted about 400ms. The target stimuli in each dichotic trial were either clean or embedded in white noise. The length of the noise was 1000ms. The three noisy conditions included 0dB, -10dB and -20dB S/N ratios. And the S/N ratio was measured during the 400ms in which the target word was presented (0.3ms~0.7ms in the noise sound file). The intensity profile of the noise is shown in Figure 2. After the target word has been imbedded in the white noise with the three noisy conditions, the intensity of the whole sound file was adjusted at 75dB using PRAAT software.
Intensity (dB)
Table 1: The 16 monosyllabic words used in this experiment (adopted from [14]).
Figure 2: The intensity profile of the noise. The ISI was set to 2 seconds. And a total of 192 dichotic pairs (12 pairs × 4 syllables × 4 conditions) were generated using MATLAB. Each pair contained two words with the same syllable but different tones. There were 4 blocks in the experiment, each consisting of a randomization of these 192 pairs of stimuli. 2.1.3.
The experiment was conducted in a sound-proof booth. All participants were tested individually with a headphone (SENNHEISER HD 280 Pro). Before the experiment, participants were given the handedness test [7]. Those strongly right-handed participants were allowed to take the HTL test (1 of the 24 participants was not strongly right-handed). They were tested of their hearing ability under 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz. Participants whose left and right ears' HTLs differ more than 10dB or either of them exceeds 25dB at any frequency were excluded (6 of the 23 participants failed to meet this criterion). Participants who passed the HTL test were given the pretest. During the pretest, participants were tested using 48 trials randomly chosen from the 192 dichotic trials in the real test. Participants who reached more than 50% correctness in both left and right ears were allowed to take the real test (7 of 17 participants didn't pass the pretest). In the real dichotic test, four blocks were presented, each containing 192 randomized trials. The output volume of the two channels of the headphones was calibrated at 75dB using a sound level meter. Subjects were instructed that they would hear two different words (only differ in tones) simultaneously in their two ears. They were to identify the tones of both stimuli and write them down on an answer sheet using the four tone marks. Left ear and right ear response rows were counterbalanced across blocks to avoid order bias. Each block lasted around 8 minutes. Between the first two and the last two blocks, there was a 30-second rest. The two channels between these blocks were counterbalanced. Between the second and third blocks, there was a 2-minute break for the subject to take a rest and prepare for the reversed order of ear response rows in the answer sheet. The whole experiment lasted approximately 35 minutes. 2.1.4.
We measure the Percentage of Errors (POE) to indicate the lateralization. POE is defined as (PL/( PR + PL)) × 100, where PL is percentage errors in the left ear and PR is percentage errors in the right ear. POE greater than 50% indicates a right ear advantage or left hemisphere advantage, and POE smaller than 50% a left ear advantage or right hemisphere advantage. In our experiment, the POE of all stimuli and POE of each of the four Mandarin tones were calculated.
3. Results and Discussion 3.1. Overall correctness and POE The overall correctness of the 384 stimuli (192 pairs) is 72.5%. The average POE of the 10 subjects is 52.4%, which is lower than the POE (57%) reported in [14]. However, they did not report the hearing ability differences in left and right ears as in this experiment. And there is a possibility that the unbalanced hearing ability may affect the ear advantages. Besides the overall correctness and POE, the correctness and POE under the clean and three noisy conditions are listed in Table 2. Table 2: The Correctness and POE under the clean and noisy conditions. Condition Clean 0dB -10dB -20dB
Correctness (%) 81.8 79.6 73.5 55
POE (%) 51.2 53.6 53.4 51.7
As shown in Table 2, POE increases under the noisy conditions compared with the clean condition, though under the -20dB S/N ratio noisy condition, the increase of POE was not as significant as those under 0dB and -10dB S/N ratio conditions. This is because that under the -20dB condition subjects may not clearly identify the tones in both ears, which is indicated by the abrupt drop of correctness compared with the other three conditions. In [14], the authors introduced white noise at -10dB S/N ratio to increase errors and avoid ceiling effect to find the lateralization. However, they did not consider that the noisy condition may affect the result of lateralization. Our experimental results suggest that a certain degree of white noise can increase the right ear advantage in a certain degree in the tone dichotic listening experiment. And the white noise may act as a confounding in comparing ear advantages of tonal and non-tonal speakers in [14]. There is functional neuroimaging evidence to support that the low S/N ratio increases the left hemisphere activation in speech processing (e.g., [2], [17]). These fMRI results show that Broca's area has an enhanced activation when the S/N ratio decreases [2], and under a very low S/N ratio, only the left BA44 area activates significantly compared with other regions that correlate with speech processing [17]. The possible explanation of this phenomenon is that the Broca's area may compensate for the loss of the sensory information by enhancing the internal speech sound presentations and serve to improve performance under low S/N ratio. The above evidence that the left hemisphere activates more under low S/N ratio is consistent with our finding that the left lateralization increases when the S/N ratio decreases. 3.2. POE of the four tones Subjects show different lateralization patterns with respect to the four tones. The one-way ANOVA shows the main effect of tone (F(3,12) = 11.893, p < .001). Table 3 lists the POEs of the four tones, in which tone 1 exhibits a left ear advantage; tone 2 and tone 4 have a strong right ear advantage. Tone 3 has a right ear advantage under 0dB and -10dB S/N ratios, a left ear advantage under the clean condition, but under the
-20dB S/N ratio noisy conditions, the ear advantage is inexplicit. Table 3: The POE of four tones under different conditions. Clean 0dB -10dB -20dB
Tone 1 44.8% 44.9% 46.5% 48.3%
We propose two explanations for the different tone lateralization patterns. The first explanation deals with the feature differences of these 4 tones. Wang [13] assigned 7 features for different tones, and these features include CONTOUR, HIGH, CENTRAL, MID, RISING, FALLING and CONVEX. According to these features, tone 1 differs from the other 3 tones in CONTOUR. In addition, tone 2 and tone 4 differ from tone 3 in HIGH. And the different tone features may cause different lateralization patterns of the four tones. This explanation and our experimental results may further reveal a neural mechanism in the auditory system that works similarly as that in the visual system. For instance, in the primary visual cortex of cat, there are "complex" cells that only respond to specific orientation of light bars [4], indicating that certain neurons in the visual cortex can extract different orientation features from the visual stimuli. Similarly, our experiment shows that different pitch contours in tones may correspond to different brain mechanisms. However, whether there are such pitch contour feature extraction neurons in the auditory cortex of humans or other animals still needs to be discovered. Besides the explanation concerning the pitch contours of tones as clarified by different tone features, our second explanation concerns the fast or slow changes of the pitches of tones. As shown in Figure 1, the pitch contour of tone 1 is flat and its frequency throughout the whole word changes slowly, however tone 2 and tone 4 have fast frequency changes throughout the pitch contours. Our results indicate that the fast or slow changes of the fundamental frequencies of different tones may cause different lateralization patterns, such that tone 1 has a left ear (right hemisphere) advantage while tone 2 or tone 4 have right ear (left hemisphere) advantage during the perception of tone 2 or tone 4. This finding partially matches Poeppel's hypothesis on the lateralization [8], which states that the left hemisphere is more sensitive to the fast physical property changes and the right hemisphere is more sensitive to the slow physical property changes, though the time window in [8] does not exactly matches that of ours. Finally, as for tone 3, its pitch contour undergoes a falling rising change, but this change is not fast enough compared with that of tone 2 or tone 4. Therefore, the lateralization pattern of tone 3 in the clean condition is similar to that of tone 1 (left ear advantage). However, under the 0dB and -10dB S/N ratios noisy conditions, the lateralization pattern of tone 3 is reversed, which is consistent with our discussion in Section 3.1 that certain degree of white noise can increase the right ear advantage. It is also consistent with the finding in [14] that tone 3 has a strong right ear advantage in noisy condition. Nonetheless, the underlying brain mechanisms of the different lateralization patterns of tone 3 under clean and noisy conditions remain unexplained.
3.3. Individual difference and gender difference The individual and gender differences among subjects are indicated by the individual POE. Table 4 lists the correctness and POE of each subject, in which M1 to M5 are male subjects and F1 to F5 are female subjects. As shown in Table 4, different subjects show different degrees of lateralization, two female subjects even have a reversed lateralization pattern compared with others. In addition, the average POE of all male subjects is 56.7% and the average POE of all female subjects is 47.5%. Based on a T-test, we detect a significant gender difference of the POE (t(8) = 2.696, p < .027). This gender difference indicates that tones are more bilaterally processed for females than males. A similar gender difference has also been found in some other studies (e.g. [9], [15]). Table 4: The correctness and POE of each subject. M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5
Correctness (%) 89.6 69.1 54.4 65.4 76.1 71.0 68.6 80.7 64.3 85.4
POE (%) 56.0 54.9 58.8 52.9 61.6 51.5 38.6 52.9 47.3 52.4
4. Conclusions In this paper, we conducted a Mandarin tone dichotic listening experiment to study tone lateralization under clean and noisy conditions. Based on a hearing test, the subjects of the experiment were well controlled of their left and right ears' HTLs. Apart from the clean condition, three noisy conditions were introduced, and the lateralization patterns of the four Mandarin tones under these conditions were compared. We found that certain noisy conditions such as those under the 0dB and -10dB S/N ratios may limitedly increase the average POE and the right ear advantage of tone 3. In addition, subjects show different ear advantages for different tones: the perception of tone 2 and tone 4 shows a right ear advantage, while that of tone 1 shows a left ear advantage. We suggested that two physical properties, the tone features such as CONTOUR and HIGH, and the fast or slow changes of the fundamental frequencies of different tones, may cause these different tone lateralization patterns. Moreover, we detect a gender difference of POE, which suggests that there could be some differences in the underlying mechanisms of tone perception in male and female speakers. In this experiment, the lateralization pattern of tone 3 is different in clean and noisy conditions, which cannot be explained by the above two physical properties we proposed. Besides these physical properties, other factors may play a role in affecting the lateralization pattern of tone 3, and we will explore these linguistic or nonlinguistic factors in the future work.
5. Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank colleague GONG Tao and ZHENG Hongying, as well as other members from the
Language Engineering Laboratory for useful discussions and suggestions. This report was in part supported by the Shun Hing Institute of Advanced Engineering (SHIAE) in the Chinese University of HongKong.
6. References [1] Baudoin-Chial, S., 1986. Hemispheric Lateralization of Modern Standard Chinese Tone Processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics 2(1), 189-199. [2] Binder, J.R.; Liebenthal, E.; Possing, E.T.; Medler, D.A.; Ward, B.D., 2004. Neural correlates of sensory and decision processes in auditory object identification. Nature Neuroscience 7, 295-301. [3] Fillmore, C.J.; Kempler, D.; Wang, W.S-Y., 1979. Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. Academic Press: New York. [4] Hubel, D.H.; Wiesel, T.N., 1959. Receptive fields of single neurons in the cat's striate cortex. Journal of Physiology 148, 574-591. [5] Jamison, H.L.; Watkins, K.E.; Bishop, D.V.M.; Matthews, P. M., 2006. Hemispheric Specialization for Processing Auditory Nonspeech Stimuli. Cerebral Cortex 16, 1266-1275. [6] Kimura, D., 1961. Cerebral dominance and the perception of verbal stimuli. Canadian Journal of Psychology 15, 166–171. [7] Oldfield, R.C., 1971. The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9, 97–113. [8] Poeppel, D., 2003. The analysis of speech in different temporal integration windows: cerebral lateralization as 'asymmetric sampling in time'. Speech Communication 41, 245-255. [9] Shaywitz, B.A.; Shaywitz, W.E.; Pugh, K.R., 1995. Sex differences in the functional organization of the brain for language. Nature 373, 607-609. [10] Sidtis, J.J., 1981. The complex tone test: implications for the assessment of auditory laterality effects. Neuropsychologia 19, 103-112. [11] Van Lancker, D.; Fromkin, V.A., 1973. Hemispheric specialization for pitch and "tone": Evidence from Thai. Journal of Phonetics 1, 101-109. [12] Van Lancker, D., 1980. Cerebral lateralization of pitch cues in the linguistic signal. Papers in Linguistics: International Journal of Human Communication 13, 201– 277. [13] Wang, W.S-Y., 1967. Phonological features of tone. International Journal of American Linguistics 33(2), 93105. [14] Wang, Y.; Jongman, A.; Sereno, J.A., 2001. Dichotic perception of Mandarin tones by Chinese and American listeners. Brain and Language 78, 332-348. [15] Weekes, N.Y.; Zaidel, D.W.; Zaidel, E., 1995. Effects of sex and sex role attributions on the ear advantage in dichotic listening. Neuropsychology 9, 62-67. [16] Zatorre, R.J.; Belin, P.; Penhune, V.B., 2002. Structure and function of auditory cortex: music and speech. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6(1), 37-46. [17] Zekveld, A.A.; Heslenfeld, D.J.; Festen, J.M.; Schoonhoven, R., 2006. Top-down and bottom-up processes in speech comprehension. NeuroImage 32, 1826-1836.
Report "Tone Lateralization under Noisy Conditions"


From the Tyne Riverside Country Park, we follow the Hadrian's Wall Trail to Wylam along the Wylam Waggonway, passing the birthplace of George Stephenson, famous for 'Stephenson's Rocket'.
Crossing the River Tyne, we then follow the Keelman's Way path back to Newburn, to cross the river at the site of the Battle of Newburn Ford (28.08.1640) between the English and the Scots.
The final stretch takes us back to the country park, passing Keelman's Lodge, where meals, drinks and Bed & Breakfast are on offer.


Second, examine what works based on observable success stories and leading practices.
Third, set metrics to benchmark practice and performance accordingly.
This Report represents a refinement and fuller elaboration of the Framework and accompanying metrics based on inputs received through numerous channels over the past year.
The ultimate objective of national economic performance is broad-based and sustained progress in living standards, a concept that encompasses wage and non-wage income (e.g., pension or child care benefits) as well as economic opportunity and quality of life. This is the bottom-line basis on which a society evaluates the economic dimension of its country's leadership.
To borrow from a business concept, growth can be thought of as the top-line measure of national economic performance, with broad-based or median progress in living standards representing the bottom-line. Inclusive growth can be thought of as a strategy to increase the extent to which the economy's top-line performance is translated into the bottom-line result society is seeking, i.e., broad-based expansion of economic opportunity and prosperity.
Similarly, OECD research finds that an increase in inequality by three Gini points is correlated with a decrease in economic growth by 0.35percentage points per year for 25 years – a cumulative loss of 8.5%. 20 This is primarily because higher levels of inequality are associated with poorer households finding it harder to invest in health and educational opportunities, thereby lowering human capital accumulation and social mobility. 21 The economic threat of income inequality to a nation's well-being lies primarily in the large bottom segment of society not advancing. In response to these findings, the OECD is working on a new metric of multidimensional living standards, in a bid to capture the well-being of societies more accurately. With its Human Opportunity Index, the World Bank is another influential organization increasingly turning its attention to what is needed in addition to economic growth to reduce poverty and share prosperity more widely.
"Beyond GDP" refers to a longstanding debate within mainstream economics aimed at developing indicators of progress that are as clear and compelling as GDP but also more inclusive of other measures of well-being, including environmental, social, and quality-of-life aspects. There are two sets of issues in favor of moving beyond GDP: the limitations of GDP as a measure of output; and the limitations of using GDP as a measure of social and economic progress.
GDP does not measure the overall standard of living or well-being of a country, concepts which are multidimensional and not solely contingent on economic factors. These include dimensions such as health, education, and employment, which are not adequately captured in a measure like GDP. It has been shown that after a certain point, increases in GDP will be offset by externalities such as increased inequality. 35 Given that GDP is monetized, it does not capture the full consumer surplus, which includes the non-monetary value of goods and services. For example, the time savings accrued through easy access to information through the Internet are not included in GDP.
Intergenerational equity, which refers to whether economic performance is being pursued at the expense of future generations, is another limitation of GDP. Increasing output, which at first glance would be "good" for GDP, may come at the expense of externalities such as environmental damage, reduced leisure time, or the depletion of natural resources. 36 In other words, there is no link between GDP and the sustainability of the economy.
In other words, a lot of good work has been done to frame a different way of thinking about economic progress. Yet, to date there have been few concrete proposals on how to manifest that thinking in a specific policy framework or growth model, on the one hand, and set of national economic performance metrics, on the other. This Report is intended as a concrete contribution in this regard.
In recent years, many governments have been faced with the challenge of promoting stronger productivity growth, while also having to ensure that the proceeds are equitably distributed. New work on the "productivity-inclusiveness nexus" at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) examines this challenge in depth and puts forward a new policy framework to help governments address rising inequalities and slowing productivity growth.
Since the beginning of the millennium, 90% of OECD countries have experienced a slowdown in labor productivity growth, in the wake of decades of rapid technological advancement. OECD analysis shows this slowdown results from a growing difference in performance between firms at the global productivity frontier – "frontier firms" – and their non-frontier counterparts.5-1 In manufacturing, the early 2000s saw labor productivity at the global frontier increase rapidly at an average annual rate of 3.5%, compared with just 0.5% for non-frontier firms. As explored elsewhere in this Report, recent decades have also seen widespread increases in inequality, in terms of both income and well-being.
Inequalities of income, education, training opportunities, and health tend to feed each other, and also reduce productivity and growth. In particular, recent OECD evidence indicates that rising inequality has limited the ability of the bottom 40% to invest in knowledge and skill-building, worsening inequality and undermining potential productivity. Evidence also suggests that growing productivity dispersion across firms has caused widening of the wage distribution over the past two or three decades. In part, this may be down to rent capture by frontier firms and suboptimal resource allocation, which have limited productivity gains while entrenching inequalities of income.
The OECD's approach recognizes that making the productivity-inclusiveness nexus work for all will require a comprehensive policy framework to account for and address the multiple interactions between inequalities and productivity, and how these interactions play out across countries, regions, and firms, and between individuals. This will call upon governments to break down policy silos and focus on win-win policies to reduce inequalities and support productivity growth simultaneously, while addressing trade-offs. It will also necessitate stronger governance and regulatory mechanisms to combat issues like rent seeking and corruption.
Achieving stronger productivity growth and reducing inequalities requires action to ensure that all people, and particularly those at the bottom, are provided with opportunity and equipped with skills to fulfill their productive potential. Beyond adequate social-safety nets and labor market-activation policies, this calls for effective education and skills policies to better match training with labor market demands and policies targeted at improving health and job quality.
Businesses have a crucial role to play in making productivity growth both stronger and more inclusive by offering employment, contributing to effective skills development and use, and developing knowledge and technologies. To enable businesses to play this role, government must foster a policy environment that creates a level regulatory and financial playing field for all firms so as to support innovation and its diffusion throughout the economy. For example, government provision of unemployment benefits needs to be combined with inclusive policies that place a strong emphasis on "activation" to ensure that unemployment duration is reduced and human capital depreciation minimized, while also providing the most productive firms with the supply of skilled labor they need.
Competition regimes must encourage new businesses, and much could be done to improve enforcement against global enterprises that violate competition laws, including through more cooperation on cross-border cases. Incumbents must be prevented from achieving regulatory capture that could allow them to exert undue influence over policy and regulatory frameworks. This would require evidence-based decision-making processes that take better account of impact assessment and public consultations while ensuring transparency. Many policies will need to be adapted to the circumstances of local places, calling for actions at the regional and urban levels. For instance, local conditions can be crucial to the effectiveness of efforts to improve labor-market conditions, such as by matching skills and training. In addition, local policy actions toward, for instance, ensuring sufficient and affordable housing and transport are essential to removing barriers that limit access to opportunity.
The World Bank's landmark 1993 study, The East Asian Miracle, 49 examined how eight economies in the region succeeded in achieving a remarkable record of "high growth with equity" from 1960 to 1990. In a chapter entitled "An Institutional Basis for Shared Growth," its distinguished research team concluded: "Of course, few political leaders anywhere would reject, on principle, either the desirability of growth or that the benefits of growth should be shared. What distinguished the High-Performing Asian Economies' leadership was the extent to which they adopted specific institutional mechanisms tailored to these goals, and that worked." The team then documented the institutional approaches that contributed importantly to this positive outcome in such areas as education, land reform, small- and medium-sized business support, housing, labor-management relations, insulation of policymaking from rent-seeking behavior, integrity in public administration, and business-government relations.
In fact, economic institution-building has been a crucial part of the development path of essentially every country that has industrialized and achieved high living standards. Because development is a complex and multidisciplinary process – many conditions need to be fulfilled in order for widespread poverty to be replaced by ever-rising middle-class prosperity – this process of institutional deepening occurs across a wide spectrum of domains. But the process is not automatic. Although rising national income generates additional resources and policy space to establish and effectively implement such institutional mechanisms as public education systems, independent judiciaries, labor protections, social insurance systems, competition, investment climate, anti-corruption rules and enforcement agencies, and basic and digital infrastructure, they do not guarantee it. The pace and pattern of economic institution-building is a choice, a function of policy decisions and public-private cooperation. Like other aspects of a country's growth model, it is shaped by the prevailing political economy and is largely endogenous to the development process. Because it is a policy choice, the size of the payoff from economic growth to broad socioeconomic progress is as well, to a considerable extent.
First and foremost, the practice of inclusive growth and development requires widening of the lens through which priorities are set in national economic strategies. Macroeconomic, finance and trade supervision policies remain critically important as they establish the conditions necessary for improvements in productivity that help drive growth. However, other areas are just as vital to the overriding purpose of economic policy: strong, sustained increases in broad living standards.
What are the areas of policy and institutional strength that have a particularly strong bearing on social participation in the process (e.g., productive employment) and outcomes (e.g., median household income) of economic growth? This Report presents a Framework and a corresponding set of indicators of policy and enabling environment conditions in seven principal domains (pillars) and 15 sub-domains (sub-pillars) (see Figure 4). Societies that have had particular success in building a robust middle class and reducing poverty and social marginalization have tended to create effective economic institutions and policy incentives in many of these areas, while supporting growth through sound macroeconomic policies and efficiency-enhancing reforms. These pillars and sub-pillars describe the spectrum of structural factors within a modern economy that particularly influence the breadth of improvement in living standards. A detailed description of each of the pillars is provided in Part 3.
The policy and institutional domains portrayed in this Framework represent the ecosystem of structural policy incentives and institutions that together and as part of the growth process help to diffuse the benefits of an expanding national economy widely in terms of household income, opportunity, security, and quality of life. This ecosystem constitutes the implicit income distribution system – or, more precisely, living standards diffusion mechanism – underpinning modern market economies. When it performs properly, it tends to operate in a self-reinforcing cycle in which rising economic output and social inclusion feed each other.
Fair and efficient taxation and basic social protections feature at the beginning and end of a continuing cycle within the development process. They are important not only for addressing excess inequality resulting from market outcomes but also for mobilizing resources to support crucial public services such as education and physical infrastructure, which are vital to the creation of economic opportunity, functioning of markets, and thus inception and ongoing stimulation of the growth process itself.
Sound legal and competition institutions support efficient resource allocation and equal opportunity by preventing corruption, unduly high barriers to entry, and concentration of rents due to regulatory capture. Investment climate rules, incentives, and institutional capacity are important for enabling investors to capitalize on the level playing field created by robust legal and competition frameworks. They help channel savings efficiently to employment-generating and productivity-enhancing investment opportunities in the real economy as well as support consumer demand and small-scale entrepreneurship through widespread access to financial services.
Core labor standards, worker protections, and benefits enable wages and household income to rise roughly in line with labor productivity, supporting domestic consumption and aggregate demand. They can also reinforce growth by supporting labor mobility, adjustment, and skills acquisition. Policies that support broad access to small business loans, housing finance, pension savings, and employee ownership help to democratize the generation of wealth and share the gains in national income from the economy's technical progress and its accumulating capital stock. The accompanying wealth effect similarly stimulates domestic consumption and demand.
If these key enabling factors are in place, a strong entrepreneurial and investment culture takes hold, fostering competitive industries and quality employment opportunities that in turn support domestic demand. Coming full circle, robust domestic demand spurs further investment and stimulates increases in growth via an efficient and fair tax system that generates the additional public resources needed to increase investment in the quality of the country's basic services, infrastructure, and social safety net – widening economic opportunity and output still further.
To help governments and stakeholders understand the extent to which this policy and institutional ecosystem has been optimized in their country, a database of cross-country statistical indicators has been compiled in each sub-pillar, permitting comparison at the pillar, sub-pillar, and individual indicator level within peer groups. These Policy and Institutional Indicators (PIIs) yield a distinct profile of each country's institutional strength and utilization of policy space relative to its peers. These country profiles of benchmarking data are like diagnostic scans of each country's structural policy and institutional enabling environment as it relates to their capacity to capture the synergies between growth and social inclusion. They illustrate the distance from best practice in their peer group in areas that particularly matter for driving broad-based progress in living standards. The results are presented in four groups of countries based on level of economic development as measured by national income.
Tables 13-16 display the four groups of countries, comparing the pillar and sub-pillar scores of each country via a traffic-light shading scheme that ranks countries relative to their group. Red corresponds to the lowest relative performance within the group, yellow to the median, and dark green to the best performance. Since this color scheme ranks countries only within each comparator group, colors are not comparable across income groups. However, the absolute numerical score values (on a scale of 1 to 7) that are displayed in each data field are largely comparable across the entire sample of 109 countries. When countries are missing data, this is indicated by white shading and a numerical value of N/A. If data is missing for more than 30% of indicators, the sub-pillar score is also left blank. See Part 3 for a full description of the methodology. In addition to the cross-country sub-pillar tables presented in this Report, the version of the Report available online includes full individual country data profiles (wef.ch/igd17). These Country Profiles list the score for every indicator within every sub-pillar for each country covered by the Report. An example of a full country profile is included below in Part 2.
This Framework represents an alternative way of thinking about structural economic reform and its role in the development process. Structural reform usually refers to measures aimed at boosting economic efficiency and macroeconomic stability by sharpening market signals and improving the health of public finances, often in response to a recent or looming fiscal or balance-of-payments crisis. In such circumstances, they tend to have the effect of squeezing living standards in the short term. But a systematic, sustained effort to strengthen institutions and policy incentives across the Framework's 15 sub-domains – or to address particular weaknesses identified therein – also constitutes an exercise in structural reform, albeit one that mixes demand- and supply-side measures for the express purpose of boosting broad living standards while reinforcing the rate and resilience of growth.
This rebalanced and enlarged notion of structural reform is best pursued as a long-term strategy forming an integral part of the development process rather than as a crash effort to preempt or recover from a crisis. 53 If a society is seeking a more inclusive model of economic growth, then the deliberate and progressive cultivation of institutional strength in these areas must be placed at the heart of its growth strategy, because these are the frameworks and mechanisms that constitute its economy's implicit income distribution system – the mechanism by which the social benefits of economic growth are diffused widely in the form of broad-based progress in living standards (employment, income, security, and quality of life).
The essential measure of the inclusiveness of a society's growth model is the extent to which it produces broad gains in living standards before fiscal transfers. For this reason, six of the Framework's seven main pillars relate to structural policy and institutional factors that influence the composition of private-sector activity and the distribution of outcomes within the market itself. In particular, because wages and returns to self-employment and small-business ownership constitute a very high percentage of the income of all but the wealthiest households, factors that shape these elements of national income figure prominently in the indicators that have been assembled.
At the same time, since the focus of this exercise is inclusive growth and development rather than social inclusion per se, the set of policies and institutions it highlights and the specific benchmarking indicators it chooses must be consistent with the promotion of economic dynamism and growth. An inclusive growth strategy can only be effective if it reinforces, or at least does not undermine, incentives to work, save, and invest. This is a further reason why the Framework concentrates in large part, though by no means exclusively, on policy levers that influence relative incentives within the private sector rather than those that effect direct transfers through the public sector.
Given the breadth and complexity of this policy ecosystem as well as the important role each country's particular political economy plays in shaping it, there is no single ideal policy mix for the pursuit of inclusive growth. It is most important to view the entire spectrum of the Framework as an integrated system that merits deliberate cultivation as an integral part of the growth and development process with periodic upgrading to address weaknesses revealed in one part of the ecosystem or another.
A culture of continuous improvement is required with respect to this policy and institutional ecosystem informed by evidence and experience. Indeed, as discussed in the presentation of these results below, no country excels across all 15 domains of the Framework. All have room for improvement and learning from peers. For this reason, the Framework weights all sub-pillars and pillars evenly, and refrains from providing rolled-up scores across the pillars.
Figure 6 shows one facet of the considerable variation in emphasis by countries within this policy and institutional ecosystem. It illustrates the relative weight placed on pre- and post-transfer mechanisms (pillars 1-6 or pillar 7, respectively). Countries with comparable Gini ratios often achieve them through very different means, including very different levels of redistribution through the tax code and social insurance programs.
Larger fiscal transfers are not necessarily incompatible with long-term growth and competitiveness, but neither are they always the primary or most effective available option for broadening socioeconomic inclusion. Many of the world's most competitive economies have high levels of social protection and the significant tax burdens these imply. However, other countries achieve moderate or low Gini ratios mainly because their pre-transfer level of inequality is comparatively modest to begin with rather than due to the significance of their transfers.
There is no inherent trade-off in economic policymaking between the promotion of social inclusion and that of long-term economic growth and competitiveness; it is possible to be pro-equity and pro-growth at the same time. Several of the strongest performers in the Forum's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) also have a relatively strong inclusive-growth and development profile.
Policies and institutions supporting social inclusion are not solely a luxury of high-income countries. There is extensive overlap in absolute scores across at least three of the four income groups of countries in the sub-pillars of Business and Political Ethics, Tax Code, Financial System Inclusion, Intermediation of Business Investment, Productive Employment, Concentration of Rents, and Educational Quality and Equity.
More fundamentally, when seen from a practical, evidence-based perspective,the current debate on inequality and social inclusion is unduly narrow and unnecessarily polemicized. It is possible, indeed essential, to be pro-labor and pro-business, to advocate a strengthening of both social inclusion and efficiency of markets through a stronger focus on institutions. The inequality debate focuses almost exclusively on up-skilling of labor and redistribution – when it moves beyond problem identification. For many countries, these may be among the most appropriate responses to widening dispersion of incomes, but they represent only a minority of the policy options available. To focus only on them is to miss the fuller opportunity to adapt or "structurally adjust" one's economy to the challenge of strengthening the contribution of economic growth to broad-based progress in living standards in the face of forces such as technological change and global economic integration that can pull in the opposite direction.
Other actionable options that are not traditionally thought of as equity-enhancing because they concern strengthening the enabling environment for real economy business investment and entrepreneurship can be just as critical to a country's success in expanding employment, boosting wages, and widening asset ownership, which are central to advancing progress in living standards. The scaling and leveling effects of technology are increasing returns to capital and innovation. But while digitization in particular will continue to create enormous challenges for employment in many industries and countries, it also has the potential to create extensive opportunities for new entrepreneurs and small businesses by reducing barriers to entry and transaction costs as well as disintermediating and unbundling existing activities performed by larger organizations, including in international trade. Moreover, as manufacturing productivity improves and societies age, the market for services – many of which are less tradable across borders than goods – will expand, creating further opportunities for small-business ownership and asset building. Improving the regulatory and financial environment for running and investing in a small business can help a larger proportion of the working population to capture a larger share of these gains through the profits and equity appreciation that can accompany business ownership.
Similarly, in today's more internationally competitive and technologically dynamic environment, the effectiveness of private investment in the real economy is a critical determinant of a country's ability to support productive industrial employment. This includes the cost, patience, and range of risk capital available for long-term investment in productive capacity and productivity improvements. Other critical determinants of the number and quality of employment opportunities include the quality and cost of infrastructure and basic services that link goods to markets and equip people for jobs, as well as the extent of deadweight losses to economic efficiency and innovation in the form of corruption and rents. A strategy to improve the enabling environment in these areas must be considered just as integral to the construction of a more inclusive model of economic growth as efforts to improve skills or fiscal transfers.
14 A. Kraay, "When is Growth Pro-Poor? Evidence from a Panel of Countries," Journal of Development Economics 80, No. 1 (2006): 198-227.
15 R. Rajan, Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010).
16 A.G. Berg and J.D. Ostry, "Inequality and Unsustainable Growth: Two Sides of the Same Coin?" IMF Staff Discussion Note 11/08 (2011), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2011/sdn1108.pdf; J.D. Ostry et al., "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth" (2014), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2014/sdn1402.pdf.
17 L. Carvalho and A. Rezai, "Personal Income Inequality and Aggregate Demand," Working Paper 2014-23, Department of Economics, University of São Paulo, São Paulo (2014).
18 "Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective" (IMF, 2015), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf.
20 "Focus on Inequality and Growth" (OECD, December 2014), https://www.oecd.org/social/Focus-Inequality-and-Growth-2014.pdf.
21 Ibid; F. Cingano, "Trends in Income Inequality and Its Impact on Economic Growth," OECD SEM Working Paper No. 163 (2014), www.oecd.org/els/workingpapers.
22 Robert Costanza, Maureen Hart, Stephen Posner, and John Talberth, "Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress," The Pardee Papers No. 4, January 2009, https://www.bu.edu/pardee/files/documents/PP-004-GDP.pdf.
23 Diane Coyle, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Princeton University Press, 2015); Dirk Philipsen, The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do about It (Princeton University Press, 2015).
24 Robert J. Samuelson, "In Praise of the GDP," Independent Record, May 16, 2016, http://helenair.com/news/opinion/in-praise-of-the-gdp/article_fa456e06-b95d-55bd-82c9-af6348f8c005.html.
25 See, for example, the case of Nigeria, where a statistical revision of GDP in 2014 meant that the country's economy was calculated 89% bigger, even though its citizens were no wealthier. "How Nigeria's economy grew by 89% overnight," The Economist, April 8, 2014, http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/04/economist-explains-2.
26 Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, "Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress," http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/1267/1/Measurement_of_economic_performance_and_social_progress.pdf.
27 Professor Sir Charles Bean, Independent Review of UK Economic Statistics, March 2016, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/507081/2904936_Bean_Review_Web_Accessible.pdf.
28 Ibid.; "Communications Market Report" (Ofcom, 2015), https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/cmr/cmr15.
29 Diane Coyle, GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History (Princeton University Press, 2015); Dirk Philipsen, The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do about It (Princeton University Press, 2015).
30 Diane Coyle, "Digitally Disrupted GDP," VOX, February 8, 2016, http://voxeu.org/article/digitally-disrupted-gdp.
31 Stefan Hall and James Pennington, "How Much is the Sharing Economy Worth to GDP?" (World Economic Forum, October 28, 2016), https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/what-s-the-sharing-economy-doing-to-gdp-numbers/.
32 Peter Coy, "The Rise of the Intangible Economy: U.S. GDP Counts R&D, Artistic Creation," Bloomberg, July 18, 2013, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-07-18/the-rise-of-the-intangible-economy-u-dot-s-dot-gdp-counts-r-and-d-artistic-creation.
33 "Beyond GDP - New Measures for a New Economy" (Demos, 2011), http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/BeyondGDP_0.pdf.
34 Anna Bernasek, "Income Inequality, and Its Cost," New York Times, June 25, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/business/yourmoney/25view.html.
35 D. J., Talberth, C. Cobb, et al. "The Genuine Progress Indicator 2006: A Tool for Sustainable Development" (Oakland, California: Redefining Progress, 2007), http://rprogress.org/publications/2007/GPI%202006.pdf.
36 Tim Callen, "Gross Domestic Product: An Economy's All" (IMF, 2012), http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/gdp.htm.
37 Justin Fox, "The Economics of Well-Being" (Harvard Business Review, 2012), https://hbr.org/2012/01/the-economics-of-well-being.
38 Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, "Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress," http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/1267/1/Measurement_of_economic_performance_and_social_progress.pdf.
40 Human Development Index, United Nations Development Programme, http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi.
41 Angus Deaton, "Income, Health, and Well-Being around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll." Journal of Economic Perspectives 22, No. 2: 53-72.
45 R. Costanza et al, "Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress," The Pardee Papers Series, No. 4 (2009); M. Fleurbaey and D. Blanchet, Beyond GDP: Measuring Welfare and Assessing Sustainability (Oxford, Oxford University Press: 2013).
46 See, for example: http://www.economist.com/node/17079148, http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21636749-what-ebenezer-scrooge-and-tiny-tim-can-tell-us-about-economics-joy-world and http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21697845-gross-domestic-product-gdp-increasingly-poor-measure-prosperity-it-not-even.
47 See, in particular, Douglass C. North, "Institutions," in Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, No. 1 (1991): 97-112; Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge University Press, 1990).
48 More recently, Hall and Jones find that differences in capital accumulation and productivity, and therefore output per worker, are driven by differences in institutions and government policies. See R. Hall and C. Jones, "Why Do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output per Worker than Others?" The Quarterly Journal of Economics 114, No. 1 (1999): 83-116; Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson show that institutions are robustly related to present-day differences in per-capita incomes. See D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson, and J. Robinson, "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review 91, No. 5 (2001): 1369-1401; D. Rodrik, A. Subramanian, and F. Trebbi also find that property rights are more important than either geography or trade in determining income levels around the world. See D. Rodrik, A. Subramanian, and F. Trebbi, "Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions Over Geography and Integration in Economic Development," Journal of Economic Growth 9, No. 2 (2004) 9: 131.
49 The East Asian Miracle (World Bank, 1993): 13-15, 157-89.
50 The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development (World Bank, 2008): 4-5.
51 A. Hicks, Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism: A Century of Income Security Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). In the UK, the introduction of the welfare state rested largely on the work of John Maynard Keynes, who argued the virtues of full employment and state stimulation of the economy, and William Beveridge and the 1942 Beveridge Report, which spelled out a system of social insurance covering every citizen regardless of income and also resulted in compulsory, free secondary education for all, as well as the birth of the National Health Service. In the United States, from 1933-38, the New Deal ushered in a new era of reform spanning financial regulation, farm subsidies, public works, mortgage protection, union rights, Social Security, and the minimum wage.
52 Towards Green Growth (OECD, 2011); Tools for Delivering on Green Growth (OECD, 2011); and Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication (UNEP, 2011). The pursuit of a greener model of economic growth begins with a similar rebalancing of national strategy priorities supported by systematic consideration of available policy space across a wide spectrum of relevant policy and institutional domains.
53 R.G. Rajan, Fault Lines (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010).


The director lays out the programming code without developing the program.
Josh Hartnett Stars in "August."
Plot Summary: August centers on two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.


A new study shows that smokers who switch to nicotine vapor alternatives (e.g. e-cigarettes or iQOS) may be better able to stay smoke-free in the long term - even if they didn't set out to quit smoking.
And that even people who didn't want to stop smoking have eventually quit because they found vaping more enjoyable. E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is the addictive component of cigarettes also, but it's toxic chemicals in smoke that cause the harms of smoking. That is why e-cigarettes have caught on as an aid to help people quit smoking for good, whereas patches and gums are only effective for about 10 percent.
"E-cigarettes are at least 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco smoking, and they are now the most popular aid to quitting smoking in the UK," said lead author Dr. Caitlin Notley from University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School. "However, the idea of using e-cigarettes to stop smoking, and particularly long-term use, remains controversial. We wanted to find out about how people use e-cigarettes to quit smoking - and whether vaping supports long-term smoking abstinence."
This was learned by in-depth interviews with 40 vapers. They asked them about their tobacco smoking history and prior quit attempts, and about how they started vaping, their vape set up, preferred flavors and strength, and whether they had switched to vaping in attempt to quit smoking. They also asked them about situations and experiences that caused them to relapse into tobacco smoking.
"We found that vaping may support long-term smoking abstinence," said Notley. "Not only does it substitute many of the physical, psychological, social and cultural elements of cigarette smoking, but it is pleasurable in its own right, as well as convenient and cheaper than smoking. Our study group also felt better in themselves - they noticed better respiratory function, taste and smell. But the really interesting thing we found was that vaping may also encourage people who don't even want to stop smoking, to eventually quit."
While most of the sample group reported long histories of tobacco smoking and multiple previous quit attempts, a minority (17 percent) said they enjoyed smoking and had never seriously attempted to quit.
"These were our accidental quitters," said Notley. "They hadn't intended to quit smoking and had tried vaping on a whim, or because they had been offered it by friends. They went on to like it, and only then saw it as a potential substitute for smoking. Many people talked about how they saw vaping was a no pressure approach to quitting," she added.
While most of the group switched quickly and completely from smoking to vaping, some found themselves using both cigarettes and vaping, and then stopped smoking.
"We found that people did occasionally relapse with a cigarette, mainly due to social or emotional reasons, but it didn't necessarily lead to a full relapse. This study suggests that vaping is a viable long-term substitute for smoking, with substantial implications for tobacco harm reduction," concluded Notley.