User:Msrasnw/TeachingDevelopment

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Vlado Keselj (Vlado Kešelj) is a Serbian-Canadian computer scientist known for his research in natural language processing and authorship attribution. He is a professor at Dalhousie University.

Keselj is best known for proposing the CNG distance measure in 2003 (cited by 550 in Jan 2021 ) for authorship attribution, a modification of the Euclidean distance:

$$cng(f_1,f_2) = \sum_n\left(\frac{f_1(n) - f_2(n)}{\frac{f_1(n)+f_2(n)}{2}}\right)^2$$

Vlado Kešelj has proven in 1996 the best known upper bound of the length of Pierce series:


 * $$P(a) = O((a \cdot \log(a))^\frac{1}{3})$$

Awards
Vlado Keselj is a recipient of the 2019 CAIAC Distinguished Service Award, awarded by the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (CAIAC).

Selected publications

 * Kešelj, V., Peng, F., Cercone, N., & Thomas, C. (2003, August). N-gram-based author profiles for authorship attribution. In Proceedings of the Conference of the Pacific Association for Computational Linguistics, PACLING 2003 (Vol. 3, pp. 255–264).

Family
Her mother was Kristín Símonardóttir and her father was Sigmundur Sveinsson. Sesselja had seven sibling; Steinunn, Sigríður Gróa, Þórarinn, Kristinn, Lúðvík and Símon. When Sesselja was two years old her family moved to Brúsastaðir in Thingvellir. Her father became the manager of the restaurant Valhöll (Valhalla). In 1919 the family moved back to Reykjavík.

Sesselja was blessed to be able to go to Europe and study and stayed for six years in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. She studied pedagogy, child nursing and kindergarten management. She was the first Icelander to study The Care for People with mental challenges. While studying in Germany Sesselja got to know Anthroposophy and the theories of Rudolf Steiner. She also studied gardening, flower cultivation and how to handle poultry.   <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">This strong-willed woman rented the earth Hverakot from the Childcare Committe of the Church of Iceland. On her 28th birthday, the 5th of July 1930, she founded Sólheimar. She raised children as if they were her own and was a pioneer in the field of pedagogy and the care for mentally disabled peopled in Iceland. Sesselja was also a pioneer when it came to farming as she was the first to start organic farming (then even bio-dynamic farming) in both Iceland and in the Nordic countries. It is only fair to say the she was the first Iceland environmentalist.<BR><BR>In 1930, when Sesselja moved to Iceland, she was in contact with several people in Denmark, Germany, Holland, England and Switzerland about organic farming and anthroposophy. She travelled to these countries regularly. She corresponded with Dr. Karl König, founder of the Camphill movement in Britain, Sólveig Nagel from Norway and Carita Stenback from Finland. They were all pioneers in their own countries in matters concerning people with mental challenges.<BR><BR>Sesselja adopted two children; Hólmfríður and Elvar and raised fourteen foster children. Elvar passed away in November 27th 1963.<BR></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: VERDANA; FONT-SIZE: 9pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: auto"><BR>Sesselja married Rudolf Richard Walter Noah on March 17th, 1949. Noah was a German musician and a teacher who came to Iceland in 1935. He was arrested by the British Army on July 5th, 1940 and moved to a prison camp in England. He was not allowed to enter Iceland until 9 years later but finally on the 7th of March 1953 he went back to Germany without formally parting from Sesselja. Noah died in Germany in 1967 and Sesselja herself passed away on the 8th of November 1974, then at the age of 72, in Landakot hospital in Reykjavík.<BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">The writer Jónína Michaelsdóttir wrote a book on Sólheimar and the story of Sesselja, called “Mér leggst eitthvað til - Sagan um Sesselju Sigmundsdóttur og Sólheima” which could be translated in the lines of "I will think of something - the story of Sesselja Sigmundsdóttir and Sólheimar". The book was published by the Relief fund of Sólheimar in 1990 but has unfortunately so far not been translated into English.</SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">Sólheimar<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0px" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><BR>Sólheimar was formally founded on July 5th, 1930 when the first five children arrived an a few days later five more children followed.undefined. There wasn't any proper housing available on the land at that time so they lived in tents until the basement of the House of Sólheimar (Sólheimahús) was ready to be moved into on November 4th the same year. Lúðvík, Sesselja’s brother built wooden floors in the tents and under them led hot water from the hot spring in the center of the village. Sólheimar started as a children's home, especially for children that had lost their parents or had ill parents. There were also children staying only over the summer. In the fall 1931 the first child with mental challenges came to Sólheimar but at that time there weren't many other alternatives for children with physical or mental disabilities and sometimes they were even kept in outhouses. In the year 1934 it is stated that '11 healthy children and 8 retards' lived in Sólheimar 'apart from those dwelling for the summer'. In the year 1936 there were '10 healthy children, 14 retards and summer children as well'. Despite the shortage of staff in the years 1942 – 1944, after the war, nearly all the children in Sólheimar were mentally disabled besides the summer children and Sesselja’s foster children. In 1952 there were 16 mentally disabled people living in the community, in 1956 they were 25 and in 1964 45 people with disabilities.<BR><BR>Sesselja emphasized that Sólheimar was a home, not an institution and that the disabled people and other people shared the same rights. It is only fair to state that the emphasis of reverse integration was marked at Sólheimar and later became acknowledged in other countries around 1970. Reverse integration means that the community was and still is built with the needs and rights of the disabled and not vise versa as commonly known.

Notability
It has been praised by David Held in the Times Higher Education Supplement as being an "An admirable text which is far reaching in its scope and extraordinary in the clarity with which it covers a wide range of material... One can have nothing but the highest regard for this volume." and by Zygmunt Bauman in Sociology who argues that "Beetham has produced a study bound to revolutionize sociological thinking and teaching... Seminal and profoundly original... Beetham's book should become the obligitory reading for every teacher and practitioner of social science."

Structure of the book
The book is diveded in two parts. The first part looks at the criteria for legitimacy. Outlining the Social-Scientific Concept of Legitimacy; Power and its need of Legitimation; the intellectual Structure of legitimacy generally and the social science and the social construction of legitimacy in particular. The second part of the work examines the legitimacy of the contempory states. Outlining the dimensions of state Legitimacy, the tendencies of political systems to have crisis; various modes of non-legitimate power. This part concludes with a look at legitimacy in both political science and political philosophy.

A problem with "legitimacy" that this work, according to Steffek clearly emphasises is that the term is used both prescriptively and descriptively. From the prescriptive point of view social scientists should be able to suggest when governance deserves to be described as legitimate. From the descriptive point of view social scientists should be able to suggest why those subjected to governance aggree to  accept and support it (or reject it). As for the first project, there is a well-established strand of normative research that discusses a prescriptive version of legitimacy.

The book's details
David Beetham (1991) The Legitimation of Power, Palgrave Macmillan 9780333375396

Reference
Agricultural Involution: The Process of Ecological Change in Indonesia. By Clifford Geertz. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1963.

Thought and Change is the most important early work by Ernest Gellner. In this book Gellner outlines his views on what is "modernity". He looks at the processes of social change and and historical transformation and perhaps most forcefully the power nationalism. Maleŝević and Haugaard argue that Gellner's method, the socio-historical method, by which as he sets out a powerful sociology of specific philosophical doctrines and ideologies, from utilitarianism and Kantianism to nationalism. (The chapter specifically dealing with nationalism was later expand to form the basis of Gellner's most famous work (1983) Nations and Nationalism). They note that rather than looking at philosophies' internal coherence Gellner places them in their historical context. By doing this he explains their origins and their likely influence. Modernity for Gellner is "unique, unprecedented and exceptional" and these characteristics are sustained by the growth of economies and increases in cultural uniformity.

The Source
(1965) Thought and Change, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; Chicago: University of Chicago Press (with the imprint 1964). Pp. viii + 224.

Reference
Category:Sociology books

Caroline Moser is an academic specialising in social policy and urban social anthropologist. She is primarily famous for her field-based approach to research on the informal sector genrally - but particularly aspects such as poverty, violence, asset vulnerability and strategies for accumulation in the urban setting. Gender analysis is central to her approach. She has looked at many countries particulalry in the Americas. These countries include Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Jamaica.

She has also researched community participation, looked at the social dimensions of economic reform, the role of human rights, social protection and responses of the urban environemnt to climate change.

Education
Prof Moser has a Ph.D. from Sussex University, (1975) a Post Graduate Diploma from Manchester University (1968) and a BA from Durham University (1967)

Career
Her career has included time at University College London(1978-1986)London School of Economics (1986-1990), the World Bank (1990-2000), the Overseas Development Institute (2001-2002), the New School, New York(2002-2003) and the Brookings Institution (2004-2007) and the University of Manchester (2007-present).

Source
[Staff Profile Manchester University Professor Caroline Moser Position: Professor of Urban Development and Director GURC]

[ODI Profile]

Key Works
Moser, C. (1993) Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training, New York and London, Routledge.

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If you're ever, gentle reader, in Bolton, I strongly recommed a visit to

the Bolton Museum, which houses, along with many other interesting local artifacts, the archive of and ardent group known as the Bolton Whitmanians. The Bolton Whitmanians  formed in 1885, and used to meet in a house on Eagle Street owned by their leader, James Wallace, an architectural draughtsman, to celebrate the life and writings of the great Walt. They liked to commemorate his birthday with a suitably en plein air tea-party, in the course of which they'd sing a hymn especially composed in his honour, and drink communally from an ingeniously designed loving-cup, embellished with Whitmanian scenes - and which is now on permanent display in the museum's collection. The archive is a treasure trove of photographs and correspondence. Whitman never, alas, visited Bolton in person, but he was delighted to learn he was the object of veneration in this northern English town, and responded earnestly to their enquiries and adulation. Two of the band (its leader, Wallace and Doctor John Johnston) actually made the pilgrimage to Camden, New Jersey to visit their now ageing idol, and were graciously received. Indeed Whitman was so touched by their devotion, that when his pet canary died he had it stuffed and asked his close friend Dr Bucke to make a present of it to the Bolton Whitmanians, which he did on his next trip to England in 1891. This canary bird was the very one that had inspired the short poem Whitman published in the New York Herald on March 2nd, 1888: 'Did we count great, O soul, to penetrate the themes of mighty books, / Absorbing deep and full from thoughts, plays, speculations? / But now from thee to me, caged bird, to feel thy joyous warble, / Filling the air, the lonesome room, the long forenoon, / Is it not just as great, O soul?' It too, perched on some life-like foliage, mid-warble, is on view in the Bolton Museum, and the sight of it when I visited a couple of years back brought tears to my eyes.

Financial markets in development, and the development of financial markets

Jeremy Greenwooda and Bruce D. Smithb,

a Department of Economics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627-0156, USA

b Department of Economics, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-1173, USA

Geology of Iceland

Kverkfjoll Source: Iceland Tourist Board

Iceland lies astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is an integral part of the global mid-oceanic ridge system. It is the largest supramarine part of the mid-oceanic ridge system. Iceland has developed on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a landmass between the submarine Reykjanes Ridge to the southwest and the Kolbeinsey Ridge to the north, and has been active during the last 20-25 million years, broadly coinciding with the time-span of active volcanism in Iceland. Being a hot spot above a mantle plume, Iceland has been piled up through voluminous emissions of volcanic material with a much higher production rate per time unit than in any region in the world. It has grown by rifting and crust accretion through volcanism along the axial rift zone, the volcanic zones, which in terms of the plate tectonic framework marks the boundary between the Eurasian and North American plates. Accordingly the western part of Iceland, west of the volcanic zones, belongs to the North American plate and the eastern part to the Eurasian plate, with the oldest rocks outcropping in northwest and in eastern Iceland. To complicate the picture there are also rocks of similar age in Western Iceland and in the centre of northern Iceland, due to movements of the hot spot and the volcanic zones. The rate of spreading is calculated as 1 cm in each direction per year.

Geology and Geological History Iceland is built almost exclusively of volcanic rocks, predominantly basalts. Silicic and intermediate rocks - rhyolites, dacites and andesites - constitute about 10% and sediments another 10% of it.

The main rock formations. The rocks of Iceland can be divided into four main formations: (1) The Upper Tertiary Plateau Basalt Formation, (2) The Upper Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene Grey Basalt Formation, (3) The Upper Pleistocene Palagonite (Hyaloclastite) Móberg Formation and (4) The Postglacial Formation, which besides Postglacial lavas includes sediments as till and glacial sediments from the retreat of the last ice cover and marine, fluvial and lacustrine sediments and soils of Late Glacial and Holocene age.

The Tertiary Basalt Formation comprises eastern and southeastern Iceland, the main part of Western Iceland and the western part of northern Iceland, altogether about half the country's area. In eastern Iceland, basalt lava flows, mainly tholeiitic, form about 80% of the volcanic pile above sea-level, which has a stratigraphic thickness of about 10,000 m. Silicic (rhyolitic) and intermediate rocks and detrital beds form the rest. Dykes are common and intrusions of gabbro and fine-grained granite (granophyre) occur, especially within ruins of differentiated central volcanos. Beds of tephra and ignimbrite are found in and around many of the central volcanoes.

The oldest rocks so far K/Ar dated above sea level are about 14 million years old. Thus, the oldest basalts are no older than the Middle Miocene and much younger than the basalts in Britain, Greenland and the Faroes. This accords with the theory of ocean-floor spreading.

In the Tertiary Icelandic basalts, lava vesicles are usually filled with quartz minerals such as rock crystal, jasper and chalcedony or with zeolites. Zeolites from Teigarhorn in Berufjörður are found in museums all over the world. The Helgustaðir mine in Reydarfjörður remained the world's main supplier of the transparent Iceland spar (optical calcite) for centuries.

Intercalated between the plateau basalts, especially in northwestern Iceland, are plant-bearing sediments and thin layers of lignites. Species found include beech, maple, vine, liriodendron and conifers. The mixed forests of conifers and warmth-loving broad-leaf trees indicate a warm-temperate climate. The warmth-loving trees gradually disappeared during the Pliocene when the climate slowly grew cooler and the first glacial sediments, tillites, turned up. The thin layers of lignites are inferior in quality as fuel seams, although they have been used on a small scale in some places.

The Pleistocene rocks are confined mainly to a broad SW-NE trending zone between the Tertiary plateau basalt areas, and they are also exposed on the peninsulas Tjörnes, Snæfellsnes and Skagi. The Pleistocene rocks are divided into two formations and the limit between them is the last magnetic reversal, occurring about 700,000 years ago. In the Pleistocene Formation there are three main facies:

1) Interglacial basalt lava flows which are generally grey in colour and of coarser texture than the Tertiary ones. The Grey Basalt Formation, where the interglacial basalt layers remain a dominating facies, is mainly exposed along the inner border of the Tertiary basalt areas and in the central part of southern Iceland.

2) Subglacially formed pillow lavas, breccias and brownish tuffs, known as palagonite (móberg), rich in hydrated and otherwise altered basaltic volcanic glass. The share of silicic and intermediary rocks in the Pleistocene Formation is similar to that in the Tertiary ones. The main rhyolitic massifs are the Torfajökull area and Kerlingarfjöll.

3) Glacial, fluvial, lacustrine and marine sediments are interbedded between lava flows. The thickest series of marine strata are found on the Tjörnes peninsula in northern Iceland, where the arrival of Pacific molluscs commenced about 3 million years ago, after the first opening of the Bering Strait.

Stratigraphic studies indicate about fourteen Upper Pliocene and Pleistocene glacial periods. During the main ones the country was almost completely covered by ice. Broad-leaf and conifer forests disappeared during the Lower Pleistocene, but birch, willow and mountain ash survived all theglacial periods, and alder all except the last two.

During the Pleistocene glacial periods, thick ice blanketed the volcanic activity, which consequently took place mainly under water (meltwater) and thus under conditions similar to the submarine parts of the World Rift System. The volcanos which built up subglacially in the volcanic zones mainly depict two types, ridges and table mountains. The ridges are steep-sided and serrated and run in parallel lines, NE-SW in southern Iceland, N-S in northern Iceland. The table mountains are isolated mountains, circular to sub-rectangular. They consist of a shield volcano resting on a socle of pillow lavas and palagonite tuffs and breccias. The lava shields were formed by subaerial outflow of lava when the socles had grown high enough to protrude through the ice cover. The prototype of such table mountains is Herðubreið (1,682 m), north of Vatnajökull. (http://www.iceland.is/country-and-nature/nature/Geology/)

Available online 24 July 1998. Abstract

What is the relationship between markets and development? It is argued that markets promote growth, and that growth in turn encourages the formation of markets. Two models with endogenous market formation are presented to analyze this issue. The first examines the role that financial markets — banks and stock markets — play in allocating funds to the highest valued use in the economic system. It is shown that intermediation will arise under weak conditions. The second focuses on the role that markets play in supporting specialization in economic activity. The consequences of perfect competition in market formation are highlighted.