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Competing
Terms modified by Competing Selected AbstractsCompeting with the Public Sector in BroadcastingECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2000David Elstein There are two public sector broadcasters in the UK: the BBC and Channel 4. In their different ways, their behaviour attracts criticism from the private sector. However, this critique is unfocused and potentially counter-productive. A more efficient , or privatised , public sector would create greater, not lesser, problems for the private sector. The allegations of abuse of privilege and unfair competition may be justified, but the private sector needs a coherent alternative rationale for public funding of broadcasting before it can expect to win a public and political debate. [source] Competing with offshore IT outsourcing: Johnston McLamb innovatesGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 3 2005Ronald J. Johnston Drawing on its core values, IT consultancy Johnston McLamb has rolled the dice with a strategy of technical innovation to combat the threat posed by low-priced offshore IT companies. The strategic shift has had organizational and process implications, which have challenged the young company to rapidly learn and innovate in these arenas as well. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Globalization's Alternatives: Competing or Complementary Perspectives?1GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION, Issue 1 2008John Glenn Recent writings on globalization have tended to argue that such economic interconnectedness is, in one way or another, geographically delimited. Three competing views appear in the literature, regionalization, triadization and the involutionist perspective. This article challenges the portrayal of these perspectives as competing conceptions and instead argues that each perspective furnishes us with a partial view of a larger process. In so doing, this paper revisits the involutionist perspective, arguing that, in relation to the developing countries' relative share of world trade and investment shares, the use of the term ,globalization' should be questioned. Rather, in relation to trade, involution is a more apt description. However, in terms of FDI, stasis better describes the contemporary international economy. The article then examines the trade and investment patterns within the triad, corroborating earlier findings that each leg of the triad is increasingly trading more with their neighbours than with each other, but that inter-triad FDI is indeed increasing. Three main factors are presented in order to explain the contemporary patterns of trade and investment associated with involution, regionalization and triadization: product differentiation, vertical specialization and the continuing concentration on primary product production in much of the developing world. [source] Reactions of Di(tert -butyl)diazomethane with Acceptor-Substituted Ethylenes,HELVETICA CHIMICA ACTA, Issue 5 2007Rolf Huisgen Abstract Di(tert- butyl)diazomethane (4) is a nucleophilic 1,3-dipole with strong steric hindrance at one terminus. In its reaction with 2,3-bis(trifluoromethyl)fumaronitrile ((E)- BTE), a highly electrophilic tetra-acceptor-substituted ethene, an imino-substituted cyclopentene 9 is formed as a 1,:,2 product. The open-chain zwitterion 10, assumed as intermediate, adds the second molecule of (E)- BTE. The 19F- and 13C-NMR spectra allow the structural assignment of two diastereoisomers, 9A and 9B. The zwitterion 10 can also be intercepted by dimethyl 2,3-dicyanofumarate (11) and furnishes diastereoisomeric cyclopentenes 12A and 12B; an X-ray-analysis of 12B confirms the ,mixed' 1,:,1,:,1 product. Competing is an (E)- BTE -catalyzed decomposition of 4 to give 2,3,4,4-tetramethylpent-1-ene (7)+N2; the reaction of (E)- BTE with a trace of water appears to be responsible for the chain initiation. The H2SO4 -catalyzed decomposition of diazoalkane 4, indeed, produced the alkene 7 in high yield. The attack on the hindered diazoalkane 4 by 11 is slower than that by (E)- BTE; the zwitterionic intermediate 21 undergoes cyclization and furnishes the tetrasubstituted furan 22. In fumaronitrile, electrophilicity and steric demand are diminished, and a 1,3-cycloaddition produces the 4,5-dihydro-1H -pyrazole derivative 25. The reaction of 4 with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate leads to pyrazole 29+isobutene. [source] Reactions of Methyl Diazoacetate with (E)- and (Z)-1,2-Bis(trifluoromethyl)ethene-1,2-dicarbonitrile: Novel and Unanticipated Pathways,HELVETICA CHIMICA ACTA, Issue 1 2007Rolf Huisgen Abstract The cycloadditions of methyl diazoacetate to 2,3-bis(trifluoromethyl)fumaronitrile ((E)- BTE) and 2,3-bis(trifluoromethyl)maleonitrile ((Z)- BTE) furnish the 4,5-dihydro-1H -pyrazoles 13. The retention of dipolarophile configuration proceeds for (E)- BTE with >,99.93% and for (Z)- BTE with >,99.8% (CDCl3, 25°), suggesting concertedness. Base catalysis (1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO), proton sponge) converts the cycloadducts, trans - 13 and cis - 13, to a 94,:,6 equilibrium mixture (CDCl3, r.t.); the first step is N -deprotonation, since reaction with methyl fluorosulfonate affords the 4,5-dihydro-1-methyl-1H -pyrazoles. Competing with the cis/trans isomerization of 13 is the formation of a bis(dehydrofluoro) dimer (two diastereoisomers), the structure of which was elucidated by IR, 19F-NMR, and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. The reaction slows when DABCO is bound by HF, but F, as base keeps the conversion to 22 going and binds HF. The diazo group in 22 suggests a common intermediate for cis/trans isomerization of 13 and conversion to 22: reversible ring opening of N -deprotonated 13 provides 18, a derivative of methyl diazoacetate with a carbanionic substituent. Mechanistic comparison with the reaction of diazomethane and dimethyl 2,3-dicyanofumarate, a related tetra-acceptor-ethylene, brings to light unanticipated divergencies. [source] Plasma Thyroid Hormone Concentrations in Dogs Competing in a Long-Distance Sled Dog RaceJOURNAL OF VETERINARY INTERNAL MEDICINE, Issue 4 2003David L. Panciera Plasma thyroxine (T4), 3,5,3,-triiodothyronine (T3), total protein, and albumin concentrations were measured in 15 dogs both before and after completion, and in an additional 16 dogs before and 24 dogs after completion, of a long-distance sled dog race. The plasma T4 concentration (mean ± SD) decreased significantly from 18.2 ± 5.4 nmol/L before to 14.3 ± 3.5 nmol/L after the race in dogs evaluated at both times and decreased significantly from 21.8 ± 10.5 nmol/L before to 15.8 ± 4.9 nmol/L after the race in dogs sampled only before or only after the race. The mean plasma T3 concentrations in dogs measured twice decreased significantly from 1.20 ± 0.48 nmol/L before to 0.74 ± 0.42 nmol/L after the race, as well as in dogs measured either before (1.28 ± 0.36 nmol/L) or after (0.69 ± 0.28 nmol/L) the race, respectively. Plasma total protein and albumin concentrations decreased significantly after completion of the race. No significant change was noted in 4 control dogs that did not compete in the race and were tested during a similar time period. The plasma concentrations of T4 and T3 were lower than the normal reference range established for this laboratory in 23 and 39%, respectively, of Alaskan sled dogs tested before the race. Plasma thyroid hormone concentrations frequently are below normal in conditioned Alaskan sled dogs and are further reduced after prolonged submaximal exercise. [source] Competing with channel partners: Supply chain conflict when retailers introduce store brandsNAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 5 2010Hans Sebastian Heese Abstract Private-label products are of increasing importance in many retail categories. While national-brand products are designed by the manufacturer and sold by the retailer, the positioning of store-brand products is under the complete control of the retailer. We consider a scenario where products differ on a performance quality dimension and we analyze how retailer,manufacturer interactions in product positioning are affected by the introduction of a private-label product. Specifically, we consider a national-brand manufacturer who determines the quality of its product as well the product's wholesale price charged to the retailer. Given the national-brand quality and wholesale price, the retailer then decides the quality level of its store brand and sets the retail prices for both products. We find that a manufacturer can derive substantial benefits from considering a retailer's store-brand introduction when determining the national brand's quality and wholesale price. If the retailer has a significant cost disadvantage in producing high-quality products, the manufacturer does not need to adjust the quality of the national-brand product, but he should offer a wholesale price discount to ensure its distribution through the retailer. If the retailer is competitive in providing products of high-quality, the manufacturer should reduce this wholesale price discount and increase the national-brand quality to mitigate competition. Interestingly, we find the retailer has incentive to announce a store-brand introduction to induce the manufacturer's consideration of these plans in determining the national-brand product quality and wholesale price. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010 [source] Communicating throughout Katrina: Competing and Complementary Conceptual Lenses on Crisis CommunicationPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2007James L. Garnett Hurricane Katrina was as much a communication disaster as it was a natural and bureaucratic disaster. Communication gaps, missed signals, information technology failures, administrative buffering, turf battles, and deliberate and unintentional misinterpretations delayed and handicapped both the recognition of the crisis that Katrina posed and the response to its devastation. This essay views crisis communication through four conceptual lenses: (1) crisis communication as interpersonal influence, (2) crisis communication as media relations, (3) crisis communication as technology showcase, and (4) crisis communication as interorganizational networking. A conceptual framework is presented that compares these lenses with regard to agency, transparency, technology, and chronology. The planning, response, and recovery stages of the Hurricane Katrina disaster are viewed through these communication conceptual lenses, illustrating key facets of each perspective and adding to our deepening understanding of the events. Many of the problems we have identified can be categorized as "information gaps",or at least problems with information-related implications, or failures to act decisively because information was sketchy at best. Better information would have been an optimal weapon against Katrina. Information sent to the right people at the right place at the right time. Information moved within agencies, across departments, and between jurisdictions of government as well. Seamlessly. Securely. Efficiently , One would think we could share information by now. But Katrina again proved we cannot. ,U.S. House Select Bipartisan Committee With the floodwalls gashed and hemorrhaging billions of gallons of water into the city, it was only a matter of a few hours on Monday before the communications citywide began to fail , Communication was about to become the biggest problem of the catastrophe. ,Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security Truth became a casualty, news organizations that were patting their own backs in early September were publishing protracted mea culpas by the end of the month. ,Matt Welch, "They Shoot Helicopters, Don't They?" [source] Methods for Conducting Sensitivity Analysis of Trials with Potentially Nonignorable Competing Causes of CensoringBIOMETRICS, Issue 1 2001Rotnitzky Andrea Summary. We consider inference for the treatment-arm mean difference of an outcome that would have been measured at the end of a randomized follow-up study if, during the course of the study, patients had not initiated a nonrandomized therapy or dropped out. We argue that the treatment-arm mean difference is not identified unless unverifiable assumptions are made. We describe identifying assumptions that are tantamount to postulating relationships between the components of a pattern-mixture model but that can also be interpreted as imposing restrictions on the cause-specific censoring probabilities of a selection model. We then argue that, although sufficient for identification, these assumptions are insufficient for inference due to the curse of dimensionality. We propose reducing dimensionality by specifying semiparametric cause-specific selection models. These models are useful for conducting a sensitivity analysis to examine how inference for the treatment-arm mean difference changes as one varies the magnitude of the cause-specific selection bias over a plausible range. We provide methodology for conducting such sensitivity analysis and illustrate our methods with an analysis of data from the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) study 002. [source] Supporting Adaptation to Climate Change: What Role for Official Development Assistance?DEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 6 2009Jessica M. Ayers The formal financial mechanisms for managing adaptation to climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are falling significantly short of meeting needs in the most vulnerable countries. Given the close relationship between development and adaptation, it is tempting to use existing channels of development assistance to fill this gap. However, it is imperative that development assistance is not seen as a substitute for specific adaptation finance. This article therefore attempts to distinguish between the two roles, and considers how development assistance might support and complement adaptation funding and action under the Convention, rather than competing with or substituting it. [source] The humanitarians' tragedy: escapable and inescapable crueltiesDISASTERS, Issue 2010Alex De Waal Paradoxically, elements of cruelty are intrinsic to the humanitarian enterprise., This paper focuses on some of these. Escapable cruelties arise from technical failings, but the gradual professionalisation of the field and improvements in relief technologies mean that they have been significantly reduced in comparison to earlier eras. Other cruelties arise from clashes among rights, and the tensions inherent in trying to promote humanity amid the horrors of war. These are inescapable and constitute the ,humanitarians' tragedy'. Among them is the individual cruelty of failing to do good at the margin: a clash between the individual's impulses and ideals and the constraints of operating in constrained circumstances. This is a version of triage. In addition, there is the cruelty of compromising dearly-held principles when faced with other competing or overriding demands. There is also the cruelty whereby humanitarians feed victims' dreams that there is an alternative reality, which in fact cannot be attained. [source] Parameter identification of framed structures using an improved finite element model-updating method,Part I: formulation and verificationEARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING AND STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS, Issue 5 2007Eunjong Yu Abstract In this study, we formulate an improved finite element model-updating method to address the numerical difficulties associated with ill conditioning and rank deficiency. These complications are frequently encountered model-updating problems, and occur when the identification of a larger number of physical parameters is attempted than that warranted by the information content of the experimental data. Based on the standard bounded variables least-squares (BVLS) method, which incorporates the usual upper/lower-bound constraints, the proposed method (henceforth referred to as BVLSrc) is equipped with novel sensitivity-based relative constraints. The relative constraints are automatically constructed using the correlation coefficients between the sensitivity vectors of updating parameters. The veracity and effectiveness of BVLSrc is investigated through the simulated, yet realistic, forced-vibration testing of a simple framed structure using its frequency response function as input data. By comparing the results of BVLSrc with those obtained via (the competing) pure BVLS and regularization methods, we show that BVLSrc and regularization methods yield approximate solutions with similar and sufficiently high accuracy, while pure BVLS method yields physically inadmissible solutions. We further demonstrate that BVLSrc is computationally more efficient, because, unlike regularization methods, it does not require the laborious a priori calculations to determine an optimal penalty parameter, and its results are far less sensitive to the initial estimates of the updating parameters. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] From "New Institutionalism" to "Institutional Processualism": Advancing Knowledge about Public Management Policy ChangeGOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2006MICHAEL BARZELAY Research on public management reform has taken a decidedly disciplinary turn. Since the late 1990s, analytical issues are less often framed in terms of the New Public Management. As part of the disciplinary turn, much recent research on public management reform is highly influenced by the three new institutionalisms. However, these studies have implicitly been challenged by a competing research program on public management reform that is emphatically processual in its theoretical foundations. This article develops the challenge in a more explicit fashion. It provides a theoretical restatement of the competing "institutional processualist" research program and compares its substantive findings with those drawn from the neoinstitutionalisms. The implications of this debate about public management reform for comparative historical analysis and neoinstitutional theories are discussed. [source] Verbal and visual representations in task redesign: how different viewpoints enter into information systems design discussionsINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 3 2005Jarmo Sarkkinen Abstract., We explore an important phase of information systems design (ISD), namely task redesign, and especially how different viewpoints enter into the discussions. We study how one particular visual representation, a process diagram, is interpreted and how alternative, even competing, representations are produced verbally. To tie the visual and verbal representations and the representational practices to wider social practices, we develop and use the Extended Three-dimensional Model of discourse. Visual representations emerged as focal in bringing in the different viewpoints and as reference points for discussions. Our model provided a focused and powerful means to unveil for the outside researchers how the planned changes in tasks and authority relationships instigated a social struggle. The IS designer was an outsider to the client organization and therefore considered only the information system, not the social system in which it was intended to operate. Other participants did not recognize this, therefore, seeing the designer as furthering managerial interests. Seeing task redesign in the social context of a client organization can help IS designers and researchers to understand what the users see naturally, that is, the ISD as a dynamic, enabling but socially constrained process where different viewpoints are represented. [source] Sustaining critically reflective practitioners: competing with the dominant discourseINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2006Aileen Corley This article argues that discourse analysis can be utilized in conjunction with other forms of analysis to develop a more critical teaching and research agenda for Human Resource Development (HRD); in particular this article suggests that the introduction of a discourse analysis perspective can support and facilitate the development of critically reflective practitioners. The article highlights the tensions inherent within competing definitions of HRD and calls attention to the power of dominant discourse and argues that HRD needs to become more critical, opening up alternative discourses in order to support learning and critically reflective practice. [source] What's wrong with business ethicsINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 185 2005David Rodin The field of business ethics is trapped between two competing and flawed conceptions of corporate responsibility. On the one hand is the shareholder value model, championed by Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, which claims that corporations owe positive moral obligations only to their shareholders. On the other hand is the normative stakeholder theory, which claims that corporations are morally obliged to secure the interests of a broad range of groups, of which shareholders are only one. In this paper I will argue that if it is to generate a viable account of corporate moral responsibility, business ethics will need to abandon both canonical approaches and adopt a new approach based on a more concrete conception of the business corporation. At the end of the paper I sketch what such a theoretical approach would look like. The argument is not only relevant to business ethics; it also has important consequences for Michael Porter's influential approach to competitive strategy. [source] A hybrid density functional theory study of the low-temperature dimethyl ether combustion pathways.ISRAEL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY, Issue 2-3 2002I: Chain-propagation Dimethyl ether (DME) has been proposed to be a promising alternative to conventional diesel fuel because of its favorable compression ignition property (high cetane number) and its soot-free combustion. A radical chain mechanism for hydrocarbon autoignition has been proposed for DME at low temperatures. In this mechanism, the chain initiation step consists of DME undergoing hydrogen abstraction by a highly reactive species (typically ·OH). The CH3O·H2 created in the initiation step then combines with O2; the subsequent CH3OCH2OO· radical is involved in a Lindemann-type mechanism, which can lead to the production of formaldehyde (CH2 = O) and ·OH. This concludes the chain-propagating step: the one ·OH produced then sustains the chain-reaction by creating another CH3O·H2. A relatively stable intermediate (·CH2OCH2OOH), formed via isomerization of CH3OCH2OO· in the chain-propagation step, can combine with a second O2 to produce a radical (·OOCH2OCH2OOH) that can potentially decompose into two ·OH radical (and other products). This path leads to chain-branching and an exponential increase in the rate of DME oxidation. We have used spin-polarized density functional theory with the Becke-3-parameter Lee,Parr,Yang exchange-correlation functional to calculate the structures and energies of key reactants, intermediates, and products involved in (and competing with) the chain-propagating and chain-branching steps of low-temperature DME oxidation. In this article, Part I, we consider only the chain-propagation mechanism and its competing mechanisms for DME combustion. Here, we show that only certain conformers can undergo the isomerization to ·CH2OCH2OOH. A new transition state has been discovered for the disproportionation reaction ·CH2OCH2OOH , 2CH2O + ·OH in the chain-propagating step of DME autoignition that is much lower than previous barriers. The key to making this decomposition pathway facile is initial cleavage of the O,O rather than the C,O bond. This renders all transition states along the chain-propagation potential energy surface below the CH3O·H2 + O2 reactants. In contrast with the more well-studied CH3·H2 (ethyl radical) + O2 system, the H-transfer isomerization of CH3OCH2OO· to ·CH2OCH2OOH in low-temperature DME oxidation has a much lower activation energy. This is most likely due to the larger ring strain of the analogous transition state in ethane oxidation, which is a five-membered ring opposed to a six-membered ring in dimethyl ether oxidation. Thus low-temperature ethane oxidation is much less likely to form the ·ROOH (where R is a generic group) radicals necessary for chain-branching, which leads to autoignition. Three competing reactions are considered: CH3O·H2 , CH2O + ·CH3; ·CH2OCH2OOH , 1,3-dioxetane + ·OH; and ·CH2OCH2OOH , ethylene oxide + HOO·. The reaction barriers of all these competing paths are much higher in energy (7,10 kcal/mol) than the reactants CH3O·H2 + O2 and, therefore, are unlikely low-temperature paths. Interestingly, an analysis of the highest occupied molecular orbital along the CH3O·H2 decomposition path shows that electronically excited (1A2 or 3A2) CH2O can form; this can also be shown for ·CH2OCH2OOH, which forms two formaldehyde molecules. This may explain the luminosity of DME's low-temperature flames. [source] Perspectives on evidence-based practice from consumers in the US public mental health systemJOURNAL OF EVALUATION IN CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 5 2008Sandra J. Tanenbaum PhD Abstract Rationale, aims and objectives, Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a matter of mental health policy in USA. Supporters find it useful in two forms, as generating a list of approved practices and as providing information to practitioners and consumers engaged in shared decision making. Almost nothing has been written about consumer perspectives on EBP. Given that they play an important role in the second form of EBP, this study explores the range and logic of these perspectives and of related views about the role of information in decision making. Methods, Four focus groups (n = 38) were held in two settings in a Midwestern state in 2005. Thirty-nine face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted at three settings in 2006. Focus group members and interviewees were seriously mentally ill consumers in the public mental health system. Focus group sessions and interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Thematic categories and subcategories were analysed. Results, Focus group members and interviewees varied among themselves and between groups in their responses, but three major thematic categories emerged in both groups , consumers have positive and negative attitudes towards evidence; consumers seek and receive information from multiple sources; and consumers have competing and complementary principles for decision making. Interviews revealed that although real shared decision making is rare, consumers want to and may be involved in decisions about their care. Conclusions, EBP per se has mostly by-passed consumers in the public mental health system, but at least some want to be better informed about and more involved in their care. Their misgivings about evidence are reasonable and resonate with the principles of the recovery movement. [source] Parental investment, sexual selection and sex ratiosJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2008HANNA KOKKO Abstract Conventional sex roles imply caring females and competitive males. The evolution of sex role divergence is widely attributed to anisogamy initiating a self-reinforcing process. The initial asymmetry in pre-mating parental investment (eggs vs. sperm) is assumed to promote even greater divergence in post-mating parental investment (parental care). But do we really understand the process? Trivers [Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man 1871,1971 (1972), Aldine Press, Chicago] introduced two arguments with a female and male perspective on whether to care for offspring that try to link pre-mating and post-mating investment. Here we review their merits and subsequent theoretical developments. The first argument is that females are more committed than males to providing care because they stand to lose a greater initial investment. This, however, commits the ,Concorde Fallacy' as optimal decisions should depend on future pay-offs not past costs. Although the argument can be rephrased in terms of residual reproductive value when past investment affects future pay-offs, it remains weak. The factors likely to change future pay-offs seem to work against females providing more care than males. The second argument takes the reasonable premise that anisogamy produces a male-biased operational sex ratio (OSR) leading to males competing for mates. Male care is then predicted to be less likely to evolve as it consumes resources that could otherwise be used to increase competitiveness. However, given each offspring has precisely two genetic parents (the Fisher condition), a biased OSR generates frequency-dependent selection, analogous to Fisherian sex ratio selection, that favours increased parental investment by whichever sex faces more intense competition. Sex role divergence is therefore still an evolutionary conundrum. Here we review some possible solutions. Factors that promote conventional sex roles are sexual selection on males (but non-random variance in male mating success must be high to override the Fisher condition), loss of paternity because of female multiple mating or group spawning and patterns of mortality that generate female-biased adult sex ratios (ASR). We present an integrative model that shows how these factors interact to generate sex roles. We emphasize the need to distinguish between the ASR and the operational sex ratio (OSR). If mortality is higher when caring than competing this diminishes the likelihood of sex role divergence because this strongly limits the mating success of the earlier deserting sex. We illustrate this in a model where a change in relative mortality rates while caring and competing generates a shift from a mammalian type breeding system (female-only care, male-biased OSR and female-biased ASR) to an avian type system (biparental care and a male-biased OSR and ASR). [source] Telerobotic systems design based on real-time CORBAJOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 4 2005Michele Amoretti A new class of telerobotic applications is making its way into research laboratories, fine arts or science museums, and industrial installations. Virtual laboratories and remote equipment maintenance are examples of these applications, which are built exploiting distributed computing systems and Internet technologies. Distributed computing technologies provide several advantages to telerobotic applications, such as dynamic and multiuser access to remote resources and arbitrary user locations. Nonetheless, building these applications remains a substantial endeavor, especially when performance requirements must be met. The aim of this paper is to investigate how mainstream and advanced features of the CORBA object-oriented middleware can be put to work to meet the requirements of novel telerobotic applications. We show that Real-Time CORBA extensions and asynchronous method invocation of CORBA services can be relied upon to meet performance and functional requirements, thereby enabling teleoperation on local area networks. Furthermore, CORBA services for concurrency control and large-scale data distribution enable geographic-scale access for robot teleprogramming. Limitations in the currently available implementations of the CORBA standard are also discussed, along with their implications. The effectiveness and suitability for telerobotic applications of several CORBA mechanisms are tested first individually and then by means of a software framework exploiting CORBA services and ensuring component-based development, software reuse, low development cost, fully portable real-time and communication support. A comprehensive telerobotic application built based on the framework is described in the paper and evaluated on both local and wide area networks. The application includes a robot manipulator and several sensory subsystems under concurrent access by multiple competing or collaborating operators, one of which is equipped with a multimodal user interface acting as the master device. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A Gender Perspective on Conflict Management Strategies of NursesJOURNAL OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP, Issue 1 2001Patricia E.B. Valentine Purpose: To apply a gender perspective to synthesis of research findings on conflict management. Organizing Construct: The Thomas-Kilmann Mode Instrument (TKI), for measuring five conflict-handling strategies: avoiding, compromising, collaborating, accommodating, and competing. Method: Nursing research studies with the TKI and other studies are synthesized from perspectives in three gender theories. Conclusions: Findings were that two conflict management strategies, avoiding and compromising, were used predominantly by all categories of nurses. Possible reasons for over- and underuse of the remaining three strategies (collaborating, accommodating, competing) are described. Implications of these findings for nurses and nursing organizations are discussed. [source] Showing the Poor a Good Time: Caring for Body and Spirit in Bologna's Civic CharitiesJOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 1 2004Nicholas Terpstra As poor relief in Christian Europe was being reformed through the sixteenth century, tensions emerged between a traditional charitable culture that allowed for occasional festivity, and the newer charitable culture that emphasized discipline, restraint, and efficiency. An undated document relating to a dispute that broke out in the main civic welfare agency of Bologna (Opera Pia dei Poveri Mendicanti) shows that gender and class were key dimensions of these two cultures, and underscores that the two should not be seen as sequential but as co-existing and competing. This study examines the dispute and proposes a dating for the document in the 1590s. [source] Transgression narratives, dialogic voicing, and cultural change1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 4 2005Julia Menard-Warwick The narrative discursively analyzed in this paper is taken from a larger study involving life history interviews with Latina/o immigrants in California. It exemplifies a type of narrative among these interviews in which tellers recount how they or their family members have broken with cultural expectations. In this story, the teller, a Nicaraguan woman, recounts how her uncle violated traditional values in her family by enlisting in the Sandinista army during wartime. Despite discursively distancing herself from this transgression, she ends by evaluating the transgressor and his recent accomplishments positively. Through an analysis of the appraisal strategies and interdiscursivity within this narrative, the paper contends that the narrators of such stories can go beyond managing deviations to dialogically position themselves among competing ,social and historical voices'(Bakhtin 1981). Thus, the paper contends that transgression narratives represent the tellers' efforts to come to terms with cultural changes in their communities. [source] How stupid not to have thought of that: post-copulatory sexual selectionJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 2 2010T. R. Birkhead Abstract Science progresses through ideas or hypotheses; novel ways of viewing the world. If those ideas survive testing, then they are considered ,the truth', or more crucially, truth-for-now, for the essence of science is that if a new idea provides a better explanation of the way the world is, the truth changes. Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection, published as the Origin in 1859, replaced the earlier truth of physico- or natural-theology introduced by John Ray in 1691. Despite resistance by the church, Darwin's truth gained widespread acceptance, in part due to the efforts of T. H. Huxley, who on reading the Origin said ,How extremely stupid not to have thought of that!' Despite natural selection's enormous explanatory power, there were certain phenomena it apparently could not explain, including female promiscuity. It was only in the 1960s when natural selection was viewed as operating explicitly on individuals (rather than populations or groups), that this changed. Rather than being a cooperative venture between the sexes, sexual reproduction was now viewed in terms of conflicts of interests, and in so doing provided an explanation for female promiscuity (albeit in a male-biased sort of way). Until this point, sexual selection had been concerned exclusively with mate acquisition. With an evolutionary perspective focussing on individuals, it was recognized that sexual selection might continue after insemination, and that rather than competing for partners, males compete for fertilizations. Later it was acknowledged that females, through cryptic processes can also influence the outcome of sperm competition. Today, post-copulatory sexual selection provides explanations for many previously bewildering reproductive traits, including the extraordinary diversity in male and female genitalia, the design of spermatozoa and ova, of seminal fluid and of copulation behaviour itself [source] Nutritional status and prognosis in cirrhotic patientsALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 4 2006F. GUNSAR SUMMARY Background and Aim, The potential prognostic value for survival of nutritional status in cirrhotics after adjusting Child,Pugh classification and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease has not been evaluated. Methods, We used Kaplan,Meier and Cox proportional hazards regression models to identify factors associated with mortality in a cohort of 222 cirrhotics [M/F:145/77 median age 52 (18,68) years] with prospectively collected nutritional parameters as well as modified subjective global nutritional assessment, Royal Free Hospital-Subjective Global Assessment index. Follow-up was censored at the time of transplantation. Other variables were ones in Child,Pugh and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores, age, aetiology of cirrhosis and renal function, Results, Pretransplant mortality (Kaplan,Meier) was 21% by 2 years (135 patients were transplanted). Among the nutritional parameters, only Royal Free Hospital-Subjective Global Assessment remained significantly associated with mortality in multivariable models (P = 0.0006). The final model included the following variables: urea (P = 0.0001), Royal Free Hospital-Subjective Global Assessment (P = 0.003), age (P = 0.0001), Child,Pugh grade (P = 0.009) and prothrombin time (P = 0.003). The results were similar when the Child,Pugh grade was replaced by the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score in the model, and whether a competing risks model was used. Conclusions, Nutritional indices add significantly to both Child,Pugh grade and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease scores when assessing the patient prognosis. [source] The guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) alarmone, DksA and promoter affinity for RNA polymerase in regulation of ,54 -dependent transcriptionMOLECULAR MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2006Lisandro M. D. Bernardo Summary The RNA polymerase-binding protein DksA is a cofactor required for guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp)-responsive control of transcription from ,70 promoters. Here we present evidence: (i) that both DksA and ppGpp are required for in vivo,54 transcription even though they do not have any major direct effects on ,54 transcription in reconstituted in vitro transcription and ,-factor competition assays, (ii) that previously defined mutations rendering the housekeeping ,70 less effective at competing with ,54 for limiting amounts of core RNA polymerase similarly suppress the requirement for DksA and ppGpp in vivo and (iii) that the extent to which ppGpp and DksA affect transcription from ,54 promoters in vivo reflects the innate affinity of the promoters for ,54 -RNA polymerase holoenzyme in vitro. Based on these findings, we propose a passive model for ppGpp/DksA regulation of ,54 -dependent transcription that depends on the potent negative effects of these regulatory molecules on transcription from powerful stringently regulated ,70 promoters. [source] CO-EVOLUTION OF THE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY: POLICY INTERACTIONS ACROSS THE PACIFICPACIFIC ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2007An-Chi Tung From the world distribution of the major IT producing and using firms, and the fabrication and trading network, the prominence of the Pacific Rim nexus stands out. The comparative advantages and trade gains of individual economies are decided by the impact of the institutional and policy matrix. In turn, their competing yet complementary relations give policy analysis a historical perspective. The policy performance interplay yields new insight into both how the world stands, and what the national policy should be, other things being given. [source] Trading Speed for Accuracy?POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008Accommodation in the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Program, Managing Goal Conflict Public managers must often cope with competing and conflicting goals. The common formulation is to assume that managers must trade-off goals against each other. But is this always true? An alternative hypothesis is that sometimes managers may instead be able to improve outcomes on multiple goals simultaneously,by altering management practices. We test this "trade-off" notion using a panel of state-level administrative data from the U.S. unemployment insurance (UI) system from 1997 to 2004 and qualitative interviews from selected states. The trade-off examined is timeliness of UI benefit payments versus the quality of UI determinations. In general, we find that state administrators often adopt management practices that facilitate improved outcomes for both timeliness and quality, indicating no trade-off but instead a synergy between outcomes. We also find evidence of a feedback effect linking higher performance on timeliness to better quality determinations. [source] Purification of the Prep1 interactome identifies novel pathways regulated by Prep1PROTEINS: STRUCTURE, FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS, Issue 15 2007Víctor M. Díaz Abstract Prep1 homeodomain transcription factor interacts with Pbx proteins to regulate oculogenesis, angiogenesis, and hematopoiesis in mice. To isolate new Prep1 interactors competing or copurifying with Pbx, we identified proteins copurified with Prep1-TAP by tandem affinity purification (TAP). Prep1,TAP was fully functional and allowed the isolation of a Prep1 proteome from cytoplasm and nucleus, but most interactors were nuclear. The Prep1,TAP complex included Pbx1b, Pbx2, and other nonhomeodomain proteins: p160 Myb-binding protein (p160), ,-actin, NMMHCIIA. [source] The Impact of Simple Institutions in Experimental Economies with Poverty Traps,THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 539 2009C. Mónica Capra We introduce an experimental approach to study the effect of institutions on economic growth. In each period, agents produce and trade output in a market, and allocate it to consumption and investment. Productivity is higher if total capital stock is above a threshold. The threshold externality generates two steady states , a suboptimal ,poverty trap' and an optimal steady state. In a baseline treatment, the economies converge to the poverty trap. However, the ability to make public announcements or to vote on competing and binding policies, increases output, welfare and capital stock. Combining these two simple institutions guarantees that the economies escape the poverty trap. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||