What makes industries believe in formal methods

The introduction of formal methods in the design and development departments of an industrial company has far reaching and long lasting consequences. In fact it changes the whole environment of methods, tools and skills that determine the design culture of that company. A decision to replace current design practice by formal methods, therefore, appears a vital one and is not lightly taken. The past has shown that efforts to introduce formal methods in industry has faced a lot of controversy and opposition at various hierarchical levels in companies, resulting in a marginal spread of such methods. This paper revisits the requirements for formal description techniques and identifies some critical success and inhibiting factors associated with the introduction of formal methods in the industrial practice. One of the inhibiting factors is the often encountered lack of appropriateness of the formal model to express and manipulate the design concerns that determine the world of the engineer. This factor motivated our research in the area of architectural and implementation design concepts. The last two sections of this paper report on some results of this research

No News is Good News, or the Appeal of Controversy

One of the strategies journalists use to attract their audience towards a news item is the suggestion of controversy. The terms by which issues are created influences the way discussions evolve. I will examine how such controversies can be part of an argumentative situation, and I will examine whether any evaluation standard can be developed in this matter. The style figure antithesis, as it is explored in Jeanne Fahnestock’s work, is a useful tool in considering invention, form and function of controversy and opposition

Performance-Reward Based for Teachers: Implications for Educational Outcomes in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Performance-related pay for teachers is being introduced in many countries, amidst much controversy and opposition from teachers and unions alike (Denver, 2006; and Houston, 2006). The rationale for these programmes is the notion that incentive pay may motivate teachers to improve their performance. For example, in early December 2000, the Israeli Ministry of Education unveiled a new teachers’ bonus experiment in forty-nine Israeli high schools. The main feature of the programme was an individual performance bonus paid to teachers on the basis of their own students’ achievements. The experiment included all English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Mathematics teachers who taught classes in grades ten through twelve in advance of matriculation exams in these subjects in June 2001

Gene-edited meat: Disentangling consumers’ attitudes and potential purchase behaviour

Novel gene-editing (GE) technologies provide promising opportunities to increase livestock productivity and to tackle several global livestock production sustainability and food security challenges. However, these technologies, as with previous genetic modification technologies in food production, are very likely to generate social controversy and opposition toward their use in the meat industry. Here, we explored public attitudes and consumption predisposition toward gene-edited meat products and their potential added benefits to livestock farming. Our results show that societal perception currently comes as a package, where the use of gene-editing technology acts as an extrinsic cue of meat products quality, and is used to make a range of inferences about all quality facets at once. Although consumers with anti-GE attitudinal positions generally were not sensitive to price discounts or added benefits, added benefits increased the consumption predisposition of most moderate and pro-GE consumers, where benefits related to animal welfare had larger effects than those relating to the environment or human health issues.Publishe

Finding a party and losing some friends: overcoming the weaknesses of the prime ministerial figure in Italy

Silvio Berlusconi poses a problem for the existing literature on prime ministers and their power. Though Italian prime ministers are traditionally seen as weak, Berlusconi has been able to achieve some remarkable policy gains during his current term as prime minister. This article uses veto player theory and combines it with existing institutional and political explanations for variation in prime ministerial power to look at this challenging case. By looking at the number of veto players in the Italian system, and their ability to credibly use their veto against Berlusconi, an explanation is posited which can accommodate the exceptionalism of his second term in office. Despite the emphasis on his control of the media, we conclude that Berlusconi's power stems from more traditional political factors. The authors argue that Berlusconi's coalition and party allies have no choice but to accept his will and his decisions, as any alternatives are less appealing

Rebels Leading London: the mayoralties of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson compared

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link

Investigation of New Hampshire hydropower potential

The popularity of green and renewable energy has risen sharply in recent years, and hydropower has consistently been the most common form of renewable energy in both the US and the state of New Hampshire. As a result of this strong green movement, government organizations have seen increased pressure to produce figures to the public detailing the amount of hydropower potentially available in the country. Often these figures will depict very attractive numbers for the untapped hydropower potential in the country, yet the data do not seem realistic to anyone familiar with hydropower generation. This paper will attempt to de-rate these general estimates made for hydropower potential by government organizations, specifically in New Hampshire. It will be determined if these parties are ignoring basic hydropower design challenges in their estimations, such as system efficiency, generator capacity factors, and the economic feasibility of the projects themselves. These results should reveal the inaccuracies (if any) of the estimates by the government groups. To analyze the general feasibility of hydropower projects in New Hampshire, three case studies in hydropower system design will be examined