Work-Related Perceptions of Social Workers Versus Administrators: More Grist for the Is Social Work a Profession? Mill

The work-related perceptions of 683 employees of a federally funded public assistance agency were examined by occupational classification. The results show that persons employed as social workers report distinctively different patterns of attitudes and values than do those employed as administrators. These distinctions were most dramatic for the younger members of each group. The overall results fail to refute previous predictions of an evolving anc critical duality in the field of social work

Singular Behaviour of the Potts Model in the Thermodynamic Limit

The self-duality transformation is applied to the Fisher zeroes near the critical point in the thermodynamic limit in the q>4 state Potts model in two dimensions. A requirement that the locus of the duals of the zeroes be identical to the dual of the locus of zeroes (i) recovers the ratio of specific heat to internal energy discontinuity at criticality and the relationships between the discontinuities of higher cumulants and (ii) identifies duality with complex conjugation. Conjecturing that all zeroes governing ferromagnetic critical behaviour satisfy the latter requirement, the full locus of Fisher zeroes is shown to be a circle. This locus, together with the density of zeroes is shown to be sufficient to recover the singular form of all thermodynamic functions in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: Contribution to Lattice 97, LaTeX, 3 pages, 0 figure

Smart Specialisation Strategies for Supporting Europe 2020 Vision. Looking at the American Experience: the Case of the Boston Area

These reflections aim to highlight the crucial challenge that European Regions are called to face applying the ‘Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization’ policy for pursuing the virtuous implementation of EU Cohesion Policy and ‘Europe 2020’ Agenda. The original cultural style of the ‘US Smart Specialization model’, supported by the ‘cluster theory’ and the ‘innovation paradigm’, represents a significant lesson in Boston area

Non-critical supergravity (d>1) and holography

In this paper we investigate the supergravity equations of motion associated with non-critical ($d>1$) type II string theories that incorporate RR forms. Using a superpotential formalism we determine several classes of solutions. In particular we find analytic backgrounds with a structure of $AdS_{p+2}\times S^{d-p-2}$ and numerical solutions that asymptote a linear dilaton with a topology of $R^{1,d-3}\times R \times S^1$. The SUGRA solutions we have found can serve as anti holographic descriptions of gauge theories in a large $N$ limit which is different than the one of the critical gauge/gravity duality. It is characterized by N\rt \infty and $g_{YM}^2 N \sim 1$. We have made the first steps in analyzing the corresponding gauge theory properties like Wilson loops and the glue-ball spectra.Comment: 48 pages, JHEP style, 11 figure

Optimisation of Rail-road Level Crossing Closing Time in a Heterogenous Railway Traffic: Towards Safety Improvement - South African Case Study

The gravitation towards mobility-as-a service in railway transportation system can be achieved at low cost and effort using shared railway network. However, the problem with shared networks is the presence of the level crossings where railway and road traffic intersects. Thus, long waiting time is expected at the level crossings due to the increase in traffic volume and heterogeneity. Furthermore, safety and capacity can be severely compromised by long level crossing closing time. The emphasis of this study is to optimise the rail-road level crossing closing time in order to achieve improved safety and capacity in a heterogeneous railway network. It is imperative to note that rail-road level crossing system assumes the socio-technical and safety critical duality which often impedes improvement efforts. Therefore, thorough understanding of the factors with highest influence on the level crossing closing time is required. Henceforth, data analysis has been conducted on eight active rail-road level crossings found on the southern corridor of the Western Cape metro rail. The spatial, temporal and behavioural analysis was conducted to extract features with influence on the level crossing closing time. Convex optimisation with the objective to minimise the level crossing closing time is formulated taking into account identified features. Moreover, the objective function is constrained by the train's traction characteristics along the constituent segments of the rail-road level crossing, speed restriction and headway time. The results show that developed solution guarantees at most 53.2% and 62.46% reduction in the level crossing closing time for the zero and nonzero dwell time, respectively. Moreover, the correctness of the presented solution has been validated based on the time lost at the level crossing and railway traffic capacity consumption. Thus, presented solution has been proven to achieve at most 50% recovery of the time lost per train trip and at least 15% improvement in capacity under normal conditions. Additionally, 27% capacity improvement is achievable at peak times and can increase depending on the severity of the headway constraints. However, convex optimisation of the level crossing closing time still fall short in level crossing with nonzero dwell time due to the approximation of dwell time based on the anticipated rather than actual value

The Dormant Second Amendment: Exploring the Rise, Fall, and Potential Resurrection of Independent State Militias

The term “militia” is polarizing, misunderstood, misapplied, and generally difficult for modern Americans to digest. That is not surprising, given the depth and breadth of American militia history and militias’ substantial evolution over four centuries. Historically, militia simply refers to a broad-based civic duty to protect one’s fellow citizens from internal and external dangers and is not limited to activities involving firearms. Reestablishing militia’s true meaning and purpose—and reinvigorating independent state militias in the United States to effect that purpose—has the potential to address states’ emerging financial and security gaps and to produce multiple other significant benefits, including recalibrating federalism. This article suggests a method for how best to reinvigorate independent state militias, addresses the major critique against doing so, and initiates a real discussion about the future of state militias—an issue conspicuously underdeveloped in scholarship today

A Few Still Later Words on Translating Homer, or C. S. Calverley and the Victorian Parodic

Argues (largely in the style of Matthew Arnold) that the Victorian verse parodist C.S. Calverley can best be understood through 19th century ideas of verse translation, and especially through the writing on parody of the Scottish lawyer Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, in his Essay on the Principles of Translation (1792)