The Nature of Context-Sensitive Solutions, Stakeholder Involvement and Critical Issues in the Urban Context

Over the last several decades many transportation and planning agencies have experienced conflicting demands emerging from the need to develop projects in an expeditious manner while at the same time involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, which sometimes is perceived as slowing project delivery and/or increasing costs. Given this tension between apparently conflicting demands, it is important to understand how the stakeholder involvement is being carried out and what best practices may be recommended. This study examines the issue in the context of a relatively new policy framework – Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) – which supports the early integration of stakeholders into the planning process. The report pays particular attention to stakeholders’ involvement in projects within urban centers, where there is likely to be more complexity, both in terms of the number of stakeholders and end users affected. CSS is a relatively new process and not consistently interpreted or applied across states and/or agencies. The literature suggests that an underlying assumption when applying CSS principles to community involvement processes is that stakeholders are empowered through clear policies and procedures directed towards their participation. In our research, we found that the extent to which public agencies apply the CSS framework and involve and respond to stakeholders depends on each agency\u27s interest to engage the public in the deliberation process to find the best-fit project for a community. It is likely that the increased integration of stakeholders into the planning and project development process will not become a state of practice until the benefits flowing from community involvement are clearly understood by the agency staff. The CSS literature describes many benefits associated with comprehensive stakeholder engagement, including gaining constituents\u27 buy-in and support for project financing. A movement toward standardizing CSS policies and directives across the country will facilitate a public discussion about the benefits of engaging communities into the project design phase and away from solely expert-based designs. In addition, there are a number of stakeholder involvement practices that, if adopted, could expedite the integration of communities\u27 views and values in the decision-making process, while at the same time minimizing the chances of protracted consultation processes, time delays and additional costs

Some considerations on research dissemination with particular reference to the audience and the authorship of papers.

Original article can be found at : http://www.informaworld.com/This paper suggests that some refinements might need to be considered to current codes of ethics for dissemination of research. The growth of research in music education over the last decade is reviewed, with examples from new journals, conferences and professional associations. It is argued that nowadays researchers have to address a multidisciplinary number of audiences and this should be taken into account in the regulations for conferences and publications with the incorporation of guidelines for contributors to address their specific audience and to explain any previous dissemination. The authorship of papers is also considered, in particular issues arising from multiple authorship, as well as the research participants' contribution to the final report. Some of these issues are discussed with reference to studies focussed on a particular topic (creativity in music education) within the context of music education research, but it is acknowledged that the discussion also applies to other fields of the humanities and social sciences.Peer reviewe

Locating ethnicity and health: exploring concepts and contexts

With the rapid development of ethnicity and health as a field of sociological research, this paper seeks to re-evaluate the development of ideas around ethnicity, 'race' and culture and consider how they have been applied to the question of health. Ethnicity as a social characteristic is contingent on the situation in which it is manifest. The process of marking 'other' ethnic groups includes stereotyping and racialisation, a process through which 'racial' or ethnic differences predominate to the exclusion of a consideration of social, economic and power relations. In the British context, the history of empire and medicine's justification of racist treatment of enslaved and colonised people, is relevant to understanding how ethnic and cultural differences have come to be essentialised and pathologised. Immigration to Britain only became a mass phenomenon after World War II, with settlement patterns following employment opportunities and kinship alliances. The state has a longstanding history of 'managing' diversity, sometimes essentialising differences between groups, at other times tackling disadvantage and discrimination experiences through policy action. Sociologists of health were slow to study ethnicity, with initial research coming from tropical disease specialists. The tendency of medicine to pathologise minority cultures is explored through case studies of the approach to rickets and the assessment of health risks associated with consanguineous marriage. Anti-racist approaches have encouraged the consideration of discrimination against and socioeconomic position of minorities. The field has developed with work on nomenclature and the operationalisation of ethnic identity, necessary to study health inequalities between ethnic groups and paying due heed to the contribution of socioeconomic position and racism to group experiences. Research into chronic conditions with complex analysis of a number of distinct contributory variables has been published of late. However, the excessive focus on South Asians and the record of measuring, analysing, but not necessarily tackling health disadvantage, are problems that remain to be addressed

Language attitudes and use in a transplanted setting: Greek Cypriots in London

In this paper we explore language attitudes and use in the Greek Cypriot community in London, England. Our study is based on an earlier survey carried out in Nicosia, Cyprus and we compare attitudes to language and reported language use in the two communities. We thereby highlight the significance of sociolinguistic variables on similar groups of speakers. We further extend our investigation to include codeswitching practices in the London community. \ud Analysis of language attitudes and use within the Greek-Cypriot population of London, and comparisons with findings in Nicosia, reflect symbolic forces operating in the two contexts. Despite obvious differences between the two communities, (most obviously the official languages and distinct cultural backgrounds of the two nations), the Greek Cypriot Dialect continues to play an active role in both. English is however the ‘default choice‘ for young Cypriots in the UK and Standard Modern Greek occupies a much more limited role than in Cyprus. It is argued that differences in language attitudes and use can be interpreted in light of different market forces operating in the nation (i.e. Cyprus) and the Diaspora (i.e. UK)

Multipath Multiplexing for Capacity Enhancement in SIMO Wireless Systems

This paper proposes a novel and simple orthogonal faster than Nyquist (OFTN) data transmission and detection approach for a single input multiple output (SIMO) system. It is assumed that the signal having a bandwidth $B$ is transmitted through a wireless channel with $L$ multipath components. Under this assumption, the current paper provides a novel and simple OFTN transmission and symbol-by-symbol detection approach that exploits the multiplexing gain obtained by the multipath characteristic of wideband wireless channels. It is shown that the proposed design can achieve a higher transmission rate than the existing one (i.e., orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)). Furthermore, the achievable rate gap between the proposed approach and that of the OFDM increases as the number of receiver antennas increases for a fixed value of $L$. This implies that the performance gain of the proposed approach can be very significant for a large-scale multi-antenna wireless system. The superiority of the proposed approach is shown theoretically and confirmed via numerical simulations. {Specifically, we have found {upper-bound average} rates of 15 bps/Hz and 28 bps/Hz with the OFDM and proposed approaches, respectively, in a Rayleigh fading channel with 32 receive antennas and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 15.3 dB. The extension of the proposed approach for different system setups and associated research problems is also discussed.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Learning from profession memories

Knowledge Management is a global process in the company. It includes all the processes that allow capitalization, sharing and evolution of the Knowledge Capital of the firm, now recognized as a critical resource of the organization. Several approaches have been defined to capitalize knowledge but few of them study the appropriation of that knowledge. In this paper we develop techniques based on knowledge and educational engineering, to enhance knowledge reuse in an organization. This knowledge is structured as profession memories.Learning, Knowledge management, Knowledge transfer

Statement Networks to Condition Monitoring of the Sealless Pump

This paper shows an application of multi-layer statement networks to condition monitoring of the sealless magnetic drive pump. In this case, statement networks are computed based on the use of Bayesian probabilities. Moreover, the tool called REx which allows implementing such networks is described. An example of created four-layer network as well as final results of the performed tests shows also

Educational planning for utilization of space shuttle (ED-PLUSS). Executive summary: Identification and evaluation of educational uses and users for the STS

The development and application of educational programs to improve public awareness of the space shuttle/space lab capabilities are reported. Special efforts were made to: identify the potential user, identify and analyze space education programs, plan methods for user involvement, develop techniques and programs to encourage new users, and compile follow-on ideas

How Economies Grow: The CED Perspective on Raising the Long-Term Standard of Living

This report ties together CED's previous six decades of work on various policies that concern the nation's prospects for economic growth to outline how the economy grows and, more generally, what must be done to improve its long-term prospects

Religion and urban regeneration: a place for faith?

The British government has identified 'faith communities' as a neglected resource in urban regeneration. This article first explores the context of official support for faith involvement in urban and neighbourhood policy and identifies the assumptions underlying key policy documents. These assumptions are then critically explored by reference to the links commonly drawn between religion and 'community', 'neighbourhood' and 'social cohesion'. Attempts to enlist faith groups within this essentially consensual agenda often fail to recognise both the potential divisiveness of religion and also the more positive and radical lessons that often stem from the action, experience and critical analysis of religious organisations and their members.</p