National Water Resources Policy Issues

Syftet med mitt arbete är att undersöka vad elever i klass 7 och klass 8 som läser spanska som andra språk ser som motiverande för sina spanskstudier. Jag ville även titta närmare vad som kan skapa motivation hos eleverna. I min undersökning ville jag också undersöka vilka strategier lärare har för att öka elevernas motivation för att läsa spanska. Som metod valde jag att göra en enkätundersökning bland i elever som går i Åk 7 och Åk 8 på två kommunala skolor och två friskolor. Dessutom har jag intervjuat två undervisade spansklärare. Studien visade att lärarna har mycket stor betydelse för elevernas motivation och de beskriver att de blir mest motiverade av ha en rolig, trevlig och kompetent lärare. Men även arbetsmiljön är viktig, för att kunna koncentrerar sig på undervisningen under lektionerna. Lärarna beskriver också vilka aktiviteter och metoder de använder för att höja motivation hos eleverna. Lärarna pekar bland annat på att de försöker välja intressant material för att kunna göra effektiva och givande lektioner. Lärarna ser också att elevernas motivation höjs om de får vara med och välja material som de ska arbeta med

Aquifer thermal energy storage program

The purpose of the Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage Demonstration Program is to stimulate the interest of industry by demonstrating the feasibility of using a geological formation for seasonal thermal energy storage, thereby, reducing crude oil consumption, minimizing thermal pollution, and significantly reducing utility capital investments required to account for peak power requirements. This purpose will be served if several diverse projects can be operated which will demonstrate the technical, economic, environmental, and institutional feasibility of aquifer thermal energy storage systems

Single mothers in various living arrangements: Differences in economic and time resources

The economic status of single mothers with dependent children has recently been shown to vary greatly according to their living arrangements, a finding with implications for poverty policy and welfare reform. The economic and time resources of single mothers in various living arrangements were compared using the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households. I find that cohabitation is significantly related to increased income adequacy and lesser receipt of public assistance for white mothers, but not for black mothers. Living in the parents' home is significantly related to a reduced likelihood of receipt of public assistance for both white and black single mothers, but living with parents is related to lesser time demands in household work only for white single mothers. Differences in resource levels may be related to the finding that, among those living in the parental household, a large majority of white mothers live with two parents, while a majority of black mothers live with one parent.

Multiple relaxations in temporal planning

CRIKEY is a planner that separates out the scheduling from the classical parts of temporal planning. This can be seen as a relaxation of the temporal information during the classical planning phase. Relaxations in planning are used to guide the search. However, the quality of the relaxation greatly affects the performance of the planner, and in some cases can lead the search into a dead end. This can happen whilst separating out the planning and scheduling problems, leading to the production of an unschedulable plan. CRIKEY can detect these cases and change the relaxation accordingly

Primary CNS Lymphoma

Primary diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the central nervous system is an aggressive malignancy that exhibits unique biological features and characteristic clinical behaviour, with overall long-term survival rates of around 20–40 %. Clinical outcome has improved following the advent of chemoradiation protocols incorporating high-dose methotrexate in the mid-1980s, but disease relapse and adverse neurocognitive sequelae remain major clinical challenges. To address this, investigators have focused on improving drug therapy with novel cytotoxic combinations, monoclonal antibody therapy, and intensive chemotherapy consolidation approaches, in an attempt to improve disease control whilst reducing the requirement for whole-brain radiotherapy. Outcomes for patients that are older, immunocompromised, or have relapsed/refractory disease remain unsatisfactory and there is a paucity of clinical trial data to guide treatment of these groups. This review highlights recent advances in pathobiology, imaging, and clinical management of PCNSL and looks ahead to research priorities for this rare and challenging lymphoid malignancy

Reclaiming the Irish border in contemporary cinema

Surprisingly, given the range of films covering the period of the Troubles in Northern Ireland there appears to be a dearth of analysis on the representation of the Irish border in indigenous and Hollywood/British cinematic narratives. Among a range of film examples, this analysis focuses on the work of Shane Connaughton, author/screenwriter of border films The Playboys (Mackinnon, 1992) and The Run of the Country (Yates, 1995) shot in the 1990s, before the Belfast Agreement (1998). Both films provide a rich representation of how the border impacts on the lives of those who exist on either side of the divide. Since the Belfast Agreement and the disappearance of border posts and army barracks across the region, movement has been transformed, as have representations of crossing over. This analysis proposes that in Johnny Gogan’s post Belfast Agreement films, Mapmaker (2001) and Black Ice (2013) and Brian Deane’s short film, Volkswagen Joe (2013) the representations of the border’s liminal spaces embrace in-betweeness as a key element of borderlander identity. In doing so, these films help to reclaim the border as a landscape where people dwell rather than an abstract line on a map

An Efficient Algorithm for Computing High-Quality Paths amid Polygonal Obstacles

We study a path-planning problem amid a set $\mathcal{O}$ of obstacles in $\mathbb{R}^2$, in which we wish to compute a short path between two points while also maintaining a high clearance from $\mathcal{O}$; the clearance of a point is its distance from a nearest obstacle in $\mathcal{O}$. Specifically, the problem asks for a path minimizing the reciprocal of the clearance integrated over the length of the path. We present the first polynomial-time approximation scheme for this problem. Let $n$ be the total number of obstacle vertices and let $\varepsilon \in (0,1]$. Our algorithm computes in time $O(\frac{n^2}{\varepsilon ^2} \log \frac{n}{\varepsilon})$ a path of total cost at most $(1+\varepsilon)$ times the cost of the optimal path.Comment: A preliminary version of this work appear in the Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithm

Inequalities in purchase of mosquito nets and willingness to pay for insecticide-treated nets in Nigeria: Challenges for malaria control interventions

Objective: To explore the equity implications of insecticide-treated nets (ITN) distribution programmes that are based on user charges. Methods: A questionnaire was used to collect information on previous purchase of untreated nets and hypothetical willingness to pay (WTP) for ITNs from a random sample of householders. A second survey was conducted one month later to collect information on actual purchases of ITNs. An economic status index was used for characterizing inequity. Major findings: The lower economic status quintiles were less likely to have previously purchased untreated nets and also had a lower hypothetical and actual WTP for ITNs. Conclusion: ITN distribution programmes need to take account of the diversity in WTP for ITNs if they are to ensure equity in access to the nets. This could form part of the overall poverty reduction strategy.This study received financial support from the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical diseases