L'Université Technique de Twente (THT): La difficile coordination de la planification nationale et des besoins régionaux

stablished in 1961 within the framework of the nationally planned expansion of universities, the Technical University of Twente is the third technical university in the Netherlands. It was situated at Enschede (inauguration 1964) as the result of a campaign, organised by local industry, to find a compensation for the decline of the local textile industry, the region's main source of economic expansion during the last century. The University, it was hoped, would provide a new source of development and be a new start for the region. The report concludes that the THT has not, up till now, lived up to the expectations placed upon it, mainly because it was conceived and structured to meet national planning requirements and to fit in with national views on higher education rather than responding directly to regional needs. The most outstanding lack of linkage between the university and the region's industrial base occurs in the area of subject choice by students and the type of research undertaken in the THT. Nevertheless, it is recognized that the THT has played a constructive role, particularly in developing regional awareness and in creating a new cultural identity for the area. It has, in addition, improved recurrent and in-service education in the region. This study is, then, a good example of the need for further investigations into the interface between regional development and higher education

The concept of shadow price to monetarize the intangible value of expertise

The pricing of knowledge based services should be based on the three following components: the cost structure, the competition and the perceived value by the client. Practically, it is mainly based on the cost structure which does not account for the real value provided to the client. Based on an integrated optimization model combining an aggregate planning model with a share of choice model, we produce implicit values of expertise. Preliminary results will be presented about a travel agency

Sleepwalking into lock-in? Avoiding wrongs to future people in the governance of solar radiation management research

This paper argues for two ways in which we can avoid the reckless endangerment of future people in the governance of solar radiation management (SRM) research, which could happen through lock-in to SRM deployment from research. SRM research is at an early stage, one at which the mechanisms of lock-in could start to operate. However, lock-in fit to endanger future people could be slowed or stopped through targeted governance. This paper argues that governance of SRM research that does not include provisions to detect, slow, or stop lock-in fails the test of an intergenerationally adequate precautionary principle, and that research governed without these provisions cannot itself be justified as a precaution against the impacts of climate change

Advancements In Mine Action: Enhancing Remote Reporting And Analysis Through Innovative Technologies

This paper examines the innovative initiatives undertaken by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Peace and Security Cluster (PSC) in advancing humanitarian mine action (HMA) through remote reporting and analysis technologies. It provides an in-depth analysis of key initiatives, including the development of a mapping tool in Gaza, the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) for efficient data management in improvised explosive devices (IED) threat mitigation globally, and the utilization of advanced remote sensing and machine learning technologies in Syria and Afghanistan. Through these use cases, we demonstrate how innovative technologies can be incorporated into HMA to increase efficiency and safety, while also outlining future plans and the challenges faced in these initiatives

The management audit as a tool to foster corporate governance:an inquiry in Switzerland

Purpose. This paper aims to investigate management auditing, a thorough examination of an organization and the management in place, through an empirical research to gather data about how management audits are perceived and implemented among Geneva’s (Switzerland) business community. The board of directors is in charge of a corporation’s overall supervision. The internal auditing function works under the aegis of the board to ensure that the directors will properly execute their responsibilities as defined by corporate governance rules. Management auditing could thus be used to improve corporation performance. However, management audits are not commonly used or referred to as a tool to address corporate governance. Findings enable the authors to both explain why management audits are not commonly used or referred to as a tool to address corporate governance and generate related research hypotheses. Design/methodology/approach. In this paper, the authors rely on an ethnographic study aimed at exploring perceptions of management audits in service companies from the Geneva region. This study is based on transcripts from 85 semi-directed interviews, conducted over a three-year period, of professionals with managerial and auditing backgrounds. The economic context during these three years was consistently characterized by the Swiss and international financial crises, ensuring that the findings remain comparable over this time period. Findings This paper identified three main factors that influence the integration of management audits into corporate practices: the degree of acceptance of the tools and requirements of management audits, the national culture and values embodied in the practice and the degree of corporate governance maturity. This paper presents the findings in the form of hypotheses that can be tested on any adoption of good corporate governance practices – not on management audits alone. Research limitations/implications. Notwithstanding the limitations due to its nature and extent, this study’s main limitation is its lack of validation of the hypotheses. In further research, the authors intend to use a quantitative survey to validate the research hypotheses and make statistical inferences. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature because it is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study to empirically examine the significant link between management audits and corporate governance. The findings could be interesting for an international audience because they indicate possible action points that boards of directors can leverage to carry out management audits. The findings also bridge a gap between the literature on management audits and the expanding role of the internal audit function. This study also examines the way companies – in the Swiss context – understand, perceive and may be ready to apply management audits as a good corporate governance practice

Non-parametric liquidity adjusted VaR model: A stochastic programming approach

This paper proposes a Stochastic Programming (SP) approach for the calculation of the Liquidity adjusted Value at Risk (LVaR). The model presented in this paper offers an alternative to Almgren and Chriss’s mean-variance approach (1999 and 2000). In this research, a two-stage stochastic programming model is developed with the intention of deriving the optimal trading strategies that respond dynamically to a given market situation. The sample paths approach is adopted for scenario generation. The scenarios are thus represented by a collection of simulated sample paths rather than the “tree structure ” usually employed in stochastic programming. Consequently, the SP LVaR presented in this paper can be considered as a non-parametric approach, which is in contrast to Almgren and Chriss’s parametric solution. Initially, a set of numerical experiments indicates that the LVaR figures are quite similar for both approaches when all the underlying financial assumptions are identical. Following this sanity check, a second set of numerical experiments shows how the randomness of the different types (e.g., Bid and Ask spread) can be easily incorporated into the problem due to the stochastic programming formulation and how optimal and adaptive trading strategies can be derived through a two-stage structure (i.e., a “recourse ” problem). Hence, the results presented in this paper allow the introduction of new dimensionalities into the computation of LVaR b

Leveraging inter-tourists interactions via chatbots to bridge academia, tourism industries and future societies

Purpose – The tourism and hospitality sectors are experiencing radical innovation boosted by the advancements in Information and Communication Technologies. Increasingly sophisticated chatbots are introducing novel approaches, re-shaping the dynamics among tourists and service providers, and fostering a remarkable behavioral change in the overall sector. Therefore, the objective of this paper is two-folded: (1) to highlight the academic and industrial standing points with respect to the current chatbots designed/deployed in the tourism sector and (2) to develop a proof-of-concept embodying the most prominent opportunities in the tourism sector. Design/methodology/approach – This work elaborates on the outcomes of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and a Focus Group (FG) composed of experts from the tourism industry. Moreover, it presents a proof-of-concept relying on the outcomes obtained from both SLR and FG. Eventually, the proof-of-concept has been tested with experts and practitioners of the tourism sector. Findings – Among the findings elicited by this paper, we can mention the quick evolution of chatbot-based solutions, the need for continuous investments, upskilling, system innovation to tackle the eTourism challenges and the shift toward new dimensions (i.e. tourist-to-tourist-to-chatbot and personalized multi-stakeholder systems). In particular, we focus on the need for chatbot-based activity and thematic aggregation for next-generation tourists and service providers. Originality/value – Both academic- and industrial-centered findings have been structured and discussed to foster the practitioners' future research. Moreover, the proof-of-concept presented in the paper is the first of its kind, which raised considerable interest from both technical and business-planning perspectives

Hyperosmotic stress induces cell-dependent aggregation of α-synuclein.

The aggregation of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is a pathological feature of a number of neurodegenerative conditions, including Parkinson's disease. Genetic mutations, abnormal protein synthesis, environmental stress, and aging have all been implicated as causative factors in this process. The importance of water in the polymerisation of monomers, however, has largely been overlooked. In the present study, we highlight the role of hyperosmotic stress in inducing human α-syn to aggregate in cells in vitro, through rapid treatment of the cells with three different osmolytes: sugar, salt and alcohol. This effect is cell-dependent and not due to direct protein-osmolyte interaction, and is specific for α-syn when compared to other neurodegeneration-related proteins, such as Tau or Huntingtin. This new property of α-syn not only highlights a unique aspect of its behaviour which may have some relevance for disease states, but may also be useful as a screening test for compounds to inhibit the aggregation of α-syn in vitro.Funding was by the DDPDgenes, Rosetree Trust, Wellcome Trust PhD Program for Clinicians, the Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences (FNU-11-113326), the Stem Cell Institute and Wellcome Trust-MRC funded Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and an NIHR award of a Biomedical Research Centre for Addenbrooke’s Hospital/University of Cambridge. RA Barker is an NIHR Senior Investigator

Whole-brain annotation and multi-connectome cell typing of Drosophila

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has emerged as a key model organism in neuroscience, in large part due to the concentration of collaboratively generated molecular, genetic and digital resources available for it. Here we complement the approximately 140,000 neuron FlyWire whole-brain connectome1 with a systematic and hierarchical annotation of neuronal classes, cell types and developmental units (hemilineages). Of 8,453 annotated cell types, 3,643 were previously proposed in the partial hemibrain connectome2, and 4,581 are new types, mostly from brain regions outside the hemibrain subvolume. Although nearly all hemibrain neurons could be matched morphologically in FlyWire, about one-third of cell types proposed for the hemibrain could not be reliably reidentified. We therefore propose a new definition of cell type as groups of cells that are each quantitatively more similar to cells in a different brain than to any other cell in the same brain, and we validate this definition through joint analysis of FlyWire and hemibrain connectomes. Further analysis defined simple heuristics for the reliability of connections between brains, revealed broad stereotypy and occasional variability in neuron count and connectivity, and provided evidence for functional homeostasis in the mushroom body through adjustments of the absolute amount of excitatory input while maintaining the excitation/inhibition ratio. Our work defines a consensus cell type atlas for the fly brain and provides both an intellectual framework and open-source toolchain for brain-scale comparative connectomics

Crying out for help with root exudates : adaptive mechanisms by which stressed plants assemble health-promoting soil microbiomes

Plants employ immunological and ecological strategies to resist biotic stress. Recent evidence suggests that plants adapt to biotic stress by changing their root exudation chemistry to assemble health-promoting microbiomes. This so-called ‘cry-for-help’ hypothesis provides a mechanistic explanation for previously characterized soil feedback responses to plant disease, such as the development of disease-suppressing soils upon successive cultivations of take all-infected wheat. Here, we divide the hypothesis into individual stages and evaluate the evidence for each component. We review how plant immune responses modify root exudation chemistry, as well as what impact this has on microbial activities, and the subsequent plant responses to these activities. Finally, we review the ecological relevance of the interaction, along with its translational potential for future crop protection strategies