Investigating the Feasibility of Open Development of Operations Support Solutions

The telecommunications Operations Support Systems supply chain must address many stakeholders: R&D, Product and Requirements Management, Purchasing, Systems Integration, Systems Administration and Users. While the management of next generation networks and services poses significant technical challenges, the present supply chain, market configuration, and business practices of the OSS community are an obstacle to rapid innovation. Forums for open development could potentially provide a medium to shorten this supply chain for the deployment of workable systems. This paper discusses the potential benefits and barriers to the open development of OSS for the telecommunications industry. It proposes the use of action research to execute a feasibility study into the open development of OSS software solutions within an industry wide Open OSS project

The UK Foundation Programme : past and present

The two-year Foundation Programme was introduced in the UK in 2005. In this article, the original architects of the programme explain why it was ntroduced, the challenges faced when implementing it across the UK, why the programme is successful and what the future holds for the UK Foundation Programme.peer-reviewe

Congress Demands Stricter Child-Support Enforcement: Florida Requires Major Reforms to Comply

Millions of American children live in poverty.1 Many of these children live in single-parent families and receive little or no support from their absent parent.\u2

The Role of the Judiciary in Charter Schools\u27 Policies

Part II of this Comment will provide a detailed history about the development of charter schools nationally. Part III then answers the question of whether widespread support for charter schools is a wise policy choice. Part IV outlines how Missouri has created a strong charter culture, while Part V discusses how Georgia failed to do so, and the consequences of each of those decisions. The Comment finally concludes by arguing for the continued judicial support and more purposeful legislative support of charter schools

Fiscal Multipliers and Forecast Errors

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Economia / Master in Economics. Codi: SRN015. Curs acadèmic 2017-2018The study of the fiscal multipliers is growing interest among economists and generating quite a debate on their determinants, size and forecast methodologies. During the financial crisis there has been some forecasting problems, because it was a unique scenario without any antecedent to support their estimations. In this thesis, we will focus on the Blanchard and Leigh’s research ‘Growth forecast errors and Fiscal multipliers’ published in 2013, in which they showed an underestimation of the fiscal multipliers in the 2010-2011 period. We are going to extend their baseline estimation from 2011-2012 until 2016-2017. The aim is to check if it was an isolate case and if the researchers have learnt to estimate accurately fiscal multipliers for the following periods, or if there is a deeper bias in the methodology of fiscal multipliers forecast which is to be found out. The result shows that fiscal multipliers have been accurately forecasted, that it just was an isolate ‘mistake’. Additionally, we will reinforce our research developing panel data analysis for both data selection, and will carry out a robustness check for the economy’s choice and possible influence for outliers for our case. The panel data analysis shows that the forecast has been more accurate after Blanchard and Leigh’s exposition of underestimation of fiscal multipliers. In the other part of this robustness check, we will make a difference among three groups of economies: European countries, advanced economies and emerging markets estates. Overall, the baseline estimations have been accurate and robust for the outliers’ influence. The results expose that the estimation of the fiscal multipliers is improving after the difficulties of forecasting accurately until 2017 for European countries. However, the fiscal multipliers framework is still being a black box for economic study

Unmasking Extraordinary Renditions in the Context of Counter-Terrorism

This Article will show that the term “extraordinary rendition” is of short legal history and that its conception perverts a number of basic international law principles. In doing so, it will be shown that this process is a method counter-productive to long terms goals in the War on Terrorism. We can conclude therefore that both “rendition to justice” and “extraordinary rendition” bear little resemblance to the traditional use of the terms rendition or extradition - the recognised, legal methods of transferring a suspect of a criminal offence from one State to another. [T]he protections of an extradition Treaty and the rights it affords an accused can be seen as inherent justiciable. The use of the extradition process is an expression of State sovereignty, yet the guiding principles of double criminality and specialty ensure that the rights of the transferred person are also subject to protection and judicial scrutiny. It is clear that the nature of enforced disappearances is such as to attempt to avoid any legal process and human rights protection. In addition, it is noted that official denial of this practise as part of counter-terrorist policy and a lack of judicial oversight contribute to the view that U.S. intelligence agencies are aware of the illegality of the practise at international la

In silence we remember : the historical archaeology of Finnish cemeteries in Saskatchewan

Above-ground archaeological techniques are used to study six Finnish cemeteries in Saskatchewan as a material record of the way that Finnish immigrants saw themselves - individually, collectively, and within the larger society. Findings are overlaid with data about the social identity of Saskatchewan Finns drawn from oral and documentary records. Variations in the expressions of social identity provided by the different Finnish cemeteries are identified and explored. Also, four areas in which major changes in social identity occurred over time are identified and discussed: family structure and relationships, ethnicity, views of death, and social values and beliefs. Finally, a four-stage pattern of change in social identity over time that took place in all the Finnish cemeteries is described, and it is suggested that this pattern may be one that was shared by other immigrants to the western plains. A fuller understanding is developed of the immigrant experience, the nature of ethnicity, the factors affecting social identity, and the processes of cultural change in the settlement of Canada's prairie region

The Use of Computer-Assisted Instruction in a Biblical Studies Course: A Case Study

One purpose of this case study was to determine the effect of the introduction of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) materials upon students\u27 learning ability in a college Biblical studies course. Another purpose was to gather information from students with regard to their attitudes toward CAI and its effectiveness in learning the course material. A third purpose of the study was the design of CAI materials using a general application software package. The data base and word processing functions of a general application software package were adapted for CAI in the Biblical studies course. The CAI components employed in the Biblical studies course were a data base function, a word processing exercise, and drill and practice exercises. This case study collected data on 68 students of an introductory Biblical studies course during a college semester. Data on student attitudes were gathered through written questionnaires and interviews. Chi-square was used to investigate the change of student attitudes toward the course. Student learning of the course material was tested using a pretest/posttest design in addition to student grades. An analysis of variance was calculated on the pretest and posttest scores using the years of formal background in religious education as the independent variable to measure gain scores. Student response to the incorporation of CAI into the curriculum of the Biblical studies course showed that 54.7% of the students viewed CAI favorably with higher percentages in relation to each of the CAI activities: 62.7% for the data base, 70.8% for the word processing exercise, and 83% for the drill and practice. Students also perceived the CAI materials as enabling them to learn the material of the course. Students\u27 attitudes with regard to the Biblical studies course were generally favorable and in those cases where negative attitudes were reported at the beginning of the study, 53% of these students reported that they had altered their view at the conclusion of the course. The analysis of variance showed significant gain scores for students with little or no formal background in religious education in relation to students with greater experience in formal religious studies courses (p\u3c.002). The data collected indicated that it was possible to utilize general application software packages in the construction of CAI materials for college level coursework. Implications of this study suggest that positive results in terms of students\u27 perception of learning may be expected from the use of CAI in Biblical studies courses and that other liberal arts subject areas may benefit from the use of CAI. It is recommended that research be conducted for further incorporation of CAI into Biblical studies and religious studies curricula as well as other areas of the liberal arts