805 research outputs found
Analysis of Financing Options for Transportation
This paper reviews and analyzes various innovative Financing techniques for highway and transit. With federal support diminishing and transportation needs growing, agencies are seeking new ways to meet this crisis. The techniques discussed fall into the four broad categories of: (1) charges on benefiting properties; (2) joint venture approaches; (3) user charges; and (4) marketing and merchandising approaches. Charges on benefiting properties recognize that there are specific beneficiaries who gain from transportation improvements and include: connector fees, negotiated investments, special benefit assessment, tax increment financing and impact requirements. Joint ventures with the private sector recognize that it is mutually advantageous for public and private sectors to cooperate on transportation projects and include the techniques of land/air rights leasing, donations for capital improvements and cost sharing. User charges are intended as direct payments for services rendered and are classified as motor vehicle taxes and fees, tolls, commercial parking taxes and taxes on motor fuels. Marketing and merchandising approaches include advertising and merchandising. None of the techniques are a panacea for transportation finance but where appropriate conditions exist, they can be effectively used to finance the growing transportation needs of our natio
The use of information and communication technologies by portuguese teachers
We present a study made in Portugal, in 2001/2002, on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by teachers of all teaching levels (except high education), in both public and private schools. It was an initiative of the Ministry of Education (“Nonio – 21st Century” program), which was carried out by the Competence Centre “Softsciences” and the Centre for Computational Physics of the University of Coimbra. Some of the conclusions of this study, that has collected data from 19337 teachers, are the following: the majority of Portuguese teachers own a PC and approximately half of them use it in several activities, though their use of computers with students is limited. Primary school teachers use often the PC in their schools, though, probably, in an incipient way. The self-training of teachers in ICT is quite common. The Internet is more used by 3rd cycle (last part of middle school) and high school teachers, being most of its users male and young. These and other conclusions should be taken into account in a strategy towards incrementing a better use of new technologies in schools. The whole study is available in: http://nautilus.fid.uc.pt/cec/estud
Implementation of Partial Initial Commissioning During the Elaboration and Construction Phase
This paper describes how manual methods for partial initial commissioning can be implemented
during the elaboration and construction phase. The main purpose is to reduce the risk of exceeding
the time schedule and the budgets of the construction of the building(s). The paper breaks down the
superior building process into parts that can be connected to definite continuous procedures:
1. Continuous collection of operational instructions and maintenance documentation to secure the
quality of the delivered products and to be able to perform mechanical check.
2. Splitting up of systems to perform commissioning tests (mechanical and functional) on sub
system to discover errors as soon as possible.
3. Database for structuring data to get useful reports to follow up the constructors at the
construction site
Development of a University Undergraduate Course Sequence About the Extension System
Many undergraduates are interested in community-based programming, but at most land-grants undergraduates have little contact with Extension. This article describes a grant project that developed two undergraduate courses about Extension and community-based, experiential education. The academic-year course incorporates lecture, discussion, guest speakers, and hands-on activities. The summer-session course takes students to visit program sites in operation. In outcome evaluations, students gained significantly in their understanding of land-grants, Extension, and community programming, and gained confidence in working collaboratively, among other findings. Recommendations note that the success of similar courses requires involvement of county Extension personnel and balancing of several key factors
Random Walks on Stochastic Temporal Networks
In the study of dynamical processes on networks, there has been intense focus
on network structure -- i.e., the arrangement of edges and their associated
weights -- but the effects of the temporal patterns of edges remains poorly
understood. In this chapter, we develop a mathematical framework for random
walks on temporal networks using an approach that provides a compromise between
abstract but unrealistic models and data-driven but non-mathematical
approaches. To do this, we introduce a stochastic model for temporal networks
in which we summarize the temporal and structural organization of a system
using a matrix of waiting-time distributions. We show that random walks on
stochastic temporal networks can be described exactly by an
integro-differential master equation and derive an analytical expression for
its asymptotic steady state. We also discuss how our work might be useful to
help build centrality measures for temporal networks.Comment: Chapter in Temporal Networks (Petter Holme and Jari Saramaki
editors). Springer. Berlin, Heidelberg 2013. The book chapter contains minor
corrections and modifications. This chapter is based on arXiv:1112.3324,
which contains additional calculations and numerical simulation
The Keck Planet Search: Detectability and the Minimum Mass and Orbital Period Distribution of Extrasolar Planets
We analyze 8 years of precise radial velocity measurements from the Keck
Planet Search, characterizing the detection threshold, selection effects, and
completeness of the survey. We carry out a systematic search for planets by
assessing the false alarm probability associated with Keplerian orbit fits to
the data. This allows us to understand the detection threshold for each star in
terms of the number and time baseline of the observations, and size of
measurement errors and stellar jitter. We show that all planets with orbital
periods 20 m/s, and eccentricities <0.6 have
been announced, and summarize the candidates at lower amplitudes and longer
orbital periods. For the remaining stars, we calculate upper limits on the
velocity amplitude of a companion, typically 10 m/s, and use the non-detections
to derive completeness corrections at low amplitudes and long orbital periods.
We give the fraction of stars with a planet as a function of planet mass and
orbital period, and extrapolate to long period orbits and low planet masses. A
power law fit for planet masses >0.3 Jupiter masses and periods <2000 days
gives a mass-period distribution dN=C M^\alpha P^\beta dlnM dlnP with
\alpha=-0.31 \pm 0.2, \beta=0.26\pm 0.1, and the normalization constant C such
that 10.5% of solar type stars have a planet with mass in the range 0.3-10
Jupiter masses and orbital period 2-2000 days. The orbital period distribution
shows an increase in the planet fraction by a factor of 5 for orbital periods
beyond 300 days. Extrapolation gives 17-20% of stars having gas giant planets
within 20 AU. Finally, taking into account differences in detectability, we
find that M dwarfs are 3 to 10 times less likely to harbor a Jupiter mass
planet than solar type stars.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in PAS
Concise and Tight Security Analysis of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 Protocol with Finite Key Lengths
We present a tight security analysis of the Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol
taking into account the finite size effect of key distillation, and achieving
unconditional security. We begin by presenting a concise analysis utilizing the
normal approximation of the hypergeometric function. Then next we show that a
similarly tight bound can also be obtained by a rigorous argument without
relying on any approximation. In particular, for the convenience of
experimentalists who wish to evaluate the security of their QKD systems, we
also give explicit procedures of our key distillation, and also show how to
calculate the secret key rate and the security parameter from a given set of
experimental parameters. Besides the exact values of key rates and security
parameters, we also present how to obtain their rough estimates using the
normal approximation.Comment: 40 pages, 4 figures, revised arguments on security, and detailed
explanaions on how to use theoretical result
Asymmetric intergroup bullying: the enactment and maintenance of societal inequality at work
What does inequality mean for dysfunctional organizational behaviours, such as workplace bullying? This article argues that workplace bullying can be understood as a manifestation of intergroup dynamics originating beyond the organization. We introduce the construct of asymmetric intergroup bullying: the disproportionate mistreatment of members of low status groups, with the intended effect of enhancing the subordination of that group in society at large. Analysis of data from 38 interviews with public and private sector workers in Turkey depicts a pattern of asymmetric intergroup bullying, undertaken to achieve organizational and broader sociopolitical goals. Respondents reported bullying acts used to get rid of unwanted personnel, with the goal of avoiding severance pay, or of removing supporters of the former government from positions of political and economic influence. Bullying was also described as working towards the dominance of the sociocultural worldview of one political group over another. We discuss asymmetric intergroup bullying as one mechanism through which acute intergroup hierarchy in the broader society corrupts management practice and employee interactions, in turn exacerbating economic inequality along group lines
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