Winning the Web: Stories of Grassroots Campaigning for Access to Knowledge in the Networked Digital Age

The global intellectual property regime is no longer fit for purpose. As the networked, digital age matures, it puts into the hands of millions of citizens the tools to access create and share "content": text, pictures, music and video; data, news, analysis and art. Against this, the intellectual property regime falters. It presents citizens with a choice: stop using the technology -- stop communicating, stop creating -- or break the law.Legal reform is presented with two separate challenges. The first is a small but vocal minority of entrenched corporate interests -- the rightsholder lobby. Wedded to business models that pre-date the age of networked digital technology, they exploit their position as incumbents to influence legislators. Often representing the world's biggest multinational corporations, they hijack a narrative that belongs to poor artists struggling in garrets and use the considerable profits they have made from exploiting these artists in the twentieth century to access the corridors of power and make their case.That legislators listen is related to a second, geopolitical, challenge. Since the 1970s, the developed world has sought to use the global intellectual property regime to ensure its continued prosperity. Motivated by the ability of developing countries to undercut it on the global manufacturing market, it has sought to augment the financial privilege afforded to "knowledge workers". The self-interest behind this practice is masked by a flawed orthodoxy that is rarely backed up by evidence -- that more intellectual property provision is always good for economic growth.Against this backdrop, a global IP reform movement (also called the access to knowledge movement) is emerging. Motivated by a range of concerns -- from global justice, to the narrowing spectrum of permitted speech, to the broadening of surveillance power -- these individuals and organisations approach their campaigning work with combined levels of ingenuity and intellectual rigour that make them stand out in the history of fledgling civil rights movements. Recently, these pockets of activism have taken IP reform issues to a wide audience, triggering sweeping civic action in the general population. The goal of this report is to identify and interrogate these pockets of activism, and to draw lessons from them. It is hoped that these lessons spread across the broadening global network of IP reform activists, ensuring a strong, sustainable and ultimately successful global movement for IP reform well into the future

Project Management Skills for Highly Successful Virtual Project Teams

Virtual project teams gained wider acceptance in organizations over the past 30 years, supported by improved communications technology and spurred by global competition. Virtual working arrangements provide benefits to employers, employees, and the environment. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 stimulated the transition from traditional to virtual project teams. Project management in the virtual environment requires different skills than leading in the collocated environment. Skills that lead to successful project outcomes in the traditional environment do not simply transfer to the virtual environment. Project managers must focus on new skills, especially those that contribute to developing open communication and building trust. This qualitative case study examined the problem that some project managers lack the skills to lead in the virtual environment, resulting in reduced project efficiency, productivity, and overall success. This case study also filled a gap in the literature, providing real-world best practices of project management leadership skills applied in the virtual environment. Seventeen (17) virtual project team managers and project team members from the MITRE Corporation, a leader in the government contracting industry, shared their experiences leading successful project teams. Through semi-structured interviews, coding, and analysis, five main themes emerged: Importance of Communication to the Success of Virtual Project Teams, Importance of Trust on the Performance of Virtual Project Teams, The Effective Implementation of Technology is Foundational to the Success of Virtual Project Teams, Virtual Project Teams Create Advantages, and Virtual Project Teams Present Challenges. The practical application of these themes resulted in nine lessons learned. Understanding these themes and applying the lessons learned should improve the practice of project management, general business, and virtual project success

An improved system of cost control and budgeting by product, for a specialty paper mill

The large kraft and newsprint mills dominate the paper industry, by the sheer enormity of their size and production. The paper industry is a major growth segment of our nation\u27s industry in all its aspects, however, and the specialty mills and their products continue to grow proportionately with the industry. Fllters, gaskets, and saturated products, once the sole property of leather, rubber and more sophisticated materials, are predominately made of high grade paper products. To further increase their use we must find more and better ways to reduce and control these costs -- It is hoped that we have contributed some knowledge and know-how towards the attainment­ of this goal

Achieving Uniform Flow Distribution in Compact Irrigation Splitter Boxes with High Flow Rates

In many irrigation systems and networks, there are multiple water users and shareholders who take their water from different locations along a single canal or pipeline. Often, irrigation splitter boxes are used to divert water to multiple shareholders from a single location. The splitter boxes, which can be small and compact, are generally installed at different locations along a piped irrigation supply line. The purpose of a splitter box is to split a specific amount of water so that each user receives their allotted portion, regardless of the flow rate in the system. Each splitter box usually includes two compartments, separated by a wall that acts as a weir for the water to flow over. The water in the supply pipe enters the box and fills the upstream compartment until it spills over the weir. As water flows over the weir, it is separated by vertical dividers. Each divider is positioned to split a certain percentage of the total flow to one of the outlet pipes, which carry the water to various destinations. In general, splitter boxes perform very well at lower flow rates. However, if high flow rates are present in the box, due to under-design of the box or for any reason, the water surface becomes turbulent and the flow profile over the weir becomes disturbed and nonuniform. Because of these conditions, the flow becomes unevenly distributed and an accurate flow split cannot be achieved. This study focuses on developing a solution that can be installed in flow splitter boxes to effectively dissipate energy and uniformly distribute the flow across the length of the weir during times of high flow rates

Tradition and Household Tasks

The purpose of this study was to investigate how Utah husbands and wives thought household tasks should viii be allocated and how they actually were allocated in their own homes. The sample was 191 two-parent, two-child families residing in Iron, Washington, and Salt Lake Counties. Urban/rural residence, wife\u27s employment status, educational level of both the husband and wife, family income, religious activity, and the husband\u27s occupation were studied in relation to household task allocation. Eight hypotheses were tested. Husband\u27s religious activity and wife\u27s employment status were found to be related to a traditional pattern of household task allocation. There was a significant difference between wives\u27 religious activity and allocation of household tasks. Wives who were active church members were more traditional in both attitude and behavior than wives who were not active church member

Effective Measurement of Reliability of Repairable USAF Systems

The USAF generally does not know the reliability of its fielded repairable systems. The reported metric, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF), is too lagging to be actionable in the best case, and is not representative of actual system reliability in the worst case. This thesis investigates the statistical techniques for measurement and analysis of the reliability of fielded repairable systems, which are very different than nonrepairables. To frame the investigation, a comparison is made between the generally accepted definitions and metrics and those used across the US Air Force (USAF). Reliability can be analyzed in four context areas: reliability prediction of nonrepairable and repairable items and reliability measurement of nonrepairable and repairable items. This research is focused on the latter. An algorithmic process for effective measurement of reliability of fielded repairable USAF systems, based on recurrent event analysis, is proposed and demonstrated using a non-parametric approach on USAF maintenance data. The approach provides a new capability that can identify even short term changes in system Rate of Occurrence of Failure (ROCOF), which can identify daily or hourly trends across the fleet subsystems. This new approach is compared to USAF calculations of MTBF over the same period

The effects of alcohol on driver performance in a decision making situation

The results are reviewed of driving simulator and in-vehicle field test experiments of alcohol effects on driver risk taking. The objective was to investigate changes in risk taking under alcoholic intoxication and relate these changes to effects on traffic safety. The experiments involved complex 15 minute driving scenarios requiring decision making and steering and speed control throughout a series of typical driving situations. Monetary rewards and penalties were employed to simulate the real-world motivations inherent in driving. A full placebo experimental design was employed, and measures related to traffic safety, driver/vehicle performance and driver behavior were obtained. Alcohol impairment was found to increase the rate of accidents and speeding tickets. Behavioral measures showed these traffic safety effects to be due to impaired psychomotor performance and perceptual distortions. Subjective estimates of risk failed to show any change in the driver's willingness to take risks when intoxicated

Primary Maxillofacial Large B-Cell Lymphoma in Immunocompetent Patients: Report of 5 Cases

Lymphomas of the oral cavity represent 5% of all lymphomas. They usually occur in immunocompromised patients. Lymphoma arising within a single bone, without visceral or lymph node involvement, is known as primary intraosseous lymphoma. It is a rare condition and constitutes 3.1% of malignant bone tumors and 5% of extranodal lymphomas. Primary lymphoma of the jaw is seldom seen and it is often misdiagnosed. Clinically, the manifestations are usually similar to an odontogenic tumor, cyst, or infection. Radiographically it appears as a radiolucent area that may mimic endodontic lesion, periodontal pathology, or odontogenic cyst or tumor. The initial presentation is commonly followed by multiple unnecessary extractions and/or root canal treatments. We present five cases of rare primary lymphoma of the maxillofacial complex, four of them intraosseous

Searching the social science literature on water: a guide to selecter information storage and retrieval systems - preliminary version

Submitted to Water Resources Scientific Information Center, supported jointly by the Office of Water Resources Research, U.S. Department of the Interior, and by Colorado State University.Grant agreement Number 14-31-0001-3183