Labour market barriers to improving the employment status of Maltese women

The term disadvantaged refers to a group of workers readily identifiable on the basis of a demographic characteristic such as age, sex, or race, which, in comparison to the labour force as a whole, has, on an average, lower wages, less desirable occupations, and higher unemployment rates. Given this definition, women may be classified as a disadvantaged group in the Maltese labour force on the basis of wages, and occupational distribution. (No effort will be made to compare unemployment data for Maltese men and women. The data do not include a good indication of how many people actually want jobs, and therefore they are not very useful for analytical purposes).peer-reviewe

Aspects of computational contact dynamics

This work summarises a computational framework for dealing with dynamic multi-body frictional contact problems. It is in fact a detailed account of an instance of the Contact Dynamics method by Moreau and Jean. Hence the title. Multi-body systems with contact constraints are common. Some of them, such as machines or arrangements of particulate media, need to be predictable. Predictions correspond to approximate solutions of mathematical models describing interactions within such systems. The models are implemented as computational algorithms. The main contributions of the author are in an improved time integration method for rigid rotations, and in a robust Newton scheme for solving the frictional contact problem. A simple and efficient way of integrating rigid rotations is presented. The algorithm is stable, second order accurate, and in its explicit version involves evaluation of only two exponential maps per time step. The semi-explicit version of the proposed scheme improves upon the long term stability, while it retains the explicitness in the force evaluation. The algebraic structure of both schemes makes them suitable for the analysis of constrained multi-body systems. The explicit algorithm is specifically aimed at the analysis involving small incremental rotations, where its modest computational cost becomes the major advantage. The semi-explicit scheme naturally broadens the scope of possible applications. The semismooth Newton approach is adopted in the context of the frictional contact between three-dimensional pseudo-rigid bodies, proposed by Cohen and Muncaster. The Signorini-Coulomb problem is formulated according to the formalism of Contact Dynamics. Hybrid linearisation, parameter scaling and line search techniques are combined as the global convergence enhancements of the Newton algorithm. Quasi-static simulations of dry masonry assemblies exemplify performance of the presented framework

Malta's labour movement : a comparison with labour in developing nations

The purpose of this article is to compare certain characteristics of the Maltese labour movement with general features of labour movements in developing nations in order to assess the degree of the Maltese labour movement's development.peer-reviewe

Vocal Hygiene for Musical Theatre Performers

There have been numerous “do’s - and - don’t’s” vocal hygiene pamphlets made for voice users, however, a guide for vocal hygiene for musical theatre performers is not typically included in these pamphlets. Musical theatre performers differ from other professional voice users, because in addition to singing, they also have the taxing responsibilities of acting and dancing. As a result, many musical theatre performers have questions and often seem confused about what proper vocal hygiene should be for them. The goal of this honors project was to create an advisory brochure on vocal hygiene specifically for musical theatre performers. This brochure is based upon information published by professionals from various disciplines such as medicine, speech-language pathology, music, and theatre. This brochure addresses a number of aspects that musical theatre performers should be aware of as a result of the many demands that are placed upon them. This resulted in the following categories for the creation of the brochure: preventing overuse, medical care, nutrition/hydration, environmental factors, and utilizing proper technique. The background information and sources for this project are found in the annotated bibliography at the end of this paper

Prace nad wdrożeniem procedur zabezpieczających przestrzeganie Ustawy o Ochronie Danych Osobowych oraz związanych z nią rozporządzeń wykonawczych

Pierwszego maja 2005 r. minął rok od wejścia Polski do Unii Europejskiej. Data to historyczna nie tylko ze względów politycznych, ale również i prawnych. Dzień ten stał się granicą, kiedy wiele uregulowań prawnych zostało zsynchronizowanych z prawem europejskim. Prace nad synchronizacją prawa polskiego z uregulowaniami europejskimi przebiegały niestety w trybie bardzo przyspieszonym i zmusiły nas praktycznie do natychmiastowych, sprawnych działań normalizujących nasz styl pracy (Fragment tekstu)

Optical anisotropy, molecular orientations, and internal stresses in thin sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) films

The thickness, the refractive index, and the optical anisotropy of thin sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) films, prepared by spin-coating or solvent deposition, have been investigated with spectroscopic ellipsometry. For not too high polymer concentrations (B5 wt%) and not too low spin speeds (C2000 rpm), the thicknesses of the films agree well with the scaling predicted by the model of Meyerhofer, when methanol or ethanol are used as solvent. The films exhibit uniaxial optical anisotropy with a higher in-plane refractive index, indicating a preferred orientation of the polymer chains in this in-plane direction. The radial shear forces that occur during the spin-coating process do not affect the refractive index and the extent of anisotropy. The anisotropy is due to internal stresses within the thin confined polymer film that are associated with the preferred orientations of the polymer chains. The internal stresses are reduced in the presence of a plasticizer, such as water or an organic solvent, and increase to their original value upon removal of such a plasticizer

Polszczyzna biblijna i jej podłoże retoryczne — propozycje badawcze

Artykuł dotyczy wybranych zagadnień polszczyzny biblijnej postrzeganej jako jedna ze stylowych odmian języka polskiego. Głównym celem opracowania jest wskazanie na możliwości poszerzenia dotychczasowych prób opisu tej domeny tematycznej polszczyzny o ujęcia odwołujące się do metod analizy retorycznej wyrosłych zarówno z tradycji retoryki helleńskiej, jak też semickiej. Wykorzystanie tego rodzaju procedury badawczej autor artykułu zaprezentował na podstawie wybranej próby materiałowej, obejmującej utrwalone jednostki języka polskiego o typie biblizmów frazeologicznych, paremiologicznych oraz szerszych sekwencji tekstowych.The article deals with selected issues of biblical Polish seen as one of the stylistic varieties of the Polish language. The main aim of the study is to indicate the possibility of widening the hitherto attempts to describe this thematic domain of Polish language by means of approaches referring to the methods of rhetorical analysis originating both from the Hellenic and Semitic rhetorical tradition. The author has presented the application of such a research procedure on the basis of a selected sample of materials, including fixed units of Polish language of the phraseological and paremiological biblical type as well as wider textual sequences

Informatyczne wspomaganie usług biblioteki akademickiej. System zintegrowany – integracja systemów

The academic library, which plays an important role at universities and in the society, requires modern technical and ICT devices to be supported with in order to satisfy its most immediate needs. The process of modernization is conducted on the verge of the binding law, since it is based on the Ordinance of the Ministry Council “On the National Frameworks...” and the Act on the Protection of Personal Data. We aim to present the identified spheres of realization of the information-library services, together with the existing methods of securing it by means of implemented and maintained ICT systems and technical devices. We will compare various means of securing services, paying special attention to the method of integrating the work of library systems and to the possibility of integrating their work with that of systems serving other “business processes” at universities. Additionally, we will focus on the correlation of tasks and organization of procedures which result from the 27001, 27002 norms listed in the Ministry Council’s Ordinance and assumptions proposed in 9001 norm. We will also discuss the present state of the systems used and we will propose new directions of their development

On the formulation of thermodynamically-consistent viscoplastic-damage constitutive models.

This paper illustrates the formulation of viscoplastic-damage constitutive models using the framework of hyperplasticity. The entire constitutive behaviour is derived from only two scalar potentials; a free energy potential and a dissipation potential. This ensures that the model obeys the laws of thermodynamics