In the Mind of the Manipulated Man: A Reflection on A King\u27s a King: A Brecht Retelling of Macbeth

This paper is a reflection on a senior project performance titled A King\u27s a King: A Brecht Retelling of Macbeth, which I performed in

Multi-echelon inventory optimization for an oil services company

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 56).In the oilfield services industry, healthy margins and the criticality of product availability have often over shadowed the need for operational efficiency. Although those factors have not changed, the emergence of stronger industry competition and challenging economic climates have prompted ABC company to explore efficiency gains via supply chain optimization. This thesis examines and assesses opportunities for ABC Company to employ statistical inventory models, understand a variety of factors that influence inventory levels and costs, and improve its network structure. As many inventory models are not designed to accommodate SKUs that have very low rates of consumption, we also propose a methodology that will provide operational guidance and cost implications to address these types of SKUs.by Michael Chalapong and Jake Lazarus.M.Eng.in Logistic

Role of Student Affairs in Promoting Religious and Secular Pluralism and Interfaith Cooperation

This essay explores the contributions of student affairs professionals to religious and secular pluralism and interfaith cooperation in higher education. The authors propose a preliminary model of competencies necessary for student affairs professionals to engage in conversations effectively with students about issues of religion, spirituality, secularism, and belief as well as to promote campus-wide transformation for religious and secular pluralism and interfaith cooperation

Experience in Imaging Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Using 99mTc (V) Dimercaptosuccinic Acid (DMSA)

99mTc (V) dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) is a new tumor imaging agent that has been successfully used to image patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Since 1986, studies have been performed in 32 patients with histologically proven MTC at Guy\u27s Hospital, London, England. Five patients with primary tumor were studied prior lo surgery, four patients were studied after successful removal of the primary tumor, and 26 patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence were studied. Eight patients were studied serially to assess progression of disease, and four patients were studied before and after surgery. Twenty-one of the 26 patients with disease had positive scans with four false negative scans and three true negative scans. One patient had a false-positive scan (sensitivity 80%, specificity 75%). Two of the false-negative scans were obtained in patients with moderate but stable elevations of calcitonin but no other evidence of recurrence. One false-negative scan was obtained in a patient who was discovered on screening to have an abnormal pentagastrin response, and a small 1 cm tumor was subsequently removed. Uptake in local neck recurrence was frequently intense, but uptake at sites of bone metastases was less marked. 99mTc (V) DMSA is an inexpensive radiopharmaceutical which produces good quality images and has been shown to have an acceptable sensitivity and specificity in the follow-up of patients with MTC and thereby contributes significantly to the management of these patients

Organizational Politics and Employees’ Performance in Private Sector Investment: A Comparative Study of Zenith Bank Plc and Alcon Plc. Nigeria

Objective of research focus to investigate the impact of organizational politics on employees’ performance in the private sectors. Qualitative study was chosen using Zenith Bank Plc and Alcon Plc, Nigeria. The choice of methodology reflects explorative purpose of this research. The data were mainly primary, collected during face-to-face interviews with managers and subordinates of the two firms. Study adopts data categorization approach for the analysis of empirical findings to see the connection between theory and practice. Research found that bad political behavior affects negatively employees’ performance and lowers organizational productivity; while good political behavior affects positively employees’ performance and increases organizational productivity. Reflecting on the problems identified in this study, the authors recommend that every political maneuvering should be managed within reasonable bounds. Again, the authors hereby recommends seven approaches as follows; screen out exceedingly any political individuals during recruitment exercise; create an open-book management system to keep track of  employee’s behavior; periodic financial and accounting statements for all employees should not be politicized; establish formal conflict resolution and grievance processes; openly identify and reward staff who get real results without political games; disciplinary committee should be set up and defaulters should be apprehended to serve as a deterrent for others to follow; organization should adopt sensitive analysis approach to track and monitor any strange behavior of workers in the work environment. Reflecting on the outcome of this research, firstly, one of the problems encountered in carrying out this research was due to difficulty getting enough people to answer interview questions due to tight schedules of the participant; this has implications on the sample size and is considered as one of the study limitations. Based on this, the author recommends future researchers to consider large sample size when replicating study or use alternative research methodology to see if the same result will be replicated. Key terms: Influence, Private sector, Organizational politics, Performance, Political behavior

Del naufragio al intercambio de mercancías: Robinson Crusoe, Hegel y Marx

Robinson Crusoe is a mythic character who lives not only in the popular imaginary but through the history of political and social thought. Defoe’s protagonist lives marooned on his island, isolated and apart from society. The narrative is a perfect naturalisation of the ‘bourgeois’ world, dependent on an ontology of the self-sufficient individual. This article analyses this lineage in the social contract theory of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. Later, Hegel used the novel to illustrate his dialectic of mastery/servitude. Challenging the atomism of the state of nature, Hegel’s theory of recognition gives an account of positive freedom, where the individual is formed in and through social interdependence. This sociality is continued by Marx, who satirises Defoe\u27s novel in his value-form critique of political economy. The value-form provides insight into Robinson\u27s island labour and Marx\u27s difference with Locke\u27s labour theory of value. For Marx, the myth of ‘natural man’ hides the domination of capitalist development and Robinson Crusoe reflects the internalisation of the abstract rationality of commodity society. However, Marx\u27s immanent critique of the novel points to a radical idea of social life and freedom.Robinson Crusoe no es solamente un personaje mítico que vive en el imaginario popular, sino también a través de la historia del pensamiento político y social. El protagonista de Defoe vive abandonado en su isla, aislado y apartado de la sociedad. La narrativa es una perfecta naturalización del mundo “burgués”, dependiente de una ontología del individuo autosuficiente. Este artículo analiza esta línea en la teoría del contrato social de Hobbes, Locke y Rousseau. Más adelante, Hegel usó la novela para ilustrar su dialéctica del amo/esclavo. Desafiando el atomismo del estado de naturaleza, la teoría del reconocimiento de Hegel da cuenta de la libertad positiva, donde el individuo se forma en y a través de la interdependencia social. Esta sociabilidad es continuada por Marx, quien satiriza la novela de Defoe en su forma-valorista crítica de la economía política. La forma-valor provee una idea del trabajo de Robinson en la isla y la diferencia de la teoría del valor-trabajo de Marx con la de Locke. Para Marx, el mito del “hombre natural” esconde la dominación del desarrollo capitalista y Robinson Crusoe refleja la internalización de la racionalidad abstracta de la sociedad de mercancías. Sin embargo, la crítica inmanente de la novela por Marx apunta a una idea radical de la vida social y la libertad

An evolving research agenda for human–coastal systems

Within the broad discourses of environmental change, sustainability science, and anthropogenic Earth-surface systems, a focused body of work involves the coupled economic and physical dynamics of developed shorelines. Rapid rates of change in coastal environments, from wetlands and deltas to inlets and dune systems, help researchers recognize, observe, and investigate coupling in natural (non-human) morphodynamics and biomorphodynamics. This same intrinsic quality of fast-paced change also makes developed coastal zones exemplars of observable coupling between physical processes and human activities. In many coastal communities, beach erosion is a natural hazard with economic costs that coastal management counters through a variety of mitigation strategies, including beach replenishment, groynes, revetments, and seawalls. As cycles of erosion and mitigation iterate, coastline change and economically driven interventions become mutually linked. Emergent dynamics of two-way economic–physical coupling is a recent research discovery. Having established a strong theoretical basis, research into coupled human–coastal systems has passed its early proof-of-concept phase. This paper frames three major challenges that need resolving in order to advance theoretical and empirical treatments of human–coastal systems: (1) codifying salient individual and social behaviors of decision-making in ways that capture societal actions across a range of scales (thus engaging economics, social science, and policy disciplines); (2) quantifying anthropogenic effects on alongshore and cross-shore sediment pathways and long-term landscape evolution in coastal zones through time, including direct measurement of cumulative changes to sediment cells resulting from coastal development and management practices (e.g., construction of buildings and artificial dunes, bulldozer removal of overwash after major storms); and (3) reciprocal knowledge and data exchange between researchers in coastal morphodynamics and practitioners of coastal management. Future research into human–coastal systems can benefit from decades of interdisciplinary work on the complex dynamics of common-pool resources, from computational efficiency and new techniques in numerical modeling, and from the growing catalog of high-resolution geospatial data for natural and developed coastlines around the world

Stability of moral traits (justice and humanity) in emerging adults: A longitudinal analysis.

Emerging adulthood is considered a particularly important period for moral maturity in adulthood, and for personality changes that relate closely to character development. Research also suggests that once moral traits develop in emerging adults, they remain relatively stable in both score and rank; and they are among the most stable of character traits examined. Using the VIA Character Strength Survey, the current research is investigating the stability of the moral traits justice and humanity in comparison to a subset of character traits from other domains. These data were collected from SPU students early in their college years and again as they neared their graduation

Association between repeat hospitalization and early intervention in dialysis patients following hospital discharge

Dialysis patients have a greater number of hospitalization events compared to patients without renal failure. Here we studied the relationship between different post-discharge interventions and repeat hospitalization in over 126,000 prevalent hemodialysis patients to explore outpatient strategies that minimize the risk of repeat hospitalization. The primary outcome was repeat hospitalization within 30 days of discharge. Compared to pre-hospitalization values, the levels of hemoglobin, albumin, phosphorus, calcium, and parathyroid hormone and weight were significantly decreased after hospitalization. Using covariate-adjusted models, those patients whose hemoglobin was monitored within the first 7 days after discharge, followed by modification of their erythropoietin dose had a significantly reduced risk for repeat-hospitalization when compared to the patients whose hemoglobin was not checked, nor was the dose of erythropoietin changed. Similarly, administration of vitamin D within the 7 days following discharge was significantly associated with reduced repeat hospitalization when compared to patients on no vitamin D. Therefore, it appears that immediate re-evaluation of anemia management orders and resumption of vitamin D soon after discharge may be an effective way to reduce repeat hospitalization