The Humanitarian Monarchy Legislates: The International Committee of the Red Cross and Its 161 of Customary International Humanitarian Law

As the final course in the education “University Diploma Programme for Process Operators” there is a thesis in cooperation with a company required.This thesis is about operator maintenance and 5S made at Metsä Board in Husum.In this report you can read my opinions and conclusions based on literature studies and the interviews that have been made with the staff at PM6 (the paper machine).I chose to focus on the theory of lean, 5S and operator maintenance because it covers the area of this thesis.The operators shall do their rounds to make sure that the equipment works fine. They shall also write down things that they notice in a checklist. This is not done as it should be and the question is: can this be solved by using 5S?My conclusion of this thesis are:Better review of the task so that everyone is involved. The equipment should be clearly marked, and to digitize - for example, with an NFC tag the checklist is automatically filled in by the operator standing nearby the machine. The motivation of the operators will be increased if they are given feedback and clear objectives

The ABCs of ATVs: Factors implicated in child deaths and injuries involving all terrain vehicles on New Zealand farms

The agricultural sector features prominently in the rates of ATV injuries and fatalities amongst children in New Zealand. This research project assesses the nature and scope of ATV accidents to children on New Zealand farms and provides recommendations that attempt to meet the needs of all relevant stakeholders. In particular, we believe that the most effective means of reducing the rates of ATV injuries and fatalities amongst children involves a strategy which recognises the unique circumstances which give rise to practical impediments to safer farm workplace practices. We identified three distinct groups of children in the literature, each facing a different major risk category. Very young children were most at risk as passengers. As age increased the highest risks applied to bystanders, while older children and teenagers were more likely to be injured as drivers. The high risks to younger children as passengers and bystanders were indicative of underlying problems associated with childcare options – or, more particularly, the lack of childcare options. Accidents involving older children were associated more closely with practices around child supervision and involved aspects of farming culture, rather than practical barriers to safer practices

Personal effectiveness training for unemployed people: where to now?

Unemployment remains a major social problem in Australia. Successive governments have attempted to address the problem, in part, by funding occupational skills based training programs for the unemployed. This paper reviews the general area of occupational skills/personal effectiveness training for unemployed people, and reports on outcomes for individuals attending 'typical' courses in Australia. Also reported, are outcomes for unemployed people who attended specially devised training, based on the cognitive behavioural (e.g., Beck, 1976) and learned optimism (Seligman, 1990) intervention approaches, that was aimed at improving well-being, confidence and coping abilities. Variables assessed include individual well-being (e.g., psychological distress), confidence (e.g., self-efficacy), attitude-to-work (e.g., work-commitment); training climate; and labour market outcomes such as return-to-work. More positive outcomes were identified for unemployed people attending the specially devised programs. The authors argue that training targeted at unemployed people must be based on sound theoretical principles to produce measurable long-term benefits. Future applications of personal development programs are discussed in relation to occupational skills based training and as stand-alone programs

Long secondary periods in variable red giants

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15401.xWe present a study of a sample of Large Magellanic Cloud red giants exhibiting Long Secondary Periods (LSPs). We use radial velocities obtained from VLT spectral observations and MACHO and OGLE light curves to examine properties of the stars and to evaluate models for the cause of LSPs. This sample is much larger than the combined previous studies of Hinkle et al. and Wood, Olivier & Kawaler. Binary and pulsation models have enjoyed much support in recent years. Assuming stellar pulsation, we calculate from the velocity curves that the typical fractional radius change over an LSP cycle is greater than 30 per cent. This should lead to large changes in Teff that are not observed. Also, the small light amplitude of these stars seems inconsistent with the radius amplitude. We conclude that pulsation is not a likely explanation for the LSPs. The main alternative, physical movement of the star – binary motion – also has severe problems. If the velocity variations are due to binary motion, the distribution of the angle of periastron in our large sample of stars has a probability of 1.4 × 10−3 that it comes from randomly aligned binary orbits. In addition, we calculate a typical companion mass of 0.09 M⊙ . Less than 1 per cent of low-mass main-sequence stars have companions near this mass (0.06–0.12 M⊙) whereas ∼25–50 per cent of low-mass red giants end up with LSPs. We are unable to find a suitable model for the LSPs and conclude by listing their known properties.Peer reviewe

Freud and Gidget go to Rome but uncle Sam doesn’t: The roman fever films 1953-1963

Questo articolo si propone di prendere in esame alcuni film di Hollywood, da Roman Holiday a Gidget goes to Rome, che furono realizzati a Roma negli anni della guerra fredda. Tematicamente incentrata sulla generale ambivalenza dei concetti di casa, amore e morte, questa serie della ‘febbre romana’ conserva tutti i tratti caratteristici della nevrosi romana di cui Siegmund Freud aveva scritto circa mezzo secolo prima. Come nell’esperienza di Freud, i film della ‘frebbre romana’ narrano dell‘incontro con la capitale italiana caratterizzato dal tentativo di resistere alla sua seduzione e dall’inevitable capitolazione finale. Come tante cartoline spedite a casa, questi film offrono anche un punto di vista provocatorio sulle frustrazioni e ansie politiche che contraddistinsero la presenza degli americani in Italia negli anni Cinquanta. Dovendo confrontarsi con la bizantina complessità dello scenario della politica italiana e il ruolo centrale del partito comunista all’interno di esso, l’amministrazione USA basò il suo intervento sull’ignoranza e sulla diretta contrapposizione. Fu lasciato a Gidget e Audrey Hepburn il compito di esplorare e districare le articolate supposizioni della politica americana in quest’aria strategica dell’Europa durante la guerra fredda

Competition in financial services

In the financial services sector, the failure of a single institution can have a compounding effect on the sector, and on national and global economies. In particular, there is systemic risk from inter-institution lending, and this effect is more complex in Australia due to the small number of major players. In retail banking in Australia, following a similar practice in most developed countries, if an unsecured creditor is a retail depositor, their deposit is insured by the government. That is, if a retail bank fails, the Federal Government will make the depositors whole. The regulatory system, particularly the prudential regulatory system, is designed to protect depositors’ and borrowers’ interests, and this protects the interest of the government. The effect is that regulatory policy on banking has prioritised stability in consideration of the sovereign risk associated with the risk of retail bank failure. However, this approach also creates a policy dilemma. The dilemma concerns the extent to which the retail banking sector can attain the benefits of the vigorous rivalry from effective and efficient competition, without unduly risking stability and the potential of a devastating call on the public purse. Specifically, in the context of effective and efficient competition, there is limited competitiveness in retail banking in Australia. This is reflected in the static state of market share between the four major banks, and very slow and marginal improvements gains even by strong second tier competitors. Furthermore, the retail banking sector’s capacity for product and service innovation is limited. Although the absence of vigorous rivalry is conducive to stability within the retail banking sector, it is likely to detract from the welfare of retail banking consumers. Furthermore, the level of innovation may not be as high as is feasible and barriers, including prudential regulatory barriers to entry or expansion, mean that the extent of rivalry is unlikely to change without some form of promotion of competition. The paper consequently makes a four-point recommendation for the removal of the ‘four pillars’ policy:  The four major banks are protected by an implicit government guarantee that impacts market operation with little observable benefit to consumers, and may be a source of consumer disutility.  The four pillars policy has prompted increased vertical integration within the sector, particularly in the area of mortgage products.  There are sufficient merger protections provided by Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).  Competition and contestability arise when there are reasonably low barriers to entry and exit from the sector. It is not clear that low barriers to entry exist in Australia, and evidence to support this view comes from the failure of international banks to gain a significant toehold in the retail banking sector in Australia. One deterrent to entry is the regulatory focus on the four pillars. The authors recognise that this position is at odds with the view of the Financial System Inquiry. However, the rationale in the report of the Inquiry was to prevent mergers, and the current competition law achieves this objective. The paper recommends two specific policies to promote competition in retail banking without the structural intervention that would otherwise be required to improve the intensity of competition in the retail banking sector:  Introduce bank account number portability. This would use ‘know your customer’ and central database systems in a similar form to those that have been used for mobile number portability in Australia for the last decade and a half.  Introduce customer access to data held by banks to allow third parties to compare bank offerings across all banks.  Significantly, these two recommendations are consistent with the productivity proposals issued by the UK Government in July 2015. The research paper also examines crowd equity funding as a disruptive force in the banking sector, and recommends that crowd equity funding be permitted with the following safeguards:  ASIC should take an active role in monitoring crowd equity funding and be willing to sue in case of fraudulent action.  Any intermediary online platform should have a financial services licence with limited duty of care.  There should be a cap for business raisings through crowd equity funding of $2 million in a 12-month period.  Crowd equity funding is a social phenomenon. Through its use of social media, it has attracted people who have previously never been interested in investing in companies. Instead of being feared, this interest should be nurtured through the promotion of investors’ financial education

AN INTEGRATED MULTIPLE STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE FOR PREDICTING POST-SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL DEGREE OUTCOMES BASED PRIMARILY ON VARIABLES AVAILABLE IN THE 8TH GRADE

There is a class of complex problems that may be too complicated to solve by any single analytical technique. Such problems involve so many measurements of interconnected factors that analysis with a single dimension technique may improve one aspect of the problem while overall achieving little or no improvement. This research examines the utility of modeling a complex problem with multiple statistical techniques integrated to analyze different types of data. The goal was to determine if this integrated approach was feasible and provided significantly better results than a single statistical technique. An application in engineering education was chosen because of the availability and comprehensiveness of the NELS:88 longitudinal dataset. This dataset provided a huge number of variables and 12,144 records of actual students progressing from 8th grade to their final educational outcomes 12 years later. The probability of earning a Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) degree is modeled using variables available in the 8th grade as well as standardized test scores. The variables include demographic, academic performance, and experiential measures. Extensive manipulation of the NELS:88 dataset was conducted to identify the student outcomes, prepare the set of covariates for modeling, and determine when the students' final outcome status occurred. The integrated models combined logistic regression, survival analysis, and Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Curve analysis to predict obtaining a STEM degree vs. other outcomes. The results of the integrated models were compared to actual outcomes and the results of separate logistic regression models. Both sets of models provided good predictive accuracy. The feasibility of integrated models for complex problems was confirmed. The integrated approach provided less variability in incorrect STEM predictions, but the improvement was not statistically significant. The main contribution of this research is designing the integrated model approach and confirming its feasibility. Additional contributions include designing a process to create large multivariate logistic regression models; developing methods for extensive manipulation of a large dataset to adapt it for new analytical purposes; extending the application of logistic regression, survival analysis, and ROC Curve analysis within educational research; and creating a formal definition for STEM that can be statistically verified

Influences of Environmental Variability, Genetics and Plant Size on Variation in Sexual and Clonal Reproduction and Allocation of Resources in Three Wetland Plant Species

Optimal Partitioning Theory (OPT) states organisms will give more resources to structures and functions that enhance fitness. OPT can be applied to reproduction in clonal plants, which allocate resources between two modes of reproduction--sexual through fruits and clonal through spacers and ramets. In nutrient rich environments, clonal growth allows offspring to stay in beneficial surroundings, while in nutrient poor conditions, sexual reproduction can allow escape and generation of new, potentially more fit offspring. I tested this hypothesis by comparing clonal and sexual reproductive allocation in Penthorum sedoides under differing nutrient levels over two generations. Genotypic and environmental influences on reproductive variation in Lythrum salicaria and Penthorum sedoides were separated by comparing clones within and between treatments. Allocation to fruits was higher in the control than the fertilized group, but only in the second year, providing partial support to an increase in sexual allocation in lower resource conditions. Allocation to spacer mass and ramet mass increased under high nutrients, while number of ramets did not, also providing limited support to the predictions of OPT. Genotype had little effect on sexual and clonal variation. Variation due to fertilizer was more influential, demonstrating plasticity in reproductive expression. The two species differed in their reaction to nutrient levels, potentially a consequence of their differing clonal strategies. Optimal Partitioning Theory also predicts that in situations detrimental to survival, such as herbivore attack, plants will invest less in sexual reproduction and more in clonal growth to aid tissue replacement and survival. I compared reproductive responses of three wetland species--Eupatorium perfoliatum, L. salicaria and P. sedoides--inflicted with simulated herbivory--leaf damage, root damage, both root and leaf damage and undamaged controls. Sexual reproduction in P. sedoides was reduced after root damage while it increased with roo