17,280 research outputs found

    What Are the Challenges of Increasing the Sustainability of Urban Livelihoods?

    Get PDF
    . This article places the challenge of rapid urbanisation throughout the world into a perspective that acknowledges inequalities due to economic history. As well as a brief exploration of the site-specific nature of challenges faced, this article seeks to outline the economic and structural obstacles that act as a backdrop to the lives of the poor. Such a perspective can inform attempts to improve the lot of the poor and help in outlining the moral obligation for the powerful to help the poor and vulnerable face up to the issue of Climate Change

    Decision Support Software for Probabilistic Risk Assessment Using Bayesian Networks

    Get PDF

    Core inflation as a predictor of total inflation

    Get PDF
    Inflation (Finance) ; Economic indicators

    Measures on Mixing Angles

    Get PDF
    We address the problem of the apparently very small magnitude of CP violation in the standard model, measured by the Jarlskog invariant J. In order to make statements about probabilities for certain values of J, we seek to find a natural measure on the space of Kobayashi-Maskawa matrices, the double quotient U(1)^2\SU(3)/U(1)^2. We review several possible, geometrically motivated choices of the measure, and compute expectation values for powers of J for these measures. We find that different choices of the measure generically make the observed magnitude of CP violation appear finely tuned. Since the quark masses and the mixing angles are determined by the same set of Yukawa couplings, we then do a second calculation in which we take the known quark mass hierarchy into account. We construct the simplest measure on the space of 3 x 3 Hermitian matrices which reproduces this known hierarchy. Calculating expectation values for powers of J in this second approach, we find that values of J close to the observed value are now rather likely, and there does not seem to be any fine tuning. Our results suggest that the choice of Kobayashi-Maskawa angles is closely linked to the observed mass hierarchy. We close by discussing the corresponding case of neutrinos.Comment: 40 pages, 3 figures, corrected references, cited figures etc., no substantial changes in conten

    Tachyon Defect Formation and Reheating in Brane-Antibrane Inflation

    Full text link
    We study analytically the dynamical formation of lower dimensional branes at the endpoint of brane-antibrane inflation through the condensation of topological defects of the tachyon field which describes the instability of the initial state. We then use this information to quantify the efficiency of the reheating which is due to the coupling of time dependent tachyon background to massless gauge fields which will be localized on the final state branes. We improve upon previous estimates indicating that this can be an efficient reheating mechanism for observers on the brane.Comment: 9 pages. Talk given at the 26th annual Montreal-Rochester-Syracuse-Toronto Conference on High-Energy Physics: MRST 200

    Synergies between processing and memory in children's reading span.

    Get PDF
    Previous research has established the relevance of working memory for cognitive development. Yet the factors responsible for shaping performance in the complex span tasks used to assess working memory capacity are not fully understood. We report a study of reading span in 7- to 11-year old children that addresses several contemporary theoretical issues. We demonstrate that both the timing and the accuracy of recall are affected by the presence or absence of a semantic connection between the processing requirement and the memoranda. Evidence that there can be synergies between processing and memory argues against the view that complex span simply measures the competition between these activities. We also demonstrate a consistent relationship between the rate of completing processing operations (sentence reading) and recall accuracy. At the same time, the shape and strength of this function varies with the task configuration. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential for reconstructive influences to shape working memory performance among children

    Unbuttoned: : The interaction between provocativeness of female work attire and occupational status

    Get PDF
    This document is the Accepted Manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0450-8.Gender-biased standards in United Kingdom (UK) workplaces continue to exist. Women experience gender discrimination in judgements of competence, even by other women. Clothing cues can subtly influence professional perceptions of women. The aim of this study was to investigate how minor manipulations to female office clothing affect the judgements of competence of them by other UK females and to examine whether such effects differ with occupational status. One group of female university students (n = 54) and one group of employed females (n = 90), all from London and the East of England, rated images of faceless female targets, on a global competence measure derived from six competence ratings (of intelligence, confidence, trustworthiness, responsibility, authority, and organisation). The dress style was conservative but varied slightly by skirt length and the number of buttons unfastened on a blouse. The female targets were ascribed different occupational roles, varying by status (high – senior manager, or low - receptionist). Participants viewed the images for a maximum of 5 s before rating them. Overall participants rated the senior manager less favourably when her clothing was more provocative, but more favourably when dressed more conservatively (longer skirt, buttoned up blouse). This interaction between clothing and status was not present for the receptionist. Employed participants also rated females lower than did student participants. We conclude that even subtle changes to clothing style can contribute towards negative impressions of the competence of women who hold higher status positions in a UK cultural contextPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

    Reflection on Mental Health System and Quality Assurance: Considering the Relevance of the Australian Experience for Indonesia

    Get PDF
    Pelayanan kesehatan jiwa di Australia telah berkembang menjadi pelayanan yang berorientasi pada komunitas dan sensitive terhadap kebutuhan dan hak klien dengan gangguan jiwa. Perkembangan ini mempunyai implikasi pada system kesehatan jiwa komunitas., kebijakan tentang kesehatan jiwa, legalisasi, pelayanan kesehatan jiwa, pelayanan pembauran, begitu pula implikasi terhadap praktek keperawatan. Perubahan dalam pelayanan kesehatan jiwa menuntut perawat untuk memiliki pengetahuan yang teoritis yang lebih baik dan kemampuan untuk melakukan praktek keperawatan secara professional.Di Indonesia, kajian yang ekstensif tentang kebutuhan masyarakat dengan masalah kesehatan jiwa, sumber yang tersedia untuk memenuhi kebutuhan tersebut, serta keyakinan, nilai dan sikap tenaga professional kesehatan jiwa tentang ilmu kedokteran dan perilaku dari negara barat yang mempengaruhi pelayanan kesehatan jiwa, sangat diperlukan untuk pengembangan system kesehatan jiwa yang lebih efektif dan efesien. The mental health services in Australia have been developed to be more community based services and sensitive to the needs and rights of the mentally ill. This development has implications for mental health system and the community, mental health policy, legislation, mental health services, mainstreaming services as well as implications for nursing practice. The change in mental health services required the nurse to have the better theoretical knowledge and competence to practice professionally. In Indonesia, the extensive study on the needs of the people with mental health problem and the existing resource to meet those needs, as well as the current beliefs, values and attitudes held by mental health professionals towards the Western medical and behavioral science influence on mental health services is an important process in developing more efficient and effective mental health system
    corecore