Some Observations on Financial Abuse at the Local Level

A ZJE article on corruption at the workplace in the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe.)The title of this paper is a piece of verbatim advice given by the chairman of a selection committee to a successful job applicant. The opening quotation comes from a member of a co-operative executive committee, an immediate reaction to a fieldworker's preliminary inquiries regarding missing money in the cooperative. Taken together, these quotable field notes illustrate one of the many paradoxes of third world development. On the one hand, literacy is an essential skill in financial administration, and numeracy is even more important. On the other hand, precisely because these skills are in short supply and are not easily controlled, especially in rural areas, they are regarded with suspicion, for it is the literate, numerate individual who may use precisely these skills to defraud less educated fellows

Adaptive intelligence applied to numerical optimisation

The article presents modification strategies theoretical comparison and experimental results achieved by adaptive heuristics applied to numerical optimisation of several non-constraint test functions. The aims of the study are to identify and compare how adaptive search heuristics behave within heterogeneous search space without retuning of the search parameters. The achieved results are summarised and analysed, which could be used for comparison to other methods and further investigation

Perancangan Rebranding Pj Collection Kub Mampu Jaya

Penutupan lokalisasi pada tahun 2014 membuat gang dolly kini menjadi mati. Kelompok UsahaBersama (KUB) Mampu Jaya merupakan Usaha Kecil Menengah (UKM) di gang dolly yang memproduksisepatu dan sandal dengan brand PJ Collection atau Putat Jaya Collection. Supaya produknya bisa lebih dikenaloleh masyarakat luas dengan keunggulan produk yang dimiliki, dilakukan sebuah rebranding agar PJ Collectionmemiliki inovasi sebuah produk melalui gerakan Showlidarity (Show your Solidarity). Inovasi dilakukandimulai dengan kegiatan pembinaan dan pelatihan agar produk yang dihasilkan menjadi lebih baik dan lebih rapiyang kemudian dilanjutkan dengan kegiatan promosi dan pemasaran produk

Evaluation of maxillary incisor true intrusion – A comparison between mini-implants and Conventional mechanics

INTRODUCTION : Recently mini-implants are being used to provide anchorage during orthodontic treatment. In this study comparison of true intrusion of incisors with mini-implants and conventional mechanics is evaluated . METHOD : A proposed sample size of 15 patients for mini-implants anchorage and 15 patients for conventional mechanics is taken. Lateral cephalometric pre-treatment and post-treatment radiographs were analysed . RESULTS : The utility arch group and the mini-implant group individually showed significant amount of intrusion and the intergroup comparison showed that there was no significant (p>0.05) difference between the two groups in the quantum of intrusion achieved. There was mild proclination in the implant group .There was mild retroclination in the utility arch group. There was no molar movement in the implant group. There was mild mesialization and extrusion of molars in the utility arch group, but it was not significant

Advances in understanding large-scale responses of the water cycle to climate change

Globally, thermodynamics explains an increase in atmospheric water vapor with warming of around 7%/°C near to the surface. In contrast, global precipitation and evaporation are constrained by the Earth's energy balance to increase at ∼2–3%/°C. However, this rate of increase is suppressed by rapid atmospheric adjustments in response to greenhouse gases and absorbing aerosols that directly alter the atmospheric energy budget. Rapid adjustments to forcings, cooling effects from scattering aerosol, and observational uncertainty can explain why observed global precipitation responses are currently difficult to detect but are expected to emerge and accelerate as warming increases and aerosol forcing diminishes. Precipitation increases with warming are expected to be smaller over land than ocean due to limitations on moisture convergence, exacerbated by feedbacks and affected by rapid adjustments. Thermodynamic increases in atmospheric moisture fluxes amplify wet and dry events, driving an intensification of precipitation extremes. The rate of intensification can deviate from a simple thermodynamic response due to in‐storm and larger‐scale feedback processes, while changes in large‐scale dynamics and catchment characteristics further modulate the frequency of flooding in response to precipitation increases. Changes in atmospheric circulation in response to radiative forcing and evolving surface temperature patterns are capable of dominating water cycle changes in some regions. Moreover, the direct impact of human activities on the water cycle through water abstraction, irrigation, and land use change is already a significant component of regional water cycle change and is expected to further increase in importance as water demand grows with global population

Lanzones Production and Marketing in Laguna, Philippines: Current Practices, Challenges, and Prospects

The province of Laguna in the Philippines has been a major producer of lanzones. The study was conducted to present the profile of the players in the lanzones industry, describe and assess the current performance of the industry, identify problems as well as investment opportunities and recommend possible solutions for the local lanzones industry. Data gathering involved conducting interviews via a survey of 172 lanzones farmers and 30 lanzones traders selected using stratified random sampling and secondary data collection. Results showed that lanzones farmers practice intercropping in view of the crop’s seasonality and better profitability. Challenges include the onslaught of typhoons, fluctuating temperature and pests and diseases. Prospects include the presence of hardy foreign varieties such as ‘duku’ or ‘longkong’ and macrosomatic cloning to boost production. Using new technologies, farmer participation in seminars, intercropping with rambutan and putting up a demo farm for macrosomatic cloning are among the proposed recommendations

Adolescent Cannabinoid and Nicotine Exposure Differentially Alters Adult Nicotine Self-Administration in Males and Females.

IntroductionDuring adolescence, exposure to nicotine or cannabis independently induces effects on neuromaturation and later cognitive function. However, the potential effect of both drugs under co-use conditions has become of increasing concern given the prevalence of e-cigarettes, legalization of cannabis, and availability of synthetic "spice" cannabinoid agonists.Aims and methodsThe current studies investigated the effects of exposure to a cannabinoid receptor agonist (WIN55,212-2) and/or nicotine over a discrete time period in mid-adolescence on later intravenous nicotine self-administration in adult male and female mice. We further examined whether cannabinoid agonist administration in adulthood would alter nicotine reinforcement, with either acute or chronic pairing across 7 days.ResultsWe found that adult males exhibited increased nicotine self-administration at a lower, rewarding nicotine dose following adolescent cannabinoid exposure, either alone or with nicotine coadministration. In contrast, adult females demonstrated an opposing effect in which adolescent cannabinoid and nicotine coexposure resulted in decreased nicotine intake compared with the nicotine only and control groups. Furthermore, after maintaining nicotine self-administration across sessions, pretreatment with a low dose of the cannabinoid agonist decreased nicotine intake in both male and female control mice, and this lowering effect was evidenced after both acute and chronic treatment. However, the cannabinoid agonist was ineffective in altering nicotine intake in mice previously exposed to nicotine, cannabinoid agonist, or both during adolescence.ConclusionsThese data provide evidence that adolescent drug exposure can alter later nicotine reinforcement in a sex-specific manner and can further modulate the effectiveness of interventions in reducing nicotine intake during adulthood.ImplicationsThese studies demonstrate a significant impact of nicotine, cannabinoids, or coexposure on developmental processes during adolescence. Differential effects were observed within each sex, with opposing results found for cannabinoid exposure on nicotine intake in males and females. Intriguingly, we also evidenced resistance to the lowering effects of a cannabinoid agonist on nicotine intake in adulthood based on adolescent drug exposure. Thus, these findings have important implications for our understanding of the impact of nicotine and cannabinoids (eg, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and synthetic "spice" cannabinoids) during development, with further implications for the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions based on prior drug exposure in youth

Adaption of Operator Probabilities in Genetic Programming

Abstract. In this work we tried to reduce the number of free parameters within Genetic Programming without reducing the quality of the results. We developed three new methods to adapt the probabilities, different genetic operators are applied with. Using two problems from the areas of symbolic regression and classification we showed that the results in these cases were better than randomly chosen parameter sets and could compete with parameter sets chosen with empirical knowledge.

Lung Cancer in a U.S. Population with Low to Moderate Arsenic Exposure

BackgroundLittle is known about the carcinogenic potential of arsenic in areas with low to moderate concentrations of arsenic (< 100 microg/L) in drinking water.ObjectivesWe examined associations between arsenic and lung cancer.MethodsA population-based case-control study of primary incident lung cancer was conducted in 10 counties in two U.S. states, New Hampshire and Vermont. The study included 223 lung cancer cases and 238 controls, each of whom provided toenail clippings for arsenic exposure measurement by inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) of the association between arsenic exposure and lung cancer using unconditional logistic regression with adjustment for potential confounders (age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking pack-years, education, body mass index, fish servings per week, and toenail selenium level).ResultsArsenic exposure was associated with small-cell and squamous-cell carcinoma of the lung [OR = 2.75; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.00-7.57] for toenail arsenic concentration > or = 0.114 microg/g, versus < 0.05 microg/g. A history of lung disease (bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or fibrosis) was positively associated with lung cancer (OR = 2.86; 95% CI, 1.39-5.91). We also observed an elevated risk of lung cancer among participants with a history of lung disease and toenail arsenic > or = 0.05 microg/g (OR = 4.78; 95% CI, 1.87-12.2) than among individuals with low toenail arsenic and no history of lung disease.ConclusionAlthough this study supports the possibility of an increased risk of specific lung cancer histologic types at lower levels of arsenic exposure, we recommend large-scale population-based studies