6,902 research outputs found

    The Moral Economy and Research on Projects: neglect and relevance to social capital and competencies

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    This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of management and of projects. The paper adopts an analysis of the moral economy, which poses a conceptual challenge to the way in which management generally, and specifically concerning projects, is understood. The paper also poses an indirect methodological challenge, particularly to positivism, empiricism and some interpretative analysis.Project management and the management of projects have tended to focus upon task and function respectively, which has relegated or excluded the role of morality in relationships in both research and practice. A similar position is adopted in economics with a focus upon closed systems. The combined result is an exclusion of the moral economy. This paper argues for a theoretical reappraisal of management generally, and specifically with regard to projects, to include the moral economy. The moral economy is not only foundational to the operation of the market economy, but also contributes to its performance.The conclusion summaries the main points and makes recommendations concerning theoretical development, methodology and practice

    Multiresolution pattern recognition of small volcanos in Magellan data

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    The Magellan data is a treasure-trove for scientific analysis of venusian geology, providing far more detail than was previously available from Pioneer Venus, Venera 15/16, or ground-based radar observations. However, at this point, planetary scientists are being overwhelmed by the sheer quantities of data collected--data analysis technology has not kept pace with our ability to collect and store it. In particular, 'small-shield' volcanos (less than 20 km in diameter) are the most abundant visible geologic feature on the planet. It is estimated, based on extrapolating from previous studies and knowledge of the underlying geologic processes, that there should be on the order of 10(exp 5) to 10(exp 6) of these volcanos visible in the Magellan data. Identifying and studying these volcanos is fundamental to a proper understanding of the geologic evolution of Venus. However, locating and parameterizing them in a manual manner is very time-consuming. Hence, we have undertaken the development of techniques to partially automate this task. The goal is not the unrealistic one of total automation, but rather the development of a useful tool to aid the project scientists. The primary constraints for this particular problem are as follows: (1) the method must be reasonably robust; and (2) the method must be reasonably fast. Unlike most geological features, the small volcanos of Venus can be ascribed to a basic process that produces features with a short list of readily defined characteristics differing significantly from other surface features on Venus. For pattern recognition purposes the relevant criteria include the following: (1) a circular planimetric outline; (2) known diameter frequency distribution from preliminary studies; (3) a limited number of basic morphological shapes; and (4) the common occurrence of a single, circular summit pit at the center of the edifice

    Stratified shear flow instabilities at large Richardson numbers

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    Numerical simulations of stratified shear flow instabilities are performed in two dimensions in the Boussinesq limit. The density variation length scale is chosen to be four times smaller than the velocity variation length scale so that Holmboe or Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable modes are present depending on the choice of the global Richardson number Ri. Three different values of Ri were examined Ri =0.2, 2, 20. The flows for the three examined values are all unstable due to different modes namely: the Kelvin-Helmholtz mode for Ri=0.2, the first Holmboe mode for Ri=2, and the second Holmboe mode for Ri=20 that has been discovered recently and it is the first time that it is examined in the non-linear stage. It is found that the amplitude of the velocity perturbation of the second Holmboe mode at the non-linear stage is smaller but comparable to first Holmboe mode. The increase of the potential energy however due to the second Holmboe modes is greater than that of the first mode. The Kelvin-Helmholtz mode is larger by two orders of magnitude in kinetic energy than the Holmboe modes and about ten times larger in potential energy than the Holmboe modes. The results in this paper suggest that although mixing is suppressed at large Richardson numbers it is not negligible, and turbulent mixing processes in strongly stratified environments can not be excluded.Comment: Submitted to Physics of Fluid

    Antimicrobial susceptibility of invasive isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Ireland

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    ABSTRACTBetween January 1999 and June 2002, 646 invasive isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae were collected in Ireland. MICs of penicillin, ciprofloxacin, cefotaxime, moxifloxacin and linezolid were determined by Etest methodology. Eighty-seven (13.5%) isolates showed intermediate resistance to penicillin, while seven (1.1%) showed high-level resistance. Eighty-seven (13.5%) isolates were resistant to erythromycin, but all isolates were susceptible to cefotaxime, moxifloxacin and linezolid. The prevalence of pneumococcal isolates non-susceptible to penicillin in Ireland is worryingly high, but currently there are alternative agents available to treat invasive infection

    Small animal disease surveillance: respiratory disease 2017

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    This report focuses on surveillance for respiratory disease in companion animals. It begins with an analysis of data from 392 veterinary practices contributing to the Small Animal Veterinary Surveillance Network (SAVSNET) between January and December 2017. The following section describes canine respiratory coronavirus infections in dogs, presenting results from laboratory-confirmed cases across the country between January 2010 and December 2017. This is followed by an update on the temporal trends of three important syndromes in companion animals, namely gastroenteritis, pruritus and respiratory disease, from 2014 to 2017. A fourth section presents a brief update on Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus in companion animals. The final section summarises some recent developments pertinent to companion animal health, namely eyeworm (Thelazzia callipaeda) infestations in dogs imported to the UK and canine influenza virus in the USA and Canada

    Two-Level Atom in an Optical Parametric Oscillator: Spectra of Transmitted and Fluorescent Fields in the Weak Driving Field Limit

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    We consider the interaction of a two-level atom inside an optical parametric oscillator. In the weak driving field limit, we essentially have an atom-cavity system driven by the occasional pair of correlated photons, or weakly squeezed light. We find that we may have holes, or dips, in the spectrum of the fluorescent and transmitted light. This occurs even in the strong-coupling limit when we find holes in the vacuum-Rabi doublet. Also, spectra with a sub-natural linewidth may occur. These effects disappear for larger driving fields, unlike the spectral narrowing obtained in resonance fluorescence in a squeezed vacuum; here it is important that the squeezing parameter NN tends to zero so that the system interacts with only one correlated pair of photons at a time. We show that a previous explanation for spectral narrowing and spectral holes for incoherent scattering is not applicable in the present case, and propose a new explanation. We attribute these anomalous effects to quantum interference in the two-photon scattering of the system.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys Rev

    The nature of iron-oxygen vacancy defect centers in PbTiO3

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    The iron(III) center in ferroelectric PbTiO3 together with an oxygen vacancy forms a charged defect associate, oriented along the crystallographic c-axis. Its microscopic structure has been analyzed in detail comparing results from a semi-empirical Newman superposition model analysis based on finestructure data and from calculations using density functional theory. Both methods give evidence for a substitution of Fe3+ for Ti4+ as an acceptor center. The position of the iron ion in the ferroelectric phase is found to be similar to the B-site in the paraelectric phase. Partial charge compensation is locally provided by a directly coordinated oxygen vacancy. Using high-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction, it was verified that lead titanate remains tetragonal down to 12 K, exhibiting a c/a-ratio of 1.0721.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
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