Investigating corruption charges against womenheads of government

Much of the scholarship on gender and corruption suggests that women in political oÿce are less corrupt than men. However, in just the past five years, corruption accusations against women heads of government, including Brazil’s Dilma Rousse˙ and South Korea’s Park Geun-hye, have made headlines and led to their impeachment. In this article, we examine whether women heads of government are more likely to be charged with corruption and the process by which these charges are levied. Using cross-national data, including recently-available indicators, we first demonstrate that women are significantly more likely to be formally accused of corruption. We then explore the cases of Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and Brazilian President Dilma Rousse˙ to show that while women heads of government are taxed for perceived role incongruity, the logic and eÿcacy of corruption charges is also associated with the belief that women do not belong in the political sphere and are inherently agents of subversion. These findings make a substantial contribution to the literature on gender, leadership, and politics and corruption

Tactical Generator Monitoring System

When a reliable grid connection is unavailable, the military uses diesel generators as the primary source of electrical energy in tactical operating centers. While the generators run most efficiently at 70-100% of rated capacity, a recent study showed them to often be running at 10-20% of rated capacity. Suboptimal operation decreases fuel efficiency, increases emissions, and increases maintenance requirements due to wet stacking. The problem is created by a lack of training on proper load sizing techniques by operators and minimal information on power demand profiles. Due to the tactical implications of these posts, the demand profile poses a unique set of difficulties. To solve the problem, a tactical generator monitoring system has been developed to assist on the generator sizing requirements based on ISO 8528 regarding optimal diesel generator operation. The prototype developed consists of voltage and current transducers, a microprocessor, nonvolatile memory for logging data, and an interactive LCD readout. The LCD displays real-time readings of voltage, current, and power, basic load profile analysis, and the recommended generator size for the given application. Based on the recommended size, the operator can increase/decrease load as possible or use a more appropriately sized generator with no additional information on power demand or training on load sizing techniques. More detailed information is logged in nonvolatile memory for offline analysis

Emulation of Anomalies for Wide-Area Monitoring, Protection and Control Systems Development

For security and stability in smart grid development, identification and reactions to external factors are emphasized through Wide-Area Monitoring Protection and Control (WAMPAC) systems. Anomaly detection and identification are critical to establishing a responsive, controllable grid architecture. In testing anomaly-detection algorithms for WAMPAC applications, there should be a benchmarking process for detection of anomalies and evaluating WAMPAC performance in the presence of anomalies. The ability to create, or emulate, anomalies within a testing environment of WAMPAC systems is a step towards achieving this capability. In this paper, the development and implementation of a software-controlled Anomaly and Fault Generator (AFG) into a 1000:1 scale emulated smart grid testbed is presented. The testbed uses Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) for high accuracy, fidelity, and time synchronization of measurements. The AFG induces controlled faults and anomalous events into the system to evaluate the performance of anomaly detection systems and WAMPAC applications. System events include stolen breakers, electrical faults with variable fault resistance, and hijacking of transducers. High sample-rate, time-synchronized, measurements are also logged by the AFG to compare to WAMPAC system results

Test–Retest Reliability of Microlinguistic Information Derived From Spoken Discourse in Persons With Chronic Aphasia

Purpose: Characterize test-retest reliability of discourse measures across a battery of common tasks in individuals with aphasia and prospectively matched adults without brain damage. Methods: We collected spoken discourse during five monologue tasks at two time-points (test and retest; within two weeks apart) in an Aphasia group (N=23) and non-brain-damaged peer group (“NBD” group; N=24). We evaluated test-retest reliability for: percentage of correct information units, correct information units per minute, mean length of utterance, verbs per utterance, noun/verb ratio, open/closed class word ratio, tokens, sample duration (seconds), propositional idea density, type-token ratio, and words per minute. We explored reliability’s relationship with sample length and aphasia severity. Results: Rater reliability was excellent. Across tasks, both groups demonstrated discourse measures with poor, moderate, and good reliability, with the Aphasia group having measures demonstrating excellent test-retest reliability. When evaluating measures within each task, test-retest reliability again ranged from poor-to-excellent for both groups. Across groups and task, measures that appeared most reliable appeared to reflect lexical, informativeness, or fluency information. Sample length and aphasia severity impacted reliability, and this differed across and by task. Conclusions: We identified several discourse measures that were reliable across and within tasks. Test-retest statistics are intimately linked to the specific sample, emphasizing the importance of multiple baseline studies. Task itself should be considered an important variable, and it should not be assumed that discourse measures found to be reliable across several tasks (averaged) are likewise reliable for a single task

Use of exogenous Xylanase for improvement of nutrient digestibility in broiler chicks

Due to consumers growing concern of the use of antimicrobials on livestock, the industry is working towards finding alternatives. Antimicrobials not only provide protection against bacterial infection but also help with nutrient digestibility. Exogenous xylanase is an enzyme that is known to improve nutrient digestibility in high fiber diets. However, there is no knowledge if exogenous xylanase can be used as a replacement for antimicrobials such as monensin sodium. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to evaluate if xylanase can replace monensin sodium to improve nutrient digestibility, and if this impact differs based on the fiber level of the diet. A total of 216 Cobb 1-d-old chicks were fed 1 of 6 dietary treatments ad libitum in battery cages containing 6 birds per cage for 21 days. All 6 treatments were corn or wheat based formulated with either 0.10 g/kg monensin sodium (Coban 90; Elanco Animal Health, Greenfield, IN) or 16,000 betaxlylanse units/kg beta 1-4, endo-xylanase enzyme (Econase XT; AB Vista, Marlborough, UK). The two positive control diets consisted of corn plus monensin sodium and wheat plus monensin sodium. Neither of the positive control diets contained xylanase. The two negative control diets consisted of just corn and just wheat. Niether of the negative control diets contained monensin sodium or xylanase. The experimental diets consisted of corn plus xylanase and wheat plus xylanase. Neither of the experimental diets contained monensin sodium. Treatment impacted (P 0.05) FCR compared to the corn-based control. In wheat-based diets, xylanase (P 0.05) improved FCR compared to the wheat-based control. In conclusion, this research suggests that xylanase improves carbohydrate digestibility in wheat-based diets, restoring FCR to that of corn-based diets. However, further research would need to be conducted to test its impact on bacterial prevention. Xylanase is not formulated to be an antimicrobial but can be tested in a floor-pen setting to see if there is an overall significant difference in health compared to birds being fed monensin sodium

Integrating historical and real-time anomaly detection to create a more resilient smart grid architecture: poster

Ensuring the security of the power grid is critical for national interests and necessitates new ways to detect power anomalies and respond to potential failures. In this poster, we describe our efforts to develop and optimize analysis methodologies for a 1000 : 1 scale emulated smart grid at the United States Military Academy [2]. In contrast to previous work [3, 4], we explore historical analysis using Apache Spark [5] and integrate a Raspberry Pi into our testbed for real-time anomaly detection. We also implement a software controlled physical event and fault generator to induce and measure faults. Figure 1 gives an overview of our system