The United Nations in Cambodia and El Salvador: Promoter of peace or accessory to revolution?

Under the right conditions, flawed U.N. interventions can actually help to increase the potential for revolution. Looking at relatively homogeneous nation-states in particular, this revolutionary potential is highest when there is a conjuncture of the following elements: crisis of state resources, elite alienation and division, mass mobilization potential and an effective revolutionary movement. In countries with rigid and underdeveloped political and economic institutions, fundamental and rapid forces of change can accelerate the society toward this revolutionary situation (i.e. conjuncture of elements). The findings of this thesis suggest that a large-scale U.N. peacekeeping operation, improperly conceived and implemented, can become such a force of revolutionary conjuncture. This is especially true with missions that exhibit the following characteristics: (1) poorly trained personnel; (2) inappropriate national contingents; (3) deployment delays; (4) poor mandate enforcement; (5) large-scale misconduct of personnel; (6) compromised neutrality; and (7) ineffective command and control capabilities. These conclusions are developed through a comparison, between March 1992 and March 1993, of U.N. peacekeeping missions and the two state-focused elements of a revolutionary situation--crisis of state resources and elite alienation and division--within El Salvador and Cambodia. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1993 .W449. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 32-06, page: 1562. Adviser: David Wurfel. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1993

Large-scale optimization with the primal-dual column generation method

The primal-dual column generation method (PDCGM) is a general-purpose column generation technique that relies on the primal-dual interior point method to solve the restricted master problems. The use of this interior point method variant allows to obtain suboptimal and well-centered dual solutions which naturally stabilizes the column generation. As recently presented in the literature, reductions in the number of calls to the oracle and in the CPU times are typically observed when compared to the standard column generation, which relies on extreme optimal dual solutions. However, these results are based on relatively small problems obtained from linear relaxations of combinatorial applications. In this paper, we investigate the behaviour of the PDCGM in a broader context, namely when solving large-scale convex optimization problems. We have selected applications that arise in important real-life contexts such as data analysis (multiple kernel learning problem), decision-making under uncertainty (two-stage stochastic programming problems) and telecommunication and transportation networks (multicommodity network flow problem). In the numerical experiments, we use publicly available benchmark instances to compare the performance of the PDCGM against recent results for different methods presented in the literature, which were the best available results to date. The analysis of these results suggests that the PDCGM offers an attractive alternative over specialized methods since it remains competitive in terms of number of iterations and CPU times even for large-scale optimization problems.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, minor revision, scaled CPU time

Technology and strategy roadmap development for connecting residential areas to district heating

By 2050, the Netherlands aims to achieve a climate-neutral society, however over 90% of buildings currently use natural gas or fossil fuel oil as their main resource of energy. To align with this goal, the Dutch energy company is taking measures to phase out natural gas and promote district heating. This research outlines a strategic path for the energy company to connect existing residential areas to district heating, utilizing a combination of roadmapping and the double diamond process model.The initial phase involved stakeholder and competitor analysis, along with qualitative research through interviews with the energy company employees. Housing categories were established and prioritized, while the identified problems were refined. Additional interviews were conducted to look into the desirability of the to be developed solution. The subsequent phase involved individual brainstorming and various workshops, utilizing different methods to select and further develop the most promising solutions. Roadmaps were created, outlining strategic directions and required activities. Simultaneously, a future vision is formulated through strategic trend scanning and clustering, providing a long-term perspective and comprehensive understanding of the broader picture of the energy business in 2050.This study suggests the energy company to focus on five new innovations. All innovations propose the use of either new HIU’s or ways of connecting district heating to the HIU. These solutions combined have the maximum potential of connecting 67.2 percent of the buildings. Furthermore, the recommendation was made that, to meet future customer needs, the energy company should transition from their current role of organizing the energy transition to becoming a provider of knowledge and expertise.Lastly, it was found that to overcome challenges in adopting district heating, the energy company should improve their communication about their process, progress, and the benefits of district heating to the residents.Strategic Product Desig

Isolierung, Kultivierung und magnetische Separation von Vorläuferzellen aus humanem respiratorischem Epithel

EINLEITUNG: Eine Trachealrekonstruktion bedingt Komplikationen wie z.B. Infektionen und Stenosierungen durch Granulationsgewebe. Diese werden durch ein differenziertes respiratorisches Epithel, das eine mukoziliäre Clearance ermöglicht, deutlich reduziert. Die Basalzellen gelten als die Vorläuferzellen des humanen respiratorischen Epithels (HRE), d.h. sie können sich teilen und besitzen das Potenzial zur Differenzierung. Durch die magnetische Zellseparation (MACS) sollen Vorläuferzellen aus dem HRE angereichert und anschließend kultiviert werden. METHODEN: Die Conchae nasales inferiores von 80 Patienten (mittleres Alter 40 ± 14 Jahre) dienen als Zellquelle für HRE-Zellen, die mittels enzymatischen Verdaus mit Dispase II (2,4 U/ml) aus dem Gewebeverband isoliert werden. Die Kultivierung der HRE-Zellen erfolgt auf Kollagen-A-beschichteten Kulturgefäßen in serumfreiem AECG-Medium. Die Bindungsspezifität von verschiedenen extrazellulären Zellmarkern wie GSA I B4, CD44S und CD44v6 wird immunhistochemisch überprüft. Dabei erweist sich nur CD44v6 als spezifisch für Basalzellen. Die Vorläuferzellen aus dem HRE-Zellgemisch werden durch monoklonale Antikörper gegen CD44v6 und Goat-Anti-Mouse-Microbeads magnetisch konjugiert. Anschließend werden sie mittels MACS positiv selektiert. ERGEBNISSE: Die Präparation der Nasenmuscheln ergibt Einzelzellsuspensionen aus vitalen HRE-Zellen (Vitalität > 80%, n = 30). Eine Beschichtung der Kulturgefäße mit Kollagen A steigert die Adhärenz der HRE-Zellen signifikant (p 80%, n = 30). Adhesion of HRE-cells is enhanced significantly (p < 0,0145, n = 5) by coating the culture dishes with Collagen A. The kinetics of proliferation of HRE-cell-cultures can be characterized by the population doubling time (tPD = 23 ± 3h, n = 3). In the course of one month the capacity of proliferation is approximated by cell expansion (383fold, n = 6). Magnetic cell sorting results in a cell fraction (20 ± 2%, n = 5) positive for CD44v6. The separated cells are cultured on Collagen A for one week, where they all show adequate proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that CD44v6 is a specific marker for basal cells and enables the enrichment of a positive cell fraction via application of MACS. Further studies will be required to investigate the potential of such a magnetically separated population of basal cells to generate a differentiated respiratory epithelium on a tracheal prosthesis

De chirurgie van de fossa pterygopalatina

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_250873400.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotor : W. Brinkman115 p

Veranderingen in de zorg: Gevolgen voor het vastgoed en de noodzaak tot samenwerking

Inleiding ihkv conferentie Scheiden van wonen en zor

Railway disruption management with passenger-centric rescheduling

Railway networks are subjected to disruptions on a daily basis, which may make the timetable unimplementable, which in its turn may significantly influence passenger satisfaction. In practice, train dispatchers are responsible for mitigating the influence of disruptions, such as delays of trains, train cancellations, and overcrowdedness at stations. The solutions they propose are highly dependent on their experience, often resulting in low quality solutions. In addition, the disruptions must be solved in a matter of minutes, which is challenging because of the problem scale and computational complexity. Effective models and solution approaches are required to mitigate the influence of disruptions.In recent decades, railway rescheduling models have been developed to support train dispatchers and to improve rail services. A recent and promising model is the event-activity network model, which is a graph-based formulation that supports a wide variety of rescheduling measures. This thesis extends the event-activity network model by including rolling stock circulation with depot entry and exit operations to increase the practicability of the operator-centric model. In addition, a passenger-centric model is proposed by embedding detailed passenger-related factors into the operator-centric model, where the train capacity is included, and the detailed number of passengers in the railway network is calculated. Therefore, the effect of delays on passengers can be handled properly. The passenger-centric model can help minimize the number of waiting passengers on platforms to avoid overcrowding and to improve passenger satisfaction. In practice, the resulting passenger-centric mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem is hard to solve due to the introduction of binary variables for train orders, which are important for calculating the detailed number of passengers. An adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is introduced to address the complexity due to train orders and to improve the computational efficiency of the passenger-centric method. With properly designed destroy and repair operators, the ALNS algorithm can explore the solution space efficiently. Therefore, a balanced trade-off between solution time and quality can be made. Case studies are conducted based on the train lines operating between the stations of Utrecht and 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. The simulation results show that the developed model can explicitly include the number of passengers while considering the rolling stock circulation plan. Compared to directly solving an MILP problem using a commercial solver, ALNS can calculate solutions more efficiently while maintaining a high level of solution quality.Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Contro