Pathways to gender equality? Implications of the interface between UNIFEM and the MDGs

The United Nation\u27s Millennium Development Goals were implemented in the year 2000 in efforts to re-energize social development initiatives on a global scale. As a UN organization, UNIFEM has an obligation to integrate this new framework for development into their current mandate, regardless of whether or not it is perceived as useful to UNIFEM\u27s goals and activities. This study explores the nature of the relationship between UNIFEM and the MDGs, and questions the implications this interface has on the construction of pathways to achieving gender equality and women\u27s empowerment. My findings suggest that over time, UNIFEM operates more like the bureaucratic organization of the UN, and less like a social movement organization many feminists expect it to be. This indicates a narrowing of the possibilities imaginable for the futures of women on the part of UNIFEM

Prevalence of type R virus-like particles in clones of BHK-21 cells

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32926/1/0000308.pd

Oral Communication in High School

While high school students have received formal instruction in reading and writing, few have received much formal instruction in speaking and listening skills; this paper supports the call for required courses in oral communication. In recent years, the need for instruction in oral communication has been emphasized in numerous reports on the direction of education, although it has been underemphasized in many of our schools. This paper presents research on the need for and benefits of oral communication. The pilot case study included 29 faculty members, 92 students at a small (500 students) urban high school in Michigan, and 21 area high schools to determine perceived oral communication skills and levels of speaking apprehension, course benefits, teacher preparation, and oral communication curriculum of other schools

Dynamic Task Allocation In Mobile Robot Systems Using Utility Funtions

We define a novel algorithm based on utility functions for dynamically allocating tasks to mobile robots in a multi-robot system. The algorithm attempts to maximize the performance of the mobile robot while minimizing inter-robot communications. The algorithm takes into consideration the proximity of the mobile robot to the task, the priority of the task, the capability required by the task, the capabilities of the mobile robot, and the rarity of the capability within the population of mobile robots. We evaluate the proposed algorithm in a simulation study and compare it to alternative approaches, including the contract net protocol, an approach based on the knapsack problem, and random task selection. We find that our algorithm outperforms the alternatives in most metrics measured including percent of tasks complete, distance traveled per completed task, fairness of execution, number of communications, and utility achieved

On the Decentralized Capital Budgeting Problem under Uncertainty

This paper deals with decentralized capital budgeting problems when decision objectives are not necessarily identical with those of corporate headquarters. This paper extends previous analysis of this problem to the case where (i) the cash flows resulting from managerial actions are uncertain, (ii) division managers have nonlinear utility functions which differ from those of top management with respect to risk aversion and (iii) resource constraints may be nonlinear. Several realistic considerations arise in this context which were absent in previous analyses. First, because the division managers' utility functions reflect differing attitudes toward risk, top management has the opportunity to share some business risk with the division managers. We recommend a transfer pricing scheme that accounts for this possibility. Second, if the transfer prices for capital resources are state-dependent and the division managers make their investment decisions before the state of nature is revealed, the division managers will want to hedge against the additional uncertainty caused by this aspect of the problem. Despite the static nature of the analysis this paper raises the interesting problem of information flow within the firm and suggests ways to motivate division managers to act in the best interest of the firm. The transfer pricing algorithm has additional interesting applications.finance: capital budgeting, finance: management

Entry auctions and strategic behavior under cross-market price constraints

We examine how universal service provisions and price restrictions across markets impact strategic entry and pricing. We develop a simple multi-market model with an oligopolistic (profitable) urban market and entry auctions for (unprofitable) rural service. Cross-market price restrictions induce a firm operating in both markets to become a 'softer' competitor, thus placing the firm at a strategic disadvantage. When we account for entry incentives and strategic bidding, the downstream strategic disadvantage becomes advantageous, leading to higher prices and profits. Price restrictions may also put outside firms, even relatively inefficient ones, at a strategic advantage. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Capital Budgeting in the Decentralized Firm

In this paper we analyze the capital budgeting problem of an organization which contains a central headquarters and K divisions. The headquarters serves as the planner-coordinator of the capital budgeting process and is the only member of the organization which has access to the external capital markets. The K divisions make decisions regarding the set of capital projects each wants to accept. The capital budgeting problem of this decentralized organization is solved and analyzed with the aid of an algorithm based on mathematical decomposition. It is shown that (i) the decomposition algorithm does indeed converge to an optimal corporate solution, (ii) under reasonable assumptions, the marginal rate of return on the last dollar spent is the same for each division and is equal to the corporate headquarters' "cost of capital," (iii) in some circumstances, the decomposition model will only select integral projects, and (iv) the optimal choice of projects for the firm is made independently by the divisions, each acting in its own self-interest. This last feature of the capital budgeting model suggests that the firm may be able to achieve the informational economies usually associated with a decentralized organization structure.