“The Rock of Accomplishment”: The Loyal Edmonton Regiment at Ortona

The struggle for Ortona is one of the best known battles fought by Canadians in the Second World War. Matthew Halton, the CBC’s chief radio correspondent in Italy, made “Moro River” and “Ortona” household words in 1943 and since then veterans as well as war correspondents and historians have offered numerous accounts of that December in Abruzzi. This article focuses on the role of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment in clearing the town of Ortona, but it is important to remind ourselves of the context within which the battle was fought. The Allies had invaded the Italian mainland to force Italy out of the war, to establish air bases for the strategic bombers, and to draw off the maximum number of German troops. Hitler’s decision to stand south of Rome was all that sensible Allied planners could have hoped for. The Foggia plains were suitable for air bases and the Germans poured resources into Italy to meet the Allied advance and into the Balkans to replace the Italian Army

The Value of Information in Multi-Objective Missions

In many multi-objective missions there are situations when actions based on maximum information gain may not be the `best' given the overall mission objectives. In addition to properties such as entropy, information also has value, which is situationally dependent. This thesis examines the concept of information value in a multi-objective mission from an information theory perspective. A derivation of information value is presented that considers both the context of information, via a fused world belief state, and a system mission. The derived information value is used as part of the objective function for control of autonomous platforms within a framework developed for human robot cooperative control. A simulated security operation in a structured environment is implemented to test both the framework, and information value based control. The simulation involves a system of heterogeneous, sensor equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), tasked with gathering information regarding ground vehicles. The UAVs support an e ort to protect a number of important buildings in the area of operation. Thus, the purpose of the information is to aid the security operation by ensuring that security forces can deploy e ciently to counter any threat. A number of di erent local controllers using information based control are implemented and compared to a task based control scheme. The relative performance of each is examined with respect to a number of performance metrics with conclusions drawn regarding the performance and exibility of information value based control

Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling of the factor structure of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE)

The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) is a multiple dimensional measure of cognitive empathy [comprising primary factors for perspective taking (PT), online simulation (OS)], and affective empathy [comprising primary factors for emotion contagion (EC), proximal responsivity (PRO), and peripheral responsivity (PER)]. This study used independent clusters confirmatory factor analysis (ICM-CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) to examine the scale’s factor structure. A general community sample of 203 (men = 43, women = 160) between 17 and 63 years completed the QCAE. Although both the five-factor oblique and second order factor models showed good model fit, and clarity in the pattern of factor loadings, in the second-order factor model, none of the primary factors loaded significantly on their respective secondary factors, thereby favoring the five-factor oblique model. The factors in this model were supported in terms of external validity. Despite this, the factor for PRO in this model showed low reliability for meaning interpretation. A revised four-factor oblique model without the PRO factor showed good fit, clarity in the pattern of factor loadings, and reliability and validity for the factors in this model, thereby suggesting this to be the best model to represent ratings on the QCAE. Copyright: © 2022 Gomez et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Resilient infrastructure networks :managing the impacts of disruptive events on resource movements

Phd ThesisInterdependencies between infrastructures which enable the flow resources have the potential to increase the vulnerability of interconnected systems of supply chains to disruption via cascading mechanisms. These interactions are poorly understood as there are limited observations whilst the movement of resources can occur at many spatial scales. It is a complex problem because of both the number of components and the dynamic nature of the systems that allow these to move around. To analyse the disruption of resource flows within interdependent systems, this paper introduces a resource model that pulls together two established modelling methodologies: input-output modelling and network analysis. Data on supply, demand and flows are typically only provided at coarse spatial scales, so an important development was the disaggregation of regional economic input-output data into smaller spatial units. The model was tested using a case study of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. It was found, when flood defences were taken into account, the level of risk from storm surges of various magnitudes was low. The model was able to highlight unknown linkages and reaffirm an increase in vulnerability caused by Just-in-time management strategies and the clustering of like industries. As part of this a flood risk analysis technique was presented which highlighted the potential impacts of floods of varying magnitudes, as well how the flood protection affected the levels of risk caused by these events. A second case study of the food distribution network in New York was also developed to provide validation through the recreation of the effects post Tropical Storm Sandy. The research provided a rationale for an encouragement of a move away from just-in-time production to take place and halt the fashion of making supply chains leaner. It also encouraged an increase in cooperation to take place between companies to understand the vulnerabilities within their own supply chains

Accounting Hall of Fame 2000 induction: Shaun F. O\u27Malley

For the induction of Shaun f. O\u27Malley: Remarks by Robert L. Brown, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Citation prepared by Daniel L. Jensen, The Ohio State University, read by Robert L. Brown, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Response by Shaun f. O\u27Malley, PricewaterhouseCooper

Effect of Temperature and Water Potential on Sprout Vigor of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Seed Tuber

A study was conducted to examine sprouting on potato seed tuber over a range ofdifferent temperature and moisture conditions. The Experiment was conducted under controlledenvironment conditions using a Terratec thermo-gradient table at the School of AgriculturalScience, University of Tasmania. The trial involved exposing seed tubers cv. Russet Burbank(grade 40-60 g) sourced from one seed lot to three water potentials (-0.6 MPa, -0.02 MPa and-0.01 MPa) at each of four different temperatures (10, 15, 20 and 25 °C). The growth mediumused in the trial was vermiculite (Grade 2, Australian vermiculite and Perlite Co-P/L). Thewater potential treatments were prepared based on the relationship of water content and waterpotential by Whalley et al. (2001). Four seed tubers were planted in each container filled withgrowth medium at a 10 cm depth and covered by the growth medium before the containerswere resealed. Using a pseudo replication design with temperature as the block, the moisturetreatments were randomized within each temperature treatment with two replicate containersfor each treatment combination. The design therefore provided a total of 8 tubers for eachtemperature and water potential combination, and a total of 24 treatment combinationsoverall. An analysis of variance and least significant difference (LSD) procedure using SPSSfor windows version 14.0 was performed to determine the response of the tuber seeds totemperature and moisture. Temperature and moisture significantly affected sprout growthrate, assessed as the sprouting capacity of the tubers (FW sprouts per FW tubers). Sproutingcapacity of seed tubers increased with increasing temperature and water potential. Therewas a significant interaction between temperature and moisture treatments on the sproutingcapacity (p<0.05). The differences between water potential treatments were greater at highertemperature, with differences between sprouting capacity of tubers exposed to dry and wetconditions particularly evident at temperatures of 20 and 25 ºC. Relation between the resultand risk in plant response to warmer climate as an impact of global warming is discussed

Network analyses of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms in children

Based on parent and teacher ratings of their children, this study used regularized partial correlation network analysis (EBIC glasso) to examine the structure of DSM-5 Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) symptoms. Parent and teachers (N = 934) from the general community in Malaysia completed questionnaires covering DSM-5 ODD symptoms. The most central ODD symptom for parent ratings was anger, followed by argue. For teacher ratings, it was anger, followed by defy. For both parent and teacher ratings, the networks revealed at least medium effect size connections for temper and argue, defy, and argue, blames others, and annoy, and spiteful and angry. Overall, the findings were highly comparable across parent and teacher ratings, and they showed a novel understanding of the structure of the ODD symptoms. The clinical implications of the findings for assessment and treatment of ODD are discussed