Migration and its consequences in 21st century Europe

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Why we don't have to believe without doubting in the "Second Demographic Transition" - some agnostic comments.

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Demographic diversity and the ethnic consequences of immigration - key issues that the Commission's report left out

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The Netherlands:Paradigm or Exception in Western Europe’s Demography?

This article reviews the position of the population of the Netherlands in the context of the demographic characteristics of the other seventeen major Western European countries. It attempts to show the ways in which the population of the Netherlands is part of the European mainstream and where it diverges in various interesting ways. Where possible, a (partial) explanation for this divergence will be given.childbearing, demographic comparison, dependency, ethnic minorities, Europe, fertility, immigration, late childbearing, mortality, Netherlands, population density, teenage fertility, Western Europe

Anthem Sustainability Project

Data centers are multiplying in number and size as electronic business, communication, collaboration, and recreation continue to increase in popularity. A large amount of electrical power consumed by data center computing equipment is converted to heat, requiring dedicated cooling systems 24 hours a day. Some data center operators have begun taking advantage of this heat instead of expelling it to the atmosphere. This approach not only reduces the electricity costs of these facilities but also minimizes the environmental impact they generate. Anthem has a 2.5 MW data center for which they would like to develop an air-to-air thermal recycle method. Through research of data center cooling and existing thermal recycling methods, an applicable solution has been identified. Air Dumping consists of directly injecting warm server exhaust air into a conditioned space as supplementary heating input during winter months using a fan-powered box (FPB) located within the ceiling of the data center. In order to retain data center pressurization and mass flow of cooling air, replacement (make-up) air must be supplied to the ceiling plenum at a rate equal to the extraction. By replacing warm 90°F server exhaust with cool 60°F make-up air, computer room air handling (CRAH) unit cooling loads will decrease, resulting in additional savings. During the warm months of the year, the team evaluated other potential uses of waste heat, such as thermoelectric power generation.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1200/thumbnail.jp

Pittsburgh's Failed Industry Targeting Strategy of the 1960s

In the 1960's and early 1970's, public and private leaders made a substantial effort to promote Pittsburgh's existing transportation industry as a center for the emerging urban transportation market. The selection of the rapid transit industry for targeting in the 1960's purportedly addressed two issues. Despite national acclaim for its Renaissance redevelopment since World War II, the metropolitan region still needed an effective mass transportation system. Moreover, industrial development efforts had not substantially diversified the region's manufacturing base that still specialized in primary metals. Operating in the region's Renaissance tradition of a public and private partnership, corporate executives and public officials pursued a three-pronged strategy: build an innovative rapid transportation system for Allegheny County, use it as a showcase for testing and marketing rapid transit hardware of regional corporations, and promote the city as a center of the rapid transportation industry. They settled on Westinghouse's automated, rubber-tired vehicle running on a separate cement guideway, known locally as "Skybus," for the demonstration project and the region's mass transit solution. The mass transit plan and industry targeting strategy foundered by the early 1970's because leadership weakened in both poles of the partnership. The Westinghouse technology divided the corporate community, while populist political sentiment diminished the ability of the Democratic party's political machine to deliver key public decisions. The Pittsburgh case suggests that a successful industry targeting strategy may depend more on effective leadership and local politics than on the quality of the selection process and vigorous pursuit of traditional economic development programs in support of the targeted industry

Effects of low incubation temperatures on the bactericidal activity of anti-tuberculosis drugs

OBJECTIVES: to explore the effect of low incubation temperatures and the consequent slowing of bacterial metabolism on the bactericidal action of anti-tuberculosis drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. METHODS: counting of surviving bacteria during exposure of static cultures to 1 mg/L isoniazid, 2 mg/L rifampicin, 0.5 or 2 mg/L TMC207 and 40 or 160 mg/L pyrazinamide, usually for periods of 21 days at temperatures of 37, 25, 22, 19, 16 or 8°C. RESULTS: the bactericidal activities of isoniazid and rifampicin were progressively reduced at 25 and 22°C, and were minimal at lower temperatures. TMC207 was immediately bactericidal at 37°C, in contrast to the early static phase reported with log phase cultures, and showed less change in activity as incubation temperatures were reduced than did rifampicin or isoniazid. Pyrazinamide was more bactericidal when incubation temperatures were reduced below 37°C and when the static seed cultures were most dormant. CONCLUSIONS: these results can be explained by the surmise that at low temperatures bacterial energy is at a low level with only just sufficient ATP to maintain homeostasis, making the bacteria more susceptible to the blocking of ATP synthesis by TMC207. Insufficient ATP at low temperature would also hinder the export of pyrazinoic acid, the toxic product of the pro-drug pyrazinamide, from the mycobacterial cell by an inefficient efflux pump that requires energ

Reducing the Barrier to Entry of Complex Robotic Software: a MoveIt! Case Study

Developing robot agnostic software frameworks involves synthesizing the disparate fields of robotic theory and software engineering while simultaneously accounting for a large variability in hardware designs and control paradigms. As the capabilities of robotic software frameworks increase, the setup difficulty and learning curve for new users also increase. If the entry barriers for configuring and using the software on robots is too high, even the most powerful of frameworks are useless. A growing need exists in robotic software engineering to aid users in getting started with, and customizing, the software framework as necessary for particular robotic applications. In this paper a case study is presented for the best practices found for lowering the barrier of entry in the MoveIt! framework, an open-source tool for mobile manipulation in ROS, that allows users to 1) quickly get basic motion planning functionality with minimal initial setup, 2) automate its configuration and optimization, and 3) easily customize its components. A graphical interface that assists the user in configuring MoveIt! is the cornerstone of our approach, coupled with the use of an existing standardized robot model for input, automatically generated robot-specific configuration files, and a plugin-based architecture for extensibility. These best practices are summarized into a set of barrier to entry design principles applicable to other robotic software. The approaches for lowering the entry barrier are evaluated by usage statistics, a user survey, and compared against our design objectives for their effectiveness to users

The making of multilateralist germany implications for US-german bilateral relations

“Em Novembro de 1989, o mundo assistia extasiado à queda do muro de Berlim. O simbolismo do acontecimento não se perdeu à medida que alemães orientais e ocidentais quebravam a materialização em cimento do que Winston Churchill anos antes chamara a “Cortina de Ferro”. A queda do muro de Berlim e consequente processo de reunificação, acompanhado pelo fim das divisões da Guerra Fria que rodeavam a Europa, criou mudanças tectónicas na geopolítica global. O processo de reunificação alemão, acompanhado por um espírito internacional de cooperação e optimismo, pendendo para a euforia, forneceu um modelo inspirador de diplomacia positiva e popular autodeterminação trabalhando conjuntamente para um bem comum – era uma diplomacia por excelência. Diplomatas e políticos em Washington, Moscovo, Londres e Paris lutaram para manter os acontecimentos pacíficos na Europa central e todo o processo de reunificação foi marcado por um espírito notável de internacionalismo; (...) Esse espírito de colaboração transatlântica contrasta com a situação uma década e meia mais tarde. Desde do final de 2002, muito foi feito no cada vez maior distanciamento cultural e político entre EUA e Europa. Este distanciamento assenta firmemente onde política externa e valores culturais convergem. O historiador britânico Timothy Garton Ash chamou-lhe “a crise do ocidente, a mais profunda desde do fim da Guerra Fria”

Patterns of population location in Auckland

This paper uses spatial statistical techniques to examine the economic determinants of residential location patterns in Auckland in 2006. The primary empirical focus of this paper is descriptive. We seek to establish the extent to which there are identifiable population subgroups that cluster together within the Auckland Urban Area, and further, to ascertain where these groups mainly live. It confirms previous findings of strong ethnic clustering and identifies clustering by qualification, income, and country of birth. It examines the interaction between incomes, land prices, and population density, and the relationship of land price with access to selected locational amenities.Residential location choice; local amenities; residential sorting