NAPTOWN RISES: HAS A SPORTS STRATEGY REAWAKENED A SLEEPING CITY?

poster abstractDowntown Indianapolis is witnessing a dramatic resurgence. For Indian-apolis, a chance to host the 2012 Super Bowl is not only an honor, but an opportunity to rebrand itself as a “big league city” with Midwestern charm. From the building of Lucas Oil Stadium, to the expansion of the existing con-vention center and the recently completed Georgia Street corridor, to subsi-dizing the building of a soaring hotel, Indianapolis has bent itself backwards to be ‘cool’ and ‘sporty.’ Few neighborhoods boast the development that has become common downtown. This dependency on sports as a means for eco-nomic development blurs the distinction between public and private space. For our research, we target the “mile-square” as ground-zero for analyzing and observing how a sport strategy has transformed the once called “India-no-place” to “Super City.” We collected a considerable amount of information through literature reviews, site visits, mapping (ArcGIS), field trips, and in-terviews. In this poster presentation, we study how the vernacular landscape of Indianapolis has changed due to the reliance on sports as an economic development strategy. We also discuss the role of public-private partner-ships in the making of downtown development as well as the development of districts to appeal to the new ‘creative’ class. We hope that our presentation will shed light on the complex relationship between recent events and down-town redevelopment

Exploring the Effect of Professional Skills and Personality Traits to Job Performance of Employees in Automotive Corporation, Laguna, Philippines

In today’s global environment there is a competition on performances of organizations. Business organizations are seeking highly skilled professionals to be employed to achieve high performance and productivity over their competitors. This research is to determine the effects of personality traits, and professional skills on employee performance in an Automotive Corporation in the Philippines. The study is a quantitative research, and a descriptive correlation. Self-Constructed survey questionnaires were distributed to 97 employees of Automotive Corporation using convenience sampling. The statistical tools used for analyzing the results from the SPSS 22, was Pearson correlation to analyze the relationship and standard deviation and the mean for the descriptive study, and t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the difference, and in terms of predictions, linear regression was used. The study shows that the relationship between Professional Skills has a positive significant relationship with employee performance but there is no significant relationship between personality traits and employee performance, though openness was dominant with the highest mean. The study also revealed that professional skills, personality traits, and employee performance are high. Considering the sex, males had higher employee performance than females. Further results revealed that only professional skills predicted employee performance. The result of the study implies that business owners need employees that can get the job done because employee performance is critical to the overall success of the company. The study recommends that industries should bear in mind that Professional Skills, and Personality Traits of workers isessential to the success of business organizations.&nbsp

Towards Full Automated Drive in Urban Environments: A Demonstration in GoMentum Station, California

Each year, millions of motor vehicle traffic accidents all over the world cause a large number of fatalities, injuries and significant material loss. Automated Driving (AD) has potential to drastically reduce such accidents. In this work, we focus on the technical challenges that arise from AD in urban environments. We present the overall architecture of an AD system and describe in detail the perception and planning modules. The AD system, built on a modified Acura RLX, was demonstrated in a course in GoMentum Station in California. We demonstrated autonomous handling of 4 scenarios: traffic lights, cross-traffic at intersections, construction zones and pedestrians. The AD vehicle displayed safe behavior and performed consistently in repeated demonstrations with slight variations in conditions. Overall, we completed 44 runs, encompassing 110km of automated driving with only 3 cases where the driver intervened the control of the vehicle, mostly due to error in GPS positioning. Our demonstration showed that robust and consistent behavior in urban scenarios is possible, yet more investigation is necessary for full scale roll-out on public roads.Comment: Accepted to Intelligent Vehicles Conference (IV 2017

Understanding the military coup in Myanmar, two years later

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/Quick Take:- More than 3,000 protestors have been killed, 20,000 people arrested, and 55,000 houses burned in the two years since the coup.- Amid former optimism about the prospect of ending military dominance, the ruling NLD party and many observers did not anticipate the coup until the last few months.- The regime promised to hold "free and fair" elections in 2023, but the repeatedly delayed vote is simply a military strategy to escape the ongoing armed conflict and consolidate authority

Effects of Different Colored LEDs on the Enhancement of Biologically Active Ingredients in Callus Cultures of Gynura procumbens (Lour.) Merr.

Conventional fluorescent lamps that are used in tissue culture are costly light sources, exhibiting excessive wavelength emission-bandwidth that must be replaced by alternative, less costly, and much lower power-consuming energy sources. The use of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) is the best option due to their potential role as elicitors of secondary metabolite production in many plant models. Gynura procumbens (G. procumbens) is widely used for treating various diseases. Here, leaf explants were cultivated in MS medium that was supplemented with 0.5 mg/L of naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 2.0 mg/L of benzylaminopurine (BAP) for 30 days under white, blue, and red LEDs. Secondary metabolites were analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS). Blue LEDs elicited the highest antioxidant activity, total flavonoid, and phenolic content. Furthermore, the content of cyanidin-monoglucosides significantly increased under blue light

Rethinking about shifting denomination of the believers in Hmawngtlang

The research aims to investigate the cause of the shifting faith and switching denomination. This problem was not only faced by many churches in another part of the world, but it also happened in my hometown within the three denominations which recognized as American Baptist Mission, United Pentecostal Church, and Assembly of God. There were shifting denomination or moving from old to the new faith. It was happening in the place called Hmawngtlang village, Chin State, Myanmar. I as the researcher, the interview is conducted to collect data from the interviewees to answer the research question and sub-questions. I applied the qualitative research method as my research method. I interviewed four pastors and five shifters. Additionally, the work deals with the churches and find out what and why they were segregated to relate the causes of how they are linked up to my statement of the problem with my research. Understanding the faith transformation experiences of the shifters in the three denominations show the evidence that when a person has changed his faith, he was still controlled by such old church doctrine, culture, and tradition. Thus, the new converter finds out a new place where he can express and feel his spiritual freedom. Most reasons for the pastors and members those who were left the old denomination are the people who wanted to have freedom. The switching faith and find out new denomination rooted in the nine personalities that described by Gary Thomas, it said, God created everyone uniquely such as some people wanted to worship God with noise while the other wanted silent. Therefore, people try to find out the new church where they can have a good relationship with God according to their personalities (Thomas, 1996)

The role of civil society in promoting democracy, good governance, peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar

Myanmar was known for decades as one of the most isolated nations on earth, but after 2010 election, the country is rapidly moving forward to be an open, free and integrated part of international community, thereby bringing positive hope and expectation to the Burmese people and democratic nations worldwide. With an accelerating speed of reforms taking place, the government that used to be under the command of one man finds governing the whole reforms process as major challenges. Therefore, the government becomes consciously aware and acknowledges publicly that citizen’s participation in all sectors is indispensable to have better governance and peace in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural Myanmar. The thesis is a qualitative study primarily investigating and analyzing the role of Civil Society (CS hereafter) in promoting democracy, good governance, peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar. The study firstly reviews the traditional concept of CS and reconceptualizes it to better suit the cultural and political context of Myanmar. The study also identifies different CS actors and groups them into different categories; analyzes challenges, success and constraint in relation to their respective relationship with the people, the state and among themselves. To support my hypothesis, field research was also conducted in March 2012 in Yangon, Myanmar. The study explores the existence and significance of CS mainly in three different periods in Myanmar modern history; pre-independence (prior to 1948), after independence (1948-2010) and from 2010 election to this date. In the process of exploring, this study identifies different types of CS actors inside Myanmar, across the border and in other countries actively working for democracy, good governance, peace and national reconciliation. The study also investigates the relationship between SC and the people, the state, among different CS actors and also challenges faced under oppressive military regime and prospects under the current political atmosphere. With a growing interest in the CS role and impact they generated, some even contend that reforms in Myanmar are products of CS active involvement. This study however argues that despite important and significant contribution of CS, their roles were rather limited to social humanitarian goals rather than bringing political changes because of harsh and yet systematic restriction of military regimes. Recent rapid yet systematic shift in political landscape The country name ‘Burma’ was changed to ‘Myanmar’ by previous military regime in 1989, but the United Nation recognized ‘Myanmar’ as official name. 6 particularly after the 2010 election has opened wider opportunities for CS to engage more effectively across the country socio economic spectrum. The study also investigates and compares changes in CS role between prior to and after the election in 2010. Through qualitative combined with empirical analysis, the study confirms that CS plays significant role in promoting democracy, good governance, peace and national reconciliation in Myanmar. The author finds though that CS still lacks capacity and human resource necessary for a more coordinated and collaborative force to generate effective and vibrant impact on reform in the three areas; democracy, good governance and peace or national reconciliation. The thesis concludes with a summary of discussion, findings and suggestions for stakeholders and future researchers in order that the future role of CS is more effective in enhancing the current reforms process

Expedited Crash Investigation - With Use of Technologies for Documentation and Processing

The mobility and efficiency of California highways are impeded by the recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on a daily basis. Roadway incidents, especially collisions, often result in traffic congestion and travel delays. This project is initiated to explore the use of technologies that will potentially bring direct and immediate benefits to the law enforcement officers and other personnel who are involved in the handling of collision sites and subsequent investigations. The work carried out in this project includes three major components: (1) The experimentation of integrated vehicular technology systems to provide assistance for law enforcement officers, (2) The exploration of utilizing GPS devices for vehicle and incident locations, and (3) The development of photogrammetry tool to extract supplementary information from collision scenes.Valuable insights were gained through collaborations with the University of New Hampshire Project 54 and the City of Carlsbad, California, Public Safety Technology Programs. The key factors to successful deployment of technological systems are the easy-to-learn operation features and friendliness of user-machine interface. Integrated multiple-function capabilities and open architecture are important considerations in adopting technological systems to ensure favorable cost-benefit returns of investments from the perspectives of local jurisdictions or agencies.This report constitutes the first phase of the project, sponsored under California PATH Task Order 5216, while the complete report is documented in a joint report for Task Order 6216