UN Peacekeeping Economies and Local Sex Industries: Connections and Implications

“Peacekeeping economies” have not been subject to much analysis of either their economic or socio-cultural and political impacts. This paper uses a gendered lens to explore some ramifications and lasting implications of peacekeeping economies, drawing on examples from four post-conflict countries with past or ongoing United Nations peacekeeping missions: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Liberia, and Haiti. The paper is particularly concerned with the interplay between the peacekeeping economy and the sex industry. It examines some of the characteristics and impacts of peacekeeping economies, arguing that these are highly gendered – but that the “normalization” of peacekeeping economies allows these effects to be overlooked or obscured. It also contends that these gendered characteristics and impacts have (or are likely to have) broad and lasting consequences. Finally, the paper considers the initial impacts of UN efforts to tackle negative impacts of peacekeeping economies, particularly the zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation and the effort to “mainstream” gender and promote gender equality in and through peacekeeping. The paper suggests that the existence and potential longterm perpetuation of a highly gendered peacekeeping economy threatens to undermine the gender goals and objectives that are a component of most peace operations.Peacekeeping; Gender; Sex industry; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Kosovo; Liberia; Haiti

Studies on Saprolegniaceous Filamentous Fungi

Author Institution: Botany Department, Ohio University, Athens, OhioSeventeen species of saprolegniaceous filamentous fungi from Athens County were isolated, studied, and identified under pure culture conditions. Five of the 17 species have not previously been reported from Ohio (Achlya caroliniana Coker, Saprolegnia kauffmaniana Pieters, S. mixta de Barry, S. hypogyna Pringsh., and S. moniiifera de Barry). Only five of the 17 species have previously been collected in southeastern Ohio. One hundred and twenty collections (15 a month for eight monthsAugust through March 1968) yielded 113 isolates. Seventy-two percent were collected during August through October. Saprolegnia ferax was isolated most frequently. Most species, when grown on sterile hemp seeds in sterile glass-distilled water, initiated production of oogonia and antheridia sooner than those grown in a mixture of one third sterile lake water and two thirds glass-distilled water. Vegetative growth was greater in the latter medium

Modeling and Measuring Performance of Data Dissemination in Opportunistic Networks

In this thesis we focus on understanding, measuring and describing the performance of Opportunistic Networks (ONs) and their applications. An “opportunistic network” is a term introduced to describe a sparse, wireless, ad hoc network with highly mobile nodes. The opportunistic networking paradigm deviates from the traditional end-to-end connectivity concept: Forwarding is based on intermittent connectivity between mobile nodes (typically, users with wireless devices); complete routes between sources and destinations rarely exist. Due to this unique property of spontaneous link establishment, the challenges that exist in ONs are specific. The unstructured nature of these networks makes it difficult to give any performance guarantees on data dissemination. For this reason, in Part I of this thesis we explore the dynamics that affect the performance of opportunistic networks. We choose a number of meaningful scenarios where our models and algorithms can be validated using large and credible data sets. We show that a drift and jump model that takes a spatial approach succeeds in capturing the impact of infrastructure and mobile-to-mobile exchanges on an opportunistic content update system. We describe the effects of these dynamics by using the age distribution of a dynamic piece of data (i.e., information updates) as the performance measure. The model also succeeds in capturing a strong bias in user mobility and reveals the existence of regions, whose statistics play a critical role in the performance perceived in the network. We exploit these findings to design an application for greedy infrastructure placement, which relies on the model approximation for a large number of nodes. Another great challenge of opportunistic networking lies in the fact that the bandwidth available on wireless links, coupled with ad hoc networking, failed to rival the capacity of backbones and to establish opportunistic networks as an alternative to infrastructure-based networks. For this reason, we never study ONs in an isolated context. Instead, we consider the applications that leverage interconnection between opportunistic networks and legacy networks and we study the benefits this synergy brings to both. Following this approach, we use a large operator-provided data set to show that opportunistic networks (based on Wi-Fi) are capable of offloading a significant amount of traffic from 3G networks. At the same time, the offloading algorithms we propose reduce the amount of energy consumed by mobiles, while requiring Wi-Fi coverage that is several times smaller than in the case of real-time offloading. Again we confirm and reuse the fact that user mobility is biased towards certain regions of the network. In Part II of this thesis, we treat another issue that is essential for the acceptance and evolution of opportunistic networks and their applications. Namely, we address the absence of experimental results that would support the findings of simulation based studies. Although the techniques such as contact-based simulations should intuitively be able to capture the performance of opportunistic applications, this intuition has little evidence in practice. For this reason, we design and deploy an experiment with real users who use an opportunistic Twitter application, in a way that allows them to maintain communication with legacy networks (i.e., cellular networks, the Internet). The experiment gives us a unique insight into certain performance aspects that are typically hidden or misinterpreted when the usual evaluation techniques (such as simulation) are used. We show that, due to the commonly ignored factors (such as the limited transmission bandwidth), contact-based simulations significantly overestimate delivery ratio and obtain delays that are several times lower than those experimentally acquired. In addition to this, our results unanimously show that the common practice of assuming infinite cache sizes in simulation studies, leads to a misinterpretation of the effects of a backbone on an opportunistic network. Such simulations typically overestimate the performance of the opportunistic component, while underestimating the utility of the backbone. Given the discovered deficiencies of the contact-based simulations, we consider an alternative statistical treatment of contact traces that uses the weighted contact graph. We show that this approach offers a better interpretation of the impact of a backbone on an opportunistic network and results in a closer match when it comes to modeling certain aspects of performance (namely, delivery ratio). Finally, the security requirements for the opportunistic applications that involve an interconnection with legacy networks are also highly specific. They cannot be fully addressed by the solutions proposed in the context of autonomous opportunistic (or ad hoc) networks, nor by the security frameworks used for securing the applications with continuous connectivity. Thus, in Part III of this thesis, we put together a security framework that fits the networks and applications that we target (i.e., the opportunistic networks and applications with occasional Internet connectivity). We then focus on the impact of security print on network performance and design a scheme for the protection of optimal relaying capacity in an opportunistic multihop network. We fine-tune the parameters of our scheme by using a game-theoretic approach and we demonstrate the substantial performance gains provided by the scheme

A Comparative Study of PID, PID with Tracking, and FPID Controller for Missile Canard with аn Optimized Genetic Tuning Method Using Simscape Modelling

In this paper, a comparative study between PID, PID with tracking feedback, and Fractional Order PID for a missile canard is presented. The missile canard is modelled using computer aided design (CAD) software and imported into the Simscape, a physical system-modelling tool within Simulink environment. Since a mathematical model is not derived, the genetic tuning algorithm is used to tune the controllers. In addition, the genetic algorithm tuning is refined by improving the fitness function

New methodology for transmission line relay testing and evaluation using advanced tools

Protective relays are important parts of the power system. The protection guards valuable equipment, and protective relays play a vital role in performing the task. The relay detects fault conditions within an assigned area, opens and closes output contacts to cause the operation of other devices under its control. The relay acts to operate the appropriate circuit breakers to prevent damage to personnel and property. To ensure consistent reliability and proper operation, protective relay equipment must be evaluated and tested. The importance of the relay evaluation issue is linked to capability to test the relays and relaying systems using very accurate waveform representation of a fault event. The purpose of testing protective relays is to ensure correct operation of the relay for all possible power system conditions and disturbances. To fulfill this purpose, relay testing in varying network configurations and with different fault types is required. There are a variety of options that have different performance potentials and implementation constraints. Use of digital simulators to test protective relays has proven to be an invaluable mean to evaluate relay performance under realistic conditions. This thesis describes a new methodology that attempts to improve the existing practices in testing relays by using advanced digital simulator hardware, different software packages for network modeling, and new software tools for generating and replaying test waveforms. Various types of microprocessor relays are tested and evaluated through the set of scenarios. New methodology that combines different software packages to facilitate particular testing objectives is applied

Direction of Serbian Trade: Gravity Model Based on Pool Data

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effects of bilateral trade between Serbia and EUcountries in the period 2001-2015 on the basis of a gravity model. So far in research papers the gravity modelhas been used for the evaluation of effects of trade among different countries. The gravity model, whichcombines the cross-section data and the time-series data, has been estimated to the panel data. Estimatedresults based on a sample of 28 countries reveal that the economic size of foreign countries, the market size oftrading partners (the number of inhabitants), and the geographical distance produce altogether huge effects onSerbia’s total trade and exports. Border and language factors have also been taken into account. The researchleaves room for further scientific analyses and provides guidance for trade policy creators in analyses fordirections of the Serbian trade. This research is based on complex econometric analyses and a recognisedmodel, and shows that there is considerable room for the growth of bilateral trade between Serbia and EU