Gerrymandering and Compactness: Implementation Flexibility and Abuse

The shape of an electoral district may suggest whether it was drawn with political motivations, or gerrymandered. For this reason, quantifying the shape of districts, in particular their compactness, is a key task in politics and civil rights. A growing body of literature suggests and analyzes compactness measures mathematically, but little consideration has been given to how these scores should be calculated in practice. Here, we consider the effects of a number of decisions that must be made in interpreting and implementing a set of popular compactness scores. We show that the choices made in quantifying compactness may themselves become political tools, with seemingly innocuous decisions leading to disparate scores. We show that when the full range of implementation flexibility is used, it can be abused to make clearly gerrymandered districts appear quantitatively reasonable. This complicates using compactness as a legislative or judicial standard to counteract unfair redistricting practices. This paper accompanies the release of packages in C++, Python, and R which correctly, efficiently, and reproducibly calculate a variety of compactness scores.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, 1 tabl

Taking ownership: The story of a successful partnership for change in a Pacific Island science teacher education setting.

This paper explores an example of a partnership approach that appears to be producing sustainable change in a Pacific Islands education setting. The people involved report on the way science education staff from the Solomon Islands School of Education (SOE) and staff from the Faculty of Education University of Waikato (UOW), New Zealand worked together on the redevelopment of undergraduate science education courses for the SOE. Together we sought to identify significant factors supporting the process. The development required significant change and posed a number of challenges yet resulted in local staff producing high quality materials and programmes and taking ownership of ongoing development. More importantly, there was significant personal professional learning in both science education and initial teacher education for local Solomon Islands staff. Factors contributing to the success of the partnership are explored through the perceptions of the participants and include the quality of relationship, mutual respect, emphasis on conceptual agreement when working together, and the involvement of local staff in decision-making

Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better

We are about to witness one of those revolutionary shifts in technology that pass through similar stages of pathologic stress often chronicled for human behavior: first an imperceptible perturbation deemed a singularity or interesting curiosity; then the change grows into a faddish amusement or distraction; soon the amusement starts generating enough money or activity to become either, or both. a real business or a threat to other established enterprises or even to the social order; and finally the technological change takes hold, completely revamps its corner of the universe, economy, or society, and now enters the realm of permanent ?problem? or ?opportunity,? depending on your own particular history and demeanor. The much abused shift of ?paradigms? hardly suffices to describe such changes, for paradigms deal with models of behavior, business, and sociopolitical g?stalt. The Internet is more than a new and different model for communicating electrons. The Internet doesn?t even exist, yet it has passed through the several stages of stress, and is midway between becoming a real business and a threat to the established order of things, and likely to completely revamp telecom, if not some segment of the universe

Michael Chekhov and His Approach to Acting in Contemporary Performance Training

Michael Chekhov was an actor, director, and teacher who was determined to develop a clear and accessible acting approach. During his lifetime, his ideas were often viewed as too radical and mystical. Over the past decade however, the Chekhov method of actor training has enjoyed an expansion of interest. The following thesis will examine who Chekhov was, and what the major points of his technique were. It will also consider why and where his techniques are experiencing growth in our contemporary performance environment. Chekhov was a student of the great acting teacher Constantin Stanislavski. After studying with him for several years, Chekhov concluded that many aspects of the Stanislavski method of creating a role were potentially dangerous and unnecessary. Both men were constantly searching for new and improved ways to create and direct a role. Chekhov began to design his own approach which placed heavy emphasis on imagination and movement. He developed what became known as the \u27psychological gesture\u27. This is a physical movement or gesture which captures the total essence of a character and is executed inwardly while an actor portrays a character. Many contemporary actors and teachers are now acknowledging Chekhov and his development of this \u27psychological gesture\u27. Upon parting ways with Stanislavski, Chekhov studied with spiritualist Rudolph Steiner, a writer, philosopher, and movement specialist. By taking his own ideas and combining them with some of Steiner\u27s and Stanislavski\u27s, Chekhov developed a fresh approach to performance that many contemporary actors and teachers are finally discovering. This thesis will be an exploration of his ideas and how they successfully apply to the present day performer. The first chapter of this thesis will examine the life of Michael Chekhov and his two major influences, Constantin Stanislavski and Rudolph Steiner. Chapter Two will explore the major elements of the Chekhov technique and how they differed from Stanislavski\u27s. The resurgence in interest and usage will be discussed in Chapter Three. This section will unmask the people and places that are presently working with and teaching the Chekhov techniques. Will the Chekhov technique continue to expand, or is it just a passing phase in the contemporary performer\u27s search for a reliable and accessible method of performance? The thesis conclusion will examine how Chekhov\u27s work has been promulgated over the years. A final analysis of the method and its expansion will also be formulated in the final chapter

Preventing contrast-induced nephropathy: problems, challenges and future directions

Contrast-induced nephropathy is an injury to the kidney occurring as a result of exposure to intravascular contrast media. It results in both short- and long-term adverse events including mortality. Since treatment of the injury after it has occurred is ineffective, efforts to prevent the injury are the focus of investigators and clinicians alike. In this commentary, the pathogenesis and clinical relevance of contrast-induced nephropathy are reviewed. Prophylactic strategies are discussed with a focus on the use of meta-analysis of small single-center trials

Rice seed quality development and temperature during late development and maturation

The potential longevity of japonica rice (Oryza sativa L. subsp. japonica) seed is particularly sensitive to high temperature – and thus climate change – during development and maturation. Cultivar Taipei 309 was grown at 28/208C (12 h/12 h) and then from 19 DAA (days after 50% anthesis), when seeds were just over half filled, at 28/208C, 30/228C, 32/248C or 34/268C (12 h/12 h). Whereas ability to germinate ex planta had been achieved in almost all seeds by 24 DAA, only half the population were desiccation tolerant. Desiccation tolerance continued to increase over the subsequent 28 d, similarly at all four temperatures. Subsequent longevity, assessed by p50 (period in days to reduce viability to 50% in hermetic storage at 408C with c. 15% moisture content), increased progressively at 28/208C until 38 DAA, and remained constant until the final harvest (52 DAA). The three warmer temperature regimes provided similar longevity to 28/208C at any one harvest, except at 38 DAA where the warmest (34/268C) was poorer. That temperature regime also provided greater seed-to-seed variability within each survival curve. The results confirm that appreciable improvement in seed quality occurs during seed development and also subsequent maturation in japonica rice, but that increase in temperature from 28/208C to 34/268C during late seed filling onwards has comparatively little effect thereon. Comparison with previous investigations suggests that seed quality development may be less sensitive to high temperatures during late development and maturation than during the early seed development that precedes it

Efficiency Optimization and Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Brushless Motors in Three-Phase Pulse Width Modulated Voltage Source Inverter Drives

In high performance drives where it is desirable to exploit the usefulness of reluctance torque and machine saliency, permanent magnet synchronous brushless motors are machines of choice. However, speed control of these machines especially in the flux weakening region becomes more complex due to the non-linear coupling among the winding currents as well as the nonlinearity present in the torque. While numerous research efforts in the past have considered control and efficiency improvements of induction motors, and synchronous motors with field windings, research efforts in developing an efficiency optimization and control strategy applicable to all salient-type permanent magnet synchronous brushless motors are still in their infancy.;A traditional control technique that has commonly been employed in efficiency improvement efforts is the stator\u27s zero d-axis current (i ds=0) technique. In this method, the rotor flux is aligned with the direct-axis so that the stator\u27s direct-axis current is zero and the torque becomes a linear function of the stator\u27s quadrature-axis current. Although this method achieves decoupling of winding currents and simplicity of control, it does not fully exploit the use of the machine\u27s saliency and reluctance torque, and is also not well-suited for wide-range load operations. The maximum torque per ampere (MTPA) technique is another less complex technique that has been considered which fully exploits the use of machine saliency with motor torque selected along the geometric curve of minimum-amplitude current space vectors for minimum loss operation. The drawback of the MTPA technique is that it does not provide high efficiency performance for synchronous reluctance motors running at low fractional loads.;In this work, the problem of efficiency optimization in the salient-type permanent magnet synchronous brushless motors is investigated. A machine model which includes the effect of core losses is proposed for developing a loss minimization algorithm that dynamically determines the optimal reference currents and voltages required for minimizing the total electrical losses (copper losses and core losses) within the feasible operating regions imposed by the motor and inverter capacities. The loss minimization strategy is implemented within a speed control loop for a synchronous reluctance motor drive and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated by comparing performances with that of the traditional maximum torque per ampere and stator\u27s zero d-axis current vector control methods. It is shown that the proposed scheme offers the advantages of simplicity and superior performance throughout the entire operating range, and also improves motor efficiency to 96% at full load and full-speed operating condition

The Pacific Basin: Dilemmas and Choices for American Security

We have all heard the rhetoric in recent years-Administration officials, economists and trend forecasters are developing the perspective that America\u27s dealings with the Pacific Basin are overtaking our traditional relationships across the Atlantic. Some disparage this notion. They point to our high levels of political commitment, investment and trade in Europe. Foreign affairs analyst William Pfaff, for example, wrote an article some time ago in the International Herald Tribune expressing skepticism about America\u27s new infatuation with the countries of the Pacific

Information Systems Ph.D. Program in Africa: The Case of Addis Ababa University - Ethiopia

This case study is about the first Information Systems Ph.D. program in Ethiopia and the region, a collaborative effort of thirteen universities around the globe. Seventeen faculty members are traveling to Ethiopia to launch the program and plan to begin class summer 2008. This paper depicts the program design, program development, and an outline of the overall program. The authors share their personal experience in the development of this unique IS Ph.D. program