37,695 research outputs found
Toward a Transformative GSL Ethics: How Global Service-Learning Faculty Reconcile Clashing Personal and Institutional Values Surrounding GSL
No full textGlobal service-learning (GSL) course offerings have expanded rapidly in the last decade at U.S. universities and colleges, yet faculty are not always prepared for the ethical challenges of development work with disadvantaged communities in international settings. Based on a qualitative study of 25 GSL faculty across a range of higher education institutions in the United States, this article describes what drives faculty members to participate in GSL, analyzes the community engagement principles that guide their GSL work, and assesses how they cope with the dissonance that arises when striving to meet the sometimes-conflicting needs of students, communities, and educational institutions. We find that these faculty employ a “transformative GSL ethics” to realize their motivations and visions for a counter-normative approach to community engagement. We argue that higher education institutions must shift their norms, values, and practices with respect to professional development and pedagogy if they are to continue promoting the GSL agenda.
Lessons learnt from 10 years of ENEN collaboration: from a knowledge to an end-user driven approach
No full textThis paper collects contributions received by some of the scientists and teachers who soundly contributed to the development of the European Nuclear Education Network Association (ENEN). A paper presented at this FISA 2013 Conference is describing the main achievements of ENEN in a more systematic way; here, emphasis is given to the meaning that these achievements had for different Countries and to the personal experience of the main actors in these developments, i.e., the founding members. The number of contributions received for this paper is less than could have been collected: timing and engagement restrictions made not possible to contact all the involved persons and some of the contacted ones were not in the position to answer in the short time allowed for setting up the paper. However, nobody should feel excluded and the adopted generic authorship actually reflects this intention. While the main body of the paper contains the contributions received from some founding members, the Introduction and the Conclusion are by the first author who, with little merit, inherited the Association to be taken care of as its President
Keeping a learned society young
No full textAging organizations - regardless of whether they are firms, faculties, societies, political bodies, teams, or national academies - seek ways to rejuvenate. This paper demonstrates that the best way to keep an organization young is through a mixed strategy of recruiting both young and old, and that, contrary to intuition, recruiting those of middle age is the least effective strategy for maintaining a younger age structure. The aging of learned societies is a problem in many national academies. Faced with rising life expectancy, particularly for older persons, the average age of academy members is increasing. Another reason for "overaging" is an increase in the age at election. In an organization with a fixed size, the annual intake is strictly determined by the number of deaths and the statutory retirement age. This can, among many learned societies, lead to a fundamental dilemma: the desire to maintain a young age structure, while still guaranteeing a high recruitment rate. We derive an optimal recruitment policy which is bimodal, i.e., it entails shifting recruitment partly to younger ages and partly to older ages, while decreasing the recruitment of middle-aged candidates. Although the optimization problem explicitly involves only the average age and the recruitment rate as objectives, the methodology implicitly allows us to take into consideration all other objectives (formal or informal) used in the actual election practice.age-specific recruitment policy, fixed-size population, optimal control
Author Self-Citation in the Turkish Otorhinolaryngology Literature
No full textObjective:To evaluate the prevalence and other characteristics of author self-citations in six Turkey-originated general otorhinolaryngology (ORL) journals of Turkish ORL literature.Methods:A total of 970 articles published in six Turkey-originated general ORL journals (ENT Updates, Journal of Ear Nose Throat and Head Neck Surgery, KBB-Forum, Praxis of Otorhinolaryngology, The Turkish Journal of Ear Nose and Throat, and Turkish Archives of Otorhinolaryngology) in 2016-2020 were analyzed for author self-citations. The association between author self-citations and journal types, study types, study topics, country of origin, and compatibility with the topic were also evaluated.Results:There were 265 author self-citations (0.273 per article) which corresponded to 1.36% of all citations. There was no significant difference between the journal types, study topics, and origin of the studies in terms of mean self-citation values per study, whereas case reports had significantly lower self-citations than review and original investigations. There were three citations (1.1%) that were irrelevant to the study topic.Conclusion:To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigated the practice of author self-citation in Turkish ORL literature. Author self-citation rate in the Turkish-originated general ORL journals was found remarkably lower than the medical literature, whereas the self-citations were found compatible with the study topic to a very large extent. Members of the scientific community including authors, readers, and journal editors should be cautious regarding the unethical practices of self-citations
Sniffy Bug: A fully autonomous and collaborative swarm of gas-seeking nano quadcopters in cluttered environments
No full textNano quadcopters are ideal for gas source localization (GSL) as they are cheap, safe and agile. However, previous algorithms are unsuitable for nano quadcopters, as they rely on heavy sensors, require too large computational resources, or only solve simple scenarios without obstacles. In this work, we propose a novel bug algorithm named `Sniffy Bug', that allows a swarm of gas-seeking nano quadcopters to localize a gas source in an unknown, cluttered and GPS-denied environment. Sniffy Bug is capable of efficient GSL with extremely little sensory input and computational resources, operating within the strict resource constraints of a nano quadcopter. The algorithm foresees in the avoidance of obstacles and other swarm members, while pursuing desired waypoints. The waypoints are set for exploration, and, when a single swarm member has sensed the gas, by a particle swarm optimization-based procedure. We evolve all the parameters of the bug (and PSO) algorithm, with a novel automated end-to-end simulation and benchmark platform, AutoGDM. This platform enables fully automated end-to-end environment generation and gas dispersion modelling (GDM), not only allowing for learning in simulation but also providing the first GSL benchmark. We show that evolved Sniffy Bug outperforms manually selected parameters in challenging, cluttered environments in the real world. To this end, we show that a lightweight and mapless bug algorithm can be evolved to complete a complex task, and enable the first fully autonomous swarm of collaborative gas-seeking nano quadcopters.Best Graduate Faculteit L&R 2021Aerospace Engineerin
Developing countries'participation in the World Trade Organization
No full textIn the 1960s and 1970s developing countries viewed UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade&Development) rather than the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs&Trade) as the main institution through which to promote their interests in international trade. But beginning with the Uruguay Round in the mid-1980s, their attitude changed, many more of them became members of the GATT, and a significant number played an active role in negotiations. The author analyzes developing countries'representation and participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO) as of mid-1997 to determine how developing countries can effectively promote their interests and discharge their responsibilities under the rules and agreements of the new organization. He concludes that although many developing countries are actively participating in the new process, more than half of the developing countries that are members of the WTO participate little more than they did in the early 1980s and have not increased their staffing, despite the vastly greater complexity of issues and obligations. Institutional weaknesses at home are the main constraints to effective participation and representation of their interests at the WTO. To make their participation more effective, he recommends that the developing countries establish adequately staffed WTO missions based in Geneva; failing that, pooling their resources and representation in Geneva; and being sure to pay their dues, which are typically small. He also recommends that the international community place higher priority on programs of assistance in support of institutional development of poorer countries aimed at enhancing their capacity to participate in the international trading system and the WTO -- and that the WTO review its internal rules and procedures to ensure that inadvertently they do not make developing countries participation more difficult.Economic Theory&Research,Decentralization,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Country Strategy&Performance,Labor&Employment Law,Trade and Services,Poverty Assessment,Economic Theory&Research,World Trade Organization,Country Strategy&Performance
Sixty Years of Community: St. Olaf Catholic Parish in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1952-2012
No full textThis paper will explore how the parish community of St. Olaf in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, established in 1952, reflects the Roman Catholic Church, specifically at the local, state, and national levels in the United States. It will also discuss the various changes that have occurred in the past 60 years of its history in terms of the various locations of worship for the members, the growth of the community outreach programs, and the effects of the Second Vatican Council. This ecumenical council was a meeting of Catholic bishops from around the whole that brought reform to the Catholic Church and affected the relationship of the Catholic Church to the world. The parish at St. Olaf has grown from having only 125 families in 1952 to over 1,000 families in 2012
Structural System Influence On Shear Capacity Of Wide Members Without Shear Reinforcement
No full textMost models of shear strength used to estimate the shear capacity of wide reinforced concrete members without shear reinforcement do not take into account the structural system or the support conditions. However, some experimental results indicate that bending moment can have a positive influence on members with predominant flexural action, contrary to most of the mechanical models governed by tensile strain in the control section. This indicates that the structural system or the support conditions can have an influence on the shear strength of wide members without shear reinforcement commonly neglected. In this paper, we investigate the influence of the structural system on the shear strength of wide members. For this purpose, we review the available test results that varied the structural system, and we compared the accuracy and precision level of shear strength models from the literature according to the structural system of the members. In the analyses, we observed that the ratio of tested to predicted shear capacity is 5 – 10 % smaller for cantilever members than for simply supported beams. On the other hand, the ratio of tested to predicted shear capacity is on average 10-20% larger in continuous members than in simply supported ones. Although these results may indicate some influence of the structural system in the shear behavior, in this study, we did not identify physical reasons to validate this hypothesis. In this way, this tendency of results could be addressed to some bias in the database. However, we verified that the correlation between the shear capacities of wide members could be better correlated with the shear slenderness by taking into account that the behavior of some continuous members under uniformly distributed loads is similar to the simply supported ones with a reduced span length.Accepted Author ManuscriptConcrete Structure
Service-oriented models for audiovisual content storage
No full textWhat are the important topics to understand if involved with storage services to hold digital audiovisual content? This report takes a look at how content is created and moves into and out of storage; the storage service value networks and architectures found now and expected in the future; what sort of data transfer is expected to and from an audiovisual archive; what transfer protocols to use; and a summary of security and interface issues
How Supervisory Board Members Influence Digital Strategy: Towards a Framework for Digital Strategy Governance
No full textSince digital opportunities will continue altering business models, organizations need to formulate and execute digital strategies to sustain long-term value. A digital strategy is governed by the organization’s board. A board consists of executive and non-executive members, whereas in a two-tier system, the non-executive members form a supervisory board that is decoupled from the executive board. We present a framework illustrating how the actions of supervisory board members might influence digital strategy. We developed this framework based on a structured literature review with insights from corporate governance, strategic management, and board-level IT governance. We found that supervisory board members execute a variety of actions to take and shape strategic decisions and shape the strategic content, context, and conduct within their organization. We integrated our findings into sixteen potential actions that supervisory board members can take to influence digital strategy formulation, execution, and context. Further research should evaluate the framework and investigate the impact of their actions on digital strategies.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Engineering, Systems and Service
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