WorldWideScience

Sample records for employing information theoretic

  1. Information theoretic preattentive saliency

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Loog, Marco

    2011-01-01

    Employing an information theoretic operational definition of bottom-up attention from the field of computational visual perception a very general expression for saliency is provided. As opposed to many of the current approaches to determining a saliency map there is no need for an explicit data...... of which features, image information is described. We illustrate our result by determining a few specific saliency maps based on particular choices of features. One of them makes the link with the mapping underlying well-known Harris interest points, which is a result recently obtained in isolation...

  2. Theoretical information reuse and integration

    CERN Document Server

    Rubin, Stuart

    2016-01-01

    Information Reuse and Integration addresses the efficient extension and creation of knowledge through the exploitation of Kolmogorov complexity in the extraction and application of domain symmetry. Knowledge, which seems to be novel, can more often than not be recast as the image of a sequence of transformations, which yield symmetric knowledge. When the size of those transformations and/or the length of that sequence of transforms exceeds the size of the image, then that image is said to be novel or random. It may also be that the new knowledge is random in that no such sequence of transforms, which produces it exists, or is at least known. The nine chapters comprising this volume incorporate symmetry, reuse, and integration as overt operational procedures or as operations built into the formal representations of data and operators employed. Either way, the aforementioned theoretical underpinnings of information reuse and integration are supported.

  3. Inform: Efficient Information-Theoretic Analysis of Collective Behaviors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Douglas G. Moore

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available The study of collective behavior has traditionally relied on a variety of different methodological tools ranging from more theoretical methods such as population or game-theoretic models to empirical ones like Monte Carlo or multi-agent simulations. An approach that is increasingly being explored is the use of information theory as a methodological framework to study the flow of information and the statistical properties of collectives of interacting agents. While a few general purpose toolkits exist, most of the existing software for information theoretic analysis of collective systems is limited in scope. We introduce Inform, an open-source framework for efficient information theoretic analysis that exploits the computational power of a C library while simplifying its use through a variety of wrappers for common higher-level scripting languages. We focus on two such wrappers here: PyInform (Python and rinform (R. Inform and its wrappers are cross-platform and general-purpose. They include classical information-theoretic measures, measures of information dynamics and information-based methods to study the statistical behavior of collective systems, and expose a lower-level API that allow users to construct measures of their own. We describe the architecture of the Inform framework, study its computational efficiency and use it to analyze three different case studies of collective behavior: biochemical information storage in regenerating planaria, nest-site selection in the ant Temnothorax rugatulus, and collective decision making in multi-agent simulations.

  4. Hash functions and information theoretic security

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bagheri, Nasoor; Knudsen, Lars Ramkilde; Naderi, Majid

    2009-01-01

    Information theoretic security is an important security notion in cryptography as it provides a true lower bound for attack complexities. However, in practice attacks often have a higher cost than the information theoretic bound. In this paper we study the relationship between information theoretic...

  5. Robust recognition via information theoretic learning

    CERN Document Server

    He, Ran; Yuan, Xiaotong; Wang, Liang

    2014-01-01

    This Springer Brief represents a comprehensive review of information theoretic methods for robust recognition. A variety of information theoretic methods have been proffered in the past decade, in a large variety of computer vision applications; this work brings them together, attempts to impart the theory, optimization and usage of information entropy.The?authors?resort to a new information theoretic concept, correntropy, as a robust measure and apply it to solve robust face recognition and object recognition problems. For computational efficiency,?the brief?introduces the additive and multip

  6. Toward a Theoretical Framework for Information Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda Spink

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available Information Science is beginning to develop a theoretical framework for the modeling of users’ interactions with information retrieval (IR technologies within the more holistic context of human information behavior (Spink, 1998b. This paper addresses the following questions: (1 What is the nature of Information Science? and (2 What theoretical framework and model is most appropriate for Information Science? This paper proposes a theoretical framework for Information Science based on an explication of the processes of human information coordinating behavior and information feedback that facilitate the relationship between human information behavior and human interaction with information retrieval (IR technologies (Web, digital libraries, etc..

  7. State-of-the-Art: Research Theoretical Framework of Information Systems Implementation Research in the Health Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tetteh, Godwin Kofi

    2014-01-01

    This study is about the state-of-the-art of reference theories and theoretical framework of information systems implementation research in the health industry in the Sub-Saharan countries from a process perspective. A process – variance framework, Poole et al, (2000), Markus & Robey, (1988......) and Shaw & Jarvenpaa, (1997) is employed to examine reference theories employed in research conducted on information systems implementation in the health sector in the Sub-Saharan region and published between 2003 and 2013. Using a number of key words and searching on a number of databases, EBSCO, CSA...... the process theoretical framework to enhance our insight into successful information systems implementation in the region. It is our optimism that the process based theoretical framework will be useful for, information system practitioners and organisational managers and researchers in the health sector...

  8. Information theoretic description of networks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilhelm, Thomas; Hollunder, Jens

    2007-11-01

    We present a new information theoretic approach for network characterizations. It is developed to describe the general type of networks with n nodes and L directed and weighted links, i.e., it also works for the simpler undirected and unweighted networks. The new information theoretic measures for network characterizations are based on a transmitter-receiver analogy of effluxes and influxes. Based on these measures, we classify networks as either complex or non-complex and as either democracy or dictatorship networks. Directed networks, in particular, are furthermore classified as either information spreading and information collecting networks. The complexity classification is based on the information theoretic network complexity measure medium articulation (MA). It is proven that special networks with a medium number of links ( L∼n1.5) show the theoretical maximum complexity MA=(log n)2/2. A network is complex if its MA is larger than the average MA of appropriately randomized networks: MA>MAr. A network is of the democracy type if its redundancy Rdictatorship network. In democracy networks all nodes are, on average, of similar importance, whereas in dictatorship networks some nodes play distinguished roles in network functioning. In other words, democracy networks are characterized by cycling of information (or mass, or energy), while in dictatorship networks there is a straight through-flow from sources to sinks. The classification of directed networks into information spreading and information collecting networks is based on the conditional entropies of the considered networks ( H(A/B)=uncertainty of sender node if receiver node is known, H(B/A)=uncertainty of receiver node if sender node is known): if H(A/B)>H(B/A), it is an information collecting network, otherwise an information spreading network. Finally, different real networks (directed and undirected, weighted and unweighted) are classified according to our general scheme.

  9. Information Literacy and Employability

    OpenAIRE

    O'Keeffe, Colin

    2016-01-01

    Information Literacy (IL) and its relationship to third level graduates’ employability has gained more attention in recent years. This article examines how IL has evolved from skills initially associated with academic libraries into a key workplace skill set of the knowledge economy. It outlines the challenges interviewees encounter when selling IL to employers, how IL can be utilised when preparing for upcoming interviews and suggests a distinction between workplace IL and employability IL. ...

  10. Information theoretic quantification of diagnostic uncertainty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westover, M Brandon; Eiseman, Nathaniel A; Cash, Sydney S; Bianchi, Matt T

    2012-01-01

    Diagnostic test interpretation remains a challenge in clinical practice. Most physicians receive training in the use of Bayes' rule, which specifies how the sensitivity and specificity of a test for a given disease combine with the pre-test probability to quantify the change in disease probability incurred by a new test result. However, multiple studies demonstrate physicians' deficiencies in probabilistic reasoning, especially with unexpected test results. Information theory, a branch of probability theory dealing explicitly with the quantification of uncertainty, has been proposed as an alternative framework for diagnostic test interpretation, but is even less familiar to physicians. We have previously addressed one key challenge in the practical application of Bayes theorem: the handling of uncertainty in the critical first step of estimating the pre-test probability of disease. This essay aims to present the essential concepts of information theory to physicians in an accessible manner, and to extend previous work regarding uncertainty in pre-test probability estimation by placing this type of uncertainty within a principled information theoretic framework. We address several obstacles hindering physicians' application of information theoretic concepts to diagnostic test interpretation. These include issues of terminology (mathematical meanings of certain information theoretic terms differ from clinical or common parlance) as well as the underlying mathematical assumptions. Finally, we illustrate how, in information theoretic terms, one can understand the effect on diagnostic uncertainty of considering ranges instead of simple point estimates of pre-test probability.

  11. Informing Physics: Jacob Bekenstein and the Informational Turn in Theoretical Physics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belfer, Israel

    2014-03-01

    In his PhD dissertation in the early 1970s, the Mexican-Israeli theoretical physicist Jacob Bekenstein developed the thermodynamics of black holes using a generalized version of the second law of thermodynamics. This work made it possible for physicists to describe and analyze black holes using information-theoretical concepts. It also helped to transform information theory into a fundamental and foundational concept in theoretical physics. The story of Bekenstein's work—which was initially opposed by many scientists, including Stephen Hawking—highlights the transformation within physics towards an information-oriented scientific mode of theorizing. This "informational turn" amounted to a mild-mannered revolution within physics, revolutionary without being rebellious.

  12. One-dimensional barcode reading: an information theoretic approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houni, Karim; Sawaya, Wadih; Delignon, Yves

    2008-03-01

    In the convergence context of identification technology and information-data transmission, the barcode found its place as the simplest and the most pervasive solution for new uses, especially within mobile commerce, bringing youth to this long-lived technology. From a communication theory point of view, a barcode is a singular coding based on a graphical representation of the information to be transmitted. We present an information theoretic approach for 1D image-based barcode reading analysis. With a barcode facing the camera, distortions and acquisition are modeled as a communication channel. The performance of the system is evaluated by means of the average mutual information quantity. On the basis of this theoretical criterion for a reliable transmission, we introduce two new measures: the theoretical depth of field and the theoretical resolution. Simulations illustrate the gain of this approach.

  13. LPI Optimization Framework for Target Tracking in Radar Network Architectures Using Information-Theoretic Criteria

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chenguang Shi

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Widely distributed radar network architectures can provide significant performance improvement for target detection and localization. For a fixed radar network, the achievable target detection performance may go beyond a predetermined threshold with full transmitted power allocation, which is extremely vulnerable in modern electronic warfare. In this paper, we study the problem of low probability of intercept (LPI design for radar network and propose two novel LPI optimization schemes based on information-theoretic criteria. For a predefined threshold of target detection, Schleher intercept factor is minimized by optimizing transmission power allocation among netted radars in the network. Due to the lack of analytical closed-form expression for receiver operation characteristics (ROC, we employ two information-theoretic criteria, namely, Bhattacharyya distance and J-divergence as the metrics for target detection performance. The resulting nonconvex and nonlinear LPI optimization problems associated with different information-theoretic criteria are cast under a unified framework, and the nonlinear programming based genetic algorithm (NPGA is used to tackle the optimization problems in the framework. Numerical simulations demonstrate that our proposed LPI strategies are effective in enhancing the LPI performance for radar network.

  14. Unemployment, informal work, precarious employment, child labor, slavery, and health inequalities: pathways and mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muntaner, Carles; Solar, Orielle; Vanroelen, Christophe; Martínez, José Miguel; Vergara, Montserrat; Santana, Vilma; Castedo, Antía; Kim, Il-Ho; Benach, Joan

    2010-01-01

    The study explores the pathways and mechanisms of the relation between employment conditions and health inequalities. A significant amount of published research has proved that workers in several risky types of labor--precarious employment, unemployment, informal labor, child and bonded labor--are exposed to behavioral, psychosocial, and physio-pathological pathways leading to physical and mental health problems. Other pathways, linking employment to health inequalities, are closely connected to hazardous working conditions (material and social deprivation, lack of social protection, and job insecurity), excessive demands, and unattainable work effort, with little power and few rewards (in salaries, fringe benefits, or job stability). Differences across countries in the social contexts and types of jobs result in varying pathways, but the general conceptual model suggests that formal and informal power relations between employees and employers can determine health conditions. In addition, welfare state regimes (unionization and employment protection) can increase or decrease the risk of mortality, morbidity, and occupational injury. In a multilevel context, however, these micro- and macro-level pathways have yet to be fully studied, especially in middle- and low-income countries. The authors recommend some future areas of study on the pathways leading to employment-related health inequalities, using worldwide standard definitions of the different forms of labor, authentic data, and a theoretical framework.

  15. System identification with information theoretic criteria

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A.A. Stoorvogel; J.H. van Schuppen (Jan)

    1995-01-01

    textabstractAttention is focused in this paper on the approximation problem of system identification with information theoretic criteria. For a class of problems it is shown that the criterion of mutual information rate is identical to the criterion of exponential-of-quadratic cost and to

  16. Employing the Mathcad program within the course of Theoretical Mechanics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kurilin Alexander V.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The author shares his experience in using the «Mathcad» software for conducting classes on «Theoretical Mechanics» in the University course. The program «Mathcad» combines a simple user interface and powerful mathematical tools which can be employed for different mechanical problems. It gives invaluable help in evaluating analytically and numerically many difficult integrals, in solving differential equations, in picturing graphics and can also simulate different mechanical phenomena with the computer. This allows significantly to expand the range of topics that can be considered in the standard University course of «Theoretical Mechanics» and gives students an opportunity to concentrate on practical problems, avoiding unnecessary routine of mathematical calculations. As an example the author considers one famous problem of the Lagrange analytical mechanics associated with the body motion in the field of gravity in the presence of stationary holonomic constraints.

  17. Wireless Information-Theoretic Security in an Outdoor Topology with Obstacles: Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Measurements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dagiuklas Tasos

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a Wireless Information-Theoretic Security (WITS scheme, which has been recently introduced as a robust physical layer-based security solution, especially for infrastructureless networks. An autonomic network of moving users was implemented via 802.11n nodes of an ad hoc network for an outdoor topology with obstacles. Obstructed-Line-of-Sight (OLOS and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS propagation scenarios were examined. Low-speed user movement was considered, so that Doppler spread could be discarded. A transmitter and a legitimate receiver exchanged information in the presence of a moving eavesdropper. Average Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR values were acquired for both the main and the wiretap channel, and the Probability of Nonzero Secrecy Capacity was calculated based on theoretical formula. Experimental results validate theoretical findings stressing the importance of user location and mobility schemes on the robustness of Wireless Information-Theoretic Security and call for further theoretical analysis.

  18. An information theoretic approach to use high-fidelity codes to calibrate low-fidelity codes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lewis, Allison, E-mail: lewis.allison10@gmail.com [Department of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States); Smith, Ralph [Department of Mathematics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States); Williams, Brian [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States); Figueroa, Victor [Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185 (United States)

    2016-11-01

    For many simulation models, it can be prohibitively expensive or physically infeasible to obtain a complete set of experimental data to calibrate model parameters. In such cases, one can alternatively employ validated higher-fidelity codes to generate simulated data, which can be used to calibrate the lower-fidelity code. In this paper, we employ an information-theoretic framework to determine the reduction in parameter uncertainty that is obtained by evaluating the high-fidelity code at a specific set of design conditions. These conditions are chosen sequentially, based on the amount of information that they contribute to the low-fidelity model parameters. The goal is to employ Bayesian experimental design techniques to minimize the number of high-fidelity code evaluations required to accurately calibrate the low-fidelity model. We illustrate the performance of this framework using heat and diffusion examples, a 1-D kinetic neutron diffusion equation, and a particle transport model, and include initial results from the integration of the high-fidelity thermal-hydraulics code Hydra-TH with a low-fidelity exponential model for the friction correlation factor.

  19. Information theoretic learning Renyi's entropy and Kernel perspectives

    CERN Document Server

    Principe, Jose C

    2010-01-01

    This book presents the first cohesive treatment of Information Theoretic Learning (ITL) algorithms to adapt linear or nonlinear learning machines both in supervised or unsupervised paradigms. ITL is a framework where the conventional concepts of second order statistics (covariance, L2 distances, correlation functions) are substituted by scalars and functions with information theoretic underpinnings, respectively entropy, mutual information and correntropy. ITL quantifies the stochastic structure of the data beyond second order statistics for improved performance without using full-blown Bayesi

  20. Information Theoretic-Learning Auto-Encoder

    OpenAIRE

    Santana, Eder; Emigh, Matthew; Principe, Jose C

    2016-01-01

    We propose Information Theoretic-Learning (ITL) divergence measures for variational regularization of neural networks. We also explore ITL-regularized autoencoders as an alternative to variational autoencoding bayes, adversarial autoencoders and generative adversarial networks for randomly generating sample data without explicitly defining a partition function. This paper also formalizes, generative moment matching networks under the ITL framework.

  1. Employment-related information for clients receiving mental health services and clinicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Joanne; Cleary, Catherine; Harris, Meredith G; Lloyd, Chris; Waghorn, Geoff

    2011-01-01

    Clients receiving public mental health services and clinicians require information to facilitate client access to suitable employment services. However, little is known about the specific employment-related information needs of these groups. This study aimed to identify employment-related information needs among clients, clinicians and employment specialists, with a view to developing a new vocational information resource. Employment-related information needs were identified via a series of focus group consultations with clients, clinicians, and employment specialists (n=23). Focus group discussions were guided by a common semi-structured interview schedule. Several categories of information need were identified: countering incorrect beliefs about work; benefits of work; disclosure and managing personal information; impact of earnings on welfare entitlements; employment service pathways; job preparation, planning and selection; and managing illness once working. Clear preferences were expressed about effective means of communicating the key messages in written material. This investigation confirmed the need for information tailored to clients and clinicians in order to activate clients' employment journey and to help them make informed decisions about vocational assistance.

  2. 78 FR 34175 - Proposed Information Collection (Request for Employment Information in Connection With Claim for...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-06-06

    ... techniques or the use of other forms of information technology. Title: Request for Employment Information in... (Request for Employment Information in Connection With Claim for Disability Benefits) Activity: Comment...: Extension of a currently approved collection. Abstract: VA Form 21-4192 is used to request employment...

  3. Information-Theoretic Bounded Rationality and ε-Optimality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel A. Braun

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Bounded rationality concerns the study of decision makers with limited information processing resources. Previously, the free energy difference functional has been suggested to model bounded rational decision making, as it provides a natural trade-off between an energy or utility function that is to be optimized and information processing costs that are measured by entropic search costs. The main question of this article is how the information-theoretic free energy model relates to simple ε-optimality models of bounded rational decision making, where the decision maker is satisfied with any action in an ε-neighborhood of the optimal utility. We find that the stochastic policies that optimize the free energy trade-off comply with the notion of ε-optimality. Moreover, this optimality criterion even holds when the environment is adversarial. We conclude that the study of bounded rationality based on ε-optimality criteria that abstract away from the particulars of the information processing constraints is compatible with the information-theoretic free energy model of bounded rationality.

  4. Theoretical development of information science: A brief history

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjørland, Birger

    2017-01-01

    the strongest “paradigms” in the field is a tradition derived from the Cranfield experiments in the 1960s and the bibliometric research following the publication of Science Citation Index from 1963 and forward. Among the competing theoretical frameworks, ‘the cognitive view’ became influential from the 1970s......This paper presents a brief history of information science (IS) as viewed by the author. The term ‘information science’ goes back to 1955 and evolved in the aftermath of Claude Shannon’s ‘information theory’ (1948), which also inspired research into problems in fields of library science...... and documentation. These subjects were a main focus of what became established as ‘information science’, which from 1964 onwards was often termed ‘library and information science’ (LIS). However, the usefulness of Shannon’s information theory as the theoretical foundation of the field was been challenged. Among...

  5. Information-theoretic lengths of Jacobi polynomials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guerrero, A; Dehesa, J S [Departamento de Fisica Atomica, Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad de Granada, Granada (Spain); Sanchez-Moreno, P, E-mail: agmartinez@ugr.e, E-mail: pablos@ugr.e, E-mail: dehesa@ugr.e [Instituto ' Carlos I' de Fisica Teorica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada, Granada (Spain)

    2010-07-30

    The information-theoretic lengths of the Jacobi polynomials P{sup ({alpha}, {beta})}{sub n}(x), which are information-theoretic measures (Renyi, Shannon and Fisher) of their associated Rakhmanov probability density, are investigated. They quantify the spreading of the polynomials along the orthogonality interval [- 1, 1] in a complementary but different way as the root-mean-square or standard deviation because, contrary to this measure, they do not refer to any specific point of the interval. The explicit expressions of the Fisher length are given. The Renyi lengths are found by the use of the combinatorial multivariable Bell polynomials in terms of the polynomial degree n and the parameters ({alpha}, {beta}). The Shannon length, which cannot be exactly calculated because of its logarithmic functional form, is bounded from below by using sharp upper bounds to general densities on [- 1, +1] given in terms of various expectation values; moreover, its asymptotics is also pointed out. Finally, several computational issues relative to these three quantities are carefully analyzed.

  6. Information-theoretic metamodel of organizational evolution

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sepulveda, Alfredo

    2011-12-01

    Social organizations are abstractly modeled by holarchies---self-similar connected networks---and intelligent complex adaptive multiagent systems---large networks of autonomous reasoning agents interacting via scaled processes. However, little is known of how information shapes evolution in such organizations, a gap that can lead to misleading analytics. The research problem addressed in this study was the ineffective manner in which classical model-predict-control methods used in business analytics attempt to define organization evolution. The purpose of the study was to construct an effective metamodel for organization evolution based on a proposed complex adaptive structure---the info-holarchy. Theoretical foundations of this study were holarchies, complex adaptive systems, evolutionary theory, and quantum mechanics, among other recently developed physical and information theories. Research questions addressed how information evolution patterns gleamed from the study's inductive metamodel more aptly explained volatility in organization. In this study, a hybrid grounded theory based on abstract inductive extensions of information theories was utilized as the research methodology. An overarching heuristic metamodel was framed from the theoretical analysis of the properties of these extension theories and applied to business, neural, and computational entities. This metamodel resulted in the synthesis of a metaphor for, and generalization of organization evolution, serving as the recommended and appropriate analytical tool to view business dynamics for future applications. This study may manifest positive social change through a fundamental understanding of complexity in business from general information theories, resulting in more effective management.

  7. Information-Theoretic Inference of Large Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Meyer Patrick

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents MRNET, an original method for inferring genetic networks from microarray data. The method is based on maximum relevance/minimum redundancy (MRMR, an effective information-theoretic technique for feature selection in supervised learning. The MRMR principle consists in selecting among the least redundant variables the ones that have the highest mutual information with the target. MRNET extends this feature selection principle to networks in order to infer gene-dependence relationships from microarray data. The paper assesses MRNET by benchmarking it against RELNET, CLR, and ARACNE, three state-of-the-art information-theoretic methods for large (up to several thousands of genes network inference. Experimental results on thirty synthetically generated microarray datasets show that MRNET is competitive with these methods.

  8. Information-Theoretic Inference of Large Transcriptional Regulatory Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick E. Meyer

    2007-06-01

    Full Text Available The paper presents MRNET, an original method for inferring genetic networks from microarray data. The method is based on maximum relevance/minimum redundancy (MRMR, an effective information-theoretic technique for feature selection in supervised learning. The MRMR principle consists in selecting among the least redundant variables the ones that have the highest mutual information with the target. MRNET extends this feature selection principle to networks in order to infer gene-dependence relationships from microarray data. The paper assesses MRNET by benchmarking it against RELNET, CLR, and ARACNE, three state-of-the-art information-theoretic methods for large (up to several thousands of genes network inference. Experimental results on thirty synthetically generated microarray datasets show that MRNET is competitive with these methods.

  9. A Systematic Review of Current Understandings of Employability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Stella; Dodd, Lorna J.; Steele, Catherine; Randall, Raymond

    2016-01-01

    A theoretical framework is essential for the effective evaluation of employability. However, there are a wide range of definitions of employability coexisting in current literature. A review into existing ways in which employability has been conceptualised is needed to inform a better understanding of the nature of contributions made by various…

  10. Informality and employment vulnerability: application in sellers with subsistence work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garzón-Duque, María Osley; Cardona-Arango, María Doris; Rodríguez-Ospina, Fabio León; Segura-Cardona, Angela María

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe the origin, evolution, and application of the concept of employment vulnerability in workers who subsist on street sales. METHODS We have carried out an analysis of the literature in database in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, without restriction by country. This is a review of the gray literature of government reports, articles, and documents from Latin America and the Caribbean. We have analyzed information on the informal economy, social-employment vulnerability, and subsistence workers. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The concept of informal economy is dispersed and suggested as synonymous with employment vulnerability. As a polysemic term, it generates confusion and difficulty in identifying defined profiles of employment vulnerability in informal subsistence workers, who sell their products on the streets and sidewalks of cities. The lack of a clear concept and profile of employment vulnerability for this type of workers generates a restriction on defined actions to reduce employment vulnerability. The profiles could facilitate access to the acquisition of assets that support their structure of opportunities, facilitating and mediating in the passage from vulnerability to social mobility with opportunities. We propose as a concept of employment vulnerability for subsistence workers in the informal sector, the condition of those who must work by day to eat at night, who have little or no ownership of assets, and who have a minimum structure of opportunities to prevent, face, and resist the critical situations that occur daily, putting at risk their subsistence and that of the persons who are their responsibility, thus making the connection between social and employment vulnerability. PMID:29020122

  11. Informality and employment vulnerability: application in sellers with subsistence work

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Osley Garzón-Duque

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To describe the origin, evolution, and application of the concept of employment vulnerability in workers who subsist on street sales. METHODS We have carried out an analysis of the literature in database in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, without restriction by country. This is a review of the gray literature of government reports, articles, and documents from Latin America and the Caribbean. We have analyzed information on the informal economy, social-employment vulnerability, and subsistence workers. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The concept of informal economy is dispersed and suggested as synonymous with employment vulnerability. As a polysemic term, it generates confusion and difficulty in identifying defined profiles of employment vulnerability in informal subsistence workers, who sell their products on the streets and sidewalks of cities. The lack of a clear concept and profile of employment vulnerability for this type of workers generates a restriction on defined actions to reduce employment vulnerability. The profiles could facilitate access to the acquisition of assets that support their structure of opportunities, facilitating and mediating in the passage from vulnerability to social mobility with opportunities. We propose as a concept of employment vulnerability for subsistence workers in the informal sector, the condition of those who must work by day to eat at night, who have little or no ownership of assets, and who have a minimum structure of opportunities to prevent, face, and resist the critical situations that occur daily, putting at risk their subsistence and that of the persons who are their responsibility, thus making the connection between social and employment vulnerability.

  12. Informality and employment vulnerability: application in sellers with subsistence work.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garzón-Duque, María Osley; Cardona-Arango, María Doris; Rodríguez-Ospina, Fabio León; Segura-Cardona, Angela María

    2017-10-05

    To describe the origin, evolution, and application of the concept of employment vulnerability in workers who subsist on street sales. We have carried out an analysis of the literature in database in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, without restriction by country. This is a review of the gray literature of government reports, articles, and documents from Latin America and the Caribbean. We have analyzed information on the informal economy, social-employment vulnerability, and subsistence workers. The concept of informal economy is dispersed and suggested as synonymous with employment vulnerability. As a polysemic term, it generates confusion and difficulty in identifying defined profiles of employment vulnerability in informal subsistence workers, who sell their products on the streets and sidewalks of cities. The lack of a clear concept and profile of employment vulnerability for this type of workers generates a restriction on defined actions to reduce employment vulnerability. The profiles could facilitate access to the acquisition of assets that support their structure of opportunities, facilitating and mediating in the passage from vulnerability to social mobility with opportunities. We propose as a concept of employment vulnerability for subsistence workers in the informal sector, the condition of those who must work by day to eat at night, who have little or no ownership of assets, and who have a minimum structure of opportunities to prevent, face, and resist the critical situations that occur daily, putting at risk their subsistence and that of the persons who are their responsibility, thus making the connection between social and employment vulnerability.

  13. Biometric security from an information-theoretical perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ignatenko, T.; Willems, F.M.J.

    2012-01-01

    In this review, biometric systems are studied from an information theoretical point of view. In the first part biometric authentication systems are studied. The objective of these systems is, observing correlated enrollment and authentication biometric sequences, to generate or convey as large as

  14. Consultancy As Employment Options for Library And Information ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    If pursued independently it can actually function as an 'employer of labour and developed further to provide services both within and outside the immediate library environment. This paper examines the nature and prospects of consultancy as a suitable employment option for graduates of library and information science.

  15. Model selection and inference a practical information-theoretic approach

    CERN Document Server

    Burnham, Kenneth P

    1998-01-01

    This book is unique in that it covers the philosophy of model-based data analysis and an omnibus strategy for the analysis of empirical data The book introduces information theoretic approaches and focuses critical attention on a priori modeling and the selection of a good approximating model that best represents the inference supported by the data Kullback-Leibler information represents a fundamental quantity in science and is Hirotugu Akaike's basis for model selection The maximized log-likelihood function can be bias-corrected to provide an estimate of expected, relative Kullback-Leibler information This leads to Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and various extensions and these are relatively simple and easy to use in practice, but little taught in statistics classes and far less understood in the applied sciences than should be the case The information theoretic approaches provide a unified and rigorous theory, an extension of likelihood theory, an important application of information theory, and are ...

  16. From 'precarious informal employment' to 'protected employment': The 'positive transitioning effect' of trade unions

    OpenAIRE

    Serrano, Melisa R.; Xhafa, Edlira

    2016-01-01

    This paper aims at contributing to the discussions on the challenge of transitioning from precarious informal employment to more protected employment. This paper looks into a rather under-researched area - the role of trade unions in facilitating this process of 'transitioning' as well as in containing the spread of this type of employment. We refer to this process, along with its outcomes, as the 'positive transitioning effect' of trade unions. Through 10 case studies from nine countries (Br...

  17. An Information-Theoretic Approach to PMU Placement in Electric Power Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Qiao; Cui, Tao; Weng, Yang; Negi, Rohit; Franchetti, Franz; Ilic, Marija D.

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents an information-theoretic approach to address the phasor measurement unit (PMU) placement problem in electric power systems. Different from the conventional 'topological observability' based approaches, this paper advocates a much more refined, information-theoretic criterion, namely the mutual information (MI) between the PMU measurements and the power system states. The proposed MI criterion can not only include the full system observability as a special case, but also ca...

  18. Information-theoretic decomposition of embodied and situated systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Da Rold, Federico

    2018-07-01

    The embodied and situated view of cognition stresses the importance of real-time and nonlinear bodily interaction with the environment for developing concepts and structuring knowledge. In this article, populations of robots controlled by an artificial neural network learn a wall-following task through artificial evolution. At the end of the evolutionary process, time series are recorded from perceptual and motor neurons of selected robots. Information-theoretic measures are estimated on pairings of variables to unveil nonlinear interactions that structure the agent-environment system. Specifically, the mutual information is utilized to quantify the degree of dependence and the transfer entropy to detect the direction of the information flow. Furthermore, the system is analyzed with the local form of such measures, thus capturing the underlying dynamics of information. Results show that different measures are interdependent and complementary in uncovering aspects of the robots' interaction with the environment, as well as characteristics of the functional neural structure. Therefore, the set of information-theoretic measures provides a decomposition of the system, capturing the intricacy of nonlinear relationships that characterize robots' behavior and neural dynamics. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Identifying Employer Needs from Accounting Information Systems Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dillon, Thomas W.; Kruck, S. E.

    2008-01-01

    As the need for new hires with accounting and information technology knowledge increases, a new major in accounting information systems (AIS) has emerged. This new AIS degree is a hybrid of accounting concepts and common business subjects combined with key information technology issues. Employers were presented with 56 core content areas found in…

  20. Health information technology knowledge and skills needed by HIT employers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenton, S H; Gongora-Ferraez, M J; Joost, E

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate the health information technology (HIT) workforce knowledge and skills needed by HIT employers. Statewide face-to-face and online focus groups of identified HIT employer groups in Austin, Brownsville, College Station, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, and webinars for rural health and nursing informatics. HIT employers reported needing an HIT workforce with diverse knowledge and skills ranging from basic to advanced, while covering information technology, privacy and security, clinical practice, needs assessment, contract negotiation, and many other areas. Consistent themes were that employees needed to be able to learn on the job and must possess the ability to think critically and problem solve. Many employers wanted persons with technical skills, yet also the knowledge and understanding of healthcare operations. The HIT employer focus groups provided valuable insight into employee skills needed in this fast-growing field. Additionally, this information will be utilized to develop a statewide HIT workforce needs assessment survey.

  1. Does Formal Employment Reduce Informal Caregiving?

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Daifeng; McHenry, Peter

    2016-07-01

    Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we examine the impact of formal employment on informal caregiving. We instrument for individual work hours with state unemployment rates. We find that, among women of prime caregiving ages (40-64 years), working 10% more hours per week reduces the probability of providing informal care by about 2 percentage points. The effects are stronger for more time-intensive caregiving and if care recipients are household members. Our results imply that work-promoting policies have the unintended consequence of reducing informal caregiving in an aging society. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  2. Employer Perceptions of Critical Information Literacy Skills and Digital Badges

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raish, Victoria; Rimland, Emily

    2016-01-01

    Digital badges are an educational innovation used to measure learning of specific skills, such as information literacy. However, few studies have quantitatively surveyed employers for their perceptions about information literacy skills or digital badges. An online survey was developed and sent to employers to gauge perceptions of information…

  3. Information Ergonomics A theoretical approach and practical experience in transportation

    CERN Document Server

    Sandl, Peter

    2012-01-01

    The variety and increasing availability of hypermedia information systems, which are used in stationary applications like operators’ consoles as well as mobile systems, e.g. driver information and navigation systems in automobiles form a foundation for the mediatization of the society. From the human engineering point of view this development and the ensuing increased importance of information systems for economic and private needs require careful deliberation of the derivation and application of ergonomics methods particularly in the field of information systems. This book consists of two closely intertwined parts. The first, theoretical part defines the concept of an information system, followed by an explanation of action regulation as well as cognitive theories to describe man information system interaction. A comprehensive description of information ergonomics concludes the theoretical approach. In the second, practically oriented part of this book authors from industry as well as from academic institu...

  4. Employment and Work Motivation in the Information Economy: Transformation and Interrelation

    OpenAIRE

    Azmuk Nadiya A.

    2017-01-01

    The aim of the article is to study and systematize the trends in the transformation of employment and work motivation in the information economy. As a result of the study, the main trends in the transformation of employment in the information economy are identified. The interrelation between the transformation of employment and work motivation is substantiated. A comparative analysis of the main elements of the motivational model in the traditional and information economy is carried out. A ne...

  5. Molecular acidity: An accurate description with information-theoretic approach in density functional reactivity theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Xiaofang; Rong, Chunying; Zhong, Aiguo; Lu, Tian; Liu, Shubin

    2018-01-15

    Molecular acidity is one of the important physiochemical properties of a molecular system, yet its accurate calculation and prediction are still an unresolved problem in the literature. In this work, we propose to make use of the quantities from the information-theoretic (IT) approach in density functional reactivity theory and provide an accurate description of molecular acidity from a completely new perspective. To illustrate our point, five different categories of acidic series, singly and doubly substituted benzoic acids, singly substituted benzenesulfinic acids, benzeneseleninic acids, phenols, and alkyl carboxylic acids, have been thoroughly examined. We show that using IT quantities such as Shannon entropy, Fisher information, Ghosh-Berkowitz-Parr entropy, information gain, Onicescu information energy, and relative Rényi entropy, one is able to simultaneously predict experimental pKa values of these different categories of compounds. Because of the universality of the quantities employed in this work, which are all density dependent, our approach should be general and be applicable to other systems as well. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Locating sensors for detecting source-to-target patterns of special nuclear material smuggling: a spatial information theoretic approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Przybyla, Jay; Taylor, Jeffrey; Zhou, Xuesong

    2010-01-01

    In this paper, a spatial information-theoretic model is proposed to locate sensors for detecting source-to-target patterns of special nuclear material (SNM) smuggling. In order to ship the nuclear materials from a source location with SNM production to a target city, the smugglers must employ global and domestic logistics systems. This paper focuses on locating a limited set of fixed and mobile radiation sensors in a transportation network, with the intent to maximize the expected information gain and minimize the estimation error for the subsequent nuclear material detection stage. A Kalman filtering-based framework is adapted to assist the decision-maker in quantifying the network-wide information gain and SNM flow estimation accuracy.

  7. Locating Sensors for Detecting Source-to-Target Patterns of Special Nuclear Material Smuggling: A Spatial Information Theoretic Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuesong Zhou

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, a spatial information-theoretic model is proposed to locate sensors for detecting source-to-target patterns of special nuclear material (SNM smuggling. In order to ship the nuclear materials from a source location with SNM production to a target city, the smugglers must employ global and domestic logistics systems. This paper focuses on locating a limited set of fixed and mobile radiation sensors in a transportation network, with the intent to maximize the expected information gain and minimize the estimation error for the subsequent nuclear material detection stage. A Kalman filtering-based framework is adapted to assist the decision-maker in quantifying the network-wide information gain and SNM flow estimation accuracy.

  8. Towards integrating control and information theories from information-theoretic measures to control performance limitations

    CERN Document Server

    Fang, Song; Ishii, Hideaki

    2017-01-01

    This book investigates the performance limitation issues in networked feedback systems. The fact that networked feedback systems consist of control and communication devices and systems calls for the integration of control theory and information theory. The primary contributions of this book lie in two aspects: the newly-proposed information-theoretic measures and the newly-discovered control performance limitations. We first propose a number of information notions to facilitate the analysis. Using those notions, classes of performance limitations of networked feedback systems, as well as state estimation systems, are then investigated. In general, the book presents a unique, cohesive treatment of performance limitation issues of networked feedback systems via an information-theoretic approach. This book is believed to be the first to treat the aforementioned subjects systematically and in a unified manner, offering a unique perspective differing from existing books.

  9. Information theoretic bounds for compressed sensing in SAR imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jingxiong, Zhang; Ke, Yang; Jianzhong, Guo

    2014-01-01

    Compressed sensing (CS) is a new framework for sampling and reconstructing sparse signals from measurements significantly fewer than those prescribed by Nyquist rate in the Shannon sampling theorem. This new strategy, applied in various application areas including synthetic aperture radar (SAR), relies on two principles: sparsity, which is related to the signals of interest, and incoherence, which refers to the sensing modality. An important question in CS-based SAR system design concerns sampling rate necessary and sufficient for exact or approximate recovery of sparse signals. In the literature, bounds of measurements (or sampling rate) in CS have been proposed from the perspective of information theory. However, these information-theoretic bounds need to be reviewed and, if necessary, validated for CS-based SAR imaging, as there are various assumptions made in the derivations of lower and upper bounds on sub-Nyquist sampling rates, which may not hold true in CS-based SAR imaging. In this paper, information-theoretic bounds of sampling rate will be analyzed. For this, the SAR measurement system is modeled as an information channel, with channel capacity and rate-distortion characteristics evaluated to enable the determination of sampling rates required for recovery of sparse scenes. Experiments based on simulated data will be undertaken to test the theoretic bounds against empirical results about sampling rates required to achieve certain detection error probabilities

  10. THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATIONAL SERVICES REGIONAL MARKET EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I.N. Korabejnikov

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available The peculiarities and priorities of the informational services regional market formation as a part of network model of the economic development are described in this article. The authors present the classification of the factors which have an influence on the effectiveness of the informational services regional market development. Theoretical aspects of the informational services regional market effective development are shown.

  11. Information-theoretic signatures of biodiversity in the barcoding gene.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbosa, Valmir C

    2018-08-14

    Analyzing the information content of DNA, though holding the promise to help quantify how the processes of evolution have led to information gain throughout the ages, has remained an elusive goal. Paradoxically, one of the main reasons for this has been precisely the great diversity of life on the planet: if on the one hand this diversity is a rich source of data for information-content analysis, on the other hand there is so much variation as to make the task unmanageable. During the past decade or so, however, succinct fragments of the COI mitochondrial gene, which is present in all animal phyla and in a few others, have been shown to be useful for species identification through DNA barcoding. A few million such fragments are now publicly available through the BOLD systems initiative, thus providing an unprecedented opportunity for relatively comprehensive information-theoretic analyses of DNA to be attempted. Here we show how a generalized form of total correlation can yield distinctive information-theoretic descriptors of the phyla represented in those fragments. In order to illustrate the potential of this analysis to provide new insight into the evolution of species, we performed principal component analysis on standardized versions of the said descriptors for 23 phyla. Surprisingly, we found that, though based solely on the species represented in the data, the first principal component correlates strongly with the natural logarithm of the number of all known living species for those phyla. The new descriptors thus constitute clear information-theoretic signatures of the processes whereby evolution has given rise to current biodiversity, which suggests their potential usefulness in further related studies. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Employment and Work Motivation in the Information Economy: Transformation and Interrelation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Azmuk Nadiya A.

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to study and systematize the trends in the transformation of employment and work motivation in the information economy. As a result of the study, the main trends in the transformation of employment in the information economy are identified. The interrelation between the transformation of employment and work motivation is substantiated. A comparative analysis of the main elements of the motivational model in the traditional and information economy is carried out. A new form of interaction between remote digital workers in distributed teams is explored. A new element of the digital labor market – artificial intelligence – is characterized and its role and place in it is defined. Attention is focused on changing the role of artificial intelligence from the labor market object to its subject. There proposed the author’s definition of the concept “employment in the information economy”, which is based on the change in the essential characteristics of employment under the influence of the development of digital technologies. The interrelation between the transformation of employment and work motivation is substantiated. A comparative analysis of the main elements of the motivational model in the traditional and information economy is carried out. A new form of interaction between remote digital workers in distributed teams is explored.

  13. Employer's information and promotion-seeking activities

    OpenAIRE

    Epstein, Gil S.

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a model in which promotion of employees within the internal firm hierarchy is determined by the individuals' allocation of time between promotion/rent-seeking and productive activity. We consider the effect of an increase in the employer's knowledge (information) regarding the employees' productivity levels on the total time spent by the workers in non-productive promotion-seeking activities.

  14. Employer Branding

    OpenAIRE

    Stroblová, Zuzana

    2017-01-01

    The aim of the Master Thesis is to describe how to build Employer Brand a company. It is based on the description of Employer Branding project of a particular company and the evaluation its process. The thesis is a case study and consists of theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part focuses on trends and changes in leadership approach, definition of Employer Branding and HR Marketing. The practical part deals with the brand building process itself, describes the outputs of the proj...

  15. The Theoretical Principles of the Organization of Information Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kulikowski, Juliusz Lech

    A survey of the theoretical problems connected with the organization and design of systems for processing and transmitting information is presented in this article. It gives a definition of Information Systems (IS) and classifies them from various points of view. It discusses briefly the most important aspects of the organization of IS, such as…

  16. How Full is Full Employment? : How Tools and Not Theory Explained Full Employment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rodenburg, P.

    2016-01-01

    The post-war debate on full employment policy was blurred and unclear since the concept of full employment itself was theoretically unclear and un-operational. Unable to theoretically determine the unemployment level of full employment, economists tried to find more empirically based ways to

  17. Employment as a Price or a Prize of Equality: A Descriptive Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erling Barth

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available To put Scandinavian employment in perspective, we ask whether wage compression hampers employment rates, or not. We answer by reviewing the most important theoretical arguments and the most informative regularities across countries with different wage distributions. The pattern seems to be that countries with compressed wage distributions tend to have higher employment, and countries with higher wage inequality tend to have lower employment. This also holds when we consider the rate of labor force participation. In line with the theoretical arguments, coordination in wage bargaining seems to contribute to both employment expansion and wage compression. There is a clear positive correlation between coordination and employment even when we control for inequality, country, and year-specific effects.

  18. Theoretical aspects of cellular decision-making and information-processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Tetsuya J; Kamimura, Atsushi

    2012-01-01

    Microscopic biological processes have extraordinary complexity and variety at the sub-cellular, intra-cellular, and multi-cellular levels. In dealing with such complex phenomena, conceptual and theoretical frameworks are crucial, which enable us to understand seemingly different intra- and inter-cellular phenomena from unified viewpoints. Decision-making is one such concept that has attracted much attention recently. Since a number of cellular behavior can be regarded as processes to make specific actions in response to external stimuli, decision-making can cover and has been used to explain a broad range of different cellular phenomena [Balázsi et al. (Cell 144(6):910, 2011), Zeng et al. (Cell 141(4):682, 2010)]. Decision-making is also closely related to cellular information-processing because appropriate decisions cannot be made without exploiting the information that the external stimuli contain. Efficiency of information transduction and processing by intra-cellular networks determines the amount of information obtained, which in turn limits the efficiency of subsequent decision-making. Furthermore, information-processing itself can serve as another concept that is crucial for understanding of other biological processes than decision-making. In this work, we review recent theoretical developments on cellular decision-making and information-processing by focusing on the relation between these two concepts.

  19. Role of information theoretic uncertainty relations in quantum theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jizba, Petr; Dunningham, Jacob A.; Joo, Jaewoo

    2015-01-01

    Uncertainty relations based on information theory for both discrete and continuous distribution functions are briefly reviewed. We extend these results to account for (differential) Rényi entropy and its related entropy power. This allows us to find a new class of information-theoretic uncertainty relations (ITURs). The potency of such uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics is illustrated with a simple two-energy-level model where they outperform both the usual Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation and Shannon entropy based uncertainty relation. In the continuous case the ensuing entropy power uncertainty relations are discussed in the context of heavy tailed wave functions and Schrödinger cat states. Again, improvement over both the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty principle and Shannon ITUR is demonstrated in these cases. Further salient issues such as the proof of a generalized entropy power inequality and a geometric picture of information-theoretic uncertainty relations are also discussed

  20. Role of information theoretic uncertainty relations in quantum theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jizba, Petr, E-mail: p.jizba@fjfi.cvut.cz [FNSPE, Czech Technical University in Prague, Břehová 7, 115 19 Praha 1 (Czech Republic); ITP, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, D-14195 Berlin (Germany); Dunningham, Jacob A., E-mail: J.Dunningham@sussex.ac.uk [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH (United Kingdom); Joo, Jaewoo, E-mail: j.joo@surrey.ac.uk [Advanced Technology Institute and Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH (United Kingdom)

    2015-04-15

    Uncertainty relations based on information theory for both discrete and continuous distribution functions are briefly reviewed. We extend these results to account for (differential) Rényi entropy and its related entropy power. This allows us to find a new class of information-theoretic uncertainty relations (ITURs). The potency of such uncertainty relations in quantum mechanics is illustrated with a simple two-energy-level model where they outperform both the usual Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty relation and Shannon entropy based uncertainty relation. In the continuous case the ensuing entropy power uncertainty relations are discussed in the context of heavy tailed wave functions and Schrödinger cat states. Again, improvement over both the Robertson–Schrödinger uncertainty principle and Shannon ITUR is demonstrated in these cases. Further salient issues such as the proof of a generalized entropy power inequality and a geometric picture of information-theoretic uncertainty relations are also discussed.

  1. An Information-Theoretic-Cluster Visualization for Self-Organizing Maps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brito da Silva, Leonardo Enzo; Wunsch, Donald C

    2018-06-01

    Improved data visualization will be a significant tool to enhance cluster analysis. In this paper, an information-theoretic-based method for cluster visualization using self-organizing maps (SOMs) is presented. The information-theoretic visualization (IT-vis) has the same structure as the unified distance matrix, but instead of depicting Euclidean distances between adjacent neurons, it displays the similarity between the distributions associated with adjacent neurons. Each SOM neuron has an associated subset of the data set whose cardinality controls the granularity of the IT-vis and with which the first- and second-order statistics are computed and used to estimate their probability density functions. These are used to calculate the similarity measure, based on Renyi's quadratic cross entropy and cross information potential (CIP). The introduced visualizations combine the low computational cost and kernel estimation properties of the representative CIP and the data structure representation of a single-linkage-based grouping algorithm to generate an enhanced SOM-based visualization. The visual quality of the IT-vis is assessed by comparing it with other visualization methods for several real-world and synthetic benchmark data sets. Thus, this paper also contains a significant literature survey. The experiments demonstrate the IT-vis cluster revealing capabilities, in which cluster boundaries are sharply captured. Additionally, the information-theoretic visualizations are used to perform clustering of the SOM. Compared with other methods, IT-vis of large SOMs yielded the best results in this paper, for which the quality of the final partitions was evaluated using external validity indices.

  2. Expectancy-Violation and Information-Theoretic Models of Melodic Complexity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tuomas Eerola

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The present study assesses two types of models for melodic complexity: one based on expectancy violations and the other one related to an information-theoretic account of redundancy in music. Seven different datasets spanning artificial sequences, folk and pop songs were used to refine and assess the models. The refinement eliminated unnecessary components from both types of models. The final analysis pitted three variants of the two model types against each other and could explain from 46-74% of the variance in the ratings across the datasets. The most parsimonious models were identified with an information-theoretic criterion. This suggested that the simplified expectancy-violation models were the most efficient for these sets of data. However, the differences between all optimized models were subtle in terms both of performance and simplicity.

  3. Informal Employment and Quality of Life in Rural Areas of Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chreneková Marcela

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Informal economy is rather difficult to define and demarcate in the methodological context. International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2003 adopted a set of guidelines regarding definition of statistical categories of informal employment. These include for example employed unregistered own-account workers, contributing family workers, persons who work based on oral agreement, etc. Informal economy is a contentious topic in many developing countries as it brings about many elements that from several aspects adversely affect the development. The most commonly stressed are the fiscal implications (associated with tax revenue loss and some social concerns. However, in some parts of the world informal sector went from being considered as a negative occurrence to be tolerated as a partial solution to some of the challenges that hinder development of rural regions and communities. The aim of the paper is to determine the relationship between informal economy and level of development and quality of life in Ukrainian regions. The paper examines the role of informal economy in regional structure of Ukraine, while confronting the findings with regional divergence in relevant indicators of development and quality of life. There are statistically significant differences in the size of the informal employment among different types of Ukrainian regions (by rural-urban typology. With increasing share of informal employment in the regions, the income level of households decreases significantly even when we take into consideration the level of unemployment.

  4. Joining the Dots: Theoretically Connecting the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdTMoCA) with Supported Employment

    OpenAIRE

    de Bruyn, Marna; Wright, Jon

    2017-01-01

    The Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability (VdTMoCA) presents a framework for understanding client motivation and action in occupational therapy, emphasising the relationship between motivation and action. Similarly, motivation to work is regarded as the primary and in some instances, the only eligibility criterion for inclusion in supported employment services. This commentary explores the potential theoretical link between the VdTMoCA and supported employment, primarily applied to the South...

  5. Determinants of Informal Employment: A Case of Tanzania's ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    industry. A Logit regression model is employed in estimating factors that influence the choice ... International Labour Organization (ILO) (2013), the informal economy ... This study uses primary data which was collected in six most vibrant urban.

  6. Information density converges in dialogue: Towards an information-theoretic model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yang; Reitter, David

    2018-01-01

    The principle of entropy rate constancy (ERC) states that language users distribute information such that words tend to be equally predictable given previous contexts. We examine the applicability of this principle to spoken dialogue, as previous findings primarily rest on written text. The study takes into account the joint-activity nature of dialogue and the topic shift mechanisms that are different from monologue. It examines how the information contributions from the two dialogue partners interactively evolve as the discourse develops. The increase of local sentence-level information density (predicted by ERC) is shown to apply to dialogue overall. However, when the different roles of interlocutors in introducing new topics are identified, their contribution in information content displays a new converging pattern. We draw explanations to this pattern from multiple perspectives: Casting dialogue as an information exchange system would mean that the pattern is the result of two interlocutors maintaining their own context rather than sharing one. Second, we present some empirical evidence that a model of Interactive Alignment may include information density to explain the effect. Third, we argue that building common ground is a process analogous to information convergence. Thus, we put forward an information-theoretic view of dialogue, under which some existing theories of human dialogue may eventually be unified. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Theoretical Model of Development of Information Competence among Students Enrolled in Elective Courses

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhumasheva, Anara; Zhumabaeva, Zaida; Sakenov, Janat; Vedilina, Yelena; Zhaxylykova, Nuriya; Sekenova, Balkumis

    2016-01-01

    The current study focuses on the research topic of creating a theoretical model of development of information competence among students enrolled in elective courses. In order to examine specific features of the theoretical model of development of information competence among students enrolled in elective courses, we performed an analysis of…

  8. Theoretical information measurement in nonrelativistic time-dependent approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Najafizade, S. A.; Hassanabadi, H.; Zarrinkamar, S.

    2018-02-01

    The information-theoretic measures of time-dependent Schrödinger equation are investigated via the Shannon information entropy, variance and local Fisher quantities. In our calculations, we consider the two first states n = 0,1 and obtain the position Sx (t) and momentum Sp (t) Shannon entropies as well as Fisher information Ix (t) in position and momentum Ip (t) spaces. Using the Fourier transformed wave function, we obtain the results in momentum space. Some interesting features of the information entropy densities ρs (x,t) and γs (p,t), as well as the probability densities ρ (x,t) and γ (p,t) for time-dependent states are demonstrated. We establish a general relation between variance and Fisher's information. The Bialynicki-Birula-Mycielski inequality is tested and verified for the states n = 0,1.

  9. Set-Theoretic Approach to Maturity Models

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lasrado, Lester Allan

    Despite being widely accepted and applied, maturity models in Information Systems (IS) have been criticized for the lack of theoretical grounding, methodological rigor, empirical validations, and ignorance of multiple and non-linear paths to maturity. This PhD thesis focuses on addressing...... these criticisms by incorporating recent developments in configuration theory, in particular application of set-theoretic approaches. The aim is to show the potential of employing a set-theoretic approach for maturity model research and empirically demonstrating equifinal paths to maturity. Specifically...... methodological guidelines consisting of detailed procedures to systematically apply set theoretic approaches for maturity model research and provides demonstrations of it application on three datasets. The thesis is a collection of six research papers that are written in a sequential manner. The first paper...

  10. Information-Theoretic Properties of Auditory Sequences Dynamically Influence Expectation and Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agres, Kat; Abdallah, Samer; Pearce, Marcus

    2018-01-01

    A basic function of cognition is to detect regularities in sensory input to facilitate the prediction and recognition of future events. It has been proposed that these implicit expectations arise from an internal predictive coding model, based on knowledge acquired through processes such as statistical learning, but it is unclear how different types of statistical information affect listeners' memory for auditory stimuli. We used a combination of behavioral and computational methods to investigate memory for non-linguistic auditory sequences. Participants repeatedly heard tone sequences varying systematically in their information-theoretic properties. Expectedness ratings of tones were collected during three listening sessions, and a recognition memory test was given after each session. Information-theoretic measures of sequential predictability significantly influenced listeners' expectedness ratings, and variations in these properties had a significant impact on memory performance. Predictable sequences yielded increasingly better memory performance with increasing exposure. Computational simulations using a probabilistic model of auditory expectation suggest that listeners dynamically formed a new, and increasingly accurate, implicit cognitive model of the information-theoretic structure of the sequences throughout the experimental session. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  11. Information-Theoretical Analysis of EEG Microstate Sequences in Python

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frederic von Wegner

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available We present an open-source Python package to compute information-theoretical quantities for electroencephalographic data. Electroencephalography (EEG measures the electrical potential generated by the cerebral cortex and the set of spatial patterns projected by the brain's electrical potential on the scalp surface can be clustered into a set of representative maps called EEG microstates. Microstate time series are obtained by competitively fitting the microstate maps back into the EEG data set, i.e., by substituting the EEG data at a given time with the label of the microstate that has the highest similarity with the actual EEG topography. As microstate sequences consist of non-metric random variables, e.g., the letters A–D, we recently introduced information-theoretical measures to quantify these time series. In wakeful resting state EEG recordings, we found new characteristics of microstate sequences such as periodicities related to EEG frequency bands. The algorithms used are here provided as an open-source package and their use is explained in a tutorial style. The package is self-contained and the programming style is procedural, focusing on code intelligibility and easy portability. Using a sample EEG file, we demonstrate how to perform EEG microstate segmentation using the modified K-means approach, and how to compute and visualize the recently introduced information-theoretical tests and quantities. The time-lagged mutual information function is derived as a discrete symbolic alternative to the autocorrelation function for metric time series and confidence intervals are computed from Markov chain surrogate data. The software package provides an open-source extension to the existing implementations of the microstate transform and is specifically designed to analyze resting state EEG recordings.

  12. Farewell to the rightist self-employed? 'New self-employment' and political alignments

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jansen, Giedo

    This study aims to provide theoretical and empirical clarity on whether people in “new” and precarious self-employment support the same political parties as those in traditional forms. Theoretical clarity is needed as the voting literature predominantly perceives self-employment in terms of

  13. Information theoretic analysis of canny edge detection in visual communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Bo; Rahman, Zia-ur

    2011-06-01

    In general edge detection evaluation, the edge detectors are examined, analyzed, and compared either visually or with a metric for specific an application. This analysis is usually independent of the characteristics of the image-gathering, transmission and display processes that do impact the quality of the acquired image and thus, the resulting edge image. We propose a new information theoretic analysis of edge detection that unites the different components of the visual communication channel and assesses edge detection algorithms in an integrated manner based on Shannon's information theory. The edge detection algorithm here is considered to achieve high performance only if the information rate from the scene to the edge approaches the maximum possible. Thus, by setting initial conditions of the visual communication system as constant, different edge detection algorithms could be evaluated. This analysis is normally limited to linear shift-invariant filters so in order to examine the Canny edge operator in our proposed system, we need to estimate its "power spectral density" (PSD). Since the Canny operator is non-linear and shift variant, we perform the estimation for a set of different system environment conditions using simulations. In our paper we will first introduce the PSD of the Canny operator for a range of system parameters. Then, using the estimated PSD, we will assess the Canny operator using information theoretic analysis. The information-theoretic metric is also used to compare the performance of the Canny operator with other edge-detection operators. This also provides a simple tool for selecting appropriate edgedetection algorithms based on system parameters, and for adjusting their parameters to maximize information throughput.

  14. Information-theoretic temporal Bell inequality and quantum computation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morikoshi, Fumiaki

    2006-01-01

    An information-theoretic temporal Bell inequality is formulated to contrast classical and quantum computations. Any classical algorithm satisfies the inequality, while quantum ones can violate it. Therefore, the violation of the inequality is an immediate consequence of the quantumness in the computation. Furthermore, this approach suggests a notion of temporal nonlocality in quantum computation

  15. An information-theoretic approach to assess practical identifiability of parametric dynamical systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pant, Sanjay; Lombardi, Damiano

    2015-10-01

    A new approach for assessing parameter identifiability of dynamical systems in a Bayesian setting is presented. The concept of Shannon entropy is employed to measure the inherent uncertainty in the parameters. The expected reduction in this uncertainty is seen as the amount of information one expects to gain about the parameters due to the availability of noisy measurements of the dynamical system. Such expected information gain is interpreted in terms of the variance of a hypothetical measurement device that can measure the parameters directly, and is related to practical identifiability of the parameters. If the individual parameters are unidentifiable, correlation between parameter combinations is assessed through conditional mutual information to determine which sets of parameters can be identified together. The information theoretic quantities of entropy and information are evaluated numerically through a combination of Monte Carlo and k-nearest neighbour methods in a non-parametric fashion. Unlike many methods to evaluate identifiability proposed in the literature, the proposed approach takes the measurement-noise into account and is not restricted to any particular noise-structure. Whilst computationally intensive for large dynamical systems, it is easily parallelisable and is non-intrusive as it does not necessitate re-writing of the numerical solvers of the dynamical system. The application of such an approach is presented for a variety of dynamical systems--ranging from systems governed by ordinary differential equations to partial differential equations--and, where possible, validated against results previously published in the literature. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Book cover Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: ... of the global population that survives on less than $1 a day by the year 2015. ... Joann Vanek is a sociologies who specializes in social and gender statistics ...

  17. Boosting healthy heart employer-sponsored health dissemination efforts: identification and information-sharing intentions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, Keri K; Pastorek, Angie; Crook, Brittani; Mackert, Michael; Donovan, Erin E; Shalev, Heidi

    2015-01-01

    Health information dissemination options have expanded to include workplaces and employer-sponsored efforts. This study focuses on a core relational concept found in workplaces, organizational identification-the feeling of belongingness-and the impact of partnering with employers and health clinics in health information dissemination. We use social-identity theory and multiple identification to test our predictions from a sample of working adults representing more than 100 different employers. We found that when people strongly identify with their employer, they have increased health behavioral intentions and they intend to talk about the health information with coworkers. The significant models explain more than 50% and 30% of the variance in these two outcomes. The experimental results examining single and multiple organizational sources revealed no differences on any outcomes. These findings offer a contribution to health information dissemination research by articulating how identification with an employer functions to affect behavioral intentions.

  18. Information-Theoretic Inference of Common Ancestors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bastian Steudel

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available A directed acyclic graph (DAG partially represents the conditional independence structure among observations of a system if the local Markov condition holds, that is if every variable is independent of its non-descendants given its parents. In general, there is a whole class of DAGs that represents a given set of conditional independence relations. We are interested in properties of this class that can be derived from observations of a subsystem only. To this end, we prove an information-theoretic inequality that allows for the inference of common ancestors of observed parts in any DAG representing some unknown larger system. More explicitly, we show that a large amount of dependence in terms of mutual information among the observations implies the existence of a common ancestor that distributes this information. Within the causal interpretation of DAGs, our result can be seen as a quantitative extension of Reichenbach’s principle of common cause to more than two variables. Our conclusions are valid also for non-probabilistic observations, such as binary strings, since we state the proof for an axiomatized notion of “mutual information” that includes the stochastic as well as the algorithmic version.

  19. TRENDS OF EMPLOYMENT IN INFORMAL SECTOR IN ROMANIA DURING CRISIS;ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EFFECTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pisica Silvia

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available The present paper emphasizes the size and trend of employment in the informal sector as affected during the recent years by the crisis and by showing the relation with informal economy. The paper is structured on three parts. The first part focuses on the concepts and methodology popular and recommended by the international organizations together with the ones applied for the estimations presented in the paper. It brings information on the conceptual framework endorsed by International Labour Office (ILO on the 15-th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (15th ICLS - on informal sector (which was subsequently included in the revised international System of National Accounts, SNA 1993 and employment in informal sector - and on 17th ICLS, on informal employment. Methods used for obtaining the estimates for Romania figures on informal economy and employment are treated. For the informal economy the method used by National Statistical Institute of Romania (INS for estimating the underground economy and own calculations were used. For estimating the employment in informal sector a method developed by the authors was applied which consists, on short, on reconciliation between demand and supply available from statistical sources. Second part is dedicated to the analysis on the estimates produced, with observations on the trends induced by the crisis on informal economy and employment. The second also deals with several characteristics and dimensions of the employment in informal sector by gender and economic activities as well as the relation with several macroeconomic and social indicators. Finally, the third and last part proposes the direction of action and policies aimed to combat and reduce the informal sector and to transfer it into the light, visible side, i.e. the formal sector.

  20. Understanding Employee Awareness of Health Care Quality Information: How Can Employers Benefit?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abraham, Jean; Feldman, Roger; Carlin, Caroline

    2004-01-01

    Objective To analyze the factors associated with employee awareness of employer-disseminated quality information on providers. Data Sources Primary data were collected in 2002 on a stratified, random sample of 1,365 employees in 16 firms that are members of the Buyers Health Care Action Group (BHCAG) located in the Minneapolis–St. Paul region. An employer survey was also conducted to assess how employers communicated the quality information to employees. Study Design In 2001, BHCAG sponsored two programs for reporting provider quality. We specify employee awareness of the quality information to depend on factors that influence the benefits and costs of search. Factors influencing the benefits include age, sex, provider satisfaction, health status, job tenure, and Twin Cities tenure. Factors influencing search costs include employee income, education, and employer communication strategies. We estimate the model using bivariate probit analysis. Data Collection Employee data were collected by phone survey. Principal Findings Overall, the level of quality information awareness is low. However, employer communication strategies such as distributing booklets to all employees or making them available on request have a large effect on the probability of quality information awareness. Employee education and utilization of providers' services are also positively related to awareness. Conclusions This study is one of the first to investigate employee awareness of provider quality information. Given the direct implications for medical outcomes, one might anticipate higher rates of awareness regarding provider quality, relative to plan quality. However, we do not find empirical evidence to support this assertion. PMID:15533188

  1. Information Theoretic Tools for Parameter Fitting in Coarse Grained Models

    KAUST Repository

    Kalligiannaki, Evangelia; Harmandaris, Vagelis; Katsoulakis, Markos A.; Plechac, Petr

    2015-01-01

    We study the application of information theoretic tools for model reduction in the case of systems driven by stochastic dynamics out of equilibrium. The model/dimension reduction is considered by proposing parametrized coarse grained dynamics

  2. Carving the Information Literacy Niche within Graduate Employability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Towlson, Kaye; Rush, Nathan

    2013-01-01

    A teacher fellow project at De Montfort University explored the context and practicalities of developing a Graduate Skills Licence (Information Literacy) in answer to the current higher education drive for graduate employability. Research revealed the hidden complexities behind the development of an originally simple notion. It provided scope to…

  3. 78 FR 24468 - Proposed Information Collection (Inquiry Concerning Applicant for Employment) Activity; Comment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-25

    ... (Inquiry Concerning Applicant for Employment) Activity; Comment Request AGENCY: Office of Human Resources... the information needed to determine an applicant's suitability and qualification for employment. DATES... of automated collection techniques or the use of other forms of information technology. Title...

  4. 76 FR 45507 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Public Employment & Payroll Forms

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-29

    ... Employment & Payroll Forms AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce... employment and payroll program which consists of an annual collection of information and a quinquennial... Public Employment & Payroll. Under Title 13, Section 161 & 182, of the United States Code, the Secretary...

  5. On the information-theoretic approach to G\\"odel's incompleteness theorem

    OpenAIRE

    D'Abramo, Germano

    2002-01-01

    In this paper we briefly review and analyze three published proofs of Chaitin's theorem, the celebrated information-theoretic version of G\\"odel's incompleteness theorem. Then, we discuss our main perplexity concerning a key step common to all these demonstrations.

  6. An information-theoretic approach to the modeling and analysis of whole-genome bisulfite sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkinson, Garrett; Abante, Jordi; Feinberg, Andrew P; Goutsias, John

    2018-03-07

    DNA methylation is a stable form of epigenetic memory used by cells to control gene expression. Whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) has emerged as a gold-standard experimental technique for studying DNA methylation by producing high resolution genome-wide methylation profiles. Statistical modeling and analysis is employed to computationally extract and quantify information from these profiles in an effort to identify regions of the genome that demonstrate crucial or aberrant epigenetic behavior. However, the performance of most currently available methods for methylation analysis is hampered by their inability to directly account for statistical dependencies between neighboring methylation sites, thus ignoring significant information available in WGBS reads. We present a powerful information-theoretic approach for genome-wide modeling and analysis of WGBS data based on the 1D Ising model of statistical physics. This approach takes into account correlations in methylation by utilizing a joint probability model that encapsulates all information available in WGBS methylation reads and produces accurate results even when applied on single WGBS samples with low coverage. Using the Shannon entropy, our approach provides a rigorous quantification of methylation stochasticity in individual WGBS samples genome-wide. Furthermore, it utilizes the Jensen-Shannon distance to evaluate differences in methylation distributions between a test and a reference sample. Differential performance assessment using simulated and real human lung normal/cancer data demonstrate a clear superiority of our approach over DSS, a recently proposed method for WGBS data analysis. Critically, these results demonstrate that marginal methods become statistically invalid when correlations are present in the data. This contribution demonstrates clear benefits and the necessity of modeling joint probability distributions of methylation using the 1D Ising model of statistical physics and of

  7. Employers' Statutory Vicarious Liability in Terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daleen Millard

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available A person whose privacy has been infringed upon through the unlawful, culpable processing of his or her personal information can sue the infringer's employer based on vicarious liability or institute action based on the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPI. Section 99(1 of POPI provides a person (a "data subject" whose privacy has been infringed upon with the right to institute a civil action against the responsible party. POPI defines the responsible party as the person who determines the purpose of and means for the processing of the personal information of data subjects. Although POPI does not equate a responsible party to an employer, the term "responsible party" is undoubtedly a synonym for "employer" in this context. By holding an employer accountable for its employees' unlawful processing of a data subject's personal information, POPI creates a form of statutory vicarious liability. Since the defences available to an employer at common law and developed by case law differ from the statutory defences available to an employer in terms of POPI, it is necessary to compare the impact this new statute has on employers. From a risk perspective, employers must be aware of the serious implications of POPI. The question that arises is whether the Act perhaps takes matters too far. This article takes a critical look at the statutory defences available to an employer in vindication of a vicarious liability action brought by a data subject in terms of section 99(1 of POPI. It compares the defences found in section 99(2 of POPI and the common-law defences available to an employer fending off a delictual claim founded on the doctrine of vicarious liability. To support the argument that the statutory vicarious liability created by POPI is too harsh, the defences contained in section 99(2 of POPI are further analogised with those available to an employer in terms of section 60(4 of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA and other

  8. Exploring super-gaussianity towards robust information-theoretical time delay estimation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petsatodis, Theodoros; Talantzis, Fotios; Boukis, Christos

    2013-01-01

    the effect upon TDE when modeling the source signal with different speech-based distributions. An information theoretical TDE method indirectly encapsulating higher order statistics (HOS) formed the basis of this work. The underlying assumption of Gaussian distributed source has been replaced...

  9. Adaptive information-theoretic bounded rational decision-making with parametric priors

    OpenAIRE

    Grau-Moya, Jordi; Braun, Daniel A.

    2015-01-01

    Deviations from rational decision-making due to limited computational resources have been studied in the field of bounded rationality, originally proposed by Herbert Simon. There have been a number of different approaches to model bounded rationality ranging from optimality principles to heuristics. Here we take an information-theoretic approach to bounded rationality, where information-processing costs are measured by the relative entropy between a posterior decision strategy and a given fix...

  10. Informality as a stepping stone: A search-theoretical assessment of informal sector and government policy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Semih Tümen

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper develops a model of sequential job search to understand the factors determining the effect of tax and enforcement policies on the size (i.e., employment share of informal sector. The focus is on the role of informal sector as a stepping stone to formal jobs. I argue that the stepping-stone role of informal jobs is an important concept determining how strongly government policies affect the size of informal sector. I measure the extent of the stepping-stone role with the intensity of skill accumulation in the informal sector. If informal jobs help workers acquire skills, gain expertise, and build professional networks for boosting the chances to switch to a formal job, then the size of informal sector is less sensitive to government policy. In this case, the option value of a job in informal sector will be high and a worker with an informal job will not rush to switch to a formal job when a policy encouraging formal employment is in effect. If, on the other hand, informal sector does not provide satisfactory training opportunities, then the size of informal sector becomes more sensitive to government policy. Calibrating the model to the Brazilian data, I perform numerical exercises confirming that the effect of government policy on the size of informal sector is a decreasing function of the intensity of skill acquisition in the informal sector.

  11. 12 CFR 268.205 - Employment of aliens; Access to sensitive information.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Employment of aliens; Access to sensitive... Complaints § 268.205 Employment of aliens; Access to sensitive information. (a) Definitions. The definitions...— (i) A citizen or National of the United States, (ii) An alien who: (A) Meets the conditions set forth...

  12. [Can informal employment be compared in South America? Analysis of its definition, measurement and classification].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruiz, Marisol E; Tarafa Orpinell, Gemma; Jódar Martínez, Pere; Benach, Joan

    2015-01-01

    To characterize and analyze the situation of informal employment with regard to its definition, measurement and classification in South American countries. A literature review was conducted from four databases and grey literature through a scoping review, which included reports from international organizations and from the 12 countries in South America. The data were analyzed by evaluating content and establishing similarities among countries. The data reviewed showed a disparity in the definitions used, although many countries define informal employment as workers with no contract. Most countries measured informal employment through household surveys, but due to the differences in classifications, the information found was heterogeneous, with little standardization among registries. Therefore, the data could not be compared at a regional level. The definition of the International Labour Organization was not useful to study informal employment in the countries studied. The definition should include protected and unprotected workers. An appropriate and specific definition of informal employment would allow nuances to be studied within the concept, revealing the loopholes faced by most of the population working informally. The key to meaningful comparisons within the study region is to incorporate common indicators among local registration systems (measurement) in order to determine the public health impact in the informally employed population. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  13. 49 CFR 40.331 - To what additional parties must employers and service agents release information?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... service agents release information? 40.331 Section 40.331 Transportation Office of the Secretary of... Release of Information § 40.331 To what additional parties must employers and service agents release information? As an employer or service agent you must release information under the following circumstances...

  14. Information theoretic analysis of edge detection in visual communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Bo; Rahman, Zia-ur

    2010-08-01

    Generally, the designs of digital image processing algorithms and image gathering devices remain separate. Consequently, the performance of digital image processing algorithms is evaluated without taking into account the artifacts introduced into the process by the image gathering process. However, experiments show that the image gathering process profoundly impacts the performance of digital image processing and the quality of the resulting images. Huck et al. proposed one definitive theoretic analysis of visual communication channels, where the different parts, such as image gathering, processing, and display, are assessed in an integrated manner using Shannon's information theory. In this paper, we perform an end-to-end information theory based system analysis to assess edge detection methods. We evaluate the performance of the different algorithms as a function of the characteristics of the scene, and the parameters, such as sampling, additive noise etc., that define the image gathering system. The edge detection algorithm is regarded to have high performance only if the information rate from the scene to the edge approaches the maximum possible. This goal can be achieved only by jointly optimizing all processes. People generally use subjective judgment to compare different edge detection methods. There is not a common tool that can be used to evaluate the performance of the different algorithms, and to give people a guide for selecting the best algorithm for a given system or scene. Our information-theoretic assessment becomes this new tool to which allows us to compare the different edge detection operators in a common environment.

  15. 75 FR 39621 - Proposed Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity: Comment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-09

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS [OMB Control No. 2900-0002] Proposed Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity: Comment Request AGENCY: Veterans Benefits Administration... techniques or the use of other forms of information technology. Title: Income-Net Worth and Employment...

  16. 77 FR 20888 - Proposed Information Collection (Income, Net Worth, and Employment Statement) Activity: Comment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-04-06

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS [OMB Control No. 2900-0002] Proposed Information Collection (Income, Net Worth, and Employment Statement) Activity: Comment Request AGENCY: Veterans Benefits... techniques or the use of other forms of information technology. Title: Income, Net Worth, and Employment...

  17. 49 CFR 40.17 - Is an employer responsible for obtaining information from its service agents?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Is an employer responsible for obtaining... Responsibilities § 40.17 Is an employer responsible for obtaining information from its service agents? Yes, as an employer, you are responsible for obtaining information required by this part from your service agents...

  18. Returns to Qualification in Informal Employment: A Study of Urban Youth in Egypt

    OpenAIRE

    Frost, Jon

    2008-01-01

    Informal employment is a reality for roughly two-thirds of economically active youth in urban Egypt, and it has been argued to be correlated with poverty, poor working conditions, and few opportunities for advancement. This essay analyzes whether informal employment rewards job qualification measures, using survey data from 2006 and a Blinder-Oaxaca wage decomposition. After creating a taxonomy of formal, para-formal, and informal modes of qualification, it is shown that formal public and for...

  19. 78 FR 60303 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-10-01

    ...-NEW] Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New... information collection. (2) Title of the Form/Collection: Online Survey of Web Services Employers. (3) Agency... USCIS obtains data on the E-Verify Program Web Services. Gaining an understanding of the Web Services...

  20. An integrated organisation-wide data quality management and information governance framework: theoretical underpinnings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liaw, Siaw-Teng; Pearce, Christopher; Liyanage, Harshana; Liaw, Gladys S S; de Lusignan, Simon

    2014-01-01

    Increasing investment in eHealth aims to improve cost effectiveness and safety of care. Data extraction and aggregation can create new data products to improve professional practice and provide feedback to improve the quality of source data. A previous systematic review concluded that locally relevant clinical indicators and use of clinical record systems could support clinical governance. We aimed to extend and update the review with a theoretical framework. We searched PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, ABI Inform (Proquest) and Business Source Premier (EBSCO) using the terms curation, information ecosystem, data quality management (DQM), data governance, information governance (IG) and data stewardship. We focused on and analysed the scope of DQM and IG processes, theoretical frameworks, and determinants of the processing, quality assurance, presentation and sharing of data across the enterprise. There are good theoretical reasons for integrated governance, but there is variable alignment of DQM, IG and health system objectives across the health enterprise. Ethical constraints exist that require health information ecosystems to process data in ways that are aligned with improving health and system efficiency and ensuring patient safety. Despite an increasingly 'big-data' environment, DQM and IG in health services are still fragmented across the data production cycle. We extend current work on DQM and IG with a theoretical framework for integrated IG across the data cycle. The dimensions of this theory-based framework would require testing with qualitative and quantitative studies to examine the applicability and utility, along with an evaluation of its impact on data quality across the health enterprise.

  1. Introduction to the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health Employment Conditions Network (EMCONET) study, with a glossary on employment relations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Benach, Joan; Muntaner, Carles; Solar, Orielle; Santana, Vilma; Quinlan, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Although the conditions and power relations of employment are known to be crucial health determinants for workers and their families, the nature of these relations and their effects on health have yet to be fully researched. Several types of employment--precarious employment in developed countries; informal sectors, child labor, slavery, and bonded labor in developing countries--expose workers to risky working conditions. Hazardous work and occupation-related diseases kill approximately 1,500 workers, globally, every day. Growing scientific evidence suggests that particular employment conditions, such as job insecurity and precarious employment, create adverse health effects; yet the limited number of studies and the poor quality of their methods prevent our understanding, globally, the complexity of employer-employee power relations, working conditions, levels of social protections, and the reality of employment-related health inequalities. This article introduces a special section on employment-related health inequalities, derived from the EMCONET approach, which focuses on (1) describing major methods and sources of information; (2) presenting theoretical models at the micro and macro levels; (3) presenting a typology of labor markets and welfare states worldwide; (4) describing the main findings in employment policies, including four key points for implementing strategies; and (5) suggesting new research developments, a policy agenda, and recommendations. This introduction includes a glossary of terms in the emerging area of employment conditions and health inequalities.

  2. A comparison of SAR ATR performance with information theoretic predictions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blacknell, David

    2003-09-01

    Performance assessment of automatic target detection and recognition algorithms for SAR systems (or indeed any other sensors) is essential if the military utility of the system / algorithm mix is to be quantified. This is a relatively straightforward task if extensive trials data from an existing system is used. However, a crucial requirement is to assess the potential performance of novel systems as a guide to procurement decisions. This task is no longer straightforward since a hypothetical system cannot provide experimental trials data. QinetiQ has previously developed a theoretical technique for classification algorithm performance assessment based on information theory. The purpose of the study presented here has been to validate this approach. To this end, experimental SAR imagery of targets has been collected using the QinetiQ Enhanced Surveillance Radar to allow algorithm performance assessments as a number of parameters are varied. In particular, performance comparisons can be made for (i) resolutions up to 0.1m, (ii) single channel versus polarimetric (iii) targets in the open versus targets in scrubland and (iv) use versus non-use of camouflage. The change in performance as these parameters are varied has been quantified from the experimental imagery whilst the information theoretic approach has been used to predict the expected variation of performance with parameter value. A comparison of these measured and predicted assessments has revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the theoretical technique as will be discussed in the paper.

  3. Informal Employment, Poverty and Growth in India and China | IDRC ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Informal Employment, Poverty and Growth in India and China. The vast majority of workers in India, and an increasing share of the labour force in China, work ... Call for new OWSD Fellowships for Early Career Women Scientists now open.

  4. An integrated organisation-wide data quality management and information governance framework: theoretical underpinnings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siaw-Teng Liaw

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Introduction Increasing investment in eHealth aims to improve cost effectiveness and safety of care. Data extraction and aggregation can create new data products to improve professional practice and provide feedback to improve the quality of source data. A previous systematic review concluded that locally relevant clinical indicators and use of clinical record systems could support clinical governance. We aimed to extend and update the review with a theoretical framework.Methods We searched PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, ABI Inform (Proquest and Business Source Premier (EBSCO using the terms curation, information ecosystem, data quality management (DQM, data governance, information governance (IG and data stewardship. We focused on and analysed the scope of DQM and IG processes, theoretical frameworks, and determinants of the processing, quality assurance, presentation and sharing of data across the enterprise.Findings There are good theoretical reasons for integrated governance, but there is variable alignment of DQM, IG and health system objectives across the health enterprise. Ethical constraints exist that require health information ecosystems to process data in ways that are aligned with improving health and system efficiency and ensuring patient safety. Despite an increasingly ‘big-data’ environment, DQM and IG in health services are still fragmented across the data production cycle. We extend current work on DQM and IG with a theoretical framework for integrated IG across the data cycle.Conclusions The dimensions of this theory-based framework would require testing with qualitative and quantitative studies to examine the applicability and utility, along with an evaluation of its impact on data quality across the health enterprise.

  5. 78 FR 18425 - Proposed Information Collection VA Police Officer Pre-Employment Screening Checklist); Comment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-26

    ... techniques or the use of other forms of information technology. Title: VA Police Officer Pre-Employment... Police Officer Pre-Employment Screening Checklist); Comment Request AGENCY: Office of Operations... approved collection. Abstract: VA personnel complete VA Form 0120 to document pre- employment history and...

  6. An Elderly Employment Model For The Thai Automotive Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pornrat Sadangharn

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This research aims at studying an elderly employment model for the Thai automotive industry. Mixed methods with a sequential exploratory strategy were utilized. Grounded theory was employed by using in-depth interviews to investigate the characteristics of elderly employment in the Thai automotive industry. For this stage of the research, theoretical and purposive sampling was used to select 32 key informants from four groups of stakeholders: (1 elderly workers, (2 employers or human resource managers, (3 government officers, and (4 academics. The findings were then validated using a quantitative approach with structural equation modelling (SEM. A total of 308 elderly workers and human resource managers were surveyed regarding their opinion about elderly employment. Based on the survey, the elderly employment model in the Thai automotive industry, which is comprised of the approach to elderly employment, elderly employment preparation, and key success factors for elderly employment, was revealed to be a good fit. 

  7. The informal recycling in the international and local context: theoretical Elements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yepes P, Dora Luz

    2002-01-01

    This article is a synthesis of the theoretical aspects related with the urban problem of the informal recycling in our means, and it is framed inside the denominated investigation project alternatives for their invigoration of the informal recycling in Medellin, which is a thesis of the grade that looks for to strengthen the informal recycling through the study of the factors associated to the labor productivity of the informal recycle. Specifically, the study will identify options of improvement of its work y points to propose alternatives to dignify the labor of these people integrally by the light of environmental precepts, technicians, normative, institutional social and of sustainability. This document describe the theoretical elements in which this investigation will be based, showing the informal recycling inside of an international context, and their situation in a national and local environment. As a result of the bibliographical revision carried out, can be said, that it glimpses a low interest in to improve the conditions of work a International level of the informal recycle, unless the strategies that it outlines the international labor organization, with regard to the strengthening of the informal economy; in Latin America, it has not been possible to go further of the official rhetoric and the pro motion of the groups environmentalists, but in the issue of the recovery policies, reuse, and the recycling of solid wastes, if there. Has been a sustained advance; at national level clear strategies to improve the informal work of the recycle are being identified, however, lacks many efforts to develop the committed actions with these strategies, in spite of the fact that has been advancing the creation of recycle organizations little by little

  8. Quantum information theoretical analysis of various constructions for quantum secret sharing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rietjens, K.P.T.; Schoenmakers, B.; Tuyls, P.T.

    2005-01-01

    Recently, an information theoretical model for quantum secret sharing (QSS) schemes was introduced. By using this model, we prove that pure state quantum threshold schemes (QTS) can be constructed from quantum MDS codes and vice versa. In particular, we consider stabilizer codes and give a

  9. Physics Without Physics. The Power of Information-theoretical Principles

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Ariano, Giacomo Mauro

    2017-01-01

    David Finkelstein was very fond of the new information-theoretic paradigm of physics advocated by John Archibald Wheeler and Richard Feynman. Only recently, however, the paradigm has concretely shown its full power, with the derivation of quantum theory (Chiribella et al., Phys. Rev. A 84:012311, 2011; D'Ariano et al., 2017) and of free quantum field theory (D'Ariano and Perinotti, Phys. Rev. A 90:062106, 2014; Bisio et al., Phys. Rev. A 88:032301, 2013; Bisio et al., Ann. Phys. 354:244, 2015; Bisio et al., Ann. Phys. 368:177, 2016) from informational principles. The paradigm has opened for the first time the possibility of avoiding physical primitives in the axioms of the physical theory, allowing a re-foundation of the whole physics over logically solid grounds. In addition to such methodological value, the new information-theoretic derivation of quantum field theory is particularly interesting for establishing a theoretical framework for quantum gravity, with the idea of obtaining gravity itself as emergent from the quantum information processing, as also suggested by the role played by information in the holographic principle (Susskind, J. Math. Phys. 36:6377, 1995; Bousso, Rev. Mod. Phys. 74:825, 2002). In this paper I review how free quantum field theory is derived without using mechanical primitives, including space-time, special relativity, Hamiltonians, and quantization rules. The theory is simply provided by the simplest quantum algorithm encompassing a countable set of quantum systems whose network of interactions satisfies the three following simple principles: homogeneity, locality, and isotropy. The inherent discrete nature of the informational derivation leads to an extension of quantum field theory in terms of a quantum cellular automata and quantum walks. A simple heuristic argument sets the scale to the Planck one, and the currently observed regime where discreteness is not visible is the so-called "relativistic regime" of small wavevectors, which

  10. Characterising Information Systems in Australia: A Theoretical Framework

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gail Ridley

    2006-11-01

    Full Text Available The study reported in this volume aims to investigate the state of the Information Systems academic discipline in Australia from a historical and current perspective, collecting evidence across a range of dimensions. To maximise the strategic potential of the study, the results need to be capable of integration, so that the relationships within and across the dimensions and geographical units are understood. A meaningful theoretical framework will help relate the results of the different dimensions of the study to characterise the discipline in the region, and assist in empowering the Australian IS research community. This paper reviewed literature on the development of disciplines, before deriving a theoretical framework for the broader study reported in this volume. The framework considered the current and past state of IS in Australian universities from the perspective of the development of a discipline. The components of the framework were derived and validated through a thematic analysis of both the IS and non-IS literature. This paper also presents brief vignettes of the development of two other related disciplines. The framework developed in this paper, which has been partly guided by Whitley’s Theory of Scientific Change, has been used to analyse data collated from the Australian states and the Australian Capital Territory. The degree of variation in Australian IS as an indication of its “professionalisation”, the nature of its body of knowledge and its mechanisms of control, will be used to frame the analysis. Research reported in several of the papers that follow in this volume has drawn upon the theoretical framework presented below.

  11. Several foundational and information theoretic implications of Bell’s theorem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kar, Guruprasad; Banik, Manik

    2016-08-01

    In 1935, Albert Einstein and two colleagues, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen (EPR) developed a thought experiment to demonstrate what they felt was a lack of completeness in quantum mechanics (QM). EPR also postulated the existence of more fundamental theory where physical reality of any system would be completely described by the variables/states of that fundamental theory. This variable is commonly called hidden variable and the theory is called hidden variable theory (HVT). In 1964, John Bell proposed an empirically verifiable criterion to test for the existence of these HVTs. He derived an inequality, which must be satisfied by any theory that fulfill the conditions of locality and reality. He also showed that QM, as it violates this inequality, is incompatible with any local-realistic theory. Later it has been shown that Bell’s inequality (BI) can be derived from different set of assumptions and it also find applications in useful information theoretic protocols. In this review, we will discuss various foundational as well as information theoretic implications of BI. We will also discuss about some restricted nonlocal feature of quantum nonlocality and elaborate the role of Uncertainty principle and Complementarity principle in explaining this feature.

  12. 75 FR 45173 - Proposed Collection; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Form, Demographic Information...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-02

    ...) Form, Demographic Information on Applicants, OMB No. 3046-0046 AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel... add an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) form, Demographic Information on Applicants, OMB... with other demographic information, as part of their organizational self-analyses to determine whether...

  13. An Information Theoretic Analysis of Classification Sorting and Cognition by Ninth Grade Children within a Piagetian Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunlop, David Livingston

    The purpose of this study was to use an information theoretic memory model to quantitatively investigate classification sorting and recall behaviors of various groups of students. The model provided theorems for the determination of information theoretic measures from which inferences concerning mental processing were made. The basic procedure…

  14. Information-Theoretic Approaches for Evaluating Complex Adaptive Social Simulation Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Omitaomu, Olufemi A [ORNL; Ganguly, Auroop R [ORNL; Jiao, Yu [ORNL

    2009-01-01

    In this paper, we propose information-theoretic approaches for comparing and evaluating complex agent-based models. In information theoretic terms, entropy and mutual information are two measures of system complexity. We used entropy as a measure of the regularity of the number of agents in a social class; and mutual information as a measure of information shared by two social classes. Using our approaches, we compared two analogous agent-based (AB) models developed for regional-scale social-simulation system. The first AB model, called ABM-1, is a complex AB built with 10,000 agents on a desktop environment and used aggregate data; the second AB model, ABM-2, was built with 31 million agents on a highperformance computing framework located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and fine-resolution data from the LandScan Global Population Database. The initializations were slightly different, with ABM-1 using samples from a probability distribution and ABM-2 using polling data from Gallop for a deterministic initialization. The geographical and temporal domain was present-day Afghanistan, and the end result was the number of agents with one of three behavioral modes (proinsurgent, neutral, and pro-government) corresponding to the population mindshare. The theories embedded in each model were identical, and the test simulations focused on a test of three leadership theories - legitimacy, coercion, and representative, and two social mobilization theories - social influence and repression. The theories are tied together using the Cobb-Douglas utility function. Based on our results, the hypothesis that performance measures can be developed to compare and contrast AB models appears to be supported. Furthermore, we observed significant bias in the two models. Even so, further tests and investigations are required not only with a wider class of theories and AB models, but also with additional observed or simulated data and more comprehensive performance measures.

  15. A short course in quantum information theory. An approach from theoretical physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diosi, L.

    2007-01-01

    This short and concise primer takes the vantage point of theoretical physics and the unity of physics. It sets out to strip the burgeoning field of quantum information science to its basics by linking it to universal concepts in physics. An extensive lecture rather than a comprehensive textbook, this volume is based on courses delivered over several years to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, but essentially it addresses anyone with a working knowledge of basic quantum physics. Readers will find these lectures a most adequate entry point for theoretical studies in this field. (orig.)

  16. Informal employment in South Africa: Still missing pieces in the ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    kirstam

    those issues that must head a refocused research agenda on the broader ... Prof P.F. Blaauw is in the School of Economics, North West University (Potchefstroom Campus). ..... thoroughly the informal employment trajectories of day labourers and street waste .... Even teachers and nurses were part of this wave of migrants.

  17. Building Employer Capacity to Support Meaningful Employment for Persons with Developmental Disabilities: A Grounded Theory Study of Employment Support Perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rashid, Marghalara; Hodgetts, Sandra; Nicholas, David

    2017-11-01

    To explore strategies to build employer capacity to support people with DD in meaningful employment from perspective of employment support workers. A grounded theory study was conducted with 34 employment support individuals. A theoretical sampling approach was used to identify and recruit participants from multiple sites in Ontario and Alberta. Three main themes, with seven sub-themes, emerged: (1) experiences of supporting employment finding for people with DD, (2) institutional influences on employee experiences, and (3) attitudes, assumptions and stigma. Several recommendations related to building employer capacity were offered. Our findings provide insight on specific elements and strategies that can support building employer capacity for persons with DD.

  18. Theoretical framework for government information service delivery to deep rural communities in South Africa

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Mvelase, PS

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a study to determine the information requirements of communities in deep rural areas on government services and how this information can be made available to them. The study then proposes an e-government theoretical framework...

  19. 78 FR 54996 - Information Reporting by Applicable Large Employers on Health Insurance Coverage Offered Under...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-09-09

    ... Information Reporting by Applicable Large Employers on Health Insurance Coverage Offered Under Employer... credit to help individuals and families afford health insurance coverage purchased through an Affordable... or group health insurance coverage offered by an employer to the employee that is (1) a governmental...

  20. Open source tools for the information theoretic analysis of neural data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robin A. A Ince

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available The recent and rapid development of open-source software tools for the analysis of neurophysiological datasets consisting of multiple simultaneous recordings of spikes, field potentials and other neural signals holds the promise for a significant advance in the standardization, transparency, quality, reproducibility and variety of techniques used to analyze neurophysiological data and integrate the information obtained at different spatial and temporal scales. In this Review we focus on recent advances in open source toolboxes for the information theoretic analysis of neural responses. We also present examples of their use to investigate the role of spike timing precision, correlations across neurons and field potential fluctuations in the encoding of sensory information. These information toolboxes, available both in Matlab and Python programming environments, hold the potential to enlarge the domain of application of information theory to neuroscience and to lead to new discoveries about how neurons encode and transmit information.

  1. Open source tools for the information theoretic analysis of neural data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ince, Robin A A; Mazzoni, Alberto; Petersen, Rasmus S; Panzeri, Stefano

    2010-01-01

    The recent and rapid development of open source software tools for the analysis of neurophysiological datasets consisting of simultaneous multiple recordings of spikes, field potentials and other neural signals holds the promise for a significant advance in the standardization, transparency, quality, reproducibility and variety of techniques used to analyze neurophysiological data and for the integration of information obtained at different spatial and temporal scales. In this review we focus on recent advances in open source toolboxes for the information theoretic analysis of neural responses. We also present examples of their use to investigate the role of spike timing precision, correlations across neurons, and field potential fluctuations in the encoding of sensory information. These information toolboxes, available both in MATLAB and Python programming environments, hold the potential to enlarge the domain of application of information theory to neuroscience and to lead to new discoveries about how neurons encode and transmit information.

  2. The equivalence of information-theoretic and likelihood-based methods for neural dimensionality reduction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ross S Williamson

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Stimulus dimensionality-reduction methods in neuroscience seek to identify a low-dimensional space of stimulus features that affect a neuron's probability of spiking. One popular method, known as maximally informative dimensions (MID, uses an information-theoretic quantity known as "single-spike information" to identify this space. Here we examine MID from a model-based perspective. We show that MID is a maximum-likelihood estimator for the parameters of a linear-nonlinear-Poisson (LNP model, and that the empirical single-spike information corresponds to the normalized log-likelihood under a Poisson model. This equivalence implies that MID does not necessarily find maximally informative stimulus dimensions when spiking is not well described as Poisson. We provide several examples to illustrate this shortcoming, and derive a lower bound on the information lost when spiking is Bernoulli in discrete time bins. To overcome this limitation, we introduce model-based dimensionality reduction methods for neurons with non-Poisson firing statistics, and show that they can be framed equivalently in likelihood-based or information-theoretic terms. Finally, we show how to overcome practical limitations on the number of stimulus dimensions that MID can estimate by constraining the form of the non-parametric nonlinearity in an LNP model. We illustrate these methods with simulations and data from primate visual cortex.

  3. Optimal information transfer in enzymatic networks: A field theoretic formulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samanta, Himadri S.; Hinczewski, Michael; Thirumalai, D.

    2017-07-01

    Signaling in enzymatic networks is typically triggered by environmental fluctuations, resulting in a series of stochastic chemical reactions, leading to corruption of the signal by noise. For example, information flow is initiated by binding of extracellular ligands to receptors, which is transmitted through a cascade involving kinase-phosphatase stochastic chemical reactions. For a class of such networks, we develop a general field-theoretic approach to calculate the error in signal transmission as a function of an appropriate control variable. Application of the theory to a simple push-pull network, a module in the kinase-phosphatase cascade, recovers the exact results for error in signal transmission previously obtained using umbral calculus [Hinczewski and Thirumalai, Phys. Rev. X 4, 041017 (2014), 10.1103/PhysRevX.4.041017]. We illustrate the generality of the theory by studying the minimal errors in noise reduction in a reaction cascade with two connected push-pull modules. Such a cascade behaves as an effective three-species network with a pseudointermediate. In this case, optimal information transfer, resulting in the smallest square of the error between the input and output, occurs with a time delay, which is given by the inverse of the decay rate of the pseudointermediate. Surprisingly, in these examples the minimum error computed using simulations that take nonlinearities and discrete nature of molecules into account coincides with the predictions of a linear theory. In contrast, there are substantial deviations between simulations and predictions of the linear theory in error in signal propagation in an enzymatic push-pull network for a certain range of parameters. Inclusion of second-order perturbative corrections shows that differences between simulations and theoretical predictions are minimized. Our study establishes that a field theoretic formulation of stochastic biological signaling offers a systematic way to understand error propagation in

  4. 76 FR 42131 - Agency Information Collection Activities: DHS Individual Complaint of Employment Discrimination

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-18

    ... Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) (29 U.S.C. 621 et seq.) (age), the Equal Pay Act (29 U.S.C. 206(d)) (sex... Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). DHS previously published this information...: It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in employment...

  5. 77 FR 37715 - Comment Request for Information Collection for Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) for UI Claimants...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-06-22

    ... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration Comment Request for Information Collection for Self-Employment Assistance (SEA) for UI Claimants, Extension Without Revisions AGENCY... changes. Title: Self-Employment Assistance for UI Claimants. OMB Number: 1205-0490. Affected Public: State...

  6. Phenomenological description of selected elementary chemical reaction mechanisms: An information-theoretic study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Esquivel, R.O.; Flores-Gallegos, N.; Iuga, C.; Carrera, E.M.; Angulo, J.C.; Antolin, J.

    2010-01-01

    The information-theoretic description of the course of two elementary chemical reactions allows a phenomenological description of the chemical course of the hydrogenic abstraction and the S N 2 identity reactions by use of Shannon entropic measures in position and momentum spaces. The analyses reveal their synchronous/asynchronous mechanistic behavior.

  7. Information-theoretic model selection for optimal prediction of stochastic dynamical systems from data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darmon, David

    2018-03-01

    In the absence of mechanistic or phenomenological models of real-world systems, data-driven models become necessary. The discovery of various embedding theorems in the 1980s and 1990s motivated a powerful set of tools for analyzing deterministic dynamical systems via delay-coordinate embeddings of observations of their component states. However, in many branches of science, the condition of operational determinism is not satisfied, and stochastic models must be brought to bear. For such stochastic models, the tool set developed for delay-coordinate embedding is no longer appropriate, and a new toolkit must be developed. We present an information-theoretic criterion, the negative log-predictive likelihood, for selecting the embedding dimension for a predictively optimal data-driven model of a stochastic dynamical system. We develop a nonparametric estimator for the negative log-predictive likelihood and compare its performance to a recently proposed criterion based on active information storage. Finally, we show how the output of the model selection procedure can be used to compare candidate predictors for a stochastic system to an information-theoretic lower bound.

  8. Information-theoretic discrepancy based iterative reconstructions (IDIR) for polychromatic x-ray tomography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jang, Kwang Eun; Lee, Jongha; Sung, Younghun; Lee, SeongDeok

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: X-ray photons generated from a typical x-ray source for clinical applications exhibit a broad range of wavelengths, and the interactions between individual particles and biological substances depend on particles' energy levels. Most existing reconstruction methods for transmission tomography, however, neglect this polychromatic nature of measurements and rely on the monochromatic approximation. In this study, we developed a new family of iterative methods that incorporates the exact polychromatic model into tomographic image recovery, which improves the accuracy and quality of reconstruction.Methods: The generalized information-theoretic discrepancy (GID) was employed as a new metric for quantifying the distance between the measured and synthetic data. By using special features of the GID, the objective function for polychromatic reconstruction which contains a double integral over the wavelength and the trajectory of incident x-rays was simplified to a paraboloidal form without using the monochromatic approximation. More specifically, the original GID was replaced with a surrogate function with two auxiliary, energy-dependent variables. Subsequently, the alternating minimization technique was applied to solve the double minimization problem. Based on the optimization transfer principle, the objective function was further simplified to the paraboloidal equation, which leads to a closed-form update formula. Numerical experiments on the beam-hardening correction and material-selective reconstruction were conducted to compare and assess the performance of conventional methods and the proposed algorithms.Results: The authors found that the GID determines the distance between its two arguments in a flexible manner. In this study, three groups of GIDs with distinct data representations were considered. The authors demonstrated that one type of GIDs that comprises “raw” data can be viewed as an extension of existing statistical reconstructions; under a

  9. PROMOTION OF ACTIVE MEASURES AND EMPLOYMENT STIMULATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    LAVINIA ELISABETA POPP

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Researches in the field of the labour market has allowed the identification of certain specific mechanisms for employment promotion; at present, on the Romanian labour market we find passive policies, concretised in financial aids paid to the unemployed, along with active policies, constituting the most efficient social protection activity addressed to the unemployed (they aim at counterbalancing the inefficiencies determined by the granting of financial allowances, help population to find a job by actions of information, professional training and contributing to the encouragement of the labour force mobility. The paper refers to some theoretical considerations related to the influence factors of employment stimulation, as well as to the unemployment – correlated adequate measures synapse. The applied research comprises the analysis of statistic documents; the method used is the case study, i.e. the activity of employment stimulation carried on by the County Agency for Employment Caraş-Severin, in the period 2004-2012. The conclusions highlight the impact of the activity of the institutions involved in the system of social protection and security within the labour market.

  10. Employers' Perceptions of Information Technology Competency Requirements for Management Accounting Graduates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spraakman, Gary; O'Grady, Winifred; Askarany, Davood; Akroyd, Chris

    2015-01-01

    Management accountants work in a computerized workplace with information technology (IT) for producing financial ledgers and for reporting. Thus, the role of the management accountant has shifted from capturing and recording transactions to analyzing business issues. The research question is: what IT knowledge and skills do employers require of…

  11. Making the Ineffable Explicit: Estimating the Information Employed for Face Classifications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mangini, Michael C.; Biederman, Irving

    2004-01-01

    When we look at a face, we readily perceive that person's gender, expression, identity, age, and attractiveness. Perceivers as well as scientists have hitherto had little success in articulating just what information we are employing to achieve these subjectively immediate and effortless classifications. We describe here a method that estimates…

  12. On the Determinants of Employment-Related Organised Education and Informal Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nilsson, Staffan; Rubenson, Kjell

    2014-01-01

    This paper analyses the distribution of employment-related organised education and informal learning in the Canadian workforce. The paper draws on a large-scale survey, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), which was based on structured and standardised telephone interviews with a representative sample of 5783 Canadian members…

  13. Information Theoretic Tools for Parameter Fitting in Coarse Grained Models

    KAUST Repository

    Kalligiannaki, Evangelia

    2015-01-07

    We study the application of information theoretic tools for model reduction in the case of systems driven by stochastic dynamics out of equilibrium. The model/dimension reduction is considered by proposing parametrized coarse grained dynamics and finding the optimal parameter set for which the relative entropy rate with respect to the atomistic dynamics is minimized. The minimization problem leads to a generalization of the force matching methods to non equilibrium systems. A multiplicative noise example reveals the importance of the diffusion coefficient in the optimization problem.

  14. Information Management in Portugal: education and employment conditions and some prospects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Cristina Vieira de Freitas

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The Professors Cristina Freitas and Maria da Graça Simões answer questions prepared by teachers from the Faculdade de Informação e Comunicação (Gestão da Informação Undergraduate Degree da Universidade Federal de Goiás - UFG. The questions are related to the educational structure dedicated to the issues of information management in Portugal, the influence of the "Big Data" phenomenon on education and training in the area - including discussions on data governance, the fundation areas of Information Management and the main approaches to information research in the Country. Besides, they discuss the employment conditions (threats and opportunities for professionals in Information Management in Portugal and in Europe [Available Language: Portuguese/Portugal].

  15. Information-theoretic semi-supervised metric learning via entropy regularization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Gang; Dai, Bo; Yamada, Makoto; Sugiyama, Masashi

    2014-08-01

    We propose a general information-theoretic approach to semi-supervised metric learning called SERAPH (SEmi-supervised metRic leArning Paradigm with Hypersparsity) that does not rely on the manifold assumption. Given the probability parameterized by a Mahalanobis distance, we maximize its entropy on labeled data and minimize its entropy on unlabeled data following entropy regularization. For metric learning, entropy regularization improves manifold regularization by considering the dissimilarity information of unlabeled data in the unsupervised part, and hence it allows the supervised and unsupervised parts to be integrated in a natural and meaningful way. Moreover, we regularize SERAPH by trace-norm regularization to encourage low-dimensional projections associated with the distance metric. The nonconvex optimization problem of SERAPH could be solved efficiently and stably by either a gradient projection algorithm or an EM-like iterative algorithm whose M-step is convex. Experiments demonstrate that SERAPH compares favorably with many well-known metric learning methods, and the learned Mahalanobis distance possesses high discriminability even under noisy environments.

  16. 77 FR 24225 - Information Collection Approval; Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment of H-2B Aliens in the...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-04-23

    ... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration Information Collection Approval; Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment of H-2B Aliens in the United States AGENCY: Employment and Training... the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment of H-2B Aliens in the United States; Final Rule. See 77 FR...

  17. A game theoretic investigation of deception in network security

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carroll, Thomas E.; Grosu, Daniel

    2010-12-03

    We perform a game theoretic investigation of the effects of deception on the interactions between an attacker and a defender of a computer network. The defender can employ camouflage by either disguising a normal system as a honeypot or by disguising a honeypot as a normal system. We model the interactions between defender and attacker using a signaling game, a non-cooperative two player dynamic game of incomplete information. For this model, we determine which strategies admit perfect Bayesian equilibria. These equilibria are refined Nash equilibria in which neither the defender nor the attacker will unilaterally choose to deviate from their strategies. Finally, we discuss the benefits of employing deceptive equilibrium strategies in the defense of a computer network.

  18. An employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annelize Botha

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Orientation: In an ever shrinking global talent pool organisations use employer brand to attract and retain talent, however, in the absence of theoretical pointers, many organisations are losing out on a powerful business tool by not developing or maintaining their employer brand correctly. Research purpose: This study explores the current state of knowledge about employer brand and identifies the various employer brand building blocks which are conceptually integrated in a predictive model. Motivation for the study: The need for scientific progress though the accurate representation of a set of employer brand phenomena and propositions, which can be empirically tested, motivated this study. Research design, approach and method: This study was nonempirical in approach and searched for linkages between theoretical concepts by making use of relevant contextual data. Theoretical propositions which explain the identified linkages were developed for purpose of further empirical research. Main findings: Key findings suggested that employer brand is influenced by target group needs, a differentiated Employer Value Proposition (EVP, the people strategy, brand consistency, communication of the employer brand and measurement of Human Resources (HR employer branding efforts. Practical/managerial implications: The predictive model provides corporate leaders and their human resource functionaries a theoretical pointer relative to employer brand which could guide more effective talent attraction and retention decisions. Contribution/value add: This study adds to the small base of research available on employer brand and contributes to both scientific progress as well as an improved practical understanding of factors which influence employer brand.

  19. Information retrieval for children based on the aggregated search paradigm

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Duarte Torres, Sergio

    This report presents research to develop information services for children by expanding and adapting current Information retrieval technologies according to the search characteristics and needs of children. Concretely, we will employ the aggregated search paradigm as theoretical framework. The

  20. INFORMATION TECHONOLOGY AND LIFELONG EDUCATION – IMPLICATIONS ON THE EU EMPLOYED POPULATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Catalina Timiras

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The quality and the skills of human resources are important factors in the success of every organization wherever it act. Moreover this is really true in a very competitive market such as European Union. In the European Union the number of persons who are taking part in high education studies after the age of 25 years has seen an upward trend in recent years, increasing thus the share of employed graduates of tertiary education in total employment over 25 years. This increase is generated by the access to education forms adapted in terms of time and location of training. The appearance and development of these forms can be explained by the use of information technology (Internet access. Statistics show that in the EU, household access to the Internet and its frequency of use was also increasing, approximately 80% of all persons aged 16 to 74 years have ever used this information and communication tool.

  1. Information-theoretic limitations on approximate quantum cloning and broadcasting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemm, Marius; Wilde, Mark M.

    2017-07-01

    We prove quantitative limitations on any approximate simultaneous cloning or broadcasting of mixed states. The results are based on information-theoretic (entropic) considerations and generalize the well-known no-cloning and no-broadcasting theorems. We also observe and exploit the fact that the universal cloning machine on the symmetric subspace of n qudits and symmetrized partial trace channels are dual to each other. This duality manifests itself both in the algebraic sense of adjointness of quantum channels and in the operational sense that a universal cloning machine can be used as an approximate recovery channel for a symmetrized partial trace channel and vice versa. The duality extends to give control of the performance of generalized universal quantum cloning machines (UQCMs) on subspaces more general than the symmetric subspace. This gives a way to quantify the usefulness of a priori information in the context of cloning. For example, we can control the performance of an antisymmetric analog of the UQCM in recovering from the loss of n -k fermionic particles.

  2. Information-Theoretic Perspectives on Geophysical Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nearing, Grey

    2016-04-01

    practice of science (except by Gong et al., 2013, whose fundamental insight is the basis for this talk), and here I offer two examples of practical methods that scientists might use to approximately measure ontological information. I place this practical discussion in the context of several recent and high-profile experiments that have found that simple out-of-sample statistical models typically (vastly) outperform our most sophisticated terrestrial hydrology models. I offer some perspective on several open questions about how to use these findings to improve our models and understanding of these systems. Cartwright, N. (1983) How the Laws of Physics Lie. New York, NY: Cambridge Univ Press. Clark, M. P., Kavetski, D. and Fenicia, F. (2011) 'Pursuing the method of multiple working hypotheses for hydrological modeling', Water Resources Research, 47(9). Cover, T. M. and Thomas, J. A. (1991) Elements of Information Theory. New York, NY: Wiley-Interscience. Cox, R. T. (1946) 'Probability, frequency and reasonable expectation', American Journal of Physics, 14, pp. 1-13. Csiszár, I. (1972) 'A Class of Measures of Informativity of Observation Channels', Periodica Mathematica Hungarica, 2(1), pp. 191-213. Davies, P. C. W. (1990) 'Why is the physical world so comprehensible', Complexity, entropy and the physics of information, pp. 61-70. Gong, W., Gupta, H. V., Yang, D., Sricharan, K. and Hero, A. O. (2013) 'Estimating Epistemic & Aleatory Uncertainties During Hydrologic Modeling: An Information Theoretic Approach', Water Resources Research, 49(4), pp. 2253-2273. Jaynes, E. T. (2003) Probability Theory: The Logic of Science. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Nearing, G. S. and Gupta, H. V. (2015) 'The quantity and quality of information in hydrologic models', Water Resources Research, 51(1), pp. 524-538. Popper, K. R. (2002) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Routledge. Van Horn, K. S. (2003) 'Constructing a logic of plausible inference: a guide to cox's theorem

  3. Comparison of information-theoretic to statistical methods for gene-gene interactions in the presence of genetic heterogeneity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sucheston Lara

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Multifactorial diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases are caused by the complex interplay between genes and environment. The detection of these interactions remains challenging due to computational limitations. Information theoretic approaches use computationally efficient directed search strategies and thus provide a feasible solution to this problem. However, the power of information theoretic methods for interaction analysis has not been systematically evaluated. In this work, we compare power and Type I error of an information-theoretic approach to existing interaction analysis methods. Methods The k-way interaction information (KWII metric for identifying variable combinations involved in gene-gene interactions (GGI was assessed using several simulated data sets under models of genetic heterogeneity driven by susceptibility increasing loci with varying allele frequency, penetrance values and heritability. The power and proportion of false positives of the KWII was compared to multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR, restricted partitioning method (RPM and logistic regression. Results The power of the KWII was considerably greater than MDR on all six simulation models examined. For a given disease prevalence at high values of heritability, the power of both RPM and KWII was greater than 95%. For models with low heritability and/or genetic heterogeneity, the power of the KWII was consistently greater than RPM; the improvements in power for the KWII over RPM ranged from 4.7% to 14.2% at for α = 0.001 in the three models at the lowest heritability values examined. KWII performed similar to logistic regression. Conclusions Information theoretic models are flexible and have excellent power to detect GGI under a variety of conditions that characterize complex diseases.

  4. THE WIND EMPLOYMENT IN SPAIN (1995-2010: A THEORETICAL APPROXIMATION APPLIED TO THE REGION OF GALICIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rosa Maria Regueiro Ferreira

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The development of the renewable energies, and especially of the wind power, in the last decades has stayed out of any discussion. The advantages associated with the energy of the odd wind have considered in occasions authentic information that they them should corroborate. For example, about the streghness of creating jobs, there do not exist official statistics that gather the dimension of the created employment, without forgetting that the field of the energy stands out for being intensive in the capital. In this paper, there is realized an analysis of the different bibliographical sources relative to the generation of employment in the wind sector in Spain, establishing a few margins of the creation of the same one for categories for the region of Galicia, in the period (1995-2010.

  5. 75 FR 59294 - Comment Request for Information Collection for The Data Validation Requirement for Employment and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-27

    ... and reliable information on program activities and outcomes is available. Data validation is intended... handbooks provide detailed information on software installation, building and importing a validation file... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration Comment Request for Information...

  6. Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW: A Semiotic Theoretical and Empirical Exploration of the Hierarchy and its Quality Dimension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sasa Baskarada

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available What exactly is the difference between data and information? What is the difference between data quality and information quality; is there any difference between the two? And, what are knowledge and wisdom? Are there such things as knowledge quality and wisdom quality? As these primitives are the most basic axioms of information systems research, it is somewhat surprising that consensus on exact definitions seems to be lacking. This paper presents a theoretical and empirical exploration of the sometimes directly quoted, and often implied Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW hierarchy and its quality dimension. We first review relevant literature from a range of perspectives and develop and contextualise a theoretical DIKW framework through semiotics. The literature review identifies definitional commonalities and divergences from a scholarly perspective; the theoretical discussion contextualises the terms and their relationships within a semiotic framework and proposes relevant definitions grounded in that framework. Next, rooted in Wittgenstein’s ordinary language philosophy, we analyse 20 online news articles for their uses of the terms and present the results of an online focus group discussion comprising 16 information systems experts. The empirical exploration identifies a range of definitional ambiguities from a practical perspective.

  7. Overview. Department of Theoretical Physics. Section 4

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kwiecinski, J. [Institute of Nuclear Physics, Cracow (Poland)

    1995-12-31

    Research activity of the Department of the Theoretical Physics spans a wide variety of problems in theoretical high-energy and elementary particle physics, theoretical nuclear physics, theory of the nuclear matter, quark gluon plasma and relativistic heavy-ion collisions, theoretical astrophysics, as well as general physics. Theoretical research in high energy and elementary particle physics is concentrated on the theory of deep inelastic lepton scattering in the region of low x and its phenomenological implication for the ep collider HERA at DESY, on the theory of nonleptonic decays of hadrons, and on low energy {pi}{pi} and K-anti-K interactions and scalar meson spectroscopy. The activity in the theory of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is focused on the study of quark condensate fluctuations, on the analysis of critical scattering near the chiral phase transition, and on Bose-Einstein correlation in heavy-ion collisions. Theoretical studies in nuclear physics and in theory of nuclear matter concern analysis of models, with dynamical symmetry based on group S{sub p}(6,R) for the description of collective modes of atomic nuclei, analysis of the Goldstone bosons in nuclear matter and analysis of saturation properties of nuclear matter. Research in theoretical astrophysics is mainly devoted to the analysis of magnetic properties of hadronic matter in neutron stars with proton admixture. Studies in general physics concern problem related to the Galilean covariance of classical and quantum mechanics. The detailed results obtained in various fields are summarised in presented abstracts as well as information about employed personnel, publications, contribution to conferences, reports, workshops and seminars.

  8. Overview. Department of Theoretical Physics. Section 4

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kwiecinski, J [Institute of Nuclear Physics, Cracow (Poland)

    1996-12-31

    Research activity of the Department of the Theoretical Physics spans a wide variety of problems in theoretical high-energy and elementary particle physics, theoretical nuclear physics, theory of the nuclear matter, quark gluon plasma and relativistic heavy-ion collisions, theoretical astrophysics, as well as general physics. Theoretical research in high energy and elementary particle physics is concentrated on the theory of deep inelastic lepton scattering in the region of low x and its phenomenological implication for the ep collider HERA at DESY, on the theory of nonleptonic decays of hadrons, and on low energy {pi}{pi} and K-anti-K interactions and scalar meson spectroscopy. The activity in the theory of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is focused on the study of quark condensate fluctuations, on the analysis of critical scattering near the chiral phase transition, and on Bose-Einstein correlation in heavy-ion collisions. Theoretical studies in nuclear physics and in theory of nuclear matter concern analysis of models, with dynamical symmetry based on group S{sub p}(6,R) for the description of collective modes of atomic nuclei, analysis of the Goldstone bosons in nuclear matter and analysis of saturation properties of nuclear matter. Research in theoretical astrophysics is mainly devoted to the analysis of magnetic properties of hadronic matter in neutron stars with proton admixture. Studies in general physics concern problem related to the Galilean covariance of classical and quantum mechanics. The detailed results obtained in various fields are summarised in presented abstracts as well as information about employed personnel, publications, contribution to conferences, reports, workshops and seminars.

  9. Overview. Department of Theoretical Physics. Section 4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwiecinski, J.

    1995-01-01

    Research activity of the Department of the Theoretical Physics spans a wide variety of problems in theoretical high-energy and elementary particle physics, theoretical nuclear physics, theory of the nuclear matter, quark gluon plasma and relativistic heavy-ion collisions, theoretical astrophysics, as well as general physics. Theoretical research in high energy and elementary particle physics is concentrated on the theory of deep inelastic lepton scattering in the region of low x and its phenomenological implication for the ep collider HERA at DESY, on the theory of nonleptonic decays of hadrons, and on low energy ππ and K-anti-K interactions and scalar meson spectroscopy. The activity in the theory of relativistic heavy-ion collisions is focused on the study of quark condensate fluctuations, on the analysis of critical scattering near the chiral phase transition, and on Bose-Einstein correlation in heavy-ion collisions. Theoretical studies in nuclear physics and in theory of nuclear matter concern analysis of models, with dynamical symmetry based on group S p (6,R) for the description of collective modes of atomic nuclei, analysis of the Goldstone bosons in nuclear matter and analysis of saturation properties of nuclear matter. Research in theoretical astrophysics is mainly devoted to the analysis of magnetic properties of hadronic matter in neutron stars with proton admixture. Studies in general physics concern problem related to the Galilean covariance of classical and quantum mechanics. The detailed results obtained in various fields are summarised in presented abstracts as well as information about employed personnel, publications, contribution to conferences, reports, workshops and seminars

  10. Demystifying Theoretical Sampling in Grounded Theory Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenna Breckenridge BSc(Hons,Ph.D.Candidate

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Theoretical sampling is a central tenet of classic grounded theory and is essential to the development and refinement of a theory that is ‘grounded’ in data. While many authors appear to share concurrent definitions of theoretical sampling, the ways in which the process is actually executed remain largely elusive and inconsistent. As such, employing and describing the theoretical sampling process can present a particular challenge to novice researchers embarking upon their first grounded theory study. This article has been written in response to the challenges faced by the first author whilst writing a grounded theory proposal. It is intended to clarify theoretical sampling for new grounded theory researchers, offering some insight into the practicalities of selecting and employing a theoretical sampling strategy. It demonstrates that the credibility of a theory cannot be dissociated from the process by which it has been generated and seeks to encourage and challenge researchers to approach theoretical sampling in a way that is apposite to the core principles of the classic grounded theory methodology.

  11. Information Management Graduates' Accounts of Their Employability: A Case Study from the University of Sheffield

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Andrew M.; Al Daoud, Mohammad; Rudd, Stephanie

    2013-01-01

    Ensuring that graduates are employable is an important priority for universities. It is challenging for fields such as Information Management (IM), that are not fully understood by employers and where there is no very clearly defined entry level job market. This paper takes a graduate identity perspective to explore how IM graduates from the…

  12. Employment Pattern, Skills and Training Issues among Informal Sector Workers in Mumbai Metropolitan Region

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjay RODE

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available An informal sector in any economy provides different kinds of employment opportunities to people. In Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the female are more involved in regular jobs as compare to the causal and self-employed workers. The secondary and college studied male and female are found more in regular jobs. The high school studied male and illiterate female are working on causal jobs. The causal jobs do not require more education and skills. In self-employed category, the secondary school studied male and high school studied female are found more. The monthly income of workers involved in regular jobs is much higher than the causal and self-employed workers. The moderate malnourished females are found more as compare to the male in causal and self-employed category. The multi nominal logit regression model shows that the causal workers have positive correlation with illiterate male but it is negatively co-related with high school studied male, illiterate and secondary studied female. The monthly income, source of water, refrigerator and condom use is negatively co-related with causal workers as compare to regular workers. The self-employed workers have negative co-relation with monthly wage, source of water and watch cinema regularly as compare to the regular workers. Therefore government must provide infrastructural facilities in all slums of region. The infrastructural facilities such as water supply, electricity, sewage and solid waste collection must be provided in all slums of region. Causal workers must be provided the vocational training to start their own business. Commercial and co-operative banks must provide loans to poor people of slums. Females must be encouraged to take loan and start small business. Government must provide low cost housing to causal and self-employed workers in region. Such policies will certainly improve standard of living of informal sector workers in region.

  13. 75 FR 53724 - Proposed Collection; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Form, Demographic Information...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-01

    ... PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT OFFICE Proposed Collection; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Form, Demographic Information on Applicants, OMB 3046-0046; Correction AGENCY: U.S. Office of Personnel Management. ACTION: Notice; correction. SUMMARY: The published document in the Federal Register of August 2...

  14. Information theoretical assessment of visual communication with wavelet coding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rahman, Zia-ur

    1995-06-01

    A visual communication channel can be characterized by the efficiency with which it conveys information, and the quality of the images restored from the transmitted data. Efficient data representation requires the use of constraints of the visual communication channel. Our information theoretic analysis combines the design of the wavelet compression algorithm with the design of the visual communication channel. Shannon's communication theory, Wiener's restoration filter, and the critical design factors of image gathering and display are combined to provide metrics for measuring the efficiency of data transmission, and for quantitatively assessing the visual quality of the restored image. These metrics are: a) the mutual information (Eta) between the radiance the radiance field and the restored image, and b) the efficiency of the channel which can be roughly measured by as the ratio (Eta) /H, where H is the average number of bits being used to transmit the data. Huck, et al. (Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1993) have shown that channels desinged to maximize (Eta) , also maximize. Our assessment provides a framework for designing channels which provide the highest possible visual quality for a given amount of data under the critical design limitations of the image gathering and display devices. Results show that a trade-off exists between the maximum realizable information of the channel and its efficiency: an increase in one leads to a decrease in the other. The final selection of which of these quantities to maximize is, of course, application dependent.

  15. SAIL: Summation-bAsed Incremental Learning for Information-Theoretic Text Clustering.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Jie; Wu, Zhiang; Wu, Junjie; Xiong, Hui

    2013-04-01

    Information-theoretic clustering aims to exploit information-theoretic measures as the clustering criteria. A common practice on this topic is the so-called Info-Kmeans, which performs K-means clustering with KL-divergence as the proximity function. While expert efforts on Info-Kmeans have shown promising results, a remaining challenge is to deal with high-dimensional sparse data such as text corpora. Indeed, it is possible that the centroids contain many zero-value features for high-dimensional text vectors, which leads to infinite KL-divergence values and creates a dilemma in assigning objects to centroids during the iteration process of Info-Kmeans. To meet this challenge, in this paper, we propose a Summation-bAsed Incremental Learning (SAIL) algorithm for Info-Kmeans clustering. Specifically, by using an equivalent objective function, SAIL replaces the computation of KL-divergence by the incremental computation of Shannon entropy. This can avoid the zero-feature dilemma caused by the use of KL-divergence. To improve the clustering quality, we further introduce the variable neighborhood search scheme and propose the V-SAIL algorithm, which is then accelerated by a multithreaded scheme in PV-SAIL. Our experimental results on various real-world text collections have shown that, with SAIL as a booster, the clustering performance of Info-Kmeans can be significantly improved. Also, V-SAIL and PV-SAIL indeed help improve the clustering quality at a lower cost of computation.

  16. Nonlocal correlations as an information-theoretic resource

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barrett, Jonathan; Massar, Serge; Pironio, Stefano; Linden, Noah; Popescu, Sandu; Roberts, David

    2005-01-01

    It is well known that measurements performed on spatially separated entangled quantum systems can give rise to correlations that are nonlocal, in the sense that a Bell inequality is violated. They cannot, however, be used for superluminal signaling. It is also known that it is possible to write down sets of 'superquantum' correlations that are more nonlocal than is allowed by quantum mechanics, yet are still nonsignaling. Viewed as an information-theoretic resource, superquantum correlations are very powerful at reducing the amount of communication needed for distributed computational tasks. An intriguing question is why quantum mechanics does not allow these more powerful correlations. We aim to shed light on the range of quantum possibilities by placing them within a wider context. With this in mind, we investigate the set of correlations that are constrained only by the no-signaling principle. These correlations form a polytope, which contains the quantum correlations as a (proper) subset. We determine the vertices of the no-signaling polytope in the case that two observers each choose from two possible measurements with d outcomes. We then consider how interconversions between different sorts of correlations may be achieved. Finally, we consider some multipartite examples

  17. Exploring the contribution of formal and informal learning to academic staff member employability: A Dutch perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Klink, Marcel; van der Heijden, Beatrice; Boon, Jo; van Rooij, Shahron Williams

    2014-01-01

    Purpose – Little attention has been paid to the employability of academic staff and the extent to which continuous learning contributes to academic career success. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of formal and informal learning to employability. Design/methodology/approach –

  18. Multivariate information-theoretic measures reveal directed information structure and task relevant changes in fMRI connectivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lizier, Joseph T; Heinzle, Jakob; Horstmann, Annette; Haynes, John-Dylan; Prokopenko, Mikhail

    2011-02-01

    The human brain undertakes highly sophisticated information processing facilitated by the interaction between its sub-regions. We present a novel method for interregional connectivity analysis, using multivariate extensions to the mutual information and transfer entropy. The method allows us to identify the underlying directed information structure between brain regions, and how that structure changes according to behavioral conditions. This method is distinguished in using asymmetric, multivariate, information-theoretical analysis, which captures not only directional and non-linear relationships, but also collective interactions. Importantly, the method is able to estimate multivariate information measures with only relatively little data. We demonstrate the method to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging time series to establish the directed information structure between brain regions involved in a visuo-motor tracking task. Importantly, this results in a tiered structure, with known movement planning regions driving visual and motor control regions. Also, we examine the changes in this structure as the difficulty of the tracking task is increased. We find that task difficulty modulates the coupling strength between regions of a cortical network involved in movement planning and between motor cortex and the cerebellum which is involved in the fine-tuning of motor control. It is likely these methods will find utility in identifying interregional structure (and experimentally induced changes in this structure) in other cognitive tasks and data modalities.

  19. An Information-Theoretic Approach for Indirect Train Traffic Monitoring Using Building Vibration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susu Xu

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces an indirect train traffic monitoring method to detect and infer real-time train events based on the vibration response of a nearby building. Monitoring and characterizing traffic events are important for cities to improve the efficiency of transportation systems (e.g., train passing, heavy trucks, and traffic. Most prior work falls into two categories: (1 methods that require intensive labor to manually record events or (2 systems that require deployment of dedicated sensors. These approaches are difficult and costly to execute and maintain. In addition, most prior work uses dedicated sensors designed for a single purpose, resulting in deployment of multiple sensor systems. This further increases costs. Meanwhile, with the increasing demands of structural health monitoring, many vibration sensors are being deployed in commercial buildings. Traffic events create ground vibration that propagates to nearby building structures inducing noisy vibration responses. We present an information-theoretic method for train event monitoring using commonly existing vibration sensors deployed for building health monitoring. The key idea is to represent the wave propagation in a building induced by train traffic as information conveyed in noisy measurement signals. Our technique first uses wavelet analysis to detect train events. Then, by analyzing information exchange patterns of building vibration signals, we infer the category of the events (i.e., southbound or northbound train. Our algorithm is evaluated with an 11-story building where trains pass by frequently. The results show that the method can robustly achieve a train event detection accuracy of up to a 93% true positive rate and an 80% true negative rate. For direction categorization, compared with the traditional signal processing method, our information-theoretic approach reduces categorization error from 32.1 to 12.1%, which is a 2.5× improvement.

  20. An Everyday and Theoretical Reading of "Perezhivanie" for Informing Research in Early Childhood Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleer, Marilyn

    2016-01-01

    The concept of "perezhivanie" has received increasing attention in recent years. However, a clear understanding of this term has not yet been established. Mostly what is highlighted is the need for more informed theoretical discussion. In this paper, discussions centre on what "perezhivanie" means for research in early…

  1. A short course in quantum information theory. An approach from theoretical physics. 2. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diosi, Lajos

    2011-01-01

    This short and concise primer takes the vantage point of theoretical physics and the unity of physics. It sets out to strip the burgeoning field of quantum information science to its basics by linking it to universal concepts in physics. An extensive lecture rather than a comprehensive textbook, this volume is based on courses delivered over several years to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, but essentially it addresses anyone with a working knowledge of basic quantum physics. Readers will find these lectures a most adequate entry point for theoretical studies in this field. For the second edition, the authors has succeeded in adding many new topics while sticking to the conciseness of the overall approach. A new chapter on qubit thermodynamics has been added, while new sections and subsections have been incorporated in various chapter to deal with weak and time-continuous measurements, period-finding quantum algorithms and quantum error corrections. From the reviews of the first edition: ''The best things about this book are its brevity and clarity. In around 100 pages it provides a tutorial introduction to quantum information theory, including problems and solutions.. it's worth a look if you want to quickly get up to speed with the language and central concepts of quantum information theory, including the background classical information theory.'' (Craig Savage, Australian Physics, Vol. 44 (2), 2007). (orig.)

  2. Methodological proposal for theoretical analysis professional skills and its impact on employability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebeca Almanza Jiménez

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to analyze the level of employability of Engineers in Business Management Institute of Technology graduates Lazaro Cardenas in terms of their Professional competencies based on the initial hypothesis. The professional competencies have a direct positive relationship in which employability through the application of the survey method in Likert applied to both clusters, analysis of findings which show the impact of skills on employability, the existence of a positive correlation of both direct and opportunity was conducted to develop creativity and innovation through entrepreneurship.

  3. Inclusive Information Societies: Creating Growth and Employment ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Employment for youth and women. The project has two components. The first focuses on outsourcing service sector work (micro-work and rural impact sourcing) in India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. This sector can play a vital role in creating employment, particularly for youth and women in semi-urban and rural areas.

  4. RETIREMENT AS AN EFFECT OF EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Konrad Turek

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Employers are the key actors in defining conditions for retirement, as well as the conditions for retaining employees; their role, however, is still not well recognised and expressed in theoretical frameworks. In order to better understand individual retirement and to design successful ageing policies we should consider the behaviour and attitudes of employers.The article presents the organisational perspective on retirement and contributes to a theoretical consideration of the role of employers and work environments in the retirement process. It discusses the classic economic approaches, including the deferred payment model, and in referring to sociology of economy and management sciences it presents the employer’s perspective in relations with older workers. The main goal of the article is to consider the retirement process as an effect of employer-employee relations.

  5. E-loyalty towards a cancer information website: applying a theoretical framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crutzen, Rik; Beekers, Nienke; van Eenbergen, Mies; Becker, Monique; Jongen, Lilian; van Osch, Liesbeth

    2014-06-01

    To provide more insight into user perceptions related to e-loyalty towards a cancer information website. This is needed to assure adequate provision of high quality information during the full process of cancer treatment-from diagnosis to after care-and an important first step towards optimizing cancer information websites in order to promote e-loyalty. Participants were cancer patients (n = 63) and informal caregivers (n = 202) that visited a website providing regional information about cancer care for all types of cancer. Subsequently, they filled out a questionnaire assessing e-loyalty towards the website and user perceptions (efficiency, effectiveness, active trust and enjoyment) based on a theoretical framework derived from the field of e-commerce. A structural equation model was constructed to test the relationships between user perceptions and e-loyalty. Participants in general could find the information they were looking for (efficiency), thought it was relevant (effectiveness) and that they could act upon it (active trust) and thought the visit itself was pleasant (enjoyment). Effectiveness and enjoyment were both positively related with e-loyalty, but this was mediated by active trust. Efficiency was positively related with e-loyalty. The explained variance of e-loyalty was high (R(2)  = 0.70). This study demonstrates that the importance of user perceptions is not limited to fields such as e-commerce but is also present within the context of cancer information websites. The high information need among participants might explain the positive relationship between efficiency and e-loyalty. Therefore, cancer information websites need to foster easy search and access of information provided. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  6. 49 CFR 40.26 - What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false What form must an employer use to report Management Information System (MIS) data to a DOT agency? 40.26 Section 40.26 Transportation Office of the... Employer Responsibilities § 40.26 What form must an employer use to report Management Information System...

  7. 77 FR 39343 - Agency Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity Under OMB Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-07-02

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS [OMB Control No. 2900-0002] Agency Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity Under OMB Review AGENCY: Veterans Benefits Administration... . Please refer to ``OMB Control No. 2900-0002.'' SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Income-Net Worth and...

  8. 75 FR 56662 - Agency Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity Under OMB Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-16

    ... DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS [OMB Control No. 2900-0002] Agency Information Collection (Income-Net Worth and Employment Statement) Activity Under OMB Review AGENCY: Veterans Benefits Administration... . Please refer to ``OMB Control No. 2900-0002.'' SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Income-Net Worth and...

  9. A short course in quantum information theory an approach from theoretical physics

    CERN Document Server

    Diosi, Lajos

    2011-01-01

    This short and concise primer takes the vantage point of theoretical physics and the unity of physics. It sets out to strip the burgeoning field of quantum information science to its basics by linking it to universal concepts in physics. An extensive lecture rather than a comprehensive textbook, this volume is based on courses delivered over several years to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, but essentially it addresses anyone with a working knowledge of basic quantum physics. Readers will find these lectures a most adequate entry point for theoretical studies in this field. For the second edition, the authors has succeeded in adding many new topics while sticking to the conciseness of the overall approach. A new chapter on qubit thermodynamics has been added, while new sections and subsections have been incorporated in various chapter to deal with weak and time-continuous measurements, period-finding quantum algorithms and quantum error corrections. From the reviews of the first edition...

  10. Investigating nurse practitioners in the private sector: a theoretically informed research protocol.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Margaret; Gardner, Glenn; Yates, Patsy

    2017-06-01

    To report a study protocol and the theoretical framework normalisation process theory that informs this protocol for a case study investigation of private sector nurse practitioners. Most research evaluating nurse practitioner service is focused on public, mainly acute care environments where nurse practitioner service is well established with strong structures for governance and sustainability. Conversely, there is lack of clarity in governance for emerging models in the private sector. In a climate of healthcare reform, nurse practitioner service is extending beyond the familiar public health sector. Further research is required to inform knowledge of the practice, operational framework and governance of new nurse practitioner models. The proposed research will use a multiple exploratory case study design to examine private sector nurse practitioner service. Data collection includes interviews, surveys and audits. A sequential mixed method approach to analysis of each case will be conducted. Findings from within-case analysis will lead to a meta-synthesis across all four cases to gain a holistic understanding of the cases under study, private sector nurse practitioner service. Normalisation process theory will be used to guide the research process, specifically coding and analysis of data using theory constructs and the relevant components associated with those constructs. This article provides a blueprint for the research and describes a theoretical framework, normalisation process theory in terms of its flexibility as an analytical framework. Consistent with the goals of best research practice, this study protocol will inform the research community in the field of primary health care about emerging research in this field. Publishing a study protocol ensures researcher fidelity to the analysis plan and supports research collaboration across teams. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. Information-Theoretic Data Discarding for Dynamic Trees on Data Streams

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christoforos Anagnostopoulos

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Ubiquitous automated data collection at an unprecedented scale is making available streaming, real-time information flows in a wide variety of settings, transforming both science and industry. Learning algorithms deployed in such contexts often rely on single-pass inference, where the data history is never revisited. Learning may also need to be temporally adaptive to remain up-to-date against unforeseen changes in the data generating mechanism. Online Bayesian inference remains challenged by such transient, evolving data streams. Nonparametric modeling techniques can prove particularly ill-suited, as the complexity of the model is allowed to increase with the sample size. In this work, we take steps to overcome these challenges by porting information theoretic heuristics, such as exponential forgetting and active learning, into a fully Bayesian framework. We showcase our methods by augmenting a modern non-parametric modeling framework, dynamic trees, and illustrate its performance on a number of practical examples. The end product is a powerful streaming regression and classification tool, whose performance compares favorably to the state-of-the-art.

  12. Dimensional Information-Theoretic Measurement of Facial Emotion Expressions in Schizophrenia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jihun Hamm

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Altered facial expressions of emotions are characteristic impairments in schizophrenia. Ratings of affect have traditionally been limited to clinical rating scales and facial muscle movement analysis, which require extensive training and have limitations based on methodology and ecological validity. To improve reliable assessment of dynamic facial expression changes, we have developed automated measurements of facial emotion expressions based on information-theoretic measures of expressivity of ambiguity and distinctiveness of facial expressions. These measures were examined in matched groups of persons with schizophrenia (n=28 and healthy controls (n=26 who underwent video acquisition to assess expressivity of basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust in evoked conditions. Persons with schizophrenia scored higher on ambiguity, the measure of conditional entropy within the expression of a single emotion, and they scored lower on distinctiveness, the measure of mutual information across expressions of different emotions. The automated measures compared favorably with observer-based ratings. This method can be applied for delineating dynamic emotional expressivity in healthy and clinical populations.

  13. Toward theoretical understanding of the fertility preservation decision-making process: examining information processing among young women with cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hershberger, Patricia E; Finnegan, Lorna; Altfeld, Susan; Lake, Sara; Hirshfeld-Cytron, Jennifer

    2013-01-01

    Young women with cancer now face the complex decision about whether to undergo fertility preservation. Yet little is known about how these women process information involved in making this decision. The purpose of this article is to expand theoretical understanding of the decision-making process by examining aspects of information processing among young women diagnosed with cancer. Using a grounded theory approach, 27 women with cancer participated in individual, semistructured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed using constant-comparison techniques that were guided by 5 dimensions within the Contemplate phase of the decision-making process framework. In the first dimension, young women acquired information primarily from clinicians and Internet sources. Experiential information, often obtained from peers, occurred in the second dimension. Preferences and values were constructed in the third dimension as women acquired factual, moral, and ethical information. Women desired tailored, personalized information that was specific to their situation in the fourth dimension; however, women struggled with communicating these needs to clinicians. In the fifth dimension, women offered detailed descriptions of clinician behaviors that enhance or impede decisional debriefing. Better understanding of theoretical underpinnings surrounding women's information processes can facilitate decision support and improve clinical care.

  14. The freedom of information act and the practice of journalism in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Journal of Research in National Development ... This study examines the effectiveness of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in Nigeria. ... The study employed Libertarian media theory and Teological ethnical theory as the theoretical ...

  15. A large scale analysis of information-theoretic network complexity measures using chemical structures.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthias Dehmer

    Full Text Available This paper aims to investigate information-theoretic network complexity measures which have already been intensely used in mathematical- and medicinal chemistry including drug design. Numerous such measures have been developed so far but many of them lack a meaningful interpretation, e.g., we want to examine which kind of structural information they detect. Therefore, our main contribution is to shed light on the relatedness between some selected information measures for graphs by performing a large scale analysis using chemical networks. Starting from several sets containing real and synthetic chemical structures represented by graphs, we study the relatedness between a classical (partition-based complexity measure called the topological information content of a graph and some others inferred by a different paradigm leading to partition-independent measures. Moreover, we evaluate the uniqueness of network complexity measures numerically. Generally, a high uniqueness is an important and desirable property when designing novel topological descriptors having the potential to be applied to large chemical databases.

  16. Fundamental energy limits of SET-based Brownian NAND and half-adder circuits. Preliminary findings from a physical-information-theoretic methodology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ercan, İlke; Suyabatmaz, Enes

    2018-06-01

    The saturation in the efficiency and performance scaling of conventional electronic technologies brings about the development of novel computational paradigms. Brownian circuits are among the promising alternatives that can exploit fluctuations to increase the efficiency of information processing in nanocomputing. A Brownian cellular automaton, where signals propagate randomly and are driven by local transition rules, can be made computationally universal by embedding arbitrary asynchronous circuits on it. One of the potential realizations of such circuits is via single electron tunneling (SET) devices since SET technology enable simulation of noise and fluctuations in a fashion similar to Brownian search. In this paper, we perform a physical-information-theoretic analysis on the efficiency limitations in a Brownian NAND and half-adder circuits implemented using SET technology. The method we employed here establishes a solid ground that enables studying computational and physical features of this emerging technology on an equal footing, and yield fundamental lower bounds that provide valuable insights into how far its efficiency can be improved in principle. In order to provide a basis for comparison, we also analyze a NAND gate and half-adder circuit implemented in complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology to show how the fundamental bound of the Brownian circuit compares against a conventional paradigm.

  17. 78 FR 42537 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-16

    ...-NEW] Agency Information Collection Activities: Online Survey of Web Services Employers; New... sector. It is necessary that USCIS obtains data on the E-Verify Program Web Services. Gaining an understanding of the Web Services process should enable USCIS to identify programmatic improvements to better...

  18. Information-theoretic security proof for quantum-key-distribution protocols

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Renner, Renato; Gisin, Nicolas; Kraus, Barbara

    2005-01-01

    We present a technique for proving the security of quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocols. It is based on direct information-theoretic arguments and thus also applies if no equivalent entanglement purification scheme can be found. Using this technique, we investigate a general class of QKD protocols with one-way classical post-processing. We show that, in order to analyze the full security of these protocols, it suffices to consider collective attacks. Indeed, we give new lower and upper bounds on the secret-key rate which only involve entropies of two-qubit density operators and which are thus easy to compute. As an illustration of our results, we analyze the Bennett-Brassard 1984, the six-state, and the Bennett 1992 protocols with one-way error correction and privacy amplification. Surprisingly, the performance of these protocols is increased if one of the parties adds noise to the measurement data before the error correction. In particular, this additional noise makes the protocols more robust against noise in the quantum channel

  19. Information-theoretic security proof for quantum-key-distribution protocols

    Science.gov (United States)

    Renner, Renato; Gisin, Nicolas; Kraus, Barbara

    2005-07-01

    We present a technique for proving the security of quantum-key-distribution (QKD) protocols. It is based on direct information-theoretic arguments and thus also applies if no equivalent entanglement purification scheme can be found. Using this technique, we investigate a general class of QKD protocols with one-way classical post-processing. We show that, in order to analyze the full security of these protocols, it suffices to consider collective attacks. Indeed, we give new lower and upper bounds on the secret-key rate which only involve entropies of two-qubit density operators and which are thus easy to compute. As an illustration of our results, we analyze the Bennett-Brassard 1984, the six-state, and the Bennett 1992 protocols with one-way error correction and privacy amplification. Surprisingly, the performance of these protocols is increased if one of the parties adds noise to the measurement data before the error correction. In particular, this additional noise makes the protocols more robust against noise in the quantum channel.

  20. 77 FR 71634 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Employment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-03

    ... for OMB Review; Comment Request; Employment and Training Administration Financial Report ACTION... Training Administration Financial Report,'' (Forms ETA-9130, ETA-9130-A, and ETA-9130-B) to the Office of...). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Regulations 29 CFR 95.52 and 97.41 codify ETA requirements for certain financial...

  1. 77 FR 31641 - Comment Request for Information Collection for Employment and Training Administration Financial...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-29

    ... Collection for Employment and Training Administration Financial Report Form ETA-9130, This is an Extension... approved by OMB are authorized for obtaining financial information from recipients. The U.S. DOL ETA Financial Report is consistent with OMB efforts to streamline Federal financial reporting pursuant to Public...

  2. An integrative model for measuring graduates’ employability skills—A study in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wenping Su

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Employability is a key issue in graduates’ job-hunting, but little research has been done on that of the graduates in Chinese universities. These universities have been experiencing a decline in their graduate employment since the past decade. This paper attempts to tackle this issue. It reviews the relevant research on employability and develops a research-based theoretical framework to evaluate and analyze the graduates’ employability in China. It adopts multiple approaches to establish the skills that will enhance university students’ employability. Investigating around 100 employers and 200 undergraduates from the universities in Beijing, the paper explores the characteristics of and factors influencing the graduates’ employability. Subsequently, it proposes a qualitative model to measure graduates’ employability. Based on the findings, it discusses the theoretical and practical implications and provides advice for Chinese graduates to improve their employability.

  3. The Process of Adapting the Employer Brand to Attract the Right Employees : A Case Study of How SEB Uses Employer Branding to Go Digital

    OpenAIRE

    Simon, Tabea; Ferhatovic, Amela

    2016-01-01

    Companies within the banking industry are facing the challenge to attract new competences in order to react to the forces of digitization. This paper examines how employer branding is used as a tool to achieve this through appealing to a broader target group. It also identifies problems that can arise in this process. We extend the theoretical knowledge on this topic by developing a theoretical framework, which combines corporate brand, employer branding, industry image and P-O fit literature...

  4. Employment in Agribusiness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilgenberg, Gene; Huston, Jane

    This curriculum guide is intended to assist persons teaching a course in employment in agribusiness. Addressed in the individual units of instruction are the following topics: employment information (training plans/agreements and wages, taxes, and fringe benefits); human relations (employer/employee/customer relations and communication skills);…

  5. Theoretical Investigation of Subwavelength Gratings and Vertical Cavity Lasers Employing Grating Structures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Taghizadeh, Alireza

    This thesis deals with theoretical investigations of a newly proposed grating structure, referred to as hybrid grating (HG) as well as vertical cavity lasers based on the grating reflectors. The HG consists of a near-subwavelength grating layer and an unpatterned high-refractive-index cap layer...... directions, which is analogous to electronic quantum wells in conduction or valence bands. Several interesting configurations of heterostructures have been investigated and their potential in fundamental physics study and applications are discussed. For numerical and theoretical studies, a three...... feasibility than the HCG-based ones. Furthermore, the concept of cavity dispersion in vertical cavities is introduced and its importance in the modal properties is numerically investigated. The dispersion curvature of a cavity mode is interpreted as the effective photon mass of the cavity mode. In a vertical...

  6. Toward theoretical understanding of the fertility preservation decision-making process: Examining information processing among young women with cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hershberger, Patricia E.; Finnegan, Lorna; Altfeld, Susan; Lake, Sara; Hirshfeld-Cytron, Jennifer

    2014-01-01

    Background Young women with cancer now face the complex decision about whether to undergo fertility preservation. Yet little is known about how these women process information involved in making this decision. Objective The purpose of this paper is to expand theoretical understanding of the decision-making process by examining aspects of information processing among young women diagnosed with cancer. Methods Using a grounded theory approach, 27 women with cancer participated in individual, semi-structured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed using constant-comparison techniques that were guided by five dimensions within the Contemplate phase of the decision-making process framework. Results In the first dimension, young women acquired information primarily from clinicians and Internet sources. Experiential information, often obtained from peers, occurred in the second dimension. Preferences and values were constructed in the third dimension as women acquired factual, moral, and ethical information. Women desired tailored, personalized information that was specific to their situation in the fourth dimension; however, women struggled with communicating these needs to clinicians. In the fifth dimension, women offered detailed descriptions of clinician behaviors that enhance or impede decisional debriefing. Conclusion Better understanding of theoretical underpinnings surrounding women’s information processes can facilitate decision support and improve clinical care. PMID:24552086

  7. Information-theoretical analysis of private content identification

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Voloshynovskiy, S.; Koval, O.; Beekhof, F.; Farhadzadeh, F.; Holotyak, T.

    2010-01-01

    In recent years, content identification based on digital fingerprinting attracts a lot of attention in different emerging applications. At the same time, the theoretical analysis of digital fingerprinting systems for finite length case remains an open issue. Additionally, privacy leaks caused by

  8. Between unemployment and employment: experience of unemployed long-term pain sufferers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glavare, Maria; Löfgren, Monika; Schult, Marie-Louise

    2012-01-01

    This study explored and analysed how patients experienced possibilities for, and barriers to, work return after participation in a multi-professional pain-rehabilitation program followed by a coached work-training program (CWT). Eleven informants (8 women/3 men) with long-term musculoskeletal pain who had participated in the CWT program for 4-21 months (mean=11) comprised the study. A qualitative emergent design was used. Data collected with interviews were analysed using the constant comparison method of grounded theory. Triangulation in researchers were used. The analyses of the interviews resulted in the development of a three-category theoretical model, which was named "a way back to work". The main category "Experience of a way back to work" consisted of the informants' experience during the process between unemployment and employment. The category "Support" describes the help the informants received from various actors, and the category "Negative response" describes negative responses from the actors involved, which was an important barrier in the process between unemployment and employment. Professional individualised support, participants feeling involved in their rehabilitation process, coaching at real workplaces and multi-professional team including health care personnel, were valuable during the process towards work.

  9. Evaluation of information-theoretic similarity measures for content-based retrieval and detection of masses in mammograms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tourassi, Georgia D.; Harrawood, Brian; Singh, Swatee; Lo, Joseph Y.; Floyd, Carey E.

    2007-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate image similarity measures employed in an information-theoretic computer-assisted detection (IT-CAD) scheme. The scheme was developed for content-based retrieval and detection of masses in screening mammograms. The study is aimed toward an interactive clinical paradigm where physicians query the proposed IT-CAD scheme on mammographic locations that are either visually suspicious or indicated as suspicious by other cuing CAD systems. The IT-CAD scheme provides an evidence-based, second opinion for query mammographic locations using a knowledge database of mass and normal cases. In this study, eight entropy-based similarity measures were compared with respect to retrieval precision and detection accuracy using a database of 1820 mammographic regions of interest. The IT-CAD scheme was then validated on a separate database for false positive reduction of progressively more challenging visual cues generated by an existing, in-house mass detection system. The study showed that the image similarity measures fall into one of two categories; one category is better suited to the retrieval of semantically similar cases while the second is more effective with knowledge-based decisions regarding the presence of a true mass in the query location. In addition, the IT-CAD scheme yielded a substantial reduction in false-positive detections while maintaining high detection rate for malignant masses

  10. Integrated Management of Migration, Employment, Fiscal Policy and Public Debt

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandras Vytautas Rutkauskas

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The main idea of the paper states that national migration indicators are closely related with employment opportunities in that country. In addition, the management quality of migration and employment processes is an indicator of the national socio-economic policy competency, while management of these processes is the main purpose of intelligent adjustment of the national fiscal policy and government debt management. The author of the paper selected the formation of the system of quantitative indicators as the main objective of the paper. The system should allow employing government debt possibilities for the selection of proper fiscal policy in order to prevent the transformation of unemployment into the key reason of uncontrolled national inflation. This would be done by revealing the possibilities of fiscal policy to impact on the level and structure of unemployment. Recent globalisation processes and integration possibilities bring a lot of uncertainty to predetermined viability of theoretical assumptions as well as the adequacy of the applied quantitative methods. The paper uses the possibilities of stochastic optimisation and stochastically informed expertise pursuing the possibilities of integrated management of employment, migration processes, fiscal policy and government debt provisions.

  11. 77 FR 7242 - Agency Information Collection (Contract for Training and Employment): Activity Under OMB Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-02-10

    ... Human Resources and Housing Branch, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503 (202... for Training and Employment): Activity Under OMB Review AGENCY: Veterans Benefits Administration... . Please refer to ``OMB Control No. 2900-0677.'' SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title: Contract for Training...

  12. Informing Educational Psychology Training with Students' Community Engagement Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebersohn, Liesel; Bender, C. J. Gerda; Carvalho-Malekane, Wendy M.

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this article was to describe students' experiences of community engagement in an Educational Psychology practicum in order to inform relevant educational psychology training literature with experiences of students' community engagement. Experiential learning served as our theoretical framework and we employed an instrumental case…

  13. Theoretical clarity is not “Manicheanism”

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hjørland, Birger

    2011-01-01

    It is argued that in order to establish a new theoretical approach to information science it is necessary to express disagreement with some established views. The “social turn” in information science is not just exemplified in relation to the works of Marcia Bates but in relation to many different...... researchers in the field. Therefore it should not be taken personally, and the debate should focus on the substance. Marcia Bates has contributed considerably to information science. In spite of this some of her theoretical points of departure may be challenged. It is important to seek theoretical clarity...... and this may involve a degree of schematic confrontation that should not be confused with theoretical one-sidedness, “Manicheanism” or lack of respect....

  14. Job Sharing: General Information. A Handbook for Employers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olmsted, Barney

    Arranging work time in new and flexible ways has been a topic of growing interest for the past ten years. This handbook for employers explains one way in which jobs can be made more flexible--job sharing. It discusses ways that work hours can be shared with potential benefits for employer and employees. Topics discussed include definition of job…

  15. Informational analysis for compressive sampling in radar imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Jingxiong; Yang, Ke

    2015-03-24

    Compressive sampling or compressed sensing (CS) works on the assumption of the sparsity or compressibility of the underlying signal, relies on the trans-informational capability of the measurement matrix employed and the resultant measurements, operates with optimization-based algorithms for signal reconstruction and is thus able to complete data compression, while acquiring data, leading to sub-Nyquist sampling strategies that promote efficiency in data acquisition, while ensuring certain accuracy criteria. Information theory provides a framework complementary to classic CS theory for analyzing information mechanisms and for determining the necessary number of measurements in a CS environment, such as CS-radar, a radar sensor conceptualized or designed with CS principles and techniques. Despite increasing awareness of information-theoretic perspectives on CS-radar, reported research has been rare. This paper seeks to bridge the gap in the interdisciplinary area of CS, radar and information theory by analyzing information flows in CS-radar from sparse scenes to measurements and determining sub-Nyquist sampling rates necessary for scene reconstruction within certain distortion thresholds, given differing scene sparsity and average per-sample signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Simulated studies were performed to complement and validate the information-theoretic analysis. The combined strategy proposed in this paper is valuable for information-theoretic orientated CS-radar system analysis and performance evaluation.

  16. Universality in an information-theoretic motivated nonlinear Schrodinger equation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parwani, R; Tabia, G

    2007-01-01

    Using perturbative methods, we analyse a nonlinear generalization of Schrodinger's equation that had previously been obtained through information-theoretic arguments. We obtain analytical expressions for the leading correction, in terms of the nonlinearity scale, to the energy eigenvalues of the linear Schrodinger equation in the presence of an external potential and observe some generic features. In one space dimension these are (i) for nodeless ground states, the energy shifts are subleading in the nonlinearity parameter compared to the shifts for the excited states; (ii) the shifts for the excited states are due predominantly to contribution from the nodes of the unperturbed wavefunctions, and (iii) the energy shifts for excited states are positive for small values of a regulating parameter and negative at large values, vanishing at a universal critical value that is not manifest in the equation. Some of these features hold true for higher dimensional problems. We also study two exactly solved nonlinear Schrodinger equations so as to contrast our observations. Finally, we comment on the possible significance of our results if the nonlinearity is physically realized

  17. Experimental Verification of a Jarzynski-Related Information-Theoretic Equality by a Single Trapped Ion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, T P; Yan, L L; Zhou, F; Rehan, K; Liang, D F; Chen, L; Yang, W L; Ma, Z H; Feng, M; Vedral, V

    2018-01-05

    Most nonequilibrium processes in thermodynamics are quantified only by inequalities; however, the Jarzynski relation presents a remarkably simple and general equality relating nonequilibrium quantities with the equilibrium free energy, and this equality holds in both the classical and quantum regimes. We report a single-spin test and confirmation of the Jarzynski relation in the quantum regime using a single ultracold ^{40}Ca^{+} ion trapped in a harmonic potential, based on a general information-theoretic equality for a temporal evolution of the system sandwiched between two projective measurements. By considering both initially pure and mixed states, respectively, we verify, in an exact and fundamental fashion, the nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics relevant to the mutual information and Jarzynski equality.

  18. The application of information theory for the research of aging and aging-related diseases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blokh, David; Stambler, Ilia

    2017-10-01

    This article reviews the application of information-theoretical analysis, employing measures of entropy and mutual information, for the study of aging and aging-related diseases. The research of aging and aging-related diseases is particularly suitable for the application of information theory methods, as aging processes and related diseases are multi-parametric, with continuous parameters coexisting alongside discrete parameters, and with the relations between the parameters being as a rule non-linear. Information theory provides unique analytical capabilities for the solution of such problems, with unique advantages over common linear biostatistics. Among the age-related diseases, information theory has been used in the study of neurodegenerative diseases (particularly using EEG time series for diagnosis and prediction), cancer (particularly for establishing individual and combined cancer biomarkers), diabetes (mainly utilizing mutual information to characterize the diseased and aging states), and heart disease (mainly for the analysis of heart rate variability). Few works have employed information theory for the analysis of general aging processes and frailty, as underlying determinants and possible early preclinical diagnostic measures for aging-related diseases. Generally, the use of information-theoretical analysis permits not only establishing the (non-linear) correlations between diagnostic or therapeutic parameters of interest, but may also provide a theoretical insight into the nature of aging and related diseases by establishing the measures of variability, adaptation, regulation or homeostasis, within a system of interest. It may be hoped that the increased use of such measures in research may considerably increase diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities and the fundamental theoretical mathematical understanding of aging and disease. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Perspectives on Cybersecurity Information Sharing among Multiple Stakeholders Using a Decision-Theoretic Approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Meilin; Devine, Laura; Zhuang, Jun

    2018-02-01

    The government, private sectors, and others users of the Internet are increasingly faced with the risk of cyber incidents. Damage to computer systems and theft of sensitive data caused by cyber attacks have the potential to result in lasting harm to entities under attack, or to society as a whole. The effects of cyber attacks are not always obvious, and detecting them is not a simple proposition. As the U.S. federal government believes that information sharing on cybersecurity issues among organizations is essential to safety, security, and resilience, the importance of trusted information exchange has been emphasized to support public and private decision making by encouraging the creation of the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). Through a decision-theoretic approach, this article provides new perspectives on ISAC, and the advent of the new Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAOs), which are intended to provide similar benefits to organizations that cannot fit easily into the ISAC structure. To help understand the processes of information sharing against cyber threats, this article illustrates 15 representative information sharing structures between ISAC, government, and other participating entities, and provide discussions on the strategic interactions between different stakeholders. This article also identifies the costs of information sharing and information security borne by different parties in this public-private partnership both before and after cyber attacks, as well as the two main benefits. This article provides perspectives on the mechanism of information sharing and some detailed cost-benefit analysis. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

  20. Systems theoretic analysis of the central dogma of molecular biology: some recent results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Rui; Yu, Juanyi; Zhang, Mingjun; Tarn, Tzyh-Jong; Li, Jr-Shin

    2010-03-01

    This paper extends our early study on a mathematical formulation of the central dogma of molecular biology, and focuses discussions on recent insights obtained by employing advanced systems theoretic analysis. The goal of this paper is to mathematically represent and interpret the genetic information flow at the molecular level, and explore the fundamental principle of molecular biology at the system level. Specifically, group theory was employed to interpret concepts and properties of gene mutation, and predict backbone torsion angle along the peptide chain. Finite state machine theory was extensively applied to interpret key concepts and analyze the processes related to DNA hybridization. Using the proposed model, we have transferred the character-based model in molecular biology to a sophisticated mathematical model for calculation and interpretation.

  1. An employer brand predictive model for talent attraction and retention

    OpenAIRE

    Annelize Botha; Mark Bussin; Lukas de Swardt

    2011-01-01

    Orientation: In an ever shrinking global talent pool organisations use employer brand to attract and retain talent, however, in the absence of theoretical pointers, many organisations are losing out on a powerful business tool by not developing or maintaining their employer brand correctly. Research purpose: This study explores the current state of knowledge about employer brand and identifies the various employer brand building blocks which are conceptually integrated in a predictiv...

  2. STRUCTURAL AND METHODICAL MODEL OF INCREASING THE LEVEL OF THEORETICAL TRAINING OF CADETS USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vladislav V. Bulgakov

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Features of training in higher educational institutions of system of EMERCOM of Russia demand introduction of the new educational techniques and the technical means directed on intensification of educational process, providing an opportunity of preparation of cadets at any time in the independent mode and improving quality of their theoretical knowledge. The authors have developed a structural and methodological model of increasing the level of theoretical training of cadets using information and communication technologies. The proposed structural and methodological model that includes elements to stimulate and enhance cognitive activity, allows you to generate the trajectory of theoretical training of cadets for the entire period of study at the University, to organize a systematic independent work, objective, current and final control of theoretical knowledge. The structural and methodological model for improving the level of theoretical training consists of three main elements: the base of theoretical questions, functional modules "teacher" and "cadet". The basis of the structural and methodological model of increasing the level of theoretical training of cadets is the base of theoretical issues, developed in all disciplines specialty 20.05.01 – fire safety. The functional module "teacher" allows you to create theoretical questions of various kinds, edit questions and delete them from the database if necessary, as well as create tests and monitor their implementation. The functional module "cadet" provides ample opportunities for theoretical training through independent work, testing for current and final control, the implementation of the game form of training in the form of a duel, as well as for the formation of the results of the cadets in the form of statistics and rankings. Structural and methodical model of increasing the level of theoretical training of cadets is implemented in practice in the form of a multi-level automated system

  3. Towards a Structurational Theory of Information Systems: a substantive case analysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rose, Jeremy; Hackney, R. H

    2003-01-01

    This paper employs the analysis of an interpretive case study within a Regional Train Operating Company (RTOC) to arrive at theoretical understandings of Information Systems (IS). Giddens’ ‘structuration theory’ is developed which offers an account of structure and agency; social practices develo...

  4. Computational Study of Chemical Reactivity Using Information-Theoretic Quantities from Density Functional Reactivity Theory for Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution Reactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Wenjie; Wu, Zemin; Rong, Chunying; Lu, Tian; Huang, Ying; Liu, Shubin

    2015-07-23

    The electrophilic aromatic substitution for nitration, halogenation, sulfonation, and acylation is a vastly important category of chemical transformation. Its reactivity and regioselectivity is predominantly determined by nucleophilicity of carbon atoms on the aromatic ring, which in return is immensely influenced by the group that is attached to the aromatic ring a priori. In this work, taking advantage of recent developments in quantifying nucleophilicity (electrophilicity) with descriptors from the information-theoretic approach in density functional reactivity theory, we examine the reactivity properties of this reaction system from three perspectives. These include scaling patterns of information-theoretic quantities such as Shannon entropy, Fisher information, Ghosh-Berkowitz-Parr entropy and information gain at both molecular and atomic levels, quantitative predictions of the barrier height with both Hirshfeld charge and information gain, and energetic decomposition analyses of the barrier height for the reactions. To that end, we focused in this work on the identity reaction of the monosubstituted-benzene molecule reacting with hydrogen fluoride using boron trifluoride as the catalyst in the gas phase. We also considered 19 substituting groups, 9 of which are ortho/para directing and the other 9 meta directing, besides the case of R = -H. Similar scaling patterns for these information-theoretic quantities found for stable species elsewhere were disclosed for these reactions systems. We also unveiled novel scaling patterns for information gain at the atomic level. The barrier height of the reactions can reliably be predicted by using both the Hirshfeld charge and information gain at the regioselective carbon atom. The energy decomposition analysis ensued yields an unambiguous picture about the origin of the barrier height, where we showed that it is the electrostatic interaction that plays the dominant role, while the roles played by exchange-correlation and

  5. The Netherlands: self-employed

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Houtman, I.L.D.

    2009-01-01

    This is the national contribution to the CAR on self-employed workers in the Netherlands. In this national contribution information is provided on self-employed workers in relation to (1) legal provisions and social security, (2) recent trends in self-employment with no employees, (3) collective

  6. Information Theoretic Characterization of Physical Theories with Projective State Space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaopo, Marco

    2015-08-01

    Probabilistic theories are a natural framework to investigate the foundations of quantum theory and possible alternative or deeper theories. In a generic probabilistic theory, states of a physical system are represented as vectors of outcomes probabilities and state spaces are convex cones. In this picture the physics of a given theory is related to the geometric shape of the cone of states. In quantum theory, for instance, the shape of the cone of states corresponds to a projective space over complex numbers. In this paper we investigate geometric constraints on the state space of a generic theory imposed by the following information theoretic requirements: every non completely mixed state of a system is perfectly distinguishable from some other state in a single shot measurement; information capacity of physical systems is conserved under making mixtures of states. These assumptions guarantee that a generic physical system satisfies a natural principle asserting that the more a state of the system is mixed the less information can be stored in the system using that state as logical value. We show that all theories satisfying the above assumptions are such that the shape of their cones of states is that of a projective space over a generic field of numbers. Remarkably, these theories constitute generalizations of quantum theory where superposition principle holds with coefficients pertaining to a generic field of numbers in place of complex numbers. If the field of numbers is trivial and contains only one element we obtain classical theory. This result tells that superposition principle is quite common among probabilistic theories while its absence gives evidence of either classical theory or an implausible theory.

  7. Tales of IT Consultants: Understanding Psychological Contract Maintenance and Employment Termination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karlheinz Kautz

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available This research investigates the question why dedicated Information Technology (IT consultants quit their jobs and voluntarily terminate their employment contracts. A research approach inspired by grounded theory is used and as a theoretical contribution a novel, cyclic process model for the maintenance or neglect of the psychological contract between employees and employers is derived from the empirical data. The model is subsequently substantiated through the integration of various concepts and theories identified in the literature, combining the concept of psychological contract with social influence theory and a theory of the relation between intrinsic motivation and management practices. The research is based on a revelatory case study which provides tales from four IT consultants in an IT consulting firm. The model helps to explain IT consultants’ behaviour of voluntarily terminating their employment contracts. Additionally, it should assist managers in IT consulting firms to avoid practices which might lead to their employees’ loss of intrinsic motivation and result in the loss of valuable employees for the organization.

  8. Social innovation in employment

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oeij, P.R.A.; Torre, W. van der; Santoclides, M.E

    2017-01-01

    This policy brief on Social Innovation of Employment informs on an inventory of challenges and policy recommendations based on the Case Study Report of Employment and on the Second Policy Foresight Workshop of Employment. A ‘paradigm shift’ is needed in the mind-set of policymakers. ‘Traditional’

  9. Investigation of Means of Mitigating Congestion in Complex, Distributed Network Systems by Optimization Means and Information Theoretic Procedures

    Science.gov (United States)

    2008-02-01

    Information Theoretic Proceedures Frank Mufalli Rakesh Nagi Jim Llinas Sumita Mishra SUNY at Buffalo— CUBRC 4455 Genessee Street Buffalo...5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER NY 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) SUNY at Buffalo— CUBRC * Paine College ** 4455 Genessee

  10. Business/Employers Influenza Toolkit

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    This podcast promotes the "Make It Your Business To Fight The Flu" toolkit for Businesses and Employers. The toolkit provides information and recommended strategies to help businesses and employers promote the seasonal flu vaccine. Additionally, employers will find flyers, posters, and other materials to post and distribute in the workplace.

  11. 77 FR 43412 - 30-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: DS 7655, Iraqi Citizens and Nationals Employed...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-07-24

    ... to 30 days from July 24, 2012. ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods..., biographical information, to include employee name, date(s) of employment, biometric, and other data must be...

  12. Employer Perceptions of Student Informational Interviewing Skills and Behaviors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orr, Claudia; Sherony, Bruce; Steinhaus, Carol

    2011-01-01

    Employers continue to report that soft skills are critically important in obtaining employment and achieving long-term career success. Given the challenging job market for college graduates, business school faculty need to provide practical opportunities for students to develop their soft skills in professional settings. A longitudinal study was…

  13. Basic theoretical physics a concise overview

    CERN Document Server

    Krey, Uwe

    2007-01-01

    This concise treatment embraces, in four parts, all the main aspects of theoretical physics (I . Mechanics and Basic Relativity, II. Electrodynamics and Aspects of Optics, III. Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics, IV. Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics). It summarizes the material that every graduate student, physicist working in industry, or physics teacher should master during his or her degree course. It thus serves both as an excellent revision and preparation tool, and as a convenient reference source, covering the whole of theoretical physics. It may also be successfully employed to deepen its readers' insight and add new dimensions to their understanding of these fundamental concepts. Recent topics such as holography and quantum cryptography are included, thus making this a unique contribution to the learning material for theoretical physics.

  14. Joint Degree Program: the Perspective of Employers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tatjana Bilevičienė

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Purpose — the purpose of this article is to extend discussion towards the need and importance of joint degree programs in modern universities, introducing the perspective of the employers toward this question. Design/methodology/approach — the research was conducted to analyze the demand of joint degree programs from the perspective of employers, identify weak and strong aspects, opinion and demand for graduates of such programs. To achieve this purpose, a combination of theoretical and empirical methods was chosen: document analysis (previous studies, statistics was conducted and an online qualitative survey was organized. Findings — The analysis of articles, studies and statistics points out the challenges and threats faced by universities nowadays, forcing higher education institutions to find new ways to raise the quality of studies and raise the interest of employers to choose graduates from MRU, as well as the satisfaction of employers with their choice of employees. Theoretical analysis pointed out these challenges and requirements for the modern employee, summarised the challenges in preparation of IT field specialists. The conducted research results showed that the diploma of joint degree programs would not be treated as an advantage of possible employee from the perspective of employers in case some important aspects will not be taken into consideration by program creators. On the other hand, undeniably there are strong sides, such as knowledge in the fields of foreign language, international experience, innovativeness and creativeness of employees that would be treated as an advantage in the process of selection for positions of any technical support related positions. Research limitations/implications — employers, whose business activities are closely related to information technology, have been invited as experts. In addition, these experts have a good understanding of the specifics of joint degree programs. The received

  15. The value of private patient information in the physician-patient relationship: a game-theoretic account.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Jaegher, Kris

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a game-theoretical model of the physician-patient relationship. There is a conflict of interests between physician and patient, in that the physician prefers the patient to always obtain a particular treatment, even if the patient would not consider this treatment in his interest. The patient obtains imperfect cues of whether or not he needs the treatment. The effect of an increase in the quality of the patient's private information is studied, in the form of an improvement in the quality of his cues. It is shown that when the patient's information improves in this sense, he may either become better off or worse off. The precise circumstances under which either result is obtained are derived.

  16. Employment Effects of Spatial Dispersal of Refugees

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Damm, Anna Piil; Rosholm, Michael

    Spatial dispersal policies may influence labour market integration of refugees through two mechanisms. First, it may affect the local job offer arrival rate, and second, it may affect place utility. We investigate the second mechanism theoretically by formulating a partial search model in which a...... due to large local reservation wage effects. We investigate both mechanisms empirically and test the predictions of the theoretical model by evaluating the employment effects of the Danish spatial dispersal policy carried out 1986-1998....

  17. Theoretical frameworks informing family-based child and adolescent obesity interventions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alulis, Sarah; Grabowski, Dan

    2017-01-01

    into focus. However, the use of theoretical frameworks to strengthen these interventions is rare and very uneven. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: To conduct a qualitative meta-synthesis of family-based interventions for child and adolescent obesity to identify the theoretical frameworks applied, thus understanding how...... inconsistencies and a significant void between research results and health care practice. Based on the analysis, this article proposes three themes to be used as focus points when designing future interventions and when selecting theories for the development of solid, theory-based frameworks for application...... cognitive, self-efficacy and Family Systems Theory appeared most frequently. The remaining 24 were classified as theory-related as theoretical elements of self-monitoring; stimulus control, reinforcement and modelling were used. CONCLUSION: The designs of family-based interventions reveal numerous...

  18. Parametric sensitivity analysis for stochastic molecular systems using information theoretic metrics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tsourtis, Anastasios, E-mail: tsourtis@uoc.gr [Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, Crete (Greece); Pantazis, Yannis, E-mail: pantazis@math.umass.edu; Katsoulakis, Markos A., E-mail: markos@math.umass.edu [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003 (United States); Harmandaris, Vagelis, E-mail: harman@uoc.gr [Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Crete, and Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics (IACM), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), GR-70013 Heraklion, Crete (Greece)

    2015-07-07

    In this paper, we present a parametric sensitivity analysis (SA) methodology for continuous time and continuous space Markov processes represented by stochastic differential equations. Particularly, we focus on stochastic molecular dynamics as described by the Langevin equation. The utilized SA method is based on the computation of the information-theoretic (and thermodynamic) quantity of relative entropy rate (RER) and the associated Fisher information matrix (FIM) between path distributions, and it is an extension of the work proposed by Y. Pantazis and M. A. Katsoulakis [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 054115 (2013)]. A major advantage of the pathwise SA method is that both RER and pathwise FIM depend only on averages of the force field; therefore, they are tractable and computable as ergodic averages from a single run of the molecular dynamics simulation both in equilibrium and in non-equilibrium steady state regimes. We validate the performance of the extended SA method to two different molecular stochastic systems, a standard Lennard-Jones fluid and an all-atom methane liquid, and compare the obtained parameter sensitivities with parameter sensitivities on three popular and well-studied observable functions, namely, the radial distribution function, the mean squared displacement, and the pressure. Results show that the RER-based sensitivities are highly correlated with the observable-based sensitivities.

  19. Research on Employment in the Rural Nonfarm Sector in Africa. African Rural Employment Paper No. 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liedholm, Carl

    Within the context of the role of rural employment in overall economic development, the objectives were to summarize existing knowledge of the rural African nonfarm sector and to develop an analytical framework for examing utilization of labor in this sector, using a descriptive profile, a theoretical model, and a research approach to rural…

  20. Three-dimensionality of space and the quantum bit: an information-theoretic approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Müller, Markus P; Masanes, Lluís

    2013-01-01

    It is sometimes pointed out as a curiosity that the state space of quantum two-level systems, i.e. the qubit, and actual physical space are both three-dimensional and Euclidean. In this paper, we suggest an information-theoretic analysis of this relationship, by proving a particular mathematical result: suppose that physics takes place in d spatial dimensions, and that some events happen probabilistically (not assuming quantum theory in any way). Furthermore, suppose there are systems that carry ‘minimal amounts of direction information’, interacting via some continuous reversible time evolution. We prove that this uniquely determines spatial dimension d = 3 and quantum theory on two qubits (including entanglement and unitary time evolution), and that it allows observers to infer local spatial geometry from probability measurements. (paper)

  1. A Game-Theoretic Approach to Information-Flow Control via Protocol Composition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mário S. Alvim

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available In the inference attacks studied in Quantitative Information Flow (QIF, the attacker typically tries to interfere with the system in the attempt to increase its leakage of secret information. The defender, on the other hand, typically tries to decrease leakage by introducing some controlled noise. This noise introduction can be modeled as a type of protocol composition, i.e., a probabilistic choice among different protocols, and its effect on the amount of leakage depends heavily on whether or not this choice is visible to the attacker. In this work, we consider operators for modeling visible and hidden choice in protocol composition, and we study their algebraic properties. We then formalize the interplay between defender and attacker in a game-theoretic framework adapted to the specific issues of QIF, where the payoff is information leakage. We consider various kinds of leakage games, depending on whether players act simultaneously or sequentially, and on whether or not the choices of the defender are visible to the attacker. In the case of sequential games, the choice of the second player is generally a function of the choice of the first player, and his/her probabilistic choice can be either over the possible functions (mixed strategy or it can be on the result of the function (behavioral strategy. We show that when the attacker moves first in a sequential game with a hidden choice, then behavioral strategies are more advantageous for the defender than mixed strategies. This contrasts with the standard game theory, where the two types of strategies are equivalent. Finally, we establish a hierarchy of these games in terms of their information leakage and provide methods for finding optimal strategies (at the points of equilibrium for both attacker and defender in the various cases.

  2. Global Prospects for Full Employment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivo Šlaus

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The recent international financial crisis highlights the crucial role of employment in human welfare and social stability. Access to remunerative employment opportunities is essential for economic security in a market-based economic system. As the rise of democracy compelled nations to extend the voting right to all citizens, employment must be recognized as a fundamental human right. In total defiance of conventional wisdom, since 1950 job growth has outpaced the explosive growth of population, the rapid adoption of labor-saving technologies, the manifold expansion of world trade, and the dramatic shift from manual labor to white collar work. In an increasingly globalized labor market, current nation-centric theories and models of employment need to be replaced with a human-centered global perspective complemented by new indicators that recognize the central and essential contribution of employment to human economic welfare. Employment and economy are subsets of society and their growth is driven by the more fundamental process of social development. A vast array of unmet social needs combined with an enormous reservoir of underutilized social resources – technological, scientific, educational, organizational, cultural and psychological – can be harnessed to dramatically expand employment opportunities and achieve full employment on a global basis. This paper examines the theoretical basis, policy issues and strategies required to eradicate unemployment nationally and globally.

  3. Systems information management: graph theoretical approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Temel, T.

    2006-01-01

    This study proposes a new method for characterising the underlying information structure of a multi-sector system. A complete characterisation is accomplished by identifying information gaps and cause-effect information pathways in the system, and formulating critical testable hypotheses.

  4. Some Observations on the Concepts of Information-Theoretic Entropy and Randomness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathan D.H. Smith

    2001-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: Certain aspects of the history, derivation, and physical application of the information-theoretic entropy concept are discussed. Pre-dating Shannon, the concept is traced back to Pauli. A derivation from first principles is given, without use of approximations. The concept depends on the underlying degree of randomness. In physical applications, this translates to dependence on the experimental apparatus available. An example illustrates how this dependence affects Prigogine's proposal for the use of the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a selection principle for the breaking of time symmetry. The dependence also serves to yield a resolution of the so-called ``Gibbs Paradox.'' Extension of the concept from the discrete to the continuous case is discussed. The usual extension is shown to be dimensionally incorrect. Correction introduces a reference density, leading to the concept of Kullback entropy. Practical relativistic considerations suggest a possible proper reference density.

  5. 49 CFR 40.215 - What information about the DER do employers have to provide to BATs and STTs?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false What information about the DER do employers have to provide to BATs and STTs? 40.215 Section 40.215 Transportation Office of the Secretary of Transportation PROCEDURES FOR TRANSPORTATION WORKPLACE DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING PROGRAMS Alcohol Testing Personnel § 40.215 What information about the DER do...

  6. Music Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress in Adults: A Theoretical Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landis-Shack, Nora; Heinz, Adrienne J.; Bonn-Miller, Marcel O.

    2017-01-01

    Music therapy has been employed as a therapeutic intervention to facilitate healing across a variety of clinical populations. There is theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that individuals with trauma exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by enduring symptoms of distressing memory intrusions, avoidance, emotional disturbance, and hyperarousal, may derive benefits from music therapy. The current narrative review describes the practice of music therapy and presents a theoretically-informed assessment and model of music therapy as a tool for addressing symptoms of PTSD. The review also presents key empirical studies that support the theoretical assessment. Social, cognitive, and neurobiological mechanisms (e.g., community building, emotion regulation, increased pleasure, anxiety reduction) that promote music therapy’s efficacy as an adjunctive treatment for individuals with posttraumatic stress are discussed. It is concluded that music therapy may be a useful therapeutic tool to reduce symptoms and improve functioning among individuals with trauma exposure and PTSD, though more rigorous empirical study is required. In addition, music therapy may help foster resilience and engage individuals who struggle with stigma associated with seeking professional help. Practical recommendations for incorporating music therapy into clinical practice are offered along with several suggestions for future research. PMID:29290641

  7. Pragmatic critical realism: could this methodological approach expand our understanding of employment relations?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mearns, Susan Lesley

    2011-01-01

    This paper seeks to highlight the need for employment relations academics and researchers to expand their use of research methodologies in order for them to enable the advancement of theoretical debate within their discipline. It focuses on the contribution that pragmatical critical realism has made to the field of perception and argues that it would add value to the subject of employment relations. It is a theoretically centred review of pragmatical critical realism and the possible contribution this methodology would make to the field of employment relations. The paper concludes that the employment relationship does not take place in a vacuum rather it is focussed on the interaction between imperfect individuals. Therefore, their interactions are moulded by emotions which can not be explored thoroughly or even acknowledged through a positivists' rigorous but limited acknowledgment of what constitutes 'knowledge' and development of theory. While not rejecting the contribution that quantitative data or positivism have made to the field, the study concludes that pragmatic critical realism has a lot to offer the development of the area and its theoretical foundations.

  8. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE AT A HIGHER INSTITUTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evgeniia Nikolaevna Kikot

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The question of organization of contemporary education process is getting more important nowadays in the conditions of ICT (information and communication technologies and e-education usage.This defines one of the most important methodological and research directions in the university – creation of informational-educational course unit complex as the foundation of e-University resource.The foundation of informational-educational course unit complex creation are the concepts of openness, accessibility, clearness, personalisation and that allow to built the requirements system to the complex creation and its substantial content.The main functions of informational educational complex are detected: informational, educational, controlling and communicative.It’s defined that into the basis of scientific justification of new structure elements of informational-educational of course unit complex development and introduction is necessary to include creation of e-workbook, e-workshops in order to organize theoretical and practical e-conferences.Development of ICT in education that provides e-education application assume establishment of distance learning techno-logies for educational programme implementation.

  9. Effect of informal employment on the relationship between psychosocial work risk factors and musculoskeletal pain in Central American workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gimeno Ruiz de Porras, David; Rojas Garbanzo, Marianela; Aragón, Aurora; Carmenate-Milián, Lino; Benavides, Fernando G

    2017-09-01

    The constant increase on the psychosocial demands experienced at work seems to contribute to the increase in health problems such as musculoskeletal pain (MSP). This association may be especially important in low-income and middle-income countries, where there is a large proportion of informal workers among whom there is little research. We analysed the association between psychosocial work risk factors and MSP among formal and informal workers using the First Central American Survey of Working Conditions and Health. This is a representative sample (n=12 024) of the economically active population of the six Spanish-speaking countries of Central America. Prevalence ratios (PR) and corresponding 95% CIs from Poisson regression models were used to estimate the association between psychosocial work risk factors and the MSP. Compared with formal workers, informal workers reported higher prevalence of MPS in the body regions analysed (ie, cervicodorsal, lumbosacral, upper extremities) and higher exposure to psychosocial work risk factors. However, on the whole, the associations between the exposure to psychosocial work risk factors and the prevalence of MSP were similar for both formal and informal workers. Only the association between exposure to high demands and MSP in the upper extremities was higher (p=0.012) among formal (PR=1.69, 95% CI 1.46 to 1.96) than among informal workers (PR=1.40; 95% CI 1.30 to 1.51). Exposure to adverse levels of psychosocial work risk factors is associated with higher prevalence of MPS among both formal and informal workers. However, the role of employment informality in this association is complex and requires further examination. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  10. Theoretical NMR and conformational analysis of solvated oximes for organophosphates-inhibited acetylcholinesterase reactivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Jorge Alberto Valle; Modesto-Costa, Lucas; de Koning, Martijn C.; Borges, Itamar; França, Tanos Celmar Costa

    2018-01-01

    In this work, quaternary and non-quaternary oximes designed to bind at the peripheral site of acetylcholinesterase previously inhibited by organophosphates were investigated theoretically. Some of those oximes have a large number of degrees of freedom, thus requiring an accurate method to obtain molecular geometries. For this reason, the density functional theory (DFT) was employed to refine their molecular geometries after conformational analysis and to compare their 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) theoretical signals in gas-phase and in solvent. A good agreement with experimental data was achieved and the same theoretical approach was employed to obtain the geometries in water environment for further studies.

  11. Experimental and theoretical study on spray behaviors of modified bio-ethanol fuel employing direct injection system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ghahremani Amirreza

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the key solutions to improve engine performance and reduce exhaust emissions of internal combustion engines is direct injection of bio-fuels. A new modified bio-ethanol is produced to be substituted by fossil fuels in gasoline direct injection engines. The key advantages of modified bio-ethanol fuel as an alternative fuel are higher octane number and oxygen content, a long-chain hydro-carbon fuel, and lower emissions compared to fossil fuels. In the present study spray properties of a modified bio-ethanol and its atomization behaviors have been studied experimentally and theoretically. Based on atomization physics of droplets dimensional analysis has been performed to develop a new non-dimensional number namely atomization index. This number determines the atomization level of the spray. Applying quasi-steady jet theory, air entrainment and fuel-air mixing studies have been performed. The spray atomization behaviors such as atomization index number, Ohnesorge number, and Sauter mean diameter have been investigated employing atomization model. The influences of injection and ambient conditions on spray properties of different blends of modified bio-ethanol and gasoline fuels have been investigated performing high-speed visualization technique. Results indicate that decreasing the difference of injection and ambient pressures increases spray cone angle and projected area, and decreases spray tip penetration length. As expected, increasing injection pressure improves atomization behaviors of the spray. Increasing percentage of modified bio-ethanol in the blend, increases spray tip penetration and decreases the projected area as well.

  12. Employment Maintenance and Intimate Partner Violence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borchers, Andrea; Lee, Rebecca C; Martsolf, Donna S; Maler, Jeff

    2016-05-18

    Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health problem in the United States. Negative outcomes of IPV affect women's attainment and maintenance of employment. The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical framework that described and explained the process by which women who have experienced IPV attain and maintain employment. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyze interviews of 34 women who had experienced IPV. Analysis suggested that women who had experienced IPV could attain employment; however, they had difficulty maintaining employment. Entanglement of work and IPV was experienced by all 34 participants because of the perpetrator controlling their appearance, sabotaging their work, interfering with their work, or controlling their finances. Some women described ways in which they disentangled work from IPV through a dynamic unraveling process, with periods of re-entanglement, resulting in job security and satisfaction. © 2016 The Author(s).

  13. Position, Possession or Process? Understanding Objective and Subjective Employability during University-to-Work Transitions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okay-Somerville, Belgin; Scholarios, Dora

    2017-01-01

    This article aims to understand predictors of objective (i.e. job offers, employment status and employment quality) and subjective (i.e. perceived) graduate employability during university-to-work transitions. Using survey data from two cohorts of graduates in the UK (N = 293), it contrasts three competing theoretical approaches to employability:…

  14. Individual consistency and flexibility in human social information use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toelch, Ulf; Bruce, Matthew J; Newson, Lesley; Richerson, Peter J; Reader, Simon M

    2014-02-07

    Copying others appears to be a cost-effective way of obtaining adaptive information, particularly when flexibly employed. However, adult humans differ considerably in their propensity to use information from others, even when this 'social information' is beneficial, raising the possibility that stable individual differences constrain flexibility in social information use. We used two dissimilar decision-making computer games to investigate whether individuals flexibly adjusted their use of social information to current conditions or whether they valued social information similarly in both games. Participants also completed established personality questionnaires. We found that participants demonstrated considerable flexibility, adjusting social information use to current conditions. In particular, individuals employed a 'copy-when-uncertain' social learning strategy, supporting a core, but untested, assumption of influential theoretical models of cultural transmission. Moreover, participants adjusted the amount invested in their decision based on the perceived reliability of personally gathered information combined with the available social information. However, despite this strategic flexibility, participants also exhibited consistent individual differences in their propensities to use and value social information. Moreover, individuals who favoured social information self-reported as more collectivist than others. We discuss the implications of our results for social information use and cultural transmission.

  15. Information-Theoretic Performance Analysis of Sensor Networks via Markov Modeling of Time Series Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yue; Jha, Devesh K; Ray, Asok; Wettergren, Thomas A; Yue Li; Jha, Devesh K; Ray, Asok; Wettergren, Thomas A; Wettergren, Thomas A; Li, Yue; Ray, Asok; Jha, Devesh K

    2018-06-01

    This paper presents information-theoretic performance analysis of passive sensor networks for detection of moving targets. The proposed method falls largely under the category of data-level information fusion in sensor networks. To this end, a measure of information contribution for sensors is formulated in a symbolic dynamics framework. The network information state is approximately represented as the largest principal component of the time series collected across the network. To quantify each sensor's contribution for generation of the information content, Markov machine models as well as x-Markov (pronounced as cross-Markov) machine models, conditioned on the network information state, are constructed; the difference between the conditional entropies of these machines is then treated as an approximate measure of information contribution by the respective sensors. The x-Markov models represent the conditional temporal statistics given the network information state. The proposed method has been validated on experimental data collected from a local area network of passive sensors for target detection, where the statistical characteristics of environmental disturbances are similar to those of the target signal in the sense of time scale and texture. A distinctive feature of the proposed algorithm is that the network decisions are independent of the behavior and identity of the individual sensors, which is desirable from computational perspectives. Results are presented to demonstrate the proposed method's efficacy to correctly identify the presence of a target with very low false-alarm rates. The performance of the underlying algorithm is compared with that of a recent data-driven, feature-level information fusion algorithm. It is shown that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other algorithm.

  16. 45 CFR 1706.140 - Employment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Employment. 1706.140 Section 1706.140 Public... CONDUCTED BY NATIONAL COMMISSION ON LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION SCIENCE § 1706.140 Employment. No qualified handicapped person shall, on the basis of handicap, be subjected to discrimination in employment under any...

  17. Nonstandard Employment Relations and Implications for Decent ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Conceptualizing nonstandard work within the context of casual, contract and outsourced work, the paper contends that this form of employment relations has been exacerbated by the growing incidence of youth unemployment in Nigeria. Using neoliberalism as a theoretical framework, the paper further contended that most ...

  18. 49 CFR Appendix F to Part 40 - Drug and Alcohol Testing Information that C/TPAs May Transmit to Employers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Drug and Alcohol Testing Information that C/TPAs... Transportation PROCEDURES FOR TRANSPORTATION WORKPLACE DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING PROGRAMS Pt. 40, App. F Appendix F to Part 40—Drug and Alcohol Testing Information that C/TPAs May Transmit to Employers 1. If you...

  19. Examining the links between employed mothers' work characteristics, physical activity, and child health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Ryan C; Allen, Tammy D

    2013-01-01

    The present study tested a process model through which the strain-based (job control and role ambiguity) and time-based (work hours) job demands of employed mothers relate to child health via child modeling of mother's physical activity. Support was found for a model of these relationships using dyadic mother-child data (N = 359) from a large, multi-wave nationwide data set and job demands data from the Occupational Information Network (O*Net). Theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research directions, are also discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

  20. Contingent and Continuing Employment: Comparative National and Historical Perspectives

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Marens, Richard; Tackney, Charles T.

    This symposium focuses on the comparative impact of social institutions and labor laws on both contingent and continuing employment. Presenters will apply a wide range of analytical concepts to the history and culture of five individual nations. These concepts include a diverse set of theoretical...... will engage with the audience and one another to discuss broader lessons derived from the variety of cases presented and the distinct theoretical treatments of these....

  1. Employability enhancement through formal and informal learning: An empirical study among Dutch non-academic university staff members

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Heijden, Beatrice; Boon, Jo; van der Klink, Marcel; Meijs, Ely

    2009-01-01

    Although learning is generally perceived as a way to improve employees' current job performance, so far, no research has been conducted to explore the possible relationships between formal and informal learning, on the one hand, and employability, on the other. Though contemporary views stress the

  2. An approach of information technologies employment within the tasks of radioactive wastes management in the 'Ukrytie' and its transformation into ecologically safe system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klyuchnikov, A.A.; Mazur, A.B.

    1998-01-01

    This article is a description of a concept of the information technologies employment based on the geo information systems (GIS) and the designing systems (CAD) to create an integrated information system (IIS) for the 'Ukrytie' and the industrial site. This system incorporates data based with text, tabular, screen, animation, video and vector data types involved. The IIS is a basic system for further tasks on simulation of the processes in the 'Ukrytie'. The delivered concept employs two up-to-date technologies, i.e. CAD and GIS

  3. Explaining individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment using a multi-level model: evidence from 35 Eurasian countries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Krasniqi Besnik A.

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to evaluate the individual- and country-level variations in unregistered employment. To analyse whether it is marginalised groups who are more likely to engage in unregistered employment and explain the country-level variations, a 2010 Life in Transition Survey (LiTS involving 38,864 interviews in 35 Eurasian countries is reported. Multilevel logistic regression analysis reveals that younger age groups, the divorced, and those with fewer years in education, are more likely to be unregistered employed. On a country-level, meanwhile, the prevalence of unregistered employment is strongly associated with tax morale; the greater the asymmetry between informal and formal institutions, the greater is the prevalence of unregistered employment. It is also higher when GDP per capita as well as social distribution and state intervention (subsidies and transfers, social contribution expenditure, health expenditure are lower. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications.

  4. Factors Influencing Employment and Employability for Persons with Disability: Insights from a City in South India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramachandra, Srikrishna S; Murthy, G V S; Shamanna, B R; Allagh, Komal P; Pant, Hira B; John, Neena

    2017-01-01

    There is a lack of evidence on barriers faced by persons with disability in accessing employment opportunities in India. This study was undertaken to ascertain both employee and employer perceptions on barriers existing among Information Technology (IT) and IT-enabled sectors to employ persons with disabilities. Two hundred participants from six IT/IT-enabled sector organizations were included in the study; study was conducted at Hyderabad, India. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to the participants. Physical access to and within the worksite was highlighted as a concern by 95% of respondents. Majority perceived that communication, attitude of people, discrimination, harassment at work place, and information were critical barriers. Only 3.8% of employers were aware that their company had a written policy on employing persons with disabilities. Employers stated that commitment and perseverance were important facilitators among persons with disabilities. Evidence from this study will help in planning need-based employment for persons with disabilities.

  5. Identifying significant factors which can contribute to successful transitions from school to lasting employment affiliation for pupils in vocational training programs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nils Breilid

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: This study deals with young people receiving special needs education in schools and their transition to lasting employment in private or public sector. Through a qualitative approach, the article aims at “identifying significant factors which can, contribute to successful transitions from school to lasting employment affiliation for pupils in vocational training programs”Theoretical approach: The theoretical approach of this article is descriptions and interpretation of the Norwegian educational legislation and the theory of «empowerment». These theoretical perspectives will be included in the empirical discussion. Method: The methodological approach is qualitative. Through four semi-structured interviews of young informants who have completed upper secondary school in a vocational education program, and have had a minimum of one-year training in an enterprise. Thematic analysis of the data is conducted with the application of NVivo 11, a computer program that is suitable for qualitative data-analysis and mixed research methods.Results and discussion: Through thematic analysis of the data, we found three significant factors contributing to successful transitions from school to lasting employment:      a Application and development of the pupil’s competence - mastery and meaning      b The significance of relations, communication and well-functioning socio-ecological          networks      c The importance of pupil participation and involvement in decision making

  6. Using assistive technology outcomes research to inform policy related to the employment of individuals with disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendelsohn, Steven; Edyburn, Dave L; Rust, Kathy L; Schwanke, Todd D; Smith, Roger O

    2008-01-01

    We know that work is recognized as a central component of life for individuals with and without disabilities. It yields many physical and psychological benefits to the individual while simultaneously contributing numerous benefits to society. Lawmakers have enacted a plethora of laws designed to prevent discrimination, provide incentives for employers to hire individuals with disabilities, and facilitate job training/career preparation. Assistive technology figures prominently in disability employment law as a critical strategy for gaining access and supporting employment and upward mobility in the workplace. However, little systematic effort has been devoted to examining assistive technology use and outcomes as they relate to the employment of individuals with disabilities. The purpose of this article is to articulate a series of issues that permeate assistive technology outcome measurement in employment settings and subsequently affect the use of research knowledge for federal and state policy makers. For each issue, the authors pose three questions for critical analysis: Does the law compel the provision of assistive technology? Does outcome data play any part in the operation of the law? When it does, what kind of data would be useful to collect and where could it be found? Finally, the authors provide a brief glimpse of the current and future research efforts concerning the RSA-911 database. The recent database summaries exemplify the importance of such a national data collection system for informing federal policy, particularly concerning the contributions of assistive technology device use and services on improving the employment of individuals with disabilities.

  7. Theoretical Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stöltzner, Michael

    Answering to the double-faced influence of string theory on mathematical practice and rigour, the mathematical physicists Arthur Jaffe and Frank Quinn have contemplated the idea that there exists a `theoretical' mathematics (alongside `theoretical' physics) whose basic structures and results still require independent corroboration by mathematical proof. In this paper, I shall take the Jaffe-Quinn debate mainly as a problem of mathematical ontology and analyse it against the backdrop of two philosophical views that are appreciative towards informal mathematical development and conjectural results: Lakatos's methodology of proofs and refutations and John von Neumann's opportunistic reading of Hilbert's axiomatic method. The comparison of both approaches shows that mitigating Lakatos's falsificationism makes his insights about mathematical quasi-ontology more relevant to 20th century mathematics in which new structures are introduced by axiomatisation and not necessarily motivated by informal ancestors. The final section discusses the consequences of string theorists' claim to finality for the theory's mathematical make-up. I argue that ontological reductionism as advocated by particle physicists and the quest for mathematically deeper axioms do not necessarily lead to identical results.

  8. The measurement of employment benefits

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burtraw, D

    1994-07-01

    The consideration of employment effects and so-called 'hidden employment benefits' is one of the most confused and contentious issues in benefit-cost analysis and applied welfare economics generally. New investments create new employment opportunities, and often advocates for specific investments cite these employment opportunities as alleged benefits associated with the project. Indeed, from the local perspective, such employment opportunities may appear to be beneficial because they appear to come for free. If there is unemployment in the local area, then new investments create valuable employment opportunities for those in the local community. Even if there is full employment in the local area then new investments create incentives for immigrant from other locations that may have pecuniary benefits locally through increased property values, business revenues, etc. The focus in this study is on net economic benefits from a broad national perspective. From this perspective, many of the alleged employment benefits at the local level are offset by lost benefits at other locales, and do not count as benefits according to economic theory. This paper outlines a methodology for testing this rebuttable presumption with empirical data pertaining to labor markets that would be affected by a specific new investment. The theoretical question that is relevant is whether the social opportunity cost of new employment is less than the market wage. This would be the case, for example, if one expects unemployment or underemployment to persist in a specific region of the economy or occupational category affected by the new investment. In this case, new employment opportunities produce a net increase in social wealth rather than just a transfer of income.

  9. The measurement of employment benefits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burtraw, D.

    1994-01-01

    The consideration of employment effects and so-called 'hidden employment benefits' is one of the most confused and contentious issues in benefit-cost analysis and applied welfare economics generally. New investments create new employment opportunities, and often advocates for specific investments cite these employment opportunities as alleged benefits associated with the project. Indeed, from the local perspective, such employment opportunities may appear to be beneficial because they appear to come for free. If there is unemployment in the local area, then new investments create valuable employment opportunities for those in the local community. Even if there is full employment in the local area then new investments create incentives for immigrant from other locations that may have pecuniary benefits locally through increased property values, business revenues, etc. The focus in this study is on net economic benefits from a broad national perspective. From this perspective, many of the alleged employment benefits at the local level are offset by lost benefits at other locales, and do not count as benefits according to economic theory. This paper outlines a methodology for testing this rebuttable presumption with empirical data pertaining to labor markets that would be affected by a specific new investment. The theoretical question that is relevant is whether the social opportunity cost of new employment is less than the market wage. This would be the case, for example, if one expects unemployment or underemployment to persist in a specific region of the economy or occupational category affected by the new investment. In this case, new employment opportunities produce a net increase in social wealth rather than just a transfer of income

  10. Business/Employers Influenza Toolkit

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    2011-09-06

    This podcast promotes the "Make It Your Business To Fight The Flu" toolkit for Businesses and Employers. The toolkit provides information and recommended strategies to help businesses and employers promote the seasonal flu vaccine. Additionally, employers will find flyers, posters, and other materials to post and distribute in the workplace.  Created: 9/6/2011 by Office of Infectious Diseases, Office of the Director (OD).   Date Released: 9/7/2011.

  11. Quantum information theory mathematical foundation

    CERN Document Server

    Hayashi, Masahito

    2017-01-01

    This graduate textbook provides a unified view of quantum information theory. Clearly explaining the necessary mathematical basis, it merges key topics from both information-theoretic and quantum- mechanical viewpoints and provides lucid explanations of the basic results. Thanks to this unified approach, it makes accessible such advanced topics in quantum communication as quantum teleportation, superdense coding, quantum state transmission (quantum error-correction) and quantum encryption. Since the publication of the preceding book Quantum Information: An Introduction, there have been tremendous strides in the field of quantum information. In particular, the following topics – all of which are addressed here – made seen major advances: quantum state discrimination, quantum channel capacity, bipartite and multipartite entanglement, security analysis on quantum communication, reverse Shannon theorem and uncertainty relation. With regard to the analysis of quantum security, the present book employs an impro...

  12. EmployRES. The impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth and employment in the European Union. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ragwitz, M.; Schade, W.; Breitschopf, B.; Walz, R.; Helfrich, N.; Rathmann, M.; Resch, G.; Panzer, C.; Faber, T.; Haas, R.; Nathani, C.; Holzhey, M.; Konstantinaviciute, I.; Zagame, P.; Fougeyrollas, A.; Le Hir, B.

    2009-04-01

    This study aims to meet the need for scientifically robust information on the gross effects (direct and indirect) as well as on the net effects (including both conventional replacement and budget effects) of renewable energy policies in Europe. Furthermore, the future development of RES in Europe will take place against the background of a global market for RES technology. This global market and the potential share of European industries in it will play a critical role in the potentials for growth and employment. This study aims to provide a sound scientific analysis of these issues. This report is divided into four main parts, A, B, C and D. While the first three covers the introduction, the theoretical approach, the modelling steps and structure of the report, the fourth part, part D, discusses in detail the models and results of the projects. It begins with chapter D 1 which describes past RES deployment and its costs. Then follows the past macroeconomic impacts presented by gross effects on employment and value added (D 2). Thereafter, the future potential (D 3) and future deployment (D 4) of renewable energy sources (RES) are discussed. Before the presentation of the future gross and net effects, the five scenarios used in the macro-economic models (D 5) are explained in detail. Finally we depict the future gross and net impacts on employment and GDP in D 6 and D 7, respectively. The comparison between the results of the two models and our conclusion for the study follows in chapter D 8 and 9

  13. Employer branding: budování značky zaměstnavatele

    OpenAIRE

    Vogl, Marek

    2013-01-01

    The main objective of the thesis is to identify and to evaluate tools which are used for external and internal employer branding. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on relation between employer brand and employee engagement and on describing methods which can be used for external and internal employer branding. In the practical part, these methods are compared with employer branding activities of the chosen company and with analyses of outputs of online questionnaires distributed to u...

  14. Judicial construction of termination clauses of employment contracts ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    These principles are underpinned by theoretical assumptions that do not distinguish between pure commercial contracts and employment contracts, although the two kinds of ... This is so, given that contract- based principles do not recognise and protect workers' reasonable expectations of fair treatment and job security.

  15. A Theoretical Framework for Soft-Information-Based Synchronization in Iterative (Turbo Receivers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lottici Vincenzo

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available This contribution considers turbo synchronization, that is to say, the use of soft data information to estimate parameters like carrier phase, frequency, or timing offsets of a modulated signal within an iterative data demodulator. In turbo synchronization, the receiver exploits the soft decisions computed at each turbo decoding iteration to provide a reliable estimate of some signal parameters. The aim of our paper is to show that such "turbo-estimation" approach can be regarded as a special case of the expectation-maximization (EM algorithm. This leads to a general theoretical framework for turbo synchronization that allows to derive parameter estimation procedures for carrier phase and frequency offset, as well as for timing offset and signal amplitude. The proposed mathematical framework is illustrated by simulation results reported for the particular case of carrier phase and frequency offsets estimation of a turbo-coded 16-QAM signal.

  16. NATIONAL EMPLOYER HEALTH INSURANCE SURVEY (NEHIS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    The National Employer Health Insurance Survey (NEHIS) was developed to produce estimates on employer-sponsored health insurance data in the United States. The NEHIS was the first Federal survey to represent all employers in the United States by State and obtain information on all...

  17. Science Academies' Refresher Course on Theoretical Structural ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 22; Issue 8. Science Academies' Refresher Course on Theoretical Structural Geology, Crystallography, Mineralogy, Thermodynamics, Experimental Petrology and Theoretical Geophysics. Information and Announcements Volume 22 Issue 8 August 2017 ...

  18. Enablers and barriers to physical activity in overweight and obese pregnant women: an analysis informed by the theoretical domains framework and COM-B model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flannery, C; McHugh, S; Anaba, A E; Clifford, E; O'Riordan, M; Kenny, L C; McAuliffe, F M; Kearney, P M; Byrne, M

    2018-05-21

    Obesity during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and other complications. Physical activity is a modifiable lifestyle factor that may help to prevent these complications but many women reduce their physical activity levels during pregnancy. Interventions targeting physical activity in pregnancy are on-going but few identify the underlying behaviour change mechanisms by which the intervention is expected to work. To enhance intervention effectiveness, recent tools in behavioural science such as the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and COM-B model (capability, opportunity, motivation and behaviour) have been employed to understand behaviours for intervention development. Using these behaviour change methods, this study aimed to identify the enablers and barriers to physical activity in overweight and obese pregnant women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of overweight and obese women at different stages of pregnancy attending a public antenatal clinic in a large academic maternity hospital in Cork, Ireland. Interviews were recorded and transcribed into NVivo V.10 software. Data analysis followed the framework approach, drawing on the TDF and the COM-B model. Twenty one themes were identified and these mapped directly on to the COM-B model of behaviour change and ten of the TDF domains. Having the social opportunity to engage in physical activity was identified as an enabler; pregnant women suggested being active was easier when supported by their partners. Knowledge was a commonly reported barrier with women lacking information on safe activities during pregnancy and describing the information received from their midwife as 'limited'. Having the physical capability and physical opportunity to carry out physical activity were also identified as barriers; experiencing pain, a lack of time, having other children, and working prevented women from being active. A wide range of barriers

  19. Intuition in Decision Making –Theoretical and Empirical Aspects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamila Malewska

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In an economy dominated by information and knowledge, analysis ceases to be the sole and sufficient source of knowledge. Managers seek alternative ways of obtaining and interpreting information and knowledge. Here, managerial intuitive potential begins to play an important role. The aim of this paper is to present the issue of intuition in decision making in both theoretical and empirical terms. The first part presents the essence of intuition and its role in management, especially in decision making. Then, the empirical part attempts to identify the intuitive potential of managers and the extent of its use in practical decision making. The case study method was used in order to achieve this goal. The analysis involved a Polish food company “Fawor” that employs more than 300 workers. These literature and empirical studies in the area of intuition were conducted within the research project „The impact of managerial intuitive potential on the effectiveness of decision making processes”, financed by the National Science Centre, Poland (funds allocated on the basis of decision No. DEC-2014/13/D/HS4/01750

  20. Information-Theoretic Approach May Shed a Light to a Better Understanding and Sustaining the Integrity of Ecological-Societal Systems under Changing Climate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, J.

    2016-12-01

    Considering high levels of uncertainty, epistemological conflicts over facts and values, and a sense of urgency, normal paradigm-driven science will be insufficient to mobilize people and nation toward sustainability. The conceptual framework to bridge the societal system dynamics with that of natural ecosystems in which humanity operates remains deficient. The key to understanding their coevolution is to understand `self-organization.' Information-theoretic approach may shed a light to provide a potential framework which enables not only to bridge human and nature but also to generate useful knowledge for understanding and sustaining the integrity of ecological-societal systems. How can information theory help understand the interface between ecological systems and social systems? How to delineate self-organizing processes and ensure them to fulfil sustainability? How to evaluate the flow of information from data through models to decision-makers? These are the core questions posed by sustainability science in which visioneering (i.e., the engineering of vision) is an essential framework. Yet, visioneering has neither quantitative measure nor information theoretic framework to work with and teach. This presentation is an attempt to accommodate the framework of self-organizing hierarchical open systems with visioneering into a common information-theoretic framework. A case study is presented with the UN/FAO's communal vision of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) which pursues a trilemma of efficiency, mitigation, and resilience. Challenges of delineating and facilitating self-organizing systems are discussed using transdisciplinary toold such as complex systems thinking, dynamic process network analysis and multi-agent systems modeling. Acknowledgments: This study was supported by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant KMA-2012-0001-A (WISE project).

  1. On distribution reduction and algorithm implementation in inconsistent ordered information systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yanqin

    2014-01-01

    As one part of our work in ordered information systems, distribution reduction is studied in inconsistent ordered information systems (OISs). Some important properties on distribution reduction are studied and discussed. The dominance matrix is restated for reduction acquisition in dominance relations based information systems. Matrix algorithm for distribution reduction acquisition is stepped. And program is implemented by the algorithm. The approach provides an effective tool for the theoretical research and the applications for ordered information systems in practices. For more detailed and valid illustrations, cases are employed to explain and verify the algorithm and the program which shows the effectiveness of the algorithm in complicated information systems.

  2. Employability Enhancement through Formal and Informal Learning: An Empirical Study among Dutch Non-Academic University Staff Members

    Science.gov (United States)

    van der Heijden, Beatrice; Boon, Jo; van der Klink, Marcel; Meijs, Ely

    2009-01-01

    Although learning is generally perceived as a way to improve employees' current job performance, so far, no research has been conducted to explore the possible relationships between formal and informal learning, on the one hand, and employability, on the other. Though contemporary views stress the importance of the job as a powerful learning site,…

  3. Measuring excessive hours of work, low hourly pay, and informal employment through a labour force survey a pilot survey in the Philippines

    OpenAIRE

    Mehran, Farhad

    2005-01-01

    Using 2004 data of the Philippines' labour force survey, evaluates the hours of work at all jobs, hourly pay among time-rated wage and salary workers, informal employment etc., with the aim to quantify a decent-work situation (i.e. acceptable productive employment, social protection, social dialogue, and rights at work).

  4. Informal care, employment and quality of life: Barriers and facilitators to combining informal care and work participation for healthcare professionals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heitink, Eveline; Heerkens, Yvonne; Engels, Josephine

    2017-01-01

    In The Netherlands, one out of six Dutch employees has informal care tasks; in the hospital and healthcare sector, this ratio is one out of four workers. Informal carers experience problems with the combination of work and informal care. In particular, they have problems with the burden of responsibility, a lack of independence and their health. These problems can reveal themselves in a variety of mental and physical symptoms that can result in absenteeism, reduction or loss of (work) participation, reduction of income, and even social isolation. The aim of the study was to describe the factors that informal carers who are employed in healthcare organizations identify as affecting their quality of life, labour participation and health. We conducted an exploratory study in 2013-2014 that included desk research and a qualitative study. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare employees who combine work and informal care. Data were analyzed with Atlas-TI. We identified five themes: 1. Fear and responsibility; 2. Sense that one's own needs are not being met; 3. Work as an escape from home; 4. Health: a lack of balance; and 5. The role of colleagues and managers: giving support and understanding. Respondents combine work and informal care because they have no other solution. The top three reasons for working are: income, escape from home and satisfaction. The biggest problems informal carers experience are a lack of time and energy. They are all tired and are often or always exhausted at the end of the day. They give up activities for themselves, their social networks become smaller and they have less interest in social activities. Their managers are usually aware of the situation, but informal care is not a topic of informal conversation or in performance appraisals. Respondents solve their problems with colleagues and expect little from the organization.

  5. Theoretical study of diaquamalonatozinc(II) single crystal for ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    MITESH CHAKRABORTY

    2017-11-28

    Nov 28, 2017 ... 2Laser and Spectroscopy Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, Indian Institute of ... The aim of the present paper is to employ theoretical methods to investigate the zero field splitting .... using quantum chemistry computational models has ..... The authors are grateful to the Science and Engineer-.

  6. Formal and Informal Employment Growth in Manufacturing (India ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Agent(e) responsable du CRDI. Rodriguez, Mr. Edgard. Financement total. CAD$ 257,300. Pays. Asie du sud, Asie centrale, Extrême-Orient, Bangladesh, Inde. Chargé(e) de projet. Dr. Sandip Sarkar. Institution. Institute for Human Development. Pays d' institution. India. Extrants. Documents. Employment problem in India ...

  7. Determination of pKa and the corresponding structures of quinclorac using combined experimental and theoretical approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Dean; Sun, Huiqing; Jiang, Xiaohua; Kong, Fanyu; Qiang, Zhimin; Zhang, Aiqian; Liu, Huijuan; Qu, Jiuhui

    2018-01-01

    As an emerging environmental contaminant, the herbicide quinclorac has attracted much attention in recent years. However, a very fundamental issue, the acid dissociation of quinclorac has not yet to be studied in detail. Herein, the pKa value and the corresponding structures of quinclorac were systematically investigated using combined experimental and theoretical approaches. The experimental pKa of quinclorac was determined by the spectrophotometric method to be 2.65 at 25 °C with ionic strength of 0.05 M, and was corrected to be 2.56 at ionic strength of zero. The molecular structures of quinclorac were then located by employing the DFT calculation. The anionic quinclorac was directly located with the carboxylic group perpendicular to the aromatic ring, while neutral quinclorac was found to be the equivalent twin structures. The result was further confirmed by analyzing the UV/Vis and MS-MS2 spectra from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints. By employing the QSPR approach, the theoretical pKa of QCR was determined to be 2.50, which is excellent agreement with the experimental result obtained herein. The protonation of QCR at the carboxylic group instead of the quinoline structure was attributed to the weak electronegative property of nitrogen atom induced by the electron-withdrawing groups. It is anticipated that this work could not only help in gaining a deep insight into the acid dissociation of quinclorac but also offering the key information on its reaction and interaction with others.

  8. Urbanisation, poverty and employment: the large metropolis in the third world.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, A

    1992-01-01

    "The main purpose of this paper is to provide an overall review of the chief analytical as well as economic policy issues in relation to Third World cities in the light of the available theoretical and empirical studies on urbanisation, poverty and employment in the developing countries.... Part I...provides basic information on urbanisation in the Third World...[and] outlines the nature and extent of urban poverty in these large cities and considers the impact of the world economic crisis on the urban poor. Part II of the paper discusses the most important structural features of urbanisation in relation to economic development....Finally, Part III briefly examines policy issues in relation to urbanisation and poverty in the Third World's large cities." excerpt

  9. Priorities for Boosting Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jones, Edward Samuel; Tarp, Finn

    2015-01-01

    Should policy-makers, including foreign donors, focus employment strategies in sub-Saharan Africa on strengthening access to formal wage employment or on raising productivity in the informal sector? We examine the evidence in Mozambique and show that crude distinctions between formality...... and informality are not illuminating. The observed welfare advantage of formal sector workers essentially derives from differences in endowments and local conditions. Non-agricultural informal work can yield higher returns than formal work. The implication is that the informal sector must not be marginalized......; and raising productivity in agriculture must be accorded a central place in boosting employment....

  10. A group theoretic approach to quantum information

    CERN Document Server

    Hayashi, Masahito

    2017-01-01

    This textbook is the first one addressing quantum information from the viewpoint of group symmetry. Quantum systems have a group symmetrical structure. This structure enables to handle systematically quantum information processing. However, there is no other textbook focusing on group symmetry for quantum information although there exist many textbooks for group representation. After the mathematical preparation of quantum information, this book discusses quantum entanglement and its quantification by using group symmetry. Group symmetry drastically simplifies the calculation of several entanglement measures although their calculations are usually very difficult to handle. This book treats optimal information processes including quantum state estimation, quantum state cloning, estimation of group action and quantum channel etc. Usually it is very difficult to derive the optimal quantum information processes without asymptotic setting of these topics. However, group symmetry allows to derive these optimal solu...

  11. Employment Change and Business Prospects in Serbia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kosovka Đ Ognjenovic

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to examine whether some previous knowledge about business prospects affects companies’ decisions about new employment in Serbia. In order to investigate this assumption a set of firm level data for 2012 is used. Following the theoretical approach that put an employer in a position to make various decisions about employment within the company, the trichotomous logit model is employed for the estimation of outcomes of possible companies’ decisions with respect to a set of independent variables. We find that the level of employment in the year that precedes companies’ decisions and relative changes in the number of employees in two successive years, as well as age and size of the company to some extent, affect companies’ decisions about new employment. The most important finding of our research is that the companies that experienced fluctuations in the number of employees and upgraded their business opportunities in the previous period hesitate to make decisions on the engagement of new workers, whereas those companies that lost some business opportunities rather decide to downsize the total number of employees.

  12. Financial Literacy and Self-Employment

    OpenAIRE

    Cumurovic, Aida; Hyll, Walter

    2016-01-01

    In this paper, we study the relationship between financial literacy and self-employment. We use established financial knowledge-based questions to measure financial literacy levels. The analysis shows a highly significant correlation between self-employment and financial literacy scores. To investigate the impact of financial literacy on being self-employed, we apply instrumental variable techniques based on information on economic education before entering the labour market and education of ...

  13. Developing a theoretical framework for complex community-based interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angeles, Ricardo N; Dolovich, Lisa; Kaczorowski, Janusz; Thabane, Lehana

    2014-01-01

    Applying existing theories to research, in the form of a theoretical framework, is necessary to advance knowledge from what is already known toward the next steps to be taken. This article proposes a guide on how to develop a theoretical framework for complex community-based interventions using the Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program as an example. Developing a theoretical framework starts with identifying the intervention's essential elements. Subsequent steps include the following: (a) identifying and defining the different variables (independent, dependent, mediating/intervening, moderating, and control); (b) postulating mechanisms how the independent variables will lead to the dependent variables; (c) identifying existing theoretical models supporting the theoretical framework under development; (d) scripting the theoretical framework into a figure or sets of statements as a series of hypotheses, if/then logic statements, or a visual model; (e) content and face validation of the theoretical framework; and (f) revising the theoretical framework. In our example, we combined the "diffusion of innovation theory" and the "health belief model" to develop our framework. Using the Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program as the model, we demonstrated a stepwise process of developing a theoretical framework. The challenges encountered are described, and an overview of the strategies employed to overcome these challenges is presented.

  14. The bigger the worse? A comparative study of the welfare state and employment commitment

    OpenAIRE

    van der Wel, Kjetil A.; Halvorsen, Knut

    2014-01-01

    This article investigates how welfare generosity and active labour market policies relate to employment commitment. As social policy is increasingly directed towards stimulating employment in broader sections of society, this article particularly studies employment commitment among groups with traditionally weaker bonds to the labour market. This is also theoretically interesting because the employment commitment in these groups may be more affected by the welfare context than is the employme...

  15. Information and Communication Technology Workforce Employability in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suhaimi, Mohammed Adam; Hasan, Muhammad; Hussin, Husnayati; Shah, Asadullah

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: The purposes of the study are to understand ICT workforce employability in Malaysia, to identify the causes that influence the growth of skill gaps in the ICT workforce, and to determine ways to reduce these gaps. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of the study comprised project reports and a literature review. Findings: The…

  16. Derivation of Human Chromatic Discrimination Ability from an Information-Theoretical Notion of Distance in Color Space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Fonseca, María; Samengo, Inés

    2016-12-01

    The accuracy with which humans detect chromatic differences varies throughout color space. For example, we are far more precise when discriminating two similar orange stimuli than two similar green stimuli. In order for two colors to be perceived as different, the neurons representing chromatic information must respond differently, and the difference must be larger than the trial-to-trial variability of the response to each separate color. Photoreceptors constitute the first stage in the processing of color information; many more stages are required before humans can consciously report whether two stimuli are perceived as chromatically distinguishable. Therefore, although photoreceptor absorption curves are expected to influence the accuracy of conscious discriminability, there is no reason to believe that they should suffice to explain it. Here we develop information-theoretical tools based on the Fisher metric that demonstrate that photoreceptor absorption properties explain about 87% of the variance of human color discrimination ability, as tested by previous behavioral experiments. In the context of this theory, the bottleneck in chromatic information processing is determined by photoreceptor absorption characteristics. Subsequent encoding stages modify only marginally the chromatic discriminability at the photoreceptor level.

  17. Changes in Employed People’s Health Satisfaction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monika Jungbauer-Gans

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The article examines for Germany whether the subjective satisfaction with health has changed over the course of time. It is analysed whether a drop in health satisfaction can be observed and whether this can be explained by changing employment circumstances. Labour market research has documented a change in the employment situation in detail, which can be subsumed under the keyword of precarisation. In the theoretical section we will portray the current state of research concerning the development of the employment situation and emphasize the significance of gainful employment for health. The empirical analyses of the article are based on data of employed people in the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP of the years 1985, 1996 and 2009. The data show a significantly declining health satisfaction between 1985 and 2009 in Western Germany and no noteworthy change in Eastern Germany between 1996 and 2009. The Blinder/Oaxaca decomposition is used in the analyses to better differentiate the effect of the changed employment situation on the drop in health satisfaction. The analyses indeed reveal changing effects of the employment situation. In Western Germany, a significant percentage of the lesser health satisfaction can be attributed to an increasing number of workers in precarious employment situations. Workplace security is of primary significance for explaining the declining health satisfaction in Western Germany.

  18. Imitative Modeling as a Theoretical Base for Instructing Language-Disordered Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courtright, John A.; Courtright, Illene C.

    1976-01-01

    A modification of A. Bandura's social learning theory (imitative modeling) was employed as a theoretical base for language instruction with eight language disordered children (5 to 10 years old). (Author/SBH)

  19. An Information Theoretic Characterisation of Auditory Encoding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Overath, Tobias; Cusack, Rhodri; Kumar, Sukhbinder; von Kriegstein, Katharina; Warren, Jason D; Grube, Manon; Carlyon, Robert P; Griffiths, Timothy D

    2007-01-01

    The entropy metric derived from information theory provides a means to quantify the amount of information transmitted in acoustic streams like speech or music. By systematically varying the entropy of pitch sequences, we sought brain areas where neural activity and energetic demands increase as a function of entropy. Such a relationship is predicted to occur in an efficient encoding mechanism that uses less computational resource when less information is present in the signal: we specifically tested the hypothesis that such a relationship is present in the planum temporale (PT). In two convergent functional MRI studies, we demonstrated this relationship in PT for encoding, while furthermore showing that a distributed fronto-parietal network for retrieval of acoustic information is independent of entropy. The results establish PT as an efficient neural engine that demands less computational resource to encode redundant signals than those with high information content. PMID:17958472

  20. Perception of the university as an employer among young potential employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baruk Agnieszka Izabela

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The article is theoretical-empirical in character. It presents issues associated with the external image of the university as an employer. In the theoretical part the views of various researchers presented in literature on the subject, concerning among others the employer’s image and its determinants, are analysed. It is emphasized that up till now the aspects of image (including aspects associated with the external image in case of universities as one of key service providers serving an important function in the society haven’t been analysed too much. In the empirical part of the article based on the results of primary research the manner of perception of the university as an employer by one of the segments of potential employees, namely young people entering the labour market, is identified and analysed. 4 research hypotheses were subject to empirical verification. They were formulated with regard to associations of the respondents with a university as an employer. It turned out that universities are associated mainly with an employer guaranteeing opportunities for development and self-realization. At the same time associations with an employer guaranteeing high salary, feeling of stability, or high social prestige are comparably less significant. Thus, 3 research hypotheses haven’t been confirmed and one of them can be confirmed. This constitutes an important hint for universities as employers, making it easier for them to take coherent and complex image-related action.

  1. Theoretical reflections on the paradigmatic construction of Information Science: considerations about the (s paradigm (s cognitive (s and social

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonathas Luiz Carvalho Silva

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available It presents a research about the theoretical and epistemological processes that influence the formation of the cognitive paradigm of Information Science (IS, noting the emergence of social paradigm within the domain analysis and hermeneutics of information. For this, we adopted the reflections of classical and contemporary authors, like Thomas Kuhn, Boaventura Santos, Capurro, Hjørland and Albrechtsen. We conclude that the perception paradigm in IS is a consolidated issue, however the social paradigm is still under construction, which will allow the creation of perceptions, interpretations and contributions in order to fill gaps left by other paradigms.

  2. Design of College Students’ employment management system based on WEB

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cao Yu

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Since at the end of last century, our country cancelled the allocation of national college students employment, college graduates employment pressure also with the increasing trend of the expansion of enrollment in Colleges and universities. At the same time, it also greatly increased difficulty in the college students employment management, under this background, the traditional manual management mode obviously can not meet the required at present. In the information technology increasingly perfect today, how it has become an important task of university reform through the digital management information system technology research and development of College Students’ employment. In this paper, a management system based on Web Technology College Students Employment launches the analysis, aimed at through the information technology, to promote the management of information, efficient development, so as to provide an important reference for the employment decision.

  3. Inclusive Information Societies: Creating Growth and Employment ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    How can information and technology increase economic opportunities in the ... and technology connects service sector employees and farmers to supply chains. ... information on fertilizer, seeds, or prices to increase productivity and income.

  4. Distinguishing prognostic and predictive biomarkers: An information theoretic approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sechidis, Konstantinos; Papangelou, Konstantinos; Metcalfe, Paul D; Svensson, David; Weatherall, James; Brown, Gavin

    2018-05-02

    The identification of biomarkers to support decision-making is central to personalised medicine, in both clinical and research scenarios. The challenge can be seen in two halves: identifying predictive markers, which guide the development/use of tailored therapies; and identifying prognostic markers, which guide other aspects of care and clinical trial planning, i.e. prognostic markers can be considered as covariates for stratification. Mistakenly assuming a biomarker to be predictive, when it is in fact largely prognostic (and vice-versa) is highly undesirable, and can result in financial, ethical and personal consequences. We present a framework for data-driven ranking of biomarkers on their prognostic/predictive strength, using a novel information theoretic method. This approach provides a natural algebra to discuss and quantify the individual predictive and prognostic strength, in a self-consistent mathematical framework. Our contribution is a novel procedure, INFO+, which naturally distinguishes the prognostic vs predictive role of each biomarker and handles higher order interactions. In a comprehensive empirical evaluation INFO+ outperforms more complex methods, most notably when noise factors dominate, and biomarkers are likely to be falsely identified as predictive, when in fact they are just strongly prognostic. Furthermore, we show that our methods can be 1-3 orders of magnitude faster than competitors, making it useful for biomarker discovery in 'big data' scenarios. Finally, we apply our methods to identify predictive biomarkers on two real clinical trials, and introduce a new graphical representation that provides greater insight into the prognostic and predictive strength of each biomarker. R implementations of the suggested methods are available at https://github.com/sechidis. konstantinos.sechidis@manchester.ac.uk. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

  5. Theoretical aspect of the development of 'corporate social responsibility' concept

    OpenAIRE

    Milanović, Vesna M.; Bučalina, Andrea D.

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a theoretical aspect of the development of 'corporate social responsibility' concept from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day, with the focus on the following periods: up to 1950, between 1950 an 1970, from 1970 to 1990 and from 1990 to now. We employed historical approach. We had an insight into the results of theoretical research on 'corporate social responsibility' concept, which were mostly presented in scientific papers in the English language. The ab...

  6. Do Wage Subsidies Reduce Ordinary Employment?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Azhar, Hussain; Rasmussen, Martin

    Applying administrative register data information for Danish firms in 1999, 2000, and 2001, this paper investigate how the employment of wage subsidized labour affects ordinary employment at the firm level. Descriptive statistics as well as econometric estimations are presented. Descriptive...

  7. Asymmetric Information under the Kafala Sponsorship System: Impacts on Foreign Domestic Workers' Income and Employment Status in the GCC Countries

    OpenAIRE

    Malit, Froilan T.; Naufal, George S

    2016-01-01

    This paper examines the legal and policy implications of information asymmetry on foreign domestic workers employed under the Kafala sponsorship system in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Drawing from ethnographic and field-based observations in large GCC migrant destinations – including Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – we investigate the information flows and market uncertainties between five key stakeholders: labor-receiving governments, labor-sending governm...

  8. A new theoretical model for scattering of electrons by molecules. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peixoto, E.M.A.; Mu-tao, L.; Nogueira, J.C.

    1975-01-01

    A new theoretical model for electron-molecule scattering is suggested. The e-H 2 scattering is studied and the superiority of the new model over the commonly used Independent Atom Model (IAM) is demonstrated. Comparing theoretical and experimental data for 40keV electrons scattered by H 2 utilizing the new model, its validity is proved, while Partial Wave and First Born calculations, employing the Independent Atom Model, strongly deviated from the experiment [pt

  9. 78 FR 17423 - Filing Procedures for Employment Authorization and Automatic Extension of Existing Employment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-21

    ... (Form I-9) and E-Verify processes. DATES: The 6-month automatic extension of employment authorization... information on DED, including guidance on the application process for EADs and additional information on... for Certain Liberians Pursuant to his constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations of the...

  10. Employment of Handicapped People in Leisure Occupations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Compton, David M.; Vinton, Dennis A.

    In response to the need for up-to-date information on employment opportunities for handicapped people in the leisure occupations, a national survey was conducted to determine both existing levels of employment and employer practices. The survey was sent to 500 agencies and businesses representing four leisure occupational subclusters: travel,…

  11. Geoscience Academic Provenance: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Geoscience Students' Pathways

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houlton, H.; Keane, C.

    2012-04-01

    The demand and employment opportunities for geoscientists in the United States are projected to increase 23% from 2008 to 2018 (Gonzales, 2011). Despite this trend, there is a disconnect between undergraduate geoscience students and their desire to pursue geoscience careers. A theoretical framework was developed to understand the reasons why students decide to major in the geosciences and map those decisions to their career aspirations (Houlton, 2010). A modified critical incident study was conducted to develop the pathway model from 17, one-hour long semi-structured interviews of undergraduate geoscience majors from two Midwest Research Institutions (Houlton, 2010). Geoscience Academic Provenance maps geoscience students' initial interests, entry points into the major, critical incidents and future career goals as a pathway, which elucidates the relationships between each of these components. Analyses identified three geoscience student population groups that followed distinct pathways: Natives, Immigrants and Refugees. A follow up study was conducted in 2011 to ascertain whether these students continued on their predicted pathways, and if not, reasons for attrition. Geoscientists can use this framework as a guide to inform future recruitment and retention initiatives and target these geoscience population groups for specific employment sectors.

  12. A secure approach for encrypting and compressing biometric information employing orthogonal code and steganography

    Science.gov (United States)

    Islam, Muhammad F.; Islam, Mohammed N.

    2012-04-01

    The objective of this paper is to develop a novel approach for encryption and compression of biometric information utilizing orthogonal coding and steganography techniques. Multiple biometric signatures are encrypted individually using orthogonal codes and then multiplexed together to form a single image, which is then embedded in a cover image using the proposed steganography technique. The proposed technique employs three least significant bits for this purpose and a secret key is developed to choose one from among these bits to be replaced by the corresponding bit of the biometric image. The proposed technique offers secure transmission of multiple biometric signatures in an identification document which will be protected from unauthorized steganalysis attempt.

  13. An information-theoretical approach to image resolution applied to neutron imaging detectors based upon individual discriminator signals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clergeau, Jean-Francois; Ferraton, Matthieu; Guerard, Bruno; Khaplanov, Anton; Piscitelli, Francesco; Platz, Martin; Rigal, Jean-Marie; Van Esch, Patrick; Daulle, Thibault

    2013-06-01

    1D or 2D neutron imaging detectors with individual wire or strip readout using discriminators have the advantage of being able to treat several neutron impacts partially overlapping in time, hence reducing global dead time. A single neutron impact usually gives rise to several discriminator signals. In this paper, we introduce an information-theoretical definition of image resolution. Two point-like spots of neutron impacts with a given distance between them act as a source of information (each neutron hit belongs to one spot or the other), and the detector plus signal treatment is regarded as an imperfect communication channel that transmits this information. The maximal mutual information obtained from this channel as a function of the distance between the spots allows to define a calibration-independent measure of resolution. We then apply this measure to quantify the power of resolution of different algorithms treating these individual discriminator signals which can be implemented in firmware. The method is then applied to different detectors existing at the ILL. Center-of-gravity methods usually improve the resolution over best-wire algorithms which are the standard way of treating these signals. (authors)

  14. An information-theoretical approach to image resolution applied to neutron imaging detectors based upon individual discriminator signals

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Clergeau, Jean-Francois; Ferraton, Matthieu; Guerard, Bruno; Khaplanov, Anton; Piscitelli, Francesco; Platz, Martin; Rigal, Jean-Marie; Van Esch, Patrick [Institut Laue Langevin, Neutron Detector Service, Grenoble (France); Daulle, Thibault [PHELMA Grenoble - INP Grenoble (France)

    2013-06-15

    1D or 2D neutron imaging detectors with individual wire or strip readout using discriminators have the advantage of being able to treat several neutron impacts partially overlapping in time, hence reducing global dead time. A single neutron impact usually gives rise to several discriminator signals. In this paper, we introduce an information-theoretical definition of image resolution. Two point-like spots of neutron impacts with a given distance between them act as a source of information (each neutron hit belongs to one spot or the other), and the detector plus signal treatment is regarded as an imperfect communication channel that transmits this information. The maximal mutual information obtained from this channel as a function of the distance between the spots allows to define a calibration-independent measure of resolution. We then apply this measure to quantify the power of resolution of different algorithms treating these individual discriminator signals which can be implemented in firmware. The method is then applied to different detectors existing at the ILL. Center-of-gravity methods usually improve the resolution over best-wire algorithms which are the standard way of treating these signals. (authors)

  15. How cells engulf: a review of theoretical approaches to phagocytosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richards, David M.; Endres, Robert G.

    2017-12-01

    Phagocytosis is a fascinating process whereby a cell surrounds and engulfs particles such as bacteria and dead cells. This is crucial both for single-cell organisms (as a way of acquiring nutrients) and as part of the immune system (to destroy foreign invaders). This whole process is hugely complex and involves multiple coordinated events such as membrane remodelling, receptor motion, cytoskeleton reorganisation and intracellular signalling. Because of this, phagocytosis is an excellent system for theoretical study, benefiting from biophysical approaches combined with mathematical modelling. Here, we review these theoretical approaches and discuss the recent mathematical and computational models, including models based on receptors, models focusing on the forces involved, and models employing energetic considerations. Along the way, we highlight a beautiful connection to the physics of phase transitions, consider the role of stochasticity, and examine links between phagocytosis and other types of endocytosis. We cover the recently discovered multistage nature of phagocytosis, showing that the size of the phagocytic cup grows in distinct stages, with an initial slow stage followed by a much quicker second stage starting around half engulfment. We also address the issue of target shape dependence, which is relevant to both pathogen infection and drug delivery, covering both one-dimensional and two-dimensional results. Throughout, we pay particular attention to recent experimental techniques that continue to inform the theoretical studies and provide a means to test model predictions. Finally, we discuss population models, connections to other biological processes, and how physics and modelling will continue to play a key role in future work in this area.

  16. A theoretical case study of type I and type II beta-turns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Czinki, Eszter; Császár, Attila G; Perczel, András

    2003-03-03

    NMR chemical shielding anisotropy tensors have been computed by employing a medium size basis set and the GIAO-DFT(B3LYP) formalism of electronic structure theory for all of the atoms of type I and type II beta-turn models. The models contain all possible combinations of the amino acid residues Gly, Ala, Val, and Ser, with all possible side-chain orientations where applicable in a dipeptide. The several hundred structures investigated contain either constrained or optimized phi, psi, and chi dihedral angles. A statistical analysis of the resulting large database was performed and multidimensional (2D and 3D) chemical-shift/chemical-shift plots were generated. The (1)H(alpha-13)C(alpha), (13)C(alpha-1)H(alpha-13)C(beta), and (13)C(alpha-1)H(alpha-13)C' 2D and 3D plots have the notable feature that the conformers clearly cluster in distinct regions. This allows straightforward identification of the backbone and side-chain conformations of the residues forming beta-turns. Chemical shift calculations on larger For-(L-Ala)(n)-NH(2) (n=4, 6, 8) models, containing a single type I or type II beta-turn, prove that the simple models employed are adequate. A limited number of chemical shift calculations performed at the highly correlated CCSD(T) level prove the adequacy of the computational method chosen. For all nuclei, statistically averaged theoretical and experimental shifts taken from the BioMagnetic Resonance Bank (BMRB) exhibit good correlation. These results confirm and extend our previous findings that chemical shift information from selected multiple-pulse NMR experiments could be employed directly to extract folding information for polypeptides and proteins.

  17. Employer`s contributions to the training of professional statisticians

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rustagi, J.S. [Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Statistics Dept.; Wright, T. [Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Mathematical Sciences Section]|[Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC (United States)

    1995-07-01

    Statistical science provides important techniques for decision making in a large variety of fields of human endeavor mainly through statistical practice. According to Deming (1965), ``Statistical practice is mostly a collaborative venture between (professional) statisticians and experts in subject-matter (area).`` The professional statistician must be properly trained in areas of statistical science most suited to the discipline in which the applications are made. Due to a large variety of applications. The education of a professional statistician by universities can only be very general. Higher education provides the theoretical basis of statistical science whereas the specific expertise needed by the professional statistician is given by the application areas. In this paper, the authors review the approach of academic programs which are geared towards applications and discuss some of the innovative strategies for preparing statisticians as consultants in industry and business. A survey (census) of statisticians at the national laboratories of the US Department of Energy was made to assess their training by universities and to get a broad view of additional training which has brought them to their present professional status. A particular interest is the extent to which employers have contributed to the training of statisticians. A few recommendations are made which may serve to improve the future training of statisticians for applied collaborative work by universities and employers.

  18. Neural complexity: A graph theoretic interpretation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, L.; Buckley, C. L.; Bullock, S.

    2011-04-01

    One of the central challenges facing modern neuroscience is to explain the ability of the nervous system to coherently integrate information across distinct functional modules in the absence of a central executive. To this end, Tononi [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA.PNASA60027-842410.1073/pnas.91.11.5033 91, 5033 (1994)] proposed a measure of neural complexity that purports to capture this property based on mutual information between complementary subsets of a system. Neural complexity, so defined, is one of a family of information theoretic metrics developed to measure the balance between the segregation and integration of a system’s dynamics. One key question arising for such measures involves understanding how they are influenced by network topology. Sporns [Cereb. Cortex53OPAV1047-321110.1093/cercor/10.2.127 10, 127 (2000)] employed numerical models in order to determine the dependence of neural complexity on the topological features of a network. However, a complete picture has yet to be established. While De Lucia [Phys. Rev. EPLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.71.016114 71, 016114 (2005)] made the first attempts at an analytical account of this relationship, their work utilized a formulation of neural complexity that, we argue, did not reflect the intuitions of the original work. In this paper we start by describing weighted connection matrices formed by applying a random continuous weight distribution to binary adjacency matrices. This allows us to derive an approximation for neural complexity in terms of the moments of the weight distribution and elementary graph motifs. In particular, we explicitly establish a dependency of neural complexity on cyclic graph motifs.

  19. A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study for Silver Electroplating

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Anmin; Ren, Xuefeng; An, Maozhong; Zhang, Jinqiu; Yang, Peixia; Wang, Bo; Zhu, Yongming; Wang, Chong

    2014-01-01

    A novel method combined theoretical and experimental study for environmental friendly silver electroplating was introduced. Quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations were employed for predicting the behaviour and function of the complexing agents. Electronic properties, orbital information, and single point energies of the 5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DMH), nicotinic acid (NA), as well as their silver(I)-complexes were provided by quantum chemical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Adsorption behaviors of the agents on copper and silver surfaces were investigated using MD simulations. Basing on the data of quantum chemical calculations and MD simulations, we believed that DMH and NA could be the promising complexing agents for silver electroplating. The experimental results, including of electrochemical measurement and silver electroplating, further confirmed the above prediction. This efficient and versatile method thus opens a new window to study or design complexing agents for generalized metal electroplating and will vigorously promote the level of this research region.

  20. A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study for Silver Electroplating

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Anmin; Ren, Xuefeng; An, Maozhong; Zhang, Jinqiu; Yang, Peixia; Wang, Bo; Zhu, Yongming; Wang, Chong

    2014-01-01

    A novel method combined theoretical and experimental study for environmental friendly silver electroplating was introduced. Quantum chemical calculations and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations were employed for predicting the behaviour and function of the complexing agents. Electronic properties, orbital information, and single point energies of the 5,5-dimethylhydantoin (DMH), nicotinic acid (NA), as well as their silver(I)-complexes were provided by quantum chemical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Adsorption behaviors of the agents on copper and silver surfaces were investigated using MD simulations. Basing on the data of quantum chemical calculations and MD simulations, we believed that DMH and NA could be the promising complexing agents for silver electroplating. The experimental results, including of electrochemical measurement and silver electroplating, further confirmed the above prediction. This efficient and versatile method thus opens a new window to study or design complexing agents for generalized metal electroplating and will vigorously promote the level of this research region. PMID:24452389

  1. Caseworker Behavior and Clients' Employability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Weatherall, Cecilie Dohlmann; Markwardt, Kristoffer

    experience, economic environment, and rules and restrictions with respect to active labor market policies. A few studies show that organizational structures and managerial organization within the unemployment offices also influence the employability of unemployed clients. But until now, no studies have...... empirically looked at the link between caseworker behavior and clients’ employability. A very rich survey dataset on caseworker behavior combined with informative panel data on the caseworker’s client—the unemployed—makes it possible to study the link between caseworker behavior and clients’ job possibilities....... Results show that there is a relationship between caseworker behavior and employment among the unemployed. Especially the employability among the insured unemployed is related to the concepts of coping, and professional distance....

  2. 49 CFR 40.287 - What information is an employer required to provide concerning SAP services to an employee who...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... provide concerning SAP services to an employee who has a DOT drug and alcohol regulation violation? 40.287... § 40.287 What information is an employer required to provide concerning SAP services to an employee who... (including an applicant or new employee) who violates a DOT drug and alcohol regulation a listing of SAPs...

  3. THE EMPLOYMENT OF COMPUTER TECHNOLOGIES IN LABORATORY COURSE ON PHYSICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liudmyla M. Nakonechna

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Present paper considers the questions on development of conceptually new virtual physical laboratory, the employment of which into secondary education schools will allow to check the theoretical knowledge of students before laboratory work and to acquire the modern methods and skills of experiment.

  4. Using a Theoretical Framework to Investigate Whether the HIV/AIDS Information Needs of the AfroAIDSinfo Web Portal Members Are Met: A South African eHealth Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hendra Van Zyl

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available eHealth has been identified as a useful approach to disseminate HIV/AIDS information. Together with Consumer Health Informatics (CHI, the Web-to-Public Knowledge Transfer Model (WPKTM has been applied as a theoretical framework to identify consumer needs for AfroAIDSinfo, a South African Web portal. As part of the CHI practice, regular eSurveys are conducted to determine whether these needs are changing and are continually being met. eSurveys show high rates of satisfaction with the content as well as the modes of delivery. The nature of information is thought of as reliable to reuse; both for education and for referencing of information. Using CHI and the WPKTM as a theoretical framework, it ensures that needs of consumers are being met and that they find the tailored methods of presenting the information agreeable. Combining ICTs and theories in eHealth interventions, this approach can be expanded to deliver information in other sectors of public health.

  5. 76 FR 5212 - Employment and Training Administration

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-28

    ... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employment and Training Administration Comment Request for Information...): Extension With Revisions AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Department of Labor. ACTION... Training Administration is soliciting comments concerning the Office of Unemployment Insurance's collection...

  6. HISTORIOGRAFI ISLAM INDONESIA: Perspektif Sejarawan Informal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Yakub

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Historiography of Indonesian Islam: An Informal Historian Perspective. This article discusses the debate of informal historian paradigm in Indonesia on historiographical genre produced. This study employs historical method by reviewing historical works with descriptive and explorative approach on informal historians represented by Joesoef Sou’yb, HAMKA, Ali Hasjmy, all of whom have produced historical works of Islamic society in the Indonesian archipelago. The author finds that theoretically, there are three categories of historian, namely, first, academic or professional historians who equipped themselves with history education, scientific theory and methology; second, historians who come from disciples other than history background, but have interest in this field; third, community historians, namely those who do not acquire any academic qualification but nonetheless they are more productive in writing historical events compared to the professional ones, such works of which then to be well known as early Islamic historiography in Indonesia.

  7. A re-examination of information seeking behaviour in the context of activity theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wilson T.D.

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Activity theory, developed in the USSR as a Marxist alternative to Western psychology, has been applied widely in educational studies and increasingly in human-computer interaction research. Argument. The key elements of activity theory, Motivation, Goal, Activity, Tools, Object, Outcome, Rules, Community and Division of labour are all directly applicable to the conduct of information behaviour research. An activity-theoretical approach to information behaviour research would provide a sound basis for the elaboration of contextual issues, for the discovering of organizational and other contradictions that affect information behaviour. It may be used to aid the design and analysis of investigations. Elaboration. The basic ideas of activity theory are outlined and an attempt is made to harmonize different perspectives. A contrast is made between an activity system perspective and an activity process perspective and a diagrammatic representation of the process perspective is offered. Conclusion. Activity theory is not a predictive theory but a conceptual framework within which different theoretical perspectives may be employed. Typically, it is suggested that several methods of data collection should be employed and that the time frame for investigation should be long enough for the full range of contextual issues to emerge. Activity theory offers not only a useful conceptual framework, but also a coherent terminology to be shared by researchers, and a rapidly developing body of literature in associated disciplines.

  8. 76 FR 56506 - Agency Information Collection (Complaint of Employment Discrimination) Activity Under OMB Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-13

    ... (Complaint of Employment Discrimination) Activity Under OMB Review AGENCY: Office of Human Resources and...: Title: Complaint of Employment Discrimination, VA Form 4939. OMB Control Number: 2900-0716. Type of... applicants for employment who believe they were denied employment based on race, color, religion, gender...

  9. Information Design Theories

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pettersson, Rune

    2014-01-01

    Information design has practical and theoretical components. As an academic discipline we may view information design as a combined discipline, a practical theory, or as a theoretical practice. So far information design has incorporated facts, influences, methods, practices, principles, processes, strategies, and tools from a large number of…

  10. Employer branding in the background of relationship marketing conceptions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Magdalena Maruszczak

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Marketing is a dynamic discipline. Relation marketing is one of its conceptions and sets new standards for the cooperation between market players. It claims that a company’s market growth is influenced by longterm business relationships. Furthermore, it states that a company’s assets are defined by its relations within the business environment. Employer branding is defined as a series of actions, the goal of which is building a company’s brand on the market as “company of first choice for future employees”. The theoretical background for employer branding derives from relationship marketing.

  11. Library/Information Science Education, Placement, and Salaries. Guide to Employment Sources in the Library and Information Professions; Placements and Salaries 2000: Plenty of Jobs, Salaries Flat; Accredited Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies; Library Scholarship Sources; Library Scholarship and Award Recipients, 2001.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Darlena; Terrell, Tom; Gregory, Vicki L.

    2002-01-01

    Includes five articles that report on employment sources in the library and information professions; placements and salaries, which indicate plenty of jobs and salaries that are flat; accredited master's programs in library and information studies; library scholarship sources; and library scholarship and award recipients. (LRW)

  12. Veteran Services - Welcome Employers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assistance Crosswalk websites Transition GPS National Career Readiness Certificate Post Traumatic Stress Credits (PDF) Fidelity Bonding Program National Career Readiness (PDF) Veteran Recruitment State/Federal veteran recruitment process Military Veteran Employment Guide Veterans Hiring Toolkit Other Information

  13. Employability in Online Higher Education: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Paula Silva

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Over the past 15 years, learning in distance education universities has become more interactive, flexible, collaborative, and participative. Nevertheless, some accounts have highlighted the importance of developing more instrumental and standardized educational practices to answer the challenges of employability. In fact, the choice of skills that are important to learning communities and the labour market has been the subject of controversy because it involves heterogeneous motives among different groups.This paper compares the perceptions of employability skills in a sample of teachers from the Universidade Aberta and a sample of students who attend a local learning centre at this University. The research focused on the following dimensions: a the most important employability skills, and b the employability skills to be developed in online undergraduate degrees. To collect the required data, a questionnaire was prepared and applied to students and teachers, taking the theoretical model of Knight and Yorke (2006 as its main reference. In spite of the specificity of each group, the results revealed some similarities between students and teachers with regard to employability. The conclusions also highlighted the need to promote research on this matter in online education.

  14. Employee to employer communication skills: balancing cancer treatment and employment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Richard F; Owens, Myra; Bradley, Cathy

    2013-02-01

    Cancer patients face difficulties in accessing legally mandated benefits and accommodations when they return to the workplace. Poor employer-employee communication inflates these difficulties. Although proven methods to facilitate physician-patient communication exist, these have not been applied to the workplace. Thus, we aimed to assess the feasibility and utility of applying these methods to educate patients about their workplace rights and provide them with communication skills training to aid their conversations with their employers. A DVD was produced to educate patients and facilitate workplace communication. Participants consisted of 28 solid tumor cancer patients (14 women and 14 men) who completed primary cancer treatment in the past 12 months and were employed at the time of diagnosis. Participants watched a communication skills training DVD and completed a telephone interview. The interview elicited information about workplace experiences and evaluation of the DVD training program. The physician-patient communication skills training model utilized was successfully translated to the employer-employee setting. All but one participant found the DVD useful and easy to understand and indicated a high degree of confidence in using the communication skills to help them ask for workplace accommodations. All participants agreed that it would help newly diagnosed patients in discussions with their employers. Our data provides promising preliminary evidence that patient communication skills training can be applied to the workplace setting and is a welcomed aid to newly diagnosed cancer patients in their discussions with employers regarding the impact of treatment on their work performance and needs for accommodations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. 78 FR 26244 - Updating of Employer Identification Numbers

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-05-06

    ... Number, or EIN. Employers are required to know the identity of their responsible party. The amount of...-BK02 Updating of Employer Identification Numbers AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury... assigned an employer identification number (EIN) to provide updated information to the IRS in the manner...

  16. Employment and Regional Inequality in Romania

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Patache

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available It is no doubt that thinking about inequality plays a part in the judgments and actions of politicians, sociologists, economists and ordinary people, too. This paper examines which factors substantially influenced regional employment. Labour market, employment and unemployment have been the subject of various researches and the labour market object has been subject of dispute. Employment and unemployment are both decomposed and analyzed through separate components (such as: full employment, effective employment, atypical employment, precarious employment, regional/local employment etc., respectively, total unemployment, partial or hidden unemployment, technical and structural one and so on. The specific literature about the regional inequalities considered the income per capita as the most relevant indicator measured by Gini coefficient. Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. At regional level we studied several indicators that generate regional disparities, and influence employment quality such us: employment rate, tertiary and medium employment, unemployment rate, occupied population in informal sector, employment in primary sector, rural employment, female employment. We developed a scoring based on the deviation from the average of a group of key indicators and devised a map of employment quality resulting from multi-criteria analysis.

  17. Vector-Quantization using Information Theoretic Concepts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lehn-Schiøler, Tue; Hegde, Anant; Erdogmus, Deniz

    2005-01-01

    interpretation and relies on minimization of a well defined cost-function. It is also shown how the potential field approach can be linked to information theory by use of the Parzen density estimator. In the light of information theory it becomes clear that minimizing the free energy of the system is in fact......The process of representing a large data set with a smaller number of vectors in the best possible way, also known as vector quantization, has been intensively studied in the recent years. Very efficient algorithms like the Kohonen Self Organizing Map (SOM) and the Linde Buzo Gray (LBG) algorithm...... have been devised. In this paper a physical approach to the problem is taken, and it is shown that by considering the processing elements as points moving in a potential field an algorithm equally efficient as the before mentioned can be derived. Unlike SOM and LBG this algorithm has a clear physical...

  18. Social networks as the context for understanding employment services utilization among homeless youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barman-Adhikari, Anamika; Rice, Eric

    2014-08-01

    Little is known about the factors associated with use of employment services among homeless youth. Social network characteristics have been known to be influential in motivating people's decision to seek services. Traditional theoretical frameworks applied to studies of service use emphasize individual factors over social contexts and interactions. Using key social network, social capital, and social influence theories, this paper developed an integrated theoretical framework that capture the social network processes that act as barriers or facilitators of use of employment services by homeless youth, and understand empirically, the salience of each of these constructs in influencing the use of employment services among homeless youth. We used the "Event based-approach" strategy to recruit a sample of 136 homeless youth at one drop-in agency serving homeless youth in Los Angeles, California in 2008. The participants were queried regarding their individual and network characteristics. Data were entered into NetDraw 2.090 and the spring embedder routine was used to generate the network visualizations. Logistic regression was used to assess the influence of the network characteristics on use of employment services. The study findings suggest that social capital is more significant in understanding why homeless youth use employment services, relative to network structure and network influence. In particular, bonding and bridging social capital were found to have differential effects on use of employment services among this population. The results from this study provide specific directions for interventions aimed to increase use of employment services among homeless youth. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Information needs and risk perception as predictors of risk information seeking

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    ter Huurne, E.F.J.; Gutteling, Jan M.

    2008-01-01

    This paper introduces a theoretical framework that describes the importance of public's information sufficiency, risk perception, and self-efficacy as predictors of intended risk information seeking behaviour. Based on theoretical assumptions, measurement instruments for relevant concepts were

  20. Australian dentists: characteristics of those who employ or are willing to employ oral health therapists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kempster, C; Luzzi, L; Roberts-Thomson, K

    2015-06-01

    There has been an increase in the availability of oral health therapists (OHTs) in the oral health workforce in the last decade. The impact these clinicians will have on the oral health of the general public is dependent on access pathways and utilization. This study aimed to profile Australian dentists who employ or are willing to employ OHTs and to explore the degree of association between dentist characteristics and employment decisions. This cross-sectional study used a random sample of Australian dentists (n = 1169) from the Federal Australian Dental Association register in 2009. Participants were sent a postal questionnaire capturing dentist characteristics and oral health practitioner employment information. An adjusted response rate of 55% was obtained. Dentists willing to employ OHTs included non-metropolitan dentists, dentists in multiple surgery practices and those considering practice expansion. Age, gender and sector of practice were not significantly associated with retrospective employment decisions or willingness to employ in the future. Certain characteristics of dentists or of their practice are associated with their history of employment and willingness to employ OHTs. Employment decisions are more commonly related to entrepreneurial aspirations (expressed as a willingness to expand), sector of practice, surgery capacity and regionality over gender and age. Understanding the factors that influence the employment of OHTs is important in enhancing access pathways to the services provided by OHTs. © 2015 Australian Dental Association.

  1. The Analysis of the Impact of Globalization on Employment in Ukraine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gryshkin Vadym O.

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is analyzing the impact of globalization on employment in Ukraine and studying foreign experience in regulation of the labor market under conditions of globalization. The theoretical aspects of employment of population at the stage of market transformation of economy have been analyzed. The comprehensive analysis of the current state of employment in Ukraine has been conducted. The dynamics of the main indicators of employment of population and labor migration has been considered and analyzed. The shortcomings in the mechanism of employment regulation are revealed and measures to overcome them on the basis of the positive experience of developed countries are proposed. The necessity of adapting the foreign experience to the Ukrainian realities and the possibility of its use in the national territory is justified. The main tasks of the state policy on regulating the employment of Ukraine’s population under conditions of globalization are presented.

  2. Micro and macrolevel determinants of women's employment in six Arab countries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spierings, N.; Smits, J.P.J.M.; Verloo, M.M.T.

    2010-01-01

    We analyzed determinants of women's employment with data for 40,792 women living in 103 districts of 6 Arab countries. We tested a new theoretical framework that addresses the roles of needs, opportunities, and values at multiple levels. At the microlevel (individual, family), socioeconomic factors,

  3. Roads Leading to Self-Employment: Comparing Transgenerational Entrepreneurs and Self-Made Start-Ups

    OpenAIRE

    Blumberg, Boris; Pfann, Gerard Antonie

    2015-01-01

    This paper studies the event history of business foundation and distinguishes between transgenerational entrepreneurship and self-made start-ups. Three theoretical concepts of human, financial and social capital are linked to investigate variations over time in the decision process to become self-employed. Data from a cohort of Dutch inhabitants born in 1939/1940 who have been interviewed three times during their lives in 1952, 1983, and 1993 allows testing theoretical hypotheses that state c...

  4. Theoretical studies of chemical reaction dynamics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schatz, G.C. [Argonne National Laboratory, IL (United States)

    1993-12-01

    This collaborative program with the Theoretical Chemistry Group at Argonne involves theoretical studies of gas phase chemical reactions and related energy transfer and photodissociation processes. Many of the reactions studied are of direct relevance to combustion; others are selected they provide important examples of special dynamical processes, or are of relevance to experimental measurements. Both classical trajectory and quantum reactive scattering methods are used for these studies, and the types of information determined range from thermal rate constants to state to state differential cross sections.

  5. Radiotherapy problem under fuzzy theoretic approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ammar, E.E.; Hussein, M.L.

    2003-01-01

    A fuzzy set theoretic approach is used for radiotherapy problem. The problem is faced with two goals: the first is to maximize the fraction of surviving normal cells and the second is to minimize the fraction of surviving tumor cells. The theory of fuzzy sets has been employed to formulate and solve the problem. A linguistic variable approach is used for treating the first goal. The solutions obtained by the modified approach are always efficient and best compromise. A sensitivity analysis of the solutions to the differential weights is given

  6. A Theoretical Model of Resource-Oriented Music Therapy with Informal Hospice Caregivers during Pre-Bereavement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potvin, Noah; Bradt, Joke; Ghetti, Claire

    2018-03-09

    Over the past decade, caregiver pre-bereavement has received increased scholarly and clinical attention across multiple healthcare fields. Pre-bereavement represents a nascent area for music therapy to develop best practices in and an opportunity to establish clinical relevancy in the interdisciplinary team. This study was an exploratory inquiry into the role of music therapy with pre-bereaved informal hospice caregivers. This study intended to articulate (a) what pre-bereavement needs are present for informal hospice caregivers, (b) which of those needs were addressed in music, and (c) the process by which music therapy addressed those needs. A constructivist grounded theory methodology using situational analysis was used. We interviewed 14 currently bereaved informal hospice caregivers who had participated in music therapy with the care recipient. Analysis resulted in a theoretical model of resource-oriented music therapy promoting caregiver resilience. The resource, caregivers' stable caring relationships with care recipients through their pre-illness identities (i.e., spouse, parent, or child), is amplified through music therapy. Engagement with this resource mediates the risk of increased care burden and results in resilience fostering purposefulness and value in caregiving. Resource-oriented music therapy provides a unique clinical avenue for supporting caregivers through pre-bereavement, and was acknowledged by caregivers as a unique and integral hospice service. Within this model, caregivers are better positioned to develop meaning from the experience of providing care through the death of a loved one.

  7. When Voicelessness Meets Speechlessness – Struggling for Equity in Chinese-Ghanaian Employment Relations

    OpenAIRE

    Karsten Giese; Alena Thiel

    2012-01-01

    In this article Chinese-Ghanaian employment relations are analyzed using the concepts of foreignness, the psychological contract, equity, and cross-cultural communication. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Accra, Ghana, we discuss the labor market in general and introduce the conditions under which Chinese sojourners operate their family trade businesses in the city. After discussing the phenomenon of Ghanaian employment within Chinese trade companies from a theoretical perspective, w...

  8. A Study of Employment Discrimination against Women in China from a Comparative Perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Wei, Nana

    2016-01-01

    This thesis is intended to focus on the employment discrimination against women in China. Firstly, the thesis will set forth the research background, including the research questions, literature review, theoretical orientations and methodology. Secondly, it will describe the current situation of employment discrimination against women in China, and analyze the reasons from the economic, social, cultural and legal aspects. Thirdly, it will analyze current anti-discrimination legislation and en...

  9. THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE DEFINITION OF THE "INFORMATION RESOURCE"

    OpenAIRE

    I. Netreba

    2014-01-01

    Existing approaches to determining the nature of the category "information resource" are detailed and systematized. The relationships between the categories "information resource", "information technology", "information management system" are revealed. Determined the importance of information resources for the production process at the enterprise.

  10. Internships, employment opportunities, and research grants

    Science.gov (United States)

    ,

    2015-01-01

    As an unbiased, multidisciplinary science organization, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the health of our ecosystems and environment, our natural resources, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the natural hazards that threaten us. Opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty to participate in USGS science are available in the selected programs described below. Please note: U.S. citizenship is required for all government positions.This publication has been superseded by USGS General Information Product 165 Grant Opportunities for Academic Research and Training and USGS General Information Product 166 Student and Recent Graduate Employment Opportunities.This publication is proceeded by USGS General Information Product 80 Internships, Employment Opportunities, and Research Grants published in 2008.

  11. Why Public Employment Services Always Fail. Double-sided Asymmetric Information and the Replacement of Low-skill Workers in six European Countries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, Christian Albrekt; Vesan, Patrik

    2012-01-01

    It has been a general finding across Europe that very few job matches are facilitated by public employment services (PES).The article explains this failure by highlighting the existence of a double-sided asymmetric information problem on the labour market. It is argued that although a PES...

  12. Identifying significant factors which can contribute to successful transitions from school to lasting employment affiliation for pupils in vocational training programs

    OpenAIRE

    Nils Breilid; Eva Dyrnes

    2017-01-01

    Introduction: This study deals with young people receiving special needs education in schools and their transition to lasting employment in private or public sector. Through a qualitative approach, the article aims at “identifying significant factors which can, contribute to successful transitions from school to lasting employment affiliation for pupils in vocational training programs”Theoretical approach: The theoretical approach of this article is descriptions and interpretation of the Norw...

  13. Employability Skills: The Demands of the Workplace.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leroux, Janice A.; Lafleur, Susan

    1995-01-01

    The Employability Skills Profile, critical work abilities identified by Canadian employers, was rated by 24 secondary teachers in Ontario. Personal management skills were rated most important, followed by academic and teamwork skills. Teaching of these skills was informal--absorbed through classroom policies and management practices. (SK)

  14. Changes to the Employers' Use of Genetic Information and Non-discrimination for Health Insurance in the USA: Implications for Australians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gemma A. Bilkey

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available In the USA, a bill has been introduced to the senate that may jeopardize an individual's rights to privacy and non-discrimination. This piece examines the proposed Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act (PEWPA, and implications this will have on the use of genetic information. The Act allows for employers to apply financial penalties for health insurance based on genetic information, which raises concerns as the capacity to interpret genetic results is limited by knowledge of the significance of both benign and pathogenic variants. In Australia, genetic information can only be used to determine life insurance, not to stratify health insurance, and any precedent set internationally should raise concerns of the potential for change on the horizon.

  15. Investigation of the Ethical Concepts that Inform the Laws Limiting Genetic Screening in Employment Decisions: Privacy, Human Dignity, Equality, Autonomy, Efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pasquerella, Lynn; Rothstein, Lawrence E.

    2003-01-16

    The broad question addressed in our research is : What is the influence of ethical concepts on legislative outcomes? The research focuses on the important ethical concerns that surround the use of genetic information in employment matters and in American state legislatures. By analyzing the contents of hearings, interviews and advocacy documents involved in the legislative process, the research seeks to answer the question: How might the dominance of a particular ethical concept informing the discussion of a bill influence the legislative outcome?

  16. Monoenergetic approximation of a polyenergetic beam: a theoretical approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robinson, D.M.; Scrimger, J.W.

    1991-01-01

    There exist numerous occasions in which it is desirable to approximate the polyenergetic beams employed in radiation therapy by a beam of photons of a single energy. In some instances, commonly used rules of thumb for the selection of an appropriate energy may be valid. A more accurate approximate energy, however, may be determined by an analysis which takes into account both the spectral qualities of the beam and the material through which it passes. The theoretical basis of this method of analysis is presented in this paper. Experimental agreement with theory for a range of materials and beam qualities is also presented and demonstrates the validity of the theoretical approach taken. (author)

  17. Employment certificates on HRT

    CERN Multimedia

    HR Department

    2008-01-01

    As part of the ongoing drive to simplify and streamline administrative procedures and processes, the IT and HR Departments have made employment certificates available on a self-service basis on the HRT application, in the main menu under "My self services". All members of the personnel can thus obtain a certificate of employment or association, in French or in English, for the present or past contractual period. The HR Department’s Records Office remains responsible for issuing any special certificates that might be required. IT-AIS (Administrative Information Services) HR-SPS (Services, Procedures & Social) Records Office – Tel. 73700

  18. Review of Trends in Employing Library and Information Science Graduates in Slovenia for the Period from 2000 to 2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maja Božič

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available AbstractPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to show the trends in employing LIS graduates in Slovenia in the period from 2000 to 2012.Methodology/Approach: We collected, presented and analysed the publicly available data on the number and fluctuation of LIS graduates registered as job seekers at the national employment service. The paper also presents the fluctuation in the number of related job advertisements, and the number of employees in Slovenian libraries.Results: According to the Employment Service of Slovenia, the number of job seekers has been rising but it does not exceed the number of tendered study positions or the number of ads for job vacancies. Until 2012, only a third of job seekers were first time job seekers under 26 years of age. In recent years, the ratio of advertisements for the fixed-term employment has been increasing compared to those for the permanent employment. The majority of the ads offer employment in the central region of Slovenia, usually in the capital city which is the economic, political and university centre where the majority of all the libraries are concentrated. In addition, there is an increase in the number of ads during the summer months. The number of employees in Slovenian libraries has been rising year by year, in parallel to the increased proportion of library and information science graduates.Limitations of the research: We cannot make any conclusions about graduates of the Bologna study programmes, on one hand the first degree graduates are not very numerous on the job market and on the other hand many of them enrol the second degree Bologna study programme.Originality/practical implications of the research: For the first time in Slovenia, the research provides quantitative data on the number of the unemployed LIS graduates and on the number of job vacancy ads for LIS graduates.

  19. On precipitation monitoring with theoretical statistical distributions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cindrić, Ksenija; Juras, Josip; Pasarić, Zoran

    2018-04-01

    A common practice in meteorological drought monitoring is to transform the observed precipitation amounts to the standardised precipitation index (SPI). Though the gamma distribution is usually employed for this purpose, some other distribution may be used, particularly in regions where zero precipitation amounts are recorded frequently. In this study, two distributions are considered alongside with the gamma distribution: the compound Poisson exponential distribution (CPE) and the square root normal distribution (SRN). They are fitted to monthly precipitation amounts measured at 24 stations in Croatia in the 55-year-long period (1961-2015). At five stations, long-term series (1901-2015) are available and they have been used for a more detailed investigation. The accommodation of the theoretical distributions to empirical ones is tested by comparison of the corresponding empirical and theoretical ratios of the skewness and the coefficient of variation. Furthermore, following the common approach to precipitation monitoring (CLIMAT reports), the comparison of the empirical and theoretical quintiles in the two periods (1961-1990 and 1991-2015) is examined. The results from the present study reveal that it would be more appropriate to implement theoretical distributions in such climate reports, since they provide better evaluation for monitoring purposes than the current empirical distribution. Nevertheless, deciding on an optimal theoretical distribution for different climate regimes and for different time periods is not easy to accomplish. With regard to Croatian stations (covering different climate regimes), the CPE or SRN distribution could also be the right choice in the climatological practice, in addition to the gamma distribution.

  20. Education and employment prospects in cerebral palsy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Michelsen, Susan Ishøy; Uldall, Peter; Kejs, Anne Mette T

    2005-01-01

    information was obtained from Denmark's unique registries. Of the participants with CP, 33% vs 77% of controls, had education beyond lower secondary school (i.e. after age 15-16y), 29% were competitively employed (vs 82% of controls), 5% were studying, and 5% had specially created jobs. Excluding participants......Parents and paediatric neurologists need information on the long-term social prognosis of children with cerebral palsy (CP). No large population-based study has been performed on this topic. On 31 December 1999, to find predictors in childhood of subsequent education and employment, 819...

  1. A Case-Study Assignment to Teach Theoretical Perspectives in Abnormal Psychology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perkins, David V.

    1991-01-01

    Describes an assignment that requires students to organize, prepare, and revise a case study in abnormal behavior. Explains that students employ a single theoretical perspective in preparing a report on a figure from history, literature, the arts, or current events. Discusses the value of the assignment for students. (SG)

  2. Information-theoretic characterization of dynamic energy systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bevis, Troy Lawson

    sources are compounded by the dynamics of the grid itself. Loads are constantly changing, as well as the sources; this can sometimes lead to a quick change in system states. There is a need for a metric to be able to take into consideration all of the factors detailed above; it needs to be able to take into consideration the amount of information that is available in the system and the rate that the information is losing its value. In a dynamic system, the information is only valid for a length of time, and the controller must be able to take into account the decay of currently held information. This thesis will present the information theory metrics in a way that is useful for application to dynamic energy systems. A test case involving synchronization of several generators is presented for analysis and application of the theory. The objective is to synchronize all the generators and connect them to a common bus. As the phase shift of each generator is a random process, the effects of latency and information decay can be directly observed. The results of the experiments clearly show that the expected outcomes are observed and that entropy and information theory is a valid metric for timing requirement extraction.

  3. Green fiscal reform and employment. A survey

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Majocchi, A.

    1996-01-01

    In the European debate an increase in employment is generally regarded as an important extra-dividend - in addition to improved environmental quality - from environmental taxes. The scope of this paper is to evaluate, going through the existing empirical literature, if - and to what degree - this result could be achieved through a green fiscal reform. A further goal of this paper is to assess which taxes are more efficient in terms of employment-creation when they are utilized for recycling back to the economy the revenue flowing from environmental taxes. This kind of exercise is largely different from the theoretical analysis of the double dividend issue. A large quantity of literature has grown during the recent years according to this approach, but this version of the double dividend theory will be disregarded in this paper. 8 tabs., 38 refs

  4. Employability management practices in the Polish ICT sector

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Marzec, I.; van der Heijden, Beatrice; Scholarios, D.; van der Schoot, E.; Jedrzejowicz, P.; Bozionelos, N.; Epitropaki, O.; Knauth, P.; Mikkelsen, A.; van der Heijde, C.M.

    2009-01-01

    This article examines current career thinking and employability management practices within the Polish Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. The aim of this contribution is to identify career management problems and to determine obstacles for implementing employability management

  5. Employment references: defamation law in the clinical laboratory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parks, D G

    1993-01-01

    The law of defamation and the risks involved in issuing employment references are discussed. A hypothetical scenario is used to illustrate the legal standards governing the tort of defamation and to apply those standards to employment references. Practical suggestions for a "controlled reference" policy are provided, with the objective of allowing for responsible exchange of employment information and avoiding a defamation lawsuit.

  6. Employment and Economic Insecurity: A Commonsian Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sylvie Morel

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The principal concern of this paper is with the need of a theoretical shift in economics for analyzing and devising efficient and innovative policy reforms to combat employment insecurity. Mainstream economics is unable to provide appropriate theorizing about economic phenomena, including economic insecurity. Thus, we must turn to economic theories which radically question the dominant paradigm in economics. John Rogers Commons's institutionalist theory accomplishes that. First, the author of this paper outlines the distinctive character of this theory by presenting some of its crucial methodological differences with neoclassical economics. Second, she explains how economic insecurity is conceptualized as an "instituted" process with this theory of institution. A better mastery of this specific school of thought in economics appears to escape the problems met by mainstream economics by proposing a real theoretical alternative for the development of a truly evolutionary, trans-disciplinary and ethical economic theory.

  7. Employment and Economic Insecurity: A Commonsian Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sylvie Morel

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available The principal concern of this paper is with the need of a theoretical shift in economics for analyzing and devising efficient and innovative policy reforms to combat employment insecurity. Mainstream economics is unable to provide appropriate theorizing about economic phenomena, including economic insecurity. Thus, we must turn to economic theories which radically question the dominant paradigm in economics. John Rogers Commons's institutionalist theory accomplishes that. First, the author of this paper outlines the distinctive character of this theory by presenting some of its crucial methodological differences with neoclassical economics. Second, she explains how economic insecurity is conceptualized as an "instituted" process with this theory of institution. A better mastery of this specific school of thought in economics appears to escape the problems met by mainstream economics by proposing a real theoretical alternative for the development of a truly evolutionary, trans-disciplinary and ethical economic theory.

  8. Preliminary Findings in the Development of a Theoretical Framework for Investigating ICT Integration in Teacher Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suthagar Narasuman

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The following report is the result of a preliminary investigation in the development of a theoretical framework for investigating ICT integration, particularly in TESL (Teaching of English as a Second Language teacher training. The study is primarily an empirical effort to develop a theoretical framework for investigating ICT integration in TESL teacher training. In identifying the predictive variables for the framework, the researchers conducted an intensive review of the literature which included a review of various models used in studies on ICT integration. The contributing variables identified in the present study were age, gender, experience, ICT proficiency, attitude, access to ICT infrastructure, support services, and exposure to ICT professional development programmes. In developing the framework, the study sought to determine the extent to which the observed variability in ICT integration could be predicted by these factors. The sample comprised 266 respondents working at the faculty or English Language Unit in various teacher training institutions across the country. The study predominantly employed quantitative methods of data collection. Interview data was used to corroborate information derived from the survey data.

  9. Effective public policy which can reduce gender discrimination in the agricultural labour market: A theoretical investigation

    OpenAIRE

    Kundu, Amit

    2013-01-01

    Wage and employment differences between male and female agricultural labourers in the under developed countries including India is not new. With the help of a simple theoretical model it is here proved that public policy like implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the rural areas can reduce wage discrimination but fails to reduce employment discrimination in the agricultural labour market. It is also proved that implementation of NREGS not only reduces profita...

  10. 76 FR 38743 - Proposed Information Collection (Complaint of Employment Discrimination) Activity: Comment Request

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-07-01

    ..., religion, gender, national origin age, physical or mental disability and/or reprisal for prior Equal Employment Opportunity activity complete VA Form 4939 to file a complaint of discrimination. Affected Public... (Complaint of Employment Discrimination) Activity: Comment Request AGENCY: Human Resources and Administration...

  11. Influencing young women to pursue a career in the creative information technologies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mosco, Michele

    A leaky pipeline is often cited as the cause for the underrepresentation of women in computer-related professions. However, females may not even enter the pipeline; that is, they do not even enroll in creative information technology coursework as early as high school. Creative information technology careers include web design, digital photography, and multimedia. Constructs of the social cognitive career theory---outcome expectations and self-efficacy--provided the theoretical framework for this investigation to determine why young women are not exhibiting interest in these careers. Using an action research structure, a female-segregated technology club was implemented at the high school. The study intended to increase the participants' interest in pursuing careers in the creative information technology field through the components of career choice as outlined in the theoretical framework. The outcome expectations of "With whom will I work?" and "What will I do?" were addressed through the presentation of female role models and career information. Self-efficacy was targeted through technology skills' instruction directly related to the creative information technology fields. Data was collected through the administration of a pretest/posttest survey instrument, researcher observations, individual participant interviews, and an analysis of the participants' creative products. Quantitative findings indicated that there were few statistically significant program effects. The participants' perceptions of those employed in these careers did not change, but their technology self-efficacy increased on three indicators. Analysis of qualitative data yielded a more complete picture: although the young women had little prior knowledge of those employed in these fields, they did enjoy learning technology to develop creative projects in a social atmosphere where they could persevere through the technology frustrations they encountered. All of the data types affirmed that the

  12. The influence of patriarchal norms, institutions, and household composition on women's employment in twenty-eight Muslim-majority countries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spierings, N.

    2014-01-01

    The low level of women's employment in Muslim-majority countries is often explained by patriarchy, while disregarding variation among and within these countries. Using a new theoretical framework, this study translates patriarchy as a concept to macro- and micro-level explanations of employment. It

  13. Employment impacts of EU biofuels policy. Combining bottom-up technology information and sectoral market simulations in an input-output framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neuwahl, Frederik; Mongelli, Ignazio; Delgado, Luis; Loeschel, Andreas

    2008-01-01

    This paper analyses the employment consequences of policies aimed to support biofuels in the European Union. The promotion of biofuel use has been advocated as a means to promote the sustainable use of natural resources and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions originating from transport activities on the one hand, and to reduce dependence on imported oil and thereby increase security of the European energy supply on the other hand. The employment impacts of increasing biofuels shares are calculated by taking into account a set of elements comprising the demand for capital goods required to produce biofuels, the additional demand for agricultural feedstock, higher fuel prices or reduced household budget in the case of price subsidisation, price effects ensuing from a hypothetical world oil price reduction linked to substitution in the EU market, and price impacts on agro-food commodities. The calculations refer to scenarios for the year 2020 targets as set out by the recent Renewable Energy Roadmap. Employment effects are assessed in an input-output framework taking into account bottom-up technology information to specify biofuels activities and linked to partial equilibrium models for the agricultural and energy sectors. The simulations suggest that biofuels targets on the order of 10-15% could be achieved without adverse net employment effects. (author)

  14. Information-theoretic analysis of rotational distributions from quantal and quasiclassical computations of reactive and nonreactive scattering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bernstein, R.B.

    1976-01-01

    An information-theoretic approach to the analysis of rotational excitation cross sections was developed by Levine, Bernstein, Johnson, Procaccia, and coworkers and applied to state-to-state cross sections available from numerical computations of reactive and nonreactive scattering (for example, by Wyatt and Kuppermann and their coworkers and by Pack and Pattengill and others). The rotational surprisals are approximately linear in the energy transferred, thereby accounting for the so-called ''exponential gap law'' for rotational relaxation discovered experimentally by Polanyi, Woodall, and Ding. For the ''linear surprisal'' case the unique relation between the surprisal parameter theta/sub R/ and the first moment of the rotational energy distribution provides a link between the pattern of the rotational state distribution and those features of the potential surface which govern the average energy transfer

  15. The role of political affiliation in employment decisions: A model and research agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roth, Philip L; Goldberg, Caren B; Thatcher, Jason B

    2017-09-01

    Organizational researchers have studied how individuals identify with groups and organizations and how this affiliation influences behavior for decades (e.g., Tajfel, 1982). Interestingly, investigation into political affiliation and political affiliation similarity in the organizational sciences is extremely rare. This is striking, given the deep political divides that exist between groups of individuals described in the political science literature. We draw from theories based on similarity, organizational identification, and person-environment fit, as well as theoretical notions related to individuating information, to develop a model, the political affiliation model (PAM), which describes the implications of political affiliation and political similarity for employment decisions. We set forth a number of propositions based on PAM, to spur future research in the organizational sciences for a timely topic which has received little attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. Micro- and Macrolevel Determinants of Women's Employment in Six Arab Countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spierings, Niels; Smits, Jeroen; Verloo, Mieke

    2010-01-01

    We analyzed determinants of women's employment with data for 40,792 women living in 103 districts of 6 Arab countries. We tested a new theoretical framework that addresses the roles of needs, opportunities, and values at multiple levels. At the microlevel (individual, family), socioeconomic factors, care duties, and traditionalism were important;…

  17. Education and employment prospects in cerebral palsy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Michelsen, Susan Ishøy; Uldall, Peter; Kejs, Anne Mette T

    2005-01-01

    information was obtained from Denmark's unique registries. Of the participants with CP, 33% vs 77% of controls, had education beyond lower secondary school (i.e. after age 15-16y), 29% were competitively employed (vs 82% of controls), 5% were studying, and 5% had specially created jobs. Excluding participants......Parents and paediatric neurologists need information on the long-term social prognosis of children with cerebral palsy (CP). No large population-based study has been performed on this topic. On 31 December 1999, to find predictors in childhood of subsequent education and employment, 819...... with epilepsy versus those without epilepsy. The severity of motor impairment among participants with CP able to walk had just a minor influence. Only half the participants with CP who had attended mainstream schooling were employed. In conclusion several childhood characteristics seemed to predict long...

  18. Employment, social capital, and community participation among Israelis with disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Araten-Bergman, Tal; Stein, Michael Ashley

    2014-01-01

    Employment, social capital, and community participation have emerged in recent years as significant concepts for realizing the human rights of individuals with disabilities. Yet the theoretical interrelationship of these concepts remains largely overlooked, as does the empirical basis for understanding the underlying connections. This study explores the relationship between employment status, social capital, community participation, and well-being among Israelis with disabilities. It also explores the unique contribution of social capital to the well-being and integration of individuals with disabilities. 274 participants with self-reported disabilities completed a questionnaire containing measures of individual social capital, community participation, well-being, and background data. Correlation and Univariate analysis were used to compare scores between employed (n=131) and non-employed (n=143) participants, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to test the unique contribution of employment to social inclusion and well-being. Employed participants reported significantly higher levels of social capital and were more integrated in leisure and civic activities than their non-employed counterparts. Moreover, employment status was found to have a significant contribution to the variance in the subjective well-being of participants. By more fully understanding the importance of social capital for community inclusion, practitioners can better address the importance of network-building during the rehabilitation process as a means of promoting social and vocational integration.

  19. Descriptive statistics of occupational employment in nuclear power utilities. Final working paper

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Little, J.R.; Johnson, R.C.

    1982-10-01

    The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations conducted a survey of its 58 member utilities during the Spring of 1982. This was the second such survey performed to identify employment trends and to project needs for trained personnel in the industry to 1991. The first was performed in 1981. The 1982 employment survey consisted of four questionnaires, asking for information on: (1) on-site employment; (2) on-site turnover; (3) off-site employment; and (4) off-site turnover. The survey instruments were designed to reflect approaches used by the utilities to meet the labor requirements for operation of nuclear power plants through off-site support personnel, contractors, and holding company personnel, as well as utility employees working at the plant site. On-site information was received from all 83 plants at the 58 utilities. However, employment information from Surry of VEPCO arrived too late to be included in the analysis. Therefore, their numbers are reflected in the adjusted totals. Responses to requests for off-site employment information were received from 55 of the 58 utilities

  20. Theoretical investigation of aberrations upon ametropic human eyes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Bo; Chen, Ying-Ling; Lewis, J. W. L.; Baker, Kevin

    2003-11-01

    The human eye aberrations are important for visual acuity and ophthalmic diagnostics and surgical procedures. Reported monochromatic aberration data of the normal 20/20 human eyes are scarce. There exist even fewer reports of the relation between ametropic conditions and aberrations. We theoretically investigate the monochromatic and chromatic aberrations of human eyes for refractive errors of -10 to +10 diopters. Schematic human eye models are employed using optical design software for axial, index, and refractive types of ametropia.

  1. Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Armas-Pérez, Julio C.; Londono-Hurtado, Alejandro [Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States); Guzmán, Orlando [Departamento de Física, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, DF 09340, México (Mexico); Hernández-Ortiz, Juan P. [Departamento de Materiales y Minerales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, Medellín (Colombia); Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States); Pablo, Juan J. de, E-mail: depablo@uchicago.edu [Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States); Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

    2015-07-28

    A theoretically informed coarse-grained Monte Carlo method is proposed for studying liquid crystals. The free energy functional of the system is described in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes formalism. The alignment field and its gradients are approximated by finite differences, and the free energy is minimized through a stochastic sampling technique. The validity of the proposed method is established by comparing the results of the proposed approach to those of traditional free energy minimization techniques. Its usefulness is illustrated in the context of three systems, namely, a nematic liquid crystal confined in a slit channel, a nematic liquid crystal droplet, and a chiral liquid crystal in the bulk. It is found that for systems that exhibit multiple metastable morphologies, the proposed Monte Carlo method is generally able to identify lower free energy states that are often missed by traditional approaches. Importantly, the Monte Carlo method identifies such states from random initial configurations, thereby obviating the need for educated initial guesses that can be difficult to formulate.

  2. Theoretically informed Monte Carlo simulation of liquid crystals by sampling of alignment-tensor fields.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Armas-Perez, Julio C.; Londono-Hurtado, Alejandro; Guzman, Orlando; Hernandez-Ortiz, Juan P.; de Pablo, Juan J.

    2015-07-27

    A theoretically informed coarse-grained Monte Carlo method is proposed for studying liquid crystals. The free energy functional of the system is described in the framework of the Landau-de Gennes formalism. The alignment field and its gradients are approximated by finite differences, and the free energy is minimized through a stochastic sampling technique. The validity of the proposed method is established by comparing the results of the proposed approach to those of traditional free energy minimization techniques. Its usefulness is illustrated in the context of three systems, namely, a nematic liquid crystal confined in a slit channel, a nematic liquid crystal droplet, and a chiral liquid crystal in the bulk. It is found that for systems that exhibit multiple metastable morphologies, the proposed Monte Carlo method is generally able to identify lower free energy states that are often missed by traditional approaches. Importantly, the Monte Carlo method identifies such states from random initial configurations, thereby obviating the need for educated initial guesses that can be difficult to formulate.

  3. How can the digital library contribute to employability?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Harbo, Karen; Jensen, Thomas Skov

    2016-01-01

    platforms. A partnership is made between the digital library (partner libraries involved) and the virtual learning environment (educational institutions), based on the above definition of employability. This is done within the framework of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Massive Open Online Courses......The DEFF project, E-learning, Information literacy and Library services, supports the education policy ambition of enhancing links between education and employment. The project consortium includes libraries from all Danish universities, university colleges and one business academy. Timeframe...... for the project is 2014-16. The project understands employability as: In close cooperation with study programmes libraries will strengthen students’ ability to perform independently and critically in a professional context by being able to identify, collect, evaluate, organize and present information via digital...

  4. How can the digital library contribute to employability?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Harbo, Karen; Jensen, Thomas Skov

    2016-01-01

    The DEFF project, E-learning, Information literacy and Library services, supports the education policy ambition of enhancing links between education and employment. The project consortium includes libraries from all Danish universities, university colleges and one business academy. Timeframe...... for the project is 2014-16. The project understands employability as: In close cooperation with study programmes libraries will strengthen students’ ability to perform independently and critically in a professional context by being able to identify, collect, evaluate, organize and present information via digital...... platforms. A partnership is made between the digital library (partner libraries involved) and the virtual learning environment (educational institutions), based on the above definition of employability. This is done within the framework of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Massive Open Online Courses...

  5. Information-theoretic treatment of tripartite systems and quantum channels

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coles, Patrick J.; Yu Li; Gheorghiu, Vlad; Griffiths, Robert B.

    2011-01-01

    A Holevo measure is used to discuss how much information about a given positive operator valued measure (POVM) on system a is present in another system b, and how this influences the presence or absence of information about a different POVM on a in a third system c. The main goal is to extend information theorems for mutually unbiased bases or general bases to arbitrary POVMs, and especially to generalize ''all-or-nothing'' theorems about information located in tripartite systems to the case of partial information, in the form of quantitative inequalities. Some of the inequalities can be viewed as entropic uncertainty relations that apply in the presence of quantum side information, as in recent work by Berta et al. [Nature Physics 6, 659 (2010)]. All of the results also apply to quantum channels: For example, if E accurately transmits certain POVMs, the complementary channel F will necessarily be noisy for certain other POVMs. While the inequalities are valid for mixed states of tripartite systems, restricting to pure states leads to the basis invariance of the difference between the information about a contained in b and c.

  6. Employment status, employment functioning, and barriers to employment among VA primary care patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zivin, Kara; Yosef, Matheos; Levine, Debra S; Abraham, Kristen M; Miller, Erin M; Henry, Jennifer; Nelson, C Beau; Pfeiffer, Paul N; Sripada, Rebecca K; Harrod, Molly; Valenstein, Marcia

    2016-03-15

    Prior research found lower employment rates among working-aged patients who use the VA than among non-Veterans or Veterans who do not use the VA, with the lowest reported employment rates among VA patients with mental disorders. This study assessed employment status, employment functioning, and barriers to employment among VA patients treated in primary care settings, and examined how depression and anxiety were associated with these outcomes. The sample included 287 VA patients treated in primary care in a large Midwestern VA Medical Center. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted examining associations between socio-demographic and clinical predictors of six employment domains, including: employment status, job search self-efficacy, work performance, concerns about job loss among employed Veterans, and employment barriers and likelihood of job seeking among not employed Veterans. 54% of respondents were employed, 36% were not employed, and 10% were economically inactive. In adjusted analyses, participants with depression or anxiety (43%) were less likely to be employed, had lower job search self-efficacy, had lower levels of work performance, and reported more employment barriers. Depression and anxiety were not associated with perceived likelihood of job loss among employed or likelihood of job seeking among not employed. Single VA primary care clinic; cross-sectional study. Employment rates are low among working-aged VA primary care patients, particularly those with mental health conditions. Offering primary care interventions to patients that address mental health issues, job search self-efficacy, and work performance may be important in improving health, work, and economic outcomes. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Performance of a thermal imager employing a hybrid pyroelectric detector array with MOSFET readout

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watton, R.; Mansi, M.V.

    1988-01-01

    A thermal imager employing a two-dimensional hybrid array of pyroelectric detectors with MOSFET readout has been built. The design and theoretical performance of the detector are discussed, and the results of performance measurements are presented. 8 references

  8. External image of a university playing the role of an employer and the gender of potential young employees

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baruk, Agnieszka Izabela

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available The article presents chosen aspects associated with the perception of universities playing the role of an employer among the potential young employees. This work is theoretical-empirical in character. In the theoretical part on the basis of the results of cognitive-critical analysis of world literature on the subject it is emphasized that universities need to build their image as employers in a complex way. It is actually becoming essential, taking into consideration the challenges that universities have to face. With regard to image-related issues, in case of this group of entities both with regard to theoretical deliberations and empirical research, there is a clear gap which needs to be filled. It is worth starting the reduction of this gap with the identification of the associations that potential young employees have with regard to universities as employers. It was one of the research goals of this article. In the empirical part the results of primary research conducted among the representatives of the above-mentioned segment of the labour market are presented. On the basis of the results of the factor analysis conducted separately for the surveyed men and women, a preliminary verification of the two research hypotheses was conducted. It was concluded that the female respondents express a comparably worse opinion of universities as employers.

  9. Urban development and employment in Abidjan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Joshi, H; Lubell, H; Mouly, J

    1975-04-01

    The city of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast has grown physically, economically, and demographically at rates exceeding all reasonable expectation. Yet, as in many other development nations, the employment generated by Abidjan's rapid economic expansion has failed to keep pace with the increase in working population it has attracted. Consequently, economic success has been accompanied by a variety of social strains. Some of these have been discussed in earlier issues of the "International Labour Review" by Louis Roussel. This discussion expands on Roussel's earlier treatment by focusing more specifically on several facets of the urban employment problem created by the rapid growth of Abidjan. Attention is directed to labor supply and employment, factors affecting migration, foreign Africans in the Ivory Coast labor force; the urban informal sector; urban infrastructure and development; social problems of population pressure; employment policy options (current government policies and other policy options); and general issues and policy alternatives (motivations for rural urban migration, smaller urban centers as alternative growth poles, and distributing the gains from development). Several essential features of the employment problem stem from the rural urban distribution of the workforce. The rural labor force, including temporary seasonal workers from the savannah countries to the north, remains more or less in balance with increasing rural employment opportunities, since the migration of Ivory Coast nationals to the cities is balanced by the inflow of foreign workers. In contrast, the influx of migrants into urban areas has led to a more rapid increase in the urban labor force than in urban employment, with a consequent rise in unemployment. In 1970 the Abidjan rate of open unemployment was probably around 20%. At this time, most people's idea of a desirable job is one in the formal sector of the urban economy. If there is to be any hope of an eventual balance between

  10. GUIDED EMPLOYMENT – RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erna ZHGUR

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: People with intellectual disabilities (ID are often excluded from the labour market and face many obstacles on their way to employment. Aim: The main aim is giving the persons with ID a possibility to participate in occasional employment, providing them suitable work skills, sustainable knowledge and competencies, as well as suitable skills for more active life. Materials and methods: We analysed 90 evaluation questionnaires (filled out by students, mentors, parents and craftsmen, during a 3-year project (September 2013 - October 2015. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient and Chi-square test were used for statistical data analysis. Results: We determined the level of satisfaction expressed by parents, mentors and students, related to guided employment (χ2 = 1,07; p > 0,05; χ2 = 0,04; p > 0,05;χ2 = 0,04; p > 0,05. Workshops were balanced with theoretical and practical content (χ2 = 16,58; p 0,05, craftsmen (ϱ = 0,79; p 0,05. Conclusion: Implementation of selected workshops, related to guided employment showed that employment of people with ID is possible under professional guidance of mentors.

  11. Information-seeking Behavior During Residency Is Associated With Quality of Theoretical Learning, Academic Career Achievements, and Evidence-based Medical Practice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oussalah, Abderrahim; Fournier, Jean-Paul; Guéant, Jean-Louis; Braun, Marc

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Data regarding knowledge acquisition during residency training are sparse. Predictors of theoretical learning quality, academic career achievements and evidence-based medical practice during residency are unknown. We performed a cross-sectional study on residents and attending physicians across several residency programs in 2 French faculties of medicine. We comprehensively evaluated the information-seeking behavior (I-SB) during residency using a standardized questionnaire and looked for independent predictors of theoretical learning quality, academic career achievements, and evidence-based medical practice among I-SB components using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Between February 2013 and May 2013, 338 fellows and attending physicians were included in the study. Textbooks and international medical journals were reported to be used on a regular basis by 24% and 57% of the respondents, respectively. Among the respondents, 47% refer systematically (4.4%) or frequently (42.6%) to published guidelines from scientific societies upon their publication. The median self-reported theoretical learning quality score was 5/10 (interquartile range, 3–6; range, 1–10). A high theoretical learning quality score (upper quartile) was independently and strongly associated with the following I-SB components: systematic reading of clinical guidelines upon their publication (odds ratio [OR], 5.55; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.77–17.44); having access to a library that offers the leading textbooks of the specialty in the medical department (OR, 2.45, 95% CI, 1.33–4.52); knowledge of the specialty leading textbooks (OR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.09–4.10); and PubMed search skill score ≥5/10 (OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.01–3.73). Research Master (M2) and/or PhD thesis enrolment were independently and strongly associated with the following predictors: PubMed search skill score ≥5/10 (OR, 4.10; 95% CI, 1.46–11.53); knowledge of the leading medical journals of the

  12. Theoretical Foundations of Active Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-05-01

    I study the informational complexity of active learning in a statistical learning theory framework. Specifically, I derive bounds on the rates of...convergence achievable by active learning , under various noise models and under general conditions on the hypothesis class. I also study the theoretical...advantages of active learning over passive learning, and develop procedures for transforming passive learning algorithms into active learning algorithms

  13. Information theoretic approach to tactile encoding and discrimination

    OpenAIRE

    Saal, Hannes

    2011-01-01

    The human sense of touch integrates feedback from a multitude of touch receptors, but how this information is represented in the neural responses such that it can be extracted quickly and reliably is still largely an open question. At the same time, dexterous robots equipped with touch sensors are becoming more common, necessitating better methods for representing sequentially updated information and new control strategies that aid in extracting relevant features for object man...

  14. Tourism Employment Module (TEM: Case of the Czech Republic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zdeněk Lejsek

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Tourism Employment Module (TEM provides information on the significance and contribution of tourism for the national economy in terms of employment. It refers to a system of tables describing the main economic characteristics of tourism (i.e. number of jobs and people employed in tourism by industry, seasonality, working scheme,permanency of job, sex, age groups, level of education or nationality and classifying thereby tourism as one of branches in the system of national accounts. The article describes basic methodological concept and structure of this tool (and approaches to measuring employment in the tourist industry in general, exploited data sources and provides a brief information on the type and form of publishing of the results as well as the data on principalmacroeconomic indicators of tourism-related industries in the Czech Republic in 2003–2009.

  15. Immigrants’ Paths to Employment in Finland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aini Pehkonen

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate how immigrants have integrated into Finnish life from the standpoints of employment. The empirical research material consisted of 30 interviews with immigrants and four interviews with of? cials and others dealing with immigrant affairs. Factors promoting employment of immigrants were the voluntary nature of the immigration, educational quali? cations as demonstrated by the relevant certi? cates and knowledge of the Finnish language. One in three reported that they had ? rst received information about vacancies from the Employment Of? ce, and one in ? ve by approaching the employer directly asking for work. One in seven had found out about jobs through friends.

  16. Employment Growth and International Trade

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ibsen, Rikke; Warzynski, Frederic; Westergård-Nielsen, Niels Chr.

    In this paper, we use a detailed dataset containing information about all international trade transactions of the population of Danish ?rms over more than a decade to analyze the relationship between export and import decisions and employment growth. We further distinguish between imports of ?nal...

  17. Soldiers’ employment attitude and employability: An exploratory study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peng Gao

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: Nowadays it is very difficult for Chinese retired soldiers to find proper jobs, and the primary reason is the significant gap between job requirements and soldiers owned job skills. Therefore, it is very important to improve the soldiers’ job skills and enhance their understanding of employment.Design/methodology/approach: This paper expands the study scope from the soldiers’ job skills to the employability, initiatively introduces the employment attitude which has obvious impact on the employment of soldiers, and analyses the influence that employment attitude can play on employability. At last, this paper develops statistical method to find the relationship between soldiers’ employment attitude and employability.Findings: The empirical analysis shows that soldiers’ employment attitude has the positive linkage with employability, which makes the employment attitude a measurable variable for the employability rather than an absolute standard.Research limitations/implications: According to the research purpose, more variables should be considered in the model, consequently, there are only three indicators to describe solders’ employment attitude and four indicators to describe solders’ employability.Originality/value: This paper takes research on soldiers’ employability in a new perspective. The soldiers’ employment attitude is served as the entry point, showing the influence that soldiers’ employment attitude has on employability.

  18. [Economic development and married women's employment in Taiwan: a study of female marginalization].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Y

    1994-07-01

    As in other developing countries, the industrial development in Taiwan seems to marginalize female workers. This study tries to examine the trend of women's employment status, using both macro- and micro-level data. The statistics suggest that female employment had significantly declined during the early stages of industrialization. Although rapid economic development has expanded women's job opportunities, most women are concentrated in lower-status jobs and the informal sector. Informal employment is especially prevalent among married women. In the micro-level analysis the study examines the factors that led to the marginalization of women's labor force. The empirical analysis applies a multinomial logistic model to a 1980 KAP (knowledge, attitude, and practice) survey sample of 3859 married women. The results suggest that married women's work patterns in terms of formal vs. informal employment are determined by the family organization rather than by labor market conditions. Wives from families with small businesses are more likely to be involved in informal employment. Wives also tend to work informally when they have young children. On the other hand, the effects of labor market conditions are mediated by the types of family economy. Therefore the women's informal employment in Taiwan, as a characteristic of female marginalization, is the result of the sexual division of labor in the family organization and the prevalence of the family business, rather than that of being excluded into the marginal forms of employment through the process of capitalistic production, as argued by the female marginalization theorists.

  19. Model-free information-theoretic approach to infer leadership in pairs of zebrafish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butail, Sachit; Mwaffo, Violet; Porfiri, Maurizio

    2016-04-01

    Collective behavior affords several advantages to fish in avoiding predators, foraging, mating, and swimming. Although fish schools have been traditionally considered egalitarian superorganisms, a number of empirical observations suggest the emergence of leadership in gregarious groups. Detecting and classifying leader-follower relationships is central to elucidate the behavioral and physiological causes of leadership and understand its consequences. Here, we demonstrate an information-theoretic approach to infer leadership from positional data of fish swimming. In this framework, we measure social interactions between fish pairs through the mathematical construct of transfer entropy, which quantifies the predictive power of a time series to anticipate another, possibly coupled, time series. We focus on the zebrafish model organism, which is rapidly emerging as a species of choice in preclinical research for its genetic similarity to humans and reduced neurobiological complexity with respect to mammals. To overcome experimental confounds and generate test data sets on which we can thoroughly assess our approach, we adapt and calibrate a data-driven stochastic model of zebrafish motion for the simulation of a coupled dynamical system of zebrafish pairs. In this synthetic data set, the extent and direction of the coupling between the fish are systematically varied across a wide parameter range to demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of transfer entropy in inferring leadership. Our approach is expected to aid in the analysis of collective behavior, providing a data-driven perspective to understand social interactions.

  20. Summer School organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, and the Institute for Information Sciences, University of Tübingen

    CERN Document Server

    Güttinger, Werner; Cin, Mario

    1974-01-01

    This volume is the record and product of the Summer School on the Physics and Mathematics of the Nervous System, held at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste from August 21-31, 1973, and jointly organized by the Institute for Information Sciences, University of Tlibingen and by the Centre. The school served to bring biologists, physicists and mathemati­ cians together to exchange ideas about the nervous system and brain, and also to introduce young scientists to the field. The program, attended by more than a hundred scientists, was interdisciplinary both in character and participation. The primary support for the school was provided by the Volkswagen Foundation of West Germany. We are particularly indebted to Drs. G. Gambke, M. -L Zarnitz, and H. Penschuck of the Foundation for their in­ terest in and help with the project. The school also received major support from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste and its sponsoring agencies, including the use of its exce...

  1. Development of Employment Sub-centres in the City of Ahmedabad, India

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Munshi, Talat; Brussel, Mark; Zuidgeest, Mark

    2018-01-01

    This article describes how employment sub-centres can be identified applying geo-spatial modelling techniques in the context of metropolitan areas in India, and how the development of these employment centres can be linked to the levels of accessibility to labour, access to transport infrastructu...... information to urban planners enabling them to make informed decision, for example, in locating future employment activities, identifying future transit-oriented development nodes, etc....... as well as land use mix and land use diversity. For the city of Ahmedabad, employment sub-centres are identified for the year 2010, while the progression of employment in retail, commercial and industrial sectors in each of these centres is studied for the period from 1980 to 2010. Definite the signs...

  2. Studying place practices and consumption through volunteer-employed photography

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pristed Nielsen, Helene; Møller, Karina Torp

    2016-01-01

    upon such choices. Additionally, we argue that the employed data collection techniques, involving a combination of volunteer-employed photography with participants’ comments on their own photos and information about their socio-demographic profile, constitute a particularly apt approach for shedding...

  3. What policies should be there for employment in urban areas of developing countries?

    OpenAIRE

    Gugushvili, Alexi

    2006-01-01

    This paper examines employment policies in urban areas of developing world. We follow traditional economic analysis and present the urban unemployment problem as an inequality of labour supply and demand on labour markets. The effects of demand-side and supply-side policies on informal urban employment are investigated through econometrical models. One or several variables are employed as crude proxies for every policy option. The dependent variable is informal urban employment as a per cent ...

  4. Polish university as an (unattractive potential employer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baruk, Agnieszka Izabela

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The article presents issues associated with the reasons for the fact that young potential employees are not interested in starting work at Polish universities. The article is theoretical-empirical in character. The theoretical part highlights the importance of a situation in which an entity is regarded as an attractive employer, which allows attracting the best employees. Particular attention is paid to the fact that a university needs to build its image as an employer, which results from its characteristics. The article strives to achieve three research goals, among others, identifying the reasons why respondents are not interested in starting work at a university and arranging these reasons hierarchically. Two research hypotheses were subject to preliminary verification: H1 – the main reason for the unwillingness to start work at a university are financial aspects; H2 – the main reason for the unwillingness to start work at a university are the aspects of prestige. The data collected in course of primary research were subject to quantitative analysis based on the method of average assessment analysis and the method of factor analysis. Their results show that the respondents were not interested in work at a university mainly because they wanted to test the knowledge and skills acquired during studies in other branches. At the same time, the aspects of finances and prestige didn’t play a major role. Thus, in case of the surveyed sample of respondents both research hypotheses have to be recognized as untrue.

  5. Have children adapted to their mothers working, or was adaptation unnecessary? Cohort effects and the relationship between maternal employment and child well-being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wills, Jeremiah B; Brauer, Jonathan R

    2012-03-01

    Drawing on previous theoretical and empirical work, we posit that maternal employment influences on child well-being vary across birth cohorts. We investigate this possibility by analyzing longitudinal data from a sample of children and their mothers drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We introduce a series of age, cohort, and maternal employment interaction terms into multilevel models predicting child well-being to assess whether any potential short-term or long-term effects of early and current maternal employment vary across birth cohorts. Results indicate that maternal employment largely is inconsequential to child well-being regardless of birth cohort, with a few exceptions. For instance, children born in earlier cohorts may have experienced long-term positive effects of having an employed mother; however, as maternal employment became more commonplace in recent cohorts, these beneficial effects appear to have disappeared. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of these findings. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Information Needs and Information Competencies: A Case Study of the Off-Site Supervision of Financial Institutions in Brazil

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miranda, Silvania V.; Tarapanoff, Kira M. A.

    2008-01-01

    Introduction: The paper deals with the identification of the information needs and information competencies of a professional group. Theoretical basis: A theoretical relationship between information needs and information competencies as subjects is proposed. Three dimensions are examine: cognitive, affective and situational. The recognition of an…

  7. Terms and Conditions of Self-Employment: A Gender Perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Mångs, Andreas

    2012-01-01

    In this paper we present a detailed description of the survey “How does your life puzzle work?” that was performed in 2009. The survey’s primary purpose was to provide information about the terms and conditions in self-employment relative to wage-employment and about the reasons for taking up self-employment. In addition, the survey included questions related to social background and socio-economic characteristics of self-employed. We report some of the findings from the survey regarding work...

  8. Theoretical value of psychological testing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapiro, David

    2012-01-01

    Apart from their diagnostic value, psychological tests, especially the Rorschach test, have an important theoretical value for understanding psychopathology. They present a picture of a living person, in contrast to a picture of forces and agencies within the person. This rests on 2 advantages of tests over the usual psychiatric and psychoanalytic interviews: Tests are ahistorical and they present information primarily of a formal kind.

  9. German Dual Curricula to Improve School to Employment Transition: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephens, Maria Cecilia Noche

    2015-01-01

    The German Dual System is a model educational and employment approach that other nations could emulate. The ability of young apprentices to work and study at the same time to gain both practical and theoretical skills leads to more meaningful education and decreased dropout and youth unemployment rates. The collaboration of the government,…

  10. Retirees' motivational orientations and bridge employment: Testing the moderating role of gender.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhan, Yujie; Wang, Mo; Shi, Junqi

    2015-09-01

    Bridge employment refers to the labor force participation after people retire from career jobs. It is becoming a prevalent phenomenon for retirees transitioning from employment to complete work withdrawal. Building on existing literature on retirement transition and older adults' work motivation, the present study examined the effects of 3 motivational orientations (i.e., status striving, communion striving, and generativity striving) in relating to retirees' bridge employment participation (i.e., bridge employment status and bridge employment work hours). This study also applied the social gender role theory to examine the effect of gender in moderating the effects of motivational orientations. Data from 507 Chinese retirees in Beijing revealed that communion striving and generativity striving were positively related to bridge employment participation. Further, gender moderated the effect of status striving such that status striving was positively related to bridge employment participation for male retirees but not for female retirees. In addition, exploratory analysis was conducted to examine the effects of the same set of motivational orientations on postretirement volunteering activities. Results showed that status striving was negatively related to volunteering after retirement. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the bridge employment literature and practical implications for recruiting and retaining older workers. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. Modelling in Accounting. Theoretical and Practical Dimensions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Szot-Gabryś

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available Accounting in the theoretical approach is a scientific discipline based on specific paradigms. In the practical aspect, accounting manifests itself through the introduction of a system for measurement of economic quantities which operates in a particular business entity. A characteristic of accounting is its flexibility and ability of adaptation to information needs of information recipients. One of the main currents in the development of accounting theory and practice is to cover by economic measurements areas which have not been hitherto covered by any accounting system (it applies, for example, to small businesses, agricultural farms, human capital, which requires the development of an appropriate theoretical and practical model. The article illustrates the issue of modelling in accounting based on the example of an accounting model developed for small businesses, i.e. economic entities which are not obliged by law to keep accounting records.

  12. EMPLOY: Step-by-step guidelines for calculating employment effects of renewable energy investments [including annex 2

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Breitschopf, Barbara [Fraunhofer Inst. for Systems and Innovation Research (Germany); Nathani, Carsten [Ruetter and Partner Socioeconomic Research and Consulting (Switzerland); Resch, Gustav [Vienna Univ. of Technology, Energy Economics Group (EEG) (Austria

    2012-07-15

    The EMPLOY project aimed to help achieve the IEA-RETD’s objective to 'empower policy makers and energy market actors through the provision of information, tools and resources' by underlining the economic and industrial impacts of renewable energy technology deployment and providing reliable methodological approaches for employment – similar to those available for the incumbent energy technologies. The EMPLOY project resulted in a comprehensive set of methodological guidelines for estimating the employment impacts of renewable energy deployment in a coherent, uniform and systematic way. Guidelines were prepared for four different methodological approaches. In the introduction section of the guidelines policy makers are guided in their choice for the most suited approach, depending on the policy questions to be answered, the data availability and budget. The guidelines were tested for the IEA-RETD member state countries and Tunisia. The results of these calculations are included in the annex to the guidelines.

  13. A Theoretical Approach to Information Needs Across Different Healthcare Stakeholders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raitoharju, Reetta; Aarnio, Eeva

    Increased access to medical information can lead to information overload among both the employees in the healthcare sector as well as among healthcare consumers. Moreover, medical information can be hard to understand for consumers who have no prerequisites for interpreting and understanding it. Information systems (e.g. electronic patient records) are normally designed to meet the demands of one professional group, for instance those of physicians. Therefore, the same information in the same form is presented to all the users of the systems regardless of the actual need or prerequisites. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the differences in information needs across different stakeholders in healthcare. A literature review was conducted to collect examples of these different information needs. Based on the findings the role of more user specific information systems is discussed.

  14. Information Diffusion in Facebook-Like Social Networks Under Information Overload

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Pei; Xing, Kai; Wang, Dapeng; Zhang, Xin; Wang, Hui

    2013-07-01

    Research on social networks has received remarkable attention, since many people use social networks to broadcast information and stay connected with their friends. However, due to the information overload in social networks, it becomes increasingly difficult for users to find useful information. This paper takes Facebook-like social networks into account, and models the process of information diffusion under information overload. The term view scope is introduced to model the user information-processing capability under information overload, and the average number of times a message appears in view scopes after it is generated is proposed to characterize the information diffusion efficiency. Through theoretical analysis, we find that factors such as network structure and view scope number have no impact on the information diffusion efficiency, which is a surprising result. To verify the results, we conduct simulations and provide the simulation results, which are consistent with the theoretical analysis results perfectly.

  15. Organizational factors affecting successful adoption of innovative eHealth services: a case study employing the FITT framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsiknakis, Manolis; Kouroubali, Angelina

    2009-01-01

    The paper presents an application of the "Fit between Individuals, Task and Technology" (FITT) framework to analyze the socio-organizational-technical factors that influence IT adoption in the healthcare domain. The FITT framework was employed as the theoretical instrument for a retrospective analysis of a 15-year effort in implementing IT systems and eHealth services in the context of a Regional Health Information Network in Crete. Quantitative and qualitative research methods, interviews and participant observations were employed to gather data from a case study that involved the entire region of Crete. The detailed analysis of the case study based on the FITT framework, showed common features, but also differences of IT adoption within the various health organizations. The emerging picture is a complex nexus of factors contributing to IT adoption, and multi-level interventional strategies to promote IT use. The work presented in this paper shows the applicability of the FITT framework in explaining the complexity of aspects observed in the implementation of healthcare information systems. The reported experiences reveal that fit management can be viewed as a system with a feedback loop that is never really stable, but ever changing based on external factors or deliberate interventions. Management of fit, therefore, becomes a constant and complex task for the whole life cycle of IT systems.

  16. Norm Divergence, Opportunity Structure and Utilization of Self-Employed Immigrants' Qualifications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rezaei, Shahamak; Goli, Marco

    2009-01-01

    of immigrants' qualifications has come up to the surface of political and societal debate in Denmark. The focus of this study was challenges to that utilization. Focusing on opportunity structure and the formal and informal components of the concept and self-employment among migrants as one of the major...... the distribution of all self-employed migrants with national background in third countries with regard to (a) Business line: What they were doing and (b) Educational level: What was the level of their formal education. In order to make comparisons possible we had extracted data on 10% of self-employed with native...... sets of factors: One was the formal as well as the informal, e.g., substantially experienced by self employed immigrants, opportunity structure and the second was the type of qualifications that were required and developed in the informal economy, that produced and utilized specific comparative...

  17. Modelling in Accounting. Theoretical and Practical Dimensions

    OpenAIRE

    Teresa Szot -Gabryś

    2010-01-01

    Accounting in the theoretical approach is a scientific discipline based on specific paradigms. In the practical aspect, accounting manifests itself through the introduction of a system for measurement of economic quantities which operates in a particular business entity. A characteristic of accounting is its flexibility and ability of adaptation to information needs of information recipients. One of the main currents in the development of accounting theory and practice is to cover by economic...

  18. EU hotel and restaurant sector : work and employment conditions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Klein Hesselink, J.; Houtman, I.; Berg, R. van den; Bossche, S. van den; Heuvel, F. van den

    2004-01-01

    In 2000, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (the Foundation) carried out the third European Survey on Working Conditions. In that survey, information was collected on the working conditions, health and wellbeing of employed and self-employed persons in the

  19. Theoretical Relevance of Neuropsychological Data for Connectionist Modelling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mauricio Iza

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The symbolic information-processing paradigm in cognitive psychology has met a growing challenge from neural network models over the past two decades. While neuropsychological
    evidence has been of great utility to theories concerned with information processing, the real question is, whether the less rigid connectionist models provide valid, or enough, information
    concerning complex cognitive structures. In this work, we will discuss the theoretical implications that neuropsychological data posits for modelling cognitive systems.

  20. How do small groups make decisions? : A theoretical framework to inform the implementation and study of clinical competency committees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chahine, Saad; Cristancho, Sayra; Padgett, Jessica; Lingard, Lorelei

    2017-06-01

    In the competency-based medical education (CBME) approach, clinical competency committees are responsible for making decisions about trainees' competence. However, we currently lack a theoretical model for group decision-making to inform this emerging assessment phenomenon. This paper proposes an organizing framework to study and guide the decision-making processes of clinical competency committees.This is an explanatory, non-exhaustive review, tailored to identify relevant theoretical and evidence-based papers related to small group decision-making. The search was conducted using Google Scholar, Web of Science, MEDLINE, ERIC, and PsycINFO for relevant literature. Using a thematic analysis, two researchers (SC & JP) met four times between April-June 2016 to consolidate the literature included in this review.Three theoretical orientations towards group decision-making emerged from the review: schema, constructivist, and social influence. Schema orientations focus on how groups use algorithms for decision-making. Constructivist orientations focus on how groups construct their shared understanding. Social influence orientations focus on how individual members influence the group's perspective on a decision. Moderators of decision-making relevant to all orientations include: guidelines, stressors, authority, and leadership.Clinical competency committees are the mechanisms by which groups of clinicians will be in charge of interpreting multiple assessment data points and coming to a shared decision about trainee competence. The way in which these committees make decisions can have huge implications for trainee progression and, ultimately, patient care. Therefore, there is a pressing need to build the science of how such group decision-making works in practice. This synthesis suggests a preliminary organizing framework that can be used in the implementation and study of clinical competency committees.

  1. Employers' experience of employees with cancer: trajectories of complex communication.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiedtke, C M; Dierckx de Casterlé, B; Frings-Dresen, M H W; De Boer, A G E M; Greidanus, M A; Tamminga, S J; De Rijk, A E

    2017-10-01

    Remaining in paid work is of great importance for cancer survivors, and employers play a crucial role in achieving this. Return to work (RTW) is best seen as a process. This study aims to provide insight into (1) Dutch employers' experiences with RTW of employees with cancer and (2) the employers' needs for support regarding this process. Thirty employer representatives of medium and large for-profit and non-profit organizations were interviewed to investigate their experiences and needs in relation to employees with cancer. A Grounded Theory approach was used. We revealed a trajectory of complex communication and decision-making during different stages, from the moment the employee disclosed that they had been diagnosed to the period after RTW, permanent disability, or the employee's passing away. Employers found this process demanding due to various dilemmas. Dealing with an unfavorable diagnosis and balancing both the employer's and the employee's interests were found to be challenging. Two types of approach to support RTW of employees with cancer were distinguished: (1) a business-oriented approach and (2) a care-oriented approach. Differences in approach were related to differences in organizational structure and employer and employee characteristics. Employers expressed a need for communication skills, information, and decision-making skills to support employees with cancer. The employers interviewed stated that dealing with an employee with cancer is demanding and that the extensive Dutch legislation on RTW did not offer all the support needed. We recommend providing them with easily accessible information on communication and leadership training to better support employees with cancer. • Supporting employers by training communication and decision-making skills and providing information on cancer will contribute to improving RTW support for employees with cancer. • Knowing that the employer will usually be empathic when an employee reveals that they have

  2. Adult learning, education, and the labour market inthe employability regime

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Staffan Nilsson

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to draw on the research and scholarly literature to explorethe changing discourses and perspectives concerning adult learning, education, and thelabour market in the employability regime. The focus of the nalysis is a Nordic context.The dominant employability regime maintains a technical-rational perspective onlearning and employability. Education is predominantly regarded as an instrumentalpreparation for the labour market. The future demands of the labour market are largelyunknown, however, and vocational and professional training may not provide sufficientpreparation for the increasing complexities of work. Theoretical discussions have beendominated by an alleged mismatch between individual competence and thequalifications that are required in the world of work. There is no consensus regardinghow the gap should be described, explained, or bridged. New demands on educationaldesign have emerged, and ideas related to liberal education and ‘bildung’ have beenreinserted into the political agenda, offering general preparation for a wider array ofchallenges.

  3. Fuel cycle covariance of plutonium and americium separations to repository capacity using information theoretic measures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scopatz, Anthony; Schneider, Erich; Li, Jun; Yim, Man-Sung

    2011-01-01

    A light water reactor, fast reactor symbiotic fuel cycle scenario was modeled and parameterized based on thirty independent inputs. Simultaneously and stochastically choosing different values for each of these inputs and performing the associated fuel cycle mass-balance calculation, the fuel cycle itself underwent Monte Carlo simulation. A novel information theoretic metric is postulated as a measure of system-wide covariance. This metric is the coefficient of variation of the set of uncertainty coefficients generated from 2D slices of a 3D contingency table. It is then applied to the fuel cycle, taking fast reactor used fuel plutonium and americium separations as independent variables and the capacity of a fully-loaded tuff repository as the response. This set of parameters is known from prior studies to have a strong covariance. When measured with all 435 other input parameters possible, the fast reactor plutonium and americium separations pair was found to be ranked the second most covariant. This verifies that the coefficient of variation metric captures the desired sensitivity of sensitivity effects in the nuclear fuel cycle. (author)

  4. Decision-Making under Ambiguity Is Modulated by Visual Framing, but Not by Motor vs. Non-Motor Context. Experiments and an Information-Theoretic Ambiguity Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grau-Moya, Jordi; Ortega, Pedro A; Braun, Daniel A

    2016-01-01

    A number of recent studies have investigated differences in human choice behavior depending on task framing, especially comparing economic decision-making to choice behavior in equivalent sensorimotor tasks. Here we test whether decision-making under ambiguity exhibits effects of task framing in motor vs. non-motor context. In a first experiment, we designed an experience-based urn task with varying degrees of ambiguity and an equivalent motor task where subjects chose between hitting partially occluded targets. In a second experiment, we controlled for the different stimulus design in the two tasks by introducing an urn task with bar stimuli matching those in the motor task. We found ambiguity attitudes to be mainly influenced by stimulus design. In particular, we found that the same subjects tended to be ambiguity-preferring when choosing between ambiguous bar stimuli, but ambiguity-avoiding when choosing between ambiguous urn sample stimuli. In contrast, subjects' choice pattern was not affected by changing from a target hitting task to a non-motor context when keeping the stimulus design unchanged. In both tasks subjects' choice behavior was continuously modulated by the degree of ambiguity. We show that this modulation of behavior can be explained by an information-theoretic model of ambiguity that generalizes Bayes-optimal decision-making by combining Bayesian inference with robust decision-making under model uncertainty. Our results demonstrate the benefits of information-theoretic models of decision-making under varying degrees of ambiguity for a given context, but also demonstrate the sensitivity of ambiguity attitudes across contexts that theoretical models struggle to explain.

  5. Decision-Making under Ambiguity Is Modulated by Visual Framing, but Not by Motor vs. Non-Motor Context. Experiments and an Information-Theoretic Ambiguity Model.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jordi Grau-Moya

    Full Text Available A number of recent studies have investigated differences in human choice behavior depending on task framing, especially comparing economic decision-making to choice behavior in equivalent sensorimotor tasks. Here we test whether decision-making under ambiguity exhibits effects of task framing in motor vs. non-motor context. In a first experiment, we designed an experience-based urn task with varying degrees of ambiguity and an equivalent motor task where subjects chose between hitting partially occluded targets. In a second experiment, we controlled for the different stimulus design in the two tasks by introducing an urn task with bar stimuli matching those in the motor task. We found ambiguity attitudes to be mainly influenced by stimulus design. In particular, we found that the same subjects tended to be ambiguity-preferring when choosing between ambiguous bar stimuli, but ambiguity-avoiding when choosing between ambiguous urn sample stimuli. In contrast, subjects' choice pattern was not affected by changing from a target hitting task to a non-motor context when keeping the stimulus design unchanged. In both tasks subjects' choice behavior was continuously modulated by the degree of ambiguity. We show that this modulation of behavior can be explained by an information-theoretic model of ambiguity that generalizes Bayes-optimal decision-making by combining Bayesian inference with robust decision-making under model uncertainty. Our results demonstrate the benefits of information-theoretic models of decision-making under varying degrees of ambiguity for a given context, but also demonstrate the sensitivity of ambiguity attitudes across contexts that theoretical models struggle to explain.

  6. Decision-Making under Ambiguity Is Modulated by Visual Framing, but Not by Motor vs. Non-Motor Context. Experiments and an Information-Theoretic Ambiguity Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grau-Moya, Jordi; Ortega, Pedro A.; Braun, Daniel A.

    2016-01-01

    A number of recent studies have investigated differences in human choice behavior depending on task framing, especially comparing economic decision-making to choice behavior in equivalent sensorimotor tasks. Here we test whether decision-making under ambiguity exhibits effects of task framing in motor vs. non-motor context. In a first experiment, we designed an experience-based urn task with varying degrees of ambiguity and an equivalent motor task where subjects chose between hitting partially occluded targets. In a second experiment, we controlled for the different stimulus design in the two tasks by introducing an urn task with bar stimuli matching those in the motor task. We found ambiguity attitudes to be mainly influenced by stimulus design. In particular, we found that the same subjects tended to be ambiguity-preferring when choosing between ambiguous bar stimuli, but ambiguity-avoiding when choosing between ambiguous urn sample stimuli. In contrast, subjects’ choice pattern was not affected by changing from a target hitting task to a non-motor context when keeping the stimulus design unchanged. In both tasks subjects’ choice behavior was continuously modulated by the degree of ambiguity. We show that this modulation of behavior can be explained by an information-theoretic model of ambiguity that generalizes Bayes-optimal decision-making by combining Bayesian inference with robust decision-making under model uncertainty. Our results demonstrate the benefits of information-theoretic models of decision-making under varying degrees of ambiguity for a given context, but also demonstrate the sensitivity of ambiguity attitudes across contexts that theoretical models struggle to explain. PMID:27124723

  7. Evaluating Employability Skills: Employer and Student Perceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saunders, Venetia; Zuzel, Katherine

    2010-01-01

    Graduate employability is a key issue for Higher Education. In this two-part study student employability skills have been evaluated from the perspective of sandwich students and graduates in biomolecular science, and their employers. A strong correlation was found between employer and sandwich student/graduate perceptions of the relative…

  8. Information Dynamics in the Interaction between a Prey and a Predator Fish

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng Hu

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Accessing information efficiently is vital for animals to make the optimal decisions, and it is particularly important when they are facing predators. Yet until now, very few quantitative conclusions have been drawn about the information dynamics in the interaction between animals due to the lack of appropriate theoretic measures. Here, we employ transfer entropy (TE, a new information-theoretic and model-free measure, to explore the information dynamics in the interaction between a predator and a prey fish. We conduct experiments in which a predator and a prey fish are confined in separate parts of an arena, but can communicate with each other visually and tactilely. TE is calculated on the pair’s coarse-grained state of the trajectories. We find that the prey’s TE is generally significantly bigger than the predator’s during trials, which indicates that the dominant information is transmitted from predator to prey. We then demonstrate that the direction of information flow is irrelevant to the parameters used in the coarse-grained procedures. We further calculate the prey’s TE at different distances between it and the predator. The resulted figure shows that there is a high plateau in the mid-range of the distance and that drops quickly at both the near and the far ends. This result reflects that there is a sensitive space zone where the prey is highly vigilant of the predator’s position.

  9. An information-theoretic approach to motor action decoding with a reconfigurable parallel architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Craciun, Stefan; Brockmeier, Austin J; George, Alan D; Lam, Herman; Príncipe, José C

    2011-01-01

    Methods for decoding movements from neural spike counts using adaptive filters often rely on minimizing the mean-squared error. However, for non-Gaussian distribution of errors, this approach is not optimal for performance. Therefore, rather than using probabilistic modeling, we propose an alternate non-parametric approach. In order to extract more structure from the input signal (neuronal spike counts) we propose using minimum error entropy (MEE), an information-theoretic approach that minimizes the error entropy as part of an iterative cost function. However, the disadvantage of using MEE as the cost function for adaptive filters is the increase in computational complexity. In this paper we present a comparison between the decoding performance of the analytic Wiener filter and a linear filter trained with MEE, which is then mapped to a parallel architecture in reconfigurable hardware tailored to the computational needs of the MEE filter. We observe considerable speedup from the hardware design. The adaptation of filter weights for the multiple-input, multiple-output linear filters, necessary in motor decoding, is a highly parallelizable algorithm. It can be decomposed into many independent computational blocks with a parallel architecture readily mapped to a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and scales to large numbers of neurons. By pipelining and parallelizing independent computations in the algorithm, the proposed parallel architecture has sublinear increases in execution time with respect to both window size and filter order.

  10. Integrating the Supervised Information into Unsupervised Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ping Ling

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents an assembling unsupervised learning framework that adopts the information coming from the supervised learning process and gives the corresponding implementation algorithm. The algorithm consists of two phases: extracting and clustering data representatives (DRs firstly to obtain labeled training data and then classifying non-DRs based on labeled DRs. The implementation algorithm is called SDSN since it employs the tuning-scaled Support vector domain description to collect DRs, uses spectrum-based method to cluster DRs, and adopts the nearest neighbor classifier to label non-DRs. The validation of the clustering procedure of the first-phase is analyzed theoretically. A new metric is defined data dependently in the second phase to allow the nearest neighbor classifier to work with the informed information. A fast training approach for DRs’ extraction is provided to bring more efficiency. Experimental results on synthetic and real datasets verify that the proposed idea is of correctness and performance and SDSN exhibits higher popularity in practice over the traditional pure clustering procedure.

  11. Rehabilitation-Related Research on Disability and Employer Practices Using Individual-Based National and Administrative Data Sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nazarov, Zafar E.; Erickson, William A.; Bruyère, Susanne M.

    2014-01-01

    Objective: It is useful to examine workplace factors influencing employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities and the interplay of disability, employment-related, and employer characteristics to inform rehabilitation practice. Design: A number of large national survey and administrative data sets provide information on employers and can…

  12. Information Theory for Information Science: Antecedents, Philosophy, and Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Losee, Robert M.

    2017-01-01

    This paper provides an historical overview of the theoretical antecedents leading to information theory, specifically those useful for understanding and teaching information science and systems. Information may be discussed in a philosophical manner and at the same time be measureable. This notion of information can thus be the subject of…

  13. Quantum information theory. Mathematical foundation. 2. ed.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hayashi, Masahito [Nagoya Univ. (Japan). Graduate School of Mathematics

    2017-07-01

    This graduate textbook provides a unified view of quantum information theory. Clearly explaining the necessary mathematical basis, it merges key topics from both information-theoretic and quantum- mechanical viewpoints and provides lucid explanations of the basic results. Thanks to this unified approach, it makes accessible such advanced topics in quantum communication as quantum teleportation, superdense coding, quantum state transmission (quantum error-correction) and quantum encryption. Since the publication of the preceding book Quantum Information: An Introduction, there have been tremendous strides in the field of quantum information. In particular, the following topics - all of which are addressed here - made seen major advances: quantum state discrimination, quantum channel capacity, bipartite and multipartite entanglement, security analysis on quantum communication, reverse Shannon theorem and uncertainty relation. With regard to the analysis of quantum security, the present book employs an improved method for the evaluation of leaked information and identifies a remarkable relation between quantum security and quantum coherence. Taken together, these two improvements allow a better analysis of quantum state transmission. In addition, various types of the newly discovered uncertainty relation are explained. Presenting a wealth of new developments, the book introduces readers to the latest advances and challenges in quantum information. To aid in understanding, each chapter is accompanied by a set of exercises and solutions.

  14. Quantum information theory. Mathematical foundation. 2. ed.

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hayashi, Masahito

    2017-01-01

    This graduate textbook provides a unified view of quantum information theory. Clearly explaining the necessary mathematical basis, it merges key topics from both information-theoretic and quantum- mechanical viewpoints and provides lucid explanations of the basic results. Thanks to this unified approach, it makes accessible such advanced topics in quantum communication as quantum teleportation, superdense coding, quantum state transmission (quantum error-correction) and quantum encryption. Since the publication of the preceding book Quantum Information: An Introduction, there have been tremendous strides in the field of quantum information. In particular, the following topics - all of which are addressed here - made seen major advances: quantum state discrimination, quantum channel capacity, bipartite and multipartite entanglement, security analysis on quantum communication, reverse Shannon theorem and uncertainty relation. With regard to the analysis of quantum security, the present book employs an improved method for the evaluation of leaked information and identifies a remarkable relation between quantum security and quantum coherence. Taken together, these two improvements allow a better analysis of quantum state transmission. In addition, various types of the newly discovered uncertainty relation are explained. Presenting a wealth of new developments, the book introduces readers to the latest advances and challenges in quantum information. To aid in understanding, each chapter is accompanied by a set of exercises and solutions.

  15. Employability skills of vocational high school graduate needed by industry in century XXI

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sudjimat, Dwi Agus

    2017-09-01

    Mastery of employability skills is one of the main characteristics of HR XXI Century. The conclusions of various theoretical and empirical studies show that human resources with high employability skills are not only easier to find a job but will also be able to exist and develop successfully in their work. This study aims to describe the opinion of the industry leaders about the importance of employability skills owned by SMK graduates, to identify the various values of employability skills that the industry needs from SMK graduates, and categorize the values of employability skills that SMK graduates should have. A total of 27 industries partner of SMK in East Java were involved in survey research and 14 productive teachers from seven SMKs were included in the FGD on employability skills development. The results showed that (1) all industry leaders argue that the graduates of SMK must have good employability skills, (2) dimensions of employability skills include the fundamental skills, personal management skills, and team work skills; and (3) the ownership of various values of employability skills by SMK graduates can be classified into two, namely (a) must be owned and should be developed in SMK, and (b) well owned and better developed in SMK.

  16. A Theoretical Foundation for Tilden's Interpretive Principles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammitt, William E.

    1981-01-01

    Draws from perceptual and cognitive psychology to present a theoretical basis for the principles of interpretation developed by Freeman Tilden. Emphasized is cognitive map theory which holds that information units people receive, code and store are structured into cognitive models intended to represent the environment. (Author/WB)

  17. A Theoretical Bayesian Game Model for the Vendor-Retailer Relation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emil CRIŞAN

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available We consider an equilibrated supply chain with two equal partners, a vendor and a retailer (also called newsboy type products supply chain. The actions of each partner are driven by profit. Given the fact that at supply chain level are specific external influences which affect the costs and concordant the profit, we use a game theoretic model for the situation, considering costs and demand. At theoretical level, symmetric and asymmetric information patterns are considered for this situation. There are at every supply chain’s level situations when external factors (such as inflation, raw-material rate influence the situation of each partner even if the information is well shared within the chain. The model we propose considers both the external factors and asymmetric information within a supply chain.

  18. Developing a targeted, theory-informed implementation intervention using two theoretical frameworks to address health professional and organisational factors: a case study to improve the management of mild traumatic brain injury in the emergency department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tavender, Emma J; Bosch, Marije; Gruen, Russell L; Green, Sally E; Michie, Susan; Brennan, Sue E; Francis, Jill J; Ponsford, Jennie L; Knott, Jonathan C; Meares, Sue; Smyth, Tracy; O'Connor, Denise A

    2015-05-25

    Despite the availability of evidence-based guidelines for the management of mild traumatic brain injury in the emergency department (ED), variations in practice exist. Interventions designed to implement recommended behaviours can reduce this variation. Using theory to inform intervention development is advocated; however, there is no consensus on how to select or apply theory. Integrative theoretical frameworks, based on syntheses of theories and theoretical constructs relevant to implementation, have the potential to assist in the intervention development process. This paper describes the process of applying two theoretical frameworks to investigate the factors influencing recommended behaviours and the choice of behaviour change techniques and modes of delivery for an implementation intervention. A stepped approach was followed: (i) identification of locally applicable and actionable evidence-based recommendations as targets for change, (ii) selection and use of two theoretical frameworks for identifying barriers to and enablers of change (Theoretical Domains Framework and Model of Diffusion of Innovations in Service Organisations) and (iii) identification and operationalisation of intervention components (behaviour change techniques and modes of delivery) to address the barriers and enhance the enablers, informed by theory, evidence and feasibility/acceptability considerations. We illustrate this process in relation to one recommendation, prospective assessment of post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) by ED staff using a validated tool. Four recommendations for managing mild traumatic brain injury were targeted with the intervention. The intervention targeting the PTA recommendation consisted of 14 behaviour change techniques and addressed 6 theoretical domains and 5 organisational domains. The mode of delivery was informed by six Cochrane reviews. It was delivered via five intervention components : (i) local stakeholder meetings, (ii) identification of local opinion

  19. Enablers and barriers to physical activity in overweight and obese pregnant women: an analysis informed by the theoretical domains framework and COM-B model.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Flannery, C

    2018-05-21

    Obesity during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and other complications. Physical activity is a modifiable lifestyle factor that may help to prevent these complications but many women reduce their physical activity levels during pregnancy. Interventions targeting physical activity in pregnancy are on-going but few identify the underlying behaviour change mechanisms by which the intervention is expected to work. To enhance intervention effectiveness, recent tools in behavioural science such as the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and COM-B model (capability, opportunity, motivation and behaviour) have been employed to understand behaviours for intervention development. Using these behaviour change methods, this study aimed to identify the enablers and barriers to physical activity in overweight and obese pregnant women.

  20. Information Presentation in Decision and Risk Analysis: Answered, Partly Answered, and Unanswered Questions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, L Robin; Wang, Yitong

    2017-06-01

    For the last 30 years, researchers in risk analysis, decision analysis, and economics have consistently proven that decisionmakers employ different processes for evaluating and combining anticipated and actual losses, gains, delays, and surprises. Although rational models generally prescribe a consistent response, people's heuristic processes will sometimes lead them to be inconsistent in the way they respond to information presented in theoretically equivalent ways. We point out several promising future research directions by listing and detailing a series of answered, partly answered, and unanswered questions. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

  1. Star-forming Galaxies as AGN Imposters? A Theoretical Investigation of the Mid-infrared Colors of AGNs and Extreme Starbursts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satyapal, Shobita; Abel, Nicholas P.; Secrest, Nathan J.

    2018-05-01

    We conduct for the first time a theoretical investigation of the mid-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) produced by dust heated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and an extreme starburst. These models employ an integrated modeling approach using photoionization and stellar population synthesis models in which both the line and emergent continuum is predicted from gas exposed to the ionizing radiation from a young starburst and an AGN. In this work, we focus on the infrared colors from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, predicting the dependence of the colors on the input radiation field, the interstellar medium conditions, the obscuring column, and the metallicity. We find that an extreme starburst can mimic an AGN in two band mid-infrared color cuts employed in the literature. However, the three-band color cuts employed in the literature require starbursts with extremely high ionization parameters or gas densities. We show that the extreme mid-infrared colors seen in some blue compact dwarf galaxies are not due to metallicity but rather a combination of high ionization parameters and high column densities. Based on our theoretical calculations, we present a theoretical mid-infrared color cut that will exclude even the most extreme starburst that we have modeled in this work. The theoretical AGN demarcation region presented here can be used to identify elusive AGN candidates for future follow-up studies with the James Webb Space Telescope. The full suite of simulated SEDs are available online.

  2. Health care consumer reports: an evaluation of employer perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longo, Daniel R

    2004-01-01

    The proliferation of health care consumer reports (also known as "consumer guides," "report cards," and "performance reports") designed to assist consumers in making more informed health care decisions makes it vital to understand the perspective of employers who provide the vast majority of health insurance to the working population regarding the use of these reports. There is little empirical evidence on how consumer reports are used by employers to make health care purchasing decisions. This study fills that gap by surveying 154 businesses in Boone County, Missouri, regarding their evaluation of a consumer guide. The majority of employers surveyed indicate that the report will not have a direct effect on their health care purchasing decisions. However, they indicate that the reports are "positive and worthwhile" and their responses reflect a favorable view of the health care organization that developed and disseminated the report. Additionally, findings indicate that employers generally prefer consumer reports as a means to compare local health care institutions, rather than reviewing national averages to locate the same information. Report developers should take precautions to determine the intent of such reports, as they may not achieve the objective of changing employers' health care purchasing behavior.

  3. Sentence Comprehension as Mental Simulation: An Information-Theoretic Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriella Vigliocco

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available It has been argued that the mental representation resulting from sentence comprehension is not (just an abstract symbolic structure but a “mental simulation” of the state-of-affairs described by the sentence. We present a particular formalization of this theory and show how it gives rise to quantifications of the amount of syntactic and semantic information conveyed by each word in a sentence. These information measures predict simulated word-processing times in a dynamic connectionist model of sentence comprehension as mental simulation. A quantitatively similar relation between information content and reading time is known to be present in human reading-time data.

  4. Employability attributes and personality preferences of postgraduate business management students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ingrid Potgieter

    2013-05-01

    Research purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between employees’ employability attributes (as the Employability Attributes Scale measures them and their personality preferences (as the Myers-Briggs Type indicator, Form M, measures them. Motivation for the study: There seems to be a paucity of information about how employees’ personality preferences relate to their employability attributes in South Africa’s multicultural organisational context. Research design, approach and method: The authors conducted a quantitative survey. It involved a non-probability sample of 304 early career adults enrolled for an Honour’s degree in business management in an open distance learning higher education institution. They used correlational statistics and multiple regression analyses to analyse the data. Main findings: The authors observed a number of significant relationships between the participants’ personality preferences and their employability attributes. Practical/managerial implications: Career counsellors and human resource practitioners need to recognise how employees’ personality preferences influence their employability attributes in the management of their career development and employability. Contribution/value add: The findings add to the existing career literature on the career metacompetencies that influence employees’ employability. They also provide valuable information that organisations can use for career development support and counselling practices in the contemporary world of work.

  5. Pressing Issues of Disability Employment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shabunova Aleksandra Anatol’evna

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Disability employment is a major tool for creating inclusive society. In Russia, the main obstacles to employment of the disabled are imperfect statutory measures aimed at improving competitiveness of this population group in the labor market; low prestige of jobs for people with disabilities; the employers’ unwillingness to hire disabled people. The purpose of this study is to determine the barriers disabled people face on the labor market and to justify the expedience of investing public funds in activities aimed at promoting disabled employment. Works of Russian and foreign authors, national statistics, results of sociological surveys of the population and people with disabilities conducted on the territory of the Vologda Oblast in 2013–2015 represent the information base of the study. The article reviews the impact of employment quotas for the disabled; in particular, it has been established that the number of the employed under such quotas during the period from 2008 to 2014 has declined. Based on the results of domestic research the authors have determined the reasons underlying lack of effectiveness of this social policy tool. One of the problems of promoting disability employment is training and re-training of the disabled. According to official statistics, only 38% of the employed disabled who live in a city are employed in the area of their specialty. At the same time, the results of research h of Russian authors show that training of an expert (even with consideration of their health capacities pays off within 4 years. Using the example of the Vologda Oblast, the authors show that annual tax revenues in employment of the disabled to jobs with wages close to the regional average may reach 33 million rubles. They also estimate the approximate regional cost of workplace equipment for the disabled. Finally, the authors propose a list of key courses of action on increasing competitiveness of the disabled in the labor market

  6. The Right to a Better Life: Using an After-School Work Camp to Create Customized Employment Opportunities for Rural High School Students with Severe Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Molina, Leslie; Demchak, MaryAnn

    2016-01-01

    If people with intellectual disability are to become truly self-determined, they must be allowed to express choice throughout their lives, including employment. Expectations for competitive employment tend to be low for this population, if considered at all (Citron et al., 2008). Theoretically, integrated employment options, including customized…

  7. [Lack of access to information on oral health problems among adults: an approach based on the theoretical model for literacy in health].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberto, Luana Leal; Noronha, Daniele Durães; Souza, Taiane Oliveira; Miranda, Ellen Janayne Primo; Martins, Andréa Maria Eleutério de Barros Lima; Paula, Alfredo Maurício Batista De; Ferreira, Efigênia Ferreira E; Haikal, Desirée Sant'ana

    2018-03-01

    This study sought to investigate factors associated with the lack of access to information on oral health among adults. It is a cross-sectional study, carried out among 831 adults (35-44 years of age). The dependent variable was access to information on how to avoid oral problems, and the independent variables were gathered into subgroups according to the theoretical model for literacy in health. Binary logistic regression was carried out, and results were corrected by the design effect. It was observed that 37.5% had no access to information about dental problems. The lack of access was higher among adults who had lower per capita income, were dissatisfied with the dental services provided, did not use dental floss, had unsatisfactory physical control of the quality of life, and self-perceived their oral health as fair/poor/very poor. The likelihood of not having access to information about dental problems among those dissatisfied with the dental services used was 3.28 times higher than for those satisfied with the dental services used. Thus, decreased access to information was related to unfavorable conditions among adults. Health services should ensure appropriate information to their users in order to increase health literacy levels and improve satisfaction and equity.

  8. Workplace Breastfeeding Support Varies by Employment Type: The Service Workplace Disadvantage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Kailey; Hansen, Kelli; Brown, Sara; Portratz, Amy; White, Kate; Dinkel, Danae

    The majority of women are returning to work full-time after childbirth, and support within their place of employment may influence intention and duration for breastfeeding, but more research is needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the influence of employment type on breastfeeding duration upon return to work by examining informal (i.e., verbal encouragement) and direct (i.e., lactation space, flexible time) factors of support. This was a retrospective survey of women's returning-to-work experiences while breastfeeding. Survey contents included respondent demographics as well as questions surrounding perceptions of employer support, work environment, and goal/satisfaction regarding breastfeeding. Data were analyzed via crosstabs and chi-square goodness of fit tests. A total of 1,002 women completed the survey. Significant differences were seen across different employment types. Women within the professional/management industry were most likely to receive informal and direct support for breastfeeding upon return to work. Women within the service industry and production/transportation industry reported receiving the lowest levels of informal and direct support. Workplace support varies by employment type and women in the service and production/transportation industry appear to be at a disadvantage compared with other employment types. There is a need for more breastfeeding support programs to be developed that target specific workplace characteristics.

  9. Enhanced efficiency of internal combustion engines by employing spinning gas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geyko, V I; Fisch, N J

    2014-08-01

    The efficiency of the internal combustion engine might be enhanced by employing spinning gas. A gas spinning at near sonic velocities has an effectively higher heat capacity, which allows practical fuel cycles, which are far from the Carnot efficiency, to approach more closely the Carnot efficiency. A remarkable gain in fuel efficiency is shown to be theoretically possible for the Otto and Diesel cycles. The use of a flywheel, in principle, could produce even greater increases in efficiency.

  10. Information theoretic resources in quantum theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meznaric, Sebastian

    Resource identification and quantification is an essential element of both classical and quantum information theory. Entanglement is one of these resources, arising when quantum communication and nonlocal operations are expensive to perform. In the first part of this thesis we quantify the effective entanglement when operations are additionally restricted to account for both fundamental restrictions on operations, such as those arising from superselection rules, as well as experimental errors arising from the imperfections in the apparatus. For an important class of errors we find a linear relationship between the usual and effective higher dimensional generalization of concurrence, a measure of entanglement. Following the treatment of effective entanglement, we focus on a related concept of nonlocality in the presence of superselection rules (SSR). Here we propose a scheme that may be used to activate nongenuinely multipartite nonlocality, in that a single copy of a state is not multipartite nonlocal, while two or more copies exhibit nongenuinely multipartite nonlocality. The states used exhibit the more powerful genuinely multipartite nonlocality when SSR are not enforced, but not when they are, raising the question of what is needed for genuinely multipartite nonlocality. We show that whenever the number of particles is insufficient, the degrading of genuinely multipartite to nongenuinely multipartite nonlocality is necessary. While in the first few chapters we focus our attention on understanding the resources present in quantum states, in the final part we turn the picture around and instead treat operations themselves as a resource. We provide our observers with free access to classical operations - ie. those that cannot detect or generate quantum coherence. We show that the operation of interest can then be used to either generate or detect quantum coherence if and only if it violates a particular commutation relation. Using the relative entropy, the

  11. Visual words assignment via information-theoretic manifold embedding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Yue; Li, Yipeng; Qian, Yanjun; Ji, Xiangyang; Dai, Qionghai

    2014-10-01

    Codebook-based learning provides a flexible way to extract the contents of an image in a data-driven manner for visual recognition. One central task in such frameworks is codeword assignment, which allocates local image descriptors to the most similar codewords in the dictionary to generate histogram for categorization. Nevertheless, existing assignment approaches, e.g., nearest neighbors strategy (hard assignment) and Gaussian similarity (soft assignment), suffer from two problems: 1) too strong Euclidean assumption and 2) neglecting the label information of the local descriptors. To address the aforementioned two challenges, we propose a graph assignment method with maximal mutual information (GAMI) regularization. GAMI takes the power of manifold structure to better reveal the relationship of massive number of local features by nonlinear graph metric. Meanwhile, the mutual information of descriptor-label pairs is ultimately optimized in the embedding space for the sake of enhancing the discriminant property of the selected codewords. According to such objective, two optimization models, i.e., inexact-GAMI and exact-GAMI, are respectively proposed in this paper. The inexact model can be efficiently solved with a closed-from solution. The stricter exact-GAMI nonparametrically estimates the entropy of descriptor-label pairs in the embedding space and thus leads to a relatively complicated but still trackable optimization. The effectiveness of GAMI models are verified on both the public and our own datasets.

  12. A theoretical framework informing research about the role of stress in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brietzke, Elisa; Mansur, Rodrigo Barbachan; Soczynska, Joanna; Powell, Alissa M; McIntyre, Roger S

    2012-10-01

    The staggering illness burden associated with Bipolar Disorder (BD) invites the need for primary prevention strategies. Before preventative strategies can be considered in individuals during a pre-symptomatic period (i.e., at risk), unraveling the mechanistic steps wherein external stress is transduced and interacts with genetic vulnerability in the early stages of BD will be a critical conceptual necessity. Herein we comprehensively review extant studies reporting on stress and bipolar disorder. The overarching aim is to propose a conceptual framework to inform research about the role of stress in the pathophysiology of BD. Computerized databases i.e. PubMed, PsychInfo, Cochrane Library and Scielo were searched using the following terms: "bipolar disorder" cross-referenced with "stress", "general reaction to stress", "resilience", "resistance", "recovery" "stress-diathesis", "allostasis", and "hormesis". Data from literature indicate the existence of some theoretical models to understand the influence of stress in the pathophysiology of BD, including classical stress-diathesis model and new models such as allostasis and hormesis. In addition, molecular mechanisms involved in stress adaptation (resistance, resilience and recovery) can also be translated in research strategies to investigate the impact of stress in the pathophysiology of BD. Most studies are retrospective and/or cross sectional, do not consider the period of development, assess brain function with only one or few methodologies, and use animal models which are not always similar to human phenotypes. The interaction between stress and brain development is dynamic and complex. In this article we proposed a theoretical model for investigation about the role of stress in the pathophysiology of BD, based on the different kinds of stress adaptation response and their putative neurobiological underpinnings. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. The impact of diabetes on employment in Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seuring, Till; Goryakin, Yevgeniy; Suhrcke, Marc

    2015-07-01

    This study explores the impact of diabetes on employment in Mexico using data from the Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS) (2005), taking into account the possible endogeneity of diabetes via an instrumental variable estimation strategy. We find that diabetes significantly decreases employment probabilities for men by about 10 percentage points (pdiabetes being endogenous. Further analysis shows that diabetes mainly affects the employment probabilities of men and women above the age of 44 and also has stronger effects on the poor than on the rich, particularly for men. We also find some indication for more adverse effects of diabetes on those in the large informal labour market compared to those in formal employment. Our results highlight--for the first time--the detrimental employment impact of diabetes in a developing country. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. The Effect of Type of Education on an Individual's Self Employment Choice: Comparison of Vocational and College Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edenborg, Michelle D.

    2013-01-01

    Using theoretical constructs of the human capital theory (Schultz, 1959) and the resource-based view of the firm (Barney, 1991), this study examines whether the type of education completed has an impact on an individual's choice between self-employment and employment with a firm. In addition, this study seeks to understand the geographic…

  15. The Employment Situation of the Disabled People in Denmark

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Høgelund, Jan; Greve, Jane

    The main aim of this paper is to provide relevant information about the labour market situation of disabled people in Denmark. The paper is based on combined survey and register information about approximately 8,000 disabled and non-disabled persons. The paper presents a descriptive analysis...... of disabled peoples’ labour market participation. The findings suggest that the employment ratio of the disabled people is significantly lower than for non-disabled. When it comes to persons in employment only minor differences can be noted between jobs held by the disabled and non-disabled. In conclusion......, it is argued that there seem to be a potential for an improvement of the employment rate of disabled people that may be enhanced through more emphasis on education and vocational rehabilitation measures as well as more flexible working conditions for disabled people....

  16. Estimating the decomposition of predictive information in multivariate systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faes, Luca; Kugiumtzis, Dimitris; Nollo, Giandomenico; Jurysta, Fabrice; Marinazzo, Daniele

    2015-03-01

    In the study of complex systems from observed multivariate time series, insight into the evolution of one system may be under investigation, which can be explained by the information storage of the system and the information transfer from other interacting systems. We present a framework for the model-free estimation of information storage and information transfer computed as the terms composing the predictive information about the target of a multivariate dynamical process. The approach tackles the curse of dimensionality employing a nonuniform embedding scheme that selects progressively, among the past components of the multivariate process, only those that contribute most, in terms of conditional mutual information, to the present target process. Moreover, it computes all information-theoretic quantities using a nearest-neighbor technique designed to compensate the bias due to the different dimensionality of individual entropy terms. The resulting estimators of prediction entropy, storage entropy, transfer entropy, and partial transfer entropy are tested on simulations of coupled linear stochastic and nonlinear deterministic dynamic processes, demonstrating the superiority of the proposed approach over the traditional estimators based on uniform embedding. The framework is then applied to multivariate physiologic time series, resulting in physiologically well-interpretable information decompositions of cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory interactions during head-up tilt and of joint brain-heart dynamics during sleep.

  17. The theoretical preconditions for problem situation realization while studying information technology at school

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ольга Александровна Прусакова

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Within the framework of modern pedagogy and educational practice there have been worked out and realized various theoretical conceptions, theories, educational approaches including humanistic, personality-oriented, activity-oriented, competence-oriented. One of such approaches to education and personality development is the problem-solving approach.

  18. Consumers’ Acceptance and Use of Information and Communications Technology: A UTAUT and Flow Based Theoretical Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saleh Alwahaishi

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The world has changed a lot in the past years. The rapid advances in technology and the changing of the communication channels have changed the way people work and, for many, where do they work from. The Internet and mobile technology, the two most dynamic technological forces in modern information and communications technology (ICT are converging into one ubiquitous mobile Internet service, which will change our way of both doing business and dealing with our daily routine activities. As the use of ICT expands globally, there is need for further research into cultural aspects and implications of ICT. The acceptance of Information Technology (IT has become a fundamental part of the research plan for most organizations (Igbaria 1993. In IT research, numerous theories are used to understand users’ adoption of new technologies. Various models were developed including the Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior, and recently, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. Each of these models has sought to identify the factors which influence a citizen’s intention or actual use of information technology. Drawing on the UTAUT model and Flow Theory, this research composes a new hybrid theoretical framework to identify the factors affecting the acceptance and use of Mobile Internet -as an ICT application- in a consumer context. The proposed model incorporates eight constructs: Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, Social Influences, Perceived Value, Perceived Playfulness, Attention Focus, and Behavioral intention. Data collected online from 238 respondents in Saudi Arabia were tested against the research model, using the structural equation modeling approach. The proposed model was mostly supported by the empirical data. The findings of this study provide several crucial implications for ICT and, in particular, mobile Internet service practitioners and researchers

  19. Theoretical Perspectives of How Digital Natives Learn

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kivunja, Charles

    2014-01-01

    Marck Prensky, an authority on teaching and learning especially with the aid of Information and Communication Technologies, has referred to 21st century children born after 1980 as "Digital Natives". This paper reviews literature of leaders in the field to shed some light on theoretical perspectives of how Digital Natives learn and how…

  20. Maternal employment and childhood obesity--a European perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gwozdz, Wencke; Sousa-Poza, Alfonso; Reisch, Lucia A; Ahrens, Wolfgang; Eiben, Gabriele; M Fernandéz-Alvira, Juan; Hadjigeorgiou, Charalampos; De Henauw, Stefaan; Kovács, Eva; Lauria, Fabio; Veidebaum, Toomas; Williams, Garrath; Bammann, Karin

    2013-07-01

    The substantial increase in female employment rates in Europe over the past two decades has often been linked in political and public rhetoric to negative effects on child development, including obesity. We analyse this association between maternal employment and childhood obesity using rich objective reports of various anthropometric and other measures of fatness from the IDEFICS study of children aged 2-9 in 16 regions of eight European countries. Based on such data as accelerometer measures and information from nutritional diaries, we also investigate the effects of maternal employment on obesity's main drivers: calorie intake and physical activity. Our analysis provides little evidence for any association between maternal employment and childhood obesity, diet or physical activity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Information-theoretic approach to uncertainty importance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Park, C.K.; Bari, R.A.

    1985-01-01

    A method is presented for importance analysis in probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) for which the results of interest are characterized by full uncertainty distributions and not just point estimates. The method is based on information theory in which entropy is a measure of uncertainty of a probability density function. We define the relative uncertainty importance between two events as the ratio of the two exponents of the entropies. For the log-normal and log-uniform distributions the importance measure is comprised of the median (central tendency) and of the logarithm of the error factor (uncertainty). Thus, if accident sequences are ranked this way, and the error factors are not all equal, then a different rank order would result than if the sequences were ranked by the central tendency measure alone. As an illustration, the relative importance of internal events and in-plant fires was computed on the basis of existing PRA results

  2. Improved theoretical model of InN optical properties

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferreira da Silva, A.; Chubaci, J.F.D.; Matsuoka, M.; Freitas, J.A. Jr.; Tischler, J.G.; Baldissera, G.; Persson, C.

    2014-01-01

    The optical properties of InN are investigated theoretically by employing the projector augmented wave (PAW) method within Green's function and the screened Coulomb interaction approximation (GW o ). The calculated results are compared to previously reported calculations which use local density approximation combined with the scissors-operator approximation. The results of the present calculation are compared with reported values of the InN bandgap and with low temperature near infrared luminescence measurements of InN films deposited by a modified Ion Beam Assisted Deposition technique. (copyright 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

  3. Design of College Students’ employment management system based on WEB

    OpenAIRE

    Cao Yu

    2016-01-01

    Since at the end of last century, our country cancelled the allocation of national college students employment, college graduates employment pressure also with the increasing trend of the expansion of enrollment in Colleges and universities. At the same time, it also greatly increased difficulty in the college students employment management, under this background, the traditional manual management mode obviously can not meet the required at present. In the information technology increasingly ...

  4. Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    b) respect for fundamental principles and rights at work; (c) social protection; and (d) ...... in formal or informal firms, who are avoiding registration and taxation. ...... For example, in Malaysia, the proportion of women workers in EPZs fell from 75 ...

  5. Motivational programme for talents and benefits for employee and employer

    OpenAIRE

    Komárková, Andrea

    2011-01-01

    Master thesis is focused on the topic of talent management. It is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part defines basic terms of talent, talent management, talent management processes - acquisition, development and retention of talented employees in the organization. The second part of the thesis focuses firstly on the introduction of Unicorn and analysis of the current state of talent management in the company. Information was obtained by interviewing concerned peop...

  6. EMPLOYMENT OF POPULATION AS A BASIC INDEX OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleksandra Lysiuk

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The actual problem of modern economical theory and practice is a problem of guaranteeing of full employment. The aggravation of this problem during the economic crisis period stimulate the necessity of searching affective mechanism to overcome unemployment and development common form of labor. In the article the level of employment in 2005-2014 years, means of its increasing are investigated using recommendations of MOP, which were created especially for Ukraine. Statistical information from Ukrainian Government Statistical Agency was used some practical recommendations to stable situation of employment in the country were given. Methodology. Using the systematic approach the current state of employment rate in Ukraine was investigated and steps for development of labor market were found. Using the economic and statistical methods, the actual state of employment rate was studied. Information for the last 10 years about employment rate in Ukraine was studied. Information from web-site of Ukrainian Government Statistical Agency was used. Results. The results of the survey showed the rate of employment was rising from 2005 till 2008 years. After that this rate has been reducing till today. The reason of this employment crisis was determined and after that some practical recommendation about rising employment rate and stability situation at Ukrainian labor market were given. We recommend to develop some entrepreneurial activities in Ukraine, to develop self-employment, but there are many problems to start these activities. People, who want to start entrepreneurial activities have many problems with high level of taxes, with high level of payments to other social systems. And they can’t get credit, because of high percentage and short time. Many young people can’t start work without work experience. We recommend to introduce Government programs, where young people can start work with the smaller salary and get experience for developing their

  7. Scientific information processing procedures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    García, Maylin

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The paper systematizes several theoretical view-points on scientific information processing skill. It decomposes the processing skills into sub-skills. Several methods such analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, document analysis were used to build up a theoretical framework. Interviews and survey to professional being trained and a case study was carried out to evaluate the results. All professional in the sample improved their performance in scientific information processing.

  8. A queer-theoretical approach to community health psychology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Easpaig, Bróna R Nic Giolla; Fryer, David M; Linn, Seònaid E; Humphrey, Rhianna H

    2014-01-01

    Queer-theoretical resources offer ways of productively rethinking how central concepts such as 'person-context', 'identity' and 'difference' may be understood for community health psychologists. This would require going beyond consideration of the problems with which queer theory is popularly associated to cautiously engage with the aspects of this work relevant to the promotion of collective practice and engaging with processes of marginalisation. In this article, we will draw upon and illustrate the queer-theoretical concepts of 'performativity' and 'cultural intelligibility' before moving towards a preliminary mapping of what a queer-informed approach to community health psychology might involve.

  9. Uncertainty quantification for nuclear density functional theory and information content of new measurements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonnell, J D; Schunck, N; Higdon, D; Sarich, J; Wild, S M; Nazarewicz, W

    2015-03-27

    Statistical tools of uncertainty quantification can be used to assess the information content of measured observables with respect to present-day theoretical models, to estimate model errors and thereby improve predictive capability, to extrapolate beyond the regions reached by experiment, and to provide meaningful input to applications and planned measurements. To showcase new opportunities offered by such tools, we make a rigorous analysis of theoretical statistical uncertainties in nuclear density functional theory using Bayesian inference methods. By considering the recent mass measurements from the Canadian Penning Trap at Argonne National Laboratory, we demonstrate how the Bayesian analysis and a direct least-squares optimization, combined with high-performance computing, can be used to assess the information content of the new data with respect to a model based on the Skyrme energy density functional approach. Employing the posterior probability distribution computed with a Gaussian process emulator, we apply the Bayesian framework to propagate theoretical statistical uncertainties in predictions of nuclear masses, two-neutron dripline, and fission barriers. Overall, we find that the new mass measurements do not impose a constraint that is strong enough to lead to significant changes in the model parameters. The example discussed in this study sets the stage for quantifying and maximizing the impact of new measurements with respect to current modeling and guiding future experimental efforts, thus enhancing the experiment-theory cycle in the scientific method.

  10. 41st Vietnam National Conference on Theoretical Physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2017-01-01

    Preface The 41 st Vietnam National Conference on Theoretical Physics (NCTP-41) was held during 1-4 August 2016 in Nha Trang, Vietnam. The NCTP-41 was organized by the Institute of Physics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (IOP-VAST) under the support of the Vietnamese Theoretical Physics Society (VTPS). This meeting belongs to a series of annual theoretical physics conferences that started in 1976. The conference has covered a wide range of theoretical physics topics from 4 major fields: • Particle, nuclear and astro- physics, • Molecular physics, quantum optics and quantum computation, • Condensed matter physics, • Soft matter, biological and interdisciplinary physics. 115 participants have participated in the conference. 2 invited talks, 22 oral and 75 poster contributions were presented. This volume contains selected papers contributed by the participants. Editors of the NCTP-41 Proceedings Trinh Xuan Hoang, Hoang Anh Tuan and Vu Ngoc Tuoc Information about Organizer, Sponsor, Honorary Chair and Chair and also lists of committees and participants are available in the PDF (paper)

  11. Productivity Gains from Training: The Views of Employers and Stakeholders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Menon, Maria Eliophotou

    2013-01-01

    The paper investigates the views of employers and stakeholders in Cyprus regarding the effect of training on productivity in their organisation. Qualitative research was used to collect information from 26 individuals who represented different types of employers (public sector institutions, semi-government institutions, small and large private…

  12. Informal Unemployment and Education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kolm, Anne-Sofie; Larsen, Birthe

    This paper develops a four sector equilibrium search and matching model with informal sector employment opportunities and educational choice. We show that underground activities reduce educational attainments if informal employment opportunities mainly are available to low educated workers. More ...

  13. 78 FR 77718 - Comment Request for Information Collection for Information Collection for the Data Validation...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-24

    ... Collection for Information Collection for the Data Validation Requirement for Employment and Training... collection of data validation information for the following employment and training programs: Workforce... information on program activities and outcomes is available. Data validation is intended to accomplish the...

  14. Participative planning and information flow within management control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Dyczkowski

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper examines the relationships between two different approaches to planning processes (participa- tive and non-participative and information flows within management control in companies. It augments the existing theoretical and empirical research by coupling management control and management infor- mation with participative planning, not only in operational but also in the strategic perspective. The re- sults presented in the paper stem from two consecutive studies, conducted between November 2010 and January 2012 and between November 2013 and January 2014. The studies comprised 397 and 179 Polish companies respectively. The authors formulated two hypotheses linking participative planning with upward and downward management information flows. The paper employed a quantitative approach, using the Spearman rank correlation analysis and hierarchical clustering using the Ward method, which enabled comparative analyses both in reference to various groups of companies included in particular research samples and over time. The results obtained showed the positive influence of participative plan- ning both on upward and downward information flows in enterprises. In particular, participative planning reduced information imbalances between top (the management and lower (employees of functional departments tiers in organisation structures.

  15. Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks

    CERN Document Server

    Dehmer, Matthias; Mehler, Alexander

    2011-01-01

    For over a decade, complex networks have steadily grown as an important tool across a broad array of academic disciplines, with applications ranging from physics to social media. A tightly organized collection of carefully-selected papers on the subject, Towards an Information Theory of Complex Networks: Statistical Methods and Applications presents theoretical and practical results about information-theoretic and statistical models of complex networks in the natural sciences and humanities. The book's major goal is to advocate and promote a combination of graph-theoretic, information-theoreti

  16. Assessing Two Theoretical Frameworks of Civic Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    García-Cabrero, Benilde; Pérez-Martínez, María Guadalupe; Sandoval-Hernández, Andrés; Caso-Niebla, Joaquín; Díaz-López, Carlos David

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to empirically test two major theoretical models: a modified version of the social capital model (Pattie, Seyd and Whiteley, 2003), and the Informed Social Engagement Model (Barr and Selman, 2014; Selman and Kwok, 2010), to explain civic participation and civic knowledge of adolescents from Chile, Colombia and Mexico,…

  17. Theoretical interpretation of data from high-energy nuclear collisions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fai, G.

    1988-09-01

    Nuclear collision data at energies ranging from medium to relativistic are interpreted theoretically. The major objective is a better understanding of high-energy heavy-ion collisions, with particular emphasis on the properties of excited nuclear matter. Further progress towards a satisfactory description of excited subsaturation nuclear matter is achieved. The mean free path of a nucleon in nuclear matter, which is a critical parameter in assessing the applicability of certain nuclear collision models, is investigated. Experimental information is used together with theoretical concepts in collaborations with experimentalists in order to learn about the reaction mechanism and about excited nuclear matter properties. In the framework of a more strictly theoretical program development, subnuclear degrees of freedom and nonlinear phenomena in model field theories are studied

  18. Employers' views on the fit note.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotze, E

    2014-12-01

    The fit note replaced the sick note in 2010. The statement of fitness for work (fit note) is expected to benefit the British economy by helping more people stay in work and prevent long-term sickness absence. Understanding and responding to employers' views on the fit note is key, in order for this goal to be achieved. To explore employers' views on the fit note. A qualitative study was undertaken and face-to-face interviews were conducted with participants representing employers from a variety of industries. There were 21 participants who were mainly human resources officers and line managers. Employers welcomed the introduction of the fit note and felt that it was an improvement on the sick note. The majority of employers felt the fit note had the potential to promote an earlier return to work, if used properly. The main problems reported were the completion of the fit notes and quality of advice received from general practitioners. Employers felt that the most helpful advice came from fit notes with information on the functional effects of the medical condition. Some employers found return to work decisions problematic. The fit note has the potential to promote an earlier return to work. In order for the fit note to achieve its aim, further understanding of the difficulties employers are having when making return to work decisions is important, in order to develop guidance to enable them to provide the practical support employees need to return to work sooner. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  19. Integrated information in discrete dynamical systems: motivation and theoretical framework.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Balduzzi

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper introduces a time- and state-dependent measure of integrated information, phi, which captures the repertoire of causal states available to a system as a whole. Specifically, phi quantifies how much information is generated (uncertainty is reduced when a system enters a particular state through causal interactions among its elements, above and beyond the information generated independently by its parts. Such mathematical characterization is motivated by the observation that integrated information captures two key phenomenological properties of consciousness: (i there is a large repertoire of conscious experiences so that, when one particular experience occurs, it generates a large amount of information by ruling out all the others; and (ii this information is integrated, in that each experience appears as a whole that cannot be decomposed into independent parts. This paper extends previous work on stationary systems and applies integrated information to discrete networks as a function of their dynamics and causal architecture. An analysis of basic examples indicates the following: (i phi varies depending on the state entered by a network, being higher if active and inactive elements are balanced and lower if the network is inactive or hyperactive. (ii phi varies for systems with identical or similar surface dynamics depending on the underlying causal architecture, being low for systems that merely copy or replay activity states. (iii phi varies as a function of network architecture. High phi values can be obtained by architectures that conjoin functional specialization with functional integration. Strictly modular and homogeneous systems cannot generate high phi because the former lack integration, whereas the latter lack information. Feedforward and lattice architectures are capable of generating high phi but are inefficient. (iv In Hopfield networks, phi is low for attractor states and neutral states, but increases if the networks

  20. Integrated information in discrete dynamical systems: motivation and theoretical framework.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balduzzi, David; Tononi, Giulio

    2008-06-13

    This paper introduces a time- and state-dependent measure of integrated information, phi, which captures the repertoire of causal states available to a system as a whole. Specifically, phi quantifies how much information is generated (uncertainty is reduced) when a system enters a particular state through causal interactions among its elements, above and beyond the information generated independently by its parts. Such mathematical characterization is motivated by the observation that integrated information captures two key phenomenological properties of consciousness: (i) there is a large repertoire of conscious experiences so that, when one particular experience occurs, it generates a large amount of information by ruling out all the others; and (ii) this information is integrated, in that each experience appears as a whole that cannot be decomposed into independent parts. This paper extends previous work on stationary systems and applies integrated information to discrete networks as a function of their dynamics and causal architecture. An analysis of basic examples indicates the following: (i) phi varies depending on the state entered by a network, being higher if active and inactive elements are balanced and lower if the network is inactive or hyperactive. (ii) phi varies for systems with identical or similar surface dynamics depending on the underlying causal architecture, being low for systems that merely copy or replay activity states. (iii) phi varies as a function of network architecture. High phi values can be obtained by architectures that conjoin functional specialization with functional integration. Strictly modular and homogeneous systems cannot generate high phi because the former lack integration, whereas the latter lack information. Feedforward and lattice architectures are capable of generating high phi but are inefficient. (iv) In Hopfield networks, phi is low for attractor states and neutral states, but increases if the networks are optimized

  1. Theoretical potential for low energy consumption phase change memory utilizing electrostatically-induced structural phase transitions in 2D materials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehn, Daniel A.; Li, Yao; Pop, Eric; Reed, Evan J.

    2018-01-01

    Structural phase-change materials are of great importance for applications in information storage devices. Thermally driven structural phase transitions are employed in phase-change memory to achieve lower programming voltages and potentially lower energy consumption than mainstream nonvolatile memory technologies. However, the waste heat generated by such thermal mechanisms is often not optimized, and could present a limiting factor to widespread use. The potential for electrostatically driven structural phase transitions has recently been predicted and subsequently reported in some two-dimensional materials, providing an athermal mechanism to dynamically control properties of these materials in a nonvolatile fashion while achieving potentially lower energy consumption. In this work, we employ DFT-based calculations to make theoretical comparisons of the energy required to drive electrostatically-induced and thermally-induced phase transitions. Determining theoretical limits in monolayer MoTe2 and thin films of Ge2Sb2Te5, we find that the energy consumption per unit volume of the electrostatically driven phase transition in monolayer MoTe2 at room temperature is 9% of the adiabatic lower limit of the thermally driven phase transition in Ge2Sb2Te5. Furthermore, experimentally reported phase change energy consumption of Ge2Sb2Te5 is 100-10,000 times larger than the adiabatic lower limit due to waste heat flow out of the material, leaving the possibility for energy consumption in monolayer MoTe2-based devices to be orders of magnitude smaller than Ge2Sb2Te5-based devices.

  2. Using Employer Hiring Behavior to Test the Educational Signaling Hypothesis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Albrecht, J.W.; van Ours, J.C.

    2001-01-01

    This paper presents a test of the educational signaling hypothesis.If employers use education as a signal in the hiring process, they will rely more on education when less is otherwise known about applicants.We nd that employers are more likely to lower educational standards when an informal, more

  3. Do pseudo-absence selection strategies influence species distribution models and their predictions? An information-theoretic approach based on simulated data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guisan Antoine

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Multiple logistic regression is precluded from many practical applications in ecology that aim to predict the geographic distributions of species because it requires absence data, which are rarely available or are unreliable. In order to use multiple logistic regression, many studies have simulated "pseudo-absences" through a number of strategies, but it is unknown how the choice of strategy influences models and their geographic predictions of species. In this paper we evaluate the effect of several prevailing pseudo-absence strategies on the predictions of the geographic distribution of a virtual species whose "true" distribution and relationship to three environmental predictors was predefined. We evaluated the effect of using a real absences b pseudo-absences selected randomly from the background and c two-step approaches: pseudo-absences selected from low suitability areas predicted by either Ecological Niche Factor Analysis: (ENFA or BIOCLIM. We compared how the choice of pseudo-absence strategy affected model fit, predictive power, and information-theoretic model selection results. Results Models built with true absences had the best predictive power, best discriminatory power, and the "true" model (the one that contained the correct predictors was supported by the data according to AIC, as expected. Models based on random pseudo-absences had among the lowest fit, but yielded the second highest AUC value (0.97, and the "true" model was also supported by the data. Models based on two-step approaches had intermediate fit, the lowest predictive power, and the "true" model was not supported by the data. Conclusion If ecologists wish to build parsimonious GLM models that will allow them to make robust predictions, a reasonable approach is to use a large number of randomly selected pseudo-absences, and perform model selection based on an information theoretic approach. However, the resulting models can be expected to have

  4. Forecasting supply and demand in nursing professions: impacts of occupational flexibility and employment structure in Germany

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background In light of Germany's ageing society, demand for nursing professionals is expected to increase in the coming years. This will pose a challenge for policy makers to increase the supply of nursing professionals. Methodology To portray the different possible developments in the supply of nursing professionals, we projected the supply of formally trained nurses and the potential supply of persons who are able to work in a nursing profession. This potential supply of nursing professionals was calculated on the basis of empirical information on occupational mobility provided by the German Microcensus 2005 (Labour Force Survey). We also calculated how the supply of full-time equivalents (FTEs) will develop if current employment structures develop in the direction of employment behaviour in nursing professions in eastern and western Germany. We then compared these different supply scenarios with two demand projections ('status quo' and 'compression of morbidity' scenarios) from Germany's Federal Statistical Office. Results Our results show that, even as early as 2005, meeting demand for FTEs in nursing professions was not arithmetically possible when only persons with formal qualification in a nursing profession were taken into account on the supply side. When additional semi-skilled nursing professionals are included in the calculation, a shortage of labour in nursing professions can be expected in 2018 when the employment structure for all nursing professionals remains the same as the employment structure seen in Germany in 2005 (demand: 'status quo scenario'). Furthermore, given an employment structure as in eastern Germany, where more nursing professionals work on a full-time basis with longer working hours, a theoretical shortage of nursing professionals could be delayed until 2024. Conclusions Our analysis of occupational flexibility in the nursing field indicates that additional potential supply could be generated by especially training more young people

  5. Forecasting supply and demand in nursing professions: impacts of occupational flexibility and employment structure in Germany.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maier, Tobias; Afentakis, Anja

    2013-06-05

    In light of Germany's ageing society, demand for nursing professionals is expected to increase in the coming years. This will pose a challenge for policy makers to increase the supply of nursing professionals. To portray the different possible developments in the supply of nursing professionals, we projected the supply of formally trained nurses and the potential supply of persons who are able to work in a nursing profession. This potential supply of nursing professionals was calculated on the basis of empirical information on occupational mobility provided by the German Microcensus 2005 (Labour Force Survey). We also calculated how the supply of full-time equivalents (FTEs) will develop if current employment structures develop in the direction of employment behaviour in nursing professions in eastern and western Germany. We then compared these different supply scenarios with two demand projections ('status quo' and 'compression of morbidity' scenarios) from Germany's Federal Statistical Office. Our results show that, even as early as 2005, meeting demand for FTEs in nursing professions was not arithmetically possible when only persons with formal qualification in a nursing profession were taken into account on the supply side. When additional semi-skilled nursing professionals are included in the calculation, a shortage of labour in nursing professions can be expected in 2018 when the employment structure for all nursing professionals remains the same as the employment structure seen in Germany in 2005 (demand: 'status quo scenario'). Furthermore, given an employment structure as in eastern Germany, where more nursing professionals work on a full-time basis with longer working hours, a theoretical shortage of nursing professionals could be delayed until 2024. Our analysis of occupational flexibility in the nursing field indicates that additional potential supply could be generated by especially training more young people for a nursing profession as they tend to

  6. The Impact of Computerization on Regular Employment (Japanese)

    OpenAIRE

    SUNADA Mitsuru; HIGUCHI Yoshio; ABE Masahiro

    2004-01-01

    This paper uses micro data from the Basic Survey of Japanese Business Structure and Activity to analyze the effects of companies' introduction of information and telecommunications technology on employment structures, especially regular versus non-regular employment. Firstly, examination of trends in the ratio of part-time workers recorded in the Basic Survey shows that part-time worker ratios in manufacturing firms are rising slightly, but that companies with a high proportion of part-timers...

  7. ICT and OTs: a model of information and communication technology acceptance and utilisation by occupational therapists.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaper, Louise K; Pervan, Graham P

    2007-06-01

    There is evidence to suggest that health professionals are reluctant to accept and utilise information and communication technologies (ICT) and concern is growing within health informatics research that this is contributing to the lag in adoption and utilisation of ICT across the health sector. Technology acceptance research within the field of information systems has been limited in its application to health and there is a concurrent need to develop and gain empirical support for models of technology acceptance within health and to examine acceptance and utilisation issues amongst health professionals to improve the success of information system implementation in this arena. This paper outlines a project that examines ICT acceptance and utilisation by Australian occupational therapists. It describes the theoretical basis behind the development of a research model and the methodology being employed to empirically validate the model using substantial quantitative, qualitative and longitudinal data. Preliminary results from Phase II of the study are presented. The theoretical significance of this work is that it uses a thoroughly constructed research model, with potentially the largest sample size ever tested, to extend technology acceptance research into the health sector.

  8. The Employer Perspective on Sustainable Employability in the Construction Industry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tonnon, Susanne C; van der Veen, Rozan; Westerman, Marjan J; Robroek, Suzan J W; van der Ploeg, Hidde P; Van Der Beek, Allard J.; Proper, Karin I.

    OBJECTIVE: To determine the measures employers in the construction industry take to promote sustainable employability, the barriers and facilitators that influence implementation and employer needs. METHODS: Questionnaire among 499 employers and interviews with 17 employers. RESULTS: Employers

  9. The gender pay gap in informal employment in Poland

    OpenAIRE

    Rokicka, Magdalena; Ruzik, Anna

    2010-01-01

    This paper addresses the issue of the gender pay gap in the formal and informal labour markets in Poland. The authors verify the hypothesis of the existence of a gender pay gap in informal work and compare this gap with the one observed in the formal (registered) labour market. Various analyses of available data show that size and characteristics of gender pay gap differ depending on the level of earnings. The inequality of earnings among unregistered women and men is more pronounced at the b...

  10. Information-theoretic methods for estimating of complicated probability distributions

    CERN Document Server

    Zong, Zhi

    2006-01-01

    Mixing up various disciplines frequently produces something that are profound and far-reaching. Cybernetics is such an often-quoted example. Mix of information theory, statistics and computing technology proves to be very useful, which leads to the recent development of information-theory based methods for estimating complicated probability distributions. Estimating probability distribution of a random variable is the fundamental task for quite some fields besides statistics, such as reliability, probabilistic risk analysis (PSA), machine learning, pattern recognization, image processing, neur

  11. Toward Addressing Skills Development and Employment Crisis in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Toward Addressing Skills Development and Employment Crisis in Uganda: ... women and youth - both educated and uneducated - and key informants, ... skills development are explored from countries like, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mauritius.

  12. 3D nonrigid medical image registration using a new information theoretic measure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Bicao; Yang, Guanyu; Coatrieux, Jean Louis; Li, Baosheng; Shu, Huazhong

    2015-11-01

    This work presents a novel method for the nonrigid registration of medical images based on the Arimoto entropy, a generalization of the Shannon entropy. The proposed method employed the Jensen-Arimoto divergence measure as a similarity metric to measure the statistical dependence between medical images. Free-form deformations were adopted as the transformation model and the Parzen window estimation was applied to compute the probability distributions. A penalty term is incorporated into the objective function to smooth the nonrigid transformation. The goal of registration is to optimize an objective function consisting of a dissimilarity term and a penalty term, which would be minimal when two deformed images are perfectly aligned using the limited memory BFGS optimization method, and thus to get the optimal geometric transformation. To validate the performance of the proposed method, experiments on both simulated 3D brain MR images and real 3D thoracic CT data sets were designed and performed on the open source elastix package. For the simulated experiments, the registration errors of 3D brain MR images with various magnitudes of known deformations and different levels of noise were measured. For the real data tests, four data sets of 4D thoracic CT from four patients were selected to assess the registration performance of the method, including ten 3D CT images for each 4D CT data covering an entire respiration cycle. These results were compared with the normalized cross correlation and the mutual information methods and show a slight but true improvement in registration accuracy.

  13. 3D nonrigid medical image registration using a new information theoretic measure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Bicao; Yang, Guanyu; Coatrieux, Jean Louis; Li, Baosheng; Shu, Huazhong

    2015-01-01

    This work presents a novel method for the nonrigid registration of medical images based on the Arimoto entropy, a generalization of the Shannon entropy. The proposed method employed the Jensen–Arimoto divergence measure as a similarity metric to measure the statistical dependence between medical images. Free-form deformations were adopted as the transformation model and the Parzen window estimation was applied to compute the probability distributions. A penalty term is incorporated into the objective function to smooth the nonrigid transformation. The goal of registration is to optimize an objective function consisting of a dissimilarity term and a penalty term, which would be minimal when two deformed images are perfectly aligned using the limited memory BFGS optimization method, and thus to get the optimal geometric transformation. To validate the performance of the proposed method, experiments on both simulated 3D brain MR images and real 3D thoracic CT data sets were designed and performed on the open source elastix package. For the simulated experiments, the registration errors of 3D brain MR images with various magnitudes of known deformations and different levels of noise were measured. For the real data tests, four data sets of 4D thoracic CT from four patients were selected to assess the registration performance of the method, including ten 3D CT images for each 4D CT data covering an entire respiration cycle. These results were compared with the normalized cross correlation and the mutual information methods and show a slight but true improvement in registration accuracy. (paper)

  14. Intelligent cognitive radio jamming - a game-theoretical approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dabcevic, Kresimir; Betancourt, Alejandro; Marcenaro, Lucio; Regazzoni, Carlo S.

    2014-12-01

    Cognitive radio (CR) promises to be a solution for the spectrum underutilization problems. However, security issues pertaining to cognitive radio technology are still an understudied topic. One of the prevailing such issues are intelligent radio frequency (RF) jamming attacks, where adversaries are able to exploit on-the-fly reconfigurability potentials and learning mechanisms of cognitive radios in order to devise and deploy advanced jamming tactics. In this paper, we use a game-theoretical approach to analyze jamming/anti-jamming behavior between cognitive radio systems. A non-zero-sum game with incomplete information on an opponent's strategy and payoff is modelled as an extension of Markov decision process (MDP). Learning algorithms based on adaptive payoff play and fictitious play are considered. A combination of frequency hopping and power alteration is deployed as an anti-jamming scheme. A real-life software-defined radio (SDR) platform is used in order to perform measurements useful for quantifying the jamming impacts, as well as to infer relevant hardware-related properties. Results of these measurements are then used as parameters for the modelled jamming/anti-jamming game and are compared to the Nash equilibrium of the game. Simulation results indicate, among other, the benefit provided to the jammer when it is employed with the spectrum sensing algorithm in proactive frequency hopping and power alteration schemes.

  15. Determinants of Aggregate Employment: An Example of the Food Retail and the Hotel and Catering Sectors

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A.J.M. Kleijweg; A.R. Thurik (Roy)

    1988-01-01

    textabstractThis article deals with the explanation of aggregate employment in the service industries. A theoretical labour-demand relation is discussed briefly. In this relation the effect of average production scale is included. Empirical illustrations are given using Dutch data of the food retail

  16. Theoretical foundations of information security investment security companies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    G.V. Berlyak

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Methodological problems related to the lack of guidance in the provisions (standards of accounting on the reflection in the accounting and financial reporting of the research object. In this connection, it is proposed to amend the provisions (standards of accounting. This will allow to come to the consistency of accounting methods of operations with elements of investment activity. Based on analysis of the information needs of users suggested indicators identikativnye blocks (block corporate finance unit assess the relationship with financial institutions, block the fulfillment of obligations according to the calculations, the investment unit, a science and innovation, investment security and developed forms of internal accounting controls and improvements to existing forms financial statements for the investment activities of the enterprise. Using enterprise data reporting forms provide timely and reliable information on the identity and structure of investment security and enable the company to effectively plan and develop personnel policies for enterprise management.

  17. Refresher Course in Theoretical Physics at St. Stephen's College ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 7; Issue 5. Refresher Course in Theoretical Physics at St. Stephen's College University of Delhi, Delhi. Information and Announcements Volume 7 Issue 5 May 2002 pp 103-103 ...

  18. Employment and Growth | Page 42 | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Employment and Growth. Emploi et croissance. Language English. Read more about Growing Informal Cities: Mobile Entrepreneurs and Inclusive Growth in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Language English. Read more about Scaling Up Financial Inclusion for Vulnerable Women and Youth: Proyecto Capital.

  19. Employment and Growth | Page 20 | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Employment and Growth. Language English. Read more about Strengthening the Economic Committee of the National Assembly in Vietnam: Phase 2. Language English. Read more about Growing Informal Cities: Mobile Entrepreneurs and Inclusive Growth in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Language English.

  20. Beyond cost: 'responsible purchasing' of managed care by employers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lo Sasso, A T; Perloff, L; Schield, J; Murphy, J J; Mortimer, J D; Budetti, P P

    1999-01-01

    We explore the extent of "responsible purchasing" by employers--the degree to which employers collect and use nonfinancial information in selecting and managing employee health plans. Most firms believe that they have some responsibility for assessing the quality of the health plans they offer. Some pay attention to plan characteristics such as the ability to provide adequate access to providers and services and scores on enrollee satisfaction surveys. A more limited but still notable number of firms take specific actions based on responsible purchasing information. Because of countervailing pressures, however, it is not clear whether or not the firms most involved in responsible purchasing are signaling a developing trend.

  1. Game-theoretic interference coordination approaches for dynamic spectrum access

    CERN Document Server

    Xu, Yuhua

    2016-01-01

    Written by experts in the field, this book is based on recent research findings in dynamic spectrum access for cognitive radio networks. It establishes a game-theoretic framework and presents cutting-edge technologies for distributed interference coordination. With game-theoretic formulation and the designed distributed learning algorithms, it provides insights into the interactions between multiple decision-makers and the converging stable states. Researchers, scientists and engineers in the field of cognitive radio networks will benefit from the book, which provides valuable information, useful methods and practical algorithms for use in emerging 5G wireless communication.

  2. Towards an Information Theoretic Analysis of Searchable Encryption

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sedghi, S.; Doumen, J.M.; Hartel, Pieter H.; Jonker, Willem

    2008-01-01

    Searchable encryption is a technique that allows a client to store data in encrypted form on a curious server, such that data can be retrieved while leaking a minimal amount of information to the server. Many searchable encryption schemes have been proposed and proved secure in their own

  3. Principle-theoretic approach of kondo and construction-theoretic formalism of gauge theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jain, L.C.

    1986-01-01

    Einstein classified various theories in physics as principle-theories and constructive-theories. In this lecture Kondo's approach to microscopic and macroscopic phenomena is analysed for its principle theoretic pursuit as followed by construction. The fundamentals of his theory may be recalled as Tristimulus principle, Observation principle, Kawaguchi spaces, empirical information, epistemological point of view, unitarity, intrinsicality, and dimensional analysis subject to logical and geometrical achievement. On the other hand, various physicists have evolved constructive gauge theories through the phenomenological point of view, often a collective one. Their synthetic method involves fibre bundles and connections, path integrals as well as other hypothetical structures. They lead towards clarity, completeness and adaptability

  4. Quantum Wells, Wires and Dots Theoretical and Computational Physics of Semiconductor Nanostructures

    CERN Document Server

    Harrison, Paul

    2011-01-01

    Quantum Wells, Wires and Dots, 3rd Edition is aimed at providing all the essential information, both theoretical and computational, in order that the reader can, starting from essentially nothing, understand how the electronic, optical and transport properties of semiconductor heterostructures are calculated. Completely revised and updated, this text is designed to lead the reader through a series of simple theoretical and computational implementations, and slowly build from solid foundations, to a level where the reader can begin to initiate theoretical investigations or explanations of their

  5. "The Integrity and Obstinacy of Intellectual Creations": Jurgen Habermas and Librarianship's Theoretical Literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buschman, John

    2006-01-01

    Librarianship and library and information science (LIS) have long struggled with an ongoing lack of a theoretical and epistemological basis. There have been renewed efforts to explore various theoretical and philosophical positions and their meaning for librarianship and LIS research. This article explores the framework that Jurgen Habermas offers…

  6. Reference group theory with implications for information studies: a theoretical essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    E. Murell Dawson

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available This article explores the role and implications of reference group theory in relation to the field of library and information science. Reference group theory is based upon the principle that people take the standards of significant others as a basis for making self-appraisals, comparisons, and choices regarding need and use of information. Research that applies concepts of reference group theory to various sectors of library and information studies can provide data useful in enhancing areas such as information-seeking research, special populations, and uses of information. Implications are promising that knowledge gained from like research can be beneficial in helping information professionals better understand the role theory plays in examining ways in which people manage their information and social worlds.

  7. Payroll tax reduction in Brazil : Effects on employment and wages

    OpenAIRE

    Scherer, Clóvis

    2015-01-01

    textabstractThis paper evaluates the effects of the elimination of a payroll tax on employment and wages in four manufacturing and service sectors in Brazil in early 2012. This tax, which accounted for 20 percent of the wage bill, was levied on employers and financed social security programmes. This study is based on administrative records from the Brazilian Ministry of Labour which contained information on formal employment contracts. Exploring the fact that the tax reform only covered firms...

  8. Does an employee assistance programme benefit employers and employees alike?

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacAlister, E

    1999-09-01

    EAPs are not a psychological sticking plaster. They are a clinically and corporately balanced service which benefits the employee, via the direct services and the employer, via the feedback in the form of usage statistics derived from the continuous tracking of the account through which organizational and employment issues are identified. Well positioned EAPs offer employees confidential counselling, and information services including legal, financial and child-based issues and are able to offer employers tailored training and consultancy.

  9. Employer Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility – a postmodern approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mihaela-Alexandra TUDOR-IONESCU

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In the present article we designed an exploratory analysis from a postmodern perspective on employer branding and corporate social responsibility in order to overcome the disciplinary dogmatic approach that is found in the organizational and management studies. Our approach is based on investigating theoretical background for the two concepts that have a relatively recent history and it emphasizes their role of legitimation micro-structures with an organizational -corporate nature, arguing for the thesis that they represent founding micronarratives, with different histories, but similar aims.

  10. Double-duty caregivers: healthcare professionals juggling employment and informal caregiving. A survey on personal health and work experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boumans, Nicolle P G; Dorant, Elisabeth

    2014-07-01

    This study compared the work-related experiences and personal health status of double-duty caregivers with those of caregivers who do not provide informal care to a family member or close friend in need. The interest in providing informal care alongside employment is growing. However, little attention has been paid to the dual role of the healthcare professional who also has caregiving responsibilities for a needy person in his/her private situation. It is important to study the negative and positive consequences of this combination of professional and family care giving. A cross-sectional study. In 2011, we distributed a digital questionnaire to employees with a professional care function working at a healthcare organization in the Netherlands. Descriptive statistics, analyses of covariance and tests of linearity were performed. Analyses of variance demonstrated that as professional healthcare workers provide more hours of informal care in their private lives, their mental and physical health significantly worsens, while their need for recovery increases. Also, statistical significant increases were seen for emotional exhaustion, presenteeism and negative experiences with Work-Home and Home-Work Interferences. Remarkably, positive Home-Work Interference increased significantly with increasing hours of informal care. Double-duty caregivers appeared to be equally motivated and satisfied with their work as their co-workers. No differences were seen with respect to absenteeism. Double-duty caregivers prove to be employees who are at risk of developing symptoms of overload. This finding calls for special attention, with long-term solutions at both legislative and organizational level. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. Classification of Hyperspectral Images by SVM Using a Composite Kernel by Employing Spectral, Spatial and Hierarchical Structure Information

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi Wang

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we introduce a novel classification framework for hyperspectral images (HSIs by jointly employing spectral, spatial, and hierarchical structure information. In this framework, the three types of information are integrated into the SVM classifier in a way of multiple kernels. Specifically, the spectral kernel is constructed through each pixel’s vector value in the original HSI, and the spatial kernel is modeled by using the extended morphological profile method due to its simplicity and effectiveness. To accurately characterize hierarchical structure features, the techniques of Fish-Markov selector (FMS, marker-based hierarchical segmentation (MHSEG and algebraic multigrid (AMG are combined. First, the FMS algorithm is used on the original HSI for feature selection to produce its spectral subset. Then, the multigrid structure of this subset is constructed using the AMG method. Subsequently, the MHSEG algorithm is exploited to obtain a hierarchy consist of a series of segmentation maps. Finally, the hierarchical structure information is represented by using these segmentation maps. The main contributions of this work is to present an effective composite kernel for HSI classification by utilizing spatial structure information in multiple scales. Experiments were conducted on two hyperspectral remote sensing images to validate that the proposed framework can achieve better classification results than several popular kernel-based classification methods in terms of both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Specifically, the proposed classification framework can achieve 13.46–15.61% in average higher than the standard SVM classifier under different training sets in the terms of overall accuracy.

  12. Is Self-Employment Really a Bad Experience? The Effects of Previous Self-Employment on Subsequent Wage-Employment Wages

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kaiser, Ulrich; Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj

    2011-01-01

    of self-employment is associated with lower hourly wages compared to workers who were consecutively wage-employed. We also show, however, that this effect disappears—and even becomes positive in some settings—for formerly self-employed who find dependent employment in the same sector as their self......-employment sector. Hence, the on average negative effect of self-employment is rather caused by sector switching than by the self-employment experience per se. Moreover, formerly self-employed who either enjoyed a high income or hired at least one worker during their self-employment spell receive wages...... in subsequent dependent employment that are at least as high as for individuals who have been consecutively wage-employed....

  13. Theoretical vs. measured risk estimates for the external exposure to ionizing radiation pathway - a case study of a major industrial site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dundon, S.T.

    1996-01-01

    Two methods of estimating the risk to industrial receptors to ionizing radiation are presented here. The first method relies on the use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) external exposure slope factor combined with default exposure parameters for industrial land uses. The second method employs measured exposure rate date and site-specific exposure durations combined with the BEIR V radiological risk coefficient to estimate occupational risk. The uncertainties in each method are described qualitatively. Site-specific information was available for the exposure duration and the exposure frequency as well as historic dosimetry information. Risk estimates were also generated for the current regulatory cleanup level (removal risks included) and for a no action scenario. The study showed that uncertainties for risks calculated using measured exposure rates and site-specific exposure parameters were much lower and defendable than using EPA slope factors combined with default exposure parameters. The findings call into question the use of a uniform cleanup standard for depleted uranium that does not account for site-specific land uses and relies on theoretical models rather than measured exposure rate information

  14. 38 CFR 21.6054 - Criteria for determining good employment potential.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... employment prior to the onset of disability. (2) Strong motivation to return to the work force. (3... be informed of his or her appellate rights as described in § 21.59 of this part. (1) If the... disagreement with a negative finding shall be considered evidence of motivation for employment, and may, when...

  15. Maternal employment in low- and middle-income countries is associated with improved infant and young child feeding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oddo, Vanessa M; Ickes, Scott B

    2018-03-01

    Women's employment improves household income, and can increase resources available for food expenditure. However, employed women face time constraints that may influence caregiving and infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices. As economic and social trends shift to include more women in the labor force in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a current understanding of the association between maternal employment and IYCF is needed. We investigated the association between maternal employment and IYCF. Using cross-sectional samples from 50 Demographic and Health Surveys, we investigated the association between maternal employment and 3 indicators of IYCF: exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) among children aged employed, informally employed, or nonemployed. We used meta-analysis to pool associations across all countries and by region. According to pooled estimates, neither formal [pooled odds ratio (POR) = 0.91; 95% CI: 0.81, 1.03] nor informal employment (POR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.16), compared to nonemployment, was associated with EBF. Children of both formally and informally employed women, compared to children of nonemployed women, had higher odds of meeting MDD (formal POR = 1.47; 95% CI: 1.35, 1.60; informal POR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.20) and MMF (formal POR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.26; informal POR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.24). Sensitivity analyses indicated that compared to nonemployed mothers, the odds of continued breastfeeding at 1 y were lower among formally employed mothers (POR = 0.82; 95% CI: 0.73, 0.98) and higher among informally employed mothers (POR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.40). Efforts to promote formalized employment among mothers may be an effective method for improving diet diversity and feeding frequency in LMICs. Formally employed mothers may benefit from support for breastfeeding to enable continued breastfeeding through infancy. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03209999.

  16. Gender, Poverty and Employment in the Context of the Informal ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    In the Arab world, gender inequality in the labour market persists through ... wage gaps, higher unemployment rates, over-representation in the informal economy, ... The overall aim is to promote decent work for women and men in the informal ...

  17. Recommended Skill Requirements of Recent Management Information Systems Graduates for Employment: A Modified Delphi Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strnad, Michael A., Sr.

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this Modified Delphi study was to achieve a consensus and forecast a prediction from expert IT hiring managers on what skills are required of MIS graduates for employment. In doing so, guidance could be provided to academic leaders who design curricula for MIS students on the required skills for employment. This study was conducted…

  18. Employment and Growth | Page 44 | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Employment and Growth. Emploi et croissance. Language English. Read more about Informal sector, business environment and economic growth: A comparative analysis of West and Central Africa. Language English. Read more about Unfair Trade Practices in ASEAN. Language English. Read more about Social ...

  19. Employment and Growth | Page 51 | IDRC - International ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Although economic progress has reduced poverty, the region still suffers from important ... environmental depletion, growing informal employment, and food insecurity. ... Read more about Supporting sustainable economic growth in ASEAN ... CIES representatives shared details of the unique role the Consortium plays in ...

  20. Informacion literacy of the librarian information professional: social construction of the reality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizete Vieira Vitorino

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available This research aims at developing a theoretical basis about information literacy, from the theme origin to the present and specific discussions – in the national as well as the international scenery. The main objective of this study is to elaborate the mapping of information competences which are needed to Librarian Information Professionals. This proposal is included in the “Information Professionals” research line of the Information Science Graduation Program (PGCIN at the Santa Catarina Federal University (UFSC. Therefore, our purpose, which was initially based on reflection and theory, contributes to the understanding of a broader reality that has become a matter of scientific investigation within the Information Science. A reflexive and practical strategy: this is the goal to be reached; reflection as acting and on the action, conceiving that it is necessary to generate ideas from watching over the practice, and looking into the object of study: the librarian information professional, and the resulting perceptions of those observations. Here, we wonder about new possibilities to employ the theme in research as well as in likely new study fields or branches, such as: teaching, extension, and continued education on information competency/literacy for in-service librarian professionals.