Managing Digitization Priorities with Metrics

This presentation was one of four during a Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference presentation on April 15, 2016. Digitization of collections can help to improve internal workflows, make materials more accessible, and create new and engaging relationships with users. Laurie Gemmill Arp will discuss the LYRASIS Digitization Collaborative, created to assist institutions with their digitization needs, and how it has worked to help institutions increase connections with users. Robin Pike from the University of Maryland will discuss how they factor requests for access into selection for digitization and how they track the use of digitized materials. Laura Drake Davis of James Madison University will discuss the establishment of a formal digitization program, its impact on users, and the resulting increased use of their collections. Linda Tompkins-Baldwin will discuss Digital Maryland’s partnership with the Digital Public Library of America to provide access to archives held by institutions without a digitization program.

SYSTEMS OF DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONSTHAT ARE COMPETITIVE OR COOPERATIVE II:CONVERGENCE ALMOST EVERYWHERE*MORRIS W. HIRSCH

A vector field in n-space determines a competitive (or cooperative) system of differential equations provided all of the off-diagonal terms of its Jacobian matrix are nonpositive (or nonnegative). The main results in this article are the following. A cooperative system cannot have nonconstant attracting periodic solutions. In a cooperative system whose Jacobian matrices are irreducible the forward orbit converges for almost every point having compact forward orbit closure. In a cooperative system in 2 dimensions, every solution is eventually monotone.  Applications are made to generalizations of positive feedback loops.

Priorities for future intensive care research in the UK: results of a James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership.

This James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnership aimed to identify and prioritise unanswered questions about adult intensive care that are important to people who have been critically ill, their families, and the health professionals who care for them. Consensus techniques (modified Delphi and Nominal Group) were used to generate suggestions using online and postal surveys. Following verification and iterative editorial review, research topics were constructed from these suggestions. These topics were presented in a second online and postal survey for rating. A Nominal Group of 21 clinicians, patients and family representatives subsequently met to rank the most important research topics and produce a prioritised list. The project was coordinated by a representative Steering Group and independently overseen by the JLA. The initial survey and review of the literature generated over 1,300 suggestions. Preliminary editing and verification permitted us to encapsulate these suggestions within 151 research topics. Iterative review by members of the Steering Group produced 37 topic statements, subsequently rated by participants. Using the mode to determine importance, 19 topics were presented to the group from which a ‘top three’ intensive care research priorities were identified and a further nine topics were prioritised. By applying and adapting the JLA methodology to focus on an area of care rather than to a single disease, we have provided a means to ensure that patients, their families and professionals materially contribute to the prioritisation of intensive care research in the UK.

The priorities of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union

The paper discusses the Polish presidency of the EU Council in terms of its priorities. It analyzes the circumstances of their formulation, selection and implementation. The authors answer the question of what influenced the selection of Poland’s priorities and what selection mechanisms were applied. Additionally, they examine how the national agenda was ‘concealed’ in Community rhetoric. Thus, the analytical part discusses the political and legal path that determined the priorities. The EU agenda, Polish ambitions and the context of the trio is also presented. The paper concludes with the authors’ assessment of the implementation of the priorities.

INJURIES RELATED TO COMPETITIVE AND NONCOMPETITIVE SPORTS IN ELDERLY MEN

Objective: To verify the sociodemographic profile and the frequency of musculoskeletal injuries in elderly people who practice competitive and noncompetitive sports activities in the city of Pelotas, RS. Methods: Descriptive study, including 29 male subjects, aged 65 years or older, who practiced sports modalities in a competitive and noncompetitive way, in the city of Pelotas, in 2015. Data collection was performed through the application of a questionnaire with questions addressing economic, sociodemographic, nutritional and behavioral issues, and injuries sustained in sports activities. Statistical analysis was performed by calculating measures of central tendency for continuous variables and proportions for categorical variables. Results: The current practice of competitive sports was described by 58.6% (n=17) of the subjects, and the most practiced sports were 7-a-side football (53.0%, n=9), tennis (23.5%, n=4) and swimming (23.5%, n=4). Noncompetitive sports were practiced by 44.8% (n=13), and tennis was the most popular sport played (92.3%, n=12). The frequency of injuries among individuals practicing competitive and noncompetitive sports was, respectively, 35.3% (n=6), and 38.5% (n=5). The most frequent injuries were epicondylitis (50.0%, n=3) and meniscus injuries (60.0%, n=3), and the most affected body regions were knee (27.3%, n=3), elbow (27.3%, n=3), and shoulder (18.2%, n=2). The injuries occurred during the sports activities, and the dominant side was the one affected in 63.6% (n=7). Conclusion: This study verified that the occurrence of injuries in elderly individuals who practice sports is relevant, even among those who practice them noncompetitively, with epicondylitis as the most frequent among them, whereas meniscus injuries are the most frequent among those who practice competitive sports.

Competitive Representative Claimsmaking: Party Politicians and Institutional Factors in the Case of EU Budget Negotiations

This study provides an empirical comparative case study of representative claims-making in EU budget negotiations. Two questions are addressed in this paper. First, the paper asks what the role of elected or appointed partisan politicians is in comparison to other representatives. This question is relevant given the reported increasing importance of non-elected representatives. Secondly, the paper asks what the influence of institutional factors is on the practice of representative claims-making. As representative claims-making unfolds in the public sphere, the institutional factors of the public sphere may affect both the claimants it provides a platform for as well as constituencies represented. The paper finds that politicians continue to perform a crucial role in representation, both with regards to their prominence in the public sphere and with regards to the plurality of constituencies represented in their claims. Although institutional factors clearly affect claimants, there are much less pronounced – though noticeable – differences in the constituencies represented in different public spheres. The overall picture is one of a highly plural representative space in which multiple claimants compete with each other to get their message across. In doing so, claimants address the interests of multiple constituencies. It may well be the inherent competition among claimants, fostered by institutional factors, that ensures the plurality of the EU representative space.

Competitive ability of cultivated rice against weedy rice biotypes – A review

Weedy rice has been identified as a threat to rice production worldwide. Its phenotypic and genotypic diversity and its potential to compete against rice in all development stages from germination to maturity have resulted in a loss of rice yield and grain quality, which is remarkably high in directseeded rice cultivation. Weedy rice dormancy varies, it has a higher germination rate, and tolerates deeper germination depth compared to rice cultivars. Interactions of weedy rice with cultivars often reflect early vigor, more tillering, nutrient utilization ability for shoot development with respect to rice cultivars even though the latter also show an improvement in shoot development under competition. An exponential relationship has been reported between cultivated rice loss and weedy rice density: this is true for all rice cultivars. The degree of loss is dependent on the competitive ability of the rice cultivar being studied, and each weedy rice biotype also interacts differently. Hence, the need for a comprehensive study of the biology of various weedy rice variants. Difficulties arise in the management of weedy rice due to its physiological, anatomical, and morphological similarities to cultivated rice. The manipulation of the environment to improve cultivated rice production and suppress the emergence of weedy rice variants is important in the management of weedy rice, as well as other cultural practices and use of pesticides. The development of herbicide-resistant rice cultivars is necessary to totally eliminate the weedy rice variants. This review provides information on the competitive ability of weedy rice against rice cultivars; this information is essential to create management options to control weedy rice.

Chaotic mixing of a competitive-consecutive reaction

The evolution of a competitive-consecutive chemical reaction is computed numerically in a two-dimensional chaotic fluid flow with initially segregated reactants. Results from numerical simulations are used to evaluate a variety of reduced models commonly adopted to model the full advection-reaction-diffusion problem. Particular emphasis is placed upon fast reactions, where the yield varies most significantly with Peclet number (the ratio of diffusive to advective time scales). When effects of the fluid mechanical mixing are strongest, we find that the yield of the reaction is underestimated by a one-dimensional lamellar model that ignores the effects of fluid mixing, but overestimated by two other lamellar models that include fluid mixing.

Effects of nitrogen limitation on Dunaliella sp.–Alteromonas sp. interactions: from mutualistic to competitive relationships.

Interactions between photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic microorganisms play an essential role in natural aquatic environments and the contribution of bacteria and microalgae to the nitrogen cycle can lead to both competitive and mutualistic relationships. Nitrogen is considered to be, with phosphorus and iron, one of the main limiting nutrients for primary production in the oceans and its availability experiences large temporal and geographical variations. For these reasons, it is important to understand how competitive and mutualistic interactions between photosynthetic and heterotrophic microorganisms are impacted by nitrogen limitation. In a previous study performed in batch cultures, the addition of a selected bacterial strain of Alteromonas sp. resulted in a final biomass increase in the green alga Dunaliella sp. as a result of higher nitrogen incorporation into the algal cells. The present work focuses on testing the potential of the same microalgae–bacteria association and nitrogen interactions in chemostats limited by nitrogen. Axenic and mixed cultures were compared at two dilution rates to evaluate the impact of nitrogen limitation on interactions. The addition of bacteria resulted in increased cell size in the microalgae, as well as decreased carbon incorporation, which was exacerbated by high nitrogen limitation. Biochemical analyses for the different components including microalgae, bacteria, non-living particulate matter, and dissolved organic matter, suggested that bacteria uptake carbon from carbon-rich particulate matter released by microalgae. Dissolved organic nitrogen released by microalgae was apparently not taken up by bacteria, which casts doubt on the remineralization of dissolved organic nitrogen by Alteromonas sp. in chemostats. Dunaliella sp. obtained ammonium-nitrogen more efficiently under lower nitrogen limitation. Overall, we revealed competition between microalgae and bacteria for ammonium when this was in continuous but limited supply. Competition for mineral nitrogen increased with nitrogen limitation. From our study we suggest that competitive or mutualistic relationships between microalgae and bacteria largely depend on the ecophysiological status of the two microorganisms. The outcome of microalgae–bacteria interactions in natural and artificial ecosystems largely depends on environmental factors. Our results indicate the need to improve understanding of the interaction/s between these microbial players

Equilibrium Assignments in Competitive and Cooperative Traffic Flow Routing

Part 18: Optimization in Collaborative Networks

Queueuing system with failures and priorities

Queueing theory provides models, structural insights, problem solutions and algorithms to many application areas. Due to its practical applicability to production, manufacturing, home automation, communications technology, etc, more and more complex systems requires more elaborated models, tech- niques, algorithm, etc. need to be developed. Discrete-time models are very suitable in many situations and a feature that makes the analysis of discrete time systems technically more involved than its continuous time counterparts. In this paper we consider a discrete-time queueing system were failures in the server can occur as-well as priority messages. The possibility of failures of the server with general life time distribution is considered. We carry out an extensive study of the system by computing generating functions for the steady-state distribution of the number of messages in the queue and in the system. We also obtain generating functions for the stationary distribution of the busy period and sojourn times of a message in the server and in the system. Performance measures of the system are also provided.

Train scheduling in high speed railways: considering competitive effects

The railway planning problem is usually studied from two different points of view: macroscopic and microscopic. We propose a macroscopic approach for the high-speed rail scheduling problem where competitive effects are introduced. We study train frequency planning, timetable planning and rolling stock assignment problems and model the problem as a multi-commodity network flow problem considering competitive transport markets. The aim of the presented model is to maximize the total operator profit. We solve the optimization model using realistic probleminstances obtained from the network of the Spanish railwa operator RENFE, including other transport modes in Spain

Recrutamento e selecção na Tap Portugal

Mestrado em Gestão de Recursos Humanos