Heritage Sporting Event : An Old Recipe for a New Problem

In the last decades, the globalized competition among cities and regions made them develop new strategies for branding and promoting their territory to attract tourists, investors, companies and residents. Major sports events - such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup or World and Continental Championships - have played an integral part in these strategies. Believing, with or without evidence, in the capacity of those events to improve the visibility and the economy of the host destination, many cities, regions and even countries have engaged in establishing sports events hosting strategies. The problem of the globalized competition in the sports events "market" is that many cities and regions do not have the resources - either financial, human or in terms of infrastructure - to compete in hosting major sports events. Consequently, many cities or regions have to turn to second-tier sports events. To organise those smaller events means less media coverage and more difficulty in finding sponsors, while the costs - both financial and in terms of services - stay high for the community. This paper analyses how Heritage Sporting Events (HSE) might be an opportunity for cities and regions engaged in sports events hosting strategies. HSE is an emerging concept that to date has been under-researched in the academic literature. Therefore, this paper aims to define the concept of HSE through an exploratory research study. A multidisciplinary literature review reveals two major characteristics of HSEs: the sustainability in the territory and the authenticity of the event constructed through a differentiation process. These characteristics, defined through multiple variables, give us the opportunity to observe the construction process of a sports event into a heritage object. This paper argues that HSEs can be seen as territorial resources that can represent a competitive advantage for host destinations. In conclusion, academics are invited to further research HSEs to better understand their construction process and their impacts on the territory, while local authorities are invited to consider HSEs for the branding and the promotion of their territory.

Androgenetic alopecia: identification of four genetic risk loci and evidence for the contribution of WNT signaling to its etiology.

The pathogenesis of androgenetic alopecia (AGA, male-pattern baldness) is driven by androgens, and genetic predisposition is the major prerequisite. Candidate gene and genome-wide association studies have reported that single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at eight different genomic loci are associated with AGA development. However, a significant fraction of the overall heritable risk still awaits identification. Furthermore, the understanding of the pathophysiology of AGA is incomplete, and each newly associated locus may provide novel insights into contributing biological pathways. The aim of this study was to identify unknown AGA risk loci by replicating SNPs at the 12 genomic loci that showed suggestive association (5 × 10(-8)<P<10(-5)) with AGA in a recent meta-analysis. We analyzed a replication set comprising 2,759 cases and 2,661 controls of European descent to confirm the association with AGA at these loci. Combined analysis of the replication and the meta-analysis data identified four genome-wide significant risk loci for AGA on chromosomes 2q35, 3q25.1, 5q33.3, and 12p12.1. The strongest association signal was obtained for rs7349332 (P=3.55 × 10(-15)) on chr2q35, which is located intronically in WNT10A. Expression studies in human hair follicle tissue suggest that WNT10A has a functional role in AGA etiology. Thus, our study provides genetic evidence supporting an involvement of WNT signaling in AGA development.

Covariant Phase Observables in Quantum Mechanics

The aim of this thesis is to present a solution to the quantum phase problem of the single-mode optical field. The solution is based on the use of phase shift covariant normalized positive operator measures. These measures describe realistic direct coherent state phase measurements such as the phase measurement schemes based on eight-port homodyne detection or heterodyne detection. The structure of covariant operator measures and, more generally, covariant sesquilinear form measures is analyzed in this work. Four different characterizations for phase shift covariant normalized positive operator measures are presented. The canonical covariant operator measure is definded and its properties are studied. Finally, some other suggested phase theories are introduced to investigate their connections to the covariant sesquilinear form measures.

Executive Order Number Forty-Four, September 2005

Excecutive order signed by Governor Thomas Vilsck. Directs the Department of Human Services to comply with all directives from the federal government arising from Hurricane Katrina insofar as those directives concern public welfare programs administered by DHS, declares that any evacuee shall be deemed a resident of the State of Iowa for purposes of obtaining eligibility for the food stamp, family investment and Medicaid programs, and DHS should process applications in an expedited and flexible manner.

Executive Order Number Four, June 1966

Executive Orders from Governor Hughes. Compact for education.

Executive Order Number Four, February 1971

Executive Orders from Governor Ray. Establish the Drug Abuse Authority.

Executive Order Number Twenty Four, June 1977

Creates the Govenor's Science Advisory Council.

Executive Order Number Thirty Four, November 1978

Establish the Iowa Commission on the International Year of the Child.

Executive Order Number Thirty Four, November 1978

Establish the Iowa Commission on the International Year of the Child.

ILS-ESP An efficient, simple, and parameter-free algorithm for solving the permutation flow-shop problem

From a managerial point of view, the more effcient, simple, and parameter-free (ESP) an algorithm is, the more likely it will be used in practice for solving real-life problems. Following this principle, an ESP algorithm for solving the Permutation Flowshop Sequencing Problem (PFSP) is proposed in this article. Using an Iterated Local Search (ILS) framework, the so-called ILS-ESP algorithm is able to compete in performance with other well-known ILS-based approaches, which are considered among the most effcient algorithms for the PFSP. However, while other similar approaches still employ several parameters that can affect their performance if not properly chosen, our algorithm does not require any particular fine-tuning process since it uses basic "common sense" rules for the local search, perturbation, and acceptance criterion stages of the ILS metaheuristic. Our approach defines a new operator for the ILS perturbation process, a new acceptance criterion based on extremely simple and transparent rules, and a biased randomization process of the initial solution to randomly generate different alternative initial solutions of similar quality -which is attained by applying a biased randomization to a classical PFSP heuristic. This diversification of the initial solution aims at avoiding poorly designed starting points and, thus, allows the methodology to take advantage of current trends in parallel and distributed computing. A set of extensive tests, based on literature benchmarks, has been carried out in order to validate our algorithm and compare it against other approaches. These tests show that our parameter-free algorithm is able to compete with state-of-the-art metaheuristics for the PFSP. Also, the experiments show that, when using parallel computing, it is possible to improve the top ILS-based metaheuristic by just incorporating to it our biased randomization process with a high-quality pseudo-random number generator.

Executive Order Number Forty Four, July 1982

Require state agencies to consider leasing of vacant school buildings.

Executive Order Number Four, September 3, 1983

Order a 2.8% reduction in appropriations.

Executive Order Number Twenty Four, July 11, 1986

Delegate to the Department of Economic Development the aithority and responsibility vested in the Governor under the JTPA, and create the State Job Training Coordinating Council.

Executive Order Number Thirty Four, July 22, 1988

Provisions of Equal Empolyment Opportunity and Affirmation Action in State government enforced through the Iowa Department of Management.

Executive Order Number Forty Four, April 30, 1992

Rescinds Executive Order #46 and recommits efforts of the Executive branch and all department directors, member of governing boards and commissions, and other public officers affirmative action, discriminatory harrassment prevention, and cultural diversity.