There'll be a price to pay for terror listing the Haqqani Network

THE Obama administration's decision to officially designate the Haqqani Network a terrorist organisation and place it on the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations would have been very difficult to make because of its far-reaching implications for US-Pakistan relations.

Voltage regulation in renewable energy integration into the distribution network

Large-scale renewable energy (RE) integration into the distribution network (DN) causes uncertainties due to its intermittent nature and is a challenging task today. In general RE sources are mostly connected near the end user level, i.e., in the low voltage distribution network. RE integration introduces bi-directional power flows across distribution transformer (DT) and hence DN experiences with several potential problems that includes voltage fluctuations, reactive power compensation and poor power factor in the DN. This study identifies the potential effects causes due to large-scale integration of RE into the Berserker Street Feeder, Frenchville Substation under Rockhampton DN. From the model analyses, it has clearly evident that voltage of the Berserker Street Feeder fluctuates with the increased integration of RE and causes uncertainties in the feeder as well as the DN.

An ant colony system based on the physarum network

The Physarum Network model exhibits the feature of important pipelines being reserved with the evolution of network during the process of solving a maze problem. Drawing on this feature, an Ant Colony System (ACS), denoted as PNACS, is proposed based on the Physarum Network (PN). When updating pheromone matrix, we should update both pheromone trails released by ants and the pheromones flowing in a network. This hybrid algorithm can overcome the low convergence rate and local optimal solution of ACS when solving the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Some experiments in synthetic and benchmark networks show that the efficiency of PNACS is higher than that of ACS. More important, PNACS has strong robustness that is very useful for solving a higher dimension TSP.

Influences of wind energy integration into the distribution network

Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources due to its availability and climate-friendly attributes. Large-scale integration of wind energy sources creates potential technical challenges due to the intermittent nature that needs to be investigated and mitigated as part of developing a sustainable power system for the future. Therefore, this study developed simulation models to investigate the potential challenges, in particular voltage fluctuations, zone substation, and distribution transformer loading, power flow characteristics, and harmonic emissions with the integration of wind energy into both the high voltage (HV) and low voltage (LV) distribution network (DN). From model analysis, it has been clearly indicated that influences of these problems increase with the increased integration of wind energy into both the high voltage and low voltage distribution network, however, the level of adverse impacts is higher in the LV DN compared to the HV DN.

The moderating effects of demographic factors and hukou status on the job satisfaction-subjective well-being relationship in urban China

This study tests the moderating effect of job complexity and social status, proxied by a unique Chinese cultural variable (hukou status), on the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective well-being in urban China. Data on these and a range of demographic variables were collected from 1025 workers in Fujian Province in the People's Republic of China. Results confirm that hukou status does moderate the job satisfaction-subjective well-being relationship in this sample. Several further moderating relationships are also detected. The study adds the empirical literature on job satisfaction and subjective well-being in China and also furthers understanding of the complex relationship between these constructs. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

The social network learning cloud: architectural education for the 21 century

In less than a decade, architectural education has, in some ways, significantly evolved. The advent of computation has not so much triggered the change, but Social Networks (SN) have ignited a novel way of learning, interaction and knowledge construction. SN enable learners to engage with friends, tutors, professionals and peers, form the base for learning resources, allow students to make their voices heard, to listen to other views and much more. They offer a more authentic, inter-professional and integrated problem based, Just-in-Time (JIT), Just-in-Place (JIP) learning. Online SN work in close association with offline SN to form a blended social learning realm-the Social Network Learning Cloud (SNLC)-that greatly enables and enhances students' learning in a far more influential way than any other learning means, resources or methods do. This paper presents a SNLC for architectural education that provides opportunities for linking the academic Learning Management Systems (LMS) with private or professional SN such that it enhances the learning experience and deepens the knowledge of the students. The paper proposes ways of utilising SNLC in other learning and teaching areas of the curriculum and concludes with directions of how SNLC then may be employed in professional settings.

Inflation and income inequality: A link through the job-search process

In this paper I devise a new channel by means of which the (empirically documented) positive correlation between ináation and income inequality can be understood. Available empirical evidence reveals that ináation increases wage dispersion. For this reason, the higher the ináation rate, the higher turns out to be the beneÖt, for a worker, of making additional draws from the distribution of wages, before deciding whether to accept or reject a job o§er. Assuming that some workers have less access to information (wage o§ers) than others, I show that the Gini coe¢ cient of income distribution turns out to be an increasing function of the wage dispersion and, consequently, of the rate of ináation. Two examples are provided to illustrate the mechanism.

Measurements of income inequality: a critique. Inflation and income inequality: a link through the job- search process

In this paper I claim that, in a long-run perspective, measurements of income inequality, under any of the usual inequality measures used in the literature, are upward biased. The reason is that such measurements are cross-sectional by nature and, therefore, do not take into consideration the turnover in the job market which, in the long run, equalizes within-group (e.g., same-education groups) inequalities. Using a job-search model, I show how to derive the within-group invariant-distribution Gini coefficient of income inequality, how to calculate the size of the bias and how to organize the data in arder to solve the problem. Two examples are provided to illustrate the argument.

Illegitimate identity in the middle of an ideological crisis and tensions in the consumption network: a study on why plus-size fashion brands are illegitimate fashion elements

O presente trabalho explora as causas pelas quais o campo da moda plus size carece de legitimidade com as consumidoras plus size. Eu explorei o assunto em três artigos. No primeiro, eu estudo o processo de legitimação de um novo mercado emergente, o mercado da moda plus size brasileira e os desafios para sua a institucionalização. Eu conduzi dezessete entrevistas com consumidoras plus size, uma netnografia em quatro blogs de moda plus size brasileiros e analisei de maneira semiótica um site que vende roupas de moda plus size. Meus resultados indicam que, apesar de ter atores legítimos que promovem essas marcas de moda plus size, o campo da moda plus size ainda é percebido como uma versão vergonhosa do campo da moda. Defendo aqui que o fato de uma das lógicas de campo da moda plus size ser estigma, acaba afetando os projetos identitários das consumidoras de maneira depreciativa, de forma elas não se envolvem em práticas de capital cultural que ocorrem dentro do campo da moda plus size. No segundo artigo, eu conduzi uma introspecção genealógica em que eu pesquisei questões de identidade. Como uma mulher (que se assume ) plus size, eu imaginei que seria relevante para olhar para dentro de mim mesma, a fim de explorar a forma como a minha identidade liga-se com a rede semiótica-material que me rodeia em termos de moda, alimentos e outros elementos. Meus dados vieram tanto de técnicas de introspecção simultâneas, quanto retrospectivas. Em termos teóricos, eu usei a ideia de ―assemblages‖ e eu foquei minha análise tanto nos aspectos materiais da minha rede de consumo, quanto na estabilidade da rede. As consequências da minha assemblage estão ligadas a uma gestão de qualidade total da minha identidade, tanto online como off-line, refletidas em práticas de consumo que se conectam à ideia de uma lógica de consumo bulímica em que o consumo de alimentos e gestão corpo estão interligadas. Por fim, no meu terceiro artigo, eu explorei o conceito de identidade a partir do consumo da moda feminina plus size. Foram feitas catorze entrevistas fenomenológicas, cujos dados foram analisados a partir de uma perspectiva hermenêutica. Três categorias temáticas emergiram da análise de dados: a construção da identidade por meio da moda, elementos de identidade plus size e estratégias criativas para lidar com a falta de produtos para mulheres plus size no varejo. Entre os principais resultados, destacam-se a forma como o termo plus size atua como estigma, influenciando projetos de identidade das consumidoras, o papel do varejo no processo de estigmatização e a saga épica de compras, que envolve um "mercado negro", com a participação de vendedores. Eu concluo discutindo o papel da identidade na instabilidade do campo da moda plus size.