One style does not fit all

The different types of outsourcing and the management requirements for each of them are discussed. An outsourcing has a high strategic importance to the buying company when it is aligned with the organization's long term strategies and when its results are either positive or negative. Functional outsourcings are characterized by both low strategic importance and financial impact, and the products/services that fall in this category belong to support activities which are highly standardized. Leverage outsourcings are those that have a low strategic importance, but high financial impact to the outsourcer, and they concentrate on operational aspects, leaving strategic issues.

EEFIT mission to Haiti following the 12th January 2010 earthquake

The Mw= 7.2 Haiti earthquake of 12th January 2010 caused extensive damage to buildings and other infrastructure in the epicentral region in and around Port-au-Prince. The Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT), which is based in the United Kingdom, organised a field mission to Haiti with the authors as the team members. The paper presents the geotechnical findings of the team including those relating to soil liquefaction and lateral spreading and discusses the performance of buildings, including historic buildings, and bridges. Unprecedented use was made of damage assessments made from remote images (i. e. images taken from satellites and aircraft) when planning the post-earthquake relief effort in Haiti and a principal objective of the team was to evaluate the accuracy of such assessments. Accordingly, 142 buildings in Port-au-Prince were inspected in the field by the EEFIT team; damage assessments had previously been made using remote images for all these buildings. On the basis of this survey, the tendency of remote assessments to underestimate damage was confirmed; it was found that the underestimate applied to assessments based on oblique images using the relatively new technique of Pictometry, as well as those based on vertical images, although to a lesser degree. The paper also discusses the distribution of damage in Port-au-Prince, which was found to be strongly clustered in ways that appear not to have been completely explained. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

A VSLMS Style Tap-length Learning Algorithm for Structure Adaptation

Compared with the ordinary adaptive filter, the variable-length adaptive filter is more efficient (including smaller., lower power consumption and higher computational complexity output SNR) because of its tap-length learning algorithm, which is able to dynamically adapt its tap-length to the optimal tap-length that best balances the complexity and the performance of the adaptive filter. Among existing tap-length algorithms, the LMS-style Variable Tap-Length Algorithm (also called Fractional Tap-Length Algorithm or FT Algorithm) proposed by Y.Gong has the best performance because it has the fastest convergence rates and best stability. However, in some cases its performance deteriorates dramatically. To solve this problem, we first analyze the FT algorithm and point out some of its defects. Second, we propose a new FT algorithm called 'VSLMS' (Variable Step-size LMS) Style Tap-Length Learning Algorithm, which not only uses the concept of FT but also introduces a new concept of adaptive convergence slope. With this improvement the new FT algorithm has even faster convergence rates and better stability. Finally, we offer computer simulations to verify this improvement.

Optimization of Global Signal Networks for Island-Style FPGAs

We present a staggered buffer connection method that provides flexibility for buffer insertion while designing global signal networks using the tile-based FPGA design methodology. An exhaustive algorithm is used to analyze the trade-off between area and speed of the global signal networks for this staggered buffer insertion scheme, and the criterion for determining the design parameters is presented. The comparative analytic result shows that the methods in this paper are proven to be more efficient for FPGAs with a large array size.

The D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer on the SMART-1 mission to the Moon - First Results

Grande, Manuel; Kellett, B.; Howe, C.; Perry, C.H., 'The D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer on the SMART-1 mission to the Moon - First Results', Planetary And Space Science (2007) 55(4) pp.494-502 RAE2008

Prezbiter - świadek i sługa komunii. Aktualność przesłania Listu do moich kapłanów

Inspiracją dla autora artykułu stały się zebrane w Liście do moich kapłanów refleksje Prymasa Wyszyńskiego na temat tożsamości i misji prezbitera. Zawierają one wiele wątków, które niewątpliwie łączy przenikająca całe dzieło troska o jedność kapłanów w służbie eklezjalnej komunii. Dla Prymasa Tysiąclecia społeczna natura człowieka była czytelnym potwierdzeniem prawdy o jego powołaniu do życia we wspólnocie, nie tylko tej doczesnej, ale i tej nadprzyrodzonej. Należało tę naturalną zdolność do wchodzenia w relacje z innymi właściwie odczytać w świetle Bożego Objawienia. Bogate życie wewnętrzne pozwala kontemplować tajemnicę Trójcy Świętej i dostrzegać w Niej źródło eklezjalnej i międzyludzkiej komunii. Obdarowanie nadprzyrodzoną mocą wspólnoty z Bogiem w Kościele, uzdalnia wierzących w Chrystusa do nowych braterskich relacji, czyniąc z nich prawdziwą Bożą rodzinę. Proces ten dokonuje się dzięki pośrednictwu posługi kapłańskiej, dlatego też prezbiterzy są szczególnie wezwani, aby w ich wzajemnych relacjach jaśniał ten nowy, wspólnotowy styl życia. Osobista więź z Bogiem, relacja z ordynariuszem, pomiędzy prezbiterami, czy też z wiernymi świeckimi to podstawowe wymiary, w których kapłani mają jawić się jako świadkowie i słudzy komunii.

The universal mission of the church of Christ : a discourse / delivered at Hanley, Staffordshire, August 4, 1884, being the Fernley lecture of 1884, by Benjamin Hellier.

http://www.archive.org/details/universalmission00helluoft

The mission as a frontier institution in the Spanish american colonies, by Herbert E. Bolton.

http://www.archive.org/details/missionasfrontie00boltrich

In southern India : a visit to some of the chief mission stations in the Madras presidency / by Mrs. Murray Mitchell.

http://www.archive.org/details/insouthernindivi00mitcuoft