Hugo D. Asencio, Fynnwin Prager, José N. Martínez and John Tamura
This paper examines the relationship between government economic development programming and entrepreneurial activity, by examining evidence in Southern California cities. While…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between government economic development programming and entrepreneurial activity, by examining evidence in Southern California cities. While numerous studies explore this relationship between government institutions and entrepreneurship at the level of countries and states, significant questions remain at the level of city government, and the influence of local government economic development programs on city-level entrepreneurial activity.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses regression analysis of data from all 215 Southern California cities to decompose the complex relationships between economic development programming and different types of entrepreneurial activity.
Findings
Results suggest startups are attracted to cities with higher crime rates, more diversity, and older populations, yet not those with higher levels of economic development programming. There is evidence that some types of economic development programming may influence entrepreneurship, especially for the level of minority-owned businesses.
Originality/value
The paper makes three important contributions to the literature. First, it is among the first to use local (city-level) entrepreneurship as an outcome variable to measure the effect of government economic development programming. Many scholars have instead chosen to look at outcomes relating to general economic growth (e.g. new jobs) rather than outcomes specific to local entrepreneurship. Second, it explores city-wide entrepreneurial activity with respect to numerous measures, such as start-ups, minority and female ownership, and self-employment. Third, it examines the potential influence of economic development programming, both on aggregate and decomposed into economic development program clusters.
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Li Na, Xiong Zhiyong, Deng Tianqi and Ren Kai
The precise segmentation of brain tumors is the most important and crucial step in their diagnosis and treatment. Due to the presence of noise, uneven gray levels, blurred…
Abstract
Purpose
The precise segmentation of brain tumors is the most important and crucial step in their diagnosis and treatment. Due to the presence of noise, uneven gray levels, blurred boundaries and edema around the brain tumor region, the brain tumor image has indistinct features in the tumor region, which pose a problem for diagnostics. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble Support Vector Machine (SVM) structure. In the proposed technique, 124 features of each voxel are extracted, including Tamura texture features and grayscale features. Then, these features are ranked using the SVM-Recursive Feature Elimination method, which is also adopted to optimize the parameters of the Radial Basis Function kernel of SVMs. Finally, the bagging random sampling method is utilized to construct the ensemble SVM classifier based on a weighted voting mechanism to classify the types of voxel.
Findings
The experiments are conducted over a sample data set to be called BraTS2015. The experiments demonstrate that Tamura texture is very useful in the segmentation of brain tumors, especially the feature of line-likeness. The superior performance of the proposed ensemble SVM classifier is demonstrated by comparison with single SVM classifiers as well as other methods.
Originality/value
The authors propose an original solution for segmentation using Tamura Texture and ensemble SVM structure.
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Janet M. Alger and Steven F. Alger
Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in…
Abstract
Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in animals. Recent research on animals has challenged the traditional ideas of Mead and others by providing evidence of animal intelligence, adaptability, selfawareness, emotionality, communication and culture. This paper examines the human‐animal relationship as presented in Introductory Sociology Textbooks to see if this new research on animals has allowed us to move beyond Mead. We find outdated information and confused thinking on such topics as the relationship between language and culture, the development of the self in animals, and the role of instinct, socialization and culture in animal behavior. We conclude that, with few exceptions, the main function of the treatment of animals in these texts is to affirm the hard line that sociology has always drawn between humans and other species.
M.T. Vaziri, Joe Won Lee and Joseph L. Krieger
Japan's success in the management of its organisations has long been admired and envied by the rest of the western world. An early “manager” is examined and his example upheld as…
Abstract
Japan's success in the management of its organisations has long been admired and envied by the rest of the western world. An early “manager” is examined and his example upheld as one of the first exponents of Japanese management practice.
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Over the past year, the pattern in assembly of electronics components to printed circuit boards (PCBs) has changed dramatically, with far greater use of surface mounted devices…
Abstract
Over the past year, the pattern in assembly of electronics components to printed circuit boards (PCBs) has changed dramatically, with far greater use of surface mounted devices (SMDs) in place of through‐hole insertion of leaded devices. Therefore, most of the established makers of machinery have introduced special placement equipment. However, the Japanese were slow to introduce the vapour phase soldering needed for surface mounting, but now equipment, claimed to overcome the weaknesses of the early machines, is available.
A.N. Pavlov, S.S. Sazhin, R.P. Fedorenko and M.R. Heikal
Detailed results of numerical calculations of transient, 2D incompressible flow around and in the wake of a square prism at Re = 100, 200 and 500 are presented. An implicit…
Abstract
Detailed results of numerical calculations of transient, 2D incompressible flow around and in the wake of a square prism at Re = 100, 200 and 500 are presented. An implicit finite‐difference operator‐splitting method, a version of the known SIMPLEC‐like method on a staggered grid, is described. Appropriate theoretical results are presented. The method has second‐order accuracy in space, conserving mass, momentum and kinetic energy. A new modification of the multigrid method is employed to solve the elliptic pressure problem. Calculations are performed on a sequence of spatial grids with up to 401 × 321 grid points, at sequentially halved time steps to ensure grid‐independent results. Three types of flow are shown to exist at Re = 500: a steady‐state unstable flow and two which are transient, fully periodic and asymmetric about the centre line but mirror symmetric to each other. Discrete frequency spectra of drag and lift coefficients are presented.
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Sarah Giroux, Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, John W. Sipple and Michel Tenikue
Does education still serve as a great equalizer today? Does today’s worldwide expansion of schooling foster a global economic convergence? These questions need fresh answers at…
Abstract
Does education still serve as a great equalizer today? Does today’s worldwide expansion of schooling foster a global economic convergence? These questions need fresh answers at this time of growing concern over inequality. Past studies have abundantly documented the effects of schooling on within-country inequality, but we know little about corresponding effects on between-country inequality. We fill this gap by drawing on two innovations. The first is to formulate a theory of global inequality that integrates international differences in both the quantity and quality of education. The second, methodological, innovation is to propose and apply a method for decomposing trends in global inequality in GDP in terms of five social forces that include the quantity and quality of schooling. Analyses focus on the 1990–2010 period. The results confirm the continued salience of education: Trends in education account for as much as 80% of the 1990–2010 decline in between-country GDP inequality. However, we find a declining significance of “quantity” over “quality.” In sum, education remains salient as a global equalizer but its salience increasingly depends on bridging international differences in school quality.
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To discuss the problem of cultural imperialism as it relates to human rights and to provide a framework for applying human rights to Library and Information Services (LIS) so as…
Abstract
Purpose
To discuss the problem of cultural imperialism as it relates to human rights and to provide a framework for applying human rights to Library and Information Services (LIS) so as to respect diverse worldviews.
Methodology/approach
The chapter is theoretical in nature but also draws out important practical implications. The problem is described and addressed using the approach of philosophical ethics emphasizing moral pluralism. Political and moral theories are compared and lessons drawn from them for LIS practice.
Findings
Drawing on the work of philosopher Jacques Maritain (1949) as well as contemporary human rights theory, an understanding of human rights as pluralistic and evolving practical principles is developed. Using Maritain’s conception of human rights as a set of common principles of action, guidelines for applying human rights in ways that avoid cultural imperialism are provided.
Social implications
The findings of this chapter should assist LIS professionals in understanding the relationship between human rights and cultural diversity. In addition, it gives professionals a framework for understanding and applying human rights in a ways that respects cultural diversity.
Originality/value
This chapter develops an original approach to applying human rights in a way that respects cultural diversity.
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This paper surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with a particular type of information retrieval problem, namely that where the information need is pictorial. The…
Abstract
This paper surveys theoretical and practical issues associated with a particular type of information retrieval problem, namely that where the information need is pictorial. The paper is contextualised by the notion of a visually stimulated society, in which the ease of record creation and transmission in the visual medium is contrasted with the difficulty of gaining effective subject access to the world's stores of such records. The technological developments which, in casting the visual image in electronic form, have contributed so significantly to its availability are reviewed briefly, as a prelude to the main thrust of the paper. Concentrating on still and moving pictorial forms of the visual image, the paper dwells on issues related to the subject indexing of pictorial material and discusses four models of pictorial information retrieval corresponding with permutations of the verbal and visual modes for the representation of picture content and of information need.