Over the last two decades social vulnerability has emerged as a major area of study, with increasing attention to the study of vulnerable populations. Generally, the elderly are among the most vulnerable members of any society, and widespread population aging has led to greater focus on elderly vulnerability. However, the absence of a valid and practical measure constrains the ability of policy-makers to address this issue in a comprehensive way. This study developed a composite indicator, The Elderly Social Vulnerability Index (ESVI), and used it to undertake a comparative analysis of the availability of support for elderly Jamaicans based on their access to human, material and social resources. The results of the ESVI indicated that while the elderly are more vulnerable overall, certain segments of the population appear to be at greater risk. Females had consistently lower scores than males, and the oldest-old had the highest scores of all groups of older persons. Vulnerability scores also varied according to place of residence, with more rural parishes having higher scores than their urban counterparts. These findings support the political economy framework which locates disadvantage in old age within political and ideological structures. The findings also point to the pervasiveness and persistence of gender inequality as argued by feminist theories of aging. Based on the results of the study it is clear that there is a need for policies that target specific population segments, in addition to universal policies that could make the experience of old age less challenging for the majority of older persons. Overall, the ESVI has displayed usefulness as a tool for theoretical analysis and demonstrated its potential as a policy instrument to assist decision-makers in determining where to target their efforts as they seek to address the issue of social vulnerability in old age. Data for this study came from the 2001 population and housing census of Jamaica, with multiple imputation for missing data. The index was derived from the linear aggregation of three equally weighted domains, comprised of eleven unweighted indicators which were normalized using z-scores. Indicators were selected based on theoretical relevance and data availability.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(社会健康医学) / 甲第23384号 / 社医博第117号 / 新制||社医||11(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科社会健康医学系専攻 / (主査)教授 佐藤 俊哉, 教授 滝田 順子, 教授 万代 昌紀 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Public Health / Kyoto University / DFAM

The focus of this master’s thesis is orientated on the area of reporting in the environment of a selected corporation, more specifically in the company ATS aplikované technické systémy s.r.o. In order to achieve this outcome, first of all theoretical knowledge is gathered and based on it, a practical analysis is developed. Results obtained in this way are furthermore used to create proposals of changes , which represent the final part of this thesis.

The principal objective of this study was to develop an economic indicator system for the hotel industry in order to project the industry's growth and turning points. This study developed for the U.S. hotel industry a business cycle that would cover hotel activity as broadly as possible and one that would represent the magnitude of growth of the industry. This study also identified and selected seventy economic indicators for the hotel industry by reviewing literature and testing the characteristics of each time series which are available in public. By classifying the indicators into leading, coincident, and lagging indicators, this study formed composite indices for the groups of indicators and defined the relationships in terms of time lags between the hotel industry growth cycle and the series of composite indices. For a twenty-eight year period ( 1966-1993 ), the hotel industry experienced three cycles (peak to peak or trough to trough). The hotel industry peaked in 1967, 1973, 1980, and 1989. The industry troughed in 1969, 1974, 1982, and 1991. The mean duration of the hotel industry cycles is 7.3 years, calculated either by peak to peak or trough to trough. An interesting finding is that the hotel industry declines sharply once it reached the peaks. In general, the mean duration for the contraction is about two years. The hotel industry growth cycle representing the rate of growth changes was also identified by standardizing the changes, and by measuring and dating the cycles. The results showed that the hotel industry experienced high growth (a boom) every four or five years. The average expansion (L-H) period is about three years and the average contraction (H-L) period is about two years. The performances of the composite indices for the leading, coincident, and lagging indicators were measured based on their timing differences of turning points compared with those of the industry cycles. The usefulness and effectiveness of the indicator system composed of composite indices of leading, coincident, and lagging indicators were empirically supported in this study. The results of this study imply the indicator system can be used as a forecasting tool for the hotel industry. / Master of Science

Many quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands throughout western North America are considered mature, overmature, or decadent, and lack root suckering to replace the overstory mortality. To mimic natural disturbance and stimulate aspen suckering, prescribed burning or harvesting is needed. It is important to identify pre-disturbance indicators so that land managers will have a way to assess potential sucker production resulting from a prescribed treatment. In fall 2011, eight field sites were located in the Cedar Mountain study area in southern Utah, and two field sites were located on Deseret Land and Livestock land in northern Utah. At each site, two aspen stands were selected within 50 m of each other, one having a relatively low live aspen basal area and one stand having a relatively high live aspen basal area. Above- and belowground pre-disturbance site characteristics for each paired plot were measured and compared. In spring 2012, all trees within 12.2 m (40 ft) of plot center were felled to stimulate a suckering response from the root system. Root diameter and root surface area proved to be the best predictors of sucker regeneration density after a disturbance. Sucker densities decrease with increasing root diameters, and most suckers are produced on roots less than 2.5 cm in diameter. The highest sucker densities were recorded on plots which contained abundant roots less than 2.5 cm in diameter. A simple methodology for sampling aspen roots in the field is outlined and is based on the relationship between root diameter, root surface area and sucker production. There was no relationship between total nonstructural carbohydrate (TNC) concentration in the roots (measured as starch and water soluble carbohydrates (WSC), % dry weight) and sucker density, indicating that TNC concentration cannot be used as an indicator of sucker ability of aspen after a disturbance. This study also documents the effect of herbivory on sucker height. In areas where grazing and browsing pressures were great, sucker potential was severely decreased due to the effects of repeated hedging below the browse line or complete sucker elimination. If aspen are to persist on the landscape under these circumstances, management strategies must be implemented to enhance aspen regeneration.

A lead sensitive indicator electrode was constructed with a 70 percent lead and 30 percent mercury amalgam billet. Sulfate concentrations in pure solutions, natural waters, and soil saturation extracts were determined potentiometrically using the lead-mercury amalgam indicator electrode and a standard calomel reference electrode. Sulfate concentrations over the range 0.4 to 20 milliequivalents sulfate per liter were determined with an automatic titrator and compared to a turbidimetric method for accuracy and precision. The values obtained by the two methods from twelve saturation extracts and three subsurface drainage waters were not significantly different and the potentiometric method was generally more precise. The automatic sulfate titration method has the advantages of increased sensitivity and speed.

Insider threat has continued to be one of the most difficult cybersecurity threat vectors detectable by contemporary technologies. Most organizations apply standard technology-based practices to detect unusual network activity. While there have been significant advances in intrusion detection systems (IDS) as well as security incident and event management solutions (SIEM), these technologies fail to take into consideration the human aspects of personality and emotion in computer use and network activity, since insider threats are human-initiated. External influencers impact how an end-user interacts with both colleagues and organizational resources. Taking into consideration external influencers, such as personality, changes in organizational polices and structure, along with unusual technical activity analysis, would be an improvement over contemporary detection tools used for identifying at-risk employees. This would allow upper management or other organizational units to intervene before a malicious cybersecurity insider threat event occurs, or mitigate it quickly, once initiated. The main goal of this research study was to design, develop, and validate a proof-of-concept prototype for a malicious cybersecurity insider threat alerting system that will assist in the rapid detection and prediction of human-centric precursors to malicious cybersecurity insider threat activity. Disgruntled employees or end-users wishing to cause harm to the organization may do so by abusing the trust given to them in their access to available network and organizational resources. Reports on malicious insider threat actions indicated that insider threat attacks make up roughly 23% of all cybercrime incidents, resulting in $2.9 trillion in employee fraud losses globally. The damage and negative impact that insider threats cause was reported to be higher than that of outsider or other types of cybercrime incidents. Consequently, this study utilized weighted indicators to measure and correlate simulated user activity to possible precursors to malicious cybersecurity insider threat attacks. This study consisted of a mixed method approach utilizing an expert panel, developmental research, and quantitative data analysis using the developed tool on simulated data set. To assure validity and reliability of the indicators, a panel of subject matter experts (SMEs) reviewed the indicators and indicator categorizations that were collected from prior literature following the Delphi technique. The SMEs’ responses were incorporated into the development of a proof-of-concept prototype. Once the proof-of-concept prototype was completed and fully tested, an empirical simulation research study was conducted utilizing simulated user activity within a 16-month time frame. The results of the empirical simulation study were analyzed and presented. Recommendations resulting from the study also be provided.

The paper uses an impact assessment methodology with ex-ante indicator for free tradeagreement to test the trade of the European Union and countries of the FennoscandianPeninsula included Iceland. By estimates intraregional trade share, regional trade introversionindex and intraregional trade intensity the objective is to evaluate if their trade have any signsfor being natural or unnatural and if this could be because of the trade agreements. Thefoundation in trade theory is that trade should be accomplished by buying (and selling) of thecheapest producer, being neutral in their selection and choosing careful from price is positive.When this requirement does not hold trade could be expensive and therefore negative. Whentrade is conducted by choice and not by “natural roads” it could be biased, trade should befounded by comparative advantage to be positive and considered natural. The study showsthat the European Union free trade agreement have a great capital validity and some smalllevel of bias trade, although this does not mean it is bad, some level of bias trade could behard to avoid being a Union. The Nordic countries shows a biased trade, even though beingmembers of the EU or EES. The conclusion is that it is not possible to determine if the EUtrade agreement is subconsciously developing unnatural trade, but the study shows that somepartners in the union have biased trade. If this is because of the trade agreement is at this levelleft unanswered.

No description available.

Environmental samples from food processing facilities and production (farms) were taken and analyzed for the presence of indicator organisms and Salmonella spp. on food contact (FC) and nonood contact (NFC) surfaces. Salmonella was isolated from both FC and NFC surfaces of a fruit and catfish-processing plant environment, but not from a dairy processing plant or from produce packaging facility environments. Scatter plots did not show a relationship between indicator organisms and the presence of Salmonella in processing environments, regardless of the facility/environment. Salmonella ser. Gaminara and Salmonella ser. Give were prevalent in the fruit processing environment. Persistence could not be determined, as Salmonella was not detected during subsequent samplings. Two modifications of the Rappaport Vassiliadis (RV) enrichment step were evaluated and compared to the standard enrichment methods for the recovery of Salmonella. Detection rates ranged from 10.2% to 21.2% and 22.3% to 31.9% for aquaculture and sweet potato farming environments, respectively. Salmonella ser. Newport and Salmonella ser. Javiana were prevalent in the sweet potato farming environment, whereas Salmonella ser. Newport and Salmonella ser. Hartford were prevalent in the aquaculture environment. PFGE analysis revealed clusters with a high degree of genetic similarity (greater than or equal to 90%) from the fruit-processing, aquaculture, and sweet potato environments, suggesting that they represented the same strain isolated from different sampling points. Molecular characterization of isolates revealed potential contamination paths to catfish and sweet potatoes.