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The research featured relationship between self-regulation and psychological competence of future specialists. The study involved an analysis of theoretical approaches to this problem in domestic and foreign psychology. Psychological competence presupposes developed psychological knowledge and communicative abilities and skills, as well as a stable system of self-regulation that allows for effective management of one's behavior during professional interaction. The author established the features of psychological and communicative competences in students, as well as such regulatory qualities as self-regulation, self-control, and self-efficacy. The research revealed statistically significant relationships between the level of development of psychological and communicative competences and the characteristics of regulatory qualities. A cluster analysis showed three groups of students with different levels of communicative competence and regulatory qualities. The regulatory and communicative components of psychological competence appeared closely interrelated. Self-regulation, self-control, self-efficacy, and communicative skills of future psychologists were the instrumental basis for the development of psychological competence. A well-developed self-regulation helped students understand and control their behavioral reactions. It enabled them to carry out conscious and focused interaction with people in problematic professional situations, as well as contributed to the development of psychological competence during vocational training.

The feasibility of assembling and maintaining complex and expensive automatic equipment for navigation locks is considered. The hydraulic structures, including the hydraulic component of the locks, represent a stable system designed to function reliably for many decades. From the point of view of the present authors, a prediction of their state may be carried out by professional hydraulic engineers without the use of automatic equipment

In recent years, electric power systems are subject to drastic changes. This affects the frequency stability due to the decreasing trend of the system inertia. To ensure stable system operation in the future, it is of great importance to make existing/conventional under-frequency load shedding protection schemes more adaptable and situation-aware under various volatile conditions. This paper presents the results of hardware-in-the-loop testing of an intelligent electronic device equipped with innovative load shedding algorithm. The results obtained from applying real-time digital simulations demonstrate that the innovation is robust, efficient and offers a very useful way of utilizing rate-of-change-of-frequency for under-frequency load shedding purposes.

This paper argues that NGDP targeting is unlikely to produce macroeconomic stability. Contrary to the policy objective, NGDP targeting may increase macroeconomic turbulence. DSGE models that prove the effectiveness of NGDP stabilization policy rest on two assumptions. The first assumption is that macroeconomic volatility is a consequence of exogenous shocks to an otherwise stable system. The second assumption is that central banks can act upon aggregate variables. Neither of these assumptions is accurate. An economy is an ecology of interacting agents, some of whom have rivalrous plans. Macroeconomic volatility is an endogenous and intrinsic feature of such an economic system. Furthermore, central banks act upon some agents in the economic system, not on aggregate variables. The percolation of central bank actions through production networks can impede coordination efforts of economic agents during recessions, thereby increasing macroeconomic volatility.

La investigación previa indica que la estabilidad emocional, como rasgo de personalidad, tiene una repercusión relevante sobre el comportamiento humano. Dicha estabilidad tiene dos dimensiones: El “umbral de alteración emocional” (facilidad para experimentar estados emocionales alterados) y la “resiliencia emocional” (la capacidad para recuperarse de las emociones negativas y volver a la estabilidad emocional). El objetivo de este estudio consiste en analizar las diferencias entre hombres y mujeres en cuanto a sus niveles de estabilidad emocional, teniendo en cuenta ambas dimensiones. La muestra está formada por 134 estudiantes universitarios de edades comprendidas entre 18 y 40 años. Los resultados muestran que las mujeres poseen tanto un umbral más bajo para experimentar emociones negativas como una menor resiliencia emocional que los hombres. Dichos datos indican la necesidad de realizar más estudios en esta dirección para llegar a comprender mejor el comportamiento del ser humano.

Recently, several court-like mechanisms have been considered as a substitute for investor-state arbitration. Suggestions for creating such mechanisms have been around for a long time, but new trade agreements may make court-like mechanisms for investors’ disputes a reality. This paper starts by asking whether the shift from arbitration to court-like mechanism is likely to happen and how deep is the change to dispute resolution going to be. The advantages and disadvantages of replacing ad-hoc arbitrators with court-like mechanisms are examined. Courts are more centralized than arbitrators, which gives them the ability to act in a coherent way and consider long-term consequences. However, centralization may imply a greater risk of capture by special interests and could lead to more radical legal developments than the stable system of diverse arbitration. Furthermore, compromise solutions that create numerous competing court-like mechanisms instead of a universal court may escalate the fragmentation of international law.

The main reason of marine casualties is the human error in respect of ship’s operation. The human error of officers in charge of a navigational watch is related to their abilities to handle of navigational equipment. Navigational devices play a key role to help officers decide what to do for safe navigation. Thus, the abilities to handle of navigational equipment mean not only operation of devices but also entire understanding of the system such as interpretation of information obtained from devices, appropriate use of information considering navigational circumstance. Qualification of seafarers is in accordance with STCW and detailed training courses for their qualification are provided by IMO model course series. Recently, ships engaged on international voyages shall be fitted with an ECDIS not later than the first survey on or after 1 July 2018. As increasing use of ECDIS on ships, marine casualties related to ECDIS are on the rise. The primary causes of the accidents are lacking understanding of ECDIS system, wrong presentation of information on display, wrong safety setting by seafarers who use ECDIS, using small-scale chart and missing charts update. As a result of these primary causes, some problems like wrong route planning and use of limited or omitted information occur. It could be happening by inappropriate seafarers’ training which is not sufficient to support improving abilities of officers to handle navigational equipment. For efficient training, it is need to develop training courses. Applying full mission simulation system to seafarers’ training courses with case studies and best practices which are well-constructed scenarios based on true marine casualties can increase the effect of training. To use the simulation system, it is possible that seafarers are trained under condition that closely resemble real situation. It should be considered that IMO model course be revised depending on the level of seafarers also. It could be helpful for increasing seafarers’ abilities of equipment operation in place of accumulation of experience spending much time. In the short term, effort of training courses improvement for seafarers is needed and long term, it should be tried to provide stable system and services relate to ECDIS.

In this paper, the phenomena of coherence resonance (CR) and stochastic resonance (SR) are studied in an asymmetric tri-stable potential with memory effects, which is driven by internal noise and a periodic forcing. Analytical expressions for characteristic correlation time and spectral amplification are derived to quantify the CR and the SR, respectively. The obtained results indicate the existence of a critical value of asymmetry for the onset of CR. For intermediate memory times, there exhibits an optimal memory intensity at which the CR attains maximum. Moreover, memory plays a significant role in an enhancement of CR and SR, which also depends prominently on the tri-stable potential structure. Interestingly, memory time suppresses CR but enhances SR. Specifically, the appropriate choice of asymmetry constant and nonlinear stiffness coefficient can improve the performance of system response to an external periodic signal based on the SR effect. Finally, the results from numerical simulations well verify the validity of the theoretical analyses.

Spanish Abstract: En trabajos clasicos del area sudcalchaqui se ha considerado que la practica alfarera implico un sistema estable a lo largo del primer milenio (Berberian y Arguello, 1988) o una tradicion (Cremonte, 1996), resaltando mayormente la dimension de perdurabilidad de las practicas. Sin embargo, como desarrolla Bourdieu (2007) la reproduccion de la praxis tambien implica componentes dinamicos y variables diacronicamente. En este aporte se presentan resultados de estudios experimentales, petrograficos, difraccion de rayos X, comparativos y relevamientos de campo, tendientes a determinar logicas de estabilidad/dinamismo en la obtencion de materias primas utilizadas por los alfareros de El Sunchal (Anfama, Tucuman) durante el primer milenio de la Era Para ello, se ha identificado la ubicacion de probables fuentes de aprovisionamiento en el valle, evaluando a partir de la realizacion de muestras experimentales, la factibilidad de utilizacion y calidad de las mismas (entendida esta como las caracteristicas de maleabilidad y plasticidad del material). Complementando dichos estudios, se han comparado las pastas arqueologicas de los grupos tecnologicos mayoritarios, a partir de la observacion petrografica de veintidos cortes delgados (incluyendo tres muestras experimentales), y de DRX de siete fragmentos (incluyendo tres muestras experimentales), con el ambiente geologico de la region. Estos estudios apuntaron a realizar estimaciones mas precisas del origen local o aloctono de las materias primas utilizadas en El Sunchal. En adicion, se han identificado y fechado en El Sunchal dos ocupaciones diacronicas superpuestas, una correspondiente a 1900-1600 AP –denominada piso de ocupacion A-, integrante de un recinto adosado de una vivienda tipo “Patron Tafi” (sensu Oliszewski, 2017); y otra a 1100 AP –denominada piso B-, integrante de un recinto sub-rectangular de caracteristicas informales. La presencia de dos componentes permite comparar las estrategias de aprovisionamiento en dos momentos distintos, discutiendo brevemente las implicancias de las practicas y su reproduccion, a partir de los cambios y continuidades observados en las formas de obtencion de los materiales. English Abstract: In classic works of the sudcalchaqui valleys it has been considered that the pottery practice implied a stable system throughout the first millennium (Berberian and Arguello, 1988) or a tradition (Cremonte, 1996), emphasizing mainly the dimension of durability of the practices. However, as Bourdieu (2007) develops, the reproduction of praxis also implies diachronically dynamic and variable components. This contribution presents results of experimental studies, petrographic, X-ray diffraction, comparative and field surveys, tending to determine stabilit /dynamism logics in obtaining raw materials used by El Sunchal potters (Anfama, Tucuman) during the first millennium A.D.To this end, the location of probable sources of supply in the valley has been identified, evaluating the feasibility of use and quality of the same from the performance of experimental samples (understood as the characteristics of malleability and plasticity of the material). Complementing these studies, we have compared the archaeological pastes of the major technological groups, from the petrographic observation of twenty-two thin sections (including three experimental samples), and of the XRD of seven fragments (including three experimental samples), with the geological environment region of. These studies aimed to make more precise estimates of the local or allochthonous origin of the raw materials used in El Sunchal. In addition, two superimposed diachronic occupations have been identified and dated in El Sunchal, one corresponding to 1900-1600 AP - called occupation floor A -, member of a terraced house of a "Patron Tafi" type dwelling (sensu Oliszewski, 2017) ; and another one to 1100 AP - called floor B -, member of a sub-rectangular enclosure of informal characteristics. The presence of two components allows comparing supply strategies in two different moments, briefly discussing the implications of the practices and their reproduction, based on the changes and continuities observed in the ways of obtaining the materials.

In dit artikel onderzoek ik twee theoretische concepten met betrekking tot de aard van grammaticale structuren. Ten eerste bespreek ik het begrip panchronie als een niet-reductief alternatief voor de structurele dichotomie van diachronie versus synchronie. Ten tweede introduceer ik een emergentistische benadering van taal die de idee van taal als een statisch, stabiel systeem verwerpt. Daarna laat ik zien hoe een panchronische taalvisie de emergentistische benadering ten goede komt. Hierbij zal ik het belang van structurele posterioriteit benadrukken die in traditionele grammaticamodellen vaak wordt verwaarloosd en in emergentistische alleen geïmpliceerd. De opkomende aard van de taal, zoals ik ga aanvoeren, kan alleen worden beschreven als ook rekening wordt gehouden met structurele voorspellingen van de sprekers. Afgezien van het combineren van de structurele anterioriteit, d.w.z. diachronie, en structurele contemporaneïteit, d.w.z. synchronie, moet ook rekening worden gehouden met de structurele posterioriteit. In dat geval bouwt elke spreker in elke uitspraak voort op vroegere taalkundige ervaring en vormt daardoor, in zekere mate, toekomstige uitspraken.

This paper critically discusses the standard concept of hierarchical preferences, which presupposes that a stable system of higher- and lower-order preferences exists, wherein the former contains an individual’s fundamental purposes and values, while the latter guides everyday choices. It is argued that systems of hierarchical preferences suffer from problems similar to those of standard preferences, in terms of rationality, that they also are potentially unstable and can change, for example, in response to individual experiences. It is furthermore argued that higher-order preferences may not be coherent internally, because their different parts result from different kinds of reasoning. Finally, it is argued that behavioral economic policies, such as soft paternalism, easily can endanger the autonomy and integrity of an individual as a person.

This study was conducted in Eastern semi-arid region of Sétif (Algeria). 63 dairy cattle farmers were surveyed through personal interview using a well-structured questionnaire to collect the information about cattle husbandry practices followed in the study area. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics performed with SPSS software (version 19). The results revealed that the majority of farmers (68.85%) rely on family labor and 31.15 per cent use wage labor. As for the age group, operators aged between 21 and 35 represent the highest proportion (74.6%) and 21.1 per cent of the population aged between 36 and 50 years. On the other hand, chiefs over the age of 51 represent only 4.3 per cent. The free stall housing is the mode most practiced by the majority of farmers surveyed (59.01%) versus 40.99 per cent are practicing the stanchion stable system. The majority of respondents (90.16%) fed readymade concentrate to their animals followed by home prepared concentrate (9.84%). Artificial insemination is used by 19.67 per cent of farmers surveyed; the majority uses the natural service for breeding their animals. Pregnancy diagnosis is followed by all surveyed farmers but it was done by a qualified veterinarian. Calving interval was 12 months for all farmers surveyed. The majority of cattle farmers (96.82%) are calf producers-fatteners. The fattened calves and culled cows are main categories of cattle made in market for slaughtering.

Recording the state of a molecular programmed nanosystem is essential for many purposes. The capability to log the state helps in debugging and verifying the system, enables checkpointing for rollback in case of faults, and provides stable system states for input into other devices. In this paper we present the computational design of a molecular device to log the states of a system modeled by a chemical reaction network. We describe, formally specify and prove the correctness of the design. We then extend the device to include components that detect whether a signal is valid and log only valid states. These molecular components enable us to store a copy of the system's state and to communicate that copy to another system for use.

In this work, nonlinear pollution absorption, emission rate, and effectiveness of abatement technology are incorporated into the classic overlapping generation model. Within this framework, we analyze the macroeconomic effects of pollution emission and abatement technology on the economy. Our findings reveal that different levels of pollution emission rates from per capita income and the effectiveness of abatement technology could induce complex dynamical behavior, including the occurrence of a stable equilibrium, cycles, and chaos. Our analysis shows that either the pollution emission rate per capita income should be controlled to be small enough or the effectiveness of abatement technology should be large enough to maintain a stable system yielding high level of per capita income. A high level of pollution emission rate per capita income and a low level of effectiveness of abatement technology can lead to a stable economy, but with a low level of per capita income. In the case that the pollution emission rate and the effectiveness of abatement technology vary in a certain range, the economy would become unstable, and cycles and chaos would emerge.

The electric boiler in use at present has a significant system inertia and a serious time-lag at the same time the difficulty of building the mathematical model. In this paper, a study based on the electric boiler is presented to meet the demands of stable system, shorter regulating time and a small overshoot. When fuzzy control is used, regulating time and overshoot always can achieves the specification, but system cause steady-state error. So it comes to a new method of combining them together. The parameters of Kp, Ki and Kd are adjust by fuzzy inference. Experimental results illustrate that the fuzzy PID parameters controller achieved the system performance index. The method of fuzzy PID control is a ideal method.

The constantly changing healthcare environment is increasingly complex and rapidly evolving, forcing the development of new systems of care faster than ever before. Therefore, nursing leaders today need different behaviors to ensure both personal and organizational success tomorrow. The skills that characterize the traditional leadership model, such as planning, controlling, and managing, are no longer adequate to move a healthcare organization along a trajectory that leads to better patient, staff, and system outcomes. 1 The traditional method may have worked in the past in a predictable, stable system, but the healthcare organization of today is emergent and unstable, 2 requiring a new leadership model depicted by such skills as engaging, facilitating, and inquiring. Current expectations of leaders to address issues of quality, safety, errors, and resources are increasingly urgent, also driving the need for different leadership behaviors. 1 Organizations can be drawn into traditional actions to address these challenges or chose to embrace them with the development of innovative leadership practices.

This paper aims to present the desirable alternative for a stable system settlement to derive the limit with the current system based on the analysis of the introduction background and status, and the results after the introduction of academic interruption meditation system. According to the analysis, current the academic interruption meditation system has a positive effect overall, but it reveals the limitations. To this end, this paper proposes the role reorganization of Education Ministry and the Department and the necessity of regular monitoring and performance evaluation introduction.

The standard economics text is centered on a vision of a naturally self-regulated, dynamically stable system with a unique global attractor. This paper discusses how we got there and how recent developments in the study of dynamical systems allow us to go beyond that. It traces the evolution of the teaching of economics from Alfred Marshall, who built his supply-and-demand framework within a complexity vision of the economy. It suggests that that complexity vision was lost as economists formalized the supply–demand framework and extended it to the entire economy. This paper argues that the current textbook presentation of economics should not and cannot serve as the only intellectual frame we provide to our students.

The phenomenon of stochastic resonance (SR) in an asymmetric mono-stable system subject to two external periodic forces and multiplicative and additive noise is investigated. It is shown that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the fundamental and higher harmonics is a non-monotonic function of the intensities of the multiplicative and additive noise, as well as of the system parameter. Moreover, the SNR for the fundamental harmonic decreases with the increase of the system asymmetry, while the SNR for the higher harmonics behaves non-monotonically as the system asymmetry varies.

This paper makes a case for a stronger cultural and narrative approach to economic history. It shows that an analysis of the discourse strategies used to construct and present the narratives of crises can be used to reach a better understanding of economic crises. Starting from the observation that economic crises are frequently portrayed as serious illnesses which undergo different courses and progressions, the author argues that crises should also be viewed as phenomena of communication and perception. These should be examined in order to reveal either repeatedly used or changing linguistic patterns, metaphors and abstract concepts. The analysis therefore focuses on the relationship between economic crises and crisis discourses. Whether the crisis is described as an “imbalance” (in an otherwise fundamentally stable system) or a multi-layered disease (that culminates in death) is not only based on different metaphors and interpretation patterns. It also has an effect on the assessment of the causes and the progression of the crises, and it presents different courses of possible action.

Received 11 October 2014, Available online 26 January 2016 In deciding whether to join a coalition or not, an agent must consider both i) the expected power of the coalition and ii) her position in the vertical structure within the coalition. We establish the existence of a positive relationship between the degree of inequality in remuneration within coalitions and the number of coalitions to be formed endogenously in stable systems. We show that such coalitions can be mixed and balanced, rather than segregated, in terms of members' ability levels. In any stable system each coalition is of an efficient size and every agent is paid her marginal contribution. Article is version of EUI WP ECO; 2011/20

Commentators generally expound Bacon's position on the art-nature relationship in terms of how much it retained or departed from traditional conceptions. This paper argues that an appreciation of the Baconian meaning of the terms "art" and "nature" requires a close examination of his wider cosmogonical speculations. Bacon's cosmogonical account moves from a state of unbridled chaos to the relatively stable system for which the term "nature" is normally used. The fundamental principle lying at the heart of Baconian cosmogony is an enriched and appetitive matter: eternal, unchanging, and the plenipotentiary source of all things. Successive limitations of matter's absolute power produced a lazy and habitual nature, which Bacon labelled "nature free." To shift nature from this otiose condition, the Baconian operator recapitulates the original binding of matter. Bacon designated the systematic procedures of binding nature the science of magic. Magic is Bacon's human counterpart to the original cosmogonical process that gave rise to the current system of nature. In Bacon's cosmogony, all possible worlds unfold out of matter: the function of art is to shake out nature's hidden folds. Hence, the distinction between naturalia and artificialia maps on to the distinction between actual and potential. Nature free is without purpose, but art - nature bound - knowingly brings into being an alternative nature designed for human utility.

In recent years, there has been great interest in scenario-based design and other forms of user-centred design. However, there are many design processes that, often for good reason, remain technology-centred. We present a case study of introducing scenarios into two digital library development processes. This was found to disrupt established patterns of working and to bring together conflicting value systems. In particular, the human factors approach of identifying users and anticipating what they are likely to do with a system (and what problems they might encounter) did not sit well with a development culture in which the rapid generation and informal evaluation of possible solutions (that are technically feasible and compatible with stable system components) is the norm. We found that developers tended to think in terms of two kinds of user: one who was exploring the system with no particular goal in mind and one who knew as much as the developer; scenarios typically work with richer user descriptions that challenge that thinking. In addition, the development practice of breaking down the design problem into discrete functions to make it manageable does not fit well with a scenario-based approach to thinking about user behaviour and interactions. The compromise reached was scenario-informed design, whereby scenarios were generated to support reasoning about the use of selected functions within the system. These scenarios helped create productive common ground between perspectives.

American sociology has long documented and theorized persistent inequalities between religious communities in the United States; in addition, socioeconomic inequalities between religious groups have played an important role in many sociological theories about religion and society. Since the publication of numerous important works published in the mid-20th century, however, the social stratification of American religion has been a curiously understudied topic. This research note is an attempt to update our descriptive knowledge about socioeconomic inequalities between American religious groups. Using General Social Survey data to track educational, income, and job status inequality over a 16-year period, from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, we find that socioeconomic inequality in the American religious system has been quite persistent and stable, suggesting that significant mobility within this system in the mid-20th century may be declining, thus producing a more stable system of stratification.

The probabilities of various biological asymptotic dynamics are computed for a stable system that is invaded by another competing species. The asymptotic behaviors studied include extinction, weak extinction, permanence, and mutual exclusion. The model used is a discrete Lotka-Volterra system that models species that compete for the same resources. Among the results found are that the chance of permanence occurring in the invaded system is significantly higher than the probability of permanence in a purely random system, and that multiple extinctions that include the invading species and one of the original species are impossible.

Nowadays, vocational education development is a matter of great urgency in China. Because of starting later, vocational education cannot establish a stable system of running school, serving the society, training talents and teachers; it should propose the successful experience of the world to promote the effective healthy and fast development. On the base of analysis of German vocational education mode, especially take an example of DHBW curriculum of Event Management, this study was performed to find its reference for the modern vocational education development in China. The references are also new and original; they are promoting the depth of the cooperation of the industry and vocational colleges with the government guidance, reforming the mode of talent cultivation and strengthening the policy support and supervision to guarantee. Keywords—German vocational education mode; China present situation; enlightment; developement

The article contends the priority of practices of political, civic and social participation in the measurement of social inclusion as a component of social quality. Comparative analysis of the third (1999-2001) and the fourth (2008-2010) waves of European values study demonstrates contradictory tendencies of different types of participation in Ukraine during the late 1990s - 2000s which allows an assessment of important dimension of social quality of Ukrainian society in the context of other countries in Eastern and Western Europe. The structure of factors of civic and social participation in Ukraine has similarities with democratic countries - Germany, France and Poland, as well as with authoritarian Russia and Belarus. The growth of political activity and disproportionately low levels of civic and social participation in Ukraine point to problems of social inclusion and, respectively, relatively low level of social quality. It is concluded in the article that political reforms without corresponding changes in civic and social participation will not lead to the strengthening of democratic institutions of Ukrainian society and establishing a stable system of consolidated democracy.

On a pig farm in Thuringia (Germany), data from 775 sows of 5 different genetic constructions were recorded from birth until exit. Based on live weight gain and lateral back fat thickness measured at selection (around 180th living day), statistical relations were analyzed in regard to the influence of both factors on reproduction performance. There are no uniform results in regard to their influence, from our investigations nor in literature references. Different races, stable systems, methods and equipment of measurement cause partly opposite statements about the influence of live weight gain and lateral back fat thickness on reproduction performances of sows. Based on these investigations an influence of genetic construction could be ascertained, because the stable system, equipment and method of measurement were uniform. As a result, a partly significant influence of genetic construction on living performance of sows could be verified.

This paper presents a comparison of the performance of an online inertia estimation method for three different C37.118 compliant PMUs in a laboratory. Inertia is a critical part of ensuring stable system frequency and improving operator awareness of inertia will help preserve high quality frequency control in power systems with high levels of wind generation and converter interfaced generation. This study is necessary as inertia estimation is based on active power and rate of change of frequency measurements recorded immediately after a disturbance. Therefore, the transition time and inherent difficulty of estimating derivatives may mean that not all PMUs can support inertia estimation. Indeed, the results presented show that not all PMUs are capable of supporting inertia estimation. Therefore, it must be acknowledged that the installation of a PMU at a bus does not necessarily imply that it will be possible to perform inertia estimation at that bus.

SUMMARY In this article, Maria Manolova discussed the evolution of parliamentary government in Bulgaria from the establishment of autonomy to the eve of the Balkan wars. It illustrates how, in a society with no previous tradition of constitutional government, the evolution of a mature and stable system of parliamentary politics, sustained by responsible, competing political parties, proved to be a slow and difficult process. The instability of the parties which did develop, and their excessive number, hindered the evolution of a functioning parliamentary system.

This article draws on Deming's concept of a stable system to explain why the abundant resources directed toward reforming and improving undergraduate education over the past three decades have produced minimal results. We examine how the current system, and its underlying assumptions (paradigm), influences the goals, processes, and outcomes of undergraduate education. We then propose an alternative model of a quality process system based on quality principles. Finally, we challenge leaders to engage in a dialogue to answer the question “Can we substantially improve our educational system by critically examining our existing core process model (course-credit-completion) and begin design of a replacement quality process model?”

This paper applies structural econometric methodology to estimating and forecasting the greater London office market. We assemble a time series covering the 1970–1995 period and estimate equations for net space absorption, movements in rents, and new building orders. Together with two identities, calculating the stock and vacancy, these form a complete model. We estimate a generally inelastic supply and demand relationship that yields a dynamically stable system. Without unanticipated economic shocks, the market is noncyclic. Therefore the building boom of the 1980s largely is delayed response to the huge growth in service jobs that occurred over that period.

Since MAS’s magnanimous educational resources model shows it’s features of strong flexibility, highly efficient dispatcher and stable system, being relative to CDN model, MAS is significant on setting up shared system of magnanimous education—resources on Internet which is a distributed and opened environment. With regard to the character of shared service of magnanimous education—resources, this article sets up a kind of shared resource model basing on MAS, then offers the algorithm of resource dispatcher and the experimental analysis. The author of this article also gives specific interpretations of the function and working process of every agent in this system.

The corporate offensive was the main driving force in the neoliberal transformation of Mexico as it was in the United States and Canada. But in Mexico the corporate power bloc had to change the political order to achieve its hegemonic aspirations and desired policy changes. While the top bourgeoisie have been able to achieve more direct control of the state, they have not been able to establish a stable system of domination. The rise of bourgeois hegemony in Mexico is fragile. But the working class has not yet been able to find its voice and break free of the bonds of Mexico’s old state-linked unions or state system of labour repression in general. However, the on-going hardships imposed by neoliberalism, the fragile legitimacy of the new political regime, and the surviving popular traditions of revolutionary struggle point to a renewal of a class-based popular fight-back sooner rather than later. L’offensive du patronat a été la force prépondérante derrière la transformation néolibérale du Mexique, comme aux Etats-Unis et au Canada. Mais, au Mexique, le bloc du pouvoir patronal était obligé de transformer l’ordre politique afin de réaliser ses aspirations hégémoniques et la transformations politiques souhaitées. Alors que la haute bourgeoisie a réussi à renforcer son contrôle direct sur l’état, elle n’a pas réussi à établir un système stable de domination. L’ascendance de l’hégémonie bourgeoise au Mexique est fragile. Mais, la classe ouvrière n’a pas encore réussi à trouver sa voix et à briser les chaines des anciens syndicats liés à l’état mexicain ou le système étatique de répression du travail en général. Néanmoins, les difficultés de longue durée imposée par le néolibéralisme, la légitimité fragile du nouveau régime politique et les traditions populaires de lutte révolutionnaire qui persistent, suggère la renaissance d’une contre-attaque populaire basée sur les classes, plus tôt et non plus tard.

Deviance in intimate relationships may lie as much within the micro system of such relationships as it does within the personalities of the actors involved. Using a Parsonsian framework, it is argued that the strain of systemically disequilibrated relationships can produce deviant personality adaptations which, in turn, intensify conflict and deviance in those relationships. It is also proposed that a reciprocal quality exists to such maladaptations, with each member of the dyad contributing to the amplification of a stable system of deviant behavior patterns within the relationship. Because the patterns of maladaptive dyads spill over into parent-child relationships, they have implications for understanding intergenerational transmission of deviance between intimates.

An intrinsic, universal definition of quality has been quite elusive. As applied to products and services, the impressions of users are so subjective as to escape definition. To some extent producers see it in terms of what people will continue to buy, and if they will buy large amounts, the quality must be exceptionally good. While an absolute scale may escape us, changes along the scale do not. If a product (say coffee) or a service (say a haircut) changes by even a small amount we tend to notice and judge it as being higher or lower in quality. Quality systems, for example ISO 9000, and ISO 17025, can be used to facilitate products and services that are acceptable to clients by avoiding decreases in perceived quality. More about this in a moment. There is a physical approach to defining quality that is based on matching or exceeding defined physical requirements. This is an arena where formal quality systems have great utility. The client can test to see if his requirements are indeed met. Yet, even here the definition of quality may elude us. When the components are assembled into products, they will be judged by the customers based on intangibles that go beyond individual components exceeding requirements. Overall design, color, feel, and user friendliness will have a role in the customers’ judgment of quality. Even that judgment is likely to be relative to other products (or the ‘‘last one I owned’’) without any quantitative figure of merit on an absolute scale. Taking all of this into account, we see that there is not yet an acceptable scale for measurement of quality. Lacking that scale, we cannot quantify even small changes up or down from a fixed point. However, we usually can judge if a different product or service is better or worse than the previous one with respect to whatever attributes of quality we choose. This restricts any attempt at formal quantification. The way quality systems serve to assure meeting defined physical requirements is essentially the same as for meeting customer perceptions: that is to reduce variability to an acceptable or specified minimum. Reducing variability (improving the precision of the process) is critical before the process can be ‘‘tweaked’’ to improve quality. Without a stable system there can be no meaningful adjustments. A given adjustment in an unstable system may provide an instantaneous improvement in perceived quality, but there can be no assurance that the improvement will be reproducible. Thus we see quality systems are of utility in applications where rigidity and invariance are required to maintain acceptably low variation in output. Overall, this situation is found in chemical laboratories only where there is an ongoing pattern of analyzing very similar items. Examples could include clinical, steelmaking, sports doping, and soil testing labs. The emphasis in all these is routine, with sufficient repetition to assess variability and adequately control it through exercise of rigid procedures such as those developed to comply with ISO 17025. Quality systems are likely to be less helpful in chemical laboratories where analyses are not routine. That could include academic, high-level metrology, investigative, and consulting labs where very diverse materials are analyzed. This observation may help us to answer a question raised by such studies as IMEP. (Details on all Interlaboratory Comparisons of IMEP are available at: http://irmm.jrc.ec. europa.eu/html/interlaboratory_comparisons/imep/index. htm). Expert analytical chemists recognize IMEP for its S. D. Rasberry (&) 1255 Glebe Road, Lottsburg, VA 22511, USA e-mail: rasberry@rivnet.net

Among the essential conditions for a recently installed democ racy to survive are that it reduce to a minimum or absorb the inconsis tencies of the first moments of transition and that it affirm its solidity vis-à-vis possible threats, whatever their origin. At the center of this process a stable system of political intermediation, able to guarantee the governability of the country in question, must be generated. With these premises, the present article analyzes the topic of democratic consolida tion in reference to the crucial role played by political parties. Although the analysis focuses on Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, the conclusions may be extrapolated to other European countries.

The Tight Money Paradox refers to a result obtained by Sargent and Wallace stating that a reduction in the constant rate of monetary expansion may lead to higher inflation both in the short and long runs. This result was obtained for a system which is dynamically unstable. In the present paper I show that the foregoing result can be obtained within the framework of a stable system if we redefine “tight money” to mean a reduction in the share of money financing of the budget deficit.

This paper describes the implementation and part development of a digital simulation programme for an industrial dynamic system (a customer-producer employment case-study as formulated by J.W.Forrester). It has been shownthat with the aid of control theory, the major system details were described in a block diagram. The block diagram describing each sector of the model is constructed and then the complete block diagram is established. It isthen used to determine the initial conditions of the system. A digital simulation program was developed in "BASIC" language A subroutine was developed to calculate the third order delays occuring in the system. A step func-tion of the independent variable" demand" entering the customer sector was changed from 1000 u/w to 1100 u/w. The system shows a periodic fluctuations in response to the input step with a damping frequency 0.062 rad/w. The system sensitivity was also examined by changing the time for labour adjusting from 10 weeks to 5 weeks which leads to a more stable system.

As an ethical principle, philia represents a continuum of attachment that extends in a stable system of relationships from the self to one's immediate family and friends and then outwards to one's polis and one's race. Furthermore, shared attachment or philia also involves shared hostility or echthra, which can be as permanent as philia. But already in Sophocles' Ajax the idea of such fixed relationships is seen as old-fashioned and incompatible with practical life. In his pretended transformation from a rigid adherence to the principles of permanent philia and permanent echthra (particularly the latter) to the flexible morality of an ‘organization man’, the hero realizes that ‘we must hate our echthros only so far, since he may become our philos again later, and I am only ready to do so much to aid and assist aphilos, since he may not remain a philos forever…’ (672–81).

COR DING to Karl Keller, Emily Dickinson is a Puritan rebel against Puritanism: "She stamps her foot at what she stands on. She yells at the voice she yells with."' It is well known that Dickinson uses traditional religious meters and metaphors in a way that, almost casually, undermines traditional religious attitudes and assumptions. Specifically, in her lyrics, her allusions to the sacrament of communion call into question that whole system of sacraments and types by which the gap between heaven and earth is supposedly bridged. Dickinson's sacraments hallow either the elusive-the evanescent-or the immediate. Sometimes her sacramental imagery points toward an elusive deity, who glows within the natural world for a day or a summer, and then glides away along a "Route of Evanescence" (1463).2 More often, Dickinson's sacrament of communion is informed by an immediately secular longing-a longing for the written or spoken word, or for a specific physical presence. What we do not have in Dickinson's lyrics is an acceptance of a stable system of likenesses, established by God, and shadowing forth eternal truths through temporal forms. In such devotional

The authors investigated the development of the ability of 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-year-old bilingual children to per form a complex perceptual-motor task when they were given only Spanish or English verbal instructions. Results indicated that children perform better when given Spanish instruction. This was especially true of the 5-year-olds. Results also indicated that performance under both languages increased with age, and that a stable system of per ceptual-motor connections was established by verbal instruction under the Spanish treatment at age 6 and under the English treatment at age 7. THE ABILITY to decode verbal instructions and encode them in other forms of behavior, such as perceptual-motor, may be basic to other forms of language behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of the above mentioned ability in bilingual children. Luria (3, 4) demonstrated that children from ! SY2 to 4% years old regulate their perceptual motor behavior by means of the nonspecific im pulse aspect of language. From the ages of 4^ to 51/2 years, the regulatory function of language is transferred from the nonspecific impulse aspect to the analytic system of specific elective signifi cative connections which are produced by verbal rules. Language begins to play an important role in the establishment of new connections which

Whatever one’s feelings are about the merits of the American free market system, it has certainly proved to be a remarkably stable system that has remained relatively immune to major alterations in the hundreds of years it has been in existence. This is not to say that the type of capitalism, the size distribution of firms, or the role of government we have today are the same as in earlier centuries. Rather, the average American’s trust in the free market has remained relatively unshaken over the years despite repeated economic crises and occasional flirtations with socialism. This is true because the free market system satisfies what I feel are four basic criteria of any successful and stable economic system. In this chapter I will discuss these criteria and investigate the extent to which the American free market system satisfies them.

The method of moments, when applied to a stable system, sometimes fails by giving an unstable model. The implications are examined, and an auxiliary performance criterion is proposed which stabilises the model without destroying the simplicity of the method.