Optimal trajectory to the general equilibrium state of the unstable stochastic lattice gas of prey–predator model with pair-approximation

This paper focuses on the study of the optimal control problem of the unstable stochastic lattice gas of prey–predator model with pair-approximation. The Pontryagin minimum procedure is used to derive the optimal behaviour of the proposed system that makes it trajectory closer to its general equilibrium states with respect to a selected performance measure during a specified period of time T. Wide numerical simulations and illustrations are presented in graphs and tables.     

Learning from tradition: the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities.     

Labour Policy and Determinants of Employment and Wages in a Developing Economy with Labour Shortage

Using data from a sample of 1,099 workers, this paper investigates the determinants of employment and wages for workers in the United Arab Emirates. The paper further examines the wage distribution and the decomposition of the wage gap between the public and the private sectors. Results of the study are consistent with the dual labour market theory and indicate that the labour market in the United Arab Emirates is segmented based on sectors (public versus private) and types of workers (nationals versus non‐nationals). The study concludes with a discussion of the implication of these findings for the effectiveness of labour and economic policy.     

Effective International Tourism Management: A Strategic Approach

The objective of the study was to explore the relationship between international tourism indicators, crime rate, and vulnerability in a panel of 16 tourist-oriented countries over the period of 1990–2014. The study constructed a vulnerability index by using three socioeconomic factors, (1) poverty, (2) income inequality, and (3) unemployment rate. The results show that crime rate and vulnerability both decreases international tourism demand, which were mediated through inadequate education and health resources. Trade openness moderately supported the international tourism demand under the crime rate and vulnerability index. The results confirmed the crime Kuznets curve that turned into inverted U-shaped relationship between crime rate and per capita income, while this relationship was not confirmed for vulnerability index. The panel causality relationships confirmed the unidirectional causality between crime-vulnerability and international tourism. Growth-fueled tourism demand was analyzed under a crime and vulnerability index. The study concludes that international tourism is an implied solution to reduce human costs by involving tourists to in pleasure activities to at tourists’ destinations.     

Temporal discounting of gains and losses of time: An experimental investigation

This paper investigates “asymmetries” between non-monetary gains and losses in intertemporal choice. We considered gains and losses of spare/working time with respect to a reference duration defined in a working contract. Specifically, we elicited a behavioral model of intertemporal choice that accounts for a gain/loss-dependent discounting function and a reference-dependent utility. Additionally, we did not impose preference for the present (positive discounting) and allowed for both decreasing and increasing impatience. While our results are standard regarding the discount of money (our baseline treatment), our subjects heavily discounted gains of time. More patience was observed for losses of time and a sizable portion of subjects even exhibited negative discounting, i.e. they preferred to expedite losses of time. Our econometric estimations also reveal a much larger heterogeneity of behavior in terms of both utility and discounting for gains and losses of spare time as compared to money.     

Portrayal of Muslims Following the Murders of Lee Rigby in Woolwich and Mohammed Saleem in Birmingham: A Content Analysis of UK Newspapers

In 2013, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale murdered a British soldier, named Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London. In the aftermath of the incident, evidence showed Muslims had become targets for a rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes.¹1. ACPO, “True Vision Records”, 2013. Available at: http://www.reportit.org.uk/true_vision_records_a_significant_weekly_reduct (accessed 2 September 2014).View all notes Most notably, mosques had been reported to have been burnt down and graffiti with messages of hate scrawled against the walls. In such times, the role of the media is crucial in projecting a balanced approach. This study analysed newspaper coverage three weeks from the Woolwich attacks and examined the language and headlines used to describe Muslims. Over 1022 articles from UK newspapers were reviewed using the Nexis database utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the media narrative regarding Muslims and also make a comparative analysis of how the media reported on the case of Mohammed Saleem who was murdered by the far right extremist, Pavlo Lapshyn. The newspaper articles were analysed by using the computer software NVivo to search for and identify patterns across the articles in order to give an idea of the most frequent ways that Muslims were being portrayed. This paper found that news coverage had generalised about Muslims which was made in an overtly prejudicial way.     

The Impact of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behaviours: The Contingent Role of Public Service Motivation

In this paper we examine whether the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) is contingent on public service motivation (PSM). We propose that PSM may reduce the motivational influences of transformational leaders’ behaviours on followers’ OCBs in public sector organizations. Using a sample of Mexican employees we tested this proposition with structural equation modelling. Our results show that the motivational effects of transformational leadership were less for public sector followers higher in PSM than for those lower in PSM. A follow‐up study in private sector organizations did not reveal a similar interaction effect. These findings appear consistent with previous research demonstrating that PSM is more aligned to the goals and values of public rather than private sector organizations. Nevertheless, the direct effects of PSM on OCBs remained in the private sector.     

Cryptosporidium and Dairy Cattle in the Catskill/Delaware Watershed: A Quantitative Risk Assessment

We carried out a study to estimate the public health risk posed by dairy cattle located in New York City's Catskill/Delaware watershed, as measured by daily C. parvum-like oocyst loading. A Monte Carlo simulation model that takes into account the nature of the dairy cattle population within the target area, age-specific incidence/prevalence rates, as well as differential fecal production and oocyst-shedding intensity rates was used to address the objectives. Additionally, the model was designed to distinguish between zoonotic and nonzoonotic species/genotypes of Cryptosporidium. Total estimated daily C. parvum-like oocyst shedding across all age/production categories was estimated at 4.15 x 10(10). The zoonotic C. parvum comprised 93.5% of this load. It was estimated that preweaned calves produce 99.5% of the total daily C. parvum ocyst burden. The recently described nonzoonotic C. bovis was estimated to have a daily load of 2.2 x 10(9) oocysts across all age/production strata. C. parvum deer-like genotype was estimated to have a total daily load of 1.3 x 10(9) oocysts. The results of this study support earlier assertions that strategies aimed at reducing the cryptosporidial risk posed by dairy cattle to public health will be most efficacious if aimed at preweaned calves.     

Scalable spatio‐temporal Bayesian analysis of high‐dimensional electroencephalography data

We present a scalable Bayesian modelling approach for identifying brain regions that respond to a certain stimulus and use them to classify subjects. More specifically, we deal with multi‐subject electroencephalography (EEG) data with a binary response distinguishing between alcoholic and control groups. The covariates are matrix‐variate with measurements taken from each subject at different locations across multiple time points. EEG data have a complex structure with both spatial and temporal attributes. We use a divide‐and‐conquer strategy and build separate local models, that is, one model at each time point. We employ Bayesian variable selection approaches using a structured continuous spike‐and‐slab prior to identify the locations that respond to a certain stimulus. We incorporate the spatio‐temporal structure through a Kronecker product of the spatial and temporal correlation matrices. We develop a highly scalable estimation algorithm, using likelihood approximation, to deal with large number of parameters in the model. Variable selection is done via clustering of the locations based on their duration of activation. We use scoring rules to evaluate the prediction performance. Simulation studies demonstrate the efficiency of our scalable algorithm in terms of estimation and fast computation. We present results using our scalable approach on a case study of multi‐subject EEG data.