International Performance Research Institute

<p> </p> <p>Recently, tourism has gained significant strides as a poverty reduction strategy for low income nations, including Uganda, where poor people constitute 61% of Uganda’s population, living belowUS$1 per day. In 2003, the Government of Uganda identified tourism as a priority export sector. This article provides a Uganda case study that focuses on enhancing rural livelihoods through tourism, specifically highlighting the interdependent themes of tourism training and partnership development as aims of a University of Manitoba—Makerere University cooperative program. Uganda is a country rich in natural and cultural resources with opportunities for sustainable tourism providing local impetus to support the conservation of wildlife and natural areas. The key to realizing this potential lies in the development of local capacity to research, manage, plan, interpret, and profit from the resources that are the foundation of sustainable tourism. The two universities are in partnership to develop a masters’ degree in sustainable community tourism. Specifically the article describes the curriculum development process for a master’s degree in sustainable community tourism at Makerere University, the creation of a strategic partners’ network for sustainable tourism and biodiversity conservation, and the relationship between the two processes linking higher education and community development with sustainable tourism. Challenges faced by the Canadian and Ugandan project participants, as well as solutions, next steps for implementation, and future research opportunities are also discussed.</p>

The prevalence of neurocognitive disorders has been rising and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common cause. Studies on conditional discrimination have contributed to understand the variables associated with the cognitive function. However, the relationship of such studies with cognitive impairment in older adults remains under-explored. This research aims to compare the performances of older adults during tasks involving conditional discrimination training with their performances on Addenbroke's Cognitive Examination, a widely used screening test for cognitive impairments. The sample was composed of 45 older adults. The participants performed a computerized task consisting on establishing arbitrary conditional relations between three pairs of stimuli. Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination was administered to assess the cognitive performance. The analysis revealed a positive correlation between the performance in conditional discrimination and in the cognitive assessment. This correlation was observed only among participants who did not reported having AD in use of anti-cholinesterase drugs (30 participants). These findings demonstrate a direct relationship between learning difficulties, when it comes to learning arbitrary conditional relations, and the occurrence of cognitive decline. Therefore, the administration of the conditional relations tasks could be useful for distinguishing older adults with and without AD. Keywords: Conditional discrimination; neuropsychological tests; elderly; Alzheimer's Disease.

Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht den Reputationsverlust von digitalen Plattformen durch nicht-reziprok handelnde Nutzer. Dieser Reputationsverlust kann zuruckgefuhrt werden auf eine Informationsasymmetrie zwischen den Nutzern. Um diese Informationsasymmetrie aufzulosen wurde konzeptionell ein Verfahren beschrieben, das Techniken des maschinellen Lernens nutzt, um aus naturlichsprachlichen Textbeitragen der Nutzer Eigenschaften zu extrahieren und basierend auf diesen Eigenschaften Prognosen zu bilden uber das Nutzerverhalten, die dann in Masnahmen uberfuhrt werden.

In this paper, we propose a complete framework to process images captured under uncontrolled lighting and especially under low lighting. By taking advantage of the Logarithmic Image Processing (LIP) context, we study two novel functional metrics: i) the LIP-multiplicative Asplund metric which is robust to object absorption variations and ii) the LIP-additive Asplund metric which is robust to variations of source intensity or camera exposure-time. We introduce robust to noise versions of these metrics. We demonstrate that the maps of their corresponding distances between an image and a reference template are linked to Mathematical Morphology. This facilitates their implementation. We assess them in various situations with different lightings and movement. Results show that those maps of distances are robust to lighting variations. Importantly, they are efficient to detect patterns in low-contrast images with a template acquired under a different lighting.

Die branchenubergreifende Digitalisierung der Wirtschaft fuhrt neben der Entstehung innovativer Produkte und Dienstleistungen, auch zu einem Wandel bestehender Marktlogiken (BMWi 2017, S. 14 f.). Diese Entwicklung ist auch in den Prozessen des Supply Chain Managements und im Besonderen in der Logistikbranche zu beobachten. Als Folge dieses Trends, sind Logistikdienstleister in der Verantwortung neben den physischen Warenflussen, in Zukunft auch die digitalen Datenflusse zu steuern und auf neue Marktlogiken zu reagieren (Kersten et al. 2017, S. 12).

I argue in this article that the foundation of performance improvement consists of a number of principles of reasoning as opposed to a number of models. I show, along with some prominent models, what these principles are and that none of the models incorporates them completely. Finally, I consolidate these principles into one list and show how they lead to a simple performance improvement process that includes the development of new models and the adaptation of existing models.

Compressed air-a major industrial energy carrier, its filters are used to reach the required cleanliness level of compressed air. These filters, however, introduce a pressure drop which results in a loss of energy. It is shown that over the life cycle of a compressed air filter, the pressure drop dominates the total energy consumption and subsequently, the carbon footprint. From an economic as well as ecologic point of view, a reduction of the pressure drop is hence of utmost importance. Based on this finding and structuring, the wide range of applications and operational parameters, a pragmatic and technically feasible eco-labeling system for compressed air filters was developed as a decision supporting tool. Using this tool, procurement managers as well as the process engineers and environmental officers are able to steer the selection of suitable compressed air filters. The approach has been proposed to and discussed with various representatives of the compressed air filter industry nevertheless there is probably a long way to go to establish such a labeling procedure in industry.