Minister of Public Works Lt/Col David Burch and the Bermuda Audubon Society both released statements regarding the communication surrounding the proposal for a motocross event at Coney Island. Minister of Public Works Lt/Col David Burch Statement Minister Burch said, “In accordance with Section 10[1] of the Bermuda National Parks Act 1986, the National Parks Commission was invited to consider […]

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has put brakes on a proposal to undertake uranium exploration in the Kappatralla reserve forest area in Kurnool district, offering relief to agitating villagers.

Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar had stated, in Wayanad in Kerala, that the government would take all possible measures to lift night traffic ban through Bandipur, which had riled wildlife conservationists in Karnataka

Tiruvannamalai Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian chaired the hearing organised by the TNPCB on Wednesday. The black granite quarry is proposed to be set up on about 8.46 hectares of government land in Sathanur

Fr. Tom Soroka and AFR listener Tad Singleton join Fr. Barnabas to talk about proper adornment as an Orthodox Christian including the topic of head coverings. We thank Tad for suggesting the topic!

According to the startup policy approved by the state cabinet on September 6, Bihar’s state industrial department recently launched a website––biharstartupyatra.com that supports people planning to set up startups in the state.

101 Marriage Proposal Stories

Aim/Purpose: From an idea of lifelong-learning-for-all to a phenomenon affecting higher education, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be the next step to a truly universal education. Indeed, MOOC enrolment rates can be astoundingly high; still, their completion rates are frequently disappointingly low. Nevertheless, as courses, the participants’ enrolment and learning within the MOOCs must be considered when assessing their success. In this paper, the authors’ aim is to reflect on what makes a MOOC successful to propose an analysis framework of MOOC success factors. Background: A literature review was conducted to identify reported MOOC success factors and to propose an analysis framework. Methodology: This literature-based framework was tested against data of a specific MOOC and refined, within a qualitative interpretivist methodology. The data were collected from the ‘As alterações climáticas nos média escolares - Clima@EduMedia’ course, which was developed by the project Clima@EduMedia and was submitted to content analysis. This MOOC aimed to support science and school media teachers in the use of media to teach climate change Contribution: By proposing a MOOC success factors framework the authors are attempting to contribute to fill in a literature gap regarding what concerns criteria to consider a specific MOOC successful. Findings: This work major finding is a literature-based and empirically-refined MOOC success factors analysis framework. Recommendations for Practitioners: The proposed framework is also a set of best practices relevant to MOOC developers, particularly when targeting teachers as potential participants. Recommendation for Researchers: This work’s relevance is also based on its contribution to increasing empirical research on MOOCs. Impact on Society: By providing a proposal of a framework on factors to make a MOOC successful, the authors hope to contribute to the quality of MOOCs. Future Research: Future work should refine further the proposed framework, by in testing it against data collected in other MOOCs.

Aim/Purpose: This paper reports our implementation of a prototype system, namely PRATO (Proposals Reviewers Automated Taxonomy-based Organization), for automatic assignment of proposals to reviewers based on categorized tracks and partial matching of reviewers’ profiles of research interests against proposal keywords. Background: The process of assigning reviewers to proposals tends to be a complicated task as it involves inspecting the matching between a given proposal and a reviewer based on different criteria. The situation becomes worse if one tries to automate this process, especially if a reviewer partially matches the domain of the paper at hand. Hence, a new controlled approach is required to facilitate the matching process. Methodology: Proposals and reviewers are organized into categorized tracks as defined by a tree of hierarchical research domains which correspond to the university’s colleges and departments. In addition, reviewers create their profiles of research interests (keywords) at the time of registration. Initial assignment is based on the matching of categorized sub-tracks of proposal and reviewer. Where the proposal and a reviewer fall under different categories (sub-tracks), assignment is done based on partial matching of proposal content against re-viewers’ research interests. Jaccard similarity coefficient scores are calculated of proposal keywords and reviewers’ profiles of research interest, and the reviewer with highest score is chosen. The system was used to automate the process of proposal-reviewer assignment at the Umm Al-Qura University during the 2017-2018 funding cycle. The list of proposal-reviewer assignments generated by the system was sent to human experts for voting and subsequently to make final assignments accordingly. With expert votes and final decisions as evaluation criteria, data system-expert agreements (in terms of “accept” or “reject”) were collected and analyzed by tallying frequencies and calculating rejection/acceptance ratios to assess the system’s performance. Contribution: This work helped the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), a funding agency at Umm Al-Qura University, in managing the process of reviewing proposals submitted for funding. We believe the work can also benefit any organizations or conferences to automate the assignment of papers to the most appropriate reviewers. Findings: Our developed prototype, PRATO, showed a considerable impact on the entire process of reviewing proposals at DSR. It automated the assignment of proposals to reviewers and resulted in 56.7% correct assignments overall. This indicates that PRATO performed considerably well at this early stage of its development. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important for funding agencies and publishers to automate reviewing process to obtain better reviewing quality in a timely manner. Recommendation for Researchers: This work highlighted a new methodology to tackle the proposal-reviewer assignment task in an automated manner. More evaluation might be needed with consideration of different categories, especially for partially matched candidates. Impact on Society: The new methodology and knowledge about factors influencing the implementation of automated proposal-reviewing systems will help funding agencies and publishers to improve the quality of their internal processes. Future Research: In the future, we plan to examine PRATO’s performance on different classification schemes where specialty areas can be represented in graphs rather than trees. With graph representation, the scope for reviewer selection can be widened to include more general fields of specialty. Moreover, we will try to record the reasons for rejection to identify accurately whether the rejection was due to improper assignment or other reasons.

The post Love Letters Classics: A proposal gets weird appeared first on Boston.com.

Voluntary sector providers of local authority services say ideology must not hamper effective service provision

Washington — The National Labor Relations Board is requesting public comment as it seeks to return to its previous definition of a “joint employer.”

Washington — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is moving forward with – and seeking comment on – a proposed rule that would require the installation of speed-limiting devices on trucks, buses and multipurpose passenger vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds.

Washington — Responding to stakeholder requests, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has extended until July 18 the comment period on a proposed rule that would require the installation of speed-limiting devices on trucks, buses and multipurpose passenger vehicles weighing more than 26,000 pounds.

Washington — Stakeholders now have until Nov. 29 to comment on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s process for determining whether truck and bus companies are able to operate safely.

Washington — OSHA has extended until June 30 the deadline to comment on a proposed rule that would revise injury and illness recordkeeping rules.

Washington – The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has extended the comment period on a proposal that is intended to improve aviation safety on and around fixed offshore facilities.

Washington — OSHA will reopen, for an additional 60 days, the comment period on its proposal to revoke Arizona’s State Plan status, the agency has announced.

Washington – A proposed rule that would modernize OSHA’s reporting system has cleared one regulatory hurdle and could be published soon.

Washington – The Office of Management and Budget has begun its review of an OSHA proposal to address outdated permissible exposure limits.

Washington – A review of OSHA’s proposal on chemical management and permissible exposure limits is now complete, allowing the agency to move forward on the rulemaking process.

Through the partnership, Snap One will offer partners a customized Portal subscription plan, a $600 annual value, at no cost to partners.

Washington — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on May 17 submitted for review to the White House Office of Management and Budget an advance notice of proposed rulemaking intended to help the agency assess whether to clarify the definitions of “agricultural commodity” or “livestock” in FMCSA’s hours-of-service regulations for commercial truck drivers.

Washington — The Federal Railroad Administration is requesting public comment on a proposed rule that would require at least two crew members for most trains.

Washington — The Federal Railroad Administration has extended until Dec. 2 the comment period on a proposed rule that would require at least two crew members for most trains.

Washington — Alarmed by a recent spike in assaults against transit workers, the Federal Transit Authority is proposing a rule designed to protect workers and passengers.

Washington — The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is set to publish a proposed rule that would require railroads to maintain and update information about hazardous material shipments.

San Diego — A U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to remove maximum line speeds in pork-processing plants “will translate into even more illness and injury” among workers, according to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

Washington — More than 3 out of 5 Americans are against a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed rule to remove maximum line speeds in pork-processing plants, according to the results of a recent survey.

Washington — President Joe Biden on Jan. 22 signed an Executive Order withdrawing a controversial U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed rule that would have permitted line speeds at certain poultry-processing plants to increase to 175 birds a minute from the current 140.

Washington — An update to OSHA’s standard on hazard communication is undergoing a final review, according to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website.

Washington — A pair of recent Environmental Protection Agency proposals regarding asbestos are cause for alarm, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) is cautioning, while the agency contends it is attempting to expand restrictions on the substance.

Washington — Members of the House Highways and Transit Subcommittee veered from the focus of a recent hearing by challenging legislation that would require speed-limiting devices on heavy trucks.

Atlanta – As the nation prepares to cook millions of turkeys in recognition of Thanksgiving Day, a coalition of worker safety and consumer advocates once again have voiced their opposition to a proposed Department of Agriculture rule that would speed up line speeds at poultry-processing plants.

Washington — The U.S. Department of Agriculture used flawed worker injury data to advance its controversial proposal to remove maximum line speeds in pork-processing plants, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group.

Washington — OSHA is seeking to revive an Obama administration policy that would allow workers to designate someone who doesn’t work for their employer – including someone from a union or other organization – to represent them during an OSHA “walkaround” inspection.

Washington — A pair of lawmakers from opposites sides of the aisle, along with a coalition of organizations, express opposing viewpoints in comments on OSHA’s proposed rule on worker walkaround representation.

Washington — In response to multiple stakeholder requests, OSHA has extended until Oct. 28 the comment period on a proposed rule that would revise the agency’s standards on occupational exposure to lead in general industry and construction.

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency wants to expand the scope of chemical risk evaluation policies under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

Washington — Chemical manufacturers and importers of 16 different chemicals would be required to submit data from unpublished health and safety studies, under a recently announced Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule.