Middle Road Research Articles

GPS TECHNOLOGY FOR MONITORING SUBSIDENCE IN MERR II-C SURABAYA BRIDGE

MERR II-C bridge or road Middle East Ring Road II-C (MERR II-C) constructed as a support function sizeable transportation and vital to life, especially the area of Surabaya. Based on the results of soil testing in the area around the bridge (source: soil testing data on Soil and Rock Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, FTSP - ITS, Surabaya), the type of soil surrounding is soft clay. In the soft clay soil, the problem will be found when the need to construct buildings on it are low soil bearing capacity and congestion relatively high ground (Wirawan, 2011).In this study will be an analysis of land subsidence in the area around the bridge MERR II-C, using a GPS to get a reduction in the value of the land around the bridge. Point - the point being observed there are 12 control points scattered in the area around the bridge. Observations were made 3 time is in September, October and November 2015.Output of observations obtained when the point value of land is the biggest decline 23 mm at point 8 and the largest land rise is 4 mm at point 4.

INFORMATION EXTRACTION FROM UNSTRUCTURED DOCUMENT

Online information resources that are based on a structured data collection provide a rich set of operators for accessing their content. However, the vast majority of online information sources are based on collections of documents in unstructured form, and are not amenable to searching or navigation other than by the relatively unsophisticated methods of keyword-based search and document-at-a-time retrieval. Manually creating large structured collections from large sets of unstructured documents is not feasible. Thus, there is a need to develop tools which can automate (as much as possible) the process of extracting the information from a wide variety of unstructured documents into structured form. Over the past decade, there has been intense research toward achieving the goal of effective information extraction. However, most research to date has traded off the level of automation against the level of structuredness in the documents. Some systems have focused on achieving a high level of automation but with the requirement of well-structured input texts. Other systems require manual interaction as part of the extraction process, but work with a relatively unstructured input texts. Still other systems have taken a middle road, with medium levels of automation on a reasonable range of documents. The main contribution of this dissertation is to propose a novel approach to the problem of information extraction that fills a gap in the space of solutions to this problem: we make minimal assumptions about the structure or format of input documents, and we require minimal manual effort from users. The key idea behind our approach is that, instead of designing extraction rules manually, we incorporate machine learning algorithms into our system, using multiple different learners to handle the different tasks involved in information extraction: feature selection, region identification, text classification, synopsis extraction, pattern discovery and pattern matching. In this dissertation, we describe complete solutions including architectures, algorithms and implementations which address three of the most important problems in today's information extraction: document decomposition, text classification and data extraction. Our solutions achieve information extraction effectiveness that is as good or better than other related systems.

Conciliating the incompatible: the chancery activity of the lords of Milan in the mirror of some charters (late fourteenth century)

Recent scholarship has highlighted myriad conflicts attending the legitimacy of power and authority at different levels of society in the Duchy of Milan. Against this backdrop I would like to explore how different political cultures could coexist. Indeed, day-to-day life was not made up only by conflicts, and all the players -from the prince downwards -sooner or later were interested in finding a middle road. Given that the relationships between the lords of Milan and the social and territorial bodies of the dominion were generally set out on the grounds of pacts, I assume that in the mirror of these documents it is possible to trace the role of the chancery as a political mediator. Indeed not only played the chancellors a significant role in dealing with the prince's counterparts (like communities or lords of castles), but they had also the responsibility of drawing charters which formalized the agreements. My ultimate goal is to show how, through an accurate selection of words, which each side could interpret in the light of its own policial culture, the chancery made the impossible become possible, and mutually incompatible principles and ideals could overlap, apparently without clashing. Hence some concluding remarks on political communication in the state-building process.

Prospective steering control is influenced by retinal flow

Both retinal flow and visible road edges are potentially useful sources of information when steering down a road. Influential models of driving have identified a role for near and far road edge components, but it has been shown that flow is used even when complete road edges are present (Kountouriotis et al., 2013). The aim of the present study was to assess whether flow is used when different road edge components were available. We tested 20 participants steering through a virtual reality computer simulated environment while fixating a point on the road ~2s ahead. Flow was systematically manipulated independent of the veridical road edges, so that use of flow would lead to predictable understeer or oversteer (the flow speed was altered proportional to veridical flow by:.5,.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5). We also varied road edge information by using 7 combinations of Near road ('N': up to.5s ahead), Middle road ('M': from.5s to 1s ahead) and Far road ('F': from 1s to horizon) information. As predicted, steering systematically changed according to flow speed, but the magnitude of the flow-induced bias varied depending on the road-edge components that were visible. The presence of Far road increased the influence of flow, with flow bias most evident in F and N+M+F conditions. Similar results were observed when participants were free to look where they preferred. It seems that flow predominantly interacts with prospective steering control rather than the immediate correction of steering errors. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015. Language: en

Steering control using feedback from near road edges does not rely upon retinal flow.

There are two potentially useful sources of information when steering along a road: retinal flow and road edges. Influential models of driving have examined the distinct roles of near and far road edge components, but it has been recently shown that flow is used even when road edges should be sufficient to control steering (Kountouriotis et al., 2013). The aim of the present study was to assess the use of flow when different road edge components were present. Participants steered along a computer simulated road on a textured ground plane, travelling at a constant speed (generating retinal flow). Flow was manipulated independent of the veridical road edges, so that use of flow would cause systematic changes to steering. Additional translation components were added to flow by moving the ground (at a speed of.75ms or 1.5ms) perpendicular to the ideal direction of travel towards the outside of the bend (predicted understeer; Fig 1A), towards the inside of the bend (predicted oversteer; See Fig 1B), or flow remained veridical (no additional translation). We also varied road edge information by displaying 7 combinations of Near road ('N': up to.5s ahead), Middle road ('M': from.5s to 1s ahead) and Far road ('F': from 1s to horizon) information. As predicted, steering systematically changed across the flow manipulations, however, the magnitude of the flow-induced bias varied depending on the road edge components that were visible. The presence of N seemed to decrease the influence of flow: flow bias was weakest for N+M+F (complete road), N, N+M conditions, and strongest for F conditions (see Fig 2). While these findings confirm previous observations that the visual-motor system uses flow despite the presence of veridical road edge information, it appears that flow is less influential when the immediate error correction signal is being used. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015. Language: en

일본 고베시(神戶市) 포트아일랜드 가로녹지 구조 유형 연구

본 연구는 일본 고베시(神戶市) 해안 매립도시인 포트아일랜드 가로녹지의 지형구조별 도로 유형, 주변 토지이용, 식재구조를 조사 분석하여 녹지량이 풍부한 가로녹지 식재기법 사례를 제공하고자 수행하였다. 포트아일랜드(총면적 826ha)는 일본 내에서도 최초의 인공섬으로 항만시설과 본격적인 도시기능시설을 겸비한 해상문화도시이다. 연구대상지내 <TEX>$55{\sim}285m^2$</TEX> 면적의 조사구 11개소를 설정하여 조사 한 결과, 가로녹지의 지형구조는 마운딩형, 사면형, 사면+평지형, 평지형의 4개 유형으로 구분되었고, 인접한 도로의 폭에 따라 지형구조가 변화하였다. 인접한 도로의 차선이 많아서 소음, 공해물질 등 영향을 많이 받는 지역은 마운딩형, 사면형, 사면+평지형 등의 지형구조와 광폭의 다층구조 녹지대를 조성하였고, 도로차선이 적은 지역인 경우, 평지형의 지형구조와 화관목 위주의 관목을 식재하여 가로띠녹지를 조성하였다. 인접한 토지이용은 공공기관, 공동주택지, 주상복합지, 상업업무지 등이었고, 식재개념은 중로(4차선)의 경우 완충+경관기능, 소로(2차선)의 경우 경관기능이었다. 식재종은 대만풍나무, 녹나무, 조구나무, 참죽나무, 담팔수, 은행나무, 벚나무, 느티나무, 종가시나무, 향나무, 목련, 철쭉류, 동백나무, 꽃댕강나무 등 다양하게 나타났다. 식재밀도는 교목층 0.02~0.08(0.04)주/<TEX>$m^2$</TEX>, 아교목층 0.02~0.08(0.04)주/<TEX>$m^2$</TEX>이었고, 녹피율은 교목층 40.0~173.7(93.0)%, 아교목층 2.1~79.8(34.9)%, 관목층 17.9~64.2(4.13)%이었다. 녹지용적계수는 교목층 <TEX>$1.43{\sim}6.67(4.13)m^3/m^2$</TEX>, 아교목층 <TEX>$0.02{\sim}2.01(0.85)m^3/m^2$</TEX>, 관목층 <TEX>$0.14{\sim}0.58(0.26)m^3/m^2$</TEX>이었다. 포트아일랜드 가로녹지의 녹피율은 서울시 주요 가로녹지에 비해 높은 수준이었고, 특히 관목층 녹피율과 녹지용적계수는 우리나라 주요 가로녹지와 비교하였을 때 많은 차이가 있었다. 본 연구 결과는 현재 우리나라에 조성되고 있는 해안 매립기반 도시의 가로녹지 조성 시 지형구조, 식재구조, 식재기능 등을 고려하여 다양한 기능을 수행하는 가로녹지 조성기법 사례지로 응용이 가능할 것으로 판단된다. This study was carried out to provide examples of planting methods for the construction of street green spaces with abundant greenery by analyzing road type, surrounding land use and planting structures in street green spaces on Port Island, Kobe, Japan. Port Island_(total area: 826ha) is a marine cultural city located in Japan's first artificial island with facilities of urban function and port facilities. The study site was designated at 11 plots of <TEX>$55{\sim}285m^2$</TEX> on Port Island, and topography structure styles were divided into four types with mounding style, slope style, slope and flat style, flat style according to the adjacent roads width. The area adjacent to the middle roads with high levels of noise and pollution set up the mounding style, slope style, slope and flat style of multi-layer structures using topographic properties. The area adjacent to small roads focused on a green strip with shrubs on a flat style. Surrounding land-uses include a public institution, housing complex, and a commercial building. The planting concept was a buffer and landspace function in case of the middle road_(lane 4) while the small road_(lane 2) was a landspace function. Planting species were diverse with Liquidambe formosana, Cinnamomum camphora, Sapium sebiferum, Cedrela sinensis, Laeocarpus sylvestris var. ellipticus, Ginkgo biloba, Prunus serrulata var. spontanea, Zelkova serrata, Quercus glauca, Juniperus chinensis, Magnolia kobus, Rhododendron spp., Camellia japonica, Abelia mosanensis, etc. Planting density was 0.02~0.08(0.04) individual/<TEX>$m^2$</TEX> at the canopy layer, 0.02~0.08(0.04) individual/<TEX>$m^2$</TEX> at the understory layer. Ratio of green coverage was 40.0~173.7(93.0)% at the canopy layer, 2.1~79.8(34.9)% at the understory layer and 17.9~64.2(32.9)% at the shrub layer. <TEX>$Gr{\ddot{u}}volumenzahl$</TEX> was <TEX>$1.43{\sim}6.67(4.13)m^3/m^2$</TEX> at the canopy layer, <TEX>$0.02{\sim}2.01(0.85)m^3/m^2$</TEX> at the understory layer and <TEX>$0.14{\sim}0.58(0.26)m^3/m^2$</TEX> at the shrub layer. The ratio of green coverage of street green space on Port Island was higher than that of Seoul, and particularly, the ratio of green coverage and <TEX>$gr{\ddot{u}}volumenzahl$</TEX> at the shrub layer differed, compared to the main street green space in Korea. The result of this study may be applicable to other coastal reclaimed cities in terms of setting methods for street greenery considering the topography structure, planting structure and planting function.

Is justification easy or impossible? Getting acquainted with a middle road

Can a belief source confer justification when we lack antecedent justification for believing that it’s reliable? A negative answer quickly leads to skepticism. A positive answer, however, seems to commit one to allowing pernicious reasoning known as “epistemic bootstrapping.” Puzzles surrounding bootstrapping arise because we illicitly assume either that justification requires doxastic awareness of a source’s epistemic credentials or that there is no requirement that a subject be aware of these credentials. We can resolve the puzzle by splitting the horns and requiring a non-conceptual awareness of, or direct acquaintance with, a source’s legitimacy. Requiring non-conceptual as opposed to doxastic awareness halts the regress and avoids the skeptical results. On the other hand, requiring non-conceptual awareness also guarantees that we are aware of evidence for a source’s reliability prior to using that source to form justified beliefs; we thereby avoid the problem of allowing epistemic bootstrapping to generate the illicit gains in justification.

Reflecting on the struggle for democracy: a reply to John Saul

Reflecting on the struggle for democracy:a reply to John Saul1 Ben Turok (bio) John Saul is well known for his many writings on the liberation movements of southern Africa. In recent years, he has focused on South Africa and particularly the African National Congress (ANC). He is a sharp and persistent critic with a significant following in academic circles. His paper, ‘The struggle for South Africa’s liberation: success or failure?’ asked if our current situation was ‘precisely the moment for South Africa … to choose between … the “exhausted” … and “failed” nationalism of the ANC and … the politics of “the working class and the poor”’. His argument developed the following points: • that prior to 1994, the stage was set for ‘a capitalist-friendly ANC’ to ‘settle the problem’ of colonial apartheid through a negotiated accession to formal power – despite the belief of some that South Africa was ripe for revolution. He quoted Ronnie Kasrils’ assertion that, ‘[i]f we had held our nerve, we could have pressed forward without making the concessions we did’; • that the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP) were entrapped in negotiations and became crucial in guaranteeing a new post-apartheid system of class power. Saul makes reference to Frantz Fanon’s view of former leaders of liberation struggles who became ‘intermediaries’ acting ‘in their own class interests but also on behalf of capital’. Saul’s main case is that a ‘new class’ – ‘the national middle class-in-the-making, the nationalist elite’ – ‘represented by the ANC’ gained power ‘on the back of the liberation struggle’. [End Page 45] The response Many of us have been mulling over the transition to democracy for some time. I do not agree that the transition can be considered either a success or a failure. It was both. The liberation movement won some of its objectives – the replacement of the apartheid regime by a democratically elected government in a unitary state and a constitutional order based in equal rights for all – but it did not win others. Even on the main count of political power, the ANC modestly speaks only of ‘a democratic breakthrough’. I believe it was bigger than that, and even Saul acknowledges that ‘overthrowing apartheid was a remarkable step forward’. But the struggle had two main components: political power and socioeconomic transformation as set out in the Freedom Charter, especially (but by no means only) in its economic clause. There is now abundant evidence of a slippage on economic issues in the discussions that Thabo Mbeki and others held with representatives of the apartheid regime in the 1980s. I recall a meeting of the ANC branch in London where we were briefed on a proposed bill of rights for the Constitutional Guidelines document. The omission of socio-economic rights was obvious. This downplay of economic issues was in contradiction to the ANC’s 1969 Morogoro Consultative Conference view that the broad purpose of the struggle was ‘the complete political and economic emancipation of all our people and the constitution of a society which accords with the basic provisions of our programme – the Freedom Charter’. It was also against the position of the SACP (eg Slovo’s South Africa: no middle road), despite its strong presence in the ANC national executive of the time. So why did the ANC soft-pedal economic issues during the transition period? The answer has yet to be developed clearly. It is hoped that ongoing research by Vishnu Padayachee and Rob van Niekerk will provide the evidence once and for all. However, Saul’s suggestion that it was due to a ‘nationalist elite’ acting as ‘intermediary’ for capital is not persuasive. The leadership of the ANC in exile was far from an elite. It included working-class communists such as Moses Kotane, JB Marks and Joe Slovo and many other leaders who came from African township or rural backgrounds. There was a negotiated settlement; that is a fact. But was it arranged between a conniving regime and a ‘capitalist-friendly’ ANC? Or was it due to the threat of an impending civil war that neither side could win or escape without huge cost? It is too easy to forget the...

Integrated remote sensing investigations of ancient quarries and road systems in the Greater Dayr al-Barshā Region, Middle Egypt: a study of logistics

Although the study of stone quarries is gaining increasing importance in Egyptian archaeology, quarry logistics, particularly as concerns transport facilities, has hitherto hardly been investigated. In the case of the quarry roads in the greater Dayr al-Barshā region (Middle Egypt), distinguishing between roads related to quarry exploitation from those resulting from other periods of use (in this case mainly related to funerary cult and Late Antique–Early Islamic Period monastic communities) poses another methodological problem. In this paper the use of very high spatial resolution satellite (VHSRS) technology is combined with archaeological methods to investigate the interplay between limestone quarries and roads in the study region. Remote sensing affords significant advantages over traditional survey techniques by visualizing the spatial context, whereas the spectral information content of the imagery adds information on road characteristics.Results indicate that spectral content is of less importance for road detection in desert-like conditions than the spatial resolution of the imagery. Filtering techniques have an additional value, but in general enhancement techniques such as histogram equalization are most important for mapping road networks in the greater Dayr al-Barshā region. Based on spectral and morphological characteristics, six road types could be identified, a seventh being located using traditional techniques. Ground verification in conjunction with archaeological evidence clarified the spatial context and functions of the routes in the pharaonic and later periods, serving cemetery, quarry and settlement logistics.Apart from one Middle Kingdom processional road, most roads have their origin in New Kingdom quarry activities. The road pattern we discovered provides important indications on how the stone transport was organized in a practical way. Many quarries in Dayr Abū Ḥinnis were not connected to harbours along the Nile, but to a long desert road that facilitated talatat transport to an area in northern Amarna. When the abandoned quarry complexes were turned into settlements in the Late Antique–Early Islamic Period, the resident communities selected parts of the existing road system for inter-site transport and transport from and to the Nile Valley. New paths were only rarely developed.These observations demonstrate that remote sensing techniques hold great potential for surveying road patterns over large distance in desert-like conditions.

Basis Set Generation for Quantum Dynamics Simulations Using Simple Trajectory-Based Methods

Methods for solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation generally employ either a global static basis set, which is fixed at the outset, or a dynamic basis set, which evolves according to classical-like or variational equations of motion; the former approach results in the well-known exponential scaling with system size, while the latter can suffer from challenging numerical problems, such as singular matrices, as well as violation of energy conservation. Here, we suggest a middle road: building a basis set using trajectories to place time-independent basis functions in the regions of phase space relevant to wave function propagation. This simple approach, which potentially circumvents many of the problems traditionally associated with global or dynamic basis sets, is successfully demonstrated for two challenging benchmark problems in quantum dynamics, namely, relaxation dynamics following photoexcitation in pyrazine, and the spin Boson model.

Top ten causes that can compromise the safety of herbal medicines

Li Zhang 1,2, Haiyu Liu 1,2, Lingling Qin 1,2, Zhixin Zhang 1,2, Xiaoyan Gao 2,∗ 1 School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, South of Wangjing Middle Ring Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100102, China 2 Science Experiment Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 11, North Third Ring Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100029, China E-mail address: gaoxiaoyan0913@sina.com (X. Gao).

Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea

Social analysis in anthropology today “oscillates uneasily” between a concern with Foucauldian global regimes of governance on the one hand and Deleuzian assemblages of agentive actors on the other. In Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea, Alex Golub asks if there is “a better way to do justice to a contemporary scene characterized by both spontaneity and regime” (2). Golub’s book seeks to find this middle road through the analysis of the development of a world-class gold mine on the homelands of a group of indigenous people—the Ipili— living in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Golub’s book offers a refreshing panacea to the tired argument of “global” impacts on “local” people by focusing on the agency of Ipili actors who actively courted mining development on their lands in order to improve their socioeconomic statuses.

Arabised Terms in the Holy Quran Facts or Fiction: History and Criticism

Nowadays, to tackle a subject fifteen hundred years old is not an easy task. Especially people are looking forsimple and interesting issues. However, when it comes to faith, even if its vocabulary hard to understood, itssubject must be interesting and attractive one. Thus, current study discusses an important issue that is, thealleged presence of foreign words in the Quran, while Quran declares the opposite of that.This issue has kept philologists and scholars from so long until today discussing, debating and arguing its coreelements.Some supported the Quran point of view; other opposed while assuring the presence of foreign words in theQuran, while the third group takes the middle road between the two extremes.Relying on numerous and trust worthy publications such as author Ibn Faris and other evidence, present authorcould prove that the Quran is entirely free from foreign terms.

Conjunctions and/or Disjunctions: Radical Empiricism in the History of Philosophy

William James challenged the traditions of British Empiricism (Hume) on one hand and German Idealism (Kant and Hegel) on the other. James’ “Radical Empiricism” is a via media (“middle road”) between these divergent positions. His central points of contention are the ontological status of relationships and the correct analysis of experience. British Empiricism leaves us with a world of separate, particular facts, based on atomic sense impressions. Idealists, on the other hand, claim that all worldly phenomena are conjoined by one rational principle. According to James’ account, neither side recognizes that both conjunctive and disjunctive relations are integral to experience. Furthermore, James’ critique proved to influence A. N. Whitehead’s philosophy of experience and orientation toward Hume and Kant. This essay situates James’ philosophy in this polemical and historical context.

Reforms of Japanese Corporate Law and Political Environment

Corporate law shapes the fundamental business environment and affects various stakeholders such as shareholders, managers, employees, and creditors. Each stakeholder has an incentive to influence on the reform process of corporate law. The many corporate law reforms in Japan reflect its rapidly-changing business environment. It is important to understand the behavior of various stakeholders by examining the politics of the reform process of corporate law. This paper tries to provide an analysis of the changing political balance among various stakeholders of corporate law.Before 1997, the legal academics played a mitigating role in legislative process, thereby achieving the well-balanced development of Japanese corporate Law. In contrast, after 1997, the legislative process of Japanese corporate law has become more democratic: corporate managers, who are politically strong interest group, significantly influence corporate law reforms, while shareholders and creditors, who are politically silent, do not. And the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Justice do not have power and effective tools to resist the influence of corporate managers. However, it seems that politicians are trying to return to the middle road voluntarily. In the 2014 reform of Japanese corporate law, politicians did not simply follow the interest of corporate managers, but rather tried to achieve a balance among various stakeholders of corporate law. This change may be caused by the change of electoral rules for the House of Representatives.

Teaching Anti-Colonial Archaeology

Archaeology is deeply troubled, but students are unlikely to learn about it in their ARCH 100 class. Our experience with ‘World Prehistory’ and ‘Introductory Archaeology’ courses and reviewing common textbooks charts a discipline securely anchored in the 19th century ideological harbour that is science, evolution, imperialism and progress. This includes so-called ‘middle road’ and ‘post-colonial’ approaches, which reinforce the status quo by limiting political action. In our search for an alternative, we discuss here our attempts to teach an anti-colonial archaeology rooted in critical pedagogy, political activism and anti-oppressive practice. At its core are three tenets: archaeology is personal, political and all about the present. While we are gratified by the many students who relish this opportunity for critical enquiry, we are faced with this lingering problem: most people do not want to hear the “negative reality” of archaeology.

Privacy by Design in Personal Health Monitoring

The concept of privacy by design is becoming increasingly popular among regulators of information and communications technologies. This paper aims at analysing and discussing the ethical implications of this concept for personal health monitoring. I assume a privacy theory of restricted access and limited control. On the basis of this theory, I suggest a version of the concept of privacy by design that constitutes a middle road between what I call broad privacy by design and narrow privacy by design. The key feature of this approach is that it attempts to balance automated privacy protection and autonomously chosen privacy protection in a way that is context-sensitive. In personal health monitoring, this approach implies that in some contexts like medication assistance and monitoring of specific health parameters one single automatic option is legitimate, while in some other contexts, for example monitoring in which relatives are receivers of health-relevant information rather than health care professionals, a multi-choice approach stressing autonomy is warranted.

Should Physical Activity Intervention Efforts Take a Whole Population, High-Risk, or Middle Road Strategy?

This study was designed to compare theoretical strategies for changing physical activity (PA) in terms of their potential to reduce the incidence of chronic conditions in midage women: (1) whole population: +30 minutes/week in all, (2) high-risk: +60 minutes/week in the lowest 25% of the PA distribution, and (3) middle road: shift all those not meeting guidelines to a level commensurate with meeting guidelines. 10,854 participants (50-55 years in 2001) in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health completed mail surveys in 2001, 2004, 2007, and 2010. PA was calculated as MET · minutes/week spent in walking, moderate and vigorous PA in the previous week. Incidence rates per 1000 person-years for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, and depression were calculated for the actual distribution and after modeled shifts in PA. The incidence rates were 10.6 for diabetes, 7.0 for heart disease, 30.7 for hypertension, 8.0 for cancer, and 28.4 for depression. Greater reductions in incidence were found for the middle road strategy than for the whole population and high-risk strategies, with reductions ranging from -6.3% for cancer to -12.3% for diabetes. This theoretical modeling showed that a middle road strategy to increasing PA was superior to the whole population and high-risk strategies, in terms of reducing incidence rates of chronic conditions in middle-aged women.

Public voices from anonymous corridors: The public face of the public service in a Westminster system

AbstractUnder the traditions of the Westminster system, prime ministers and ministers give countless public speeches each year, while their loyal public service quietly and anonymously carries out the daily business of public administration. Current practice suggests that this traditional picture no longer holds true. In the 21st century, bureaucratic leaders are prepared to give public speeches on their own authority – adopting a “public face” as contributors to public debate. This article examines the extent to which key bureaucratic leaders in Canada have adopted an independent public face through public speeches, and how the Canadian experience compares to other Westminster jurisdictions. It argues that contemporary Canadian practice has taken a middle road between independent policy advocacy and quiet anonymity.

Part 2: Living theory action research and Adlerian psychology: The alongside approach of a mother

This article is the second of two reporting the findings of a collaborative enquiry that continued over 4 months to understand and explain their learning. A mother joins a health visitor in a collaborative enquiry to solve her baby's sleeplessness. She begins to explore a dilemma between parenting that respects the child's view, while also having the courage to guide him. Alongsideness is a middle road between parent-centred ‘controlled crying’ and a child-centred approach appropriate to his development. She reflects on applying alongsideness principles to her future parenting and on her experiences of health visiting.