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Neuroscience is providing new tools to potentially improve diagnosis and classification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on biomarkers. The purpose of this paper, is to describe certain applications of fractal analysis, a tool used to measure information complexity observed within electroencephalograph (EEG) signals and neurogenetic code. It is argued here that a better method of diagnosis of ASD may exist based on these new tools.

Selective review of literature focused on the diagnosis of ASD and recent technological advances in scientific approaches to diagnosis of ASD. It is argued that higher levels of complex, coherent data are inversely related to pathology; in biological systems, lower complexity EEG during specific tasks may reveal pathology.

Clinicians and researchers are exploring new ways to describe mental illness based on biomarkers to improve reliability and validity of diagnostic methods. Specific application of chaos theory in the form of fractal analysis shows promise as one possible method.

This is a conceptual paper addressing the advantages of employing fractal analysis of EEG and genomics for the diagnosis of ASD.

Epidemiology is often described as “the basic science of public health” (Savitz, Poole & Miller, 1999; Syme & Yen, 2000). This description suggests both a close association with public health practice, and the separation of “pure” scientific knowledge from its application in the messy social world. Although the attainability of absolute objectivity is rarely claimed, epidemiologists are routinely encouraged to “persist in their efforts to substitute evidence for faith in scientific reasoning” (Stolley, 1985, p. 38) and reminded that “public health decision makers gain little from impassioned scholars who go beyond advancing and explaining the science to promoting a specific public health agenda” (Savitz et al., 1999, p. 1160). Epidemiology produces authoritative data that are transformed into evidence which informs public health. Those data are authoritative because epidemiology is regarded as a neutral scientific enterprise. Because its claims are grounded in science, epidemiological knowledge is deemed to have “a special technical status and hence is not contestable in the same way as are say, religion or ethics” (Lock, 1988, p. 6). Despite the veneer of universality afforded by its scientific pedigree, epidemiology is not a static or monolithic discipline. Epidemiological truth claims are embodied in several shifting paradigms that span the life of the discipline. Public health knowledges and practices, competing claims internal and external to epidemiology, and structural conditions (such as current political economies, material technologies, and institutions) provide important contexts in which certain kinds of epidemiological knowledge are more likely to emerge.

Focuses on the approach to interpreting earnings equality found in the writings of a variety of economists and in particular, technological change and its effects on the demand skill resulting in earning inequality. Argues that the evidence in favour of the technological effect is weak and presents some alternatives for further consideration.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the complex global food supply chains (GFSCs) which has drastically affected the essential flow of food from the farms and producers to the final consumers. The COVID-19 outbreak has served as a great lesson for the food businesses and companies to re-strategize toward the post-COVID-19 era. This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food security and global food supply chains using the two countries (Canada and the United States) in North America as the case studies and provides appropriate strategy or framework to build smarter and resilience food supply chains for post-COVID-19 era.

This paper is a general review of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on food security and disruptions of the GFSCs. This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review to have a complete understanding of the study, identify the research problem and missing gaps in literature and to formulate appropriate research questions. This study uses two countries from North America (Canada and the US) as case studies by analyzing the available open data from Statistics Canada and some recent studies conducted on food insecurity in the US. Finally, based on the findings, a proposed approach or framework was presented.

The findings from this study establishes that COVID-19 pandemic has greater impacts on the food security and GFSC due to disruption of the food supply chain leading to increase food insecurity in Canada and the US. The findings clearly show how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the GFSC in the following ways – poor economy, shortage of farm worker, limitation to food accessibility, restriction in the transportation of farm commodities, changes in demand of consumers, shutdown of food production facilities, uncertainty of food quality and safety, food trade policies restriction, delays in transportation of food products, etc. The main findings of this study show that food and beverages sector needs to re-strategize, re-shape and re-design their food supply chains with post-COVID-19 resilience approach in mind. As a result, this study presents a proposed approach or framework to build a smarter and resilience GFSCs in the post-COVID-19 era. The findings in this study highlights the way the proposed framework provide solutions to the identified problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic in affecting the GFSC.

The contribution of this study towards the existing body of knowledge in food security and GFSC is in the form of a proposed approach or framework for building smarter and resilience GFSC that would assist the key players in the food industry to respond better and faster to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including post-COVID-19 era.

A recent development in England is the emergence, under various names, of groups of schools working together in a variety of collaborative ways. Such diversification enjoys broad political support. In this paper, the author aims to argue that the trend is potentially a radical transformation of the school system as a whole. The concepts of coupling and capital are drawn on to show how these changes enhance capacity building at the level of the individual institution and, more importantly, at the system levels, both local and national.

The paper uses different conceptual schemes to throw light on the emerging phenomenon of partnerships between clusters of schools.

As this is not an empirical research paper there are no findings as such.

The paper is concerned with new policy directions, some of which are consonant with developments already taking place in England's education system. The analysis is intended broadly to support these changes but also to improve their design and implementation.

The conceptual analysis is original and has implications both for a theoretical analysis of inter‐school partnerships and for the practical issues of how such partnerships might evolve.

Haworth Press, the well known publishers in the library and information science field, have recently cottoned on to an interesting idea: devote a special issue of one of their journals to a special theme, and at the same time produce a hardback book, reasonably priced, that reproduces the articles. The idea is to appeal to a market other than the libraries that will typically subscribe to the Haworth journals. Success depends upon the collection of chapters forming a coherent whole. This book, reproduced from a special issue of The Reference Librarian, partly succeeds. The 150 page hardback book comprises seven articles, from five different authors (two authors supply two articles each) with an editor's introduction. The articles are fairly typical journal articles, reporting research results; some could easily have graced the pages of Online and CD‐ROM Review. The articles vary somewhat in length and style, but generally either review the literature of a particular topic, or describe some recent research work. The title is somewhat misleading, as the book is NOT comprehensive; a better subtitle would have been ‘Aspects of Use and User Behavior’.

Outlines the state‐of‐the‐art in obstacle avoidance and path planning for industrial robots that is practical on the current generation of computer hardware. Describes practical vehicle planners and planning for manipulators. Summarizes that obstacle avoidance and path planning are techniques with differing goals. Sonar is the standard method of obstacle avoidance systems which is largely limited by the reliability of the sensors used. Path planning however is limited by two things: the algorithms used and the quality of the data available to planners. Concludes that it is now possible to produce path planning and obstacle avoidance systems that can be used in practical robotic systems.

In the growing field of nonviolent social movement studies, questions of power are often layered in inquiries into drivers of mobilization and dynamics of success, from the individual to the societal level. The different ways marginalized groups utilize power are not adequately theorized, however. Here I address paradigmatic approaches to understanding power in nonviolent movements, identifying conceptual limitations to explaining stratification among nonviolent resisters. In response, I develop a framework for better understanding the socially constructed origins of nonviolent power among different mobilized groups. I first provide a sociology of knowledge survey of common theories of power in nonviolent mobilization. I also review literature on mobilization among marginalized populations to identify valuable insights lacking in nonviolent movements studies. I then explore one case of marginalized nonviolent resistance, that of the Mothers of the Plaza Mayo who mobilized for an end to the Argentine Dirty War. Through this case, I develop a social constructionist framework that can be generalized to better understand how stratification shapes nonviolent resistance differently for different actors. I conclude by proposing a general framework of inquiry, guiding scholars to pay attention to four dimensions of conflict and resistance when examining the power dynamics of nonviolent movements: the temporal context of conflict, the degree of repression, actor status and positionality, and how nonviolent strategies and tactics correspond to each of these dimensions.

City Technology is one company that seems to know how to run a sensor manufacturing business, as Stephen McClelland explains.