Market-based Lobbying: Evidence from Advertising Spending in Italy

OpenAIRE

Stefano DellaVigna; Ruben Durante; Brian Knight; Eliana La Ferrara

2013-01-01

An extensive literature has studied lobbying by special interest groups. We analyze a novel lobbying channel: lobbying businessmen-politicians through business proxies. When a politician controls a business, firms attempting to curry favors shift their spending towards the politician's business. The politician benefits from increased revenues, and the firms hope for favorable regulation in return. We investigate this channel in Italy where government members, including the prime minister, are...

12 CFR Appendix A to Part 411 - Certification Regarding Lobbying

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Certification Regarding Lobbying A Appendix A to Part 411 Banks and Banking EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES NEW RESTRICTIONS ON LOBBYING Pt. 411, App. A Appendix A to Part 411—Certification Regarding Lobbying Certification for Contracts...

Campaign contributions, lobbying and post-Katrina contracts.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Michael J; Long, Michael A; Stretesky, Paul B

2010-07-01

This research explores the relationship between political campaign contributions, lobbying and post-Hurricane Katrina cleanup and reconstruction contracts. Specifically, a case-control study design is used to determine whether campaign contributions to national candidates in the 2000-04 election cycles and/or the employment of lobbyists and lobbying firms increased a company's probability of receiving a post-hurricane contract. Results indicate that both a campaign contribution dichotomous variable and the dollar amount of contributions are significantly related to whether a company received a contract, but that lobbying activity was not. These findings are discussed in the context of previous research on the politics of natural disasters, government contracting and governmental and corporate deviance.

Smoke screen? The globalization of production, transnational lobbying and the international political economy of plain tobacco packaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, Louise; Eckhardt, Jappe

2017-01-01

In 2012 Australia became the first country in the world to introduce plain tobacco packaging in an effort to reduce tobacco consumption. This move was vehemently opposed by the tobacco industry, which challenged it on several levels: nationally, bilaterally and multilaterally at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The political behavior of the tobacco companies in this case is puzzling both in terms of scale, operating at multiple levels at the same time and in terms of the countries mobilized in their defence. WTO litigation is typically the result of Multi National Enterprises (MNEs) lobbying their own government, but here third countries were mobilized. Lobbying in third country contexts, with the objective of accessing multilateral dispute settlement systems, has been little studied. We thus know very little about the driving factors behind such activities, how target governments are selected and what lobbying strategies are used. This paper draws on emerging research on transnational lobbying and a case study of the PP case to explore these issues in detail and, by doing so, aims to further our theoretical understanding of the political economy of international trade in the context of increasing regime complexity and globalization of production.

Smoke screen? The globalization of production, transnational lobbying and the international political economy of plain tobacco packaging

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, Louise; Eckhardt, Jappe

2017-01-01

In 2012 Australia became the first country in the world to introduce plain tobacco packaging in an effort to reduce tobacco consumption. This move was vehemently opposed by the tobacco industry, which challenged it on several levels: nationally, bilaterally and multilaterally at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The political behavior of the tobacco companies in this case is puzzling both in terms of scale, operating at multiple levels at the same time and in terms of the countries mobilized in their defence. WTO litigation is typically the result of Multi National Enterprises (MNEs) lobbying their own government, but here third countries were mobilized. Lobbying in third country contexts, with the objective of accessing multilateral dispute settlement systems, has been little studied. We thus know very little about the driving factors behind such activities, how target governments are selected and what lobbying strategies are used. This paper draws on emerging research on transnational lobbying and a case study of the PP case to explore these issues in detail and, by doing so, aims to further our theoretical understanding of the political economy of international trade in the context of increasing regime complexity and globalization of production. PMID:28630533

Achieving environmental excellence through a multidisciplinary grassroots movement.

Science.gov (United States)

Herechuk, Bryan; Gosse, Carolyn; Woods, John N

2010-01-01

St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH) supports a grassroots green team, called Environmental Vision and Action (EVA). Since the creation of EVA, a healthy balance between corporate projects led by corporate leaders and grassroots initiatives led by informal leaders has resulted in many successful environmental initiatives. Over a relatively short period of time, environmental successes at SJHH have included waste diversion programs, energy efficiency and reduction initiatives, alternative commuting programs, green purchasing practices, clinical and pharmacy greening and increased staff engagement and awareness. Knowledge of social movements theory helped EVA leaders to understand the internal processes of a grassroots movement and helped to guide it. Social movements theory may also have broader applicability in health care by understanding the passionate engagement that people bring to a common cause and how to evolve sources of opposition into engines for positive change. After early successes, as the limitations of a grassroots movement began to surface, the EVA team revived the concept of evolving the grassroots green program into a corporate program for environmental stewardship. It is hard to quantify the importance of allowing our staff, physicians, volunteers and patients to engage in changes that they feel passionately about. However, at SJHH, the transformation of a group of people unsatisfied with the organization's environmental performance into an 'engine for change' has led to a rapid improvement in environmental stewardship at SJHH that is now regarded as a success.

Lobbying on audit regulation at IAASB

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thiago Macedo Pereira de Matos

2018-02-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT The main goal of the paper is to analyze whether the positions of auditors and regulators, and their respective coalitions, regarding the proposals of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB in the last phase of the public consultation “Improving the Auditor’s Report” are significantly different, as well as the effectiveness of a lobbying strategy using comment letters. The relevance of this research lies in providing evidence on whether or not the IAASB is influenced by the lobbying strategies of different interest groups carried out via comment letters, especially auditors and regulators (both individually and in coalitions. The results show that both auditors and regulators attempeted to influence the IAASB’s decision-making process, with their coalitions taking a different position on some questions. However, none of these interest groups predominated in terms of the effectiveness of the lobbying carried out, hence the results are consistent with institutional theory, in that the IAASB seeks legitimacy in its actions and tries to accommodate several different interests, but does not let itself be captured by any specific group. We analyzed and classified the comments (from a total of 86 letters to nine questions proposed by the IAASB into a five-point Likert scale. This classification was independently cross-validated by a second researcher. We applied ANOVA tests to analyze the position of the interest groups, and chi- squared tests for the position of their coalitions. This paper addresses lobbying within the process of auditing standards settings, thus expanding the current literature on lobbying in accounting, which is mainly restricted to accounting regulations. It also contributes methodologically by using a new five-point scale for the dependent variable instead of the usual binary approach.

Building capacity for low-carbon communities: The role of grassroots initiatives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Middlemiss, Lucie; Parrish, Bradley D.

2010-01-01

Grassroots initiatives for change rely on people with limited power, limited resources and limited ability to influence others. From this position, people acting from the bottom up can change their own actions, seek to influence others around them and seek to change the social structures that they inhabit. These acts are invariably conceived, initiated and enacted within communities, and there is an emerging interest from practitioner, policy and academic circles in the importance of community as a space for realising pro-environmental change. In this paper, we ask what role grassroots initiatives can have in creating low-carbon communities. Using a theoretical framework from work on community-based practice change initiatives, we discuss the interplay between grassroots action and community capacity. We then present two cases of grassroots low-carbon community initiatives in light of this theoretical work. We conclude by discussing key themes emerging from the cases, including the potential for grassroots initiatives to build community capacity for low-carbon practices, and the importance of locally crafted solutions according to the structures specific to place.

Learning from the Grassroots: Exploring Democratic Adult Learning Opportunities Connected to Grassroots Organizations

Science.gov (United States)

Gouthro, Patricia A.

2012-01-01

Grassroots organizations emerge when groups of people decide to work collectively to form an organization as a way to initiate change. Rather than seeking leadership from established government or corporate organizations or departments, the purpose of the organization, the framework for decision making, and the individuals involved in leadership…

Grassroots Numeracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H.L. Vacher

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The readers and authors of papers in Numeracy compose a multidisciplinary grassroots interest group that is defining and illustrating the meaning, content, and scope of quantitative literacy (QL and how it intersects with educational goals and practice. The 161 Numeracy papers that have been produced by this QL community were downloaded 42, 085 times in a total of 178 countries, including all 34 OECD countries, during 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. A scatterplot of normalized downloads per month vs. normalized total downloads for the eight years of Numeracy’s life allows identification of the 24 “most popular” of the 161 papers. These papers, which range over a wide landscape of subjects, were produced by a total of 41 authors, only nine of whom are mathematicians. The data clearly show that the QL community is not just a bunch of mathematicians talking amongst themselves. Rather the community is a vibrant mix of mathematicians and users and friends of mathematics. The heterogeneity of this grassroots community, and Numeracy’s commitment to serve it, dictates our mode of publication and the nature of our peer review. The journal is assertively open access for readers and free of page charges and processing fees to authors. The peer-review process is designed to provide constructive feedback to promote effective communication of the diverse activities and interests of a community that brings with it a multitude of publication cultures and experiences.

Mobilizing women at the grassroots to shape health policy: a case study of the Global Campaign for Microbicides.

Science.gov (United States)

Forbes, Anna

2013-11-01

Competition to advance issues on public policy agendas is constant. Political scientists agree that professional "policy entrepreneurs" (researchers, academics, and bureaucrats) serve as conduits in this process. Grassroots advocacy has always been part of the political landscape as non-professional people also take on the role of policy advocates or activists, to get specific problems and preferred solutions onto public and policy agendas and motivate policymakers to take action. The contribution of grassroots advocacy to significant policy changes is often under-funded because its impacts are hard to isolate and quantify, and are often most evident in retrospect. This paper examines the contribution of the Global Campaign for Microbicides to the movement to expand the range of HIV prevention options for women and describes how it mobilized hundreds of grassroots policy activists around the world to take coordinated action on this issue. It reviews the Campaign's accomplishments and highlights some of its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the paper considers the value of similar efforts on the part of grassroots advocates seeking to influence the post-ICPD and post-2015 development agendas as they are being negotiated. Decisions regarding what kind of advocacy work is carried out during this process, and by whom and how, will inevitably shape the content of these new frameworks. Copyright © 2013 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lobbying Bureaucrats

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bennedsen, Morten; Feldmann, Sven E.

2004-01-01

This paper studies how interest group lobbying of the bureaucracy affects policyoutcomes and how it changes the legislature's willingness to delegate decision-makingauthority to the bureaucracy. We extend the standard model of delegation to accountfor interest group influence during...... the implementation stage of policy and apply itto different institutional structures of government. The paper addresses the followingquestions: First, how does the decision to delegate change when the bureaucratic agentis subject to external influence? What cost does this influence impose on the legislativeprincipal...

Changing social policy: Grassroots to legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemiska, Liz; McCann, Eileen M; Mancuso, Margaret

2002-05-01

Health care in the United States has evolved into a multimillion dollar business. As the health care industry has grown, so too has government regulation and involvement. As both insurers and patients vie to get the most for their health care dollars, federal and state governments attempt to mediate, prevent fraud and abuse, and protect all parties involved. Consumers feel the effects of this "tug of war" in the form of higher copayments, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs, as well as denial of coverage. This denial of coverage sparked a very successful grassroots effort to stop commercial insurers in the state of Connecticut from defining ostomy supplies as cosmetic and thus denying reimbursement. A tremendous amount of collaboration between Connecticut WOC nurses, state legislators, local American Cancer Society advocates, United Ostomy Association chapter members, and health care providers resulted in a powerful mobilization and support for House Bill No. 5120. This bill went beyond defining ostomy supplies as medically necessary but also set a minimum rate for reimbursement. Social policy changed, improving the lives of Connecticut citizens with an ostomy. Although many people fear they do not have the power to make necessary changes in government, this experience proved otherwise. The collaboration that occurred was patient advocacy at its best. This article describes the process that allowed this successful collaboration to take place with the hope that others will be inspired to get involved with patient advocacy through political involvement. It is the intention of this work to capture the essence of dedication of a grassroots campaign involving a small group of well-organized, highly focused participants who were responsible for changing public health care policy in the state of Connecticut.

Cultivating a Grassroots Aerospace Innovation Culture at NASA Ames Research Center

Science.gov (United States)

D'Souza, Sarah; Sanchez, Hugo; Lewis, Ryan

2017-01-01

This paper details the adaptation of specific 'knowledge production' methods to implement a first of its kind, grassroots event that provokes a cultural change in how the NASA Ames civil servant community engages in the creation and selection of innovative ideas. Historically, selection of innovative proposals at NASA Ames Research Center is done at the highest levels of management, isolating the views and perspectives of the larger civil servant community. Additionally, NASA innovation programs are typically open to technical organizations and do not engage non-technical organizations to bring forward innovative processes/business practices. Finally, collaboration on innovative ideas and associated solutions tend to be isolated to organizational silos. In this environment, not all Ames employees feel empowered to innovate and opportunities for employee collaboration are limited. In order to address these issues, the 'innovation contest' method was adapted to create the NASA Ames Innovation Fair, a unique, grassroots innovation opportunity for the civil servant community. The Innovation Fair consisted of a physical event with a virtual component. The physical event provided innovators the opportunity to collaborate and pitch their innovations to the NASA Ames community. The civil servant community then voted for the projects that they viewed as innovative and would contribute to NASA's core mission, making this event a truly grassroots effort. The Innovation Fair website provided a location for additional knowledge sharing, discussion, and voting. On March 3rd, 2016, the 'First Annual NASA Ames Innovation Fair' was held with 49 innovators and more than 300 participants collaborating and/or voting for the best innovations. Based on the voting results, seven projects were awarded seed funding for projects ranging from innovative cost models to innovations in aerospace technology. Surveys of both innovators and Fair participants show the Innovation Fair was successful

Determinants of corporate lobbying intensity in the lease standard-setting process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucia Mellado

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The highly controversial lease standard-setting project that will replace the standards currently in place, establishes a new approach that includes the recognition of all assets and liabilities associated with lease contracts on the balance sheet, regardless of their classification. The complex standard-setting process and the heated debate among stakeholders makes the analysis of the lobbying phenomenon an important matter for study. The aim of this paper is to find explanatory factors that predict the behaviour of corporate groups with respect to the lease standard-setting process. To achieve this objective, we scrutinize the submission of comment letters by 306 non-financial listed companies in response to the discussion paper (DP 2009 and two exposure drafts (ED 2010 and ED 2013 elaborated jointly by the IASB and the FASB by distinguishing among three degrees of intensity in lobbying activities, depending on participation in the different discussion periods. Our empirical study is conducted through a multivariate analysis that shows the intensity of lobbying by considering participation in the three consultation periods. The results show that the intensity of lobbying is associated with size, profitability, age, industry and managerial ownership. The evidence can be used to predict lobbying behaviour. The research has implications for standard setters and contributes to prior lobbying research.

Human ergology that promotes participatory approach to improving safety, health and working conditions at grassroots workplaces: achievements and actions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawakami, Tsuyoshi

2011-12-01

Participatory approaches are increasingly applied to improve safety, health and working conditions of grassroots workplaces in Asia. The core concepts and methods in human ergology research such as promoting real work life studies, relying on positive efforts of local people (daily life-technology), promoting active participation of local people to identify practical solutions, and learning from local human networks to reach grassroots workplaces, have provided useful viewpoints to devise such participatory training programmes. This study was aimed to study and analyze how human ergology approaches were applied in the actual development and application of three typical participatory training programmes: WISH (Work Improvement for Safe Home) with home workers in Cambodia, WISCON (Work Improvement in Small Construction Sites) with construction workers in Thailand, and WARM (Work Adjustment for Recycling and Managing Waste) with waste collectors in Fiji. The results revealed that all the three programmes, in the course of their developments, commonly applied direct observation methods of the work of target workers before devising the training programmes, learned from existing local good examples and efforts, and emphasized local human networks for cooperation. These methods and approaches were repeatedly applied in grassroots workplaces by taking advantage of their the sustainability and impacts. It was concluded that human ergology approaches largely contributed to the developments and expansion of participatory training programmes and could continue to support the self-help initiatives of local people for promoting human-centred work.

The business fluctuations and the lobbying evolution in European Union, Canada and USA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oanta Ilie Stefan

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Business fluctuations are associated with business cycles but are not implying the regularity. We consider that the lobbying activities can influence the periods of economic recession and expansion from business fluctuations. The role of lobbying is to affect the decisions made by officials in the government or international corporations and agencies or organizations. In this paper we describe the structure of lobbying practice in European Union, Canada and United States of America and the characteristics of business fluctuations. Specifically, this paper looks at the lobbying activities evolution in European Union, Canada and United States of America and also at a potential relationship between lobbying and business fluctuations, from periods of boom to periods of recession.

Grassroots Indicators for Desertification: Experience and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The book documents why grassroots indicators should play a key role in the ... Adaptation strategies for two Colombian cities were discussed at ADAPTO's second ... International Water Resources Association, in close collaboration with IDRC, ...

12 CFR Appendix B to Part 411 - Disclosure Form To Report Lobbying

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Disclosure Form To Report Lobbying B Appendix B to Part 411 Banks and Banking EXPORT-IMPORT BANK OF THE UNITED STATES NEW RESTRICTIONS ON LOBBYING Pt. 411, App. B Appendix B to Part 411—Disclosure Form To Report Lobbying EC23SE91.003 EC23SE91.004...

Climate Change and Political Action: the Citizens' Climate Lobby

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, P. H.; Secord, S.

2014-12-01

Recognizing the reality of global warming and its origin in greenhouse gas emissions, what does one do about it? Individual action is commendable, but inadequate. Collective action is necessary--Citizens' Climate Lobby proposes a "fee-and-dividend" approach in which a fee is imposed on carbon-based fuel at its sources of production. The fee increases annually in a predictable manner. The funds collected are paid out to consumers as monthly dividends. The approach is market-based, in that the cost of the fee to producers is passed on to consumers in the cost of carbon-based fuels. Downstream energy providers and consumers then make their choices regarding investments and purchases. Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) builds national consensus by growing local Chapters, led and populated by volunteers. The Chapters are charged with public education and presenting the fee-and-dividend proposal to their respective Representatives and Senators. CCL builds trust by its non-partisan approach, meeting with all members of Congress regardless of party affiliation and stance on climate-related issues. CCL also builds trust by a non-confrontational approach, seeking to understand rather than to oppose. CCL works both locally, through its local Chapters, and nationally, with an annual conference in Washington DC during which all Congressional offices are visited. CCL recognizes that a long-term, sustained effort is necessary to address climate change.

COMMUNITY POWER AND GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

8, Political Decentralization and Popular Alternatives: A View from the South ... Power and Grassroots Democracy, the result of a multi-country research project and .... Its roots also lie in the progressive decomposition of the two prevalent .... inequalities — inequalities based on sex, age, color, sexual orientation, and so forth.

Openlobby: an open game server for lobby and matchmaking

Science.gov (United States)

Zamzami, E. M.; Tarigan, J. T.; Jaya, I.; Hardi, S. M.

2018-03-01

Online Multiplayer is one of the most essential feature in modern games. However, while developing a multiplayer feature can be done with a simple computer networking programming, creating a balanced multiplayer session requires more player management components such as game lobby and matchmaking system. Our objective is to develop OpenLobby, a server that available to be used by other developers to support their multiplayer application. The proposed system acts as a lobby and matchmaker where queueing players will be matched to other player according to a certain criteria defined by developer. The solution provides an application programing interface that can be used by developer to interact with the server. For testing purpose, we developed a game that uses the server as their multiplayer server.

Legal Aspects of Regulating Lobbying in the United States of America and Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena A. Kremyanskaya

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The author reviews history and peculiarities of the legal regulations of lobbying in USA and Canada, points out the tendencies of the legislation development. USA and Canada are among the first countries, which included legal regulations on the lobbying relations in the state government. The author explores the evolution of development of the lobbying legislation in the USA, and in particular reviews the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act of 1976, Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, as well as evolution of the Canadian legislation, where the Act on Lobbying of 1989 is in force, which had substantial changes during the last ten years. Taking into consideration the territorial form of state, the author reviews not only the federal legislation, but also laws on the level of states and provinces of these federations. Besides, the author covers the activity of the control bodies, order of registration and reporting by lobbyists of their professional activity, reveals pro and cons of the legal regulations of such institution as lobbying. In the article there is the list of information, which should be provided by lobbyists to the control bodies and the author correctly mentions that this list in USA is much wider, comparing to Canadian regulations. In the article the author reviews the liability for violations of lobbying legislation. In particular, in the USA the criminal liability is applied up to 5 years of imprisonment and financial penalties up to 200 thousand US dollars. Based on the USA and Canada experience the author reveals the key issues, which should be fixed by the legal regulations in the country and in particular: the clear definition of the lobbying and lobbyist, necessity of disclosure on the information about client and amounts paid, fixing in the control mechanisms and liability.

Imagining Research as Solidarity and Grassroots Globalisation: A Response to Appadurai (2001)

Science.gov (United States)

Novelli, Mario

2006-01-01

In response to Appadurai's "Grassroots globalization and the research imagination", this paper explores some of the theoretical, ethical, methodological and practical issues of developing a "strong internationalisation" of research with and amongst grassroots globalisation movements. Drawing on five years of solidarity and…

Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Pansera

2016-01-01

Full Text Available A shift in the entrepreneurial landscape is taking place brought about by grassroots innovators with little formal education and technological knowhow, living and working in penurious environments. This research represents an emerging third wave of literature on Bottom of the Pyramid innovation, where products are offered for and by the underserved. Using primary and secondary data derived from four cases of grassroots entrepreneurs in the Indian Subcontinent, the study explores the phenomenon where resource scarce entrepreneurs craft solutions that are environmental friendly, with low overall ownership costs, and use locally available material. We argue that the grassroots phenomenon can be fruitfully exploited to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the UN as a post-2015 strategy for the future of global governance. These innovations might have a tremendous impact not only in terms of serving unmet and ignored consumer needs, but also longer term impacts through enhanced productivity, sustainability, poverty reduction and inclusion promotion.

22 CFR Appendix A to Part 311 - Certification Regarding Lobbying

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 true Certification Regarding Lobbying A Appendix A to Part 311 Foreign Relations PEACE CORPS NEW RESTRICTIONS ON LOBBYING Pt. 311, App. A Appendix A to Part...,” in accordance with its instructions. (3) The undersigned shall require that the language of this...

Lobbying and the Responsible Firm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anastasiadis, Stephanos; Moon, Jeremy; Humphreys, Michael

2018-01-01

“Responsible lobbying” is an increasingly salient topic within business and management. We make a contribution to the literature on “responsible lobbying” in three ways. First, we provide novel definitions and, thereby, make a clear distinction between lobbying and corporate political activity. W...

Campaign Spending with Office-Seeking Politicians, Rational Voters and Multiple Lobbies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prat, A.

1998-01-01

I introduce a microfounded model of campaign finance with office-seeking politicians, a continuum of voters, and a large number of heterogeneous lobbies. Lobbies make contributions to politicians according to a common agency framework. Politicians use contributions to finance their electoral

Book Review: Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors and Issues, David Coen and Jeremy Richardson (eds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandra Pop

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The volume "Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors and Issues", collects 16 articles on interest group politics at EU level, focusing on the main elements of European lobbying - the existing relations between the EU institutions and the special interests, the main differences between NGO and business lobbying, the specific lobbying strategies adopted in EU's main policy sectors or lobbying regulations. The volume captures the main changes that took place on the European lobbying scene in the last two decades, period in which most EU institutions developed new points of access for lobbyists, while the interest groups became more specialized. The success of an EU lobbying campaign seems to be determined by a combination of various factors such as: a good knowledge of the EU environment, a wise usage of both financial resources and expertise, direct lobbying complemented by an efficient usage of domestic routes and the capability of creating smart alliances.

Grassroots Women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebecca Kay

2004-01-01

Full Text Available The economic, social and political changes that have occurred in Russia over the last 10 years have had a profound effect on Russian women’s lives. Economic reform has brought poverty, insecurity and high levels of anxiety and stress to much of the population, both male and female. The impact of these changes on women was amplified in the early 1990s by their structural positioning both within the workforce and within the population, brought about by the legacies of the Soviet planned economy, Soviet attitudes to gender and long established demographic trends. Alongside these historical influences, ‘new’ essentialist attitudes towards gender and the appropriate roles and responsibilities of women in post-Soviet Russian society have been strongly promoted through the media, political and social discourses, imposing new pressures and dilemmas on many post-Soviet Russian women. Numerous women’s organisations have been established in Russia since the early 1990s, many of them with a specific remit of helping Russian women to overcome the upheavals and hardships which they face. Struggling to survive themselves with very few resources and minimal external support, Russia’s grassroots women’s organisations have nonetheless offered practical help and advice and emotional support and solidarity to their members. This paper is based on the findings of a period of intensive fieldwork carried out in 1995-6 with grassroots women’s organisations in Moscow and three Russian provincial centres. It will present the aims, activities and impact of the groups studied. It will also investigate the ways in which these groups and their membership positioned themselves in relation to the development of essentialist attitudes and opinions on gender within Russia on the one hand, and a dialogue with ‘western’ feminist theory and practice on the other.

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1997-01-01

Jan 1, 1997 ... Book cover Community Power and Grassroots Democracy ... But there are obstacles: the power of central bureaucracies, the lack of local skills and organizational experience, social divisions, and the impact of ... Knowledge.

Florence Richardson Wyckoff (1905-1997), Fifty Years of Grassroots Social ActivismVolume III: Watsonville Years 1960-1985

OpenAIRE

Wyckoff, Florence Richardson; Jarrell, Randall

1990-01-01

Florence Wyckoff's three-volume oral history documents her remarkable, lifelong work as a social activist, during which she has become nationally recognized as an advocate of migrant families and children. From the depression years through the 1970s, she pursued grassroots, democratic, community-building efforts in the service of improving public health standards and providing health care, education, and housing for migrant families. Major legislative milestones in her career of advocacy were...

'Grassroots' : from washing lines to utopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kessel, van W.M.J.; Switzer, L.; Adhikari, M.

2000-01-01

The revival of popular protest against South Africa's apartheid in the first half of the 1980s was also marked by a proliferation of new mass media. This chapter presents a case study of 'Grassroots', a publication aimed at a Coloured and African readership in the Cape Peninsula, launched in 1980.

A Grassroots Effort

Science.gov (United States)

Pember, Mary Annette

2007-01-01

If academics, students and supporters at the Newark Earthworks Center at The Ohio State University have their way, the Newark Earthworks will be listed among the likes of England's Stonehenge and Mexico's Teotihuacan in terms of international archaeological and cultural importance. Dr. Richard Shiels, director of the newly founded center and Dr.…

Capital mobility, tax competition, and lobbying for redistributive capital taxation

OpenAIRE

Lorz, Jens Oliver

1996-01-01

This paper analyzes the impact of international capital mobility on redistributive capital taxation and on lobbying activities by interest groups. It employs a model where different capital endowments lead to a conflict between households concerning their most preferred capital tax rate. Three main results are derived: First, redistributive source based capital taxes or subsidies decline as international tax competition intensifies. Second, lobbying activities of certain interest groups may e...

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy : The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

1997-01-01

. Couverture du livre Community Power and Grassroots Democracy. Editor(s):. M. Kaufman et H. Dilla Alfonso. Publisher(s):. Zed, CRDI. January 1, 1997. ISBN: Épuisé. 300 pages. e-ISBN: 155250137X. Download PDF · Read the e-book.

Coding and encoding rights in internet infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefania Milan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article explores bottom-up grassroots ordering in internet governance, investigating the efforts by a group of civil society actors to inscribe human rights in internet infrastructure, lobbying the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Adopting a Science and Technology Studies (STS perspective, we approach this struggle as a site of contestation, and expose the sociotechnical imaginaries animating policy advocacy. Combining quantitative mailing-list analysis, participant observation and qualitative discourse analysis, the article observes civil society in action as it contributes to shape policy in the realm of institutional and infrastructure design.

Lobbying and Social Participation – Key Features for an Effective Public Administration in Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Maria IRIMIEȘ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Lobbying is one of the main structural elements of democratic governance and sustainable development and is essential to achieving competitive and effi cient administrative and decisional processes in local governance. Successfully implementing lobbying regulations and techniques is of extreme importance for any public system, where social participation in the decision-making process can strongly contribute to social, political and economic / fi nancial effi - ciency. Over the last 15 years, several legislative initiatives have tried to design a coherent framework for lobby, but they are still unapplied either due to insuffi cient public understanding of the concept, or due to more or less justifi ed uncertainties and fears. The necessity of regulating lobbying in Romania is placed in a context where an important number of anticorruption international and domestic recommendations and state reliability statistics, added to a certain lack of effectiveness in time and public money management, show that the public administration system needs to be reformed. And lobbying is, as the following article shows, a must for any public reform of public administration in Romania. The case of multilingual entrance signs / labels in Cluj-Napoca is an unquestionable and unbeatable example that the simple existence of legal frameworks of lobbying could turn into real time, energy and money savers.

A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF TOURISTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF HOTEL LOBBIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emine Köseoglu

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This study examines cultural differences in the perception of hotel lobbies. It aims to determine the differences/similarities within spatial preferences in hotel lobbies by focusing on three aspects of space: physical appearance, configuration, and usage and privacy arrangements. To measure the differences, a survey is conducted in Sultanahmet, Istanbul with tourists within two focus groups from Asian and European countries (n= 30 each. They are asked to rate their agreement with each statement about the spatial features on a 5-point Likert scale. As a result, both differences and similarities in the perception of the tourists from different cultures are found. It can be noted that there are statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of configurational features and usage and privacy arrangement of lobbies. The results provide designers some data to create a space for similar user profiles.

Exploration on the Ways of Thinking for Government by Law in the Governance of the Grassroots Society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fan Xuzhi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Social governance of the grassroots is the foundation for maintaining social stability and building a harmonious society. The obvious problems of weakened power, abnormal petitioning, hidden danger of social security, weakness of virtual social control, and vacancy in management of the special group in the vast grassroots area did exist. Faced with the problems, the rapid development of urbanization and the relative lack of public service, the public’s strengthened consciousness of rights safeguarding and not sound interests safeguard mechanism, heavy tasks on social governance of the grassroots and not enough resources, and the imbalance between the public’s improved expectation and the ability of the cadres in grass-root level, the level of grass-roots social governance needs to be improved by employing the “five-in-one” thinking mode of governance by law.

Lobbying in the EU Comitology System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard, Rikke Wetendorff; Nedergaard, Peter; Blom-Hansen, Jens

2014-01-01

of business interests to actors in the comitology system. The analysis is designed as a most likely study of two cases, aviation safety and CO2 quotas. Based on Bouwen’s rationalist theory of access goods, the empirical analysis shows that lobbying is prevalent, especially by sectoral interests providing...

Changing Landscapes in Documentation Efforts : Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mc Gonigle, B.N.

2017-01-01

Wittingly or unwittingly, civil society actors have long been faced with the task of documenting serious human rights violations. Thirty years ago, such efforts were largely organised by grassroots movements, often with little support or funding from international actors. Sharing information and

Community Power and Grassroots Democracy: The Transformation ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

But there are obstacles: the power of central bureaucracies, the lack of local skills and organizational experience, social divisions, and the impact of national and transnational structures. Community Power and Grassroots Democracy is a groundbreaking and insighful book that examines a collection of community initiatives ...

Energy autonomy in Le Mené: A French case of grassroots innovation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yalçın-Riollet, Melike; Garabuau-Moussaoui, Isabelle; Szuba, Mathilde

2014-01-01

Local citizen-led initiatives relating to energy are developing strongly in Anglo-Saxon countries and a growing body of research is examining their innovative potential. In France, similar grassroots initiatives – albeit with certain specificities – only began to emerge recently and so far, very few studies have dealt with them. The purpose of this article is to propose an exploratory and in-depth analysis of one advanced French case: Le Mene', a pioneer in local energy autonomy. We examine the conditions under which the initiative emerged and the processes through which a grassroots innovation is formed. In studying this case (interviews, analysis of documents), comparing it with other sources of data (expert interviews, comparative observation of other initiatives) and taking stock of various social sciences studies, we show that a social innovation was produced in Le Mene' through the hybridisation of actors, sociotechniques and discourses. This initiative was innovative not only in terms of the scope of the mechanisms implemented, but also in terms of the social organisation behind the development of the projects and the capacity to use energy production as a social resource. Finally, we reflect on the possible diffusion of these grassroots initiatives and their policy implications in France. - Highlights: • The case study is the Le Mené, a pioneer case for local energy autonomy. • This case is an emerging grassroots innovation in France. • Hybridisation (combining diversity and frames) is at the centre of the innovation. • This study focuses on the hybridisation of actors, sociotechniques and discourses. • Examines the potential diffusion of grassroots initiatives in France

'I cannot be passive as I was before': learning from grassroots innovations in Ukraine

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Oksana Udovyk

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The study explores learning processes and outcomes inside grassroots innovations that are emerging in post-Euromaidan times in Ukraine. The study analyses the assumption that this non-traditional education space can be adequate for sustainability transition learning and critical consciousness development. First, the study describes, connects, and operationalizes the concepts of critical consciousness, sustainability transition, and grassroots innovations. Then, it analyses two cases of grassroots innovations (two online sharing platforms, using these operationalized concepts. The results show that learning and critical consciousness development inside grassroots niches are much more connected to previous experience, such as participation in the protest event Euromaidan, than to inner niche learning interactions. While, the online platforms keep alive some of the aspirations that motivated people to become a part of the Euromaidan protest. In this sense, such grassroots innovations keep the values and priorities of the participants “alive” and ensure that the critical consciousness that was acquired does not simply slide backwards. Do shocking events like Euromaidan protest have to happen in order to accelerate learning about values of solidarity and responsibility, as well as to develop critical consciousness needed for sustainability transition? Despite the impossibility to completely answer this question, this study gave some tips, suggesting components of critical conscious development needed for this type of learning¾dialog, reflection, action, leading to increase in efficacy and agency.

HOW MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS USE LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY TO MITIGATE POLITICAL RISKS

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Violeta Iftinchi

2018-05-01

Full Text Available In their international activities multinational corporations (MNCs face various risks. Political risk is one of them. Expropriations, transfer and convertibility restrictions, breach of contracts, acts of terrorism, domestic political violence or other adverse regulatory changes and/or negative government action represent forms of political risks. Incorporating political risk in their risk management strategies becomes a necessity for MNCs in their search for profits and new markets. This article presents how MNCs use lobbying and advocacy as means to engage with governments and politicians in the country of origin (home country, in the country where a MNC has operations (host country or at international level (by creating ties with international organisations in order to mitigate political risks. The case of Repsol and its investment in Argentina is used to demonstrate the application of such tools. The article presents two limitations that might determine the success or failure of MNCs’ lobbying and advocacy activities: governments' unpredictable views towards MNCs and reputational risks. The article has also identified a main difficulty in identifying and examining MNCs way of using lobbying and advocacy to engage with government officials and politicians. This difficulty comes from the informal character of such contacts which makes lobbying and advocacy almost impossible to identify.

Grassroots Initiatives as Sustainability Transition Pioneers: Implications and Lessons for Urban Food Systems

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Maria Gernert

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This review explores the current evidence on the role and success factors of grassroots initiatives in sustainability transitions, with special attention given to social innovations and the transformation of urban food systems, a field that is still rather scantly dealt with in literature compared to technological innovations in other sectors such as energy. In addition to their contributions to get the necessary transformation towards sustainable futures off the ground, the preconditions for grassroots initiatives to thrive are presented—as well as limitations regarding their possibilities and the challenges they face. Increasingly, the importance of civil society and social movements in facilitating societal transformation is recognized by both researchers and policy makers. Within their radical niches, grassroots initiatives do not have to adhere to the logics of the wider systems in which they are embedded. This allows them to experiment with diverse solutions to sustainability challenges such as local food security and sovereignty. By means of democratic, inclusive and participatory processes, they create new pathways and pilot a change of course. Nevertheless, upscaling often comes at the loss of the transformative potential of grassroots initiatives.

Balanced or biased? Interest groups and legislative lobbying in the European news media

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Bruycker, I.; Beyers, J.

2015-01-01

This article examines the coverage of legislative lobbying in European news media. The starting point thereby is that lobbying in the crowded European Union (EU)-level interest community is not only a struggle for direct access to policymakers, but that in order to realize policy goals many interest

Struggle over energy transition in Berlin: How do grassroots initiatives affect local energy policy-making?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blanchet, Thomas

2015-01-01

This paper examines the growing role of grassroots initiatives in the governance of urban energy systems. In recent years, research has increasingly underlined the potential for sustainable innovation of community-led bottom-up actions but has at the same time underestimated their potential impact on the governance of energy systems. Based on a strategic action field framework (SAF), this paper analyses the conflicts over the remunicipalisation of Berlin's electricity grid and investigates the creation and strategic development of two grassroots initiatives as well as their interaction with the local government and the established grid operator. We argue that grassroots initiatives have an important impact on the local energy system, not just through their influence on the implementation of local energy policy but above all by their framing of a specific vision of a local energy transition. The paper discusses the scope and limits of such initiatives in an urban context. - Highlights: • Grassroots initiatives as actors with countervailing power in local energy policy. • They increase citizens' awareness and impact the action of the local government. • Grids as objects of struggle between competing visions of energy transition. • Urban context is both a resource and a constraint for grassroots initiatives action

Lobbying friends and foes in climate policy: The case of business and environmental interest groups in the European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gullberg, Anne Therese

2008-01-01

Drawing on two conflicting hypotheses from the theoretical literature on lobbying, I consider the strategies applied by interest groups lobbying to influence climate policy in the European Union (EU). The first hypothesis claims that interest groups lobby their 'friends', decision-makers with positions similar to their own. The second claims that interest groups lobby their 'foes', decision-makers with positions opposed to their own. Using interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, I demonstrate that in the field of climate policy, interest groups in the EU lobby both friends and foes, but under different conditions. Moreover, I find that the interest groups' motives are not always in line with the theoretical hypotheses. Interest groups lobby their friends on single policy decisions to exchange information, to further a common cause and to exert pressure, and their foes because a foe on one issue might prove to be a friend on another issue. Interest groups direct general lobbying towards both friends and foes. This paper provides a new empirical contribution to a literature that has so far been heavily dominated by studies focusing on lobbying in the US

Developmental Local Government as a Model for Grassroots Socio ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In the past five decades of political independence in Nigeria, local ... governments places a strong limitation on local autonomy and governance at the local level. ... negatively affecting grassroots socio-economic development in the Country.

Pharmaceutical lobbying in Brazil: a missing topic in the public health research agenda.

Science.gov (United States)

Paumgartten, Francisco José Roma

2016-12-22

In the US, where registration of lobbyists is mandatory, the pharmaceutical industry and private health-care providers spend huge amounts of money seeking to influence health policies and government decisions. In Brazil, where lobbying lacks transparency, there is virtually no data on drug industry expenditure to persuade legislators and government officials of their viewpoints and to influence decision-making according to commercial interests. Since 1990, however, the Associação da Indústria Farmacêutica de Pesquisa (Interfarma - Pharmaceutical Research Industry Association), Brazilian counterpart of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), main lobbying organization of the US pharmaceutical industry, has played a major role in the advocacy of interests of major drug companies. The main goals of Interfarma lobbying activities are: shortening the average time taken by the Brazilian regulatory agency (ANVISA) to approve marketing authorization for a new drug; making the criteria for incorporation of new drugs into SUS (Brazilian Unified Health System) more flexible and speeding up technology incorporation; changing the Country's ethical clearance system and the ethical requirements for clinical trials to meet the need of the innovative drug industry, and establishing a National Policy for Rare Diseases that allows a prompt incorporation of orphan drugs into SUS. Although lobbying affects community health and well-being, this topic is not in the public health research agenda. The impacts of pharmaceutical lobbying on health policies and health-care costs are of great importance for SUS and deserve to be investigated.

Sex work and the claim for grassroots legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fassi, Marisa N

2015-01-01

The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding of legal models that aim to control sex work, and the policy implications of these, by discussing the experience of developing a grassroots legislation bill proposal by organised sex workers in Córdoba, Argentina. The term 'grassroots legislation' here refers to a legal response that derives from the active involvement of local social movements and thus incorporates the experiential knowledge and claims of these particular social groupings in the proposal. The experience described in this paper excludes approaches that render sex workers as passive victims or as deviant perpetrators; instead, it conceives of sex workers in terms of their political subjectivity and of political subjectivity in its capacity to speak, to decide, to act and to propose. This means challenging current patterns of knowledge/power that give superiority to 'expert knowledge' above and beyond the claims, experiences, knowledge and needs of sex workers themselves as meaningful sources for law making.

Notes from the Grassroots: Online Lobbying in Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Yerxa, Shawn W.; Moll, Marita

1994-01-01

Discusses Canada's Public Advisory Council on Information Highway Policy (PACIHP) project, including attempts to involve the online community in policy making, the techniques used, the response, and the impact; and the Canadian regulatory and political environment. Thoughts are presented on the future of computer mediated communication and its…

Grass-roots approach: developing qualified nuclear personnel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1983-01-01

Nuclear power plants experiencing personnel recruitment problems are trying a grass-roots approach to increase the manpower pool. The Philadelphia Electric Co. and the Toledo Edison Co. are working with local educational institutions to offer nuclear-technology training specific to the needs of nuclear plants. The utilities' investment covers much of the cost of instruction as well as continued training for employees

Balancing Inside and Outside Lobbying: The Political Strategies of Lobbyists at Global Diplomatic Conferences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hanegraaff, M.; Beyers, J.; De Bruycker, I.

2016-01-01

This article seeks to explain the use of inside and outside lobbying by organised interests at global diplomatic conferences. At first sight, the lobbying at these venues is puzzling as it does not seem to be a very fruitful way to acquire influence. The use of outside strategies especially is

Translating Public Policy: Enhancing the Applicability of Social Impact Techniques for Grassroots Community Groups

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Melissa Edwards

2013-08-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on an exploratory action research study designed to understand how grassroots community organisations engage in the measurement and reporting of social impact and how they demonstrate their social impact to local government funders. Our findings suggest that the relationships between small non-profit organisations, the communities they serve or represent and their funders are increasingly driven from the top down formalised practices. Volunteer-run grassroots organisations can be marginalized in this process. Members may lack awareness of funders’ strategic approaches or the formalized auditing and control requirements of funders mean grassroots organisations lose capacity to define their programs and projects. We conclude that, to help counter this trend, tools and techniques which open up possibilities for dialogue between those holding power and those seeking support are essential.

The Effectiveness of Caps on Political Lobbying

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Matejka, M.; Onderstal, A.M.; De Waegenaere, A.M.B.

2002-01-01

In this paper, we analyze a lobby game, modelled as an all-pay auction in which interest groups submit bids in order to obtain a political prize.The bids are restricted to be below a cap imposed by the government.For both an incomplete and a complete information setting we show the following

Grassroots Leadership: Encounters with Power Dynamics and Oppression

Science.gov (United States)

Kezar, Adrianna

2011-01-01

This article focuses on the nature of power dynamics that faculty and staff grassroots leaders encounter as they attempt to create change. I identified five distinctive types of power dynamics--"oppression," "silencing," "controlling," "inertia," and "micro-aggressions" from the most overt to more subtle and covert forms. Staff experience multiple…

Lobbying in the European union – regulation and public sector economics perspective

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Daniela Dvořáková

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Lobbying has become an inseparable companion of the decision-making process and firms but also other social actors (non-governmental organizations, individuals, private and civil sector are forced to reflect this fact, if they want to promote their interests effectively and if they want to avoid regulation that would harm their interests. The paper analyses the regulation of lobbying in European institutions and focuses on two major institutions which are under pressure of the lobbyists, the European Commission and the European Parliament. The paper discusses and presents the both ways of regulation which occur in the European institutions- the concept of self-regulation and the binding Code of Conduct under the Rules of Procedure in the European Parliament.The paper contains also possible economic consequences of lobbying based on the Public Sector Economics perspective and the methodology of the principal-agent relationship.

MEASURING THE GRASSROOTS: Puzzles of Cultivating the Grassroots from the Top Down

Science.gov (United States)

Eliasoph, Nina

2014-01-01

Does a participatory, open-ended organizational format inspire creativity and draw on participants' local knowledge? Many nonprofits operate under this assumption, and many of their financial sponsors agree, and therefore demand precise accounts documenting the nonprofits' “participatory” formats. In the U.S. youth civic engagement projects described here, the practice of accounting itself had an effect, regardless of funders' goals. Volunteers devoted more time to documenting just how participatory, open-ended and grassroots they were than they devoted to any other topic. Organizers strenuously tried to avert attention from accounting's importance, but could not avoid it. Volunteers could not reflect on the accounting process, or on the political questions behind it; knowledge of it became a repressed institutional intuition. PMID:25253914

Researching Multilingualism and Superdiversity: Grassroots Actions and Responsibilities

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Li

2014-01-01

The articles in this thematic issue document studies of grassroots actions in promoting multilingualism across different sectors of society as well as in different social and professional domains. In doing so, the contributors raise issues of the relevance of the notion of community in the age of superdiversity and the researcher's…

Mass media, 'monsters' and mental health clients: the need for increased lobbying.

Science.gov (United States)

Cutcliffe, J R; Hannigan, B

2001-08-01

A review of the limited empirical and theoretical literature indicates that current mass media representations of mental health service users appear to emphasize violence, dangerousness and criminality. This is despite the empirical evidence that indicates a decline over the last 40 years in the number of homicides carried out by people identified as suffering from mental health problems. Such inappropriate representations do much to increase stigma, ostracism, harassment and victimization of these individuals by the public. Furthermore, it can be argued that there is another repercussion of these representations and that is the subsequent government position/policy and the resulting legislation concerning care of people with mental health problems. Consequently, this paper argues that there is a clear need for psychiatric/mental health (P/MH) nurses to become more mindful of the wider, socio-political environment in which their practice occurs, particularly if psycho-social approaches to practice are adopted in their fullest sense, and as a result increase their political lobby. Such increased lobbying should occur on behalf of, and in collaboration with, service users, and accordingly the authors describe a range of activities under the broad headings of pro-active and reactive lobbying. Furthermore, it is incumbent upon P/MH nurse educationalists to prepare aspirant P/MH nurses for this lobbying role and equip them with the skills necessary to do so.

Transnational diaspora lobbying: Europeanization and the Kurdish question

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berkowitz, L.; Mügge, L.M.

2014-01-01

Turkey's European Union (EU) negotiations are generally believed to positively affect the rights of ethnic minorities in Turkey. Through a detailed case study, this article examines how members of the Kurdish diaspora in Europe aim to influence this process through lobbying, and to what extent

Legal, historical and political aspects of lobbying in Serbia and the neighbouring countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ranđelović Nebojša

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Lobbying is a legitimate and necessary political instrument in a democratic society. Politics is no longer a process which can be directed (in hierarchical structure] only by politicians elected to sit in Parliament or in Government. Nowadays, politics has largely become reliant on political counseling and external consultants (lobbyists] in different areas of social life (economy, science, etc.]. In many developed democracies, lobbying has been institutionalized through the adoption of relevant legislation. In transition countries, in order to lay grounds for the prospective action, it would be necessary (first of all] to prepare the society for the process of introducing the concept of lobbying into the legislative framework. In that context, this initial stage may include devising a straightforward and well-prepared public relations strategy which would justify its introduction and most transparently provide for its institutionalization.

NGOs’ roles in enhancing corporate accountability: Advocacy for grassroots social movements in developing countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jae-Eun Noh

2017-03-01

Full Text Available As a response to increasing influences of transnational corporations (TNCs over the lives of the poor, development NGOs have tried to promote their responsibility in cooperative ways: partnership in development projects and voluntary regulations. Notwithstanding some degree of success, these cooperative ways have failed to bring fundamental changes to TNCs. This article outlines the limitations of the mainstream corporate social responsibility (CSR and the potential of grassroots social movements to make TNCs accountable. People in developing countries have been neglected in the CSR agenda; however, they have power to change corporations as labourers, consumers and citizens. Drawing on case studies, this article suggests that NGOs should support grassroots people in building global networks, constructing collective values and creating the information flow in order to overcome the current shortcomings of community-driven social movements. For these new roles as advocates and facilitators for grassroots movements, NGOs need to transform themselves by pursuing core values.

Evaluating and regulating the impacts of lobbying in the EU? The case study of green industries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

2011-01-01

farming. Rational choice theory suggests that lobbying and group size advantages can explain the observed difference in achieving environmental target levels. The EU may learn from the US legislation as a starting point for a best‐practice solution and future evaluation of impacts of lobbying in the EU....

LOBBYING AND GR-PRACTICES IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE BALTIC STATES: THE POLITICAL-SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

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Yu. M. Bolshakova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes the phenomenon of lobbying as a form of communication of public authorities, business and socio-political actors. The article based on the evaluation results of a poll presents a generalized picture of the functioning of lobbyists on the political landscape, disclosed the specifics of the use of GR-tech lobbyists at national and supranational level in the European Union. Analyzed data from a sociological study of the impact of information on the effectiveness of management decision-making by lobbyists in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States, evaluate the effectiveness of various political aktor-lobbyists. The system of power in the EU multi-level, lobbying is carried out with a strong competition between different interest groups. By the way, the Russian business poorly informed about the possibilities and mechanisms to defend their interests at EU level and does not use this tool. Institutes of the EU authorities, is the center of the work of lobbyists are the European Council, the Council of Ministers, the European Parliament and the European Commission. With regard to professional lobbying transparency of the process, about one in four out of five respondents said that business, trade associations and professional organizations are transparent in their approach to the process of political and administrative lobbying, while only one in five said this factor in relation to companies. Respondents clearly express support for democratization and openness of the political process, which is transparent to the various representatives and interest groups, and the lobbyists are expected to be open about their interests represented. It is not clear defined interests or lack of transparency called the most negative aspect of lobbying. Thus, many experts noted that the successful lobbying can change the state of the social environment and the socio-political relations. When both unsuccessful lobbying ends

Transparency in Economic and Political Decision-Making: The Identification of Sunshine Rules for Transparent Lobbying

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laboutková Šárka

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Lobbying transparency seems to have been a challenging topic for nearly a decade. For the purposes of the article, the authors focus on a contextual analysis of rules and measures that offers both a broad as well as comprehensive view of the required transparency of lobbying activities and the environment in which decisions are made. In this regard, focusing on the sunshine principles/sunshine rules (not purely limited to laws provides a grasp of the whole issue in a broader context. From a methodological point of view, the exploratory approach was chosen and the coding procedure is mostly dichotomous. As a result, seven key areas with 70 indicators have been identified in terms of transparency of lobbying and decision-making.

Addressing unmet mental health and substance abuse needs: a partnered planning effort between grassroots community agencies, faith-based organizations, service providers, and academic institutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Eunice C; Chung, Bowen; Stover, Gabriel; Stockdale, Susan; Jones, Felica; Litt, Paula; Klap, Ruth S; Patel, Kavita; Wells, Kenneth B

2011-01-01

To conduct a process evaluation of the Restoration Center Los Angeles, a community-academic partnered planning effort aimed at holistically addressing the unmet mental health and substance abuse needs of the Los Angeles African American community. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions on key domains of partnership effectiveness were conducted with a random stratified sample of participants varying by level of involvement. Eleven partners representing grassroots community agencies, faith-based organizations, service providers, and academic institutions. Common themes identified by an evaluation consultant and partners relating to partnership effectiveness, perceived benefits and costs, and future expectations. Findings underscore the importance of considering the potential issues that may arise with the increasing diversity of partners and perspectives. Many of the challenges and facilitating factors that arise within academic-community partnerships were similarly experienced between the diverse set of community partners. Challenges that affected partnership development between community-to-community partners included differences in expectations regarding the final goal of the project, trust-building, and the distribution of funds. Despite such challenges, partners were able to jointly develop a final set of recommendations for the creation of restoration centers, which was viewed as a major accomplishment. Limited guidance exists on how to navigate differences that arise between community members who have shared identities on some dimensions (eg, African American ethnicity, Los Angeles residence) but divergent identities on other dimensions (eg, formal church affiliation). With increasing diversity of community representation, careful attention needs to be dedicated to not only the development of academic-community partnerships but also community-community partnerships.

Lobbying the ‘Energiewende’. Assessing the effectiveness of strategies to promote the renewable energy business in Germany

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sühlsen, Kathrin; Hisschemöller, Matthijs

2014-01-01

The article examines the influence of renewable energy companies on the decision-making process related to the German energy transition. It identifies clusters of different lobbying activities and styles through in depth interviews with 20 stakeholders from policy-making and business. The research used Repertory Grid Technique in combination with HOMALS multivariate analysis. Its main findings are: First, although the big four electric utilities operating on the German energy market still possess wide influence, companies of renewable energy have developed from a niche into important players of the energy regime. Second, lobbies by the renewable energy sector are mainly aimed at the legislative framework, particularly on the Renewable Energy Sources Act and the feed-in-system. Third, interviewees identified 36 different lobby activities; the most effective ones are: ‘Regular and personal maintenance of contact to politicians’, ‘Lobbying within an association’, ‘Knowledge development with correct information’ and ‘Top-down contacting of most powerful politicians’. Fourth, the statistical analysis reveals clear distinctions between companies with regards to their lobby strategies which are evaluated differently by stakeholders. Finally, the article concludes that companies have a strong influence on political-decision making and – together with governmental actors – form a ‘policy network’ that strongly shapes the German energy transition

E-learning for grass-roots emergency public health personnel: Preliminary lessons from a national program in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Wangquan; Jiang, Qicheng; Qin, Xia; Fang, Guixia; Hu, Zhi

2016-07-19

In China, grass-roots emergency public health personnel have relatively limited emergency response capabilities and they are constantly required to update their professional knowledge and skills due to recurring and new public health emergencies. However, professional training, a principal solution to this problem, is inadequate because of limitations in manpower and financial resources at grass-roots public health agencies. In order to provide a cost-effective and easily expandable way for grass-roots personnel to acquire knowledge and skills, the National Health Planning Commission of China developed an emergency response information platform and provided trial access to this platform in Anhui and Heilongjiang provinces in China. E-learning was one of the modules of the platform and this paper has focused on an e-learning pilot program. Results indicated that e-learning had satisfactorily improved the knowledge and ability of grass-roots emergency public health personnel, and the program provided an opportunity to gain experience in e-course design and implementing e-learning. Issues such as the lack of personalized e-courses and the difficulty of evaluating the effectiveness of e-learning are topics for further study.

Inside-out: Interest groups’ “outside” media work as a means to manage “inside” lobbying efforts and relationships with politicians

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Trapp, Leila; Laursen, Bo

2017-01-01

sharpen our appreciation of the importance of political finesse, in addition to media savvy, amongst press staff in politically driven organizations; and finally, as part of the ever-growing mediatization of politics, we should recognize that political processes that traditionally have taken place in face......, (2) manage the ongoing face-to-face lobbying process, and (3) strengthen relationships to policy makers. While the first reason neatly reflects the well-known agenda-setting strategy in which raising public awareness on political issues is central, the remaining more surprising and underexplored...... reasons indicate a need to revise our assumptions about media work in politically motivated organizations. Our proposal is three-fold: Because interest groups view political actors as key consumers of news stories, media work should no longer be conceptualized as an exclusively outside strategy; we should...

Grassroots movement building and preemption in the campaign for residential fire sprinklers.

Science.gov (United States)

Pertschuk, Mark; Hobart, Robin; Paloma, Marjorie; Larkin, Michelle A; Balbach, Edith D

2013-10-01

Home fires account for 85% of fire deaths in the United States, the majority in 1- or 2-family homes lacking fire sprinklers. Since 1978, however, a grassroots movement has successfully promoted more than 360 local ordinances mandating sprinklers in all new residential construction, including 1- and 2-family homes. The homebuilding industry has responded by seeking state preemption of local authority, a strategy previously used by other industries concerned about protecting their profits. From 2009 through 2011, 13 states adopted laws eliminating or limiting local authority over residential fire sprinklers. This study of the residential sprinkler movement adds to our understanding of grassroots public health movements and provides additional evidence that preemption can have a negative impact on public health and safety.

Working for India or against Islam? Islamophobia in Indian American Lobbies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ingrid Therwath

2007-10-01

Full Text Available In the past few years, the Indian American community has gained an unprecedented visibility in the international arena. It is indeed often projected as a model community and now constitutes growing and influential ethnic lobbies in Washington. But, in the face of its sheer division, Islamophobia did provide a unifying force sometimes bigger than the interest of Indian Americans or of their country of origin. Other factors can also be summoned. Among them, a leniency of many post-1965 migrants towards Hindu nationalist ideology and the wish to align with Jewish pressure groups in the context of the war against terrorism and to further the India-Israel-US strategic partnership play a major role in explaining Islamophobic overtones in the Indian American lobbies.

OSUL2013: Fostering Organizational Change through a Grassroots Planning Process

Science.gov (United States)

Schlosser, Melanie

2011-01-01

This paper provides background on planning and organizational culture change in libraries and describes a grassroots planning process taking place at the Ohio State University Libraries. Now in its third phase, the process aims to create a long-term plan for the organization while fostering a more collaborative, innovative culture.

Grassroots innovations for sustainability in the United States : A spatial analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nicolosi, Emily; Medina, Richard; Feola, Giuseppe

2018-01-01

In response to unsustainable dominant systems of production and consumption, grassroots innovations for sustainability (GIs) experiment with new forms of sustainable living. A wide variety of GIs have emerged recently addressing a range of possible solutions, from new systems of provision and

The impact of lobbying on the allocation of political authority

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Falconieri, S.

2001-01-01

This paper studies the internal organizational design of politicalinstitutions in presence of lobbying. We consider a legislature ascomposed of two bodies: the floor and an informational committee. Thefloor has the (formal) power to choose the policy to be implemented.The policy outcome is ex ante

INSTITUTIONAL LOBBYING IN BRAZIL: A COMMUNICATION CHANNEL BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE CIVIL SOCIETY?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andréa Cristina de Jesus Oliveira

2007-12-01

Full Text Available n this article it is examined the structure, the organization and the action of institutional lobbying in Brazilian Congress. Tthe institutional lobbying refers to the performance of the corporative or institutional departments of private companies devoted to the relationships with the different spheres and government levels. An important attribute of the corporative or institutional departments is the development of a communication channel with the State, trying to assist them with ideas and initiatives that can provide solutions for their problems and also to present the positions of the company.

Understanding the Formation, Functions, and Challenges of Grassroots Leadership Teams

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, Jaime; Kezar, Adrianna J.

2012-01-01

This study examined the nature, characteristics, and challenges of grassroots leadership teams and the role of these factors in promoting cognitive complexity in order to provide insight into collective forms of bottom-up change. The study is framed by the literature on leadership teams. Using interviews from a case study conducted at five higher…

GRASSROOTS ONLINE JOURNALISM: Public intervention in Kuro5hin and Wikinews

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Träsel

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Grassroots online journalism, as defined by Primo and Träsel
(2006, are the practices developed in web news periodicals, or
parts thereof, where the boundary between reading and publishing is either blurred or non-existent. The question is no longer whether individuals with no professional license or formal education will publish their own writing and influence, but how and to what extent they will do so. This paper presents results from a study focusing on interventions from various contributors in the journalistic content published in the participatory news websites Wikinews and Kuro5hin. A sample of ten texts was collected over seven weeks to create a corpus of interventions, which was later submitted to content analysis with the goal of verifying whether the interventions had a predominantly pluralizing character or not. The results show that, for Wikinews and Kuro5hin, the interventions are mostly pluralizing, which indicates grassroots online journalism can make important contributions to democracy.

Grassroots Action Research and the Greater Good (La investigación acción de base y el bien mayor)

Science.gov (United States)

Rainey, Isobel

2011-01-01

This study examines the action research topics and topic preferences of two groups of grassroots teachers: active researchers, and potential researchers. The analysis of the topics appears to indicate that, over the past decade, action research at the teaching of English at the grassroots level to speakers of other languages has been principally…

The role of grassroots efforts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sexton, C. [Plug-in America, El Segundo, CA (United States)

2007-07-01

This presentation chronicled the demise of the electric vehicle, despite the fact that zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) avoid significant emissions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide. It provided information on ZEVs and plug-in electric hybrid's (PHEVs) with particular reference to the volume of avoided emissions. Photographs of several types of electric vehicles developed over the years were provided along with the number of electric vehicles made, leased and crushed at General Motors, Ford, and Toyota. Plug-in America partners in the city of Austin, Texas gathered over 8,000 soft fleet orders and signed on 74 American cities with orders pending. A new vehicle, the 2010 Chevy Volt was illustrated and presented. Other new competitors were also displayed in photographs, including Toyota Prius, Volvo Recharge, Ford Escape, Daimler Sprinter, Mitsubishi Miev, Saturn Vue, Audi Metroproject, Daimler Smart, and Nissan Mixim. The presentation also described a partnership between Ford and Southern California Edison Company to evaluate the complete energy system impacts of fully certified PHEVs on the utility grid. The presentation also noted that Fisker has also planned for 15,000 units a year at a cost of under $100,000. PHEVs are popular in literacy circles and several books were noted and illustrated in the presentation. Last, the presentation discussed policy with respect to electric vehicles. tabs., figs.

Lobbying during the revision of the European emissions trading system: Easier for Swedish industrial insiders than for Norwegian outsiders?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Miard, Kadri

2011-07-01

This report examines and compares the lobbying routes taken by Swedish and Norwegian energy-intensive industry firms during the revision of the European Emissions Trading System. Two key explanatory factors are in focus here - whether the company has its origin in the EU member state Sweden or in non-member Norway; and the size of the company. Six companies are chosen as cases: Norsk Hydro, Norcem and Norske Skog from Norway; and SSAB, Cementa and Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget from Sweden. A key finding is the extensive use of European associations by all these firms in lobbying EU institutions. Also prevalent is the use of national associations, which would indicate benefits in the form of better institutional response to collective lobbying and resource-sharing aspects. Although Norwegian firms seem to have struggled more than Swedish firms when it comes to lobbying EU institutions, due to lack of access to the EU, not all differences can be explained by the fact of originating in an EU member state Sweden or non-member Norway. While company size has a positive effect on the number of available lobbying routes, this appears to depend on cross-border production and possibly other influences as well.(auth)

Application of remote source lighting system in different layouts of enclosed lift lobbies in highrise residential building of central core design

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wong, I.; Yang, H.X. [Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ., Hung Hom, Hong Kong (China). Dept. of Building Services, Renewable Energy Research Group

2010-07-01

This paper reported on a simulation study that explored a new building philosophy that optimizes solar energy to minimize reliance on fossil fuels and to design energy conscious buildings that minimize the energy needed for lighting and cooling. The viability of applying a remote source lighting (RSL) system to transmit daylight into central core lobbies in high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong was demonstrated. These lobbies are usually enclosed without any windows, thus requiring electric lighting to be switched on 24 hours continuously, consuming non-renewable energy in most cases. In this study, the RSL system was composed of small diameter light pipes and optic fibers. The system transports daylight from the exterior to illuminate the enclosed lobbies. The simulation was conducted to analyze and compare the light transmission efficiency when applying the RSL system to different layouts of the lift lobbies. It was concluded that the efficiency of the RSL system is governed by the length and number of turns in the lobby. 13 refs., 12 figs.

Rising Central Spending on Public Security and the Dilemma Facing Grassroots Officials in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yue Xie

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In response to worsening social instability in China, among grassroots communities in the poorer central and western provinces in particular, the Chinese central government has made budgetary arrangements, since 2003, to increase investment at the grassroots level to improve the capacity of local governments to maintain social order. However, this action by central government has created a dilemma for local cadres: how to perform their duty to maintain social stability while also balancing a heavy fiscal burden caused in part by the receipt of insufficient additional budgetary subsidies from higher government. This paper is an account of and an analysis of how local cadres in China perform their official duties when faced with this dilemma.

Do victims only cry? Victim-survivors and their grassroots organizations in Peru

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Waardt, M.F.; Ouweneel, A.

2012-01-01

De Waardt discusses associations of victims of the 1980s violent conflict in Peru, which she relates to the Peruvian cultural tradition of grassroots organizations. She conveys the substantial existence of victim-survivor associations, the social support its members find amongst each other, and the

Lobbying na Regulação Contábil: Evidências do Setor Petrolífero

OpenAIRE

Santos, Odilanei Morais dos; Santos, Ariovaldo dos

2014-01-01

Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar os fatores determinantes à submissão de cartas comentários, como estratégia de lobbying no contexto da regulação contábil, à audiência pública do Discussion Paper Extractive Activities do International Accounting Standards Board IASB).Os resultados mostram o tamanho como fator determinante, em todas as modelagens utilizadas, indicando que grandes empresas petrolíferas possuem maior probabilidade para realizar lobbying. Essa propensão é verificada pa...

Grassroot digital innovation and public administration in the Smart City milieu

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurora López-Fogués

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This article presents the vision that Santander, Valencia, Bilbao and Donostia have of the Smart City (SC. It also explores how local corporations interact with grassroots digital innovation experiences, understood as networks of individuals and organizations that generate innovation through the use of digital technologies for social and environmental purposes. For the analysis we have used a theoretical framework based on human development and the multi-level perspective of socio-technical transitions. The results show that the discourse of cities about SC wants to move towards a participatory vision, but is still far from it in its practice. This is palpable in the way that local administrations interact with the experiences of digital social innovation where a unidirectional and instrumental practice still predominates. Additionally, we have analyzed 21 experiences of grassroots digital innovation: their vision of SC and how they interact with local administrations. Their idea of SC is more aligned with the values of human development, whereas their strategies are very different: from initiatives that choose not to have relation with administrations to others that aim for influencing them.

Cultural capital and the density of organised interests lobbying the European Parliament

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Carroll, Brendan J.; Rasmussen, Anne

2017-01-01

Drawing on a new dataset the article investigates a case study of the population of interest representatives lobbying the European Parliament. It examines the role of economic and cultural resources to account for the representation of organised interests from different EU member states. It adds...... to the existing literature on the density of organised interests by showing that in addition to economic resources, cultural capital plays a significant role in stimulating the activity of organised interests. Whether countries have a high number of organised interests in the parliament’s interest group community...... depends on both whether they are economically prosperous and how large a share of their citizens participate in associational life. In addition, the findings demonstrate how the ranking of countries in the population of organised interests lobbying the parliament depends on the benchmark used to measure...

Improvement of workíng environment - from a grass-root strategy to institutionalized professionalism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Thomas

2002-01-01

Improvement of working environment as a tool to promote sustainable development - from a grass-root strategy to institutionalized professionalism. It is now more than 25 years since substitution of organic solvents started to be considered as a meaningful way in Denmark to reduce harmful effects...... on workers. During that period different groups of actors have been involved, new institutions to improve working environment have emerged, and legislation has been changed. The paper will describe the development from a grass-root strategy to improve working environment to a much more complex situation...... where working environment professionals play an important role, and where the concept of ‘cleaner technology’ is generally accepted as a tool to promote sustainable development in the Danish society. The paper will also discuss the necessity of incorporation of working environment considerations...

The alcohol industry lobby and Hong Kong's zero wine and beer tax policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoon, Sungwon; Lam, Tai-Hing

2012-08-30

Whereas taxation on alcohol is becoming an increasingly common practice in many countries as part of overall public health measures, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is bucking the trend and lowered its duties on wine and beer by 50 percent in 2007. In 2008, Hong Kong removed all duties on alcohol except for spirits. The aim of this paper is to examine the case of Hong Kong with its history of changes in alcohol taxation to explore the factors that have driven such an unprecedented policy evolution. The research is based on an analysis of primary documents. Searches of official government documents, alcohol-related industry materials and other media reports on alcohol taxation for the period from 2000 to 2008 were systematically carried out using key terms such as "alcohol tax" and "alcohol industry". Relevant documents (97) were indexed by date and topic to undertake a chronological and thematic analysis using Nvivo8 software. Our analysis demonstrates that whereas the city's changing financial circumstances and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's strong propensity towards economic liberalism had, in part, contributed to such dramatic transformation, the alcohol industry's lobbying tactics and influence were clearly the main drivers of the policy decision. The alcohol industry's lobbying tactics were two-fold. The first was to forge a coalition encompassing a range of catering and trade industries related to alcohol as well as industry-friendly lawmakers so that these like-minded actors could find common ground in pursuing changes to the taxation policy. The second was to deliberately promote a blend of ideas to garner support from the general public and to influence the perception of key policy makers. Our findings suggest that the success of aggressive industry lobbying coupled with the absence of robust public health advocacy was the main driving force behind the unparalleled abolition of wine and beer duties in Hong

Multi-level lobbying in the EU: The case of the Renewables Directive and the German energy industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ydersbond, Inga Margrete

2012-11-01

This study examines the lobbying strategies employed by the interest organizations of Germany's energy industries in the process leading up to the EU's Renewable Energy Directive. How did they lobby, and what does this reveal about their perceptions of power relations in the EU? This report focuses on the most controversial part of the Directive: legal prescriptions for support mechanisms to increase the production of renewable energy in Europe. The utilities and the renewables industries disagreed deeply, with the utilities industry favouring an EU-wide green certificate scheme, while the renewables industry pressed for national feed-in tariffs. Nine interest organizations representing these sectors, five German and four at the EU level, serve as cases in this study. Expectations as to lobbying behaviour based on the two theories/theory perspectives of liberal intergovernmentalism (LI) and multi-level governance (MLG) are formulated and tested in a most-likely case design. Result: observations are better described by the MLG perspective than by LI.(auth)

Multi-level lobbying in the EU: The case of the Renewables Directive and the German energy industry

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ydersbond, Inga Margrete

2012-11-01

This study examines the lobbying strategies employed by the interest organizations of Germany's energy industries in the process leading up to the EU's Renewable Energy Directive. How did they lobby, and what does this reveal about their perceptions of power relations in the EU? This report focuses on the most controversial part of the Directive: legal prescriptions for support mechanisms to increase the production of renewable energy in Europe. The utilities and the renewables industries disagreed deeply, with the utilities industry favouring an EU-wide green certificate scheme, while the renewables industry pressed for national feed-in tariffs. Nine interest organizations representing these sectors, five German and four at the EU level, serve as cases in this study. Expectations as to lobbying behaviour based on the two theories/theory perspectives of liberal intergovernmentalism (LI) and multi-level governance (MLG) are formulated and tested in a most-likely case design. Result: observations are better described by the MLG perspective than by LI.(auth)

Legal regime of lobby activities. A comparative view

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ovidiu-Horia MAICAN

2014-12-01

Full Text Available A very important aspect is that countries with specific rules and regulations regulating the activities of lobbyists and interest groups are more the exception than the rule. The interest groups are pursuing their goals in the political arena by lobbying, or attempting to influence policy-making, are consistent with the spirit of democracy. In practice, interest group influence can sometimes lead to political corruption, the inequality of representation, and the overcrowding of political institutions. As a consequence, some political systems find it appropriate to regulate interest representation.

Springing back: climate resilience at Africa's grassroots

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vermuelen, Sonja; Dossou, Krystel; MacQueen, Duncan; Walubengo, Dominic; Nangoma, Everhart

2008-05-15

Climate change is often seen as a global problem demanding global solutions. But for poor people hit hard by the impacts, climate change is a not a boardroom abstraction, but day-to-day reality. Faced with local shifts in weather patterns and natural resources, they are forced to find ways of coping that are locally relevant. This kind of experience gained at the grassroots, boosts resilience as no top-down initiative can. Three case studies from rural communities in Benin, Kenya and Malawi show how it is done.

Costa Rica’s Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Overcoming decades of industry dominance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Crosbie

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. To analyze the passage of Costa Rica’s 2012 tobacco control law. Materials and methods. Review of legislation, newspaper articles, and key informant interviews. Results. Tobacco control advocates, in close collaboration with international health groups, recruited national, regional and international experts to testify in the Legislative Assembly, implemented grassroots advocacy campaigns, and generated media coverage to enact strong legislation in March 2012 consistent with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, despite tobacco industry lobbying efforts that for decades blocked effective tobacco control legislation. Conclusion. Costa Rica’s experience illustrates how with resources, good strategic planning, aggressive tactics and perseverance tobacco control advocates can overcome tobacco industry opposition in the Legislative Assembly and Executive Branch. This determined approach has positioned Costa Rica to become a regional leader in tobacco control.

Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development: Path to Managing Rural Grass-roots Party Organization from the Perspective of Impetus

Science.gov (United States)

Zhong, Xianzhe

2018-02-01

Impetus is the most fundamental guarantee for the survival and progress of organization. The rural grass-roots party organization should serve as a battle fortress of party helping realize the purpose of party in the village. Therefore, to strengthen the management of rural party branches, it is imperative to optimize their impetus, stepping on the basic paths: developing and utilizing material force, and digging and stimulating spiritual force for rural grass-roots party organization construction; adhering to the dialectical view on impetus to highlight both material and spiritual motivations.

Cultivating Community Schools: Austin's Grassroots Effort

Science.gov (United States)

Dubin, Jennifer

2015-01-01

In 2007, Walter P. Webb Middle School faced a crisis. One evening in January, the superintendent at the time held a meeting at the school in Austin, Texas, to let students, parents, teachers, and community members know that at the end of the academic year, their school would close. Thanks to a new state law focused on accountability, the…

Grassroots Engagement and the University of Washington: Evaluating Science Communication Training Created by Graduate Students for Graduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Rohde, J. A.; Clarkson, M.; Houghton, J.; Chen, W.

2016-12-01

Science graduate students increasingly seek science communication training, yet many do not have easy access to training programs. Students often rely on a "do it yourself" approach to gaining communication skills, and student created science communication programs are increasingly found at universities and institutions across the U.S. In 2010, graduate students at the University of Washington led a grassroots effort to improve their own communication and outreach by creating "The Engage Program." With a focus on storytelling and public speaking, this graduate level course not only trains students in science communication but also gives them real world experience practicing that training at a public speaker series at Town Hall Seattle. The Engage Program was fortunate in that it was able to find institutional champions at University of Washington and secure funding to sustain the program over the long-term. However, many grassroots communication programs find it difficult to gain institutional support if there is a perceived lack of alignment with university priorities or lack of return on investment. In order to justify and incentivize institutional support for instruction in science communication, student leaders within the program initiated, designed and carried out an evaluation of their own program focused on assessing the impact of student communication, evaluating the effectiveness of the program in teaching communication skills, and quantifying the benefits of communication training to both the students and their institution. Project leaders created the opportunity for this evaluation by initiating a crowdfunding campaign, which has helped to further engage public support of science communication and incentivized student participation in the program, and may also inspire future program leaders to pursue similar program optimizations.

Grassroots scalar politics: Insights from peasant water struggles in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Andes

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoogesteger van Dijk, J.D.; Verzijl, A.

2015-01-01

Based on insights from peasant and indigenous communities’ struggles for water in Andean Peru and Ecuador, in this article we argue that the defense of grassroots interests -and with it the advancement of more equitable governance- greatly hinges on the capacity of these groups to engage in

Grasstops and Grassroots Approaches to Building Community Resilience

Science.gov (United States)

LeBeau, A.; Bader, D.

2017-12-01

Climate change and extreme weather events pose complex risks to cities all over the world, impacting not only the built environment, but also social infrastructure. Because urban communities are culturally and socioeconomically diverse, as well as systemically complicated, climate change and extreme weather events will impact people differently even within a single city—not only because of where they live, but also because of who they are. The City of Long Beach, California, is in its very early stages of understanding its vulnerabilities. However, city leaders and community partners including the Aquarium of the Pacific are committed to creating a model climate resilient city. Climate change risks most relevant to Long Beach include drought (and freshwater shortages), extreme heat, sea level rise, and poor air quality. Over the past 18 months, the Aquarium of the Pacific has been testing elements of a broad-reaching education strategy to reach community stakeholders. Two multi-level approaches are designed to build awareness and momentum for climate resilience. A grassroots approach, called RESILIENT LB, focuses on an interactive outreach booth that travels to community events. The booth is staffed by educators with specific training on climate communication. Facilitated conversations help people identify what they love about Long Beach and immediate impacts that climate change will have on the things they value. A second, complimentary approach involves long-term community engagement through a grasstops-to-grassroots approach. Aquarium educators have been facilitating different climate resilience workshops for leaders from a variety of groups across Long Beach. These workshops give leaders the chance to reflect on how their communities may be impacted by climate change, and highlight adaptation (rather than mitigation) to climate change. In this session, we will share how these programs have evolved, lessons learned, and areas of growth.

Two logics of NGO advocacy: understanding inside and outside lobbying on EU environmental policies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Junk, Wiebke Marie

2016-01-01

Contributions by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to European governance supposedly enhance participatory democracy. It matters for this democratic surplus how NGOs foster relationships to both policy-makers and publics by engaging in inside and outside lobbying on European Union policies...

Design, Participation, and Social Change: What Design in Grassroots Spaces Can Teach Learning Scientists

Science.gov (United States)

Zavala, Miguel

2016-01-01

While a science of design (and theory of learning) is certainly useful in design-based research, a participatory design research framework presents an opening for learning scientists to rethink design and learning as processes. Grounded in the autoethnographic investigation of a grassroots organization's design of a local campaign, the author…

The alcohol industry lobby and Hong Kong’s zero wine and beer tax policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoon Sungwon

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Whereas taxation on alcohol is becoming an increasingly common practice in many countries as part of overall public health measures, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is bucking the trend and lowered its duties on wine and beer by 50 percent in 2007. In 2008, Hong Kong removed all duties on alcohol except for spirits. The aim of this paper is to examine the case of Hong Kong with its history of changes in alcohol taxation to explore the factors that have driven such an unprecedented policy evolution. Methods The research is based on an analysis of primary documents. Searches of official government documents, alcohol-related industry materials and other media reports on alcohol taxation for the period from 2000 to 2008 were systematically carried out using key terms such as “alcohol tax” and “alcohol industry”. Relevant documents (97 were indexed by date and topic to undertake a chronological and thematic analysis using Nvivo8 software. Results Our analysis demonstrates that whereas the city’s changing financial circumstances and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s strong propensity towards economic liberalism had, in part, contributed to such dramatic transformation, the alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics and influence were clearly the main drivers of the policy decision. The alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics were two-fold. The first was to forge a coalition encompassing a range of catering and trade industries related to alcohol as well as industry-friendly lawmakers so that these like-minded actors could find common ground in pursuing changes to the taxation policy. The second was to deliberately promote a blend of ideas to garner support from the general public and to influence the perception of key policy makers. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the success of aggressive industry lobbying coupled with the absence of robust public health advocacy was the

The alcohol industry lobby and Hong Kong’s zero wine and beer tax policy

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Whereas taxation on alcohol is becoming an increasingly common practice in many countries as part of overall public health measures, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is bucking the trend and lowered its duties on wine and beer by 50 percent in 2007. In 2008, Hong Kong removed all duties on alcohol except for spirits. The aim of this paper is to examine the case of Hong Kong with its history of changes in alcohol taxation to explore the factors that have driven such an unprecedented policy evolution. Methods The research is based on an analysis of primary documents. Searches of official government documents, alcohol-related industry materials and other media reports on alcohol taxation for the period from 2000 to 2008 were systematically carried out using key terms such as “alcohol tax” and “alcohol industry”. Relevant documents (97) were indexed by date and topic to undertake a chronological and thematic analysis using Nvivo8 software. Results Our analysis demonstrates that whereas the city’s changing financial circumstances and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s strong propensity towards economic liberalism had, in part, contributed to such dramatic transformation, the alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics and influence were clearly the main drivers of the policy decision. The alcohol industry’s lobbying tactics were two-fold. The first was to forge a coalition encompassing a range of catering and trade industries related to alcohol as well as industry-friendly lawmakers so that these like-minded actors could find common ground in pursuing changes to the taxation policy. The second was to deliberately promote a blend of ideas to garner support from the general public and to influence the perception of key policy makers. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the success of aggressive industry lobbying coupled with the absence of robust public health advocacy was the main driving force behind the

Professionals and students in a lobbying experiment. Professional rules of conduct and subject surrogacy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Potters, J.; van Winden, F.A.A.M.

2000-01-01

Lobbying is studied in a series of signaling game experiments. Students as well as professional lobbyists are used as subjects. In contrast with some earlier studies, comparing students and professionals, we find significant differences in the behavior of the two subject pools. Professional subjects

Meeting at the Edges: Spaces, Places and Grassroots Governance Activism in Delhi

OpenAIRE

Webb, Martin

2013-01-01

Through ethnography of activist organisations promoting transparency, accountability and active citizenship, and comprising coalitions of the city’s middle classes and urban poor, this article explores the spaces in which activists from different social backgrounds meet and carry out their work. By locating the positions of meeting rooms, offices and activists’ homes in urban space, I open up a view of the everyday practices of grassroots governance initiatives aimed at producing shared citiz...

Peruvian grassroots organizations in times of violence and peace. Between economic solidarity, participatory democracy, and feminism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Waardt, M.F.; Ypeij, A.

2017-01-01

The new millennium has meant a new start for Peruvian society. After decades of political violence, economic crisis, and an internal war, democracy was restored, and economic growth resumed. The many grassroots organizations that had been established to address the economic and political crisis seem

Grassroots women have their say. Programme.

Science.gov (United States)

1997-08-01

The International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group was founded in 1992 to conduct international research on the meanings of "reproductive rights" for grassroots women in different settings. The qualitative ethnographic study conducted in Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, and the US sought to determine 1) concepts of entitlement about reproduction and sexuality; 2) how reproductive decisions are made; 3) how women practice resistance and accommodation in relation to self-identity and reproductive decision-making; and 4) what social, economic, legal, and political conditions and services affect women's decisions and reproductive life and rights. A number of interview techniques were employed with relatively small numbers of low-income people from diverse backgrounds in each country. The study revealed that significant similarities as well as differences existed among and within the study countries. The women studied exhibited a strong sense of entitlement over reproductive decisions, marriage, and sexual relations. In order to secure their needs, the women accommodated themselves to local expectations when they were unable to rely on a supportive environment to translate their sense of entitlement into effective rights.

Making it in a 'saturated' market. How the Spence Center wins women's hearts with grass-roots marketing.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, P L

1997-01-01

The Spence Centers, full-service, independent clinics for women, depend on grass-roots outreach to cultivate customers and build brand equity. The Centers have garnered national and international press coverage and made enough friends to open a fourth operation.

Cloud-based hospital information system as a service for grassroots healthcare institutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Qin; Han, Xiong; Ma, Xi-Kun; Xue, Yi-Feng; Chen, Yi-Jun; Li, Jing-Song

2014-09-01

Grassroots healthcare institutions (GHIs) are the smallest administrative levels of medical institutions, where most patients access health services. The latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed that 96.04 % of 950,297 medical institutions in China were at the grassroots level in 2012, including county-level hospitals, township central hospitals, community health service centers, and rural clinics. In developing countries, these institutions are facing challenges involving a shortage of funds and talent, inconsistent medical standards, inefficient information sharing, and difficulties in management during the adoption of health information technologies (HIT). Because of the necessity and gravity for GHIs, our aim is to provide hospital information services for GHIs using Cloud computing technologies and service modes. In this medical scenario, the computing resources are pooled by means of a Cloud-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to serve multiple GHIs, with different hospital information systems dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand. This paper is concerned with establishing a Cloud-based Hospital Information Service Center to provide hospital information software as a service (HI-SaaS) with the aim of providing GHIs with an attractive and high-performance medical information service. Compared with individually establishing all hospital information systems, this approach is more cost-effective and affordable for GHIs and does not compromise HIT performance.

Lobbying na Regulação Contábil: Evidências do Setor Petrolífero

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Odilanei Morais dos Santos

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Este trabalho tem como objetivo identificar os fatores determinantes à submissão de cartas comentários, como estratégia de lobbying no contexto da regulação contábil, à audiência pública do Discussion Paper Extractive Activities do International Accounting Standards Board IASB.Os resultados mostram o tamanho como fator determinante, em todas as modelagens utilizadas, indicando que grandes empresas petrolíferas possuem maior probabilidade para realizar lobbying. Essa propensão é verificada para posicionamentos essencialmente desfavoráveis às propostas apresentadas pelo IASB, o que implica em considerar que a revisão/substituição do International Financial Reporting Standard -IFRS6 será um processo complexo e sujeito a pressões por parte das empresas petrolíferas para manter o status quo.

Is there no reason to worry. The nuclear lobby and the MCA. Kein Anlass zur Besorgnis. Die Atom-Lobby und der GAU

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jaeckle, R

1986-01-01

That politicians, officials and members of the Radiation Protection Commission ruled out late consequences already a few days after the Chernobyl accident, or permitted them to be lost in the statistical variation range, may be 'explainable' on political and economic grounds. However, that even leading nuclear medicals, radiobiologists and top medical functionaries in the days and weeks after Chernobyl jettisoned elementary medical rules about the harmfulness of radioactivity and, playing events down to the extent of making fallacious statements, even placed their communications at the disposal of the nuclear lobby has so far been only marginally discussed in public. The book wants to enlighten the public about the enlightenment that failed to appear after the reactor accident.

Does centralization increase the size of government? The effects of separation of powers and lobbying

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mazza, I.A.; van Winden, F.A.A.M.

2002-01-01

Difficulties faced by the Economic and Monetary Union have strengthened the position of those who advocate a process of (further) political integration in the European Union (EU). A widespread fear is, though, that such a process would favor powerful interest groups able to lobby the EU

A Grassroots Remote Sensing Toolkit Using Live Coding, Smartphones, Kites and Lightweight Drones

OpenAIRE

Anderson, K.; Griffiths, D.; DeBell, L.; Hancock, S.; Duffy, J. P.; Shutler, J. D.; Reinhardt, W. J.; Griffiths, A.

2016-01-01

This manuscript describes the development of an android-based smartphone application for capturing aerial photographs and spatial metadata automatically, for use in grassroots mapping applications. The aim of the project was to exploit the plethora of on-board sensors within modern smartphones (accelerometer, GPS, compass, camera) to generate ready-to-use spatial data from lightweight aerial platforms such as drones or kites. A visual coding 'scheme blocks' framework was used to build the app...

Lobbying the 'Energiewende'. Assessing the effectiveness of strategies to promote the renewable energy business in Germany

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suehlsen, K.; Hisschemoller, M.

2014-01-01

The article examines the influence of renewable energy companies on the decision-making process related to the German energy transition. It identifies clusters of different lobbying activities and styles through in depth interviews with 20 stakeholders from policy-making and business. The research

Shaping the tax agenda: Public engagement, lobbying and tax reform in Tanzania

OpenAIRE

Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge; Ngowi, Prosper; Rakner, Lise

2015-01-01

Tax reforms are no longer the exclusive domain of the International Monetary Fund, external experts, and the Ministry of Finance. Increasingly, interest groups across Africa shape the tax agenda. Business associations and other lobbying groups join in alliance with multinational companies to get tax exemptions even though they admit that tax incentives are not of major importance for their decision to invest or not.A high occurrence of tax exemptions reduces the tax base, creates room for bri...

Vested Interests in Addiction Research and Policy The challenge corporate lobbying poses to reducing society’s alcohol problems: insights from UK evidence on minimum unit pricing

Science.gov (United States)

McCambridge, Jim; Hawkins, Benjamin; Holden, Chris

2014-01-01

Background There has been insufficient research attention to alcohol industry methods of influencing public policies. With the exception of the tobacco industry, there have been few studies of the impact of corporate lobbying on public health policymaking more broadly. Methods We summarize here findings from documentary analyses and interview studies in an integrative review of corporate efforts to influence UK policy on minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol 2007–10. Results Alcohol producers and retailers adopted a long-term, relationship-building approach to policy influence, in which personal contacts with key policymakers were established and nurtured, including when they were not in government. The alcohol industry was successful in achieving access to UK policymakers at the highest levels of government and at all stages of the policy process. Within the United Kingdom, political devolution and the formation for the first time of a Scottish National Party (SNP) government disrupted the existing long-term strategy of alcohol industry actors and created the conditions for evidence-based policy innovations such as MUP. Conclusions Comparisons between policy communities within the United Kingdom and elsewhere are useful to the understanding of how different policy environments are amenable to influence through lobbying. Greater transparency in how policy is made is likely to lead to more effective alcohol and other public policies globally by constraining the influence of vested interests. PMID:24261642

Culture change, leadership and the grass-roots workforce.

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Mark; Penlington, Clare; Kalidasan, Varadarajan; Kelly, Tony

2014-08-01

The NHS is arguably entering its most challenging era. It is being asked to do more for less and, in parallel, a cultural shift in response to its described weaknesses has been prescribed. The definition of culture, the form this change should take and the mechanism to achieve it are not well understood. The complexity of modern healthcare requires that we evolve our approach to the workforce and enhance our understanding of the styles of leadership that are required in order to bring about this cultural change. Identification of leaders within the workforce and dissemination of a purposeful and strategic quality improvement agenda, in part defined by the general workforce, are important components in establishing the change that the organisation currently requires. We are implementing this approach locally by identifying and developing grassroots networks linked to a portfolio of safety and quality projects. © 2014 Royal College of Physicians.

Studi Kasus Pada Penerapan Sop Inventori Lobby Bar Shangri-la Hotel and Resort Surabaya : Pengamatan Terhadap Prosedur Pengambilan Bahan, Penyimpanan Serta Perlakuan Selama Penyimpanan Bahan

OpenAIRE

Widjojo, Gerald; Kusumawidjaya, Amanda

2013-01-01

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui sejauh mana pemahaman staff dari Lobby Lounge Shangri-La Hotel Surabaya terhadap SOP pada inventori bahan yang ada. SOP ini dirasa penting dalam operasional lobby sehari-hari. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif dengan menggunakan wawancara dan checklist dalam menghasilkan data untuk dianalisa. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar staf sudah memahami SOP yang ada dan sudah mampu menjalankan SOP yang ada dengan baik.

Triggering Solidarity Actions towards Contingent Workers and the Unemployed. The Point of View of Grassroots Trade Unionists and Labour Activists

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina Karakioulafis

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Since the 1980s, trade unions have suffered a decrease in membership, public legitimacy and the capacity to achieve their core objectives. Renewal strategies have varied, depending on the national context. Part of them focused on rank-and-file mobilization and social movement unionism. In the Greek context, the academic discussion about the crisis of trade unions took place mainly during the 2000s, but without having an impact within union circles or on union strategies. Additionally, grassroots and rank-and-file unions that adopted a social movement and radical unionism approach, and contested the 'institu-tionalized official' trade unions, remained marginal and their actions were not very visible. The recent fis-cal crisis and the implementation of the Memoranda brought up previous dysfunctions. In a context of in-creasing employment precarity and unemployment, the general position of official trade unions towards contingent workers and the unemployed has been strongly contested, while grassroots rank-and-file un-ions claim a more active role in this area. Given the above considerations, this article focuses on the strat-egies of trade unions towards contingent workers and the unemployed, in the Greek context. Results de-rive from interviews with Greek grassroots trade unionists and labour activists in the framework of the TransSOL (Transnational Solidarity at Times of Crisis EU-funded program.

Does cheating and gamesmanship to be reconsidered regarding fair-play in grassroots sports?

OpenAIRE

Ponseti Verdaguer, Francisco Javier

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the attitudes towards fair play, playing foul/hard, and the acceptability of teams' antisocial behaviour, such as cheating and gamesmanship, in the context of grassroots sports teams. The sample included 48 teams of basket, football, handball, volleyball and rugby, including 1333 adolescents (1013 boys and 320 girls) with a mean age of 12.50 years (Range: 10-15; SD = 2.09 years). In order to study these psychological variables, the athletes answered the Pr...

Vested interests in addiction research and policy. The challenge corporate lobbying poses to reducing society's alcohol problems: insights from UK evidence on minimum unit pricing.

Science.gov (United States)

McCambridge, Jim; Hawkins, Benjamin; Holden, Chris

2014-02-01

There has been insufficient research attention to alcohol industry methods of influencing public policies. With the exception of the tobacco industry, there have been few studies of the impact of corporate lobbying on public health policymaking more broadly. We summarize here findings from documentary analyses and interview studies in an integrative review of corporate efforts to influence UK policy on minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol 2007-10. Alcohol producers and retailers adopted a long-term, relationship-building approach to policy influence, in which personal contacts with key policymakers were established and nurtured, including when they were not in government. The alcohol industry was successful in achieving access to UK policymakers at the highest levels of government and at all stages of the policy process. Within the United Kingdom, political devolution and the formation for the first time of a Scottish National Party (SNP) government disrupted the existing long-term strategy of alcohol industry actors and created the conditions for evidence-based policy innovations such as MUP. Comparisons between policy communities within the United Kingdom and elsewhere are useful to the understanding of how different policy environments are amenable to influence through lobbying. Greater transparency in how policy is made is likely to lead to more effective alcohol and other public policies globally by constraining the influence of vested interests. ©2013 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Society for the Study of Addiction.

Territorial Identity and Grassroots Economic Activism: The Politicization of Farmers’ Mobilizations in the French Basque Country

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xabier Itçaina

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The French Basque Country (FBC represents an emblematic case of the politicization of local development through grassroots economic activism. These mobilizations are particularly obvious in the agricultural sector. Based on a qualitative research on small farmers’ organizations and short food circuits, this article shows that Basque farmers’ mobilizations constitute a case of a dual politicization of small-scale farming and territorial identity. This process has gone through two phases: the first period (1970-2000 was characterized by the politicization of local productive systems. Throughout the decade 2000-2010, a new mode of grassroots economic activism emerged, signalled by new alliances between producers and consumers, and by an increasing ideological pluralism. Two case studies illustrate these developments. The first relates to a case of explicit politicization with the controversy around the foundation in 2005 of an alternative Basque Chamber of Agriculture. The second case study is devoted to the development of short food circuits in the FBC, considered here as a case of implicit politicization of the encounter between productive and consumption circuits. Both cases illustrate the politicization of new economic social movements, and the constant overlapping of sectoral and territorial claims in the Basque territory.

Tourists' attitudes towards ban on smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Viriyachaiyo, V; Lim, A

2009-06-01

Thailand is internationally renowned for its stringent tobacco control measures. In Thailand, a regulation banning smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies was issued in late 2006, causing substantial apprehension within the hospitality industry. A survey of tourists' attitudes toward the ban was conducted. A cross-sectional survey of 5550 travellers staying in various hotels in Bangkok, Surat Thani, Phuket, Krabi and Songkhla provinces, October 2005 to December 2006. Travellers aged 15 years or older with a check-in duration of at least one day and willing to complete the questionnaire were requested by hotel staff to fill in the 5-minute questionnaire at check-in or later at their convenience. Secondhand cigarette smoke was recognised as harmful to health by 89.7% of respondents. 47.8% of travellers were aware of the Thai regulation banning smoking in air-conditioned restaurants. 80.9% of the respondents agreed with the ban, particularly female non-smokers. 38.6% of survey respondents indicated that they would be more likely to visit Thailand again because of the regulation, 53.4% that the regulation would not affect their decision and 7.9% that they would be less likely to visit Thailand again. Banning smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies in Thailand is widely supported by tourists. Enforcement of the regulation is more likely to attract tourists than dissuade them from holidaying in Thailand.

Abordagem grassroots e resistência: atualizando a concepção de desenvolvimento sustentável

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Augusto Marcos Carvalho de Sena

Full Text Available Resumo Em contrapartida às especificidades impositivas do modelo de produção capitalista - incluindo-se nesse modelo os meandros de arranjos produtivos que inserem o meio ambiente enquanto alinhado à versão tríplice da concepção tradicional de desenvolvimento sustentável -, tem surgido uma massa crítica de literatura focada na resistência ao modo de funcionamento do capitalismo ocidental. Em relação à teoria, economia solidária (pilar econômico, movimentos sociais (pilar social, ecologia política (pilar ambiental e raízes culturais (pilar cultural são aparatos importantes que não devem ficar à margem na estruturação de uma concepção alternativa do desenvolvimento sustentável. Tais aparatos são considerados elementos de resistência, visto terem fatores diferenciados quando comparados com as características tradicionais dos pilares da criticada concepção de desenvolvimento sustentável. Assim, o objetivo do presente ensaio teórico é conceber alternativas à concepção padrão do desenvolvimento sustentável, considerando aspectos da abordagem grassroots importantes para esse propósito. A contribuição é relevante tendo em vista a consideração de aspectos alternativos e complementares envolvidos na leitura da atualização conjecturada. Os prospectos do desenvolvimento grassroots têm sido usados como guia prático em ações de desenvolvimento local envolvendo comunidades menos desenvolvidas em várias partes do mundo, sem a conjectura que sinaliza para elementos conceituais que podem oferecer uma conformação alternativa à concepção do desenvolvimento sustentável. Conclui-se que a versão tradicional do desenvolvimento sustentável pode ser atualizada com elementos alternativos advindos da abordagem grassroots.

Implementation of a School Districtwide Grassroots Antibullying Initiative: A School Staff and Parent-Focused Evaluation of Because Nice Matters

Science.gov (United States)

De Pedro, Kris Tunac; Pineda, Diana; Capp, Gordon; Moore, Hadass; Benbenishty, Rami; Astor, Ron Avi

2017-01-01

Military-connected youths experience stressful life events, including deployments and multiple school transitions, that make them vulnerable to bullying. Social workers have highlighted the power of grassroots school community initiatives that address risk issues among youths while empowering the community (see http://www.thecommunityguide.org).…

Fields and Facebook: Ta’ayush’s Grassroots Activism and Archiving the Peace that Will Have Come in Israel/Palestine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jon Simons

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Israeli peace activism has increasingly taken place on new media, as in the case of the grassroots anti-Occupation group, Ta’ayush. What is the significance of Ta’ayush’s work on the ground and online for peace? This article considers the former in the light of social movement scholarship on peacebuilding, and the latter in light of new media scholarship on social movements. Each of those approaches suggest that Ta’ayush has very limited success in achieving its strategic goals or generating outrage about the Occupation in the virtual/public sphere. Yet, Ta’ayush’s apparent “failure” according to standard criteria of success misses the significance of Ta’ayush’s work. Its combination of grassroots activism and online documentation of its work in confronting the Occupation in partnership with Palestinians has assembled an impressive archive. Through the lens of Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of history, Ta’ayush can be seen to enact a “future perfect” peace that will have come.

Contabilidade das operações de leasing: análise de possíveis ocorrências de lobbying no processo de emissão da IFRS 16

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábio Henrique Ferreira de Albuquerque

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Objetivo: O estudo pretende analisar a potencial existência de lobbying no processo de substituição da International Accounting Standard (IAS 17 pela International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 16, emitidas pelo International Accounting Standards Board (IASB e relativas às locações. Método: Foram recolhidas 641 comment letters submetidas à consulta pública no âmbito do Exposure Draft revisto (2013. O estudo adota a análise de conteúdo como método, sendo os dados posteriormente submetidos a técnicas de análise estatística univariada e bivariada. Resultados: Os resultados sugerem a existência de lobbying a partir da constatação de divergências significativas entre entidades financeiras e não financeiras no que diz respeito às questões principais da norma, relacionadas com o reconhecimento e com o modelo único de contabilização das locações. Contribuições: Aferir a existência de diferenças significativas de opinião indiciadoras de lobbying no âmbito de um projeto de substituição de norma promovido pelo Iasb e, em função dos distintos interesses envolvidos (lobbies, constitui, assim, o principal contributo da presente investigação.

An Analysis of Proposed and Current Regulations Concerning Lobbying Costs in Department of Defense Contracts.

Science.gov (United States)

1984-06-01

a reduction in industry participation in the defense mobilization base, and a limiting of capital available for investment in producti- vity...FAR proposals, it appears that this stratgy has b-2n successful to a large degree. Thor,-, ar , how-vr, still areas where critics believe that further...appropriations. Lobbying includes but is not limited to personal discussions or conferences, advertising , sending tel- egrams, engaging in telephonic

26 CFR 1.501(h)-3 - Lobbying or grass roots expenditures normally in excess of ceiling amount.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... excess of ceiling amount. 1.501(h)-3 Section 1.501(h)-3 Internal Revenue INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE... § 1.501(h)-3 Lobbying or grass roots expenditures normally in excess of ceiling amount. (a) Scope. This section provides rules under section 501(h) for determining whether an organization that has...

The grass-roots conservative against gender equality : The case study of antifeminism local movement in Japan

OpenAIRE

Suzuki, Ayaka

2017-01-01

Conservative movements are intensifying advertisement in fierce conflict with progressive social movements in the contemporary Japanese society. In particular, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform has taken action in terms of revisionism since late 1990s. Conservative groups have held protest movements against gender equality since early 2000, which resulted in drastic impact on the government. These conservative movements have received attention as new grass-roots conservative mo...

The Double Conditioning of Political Participation: Grassroots Politics on Facebook. Conjunctions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schou, Jannick; Farkas, Johan; Hjelholt, Morten

2015-01-01

Th e emergence of social network sites as a part of everyday life has given rise to a number of debates on the demo-cratic potential aff orded by these technologies. Th is paper addresses political participation facilitated through Facebook from a practice-oriented perspective and presents a case...... of Facebook to facilitate political participation. Th e study fi nds that user participation on the Facebook page is ‘ double conditioned’ by the material structure of the social network site on the one hand and by the discourses articulated by the organisation and users on the other. Finally, the paper...... discusses the fi ndings and raises a number of problems and obstacles facing participatory grassroots organisations, such as Fight For Th e Future, when using Facebook....

Tourists’ attitudes towards ban on smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Viriyachaiyo, V; Lim, A

2009-01-01

Background: Thailand is internationally renowned for its stringent tobacco control measures. In Thailand, a regulation banning smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies was issued in late 2006, causing substantial apprehension within the hospitality industry. A survey of tourists’ attitudes toward the ban was conducted. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 5550 travellers staying in various hotels in Bangkok, Surat Thani, Phuket, Krabi and Songkhla provinces, October 2005 to December 2006. Travellers aged 15 years or older with a check-in duration of at least one day and willing to complete the questionnaire were requested by hotel staff to fill in the 5-minute questionnaire at check-in or later at their convenience. Results: Secondhand cigarette smoke was recognised as harmful to health by 89.7% of respondents. 47.8% of travellers were aware of the Thai regulation banning smoking in air-conditioned restaurants. 80.9% of the respondents agreed with the ban, particularly female non-smokers. 38.6% of survey respondents indicated that they would be more likely to visit Thailand again because of the regulation, 53.4% that the regulation would not affect their decision and 7.9% that they would be less likely to visit Thailand again. Conclusion: Banning smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies in Thailand is widely supported by tourists. Enforcement of the regulation is more likely to attract tourists than dissuade them from holidaying in Thailand. PMID:19364754

Communities of Change, Multi Stakeholder Processes, Lobby & Advocacy : More than 100 years of experience on HBC in Malawi & Zambia!

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vugt, van S.M.; Sloot, H.

2011-01-01

This training of four days focussed on two areas of capacity development of the home-based care (HBC) alliance in Malawi and Zambia: 1. Communities of Change (CoC) concept and practice linked to the Multi Stakeholder Process (MSP), and 2. Lobby & Advocacy (L&A). Since June 2010 Cordaid

A Grassroots Remote Sensing Toolkit Using Live Coding, Smartphones, Kites and Lightweight Drones.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K Anderson

Full Text Available This manuscript describes the development of an android-based smartphone application for capturing aerial photographs and spatial metadata automatically, for use in grassroots mapping applications. The aim of the project was to exploit the plethora of on-board sensors within modern smartphones (accelerometer, GPS, compass, camera to generate ready-to-use spatial data from lightweight aerial platforms such as drones or kites. A visual coding 'scheme blocks' framework was used to build the application ('app', so that users could customise their own data capture tools in the field. The paper reports on the coding framework, then shows the results of test flights from kites and lightweight drones and finally shows how open-source geospatial toolkits were used to generate geographical information system (GIS-ready GeoTIFF images from the metadata stored by the app. Two Android smartphones were used in testing-a high specification OnePlus One handset and a lower cost Acer Liquid Z3 handset, to test the operational limits of the app on phones with different sensor sets. We demonstrate that best results were obtained when the phone was attached to a stable single line kite or to a gliding drone. Results show that engine or motor vibrations from powered aircraft required dampening to ensure capture of high quality images. We demonstrate how the products generated from the open-source processing workflow are easily used in GIS. The app can be downloaded freely from the Google store by searching for 'UAV toolkit' (UAV toolkit 2016, and used wherever an Android smartphone and aerial platform are available to deliver rapid spatial data (e.g. in supporting decision-making in humanitarian disaster-relief zones, in teaching or for grassroots remote sensing and democratic mapping.

A Grassroots Remote Sensing Toolkit Using Live Coding, Smartphones, Kites and Lightweight Drones.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, K; Griffiths, D; DeBell, L; Hancock, S; Duffy, J P; Shutler, J D; Reinhardt, W J; Griffiths, A

2016-01-01

This manuscript describes the development of an android-based smartphone application for capturing aerial photographs and spatial metadata automatically, for use in grassroots mapping applications. The aim of the project was to exploit the plethora of on-board sensors within modern smartphones (accelerometer, GPS, compass, camera) to generate ready-to-use spatial data from lightweight aerial platforms such as drones or kites. A visual coding 'scheme blocks' framework was used to build the application ('app'), so that users could customise their own data capture tools in the field. The paper reports on the coding framework, then shows the results of test flights from kites and lightweight drones and finally shows how open-source geospatial toolkits were used to generate geographical information system (GIS)-ready GeoTIFF images from the metadata stored by the app. Two Android smartphones were used in testing-a high specification OnePlus One handset and a lower cost Acer Liquid Z3 handset, to test the operational limits of the app on phones with different sensor sets. We demonstrate that best results were obtained when the phone was attached to a stable single line kite or to a gliding drone. Results show that engine or motor vibrations from powered aircraft required dampening to ensure capture of high quality images. We demonstrate how the products generated from the open-source processing workflow are easily used in GIS. The app can be downloaded freely from the Google store by searching for 'UAV toolkit' (UAV toolkit 2016), and used wherever an Android smartphone and aerial platform are available to deliver rapid spatial data (e.g. in supporting decision-making in humanitarian disaster-relief zones, in teaching or for grassroots remote sensing and democratic mapping).

Impact of "Grassroots on Work" (GROW) Extension Program to the Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Students' Sense of Civic Responsibility

Science.gov (United States)

Paga, Mark Leo Huit

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the medium term effect of service-learning program or "Grassroots on Work" extension program to civic responsibility of AB Political Science students. Methodology: This study employed an impact evaluation research design and both qualitative and quantitative. The data on goals and…

Community based bioremediation: grassroots responses to urban soil contamination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Scott Kellogg

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The past 150 years of industrial processes have left a legacy of toxicity in the soils of today’s urban environments. Exposure to soil based pollutants disproportionately affects low-income communities who are frequently located within formerly industrialized zones. Both gardeners, who come into direct contact with soil, as well as those who eat the products grown in the soil, are at risk to exposure from industrial contaminants. Options for low-income communities for remediating contaminated soils are limited, with most remediation work being carried out by costly engineering firms. Even more problematic is the overall lack of awareness and available information regarding safety and best practices with soils. In response to these challenges, a grassroots movement has emerged that seeks to empower urban residents with the tools and information necessary to address residual industrial toxicity in their ecosystems. Focusing on methods that are simple and affordable, this movement wishes to remove the barriers of cost and technical expertise that may be otherwise prohibitive. This paper will give an overview of this exemplar of generative justice, looking at case studies of organizations that have been successful in implementing these strategies.

Local Environmental Grassroots Activism: Contributions from Environmental Psychology, Sociology and Politics

Science.gov (United States)

Mihaylov, Nikolay L.; Perkins, Douglas D.

2015-01-01

Local environmental grassroots activism is robust and globally ubiquitous despite the ebbs and flows of the general environmental movement. In this review we synthesize social movement, environmental politics, and environmental psychology literatures to answer the following questions: How does the environment emerge as a topic for community action and how a particular environmental discourse (preservation, conservation, public health, Deep Ecology, justice, localism and other responses to modernization and development) becomes dominant? How does a community coalesce around the environmental issue and its particular framing? What is the relationship between local and supralocal (regional, national, global) activism? We contrast “Not in My Back Yard” (NIMBY) activism and environmental liberation and discuss the significance of local knowledge and scale, nature as an issue for activism, place attachment and its disruption, and place-based power inequalities. Environmental psychology contributions to established scholarship on environmental activism are proposed: the components of place attachment are conceptualized in novel ways and a continuous dweller and activist place attachment is elaborated. PMID:25806672

Local environmental grassroots activism: contributions from environmental psychology, sociology and politics.

Science.gov (United States)

Mihaylov, Nikolay L; Perkins, Douglas D

2015-03-23

Local environmental grassroots activism is robust and globally ubiquitous despite the ebbs and flows of the general environmental movement. In this review we synthesize social movement, environmental politics, and environmental psychology literatures to answer the following questions: How does the environment emerge as a topic for community action and how a particular environmental discourse (preservation, conservation, public health, Deep Ecology, justice, localism and other responses to modernization and development) becomes dominant? How does a community coalesce around the environmental issue and its particular framing? What is the relationship between local and supralocal (regional, national, global) activism? We contrast "Not in My Back Yard" (NIMBY) activism and environmental liberation and discuss the significance of local knowledge and scale, nature as an issue for activism, place attachment and its disruption, and place-based power inequalities. Environmental psychology contributions to established scholarship on environmental activism are proposed: the components of place attachment are conceptualized in novel ways and a continuous dweller and activist place attachment is elaborated.

2016.11.22 Updated Materials Physics and Applications Division Overview Presentation for TV monitor in 3-1415-Lobby

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Duran, Susan M. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-11-22

These slides are the updated overview presentation for the TV monitor in 3-1415-Lobby at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). It gives an overview of the Materials Physics and Applications Division, including descriptions of the leaders, where researchers are fellows (such as APS or OSA), the newest LANL fellows at MPA, and many other researchers who have won prizes. Finally, MPA's research accomplishments and focuses are detailed.

LOBBYING OPPORTUNITIES, CONFUSIONS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreea Vass

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Lobby activities are often likened to the misuse of authority and bad practices. Such parallels generate problems that easily spiral down into crises and conflicts, and the symbiosis of politics and business turns into an ambiguous platform. Why should we look into the core of the suspicions regarding the intertwining and overlapping interests of political and business communities? The answer: because in Romania public interest is often defined in a private or personal framework, whereas private interests are defined in markedly public terms. Confusion sets us clearly apart from the effective Israeli, American, British, Czech, Polish or Magyar lobbyists. The same confusion has a damaging effect: we are unable to efficiently handle institutional relations and public-private relations, be they national or international, that is, European. To what extent is the politics-business relationship deemed appropriate in US and EU? Which are its constraints, prerequisites and possible sanctions? These are the questions which accompany our dilemmas that we clarify in this paper. We conclude with proposals on what can be done in promoting efficiently the Romanian private interests within the European institutions.

Revisiting "Ella's Song"

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Yolanda Y.

2013-01-01

Ella Josephine Baker (1903-1986), an African-American human rights activist, influenced the trajectory of the modern civil rights movement with her emphasis on local action, liberative pedagogy, and grassroots involvement. She modeled a pedagogy of liberation convinced that grassroots efforts at participatory democracy could empower diverse…

All for one and one for all: The value of grassroots collaboration in clinical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Wattar, Bassel H; Tamblyn, Jennifer

2017-08-01

Collaboration in health research is common in current practice. Engaging grassroots clinicians in the evidence synthesis and research process can deliver impactful results and reduce research wastage. The UKARCOG is a group of specialty trainees in obstetrics and gynaecology in the UK aiming to promote women's health research by delivering high-quality impactful research and national audit projects. The collaborative enables trainees to develop essential academic skills and roll out multicentre research projects at high cost-effectiveness. Collective research work can face a number of challenges such as establishing a joint authorship style, gaining institutional support and acquiring funds to boost networking and deliver large scales studies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dirty tricks: how the nuclear lobby stopped the development of wave power in Britain

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeffery, J.

1990-01-01

It is claimed that by misrepresentation of the economic analysis of wave power generation of electricity the nuclear lobby in Britain has prevented development work to continue on wave power, in favour of nuclear power generation. The United Kingdom Department of Energy and the Central Electricity Generating Board, in favour of nuclear power, have not allowed the cost estimation of electricity from wave power generators, especially Salter's Ducks (a wave power generator generated by Professor Salter at Ednburgh University) to be known. Instead the cost (estimated at 4-12p/kWh) has been deliberately exaggerated. This has resulted in wind power becoming the favoured alternative renewable energy source of the future. (UK)

All hazardous waste politics is local: Grass-roots advocacy and public participation in siting and cleanup decisions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lowry, R.C.

1998-12-31

The combined effects of federalism and interest group pluralism pose particularly difficult problems for hazardous waste siting and cleanup decisions. Most national environmental groups have only limited involvement in local hazardous waste politics, while local grass-roots advocates have very different interests and sometimes are pitted against one another. Both the Environmental protection Agency and the Department of energy recently have begun to use site-specific citizen advisory boards at cleanup sites. This approach appears to improve communications at some sites, but does not address the issues of ``not in my back yard`` politics and alleged inequitable exposure to hazardous wastes.

Changing Landscapes in Documentation Efforts: Civil Society Documentation of Serious Human Rights Violations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brianne McGonigle Leyh

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Wittingly or unwittingly, civil society actors have long been faced with the task of documenting serious human rights violations. Thirty years ago, such efforts were largely organised by grassroots movements, often with little support or funding from international actors. Sharing information and best practices was difficult. Today that situation has significantly changed. The purpose of this article is to explore the changing landscape of civil society documentation of serious human rights violations, and what that means for standardising and professionalising documentation efforts. Using the recent Hisséne Habré case as an example, this article begins by looking at how civil society documentation can successfully influence an accountability process. Next, the article touches upon barriers that continue to impede greater documentation efforts. The article examines the changing landscape of documentation, focusing on technological changes and the rise of citizen journalism and unofficial investigations, using Syria as an example, as well as on the increasing support for documentation efforts both in Syria and worldwide. The changing landscape has resulted in the proliferation of international documentation initiatives aimed at providing local civil society actors guidelines and practical assistance on how to recognise, collect, manage, store and use information about serious human rights violations, as well as on how to minimise the risks associated with the documentation of human rights violations. The recent initiatives undertaken by international civil society, including those by the Public International Law & Policy Group, play an important role in helping to standardise and professionalise documentation work and promote the foundational principles of documentation, namely the ‘do no harm’ principle, and the principles of informed consent and confidentiality. Recognising the drawback that greater professionalisation may bring, it

Grassroots community organizations’ contribution to the scale-up of HIV testing and counselling services in Zimbabwe

Science.gov (United States)

Gregson, Simon; Nyamukapa, Constance A.; Sherr, Lorraine; Mugurungi, Owen; Campbell, Catherine

2013-01-01

Objective: To investigate whether community engagement (participation in grassroots organizations) contributed to increases in HIV testing in Zimbabwe. Methods: Prospective data on membership of local community organizations (e.g. women's groups and burial societies) and uptake of HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services were collected from 5260 adults interviewed in two consecutive rounds of a general-population cohort survey in eastern Zimbabwe between 2003 and 2008. The effects of community engagement on uptake of services during the follow-up period were measured using logistic regression to adjust for observed confounding factors. Results: Sixteen percent of men and 47% of women were consistent members of community organizations; 58 and 35% of these people discussed HIV in their meetings and were members of externally sponsored organizations, respectively. Fewer men (10.1%) than women (32.4%) took up HTC during follow-up [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 4.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.43–4.86, P organizations than for nonmembers: men, 15.0 versus 9.2% (1.67, 1.15–2.43, P = 0.007); women, 35.6 versus 29.6% (1.26, 1.06–1.49, P = 0.008). Membership of community organizations showed a nonsignificant association with PMTCT uptake amongst recently pregnant women (42.3 versus 34.2%; 1.30, 0.94–1.78, P = 0.1). The most consistent positive associations between community participation and HTC and PMTCT uptake were found in organizations that discussed HIV and when external sponsorship was absent. Conclusion: Grassroots organizations contributed to increased uptake of HTC services in eastern Zimbabwe in the mid-2000s. Partnerships with these organizations could harness community support for the further increases in HIV testing needed in sub-Saharan Africa. PMID:24047764

Grassroots engagement with transition to sustainability: diversity and modes of participation in the international permaculture movement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rafter Sass. Ferguson

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Grassroots networks and social movements are increasingly regarded as agents of change that can help respond to environmental degradation both by generating novel solutions to existing problems and influencing institutions toward more substantive responses. We examine permaculture, an international movement that, despite its broad international distribution and relatively high public profile, has received little systematic scrutiny in the scientific literature. We attempt to remedy that gap by conducting a broad international (though English-only survey of 731 permaculture participants, and assessing the socio-demographic characteristics of the movement.  The survey examined self-identified roles of permaculture participants and explored the relationships between those roles and socio-demographic factors race, gender, and socioeconomic status. The influence of structural factors on participant roles was examined by including multidimensional national indices development, inequality, and ecosystem vitality, for the 45 countries in the sample. Results showed the participation of women at or above parity (53%, while participation by race showed a white supermajority (96%. Multivariate regression demonstrated that race, gender, and socioeconomic status are shaping participation in distinct ways and that each interact with structural factors. The effects of gender on social roles varied with ecosystem vitality, with women scoring higher than men in countries with high levels of ecosystem vitality, and the reverse where ecosystem vitality was low. The observed effect of race on practice varied with national inequality, such that the scores of respondents of color were equivalent to white respondents in countries with the least inequality, but descended as inequality increased, while whites were unaffected. Different indicators of socioeconomic status depressed and amplified different dimensions of participation. Results point toward a theoretical

Grassroots volunteers in context: rewarding and adverse experiences of local women working on HIV and AIDS in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

Science.gov (United States)

Corbin, J Hope; Mittelmark, Maurice B; Lie, Gro T

2016-09-01

Many nongovernmental organizations in Africa rely on grassroots volunteers to provide critical health services. Considering context and the interplay of individual, organizational, and societal influences on the experience of volunteers, this paper addresses three questions: What do grassroots volunteers contribute? What organizational processes promote volunteer engagement? What are the positive and negative consequences of volunteering? Eighteen members and staff of the Tanzanian HIV and AIDS NGO, KIWAKKUKI, were selected from 6000+ women volunteers to be interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for themes. Within KIWAKKUKI, volunteers contributed time and local knowledge, leading to an indigenous educational approach building on local norms and customs. Volunteers' engagement was motivated by the desire to support family members, reverse stigma, and work/socialize with other women. Benefits to volunteers included skills acquisition and community recognition; yet some volunteers also reported negative experiences including burnout, conferred stigma, and domestic violence. Positive organizational processes built on cultural practices such as collective decision-making and singing. The findings point to important considerations about context, including the synergistic effect training can have on local traditions of caring, complications of gender inequity, and how community health planning processes may need to be modified in extremely poor settings. This research also suggests good utility of the research framework (the Bergen Model of Collaborative Functioning) that was used to analyze volunteer engagement for service delivery in sub-Saharan contexts. © The Author(s) 2015.

The political economy of trade liberalization and environmental policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fredriksson, P.G.

1999-01-01

A pressure group model where environmental and industry lobby groups offer political support in return for favorable pollution tax policies is used to explain and predict the equilibrium pollution tax in sectors protected by tariffs. The political economy effects of trade liberalization are investigated. The pollution tax is shown to decrease if the lobbying effort by the environmental lobby decreases more rapidly than by the industry lobby Ceteris paribus. The level of political conflict falls with trade liberalization. Pollution may increase because of a reduction of the pollution tax, and tax revenues may fall simultaneously as pollution increases

Grassroots community-based inclusive education. Exploring educational prospects for young people with disabilities in the post-conflict Rwandan communities.

OpenAIRE

Karangwa, Evariste

2006-01-01

Summary The journey through the study on ‘Grassroots community-based inclusive e ducation’ and its outcomes has been considerably shaped by the field. Th e earlier ‘déjà-vu’ attitudes about the Rwandan society and its socio-cu ltural context that the researcher had always been part of, was sensitiv ely changed through the exposure to a number of interventions in the fie ld and experiences within the communities surveyed. It is along this jou rney that new outlooks on the communities of the di...

The doomsday lobby hype and panic from sputniks, martians, and marauding meteors

CERN Document Server

Bennett, James T

2010-01-01

From the race-to-space in the 1950s to the current furor over global warming, James Bennett traces the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which government has co-opted scientific research and reinforced a culture in which challengers to proscribed wisdom are frozen out. Ripped from the headlines, Bennett offers a compelling, entertaining, and thought-provoking perspective on political influence in scientific research and its implications for a democratic society. Praise for The Doomsday Lobby "During the Nineteenth Century, almost entirely on private funding, American science grew from practically nothing to world class. Now, however, over fifty percent of American science is funded by the federal government. Dr. Bennett traces the path, "crisis" after "crisis," by which American science became practically an arm of the federal government. His tale is a cautionary one, warning against future "crisis mongers" who would extend the government's already majority control of American science even further. His warning...

Grassroots origins, national engagement: exploring the professionalization of practicing healthcare ethicists in Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Frolic, Andrea

2012-09-01

Canadian ethicists have a long legacy of leadership in advocating for standards and quality in healthcare ethics. Continuing this tradition, a grassroots organization of practicing healthcare ethicists (PHEs) concerned about the lack of standardization in the field recently formed to explore potential options related to professionalization. This group calls itself "practicing healthcare ethicists exploring professionalization" (PHEEP). This paper provides a description of the process by which PHEEP has begun to engage the Canadian PHE community in the development of practice standards and related projects. By making our process and its ethical and cultural underpinnings transparent, we hope to prompt PHEs around the world to reflect on the importance of context, process and principles (not just outcomes) in the exploration of and possible movement towards professionalization. By sharing some of our key successes and challenges, we also hope to inspire our colleagues to recognize the value in developing practice standards and to contribute to this endeavor.

Grassroots Innovation Using Drones for Indigenous Mapping and Monitoring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaime Paneque-Gálvez

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Indigenous territories are facing increasing pressures from numerous legal and illegal activities that are pushing commodity frontiers within their limits, frequently causing severe environmental degradation and threatening indigenous territorial rights and livelihoods. In Central and South America, after nearly three decades of participatory mapping projects, interest is mounting among indigenous peoples in the use of new technologies for community mapping and monitoring as a means of defense against such threats. Since 2014, several innovative projects have been developed and implemented in the region to demonstrate and train indigenous communities in the use of small drones for territorial mapping and monitoring. In this paper, we report on five projects carried out in Peru, Guyana, and Panama. For each one we describe the context, main objectives, positive outcomes, challenges faced, and opportunities ahead. Preliminary results are promising and have gained the interest of many indigenous societies who envision this technology as a powerful tool to protect their territories and strengthen their claims regarding specific environmental liabilities and justice issues. Based on the results presented here and a review of previous similar studies, we offer a critical discussion of some of the main opportunities and challenges that we foresee regarding the use of small drones for indigenous territorial mapping and monitoring. In addition, we elaborate on why a careful, well thought-out, and progressive adoption of drones by indigenous peoples may trigger grassroots innovations in ways conducive to greater environmental justice and sustainability.

Grassroots (Economic Activism in Times of Crisis: Mapping the Redundancy of Collective Actions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giacomo D’Alisa

2015-07-01

Full Text Available In the current economic crisis of industrialized society, social movements face two types of challenges: firstly, they are confronting institutions that are less capable of and have no propensity for mediating new socio-economic demands; secondly, they are experiencing difficulties in building strong and lasting bonds of solidarity and cooperation among people. The latter are fundamental resources for the emergence of collective action; however, the highly individualized structure of contemporary society makes the creation of social ties ever the more difficult. As a consequence, contemporary waves of protest are often short-lived. Nonetheless, in response to the multidimensional crises, the consolidation of grassroots mutualistic and cooperative experiences, within which new affiliations for collective action are experienced, is on the rise. Indeed, it is a fact that even though conditions are not favorable, social movements have continued to ex-pand and promote community-led initiatives for social and economic sustainability. In some cases, these initiatives play a decisive role in the fight against poverty and in guaranteeing human livelihood. Solidarity-based exchanges and networks, such as barter groups, urban gardening, new consumer-producer networks and cooperatives, time banks, local savings groups, urban squatting, and others similar experiences are typical examples of continuous reactivation of people's desire to be agents of their own destiny. This combination of formal and informal networks are a testimony to an ability and an aspiration. Indeed, on one hand, they are indicative of citizens' capacity to self-organize in order to tolerate, absorb, cope with and adjust to the environmental and social threats posed by neoliberal policies. On the other hand, they are attempting to change an economic system, increasingly perceived as unfair and ecological disruptive, by building an alternative in the cracks of the former, based on greater

World Health Organization's Innovative Direct Disbursement Mechanism for Payment of Grassroots Immunization Personnel and Operations in Nigeria: 2004-2015.

Science.gov (United States)

Yehualashet, Yared G; Wadda, Alieu; Agblewonu, Koffi B; Zhema, Theophilus; Ibrahim, Al-Asi A; Corr, Alhagie; Linkins, Jennifer; Mkanda, Pascal; Vaz, Rui G; Nsubuga, Peter; Ashogbon, Daniel

2016-05-01

Following the 1988 World Health Assembly resolution to eradicate polio, the government of Nigeria, with support from partners, has been implementing several rounds of supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) each year. In addition to the technical requirements, the success of the polio eradication initiative depends on timely provision of adequate financial resources. Disbursement of funds for SIAs and payment of allowances to numerous vaccination personnel at the grassroots level are enormous operational challenges in a country the size of Nigeria. Upon donors' request for a transparent and effective payment mechanism, the World Health Organization (WHO), in consultation with national counterparts, created the innovative direct disbursement mechanism (DDM) in 2004. The objective of the DDM was to timely deploy operational funds at the field level and directly pay vaccination personnel allowances at the grassroots level. A detailed operational guideline for funds disbursement was developed in close consultation with central and field stakeholders. Multiyear financial resource requirements and operational budgets for every campaign were produced by an interagency-coordinated finance subcommittee. The WHO engaged a bank and an accounting firm as DDM partners to support disbursement of and accounting for the SIA funds, respectively. The 37 WHO field offices were equipped with electronic financial systems to support the DDM process, and temporary payment sites were set up to facilitate payment to vaccination personnel at the grassroots level. Coordination meetings among DDM partners were held regularly to reconcile financial records and address operational challenges. Between 2004 and 2014, DDM supported 99 polio and nonpolio vaccination campaigns, disbursing more than $370 million to about 16 million beneficiaries across 280 temporary payment sites. To mitigate security risks and reduce operational costs, the WHO and DDM partners introduced mobile payment to

What knowledge counts? Insights from an action research project using participatory video with grassroots innovation experiences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boni, A.; Leivas, M.; Talon, A.; De La Fuente, T.; Pellicer-Sifres, V.; Belda-Miquel, S.; Lopez-Fogues, A.; Arias, B

2016-07-01

This paper presents a contribution on a participatory action-research process using Participatory Video (PV) methodology. Duringsix months, a group of 6 facilitators and 9 members of two grassroots innovation initiatives (Solar Dómada and Fuel Poverty Group) took part of the process and produced two videos during a five-st age PV process, from initial definition and planning to public screening and debate of the videos. We present some insightrs from that research using an original framework developed to analyze PV process: the eParc Cube. This framework examines the interaction between knowledge production, participation and communicative spaces that happen during PV. We conclude reflecting on the social relevance of that kind of research considering the impact among of the coresearchers of both process and products. (Author)

World Health Organization's Innovative Direct Disbursement Mechanism for Payment of Grassroots Immunization Personnel and Operations in Nigeria: 2004–2015

Science.gov (United States)

Yehualashet, Yared G.; Wadda, Alieu; Agblewonu, Koffi B.; Zhema, Theophilus; Ibrahim, Al-asi A.; Corr, Alhagie; Linkins, Jennifer; Mkanda, Pascal; Vaz, Rui G.; Nsubuga, Peter; Ashogbon, Daniel

2016-01-01

Background. Following the 1988 World Health Assembly resolution to eradicate polio, the government of Nigeria, with support from partners, has been implementing several rounds of supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) each year. In addition to the technical requirements, the success of the polio eradication initiative depends on timely provision of adequate financial resources. Disbursement of funds for SIAs and payment of allowances to numerous vaccination personnel at the grassroots level are enormous operational challenges in a country the size of Nigeria. Upon donors' request for a transparent and effective payment mechanism, the World Health Organization (WHO), in consultation with national counterparts, created the innovative direct disbursement mechanism (DDM) in 2004. The objective of the DDM was to timely deploy operational funds at the field level and directly pay vaccination personnel allowances at the grassroots level. Methods. A detailed operational guideline for funds disbursement was developed in close consultation with central and field stakeholders. Multiyear financial resource requirements and operational budgets for every campaign were produced by an interagency-coordinated finance subcommittee. The WHO engaged a bank and an accounting firm as DDM partners to support disbursement of and accounting for the SIA funds, respectively. The 37 WHO field offices were equipped with electronic financial systems to support the DDM process, and temporary payment sites were set up to facilitate payment to vaccination personnel at the grassroots level. Coordination meetings among DDM partners were held regularly to reconcile financial records and address operational challenges. Results. Between 2004 and 2014, DDM supported 99 polio and nonpolio vaccination campaigns, disbursing more than $370 million to about 16 million beneficiaries across 280 temporary payment sites. To mitigate security risks and reduce operational costs, the WHO and DDM

Beyond the Conflict and Weak Civil Society; Stories from Ukraine: Cases of Grassroots Initiatives for Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oksana Udovyk

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This study explores the diversity of grassroots initiatives (GIs for sustainable development that are emerging in post-EuroMaidan Ukraine. It first focuses on an overview of different theories on civil society and trends in Ukrainian civil society development. Eight cases of GIs are selected to represent different pillars of sustainability work done by the initiatives (economic, social, environmental, and political-institutional. These cases question the arguments behind the weak and pseudo-plenipotentiary vision of civil society in Ukraine, and demonstrate mechanisms of sustainable development suggested by analyzed GIs. In general, this study challenges the myth of a weak civil society in Ukraine, opens up a broader discussion on the meaning and role of civil society, and provides new ideas for building a sustainable society.

Grassroots projects aimed at the built environment: Association with neighbourhood deprivation, land-use mix and injury risk to road users.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubé, Anne Sophie; Beausoleil, Maude; Gosselin, Céline; Beaulme, Ginette; Paquin, Sophie; Pelletier, Anne; Goudreau, Sophie; Poirier, Marie-Hélène; Drouin, Louis; Gauvin, Lise

2014-07-09

1) To describe grassroots projects aimed at the built environment and associated with active transportation on the Island of Montreal; and 2) to examine associations between the number of projects and indicators of neighbourhood material and social deprivation and the built environment. We identified funding agencies and community groups conducting projects on built environments throughout the Island of Montreal. Through website consultation and a snowballing procedure, we inventoried projects that aimed at transforming built environments and that were carried out by community organizations between January 1, 2006, and November 1, 2010. We coded and validated information about project activities and created an interactive map using Geoclip software. Correlational analyses quantified associations between number of projects, neighbourhood characteristics and deprivation. A total of 134 community organizations were identified, and 183 grassroots projects were inventoried. A large number of projects were aimed at increasing awareness of/improving active or public transportation (n=95), improving road safety (n=84) and enhancing neighbourhood beautification and greening (n=69). The correlation between the presence of projects and the extent of neighbourhood material deprivation was small (Kendall's t=0.26, p<0.001), but in areas with greater social deprivation there were more projects (Kendall's t=0.38, p<0.001). Larger numbers of projects were also associated with the presence of more extensive land-use mix (Kendall's t=0.23, p<0.001) and a greater proportion of road intersections with injured pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicle users (Kendall's t=0.43, p<0.001). There is significant community mobilization around built environments and active transportation. Investigations of the implementation processes and impacts are warranted.

Unknown apostles of the grassroots mission in Gothic Dacia in the light of The Passion of St. Sabbas the Goth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Józef Cezary Kałużny

2017-06-01

Full Text Available It is commonly held that the Christianization of the Gothic environment in the second half of the 4th century is a result of a large-scale operation carried out by Ulfila and his disciples – universal Christianization recognized by Gothic authorities. However, in this study attention is drawn to the fact that earlier missionary activities, referred to here as ‘grassroots Christianization,’ had already been of great significance since the second half of the 3rd century. The bottom-up mission involved spreading the Gospel in the Gothic community in a rather spontaneous way, by slaves captured by Goths in the Empire, in successive generations of their descendants (the case of Ulfila, or even heresiarchs seeking refuge outside the Empire. The process was frequently elusive, due to the lack of clear records of those activities in archaeological sources or writings, with the notable exception of credible testimony in the form of “The Passion of St. Sabbas the Goth’, a document which became the basis for the analysis conducted by the author. The source suggests that Christianization was also a bottom-up phenomenon and had reached the ‘plebeian’ environment of Goths much earlier, bearing fruit in the form of an active Church community and preparing the Gothic world for late 4th century missionaries. Thus, it was not merely a spectacular act of the apostolic mission of bishop Ulfila or his successors, but also of such apostles as Sabbas the Goth, presbyter Gutthikas, Harpyla the monk or other apostles of the grassroots mission whose names today we are unable to mention.

Making and Doing Politics Through Grassroots Scientific Research on the Energy and Petrochemical Industries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Wylie

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The high stakes of emergent environmental crises, from climate change to widespread toxic exposures, have motivated STS practitioners to innovate methodologically, including leveraging STS scholarship to actively remake environmental scientific practice and technologies. This thematic collection brings together current research that transforms how communities and academics identify, study, and collectively respond to contaminants engendered by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries, including air contamination from hydraulic fracking, marine pollution from petroleum-derived plastics, and hydrocarbon derivatives such as formaldehyde that intoxicate our homes. These interventions make inroads into the “undone science” and “regimes of imperceptibility” of environmental health crises. Authors, most of whom are practitioners, investigate grassroots methods for collaboratively designing and developing low-cost monitoring tools, crowdsourcing data analysis, and imagining ways of redressing toxicity outside of the idioms of science. Collectively, these articles work towards remaking how knowledge is made about and across industrial systems by networking community grounded approaches for accounting for environmental health issues created by the fossil fuels and allied petrochemical industries.

Grassroots Technological Resistance: The People's Power Project and the Impossible Dream of Wireless Transmission of Energy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Pete

2017-09-01

In 1972, the Minnesota United Power Association (UPA) teamed up with the Minnesota Cooperative Power Association (CPA) to initiate an electrification project designed to bring power from North Dakota to the Twin Cities area. A significant backlash and protest began once farmers across the state became aware of the plan and the potential impending land seizure. In the midst of these actions, one group sought to create an alternative to the power line transmission system by designing a system of wireless energy transmission based on the plans of Nikola Tesla. This self-funded conglomeration of farmers and amateur researchers formed the People's Power Project (PPP) and set about building Tesla's system for the wireless transmission of energy. Using archival documents, this paper recounts this episode and argues that, in this case, the potential for successful grassroots action was derailed by the influence of longstanding myths about Tesla and his devices. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dental students--dental advocates.

Science.gov (United States)

Bensch, Brittany

2010-01-01

Student advocacy and involvement in the political process is built into the structure of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), especially in its Legislative Grassroots Network and an internal communication network among students to ensure political awareness. Students are concerned with such issues as a universally accepted, non-patient-based licensure process, mid-level providers, loan availability and tax deductibility, financial support for schools, and service early in one's professional career (giving forward rather than giving back). Through collaboration with the American Dental Education Association and with many state associations, students participate in lobbying, awareness campaigns, and behind the scenes as legislative aids. Although students share the same love for the profession that animates established practitioners, they are perceived by legislators as being different. Students are involved in the legislative process because it represents their future.

Engineering education research: Impacts of an international network of female engineers on the persistence of Liberian undergraduate women studying engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Rimer, Sara; Reddivari, Sahithya; Cotel, Aline

2015-11-01

As international efforts to educate and empower women continue to rise, engineering educators are in a unique position to be a part of these efforts by encouraging and supporting women across the world at the university level through STEM education and outreach. For the past two years, the University of Michigan has been a part of a grassroots effort to encourage and support the persistence of engineering female students at University of Liberia. This effort has led to the implementation of a leadership camp this past August for Liberian engineering undergraduate women, meant to: (i) to empower engineering students with the skills, support, and inspiration necessary to become successful and well-rounded engineering professionals in a global engineering market; and (ii) to strengthen the community of Liberian female engineers by building cross-cultural partnerships among students resulting in a international network of women engineers. This session will present qualitative research findings on the impact of this grassroots effort on Liberian female students? persistence in engineering, and the future directions of this work.

Environment, advocacy, and community participation: MOPAWI in Honduras.

Science.gov (United States)

Brehm, V M

2000-02-01

This paper analyzes the work of Mosquitia Pawisa (MOPAWI) in relation to the development of its strategic linkages among the grassroots, the state, and ultimately the international level of politics in practice. Over the years, MOPAWI has developed a large and complex program addressing many aspects of development in La Mosquitia. Working strategically at two levels, MOPAWI has endeavored to change government policy for the region through continued lobbying and advocacy. It has also worked alongside with local communities to find ways of improving livelihoods without harming the environment. The key strength of the MOPAWI work has been the high level of community participation and mobilization by managing their own development in a time of profound change. Overall, the experience of MOPAWI suggests that nongovernmental organizations can play a strategic role in obtaining environmental protection, government recognition of ethnic diversity, and rights for indigenous people.

Legal high industry business and lobbying strategies under a legal market for new psychoactive substances (NPS, 'legal highs') in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Rychert, Marta; Wilkins, Chris

2016-11-01

The establishment of a regulated legal market for new psychoactive substances (NPS, 'legal highs') under New Zealand's Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) 2013 created a new commercial sector for psychoactive products, previously limited to alcohol and tobacco. To explore how the newly-recognised 'legal high' industry (LHI) viewed and responded to the changing regulatory and market environment. In-depth interviews with six key informants (KI) from the LHI: a leading entrepreneur, chemist, industry spokesperson, retailer, product buyer and a researcher commissioned by the LHI - were conducted, transcribed and analysed thematically. Formative work for the study included review of official LHI documents (websites, public submissions, self-regulation documents). The LHI stakeholders espoused an idealistic mission of shifting recreational users of alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs towards "safer alternatives". Passage of the PSA was viewed as a success after years of lobbying led by pioneering LHI actors. The growth and professionalisation of the LHI resulted in an increasingly commercial market which challenged idealistic views of the original operators. LHI KI reported the targeting of young and low income customers, price cutting and increasing the strength of products as business strategies. Attempts by the LHI to self-regulate did not prevent escalation in the strength of products and fall in retail prices. The LHI reported outsourcing of manufacturing and exporting of their products to other countries, demonstrating an international business model. There was a tension between profit and idealistic motivations within the LHI and this increased as the sector became more commercialised. While the LHI distanced itself from both alcohol and tobacco, they reported the use of similar marketing, business and political lobbying strategies. Rules for engagement with new 'addictive consumption industries' are required to clarify the role they are permitted to play in the

Transportation librarian's toolkit

Science.gov (United States)

2007-12-01

The Transportation Librarians Toolkit is a product of the Transportation Library Connectivity pooled fund study, TPF- 5(105), a collaborative, grass-roots effort by transportation libraries to enhance information accessibility and professional expert...

Functional Domains of the Quechua Language in Peru: Issues of Status Planning.

Science.gov (United States)

Coronel-Molina, Serafin M.

1999-01-01

Examines the status of Quechua in Peru and how it has affected language maintenance efforts; discusses the functional domains served by Quechua, relating them to Peruvian language policies; notes the lack of grassroots efforts by indigenous people in Peru; and suggests possible measures to improve its status, noting predictions of the future of…

Improving profitability in a grassroots refinery

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Coombs, T. [Star Petroleum Refining Co. Ltd. (Thailand); Kennedy, P.; Bhargava, S. [KBC Process Technology Ltd. (United Kingdom)

1999-05-01

Actions taken to maximise profit at the Star Refinery in Thailand are described. The company made good use of the Profit Improvement Programme (PIP) (which specialises in refinery economics) and the way in which PIP addressed the problem and the benefits derived therefrom is the nub of this paper. The efforts appear to have been more than satisfactory from the aspect of increasing profit margins. (UK)

“An Instrument for the Frontiers of Modern Astronomy”: An Exhibit for the Harlan J. Smith 2.7-m Telescope Lobby at McDonald Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Preston, Sandra; Cianciolo, F.; Jones, T.; Wetzel, M.; Mace, K.; Barrick, R.; Kelton, P.; Cochran, A.; Johnson, R.

2007-05-01

Of the 100,000 visitors that come to McDonald Observatory each year, about half of them visit the Harlan J. Smith 2.7-m Telescope. Visitors experience the 2.7-m telescope as part of a guided tour, a self-guided tour, and during the once-a-month special viewing nights, that are unique to a telescope this size. Recent safety requirements limiting visitor access to the dome-floor level and a need to modernize out-of-date displays in the 2.7-m lobby area, motivated us to do this new exhibit. A planning team consisting of McDonald Observatory personnel from Outreach & Education, Physical Plant, and Administration came together via videoconferences (between Austin and Fort Davis) to develop an exhibit for the lobby area of this telescope. As the planning process unfolded, the team determined that a mix of static displays and modern technology such as flat panel displays and DVD video were key to presenting the history of the facility, introducing basic concepts about the telescope and current research, as well as giving virtual access to the dome floor for visitors on the self-guided tour. This approach also allows for content development and much of production to be done in-house, which was important from both a cost and maintenance standpoint. A representative of the Smith family was also consulted throughout the development of the exhibit to insure that the exhibit plan was seen as an acceptable memorial to the late director. The exhibit was installed in January 2007.

The Effort Paradox: Effort Is Both Costly and Valued.

Science.gov (United States)

Inzlicht, Michael; Shenhav, Amitai; Olivola, Christopher Y

2018-04-01

According to prominent models in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, effort (be it physical or mental) is costly: when given a choice, humans and non-human animals alike tend to avoid effort. Here, we suggest that the opposite is also true and review extensive evidence that effort can also add value. Not only can the same outcomes be more rewarding if we apply more (not less) effort, sometimes we select options precisely because they require effort. Given the increasing recognition of effort's role in motivation, cognitive control, and value-based decision-making, considering this neglected side of effort will not only improve formal computational models, but also provide clues about how to promote sustained mental effort across time. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel graphical technique for Pinch Analysis applications: Energy Targets and grassroots design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gadalla, Mamdouh A.

2015-01-01

Graphical abstract: A new HEN graphical design. - Highlights: • A new graphical technique for heat exchanger networks design. • Pinch Analysis principles and design rules are better interpreted. • Graphical guidelines for optimum heat integration. • New temperature-based graphs provide user-interactive features. - Abstract: Pinch Analysis is for decades a leading tool to energy integration for retrofit and design. This paper presents a new graphical technique, based on Pinch Analysis, for the grassroots design of heat exchanger networks. In the new graph, the temperatures of hot streams are plotted versus those of the cold streams. The temperature–temperature based graph is constructed to include temperatures of hot and cold streams as straight lines, horizontal lines for hot streams, and vertical lines for cold streams. The graph is applied to determine the pinch temperatures and Energy Targets. It is then used to synthesise graphically a complete exchanger network, achieving the Energy Targets. Within the new graph, exchangers are represented by inclined straight lines, whose slopes are proportional to the ratio of heat capacities and flows. Pinch Analysis principles for design are easily interpreted using this new graphical technique to design a complete exchanger network. Network designs achieved by the new technique can guarantee maximum heat recovery. The new technique can also be employed to simulate basic designs of heat exchanger networks. The strengths of the new tool are that it is simply applied using computers, requires no commercial software, and can be used for academic purposes/engineering education

Partnerships and Grassroots Action in the 500 Women Scientists Network

Science.gov (United States)

Weintraub, S. R.; Zelikova, T. J.; Pendergrass, A. G.; Bohon, W.; Ramirez, K. S.

2017-12-01

The past year has presented real challenges for scientists, especially in the US. The political context catalyzed the formation of many new organizations with a range of goals, from increasing the role of science in decision making to improving public trust in science and scientists. The grassroots organization 500 Women Scientists formed in the wake of the 2016 US election as a response to widespread anti-science, intolerant rhetoric and to form a community that could take action together. Within months, the network grew to more than 20,000 women scientists from across the globe. We evolved from our reactionary beginnings towards a broader mission to serve society by making science open, inclusive, and accessible. With the goal of transforming scientific institutions towards a more inclusive and just enterprise, we have been building alliances with diverse groups to provide training and mentorship opportunities to our members. In so doing, we created space for scientists from across disciplines to work together, speak out, and channel their energies toward making a difference. In partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists and Rise Stronger, we assembled resources to help scientists write op-eds and letters to the editor about the importance of science in their communities. We partnered with researchers in Jordan to explore a new peer-to-peer mentoring model. Along with a healthcare advocacy group, we participated in dialogue to examine the role of science in affordable medicine. Finally, we are working with other groups to expand peer networks and career development resources for international STEM women. Our local chapters often initiate this work, teaming up with diverse organizations to bring science to their communities and, in the process, shift perceptions of what a scientist looks like. While as scientists, we would rather be conducting experiments or running models, what brings us together is an urgent sense that our scientific expertise is needed

Animating Grassroots Development: Women's Popular Education in Bolivia.

Science.gov (United States)

Healy, Kevin

1991-01-01

Describes Capacitacion Integral de la Mujer Campesina (CIMCA) development efforts within Bolivian farm communities. Describes CIMCA's focus on social change, ethnic empowerment, and women's rights. Describes organization's initial clashes with rural culture. Describes use of rotafolio drawings to spark workshop discussions, to improve women's…

Past, Present & Future of the US EPA: Protecting Human Health & the Natural Environment

Science.gov (United States)

The time line of events that lead to the creation of the US EPA are marked by grassroots efforts by average citizens voicing concerns to politicians in Washington. Visionary leadership by Congress and the President led to the birth of a Federal Agency dedicated to protecting huma...

(YIP) Detecting, Analyzing, Modeling Adversarial Propaganda in Social Media

Science.gov (United States)

2015-10-26

campaign is a coherent and organized effort to spread a particular message – e.g., misinformation, propaganda, payloads containing malware, phishing ...propaganda, payloads containing malware, phishing URLs – and stands in contrast to “organic” (or grassroots) efforts. This project has viewed campaigns...have at least 50 Twitter followers, search for a certain keyword on Google , and then click on a website in the search results. In addition, it

Mapping Judicial Dialogue across National Borders: An Exploratory Network Study of Learning from Lobbying among European Intellectual Property Judges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emmanuel Lazega

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This paper looks at dialogue and collective learning across borders through personal networks of judges. We focus on judges participating in the Venice Forum, bringing together European patent judges involved in institutional lobbying for the construction of a European Patent Court. Empirical observation shows that personal networks of discussion with foreign judges, reading of their work and references to their decisions do exist in this milieu and can be mapped. Our network study shows that judges from some European countries are more active in this dialogue than judges from other countries. The learning process is driven, to some extent, by a small subset of super-central judges who frame this dialogue and can be considered to be opinion leaders in this social milieu. We measure a strong level of consensus among the judges on several controversial issues surrounding the procedure of a possible future European Patent Court. But strong differences between them remain. Dialogue and collective learning do not, by themselves, lead to convergence towards a uniform position in these controversies.

Transparency in Teaching: Faculty Share Data and Improve Students' Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Winkelmes, Mary-Ann

2013-01-01

The Illinois Initiative on Transparency in Learning and Teaching is a grassroots assessment project designed to promote students' conscious understanding of how they learn and to enable faculty to gather, share, and promptly benefit from data about students' learning by coordinating their efforts across disciplines, institutions, and countries.…

STEM | News

Science.gov (United States)

Women's Initiative is starting a grassroots effort to publish profiles of the lab's women employees : experimental physicist March 19, 2018 | Fermilab As a child, Kirsty Duffy learned about the smallest building one to share it with the world. Bring a folding chair March 6, 2018 | Kathryn Jepsen National Society

The Framing of Women and Health Disparities: A Critical Look at Race, Gender, and Class from the Perspectives of Grassroots Health Communicators.

Science.gov (United States)

Vardeman-Winter, Jennifer

2017-05-01

As women's health has received significant political and media attention recently, I proposed an expanded structural theory of women's communication about health. Women's health communication and critical race and systemic racism research framed this study. I interviewed 15 communicators and community health workers from grass-roots organizations focused on women's health to learn of their challenges of communicating with women from communities experiencing health disparities. Findings suggest that communicators face difficulties in developing meaningful messaging for publics because of disjunctures between medical and community frames, issues in searching for health among women's many priorities, Whiteness discourses imposed on publics' experiences, and practices of correcting for power differentials. A structural theory of women's health communication, then, consists of tenets around geographic, research/funding, academic/industry, and social hierarchies. Six frames suggesting racial biases about women and health disparities are also defined. This study also includes practical solutions in education, publishing, and policy change for addressing structural challenges.

Pressure and politics in financial accounting regulation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Lent, L.A.G.M.

1995-01-01

This study examines the political process of promulgating the draft laws 22169 and 22896, which pertained to the reporting of financial conglomerates, the lobbying efforts observed during the process, and the interaction between the government, the supervisors of banks and insurance companies, the

Assessing the Impact of a Statewide STEM Investment on K-12, Higher Education, and Business/Community STEM Awareness over Time

Science.gov (United States)

Sondergeld, Toni A.; Johnson, Carla C.; Walten, Janet B.

2016-01-01

Despite monetary and educational investments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being at record high levels, little attention has been devoted to generating a common understanding of STEM. In addition, working with business, K-12 schools, and/or institutions of higher education to establish a grassroots effort to help…

Chemical Dependency Regional Needs Assessment: Northeastern Minnesota.

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Marylee

The Minnesota Model of Chemical Dependency Treatment, which evolved from a combination of the grassroots Alcoholics Anonymous movement and the State Mental Health Services in the 1960s has made Minnesota an international leader in chemical dependency treatment efforts. Northeastern Minnesota has shared this reputation with the state. In spite of…

Black Feminist Activism: Theory as Generating Collective Resistance

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, Michelle Salazar; Williams, Eloise

2014-01-01

Black feminist scholars have theorized ways in which power permeates our everyday lived experiences. The authors of this article, a university faculty member and a grassroots community activist, share their collective Black feminist activist efforts to find spaces of resistance and empowerment within oppressive conditions in the city of New…

Competing Paradigms of Educational Justice: Parent Organizing for Educational Equity in a Neoliberal Reform Context

Science.gov (United States)

Nygreen, Kysa

2016-01-01

This article examines a grassroots parent organizing effort in a large, high-poverty, urban school district. Drawing from ethnographic field research at a community-based popular education organization, the study describes how parent organizers worked to educate and mobilize Latina/o immigrant parents on issues of educational justice and equity.…

Pipe dream? Envisioning a grassroots Python ecosystem of open, common software tools and data access in support of river and coastal biogeochemical research (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Mayorga, E.

2013-12-01

Practical, problem oriented software developed by scientists and graduate students in domains lacking a strong software development tradition is often balkanized into the scripting environments provided by dominant, typically proprietary tools. In environmental fields, these tools include ArcGIS, Matlab, SAS, Excel and others, and are often constrained to specific operating systems. While this situation is the outcome of rational choices, it limits the dissemination of useful tools and their integration into loosely coupled frameworks that can meet wider needs and be developed organically by groups addressing their own needs. Open-source dynamic languages offer the advantages of an accessible programming syntax, a wealth of pre-existing libraries, multi-platform access, linkage to community libraries developed in lower level languages such as C or FORTRAN, and access to web service infrastructure. Python in particular has seen a large and increasing uptake in scientific communities, as evidenced by the continued growth of the annual SciPy conference. Ecosystems with distinctive physical structures and organization, and mechanistic processes that are well characterized, are both factors that have often led to the grass-roots development of useful code meeting the needs of a range of communities. In aquatic applications, examples include river and watershed analysis tools (River Tools, Taudem, etc), and geochemical modules such as CO2SYS, PHREEQ and LOADEST. I will review the state of affairs and explore the potential offered by a Python tool ecosystem in supporting aquatic biogeochemistry and water quality research. This potential is multi-faceted and broadly involves accessibility to lone grad students, access to a wide community of programmers and problem solvers via online resources such as StackExchange, and opportunities to leverage broader cyberinfrastructure efforts and tools, including those from widely different domains. Collaborative development of such

Language Revitalisation from the Ground Up: Promoting Yucatec Maya on Facebook

Science.gov (United States)

Cru, Josep

2015-01-01

This paper looks at current grassroots efforts to revitalise Yucatec Maya, an indigenous language of Mexico, in social media and more specifically on Facebook. In contrast to the limitations of institutional language promotion, the inclusion of Maya on Facebook shows the possibilities that social networks offer not only for actual use of…

Don't mind the ‘funding gap’: what Dutch post crisis storytelling tells us about elite politics in financialized capitalism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Engelen, E.

2015-01-01

In this paper the lobbying efforts of the Dutch financial elite aimed at safeguarding the securitization of Dutch mortgages, which had become a crucial part of Dutch banking business models, is reconstructed, centred on the so-called Liquidity Coverage Ratio of the Basle Committee of Banking

Mobilizing the Eastside of Los Angeles for Educational Justice

Science.gov (United States)

Perez, Henry M.; Madera, Perla

2015-01-01

This article describes a ten-year effort led by youth, community organizers, and a range of partners that resulted in two new, successful high schools and showed the power of grassroots mobilization for social justice. Since opening in 2009 and 2010 respectively, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School for College and Career Preparation and…

What Makes Grassroots Conservation Organizations Resilient? An Empirical Analysis of Diversity, Organizational Memory, and the Number of Leaders

Science.gov (United States)

Baral, Nabin

2013-03-01

Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMCs)—the functional decision-making units consisting entirely of local villagers—are grassroots organizations legally established to manage the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) in Nepal. These committees suffered due to the decade-long Maoist insurgency, but they survived. The paper attempts to test what factors contributed to their resiliency. For this, I surveyed 30 CAMCs during the summer of 2007 and conducted semi-structured interviews of 190 executive members of the CAMCs and 13 park officials who closely monitor the CAMCs. Regression results showed that the number of leaders ( b = 0.44, t = 2.38, P = .027) was the most critical variable for building the resilience of CAMCs to the Maoist insurgency, i.e., retaining the same function, structure, and identity of the committees. As there were no reported conflicts among leaders and they were involved in negotiations and devising contingency plans, CAMCs actually benefited from having more leaders. Of the three diversity indices, the quadratic terms of age diversity ( b = -5.42, t = 1.95, P = .064) and ethnic diversity ( b = -4.05, t = 1.78, P = .075) had a negative impact on the CAMCs' resilience. Skill diversity and organizational memory had no significant influence on the CAMCs' resilience ( t .10). These results have important implications for building resilience in community-based conservation.

Comparison of cardiovascular response to combined static-dynamic effort, postprandial dynamic effort and dynamic effort alone in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hung, J.; McKillip, J.; Savin, W.; Magder, S.; Kraus, R.; Houston, N.; Goris, M.; Haskell, W.; DeBusk, R.

1982-01-01

The cardiovascular responses to combined static-dynamic effort, postprandial dynamic effort and dynamic effort alone were evaluated by upright bicycle ergometry during equilibrium-gated blood pool scintigraphy in 24 men, mean age 59 +/- 8 years, with chronic ischemic heart disease. Combined static-dynamic effort and the postprandial state elicited a peak cardiovascular response similar to that of dynamic effort alone. Heart rate, intraarterial systolic and diastolic pressures, rate-pressure product and ejection fraction were similar for the three test conditions at the onset of ischemia and at peak effort. The prevalence and extent of exercise-induced ischemic left ventricular dysfunction, ST-segment depression, angina pectoris and ventricular ectopic activity were also similar during the three test conditions. Direct and indirect measurements of systolic and diastolic blood pressure were highly correlated. The onset of ischemic ST-segment depression and angina pectoris correlated as strongly with heart rate alone as with the rate-pressure product during all three test conditions. The cardiovascular response to combined static-dynamic effort and to postprandial dynamic effort becomes more similar to that of dynamic effort alone as dynamic effort reaches a symptom limit. If significant ischemic and arrhythmic abnormalities are absent during symptom-limited dynamic exercise testing, they are unlikely to appear during combined static-dynamic or postprandial dynamic effort

A Grassroots Community Dialogue on the Ethics of the Care of People with Autism and Their Families: The Stony Brook Guidelines.

Science.gov (United States)

Post, Stephen G; Pomeroy, John; Keirns, Carla; Cover, Virginia Isaacs; Dorn, Michael Leverett

2017-06-01

The increased recognition and reported prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) combined with the associated societal and clinical impact call for a broad grassroots community-based dialogue on treatment related ethical and social issues. In these Stony Brook Guidelines, which were developed during a full year of community dialogue (2010-2011) with affected individuals, families, and professionals in the field, we identify and discuss topics of paramount concern to the ASD constituency: treatment goals and happiness, distributive justice, managing the desperate hopes for a cure, sibling responsibilities, intimacy and sex, diagnostic ethics, and research ethics. The members of the dialogue core committee included doctors, ethicists, administrators, social workers, ministers, disability experts, and many family members of individuals with autism who were especially engaged in community activities on behalf of their constituency, including siblings, parents, and grandparents. Our guidelines are not based on "top-down" imposition of professional expertise, but rather on a "bottom-up" grass roots attention to the voices of affected individuals and families speaking from experience. These guidelines can inform clinical practice, but they also are meaningful for the wider social conversation emerging over the treatment of individuals with ASD.

Effort in Multitasking: Local and Global Assessment of Effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiesel, Andrea; Dignath, David

2017-01-01

When performing multiple tasks in succession, self-organization of task order might be superior compared to external-controlled task schedules, because self-organization allows optimizing processing modes and thus reduces switch costs, and it increases commitment to task goals. However, self-organization is an additional executive control process that is not required if task order is externally specified and as such it is considered as time-consuming and effortful. To compare self-organized and externally controlled task scheduling, we suggest assessing global subjective and objectives measures of effort in addition to local performance measures. In our new experimental approach, we combined characteristics of dual tasking settings and task switching settings and compared local and global measures of effort in a condition with free choice of task sequence and a condition with cued task sequence. In a multi-tasking environment, participants chose the task order while the task requirement of the not-yet-performed task remained the same. This task preview allowed participants to work on the previously non-chosen items in parallel and resulted in faster responses and fewer errors in task switch trials than in task repetition trials. The free-choice group profited more from this task preview than the cued group when considering local performance measures. Nevertheless, the free-choice group invested more effort than the cued group when considering global measures. Thus, self-organization in task scheduling seems to be effortful even in conditions in which it is beneficiary for task processing. In a second experiment, we reduced the possibility of task preview for the not-yet-performed tasks in order to hinder efficient self-organization. Here neither local nor global measures revealed substantial differences between the free-choice and a cued task sequence condition. Based on the results of both experiments, we suggest that global assessment of effort in addition to

Involve women at many levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Huq, N

1995-03-01

The organizers of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) realize that slowing the rate of population growth requires the involvement of women at many levels. The planning processes in countries leading up to the ICPD were required to include women, and funds became available for women to attend regional and international preparatory meetings. National delegations at the ICPD also included many more women than the previous two world population conferences in 1974 and 1984. Space was also provided at the ICPD for the involvement of nongovernmental organizations. Naripokkho, a women's advocacy organization in Bangladesh, was therefore able to communicate its message at the conference. In preparation, the organization held consultations and workshops with grassroots women in thirteen regions of Bangladesh. Approximately one third of the women in the workshops had more children than they desired, many felt that they had to have at least two sons, poor services led women to discontinue contraceptive use, and very few women reported that a lack of access to contraception or method failure was responsible for their large families. It was also determined during the preparatory phase that environmental damage cannot be linked to population in a simplistic manner, history, politics, geography, business, and economics play important roles. Once at the ICPD, Naripokkho they negotiated and lobbied the governments to influence the ICPD program of action. Gains for women were made in both language and substance. Indeed, the program of action is the most progressive population document ever issued by a mainstream institution, gives women's goals new legitimacy, and is a powerful tool for groups working at the grassroots level. Governments must now be held to their commitments made in the program.

Grassroot Sports: Conveyor Belt for Sports Development in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper took a look at some factors such as administration and funding that bedevil Nigeria‟s Sports development efforts and saw grass root sports as a veritable vehicle for the realization of our sports development objective. Grass root sport was seen as the exposure of young and old, male and female all over the ...

Estimation of inspection effort

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mullen, M.F.; Wincek, M.A.

1979-06-01

An overview of IAEA inspection activities is presented, and the problem of evaluating the effectiveness of an inspection is discussed. Two models are described - an effort model and an effectiveness model. The effort model breaks the IAEA's inspection effort into components; the amount of effort required for each component is estimated; and the total effort is determined by summing the effort for each component. The effectiveness model quantifies the effectiveness of inspections in terms of probabilities of detection and quantities of material to be detected, if diverted over a specific period. The method is applied to a 200 metric ton per year low-enriched uranium fuel fabrication facility. A description of the model plant is presented, a safeguards approach is outlined, and sampling plans are calculated. The required inspection effort is estimated and the results are compared to IAEA estimates. Some other applications of the method are discussed briefly. Examples are presented which demonstrate how the method might be useful in formulating guidelines for inspection planning and in establishing technical criteria for safeguards implementation

Kids in the atrium: comparing architectural intentions and children's experiences in a pediatric hospital lobby.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Annmarie; Theodore, David; Goldenberg, Ellie; McLaren, Coralee; McKeever, Patricia

2010-03-01

The study reported here adopts an interdisciplinary focus to elicit children's views about hospital environments. Based at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, the research explores the ways in which designers and patients understand and use the eight-storey lobby, The Atrium, a monumental addition constructed in 1993. It is a public place that never closes; hundreds of children pass through the namesake atrium every day. Combining methodological approaches from architectural history and health sociology, the intentions and uses of central features of the hospital atrium are examined. Data were collected from observations, focused interviews, and textual and visual documents. We locate the contemporary atrium in a historical context of building typologies rarely connected to hospital design, such as shopping malls, hotels and airports. We link the design of these multi-storey, glass-roofed spaces to other urban experiences especially consumption as normalizing forces in the everyday lives of Canadian children. Seeking to uncover children's self-identified, self-articulated place within contemporary pediatric hospitals, we assess how the atrium--by providing important, but difficult-to-measure functions such as comfort, socialization, interface, wayfinding, contact with nature and diurnal rhythms, and respite from adjacent medicalized spaces--contributes to the well-being of young patients. We used theoretical underpinnings from architecture and humanistic geography, and participatory methods advocated by child researchers and theorists. Our findings begin to address the significant gap in understanding about the relationship between the perceptions of children and the settings where their healthcare occurs. The study also underlines children's potential to serve as agents of architectural knowledge, reporting on and recording their observations of hospital architecture with remarkable sophistication. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide: learning and behavioural outcomes of a training-of-trainers model to facilitate grassroots community health education to address Indigenous youth suicide prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Wexler, Lisa; Trout, Lucas; Rataj, Suzanne; Kirk, Tanya; Moto, Roberta; McEachern, Diane

2017-01-01

Alaska Native (AN) youth suicide remains a substantial and recalcitrant health disparity, especially in rural/remote communities. Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES) is a community health intervention that responds to the need for culturally responsive and evidence-supported prevention practice, using a grassroots approach to spark multilevel and community-based efforts for suicide prevention. This paper describes theoretical and practical considerations of the approach, and assesses the feasibility and preliminary learning and behavioural outcomes of the training-of-trainers model. It details the training of a first cohort of intervention facilitators in Northwest Alaska (NWA). Thirty-two people from 11 NWA village communities completed the PC CARES facilitator training, preparing them to implement the intervention in their home communities. Facilitator pre-post surveys focused on readiness to facilitate, a group quiz assessed participants' understanding of relevant research evidence, and practice facilitation exercises demonstrated competency. Curriculum fidelity and accuracy scores were calculated using audio recordings from learning circles conducted by facilitators in their home communities. Facilitator reflections describe the successes of the model and identify several areas for improvement. As of March 2017, 20 of the 32 trained facilitators in 10 of the 11 participating villages have hosted 54 LCs, with a total of 309 unique community members. Coding of these LCs by 2 independent raters indicate acceptable levels of fidelity and accurate dissemination of research evidence by facilitators. Facilitator reflections were positive overall, suggesting PC CARES is feasible, acceptable and potentially impactful as a way to translate research to practice in under-resourced, rural AN communities. PC CARES represents a practical community education and mobilisation approach to Indigenous youth suicide prevention that displays

'Manage and mitigate punitive regulatory measures, enhance the corporate image, influence public policy': industry efforts to shape understanding of tobacco-attributable deforestation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Kelley; Carrillo Botero, Natalia; Novotny, Thomas

2016-09-20

Deforestation due to tobacco farming began to raise concerns in the mid 1970s. Over the next 40 years, tobacco growing increased significantly and shifted markedly to low- and middle-income countries. The percentage of deforestation caused by tobacco farming reached 4 % globally by the early 2000s, although substantially higher in countries such as China (18 %), Zimbabwe (20 %), Malawi (26 %) and Bangladesh (>30 %). Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have argued that tobacco-attributable deforestation is not a serious problem, and that the industry has addressed the issue through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. After reviewing the existing scholarly literature on tobacco and deforestation, we analysed industry sources of public information to understand how the industry framed deforestation, its key causes, and policy responses. To analyse industry strategies between the 1970s and early 2000s to shape understanding of deforestation caused by tobacco farming and curing, the Truth Tobacco Documents Library was systematically searched. The above sources were compiled and triangulated, thematically and chronologically, to derive a narrative of how the industry has framed the problem of, and solutions to, tobacco-attributable deforestation. The industry sought to undermine responses to tobacco-attributable deforestation by emphasising the economic benefits of production in LMICs, blaming alternative causes, and claiming successful forestation efforts. To support these tactics, the industry lobbied at the national and international levels, commissioned research, and colluded through front groups. There was a lack of effective action to address tobacco-attributable deforestation, and indeed an escalation of the problem, during this period. The findings suggest the need for independent data on the varied environmental impacts of the tobacco industry, awareness of how the industry seeks to work with environmental researchers and groups to

Effortful echolalia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadano, K; Nakamura, H; Hamanaka, T

1998-02-01

We report three cases of effortful echolalia in patients with cerebral infarction. The clinical picture of speech disturbance is associated with Type 1 Transcortical Motor Aphasia (TCMA, Goldstein, 1915). The patients always spoke nonfluently with loss of speech initiative, dysarthria, dysprosody, agrammatism, and increased effort and were unable to repeat sentences longer than those containing four or six words. In conversation, they first repeated a few words spoken to them, and then produced self initiated speech. The initial repetition as well as the subsequent self initiated speech, which were realized equally laboriously, can be regarded as mitigated echolalia (Pick, 1924). They were always aware of their own echolalia and tried to control it without effect. These cases demonstrate that neither the ability to repeat nor fluent speech are always necessary for echolalia. The possibility that a lesion in the left medial frontal lobe, including the supplementary motor area, plays an important role in effortful echolalia is discussed.

Grassroots action for renewable energy. How did Ontario succeed in the implementation of a feed-in tariff system?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nishimura, Kensuke [Free Univ. of Berlin (Germany). Environmental Policy Research Centre

2012-12-15

This article examines the policymaking process of Ontario's Green Energy Act (GEA) which enabled the introduction of the first comprehensive feed-in tariff (FIT) in North America. The FIT, which is a payback system for renewable energy (RE) producers, was implemented in order to make Ontario a Green Leader in North America. This article analyzes this process through a consideration of the role played by grassroots action. The Green Energy Act Alliance (GEAA) succeeded in the implementation of the GEA. Using Lober's collaborative window, this article explores factors that led to the realization of the FIT. The conclusion will show that the GEAA succeeded in opening the collaborative window, even though the model's prerequisites were not completely fulfilled, namely there was a lack of public awareness. The diffusion of innovation theory helps us to understand this, with regard to the GEAA's strategy. The policymakers had recognized the importance of RE but had not yet been motivated to develop RE generating capacity in the region. The GEAA changed their opinion by showing the success of the FIT in Europe in boosting the economy. After the European study tour, the Minister of Energy, George Smitherman, as one of the important policymakers, started to support the GEA, and this was the key factor leading to the introduction of the FIT, despite a lack of public awareness. (orig.)

What makes grassroots conservation organizations resilient? An empirical analysis of diversity, organizational memory, and the number of leaders.

Science.gov (United States)

Baral, Nabin

2013-03-01

Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMCs)-the functional decision-making units consisting entirely of local villagers-are grassroots organizations legally established to manage the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) in Nepal. These committees suffered due to the decade-long Maoist insurgency, but they survived. The paper attempts to test what factors contributed to their resiliency. For this, I surveyed 30 CAMCs during the summer of 2007 and conducted semi-structured interviews of 190 executive members of the CAMCs and 13 park officials who closely monitor the CAMCs. Regression results showed that the number of leaders (b = 0.44, t = 2.38, P = .027) was the most critical variable for building the resilience of CAMCs to the Maoist insurgency, i.e., retaining the same function, structure, and identity of the committees. As there were no reported conflicts among leaders and they were involved in negotiations and devising contingency plans, CAMCs actually benefited from having more leaders. Of the three diversity indices, the quadratic terms of age diversity (b = -5.42, t = 1.95, P = .064) and ethnic diversity (b = -4.05, t = 1.78, P = .075) had a negative impact on the CAMCs' resilience. Skill diversity and organizational memory had no significant influence on the CAMCs' resilience (t  .10). These results have important implications for building resilience in community-based conservation.

Scaling-up and rooting-down: a case study of North-South partnerships for health from Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gro Th. Lie

2012-06-01

NSPs. Conclusions: Northern partners were drawn to KIWAKKUKI because of its strong and rapidly growing grassroots base, however, a lack of funding has led to inadequate training for the burgeoning grassroots. Opportunity exists to improve this negative result: Northern organizations that value community engagement can purposefully align their missions and funding within NSP to better support grassroots efforts, especially through periods of expansion.

Making Meaning out of Human/Animal: Scientific Competition of Classifications in the Spanish Legislature

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, Ross

2010-01-01

In the summer of 2008, the Spanish legislature resolved to grant great apes (though not all simians) basic human rights. While the decision to grant such rights came about largely through the lobbying efforts of the Great Ape Project (GAP), the decision has potential reverberations throughout the scientific world and beyond in its implications for…

Maximum effort in the minimum-effort game

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Engelmann, Dirk; Normann, H.-T.

2010-01-01

Roč. 13, č. 3 (2010), s. 249-259 ISSN 1386-4157 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : minimum-effort game * coordination game * experiments * social capital Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 1.868, year: 2010

Innovation and the Exploitation of Intellectual Property Law

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Howells, John

2003-01-01

. Examples of the strategic abuse of the patent institutional machinery are given, including: the lobbying efforts to change the law to favour private control over the public interest function of intellectual propery law; the suggestion that corporations may attempt to register patents that they know...... are not valid, but may be useful as a competitive deterrent....

Respiratory effort from the photoplethysmogram.

Science.gov (United States)

Addison, Paul S

2017-03-01

The potential for a simple, non-invasive measure of respiratory effort based on the pulse oximeter signal - the photoplethysmogram or 'pleth' - was investigated in a pilot study. Several parameters were developed based on a variety of manifestations of respiratory effort in the signal, including modulation changes in amplitude, baseline, frequency and pulse transit times, as well as distinct baseline signal shifts. Thirteen candidate parameters were investigated using data from healthy volunteers. Each volunteer underwent a series of controlled respiratory effort maneuvers at various set flow resistances and respiratory rates. Six oximeter probes were tested at various body sites. In all, over three thousand pleth-based effort-airway pressure (EP) curves were generated across the various airway constrictions, respiratory efforts, respiratory rates, subjects, probe sites, and the candidate parameters considered. Regression analysis was performed to determine the existence of positive monotonic relationships between the respiratory effort parameters and resulting airway pressures. Six of the candidate parameters investigated exhibited a distinct positive relationship (poximeter probe and an ECG (P2E-Effort) and the other using two pulse oximeter probes placed at different peripheral body sites (P2-Effort); and baseline shifts in heart rate, (BL-HR-Effort). In conclusion, a clear monotonic relationship was found between several pleth-based parameters and imposed respiratory loadings at the mouth across a range of respiratory rates and flow constrictions. The results suggest that the pleth may provide a measure of changing upper airway dynamics indicative of the effort to breathe. Copyright © 2017 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

浅谈图书馆基础竞合层策略%On the Strategy of Grass-Root Competition and Cooperation Based on the Library

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

吕春晖

2011-01-01

The competition is based on the library cooperation within competition.This grass-roots cooperation and competition exists in every business process within the work areas.Modern Library＇s management should change their ideas,based on reality,the development of the strategic objectives for their own development,in order to improve their market competitiveness. This paper analyzes the level of the library-based competition and cooperation of several key strategies.%图书馆竞争的基础是内部的合作竞争。这种基层合作与竞争存在于内部的每一个业务流程、工作环节。现代图书馆的管理应该转变观念,立足实际,制定适合自身发展的战略目标,才能提高自身的市场竞争力。本文分析了图书馆基础竞争合作层面的几个主要策略。

Cognitive effort: A neuroeconomic approach

Science.gov (United States)

Braver, Todd S.

2015-01-01

Cognitive effort has been implicated in numerous theories regarding normal and aberrant behavior and the physiological response to engagement with demanding tasks. Yet, despite broad interest, no unifying, operational definition of cognitive effort itself has been proposed. Here, we argue that the most intuitive and epistemologically valuable treatment is in terms of effort-based decision-making, and advocate a neuroeconomics-focused research strategy. We first outline psychological and neuroscientific theories of cognitive effort. Then we describe the benefits of a neuroeconomic research strategy, highlighting how it affords greater inferential traction than do traditional markers of cognitive effort, including self-reports and physiologic markers of autonomic arousal. Finally, we sketch a future series of studies that can leverage the full potential of the neuroeconomic approach toward understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms that give rise to phenomenal, subjective cognitive effort. PMID:25673005

Welfare Lobby Groups responding to Globalisation: A Comparison of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS and the UK Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2004-05-01

Full Text Available The past decade has witnessed a period of intense economic globalisation. The growing significance of international trade, investment, production and financial flows appears to be curtailing the autonomy of individual nation states. In particular, globalisation appears to be encouraging, if not demanding, a decline in social spending and standards. However, many authors believe that this thesis ignores the continued impact of national political and ideological pressures and lobby groups on policy outcomes. In particular, it has been argued that national welfare consumer and provider groups remain influential defenders of the welfare state. For example, US aged care groups are considered to be particularly effective defenders of social security pensions. According to this argument, governments engaged in welfare retrenchment may experience considerable electoral backlash (Pierson 1996; Mishra 1999. Yet, it is also noted that governments can take action to reduce the impact of such groups by reducing their funding, and their access to policy-making and consultation processes. These actions are then justified on the basis of removing potential obstacles to economic competitiveness (Pierson 1994; Melville 1999.

Effort rights-based management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Squires, Dale; Maunder, Mark; Allen, Robin

2017-01-01

Effort rights-based fisheries management (RBM) is less widely used than catch rights, whether for groups or individuals. Because RBM on catch or effort necessarily requires a total allowable catch (TAC) or total allowable effort (TAE), RBM is discussed in conjunction with issues in assessing fish...... populations and providing TACs or TAEs. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, and there are trade-offs between the two approaches. In a narrow economic sense, catch rights are superior because of the type of incentives created, but once the costs of research to improve stock assessments...

Poniendo tu granito de arena: Latinos and HIV.

Science.gov (United States)

Vazquez, E

1999-01-01

Because the Latino community often lacks the money and power of large, white-run agencies in HIV prevention efforts, Latino HIV-service providers often turn to bootstrap efforts that are well-grounded in cultural realities. The community response to HIV prevention efforts is examined in terms of the cultural sensitivity needed to reach this ethnic group more effectively. Reasons why grassroots efforts are more effective in a Latino community than traditional agencies, and some examples of successful programs are outlined. The discrepancies seen in HIV services due to lack of resources and connections to needed funding are also discussed. Discussions on the Latino understanding of fatalism, homophobia, family values, and machismo that all affect the spread of HIV are highlighted.

Hawai‘i in Public Health: Community Strengthening Through Canoe Culture: Ho'omana'o Mau as Method and Metaphor

OpenAIRE

Ho-Lastimosa, Ilima; Hwang, Phoebe W; Lastimosa, Bob

2014-01-01

Historical trauma occurs across generations and is evidenced by indigenous disparities. Efforts made to address this issue commonly utilize European ethnocentric methods. Rather, a community-based approach should be used to empower indigenous communities. God's Country Waimanalo (GCW) is a grassroots organization developed by Native Hawaiians for Native Hawaiians. Its wa‘a (canoe) project, Ho‘omana‘o Mau (everlasting memories; abbreviated Ho‘o) is meant to perpetuate pre-colonial Hawaiian pra...

Moving Up or Moving Out? Anti-Sweatshop Activists and Labor Market Outcomes

OpenAIRE

Ann Harrison; Jason Scorse

2004-01-01

During the 1990s, human rights and anti-sweatshop activists increased their efforts to improve working conditions and raise wages for workers in developing countries. These campaigns took many different forms: direct pressure to change legislation in developing countries, pressure on firms, newspaper campaigns, and grassroots organizing. This paper analyzes the impact of two different types of interventions on labor market outcomes in Indonesian manufacturing: (1) direct US government pressur...

Chernobyl: exclusive investigation. How the French nuclear lobby buries the truth in contaminated areas. The After-Chernobyl or 'Living happy' in contaminated area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

According to the results of this inquiry, the CEPN (study centre on assessment of protection in the nuclear sector) has been created by the main actors of the nuclear industrial sector (EFG, Cogema, CEA and IRSN) and is at the origin of the ETHOS and CORE projects. Moreover, these projects have been financed by public funds. It also shows that the FNSEA (farmer trade union) has been allied to the French nuclear lobby for the distribution probably contaminated and radioactive foodstuff. It evokes the case of Belarus researcher who denounced such contamination and the misappropriation of international funds, and who was sent to jail. It comments the collaboration between the French nuclear sector and the Belarus regime, denounces how the truth about Chernobyl has been hidden, the cynical results of the ETOS program which would imply the consumption of contaminated foodstuff in France in case of nuclear accident. Some proposals are made: to dismantle the CEPN, to stop the participation of French organisations to the CORE and FARMING programs, creation of an independent commission on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident, and so on. For the authors, phasing out nuclear is the only solution o avoid a new Chernobyl

The Current Situation and Potential Responses to Movements against Gender Equality in Ukraine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olena Hankivsky

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Gender equality in Ukraine is facing resistance. Although this backlash is not uniquely Ukrainian, it can have profound consequences for Ukraine’s efforts to integrate into the European Union. This paper reveals various aspects of a movement called “Stop Gender,” examining letter writing campaigns, political lobbying and an anti-gender equality blog. It assesses the key arguments of the movement, considers their impact on gender mainstreaming efforts, and investigates what action might be taken in the face of growing anti-gender equality sentiments across all levels of Ukrainian society.

Saving nurses, saving patients: responses to the labor crisis.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Alison P

2004-01-01

While numerous task forces have spent enormous time and energy studying the size and scope of the nursing shortage, other organizations have been hard at work solving the difficulties faced by nurses and reducing the effects of the labor shortages on patient care. These efforts range from national legislative activities to grassroots innovations. Many of these efforts have already produced tangible results and take the form of major investments in professional development and improvements to the workplace environment. Physicians play an important role in the hospital work environment and can affect teamwork, a clear driver of nurse satisfaction.

Developing advocacy for geothermal energy in the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wright, P.M.

1990-01-01

There is little public advocacy for geothermal energy in the United States outside of the geothermal community itself. Yet, broad-based advocacy is needed to provide impetus for a nourishing economic, regulatory and R and D environment. If such an environment could be created, the prosperity of the geothermal industry would improve and positive environmental effects compared to most other energy sources would be realized. We need an organized sustained effort to provide information and education to all segments of our society, including market-makers and end users, administrators, legislators, regulators, educators, special-interest groups and the public. This effort could be provided by an organization of three main components, a network to gather and disseminate pertinent information on marketing, educational and lobbying opportunities to action committees, a repository of current information on geothermal energy, and action committees each responsible for certain parts of the total marketing, education and lobbying task. In this paper, the author suggests a mechanism for forming such an organization and making it work. The author proposes an informal organization staffed largely by volunteered labor in which no one person would have to devote more than a few percent of his or her work time

Crowdfunding the Azolla fern genome project: a grassroots approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Fay-Wei; Pryer, Kathleen M

2014-01-01

Much of science progresses within the tight boundaries of what is often seen as a "black box". Though familiar to funding agencies, researchers and the academic journals they publish in, it is an entity that outsiders rarely get to peek into. Crowdfunding is a novel means that allows the public to participate in, as well as to support and witness advancements in science. Here we describe our recent crowdfunding efforts to sequence the Azolla genome, a little fern with massive green potential. Crowdfunding is a worthy platform not only for obtaining seed money for exploratory research, but also for engaging directly with the general public as a rewarding form of outreach.

Dopamine and Effort-Based Decision Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irma Triasih Kurniawan

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Motivational theories of choice focus on the influence of goal values and strength of reinforcement to explain behavior. By contrast relatively little is known concerning how the cost of an action, such as effort expended, contributes to a decision to act. Effort-based decision making addresses how we make an action choice based on an integration of action and goal values. Here we review behavioral and neurobiological data regarding the representation of effort as action cost, and how this impacts on decision making. Although organisms expend effort to obtain a desired reward there is a striking sensitivity to the amount of effort required, such that the net preference for an action decreases as effort cost increases. We discuss the contribution of the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA towards overcoming response costs and in enhancing an animal’s motivation towards effortful actions. We also consider the contribution of brain structures, including the basal ganglia (BG and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, in the internal generation of action involving a translation of reward expectation into effortful action.

Low sustainability, poor governance, and other challenges encountered by grassroots non-governmental organizations targeting HIV prevention for men who have sex with men in China - a nation-wide study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, Joseph T F; Wang, Zixin; Kim, Yoona; Li, Jinghua; Gu, Jing; Mo, Phoenix K H; Wang, Xiaodong

2017-12-01

Grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played pivotal roles in HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. Their governance and sustainability issues were under-studied. This nation-wide study surveyed leaders of 202 of the HIV related NGOs in China.58.4% of the leaders believed that their NGO would last for ≤5 years; which was negatively associated with perceived good relationship with CDC. 65.3% mentioned ≥3 non-sustainability issues; associated factors included perceived inadequacies in prevention skills, management skills, policy support, technical support, operational support, and CDC's support; a reverse association was found for frequent collaboration with organizations in China. 30.6% of the leaders mentioned ≥7 governance issues; a stepwise model found a positive association with having no office and negative associations with number of full-time staff and core volunteers. These problems would severely limit the effectiveness of HIV prevention among MSM. Related improvements and support are warranted.

26 CFR 56.4911-0 - Outline of regulations under section 4911.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... definition of influencing legislation. (4) Examples. (5) Special rule for certain mass media advertisements... lobbying communications, and grass roots lobbying communications. (a) Lobbying expenditures. (1) In general. (2) Overview of § 56.4911 and the definitions of “direct lobbying communication” and “grass roots...

Kentucky physicians and politics.

Science.gov (United States)

VonderHaar, W P; Monnig, W B

1998-09-01

Approximately 19% of Kentucky Physicians are KEMPAC members or contribute to state legislative and Gubernatorial candidates. This limited study of political activity indicates that a small percentage of physicians participate in the political process. Despite the small number of contributors to state legislative candidates, KMA's legislative and lobbying effort is highly effective and members receive high quality service and representation in the political arena.

Incentive Design and Mis-Allocated Effort

OpenAIRE

Schnedler, Wendelin

2013-01-01

Incentives often distort behavior: they induce agents to exert effort but this effort is not employed optimally. This paper proposes a theory of incentive design allowing for such distorted behavior. At the heart of the theory is a trade-off between getting the agent to exert effort and ensuring that this effort is used well. The theory covers various moral-hazard models, ranging from traditional single-task to multi-task models. It also provides -for the first time- a formalization and proof...

Estimation of total Effort and Effort Elapsed in Each Step of Software Development Using Optimal Bayesian Belief Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatemeh Zare Baghiabad

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Accuracy in estimating the needed effort for software development caused software effort estimation to be a challenging issue. Beside estimation of total effort, determining the effort elapsed in each software development step is very important because any mistakes in enterprise resource planning can lead to project failure. In this paper, a Bayesian belief network was proposed based on effective components and software development process. In this model, the feedback loops are considered between development steps provided that the return rates are different for each project. Different return rates help us determine the percentages of the elapsed effort in each software development step, distinctively. Moreover, the error measurement resulted from optimized effort estimation and the optimal coefficients to modify the model are sought. The results of the comparison between the proposed model and other models showed that the model has the capability to highly accurately estimate the total effort (with the marginal error of about 0.114 and to estimate the effort elapsed in each software development step.

On the new situation to descend a basic level technology library information service work

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun Haiyan

2010-01-01

With information technology fast developing. library can give readers modernization service. The results of information technology revolution can be used in library. Information materials can be supplied by acoustic image and researching in internet. In this document, we analysis the characteristics, present situations and developments of grass-roots libraries. Discuss the questions in grass-roots science-technology library in nuclear industry, improving the grass-roots equipments, developing various data library, and how to improve the quality of information service in grass-roots library. (author)

Mental and physical effort affect vigilance differently

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, A.S.; Eling, P.A.T.M.; Hopman, M.T.E.; Coenen, A.M.L.

2005-01-01

Both physical and mental effort are thought to affect vigilance. Mental effort is known for its vigilance declining effects, but the effects of physical effort are less clear. This study investigated whether these two forms of effort affect the EEG and subjective alertness differently. Participants

Mental and physical effort affect vigilance differently.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smit, A.S.; Eling, P.A.T.M.; Hopman, M.T.E.; Coenen, A.M.L.

2005-01-01

Both physical and mental effort are thought to affect vigilance. Mental effort is known for its vigilance declining effects, but the effects of physical effort are less clear. This study investigated whether these two forms of effort affect the EEG and subjective alertness differently. Participants

Low-effort thought promotes political conservatism.

Science.gov (United States)

Eidelman, Scott; Crandall, Christian S; Goodman, Jeffrey A; Blanchar, John C

2012-06-01

The authors test the hypothesis that low-effort thought promotes political conservatism. In Study 1, alcohol intoxication was measured among bar patrons; as blood alcohol level increased, so did political conservatism (controlling for sex, education, and political identification). In Study 2, participants under cognitive load reported more conservative attitudes than their no-load counterparts. In Study 3, time pressure increased participants' endorsement of conservative terms. In Study 4, participants considering political terms in a cursory manner endorsed conservative terms more than those asked to cogitate; an indicator of effortful thought (recognition memory) partially mediated the relationship between processing effort and conservatism. Together these data suggest that political conservatism may be a process consequence of low-effort thought; when effortful, deliberate thought is disengaged, endorsement of conservative ideology increases.

Goal striving strategies and effort mobilization: When implementation intentions reduce effort-related cardiac activity during task performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Freydefont, Laure; Gollwitzer, Peter M; Oettingen, Gabriele

2016-09-01

Two experiments investigate the influence of goal and implementation intentions on effort mobilization during task performance. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of setting goals and making plans on performance, the effects of goals and plans on effort-related cardiac activity and especially the cardiac preejection period (PEP) during goal striving have not yet been addressed. According to the Motivational Intensity Theory, participants should increase effort mobilization proportionally to task difficulty as long as success is possible and justified. Forming goals and making plans should allow for reduced effort mobilization when participants perform an easy task. However, when the task is difficult, goals and plans should differ in their effect on effort mobilization. Participants who set goals should disengage, whereas participants who made if-then plans should stay in the field showing high effort mobilization during task performance. As expected, using an easy task in Experiment 1, we observed a lower cardiac PEP in both the implementation intention and the goal intention condition than in the control condition. In Experiment 2, we varied task difficulty and demonstrated that while participants with a mere goal intention disengaged from difficult tasks, participants with an implementation intention increased effort mobilization proportionally with task difficulty. These findings demonstrate the influence of goal striving strategies (i.e., mere goals vs. if-then plans) on effort mobilization during task performance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hemmed In: Legal Mobilization in in the Los Angeles Anti-Sweatshop Movement

OpenAIRE

Cummings, Scott L

2009-01-01

The field of labor organizing -- once a site of progressive disenchantment with law -- has now become a crucial locus of law's resurgence. There is mounting evidence that legal innovation is contributing to a new dynamism within the labor movement as immigrant worker centers, community-labor coalitions, and other grassroots alliances creatively use law to mobilize low-wage workers. These efforts suggest that a reorientation is under way within the labor movement, with activists adopting a leg...

Effort, anhedonia, and function in schizophrenia: reduced effort allocation predicts amotivation and functional impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Barch, Deanna M; Treadway, Michael T; Schoen, Nathan

2014-05-01

One of the most debilitating aspects of schizophrenia is an apparent interest in or ability to exert effort for rewards. Such "negative symptoms" may prevent individuals from obtaining potentially beneficial outcomes in educational, occupational, or social domains. In animal models, dopamine abnormalities decrease willingness to work for rewards, implicating dopamine (DA) function as a candidate substrate for negative symptoms given that schizophrenia involves dysregulation of the dopamine system. We used the effort-expenditure for rewards task (EEfRT) to assess the degree to which individuals with schizophrenia were wiling to exert increased effort for either larger magnitude rewards or for rewards that were more probable. Fifty-nine individuals with schizophrenia and 39 demographically similar controls performed the EEfRT task, which involves making choices between "easy" and "hard" tasks to earn potential rewards. Individuals with schizophrenia showed less of an increase in effort allocation as either reward magnitude or probability increased. In controls, the frequency of choosing the hard task in high reward magnitude and probability conditions was negatively correlated with depression severity and anhedonia. In schizophrenia, fewer hard task choices were associated with more severe negative symptoms and worse community and work function as assessed by a caretaker. Consistent with patterns of disrupted dopamine functioning observed in animal models of schizophrenia, these results suggest that 1 mechanism contributing to impaired function and motivational drive in schizophrenia may be a reduced allocation of greater effort for higher magnitude or higher probability rewards.

Redealing the cards: How an eco-industry modifies the political economy of environmental taxes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Canton, Joan

2008-01-01

This article presents a combined economic-political model of environmental taxation setting. The model introduces a third lobby group - the lobby of an eco-industry - in addition to the traditional lobbies of polluting firms and environmentalists. Pressure groups interact to influence the environmental tax chosen by a regulator maximizing its chances of being reelected. The eco-industry lobby adds a new political contribution toward a higher environmental tax. The imperfectly competitive structure of the eco-industry also modifies the incentives of the usual lobbies. When the foreign environmental policy is constant, environmentalists can be in favor of a decrease in the local tax in order to reduce foreign pollution. We also discuss the formation of alliances between the eco-industry and one of the other lobbies and their potential impact. In general, the impact of lobbying activities on the politically optimal tax is ambiguous and depends on the relative concentration of each pressure group. (author)

Quality-oriented efforts in IPD, - a framework

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andreasen, Mogens Myrup

1998-01-01

It is generally expected that modern quality efforts like TQM and ISO9000 should deliver a sufficient framework for quality efforts in industrial companies. Our findings in Danish industry shows a fragmented picture of islands of efforts and a weak understanding of basic quality concepts between...... designers. The paper propose a framework for quality efforts, illustrated by simple metaphors....

Learning Environment and Student Effort

Science.gov (United States)

Hopland, Arnt O.; Nyhus, Ole Henning

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between satisfaction with learning environment and student effort, both in class and with homework assignments. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use data from a nationwide and compulsory survey to analyze the relationship between learning environment and student effort. The…

The value of advocacy in promoting social change: implementing the new Domestic Violence Act in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Usdin, S; Christofides, N; Malepe, L; Maker, A

2000-11-01

South Africa's first democratic government passed the Domestic Violence Act (DVA) into law in 1998 as part of local and international commitments to protecting the human rights of women. Although the Act was welcomed as groundbreaking legislation, delays in implementing it led to increasing frustration. This paper describes an advocacy campaign conducted by the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication in partnership with the National Network on Violence against Women, to ensure the effective implementation of the DVA. Lessons from the campaign stress the importance of coalition building to draw on diverse strengths, and the use of a combination of advocacy tools, including lobbying, media advocacy and social mobilisation to achieve campaign goals. Given the critical role NGOs dealing with victims/survivors of domestic violence and the justice system played in lobbying for change and drafting the new law, their exclusion from the implementation process was ironic. While many advocacy efforts focus on the development of policy and legislation, ongoing efforts are needed to ensure effective implementation, the commitment of adequate resources and monitoring to identify gaps and propose new solutions. Our experience highlights the important role of policy advocates in connecting the multiple streams at play in the policy and legislative arena.

Effort-Based Decision-Making in Schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Culbreth, Adam J; Moran, Erin K; Barch, Deanna M

2018-08-01

Motivational impairment has long been associated with schizophrenia but the underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. Recently, a small but growing literature has suggested that aberrant effort-based decision-making may be a potential contributory mechanism for motivational impairments in psychosis. Specifically, multiple reports have consistently demonstrated that individuals with schizophrenia are less willing than healthy controls to expend effort to obtain rewards. Further, this effort-based decision-making deficit has been shown to correlate with severity of negative symptoms and level of functioning, in many but not all studies. In the current review, we summarize this literature and discuss several factors that may underlie aberrant effort-based decision-making in schizophrenia.

Effort Estimation in BPMS Migration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher Drews

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Usually Business Process Management Systems (BPMS are highly integrated in the IT of organizations and are at the core of their business. Thus, migrating from one BPMS solution to another is not a common task. However, there are forces that are pushing organizations to perform this step, e.g. maintenance costs of legacy BPMS or the need for additional functionality. Before the actual migration, the risk and the effort must be evaluated. This work provides a framework for effort estimation regarding the technical aspects of BPMS migration. The framework provides questions for BPMS comparison and an effort evaluation schema. The applicability of the framework is evaluated based on a simplified BPMS migration scenario.

Interest group influence and the delegation of police authority.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sloof, R.

1997-01-01

An interest group's choice between lobbying politicians and lobbying bureaucrats, and the decision ofpoliticians whether to delegate policy authority, are investigated simultaneously. Lobbying is modeledas strategic information transmission. By assumption only bureaucrats have the expertise to

Dopamine, behavioral economics, and effort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John D Salamone

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract. There are numerous problems with the hypothesis that brain dopamine (DA systems, particularly in the nucleus accumbens, directly mediate the rewarding or primary motivational characteristics of natural stimuli such as food. Research and theory related to the functions of mesolimbic DA are undergoing a substantial conceptual restructuring, with the traditional emphasis on hedonia and primary reward yielding to other concepts and lines of inquiry. The present review is focused upon the involvement of nucleus accumbens DA in behavioral activation and effort-related processes. Viewed from the framework of behavioral economics, the effects of accumbens DA depletions and antagonism on food-reinforced behavior are highly dependent upon the work requirements of the instrumental task, and DA depleted rats are more sensitive to increases in response costs (i.e., ratio requirements. Moreover, interference with accumbens DA transmission exerts a powerful influence over effort-related choice behavior. Rats with accumbens DA depletions or antagonism reallocate their instrumental behavior away from food-reinforced tasks that have high response requirements, and instead these rats select a less-effortful type of food-seeking behavior. Nucleus accumbens DA and adenosine interact in the regulation of effort-related functions, and other brain structures (anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, ventral pallidum also are involved. Studies of the brain systems regulating effort-based processes may have implications for understanding drug abuse, as well as energy-related disorders such as psychomotor slowing, fatigue or anergia in depression and other neurological disorders.

What makes a reach movement effortful? Physical effort discounting supports common minimization principles in decision making and motor control.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pierre Morel

2017-06-01

Full Text Available When deciding between alternative options, a rational agent chooses on the basis of the desirability of each outcome, including associated costs. As different options typically result in different actions, the effort associated with each action is an essential cost parameter. How do humans discount physical effort when deciding between movements? We used an action-selection task to characterize how subjective effort depends on the parameters of arm transport movements and controlled for potential confounding factors such as delay discounting and performance. First, by repeatedly asking subjects to choose between 2 arm movements of different amplitudes or durations, performed against different levels of force, we identified parameter combinations that subjects experienced as identical in effort (isoeffort curves. Movements with a long duration were judged more effortful than short-duration movements against the same force, while movement amplitudes did not influence effort. Biomechanics of the movements also affected effort, as movements towards the body midline were preferred to movements away from it. Second, by introducing movement repetitions, we further determined that the cost function for choosing between effortful movements had a quadratic relationship with force, while choices were made on the basis of the logarithm of these costs. Our results show that effort-based action selection during reaching cannot easily be explained by metabolic costs. Instead, force-loaded reaches, a widely occurring natural behavior, imposed an effort cost for decision making similar to cost functions in motor control. Our results thereby support the idea that motor control and economic choice are governed by partly overlapping optimization principles.

"I put in effort, therefore I am passionate": Investigating the path from effort to passion in entrepreneurship

OpenAIRE

Gielnik, Michael Marcus; Spitzmuller, Matthias; Schmitt, Antje; Klemann, Katharina; Frese, Michael

2015-01-01

Most theoretical frameworks in entrepreneurship emphasize that entrepreneurial passion drives entrepreneurial effort. We hypothesize that the reverse effect is also true, and investigate changes in passion as an outcome of effort. Based on theories of self-regulation and self-perception, we hypothesize that making new venture progress and free choice are two factors that help to explain why and under which conditions entrepreneurial effort affects entrepreneurial passion. We undertook two stu...

Multidisciplinary Efforts Driving Translational Theranostics

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Tony Y.

2014-01-01

This themed issue summarizes significant efforts aimed at using “biological language” to discern between “friends” and “foes” in the context of theranostics for true clinical application. It is expected that the success of theranostics depends on multidisciplinary efforts, combined to expedite our understanding of host responses to “customized” theranostic agents and formulating individualized therapies. PMID:25285169

Effort levels of the partners in networked manufacturing

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, G. R.; Cai, Z.; Su, Y. N.; Zong, S. L.; Zhai, G. Y.; Jia, J. H.

2017-08-01

Compared with traditional manufacturing mode, could networked manufacturing improve effort levels of the partners? What factors will affect effort level of the partners? How to encourage the partners to improve their effort levels? To answer these questions, we introduce network effect coefficient to build effort level model of the partners in networked manufacturing. The results show that (1) with the increase of the network effect in networked manufacturing, the actual effort level can go beyond the ideal level of traditional manufacturing. (2) Profit allocation based on marginal contribution rate would help improve effort levels of the partners in networked manufacturing. (3) The partners in networked manufacturing who wishes to have a larger distribution ratio must make a higher effort level, and enterprises with insufficient effort should be terminated in networked manufacturing.

Measuring collections effort improves cash performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Shutts, Joe

2009-09-01

Having a satisfied work force can lead to an improved collections effort. Hiring the right people and training them ensures employee engagement. Measuring collections effort and offering incentives is key to revenue cycle success.

Visual cues and listening effort: individual variability.

Science.gov (United States)

Picou, Erin M; Ricketts, Todd A; Hornsby, Benjamin W Y

2011-10-01

To investigate the effect of visual cues on listening effort as well as whether predictive variables such as working memory capacity (WMC) and lipreading ability affect the magnitude of listening effort. Twenty participants with normal hearing were tested using a paired-associates recall task in 2 conditions (quiet and noise) and 2 presentation modalities (audio only [AO] and auditory-visual [AV]). Signal-to-noise ratios were adjusted to provide matched speech recognition across audio-only and AV noise conditions. Also measured were subjective perceptions of listening effort and 2 predictive variables: (a) lipreading ability and (b) WMC. Objective and subjective results indicated that listening effort increased in the presence of noise, but on average the addition of visual cues did not significantly affect the magnitude of listening effort. Although there was substantial individual variability, on average participants who were better lipreaders or had larger WMCs demonstrated reduced listening effort in noise in AV conditions. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that integrating auditory and visual cues requires cognitive resources in some participants. The data indicate that low lipreading ability or low WMC is associated with relatively effortful integration of auditory and visual information in noise.

26 CFR 56.4911-2 - Lobbying expenditures, direct lobbying communications, and grass roots lobbying communications.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... rebuttable presumption regarding certain paid mass media communications) and § 56.4911-5 (special, more... mass media communications about highly publicized legislation. Paragraph (d) of this section contains... the farm economy. The advertisement is not a mass media communication described in paragraph (b)(5)(ii...

Greater effort increases perceived value in an invertebrate.

Science.gov (United States)

Czaczkes, Tomer J; Brandstetter, Birgit; di Stefano, Isabella; Heinze, Jürgen

2018-05-01

Expending effort is generally considered to be undesirable. However, both humans and vertebrates will work for a reward they could also get for free. Moreover, cues associated with high-effort rewards are preferred to low-effort associated cues. Many explanations for these counterintuitive findings have been suggested, including cognitive dissonance (self-justification) or a greater contrast in state (e.g., energy or frustration level) before and after an effort-linked reward. Here, we test whether effort expenditure also increases perceived value in ants, using both classical cue-association methods and pheromone deposition, which correlates with perceived value. In 2 separate experimental setups, we show that pheromone deposition is higher toward the reward that requires more effort: 47% more pheromone deposition was performed for rewards reached via a vertical runway (high effort) compared with ones reached via a horizontal runway (low effort), and deposition rates were 28% higher on rough (high effort) versus smooth (low effort) runways. Using traditional cue-association methods, 63% of ants trained on different surface roughness, and 70% of ants trained on different runway elevations, preferred the high-effort related cues on a Y maze. Finally, pheromone deposition to feeders requiring memorization of one path bifurcation was up to 29% higher than to an identical feeder requiring no learning. Our results suggest that effort affects value perception in ants. This effect may stem from a cognitive process, which monitors the change in a generalized hedonic state before and after reward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO U.S. INDEPENDENT OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Unknown

2000-05-01

During FY00, the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) continued pursuing its mission of helping U.S. independent oil and gas producers make timely, informed technology decisions. PTTC's national organization has active grassroots programs that connect with independents through its 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs). These activities--including technology workshops, resource centers, websites, newsletters, and other outreach efforts--are guided by regional Producer Advisory Groups (PAGs). The role of the national headquarters (HQ) staff includes planning and managing the PTTC program, conducting nation-wide technology transfer activities, and implementing a comprehensive communications effort. This technical progress report summarizes PTTC's accomplishments during FY00, which lay the groundwork for further growth in the future.

Top 10 metrics for life science software good practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Artaza, Haydee; Chue Hong, Neil; Corpas, Manuel; Corpuz, Angel; Hooft, Rob; Jimenez, Rafael C; Leskošek, Brane; Olivier, Brett G; Stourac, Jan; Svobodová Vařeková, Radka; Van Parys, Thomas; Vaughan, Daniel

2016-01-01

Metrics for assessing adoption of good development practices are a useful way to ensure that software is sustainable, reusable and functional. Sustainability means that the software used today will be available - and continue to be improved and supported - in the future. We report here an initial set of metrics that measure good practices in software development. This initiative differs from previously developed efforts in being a community-driven grassroots approach where experts from different organisations propose good software practices that have reasonable potential to be adopted by the communities they represent. We not only focus our efforts on understanding and prioritising good practices, we assess their feasibility for implementation and publish them here.

BANANAS: providing child care services to a multi-ethnic community.

Science.gov (United States)

Vu, Catherine M; Schwartz, Sara L; Austin, Michael J

2011-01-01

BANANAS, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that has provided child care resource and referral services for over 35 years. BANANAS emerged as a grassroots effort initiated by a group of female volunteers who sought to build a network of women with children who needed childcare. As the organization developed, its leaders recognized and responded to additional needs, including resource and information sharing, workshops and classes, and political advocacy. Beginning as a collective, BANANAS has grown into a multifaceted service delivery and advocacy nonprofit operating with an annual budget of $12 million. This history of the agency reflects the development of a unique community-based effort, its challenges and rewards, and the multiple successes that this pioneering nonprofit has experienced.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER TO U.S. INDEPENDENT OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCERS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donald Duttlinger

1999-12-01

During FY99, the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) continued pursuing its mission of helping U.S. independent oil and gas producers make timely, informed technology decisions. PTfC's national organization has active grassroots programs that connect with independents through its 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs). These activities--including technology workshops, resource centers, websites, newsletters, and other outreach efforts--are guided by regional Producer Advisory Groups (PAGs). The role of the national headquarters (HQ) staff includes planning and managing the PTTC program, conducting nation-wide technology transfer activities, and implementing a comprehensive communications effort. This technical progress report summarizes PTTC's accomplishments during FY99, which lay the groundwork for further growth in the future.

Top 10 metrics for life science software good practices [version 1; referees: 2 approved

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haydee Artaza

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Metrics for assessing adoption of good development practices are a useful way to ensure that software is sustainable, reusable and functional. Sustainability means that the software used today will be available - and continue to be improved and supported - in the future. We report here an initial set of metrics that measure good practices in software development. This initiative differs from previously developed efforts in being a community-driven grassroots approach where experts from different organisations propose good software practices that have reasonable potential to be adopted by the communities they represent. We not only focus our efforts on understanding and prioritising good practices, we assess their feasibility for implementation and publish them here.

Listening Effort With Cochlear Implant Simulations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pals, Carina; Sarampalis, Anastasios; Başkent, Deniz

2013-01-01

Purpose: Fitting a cochlear implant (CI) for optimal speech perception does not necessarily optimize listening effort. This study aimed to show that listening effort may change between CI processing conditions for which speech intelligibility remains constant. Method: Nineteen normal-hearing

Tobacco Industry Political Power and Influence in Florida From 1979 to 1999

OpenAIRE

Givel, Michael S. Ph.D.; Glantz, Stanton A. Ph.D.

1999-01-01

The tobacco industry is a major political and legal force in Florida through campaign contributions, public relations efforts, lobbying and litigation, which at least from the late 1970s, has had a centralized political organization in Florida that defends and promotes its political and economic interests at the local and state levels of government. Although the industry has operated in the open in some political campaigns, it has also operated quietly behind the scenes, often through front g...

COCOM (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Exports), Technology Transfer and Its Impact on National Security

Science.gov (United States)

1989-06-01

ORGANZA - 0% If applicable) 8( ADDRESS (C t Stare a-d ZIP CooI 10 SOUPCE O FKNDNG NMBERS PROGRAM PROAECT TASK . ORK )NIT ELEMENT NO NO NO .<ESSiON NO...investigations which ended up in a total restructuring of their export process. Both Norway and Japan started a heavy lobbying process as well, in an effort...respective controls. Norway permanently suspended all sales to the Soviet Union and initiated a total restructuring of their export process. Japan

Grassroots Supercomputing

CERN Multimedia

Buchanan, Mark

2005-01-01

What started out as a way for SETI to plow through its piles or radio-signal data from deep space has turned into a powerful research tool as computer users acrosse the globe donate their screen-saver time to projects as diverse as climate-change prediction, gravitational-wave searches, and protein folding (4 pages)

Interests, Effort, Achievement and Vocational Preference.

Science.gov (United States)

Sjoberg, L.

1984-01-01

Relationships between interest in natural sciences and technology and perceived ability, success, and invested effort were studied in Swedish secondary school students. Interests were accounted for by logical orientation and practical value. Interests and grades were strongly correlated, but correlations between interests and effort and vocational…

Has Malaysia's antidrug effort been effective?

Science.gov (United States)

Scorzelli, J F

1992-01-01

It is a common belief that a massive effort in law enforcement, preventive education and rehabilitation will result in the elimination of a country's drug problem. Based on this premise. Malaysia in 1983 implemented such a multifaceted anti-drug strategy, and the results of a 1987 study by the author suggested that Malaysia's effort had begun to contribute to a steady decrease in the number of identified drug abusers. Although the number of drug-addicted individuals declined, the country's recidivism rates were still high. Because of this high relapse rate, Malaysia expanded their rehabilitation effort and developed a community transition program. In order to determine the impact of these changes on the country's battle against drug abuse, a follow-up study was conducted in 1990. The results of this study did not clearly demonstrate that the Malaysian effort had been successful in eliminating the problem of drug abuse, and raised some questions concerning the effectiveness of the country's drug treatment programs.

Effort Estimation in BPMS Migration

OpenAIRE

Drews, Christopher; Lantow, Birger

2018-01-01

Usually Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) are highly integrated in the IT of organizations and are at the core of their business. Thus, migrating from one BPMS solution to another is not a common task. However, there are forces that are pushing organizations to perform this step, e.g. maintenance costs of legacy BPMS or the need for additional functionality. Before the actual migration, the risk and the effort must be evaluated. This work provides a framework for effort estimation re...

ASME Code Efforts Supporting HTGRs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D.K. Morton

2012-09-01

In 1999, an international collaborative initiative for the development of advanced (Generation IV) reactors was started. The idea behind this effort was to bring nuclear energy closer to the needs of sustainability, to increase proliferation resistance, and to support concepts able to produce energy (both electricity and process heat) at competitive costs. The U.S. Department of Energy has supported this effort by pursuing the development of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, a high temperature gas-cooled reactor. This support has included research and development of pertinent data, initial regulatory discussions, and engineering support of various codes and standards development. This report discusses the various applicable American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) codes and standards that are being developed to support these high temperature gascooled reactors during construction and operation. ASME is aggressively pursuing these codes and standards to support an international effort to build the next generation of advanced reactors so that all can benefit.

ASME Code Efforts Supporting HTGRs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

D.K. Morton

2011-09-01

In 1999, an international collaborative initiative for the development of advanced (Generation IV) reactors was started. The idea behind this effort was to bring nuclear energy closer to the needs of sustainability, to increase proliferation resistance, and to support concepts able to produce energy (both electricity and process heat) at competitive costs. The U.S. Department of Energy has supported this effort by pursuing the development of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, a high temperature gas-cooled reactor. This support has included research and development of pertinent data, initial regulatory discussions, and engineering support of various codes and standards development. This report discusses the various applicable American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) codes and standards that are being developed to support these high temperature gascooled reactors during construction and operation. ASME is aggressively pursuing these codes and standards to support an international effort to build the next generation of advanced reactors so that all can benefit.

The political economy of emissions trading; L'economie politique des marches de permis d'emissions negociables

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hanoteau, J

2004-06-15

This thesis is a positive analysis of emissions trading systems' implementation. We explain why allowances are generally granted for free even though normative economic analysis recommends their sale. We show empirically that free tradable permits, source of windfall profit, motivate rent seeking behaviours. The study focuses on the US market for SO{sub 2} emissions allowances. The initial allocation rule resulted from parliamentary discussions that looked like a zero sum game. We formalize it as an endogenous sharing rule, function of lobbying effort, and we test it using political (money) contributions.We analyse theoretically the behaviour of an influenced regulator that has chosen to organize a market for permits and that must still decide on two policy variables: the whole quantity of permits and the way to allocate them initially. We formalize this decisions making process with the common agency model of politics.We show that the choice of an initial allocation rule is not neutral in presence of political market failures (lobbying). The decision to sell the permits or to grant them for free modifies the shareholders' incentive, in a polluting industry, to pressure for or against the reduction of legal emissions.Then, we analyse the public arbitration between the two policy variables when several industrial lobbies play a partially cooperative game for the free permits. The regulator chooses in priority to grant the rights for free rather than to manipulate their quantity, and this constitutes an efficient answer to the political influence. (author)

The political economy of emissions trading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanoteau, J.

2004-06-01

This thesis is a positive analysis of emissions trading systems' implementation. We explain why allowances are generally granted for free even though normative economic analysis recommends their sale. We show empirically that free tradable permits, source of windfall profit, motivate rent seeking behaviours. The study focuses on the US market for SO 2 emissions allowances. The initial allocation rule resulted from parliamentary discussions that looked like a zero sum game. We formalize it as an endogenous sharing rule, function of lobbying effort, and we test it using political (money) contributions.We analyse theoretically the behaviour of an influenced regulator that has chosen to organize a market for permits and that must still decide on two policy variables: the whole quantity of permits and the way to allocate them initially. We formalize this decisions making process with the common agency model of politics.We show that the choice of an initial allocation rule is not neutral in presence of political market failures (lobbying). The decision to sell the permits or to grant them for free modifies the shareholders' incentive, in a polluting industry, to pressure for or against the reduction of legal emissions.Then, we analyse the public arbitration between the two policy variables when several industrial lobbies play a partially cooperative game for the free permits. The regulator chooses in priority to grant the rights for free rather than to manipulate their quantity, and this constitutes an efficient answer to the political influence. (author)

The political economy of emissions trading; L'economie politique des marches de permis d'emissions negociables

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hanoteau, J

2004-06-15

This thesis is a positive analysis of emissions trading systems' implementation. We explain why allowances are generally granted for free even though normative economic analysis recommends their sale. We show empirically that free tradable permits, source of windfall profit, motivate rent seeking behaviours. The study focuses on the US market for SO{sub 2} emissions allowances. The initial allocation rule resulted from parliamentary discussions that looked like a zero sum game. We formalize it as an endogenous sharing rule, function of lobbying effort, and we test it using political (money) contributions.We analyse theoretically the behaviour of an influenced regulator that has chosen to organize a market for permits and that must still decide on two policy variables: the whole quantity of permits and the way to allocate them initially. We formalize this decisions making process with the common agency model of politics.We show that the choice of an initial allocation rule is not neutral in presence of political market failures (lobbying). The decision to sell the permits or to grant them for free modifies the shareholders' incentive, in a polluting industry, to pressure for or against the reduction of legal emissions.Then, we analyse the public arbitration between the two policy variables when several industrial lobbies play a partially cooperative game for the free permits. The regulator chooses in priority to grant the rights for free rather than to manipulate their quantity, and this constitutes an efficient answer to the political influence. (author)

Pocket money and child effort at school

OpenAIRE

François-Charles Wolff; Christine Barnet-Verzat

2008-01-01

In this paper, we study the relationship between the provision of parental pocket and the level of effort undertaken by the child at school. Under altruism, an increased amount of parental transfer should reduce the child's effort. Our empirical analysis is based on a French data set including about 1,400 parent-child pairs. We find that children do not undertake less effort when their parents are more generous.

You want to put what? Where?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Larimer, P.L.; Malinowski, G.E.; Jensen, J.N.; Gorman, P.J.

1993-01-01

On April 6, 1992, several employees of Northern States Power's (NSP's) Prairie Island nuclear plant received a summons from fellow employees to meet at the Minnesota State Capitol to lobby against an amendment to a popular environmental bill. This amendment would have removed the decision to approve Prairie Island's proposed independent spent-fuel storage installation (ISFSI) from the jurisdiction of the public utilities commission (PUC) and shifted it to the state legislature. The employees who appeared that morning represented various areas of the plant: training, technical, management, operations, union, and nonunion-all volunteers with no prior lobbying experience who spent the remainder of that day speaking on behalf of the project. This effort continued through the week; ultimately, the amendment was debated on the Senate floor and failed, primarily due to the presence of Prairie Island employees. This became the first formal act performed by what would become the Prairie Island Community Involvement Steering Group (CISG). Prior to this, and against well-orchestrated and sometimes vehement public opposition, many employees had spoken as private citizens at public hearings held by various government bodies and an administrative law judge tasked with evaluating the need for and the legality of the proposed facility. The effort of the CISG to keep the public informed and win its approval for the project is outlined in this paper

Stretch-sensitive paresis and effort perception in hemiparesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Vinti, Maria; Bayle, Nicolas; Hutin, Emilie; Burke, David; Gracies, Jean-Michel

2015-08-01

In spastic paresis, stretch applied to the antagonist increases its inappropriate recruitment during agonist command (spastic co-contraction). It is unknown whether antagonist stretch: (1) also affects agonist recruitment; (2) alters effort perception. We quantified voluntary activation of ankle dorsiflexors, effort perception, and plantar flexor co-contraction during graded dorsiflexion efforts at two gastrocnemius lengths. Eighteen healthy (age 41 ± 13) and 18 hemiparetic (age 54 ± 12) subjects performed light, medium and maximal isometric dorsiflexion efforts with the knee flexed or extended. We determined dorsiflexor torque, Root Mean Square EMG and Agonist Recruitment/Co-contraction Indices (ARI/CCI) from the 500 ms peak voluntary agonist recruitment in a 5-s maximal isometric effort in tibialis anterior, soleus and medial gastrocnemius. Subjects retrospectively reported effort perception on a 10-point visual analog scale. During gastrocnemius stretch in hemiparetic subjects, we observed: (1) a 25 ± 7 % reduction of tibialis anterior voluntary activation (maximum reduction 98 %; knee extended vs knee flexed; p = 0.007, ANOVA); (2) an increase in dorsiflexion effort perception (p = 0.03, ANCOVA). Such changes did not occur in healthy subjects. Effort perception depended on tibialis anterior recruitment only (βARI(TA) = 0.61, p hemiparesis, voluntary ability to recruit agonist motoneurones is impaired--sometimes abolished--by antagonist stretch, a phenomenon defined here as stretch-sensitive paresis. In addition, spastic co-contraction increases effort perception, an additional incentive to evaluate and treat this phenomenon.

Effort-Based Career Opportunities and Working Time

OpenAIRE

Bratti, M.; Staffolani, S.

2005-01-01

The authors evaluate the economic effects of the hypothesis of effort-based career opportunities, described as a situation in which a firm creates incentives for employees to work longer hours than bargained (or desired), by making career prospects depend on relative working hours. Firms' personnel management policies may tend to increase working time (or workers' effort) in order to maximize profits. Effort-based career opportunities raise working time, production and output per worker, and ...

Trust and Reciprocity: Are Effort and Money Equivalent?

Science.gov (United States)

Vilares, Iris; Dam, Gregory; Kording, Konrad

2011-01-01

Trust and reciprocity facilitate cooperation and are relevant to virtually all human interactions. They are typically studied using trust games: one subject gives (entrusts) money to another subject, which may return some of the proceeds (reciprocate). Currently, however, it is unclear whether trust and reciprocity in monetary transactions are similar in other settings, such as physical effort. Trust and reciprocity of physical effort are important as many everyday decisions imply an exchange of physical effort, and such exchange is central to labor relations. Here we studied a trust game based on physical effort and compared the results with those of a computationally equivalent monetary trust game. We found no significant difference between effort and money conditions in both the amount trusted and the quantity reciprocated. Moreover, there is a high positive correlation in subjects' behavior across conditions. This suggests that trust and reciprocity may be character traits: subjects that are trustful/trustworthy in monetary settings behave similarly during exchanges of physical effort. Our results validate the use of trust games to study exchanges in physical effort and to characterize inter-subject differences in trust and reciprocity, and also suggest a new behavioral paradigm to study these differences. PMID:21364931

Perceived effort for motor control and decision-making.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ignasi Cos

2017-08-01

Full Text Available How effort is internally quantified and how it influences both movement generation and decisions between potential movements are 2 difficult questions to answer. Physical costs are known to influence motor control and decision-making, yet we lack a general, principled characterization of how the perception of effort operates across tasks and conditions. Morel and colleagues introduce an insightful approach to that end, assessing effort indifference points and presenting a quadratic law between perceived effort and force production.

Strategies employed by inner-city activists to reduce alcohol-related problems and advance social justice.

Science.gov (United States)

Drabble, Laurie; Herd, Denise

2014-01-01

This study explored strategies employed by activists engaged in efforts to change policies and laws related to selling and promoting alcoholic beverages based on in-depth interviews with 184 social activists in seven U.S. major cities. Nine strategies aimed at improving local conditions and influencing policy were described by activists across regional contexts. Grassroots mobilization was central to all other strategies, which included the creation or enforcement of laws, meeting with elected officials, media advocacy, working with police/law enforcement, education and training, direct action, changing community norms, and negotiating with store owners.

Phase transitions in least-effort communications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prokopenko, Mikhail; Ay, Nihat; Obst, Oliver; Polani, Daniel

2010-01-01

We critically examine a model that attempts to explain the emergence of power laws (e.g., Zipf's law) in human language. The model is based on the principle of least effort in communications—specifically, the overall effort is balanced between the speaker effort and listener effort, with some trade-off. It has been shown that an information-theoretic interpretation of this principle is sufficiently rich to explain the emergence of Zipf's law in the vicinity of the transition between referentially useless systems (one signal for all referable objects) and indexical reference systems (one signal per object). The phase transition is defined in the space of communication accuracy (information content) expressed in terms of the trade-off parameter. Our study explicitly solves the continuous optimization problem, subsuming a recent, more specific result obtained within a discrete space. The obtained results contrast Zipf's law found by heuristic search (that attained only local minima) in the vicinity of the transition between referentially useless systems and indexical reference systems, with an inverse-factorial (sub-logarithmic) law found at the transition that corresponds to global minima. The inverse-factorial law is observed to be the most representative frequency distribution among optimal solutions

Men's Work Efforts and the Transition to Fatherhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Astone, Nan Marie; Dariotis, Jacinda; Sonenstein, Freya; Pleck, Joseph H; Hynes, Kathryn

2010-03-01

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the transition at younger ages. The data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The transition to fatherhood was associated with an increase in work effort among young unmarried men, but not for married men. Among married men who were on-time fathers, work effort decreased. Among childless men, the marriage transition was associated with increased work effort.

Dissociating variability and effort as determinants of coordination.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ian O'Sullivan

2009-04-01

Full Text Available When coordinating movements, the nervous system often has to decide how to distribute work across a number of redundant effectors. Here, we show that humans solve this problem by trying to minimize both the variability of motor output and the effort involved. In previous studies that investigated the temporal shape of movements, these two selective pressures, despite having very different theoretical implications, could not be distinguished; because noise in the motor system increases with the motor commands, minimization of effort or variability leads to very similar predictions. When multiple effectors with different noise and effort characteristics have to be combined, however, these two cost terms can be dissociated. Here, we measure the importance of variability and effort in coordination by studying how humans share force production between two fingers. To capture variability, we identified the coefficient of variation of the index and little fingers. For effort, we used the sum of squared forces and the sum of squared forces normalized by the maximum strength of each effector. These terms were then used to predict the optimal force distribution for a task in which participants had to produce a target total force of 4-16 N, by pressing onto two isometric transducers using different combinations of fingers. By comparing the predicted distribution across fingers to the actual distribution chosen by participants, we were able to estimate the relative importance of variability and effort of 1:7, with the unnormalized effort being most important. Our results indicate that the nervous system uses multi-effector redundancy to minimize both the variability of the produced output and effort, although effort costs clearly outweighed variability costs.

Not all effort is equal: the role of the anterior cingulate cortex in different forms of effort-reward decisions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victoria eHolec

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The rat anterior cingulate cortex (ACC mediates effort-based decision making when the task requires the physical effort of climbing a ramp. Normal rats will readily climb a barrier leading to high reward whereas rats with ACC lesions will opt instead for an easily obtained small reward. The present study explored whether the role of ACC in cost-benefit decisions extends beyond climbing by testing its role in ramp climbing as well as two novel cost-benefit decision tasks, one involving the physical effort of lifting weights and the other the emotional cost of overcoming fear (i.e., courage. As expected, rats with extensive ACC lesions tested on a ramp-climbing task were less likely to choose a high-reward/high-effort arm than sham controls. However, during the first few trials, lesioned rats were as likely as controls to initially turn into the high-reward arm but far less likely to actually climb the barrier, suggesting that the role of the ACC is not in deciding which course of action to pursue, but rather in maintaining a course of action in the face of countervailing forces. In the effort-reward decision task involving weight lifting, some lesion animals behaved like controls while others avoided the high reward arm. However, the results were not statistically significant and a follow-up study using incremental increasing effort failed to show any difference between lesion and control groups. The results suggest that the ACC is not needed for effort-reward decisions involving weight lifting but may affect motor abilities. Finally, a courage task explored the willingness of rats to overcome the fear of crossing an open, exposed arm to obtain a high reward. Both sham and ACC-lesioned animals exhibited equal tendencies to enter the open arm. However, whereas sham animals gradually improved on the task, ACC-lesioned rats did not. Taken together, the results suggest that the role of the ACC in effort-reward decisions may be limited to certain

Programming effort analysis of the ELLPACK language

Science.gov (United States)

Rice, J. R.

1978-01-01

ELLPACK is a problem statement language and system for elliptic partial differential equations which is implemented by a FORTRAN preprocessor. ELLPACK's principal purpose is as a tool for the performance evaluation of software. However, it is used here as an example with which to study the programming effort required for problem solving. It is obvious that problem statement languages can reduce programming effort tremendously; the goal is to quantify this somewhat. This is done by analyzing the lengths and effort (as measured by Halstead's software science technique) of various approaches to solving these problems.

Motivation and effort in individuals with social anhedonia.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarthy, Julie M; Treadway, Michael T; Blanchard, Jack J

2015-06-01

It has been proposed that anhedonia may, in part, reflect difficulties in reward processing and effortful decision making. The current study aimed to replicate previous findings of effortful decision making deficits associated with elevated anhedonia and expand upon these findings by investigating whether these decision making deficits are specific to elevated social anhedonia or are also associated with elevated positive schizotypy characteristics. The current study compared controls (n=40) to individuals elevated on social anhedonia (n=30), and individuals elevated on perceptual aberration/magical ideation (n=30) on the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT). Across groups, participants chose a higher proportion of hard tasks with increasing probability of reward and reward magnitude, demonstrating sensitivity to probability and reward values. Contrary to our expectations, when the probability of reward was most uncertain (50% probability), at low and medium reward values, the social anhedonia group demonstrated more effortful decision making than either individuals high in positive schizotypy or controls. The positive schizotypy group only differed from controls (making less effortful choices than controls) when reward probability was lowest (12%) and the magnitude of reward was the smallest. Our results suggest that social anhedonia is related to intact motivation and effort for monetary rewards, but that individuals with this characteristic display a unique and perhaps inefficient pattern of effort allocation when the probability of reward is most uncertain. Future research is needed to better understand effortful decision making and the processing of reward across a range of individual difference characteristics. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Time preferences, study effort, and academic performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Non, J.A.; Tempelaar, D.T.

2014-01-01

We analyze the relation between time preferences, study effort, and academic performance among first-year Business and Economics students. Time preferences are measured by stated preferences for an immediate payment over larger delayed payments. Data on study efforts are derived from an electronic

Effort problem of chemical pipelines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okrajni, J.; Ciesla, M.; Mutwil, K. [Silesian Technical University, Katowice (Poland)

1998-12-31

The problem of the technical state assessment of the chemical pipelines working under mechanical and thermal loading has been shown in the paper. The pipelines effort after the long time operating period has been analysed. Material geometrical and loading conditions of the crack initiation and crack growth process in the chosen object has been discussed. Areas of the maximal effort have been determined. The material structure charges after the long time operating period have been described. Mechanisms of the crack initiation and crack growth in the pipeline elements have been analysed and mutual relations between the chemical and mechanical influences have been shown. (orig.) 16 refs.

Autism Society

Science.gov (United States)

... Español Improving the lives of all affected by autism. The Autism Society is the nation's leading grassroots ... more Improving the lives of all affected by autism. The Autism Society is the nation's leading grassroots ...

15 CFR 930.114 - Secretarial mediation efforts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Secretarial mediation efforts. 930.114... MANAGEMENT FEDERAL CONSISTENCY WITH APPROVED COASTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS Secretarial Mediation § 930.114 Secretarial mediation efforts. (a) Following the close of the hearing, the hearing officer shall transmit the...

Effort and Selection Effects of Incentive Contracts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bouwens, J.F.M.G.; van Lent, L.A.G.M.

2003-01-01

We show that the improved effort of employees associated with incentive contracts depends on the properties of the performance measures used in the contract.We also find that the power of incentives in the contract is only indirectly related to any improved employee effort.High powered incentive

Stochastic evolutionary dynamics in minimum-effort coordination games

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Kun; Cong, Rui; Wang, Long

2016-08-01

The minimum-effort coordination game draws recently more attention for the fact that human behavior in this social dilemma is often inconsistent with the predictions of classical game theory. Here, we combine evolutionary game theory and coalescence theory to investigate this game in finite populations. Both analytic results and individual-based simulations show that effort costs play a key role in the evolution of contribution levels, which is in good agreement with those observed experimentally. Besides well-mixed populations, set structured populations have also been taken into consideration. Therein we find that large number of sets and moderate migration rate greatly promote effort levels, especially for high effort costs.

Brazilian pharmaceutical diplomacy: social democratic principles versus soft power interests.

Science.gov (United States)

Flynn, Matthew

2013-01-01

Current debates concerning the rise of health diplomacy are polarized between competing international relations theories of realism, based on power politics, and constructivist approaches, which emphasize the norms, values, and identities shaping foreign policies. A case study of Brazil's health diplomacy over the past 10 years, focusing on issues related to pharmaceuticals, seeks to provide data to assess these theories. The country's intellectual property disputes, multilateral lobbying efforts, and foreign assistance programs are contrasted with those of the United States, Mexico, and other countries. Instead of viewing Brazilian efforts as a form of soft power, the evidence suggests that the origins of Brazil's involvement and continued efforts in this arena stem more from values based on human rights and social democratic principles. A close examination of domestic political considerations leads to a more nuanced understanding of the drivers behind a country's health diplomacy.

Heuristics Made Easy: An Effort-Reduction Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, Anuj K.; Oppenheimer, Daniel M.

2008-01-01

In this article, the authors propose a new framework for understanding and studying heuristics. The authors posit that heuristics primarily serve the purpose of reducing the effort associated with a task. As such, the authors propose that heuristics can be classified according to a small set of effort-reduction principles. The authors use this…

The Effect of Age on Listening Effort

Science.gov (United States)

Degeest, Sofie; Keppler, Hannah; Corthals, Paul

2015-01-01

Purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of age on listening effort. Method: A dual-task paradigm was used to evaluate listening effort in different conditions of background noise. Sixty adults ranging in age from 20 to 77 years were included. A primary speech-recognition task and a secondary memory task were performed…

Global Pediatric Oncology: Lessons From Partnerships Between High-Income Countries and Low- to Mid-Income Countries

Science.gov (United States)

Antillon, Federico; Pedrosa, Francisco; Pui, Ching-Hon

2016-01-01

Partnerships between medical institutions in high-income countries (HICs) and low- to mid-income countries (LMICs) have succeeded in initiating and expanding pediatric cancer control efforts. The long-term goal is consistently a sustainable national pediatric cancer program. Here, we review the elements required for successful implementation, development, and long-term sustainability of pediatric cancer programs in LMICs that first arise as partnerships with institutions in HICs. Although plans must be adapted to each country's resources, certain components are unfailingly necessary. First, an essential step is provision of treatment regardless of ability to pay. Second, financial support for program development and long-term sustainability must be sought from sources both international and local, public and private. A local leader, typically a well-trained pediatric oncologist who devotes full-time effort to the project, should direct medical care and collaborate with hospital, governmental, and community leadership and international agencies. Third, nurses must be trained in pediatric cancer care and allowed to practice this specialty full-time. It is also essential to develop a grassroots organization, such as a foundation, dedicated solely to pediatric oncology. Its members must be trained and educated to provide pediatric cancer advocacy, fundraising, and (in concert with government) program sustainability. Finally, a project mentor in the HIC is crucial and should explore the possibility of collaborative research in the LMIC, which may offer significant opportunities. Relationships between the partnership's leaders and influential individuals in the community, hospital, grassroots foundation, and government will lay the foundation for productive collaboration and a sustainable pediatric oncology program. PMID:26578620

Toward a Rational and Mechanistic Account of Mental Effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Shenhav, Amitai; Musslick, Sebastian; Lieder, Falk; Kool, Wouter; Griffiths, Thomas L; Cohen, Jonathan D; Botvinick, Matthew M

2017-07-25

In spite of its familiar phenomenology, the mechanistic basis for mental effort remains poorly understood. Although most researchers agree that mental effort is aversive and stems from limitations in our capacity to exercise cognitive control, it is unclear what gives rise to those limitations and why they result in an experience of control as costly. The presence of these control costs also raises further questions regarding how best to allocate mental effort to minimize those costs and maximize the attendant benefits. This review explores recent advances in computational modeling and empirical research aimed at addressing these questions at the level of psychological process and neural mechanism, examining both the limitations to mental effort exertion and how we manage those limited cognitive resources. We conclude by identifying remaining challenges for theoretical accounts of mental effort as well as possible applications of the available findings to understanding the causes of and potential solutions for apparent failures to exert the mental effort required of us.

Commercial Video Games As Therapy: A New Research Agenda to Unlock the Potential of a Global Pastime.

Science.gov (United States)

Colder Carras, Michelle; Van Rooij, Antonius J; Spruijt-Metz, Donna; Kvedar, Joseph; Griffiths, Mark D; Carabas, Yorghos; Labrique, Alain

2017-01-01

Emerging research suggests that commercial, off-the-shelf video games have potential applications in preventive and therapeutic medicine. Despite these promising findings, systematic efforts to characterize and better understand this potential have not been undertaken. Serious academic study of the therapeutic potential of commercial video games faces several challenges, including a lack of standard terminology, rapidly changing technology, societal attitudes toward video games, and understanding and accounting for complex interactions between individual, social, and cultural health determinants. As a vehicle to launch a new interdisciplinary research agenda, the present paper provides background information on the use of commercial video games for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental and other health conditions, and discusses ongoing grassroots efforts by online communities to use video games for healing and recovery.

Commercial Video Games As Therapy: A New Research Agenda to Unlock the Potential of a Global Pastime

Science.gov (United States)

Colder Carras, Michelle; Van Rooij, Antonius J.; Spruijt-Metz, Donna; Kvedar, Joseph; Griffiths, Mark D.; Carabas, Yorghos; Labrique, Alain

2018-01-01

Emerging research suggests that commercial, off-the-shelf video games have potential applications in preventive and therapeutic medicine. Despite these promising findings, systematic efforts to characterize and better understand this potential have not been undertaken. Serious academic study of the therapeutic potential of commercial video games faces several challenges, including a lack of standard terminology, rapidly changing technology, societal attitudes toward video games, and understanding and accounting for complex interactions between individual, social, and cultural health determinants. As a vehicle to launch a new interdisciplinary research agenda, the present paper provides background information on the use of commercial video games for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental and other health conditions, and discusses ongoing grassroots efforts by online communities to use video games for healing and recovery. PMID:29403398

Commercial Video Games As Therapy: A New Research Agenda to Unlock the Potential of a Global Pastime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michelle Colder Carras

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Emerging research suggests that commercial, off-the-shelf video games have potential applications in preventive and therapeutic medicine. Despite these promising findings, systematic efforts to characterize and better understand this potential have not been undertaken. Serious academic study of the therapeutic potential of commercial video games faces several challenges, including a lack of standard terminology, rapidly changing technology, societal attitudes toward video games, and understanding and accounting for complex interactions between individual, social, and cultural health determinants. As a vehicle to launch a new interdisciplinary research agenda, the present paper provides background information on the use of commercial video games for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of mental and other health conditions, and discusses ongoing grassroots efforts by online communities to use video games for healing and recovery.

The Role of Cognitive Effort in Framing Effects

OpenAIRE

Krzysztof Przybyszewski; Dorota Rutkowska

2013-01-01

Framing effects are a common bias in people making risky decisions. The account for this bias is found in the loss aversion derived from Prospect Theory. Most often in the decision making literature this is the effortful processes that are claimed to reduce framing effects in risky choice tasks i.e. investing of mental effort should de-bias the decision makers. However, in goal framing studies, effortful mental processes may produce those effects. In our experiment participants were primed wi...

Dopamine does double duty in motivating cognitive effort

Science.gov (United States)

Westbrook, Andrew; Braver, Todd S.

2015-01-01

Cognitive control is subjectively costly, suggesting that engagement is modulated in relationship to incentive state. Dopamine appears to play key roles. In particular, dopamine may mediate cognitive effort by two broad classes of functions: 1) modulating the functional parameters of working memory circuits subserving effortful cognition, and 2) mediating value-learning and decision-making about effortful cognitive action. Here we tie together these two lines of research, proposing how dopamine serves “double duty”, translating incentive information into cognitive motivation. PMID:26889810

Cognitive Load and Listening Effort: Concepts and Age-Related Considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemke, Ulrike; Besser, Jana

2016-01-01

Listening effort has been recognized as an important dimension of everyday listening, especially with regard to the comprehension of spoken language. At constant levels of comprehension performance, the level of effort exerted and perceived during listening can differ considerably across listeners and situations. In this article, listening effort is used as an umbrella term for two different types of effort that can arise during listening. One of these types is processing effort, which is used to denote the utilization of "extra" mental processing resources in listening conditions that are adverse for an individual. A conceptual description is introduced how processing effort could be defined in terms of situational influences, the listener's auditory and cognitive resources, and the listener's personal state. Also, the proposed relationship between processing effort and subjectively perceived listening effort is discussed. Notably, previous research has shown that the availability of mental resources, as well as the ability to use them efficiently, changes over the course of adult aging. These common age-related changes in cognitive abilities and their neurocognitive organization are discussed in the context of the presented concept, especially regarding situations in which listening effort may be increased for older people.

American nuclear physicists in campaign. The media coverage of the nuclear risk during the immediate post-war years in the USA (1945-1946)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinault, Michel

2005-01-01

In the aftermath of Hiroshima, American nuclear scientists won access to the mass media. Conscious that science had become part of the Cold War, they lobbied for a better-informed public and a peace policy for the US. They demanded, among other, the establishment of permanent international scientific organisations and a permanent representation for the scientific community near the head of government. Initially successful, the influence of their movement decreased, efforts at mobilising public opinion proved ineffective and negotiations at the UN's Atomic Energy Commission reached an impasse

Bodily Effort Enhances Learning and Metacognition: Investigating the Relation Between Physical Effort and Cognition Using Dual-Process Models of Embodiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Skulmowski, Alexander; Rey, Günter Daniel

2017-01-01

Recent embodiment research revealed that cognitive processes can be influenced by bodily cues. Some of these cues were found to elicit disparate effects on cognition. For instance, weight sensations can inhibit problem-solving performance, but were shown to increase judgments regarding recall probability (judgments of learning; JOLs) in memory tasks. We investigated the effects of physical effort on learning and metacognition by conducting two studies in which we varied whether a backpack was worn or not while 20 nouns were to be learned. Participants entered a JOL for each word and completed a recall test. Experiment 1 ( N = 18) revealed that exerting physical effort by wearing a backpack led to higher JOLs for easy nouns, without a notable effect on difficult nouns. Participants who wore a backpack reached higher recall scores. Therefore, physical effort may act as a form of desirable difficulty during learning. In Experiment 2 ( N = 30), the influence of physical effort on JOL s and learning disappeared when more difficult nouns were to be learned, implying that a high cognitive load may diminish bodily effects. These findings suggest that physical effort mainly influences superficial modes of thought and raise doubts concerning the explanatory power of metaphor-centered accounts of embodiment for higher-level cognition.

Pandemic Influenza: Domestic Preparedness Efforts

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Lister, Sarah A

2005-01-01

.... Though influenza pandemics occur with some regularity, and the United States has been involved in specific planning efforts since the early 1990s, the H5N1 situation has created a sense of urgency...

Weathering a political storm. A contextual perspective on a psychological research controversy.

Science.gov (United States)

Garrison, Ellen Greenberg; Kobor, Patricia Clem

2002-03-01

In the spring of 1999, a storm of controversy arose at the local, state, and national levels surrounding an article on the effects of child sexual abuse published in 1998 in Psychological Bulletin. The article was vehemently denounced by various media outlets, conservative grassroots organizations, members of the general public, state legislatures, and ultimately by the United States Congress. The authors chronicle these unprecedented events and related challenges faced by the American Psychological Association. The authors also describe the Association's efforts to resolve the crisis, while staunchly upholding academic freedom and scientific integrity, and review the lessons learned for the field of psychology.

Job Satisfaction, Effort, and Performance: A Reasoned Action Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Icek Ajzen

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In this article the author takes issue with the recurrent reliance on job satisfaction to explain job-related effort and performance.  The disappointing findings in this tradition are explained by lack of compatibility between job satisfaction–-a very broad attitude–-and the more specific effort and performance criteria.  Moreover, attempts to apply the expectancy-value model of attitude to explore the determinants of effort and performance suffer from reliance on unrepresentative sets of beliefs about the likely consequences of these behaviors.  The theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991, 2012, with its emphasis on the proximal antecedents of job effort and performance, is offered as an alternative.  According to the theory, intentions to exert effort and to attain a certain performance level are determined by attitudes, subjective norms, and perceptions of control in relation to these behaviors; and these variables, in turn, are a function of readily accessible beliefs about the likely outcomes of effort and performance, about the normative expectations of important others, and about factors that facilitate or hinder effective performance.

Targeted Technology Transfer to US Independents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Donald F. Duttlinger; E. Lance Cole

2006-09-29

The Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) was established by domestic crude oil and natural gas producers in 1994 as a national not-for-profit organization to address the increasingly urgent need to improve the technology-transfer process in the U.S. upstream petroleum industry. Coordinated from a Headquarters (HQ) office in Houston, PTTC maintains an active grassroots program executed by 10 Regional Lead Organizations (RLOs) and two satellite offices (Figure 1). Regional Directors interact with domestic oil and gas producers through technology workshops, resource centers, websites, newsletters, technical publications and cooperative outreach efforts. HQ facilitates inter-regional technology transfer and implements a comprehensive communications program. Active volunteers on the National Board and in Producer Advisory Groups (PAGs) in each of the 10 regions focus effort in areas that will create the most impact for domestic producers. Focused effort by dedicated individuals across the country has enabled PTTC to achieve the milestones outlined in Appendix A.

Best-effort Support for a Virtual Seminar Room

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sharp, Robin; Todirica, Edward Alexandru

2002-01-01

This paper describes the RTMM Virtual Seminar Room, an interactive distributed multimedia application based on a platform with a simple middleware architecture, using best effort scheduling and a best effort network service. Emphasis has been placed on achieving low latency in all parts...

Direct-to-consumer marketing of psychological treatments for anxiety disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallo, Kaitlin P; Comer, Jonathan S; Barlow, David H

2013-12-01

Progress disseminating and implementing evidence-based psychological treatments (EBPTs) for the anxiety disorders has been gradual. To date, the dominant approach for promoting the uptake of EBPTs in clinical settings has been to target the education and training of mental health providers, with many consumers remaining unaware of the potential benefits of EBPTs for anxiety disorders. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing may be a promising vehicle for increasing EBPT utilization rates in the treatment of anxiety disorders. This paper provides an overview of the rationale and important considerations for applying DTC efforts to promote evidence-based care in the treatment of anxiety disorders, and reviews current DTC efforts in this area, including resources on the Internet and other media and in-person events. We conclude with recommendations for future efforts in the DTC marketing of EBPTs for the anxiety disorders, including the need for increased funding and grassroots efforts to inform consumers about anxiety disorders and their most effective treatments. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Com amigos assim, quem precisa de inimigos? Dois neo-realistas reduzem a amizade entre os EUA e Israel ao tráfico de influência

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Demant

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Em resposta ao artigo "O Lobby de Israel", sustenta-se que a proximidade entre os EUA e Israel é cultivada pelo Lobby e não por ele criada. Defende-se também que as conclusões de Mearsheimer e Walt são baseadas em pesquisa descuidada, deturpações e lógica falsa, mas que ainda assim a tese central é digna de debate.In response to the article "The Israel Lobby", this essay states that proximity between USA and Israel is cultivated by the Lobby, not created by it. It is also argued that Mearsheimer and Walt's conclusions are based on poor research, debasement and false logics, but that its main argument deserves serious debate.

Lobbying in Disguise.

Science.gov (United States)

Maranto, Robert.

2003-01-01

Reviews the report "Do Charter Schools Measure Up? The Charter School Experiment After 10 Years" created by the American Federation of Teachers. Argues that rather than being serious research, the report is an indictment against charter schools for the purpose of retaining the union's power in public schools. (WFA)

Inpo/industry job and task analysis efforts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wigley, W.W.

1985-01-01

One of the goals of INPO is to develop and coordinate industrywide programs to improve the education, training and qualification of nuclear utility personnel. To accomplish this goal, INPO's Training and Education Division: conducts periodic evaluations of industry training programs; provides assistance to the industry in developing training programs; manages the accreditation of utility training programs. These efforts are aimed at satisfying the need for training programs for nuclear utility personnel to be performance-based. Performance-based means that training programs provide an incumbent with the skills and knowledge required to safely perform the job. One of the ways that INPO has provided assistance to the industry is through the industrywide job and task analysis effort. I will discuss the job analysis and task analysis processes, the current status of JTA efforts, JTA products and JTA lessons learned

Money Laundering and International Efforts to Fight It

OpenAIRE

David Scott

1996-01-01

According to one estimate, US$300 billion to US$500 billion in proceeds from serious crime is laundered each year. Left unchecked, money laundering could criminalize the financial system and undermine development efforts in emerging markets. The author reviews efforts by international bodies to fight it.

Economic effort management in multispecies fisheries: the FcubEcon model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoff, Ayoe; Frost, Hans; Ulrich, Clara

2010-01-01

in the development of management tools based on fleets, fisheries, and areas, rather than on unit fish stocks. A natural consequence of this has been to consider effort rather than quota management, a final effort decision being based on fleet-harvest potential and fish-stock-preservation considerations. Effort...... allocation between fleets should not be based on biological considerations alone, but also on the economic behaviour of fishers, because fisheries management has a significant impact on human behaviour as well as on ecosystem development. The FcubEcon management framework for effort allocation between fleets...... the past decade, increased focus on this issue has resulted in the development of management tools based on fleets, fisheries, and areas, rather than on unit fish stocks. A natural consequence of this has been to consider effort rather than quota management, a final effort decision being based on fleet...

Women's Perspectives of Peace: Unheard Voices from Pakistan

Science.gov (United States)

Habib, Zehra

2013-01-01

Pakistan is currently impacted by rampant terrorism and is simultaneously grappling with intrastate ethnic and sectarian violence. The focus of this dissertation was on examining grassroots Pakistani women's perspectives on peace and women's contributions to peace in Pakistan. The study was centered on grassroots women because their voices remain…

Reproductive effort in viscous populations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pen, Ido

Here I study a kin selection model of reproductive effort, the allocation of resources to fecundity versus survival, in a patch-structured population. Breeding females remain in the same patch for life. Offspring have costly, partial long-distance dispersal and compete for breeding sites, which

Quantifying commercial catch and effort of monkfish Lophius ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Catch-per-unit-effort (cpue) data of vessels targeting monkfish and sole (the two ... analysed using two different methods to construct indices of abundance. ... in Namibia to all tail-weight classes is not appropriate for the current fishery and needs ... Keywords: catch per unit effort, Generalized Linear Model, Lophius vaillanti, ...

Acoustic correlate of vocal effort in spasmodic dysphonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Eadie, Tanya L; Stepp, Cara E

2013-03-01

This study characterized the relationship between relative fundamental frequency (RFF) and listeners' perceptions of vocal effort and overall spasmodic dysphonia severity in the voices of 19 individuals with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. Twenty inexperienced listeners evaluated the vocal effort and overall severity of voices using visual analog scales. The squared correlation coefficients (R2) between average vocal effort and overall severity and RFF measures were calculated as a function of the number of acoustic instances used for the RFF estimate (from 1 to 9, of a total of 9 voiced-voiceless-voiced instances). Increases in the number of acoustic instances used for the RFF average led to increases in the variance predicted by the RFF at the first cycle of voicing onset (onset RFF) in the perceptual measures; the use of 6 or more instances resulted in a stable estimate. The variance predicted by the onset RFF for vocal effort (R2 range, 0.06 to 0.43) was higher than that for overall severity (R2 range, 0.06 to 0.35). The offset RFF was not related to the perceptual measures, irrespective of the sample size. This study indicates that onset RFF measures are related to perceived vocal effort in patients with adductor spasmodic dysphonia. These results have implications for measuring outcomes in this population.

Political Economy and Irrigation Technology Adoption Implications of Water Pricing under Asymmetric Information

OpenAIRE

Dridi, Chokri; Khanna, Madhu

2005-01-01

We analyze the design of water pricing rules emerging from farmers' lobbying and their implications for the size of the lobby, water use, profits and social welfare. The lobbying groups are the adopters of modern irrigation technology and the non-adopters. The pricing rules are designed to meet budget balance of water provision; we considered (i) a two-part tariff composed of a mandatory per-acre fee plus a volumetric charge and (ii) a nonlinear pricing schedule. Our results show that under e...

Effortful semantic decision-making boosts memory performance in older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Li; Maes, Joseph H R; Varma, Samarth; Kessels, Roy P C; Daselaar, Sander M

2017-04-01

A major concern in age-related cognitive decline is episodic memory (EM). Previous studies indicate that both resource and binding deficits contribute to EM decline. Environmental support by task manipulations encouraging stronger cognitive effort and deeper levels of processing may facilitate compensation for these two deficits. To clarify factors that can counteract age-related EM decline, we assessed effects of cognitive effort (four levels) and level of processing (LoP, shallow/deep) during encoding on subsequent retrieval. Young (YAs, N = 23) and older (OAs, N = 23) adults performed two incidental encoding tasks, deep/semantic and shallow/perceptual. Cognitive effort was manipulated by varying decision-making demands. EM performance, indexed by d-prime, was later tested using a recognition task. Results showed that regardless of LoP, increased cognitive effort caused higher d-primes in both age groups. Compared to YAs, OAs showed a lower d-prime after shallow encoding across all cognitive effort levels, and after deep encoding with low cognitive effort. Deep encoding with higher levels of cognitive effort completely eliminated these age differences. Our findings support an environmental-compensatory account of cognitive ageing and can have important therapeutic implications.

Brain and effort: brain activation and effort-related working memory in healthy participants and patients with working memory deficits

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria eEngstrom

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Despite the interest in the neuroimaging of working memory, little is still known about the neurobiology of complex working memory in tasks that require simultaneous manipulation and storage of information. In addition to the central executive network, we assumed that the recently described salience network (involving the anterior insular cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex might be of particular importance to working memory tasks that require complex, effortful processing. Method: Healthy participants (n=26 and participants suffering from working memory problems related to the Kleine-Levin syndrome (a specific form of periodic idiopathic hypersomnia; n=18 participated in the study. Participants were further divided into a high and low capacity group, according to performance on a working memory task (listening span. In a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI study, participants were administered the reading span complex working memory task tapping cognitive effort. Principal findings: The fMRI-derived blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD signal was modulated by 1 effort in both the central executive and the salience network and 2 capacity in the salience network in that high performers evidenced a weaker BOLD signal than low performers. In the salience network there was a dichotomy between the left and the right hemisphere; the right hemisphere elicited a steeper increase of the BOLD signal as a function of increasing effort. There was also a stronger functional connectivity within the central executive network because of increased task difficulty. Conclusion: The ability to allocate cognitive effort in complex working memory is contingent upon focused resources in the executive and in particular the salience network. Individual capacity during the complex working memory task is related to activity in the salience (but not the executive network so that high-capacity participants evidence a lower signal and possibly hence a larger

Vicarious Effort-Based Decision-Making in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Mosner, Maya G; Kinard, Jessica L; McWeeny, Sean; Shah, Jasmine S; Markiewitz, Nathan D; Damiano-Goodwin, Cara R; Burchinal, Margaret R; Rutherford, Helena J V; Greene, Rachel K; Treadway, Michael T; Dichter, Gabriel S

2017-10-01

This study investigated vicarious effort-based decision-making in 50 adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to 32 controls using the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task. Participants made choices to win money for themselves or for another person. When choosing for themselves, the ASD group exhibited relatively similar patterns of effort-based decision-making across reward parameters. However, when choosing for another person, the ASD group demonstrated relatively decreased sensitivity to reward magnitude, particularly in the high magnitude condition. Finally, patterns of responding in the ASD group were related to individual differences in consummatory pleasure capacity. These findings indicate atypical vicarious effort-based decision-making in ASD and more broadly add to the growing body of literature addressing social reward processing deficits in ASD.

Dopamine, Effort-Based Choice, and Behavioral Economics: Basic and Translational Research.

Science.gov (United States)

Salamone, John D; Correa, Merce; Yang, Jen-Hau; Rotolo, Renee; Presby, Rose

2018-01-01

Operant behavior is not only regulated by factors related to the quality or quantity of reinforcement, but also by the work requirements inherent in performing instrumental actions. Moreover, organisms often make effort-related decisions involving economic choices such as cost/benefit analyses. Effort-based decision making is studied using behavioral procedures that offer choices between high-effort options leading to relatively preferred reinforcers vs. low effort/low reward choices. Several neural systems, including the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system and other brain circuits, are involved in regulating effort-related aspects of motivation. Considerable evidence indicates that mesolimbic DA transmission exerts a bi-directional control over exertion of effort on instrumental behavior tasks. Interference with DA transmission produces a low-effort bias in animals tested on effort-based choice tasks, while increasing DA transmission with drugs such as DA transport blockers tends to enhance selection of high-effort options. The results from these pharmacology studies are corroborated by the findings from recent articles using optogenetic, chemogenetic and physiological techniques. In addition to providing important information about the neural regulation of motivated behavior, effort-based choice tasks are useful for developing animal models of some of the motivational symptoms that are seen in people with various psychiatric and neurological disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease). Studies of effort-based decision making may ultimately contribute to the development of novel drug treatments for motivational dysfunction.

Dopamine, Effort-Based Choice, and Behavioral Economics: Basic and Translational Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John D. Salamone

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Operant behavior is not only regulated by factors related to the quality or quantity of reinforcement, but also by the work requirements inherent in performing instrumental actions. Moreover, organisms often make effort-related decisions involving economic choices such as cost/benefit analyses. Effort-based decision making is studied using behavioral procedures that offer choices between high-effort options leading to relatively preferred reinforcers vs. low effort/low reward choices. Several neural systems, including the mesolimbic dopamine (DA system and other brain circuits, are involved in regulating effort-related aspects of motivation. Considerable evidence indicates that mesolimbic DA transmission exerts a bi-directional control over exertion of effort on instrumental behavior tasks. Interference with DA transmission produces a low-effort bias in animals tested on effort-based choice tasks, while increasing DA transmission with drugs such as DA transport blockers tends to enhance selection of high-effort options. The results from these pharmacology studies are corroborated by the findings from recent articles using optogenetic, chemogenetic and physiological techniques. In addition to providing important information about the neural regulation of motivated behavior, effort-based choice tasks are useful for developing animal models of some of the motivational symptoms that are seen in people with various psychiatric and neurological disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease. Studies of effort-based decision making may ultimately contribute to the development of novel drug treatments for motivational dysfunction.

Effect of social influence on effort-allocation for monetary rewards.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilman, Jodi M; Treadway, Michael T; Curran, Max T; Calderon, Vanessa; Evins, A Eden

2015-01-01

Though decades of research have shown that people are highly influenced by peers, few studies have directly assessed how the value of social conformity is weighed against other types of costs and benefits. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm with a novel social influence manipulation, we measured how social influence affected individuals' decisions to allocate effort for monetary rewards during trials with either high or low probability of receiving a reward. We found that information about the effort-allocation of peers modulated participant choices, specifically during conditions of low probability of obtaining a reward. This suggests that peer influence affects effort-based choices to obtain rewards especially under conditions of risk. This study provides evidence that people value social conformity in addition to other costs and benefits when allocating effort, and suggests that neuroeconomic studies that assess trade-offs between effort and reward should consider social environment as a factor that can influence decision-making.

Effect of social influence on effort-allocation for monetary rewards.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jodi M Gilman

Full Text Available Though decades of research have shown that people are highly influenced by peers, few studies have directly assessed how the value of social conformity is weighed against other types of costs and benefits. Using an effort-based decision-making paradigm with a novel social influence manipulation, we measured how social influence affected individuals' decisions to allocate effort for monetary rewards during trials with either high or low probability of receiving a reward. We found that information about the effort-allocation of peers modulated participant choices, specifically during conditions of low probability of obtaining a reward. This suggests that peer influence affects effort-based choices to obtain rewards especially under conditions of risk. This study provides evidence that people value social conformity in addition to other costs and benefits when allocating effort, and suggests that neuroeconomic studies that assess trade-offs between effort and reward should consider social environment as a factor that can influence decision-making.

Breaking the Double-Edged Sword of Effort/Trying Hard: Developmental Equilibrium and Longitudinal Relations among Effort, Achievement, and Academic Self-Concept

Science.gov (United States)

Marsh, Herbert W.; Pekrun, Reinhard; Lichtenfeld, Stephanie; Guo, Jiesi; Arens, A. Katrin; Murayama, Kou

2016-01-01

Ever since the classic research of Nicholls (1976) and others, effort has been recognized as a double-edged sword: while it might enhance achievement, it undermines academic self-concept (ASC). However, there has not been a thorough evaluation of the longitudinal reciprocal effects of effort, ASC, and achievement, in the context of modern…

Men’s Work Efforts and the Transition to Fatherhood1

Science.gov (United States)

Astone, Nan Marie; Dariotis, Jacinda; Sonenstein, Freya; Pleck, Joseph H.; Hynes, Kathryn

2010-01-01

In this paper we tested three hypotheses: (a) the transition to fatherhood is associated with an increase in work effort; (b) the positive association (if any) between the transition to fatherhood and work effort is greater for fathers who are married at the time of the transition; and (c) the association (if any) is greater for men who make the transition at younger ages. The data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Cohort. The transition to fatherhood was associated with an increase in work effort among young unmarried men, but not for married men. Among married men who were on-time fathers, work effort decreased. Among childless men, the marriage transition was associated with increased work effort. PMID:20221306

Perception of effort in Exercise Science: Definition, measurement and perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Pageaux, Benjamin

2016-11-01

Perception of effort, also known as perceived exertion or sense of effort, can be described as a cognitive feeling of work associated with voluntary actions. The aim of the present review is to provide an overview of what is perception of effort in Exercise Science. Due to the addition of sensations other than effort in its definition, the neurophysiology of perceived exertion remains poorly understood. As humans have the ability to dissociate effort from other sensations related to physical exercise, the need to use a narrower definition is emphasised. Consequently, a definition and some brief guidelines for its measurement are provided. Finally, an overview of the models present in the literature aiming to explain its neurophysiology, and some perspectives for future research are offered.

The RBANS Effort Index: base rates in geriatric samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Duff, Kevin; Spering, Cynthia C; O'Bryant, Sid E; Beglinger, Leigh J; Moser, David J; Bayless, John D; Culp, Kennith R; Mold, James W; Adams, Russell L; Scott, James G

2011-01-01

The Effort Index (EI) of the RBANS was developed to assist clinicians in discriminating patients who demonstrate good effort from those with poor effort. However, there are concerns that older adults might be unfairly penalized by this index, which uses uncorrected raw scores. Using five independent samples of geriatric patients with a broad range of cognitive functioning (e.g., cognitively intact, nursing home residents, probable Alzheimer's disease), base rates of failure on the EI were calculated. In cognitively intact and mildly impaired samples, few older individuals were classified as demonstrating poor effort (e.g., 3% in cognitively intact). However, in the more severely impaired geriatric patients, over one third had EI scores that fell above suggested cutoff scores (e.g., 37% in nursing home residents, 33% in probable Alzheimer's disease). In the cognitively intact sample, older and less educated patients were more likely to have scores suggestive of poor effort. Education effects were observed in three of the four clinical samples. Overall cognitive functioning was significantly correlated with EI scores, with poorer cognition being associated with greater suspicion of low effort. The current results suggest that age, education, and level of cognitive functioning should be taken into consideration when interpreting EI results and that significant caution is warranted when examining EI scores in elders suspected of having dementia.

Policies and Programmatic Efforts Pertaining to Fatherhood: Commentary

Science.gov (United States)

Raikes, Helen; Bellotti, Jeanne

2007-01-01

The articles in this section focus attention on (1) the historical shift in policies that affect the young men of this nation (2) how fatherhood policies and programmatic efforts are expanding and (3) how fatherhood practices and policies could and perhaps should be expanded and elaborated further. These efforts are linked to a growing body of…

Goal Setting and Expectancy Theory Predictions of Effort and Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Dossett, Dennis L.; Luce, Helen E.

Neither expectancy (VIE) theory nor goal setting alone are effective determinants of individual effort and task performance. To test the combined ability of VIE and goal setting to predict effort and performance, 44 real estate agents and their managers completed questionnaires. Quarterly income goals predicted managers' ratings of agents' effort,…

Tobacco industry influence on the definition of tobacco related disorders by the American Psychiatric Association.

Science.gov (United States)

Neuman, M D; Bitton, A; Glantz, S A

2005-10-01

The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, third edition (DSM-III), published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1980, included the first official definitions by the APA of tobacco dependence and tobacco withdrawal. Tobacco industry efforts to influence the DSM-III were investigated. Searches of previously secret tobacco industry documents, primarily the University of California San Francisco Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and British American Tobacco collections. Additional information was collected through discussions with editors of DSM-III, and library and general internet searches. The tobacco companies regarded the inclusion of tobacco dependence as a diagnosis in DSM-III as an adverse event. It worked to influence the content of the DSM-III and its impact following publication. These efforts included public statements and private lobbying of DSM-III editors and high ranking APA officers by prominent US psychiatrists with undisclosed ties to the tobacco industry. Following publication of DSM-III, tobacco companies contracted with two US professors of psychiatry to organise a conference and publish a monograph detailing controversies surrounding DSM-III. The tobacco industry and its allies lobbied to narrow the definition of tobacco dependence in serial revisions of DSM-III. Following publication of DSM-III, the industry took steps to try to mitigate its impact. These actions mirror industry tactics to influence medical research and policy in various contexts worldwide. Such tactics slow the spread of a professional and public understanding of smoking and health that otherwise would reduce smoking, smoking induced disease, and tobacco company profits.

Testosterone and reproductive effort in male primates.

Science.gov (United States)

Muller, Martin N

2017-05-01

Considerable evidence suggests that the steroid hormone testosterone mediates major life-history trade-offs in vertebrates, promoting mating effort at the expense of parenting effort or survival. Observations from a range of wild primates support the "Challenge Hypothesis," which posits that variation in male testosterone is more closely associated with aggressive mating competition than with reproductive physiology. In both seasonally and non-seasonally breeding species, males increase testosterone production primarily when competing for fecund females. In species where males compete to maintain long-term access to females, testosterone increases when males are threatened with losing access to females, rather than during mating periods. And when male status is linked to mating success, and dependent on aggression, high-ranking males normally maintain higher testosterone levels than subordinates, particularly when dominance hierarchies are unstable. Trade-offs between parenting effort and mating effort appear to be weak in most primates, because direct investment in the form of infant transport and provisioning is rare. Instead, infant protection is the primary form of paternal investment in the order. Testosterone does not inhibit this form of investment, which relies on male aggression. Testosterone has a wide range of effects in primates that plausibly function to support male competitive behavior. These include psychological effects related to dominance striving, analgesic effects, and effects on the development and maintenance of the armaments and adornments that males employ in mating competition. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

L'espace public au ras du sol en postcolonie : travail de l ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article focuses on public space as it can be seen from the grassroots level in Africa. The experience of Cameroon under the single party shows how 'the grassroots' capitalizes on social imagination and takes an indirect route to political interpellation. The hypothesis upheld here is that observing social practices in ...

Student Effort, Consistency and Online Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hilde Patron

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This paper examines how student effort, consistency, motivation, and marginal learning, influence student grades in an online course. We use data from eleven Microeconomics courses taught online for a total of 212 students. Our findings show that consistency, or less time variation, is a statistically significant explanatory variable, whereas effort, or total minutes spent online, is not. Other independent variables include GPA and the difference between a pre-test and a post-test. The GPA is used as a measure of motivation, and the difference between a post-test and pre-test as marginal learning. As expected, the level of motivation is found statistically significant at a 99% confidence level, and marginal learning is also significant at a 95% level.

Effortful control and school adjustment: The moderating role of classroom chaos.

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, Rebecca H; Valiente, Carlos; Eisenberg, Nancy; Hernandez, Maciel M; Thompson, Marilyn; Spinrad, Tracy; VanSchyndel, Sarah; Silva, Kassondra; Southworth, Jody

2017-11-01

Guided by the person by environment framework, the primary goal of this study was to determine whether classroom chaos moderated the relation between effortful control and kindergarteners' school adjustment. Classroom observers reported on children's ( N = 301) effortful control in the fall. In the spring, teachers reported on classroom chaos and school adjustment outcomes (teacher-student relationship closeness and conflict, and school liking and avoidance). Cross-level interactions between effortful control and classroom chaos predicting school adjustment outcomes were assessed. A consistent pattern of interactions between effortful control and classroom chaos indicated that the relations between effortful control and the school adjustment outcomes were strongest in high chaos classrooms. Post-hoc analyses indicated that classroom chaos was associated with poor school adjustment when effortful control was low, suggesting that the combination of high chaos and low effortful control was associated with the poorest school outcomes.

"Taking the problem to the people": traffic safety from public relations to political theory, 1937-1954.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernardin, Stève

2015-04-01

The slogan "taking the problem to the people" nicely summarizes U.S. traffic safety campaigns of the 1950s. It refers to the goal of awareness and self-discipline for drivers through education and law enforcement. A detailed analysis of the campaigns, however, shows a subtler objective of the motor interests that promoted it. They wanted to overcome political indifference through a civic mobilization of drivers as citizens, persuading drivers to lobby for traffic control. The analysis of their efforts leads us to question the role-or lack of role-of politicians in scientific and technological controversies.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996: an overview.

Science.gov (United States)

Fragomen, A T

1997-01-01

"On September 30, 1996, President Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (1996 Act), Pub. L. No. 104-208, 110 Stat. 3009. After an intense lobbying effort by the business community, most provisions relating to legal immigration were omitted from the final bill. Instead, the 1996 Act focuses on illegal immigration reform and includes some of the toughest measures ever taken against illegal immigration." Aspects considered include border enforcement, penalities against alien smuggling and document fraud, deportation and exclusion proceedings, employer sanctions, welfare provisions, and changes to existing refugee and asylum procedures. excerpt

Protest as participation: the significance of the antinuclear movement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nelkin, D.

1982-01-01

The anti-nuclear movement includes a diversity of ideologies and strategies that has spawned an equal diversity of interpretations. The author examines the concerns of each group, focusing on environmentalists, scientists, feminists, churches, and other antinuclear activities whose organizations totaled 937 in 1980. She notes that while diversity suggests the grassroots strength of the movement, diversity has also kept it from achieving the coordination of effort that would give it political strength. Further, the movement reflects a general fear of technological change - as well as of nuclear power - a fear that can become enculturated as a desire to return to a smaller, more human scale. 22 references

The Galileo Teacher Training Program Global Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Doran, R.; Pennypacker, C.; Ferlet, R.

2012-08-01

The Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) successfully named representatives in nearly 100 nations in 2009, the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). The challenge had just begun. The steps ahead are how to reach educators that might benefit from our program and how to help build a more fair and science literate society, a society in which good tools and resources for science education are not the privilege of a few. From 2010 on our efforts have been to strengthen the newly formed network and learn how to equally help educators and students around the globe. New partnerships with other strong programs and institutions are being formed, sponsorship schemes being outlined, new tools and resources being publicized, and on-site and video conference training conducted all over the world. Efforts to officially accredit a GTTP curriculum are on the march and a stronger certification process being outlined. New science topics are being integrated in our effort and we now seek to discuss the path ahead with experts in this field and the community of users, opening the network to all corners of our beautiful blue dot. The main aim of this article is to open the discussion regarding the urgent issue of how to reawaken student interest in science, how to solve the gender inequality in science careers, and how to reach the underprivileged students and open to them the same possibilities. Efforts are in strengthening the newly formed network and learning how to equally help educators and students around the globe.

Control and Effort Costs Influence the Motivational Consequences of Choice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Holly Sullivan-Toole

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The act of making a choice, apart from any outcomes the choice may yield, has, paradoxically, been linked to both the enhancement and the detriment of intrinsic motivation. Research has implicated two factors in potentially mediating these contradictory effects: the personal control conferred by a choice and the costs associated with a choice. Across four experiments, utilizing a physical effort task disguised as a simple video game, we systematically varied costs across two levels of physical effort requirements (Low-Requirement, High-Requirement and control over effort costs across three levels of choice (Free-Choice, Restricted-Choice, and No-Choice to disambiguate how these factors affect the motivational consequences of choosing within an effortful task. Together, our results indicated that, in the face of effort requirements, illusory control alone may not sufficiently enhance perceptions of personal control to boost intrinsic motivation; rather, the experience of actual control may be necessary to overcome effort costs and elevate performance. Additionally, we demonstrated that conditions of illusory control, while otherwise unmotivating, can through association with the experience of free-choice, be transformed to have a positive effect on motivation.

A Web-based database for pathology faculty effort reporting.

Science.gov (United States)

Dee, Fred R; Haugen, Thomas H; Wynn, Philip A; Leaven, Timothy C; Kemp, John D; Cohen, Michael B

2008-04-01

To ensure appropriate mission-based budgeting and equitable distribution of funds for faculty salaries, our compensation committee developed a pathology-specific effort reporting database. Principles included the following: (1) measurement should be done by web-based databases; (2) most entry should be done by departmental administration or be relational to other databases; (3) data entry categories should be aligned with funding streams; and (4) units of effort should be equal across categories of effort (service, teaching, research). MySQL was used for all data transactions (http://dev.mysql.com/downloads), and scripts were constructed using PERL (http://www.perl.org). Data are accessed with forms that correspond to fields in the database. The committee's work resulted in a novel database using pathology value units (PVUs) as a standard quantitative measure of effort for activities in an academic pathology department. The most common calculation was to estimate the number of hours required for a specific task, divide by 2080 hours (a Medicare year) and then multiply by 100. Other methods included assigning a baseline PVU for program, laboratory, or course directorship with an increment for each student or staff in that unit. With these methods, a faculty member should acquire approximately 100 PVUs. Some outcomes include (1) plotting PVUs versus salary to identify outliers for salary correction, (2) quantifying effort in activities outside the department, (3) documenting salary expenditure for unfunded research, (4) evaluating salary equity by plotting PVUs versus salary by sex, and (5) aggregating data by category of effort for mission-based budgeting and long-term planning.

Communication Breakdown: Unraveling the Islamic States Media Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

Communication Breakdown: Unraveling the Islamic State’s Media Efforts Daniel Milton Communication Breakdown: Unraveling the Islamic State’s Media ...production arm of central media office).28 The high level of communication between the central media office and the satellite offices illustrates the tension...and discussed by the mass media . Those products are likely important to the group’s recruitment efforts, but clearly it is trying to portray itself

Mapping telemedicine efforts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kierkegaard, Patrick

2015-01-01

are being utilized? What medical disciplines are being addressed using telemedicine systems? Methods: All data was surveyed from the "Telemedicinsk Landkort", a newly created database designed to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of all telemedicine technologies in Denmark. Results......Objectives: The aim of this study is to survey telemedicine services currently in operation across Denmark. The study specifically seeks to answer the following questions: What initiatives are deployed within the different regions? What are the motivations behind the projects? What technologies......: The results of this study suggest that a growing number of telemedicine initiatives are currently in operation across Denmark but that considerable variations existed in terms of regional efforts as the number of operational telemedicine projects varied from region to region. Conclusions: The results...

Effort sharing in ambitious, global climate change mitigation scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ekholm, Tommi; Soimakallio, Sampo; Moltmann, Sara; Hoehne, Niklas; Syri, Sanna; Savolainen, Ilkka

2010-01-01

The post-2012 climate policy framework needs a global commitment to deep greenhouse gas emission cuts. This paper analyzes reaching ambitious emission targets up to 2050, either -10% or -50% from 1990 levels, and how the economic burden from mitigation efforts could be equitably shared between countries. The scenarios indicate a large low-cost mitigation potential in electricity and industry, while reaching low emission levels in international transportation and agricultural emissions might prove difficult. The two effort sharing approaches, Triptych and Multistage, were compared in terms of equitability and coherence. Both approaches produced an equitable cost distribution between countries, with least developed countries having negative or low costs and more developed countries having higher costs. There is, however, no definitive solution on how the costs should be balanced equitably between countries. Triptych seems to be yet more coherent than other approaches, as it can better accommodate national circumstances. Last, challenges and possible hindrances to effective mitigation and equitable effort sharing are presented. The findings underline the significance of assumptions behind effort sharing on mitigation potentials and current emissions, the challenge of sharing the effort with uncertain future allowance prices and how inefficient markets might undermine the efficiency of a cap-and-trade system.

Overlapping neural systems represent cognitive effort and reward anticipation.

Science.gov (United States)

Vassena, Eliana; Silvetti, Massimo; Boehler, Carsten N; Achten, Eric; Fias, Wim; Verguts, Tom

2014-01-01

Anticipating a potential benefit and how difficult it will be to obtain it are valuable skills in a constantly changing environment. In the human brain, the anticipation of reward is encoded by the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) and Striatum. Naturally, potential rewards have an incentive quality, resulting in a motivational effect improving performance. Recently it has been proposed that an upcoming task requiring effort induces a similar anticipation mechanism as reward, relying on the same cortico-limbic network. However, this overlapping anticipatory activity for reward and effort has only been investigated in a perceptual task. Whether this generalizes to high-level cognitive tasks remains to be investigated. To this end, an fMRI experiment was designed to investigate anticipation of reward and effort in cognitive tasks. A mental arithmetic task was implemented, manipulating effort (difficulty), reward, and delay in reward delivery to control for temporal confounds. The goal was to test for the motivational effect induced by the expectation of bigger reward and higher effort. The results showed that the activation elicited by an upcoming difficult task overlapped with higher reward prospect in the ACC and in the striatum, thus highlighting a pivotal role of this circuit in sustaining motivated behavior.

Effort sharing in ambitious, global climate change mitigation scenarios

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ekholm, Tommi [TKK Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo (Finland); Soimakallio, Sampo; Syri, Sanna; Savolainen, Ilkka [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, P.O. Box 1000, FIN-02044 VTT (Finland); Moltmann, Sara; Hoehne, Niklas [Ecofys Germany GmbH, Cologne (Germany)

2010-04-15

The post-2012 climate policy framework needs a global commitment to deep greenhouse gas emission cuts. This paper analyzes reaching ambitious emission targets up to 2050, either or from 1990 levels, and how the economic burden from mitigation efforts could be equitably shared between countries. The scenarios indicate a large low-cost mitigation potential in electricity and industry, while reaching low emission levels in international transportation and agricultural emissions might prove difficult. The two effort sharing approaches, Triptych and Multistage, were compared in terms of equitability and coherence. Both approaches produced an equitable cost distribution between countries, with least developed countries having negative or low costs and more developed countries having higher costs. There is, however, no definitive solution on how the costs should be balanced equitably between countries. Triptych seems to be yet more coherent than other approaches, as it can better accommodate national circumstances. Last, challenges and possible hindrances to effective mitigation and equitable effort sharing are presented. The findings underline the significance of assumptions behind effort sharing on mitigation potentials and current emissions, the challenge of sharing the effort with uncertain future allowance prices and how inefficient markets might undermine the efficiency of a cap-and-trade system. (author)

The Medium and the Message: Oral History, New Media, and a Grassroots History of Working Women

Science.gov (United States)

Meyerowitz, Ruth; Zinni, Christine F.

2009-01-01

In the Spring of 2000, Ruth Meyerowitz and Christine Zinni began collaborative efforts--inside and outside of academia--to enhance a course on The History of Working Women at SUNY Buffalo. Videotaping the oral histories of women labor leaders, they later teamed up with Michael Frisch and Randforce Associates--a research group at SUNY at Buffalo's…

Development Efforts Of Oil Companies As Perceived By Rural ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... that the host communities are highly satisfied with companies' efforts (projects and services) to them. Based on these findings, recommendations were made. Key words: Oil producing communities; oil exploration/production; company's development efforts; Journal of Agriculture and Social Research Vol.4(1) 2004: 60-71 ...

Cognitive dissonance in children: justification of effort or contrast?

Science.gov (United States)

Alessandri, Jérôme; Darcheville, Jean-Claude; Zentall, Thomas R

2008-06-01

Justification of effort is a form of cognitive dissonance in which the subjective value of an outcome is directly related to the effort that went into obtaining it. However, it is likely that in social contexts (such as the requirements for joining a group) an inference can be made (perhaps incorrectly) that an outcome that requires greater effort to obtain in fact has greater value. Here we present evidence that a cognitive dissonance effect can be found in children under conditions that offer better control for the social value of the outcome. This effect is quite similar to contrast effects that recently have been studied in animals. We suggest that contrast between the effort required to obtain the outcome and the outcome itself provides a more parsimonious account of this phenomenon and perhaps other related cognitive dissonance phenomena as well. Research will be needed to identify cognitive dissonance processes that are different from contrast effects of this kind.

The role of cognitive effort in subjective reward devaluation and risky decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Apps, Matthew A J; Grima, Laura L; Manohar, Sanjay; Husain, Masud

2015-11-20

Motivation is underpinned by cost-benefit valuations where costs-such as physical effort or outcome risk-are subjectively weighed against available rewards. However, in many environments risks pertain not to the variance of outcomes, but to variance in the possible levels of effort required to obtain rewards (effort risks). Moreover, motivation is often guided by the extent to which cognitive-not physical-effort devalues rewards (effort discounting). Yet, very little is known about the mechanisms that underpin the influence of cognitive effort risks or discounting on motivation. We used two cost-benefit decision-making tasks to probe subjective sensitivity to cognitive effort (number of shifts of spatial attention) and to effort risks. Our results show that shifts of spatial attention when monitoring rapidly presented visual stimuli are perceived as effortful and devalue rewards. Additionally, most people are risk-averse, preferring safe, known amounts of effort over risky offers. However, there was no correlation between their effort and risk sensitivity. We show for the first time that people are averse to variance in the possible amount of cognitive effort to be exerted. These results suggest that cognitive effort sensitivity and risk sensitivity are underpinned by distinct psychological and neurobiological mechanisms.

Farmers versus ideas: explaining the continuity in French agricultural trade policy during the GATT Uruguay Round

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alons, G.C.

2014-01-01

France's protectionist position regarding agricultural trade is often claimed to result from French farm lobby influence. This article challenges such established claims, based on an analysis of French decision-making on the agricultural chapter of the GATT Uruguay Round. Farm lobby pressure cannot

Analyzing and Predicting Effort Associated with Finding and Fixing Software Faults

Science.gov (United States)

Hamill, Maggie; Goseva-Popstojanova, Katerina

2016-01-01

Context: Software developers spend a significant amount of time fixing faults. However, not many papers have addressed the actual effort needed to fix software faults. Objective: The objective of this paper is twofold: (1) analysis of the effort needed to fix software faults and how it was affected by several factors and (2) prediction of the level of fix implementation effort based on the information provided in software change requests. Method: The work is based on data related to 1200 failures, extracted from the change tracking system of a large NASA mission. The analysis includes descriptive and inferential statistics. Predictions are made using three supervised machine learning algorithms and three sampling techniques aimed at addressing the imbalanced data problem. Results: Our results show that (1) 83% of the total fix implementation effort was associated with only 20% of failures. (2) Both safety critical failures and post-release failures required three times more effort to fix compared to non-critical and pre-release counterparts, respectively. (3) Failures with fixes spread across multiple components or across multiple types of software artifacts required more effort. The spread across artifacts was more costly than spread across components. (4) Surprisingly, some types of faults associated with later life-cycle activities did not require significant effort. (5) The level of fix implementation effort was predicted with 73% overall accuracy using the original, imbalanced data. Using oversampling techniques improved the overall accuracy up to 77%. More importantly, oversampling significantly improved the prediction of the high level effort, from 31% to around 85%. Conclusions: This paper shows the importance of tying software failures to changes made to fix all associated faults, in one or more software components and/or in one or more software artifacts, and the benefit of studying how the spread of faults and other factors affect the fix implementation

Determinants of Tourists Information Search Effort: The Case of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper examines tourist information search effort prior to the visit to a selected destination. The focus was on identifying the key variables that influence the information search effort of Ghana's international visitors from the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany. The Dummy Multiple Regression ...

Effort reward imbalance, and salivary cortisol in the morning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eller, Nanna Hurwitz; Nielsen, Søren Feodor; Blønd, Morten

2012-01-01

Effort reward imbalance (ERI) is suggested to increase risk for stress and is hypothesized to increase cortisol levels, especially the awakening cortisol response, ACR.......Effort reward imbalance (ERI) is suggested to increase risk for stress and is hypothesized to increase cortisol levels, especially the awakening cortisol response, ACR....

Duke Power's liquid radwaste processing improvement efforts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baker, R.E. Jr.; Bramblett, J.W.

1995-01-01

The rising cost of processing liquid radwaste and industry efforts to reduce offsite isotopic contributions has drawn greater attention to the liquid radwaste area. Because of economic pressures to reduce cost and simultaneously improve performance, Duke Power has undertaken a wide ranging effort to cost effectively achieve improvements in the liquid radwaste processing area. Duke Power has achieved significant reductions over recent years in the release of curies to the environment from the Liquid Radwaste Treatmentt systems at its Catawba, McGuire, and Oconee stations. System wide site curie reductions of 78% have been achieved in a 3 year period. These curie reductions have been achieved while simultaneously reducing the amount of media used to accomplish treatment. The curie and media usage reductions have been achieved at low capital cost expenditures. A large number of approaches and projects have been used to achieve these curie and media usage reductions. This paper will describe the various projects and the associated results for Duke Power's processing improvement efforts. The subjects/projects which will be described include: (1) Cooperative philosophy between stations (2) Source Control (3) Processing Improvements (4) Technology Testing

Pitfalls in Designing Zero-Effort Deauthentication: Opportunistic Human Observation Attacks

OpenAIRE

Huhta, O.; Shrestha, P.; Udar, S.; Juuti, M.; Saxena, N.; Asokan, N.

2015-01-01

VK: Asokan, N. Deauthentication is an important component of any authentication system. The widespread use of computing devices in daily life has underscored the need for zero-effort deauthentication schemes. However, the quest for eliminating user effort may lead to hidden security flaws in the authentication schemes. As a case in point, we investigate a prominent zero-effort deauthentication scheme, called ZEBRA, which provides an interesting and a useful solution to a difficult problem ...

Analysis Efforts Supporting NSTX Upgrades

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, H.; Titus, P.; Rogoff, P.; Zolfaghari, A.; Mangra, D.; Smith, M.

2010-01-01

The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a low aspect ratio, spherical torus (ST) configuration device which is located at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) This device is presently being updated to enhance its physics by doubling the TF field to 1 Tesla and increasing the plasma current to 2 Mega-amperes. The upgrades include a replacement of the centerstack and addition of a second neutral beam. The upgrade analyses have two missions. The first is to support design of new components, principally the centerstack, the second is to qualify existing NSTX components for higher loads, which will increase by a factor of four. Cost efficiency was a design goal for new equipment qualification, and reanalysis of the existing components. Showing that older components can sustain the increased loads has been a challenging effort in which designs had to be developed that would limit loading on weaker components, and would minimize the extent of modifications needed. Two areas representing this effort have been chosen to describe in more details: analysis of the current distribution in the new TF inner legs, and, second, analysis of the out-of-plane support of the existing TF outer legs.

Community empowerment needs in the struggle for environmental justice

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, D.

1995-12-01

The paper addresses the specific empowerment needs of communities and workers fighting for environmental justice. Thousands of people of color and poor communities throughout the United States are victimized by policies and practices of environmental racism which resulted in the disproportionate burden of exposure to environmental contamination where they live, work and play. Powerful interests who own and operate polluting industries and waste disposal facilities prey on poor, low income and non-white communities because they view them as areas of least resistance and {open_quotes}sacrifice zones.{close_quotes} Leaders and members of organizations from communities threatened or already devastated by contamination are waging determined, courageous and heroic struggles against giant corporate polluters. In many instances, the leaders and members of these grassroots environmental groups are literally sick and dying from contamination as they seek to organize for clean, safe and healthy communities. A key issue for communities and workers fighting for environmental justice is realizing true empowerment. Communities and workers must develop empowerment and capacity building skills in the areas of community and labor organizing; media relations and public education; legal advocacy; legislative and regulatory tracking; lobbying; health monitoring and health services; research; scientific technical needs (eg. air, water and soil testing); fundraising and economic sustainable development; institutional and organizational development; voter education and electoral politics; and youth and adult leadership training. When these empowerment skills are combined with a clear vision of justice for the future, communities will be able to fight cooporations armed with high-powered lawyers, lobbyists, public relations firms and bought-off politicians.

Investigating the Nature of Relationship between Software Size and Development Effort

OpenAIRE

Bajwa, Sohaib-Shahid

2008-01-01

Software effort estimation still remains a challenging and debatable research area. Most of the software effort estimation models take software size as the base input. Among the others, Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO II) is a widely known effort estimation model. It uses Source Lines of Code (SLOC) as the software size to estimate effort. However, many problems arise while using SLOC as a size measure due to its late availability in the software life cycle. Therefore, a lot of research has b...

Vicarious Effort-Based Decision-Making in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Mosner, Maya G.; Kinard, Jessica L.; McWeeny, Sean; Shah, Jasmine S.; Markiewitz, Nathan D.; Damiano-Goodwin, Cara R.; Burchinal, Margaret R.; Rutherford, Helena J. V.; Greene, Rachel K.; Treadway, Michael T.; Dichter, Gabriel S.

2017-01-01

This study investigated vicarious effort-based decision-making in 50 adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to 32 controls using the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task. Participants made choices to win money for themselves or for another person. When choosing for themselves, the ASD group exhibited relatively similar patterns…

Anticipated emotions and effort allocation in weight goal striving.

Science.gov (United States)

Nelissen, Rob M A; de Vet, Emely; Zeelenberg, Marcel

2011-02-01

This study aimed to investigate the influence of anticipated emotions on preventive health behaviour if specified at the level of behavioural outcomes. Consistent with predictions from a recently developed model of goal pursuit, we hypothesized that the impact of emotions on effort levels depended on the perceived proximity to the goal. Participants with weight-loss intentions were randomly selected from an Internet panel and completed questionnaires at three points in time, baseline (T1; N= 725), 2 weeks later at T2 (N= 582) and again 2 months later at T3 (N= 528). Questionnaires assessed anticipated emotions (at T1) and experienced emotions (at T2) towards goal attainment and non-attainment. Goal proximity, goal desirability, and effort levels in striving for weight loss were assessed at both T1 and T2. Current and target weights were reported at all three assessments. In line with predictions, we found that negative anticipated emotions towards goal non-attainment resulted in increased effort but only if people perceived themselves in close proximity to their goal. Effort, in turn, predicted weight loss and goal achievement. The current data bear important practical implications as they identify anticipated emotions as targets of behaviour change interventions aimed to stimulate effort in striving for broad, health-related goals like weight loss. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

The effect of sleep loss on next day effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Engle-Friedman, Mindy; Riela, Suzanne; Golan, Rama; Ventuneac, Ana M; Davis, Christine M; Jefferson, Angela D; Major, Donna

2003-06-01

The study had two primary objectives. The first was to determine whether sleep loss results in a preference for tasks demanding minimal effort. The second was to evaluate the quality of performance when participants, under conditions of sleep loss, have control over task demands. In experiment 1, using a repeated-measures design, 50 undergraduate college students were evaluated, following one night of no sleep loss and one night of sleep loss. The Math Effort Task (MET) presented addition problems via computer. Participants were able to select additions at one of five levels of difficulty. Less-demanding problems were selected and more additions were solved correctly when the participants were subject to sleep loss. In experiment 2, 58 undergraduate college students were randomly assigned to a no sleep deprivation or a sleep deprivation condition. Sleep-deprived participants selected less-demanding problems on the MET. Percentage correct on the MET was equivalent for both the non-sleep-deprived and sleep-deprived groups. On a task selection question, the sleep-deprived participants also selected significantly less-demanding non-academic tasks. Increased sleepiness, fatigue, and reaction time were associated with the selection of less difficult tasks. Both groups of participants reported equivalent effort expenditures; sleep-deprived participants did not perceive a reduction in effort. These studies demonstrate that sleep loss results in the choice of low-effort behavior that helps maintain accurate responding.

Efek Keadilan Remunerasi, Kompetensi Atasan dan Kohesivitas Kelompok terhadap Withholding Effort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ida Ayu Kartika Maharani

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Withholding effort is a tendency employee to reduce work contribution as the possibility of an individual in giving less than maximum effort on tasks associated with the job. The purpose of this study is to analyze the remuneration fairness influences, supervisor competencies and group cohesiveness on withholding effort. The population in this study was all administrative employees with the status of civil servants and probationary civil servants who were actively working in the Institute Hindu Dharma Negeri Denpasar. The number of respondents were 80 people. The research data was primary data obtained from questionnaires. This study used confirmatory factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis as analytic technique. The results show that fairness of remuneration has a negative and significant effect on the withholding effort, supervisor competencies has a negative and significant effect on the withholding effort, group cohesiveness  has a negative and significant effect on the withholding effort

Digital networks to aid research and education in Africa

CERN Multimedia

2005-01-01

Around 120 participants were assembled over two days at CERN to discuss ways to bridge the digital divide with Africa. As part of efforts to implement the outcome of the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held in Geneva in 2003, CERN held the international workshop on Research and Education Networks in Africa, from 25 to 27 September. Organized by the United Nations University (UNU) in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and CERN, this meeting was designed to promote scientific cooperation with and within Africa, through the development of networking infrastructure. Faster, reliable and more affordable Internet access is widely recognized as one of the key factors for enhancing research and education efforts in African academic and research institutions. For the first time, this workshop brought together representatives of all the key stakeholders: African academic and research institutions, international coordinators, funding agencies, grass-roots imple...

26 CFR 1.162-29 - Influencing legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

...) Reading any publications available to the general public or viewing or listening to other mass media... lobbying communication; and (ii) All activities, such as research, preparation, planning, and coordination, including deciding whether to make a lobbying communication, engaged in for a purpose of making or...

Summary of process research analysis efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Burger, D. R.

1985-01-01

A summary of solar-cell process research analysis efforts was presented. Process design and cell design are interactive efforts where technology from integrated circuit processes and other processes are blended. The primary factors that control cell efficiency are: (1) the bulk parameters of the available sheet material, (2) the retention and enhancement of these bulk parameters, and (3) the cell design and the cost to produce versus the finished cells performance. The process sequences need to be tailored to be compatible with the sheet form, the cell shape form, and the processing equipment. New process options that require further evaluation and utilization are lasers, robotics, thermal pulse techniques, and new materials. There are numerous process control techniques that can be adapted and used that will improve product uniformity and reduced costs. Two factors that can lead to longer life modules are the use of solar cell diffusion barriers and improved encapsulation.

Measuring listening effort: driving simulator versus simple dual-task paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yu-Hsiang; Aksan, Nazan; Rizzo, Matthew; Stangl, Elizabeth; Zhang, Xuyang; Bentler, Ruth

2014-01-01

The dual-task paradigm has been widely used to measure listening effort. The primary objectives of the study were to (1) investigate the effect of hearing aid amplification and a hearing aid directional technology on listening effort measured by a complicated, more real world dual-task paradigm and (2) compare the results obtained with this paradigm to a simpler laboratory-style dual-task paradigm. The listening effort of adults with hearing impairment was measured using two dual-task paradigms, wherein participants performed a speech recognition task simultaneously with either a driving task in a simulator or a visual reaction-time task in a sound-treated booth. The speech materials and road noises for the speech recognition task were recorded in a van traveling on the highway in three hearing aid conditions: unaided, aided with omnidirectional processing (OMNI), and aided with directional processing (DIR). The change in the driving task or the visual reaction-time task performance across the conditions quantified the change in listening effort. Compared to the driving-only condition, driving performance declined significantly with the addition of the speech recognition task. Although the speech recognition score was higher in the OMNI and DIR conditions than in the unaided condition, driving performance was similar across these three conditions, suggesting that listening effort was not affected by amplification and directional processing. Results from the simple dual-task paradigm showed a similar trend: hearing aid technologies improved speech recognition performance, but did not affect performance in the visual reaction-time task (i.e., reduce listening effort). The correlation between listening effort measured using the driving paradigm and the visual reaction-time task paradigm was significant. The finding showing that our older (56 to 85 years old) participants' better speech recognition performance did not result in reduced listening effort was not

The Index of Asia-Pacific Regional Integration Effort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor Yifan Ye

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The Asia-Pacific region is not typically seen as one geographic or socio-economic space. Yet, 58 regional economies occupying the space of 28 million square kilometers from Turkey in the West, Russian Federation in the North, French Polynesia in the East and New Zealand in the South belong to the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP. This commission provides a forum for member states that "promotes regional cooperation and collective action, assisting countries in building and sustaining shared economic growth and social equity". In 2013, ESCAP's members adopted the Bangkok Declaration to enhance efforts towards deeper regional economic integration. Yet this document neither proposes a concrete modality or modalities of achieving deeper integration, nor provides a sense of distance of individual countries to a "perceived" integrated Asia-Pacific.This paper aims to comprehensively quantify recent integration efforts of economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We provide an "index of integration effort" based on twelve metrics that measure the relative distance of a given economy to the region as an economic entity. Generally, we find that while the region has trended towards becoming integrated in general, both the level of integration and integration effort are inconsistent among Asia-Pacific economies. We discuss potential applications and extensions of the index in developing our perspective of the region's economic and social dynamics.

Lessons Learned on the Road to a Smoke-Free Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Croghan, Ivana; Muggli, Monique; Zaga, Vincenzo; Lockhart, Nikki; Ebbert, Jon; Mangiaracina, Giacomo; Hurt, Richard

2014-01-01

In the face of strong and protracted opposition by the Tobacco Industry (TI) and its allies, Italy’s national smoke-free legislation came into force in 2005 prohibiting smoking in all indoor public places and workplaces including offices, bars, and restaurants. Using internal TI documents made public through US litigation, we reveal the industry’s nearly 40-year effort to influence health policy related to secondhand smoke, including attempts to block Italy’s national smoke-free legislation. Strategies included manipulating hospitality groups and establishing front organizations, manipulating journalists and media, and manipulating the science and direct lobbying against smoking restrictions. The TI’s extensive plan to thwart smoke-free efforts in Italy can be used to inform other countries about the industry’s tactics and Italy’s experience in overcoming them by ultimately implementing a comprehensive workplace smoke-free law. PMID:21770229

Anticipating cognitive effort: roles of perceived error-likelihood and time demands.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Timothy L; Inzlicht, Michael; Risko, Evan F

2017-11-13

Why are some actions evaluated as effortful? In the present set of experiments we address this question by examining individuals' perception of effort when faced with a trade-off between two putative cognitive costs: how much time a task takes vs. how error-prone it is. Specifically, we were interested in whether individuals anticipate engaging in a small amount of hard work (i.e., low time requirement, but high error-likelihood) vs. a large amount of easy work (i.e., high time requirement, but low error-likelihood) as being more effortful. In between-subject designs, Experiments 1 through 3 demonstrated that individuals anticipate options that are high in perceived error-likelihood (yet less time consuming) as more effortful than options that are perceived to be more time consuming (yet low in error-likelihood). Further, when asked to evaluate which of the two tasks was (a) more effortful, (b) more error-prone, and (c) more time consuming, effort-based and error-based choices closely tracked one another, but this was not the case for time-based choices. Utilizing a within-subject design, Experiment 4 demonstrated overall similar pattern of judgments as Experiments 1 through 3. However, both judgments of error-likelihood and time demand similarly predicted effort judgments. Results are discussed within the context of extant accounts of cognitive control, with considerations of how error-likelihood and time demands may independently and conjunctively factor into judgments of cognitive effort.

Shell Inspection History and Current CMM Inspection Efforts

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Montano, Joshua Daniel [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2017-01-26

The following report provides a review of past and current CMM Shell Inspection efforts. Calibration of the Sheffield rotary contour gauge has expired and the primary inspector, Matthew Naranjo, has retired. Efforts within the Inspection team are transitioning from maintaining and training new inspectors on Sheffield to off-the-shelf CMM technology. Although inspection of a shell has many requirements, the scope of the data presented in this report focuses on the inner contour, outer contour, radial wall thickness and mass comparisons.

Overturn of the proposed alcohol advertising ban in Lithuania.

Science.gov (United States)

Paukštė, Ernesta; Liutkutė, Vaida; Stelemėkas, Mindaugas; Goštautaitė Midttun, Nijolė; Veryga, Aurelijus

2014-05-01

In response to the dramatic increase in alcohol-related problems in Lithuania, policy measures, including alcohol advertising and availability restrictions combined with taxation increase, were implemented in 2007-08. Simultaneously, a full alcohol advertising ban was adopted to take effect from 1 January 2012. Therefore, the alcohol industry responded with extensive lobbying aiming to revoke this ban, and ultimately they succeeded at the end of December 2011. To document and analyse actions of stakeholders and events during the alcohol advertising ban cancellation process in Lithuania. Policy analysis includes a development of event time-line, description of key stakeholders' actions and a review of policy context. The alcohol industry in Lithuania used similar tactics as the tobacco industry globally, such as creating strong and diverse opposing groups. The industry successfully exerted pressure to change alcohol control legislation, while non-governmental organizations had the important role of a watchdog, blunting industry's efforts. Unequal power distribution made it difficult to withstand combined local and international lobbying to cancel the ban. Given the global nature of the alcohol industry, there is a need for international regulation to limit the influence of vested interests on national lawmaking. © 2014 Society for the Study of Addiction.

How hearing aids, background noise, and visual cues influence objective listening effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Picou, Erin M; Ricketts, Todd A; Hornsby, Benjamin W Y

2013-09-01

The purpose of this article was to evaluate factors that influence the listening effort experienced when processing speech for people with hearing loss. Specifically, the change in listening effort resulting from introducing hearing aids, visual cues, and background noise was evaluated. An additional exploratory aim was to investigate the possible relationships between the magnitude of listening effort change and individual listeners' working memory capacity, verbal processing speed, or lipreading skill. Twenty-seven participants with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were fitted with linear behind-the-ear hearing aids and tested using a dual-task paradigm designed to evaluate listening effort. The primary task was monosyllable word recognition and the secondary task was a visual reaction time task. The test conditions varied by hearing aids (unaided, aided), visual cues (auditory-only, auditory-visual), and background noise (present, absent). For all participants, the signal to noise ratio was set individually so that speech recognition performance in noise was approximately 60% in both the auditory-only and auditory-visual conditions. In addition to measures of listening effort, working memory capacity, verbal processing speed, and lipreading ability were measured using the Automated Operational Span Task, a Lexical Decision Task, and the Revised Shortened Utley Lipreading Test, respectively. In general, the effects measured using the objective measure of listening effort were small (~10 msec). Results indicated that background noise increased listening effort, and hearing aids reduced listening effort, while visual cues did not influence listening effort. With regard to the individual variables, verbal processing speed was negatively correlated with hearing aid benefit for listening effort; faster processors were less likely to derive benefit. Working memory capacity, verbal processing speed, and lipreading ability were related to benefit from visual cues. No

Spacecraft intercept guidance using zero effort miss steering

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, Brett

The suitability of proportional navigation, or an equivalent zero effort miss formulation, for spacecraft intercepts during midcourse guidance, followed by a ballistic coast to the endgame, is addressed. The problem is formulated in terms of relative motion in a general 3D framework. The proposed guidance law for the commanded thrust vector orientation consists of the sum of two terms: (1) along the line of sight unit direction and (2) along the zero effort miss component perpendicular to the line of sight and proportional to the miss itself and a guidance gain. If the guidance law is to be suitable for longer range targeting applications with significant ballistic coasting after burnout, determination of the zero effort miss must account for the different gravitational accelerations experienced by each vehicle. The proposed miss determination techniques employ approximations for the true differential gravity effect. Theoretical results are applied to a numerical engagement scenario and the resulting performance is evaluated in terms of the miss distances determined from nonlinear simulation.

Muscle strength, working capacity and effort in patients with fibromyalgia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørregaard, J; Bülow, P M; Lykkegaard, J J

1997-01-01

exercise capacity, work status and psychometric scoring (SCL-90-R) were correlated. The fibromyalgia patients exhibited significant reduction in voluntary muscle strength of the knee and elbow, flexors and extensors in the order of 20-30%. However, the coefficient of variation was higher among patients......, thus indicating lower effort. The physical performance during an ergometer test corresponded to a maximal oxygen consumption of 21 ml/kg-1 x min-1. The maximal increase in heart rate was only 63% (44-90%) of the predicted increase. Degree of effort or physical capacity did not correlate to psychometric...... scores. Work status was related to psychometric scoring, but not to physical capacity or effort. In conclusion, we found a low degree of effort but near normal physical capacity in the fibromyalgia patients....

The Art of Influencing Decision Makers.

Science.gov (United States)

Diegmueller, Karen

1992-01-01

Influencing educational decision makers requires creating ongoing relationships, keeping everyone informed, and developing persuasive skills. Persuasion requires preparation, refinement, hard work, and a sound understanding of the people being lobbied. Lobbying must be factual and relevant to the audience. The article looks at influence from the…

Workplace High Tech Spurs Retraining Efforts.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Dwight B.

1984-01-01

Discusses who should provide training for displaced workers who need new skills. Areas examined include: (1) the need for retraining; (2) current corporate efforts; (3) agreements in the automotive industry; (4) job quality; (5) the federal government's role; and (6) federal legislation related to the problem. (JN)

APS Education and Diversity Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Prestridge, Katherine; Hodapp, Theodore

2015-11-01

American Physical Society (APS) has a wide range of education and diversity programs and activities, including programs that improve physics education, increase diversity, provide outreach to the public, and impact public policy. We present the latest programs spearheaded by the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP), with highlights from other diversity and education efforts. The CSWP is working to increase the fraction of women in physics, understand and implement solutions for gender-specific issues, enhance professional development opportunities for women in physics, and remedy issues that impact gender inequality in physics. The Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics, Professional Skills Development Workshops, and our new Professional Skills program for students and postdocs are all working towards meeting these goals. The CSWP also has site visit and conversation visit programs, where department chairs request that the APS assess the climate for women in their departments or facilitate climate discussions. APS also has two significant programs to increase participation by underrepresented minorities (URM). The newest program, the APS National Mentoring Community, is working to provide mentoring to URM undergraduates, and the APS Bridge Program is an established effort that is dramatically increasing the number of URM PhDs in physics.

Climate Data Initiative: A Geocuration Effort to Support Climate Resilience

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Rahul; Bugbee, Kaylin; Tilmes, Curt; Pinheiro Privette, Ana

2015-01-01

Curation is traditionally defined as the process of collecting and organizing information around a common subject matter or a topic of interest and typically occurs in museums, art galleries, and libraries. The task of organizing data around specific topics or themes is a vibrant and growing effort in the biological sciences but to date this effort has not been actively pursued in the Earth sciences. In this paper, we introduce the concept of geocuration and define it as the act of searching, selecting, and synthesizing Earth science data/metadata and information from across disciplines and repositories into a single, cohesive, and useful compendium We present the Climate Data Initiative (CDI) project as an exemplar example. The CDI project is a systematic effort to manually curate and share openly available climate data from various federal agencies. CDI is a broad multi-agency effort of the U.S. government and seeks to leverage the extensive existing federal climate-relevant data to stimulate innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship to support national climate-change preparedness. We describe the geocuration process used in CDI project, lessons learned, and suggestions to improve similar geocuration efforts in the future.

Climate data initiative: A geocuration effort to support climate resilience

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Rahul; Bugbee, Kaylin; Tilmes, Curt; Privette, Ana Pinheiro

2016-03-01

Curation is traditionally defined as the process of collecting and organizing information around a common subject matter or a topic of interest and typically occurs in museums, art galleries, and libraries. The task of organizing data around specific topics or themes is a vibrant and growing effort in the biological sciences but to date this effort has not been actively pursued in the Earth sciences. In this paper, we introduce the concept of geocuration and define it as the act of searching, selecting, and synthesizing Earth science data/metadata and information from across disciplines and repositories into a single, cohesive, and useful collection. We present the Climate Data Initiative (CDI) project as a prototypical example. The CDI project is a systematic effort to manually curate and share openly available climate data from various federal agencies. CDI is a broad multi-agency effort of the U.S. government and seeks to leverage the extensive existing federal climate-relevant data to stimulate innovation and private-sector entrepreneurship to support national climate-change preparedness. We describe the geocuration process used in the CDI project, lessons learned, and suggestions to improve similar geocuration efforts in the future.

Overview of NASA Magnet and Linear Alternator Research Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Geng, Steven M.; Niedra, Janis M.; Schwarze, Gene E.

2005-02-01

The Department of Energy, Lockheed Martin, Stirling Technology Company, and NASA Glenn Research Center are developing a high-efficiency, 110 watt Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG110) for NASA Space Science missions. NASA Glenn is conducting in-house research on rare earth permanent magnets and on linear alternators to assist in developing a free-piston Stirling convertor for the SRG110 and for developing advanced technology. The permanent magnet research efforts include magnet characterization, short-term magnet aging tests, and long-term magnet aging tests. Linear alternator research efforts have begun just recently at GRC with the characterization of a moving iron type linear alternator using GRC's alternator test rig. This paper reports on the progress and future plans of GRC's magnet and linear alternator research efforts.

Changing reproductive effort within a semelparous reproductive episode.

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, P William; Simons, Andrew M

2014-08-01

• Life-history theory predicts a trade-off between current and future reproduction for iteroparous organisms-as individuals age, the expected value of future reproduction declines, and thus reproductive effort is expected to be higher in later clutches than in earlier. In contrast, models explaining the evolution of semelparity treat semelparous reproduction as instantaneous, with no scope for intraindividual variation. However, semelparous reproduction is also extended, but over shorter time scales; whether there are similar age- or stage-specific changes in reproductive effort within a semelparous episode is unclear. In this study, we assessed whether semelparous individuals increase reproductive effort as residual reproductive value declines by comparing the reproductive phenotype of flowers at five different floral positions along a main inflorescence.• Using the herbaceous monocarp Lobelia inflata, we conducted a longitudinal study of 409 individuals including both laboratory and field populations over three seasons. We recorded six reproductive traits-including the length of three phenological intervals as well as fruit size, seed size, and seed number-for all plants across floral positions produced throughout the reproductive episode.• We found that while the rate of flower initiation did not change, flowers at distal (late) floral positions developed more quickly and contained larger seed than flowers at basal (early) floral positions did.• Our results were consistent with the hypothesis that, like iteroparous organisms, L. inflata increases reproductive effort in response to low residual reproductive value. © 2014 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Neural substrates of the impaired effort expenditure decision making in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Jia; Yang, Xin-Hua; Lan, Yong; Zhu, Cui-Ying; Liu, Xiao-Qun; Wang, Ye-Fei; Cheung, Eric F C; Xie, Guang-Rong; Chan, Raymond C K

2016-09-01

Unwillingness to expend more effort to pursue high value rewards has been associated with motivational anhedonia in schizophrenia (SCZ) and abnormal dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The authors hypothesized that dysfunction of the NAcc and the associated forebrain regions are involved in the impaired effort expenditure decision-making of SCZ. A 2 (reward magnitude: low vs. high) × 3 (probability: 20% vs. 50% vs. 80%) event-related fMRI design in the effort-expenditure for reward task (EEfRT) was used to examine the neural response of 23 SCZ patients and 23 demographically matched control participants when the participants made effort expenditure decisions to pursue uncertain rewards. SCZ patients were significantly less likely to expend high level of effort in the medium (50%) and high (80%) probability conditions than healthy controls. The neural response in the NAcc, the posterior cingulate gyrus and the left medial frontal gyrus in SCZ patients were weaker than healthy controls and did not linearly increase with an increase in reward magnitude and probability. Moreover, NAcc activity was positively correlated with the willingness to expend high-level effort and concrete consummatory pleasure experience. NAcc and posterior cingulate dysfunctions in SCZ patients may be involved in their impaired effort expenditure decision-making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Student Effort, Consistency, and Online Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Patron, Hilde; Lopez, Salvador

2011-01-01

This paper examines how student effort, consistency, motivation, and marginal learning, influence student grades in an online course. We use data from eleven Microeconomics courses taught online for a total of 212 students. Our findings show that consistency, or less time variation, is a statistically significant explanatory variable, whereas…

Competing probabilistic models for catch-effort relationships in wildlife censuses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skalski, J.R.; Robson, D.S.; Matsuzaki, C.L.

1983-01-01

Two probabilistic models are presented for describing the chance that an animal is captured during a wildlife census, as a function of trapping effort. The models in turn are used to propose relationships between sampling intensity and catch-per-unit-effort (C.P.U.E.) that were field tested on small mammal populations. Capture data suggests a model of diminshing C.P.U.E. with increasing levels of trapping intensity. The catch-effort model is used to illustrate optimization procedures in the design of mark-recapture experiments for censusing wild populations. 14 references, 2 tables.

Winning Connections? Special Interests and the Sale of Failed Banks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Igan (Deniz); T. Lambert (Thomas); W.B. Wagner (Wolf); Q. Zhang (Quxian)

2017-01-01

textabstractWe study how lobbying affects the resolution of failed banks, using a sample of FDIC auctions between 2007 and 2014. We show that bidding banks that lobby regulators have a higher probability of winning an auction. In addition, the FDIC incurs higher costs in such auctions, amounting to

International Emission Trading Systems: Trade Level and Political Acceptability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boom, J-T.; Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard

1999-01-01

, at the international level, industrial lobbyism was non-significant. Only the 'fossil fuel lobby' played a role. Third, at the national level, one could expect strong political opposition from industry lobbies in case quotas are actually to be distributed at firm level. But trade among countries may benefit industry...

The effects of savings on reservation wages and search effort

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lammers, M.

2014-01-01

This paper discusses the interrelations among wealth, reservation wages and search effort. A theoretical job search model predicts wealth to affect reservation wages positively, and search effort negatively. Subsequently, reduced form equations for reservation wages and search intensity take these

Adiposity signals predict vocal effort in Alston's singing mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkhard, Tracy T; Westwick, Rebecca R; Phelps, Steven M

2018-04-25

Advertisement displays often seem extravagant and expensive, and are thought to depend on the body condition of a signaller. Nevertheless, we know little about how signallers adjust effort based on condition, and few studies find a strong relationship between natural variation in condition and display. To examine the relationship between body condition and signal elaboration more fully, we characterized physiological condition and acoustic displays in a wild rodent with elaborate vocalizations, Alston's singing mouse, Scotinomys teguina We found two major axes of variation in condition-one defined by short-term fluctuations in caloric nutrients, and a second by longer-term variation in adiposity. Among acoustic parameters, song effort was characterized by high rates of display and longer songs. Song effort was highly correlated with measures of adiposity. We found that leptin was a particularly strong predictor of display effort. Leptin is known to influence investment in other costly traits, such as immune function and reproduction. Plasma hormone levels convey somatic state to a variety of tissues, and may govern trait investment across vertebrates. Such measures offer new insights into how animals translate body condition into behavioural and life-history decisions. © 2018 The Author(s).

Australian lobbyist registers are not serving the purposes they were designed for.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Narelle; Kypri, Kypros; Stafford, Julia; Daube, Mike; Avery, Michelle; Miller, Peter

2017-07-11

There is widespread concern about the nature, extent and impacts of lobbying by industries selling unhealthy commodities, which threatens public health and undermines important democratic processes. In the last decade, all Australian jurisdictions (except the Northern Territory) have established lobbyist registers with the stated objective of increasing the capacity of government and the public to scrutinise lobbying. Our aim was to assess whether the registers are fulfilling this objective. We conducted web searches of registers in Australian jurisdictions in 2014 and 2015 to determine what type of information they collected and whether data were accessible. We supplemented searches with e-mails and phone calls to registrars to clarify policies and seek additional information. We found that the data were lacking in critical details and historical information was difficult or impossible to obtain. None of the registers required in-house lobbyists to register or to be bound by the Lobbying Codes of Conduct. None required that informal lobbying (e.g. by government relations staff within a company) be recorded, and none provided detailed information about the nature and extent of lobbying activities. The registers do not meet the stated objective of making lobbying activity transparent to the Australian public. Timely access to comprehensive information is essential to help promote the rational development of policy concerning tobacco, alcohol and gambling problems. There is an urgent need to reform lobbyist registers to ensure that they are comprehensive and transparent. [Robertson N, Kypri K, Stafford J, Daube M, Avery M, Miller P. Australian lobbyist registers are not serving the purposes they were designed for. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;00:000-000]. © 2017 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

APA efforts in promoting human rights and social justice.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, Frederick T L; Pickren, Wade E; Vasquez, Melba J T

2017-11-01

This article reviews the American Psychological Association's (APA) efforts in promoting human rights and social justice. Beginning with a historical review of the conceptualizations of human rights and social justice, the social challenges that have faced the United States over time are discussed in relation to the APA's evolving mission and strategic initiatives enacted through its boards, committees, and directorates. From early efforts on the Board for Social and Ethical Responsibility in Psychology and the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs to the establishment of the Public Interest Directorate, the APA's efforts to address these human rights and social justice challenges through its task force reports, guidelines, and policies are described. Specifically, issues related to diversity and underrepresentation of minority group members and perspective within the APA, as well as women's issues (prochoice, violence against women, sexualization of young girls, human trafficking) were central to these efforts. These minority groups included racial and ethnic minority groups; immigrants and refugees; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer individuals; and those with disabilities. Later attention shifted to broader social justice challenges within a public health perspective, such as AIDS, obesity, and violence. Also included is a brief discussion of the Hoffman Report. The article ends with a discussion of future directions for the APA's efforts related to human rights and social justice related to health disparities, violent extremism, social inequality, migration, cultural and racial diversity, and an evidence-based approach to programming. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Work more, then feel more: the influence of effort on affective predictions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriela M Jiga-Boy

Full Text Available Two studies examined how effort invested in a task shapes the affective predictions related to potential success in that task, and the mechanism underlying this relationship. In Study 1, PhD students awaiting an editorial decision about a submitted manuscript estimated the effort they had invested in preparing that manuscript for submission and how happy they would feel if it were accepted. Subjective estimates of effort were positively related to participants' anticipated happiness, an effect mediated by the higher perceived quality of one's work. In other words, the more effort one though having invested, the happier one expected to feel if it were accepted, because one expected a higher quality manuscript. We replicated this effect and its underlying mediation in Study 2, this time using an experimental manipulation of effort in the context of creating an advertising slogan. Study 2 further showed that participants mistakenly thought their extra efforts invested in the task had improved the quality of their work, while independent judges had found no objective differences in quality between the outcomes of the high- and low-effort groups. We discuss the implications of the relationship between effort and anticipated emotions and the conditions under which such relationship might be functional.

Literality and Cognitive Effort

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lacruz, Isabel; Carl, Michael; Yamada, Masaru

2018-01-01

We introduce a notion of pause-word ratio computed using ranges of pause lengths rather than lower cutoffs for pause lengths. Standard pause-word ratios are indicators of cognitive effort during different translation modalities.The pause range version allows for the study of how different types...... remoteness. We use data from the CRITT TPR database, comparing translation and post-editing from English to Japanese and from English to Spanish, and study the interaction of pause-word ratio for short pauses ranging between 300 and 500ms with syntactic remoteness, measured by the CrossS feature, semantic...... remoteness, measured by HTra, and syntactic and semantic remoteness, measured by Literality....

Supercomputer and cluster performance modeling and analysis efforts:2004-2006.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sturtevant, Judith E.; Ganti, Anand; Meyer, Harold (Hal) Edward; Stevenson, Joel O.; Benner, Robert E., Jr. (.,; .); Goudy, Susan Phelps; Doerfler, Douglas W.; Domino, Stefan Paul; Taylor, Mark A.; Malins, Robert Joseph; Scott, Ryan T.; Barnette, Daniel Wayne; Rajan, Mahesh; Ang, James Alfred; Black, Amalia Rebecca; Laub, Thomas William; Vaughan, Courtenay Thomas; Franke, Brian Claude

2007-02-01

This report describes efforts by the Performance Modeling and Analysis Team to investigate performance characteristics of Sandia's engineering and scientific applications on the ASC capability and advanced architecture supercomputers, and Sandia's capacity Linux clusters. Efforts to model various aspects of these computers are also discussed. The goals of these efforts are to quantify and compare Sandia's supercomputer and cluster performance characteristics; to reveal strengths and weaknesses in such systems; and to predict performance characteristics of, and provide guidelines for, future acquisitions and follow-on systems. Described herein are the results obtained from running benchmarks and applications to extract performance characteristics and comparisons, as well as modeling efforts, obtained during the time period 2004-2006. The format of the report, with hypertext links to numerous additional documents, purposefully minimizes the document size needed to disseminate the extensive results from our research.

Heart rate variability reflects self-regulatory strength, effort, and fatigue.

Science.gov (United States)

Segerstrom, Suzanne C; Nes, Lise Solberg

2007-03-01

Experimental research reliably demonstrates that self-regulatory deficits are a consequence of prior self-regulatory effort. However, in naturalistic settings, although people know that they are sometimes vulnerable to saying, eating, or doing the wrong thing, they cannot accurately gauge their capacity to self-regulate at any given time. Because self-regulation and autonomic regulation colocalize in the brain, an autonomic measure, heart rate variability (HRV), could provide an index of self-regulatory strength and activity. During an experimental manipulation of self-regulation (eating carrots or cookies), HRV was elevated during high self-regulatory effort (eat carrots, resist cookies) compared with low self-regulatory effort (eat cookies, resist carrots). The experimental manipulation and higher HRV at baseline independently predicted persistence at a subsequent anagram task. HRV appears to index self-regulatory strength and effort, making it possible to study these phenomena in the field as well as the lab.

The influence of music on mental effort and driving performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Ünal, Ayça Berfu; Steg, Linda; Epstude, Kai

2012-09-01

The current research examined the influence of loud music on driving performance, and whether mental effort mediated this effect. Participants (N=69) drove in a driving simulator either with or without listening to music. In order to test whether music would have similar effects on driving performance in different situations, we manipulated the simulated traffic environment such that the driving context consisted of both complex and monotonous driving situations. In addition, we systematically kept track of drivers' mental load by making the participants verbally report their mental effort at certain moments while driving. We found that listening to music increased mental effort while driving, irrespective of the driving situation being complex or monotonous, providing support to the general assumption that music can be a distracting auditory stimulus while driving. However, drivers who listened to music performed as well as the drivers who did not listen to music, indicating that music did not impair their driving performance. Importantly, the increases in mental effort while listening to music pointed out that drivers try to regulate their mental effort as a cognitive compensatory strategy to deal with task demands. Interestingly, we observed significant improvements in driving performance in two of the driving situations. It seems like mental effort might mediate the effect of music on driving performance in situations requiring sustained attention. Other process variables, such as arousal and boredom, should also be incorporated to study designs in order to reveal more on the nature of how music affects driving. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Lok: a pioneering long-term care organization for the elderly (1971-2008).

Science.gov (United States)

Lehning, Amanda J; Austin, Michael J

2011-01-01

On Lok is a pioneering nonprofit organization that has delivered services to the frail and elderly since its founding in 1971. The agency began as a grassroots effort focused on improving the health care available to older adults living independently in the community. Over its 40-year history, On Lok has evolved into a $70 million nonprofit human service organization with a national reputation for innovation as a leading provider of care to frail elderly. The agency has developed its own model of care that has been replicated in cities around the country. The history of On Lok represents the important impact that donor and community support plays in an organization's long-term success.

Efficient balancing by effort-based activation of demand response services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Claessen, FN; Kaisers, Michael; La Poutré, J.A.

2017-01-01

We present a unified model for flexibility services in the power system, identify two existing categories (ramping and loading) and introduce a new category (stalling). Each service is characterised by duration, capacity and effort, with associated prices. We show that the effort of stalling,

Polio eradication efforts in regions of geopolitical strife: the Boko ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Polio eradication efforts in regions of geopolitical strife: the Boko Haram threat to efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. ... Targets of Boko Haram aggression in these zones include violence against polio workers, disruption of polio immunization campaigns, with consequent reduced access to health care and immunization.

Using posts to an online social network to assess fishing effort

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Dustin R.; Chizinski, Christopher J.; Eskridge, Kent M.; Pope, Kevin L

2014-01-01

Fisheries management has evolved from reservoir to watershed management, creating a need to simultaneously gather information within and across interacting reservoirs. However, costs to gather information on the fishing effort on multiple reservoirs using traditional creel methodology are often prohibitive. Angler posts about reservoirs online provide a unique medium to test hypotheses on the distribution of fishing pressure. We show that the activity on an online fishing social network is related to fishing effort and can be used to facilitate management goals. We searched the Nebraska Fish and Game Association Fishing Forum for all references from April 2009 to December 2010 to 19 reservoirs that comprise the Salt Valley regional fishery in southeastern Nebraska. The number of posts was positively related to monthly fishing effort on a regional scale, with individual reservoirs having the most annual posts also having the most annual fishing effort. Furthermore, this relationship held temporally. Online fishing social networks provide the potential to assess effort on larger spatial scales than currently feasible.

I endeavor to make it: effort increases valuation of subsequent monetary reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Qingguo; Meng, Liang; Wang, Lei; Shen, Qiang

2014-03-15

Although it is commonly accepted that the amount of effort we put into accomplishing a task would exert an influence on subsequent reward processing and outcome evaluation, whether effort is incorporated as a cost or it would increase the valuation of concomitant reward is still under debate. In this study, EEGs were recorded while subjects performed calculation tasks that required different amount of effort, correct responses of which were followed by either no reward or fixed compensation. Results showed that high effort induced larger differentiated FRN responses to the reward and non-reward discrepancy across two experimental conditions. Furthermore, P300 manifested valence effect during reward feedback, with more positive amplitudes for reward than for non-reward only in the high effort condition. These results suggest that effort might increase subjective evaluation toward subsequent reward. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

‘Ekhaya: Human displacement and the yearning for familial homecoming. From Throne (Cathedra to Home (Oikos in a grassroots ecclesiology of place and space: Fides Quaerens Domum et Locum [Faith Seeking Home and Space

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel J. Louw

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The classical definition of theology is ‘faith-seeking understanding’ (fides quaerens intellectum. The focus is on the understanding/interpretation of the object of Christian faith: God. There is another root for the quest for understanding, namely the praxis situation of faith. People live in particular historical contexts that have their own distinctive problems and possibilities; thus, the focus on place and space in a theology of home. A praxis approach is to learn life and the gospel from below, thus the emphasis on a grassroots ecclesiology that is structured like an oikos, a familial dwelling place. This understanding of the dynamics of the fellowship of believers as  oikodomein is captured by the Zulu notion for the yearning for home (home sickness: Ekhaya. It is argued that Ekhaya thinking is an alternative route for an operative ecclesiology that caters for the need of marginalised, oppressed, displaced and homeless people. Practical theology is thus described as fides  quaerens domum et locum [faith-seeking home and place], namely to inhabit. An Ekhaya approach to practical theological ecclesiology is about critical reflection through the eyes of those who are weak and who don’t count for much by the standards of successful people and institutions.

International Efforts for the Nuclear Security

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoo, Ho Sik; Kwak, Sung Woo; Lee, Ho Jin; Shim, Hye Won; Lee, Jong Uk

2005-01-01

Many concerns have been focused on the nuclear security since the 9.11. With increasing the threat related to nuclear material and nuclear facilities, the demand of strengthening the international physical protection system has been raised. Along with this, the international communities are making their efforts to increase nuclear security. The agreement of revising the 'Convention on Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials'(hereafter, CPPNM), which was held in Vienna on the July of 2005, was one of these efforts. U.N is also preparing the 'International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism' to show its firm resolution against nuclear terror. It is important to understand what measures should be taken to meet the international standard for establishing national physical protection system. To do this, international trend on the physical protection system such as CPPNM and U.N. convention should be followed. This paper explains about the content of the CPPNM and U.N convention. They will be helpful to consolidate the physical protection system in Korea

Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2015.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-08-01

This report provides a summary of the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in recycling : reclaimed materials in highway construction during calendar year 2015. This report meets the requirements of Illinois Publ...

Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2014.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-08-01

This report presents the 2014 sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in : recycling reclaimed materials in highway construction. This report meets the requirements of Illinois : Public Act 097-0314 by documenting I...

Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2016.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-07-04

This report provides a summary of the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in recycling : reclaimed materials in highway construction during calendar year 2016. This report meets the requirements of Illinois Publ...

Detection of suboptimal effort with symbol span: development of a new embedded index.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, J Christopher; Caron, Joshua E; Baughman, Brandon C; Sawyer, R John

2012-03-01

Developing embedded indicators of suboptimal effort on objective neurocognitive testing is essential for detecting increasingly sophisticated forms of symptom feigning. The current study explored whether Symbol Span, a novel Wechsler Memory Scale-fourth edition measure of supraspan visual attention, could be used to discriminate adequate effort from suboptimal effort. Archival data were collected from 136 veterans classified into Poor Effort (n = 42) and Good Effort (n = 94) groups based on symptom validity test (SVT) performance. The Poor Effort group had significantly lower raw scores (p Span test. A raw score cutoff of Span can effectively differentiate veterans with multiple failures on established free-standing and embedded SVTs.

Lobbying Semi-Annual Activity

Data.gov (United States)

Montgomery County of Maryland — This dataset contains Registration and Activity Reporting information lobbyists have provided. The dollar figures in the far right columns are the total of expenses...

Supporting Faculty Grassroots Leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Kezar, Adrianna; Lester, Jaime

2009-01-01

Various factors are making faculty leadership challenging including the rise in part-time and non-tenure-track faculty, the increasing pressure to publish and teach more courses and adopt new technologies and pedagogies, increasing standards for tenure and promotion, ascension of academic capitalism, and heavy service roles for women and people of…

Grassroots indicators for desertification

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily .... on Environment and Development (UNCED) Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro ... The final text of the Convention adopted UNCED's basic definition of ...... programs on sanitation and good feeding, better agricultural practices, etc.

Neural Correlates of Impaired Reward-Effort Integration in Remitted Bulimia Nervosa.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueller, Stefanie Verena; Morishima, Yosuke; Schwab, Simon; Wiest, Roland; Federspiel, Andrea; Hasler, Gregor

2018-03-01

The integration of reward magnitudes and effort costs is required for an effective behavioral guidance. This reward-effort integration was reported to be dependent on dopaminergic neurotransmission. As bulimia nervosa has been associated with a dysregulated dopamine system and catecholamine depletion led to reward-processing deficits in remitted bulimia nervosa, the purpose of this study was to identify the role of catecholamine dysfunction and its relation to behavioral and neural reward-effort integration in bulimia nervosa. To investigate the interaction between catecholamine functioning and behavioral, and neural responses directly, 17 remitted bulimic (rBN) and 21 healthy individuals (HC) received alpha-methyl-paratyrosine (AMPT) over 24 h to achieve catecholamine depletion in a randomized, crossover study design. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the monetary incentive delay (MID) task to assess reward-effort integration in relation to catecholaminergic neurotransmission at the behavioral and neural level. AMPT reduced the ability to integrate rewards and efforts effectively in HC participants. In contrast, in rBN participants, the reduced reward-effort integration was associated with illness duration in the sham condition and unrelated to catecholamine depletion. Regarding neural activation, AMPT decreased the reward anticipation-related neural activation in the anteroventral striatum. This decrease was associated with the AMPT-induced reduction of monetary earning in HC in contrast to rBN participants. Our findings contributed to the theory of a desensitized dopaminergic system in bulimia nervosa. A disrupted processing of reward magnitudes and effort costs might increase the probability of maintenance of bulimic symptoms.

EU grid computing effort takes on malaria

CERN Multimedia

Lawrence, Stacy

2006-01-01

Malaria is the world's most common parasitic infection, affecting more thatn 500 million people annually and killing more than 1 million. In order to help combat malaria, CERN has launched a grid computing effort (1 page)

Illinois highway materials sustainability efforts of 2013.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-08-01

This report presents the sustainability efforts of the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) in : recycling and reclaiming materials for use in highway construction. This report meets the requirements of : Illinois Public Act 097-0314 by docum...

VIOLENCE IN MARKETING COMMUNICATION EFFORTS OF FASHION BRANDS: SHOCKVERTISING

OpenAIRE

BAYAZIT, Zeynep; PANAYIRCI, Uğur Cevdet

2016-01-01

Contemporary social and technological changes inevitably affect consumer behaviour. Today’s customer is savvy, have no time and hard to persuade. This new relationship between customers and brands has a deeper impact on competitive industries such as fashion. Fashion brands are eager to adopt shocking themes for their marketing communication efforts in order to emotionally affect and challenge consumers. Aim of this study is to study with a critical perspective the advertisement efforts of fa...

Self-managed working time and employee effort: Microeconometric evidence

OpenAIRE

Beckmann, Michael; Cornelissen, Thomas

2014-01-01

Based on German individual-level panel data, this paper empirically examines the impact of self-managed working time (SMWT) on employee effort. Theoretically, workers may respond positively or negatively to having control over their own working hours, depending on whether SMWT increases work morale, induces reciprocal work intensification, or encourages employee shirking. We find that SMWT employees exert higher effort levels than employees with fixed working hours, but after accounting for o...

Goddard Technology Efforts to Improve Space Borne Laser Reliability

Science.gov (United States)

Heaps, William S.

2006-01-01

In an effort to reduce the risk, perceived and actual, of employing instruments containing space borne lasers NASA initiated the Laser Risk Reduction Program (LRRP) in 2001. This program managed jointly by NASA Langley and NASA Goddard and employing lasers researchers from government, university and industrial labs is nearing the conclusion of its planned 5 year duration. This paper will describe some of the efforts and results obtained by the Goddard half of the program.

Reasonable limits to radiation protection efforts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonen, Y.G.

1982-01-01

It is shown that change in life expectancy (ΔLE) is an improved estimate for risks and safety efforts, reflecting the relevant social goal. A cost-effectiveness index, safety investment/ΔLE, is defined. The harm from low level radiation is seen as a reduction of life expectancy instead of an increased probability of contracting cancer. (author)

Extended Stay: Factors Contributing to Success or Failure When African Presidents Attempt to Amend Constitutions to Hold on to Power

Science.gov (United States)

2017-06-01

million prize for “a democratic head of state that has left office in the last three years and demonstrated excellent leadership .” In 2009, 2010, 2012...formalized education was not found to be important. In 2014, new grassroots, pro- democratic civil society organizations capitalized on urban...The factor of formalized education was not found to be important. In 2014, new grassroots, pro- democratic civil society organizations capitalized on

Private Speech Moderates the Effects of Effortful Control on Emotionality

Science.gov (United States)

Day, Kimberly L.; Smith, Cynthia L.; Neal, Amy; Dunsmore, Julie C.

2018-01-01

Research Findings: In addition to being a regulatory strategy, children's private speech may enhance or interfere with their effortful control used to regulate emotion. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether children's private speech during a selective attention task moderated the relations of their effortful control to their…

Optimal Effort in Consumer Choice : Theory and Experimental Evidence for Binary Choice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Conlon, B.J.; Dellaert, B.G.C.; van Soest, A.H.O.

2001-01-01

This paper develops a theoretical model of optimal effort in consumer choice.The model extends previous consumer choice models in that the consumer not only chooses a product, but also decides how much effort to apply to a given choice problem.The model yields a unique optimal level of effort, which

Effort-Based Decision Making: A Novel Approach for Assessing Motivation in Schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Michael F; Horan, William P; Barch, Deanna M; Gold, James M

2015-09-01

Because negative symptoms, including motivational deficits, are a critical unmet need in schizophrenia, there are many ongoing efforts to develop new pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for these impairments. A common challenge of these studies involves how to evaluate and select optimal endpoints. Currently, all studies of negative symptoms in schizophrenia depend on ratings from clinician-conducted interviews. Effort-based decision-making tasks may provide a more objective, and perhaps more sensitive, endpoint for trials of motivational negative symptoms. These tasks assess how much effort a person is willing to exert for a given level of reward. This area has been well-studied with animal models of effort and motivation, and effort-based decision-making tasks have been adapted for use in humans. Very recently, several studies have examined physical and cognitive types of effort-based decision-making tasks in cross-sectional studies of schizophrenia, providing evidence for effort-related impairment in this illness. This article covers the theoretical background on effort-based decision-making tasks to provide a context for the subsequent articles in this theme section. In addition, we review the existing literature of studies using these tasks in schizophrenia, consider some practical challenges in adapting them for use in clinical trials in schizophrenia, and discuss interpretive challenges that are central to these types of tasks. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Cognitive capacity limitations and Need for Cognition differentially predict reward-induced cognitive effort expenditure.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandra, Dasha A; Otto, A Ross

2018-03-01

While psychological, economic, and neuroscientific accounts of behavior broadly maintain that people minimize expenditure of cognitive effort, empirical work reveals how reward incentives can mobilize increased cognitive effort expenditure. Recent theories posit that the decision to expend effort is governed, in part, by a cost-benefit tradeoff whereby the potential benefits of mental effort can offset the perceived costs of effort exertion. Taking an individual differences approach, the present study examined whether one's executive function capacity, as measured by Stroop interference, predicts the extent to which reward incentives reduce switch costs in a task-switching paradigm, which indexes additional expenditure of cognitive effort. In accordance with the predictions of a cost-benefit account of effort, we found that a low executive function capacity-and, relatedly, a low intrinsic motivation to expend effort (measured by Need for Cognition)-predicted larger increase in cognitive effort expenditure in response to monetary reward incentives, while individuals with greater executive function capacity-and greater intrinsic motivation to expend effort-were less responsive to reward incentives. These findings suggest that an individual's cost-benefit tradeoff is constrained by the perceived costs of exerting cognitive effort. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New Mexico district work-effort analysis computer program

Science.gov (United States)

Hiss, W.L.; Trantolo, A.P.; Sparks, J.L.

1972-01-01

The computer program (CAN 2) described in this report is one of several related programs used in the New Mexico District cost-analysis system. The work-effort information used in these programs is accumulated and entered to the nearest hour on forms completed by each employee. Tabulating cards are punched directly from these forms after visual examinations for errors are made. Reports containing detailed work-effort data itemized by employee within each project and account and by account and project for each employee are prepared for both current-month and year-to-date periods by the CAN 2 computer program. An option allowing preparation of reports for a specified 3-month period is provided. The total number of hours worked on each account and project and a grand total of hours worked in the New Mexico District is computed and presented in a summary report for each period. Work effort not chargeable directly to individual projects or accounts is considered as overhead and can be apportioned to the individual accounts and projects on the basis of the ratio of the total hours of work effort for the individual accounts or projects to the total New Mexico District work effort at the option of the user. The hours of work performed by a particular section, such as General Investigations or Surface Water, are prorated and charged to the projects or accounts within the particular section. A number of surveillance or buffer accounts are employed to account for the hours worked on special events or on those parts of large projects or accounts that require a more detailed analysis. Any part of the New Mexico District operation can be separated and analyzed in detail by establishing an appropriate buffer account. With the exception of statements associated with word size, the computer program is written in FORTRAN IV in a relatively low and standard language level to facilitate its use on different digital computers. The program has been run only on a Control Data Corporation

Manager’s Dilemma: Stockholders’ and Consumers’ Responses to Corporate Environmental Efforts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prayag Lal Yadav

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study aims to reveal that different stakeholders have different environmental preferences by demonstrating the managers’ dilemma of selecting an appropriate environmental strategy to achieve firms’ corporate goals. It analyzes the effects of firms’ efforts in environmental impact through actual environmental practices and environmental considerations in environmental management on stockholders’ and consumers’ responses by using the Newsweek Green Rankings 2012 for large US-based firms. The study uses the event study methodology and the ordinary least squares multivariate regression model conditioned with relevant firm and industry-specific characteristics. The results indicate that both stockholders and consumers appreciate corporate efforts in reducing environmental damage; however, consumers exhibit a significant and negative response against firms’ environmental management efforts. The conflicting results provide valuable insights into the alignment of environmental efforts for developing core competencies that lead firms toward sustainability. Further, this research makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature and provides guidelines for the formulation of public policies that encourage corporate environmental efforts to ensure simultaneous development of business and society.

The National Air Intelligence Center Software Process Improvement Effort (NAIC SPI)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Blankenship, Donald

2001-01-01

...) Software Process Improvements effort. The objective of this effort was for the contractor to provide engineering and software process improvement for NAIC/SCD to reach SEI's CMM Level 2 in process maturity...

Effort-Reward Imbalance for Learning Is Associated with Fatigue in School Children

Science.gov (United States)

Fukuda, Sanae; Yamano, Emi; Joudoi, Takako; Mizuno, Kei; Tanaka, Masaaki; Kawatani, Junko; Takano, Miyuki; Tomoda, Akemi; Imai-Matsumura, Kyoko; Miike, Teruhisa; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

2010-01-01

We examined relationships among fatigue, sleep quality, and effort-reward imbalance for learning in school children. We developed an effort-reward for learning scale in school students and examined its reliability and validity. Self-administered surveys, including the effort reward for leaning scale and fatigue scale, were completed by 1,023…

49 CFR Appendix A to Part 26 - Guidance Concerning Good Faith Efforts

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Guidance Concerning Good Faith Efforts A Appendix... A to Part 26—Guidance Concerning Good Faith Efforts I. When, as a recipient, you establish a... good faith efforts to meet the goal. The bidder can meet this requirement in either of two ways. First...

29 CFR 1620.16 - Jobs requiring equal effort in performance.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

..., however, that men and women are working side by side on a line assembling parts. Suppose further that one... 29 Labor 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Jobs requiring equal effort in performance. 1620.16 Section... EQUAL PAY ACT § 1620.16 Jobs requiring equal effort in performance. (a) In general. The jobs to which...

Seasonal abundance, distribution, and catch per unit effort using gill ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Catch per unit effort was obtained for the fish of the Sundays .... Methods. Catch per unit effort (numbers and weight/net) of fish in the estuary was obtained from 55 .... Table 1 CPUE (number and mass) of fish caught monthly using gill-net over 12·h periods with 55 nettings at .... The abundance of some other species may.

Regularization in global sound equalization based on effort variation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stefanakis, Nick; Sarris, John; Jacobsen, Finn

2009-01-01

. Effort variation equalization involves modifying the conventional cost function in sound equalization, which is based on minimizing least-squares reproduction errors, by adding a term that is proportional to the squared deviations between complex source strengths, calculated independently for the sources......Sound equalization in closed spaces can be significantly improved by generating propagating waves that are naturally associated with the geometry, as, for example, plane waves in rectangular enclosures. This paper presents a control approach termed effort variation regularization based on this idea...

Divided attention and mental effort after severe traumatic brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Azouvi, Philippe; Couillet, Josette; Leclercq, Michel; Martin, Yves; Asloun, Sybille; Rousseaux, Marc

2004-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess dual-task performance in TBI patients, under different experimental conditions, with or without explicit emphasis on one of two tasks. Results were compared with measurement of the subjective mental effort required to perform each task. Forty-three severe TBI patients at the subacute or chronic phase performed two tasks under single- and dual-task conditions: (a) random generation; (b) visual go-no go reaction time task. Three dual-task conditions were given, requiring either to consider both tasks as equally important or to focus preferentially on one of them. Patients were compared to matched controls. Subjective mental effort was rated on a visual analogic scale. TBI patients showed a disproportionate increase in reaction time in the go-no go task under the dual-task condition. However, they were just as able as controls to adapt performance to the specific instructions about the task to be emphasised. Patients reported significantly higher subjective mental effort, but the variation of mental effort according to task condition was similar to that of controls. These results suggest that the divided attention deficit of TBI patients is related to a reduction in available processing resources rather than an impairment of strategic processes responsible for attentional allocation and switching. The higher level of subjective mental effort may explain why TBI patients frequently complain of mental fatigue, although this subjective complaint seems to be relatively independent of cognitive impairment.

An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance

Science.gov (United States)

Kurzban, Robert; Duckworth, Angela; Kable, Joseph W.; Myers, Justus

2013-01-01

Why does performing certain tasks cause the aversive experience of mental effort and concomitant deterioration in task performance? One explanation posits a physical resource that is depleted over time. We propose an alternate explanation that centers on mental representations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance. Specifically, certain computational mechanisms, especially those associated with executive function, can be deployed for only a limited number of simultaneous tasks at any given moment. Consequently, the deployment of these computational mechanisms carries an opportunity cost – that is, the next-best use to which these systems might be put. We argue that the phenomenology of effort can be understood as the felt output of these cost/benefit computations. In turn, the subjective experience of effort motivates reduced deployment of these computational mechanisms in the service of the present task. These opportunity cost representations, then, together with other cost/benefit calculations, determine effort expended and, everything else equal, result in performance reductions. In making our case for this position, we review alternate explanations both for the phenomenology of effort associated with these tasks and for performance reductions over time. Likewise, we review the broad range of relevant empirical results from across subdisciplines, especially psychology and neuroscience. We hope that our proposal will help to build links among the diverse fields that have been addressing similar questions from different perspectives, and we emphasize ways in which alternate models might be empirically distinguished. PMID:24304775

Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Siegrist, J

1996-01-01

In addition to the person-environment fit model (J. R. French, R. D. Caplan, & R. V. Harrison, 1982) and the demand-control model (R. A. Karasek & T. Theorell, 1990), a third theoretical concept is proposed to assess adverse health effects of stressful experience at work: the effort-reward imbalance model. The focus of this model is on reciprocity of exchange in occupational life where high-cost/low-gain conditions are considered particularly stressful. Variables measuring low reward in terms of low status control (e.g., lack of promotion prospects, job insecurity) in association with high extrinsic (e.g., work pressure) or intrinsic (personal coping pattern, e.g., high need for control) effort independently predict new cardiovascular events in a prospective study on blue-collar men. Furthermore, these variables partly explain prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, atherogenic lipids) in 2 independent studies. Studying adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions seems well justified, especially in view of recent developments of the labor market.

Vena Cava Responsiveness to Controlled Isovolumetric Respiratory Efforts.

Science.gov (United States)

Folino, Anna; Benzo, Marco; Pasquero, Paolo; Laguzzi, Andrea; Mesin, Luca; Messere, Alessandro; Porta, Massimo; Roatta, Silvestro

2017-10-01

Respirophasic variation of inferior vena cava (IVC) size is affected by large variability with spontaneous breathing. This study aims at characterizing the dependence of IVC size on controlled changes in intrathoracic pressure. Ten healthy subjects, in supine position, performed controlled isovolumetric respiratory efforts at functional residual capacity, attaining positive (5, 10, and 15 mmHg) and negative (-5, -10, and -15 mmHg) alveolar pressure levels. The isovolumetric constraint implies that equivalent changes are exhibited by alveolar and intrathoracic pressures during respiratory tasks. The IVC cross-sectional area equal to 2.88 ± 0.43 cm 2 at baseline (alveolar pressure = 0 mmHg) was progressively decreased by both expiratory and inspiratory efforts of increasing strength, with diaphragmatic efforts producing larger effects than thoracic ones: -55 ± 15% decrease, at +15 mmHg of alveolar pressure (P < .01), -80 ± 33 ± 12% at -15 mmHg diaphragmatic (P < .01), -33 ± 12% at -15 mmHg thoracic. Significant IVC changes in size (P < .01) and pulsatility (P < .05), along with non significant reduction in the response to respiratory efforts, were also observed during the first 30 minutes of supine rest, detecting an increase in vascular filling, and taking place after switching from the standing to the supine position. This study quantified the dependence of the IVC cross-sectional area on controlled intrathoracic pressure changes and evidenced the stronger influence of diaphragmatic over thoracic activity. Individual variability in thoracic/diaphragmatic respiratory pattern should be considered in the interpretation of the respirophasic modulations of IVC size. © 2017 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

Non-proliferation efforts in South Asia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chellaney, B.

1994-01-01

Southern Asia is one of the most volatile regions in the world because of inter-State and intra-State conflicts. Security in the region highly depends on the rival capabilities of the involved states, Pakistan, India, China. Increased Confidence building and nuclear transparency are becoming more significant issues in attaining stability in the region, although non-proliferation efforts in this region have attained little headway

Software project effort estimation foundations and best practice guidelines for success

CERN Document Server

Trendowicz, Adam

2014-01-01

Software effort estimation is one of the oldest and most important problems in software project management, and thus today there are a large number of models, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses in general, and even more importantly, in relation to the environment and context in which it is to be applied.Trendowicz and Jeffery present a comprehensive look at the principles of software effort estimation and support software practitioners in systematically selecting and applying the most suitable effort estimation approach. Their book not only presents what approach to take and how

Sharing Information among Various Organizations in Relief Efforts

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Costur, Gurkan

2005-01-01

.... An analysis is presented of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami relief effort; specifically, how different organizations such as the military, United Nations, and non-governmental organizations...

Complicating decisions: The work ethic heuristic and the construction of effortful decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Schrift, Rom Y; Kivetz, Ran; Netzer, Oded

2016-07-01

The notion that effort and hard work yield desired outcomes is ingrained in many cultures and affects our thinking and behavior. However, could valuing effort complicate our lives? In the present article, the authors demonstrate that individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes end up complicating what should be easy decisions. People distort their preferences and the information they search and recall in a manner that intensifies the choice conflict and decisional effort they experience before finalizing their choice. Six experiments identify the effort-outcome link as the underlying mechanism for such conflict-increasing behavior. Individuals with a stronger tendency to link effort with positive outcomes (e.g., individuals who subscribe to a Protestant Work Ethic) are shown to complicate decisions by: (a) distorting evaluations of alternatives (Study 1); (b) distorting information recalled about the alternatives (Studies 2a and 2b); and (3) distorting interpretations of information about the alternatives (Study 3). Further, individuals conduct a superfluous search for information and spend more time than needed on what should have been an easy decision (Studies 4a and 4b). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Reproductive effort accelerates actuarial senescence in wild birds : An experimental study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boonekamp, Jelle J.; Salomons, Martijn; Bouwhuis, Sandra; Dijkstra, Cornelis; Verhulst, Simon

Optimality theories of ageing predict that the balance between reproductive effort and somatic maintenance determines the rate of ageing. Laboratory studies find that increased reproductive effort shortens lifespan, but through increased short-term mortality rather than ageing. In contrast, high

PROBABILISTIC RISK ANALYSIS OF REMEDIATION EFFORTS IN NAPL SITES

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez-Garcia, D.; de Vries, L.; Pool, M.; Sapriza, G.; Sanchez-Vila, X.; Bolster, D.; Tartakovsky, D. M.

2009-12-01

The release of non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) such as petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents in the subsurface is a severe source of groundwater and vapor contamination. Because these liquids are essentially immiscible due to low solubility, these contaminants get slowly dissolved in groundwater and/or volatilized in the vadoze zone threatening the environment and public health over a long period. Many remediation technologies and strategies have been developed in the last decades for restoring the water quality properties of these contaminated sites. The failure of an on-site treatment technology application is often due to the unnoticed presence of dissolved NAPL entrapped in low permeability areas (heterogeneity) and/or the remaining of substantial amounts of pure phase after remediation efforts. Full understanding of the impact of remediation efforts is complicated due to the role of many interlink physical and biochemical processes taking place through several potential pathways of exposure to multiple receptors in a highly unknown heterogeneous environment. Due to these difficulties, the design of remediation strategies and definition of remediation endpoints have been traditionally determined without quantifying the risk associated with the failure of such efforts. We conduct a probabilistic risk assessment of the likelihood of success of an on-site NAPL treatment technology that easily integrates all aspects of the problem (causes, pathways, and receptors). Thus, the methodology allows combining the probability of failure of a remediation effort due to multiple causes, each one associated to several pathways and receptors.

Medial Orbitofrontal Cortex Mediates Effort-related Responding in Rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Münster, Alexandra; Hauber, Wolfgang

2017-11-17

The medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) is known to support flexible control of goal-directed behavior. However, limited evidence suggests that the mOFC also mediates the ability of organisms to work with vigor towards a selected goal, a hypothesis that received little consideration to date. Here we show that excitotoxic mOFC lesion increased responding under a progressive ratio (PR) schedule of reinforcement, that is, the highest ratio achieved, and increased the preference for the high effort-high reward option in an effort-related decision-making task, but left intact outcome-selective Pavlovian-instrumental transfer and outcome-specific devaluation. Moreover, pharmacological inhibition of the mOFC increased, while pharmacological stimulation reduced PR responding. In addition, pharmacological mOFC stimulation attenuated methylphenidate-induced increase of PR responding. Intact rats tested for PR responding displayed higher numbers of c-Fos positive mOFC neurons than appropriate controls; however, mOFC neurons projecting to the nucleus accumbens did not show a selective increase in neuronal activation implying that they may not play a major role in regulating PR responding. Collectively, these results suggest that the mOFC plays a major role in mediating effort-related motivational functions. Moreover, our data demonstrate for the first time that the mOFC modulates effort-related effects of psychostimulant drugs. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Fishing effects in northeast Atlantic shelf seas : patterns in fishing effort, diversity and community structure. III. International trawling effort in the North Sea : an analysis of spatial and temporal trends

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jennings, S.; Alsväg, J.; Cotter, A.J.R.

1999-01-01

of beam trawling effort increases from north to south. Plots of annual fishing effort by ICES statistical rectangle (211 boxes of 0.5 degrees latitude x 1 degrees longitude) indicate that the majority of fishing effort in the North Sea are concentrated in a very few rectangles. Thus mean annual total...

Students' Academic Performance: Academic Effort Is an Intervening ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... Students' Academic Performance: Academic Effort Is an Intervening Variable ... This study was designed to seek explanations for differences in academic performance among junior ...

Environmental Determinants of Lexical Processing Effort

OpenAIRE

McDonald, Scott

2000-01-01

Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation A central concern of psycholinguistic research is explaining the relative ease or difficulty involved in processing words. In this thesis, we explore the connection between lexical processing effort and measurable properties of the linguistic environment. Distributional information (information about a word’s contexts of use) is easily extracted from large language corpora in the form of co-occurrence statistics. We claim that su...

Musculoskeletal pain and effort-reward imbalance--a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, Peter; Schablon, Anja; Latza, Ute; Nienhaus, Albert

2014-01-15

Musculoskeletal pain may be triggered by physical strains and psychosocial risk factors. The effort-reward imbalance model (ERI model) is a stress model which measures psychosocial factors in the working world. The question is whether workers with an effort-reward imbalance report musculoskeletal pain more frequently than those with no effort-reward imbalance. A systematic review using a best evidence synthesis approach was conducted to answer this question. A literature search was conducted for the period from 1996 to 2012, using three databases (Pubmed, Embase and PsycINFO). The research criteria related to psychosocial, work-related stress as per the ERI model and to musculoskeletal pain. A quality score was developed using various quality criteria to assess the standard of the studies. The level of evidence was graded as in (Am J Ind Med 39:180-193, 2001). After applying the inclusion criteria, a total of 19 studies were included in the review: 15 cross-sectional studies, three prospective studies and one case-control study. 74% of all studies exhibited good methodological quality, 53% collected data using the original ERI questionnaire, and in 42% of the studies, there was adequate control for physical working conditions. Furthermore, different cut-off points were used to classify exposed and non-exposed individuals. On the basis of 13 studies with a positive, statistically significant association, a moderate level of evidence was inferred for the association between effort-reward imbalance and musculoskeletal pain. The evidence for a role of over-commitment and for its interaction with effort-reward imbalance was rated as inconclusive - on the basis of eight and five studies, respectively. On the basis of the available evidence, no reliable conclusion may be drawn about any association between the psychosocial factors ascertained using the ERI model and musculoskeletal pain. Before a reliable statement can be made on the association between ERI and

Sidoarjo mudflow phenomenon and its mitigation efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Wibowo, H. T.; Williams, V.

2009-12-01

Hot mud first erupted in Siring village, Porong, Sidoarjo May 29th 2006. The mud first appeared approximately 200 meters from Banjarpanji-1 gas-drilling well. The mud volume increased day by day, from 5000 cubic meters per day on June 2006 to 50,000 cubic meters per day during the last of 2006, and then increased to 100,000-120,000 cubic meters per day during 2007. Flow still continues at a high rate. Moreover, as the water content has gone down, the clast content has gone up. Consequently, there is now the threat of large amounts of solid material being erupted throughout the area. Also, there is the issue of subsurface collapse and ground surface subsidence. The Indonesian government has set up a permanent team to support communities affected by the mudflow that has swamped a number of villages near LUSI. Toll roads, railway tracks and factories also have been submerged and over 35,000 people have been displaced to date. The Sidoarjo Mudflow Mitigation Agency [SMMA, BPLS (Indonesia)] replaces a temporary team called National Team PSLS which was installed for seven months and ended their work on 7 April 2007. BPLS was set up by Presidential Regulation No. 14 / 2007, and it will have to cover the costs related to the social impact of the disaster, especially outside the swamped area. BPLS is the central government institution designated to handle the disaster by coordination with both the drilling company and local (provincial and district) governments. It takes a comprehensive, integrated and holistic approach for its mission and challenges. Those are: 1) How to stop the mudflow, 2) How to mitigate the impacts of the mudflow, and 3) How to minimize the social, economic, environmental impacts, and infrastructure impacts. The mudflow mitigation efforts were constrained by dynamic geology conditions, as well as resistance to certain measures by residents of impacted areas. Giant dykes were built to retain the spreading mud, and the mudflow from the main vent was

The Relationship Between the Effort-Reward Imbalance and Psychosocial Health in Nurses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fariborz Roshangar

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The health of nurses as providers of health affects the quality of care provided by health care organizations to patients. The effort-reward imbalance is accompanied by repressive responses that can lead to physical and psychological diseases as well as stressful experiences in nurses’ activity. Regarding the existence of some discrimination in the system of health, the present study was conducted to determine the relationship between the effort-reward imbalance and psychosocial health in nurses. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 270 nurses working in five medical-educational centers in Tabriz participated through random-quota sampling. The research tool included a demographic questionnaire, Siegrist effort- reward imbalance questionnaire and Copenhagen Psychosocial questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS V18 and descriptive and inferential statistics. In the present study, 54.8% of the patients were suffering from effort- reward imbalance model (occupational stress. The relatively high prevalence of this can be attributed to the conditions of the hospital's working environment. The results of this study showed a significant relationship between psychosocial health and balance of reward and effort in nurses and also the findings of the research showed a positive and significant relationship between mental and social health and the score of effort-reward imbalance model (0.95 = R, and P <0.05. There was a significant relationship between effort and work commitment and job burnout. Considering the stressful nature of the profession among many reasons, the mental health of nurses is at a higher risk than that of other groups in the society. Because some factors related to the imbalance in the effort and reward (stress is inevitable, it is necessary in the profession of nursing for managers to review their employees' position and characteristics to find out their staff’s attitudes and behaviors and direct them in the right path.

Opportunities for cost-sharing in conservation: variation in volunteering effort across protected areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Armsworth, Paul R; Cantú-Salazar, Lisette; Parnell, Mark; Booth, Josephine E; Stoneman, Rob; Davies, Zoe G

2013-01-01

Efforts to expand protected area networks are limited by the costs of managing protected sites. Volunteers who donate labor to help manage protected areas can help defray these costs. However, volunteers may be willing to donate more labor to some protected areas than others. Understanding variation in volunteering effort would enable conservation organizations to account for volunteer labor in their strategic planning. We examined variation in volunteering effort across 59 small protected areas managed by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, a regional conservation nonprofit in the United Kingdom. Three surveys of volunteering effort reveal consistent patterns of variation across protected areas. Using the most detailed of these sources, a survey of site managers, we estimate that volunteers provided 3200 days of labor per year across the 59 sites with a total value exceeding that of paid staff time spent managing the sites. The median percentage by which volunteer labor supplements management costs on the sites was 36%. Volunteering effort and paid management costs are positively correlated, after controlling for the effect of site area. We examined how well a range of characteristics of the protected areas and surrounding communities explain variation in volunteering effort. Protected areas that are larger have been protected for longer and that are located near to denser conurbations experience greater volunteering effort. Together these factors explain 38% of the observed variation in volunteering effort across protected areas.

Voluntary versus Enforced Team Effort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudia Keser

2011-08-01

Full Text Available We present a model where each of two players chooses between remuneration based on either private or team effort. Although at least one of the players has the equilibrium strategy to choose private remuneration, we frequently observe both players to choose team remuneration in a series of laboratory experiments. This allows for high cooperation payoffs but also provides individual free-riding incentives. Due to significant cooperation, we observe that, in team remuneration, participants make higher profits than in private remuneration. We also observe that, when participants are not given the option of private remuneration, they cooperate significantly less.

B and W owners group scram reduction efforts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rose, S.T.

1985-01-01

Reducing the frequency of reactor scrams is an important and highly visible task. Scram frequency is one indicator of how consistently a unit is operated within desired bounds and hence is a key performance indicator. To be successful and efficient in this undertaking, diligent effort by the individual utilities should be complimented by collective action to resolve generic problems. The Babcock and Wilcox (B and W) Owners Group is committed to improving the productivity of its operating units and, in particular, to reducing the number of scrams experienced at the units. Toward this goal, the owners group has undertaken several initiatives to improve the reliability and performance of systems that historically have reactor trips. This paper describes those efforts and how they were identified

The success factors of scaling-up Estonian sexual and reproductive health youth clinic network--from a grassroots initiative to a national programme 1991-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Kempers, Jari; Ketting, Evert; Chandra-Mouli, Venkatraman; Raudsepp, Triin

2015-01-08

A growing number of middle-income countries are scaling up youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health pilot projects to national level programmes. Yet, there are few case studies on successful national level scale-up of such programmes. Estonia is an excellent example of scale-up of a small grassroots adolescent sexual and reproductive health initiative to a national programme, which most likely contributed to improved adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes. This study; (1) documents the scale-up process of the Estonian youth clinic network 1991-2013, and (2) analyses factors that contributed to the successful scale-up. This research provides policy makers and programme managers with new insights to success factors of the scale-up, that can be used to support planning, implementation and scale-up of adolescent sexual and reproductive health programmes in other countries. Information on the scale-up process and success factors were collected by conducting a literature review and interviewing key stakeholders. The findings were analysed using the WHO-ExpandNet framework, which provides a step-by-step process approach for design, implementation and assessment of the results of scaling-up health innovations. The scale-up was divided into two main phases: (1) planning the scale-up strategy 1991-1995 and (2) managing the scaling-up 1996-2013. The planning phase analysed innovation, user organizations (youth clinics), environment and resource team (a national NGO and international assistance). The managing phase examines strategic choices, advocacy, organization, resource mobilization, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning and management of the scale-up. The main factors that contributed to the successful scale-up in Estonia were: (1) favourable social and political climate, (2) clear demonstrated need for the adolescent services, (3) a national professional organization that advocated, coordinated and represented the youth clinics, (4) enthusiasm

Economic growth, biodiversity loss and conservation effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Dietz, Simon; Adger, W Neil

2003-05-01

This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth, biodiversity loss and efforts to conserve biodiversity using a combination of panel and cross section data. If economic growth is a cause of biodiversity loss through habitat transformation and other means, then we would expect an inverse relationship. But if higher levels of income are associated with increasing real demand for biodiversity conservation, then investment to protect remaining diversity should grow and the rate of biodiversity loss should slow with growth. Initially, economic growth and biodiversity loss are examined within the framework of the environmental Kuznets hypothesis. Biodiversity is represented by predicted species richness, generated for tropical terrestrial biodiversity using a species-area relationship. The environmental Kuznets hypothesis is investigated with reference to comparison of fixed and random effects models to allow the relationship to vary for each country. It is concluded that an environmental Kuznets curve between income and rates of loss of habitat and species does not exist in this case. The role of conservation effort in addressing environmental problems is examined through state protection of land and the regulation of trade in endangered species, two important means of biodiversity conservation. This analysis shows that the extent of government environmental policy increases with economic development. We argue that, although the data are problematic, the implications of these models is that conservation effort can only ever result in a partial deceleration of biodiversity decline partly because protected areas serve multiple functions and are not necessarily designated to protect biodiversity. Nevertheless institutional and policy response components of the income biodiversity relationship are important but are not well captured through cross-country regression analysis.

On the efforts (man-day) concerned with inspection in uranium fuel fabrication facility

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Watanabe, T.; Tanaka, T.; Seki, Y.

1990-01-01

Taking notice of inspection efforts (man·day) of STA·IAEA and those of MNF concerned with them, their change and various factors affecting the change have been studied. Namely, first, main topics concerning inspection in our Tokai plant are mentioned and secondly the relation between the inspection efforts and such factors as PIV period, number of items, number of DA sampling and NDA measurements, and so forth is studied. According to our study, though efforts of STA·IAEA and MNF required for both routine FLOW inspection and PIT have been nearly unchanged each year, our efforts for PIV have been increasing gradually. The factors relating to this increase of our efforts are the PIV period, inspection efforts of STA·IAEA for PIV and the number of DA sampling and NDA measurements. Finally, a suggestion on the future inspection system has been mentioned and then some items for improvement under the current inspection system have been exemplified. (author)

Tobacco-prevention messages online: social marketing via the Web.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Carolyn A; Hullman, Gwen A

2005-01-01

Antitobacco groups have joined millions of other commercial or noncommercial entities in developing a presence on the Web. These groups primarily represent the following different sponsorship categories: grassroots, medical, government, and corporate. To obtain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the message design of antitobacco Web sites, this project analyzed 100 antitobacco Web sites ranging across these four sponsorship categories. The results show that the tobacco industry sites posted just enough antismoking information to appease the antismoking publics. Medical organizations designed their Web sites as specialty sites and offered mostly scientific information. While the government sites resembled a clearinghouse for antitobacco related information, the grassroots sites represented the true advocacy outlets. In general, the industry sites provided the weakest persuasive messages and medical sites fared only slightly better. Government and grassroots sites rated most highly in presenting their antitobacco campaign messages on the Web.

Community Restructuring and Depressive Symptoms of Rural Mature and Elderly Adults: A Multilevel Analysis Based on a National Dataset in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Fan; Lou, Vivian W Q

2017-01-01

Community restructuring is an important predictor for residents' mental health. However, few studies have investigated how it affects the depressive symptoms of rural ageing population. Using cross-sectional data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study examined how community restructuring was associated with depressive symptoms of Chinese rural mature and older adults and what community-level factors mediated the association. We found that people in restructuring communities reported .75 unit lower depression score (p < .01); community restructuring is associated with more infrastructure, recreational amenities, and grassroots organization (p < .001) in the community; and the availability of infrastructure (p < .01) and grassroots organization (p < .05) had significant indirect effect on the association between community restructuring and depressive symptoms. World countries' urbanization policy shall not only focus on community physical environment, but also on the development of grassroots organizations that involve and connect local people.

No Pain No Gain: The Beneficial Role of Consumer Effort in Decision-Making

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D. Tsekouras (Dimitrios)

2012-01-01

textabstractThe overarching goal of this dissertation is to study the role of consumer effort within the context of online decision making. We show that consumer effort may not be necessarily malevolent and that some sources and measures of greater consumer effort can lead to beneficial outcomes. A

Net benefits of wildfire prevention education efforts

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffrey P. Prestemon; David T. Butry; Karen L. Abt; Ronda Sutphen

2010-01-01

Wildfire prevention education efforts involve a variety of methods, including airing public service announcements, distributing brochures, and making presentations, which are intended to reduce the occurrence of certain kinds of wildfires. A Poisson model of preventable Florida wildfires from 2002 to 2007 by fire management region was developed. Controlling for...

Effort - Final technical report on task 3

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bay, Niels; Henningsen, Poul; Eriksen, Morten

The present report is documentation for the work carried out at DTU on the Brite/Euram project No. BE96-3340, contract No. BRPR-CT97-0398, with the title Enhanced Framework for forging design using reliable three-dimensional simulation (EFFORTS). The objective of task 3 is to determine data...

Separate valuation subsystems for delay and effort decision costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Prévost, Charlotte; Pessiglione, Mathias; Météreau, Elise; Cléry-Melin, Marie-Laure; Dreher, Jean-Claude

2010-10-20

Decision making consists of choosing among available options on the basis of a valuation of their potential costs and benefits. Most theoretical models of decision making in behavioral economics, psychology, and computer science propose that the desirability of outcomes expected from alternative options can be quantified by utility functions. These utility functions allow a decision maker to assign subjective values to each option under consideration by weighting the likely benefits and costs resulting from an action and to select the one with the highest subjective value. Here, we used model-based neuroimaging to test whether the human brain uses separate valuation systems for rewards (erotic stimuli) associated with different types of costs, namely, delay and effort. We show that humans devalue rewards associated with physical effort in a strikingly similar fashion to those they devalue that are associated with delays, and that a single computational model derived from economics theory can account for the behavior observed in both delay discounting and effort discounting. However, our neuroimaging data reveal that the human brain uses distinct valuation subsystems for different types of costs, reflecting in opposite fashion delayed reward and future energetic expenses. The ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex represent the increasing subjective value of delayed rewards, whereas a distinct network, composed of the anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula, represent the decreasing value of the effortful option, coding the expected expense of energy. Together, these data demonstrate that the valuation processes underlying different types of costs can be fractionated at the cerebral level.

Breckinridge Project, initial effort

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

None, None

1982-09-01

Report III, Volume 1 contains those specifications numbered A through J, as follows: General Specifications (A); Specifications for Pressure Vessels (C); Specifications for Tanks (D); Specifications for Exchangers (E); Specifications for Fired Heaters (F); Specifications for Pumps and Drivers (G); and Specifications for Instrumentation (J). The standard specifications of Bechtel Petroleum Incorporated have been amended as necessary to reflect the specific requirements of the Breckinridge Project, and the more stringent specifications of Ashland Synthetic Fuels, Inc. These standard specifications are available to the Initial Effort (Phase Zero) work performed by all contractors and subcontractors. Report III, Volume 1 also contains the unique specifications prepared for Plants 8, 15, and 27. These specifications will be substantially reviewed during Phase I of the project, and modified as necessary for use during the engineering, procurement, and construction of this project.

Linking customisation of ERP systems to support effort: an empirical study

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, Stefan; Mitteregger, Kurt

2016-01-01

The amount of customisation to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system has always been a major concern in the context of the implementation. This article focuses on the phase of maintenance and presents an empirical study about the relationship between the amount of customising and the resulting support effort. We establish a structural equation modelling model that explains support effort using customisation effort, organisational characteristics and scope of implementation. The findings using data from an ERP provider show that there is a statistically significant effect: with an increasing amount of customisation, the quantity of telephone calls to support increases, as well as the duration of each call.

Instruction Emphasizing Effort Improves Physics Problem Solving

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Daoquan

2012-01-01

Effectively using strategies to solve complex problems is an important educational goal and is implicated in successful academic performance. However, people often do not spontaneously use the effective strategies unless they are motivated to do so. The present study was designed to test whether educating students about the importance of effort in…

Effortful semantic decision-making boosts memory performance in older adults

OpenAIRE

Fu, L.; Maes, J.H.R.; Varma, S.; Kessels, R.P.C.; Daselaar, S.M.

2017-01-01

A major concern in age-related cognitive decline is episodic memory (EM). Previous studies indicate that both resource and binding deficits contribute to EM decline. Environmental support by task manipulations encouraging stronger cognitive effort and deeper levels of processing may facilitate compensation for these two deficits. To clarify factors that can counteract age-related EM decline, we assessed effects of cognitive effort (four levels) and level of processing (LoP, shallow/deep) duri...

Mental health among Norwegian priests: associations with effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lau, Bjørn

2018-01-01

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms among Norwegian priests and to examine their associations with effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and overcommitment. Eight hundred four priests in the Norwegian Church completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (ERI-Q), and the Intrinsic Effort Scale, measuring overcommitment. A significant proportion of the priests (23.4%) had HADS scores indicating a possible anxiety problem. Somewhat fewer had depression problems (9.3%). Both anxiety and depression difficulties were associated with an imbalance between effort given and rewards received at work. Priests characterized by a combination of this imbalance and high scores on overcommitment had more anxiety and depression symptoms. There is a higher occurrence of mental health challenges among priests than among the regular population. This applies in particular to anxiety symptoms measured by the HADS. These findings also indicate that it may be fruitful to explore mental health conditions among priests who report different combinations of effort-reward and overcommitment.

Brain correlates of the intrinsic subjective cost of effort in sedentary volunteers.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernacer, J; Martinez-Valbuena, I; Martinez, M; Pujol, N; Luis, E; Ramirez-Castillo, D; Pastor, M A

2016-01-01

One key aspect of motivation is the ability of agents to overcome excessive weighting of intrinsic subjective costs. This contribution aims to analyze the subjective cost of effort and assess its neural correlates in sedentary volunteers. We recruited a sample of 57 subjects who underwent a decision-making task using a prospective, moderate, and sustained physical effort as devaluating factor. Effort discounting followed a hyperbolic function, and individual discounting constants correlated with an indicator of sedentary lifestyle (global physical activity questionnaire; R=-0.302, P=0.033). A subsample of 24 sedentary volunteers received a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan while performing a similar effort-discounting task. BOLD signal of a cluster located in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex correlated with the subjective value of the pair of options under consideration (Z>2.3, Preward correlated with the signal of a cluster in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (Z>2.3, Pintrinsic subjective cost of effort and its neural correlates in sedentary individuals. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Off-label abuse of antibiotics by bacteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Viswanathan, V K

2014-01-01

Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance made news on several fronts in the past year. Many public health organizations, including the CDC, used terms such as "crisis", "catastrophic consequences", and "nightmare scenario" to highlight the rapid emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. A report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, on the fifth anniversary of the publication of its landmark 2008 report, noted that state and federal legislative efforts to limit non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production were thwarted by drug and food animal industries. In its lobbying disclosures, the Farm Bureau stated that such efforts to limit use of animal antibiotics were "based on emotion and no credible peer reviewed science." Meanwhile, there have been inexorable advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which antibiotics induce diversity and resistance in bacteria. This article reviews one study that probed the role of the bacterial general stress response in sub-inhibitory antibiotic-induced mutagenesis and antibiotic resistance.

The pharmacology of effort-related choice behavior: Dopamine, depression, and individual differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Salamone, John D; Correa, Merce; Yohn, Samantha; Lopez Cruz, Laura; San Miguel, Noemi; Alatorre, Luisa

2016-06-01

This review paper is focused upon the involvement of mesolimbic dopamine (DA) and related brain systems in effort-based processes. Interference with DA transmission affects instrumental behavior in a manner that interacts with the response requirements of the task, such that rats with impaired DA transmission show a heightened sensitivity to ratio requirements. Impaired DA transmission also affects effort-related choice behavior, which is assessed by tasks that offer a choice between a preferred reinforcer that has a high work requirement vs. less preferred reinforcer that can be obtained with minimal effort. Rats and mice with impaired DA transmission reallocate instrumental behavior away from food-reinforced tasks with high response costs, and show increased selection of low reinforcement/low cost options. Tests of effort-related choice have been developed into models of pathological symptoms of motivation that are seen in disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. These models are being employed to explore the effects of conditions associated with various psychopathologies, and to assess drugs for their potential utility as treatments for effort-related symptoms. Studies of the pharmacology of effort-based choice may contribute to the development of treatments for symptoms such as psychomotor slowing, fatigue or anergia, which are seen in depression and other disorders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Allocating effort and anticipating pleasure in schizophrenia: Relationship with real world functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Serper, M; Payne, E; Dill, C; Portillo, C; Taliercio, J

2017-10-01

Poor motivation to engage in goal-oriented behavior has been recognized as a hallmark feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZ). Low drive in SZ may be related to anticipating rewards as well as to poor working memory. However, few studies to date have examined beliefs about self-efficacy and satisfaction for future rewards (anticipatory pleasure). Additionally, few studies to date have examined how these deficits may impact SZ patients' real world functioning. The present study examined SZ patients' (n=57) anticipatory pleasure, working memory, self-efficacy and real world functioning in relation to their negative symptom severity. Results revealed that SZ patients' negative symptom severity was related to decisions in effort allocation and reward probability, working memory deficits, self-efficacy and anticipatory pleasure for future reward. Effort allocation deficits also predicted patients' daily functioning skills. SZ patients with high levels of negative symptoms are not merely effort averse, but have more difficulty effectively allocating effort and anticipating pleasure engaging in effortful activities. It may be the case that continuously failing to achieve reinforcement from engagement and participation may lead SZ patients to form certain negative beliefs about their abilities which contributes to amotivation and cognitive deficits. Lastly, our findings provide further support for a link between SZ patients functional daily living skills their effort allocation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Changing tactics in the abortion argument: does a fetus feel pain?

Science.gov (United States)

Goodman, N W

1997-12-10

The 30th anniversary of the passing of the abortion law in England sparked off yet another skirmish in the continuing struggle. Not only the Catholic Church but also anti-lobby groups have protested against the abortion law. Anti-lobby groups consider abortion as an evil that must be fought. To further explain their point, the anti-lobby groups used the conclusions on pediatric anesthetic practice to change their tactics in combating the abortion issue from the emotional point of view to the apparently rational. A group of pediatricians, anesthetists, bioethicists and neuroanatomists has considered the problem of when the fetus may first be able to feel pain. They have decided that the fetus cannot feel pain before the 26th week and recommended that the fetus be given an anesthetic for any abortion later than the 24th week. The anti-lobby groups say that this view limits the perception of pain to the cerebral cortex and that the thalamus is well enough developed by the 10th week for the growing embryo to feel the pain. However, as to the question of fetal pain, one can never know whether fetuses feel pain, because they can never tell.

Monetary incentive moderates the effect of implicit fear on effort-related cardiovascular response.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatelain, Mathieu; Gendolla, Guido H E

2016-05-01

Integrating the implicit-affect-primes-effort model (Gendolla, 2012, 2015) with the principles of motivational intensity theory (Brehm & Self, 1989) we investigated if the effort mobilization deficit observed in people exposed to fear primes (vs. anger primes) in a difficult short-term memory task could be compensated by high monetary incentive. Effort was operationalized as cardiac response. We expected that fear primes should lead to the strongest cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity when incentive was high (high subjective demand and high justified effort) and to the weakest response when incentive was low (high subjective demand but only low justified effort). PEP reactivity in the anger-prime conditions should fall in between (high but feasible demand). We obtained the predicted pattern on responses of PEP and systolic blood pressure. The present findings show for the first time that the effort mobilization deficit of participants exposed to fear primes in a difficult cognitive task could be compensated by a high incentive. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shark fishing effort and catch of the ragged-tooth shark Carcharias ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An integrated telephone and on-site questionnaire survey was used to estimate total shark fishing effort and specific catch of the ragged-tooth shark Carcharias taurus by coastal club-affiliated shore-anglers, primarily along the east coast of South Africa. Mean total shark fishing effort was estimated to be 37 820 fisherdays ...

Efforts to identify spore forming bacillus

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zuleiha, M.S.; Hilmy, N. (National Atomic Energy Agency, Jakarta (Indonesia). Pasar Djumat Research Centre)

1982-04-01

Efforts to identify 47 species of radioresistant spore forming bacillus sp. isolated from locally produced medical devices have been carried out. The identifications was conducted using 19 kinds of biochemical tests and compared to species to bacillus subtilis W. T.; bacillus pumilus E 601 and bacillus sphaericus Csub(I)A. The results showed that bacillus sp. examined could be divided into 6 groups, i.e. bacillus cereus; bacillus subtilis; bacillus stearothermophylus; bacillus coagulans; bacillus sphaericus and bacillus circulans.

Efforts to identify spore forming bacillus

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zuleiha, M.S.; Hilmy, Nazly

1982-01-01

Efforts to identify 47 species of radioresistant spore forming bacillus sp. isolated from locally produced medical devices have been carried out. The identifications was conducted using 19 kinds of biochemical tests and compared to species to bacillus subtilis W. T.; bacillus pumilus E 601 and bacillus sphaericus Csub(I)A. The results showed that bacillus sp. examined could be divided into 6 groups, i.e. bacillus cereus; bacillus subtilis; bacillus stearothermophylus; bacillus coagulans; bacillus sphaericus and bacillus circulans. (author)

Pioneering efforts to control AIDS. Review: IHO.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatterji, A; Sehgal, K

1995-01-01

The Indian Health Organisation (IHO) is a nongovernmental organization based in Bombay with more than 12 years experience in HIV/AIDS prevention and control efforts. It has attacked ignorance and prejudice via communication efforts. IHO has created a bond with some hospital systems of Bombay. IHO disseminated information about HIV/AIDS in Bombay's red light districts and has bridged the gap between the city's medical establishment and the community most in need. IHO's aggressive street-level fighting in a sector replete with sensitive issues has somewhat isolated it from mainstream national NGOs involved in HIV/AIDS education and control as well as from the medical establishment and potential partners. IHO funds have been reduced, forcing IHO to reduce intervention programs and responses to field demands. It suffers from a high rate of turnover among middle management staff. IHO's chief advantage is its confidence gained over the past 12 years. IHO has clearly delineated the direction it wants to go: care and support programs for persons affected by HIV/AIDS and for commercial sex workers to allow them to quit prostitution, orphan care, and development of training institutions for the education and motivation of medical personnel on HIV/AIDS care and prevention. It plans to build a hospice for AIDS patients and orphans and a training center. Training activities will vary from one-week orientation programs to three-month certificate courses for medical workers, NGOs, and managers from the commercial sector. IHO is prepared to share its experiences in combating HIV/AIDS in Bombay in a team effort. As official and bilateral funding has been decreasing, IHO has targeted industry for funding. Industry has responded, which enables IHO to sustain its core programs and approaches. IHO observations show a decrease in the number of men visiting red-light districts. IHO enjoys a positive relationship with Bombay's media reporting on AIDS.

Community-managed conservation efforts at Tsingy Mahaloka ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... for habitat protection; (ii) create economic incentives and benefits for residents; and, ... KOFAMA, as the local organization to be responsible for management of the ... rising 80–100 metres above a flat coastal plain), a diverse endemic avifauna, ... et enfin une structure destinée à faciliter les efforts de conservation qui sont ...

Routine inspection effort required for verification of a nuclear material production cutoff convention

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fishbone, L.G.; Sanborn, J.

1994-12-01

Preliminary estimates of the inspection effort to verify a Nuclear Material Cutoff Convention are presented. The estimates are based on (1) a database of about 650 facilities a total of eight states, i.e., the five nuclear-weapons states and three ''threshold'' states; (2) typical figures for inspection requirements for specific facility types derived from IAEA experience, where applicable; and (3) alternative estimates of inspection effort in cutoff options where full IAEA safeguards are not stipulated. Considerable uncertainty must be attached to the effort estimates. About 50--60% of the effort for each option is attributable to 16 large-scale reprocessing plants assumed to be in operation in the eight states; it is likely that some of these will be shut down by the time the convention enters into force. Another important question involving about one third of the overall effort is whether Euratom inspections in France and the U.K. could obviate the need for full-scale IAEA inspections at these facilities. Finally, the database does not yet contain many small-scale and military-related facilities. The results are therefore not presented as predictions but as the consequences of alternative assumptions. Despite the preliminary nature of the estimates, it is clear that a broad application of NPT-like safeguards to the eight states would require dramatic increases in the IAEA's safeguards budget. It is also clear that the major component of the increased inspection effort would occur at large reprocessing plants (and associated plutonium facilities). Therefore, significantly bounding the increased effort requires a limitation on the inspection effort in these facility types

Book Promotion Efforts in Select Nigerian Newspapers Okere ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Mrs Afam

them make informed purchase decision. Hitherto, the ... for product promotion compared to the efforts of manufacturers of consumer goods and other .... The extent of promotion done by a publisher affects greatly the rate of order placed.

Neurodynamic evaluation of hearing aid features using EEG correlates of listening effort.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernarding, Corinna; Strauss, Daniel J; Hannemann, Ronny; Seidler, Harald; Corona-Strauss, Farah I

2017-06-01

In this study, we propose a novel estimate of listening effort using electroencephalographic data. This method is a translation of our past findings, gained from the evoked electroencephalographic activity, to the oscillatory EEG activity. To test this technique, electroencephalographic data from experienced hearing aid users with moderate hearing loss were recorded, wearing hearing aids. The investigated hearing aid settings were: a directional microphone combined with a noise reduction algorithm in a medium and a strong setting, the noise reduction setting turned off, and a setting using omnidirectional microphones without any noise reduction. The results suggest that the electroencephalographic estimate of listening effort seems to be a useful tool to map the exerted effort of the participants. In addition, the results indicate that a directional processing mode can reduce the listening effort in multitalker listening situations.

Working from Home - What is the Effect on Employees' Effort?

OpenAIRE

Rupietta, Kira; Beckmann, Michael

2016-01-01

This paper investigates how working from home affects employees' work effort. Employees, who have the possibility to work from home, have a high autonomy in scheduling their work and therefore are assumed to have a higher intrinsic motivation. Thus, we expect working from home to positively influence work effort of employees. For the empirical analysis we use the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). To account for self-selection into working locations we use an instrumental variable (IV) estim...

[Effort-reward imbalance at work and depression: current research evidence].

Science.gov (United States)

Siegrist, J

2013-01-01

In view of highly prevalent stressful conditions in modern working life, in particular increasing work pressure and job insecurity, it is of interest to know whether specific constellations of an adverse psychosocial work environment increase the risk of depressive disorder among employed people. This contribution gives a short overview of current research evidence based on an internationally established work stress model of effort-reward imbalance. Taken together, results from seven prospective epidemiological investigations demonstrate a two-fold elevated relative risk of incident depressive disorder over a mean observation period of 2.7 years among exposed versus non-exposed employees. Additional findings from experimental and quasi-experimental studies point to robust associations of effort-reward imbalance at work with proinflammatory cytokines and markers of reduced immune competence. These latter markers may indicate potential psychobiological pathways. In conclusion, incorporating this new knowledge into medical treatment and preventive efforts seems well justified.