ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY: CONCEPTS AND INDICATORS

When confronting fundamental challenges such as climate change, population growth, human rights and resource constraints – businesses and public sector organizations face a daunting new imperative. It is an axiom of current business thought and practice in most Western European enterprises that they must use fewer resources to produce their goods and services – a responsible use of those resources that benefit society and the environment and still meet their traditional demands: from customers and citizens for price, quality and availability; from shareholders for outstanding performance and returns; and from politicians for economic growth and prosperity in both developed and developing economies.system analysis; economic sustainability; drivers for change; Strategic options; high performance; performance anatomy

Fisheries and Aquaculture and Their Potential Roles in Development: An Assessment of the Current Evidence

Commissioned by the International Sustainability Unity, this report investigates a number of innovative solutions that have been developed to deal with five key challenges that are impeding progress in achieving sustainable fisheries: overcapacity; perverse subsidies; poor governance; lack of data; and by-catch and discards. These key challenges are interlinked and affect the sustainability of fisheries both directly as well as indirectly by undermining instances of good management. Through 22 case studies demonstrating good practice, we explore how these challenges have been addressed around the world and how these approaches might be scaled up and applied in other fisheries. Each case study draws on published material and interviews with key people involved in the fishery. The main report draws lessons from these case studies

Verbal Learning and Memory After Cochlear Implantation in Postlingually Deaf Adults: Some New Findings with the CVLT-II

OBJECTIVES: Despite the importance of verbal learning and memory in speech and language processing, this domain of cognitive functioning has been virtually ignored in clinical studies of hearing loss and cochlear implants in both adults and children. In this article, we report the results of two studies that used a newly developed visually based version of the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition (CVLT-II), a well-known normed neuropsychological measure of verbal learning and memory. DESIGN: The first study established the validity and feasibility of a computer-controlled visual version of the CVLT-II, which eliminates the effects of audibility of spoken stimuli, in groups of young normal-hearing and older normal-hearing (ONH) adults. A second study was then carried out using the visual CVLT-II format with a group of older postlingually deaf experienced cochlear implant (ECI) users (N = 25) and a group of ONH controls (N = 25) who were matched to ECI users for age, socioeconomic status, and nonverbal IQ. In addition to the visual CVLT-II, subjects provided data on demographics, hearing history, nonverbal IQ, reading fluency, vocabulary, and short-term memory span for visually presented digits. ECI participants were also tested for speech recognition in quiet. RESULTS: The ECI and ONH groups did not differ on most measures of verbal learning and memory obtained with the visual CVLT-II, but deficits were identified in ECI participants that were related to recency recall, the buildup of proactive interference, and retrieval-induced forgetting. Within the ECI group, nonverbal fluid IQ, reading fluency, and resistance to the buildup of proactive interference from the CVLT-II consistently predicted better speech recognition outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this study suggest that several underlying foundational neurocognitive abilities are related to core speech perception outcomes after implantation in older adults. Implications of these findings for explaining individual differences and variability and predicting speech recognition outcomes after implantation are discussed

An exploratory study identifying a possible response shift phenomena of the Glasgow Hearing Aid Benefit Profile (GHABP)

A then-test technique was used to investigate the possibility of a response shift in the Glasgow hearing aid benefit profile (GHABP). Following completion of part 1 of the GHABP, 16 adults were invited for hearing-aid follow up appointments. In accordance with then-test technique, participants were asked to think back to before they had their hearing-aids fitted and the GHABP part 1 was completed again to re-establish the disability and handicap scores. These scores were then compared with the initial GHABP part I scores. Paired T testing and Wilcoxon Rank tests were carried out to investigate the statistical significance of the response shift effect. Statistically significant differences were seen between initial and retrospective GHABP (disability) scores using t test. No significant differences could be seen between the initial and retrospective handicap scores. Results suggest participants may have demonstrated a possible response shift phenomenon with the disability construct of the GHABP questionnaire, related to a possible re-calibration effect or a denial of disability effect. This exploratory study suggests that the GHABP questionnaire may be subject to a response shift phenomena. We suggest that further more robust studies are completed to verify this and recommend that this could have psychological impact on participants when explaining the results of the outcome measure and may affect hearing aid use. There is also potential for this phenomenon to affect global GHABP scores specifically when demonstrating to stakeholders the overall success of an audiology service

Assessing the Efficacy of Nano- and Micro-Sized Magnetic Particles as Contrast Agents for MRI Cell Tracking

Iron-oxide based contrast agents play an important role in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of labelled cells in vivo. Currently, a wide range of such contrast agents is available with sizes varying from several nanometers up to a few micrometers and consisting of single or multiple magnetic cores. Here, we evaluate the effectiveness of these different particles for labelling and imaging stem cells, using a mouse mesenchymal stem cell line to investigate intracellular uptake, retention and processing of nano- and microsized contrast agents. The effect of intracellular confinement on transverse relaxivity was measured by MRI at 7 T and in compliance with the principles of the ‘3Rs’, the suitability of the contrast agents for MR-based cell tracking in vivo was tested using a chick embryo model. We show that for all particles tested, relaxivity was markedly reduced following cellular internalisation, indicating that contrast agent relaxivity in colloidal suspension does not accurately predict performance in MR-based cell tracking studies. Using a bimodal imaging approach comprising fluorescence and MRI, we demonstrate that labelled MSC remain viable following in vivo transplantation and can be tracked effectively using MRI. Importantly, our data suggest that larger particles might confer advantages for longer-term imaging

Municipal Ethical Standards: The Need for a New Approach Report

The New York State Commission on Government Integrity investigated numerous situations throughout the state that revealed just how bad the current law is. Our findings and a pro- posed municipal ethics act that we drafted to correct the law\u27s deficiencies are contained in the following report, Municipal Ethical Standards: The Need for a New Approach. Our pro- posed Act would set out the minimum ethical standards that should be observed in every municipality throughout the state. The premise here is that there are certain basic features to good government that make sense for all governments, no matter what their size or location - rural or suburban, upstate or downstate. If the proposed Act became law, localities would be able to enact more stringent regulations if they wanted to, but no local government could have standards that fell below the floor put in place by the Act. The Governor has had a bill introduced in the Legislature that is patterned after the law we proposed. The State Assembly has held public hearings on the bill and it is hopeful that in the 1990 legislative session, New Yorkers will get the strong municipal ethics law they need and deserve

Foundations of character: methodological aspects of a study of character development in three- to six-year-old children with a focus on sharing behaviours

This article focuses on methodological issues arising in a study of character development, using illustrations of ‘sharing behaviours.’ Based primarily in six early years settings in southeast England the research records naturalistic observations of peer interactions for 55 children aged three to six years. Applying grounded theory to the processes of observing, analysing and interpreting evidence required a cautious and collectively reflective approach. The methodology sought to moderate the influence of the researchers' prior knowledge of ‘grand theories’ of moral development and assumptions about relevance to the observation records. The study's originality lay in the exploration of moral development without reference to any particular grand theory as an explanatory framework; and in the reluctance to be drawn to potentially simplistic rationalisations of the children's intentions on the basis of their observed behaviours. Exploring young children's subjective experiences, this research provides insights into the intricacy of this process, steering away from ‘neat’ findings and attempting to reflect the sophistication of the children's skilful and sometimes surprising negotiations of moral dilemmas. Implications for practice relate to the complexities involved in attempts to unravel the developing moral characters of young children and the practice through which this may be nurtured

Derivative spectroscopy and the continuous relaxation spectrum

Derivative spectroscopy is conventionally understood to be a collection of techniques for extracting fine structure from spectroscopic data by means of numerical differentiation. In this paper we extend the conventional interpretation of derivative spectroscopy with a view to recovering the continuous relaxation spectrum of a viscoelastic material from oscillatory shear data. To achieve this, the term “spectroscopic data” is allowed to include spectral data which have been severely broadened by the action of a strong low-pass filter. Consequently, a higher order of differentiation than is usually encountered in conventional derivative spectroscopy is required. However, by establishing a link between derivative spectroscopy and wavelet decomposition, high-order differentiation of oscillatory shear data can be achieved using specially constructed wavelet smoothing. This method of recovery is justified when the reciprocal of the Fourier transform of the filter function (convolution kernel) is an entire function, and is particularly powerful when the associated Maclaurin series converges rapidly. All derivatives are expressed algebraically in terms of scaling functions and wavelets of different scales, and the recovered relaxation spectrum is expressible in analytic form. An important feature of the method is that it facilitates local recovery of the spectrum, and is therefore appropriate for real scenarios where the oscillatory shear data is only available for a finite range of frequencies. We validate the method using synthetic data, but also demonstrate its use on real experimental data

A novel dimethylformamide (DMF) free bar-cast method to deposit organolead perovskite thin films with improved stability

We report a solvent-free approach to synthesizing organolead perovskites by using solid state reactions to coat perovskite crystals onto Al2O3 or TiO2 nanoparticles followed by addition of terpineol affording perovskite inks. We have bar cast these inks to produce photoactive perovskite thin films which are significantly more stable to humidity than solution-processed films. This new method also avoids the use of toxic DMF solvent

Association of reduced extracellular brain ammonia, lactate, and intracranial pressure in pigs with acute liver failure

We previously demonstrated in pigs with acute liver failure (ALF) that albumin dialysis using the molecular adsorbents recirculating system (MARS) attenuated a rise in intracranial pressure (ICP). This was independent of changes in arterial ammonia, cerebral blood flow and inflammation, allowing alternative hypotheses to be tested. The aims of the present study were to determine whether changes in cerebral extracellular ammonia, lactate, glutamine, glutamate, and energy metabolites were associated with the beneficial effects of MARS on ICP. Three randomized groups [sham, ALF (induced by portacaval anastomosis and hepatic artery ligation), and ALF+MARS] were studied over a 6-hour period with a 4-hour MARS treatment given beginning 2 hours after devascularization. Using cerebral microdialysis, the ALF-induced increase in extracellular brain ammonia, lactate, and glutamate was significantly attenuated in the ALF+MARS group as well as the increases in extracellular lactate/pyruvate and lactate/glucose ratios. The percent change in extracellular brain ammonia correlated with the percent change in ICP (r(2) = 0.511). Increases in brain lactate dehydrogenase activity and mitochondrial complex activity for complex IV were found in ALF compared with those in the sham, which was unaffected by MARS treatment. Brain oxygen consumption did not differ among the study groups. Conclusion: The observation that brain oxygen consumption and mitochondrial complex enzyme activity changed in parallel in both ALF- and MARS-treated animals indicates that the attenuation of increased extracellular brain ammonia (and extracellular brain glutamate) in the MARS-treated animals reduces energy demand and increases supply, resulting in attenuation of increased extracellular brain lactate. The mechanism of how MARS reduces extracellular brain ammonia requires further investigation