1,682 research outputs found
Guest Editors' introduction: philosophical contributions to leadership ethics
This article introduces the first of two special issues on philosophical approaches to leadership ethics. In it, we show some of the ways that philosophy contributes to the study of leadership and leadership ethics. We begin with an overview of how philosophers have treated some of the ethical aspects and challenges of leadership. These include discussions of self interest, the problem of dirty hands, responsibility, moral luck, power, gender and diversity, and spirituality. The articles in this issue draw on philosophy to explore a variety of ethical questions related to leadership and the relationships that leaders have with followers and others
Comparison of the Effects of Supplemental Red Palm Oil and Sunflower oil on Maternal Vitamin A Status.
Conflicting results have been reported on the ability of dietary carotenoids to improve vitamin A status in lactating women. Red palm oil is one of the richest dietary sources of beta-carotene. We aimed to determine the efficacy of red palm oil in increasing retinol and provitamin A status in pregnant and lactating women. Ninety rural, pregnant Tanzanian women from 3 randomly selected villages were recruited during their third trimester to participate in 3 dietary intervention groups: a control group, who were encouraged to maintain the traditional practice of eating staples with dark-green leafy vegetables, and 2 study groups, who were given either sunflower or red palm oil for use in household food preparations. The intervention lasted 6 mo. Plasma samples were collected at the third trimester and 1 and 3 mo postpartum, and breast-milk samples were collected 1 and 3 mo postpartum. Supplementation with red palm oil, which is rich in provitamin A, increased alpha- and beta-carotene concentrations significantly (P < 0.001) in both plasma and breast milk. Plasma retinol concentrations were similar in all dietary groups. Breast-milk retinol concentrations tended to decrease from 1 to 3 mo postpartum in the control group, but were maintained in both oil groups. The difference in change in breast-milk retinol concentration between the red palm oil group and the control group was significant (P = 0.041). Consumption of red palm oil increases concentrations of alpha- and beta-carotene in both breast milk and serum and maintains breast-milk retinol concentrations. Sunflower oil consumption seems to conserve breast-milk retinol similarly to consumption of red palm oil. Breast-milk retinol might be maintained through increased dietary intake of these vegetable oils and use of mild cooking preparation methods (such as the addition of oil at the end of cooking and avoidance of frying)
The Spirit of Liberal Arts and Its Manifestation at Boston College
Thesis advisor: John CawthorneAs a student at one of the nationâs leading universities, Boston College, it seems imperative to look at the universityâs aims and accomplishments with a critical eye. The conceptual goals of higher education, particularly liberal arts education, have been the object of philosophical and political conversations for centuries, and it is important that universities continually assess their status through deliberative discussions. This paper seeks to analyze the liberal arts education provided at Boston College in relation to historic conceptions of higher education, current understandings on methods of this education, and the possibility of disparities between what Boston College claims to provide and what students, in reality, receive. Further, this report seeks to make comparisons between the liberal arts education provided by the honors program at Boston College and that which is delivered in the regular core program.Thesis (BA) â Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: College Honors Program.Discipline: Lynch School of Education
In vitro evaluation of the antimethanogenic potency and effects on fermentation of individual and combinations of marine macroalgae
Contribution of ruminants to total greenhouse gas emissions in Australia is approximately 10% and likely to increase with demand for livestock products, thus an efficient method of mitigation must be implemented. The red marine macroalgae Asparagopsis taxiformis reduces enteric methane production by up to 99% in vitro. Other macroalgae with less potent antimethanogenic properties may complement inclusion of Asparagopsis in livestock feeds. Adoption of environmental based changes in livestock systems must provide benefits to producers if change in management is to be adopted. This study used 72 h in vitro fermentations with rumen inoculum to characterize and rank seven species of macroalgae at low inclusion that previously demonstrated some degree of antimethanogenesis at higher inclusion concentration. The seven were assessed at 5% inclusion (OM basis) and in combination with Asparagopsis to evaluate beneficial effects on fermentation. When tested individually, improvements in volatile fatty acids were generally observed, however, minimal effect on gas production and no clear justification for a ranking order were demonstrated. When tested in combination with Asparagopsis, the effects on fermentation were dominated by presence of Asparagopsis at 2% and no further benefits demonstrated. Therefore, Asparagopsis remains the only macroalga inducing near elimination of methane in vitro and benefit of combinations with other macroalgae evaluated in this study was not demonstrated. However, combination with high protein macroalgae is proposed to provide productivity enhancement during seasonal lows in grass quality and thus reduce methane emissions intensity providing a stronger conduit for environmental responsibility while increasing productivity
Option Contracting in the California Water Market
Temporary water transfers, as achievable under option contracts, capture gains from trade that would go unrealized if only permanent transfers of water rights were possible. This paper develops a bilateral option contracting model for water which includes the possibility of conveyance losses and random delivery. Seller-optimal and socially optimal option contracts are characterized in terms of relevant base and strike prices, as well as contract volumes, from an ex-ante and an ex-post point of view. Lastly, welfare gains are estimated, and actual contract prices in California are compared to model-predicted prices
Public Input for City Budgeting Using E-Input, Face-to-Face Discussions, and Random Sample Surveys: The Willingness of an American Community to Increase Taxes
Regular public input into a city\u27s budget is frequently associated with municipal budgeting in Brazilian cities, successes in public engagement that have been emulated around the world. American communities are adopting the practice to varying degrees. This paper will report on a five-year old public input program that is taking place in Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital city of a politically conservative state in the U.S. We discuss the processes we use to engage the public about the City\u27s budget. The process includes regular online input as well as face-to-face, deliberative discussions. On occasions, random sample surveys also have been used. The public\u27s input has been helpful to City Hall in budget prioritization, and has even resulted, pursuant to residents\u27 recommendations, in raising taxes to preserve programs rather than eliminating them to balance the City\u27s budget. In an era of concern that the American public will not endorse tax increases, the recommendation was surprising. Our work to date indicates the public welcomes the invitation to participate in governance and responds positively to the opportunity to provide input and is willing to endorse policy options that have been thought to be unpopular by a majority of Americans
Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis of Scientific Reviews
Scientific papers are complex and understanding the usefulness of these
papers requires prior knowledge. Peer reviews are comments on a paper provided
by designated experts on that field and hold a substantial amount of
information, not only for the editors and chairs to make the final decision,
but also to judge the potential impact of the paper. In this paper, we propose
to use aspect-based sentiment analysis of scientific reviews to be able to
extract useful information, which correlates well with the accept/reject
decision.
While working on a dataset of close to 8k reviews from ICLR, one of the top
conferences in the field of machine learning, we use an active learning
framework to build a training dataset for aspect prediction, which is further
used to obtain the aspects and sentiments for the entire dataset. We show that
the distribution of aspect-based sentiments obtained from a review is
significantly different for accepted and rejected papers. We use the aspect
sentiments from these reviews to make an intriguing observation, certain
aspects present in a paper and discussed in the review strongly determine the
final recommendation. As a second objective, we quantify the extent of
disagreement among the reviewers refereeing a paper. We also investigate the
extent of disagreement between the reviewers and the chair and find that the
inter-reviewer disagreement may have a link to the disagreement with the chair.
One of the most interesting observations from this study is that reviews, where
the reviewer score and the aspect sentiments extracted from the review text
written by the reviewer are consistent, are also more likely to be concurrent
with the chair's decision.Comment: Accepted in JCDL'2
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