Challenging reductionism in analyses of EU-Russia energy relations

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A “collective effort to make yourself feel better”: The group process in mindfulness-based interventions.

There is growing interest in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in the management of multiple physical and mental health issues. Although MBIs utilize a group format, research on how this format impacts teaching and learning mindfulness is lacking. This study aimed to develop a detailed theory of MBI group processes utilizing a grounded theory methodology. This article presents our subsequent model, developed from semistructured interviews conducted with MBI students, teachers, and trainers (N = 12). A core category, the group as a vessel on a shared journey, and three higher-order categories emerged from the data. They illustrate how MBI group processes navigate a characteristic path. Teachers build and steer the group “vessel” in a way that fosters a specific culture and sense of safety. The group is facilitated to share communal experiences that augment learning and enrich mindfulness practice. Limitations and implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed

Capability in the digital: institutional media management and its dis/contents

This paper explores how social media spaces are occupied, utilized and negotiated by the British Military in relation to the Ministry of Defence’s concerns and conceptualizations of risk. It draws on data from the DUN Project to investigate the content and form of social media about defence through the lens of ‘capability’, a term that captures and describes the meaning behind multiple representations of the military institution. But ‘capability’ is also a term that we hijack and extend here, not only in relation to the dominant presence of ‘capability’ as a representational trope and the extent to which it is revealing of a particular management of social media spaces, but also in relation to what our research reveals for the wider digital media landscape and ‘capable’ digital methods. What emerges from our analysis is the existence of powerful, successful and critically long-standing media and reputation management strategies occurring within the techno-economic online structures where the exercising of ‘control’ over the individual – as opposed to the technology – is highly effective. These findings raise critical questions regarding the extent to which ‘control’ and management of social media – both within and beyond the defence sector – may be determined as much by cultural, social, institutional and political influence and infrastructure as the technological economies. At a key moment in social media analysis, then, when attention is turning to the affordances, criticisms and possibilities of data, our research is a pertinent reminder that we should not forget the active management of content that is being similarly, if not equally, effective

Control, conflict and concession: Corporate governance, accounting and accountability at Birmingham Small Arms, 1906-1933

This paper takes as its starting point the relevance of a historical perspective to the study of corporate governance. Corporate governance is concerned with the institutions that influence how business corporations allocate resources and returns, and with the exercise of accountability to investors and other stakeholders. The historical model adopted is that of personal capitalism which is informed by scholars such as Chandler, and in the British context, Quail. Birmingham Small Arms, a quoted and diversified engineering company, was selected for analysis because although it was relatively large and adopted a holding company format, it retained many of the characteristics of a personal capitalist firm. Our longitudinal study of 1906 to 1933 shows that what emerged at BSA was a dominant group of directors who were eventually impelled to concede change by a sustained shareholder critique and an altered legal and business environment

Similar dissection of sets

In 1994, Martin Gardner stated a set of questions concerning the dissection of a square or an equilateral triangle in three similar parts. Meanwhile, Gardner's questions have been generalized and some of them are already solved. In the present paper, we solve more of his questions and treat them in a much more general context. Let $D\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ be a given set and let $f_1,...,f_k$ be injective continuous mappings. Does there exist a set $X$ such that $D = X \cup f_1(X) \cup ... \cup f_k(X)$ is satisfied with a non-overlapping union? We prove that such a set $X$ exists for certain choices of $D$ and $\{f_1,...,f_k\}$. The solutions $X$ often turn out to be attractors of iterated function systems with condensation in the sense of Barnsley. Coming back to Gardner's setting, we use our theory to prove that an equilateral triangle can be dissected in three similar copies whose areas have ratio $1:1:a$ for $a \ge (3+\sqrt{5})/2$

Splanchnic metabolism of nutrients and hormones in steers fed alfalfa under conditions of increased absorption of ammonia and L-arginine supply across the portal-drained viscera

Effects of increased ammonia and/or arginine absorption on net splanchnic (portal-drained viscera [PDV] plus liver) metabolism of nonnitrogenous nutrients and hormones in cattle were examined. Six Hereford × Angus steers (501 ± 1 kg BW) prepared with vascular catheters for measurements of net flux across the splanchnic bed were fed a 75% alfalfa:25% (as-fed basis) corn and soybean meal diet (0.523 MJ of ME/[kg BW0.75.d]) every 2 h without (27.0 g of N/kg of DM) and with 20 g of urea/kg of DM (35.7 g of N/kg of DM) in a split-plot design. Net flux measurements were made immediately before and after a 72-h mesenteric vein infusion of L-arginine (15 mmol/h). There were no treatment effects onPDVor hepaticO2 consumption. Dietary urea had no effect on splanchnic metabolism of glucose or L-lactate, but arginine infusion decreased net hepatic removal of L-lactate when urea was fed (P < 0.01). Net PDV appearance of n-butyrate was increased by arginine infusion (P < 0.07), and both dietary urea (P < 0.09) and arginine infusion (P < 0.05) increased net hepatic removal of n-butyrate. Dietary urea also increased total splanchnic acetate output (P < 0.06), tended to increase arterial glucagon concentration (P < 0.11), and decreased arterial ST concentration (P < 0.03). Arginine infusion increased arterial concentration (P < 0.07) and net PDV release (P < 0.10) and tended to increase hepatic removal (P < 0.11) of insulin, as well as arterial concentration (P < 0.01) and total splanchnic output (P < 0.01) of glucagon. Despite changes in splanchnic N metabolism, increased ammonia and arginine absorption had little measurable effect on splanchnic metabolism of glucose and other nonnitrogenous components of splanchnic energy metabolism

Pseudoscalar Conversion and X-rays from the Sun

We investigate the detection of a pseudoscalar $\phi$ that couples electromagnetically via an interaction ${1\over4}g \phi F {\tilde F}$. In particular, we focus on the conversion of pseudoscalars produced in the sun's interior in the presence of the sun's external magnetic dipole field and sunspot-related magnetic fields. We find that the sunspot approach is superior. Measurements by the SXT on the Yohkoh satellite can measure the coupling constant down to $g=0.5$--$1 \times 10^{-10}\,\rm GeV^{-1}$, provided the pseudoscalar mass $m < 7{\times} 10^{-6}\,$eV, which makes it competitive with other astrophysical approaches.Comment: 15 pages, RevTex file. Figures available upon request to [email protected]. (please include full mailing address in request). Submitted to Physics Letters

Contextual effects on the perceived health benefits of exercise: The exercise rank hypothesis

Many accounts of social influences on exercise participation describe how people compare their behaviors to those of others. We develop and test a novel hypothesis, the exercise rank hypothesis, of how this comparison can occur. The exercise rank hypothesis, derived from evolutionary theory and the decision by sampling model of judgment, suggests that individuals' perceptions of the health benefits of exercise are influenced by how individuals believe the amount of exercise ranks in comparison with other people's amounts of exercise. Study 1 demonstrated that individuals' perceptions of the health benefits of their own current exercise amounts were as predicted by the exercise rank hypothesis. Study 2 demonstrated that the perceptions of the health benefits of an amount of exercise can be manipulated by experimentally changing the ranked position of the amount within a comparison context. The discussion focuses on how social norm-based interventions could benefit from using rank information

A Novel Method of Determining Portal Systemic Shunting using Biodegradable 99TCm Labelled Albumin Microspheres

Portal systemic shunting (PSS) and portal pressure were measured in control rats and in animals with portal hypertension induced by partial portal vein ligation (PPVL). The portal pressure in rats with partial portal vein ligation (13.4 ± 0.5 mm.Hg.) was significantly higher (p < 0.005) than in the control group (9.6 ± 0.6 mm.Hg.). Portal systemic shunting measured by consecutive injections of radiolabelled methylene diphosphonate (MDP), a non-diffusable marker and albumin microspheres directly into the splenic pulp was significantly increased (P < 0.005) in the portal hypertensive animals (30.8 ± 2.5%) compared to sham operated rats (2.6 ± 1.5%). Similarly, in portal hypertensive rats portal systemic shunting measured by intrasplenic injections of radiolabelled cobalt microspheres (37.1 ± 3.9%) was significantly greater (p < 0.005) than in control animals. There was a good correlation and agreement (r = 00.97) between the two methods of measuring portal systemic shunting. However because the 99Tcm-albumin microspheres are biodegradable the method allows portal systemic shunting to be measured in man. Furthermore since the computer adjusts the baseline to zero after each determination of portal systemic shunting the methodology allows repeated measurements to be made

The role of mass and environment in the build up of the quenched galaxy population since cosmic noon

We conduct the first study of how the relative quenching probability of galaxies depends on environment over the redshift range $0.5 < z < 3$, using data from the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey. By constructing the stellar mass functions for quiescent and post-starburst (PSB) galaxies in high, medium and low density environments to $z = 3$, we find an excess of quenched galaxies in dense environments out to at least $z \sim 2$. Using the growth rate in the number of quenched galaxies, combined with the star-forming galaxy mass function, we calculate the probability that a given star-forming galaxy is quenched per unit time. We find a significantly higher quenching rate in dense environments (at a given stellar mass) at all redshifts. Massive galaxies (M$_* > 10^{10.7}$ M$_{\odot}$) are on average 1.7 $\pm$ 0.2 times more likely to quench per Gyr in the densest third of environments compared to the sparsest third. Finally, we compare the quiescent galaxy growth rate to the rate at which galaxies pass through a PSB phase. Assuming a visibility timescale of 500 Myr, we find that the PSB route can explain $\sim$ 50\% of the growth in the quiescent population at high stellar mass (M$_* > 10^{10.7}$ M$_{\odot}$) in the redshift range $0.5 < z < 3$, and potentially all of the growth at lower stellar masses.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA