Lunar Outgassing, Transient Phenomena and The Return to The Moon, I: Existing Data

Herein the transient lunar phenomena (TLP) report database is subjected to a discriminating statistical filter robust against sites of spurious reports, and produces a restricted sample that may be largely reliable. This subset is highly correlated geographically with the catalog of outgassing events seen by the Apollo 15, 16 and Lunar Prospector alpha-particle spectrometers for episodic Rn-222 gas release. Both this robust TLP sample and even the larger, unfiltered sample are highly correlated with the boundary between mare and highlands, as are both deep and shallow moonquakes, as well as Po-210, a long-lived product of Rn-222 decay and a further tracer of outgassing. This offers another significant correlation relating TLPs and outgassing, and may tie some of this activity to sagging mare basalt plains (perhaps mascons). Additionally, low-level but likely significant TLP activity is connected to recent, major impact craters (while moonquakes are not), which may indicate the effects of cracks caused by the impacts, or perhaps avalanches, allowing release of gas. The majority of TLP (and Rn-222) activity, however, is confined to one site that produced much of the basalt in the Procellarum Terrane, and it seems plausible that this TLP activity may be tied to residual outgassing from the formerly largest volcanic ffusion sites from the deep lunar interior. With the coming in the next few years of robotic spacecraft followed by human exploration, the study of TLPs and outgassing is both promising and imperiled. We will have an unprecedented pportunity to study lunar outgassing, but will also deal with a greater burden of anthropogenic lunar gas than ever produced. There is a pressing need to study lunar atmosphere and its sources while still pristine. [Abstract abridged.]Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Icarus. Other papers in series found at http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~arlin/TLP

Globalization, multinationals and institutional diversity

This article aims to explore the impact of globalization and in particular multinationals on diversity within national varieties of capitalism. Do the actions of multinationals create more diversity within national systems, do they reduce diversity or do they have relatively little impact on diversity within national systems? The article argues that there are distinctive structures of institutional diversity across different national systems. Therefore, the question is not how do MNCs impact on institutional diversity per se but how do they impact on these different structures of diversity? In order to develop this argument, the paper also differentiates types of multinational. The article uses distinction between market-seeking, resource-seeking, efficiency-seeking and strategic asset-seeking in order to identify a range of different MNC activity across manufacturing, professional and financial sectors. These different sorts of MNC activity vary across time and contexts in terms of their significance. The article looks in detail at four different models of capitalism and examines how the entry of different sorts of multinationals with distinctive objectives impacts on the relationships between key social actors which underpin and reinforce these models. In this way, it suggests how institutional diversity within different types of capitalism may evolve under the impact of MNCs and globalization

Tectonic Controls on Gas Hydrate Distribution off SW Taiwan

The northern part of the South China Sea is characterized by widespread occurrence of bottom simulating reflectors (BSR) indicating the presence of marine gas hydrate. Because the area covers both a tectonically inactive passive margin and the termination of a subduction zone, the influence of tectonism on the dynamics of gas hydrate systems can be studied in this region. Geophysical data show that there are multiple thrust faults on the active margin while much fewer and smaller faults exist in the passive margin. This tectonic difference matches with a difference in the geophysical characteristics of the gas hydrate systems. High hydrate saturation derived from ocean bottom seismometer data and controlled source electromagnetic data and conspicuous high‐amplitude reflections in P‐Cable 3D seismic data above the BSR are found in the anticlinal ridges of the active margin. In contrast all geophysical evidence for the passive margin points to normal to low hydrate saturations. Geochemical analyses of gas samples collected at seep sites on the active margin show methane with heavy δ13C isotope composition, while gas collected at the passive margin shows light carbon isotope composition. Thus, we interpret the passive margin as a typical gas hydrate province fuelled by biogenic production of methane and the active margin gas hydrate system as a system that is fuelled not only by biogenic gas production but also by additional advection of thermogenic methane from the subduction system

Towards Critical Human Resource Management Education (CHRME): a sociological imagination approach

This article explores the professional standing of the discipline of human resource management (HRM) in business schools in the post-financial crisis period. Using the prism of the sociological imagination, it explains the learning to be gained from teaching HRM that is sensitive to context, power and inequality. The context of crisis provides ideal circumstances for critical reflexivity and for integrating wider societal issues into the HRM curriculum. It argues for Critical Human Resource Management Education or CHRME, which, if adopted, would be an antidote to prescriptive practitioner-oriented approaches. It proceeds to set out five principles for CHRME: using the ‘sociological imagination’ prism; emphasizing the social nature of the employment relationship; investigating paradox within HRM; designing learning outcomes that encourage students to appraise HRM outcomes critically; and reflexive critique. Crucially, CHRME offers a teaching strategy that does not neglect or marginalize the reality of structural power, inequality and employee work experiences

Context dependent learning in the serial RT task

This study investigated the development of contextual dependencies for sequential perceptual-motor learning on static features in the learning environment. In three experiments we assessed the effect of manipulating task irrelevant static context features in a serial reaction-time task. Experiment 1 demonstrated impaired performance after simultaneously changing display color, placeholder shape, and placeholder location. Experiment 2 showed that this effect was mainly caused by changing placeholder shape. Finally, Experiment 3 indicated that changing context affected both the application of sequence knowledge and the selection of individual responses. It is proposed either that incidental stimulus features are integrated with a global sequence representation, or that the changed context causes participants to strategically inhibit sequence skills

Role of nonhuman primate models in the discovery and clinical development of selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs)

Selective progesterone receptor modulators (SPRMs) represent a new class of progesterone receptor ligands that exert clinically relevant tissue-selective progesterone agonist, antagonist, partial, or mixed agonist/antagonist effects on various progesterone target tissues in an in vivo situation depending on the biological action studied. The SPRM asoprisnil is being studied in women with symptomatic uterine leiomyomata and endometriosis. Asoprisnil shows a high degree of uterine selectivity as compared to effects on ovulation or ovarian hormone secretion in humans. It induces amenorrhea and decreases leiomyoma volume in a dose-dependent manner in the presence of follicular phase estrogen concentrations. It also has endometrial antiproliferative effects. In pregnant animals, the myometrial, i.e. labor-inducing, effects of asoprisnil are blunted or absent. Studies in non-human primates played a key role during the preclinical development of selective progesterone receptor modulators. These studies provided the first evidence of uterus-selective effects of asoprisnil and structurally related compounds, and the rationale for clinical development of asoprisnil

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activation Is Associated with Memory Formation for Predictable Rewards

During reinforcement learning, dopamine release shifts from the moment of reward consumption to the time point when the reward can be predicted. Previous studies provide consistent evidence that reward-predicting cues enhance long-term memory (LTM) formation of these items via dopaminergic projections to the ventral striatum. However, it is less clear whether memory for items that do not precede a reward but are directly associated with reward consumption is also facilitated. Here, we investigated this question in an fMRI paradigm in which LTM for reward-predicting and neutral cues was compared to LTM for items presented during consumption of reliably predictable as compared to less predictable rewards. We observed activation of the ventral striatum and enhanced memory formation during reward anticipation. During processing of less predictable as compared to reliably predictable rewards, the ventral striatum was activated as well, but items associated with less predictable outcomes were remembered worse than items associated with reliably predictable outcomes. Processing of reliably predictable rewards activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and vmPFC BOLD responses were associated with successful memory formation of these items. Taken together, these findings show that consumption of reliably predictable rewards facilitates LTM formation and is associated with activation of the vmPFC

Neurons in the human amygdala encode face identity, but not gaze direction

The amygdala is important for face processing, and direction of eye gaze is one of the most socially salient facial signals. Recording from over 200 neurons in the amygdala of neurosurgical patients, we found robust encoding of the identity of neutral-expression faces, but not of their direction of gaze. Processing of gaze direction may rely on a predominantly cortical network rather than the amygdala

Recommendations for the treatment of epilepsy in adult patients in general practice in Belgium: an update

In 2008, a group of Belgian epilepsy experts published recommendations for antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment of epilepsies in adults and children. Selection of compounds was based on the registration and reimbursement status in Belgium, the level of evidence for efficacy, common daily practice and the personal views and experiences of the authors. In November 2011 the validity of these recommendations was reviewed by the same group of Belgian epilepsy experts who contributed to the preparation of the original paper. The recommendations made in 2008 for initial monotherapy in paediatric patients were still considered to be valid, except for the first choice treatment for childhood absence epilepsy. This update therefore focuses on the treatment recommendations for initial monotherapy and add-on treatment in adult patients. Several other relevant aspects of treatment with AEDs are addressed, including considerations for optimal combination of AEDs (rational polytherapy), pharmacokinetic properties, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic interaction profile, adverse effects, comorbidity, treatment of elderly patients, AED treatment during pregnancy, and generic substitution of AEDs