Virtual communities and professional learning across a distributed remote membership

Headteachers, or Principals, of schools work in isolation from each other yet share common practice and domain of leadership and management. They exhibit the characteristics of a community of practice yet are remote from other members of their community. Similar communities of practice can be identified for other types of school leaders, subject co-ordinators for example, and for professionals in other disciplines – consultant registrars in health, optometrists working in dispensing opticians, museum curators, and so on. This paper explores ways of using virtual communities to develop professional learning in these communities of practice. We discuss our work in the context of education and formal and informal learning communities of school leaders and explore how the lessons learnt have general application. We present a model for professional learning through online collaboration and communication, and look, in particular, at the concept of time and its effects in the virtual community

The Moral Hazards of Title VII\u27s Religious Accomodation Doctrine

Freedom of religion in the workplace has recently become a hot topic with regards to whether U.S. or state laws (mainly contraceptive care and treatment of same-sex, married employees’ spouses) must accommodate certain employer’s religious beliefs or else violate the employer’s constitutional right. However, before this recent employer-centric topic came to light, the main focus was on employees and to what extent employers must accommodate an employee’s religion via Title VII. Most, if not all, academic literature has argued an employer’s duty to accommodate employee’s religion is too weak under Title VII and should thus be increased to the significant employer burden to accommodate an employee’s disability under the ADA. However, courts have consistently held an employer only has a de minimis burden to accommodate its employee’s religion. This article serves as a devil’s advocate argument for why the legal commentators are wrong and why the current Title VII religious accommodation standards are correct. Issues such as “choice,” constitutionality, and judicial efficiency are covered in-depth. Ultimately, the main counterargument this article makes is how raising the Title VII burden on employer’s will create a “moral hazard” for employees to pick and choose a religion to avoid compliance with neutral employer rules

The Moral Hazards of Title VII\u27s Religious Accomodation Doctrine

Freedom of religion in the workplace has recently become a hot topic with regards to whether U.S. or state laws (mainly contraceptive care and treatment of same-sex, married employees’ spouses) must accommodate certain employer’s religious beliefs or else violate the employer’s constitutional right. However, before this recent employer-centric topic came to light, the main focus was on employees and to what extent employers must accommodate an employee’s religion via Title VII. Most, if not all, academic literature has argued an employer’s duty to accommodate employee’s religion is too weak under Title VII and should thus be increased to the significant employer burden to accommodate an employee’s disability under the ADA. However, courts have consistently held an employer only has a de minimis burden to accommodate its employee’s religion. This article serves as a devil’s advocate argument for why the legal commentators are wrong and why the current Title VII religious accommodation standards are correct. Issues such as “choice,” constitutionality, and judicial efficiency are covered in-depth. Ultimately, the main counterargument this article makes is how raising the Title VII burden on employer’s will create a “moral hazard” for employees to pick and choose a religion to avoid compliance with neutral employer rules

Transboundary Planning in the European Atlantic: Good Practice Guide

Outcome of a European project of transboundary maritime planning in the European Atlantic region

Enterprise Budgets for Livestock Businesses that Use National Forest Grazing Land

Cow-calf and sheep enterprise inputs, production, costs, and returns are estimated for ranches with Forest Service grazing permits using 1982 as a base year. Budgets represent different cow and sheep herd sizes in National Forests and national Grasslands of United States.Beef cows, sheep costs and returns, Federal rangeland, Livestock Production/Industries,

The role of Yes-associated protein (YAP) in vertebrate development

Yes-associated protein 65 (YAP) contains multiple protein-protein interaction domains and functions as both a transcriptional co-activator and as a scaffolding protein within the cytoplasm or nucleus. Given that YAP binds to so many proteins that are critical for proper embryonic development and that this factor functions as a transcriptional co-activator, YAP likely plays an important role during early embryonic development. Given that YAP knockout mice struggled to progress normally through early development, in part because of nutritional deficiencies, we sought to better characterize a role for YAP during this time period by using embryos that develop externally: Xenopus laevis and Danio rerio. YAP morpholino (MO)-mediated loss-of-function resulted in a delay of mesoderm induction and severely impaired A-P axis elongation, phenotypes that were similar to YAP-/- mice. YAP gain-of-function experiments in Xenopus laevis expanded the progenitor populations in the neural plate and neural plate border zone, while concomitantly inhibiting differentiation markers for the neural crest, preplacodal ectoderm, hatching gland, epidermis, and somitic muscle. Regulation of gene expression is critically important in development and improper regulation of gene expression can lead to a variety of developmental defects, such as loss of conceptus, birth defects, and cancer. I found that yap expression is controlled by a TATA-less promoter, which includes a GC box where Sp1 binds and regulates yap transcription. I also found that adrenomedullin, a multifunctional peptide hormone known to act as a vasodilator, angiogenic factor, regulator of placental development, and tumor growth promoter, is a newly identified, putative target of YAP. These studies demonstrate that YAP is involved in the process of cell differentiation and the lack or overabundance of YAP protein disrupts the developmental time line of vertebrates with grievous consequences. Understanding the mechanistic details of these effects involve delineating the transcriptional control of YAP and its target genes. In the future, elucidating the linkage between YAP, the nuclear architecture, and transcriptional regulation will bolster our understanding of cell differentiation

Delineating ground deformation over the Tengiz oil field, Kazakhstan, using the Intermittent SBAS (ISBAS) DInSAR algorithm

Changes in subsurface pore pressures and stresses due to the extraction of hydrocarbons often cause deformation over oil and gas fields. This can have significant consequences, including ground subsidence, induced seismicity and well failures. Geodynamic monitoring is an important requirement in recognising potential threats in sufficient time for remedial measures to be implemented. Differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) is increasingly utilised for monitoring ground deformation over oil and gas reservoirs, achieving greater spatial coverage than traditional field-based surveying techniques. However, ground deformation over oil and gas fields can extend regionally into the surrounding rural landscape, where many conventional DInSAR techniques are of limited use due to the dynamic nature of the land cover. The Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) method is an advanced DInSAR technique, which considers the intermittent nature of coherence over dynamic land cover types to obtain markedly more ground motion measurements in non-urban regions. In this study, the ISBAS technique is used to delineate deformation over the super-giant Tengiz oil field in rural Kazakhstan. Analysis of ENVISAT data for 2004–2009 reveals a well-defined bowl subsiding with a maximum rate of −15.7 mm/year, corroborated by independent DInSAR studies and traditional levelling data. Subsequent application of ISBAS to Sentinel-1 data reveals significant evolution of deformation over the field in 2016–2017, with subsidence increasing dramatically to a maximum of -79.3 mm/year. The increased density of measurements obtained using the ISBAS technique enables accurate and comprehensive delineation and characterisation of ground deformation in this rural landscape, without the need for corner reflectors. This enhanced information could ultimately aid reservoir characterisation and management, and improve understanding of the risk posed by ground subsidence and fault reactivation

How can firms in the UK alcoholic drinks manufacturing sector improve their implementation of CSR?

The question of how firms in the UK alcoholic drinks manufacturing sector can improve their implementation of CSR is addressed. The structure of the industry, its products, trends and modes of distribution are first analysed and the leading manufacturers identified. The non-market environment is analysed in detail using Baron's framework (Baron 1995) in particular the industry issues and stakeholders are identified; the expectations of each of these stakeholders are then investigated. Using these stakeholder expectations the Corporate Social Performance of each firm is then assessed using Wood and Jones' measurement methodology (Wood and Jones 1995). The areas where firms' responses to stakeholder expectations are found to be weak are: extending their influence down the supply chain to persuade retailers to fulfill their obligations; warning the public of the consequences of excessive consumption and providing a financial contribution towards tackling the harm caused by excessive drinking. The literature on the implementation of CSR is reviewed; this review formed the basis of in-depth interviews with representatives from a number of alcoholic drinks manufacturing firms. The analyses of these interviews are presented and discussed in order to establish how each firm currently implements their CSR strategies within their organizations. The findings are related back to the ideas and theory identified in the literature review which allows recommendations to be made as to how to improve on the current levels of implementation. Furthermore, theory was developed during the course of the study identifying key factors associated with improving CSR implementation. The study concludes that there is a clear correlation between more advanced levels of implementation and better levels of CSP. It also concludes that present implementation strategies can only achieve limited social performance and that strategies need to be further developed to make organizational learning the main target for all firms trying to improve. Key elements contributing to the organizational learning process are found to be, first and foremost, the commitment of the firm's executives to achieving learning. Firms also need to encourage and empower their employees to act as stewards for the organization; communication processes play a key role in this. To improve learning a balance must also be struck between firms allowing experimentation within the organization and focusing on outcomes of strategies, which few do at present

Autoreactive B Cell Regulation: Peripheral Induction of Developmental Arrest by Lupus-Associated Autoantigens

Anti-Sm and anti-ssDNA transgenic (Tg) mice were generated using the VH-D-JH rearrangement of an anti-Sm hybridoma of MRL/Mp-lpr/lpr origin. B cells of each specificity account for 15%–35% of the splenic repertoire, but no circulating anti-Sm or anti-ssDNA antibodies are detected. Most autoreactive cells exhibit an immature B cell phenotype and have short half-lives equivalent to those of non-Tg immature B cells. However, at least some anti-Sm B cells are functional, because immunization with murine snRNPs induces anti-Sm secretion. We propose that anti-Sm and anti-ssDNA are eliminated during the transition to mature B cells and that this late stage of tolerance induction is consequential to their spontaneous activation in murine lupus