Crisis Management and Communication Strategies: RUSAL’s Case

No company is immune to crisis situations, an affirmation which, despite its triviality, is undeniably true. However, from the early 2014, such statement may have become even more true to Russian corporations, as the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula gave start to rounds of economic sanctions that are still perpetrated today. Such measures, which were initiated in response to the Kremlin’s political maneuvers, have hit a number of Russian companies, and increased the degree of uncertainty in which they have to operate, as they see economic restriction’s impact not only on the business activity tangible factors—i.e., economic rewards, service, and performance—but also on intangible factors—i.e., image and reputation—as well. Crises are integral parts of all world systems, unfortunately. While they are a theoretically well-understood issue, in practice, crises are perceived as a very painful phenomenon. A crisis can be compared to riding a roller coaster. First, as we gain speed and climb up the tracks we are filled with a sense of joy and delight. These feelings are quickly replaced with anticipation, panic, and fear as the roller coaster plunges into the “abyss.

Linking regional variation of epibiotic bacterial diversity and trophic ecology in a new species of Kiwaidae (Decapoda, Anomura) from East Scotia Ridge (Antarctica) hydrothermal vents

We analyzed the diversity of bacterial epibionts and trophic ecology of a new species of Kiwa yeti crab discovered at two hydrothermal vent fields (E2 and E9) on the East Scotia Ridge (ESR) in the Southern Ocean using a combination of 454 pyrosequencing, Sanger sequencing, and stable isotope analysis. The Kiwa epibiont communities were dominated by Epsilon- and Gammaproteobacteria. About 454 sequencing of the epibionts on 15 individual Kiwa specimen revealed large regional differences between the two hydrothermal vent fields: at E2, the bacterial community on the Kiwa ventral setae was dominated (up to 75%) by Gammaproteobacteria, whereas at E9 Epsilonproteobacteria dominated (up to 98%). Carbon stable isotope analysis of both Kiwa and the bacterial epibionts also showed distinct differences between E2 and E9 in mean and variability. Both stable isotope and sequence data suggest a dominance of different carbon fixation pathways of the epibiont communities at the two vent fields. At E2, epibionts were putatively fixing carbon via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham and reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle, while at E9 the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle dominated. Co-varying epibiont diversity and isotope values at E2 and E9 also present further support for the hypothesis that epibionts serve as a food source for Kiwa

Exploratory time varying lagged regression: Modeling association of cognitive and functional trajectories with expected clinic visits in older adults

Motivated by a longitudinal study on factors affecting the frequency of clinic visits of older adults, an exploratory time varying lagged regression analysis is proposed to relate a longitudinal response to multiple cross-sectional and longitudinal predictors from time varying lags. Regression relations are allowed to vary with time through smooth varying coefficient functions. The main goal of the proposal is to detect deviations from a concurrent varying coefficient model potentially in a subset of the longitudinal predictors with nonzero estimated lags. The proposed methodology is geared towards irregular and infrequent data where different longitudinal variables may be observed at different frequencies, possibly at unsynchronized time points and contaminated with additive measurement error. Furthermore, to cope with the curse of dimensionality which limits related current modeling approaches, a sequential model building procedure is proposed to explore and select the time varying lags of the longitudinal predictors. The estimation procedure is based on estimation of the moments of the predictor and response trajectories by pooling information from all subjects. The finite sample properties of the proposed estimation algorithm are studied under various lag structures and correlation levels among the predictor processes in simulation studies. Application to the clinic visits data show the effect of cognitive and functional impairment scores from varying lags on the frequency of the clinic visits throughout the study

Pathways of carbon and energy metabolism of the epibiotic community associated with the deep-sea hydrothermal vent shrimp Rimicaris exoculata

© The Authors, 2011. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 6 (2011): e16018, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016018.The shrimp Rimicaris exoculata dominates the faunal biomass at many deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In its enlarged gill chamber it harbors a specialized epibiotic bacterial community for which a nutritional role has been proposed. We analyzed specimens from the Snake Pit hydrothermal vent field on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by complementing a 16S rRNA gene survey with the analysis of genes involved in carbon, sulfur and hydrogen metabolism. In addition to Epsilon- and Gammaproteobacteria, the epibiotic community unexpectedly also consists of Deltaproteobacteria of a single phylotype, closely related to the genus Desulfocapsa. The association of these phylogenetic groups with the shrimp was confirmed by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Based on functional gene analyses, we hypothesize that the Gamma- and Epsilonproteobacteria are capable of autotrophic growth by oxidizing reduced sulfur compounds, and that the Deltaproteobacteria are also involved in sulfur metabolism. In addition, the detection of proteobacterial hydrogenases indicates the potential for hydrogen oxidation in these communities. Interestingly, the frequency of these phylotypes in 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from the mouthparts differ from that of the inner lining of the gill chamber, indicating potential functional compartmentalization. Our data show the specific association of autotrophic bacteria with Rimicaris exoculata from the Snake Pit hydrothermal vent field, and suggest that autotrophic carbon fixation is contributing to the productivity of the epibiotic community with the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle as one important carbon fixation pathway. This has not been considered in previous studies of carbon fixation and stable carbon isotope composition of the shrimp and its epibionts. Furthermore, the co-occurrence of sulfur-oxidizing and sulfur-reducing epibionts raises the possibility that both may be involved in the syntrophic exchange of sulfur compounds, which could increase the overall efficiency of this epibiotic community.Funding was provided through NSF grant OCE-0452333 and the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, Germany (SMS), the Max Planck Society, the German Research Foundation (DFG) Cluster of Excellence at Marum, and MOMARnet (ND, JMP), and IFM-GEOMAR (MH, JFI)

Approaches to Analysis of Interstate Cooperation

At the present day cultural diplomacy plays a rather important role in the development of international relations and world politics. This concept is receiving increasing attention from various countries, international and non-governmental organizations and other actors. This trend exists due to a number of reasons, such as the desire of states to create a positive image of their country, the expansion of international cooperation, changes in the global and domestic political situation, the protection of national interests, the prevention of conflicts between states, etc. Cultural diplomacy, beyond historical precedents, consists of a relatively new practice of a country’s foreign policy, which has traditionally focused on trade and security and defense issues. It is true that in European countries there are institutions of cultural foreign relations since the beginning of the century, but in the last decade the issues, related to the projection of the international image of countries, have become more important

Abuse as nursing care : nurses' experience of practicing coercive measures

Bakgrund Tio till trettio procent av befolkningen kommer att vid ett eller flera tillfällen i sitt liv uppleva psykiska problem som kräver intervention av sjukvården. Inom sluten psykiatrisk vård tillämpas i vissa situationer särskilda tvångsåtgärder i enlighet med lagen ompsykiatrisk tvångsvård. Det innebär att sjuksköterskor inom den psykiatriska vården kan komma att möta situationer som involverar tvångsvård. Vårdformer som involverar tvångär ofta etiskt konfliktfyllda och kan för sjuksköterskor som individer leda till känslor av obehag. Syfte Syftet var att beskriva sjuksköterskans upplevelse av att utföra särskilda tvångsåtgärder på en psykiatrisk sluten vårdsavdelning. Metod Med anledning av syftet tillämpades en kvalitativ semi-strukturerad intervjumetod. Sju intervjuer genomfördes varav en pilotintervju. Dessa spelades in med hjälp av diktafon och transkriberades ordagrant och analyserades med hjälp av en induktiv kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat I resultatet framgick det att samtliga sjuksköterskor upplevde bristande personalresurser,ledarskap och kunskap inom våldsförebyggande arbete som de mest framträdande negativa faktorerna vid hot- och våldssituationer. Sjuksköterskorna eftersökte ett förbättrat samarbete med läkare då det ansågs leda till ökad säkerhet för personal och patienter. Slutsats En utökning av personalstyrkan och utbildning inom våldsförebyggande modeller ansågs som nödvändiga åtgärder för att förbättra kommunikationen med patienter samt minska på antal bältesläggningar som ansågs vara den mest kränkande tvångsåtgärden

Proposal of Giesbergeria voronezhensis gen. nov., sp nov and G. kuznetsovii sp nov and reclassification of [Aquaspirillum] anulus, [A.] sinuosum and [A.] giesbergeri as Giesbergeria anulus comb. nov., G. sinuosa comb. nov and G-giesbergeri comb. nov., and [Aquaspirillum] metamorphum and [A-psychrophilum as Simplicispira metamorpha gen. nov., comb. nov and S. psychrophila comb. nov.

Five Gram-negative, motile, spiral-shaped strains were isolated from a sulfide spring (D-412T), active sludge of wastewater (D-419T, D-420, D-424) and industrial wastewater (D-416). Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis showed that the isolates belong to the family Comamonadaceae, within the class Betaproteobacteria, but fall into a distinct cluster. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, a new genus, Giesbergeria gen. nov., is proposed, including five species. The type species of the genus is Giesbergeria voronezhensis sp. nov. (type strain D-419T = DSM 12825T = CIP 107340T = VKM B-2350T) and other novel members of the genus are Giesbergeria kuznetsovii sp. nov. (type strain D-412T = DSM 12827T = VKM B-2352T), Giesbergeria giesbergeri comb. nov. (basonym Aquaspirillum giesbergeri), Giesbergeria sinuosa comb. nov. (basonym Aquaspirillum sinuosum) and Giesbergeria anulus comb. nov. (basonym Aquaspirillum anulus). Using the same criteria, isolate D-416 (= DSM 12826) was identified as a strain of [Aquaspirillum] metamorphum. Strain D-416, the type strain of [A.] metamorphum and the type strain of [Aquaspirillum] psychrophilum form a distinct cluster within the family Comamonadaceae (97-97.2% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and share phenotypic and chemotaxonomic properties. Therefore, it is proposed that these strains are reclassified as members of a new genus, Simplicispira gen. nov., as Simplicispira metamorpha comb. nov. (the type species) and Simplicispira psychrophila comb. nov., respectively