Corporate governance in Central and Eastern Europe : lessons from advanced market economies

Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Private Participation in Infrastructure,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Small Scale Enterprise,Economic Theory&Research

Multi-agent decision-making dynamics inspired by honeybees

When choosing between candidate nest sites, a honeybee swarm reliably chooses the most valuable site and even when faced with the choice between near-equal value sites, it makes highly efficient decisions. Value-sensitive decision-making is enabled by a distributed social effort among the honeybees, and it leads to decision-making dynamics of the swarm that are remarkably robust to perturbation and adaptive to change. To explore and generalize these features to other networks, we design distributed multi-agent network dynamics that exhibit a pitchfork bifurcation, ubiquitous in biological models of decision-making. Using tools of nonlinear dynamics we show how the designed agent-based dynamics recover the high performing value-sensitive decision-making of the honeybees and rigorously connect investigation of mechanisms of animal group decision-making to systematic, bio-inspired control of multi-agent network systems. We further present a distributed adaptive bifurcation control law and prove how it enhances the network decision-making performance beyond that observed in swarms

Reliability and Validity of the UNIT - Gifted Screening Scale (UNIT - GSS)

The psychometric integrity of the UNIT - Gifted Screening Scale (UNIT -GSS; McCallum & Bracken, in press) was explored by examining Cronbach\u27s Alphas for each of its scales (reliabilities ranged from .95 to .98). In addition, the concurrent validity was evaluated by comparing scores from non-academically oriented UNIT-GSS scales to other instruments that measure the same constructs for 106 2nd through 8th grade students, rated either by their teachers or themselves, on the UNIT-GSS, the Gifted Rated Scales (GRS; Pfeiffer & Jarosewich, 2003), and a self-report instrument designed to measure emotional intelligence, the Bar-On Emotional Quotient: Youth Version Short Form (Bar-On EQ-i: YV [S]; Bar-On & Parker, 2000). To assess concurrent validity of the UNIT-GSS academic scales, scores on and end-of-year achievement test, the Terra Nova Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS; CTB, 1996) were compared (to the academically oriented UNIT-GSS scales). Coefficients for like constructs ranged from .46 to .85 (p \u3c .001). Finally, providing evidence of construct validity, all UNIT-GSS scale means for 53 students who participated in a Gifted and Talented program were significantly higher (p \u3c .001) than their matched non-gifted peers

Sedating children in South Africa

Regarding 'Sedation for paediatric auditory electrophysiology in South Africa' we thank the authors for publishing their research thereby giving us documentary proof of what we know to be widespread practice. Sedation has, for many years, been poorly documented and not subject to the standards in respect of monitoring, medications administered, staff ratios and clinical governance that is its due. Several closed claims analyses and numerous reviews have recognised that paediatric sedation, in particular, is associated with an increased morbidity and mortality. As the authors indicate, there is increasing pressure from practitioners, funders and patients or parents for procedures to take place outside the operating room; the age limit at which this is deemed acceptable is being pushed lower and lower. In addition, the complexity and length of these procedures is increasing.DHE

Romania's evolving legal framework for private sector development

As the economies of Central and Eastern Europe move from central planning and state ownership to market-driven development of private sector activity, they are undertaking comprehensive change in the"rules of the game", the legal framework for economic activity. The authors analyze the evolving legal framework for private sector development in Romania. The government has worked intensively in the last two years to create a legal framework for a market economy. It has adopted not only a new constitution but also extensive new legislation covering real and intellectual property, companies, and foreign investment. It has revived the pre-war civil code as a basis for contract law, and is moving to modernize its bankruptcy code. The only area surveyed in which little legal reform has occurred is antimonopoly law. Challenges remain in both law and practice. The broad principles of private ownership, free market exchange, and equal treatment of public and private firms are well recognized and have been largely achieved. But a tendency towards centralized, bureaucratic control remains in excessive requirements for approval and uneconomic limits on certain activities. Moreover, implementation will take a long time because there is little or no institutional framework for enforcement and dispute resolution. Developing a body of regulation and case practice will take time.Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance,Legal Products,Banks&Banking Reform,Real&Intellectual Property Law

Taking Responsibility: Psychological and Attitudinal Change through a Domestic Violence Intervention Program in New South Wales, Australia

Literature widely reports the negative impacts of domestic violence at individual, family, and societal levels. Intervention programs that effectively assist violent men to develop alternate ways of relating, and thus enhance the safety of women and children, are of significant value to governments and the community. This study evaluates the effectiveness of one such program in promoting change in relevant attitudes and psychological constructs. Program participants completed pre- and post-group surveys containing validated scales that measured their gender equity beliefs, self-esteem, mastery, and psychological distress. Over the duration of program attendance, positive changes were evident regarding men’s self-esteem, mastery, and psychological distress, however, no significant change in gender equity beliefs was apparent. The positive changes evident amongst participants indicate beneficial outcomes from group work participation in areas that have been identified as risk factors for violent behaviour.  The results also suggest that intervention programs would benefit from an increased focus on gender equity beliefs, and that further research is necessary on the extent to which this focus could improve attitudes, and consequently promote safety for women and children

Gender and Criminal Justice: Challenging Prejudice

First paragraph: There have been many recent attempts to ‘reimagine’ justice in Scotland in relation to gender and the criminal justice system. Part of the process of ‘reimagining’ punishment and justice requires overcoming existing barriers and finding a space to rethink power, change institutions and systems of state. To do so, requires looking and thinking in different ways

Paraglossal straight blade intubation in syndromic children

Syndromic children have an increased association with difficult airways, which may lead to difficulties and dangers even when anticipated and planned for. Hypoxia, with its risk of brain injury, cardiac arrest and even death, may follow induction of anaesthesia with subsequent airway management failure.Video-assisted devices have helped significantly with the management of difficult airways in children; however, these devices are not always available and have their own limitations. An alternative approach to the difficult airway, although seldom used, is the paraglossal straight blade approach. This technique, originally described by Jackson and Magill and later modified by Henderson, has successfully been used in both the paediatric and adult populations for the management of a difficult airway. The paraglossal intubation technique has frequently been used for successful intubation in Pierre Robin syndrome and cleft palate surgery, but only isolated case reports are available to indicate its effectiveness in other abnormalities such as tongue tie, macroglossia, arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, Treacher Collins syndrome and glossopalantine ankylosis.Keywords: intubation in syndromic children, paraglossal intubation, straight blade intubation, syndromic childre