What News on the Rialto? The Trade of Information and Early Modern Venice's Centralized Intelligence Organization

This article explores one of the earliest centrally organized state intelligence services in world history. Contrary to the orthodoxy that sees systematized intelligence as a modern political phenomenon, this was developed in early modern Venice. The article reveals the complex organization of Venetian systemized intelligence that distinguished it from other contemporaneous states’ espionage networks. It also shows how Venetian authorities commodified intelligence by engaging citizens and subjects in a trade of information for mutual benefits. Ultimately, the article challenges our understanding of early modern political communication and offers a fresh vista of intelligence as a business trait and economic necessity

Elementary School Students’ Epistemic Perspective and Learning Strategies in History

The present study explores possible relations between students’ epistemic perspective, learning strategies and text comprehension. In Study 1, seventy-nine sixth graders completed paper-and-pencil instruments to measure their epistemic perspective and learning strategies. Students’ epistemic perspective was assessed using the Livian problem (Kuhn, Iordanou, Pease, & Wirkala, 2008), which presented two contradicting accounts about the fictitious fifth Livian war and asked students questions regarding the certainty of their knowledge. Students were epistemically profiled as Absolutists, Multiplists and Evaluativists in their approaches to knowing. Students’ learning strategies were assessed through the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire – MSLQ − (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990). In Study 2, twenty of the students who participated in Study 1 were individually interviewed to measure their learning strategies, where they were asked to read a text about Columbus’ uncovering of the New World. Results revealed that students who were profiled as Evaluativists showed greater self-efficacy, intrinsic value, use of cognitive strategies and self-regulation. In addition, students who were profiled as Evaluativists engaged in more effective learning strategies and exhibited better text comprehension compared to students who were profiled as Absolutists. In particular, students who exhibited an Evaluativist epistemic perspective engaged in the strategies of understanding vocabulary, summarizing and underlining, while students who exhibited an Absolutist epistemic perspective engaged more in repeating information and quick reading. Our findings show that a mature epistemic perspective is associated with effective usage of learning strategies and text comprehension

Old wine in new bottles: Exploring pragmatism as a philosophical framework for the discipline of coaching

The practice and industry of organizational coaching are now well established, but how it is understood theoretically continues to lag behind. In this paper we analyze possible reasons for this state of affairs and argue that the development of coaching as an academic discipline will benefit from adopting philosophical pragmatism as an overarching theoretical framework. This move will enable coaching academics to utilize the contributions to knowledge that different paradigms generate. Positioning pragmatism as a theory of action we argue that organizational coaching is by default a pragmatic enterprise and provide three examples of the considerable benefits to be gained by conceptualizing it this way. (1) Drawing from the pragmatists’ ideas, particularly those of John Dewey, we demonstrate how the theoretical understanding of organizational coaching can be enhanced by considering its nature as a joint inquiry. (2) Pragmatism suggests development as an ultimate purpose for organizational coaching which also helps to resolve fundamental conceptual debates. (3) In light of the complexity and diversity involved in the way that organizational coaching is practiced, pragmatism offers coaches a useful framework for developing the flexibility required for navigating the multiplicity of influences on their practice

Effects of ammonium sulphate and calcium nitrate on the growth, yield and nitrogen uptake of barley, wheat and oats

RESP-559

Examination frequencies and patient doses from computed tomography examinations in the area of Athens, Greece

A survey was conducted in the Athens region between the years 1996-1997, in which 33 CT scanner facilities from the 67 operating in this area participated. Examination frequencies from the 33 scanners were 187,875 per year for all types of examinations. Using published estimations for the mean effective dose for each type of examination, it was estimated that the collective dose from the above examinations was about 1,100 person-Sv, which, if projected to the total number of 152 CT scanners operating in Greece at the time of the survey, results in about 0.5 mSv per caput dose each year for the Greek population, which is probably the highest in Europe

Examination frequencies and patient doses from computed tomography examinations in the area of Athens, Greece

A survey was conducted in the Athens region between the years 1996-1997, in which 33 CT scanner facilities from the 67 operating in this area participated. Examination frequencies from the 33 scanners were 187,875 per year for all types of examinations. Using published estimations for the mean effective dose for each type of examination, it was estimated that the collective dose from the above examinations was about 1,100 person-Sv, which, if projected to the total number of 152 CT scanners operating in Greece at the time of the survey, results in about 0.5 mSv per caput dose each year for the Greek population, which is probably the highest in Europe