Philanthropy and community development : the vital signs of community foundation?

This self-funded research builds on earlier support for the study of community foundations within philanthropy from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), grant reference RES-593-25-0004.Increased funding pressures on community development and reductions in governmental funding for community support suggest potent roles for philanthropy as a funding source, and the possibility of changing relationships between community development and philanthropy. Focusing on English community foundations and their implementation of the Canadian Vital Signs initiative, which is geared towards assessing communities’ vitality and social priorities, our article explores whether, and how, such changes may be occurring. Using the literature on the respective value of ‘unsettling’ and ‘settled’ third sector organisations to community development, we reflect on the roles and contributions of community foundations to community development through community philanthropy. Vital Signs reports’ content indicates donor-led community philanthropy associated with ameliorative rather than fundamental social change positions, as well as uncertainty surrounding community leadership in this context. We identify community foundations as ‘settled’ organisations within the community development spectrum and as reflecting the ‘directed’ community development form. In this instance, it appears that the philanthropy-community development gap that we suggest is at best being partially bridged. Nevertheless, and paradoxically, these organisations’ achievement of financial security through community donorship could also strengthen their community leadership roles in ‘unsettling’ ways, so doing more to lessen philanthropy and community development’s separation.PostprintPeer reviewe

Providing foundations : philanthropy, global policy and administration

Philanthropy is gaining renewed policy prominence. Focusing on the institutional expressions of philanthropy – philanthropic foundations – this chapter critically explores foundations’ various contributions to, and roles in, global policy. Emphasising the need to move beyond traditional perspectives, dominant focal points and well-established questions around philanthropy, the chapter argues for more synthesised, critically reflective, engagement with philanthropy in global policy research. To this end, the importance of examining historic antecedents of contemporary developments in philanthropy and the need for a stronger evidence-base are outlined. The chapter concludes by discussing the spectrum of research opportunities philanthropy provides for the global policy and transnational administration field.Postprin

Improved Formalism for Precision Higgs Coupling Fits

Future e+e- colliders give the promise of model-independent determinations of the couplings of the Higgs boson. In this paper, we present an improved formalism for extracting Higgs boson couplings from e+e- data, based on the Effective Field Theory description of corrections to the Standard Model. We apply this formalism to give projections of Higgs coupling accuracies for stages of the International Linear Collider and for other proposed e+e- colliders.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures; v4: clarifications and new references added; v5, additional references adde

Mastoid vibration affects dynamic postural control during gait in healthy older adults

Vestibular disorders are difficult to diagnose early due to the lack of a systematic assessment. Our previous work has developed a reliable experimental design and the result shows promising results that vestibular sensory input while walking could be affected through mastoid vibration (MV) and changes are in the direction of motion. In the present paper, we wanted to extend this work to older adults and investigate how manipulating sensory input through mastoid vibration (MV) could affect dynamic postural control during walking. Three levels of MV (none, unilateral, and bilateral) applied via vibrating elements placed on the mastoid processes were combined with the Locomotor Sensory Organization Test (LSOT) paradigm to challenge the visual and somatosensory systems. We hypothesized that the MV would affect sway variability during walking in older adults. Our results revealed that MV significantly not only increased the amount of sway variability but also decreased the temporal structure of sway variability only in anterior-posterior direction. Importantly, the bilateral MV stimulation generally produced larger effects than the unilateral. This is an important finding that confirmed our experimental design and the results produced could guide a more reliable screening of vestibular system deterioration

New Work or the dimensions of organizing

Im folgenden Beitrag werden die Veränderungen der Arbeitswelt durch die New Work-Bewegung aus einer gruppendynamischen Perspektive untersucht. Dazu werden auf den Dimensionen Hierarchie, Zugehörigkeit und Intimität, Vorteile und Folgen der Veränderungen durch New Work sowohl aus der Personensicht als auch aus der Perspektive der Organisation aufgezeigt und anhand von Fallbeispielen illustriert.The following article examines the changes in the world of work brought about by the New Work movement from a group dynamics perspective. For this purpose, on the dimensions of hierarchy, affiliation and intimacy, advantages and consequences of the changes through New Work are shown both from the person’s point of view and from the perspective of the organization and illustrated by means of case studies.Peer Reviewe

Pyric herbivory in a temperate European wood-pasture system

The term pyric herbivory was first introduced in 2009, describing how fire shapes herbivory as burned areas attract herbivores and, simultaneously, herbivory shapes fuel load and fire behaviour. Pyric herbivory results in a mosaic of patches with varying levels of herbivory and grazing intensity fire intensity and frequency. The importance of pyric herbivory for ecosystem heterogeneity and biodiversity has been described for North American, Australian and African systems, but the concept remains largely untested in a European context. We introduced fire and herbivory in a full-factorial experiment in a temperate European wood-pasture system to test whether pyric herbivory operates in ways comparable to grassy systems elsewhere in the world. Using camera traps, we observed the behaviour of cattle in burned subplots (49 m2) compared with unburned subplots. We measured grass height and the proportion of the subplot that burned as variables affecting cattle preference and to assess how grazing affects fire behaviour. We also examined the effect on plant species and life-form composition after six seasons of treatment. Cattle spent more time grazing in burned than in unburned subplots in the most productive paddock, where a larger proportion of the subplot burned. The proportion of a subplot that burned was positively related to pre-fire grass height. Moreover, both grass height and the proportion of subplot burned declined in the burned subplots during the 6-year study period and fire and cattle grazing altered the relative cover of graminoids and shrubs (Rubus spp.), with more graminoids in grazed and/or burned subplots and more shrubs in ungrazed subplots at the end of the study. Synthesis and applications. In our temperate European wood pasture, fire and (cattle) grazing interacted in ways comparable to pyric herbivory in grassy ecosystems elsewhere in the world, especially in the most productive paddock. Fire attracted grazing, with cattle grazing longer on subplots that burned more fully. Grazing also affected fire, where over the course of our experiment cattle grazing reduced grass height and the proportion of a subplot that burned. We suggest that pyric herbivory is an interesting management method to further explore in the European context to address the loss of biodiversity in open ecosystems, particularly in more productive sites.In our temperate European wood pasture, fire and (cattle) grazing interacted in ways comparable to pyric herbivory in grassy ecosystems elsewhere in the world, especially in the most productive paddock. Fire attracted grazing, with cattle grazing longer on subplots that burned more fully. Grazing also affected fire, where over the course of our experiment cattle grazing reduced grass height and the proportion of a subplot that burned. We suggest that pyric herbivory is an interesting management method to further explore in the European context to address the loss of biodiversity in open ecosystems, particularly in more productive sites.imag

CORAE: A Tool for Intuitive and Continuous Retrospective Evaluation of Interactions

This paper introduces CORAE, a novel web-based open-source tool for COntinuous Retrospective Affect Evaluation, designed to capture continuous affect data about interpersonal perceptions in dyadic interactions. Grounded in behavioral ecology perspectives of emotion, this approach replaces valence as the relevant rating dimension with approach and withdrawal, reflecting the degree to which behavior is perceived as increasing or decreasing social distance. We conducted a study to experimentally validate the efficacy of our platform with 24 participants. The tool's effectiveness was tested in the context of dyadic negotiation, revealing insights about how interpersonal dynamics evolve over time. We find that the continuous affect rating method is consistent with individuals' perception of the overall interaction. This paper contributes to the growing body of research on affective computing and offers a valuable tool for researchers interested in investigating the temporal dynamics of affect and emotion in social interactions

PTPσ inhibitors promote hematopoietic stem cell regeneration.

Receptor type protein tyrosine phosphatase-sigma (PTPσ) is primarily expressed by adult neurons and regulates neural regeneration. We recently discovered that PTPσ is also expressed by hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Here, we describe small molecule inhibitors of PTPσ that promote HSC regeneration in vivo. Systemic administration of the PTPσ inhibitor, DJ001, or its analog, to irradiated mice promotes HSC regeneration, accelerates hematologic recovery, and improves survival. Similarly, DJ001 administration accelerates hematologic recovery in mice treated with 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy. DJ001 displays high specificity for PTPσ and antagonizes PTPσ via unique non-competitive, allosteric binding. Mechanistically, DJ001 suppresses radiation-induced HSC apoptosis via activation of the RhoGTPase, RAC1, and induction of BCL-XL. Furthermore, treatment of irradiated human HSCs with DJ001 promotes the regeneration of human HSCs capable of multilineage in vivo repopulation. These studies demonstrate the therapeutic potential of selective, small-molecule PTPσ inhibitors for human hematopoietic regeneration

The other side of a magic mirror: Exploring collegiality in student and staff partnership work

This article adds to the corpus of writing that examines collegiality's idealistic yet elusive nature in Higher Education by focusingspecifically on how collegiality can be enacted in student–staff partnership work. An innovative initiative, ‘Students as Colleaguesin the Review of Teaching Practices’, provides a case to qualitatively explore the collegial characteristics. Here, students revieweda paired staff member's teaching practice over one semester, as a peer review exercise. This shift in social roles troubles theunderstanding of ‘peer’ and asks if authentic collegiality is possible. The study is conceptually framed by Fielding's notion of‘radical collegiality’ and draws on standpoint theory and dialogic education to raise issues of power, mutual support andproductive tensions. The findings have implications for how Higher Education institutions can support student and staff to activelyengage in authentic collegial partnerships by developing relational and dialogic spaces, rather than just abstract institutionalinfrastructures