Influential Article Review - CSR-mediated Projects in the Ghana Mining Municipalities

This paper examines corporate social responsibility. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: This study used an eclectic multiple-case design to explore what drives three large-scale mining companies’ involvement in CSR-mediated development activities, and their philosophical underpinning. The research discovered that although there were nuances between cases in the order in which they rated the strength of 11 potential drivers of CSR, eight of them were important. Three (3) of these were strong drivers – reputation management, pre-emptive anti-regulationism, and pre-existence of local development plans. Five others were moderately strong drivers. The investigations further found that the philosophical underpinnings of the case companies’ CSR were based on ‘Common-Sense Morality,’ a duty-based deontological moral philosophy that is a departure from widely held instrumental positions associated with Egoism. It also identified constrained profit-maximization as the CSR strategy from which their CSR policies emanated. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German

Marshall University Music Department Presents Second Annual Reed Day, Guest Artists, Jon Agazzi, clarinet, John Cipolla, saxophone, and, Marshall University Faculty, Ann Marie Bingham, clarinet, W. Edwin Bingham, saxophone, Richard Kravchak, oboe, Kay Lawson, bassoon

https://mds.marshall.edu/music_perf/1689/thumbnail.jp

'I live in extremes': A qualitative investigation of Autistic adults' experiences of inertial rest and motion

'Autistic inertia' is a term used by Autistic people to refer to difficulties with starting and stopping tasks. However, there has not been much research on Autistic inertia. The research that is available on Autistic inertia has mostly focused on the negative aspects of inertia, rather than on the possible benefits of needing to continue tasks. In this research, we wanted to understand more about Autistic people's experiences of inertia and to work out what things might influence these experiences. Autistic and non-Autistic researchers spoke in-depth to 24 Autistic adults. We identified four key ideas from people's responses. Autistic people spoke about their inertial 'difficulties moving from one state to another' and described how these challenges affected them 'every single day'. While they experienced inertia as 'the single most disabling part of being Autistic', people also described the positive aspects of inertia, including the joy they felt when completely immersed in a task. Our Autistic participants emphasised that inertial difficulties are experienced by everyone, the intensity of these task-switching difficulties might be especially challenging for Autistic people. Our findings also reveal how Autistic inertia can be seen both as a disabling and as an enabling condition

Adaptation to climate change or non-climatic stressors in semi-arid regions? Evidence of gender differentiation in three agrarian districts of Ghana

This work was carried out under the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions project(ASSAR). ASSAR is one of five reserarch programs funded under the Collaborative Adaptation Reseasrch Initiative in African and Asisa (CARIAA), with financial support from the UK Government's Department for International Development (DfID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC),Canada (107640-001).The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of DfID and IDRC or its Board of Governors. Special thanks go to the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) projects secretariat in Ghana for the support in linking our research with the CCAFS district platform chairpersons. We also would like to acknowledge the support of Stephen Omari in fieldwork data collection as well as chairpersons of CCAFS district platforms.We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments.With the increasing impacts of climate change in Africa, a relationship between rainfall and yields in semi-arid Ghana has been observed. Drawing insights from three agrarian societies in the semi-arid region of Ghana using qualitative research methods, the study reports how people currently deal with climate variability as insight on how they will deal with climate change in the future. The findings indicate wide gender inequality in decision making processes and land access resulting from patriarchal local customs and institutions that shape adaptation responses of different vulnerable social groups to climatic or non-climatic stressors. Different adaptation practices of groups indicate that both climatic and non-climatic stressors shape the kind of responses that groups adopt. From the current adaptation practices, efforts to improve adaptation to future climate change at local levels must give attention to the nexus of both climatic and non-climatic stressors, gender, differential vulnerabilities and other subjectivities that produce a particular adaptation practice in a given place

An Investigation of High Frequency Motions in the Tropical Tropopause Layer near Convection

Indirect evidence indicates a role for vertical mixing in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL). In the past 20 years, high altitude NASA aircraft such as the ER-2, WB-57, and GLobal Hawk have been making 20hz measurements of vertical velocity and other meteorological parameters in the Upper Tropospere-Lower Stratosphere region, many in the tropics, most recently in connection with the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). In the stable environment of the UTLS, high frequency activity occurs in bursts, presumably in connection with nearby convection or strong vertical shear associated with larger scale gravity waves. This paper examines tropical high frequency aircraft data to obtain some basic information about the distribution and character of high frequency activity in vertical velocity in the TTL. In particular, we focus on relating the high frequency activity to nearby tropical convection

Combined Inhibition of mTOR and CDK4/6 Is Required for Optimal Blockade of E2F Function and Long-term Growth Inhibition in Estrogen Receptor-positive Breast Cancer.

The cyclin dependent kinase (CDK)-retinoblastoma (RB)-E2F pathway plays a critical role in the control of cell cycle in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. Small-molecule inhibitors of CDK4/6 have shown promise in this tumor type in combination with hormonal therapies, reflecting the particular dependence of this subtype of cancer on cyclin D1 and E2F transcription factors. mTOR inhibitors have also shown potential in clinical trials in this disease setting. Recent data have suggested cooperation between the PI3K/mTOR pathway and CDK4/6 inhibition in preventing early adaptation and eliciting growth arrest, but the mechanisms of the interplay between these pathways have not been fully elucidated. Here we show that profound and durable inhibition of ER+ breast cancer growth is likely to require multiple hits on E2F-mediated transcription. We demonstrate that inhibition of mTORC1/2 does not affect ER function directly, but does cause a decrease in cyclin D1 protein, RB phosphorylation, and E2F-mediated transcription. Combination of an mTORC1/2 inhibitor with a CDK4/6 inhibitor results in more profound effects on E2F-dependent transcription, which translates into more durable growth arrest and a delay in the onset of resistance. Combined inhibition of mTORC1/2, CDK4/6, and ER delivers even more profound and durable regressions in breast cancer cell lines and xenografts. Furthermore, we show that CDK4/6 inhibitor-resistant cell lines reactivate the CDK-RB-E2F pathway, but remain sensitive to mTORC1/2 inhibition, suggesting that mTORC1/2 inhibitors may represent an option for patients that have relapsed on CDK4/6 therapy. Mol Cancer Ther; 17(5); 908-20. ©2018 AACR.CRUK Cambridge Institute, Cambridge, UK (Jason Carroll, Igor Chernukhin, Rasmus Siersbæk3) Novo Nordisk Fonden (NNF 14136) (Rasmus Siersbæk

Vitamin D3 Regulates Follicular Development and Intrafollicular Vitamin D Biosynthesis and Signaling in the Primate Ovary

There is an increasing recognition that vitamin D plays important roles in female reproduction. Recent studies demonstrated that 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (VD3), the biologically active form of vitamin D, improved ovarian follicle survival and growth in vitro. Therefore, we investigated the direct effects of VD3 at the specific preantral and antral stages of follicular development, and tested the hypothesis that vitamin D receptor (VDR) and enzymes critical for vitamin D biosynthesis are expressed in the primate ovary. Fourteen adult rhesus macaques provided ovarian tissue. Secondary and antral follicles were isolated for PCR analysis on VDR, vitamin D3 25-hydroxylase, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-1α-hydroxylase. VDR protein localization was determined by immunohistochemistry on ovarian sections. Isolated secondary follicles were cultured under conditions of control and VD3 supplementation during the preantral or antral stage. Follicle survival, growth, steroid and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) production, as well as oocyte maturation were evaluated. In vivo- and in vitro-developed follicles were also assessed for genes that are critical for vitamin D biosynthesis and signaling, gonadotropin signaling, steroid and paracrine factor production, and oocyte quality. The mRNA encoding VDR, 25-hydroxylase, and 1α-hydroxylase was detectable in in vivo- and in vitro-developed preantral and antral follicles. The 25-hydroxylase was elevated in cultured follicles relative to in vivo-developed follicles, which further increased following VD3 exposure. VD3 treatment increased 1α-hydroxylase in in vitro-developed antral follicles. The absence of VD3 during culture decreased VDR expression in in vitro-developed antral follicles, which was restored to levels comparable to those of in vivo-developed antral follicles by VD3 supplementation. Positive immunostaining for VDR was detected in the nucleus and cytoplasm of granulosa cells and oocytes. While only survival was improved in preantral follicles treated with VD3, VD3 supplementation promoted both survival and growth of antral follicles with increased estradiol and AMH production, as well as oocyte maturation. Thus, Vitamin D biosynthesis and signaling systems are expressed in primate ovarian follicles. Our findings support a role for VD3 in regulating follicular development in a stage-dependent manner, as well as the intrafollicular vitamin D biosynthesis and signaling, directly in the ovary

Late Pleistocene sediments, landforms and events in Scotland: a review of the terrestrial stratigraphic record

Lithostratigraphical studies coupled with the development of new dating methods has led to significant progress in understanding the Late Pleistocene terrestrial record in Scotland. Systematic analysis and re-evaluation of key localities have provided new insights into the complexity of the event stratigraphy in some regions and the timing of Late Pleistocene environmental changes, but few additional critical sites have been described in the past 25 years. The terrestrial stratigraphic record remains important for understanding the timing, sequence and patterns of glaciation and deglaciation during the last glacial/interglacial cycle. Former interpretations of ice-free areas in peripheral areas during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) are inconsistent with current stratigraphic and dating evidence. Significant challenges remain to determine events and patterns of glaciation during the Early and Middle Devensian, particularly in the context of offshore evidence and ice sheet modelling that indicate significant build-up of ice throughout much of the period. The terrestrial evidence broadly supports recent reconstructions of a highly dynamic and climate-sensitive British–Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), which apparently reached its greatest thickness in Scotland between 30 and 27ka, before the global LGM. A thick (relative to topography) integrated ice sheet reaching the shelf edge with a simple ice-divide structure was replaced after the LGM by a much thinner one comprising multiple dispersion centres and a more complex flow structure

Assessing the outcomes of participatory research: protocol for identifying, selecting, appraising and synthesizing the literature for realist review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Participatory Research (PR) entails the co-governance of research by academic researchers and end-users. End-users are those who are affected by issues under study (<it>e.g.</it>, community groups or populations affected by illness), or those positioned to act on the knowledge generated by research (<it>e.g.</it>, clinicians, community leaders, health managers, patients, and policy makers). Systematic reviews assessing the generalizable benefits of PR must address: the diversity of research topics, methods, and intervention designs that involve a PR approach; varying degrees of end-user involvement in research co-governance, both within and between projects; and the complexity of outcomes arising from long-term partnerships.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We addressed the above mentioned challenges by adapting realist review methodology to PR assessment, specifically by developing inductively-driven identification, selection, appraisal, and synthesis procedures. This approach allowed us to address the non-uniformity and complexity of the PR literature. Each stage of the review involved two independent reviewers and followed a reproducible, systematic coding and retention procedure. Retained studies were completed participatory health interventions, demonstrated high levels of participation by non-academic stakeholders (<it>i.e.</it>, excluding studies in which end-users were not involved in co-governing throughout the stages of research) and contained detailed descriptions of the participatory process and context. Retained sets are being mapped and analyzed using realist review methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The librarian-guided search string yielded 7,167 citations. A total of 594 citations were retained after the identification process. Eighty-three papers remained after selection. Principle Investigators (PIs) were contacted to solicit all companion papers. Twenty-three sets of papers (23 PR studies), comprising 276 publications, passed appraisal and are being synthesized using realist review methods.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The systematic and stage-based procedure addressed challenges to PR assessment and generated our robust understanding of complex and heterogeneous PR practices. To date, realist reviews have focussed on evaluations of relatively uniform interventions. In contrast our PR search yielded a wide diversity of partnerships and research topics. We therefore developed tools to achieve conceptual clarity on the PR field, as a beneficial precursor to our theoretically-driven synthesis using realist methods. Findings from the ongoing review will be provided in forthcoming publications.</p