Conclusion

This Joint Volume has sought to combine seven papers, which all incorporated the notion of transparency, in various ways, as the center piece of their research. The authors have looked at important dimensions in nowadays society and analyzed whether the notion of transparency is visible and how. As the idea of transparency is a central element in all spheres of society, the chosen topics demonstrate the wide-ranging investigation of areas of expertise. Nevertheless, all chapters sought to detect to which degree transparency is practiced in particular spheres and how this affects democratic accountability, institutional efficiency as well as social discipline. Of course next to the question of how to reach more transparency the issue of how much transparency is needed as well as desirable cannot be neglected

Sucht – Fehlgeleitete spirituelle Suche?

An Hand des Ansatzes der „Anonymen Alkoholiker“ und des Modells „Leben im Prozess“ von Anne Wilson Schaef wird dem Zusammenhang von Sucht und Spiritualität nachgegangen. Darin wird hervorgehoben, dass Heilung möglich ist, wenn dem Bereich Spiritualität ausreichend Gewicht eingeräumt wird. Die Antworten der beiden Modelle weisen darauf hin, dass Spiritualität im Gesundheitswesen einen wichtigen Platz haben sollte

The EU Common Position on Arms Export Policies: Europeanising Transparency

In 2008, as a response to several scandals in arms exports, the EU Member States adopted a legally binding Council Common Position on Arms Exports in order to avoid the export of armaments to crisis regions. The adoption succeeded a Code of Conduct from 1998, the first detailed agreement in the field of arms deliveries between EU governments, and pushed for further harmonisation in the field of European arms export policies. The Member States emphasize the importance of such efforts and push for the adoption of common rules on the European level. However, it remains to be seen whether the implementation on the national level is successful. Another important aspect in the domain of arms exports is transparency both in the licensing process and the assessment of licensing decisions. To increase this transparency on a European and national level, harmonisation efforts were introduced through the Code of Conduct and Common Position. Although the Member States are legally obliged to report to the EU on their arms transfers since 2008, the implementation of the criteria set out in the EU Common Position remains in the hands of Member States. This raises the question, which impact the development of the EU Common Position has had domestically. Therefore, this chapter sets out to analyse to what extent the Common Position has harmonized the national policies in the field of arms export and has made them more transparent to the wider public and different public actors. Moreover, it will be investigated how different Member States are influencing the development of the EU Code of Conduct

Predicting Drusen Regression from OCT in Patients with Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness in developed countries. The presence of drusen is the hallmark of early/intermediate AMD, and their sudden regression is strongly associated with the onset of late AMD. In this work we propose a predictive model of drusen regression using optical coherence tomography (OCT) based features. First, a series of automated image analysis steps are applied to segment and characterize individual drusen and their development. Second, from a set of quantitative features, a random forest classifiser is employed to predict the occurrence of individual drusen regression within the following 12 months. The predictive model is trained and evaluated on a longitudinal OCT dataset of 44 eyes from 26 patients using leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. The model achieved an area under the ROC curve of 0.81, with a sensitivity of 0.74 and a specificity of 0.73. The presence of hyperreflective foci and mean drusen signal intensity were found to be the two most important features for the prediction. This preliminary study shows that predicting drusen regression is feasible and is a promising step toward identification of imaging biomarkers of incoming regression

The Influence of Attention to Language Form on the Production of Weak Forms by Polish Learners of English

The paper discusses a study whose aim was to examine the impact of attention to language form and task type on the realisation of English function words by Polish learners of English. An additional goal was to investigate whether style-induced pronunciation shifts may depend on the degree of foreign accent. A large part of the paper concentrates on the issue of defining ‘weakness’ in English weak forms and considers priorities in English pronunciation teaching as far as the realisation of function words is concerned. The participants in the study were 12 advanced Polish learners of English, who were divided into two groups: 6 who were judged to speak with a slight degree of foreign accent and 6 who were judged to speak with a high degree of foreign accent. The subjects’ pronunciation was analysed in three situations in which we assume their attention was increasingly paid to speech form (spontaneous speech, prepared speech, reading). The results of the study suggest that increased attention to language form caused the participants to realise more function words as unstressed, although the effect was small. It was also found that one of the characteristics of English weak forms, the lack of stress, was realised correctly by the participants in the majority of cases. Finally, the results of the study imply that, in the case under investigation, the effect of attention to language form is weakly or not at all related to the degree of foreign accent

Spectral Selectivity of Plasmonic Interactions between Individual Up-Converting Nanocrystals and Spherical Gold Nanoparticles

We experimentally demonstrate strong spectral selectivity of plasmonic interaction that occurs between α-NaYF4:Er3+/Yb3+ nanocrystals, which feature two emission bands, and spherical gold nanoparticles, with plasmon frequency resonant with one of the emission bands. Spatially–resolved luminescence intensity maps acquired for individual nanocrystals, together with microsecond luminescence lifetime images, show two qualitatively different effects that result from the coupling between lasmon excitations in metallic nanoparticles and emitting states of the nanocrystals. On the one hand, we observe nanocrystals, whose emission intensity is strongly enhanced for both resonant and non-resonant bands with respect to the plasmon resonance. Importantly, this increase is accompanied with shortening of luminescence decays times. In contrast, a significant number of nanocrystals exhibits almost complete quenching of the emission resonant with the plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles. Theoretical analysis indicates that such an effect can occur for emitters placed at distances of about 5 nm from gold nanoparticles. While under these conditions, both transitions experience significant increases of the radiative emission rates due to the Purcell effect, the non-radiative energy transfer between resonant bands results in strong quenching, which in that situation nullifies the enhancement

Mammals from the Salicas formation (Late Miocene), La Rioja Province, northwestern Argentina : Paleobiogeography, age, and paleoenvironment

Fil: Brandoni, Diego. Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Diamante; ArgentinaFil: Schmidt, Gabriela I.. Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Diamante; ArgentinaFil: Candela, Adriana Magdalena. División Paleontología Vertebrados. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Noriega, Jorge Ignacio. Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Diamante; ArgentinaFil: Brunetto, Ernesto. Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; Diamante; ArgentinaFil: Fiorelli, Lucas E.. Departamento de Geociencias. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica; Anillaco; Argentin

First record of Toxodontidae (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the late Miocene - Early Pliocene of the southern central Andes, NW Argentina

A new species of toxodontid notoungulate, Xotodon maimarensis n. sp., is described from the Maimará Formation (late Miocene - early Pliocene), Jujuy Province, northwestern Argentina. This is the first record of a toxodontid from the Eastern Cordillera. The specimen is housed at the Museo de Geología, Mineralogía y Paleontología, Instituto de Geología y Minería de la Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. It consists of an incomplete mandible preserving the right mandibular ramus with part of the dental series, partially preserved symphysis with all the incisors, and a small portion of the left ramus without teeth. The following characters distinguish it as a new taxon: symphysis long and narrow with slight divergence of its lateral borders; strong procumbence of lower incisors and deeply implanted i3; chin angle lower than in X. major and X. cristatus and bulging labial keel limiting strong lateral concavities. Comparative analysis in the context of the recently revised Neogene Toxodontidae indicates that the Maimará specimen shares mandibular features and dental characters with Xotodon and Mixotoxodon, differing from the latter by the more upraised symphysis. The phylogenetic position of Xotodon maimarensis n. sp. supports the taxonomic interpretation of the studied specimen as a new species of Xotodon. This new Toxodontidae increases the knowledge of the diversity and radiation of this group of notoungulates in northwest Argentina.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse