Higher policy uncertainty curbs business investment and employment growth

The years following the global economic crisis of 2008-2009 have been marked by policy uncertainty, both in the US and across the world. In new research, Scott R. Baker, Nicholas Bloom, and Steven Davis develop an index of economic policy uncertainty to examine how this uncertainty shapes economic outcomes. Using data going back to 1900 and extending coverage to 11 major economies, they find that heightened levels of policy uncertainty leads to firms reducing investment and employment, which in turn contributes to the sluggish growth which many economies have experienced in recent years

A New Dimension to Relative Age Effects: Constant Year Effects in German Youth Handball

In this manuscript we argue for a broader use of the term ‘relative age effect’ due to the influence of varying development policies on the development of sport expertise. Two studies are presented on basis of data from Schorer, et al. [1]. The first showed clear ‘constant year effects’ in the German handball talent development system. A shift in year groupings for the female athletes resulted in a clear shift of birth year patterns. In the second study we investigated whether the constant year effect in the national talent development system carried over to professional handball. No patterns were observable. Together both studies show that a differentiation of varying effects that often happen simultaneously is necessary to understand the secondary mechanisms behind the development of sport expertise.<br/

Agricultural impacts on amphibian survival, growth, and distributions

The potential impact of chemical contaminants and conservation practices on amphibians in agricultural landscapes is a key research topic globally. Amphibians represent a common group in many freshwater systems and are currently experiencing worldwide population declines. Global amphibian declines may be attributed to a number of causes, including habitat loss, introduced species, global climate change, disease, and chemical contaminants; most species declines are not a function of only one factor, but a result of interacting factors and synergistic impacts. I analyzed the impact of field conservation efforts employed in the Calapooia watershed, located in the central Willamette Valley in Oregon, on amphibian species diversity using Simpson's Diversity Index. In the Calapooia watershed the value of this index increased when conservation efforts, such as retaining crop residue and riparian buffers, were present. This suggests that species diversity increased with increased conservation effort at the field level. In addition, I found species-specific habitat associations in the Calapooia watershed. Long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum) were associated with stream channel cover. Rough-skinned newts (Taricha granulosa) and Red-legged frogs (Rana aurora) showed similar relationships to pH, bank width, depth, and riparian habitat where as Pacific treefrogs (Pseudacris regilla) showed strong relationships to increased structural heterogeneity, increased distance to nearest agricultural field, and increased human disturbance. These results indicate that conservation efforts can impact amphibian biodiversity, and that there are species-specific habitat associations in the Calapooia watershed. My third chapter looked at pesticides and fertilizers, which have been shown to negatively affect many species of amphibians. I used meta-analytic techniques to quantify the lethal and sub-lethal effects of pesticides and fertilizers on amphibians in an effort to review the published work to date. I found that, in general, pesticides and fertilizers negatively affect amphibians by reducing both survival and growth. Pesticide and fertilizer chemical classes showed differences in their impacts on amphibians: inorganic fertilizers, organophosphates, phosphonoglycines, and triazines negatively affected amphibian survival, while, organophosphates and triazines negatively affected amphibian growth

Mental health as motivational operation: Service-user and caregiver emotional states in the context of challenging behaviour

This brief conceptual paper seeks to address the role of mental health and the experience of negative life events in the positive behavioural support framework in relation to the behaviour of both service users and caregivers and some of the implications this may suggest for intervention. It is argued that the conceptualisation of mental health related variables as motivating operations is parsimonious at a theoretical and practical level and may create one way of generating further synergies within the field of IDD

Gas Dynamics in the LINER Galaxy NGC 5005: Episodic Fueling of a Nuclear Disk

We report high-resolution CO(1-0) observations in the central 6 kpc of the LINER galaxy NGC 5005 with the Owens Valley Radio Observatory millimeter array. Molecular gas is distributed in three components - a ring at a radius of about 3 kpc, a strong central condensation, and a stream to the northwest of the nucleus but inside the 3 kpc ring. The central condensation is a disk of about 1 kpc radius with a molecular gas mass of 2 x 10^9 M_sun. The stream between the 3 kpc ring and the nuclear disk lies on a straight dust lane seen in the optical. If this material moves in the plane of the galaxy, it has a velocity offset by up to ~ 150 km/s from galactic rotation. We suggest that an optically inconspicuous stellar bar lying within the 3 kpc ring can explain the observed gas dynamics. This bar is expected to connect the nuclear disk and the ring along the position angle of the northwest stream. A position-velocity cut in this direction reveals features which match the characteristic motions of gas in a barred potential. Our model indicates that gas in the northwest stream is on an x_1 orbit at the bar's leading edge; it is falling into the nucleus with a large noncircular velocity, and will eventually contribute about 2 x 10^8 M_sun to the nuclear disk. If most of this material merges with the disk on its first passage of pericenter, the gas accretion rate during the collision will be 50 M_sun/yr. We associate the nuclear disk with an inner 2:1 Lindblad resonance, and the 3 kpc ring with an inner 4:1 Lindblad resonance. The high rate of bar-driven inflow and the irregular appearance of the northwest stream suggest that a major fueling event is in progress in NGC 5005. Such episodic (rather than continuous) gas supply can regulate the triggering of starburst and accretion activity in galactic nuclei. (abridged)Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, AASTeX, ApJ in press (Feb. 10, 2000). For full-resolution figures, see http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/mm/science/science.htm

Marked Campylobacteriosis Decline after Interventions Aimed at Poultry, New Zealand

A population-level food safety response successfully reduced disease incidence

Open Education as a threshold concept in Teacher Education: a theoretical framework for further research

Threshold concept framework: A threshold concept can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress. As a consequence of comprehending a threshold concept there may thus be a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape, or even worldview (Meyer and Land, 2003). Threshold concepts have been explored in many disciplines (Bradbeer, 2006) and may have a key role for the transformation of the students? learning experience (Cousin, 2006). Since open education has implications for innovation and change (Peter and Deimann, 2013), we suggest exploring it as a threshold concept. There are five main attributes defined originally by Meyer and Land (2003) and three more have also been listed stemming from comments made by the authors (UCL, 2013): transformative, troublesome, irreversible, integrative, bounded, discursive, reconstitutive and liminal. Openness as a threshold concept: 1. Transformative - Is openness transformative for students involved in open educational practices? 2. Troublesome - What difficulties do students face when being involved in open educational practices? 3. Irreversible - How do students? perceptions change when being involved in open educational practices? How do these changes impact visions of their own future professional careers? 4. Liminality - How can the progressive change towards the open movement be scaffolded? How can feedback help in the construction of authentic open educational practices? 5. Discursive - What kind of narrative do students involved in open educational practices develop? Does it reflect authentic construction of the open movement understanding? This is the theoretical framework for future research about openness as a threshold concept. More research is needed to obtain data that would throw light on how to address each particular attribute. This is an open call to those interested in going further in this line of research