Lists & More Lists: Making Sense Of Corporate Reputations

What would you like to know about a company?  What value has the company created in the past, is creating currently, and will create in the future?  The creation of financial value is not only important; it is necessary - but is it enough? This study explores the relationships between and among lists of top performers - Boston College’s Corporate Social Responsibility Index, Fortune’s World's Most Admired Companies, Harris Interactive’s Reputation Quotient for the Most Visible Companies, and Newsweek’s Green Rankings of America's 500 largest corporations. Its objective is to see whether in spite of differing methodologies and criteria for rankings, there is a commonality of inclusion in lists. In effect, this paper attempts use statistical analysis in order to determine if there is an agreement as to which companies are top corporate citizens in the United States

Effects of Food Form on Food Intake and Postprandial Appetite Sensations, Glucose and Endocrine Responses, and Energy Expenditure in Resistance Trained Vs. Sedentary Older Adults.

Limited research has suggested that the food form of nutritional supplements (FFNS) and resistance training (RT) influence ingestive behaviour and energy balance in older adults. The effects of the FFNS and RT on acute appetitive, endocrine and metabolic responses are not adequately documented. The present study assessed the effects of the FFNS and RT on postprandial appetite sensations (hunger and fullness), endocrine responses (plasma insulin, cholecystokinin, ghrelin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)), metabolism (glucose, energy expenditure and RER) and food intake (satiation) in older adults. On separate days, eighteen sedentary (Sed) and sixteen RT healthy adults (age 62–84 years) consumed 12·5 % of their energy need as an isoenergetic- and macronutrient-matched solid or beverage. Postprandial responses were assessed over 4 h. No RT × FFNS interactions were observed for any parameter. Fasting cholecystokinin was higher in the RT v. Sed group (P \u3c 0·05). RT did not influence fullness, but fullness was higher following the solid v. beverage intake (P \u3c 0·01). Neither RT nor FFNS influenced hunger. Glucose and insulin were higher after the solid v. beverage intake (P \u3c 0·01). Ghrelin, GLP-1 and energy expenditure were not different between the RT and FFNS groups. Postprandial cholecystokinin was higher in the RT v. Sed group (P \u3c 0·01) and for solid v. beverage (P \u3c 0·05). RER was lower for solid v. beverage (P \u3c 0·001). Neither RT nor FFNS independently or interactively influenced food intake 2 h after post-nutritional supplements. In conclusion, RT had little influence on ingestive behaviour. The appetitive and endocrine responses suggested the solid-promoted satiety; however, the FFNS did not alter subsequent food intake

Beyond Goldwater-Nichols

This report culminated almost two years of effort at CSIS, which began by developing an approach for both revisiting the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 and for addressing issues that were beyond the scope of that landmark legislation

Mobile satellite propagation measurements and modeling: A review of results for systems engineers

An overview of Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) propagation measurements and modeling is intended as a summary of current results. While such research is on-going, the simple models presented here should be useful to systems engineers. A complete summary of propagation experiments with literature references is also included

A randomised controlled trial of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of different knee prostheses : the Knee Arthroplasty Trial (KAT)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sodium content as a predictor of the advanced evolution of globular cluster stars

The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase is the final stage of nuclear burning for low-mass stars. Although Milky Way globular clusters are now known to harbour (at least) two generations of stars they still provide relatively homogeneous samples of stars that are used to constrain stellar evolution theory. It is predicted by stellar models that the majority of cluster stars with masses around the current turn-off mass (that is, the mass of the stars that are currently leaving the main sequence phase) will evolve through the AGB phase. Here we report that all of the second-generation stars in the globular cluster NGC 6752 -- 70 per cent of the cluster population -- fail to reach the AGB phase. Through spectroscopic abundance measurements, we found that every AGB star in our sample has a low sodium abundance, indicating that they are exclusively first-generation stars. This implies that many clusters cannot reliably be used for star counts to test stellar evolution timescales if the AGB population is included. We have no clear explanation for this observation.Comment: Published in Nature (online 29 May 2013, hard copy 13 June), 12 pages, 3 figures + supplementary information sectio

Tesla's Home Battery--An Electricity Storage Breakthrough?

Cost-effective electricity storage has long been a kind of "Holy Grail" for the electric power sector. This report briefly discusses potential innovations in electricity storage

Ataluren treatment of patients with nonsense mutation dystrophinopathy

Introduction: Dystrophinopathy is a rare, severe muscle disorder, and nonsense mutations are found in 13% of cases. Ataluren was developed to enable ribosomal readthrough of premature stop codons in nonsense mutation (nm) genetic disorders. Methods: Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study; males ≥5 years with nm-dystrophinopathy received study drug orally 3 times daily, ataluren 10, 10, 20 mg/kg (N=57); ataluren 20, 20, 40 mg/kg (N=60); or placebo (N=57) for 48 weeks. The primary endpoint was change in 6-Minute Walk Distance (6MWD) at Week 48. Results: Ataluren was generally well tolerated. The primary endpoint favored ataluren 10, 10, 20 mg/kg versus placebo; the week 48 6MWD Δ=31.3 meters, post hoc P=0.056. Secondary endpoints (timed function tests) showed meaningful differences between ataluren 10, 10, 20 mg/kg, and placebo. Conclusions: As the first investigational new drug targeting the underlying cause of nm-dystrophinopathy, ataluren offers promise as a treatment for this orphan genetic disorder with high unmet medical need