Mass customization of teaching and learning in organizations

In search of methods that improve the efficiency of teaching and training in organizations, several authors point out that mass customization (MC) is a principle that covers individual needs of knowledge and skills and, at the same time, limits the development costs of customized training to those of mass training. MC is proven and established in the economic sector, and shows high potential for continuing education, too. The paper explores this potential and proposes a multidisciplinary, pragmatic approach to teaching and training in organizations. The first section of the paper formulates four design principles of MC deduced from an examination of economics literature. The second section presents amit™, a frame for mass customized training, designed according to the principles presented in the first section. The evaluation results encourage the further development and use of mass customized training in continuing education, and offer suggestions for future research

Expression and localization of epithelial aquaporins in the adult human lung

Aquaporins (AQPs) facilitate water transport across epithelia and play an important role in normal physiology and disease in the human airways. We used in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence to determine the expression and cellular localization of AQPs 5, 4, and 3 in human airway sections. In nose and bronchial epithelia, AQP5 is expressed at the apical membrane of columnar cells of the superficial epithelium and submucosal gland acinar cells. AQP4 was detected in basolateral membranes in ciliated ducts and by in situ in gland acinar cells. AQP3 is present on basal cells of both superficial epithelium and gland acinus. In these regions AQPs 5, 4, and 3 are appropriately situated to permit transepithelial water permeability. In the small airways (proximal and terminal bronchioles) AQP3 distribution shifts from basal cell to surface expression (i.e., localized to the apical membrane of proximal and terminal bronchioles) and is the only AQP identified in this region of the human lung. The alveolar epithelium has all three AQPs represented, with AQP5 and AQP4 localized to type I pneumocytes and AQP3 to type II cells. This study describes an intricate network of AQP expression that mediates water transport across the human airway epithelium

TeV-scale seesaw from a multi-Higgs model

We suggest new simple model of generating tiny neutrino masses through a TeV-scale seesaw mechanism without requiring tiny Yukawa couplings. This model is a simple extension of the standard model by introducing extra one Higgs singlet, and one Higgs doublet with a tiny vacuum expectation value. Experimental constraints, electroweak precision data and no large flavor changing neutral currents, are satisfied since the extra doublet only has a Yukawa interaction with lepton doublets and right-handed neutrinos, and their masses are heavy of order a TeV-scale. Since active light neutrinos are Majorana particles, this model predicts a neutrinoless double beta decay.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Aggregation and Representation in the European Parliament Party Groups

While members of the European Parliament are elected in national constituencies, their votes are determined by the aggregation of MEPs in multinational party groups. The uncoordinated aggregation of national party programmes in multinational EP party groups challenges theories of representation based on national parties and parliaments. This article provides a theoretical means of understanding representation by linking the aggregation of dozens of national party programmes in different EP party groups to the aggregation of groups to produce the parliamentary majority needed to enact policies. Drawing on an original data source of national party programmes, the EU Profiler, the article shows that the EP majorities created by aggregating MEP votes in party groups are best explained by cartel theories. These give priority to strengthening the EP’s collective capacity to enact policies rather than voting in accord with the programmes they were nationally elected to represent

Combining FTIR-ATR and OPLS-DA methods for magic mushrooms discrimination

Magic mushrooms are naturally occurring fungi that are considered hallucinogenic drugs because they contain psilocybin and psilocin. These substances are controlled in almost every country in the world, so the use, possession, cultivation, and sale of magic mushrooms are prohibited in whole or in part. Despite this, the abuse of magic mushrooms continues and can put at risk the life of the consumer and society in general if the consumer behaves in an unsafe manner. The number of mushroom species is very high, making it difficult to correctly identify them based only on physical and morphological characteristics. Therefore, there is a need to develop non-destructive mushrooms analysis methods that have less response time and higher discrimination ability. The present work used Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR-ATR) Spectroscopy to study 64 mushroom samples from different genera including hallucinogenic, edible, and toxic species. In addition, this study used Orthogonal Partial Least Squares - Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), using SIMCA chemometric software to analyse the obtained infrared (IR) spectra. The main molecular vibrations of the components of the fungus were successfully identified by IR spectroscopy. Although the specific bands corresponding to psilocybin or psilocin could not be assigned in the spectra, the regression method was able to discriminate the various species. Hallucinogenic mushrooms were well separated from other species, allowing the method to be used as an initial screening technique to determine whether or not the seized mushrooms are of forensic interest

Possibility of quantitative T2-mapping MRI of cartilage near metal in high tibial osteotomy: A human cadaver study

T2-mapping is a widely used quantitative MRI technique in osteoarthritis research. An important challenge for its application in the context of high tibial osteotomy (HTO) is the presence of metallic fixation devices. In this study, we evaluated the possibility of performing T2-mapping after a HTO, by assessing the extent of magnetic susceptibility artifacts and the influence on T2 relaxation times caused by two commonly used fixation devices. T2-mapping with a 3D fast spin-echo sequence at three Tesla was performed on 11 human cadaveric knee joints before and after implantation of a titanium plate and screws (n = 5) or cobalt chrome staples (n = 6). Mean T2 relaxation times were calculated in six cartila

Signals for Lorentz Violation in Electrodynamics

An investigation is performed of the Lorentz-violating electrodynamics extracted from the renormalizable sector of the general Lorentz- and CPT-violating standard-model extension. Among the unconventional properties of radiation arising from Lorentz violation is birefringence of the vacuum. Limits on the dispersion of light produced by galactic and extragalactic objects provide bounds of 3 x 10^{-16} on certain coefficients for Lorentz violation in the photon sector. The comparative spectral polarimetry of light from cosmologically distant sources yields stringent constraints of 2 x 10^{-32}. All remaining coefficients in the photon sector are measurable in high-sensitivity tests involving cavity-stabilized oscillators. Experimental configurations in Earth- and space-based laboratories are considered that involve optical or microwave cavities and that could be implemented using existing technology.Comment: 23 pages REVTe

Effects of pH and ionic strength on the protease activity of gastric extracts from the Coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch

The activity of fish acid proteases is strongly dependent on the pH, and many basic and applied works had focused on researching the pH-profile of digestive proteases using different buffered media. Nevertheless, enzymatic activity is also known to be affected by the ionic strength (IS) of the medium. The present work is aimed at researching the combined effects of pH (2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 3.75 and 4.0) and IS (50, 100 and 200 mM) on the protease activity of gastric extracts of juvenile Coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch. It is concluded that the activity of Coho salmon gastric proteases is maximal at pH 2.5-3.0, drops towards pH 4.0 irrespective of ionic strength, and they showed a lower activity at IS 50 mM in comparison to IS 100 or 200 mM. The present results point out to the convenience of considering the effect of ionic strength when measuring the activity of fish gastric proteases

Extreme Ultra-Violet Spectroscopy of the Lower Solar Atmosphere During Solar Flares

The extreme ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum contains a wealth of diagnostic tools for probing the lower solar atmosphere in response to an injection of energy, particularly during the impulsive phase of solar flares. These include temperature and density sensitive line ratios, Doppler shifted emission lines and nonthermal broadening, abundance measurements, differential emission measure profiles, and continuum temperatures and energetics, among others. In this paper I shall review some of the advances made in recent years using these techniques, focusing primarily on studies that have utilized data from Hinode/EIS and SDO/EVE, while also providing some historical background and a summary of future spectroscopic instrumentation.Comment: 34 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to Solar Physics as part of the Topical Issue on Solar and Stellar Flare

Auxiliary "massless" spin-2 field in de Sitter universe

For the tensor field of rank-2 there are two unitary irreducible representation (UIR) in de Sitter (dS) space denoted by $\Pi^{\pm}_{2,2}$ and $\Pi^{\pm}_{2,1}$ [1]. In the flat limit only the $\Pi^{\pm}_{2,2}$ coincides to the UIR of Poincar\'e group, the second one becomes important in the study of conformal gravity. In the pervious work, Dirac's six-cone formalism has been utilized to obtain conformally invariant (CI) field equation for the "massless" spin-2 field in dS space [2]. This equation results in a field which transformed according to $\Pi^{\pm}_{2,1}$, we name this field the auxiliary field. In this paper this auxiliary field is considered and also related two-point function is calculated as a product of a polarization tensor and "massless" conformally coupled scalar field. This two-point function is de Sitter invariant.Comment: 16 page