Employee Retirement Education Programs: An Important Part of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly important to organizations wishing to create a sustainable competitive advantage by attracting quality employees. The focus of this paper is to offer a framework for organizations to create CSR internally using relationship marketing principles. The framework for this propositional development is employee retirement options. The authors discuss the decline of the defined benefit pension plan, the increase in 401 (k) retirement plans, and the issues facing employees. Suggestions are offered regarding how organizations can create employee loyalty and improve corporate social responsibility within their organization by educating employees on their various retirement options

CARA Orange County Residents Survey: Technical Report

The University of Central Florida’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences (ISBS) partnered with the Orange County Drug Free Office to survey Orange County residents 18 and older about their knowledge about and perceptions of opioids and Good Samaritan laws. Participants were also asked questions about their mental and physical health, substance use during the time of COVID-19, as well as demographic questions

Experiential Learning of Information Systems in Functional Contexts: The Digital Brand Strategy Project

Successful technology-based ventures and the notion that every company constitutes a “digital” company have driven increased interest in information technology even for students majoring in areas other than information systems. With the growing need for experiential learning, educators in business schools face challenges in identifying effective delivery mechanisms to impart theoretical foundations and practical applications in functional contexts that students find relevant. In this paper, we describe how we designed and implemented a project that fulfilled the above needs and integrated information systems and marketing. We describe the motivation for this project, its learning objectives, and its innovative design and implementation, and we provide an example of the project to illustrate its execution. While this project could be a standalone piece in an information systems course, we show it to be an effective way to communicate how one can apply information systems in a different functional context

Southern Ocean convection amplified past Antarctic warming and atmospheric CO 2 rise during Heinrich Stadial 4

Abstract: The record of past climate highlights recurrent and intense millennial anomalies, characterised by a distinct pattern of inter-polar temperature change, termed the ‘thermal bipolar seesaw’, which is widely believed to arise from rapid changes in the Atlantic overturning circulation. By forcing a suppression of North Atlantic convection, models have been able to reproduce many of the general features of the thermal bipolar seesaw; however, they typically fail to capture the full magnitude of temperature change reconstructed using polar ice cores from both hemispheres. Here we use deep-water temperature reconstructions, combined with parallel oxygenation and radiocarbon ventilation records, to demonstrate the occurrence of enhanced deep convection in the Southern Ocean across the particularly intense millennial climate anomaly, Heinrich Stadial 4. Our results underline the important role of Southern Ocean convection as a potential amplifier of Antarctic warming, and atmospheric CO2 rise, that is responsive to triggers originating in the North Atlantic

“Then You’ll Have a Fine House…”: The New Frame House of Norwegian Immigrants Anna and Hans Goulson, Swift County, Minnesota

Building on an earlier investigation to examine the dugout house site of the Lars and Anna Christopherson and later Hans and Anna Christopherson Goulson families, the present study of the Goulson’s frame house grew out of interest by current family members in preserving the structure and teaching their history to the next generation. Anna, her second husband Hans Goulson, and their children moved from their traditional dugout house into their new one-and-a-half-story frame house in 1880 or 1881. The small balloon frame house retains an amazing Norwegian-inspired interior paint scheme The family occupied the structure until the late 19th century, when they built and moved into a larger farmhouse on adjacent property in Chippewa County. The circa 1880 frame house was subsequently used for storing grain and later farming equipment. The current project involves an architectural study and stabilization effort along with an archaeological survey of the immediate vicinity of the house; this work was completed with the help of Goulson family members and friends from across the country. The purpose of the project was to document, stabilize and weatherproof the ca. 1880 Goulson frame house and develop preservation strategies for long term use

Southern Ocean convection amplified past Antarctic warming and atmospheric CO2 rise during Heinrich Stadial 4

The record of past climate highlights recurrent and intense millennial anomalies, characterised by a distinct pattern of inter-polar temperature change, termed the ‘thermal bipolar seesaw’, which is widely believed to arise from rapid changes in the Atlantic overturning circulation. By forcing a suppression of North Atlantic convection, models have been able to reproduce many of the general features of the thermal bipolar seesaw; however, they typically fail to capture the full magnitude of temperature change reconstructed using polar ice cores from both hemispheres. Here we use deep-water temperature reconstructions, combined with parallel oxygenation and radiocarbon ventilation records, to demonstrate the occurrence of enhanced deep convection in the Southern Ocean across the particularly intense millennial climate anomaly, Heinrich Stadial 4. Our results underline the important role of Southern Ocean convection as a potential amplifier of Antarctic warming, and atmospheric CO2 rise, that is responsive to triggers originating in the North Atlantic

Introduction: approaching space in intellectual history

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on Conceptions of Space in Intellectual History. It opens with a brief inquiry into the place of ‘space’, both as a topic and as an analytical lens, in the field of intellectual history. The remainder of the introduction suggests a pathway through the special issue. Under three broad headings – ‘territory,’ ‘oceans and empire’, and ‘geopolitics’ – the volume’s articles are presented, brought into dialogue, and situated within a wider trajectory of recent research on conceptions of ‘space’ in intellectual history.Arts and Humanities Research Council; Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust; Levy-Plumb Fund for the Humanities at Christ's College, Cambridge

Precision exercise medicine: understanding exercise response variability

There is evidence from human twin and family studies as well as mouse and rat selection experiments that there are considerable interindividual differences in the response of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and other cardiometabolic traits to a given exercise programme dose. We developed this consensus statement on exercise response variability following a symposium dedicated to this topic. There is strong evidence from both animal and human studies that exercise training doses lead to variable responses. A genetic component contributes to exercise training response variability. In this consensus statement, we (1) briefly review the literature on exercise response variability and the various sources of variations in CRF response to an exercise programme, (2) introduce the key research designs and corresponding statistical models with an emphasis on randomised controlled designs with or without multiple pretests and post-tests, crossover designs and repeated measures designs, (3) discuss advantages and disadvantages of multiple methods of categorising exercise response levels-a topic that is of particular interest for personalised exercise medicine and (4) outline approaches that may identify determinants and modifiers of CRF exercise response. We also summarise gaps in knowledge and recommend future research to better understand exercise response variability531811411153The consensus meeting that led to the writing of this manuscript was held with the financial support of the Pennington Biomedical Research Foundation, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center Division of Education, the LSU Boyd Professorship and the John W. Barton, Sr. Chair in Genetics and Nutrition. No funding and/or honorarium was provided to any member of the writing group for the production of this manuscrip

Transcriptional profile of isoproterenol-induced cardiomyopathy and comparison to exercise-induced cardiac hypertrophy and human cardiac failure

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy in mice has been used in a number of studies to model human cardiac disease. In this study, we compared the transcriptional response of the heart in this model to other animal models of heart failure, as well as to the transcriptional response of human hearts suffering heart failure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We performed microarray analyses on RNA from mice with isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy and mice with exercise-induced physiological hypertrophy and identified 865 and 2,534 genes that were significantly altered in pathological and physiological cardiac hypertrophy models, respectively. We compared our results to 18 different microarray data sets (318 individual arrays) representing various other animal models and four human cardiac diseases and identified a canonical set of 64 genes that are generally altered in failing hearts. We also produced a pairwise similarity matrix to illustrate relatedness of animal models with human heart disease and identified ischemia as the human condition that most resembles isoproterenol treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The overall patterns of gene expression are consistent with observed structural and molecular differences between normal and maladaptive cardiac hypertrophy and support a role for the immune system (or immune cell infiltration) in the pathology of stress-induced hypertrophy. Cross-study comparisons such as the results presented here provide targets for further research of cardiac disease that might generally apply to maladaptive cardiac stresses and are also a means of identifying which animal models best recapitulate human disease at the transcriptional level.</p

Developmental delay in Rett syndrome: data from the natural history study

Background: Early development appears normal in Rett syndrome (OMIM #312750) and may be more apparent than real. A major purpose of the Rett Syndrome (RTT) Natural History Study (NHS) was to examine achievement of developmental skills or abilities in classic and atypical RTT and assess phenotype-genotype relations in classic RTT. Methods: Developmental skills in four realms, gross and fine motor, and receptive and expressive communication from initial enrollment and longitudinal assessments for up to 7 years, were assessed from 542 females meeting criteria for classic RTT and 96 females with atypical RTT divided into two groups: 50 with better and 46 with poorer functional scores. Data were analyzed for age at acquisition and loss of developmental features and for phenotype-genotype effects. Acquired, lost, and retained skills were compared between classic RTT and atypical RTT with better or poorer functional scores using Fisher's Exact test. To examine if the mean total score from the Motor Behavioral Assessment during follow-up differed for acquiring a skill, we used a generalized estimating equation assuming compound symmetry correlation structure within a subject. A general linear model was used to examine whether the mean age of acquisition or loss of a developmental skill differed by mutation type. P values <0.05 were considered significant and were two-sided without adjustment for multiple testing. Statistical analyses utilized SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA). Results: Early developmental skills or abilities were often acquired albeit later than normal. More complex motor and communication acquisitions were delayed or absent. Clinical severity was less in those achieving the respective skill. Individuals with R133C, R294X, and R306C point mutations and 3′ truncations tended to have better developmental outcomes. Conclusions: Early developmental skills were acquired by many, but clear differences from normal emerged, particularly in skills expected after age 6 months. When comparing clinical severity, greater acquisition of specific skills was associated with specific mutations, confirming the impression that these mutations confer milder developmental abnormalities. These data may serve for planning and interpretation of early intervention studies in RTT. Trial registration This NHS study, clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00296764), represents the largest group of RTT participants assessed repeatedly by direct examination