EU Railway Policy on International Corridors for Rail Freight: Example of the Orient/East-Med Rail Freight Corridor No. 7

The Orient/East-Med Corridor, connecting central and southeastern Europe, provides important business potential for European rail freight. However, freight transport by rail faces a number of challenges in terms of quality, cost competitiveness, service features and political/societal acceptance and support. A particular challenge is the slow implementation of a truly Single European Rail Area, leading to high costs and time losses at borders. As a response to this, so-called EU Rail Freight Corridors (RFCs) have been set up, one of them being the Orient/East-Med RFC No. 7, established in November 2013 and aiming at better cross-border coordination and cooperation in the field of infrastructure and traffic management and improved customer orientation and involvement of corridor users. Key features of the Rail Freight Corridors are strong governance structures with clearly defined tasks. Among the early positive effects are the elaboration and testing of new solutions for cross-border processes, better coordination in timetable planning and the setting up of cross-border working groups, bringing relevant actors together to address specific issues. At the same time there is room for further improvement both conceptually and in terms of the corridor geography. The establishment of two further Rail Freight Corridors in the region, the Alpine-Western Balkan RFC No. 10 and the Amber RFC No. 11 closes some remaining gaps in the network of corridors.Im Orient/East-Med Corridor, der Mittel- und Südosteuropa verbindet, steckt ein wichtiges kommerzielles Potenzial für den europäischen Schienengüterverkehr. Der Schienengüterverkehr in Europa steht jedoch vor einer Reihe von Herausforderungen in Bezug auf Qualität, Kostenwettbewerbsfähigkeit, Leistungsmerkmale sowie politische/ gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz und Unterstützung. Eine besondere Herausforderung ist die nur schleppende Umsetzung eines wirklich einheitlichen europäischen Eisenbahnraums, was zu hohen Kosten und Zeitverlusten an den Grenzen führt. Als Reaktion hierauf wurden sogenannte EU Schienengüterverkehrskorridore (Rail Freight Corridors = RFCs) geschaffen, darunter der im November 2013 eingerichtete Orient/East-Med RFC Nr. 7, der auf eine bessere grenzüberschreitende Koordination und Zusammenarbeit im Bereich Infrastruktur und Verkehrsmanagement sowie eine verbesserte Kundenorientierung und Einbindung der Nutzer der Korridore abzielt. Hauptmerkmale der Schienengüterverkehrskorridore sind effektive Verwaltungsstrukturen mit klar definierten Aufgaben. Zu den bereits feststellbaren positiven Effekten gehören die Erarbeitung und Erprobung neuer Lösungen für grenzüberschreitende Prozesse, eine bessere Koordinierung der Fahrpläne und die Einrichtung von grenzüberschreitenden Arbeitsgruppen, die relevante Akteure an einen Tisch bringen, um spezifische Probleme anzugehen. Gleichzeitig gibt es sowohl konzeptionell als auch in Bezug auf die Geographie der Korridore Raum für weitere Verbesserungen. Die Einrichtung von zwei weiteren Schienengüterverkehrskorridoren in der Region, dem Alpine-Western Balkan RFC No. 10 und dem Amber RFC No. 11, schließt einige verbleibende Lücken im Korridornetz

On Sex-Related Differences in Auditory and Visual Sensory Functioning

The present study was designed to elucidate sex-related differences in two basic auditory and one basic visual aspect of sensory functioning, namely sensory discrimination of pitch, loudness, and brightness. Although these three aspects of sensory functioning are of vital importance in everyday life, little is known about whether men and women differ from each other in these sensory functions. Participants were 100 male and 100 female volunteers ranging in age from 18 to 30years. Since sensory sensitivity may be positively related to individual levels of intelligence and musical experience, measures of psychometric intelligence and musical background were also obtained. Reliably better performance for men compared to women was found for pitch and loudness, but not for brightness discrimination. Furthermore, performance on loudness discrimination was positively related to psychometric intelligence, while pitch discrimination was positively related to both psychometric intelligence and levels of musical training. Additional regression analyses revealed that each of three predictor variables (sex, psychometric intelligence, and musical training) accounted for a statistically significant portion of unique variance in pitch discrimination. With regard to loudness discrimination, regression analysis yielded a statistically significant portion of unique variance for sex as a predictor variable, whereas psychometric intelligence just failed to reach statistical significance. The potential influence of sex hormones on sex-related differences in sensory functions is discusse

Evaluating a Metric to Predict the Academic and Clinical Success of Master’s Students in Speech-Language Pathology

Speech-Language Pathology is one of the fastest growing professions in the United States. As such graduate programs have become inundated with applications to their programs in Speech-Language Pathology. Admissions committees often use GPA scores and GRE scores to determine the merit of an undergraduate student for acceptance into their graduate programs. This study examines a metric created to predict the success of graduate students in their academic and clinical work. It was determined that a metric that equally weighs GRE and GPA scores was not particularly predictive of graduate school success. Presented in this work is a new metric that weighs GRE and GPA scores uniquely. This new metric was able to reliably predict the success of students for both academic and clinical coursework in Speech-Language Pathology

Sadder but fitter. The evolutionary function of depressive symptoms following fetal loss

A literature review about an evolutionary model of fetal loss depression is presented. This model conceptualizes depression following miscarriage or stillbirth as an evolutionary protective mechanism to avoid further fetal loss. It postulates that depressive symptoms delay the next reproduction and save maternal resources. These symptoms along with hypochondric symptoms of depression which lead to a search for causes and reappraisal of environmental factors, are probably adaptations to causes of further fetal loss (e.g. epidemics, famines, infections, environmental toxins)

Defining a Conceptual Topography of Word Concreteness: Clustering Properties of Emotion, Sensation, and Magnitude among 750 English Words

Cognitive science has a longstanding interest in the ways that people acquire and use abstract vs. concrete words (e.g., truth vs. piano). One dominant theory holds that abstract and concrete words are subserved by two parallel semantic systems. We recently proposed an alternative account of abstract-concrete word representation premised upon a unitary, high dimensional semantic space wherein word meaning is nested. We hypothesize that a range of cognitive and perceptual dimensions (e.g., emotion, time, space, color, size, visual form) bound this space, forming a conceptual topography. Here we report a normative study where we examined the clustering properties of a sample of English words (N = 750) spanning a spectrum of concreteness in a continuous manner from highly abstract to highly concrete. Participants (N = 328) rated each target word on a range of 14 cognitive dimensions (e.g., color, emotion, valence, polarity, motion, space). The dimensions reduced to three factors: Endogenous factor, Exogenous factor, and Magnitude factor. Concepts were plotted in a unified, multimodal space with concrete and abstract concepts along a continuous continuum. We discuss theoretical implications and practical applications of this dataset. These word norms are freely available for download and use at http://www.reilly-coglab.com/data/

Prácticas reflexivas del saber cultural Guaraní, en espacio de enseñanza - aprendizaje, fuera del contexto paraguayo

Anais do I Encontro de Iniciação Científica e de Extensão da Unila - Sessão de Artes e Linguística - 05/06/12 - 14h00 às 18h00 - Unila-Centro - Sala 16 - 3o PisoHemos empezado esa investigación con muchas preguntas para las que buscamos respuesta ¿Qué guaraní enseñar? ¿Qué contenido de gramática aplicar? ¿Qué interés tendrán los alumnos? Cómo se daría en pro - ceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje en el contexto extranjero. Esas interrogantes surgen a partir de decisio - nes como la enseñanza del guaraní, que por su naturaleza denota particularidades diferentes a otras len - guas y por lo tanto nos exigió nuevos planteamiento cuanto a su enseñanza y aprendizaje. La Lengua Guarani incorporada en diversos ámbitos de la universidade ha generado un matiz muy particular de co - nocimiento, saberes y curiosidades. Más allá del aprendizaje del idioma, se involucran otros saberes y ras - gos culturales guaraníes, no solo se ensenã y se aprende el idioma, sino también las experiencias del vivir y ser guaraní: las músicas, las danzas, la gastronomía, las leyendas como un todo del entorno de uso de la lengua. En análisis de las prácticas en clase de guaraní - fuera de un contexto paraguayo - ha explicitado el interés de los extranjeros en esos elementos de nuestra cultura. Reflexionar sobre cada acción: enseñan - za, aprendizaje, adquisición, objetivos del curso y prácticas de alumnos, professores y colaboradores pue - de aportar nuevos rumbos a la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas en contextos de integración y de inter - culturalidad. Para llevar a cabo nuestro propósito de observar, analizar y traer los resultados a la práctica en el salón de clase, hemos tratado de hacer el registro de todas las actividades realizadas. Eso nos facilitó el trabajo de análisis de todo el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, incluso, nuestras actitudes como do - centes por medio de una investigación acción colaborativa. Nuestra actuación como professores de nues - tra lengua materna - el guaraní - pudo aportar tanto conocimientos nuevos sobre la enseñanza de lengua como un reconocimiento y valoración de ese idioma no solo en Unila, sino en Foz do Iguaçu, Brasily en Paraguay. El análisis de nuestras actitudes como profesores y de los alumnos nos llevó muchas veces a re - plantear las clases y nuestra forma de pensar y actuar el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas. A diferencia de lo que ocurre con idiomas próximos, la enseñanza del guaraní para hablantes de português y de español explicita la necesidad de repensar nuevas formas de transmisión de los saberes linguístico-cul - turales en nuestra universidad y en nuestros países. La metodología empleada en cuanto a las anotaciones del proceso realizado como reflexión del desarrollo de las clases, para una experiencia y mejora de lo rea - lizado. Se propicia, dinamismo, interés y el mismo aprendizaje a lo que se agrega el trabajo por práctica escrita y oral. En consecuencia, se logra crear un espacio favorable en la difusión del idioma, la cultura, saberes populares, etc. Su trasmisión forja el aprendizaje, el guaraní ha llegado a transformar pensamien - tos y actitudes, tabúes y desconocimientos. Valoramos la herencia de los guaraníes, valoramos y respeta - mos.Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA