Fractional euler limits and their applications

© 2017 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Generalizations of the classical Euler formula to the setting of fractional calculus are discussed. Compound interest and fractional compound interest serve as motivation. Connections to fractional master equations are highlighted. An application to the Schlögl reactions with Mittag- Leffler waiting times is described

Defining the gap between research and practice in public relations programme evaluation - towards a new research agenda

The current situation in public relations programme evaluation is neatly summarized by McCoy who commented that 'probably the most common buzzwords in public relations in the last ten years have been evaluation and accountability' (McCoy 2005, 3). This paper examines the academic and practitioner-based literature and research on programme evaluation and it detects different priorities and approaches that may partly explain why the debate on acceptable and agreed evaluation methods continues. It analyses those differences and proposes a research agenda to bridge the gap and move the debate forward

Positive youth development in swimming: clarification and consensus of key psychosocial assets

The purpose of this study was to gain a more cohesive understanding of the assets considered necessary to develop in young swimmers to ensure both individual and sport specific development. This two stage study involved (a) a content analysis of key papers to develop a list of both psychosocial skills for performance enhancement and assets associated with positive youth development, and (b) in-depth interviews involving ten expert swim coaches, practitioners and youth sport scholars. Five higher order categories containing seventeen individual assets emerged. These results are discussed in relation to both existing models of positive youth development and implications for coaches, practitioners and parents when considering the psychosocial development of young British swimmers

The Time Course of the Influence of Valence and Arousal on the Implicit Processing of Affective Pictures

In the current study, we investigated the time course of the implicit processing of affective pictures with an orthogonal design of valence (negative vs. positive) by arousal (low vs. high). Previous studies with explicit tasks suggested that valence mainly modulates early event-related potential (ERP) components, whereas arousal mainly modulates late components. However, in this study with an implicit task, we observed significant interactions between valence and arousal at both early and late stages over both parietal and frontal sites, which were reflected by three different ERP components: P2a (100–200 ms), N2 (200–300 ms), and P3 (300–400 ms). Furthermore, there was also a significant main effect of arousal on P2b (200–300 ms) over parieto-occipital sites. Our results suggest that valence and arousal effects on implicit affective processing are more complicated than previous ERP studies with explicit tasks have revealed

Poland's 2011 Online Election Campaign: New Tools, New Professionalism, New Ways to Win Votes

This article analyzes the use of the online environment within the context of the Polish parliamentary election of 2011. Using traditional methods of content analysis, we find that parties tend to adhere to a professionalized model of campaigning, and adapting online tools to suit the objectives of the campaign. There also appears to be a recognition that their most likely visitors to these online presences would be converts, and so they attempt to mobilize supporters rather than convert browsers. New parties and candidates are more likely to target browsers, with the latter offering a more personalized experience to online visitors. Importantly, when analyzing the outcome of the contest, we find that being online matters for candidates when controlling for all other variables. Equally, the reach the candidate has, which may well influence their vote share, is dependent on offering a more personalized, representational image and having a frequently updated online presence that should encourage repeat visits. Cumulatively, we suggest the future of online campaigning must not only focus on having a presence, but on using it in a way that appeals to a range of visitors, encouraging repeat visits, and that this strategy could have a positive impact on election outcomes. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Psychological resilience in sport performers: a review of stressors and protective factors

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must utilize and optimize a range of mental qualities to withstand the pressures that they experience. In this paper, we discuss psychological resilience in sport performers via a review of the stressors athletes encounter and the protective factors that help them withstand these demands. It is hoped that synthesizing what is known in these areas will help researchers gain a deeper profundity of resilience in sport, and also provide a rigorous and robust foundation for the development of a sport-specific measure of resilience. With these points in mind, we divided the narrative into two main sections. In the first section, we review the different types of stressors encountered by sport performers under three main categories: competitive, organizational, and personal. Based on our recent research examining psychological resilience in Olympics champions (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012), in the second section we discuss the five main families of psychological factors (viz. positive personality, motivation, confidence, focus, perceived social support) that protect the best athletes from the potential negative effect of stressors. It is anticipated that this review will help sport psychology researchers examine the interplay between stressors and protective factors which will, in turn, focus the analytical lens on the processes underlying psychological resilience in athletes

Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship : initial global evidence and research implications

Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation&rsquo;s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the &lsquo;reinforcement model&rsquo;. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience&rsquo;s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people&rsquo;s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.<br /

De novo DHDDS variants cause a neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder with myoclonus

Subcellular membrane systems are highly enriched in dolichol, whose role in organelle homeostasis and endosomal-lysosomal pathway remains largely unclear besides being involved in protein glycosylation. DHDDS encodes for the catalytic subunit (DHDDS) of the enzyme cis-prenyltransferase (cis-PTase), involved in dolichol biosynthesis and dolichol-dependent protein glycosylation in the endoplasmic reticulum. An autosomal recessive form of retinitis pigmentosa (retinitis pigmentosa 59) has been associated with a recurrent DHDDS variant. Moreover, two recurring de novo substitutions were detected in a few cases presenting with neurodevelopmental disorder, epilepsy, and movement disorder. We evaluated a large cohort of patients (n=25) with de novo pathogenic variants in DHDDS and provided the first systematic description of the clinical features and long-term outcome of this new neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder. The functional impact of the identified variants was explored by yeast complementation system and enzymatic assay. Patients presented during infancy or childhood with a variable association of neurodevelopmental disorder, generalized epilepsy, action myoclonus/cortical tremor, and ataxia. Later in the disease course they experienced a slow neurological decline with the emergence of hyperkinetic and/or hypokinetic movement disorder, cognitive deterioration, and psychiatric disturbances. Storage of lipidic material and altered lysosomes were detected in myelinated fibers and fibroblasts, suggesting a dysfunction of the lysosomal enzymatic scavenger machinery. Serum glycoprotein hypoglycosylation was not detected and, in contrast to retinitis pigmentosa and other congenital disorders of glycosylation involving dolichol metabolism, the urinary dolichol D18/D19 ratio was normal. Mapping the disease-causing variants into the protein structure revealed that most of them clustered around the active site of the DHDDS subunit. Functional studies using yeast complementation assay and in vitro activity measurements confirmed that these changes affected the catalytic activity of the cis-PTase and showed growth defect in yeast complementation system as compared with the wild-type enzyme and retinitis pigmentosa-associated protein. In conclusion, we characterized a distinctive neurodegenerative disorder due to de novo DHDDS variants, which clinically belongs to the spectrum of genetic progressive encephalopathies with myoclonus. Clinical and biochemical data from this cohort depicted a condition at the intersection of congenital disorders of glycosylation and inherited storage diseases with several features akin to of progressive myoclonus epilepsy such as neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis and other lysosomal disorders