184 research outputs found
A Preliminary Study: Application of Quality Matters Standard 5 (Course Activities and Learner Interaction) to Development of an Online Business Management Course
Quality Matters (Quality Matters [QM] Higher Education Rubric Workbook, 2014) is a national benchmark for online course design, and serves as a continuous improvement model for assuring quality of online courses through a faculty review process. QM is also described as âa faculty-centered, peer review process that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courseâ (QM Higher Education Rubric Workbook, para 1). QM has eight research based rubric areas: â1) Course Overview and Introductions; 2) Learning Objectives or Competencies; 3) Assessment and Measurement; 4) Instructional Materials; 5) Course Activities and Learner Interaction; 6) Courses Technology; 7) Learner Support; 8) Accessibility and Usabilityâ (QM Higher Education Rubric Workbook, p. 1). The purpose of this preliminary study was to develop a sample model course demonstrating the use of QM General Standard 5, Course Activities and Learner Interaction
Bioinspired Asymmetric-Anisotropic (Directional) Fog Harvesting Based on the Arid Climate Plant Eremopyrum orientale
Asymmetric-anisotropic (directional) fog collection behaviour is observed for leaves of the arid climate plant species Eremopyrum orientale. This is underpinned by a hierarchical surface structure comprising macroscale grooves, microscale tilted cones (in the direction of water flow), and nanoscale platelets. Soft lithography combined with either nanocoating deposition or functional nanoimprinting has been used to replicate this highly-efficient directional water collection mechanism
Alliance orientation: Conceptualization, measurement, and impact on market performance
Interfirm collaborations have inspired a rich literature in marketing and strategy during the past two decades. Building on this extant work, the authors developed a new construct, alliance orientation, and explored its influence on firms' alliance network performance and market performance. The authors drew on data collected from 182 U.S. firms with extensive experience in forming, developing, and managing strategic alliances in marketing, new product development, distribution, technology, and manufacturing projects. Using structural equations modeling, the authors demonstrate that alliance orientation significantly affects alliance network performance, which in turn enhances market performance. The findings also suggest that market turbulence exerts a significant moderating influence on the relationship between alliance orientation and alliance network performance, whereas the moderating role of technological turbulence on that relationship does not appear to be significant. The study provides evidence that firms' alliance orientations positively affect their performance in strengthening their alliance network relationships and in managing conflicts with their alliance partners. Copyright © 2006 by Academy of Marketing Science
On compact holomorphically pseudosymmetric K\"ahlerian manifolds
For compact K\"ahlerian manifolds, the holomorphic pseudosymmetry reduces to
the local symmetry if additionally the scalar curvature is constant and the
structure function is non-negative. Similarly, the holomorphic
Ricci-pseudosymmetry reduces to the Ricci-symmetry under these additional
assumptions. We construct examples of non-compact essentially holomorphically
pseudosymmetric K\"ahlerian manifolds. These examples show that the compactness
assumption cannot be omitted in the above stated theorem.
Recently, the first examples of compact, simply connected essentially
holomorphically pseudosymmetric K\"ahlerian manifolds are discovered by W.
Jelonek. In his examples, the structure functions change their signs on the
manifold
Measurement of melatonin in body fluids: Standards, protocols and procedures
Abstract: The circadian rhythm of melatonin in saliva or plasma, or of the melatonin metabolite 6â sulphatoxymelatonin in urine, is a defining feature of suprachiasmatic nucleus function, the endogenous oscillatory pacemaker. These measurements are useful to evaluate problems related to the onset or offset of sleep and for assessing phase delays or advances of rhythms in entrained individuals. Additionally, they have become an important tool for psychiatric diagnosis, its use being recommended for phase typing in patients suffering from sleep and mood disorders. Thus, the development of sensitive and selective methods for the precise detection of melatonin in tissues and fluids of animals emerges as necessary. Due to its low concentration and the coâexistence of many other endogenous compounds in blood, the determination of melatonin has been an analytical challenge. This review discusses current methodologies employed for detection and quantification of melatonin in biological fluids and tissues
Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species
To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020â2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).Stelios Katsanevakis, Michail Ragkousis, Maria Sini, Markos Digenis and Vasilis Gerovasileiou were supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the âFirst Call for HFRI Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grantâ (Project ALAS â âALiens in the Aegean â a Sea under siegeâ (Katsanevakis et al. 2020b); Project Number: HFRI-FM17-1597). Konstantinos Tsirintanis was co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme âHuman Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learningâ, 2014-2020, in the context of the Act âEnhancing Human Resources Research Potential
by undertaking a Doctoral Researchâ Sub-action 2: IKY Scholarship Programme for PhD candidates in the Greek Universities. Maria Zotou was supported by the project âCoastal Environment Observatory and Risk Management in Island Regions AEGIS+â (MIS 5047038), implemented within the Operational Programme âCompetitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovationâ (NSRF 2014-2020), co financed by the Hellenic Government (Ministry of Development and Investments) and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund). Razy Hoffman was supported by Yad-Hanadiv Foundation, through the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Israel Nature and Parks Authority, an integrated program for establishing biological baselines and monitoring protocols for marine reserves in
the Israeli Mediterranean Sea (Grant #10669). Tatiana Begun, Adrian Teaca and Mihaela
Muresan were supported by the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 BRIDGE-BS project under
grant agreement no. 101000240. Fiona Tomas was supported by the project âInvasion of the
tropical alga Halimeda incrassata in the Balearic Islands: ecology and invasion dynamics
(AAEE119/2017)â, funded by the Vicepresidencia y ConsejerĂa de InnovaciĂłn, InvestigaciĂłn y
Turismo del Govern de les Illes Balears, with support from the European Union and FEDER
funds, and the project âUna nueva alga invasora en el MediterrĂĄneo: invasibilidad, detecciĂłn y
erradicaciĂłn del alga tropical Halimeda incrassata (INVHALI)â, funded by the FundaciĂłn
Biodiversidad, del Ministerio para la TransiciĂłn EcolĂłgica y el Reto DemogrĂĄfico. Simonetta
Fraschetti, Laura Tamburello, Antonia Chiarore were supported by the project PO FEAMP
2014-2020 - DRD n. 35/2019, âInnovazione, sviluppo e sostenibilitĂ nel settore della pesca e
dell'acquacoltura per la Regione Campaniaâ (ISSPA 2.51) and the EU EASME - EMFF
(Sustainable Blue Econ-omy) Project AFRIMED (http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N.
789059). Carlos Jimenez, Louis Hadjioannou, Vasilis Resaikos, Valentina Fossati, Magdalene
Papatheodoulou, and Antonis Petrou were supported by MedPan Small Projects, Mava, and
LIFE-IP. Louis Hadjioannou, Manos L. Moraitis and Neophytos Agrotis received funding from
the European Unionâs Horizon 2020 research and innovation program within the framework of
the CMMI/MaRITeC-X project under grant agreement No. 857586. Ernesto Azzurro was
supported by the project USEIt - Utilizzo di Sinergie operative per la gestione integrata specie
aliene Invasive in Italia, funded by the research programme @CNR. Antonietta Rosso and
Francesco Sciuto were supported by the University of Catania through âPiaCeRi-Piano
Incentivi per la Ricerca di Ateneo 2020â22 linea di intervento 2.â This is the Catania
Paleoecological Research Group contribution n. 484. Diego K. Kersting was supported by the
Beatriu de PinĂłs programme funded by the Secretary of Universities and Research
(Government of Catalonia) and the Horizon 2020 programme of research and innovation of the
European Union under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 801370. Francesco
Tiralongo was supported by the AlienFish project of Ente Fauna Marina Mediterranea
(Scientific Organization for Research and Conservation of Marine Biodiversity, 96012 Avola,
Italy), a citizen science project for monitoring and studying rare and non-indigenous fish in
Italian waters. Adriana Vella, was supported by funds through the BioCon_Innovate Research
Excellence Grant from the University of Malta awarded to her. Noel Vella was supported by
REACH HIGH Scholars Programme-Post Doctoral Grant for the FINS project. Some of the
records provided by Victor Surugiu were obtained during surveys carried out within the
framework of the project âAdequate management of invasive species in Romania, in accordance
with EU Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread
of invasive alien speciesâ, SMIS 2014+ 120008, coordinated by the Romanian Ministry of
Environment, Water and Forests in partnership with the University of Bucharest (2018â2022).
Alan Deidun and Alessio Marrone were supported by the âSpot The Alienâ citizen science
campaign for the monitoring of the Alien species in the Maltese archipelago and by the Interreg
Italia-Malta Harmony project. The authors from the National Institute of Biology (Slovenia)
acknowledge the financial support of the Slovenian Research Agency (Research Core Funding
No. P1-0237) and of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (project âSurvey of the
species richness and abundance of alien species in the Slovenian Seaâ). Emanuele Mancini and
Fabio Collepardo Coccia were supported by the project PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 âBIOBLITZ:
research, knowledge and participation for the sustainable management of marine resources
(BioBlitz Blu 2020)â coordinated by CURSA for MIPAAF, the Italian Ministry of Agricultural,
Food and Forestry Policies, Measure 1.40 - Protection and restoration of biodiversity and marine
ecosystems and compensation schemes in the context of sustainable fishing activities. Daniele
Grech was supported by the PO-FEAMP 2014-2020 project ECOGESTOCK âApproccio
ECOsistemico per la tutela e la GEStione delle risorse biologiche e STOCK ittici nelle acque
interneâ, the citizen science project Progetto Fucales: chi le ha viste? and the Paralenz Every
dive counts sponsor. Jamila Rizgalla was supported by the project Snowball for the monitoring
of alien species in Libyan waters ÙÙ Ű§ÙŰȘÙŰŽ ÙÙ Ű§ÙŰȘۯ۷۔ۧ Ű) have you seen it have you fished it?).
Gerasimos Kondylatos and Dimitrios Mavrouleas were supported by the project âEXPLIASâ
(MIS (ÎÎ ÎŁ): 5049912), design and piloting methods of commercial exploitation of invasive
alien species with a view to contributing to their population control, coordinated by the National
Technical University of Athens with the collaboration of the Hellenic Centre for Marine
Research and the University of the Aegean and co-founded by Greece and the European Union.
G. Kondylatos and Savvas Nikolidakis were supported by the project âSAMOSâ (ID CODE:
32.2072004/001), a study for a submarine productive park in Marathokampos of Samos.
Paraskevi K. Karachle, Aikaterini Dogrammatzi, Giorgos A. Apostolopoulos, Kassiani Konida
and Melina Nalmpanti were supported by the project â4ALIEN: Biology and the potential
economic exploitation of four alien species in the Hellenic Seasâ, funded by NRSF 2017-2020
(MIS (ÎÎ ÎŁ): 5049511). Fabio Crocetta and Riccardo Virgili were partially funded by the
project PO FEAMP Campania 2014â2020, DRD n. 35 of 15th March 2018, Innovazione,
sviluppo e sostenibilitĂ nel settore della pesca e dellâacquacoltura per la regione Campania, Misura 2.51, WP5, Task 5.5 Presenza e distribuzione di specie non indigene del macrozoobenthos e del
necton in Campania. Michel Bariche was partially funded by the University Research Board of
the American University of Beirut (DDF 103951/2592). Constantinos G. Georgiadis, Dimitra
Lida Rammou, Paschalis Papadamakis and Sotiris Orfanidis were supported by the MSFD
monitoring program. Sonia Smeraldo was supported by the MPA-Engage project, led by the
Institute of Marine Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council and funded by the
Interreg MED program. Evgeniia Karpova acknowledge that the publication of this article was
in part carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the FRC IBSS âPatterns of
Formation and Anthropogenic Transformation of Biodiversity and Bioresources of the Azovâ
Black Sea Basin and Other Regions of the World Oceanâ (No. 121030100028-0). Elena Slynkoâs
work was carried out within the framework of a State Assignment no. 121051100109-1 of
IBIW RAS. Manuela Falautano and Luca Castriota were supported by ISPRA citizen science
campaigns for the monitoring of alien species through the dedicated institutional project
([email protected]). MarĂa Altamirano was supported by the project RUGULOPTERYX
funded by FundaciĂłn Biodiversidad-Ministerio para la TransiciĂłn EcolĂłgica y el reto DemogrĂĄfico
(Spain) and the project UMA20-FEDERJA-006 with support from the European Union and
FEDER funds and Junta de AndalucĂa. Records provided by L. Mangialajo were collected in
the framework of projects funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, by the European Commission
(AFRIMED, http://afrimed-project.eu/, grant agreement N. 789059) and by the Académie 3 de
lâUniversitĂ© CĂŽte dâAzur (projet CONVOST).Peer reviewe
Unpublished Mediterranean and Black Sea records of marine alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species
To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and
neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173
marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open
access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized
a dataset of 12,649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae
and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda,
Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus,
Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias)
longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal
distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in
2020â2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean
Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu,
and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea; Kapraunia schneideri is
recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel;
Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time
from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely:
Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion
amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf.
folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro),
Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes
textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).peer-reviewe
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