bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Prospects for European research and development in training & education*
Authors: Whiting John 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThis paper outlines the prospects for research and development in the education and training fields offered by the European Communities. The position of the EC is explained in relation to the existing and forthcoming Framework Programmes of research and development. The 1987–91 Framework Programme has committed most of its funding to existing programmes. Only one, DELTA directly concerns R&D in the education and training technologies. This commenced in 1989 with only 20 million ECU and ends in Spring 1991. In the new Framework Programme, DELTA is expected to continue with funding of between 40 and 60 million ECU though this remains undecided at present. The earliest date for a new DELTA call for proposals in Spring 1991, meaning that work on the new four year programme will not commence until late autumn 1991 at the earliest. There will therefore be a considerable gap between the two. An outline of the likely structure and contents of a new DELTA programme is given, characterised by better liaison with other programmes and a more rational approach to the development of the advanced learning technologies. Other, non‐Framework Programmes concerned with aspects of education and training such as COMETT, LINGUA, EUROTECNET and TEMPUS are placed in context with this. The paper concludes with general advice and explanation of EC procedures for application, evaluation and approval of proposals for Framework R&D Proposals.
Project Author: Visionary training with far reaching consequences
Authors: Seabrook Jan 
Published: March 2008

AbstractIn the 1980s a government initiative was made to meet the need for instructional designers for the emerging Technology Based Training needs of industry and commerce. The course achieved its objectives but also sparked the development of current UK e‐learning because the course developed people who were skilled at adaptability and flexibility with ever changing technology coupled with a thorough understanding of how people learn, and these were highly motivated to use their skills. The effectiveness of the course can be seen by the number of people from Project Author who are still in the sector and in highly influential positions.
Audit Committee and Firm Value: Evidence on Outside Top Executives as Expert‐Independent Directors
Authors: Chan Kam C. , Li Joanne 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: We examine the relation between independence of audit committee and firm value with a sample of Fortune 200 companies.Research Findings/Insights: Using a sample of Fortune 200 companies and defining top executives of other publicly traded firms as expert‐independent directors and controlling for firm specifics, board features, and individual director characteristics, we find the presence of expert‐independent directors on board and in the audit committee enhances firm value.Theoretical/Academic Implications: We provide empirical evidence to show that by focusing on this restricted definition of independent directors (expert‐independent directors), we are able to examine independence in both the board and audit committee in a different light.Practitioner/Policy Implications: We offer new insights to relate firm value of the composition of audit committee. When expert‐independent directors are of majority control of audit committee, finance‐trained directors improve firm value almost five times to that of firms with independent audit committee alone.
The Signals Outside Directors Send to Foreign Investors: Evidence from Korea
Authors: Rhee Mooweon , Lee Ji‐Hwan 
Published: March 2008

ABSTRACTManuscript Type: EmpiricalResearch Question/Issue: This study explores a signaling role of the demographic composition of a firm's outside director by examining how the composition influences the growth of foreigners' investment in the firm.Research Findings/Insights: Using archival data from a panel sample of 96 large Korean firms between 2000 and 2003, our analysis shows that the growth of foreign ownership is positively affected if a higher proportion of outside directors hold advanced foreign degrees, if a higher proportion of outside directors have former or current affiliations with governmental organizations, or if a higher proportion of outside directors have job experience in the same industry.Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our theoretical perspective and supportive findings suggest that the role of outside directors is not confined to implementing the tasks stipulated as a corporate governance mechanism; they also can be signals that inform a market audience (foreign investors in our study) of the extent to which outside directors may provide a firm with a knowledge base, social status, and decision control.Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study suggests several practical implications, prompting growing interest in the role of outside directors as one of the most effective vehicles for improving corporate governance and symbolic management. In addition, it offers insights to policy makers interested in establishing and updating guidelines that inform firms of desirable board composition according to their strategic demands.
State Trading Enterprises as an Impediment to Improved Market Access: The Case of the Korean Rice Market
Authors: McCorriston Steve , MacLaren Donald 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThe trade and welfare effects of tariffs are well known. Less well known, and more difficult to analyze, are the economic effects of state trading enterprises (STEs). Despite STEs in importing countries having the potential to limit market access, they are no longer on the agriculture agenda in the Doha Round Negotiations in the WTO, because some Members have asserted that importing STEs do not distort international trade. We evaluate this assertion through the use of a theoretical model of an STE, which is calibrated to data for the Korean rice market. We show that this STE does distort international trade by restricting market access relative to a Cournot benchmark, and that it affects the domestic and international distribution of social welfare. This finding permits the conclusion that an important opportunity is being missed in the negotiations to improve market access, because importing STEs are not on the agenda.
The Contribution of International Graduate Students to US Innovation
Authors: Chellaraj Gnanaraj , Maskus Keith E. , Mattoo Aaditya 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThe impact of international students in the United States on innovative activity is estimated using a model of idea generation. Results indicate that the presence of foreign graduate students has a significant and positive impact on both future patent applications and future patents awarded to university and non‐university institutions. Our central estimates suggest that a 10% increase in the number of foreign graduate students would raise patent applications by 4.5%, university patent grants by 6.8% and non‐university patent grants by 5.0%. Thus, reductions in foreign graduate students from visa restrictions could significantly reduce US innovative activity. Increases in skilled immigration also have a positive, but smaller, impact on patenting.
Factor Uses and the Pattern of Specialization
Authors: Schaur Georg , Xiang Chong , Savikhin Anya 
Published: March 2008

AbstractWe show that in the setting of multiple goods and factors, the factor proportions theory has the following prediction: across industries, the impacts of the endowment of a given factor on industry outputs have positive co‐variance with the relative uses of this factor. The intuition is that, on average, the industries that use a given factor heavily have positive output responses, following an increase in the endowment of this factor. This co‐variation condition is robust to Hicks neutral‐ and factor‐augmenting productivity differences, and constitutes a direct test of the production side of the factor proportions theory. We also show that the co‐variation condition finds empirical support. This is evidence that is consistent with the factor proportions theory.
Hunting High and Low for Vertical FDI
Authors: Davies Ronald B. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractRecently the horizontal and vertical models of foreign direct investment (FDI) have been synthesized into the knowledge‐capital (KK) model. Empirical tests, however, find that the horizontal model cannot be rejected in favor of the KK model. I suggest this is because the empirical specifications are too restrictive for vertical FDI to manifest itself. Using an alternative specification, I find evidence of vertical FDI. In particular, when I use the stock of FDI I can reject the horizontal model in favor of the knowledge‐capital model and identify countries for which FDI is dominated by vertical investment.
Consistent Estimates of Regional Blocs' Trade Effects
Authors: Kandogan Yener 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThis paper builds upon Feenstra (2002) to obtain consistent estimates of trade effects of regional blocs by adding bilateral effects to the gravity equation and analyzing its variation across blocs of different intensity. The results are then compared across different gravity equations used in the literature only to observe significant variation in sign, magnitude, and significance. The consequent equation shows that the effect is positive for economics cooperation agreements and preferential trade agreements, but free‐trade agreements do not have a significant incremental effect. While customs unions have a positive incremental effect over blocs of lower intensity, the incremental effect is mixed for monetary unions, and negative for economic areas and full integrations. Furthermore, the effect varies with the duration and degree of implementation as well as the coverage of blocs. Lastly, changes in trade effects of the European blocs across time observed and policy implications are discussed.
Paganism in Conversion‐Age Anglo‐Saxon England: The Evidence of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered
Authors: CHURCH S. D. 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThis article argues that the current understanding of English paganism relies too heavily on the belief that, when they wrote of the pre‐Christian religion(s) of the English, Pope Gregory I (d. 604), in the letters preserved in his Register, and the Northumbrian monk Bede (d. 735), in his Ecclesiastical History, were describing English religion before conversion to Christianity as it really was. Their purpose in discussing English paganism, it is argued, was to provide succour and support for the process by which the English would be saved from eternal damnation in the face of the coming Day of Judgement. Neither Gregory nor Bede, both of whom came to be revered as Fathers of the Church, were passive observers of the conversion process. On the contrary, both men were active participants in the eradication of error amongst the English; error whose detail they had no interest or incentive to describe empirically. These were men who answered to a greater Truth – the Truth of the Word of God. It was this Truth which, this article argues, actually informed their descriptions of English paganism and should inform our understanding of their words on this subject.
Contesting the Past
Authors: BLACK JEREMY 
Published: March 2008

AbstractThe search for validation and quest for justification in the past is a commonplace tendency. It is of particular note at the present and is widespread across the political spectrum and around the world. Using the past can also entail the deliberate erasure of contentious episodes. While motivated by a search for good relations, contesting the past creates new ‘victims’, in so far as those whose role is neglected or actively misrepresented can be seen as victims or at least as having a grievance. From this perspective, the historian emerges as the necessary opponent of false consciousness, with his own obligation to truth in both past, present and, therefore, future.
Indirect defence via tritrophic interactions
Authors: Heil Martin 
Published: March 2008

SummaryMany plants interact with carnivores as an indirect defence against herbivores. The release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the secretion of extrafloral nectar (EFN) are induced by insect feeding, a response that is mediated by the plant hormone, jasmonic acid. Although VOCs mainly attract predatory mites and parasitic wasps, while EFN mainly attracts ants, many more animal–plant interactions are influenced by these two traits. Other traits involved in defensive tritrophic interactions are cellular food bodies and domatia, which serve the nutrition and housing of predators. They are not known to respond to herbivory, while food body production can be induced by the presence of the mutualists. Interactions among the different defensive traits, and between them and other biotic and abiotic factors exist on the genetic, physiological, and ecological levels, but so far remain understudied. Indirect defences are increasingly being discussed as an environmentally‐friendly crop protection strategy, but much more knowledge on their fitness effects under certain environmental conditions is required before we can understand their ecological and evolutionary relevance, and before tritrophic interactions can serve as a reliable tool in agronomy.

Contents

Summary
1

I.
Introduction
2

II.
Facultative indirect defences
3

III.
Production of indirect defences
9

IV.
Interactions among different strategies
12

V.
Outlook
14

Acknowledgements
14

References
15
Carbon isotopes in terrestrial ecosystem pools and CO2 fluxes
Authors: Bowling David R. , Pataki Diane E. , Randerson James T. 
Published: March 2008

SummaryStable carbon isotopes are used extensively to examine physiological, ecological, and biogeochemical processes related to ecosystem, regional, and global carbon cycles and provide information at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Much is known about the processes that regulate the carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of leaf, plant, and ecosystem carbon pools and of photosynthetic and respiratory carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes. In this review, systematic patterns and mechanisms underlying variation in δ13C of plant and ecosystem carbon pools and fluxes are described. We examine the hypothesis that the δ13C of leaf biomass can be used as a reference point for other carbon pools and fluxes, which differ from the leaf in δ13C in a systematic fashion. Plant organs are typically enriched in 13C relative to leaves, and most ecosystem pools and respiratory fluxes are enriched relative to sun leaves of dominant plants, with the notable exception of root respiration. Analysis of the chemical and isotopic composition of leaves and leaf respiration suggests that growth respiration has the potential to contribute substantially to the observed offset between the δ13C values of ecosystem respiration and the bulk leaf. We discuss the implications of systematic variations in δ13C of ecosystem pools and CO2 fluxes for studies of carbon cycling within ecosystems, as well as for studies that use the δ13C of atmospheric CO2 to diagnose changes in the terrestrial biosphere over annual to millennial time scales.

Contents

Summary
1

I.
Introduction
2

II.
Isotopic composition of plant metabolites and autotrophic respiration
3

III.
Isotopic composition of plant and ecosystem carbon pools
8

IV.
Isotopic composition of assimilation and respiration fluxes
9

V.
Ecosystem to global scale issues – isotopic composition of gross primary production, net primary production, and net ecosystem production
11

VI.
Conclusions and suggestions for further research
12

Acknowledgements
13

References
13
Insect‐damaged fossil leaves record food web response to ancient climate change and extinction
Authors: Wilf P. 
Published: March 2008

SummaryPlants and herbivorous insects have dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 300 million years. Uniquely in the fossil record, foliage with well‐preserved insect damage offers abundant and diverse information both about producers and about ecological and sometimes taxonomic groups of consumers. These data are ideally suited to investigate food web response to environmental perturbations, and they represent an invaluable deep‐time complement to neoecological studies of global change. Correlations between feeding diversity and temperature, between herbivory and leaf traits that are modulated by climate, and between insect diversity and plant diversity can all be investigated in deep time. To illustrate, I emphasize recent work on the time interval from the latest Cretaceous through the middle Eocene (67–47 million years ago (Ma)), including two significant events that affected life: the end‐Cretaceous mass extinction (65.5 Ma) and its ensuing recovery; and globally warming temperatures across the Paleocene–Eocene boundary (55.8 Ma). Climatic effects predicted from neoecology generally hold true in these deep‐time settings. Rising temperature is associated with increased herbivory in multiple studies, a result with major predictive importance for current global warming. Diverse floras are usually associated with diverse insect damage; however, recovery from the end‐Cretaceous extinction reveals uncorrelated plant and insect diversity as food webs rebuilt chaotically from a drastically simplified state. Calibration studies from living forests are needed to improve interpretation of the fossil data.ContentsSummary486I.Introduction487II.Tools489III.Hypotheses and case studies492IV.Extant calibrations needed496Acknowledgements497References497
Biochemical aspects of the neuroprotective mechanism of PTEN‐induced kinase‐1 (PINK1)
Authors: Mills Ryan D. , Sim Chou Hung , Mok Su San , Mulhern Terrence D. , Culvenor Janetta G. , Cheng Heung‐Chin 
Published: March 2008

AbstractMutations in PTEN‐induced kinase 1 (PINK1) gene cause PARK6 familial Parkinsonism. To decipher the role of PINK1 in pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD), researchers need to identify protein substrates of PINK1 kinase activity that govern neuronal survival, and establish whether aberrant regulation and inactivation of PINK1 contribute to both familial Parkinsonism and idiopathic PD. These studies should take into account the several unique structural and functional features of PINK1. First PINK1 is a rare example of a protein kinase with a predicted mitochondrial‐targeting sequence and a possible resident mitochondrial function. Second, bioinformatic analysis reveals unique insert regions within the kinase domain that are potentially involved in regulation of kinase activity, substrate selectivity and stability of PINK1. Third, the C‐terminal region contains functional motifs governing kinase activity and substrate selectivity. Fourth, accumulating evidence suggests that PINK1 interacts with other signaling proteins implicated in PD pathogenesis and mitochondrial dysfunction. The most prominent examples are the E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin, the mitochondrial protease high temperature requirement serine protease 2 and the mitochondrial chaperone tumor necrosis factor receptor‐associated protein 1. How PINK1 may regulate these proteins to maintain neuronal survival is unclear. This review describes the unique structural features of PINK1 and their possible roles in governing mitochondrial import, processing, kinase activity, substrate selectivity and stability of PINK1. Based upon the findings of previous studies of PINK1 function in cell lines and animal models, we propose a model on the neuroprotective mechanism of PINK1. This model may serve as a conceptual framework for future investigation into the molecular basis of PD pathogenesis.
The anticonvulsant profile of rufinamide (CGP 33101) in rodent seizure models
Authors: White H. Steve , Franklin Michael R. , Kupferberg Harvey J. , Schmutz Markus , Stables James P. , Wolf Harold H. 
Published: March 2008

Summary
Purpose: To evaluate the anticonvulsant profile and behavioral toxicity of rufinamide in animal seizure models compared to the established antiepileptic drugs (AEDs): phenytoin, phenobarbital, valproate, and ethosuximide, or vehicle.
Methods: In acute studies of anticonvulsant efficacy, the AEDs were administered via oral (CF1 mice and Sprague–Dawley rats) and intraperitoneal (CF1 mice) routes. The AEDs were assessed for their ability to inhibit seizures induced by maximal electroshock (MES) or subcutaneous pentylenetetrazol, and ability to block seizures induced by subcutaneous strychnine, bicuculline, or picrotoxin. Tolerance of oral rufinamide was assessed in rats following 5‐day (versus single‐dose) treatment with oral rufinamide using the dose equivalent necessary to achieve a 50% decrease in seizure frequency (ED50). Metabolic tolerance was also evaluated using an in vitro liver microsomal assay.
Results: Oral rufinamide suppressed pentylenetetrazol‐induced seizures in mice (ED50 45.8 mg/kg) but not rats, and was active against MES‐induced tonic seizures in mice (ED50 23.9 mg/kg) and rats (ED50 6.1 mg/kg). Intraperitoneal rufinamide suppressed pentylenetetrazol‐, bicuculline‐, and picrotoxin‐induced clonus in mice (ED50 54.0, 50.5, and 76.3 mg/kg, respectively). Rufinamide was partially effective in the mouse strychnine test. The behavioral toxicity of rufinamide was similar to or better than established AEDs tested in this study. In general, the protective index of rufinamide was greater than that of the other AEDs.
Conclusions: The efficacy and behavioral toxicity profiles in these animal models suggest that rufinamide may be effective in the treatment of generalized and partial seizures.
The diagnostic value of oral lacerations and incontinence during convulsive “seizures”
Authors: Oliva Megan , Pattison Claire , Carino John , Roten Annie , Matkovic Zelko , O'Brien Terence J. 
Published: March 2008

Summary
Purpose: Oral lacerations and urinary incontinence have long been considered useful clinical features for the diagnosis of epileptic seizures; however, both are also reported in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES). The aims of the study were (1) to investigate whether the presence and nature of oral lacerations or incontinence during convulsive seizures of patients with epilepsy differed from those with PNES, and (2) whether the side of the oral laceration has any correlation with the epilepsy syndrome or lateralization.
Methods: Eighty‐four consecutive patients who experienced at least one convulsive event during video‐EEG monitoring (VEM) were questioned and examined for oral lacerations and incontinence. Seizure classification was determined by a team of epileptologists based on the VEM findings and other clinical and investigational data, blinded to the oral laceration and incontinence information.
Results: The presence of oral lacerations among patients with epileptic seizures was 26% (17/66), in contrast it was 0% (0/18) with PNES (p = 0.01). Of the oral lacerations sustained by patients during an epileptic seizure, 14 were to the side of the tongue, one to the tip of the tongue, two to the cheek, and three to the lip. No significant relationships were observed between seizure lateralization and oral lacerations. Incontinence occurred in 23% (15/66) of epilepsy patients and 6% (1/18) of PNES patients (p = 0.09). There was no relationship between epilepsy type or lateralization and the prevalence of incontinence.
Conclusions: Despite frequent reports of oral lacerations and incontinence by patients with PNES, objective evidence for this is highly specific to convulsive epileptic seizures.