Search

This chapter explores the evolution of the pulp and paper industry in Russia. The evolution is divided into three main periods: the era of the Russian Empire, the Soviet era and the era of transition to the market economy. The evolution described refers to changes in the technology and resources used in the industry, the changes in products and output volumes, as well as the changes in government policies. The road of many transitions of pulp and paper in Russia can be traced from the early 1700s to the development of the Russian paper giants, which are the world players of today. Also, the main challenges of the pulp and paper industry in the first decade of 2000 are analysed. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the evolution of the development of the pulp and paper industry in other transitional countries of Central Eastern Europe. The evolution path of the transition countries seems to have created certain common features in the pulp and paper industry in the transition countries. However, these countries have quite different pre-socialist economic, cultural and political histories. There are a few indicators of a path dependency in the most recent development of the Russian pulp and paper industry. The challenges currently faced by the pulp and paper industry are similar to those of the last century: the Soviet legacy of inefficient institutions, unclear legislation, environmental degradation, lack of investment in efficient technologies and infrastructure. As the industry became largely monopolized by a few major players, the future development will depend crucially on their ability to make investments and also on the growing environmental awareness of forests and the change to a low carbon economy, which would pose more challenges for the pulp and paper industry.

Pulp and paper mills are categorized as a core sector industry and are the fifth largest contributor to industrial water pollution. Pulp and paper production has increased globally and will contribute to increase in the near future. For every tonne of paper produced, these mills generate 220-380 m3 of highly coloured and potentially toxic wastewater. The pulp and paper mill is a major industrial sector utilizing a huge amount of lignocellulosic materials and water during the manufacturing process, and releases chlorinated lignosulphonic acids, chlorinated resin acids, chlorinated phenols and chlorinated hydrocarbons in the effluent. About 500 different chlorinated organic compounds have been identified including chloroform, chlorate, resin acids, chlorinated hydrocarbons, phenols, catechols, guaiacols, furans, dioxins, syringols, vanillins, etc. In wastewater these compounds are estimated collectively as “Adorbable Organic Halides” AOX. This paper is the state of the art review of the manufacturing process, treatability of the pulp and paper mill wastewater and performance of available treatment processes. A comparison of all treatment processes is presented emphasis being made on the treatability studies of AOX.

Water is particularly important substance in papermaking. It plays essential role in fibers transportation, equipment cleaning, lubrication, cooling and in development of a product quality. A tendency to reduce the fresh water consumption in paper production is economically and environmentally justifiable but it must be emphasized that strict closing of water system in paper mill has significant negative impact on several technological operations. High water temperature, as well as increased content of suspended and dissolved solids in water system of a paper machine is examples of major consequences of closing the water loop. As a result, serious problems may cause e.g. paper defects, loss of product quality and problems with run ability of a paper machine. Situation becomes even worse when recycled raw materials are used. Hence, methods of fresh water usage reduction in papermaking are very complex issues and usually depend on the degree of closure. Equilibrium between the advantages and the disadvantages relevant to water consumption restrictions should be established. The acceptable level of water loop closure will depend on the several factors e.g. paper quality required, raw materials used, chemical additives, equipment and staff education.

Fiber supply, waste reduction and pollution control have long been key challenges facing the pulp and paper industry in Taiwan. Water usage, energy consumption and capital effectiveness are also high on the list. An average of 5,213 hectares of plantation was established each year on the island in the past decade to provide a wood volume of approximately 26 thousand cubic meters annually. To complement the supply of increasingly expensive virgin fiber, the industry in 1997 re-utilized about 4 million tons of waste paper, of which nearly 70% was collected domestically. This secondary fiber input for paper and board production eliminated both the construction of ten incinerators and 3.65 million tons of C02 emission.

Due to rapid depletion of wild stocks, the necessity to cultivate fish is eminent. Current fish farming practices seek to improve flesh quality. The notion that white muscles are the main target of the fishing industry is emphasized. A novel approach is suggested based on the development of white muscles in wild fish from eggs to adults. A compilation of facts about white muscle structure, function and ontogeny is followed by an account of the changes in swimming behaviour and performance related to the use of white muscle during growth from larva to adult. Ecological data narrate early swimming performance with white muscle development and growth, unveiling some of the important natural selection factors eliminating weak swimmers and poor growers from the breeding stock. A comparison between fish culture practise and natural conditions reveals fundamental differences. New approaches following wild breeding processes promise several important advantages regarding the quality of white muscle.

Biotechnology generates tools: enzymes and microorganisms that permit one (i) to reduce pollution, chemical and energy requirements, and (ii) to obtain biodegradable and less toxic side products. This is mainly related to the high specificity of enzymes which hydrolyse lignocellulosic materials. Enzymes can be used to prevent or minimise pollution in the process, and microorganisms for the elimination of pollution.

The European paper and board industry has currently to pursue an important investment effort in order to improve its competitiveness and to meet the challenge of an increasing product demand both in quantity and quality.

Jaklin Kornfilt’s contribution to this volume touches on a key problem in syntax—the question of what sorts of devices the theory of grammar should have at its disposal for explaining the fairly frequent instances in natural language in which typically local grammatical processes give the appearance of operating at a distance (as, for example, when a characteristically clause-bounded rule applies in a domain consisting of two clauses). The particular case she considers—the IDP construction of Turkish—results to be only an apparent, not a real instance of non-local application of NP movement, under the analysis she advances: the occurrence of passive morphology in both the main and the subordinate clause is not the result of any particular linkage between the INFL nodes of the two clauses (though she does explore an alternative possible analysis, under which the two are linked by head-raising). Rather, passive morphology in the main clause is simply forced when the embedded clause is passive by the fact that the failure of the passivized object to get case by moving to matrix subject position would result in ill-formedness. The analysis requires no special assumptions about locality conditions, aside from the claim that try-type verbs can in some languages exceptionally govern but not case-mark the subjects of their complements. In particular, a satisfactory account of IDP’s does not require the assumption of restructuring/reanalysis, and the consequent weakening of the Projection Principle.

In the fall of 1987 the senior management of International Paper Company initiated a project referred to as the Productivity Improvement Process (PIP). The purpose was to transform an existing operating facility (the Cincinnati folding carton plant), into a leader in its industry. The original objective of the project was “to make the Cincinnati plant (CP) the “best” Folding Carton organization in the industry and to have it serve as a model for other International Paper plants.” It was understood at the time that CP was a mediocre performer by most accepted measures (productivity, profitability, quality, safety, receptivity to innovation). At the same time the management and work force had shown consistent improvement and a “can do” attitude towards change. Senior Management turned to the Corporate Technology Organization and chartered the Operations Analysis/Industrial Engineering (OA/IE) group to play a key role in organizing and energizing PEP. The OA/IE group would also serve as the conduit to the entire corporate Technology organization and its staff of more than 500 scientists and engineers. The OA/IE group would have a partnership role with the plant and business group management team in providing leadership and management for the Project. From the outset the project was seen as a prototype effort that would serve as a model to be refined and applied selectively to many of the other 64 converting facilities owned by the company.

Competences are the most important career capital a university graduate can have. The objective of the paper is to determine which competences acquired at tourism degree programmes affect students’ self-assessment regarding their own competitive advantage on the labour market. The data was collected during a nationwide diagnostic survey (N = 476) carried out at ten Polish universities among students finishing their tourism degree courses. Principal component analysis allowed us to identify a set of competences that have a significant impact on the students’ perception of their chances of finding employment in the tourism industry. These are: ability to cope with challenges and stress; writing and speaking skills in a foreign language; public speaking; planning and implementation of subject-specific projects; ability to conduct subject-specific research and perseverance. The higher the assessment of each of the above, the more confident of their competitive advantage on the labour market the students were., Highlights Self-assessment of competences credibly corresponds to the students' perception of their career potentialCompetences are the fundamental career capital of recent university graduatesPCA helps identify a set of competences that determine self-perception of one’s competitive advantage on the labour marketSeven competences determine how students of tourism degree courses assess their chances on the Polish labour marketThe topic of tourism degree graduates’ competences in relation to their situation on the labour market is still an under-researched area

By stressing results, or program outcomes, evaluation research has turned against itself. And by posing the same question that evaluation has traditionally put to Intervention programs onto evaluation’s own “results”, we tend to receive the same “no demonstrable effect” answer. This chapter focuses not on what decision-makers do with evaluation data, but on what evaluation does to them, and why. Decision-makers do not always show indifference toward social research; occasionally what evaluation says or might say does seem to matter. By gauging the power of evaluation through looking at the energy devoted to influencing its findings, or to curtailing its potential influence, we get a more balanced picture than by concentrating on the “uses” of evaluation alone. The question then is: Howcome it is that (certain) evaluation data matter? Discussing the evaluation of Project Renewal (and, in brief, the evaluation of primary education in Israel) as an example of an evaluation that mattered, my attempt will be to explain its “power” with the help of papermoney as a metaphor.

Working outside traditional bureaucratic structures, animal activists have a long history of creating, managing and using records in radical ways to bring the suffering of animals to society’s attention. Today’s online platforms enable animal activism on a networked scale, with unprecedented reach and immediacy of impact, but also with risks and challenges. This article presents findings from a critical case study of the radical recordkeeping of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), a US-based animal liberation group. The case study explores the performative role recordkeeping plays in the group’s animal activism and advocacy, and the challenge of ensuring the longevity of an archival record of its activities and their impact. It is framed by Records Continuum Theory and illustrates the benefits of applying a Records Continuum lens to researching radical recordkeeping contexts. The paper reports on the research findings of the case study, including the vital role recordkeeping plays as a form of “strategic witnessing” for the activities of DxE, as well as in developing the DxE community and communicating its mission to the public. It discusses the challenges faced by DxE in preserving their archives into the future through integrating archiving into their current radical recordkeeping processes, Continuum-style, and addressing the risks associated with using online collaborative platforms for recordkeeping and archiving. Overcoming these challenges will ensure that current recordkeeping plays its part in DxE’s animal activism, and that in the future records of continuing value take their place among the multiple narratives of society in the archival multiverse.

It is a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity of speaking to you within this seminar on “Wood as a renewable raw material”.

The term paper work here is attributed to the work connected with preparation and handling of an application for registration of a radiopharmaceutical product. The material to be presented derives from applications for registrations submitted in Denmark since 1976 with the exception of applications later withdrawn. It is considered of general interest since the registration material in most cases seems to be identical to that submitted to registration authorities in other countries. At the start of the Danish registration system for radiopharmaceuticals (January 1 1976) a grandfather clause was granted for products, which were well known and well established and had been in regular use for several years. For these products registration could take place without full documentation with respect to the pharmacological, toxico1ogical and clinical developing work. With respect to these points such products of course too are excluded from the present study of quality of the applications. The questions raised by the registration authority according to the first review are considered to represent the most open defects and errors and thus form the basis of most of the presented material.

Transformational leadership, a type of leadership commonly promoted within higher education, has been shown to positively affect performance, collaborative behavior, and goal accomplishment. Such skills may correlate with the level of job responsibility one has been given and the technical, human, and conceptual skills needed for one to be successful. This study sought to bridge a research gap by exploring correlations between transformational leadership and skills-approach leadership with an exploration of the role of gender within perceptions. An unexpected result based on gender was found: As females achieve higher roles within the Land-Grant University System, the perception of their transformational leadership decreases while that of males increases. Transformational leadership and skills-approach leadership is discussed within the context of gender.

Corruption is one of the most intractable problems that the world is faced with and its reported impact is widespread and pervasive. Since the mid-1990s, international efforts to combat this problem expanded significantly, driven by the involvement governments, international financial institutions and non-governmental organisations. The objective of this article is to use Michel Foucault’s work in a critical analysis of the international fight against corruption. This analysis is centred on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, as well as his notions of knowledge, power and ethics. The primary focus is on the role played by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Transparency International in the proliferation of international anti-corruption discourse and practices. Furthermore, South Africa will be used as a case study to unpack the historical and contextual factors that play a role in the legitimisation of corruption. As will be shown in this assessment, without adequately understanding the local factors that stimulate corruption and the other societal characteristics that serve to compound its pervasiveness, internationally driven anti-corruption initiatives have limited scope for success. Corruption will persist where there is a lack of resonance between international anti-corruption ideals and local norms, values and ideologies.

This article highlights Australia’s interaction with Asian countries in the development of an international legal instrument on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). An intergovernmental conference with four planned sessions is currently going on under the auspices of the United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA) for the adoption of a new legal instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Although there is literature on how Australia and Asia have forged closer engagement on matters of trade, security and culture, literature is scarce on how and in what way they can engage in promoting the conservation of ABNJ. In terms of marine environmental discussion, Australia appears to date overall to have aligned itself closely to other western countries and some developed Asian countries. This article examines the potential scope for increased collaboration with Asia on reaching future legal agreement with respect to ABNJ.

When the 2020 semester began in the USA in January, it was unimaginable that the near-total closure of educational system across the globe would become the new normal. To mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus, teaching faculty hastily converted to an online learning environment in order for instruction to continue. This mixed-methods study used the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire and analysis of student course evaluations to explore changes in student perceptions of learning environments from before to after the switch to remote learning because of the pandemic. Students perceived a statistically-significant decline in student cohesiveness, teacher support, involvement, task orientation and equity, with the largest decline of 0.56 standard deviations occurring for student cohesiveness. Qualitative comments illuminated reasons for these declines and suggested ways to mitigate declines in the future.

Authors aim to carry out a bibliographic review as an initial approach to state of the art related to the quality of urban soils, as well as its possible link with human health. This concern arises from the need to highlight the consequences that soil could face, derived from the growth and aging of the population, as well as its predicted preference for urban settlement. Urban development may pose a challenge to the health of urban soils, due to degradative processes that it entails, such as land take, sealing, contamination or compaction. A healthy soil is the one which maintains the capacity to support ecosystem services, so it can provide numerous benefits to human health and well-being (carbon sequestration, protection against flooding, retention and immobilization of pollutants and a growth media for vegetation and food production). This article addresses threats facing urban soils, the strategies put forward by the European Union to deal with them, as well as the issues that require further attention. Greening cities could be a consensual solution, so authors analyze whether soils of cities are ready for that challenge and what resources need to maintain soil ecosystem functions. This review proposes to use made by waste Technosols for a sustainable green city. Although the use of Technosols as a type of soil is very recent, the interest of the scientific community in this field continues to grow.

Children’s books of Nazi propaganda prove that a society can venerate science to the point of making biology the organizing principle of its educational system yet nevertheless produce children’s literature shot through with fabrication and falsehood. Three children’s books of Nazi propaganda that are frequently mentioned in accounts of anti-Semitism but seldom analyzed are discussed: Elvira Bauer’s Trau keinem Fuchs auf gruner Heid und keinem Jud auf seinem Eid (1936), Ernst Hiemer’s Der Giftpilz (1938), and Hiemer’s Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher (1940) illustrate the ways in which racist science and ideological narrative tautologically reinforce each other in an extreme version of how “narratives play a key role in communicating science” (Pauwels, 2019, p. 434) in children’s nonfiction. These texts of lurid racism, all issued by the book publishing arm of Julius Streicher’s virulently anti-Semitic newspaper Der Sturmer, offer a monitory case study of how bad science and toxic narrative can coalesce into a literary poison intended to indoctrinate young readers. This analysis of Nazi nonfiction for children demonstrates how science and story can be exploited to promote a racist agenda.

We examine corporate philanthropic decisions in response to the local spread of COVID-19. From a strategic perspective, firms may proactively undertake philanthropic efforts to limit the spread of the pandemic and avoid a degraded business environment. From the perspective of non-trivial costs, increased economic uncertainty can raise concerns about business survival and lead to conservative philanthropic strategies. Following the proverb “prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them,” at the provincial level, our results support the second perspective. Specifically, when the spread of the pandemic worsens in a province, local firms are less likely to make COVID-19-related donations in terms of likelihood and amount. Investors also react negatively, not only to the local spread of COVID-19 but also to COVID-19-related philanthropic donations. At the organizational level, our evidence indicates that there is at least some level of cost–benefit analysis underlying corporate philanthropic decisions. Specifically, corporate philanthropic donations, especially those made to the local business environment, are significantly affected by organizational-level factors, such as pre-existing resource availability and motives to acquire political and reputational resources. Overall, our multilevel study presents a comprehensive picture of corporate philanthropic decisions amid the COVID-19 crisis.

In this article, organisers of the annual conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), held during March and April 2020, share their story of moving the planned on-site conference to a virtual space, as necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their analysis of the vCIES (the name given to the virtual conference) process not only provides an example of a disruption to the status quo of the institution of conferencing as a result of a global pandemic, but also extends it by addressing the multiplying concerns, urgent considerations and actions needed within academic communities for more equal and accessible conferencing in the unfolding climate catastrophe. The authors begin by discussing the challenge of academic conferencing in the age of COVID-19 and climate crisis. They highlight how their decolonial political stance (which critiques accepting Western knowledge and Western culture as the norm) and their climate-conscious approach informed their preparation of a virtual conference pilot already intended as an experimental extension to this year's on-site event. They suggest the development of this pilot provided the necessary platform for transforming the vCIES into an effective and engaging virtual experience for participants. The vCIES process, including considerations concerning its structure and format and the necessary technology, is detailed in the subsequent sections. In the final part of their article, the authors briefly identify and discuss some of the opportunities, challenges and implications emerging from their vCIES experiences. Ultimately, they suggest that in a time of instability, insecurity and uncertainty, there need to be alternatives to large on-site conferences which require excessive and extensive academic mobility. The vCIES was a step in that direction as an accessible, environmentally responsive, more equal, and intergenerational and multispecies event that welcomed families, children and pets, while opening the space for new interdisciplinary encounters.Les congrès scientifiques à l’ère de la COVID-19 et de la crise climatique : le cas de la Comparative and International Education Society (Société d’éducation comparée et internationale/CIES) – Dans cet article, les organisatrices de la conférence annuelle de la CIES, qui s’est tenue en mars-avril 2020, nous racontent comment, contraintes par la pandémie de COVID-19, elles ont transplanté une conférence prévue en présentiel dans un espace virtuel. Leur analyse de la vCIES (comme elles ont baptisé la conférence virtuelle) illustre l’effet disruptif de la pandémie mondiale dans le contexte des congrès. Elle aborde toutefois aussi cette question dans l’optique des préoccupations qui se multiplient, des questions pressantes qui se posent et des actions devenues nécessaires au sein des communautés scientifiques pour instaurer davantage d’égalité et d’accessibilité en ce qui concerne les conférences, et ce sur le fond de la catastrophe climatique qui se joue actuellement. Les auteures se penchent d’abord sur le défi posé par les congrès scientifiques à l’ère de la COVID-19 et de la crise climatique. Elles soulignent la mesure dans laquelle leur position politique décoloniale (critiquant le fait que la culture et le savoir occidentaux sont acceptés comme la norme) et leur approche qui intègre les questions climatiques ont étayé la préparation de cette conférence pilote virtuelle initialement prévue pour s’inscrire dans le prolongement de la conférence en présentiel de cette année. Elles indiquent que le développement de cette formule pilote leur a fourni l’espace nécessaire pour que la vCIES offre à ses participants une expérience virtuelle efficace et attrayante. Dans les chapitres suivants, elles présentent en détail le déroulement de la vCIES, en abordant notamment des questions liées à sa structure, à son format et à la technique nécessaire à sa mise en œuvre. Dans la dernière partie de l’article, les auteures identifient et abordent un certain nombre de possibilités, de défis et d’implications découlant de leur expérience de la vCIES. À la fin, elles indiquent que dans une période marquée par l’instabilité, l’insécurité et l’incertitude, il faut proposer des solutions de rechange aux grands congrès en présentiel qui exigent des scientifiques des déplacements massifs. Manifestation accessible, écoresponsable, plus équitable, intergénérationnelle et plurispécifique, puisqu’elle a accueilli des familles, des enfants et des animaux de compagnie, tout en offrant un espace à de nouvelles rencontres interdisciplinaires, la vCIES a fait un pas dans cette direction.

Purpose The personality trait of neuroticism represents vulnerability for mental distress to somatic health problems. There are few studies of neuroticism in prostate cancer patients. This study examines the levels of self-reported adverse effects (AEs) after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RALP) in Norwegian men with high or low levels of neuroticism. Neuroticism is also compared to relevant factors concerning their associations with various AEs. Methods Among 982 men who had RALP at Oslo University Hospital, Radiumhospitalet between 2005 and 2010, 79% responded to a mailed questionnaire in 2011. They rated AEs by completing the EPIC-26 questionnaire, and neuroticism on the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Men with Results High neuroticism was reported by 20% (95% CI 17–23%) of the patients. On the EPIC-26 dimensions men with high neuroticism had significantly lower mean scores than men with low neuroticism. Most of these between-group differences were clinically significant. In multivariate regression analyses, high neuroticism contributed significantly to all EPIC-26 domains. Conclusion Increased levels of AEs after RALP are significantly associated with high neuroticism. A short screening test should be added to the current EPIC-26 instrument to identify patients with high neuroticism. In these patients, pre-operative counseling should take into account their risk of increased AE experiences.

Mobility data at EU scale can help understand the dynamics of the pandemic and possibly limit the impact of future waves. Still, since a reliable and consistent method to measure the evolution of contagion at international level is missing, a systematic analysis of the relationship between human mobility and virus spread has never been conducted. A notable exceptions are France and Italy, for which data on excess deaths, an indirect indicator which is generally considered to be less affected by national and regional assumptions, are available at department and municipality level, respectively. Using this information together with anonymised and aggregated mobile data, this study shows that mobility alone can explain up to 92% of the initial spread in these two EU countries, while it has a slow decay effect after lockdown measures, meaning that mobility restrictions seem to have effectively contribute to save lives. It also emerges that internal mobility is more important than mobility across provinces and that the typical lagged positive effect of reduced human mobility on reducing excess deaths is around 14-20 days. An analogous analysis relative to Spain, for which an IgG SARS-Cov-2 antibody screening study at province level is used instead of excess deaths statistics, confirms the findings. The same approach adopted in this study can be easily extended to other European countries, as soon as reliable data on the spreading of the virus at a suitable level of granularity will be available. Looking at past data, relative to the initial phase of the outbreak in EU Member States, this study shows in which extent the spreading of the virus and human mobility are connected., This is the final published version of the article appeared in Nonlinear Dynamics under open access license CC 4.0

In combating pandemics, more can be gained by changing citizens' behaviours than by relying solely on the medical route. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, the struggle to contain the outbreak and push back new infection figures will ultimately be won by training citizens how to avoid creating secondary transmission chains. The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the relationship between individual behaviour and group risk. Mass training of all social strata of a country's entire population is therefore critical in mitigating the pandemic. The authors of this article argue that adult learning and education (ALE) can play a pivotal role particularly in countries where average literacy levels are low, as these are usually the same countries in which healthcare systems are more fragile. This article explains why ALE, especially the promotion ofL’apprentissage et l’éducation des adultes, un outil pour endiguer les pandémies : l’expérience du COVID-19 – Dans la lutte contre les pandémies, on peut obtenir de meilleurs résultats en changeant les comportements des citoyens qu’en se fiant uniquement à la solution médicale. Dans le cas de la pandémie de COVID-19 qui nous préoccupe actuellement, nous gagnerons le combat mené pour contenir l’épidémie et réduire le nombre de nouvelles infections en apprenant aux citoyens comment éviter de créer des chaînes de contamination secondaire. La pandémie de COVID-19 met en relief la relation entre le comportement des individus et les risques pour le groupe. Pour la faire régresser, il est par conséquent crucial d’éduquer massivement toutes les couches sociales de la population d’un pays. Les auteurs de cet article affirment que l’apprentissage et l’éducation des adultes peuvent jouer un rôle déterminant dans les pays ayant un faible niveau d’alphabétisme, qui sont d’ordinaire également ceux où les systèmes de santé sont plus fragiles. Cet article explique pourquoi l’apprentissage et l’éducation des adultes, en particulier la promotion de l’alphabétisation sanitaire dans le cadre de l’apprentissage et de l’éducation des adultes, sont nécessaires pour permettre aux individus de prendre des décisions éclairées en matière de santé. Des recherches ont montré que les personnes illettrées ou analphabètes étaient moins ouvertes à l’éducation en matière de santé, qu’il était moins probable qu’elles s’adressent à des services de prévention des maladies et qu’elles avaient moins de chances de réussir à gérer des maladies chroniques que des citoyens instruits. Les auteurs renvoient à l’évaluation du volet d’alphabétisation sanitaire qui faisait partie d’une campagne d’éducation des adultes lancée à vaste échelle en Afrique du Sud en 2008. Il fournit des résultats quantifiables et prouva qu’il avait permis aux adultes de mieux comprendre les messages sanitaires. Les auteurs soulignent également l’importance pour les populations de posséder tout au moins des bases de lecture, d’écriture et de calcul pour pouvoir recevoir des informations vitales pendant une pandémie ou un cataclysme et être à même d’agir en fonction. Ils affirment qu’il conviendrait de considérer l’apprentissage et l’éducation des adultes comme faisant partie intégrante de toute stratégie d’urgence nationale, tant pour ce qui est de la préparation à d’éventuelles crises à venir (pandémies, tremblements de terre, tornades, inondations, feux de brousse, etc.) qu’en ce qui concerne la réponse à une situation d’urgence donnée comme c’est par exemple le cas de la pandémie de COVID-19.El aprendizaje y la educación de adultos como herramienta para contener las pandemias: la experiencia de COVID-19 – En la lucha contra las pandemias, el cambio del comportamiento de los ciudadanos podría ser más beneficioso que confiar únicamente en la vía médica. En la actual pandemia COVID-19, la lucha para contener el brote y hacer retroceder las nuevas cifras de infección se ganará en última instancia capacitando a los ciudadanos para evitar la creación de cadenas de transmisión secundarias. La pandemia COVID-19 pone de relieve la relación entre el comportamiento individual y grupal de riesgo. Como consecuencia, la capacitación masiva de todos los estratos sociales de toda la población de un país es fundamental para mitigar la pandemia. Los autores de este artículo sostienen que el aprendizaje y la educación de adultos (EAA) podrían desempeñar un papel fundamental, principalmente, en los países en los que los niveles medios de alfabetización sean bajos, ya que suelen ser los mismos países en los que los sistemas de salud son más frágiles. En este artículo se explica por qué el EAA, especialmente la promoción de la alfabetización en materia de salud como parte del EAA (que a su vez forma parte del aprendizaje a lo largo de toda la vida), es necesaria para que las personas puedan tomar decisiones informadas en materia de salud. Las investigaciones han demostrado que las personas con bajo nivel de alfabetización o analfabetas responden menos a la educación sanitaria, tienen menos probabilidades de utilizar los servicios de prevención de enfermedades y menos probabilidades de gestionar con éxito las enfermedades crónicas que los ciudadanos alfabetizados. Los autores señalan una evaluación sobre el valor de la alfabetización en materia de salud de una campaña de alfabetización de adultos a gran escala iniciada en Sudáfrica en 2008, que ha dado resultados válidos y ha demostrado que la intervención ha permitido a los adultos comprender mejor los mensajes sobre la salud. Además, subrayan la importancia de que las poblaciones tengan por lo menos un nivel básico de conocimientos de lectura, escritura y aritmética que les permita recibir información importante y actuar en consecuencia durante una pandemia o un desastre. Sostienen que el EAE debe entenderse, de hecho, como un elemento inherente a toda estrategia nacional de emergencia, tanto en lo que respecta a la preparación previa para posibles emergencias futuras (como pandemias, terremotos, tornados, inundaciones, incendios forestales, etc.), como en lo que respecta a la reacción a una emergencia determinada, como la actual pandemia COVID-19.

Aortic diameter measurements play a crucial role for the indication of aortic root surgery in Marfan patients. However, for magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)-derived measurements, there is no consensus on whether the aortic wall should be included or excluded in the aortic diameter. The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the reliability of non-contrast bright blood MRA aortic inner-to-inner and outer-to-outer edge measurements in patients with Marfan syndrome. Forty Marfan patients underwent ECG-gated balanced steady-state free-precession MRA of the aorta at 1.5 T. Two readers independently performed inner and outer measurements at different aortic levels. They rated the image quality of the delineation of both inner and outer vessel wall edges on a four-point scale. MRA-derived diameters of the sinuses of Valsalva were compared with echocardiography-derived diameters. Aortic vessel wall delineation score was rated higher at all levels for inner than for outer vessel walls (p

The traditional essay question paper is the most underrated part of the MRCGP examination, although it carries marks equal to the other papers. All postgraduate doctors, from their medical student days, are familiar with the TEQ and perhaps this familiarity means that not enough attention is devoted to this one part of the examination where ‘spotting’ is possible. The TEQ contains three essay questions all of which have to be answered in the course of 1 1/2 hours. The object of the TEQ is to allow the candidate the opportunity to show his knowledge of the subject and how he can construct an answer that is well set out, logical, practical and to the point. Topics may be administrative (health centres, Court report), clinical (carcinoma of the cervix, hypertension) or a mixture of physical and psychosocial (enuresis, alcoholism). Usually, but by no means invariably, there is one question from each of these broad groupings in the paper. Often the questions are related to current debate or ‘talking points’ or to an important report or committee, and candidates who are not au fait with the topical issues have only themselves to blame if they find a question they can answer only in the vaguest terms.

[Section I–III. Reasons for the paper and background. Some months ago a complaint was made to the magistrate at Angouleme against an individual who allegedly had exacted usurious interest rates in credit transactions. This complaint has caused a great deal of consternation as well as further complaints against lenders, and has thrown the whole credit structure of the area into confusion. Because credit has been so widely interrupted, bankruptcies are rapidly increasing. This financial crisis is of such importance, that the Royal Council should be informed. This paper has been written to provide the Council with a resume of events, and a solution to the problem.

Gain-of-function (GOF) research involves experimentation that aims or is expected to (and/or, perhaps, actually does) increase the transmissibility and/or virulence of pathogens. Such research, when conducted by responsible scientists, usually aims to improve understanding of disease causing agents, their interaction with human hosts, and/or their potential to cause pandemics. The ultimate objective of such research is to better inform public health and preparedness efforts and/or development of medical countermeasures. Despite these important potential benefits, GOF research (GOFR) can pose risks regarding biosecurity and biosafety. In 2014 the administration of US President Barack Obama called for a "pause" on funding (and relevant research with existing US Government funding) of GOF experiments involving influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses in particular. With announcement of this pause, the US Government launched a "deliberative process" regarding risks and benefits of GOFR to inform future funding decisions-and the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) was tasked with making recommendations to the US Government on this matter. As part of this deliberative process the National Institutes of Health commissioned this Ethical Analysis White Paper, requesting that it provide (1) review and summary of ethical literature on GOFR, (2) identification and analysis of existing ethical and decision-making frameworks relevant to (i) the evaluation of risks and benefits of GOFR, (ii) decision-making about the conduct of GOF studies, and (iii) the development of US policy regarding GOFR (especially with respect to funding of GOFR), and (3) development of an ethical and decision-making framework that may be considered by NSABB when analyzing information provided by GOFR risk-benefit assessment, and when crafting its final recommendations (especially regarding policy decisions about funding of GOFR in particular). The ethical and decision-making framework ultimately developed is based on the idea that there are numerous ethically relevant dimensions upon which any given case of GOFR can fare better or worse (as opposed to there being necessary conditions that are either satisfied or not satisfied, where all must be satisfied in order for a given case of GOFR to be considered ethically acceptable): research imperative, proportionality, minimization of risks, manageability of risks, justice, good governance (i.e., democracy), evidence, and international outlook and engagement. Rather than drawing a sharp bright line between GOFR studies that are ethically acceptable and those that are ethically unacceptable, this framework is designed to indicate where any given study would fall on an ethical spectrum-where imaginable cases of GOFR might range from those that are most ethically acceptable (perhaps even ethically praiseworthy or ethically obligatory), at one end of the spectrum, to those that are most ethically problematic or unacceptable (and thus should not be funded, or conducted), at the other. The aim should be that any GOFR pursued (and/or funded) should be as far as possible towards the former end of the spectrum.

In this paper we explore quarantining as a more ethical method for delimiting the spread of Hate Speech via online social media platforms. Currently, companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google generally respond reactively to such material: offensive messages that have already been posted are reviewed by human moderators if complaints from users are received. The offensive posts are only subsequently removed if the complaints are upheld; therefore, they still cause the recipients psychological harm. In addition, this approach has frequently been criticised for delimiting freedom of expression, since it requires the service providers to elaborate and implement censorship regimes. In the last few years, an emerging generation of automatic Hate Speech detection systems has started to offer new strategies for dealing with this particular kind of offensive online material. Anticipating the future efficacy of such systems, the present article advocates an approach to online Hate Speech detection that is analogous to the quarantining of malicious computer software. If a given post is automatically classified as being harmful in a reliable manner, then it can be temporarily quarantined, and the direct recipients can receive an alert, which protects them from the harmful content in the first instance. The quarantining framework is an example of more ethical online safety technology that can be extended to the handling of Hate Speech. Crucially, it provides flexible options for obtaining a more justifiable balance between freedom of expression and appropriate censorship.

It is always with some trepidation that I agree to participate on panels dealing with the elusive subject, ‘Soviet Military Doctrine’. One never knows if the papers at hand will address the subject in the Soviet context or approach the subject from a Western perspective; that is, address the question of HOW war will be conducted on the battlefield. Thus, it was with some pleasure that I found that Professor Griffiths focused on the Soviet definition of ‘Doctrine’ as a mix of political and military-technical postulates that describe the nature of contemporary war, the interrelationship of national political considerations with military requirements — in sum, the national security policy of the State.1

When I first read Franklyn Griffiths paper I was somewhat surprised. I really did not expect to find such a wide ranging and thought-provoking discussion of topics under the heading of Soviet military doctrine. Analysis of Soviet military doctrine is, in itself, a daunting and formidable task especially when attempting to distinguish between declaratory public statements and the doctrine actually in place. But when, as Franklyn Griffiths has done, one adds many complex national security policy issues on top of military doctrine, a great deal has indeed been accomplished.

For several years I have been a silent spectator of the political conduct of a particular faction in this province; I have observ’d how they have ruled in most public transactions; have handled the public money, and disposed of our lives and fortunes at pleasure : I have seen this very faction raise the hue and cry about liberty, while they were stealing the poor remains of liberty from the miserable inhabitants of the province : And I have now observ’d, that while the injur’d and distressed are crying for redress, they are endeavouring to plunge us into new schemes, in order to amuse us ; tho’ the wound is still bleeding of which we have complain’d. In such a situation, silence would no longer become a friend of liberty and his country. And as our representatives are gone home to consult with their constituents, what is to be done in this conjuncture, I think we are now in a particular manner call’d upon to speak out, and tell what we take to be the origin of all our troubles, and what is the best way to cure them. For my part, I am clearly persuaded that Quaker politicks, and a Quaker faction, have involv’d this province into almost all the contentions, and all the miseries under which we have so long struggled.

The author inappropriately charges the writers whom he attacks with considering the net product of the soil only, that is, the revenue as wealth.2 All that the earth produces is wealth. But these writers maintain correctly that the total of the renascent wealth of a State is confined to the total annual output of the soil. This output is divided into two parts, one of which is destined for the subsistence and the satisfaction of the wants of the cultivator, for the interest on and the replacement of the advances, in short, for all that is necessary, directly and indirectly, for the reproduction of the following year. But once this part is deducted, the surplus, which the cultivator gives to the proprietor of the soil forms the latter’s revenue, which not being in any way necessary for the reproduction of the following year, is completely free, disposable, and susceptible to division among the titular owner, the recipient of the tithe, the seigneur censier,3 the State, etc.

The Soviets will be compelled to develop and apply the information technologies on a large scale to support their own aspirations and to contend with foreign pressures [Good86g]. Much of this will be concerned with the preservation and enhancement of political and economic control and military power, and with economic modernization through both blue- and white-collar applications. It is also important for them to present the image of a progressive society to the world and to their own population, if only to maintain military credibility, proclaim ideological superiority, and to contend with Western influence and internal expectations.

At the turn of the century the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Austria were developing an integrated approach regarding products, and were pressing the European Union to adopt it. Although the European Council formally adopted this approach in its Sustainable Development Strategy (2001) (the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) “is an integral part of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy”) (COM(2003)302 final), and the Commission approved a Green Paper on the subject that same year, the EU was not able to produce a White Paper, previously agreed to be issued in 2002. Instead of it, the Commission approved in 2003 the Communication Integrated Product Policy (COM(2003) 302 final). The Green Paper on Integrated Product Policy defines it as “an approach which seeks to reduce the life cycle environmental impacts of products from the mining of raw materials to production, distribution, use, and waste management”. What we define as an integrated product strategy (IPS) comprises elements of the IPP, in a deeper and more integrated way, and other new elements which are needed in a strategy for sustainability. In the first place, the basic approach has to change: the concept of eco-efficiency is replaced with that of eco-effectiveness. Besides, selective policies are needed, especially for products and services which are responsible for most environmental impacts, and for the producer groups most inclined to change. Not only an improvement in products and services is required, but that also the consumption model should be changed.

Examining those risk and benefit perceptions utilised in the formation of attitudes and opinions about emerging technologies such as nanotechnology can be useful for both industry and policy makers involved in their development, implementation and regulation. A broad range of different socio-psychological and affective factors may influence consumer responses to different applications of nanotechnology, including ethical concerns. A useful approach to identifying relevant consumer concerns and innovation priorities is to develop predictive constructs which can be used to differentiate applications of nanotechnology in a way which is meaningful to consumers. This requires elicitation of attitudinal constructs from consumers, rather than measuring attitudes assumed to be important by the researcher. Psychological factors influencing societal responses to 15 applications of nanotechnology drawn from different application areas (e.g. medicine, agriculture and environment, food, military, sports, and cosmetics) were identified using repertory grid method in conjunction with generalised Procrustes analysis. The results suggested that people differentiate nanotechnology applications based on the extent to which they perceive them to be beneficial, useful, necessary and important. The benefits may be offset by perceived risks focusing on fear and ethical concerns. Compared to an earlier expert study on societal acceptance of nanotechnology, consumers emphasised ethical issues compared to experts but had less concern regarding potential physical contact with the product and time to market introduction. Consumers envisaged fewer issues with several applications compared to experts, in particular food applications.

In recent years, several authors have argued that the desirability of novel technologies should be assessed early, when they are still emerging. Such an ethical assessment of emerging technologies is by definition focused on an elusive object. Usually promises, expectations, and visions of the technology are taken as a starting point. As Nordmann and Rip have pointed out in a recent article, however, ethicists should not take for granted the plausibility of such expectations and visions. In this paper, we explore how the quality of expectations on emerging technologies might be assessed when engaging in a reflection on the desirability of emerging technologies. We propose that an assessment of expectations' plausibility should focus on statements on technological feasibility, societal usability, and desirability of the expected technology. Whereas the feasibility statement and, to a lesser extent, the usability statements are frequently quite futuristic, the claims on desirability, by contrast, often display a conservative stance towards the future. Assessing the quality of expectations and visions on behalf of emerging technologies requires, then, a careful and well-directed use of both skepticism and imagination. We conclude with a brief overview of the tools and methods ethicists could use to assess claims made on behalf of emerging technologies and improve the ethical reflection on them.

This paper describes the development of the ISBT 128 coding and labeling for cellular therapy products. It is published on behalf of the international Cellular Therapy Coding and Labeling Advisory Group (see www.ICCBBA.org ).

In spite of its critical role, energy security lacks a universally agreed definition, which given its complexity may well just be unrealistic. The concept is still used in a wide range of reports and documents, often without discussion of its dimensions and their significance. As a consequence, the literature is characterized by an almost overwhelming focus on securing supplies of primary energy sources and geopolitics. Clearly, views on energy security also differ widely between nations. The European Union’s approach towards energy security is presented in this paper; it can be derived from several policy legislations and proposals that followed the European Commission’s 2000 Green Paper “Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply”.

Modern papermaking has come a long way from the original handicraft. The early making of paper sheets by hand had little in common with today’s highly computer-controlled processes and equipment. Large-scale paper production today takes place on machines producing more than 30 tonnes of paper each hour. The market and market demands have also developed considerably. Often the paper is produced, printed with four colours, read and thrown away within 24 h, which is comparable with the time it originally took to form, press, dry and cut handmade sheets.

The use of contrast media for cardiac imaging becomes increasing as the widespread of cardiac CT and cardiac MR. A radiologist needs to carefully consider the indication and the injection protocol of contrast media to be used as well as the possibility of adverse effect. There are several guidelines for contrast media in western countries. However, these are focusing the adverse effect of contrast media. The Asian Society of Cardiovascular Imaging, the only society dedicated to cardiovascular imaging in Asia, formed a Working Group and created a guideline, which summarizes the integrated knowledge of contrast media for cardiac imaging. In cardiac imaging, coronary artery evaluation is feasible by non-contrast MR angiography, which can be an alternative examination in high risk patients for the use of iodine contrast media. Furthermore, the body habitus of Asian patients is usually smaller than that of their western counterparts. This necessitates modifications in the injection protocol and in the formula for calculation of estimated glomerular filtration rate. This guideline provided fundamental information for the use of contrast media for Asian patients in cardiac imaging.

Previous research has documented that negative experiences in chemistry courses are a major factor that discourages many students from continuing in premedical studies. This adverse impact affects women and students from under-represented minority (URM) groups disproportionately. To determine if chemistry courses have a similar effect at a large public university, we surveyed 1,036 students from three entering cohorts at the University of California, Berkeley. We surveyed students at the beginning of their first year at the university and again at the end of their second year. All subjects had indicated an interest in premedical studies at the time they entered the university. We conducted follow-up interviews with a stratified sub-set of 63 survey respondents to explore the factors that affected their level of interest in premedical studies. Using a 10-point scale, we found that the strength of interest in premedical studies declined for all racial/ethnic groups. In the follow-up interviews, students identified chemistry courses as the principal factor contributing to their reported loss of interest. URM students especially often stated that chemistry courses caused them to abandon their hopes of becoming a physician. Consistent with reports over more than 50 years, it appears that undergraduate courses in chemistry have the effect of discouraging otherwise qualified students, as reflected in their admission to one of the most highly selective public universities in the US, from continuing in premedical studies, especially in the case of URM students. Reassessment of this role for chemistry courses may be overdue.

At a minimum, contemporary school leaders are required to be Janus-faced: acutely sensitive to the ecology of the school community, while simultaneously attuned to the external educational landscape. Such leadership requirements are more redolent of Daedalus than Icarus: it is necessary to occupy the swampy lowlands, indicate the future by being able to soar above, yet extremely mindful of the policy thermals that can cause instant instability. Leadership in such turbulent and unstable circumstances is more akin to paragliding than being the ‘company man’. It requires being intimate with local circumstance, yet capable also of ‘reading’ the national and international panorama—the macro, meso and micro policy environments of school leadership. This chapter sets out to indicate these three layers while seeking also to signal the manner in which these distinct spaces of practice are colonised—with particular reference to how the language, logic and attendant accountability technologies of NPM have been progressively insinuated into National policy rhetorics; a process of policy tessellation where one is over-shadowed and shaped by the other. This approach also becomes instrumental in indicating the significance of the potential of the Irish ‘case’ to inform and illuminate international discourses on leadership.

The National Health System (NHS) in the UK has evolved to become one of the largest healthcare systems in the world. In 2010 the UK government in its 2010 White Paper “Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS” has announced a strategy on how it will “create a more responsive, patient-centred NHS which achieves outcomes that are among the best in the world”. Here we present an overview of the UK healthcare system as it stands at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, with emphasis on established and emerging Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (PPPM) elements.

Natural hazards play an increasingly important role in societal contexts due to rising casualties and costs observed in the last decades, which is often attributed to Climate Change impacts. Climate Change adaptation and natural hazards have entered European regional policy relatively recently but are quickly growing in importance. In addition to several national and regional Climate Change adaptation strategies the Territorial Agenda of the European Union and the EU White Paper on Climate Change Adaptation mention Climate Change and hazard related risk management as key role in European regional development. But in this argument it is often overlooked that human societies have developed settlements in hazard prone areas, sometimes despite better knowledge. Spatial planning could be a very useful tool to protect settlements from hazard impacts but its full range of potential is seldom applied or overruled by other priorities. It is of interest to observe how human beings have dealt with various natural hazards since the beginning of societies, first of all to understand motivations, and secondly to use this knowledge for new adaptation concepts, including potential impacts of Climate Change. The decision making processes that lead to hazard adaptation concepts are one of the key foci, as well as the possibilities and feasibilities to integrate Climate Change adaptation concepts. Concrete examples of human increases in vulnerabilities and the development of adaptation concepts are given from a case study in the Baltic Sea Region.

The incorporation of fillers in paper has been common practice for many years. Though the term ‘filler’ is somewhat uncomplimentary, this group of predominately inorganic materials has become a very essential component of many grades of paper. The original purpose of adding filler to the paper matrix was to lower furnish costs with the amount of filler limited only by strength considerations. Today the principal need for fillers is to impart specific quality improvements to the sheet. Depending on the performance characteristics of the fillers and the amount added to the paper, these products can improve the optical, physical, and aesthetic properties of the finished sheet. Today the practice of utilizing fillers is based on choosing materials which will provide both cost and quality improvements. The conversion to alkaline papermaking in North America has emphasized this approach, where fillers designed to add value to the paper are routinely used. This trend has been confirmed by the rapid growth in the tonnage of valued-added speciality fillers purchased by paper mills.

There has been a growing need among governments and a wide variety of policymakers and managers at all levels for a comparative risk framework. Needed in particular is a framework that integrates the cumulative knowledge on the analytic domain of risk research with the policy and regulatory domain of risk management and with the democratic processes of informed citizen choices. The momentum of globalising processes has accelerated this need. The inevitable risks accompanying global processes rapidly expand in variety, scale, and in disrespect for national borders. Expanding daily are concerns about global terrorism, the expansion of nuclear weapons, the emergence and spread of new diseases, the potential threats of new technologies, such as nanotechnology, and others. The International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) has responded to this need with its first White Paper, Risk Governance: Toward an Integrative Approach (IRGC 2005), principally authored by IRGC Scientific and Technology Council member Ortwin Renn. There is little doubt that this tome is a scholarly and practical landmark that markedly advances

Two important UK Government environmental initiatives have come to fruition in recent years: in September 1990 a major White Paper on the environment (This Common Inheritance) was published and in November 1990 the Environment Protection Bill went on to the statute book. From industry’s perspective the most important issue in the latter was the new system of Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) (as set out in DOE, IPC-A Practical Guide, DOE 1991). IPC is meant to be a multimedia approach to pollution control, such that in cases where substances are released to more than one environmental medium, the Best Practicable Environmental Option should be selected by the polluter. It still, however, retains the conventional technology-based approach to pollution control, based on the core concept of Best Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Cost (BATNEEC).