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The article focuses on the integration of beliefs in the mind, exploring how rational necessity bonds beliefs and how judgments lead to inferences. It argues that understanding beliefs requires recognizing implications and exclusions, and explores how beliefs are connected or fragmented in the mind, suggesting that self-consciousness is key to this integration.

Medicine is practiced in environments of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and disruption (VUCAD). Medical educators are tasked with providing an education that prepares graduates to successfully practice medicine in those types of environments. While medical education is continually evolving to incorporate new content and educational approaches, there are two mega‐evolutions that have permeated medical education: increased curricular structure and content integration. Structure and integration are assumed to be positive changes; however, they may alter the development of higher cognitive skills such as information management, planning, breadth of approach, strategy, and initiative. As new graduates will practice in VUCAD environments, it seems prudent to consider the effects of medical education's mega‐evolutions on the development of higher cognitive skills critical to those types of environments. This paper explores the potential consequences of the increased curricular structure and content integration in medical education for learners who will practice in VUCAD environments and proposes a research agenda to better understand the relationship between curricular structure and integration and higher cognitive skill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni have proposed to understand emotions as embodied evaluative attitudes we take towards objects that figure in nonevaluative representational states. Although their account nicely explains some of the key features that emotions are widely taken to have, it runs into a version of what I call the problem of integration. In the case of the attitudinal view, the integration problem takes the form of explaining how, from the point of view of the subject, the bodily responses that make up the attitude part of the emotion and the representational states that provide the particular object of the emotion come to form an intentionally structured unitary experience, that is, one in which the bodily responses are intentionally directed towards the object. I argue that what explains this integration is the way in which the experience of bodily responses and the experience of the representational states interact. This, I propose, produces what I call an experience of convergence. I also suggest that understanding emotional experience in this way not only solves the problem of the integration but also provides a more solid ground for the claim that emotions qua embodied attitudes are evaluative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter examines how senior capstone experiences can be intentionally designed and delivered to provide structured opportunities for reflection, integration, and applied learning, giving students an opportunity to recognize the kinds of learners, thinkers, and doers they have become through the sum total of their educational experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this commentary, we use the manuscripts in this volume as source material from which to highlight what we view as critical issues in integrating intersectionality with developmental science. In reading and meditating on the manuscripts, we abstracted two key themes that were evident, to some extent, in all of the manuscripts: (1) the disciplinary use of intersectionality as a theory and (2) the nature of development for an intersectional developmental science. These two themes reflect the current state of the integration of intersectionality with developmental science, in that they represent both areas of strength and success, but also areas of challenge and weakness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study focuses on the market accessibility of European regions and its relationship to income per capita, summarized in the new economic geography (NEG) “wage equation”. In a first step, we make use of a novel dataset of bilateral trade flows for 254 European nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS‐2) regions (for 26 European countries excluding Bulgaria and Romania) in order to estimate trade costs and ultimately construct a regional measure of access to markets. In a second step, we test the hypothesis that access to domestic as well as to foreign markets increases income per capita. We find that, in spite of its spatial formulation, the wage equation is not able to capture local spatial patterns of the distribution of European regional income per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using intra‐European interregional trade data, we analyze the topology of the E.U. regional trade network. A triad census analysis confirms the intuition that the interregional trade network (and, thus, the European economic integration) is far from being complete. The majority of the E.U. interregional trade patterns are characterized by simple, at best bilateral, configurations. Moreover, we analyze the effect of trade costs in shaping the topological structure of the network. It emerges that the relative presence of simple trade configurations increases with distance, while the relative presence of more complex trade configurations decreases with distance. Finally, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of these empirical facts through a simple new economic geography model with three regions. In this model, we analyze how trade costs shape the pattern of the trade network. On the whole we find a correspondence between theoretic and empirical results. However, details differ and they suggest directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of a mounting mental health crisis among college students, professors have an opportunity and responsibility to respond to their students' psychological distress. Psychological and historical scholarship suggests that the proliferation of modern media and breakdown in traditional sources of existential meaning like religion are significant factors in young adults' declining mental health. In response to this crisis, this article examines the crucial role of the imagination in constructing meaning and proposes an imagination-centered pedagogical process by means of which teachers can assist students in recovering meaning and integration in their lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT After the 1980 coup that shook Turkey and almost twenty years after the bilateral 'guest worker' treaty shifted Germany's demographic make-up, West German policy makers proposed increasingly restrictive regulations on the 'guest workers' who had heavily contributed to West Germany's economy. In this crucial historical moment, Turkish-language newspapers, published in West Germany, created a politically motivated extranational public sphere in which they launched claims against both the West German and Turkish states. These claims shaped immigration and integration policy between the two countries, fostered diasporic activism and cross-national religious and political organisations and gave rise to a variety of unexpected organisational outcomes that continue to impact both Germany and the Turkish Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages Slavoj Žižek's thesis that people's integration into a dominant culture requires successfully negotiating certain 'distances' towards what Jacques Lacan called the 'big Other,' that is, a nonexistent locus that subtly guides symbolic rules, conventions, and mandates. My main goal here is to illustrate how Žižek's conceptualizations of distance and the big Other can further our geographical theorizations of culture, especially in terms of Sigmund Freud's notion of the 'uneasiness in culture.' I explore Žižek's identification of three modes of distanciation towards the big Other-'inherent transgression', 'empty gesture,' and 'fetishistic disavowal,' which abound in uneasiness because they are sublime, that is, demarcated by virtuality and unfathomability. I also discuss how the demise of the big Other's authority has produced new spaces of cultural uneasiness that can be usefully understood in terms of increased interactions between everyday microcultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT In weapon system development, the necessity of adopting unestablished advanced technology is continuously increasing to address the competitive acquisition environment. Thus, an effective test and evaluation (T&E) process is necessary to mitigate the underlying technology risks. Furthermore, in both the development and operation phases of weapon systems, the involvement of explosives is common; this can potentially result in a variety of accidents. Therefore, an effective safety process is necessary. A systematic integration of T&E process and system safety process is required for the development of safety-critical weapon systems. To achieve this integration, a model-based approach is adopted in this study. Specifically, T&E and system safety processes are first studied with their constituent tasks. The identified tasks are then analyzed with a focus on the artifacts they produce. The result is used to obtain an initial model that represents the intended integrated process. Based on the process model, a design structure matrix (DSM) is constructed. Thereafter, the constructed DSM is sequenced and torn to obtain an enhanced process model, which effectively integrates the T&E and system safety processes. The resultant integrated process is evaluated through a case study, which revealed reduced complexity that can be transformed into reduced time and cost in the development of safety-critical weapon systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost-effective production of liquid biofuels from microalgae is limited by several factors such as recovery of the lipid fractions as well as nutrients management. Flash hydrolysis, a rapid hydrothermal process, has been successfully applied to fractionate the microalgal biomass into solid biofuels intermediates while recovering a large amount of the nutrients in the aqueous phase (hydrolyzate) in a continuous flow reactor. The aim of the work is to enhance the quality of a high-ash containing marine algae Nannochloropsis gaditana as biofuel feedstock while recycling nutrients directly for algae cultivation. Characterization of products demonstrated an increase in extractable lipids from 33.5 to 65.5 wt % (dry basis) while retaining the same fatty acid methyl ester profile, in addition to diminution of more than 70 wt % of ash compared to raw microalgae. Moreover, the hydrolyzate was directly used to grow a microalga of the same genus. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 1494-1502, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined predictors of physical and psychological integration in homeless adults with problematic substance use. Homeless adults with problematic substance use ( n = 115) in Ottawa, Canada, completed questionnaires regarding their demographics (age, gender, Aboriginal ethnicity), health and social functioning (physical health, mental health, alcohol use problems, drug use problems, social skills), environmental factors (satisfaction with personal safety, social support), physical integration, and psychological integration. Participants reported low physical integration (i.e., participation in activities in the community) and did not feel strongly psychologically integrated (i.e., sense of belonging). The final models accounted for 36% and 19% of the variance in physical and psychological integration, respectively. Higher levels of social skills and social support were associated with greater physical integration. Higher levels of mental health functioning and satisfaction with safety were related to greater psychological integration. Implications of the findings for community support services are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in the distinction between integrative and confrontational internal dialogues has been growing, as research suggests numerous positive functions of the former compared to the latter. The article proposes a theoretical approach to integration and confrontation in internal dialogue and an empirical method of measuring these processes. Exploratory research is also presented that seeks to identify personality-related and situational determinants of integration and confrontation in internal dialogue simulating social relationships. Canonical correlation analysis did not establish personality determinants but it did reveal situational determinants (understood as cognitive interpretation of the enacted situation) behind integration and confrontation in internal dialogue. Perceiving the internal interlocutor as similar to the dialogue's author is associated with the author's integrative attitude. An increase in the wishfulness of the dialogue is accompanied by an increase in the author's confrontational attitude and the interlocutor's integrative attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CEO of Morgan Stanley's Institute for Sustainable Investing discusses recent developments in the field since the founding of the Institute three years ago. The position of the Institute, which works across Morgan Stanley businesses as well as with external partners, provides a unique vantage point for assessing both the company's and the financial industry's progress in advancing the goals of sustainability. Since its inception, the Institute has focused on measuring investor interest and highlighting the performance realities of sustainable investing strategies, with the ultimate goal of helping to increase the adoption of such strategies by not only Morgan Stanley's clients, but throughout the industry. Drawing on its own survey data and on the research and views of the Institute's internal and external collaborators, the author describes not only the acceleration of investor interest and the emergence of new players, but also the progressive integration of sustainability with more traditional methods as ESG issues move from being peripheral to 'material' and 'strategic' considerations. Such integration is helping to ensure that sustainability concerns-and corporate efforts to deal with them-will prove more than just a temporary trend and assume a prominent, and permanent, position in the dialogue between companies and investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research summary: How do external venturing units effectively achieve external knowledge search and integration of their initiatives with mainstream organizational units?We investigate this largely unexplored question through an inductive study of 17 corporate venture capital units. We document a set of five novel practices that influence the efficacy of a unit's external search and internal integration and identify how these practices complement a broader set of practices used by all units. We highlight the entrepreneurial nature of managing an external venturing unit, often to overcome unfavorable corporate contexts, a perspective that prior research has largely overlooked. Our findings provide unique insights into why some corporate investors are better at learning from external start-ups than others. Managerial summary: External venturing involves strategic partnerships by established firms with entrepreneurial ventures. Top management usually tasks autonomous units with searching for willing and potentially valuable partners. These units must integrate their activities with the operations of parent firms to elicit cooperation from important business units. To understand how external venturing units implement search and integration in combination, we study corporate venture capital (CVC) units, which form external partnerships through minority investments in start-ups. While all units adopted fundamental processes that are well established in the venture capital community, certain processes that are idiosyncratic to corporate investing helped units demonstrate superior performance in their strategic missions. These processes often required CVC unit managers to be entrepreneurial and politically savvy in building connections with relevant personnel in parent firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Senior leaders play an essential role in facilitating knowledge creation processes and driving firms' innovation performance. However, little is known about the underlying relational mechanisms by which CEOs help build knowledge integration capability and drive firm innovation. We developed and tested a conceptual model about the ways in which CEOs shape a context conducive for knowledge creation processes and drive multiple innovation performance. A field, survey-based, study among small- to medium-sized technological ventures (SMVs) showed that CEO visionary innovation leadership (manifested by both vision for innovation and enactment of the vision through specific leadership behaviors) was positively related to a context of connectivity. Connectivity was related to firm knowledge integration capacity, which in turn resulted in enhanced firm innovation (new product quality, development speed, and product innovation). The findings also indicate direct links between CEO visionary innovation leadership and knowledge integration, and between connectivity and product innovation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Range/Doppler migrations, which result from the integration time increasing and the target's manoeuvring motion, will affect the coherent integration performance severely. To deal with range/Doppler migration, a novel coherent integration algorithm, improved axis rotation discrete chirp-Fourier transform (IAR-DCFT), is proposed. IARDCFT could eliminate range migration via improved axis rotation transform, and realise the compensation of Doppler migration and coherent integration via discrete chirp-Fourier transform. IAR-DCFT may be regarded as tri-dimensional motion parameter filter banks, which is analogous to moving target detection that can be treated as Doppler filter banks, and estimate a target's velocity, acceleration and jerk simultaneously. Then the derivations of maximumlikelihood estimator and likelihood ratio test detector show that IAR-DCFT is the optimal estimator and a detector. The performance of the optimal estimator is verified by comparing with Cramer-Rao lower bound. Subsequently, the detailed performance analyses of IAR-DCFT are provided, including coherent integration gain, coherent integration time, multi-target detection and computational complexity. Furthermore, the authors introduce the generalisation of IAR-DCFT, that is, multi-range-cell associated IAR-DCFT (MR-IAR-DCFT), which can be applied to detect a target with high-manoeuvring motion or used in a longer time integration case. Finally, some numerical experiments are given to verify the performance of IAR-DCFT and MR-IAR-DCFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern field of cultural evolution is now over 30 years old, and an extensive body of theory and data has been amassed. This article reviews models of cultural evolution, both experimental and theoretical, and surveys what they can tell us about cultural evolutionary processes. The models are grouped according to which of four broad questions they address: (1) How are cultural traits changed during transmission? (2) How and why do cultural traits accumulate over time? (3) What social learning biases do people use? and (4) What are the population-level consequences of different social learning biases? We conclude by highlighting gaps in the literature and promising future research directions, including the further integration of theoretical models and experimental data, the identification of the factors underlying cumulative cultural evolution, and the explanation of individual and cultural variation in social learning biases. For further resources related to this article, please visit the . Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brain processes information in a distributed manner so that features of the sensory input are detected at different sites and subsets of these features are integrated into objects. The notion of 'binding' refers to the corresponding integration process, leading to perception of these objects as entities, and 'the binding problem' either refers to the scientific challenge of identifying mechanisms that may achieve binding or to the difficulty that mind and brain may have with binding in certain situations. This review concentrates on binding of properties in visual perception, but other varieties of the binding problem are also mentioned. The binding problem is reviewed from psychological, neurobiological, and computational perspectives. For further resources related to this article, please visit the . Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Seamless integration of 3D cavity filters with monopole antennas is presented. The typical 50-Ω transition between the filter and antenna is eliminated to form a compact and efficient RF front end. A three-pole cavity filter integrated with a monopole antenna is demonstrated at X band. The center frequency and fractional bandwidth of the filter/antenna system are 10.07 GHz and 6.5%, respectively. The efficiency of the entire filter/antenna system is shown to be 93% in full-wave simulations. A prototype filter/antenna system is fabricated and measured. Excellent agreement between the simulated and measured results is observed. The integration approach presented herein can be used for other types of wire antennas depending on the application. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:921-925, 2014 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the role and management of interdisciplinary research in knowledge development has received plenty of attention in recent years ambiguity remains, often hindering management efforts. To address this issue, this paper provides an integrated review of extant literature on interdisciplinary research. It focuses on integration processes and the main drivers and barriers to different modes of collaborative interdisciplinary research. The authors propose a different approach to considering interdisciplinary integration, based on two factors: the type of knowledge integration; and the durability of the context of that integration. As a result, four modes of interdisciplinary integration are characterized. The authors then consider how different groups of drivers of, and barriers to, interdisciplinary research affect those types of integration. Overall, the paper provides an integrated perspective for researchers, managers and policy-makers concerned with understanding the organization of interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this study was to clarify the integrated design process from an educational standpoint, and identify its influencing factors and the role of facilitator. Through a literature review, the integrated design process and the role of facilitator were framed, and through the case study, the whole process of integrated design and the facilitator's role were analysed from the preparation phase to the assessment phase. The integrated design studio was conducted for 16 weeks with third-year undergraduate students who had various academic backgrounds. The integrated design studio was composed of three integration elements: integration of knowledge, integration of research and development methods and systematic integration of process. Each phase of the integrated design process and the facilitating role of the instructors were empirically analysed. After the integrated design studio, the students' perspective on its effectiveness and the difficulties encountered were analysed quantitatively. The results showed that the effective integration in design education should place a high importance on integration of knowledge and R&D phases, and the facilitator's role should be focused to maximise the multidisciplinary collaboration effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been substantial growth in early childhood development (ECD) services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is considerable inequity in their distribution and quality. Evidence-based governance strategies are necessary, but currently they are insufficient for widespread, quality implementation. In particular, there is a limited understanding of the use of systems approaches for the analysis of ECD services as they go to scale. The aim of this paper is to present findings from four countries, using a cross-national case study approach to explore governance mechanisms required to strengthen national systems of ECD services. While different sets of governance strategies and challenges were identified in each country, overarching themes also emerged with implications for systems strengthening. Study results focus on local, mid-level and central governance, with recommendations for effective coordination and the integration of ECD services in LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strongly held view that a narrow window exists for effective nutritional interventions and a widely known stylized depiction of age-dependent economic rates of returns to investments in cognitive and socioemotional development. Both indicate critical periods in early life. Moreover, the fact that both the physical and cognitive development of a child in these early years are highly dependent on childcare practices and on the characteristics of the caregivers motivates an interest in finding effective means to enhance stimulation in the context of nutritional programs, or vice versa. Nevertheless, there is relatively little evidence to date on how to align integrated interventions to these age-specific patterns and how to undertake benefit-cost analyses for integrated interventions. Thus, many core questions need further consideration in order to design integrated nutritional and stimulation programs. This paper looks at some of these questions and provides some guidelines as to how the economic returns from joint nutrition and stimulation programs might be estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With ever-increasing human pressure on ecosystems, it is critically important to predict how ecosystem functions will respond to such human-induced perturbations. We define perturbations as either changes to abiotic environment (e.g. eutrophication, climate change) that indirectly affects biota, or direct changes to biota (e.g. species introductions). While two lines of research in ecology, biodiversity-ecosystem function ( BDEF) and ecological resilience ( ER) research, have addressed this issue, both fields of research have nontrivial shortcomings in their abilities to address a wide range of realistic scenarios., We outline how an integrated research framework may foster a deeper understanding of the functional consequences of perturbations via simultaneous application of (i) process-based mechanistic predictions using trait-based approaches and (ii) detection of empirical patterns of functional changes along real perturbation gradients. In this context, the complexities of ecological interactions and evolutionary perspectives should be integrated into future research., Synthesis and applications. Management of human-impacted ecosystems can be guided most directly by understanding the response of ecosystem functions to controllable perturbations. In particular, we need to characterize the form of a wide range of perturbation-function relationships and to draw connections between those patterns and the underlying ecological processes. We anticipate that the integrated perspectives will also be helpful for managers to derive practical implications for management from academic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative research study, we sought to understand teachers' conceptions of integrated mathematics. The participants were teachers in the first year of implementation of a state-mandated, high school integrated mathematics curriculum. The primary data sources for this study included focus group and individual interviews. Through our analysis, we found that the teachers had varied conceptions of what the term integrated meant in reference to mathematics curricula. These varied conceptions led to the development of the Conceptions of Integrated Mathematics Curricula Framework describing the different conceptions of integrated mathematics held by the teachers. The four conceptions-integration by strands, integration by topics, interdisciplinary integration, and contextual integration-refer to the different ideas teachers connect as well as the time frame over which these connections are emphasized. The results indicate that even when teachers use the same integrated mathematics curriculum, they may have varying conceptions of which ideas they are supposed to connect and how these connections can be emphasized. These varied conceptions of integration among teachers may lead students to experience the same adopted curriculum in very different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous accounts of cognitive skill acquisition have demonstrated how procedural knowledge can be obtained and transformed over time into skilled task performance. This article focuses on a complementary aspect of skill acquisition, namely the integration and reuse of previously known component skills. The article posits that, in addition to mechanisms that proceduralize knowledge into more efficient forms, skill acquisition requires tight integration of newly acquired knowledge and previously learned knowledge. Skill acquisition also benefits from reuse of existing knowledge across disparate task domains, relying on indexicals to reference and share necessary information across knowledge components. To demonstrate these ideas, the article proposes a computational model of skill acquisition from instructions focused on integration and reuse, and applies this model to account for behavior across seven task domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the degree of vertical integration by comparing franchised and company-owned chains. On the basis of recent data from the French distribution networks in retail and services, this paper investigates the determinants of network integration in the French distribution systems. The level of network integration increases from franchised chains to company-owned chains. This paper provides evidence that the level of network integration is positively related to the brand name value and negatively related to the resource constraints and monitoring costs of the upstream firm. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely accepted that Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) is potentially valuable for maintaining biodiversity within linked social-ecological systems, and cultural landscapes in particular. However, IEK is declining globally, along with biodiversity. Adaptive co-management frameworks incorporating both Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems have the capacity for greater success than frameworks embedded within a singular world view. A major challenge exists, however, in identifying pathways for the integration of these knowledge systems. The need to integrate both IEK and science into management is widely recognised; various approaches have been trialled but there are few successful examples. Cooperative research using joint learning is emerging as one potentially useful approach. Here we present an example of applying co-research in a cultural landscape in Australia, the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, where we aimed to develop linked cultural and biophysical indicators of ecosystem condition. Our approach was founded on five stakeholder-defined core principles for research. The study revealed seven determinants of successful implementation within these principles: strong Indigenous governance; problem-framing and conceptualisation; relationship building; data collection and management; considerations of scale; agreed dissemination of results; and evaluation. We identify cooperative problem-framing as one of the most important determinants, and argue that by starting the co-research process with this task, co-research can assist the equitable convergence of IEK and contemporary natural resource management, thereby potentially enhancing social-ecological system resilience and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various scholars have argued that knowledge processes in organizations are integrally linked in practice. The extant literature though treats them separately and thereby disregards the interactions and tensions between them. A result of this way of studying knowledge processes is that little is known about their relative importance and how they work together. This paper addresses this gap in the literature through a critical incident study of knowledge processes in product development projects of high-tech small firms. The paper starts off with a conceptual framework comprised of four knowledge processes-knowledge creation, knowledge application, knowledge integration, and knowledge retention-and their interactions. From the framework, three hypotheses are derived concerning the importance of these types of knowledge processes and their interactions, which in turn guide the empirical research. The hypotheses were tested in a retrospective study of 58 critical incidents in product development projects of 16 high-tech small firms in the Netherlands. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews using the critical incident interviewing technique. Interviewees were asked to 'relive' and describe particular successful and unsuccessful examples of product development projects in the past. The analysis of the interview data focused upon whether there are differences between successful and unsuccessful projects in the types of knowledge processes and interactions that are performed. After coding all data into the various types of knowledge processes and interactions of the framework, t-tests were used to test for significance of differences. The findings indicate that the difference between success and failure in these projects lies primarily in the extent to which knowledge integration and integration between knowledge processes have taken place. These findings demonstrate that, of the four knowledge processes, knowledge integration had the most significant impact on product development project success. The study demonstrates furthermore that higher degrees of interactions between knowledge processes were also associated with project success. Despite the limitations of this study, these results provide empirical support for the claim that integration is a key factor in organizations in general and in innovation projects in particular. For academics, this suggests further research on knowledge integration, and integration between knowledge processes, is warranted. For practitioners, it means that integration is a key process to be considered when choosing and executing new product development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts a holistic approach to Business Process Management (BPM) and Knowledge Management (KM) integration to describe an interesting case of a customer-facing business process and illustrate its evolving nature, from a highly structured to knowledge-intensive. More precisely, the paper proposes an integrated multidisciplinary framework and then uses it as a theoretical lens to analyze an organization's journey towards BPM/KM integration in the context of their knowledge-intensive business processes. Our research findings clearly demonstrate the importance of process-related knowledge in this company. They also illustrate how different KM aspects of the same BP were used by the organization at different points in time to determine the most appropriate strategies for value-creation and BPM-related competitive differentiation. They also confirm previous findings by other researchers that knowledge-intensive processes do require a different approach to their ongoing improvement. Most importantly for the future BPM/KM research, our case demonstrates that an organization's perception of a BP could change over time (from procedural to knowledge-intensive), as a result of an increased recognition of process-related knowledge. This in turn creates new, yet-to-be explored challenges for BPM. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effect of trading activity in the Asian emerging markets on the market integration across Asian emerging and major developed markets over the sample period of 1997 to 2009. The empirical evidence confirms that higher trading activity in Asian emerging markets can induce these markets and developed markets to become more integrated. Furthermore, we identify the mediation effect of market volatility on Asian emerging markets. This effect demonstrates that trading activity in Asian emerging markets not only directly enhances market integration, but also intensifies market volatility, indirectly increasing market integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last two decades, law as a factor in European integration has attracted great scientific interest. Numerous studies and theoretical analyses have been published that have undertaken the task of examining and explaining the role of law in the progress of integration. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in particular, as Europe's judiciary body, draws much attention in this context. However, the inflexible, mechanistic and universalistic notion of rationality that these works employ leads to serious misinterpretations and unjustified criticism regarding the role the ECJ takes in the course of integration. Within the frameworks of contemporary approaches, the Court is perceived as just one more political player among other actors and institutions, able to shape the EU in the pursuit of its own rational interests. By outlining the theoretical concept of context rationality, this article shows that the logics of law and judicial lawmaking are based on a non-trivial and non-political rationality and cannot be understood appropriately without paying attention to the context of European law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses European integration as of July 2012, focusing on the issues associated with the integration of citizens and the integration of states. The integration of states reportedly raises the issue of distribution of powers between the European Union (EU) and its Member States. In terms of the integration of citizens, the issue of the democratisation of an increase in the power held by European institutions is raised.

The Lisbon Treaty was supposed to mark the end of an almost-decade-long period of treaty reform. After the tumult of the failed Constitutional Treaty, the settlement it imposed struck a sustainable balance between the competing forces of centralisation and the diffusion that characterise European integration. Yet this constitutional settlement is now threatened by the Eurozone debt crisis and official responses to it, most notably the proposed fiscal compact. A prevalent view regards the crisis as an opportunity to complete the process of political and economic union that the Maastricht Treaty began. However, this article cautions against such a view, which would jettison the post-Lisbon Treaty constitutional settlement in favour a peculiar kind of German-led, intergovernmental centralisation. Whether the crisis response measures achieve their stated aims remains to be seen, but the integration project will be reconfigured in the process. Thus, EU constitutionalism is bound to remain in a state of flux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a considerable amount of evidence has been amassed regarding the contributions of lower-level word processes, higher-level processes, and working memory to reading comprehension, little is known about the relationships among these sources of individual differences or their relative contributions to reading comprehension performance. This study addresses these shortcomings by using structural equation modeling. The principal structural equation model tested in this study-called the cognitive components-resource model of reading comprehension-proposes a set of specific relationships among lower-level word processing, higher-level processes, and working memory. This model is then systematically compared with a series of other models that propose alternative relationships among these three sources of individual differences. The results show that, although working memory influences higher-level processes, speed of lower-level word processing exerts little to no influence on higher-level processes or working memory. The results also show that a variant of the cognitive components-resource model of reading comprehension accounts for 62% of the variance in reading comprehension performance. Taken as a whole, the present study informs theories of reading comprehension by proposing relationships among important sources of individual differences. It also provides a foundation for future research seeking to test and compare theories of reading comprehension and other sources of individual differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic visualizations have the potential to make abstract scientific phenomena more accessible and visible to students, but they can also be confusing and difficult to comprehend. This research investigates how dynamic visualizations, compared to static illustrations, can support middle school students in developing an integrated understanding of energy in photosynthesis. Two hundred 7th-grade students were randomly assigned to either a dynamic or a static condition and completed a web-based inquiry unit that encourages students to make connections among energy concepts in photosynthesis. While working on the inquiry unit, students in the dynamic condition interacted with a dynamic visualization of energy transformation, whereas students in the static condition interacted with a series of static illustrations of the same concept. The results showed that students in both conditions added new, scientific ideas about energy transformation and developed a more coherent understanding of energy in photosynthesis. However, when comparing the two conditions, we found a significant advantage of dynamic visualization over static illustrations. Students in the dynamic condition were significantly more successful in articulating the process of energy transformation in the context of chemical reactions during photosynthesis. Students in the dynamic condition also demonstrated a more integrated understanding of energy in photosynthesis by linking their ideas about energy transformation to other energy ideas and observable phenomena of photosynthesis than those students in the static condition. This study, consistent with other research, shows that dynamic visualizations can more effectively improve students' understanding of abstract concepts of molecular processes than static illustrations. The results of this study also suggest that with appropriate instructional support, such as making predictions and distinguishing among ideas, both dynamic visualizations and static illustrations can benefit students. This study underscores the importance of curriculum design in ensuring that dynamic visualizations add value to science instructional materials. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 218-243, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Forty years of safe motherhood programming has demonstrated that isolated interventions will not reduce maternal mortality sufficiently to achieve MDG 5. Although skilled birth attendants (SBAs) can intervene to save lives, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) are often preferred by communities. Considering the value of both TBAs and SBAs, it is important to review strategies for maximizing their respective strengths.Objectives: To describe mechanisms to integrate TBAs with the health system to increase skilled birth attendance and examine the components of successful integration.Method: A systematic review of interventions linking TBAs and formal health workers, measuring outcomes of skilled birth attendance, referrals, and facility deliveries.Results: Thirty-three articles met the selection criteria. Mechanisms used for integration included training and supervision of TBAs, collaboration skills for health workers, inclusion of TBAs at health facilities, communication systems, and clear definition of roles. Impact on skilled birth attendance depended on selection of TBAs, community participation, and addressing barriers to access. Successful approaches were context-specific.Conclusions: The integration of TBAs with formal health systems increases skilled birth attendance. The greatest impact is seen when TBA integration is combined with complementary actions to overcome context-specific barriers to contact among SBAs, TBAs, and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's insights on the study entitled "Modern analysis of customer satisfaction surveys: comparison of models and integrated analysis," by Kennett and Salini. He is critical on the relevance of the findings to organizational goals and communication of survey results. Moreover, he notes the necessity of investigation to test the concept of integration and discusses dot plots which shows scores in repurchasing, customer seniority and technical support satisfaction.

This paper considers the problem of knowledge integration, and proposes a theory of knowledge construction systems, which consists of three fundamental parts: a knowledge construction system, a structure-agency-action paradigm, and evolutionary-constructive objectivism. The first part is a model of collecting and synthesizing knowledge, the second relates to necessary abilities of actors when collecting knowledge in individual domains, and the third comprises a set of principles to justify collected and synthesized knowledge. The paper starts with a brief introduction of our basic systems approach, called 'informed systems thinking', followed by a summary of our proposal: a theory of knowledge construction systems. The paper then explains its three fundamental parts, with a special emphasis on the types of knowledge integration, and finally gives a detailed explanation of the theory with an example. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a construct-based assessment approach to measure learning progression of energy concepts across physical, life, and earth science contexts in middle school grades. We model the knowledge integration construct in six levels in terms of the numbers of ideas and links used in student-generated explanations. For this study, we selected 10 items addressing energy source, transformation, and conservation from published standardized tests and administered them to a status quo sample of 2688 middle school students taught by 29 teachers in 12 schools across 5 states. Results based on a Rasch partial credit model analysis indicate that conservation items are associated with the highest knowledge integration levels, followed by transformation and source items. Comparisons across three middle school grades and across physical, life, and earth science contexts reveal that the mean knowledge integration level of eighth-grade students is significantly higher than that of sixth- or seventh-grade students, and that the mean knowledge integration level of students who took a physical science course is significantly higher than that of students who took a life or earth science course. We discuss implications for research on learning progressions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed94:665–688, 2010 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates the practical value of applying H. Gardner's (1993) theory of multiple intelligences (MI) to the practice of career counseling. An overview of H. Gardner's MI theory is presented, and the ways in which educational and vocational planning can be augmented by the integration of MI theory in career counseling contexts are discussed. The Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (C. B. Shearer, 2007), a research-based self-report measure of intellectual disposition, is introduced, and a case study illustrating the effective application of H. Gardner's MI theory to career counseling is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The squeeze on instructional time and other factors increasingly leads educators to consider mathematics and science integration in an effort to be more efficient and effective. Unfortunately, the need for common understandings for what it means to integrate these disciplines, as well as the need for improving disciplinary knowledge, appears to continue to be significant obstacles to an integrated approach to instruction. In this study we report the results of a survey containing six instructional scenarios administered to thirty-three middle grades science and math teachers. Analysis of teacher responses revealed that while teachers applied similar criteria in their reasoning, they did not possess common characterizations for integration. Furthermore, analysis suggested that content knowledge serves as a barrier to recognizing integrated examples. Implications for professional development planners include the need to develop and provide teachers with constructs and parameters for what constitutes mathematics and science integration. Continued emphasis on improving teacher content knowledge in both mathematics and science is also .a prerequisite to enabling teachers to integrate content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the patterns of morphological integration in a wild population of Verreaux's sifaka with the use of graph theory. A developmental and a functional hypothesis of integration are compared with the observed integration pattern. After the comparison, correlational selection is estimated on the elements of limb. Information theoretic statistics point out that the developmental hypothesis matches the observed integration pattern slightly better than the functional hypothesis.

The challenge of integrating knowledge, practice and vocational identity is a persistent challenge to theological educators. Cahalan describes how teaching two book-end courses in the M.Div. curriculum have opened up possibilities for integration as a process and a goal of the entire curriculum. In the course, Introduction to Pastoral Ministry, students explore six questions in relationship to ministry: who, what, where, when, how and why. In the culminating Integration Seminar, students demonstrate their capacity for thinking theologically about a particular pastoral situation. Through both written and oral presentation, students’ ministerial identity and authority are shaped and challenged as they gain proficiency in drawing what they know from and into what they do in the practice of ministry. Integration is also a strategy for theological educators who strive to take seriously the experiences students come with, the settings to which they will go, and what they most need from the M.Div. degree to gain solid footing in practice while also engaging lifelong learning. This essay is reprinted from Dorothy Bass and Craig Dykstra, eds., For Life Abundant (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a club such as the European Union, an important question is whether a subset of the members should be allowed to form "inner clubs" and enhance cooperation. Flexible cooperation allows members to participate if and only if they benefit, but it leads to free-riding when externalities are positive. I show that flexible cooperation is better if the heterogeneity is large and the externality small, but that rigid cooperation is the political equilibrium too often. Both regimes, however, are extreme variants of a more general system combining mandatory and minimum participation rules. For each rule, I characterize the optimum and the equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the knowledge integration challenges that face any large-scale IT implementation project team. We identify how knowledge integration is dependent on social networking processes. We provide evidence from the contrasting experiences of two project teams in two different case companies that were each involved in the design and implementation of an ERP system to explore these issues of knowledge integration. From the case comparisons, we identify differences between the two projects in relation to the ways that they were managed and organized. These differences in management and organization had a major impact on the social networking activities of the project members during the implementation process. These differences help to explain the different approaches to knowledge integration adopted and the ability of the project teams to identify opportunities for organizational transformation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seven- and eight-year-old skilled and less-skilled comprehenders were compared on a sentence recognition task in two conditions varying in memory load and retention interval. Integration of story information during comprehension was indexed by inflated recognition errors of foils that had been constructed by integrating information across original story sentences. Skilled comprehenders exhibited more accurate memory for sentences than less-skilled comprehenders. However, the groups did not differ in the degree to which they integrated information with minimal memory demand, or in their tendency to integrate information and retain the integrated representations with increased memory demand. These results were interpreted as evidence that integration deficits do not lie at the root of reading comprehension difficulties in mainstream children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]