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Steppe peony (Paeonia tenuifolia L.) is a strictly protected herbaceous species in Serbia, yet its growing conditions, nutrient needs, and heavy metal status are under-researched. This research is vital for conservation, as it supports sustainable cultivation, genetic diversity, and habitat restoration. This study addresses the gap in understanding how climate and soil characteristics affect P. tenuifolia, particularly regarding nutrient availability and heavy metal accumulation. Despite its recognized medicinal value, insufficient data on environmental impacts limit effective conservation and cultivation strategies. Addressing this gap will help determine optimal growth conditions and ensure the species' survival and medicinal use. Data on P. tenuifolia natural habitats in Serbia were collected following the Descriptor List for medicinal plants. Field and laboratory analyses assessed climatic and soil characteristics, as well as macro- and microelement contents and heavy metals in soil and plant organs. In Serbia, P. tenuifolia thrives in a semi-arid steppe climate on light, sandy loam soils with a pH of 6.9–7.4. The soils are rich in humus (4.36–5.76%) and nitrogen (0.34–0.37%), but low in phosphorus (1.16–3.50 mg/100 g) and variable in potassium (12.5–52.4 mg/100 g). Soil microelements are abundant, and harmful heavy metals are below critical levels. Plant organs, including flowers, seeds, leaves, and stems, show high phosphorus and magnesium levels, while potassium, manganese, and copper are generally low. The levels of potentially harmful elements like cadmium and chromium are near the maximum-allowed limits, suggesting avoidance of highly acidic soils for the cultivation of P. tenuifolia. Among the examined soils, Arenic chernozem is recommended for preserving the species' natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almonds are one of the most popular and widely consumed tree nuts in the world, prized for their taste, texture, and nutritional benefits. However, the quality and characteristics of almonds can vary significantly depending on the variety and growing conditions. In this context, a comparative study was conducted to explore the nut quality traits of almond local and foreign cultivars, as well as their F1 hybrid offspring resulting from crossbreeding. "Nut quality" is a dynamic concept changing based on consumer needs and perceptions that reflect sociocultural evolution. The aim of this study was to identify the most promising almond varieties and hybrids based on some nut quality traits including macro–micro elements and tocopherol contents. To accomplish this goal, samples were collected from local (Gulcan 2 and Nurlu) and foreign (Lauranne and Guara) almond cultivars, as well as F1 hybrid offspring resulting in two cross-breading ("Gulcan 2 × Lauranne" and "Guara × Nurlu"), and conducted a comprehensive analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Our results showed that the nut quality traits of almonds can vary significantly among different cultivars and hybrids, with some varieties and hybrids exhibiting superior characteristics compared to others. These findings provide important insights into the potential for improving almond quality through crossbreeding and the development of new varieties with improved characteristics which can help inform breeding programs and improve the quality of almonds available in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a new framework for articulating how educational assessments can be related to teacher uses in the classroom. It articulates three levels of assessment: macro (use of standardized tests), meso (externally developed items), and micro (on-the-fly in the classroom). The first level is the usual context for educational measurement, but one of the contributions of this article is that it mainly focuses on the latter two levels. Co-ordination of the content across these two levels can be achieved using the concept of a construct map, which articulates the substantive target property at levels of detail that are appropriate for both teacher planning and within-classroom use. This article then describes a statistical model designed to span these two levels and discusses how best to relate this to the macrolevel. Results from a curriculum and instruction development project on the topic of measurement in the elementary school are demonstrated, showing how they are empirically related.

Reading motivation is a phenomenon in an educational context where numerous factors influence the educational process of the students. Reading motivation occurs with an interaction of written materials for purposes. The students who are motivated read and learn better from the texts. Pre-university students of Pakistan have to read in English as an ESL (English as a Second Language) in a context where they need to read and learn many other subjects to qualify their educational level. This qualitative case study has been conducted to determine the role of motivation for reading in ESL among Six (6) students of Government Graduate College for Women Chung in District Lahore. Data have been collected through interviews and class participation observation. The study recommends to improve the educational and linguistics policies to align with the interests of the students. It also recommends to focus on macro and micro factors for reading motivation in English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steppe peony (Paeonia tenuifolia L.) is a strictly protected herbaceous species in Serbia, yet its growing conditions, nutrient needs, and heavy metal status are under-researched. This research is vital for conservation, as it supports sustainable cultivation, genetic diversity, and habitat restoration. This study addresses the gap in understanding how climate and soil characteristics affect P. tenuifolia, particularly regarding nutrient availability and heavy metal accumulation. Despite its recognized medicinal value, insufficient data on environmental impacts limit effective conservation and cultivation strategies. Addressing this gap will help determine optimal growth conditions and ensure the species’ survival and medicinal use. Data on P. tenuifolia natural habitats in Serbia were collected following the Descriptor List for medicinal plants. Field and laboratory analyses assessed climatic and soil characteristics, as well as macro- and microelement contents and heavy metals in soil and plant organs. In Serbia, P. tenuifolia thrives in a semi-arid steppe climate on light, sandy loam soils with a pH of 6.9–7.4. The soils are rich in humus (4.36–5.76%) and nitrogen (0.34–0.37%), but low in phosphorus (1.16–3.50 mg/100 g) and variable in potassium (12.5–52.4 mg/100 g). Soil microelements are abundant, and harmful heavy metals are below critical levels. Plant organs, including flowers, seeds, leaves, and stems, show high phosphorus and magnesium levels, while potassium, manganese, and copper are generally low. The levels of potentially harmful elements like cadmium and chromium are near the maximum-allowed limits, suggesting avoidance of highly acidic soils for the cultivation of P. tenuifolia. Among the examined soils, Arenic chernozem is recommended for preserving the species’ natural resources.

This article introduces a new framework for articulating how educational assessments can be related to teacher uses in the classroom. It articulates three levels of assessment: macro (use of standardized tests), meso (externally developed items), and micro (on-the-fly in the classroom). The first level is the usual context for educational measurement, but one of the contributions of this article is that it mainly focuses on the latter two levels. Co-ordination of the content across these two levels can be achieved using the concept of a construct map, which articulates the substantive target property at levels of detail that are appropriate for both teacher planning and within-classroom use. This article then describes a statistical model designed to span these two levels and discusses how best to relate this to the macrolevel. Results from a curriculum and instruction development project on the topic of measurement in the elementary school are demonstrated, showing how they are empirically related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The field of mental health technology presently has significant gaps that need addressing, particularly in the domain of daily monitoring and personalized assessments. Current noninvasive devices such as wristbands and smartphones are capable of collecting a wide range of data, which has not yet been fully used for mental health monitoring. Objective: This study aims to introduce a novel dataset for personalized daily mental health monitoring and a new macro-micro framework. This framework is designed to use multimodal and multitask learning strategies for improved personalization and prediction of emotional states in individuals. Methods: Data were collected from 298 individuals using wristbands and smartphones, capturing physiological signals, speech data, and self-annotated emotional states. The proposed framework combines macro-level emotion transformer embeddings with micro-level personalization layers specific to each user. It also introduces a Dynamic Restrained Uncertainty Weighting method to effectively integrate various data types for a balanced representation of emotional states. Several fusion techniques, personalization strategies, and multitask learning approaches were explored. Results: The proposed framework was evaluated using the concordance correlation coefficient, resulting in a score of 0.503. This result demonstrates the framework's efficacy in predicting emotional states. Conclusions: The study concludes that the proposed multimodal and multitask learning framework, which leverages transformer-based techniques and dynamic task weighting strategies, is superior for the personalized monitoring of mental health. The study indicates the potential of transforming daily mental health monitoring into a more personalized app, opening up new avenues for technology-based mental health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Stunting is one of the undernutrition outcomes commonly reported in LMICs. It results from chronic or recurrent undernutrition and is associated with social determinants. Indonesia has promoted various programs to reduce and prevent stunting. The programs tend to not be gender-responsive with no existence of gender analysis on the programs. Purpose: To analyze the intersectionality of gender with other social determinants of stunting, transforming into any stunting program barriers within the health system. Methods: This narrative review was conducted using original research articles on the Scopus database. Two independent reviewers performed review selection and characterization. We grouped the identified gender intersectionality and constraints imposed on stunting programs based on three-levels of health systems. Results: There were 19 papers included in this literature review. Two main messages were identified. First, gender has a different impact on any health program. It interacted with other social determinants in shaping the risk of being stunted. Second, the gender intersectionality will be different for each level of health system. Conclusion: Gender intersects with different social determinants in each level of the health system. The impact of gender intersectionality with other stunting determinant stunting is identified. Hence, stunting is not gender neutral.

Copyright of Journal of Health Academics / Sağlık Akademisyenleri Dergisi is the property of Journal of Health Academics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Stunting is one of the undernutrition outcomes commonly reported in LMICs. It results from chronic or recurrent undernutrition and is associated with social determinants. Indonesia has promoted various programs to reduce and prevent stunting. The programs tend to not be gender-responsive with no existence of gender analysis on the programs. Purpose: To analyze the intersectionality of gender with other social determinants of stunting, transforming into any stunting program barriers within the health system. Methods: This narrative review was conducted using original research articles on the Scopus database. Two independent reviewers performed review selection and characterization. We grouped the identified gender intersectionality and constraints imposed on stunting programs based on three-levels of health systems. Results: There were 19 papers included in this literature review. Two main messages were identified. First, gender has a different impact on any health program. It interacted with other social determinants in shaping the risk of being stunted. Second, the gender intersectionality will be different for each level of health system. Conclusion: Gender intersects with different social determinants in each level of the health system. The impact of gender intersectionality with other stunting determinant stunting is identified. Hence, stunting is not gender neutral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral concentrations in plants are affected by a number of factors, which in turn affect the amounts available directly or indirectly to animals, so the concentration of some nutrients may be insufficient for the needs of animals. The article aimed to evaluate a wide variety of chemical elements in date fodder often used to feed cows, buffaloes, and sheep in Basra Governorate, Southern Iraq. In addition, it establishes the acceptability of chemical element concentrations in the dates, which included macro- minerals, micro-elements, and hazardous metals. The feed was prepared to be digested and then all minerals were analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) equipment to determine the amounts of macro-minerals, microelements, and hazardous elements in the feed. Where macro-minerals included (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and sulfur) and micro-elements included (iron, copper, nickel, selenium, chromium, tin, silicon, vanadium, and molybdenum, while toxic elements included (aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, uranium, and lead). Most major and minor elements had low values compared to the critical level determined for their presence in fodders, as all elements did not reach the maximum tolerable(4.5% of macro-minerals and 40 ppm of micro-elements) and much less than the minimum limit(<0.06 of macrominerals and <0.20ppm of micro-elements), whereas the toxic elements in the chosen dates fodder had low and acceptable concentrations compared to the risk index for their presence in fodder(100 mg Kg-1). The current study helps farmers in Basra Governorate in their understanding of the mineral nutritional needs of cattle while relying significantly on this type of fodder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, in support of training periodization, there has been an emergence around the concept of nutritional periodization. Within athletics (track and field), the science and art of periodization is a cornerstone concept with recent commentaries emphasizing the underappreciated complexity associated with predictable performance on demand. Nevertheless, with varying levels of evidence, sport and event specific sequencing of various training units and sessions (long [macrocycle; months], medium [mesocycle; weeks], and short [microcycle; days and within-day duration]) is a routine approach to training periodization. Indeed, implementation of strategic temporal nutrition interventions (macro, meso, and micro) can support and enhance training prescription and adaptation, as well as acute event specific performance. However, a general framework on how, why, and when nutritional periodization could be implemented has not yet been established. It is beyond the scope of this review to highlight every potential nutritional periodization application. Instead, this review will focus on a generalized framework, with specific examples of macro-, meso-, and microperiodization for the macronutrients of carbohydrates, and, by extension, fat. More specifically, the authors establish the evidence and rationale for situations of acute high carbohydrate availability, as well as the evidence for more chronic manipulation of carbohydrates coupled with training. The topic of periodized nutrition has made considerable gains over the last decade but is ripe for further scientific progress and field application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Soil Science & Plant Nutrition / Toprak Bilimi ve Bitki Besleme Dergisi is the property of Soil Science Society of Turkey and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This report describes operational data analysis and modeling of arterial networks with signalized intersections as follows: The setup for data collection, analysis and simulation is presented in Section 2.1. Detailed analysis of collected signal phasing and traffic data is provided in section 2.2. Arterial traffic and platoon modeling is described in Section 2.3. Simulation results of the Rollins Park network is discussed in Section 2.4. Research conducted under this task is an important stepping stone for building a three-level information and control system for urban networks with high-density traffic. In this task researchers focused on elements of link-level information (signal phasing and timing (SPaT) estimation and prediction) and vehicle-level control (Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC)). In SPaT analysis researchers presented several novel algorithms to estimate the residual duration of a signal phase for a semi-actuated intersection. These algorithms predict the times for all future phase transitions, based on previous phase measurements and on the real time information that locates the current time within the current phase. With respect to the vehicle-level control, researchers analyzed sensitivity of intersection throughput to car following models and related parameters. The Improved Intelligent Driver Model (IIDM) was chosen for traffic simulation. Finally, researchers implemented the platoon model in Simulation of Urban MObility (SUMO) and tested it in simulation of scenarios on Rollins Park network.

Copyright of Indonesian Journal of Business & Entrepreunership is the property of IPB University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to find the best model with a combination of macroeconomic variables and micro or internal variables of the bank itself to predict bankruptcy in Indonesian banks, especially state-owned banks represented by BRI Bank as the object of research. This research is a quantitative study using time series data using a regression analysis method where the selected macro and micro variables will be formed as models and tested for later analysis. There are two models used in this study, namely the Grover model and the Zmijewski model. The result of this research is to find an appropriate model to predict bankruptcy using macro and micro variables, and the best after the flow test is Grover's model. The groover model can produce a combination of macro and micro variables in accordance to investigate bankruptcy by proving that the macro variable that affects is the exchange rate, while from the micro side built by LDR, ROA, and company size.

Previous studies have identified the importance of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, however, few have considered in an integrated multi-level way, the key influencing factors on technology transfer mechanisms within these ecosystems. In particular, none have considered such factors from a technology transfer office (TTO) perspective. To address this gap, this research examines how macro–meso–micro factors shape the role of TTOs within an entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. Taking an in-depth exploratory approach set in the New Zealand context, data for this study was collected over two time periods, 4 years apart, and included inputs from all eight university TTO offices. Incorporating the perspective of TTO executives, our study unearths novel insights on a range of macro, meso and micro factors influencing their office, and how TTOs respond by synthesizing and balancing these factors across levels. The primary contribution of our research is extending the framing of TTO executives as typically portrayed in the literature, beyond important intermediaries between universities and industry, to pivotal cross-level brokers within entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer patients experience numerous distressing symptoms and concerns across the course of their illness, which negatively influence their quality of life. Regardless of cancer type, unmanaged symptoms can lead to adverse downstream consequences. Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) can be used to inform patient care and lead to targeted symptom management but simply gathering this information does not improve outcomes for the patient. Patient generated information must be easy for the clinicians to access and interpret if it is to be used to inform care delivery in ambulatory oncology facilities. This pragmatic work responded to this need. One Canadian provincial ambulatory oncology jurisdiction implemented digital tracking of PROMs over time in the provincial Electronic Medical Record (EMR) to support full integration of PROMs into standard care workflows and processes. Due to an inability within the EMR for direct patient entry, a hybrid data-entry was designed where the patient completes a paper-based PROM in the waiting room, and after clinical review, a clinician documents this along with their clinical assessment in the EMR. Several digital dashboards were developed which report PROMs data at the micro (individual), meso (clinic) and macro (program) levels. Using PROMs routinely in these provincial practice settings has numerous benefits including enhanced patient-clinician communication, assisting with problem detection, management of symptoms, and improving outcomes for patients. There are over 60,000 unique patients represented in our PROMs database, and over 300,000 unique screening events captured. The PROMs data is now used at all levels of the provincial cancer jurisdiction to provide targeted person centred care (micro), to staff appropriately at a clinic or program level (meso), and for capacity planning for provincial programs (macro). A new provincial EMR is currently being implemented which has an associated patient portal. Based on the success of this work, integration of direct entry of PROMs by the patient prior to the appointment and an associated workflow for symptom management is underway in this jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five years into South Africa's constitutional democracy provides an opportunity to take stock of the social and structural determinants of adolescent health. Those born in democratic South Africa, commonly known as the 'Born Frees', are perceived to be able to realise equal rights and opportunities, yet many factors constrain their lives. In bringing together approaches to understanding context in health policy and systems research and the social determinants of health, the paper develops a conceptual framework to guide the narrative review examining the key contextual social and structural determinants of adolescent health in South Africa. Illustrative examples drawing from 65 papers from public health and the social sciences describe and link these determinants across micro, meso and macro levels of society, their global determinants, and their intersections with compounding axes of power and inequality.At a micro level individual adolescent sexual and gender identities are expressed through multiple and evolving forms, while they experience growing autonomy and agency, they do so within a broader context characterised by regressive social norms, gender inequality and other intersecting power relationships. At the meso level, organisational and sectoral determinants shape adolescents health and rights, both in being supportive, but they also replicate the biases and inequalities that characterise South African society. In addition, the macro level national and global determinants, such as the structural colonial and apartheid legacies, shape adolescents' health. Despite constitutional and other legislative rights, these determinants and compound economic, geographic, gender and other intersecting inequalities.A key finding is that current experiences and health of adolescents is shaped by past social and structural determinants and power relations, with apartheid inequalities still echoing in the lives of the adolescents, 25 years into democracy. More research and work is needed to provide insights into determinants of adolescent health beyond just the micro level, but also at the interrelated and dynamic meso and macro levels, nested in global determinants. The findings raise critical considerations and implications for understanding the social and structural determinants in the South African context and what this means for adolescent health in the SDG era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, recently set out the first major exposition of economic policy under leader Keir Starmer. Covering a lot of ground, she gave insights into current Labour thinking on macro and micro policy. Much of the speech was aimed at emphasising the fact that Labour would be 'responsible', an attempt to reassure voters as well as markets. But there is plenty of room for radical approaches within this framework, so exactly what this all means for practical policy is still to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The central question of the symposium has been whether interculturalism provides a new paradigm that transcends multiculturalism? I note that, consistent with my own position, none of the commentaries answers this question in the affirmative. I concur with the view that interculturalist approaches suffer from an indeterminacy in the use of concepts such as local, place and proximity. When such concepts are given specification, they can have two different meanings: a) face to face encounters, b) urban life and/or governance. Whilst (a) and (b) can be connected together, a dichotimising logic is employed by interculturalists relation to the micro-macro and the city-national. I conclude by specifying, by reference to my work, the key features of multiculturalism that a replacement paradigm has to engage with.

Leading the Continuing Education (CE) Department situated within a method-based public social work school required that I align the values, vision, and mission of the school and the department. The school's mission speaks to the notion of providing social work education of the highest quality at the lowest possible cost while preparing its graduates to become social workers committed to lifelong learning. In this narrative, I reflect on the offerings of workshops that created spaces for micro and macro practitioners using program funds to offset the cost for participants and infused continuing education contact hours in faculty-championed end-of-year workshops which included field instructors. I also explore the benefits of using different organization lenses to assess, develop, and expand the CE program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has revealed the many ways in which processes across the globe have failed us. If NHRD were in place globally, many of these issues should not have occurred. This has especially been the case in the U.S. The country with the most highly developed NHRD, South Korea, has had among the greatest success in fighting the virus. In this article, I will explore many of these issues at the micro, meso, macro, and cross-country perspectives in which NHRD can improve on the failed processes and prepare for the next pandemic, whenever it occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational failure in food markets is a potential threat to food security. Thus, a greater understanding of the factors that influence organizational failure and reduce supply chain resilience is essential to underpin agile and dynamic food supply chains. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of system level factors that influence organizational failure in food supply chains in order to conceptualize the horizontal and vertical interaction of such factors at the three levels described: the micro system, the meso system and the macro system level. A systematic review, based on a specific search strategy, incorporated articles from the fields of management, business and economics research. Whilst 616 articles were initially identified, only 41 of these were within the established inclusion criteria and reviewed. A model of organizational failure, determined here as "The House of Cards Model", is developed, that can then be empirically tested in further research. A hierarchy was developed to contextualize the factors deemed to be of influence. The macro (external environment) level includes criteria such as economic conditions, formal institutions, government policies, competitors and rumors. The factors addressed in the meso (organizational) level include organization age and size, location, property structure, client, supplier and shareholder relationships, financial resources, physical resources, human resources and succession process. At the micro (individual) level the managers' skill, characteristics, actions and mindset are of influence. This paper contributes to advancing the debate and underpins further empirical research on organizational failure in food supply chains. • Food supply chain and organizational resilience underpins global food security. • Factors leading to organisational failure operate at micro, meso and macro levels. • Failure factors can impact individually or in a combined effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic problem characterized by hyperglycemia. It arises from impaired insulin action, impaired insulin secretion or both and it is frequently associated with insulin resistance (IR) (Crook, 2012). The prevalence of T2DM is rapidly increasing, with consequent concomitant of the rise of numerous health medical problems due to chronic complications (Preeti & Malani, 2012). Aim: To evaluate the association of micro and macro vascular complication with the occurrence and prognosis of T2DM as well as the hyperlipidemia. Methods: A case-control study of 120 individuals (60 diabetic patients and 60 apparently healthy individuals) were non randomly selected. The work was carried out at Al-Sader medical city from Oct 2017 to march 2018. Data collection was obtained from the direct meeting with the patient by the research staff and documentation section in the diabetic center at al Sader medical city from October 2017 till march 2017. Volunteer data was obtained from the healthy individuals of the patient relatives, medical staff, close friends and family. Results: Data showed that diabetic patient had more macro and micro vascular complications than healthy volunteer, also diabetic patients type one showed more retinal, renal, cardiac, neural complication than type two. Retinopathy is progressed in type one and even lead to visual problems than type two and these patients also suffered more from renal complication and gangrene occurrence than type two diabetes. Ignorance of intake of medication is number one in the reasons of low compliance and the bad prognosis of the patient of the patient is mostly due to the un preferred injectable dosage form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forces and systems, which shape the available supply, composition and flow of talent into and out of organisations today have become increasingly complex and fluid. Most firms today extend their operations across regions and many compete globally, existing within one or more external contexts, known as macro talent management systems (MTM). Shaped by economic, political, regulatory, technological, and cultural conditions, MTM has the potential to directly or indirectly empower or disrupt organisational ability to attract, engage, and retain the talent crucial to achieving competitive business objectives. Yet organisations today may overlook the influence of external MTM systems to complement or constrain organisational talent management effectiveness, limiting the firm's ability to generate benefit and mitigate risk stemming from variance in macro talent contexts. Introducing a macro-contingent view of talent management, this paper identifies three pivotal shifts needed to enable effective talent management practice and proposes a framework for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Masonry structures are constructed by joining masonry units (brick, stone, marble etc.) with mortar. Various methods are used for modeling of masonry walls of the structures. Micro modeling and Macro modeling are two diverse modeling techniques. In this study, these two modeling strategies are analyzed on a solid unreinforced masonry shear wall numerically. The models are implemented in ANSYS software to simulate the structural behavior of a tested wall in literature. The homogenization technique is applied to obtain the material parameters used in the macro model. Brick and mortar are modelled separately in the micro model. Stresses occurring in the walls under the effect of in-plane loads are investigated. The propagations of the cracks on the walls are analyzed numerically. The results obtained in the micro modeling and macro modeling are in consistent with the experimental study in the literature. However, macro modeling and micro modeling represent strictly disparate behavior in the material identification, and crack propagations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Omran for Social Sciences is the property of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

• The cohesive behavior at the microscale is estimated by size effect testing. • The fracturing of cracks and sharp notches is captured by a two-scale cohesive model. • The proposed model can be used to describe the structural behavior of microelectronic devices or the matrix microcraking in polymer matrix composites. This study investigated, experimentally and numerically, the fracturing behavior of thermoset polymer structures featuring cracks and sharp u-notches. It is shown that, even for cases in which the sharpness of the notch would suggest otherwise, the failure behavior of cracked and pre-notched specimens is substantially different, the failure loads of the former configuration being about three times lower than the latter one. To capture this interesting behavior a two-scale cohesive model is proposed. The model is in excellent agreement with the experimental data and its predictions allow to conclude that (a) residual plastic stresses cannot explain the very high failure loads of notched structures; (b) the strength of the polymer at the microscale can be from six to ten times larger than the values measured from conventional tests whereas the fracture energy at the microscale can be about forty times lower; (c) the pre-notched specimens investigated in this work failed when the stress at the tip reached the microscale strength whereas the cracked specimens failed when the energy release rate reached the total fracture energy of the material. The foregoing considerations are of utmost importance for the design of microelectronic devices or polymer matrix composites for which the main damage mechanisms are governed by the strength and cohesive behavior at the microscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last century, there has been a dramatic change in the nature of therapeutic, biologically active molecules available to treat disease. Therapies have evolved from extracted natural products towards rationally designed biomolecules, including small molecules, engineered proteins and nucleic acids. The use of potent drugs which target specific organs, cells or biochemical pathways, necessitates new tools which can enable controlled delivery and dosing of these therapeutics to their biological targets. Here, we review the miniaturisation of drug delivery systems from the macro to nano-scale, focussing on controlled dosing and controlled targeting as two key parameters in drug delivery device design. We describe how the miniaturisation of these devices enables the move from repeated, systemic dosing, to on-demand, targeted delivery of therapeutic drugs and highlight areas of focus for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]