Eastern Policy of the EU: the Visegrad Countries' Perspective. OSW Point of View, February 2003

1. After its enlargement, scheduled for 2004, the European Union will face a completely new situation at its eastern borders. This new situation calls for a new concept of the EU eastern activities, i.e. for development of the new Eastern Policy of the EU. 2. Due to a number of specific features such as geographical location, closeness of ties, direct risk factors etc., the Visegrad countries will and should be particularly interested in the process of formulating the new EU Eastern Policy. Consequently, they should be the co-makers of this policy. 3. The new EU Eastern Policy should differ fundamentally from the Union's traditional eastern relations. Firstly, its scope should not cover the entire CIS area: instead, the policy should focus on some of the European successor states of the former Soviet Union, namely Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, as well as Moldova, following the accession of Romania. It does not seem advisable to exclude the Russian Federation from this policy and to develop and implement a separate policy towards it. The new Eastern Policy should be an autonomous component and one of the most important elements in the overall foreign policy of the EU. 4. Secondly, the new Eastern Policy should be founded on the following two pillars: a region-oriented strategy, which could be called the Eastern Dimension, and reshaped strategies for individual countries. The Eastern Dimension should set up a universal framework of co-operation, defining its basic mechanisms and objectives. These should include: the adaptation assistance programme, JHA, transborder co-operation, social dialogue and transport infrastructures. The approach, however, should be kept flexible, taking into account the specific situation of each country. This purpose should be served by keeping in place the existing bilateral institutional contacts between the EU and each of its eastern neighbours, and by developing a national strategy for each neighbour.

Oh chale : Two stance-taking strategies in Ghanaian Pidgin English

A common assumption is that language is used for conveying factual information, but linguistic forms also serve a way to communicate pragmatic features, such as speakers’ intentions and mental state. This study describes and analyses two strategies for stance-taking in GhaPE, more specific the use of discourse particles and complement-taking predicates. Such grammatical resources have been identified in the literature to play important functions in signalling how the speaker evaluates and positions him/herself and the addressee with respect to objects of discourse. The analysis and discussion of forms is informed by Du Bois’ (2007) ‘stance triangle’, which has proved to be a useful analytical device for investigating stance from a dialogical perspective. GhaPE is at times anticipated as fairly simple both by scholars and in the community where it is spoken. This thesis is thus an attempt to display aspects of the richness of the language.

Acyl glucuronide reactivity in perspective: biological consequences

The metabolic conjugation of exogenous and endogenous carboxylic acid substrates with endogenous glucuronic acid, mediated by the uridine diphosphoglucuronosyl transferase (UGT) superfamily of enzymes, leads to the formation of acyl glucuronide metabolites. Since the late 1970s, acyl glucuronides have been increasingly identified as reactive electrophilic metabolites, capable of undergoing three reactions: intramolecular rearrangement, hydrolysis, and intermolecular reactions with proteins leading to covalent drug-protein adducts. This essential dogma has been accepted for over a decade. The key question proposed by researchers, and now the pharmaceutical industry, is: does or can the covalent modification of endogenous proteins, mediated by reactive acyl glucuronide metabolites, lead to adverse drug reactions, perhaps idiosyncratic in nature? This review evaluates the evidence for acyl glucuronide-derived perturbation of homeostasis, particularly that which might result from the covalent modification of endogenous proteins and other macromolecules. Because of the availability of acyl glucuronides for test tube/in vitro experiments, there is now a substantial literature documenting their rearrangement, hydrolysis and covalent modification of proteins in vitro. It is certain from in vitro experiments that serum albumin, dipeptidyl peptidase IV, tubulin and UGTs are covalently modified by acyl glucuronides. However, these in vitro experiments have been specifically designed to amplify any interference with a biological process in order to find biological effects. The in vivo situation is not at all clear. Certainly it must be concluded that all humans taking carboxylate drugs that form reactive acyl glucuronides will form covalent drug-protein adducts, and it must also be concluded that this in itself is normally benign. However, there is enough in vivo evidence implicating acyl glucuronides, which, when backed up by in vivo circumstantial and documented in vitro evidence, supports the view that reactive acyl glucuronides may initiate toxicity/immune responses. In summary, though acyl glucuronide-derived covalent modification of endogenous macromolecules is well-defined, the work ahead needs to provide detailed links between such modification and its possible biological consequences. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-performance human resource practices, citizenship behaviour and organizational performance:A relational perspective

Taking a relational perspective on the employment relationship, we examined processes (mediation and moderation) linking high-performance human resource practices and productivity and turnover, two indicators of organizational performance. Multilevel analysis of data from hotels in the People's Republic of China revealed that service-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) partially mediated the relationships between high-performance human resource practices and both performance indicators. Unemployment rate moderated the service-oriented OCB-turnover relationship, and business strategy (service quality) moderated the service-oriented OCB-productivity relationship. Copyright of the Academy of Management, all rights reserved.

The process of strategic change:a management perspective

This thesis is concerned with the management processes concerned with complex strategic decision in organisations. The research has sought to explore these processes by taking as its focus the reconstruction of decision processes a) on the basis of an historical study of an industry and in particular a major company in that industry; and b) the perception and understanding of strategic decision processes and change by managers involved in companies in that industry. The main body of analysis and theoretical contributions arise from the detailed analysis of extended depth interviews with managers carried out in 1980 and 1983 which trace thirteen years of the strategic development of a firm. In so doing, extensive use is made of verbatim accounts by managers of events and their interpretation of events. This is then compared with data gathered from.similar interviews with managers of two other companies and examined in the light of existing research and theory in the field. The thesis both provides a detailed insight into the processes associated with the identification and resolution of complex strategic issues and also generates a body of theory concerning the mechanisms by which strategic decisions and the processes of strategic change are interwoven with the cultural and political fabric of organisations. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part deals with the background to the research, provid1ng a fuller summary of the purpose, structure and content of the thesis and a discussion of relevant previous research and the methodology employed herein. The second part mainly provides case studies of the industry and the main company studied. The third part is a detailed presentation and analysis of data. The fourth part is a synthesis of the findings and consolidation of the theoretical interpretation advanced in the thesis.

Speaking out of turn? Taking the initiative in teacher-fronted classroom interaction.

Teacher-fronted interaction is generally seen to place limitations on the contributions that learners can make to classroom discourse and the conclusion is that learners are unable to experiment with, for example, turn-taking mechanisms. This article looks at teacher-fronted interaction in the language classroom from the perspective of learner talk by examining how learners might take the initiative during this apparently more rigid form of interaction. Detailed microanalysis of classroom episodes, using a conversation analysis institutional discourse approach, shows how learners orient to the institutional context to make sophisticated and effective use of turn-taking mechanisms to take the initiative and direct the interaction, even in the controlled environment of teacher-fronted talk. The article describes some of the functions of such learner initiative, examines how learners and teachers co-construct interaction and how learners can create learning opportunities for themselves. It also briefly looks at teacher reactions to such initiative. The article concludes that learner initiative in teacher-fronted interaction may constitute a significant opportunity for learning and that teachers should find ways of encouraging such interaction patterns.

Delegation of pricing authority to the sales force:an agency-theoretic perspective of its determinants and impact on performance

In industrial selling situations, the questions of what factors drive pricing authority delegation to salespeople and under what conditions price delegation is beneficial for the firm are often asked. To advance knowledge in this area, we (1) develop and empirically test a framework of important drivers of price delegation based on agency-theoretic research and (2) investigate the impact of price delegation on firm performance, taking into account agency theory variables as potential moderators. The study is based on data from a sample of 181 companies from the industrial machinery and electrical engineering industry in Germany. The results indicate that the degree of pricing delegation increases as information asymmetry between the salesperson and sales manager increases and as it becomes more difficult to monitor salespeople's efforts. Conversely, risk-aversion of salespeople is negatively related to the degree of price delegation. Furthermore, we find a positive effect of price delegation on firm performance, which is amplified when market-related uncertainty is high and when salespeople possess better customer-related information than their managers. Hence, our results clearly show that rigid, “one price fits all” policies are inappropriate in many B2B market situations. Instead, sales managers should grant their salespeople sufficient leeway to adapt prices to changing customer requirements and market conditions, especially in firms that operate in highly uncertain selling environments.

The neuroimaging research process from the participants' perspective

The aim of this study was to investigate participants' experiences of taking part in research conducted using fMRI or MEG procedures. Forty-four participants completed a questionnaire after taking part in either fMRI or MEG experiments; the questionnaire asked about experiences of and attitudes toward fMRI/MEG. Ten follow-up interviews were conducted to enable an in-depth analysis of these attitudes and experiences. The findings were generally positive: all participants thought fMRI and MEG were safe procedures, 93% would recommend participating in neuroimaging research to their friends and family, and participants were positive about participating in future neuroimaging research. However, some negative issues were identified. Some participants reported feeling nervous prior to scanning procedures, several participants reported side-effects after taking part, a number of participants were upset at being in a confined space and some participants did not feel confident about exiting the scanner in an emergency. Several recommendations for researchers are made, including a virtual tour of the scanning equipment during the consenting process in order to better prepare potential participants for the scanning experience and to minimize the potential psychological discomfort sometimes experienced in neuroimaging research. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A KM perspective on implementing an electronic patient record within an NHS hospital

The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) is being developed by many hospitals in the UK and across the globe. We class an EPR system as a type of Knowledge Management System (KMS), in that it is a technological tool developed to support the process of knowledge management (KM). Healthcare organisations aim to use these systems to provide a vehicle for more informed and improved clinical decision making thereby delivering reduced errors and risks, enhanced quality and consequently offering enhanced patient safety. Finding an effective way for a healthcare organisation to practically implement these systems is essential. In this study we use the concept of the business process approach to KM as a theoretical lens to analyse and explore how a large NHS teaching hospital developed, executed and practically implemented an EPR system. This theory advocates the importance of taking into account all organizational activities - the business processes - in considering any KM initiatives. Approaching KM through business processes allows for a more holistic view of the requirements across a process: emphasis is placed on how particular activities are performed, how they are structured and what knowledge demanded and not just supplied across each process. This falls in line with the increased emphasis in healthcare on patient-centred approaches to care delivery. We have found in previous research that hospitals are happy with the delivery of patient care being referred to as their 'business'. A qualitative study was conducted over a two and half year period with data collected from semi-structured interviews with eight members of the strategic management team, 12 clinical users and 20 patients in addition to non- participant observation of meetings and documentary data. We believe that the inclusion of patients within the study may well be the first time this has been done in examining the implementation of a KMS. The theoretical propositions strategy was used as the overarching approach for data analysis. Here Initial theoretical research themes and propositions were used to help shape and organise the case study analysis. This paper will present preliminary findings about the hospital's business strategy and its links to the KMS strategy and process.

Engineering education research - the UK perspective at a time of change

Engineering education in the United Kingdom is at the point of embarking upon an interesting journey into uncharted waters. At no point in the past have there been so many drivers for change and so many opportunities for the development of engineering pedagogy. This paper will look at how Engineering Education Research (EER) has developed within the UK and what differentiates it from the many small scale practitioner interventions, perhaps without a clear research question or with little evaluation, which are presented at numerous staff development sessions, workshops and conferences. From this position some examples of current projects will be described, outcomes of funding opportunities will be summarised and the benefits of collaboration with other disciplines illustrated. In this study, I will account for how the design of task structure according to variation theory, as well as the probe-ware technology, make the laws of force and motion visible and learnable and, especially, in the lab studied make Newton's third law visible and learnable. I will also, as a comparison, include data from a mechanics lab that use the same probe-ware technology and deal with the same topics in mechanics, but uses a differently designed task structure. I will argue that the lower achievements on the FMCE-test in this latter case can be attributed to these differences in task structure in the lab instructions. According to my analysis, the necessary pattern of variation is not included in the design. I will also present a microanalysis of 15 hours collected from engineering students' activities in a lab about impulse and collisions based on video recordings of student's activities in a lab about impulse and collisions. The important object of learning in this lab is the development of an understanding of Newton's third law. The approach analysing students interaction using video data is inspired by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, i.e. I will focus on students practical, contingent and embodied inquiry in the setting of the lab. I argue that my result corroborates variation theory and show this theory can be used as a 'tool' for designing labs as well as for analysing labs and lab instructions. Thus my results have implications outside the domain of this study and have implications for understanding critical features for student learning in labs. Engineering higher education is well used to change. As technology develops the abilities expected by employers of graduates expand, yet our understanding of how to make informed decisions about learning and teaching strategies does not without a conscious effort to do so. With the numerous demands of academic life, we often fail to acknowledge our incomplete understanding of how our students learn within our discipline. The journey facing engineering education in the UK is being driven by two classes of driver. Firstly there are those which we have been working to expand our understanding of, such as retention and employability, and secondly the new challenges such as substantial changes to funding systems allied with an increase in student expectations. Only through continued research can priorities be identified, addressed and a coherent and strong voice for informed change be heard within the wider engineering education community. This new position makes it even more important that through EER we acquire the knowledge and understanding needed to make informed decisions regarding approaches to teaching, curriculum design and measures to promote effective student learning. This then raises the question 'how does EER function within a diverse academic community?' Within an existing community of academics interested in taking meaningful steps towards understanding the ongoing challenges of engineering education a Special Interest Group (SIG) has formed in the UK. The formation of this group has itself been part of the rapidly changing environment through its facilitation by the Higher Education Academy's Engineering Subject Centre, an entity which through the Academy's current restructuring will no longer exist as a discrete Centre dedicated to supporting engineering academics. The aims of this group, the activities it is currently undertaking and how it expects to network and collaborate with the global EER community will be reported in this paper. This will include explanation of how the group has identified barriers to the progress of EER and how it is seeking, through a series of activities, to facilitate recognition and growth of EER both within the UK and with our valued international colleagues.

A Geographic Perspective of Cuban Landscapes

Beginning in the era of the Spanish conquest and taking the reader right up to the present day, this book focuses on how the landscape of Cuba has changed and evolved into the environment we see today. It illustrates the range of factors – economic, political and cultural – that have determined Cuba’s physical geography, and explores the shifting conservation measures which have been instituted in response to new methods in agriculture and land management. The text uses historical documents, fieldwork, Geographic Information System (GIS) data and remotely-sensed satellite imagery to detail Cuba’s extensive land-use history as well as its potential future. The author goes further to analyze the manner, speed and methods of landscape change, and examines the historical context and governing agendas that have had an impact on the relationship between Cuba’s inhabitants and their island. Gebelein also assesses the key role played by agricultural production in the framework of international trade required to sustain Cuba’s people and its economy. The book concludes with a review of current efforts by Cuban and other research scientists, as well as private investors, conservation managers and university professors who are involved in shaping Cuba’s evolving landscape and managing it during the country’s possible transition to a more politically diverse, enfranchised and open polity.

WHEN INTERACTING ONLINE LEADS TO TAKING ACTION OFFLINE: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE PERSUASION ON IS USERS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS

With the increasing attention towards the role of information systems (IS) as a vehicle to address environmental issues, IS researchers and practitioners have strived to leverage advanced Green IS innovations to persuade people to engage in environmentally responsible practices and support pro-environmental initiatives. Yet, existing research reveals that the persuasion effects of Green IS designs remain equivocal. In particular, many design characteristics advocated in Green IS research can produce bi-directional changes in IS users’ attitudes and behaviours. To address this issue, this thesis drew upon the circumplex model of social values (S.H. Schwartz, 1992) to explain when and how online persuasion designs come to affect people’s judgements on resource conservation and environmental protection. Three sets of working propositions and specific hypotheses were developed. Specifically, this research suggests that the use of an IS application can elicit different value primes and draw IS users’ attentions to different motivational functions of engaging in suggested behavioural changes. It is expected that matching online persuasion appeals with IS users’ personal value priorities can increase users’ acceptance of online behavioural suggestions. Second, it is hypothesized that the persuasion effect tends to be weakened, as the system users become aware of the valuematching design in a given IS application. Third, it is proposed that different value primes presented in an IS application can result in different unintended effects on IS users’ global pro-environmental attitudes and motivations. The hypotheses were tested in the two pilot studies and two full-scale online experiments. The study findings generally support the main predictions of the hypotheses. On the one hand, this thesis providesiii empirical evidence that IS design for online persuasion can be instrumental in influencing IS users’ judgements on a range of resource conservation practices. On the other hand, this work explains why the effectiveness of IS-enabled online persuasion attempts needs to be measured not only in terms of the intended changes in a target behavioural domain but also in terms of unintended changes in people’s general environmental orientations. Findings in this research may bring a different perspective on understanding and assessing the influence of Green IS applications on IS users’ judgements and behaviou

The intersectorial approach in providing guidance and school support. The perspective of counsellors, tutors and principals

The provision of guidance and educational support requires joint work and the collaboration of different professionals and institutions, especially when we face complex problems that require a high level of specialization and the combination of knowledge from different areas. The research has aimed to examine the proximity of the institutional system of guidance and support to school in nine Autonomous Communities, to the intersectorial approach of counselling. We present the results of a descriptive study using the survey method, which allows knowing the opinions of counsellors, tutors and principals of Primary and Secondary Compulsory Education about the collaboration with the local public services (social, health, education, and employment) in the specialized support to students and schools. The final sample consisted of 9732 subjects who were selected from a random sampling proportional to the size of the subpopulations of each Autonomous Community. Results indicate how, in general terms, there is collaboration among the school and the local public services, although not as frequently as it would be desirable. In the same way, the professionals that were interviewed believe that the collaboration with social and educational services is quite adequate, but the assessment is not as positive when health and employment services are analysed. Finally, taking into account the different professionals considered, tutors from both educational stages are the ones that show a higher degree of satisfaction with the collaboration between the school and the local public services, except in the case of social services.

A systematic literature review of university technology transfer from a quadruple helix perspective: Towards a research agenda

Within recent years, there has been a rapid expansion of the University's role in economic development. This has resulted in University Technology Transfer (UTT) taking place within an increasingly complex network of regional stakeholders. This complexity has resulted in quadruple helix models where the triple helix model of academia, industry and regional government now includes societal based innovation users as a fourth helix. Despite this development, extant research is fragmented and lacks coherent frameworks and conceptualisations which fully depict the dynamic and evolving nature of UTT. Accordingly, this article reviews Mode 2 UTT from a quadruple helix perspective to identify key themes to develop a research agenda which reflects progression from a triple into a quadruple helix ecosystem.

W1: taking an interdisciplinary approach

Overview of the module from the interdisciplinary writing perspective. Using posters from web science research, discuss and consider what you might scope as an inter-deisciplinary project