Unforeseen Americas: the making of New World societies in anthropological perspective.

The European discovery and settlement of the Americas revealed unforeseen dimensions and gave rise to unpremeditated ways of coping with the resulting problems. This paper traces out the enduring social and cultural implications of this foundational encounter.

Examining the University of Denver's Family Friendly Benefits Plans: A look at Creating More Family Friendly Benefits to Drive Employee Retention

In the latter half of the twentieth century the workforce dynamic changed when the number of women entering the workforce increased by record amounts. In direct opposition to this change was the inability of organizations to meet the needs of employees with childcare concerns. Organizations and employees alike are best served when policies, procedures, and benefits are implemented to achieve a positive work/life balance. Companies that institute benefits that are supportive to families observe decreases in turnover and increased employee retention. Employees who are offered family friendly resources have been known to stay with companies even when offered a higher salary elsewhere. Demonstrating that retention of valued employees is linked to an organizations ability to offer support for family needs.

Open business intelligence: on the importance of data quality awareness in user-friendly data mining

Citizens demand more and more data for making decisions in their daily life. Therefore, mechanisms that allow citizens to understand and analyze linked open data (LOD) in a user-friendly manner are highly required. To this aim, the concept of Open Business Intelligence (OpenBI) is introduced in this position paper. OpenBI facilitates non-expert users to (i) analyze and visualize LOD, thus generating actionable information by means of reporting, OLAP analysis, dashboards or data mining; and to (ii) share the new acquired information as LOD to be reused by anyone. One of the most challenging issues of OpenBI is related to data mining, since non-experts (as citizens) need guidance during preprocessing and application of mining algorithms due to the complexity of the mining process and the low quality of the data sources. This is even worst when dealing with LOD, not only because of the different kind of links among data, but also because of its high dimensionality. As a consequence, in this position paper we advocate that data mining for OpenBI requires data quality-aware mechanisms for guiding non-expert users in obtaining and sharing the most reliable knowledge from the available LOD.

Environmentally friendly reduction of a platinum catalyst precursor supported on polypyrrole

Supported metals are traditionally prepared by impregnating a support material with the metal precursor solution, followed by reduction in hydrogen at elevated temperatures. In this study, a polymeric support has been considered. Polypyrrole (PPy) has been chemically synthesized using FeCl3 as a doping agent, and it has been impregnated with a H2PtCl6 solution to prepare a catalyst precursor. The restricted thermal stability of polypyrrole does not allow using the traditional reduction in hydrogen at elevated temperature, and chemical reduction under mild conditions using sodium borohydride implies environmental concerns. Therefore, cold RF plasma has been considered an environmentally friendly alternative. Ar plasma leads to a more effective reduction of platinum ions in the chloroplatinic complex anchored onto the polypyrrole chain after impregnation than reduction with sodium borohydride, as has been evidenced by XPS. The increase of RF power enhanced the effectiveness of the Ar plasma treatment. A homogeneous distribution of platinum nanoparticles has been observed by TEM after the reduction treatment with plasma. The Pt/polypyrrol catalyst reduced by Ar plasma at 200 watts effectively catalyzed the aqueous reduction of nitrates with H2 to yield N2, with a very low selectivity to undesired nitrites and ammonium by-products.

Environmentally friendly and regioselective C3-alkylation of indoles with alcohols through a hydrogen autotransfer strategy

The direct alkylation of indoles using KOH and alcohols, as initial source of the electrophile, under solvent-free conditions is a safe and environmentally benign strategy for selective modification of these structures at the C3-position, without using hazardous and difficult to handle bromide or iodide derivatives or toxic and expensive transition metal catalysts. The protocol shows a broad scope, including halogenated indoles and secondary alcohols.

Mesoporous Metal Complex–Silica Aerogels for Environmentally Friendly Amination of Allylic Alcohols

Two series of mesoporous hybrid iron(III) complex–silica aerogels were prepared in one-pot synthesis by using the sol–gel coordination chemistry approach. The use of the ligands 3-(2-aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane and 2-(diphenylphosphino)ethyltriethoxysilane, both with terminal triethoxysilyl groups, were used to incorporate metal complexes in situ into the framework of silica, through their co-condensation with a silicon alkoxide during the aerogel formation. This methodology yielded optically translucent hybrid mesoporous gels with homogeneous metal incorporation and excellent textural properties. The catalytic performance of these materials was tested in the direct amination of allylic alcohols in water as a target reaction, with activities comparable or even higher than those corresponding to the homogeneous iron(III) complex. Furthermore, these catalysts were stable and maintained their catalytic activity after six reaction cycles.

Visions of the Spanish Revolution: identities and conflicts in post-welfare societies

This is a case study that analyzes photographic documents of the social protest in Spain between 2011 and 2013. The analysis is qualitative and considers the use of space, the visual expression of the messages and the orientation toward the causes or effects of political, economic and social changes. Visual sociology allows us to appreciate, in the case of the Spanish Revolution, a dynamic of “reflexivity” unrecognizable from other research approaches. Two successive waves of social mobilization in response to two different shocks can be appreciated. The first is given by political corruption, unemployment and the threat to consumer society. The second shock is caused by the savage cuts in the Welfare State. Social mobilization is expressed differently in each phase, and the forms taken by the protests show how the class structure in post industrial society shapes the reactions to the crisis of the Welfare State.

One country, two societies? Germany twenty years after reunification. OSW Study 35/2011

3 October 2010 marked the twentieth anniversary of the reunification of the two German states. This is an occasion for summing up and evaluating the changes which have taken place in Germany since 1990. Germany became reunited through the incorporation of the East German federal states to the then Federal Republic of Germany. The West German point of view is predominant in public discourse regarding this issue, which is manifested through grading the new federal states for their progress in assimilation to the western part of Germany. However, this way the positive changes which have taken place in the social, political and economic areas in the eastern federal states over the past two decades are often disregarded. This paper is an attempt to show the changes which have taken place in Germany, involving areas in which new federal states have outperformed the western part of the country.

Is Horizon 2020 really more SME-friendly? A look at the figures. CEPS Commentary, 17 February 2016

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in the EU economy.[1] According to the latest “SME performance review” published by the European Commission,[2] in 2014 there were 22 million SMEs active in the non-financial business sectors, generating more than €3.7 trillion in added value and employing approximately 90 million people. SMEs’ contribution to the European economy becomes even more apparent if one considers that 99 out of every 100 enterprises active in the EU non-financial economy are SMEs, and that these firms account for about 67% of the total employment and some 60% of the overall added value produced in Europe. Against this background, enhancing the competitiveness of European SMEs is essential in order to foster the competitiveness of the EU economy as a whole. And since the competitiveness of European SMEs in the global arena largely depends on their ability to innovate,[3] unlocking the innovation potential of SMEs becomes pivotal to fostering growth and jobs in Europe.