Can ozone depletion and global warming interact to produce rapid climate change?

The atmosphere displays modes of variability whose structures exhibit a strong longitudinally symmetric (annular) component that extends from the surface to the stratosphere in middle and high latitudes of both hemispheres. In the past 30 years, these modes have exhibited trends that seem larger than their natural background variability, and may be related to human influences on stratospheric ozone and/or atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The pattern of climate trends during the past few decades is marked by rapid cooling and ozone depletion in the polar lower stratosphere of both hemispheres, coupled with an increasing strength of the wintertime westerly polar vortex and a poleward shift of the westerly wind belt at the earth's surface. Annular modes of variability are fundamentally a result of internal dynamical feedbacks within the climate system, and as such can show a large response to rather modest external forcing. The dynamics and thermodynamics of these modes are such that strong synergistic interactions between stratospheric ozone depletion and greenhouse warming are possible. These interactions may be responsible for the pronounced changes in tropospheric and stratospheric climate observed during the past few decades. If these trends continue, they could have important implications for the climate of the 21st century.

The Health Behavior Change Competency Checklist (HBCCC): Instrument development and psychometric evaluation.

More than half of morbidity and mortality in the United States can be attributed to behavior-related disease, such as tobacco use, physical inactivity, poor diet and alcohol consumption. Given the increased prevalence of behaviorally related medical health concerns, physician competence in the implementation of effective behavior change strategies is quickly becoming an essential skill. However, only recently have primary care residency programs begun to systematically teach and evaluate motivational interviewing skills critical to influencing health behavior, and use of standardized, objective assessment tools to assess skillfulness has been largely absent. This paper reports the development of a checklist, the Health Behavior Change Competency Checklist (HBCCC). The instrument captures the theoretical model of behavior change, motivational interviewing, in a practical and versatile manner. Psychometric evaluation demonstrated moderate efficacy. Namely, results indicated the HBCCC possesses good reliability, as evidenced by high internal consistency, and adequate construct validity. It also displayed considerable utility and practical application. While these results provide several reasons for confidence in the HBCCC, item revision and additional testing are required in order to establish it as a meaningful and valuable instrument.

No change in the Russian Caucasus. The Winter Olympics amid a local war. OSW Study 47/2014

The North Caucasus has been the most unstable region of the Russian Federation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Considering the scale of violence, the conflict in the region should be regarded as a local civil war between the Salafi Islamic armed underground and the secular authorities of the North Caucasus republics, supported by the security services. The Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has made himself de facto independent from Moscow, holds a particularly strong position in the region and his ambition is to gain control of the neighbouring territories. The Russian leadership, which sees the security of the Winter Olympics in Sochi as its top priority, is facing a strategic choice between trying to integrate the North Caucasus with the rest of the federation, or isolating the region and accepting the existence of an informal "internal abroad” within Russia. The cultural processes taking place in the region, including Islamisation, de-modernisation and de-Russification, have been driving the North Caucasus ever further away from the rest of Russia, strengthening a mutual sense of foreignness.

Collaborative Change: A Survey of Collaborations in Museums to Address Social Issues

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Brand-driven leadership for change management in retailing

Change management theorists largely overlook using the brand as a vehicle for change. Similarly, while branding has become an increasingly popular research and business topic, the branding literature appears to neglect change management. Our research bridges this gap through the development of brand identity as the main driver of organizational renewal. In the article we provide insights into brand-driven leadership for change which have been develope by collaborative action research with CEOs and owners of retail firms over a twenty year period. In contrast to the usual planning of change attempting to fit the firm to external trends and considering internal resources our brand-driven approach is based on resonance with consumers by the use of external socio-cultural meanings in society. We highlight phases in the development of brand identity by reference to a prototypical retail case study and presenta framework to help managers with brand-driven leadership for change.

HRM, organizational capacity for change, and performance:a global perspective

This special issue brings together a variety of articles, each one enriching understanding about whether and how human resource management (HRM) influences organizational performance (however defined) against a backdrop of complex change. We present a preliminary framework that enables us to integrate the diverse themes explored in the special issue, proposing a mediating role for organizational change capacity (OCC). OCC represents a particular subset within the resource-based literature labeled as “dynamic capabilities.” Although not well researched, there is evidence that OCC is positively associated with firm performance and that this relationship is stronger given conditions of high uncertainty. Our framework reflects on external and internal parameters, which we suggest moderate the relationship between human resource management (HRM), OCC, and organizational performance. Our intention is to provide compelling insight for both practitioners and researchers, especially those whose remit extends beyond national boundaries, with reference to areas of the globe as disparate as Greece, Ireland, Pakistan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

When moving information online diminishes change:advisory services to SMEs

Improving the performance of private sector small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in a cost effective manner is a major concern for government. Governments have saved costs by moving information online rather than through more expensive face-to-face exchanges between advisers and clients. Building on previous work that distinguished between types of advice, this article evaluates whether these changes to delivery mechanisms affect the type of advice received. Using a multinomial logit model of 1334 cases of business advice to small firms collected in England, the study found that advice to improve capabilities was taken by smaller firms who were less likely to have limited liability or undertake business planning. SMEs sought word-of-mouth referrals before taking internal, capability-enhancing advice. This is also the case when that advice was part of a wider package of assistance involving both internal and external aspects. Only when firms took advice that used extant capabilities did they rely on the Internet. Therefore, when the Internet is privileged over face-to-face advice the changes made by each recipient of advice are likely to diminish causing less impact from advice within the economy. It implies that fewer firms will adopt the sorts of management practices that would improve their productivity. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

The CDU and party organisational change

This article undertakes an empirical analysis of the internal organisation of the CDU along four key dimensions. First, it discusses the model of the 'cartel party', identifying its key features and then setting out four key questions to pose in relation to the CDU's internal organisation, to see whether it approximates to the 'cartel' paradigm. The questions of whether a centralisation of power is visible; whether professionalisation has occurred; whether there has been the anticipated weakening in the power of party functionaries; and whether the CDU has become reliant upon state finances are then answered in the empirical section of the article, drawing upon the author's primary research. It concludes that the 'cartel party' thesis fails in significant respects accurately to reflect the CDU's modern organisation. This is of interest to scholars of the CDU, but also offers some insights on the way in which the cartel party thesis fails adequately to develop an accurate account of internal party organisational change, in particular underestimating the ability of internal actors to thwart reforms, and also the potential functional usefulness of a decentralised party organisation. © 2013 Association for the Study of German Politics.

Is pregnancy a teachable moment for diet and physical activity behaviour change? An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experiences of women during their first pregnancy

OBJECTIVES: Pregnancy may provide a 'teachable moment' for positive health behaviour change, as a time when women are both motivated towards health and in regular contact with health care professionals. This study aimed to investigate whether women's experiences of pregnancy indicate that they would be receptive to behaviour change during this period. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. METHODS: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, this study details how seven women made decisions about their physical activity and dietary behaviour during their first pregnancy. RESULTS: Two women had required fertility treatment to conceive. Their behaviour was driven by anxiety and a drive to minimize potential risks to the pregnancy. This included detailed information seeking and strict adherence to diet and physical activity recommendations. However, the majority of women described behaviour change as 'automatic', adopting a new lifestyle immediately upon discovering their pregnancy. Diet and physical activity were influenced by what these women perceived to be normal or acceptable during pregnancy (largely based on observations of others) and internal drivers, including bodily signals and a desire to retain some of their pre-pregnancy self-identity. More reasoned assessments regarding benefits for them and their baby were less prevalent and influential. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that for women who conceived relatively easily, diet and physical activity behaviour during pregnancy is primarily based upon a combination of automatic judgements, physical sensations, and perceptions of what pregnant women are supposed to do. Health professionals and other credible sources appear to exert less influence. As such, pregnancy alone may not create a 'teachable moment'. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Significant life events can be cues to action with relation to health behaviour change. However, much of the empirical research in this area has focused on negative health experiences such as receiving a false-positive screening result and hospitalization, and in relation to unequivocally negative behaviours such as smoking. It is often suggested that pregnancy, as a major life event, is a 'teachable moment' (TM) for lifestyle behaviour change due to an increase in motivation towards health and regular contact with health professionals. However, there is limited evidence for the utility of the TM model in predicting or promoting behaviour change. What does this study add? Two groups of women emerged from our study: the women who had experienced difficulties in conceiving and had received fertility treatment, and those who had conceived without intervention. The former group's experience of pregnancy was characterized by a sense of vulnerability and anxiety over sustaining the pregnancy which influenced every choice they made about their diet and physical activity. For the latter group, decisions about diet and physical activity were made immediately upon discovering their pregnancy, based upon a combination of automatic judgements, physical sensations, and perceptions of what is normal or 'good' for pregnancy. Among women with relatively trouble-free conception and pregnancy experiences, the necessary conditions may not be present to create a 'teachable moment'. This is due to a combination of a reliance on non-reflective decision-making, perception of low risk, and little change in affective response or self-concept.

Adaptation and change in organizational learning research

To understand the role of organizational learning in the organization’s endeavor to overcome challenges, organizational learning research need to be spread out to the field of adaptation and change. This paper is the first part of a bigger empirical research, a literature review that examines the link between these topics and search for gaps in prior literature. However, these phenomena are closely related in the prior literature, the thinking about organizational learning is rather idealistic than reflective and there are still research gaps regarding the following questions: (1) Is there a need to examine internal organizational challenges from the organizational learning perspective? (2) How can the earlier organizational adaptation be characterized using the constructs of organizational learning? (3) Is the earlier adaptation process or organizational learning process always good and useful for the organization? Based on reviewing prior literature the author formulated an own organizational learning definition and identified future research directions in order to fill these gaps.

A multi-scale assessment of physiological processes in arctic tundra plants under natural and simulated climate change scenarios

Climate warming is predicted to cause an increase in the growing season by as much as 30% for regions of the arctic tundra. This will have a significant effect on the physiological activity of the vascular plant species and the ecosystem as a whole. The need to understand the possible physiological change within this ecosystem is confounded by the fact that research in this extreme environment has been limited to periods when conditions are most favorable, mid June–mid August. This study attempted to develop the most comprehensive understanding to date of the physiological activity of seven tundra plant species in the Alaskan Arctic under natural and lengthened growing season conditions. Four interrelated lines of research, scaling from cellular signals to ecosystem processes, set the foundation for this study. ^ I established an experiment looking at the physiological response of arctic sedges to soil temperature stress with emphasis on the role of the hormone abscisic acid (ABA). A manipulation was also developed where the growing season was lengthened and soils were warmed in an attempt to determine the maximum physiological capacity of these seven vascular species. Additionally, the physiological capacities of four evergreens were tested in the subnivean environment along with the potential role anthocyanins play in their activity. The measurements were scaled up to determine the physiological role of these evergreens in maintaining ecosystem carbon fluxes. ^ These studies determined that soil temperature differentials significantly affect vascular plant physiology. ABA appears to be a physiological modifier that limits stomatal processes when root temperatures are low. Photosynthetic capacity was limited by internal plant physiological mechanisms in the face of a lengthened growing season. Therefore shifts in ecosystem carbon dynamics are driven by changes in species composition and biomass production on a per/unit area basis. These studies also found that changes in soil temperatures will have a greater effect of physiological processes than would the same magnitude of change in air temperature. The subnivean environment exhibits conditions that are favorable for photosynthetic activity in evergreen species. These measurements when scaled to the ecosystem have a significant role in limiting the system's carbon source capacity. ^

The European Parliament, membership expansions, and organizational change

The European Union (EU) is an extraordinary achievement. From a regional economic organization, it grew into a polity within fifty years. The original EU of six members expanded incrementally to 27 over forty years, and it now comprises a population of almost 500 million people. While the five expansions of the European Economic Community/European Community/European Union (EU) have received considerable scholarly attention, surprisingly little attention has been given to their impacts on "Europe's" only legislative body, currently known as the European Parliament (EP). More specifically, little is known about how waves of new members (from widely diverse parties and national backgrounds) affected—and were affected by—the EP's organizational structure and its internal processes. The purpose of this study therefore is to help fill this gap by describing and explaining how the various EEC/EC/EU expansions or "membership shocks" (1973, 1981, 1986, 1995, and 2004) affected the EP's organizational structure and its internal Rules of Procedure (RoP). The central research question of this dissertation is the following: What were the major structural and procedural effects of the five membership expansions of what eventually became the European Union on the European Parliament? This dissertation answers this question by using concepts and measures drawn from organizational theory. While other studies have applied concepts and hypotheses from organizational theory to legislatures, such an approach has never been used to analyze the EP, which is conceptualized here as a "membership organization." This study, through an analysis of the EP, demonstrates that organization theory can help us fully understand the effects of membership expansions on any membership organization. That is, understanding how this particular organization responded to change can inform not only how others in this class (legislatures) do so, but how this process unfolds in a variety of times and places. The principal findings of this study are as follows: (1) EP staff growth revealed an interesting pattern: Staff did not increase concurrently with EP membership. That is, it turned out that the rate of membership growth exceeded the rate of staff increase, suggesting professionalization of EP staff and their relative empowerment vis-à-vis MEPs; (2) The number of rules and the precision within them increased; (3) the largest number of EP rule changes focused on increasing EP efficiency; and (4) The authority was centralized in the hands of EP leadership, that is, the EP President, the Conference of Presidents and also two major political groups.

Exploring the stages of change and perceived barriers to treatment models within the context of parental adherence to an early intervention program

Parent-mediated early intervention programs depend on the willingness and ability of parents to complete prescribed activities with their children. In other contexts, internal factors, such as stages of change, and external factors, such as barriers to treatment, have been shown to correlate with adherence to service. This researcher modified the Stages of Change Questionnaire as well as the Barriers to Treatment Participation Scale (BTPS) to use with this population. Despite initial interest, twenty-three parent participants were referred to the researcher over the course of three years, with only five parents taking part in the study. A population base ten times that of the current sample would be required recruit enough participants (fifty-one) to provide sufficient power. This feasibility study discusses the results of the five parent participants. Findings suggest that the modified Stages of Change Questionnaire may not be sensitive enough for use with the current sample, while the modified BTPS may yield useful information for service providers.

Constant wall heat flux boundary conditions in micro-channels filled with porous material with internal heat generation under local thermal non-equilibrium conditions

Forced convection heat transfer in a micro-channel filled with a porous material saturated with rarefied gas with internal heat generation is studied analytically in this work. The study is performed by analysing the boundary conditions for constant wall heat flux under local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) conditions. Invoking the velocity slip and temperature jump, the thermal behaviour of the porous-fluid system is studied by considering thermally and hydrodynamically fully-developed conditions. The flow inside the porous material is modelled by the Darcy–Brinkman equation. Exact solutions are obtained for both the fluid and solid temperature distributions for two primary approaches models A and B using constant wall heat flux boundary conditions. The temperature distributions and Nusselt numbers for models A and B are compared, and the limiting cases resulting in the convergence or divergence of the two models are also discussed. The effects of pertinent parameters such as fluid to solid effective thermal conductivity ratio, Biot number, Darcy number, velocity slip and temperature jump coefficients, and fluid and solid internal heat generations are also discussed. The results indicate that the Nusselt number decreases with the increase of thermal conductivity ratio for both models. This contrasts results from previous studies which for model A reported that the Nusselt number increases with the increase of thermal conductivity ratio. The Biot number and thermal conductivity ratio are found to have substantial effects on the role of temperature jump coefficient in controlling the Nusselt number for models A and B. The Nusselt numbers calculated using model A change drastically with the variation of solid internal heat generation. In contrast, the Nusselt numbers obtained for model B show a weak dependency on the variation of internal heat generation. The velocity slip coefficient has no noticeable effect on the Nusselt numbers for both models. The difference between the Nusselt numbers calculated using the two models decreases with an increase of the temperature jump coefficient.