INFOBIOMED: European Network of Excellence on Biomedical Informatics to support individualised healthcare

INFOBIOMED is an European Network of Excellence (NoE) funded by the Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission (EC). A consortium of European organizations from ten different countries is involved within the network. Four pilots, all related to linking clinical and genomic information, are being carried out. From an informatics perspective, various challenges, related to data integration and mining, are included.

The exaptive excellence of spandrels as a term and prototype

In 1979, Lewontin and I borrowed the architectural term “spandrel” (using the pendentives of San Marco in Venice as an example) to designate the class of forms and spaces that arise as necessary byproducts of another decision in design, and not as adaptations for direct utility in themselves. This proposal has generated a large literature featuring two critiques: (i) the terminological claim that the spandrels of San Marco are not true spandrels at all and (ii) the conceptual claim that they are adaptations and not byproducts. The features of the San Marco pendentives that we explicitly defined as spandrel-properties—their necessary number (four) and shape (roughly triangular)—are inevitable architectural byproducts, whatever the structural attributes of the pendentives themselves. The term spandrel may be extended from its particular architectural use for two-dimensional byproducts to the generality of “spaces left over,” a definition that properly includes the San Marco pendentives. Evolutionary biology needs such an explicit term for features arising as byproducts, rather than adaptations, whatever their subsequent exaptive utility. The concept of biological spandrels—including the examples here given of masculinized genitalia in female hyenas, exaptive use of an umbilicus as a brooding chamber by snails, the shoulder hump of the giant Irish deer, and several key features of human mentality—anchors the critique of overreliance upon adaptive scenarios in evolutionary explanation. Causes of historical origin must always be separated from current utilities; their conflation has seriously hampered the evolutionary analysis of form in the history of life.

Communicating excellence in innovation

The innovation–performance relationship is well studied in the literature, but the effect of innovation-based public recognitions is underresearched. This article finds a positive effect, whose magnitude is contingent upon the firm’s growth, experience, and its service–manufacturer character.

Le Royaume de Bosnie, dans son entier, dédié a son Excellence Monseignr. le feld Maréchal Comte de Khewenhüller Colonel d'un Régiment de Dragon Vice Roy d'Esclavonie, du Duché de Syrmie et Gouverneur de la Forteresse d'Essegg etc

le très humble et très obéissant serviteur Étienne Briffaut.

Towards a Definition of Excellence in Sport Coaching

In this paper,we propose different definitions of coaching excellence based on two principles. First,the application of coaching skill,as in any other domain of excellence,is context-dependent. Second, excellent coaches are knowledgeable and constantly assemble mental models that enable them to meet their athletes' needs and to effectively manage the central duties of coaching - organization, training, and competition. Four categories of coaches and corresponding definitions are proposed based on the characteristics of athletes and the developmentally-appropriate sport contexts: 1) participation coaches for children, 2) participation coaches for teens and adults, 3) performance coaches for young adolescents, 4) performance coaches for older adolescents and adults.

Rapport sur la création de colonies cotonnières nationales : présenté à son excellence le ministre de l'agriculture, docteur Damián M. Torino /

Mode of access: Internet.

Excellence in design, a new potential on the American campus: the 1966 awards program,

Includes five addresses and a list of the awards.

National Excellence Awards for the city summit, the United States of America.

Shipping list no.: 96-0259-P.

Involvement in learning : realizing the potential of American higher education : final report of the Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education.

Item 461-D-5

Pursuing excellence : a study of U.S. eighth-grade mathematics and science teaching, learning, curriculum, and achievement in international context /

Mode of access: Internet.

Excellence in energetics.

Mode of access: Internet.

Hispanic contributions to science and engineering : "challenging the future : journey to excellence."

"B - 0405"-P. [3] of cover.

A Quest for excellence : appendix : final report /

"June 1986."