Role Ambiguity and conflicts: A study of company secretaries and two-tier boards in the Netherlands

Recent research suggests that company secretaries are increasingly involved in governance responsibilities in addition to traditional administrative tasks. Little is known in the literature, however, about company secretaries' changing governance role, and their daily challenges in liaising with boards and other stakeholders. In addition, few studies have been able to gain access to learn firsthand how company secretaries operate. This exploratory study fills this void by gaining access to the opinions of about one hundred company secretaries in the Netherlands who operate in the two-tier board system. Our findings indicate that company secretaries significantly influence an organisation's governance framework, while they face a number of practical challenges with directors, employees and management in fulfilling their diverse roles and responsibilities.

Irrational addicts and responsible pleasure seekers: Constructions of the drug user

Historically, drug use has been understood as a problem of epidemiology, psychiatry, physiology, and criminality requiring legal and medical governance. Consequently drug research tends to be underpinned by an imperative to better govern, and typically proposes policy interventions to prevent or solve drug problems. We argue that categories of ‘addictive’ and ‘recreational’ drug use are discursive forms of governance that are historically, politically and socially contingent. These constructions of the drug problem shape what drug users believe about themselves and how they enact these beliefs in their drug use practices. Based on qualitative interviews with young illicit drug users in Brisbane, Australia, this paper uses Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality to provide insights into how the governance of illicit drugs intersects with self-governance to create a drug user self. We propose a reconceptualisation of illicit drug use that takes into account the contingencies and subjective factors that shape the drug experience. This allows for an understanding of the relationships between discourses, policies, and practices in constructions of illicit drug users.

Genome-wide linkage analysis of multiple measures of neuroticism of 2 large cohorts from Australia and the Netherlands

CONTEXT People meeting diagnostic criteria for anxiety or depressive disorders tend to score high on the personality scale of neuroticism. Studying this personality dimension can give insights into the etiology of these important psychiatric disorders. OBJECTIVES To undertake a comprehensive genome-wide linkage study of neuroticism using large study samples that have been measured multiple times and to compare the results between countries for replication and across time within countries for consistency. DESIGN Genome-wide linkage scan. SETTING Twin individuals and their family members from Australia and the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS Nineteen thousand six hundred thirty-five sibling pairs completed self-report questionnaires for neuroticism up to 5 times over a period of up to 22 years. Five thousand sixty-nine sibling pairs were genotyped with microsatellite markers. METHODS Nonparametric linkage analyses were conducted in MERLIN-REGRESS for the mean neuroticism scores averaged across time. Additional analyses were conducted for the time-specific measures of neuroticism from each country to investigate consistency of linkage results. RESULTS Three chromosomal regions exceeded empirically derived thresholds for suggestive linkage using mean neuroticism scores: 10p 5 Kosambi cM (cM) (Dutch study sample), 14q 103 cM (Dutch study sample), and 18q 117 cM (combined Australian and Dutch study sample), but only 14q retained significance after correction for multiple testing. These regions all showed evidence for linkage in individual time-specific measures of neuroticism and 1 (18q) showed some evidence for replication between countries. Linkage intervals for these regions all overlap with regions identified in other studies of neuroticism or related traits and/or in studies of anxiety in mice. CONCLUSIONS Our results demonstrate the value of the availability of multiple measures over time and add to the optimism reported in recent reviews for replication of linkage regions for neuroticism. These regions are likely to harbor causal variants for neuroticism and its related psychiatric disorders and can inform prioritization of results from genome-wide association studies.

[Drinking cup of the Chevra Kadisha in Eisenstadt, Austria].

Seven photographic reproductions of a white porcelain ceremonial drinking cup used circa 1715 by the local Chevra Kadisha (burial society) in Eisenstadt, Austria, with Hebrew text and depictions of a Jewish funeral around the circumference.

Can the dead speak? appropriation and rewriting of the canon in Angela Carters Nights at the circus and in Margaret Atwoods The Penelopiad

Esta dissertação visa estudar como autoras pós-modernas se apropriam e reescrevem textos canônicos em uma tentativa de trazer à tona e desconstruir as metanarrativas patriarcais, que informam tais textos. Tal objetivo pretende ser alcançado através de um estudo sobre a formação do cânone literário, dos conceitos de mito e principalmente das estratégias narrativas utilizadas por essas autoras em seu processo criativo. Para tal, um estudo sobre intertextualidade, a paródia e a intertextualidade paródica é levado a cabo nesta dissertação. Dois romances figuram como objeto de investigação neste trabalho. O romance Nights at the Circus, da escritora inglesa Angela Carter, é o primeiro a ser analisado. Nesse romance, as estratégias de apagamento das fronteiras entre os gêneros e a intertextualidade paródica entre textos e mitos clássicos como formas de apropriação e subversão do cânone, são privilegiadas. O outro romance que se faz presente nesta dissertação é a obra da autora canadense Margaret Atwood intitulada The Penelopiad. Nesse romance, personagens que antes eram marginalizados ou não tinham voz figuram como personagens principais, como é o caso de Penélope e de suas doze criadas. Esta dissertação visa, assim, mostrar como essas apropriações de textos canônicos exercem um papel fundamental no questionamento da artificialidade de discursos que são naturalizados e dos valores propagados pelos mesmos

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 1. Preliminary report: introduction and description of the stations

The Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission of 1970 investigated and made collections from 36 flowing water systems (brooks, torrents, rivers); of these, 34 water systems were in the mountains regions of south-west and south-east of Sri Lanka. In the crystalline mountain region, the water systems are extremely poor in electrolytes, very soft and slightly acid; these torrential streams have strong falls, high flow velocities and boulder bottoms. The water temperatures increase from the sources and brooks at 2,000 m altitude to the mouths from 15°C to 28°C. The density of animal population (macro and meso-fauna) increases from the river bank regions (and pools) towards the sections with strong current and reaches on the rocks in the cascades a density of 500 to appr. 750 individuals/1/16m².

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 2. Hydrochemical studies on mountain rivers in Ceylon

The morphology, climate, geology and geochemistry of Sri Lanka is briefly described. The separation into a wet zone (the south-west and greater part of the central highland) and a dry zone with two very dry parts in the south-east and in the north-west, is obvious and has great influence on the hydrochemistry of the island. Geology is very homogenous (Precambrian crystalline series) and some Jurassic and Miocene limestones (only in the north).

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 3. Uber einige wassermilben aus Ceylon (Hydrachnellae, Acari)

In the study are described five species of watermites, collected by the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 in torrents of the highlands of south-west Sri Lanka. The species are: Torrenticola (Monatractides) pusta Cook, 1967, T.(M.) Oxystoma hamata (Lundbald, 1941), T.(M.) ceylonensis nov. spec., Atractides schwoerbeli Lundbald, 1969 and Arrenurus (Micruracarus) madaraszi Daday, 1898.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 4. List of reptilia and amphibia collected in the mountains of south-west Ceylon, with notes on finding localities

Sri Lanka is a comparatively small island (65.584 km²) within the equatorial belt of calms. There are only slight seasonal variations in temperature, air humidity and day length. A description is given of the amphibian and reptile material brought back from the Austrian Indo-Pacific expedition, 1970-71. Some notes on the habitat of the animals are included.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 5. Decapoda Caridea

The first comprehensive study on the freshwater Caridea of Sri Lanka was by Arudpragrasm and Costa in 1961. Although it was the intention of these authors to continue this study no opportunity was available to them. The present faunal survey however has afforded the present writer to make a detailed study of the distribution of these shrimps especially in the mountain streams of the south-west of Sri Lanka. Two species and two sub-species of Caridina, one species of Atya and four species of Macrobrachium were collected by the hydrobiological mission from the hill streams of Sri Lanka.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 6. A new Drepanosticta from Ceylon (Order: Odonata; insecta)

The author describe a new species of Drepanosticta from Sri Lanka. This new species is named in honour of the collector, Professor Dr. F. Starmühlner.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 7. Dryopidae and Elminthidae of Ceylon

This report comprises a summary of parasitic copepods from fishes in Ceylon, as isolated from the branchial material of fishes belonging to previous collections. Seven copepod species are described in detail, as well as one species of Branchiura and one species of Isopoda. Caution is advocated to avoid further introductions via parasite-infested fishes, since only four of the above species are endemic.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 9. Dytiscidae (Coleoptera)

The intensive collecting of Prof. Dr. F. Starmühlner and Prof. Dr. H. H. Costa in Ceylon in 1970 produced among others some Dysticidae. The material turned out to be especially interesting as it comes all together from running waters, in which otherwise collecting is infrequent. From Sri Lanka quite a lot of species of Dytiscidae are already known.

Results of the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission 1970 of the 1st Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna (Austria) and the Department of Zoology of the Vidyalankara University of Ceylon, Kelaniya. Pt. 10. Freshwater triclads (Turbellaria, Tricladida) from Ceylon

The collection of Triclads from the Austrian-Ceylonese hydrobiological mission originates from 23 streams in the mountains of the south of Sri Lanka. All collected animals are of the Dugesia gonocephala (Dug.) type. Unfortunately the determinable mature animals were very rare in the samples but it seems certain that all the Triclads, found by the mission, belong to Dugesia nannophallus, described by Ball in 1970 after two individuals from Dunhinda, Badulla (Prov. Uva, Sri Lanka).