Association between participation in life situations of children with cerebral palsy and their physical, social, and attitudinal environment:A cross-sectional multicenter European study

Objective:
To evaluate how participation of children with cerebral palsy (CP) varied with their environment.

Design:
Home visits to children. Administration of Assessment of Life Habits and European Child Environment Questionnaires. Structural equation modeling of putative associations between specific domains of participation and environment, while allowing for severity of child's impairments and pain.

Setting:
European regions with population-based registries of children with CP.

Participants:
Children (n=1174) aged 8 to 12 years were randomly selected from 8 population-based registries of children with CP in 6 European countries. Of these, 743 (63%) agreed to participate; 1 further region recruited 75 children from multiple sources. Thus, there were 818 children in the study.

Interventions:
Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measure:
Participation in life situations.

Results:
For the hypothesized associations, the models confirmed that higher participation was associated with better availability of environmental items. Higher participation in daily activities—mealtimes, health hygiene, personal care, and home life—was significantly associated with a better physical environment at home (P<.01). Mobility was associated with transport and physical environment in the community. Participation in social roles (responsibilities, relationships, recreation) was associated with attitudes of classmates and social support at home. School participation was associated with attitudes of teachers and therapists. Environment explained between 14% and 52% of the variation in participation.

Conclusions:
The findings confirmed the social model of disability. The physical, social, and attitudinal environment of disabled children influences their participation in everyday activities and social roles.

Primary assembly of soil communities: disentangling the effect of dispersal and local environment

It has long been recognised that dispersal abilities and environmental factors are important in shaping invertebrate communities, but their relative importance for primary soil community assembly has not yet been disentangled. By studying soil communities along chronosequences on four recently emerged nunataks (ice-free land in glacial areas) in Iceland, we replicated environmental conditions spatially at various geographical distances. This allowed us to determine the underlying factors of primary community assembly with the help of metacommunity theories that predict different levels of dispersal constraints and effects of the local environment. Comparing community assembly of the nunataks with that of non-isolated deglaciated areas indicated that isolation of a few kilometres did not affect the colonisation of the soil invertebrates. When accounting for effects of geographical distances, soil age and plant richness explained a significant part of the variance observed in the distribution of the oribatid mites and collembola communities, respectively. Furthermore, null model analyses revealed less co-occurrence than expected by chance and also convergence in the body size ratio of co-occurring oribatids, which is consistent with species sorting. Geographical distances influenced species composition, indicating that the community is also assembled by dispersal, e.g. mass effect. When all the results are linked together, they demonstrate that local environmental factors are important in structuring the soil community assembly, but are accompanied with effects of dispersal that may "override" the visible effect of the local environment.

Outward foreign direct investment and human capital development:A small country perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) by Irish MNCs, and more specifically, to investigate their approach to human capital development and how these correspond to foreign MNCs in Ireland. In particular, it seeks to investigate training and development expenditure, adoption of succession planning, use of formal development programmes for senior management "potential", and also the presence of a specific "key group" development programme. Design/methodology/approach - Data were obtained through the largest, most representative study ever conducted on multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland. The most senior human resources practitioner in these firms completed a questionnaire, through the personal interview medium, on various facets of their human resource management (HRM) practices. In total 260 usable interviews were completed equating to an overall response rate of 63 per cent. This represents a 78 per cent response rate for Irish MNCs, the primary focus of this paper, and 60 per cent for foreign MNCs. Findings - Overall, Irish MNCs tend to compare favourably with their foreign counterparts in terms of the human capital development mechanisms examined. Only one statistically significant association was found regarding differences between Irish and foreign owned MNCs, Irish MNCs were found to be significantly less likely to have formal management development programmes. Originality/value - The study is the first large scale, representative survey to be conducted on MNCs in Ireland helping to address the research lacuna on Irish owned MNCs. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Non-Markovianity and system-environment correlations in a microscopic collision model

We show that the use of a recently proposed iterative collision model with interenvironment swaps displays a signature of strongly non-Markovian dynamics that is highly dependent on the establishment of system-environment correlations. Two models are investigated: one in which such correlations are canceled iteratively and one in which they are kept all across the dynamics. The degree of non-Markovianity, quantified using a measure based on the trace distance, is found to be much greater for all coupling strengths, when system-environment correlations are maintained.

Autism in the air: using Point of View Video Priming and Natural Environment Teaching to help children with autism travel by plane

This paper describes a study that used video materials and visits to an airport to prepare children on the autism spectrum for travel by plane. Twenty parents and carers took part in the study with children aged from 3 to 16 years. The authors explain that the methods they used were based on Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) research; a video modeling technique called Point-Of-View Video-priming and during visits to an airport they used procedures known as Natural Environment Teaching. The findings suggest that using video and preparing children by taking them through what is likely to happen in the real environment when they travel by plane is effective and the authors suggest these strategies could be used to support children with autism with other experiences they need or would like to engage in such as visits to the dentist or hairdressers and access to leisure centres and other public spaces.

Foreign Direct Investment and Country Risk::Is There Evidence of 'Malign Investment in the Former Soviet States'

This paper examines the relationship between concepts of MNE bargaining power and broader concepts of political power. It notes that the analysis of MNE bargaining power presents a number of puzzles from the perspective of political theory. These puzzles arise, in part, from the fact that the overlap between traditional concepts of MNE bargaining power and broader concepts of political power is only a partial one. Despite these problems, it is suggested that political- theory-based approaches can add realism to our understanding of bargaining power.

The Size Distribution of US Banks and Credit Unions

This study examines the firm size distribution of US banks and credit unions. A truncated lognormal distribution describes the size distribution, measured using assets data, of a large population of small, community-based commercial banks. The size distribution of a smaller but increasingly dominant cohort of large banks, which operate a high-volume low-cost retail banking model, exhibits power-law behaviour. There is a progressive increase in skewness over time, and Zipf’s Law is rejected as a descriptor of the size distribution in the upper tail. By contrast, the asset size distribution of the population of credit unions conforms closely to the lognormal distribution.

Temperament test for re-homed dogs validated through direct behavioral observation in shelter and home environment

This study was the first attempt to carry out a validation of a temperament test (TT) for shelter dogs that addressed the topics of inter- and intra-raters agreements, test-retest reliability, and validity. The TT consisted of 22 subtests. Each dog was approached and handled by an unfamiliar person and made to interact with a same- and an opposite-gender conspecific. Dogs were tested twice in the shelter and once in their new homes 4 months after adoption to evaluate consistency in behavioral assessment. Playfulness, trainability, problem solving abilities, food possessiveness, and reactivity to sudden stimuli were also evaluated. Testers scored dogs' responses in terms of confidence, fearfulness, and aggressiveness. Results highlighted strengths and limits of this TT that was devised to help shelter staff in matching dogs' personality and owners' expectations. Methodological constraints when working with sheltered dogs are unavoidable; however, the test proved to be overall feasible, reliable, and valid although further studies are needed to address the critical issues that emerged. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.