An empirical mixed model to quantify climate influence on the growth of Pinus halepensis Mill. stands in South-Eastern Spain

The influence of climate on forest stand composition, development and growth is undeniable. Many studies have tried to quantify the effect of climatic variables on forest growth and yield. These works become especially important because there is a need to predict the effects of climate change on the development of forest ecosystems. One of the ways of facing this problem is the inclusion of climatic variables into the classic empirical growth models. The work has a double objective: (i) to identify the indicators which best describe the effect of climate on Pinus halepensis growth and (ii) to quantify such effect in several scenarios of rainfall decrease which are likely to occur in the Mediterranean area. A growth mixed model for P. halepensis including climatic variables is presented in this work. Growth estimates are based on data from the Spanish National Forest Inventory (SNFI). The best results are obtained for the indices including rainfall, or rainfall and temperature together, with annual precipitation, precipitation effectiveness, Emberger?s index or free bioclimatic intensity standing out among them. The final model includes Emberger?s index, free bioclimatic intensity and interactions between competition and climate indices. The results obtained show that a rainfall decrease about 5% leads to a decrease in volume growth of 5.5?7.5% depending on site quality.

Mammalian dwarfins are phosphorylated in response to transforming growth factor beta and are implicated in control of cell growth.

The dwarfin protein family has been genetically implicated in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta)-like signaling pathways in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. To investigate the role of these proteins in mammalian signaling pathways, we have isolated and studied two murine dwarfins, dwarfin-A and dwarfin-C. Using antibodies against dwarfin-A and dwarfin-C, we show that these two dwarfins and an immunogenically related protein, presumably also a dwarfin, are phosphorylated in a time- and dose-dependent manner in response to TGF-beta. Bone morphogenetic protein 2, a TGF-beta superfamily ligand, induces phosphorylation of only the related dwarfin protein. Thus, TGF-beta superfamily members may use overlapping yet distinct dwarfins to mediate their intracellular signals. Furthermore, transient overexpression of either dwarfin-A or dwarfin-C causes growth arrest, implicating the dwarfins in growth regulation. This work provides strong biochemical and preliminary functional evidence that dwarfin-A and dwarfin-C represent prototypic members of a family of mammalian proteins that may serve as mediators of signaling pathways for TGF-beta superfamily members.

Intervenções de enfermagem na prevenção da pneumonia associada à ventilação mecânica

Relatório de Trabalho de Projeto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Enfermagem Médico-cirúrgica

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module X: medical emergencies.

Mode of access: Internet.

National training course, emergency medical technician - paramedic. Instructor's lesson plans. Module XI: obstetric/gynecologic emergencies.

Mode of access: Internet.

Glimpses of our national parks /

Two editions of this publication were issued in 1916 by the Department of the Interior. The 3d and subsequent editions are brought up to date and issued by the National Park Service.

U.S. Postal Service : a primer on postal worksharing : report to congressional requesters /

"GAO-03-927"

Draft work system design handbook : a guide for integrating technology with human and organizational factors.

"3-91."

Benefit finding in multiple sclerosis, and associations with positive and negative outcomes

This study examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of benefit finding on positive and negative outcomes. A total of 502 people with multiple sclerosis completed a questionnaire at Time 1 and, 3 months later, at Time 2 (n = 404). Measures of illness were collected at Time 1, and number of problems, stress appraisal, benefit finding, subjective health, and negative (global distress, negative affect) and positive (life satisfaction, positive affect, dyadic adjustment) outcomes were measured at Time 2. Factor analyses showed the Benefit Finding scale to have 2 dimensions: Personal Growth and Family Relations Growth. Hierarchical regressions showed that after controlling for the effects of demographics, illness, problems, and appraisal, benefit finding showed strong direct effects on the positive outcomes. Benefit finding did not have a direct effect on distress, or subjective health but had a weak association with negative affect. Family Relations Growth had a stress-buffering effect on distress.

'Looking good, feeling better': Consumption, Control and the Aesthetics of Exclusivity in the Service Encounter

The majority of ‘service’ literature has focused on the production side of service work (i.e. employees and management), while treating the role of the customer and/or consumer as secondary (Korczynski and Ott, 2004). Those authors who have addressed the role consumption plays in shaping and maintaining individuals' self- identity have tended to overemphasize the dominance of consumer culture in shaping ‘our consciousness’ (Ritzer, 1999), with little in the way of empirical evidence to support these assertions. This paper develops the conceptualization of service work and consumer culture literature, by placing more emphasis on the customer in the service encounter. Using an ethnographic study of a ‘high class’ department store, this paper addresses employee and customer identity and the nature of managerial, employee and customer control within this ‘exclusive’ context. Of particular interest is how employees and customer’s ‘embody’ this control. Using Bourdieu’s (1986) conception of class and habitus, the concept of exclusivity goes beyond the management /service worker dyad by providing a means of investigating identity control by the organization over both customers and service workers. However, an organization’s exclusivity is not a closed normative pursuit of control, and shows this enterprise is part of a contested terrain, while revealing the ambiguity and ‘openness’ of control practices and pursuits. In order to uphold the ideal of exclusivity, management, service workers and customers must all engage in a precarious quest for establishing and maintaining a sense of control and/or identity. This paper demonstrates the continuing contradiction between bureaucratic practices of control and consumer culture, and highlights the need for research that investigates the context -dependent nature of control in service-related and consumer studies.

FDI, trade and growth, a causal link?

. FDI, Trade and Growth, a Causal Link? (RP0710) Prof Nigel DRIFFIELD Dr Rakesh BISSOONDEEAL Mayang Pramadhani Non-technical Summary This paper explores the relationship between imports, exports, foreign direct investment and growth. For some time there has been a good deal of debate whether trade and foreign direct investment) FDI are substitutes and complements, with the existing literature generating some rather contradictory findings. We show, for Indonesia that inward FDI and both imports and exports are complementary, and further that FDI causes an increase in trade. This is of particular interest for a country such as Indonesia, that has attracted a high proportion of export-orientated inward investment. This, theoretically at least is associated with an increase in imports, in the form of capital goods and components, but a reduction in imports. We show that the previous literature that fails to find such a relationship does so because both trade and FDI are associated with growth, and previous work ignores these growth effects when seeking to isolate the relationship between trade and FDI.

Development of the Sphere Overlap Scale (SOS) : compartmentalization and the spillover hypothesis

The purpose of this study was to create a scale that could measure compartmentalization. In the first of two studies 311 working undergraduates were asked to indicate agreement with 119 items that measured compartmentalization. The resulting scale's reliability and validity were evaluated by having a second sample of 312 working students complete the items that comprise a sphere overlap scale, two measures of spillover, and a measure of personality, coping, and demoralization. Although the study's original goal was not realized, its procedures were successful in developing a short (10-item) measure of work-to-home spillover whose items loaded on a single factor. Structural equation modeling indicated that SOS items were correlated with existing measures of spillover and could be discriminated from related concepts of personality and coping. The SOS was also more highly correlated with demoralization than existing measures of spillover in hierarchical analyses that controlled for demographic factors, personality characteristics, and coping style. It is concluded that the SOS shows enough promise to warrant the cost of its appraisal as an alternative measure of spillover in a longitudinal study.

Perspectives on gender, migration and transnational work: joint work of social reproduction and care in Southern Europe

This paper presents the "state of the art" and some of the main issues discussed in relation to the topic of transnational migration and reproductive work in southern Europe. We start doing a genealogy of the complex theoretical development leading to the consolidation of the research program, linking consideration of gender with transnational migration and transformation of work and ways of survival, thus making the production aspects as reproductive, in a context of globalization. The analysis of the process of multiscale reconfiguration of social reproduction and care, with particular attention to its present global dimension is presented, pointing to the turning point of this line of research that would have taken place with the beginning of this century, with the rise notions such as "global care chains" (Hochschild, 2001), or "care drain" (Ehrenreich and Hochschild, 2013). Also, the role of this new agency, now composed in many cases women who migrate to other countries or continents, precisely to address these reproductive activities, is recognized. Finally, reference is made to some of the new conceptual and theoretical developments in this area.

Comunicação proxêmica: ações, reações e sensações de enfermeiros hospitalares

A comunicação proxêmica, dentre outros aspectos, compreende o estudo social dos espaços, das relações interpessoais e de todas as variáveis que dizem respeito à interação entre os seres humanos. É importante o estudo e a aplicação da comunicação proxêmica no cotidiano do trabalho de enfermeiros, para que esta seja compreendida e empregada de maneira producente no processo relacional dos trabalhadores em todos os momentos de sua prática, em especial, do cuidado. Estudo aprovado pelo Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Rio Grande (CEPAS), sob o número 23116.003684/2012-4, com o objetivo de analisar a comunicação proxêmica no trabalho de enfermeiros hospitalares. Estudo de abordagem qualitativa, de cunho descritivo, onde a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de observações não participantes e entrevistas semipadronizadas com 10 enfermeiros da unidade de terapia intensiva e serviço de pronto atendimento de um hospital universitário no Sul do Rio Grande do Sul, mediante assinatura do Termo de Consentimento Livre e Esclarecido. Os dados foram analisados através da Análise Qualitativa de Conteúdo estabelecida por Mayring, de onde emergiram categorias apriorísticas provenientes dos fatores proxêmicos preconizados por Edward Hall: Postura-sexo, Eixo Sociofugo-Sociopeto, Fatores Cinestésicos ou Cinésicos, Comportamento de Contato, Código Visual, Código Térmico, Código Olfativo e Volume da Voz. Os dados foram interpretados a partir das concepções de Hall ( 16 de maio de 1914 – 20 de julho de 2009 †) e as ideias de diversos autores do universo científico. Este processo resultou em dois artigos. No primeiro artigo “A prática da comunicação proxêmica no manejo do cuidado no trabalho de enfermeiros hospitalares” percebeu-se que, embora os enfermeiros reconheçam a importância do toque, do contato físico, para a prestação de um cuidado holístico e humanizado, os fatores cinésicos/cinestésicos e comportamento de contato, estão associados à avaliação e ao diagnóstico. Com relação às questões térmicas e olfativas os profissionais omitem em suas reações os constrangimentos oriundos das sensações desagradáveis que o toque na pele ou os odores dos pacientes podem causar. Já no segundo artigo intitulado “A comunicação proxêmica na prática de enfermeiros hospitalares”, verificou-se que apenas um dos sujeitos do estudo não estabeleceu contato visual com o paciente. A maioria dos sujeitos empregou um tom de voz normal nas interações com os pacientes. O sexo não influenciou na postura dos interlocutores, como demonstrou o fator postura-sexo e as posições dos enfermeiros ao executar as tarefas diárias, entre face a face e lateralizada, e nenhum dos sujeitos posicionou-se de costas durante as interações, como pode-se perceber através do estudo do eixo sociofugo-sociopeto. O estudo também promoveu reflexões a respeito da comunicação proxêmica e da importância de sua incorporação ao trabalho dos enfermeiros.

Dancing the Archive: Rhythms of Change in Post-Volcano Identities on Montserrat, West Indies

In this dissertation, I demonstrate how improvisations within the structures of performance during Montserrat’s annual festivals produce “rhythms of change” that contribute to the formation of cultural identities. Montserrat is a small island of 39.5 square miles in the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands, and a volcanic disaster in the 1990s led to the loss of villages, homes, and material possessions. The crisis resulted in mass displacement and emigration, and today’s remaining population of 5,000 is now in a stage of post-volcano redevelopment. The reliability of written archives for establishing cultural knowledge is tenuous, and the community is faced with re-energizing cherished cultural traditions. This ethnographic research traces my embodied search for Montserrat’s history through an archive that is itself intangible and performative. Festivals produce some of the island’s most visible and culturally political events, and music and dance performances prompt on- and off-stage discussions about the island’s multifaceted heritage. The festival cycle provides the structure for ongoing renegotiations of what it means to be “Montserratian.” I focus especially on the island’s often-discussed and debated “triangular” heritage of Irishness, Africanness, and Montserratianness as it is performed during the festivals. Through my meanderings along the winding hilly roads of Montserrat, I explored reconfigurations of cultural memory through the island’s masquerade dance tradition and other festival celebrations. In this work, I introduce a “Cast of Characters,” each of whose scholarly, artistic, and public service work on Montserrat contributes to the shape and transformation of the island’s post-volcano cultural identities today. This dissertation is about the kinesthetic transmission of shared (and sometimes unshared) cultural knowledge, the substance of which echoes in the rhythms of Montserrat’s music and dance practices today.