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Significant Aspects (significant + aspect)
Selected AbstractsTarget transform fitting: a new method for the non-linear fitting of multivariate data with separable parametersJOURNAL OF CHEMOMETRICS, Issue 6 2001Porn Jandanklang Abstract Data fitting is an important technique in chemistry. The number of parameters to be fitted is a most significant aspect: the larger the number, the more difficult the task. A unique combination of target factor analysis with non-linear data fitting can result in complete or partial separation of the parameters, which can then be fitted independently. Thus, instead of one multiparameter fit, several fits are performed with only one or a few parameters. The procedure can also support model development. Applications in kinetics and chromatography are presented. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Moving beyond clarity: towards a thin, vague, and useful understanding of spirituality in nursing careNURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2010John Swinton RMN RNMD BD PhD Abstract Spirituality is a highly contested concept. Within the nursing literature, there are a huge range and diversity of definitions, some of which appear coherent whereas others seem quite disparate and unconnected. This vagueness within the nursing literature has led some to suggest that spirituality is so diverse as to be meaningless. Are the critics correct in asserting that the vagueness that surrounds spirituality invalidates it as a significant aspect of care? We think not. It is in fact the vagueness of the concept that is its strength and value. In this paper, we offer a critique of the general apologetic that surrounds the use of the language of spirituality in nursing. With the critics, we agree that the term ,spirituality' is used in endlessly different and loose ways. Similarly, we agree that these varied definitions may not refer to constant essences or objects within people or in the world. However, we fundamentally disagree that this makes spirituality irrelevant or of little practical utility. Quite the opposite; properly understood, the vagueness and lack of clarity around the term spirituality is actually a strength that has powerful political, social, and clinical implications. We develop an understanding of spirituality as a way of naming absences and recognizing gaps in healthcare provision as well as a prophetic challenge to some of the ways in which we practise health care within a secular and sometimes secularizing context such as the National Health Service. [source] Experience of spirituality, mental illness and occupation: A life-sustaining phenomenonAUSTRALIAN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005Clare Wilding Background and Aim:,This article provides an overview of a phenomenological investigation of spirituality with six people who have experienced mental illness. The study aimed to gain a greater understanding of the phenomenon of spirituality and its relationships to occupation and the experience of mental illness. Methods and Results:,Participants were interviewed and the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Findings emerged through multiple readings and gradually constructed meanings from the data. Spirituality was found to be: unique to each participant, a journey through life, vitally important to participants, manifested as ,spiritual occupations', the foundation of meaningful doing, important socially as well as individually, and was found to support participants in coping with mental illness. This article focuses on the ,meta', integrative theme of spirituality as life sustaining. It concludes with the notion that spirituality is essential to the participants and is a significant aspect of their occupational behaviour. Conclusion:,It is recommended that occupational therapists give themselves a ,licence' to discuss spirituality in practice and that they commit to learning more about how spirituality is a part of the lives of their clients. [source] Choosing strategic responses to address emerging environmental regulations: size, perceived influence and uncertaintyBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 8 2008Bruce Clemens Abstract How companies respond to impending regulations is a significant aspect of corporate strategy. Regulations, especially environmental regulations, are expanding quickly and increasingly important to firm success. The threat of impending environmental regulation forces companies to choose levels of strategic responses on a continuum from passive to active. Using practitioner oriented research and existing theoretical models of corporate response, this study finds that the type of strategic response is negatively related to size, positively related to state uncertainty and negatively related to effect/response uncertainty. Based on existing literature and the results of this study, the paper suggests that simplifying the uncertainty construct could lead to more definitive findings in future research. The study results also suggest that a curvilinear relationship may exist between managerial perception of influence and level of strategic response. Most importantly, the findings could have a significant impact on firm decision making regarding environmental investments. For example, it is hoped that firms will be able to use the findings of this study to further understand and anticipate their competitors' decisions. Practitioners may also benefit from the conclusions on uncertainty in that they may be able to more cleanly parse the types of uncertainty immersed in impending environmental regulations. Finally, firms may be better able to understand decisions by their own managers and their competitors' managers in terms of their perceived influence over the regulatory process. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Two-dimensional inversion of magnetotelluric data with consecutive use of conjugate gradient and least-squares solution with singular value decomposition algorithmsGEOPHYSICAL PROSPECTING, Issue 1 2008M. Emin Candansayar ABSTRACT I investigated the two-dimensional magnetotelluric data inversion algorithms in studying two significant aspects within a linearized inversion approach. The first one is the method of minimization and second one is the type of stabilizing functional used in parametric functionals. The results of two well-known inversion algorithms, namely conjugate gradient and the least-squares solution with singular value decomposition, were compared in terms of accuracy and CPU time. In addition, magnetotelluric data inversion with various stabilizers, such as L2-norm, smoothing, minimum support, minimum gradient support and first-order minimum entropy, were examined. A new inversion algorithm named least-squares solution with singular value decomposition and conjugate gradient is suggested in seeing the outcomes of the comparisons carried out on least-squares solutions with singular value decomposition and conjugate gradient algorithms subject to a variety of stabilizers. Inversion results of synthetic data showed that the newly suggested algorithm yields better results than those of the individual implementations of conjugate gradient and least-squares solution with singular value decomposition algorithms. The suggested algorithm and the above-mentioned algorithms inversion results for the field data collected along a line crossing the North Anatolian Fault zone were also compared each other and results are discussed. [source] Evidence of dietary differentiation among late Paleocene,early Eocene plesiadapids (Mammalia, primates)AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Doug M. Boyer Abstract Plesiadapis cookei is an extinct relative of extant euarchontans (primates, dermopterans; scandentians), which lived in North America during the late Paleocene. P. cookei body mass has been estimated to be ,2.2 kg, making it large compared with other species of its genus from North America, but similar to some from Europe. In particular, size as well as dental form similarities to P. russelli have been noted. However, it is thought that P. russelli evolved from P. tricuspidens, and into Platychoerops daubrei. Dental similarities among P. cookei, P. russelli, and P. daubrei have been hypothesized to reflect a more folivorous diet than utilized by P. tricuspidens. Here we test the hypothesis that P. cookei is more dietarily specialized than P. tricuspidens by quantifying functionally significant aspects of molar, premolar, and incisor forms. Casts of M2s and P4s of P. tricuspidens, P. cookei, and P. daubrei were microCT-scanned. We measured the relief index and/or the complexity from surface reconstructions of scans. Results show that P. cookei has higher M2 relief and complexity than P. tricuspidens; P. daubrei exhibits the highest relief and complexity. Similarly, P. cookei has a more complex P4 than P. tricuspidens, whereas that of P. daubrei exhibits the highest complexity. Finally, the I1 of P. cookei resembles more the incisor of P. daubrei than that of P. tricuspidens. Because high relief and complexity of dentitions are related to fibrous plant diets in living mammals, these findings support the hypothesis that previously identified similarities among P. cookei, P. russelli and P. daubrei reflect a folivorous diet. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] The role of nursing unit culture in shaping research utilization behaviors,RESEARCH IN NURSING & HEALTH, Issue 4 2008Shannon D. Scott Abstract We conducted a focused ethnography of a pediatric critical care unit to examine the role of nursing unit culture related to research utilization. Four significant aspects of the unit culture shaped nurses' research utilization. A hierarchical structure of authority, routinized and technology-driven work at the bedside, a workplace ethos that discouraged innovation, and an emphasis on clinical experience acted together to teach nurses both that they were to do as they were told and that they were not expected to use research. Nurses perceived that the behaviors expected of them were arbitrarily determined by physicians and managers in charge. Consequently, they were reluctant to step outside of routine and physician-ordered nursing care. This left little opportunity for research utilization. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 31:298,309, 2008 [source] Double child burial from sunghir (Russia): Pathology and inferences for upper paleolithic funerary practicesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2004Vincenzo Formicola Abstract The double child burial from Sunghir (Russia) is a spectacular Mid Upper Palaeolithic funerary example dated to about 24,000 BP. A boy (Sunghir 2) and a girl (Sunghir 3), about 12,13 and 9,10 years old, respectively, were buried at the same time, head to head, covered by red ocher and ornamented with extraordinarily rich grave goods. Examination of the two skeletons reveals that the Sunghir 3 femora are short and exhibit marked antero-posterior bowing. The two femora do not show any asymmetry in the degree of shortening and bowing. Bowing affects the whole diaphysis and shows a regularly incurved profile, with the highest point at midshaft. Pathology is confined to the femora, and no other part of this well-preserved specimen shows abnormality. The isolated nature of the Sunghir 3 anomalies points to cases reported in the medical literature under the label of "congenital bowing of long bones" (CBLB). These are a group of rare conditions exhibiting localized, sometimes bilateral, bowing and shortening which are nonspecific and may result from different causes, including abnormalities of the primary cartilaginous anlage (i.e., the aggregation of cells representing the first trace of an organ). Localized ossification disturbances, possibly linked to a diabetic maternal condition, might explain the shortening and the coincidence of maximum midshaft curvature with the position of the primary ossification center, as well as the lack of involvement of other skeletal parts. This scenario, rather than other possibilities (early bilateral midshaft fracture, acute plastic bowing deformities, or faulty fetal posture), provides the most likely explanation for the Sunghir 3 femoral deformities. The intriguing combination of a pathological condition apparent since birth with a spectacular burial of unusually positioned young individuals of different sexes recalls significant aspects of the triple burial from the contemporary site of Dolní V,stonice (Moravia), evoking a patterned relationship between physical abnormality and extraordinary Upper Paleolithic funerary behavior. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Neural Optimization of Fed-batch Streptokinase Fermentation in a Non-ideal BioreactorTHE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2002Pratap R. PatnaikArticle first published online: 19 MAY 200 Abstract Microbial fermentations involving two or more kinds of competing cells and operating under realistic conditions are difficult to monitor, model and optimize by model-based methods. They deviate from ideal behavior in two significant aspects: incomplete dispersion in the broth and the influx of disturbances. The approach here has been to optimize the filtered noise and dispersion on-line through neural networks. This method has been applied to the fed-batch production of streptokinase (SK). The culture has two kinds of cells , active (or productive) and inactive , and their growth is inhibited by the substrate and the primary metabolite (lactic acid). Using simulated data, the fermentation was optimized by a system of three neural networks, updated continually during successive time intervals. Such sequential optimization with dynamic filtering of inflow noise generated better cell growth and SK activity than static optimization and even an ideal fermentation. Les fermentations microbiennes faisant intervenir deux ou plusieurs sortes de cellules en compétition et se déroulant dans des conditions réelles, sont difficiles à surveiller, à modéliser et à optimiser par des méthodes basées sur des modèles. De telles fermentations s'écartent du comportement idéal dans deux voies importantes : la dispersion incomplète dans le bouillon et la venue de perturbations. Notre approche consiste ici à optimiser le bruit filtré et la dispersion en continu par des réseaux neuronaux. Cette méthode a été appliquée à la production à alimentation discontinue de streptokinase (SK). La culture comporte deux sortes de cellules , actives (ou productives) ou inactives , et leur croissance est inhibée par le substrat et la métabolite primaire (acide lactique). À l'aide de données simulées, la fermentation a été optimisée par un système de trois réseaux neuronaux, qui ont été mis à jour continuellement à des intervalles de temps successifs. Une telle optimisation séquentielle avec filtrage dynamique du bruit génère une meilleure croissance des cellules et activité du SK que l'optimisation statique et même la fermentation idéale. [source] Social Movements and Development In Quebec: The Experience of the Desjardins MovementANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2001Roger Levasseur Along with the other sectors of the banking industry over the last two decades, the savings and credit cooperatives have been affected by deep currents which are radically changing their form and structure. In Quebec, the Desjardins movement is at present involved in a fundamental reform of the organizational structures which have characterized its growth since the period between the two world wars. This article deals with the major transformations which the Desjardins movement experienced, from the creation of the first caisse populaire in 1900 to the situation existing at the end of the twentieth century. Using an approach at the junction of history and sociology, it considers the Desjardins movement as one of the components of what Alain Touraine calls a ,social development movement'. We aim to show that the present changes affecting the savings and credit cooperation fall within the long-term historical trends, while at the same time reflecting new phenomena. We shall point out the most significant aspects of these new developments. [source] | |||||||||||||