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A systematic review of the effect of early onset cognitive rehabilitation on acquired brain injury patients from a neural perspective.
Get PDFCognitive impairments are a frequent consequence of acquired brain injury (ABI) and highly interfere with daily life functioning and quality of life. Therefore, these cognitive impairments are currently being addressed by compensatory approaches within neuropsychological rehabilitation. However, restoring the cognitive function would be preferred for patients and their surroundings. Several studies support this restorative approach, since they found that a period of increased neural plasticity is seen in the first three months after ABI. Neuropsychological rehabilitation starting within this period could maximize neural plasticity and therefore functional improvement. To examine this hypothesis and to provide guidelines for clinical practice and future research, a systematic review of randomized controlled trials on early onset cognitive rehabilitation programmes for ABI patients has been executed. A total of thirty studies were included from January 1970 till August 2010 studying 1988 patients. Thirty-seven per cent was found to be effective in restoring (partly) multiple domains of cognitive functioning, especially visuospatial functioning and awareness. The influence of intervention onset on cognitive functioning was evaluated by comparing the effectiveness of early onset rehabilitation programmes and late onset rehabilitation programmes. A new theoretical model, the Interplay Model, and guidelines for a more restorative approach in clinical practice and future research are discussed.
Shipment Consolidation - The Airbus Helicopter France Case
No full textIn this paper, methods to realize cost savings for Airbus Helicopters France are considered. This company makes a lot of shipments on different origin-destination pairs. By consolidating different shipments, bigger shipments can be sent to which lower cost/kg apply. In order to schedule such consolidations when orders come in at short notice, different policies are considered and a mixed integer linear program is designed. These methods are implemented and tested on different test instances. Their performances on cost savings and running times are compared and this shows that the policies would be more practical for day-to-day use, but that the mixed integer linear program generates more cost savings when Airbus Helicopters France strictly has to meet its customer’s preferences.
What drives the decreasing corporate tax rates? An empirical research on tax competition
Get PDFThis paper uses panel data from 34 OECD countries over the period 1981-2014 to find out what the determinants of corporate income tax rates are. Dividing previous literature on the topic of tax competition in three different strands, it is found that strategic fiscal interactions between countries are the main driver of corporate tax rate setting behaviour by countries. Moreover, in line with previous literature a permanent positive shock in capital mobility due to economic integration is found to decrease the statutory tax rate. Year-to-year effects in capital mobility due to openness appear to be insignificant. No evidence is found for a moderating effect of economic integration due to increased cooperation on strategic fiscal interactions
Visions of vision: governments, companies, activists and how they deal with visibility, transparency and surveillance
Get PDFIn recent years, the demand for more transparency and less surveillance is omnipresent. This demand implies that surveillance and transparency have no overlap. While surveillance has been extensively researched by scholars such as Foucault, Ganascia and Mann, transparency is more often invoked that defined. This study investigates several attempts at transparency from a wide variety of fields and elaborates on their advantages and disadvantages. It is argued that there are structural differences in various attempts at transparency. Nevertheless, transparency is not inherently good and can easily be turned into a system of surveillance
French Politicians on Facebook and Twitter. Revitalizing political representation?
Get PDFIn contrast to the previous contribution, this paper tackles the issue of transparency and social media with a more national perspective. By looking at French deputies posts on Facebook and Twitter, but also by directly inquiring how French citizens assess the issue of political transparency on social media, this analysis aims at providing new insights into the issue as to whether the presence of politicians on social media can affect power relations between citizens and politicians. The underlying rationale is to find out whether this form of transparency ultimately enhances representative democracy.Over the last decades transparency has often been depicted as the ultimate remedy for various political, economic and societal problems. Stiglitz (1999; 2000; 2002) outlines the significance of transparency for averting market failures and enhancing public financing. Similarly, Lindstedt and Naurin (2010) investigate the capacity of transparency to reduce corruption and achieve fairer and more efficient governance, while Schultz and Kenneth (1998) analyse how better means of communication and transparency can diminish risks of war and international conflicts. Recent cases and scandals have added fuel to debates about transparency. The Luxleaks affair revealed the need for more transparency with regard to existing tax schemes for multinational companies (Gotev, 2015). The opacity of the TTIP negotiations has made experts and citizens suspicious regarding the content of this trading agreement and signal the risk of lowering safety standards and endangering customers’ safety. If we turn to the realm of politics, we quickly notice that the relationship between transparency and democracy has provoked intense and convoluted debates. Is transparency of governments a necessary feature of democratic regimes? Or, is transparency a political key for better governance? In his succinct definition of democracy, Schumpeter (1942) did not yet consider transparency as an inherent and essential characteristic of democratic regimes. Democracy, he argues, is only determined by the electoral competition and free elections. By contrast, Dahl (1971) - with his famous concept of Poliarchy – places transparency at the core of the democratic framework. As he claims, a democratic regime is not only a regime in which electors have the right to freely vote for their future representatives and governments, it is also a system that allows its citizens to be fully informed - by different and independent sources of information - before they cast their ballot. This implies a free and transparent flow of information
Conclusion
Get PDFBased on the Baconian imperative that "knowledge is power", the drive for transparency gathers up ever-more speed. Especially in politics and economics, transparency has become a widely used catchphrase. Transparency is supposed to alter information asymmetries, improve market efficiency and establish a more inclusive and fair political praxis. While transparency is hoped to alter power relations, and thus to be a revolutionary or at least a reformative tool, surveillance is the privilege of those already in power, and thus regarded as a reactionary tool. The studies in this joint volume have investigated this dichotomy by looking at various actors in regard to their possibility to change or cement existing power relations, symmetries, improve market efficiency, and establish a more inclusive and fair political praxis. While transparency is hoped to alter power relations, and thus to be a revolutionary or at least a reformative tool, surveillance is the privilege of those already in power. Each contribution, in its unique way, took a skeptical stance towards potential power shifts induced through societal or behavioral changes. This book examined a multitude of societal actors and the power relations between them. Although all contributions highlighted very different subject matters, some common themes emerged. These common themes ought to be highlighted in this final section. Moreover, this final chapter allows us to briefly summarise the central themes and most important finding of each article. The first contribution treats surveillance and transparency as two sides of the same coin in the sense that both are attempts at changing behaviour by increasing the visibility of actors. Zeijl examines several attempts at transparency from a wide variety of actors. He argues that transparency, as it is currently put in practice by governments and companies, is more lip service than real concern with accountability and openness. Zeijl claims that these attempts at transparency are influenced by the logic of surveillance and therefore consolidate already existing power relations. While there are alternative ways of constructing transparency, they all have possible adverse effects that cannot and should not be easily cast aside. Therefore, one needs to critically assess what the exact benefits of transparency are in order to reach a balanced judgement on whether these possible adverse effects are worth the risk. Since transparency is more often invoked than defined, it is absolutely crucial to pay attention to the structure that transparency is supposed to assume, its organisation, its agents, and its potential impacts. Otherwise, transparency becomes a metaphysical catchphrase to graze (political) support rather than a real concern for accountability and openness
Accountability and Risk Governance: A Scenario-informed Reflection on European Regulation of GMOs
Get PDFScientific and technological progress in an ever more globalized economy has resulted innew innovations, which have often contributed to improved living conditions (Archibugiand Iammarino 1999; Archibugi and Pietrobelli 2003; Castells 1999; International MonetaryFund 2000). Yet, the very same progress has produced unprecedented risks, which are oftenuncertain and incalculable in nature (Giddens 1991; Beck 1986, 1999). Such ‘uncertain risks’are usually associated with large-scale, long-term and transboundary hazards with whichsociety has no or only limited experience (van Asselt and Vos 2008; van Asselt et al. 2009).As a result, their risk potential is highly contested. An exemplary uncertain risk is posedby genetically modified organisms (GMOs).1 As it is contested whether GMOs constitutea risk to the environment and/or human health, scholars have pointed out that GMOsshould be conceived of in terms of uncertainty (ibid.; Lang and Hallmann 2005; Levidow etal. 2005). Indeed, even though scientific or historical proofs of harmful consequences withregard to GMOs are lacking, “suspicions cannot be fully refuted either” (van Asselt andVos 2008, 281). A decisive question is thus how to take decisions in the face of uncertainty(Beck 1999; Löfstedt, 2009)
Transatlantic Differences in GMO Regulation
Get PDFA Case Study ApproachWhen it comes to GMOs the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) have chosen strictly opposing paths, although they were confronted with the same questions and information surrounding the GMO debate. With the statement above, Dan Glickman,the former United States Secretary of Agriculture, expressed his concern about the state of public opinion on biotechnology in Europe. It is a nice illustration of some of the differences and stereotypes surrounding the topic of genetically modified organisms (GMOs): whereas, for instance, the European regulatory system is generally characterised as politicised, decentralised and precautionary, the US system is often said to be the complete opposite, namely technocratic, centralised and sound science-based.The strikingly different regulatory approaches towards GMOs have created an international debate regarding the production, cultivation and consumption of food made from or with GMOs. The different regulatory approaches employed by the EU and the US “created serious obstacles to the export of agricultural products from the United States, and in turn raised the prospect of a major international trade war over the approval and marketing of GM foods and crops” (Shaffer, 2004, p. 2). In 2003, the conflict culminated in a World Trade Organization (WTO) case filed by the US, Canada and Argentina against the EU. Inter alia, the complainants challenged the unofficial de facto moratorium of the EU on the approval of biotech products and the national safeguard measures adopted by certain Member States (WTO, 2010). In 2006, the WTO ruled that the EU was indeed breaching its obligations under the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). The regulatory differences in GMO regulation between the EU and the US have triggered a debate which has attracted the attention of scholars from various different disciplines and academic backgrounds. Jasanoff, for example, uses the concept of political culture to show that the different approaches taken by the EU and the US reflect “more or less self-conscious projects of nation-building” (Jasanoff, 2007, p.7). Vogel, by contrast, examines the regulatory differences from a political scientist´s perspective proposing three interrelated factors – the intensity of public pressure, the political preference of influential policy makers, and the criteria used for risk assessment – in order to account for the transatlantic regulatory divergence of GMOs (Vogel, 2012). Also jurists like Wiener and Alemanno have engaged in the topic focusing inter alia on the application of the precautionary principle in the EU and the US, or the role of the WTO (Wiener J.B., Rogers, M.B., Hammit, J.K., Sand, P.H., 2011; Alemanno, 2010)
What is the influence of complement factor C3 and lipid metabolism of adipose tissue on hepatic steatosis in mice?
Get PDFNALFD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) represents a fatty liver whereby lipid accumulation (steatosis) occurs. In recent decades, the prevalence of NAFLD has dramatically increased. Activation of the complement system, which is an important subset of the immune system, and especially complement factor C3, may have a significant role in the progression of NAFLD. In this study is examined if there are, next to alterations in hepatic lipid metabolism, also alterations present in the lipid metabolism of adipose tissue. It appears that acylation stimulating protein (ASP) has an important role in linking the activation of complement and lipid metabolism of adipose tissue in NAFLD. In this study the following research question is stated: What is the influence of complement factor C3 and the lipid metabolism of adipose tissue on hepatic steatosis in mice? It is expected that wild type mice on a HFD diet will show the highest hepatic lipid accumulation. Furthermore the expression of some enzymes involved in lipid metabolism will be altered. Liver and adipose tissue from C3+/+ (n=17) and C3-/- (n=17) mice is used. The control group (n=12) received a chow diet and the experimental group (n=22) a high fat diet (HFD). The hepatic lipid accumulation and the expression of some enzymes, involved in the lipid metabolism of adipose tissue, are determined in these mice. The results, showed no significant differences in lipid accumulation between both mouse groups. The expression levels of the enzymes FASN, SCD1, PPARγ and DGAT1 were significantly different between the diets in one or both mouse groups. The expression of the enzymes HSL and DGAT1 were significantly higher in the C3+/+ mice compared to the C3-/- mice. It can be concluded from histological stainings and preliminary scoring results that hepatic lipid accumulation occurs the most in C3+/+ mice on a HFD. However it seems that lipids do not only accumulate by C3 activation, but also other mechanisms seems to play a role. It is assumed that in C3-/- mice the ASP pathway is disturbed, which will lead to an increased flux of fatty acids to the liver. In C3+/+ mice there is a higher adipose tissue lipolysis and lipogenesis present since the expression of HSL and DGAT were increased
The socioeconomic roots of shame and perceptions of social inadequacy
Get PDFIntroduction. Cumulating reports on the adverse health effects of income inequality hypothesise on underlying processes related to health compromising, negative social comparisons in people with a low socioeconomic status (compared to those who are socioeconomically better-off). As this hypothesis of “internalized inferiority” has not yet been examined explicitly, we set out to examine whether internalized inferiority is indeed more common in low socioeconomic status groups. Method. Dutch SMILE data on 1,477 participants, aged 58-94 in 2008 were used. Income in adulthood (measured several times between 2002 and 2008), education in adulthood (measured several times between 2002 and 2008), education of parents (measured in 2005), and poverty in childhood (measured in 2004) were related to general shame (measured in 2009) and social inadequacy (measured in 2004 and 2008), using logistic regression analyses. Results. Both education and income-related socioeconomic measures from childhood and adulthood had independent associations with social inadequacy. Poverty in childhood was related to reports of general shame. Discussion.In this cohort the socioeconomic status of middle-aged and older men and women, especially its financial component, impacts cognitions and feelings of internalized inferiority. Childhood socioeconomic circumstances, particularly experiences of poverty, contributed independently. Our findings suggest that negative social comparisons and internalized inferiority might be possible key players in the association between low socioeconomic status and poor health