3,887 research outputs found
Post-Acquisition Integration: The Cultural Side of the Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. Acquisition of Seastrand Oil Company, Inc.
No full textOver the years, Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. has acquired several companies, and envisions additional acquisitions to: accelerate the attainment of strategic objectives, increase technical capabilities, assess new markets and clients, diversify services, and expand opportunities for employees. Feedback from Ferguson Paper Company, Inc.’s 2003 acquisition of Seastrand Oil Company, Inc. (SOC)—Ferguson Paper Company, Inc.’s largest acquisition—could provide essential information to improve Ferguson Paper Company, Inc.’s post-acquisition integration efficiency and effectiveness. Research indicated employees’ expectations (e.g., level of integration and synergy level) are difficult to gauge. Employees and integration leaders agreed on the most beneficial integration mechanisms: staff meetings, meeting other Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. staff, and creation of frequently-asked-questions documents. Employees and integration leaders also agreed on integration impediments: physical distance, long integration period, and unclear goals and expectations. As a result of this project, one theme was clear; you can never communicate too effectively, and a better communication strategy is needed for future Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. acquisitions. For this field project, post-acquisition integration literature and internal Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. acquisition correspondence was reviewed. Additionally, Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. integration team members were interviewed and questionnaire responses from current and former Ferguson Paper Company, Inc. employees were evaluated. This information was used to develop guidelines for cultural integration improvements. The proposed guidelines were submitted to the Ferguson Paper Company, Inc.
integration program lead for use with future acquisitions
A victory for fairness and common sense : R v Hughes
No full textIn 2006 several new offences were added to the Road Traffic Act 1988, one of which was section 3ZB 1. Headed “Causing death by driving: unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured drivers”, this provides: A person is guilty of an offence under this section if he causes the death2 of another person by driving a motor vehicle on a road and, at the time when he is driving, the circumstances are such that he is ... (a) ... driving [without a valid] licence3... (b) ... driving while disqualified4... or (c) ... using a motor vehicle while uninsured5... The maximum penalty for this offence is two years’ imprisonment6 In R v Hughes7 the Supreme Court interpreted this in a way which is fairer to the accused than in previous cases, and in accordance with common sense views of causation. This note describes the previous position and summarises the Supreme Court’s ruling
Proceedings of a seminar on hours of work
No full textThe law on hours of work / H. Duncan -- New Zealand's 40-hour 5-day week: its economic and social impact / C. A. Blyth -- Commentaries / W. W. Knox -- Commentaries / G. Kelly -- Overtime in the New Zealand and overseas environments / P. J. Luxford, W. J. Knox, F. J. L. Young -- Shiftwork in the new technology / F. Conlon, L. B. Swan, G. Shouksmith -- Developments in New Zealand in respect of 4-day week and flexible working hours / J. Scott -- The social implications of a shorter working week / J. H. Robb -- Overseas experience with the shorter working week / J. B. Ferguson -- Prospects for the sorter week in New Zealand / B. Spence, D. B. McDonald -- Prospects for flexible working hours in New Zealand / K. W. J. Deal, S. DaviesProceedings of a seminar on hours of work. Held 8-9 August 1973
Skeletal muscle capillary function: contemporary observations and novel hypotheses
No full textThe capillary bed constitutes a vast surface that facilitates exchange of O2, substrates and metabolites between blood and organs. In contracting skeletal muscle, capillary blood flow and O2 diffusing capacity, as well as O2 flux, may increase two orders of magnitude above resting values. Chronic diseases, such as heart failure and diabetes, and also sepsis impair these processes, leading to compromised energetic, metabolic and, ultimately, contractile function. Among researchers seeking to understand blood–myocyte exchange in health and the basis for dysfunction in disease, there is a fundamental disconnect between microcirculation specialists and many physiologists and physiologist clinicians. While the former observe capillaries and capillary function directly (muscle intravital microscopy), the latter generally use indirect methodologies (e.g. post-mortem tissue analysis, 1-methyl xanthine, contrast-enhanced ultrasound, permeability–surface area product) and interpret their findings based upon August Krogh's observations made nearly a century ago. ‘Kroghian’ theory holds that only a small fraction of capillaries support red blood cell (RBC) flux in resting muscle, leaving the vast majority to be ‘recruited’ (i.e. to initiate RBC flux) during contractions, which would constitute the basis for increasing surface area for capillary exchange and reducing capillary–mitochondrial diffusion distances. Experimental techniques each have their strengths and weaknesses, and often the correct or complete answer to a problem emerges from integration across multiple technologies. Today, Krogh's entrenched ‘capillary recruitment’ hypothesis is challenged by direct observations of capillaries in contracting muscle, which is something that he and his colleagues could not do. Moreover, in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, application of a range of contemporary physiological technologies, including intravital microscopy of contracting muscle, magnetic resonance, near-infrared spectroscopy and phosphorescence quenching, combined with elegant in situ and in vivo models, suggest that the role of the capillary bed, at least in contracting muscle, is subserved without the necessity for de novo capillary recruitment of previously non-flowing capillaries. When viewed within the context of the capillary recruitment hypothesis, this evidence casts serious doubt on the interpretation of those data that are based upon Kroghian theory and indirect methodologies. Thus, today a wealth of evidence calls for a radical revision of blood–muscle exchange theory to one in which most capillaries support RBC flux at rest and, during contractions, capillary surface area is ‘recruited’ along the length of previously flowing capillaries. This occurs, in part, by elevating capillary haematocrit and extending the length of the capillary available for blood–myocyte exchange (i.e. longitudinal recruitment). Our understanding of blood–myocyte O2 and substrate/metabolite exchange in health and the mechanistic basis for dysfunction in disease demands no less
Depression and Gender: The Expression and Experience of Melancholy in the Eighteenth Century
No full textThis thesis investigates the life and work of six eighteenth-century writers, two male and four female. It explores their experience of depression through their letters and other autobiographical material, and examines the ways in which they represent melancholy in their poetry and prose. The subject of Chapter Two is Thomas Gray, whose real life persona as the lonely intellectual is also identifiable in his poetry. The Scottish poet Robert Fergusson is studied in Chapter Three. Fergusson’s lively and vigorous mind was shattered in the months leading up to his death, during which time some of his writing became darkly nihilistic. Chapter Four looks at Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, a lifelong depressive who often wrote about her feelings of despair in her poetry. Chapter Five explores Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a courageous and controversial figure, but despite her resilience, on occasion in her letters she reveals her vulnerability and susceptibility to low spirits, a mood which is sometimes expressed in her creative writing. Sarah Scott, whose life and work have not yet been considered in relation to the subject of melancholy, is examined in Chapter Six. Her novel includes several low-spirited and depressed female characters who are continually seeking asylum from a hostile world. Chapter Seven analyses Charlotte Smith, a mother of twelve children whose unhappy marriage ended in separation. Smith wrote extensively about her depression in her letters, prefaces, poetry and novels.
This study shows that the women in particular use their writing on melancholy and depression to express their discontent with the confined way in which they are often expected to live out their lives
The effects of dietary fish oil on exercising skeletal muscle vascular and metabolic control in chronic heart failure rats
No full textThe ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channel is a class of inward rectifier K+ channels that can link cellular metabolic status to vasomotor tone across the metabolic transients seen with exercise. This investigation tested the hypothesis that if KATP channels are crucial to exercise hyperaemia then blockade via glibenclamide (GLI) would lower hindlimb skeletal muscle blood flow (BF) and vascular conductance (VC) during treadmill exercise. In 14 adult male Sprague Dawley rats mean arterial pressure (MAP), blood [lactate], and hindlimb muscle BF (radiolabelled microspheres) were determined at rest (n = 6) or during exercise (n = 8; 20 m min⁻¹, 5% incline) under control (CON) and GLI conditions (5 mg kg⁻¹, i.a). At rest and during exercise, MAP was higher (Rest, CON: 130 ± 6, GLI: 152 ± 8; Exercise, CON: 140 ± 4, GLI: 147 ± 4 mmHg, P < 0.05) and heart rate (HR) was lower (Rest, CON: 440 ± 16, GLI: 410 ± 18; Exercise, CON: 560 ± 4, GLI: 540 ± 10 beats min⁻¹, P < 0.05) with GLI. Hindlimb muscle BF (CON: 144 ± 10, GLI: 120 ± 9 ml min⁻¹ (100 g)⁻¹, P < 0.05) and VC were lower with GLI during exercise but not at rest. Specifically, GLI decreased BF in 12, and VC in 16, of the 28 individual hindlimb muscles and muscle parts sampled during exercise with a greater fractional reduction present in muscles comprised predominantly of type I and type IIa fibres (P < 0.05). Additionally, blood [lactate] (CON: 2.0 ± 0.3; GLI: 4.1 ± 0.9 mmol L⁻¹, P < 0.05) was higher during exercise with GLI. That KATP channel blockade reduces hindlimb muscle BF during exercise in rats supports the obligatory contribution of KATP channels in large muscle mass exercise-induced hyperaemia
Communication: X-ray coherent diffractive imaging by immersion in nanodroplets
No full textCitation: Tanyag, R. M. P., Bernando, C., Jones, C. F., Bacellar, C., Ferguson, K. R., Anielski, D., . . . Vilesov, A. F. (2015). Communication: X-ray coherent diffractive imaging by immersion in nanodroplets. Structural Dynamics, 2(5), 9. doi:10.1063/1.4933297Lensless x-ray microscopy requires the recovery of the phase of the radiation scattered from a specimen. Here, we demonstrate a de novo phase retrieval technique by encapsulating an object in a superfluid helium nanodroplet, which provides both a physical support and an approximate scattering phase for the iterative image reconstruction. The technique is robust, fast-converging, and yields the complex density of the immersed object. Images of xenon clusters embedded in superfluid helium droplets reveal transient configurations of quantum vortices in this fragile system. (C) 2015 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.Additional Authors: Neumark, D. M.;Rolles, D.;Rudek, B.;Rudenko, A.;Siefermann, K. R.;Ullrich, J.;Weise, F.;Bostedt, C.;Gessner, O.;Vilesov, A. F
Observation of the suppressed ADS modes B± → [π±K-/+ π+π-]D K± and B± → [π± K-/+π+π-]Dπ±
No full textAn analysis of and B± → DK± and B± → Dπ±
decays is presented where the D meson is reconstructed in the four-body final state K± π-/+π+π-. Using LHCb data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb-1, first observations are made of the suppressed ADS modes B± →[π± K-/+π+π-]DK± and B± → [π± K-/+π+π-]Dπ± with a significance of 5.1 sigma and greater than 10 sigma, respectively. Measurements of CP asymmetries and CP-conserving ratios of partial widths from this family of decays are also performed. The magnitude of the ratio between the suppressed and favoured B± → DK ± amplitudes is determined to be rKB = 0.097 ± 0.011
First observation of the decay Bs0→K*0K*0
No full textThe first observation of the decay B0s→K∗0K∗0 is reported using 35 pb−1 of data collected by LHCb in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. A total of 49.8±7.5 B0s→(K+π−)(K−π+) events are observed within ±50 MeV/c2 of the B0s mass and 746 MeV/c2 < mKπ < 1046 MeV/c2, mostly coming from a resonant B0s→K∗0K∗0 signal. The branching fraction and the CP-averaged K∗0 longitudinal polarization fraction are measured to be B(B0s→K∗0K∗0)=(2.81±0.46(stat.)±0.45(syst.)±0.34(fs/ fd))×10−5 and fL =0.31±0.12(stat.)±0.04(syst.)
Understanding and addressing early schoool leaving among immigrant and refugee youth
No full textSource type: Print(0
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