General Discussion. Except in rare instances of 100% participation, each peer nomina- tion study will require a decision regarding the treatment of non- participants. Whether to include or exclude nonparticipants as nominees may seem a minor methodological decision but has not been studied before. Historically, inclusion of nonparticipants has been the default decision and a fundamental requirement for valid peer nomination measures (Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, 1943; Xxxxxx, 1934). Unfortunately, inclusion of nonparticipants raises ethical concerns (see Mayeux, Underwood, & Xxxxxx, 2007). We investigated two separate datasets, showing that the choice of including or excluding nonparticipants as nominees can affect psychometric properties of peer nominations. The effects varied between studies; differences between inclusion and exclusion were greater for certain types of missingness in Study 1 and greater in one school versus another in Study 2. Study 1 also indicated that, when the inclusion and exclusion conditions differed noticeably, exclusion consistently yielded lower reliability and different corre- lations than inclusion. From a psychometric perspective, our results indicate that non- participants should be included as potential nominees. Although exclusion of nonparticipants did not always detract from data qual- ity, it was likely to do so under conditions that are most probable in real-world situations; that is, when nonparticipants differ in status and peer preference from participants (Xxxx et al., 1997). Excluding nonparticipants as potential nominees removes the ability to test for systematic differences between participants and nonparticipants. Even if nonparticipants can be excluded as nominees without con- sequence when nonparticipation is completely random, the very exclusion of nonparticipants as nominees makes it impossible to demonstrate that nonparticipation is random. If our findings are representative of the research literature more generally, the fact that excluding low-status peers as nominees resulted in the greatest reduction in reliability and change in inter- correlations is concerning. Many peer relationships studies focus on youths who are rejected or unpopular, and they are least likely to participate in school-based research. Our findings highlight the importance of properly representing low-status or marginalized youths and, more generally, in maximizing participation rates with peer nominations. Our study used two large samples and investi- gated relat...
General Discussion. 7.1 Key findings The key findings of this dissertation pertain to the following topics: - Plant knowledge retentions in Brazil, taking as a historical reference the HNB and considering the phytogeographical range of the documented useful species. - The presence of these species in contemporary Brazilian markets and the preservation of their vernacular names. - The depiction of a specific plant (Cascabela thevetia– Ahoay) in Late-Renaissance and Early Modern treatises (including the HNB) and its representation in museums today. - The floristic composition of the Libri Picturati, its connection with the printed works (Xxxxxxxx & Piso, 1648; Piso, 1658), and Xxxxxxxxx’s herbarium. - The sources used to elaborate the plant woodcuts in the HNB and IURNM and the methods of plant collection employed by naturalists and artists in the colony. Regarding botanical knowledge and plant distribution, we found substantial retentions of plant practices between contemporary and seventeenth century (Dutch) Brazil. These practices, although in majority associated with Indigenous Brazilians, reflect a mix of cultures and ethnical backgrounds that resulted from pre-Columbian migrations and plant trade between Indigenous groups, as well as their (forced) contact with the Europeans. The HNB reported crops and weeds of African origin due to the numerous shipments of plants and people during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Botanical adaptation strategies and the resilience of the enslaved population in the unknown land facilitated the persistence of these plants in tropical America. Although the territory of Dutch Brazil was relatively small compared to the vast extension of the country, its flora encompassed a broad distribution range. Hence, the HNB was partly representative of the whole country (as was advertised at the time) and fulfilled the purposes of naturalists, physicians, and traders who wanted to study or commodify the tropical flora. Regarding our study of Brazilian plant markets, we concluded that the large geographical range of the HNB species, migrations, and the diversity in market survey methods, explained that most of the HNB plants are being sold in northern markets instead of Recife, where the HNB originated. Regarding vernacular names, we also found the greatest correlation with the HNB in northern markets (Bélem and Boa Vista). Most of the overlapping names were Indigenous plant names, mostly belonging to the macro-linguistic Tupi family, except for a few th...
General Discussion. A Local Agency Agreement is an agreement between a local agency and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). An agreement is prepared for each federal aid project, and it covers all phases of work involved in the project (preliminary engineering, right of way acquisition, construction). Its purpose is to ensure that the federal funds in the agreed-upon amount are spent in accordance with all applicable state and federal laws and regulations. The agreement also specifies the procedure for payment and reimbursement on the project. If the federal aid participation ratio entered in the agreement is not the maximum rate allowed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), then the participation ratio entered becomes the maximum rate allowed. No costs are eligible for federal aid reimbursement until authorized in writing by WSDOT. This authorization is separate from the agreement. The total cost of a project (including federal, state, agency, and private funds) must be shown on the Local Agency Agreement for each phase of work that includes federal or state funds. At the time of each phase authorization, all funds necessary to complete the scope of work for that phase must be secured.
General Discussion. Colorectal cancer is the cancer with the second highest cancer incidence in Europe.1 Roughly, one out of three patients with a colorectal malignancy has a rectal carcinoma. Surgery is the cornerstone in the curative treatment of rectal cancer. In the 1980s with conventional surgery, the 5-year local recurrence rate was over 20% and the 5-year over- all survival rate around 50%.2,3 In the Swedish Rectal Cancer trial in which 1168 patients were included, preoperative radiotherapy in addition to conventional surgery resulted in a reduction of more than 50% in the 5-year local recurrence rate in comparison to conventional surgery alone (11% versus 27%; P < 0.001).2 Besides, the 5-year overall survival rate improved from 48% to 58% if patients were treated with preoperative radiotherapy in addition to conventional surgery (P = 0.004).2 With the total mesorectal excision (TME), by which the rectum with its mesorectum and visceral fascia are dissect- ed sharply and under direct vision,4 local recurrence rates dropped and overall survival improved.5,6 In the Dutch TME trial, 5 x 5 Gy preoperative radiotherapy in combination with TME surgery was compared to TME surgery alone (1861 patients). In this trial, the 5-year local recurrence rate for patients treated with TME surgery alone was similar to patients treated in the Swedish Rectal Cancer trial with blunt dissection in combination with preoperative 5 x 5 Gy radiotherapy (11%)2,7 If preoperative radiotherapy was added to TME surgery, 5-year local recurrence rate was reduced to 5.6%7 The overall survival rate at 5 year was 64% for both patients treated with TME surgery alone and patients treated with preoperative radiotherapy followed by TME surgery,7 compared to 48% for patients treated with blunt dissection alone in the previously mentioned Swedish trial.2 TME surgery is now considered the standard surgical procedure for rectal cancer.4 However, even if TME surgery is performed, surgical quality varies.8,9 First, these results indicate that improvements in the surgical procedure itself can result in major progress regarding long-term oncological outcome such as decreased local recurrence rates and improved overall survival. Second, it illustrates that variation in surgical quality could lead to large differences in outcome. Recently, it was shown that surgical variation is not only important for patients with rectal cancer, but also plays an important role for the outcome of patients with colon cancer.10,11
General Discussion. Our results for British and American collective agreement suggest that lexically controlled features are responsible for the differences in plural agreement between the varieties. In spontaneous speaking, specifications of plurality for particular collectives and not dynamic variations in underlying conceptualization create the differences. This is consistent with the third of the three hypotheses we tested, the one that attributes the differences between the dialects to differences in lexically specified number among collective nouns. The lexicons of individual speakers of a dialect may differ as to which collectives are specified as plural, for reasons that may be tracedto differences in linguistic experience but in any case are typical of most types of lexical variation. Across speakers, there will be variability in which collectives are treated as plurals, but lexical rather than notional variability drives the patterns of usage that we found in both experimental elicitation and corpus distribution. Normal usage of the word data among research psychologists offers a case in point. The singular datum being virtually obsolete, the natural, untutoredinclination is to treat data as a mass noun, therefore singular. Against this inclination, American graduate students in psychology, and even undergraduates in elite research-oriented programs, are heavily schooled to treat the word data as plural (see the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, 2001, p. 89). Public utterances such as the data is and this data are unlikely to pass a faculty audience without loud correction (the data ARE; THESE data), and few written occurrences escape the red pen or the copy editor. So, graduate training imposes plural verb use on what for many is a natively singular noun, one with the conceptual features normally associated with mass nouns. When successful, the product of this training is a conceptually unsupported, lexically controlled plural specification for data. The effects of this regimen nicely illustrate our hypothesis about the lexical source of the differences between collective agreement in British and American English. In particular, observations of data attraction and agreement among well-trained speakers of the plural-data dialect suggest that these speakers indeed have a plural lexical specifi- cation for data.
General Discussion. The results of the second study were in accordance with our predictions, and consistent with the results of our first study. Participants who had received high or average respect for their behavioral descriptions, perceived themselves as respected and showed higher feelings of affective commitment in comparison with participants who perceived themselves as disrespected (see also Branscombe et al., 2002; Xx Xxxxxx, 2002, 2003; Xx Xxxxxx & Xxxxx, 2003; Ellemers et al., 2004; Xxxx & Xxxxx, 1988; Xxxxx and Xxxxxxx, 2003; Xxxxx & Xxxx, 1992; Xxxxx & Xxxxxx, 2000, 2003). Additionally, in contrast with the respected participants, those who were disrespected showed higher levels of situational group attachment an>iety and indicated more psychological disengagement as e>pressed in intentions to leave the group. When focusing on the motivational basis of the engagement participants displayed on the discretionary group efforts measure, we found that the e>tra behavioral efforts that contribute to the group are indeed activated by two different motives. This confirms the validity of our argument that different underlying motives can evoke outwardly similar behavioral displays: Whereas respected participants were stimulated to e>ert more discretionary group efforts to the e>tent that they e>perienced more feelings of affective commitment with the task-group (the carrot), disrespected people showed enhanced behavioral engagement in discretionary group efforts when they felt more situational group attachment an>iety (the stick; see also Xxxxxxx & Ellemers, 2000). Thus, in E>periment 4, we successfully replicated the effect on actual discretionary group efforts. As predicted, and similar to E>periment 3, compared to average respected group members both high and low respected participants showed enhanced effort e>ertion on discretionary group efforts, but only when they perceived the respect received as diagnostic and related to their position within the group (cf. De Cremer, 2002; Xxxxxx et al., 2002, 2003; Xxxx et al., 1995). In the non-diagnostic condition, where it was made clear to participants that the respect received was not predictive of their ingroup position and could be regarded as occasional feedback, the effect on e>tra effort did not appear as predicted. The results of the present contribution uncover new directions in research on intra-group dynamics. Specifically, by e>amining the operation of a collective motive, enhanced by higher levels of affective com...
General Discussion. The effectiveness of eRehabilitation is not only influenced by the intervention itself, but also by the implementation strategy and the context in which the intervention is implemented. These latter two aspects often vary from one intervention, organisation or country to the other [1,2]. This complex interplay between the effectiveness, the implementation and the context of an eRehabilitation intervention in stroke care constitutes the focus of the present thesis. The Fit After Stroke @Home (Xxxx@xxxx) project is the central study in this thesis. It consisted of the following phases (Figure 1): 1. a thorough and structured investigation of the anticipated barriers/facilitators in the context of the specialised rehabilitation facility. With this information, an eRehabilitation intervention and a tailored implementation strategy were developed, simultaneously with the control period of the effect study. After this, 2. the effectiveness; and 3. the implementation strategy of the eRehabilitation intervention was evaluated. Studying these three different phases in the same clinical setting enabled us to interpret the effect of the intervention in the context in which it was used and evaluated the extent to which the implementation and context influenced the effects. Considering the results of the studies, this thesis leads to a deeper understanding of how and why eRehabilitation works, compared to merely studying the effectiveness of an eRehabilitation intervention as independent tool. Apart from the relevance of the results for patients and healthcare professionals, the outcomes can be used to inform other stakeholders, including directors, managers and policymakers regarding the future implementation and upscaling of eRehabilitation [3]. This chapter discusses the interplay between the multiple phases of the research projects (the effectiveness, the implementation and the context). Besides, recommendations for future research and clinical practice are given. Investigating factors influencing the use (6 months) Developing the eRehabilitation intervention and imple- mentation strategy (8 months) Executing and evaluating the implementation strategy (15 months) 7 Effectiveness study, control period, conventional care only (12 months) Effectiveness study, intervention period, eRehabilitation used (12 months) Figure 1. Interplay between studies included in this thesis, concerning the context (green, Chapters 2-4), the effectiveness of the intervention (orange, Chap...
General Discussion. 1. The Union proposes a substantial wage increase for all bargaining unit employees effective January 2, 2005.
General Discussion. 25 B. JAMBOREE LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 C. JAMBOREE OFFICE REIT AND JAMBOREE OFFICE REIT SHARES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 D. DESCRIPTION OF NEW NOTES ISSUED BY JAMBOREE LLC. . . . . . . . . . 29 1. New Class A Senior Secured Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2. New Class B Senior Subordinated Secured Notes.. . . . . . . . 36 3. Security for the New Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 4. New Notes Registration Rights Agreements. . . . . . . . . . . 38 E. PROPERTY APPRECIATION RIGHTS AND EXCHANGE RIGHT. . . . . . . . . . 39 F. FUTURE OPERATIONS, NEW MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . 40 G. REORGANIZED CWOP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
General Discussion. 54 B. RESALE CONSIDERATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 C.
