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Strategy educators have employed SWOT analysis for decades as a means of teaching strategy formulation to students. Despite this well-established practice, many scholars and practitioners have called for discontinuing it as a pedagogical tool for several reasons, including that traditional undergraduate students may lack the practical experience to employ SWOT correctly, the framework presents "messy" strategic problems as overly rational, or it represents as an ambiguous and/or atheoretical classification system. We suggest possible remedies for SWOT analysis problems that may help improve its usefulness and promote its continued use. After briefly reviewing its original formulation, current textbook descriptions, and frequent criticisms, we present a refined and enhanced SWOT framework, anchored in extant strategy research and learning theory. We then demonstrate the efficacy of this enhanced framework with examples and preliminary data. Our fundamental conclusion is that SWOT analysis, when properly employed, remains a useful overarching framework that, among other advantages, helps bridge the "theory versus practice" pedagogical debate on how best to teach strategy formulation.

The present study describes and illustrates six bivalve taxa from the Early Bathonian to Early Callovian Ferruginous Oolite Formation and 24 taxa from the Callovian to basal-most Cretaceous Spiti Shale Formation of the Spiti and Zanskar areas in the Indian Himalayas. The Spiti Shale Formation contains a low-diversity bivalve fauna that is concentrated in few horizons, particularly in the lower member of the formation. With few exceptions, the bivalves are poorly preserved. Bivalve taxa recorded by earlier studies are revised wherever possible. Several of the taxa, most of which are from mid- to outer shelf environments, are characteristic of the south-eastern margin of the Neotethys, but some are also closely related to forms occurring in Kachchh, a rift basin situated at the western margin of the Indian Craton.

A Hildoglochiceras-rich horizon is reported from a thin carbonate intercalation within the siliciclastic Upper Jurassic Jhuran Formation of the Jara Dome, western Kachchh Mainland. The Hildoglochiceras specimens have been used for the first population-level study of the genus based on a multivariate analysis. High phenotype instability in the large sample confirms the occurrence of transient forms between morphospecies. Key morphological traits for interpreting Hildoglochiceras are stated, and the morphospecies Hildoglochiceras kobelli (Oppel) and H. kobelliforme (Bonarelli) are interpreted as a dimorphic pair. The ammonite-rich level is interpreted as a Hildoglochiceras Horizon, which is related to a transgressive pulse and maximum flooding zone interrupting largely restrictive conditions for ammonites. The endemic character of Hildoglochiceras is confirmed and related to its environmental restriction to shelf areas on the palaeomargins of the Trans-Erythraean Trough. A comprehensive review of biostratigraphic interpretations of Hildoglochiceras shows the influence of natural and experimental forcing factors. The uppermost Kimmeridgian to lowermost Upper Tithonian interval is the widest biostratigraphic range assumable for Hildoglochiceras based on existing reports, but most probably it was restricted to, or at least better represented in, Lower Tithonian horizons. The Hildoglochiceras Horizon described here is correlated with a lower part of the Albertinum/Darwini Zone in the Secondary Standard Scale for ammonite-based bio-chronostratigraphy in European and West-Tethyan areas. According to the current state of knowledge, a local rather than wide regional significance is favoured for Hildoglochiceras records before its significance for precise correlation across the Trans-Erythraean Trough.

Abstract The stable isotope (δ13C, δ18O) composition of a collection of Lower Jurassic brachiopods and oysters from the Andean Basin of northern Chile was analyzed. The results allow the first reconstruction of absolute water temperatures for several ammonite zones in the Lower Jurassic of South America. The temperature record starts with comparatively high values in the Late Sinemurian (average: 27.0 °C; Raricostatum Zone). Just before the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian transition, temperatures dropped to an average of 24.3 °C. The lowest temperature value in the dataset was recorded for a brachiopod shell of the latest Pliensbachian Spinatum Zone (19.6 °C). No data are available for the Early Toarcian, but results for the late Toarcian show again comparatively warm conditions (average: 24.4 °C; Thouarsense–Levesquei zones). Even though more material and analyses are necessary to corroborate the recorded temperatures, the present dataset seems to indicate the global nature of the Late Pliensbachian Cooling Event. In contrast, the global warming during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event has not been recorded due to a lack of Early Toarcian material. The δ13C record of brachiopods and oysters documents a gradual increase in values representing background conditions. Oyster shells were used for high-resolution stable isotope analyses and show seasonal temperature fluctuations over a period of around 3 years in the life time of the bivalves. If explained only by temperatures, the δ18O values point to a minimum estimate for the seasonality in the late Toarcian of slightly more than 3 °C.

Abstract A set of two to three prominent hardgrounds can be traced for more than 40 km from east to west within the Jurassic succession of the Jaisalmer Basin at the western margin of the Indian Craton. The hardgrounds started to form under subtidal conditions in a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic setting during the last phase of a transgressive systems tract, i.e. the maximum flooding zone. The age difference between the hardgrounds is very small, but they differ lithologically. Typically, the stratigraphically oldest hardground occurs at the top of a 1-m-thick calcareous sandstone. It is characterized by a spectacular megaripple surface encrusted with oysters and subsequently occasionally bored by bivalves. The hardground is overlain by 10–25 cm of biowackestone to biopackstone, at the top of which another hardground is developed. This second hardground is characterized by abundant bivalve (Gastrochaenolites isp.) and “worm” borings (Trypanites and Meandropolydora isp.) and occasional oyster encrustations. The third hardground can be found within the overlying 60-cm-thick, bioturbated, fossiliferous silty marly packstone. It shows common to abundant oyster encrustations and occasional borings together with reworked concretions. The individual hardground can be well recognized throughout the basin based on lithology and biotic components. The second hardground (biowackestone to biopackstone) with abundant bivalve and worm borings is most prominent and widespread. Lithostratigraphically, these three hardground surfaces belong to the uppermost part of the Bada Bag Member of the Jaisalmer Formation. Based on ammonites, such as Perisphinctes congener (Waagen), brachiopods, and corals, this interval of the Bada Bag Member has been assigned a late Bathonian age. The entire succession above the first hardground is bioturbated up to the overlying marly silt of the Kuldhar Member of the Jaisalmer Formation, which is already Callovian in age. The characteristic hardground lithologies, together with the ammonite record, allow long-distance correlations within the basin emphasizing their importance as valuable marker horizons. The biotic components associated with the hardgrounds and alternating sediments represent high diversity community relicts developed in shallow-water, open-marine environments.

Introduction: The high burden of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is related to development of hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy. Blood pressure reduction has been shown to reduce left ventricular mass in ADPKD; however, moderators and predictors of response to lower blood pressure are unknown. Methods: This was a post hoc cohort analysis of HALT PKD study A, a randomized placebo controlled trial examining the effect of low blood pressure and single versus dual renin−angiotensin blockade in early ADPKD. Participants were hypertensive ADPKD patients 15 to 49 years of age with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) > 60 ml/min per 1.73 m2 across 7 centers in the United States. Predictors included age, sex, baseline eGFR, systolic blood pressure, total kidney volume, serum potassium, and urine sodium, potassium, albumin, and aldosterone. Outcome was left ventricular mass index (LVMI) measured using 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging at months 0, 24, 48, and 60. Results: Reduction in LVMI was associated with higher baseline systolic blood pressure and larger kidney volume regardless of blood pressure control group assignment (P < 0.001 for both). Male sex and baseline eGFR were associated with a positive annual slope in LVMI (P < 0.001 and P = 0.07, respectively). Conclusion: Characteristics associated with higher risk of progression in ADPKD, including higher systolic blood pressure, larger kidney volume, and lower eGFR are associated with improvement in LVMI with intensive blood pressure control, whereas male sex is associated with a smaller slope of reduction in LVMI. Keywords: autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, left ventricular mass index

The uppermost part of the Upper Bathonian Sponge Limestone member, Patcham Formation, of the Jhura Dome of Kachchh Mainland is a thickening- and shallowing-upward succession topped by medium- to thick-bedded hummocky cross-stratified grainstones deposited by storm waves. Occasionally, thin, commonly lenticular, intraclastic–bioclastic silty marl intercalations between the grainstones are highly bioturbated, in contrast to the grainstones, in which, for the most part, trace fossils occur scattered. Large exposures of bedding planes of the grainstones allow the detailed investigation of ichnological features, whereas the high density of traces in the soft marls precludes the identification of any ichnotaxa. Eighteen ichnotaxa have been recorded including Ophiomorpha, Thalassinoides, Taenidium, Gyrophyllites, Chondrites, Dactyloidites, Teichichnus, Bolonia, and Ancorichnus. Except for Ophiomorpha nodosa and Thalassinoides, which generally indicate moderate to high energy conditions and are the dwelling burrows of suspension-feeding to omnivorous crustaceans, the ichnotaxa represent a deposit-feeding behaviour of their producers and thus are characteristic of low-energy environments. The trace fossils form three ichnoassemblages characterized by (1) Ophiomorpha nodosa and Thalassinoides suevicus, (2) ?Thalassinoides isp. A, Taenidium, and Bolonia lata, and (3) Ancorichnus. The dominance of traces of deposit-feeders in rocks indicative of high-energy events is counterintuitive and points to their non-contemporaneity. The sediments were deposited during brief high-energy events, whereas the trace fossils were produced when, after waning of storms low-energy conditions prevailed. This time-averaging is particularly pronounced in trace fossils that extend vertically downwards and may reach strata deposited under distinctly different conditions. Thus, environmental interpretations based on trace fossils should refer to colonisation surfaces rather than to the sediment surrounding the trace fossils. In the latter case, interpretations may be erroneous, especially when erosion subsequently destroyed sedimentary evidence of their original environment.