The geography of strain: organizational resilience as a function of intergroup relations

Organizational resilience is an organization’s ability to absorb strain and preserve or improve functioning, despite the presence of adversity. In existing scholarship there is the implicit assumption that organizations experience and respond holistically to acute forms of adversity. We challenge this assumption by theorizing about how adversity can create differential strain, affecting parts of an organization rather than the whole. We argue that relations among those parts fundamentally shape organizational resilience. We develop a theoretical model that maps how the differentiated emergence of strain in focal parts of an organization triggers the movements of adjoining parts to provide or withhold resources necessary for the focal parts to adapt effectively. Drawing on core principles of theories about intergroup relations, we theorize about three specific pathways—integration, disavowal, and reclamation—by which responses of adjoining parts to focal part strain shape organizational resilience. We further theorize about influences on whether and when adjoining parts are likely to select different pathways. The resulting theory reveals how the social processes among parts of organizations influence member responses to adversity and, ultimately, organizational resilience. We conclude by noting the implications for organizational resilience theory, research, and practice.Accepted manuscrip

Predictor Aided Tracking in a System with Time Delay - Performance Involving Flat Surface, Roll, and Pitch Conditions

Predictor aided human tracking performance with time delay control under flat surface, roll, pitch, and roll and pitch condition

Network constraints on learnability of probabilistic motor sequences

Human learners are adept at grasping the complex relationships underlying incoming sequential input. In the present work, we formalize complex relationships as graph structures derived from temporal associations in motor sequences. Next, we explore the extent to which learners are sensitive to key variations in the topological properties inherent to those graph structures. Participants performed a probabilistic motor sequence task in which the order of button presses was determined by the traversal of graphs with modular, lattice-like, or random organization. Graph nodes each represented a unique button press and edges represented a transition between button presses. Results indicate that learning, indexed here by participants' response times, was strongly mediated by the graph's meso-scale organization, with modular graphs being associated with shorter response times than random and lattice graphs. Moreover, variations in a node's number of connections (degree) and a node's role in mediating long-distance communication (betweenness centrality) impacted graph learning, even after accounting for level of practice on that node. These results demonstrate that the graph architecture underlying temporal sequences of stimuli fundamentally constrains learning, and moreover that tools from network science provide a valuable framework for assessing how learners encode complex, temporally structured information.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure

Glycosylation of hyperthermostable designer cellulosome components yields enhanced stability and cellulose hydrolysis

Biomass deconstruction remains integral for enabling second‐generation biofuel production at scale. However, several steps necessary to achieve significant solubilization of biomass, notably harsh pretreatment conditions, impose economic barriers to commercialization. By employing hyperthermostable cellulase machinery, biomass deconstruction can be made more efficient, leading to milder pretreatment conditions and ultimately lower production costs. The hyperthermophilic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii produces extremely active hyperthermostable cellulases, including the hyperactive multifunctional cellulase CbCel9A/Cel48A. Recombinant CbCel9A/Cel48A components have been previously produced in Escherichia coli and integrated into synthetic hyperthermophilic designer cellulosome complexes. Since then, glycosylation has been shown to be vital for the high activity and stability of CbCel9A/Cel48A. Here, we studied the impact of glycosylation on a hyperthermostable designer cellulosome system in which two of the cellulosomal components, the scaffoldin and the GH9 domain of CbCel9A/Cel48A, were glycosylated as a consequence of employing Ca. bescii as an expression host. Inclusion of the glycosylated components yielded an active cellulosome system that exhibited long‐term stability at 75 °C. The resulting glycosylated designer cellulosomes showed significantly greater synergistic activity compared to the enzymatic components alone, as well as higher thermostability than the analogous nonglycosylated designer cellulosomes. These results indicate that glycosylation can be used as an essential engineering tool to improve the properties of designer cellulosomes. Additionally, Ca. bescii was shown to be an attractive candidate for production of glycosylated designer cellulosome components, which may further promote the viability of this bacterium both as a cellulase expression host and as a potential consolidated bioprocessing platform organism

Hiding Single Photons With Spread Spectrum Technology

We describe a proof-of-principal experiment demonstrating the use of spread spectrum technology at the single photon level. We show how single photons with a prescribed temporal shape, in the presence of interfering noise, may be hidden and recovered.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

Epidemiology of Any and Vaccine-Type Anogenital Human Papillomavirus Among 13-26-Year-Old Young Men After HPV Vaccine Introduction

PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to determine prevalence of and factors associated with any human papillomavirus (HPV) and vaccine-type HPV among young men after vaccine introduction, stratified by vaccination status. METHODS: Young men were recruited from clinical sites from 2013 to 2015, completed a survey, and were tested for 36 anogenital HPV types. We determined factors associated with ≥1 HPV type among all participants, and vaccine-type HPV (HPV6, 11, 16, and/or 18) among all, vaccinated and unvaccinated participants, using multivariable regression. RESULTS: Mean age was 21.5 years and 26% had received at least one HPV vaccine dose. HPV prevalence was lower in vaccinated versus unvaccinated young men (50.5% vs. 62.6%, p = .03). HPV positivity was discordant by anogenital site. At both sites, 59.4% were positive for ≥1 HPV type and 26.0% for ≥1 4-valent vaccine type. In multivariable logistic regression, factors associated with ≥1 HPV type among all participants were frequency of oral sex (odds ratio [OR] = 1.80, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-3.24), recent smoking (OR = 1.84, CI = 1.17-2.90), and sexually transmitted infection history (OR = 1.56, CI = 1.02-2.38). Factors associated with vaccine-type HPV among all participants were white versus black race (OR = 1.91, CI = 1.10-3.34) and gonorrhea history (OR = 2.52, CI = 1.45-4.38); among vaccinated participants were private versus Medicaid insurance (OR = 5.6, CI = 1.46-20.4) and private versus no insurance (OR = 15.9, CI = 3.06-83.3); and among unvaccinated participants was gonorrhea history (OR = 1.83, CI = 1.03-3.24). CONCLUSIONS: Anogenital HPV prevalence was high and vaccination rates low among young men 2-4 years after vaccine introduction, underscoring the urgency of increasing vaccination rates and vaccinating according to national guidelines

Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation in the Ferrimagnetic Chain Compound NiCu(C_7_H_6_N_2_O_6_)(H_2_O)_3_2H_2_O: Three-Magnon Scattering?

Recent proton spin-lattice relaxation-time (T_1_) measurements on the ferrimagnetic chain compound NiCu(C_7_H_6_N_2_O_6_)(H_2_O)_3_2H_2_O are explained by an elaborately modified spin-wave theory. We give a strong evidence of the major contribution to 1/T_1_ being made by the three-magnon scattering rather than the Raman one.Comment: J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16, No. 49, 9023 (2004

Comparative interference by haemolysis in automated assays for bilirubin at multiple analyte concentrations

The negative interference caused by haemolysis in manual bilirubin assays contrasts with the positive interference reported for some automated methods utilizing the same basic chemistry. A comparison was therefore made of the haemolysis interference associated with several automated bilirubin methodologies: multilayer film (Kodak Ektachem- total bilirubin (TBil), direct bilirubin (DBil), conjugated bilirubin (Bc), unconjugated bilirubin (Bu),; tableted reagents (Baxter Paramax- TBil, DBil); continuous flow (Technicon SMAC — TBil). Thirty serum pools were analysed (five concentrations of bilirubin, 2-229 μmol/l; six concentrations of haemoglobin, 0.00002-0.052 mmol/1). All methods, except one (Bc), exhibited both positive and negative interference, depending upon the relative haemoglobin and bilirubin concentrations. This interference, at any given haemoglobin concentration, was neither constant nor proportional with increasing bilirubin concentration. These complex patterns of interference suggest that the best characterization of interference is obtained when (1) both percentage-difference and absolute-difference ‘interferographs’ are plotted; and (2) the interference is determined at multiple analyte concentrations