Two Models of Health Sciences Center Leadership During Turbulent Times

Leadership and change in health sciences centers are explored through contrasting two models of leadership: commonly practiced leadership and what has been referred to as “good enough leadership” (GEL). Several common cases or scenarios are presented through the lens of each model, with the conclusion that good enough leadership is more functional, creative, and healing than more widespread conventional models

Surfacing Perversions of Democracy in the Workplace: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Project

doi:10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100064In this paper, we explore the psychodynamics of democracy in the workplace with a particular focus on unconscious and collusive forms of perverting democratic processes at work. We suggest that interpersonally and collectively the dialectical interplay between (1) autistic-contiguous, (2) paranoid-schizoid, and (3) depressive modes of experience and organized perceptions, which are necessary to the containment of divisions and conflicts in democratic organizations, is vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and psychological defenses that foster regression and collapse into more oppressive, authoritarian, and sadistic political cultures. With the objective of understanding perversions to democracy in the workplace, we find that a contemporary psychoanalytic view of organizations is more instructive than mainstream organization theory or that found in Foucault's writings on power and institutions.Includes bibliographical reference

Powering West Midlands Growth: A Regional Approach to Clean Energy Innovation

The West Midlands is uniquely positioned to lead the UK in taking advantage of the economic opportunities arising from the global transition to a clean energy system. The region’s strengths include: strong and coherent political leadership committed to sustainability; the diversity of economic needs and scale of demand required to build competitive markets to support radical innovation; a world-class concentration of both academic and commercial expertise in the low-carbon energy sector; a massive programme of public and private investment in infrastructure planned for the next decade, and above all, the determination to secure long-term economic benefit from clean energy innovation. This report makes the case for the creation of a small number of Energy Innovation Zones (EIZs) across the region, acting as pathfinders for an approach that might subsequently be adopted across the country as a whole. EIZs enable barriers – such as powerful institutional silos separating transport, digital, planning and energy – to be overcome within designated geographies. They create a risk-managed and commercial-scale context for the development of new local clean energy markets. They also provide a practical mechanism to help attract investment and muster local political support. At a national level, they can help ensure innovation is built into the government’s strategic sector deals and other large scale public investment projects

The Fallacy of Selecting the Right Person for the Job

Recruiting senior level higher education executives is more challenging than the customary and presumably rational approach of forming a search committee, running an advertisement or hiring a search firm, interviewing candidates, and making a selection. This article discusses many of the organizational dynamics that suggest logic and rationality often are lacking in recruiting for these important positions. The inevitable presence of conflicting interpersonal and intergroup dynamics that may not be discussable in any meaningful way compromises recruiting outcomes. Hiring the best person for the position may well not occur

Evaluation of Exogenous Enzyme Combinations on Broiler Performance in Reduced Energy Diets

Two studies were performed to evaluate the efficacy of supplementing exogenous enzyme combinations on broiler growth performance in reduced nutrient density corn-soybean meal diets. In experiment 1, 3,200 Cobb 500 broilers were allocated to 5 treatments with 16 replicates for 39 days. The experiment consisted of a nutritionally complete positive control, AME reduced negative control (NC), NC + Non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzyme (NSPase) containing xylanase, β-glucanase, α-galactosidase, NC + an enzyme combination of xylanase, amylase, protease (XAP), and NC + NSPase + XAP. Apparent metabolizable energy in the NC was reduced by 55 kcal/kg in the starter phase and 88 kcal/kg in the finisher and withdrawal phases. Energy reduction in the NC significantly decreased average BW and significantly increased FCR through the starter and finisher phase. Non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzyme inclusion increased average BW significantly compared to the negative control at levels similar to that of the positive control during the starter and finisher phases. Non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzyme significantly reduced FCR compared to the NC at levels that were similar to the positive control. Inclusion of XAP resulted in BW similar to the PC at d 14 and 27, and reduced (P<0.05) FCR from d 1 to 27. The combined inclusion of NSPase + XAP resulted in no further benefit beyond individual inclusion of each enzyme combination. In experiment 2, 2,590 Cobb 500 broilers were allocated to 7 treatments with 10 replicates for 41 d. Treatments consisted of a nutritionally complete reference diet, and 6 AME reduced (-88 kcal/kg) treatments composing a 2 X 3 factorial of phytase and XAP inclusion. Phytase was included at 600 (low) and 1,200 (high) FTU/kg, with XAP included at 1,200 (low), 1,800 (medium), and 2,400 (high) XU/kg. High phytase x low XAP and high phytase x medium XAP both resulted in similar cumulative FCR compared to the reference diet. Factorial analysis indicated high phytase compared to low phytase significantly reduced starter FCR and elevated finisher mortality. During the starter phase, medium XAP inclusion resulted in a significantly lower rate of feed consumption compared to the low XAP. Inclusion of medium XAP significantly reduced cumulative FCR from d 15 to 41 compared to low level XAP. These data indicate that supplementation of multiple enzyme preparation into a diet can influence growth performance; however, combinations of enzyme preparations similar in mode of action do not result in performance levels beyond that of individual preparation inclusion

Combined Effects of Montmorillonite Clay, Carbon Nanofiber, and Fire Retardant on Mechanical and Flammability Properties of Polyamide 11 Nanocomposites

This paper is focused on the development of polyamide 11 (PA11) nanocomposites with enhanced fire retardant (FR) properties for application in selective laser sintering (SLS). Test specimens of PA11 containing various percentages of intumescent FR additive, montmorillonite (MMT) clay, and carbon nanofiber (CNF) were prepared via the twin screw extrusion technique. The combined effects of MMT clay, CNF, FR additives on the mechanical and flammability properties of these PA11 nanocomposites are studied. Izod impact testing, tensile testing, and SEM analysis of are used to characterize mechanical properties. UL-94 and SEM analysis of char surfaces are used to characterize the flammability properties of these materials. Results are analyzed to determine any synergistic effects among the additives to the material properties of PA11.Mechanical Engineerin

Potential impact of invasive alien species on ecosystem services provided by a tropical forested ecosystem: a case study from Montserrat

Local stakeholders at the important but vulnerable Centre Hills on Montserrat consider that the continued presence of feral livestock (particularly goats and pigs) may lead to widespread replacement of the reserve’s native vegetation by invasive alien trees (Java plum and guava), and consequent negative impacts on native animal species. Since 2009, a hunting programme to control the feral livestock has been in operation. However long-term funding is not assured. Here, we estimate the effect of feral livestock control on ecosystem services provided by the forest to evaluate whether the biodiversity conservation rationale for continuation of the control programme is supported by an economic case. A new practical tool (Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment) was employed to measure and compare ecosystem service provision between two states of the reserve (i.e. presence and absence of feral livestock control) to estimate the net consequences of the hunting programme on ecosystem services provided by the forest. Based on this we estimate that cessation of feral livestock management would substantially reduce the net benefits provided by the site, including a 46 % reduction in nature-based tourism (from $419,000 to$228,000) and 36 % reduction in harvested wild meat (from $205,000 to$132,000). The overall net benefit generated from annual ecosystem service flows associated with livestock control in thereserve, minus the management cost, was $214,000 per year. We conclude that continued feral livestock control is important for maintaining the current level of ecosystem services provided by the reserve

Social comparison processes in organizations

We systematically analyze the role of social comparison processes in organizations. Specifically, we describe how social comparison processes have been used to explain six key areas of organizational inquiry: (1) organizational justice, (2) performance appraisal, (3) virtual work environments, (4) affective behavior in the workplace, (5) stress, and (6) leadership. Additionally, we describe how unique contextual factors in organizations offer new insight into two widely studied sub-processes of social comparison, acquiring social information and thinking about that information. Our analyses underscore the merit of integrating organizational phenomena and social comparison processes in future research and theory

AbDb: Antibody structure database - A database of PDB derived antibody structures

In order to analyse structures of proteins of a particular class, these need to be extracted from Protein Data Bank (PDB) files. In the case of antibodies, there are a number of special considerations: (i) identifying antibodies in the PDB is not trivial, (ii) they may be crystallized with or without antigen, (iii) for analysis purposes, one is normally only interested in the Fv region of the antibody, (iv) structural analysis of epitopes, in particular, requires individual antibody–antigen complexes from a PDB file which may contain multiple copies of the same, or different, antibodies and (v) standard numbering schemes should be applied. Consequently, there is a need for a specialist resource containing pre-numbered non-redundant antibody Fv structures with their cognate antigens. We have created an automatically updated resource, AbDb, which collects the Fv regions from antibody structures using information from our SACS database which summarizes antibody structures from the PDB. PDB files containing multiple structures are split and numbered and each antibody structure is associated with its antigen where available. Antibody structures with only light or heavy chains have also been processed and sequences of antibodies are compared to identify multiple structures of the same antibody. The data may be queried on the basis of PDB code, or the name or species of the antibody or antigen, and the complete datasets may be downloaded. Database URL: www.bioinf.org.uk/abs/abdb

A leadership model validation: Dimensions influential to innovation

Background: Current pressures for globalisation force organisations to explore, create and implement new ideas in order to remain competitive. This necessitates the need to utilise innovation to diversify products and services, introduce new technology, establish new managerial and administrative practices, and initiate transformation in other areas of the organisation. Objectives: This article explored the relationship between the latent variables, namely, rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation, as postulated by De Jong and Den Hartog’s leadership model for stimulating innovation. Method: The research approach chosen to investigate the research questions was an ex post facto, cross-sectional field survey. Secondary data from a reputable financial institution with extensive business in three African countries (Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia) were used as the data were collected by the institution and made available to the researcher for further analysis. A complete sample size of N = 584 was obtained across the three countries. Confirmatory factor analysis was initially used to provide a confirmatory test of the measurement theory followed by structural equation modelling which allowed to test for regression amongst the latent variables (rewards, resources, leadership vision and innovation). Results: Structural equation modelling revealed that only leadership vision and resources were found to be statistically significant; rewards showed a negative relationship (r = −0.02) with innovation. Resources made the greater contribution (r = 0.75) to innovation, compared to leadership vision (r = 0.28). Conclusion: The study empirically validate and support the assertion of De Jong and Den Hartog (2007) that the latent variables resources and leadership vision positively correlate with innovation in the context of the financial services industry