Prosocial rule breaking in the work environment: an empirical analysis of the outcomes

Integrating theorizing across the prosocial rule breaking and burnout literature, we hypothesize that prosocial rule breaking increase emotional exhaustion and decreases, instead, personal effectiveness. We further propose that process of moral disengagement and moral identity mediate this effect. Overall, results proved substantial evidence that prosocial rule breaking is positively related to moral disengagement and negatively to moral identity. While the study did not find any evidence that prosocial rule breaking can affect burnout, a strong mediation effect was found with moral identity which can actually predict the relation between prosocial rule breaking and personal effectiveness

Optimization of duplex velocity criteria for diagnosis of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis: A report of the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) Vascular Testing Division Carotid Diagnostic Criteria Committee

Diagnostic criteria to classify severity of internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis vary across vascular laboratories. Consensus-based criteria, proposed by the Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound in 2003 (SRUCC), have been broadly implemented but have not been adequately validated. We conducted a multicentered, retrospective correlative imaging study of duplex ultrasound versus catheter angiography for evaluation of severity of ICA stenosis. Velocity data were abstracted from bilateral duplex studies performed between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2015 and studies were interpreted using SRUCC. Percentage ICA stenosis was determined using North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET) methodology. Receiver operating characteristic analysis evaluated the performance of SRUCC parameters compared with angiography. Of 448 ICA sides (from 224 patients), 299 ICA sides (from 167 patients) were included. Agreement between duplex ultrasound and angiography was moderate (κ = 0.42), with overestimation of degree of stenosis for both moderate (50-69%) and severe (⩾ 70%) ICA lesions. The primary SRUCC parameter for ⩾ 50% ICA stenosis of peak-systolic velocity (PSV) of ⩾ 125 cm/sec did not meet prespecified thresholds for adequate sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (sensitivity 97.8%, specificity 64.2%, accuracy 74.5%). Test performance was improved by raising the PSV threshold to ⩾ 180 cm/sec (sensitivity 93.3%, specificity 81.6%, accuracy 85.2%) or by adding the additional parameter of ICA/common carotid artery (CCA) PSV ratio ⩾ 2.0 (sensitivity 94.3%, specificity 84.3%, accuracy 87.4%). For ⩾ 70% ICA stenosis, analysis was limited by a low number of cases with angiographically severe disease. Interpretation of carotid duplex examinations using SRUCC resulted in significant overestimation of severity of ICA stenosis when compared with angiography; raising the PSV threshold for ⩾ 50% ICA stenosis to ⩾ 180 cm/sec as a single parameter or requiring the ICA/CCA PSV ratio ⩾ 2.0 in addition to PSV of ⩾ 125 cm/sec for laboratories using the SRUCC is recommended to improve the accuracy of carotid duplex examinations. Keywords: carotid artery disease; carotid duplex ultrasound; diagnostic criteria; vascular imaging/diagnostics

Linear convergence in time-varying generalized Nash equilibrium problems

We study generalized games with full row rank equality constraints and we provide a strikingly simple proof of strong monotonicity of the associated KKT operator. This allows us to show linear convergence to a variational equilibrium of the resulting primal-dual pseudo-gradient dynamics. Then, we propose a fully-distributed algorithm with linear convergence guarantee for aggregative games under partial-decision information. Based on these results, we establish stability properties for online GNE seeking in games with time-varying cost functions and constraints. Finally, we illustrate our findings numerically on an economic dispatch problem for peer-to-peer energy markets

Sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax (L.) bacterial infection and confinement stress acts on F-type lectin (DlFBL) serum modulation

The F-lectin, a fucose-binding protein found from invertebrates to ectothermic vertebrates, is the last lectin family to be discovered. Here, we describe effects of two different types of stressors, bacterial infection and confinement stress, on the modulation of European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax (L.) F-lectin (DlFBL), a well-characterized serum opsonin, using a specific antibody. The infection of the Vibrio alginolyticus bacterial strain increased the total haemagglutinating activity during the 16-day testing period. The DlFBL value showed an upward regulation on the first, second and last days and underwent a slight downward regulation 4days post-challenge. In contrast, the effect of confinement and density stress showed a decrease in the plasma concentration of lectin, ranging from 50% to 60% compared with the control. The modulation of DlFBL is in line with the hypothesis that humoral lectins could be involved and recruited in the initial recognition step of the inflammation, which leads to agglutination, and the activation of mechanisms responsible for killing of the pathogens

The mimetic principle and the digital technology

Il seguente contributo prende in esame il rapporto bilaterale tra noi e la tecnologia. Facendo ciò, avanza una tesi integralmente nuova, che si propone di investigare e di porre in correlazione il crescente utilizzo dei dispositivi digitali (in particolare, gli smartphones) e il nostro atteggiamento solipsistico. Quanto il potere dei media tecnologici influisce finanche sui nostri assetti valoriali? Con l’obiettivo di fornire una risposta a tale quesito, lo studio propone, come criterio esplicativo, il principio mimetico. La relazione tra noi e i nostri devices si è trasformata in una sorta di asservimento, in cui noi assomigliamo ad obbedienti discepoli che trascorrono sempre più tempo con gli occhi ancorati ai nostri schermi. L’odierno imperativo individualistico potrebbe rivelarsi così, almeno in parte, una delle modalità imitative che attingiamo dalla tecnologia digitale.The following essay concentrates on our bilateral relationship with technology. It puts forward a completely new thesis, that intends to investigate and connect the increasingly intense utilisation of digital devices (specially, smartphones) and our solipsistic attitude. Furthermore, how does the power of technological media influence our values? In order answer this question, the study proposes, as an explanatory criterion, the imitation dynamic. The relationship between us and our devices has been turning into a type of enslavement, in which we are resembling obedient disciples who spend more and more time with the eyes anchored to our screens. The current individualist ethos could reveal itself, partly, as one of the imitative modes which we draw from digital technology

Sensibility and motility of words in Giacomo Leopardi’s poetic conception

The following essay is mainly concerned with materialism notion, considered as one of the very fundamental architraves of Giacomo Leopardi’s whole thought. This standpoint derives to him from Locke’s work, but our author became much more radical. The goal is to show how the pervasiveness of an integral materialistic point of view is able – in Leopardi’s layout – to effect even the linguistic scope, especially the poetic one. Our aim is to outline the potential ethical content, that the Italian thinker conveys in his pieces of advice to poets and writers

Jominy Hardenability Tester Redesign

Our project is Redesigning a Hardenability Tester. The goal of this project is to figure out how to incorporate an intensive quenching system to the current design from last years group. An intensive quench is a new system that is safer to harden steel and it hardens steel more effectively than other quenching processes. This will be achieved through testing the initial design to make sure it is able to run. After that as a group we will take this system through a design process to introduce a safe process of intensive quenching to the tester