Collective leadership dynamics among professional peers: Co-constructing an unstable equilibrium

Professional service firms (PSFs) are characterised by contingent and contested power relations among an extended group of professional peers. Studies of such firms can therefore yield important insights for the literatures on collective leadership and leader–follower relations. Yet to date PSF scholars have neglected the topic of leadership,and leadership scholars have neglected the context of PSFs.Based on 102 interviewsacross the consulting, accounting, and legal sectors, we identify three relational processesthrough which professional peers co-construct collective leadership:legitimising, negotiating, and manoeuvring. We demonstrate how the relational processes taken together constitute an unstable equilibrium, both in the moment and over time, emphasising how leadership in PSFs is inherently contested and fragile. Our model contributes to theories of collective leadership and leader–follower relations by foregrounding the power and politics thatunderlie collective leadership. We highlight the significance of the individual leader within the collective. We challengeassumptionsconcerning the binary nature of leadership and followership,by showing how colleagues may grant leadership identities to their peers without necessarily granting them leadership authority, and without claiming follower identities for themselves

Pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of Rasmussen encephalitis: A European consensus statement

Rasmussen encephalitis (RE) is a rare but severe immune-mediated brain disorder leading to unilateral hemispheric atrophy, associated progressive neurological dysfunction and intractable seizures. Recent data on the pathogenesis of the disease, its clinical and paraclinical presentation, and therapeutic approaches are summarized. Based on these data, we propose formal diagnostic criteria and a therapeutic pathway for the management of RE patient

Soluble Cytokine Receptors (sIL-2Rα, sIL-2Rβ) Induce Subunit-Specific Behavioral Responses and Accumulate in the Cerebral Cortex and Basal Forebrain

Soluble cytokine receptors are normal constituents of body fluids that regulate peripheral cytokine and lymphoid activity. Levels of soluble IL-2 receptors (sIL-2R) are elevated in psychiatric disorders linked with autoimmune processes, including ones in which repetitive stereotypic behaviors and motor disturbances are present. However, there is no evidence that sIL-2Rs (or any peripheral soluble receptor) induce such behavioral changes, or that they localize in relevant brain regions. Here, we determined in male Balb/c mice the effects of single peripheral injections of sIL-2Rα or sIL-2Rβ (0–2 µg/male Balb/c mouse; s.c.) on novelty-induced ambulatory activity and stereotypic motor behaviors. We discovered that sIL-2Rα increased the incidence of in-place stereotypic motor behaviors, including head up head bobbing, rearing/sniffing, turning, and grooming behavior. A wider spectrum of behavioral changes was evident in sIL-2Rβ-treated mice, including increases in vertical and horizontal ambulatory activity and stereotypic motor movements. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that soluble receptors induce such behavioral disturbances. In contrast, soluble IL-1 Type-1 receptors (0–4 µg, s.c.) didn't appreciably affect these behaviors. We further demonstrated that sIL-2Rα and sIL-2Rβ induced marked increases in c-Fos in caudate-putamen, nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex. Anatomical specificity was supported by the presence of increased activity in lateral caudate in sIL-2Rα treated mice, while sIL-2Rβ treated mice induced greater c-Fos activity in prepyriform cortex. Moreover, injected sIL-2Rs were widely distributed in regions that showed increased c-Fos expression. Thus, sIL-2Rα and sIL-2Rβ induce marked subunit- and soluble cytokine receptor-specific behavioral disturbances, which included increases in the expression of ambulatory activity and stereotypic motor behaviors, while inducing increased neuronal activity localized to cortex and striatum. These findings suggest that sIL-2Rs act as novel immune-to- brain messengers and raise the possibility that they contribute to the disease process in psychiatric disorders in which marked increases in these receptors have been reported

Physical Electronics

Contains reports on four research projects

Clear purpose or sheer survival? National ministerial leadership across multiple arenas

Day-to-day political life for the most senior national politicians can be very pressurized and exposed. How they as individuals cope with constant challenges and make the most of opportunities for leadership is an under researched area. This is addressed in this interpretive study of the personal accounts of a small group of prominent U.K. politicians as they reflect, soon after leaving office, on their experiences as national ministers. The article connects generic leadership theory around practice and purpose with political leadership studies as a basis for a thematic analysis of ministers’ experiences across three key prominent arenas of ministerial life: relationships with the Prime Minister’s office, within their departments, and with their constituencies. Analysis of findings leads to a proposed analytical framework of active leadership in their everyday experience. The article concludes that active leadership practice is difficult but possible for leading national politicians

Observation of J/ψpJ/\psi p resonances consistent with pentaquark states in Λb0→J/ψK−p{\Lambda_b^0\to J/\psi K^-p} decays

Observations of exotic structures in the $J/\psi p$ channel, that we refer to as pentaquark-charmonium states, in $\Lambda_b^0\to J/\psi K^- p$ decays are presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3/fb acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions. An amplitude analysis is performed on the three-body final-state that reproduces the two-body mass and angular distributions. To obtain a satisfactory fit of the structures seen in the $J/\psi p$ mass spectrum, it is necessary to include two Breit-Wigner amplitudes that each describe a resonant state. The significance of each of these resonances is more than 9 standard deviations. One has a mass of $4380\pm 8\pm 29$ MeV and a width of $205\pm 18\pm 86$ MeV, while the second is narrower, with a mass of $4449.8\pm 1.7\pm 2.5$ MeV and a width of $39\pm 5\pm 19$ MeV. The preferred $J^P$ assignments are of opposite parity, with one state having spin 3/2 and the other 5/2.Comment: 48 pages, 18 figures including the supplementary material, v2 after referee's comments, now 19 figure

Study of WW boson production in association with beauty and charm

The associated production of a $W$ boson with a jet originating from either a light parton or heavy-flavor quark is studied in the forward region using proton-proton collisions. The analysis uses data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.0 and $2.0\,{\rm fb}^{-1}$ collected with the LHCb detector at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed using the $W\to\mu\nu$ decay and muons with a transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, larger than 20 GeV in the pseudorapidity range $2.0 20$ GeV and $2.2 < \eta < 4.2$. The sum of the muon and jet momenta must satisfy $p_{\rm T} > 20$ GeV. The fraction of $W+$jet events that originate from beauty and charm quarks is measured, along with the charge asymmetries of the $W\!+\!b$ and $W\!+\!c$ production cross-sections. The ratio of the $W+$jet to $Z+$jet production cross-sections is also measured using the $Z\to\mu\mu$ decay. All results are in agreement with Standard Model predictions

Search for CP violation in D+→K−K+π+D^{+} \to K^{-}K^{+}\pi^{+} decays

A model-independent search for direct CP violation in the Cabibbo suppressed decay $D^+ \to K^- K^+\pi^+$ in a sample of approximately 370,000 decays is carried out. The data were collected by the LHCb experiment in 2010 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb$^{-1}$. The normalized Dalitz plot distributions for $D^+$ and $D^-$ are compared using four different binning schemes that are sensitive to different manifestations of CP violation. No evidence for CP asymmetry is found.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Study of B−→DK−π+π−B^{-}\to DK^-\pi^+\pi^- and B−→Dπ−π+π−B^-\to D\pi^-\pi^+\pi^- decays and determination of the CKM angle γ\gamma

We report a study of the suppressed $B^-\to DK^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and favored $B^-\to D\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ decays, where the neutral $D$ meson is detected through its decays to the $K^{\mp}\pi^{\pm}$ and CP-even $K^+K^-$ and $\pi^+\pi^-$ final states. The measurement is carried out using a proton-proton collision data sample collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0~fb$^{-1}$. We observe the first significant signals in the CP-even final states of the $D$ meson for both the suppressed $B^-\to DK^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and favored $B^-\to D\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ modes, as well as in the doubly Cabibbo-suppressed $D\to K^+\pi^-$ final state of the $B^-\to D\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ decay. Evidence for the ADS suppressed decay $B^{-}\to DK^-\pi^+\pi^-$, with $D\to K^+\pi^-$, is also presented. From the observed yields in the $B^-\to DK^-\pi^+\pi^-$, $B^-\to D\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and their charge conjugate decay modes, we measure the value of the weak phase to be $\gamma=(74^{+20}_{-19})^{\rm o}$. This is one of the most precise single-measurement determinations of $\gamma$ to date.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures; All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-020.htm