Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership

Leadership is an expansive term with many definitions and applications. Over the years, adjectives have been applied in an effort to further define and narrow its scope and application, i.e., transactional, transformational, and servant. The term authentic leadership is no different. However, what sets it apart as a field of study and method of practice is both its definition and innuendo. Defining authenticity in terms of values, ethics, and self-will delineate its meaning in terms of its application and relevance amongst contemporary theories. Furthermore, identifying it as a brand of leadership will demonstrate its value — both intrinsic and external. Authentic leadership is a generic term that connotes genuineness. That is, it conveys to the follower the leader is the real thing as compared to others. This article explores the meaning of the term authentic in terms of values and ethics and identifies it as part of a personal branding process in regard to leadership

Rural soldiers continue to account for disproportionately high share of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

When the nation goes to war, all Americans are expected to make sacrifices. Today\u27s rural Americans, however, have fewer job opportunities within their communities, and are joining the military at higher rates. In turn, rural communities are facing military losses in disproportionate numbers to their urban counterparts

U.S. rural soldiers account for a disproportionately high share of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

A study by the Carsey Institute found that among U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, those who are from rural America are dying at a higher rate than those soldiers who are from cities and suburbs. According to U.S. Department of Defense records, rural youth enlist in the military at a higher rate than urban and suburban youth and in all but eight states, soldiers from rural areas make up a disproportionately high share of the casualties

The New York Yankees as an American Cultural Icon, 1940-1970

The New York Yankees baseball club, arguably the United States' most successful and well-known sports franchise, have acquired many cultural connotations over the years, meanings transcending the immediate world of on-field sporting contest. This study argues that by the 1940s, the Yankee's success in the previous decades and their representation in popular culture caused a coherent set of cultural meanings to crystallize around the club to create an American icon. This icon served as an emblem for a set of interrelated mid-century mainstream American values, namely the American dream of upward mobility, heroic masculinity, and a narrative of national success. The meanings, perspectives on, and uses of this mid-century Yankees cultural icon have not been homogenous, but have shifted generally with the team's on-field performance and broader historic changes, as well as with the perspectives of individual cultural producers and audiences. In particular, increasingly throughout the 1950s and `60s, a general shift towards a negative perspective on the Yankees icon emerged in cultural texts of the era, one that increasingly saw the American values they embodied in a negative light. In these texts, representations of the Yankees as elitist, greedy, racist, too-tradition-bound, and overly-corporate are utilized to convey a critique of these values. This general shift in perceptions and uses of the Yankees icon parallels and is part of the broader cultural conflict and shift occurring between World War II and the end of the 1960s. Methodologically, this study draws on Roland Barthes application of semiotic theory to cultural communication in a broader sense. It draws on baseball history and general cultural history and seeks historical readings of texts from literature, film, popular music, journalism, and sports fan culture. In particular, The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Joe DiMaggio's autobiography Lucky to Be a Yankee (1947), Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Mark Harris's The Southpaw (1953), Douglass Wallop's The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954), Damn Yankees (1955 Broadway, '58 film), Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" (1968) and Jim Bouton's Ball Four (1970) are analyzed for the way they represent and use the Yankees

Whiskerless Schottky diode

A Schottky diode for millimeter and submillimeter wave applications is comprised of a multi-layered structure including active layers of gallium arsenide on a semi-insulating gallium arsenide substrate with first and second insulating layers of silicon dioxide on the active layers of gallium arsenide. An ohmic contact pad lays on the silicon dioxide layers. An anode is formed in a window which is in and through the silicon dioxide layers. An elongated contact finger extends from the pad to the anode and a trench, preferably a transverse channel or trench of predetermined width, is formed in the active layers of the diode structure under the contact finger. The channel extends through the active layers to or substantially to the interface of the semi-insulating gallium arsenide substrate and the adjacent gallium arsenide layer which constitutes a buffer layer. Such a structure minimizes the effect of the major source of shunt capacitance by interrupting the current path between the conductive layers beneath the anode contact pad and the ohmic contact. Other embodiments of the diode may substitute various insulating or semi-insulating materials for the silicon dioxide, various semi-conductors for the active layers of gallium arsenide, and other materials for the substrate, which may be insulating or semi-insulating

Prediction accuracy evaluation of five soil test methods

How much fertilizer should farmers use to produce economical crop yields? Crop response to fertilization is one of the important factors to be considered in arriving at the answer. Farmers look to agricultural scientists to supply this information. The expense and the time of running field experiments make it desirable to employ other less expensive and less time-consuming methods for predicting crop response to fertilizer applications. To supplement field fertilizer experiments, scientists have developed rapid chemical tests for the purpose of supplying farmers needed information about the fertility levels of their soils. The chemical tests are used to predict crop responses on soil not studied. Many different laboratory tests have been developed in this and other countries. Every state in the United States and many foreign countries are using one or more of these methods in a soil testing program. The University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service initiated a state-wide soil testing service in 1944. The central laboratory was located in Nashville, Tennessee. Farmers are using the service at an increasing rate each year. During March 1954, 24,005 soil samples were analyzed for pH, available phosphate, and available potash as compared to 5,251 during March of 1953. Specific lime and fertilizer recommendations are made for crops to be grown on the field from which each soil sample was taken. The information supplied by these rapid laboratory tests is no better than the correlation between results from field experiments and the soil testing methods used. When one considers the number of farmers using this service and the amount spent for lime and fertilizer by these farmers, it is apparent that the soil testing methods used should be as reliable as possible. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the extent to which crop response to fertilization correlates with different levels of soil phosphorus and potassium as determined by the various soil test methods and to select the most reliable method for Tennessee conditions

U.S. Rural Soldiers Account for a Disproportionately High Share of Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

In time of war, all Americans are expected to sacrifice and rural Americans have always stepped forward to do their part in past wars and national emergencies. However, as the data presented here attests, today rural Americans are paying the ultimate sacrifice in disproportionately high numbers. Examination of deaths based on hometown in the Department of Defense records shows soldiers from rural America are dying at a higher rate than soldiers from big cities and suburbs. In all but eight states, soldiers from rural areas1 make up a disproportionately high share of casualties. The high death rate for soldiers from rural areas is linked to the higher rate of enlistment of young adults from rural America. The higher rates of enlistment in the Armed Forces among rural youth are possibly linked to diminished opportunities there. Transitioning from youth to adulthood is more problematic in rural U.S. because there are fewer job opportunities. Young adults in rural areas are less able to secure a foothold in the economy. Among employed young adults (age 18 to 24) only 24 percent of those in rural areas are working full-time year-round, compared to 29 percent of those in cities and suburbs