Majority Decision-Making Works Best Under Conditions of Leadership Ambiguity and Shared Task Representations

The effectiveness of decision-making teams depends largely on their ability to integrate and make sense of information. Consequently, teams which more often use majority decision-making may make better quality decisions, but particularly so when they also have task representations which emphasize the elaboration of information relevant to the decision, in the absence of clear leadership. In the present study we propose that (a) majority decision-making will be more effective when task representations are shared, and that (b) this positive effect will be more pronounced when leadership ambiguity (i.e., team members’ perceptions of the absence of a clear leader) is high. These hypotheses were put to the test using a sample comprising 81 teams competing in a complex business simulation for seven weeks. As predicted, majority decision-making was more effective when task representations were shared, and this positive effect was more pronounced when there was leadership ambiguity. The findings extend and nuance earlier research on decision rules, the role of shared task representations, and leadership clarity

Evolution of a beam dynamics model for the transport lines in a proton therapy facility

Despite the fact that the first-order beam dynamics models allow an approximated evaluation of the beam properties, their contribution is essential during the conceptual design of an accelerator or beamline. However, during the commissioning some of their limitations appear in the comparison against measurements. The extension of the linear model to higher order effects is, therefore, demanded. In this paper, the effects of particle-matter interaction have been included in the model of the transport lines in the proton therapy facility at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) in Switzerland. To improve the performance of the facility, a more precise model was required and has been developed with the multi-particle open source beam dynamics code called OPAL (Object oriented Particle Accelerator Library). In OPAL, the Monte Carlo simulations of Coulomb scattering and energy loss are performed seamless with the particle tracking. Beside the linear optics, the influence of the passive elements (e.g. degrader, collimators, scattering foils and air gaps) on the beam emittance and energy spread can be analysed in the new model. This allows for a significantly improved precision in the prediction of beam transmission and beam properties. The accuracy of the OPAL model has been confirmed by numerous measurements.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figure

Acrylamide: Increased concentrations in homemade food and first evidence of its variable absorption from food, variable metabolism and placental and breast milk transfer in humans

We have developed a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay to determine acrylamide in various body fluids. The assay also allows the reliable quantitation of acrylamide in food. In a total of 11 healthy male and female subjects, we were able to show that acrylamide from food given to humans is in fact absorbed from the gut. The half-lives determined in two male subjects were 2.2 and 7 h. Acrylamide was found in human breast milk and penetrated the human placenta (n = 3). The variability of acrylamide concentrations found in this investigation is most likely caused by variable intersubject bioavailability and metabolism. This may be an important indication that the assessment of the risk from acrylamide for the individual may be very difficult without knowing the concentrations of acrylamide in the body. This should be considered in the design of any risk assessment study or post hoc analysis of earlier studies. At this time, we suggest that pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers avoid acrylamide-containing food. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

Interference effects in the photorecombination of argonlike Sc3+ ions: Storage-ring experiment and theory

Absolute total electron-ion recombination rate coefficients of argonlike Sc3+(3s2 3p6) ions have been measured for relative energies between electrons and ions ranging from 0 to 45 eV. This energy range comprises all dielectronic recombination resonances attached to 3p -> 3d and 3p -> 4s excitations. A broad resonance with an experimental width of 0.89 +- 0.07 eV due to the 3p5 3d2 2F intermediate state is found at 12.31 +- 0.03 eV with a small experimental evidence for an asymmetric line shape. From R-Matrix and perturbative calculations we infer that the asymmetric line shape may not only be due to quantum mechanical interference between direct and resonant recombination channels as predicted by Gorczyca et al. [Phys. Rev. A 56, 4742 (1997)], but may partly also be due to the interaction with an adjacent overlapping DR resonance of the same symmetry. The overall agreement between theory and experiment is poor. Differences between our experimental and our theoretical resonance positions are as large as 1.4 eV. This illustrates the difficulty to accurately describe the structure of an atomic system with an open 3d-shell with state-of-the-art theoretical methods. Furthermore, we find that a relativistic theoretical treatment of the system under study is mandatory since the existence of experimentally observed strong 3p5 3d2 2D and 3p5 3d 4s 2D resonances can only be explained when calculations beyond LS-coupling are carried out.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, Phys. Rev. A (in print), see also: http://www.strz.uni-giessen.de/~k

Enhanced dielectronic recombination of lithium-like Ti19+ ions in external ExB fields

Dielectronic recombination(DR) of lithium-like Ti19+(1s2 2s) ions via 2s->2p core excitations has been measured at the Heidelberg heavy ion storage ring TSR. We find that not only external electric fields (0 <= Ey <= 280 V/cm) but also crossed magnetic fields (30 mT <= Bz <= 80 mT) influence the DR via high-n (2p_j nl)-Rydberg resonances. This result confirms our previous finding for isoelectronic Cl14+ ions [Bartsch T et al, PRL 82, 3779 (1999)] that experimentally established the sensitivity of DR to ExB fields. In the present investigation the larger 2p_{1/2}-2p_{3/2} fine structure splitting of Ti19+ allowed us to study separately the influence of external fields via the two series of Rydberg DR resonances attached to the 2s -> 2p_{1/2} and 2s -> 2p_{3/2} excitations of the Li-like core, extracting initial slopes and saturation fields of the enhancement. We find that for Ey > 80 V/cm the field induced enhancement is about 1.8 times stronger for the 2p_{3/2} series than for the 2p_{1/2} series.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Journal of Physics B, see also http://www.strz.uni-giessen.de/~k

Technical challenges for FLASH proton therapy

There is growing interest in the radiotherapy community in the application of FLASH radiotherapy, wherein the dose is delivered to the entire treatment volume in less than a second. Early pre-clinical evidence suggests that these extremely high dose rates provide significant sparing of healthy tissue compared to conventional radiotherapy without reducing the damage to cancerous cells. This interest has been reflected in the proton therapy community, with early tests indicating that the FLASH effect is also present with high dose rate proton irradiation. In order to deliver clinically relevant doses at FLASH dose rates significant technical hurdles must be overcome in the accelerator technology before FLASH proton therapy can be realised. Of these challenges, increasing the average current from the present clinical range of 1–10 nA to in excess of 100 nA is at least feasible with existing technology, while the necessity for rapid energy adjustment on the order of a few milliseconds is much more challenging, particularly for synchrotron-based systems. However, the greatest challenge is to implement full pencil beam scanning, where scanning speeds 2 orders of magnitude faster than the existing state-of-the-art will be necessary, along with similar improvements in the speed and accuracy of associated dosimetry. Hybrid systems utilising 3D-printed patient specific range modulators present the most likely route to clinical delivery. However, to correctly adapt and develop existing technology to meet the challenges of FLASH, more pre-clinical studies are needed to properly establish the beam parameters that are necessary to produce the FLASH effect

Single-photon single ionization of W+^{+} ions: experiment and theory

Experimental and theoretical results are reported for photoionization of Ta-like (W$^{+}$) tungsten ions. Absolute cross sections were measured in the energy range 16 to 245 eV employing the photon-ion merged-beam setup at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley. Detailed photon-energy scans at 100 meV bandwidth were performed in the 16 to 108 eV range. In addition, the cross section was scanned at 50 meV resolution in regions where fine resonance structures could be observed. Theoretical results were obtained from a Dirac-Coulomb R-matrix approach. Photoionization cross section calculations were performed for singly ionized atomic tungsten ions in their $5s^2 5p^6 5d^4({^5}D)6s \; {^6}{\rm D}_{J}$, $J$=1/2, ground level and the associated excited metastable levels with $J$=3/2, 5/2, 7/2 and 9/2. Since the ion beams used in the experiments must be expected to contain long-lived excited states also from excited configurations, additional cross-section calculations were performed for the second-lowest term, 5d^5 \; ^6{\rm S}_{J}, $J$=5/2, and for the $^4$F term, 5d^3 6s^2 \; ^4{\rm F}_{J}, with $J$ = 3/2, 5/2, 7/2 and 9/2. Given the complexity of the electronic structure of W$^+$ the calculations reproduce the main features of the experimental cross section quite well.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, 1 table: Accepted for publication in J. Phys. B: At. Mol. & Opt. Phy