Proper punctuation: a qualitative exploration of changes in conflict management processes during revolutionary periods in teams

Teams experience periods of dramatic change, known as revolutionary periods, during their developmental life cycles. These periods have an outsized impact on performance as they provide an opportunity to reconsider and reshape the fundamental assumptions and processes that teams deploy to accomplish their goals. The transient and durable changes to transition, action, and interpersonal processes which occur during revolutionary periods are critical mediators which convert the team’s inputs into outcomes including productivity, group viability, and individual group member satisfaction. Teams are ubiquitous in for-profit organizations, and these organizations are situated in increasingly dynamic and volatile environments. Despite this, little research directly examines how teams cope with this dynamism through interpersonal process adaptations during revolutionary periods. This study explores how, if at all, teams modify their conflict management processes during revolutionary periods. It does so by utilizing a qualitative, multiple-case method to examine changes in the conflict management processes of two teams that had undergone revolutionary periods and emerged with improved performance. The results show that there was not a universal pattern of qualitative changes in conflict management processes or styles during revolutionary periods. Instead, teams engaged in transitory subversion of previous predominant conflict management styles as they addressed urgent threats through unique blends of alternative approaches. Later, both teams transitioned to new, stable blends of conflict management styles in the ensuing period of equilibrium where collaborating predominated. Results also show that teams reduced the level of detail and dynamic complexity in their conflict management processes at the onset of the revolutionary period and incrementally restored complexity as they transitioned to periods of equilibrium. The first conclusion supports both the notion that revolutionary periods create sensitive far from equilibrium states as well as the contingency theory of conflict management. The second conclusion supports structural adaptation theory and the proposition that systems readily transition to states of lower complexity. The generalizability of these conclusions is limited as this study was exploratory, but they offer value to practitioners and researchers alike. They can both inform further inquiry on longitudinal changes in conflict management processes and serve as heuristics guiding leader’s and team member’s actions during revolutionary periods

Estimated Impact of X-disease and Little Cherry Disease in Washington and Oregon from 2015 to 2020

X-disease phytoplasma and little cherry virus 1 and 2 have resulted in substantial loss of stone fruit acreage in Washington and Oregon. The extent and financial impact on the industry was not previously known. A Washington and Oregon State University survey documented 238,856 trees equivalent to 974 acres of sweet cherries removed due to X-disease and little cherry disease between 2015 and 2020. Removed trees reduced revenue to the industry by an estimated $30 million in 2020 and$65 million between 2015 and 2020. Over the seven-year re-establishment period estimated lost revenue and establishment costs to growers is an estimated $115 million

A Northward Range Extension of the Hispid Cotton Rat (\u3ci\u3eSigmodon hispidus\u3c/i\u3e) in Missouri

The hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a widely distributed rodent with a geographic range extending from north-central Mexico to southern Nebraska and central Virginia and from southeastern Arizona east to Florida (Carleton et al. 1999, Peppers and Bradley 2000, Wilson and Reeder 2005) with isolated populations in Arizona (Bradley et al. 2012) and California (Clark 1972). Range expansions for the species have been well documented (Clark 1972, Farney 1975, Benedict et al. 2000, Wright et al. 2010, Wills et al. 2011). The majority of these range expansions have occurred across the Central Plains during the 20th century and have been attributed to climate change (e.g., Benedict et al. 2000, Hoffman 2008). Bailey (1902) was the first to document movement of S. hispidus into the Central Plains by documenting individuals for the first time in Kansas that most likely moved northward from Oklahoma. By 1947, the species had reached the Kansas/Nebraska border (Cockrum 1948). Just over 10 years later, Jones (1960) reported 12 individuals near the Nemaha River in southeastern Nebraska, and by the late 1960s (Choate and Genoways 1967, Genoways and Schlitter 1967) and mid-1970s (Farney 1975), the species had been documented in several parts of the state

NOTES: RANGE EXTENSION OF THE VIRGINIA OPOSSUM (DIDELPHIS VIRGINIANA) IN NORTH DAKOTA

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is broadly distributed across North America from Costa Rica in the south to southern Ontario in the north and from the southern Great Plains in the west to the eastern United States. The Virginia opossum also was introduced multiple times to thePacific Coast beginning in the late 1800s and has established populations in that region (Gardner and Sunquist 2003). This species is a habitat generalist known to frequent wetland and hardwood habitats but also can be found in grasslands, along forest edges, and in agricultural and suburban settings throughout its range (Gardner and Sunquist 2003, Beatty et al. 2014). However, the Virginia opossum is adapted poorly to winter, limiting its northern distribution to more tolerable warmer climates. It does not hibernate or exhibit torpor, and it will remain in its den rather than forage on nights when temperatures are below freezing or when there is deep snow, risking starvation if more than 54 days of winter are too harsh to forage (Brocke 1970). Despite these limitations, the Virginia opossum has expanded north in recent decades (Myers et al. 2009) and has been documented in novel areas of the Upper Midwest and New England (e.g., Dice 1927, Goodwin 1935, Jackson 1961). Both climate change and human land use alteration have been identified as contributing factors to their current range expansion. A recent study conducted across Michigan and Wisconsin identified reduced days of snow on the ground and increased agricultural land as two key factors facilitating the opossum’s expansion in the Midwest (Walsh and Tucker 2017). As generalist omnivores, opossums benefit from increased road kill and resources provided by agricultural practices (Beatty et al. 2014). Humans are further ameliorating winter conditions by providing shelter and easily accessible food, as evidenced by opossums in urban areas weighing more than individuals in adjacent natural habitats (Kanda 2005, Wright et al. 2012)

Virtual images and billiards

Students in introductory physics courses struggle to understand virtual image formation by a plane mirror and the proper construction of ray diagrams. This difficulty, if not sufficiently addressed, results in further problems throughout the study of geometric optics. Specifically, students fail to apply proper graphical representation of light rays during investigations of the formation of real images by converging lenses and concave mirrors. We present a guided-inquiry activity based on the research-verified Physics by Inquiry text that incorporates a small and inexpensive billiards table, with billiard balls acting as "light". In this way, we approach the abstract concept of virtual images by relation to the concrete concept of physical reflection.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physics Educatio

Computation of the modified Bessel function of the third kind of imaginary orders: uniform Airy-type asymptotic expansion

AbstractThe use of a uniform Airy-type asymptotic expansion for the computation of the modified Bessel functions of the third kind of imaginary orders (Kia(x)) near the transition point x=a, is discussed. In A. Gil et al., Evaluation of the modified Bessel functions of the third kind of imaginary orders, J. Comput. Phys. 17 (2002) 398–411, an algorithm for the evaluation of Kia(x) was presented, which made use of series, a continued fraction method and nonoscillating integral representations. The range of validity of the algorithm was limited by the singularity of the steepest descent paths near the transition point. We show how uniform Airy-type asymptotic expansions fill the gap left by the steepest descent method

Hysteresis in mesoscopic superconducting disks: the Bean-Livingston barrier

The magnetization behavior of mesoscopic superconducting disks can show hysteretic behavior which we explain by using the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory and properly taking into account the de-magnetization effects due to geometrical form factors. In large disks the Bean-Livingston surface barrier is responsible for the hysteresis. While in small disks a volume barrier is responsible for this hysteresis. It is shown that although the sample magnetization is diamagnetic (negative), the measured magnetization can be positive at certain fields as observed experimentally, which is a consequence of the de-magnetization effects and the experimental set up.Comment: Latex file, 4 ps file