Growth motives and learning behaviors among older workers:Toward a more comprehensive assessment

Research findings indicate an age-related decline in worker’s growth and learning. In this paper, we investigate to what extent these results may be affected by measures (e.g., growth need strength scale) that are influenced by educational approaches to workplace learning, framing learning as intentional processes of knowledge acquisition guided by educators. Based on Human Resource Development (HRD) and non-HRD literature, we propose that these measures may not fully capture learning processes of older workers who seemingly prefer learning outside of formal educational contexts (e.g., spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning). We examine measures of growth motives and learning behaviors and conclude that these are strongly influenced by an educational perspective, encouraging inaccurate conclusions regarding older workers’ learning interest and activity. We provide suggestions for the development of new measures inspired by a noneducational perspective on work-related learning, for instance by tapping into spontaneous, strengths-based, and collaborative forms of learning

Optical response of silver nanoneedles on a mirror

Plasmonic properties of metal nanostructures are appealing due to their potential to enhance photovoltaics or sensing performance. Our aim was to identify the plasmonic characteristics of silver nanoneedles on a reflective layer in the polarized optical response. Experimental ellipsometry results are complemented by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations. Plasmon resonances on the nanoneedles can indeed be observed in the polarized optical response. This study reveals the details of the complex antenna-like behaviour of the nanoneedles which gives an agreement between experiment and FDTD simulation. The simulations show that the plasmon resonances lead to an effective negative refractive index, originating from the negative refractive index of the nanoneedles in combination with its supporting substrate, i.e. a mirror. This original study of a complex plasmonic system by ellipsometry and FDTD has great relevance for applications, making use of intricate light matter interaction

High-performance work systems and individual performance:A longitudinal study of the differential roles of happiness and health well-being

As a part of the growing strand of employee-centered HRM research, employee well-being is suggested to be a key mechanism that may help to explain the relationship between HRM and performance. To investigate how an employee’s well-being mediates the HRM-performance relationship, we distinguish between two types of well-being identified in prior work, happiness well-being and health well-being, and present arguments for differences in their effects on individual performance. Building on Job Demands-Resources (JDR) theory, we propose that happiness well-being positively mediates the relationship between perceived High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and individual task performance, while health well-being negatively mediates this focal relationship. Thus, happiness well-being fits the “mutual gains” perspective. In contrast, health well-being fits the “conflicting outcomes” perspective, and thus may be harmed by the HPWS to enhance the performance. We find partial support for our arguments in an analysis of longitudinal survey data of 420 participants spanning a total of four waves of data collection

Meritocracy a myth? A multilevel perspective of how social equality accumulates through work

Work plays a crucial role in rising social inequalities, which refer to unequal opportunities and rewards for different social groups. Whereas the conventional view of workplaces as meritocracies suggests that work is a conduit for social equality, we unveil the ways in which workplaces contribute to the accumulation of social inequality. In our Cumulative Social Inequality in Workplaces (CSI-W) model, we outline how initial differences in opportunities and rewards shape performance and/or subsequent opportunities and rewards, such that those who receive more initial opportunities and rewards tend to receive even more over time. These cumulative social inequality dynamics take place via nine different mechanisms spanning four different levels (individual, dyadic, network, organizational). The CSI-W indicates that the mechanisms interact, such that the social inequality dynamics in workplaces tend to (a) exacerbate social inequalities over time, (b) legitimate social inequalities over time, and (c) manifest themselves through everyday occurrences and behaviors

Composition and stage dynamics of mitochondrial complexes in Plasmodium falciparum

Our current understanding of mitochondrial functioning is largely restricted to traditional model organisms, which only represent a fraction of eukaryotic diversity. The unusual mitochondrion of malaria parasites is a validated drug target but remains poorly understood. Here, we apply complexome profiling to map the inventory of protein complexes across the pathogenic asexual blood stages and the transmissible gametocyte stages of Plasmodium falciparum. We identify remarkably divergent composition and clade-specific additions of all respiratory chain complexes. Furthermore, we show that respiratory chain complex components and linked metabolic pathways are up to 40-fold more prevalent in gametocytes, while glycolytic enzymes are substantially reduced. Underlining this functional switch, we find that cristae are exclusively present in gametocytes. Leveraging these divergent properties and stage dynamics for drug development presents an attractive opportunity to discover novel classes of antimalarials and increase our repertoire of gametocytocidal drugs

Gold colloidal nanoparticle electrodeposition on a silicon surface in a uniform electric field

The electrodeposition of gold colloidal nanoparticles on a silicon wafer in a uniform electric field is investigated using scanning electron microscopy and homemade electrochemical cells. Dense and uniform distributions of particles are obtained with no aggregation. The evolution of surface particle density is analyzed in relation to several parameters: applied voltage, electric field, exchanged charge. Electrical, chemical, and electrohydrodynamical parameters are taken into account in describing the electromigration process

Epidemic processes in complex networks

In recent years the research community has accumulated overwhelming evidence for the emergence of complex and heterogeneous connectivity patterns in a wide range of biological and sociotechnical systems. The complex properties of real-world networks have a profound impact on the behavior of equilibrium and nonequilibrium phenomena occurring in various systems, and the study of epidemic spreading is central to our understanding of the unfolding of dynamical processes in complex networks. The theoretical analysis of epidemic spreading in heterogeneous networks requires the development of novel analytical frameworks, and it has produced results of conceptual and practical relevance. A coherent and comprehensive review of the vast research activity concerning epidemic processes is presented, detailing the successful theoretical approaches as well as making their limits and assumptions clear. Physicists, mathematicians, epidemiologists, computer, and social scientists share a common interest in studying epidemic spreading and rely on similar models for the description of the diffusion of pathogens, knowledge, and innovation. For this reason, while focusing on the main results and the paradigmatic models in infectious disease modeling, the major results concerning generalized social contagion processes are also presented. Finally, the research activity at the forefront in the study of epidemic spreading in coevolving, coupled, and time-varying networks is reported.Comment: 62 pages, 15 figures, final versio

The relations between work centrality, psychological contracts, and job attitudes: the influence of age

The current study sought to explain a largely overlooked theme in psychological contract literature, that is, how individual factors are related to formation of psychological contract. It investigated the relationship between people’s work centrality, psychological contracts, and job attitudes. It was expected that people with higher work centrality would be less likely to have a transactional contract and more likely to have a relational contract with the employer. Furthermore, it was expected that psychological contract (transactional and relational) would mediate the relations between work centrality and job attitudes. Finally, we expected age to moderate the relations between work centrality and the psychological contract. The study was conducted among 465 employees in a Dutch health care organization. Structural equation models supported the mediating effect of psychological contract types in the relations between work centrality and three job attitudes (work engagement, job satisfaction, and turnover intention). Moreover, it was found that the relations between work centrality and psychological contract were stronger for older workers than for younger workers

Non-linear stimulus-response behavior of the human stance control system is predicted by optimization of a system with sensory and motor noise

We developed a theory of human stance control that predicted (1) how subjects re-weight their utilization of proprioceptive and graviceptive orientation information in experiments where eyes closed stance was perturbed by surface-tilt stimuli with different amplitudes, (2) the experimentally observed increase in body sway variability (i.e. the “remnant” body sway that could not be attributed to the stimulus) with increasing surface-tilt amplitude, (3) neural controller feedback gains that determine the amount of corrective torque generated in relation to sensory cues signaling body orientation, and (4) the magnitude and structure of spontaneous body sway. Responses to surface-tilt perturbations with different amplitudes were interpreted using a feedback control model to determine control parameters and changes in these parameters with stimulus amplitude. Different combinations of internal sensory and/or motor noise sources were added to the model to identify the properties of noise sources that were able to account for the experimental remnant sway characteristics. Various behavioral criteria were investigated to determine if optimization of these criteria could predict the identified model parameters and amplitude-dependent parameter changes. Robust findings were that remnant sway characteristics were best predicted by models that included both sensory and motor noise, the graviceptive noise magnitude was about ten times larger than the proprioceptive noise, and noise sources with signal-dependent properties provided better explanations of remnant sway. Overall results indicate that humans dynamically weight sensory system contributions to stance control and tune their corrective responses to minimize the energetic effects of sensory noise and external stimuli

Computing Chemical Potential using the Phase Space Multi-histogram Method

We present a new simulation method to calculate the free energy and the chemical potential of hard particle systems. The method relies on the introduction of a parameter dependent potential to smoothly transform between the hard particle system and the corresponding ideal gas. We applied the method to study the phase transition behavior of monodispersed infinitely thin square platelets. First, we equilibrated the square platelet system for different reduced pressures with a usual isobaric Monte Carlo (MC) simulation and obtained a reduced pressure-chemical potential plot. Then we introduce the parametrized potential to interpolate the system between the ideal gas and the hard particles. After selecting the potential, we performed isochoric MC runs, ranging from the ideal gas to the hard particle limit. Through an iterative procedure, we compute the free energy and the chemical potential of the square platelet system by evaluating the volume of the phase space attributed to the hard particles, and then we find the coexistence pressure of the system. Our method provides an intuitive approach to investigate the phase transitions of hard particle systems