The Idea of Will

This article presents a new conceptual view on the conscious will. This new concept approaches our will from the perspective of the requirements of our neural-muscular system and not from our anthropocentric perspective. This approach not only repositions the will at the core of behavior control, it also integrates the studies of Libet and Wegner, which seem to support the opposite. The will does not return as an instrument we use to steer, but rather as part of the way we learn new automatic behavior and of how our neural system steers us. The new concept suggests that understanding of our will is more about understanding of our daily behavior than about the will itself

Age-related differences in the relations between individualized HRM and organizational performance

The current study investigated the relations of individualized HRM with multiple organizational performance indicators. Based on signaling theory and social exchange theory, it was predicted that the availability and use of different individualized HRM practices in organizations would be positively related to performance growth and negatively related to employee absence and employee turnover. Moreover, we investigated the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. Based on lifespan theory of aging, we expected that individualized work schedule practices would be more strongly related to outcomes for older workers while individualized development and financial pay practices would be more strongly related for younger workers. A large-scale representative study among 4,591 organizations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships of individualized HR practices with organizational performance. Moreover, employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualized practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organizations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organizations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices

Age-related differences in the relations between individualised HRM and organisational performance: a large-scale employer survey

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between individualised HRM practices and several measures of organisational performance, including the moderating role of employee age in these relationships. A large-scale representative study among 4,591 organisations in the Netherlands showed support for the relationships between individualised HR practices with organisational performance. Employee age moderated the relationships between the use of individualised practices and sickness absence and turnover, such that organisations with a high percentage of older workers benefited from work schedule practices, and organisations with high percentage of younger workers benefited from development practices

On universality of the coupling of neutrinos to Z

We employ an effective Lagrangian approach and use LEP data to place severe bounds on universality violations of the couplings of $\nu_e$, $\nu_\mu$, and $\nu_\tau$ to the $Z$ boson. Our results justify the assumption of universality in these couplings that is usually made, as for example in the analysis of solar neutrinos detected at SNO.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. A few comments added. It matches version to be published in PR

Limits on the Mixing of Tau Neutrino to Heavy Neutrinos

Limits at 90 % c.l. on the square of the mixing strength |U_tau4|^2 between nu_tau and a mostly isosinglet heavy neutrino with mass in the range 10-290 MeV/c^2 are reported. The results were derived using the negative result of a search for neutral particles decaying into two electrons conducted by the CHARM collaboration in a neutrino beam dump experiment. Upper limits ~10^-4 were obtained for neutrino masses larger than 160 MeV/c^2.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

New limits on radiative sterile neutrino decays from a search for single photons in neutrino interactions

It has been recently shown that excess events observed by the LSND and MiniBooNE neutrino experiments could be interpreted as a signal from the radiative decay of a heavy sterile neutrino \nu_h produced in \nu_\mu neutral current-like interactions. If the \nu_h exist, it would be also produced by the \nu_\mu beam from the CERN SPS in the neutrino beam line shielding. The \nu_h's would penetrate the shielding and be observed through the decay \nu_h -> \nu \gamma, followed by the photon conversion into e+e- pair in the active target of the NOMAD detector. The \nu_h's could be also produced in the iron of the magnetic spectrometer of the CHORUS detector, located just in front of NOMAD. Considering these two sources of \nu_h's we set new constraints on \nu_h properties and exclude part of the LSND/MiniBooNE \nu_h parameter space using bounds on single photons production in neutrino reactions recently reported by the NOMAD collaboration. We find that broad bands in the parameter space are still open for more sensitive searches for the \nu_h in future neutrino experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Revised version to appear in PLB. Discussion of dominant NC-like production of \nu_h's adde

Magnetic resonance imaging changes of sacroiliac joints in patients with recent-onset inflammatory back pain: inter-reader reliability and prevalence of abnormalities

To study the inter-reader reliability of detecting abnormalities of sacroiliac (SI) joints in patients with recent-onset inflammatory back pain by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to study the prevalence of inflammation and structural changes at various sites of the SI joints. Sixty-eight patients with inflammatory back pain (at least four of the five following criteria: symptom onset before age 40, insidious onset, morning stiffness, duration >3 months, improvement with exercise — or three out of five of these plus night pain) were included (38% male; mean age, 34.9 years [standard deviation 10.3]; 46% HLA-B27-positive; mean symptom duration, 18 months), with symptom duration <2 years. A MRI scan of the SI joints was made in the coronal plane with the following sequences: T1-weighted spin echo, short-tau inversion recovery, T2-weighted fast-spin echo with fat saturation, and T1-spin echo with fat saturation after the administration of gadolinium. Both SI joints were scored for inflammation (separately for subchondral bone and bone marrow, joint space, joint capsule, ligaments) as well as for structural changes (erosions, sclerosis, ankylosis), by two observers independently. Agreement between the two readers was analysed by concordance and discordance rates and by kappa statistics. Inflammation was present in 32 SI joints of 22 patients, most frequently located in bone marrow and/or subchondral bone (29 joints in 21 patients). Readers agreed on the presence of inflammation in 85% of the cases in the right SI joint and in 78% of the cases in the left SI joint. Structural changes on MRI were present in 11 patients. Ten of these 11 patients also showed signs of inflammation. Agreement on the presence or absence of inflammation and structural changes of SI joints by MRI was acceptable, and was sufficiently high to be useful in ascertaining inflammatory and structural changes due to sacroiliitis. About one-third of patients with recent-onset inflammatory back pain show inflammation, and about one-sixth show structural changes in at least one SI joint