The Impact of Corporate Restructuring and Downsizing on the Managerial Careers of Minorities and Women: Lessons Learned from Nine Companies

Glass Ceiling ReportGlassCeilingBackground6ImpactofCorporateDownsizing.pdf: 1346 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.0-Pages_from_ImpactofCorporateRestructuringDownsizing.pdf: 87 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020.1-Appendixfrom_ImpactofCorporateRestructuringDownsizing.pdf: 2958 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Career Development of Air Force Officers in Contracting: An Examination of Perception and Understanding

This research considered five factors deemed necessary for supporting career development, including experience, professionalism, expectations, mentoring, and training. The author studied the perceptions of captains in the contracting career field as a means of better understanding the unique career development challenges faced by contracting officers. This study concluded that captains in contracting do not perceive one best career path, nor one best set of professional and technical skills. Career expectations remain high and mentoring activity low, despite recent institutional emphasis directed at both. The value of current required formal training, as rated by contracting officers, seems to be high

Soil physical conditions and crop production

1a. Differences in water balance and resultant crop growth related to soil structure: Merredin red brown solonized earth. 1b. Soil structure effects on crop growth (Merredin). 77M13, 77M56. 2. Water balance studies under wheat on Wongan loamy sand (82WH8

Fourth-Dimensional Education in Virtual Reality

This project was driven by an interest in mathematics, visualization, and the budding field of virtual reality. The project aimed to create virtual reality software to allow users to interact and play with three-dimensional representations of four-dimensional objects. The chosen representation was a perspective projection. Much like three-dimensional shapes cast two-dimensional shadows, four-dimensional shapes cast three-dimensional shadows. Users of the software developed in this project could interact and experiment with these three-dimensional shadows using hand controlled inputs. The hypothesis put forward is that virtual reality is currently the best medium to teach three-dimensional and four-dimensional geometry

Consolidation of Geologic Studies of Geopressured-Geothermal Resources in Texas

Hydrochemical data obtained from samples of brine produced from the Gladys McCall Zone 8 sandstone reservoir were used to estimate the importance of shale dewatering as a contribution to ultimate reservoir volume. Changes in chloride concentration of produced brines with time were generally small and close to analytical margins of error, but some correlation between production-related pressure drawdown and declining chlorinity was detected. More rigorous analysis of brine composition and source was hindered by nonstandardized sampling and analytical procedures. Geologic data suggest that sandstone interconnection is a more important source of extra reservoir volume than is shale dewatering at the Gladys McCall site. Methods for more definitively determining the effects of shale dewatering and reservoir interconnectedness include direct sampling and chemical analysis of shale water, pressure monitoring and fluid sampling in multiple reservoirs in a single well or a well field, and sidetrack drilling and coring. Petrographic analysis was used to document the effects of experimental compaction on core samples from geopressured-geothermal reservoirs. Experimental compaction simulates the increasing effective stress within these reservoirs as fluid pressures decline during production. Inelastic compaction and brittle failure (fracturing) are closely related to sandstone composition. Sandstones that contain abundant ductile rock fragments and clay minerals undergo large compaction-induced porosity reductions and fracture readily at effective stress levels comparable to those generated in the reservoir during high-volume production. Well-indurated, high-quartz sandstones, such as the Gladys McCall Zone 8, are extremely resistant to both inelastic compaction and brittle failure.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Lateral hypothalamus is required for context-induced reinstatement of extinguished reward seeking

We studied the role of lateral hypothalamus (LH) in context-induced reinstatement (renewal) of reward seeking. Rats were trained to respond for 4% (v/v) alcoholic beer or 10% (w/v) sucrose reward in one context (Context A) before extinction training in a second context (Context B). On test, rats were returned to the training context, A (ABA), or the extinction context, B (ABB). Return to the training context (ABA) produced robust reinstatement. Reversible inactivation of LH via baclofen/muscimol infusion prevented context-induced reinstatement of beer and sucrose seeking. This prevention was specific to bilateral infusions into LH. We then used the retrograde neuronal tracer cholera toxin b subunit (CTb) combined with detection of the c-Fos protein to identify activated afferents to LH during context-induced reinstatement of beer seeking. Double labeling for c-Fos and CTb revealed a significant recruitment of LH-projecting neurons in nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) during reinstatement. These afferents could be classified into two anatomically and functionally distinct groups. First, afferents in the ventral AcbSh projecting to LH were activated during reinstatement. Second, afferents in the dorsomedial AcbSh projecting to LH were activated during test in the extinction context. These recruitments were specific to an AcbSh–LH pathway because they were not observed following CTb injection into the immediately adjacent perifornical hypothalamus. These results show that LH is critical for context-induced reinstatement of reward seeking and that parallel striatal-hypothalamic pathways are recruited following return to the training versus extinction contexts

Country-level factors in a failing relationship with nature: Nature connectedness as a key metric for a sustainable future

Climate change and biodiversity loss show that the human–nature relationship is failing. That relationship can be measured through the construct of nature connectedness which is a key factor in pro-environmental behaviours and mental well-being. Country-level indicators of extinction of nature experience, consumption and commerce, use and control of nature and negativistic factors were selected. An exploratory analysis of the relationship between these metrics and nature connectedness across adult samples from 14 European countries was conducted (n = 14,745 respondents). The analysis provides insight into how affluence, technology and consumption are associated with the human–nature relationship. These findings motivate a comparison of how nature connectedness and composite indicators of prosperity, progress, development, and sustainability relate to indicators of human and nature’s well-being. In comparison to composite indexes, it is proposed that nature connectedness is a critical indicator of human and nature’s well-being needed to inform the transition to a sustainable future