Encouraging the perceptual underdog: positive affective priming of nonpreferred local–global processes

Two experiments examined affective priming of global and local perception. Participants attempted to detect a target that might be present as either a global or a local shape. Verbal primes were used in 1 experiment, and pictorial primes were used in the other. In both experiments, positive primes led to improved performance on the nonpreferred dimension. For participants exhibiting global precedence, detection of local targets was significantly improved, whereas for participants exhibiting local precedence, detection of global targets was significantly improved. The results provide support for an interpretation of the effects of positive affective priming in terms of increased perceptual flexibility

Analyzing Business-Focused Social Networks in Hiring: The Influence of a Job Candidate\u27s Network on a Recruiter\u27s Hiring Recommendation

Social media has altered the ways in which people interact. Business-focused social media profiles, such as those on LinkedIn, can act as a proxy for a traditional resume. However, these websites differ from a traditional resume in that information presented is sometimes informal, personal, and irrelevant to the member’s career. Furthermore, HR employees are able to view a job candidate’s social network. This research investigates the influence of a recruiter’s knowledge of an applicant’s professional network on the recruiter’s perception of the applicant’s trustworthiness and hence their willingness to take risk in the hiring relationship. A review of the literature covered two areas of research: trust and the use of social networks in hiring. While previous studies connected the trust model to LinkedIn, none of them addressed the influence of a LinkedIn profile’s social network on a hiring manager’s perception of the candidate’s trustworthiness. A survey-based experiment was designed to evaluate how network association bias, a newly created construct, affects a hiring manager’s perception of a job candidate’s ability and benevolence. The experimental model was based on Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman’s trust model. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted in RStudio using the lavaan latent variable modeling package. ix The results of this experiment reveal that that a job candidate’s social network impacts how the candidate’s levels of ability and benevolence are perceived by others. Furthermore, it is suggested that a recruiter’s propensity to trust influences the relationship between network association bias and a job candidate’s ability

Physiological and Metabolic Strain Differences in Response to Constant Light in Male Mice

Circadian rhythms, located in all organisms, is an innate natural clock system driving daily cycles in behavior and metabolism. This clock entrains to daily cycles via regular exposure to light:dark cycles. When light exposure is altered, it is known to cause alterations behavior and metabolism because of its role in regulating bodily function. Constant light (LL) is emerging as a predominant circadian disruption due to prolonged exposure to light at night during night-shift work, and the use of TVs and smartphones at night and throughout the night. To understand how different organisms respond to constant light, two comparative studies were performed. In each, two genetically similar strains of mice were used to identify strain differences regarding physiologic and metabolic responses to constant light. The first using two strains of C57BL/6 (C57BL6/J and C57BL6/N) mice to establish differences in response to running wheel (RW) access in LL and the second consisted of two CBA (CBA/J and CBA/CaJ) mouse strains to define differences associated with retinal function in LL. Physiologic and metabolic data were collected through behavioral assays including the open field test, the light-dark box (LD Box), and the novel object test. Metabolic assays including the glucose tolerance test (GTT), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (fT4), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin, liver triglyceride, and testosterone enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used. Several baseline differences in the C57BL/6 strains were established including C57BL6/J mice (B6J) experiencing increased locomotor activity compared to C57BL6/N (B6N) mice. In LL, B6J mice also exhibited greater period lengthening and increased anxiety compared to B6N mice. These results demonstrate strain specific differences in behavioral and physiological responses to LL and RW access. Additionally, baseline differences were observed circadian locomotor activity, behavior, and metabolism in the CBA strains. CBA/CaJ (sighted) mice experienced the effects of LL (period lengthening and weight gain) most severely as the CBA/J (blind) mice responded the same regardless of the photoperiod exposed to. These results suggest a clear photoperiod and retinal function connection

Complexities in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Thyroid Cancer: Discussions, Observations, Research and Public Policy

The impact of the increasing incidence of thyroid cancer presents an interesting case study in public health policy and resource allocation. During the last three decades, thyroid cancer cases have increased by more than 400%. As an illness that affects the lives of hundreds of thousands each year, the human and economic costs will be magnified in the next decade. It is estimated that approximately 13-67% of people will have thyroid nodules during their life of which approximately 5% will be malignant. The standard treatment, a thyroidectomy frequently followed by radioactive 131 iodine treatment, accordingly would seem to be a likely future event for an increasing percentage of the population. Despite the magnitude of the increase, there has been no increase in age-adjusted mortality rates. This raises the question whether treatment is effective or warranted for many of these patients. Although there is almost no reliable data on its economic impact, its prevalence makes it likely that it is becoming one of the more expensive diseases in our health care system. Despite the pressing issue of its growth, thyroid cancer is one of the least studied and least funded cancers in the United States

Revisiting and revitalizing political ecology in the American West

Political ecology, initially conceived to better understand the power relations implicit in management and distribution of natural resources in the developing world, came “home” to the American West in the 1990s and 2000s. This groundswell of research did much to problematize socio-environmental conflicts in the region, long typified by tensions over land and resources, identity and belonging, autonomy and authority. Since first touching down in the West, however, the “big tent” of political ecology has only grown bigger, incorporating new perspectives, epistemologies, and ontologies. At the same time, the nexus of environment and society is perhaps even more salient today, amid a regional conjuncture of populist revolt, climate change, and rapid political economic transformation. Here we reflect on three longstanding regional concerns – energy development, wolf reintroduction, and participatory governance – leveraging the pluralism of contemporary political ecology to better understand their contemporary incarnations. In so doing, we highlight the need to bring together insights from both “traditional” approaches and newer directions to better understand and engage contemporary challenges, with their heightened stakes and complexity. Such an approach demonstrates what we might learn about global processes in this place, as well as what insights regional praxis (often woefully provincial) might gain from elsewhere – new ways of seeing and doing political ecology. Our goal is to generate discussion among and between political ecologists and regional critical scholars, initiating new collaborative engagements that might serve the next wave of political ecology in the 21st century American West

Why stellar feedback promotes disc formation in simulated galaxies

We study how feedback influences baryon infall onto galaxies using cosmological, zoom-in simulations of haloes with present mass $M_{vir}=6.9\times10^{11} M_{\odot}$ to $1.7\times10^{12} M_{\odot}$. Starting at z=4 from identical initial conditions, implementations of weak and strong stellar feedback produce bulge- and disc-dominated galaxies, respectively. Strong feedback favours disc formation: (1) because conversion of gas into stars is suppressed at early times, as required by abundance matching arguments, resulting in flat star formation histories and higher gas fractions; (2) because 50% of the stars form in situ from recycled disc gas with angular momentum only weakly related to that of the z=0 dark halo; (3) because late-time gas accretion is typically an order of magnitude stronger and has higher specific angular momentum, with recycled gas dominating over primordial infall; (4) because 25-30% of the total accreted gas is ejected entirely before z~1, removing primarily low angular momentum material which enriches the nearby inter-galactic medium. Most recycled gas roughly conserves its angular momentum, but material ejected for long times and to large radii can gain significant angular momentum before re-accretion. These processes lower galaxy formation efficiency in addition to promoting disc formation.Comment: 23 pages, 29 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Performance Characteristics and Limitations of the Available Assays for the Detection and Quantitation of Monoclonal Free Light Chains and New Emerging Methodologies

Light chain measurements form an essential component of the testing strategy for the detection and monitoring of patients with suspected and/or proven plasma cell disorders. Urine-based electrophoretic assays remain at the centre of the international guidelines for response assessment but the supplementary role of serum-free light chain (FLC) assays in response assessment and the detection of disease progression due to their increased sensitivity has been increasingly recognised since their introduction in 2001. Serum FLC assays have also been shown to be prognostic across the spectrum of plasma cell disorders and are now incorporated into risk stratification scores for patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smouldering multiple myeloma, and light chain amyloidosis (AL amyloidosis), as well as being incorporated into the criteria for defining symptomatic multiple myeloma. There are now multiple different commercially available serum FLC assays available with differing performance characteristics, which are discussed in this review, along with the implications of these for patient monitoring. Finally, newer methodologies for the identification and characterisation of monoclonal FLC, including modifications to electrophoretic techniques, mass spectrometry-based assays and Amylite, are also described along with the relevant published data available regarding the performance of each assay