Unmasking Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors in Leaders – A Dark Side of Leadership

Individuals in the workplace interact with peer constituents displaying various personality behaviors that influence productive workplace relationships. Sometimes, the darker side of leadership is masked and camouflages disturbing personality behaviors. Leaders are no exception to the array of personalities hindering productive follower relationships. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) in leaders manifest themselves in a variety of ways and have the potential to deter satisfactory relationships with followers. Subordinates are subjected to higher instances of employee surveillance, matriculate attention to detail, extraordinary communication and feedback, repetitive reprimands, and fear tactics to motivate desired behavior. Although these practices are within management scope, manifestations of OCD leader tendencies and their effect on followership cannot be ignored. As the level of anxiety in Americans continues to increase, organizations may observe higher instances of OCD-related behaviors in leaders. This paper addresses OCD behaviors in leaders and its effect on followership and productivity

Hedging strategies and price risk: An empirical analysis

This dissertation focused on the use of futures contracts as a hedge against price risk and is motivated by two key questions. First, will daily corn (soybean) futures prices consistently yield higher/lower prices than daily cash spot prices, after adjusting for an arbitrage bound? Second, does a hedge ratio exist that minimizes price risk for corn (soybean) producers? Data consisted of daily futures prices and daily cash spot prices for corn (September/December) and soybean (November/January) contracts for the period 1970 through 2000. These two commodities have the largest futures trading and highest production volume of all agricultural commodities. Two primary data analysis techniques were applied. First, price differences were analyzed using a timing model, adjusted for an arbitrage bound. The results from the timing model do not support the null hypothesis that “a time frame does not exist in which daily corn (soybean) futures prices are consistently higher/lower than the related daily cash spot price, after adjusting for an arbitrage bound.” In fact, the results suggest that futures prices more often fall “below” the arbitrage lower bound limit than they do within or above the bound. Second, the data was analyzed using a mean-variance framework and a logarithmic utility function to determine hedge ratios for corn (soybeans). The calculated hedge ratios do not support the null hypothesis that “a partial hedge will not consistently allow a producer to receive a higher average price than a full hedge of expected corn (soybeans) yield.” Specifically, the results for both corn contracts and the November soybean contract suggest that producers should hedge less than 100% of expected output while the results from the January soybean contract suggest that producers should hedge more than 100% of their expected output

Managing the Mind, Body, and Soul— Closing the Gap Between Managers and Young Employees With Anxiety Disorders

Younger generational cohorts are entering the workforce with much higher rates of reported mental illnesses than their predecessors. Academic stress, anxiety, and depression are a major cause of concern among college students. The 2019 Center for Collegiate Mental Health reported that anxiety is one of the most common diagnosis of students seeking services at university counseling centers. The workplace environment operates under different standards with less flexibility. In fact, educational institutions may be marginally preparing students with accommodations to operate in the real world. Companies required to adhere to Title I of the American Disabilities must only provide “reasonable accommodations” for documented disabilities and the interpretation of what is reasonable is determined by management. Yet, many anxiety- related disabilities are undisclosed to management. Employees fear stigmatization and being shunned for sharing their conditions. In some cases, the anxiety could affect workplace productivity and possibly pre-mature termination if misunderstood. The lack of communication between employees and managers creates a “gap” leading to possible unemployment or discrimination suits. In fact, EEOC discrimination charges filed on behalf of employees who suffer from anxiety increased from 65 in 2006 to 371 in 2019. This increase leads one to believe that managers are not properly addressing employees’ mental health. Proper training and development opportunities in mental health related issues may curtail additional lawsuits imposed on organizations. To provide an inclusive workplace environment, managers must be proactive in assessing the holistic needs of employees including support for mental and emotional disabilities. This research contends that Generation Z will have higher expectations than previous cohorts for workplace accommodations to support anxiety, stress, autism, and other mental challenges. These expectations have implications for universities and management training programs designed to embrace the needs of individuals with mental health related issues. Greater attention is warranted on closing the existing gap between management and employees with anxiety related disorders

Effects of Sex and Gender on Adaptation to Space: Musculoskeletal Health

There is considerable variability among individuals in musculoskeletal response to long-duration spaceflight. The specific origin of the individual variability is unknown but is almost certainly influenced by the details of other mission conditions such as individual differences in exercise countermeasures, particularly intensity of exercise, dietary intake, medication use, stress, sleep, psychological profiles, and actual mission task demands. In addition to variations in mission conditions, genetic differences may account for some aspect of individual variability. Generally, this individual variability exceeds the variability between sexes that adds to the complexity of understanding sex differences alone. Research specifically related to sex differences of the musculoskeletal system during unloading is presented and discussed

Doping Effects on the Performance of Paired Metal Catalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Metal heteroatoms dispersed in nitrogen-doped graphene display promising catalytic activity for fuel cell reactions such as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here we explore the effects of dopant concentration on the synergistic catalytic behaviour of a paired metal atom active site comprised of Co and Pt atoms. The metals are coordinated to six atoms in a vacancy of N-doped graphene. We find that HER activity is enhanced with increasing N concentration, where the free energy of hydrogen atom adsorption ranges from 0.23 to -0.42 eV as the doping changes from a single N atom doped in the pore, to fully doped coordination sites. The results indicated that the effect of N is to make the Co atom more active towards H adsorption and presents a means through which transition metals can be modified to make more effective and sustainable fuel cell catalysts

A Retrospective View Of The IFRS Conceptual Path And Treatment Of Fair Value Measurements In Financial Reporting

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) require some assets, liabilities and equity instruments to be measured at fair value (IASB ED/2009/5). Thus begins the Fair Value Measurement IASB 2009 Exposure Draft. The IFRS requirement for fair value reporting has actually existed since 1975, due to the adoption of pronouncement IAS 2 (IASC/IAS 2 1975). This standard required that Inventory be valued at fair value less costs to sell for both reporting and disclosure purposes. But, as is the case in the history of many accounting standards and practice, the devil has always been in the details. This paper explores a brief historical path of fair value accounting within the venue of international accounting standards. Because of the impending plan of convergence and harmonization, plus potential global acceptance of standards of reporting and content, both the IASB and FASB have extensively explored the relevance and reliability of fair value reporting as compared with the more traditional costbased system. This exploration has been controversial because it goes to the very heart of the centuries-old cost-based foundation of financial accounting. In spite of the ongoing controversy of fair value versus historical cost accounting and the multiple uses and requirements of the fair value theoretical concept in IFRSs, there has been no definitive guidance on the various alternative calculations and appropriate uses of these differing representations of fair value. As the comment period closes on a second exposure draft directed at resolving Fair Value Measurement, this retrospective view of the international standards moves through the past standards and into the future methodology of reporting fair value. With FASBs latest exposure draft on fair value currently pending, the convergence opportunity of a more closely defined concept and its subsequent use in global practice is quite possibly at hand

The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: a systematic review

Background Cash transfers and vouchers are forms of 'demand-side financing' that have been widely used to promote maternal and newborn health in low- and middle-income countries during the last 15 years. Methods This systematic review consolidates evidence from seven published systematic reviews on the effects of different types of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services, and updates the systematic searches to June 2015 using the Joanna Briggs Institute approach for systematic reviewing. The review protocol for this update was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015020637). Results Data from 51 studies (15 more than previous reviews) and 22 cash transfer and voucher programmes suggest that approaches tied to service use (either via payment conditionalities or vouchers for selected services) can increase use of antenatal care, use of a skilled attendant at birth and in the case of vouchers, postnatal care too. The strongest evidence of positive effect was for conditional cash transfers and uptake of antenatal care, and for vouchers for maternity care services and birth with a skilled birth attendant. However, effects appear to be shaped by a complex set of social and healthcare system barriers and facilitators. Studies have typically focused on an initial programme period, usually two or three years after initiation, and many lack a counterfactual comparison with supply-side investment. There are few studies to indicate that programmes have led to improvements in quality of maternity care or maternal and newborn health outcomes. Conclusion Future research should use multiple intervention arms to compare cost-effectiveness with similar investment in public services, and should look beyond short- to medium-term service utilisation by examining programme costs, longer-term effects on service utilisation and health outcomes, and the equity of those effects

Public Sector Expenditure to Agriculture, Bank Credits, and Aggregate Output: A Causality Analysis of the Nigerian Evidence

This paper investigates the existence or otherwise of causal relationships between direct budgetary government expenditure on agriculture, indirect government funding through credit guarantees, and straight-bank-loans-and-advances to the agricultural sector, on one part, and the gross domestic product of the economy, on the other. It utilized descriptive statistical tools, regression analysis, diagnostic tests, and pairwise Granger causality technique against annual time-series Nigerian data from 1981 through 2019. The results indicates that agricultural credit guaranteed funding and direct credits from such banks like bank of industry and the commercial banks positively and significantly cause, as in affecting and boosting, the country’s GDP. Quite surprisingly, direct government budgetary expenditure on agriculture was revealed to cause and affect GDP, but negatively. The recommendations favor encouraging and increasing the indirect guaranteed funding and straight loans and advances by relevant banks in the country

Epithelial cell-directed efferocytosis in the post-partum mammary gland is necessary for tissue homeostasis and future lactation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mammary glands harbor a profound burden of apoptotic cells (ACs) during post-lactational involution, but little is known regarding mechanisms by which ACs are cleared from the mammary gland, or consequences if this process is interrupted. We investigated AC clearance, also termed efferocytosis, during post-lactational remodeling, using mice deficient for MerTK, Axl, and Tyro3, three related receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) regulating macrophage-mediated efferocytosis in monocytes. MerTK expression, apoptosis and the accumulation of apoptotic debris were examined in histological sections of MerTK-deficient, Axl/Tyro3-deficient, and wild-type mammary glands harvested at specific time points during lactation and synchronized involution. The ability of primary mammary epithelial cells (MECs) to engulf ACs was assessed in culture. Transplant of MerTK-deficient mammary epithelium into cleared WT mammary fat pads was used to assess the contribution of WT mammary macrophages to post-lactational efferocytosis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ACs induced MerTK expression in MECs, resulting in elevated MerTK levels at the earliest stages of involution. Loss of MerTK resulted in AC accumulation in post-lactational MerTK-deficient mammary glands, but not in Axl and Tyro3-deficient mammary glands. Increased vascularization, fibrosis, and epithelial hyperproliferation were observed in MerTK-deficient mammary glands through at least 60 days post-weaning, due to failed efferocytosis after lactation, but did not manifest in nulliparous mice. WT host-derived macrophages failed to rescue efferocytosis in transplanted MerTK-deficient mammary epithelium.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Efferocytosis by MECs through MerTK is crucial for mammary gland homeostasis and function during the post-lactational period. Efferocytosis by MECs thus limits pathologic consequences associated with the apoptotic load following lactation.</p