What we talk about when we talk about "global mindset": managerial cognition in multinational corporations

Recent developments in the global economy and in multinational corporations have placed significant emphasis on the cognitive orientations of managers, giving rise to a number of concepts such as “global mindset” that are presumed to be associated with the effective management of multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper reviews the literature on global mindset and clarifies some of the conceptual confusion surrounding the construct. We identify common themes across writers, suggesting that the majority of studies fall into one of three research perspectives: cultural, strategic, and multidimensional. We also identify two constructs from the social sciences that underlie the perspectives found in the literature: cosmopolitanism and cognitive complexity and use these two constructs to develop an integrative theoretical framework of global mindset. We then provide a critical assessment of the field of global mindset and suggest directions for future theoretical and empirical research

Inferring Visuomotor Priors for Sensorimotor Learning

Sensorimotor learning has been shown to depend on both prior expectations and sensory evidence in a way that is consistent with Bayesian integration. Thus, prior beliefs play a key role during the learning process, especially when only ambiguous sensory information is available. Here we develop a novel technique to estimate the covariance structure of the prior over visuomotor transformations – the mapping between actual and visual location of the hand – during a learning task. Subjects performed reaching movements under multiple visuomotor transformations in which they received visual feedback of their hand position only at the end of the movement. After experiencing a particular transformation for one reach, subjects have insufficient information to determine the exact transformation, and so their second reach reflects a combination of their prior over visuomotor transformations and the sensory evidence from the first reach. We developed a Bayesian observer model in order to infer the covariance structure of the subjects' prior, which was found to give high probability to parameter settings consistent with visuomotor rotations. Therefore, although the set of visuomotor transformations experienced had little structure, the subjects had a strong tendency to interpret ambiguous sensory evidence as arising from rotation-like transformations. We then exposed the same subjects to a highly-structured set of visuomotor transformations, designed to be very different from the set of visuomotor rotations. During this exposure the prior was found to have changed significantly to have a covariance structure that no longer favored rotation-like transformations. In summary, we have developed a technique which can estimate the full covariance structure of a prior in a sensorimotor task and have shown that the prior over visuomotor transformations favor a rotation-like structure. Moreover, through experience of a novel task structure, participants can appropriately alter the covariance structure of their prior

Search for Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Binary Coalescences in the Galactic Halo

We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole (PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$. The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50 kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

Motor Learning in Children with Neurofibromatosis Type I

The aim of this study was to quantify the frequently observed problems in motor control in Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) using three tasks on motor performance and motor learning. A group of 70 children with NF1 was compared to age-matched controls. As expected, NF1 children showed substantial problems in visuo-motor integration (Beery VMI). Prism-induced hand movement adaptation seemed to be mildly affected. However, no significant impairments in the accuracy of simple eye or hand movements were observed. Also, saccadic eye movement adaptation, a cerebellum dependent task, appeared normal. These results suggest that the motor problems of children with NF1 in daily life are unlikely to originate solely from impairments in motor learning. Our findings, therefore, do not support a general dysfunction of the cerebellum in children with NF1

Wavefront shaping with disorder-engineered metasurfaces

Recently, wavefront shaping with disordered media has demonstrated optical manipulation capabilities beyond those of conventional optics, including extended volume, aberration-free focusing and subwavelength focusing. However, translating these capabilities to useful applications has remained challenging as the input–output characteristics of the disordered media (P variables) need to be exhaustively determined via O(P) measurements. Here, we propose a paradigm shift where the disorder is specifically designed so its exact input–output characteristics are known a priori and can be used with only a few alignment steps. We implement this concept with a disorder-engineered metasurface, which exhibits additional unique features for wavefront shaping such as a large optical memory effect range in combination with a wide angular scattering range, excellent stability, and a tailorable angular scattering profile. Using this designed metasurface with wavefront shaping, we demonstrate high numerical aperture (NA > 0.5) focusing and fluorescence imaging with an estimated ~2.2 × 10^8 addressable points in an ~8 mm field of view

Complexity absorption : A processual strategic approach to corporate entrepreneurship strategy

The author Haina Zhang acknowledges the support of research grant received from the Lancaster University Research Committee (award reference: SGS21/33). The author is also grateful to Professor David Brown for his suggestions on earlier version of this paper.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Resistance of Trichoplusia ni to Bacillus thuringiensis Toxin Cry1Ac Is Independent of Alteration of the Cadherin-Like Receptor for Cry Toxins

Alteration of binding sites for Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins in insect midgut is the major mechanism of high-level resistance to Bt toxins in insects. The midgut cadherin is known to be a major binding protein for Bt Cry1A toxins and linkage of Bt-resistance to cadherin gene mutations has been identified in lepidopterans. The resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac evolved in greenhouse populations of Trichoplusia ni has been identified to be associated with the down-regulation of an aminopeptidase N (APN1) gene by a trans-regulatory mechanism and the resistance gene has been mapped to the locus of an ABC transporter (ABCC2) gene. However, whether cadherin is also involved with Cry1Ac-resistance in T. ni requires to be understood. Here we report that the Cry1Ac-resistance in T. ni is independent of alteration of the cadherin. The T. ni cadherin cDNA was cloned and the cadherin sequence showed characteristic features known to cadherins from Lepidoptera. Various T. ni cadherin gene alleles were identified and genetic linkage analysis of the cadherin alleles with Cry1Ac-resistance showed no association of the cadherin gene with the Cry1Ac-resistance in T. ni. Analysis of cadherin transcripts showed no quantitative difference between the susceptible and Cry1Ac-resistant T. ni larvae. Quantitative proteomic analysis of midgut BBMV proteins by iTRAQ-2D-LC-MS/MS determined that there was no quantitative difference in cadherin content between the susceptible and the resistant larvae and the cadherin only accounted for 0.0014% (mol%) of the midgut BBMV proteins, which is 1/300 of APN1 in molar ratio. The cadherin from both the susceptible and resistant larvae showed as a 200-kDa Cry1Ac-binding protein by toxin overlay binding analysis, and nano-LC-MS/MS analysis of the 200-kDa cadherin determined that there is no quantitative difference between the susceptible and resistant larvae. Results from this study indicate that the Cry1Ac-resistance in T. ni is independent of cadherin alteration

Millennials in the Workplace: A Communication Perspective on Millennials’ Organizational Relationships and Performance

Stereotypes about Millennials, born between 1979 and 1994, depict them as self-centered, unmotivated, disrespectful, and disloyal, contributing to widespread concern about how communication with Millennials will affect organizations and how they will develop relationships with other organizational members. We review these purported characteristics, as well as Millennials’ more positive qualities—they work well in teams, are motivated to have an impact on their organizations, favor open and frequent communication with their supervisors, and are at ease with communication technologies. We discuss Millennials’ communicated values and expectations and their potential effect on coworkers, as well as how workplace interaction may change Millennials