Emotional contagion and the infectious service smile: A response using parody

This short essay, with accompanying script, provides an example of using parody to critically engage with common management concepts. The target of the parody is the much researched phenomenon of emotional contagion, and the genre used in the parody is horror movies. The theoretical material used is a critique of capitalism and its relationship to cannabilsm by M. Lefebvre. The paper is provided in the May 2007 issue of Noteworks, and the link to this publication of the SCOS community is given above

The Translation Evidence Mechanism. The Compact between Researcher and Clinician.

Currently, best evidence is a concentrated effort by researchers. Researchers produce information and expect that clinicians will implement their advances in improving patient care. However, difficulties exist in maximizing cooperation and coordination between the producers, facilitators, and users (patients) of best evidence outcomes. The Translational Evidence Mechanism is introduced to overcome these difficulties by forming a compact between researcher, clinician and patient. With this compact, best evidence may become an integral part of private practice when uncertainties arise in patient health status, treatments, and therapies. The mechanism is composed of an organization, central database, and decision algorithm. Communication between the translational evidence organization, clinicians and patients is through the electronic chart. Through the chart, clinical inquiries are made, patient data from provider assessments and practice cost schedules are collected and encrypted (HIPAA standards), then inputted into the central database. Outputs are made within a timeframe suitable to private practice and patient flow. The output consists of a clinical practice guideline that responds to the clinical inquiry with decision, utility and cost data (based on the "average patient") for shared decision-making within informed consent. This shared decision-making allows for patients to "game" treatment scenarios using personal choice inputs. Accompanying the clinical practice guideline is a decision analysis that explains the optimized clinical decision. The resultant clinical decision is returned to the central database using the clinical practice guideline. The result is subsequently used to update current best evidence, indicate the need for new evidence, and analyze the changes made in best evidence implementation. When updates in knowledge occur, these are transmitted to the provider as alerts or flags through patient charts and other communication modalities

Hydrous Manganese Oxide Doped Gel Probe Sampler for Measuring In Situ Reductive Dissolution Rates. 1. Laboratory Development

Reductive dissolution of redox-sensitive minerals such as manganese (Mn) oxides in natural sediments is an important mechanism for trace element mobilization into groundwater. A gel probe sampler has been constructed to study in situ reductive dissolution of Mn oxides. The gel consists of a polyacrylamide polymer matrix doped with hydrous Mn oxide (HMO). Gel slabs are mounted into a probe, which is designed to be inserted into the sediments. The amount of Mn released from the gel by reductive dissolution is determined by comparing the amount of Mn initially embedded into the gel with the amount remaining in the gel after exposure to conditions in the sediments or, in laboratory studies, to reducing agents. In this laboratory study, the performance of the gel probes was examined using the model reductant ascorbate and the Mn-reducing bacteria Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1. In addition, a 1-D model was used to relate the reaction rates observed for HMO embedded in gels to those for HMO in suspension. One limitation of the HMO-doped gels for assessing microbial reduction rates is that the gels prevent direct contact between the microbes and the HMO and hence preclude enzymatic reduction at the cell surface. Nonetheless, the HMO-doped gel probes offer the possibility to establish a lower bound for Mn-reduction capacity in sediments

Topographic Map Acquisition In U.S. Academic Libraries

published or submitted for publicatio

Natural attenuation of arsenic by sediment sorption and oxidation

Arsenic sorption onto aquifer sediments was investigated in anaerobic laboratory batch and column uptake experiments and characterized by As, Fe, and Mn X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to estimate the extent and mechanism of abiotic sorption and oxidation of As(III). Batch experiments at pH 6 showed that the amount of As(III) or As(V) sorption from synthetic background porewater to sediments was similar as a function of total As concentration, but slightly more As(V) was sorbed than As(III) with increasing As concentrations. Column experiments with As(III) solutions in the absence and presence of dissolved Fe^2+ showed more As uptake in the presence of Fe but also more Fe desorption during flushout with As-free solutions such that net As uptake was similar to, or less than that of, the Fe-free experiment. Fits to bulk Fe X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) spectra showed no change between unreacted and reacted sediments. Manganese XANES revealed small increases in absorption in the spectral region associated with Mn(II) after reaction, indicating sediment Mn reduction. However, XANES spectra showed that Mn is not present as Mn^(IV)O_2(s) but is probably substituted into other sediment minerals as a mixture of Mn(II,III). Quantitative analyses of As XANES spectra, which indicated mixtures of As(III) and As(V) after reaction with As(III) solutions, were used to estimate a fraction of As(V) in excess of native As(V) in the sediment (0.2 mmol kg^−1) that corresponds to sorbed As(III) oxidized to As(V). The spectroscopic and solution data indicate that the aquifer sediments have a limited abiotic capacity to oxidize As(III), which did not exceed 30% of the total amount of As sorbed and was estimated in the range of 0.025−0.4 mmol kg^−1 sediment. In the presence of dissolved Fe^2+, the precipitation of Fe(III) hydrous oxide phases will be an effective mechanism for As scavenging only if there exists sufficient dissolved oxygen in groundwater to oxidize Fe. Once the aqueous oxidative capacity is exhausted, dissolved Fe^2+ may compete with As(III) for the limited abiotic oxidation supplied by sediment Mn-bearing phases

Efficient placement of structural dynamics sensors on the space station

System identification of the space station dynamic model will require flight data from a finite number of judiciously placed sensors on it. The placement of structural dynamics sensors on the space station is a particularly challenging problem because the station will not be deployed in a single mission. Given that the build-up sequence and the final configuration for the space station are currently undetermined, a procedure for sensor placement was developed using the assembly flights 1 to 7 of the rephased dual keel space station as an example. The procedure presented approaches the problem of placing the sensors from an engineering, as opposed to a mathematical, point of view. In addition to locating a finite number of sensors, the procedure addresses the issues of unobserved structural modes, dominant structural modes, and the trade-offs involved in sensor placement for space station. This procedure for sensor placement will be applied to revised, and potentially more detailed, finite element models of the space station configuration and assembly sequence

Pitfalls in Targeting

Almost three years after the government launched two hunger-mitigation initiatives--the Food-for-School and Tindahan Natin programs--questions are being raised on whether these programs have adequately met their objectives. Did the programs benefit their intended beneficiaries? How well was the targeting for the programs made? This Policy Notes assesses the targeting rules used for the two programs.Food-for-School Program (FSP), conditional cash transfers, leakage rate, Tindahan Natin Program, hunger mitigation, food price subsidy

Decoupled Direct Payments Under Base Acreage and Yield Updating Uncertainty: An Investigation of Agricultural Chemical Use

Decoupled payments were thought to have minimal impacts on current production decisions and input use. However, the literature has identified several mechanisms through which decoupled payments become coupled. We analyze the effects of uncertainty regarding future policy changes on farm-level production decisions and input use, focusing on farmers’ expectations of base acreage and yield updating. Using farm-level data, we find positive relationships between both decoupled and other government payments and real per acre expenditures on agricultural chemicals. Furthermore, there is evidence that decoupled payments may affect the intensive margin more than other government payments.coupling, decoupled payments, input use, intensive margin, updating, Agricultural and Food Policy, Risk and Uncertainty, Q12, Q18,