Examining the Influence of Goal Clarity and Contingent Rewards on Job Satisfaction

Improving the performance of public organizations has been, and continues to be, a central concern in public management. However, relative to the private sector, the tools available to the public manager for enhancing performance are somewhat limited. This paper examines two techniques for enhancing individual performance, setting clear goals and offering contingent rewards. I use data collected by the United States Office of Personnel Management to test two hypotheses. The results indicate that setting clear goals and offering contingent rewards both increase job satisfaction, an important attitude linked to job performance. However, setting clear goals more prominently influences job satisfaction as compared to offering other performance rewards. To the extent that public managers have the capacity to clarify goals for public employees, they can enhance governmental performance

DBI Inflation in N=1 Supergravity

It was recently demonstrated that, when coupled to N=1 supergravity, the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) action constructed from a single chiral superfield has the property that when the higher-derivative terms become important, the potential becomes negative. Thus, DBI inflation cannot occur in its most interesting, relativistic regime. In this paper, it is shown how to overcome this problem by coupling the model to one or more additional chiral supermultiplets. In this way, one obtains effective single real scalar field DBI models with arbitrary positive potentials, as well as multiple real scalar field DBI inflation models with hybrid potentials

Revitalizing Snow Brand Milk

This case study explores the food poisoning crisis at Snow Brand Milk, one of Japan\u27s largest dairy companies. It examines in particular how the firm successfully revitalized itself and saved the brand

Structural controls on the interaction between basin fluids and a rift flank fault: constraints from the Bwamba Fault, East African Rift

We present petrographic and structural analyses of a basement-hosted border fault in the East African Rift. Understanding the mechanical evolution and fluid-rock interaction of rift-flank faults is integral to developing models of fluid flow in the crust, where hydraulic connections may occur between basement faults and basin sediments. The Bwamba Fault forms the flank of the Rwenzori Mountains Horst in western Uganda, and has locally reactivated older mylonitic fabrics in the basement gneisses. The fault core features discrete mineralised and veined units. Shear fabrics and fault scarp striations indicate predominately normal kinematics, with minor strike-slip faulting and fabrics. Transient brittle failure was accompanied by two phases of fluid ingress, associated with veining and mineralisation. The first was localised and strongly influenced by host lithology. The second involved widespread Fe-oxide and jarosite mineralisation. The latter signals the onset of a hydraulic connection between Fe- and S-rich sedimentary rocks in the adjacent Semliki Rift Basin and the Bwamba Fault, involving co-seismic and or post-seismic fluid injection into the fault at ca. 150–200 °C, and 2.5–3 km depth. Such evolving permeability connections between basin sediments and basement faults are important for local hydrocarbon and geothermal systems, and may be typical of active rifts

The Jabal Akhdar Dome in the Oman Mountains : evolution of a dynamic fracture system

Acknowledgments: This study was carried out within the framework of DGMK (German Society for Petroleum and Coal Science and Technology) research project 718 “Mineral Vein Dynamics Modelling,” which is funded by the companies ExxonMobil Production Deutschland GmbH, GDF SUEZ E&P Deutschland GmbH, RWE Dea AG and Wintershall Holding GmbH, within the basic research program of the WEG Wirtschaftsverband Erdo¨l- und Erdgasgewinnung e.V. We thank the companies for their financial support and their permission to publish these results. The German University of Technology in Oman (GU-Tech) is acknowledged for its logistic support. We gratefully acknowledge the reviewers Andrea Billi and Jean-Paul Breton, whose constructive reviews greatly improved the manuscriptPeer reviewedPreprin

Relationships Between Flow, Mental Toughness, and Subjective Performance Perception in Various Triathletes

The current study examined the relationship between mental toughness, subjective performance and dispositional flow in high performing triathletes. A sample of 114 Iron men and triathletes (Mage=28.81 years, SD=3.45), taken from triathlon clubs, completed self-report questionnaires measuring mental toughness, subjective performance and dispositional flow. Pearson’s correlations revealed a significant and positive relationship between global mental toughness and subjective performance rating (r=0.62, p <0.01) and between global mental toughness and all dispositional flow subscales (r= 0.67 – 0.81, p<0.05). Linear regression analyses found mental toughness subscales accounted for 64% of the variance in dispositional flow. Subjective performance rating did not add significantly to the model. Overall, the findings suggest that mental toughness may allow iron man competitors and triathletes to exert the cognitive and emotional control necessary to experience flow and therefore perform better. The findings are discussed in the context of competitive ironman and triathlon

Successive interacting coronal mass ejections: How to create a perfect storm?

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are the largest type of eruptions on the Sun and the main driver of severe space weather at the Earth. In this study, we implement a force-free spheromak CME description within 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations to parametrically evaluate successive interacting CMEs within a representative heliosphere. We explore CME–CME interactions for a range of orientations, launch time variations, and CME handedness and quantify their geo-effectiveness via the primary solar wind variables and empirical measures of the disturbance storm time index and subsolar magnetopause standoff distance. We show how the interaction of two moderate CMEs between the Sun and the Earth can translate into extreme conditions at the Earth and how CME–CME interactions at different radial distances can maximize different solar wind variables that induce different geophysical impacts. In particular, we demonstrate how the orientation and handedness of a given CME can have a significant impact on the conservation and loss of magnetic flux, and consequently Bz, due to magnetic reconnection with the interplanetary magnetic field. This study thus implicates the identification of CME chirality in the solar corona as an early diagnostic for forecasting geomagnetic storms involving multiple CMEs

Dynamics of Locomotor Fatigue during Supra-critical Power Exercise

Purpose; We aimed to measure 1) the dynamics of locomotor fatigue during constant supra-critical power cycling, and 2) the magnitude of any reserve in locomotor power at intolerance to constant and ramp-incremental cycling in recreationally-active volunteers. Methods; Fifteen participants (7 women and 8 men, 22±3 yr, 3.34±0.67 L.min-1 V[Combining Dot Above]O2peak) completed ramp-incremental and very-heavy constant power (205±46 W) exercise to the limit of tolerance. Immediately following intolerance, the ergometer was switched into the isokinetic mode and participants completed a short (~5 s) maximal isokinetic effort at 70 rpm. The time course of locomotor fatigue during constant supra-critical power exercise was characterized with these short maximal isokinetic sprints at 30, 60, 120, 180 s and at the limit of tolerance. Each bout was terminated following the isokinetic sprint. Results; Constant power exercise duration was 312±37 s. Isokinetic power production at 30, 60, 120, 180 s and the limit of tolerance (at 312±37 s) was 609±165, 503±195, 443±157, 449±133, and 337±94 W, respectively. Of the total decline in isokinetic power, ~36% occurred within the first minute of exercise and significant (p<0.05) reductions in isokinetic power occurred at all time-points vs the baseline maximal isokinetic power (666±158 W). Additionally, a significant power reserve of 132±74 W (64% of the task requirement) and 119±80 W (47%) was present at the limit of constant power and ramp-incremental exercise, respectively. Conclusions; Locomotor fatigue occurred rapidly during supra-critical power exercise with pseudo-exponential kinetics. Instantaneous isokinetic power production at the limit of tolerance exceeded that of the task requirement, regardless of the constant, or ramp work rate profile. Thus, the perceptual and physiologic limits were dissociated at the limit of tolerance in recreationally-active volunteers

On fundamental domains and volumes of hyperbolic Coxeter-Weyl groups

We present a simple method for determining the shape of fundamental domains of generalized modular groups related to Weyl groups of hyperbolic Kac-Moody algebras. These domains are given as subsets of certain generalized upper half planes, on which the Weyl groups act via generalized modular transformations. Our construction only requires the Cartan matrix of the underlying finite-dimensional Lie algebra and the associated Coxeter labels as input information. We present a simple formula for determining the volume of these fundamental domains. This allows us to re-produce in a simple manner the known values for these volumes previously obtained by other methods.Comment: v2: to be published in Lett Math Phys (reference added, typo corrected