700 research outputs found
Evaluation of SMAP Freeze/Thaw Retrieval Accuracy at Core Validation Sites in the Contiguous United States
Seasonal freeze-thaw (FT) impacts much of the northern hemisphere and is an important control on its water, energy, and carbon cycle. Although FT in natural environments extends south of 45°N, FT studies using the L-band have so far been restricted to boreal or greater latitudes. This study addresses this gap by applying a seasonal threshold algorithm to Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) data (L3_SM_P) to obtain a FT product south of 45°N (âSMAP FTâ), which is then evaluated at SMAP core validation sites (CVS) located in the contiguous United States (CONUS). SMAP landscape FT retrievals are usually in good agreement with 0â5 cm soil temperature at SMAP grids containing CVS stations (\u3e70%). The accuracy could be further improved by taking into account specific overpass time (PM), the grid-specific seasonal scaling factor, the data aggregation method, and the sampling error. Annual SMAP FT extent maps compared to modeled soil temperatures derived from the Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) show that seasonal FT in CONUS extends to latitudes of about 35â40°N, and that FT varies substantially in space and by year. In general, spatial and temporal trends between SMAP and modeled FT were similar
Institutional leadershipâthe historical case study of a religious organisation
In this chapter, I discuss institutional leadership vis-Ă -vis the value of poverty. To do so, I analyse how poverty has been conceptualised within a Catholic religious organisation, the Jesuits. The chapter shows that, in the Jesuit case, poverty is not strictly defined. Instead, poverty results from the constant dialogue between the individual Jesuit and their leader. This means that the understanding of what constitutes poverty is neither explicit nor implicit. The chapter contributes to our understanding of institutional leadership as the promotion and protection of values, as per Selznickâs classical definition. However, we discuss a less known part of Selznickâs work in which the ambiguous character of values is highlighted. In this sense, and after the Jesuit case, we advance the possibility that the promotion and protection of institutional values by institutional leaders does not necessarily imply the definition of what a value is. As values are not defined beforehand but the result of a constant dialogue between the leader and their followers, institutional leadership can be revisited and freed from the heroic view that has long characterised it
SMAP Detects Soil Moisture Under Temperate Forest Canopies
Soil moisture dynamics in the presence of dense vegetation canopies are determinants of ecosystem function and biogeochemical cycles, but the capability of existing spaceborne sensors to support reliable and useful estimates is not known. New results from a recently initiated field experiment in the northeast United States show that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) satellite is capable of retrieving soil moisture under temperate forest canopies. We present an analysis demonstrating that a parameterized emission model with the SMAP morning overpass brightness temperature resulted in a RMSD (rootâmeanâsquare difference) range of 0.047â0.057 m3/m3 and a Pearson correlation range of 0.75â0.85 depending on the experiment location and the SMAP polarization. The inversion approach included a minimal amount of ancillary data. This result demonstrates unequivocally that spaceborne Lâband radiometry is sensitive to soil moisture under temperate forest canopies, which has been uncertain because of lack of representative reference data
Universities and Pricing on Higher Education Markets
Markets and prices in higher education. When can we speak of markets, and when markets exist, how are prices set
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Performative Work: Bridging Performativity and Institutional Theory in the Responsible Investment Field
Callonâs performativity thesis has illuminated how economic theories and calculative devices shape markets, but has been challenged for its neglect of the organizational, institutional and political context. Our seven-year qualitative study of a large financial data company found that the companyâs initial attempt to change the responsible investment field through a performative approach failed because of the constraints posed by field practices and organizational norms on the design of the calculative device. However, the company was subsequently able to put in place another form of performativity by attending to the normative and regulative associations of the device. We theorize this route to performativity by proposing the concept of performative work, which designates the necessary institutional work to enable translation and the subsequent adoption of the device. We conclude by considering the implications of performative work for the performativity and the institutional work literatures
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CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND INVESTORS' PERCEPTIONS OF FOREIGN IPO VALUE: AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
We build on sociology-grounded research on financial market behavior and suggest a ânestedâ legitimacy framework to explore U.S. investor perceptions of foreign IPO value. We draw on a fuzzy-set theoretic approach to demonstrate how different combinations of monitoring and incentive-based corporate governance mechanisms lead to the same level of investor valuations of firms. We also argue that institutional factors related to the minority shareholder protection strength in the foreign IPOâs home country represent a boundary condition that affects the number of governance mechanisms required to achieve U.S. investorsâ high value perceptions. Our findings, drawn from a unique, hand-collected dataset of foreign IPOs in the U.S, contribute to the sociological perspective on comparative corporate governance and the inter-dependencies between organizations and institutions
Cross-sectional associations between occupational factors and musculoskeletal pain in women teachers, nurses and sonographers
A. Technical measurements of the physical workload. (DOCX 18 kb
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Temperature and oxygen dependent metabolite utilization by Salmonella enterica Serovars Derby and Mbandaka
Salmonella enterica is a zoonotic pathogen of clinical and veterinary significance, with over 2500 serovars. In previous work we compared two serovars displaying host associations inferred from isolation statistics. Here, to validate genome sequence data and to expand on the role of environmental metabolite constitution in host range determination we use a phenotypic microarray approach to assess the ability of these serovars to metabolise ~500 substrates at 25°C with oxygen (aerobic conditions) to represent the ex vivo environment and at 37°C with and without oxygen (aerobic/anaerobic conditions) to represent the in vivo environment. A total of 26 substrates elicited a significant difference in the rate of metabolism of which only one, D-galactonic acid-g-lactone, could be explained by the presence (S. Mbandaka) or the absence (S. Derby) of metabolic genes. We find that S. Mbandaka respires more efficiently at ambient temperatures and under aerobic conditions on 18 substrates including: glucosominic acid, saccharic acid, trehalose, fumaric acid, maltotriose, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, N-acetyl-beta-D-mannosamine, fucose, L-serine and dihydroxy-acetone; whereas S. Derby is more metabolically competent anaerobically at 37°C for dipeptides, glutamine-glutamine, alanine-lysine, asparagine-glutamine and nitrogen sources glycine and nitrite. We conclude that the specific phenotype cannot be reliably predicted from the presence of metabolic genes directly relating to the metabolic pathways under study
Anchors aweigh: the sources, variety, and challenges of mission drift
The growing number of studies which reference the concept of mission drift imply that such drift is an undesirable strategic outcome related to inconsistent organizational action, yet beyond such references little is known about how mission drift occurs, how it impacts organizations, and how organizations should respond. Existing management theory more broadly offers initial albeit equivocal insight for understanding mission drift. On the one hand, prior studies have argued that inconsistent or divergent action can lead to weakened stakeholder commitment and reputational damage. On the other hand, scholars have suggested that because environments are complex and dynamic, such action is necessary for ensuring organizational adaptation and thus survival. In this study, we offer a theory of mission drift that unpacks its origin, clarifies its variety, and specifies how organizations might respond to external perceptions of mission drift. The resulting conceptual model addresses the aforementioned theoretical tension and offers novel insight into the relationship between organizational actions and identity
The function of fear in institutional maintenance: Feeling frightened as an essential ingredient in haute cuisine
Fear is a common and powerful emotion that can regulate behaviour. Yet institutional scholars have paid limited attention to the function of fear in processes of institutional reproduction and stability. Drawing on an empirical study of elite chefs within the institution of haute cuisine, this article finds that the multifaceted emotion of fear characterised their experiences and served to sustain their institution. Chefsâ individual feelings of fear prompted conformity and a cognitive constriction, which narrowed their focus on to the precise reproduction of traditional practices whilst also limiting challenges to the norms underpinning the institution. Through fear work, chefs used threats and violence to connect individual experiences of fear to the violation of institutionalized rules, sustaining the conditions in which fear-driven maintenance work thrived. The study also suggests that fear is a normative element of haute cuisine in its own right, where the very experience and eliciting of fear preserved an essential institutional ingredient. In this way, emotions such as fear do not just accompany processes of institutionalization but can be intimately involved in the maintenance of institutions
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