Transformational leadership, organizational justice and organizational outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of transformational leadership (TL) on organizational commitment (OC) with the mediating role of organizational justice (OJ) in the higher education (HE) sector in Syria. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 502 employees from six HE institutions. Two measures of organizational outcomes were selected for this study, namely, job satisfaction (JS) and OC. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the authors tested four alternative models to indicate the relationship between leadership and organizational outcomes. Findings: TL has both direct and indirect effects on OC through interactional justice (IJ). TL has an impact on JS through procedural justice (PJ) and IJ as intermediate variables, while transactional leadership (TrL) has an impact on JS through distributive justice (DJ). The three types of OJ have an impact on OC through JS. The authors found that the national culture may not influence the impact of the leader in the current globalization context, as the results were similar to the Western studies. Practical implications: The findings of the study provide managers of the HE sector with insights into the formations of employees’ fairness perceptions, and with some guidelines for managing employees by documenting OJ to draw positive attitudinal and behavioral responses from employees. Originality/value: While most previous research has focused on exploring the relationship between leadership and OJ or between OJ and JS in the business sector, the study, however, seeks in addition, to pinpoint the effect of OJ as a mediate variable between the leadership and JS and OC in HE

Coordination and navigation of heterogeneous MAV-UGV formations localized by a 'hawk-eye'-like approach under a model predictive control scheme

n approach for coordination and control of 3D heterogeneous formations of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles under hawk-eye-like relative localization is presented in this paper. The core of the method lies in the use of visual top-view feedback from flying robots for the stabilization of the entire group in a leader–follower formation. We formulate a novel model predictive control-based methodology for guiding the formation. The method is employed to solve the trajectory planning and control of a virtual leader into a desired target region. In addition, the method is used for keeping the following vehicles in the desired shape of the group. The approach is designed to ensure direct visibility between aerial and ground vehicles, which is crucial for the formation stabilization using the hawk-eye-like approach. The presented system is verified in numerous experiments inspired by search-and-rescue applications, where the formation acts as a searching phalanx. In addition, stability and convergence analyses are provided to explicitly determine the limitations of the method in real-world applications

Performance of Sensitivity based NMPC Updates in Automotive Applications

In this work we consider a half car model which is subject to unknown but measurable disturbances. To control this system, we impose a combination of model predictive control without stabilizing terminal constraints or cost to generate a nominal solution and sensitivity updates to handle the disturbances. For this approach, stability of the resulting closed loop can be guaranteed using a relaxed Lyapunov argument on the nominal system and Lipschitz conditions on the open loop change of the optimal value function and the stage costs. For the considered example, the proposed approach is realtime applicable and corresponding results show significant performance improvements of the updated solution with respect to comfort and handling properties.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Fault-tolerant formation driving mechanism designed for heterogeneous MAVs-UGVs groups

A fault-tolerant method for stabilization and navigation of 3D heterogeneous formations is proposed in this paper. The presented Model Predictive Control (MPC) based approach enables to deploy compact formations of closely cooperating autonomous aerial and ground robots in surveillance scenarios without the necessity of a precise external localization. Instead, the proposed method relies on a top-view visual relative localization provided by the micro aerial vehicles flying above the ground robots and on a simple yet stable visual based navigation using images from an onboard monocular camera. The MPC based schema together with a fault detection and recovery mechanism provide a robust solution applicable in complex environments with static and dynamic obstacles. The core of the proposed leader-follower based formation driving method consists in a representation of the entire 3D formation as a convex hull projected along a desired path that has to be followed by the group. Such an approach provides non-collision solution and respects requirements of the direct visibility between the team members. The uninterrupted visibility is crucial for the employed top-view localization and therefore for the stabilization of the group. The proposed formation driving method and the fault recovery mechanisms are verified by simulations and hardware experiments presented in the paper

Ocena patogenosti glive Fusarium clavum, kot povzročiteljice pšeničnega ožiga v Alžiriji

Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf) is one of the most important cereal crops in Algeria. During the agricultural season 2021-2022, typical symptoms of Fusarium Head Blight were observed in wheat fields in the Setif region. One of the causal agents was identified on the basis of morphological characters and DNA sequences as Fusarium clavum J.W. Xia, L. Lombard, Sand.-Den., X.G. Zhang & Crous, a member of the Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex. It was isolated from symptomatic wheat glumes. In vitro and in vivo pathogenicity tests were conducted on three Algerian durum wheat varieties to assess the effect of this isolate on the seedling and the mass of durum wheat kernels. The results showed that Fusarium clavum caused a significant reduction in the coleoptile (38.9 %) and root length (42 %) and decreased kernels mass by 20.8 %. This study further confirms the presence of Fusarium clavum as an agent causing Fusarium Head Blight on wheat in Algeria.Trda pšenica (Triticum durum Desf) je eno izmed najpomembnejših žit v Alžiriji. V pridelovalnih sezonah 2021-2022 so bili na pšeničnih poljih na območju Setifa opaženi značilni simptomi pšeničnega ožiga, ki ga povzroča gliva iz rodu Fusarium. Kot povzročitelj je bila na osnovi morfoloških znakov in DNK zaporedij prepoznana gliva Fusarium clavum J.W. Xia, L. Lombard, Sand.-Den., X.G. Zhang & Crous, predstavnica iz kompleksa vrst Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti. Izolirana je bila iz simptomatičnih pšeničnih plev. In vitro in in vivo testi patogenosti so bili narejeni na treh alžirskih sortah trde pšenice za oceno učinka tega izolata na sejanke in maso pšeničnih zrn. Rezultati so pokazali, da je gliva Fusarium clavum povzročila značilno zmanjšanje dolžine koleoptile (38,9 %) in dolžine korenin (42 %) ter zmanjšala maso zrn za 20,8 %. Raziskava potrjuje prisotnost glive Fusarium clavum kot fuzarijskega povzročitelja pšeničnega ožiga v Alžiriji

Role of salivary transcriptomics as potential biomarkers in oral cancer: A systematic review

Introduction: Transcriptomes in saliva can be used as potential biomarkers for both diagnostic and response to treatment in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In this review, we explored their application in this increasingly common disease. Materials and methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science and grey literature from January 1990 to May 2017 were searched. Two independent reviewers performed the study selection according to eligibility criteria. Results: A total of nine studies were included. Three studies showed increased expression of DUSP1, IL8, IL1B, OAZ1, SAT1, S100P and two showed increased expression of miRNA‐31 among study groups compared to normal healthy controls. The sensitivity ranged from 14% to 100%, while the specificity ranged from 38% to 100%. miRNA‐27b had the highest AUC (write in full) of 0.9643 and DUSP1 had the minimum AUC of 0.41. Conclusion: Salivary transcriptomics may play an effective role as a robust and non‐invasive biomarker sighting tool for the diagnosis and management of OSCC

Anti-corruption disclosure and corporate governance mechanisms: insights from FTSE 100

Purpose: This study examines the impact of corporate governance (CG) on anti-corruption disclosure (A-CD), paying particular attention to FTSE 100. Notably, it examines how board and audit committees’ characteristics affect the quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure. Design/Methodology: Data from FTSE 100 firms, spanning the period from 2014 to 2020 were analysed using the regression of Poisson fixed effect and GEE analyses. Findings: The findings show that gender diversity, audit committee expertise and the independence of the audit committee are positively associated with both quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure. Notably, no statistically significant relationships were identified between anti-corruption disclosure and factors such as board size, role duality, or board meetings. Implications: Our findings provide valuable insights for decision-makers and regulatory bodies, shedding light on the elements that compel UK companies to enhance their anti-corruption disclosure and governance protocols to alleviate corruption and propel efforts towards ethical behaviour. Originality: This study makes a notable contribution to the sparse body of evidence by examining the influence of board and audit committee attributes on anti-corruption disclosure subsequent to the implementation of the UK Bribery Act in 2010. Specifically, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study assesses for the first time the impact of board and audit committee mechanisms on both the quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure

Effects of Disorder and Interactions in the Quantum Hall Ferromagnet

This work treats the effects of disorder and interactions in a quantum Hall ferromagnet, which is realized in a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in a perpendicular magnetic field at Landau level filling factor equal one. We study the problem by projecting the original fermionic Hamiltonian into magnon states, which behave as bosons in the vicinity of the ferromagnetic ground state. The approach permits the reformulation of a strongly interacting model into a non-interacting one. The latter is a non-perturbative scheme that consists in treating the two-particle neutral excitations of the electron system as a bosonic single-particle. Indeed, the employment of bosonization facilitates the inclusion of disorder in the study of the system. It has been shown previously that disorder may drive a quantum phase transition in the Hall ferromagnet. However, such studies have been either carried out in the framework of nonlinear sigma model, as an effective low-energy theory, or included the long-range Coulomb interaction in a quantum description only up to the Hartree-Fock level. Here, we establish the occurrence of a disorder-driven quantum phase transition from a ferromagnetic 2DEG to a spin glass phase by taking into account interactions between electrons up to the random phase approximation level in a fully quantum description.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure