Offensive Motivation Strategies: The Managerial And Legal Implications

This case study focuses on corporate culture, ethics, employment law, and motivation theory and is appropriate for use in a variety of management classes, such as organizational behavior, human resource management, or ethics.  It profiles a lawsuit brought against a company by one of its female employees who was subjected to a variety of “camaraderie building” exercises, including being spanked with a competitor’s metal poled yard sign.  The case is based on a true story.  Only the names and locations have been changed.  This case includes actual descriptions of company practices and communications which are offensive and may be disturbing.  However, they have been included so that the reader can appreciate the severity of the “motivational practices” that were being employed. &nbsp

Is there any correlation between otitis media and dental malocclusion in children? A systematic review

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate whether there is a correlation between otitis and dental malocclusions.MethodsElectronic databases were searched for observational studies published until July 2021 without language or time restrictions. PROSPERO: CRD42021270760. Observational studies on children with and without OM and/or malocclusion were included. After removing duplicates and excluding not-eligible articles, two reviewers screened relevant articles independently. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed data quality and validity through the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) quality assessment tool for non-randomized studies.ResultsFive studies met the selection inclusion criteria and were included in the studies for a total of 499 patients. Three studies investigated the relationship between malocclusion and otitis media, while the remaining two studies analyzed the inverse relationship and one of them considered eustachian tube dysfunction as a proxy of OM. An association between malocclusion and otitis media and vice versa emerged, although with relevant limitations.ConclusionThere is some evidence that there is an association between otitis and malocclusion; however, it is not yet possible to establish a definitive correlation

Elemental concentrations in the seed of mutants and natural variants of Arabidopsis thaliana grown under varying soil conditions

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Determination of the Burning Characteristics of a Slick of Oil on Water

Research journal paper published in Spill Science and Technology Bulletin 2003The burning rate of a slick of oil on a water bed is characterized by three distinct processes, ignition, flame spread and burning rate. Although all three processes are important, ignition and burning rate are critical. The former, because it defines the potential to burn and the latter because of the inherent possibility of boilover. Burning rate is calculated by a simple expression derived from a onedimensional heat conduction equation. Heat feedback from the flame to the surface is assumed to be a constant fraction of the total energy released by the combustion reaction. The constant fraction (c) is named the burning efficiency and represents an important tool in assessing the potential of in-situ burning as a counter-measure to an oil-spill. By matching the characteristic thermal penetration length scale for the fuel/water system and an equivalent single layer system, a combined thermal diffusivity can be calculated and used to obtain an analytical solution for the burning rate. Theoretical expressions were correlated with crude oil and heating oil, for a number of pool diameters and initial fuel layer thickness. Experiments were also conducted with emulsified and weathered crude oil. The simple analytical expression describes well the effects of pool diameter and initial fuel layer thickness permitting a better observation of the effects of weathering, emulsification and net heat feedback to the fuel surface. Experiments showed that only a small fraction of the heat released by the flame is retained by the fuel layer and water bed (of the order of 1%). Ignition has been studied to provide a tool that will serve to assess a fuels ease to ignite under conditions that are representative of oil spills. Two different techniques are used, piloted ignition when the fuel is exposed to a radiant heat flux and flash point as measured by the ASTM D56 Tag Closed Cup Test. Two different crude oils were used for these experiments, ANS and Cook Inlet. Crude oils were tested in their natural state and at different levels of weathering, showing that piloted ignition and flash point are strong functions of weathering level

Soot surface growth and oxidation in laminar unsaturated-hydrocarbon/air diffusion flames

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77246/1/AIAA-2002-1116-550.pd

IL-26 Is Overexpressed in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Induces Proinflammatory Cytokine Production and Th17 Cell Generation

Interleukin-26 (IL-26), a member of the IL-10 cytokine family, induces the production of proinflammatory cytokines by epithelial cells. IL-26 has been also reported overexpressed in Crohn\u27s disease, suggesting that it may be involved in the physiopathology of chronic inflammatory disorders. Here, we have analyzed the expression and role of IL-26 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by joint synovial inflammation. We report that the concentrations of IL-26 are higher in the serums of RA patients than of healthy subjects and dramatically elevated in RA synovial fluids compared to RA serums. Immunohistochemistry reveals that synoviolin+ fibroblast-like synoviocytes and CD68+ macrophage-like synoviocytes are the main IL-26-producing cells in RA joints. Fibroblast-like synoviocytes from RA patients constitutively produce IL-26 and this production is upregulated by IL-1-beta and IL-17A. We have therefore investigated the role of IL-26 in the inflammatory process. Results show that IL-26 induces the production of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1-beta, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha by human monocytes and also upregulates the expression of numerous chemokines (mainly CCL20). Interestingly, IL-26-stimulated monocytes selectively promote the generation of RORgamma t+ Th17 cells, through IL-1-beta secretion by monocytes. More precisely, IL-26-stimulated monocytes switch non-Th17 committed (IL-23R− or CCR6− CD161−) CD4+ memory T cells into Th17 cells. Finally, synovial fluids from RA patients also induce Th17 cell generation and this effect is reduced after IL-26 depletion. These findings show that IL-26 is constitutively produced by RA synoviocytes, induces proinflammatory cytokine secretion by myeloid cells, and favors Th17 cell generation. IL-26 thereby appears as a novel proinflammatory cytokine, located upstream of the proinflammatory cascade, that may constitute a promising target to treat RA and chronic inflammatory disorders

Species diversity of Trichoderma in Poland

In the present study, we reinvestigate the diversity of Trichoderma in Poland utilizing a combination of morphological and molecular/phylogenetic methods. A total of 170 isolates were collected from six different substrata at 49 sites in Poland. These were divided among 14 taxa as follows: 110 of 170 Trichoderma isolates were identified to the species level by the analysis of their ITS1, ITS2 rDNA sequences as: T. harzianum (43 isolates), T. aggressivum (35), T. citrinoviride (11), T. hamatum (9), T. virens (6), T. longibrachiatum (4), T. polysporum (1), and T. tomentosum (1); 60 isolates belonging to the Viride clade were identified based on a fragment of the translation-elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1) gene as: T. atroviride (20 isolates), T. gamsii (2), T. koningii (17), T. viridescens (13), T. viride (7), and T. koningiopsis (1). Identifications were made using the BLAST interface in TrichOKEY and TrichoBLAST (http://www.isth.info). The most diverse substrata were soil (nine species per 22 isolates) and decaying wood (nine species per 75 isolates). The most abundant species (25%) isolated from all substrata was T. harzianum

Contribution of Social Isolation, Restraint, and Hindlimb Unloading to Changes in Hemodynamic Parameters and Motion Activity in Rats

The most accepted animal model for simulation of the physiological and morphological consequences of microgravity on the cardiovascular system is one of head-down hindlimb unloading. Experimental conditions surrounding this model include not only head-down tilting of rats, but also social and restraint stresses that have their own influences on cardiovascular system function. Here, we studied levels of spontaneous locomotor activity, blood pressure, and heart rate during 14 days under the following experimental conditions: cage control, social isolation in standard rat housing, social isolation in special cages for hindlimb unloading, horizontal attachment (restraint), and head-down hindlimb unloading. General activity and hemodynamic parameters were continuously monitored in conscious rats by telemetry. Heart rate and blood pressure were both evaluated during treadmill running to reveal cardiovascular deconditioning development as a result of unloading. The main findings of our work are that: social isolation and restraint induced persistent physical inactivity, while unloading in rats resulted in initial inactivity followed by normalization and increased locomotion after one week. Moreover, 14 days of hindlimb unloading showed significant elevation of blood pressure and slight elevation of heart rate. Hemodynamic changes in isolated and restrained rats largely reproduced the trends observed during unloading. Finally, we detected no augmentation of tachycardia during moderate exercise in rats after 14 days of unloading. Thus, we concluded that both social isolation and restraint, as an integral part of the model conditions, contribute essentially to cardiovascular reactions during head-down hindlimb unloading, compared to the little changes in the hydrostatic gradient

Izolacija bioaktivnih flavonoida iz biljke Jacaranda obtusifolia H. B. K. ssp. rhombifolia (G. F. W. Meijer) Gentry

The paper describes the bioassay-guided isolation, structure elucidation and anticancer evaluation of five flavonoids ()-liquiritigenin (1), ()-neoliquiritin (2), isoliquiritigenin (3), isoliquiritin (4) and formononetin (5) from the twigs of Jacaranda obtusifolia H. B. K. ssp. rhombifolia (G. F. W. Meijer) Gentry. The structures were elucidated based on 1H, 13C NMR, comprehensive 2D NMR, MS analyses and comparison with previously reported spectral data. Compounds 1 and 3 were demonstrated to be inhibitory in vitro against NCI-H187 (small cell lung cancer) with IC50 values of 30.1 and 16.6 µg mL1, respectively. The isolates were non-cytotoxic to Vero cells (African green monkey kidney).U radu je opisana izolacija, određivanje strukture i antitumorsko djelovanje pet flavonoida: ()-likviritigenina (1), ()-neolikviritina (2), izolikviritigenina (3), izolikviritina (4) i formononetina (5) iz plodova biljke Jacaranda obtusifolia H. B. K. ssp. rhombifolia (G. F. W. Meijer) Gentry. Strukture su određene na temelju 1H, 13C NMR, 2D NMR, MS i usporedbom s ranije objavljenim spektroskopskim podacima. Spojevi 1 i 3 imaju inhibitorni učinak in vitro na tumorsku staničnu liniju raka pluća NCI-H187 (IC50 vrijednost 30,1, odnosno 16,6 µg mL1). Izolirani flavonoidi nisu citotoksični za Vero stanice (bubrežne stanice afričkog zelenog majmuna)