Does the Leader Make a Difference? Relationship Between Executive Leader Personality and Entrepreneurial Firm Performance

The purpose of this study was to expand research on personality and leadership by investigating the relationship between executive leader personality and firm performance. Drawing from research on the five-factor model of personality (the Big Five), executive leader emotional adjustment (low neuroticism) and conscientiousness were hypothesized to be positively related to firm performance. No specific hypotheses were offered for the relationships between the remaining Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience) and firm performance. Using a longitudinal sample of initial public offering (IPO) firms, results indicated that emotional adjustment and extraversion were related to measures of firm performance. Specifically, after adjusting for the influence of prior firm performance, as well as for the effects of several industry, firm, and demographic variables, executive leader emotional adjustment was associated with firms that had higher earnings per share and higher stock price; executive leader extraversion was associated with firms that had lower earnings per share and lower productivity. Contrary to expectations, conscientiousness was not related to firm performance

Spectator Perceptions of Fan Misbehavior: an Attitudinal Inquiry

Spectators (N = 1,747) attending a Brockport State College, Rochester Americans or Buffalo Sabres hockey game responded to a 28 item, 14 factor questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed to identify factors perceived as facilitative to fan misbehavior at sporting events. The responses to the top ranked factors were (1) age, (2) referees, (3) rivalry, (4) alcohol, and (5) nature of game. Kendall\u27s coefficient of concordance (W) was computed and converted into a Spearman rank correlation coefficient in order to assess the similarity of factor rankings. The findings indicated that regardless of the location where the spectator completed the survey statistically significant ranking of the factors were identified as facilitating fan misbehavior. This statistically significant rank ordering of the factors also existed for spectator perceptions when the college sample was compared to the combined professional samples. The Kendall coefficient of concordance and Spearman rank correlation coefficient demonstrated that regardless of an individual\u27s sex or age, the spectators identified the factors above as facilitative to fan misbehavior at sporting events. These factor rankings were statistically significant for all comparisons of concordance. The discussion centered on the importance of the identified factors facilitating spectator misbehavior and how these factors tend to be related to the characteristics of the spectator, the game and the environment where the game is played

Teachers Perceptions of Interventions for Children with Autism in a School Setting

Navigating the topic of autism can be difficult because there is so much recent research covering a vast range of information. The present study focuses on interventions for children with autism in a school setting. The interventions being reviewed are social stories, visual cues, and family support. The definition and evaluation of social stories and visual cues in academic settings will be discussed. The population of parents of children with autism will also be examined. Research suggests appropriate use of social stories and visual cues in academic settings are effective and positive; however the transfer into nonacademic settings is limited, suggesting a need for more resources in nonacademic settings. The implication is resources be made available to parents of children with autism

An Examination of Facilitators and Barriers to Academic Careers for Women in STEM

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the facilitators and barriers to women in STEM through comparison to men and non-STEM faculty members. The Pipeline Model and The Vanish Box model were examined to explain the underrepresentation of women in STEM. The current study, using the established facilitators and barriers to women in STEM by Bolton (2016), examined 12 categories that were identified through existing literature, critical incidents (CIs), and a subject-matter expert (SME). It was hypothesized that Teaching, Service, Research Funding, Mentoring, Professional Development, Administrative Leadership, Hiring Policies, New Child Leave/FMLA policies, and Promotion and Tenure Policies would be identified as barriers to academic careers in STEM disciplines more often than non-STEM disciplines and by women more often than by men. It was also hypothesized that Fairness of Policy Implementation and Practice, Other Policies, and Research Support other than Funding will be identified as a facilitators to women’s academic careers to academic careers in STEM disciplines more often than non-STEM disciplines and by women more often than by men. Two-hundred and forty-two participants completed a survey via Qualtrics that assessed facilitators and barriers to academic careers. Of those that completed the survey, only 134 were used in the analyses, as identification of sex and STEM status was essential for inclusion in the study. Results revealed that neither hypothesis was confirmed. Exploratory analyses examining the frequencies 12 categories as well as specific facilitators and barriers were conducted. The implications, limitations, and future directions for research were suggested

Chemical signals as a means of determining health status and selecting mates in humans.

The objective of my dissertation research was to determine the role of chemical signals in conveying information regarding an individual\u27s health status and suitability as a mate in humans and to examine the role that commensal microflora play in this system. Chemical signals in humans have been theorized to play a role in disassortative mating relative to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and in selection of mates based on fluctuating asymmetry. In addition, chemical signals have been shown to communicate health status in rodents. Commensal microflora are a necessary component of such chemical signaling systems since it is the microflora which ultimately create odor. Results from Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 revealed that, in humans, the axillary microflora are altered during periods of illness. Both a decrease in overall richness of microbes and an increased likelihood of possessing Micrococcus species during or following a period of illness was found. However, these alterations in axillary microflora were not found to result in an altered perception of the scent of men\u27s body odor by women (Chapter 3). Results of Chapter 4 found that women in the follicular phase of their cycles prefer the scent of men\u27s body odor whose axillary microflora is most dissimilar to their own. This finding has implications for mechanisms of MHCdisassortative mate selection through olfaction. Taken in total, this work provides evidence that health status can affect the composition of commensal microflora and furthermore that these commensal microflora may convey chemical signals which women could use in mate selection

National trends in total hip arthroplasty for traumatic hip fractures: An analysis of a nationwide all-payer database.

BACKGROUND: Hemiarthroplasty (HA) has traditionally been the treatment of choice for elderly patients with displaced femoral neck fractures. Ideal treatment for younger, ambulatory patients is not as clear. Total hip arthroplasty (THA) has been increasingly utilized in this population however the factors associated with undergoing HA or THA have not been fully elucidated. AIM: To examine what patient characteristics are associated with undergoing THA or HA. To determine if outcomes differ between the groups. METHODS: We queried the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) for patients that underwent HA or THA for a femoral neck fracture between 2005 and 2014. The NIS comprises a large representative sample of inpatient hospitalizations in the United States. International Classifications of Disease, Ninth Edition (ICD-9) codes were used to identify patients in our sample. Demographic variables, hospital characteristics, payer status, medical comorbidities and mortality rates were compared between the two procedures. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was then performed to identify independent risk factors of treatment utilized. RESULTS: Of the total 502060 patients who were treated for femoral neck fracture, 51568 (10.3%) underwent THA and the incidence of THA rose from 8.3% to 13.7%. Private insurance accounted for a higher percentage of THA than hemiarthroplasty. THA increased most in urban teaching hospitals relative to urban non-teaching hospitals. Mean length of stay (LOS) was longer for HA. The mean charges were less for HA, however charges decreased steadily for both groups. HA had a higher mortality rate, however, after adjusting for age and comorbidities HA was not an independent risk factor for mortality. Interestingly, private insurance was an independent predictor for treatment with THA. CONLUSION: There has been an increase in the use of THA for the treatment of femoral neck fractures in the United States, most notably in urban hospitals. HA and THA are decreasing in total charges and LOS

Virtual Data in CMS Analysis

The use of virtual data for enhancing the collaboration between large groups of scientists is explored in several ways: - by defining ``virtual'' parameter spaces which can be searched and shared in an organized way by a collaboration of scientists in the course of their analysis; - by providing a mechanism to log the provenance of results and the ability to trace them back to the various stages in the analysis of real or simulated data; - by creating ``check points'' in the course of an analysis to permit collaborators to explore their own analysis branches by refining selections, improving the signal to background ratio, varying the estimation of parameters, etc.; - by facilitating the audit of an analysis and the reproduction of its results by a different group, or in a peer review context. We describe a prototype for the analysis of data from the CMS experiment based on the virtual data system Chimera and the object-oriented data analysis framework ROOT. The Chimera system is used to chain together several steps in the analysis process including the Monte Carlo generation of data, the simulation of detector response, the reconstruction of physics objects and their subsequent analysis, histogramming and visualization using the ROOT framework.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 9 pages, LaTeX, 7 eps figures. PSN TUAT010. V2 - references adde