What are Best Practices for Preparing High-Potentials for Future Leadership Roles?

As global organizations flatten hierarchies in an effort to run lean, dynamic middle managers play an increasingly important role. The best companies emphasize succession planning, requiring leadership take a determined and disciplined approach to help leaders develop and rise within their organizations. As a means of investment, firms have established clear career paths and provided career development experiences for their organization’s highest potentials. High-performing organizations have narrowed their focus to foster and develop the following key competencies: Change management capabilities are the top priority for high-potentials’ professional development. They should be prepared to influence and drive performance in a dynamic environment, where the only true constant is change. A leadership mindset is equally important for middle managers looking to advance in their career. Consistently, organizations are redefining the term “leader” to apply at multiple levels, and not just at the highest level. This includes the capabilities to make tough decisions in ambiguous business environments. Communication skills play a pivotal role in managing horizontal integration in complex organizations. The need to clearly and effectively communicate both up and down in the organizations is paramount. Possessing an understanding of team dynamics should also be a high priority. The capability to lead and develop talent is also essential for maintaining momentum for the future growth

"Heterotic" Discrete Flavor Model

We present an extended 331 model with $T'$ discrete flavor symmetry that simultaneously explains the need to have exactly three generations and provides acceptable quark and lepton masses and mixings. New fermionic states and gauge bosons are predicted within the reach of the LHC. We discuss the relevance to the 126 GeV scalar discovered at the LHC.Comment: 13 pages, v3: version to appear in PR

LHC Higgs Production and Decay in the T' Model

At $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV, the standard model needs at least $10\, (fb)^{-1}$ integrated luminosity at LHC to make a definitive discovery of the Higgs boson. Using binary tetrahedral ($T^{'}$) discrete flavor symmetry, we discuss how the decay of the lightest $T'$ Higgs into $\gamma\,\gamma$ can be effectively enhanced and dominate over its decay into $b \, \bar{b}$. Since the two-photon final state allows for a clean reconstruction, a decisive Higgs discovery may be possible at 7 TeV with the integrated luminosity only of $\sim 1\, (fb)^{-1}$.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Economic Consequences of Anti-Corruption Campaign in China: An Exploratory Study

This study examines the economic consequences of the anti-corruption campaign in China from the perspective of information risk. Using accruals quality as a proxy for information risk, we find that firms with terminated political connection brought about by the anti-corruption campaign, as compared to propensity-score-matched control firms, have lower information risk as represented by higher innate accruals quality. Employing a difference-in-differences approach to investigate the economic effects of the campaign, we further note that firms with resigned directors are associated with lower cost of equity. The evidence is consistent with the proposition that the anti-corruption campaign has lowered the information risk through an improvement in the operating environment of these impacted firms upon the resignation of connected officials. Further evidence suggests that, for an increase in information risk, the demand for a higher risk premium is more pronounced for firms with terminated connection due to the anti-corruption campaign than firms with no connection

Asteroid (3200) Phaethon: colors, phase curve, limits on cometary activity and fragmentation

We report on a multi-observatory campaign to examine asteroid 3200 Phaethon during its December 2017 close approach to Earth, in order to improve our measurements of its fundamental parameters, and to search for surface variations, cometary activity and fragmentation. The mean colors of Phaethon are B-V = 0.702 +/- 0.004, V-R = 0.309 +/- 0.003, R-I = 0.266 +/- 0.004, neutral to slightly blue, consistent with previous classifications of Phaethon as a F-type or B-type asteroid. Variations in Phaethon's B-V colors (but not V-R or R-I) with observer sub-latitude are seen and may be associated with craters observed by the Arecibo radar. High cadence photometry over phases from 20 to 100 degrees allows a fit to the values of the HG photometric parameters; H = 14.57 +/- 0.02, 13.63 +/- 0.02, 13.28 +/- 0.02, 13.07 +/- 0.02; G = 0.00 +/- 0.01, -0.09 +/- 0.01, -0.10 +/- 0.01, -0.08 +/- 0.01 in the BVRI filters respectively; the negative G values are consistent with other observations of F type asteroids. Light curve variations were seen that are also consistent with concavities reported by Arecibo, indicative of large craters on Phaethon's surface whose ejecta may be the source of the Geminid meteoroid stream. A search for gas/dust production set an upper limit of 0.06 +/- 0.02 kg/s when Phaethon was 1.449 AU from the Sun, and 0.2 +/- 0.1 kg/s at 1.067 AU. A search for meter-class fragments accompanying Phaethon did not find any whose on-sky motion was not also consistent with background main belt asteroids.Comment: Accepted by the Astronomical Journal, 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 animated figur

Repeat prescribing of medications: a system-centred risk management model for primary care organisations

Rationale, aims and objectives: Reducing preventable harm from repeat medication prescriptions is a patient safety priority worldwide. In the United Kingdom, repeat prescriptions items issued has doubled in the last 20 years from 5.8 to 13.3 items per patient per annum. This has significant resource implications and consequences for avoidable patient harms. Consequently, we aimed to test a risk management model to identify, measure, and reduce repeat prescribing system risks in primary care. Methods: All 48 general medical practices in National Health Service (NHS) Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group (an inner city area of south London in England) were recruited. Multiple interventions were implemented, including educational workshops, a web-based risk monitoring system, and external reviews of repeat prescribing system risks by clinicians. Data were collected via documentation reviews and interviews and subject to basic thematic and descriptive statistical analyses. Results: Across the 48 participating general practices, 62 unique repeat prescribing risks were identified on 505 occasions (eg, practices frequently experiencing difficulty interpreting medication changes on hospital discharge summaries), equating to a mean of 8.1 risks per practice (range: 1-33; SD = 7.13). Seven hundred sixty-seven system improvement actions were recommended across 96 categories (eg, alerting hospitals to illegible writing and delays with discharge summaries) with a mean of 15.6 actions per practice (range: 0-34; SD = 8.0). Conclusions: The risk management model tested uncovered important safety concerns and facilitated the development and communication of related improvement recommendations. System-wide information on hazardous repeat prescribing and how this could be mitigated is very limited. The approach reported may have potential to close this gap and improve the reliability of general practice systems and patient safety, which should be of high interest to primary care organisations internationally

Photonic band gap in isotropic hyperuniform disordered solids with low dielectric contrast

We report the first experimental demonstration of a TE-polarization photonic band gap (PBG) in a 2D isotropic hyperuniform disordered solid (HUDS) made of dielectric media with a index contrast of 1.6:1, very low for PBG formation. The solid is composed of a connected network of dielectric walls enclosing air-filled cells. Direct comparison with photonic crystals and quasicrystals permitted us to investigate band-gap properties as a function of increasing rotational isotropy. We present results from numerical simulations proving that the PBG observed experimentally for HUDS at low index contrast has zero density of states. The PBG is associated with the energy difference between complementary resonant modes above and below the gap, with the field predominantly concentrated in the air or in the dielectric. The intrinsic isotropy of HUDS may offer unprecedented flexibilities and freedom in applications (i. e. defect architecture design) not limited by crystalline symmetries

Isotropic Band Gaps and Freeform Waveguides Observed in Hyperuniform Disordered Photonic Solids

Recently, disordered photonic media and random textured surfaces have attracted increasing attention as strong light diffusers with broadband and wide-angle properties. We report the first experimental realization of an isotropic complete photonic band gap (PBG) in a two-dimensional (2D) disordered dielectric structure. This structure is designed by a constrained-optimization method, which combines advantages of both isotropy due to disorder and controlled scattering properties due to low density fluctuations (hyperuniformity) and uniform local topology. Our experiments use a modular design composed of Al2O3 walls and cylinders arranged in a hyperuniform disordered network. We observe a complete PBG in the microwave region, in good agreement with theoretical simulations, and show that the intrinsic isotropy of this novel class of PBG materials enables remarkable design freedom, including the realization of waveguides with arbitrary bending angles impossible in photonic crystals. This first experimental verification of a complete PBG and realization of functional defects in this new class of materials demonstrates their potential as building blocks for precise manipulation of photons in planar optical micro-circuits and has implications for disordered acoustic and electronic bandgap materials