Use of Demographic Faultlines to Predict Teams’ Conflict, Satisfaction and Performance

During the past decade, industries and businesses have experienced the formation of a global market place. Current tasks require professionals from different fields and with different backgrounds to work together as a team. The goal of this study is to investigate how diversity in teams may impact perception of conflict, satisfaction and performance, in first-year engineering students. Team diversity is associated with faultlines: the potential to form subgroups based on certain characteristics. The strength and width of faultlines in a team is likely to impact the team’s outcomes. In this research, we used demographic characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, language and nationality to calculate values of faultlines strength for each team of freshman students, in an introductory engineering class. Teams were also discriminated based on which of the demographics characteristics contributed the most to the faultline strength. Means for each team dynamic’s indicator, i.e. performance, satisfaction and conflict, were calculated for each characteristic. Our results identify ethnicity as the demographic characteristic that most frequently contributes to high faultline strength values in teams. At the same time, language and nationality were the characteristics that less frequently contributed to high faultline strength values. Nationality was the only factor that showed significant effect on team dynamic indicators. The results of this research suggests that formation of subgroups in team based on gender, language or nationality do not impact team dynamics. On the other hand, formation of subgroups based on nationality increases team conflict and reduces team satisfaction. There results can be instrumental for improving the mechanism of team making to minimize faultline strength. They also point to the importance of continuing investigating the impact of multiple experiences working in diverse teams on the outcomes and performance of engineering students, beyond their first semester

Halobacterium identification in saltworks of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain)

This work analyzes bacterial communities present in evaporation ponds of solar salterns of Gran Canaria and reveals specific organisms through molecular techniques. Solar salterns are protected areas in Canary Islands where salt is produced from sea water by solar and wind powered evaporation. Salt was an important product for ancient islanders who used it for a broad field of purposes, but also has a great importance in recent time for its implications in the island economy.Based on amplifications with specific primers for 16S ribosomal DNA (16S rDNA) and subsequent nested-PCR approaches, different amplicons were obtained, and analyzed in silico. A taxonomic classification was carried out through phylogenetic trees.Results revealed different bacteria according to the evaporation grade of crystallizer ponds in saline works.  It is worthstanding the presence of the genus Halobacterium in all crystallizer ponds. This opens an interesting framework for further studies and continuative molecular characterization approaches of bacterial communities in solar salterns of Gran Canaria

Collagen Content in Skin and Internal Organs of the Tight Skin Mouse: An Animal Model of Scleroderma.

The Tight Skin mouse is a genetically induced animal model of tissue fibrosis caused by a large in-frame mutation in the gene encoding fibrillin-1 (Fbn-1). We examined the influence of gender on the collagen content of tissues in C57BL/6J wild type (+/+) and mutant Tight Skin (Tsk/+) mice employing hydroxyproline assays. Tissue sections were stained with Masson\u27s trichrome to identify collagen in situ. Adult Tsk/+ mice skin contains ~15% more collagen, on average, than skin from +/+ mice of the same gender. The heart of Tsk/+ males had significantly more collagen than that of +/+ males. No significant gender differences were found in lungs and kidney collagen content. Overall, the collagen content of Tsk/+ males and +/+ males was higher than that of their Tsk/+ and +/+ female counterparts, respectively. Our data confirm increased deposition of collagen in skin and hearts of Tsk/+ mice; however, the effects of the Tsk mutation on collagen content are both tissue specific and gender specific. These results indicate that comparative studies of collagen content between normal and Tsk/+ mice skin and internal organs must take into account gender differences caused by expression of the androgen receptor

Drying kinetics modeling of apple and zucchini slices vacuum impregnated with anthocyanins

The aim of this research was to study the drying kinetics of apple and zucchini slices enriched with anthocyanins and to evaluate the influence of drying temperature on the anthocyanin content of apple and zucchini snacks. Apple (Granny Smith) and zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) slices were enriched with anthocyanins by vacuum impregnation with blueberry juice. Then, slices were dehydrated at 40, 50 and 60 ºC with 1.0 m/s air flow. Dehydrated samples were referred to as anthocyanin enriched snacks. Diffusion coefficient values improved by increasing the drying temperature, within the 2.81×10-10 to 5.78×10-10 m2/s range for apple slices and 2.02×10-10 to 3.99×10-10 m2/s for zucchini slices. The activation energy was 31.19 kJ/mol and 80.33 kJ/mol for apple and zucchini slices respectively. Page, Weibull, Logarithmic, Henderson-Pabis and Lewis models best fitted the experimental data. Snacks obtained at 60 °C retained a higher concentration of anthocyanins, reaching values of 592.81±52.55 and 464.62±48.44 mg of cyaniding-3-glucoside equivalent/kg dry matter in apple and zucchini snacks respectively. Combination of vacuum impregnation and hot air drying was a technological alternative for producing snacks with functional properties

Resilient source seeking with robot swarms

We present a solution for locating the source, or maximum, of an unknown scalar field using a swarm of mobile robots. Unlike relying on the traditional gradient information, the swarm determines an ascending direction to approach the source with arbitrary precision. The ascending direction is calculated from measurements of the field strength at the robot locations and their relative positions concerning the centroid. Rather than focusing on individual robots, we focus the analysis on the density of robots per unit area to guarantee a more resilient swarm, i.e., the functionality remains even if individuals go missing or are misplaced during the mission. We reinforce the robustness of the algorithm by providing sufficient conditions for the swarm shape so that the ascending direction is almost parallel to the gradient. The swarm can respond to an unexpected environment by morphing its shape and exploiting the existence of multiple ascending directions. Finally, we validate our approach numerically with hundreds of robots. The fact that a large number of robots always calculate an ascending direction compensates for the loss of individuals and mitigates issues arising from the actuator and sensor noises.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to ICRA 202

Age-dependent pharmacokinetics and effect of roscovitine on Cdk5 and Erk1/2 in the rat brain.

Roscovitine is a cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) and signal-regulated kinase (Erk1/2) inhibitor that has been shown to be effective against several cancer types including brain tumors. We have shown previously that roscovitine crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB) and is rapidly eliminated from both plasma and brain in adult rats. However, age-dependent kinetics and its effects on the brain have not been reported. In the present study, we investigated the pharmacokinetics of roscovitine in adult and in 14 days old rats after the administration of a single dose of 25 mg/kg. Moreover, we studied the effect of the drug on Cdk5 and Erk1/2 activities in three brain regions, hippocampus, frontal cortex and cerebellum. The pharmacokinetics of roscovitine followed a two-compartment model in both plasma and brain in both adult and young rats. The terminal elimination half-life was 7 h in brain as well as in plasma in rat pups compared to < 0.5 h observed in adult rats. Brain exposure expressed as AUC brain/AUC plasma was 100% in rat pups compared to 20% found in adult rats. Roscovitine induced a significant Cdk5 inhibition and significant Erk1/2 activation in all studied pups brain regions at 2 h. This is the first study describing age-dependent pharmacokinetics of roscovitine and showing the high brain exposure of infant rats to the drug. Thus, roscovitine may be a promising candidate for the treatment of brain tumors in children

Algorithmic Trading Using Long Short-Term Memory Network and Portfolio Optimization

Investors typically rely on a mix of experience, intuition, knowledge of economic fundamentals and real-time information to make informed choices and try to get as high a rate of return as possible. Their decisions are customarily more instinct-driven than methodical. Propelled by the need for numerically inspired judgments, ever stronger within the financial community, in recent years the usage of computational and mathematical tools has been taking root. In this work we used a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Network trained on historical prices to predict future daily closing prices of several stocks listed on the Standard & Poor 500 (S&P500) index. We compared the predictions of our LSTM network with those produced by another state-of-the-art approach, the Hidden Markov Model (HMM), in order to validate our findings. We then fed our forecasts into aMarkowitz Portfolio Optimization (PO) procedure to identify the best trading strategy. The purpose of PO, which allows for simultaneous and optimal trading of multiple stocks, is to compute a set of daily weights representing the portion of initial capital to be invested in each company. Our empirical results highlight two facts: Firstly, our LSTM model achieves higher accuracy than the standard HMM approach. Secondly, by trading various stocks at the same time we can obtain a higher rate of return than is possible by using the single stock strategy, while also greatly enhancing the real-world applicability of our model

Epibenthic communities associated with unintentional artificial reefs (modern shipwrecks) under contrasting regimes of nutrients in the Levantine Sea (Cyprus and Lebanon)

Artificial reefs, in the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus,) became a popular and frequently used tool, in fisheries and biodiversity conservation management. Even though evaluation studies about the efficacy of artificial reefs are plentiful in the rest of the Mediterranean (Central and Western), in the Eastern Basin they are largely absent. As the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea is characterised by unique physical parameters, the necessity to study artificial reefs under these contrasting regimes increases. The epibenthic communities of two unintentional artificial reefs (modern shipwrecks) in Cyprus (Zenobia) and Lebanon (Alice-B) were evaluated in 2010. Both shipwrecks are at similar depth, type of sea bottom, made of the same material (steel) and were sunk approximately the same period of time. However, Alice-B shipwreck off the coast of Lebanon is constantly exposed to higher levels of nutrients than Zenobia in Cyprus. Significant dissimilarities were observed in the composition, percentage of benthic cover of predominant taxonomic groups and development of the epibenthic communities. Differences in physical and chemical parameters between sides lay mainly in the nutrient and thermal regimes affecting the shipwrecks and most likely bring about the differences in the observed community structure. The results of this study suggest that epibenthic communities could be highly impacted by eutrophication caused by anthropogenic activities, leading to less biodivers

Disfunción familiar y depresión en niños de 8-12 años de edad

La población estudiada incluyó 326 niños, de 8 a 12 años de edad. De ellos el 54.3% correspondió al género femenino y el 45.7% al masculino, predominando en frecuencia los niños en edades de 9 a 11 años.Introducción: La frecuencia de depresión infantil se ha incrementado en años recientes y constantemente se asocia a un ambiente familiar disfuncional. El objetivo fue determinar la correlación entre disfuncionalidad familiar y depresión infantil en niños de 8 a 12 años de edad. Materiales y métodos: En una muestra probabilística, aleatoria de 326 niños de 8 a 12 años de edad, de una escuela primaria semiurbana, de bajo nivel socioeconómico en el Estado de México, se determinó la frecuencia de depresión infantil, aplicándose la escala modificada Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) de Kovacs, 2004 y Kovacs y Beck, 1977. Para evaluación de la funcionalidad familiar, se aplicó a padres de familia la escala reajuste social de Holmes. Resultados: Se identificó correlación estadísticamente significativa al nivel de 0.01 entre disfunción familiar y depresión infantil. El 34.1% de los familiares de los niños en estudio fueron disfuncionales, sólo el 11.7% de los sujetos manifestó síntomas de depresión infantil y de ellos únicamente el 8.7% se relacionó con disfuncionalidad familiar. Conclusiones: Se encontró correlación estadísticamente significativa entre disfunción familiar y depresión infantil, afectando en mayor porcentaje al género femenino y con mayor prevalencia en los niños de 8, 10 y 11años de eda