Nonextensive thermal sources of cosmic rays?

The energy spectrum of cosmic rays (CR) exhibits power-like behavior with a very characteristic "knee" structure. We consider a possibility that such a spectrum could be generated by some specific nonstatistical temperature fluctuations in the source of CR with the "knee" structure reflecting an abrupt change of the pattern of such fluctuations. This would result in a generalized nonextensive statistical model for the production of CR. The possible physical mechanisms leading to these effects are discussed together with the resulting chemical composition of the CR, which follows the experimentally observed abundance of nuclei.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, rewritten and updated version, to be published in Centr. Eur. J. Phy

Organizational Justice and Employee Work Attitudes: The Federal Case

Organizational scientists have claimed that organizational justice is an essential requirement for effective organizational management. Perceived justice in the organization is predicted to influence employees’ attitudes toward their job and workplace significantly. This study explores how perceived organizational justice is related to employees’ work-related attitudes including job satisfaction, trust toward their supervisors and management, and intention to leave their agency. It also examines how gender differences affect these relationships. This study uses the 2005 Merit System Protection Board Survey to measure three types of organizational justice—distributive, procedural, and interpersonal—and tests the relationships using hierarchical regressions. The results indicate that higher levels of three types of organizational justice are positively related to job satisfaction and trust in supervisor and management, whereas they are negatively associated with turnover intentions of employees. Distributive justice is the one most strongly associated with job satisfaction, trust in management, and turnover intention of employees among three attributes of organizational justice. Women show higher levels of trust in management than men when they perceive procedural justice, whereas men show higher levels of trust than women when they perceive distributive and interpersonal justice

Development of a core outcome set for therapeutic studies in eosinophilic esophagitis (COREOS).

End points used to determine treatment efficacy in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) have evolved over time. With multiple novel therapies in development for EoE, harmonization of outcomes measures will facilitate evidence synthesis and appraisal when comparing different treatments. We sought to develop a core outcome set (COS) for controlled and observational studies of pharmacologic and diet interventions in adult and pediatric patients with EoE. Candidate outcomes were generated from systematic literature reviews and patient engagement interviews and surveys. Consensus was established using an iterative Delphi process, with items voted on using a 9-point Likert scale and with feedback from other participants to allow score refinement. Consensus meetings were held to ratify the outcome domains of importance and the core outcome measures. Stakeholders were recruited internationally and included adult and pediatric gastroenterologists, allergists, dieticians, pathologists, psychologists, researchers, and methodologists. The COS consists of 4 outcome domains for controlled and observational studies: histopathology, endoscopy, patient-reported symptoms, and EoE-specific quality of life. A total of 69 stakeholders (response rate 95.8%) prioritized 42 outcomes in a 2-round Delphi process, and the final ratification meeting generated consensus on 33 outcome measures. These included measurement of the peak eosinophil count, Eosinophilic Esophagitis Histology Scoring System, Eosinophilic Esophagitis Endoscopic Reference Score, and patient-reported measures of dysphagia and quality of life. This interdisciplinary collaboration involving global stakeholders has produced a COS that can be applied to adult and pediatric studies of pharmacologic and diet therapies for EoE and will facilitate meaningful treatment comparisons and improve the quality of data synthesis