Understanding employees\u27 willingness to contributeto shared electronic databases: A three-dimensional framework

Work organizations increasingly adopt shared electronic databases. However, employees\u27 unwillingness to contribute to shared resources undermines the utility of such technologies. Current research is limited to either a utilitarian or normative perspective. To advance understanding in this area, this study proposes a three-dimensional framework. It includes the utilitarian and normative perspectives as two complementary dimensions in addition to a third collaborative dimension. Based on this framework, the study identifies three key organizational processes and advances an additive model to predict employees\u27 willingness to contribute to shared electronic databases. An empirical test was conducted to assess the model in a large manufacturing organization. The test showed both significant overall effects of the model and significant main effects of each predictor variable. The article will discuss the findings and address both theoretical and practical implications

Comics Telling Refugee Stories

This chapter begins with an indicative survey of comics responding to the current ‘refugee crisis’. The comics in question adopt one of two distinct and established approaches. The first is reportage, usually featuring the author/creator as a central device, while the second re-works and renders testimony in visual form. In their different ways, both contribute to a wider repertoire of positive and sympathetic representations of refugees, offering a counter-point to hostile media and political discourse, often by a focus on the stories of individuals. Mobilizing compassion and moral responses through personal stories of hardship, trauma, tenacity, and survival has long been a tactic of reformist agendas and humanitarian advocacy. By their qualitative difference from dominant forms of factual discourse, comics offer certain advantages. They may also circumvent certain problems associated with photographic representations of suffering. Such comics can nevertheless run the risk of re-producing established victim tropes, and just as with other forms of representation, human-interest angles carry the potential to obscure political dimensions. In an attempt to consider and situate these concerns, the analysis considers the various positions and relations that constitute ‘refugee comics’: subjects, readers, creators, (im)materiality, and circulation

Changes in neural drive to calf muscles during steady submaximal contractions after repeated static stretches

Key points: Repeated static-stretching interventions consistently increase the range of motion about a joint and decrease total joint stiffness, but findings on the changes in muscle and connective-tissue properties are mixed. The influence of these stretch-induced changes on muscle function at submaximal forces is unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, the changes in neural drive to the plantar flexor muscles after a static-stretch intervention were estimated. Neural drive to the plantar flexor muscles during a low-force contraction increased after repeated static stretches. These findings suggest that adjustments in motor unit activity are necessary at low forces to accommodate reductions in the force-generating and transmission capabilities of the muscle-tendon unit after repeated static stretches of the calf muscles. Abstract: Static stretching decreases stiffness about a joint, but its influence on muscle-tendon unit function and muscle activation is unclear. We investigated the influence of three static stretches on changes in neural drive to the plantar flexor muscles, both after a stretch intervention and after a set of maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs). Estimates of neural drive were obtained during submaximal isometric contractions by decomposing high-density electromyographic signals into the activity of individual motor units from medial gastrocnemius, lateral gastrocnemius and soleus. Motor units were matched across contractions and an estimate of neural drive to the plantar flexors was calculated by normalizing the cumulative spike train to the number of active motor units (normalized neural drive). Mean discharge rate increased after the stretch intervention during the 10% MVC task for all recorded motor units and those matched across conditions (all, P = 0.0046; matched only, P = 0.002), recruitment threshold decreased for motor units matched across contractions (P = 0.022), and discharge rate at recruitment was elevated (P = 0.004). Similarly, the estimate of normalized neural drive was significantly greater after the stretch intervention at 10% MVC torque (P = 0.029), but not at 35% MVC torque. The adjustments in motor unit activity required to complete the 10% MVC task after stretch may have been partially attenuated by a set of plantar flexor MVCs. The increase in neural drive required to produce low plantar-flexion torques after repeated static stretches of the calf muscles suggests stretch-induced changes in muscle and connective tissue properties