Being Different Yet Feeling Similar: The Influence Of Demographic Composition And Organizational Culture On Work Processes And Outcomes

Drawing from self-categorization theory, we tested hypotheses on the effects of an organization's demographic composition and cultural emphasis on work processes and outcomes. Using an organizational simulation, we found that the extent to which an organization emphasized individualistic or collectivistic values interacted with demographic composition to influence social interaction, conflict, productivity, and perceptions of creativity among 258 MBA students. Our findings suggest that the purported benefits of demographic diversity are more likely to emerge in organizations that, through their culture, make organizational membership salient and encourage people to categorize one another as having the organization's interests in common, rather than those that emphasize individualism and distinctiveness among members.(.)Managemen

"How can my home, school or church ever be a military objective? Loss of protection by use, purpose or location"

It is a common and widely accepted proposition that towns, cities and other built-up residential areas pose a significant operational challenge when conducting hostilities. This is particularly true in the context of targeting, and specifically in relation to the identification of lawful targets. This paper considers some selected issues which modern warfare has brought to the forefront of the international debate. It consists of two parts. The first will look at the features of the urban landscape which are specifically relevant to combat operations. The second will provide a more comprehensive discussion of specific challenges in targeting overground and subterranean infrastructure

Substance Use and Depression Symptomatology: Measurement Invariance of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) among Non-Users and Frequent-Users of Alcohol, Nicotine and Cannabis

Depression is a highly heterogeneous condition, and identifying how symptoms present in various groups may greatly increase our understanding of its etiology. Importantly, Major Depressive Disorder is strongly linked with Substance Use Disorders, which may ameliorate or exacerbate specific depression symptoms. It is therefore quite plausible that depression may present with different symptom profiles depending on an individual’s substance use status. Given these observations, it is important to examine the underlying construct of depression in groups of substance users compared to non-users. In this study we use a non-clinical sample to examine the measurement structure of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) in non-users and frequent-users of various substances. Specifically, measurement invariance was examined across those who do vs. do not use alcohol, nicotine, and cannabis. Results indicate strict factorial invariance across non-users and frequent-users of alcohol and cannabis, and metric invariance across non-users and frequent-users of nicotine. This implies that the factor structure of the BDI-II is similar across all substance use groups

Targeting State and Political Leadership in Armed Conflicts

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Vanderbilt University Law School via the URL in this record.Despite repeated attacks on various figures of authority and political leaders such as Saddam Hussein, the scholarly debates in the law of armed conflict have not given much attention to an analysis of if, and if so, when, state and political leadership may be subject to lawful attack, or the question of when physical objects associated with exercising of the official functions contributing to the prosecution of military operations can satisfy the criteria of the definition of military objectives. Whilst examining various positions of leadership, such as Prime Ministers and political party figures, it is argued that there is a relationship between the character and the scope of the activity of such individuals, which may impact a legal assessment of the objects used or intended to be used in the furtherance of such functions. The existence of such relationships is best demonstrated by the example of individuals vested with the Commander-in-Chief functions. This Article demonstrates, contrary to previous assertions in the literature, that their status will be based either on their membership in armed forces or on their conduct constituting direct participation in hostilities. The result of such assessment could result in opposing outcomes of legal evaluation of the infrastructure associated with activity of such individuals, with possibly far-reaching consequences of incorrect application of the principle of distinction in armed conflict

Special Section Guest Editorial: Advances in Agro-Hydrological Remote Sensing for Water Resources Conservation

This special section focuses on the use of remote sensing tools in some of these areas, including monitoring the volume and turbidity in lake fresh water resources, retrieving soil organic matter from spectral information with particular attention to abandoned croplands and areas affected by wildfires, and identification and monitoring of natural and agricultural vegetation through emerging techniques such as shallow and deep learning algorithms. These data mining and analysis approaches are particularly promising and include convolutional neural network and the application of back propagation neural network algorithms for soil water content monitoring and the extraction of other canopy information

Evidence that MEK1 positively promotes interhomologue double-strand break repair

During meiosis there is an imperative to create sufficient crossovers for homologue segregation. This can be achieved during repair of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), which are biased towards using a homologue rather than sister chromatid as a repair template. Various proteins contribute to this bias, one of which is a meiosis specific kinase Mek1. It has been proposed that Mek1 establishes the bias by creating a barrier to sister chromatid repair, as distinct from enforcing strand invasion with the homologue. We looked for evidence that Mek1 positively stimulates strand invasion of the homologue. This was done by analysing repair of DSBs induced by the VMA1- derived endonuclease (VDE) and flanked by directly repeated sequences that can be used for intrachromatid single-strand annealing (SSA). SSA competes with interhomologue strand inva- sion significantly more successfully when Mek1 function is lost. We suggest the increase in intrachromosomal SSA reflects an opportunistic default repair pathway due to loss of a MEK1 stimulated bias for strand invasion of the homologous chromosome. Making use of an inhibitor sensitive mek1-as1 allele, we found that Mek1 function influences the repair pathway throughout the first 4-5 h of meiosis. Perhaps reflecting a particular need to create bias for successful interhomologue events before chromosome pairing is complete. © The Author(s) 2010. Published by Oxford University Pres

The influence of training and athletic performance on the neural and mechanical determinants of muscular rate of force development

Neuromuscular explosive strength (defined as rate of force development; RFD) is considered important during explosive functional human movements; however this association has been poorly documented. It is also unclear how different variants of strength training may influence RFD and its neuromuscular determinants. Furthermore, RFD has typically been measured in isometric situations, but how it is influenced by the types of contraction (isometric, concentric, eccentric) is unknown. This thesis compared neuromuscular function in explosive power athletes (athletes) and untrained controls, and assessed the relationship between RFD in isometric squats with sprint and jump performance. The athletes achieved a greater RFD normalised to maximum strength (+74%) during the initial phase of explosive contractions, due to greater agonist activation (+71%) in this time. Furthermore, there were strong correlations (r2 = 0.39) between normalised RFD in the initial phase of explosive squats and sprint performance, and between later phase absolute explosive force and jump height (r2 = 0.37), confirming an association between explosive athletic performance and RFD. This thesis also assessed the differential effects of short-term (4 weeks) training for maximum vs. explosive strength, and whilst the former increased maximum strength (+20%) it had no effect on RFD. In contrast explosive strength training improved explosive force production over short (first 50 ms; +70%) and long (>50 ms; +15%) time periods, due to improved agonist activation (+65%) and maximum strength (+11%), respectively. Explosive strength training therefore appears to have greater functional benefits than maximum strength training. Finally, the influence of contraction type on RFD was assessed, and the results provided unique evidence that explosive concentric contractions are 60% more effective at utilising the available force capacity of the muscle, that was explained by superior agonist activation. This work provides a comprehensive analysis of the association between athletic performance and RFD, the differential effects of maximum vs. explosive strength training, and the influence of contraction type on the capacity for RFD

Hierarchical reinforcement learning for adaptive and autonomous decision-making in robotics

In recent years, Reinforcement Learning has been able to solve extremely complex games in simulation, but with limited success in deployment to real-world scenarios. The goal of this work is create an ecosystem in which Reinforcement Learning algorithms can be deployed onto real robots in complex games. The ecosystem begins with the creation of a development pipeline which can be used to progressively train Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in increasingly realistic scenarios, culminating with the deployment of these algorithm onto a real system. The pipeline is paired with the novel Reinforcement Learning algorithms that are better able to adapt to new scenarios than traditional methods for autonomy and robotic planning.We implement two techniques to enable this adaptation. First, we implement a hierarchical Reinforcement Learning architecture that uses differentiated sub-policies governed by a hierarchical controller to enable fast adaptation. Second we introduce a confidence-based training process for the hierarchical controller which improves training stability and convergence times. These algorithmic contributions were evaluated using our development pipeline

AXONAL TRANSPORT AND TURNOVER OF PROLINE- AND LEUCINE-LABELED PROTEIN IN THE GOLDFISH VISUAL SYSTEM

The suitability of radioactively labeled proline as a marker of axonally transported protein in the goldfish visual system is further investigated and compared with another amino acid, leucine, in double-label experiments. Intraocularly injected proline is incorporated into protein in the eye S times more efficiently than is leucine, while local labeling of brain protein from precursor which has left the eye and entered the blood, (observed in the ipsilateral optic tectum) is five- to eight-fold less from proline than from leucine. The difference is attributed to the superior transport of leucine, an essential amino acid, into the brain from the blood. Once in the brain, the apparent rates of incorporation of the two amino acids are similar. Proline- or leucine-labeled, axonally transported proteins have a longer apparent half-life in the brain than do proteins labeled from intracranial injection of the precursors. By either route, proline-labeled proteins have a longer apparent half-life than leucine-labeled proteins. It is proposed that proline, released from protein breakdown is reutilized to a greater extent than is leucine.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65647/1/j.1471-4159.1974.tb10757.x.pd

Genetic and environmental risk factors for sexual distress and its association with female sexual dysfunction

A. Burri, Q. Rahman and T. Spector (2011). Genetic and environmental risk factors for sexual distress and its association with female sexual dysfunction. Psychological Medicine, 41, pp 2435-2445. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003329171100049