Adaptability and mindfulness of Chinese knowledge workers in multinational companies

Important aspects of human activity such as international trade, travel and investment are gaining pace, in what has become known as the “Great Acceleration”. For companies, technology adoption cycles are contracting, disrupting industries and increasing the pressure on workers to adapt. At the same time, mindfulness is attracting attention for its success in improving people’s mental health, including the reduction of stress. This research investigates how a group of 13 Chinese knowledge workers perceive and respond to their rapidly changing environment, and the possible influence of mindfulness on helping them cope with change. Adopting a critical realist approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals at multinational corporations in China and analysed using the Framework process. The research builds on existing theory by developing a process model of adaptability that incorporates the new concept of “adaptability gaps” that need to be addressed in response to change and also highlights the influence of age and experience on successful coping. Evidence supports to some extent the theoretical linkages between mindfulness and adaptability, especially in participants’ attitude and responses to change. Implications for professional practice include the need for organisations to identify and nurture adaptability in their work forces, and for individuals to increase their awareness of change and develop tactics to close the “adaptability gaps” that it creates

How do we perform backward serial recall?

Following Conrad (1965) it is often assumed that backward verbal serial recall is performed by repeated forward scans through the list and then recalling the last remaining item. Direct evidence for this peel-off strategy is relatively weak and there has to date been no examination of its potential role in the recall of spatial sequences. To examine the role of this strategy in both verbal and spatial domains, two experiments examined response output times for forward and backward recall. For spatial span, the pattern of timing was the same in both directions. For digit span, backward recall was considerably slower. This was true whether responses were made by means of manual selection on a keyboard display (Experiment 1) or were spoken (Experiment 2A). Only two of 24 participants showed signs of using a peel-off strategy in spoken backward recall. Peel-off was not a dominant strategy in backward digit recall and there was no indication that it was ever used for spatial stimuli. Most participants reported using a combination of different strategies. In Experiment 2B our further participants were directly instructed to use a peel-off strategy. The pattern of response times for three of these individuals was similar to the two participants from Experiment 2A previously identified as using peel-off. We conclude that backward recall can be performed using many strategies, but that the peel-off is rarely used spontaneously

Can short-term memory be trained?

2 Is the capacity of short-term memory fixed or does it improve with practice? It is already known that training on complex working memory tasks is more likely to transfer to untrained tasks with similar properties, but this approach has not been extended to the more basic short-term memory system responsible for verbal serial recall. Here we investigate this with the adaptive training algorithms widely applied in WM training. Serial recall of visually presented digits was found to improve over the course of twenty training sessions but this improvement did not extend to recall of either spoken digits or visually presented letters. In contrast, training on a non-serial visual short-term memory color change detection task did transfer to a line-orientation change detection task. We suggest that training only generates substantial transfer when the unfamiliar demands of the training activities require the development of novel routines that can then be applied to untrained versions of the same paradigm (Gathercole, Dunning, Holmes, & Norris, 2019). In contrast, serial recall of digits is fully supported by the existing verbal short-term memory system and does not require development of new routines

Gas network development in a precompacted bentonite experiment: evidence of generation and evolution

In a deep geological disposal facility for radioactive waste, precompacted bentonite is proposed as a sealing material for the isolation of boreholes, disposal galleries and deposition holes. The advective movement of repository gas in bentonite has been linked to the development of new porosity and propagation of dilatant pathways. For the first time we present a detailed analysis of stress field data during the generation and evolution of a gas network. A new experimental dataset, from a highly instrumented test, clearly shows the strong coupling between stress, gas pressure and flow in bentonite. Multiple discrete propagation events are observed, demonstrating spatial variability and time-dependency as permeability within the clay develops. Analysis of the stress data before, during and after gas entry indicates a heterogeneous stress field initially develops, resulting from the development of these pathways. The flow network is dynamic and continues to spatially evolve after gas entry, such that permeability under these conditions must be time-dependent in nature. Perturbation of the stress field is significant before all major gas outflow events, presumably resulting from the requirement to propagate an effective gas network before outflow is possible. In contrast, no major flow perturbations are detected which did not correlate with fluctuations in the stress field. The controls on the distribution and geometry of the resulting flow network are unclear, as well as its long-term evolution and stability. These will be beneficial in the assessment of gas pressure evolution as part of safety case development

Roundabout Oxford Podcast Episode 13: Family Recipes

Family recipes and foodways are on the menu for this episode of Roundabout Oxford! 00:54 Science Librarian Harley Rogers: Recipes and History in Maine and Beyond 23:18 Family Recipe Stories from Library Faculty and Staff 30:52 Head of Archives Greg Johnson: The Southern Plate Exhibi

Collegiate Leadership Competition: Deliberate Practice Leading to Expertise

Deliberate practice (Ericsson & Pool, 2016), the scientific process often attributed to developing expertise, requires a well-developed field and a teacher who can design, provide, and facilitate purposeful activities that target specific goals related to performance in that field. Components of purposeful practice include (a) well-defined goals, often related to skills that others have figured out how to do; (b) timely, continuous, and specific feedback; (c) deliberate practice outside of one’s comfort zone; and (d) developing previously acquired skills through continuous improvement. USM students’ participation in Collegiate Leadership Competition (CLC) practice sessions include components of deliberate practice aimed toward the goal of developing expert leaders. Through intentional learning activities grounded in applied leadership and specific performance outcomes, CLC practices include innovative strategies for leading and influencing high performing teams, solving complex problems, improving intergroup communication skills, and enhancing critical thinking skills; and each learning activity concludes with focused debriefing sessions that include feedback from the instructor and peer students. While 10,000 hours of deliberate practice in a leadership environment may be unrealistic for most college students, the CLC facilitates an accessible alternative

Prescribing hand strengthening exercise for patients with rheumatoid arthritis; clinical cues influencing occupational therapists' and physiotherapists' judgements

Objective To explore the clinical judgements of therapists in prescribing the intensity of hand strengthening exercise in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods Phase I: Eleven therapists knowledgeable in treating patients with RA subjectively identified seven clinical cues. These were incorporated into 54 hypothetical patient case scenarios. Phase II: Therapists with ≥2 years post-registration experience and current or recent experience in treating patients with RA were asked to assess 69 case scenarios in total (54 + 15 repeats) and judge what intensity of hand strengthening exercise they would prescribe using the OMNI-Resistance Exercise Scale of perceived exertion. Using responses to the repeated cases, the Cochran-Weiss-Shanteau index of expertise was used to identify therapists who prescribed more consistently. Multiple regression was used to determine which clinical cues were most strongly associated with the intensity of exercise prescribed. A sub-group analysis explored differences between consistent and inconsistent prescribers. Results Fifty-three therapists took part. Thirty completed all 69 case scenarios. Across all therapists, the three most important clinical cues associated with lower intensity of exercise prescribed were (1) Patient's reported pain intensity whilst practising the exercise (β = −1.150, p < 0.001), (2) Disease activity (β = −0.425, p < 0.001) and (3) average hand pain over the last week (β = −0.353 p < 0.001). Twelve therapists were categorised as consistent prescribers. This group relied on fewer clinical cues (three vs. seven) when judging what intensity of exercise to prescribe. Conclusion This study provides insights into how therapists prescribe hand exercises. Intensity of hand strengthening exercise was influenced by three key clinical cues, including pain intensity and disease activity

Realizing a Deterministic Source of Multipartite-Entangled Photonic Qubits

Sources of entangled electromagnetic radiation are a cornerstone in quantum information processing and offer unique opportunities for the study of quantum many-body physics in a controlled experimental setting. While multi-mode entangled states of radiation have been generated in various platforms, all previous experiments are either probabilistic or restricted to generate specific types of states with a moderate entanglement length. Here, we demonstrate the fully deterministic generation of purely photonic entangled states such as the cluster, GHZ, and W state by sequentially emitting microwave photons from a controlled auxiliary system into a waveguide. We tomographically reconstruct the entire quantum many-body state for up to $N=4$ photonic modes and infer the quantum state for even larger $N$ from process tomography. We estimate that localizable entanglement persists over a distance of approximately ten photonic qubits, outperforming any previous deterministic scheme

Intermodulation Distortion in a Josephson Traveling Wave Parametric Amplifier

Josephson traveling wave parametric amplifiers enable the amplification of weak microwave signals close to the quantum limit with large bandwidth, which has a broad range of applications in superconducting quantum computing and in the operation of single-photon detectors. While the large bandwidth allows for their use in frequency-multiplexed detection architectures, an increased number of readout tones per amplifier puts more stringent requirements on the dynamic range to avoid saturation. Here, we characterize the undesired mixing processes between the different frequency-multiplexed tones applied to a Josephson traveling wave parametric amplifier, a phenomenon also known as intermodulation distortion. The effect becomes particularly significant when the amplifier is operated close to its saturation power. Furthermore, we demonstrate that intermodulation distortion can lead to significant crosstalk and reduction of fidelity for multiplexed readout of superconducting qubits. We suggest using large detunings between the pump and signal frequencies to mitigate crosstalk. Our work provides insights into the limitations of current Josephson traveling wave parametric amplifiers and highlights the importance of performing further research on these devices.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figure