The Language of Bias: A Linguistic Approach to Understanding Intergroup Relations

[Excerpt] This chapter explores the role of language in the relationship between diversity and team performance. Specifically, we consider how a linguistic approach to social categorization may be used to study the social psychological mechanisms that underlie diversity effects. Using the results of a study examining the effects of gender, ethnicity and tenure on language abstraction, we consider the potential implications for team processes and effectiveness. In addition, we propose a revised team input-process-output model that highlights the potential effects of language on team processes. We conclude by suggesting directions for future research linking diversity, linguistic categorization and team effectiveness

Lighting as a Circadian Rhythm-Entraining and Alertness-Enhancing Stimulus in the Submarine Environment

The human brain can only accommodate a circadian rhythm that closely follows 24 hours. Thus, for a work schedule to meet the brain’s hard-wired requirement, it must employ a 24 hour-based program. However, the 6 hours on, 12 hours off (6/12) submarine watchstanding schedule creates an 18-hour “day” that Submariners must follow. Clearly, the 6/12 schedule categorically fails to meet the brain’s operational design, and no schedule other than one tuned to the brain’s 24 hour rhythm can optimize performance. Providing Submariners with a 24 hour-based watchstanding schedule—combined with effective circadian entrainment techniques using carefully-timed exposure to light—would allow crewmembers to work at the peak of their daily performance cycle and acquire more restorative sleep. In the submarine environment, where access to natural light is absent, electric lighting can play an important role in actively entraining—and closely maintaining—circadian regulation. Another area that is likely to have particular importance in the submarine environment is the potential effect of light to help restore or maintain alertness

Modeling the lowest-cost splitting of a herd of cows by optimizing a cost function

Animals live in groups to defend against predation and to obtain food. However, for some animals --- especially ones that spend long periods of time feeding --- there are costs if a group chooses to move on before their nutritional needs are satisfied. If the conflict between feeding and keeping up with a group becomes too large, it may be advantageous to some animals to split into subgroups of animals with similar nutritional needs. We model the costs and benefits of splitting by a herd of cows using a cost function (CF) that quantifies individual variation in hunger, desire to lie down, and predation risk. We model the costs associated with hunger and lying desire as the standard deviations of individuals within a group, and we model predation risk as an inverse exponential function of group size. We minimize the cost function over all plausible groups that can arise from a given herd and study the dynamics of group splitting. We explore our model using two examples: (1) we consider group switching and group fission in a herd of relatively homogeneous cows; and (2) we examine a herd with an equal number of adult males (larger animals) and adult females (smaller animals).Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Broken symmetries and pattern formation in two-frequency forced Faraday waves

We exploit the presence of approximate (broken) symmetries to obtain general scaling laws governing the process of pattern formation in weakly damped Faraday waves. Specifically, we consider a two-frequency forcing function and trace the effects of time translation, time reversal and Hamiltonian structure for three illustrative examples: hexagons, two-mode superlattices, and two-mode rhomboids. By means of explicit parameter symmetries, we show how the size of various three-wave resonant interactions depends on the frequency ratio m:n and on the relative temporal phase of the two driving terms. These symmetry-based predictions are verified for numerically calculated coefficients, and help explain the results of recent experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Platelet-derived transforming growth factor-β1 promotes keratinocyte proliferation in cutaneous wound healing.

Platelets are a recognised potent source of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1), a cytokine known to promote wound healing and regeneration by stimulating dermal fibroblast proliferation and extracellular matrix deposition. Platelet lysate has been advocated as a novel personalised therapeutic to treat persistent wounds, although the precise platelet-derived growth factors responsible for these beneficial effects have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the specific role of platelet-derived TGFβ1 in cutaneous wound healing. Using a transgenic mouse with a targeted deletion of TGFβ1 in megakaryocytes and platelets (TGFβ1fl/fl .PF4-Cre), we show for the first time that platelet-derived TGFβ1 contributes to epidermal and dermal thickening and cellular turnover after excisional skin wounding. In vitro studies demonstrate that human dermal fibroblasts stimulated with platelet lysate containing high levels of platelet-derived TGFβ1 did not exhibit enhanced collagen deposition or proliferation, suggesting that platelet-derived TGFβ1 is not a key promoter of these wound healing processes. Interestingly, human keratinocytes displayed enhanced TGFβ1-driven proliferation in response to platelet lysate, reminiscent of our in vivo findings. In summary, our novel findings define and emphasise an important role of platelet-derived TGFβ1 in epidermal remodelling and regeneration processes during cutaneous wound healing