Managing in conflict: How actors distribute conflict in an industrial network

IMP researchers have examined conflict as a threat to established business relationships and commercial exchanges, drawing on theories and concepts developed in organization studies. We examine cases of conflict in relationships from the oil and gas industry's service sector, focusing on conflicts of interest and resources, and conflict as experienced by actors. Through a comparative case study design, we propose an explanation of how actors manage conflict and manage in conflict given that they tend to value and maintain relationships beyond episodes of exchange. We consider conflicts in relationships from a network perspective, showing that actors experienced these while adapting to changes in their business setting, modifying their roles in that network. By identifying conflict with the organizing forms of relationship and network, we show how actors formulate conflict through pursuing and combining a number of strategies, distributing the conflict across an enlarged network

Metrology in medicine: from measurements to decision, with specific reference to anesthesia and intensive care.

Metrology is the science of measurements. Although of critical importance in medicine and especially in critical care, frequent confusion in terms and definitions impact either interphysician communications or understanding of manufacturers' and engineers' instructions and limitations when using devices. In this review, we first list the terms defined by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures regarding quantities and units, measurements, devices for measurement, properties of measuring devices, and measurement standards. The traditional tools for assessing the most important measurement quality criteria are also reviewed with clinical examples for diagnosis, alarm, and titration purposes, as well as for assessing the uncertainty of reference methods

Spatial structure arising from neighbour-dependent bias in collective cell movement

Mathematical models of collective cell movement often neglect the effects of spatial structure, such as clustering, on the population dynamics. Typically, they assume that individuals interact with one another in proportion to their average density (the mean-field assumption) which means that cell-cell interactions occurring over short spatial ranges are not accounted for. However, in vitro cell culture studies have shown that spatial correlations can play an important role in determining collective behaviour. Here, we take a combined experimental and modelling approach to explore how individual-level interactions give rise to spatial structure in a moving cell population. Using imaging data from in vitro experiments, we quantify the extent of spatial structure in a population of 3T3 fibroblast cells. To understand how this spatial structure arises, we develop a lattice-free individual-based model (IBM) and simulate cell movement in two spatial dimensions. Our model allows an individual's direction of movement to be affected by interactions with other cells in its neighbourhood, providing insights into how directional bias generates spatial structure. We consider how this behaviour scales up to the population level by using the IBM to derive a continuum description in terms of the dynamics of spatial moments. In particular, we account for spatial correlations between cells by considering dynamics of the second spatial moment (the average density of pairs of cells). Our numerical results suggest that the moment dynamics description can provide a good approximation to averaged simulation results from the underlying IBM. Using our in vitro data, we estimate parameters for the model and show that it can generate similar spatial structure to that observed in a 3T3 fibroblast cell population

First pilot trial of the STAR-Liege protocol for tight glycemic control in critically ill patients

peer reviewe

Using Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) to study dynamics of the Structural Maintenance of Chromosome (SMC) complex in vivo

The SMC complex, MukBEF, is important for chromosome organization and segregation in Escherichia coli. Fluorescently tagged MukBEF forms distinct spots (or 'foci') in the cell, where it is thought to carry out most of its chromosome associated activities. This chapter outlines the technique of Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) as a method to study the properties of YFP-tagged MukB in fluorescent foci. This method can provide important insight into the dynamics of MukB on DNA and be used to study its biochemical properties in vivo

Seismic Reflection Study of Upheaval Dome, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

The origin of Upheaval Dome, in Canyonlands National Park of southeastern Utah, has been a topic of controversy among geologists and planetary scientists. The structure has long been thought to have been created by salt diapirism from the underlying Paradox Formation. Recent studies have suggested that impact could have formed the dome. To test the various hypotheses, we acquired, processed, and interpreted seismic reflection data within and adjacent to the structure. Both conventionally stacked and prestack-migrated images show \u3c100 m relief in the Paradox Formation, contrary to salt diapirism hypotheses. Further, we have identified features within the images typical of impact structures, such as listric normal faults having displacements toward the center of the dome. Deformation occurs in two depth ranges, with the faulting that created the central uplift appearing only above the Hermosa Formation, in the upper 800 m of the structure. The images also suggest limited fracturing of the Hermosa and salt flow in the Paradox Formation, perhaps due to gravitational relaxation of the crater form. Our image of a nearly flat top of the Paradox salt strongly favors an impact origin for Upheaval Dome

Across-arc geochemical variations in the Southern Volcanic Zone, Chile (34.5- 38.0°S): Constraints on Mantle Wedge and Input Compositions

Crustal assimilation (e.g. Hildreth and Moorbath, 1988) and/or subduction erosion (e.g. Stern, 1991; Kay et al., 2005) are believed to control the geochemical variations along the northern portion of the Chilean Southern Volcanic Zone. In order to evaluate these hypotheses, we present a comprehensive geochemical data set (major and trace elements and O-Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb isotopes) from Holocene primarily olivine-bearing volcanic rocks across the arc between 34.5-38.0°S, including volcanic front centers from Tinguiririca to Callaqui, the rear arc centers of Infernillo Volcanic Field, Laguna del Maule and Copahue, and extending 300 km into the backarc. We also present an equivalent data set for Chile Trench sediments outboard of this profile. The volcanic arc (including volcanic front and rear arc) samples primarily range from basalt to andesite/trachyandesite, whereas the backarc rocks are low-silica alkali basalts and trachybasalts. All samples show some characteristic subduction zone trace element enrichments and depletions, but the backarc samples show the least. Backarc basalts have higher Ce/Pb, Nb/U, Nb/Zr, and Ta/Hf, and lower Ba/Nb and Ba/La, consistent with less of a slab-derived component in the backarc and, consequently, lower degrees of mantle melting. The mantle-like δ18O in olivine and plagioclase phenocrysts (volcanic arc = 4.9-5.6 and backarc = 5.0-5.4 per mil) and lack of correlation between δ18O and indices of differentiation and other isotope ratios, argue against significant crustal assimilation. Volcanic arc and backarc samples almost completely overlap in Sr and Nd isotopic composition. High precision (double-spike) Pb isotope ratios are tightly correlated, precluding significant assimilation of older sialic crust but indicating mixing between a South Atlantic Mid Ocean-Ridge Basalt (MORB) source and a slab component derived from subducted sediments and altered oceanic crust. Hf-Nd isotope ratios define separate linear arrays for the volcanic arc and backarc, neither of which trend toward subducting sediment, possibly reflecting a primarily asthenospheric mantle array for the volcanic arc and involvement of enriched Proterozoic lithospheric mantle in the backarc. We propose a quantitative mixing model between a mixed-source, slab-derived melt and a heterogeneous mantle beneath the volcanic arc. The model is consistent with local geodynamic parameters, assuming water-saturated conditions within the slab

MORB generation beneath the ultraslow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (9–25°E) : major element chemistry and the importance of process versus source

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (2008): Q05004, doi:10.1029/2008GC001959.We report highly variable mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) major element and water concentrations from a single 1050-km first-order spreading segment on the ultraslow spreading Southwest Indian Ridge, consisting of two supersegments with strikingly different spreading geometry and ridge morphology. To the east, the 630 km long orthogonal supersegment (<10° obliquity) dominantly erupts normal MORB with progressive K/Ti enrichment from east to west. To the west is the 400 km long oblique supersegment (up to 56° obliquity) with two robust volcanic centers erupting enriched MORB and three intervening amagmatic accretionary segments erupting both N-MORB and E-MORB. The systematic nature of the orthogonal supersegments' ridge morphology and MORB composition ends at 16°E, where ridge physiography, lithologic abundance, crustal structure, and basalt chemistry all change dramatically. We attribute this discontinuity and the contrasting characteristics of the supersegments to localized differences in the upper mantle thermal structure brought on by variable spreading geometry. The influence of these differences on the erupted composition of MORB appears to be more significant at ultraslow spreading rates where the overall degree of melting is lower. In contrast to the moderate and rather constant degrees of partial melting along the orthogonal supersegment, suppression of mantle melting on the oblique supersegment due to thickened lithosphere means that the bulk source is not uniformly sampled, as is the former. On the oblique supersegment, more abundant mafic lithologies melt deeper thereby dominating the more enriched aggregate melt composition. While much of the local major element heterogeneity can be explained by polybaric fractional crystallization with variable H2O contents, elevated K2O and K/Ti cannot. On the basis of the chemical and tectonic relationship of these enriched and depleted basalts, their occurrence requires a multilithology mantle source. The diversity and distribution of MORB compositions, especially here at ultraslow spreading rates, is controlled not only by the heterogeneity of the underlying mantle, but also more directly by the local thermal structure of the lithosphere (i.e., spreading geometry) and its influence on melting processes. Thus at ultraslow spreading rates, process rather than source may be the principle determiner of MORB composition.This work was originally funded in large part by NSF grants OCE-9907630 and OCE-0526905 and more recently by OPP-0425785

A Regularized Discrete Laminate Parametrization Technique with Applications to Wing-Box Design Optimization

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97055/1/AIAA2012-1519.pd

An influenza virus-inspired polymer system for the timed release of siRNA

Small interfering RNA silences specific genes by interfering with mRNA translation, and acts to modulate or inhibit specific biological pathways; a therapy that holds great promise in the cure of many diseases. However, the naked small interfering RNA is susceptible to degradation by plasma and tissue nucleases and due to its negative charge unable to cross the cell membrane. Here we report a new polymer carrier designed to mimic the influenza virus escape mechanism from the endosome, followed by a timed release of the small interfering RNA in the cytosol through a self-catalyzed polymer degradation process. Our polymer changes to a negatively charged and non-toxic polymer after the release of small interfering RNA, presenting potential for multiple repeat doses and long-term treatment of diseases