F. E. Plowman

Business card for an instructor named F. E. Plowman

Experiencing Rare and Unusual Events Richly: The Role of Middle Managers in Animating and Guiding Organizational Interpretation

Organizations have difficulty learning from rare and unusual events because of their inability to interpret these events. Because organizations develop habitual ways of interpreting events—often top down—they can easily miss the novelty of rare and unusual events, which prevents them from experiencing events “richly.” We propose a multilevel, multistaged model of organizational interpretation that highlights the important, but generally unacknowledged, role middle managers can play in helping organizations experience rare and unusual events richly. Our model accounts for the effect of cognitive biases and hierarchical context on organizational interpretation. Because of their proximity to the interpretations of both strategic and front-line managers, middle managers can encourage divergence in interpretations of managers across hierarchical levels during early stages of the interpretation process and can blend and synthesize the divergent interpretations of managers during later stages. In this way middle managers contribute to a dynamic process of organizational interpretation in which multiple filters from throughout the organization help frame and enrich interpretations of rare and unusual events, which enables organizational learning

Coronal Loop Expansion Properties Explained Using Separators

One puzzling observed property of coronal loops is that they are of roughly constant thickness along their length. Various studies have found no consistent pattern of width variation along the length of loops observed by TRACE and SOHO. This is at odds with expectations of magnetic flux tube expansion properties, which suggests that loops are widest at their tops, and significantly narrower at their footpoints. Coronal loops correspond to areas of the solar corona which have been preferentially heated by some process, so this observed property might be connected to the mechanisms that heat the corona. One means of energy deposition is magnetic reconnection, which occurs along field lines called separators. These field lines begin and end on magnetic null points, and loops forming near them can therefore be relatively wide at their bases. Thus, coronal energization by magnetic reconnection may replicate the puzzling expansion properties observed in coronal loops. We present results of a Monte Carlo survey of separator field line expansion properties, comparing them to the observed properties of coronal loops.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, to be submitted to Ap

Do People Really Think They Are Alone In A Crowd Of Sheep?: Replication And Extension Of Pronin Et Al. (2007)

People often think they are less biased, more rational, and less likely to conform than their peers. For example, research by Pronin, Berger, and Molouki (2007) found that Princeton students evaluated themselves as much less likely to conform compared to the average Princeton student. Although the results were convincing, this study was conducted using only 40 participants from a prestigious university, which raises potential concerns about the replicability and generalizability of their findings. We replicated this study in order to generalize the findings to a broader range of participants and use a larger sample size. We also extended the previous research to assess if participants would evaluate a close friend the same as the self in regard to perceptions of conformity. Consistent with the original study, we found that ASU students thought they conformed less than their peers. However, they reported that their close friend conformed as much as their peers. The results of our replication generalize the original findings to a new sample of participants and also show that this effect is specific to perceptions of the self vs. others and not when comparing a close friend to others

LATOR Covariance Analysis

We present results from a covariance study for the proposed Laser Astrometric Test of Relativity (LATOR) mission. This mission would send two laser-transmitter spacecraft behind the Sun and measure the relative gravitational light bending of their signals using a hundred-meter-baseline optical interferometer to be constructed on the International Space Station. We assume that each spacecraft is equipped with a $< 1.9 \times 10^{-13} \mathrm{m} \mathrm{s}^2 \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}$ drag-free system and assume approximately one year of data. We conclude that the observations allow a simultaneous determination of the orbit parameters of the spacecraft and of the Parametrized Post-Newtonian (PPN) parameter $\gamma$ with an uncertainty of $2.4 \times 10^{-9}$. We also find a $6 \times 10^{-9}$ determination of the solar quadrupole moment, $J_2$, as well as the first measurement of the second-order post-PPN parameter $\delta$ to an accuracy of about $10^{-3}$.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. first revision: minor changes to results. Second revision: additional discussion of orbit modelling and LATOR drag-free system requirement feasibility. Added references to tables I and V (which list PPN parameter uncertainties), removed word from sentence in Section III. 3rd revision: removed 2 incorrect text fragments (referring to impact parameter as distance of closest approach) and reference to upcoming publication of ref. 2, removed spurious gamma from eq. 1 - Last error is still in cqg published versio

Constraining the Black Hole Mass Spectrum with LISA Observations II: Direct comparison of detailed models

A number of scenarios have been proposed for the origin of the supermassive black holes (SMBHs) that are found in the centres of most galaxies. Many such scenarios predict a high-redshift population of massive black holes (MBHs), with masses in the range 100 to 100000 times that of the Sun. When the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is finally operational, it is likely that it will detect on the order of 100 of these MBH binaries as they merge. The differences between proposed population models produce appreciable effects in the portion of the population which is detectable by LISA, so it is likely that the LISA observations will allow us to place constraints on them. However, gravitational wave detectors such as LISA will not be able to detect all such mergers nor assign precise black hole parameters to the merger, due to weak gravitational wave signal strengths. This paper explores LISA's ability to distinguish between several MBH population models. In this way, we go beyond predicting a LISA observed population and consider the extent to which LISA observations could inform astrophysical modellers. The errors in LISA parameter estimation are applied with a direct method which generates random sample parameters for each source in a population realisation. We consider how the distinguishability varies depending on the choice of source parameters (1 or 2 parameters chosen from masses, redshift or spins) used to characterise the model distributions, with confidence levels determined by 1 and 2-dimensional tests based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.Comment: 32 pages, 21 Figures, 6 Tables; Submitted to MNRA

The cleaning of burned and contaminated archaeological maize prior to 87Sr/86Sr analysis

Accurate trace-metal and strontium-isotope analyses of archaeological corn cobs require that metal contaminants be removed prior to chemical analysis. Archaeological cobs are often coated with construction debris, dust, or soilwhich contains mineral particles. In addition, most archaeological cobs are partially or completely burned and the burned parts incorporate mineral debris in their hardened residual structures. Unburned cobs are weak ion exchangers and most metals within a cob are not firmly bound to cob organic matter; therefore, immersing cobs in acids and rinsing them in deionized water to remove mineral contaminants may result in the undesirable loss of metals, including strontium, from the cob. In this paper we show that some cob metal-pair ratios are not substantially changed when the cob is ‘‘cleaned’’ with deionized water, if the water-cob contact time does not exceed five minutes. Additionally, we introduce a method for eliminating mineral contaminants in both burned and unburned cobs, thus rendering them acceptable for strontium-isotope analysis. However, the decontamination procedure results in the rapid non-stoichiometric leaching of trace metals from the unburned cobs and it is possible that most metals will be extracted from the cobs during the lengthy decontamination process. Trace metals, in particular Al and Ca, should be analyzed in order to determine the presence and level of mineral contamination after cleaning