From planning to performance: the adaptation process as a determinant of outcomes

Currently, teams require adaptation to deal with work demands successfully. However, research concerning team adaptation should necessarily involve a greater empirical effort in defining under which conditions teams prove more adaptable. This article seeks to contribute to the literature by linking plan formulation, plan execution, and team learning behaviors with team outcomes (i.e., team-adaptation perception and objective performance). Participants formed 142 teams, which were involved in structured-problem solving task (i.e. a simulated management competition). Conditional process analysis was used to test a double-mediated relationship. Results show that, although not all parts of the model are directly associated, there is an indirect link from plan formulation to team outcomes through plan execution and team learning behaviors. Our results support the idea of adaptation as a process, providing four ways in which organizations can elicit changes in teams: increasing plan execution, promoting team learning, improving team adaptive behaviors themselves, and building teams composed of members who demonstrate individual adaptability

Developing biodata for public manager selection purposes: A comparison between fuzzy logic and traditional methods

Biodata have been widely used in personnel selection for a long time, mainly due to their predictive validity in different contexts, low faking, and positive applicant reactions. At the same time, some disadvantages need to be highlighted, with discriminatory content representing a major concern. In order to shed light on these issues, the objectives of the present research are twofold: firstly, we aim to develop biodata items for personnel selection for the provision of managerial positions in Public Administration and, secondly, we aim to test the fuzzy logic method as a valid approach for the development of biodata scales, with a view to choosing the best biodata items in terms of job performance, fairness, and privacy, according with manager and applicant perspectives. Participants assessed 26 items according to traditional and fuzzy rules, resulting in 8 highly effective items. Then, both approaches were compared: fuzzy logic turned out to have similar results as the traditional approach. Finnally, future developments in research an practical implications in the field are suggested. Los datos biográficos (biodata) se han utilizado en la selección de personal durante mucho tiempo debido, principalmente, a su buena validez predictiva en diferentes contextos, a su bajo falseamiento y a las reacciones positivas de los solicitantes de empleo. No obstante, podemos destacar el posible contenido discriminatorio como su principal desventaja. Por tanto, los objetivos de la presente investigación son, en primer lugar, desarrollar empíricamente ítems válidos y justos para la selección de puestos directivos en la Administración Pública y, en segundo lugar, comprobar la utilidad de la lógica difusa en el desarrollo de escalas con biodata para elegir los mejores ítems en términos de desempeño laboral, equidad y privacidad, de acuerdo con las perspectivas de directivos y de solicitantes de empleo. Los participantes en el estudio evaluaron 26 ítems según reglas tradicionales y difusas, y se obtuvieron 8 ítems altamente efectivos. Posteriormente se compararon ambos enfoques: aunque la lógica difusa demostró cierta eficacia, logró resultados similares a los del enfoque tradicional. Finalmente, se proponen futuros desarrollos de investigación e implicaciones prácticas en esta materia

Diminished Virulence Of A Sar-lagr- Mutant Of Staphylococcus Aureus In The Rabbit Model Of Endocarditis

Microbial pathogenicity in Staphylococcus aureus is a complex process involving a number of virulence genes that are regulated by global regulatory systems including sar and agr. To evaluate the roles of these two loci in virulence, we constructed sar-lagr- mutants of strains RN6390 and RN450 and compared their phenotypic profiles to the corresponding single sar- and agr- mutants and parents. The secretion of all hemolysins was absent in the sar-lagr- mutants while residual β-hemolysin activity remained in single agr- mutants. The fibronectin binding capacity was significantly diminished in both single sar- mutants and double mutants when compared with parents while the reduction in fibrinogen binding capacity in the double mutants was modest. In the rabbit endocarditis model, there was a significant decrease in both infectivity rates and intravegetation bacterial densities with the double mutant as compared to the parent (RN6390) at 103-106 CFU inocula despite comparable levels of early bacteremia among various challenge groups. Notably, fewer bacteria in the double mutant group adhered to valvular vegetations at 30 min after challenge (106 CFU) than the parent group. These studies suggest that both the sar and agr loci are involved in initial valvular adherence, intravegetation persistence and multiplication of S. aureus in endocarditis.94518151822Waldvogel, F.A., Staphylococcus aureus (1985) Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, pp. 1097-1116. , G. L. Mandell, R. G. Douglas, Jr., and J. E. Bennett, editors. John Wiley & Sons, New YorkNeu, H.C., The crisis in antibiotic resistance (1992) Science (Wash. DC), 257, pp. 1064-1072Cohen, M.L., Epidemiology of drug resistance: Implications for a post-antibiotic era (1992) Science (Wash. DC), 257, pp. 1050-1055Easmon, C.S.F., Adlam, C., (1983) Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections, pp. 705-740. , Academic Press, New YorkCheung, A.L., Krishnan, M., Jaffe, E.A., Fischetti, V.A., Fibrinogen acts as a bridging molecule in the adherence of Staphylococcus aureus to cultured human endothelial cells (1991) J. Clin. Invest., 87, pp. 2236-2245Herrmann, M., Vaudaux, P.E., Pittet, D., Auckenthaler, R., Lew, P.D., Schumacher Perdreau, F., Peters, G., Waldvogel, F.A., Fibronectin, fibrinogen, and laminin act as mediators of adherence of clinical staphylococcal isolates to foreign material (1988) J. Infect. Dis., 158, pp. 693-701Kuypers, J.M., Proctor, R.A., Reduced adherence to traumatized rat heart valves by a low-fibronectin-binding mutant of Staphylococcus aureus (1989) Infect. Immun., 57, pp. 2306-2312DeRita, V.J., Mekalanos, J.J., Genetic regulation of bacterial virulence (1989) Annu. Rev. Genet., 23, pp. 455-482Kornblum, J., Kreiswirth, B., Projan, S.J., Ross, H., Novick, R.P., Agr: A polycistronic locus regulating exoprotein synthesis in Staphylococcus aureus (1990) Molecular Biology of the Staphylococci, pp. 373-402. , R. P. Novick, editor. VCH Publishers, New YorkNixon, B.T., Ronson, C.W., Ausubel, R.M., Two component regulatory systems responsive to environmental stimuli share strongly conserved domains with the nitrogen assimilation regulatory genes ntrB and btrC (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, pp. 7850-7854Smeltzer, M.S., Hart, M.E., Iandolo, J.J., Phenotypic characterization of xpr, a global regulator of extracellular virulence factors in Staphylococcus aureus (1993) Infect. Immun., 61, pp. 919-925Cheung, A.L., Koomey, J.M., Butler, C.A., Projan, S.J., Fischetti, V.A., Regulation of exoprotein expression in Staphylococcus aureus by a locus (sar) distinct from agr (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 89, pp. 6462-6466Cheung, A.L., Yeaman, M., Bayer, A.S., The role of the sar locus of Staphylococcus aureus in the induction of endocarditis in rabbits (1994) Infect. Immun., 62, pp. 1719-1725Vandenesch, F., Kornblum, J., Novick, R.P., A temporal signal, independent of agr, is required for hla but not spa transcription in Staphylococcus aureus (1991) J. Bacteriol., 173, pp. 6313-6320Cheung, A.L., Ying, P., Regulation of α and β hemolysins by the sar locus of Staphylococcus aureus (1994) J. Bacteriol., 176, pp. 580-585Rescei, P., Kreiswirth, B., O'Reilly, M., Schlievert, P., Gruss, A., Novick, R.P., Regulation of exoprotein gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus by agr (1986) Mol. & Gen. Genet., 202, pp. 58-61Fröman, G., Switalski, L., Speziale, P., Höök, M., Isolation and characterization of a fibronectin receptor from Staphylococcus aureus (1987) J. Biol. Chem., 262, pp. 6564-6571Lantz, M., Allen, R.D., Bounelis, P., Switalski, L.M., Höök, M., Bacteroides gingivalis and Bacteroides intermedius recognize different sites on human fibrinogen (1990) J. Bacteriol., 172, pp. 716-726Yeaman, M.R., Sullam, P.M., Dazin, P.F., Norman, D.C., Bayer, A.S., Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus-platelet binding by quantitative flow cytometric analysis (1992) J. Infect. Dis., 166, pp. 65-73Clawson, C.C., White, J.G., Herzberg, M.C., Platelet interaction with bacteria. VI. Contrasting the role of fibrinogen and fibronectin (1980) Am. J. Hematol., 9, pp. 43-53Yeaman, M.R., Norman, D.C., Bayer, A.S., Staphylococcus aureus susceptibility to thrombin-induced platelet microbicidal protein is independent of platelet adherence and aggregation in vitro (1992) Infect. Immun., 60, pp. 2368-2374Sullam, P.M., Payan, D.G., Dazin, P.F., Valone, F.H., Binding of viridans group streptococci to human platelets: A quantitative analysis (1990) Infect. Immun., 58, pp. 3802-3806Yeaman, M.R., Puentes, S.M., Norman, D.C., Bayer, A.S., Partial characterization and staphylocidal activity of thrombin-induced platelet microbicidal protein (1992) Infect. Immun., 60, pp. 1202-1209Kornblum, J., Projan, S.J., Moghazeh, S.L., Novick, R., A rapid method to quantitate non-labeled RNA species in bacterial cells (1988) Gene, 63, pp. 75-85Maniatis, T., Fritsch, E.F., Sambrook, J., (1989) Molecular Cloning, a Laboratory Manual, , Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NYDurack, D.T., Beeson, P.B., Experimental bacterial endocarditis. I. Colonization of a sterile vegetation (1972) Br. J. Exp. Pathol., 53, pp. 44-49Scheld, W.M., Valone, J.A., Sande, M.A., Bacterial adherence in the pathogenesis of endocarditis. 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Predictive value of PSA velocity over early clinical and pathological parameters in patients with localized prostate cancer who undergo radical retropubic prostatectomy

OBJECTIVES: To analyze the behavior of the prostate specific antigen velocity (PSAV) in localized prostate adenocarcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study of 500 men who had localized prostate adenocarcinoma, who underwent radical retropubic prostatectomy between January 1986 and December 1999. The PSAV was calculated for each patient and subsequently, the values were correlated with 5 groups: age, initial PSA value, clinical stage, tumor volume and Gleason score. RESULTS: The behavior of PSAV presented statistic significance with an increment between 1.3 ng/mL and 9.6 ng/mL, ranging from 38.6% and 59.8% when compared with the initial PSA value (p < 0.0001), clinical stage (p = 0.0002), tumor volume (p < 0.0001) and Gleason score (p = 0.0009). CONCLUSION: PSAV up to 2.5 ng/mL/year is associated with factors of good prognosis, such as initial PSA below 10 mg/mL, clinical stage T1, tumor volume below 20% and Gleason score lower than 7.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM) Division of UrologyUNIFESP, EPM, Division of UrologySciEL

Electropolymerization and Morphologic Characterization of α-Tetrathiophene

In this research, poly(α-tetrathiophene), poly(α-TTP), was potentiostatic and potentiodynamically electrosynthesized on Pt and F-doped SnO2 electrodes. The solvent effect (CH2Cl2 and CH3CN) on the nucleation and growth mechanism, NGM, and morphology of the respective deposit was established by potentiostatic method and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Potentiodynamic electropolymerization at low sweep rates proved to favor the obtention of a polymer with a more uniform morphology and, in addition, its capacitance as capacitor increased and the p-doping/undoping relationship is close to one (reversible doping). On the other hand, when potentiostatic electropolymerization was realized, deconvolution of the obtained j/t transients revealed that under all conditions, the main contribution to electrolysis at high times (greater than 20 s) was instantaneous nucleation with 3D growth. Nevertheless, the contribution of instantaneous nucleation with 2D growth is always more important in the early stages of the process. However, regardless of the conditions employed in the electropolymerization, the use of an oligomer as starting unit, such as α-TTF, affords deposits with more homogeneous morphology than when the respective monomer is used. Therefore, the information gathered in the current work constitutes a significant contribution that validates the proposed model for the electropolymerization mechanism

Application of Model-driven engineering to multi-agent systems: a language to model behaviors of reactive agents

Many users of multi-agent systems (MAS) are very commonly disinclined to model and simulate using current MAS platforms. More specifically, modeling the dynamics of a system (in particular the agents' behaviors) is very often a challenge to MAS users. This issue is more often observed in the domain of socio-ecological systems (SES), because SES domain experts are rarely programmers. Indeed, the majority of MAS platforms were not conceived taking into consideration domain-experts who are non-programmers. Most current MAS tools are not dedicated to SES, or nor do they possess an easily understandable formalism to represent the behaviors of agents. Moreover, because it is platform-dependent, a model realized in a given MAS platform cannot be properly used on another platform due to incompatibility between MAS platforms. To overcome these limitations, we propose a domain-specific language (DSL) to describe the behaviors of reactive agents, regardless of the MAS platform used for simulation. To achieve this result, we used model-driven engineering (MDE), an approach that provides tools to develop DSLs from a meta-model (abstract syntax), textual editors with syntax highlighting (for the concrete syntax) and code generation capabilities (for source-code generation of a model). As a result, we implemented a language and a textual editor that allow SES domain experts to describe behaviors in three different ways that are close to their natural expression: as equations when they are familiar with these, as a sequence of activities close to natural language or as an activity diagram to represent decisions and a sequence of behaviors using a graphic formalism. To demonstrate interoperability, we also developed code generators targeting two different MAS platforms (Cormas and Netlogo). We tested the code generators by implementing two SES models with the developed DSL. The generated code was targeted to both MAS platforms (Cormas and Netlogo), and successfully simulated in one of them. We conclude that the MDE approach provides adequate tools to develop DSL and code generators to facilitate MAS modeling and simulation by non-programmers. Concerning the DSL developed, although the behavioral aspect of MAS simulation is part of the complexity of modeling in MAS, there are still other essential aspects of model and simulation of MAS that are yet to be explored, such as model initialization and points of view on the model simulated worl

Correlative 3D cryo X-ray imaging reveals intracellular location and effect of designed antifibrotic protein-nanomaterial hybrids

Revealing the intracellular location of novel therapeutic agents is paramount for the understanding of their effect at the cell ultrastructure level. Here, we apply a novel correlative cryo 3D imaging approach to determine the intracellular fate of a designed protein-nanomaterial hybrid with antifibrotic properties that shows great promise in mitigating myocardial fibrosis. Cryo 3D structured illumination microscopy (cryo-3D-SIM) pinpoints the location and cryo soft X-ray tomography (cryo-SXT) reveals the ultrastructural environment and subcellular localization of this nanomaterial with spatial correlation accuracy down to 70 nm in whole cells. This novel high resolution 3D cryo correlative approach unambiguously locates the nanomaterial after overnight treatment within multivesicular bodies which have been associated with endosomal trafficking events by confocal microscopy. Moreover, this approach allows assessing the cellular response towards the treatment by evaluating the morphological changes induced. This is especially relevant for the future usage of nanoformulations in clinical practices. This correlative super-resolution and X-ray imaging strategy joins high specificity, by the use of fluorescence, with high spatial resolution at 30 nm (half pitch) provided by cryo-SXT in whole cells, without the need of staining or fixation, and can be of particular benefit to locate specific molecules in the native cellular environment in bio-nanomedicine

The Nucleon Spectral Function at Finite Temperature and the Onset of Superfluidity in Nuclear Matter

Nucleon selfenergies and spectral functions are calculated at the saturation density of symmetric nuclear matter at finite temperatures. In particular, the behaviour of these quantities at temperatures above and close to the critical temperature for the superfluid phase transition in nuclear matter is discussed. It is shown how the singularity in the thermodynamic T-matrix at the critical temperature for superfluidity (Thouless criterion) reflects in the selfenergy and correspondingly in the spectral function. The real part of the on-shell selfenergy (optical potential) shows an anomalous behaviour for momenta near the Fermi momentum and temperatures close to the critical temperature related to the pairing singularity in the imaginary part. For comparison the selfenergy derived from the K-matrix of Brueckner theory is also calculated. It is found, that there is no pairing singularity in the imaginary part of the selfenergy in this case, which is due to the neglect of hole-hole scattering in the K-matrix. From the selfenergy the spectral function and the occupation numbers for finite temperatures are calculated.Comment: LaTex, 23 pages, 21 PostScript figures included (uuencoded), uses prc.sty, aps.sty, revtex.sty, psfig.sty (last included