Alien Registration- Currie, Richard (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/24370/thumbnail.jp

Group Composition Characteristics as Predictors of Shared Leadership: An Exploration of Competing Models of Shared Leadership Emergence

The study of leadership in organizations has received much research attention over the past several decades. However, most of this research has examined hierarchical structures of leadership wherein one individual leads, or is perceived to lead, several other individuals. With a growing number of organizations structuring employees within teams or work groups, researchers have begun studying the ways in which leadership operates in groups. One alternative to the traditional hierarchical structure is for leadership to be distributed or shared in groups such that multiple group members contribute to the overall leadership function of the group. As a result, researchers have begun examining the construct of shared leadership, which is defined as the extent to which multiple group members share in the leadership function of the group. Because shared leadership is a relatively new concept in the research literature, our knowledge of the antecedents of shared leadership is limited. The primary aim of the present research was to explore group composition as a potential antecedent of shared leadership in teams. Group composition was examined in terms of the agreeableness, extraversion, collectivistic work orientation, and trait competitiveness within the group. Mean, minimum/maximum, and variance models of group composition were employed in the present research. A sample of 385 participants comprised a total of 97 groups of three to six individuals to complete a leaderless group discussion exercise and completed measures of shared leadership after completing the group exercise. Results from a series of hierarchical linear regression analyses found no significant relationships between any of predictors and shared leadership using either a social network analysis or a referent-shift approach. Given the short amount of time group members worked on the group task, a clear implication of these findings is that shared leadership requires adequate time to manifest in groups

Antenna Subtraction for NNLO Calculations at the LHC

In this thesis the task of computing higher order corrections to QCD scattering processes for the LHC is considered, specifically Next-to Leading Order (NLO) and Next-toNext-to Leading Order (NNLO) perturbative QCD corrections. The infrared (IR) divergent behaviour of the cross section is isolated using the antenna subtrac- tion formalism. This method has previously been used at NNLO in the calculation of jet production in the context of e+e− annihilation and for the leading colour contribution to dijet production via pure gluon scattering. The research presented in this thesis extends the formalism to include scattering processes involving quarks with initial-state partons. General formulae, including sub-leading colour contributions, are presented for the isolation and cancellation of IR and singularities when calculating the production of colourless final-states at the LHC at NLO and NNLO accuracy. The leading colour NNLO correction to the sub-process qq ̄ → gg is calculated and numerical results are presented to demonstrate the convergence of the physical cross section and the subtraction terms in the various unresolved limits. The calculations are organised with the aid of convenient quantities, referred to as integrated antenna strings. Using these quantities, the full calculation displays a clear and predictive structure, in particular at the double virtual level where the structures presented are new

A Characterization of Fractionally Well-Covered Graphs

A graph is called well-covered if every maximal independent set has the same size. One generalization of independent sets in graphs is that of a fractional cover -- attach nonnegative weights to the vertices and require that for every vertex the sum of all the weights in its closed neighbourhood be at least 1. In this paper we consider and characterize fractionally well-covered graphs.The work of the second author was supported in part by NSERC Grant A-4820

Post-translational control of luteinizing hormone secretion

The investigations detailed in this thesis were undertaken to determine the mechanisms regulating the post translational control of LH secretion in the ewe. LH is stored within dense core secretory granules in the gonadotrophs of the adenohypophysis. Studies on cellular ultrastructure and gene expression were conducted on pituitary glands obtained from Welsh mountain ewes at points throughout the oestrous cycle.In order to determine if a structural priming response of gonadotrophin granules in preparation for the preovulatory LH surge was present in the sheep, fixed pituitary tissue was examined using immunogold labelling techniques under the electron microscope. In the luteal phase, 20% of gonadotrophs possessed granules located in one aspect of the cytoplasm juxtaposed to the nearest sinusoid, leading to the appearance of a polarised cell. The percentage of polarised cells increased throughout the cycle, reaching a peak of 90% in mid LH surge. Stereological analysis of granule diameter showed that exocytosis occurred in a size dependant manner. Initial secretion occurred from the 150-180nm size class with the larger granules released only during the preovulatory LH surge. LHß mRNA abundance decreased from luteal through follicular phase, reaching its lowest value during the surge. The replenishment of intracellular LH stores occurred initially via the synthesis of the smaller granule size classes, first visible in the cytoplasm 48h after an induced LH surge. As cells refilled, displaying a morphology similar to a typical luteal phase gonadotroph at 96h post surge, the diameter of granules synthesized increased, approaching values observed in the late luteal phase. Throughout the refill phase, LHß mRNA abundance did not change. These data suggest that the preovulatory LH surge, in the ewe, is not related to increased synthesis of LH but a progressive recruitment of gonadotrophs into a releasing state as indicated by the polarisation of secretory granules towards the abutting capillary. Furthermore, the absence of changes in steady state LHß mRNA suggests that post transcriptional mechanisms operate to mediate the refilling of the LH stores.The polarisation of gonadotrophs was prevented by the action of a GnRH antagonist. The actions of GnRH and oestradiol, independently, were able to induce polarisation. However, the direction of the granule translocation was incorrect in some 30% of cases indicating that in vivo the two hormone actions synergise to ensure the correct direction of the granule polarisation

Visualising interoperability : ARH, aggregation, rationalisation and harmonisation

This paper proposes a visualisation of interoperability to assist real-world deployment of metadata. For some time, resource managers in many organisations have been acting on faith, creating 'standards compliant' metadata with the aim of exposing their resources to provide interoperability in discovery activities. In some cases, their faith has led them to miss the very essence of the work they are doing, and they have not got what they worked for. The authors report a case study involving government agencies in Victoria, Australia. A number of departmental agencies have implemented, more or less, the DC-based Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) application profile, at least for their web resources. They have done this with care and precision, with the long-term aim of developing a fully interoperable system. In the case study, typical would-be records for seven government departments were studied and it was shown that the tiniest, and typical, variation in use of the standard can be expected to thwart the aimsof interoperability in significant ways. In the context of the government’s move to seeking interoperable metadata for all resources, including those within document management systems, the authors make visible how a small 'creep' can lead away from interoperability and how it might be contained in the future. They use a 3-step approach of 'aggregation, rationalisation and harmonisation' to expose the problems with 'nearly good enough' interoperability and the benefits of good interoperability, and encourage true harmonisation

None of Your Beeswax: The Role of Perceived Coworker Nosiness and Interpersonal Trust in Predicting Knowledge Provision at Work

As group- and team-based employment structures increase in popularity, it is important to understand the factors that promote or inhibit the transfer of knowledge or information between employees. Given that knowledge transfer processes often occur as a result of requests for knowledge or information from information targets by information seekers, this dissertation focused on a specific form of information-seeking behaviors – coworker nosiness – and the process through which perceptions of coworker nosiness result in knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding behaviors. Perceived coworker nosiness refers to behaviors judged by information targets as high-frequency information-seeking behaviors that are meant to gather information that is overly personal in nature and/or irrelevant to information seekers\u27 abilities to carry out their jobs effectively. Although affective trust was hypothesized to mediate relationships between coworker nosiness and both knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding, results across two studies – one using an experimental methodology and the other using a time-lagged survey design – found that higher levels of cognitive trust felt toward information targets rather than affective trust resulted in more knowledge sharing and less knowledge hiding. Additional analyses were conducted to consider alternative explanations and examine relationships with other relevant constructs. Discussions of the strengths and limitations of both studies as well as the practical implications and future research directions are provided

Bringing Deep Space Missions Within Reach for Small Spacecraft

There is growing interest in using small spacecraft for science and exploration beyond low Earth orbit, but these missions have been constrained to fly as secondary payloads on rideshare missions that launch infrequently and on less-than-ideal trajectories. Regular, dedicated, low-cost science missions to planetary destinations can be enabled by Rocket Lab’s high-ΔV small spacecraft, the high-energy Photon, supporting expanding opportunities for scientists and increasing the rate of science return. High-energy Photon can launch on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle to precisely target escape asymptotes for planetary small spacecraft missions with payload masses up to ~40 kg without the need for a medium or heavy lift launch vehicle. High-energy Photon can also fly as a secondary payload on an EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) Grande port or on other launch vehicles, like Neutron. This paper describes planetary small spacecraft currently in development that leverage Rocket Lab’s deep space capabilities, including missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars. The high-energy Photon will be demonstrated on the NASA Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) mission, launching in 2021. CAPSTONE is expected to be the first spacecraft to operate in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon, with high-energy Photon delivering NASA’s 12U technology demonstration CubeSat on a Ballistic Lunar Transfer using a phasing orbit approach. The CAPSTONE high-energy Photon will launch on Electron. While NASA performs the primary mission, Rocket Lab plans to execute a secondary mission to demonstrate the high-energy Photon deep space operations capabilities with a lunar flyby. Rocket Lab has also made the engineering and financial commitment to fly a private mission to Venus in 2023 to help answer the question, “Are we alone in the universe?” The mission will deploy a small probe into the atmosphere in search of biomarkers. The mission is planned for launch in May 2023 on Electron from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex-1. The mission will follow a hyperbolic trajectory with the high-energy Photon performing as the cruise stage and then as a communications relay after deploying a small probe for the science phase of the mission. In early 2021, Rocket Lab was awarded a contract for the preliminary design of two Photon spacecraft for the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission. ESCAPADE is a twin-spacecraft science mission that will orbit a pair of spacecraft around Mars to understand the structure, composition, variability, and dynamics of Mars\u27 unique hybrid magnetosphere. After launch as secondary payloads on a commercial launch vehicle provided by NASA, the two spacecraft will each execute a series of burns with the Hyper Curie engine to prepare for and execute the Trans-Mars Injection (TMI), perform an 11-month interplanetary cruise with several trajectory correction maneuvers (TCMs), and then perform the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) burns to insert into elliptical orbits around Mars. ESCAPADE is undergoing a NASA preliminary design review and a confirmation review in the summer of 2021 to evaluate whether the mission proceeds to implementation and flight

The capacity of health service commissioners to use evidence: a case study

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) lead a network of organisations that plan and make decisions about what services to provide through the NHS. By examining decision-making about service interventions designed to reduce potentially avoidable elderly care admissions into acute hospitals, our study explores the capacity of CCG-led commissioning networks to make decisions that are based on evidence. Empirically, we study 13 cases of representative (region, size, urban/rural) commissioning networks in England, drawing on interviews with commissioning managers, general practitioners (GPs), patient and public involvement (PPI) representatives and other relevant stakeholders. CCGs can not only draw on evidence about what is most clinically effective or cost-effective, but can also consider patient experience and local knowledge held by doctors. However, the inclusion of GPs and PPI representatives is limited, so the local knowledge of doctors and the patient experience are not considered as fully as they might be in commissioning decisions. CCGs can use government agencies, such as commissioning support units, that provide external information about local population and existing service provision, but they fail to do so adequately. The voluntary sector can play a key role in providing local knowledge about individual patients and their needs. Finally, given the need for health and social care organisations to collaborate to support older people so that they do not experience potentially avoidable admissions to acute hospitals, there is a need for organisations to develop joint evidence-based strategies and work together in real time to exchange information. From our research, in collaboration with a PPI reference group, a self-assessment questionnaire for CCG-led commissioning networks was developed, which allows CCGs to assess and develop their capacity to acquire and use different types of evidence in their decision-making.questionnaire for CCG-led commissioning networks was developed, which allows CCGs to assess and develop their capacity to acquire and use different types of evidence in their decision-making

The dementia experiences of people from Caribbean, Chinese and South Asian communities in Bristol

This report is the product of an eight-month research project funded by Bristol City Council which set out to establish the dementia experiences and needs of people of Black and other Minority Ethnic (BME) origins. The study was overseen by the Bristol BME and Dementia research group, which was made up of representatives from Bristol and Avon Chinese Women’s Group, Alzheimer’s Society, the University of the West of England, Bristol City Council, Bristol Black Carers and Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service (BDWS)