Practice Compared to Theory in the Closure of a Large-Scale Manufacturing Plant

The capstone research study compared practice to theory in the case of the closure of the Caterpillar Joliet hydraulics plant. Using an action research approach, the experience and outcomes of the primary leader, leadership team (followers) and extended team (followers of followers) were evaluated through a process of review, analysis, reflection, and action (improvement) planning based on publicly available information and personal reflection. Critical colleagues were used for additional perspectives to ensure a healthy cycle of discussion, observation, reflection, and learning occurred. The desired outcome of this capstone research study was a series of best practices that could be applied to leaders, followers, and organizations experiencing a similar event, promoting resilience, hope and overall well-being. As a research tool, the desired outcome was to broaden the body of knowledge relative to leadership through a plant closure and to provide a hands-on example of action research applied in the for-profit segment of a traditional manufacturing company. This research provides managers and leaders with a new perspective on how the structural environment, the situational events, and the style of leadership affect the people and events in a large manufacturing plant closure

Stem cells and fluid flow drive cyst formation in an invertebrate excretory organ.

Cystic kidney diseases (CKDs) affect millions of people worldwide. The defining pathological features are fluid-filled cysts developing from nephric tubules due to defective flow sensing, cell proliferation and differentiation. The underlying molecular mechanisms, however, remain poorly understood, and the derived excretory systems of established invertebrate models (Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster) are unsuitable to model CKDs. Systematic structure/function comparisons revealed that the combination of ultrafiltration and flow-associated filtrate modification that is central to CKD etiology is remarkably conserved between the planarian excretory system and the vertebrate nephron. Consistently, both RNA-mediated genetic interference (RNAi) of planarian orthologues of human CKD genes and inhibition of tubule flow led to tubular cystogenesis that share many features with vertebrate CKDs, suggesting deep mechanistic conservation. Our results demonstrate a common evolutionary origin of animal excretory systems and establish planarians as a novel and experimentally accessible invertebrate model for the study of human kidney pathologies

Studio della propagazione della frattura in polibutene per tubi

Il Polibutene-1 isotattico (i-PB1) è un materiale polimerico usato per la produzione di tubi per il trasporto di fluidi in pressione. In questo lavoro si sono studiati due tipi di i-PB1 prodotti da Basell che differiscono per grado di isotatticità. Si sono condotte prove di frattura a diverse temperature e velocità di spostamento imposte. Si è utilizzata una configurazione di flessione su provini con singolo intaglio (SENB) unitamente a quella di doppia trave a sbalzo (DCB), quest’ultima limitatamente allo studio della fase di propagazione. Al fine di individuare con precisione l’innesco della frattura e la velocità di propagazione della stessa si è fatto ricorso a metodi ottici. Dal punto di vista fenomenologico durante la propagazione si assiste alla formazione di zone in cui il materiale risulta fortemente stirato. La frattura in esse avanza con una lacerazione continua che si alterna a salti repentini in occasione del brusco cedimento di queste zone, associato a conseguenti cadute del carico. Questa parziale instabilità è stata osservata sui due materiali per entrambe le configurazioni di prova. I risultati ottenuti sono stati interpretati seguendo l’approccio della meccanica della frattura e applicando uno schema di riduzione di tipo tempo-temperatura che ha permesso di descrivere il comportamento viscoelastico del materiale su un intervallo temporale di diverse decadi. I risultati hanno permesso di applicare un modello analitico per la previsione della vita utile di tubi in pressione. Il modello si è mostrato in buon accordo con i dati sperimentali disponibili da prove condotte su tubi dello stesso materiale

Ultrastructure of Bone Marrow of Rats After Severe Hemodilution with Starch or Modified Hemoglobin

The ultrastructure of bone marrow of rats was studied 24 h after exchange-transfusion with solutions of starch or modified hemoglobin to a hematocrit of 10-15. Blood smears of the transfused rats had 17-20% reticulocytes as compared to 5-6% for sham operated controls. In the transfused rats marrow macrophages had numerous heterolysosomes apparently containing the starch or hemoglobin from the transfused solutions. Endothelial cells and reticular cells also possessed a few heterolysosomes thought to contain starch or hemoglobin. Reticular cells of the transfused rats contained numerous glycogen particles scattered throughout the cytoplasm or arranged in large masses. Synthesis of glycogen may indicate a metabolic change in reticular cells in response to tissue hypoxia induced by the exchange-transfusion procedure

Femtosecond study of the interplay between excitons, trions, and carriers in (Cd,Mn)Te quantum wells

We present an absorption study of the neutral and positively charged exciton (trion) under the influence of a femtosecond, circularly polarized, resonant pump pulse. Three populations are involved: free holes, excitons, and trions, all exhibiting transient spin polarization. In particular, a polarization of the hole gas is created by the formation of trions. The evolution of these populations is studied, including the spin flip and trion formation processes. The contributions of several mechanisms to intensity changes are evaluated, including phase space filling and spin-dependent screening. We propose a new explanation of the oscillator strength stealing phenomena observed in p-doped quantum wells, based on the screening of neutral excitons by charge carriers. We have also found that binding heavy holes into charged excitons excludes them from the interaction with the rest of the system, so that oscillator strength stealing is partially blockedComment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Pump Built-in Hamiltonian Method for Pump-Probe Spectroscopy

We propose a new method of calculating nonlinear optical responses of interacting electronic systems. In this method, the total Hamiltonian (system + system-pump interaction) is transformed into a different form that (apparently) does not have a system-pump interaction. The transformed Hamiltonian, which we call the pump built-in Hamiltonian, has parameters that depend on the strength of the pump beam. Using the pump built-in Hamiltonian, we can calculate nonlinear responses (responses to probe beams as a function of the pump beam) by applying the {\em linear} response theory. We demonstrate the basic idea of this new method by applying it to a one-dimensional, two-band model, in the case the pump excitation is virtual (coherent excitation). We find that the exponent of the Fermi edge singularity varies with the pump intensity.Comment: 6 page

Photoperiodic Regulation of Cerebral Blood Flow in White-Footed Mice (Peromyscus leucopus)

Individuals living outside the tropics need to adjust their behavioral and physiological repertoires throughout the year to adapt to the changing seasons. White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) reduce hippocampal volumes, hippocampal-dependent memory function, long-term potentiation, and alter neurogenesis in response to short (winter-like) day lengths (photoperiods). During winter, these mice putatively shunt energy away from the brain to maximize peripheral thermogenesis, immune function, and survival. We hypothesized that these changes in brain function are accompanied by alterations in brain vasculature. We maintained white-footed mice in short (8 h light/16 h dark) or long (16 h light/8 h dark) photoperiods for 8-9 weeks. Mice were then perfused with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) lectin to visualize the perfused cerebrovasculature. Short-day mice reduced hippocampal and cortical capillary density (FITC(+) area); vessels isolated from short day-exposed mice expressed higher mRNA levels of the gelatinase matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2). Additionally, short-day mice reduced cerebral blood flow approximately 15% compared with their long-day counterparts, as assessed by laser speckle flowmetry. Immunohistochemistry revealed higher levels of MMP2 in the hippocampus of mice maintained in short days compared with long days, potentially contributing to the observed vascular remodeling. These data demonstrate that a discrete environmental signal (i.e., day length) can substantially alter cerebral blood flow in adult mammals

A Cantor set of tori with monodromy near a focus-focus singularity

We write down an asymptotic expression for action coordinates in an integrable Hamiltonian system with a focus-focus equilibrium. From the singularity in the actions we deduce that the Arnol'd determinant grows infinitely large near the pinched torus. Moreover, we prove that it is possible to globally parametrise the Liouville tori by their frequencies. If one perturbs this integrable system, then the KAM tori form a Whitney smooth family: they can be smoothly interpolated by a torus bundle that is diffeomorphic to the bundle of Liouville tori of the unperturbed integrable system. As is well-known, this bundle of Liouville tori is not trivial. Our result implies that the KAM tori have monodromy. In semi-classical quantum mechanics, quantisation rules select sequences of KAM tori that correspond to quantum levels. Hence a global labeling of quantum levels by two quantum numbers is not possible.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

Spin bags in the doped t-J model

We present a nonperturbative method for deriving a quasiparticle description of the low-energy excitations in the t-J model for strongly correlated electrons. Using the exact diagonalization technique we evaluated exactly the spectral functions of composite operators which describe an electron or hole dressed by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations as expected in the string or spin bag picture. For hole doping up to $1/8$, use of the composite operators leads to a drastic simplification of the single particle spectral function: at half-filling it takes free-particle form, for the doped case it resembles a system of weakly interacting Fermions corresponding to the doped holes. We conclude that for all doping levels under study, the elementary electronic excitations next to the Fermi level are adequately described by the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation picture and show that the dressing of the holes leads to formation of a bound state with d(x^2-y^2) symmetry.Comment: Remarks: Revtex file + 4 figures attached as compressed postscript files Figures can also be obtained by ordinary mail on reques