The neuroscience of leadership

This doctorate summarizes 13 years of thinking, experimentation and research into the issue of improving human performance. Specifically, the issue of how to drive change in human performance, through conversation. This focused on non-clinical populations, and generally with very high functioning people. My work initially focused on the act of ‘coaching’. At its simplest, coaching is the ability of one person to enable another to improve their performance. Through intensive observation, I built a coaching model that enabled a significant improvement in people’s ability to facilitate behavior change in others. The model was based on the realization that people needed the ‘aha’ moment for change to occur. An effort was made to understand how to best bring others to their own insights. An approach was developed into a set of codified techniques and taught to thousands of professionals worldwide, including inside large organizations. Through a desire to understand the deeper mechanisms occurring in moments of insight, I became fascinated with brain research. Initially focused on the neuroscience of insight, I soon became interested in the neuroscience behind other mental experiences central to effective workplace functioning, such as selfawareness, social skills, decision-making, and emotional regulation. Because no formal body of knowledge existed that explained the neuroscience underneath everyday work situations, I reached out to and was mentored by specific neuroscientists. I soon saw value in creating a field of study that brought neuroscience research into the field of coaching, leadership development and organizational change. A new field of knowledge was created, called the Neuroscience of Leadership, which is now being driven by an institute, an annual summit, a journal and academic education. This thesis explores my 13-year learning journey, the key research that was undertaken, the mentors who supported my learning and the publications I produced. It finishes with a discussion about the development of the Neuroscience of Leadership field, and the future of that field

Elastic suspension of a wind tunnel test section

Experimental verification of the theory describing arbitrary motions of an airfoil is reported. The experimental apparatus is described. A mechanism was designed to provide two separate degrees of freedom without friction or backlash to mask the small but important aerodynamic effects of interest

Water as an economic good: a solution, or a problem ?

Water resource management / Economic aspects / Economic analysis / Irrigated farming / Water rights / Pricing / Privatization / Marginal analysis / Water market / Water policy

Possible Signatures Of Dissipation From Time-Series Analysis Techniques Using A Turbulent Laboratory Magnetohydrodynamic Plasma

The frequency spectrum of magnetic fluctuations as measured on the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment is broadband and exhibits a nearly Kolmogorov 5/3 scaling. It features a steepening region which is indicative of dissipation of magnetic fluctuation energy similar to that observed in fluid and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence systems. Two non-spectrum based time-series analysis techniques are implemented on this data set in order to seek other possible signatures of turbulent dissipation beyond just the steepening of fluctuation spectra. Presented here are results for the flatness, permutation entropy, and statistical complexity, each of which exhibits a particular character at spectral steepening scales which can then be compared to the behavior of the frequency spectrum

Assessment of AVIRIS data from vegetated sites in the Owens Valley, California

Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data were acquired from the Bishop, CA area, located at the northern end of the Owens Valley, on July 30, 1987. Radiometrically-corrected AVIRIS data were flat-field corrected, and spectral curves produced and analyzed for pixels taken from both native and cultivated vegetation sites, using the JPS SPAM software program and PC-based spreadsheet programs. Analyses focussed on the chlorophyll well and red edge portions of the spectral curves. Results include the following: AVIRIS spectral data are acquired at sufficient spectral resolution to allow detection of blue shifts of both the chlorophyll well and red edge in moisture-stressed vegetation when compared with non-stressed vegetation; a normalization of selected parameters (chlorophyll well and near infrared shoulder) may be used to emphasize the shift in red edge position; and the presence of the red edge in AVIRIS spectral curves may be useful in detecting small amounts (20 to 30 pct cover) of semi-arid and arid vegetation ground cover. A discussion of possible causes of AVIRIS red edge shifts in respsonse to stress is presented

A walnut-containing meal had similar effects on early satiety, CCK, and PYY, but attenuated the postprandial GLP-1 and insulin response compared to a nut-free control meal.

Regular nut consumption is associated with lower adiposity and reduced weight gain in adulthood. Walnut feeding studies have observed minimal effect on body weight despite potential additional energy intake. Several mechanisms may explain why consuming nuts promotes weight control, including increased early phase satiety, possibly reflected in postprandial response of gastrointestinal and pancreatic peptides hypothesized to affect appetite. The purpose of this study was to compare postprandial insulin, glucagon and gastrointestinal peptide response and satiety following a meal with ∼54% of energy from walnuts or cream cheese, using a within-subject crossover study design in overweight/obese adults (N = 28). Sixty minutes after the walnut-containing meal, glucagon-like peptide-1 was lower than after the reference meal (p=0.0433), and peptide YY, cholecystokinin and ghrelin did not differ after the two meals. Sixty and 120 min after the walnut-containing meal, pancreatic polypeptide (p = 0.0014 and p = 0.0002) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (p < 0.0001 and p = 0.0079) were lower than after the reference meal, and 120 min after the walnut-containing meal, glucagon was higher (p=0.0069). Insulin and C-peptide increased at 60 min in response to both meals but were lower at 120 min after the walnut-containing meal (p=0.0349 and 0.0237, respectively). Satiety measures were similar after both meals. These findings fail to support the hypothesis that acute postprandial gastrointestinal peptide response to a walnut-containing meal contributes to increased satiety. However, inclusion of walnuts attenuated the postprandial insulin response, which may contribute to the more favorable lipid profile observed in association with regular walnut consumption

Continuous quivers of type A (I) Foundations

We generalize type $A$ quivers to continuous type $A$ quivers and prove initial results about pointwise finite-dimensional (pwf) representations. We classify the indecomosable pwf representations and provide a decomposition theorem, recovering results of Botnan and Crawley-Boevey. We also classify the indecomposable pwf projective representations. Finally, we prove that many of the properties of finite-dimensional type $A_n$ representations are present in finitely generated pwf representations. This is the self-contained foundational part of a series of works to study a generalization of continuous clusters categories and their relationship to other type $A$ cluster structures.Comment: 29 pages. Revised to be a self-contained treatment with a focus on representation theoretic method