Achieving high performance outcomes through trust in virtual teams

Developing trust among team members is critical for achieving high performance outcomes. Recently, global business operations necessitated working in a team environment with colleagues outside traditional organizational boundaries, across distances, and across time zones. In this article, we discuss how human resource practices can support organizational initiatives when business operations mandate increased virtual teamwork. We examine the role of HR in enhancing relationship building and the development of trust among workers who may rarely, if ever, meet face-toface. Using research from teamwork, social exchange theory, and knowledge sharing, we discuss how four areas of human resources management—recruitment, training, performance appraisal, and compensation/reward— might combine with technology to facilitate the development of trust among virtual team members

Herding cats: observing live coding in the wild

After a momentous decade of live coding activities, this paper seeks to explore the practice with the aim of situating it in the history of contemporary arts and music. The article introduces several key points of investigation in live coding research and discusses some examples of how live coding practitioners engage with these points in their system design and performances. In the light of the extremely diverse manifestations of live coding activities, the problem of defining the practice is discussed, and the question raised whether live coding will actually be necessary as an independent category

Double Bars, Inner Disks, and Nuclear Rings in Early-Type Disk Galaxies

We present results from an imaging survey of an unbiased sample of thirty-eight early-type (S0--Sa), low-inclination, optically barred galaxies in the field. Our goal was to find and characterize central stellar and gaseous structures: secondary bars, inner disks, and nuclear rings. Bars inside bars are surprisingly common: at least one quarter of the sample galaxies (possibly as many as 40%) are double-barred, with no preference for Hubble type or the strength of the primary bar. A typical secondary bar is ~12% of the size of its primary bar and 240--750 pc in radius. We see no significant effect of secondary bars on nuclear activity. We also find kiloparsec-scale inner disks in at least 20% of our sample, almost exclusively in S0 galaxies. These disks are on average 20% the size of their host bar, and show a wider range of relative sizes than do secondary bars. Nuclear rings are present in about a third of our sample. Most are dusty, sites of current or recent star formation, or both; such rings are preferentially found in Sa galaxies. Three S0 galaxies (15% of the S0's) appear to have purely stellar nuclear rings, with no evidence for dust or recent star formation. The fact that these central stellar structures are so common indicates that the inner regions of early-type barred galaxies typically contain dynamically cool and disklike structures. This is especially true for S0 galaxies, where secondary bars, inner disks, and/or stellar nuclear rings are present at least two thirds of the time. (abridged)Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages, 7 EPS figures; to appear in The Astronomical Journal (July 2002

A agricultura nas negociações multilaterais da Rodada Doha e suas implicações para o Brasil

This article aims to analyse the evolution of world trade, with emphasis on the multilateral negotiations, since GATT was created in 1948, through the current Doha round of WTO. The role of institutions in building a favourable environment for free trade, particularly in agriculture, is stressed. After all, not only has the farming sector been crucial for the negotiations to succeed, but also for the trade relations of many developing countries, including Brazil. Besides, agriculture has been one of the most protected sectors in world trade and as such out of reach of GATT regulation until the conclusion of the Uruguay Round. Given that subsidies, tariffs and other mechanisms of protection still prevail in agricultural policies of some countries, this sector still remains as the deadlock of the unfinished Doha Round. That is why the previous expectations of progresses in trade liberalization have given place to a widespread uncertainty as the negotiations carry on.agricultural trade; Doha Round, Brazilian agriculture

Anisotropy of the space orientation of radio sources. I: The catalog

A catalog of the extended extragalactic radio sources consisting of 10461 objects is compiled based on the list of radio sources of the FIRST survey. A total of 1801 objects are identified with galaxies and quasars of the SDSS survey and the Veron-Veron catalog. The distribution of the position angles of the axes of radio sources from the catalog is determined, and the probability that this distribution is equiprobable is shown to be less then 10^(-7). This result implies that at Z equal to or smaller then 0.5, spatial orientation of the axes of radio sources is anisotropic at a statistically significant level.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

VV124 (UGC4879): A new transitional dwarf galaxy in the periphery of the Local Group

We present the first resolved-star photometry of VV124 (UGC4879) and find that this is the most isolated dwarf galaxy in the periphery of the Local Group. Based on imaging and spectroscopic follow up observations with the 6m BTA telescope, we resolve VV124 into 1560 stars down to the limiting magnitude levels of V~25.6 and I~23.9. The young blue stellar populations and emission gas are found near the core, but noticeably displaced from the center of the galaxy as traced by dominant evolved red stars. The mean radial velocity derived from the spectra of two Blue Supergiant stars, an HII region and unresolved continuum sources is -80+/-10 km/s. The evolved ``red tangle'' stellar populations, which contains the red giant branch (RGB), are identified at large galactocentric radii. We use the I-band luminosity function to determine the distance based on the Tip of RGB method, 1.1+/-0.1 Mpc. This is ~10 times closer than the values usually assumed in the literature, and we provide revised distance dependent parameters. From the mean (V-I) color of the RGB, we estimate the mean metallicity as [Fe/H]~-1.37 dex. Despite of its isolated location, the properties of VV124 are clearly not those of a galaxy in formation, but rather similar to a transitional dIrr/dSph type.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to MNRAS Letter

Structure of Disk Dominated Galaxies I. Bulge/Disk Parameters, Simulations, and Secular Evolution

(Abridged) A robust analysis of galaxy structural parameters, based on the modeling of bulge and disk brightnesses in the BVRH bandpasses, is presented for 121 face-on and moderately inclined late-type spirals. Each surface brightness (SB) profile is decomposed into a sum of a generalized Sersic bulge and an exponential disk. The reliability and limitations of our bulge-to-disk (B/D) decompositions are tested with extensive simulations of galaxy brightness profiles (1D) and images (2D). Galaxy types are divided into 3 classes according to their SB profile shapes; Freeman Type-I and Type-II, and a third ``Transition'' class for galaxies whose profiles change from Type-II in the optical to Type-I in the infrared. We discuss possible interpretations of Freeman Type-II profiles. The Sersic bulge shape parameter for nearby Type-I late-type spirals shows a range between n=0.1-2 but, on average, the underlying surface density profile for the bulge and disk of these galaxies is adequately described by a double-exponential distribution. We confirm a coupling between the bulge and disk with a scale length ratio r_e/h=0.22+/-0.09, or h_bulge/h_disk=0.13+/-0.06 for late-type spirals, in agreement with recent N-body simulations of disk formation and models of secular evolution. This ratio increases from ~0.20 for late-type spirals to ~0.24 for earlier types. The similar scaling relations for early and late-type spirals suggest comparable formation and/or evolution scenarios for disk galaxies of all Hubble types.Comment: 78 pages with 23 embedded color figures + tables of galaxy structural parameters. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The interested reader is strongly encouraged to ignore some of the low res figures within; instead, download the high resolution version from http://www.astro.ubc.ca/people/courteau/public/macarthur02_disks.ps.g

Evaluation of a simple hyphenated system for flow injection solid-phase pre-concentration and capillary electrophoresis

In this work, the development and evaluation of a hyphenated flow injection-capillary electrophoresis system with on-line pre-concentration is described. Preliminary tests were performed to investigate the influence of flow rates over the analytical signals. Results revealed losses in terms of sensitivity of the FIA-CE system when compared to the conventional CE system. To overcome signal decrease and to make the system more efficient, a lower flow rate was set and an anionic resin column was added to the flow manifold in order to pre-concentrate the analyte. The pre-concentration FIA-CE system presented a sensitivity improvement of about 660% and there was only a small increase of 8% in total peak dispersion. These results have confirmed the great potential of the proposed system for many analytical tasks especially for low concentration samples.Nesse trabalho apresentamos um sistema hifenizado envolvendo as duas técnicas analíticas: eletroforese capilar (CE) e análises por injeção em fluxo (FIA), denominado de FIA-CE. Parâmetros como a influência do fluxo e a natureza do eluente frente ao sistema CE foram avaliados. O sistema demonstrou-se promissor quanto à possibilidade de aplicações em diferentes áreas da química analítica. O aumento da sensibilidade foi da ordem de 660% devido ao emprego de colunas de troca iônica no sistema FIA. Esse resultado comprova o grande potencial do sistema FIA-CE.Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES)CNPqFAPES

On the Relation Between Peak Luminosity and Parent Population of Type Ia Supernovae: A New Tool for Probing the Ages of Distant Galaxies

We study the properties of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) as functions of the radial distance from their host galaxy centers. Using a sample of 62 SNe Ia with reliable luminosity, reddening, and decline rate determinations, we find no significant radial gradients of SNe Ia peak absolute magnitudes or decline rates in elliptical+S0 galaxies, suggesting that the diversity of SN properties is not related to the metallicity of their progenitors. We do find that the range in brightness and light curve width of supernovae in spiral galaxies extends to brighter, broader values. These results are interpreted as support for an age, but not metallicity, related origin of the diversity in SNe Ia. If confirmed with a larger and more accurate sample of data, the age-luminosity relation would offer a new and powerful tool to probe the ages and age gradients of stellar populations in galaxies at redshift as high as $z\sim1-2$. The absence of significant radial gradients in the peak $\rm (B-V)_0$ and $\rm (V-I)_0$ colors of SNe Ia supports the redding correction method of Phillips et al (1999). We find no radial gradient in residuals from the SN Ia luminosity-width relation, suggesting that the relation is not affected by properties of the progenitor populations and supporting the reliability of cosmological results based upon the use of SNe Ia as distance indicators.Comment: 19 pages, incl. 3 tables & 3 figures; to appear in Nov 2000 issue of Ap

Longitudinal Ion Acceleration from High-Intensity Laser Interactions with Underdense Plasma

Longitudinal ion acceleration from high-intensity (I ~ 10^20 Wcm^-2) laser interactions with helium gas jet targets (n_e ~ 0.04 n_c) have been observed. The ion beam has a maximum energy for He^2+ of approximately 40 MeV and was directional along the laser propagation path, with the highest energy ions being collimated to a cone of less than 10 degrees. 2D particle-in-cell simulations have been used to investigate the acceleration mechanism. The time varying magnetic field associated with the fast electron current provides a contribution to the accelerating electric field as well as providing a collimating field for the ions. A strong correlation between the plasma density and the ion acceleration was found. A short plasma scale-length at the vacuum interface was observed to be beneficial for the maximum ion energies, but the collimation appears to be improved with longer scale-lengths due to enhanced magnetic fields in the ramp acceleration region.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure