863 research outputs found
Building the Emotionally Learned Negotiator
This piece reviews three recent books on the significance of emotion in negotiation and dispute resolution (Fisher & Shapiro: Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate; Peter Ladd: Mediation, Conciliation and Emotion: A Practitioner\u27s Guide for Understanding Emotions in Dispute Resolution; and Lacey Smith: Get It! Street-Smart Negotiation at Work: How Emotions Get You What You Want), situating each work within a theory of practice for emotionally learned negotiators. After discussing the how the appearance of emotional sterility became synonymous with professionalism (and the toll this has taken on professional interaction), the piece sets forth a functional theory of emotion in negotiation based on four elements: emotion as (1) ether, (2) obstacle, (3) episteme, and (4) instrument. To cast emotion as ether (the ether of human experience) is to understand the inevitability of emotional impacts on negotiated exchange. For many, emotion in negotiation is encountered as an obstacle (that which obstructs mechanical application of established negotiating techniques). The more sophisticated negotiator recognizes emotionality as episteme (the medium of insight by which we consult interests and hypothesize about others) - a means for better understanding herself, the people she deals with, and a good deal else about the world. Finally, the emotionally learned negotiator uses emotion not only epistemologically but also instrumentally (as a tool for achieving desired ends), taking affirmative steps to help manage the emotional climate within a negotiation. She uses her emotional skills to mitigate undesired emotions and engender preferred emotions within herself and other participants: to soothe, bolster, win respect, build trust, and encourage creativity. The emotionally learned negotiator thus uses emotions not only as tools of knowing, but as instruments of persuasion. The new series of books on the subject offer strategies by which negotiators can learn to better integrate emotional skills into negotiation, among the most emotionally-charged of professional spheres. While the three books share the central premise that emotionality plays a critical role in the unfolding dynamics of all negotiations, each offers its own primary lesson. Lacey Smith\u27s business-oriented Get It! examines how the emotions of hope and fear can be both tools and obstacles to the interest-based bargaining method we first learned in Roger Fisher\u27s classic, Getting to Yes. Fisher and Shapiro\u27s Beyond Reason takes the Getting to Yes method to the next level of sophistication, providing a taxonomy of core emotional concerns that underlie individual negotiators\u27 behavior, and with it a Seven-Elements - like structure from which to prepare, advance, and overcome emotional obstacles in each negotiating context. Peter Ladd\u27s Mediation, Conciliation and Emotions expands the analysis of emotional content in a negotiation from the individual to the shared experience, exploring the establishment of emotional climates that arise between individuals and offering empirically based counsel for mediators and conciliators about how to help remedy undesirable emotional climates and create emotional climates more conducive to problem-solving. No book has all the answers we need, but each makes a valuable contribution to the field
Energy landscapes, ideal glasses, and their equation of state
Using the inherent structure formalism originally proposed by Stillinger and
Weber [Phys. Rev. A 25, 978 (1982)], we generalize the thermodynamics of an
energy landscape that has an ideal glass transition and derive the consequences
for its equation of state. In doing so, we identify a separation of
configurational and vibrational contributions to the pressure that corresponds
with simulation studies performed in the inherent structure formalism. We
develop an elementary model of landscapes appropriate to simple liquids which
is based on the scaling properties of the soft-sphere potential complemented
with a mean-field attraction. The resulting equation of state provides an
accurate representation of simulation data for the Lennard-Jones fluid,
suggesting the usefulness of a landscape-based formulation of supercooled
liquid thermodynamics. Finally, we consider the implications of both the
general theory and the model with respect to the so-called Sastry density and
the ideal glass transition. Our analysis shows that a quantitative connection
can be made between properties of the landscape and a simulation-determined
Sastry density, and it emphasizes the distinction between an ideal glass
transition and a Kauzmann equal-entropy condition.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure
A test of non-equilibrium thermodynamics in glassy systems: the soft-sphere case
The scaling properties of the soft-sphere potential allow the derivation of
an exact expression for the pressure of a frozen liquid, i.e., the pressure
corresponding to configurations which are local minima in its multidimensional
potential energy landscape. The existence of such a relation offers the unique
possibility for testing the recently proposed extension of the liquid free
energy to glassy out-of-equilibrium conditions and the associated expression
for the temperature of the configurational degrees of freedom. We demonstrate
that the non-equilibrium free energy provides an exact description of the
soft-sphere pressure in glass states
Peer Connect for African American breast cancer survivors and caregivers: a train-the-trainer approach for peer support
Racial disparities in breast cancer survivorship are a major concern nationally. How survivors cope with cancer and re-frame their lives is a critical part of survivorship. Community-academic research partnerships may facilitate access to much-needed psychosocial support for African American survivors and caregivers in rural areas, but drivers of successful intervention implementation are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to describe the training and evaluation of Community Coaches and Guides (i.e., peer supporters) using the Peer Connect program for African American breast cancer survivors and caregivers. Community engagement strategies were used to implement the training component of Peer Connect, an evidence-based program grounded in the Diffusion of Innovation Theory utilizing motivational interviewing techniques (MI) and a "train-the-trainer" model. Quantitative and qualitative methods examined implementation outcomes of feasibility, MI fidelity, and acceptability-precursor outcomes that must be achieved before examining intervention impact vis-à-vis changes in support care. Training was feasible to implement and replicable by the trained Community Coaches. Beyond feasibility and replicability, success was modest regarding MI fidelity. Benefits (e.g., serving as role models and having safe sources of support) and lessons learned (e.g., need for additional quality control) were identified as both facilitators and barriers to implementation and as factors that could impact the effectiveness of community-engaged programs to improve survivorship outcomes. Peer Connect, like other programs that employ community-engagement strategies, holds promise to meet the psychosocial support needs of diverse rural cancer survivor populations
Onasemnogene abeparvovec preserves bulbar function in infants with presymptomatic spinal muscular atrophy: a post-hoc analysis of the SPR1NT trial
Bulbar function in spinal muscular atrophy has been defined as the ability to meet nutritional needs by mouth while maintaining airway protection and communicate verbally. The effects of disease-modifying treatment on bulbar function are not clear. A multidisciplinary team conducted post-hoc analyses of phase 3 SPR1NT trial data to evaluate bulbar function of infants at risk for spinal muscular atrophy who received one-time gene replacement therapy (onasemnogene abeparvovec) before symptom onset. Three endpoints represented adequate bulbar function in SPR1NT: (1) absence of physiologic swallowing impairment, (2) full oral nutrition, and (3) absence of adverse events indicating pulmonary instability. Communication was not assessed in SPR1NT. We descriptively assessed numbers/percentages of children who achieved each endpoint and all three collectively. SPR1NT included infants <6 postnatal weeks with two (n = 14) or three (n = 15) copies of the survival motor neuron 2 gene. At study end (18 [two-copy cohort] or 24 [three-copy cohort] months of age), 100% (29/29) of patients swallowed normally, achieved full oral nutrition, maintained pulmonary stability, and achieved the composite endpoint. When administered to infants before clinical symptom onset, onasemnogene abeparvovec allowed children at risk for spinal muscular atrophy to achieve milestones within published normal ranges of development and preserve bulbar function
Molecular structural order and anomalies in liquid silica
The present investigation examines the relationship between structural order,
diffusivity anomalies, and density anomalies in liquid silica by means of
molecular dynamics simulations. We use previously defined orientational and
translational order parameters to quantify local structural order in atomic
configurations. Extensive simulations are performed at different state points
to measure structural order, diffusivity, and thermodynamic properties. It is
found that silica shares many trends recently reported for water [J. R.
Errington and P. G. Debenedetti, Nature 409, 318 (2001)]. At intermediate
densities, the distribution of local orientational order is bimodal. At fixed
temperature, order parameter extrema occur upon compression: a maximum in
orientational order followed by a minimum in translational order. Unlike water,
however, silica's translational order parameter minimum is broad, and there is
no range of thermodynamic conditions where both parameters are strictly
coupled. Furthermore, the temperature-density regime where both structural
order parameters decrease upon isothermal compression (the structurally
anomalous regime) does not encompass the region of diffusivity anomalies, as
was the case for water.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figure
Antibody responses to avian influenza viruses in wild birds broaden with age
For viruses such as avian influenza, immunity within a host population can drive the emergence of new strains by selecting for viruses with novel antigens that avoid immune recognition. The accumulation of acquired immunity with age is hypothesized to affect how influenza viruses emerge and spread in species of different lifespans. Despite its importance for understanding the behaviour of avian influenza viruses, little is known about age-related accumulation of immunity in the virus's primary reservoir, wild birds. To address this, we studied the age structure of immune responses to avian influenza virus in a wild swan population (Cygnus olor), before and after the population experienced an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in 2008. We performed haemagglutination inhibition assays on sampled sera for five avian influenza strains and show that breadth of response accumulates with age. The observed age-related distribution of antibody responses to avian influenza strains may explain the age-dependent mortality observed during the highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak. Age structures and species lifespan are probably important determinants of viral epidemiology and virulence in birds
Potential energy landscape-based extended van der Waals equation
The inherent structures ({\it IS}) are the local minima of the potential
energy surface or landscape, , of an {\it N} atom system.
Stillinger has given an exact {\it IS} formulation of thermodynamics. Here the
implications for the equation of state are investigated. It is shown that the
van der Waals ({\it vdW}) equation, with density-dependent and
coefficients, holds on the high-temperature plateau of the averaged {\it IS}
energy. However, an additional ``landscape'' contribution to the pressure is
found at lower . The resulting extended {\it vdW} equation, unlike the
original, is capable of yielding a water-like density anomaly, flat isotherms
in the coexistence region {\it vs} {\it vdW} loops, and several other desirable
features. The plateau energy, the width of the distribution of {\it IS}, and
the ``top of the landscape'' temperature are simulated over a broad reduced
density range, , in the Lennard-Jones fluid. Fits to the
data yield an explicit equation of state, which is argued to be useful at high
density; it nevertheless reproduces the known values of and at the
critical point
Using airborne LiDAR Survey to explore historic-era archaeological landscapes of Montserrat in the eastern Caribbean
This article describes what appears to be the first archaeological application of airborne LiDAR survey to historic-era landscapes in the Caribbean archipelago, on the island of Montserrat. LiDAR is proving invaluable in extending the reach of traditional pedestrian survey into less favorable areas, such as those covered by dense neotropical forest and by ashfall from the past two decades of active eruptions by the Soufrière Hills volcano, and to sites in localities that are inaccessible on account of volcanic dangers. Emphasis is placed on two aspects of the research: first, the importance of ongoing, real-time interaction between the LiDAR analyst and the archaeological team in the field; and second, the advantages of exploiting the full potential of the three-dimensional LiDAR point cloud data for purposes of the visualization of archaeological sites and features
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