Storied transitions: post-trauma growth and narrative imagination in leadership development

Conventional leadership development fails to acknowledge that leadership can be traumatic, or that leadership development has a duty to help leaders grow through their traumatic leadership experiences. Clinical research shows that victims of profoundly destabilising experiences can grow when they shift their narrative-shaping and exploration mechanisms (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2013, 2014). Storied Transitions brings post-trauma growth practice into the world of leadership development to explore how leadership development practitioners can help leaders grow when they are destabilised by their experiences. Building on clinical research in post-trauma growth (e.g. Calhoun and Tedeschi, 2013, 2014;; Meichenbaum, 2014; Janoff-Bulman, 1990; 2014) and narrative psychology (e. g. Freedman & Combs, 1996; Denborough, 2014; McAdams, 1993; Crossley, 2000), the inquiry asks: how can leadership development help leaders explore their narrative worlds so that they can use their most difficult leadership challenges as catalysts for personal growth? In the context of the inquiry, narrative refers to the stories consciously or unconsciously attached to events, experiences, objects or images in order to give them meaning. The inquiry builds on the literature in clinical research in post-trauma growth, narrative psychology and a selection of other clinical approaches (evolutionary, existential and depth psychology, e.g. Buss, 2004, 2005; Yalom, 1980, 1989, 1999; Strenger, 2011; Stein, 1998, 2003; Kalsched, 2013). It also explores the researcher’s experience of developing a narrative-based self-therapy practice in the wake of his own profoundly destabilising leadership experience. It includes observations from taking this emerging practice into leadership development programs and into counselling for individual executives. The inquiry concludes that the challenges of leadership can be traumatic when they shatter narratives that have been essential to the leader’s self- and worldview. It shows how difficult leadership experiences can disable narrative-shaping and exploration mechanisms. It demonstrates how imagination is essential to re-establishing those mechanisms. The inquiry recommends that practitioners who support leaders through their disruptive transitions integrate narrative imagination into their work. It suggests a narrative exploration process that includes confession, interpretation, education and transformation to help leaders emerge from their experiences with a stronger sense of self, with deeper relationships, and healthier life philosophies

EVOLUTION OF IR-SELECTED GALAXIES IN Z~0.4 CLUSTERS

Wide-field optical and near--IR ($JHK$) imaging is presented for two rich galaxy clusters: Abell~370 at $z=0.374$ and Abell~851 (Cl0939+47) at $z=0.407$. Galaxy catalogs selected from the near--IR images are 90\% complete to approximately 1.5 mag below $K^\ast$ resulting in samples with $\sim$100 probable member galaxies per cluster in the central $\sim$2 Mpc. Comparison with $HST$ WFPC images yields subsamples of $\sim$70 galaxies in each cluster with morphological types. Analysis of the complete samples and the $HST$ subsamples shows that the $z\sim 0.4$ E/S0s are bluer than those in the Bower et al.\ (1992) Coma sample in the optical$-K$ color by $0.13$~mag for Abell~370 and by $0.18$~mag for Abell~851. If real, the bluing of the E/S0 populations at moderate redshift is consistent with that calculated from the Bruzual and Charlot (1993) models of passive elliptical galaxy evolution. In both clusters the intrinsic scatter of the known E/S0s about their optical$-K$ color--mag relation is small ($\sim 0.06$ mag) and not significantly different from that of Coma E/S0s as given by Bower et al.\ (1992), indicating that the galaxies within each cluster formed at the same time at an early epoch.Comment: uuencoded gzipped tar file containing latex files of manuscript (42 pages) plus tables (9 pages); figures available by anonymous ftp at ftp://ipac.caltech.edu//pub/pickup/sed ; accepted for publication in the Ap

A Continuing Controversy: Labeling Requirements on Irradiated Foods

For the average American. the words "radiation" and "irradiation" are apt to conjure up images of nuclear weapons. radioactive waste, x-rays. and other unpleasant materials associated with health dangers. Yet these words are also displayed on the labels of food products treated with a irradiation process which made the foods safer for consumers to eat. Food irradiation. currently approved for use on several foods, kills microorganisms and insects which could pose substantial health risks to consumers. Irradiation can also be used to retard spoilage and ripening of fruits and ~'egetables to increase their shelf life. Despite its potential benefits, irradiation and the labeling of irradiated foods has been a subject of controversy since its inception. Since 1966, the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") has required irradiated foods to be labeled as such, but because the initial foods approved for irradiation treatment were limited to potatoes and wheat, the process was not widely publicized. In 1986. however, FDA expanded the list of approved foods to include fruits. vegetables, and spices, and revised its labeling regulations to require that irradiated products be labeled at both the wholesale and the retail level. The promulgation of these guidelines drew criticism from the food industry. Congressmen, and several consumer groups and remains a hotly debated topic today

Near-IR imaging of moderate redshift galaxy clusters

We have obtained near-IR imaging of 3 moderate-z clusters on the 1.3 m at KPNO with SQIID, a new camera offering wide-field (5.5 arcmin) simultaneous JHK band imaging. Our photometry on a sample of approximately 100 likely member galaxies in one of the clusters, Abell 370 at z = 0.37, shows that we can obtain magnitudes good to 20 percent down to K = 18, considerably below the estimated K* = 16.5 at this redshift. These data indicate that there are no systematic problems in obtaining photometry at faint levels with SQIID. With the development of larger arrays, the field is open to progress. The resulting J, H, and K data for three clusters are combined with previously obtained multiband optical photometry. We present an investigation of the spectral properties and evolution of the dominant cold stellar populations by comparing optical-to-IR colors and color-magnitude diagrams to predictions from population synthesis models and galaxy spectral evolution codes

Using media to improve the informed consent process for youth undergoing pediatric endoscopy and their parents.

Background and study aims Youth undergoing pediatric endoscopic procedures and their parents demonstrate suboptimal comprehension of the informed consent (IC) process. We developed informational videos discussing key IC elements for pediatric endoscopy and evaluated their effects on youth and parental comprehension of the IC process. Patients and methods A randomized controlled trial of the video intervention was performed among youth undergoing endoscopy and their parents at an academic children's hospital. Randomization occurred at the time of enrollment using permutated blocks. Following the IC process with the proceduralist, subjects underwent structured interviews to assess IC comprehension. An Informed Consent Overall Score (ICOS: range 0 - 4) for comprehension was calculated. Results Seventy-seven pairs of children and their parents participated. Intervention recipients (N = 37 pairs) demonstrated higher ICOS scores as compared to control counterparts (mean (standard deviation): 3.6 (0.7) v. 2.9 (0.9), intervention v. control parents, P < 0.0001 and 2.7 (1.1) v. 1.7 (1.1), intervention v. control youth, P < 0.0001). Conclusions A media intervention addressing key elements of the IC process for pediatric endoscopy was effective in improving comprehension of IC for youth undergoing endoscopic procedures and their parents

Performance Enhancement of the Flexible Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Aircraft Using Variable-Camber Continuous Trailing-Edge Flaps

Aircraft designers are to a growing extent using vehicle flexibility to optimize performance with objectives such as gust load alleviation and drag minimization. More complex aerodynamically optimized configurations may also require dynamic loads and perhaps eventually flutter suppression. This paper considers an aerodynamically optimized truss-braced wing aircraft designed for a Mach 0.745 cruise. The variable camber continuous trailing edge flap concept with a feedback control system is used to enhance aeroelastic stability. A linearized reduced order aerodynamic model is developed from unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. A static output feedback controller is developed from that model. Closed-loop simulations using the reduced order aerodynamic model show that the controller is effective in stabilizing the vehicle dynamics

Teritorijalnost kao globalna koncepcija

The terraqueous globe is made up of spaces on which peoples, ethnic groups, races, and nations have carved out territories over which they form themselves into sovereign bodies politic, on which they can interact, through and across which they can pass with ease or difficulty, at the borders of which they can erect barriers or open the area to migrants and trade. Hence, I propose territoriality as the successor concept to social distance and as both a basic concept and a fundamental process in all of human life.Kopneni i vodeni svijet sačinjen je od prostora na kojima su akteri, etničke skupine, rase i nacije izgradili teritorije te se ondje uspostavili kao suverena politička tijela. Teritoriji su prostori interakcije, uspješnog ili manje uspješnog igranja uloga — prostori na čijim se granicama podižu prepreke ili otvaraju vrata migrantima i trgovini. Autor, stoga, predlaže koncepciju teritorijalnosti kao nasljednicu pojma socijalna distanca te kao temeljnu kategoriju i, ujedno, fundamentalni proces društvenog života

Correlation tuned cross-over between thermal and nonthermal states following ultrafast transient pumping

We examine electron-electron mediated relaxation following excitation of a correlated system by an ultrafast electric field pump pulse. The results reveal a dichotomy in the temporal evolution as one tunes through a Mott metal-to-insulator transition: in the metallic regime relaxation can be characterized by evolution toward a steady-state electronic distribution well described by Fermi-Dirac statistics with an increased effective temperature; however, in the insulating regime this quasithermal paradigm breaks down with relaxation toward a nonthermal state with a more complicated electronic distribution that does not vary monotonically as a function of energy. We characterize the behavior by studying changes in the energy, photoemission response, and electronic distribution as functions of time. Qualitatively these results should be observable on short enough time scales that the electrons behave like an isolated system not in contact with additional degrees of freedom which can act as a thermal bath. Importantly, proper modeling used to analyze experimental findings should account for this behavior, especially when using strong driving fields or studying materials whose physics may manifest the effects of strong correlations.Comment: Main Text: 5 pages, 4 figures; Supplementary Material: 3 pages, 5 figure