Conceptual Frameworks and Methods for Advancing Invasion Ecology

Invasion ecology has much advanced since its early beginnings. Nevertheless, explanation, prediction, and management of biological invasions remain difficult. We argue that progress in invasion research can be accelerated by, first, pointing out difficulties this field is currently facing and, second, looking for measures to overcome them. We see basic and applied research in invasion ecology confronted with difficulties arising from (A) societal issues, e.g., disparate perceptions of invasive species; (B) the peculiarity of the invasion process, e.g., its complexity and context dependency; and (C) the scientific methodology, e.g., imprecise hypotheses. To overcome these difficulties, we propose three key measures: (1) a checklist for definitions to encourage explicit definitions; (2) implementation of a hierarchy of hypotheses (HoH), where general hypotheses branch into specific and precisely testable hypotheses; and (3) platforms for improved communication. These measures may significantly increase conceptual clarity and enhance communication, thus advancing invasion ecology

Measurement of the average time-integrated mixing probability of b-flavored hadrons produced at the Fermilab Tevatron

We have measured the number of like-sign (LS) and opposite-sign (OS) lepton pairs arising from double semileptonic decays of b and (b) over bar hadrons, pair produced at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The data samples were collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during the 1992-1995 collider run by triggering on the existence of mumu or emu candidates in an event. The observed ratio of LS to OS dileptons leads to a measurement of the average time-integrated mixing probability of all produced b-flavored hadrons which decay weakly, (χ) over bar =0.152+/-0.007 (stat)+/-0.011 (syst), that is significantly larger than the world average (χ) over bar =0.118+/-0.005

Observation of the narrow state X(3872)-\u3e J/psi pi(+)pi(-) in (p)over-barp collisions at root s=1.96 TeV

We report the observation of a narrow state decaying into J/psipi(+)pi(-) and produced in 220 pb(-1) of (p) over barp collisions at roots=1.96 TeV in the CDF II experiment. We observe 730+/-90 decays. The mass is measured to be 3871.3+/-0.7(stat)+/-0.4(syst) MeV/c(2), with an observed width consistent with the detector resolution. This is in agreement with the recent observation by the Belle Collaboration of the X(3872) meson

Secondary Stakeholder Influence on CSR Disclosure: An Application of Stakeholder Salience Theory

The aim of this study is to analyse how secondary stakeholders influence managerial decision-making on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure. Based on stakeholder salience theory, we empirically investigate whether differences in environmental disclosure among companies are systematically related to differences in the level of power, urgency and legitimacy of the environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with which these companies are confronted. Using proprietary archival data for an international sample of 199 large companies, our results suggest that differences in environmental disclosures between companies are mainly associated with differences between their environmental stakeholders’ legitimacy. The effects of power and urgency are of an indirect nature, as they are mediated by legitimacy. This study improves our understanding of CSR disclosure by demonstrating that, next to the well-documented effect of company characteristics, stakeholder characteristics are also important. Besides, it provides scarce empirical evidence that not only primary stakeholders, but also secondary stakeholders are influential with regards to management decision-making. And more specifically, it offers insight into why some stakeholder groups are better able to influence disclosure decisions than other. The results also have important practical implications for managers of both environmental NGOs and large companies. For managers of environmental NGOs the results provide evidence of the most successful tactics for having their environmental information demands satisfied by companies. For company management the results provide insights into the most important stakeholder characteristics, on the basis of which they may develop strategies for proactively disclosing environmental information

Do agile managed information systems projects fail due to a lack of emotional intelligence?

YesAgile development methodologies (ADM) have become a widely implemented project management approach in Information Systems (IS). Yet, along with its growing popularity, the amount of concerns raised in regard to human related challenges caused by applyingADMare rapidly increasing. Nevertheless, the extant scholarly literature has neglected to identify the primary origins and reasons of these challenges. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine if these human related challenges are related to a lack of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by means of a quantitative approach. Froma sample of 194 agile practitioners, EI was found to be significantly correlated to human related challenges in agile teams in terms of anxiety, motivation, mutual trust and communication competence. Hence, these findings offer important new knowledge for IS-scholars, project managers and human resource practitioners, about the vital role of EI for staffing and training of agile managed IS-projects

Anomalous dissipation in a stochastically forced infinite-dimensional system of coupled oscillators

We study a system of stochastically forced infinite-dimensional coupled harmonic oscillators. Although this system formally conserves energy and is not explicitly dissipative, we show that it has a nontrivial invariant probability measure. This phenomenon, which has no finite dimensional equivalent, is due to the appearance of some anomalous dissipation mechanism which transports energy to infinity. This prevents the energy from building up locally and allows the system to converge to the invariant measure. The invariant measure is constructed explicitly and some of its properties are analyzed. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC