Occupational Nepotism Among Law Firms: A Study of Nepotism Beyond Anecdotal Evidence

Although nepotism is not a new subject, there are not many studies addressing the psychological issues associated with the phenomenon, particularly in the workplace. The idea of “new nepotism” has emerged with the notion that some offspring have chosen the same profession as their parents, and have not been forced into a career decision or made an opportunistic decision regardless of their ability to perform. The purpose of this study was to explore workplace nepotism using an empirical research approach. Using a career choice and self-determination theory framework, a survey was devised and sent to 673 practicing attorneys in a Midwestern metropolitan area. Lawyers were chosen for this study due to the findings of prevalence of nepotism within this population. Scales in the survey measured work satisfaction, selfdetermination in choosing a career, and workplace nepotism. Data from the returned questionnaires was analyzed and correlations among the levels of self-determination, nepotism and satisfaction were determined. Results show that self-determination is positively correlated with work satisfaction regardless of the presence of nepotism in the workplace. Self-determination was negatively correlated with coercive nepotism and positively correlated with self-determined nepotism. These findings support the hypothesis that individuals high in self-determination are more likely to choose a career based on full volition and by doing so will have higher work satisfaction

User Needs Assessment of Information Seeking Activities of MIT Students - Spring 2006

The SFX/Verde Group was authorized to complete a user needs assessment in the form of a Photo Diary Study with MIT students in the spring of 2006. The goal of the study was to inform the MIT Libraries of online tool improvements that should be implemented to meet our most pressing user needs. Sixteen graduate students and sixteen undergraduate students participated in offering a fascinating glimpse into the information-seeking aspects of their academic lives. The team categorized user behaviors into goals and tasks and then analyzed the 277 goals and tasks and the 507 methods shared with us by the students in the study. The study yielded the following priorities for the Libraries' online tools: Make discovery easier and more effective. Incorporate trusted networks in finding tools. Continue to put links to the Libraries' services and resources where the users are. The study also showed that the students used a variety of highly successful strategies for performing quick lookups of information and finding specific known items. Finally, while the assessment focused on aspects of the students' work related to online tools, it also yielded rich information that could be useful in improving other aspects of the Libraries' services

In vivo characterization of connective tissue remodeling using infrared photoacoustic spectra

Premature cervical remodeling is a critical precursor of spontaneous preterm birth, and the remodeling process is characterized by an increase in tissue hydration. Nevertheless, current clinical measurements of cervical remodeling are subjective and detect only late events, such as cervical effacement and dilation. Here, we present a photoacoustic endoscope that can quantify tissue hydration by measuring near-infrared cervical spectra. We quantify the water contents of tissue-mimicking hydrogel phantoms as an analog of cervical connective tissue. Applying this method to pregnant women in vivo, we observed an increase in the water content of the cervix throughout pregnancy. The application of this technique in maternal healthcare may advance our understanding of cervical remodeling and provide a sensitive method for predicting preterm birth

Working in Wonder

Catalog for the exhibition Working in Wonder held at the Seton Hall University Walsh Gallery, January 18 - February 11, 2011. Curated by Erin Gray, Danielle Schallom, and Ed Stapley-Brown. Includes an essay by Erin Gray, Danielle Schallom, and Ed Stapley-Brown. Includes color illustrations

Digital Mammography and Breast Tomosynthesis Performance in Women with a Personal History of Breast Cancer, 2007-2016

Background Since 2007, digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) replaced screen-film mammography. Whether these technologic advances have improved diagnostic performance has, to the knowledge of the authors, not yet been established. Purpose To evaluate the performance and outcomes of surveillance mammography (digital mammography and DBT) performed from 2007 to 2016 in women with a personal history of breast cancer and compare with data from 1996 to 2007 and the performance of digital mammography screening benchmarks. Materials and Methods In this observational cohort study, five Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium registries provided prospectively collected mammography data linked with tumor registry and pathologic outcomes. This study identified asymptomatic women with American Joint Committee on Cancer anatomic stages 0-III primary breast cancer who underwent surveillance mammography from 2007 to 2016. The primary outcome was a second breast cancer diagnosis within 1 year of mammography. Performance measures included the recall rate, cancer detection rate, interval cancer rate, positive predictive value of biopsy recommendation, sensitivity, and specificity. Results Among 32 331 women who underwent 117 971 surveillance mammographic examinations (112 269 digital mammographic examinations and 5702 DBT examinations), the mean age at initial diagnosis was 59 years ± 12 (standard deviation). Of 1418 second breast cancers diagnosed, 998 were surveillance-detected cancers and 420 were interval cancers. The recall rate was 8.8% (10 365 of 117 971; 95% CI: 8.6%, 9.0%), the cancer detection rate was 8.5 per 1000 examinations (998 of 117 971; 95% CI: 8.0, 9.0), the interval cancer rate was 3.6 per 1000 examinations (420 of 117 971; 95% CI: 3.2, 3.9), the positive predictive value of biopsy recommendation was 31.0% (998 of 3220; 95% CI: 29.4%, 32.7%), the sensitivity was 70.4% (998 of 1418; 95% CI: 67.9%, 72.7%), and the specificity was 98.1% (114 331 of 116 553; 95% CI: 98.0%, 98.2%). Compared with previously published studies, interval cancer rate was comparable with rates from 1996 to 2007 in women with a personal history of breast cancer and was higher than the published digital mammography screening benchmarks. Conclusion In transitioning from screen-film to digital mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis, surveillance mammography performance demonstrated minimal improvement over time and remained inferior to the performance of screening mammography benchmarks. © RSNA, 2021 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Moy and Gao in this issu

The manual pressures of stone tool behaviors and their implications for the evolution of the human hand

It is widely agreed that biomechanical stresses imposed by stone tool behaviors influenced the evolution of the human hand. Though archaeological evidence suggests that early hominins participated in a variety of tool behaviors, it is unlikely that all behaviors equally influenced modern human hand anatomy. It is more probable that a behavior's likelihood of exerting a selective pressure was a weighted function of the magnitude of stresses associated with that behavior, the benefits received from it, and the amount of time spent performing it. Based on this premise, we focused on the first part of that equation and evaluated magnitudes of stresses associated with stone tool behaviors thought to have been commonly practiced by early hominins, to determine which placed the greatest loads on the digits. Manual pressure data were gathered from 39 human subjects using a Novel Pliance® manual pressure system while they participated in multiple Plio-Pleistocene tool behaviors: nut-cracking, marrow acquisition with a hammerstone, flake production with a hammerstone, and handaxe and flake use. Manual pressure distributions varied significantly according to behavior, though there was a tendency for regions of the hand subject to the lowest pressures (e.g., proximal phalanges) to be affected less by behavior type. Hammerstone use during marrow acquisition and flake production consistently placed the greatest loads on the digits collectively, on each digit and on each phalanx. Our results suggest that, based solely on the magnitudes of stresses, hammerstone use during marrow acquisition and flake production are the most likely of the assessed behaviors to have influenced the anatomical and functional evolution of the human hand

Cultural transmission and biological markets

Active cultural transmission of fitness-enhancing behavior (sometimes called “teaching”) can be seen as a costly strategy: one for which its evolutionary stability poses a Darwinian puzzle. In this article, we offer a biological market model of cultural transmission that substitutes or complements existing kin selection-based proposals for the evolution of cultural capacities. We explicitly demonstrate how a biological market can account for the evolution of teaching when individual learners are the exclusive focus of social learning (such as in a fast-changing environment). We also show how this biological market can affect the dynamics of cumulative culture. The model works best when it is difficult to have access to the observation of the behavior without the help of the actor. However, in contrast to previous non-mathematical hypotheses for the evolution of teaching, we show how teaching evolves even when innovations are insufficiently opaque and therefore vulnerable to acquisition by emulators via inadvertent transmission. Furthermore, teaching in a biological market is an important precondition for enhancing individual learning abilitie