Exploring vertical and horizontal leadership in projects: A comparison of Indian and Australian contexts

Project-based organisational forms are becoming more and more prevalent in many industries, and leadership influences projects' success ultimately impacting the organisational performance. Two types of leadership styles have been explored: vertical and horizontal. This study aims to identify the nature and balance of vertical and horizontal leadership in projects to allow project managers to consciously poly these approaches in different situations. A case study-based approach is adopted wherein, two case studies from India and three case studies from Australia are included . A comparative study of leadership styles is performed to find the best contextual fit for leadership styles. The findings reveal that that national cultural is not a major factor in influencing project leadership. Rather, organisational culture and a shared understanding on leadership practices is what influences whether vertical or horizontal leadership will be more prevalent. Senior leaders' initiatives to create and support a culture of sharing ideasand decisions, backed by project manager's approach enable effective balance between horizontal and vertical leadership. Horizontal leadership is further by regular meetings and social interactions. Prevalence of horizontal leaderships is demonstrated in technical decisions, as team members have the best expertise to address technical issues. In contrast, strategic decisions are normally discussed with the project manager and often escalated to senior leaders for decisions

Conjoint bicondylar Hoffa fracture in a child: a rare variant treated by minimally invasive approach

A case of conjoint Hoffa-type fracture in a child is presented. Hoffa fracture, i.e., coronal slice fracture of the condyles of the femur, is rare in adults and even rarer in the pediatric population. To date, no case of conjoint bicondylar Hoffa fracture has been reported in the literature. The presented case was successfully treated by arthroscopically assisted internal fixation

Existence and multiplicity of positive periodic solutions for a class of higher-dimension functional differential equations with impulses

AbstractThis paper deals with the existence of multiple periodic solutions for n-dimensional functional differential equations with impulses. By employing the Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem, we obtain some easily verifiable sufficient criteria which extend previous results

Maternal Undernutrition Significantly Impacts Ovarian Follicle Number and Increases Ovarian Oxidative Stress in Adult Rat Offspring

BACKGROUND: We have shown recently that maternal undernutrition (UN) advanced female pubertal onset in a manner that is dependent upon the timing of UN. The long-term consequence of this accelerated puberty on ovarian function is unknown. Recent findings suggest that oxidative stress may be one mechanism whereby early life events impact on later physiological functioning. Therefore, using an established rodent model of maternal UN at critical windows of development, we examined maternal UN-induced changes in offspring ovarian function and determined whether these changes were underpinned by ovarian oxidative stress. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Our study is the first to show that maternal UN significantly reduced primordial and secondary follicle number in offspring in a manner that was dependent upon the timing of maternal UN. Specifically, a reduction in these early stage follicles was observed in offspring born to mothers undernourished throughout both pregnancy and lactation. Additionally, antral follicle number was reduced in offspring born to all mothers that were UN regardless of whether the period of UN was restricted to pregnancy or lactation or both. These reductions were associated with decreased mRNA levels of genes critical for follicle maturation and ovulation. Increased ovarian protein carbonyls were observed in offspring born to mothers UN during pregnancy and/or lactation and this was associated with peroxiredoxin 3 hyperoxidation and reduced mRNA levels; suggesting compromised antioxidant defence. This was not observed in offspring of mothers UN during lactation alone. CONCLUSIONS: We propose that maternal UN, particularly at a time-point that includes pregnancy, results in reduced offspring ovarian follicle numbers and mRNA levels of regulatory genes and may be mediated by increased ovarian oxidative stress coupled with a decreased ability to repair the resultant oxidative damage. Together these data are suggestive of maternal UN potentially contributing to premature ovarian ageing in offspring

Recent advances in hydrothermal carbonisation:from tailored carbon materials and biochemicals to applications and bioenergy

Introduced in the literature in 1913 by Bergius, who at the time was studying biomass coalification, hydrothermal carbonisation, as many other technologies based on renewables, was forgotten during the "industrial revolution". It was rediscovered back in 2005, on the one hand, to follow the trend set by Bergius of biomass to coal conversion for decentralised energy generation, and on the other hand as a novel green method to prepare advanced carbon materials and chemicals from biomass in water, at mild temperature, for energy storage and conversion and environmental protection. In this review, we will present an overview on the latest trends in hydrothermal carbonisation including biomass to bioenergy conversion, upgrading of hydrothermal carbons to fuels over heterogeneous catalysts, advanced carbon materials and their applications in batteries, electrocatalysis and heterogeneous catalysis and finally an analysis of the chemicals in the liquid phase as well as a new family of fluorescent nanomaterials formed at the interface between the liquid and solid phases, known as hydrothermal carbon nanodots

Ambient-temperature waterborne polymer/rGO nanocomposite films: effect of rGO distribution on electrical conductivity

Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. Electrically conductive polymer/rGO (reduced graphene oxide) films based on styrene and n-butyl acrylate are prepared by a variety of aqueous latex based routes involving ambient temperature film formation. Techniques based on miniemulsion polymerization using GO as surfactant and "physical mixing" approaches (i.e., mixing an aqueous polymer latex with an aqueous GO dispersion) are employed, followed by heat treatment of the films to convert GO to rGO. The distribution of GO sheets and the electrical conductivity depend strongly on the preparation method, with electrical conductivities in the range 9 × 10-4 to 3.4 × 102 S/m. Higher electrical conductivities are obtained using physical mixing compared to miniemulsion polymerization, which is attributed to the former providing a higher level of self-alignment of rGO into larger linear domains. The present results illustrate how the distribution of GO sheets within these hybrid materials can to some extent be controlled by judicious choice of preparation method, thereby providing an attractive means of nanoengineering for specific potential applications

MicroRNA-192 and -215 are upregulated in human gastric cancer in vivo and suppress ALCAM expression in vitro

The dismal outcome of gastric cancer patients highlights the need for diagnostic biomarkers and effective therapeutic targets, such as microRNAs. We sought to discover microRNAs involved in gastric cancer, and to elucidate their downstream target mechanisms. Both cultured gastric epithelial cells (HFE145 and NCI-N87) and primary human gastric tissues (31 non-neoplastic stomach (NS) and 25 gastric carcinomas (GC)) were studied. MicroRNA microarrays and quantitative RT–PCR were applied to discover and verify differentially expressed microRNAs. in vitro cell migration and invasion, cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis assays were executed to elucidate biological effects of micro-RNA-192 and -215. Western blotting and luciferase assays were performed to confirm direct messenger RNA targeting by microRNA-192 and -215. MicroRNA microarray analyses revealed that 25 and 20 microRNAs were upregulated and downregulated in GC vs NS, respectively. Expression levels of both microRNA-192 and -215 were significantly higher in GC than in NS (P < 0.05). Luciferase assays suggested that microRNA-215 inhibits activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) expression at the posttranscriptional level. In addition, expression levels of ALCAM were significantly lower in GC than in NS. Mimics and inhibitors, respectively, of microRNA-192 or -215 exerted no effect on cell cycle or apoptosis in the immortalized normal gastric cell line HFE145 or the gastric cancer cell line NCI-N87. However, mimics of microRNA-192 or -215 significantly increased growth rates in HFE145 cells, whereas inhibitors of microRNA-192 or -215 caused significant decreases in growth rates in NCI-N87 cells. ALCAM knockdown by an ALCAM-specific siRNA significantly increased cell growth in HFE145 cells. Both transfection of mimics of microRNA-192 or -215 and ALCAM knockdown by an ALCAM-specific siRNA significantly increased the migration of HFE145 cells. In conclusion, in gastric cancer, both microRNA-192 and -215 are overexpressed in vivo and exert cell growth and migration-promoting effects in vitro, thus representing potential microRNAs with a role in cancer in the human stomach