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The double-edged sword of jurisdictional entrenchment: Explaining HR professionalsâ failed strategic repositioning
To protect themselves against deskilling and obsolescence, professionals must periodically revise their claims to authority and expertise. Although we understand these dynamics in the broader system of professions, we have a less-complete understanding of how this process unfolds in specific organizational contexts. Yet given the ubiquity of embedded professionals, this context is where jurisdictional shifts increasingly take place. Drawing on a comparative ethnographic study of HR professionals in two engineering firms, we introduce the concept of jurisdictional entrenchment to explain the challenges embedded professionals face when they attempt to redefine their jurisdiction. Jurisdictional entrenchment describes a condition in which embedded professionals have accumulated tasks, tactics, and expertise that enable them to make jurisdictional claims in an organization. We show how such entrenchment is a double-edged sword: instrumental to the ability of professionals to withstand challenges to their authority, but detrimental when expertise and skills devalued by the professionals remain in high demand by clients, thus preventing the professionalsâ shift to their aspirational jurisdiction. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of how embedded professionals renegotiate jurisdictional claims within the constraints of organizational employment
The Post-Pericenter Evolution of the Galactic Center Source G2
In early 2014 the fast-moving near-infrared source G2 reached its closest
approach to the supermassive black hole Sgr A* in the Galactic Center. We
report on the evolution of the ionized gaseous component and the dusty
component of G2 immediately after this event, revealed by new observations
obtained in 2015 and 2016 with the SINFONI integral field spectrograph and the
NACO imager at the ESO VLT. The spatially resolved dynamics of the Br
line emission can be accounted for by the ballistic motion and tidal shearing
of a test-particle cloud that has followed a highly eccentric Keplerian orbit
around the black hole for the last 12 years. The non-detection of a drag force
or any strong hydrodynamic interaction with the hot gas in the inner accretion
zone limits the ambient density to less than a few 10 cm at the
distance of closest approach (1500 ), assuming G2 is a spherical cloud
moving through a stationary and homogeneous atmosphere. The dust continuum
emission is unresolved in L'-band, but stays consistent with the location of
the Br emission. The total luminosity of the Br and L' emission
has remained constant to within the measurement uncertainty. The nature and
origin of G2 are likely related to that of the precursor source G1, since their
orbital evolution is similar, though not identical. Both object are also likely
related to a trailing tail structure, which is continuously connected to G2
over a large range in position and radial velocity.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
Optical Distortion in the NACO Imager
In this research note, we present a set of distortion solutions that may be
used to correct geometric optical distortion in images taken with the S13
camera of the NACO adaptive optics imager.Comment: published in the RNAA
First direct detection of an exoplanet by optical interferometry; Astrometry and K-band spectroscopy of HR8799 e
To date, infrared interferometry at best achieved contrast ratios of a few
times on bright targets. GRAVITY, with its dual-field mode, is now
capable of high contrast observations, enabling the direct observation of
exoplanets. We demonstrate the technique on HR8799, a young planetary system
composed of four known giant exoplanets. We used the GRAVITY fringe tracker to
lock the fringes on the central star, and integrated off-axis on the HR8799e
planet situated at 390 mas from the star. Data reduction included
post-processing to remove the flux leaking from the central star and to extract
the coherent flux of the planet. The inferred K band spectrum of the planet has
a spectral resolution of 500. We also derive the astrometric position of the
planet relative to the star with a precision on the order of 100as. The
GRAVITY astrometric measurement disfavors perfectly coplanar stable orbital
solutions. A small adjustment of a few degrees to the orbital inclination of HR
8799 e can resolve the tension, implying that the orbits are close to, but not
strictly coplanar. The spectrum, with a signal-to-noise ratio of
per spectral channel, is compatible with a late-type L brown dwarf. Using
Exo-REM synthetic spectra, we derive a temperature of \,K and a
surface gravity of cm/s. This corresponds to a radius
of and a mass of , which is an independent confirmation of mass estimates from evolutionary
models. Our results demonstrate the power of interferometry for the direct
detection and spectroscopic study of exoplanets at close angular separations
from their stars.Comment: published in A&
Identification of the Schistosoma mansoni TNF-Alpha Receptor Gene and the Effect of Human TNF-Alpha on the Parasite Gene Expression Profile
Schistosoma mansoni is the major causative agent of schistosomiasis in the Americas. This parasite takes advantage of host signaling molecules such as cytokines and hormones to complete its development inside the host. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) is one of the most important host cytokines involved in the inflammatory response. When cercariae, the infective stage, penetrates the human skin the release of TNF-α is started. In this work the authors describe the complete sequence of a possible TNF-α receptor in S. mansoni and detect that the receptor is most highly expressed in cercariae among all life cycle stages. Aiming to mimic the situation at the site of skin penetration, cercariae were mechanically transformed in vitro into schistosomula and exposed to human TNF-α. Exposure of early-developing schistosomula to the human hormone caused a large-scale change in the expression of parasite genes. Exposure of adult worms to human TNF-α caused gene expression changes as well, and the set of parasite altered genes in the adult parasite was different from that of schistosomula. This work increases the number of known signaling pathways of the parasite, and opens new perspectives into understanding the molecular components of TNF-α response as well as into possibly interfering with parasiteâhost interaction
Testing in Mice the Hypothesis That Melanin Is Protective in Malaria Infections
Malaria has had the largest impact of any infectious disease on shaping the human genome, exerting enormous selective pressure on genes that improve survival in severe malaria infections. Modern humans originated in Africa and lost skin melanization as they migrated to temperate regions of the globe. Although it is well documented that loss of melanization improved cutaneous Vitamin D synthesis, melanin plays an evolutionary ancient role in insect immunity to malaria and in some instances melanin has been implicated to play an immunoregulatory role in vertebrates. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that melanization may be protective in malaria infections using mouse models. Congenic C57BL/6 mice that differed only in the gene encoding tyrosinase, a key enzyme in the synthesis of melanin, showed no difference in the clinical course of infection by Plasmodium yoelii 17XL, that causes severe anemia, Plasmodium berghei ANKA, that causes severe cerebral malaria or Plasmodium chabaudi AS that causes uncomplicated chronic disease. Moreover, neither genetic deficiencies in vitamin D synthesis nor vitamin D supplementation had an effect on survival in cerebral malaria. Taken together, these results indicate that neither melanin nor vitamin D production improve survival in severe malaria
Combined Effect of Dietary Cadmium and Benzo(a)pyrene on Metallothionein Induction and Apoptosis in the Liver and Kidneys of Bank Voles
Bank voles free living in a contaminated environment have been shown to be more sensitive to cadmium (Cd) toxicity than the rodents exposed to Cd under laboratory conditions. The objective of this study was to find out whether benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), a common environmental co-contaminant, increases Cd toxicity through inhibition of metallothionein (MT) synthesisâa low molecular weight protein that is considered to be primary intracellular component of the protective mechanism. For 6Â weeks, the female bank voles were provided with diet containing Cd [less than 0.1Â ÎŒg/g (control) and 60Â ÎŒg/g dry wt.] and BaP (0, 5, and 10Â ÎŒg/g dry wt.) alone or in combination. At the end of exposure period, apoptosis and analyses of MT, Cd, and zinc (Zn) in the liver and kidneys were carried out. Dietary BaP 5Â ÎŒg/g did not affect but BaP 10Â ÎŒg/g potentiated rather than inhibited induction of hepatic and renal MT by Cd, and diminished Cd-induced apoptosis in both organs. The hepatic and renal Zn followed a pattern similar to that of MT, attaining the highest level in the Cdâ+âBaP 10-ÎŒg/g group. These data indicate that dietary BaP attenuates rather than exacerbates Cd toxicity in bank voles, probably by potentiating MT synthesis and increasing Zn concentration in the liver and kidneys
First light for GRAVITY: Phase referencing optical interferometry for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
This is the author accepted manuscript. the final version is available from EDP Sciences via the DOI in this recordGRAVITY is a new instrument to coherently combine the light of the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope Interferometer to form a telescope with an equivalent 130 m diameter angular resolution and a collecting area of 200 m2. The instrument comprises fiber fed integrated optics beam combination, high resolution spectroscopy, built-in beam analysis and control, near-infrared wavefront sensing, phase-tracking, dual-beam operation, and laser metrology. GRAVITY opens up to optical/infrared interferometry the techniques of phase referenced imaging and narrow angle astrometry, in many aspects following the concepts of radio interferometry. This article gives an overview of GRAVITY and reports on the performance and the first astronomical observations during commissioning in 2015/16. We demonstrate phase-tracking on stars as faint as mK â 10 mag, phase-referenced interferometry of objects fainter than mK â 15 mag with a limiting magnitude of mK â 17 mag, minute long coherent integrations, a visibility accuracy of better than 0.25%, and spectro-differential phase and closure phase accuracy better than 0.5°, corresponding to a differential astrometric precision of better than ten microarcseconds (ÎŒas). The dual-beam astrometry, measuring the phase difference of two objects with laser metrology, is still under commissioning. First observations show residuals as low as 50 ÎŒas when following objects over several months. We illustrate the instrument performance with the observations of archetypical objects for the different instrument modes. Examples include the Galactic center supermassive black hole and its fast orbiting star S2 for phase referenced dual-beam observations and infrared wavefront sensing, the high mass X-ray binary BP Cru and the active galactic nucleus of PDS 456 for a few ÎŒas spectro-differential astrometry, the T Tauri star S CrA for a spectro-differential visibility analysis, Ο Tel and 24 Cap for high accuracy visibility observations, and η Car for interferometric imaging with GRAVITY.Agence Nationale de la RechercheAlexander von Humboldt FoundationEuropean Union, Seventh Framework Programm
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