The Devil\u27s in the Emails: A Sociological Examination of Organizational Failure

It is often argued that the market, with its invisible hand, displays an inherent bent towards maximizing utility and delivering the greatest good to the greatest number. Faith in the market to act as benevolent overlord is not only misguided but, as revealed during the Great Recession, a fantasy. Analyzing emails made public following the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, this paper considers the organizational culture within Lehman Brothers leading up to history\u27s largest bankruptcy in order to emphasize the role of interaction within an outcome otherwise uncritically categorized as the unavoidable product of market fluctuations. Demonstrating how Lehman employees adopted the institutional myth of market efficiency and inhabited it with a distinct organizational arrogance, this paper challenges readers to reimagine the Lehman Bankruptcy not as an inevitable collapse ordained by market efficiency, but as the result of individuals collectively enacting organizational modifications of a well known and widely accepted institutional myth

Laissez Fairy Tales: Consensus, Cohesion, and Corporate Culture During the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Understanding the ways in which organizations fail is foundational to the organization studies discipline. Organizational sociologists have outlined the various ways organizations and organizational cultures can fail separately or simultaneously, temporarily or totally. Yet, little effort has been directed toward proving that organizational culture is capable of surviving the complete and total collapse of the organization from which it emerged. This work uncovers a new way that organizations can fail that leaves their organizational culture intact. the author considers employee interactions during the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy by reassembling the cultural artifacts contained in a company email archive to demonstrate that organizational culture is less consistent and more resilient and unpredictable than previously thought. by centering organizationally situated interactions between employees at the meso-level, the author demonstrates how extra-local institutional logics can generate consensus, cohesion, and confusion during periods of organizational turmoil, when those logics are dynamically reimagined as endogenous to the organization by employees with disparate personal histories across distinct organizational positions, who embrace them, combine them, challenge them, and adapt them to support their own aims

Hearts and Minds in Houston: Implementing and Evaluating Cross-Trainings on the Value of Employment for Ending Homelessness

Many communities struggle to ensure that people experiencing homelessness have access to appropriate, effective employment services. Through their work with Heartland Alliance's National Center on Employment and Homelessness (NCEH), stakeholders in Houston, TX, identified cross-system training as a promising means to build buy-in and commitment from staff and leaders from both the workforce development and homeless services systems around prioritizing employment outcomes for people experiencing homelessness. NCEH partnered with Houston stakeholders to develop, deliver, and evaluate a training curriculum for personnel from multiple systems aimed at increasing their knowledge and positively changing their attitudes and beliefs about homelessness and employment. This paper discusses the impact of the cross-system trainings and gives recommendations to other communities seeking to build buy-in for similar cross-system coordination work.

Clinical significance of thyroxine-binding globulin

The first chapter of this thesis comprises a review of thyroxine-binding proteins of man, with emphasis on TBG and, to a lesser extent, TBPA. The identification, isolation, physicochemical and physiological characteristics, and genetic variations of both proteins are included. The changes in protein concentration in disease are reviewed and the indications for the present study are presented. Subsequent chapters describe the purification of TBPA and partial purification of TBG. The production of monospecific antisera to TBG and TBPA, and development of immunoelectrophoretic assays for both proteins are described. TBG was measured in healthy persons, and the effects of age and sex on TBG were assessed, as was the effect of thyroid disease. TBG, TBPA and thyroid hormones were measured in patients after surgery, myocardial infarction and starvation. The inter-relationships of protein and free hormone concentrations were explored. Finally, nineteen families with inherited abnormalities of TBG concentration were studied. The typical case histories and biochemical findings of individuals with TBG abnormality were noted, especially when TBG abnormality coexisted with thyroid disease. Deficiencies of conventional thyroid function tests were found in TBG abnormality, and the use of T$_4$ :TBG ratio as a means of assessing thyroid function was assessed retrospectively and prospectively

Inverse Analysis of Light Scattered by Soot Aggregates

The impact of soot on human health and the environment is a function of its size and morphology. Thus, it is important to have a method to quickly and accurately determine the aggregate size distribution of soot. Elastic light scattering is considered as a method to determine the aggregate size distribution in an aerosol. The relationship between the scattered light and the aggregate size distribution is derived and a robust inversion method is presented. The method is validated against artificial data. It is then applied to experimental data from a flame condition at which a distribution obtained from TEM analysis exists, and found to work quite well. Finally, optimization is applied to the experimental angles at which light is measured. The results showed that there is indeed an optimal angle setup, and that the error at that optimal setup is reduced over other angular setups

Examining Healthcare Institutions by Bringing Qualitative Data from Two Eras into Empirical Dialogue

In this paper, we argue that there is new insight to be gained by reexamining the classic text, Boys in White, in strategic ways. Specifically, we share excerpts from Boys in White with current medical students and ask for their reactions in qualitative interviews, examining the relevance (or lack thereof) of earlier meanings about professional training for current processes of professional training. We show how we have employed this technique in our current project revisiting Boys in White with current medical students, and discuss preliminary findings that reveal the potential of this technique for documenting evidence of macro-level forces in healthcare institutions using qualitative data on new doctors. We conclude with discussion of alternative approaches through which scholars could make use of this technique in future professional socialization scholarship that could shed light on dynamics of institutional persistence and change

Pumping Plant Performance

Irrigation accounts for a large portion of the energy used in Nebraska agriculture. This paper describes a method to estimate the cost of pumping water and compares the amount of energy used by a properly designed and well-maintained pumping plant, represented by the Nebraska Pumping Plant Performance Criteria (NPPPC). The results can help determine the feasibility of repairing the pumping plant. Methods to compare energy sources are also presented. We recommend that you periodically arrange with a well drilling company to test the efficiency of your pump. Worksheets for pumping plant performance are included in the appendix

Developing a trapping assay to assess the viability of Trogodermavariabileas a behavioral surrogate species for the biosecurity threat, Trogodermagranarium(Coleoptera: Dermestidae)

The Khapra beetle (KB), Trogoderma granarium, is a pest that threatens the biosecurity of the United States. This species has not established itself in this country, however in the past few years there has been an alarming increase in the number of interceptions of adults at borders and ports in the U.S. Because researchers in the U.S. are only able to work with KB in specially designated APHIS quarantine facilities, understanding the full extent of the threat from this species would proceed much faster if a behavioral surrogate species could be used that was already widespread in the country. One potential surrogate species is Trogodermavariabile, the warehouse beetle (Fig. 1), which is closely related to KB, occurs throughout the U.S., and is a destructive pest of stored products in its own right

River Report. State of the Lower St. Johns River Basin, Florida: Water Quality, Fisheries, Aquatic Life, Contaminants, 2022.

https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/sotr/1012/thumbnail.jp

An objective assessment of the impact of tendon retraction on sleep efficiency in patients with full-thickness rotator cuff tears: a prospective cohort study

Background Sleep quality, quantity, and efficiency have all been demonstrated to be adversely affected by rotator cuff pathology. Previous measures of assessing the impact of rotator cuff pathology on sleep have been largely subjective in nature. The aim of the present study was to use an objective measure of sleep quality and to compare these findings to the patients’ Patte stage. Methods Patients with full-thickness rotator cuff tears at a single institution were prospectively enrolled between 2018 and 2020. Waist-worn accelerometers were provided for the patients to use each night for 14 days. Sleep efficiency was calculated using the ratio of the time spent sleeping to the total amount of time that was spent in bed. Retraction of the rotator cuff tear was classified using the Patte staging system. Results This study included 36 patients: 18 with Patte stage 1 disease, 14 with Patte stage 2 disease, and 4 patients with Patte stage 3 disease. During the study, 25 participants wore the monitor on multiple nights, and ultimately their data was used for the analysis. No difference in the median sleep efficiency was appreciated amongst these groups (P>0.1), with each cohort of patients demonstrating a generally high sleep efficiency. Conclusions The severity of retraction of the rotator cuff tear did not appear to correlate with changes in sleep efficiency for patients (P>0.1). These findings can better inform providers on how to counsel their patients who present with complaints of poor sleep in the setting of full-thickness rotator cuff tears. Level of evidenceLevel II