The Effect of Gender Stereotypes on the Entrepreneurial Creative Process of Divergent Thinking

Previous research has shown that the activation of stereotypes on women’s math performance impinged their mathematical abilities causing them to do worse than their abilities. However, this research has not been carried out or applied in the creativity domain. So this article linking the concepts of gender, creativity and entrepreneurship investigated the effect of gender stereotypes on the entrepreneurial creative process of divergent thinking. This research relied on an experiment that entailed the participation of 36 women, stereotype activation and the completion of a divergent thinking task. The Guilford Alternative Uses task was given to two groups – an experiment group subjected to implicit stereotype activation and a control group that only completed the divergent thinking task. The results of the research showed no significant difference in the scores of the two groups which suggests that unlike the results of the previous research, gender priming has no effect on the creative ability of women

“This Place Is Going to Burn”: Measuring Prison Climate in Three Facilities

Despite the common adage that prison facilities often carry a unique mark of the “warden’s world,” few studies have compared characteristics among individual facilities over time. This study utilizes two waves of prison surveys (N = 525) that produce markers of perceived prison climate at the facility level; contributions fill three voids in correctional literature: facility-level comparison of prison climate; interactions of institutional characteristics; and predictors of change over time. Research is conducted within three facilities in one U.S. Midwest state, utilizing social climate instruments (primarily EssenCES) established internationally. Three main findings result: First, facilities-as-place share commonalities but also exert distinguishable and independent effects on perceived livability. Second, the study confirms several metrics that exert influence on livability, including staff support, inmate support, and inmate threat. Third, statistical models capture climate change over time and identify significant predictors, including measures of support, threat, and “assurance” (sense of belonging and purpose). Four regression models consistently capture meaningful change during a particularly volatile state-wide environment, with each facility responding somewhat differently. The authors suggest that measures of prison climate over time may indicate a conceptual tensile strength, or potential breaking point, in institutional stability

First report of Phytophthora capsici in the Lao PDR

Phytophthora capsici is reported for the first time in the Lao PDR. It was isolated from soil collected from the root zone of wilting red chilli (Capsicum annuum) plants in a polyhouse farm in Paksong district of Champasak province. The wilting chilli plants had typical symptoms of infection by P. capsici including root rot and necrosis of the outer cortex of the stem base. The isolate was identified using morphological and molecular markers. A pathogenicity trial demonstrated that the culture was pathogenic to a local cultivar of chilli seedlings

Modelling the impacts of diverse cover crops on soil water and nitrogen and cash crop yields in a sub-tropical dryland

Open Access ArticleUnderstanding the implications of replacing fallows with cover crops on plant-available water (PAW) and soil mineral nitrogen (N) and their carry-over effects on subsequent cash crops is critical for understanding their potential for ecological intensification in water-limited environments. We modelled the impacts of different cover crop functional types over historical climate to predict how climate variability influences soil water and N acquisition and subsequent availability to a maize crop in a dryland farming system of subtropical Australia. Following local validation of simulation models (APSIM) with 3-site-years of field data, 70 years of crop-fallow rotations were simulated comparing conventional fallow against a diverse range of cover crops comprising monocultures and mixtures of grass vs. legume vs. brassica. Cover crops consistently reduced soil water and mineral N at maize sowing compared to conventional fallow. In dry to normal precipitation years, this induced a maize yield penalty of up to − 18% relative to fallow, primarily due to reduced water availability. In wet years, increased in maize grain yield (+4%) was predicted following legume and grass-associated cover crop mixtures with concomitant reductions in N leaching and soil surface runoff of up to 40%. Cash crop yields following grass-cover crops were more stable and carried lower downside risks; multi-species (grass-legume-brassica) cover crop mixtures carried higher yield penalties and greater downside risks due to high biomass accumulation and high soil water extraction. These long-term predictions in water-limited environments indicate that increasing cover crop complexity by using mixtures with diverse functional traits can lead to a greater risk of yield losses and increased yield instability unless they are managed differently to monoculture cover crops. Therefore, for successful integration of cover crops into dryland agroecosystems, cover crops should be considered as a flexible choice grown under favourable precipitation and economic scenarios rather than for continuous fallow replacement

Uptake of gases in bundles of carbon nanotubes

Model calculations are presented which predict whether or not an arbitrary gas experiences significant absorption within carbon nanotubes and/or bundles of nanotubes. The potentials used in these calculations assume a conventional form, based on a sum of two-body interactions with individual carbon atoms; the latter employ energy and distance parameters which are derived from empirical combining rules. The results confirm intuitive expectation that small atoms and molecules are absorbed within both the interstitial channels and the tubes, while large atoms and molecules are absorbed almost exclusively within the tubes.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, submitted to PRB Newer version (8MAR2K). There was an error in the old one (23JAN2K). Please download thi

The celebrity entrepreneur on television: profile, politics and power

This article examines the rise of the ‘celebrity entrepreneur’ on television through the emergence of the ‘business entertainment format’ and considers the ways in which regular television exposure can be converted into political influence. Within television studies there has been a preoccupation in recent years with how lifestyle and reality formats work to transform ‘ordinary’ people into celebrities. As a result, the contribution of vocationally skilled business professionals to factual entertainment programming has gone almost unnoticed. This article draws on interviews with key media industry professionals and begins by looking at the construction of entrepreneurs as different types of television personalities and how discourses of work, skill and knowledge function in business shows. It then outlines how entrepreneurs can utilize their newly acquired televisual skills to cultivate a wider media profile and secure various forms of political access and influence. Integral to this is the centrality of public relations and media management agencies in shaping media discourses and developing the individual as a ‘brand identity’ that can be used to endorse a range of products or ideas. This has led to policy makers and politicians attempting to mobilize the media profile of celebrity entrepreneurs to reach out and connect with the public on business and enterprise-related issues

Local genomic adaptation of coral reef-associated microbiomes to gradients of natural variability and anthropogenic stressors

Holobionts are species-specific associations between macro- and microorganisms. On coral reefs, the benthic coverage of coral and algal holobionts varies due to natural and anthropogenic forcings. Different benthic macroorganisms are predicted to have specific microbiomes. In contrast, local environmental factors are predicted to select for specific metabolic pathways in microbes. To reconcile these two predictions, we hypothesized that adaptation of microbiomes to local conditions is facilitated by the horizontal transfer of genes responsible for specific metabolic capabilities. To test this hypothesis, microbial metagenomes were sequenced from 22 coral reefs at 11 Line Islands in the central Pacific that together span a wide range of biogeochemical and anthropogenic influences. Consistent with our hypothesis, the percent cover of major benthic functional groups significantly correlated with particular microbial taxa. Reefs with higher coral cover had a coral microbiome with higher abundances of Alphaproteobacteria (such as Rhodobacterales and Sphingomonadales), whereas microbiomes of algae-dominated reefs had higher abundances of Gammaproteobacteria (such as Alteromonadales, Pseudomonadales, and Vibrionales), Betaproteobacteria, and Bacteriodetes. In contrast to taxa, geography was the strongest predictor of microbial community metabolism. Microbial communities on reefs with higher nutrient availability (e.g., equatorial upwelling zones) were enriched in genes involved in nutrient-related metabolisms (e.g., nitrate and nitrite ammonification, Ton/Tol transport, etc.). On reefs further from the equator, microbes had more genes encoding chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosystems I/II. These results support the hypothesis that core microbiomes are determined by holobiont macroorganisms, and that those core taxa adapt to local conditions by selecting for advantageous metabolic genes

Multiple functional self-association interfaces in plant TIR domains

The self-association of Toll/interleukin-1 receptor/resistance protein (TIR) domains has been implicated in signaling in plant and animal immunity receptors. Structure-based studies identified different TIR-domain dimerization interfaces required for signaling of the plant nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptors (NLRs) L6 from flax and disease resistance protein RPS4 from Arabidopsis. Here we show that the crystal structure of the TIR domain from the Arabidopsis NLR suppressor of npr1-1, constitutive 1 (SNC1) contains both an L6-like interface involving helices alpha D and alpha E (DE interface) and an RPS4-like interface involving helices alpha A and alpha E (AE interface). Mutations in either the AE- or DE-interface region disrupt cell-death signaling activity of SNC1, L6, and RPS4 TIR domains and full-length L6 and RPS4. Self-association of L6 and RPS4 TIR domains is affected by mutations in either region, whereas only AE-interface mutations affect SNC1 TIR-domain self-association. We further show two similar interfaces in the crystal structure of the TIR domain from the Arabidopsis NLR recognition of Peronospora parasitica 1 (RPP1). These data demonstrate that both the AE and DE self-association interfaces are simultaneously required for self-association and cell-death signaling in diverse plant NLRs.11139Ysciescopu

Progressive transformation of a flux rope to an ICME

The solar wind conditions at one astronomical unit (AU) can be strongly disturbed by the interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). A subset, called magnetic clouds (MCs), is formed by twisted flux ropes that transport an important amount of magnetic flux and helicity which is released in CMEs. At 1 AU from the Sun, the magnetic structure of MCs is generally modeled neglecting their expansion during the spacecraft crossing. However, in some cases, MCs present a significant expansion. We present here an analysis of the huge and significantly expanding MC observed by the Wind spacecraft during 9 and 10 November, 2004. After determining an approximated orientation for the flux rope using the minimum variance method, we precise the orientation of the cloud axis relating its front and rear magnetic discontinuities using a direct method. This method takes into account the conservation of the azimuthal magnetic flux between the in- and out-bound branches, and is valid for a finite impact parameter (i.e., not necessarily a small distance between the spacecraft trajectory and the cloud axis). Moreover, using the direct method, we find that the ICME is formed by a flux rope (MC) followed by an extended coherent magnetic region. These observations are interpreted considering the existence of a previous larger flux rope, which partially reconnected with its environment in the front. These findings imply that the ejected flux rope is progressively peeled by reconnection and transformed to the observed ICME (with a remnant flux rope in the front part).Comment: Solar Physics (in press

New method for true-triaxial rock testing

Two new and related true-triaxial apparatus are described that make use of conventional triaxial pressure vessels in combination with specially configured, high-pressure hydraulic jacks inside these vessels. The development combines advantages not found in existing facilities, including a compact design, pore-pressure and flow-through capabilities, the ability to attain high principal stresses and principal stress differences, direct access to parts of the sample, and provisions to go to relatively large deformations without developing serious stress field inhomogeneities