Disability visibility and stigma threat: Effects on the performance, stress, and self-control of disabled workers

Having a stigmatized disability is a depleting experience. For those with a disability, there are many factors that contribute to potential performance decrements in any given situation. Visibility of the disability, and the stigma connected to the disability are two such factors—which I argue based on research on motivation, regulation, and stress, contributes to the regulatory depletion experienced by disabled individuals. I conducted an experimental study where participants took part in a workplace simulation. Participants were given an artificially simulated disability and both the visibility of the disability and the stigmatizing nature of the disability were manipulated. I found a significant effect of disability visibility, on performance and an interaction effect of stigma threat and disability visibility on self-control. The implications of these results for theory, practice, and future research are discussed

Rat angiotensin-converting enzyme : tissue specific expression during pharmacological inhibition

The renin-angiotensin system plays a central role in the maintenance of blood pressure. Angiotensin II, the main effector of this system, results from the action of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) on angiotensin I. Angiotensin II, maintains vasomotor tone via its vasoconstrictor action, and also increases salt and water retention by stimulating the release of aldosterone. ACE inhibitors, such as captopril, enalapril and lisinopril, are highly effective in the treatment of hypertension and congestive cardiac failure. Previous studies have suggested that angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) production may be enhanced during pharmacological inhibition of the enzyme. Little is known, however about the mechanism of this induction. After demonstrating increases in circulating ACE protein in cardiac failure patients receiving the ACE inhibitor captopril, a rat model was used to study this effect. A sensitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for rat ACE was developed and a partial cDNA for rat ACE cloned to enable examination of ACE mRNA and protein expression during enzyme inhibition with enalapril. Rat lung ACE mRNA increased by 156% (p<0.05) and ACE protein doubled within 3 hours of administering a single dose of enalapril. Testicular ACE mRNA also increased by 300% (p<0.05) within 2 hours and returned to pretreatment levels by 6 hours. The angiotensin II antagonist saralasin similarly caused a significant (p<0.0001) 800% enhancement of mRNA expression. Aldosterone pretreatment of rats prior to enalapril administration was found to abolish this mRNA induction. These findings indicate that increased ACE expression during inhibition results from reduced levels of angiotensin II with consequent reduced stimulation of the angiotensin 11 receptor and its effects, such as aldosterone release. This suggests that ACE levels are regulated by a negative feedback loop involving the distal components of the renin-angiotensin system, namely angiotensin II and aldosterone. In situ hybridisation and immunohistochemical techniques were employed to localise the site of this inductive response in rat tissue sections. It was found that lung macrophages were markedly induced to produce ACE, as was ACE in seminiferous tubules. ACE induction was also noted in the expected sites of renal tubular epithelium and glomerular tissue. Interestingly, ACE expression was also enhanced in cardiac valves. In these studies it has been conclusively demonstrated that new ACE expression is induced by enzyme inhibitor therapy. A variety of techniques have been developed that will allow futher study of ACE in rat tissues

The five stable noble gases are sensitive unambiguous tracers of glacial meltwater

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 41 (2014): 2835–2841, doi:10.1002/2013GL058804.The five inert noble gases—He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe—exhibit a unique dissolved gas saturation pattern resulting from the formation and addition of glacial meltwater to seawater. He and Ne become oversaturated, and Ar, Kr, and Xe become undersaturated to varying percentages. For example, addition of 10‰ glacial meltwater to seawater results in a saturation anomaly of ΔHe = 12.8%, ΔNe = 8.9%, ΔAr = −0.5%, ΔKr = −2.2%, and ΔXe = −3.3%. This pattern in noble gas saturation reflects a unique meltwater signature that is distinct from the other major physical processes that modify the gas concentration and saturation, namely, seasonal changes in temperature at the ocean surface and bubble mediated gas exchange. We use Optimum Multiparameter analysis to illustrate how all five noble gases can help distinguish glacial meltwater from wind-driven bubble injection, making them a potentially valuable suite of tracers for glacial melt and its concentration in the deep waters of the world ocean.We are grateful to the National Science Foundation (OCE825394 and OCE0752980) for support of this research.2014-10-1

The Psychology of Workplace Deviant & Criminal Behavior

The 2013 book Deviant and Criminal Behavior in the Workplace addresses the psychological constructs, situations, and environments underlying active counterproductive workplace behaviors. Building on a diverse range of psychological findings, this book highlights that the field of criminology needs to expand outside of the realm of violence and instead look at how deviant workplace behaviors can tie into—and motivate—other types of crime

The Cultural Foundations of Family Business Management: Evidence from Ukraine

This study empirically examines what makes Ukrainian family-firm culture unique by comparing the values and beliefs of Ukrainian family-business members with that of professional bank managers within Ukraine. Morck and Yeung (2003) suggest that the implications of family business are especially relevant for former planned economies such as Ukraine in that government’s social policy on the encouragement or discouragement of privately-held sectors of the economy is yet to be fully formed. Ukraine’s future course in this regard is particularly sensitive as the pre-Soviet Ukrainian economy was almost entirely held in private hands while the Soviet-era economy was almost entirely state-controlled. Family-firm literature stresses the differences between family-firm and professional management in terms of culture, goal-setting, and strategy. Family-firm culture is said to be a resource leading to competitive advantage. This study is based on a survey comparing 76 family-firm members and 99 professional managers. Statistically significant differences between the culture of members of family-owned firms and professional managers were found within Ukraine. Family-firm membership had a significant effect in five culture constructs. We can conclude that differences in Power Distance, Social Cynicism, Social Flexibility, Spirituality and Fate Control describe fundamental aspects of family-firms in Ukraine and may possibly contribute to family-firm competitive advantage as discussed in management literature

GMM Estimation of Income Distributions from Grouped Data

We develop a GMM procedure for estimating income distributions from grouped data with unknown group bounds. The approach enables us to obtain standard errors for the estimated parameters and functions of the parameters, such as inequality and poverty measures, and to test the validity of an assumed distribution using a J-test. Using eight countries/regions for the year 2005, we show how the methodology can be applied to estimate the parameters of the generalized beta distribution of the second kind, and its special-case distributions, the beta-2, Singh-Maddala, Dagum, generalized gamma and lognormal distributions. This work extends earlier work (Chotikapanich et al., 2007, 2012) that did not specify a formal GMM framework, did not provide methodology for obtaining standard errors, and considered only the beta-2 distribution. The results show that generalized beta distribution fits the data well and outperforms other frequently used distributions.GMM; generalized beta distribution; grouped data; inequality and poverty

The Domain-Specificity of Epistemological Understanding in Making Aesthetic Judgments

Literature in arts education suggests that experiences in the arts support the development of thinking skills such as critical thinking and reasoning (Fiske, 1999; Eisner, 2004; Greene, Kisida, and Bowen, 2014). But do individuals make aesthetic judgments supported by critical thinking and reasoning, or are these judgments based only on subjective preferences or personal taste? The present study examines whether undergraduate college students from an elite private university serving primarily students of high socioeconomic status (SES) and a public university serving primarily low SES students (n=150) invoke criteria when making evaluative judgments across the domains of visual art, music, and a non-aesthetic more general domain. Students were asked to compare two works of art (visual art or music), and to compare two fictional political candidates and to indicate whether one could be judged superior to the other and if so on what basis. Responses reflected levels of epistemological understanding—that is, whether judgments are based primarily on facts (Absolutist level), subjective opinions (Multiplist level), or criteria (Evaluativist level). The majority of participants displayed Multiplist levels in the aesthetic domains. Evaluativist levels were more common in the non-aesthetic domain, although significantly so only in comparison to the music domain among the students from the private elite university. Group comparisons across the two aesthetic domains showed that individuals scored at the Evaluativist level with more frequency in the visual art domain as compared to the music domain. However, this difference was significant only among the participants from the private elite university and not among the participants from the public university. The general educational and social background of the participants (private elite university setting versus public university setting) proved to be the strongest predictor of Evaluativist-level responses. Continued research in epistemological understanding in the aesthetic domain is needed, as development in epistemological thinking may afford insights into the degree to which individuals exercise critical thinking about the arts, and how such thinking can be fostered

Justified in Christ

Justification has been a central doctrine for the entire history of the church. Until recent years there has been an overall consensus on what the doctrine entails and how it is applied to the believer. This doctrine has been reexamined by a number of scholars who have developed an entirely different perspective on what Paul meant when he wrote about justification. N. T. Wright’s understanding of this new perspective is examined with the purpose of establishing its validity. Other scholarship is brought into focus in order to achieve this goal. This paper concludes that N. T. Wright’s perspective is incomplete. However, also examined is his emphasis on certain intricacies from which church leaders today might benefit

Influence of the asexual parasite biomass on in vitro susceptibility of Plasmodium falciparum to antimalarial drugs in Abidjan

The in vitro activities of artemisinin, dihydroartemisinin (the biologically active metabolite of artemisinin derivatives), chloroquine and pyronaridine were assessed in 32 isolates of Plasmodium falciparum from Abobo in the northern of Abidjan district (Cote dfIvoire) using a test based on the standard microtechnique recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The parasites densities were ranged between 8,000 and 540,000 rings/&fnof;&Ecirc;l of blood. The geometric means 50% inhibitory concentration (GMIC50) values for chloroquine, pyronaridine and artemisinin were 145.5 nM (95% confidence interval (CI) =65-226 nM), 17.69 nM (95% CI=9.1-26.3 nM) and 5.72 nM (95% CI=2.3-9.1 nM), respectively. Dihydroartemisinin was the most potent drug against chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant isolates with a geometric mean of 2.72 nM. There was no correlation between the parasite densities and the responses to chloroquine (r2=0.01, p&lt;0.5), pyronaridine (r2=0.13, p&lt;0.05), artemisinin (r2=0.13, p&lt;0.05) and dihydroartemisinin (r2=0.07, p&lt;0.1)