Exploring impacts of project leaders’ written expressions in virtual and fluid projects: The role of personality and emotion

This paper aims to tackle challenges of managing projects in highly virtual and fluid contexts, characterized by diversity, dispersion, digital dependence, unstable membership, and dynamic coordination and configuration. We investigate project leaders’ personality and emotion expressed in written expression and examine their impacts on collaboration outcomes. IBM Watson Personality Insights and Tone Analyzer were adopted to assess the leader’s personality and emotion. A computation model to classify collaboration patterns into taskwork-related and teamwork-related communication is under development. We report preliminary findings based on 417 weekly meetings between October 2018 and February 2020 in 8 open-source software teams around WordPress. The research results have the potential to inform researchers and practitioners about what personality profiles and emotions should be considered to foster collaboration in virtual and fluid projects. It is possible to extend the boundary condition of the traits school of leadership for project management in the new context

Applicability of perturbative QCD to Λb→Λc\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c decays

We develop perturbative QCD factorization theorem for the semileptonic heavy baryon decay $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c l\bar{\nu}$, whose form factors are expressed as the convolutions of hard $b$ quark decay amplitudes with universal $\Lambda_b$ and $\Lambda_c$ baryon wave functions. Large logarithmic corrections are organized to all orders by the Sudakov resummation, which renders perturbative expansions more reliable. It is observed that perturbative QCD is applicable to $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c$ decays for velocity transfer greater than 1.2. Under requirement of heavy quark symmetry, we predict the branching ratio $B(\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c l{\bar\nu})\sim 2$, and determine the $\Lambda_b$ and $\Lambda_c$ baryon wave functions.Comment: 12 pages in Latex file, 3 figures in postscript files, some results are changed, but the conclusion is the sam

Numerical investigation of aerodynamic droplet breakup in a high temperature gas environment

The Navier-Stokes equations, energy and vapor transport equations coupled with the VOF methodology and a vaporization rate model are numerically solved to predict aerodynamic droplet breakup in a high temperature gas environment. The numerical model accounts for variable properties and uses an adaptive local grid refinement technique on the gas-liquid interface to enhance the accuracy of the computations. The parameters examined include Weber (We) numbers in the range 15-90 and gas phase temperatures in the range 400-1000 K for a volatile n-heptane droplet. Initially isothermal flow conditions are examined in order to assess the effect of Weber (We) and Reynolds (Re) number. The latter was altered by varying the gas phase properties in the aforementioned temperature range. It is verified that the We number is the controlling parameter, while the Re number affects the droplet breakup at low We number conditions. The inclusion of droplet heating and evaporation mechanisms has revealed that heating effects have generally a small impact on the phenomenon due to its short duration except for low We number cases. Droplet deformation enhances heat transfer and droplet evaporation. An improved 0-D model is proposed, able to predict the droplet heating and vaporization of highly deformed droplets

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Rheumatoid Arthritis Associated with Dry Eye Disease and Corneal Surface Damage: A Nationwide Matched Cohort Study

Rheumatoid arthritis is potentially connected to ocular disorders, such as corneal inflammation and lacrimal gland destruction. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of dry eye disease (DED) and corneal surface damage among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In a nationwide cohort study, we utilized Taiwan’s National Health Insurance research database and conducted propensity score matching to compare the risks of DED and corneal surface damage between patients with and without rheumatoid arthritis. Proportional hazards regression analyses were used to calculate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the outcomes of interest. The matching procedure generated 33,398 matched pairs with 501,377 person-years of follow-up for analyses. The incidence of DED was 23.14 and 10.25 per 1000 person-years in patients with and without rheumatoid arthritis, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, rheumatoid arthritis was significantly associated with DED (aHR: 2.03, 95% CI: 1.93–2.13, p p < 0.0001) compared to control subjects. Other independent factors for corneal surface damage were age and sleeping disorders. Rheumatoid arthritis was associated with an increased risk of DED and corneal surface damage. Ophthalmological surveillance is required to prevent vision-threatening complications in this susceptible population

The <i>MGMT</i> promoter single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1625649 had prognostic impact on patients with <i>MGMT</i> methylated glioblastoma

<div><p>Promoter methylation is the most significant mechanism to regulate O⁶-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (<i>MGMT</i>) expression. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the <i>MGMT</i> promoter region may also play a role. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical significance of SNPs in the <i>MGMT</i> promoter region of glioblastoma. Genomic DNAs from 118 glioblastomas were collected for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Sanger sequencing was used to sequence the <i>MGMT</i> promoter region to detect SNPs. The results were correlated with <i>MGMT</i> status and patient survival. Rs1625649 was the only polymorphic SNP located at the <i>MGMT</i> promoter region in 37.5% of glioblastomas. Homozygous rs1625649 (AA genotype) was correlated with a higher <i>MGMT</i> methylation level and a lower protein expression, but the result was not statistically significant. In patients with <i>MGMT</i> methylated glioblastoma, cases with homozygous rs1625649 (AA genotype) were significantly associated with a lack of MGMT protein expression and a better progression-free survival (PFS) than the cases with wild type rs1625649 (CC genotype) or heterozygous rs1625649 (CA genotype). The survival impact was significant in multivariate analyses. In conclusion, the <i>MGMT</i> promoter homozygous rs1625649 (AA genotype) was found to correlate with a better PFS in patients with <i>MGMT</i> methylated glioblastoma.</p></div

Survival curves stratified by rs1625649 genotypes in patients with <i>MGMT</i> methylated GBM.

<p>(A) Progression-free survival and (B) overall survival of the study cohort. Patients with homozygous rs1625649 (AA genotype) had longer progression-free survival than those with heterozygous (CA genotype) or wild type (CC genotype) rs1625649. However, the difference in overall survival did not reach statistical significance.</p

Association between rs1625649 genotypes, <i>MGMT</i> status and clinical characteristics.

<p>Association between rs1625649 genotypes, <i>MGMT</i> status and clinical characteristics.</p