Performance Appraisal Comments: The Practitioner\u27s Dilemma

Employees often pay more attention to written comments than to numerical ratings they receive during their performance appraisal process. However, these comments, while desired by many employees, may actually hurt employee performance. Despite extensive research on performance appraisal ratings, practitioners have little guidance for managing an appraisal process such that comments are used in productive ways. This article addresses this gap. In particular, this article identifies how comments are used, when comments harm performance, features of comments that make them actionable or useful for improving performance, and recommendations for practitioners for constructively integrating comments into performance appraisal systems

Agency, Redirected

In response to changes in both the practice of architecture and changes in terms of architectures field of operation: the global economic, political and cultural context of its production, the following paper proposes to re-examine the inherited unit system of the graduate educational M.Arch design studio. Contrary to `alternate modes of practice' that propose in critiquing the profession, an abandonment of the discipline of architecture, this paper instead calls for a clarified return in the educational context to architecture's core material and spatial skill set redirected relative to the animating diagrammatic condition that since the 19th century has relied on architectures capacities in material and organizational experimentation to build cities

Evidence for prelocalization of cytoplasmic factors affecting gene activation in early embryogenesis

Differentiation begins early in embryogenesis as different genes become active in different cells. Within the closed system of the early embryo, equal genomes thus direct the creation of diverse cell types. Though the nuclei of these cells contain complete copies of the same genome,(1,2) the nucleoplasmic and cytoplasmic environments of these genomes are not the same, as a result of the distribution of cleavage nuclei into diverse areas of egg cytoplasm early in the cleavage process. In some cases the fate of these nuclei, i.e., the type of differentiated cell to which they or their descendants give rise, has been seen to depend on the area of cytoplasm in which they come to lie

Exploring the Design of Pay-Per-Use Objects in the Construction Domain

Equipment used in the construction domain is often hired in order to reduce cost and maintenance overhead. The cost of hire is dependent on the time period involved and does not take into account the actual use equipment has received. This paper presents our initial investigation into how physical objects augmented with sensing and communication technologies can measure use in order to enable new pay-per-use payment models for equipment hire. We also explore user interaction with pay-per-use objects via mobile devices. The user interactions that take place within our prototype scenario range from simple information access to transactions involving multiple users. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a prototype pay-per-use system motivated by a real world equipment hire scenario. We also provide insights into the various challenges introduced by supporting a pay-per-use model, including data storage and data security in addition to user interaction issues

The actin binding proteins cortactin and HS1 are dispensable for platelet actin nodule and megakaryocyte podosome formation

A dynamic, properly organised actin cytoskeleton is critical for the production and haemostatic function of platelets. The Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome protein (WASp) and Actin-Related Proteins 2 & 3 Complex (Arp2/3 complex) are critical mediators of actin polymerisation and organisation in many cell types. In platelets and megakaryocytes, these proteins have been shown to be important for proper platelet production and function. The cortactin family of proteins (Cttn & HS1) are known to regulate WASp-Arp2/3-mediated actin polymerisation in other cell types and so here we address the role of these proteins in platelets using knockout mouse models. We generated mice lacking Cttn and HS1 in the megakaryocyte/platelet lineage. These mice had normal platelet production, with platelet number, size and surface receptor profile comparable to controls. Platelet function was also unaffected by loss of Cttn/HS1 with no differences observed in a range of platelet function assays including aggregation, secretion, spreading, clot retraction or tyrosine phosphorylation. No effect on tail bleeding time or in thrombosis models was observed. In addition, platelet actin nodules, and megakaryocyte podosomes, actin-based structures known to be dependent on WASp and the Arp2/3 complex, formed normally. We conclude that despite the importance of WASp and the Arp2/3 complex in regulating F-actin dynamics in many cells types, the role of cortactin in their regulation appears to be fulfilled by other proteins in platelets

The Early Paleozoic history of the Cuyania (greater Precordillera) terrane of western Argentina : evidence from geochronology of detrital zircons from Middle Cambrian sandstones

U-Pb geochronology of large detrital zircons populations is a powerful tool for interpreting sandstone provenance. Here, it is applied to three Middle Cambrian sandstones from the Precordillera of Argentina with the purpose of using the provenance interpretations to test paleogeographic and paleotectonic models proposed for the Cuyania or Precordillera terrane. Two samples from the La Laja Formation have distinctive detrital zircon age distributions. All zircon grains fall within unimodal populations of 1688-1200 Ma in one sample and 1559- 1316 Ma in the other. Of these grains, 23% and 65%, respectively, are within the age range of the North American magmatic gap (1610-1490 Ma), indicating a non-Laurentian provenance. A very different sample was taken from a sandstone interval in a large olistolith within the Estancia San Isidro Formation. Its zircon population is dominated by a single, prominent 615-511 Ma age cluster, which is indicative of a provenance in a Brasiliano orogenic belt. The absence of zircons with Grenvillian ages (1200 to 950 Ma) is difficult to reconcile with paleogeographic and geotectonic models in which Cuyania rifted from Laurentia in Cambrian or Ordovician time. The data are most consistent with models in which Cuyania rifted from the southern margin of West Gondwana. Given a Cambrian association with Gondwana and a post-Ordovician arrival at its present position in Gondwana, the Cuyania terrane must have migrated along the southern and western margins of Gondwana during the Ordovician Period

Enhanced control strategy of full-bridge modular multilevel converter

This paper describes a control approach that allows the cell capacitor voltages of the full-bridge modular multilevel converter (FB-MMC) to be controlled independent of the input dc link voltage. Moreover, this control approach offers the possibility of operating FB-MMC from bi-polar dc link voltages; thus, creating new possibilities for building generic hybrid dc grids with reversible dc link voltage, where the conventional line commutated current source converters can operate alongside voltage source converters. Furthermore, the presented control approach improves the dc fault ride-through of the FB-MMC compared to existing approaches. This could be achieved by an active control of the arm currents and cell capacitor voltages, and full exploitation of the FB-MMC redundant switch states. Operation of the FB-MMC with reversible DC link voltage and decoupled control of the cell capacitor voltages from the dc link voltage are demonstrated using simulations. The major findings and implications of this work are highlighted

Active power sharing in input-series-input-parallel output-series connected DC/DC converters

A high-capacity DC/DC converter with novel input-series-input-parallel output-series connection and with autonomous power sharing between modules is proposed. The proposed scheme is well suited for large-scale wind farm DC collection networks, as it avoids the charging current issues associated with its AC counterpart, and offers lower losses and reduced size and weight when a medium- or high-frequency transformer is used. Small-signal analysis is used to derive the control structures for the converter input and output stages. The proposed control scheme is validated through simulation and experimentation, including demonstration of autonomous power sharing between modules under several operating conditions

Modular input-series-input-parallel output-series DC/DC converter control with fault detection and redundancy

A novel high-power modular input-series-input-parallel output-series connected DC/DC converter for medium-voltage application is proposed. Emphasis has been placed on power sharing control to compensate parameter mismatches and achieve equal power distribution between modules. Converter control is extended to achieve fault-tolerant operation by exploiting modularity to provide redundancy in the event of any failure. The proposed control scheme is validated through application-level simulations and scaled-down experiments to testify the reliability of the proposed control for ensuring power sharing between modules under a range of operating conditions. The results validate the proposed converter and associated control scheme indicating this to be a promising topology for high-power medium-voltage applications

Ice XV: a new thermodynamically stable phase of ice

A new phase of ice, named ice XV, has been identified and its structure determined by neutron diffraction. Ice XV is the hydrogen-ordered counterpart of ice VI and is thermodynamically stable at temperatures below ~130 K in the 0.8 to 1.5 GPa pressure range. The regions of stability in the medium pressure range of the phase diagram have thus been finally mapped, with only hydrogen-ordered phases stable at 0 K. The ordered ice XV structure is antiferroelectric, in clear disagreement with recent theoretical calculations predicting ferroelectric ordering