Transformational Leadership and Innovation in Digital-Only News Outlets. Analysis of Quartz and El Confidencial

The constant changes in the media and increasing competition oblige news organizations to develop a solid leadership that promotes innovation. Transformational leadership has been recognized as an optimal style in this context, as it fosters organizational creativity and a collaborative culture, which are essential factors to anchor innovation within organizations by aligning workers with the company’s vision and empowering them to take their own decisions. This article analyses the leadership style in digital-only outlets and how it influences aspects such as intrinsic motivation, which leads to creativity, organizational culture and, ultimately, innovation. We studied Quartz and El Confidencial, selected from among the most innovative in the United States and Spain, respectively, using a method based on their social, professional and expert relevance. In both organizations, participant observation processes were carried out in addition to in-depth interviews with professionals. The results indicate that these digital-only news outlets try to promote innovation through transformational leadership, identified through the recommendations set out in the literature, despite observing the emergence of certain features of traditional transactional leadership style in strategic decision-making. Our study supports previous research that shows an interrelation between leadership and innovative performance, filling an existing gap about digital-only news outlets

Diketonylpyridinium cations as a support of new ionic liquid crystals and ion-conductive materials: analysis of counter-ion effects

Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) allow the combination of the high ionic conductivity of ionic liquids (ILs) with the supramolecular organization of liquid crystals (LCs). ILCs salts were obtained by the assembly of long-chained diketonylpyridinium cations of the type [HOO^(R(n)pyH)] + and BF_(4)^(-) , ReO_(4)^(-), NO_(3)^(-), CF_(3)SO_(3)^(-), CuCl_(4)^(2-) counter-ions. We have studied the thermal behavior of five series of compounds by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and hot stage polarized light optical microscopy (POM). All materials show thermotropic mesomorphism as well as crystalline polymorphism. X-ray diffraction of the [HOO^(R(12)pyH)][ReO_(4)] crystal reveals a layered structure with alternating polar and apolar sublayers. The mesophases also exhibit a lamellar arrangement detected by variable temperature powder X-ray diffraction. The CuCl_(4)^(2-) salts exhibit the best LC properties followed by the ReO_(4)^(-) ones due to low melting temperature and wide range of existence. The conductivity was probed for the mesophases in one species each from the ReO_(4)^(-) , and CuCl_(4)^(2-) families, and for the solid phase in one of the non-mesomorphic Cl^(-) salts. The highest ionic conductivity was found for the smectic mesophase of the ReO_(4)^(-) containing salt, whereas the solid phases of all salts were dominated by electronic contributions. The ionic conductivity may be favored by the mesophase lamellar structure

Recent Advances in the Catalytic Enantioselective Reformatsky Reaction

This paper reviews the present state of the catalytic enantioselective Reformatsky reaction. Advancements in asymmetric versions of this reaction have recently led to a considerable extension of its scope and applicability, principally due to the use of highly active chiral ligands and very specific reaction conditions.M. A. F. I. is grateful for financial support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (CTQ 2012-35790) and the Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad de Madrid (programme AVANCAT, S2009/PPQ-1634). B. M. thanks the European Commission for a Marie Curie Integration Grant (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG). I. M. P. and D. A. A. are grateful for financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) (project numbers CTQ2011-24165 and CTQ2010-20387, respectively) and from the University of Alicante

Physical and antioxidant properties of chitosan and methylcellulose based films containing resveratrol

[EN] New trends in edible films focus on the improvement of their functionality through the incorporation of active compounds, such as antimicrobial or antioxidant agents. Resveratrol is a natural antioxidant found in a variety of plant species, such as grapes, and could be used for minimizing or preventing lipid oxidation in food products, retarding the formation of oxidation products, maintaining nutritional quality and prolonging the food shelf life. The aim of this work was to develop and characterize two different polymeric composite films (made with chitosan (CH) and methylcellulose (MC)) containing different amounts of resveratrol. This compound could be incorporated efficiently into both films, but provoke structural changes in the matrices, which became less stretchable (65-70% reduction of deformation at break at the greatest resveratrol content) and resistant to fracture (26 and 54% reduction of tensile at break for MC and CH, respectively, at the greatest resveratrol content) more opaque (significant reduction of the internal transmittance) and less glossy (about 60-65% reduction of gloss at the greatest resveratrol content). Film barrier properties were hardly improved by the presence of resveratrol; water vapour and oxygen permeability tend to slightly decrease when resveratrol was incorporated into both polymers. Composite films showed antioxidant activity, which was proportional to the resveratrol concentration in the film. None of the films showed antimicrobial activity against Penicillium italicum and Botrytis cinerea. Thus, these films could be applied to food products which are sensitive to oxidative processes to prolong their shelf life. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación throughout the project AGL2010-20694.Pastor Navarro, C.; Sánchez González, L.; Chiralt, A.; Cháfer Nácher, MT.; González Martínez, MC. (2013). Physical and antioxidant properties of chitosan and methylcellulose based films containing resveratrol. Food Hydrocolloids. 30(1):272-280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2012.05.026S27228030

Mechanical Characterization of Tungsten-Titanium-Lanthana alloy: Influence of Temperature and Atmosphere

The target is to evaluate the mechanical behavior of Ti and La2O3 dispersed W alloy, processed by HIP and compare it with a reference pure-W. Tests were performed in both oxidant (air) and inert (vacuum) atmosphere in a temperature range from -196 to 1200 °C

Vegetation and soil fire damage analysis based on species distribution modeling trained with multispectral satellite data

Producción CientíficaForest managers demand reliable tools to evaluate post-fire vegetation and soil damage. In this study, we quantify wildfire damage to vegetation and soil based on the analysis of burn severity, using multitemporal and multispectral satellite data and species distribution models, particularly maximum entropy (MaxEnt). We studied a mega-wildfire (9000 ha burned) in North-Western Spain, which occurred from 21 to 27 August 2017. Burn severity was measured in the field using the composite burn index (CBI). Burn severity of vegetation and soil layers (CBIveg and CBIsoil) was also differentiated. MaxEnt provided the relative contribution of each pre-fire and post-fire input variable on low, moderate and high burn severity levels, as well as on all severity levels combined (burned area). In addition, it built continuous suitability surfaces from which the burned surface area and burn severity maps were built. The burned area map achieved a high accuracy level (κ = 0.85), but slightly lower accuracy when differentiating the three burn severity classes (κ = 0.81). When the burn severity map was validated using field CBIveg and CBIsoil values we reached lower κ statistic values (0.76 and 0.63, respectively). This study revealed the effectiveness of the proposed multi-temporal MaxEnt based method to map fire damage accurately in Mediterranean ecosystems, providing key information to forest managers.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (project 559 AGL2017-86075-C2-1-R)Junta de Castilla y León (project LE001P17)Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (grants PRX17/00234 and PRX17/00133

Kinematic and kinetic patterns related to free-walking in Parkinson's disease

The aim of this study is to compare the properties of free-walking at a natural pace between mild Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients during the ON-clinical status and two control groups. In-shoe pressure-sensitive insoles were used to quantify the temporal and force characteristics of a 5-min free-walking in 11 PD patients, in 16 young healthy controls, and in 12 age-matched healthy controls. Inferential statistics analyses were performed on the kinematic and kinetic parameters to compare groups’ performances, whereas feature selection analyses and automatic classification were used to identify the signature of parkinsonian gait and to assess the performance of group classification, respectively. Compared to healthy subjects, the PD patients’ gait pattern presented significant differences in kinematic parameters associated with bilateral coordination but not in kinetics. Specifically, patients showed an increased variability in double support time, greater gait asymmetry and phase deviation, and also poorer phase coordination. Feature selection analyses based on the ReliefF algorithm on the differential parameters in PD patients revealed an effect of the clinical status, especially true in double support time variability and gait asymmetry. Automatic classification of PD patients, young and senior subjects confirmed that kinematic predictors produced a slightly better classification performance than kinetic predictors. Overall, classification accuracy of groups with a linear discriminant model which included the whole set of features (i.e., demographics and parameters extracted from the sensors) was 64.1

What Do Adolescents Believe About Performing and Accepting Intimate Partner Violence Behaviors? A Reasoned Action Approach

Intimate partner violence against adolescent girls is of increasing political and social concern. This paper presents formative research on the reasoned action approach (RAA) to the prediction of boys’ perpetration and girls’ acceptance of four psychologically abusive behaviors. Our objectives were: (1) to identify the behavioral and normative modal beliefs behind males’ performance and girls’ acceptance of the behaviors and (2) to explore the relationship between attitudes, perceived social norm, intention and behavior. A total of 479 adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age completed questionnaires on the performance (boys) or acceptance (girls) of a specific behavior. We used a grouping process to identify modal beliefs and carried out eight exploratory multiple regression analysis (one per behavior) to study attitude and social norm as predictors of intention and behavior. Positive and negative behavioral beliefs coexist in boys’ and girls’ minds, which can reflect an unclear positioning against abusive behaviors. Positive outcomes seem to be influenced by socialization processes and love myths. Peers can be a risk factor whereas parents are a protective factor against the performance and acceptance of these behaviors. Results showed significant relationships between the constructs in the sense specified by the model. Prevention programs could benefit by: managing participants’ individual behavior, intervening separately with boys and girls, overcoming adolescents’ confusion regarding these behaviors, and targeting parents as a means of discouraging their performance and acceptance. The RAA appears a useful tool for explaining and predicting the performance and acceptance of abusive behavior

Scaffolds based on hyaluronan and carbon nanotubes gels

[EN] Physico-chemical and mechanical properties of hyaluronic acid/carbon nanotubes nanohybrids have been correlated with the proportion of inorganic nanophase and the preparation procedure. The mass fraction of -COOH functionalized carbon nanotubes was varied from 0 to 0.05. Hyaluronic acid was crosslinked with divinyl sulfone to improve its stability in aqueous media and allow its handling as a hydrogel. A series of samples was dried by lyophilization to obtain porous scaffolds whereas another was room-dried allowing the collapse of the hybrid structures. The porosity of the former, together with the tighter packing of hyaluronic acid chains, results in a lower water absorption and lower mechanical properties in the swollen state, because of the easier water diffusion. The presence of even a small amount of carbon nanotubes (mass fraction of 0.05) limits even more the swelling of the matrix, owing probably to hybrid interactions. These nanohybrids do not seem to degrade significantly during 14 days in water or enzymatic medium.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Contract grant sponsor: Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad; contract grant numbers: MAT2011-28791-C03-02 and -03.Arnal Pastor, MP.; Tallà-Ferrer, C.; Herrero-Herrero, M.; Martínez-Gómez Aldaraví, A.; Monleón Pradas, M.; Vallés Lluch, A. (2016). Scaffolds based on hyaluronan and carbon nanotubes gels. Journal of Biomaterials Applications. 31(4):534-543. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885328216644535S53454331