Epochal Change and Second Modernity as a Sociocultural Manifestation of Managerialism

This paper returns to the prevalent notion of an epochal change that transformed advanced societies towards the turn of the millennium Using the neutral term second modernity to capture this polyonymous phenomenon three of its constitutive cultural attributes are discussed uncertainty and insecurity immediacy and accelerating rates of change and the flattening of hierarchies and rigid organisations The paper first reviews the way these attributes and their consequences were analysed by proponents and opponents of a postmodern break with the past It is then shown that the new managerial discourse and practices which arose concurrently with all these transformations both endorsed and propelled them At the same time these processes their effects and interpretations all increased the importance and social standing of management in organisations and society at large They also promoted the ethical and ideological foundation of the social ascendency of managers Together this lends support to perceiving the rise of second modernity as the sociocultural manifestation of the new social order of managerialis

Terror Management Theory: Interplay between Mortality Salience, Death-Thoughts, and Overall Worldview Defense

This study examines both the generalizability of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the mechanisms by which individual difference variables work in the TMT model. A plethora of research exists to support TMT, a theory that explains much of human behavior as attempts to buffer the potential for anxiety provoked by being aware of one\u27s own inevitable mortality (Pyszczynski et al., 2003). This dissertation investigated the generalizability of Terror Management Theory (TMT) and the mechanisms by which individual difference variables work in the TMT process. In order to do so, an operationalization of the variable overall worldview was provided. Participants consisted of 367 college students from the Psychology Department Experimental Subject Pool of a mid-sized Midwestern university. Subjects were quasi-randomly assigned to a 2 (mortality salience vs. control) x 2 (death-thought word stems vs. neutral word stems) between subjects design. Results suggested that humanists defended humanism more in the mortality salience condition than in the dental pain condition. However, mortality salience did not increase the defense of the normative worldview for normatives. Contrary to expectations, humanists and normatives defended their respective worldviews to an equivalent extent in the mortality salience condition. Mortality salience did not lead to defense of the American worldview for normatives or for humanists. Participants in the mortality salience condition, humanists, and normatives did not differ on the number of accessible death-thoughts in either the mortality salience or the dental pain condition. Despite methodological limitations, this study suggests that, at least for humanists, TMT does generalize beyond specific cultural worldviews to overall worldviews. It also indicates that the individual difference variables of being humanist/non-humanist and normative/non-normative do not affect the ability of mortality salience to prime death-thoughts. Rather, being humanist or non-humanist affects worldview defense after the death-thoughts have been primed and before distal defenses (i.e., worldview defense) are activated

La contribution des innovations des étudiants arabophones aux questions psycholinguistiques de l’hébreu contemporain

Certains étudiants arabophones apprenant l’hébreu dérivent des formes nouvelles comme un remède à leurs propres lacunes lexicales (comme chaque apprenant de langue). L’article analyse ces innovations lexicales (« erreurs ») selon leurs catégories morphologiques – verbes (conjugaisons), noms et adjectifs – et leurs catégories sémantiques. Les résultats prouvent que les innovateurs sont conscients des fonctions sémantiques de deux composants du mot sémitique (schème et racine). Par exemple, lorsqu’ils ne connaissent pas la forme d’un nom d’action, ils dérivent un autre nom dont le schème est celui de noms abstraits. Les dérivations combinatoires (racine et schème) sont beaucoup plus nombreuses (83,15 %) que les combinatoires linéaires, conformément aux résultats des dérivations des enfants hébréophones en âge préscolaire.Arabic speaking students who learn Hebrew, innovate forms as a remedy to their lexical lacunae (as does any learner of language). The article analyzes these innovations (“errors”) according to their morphological categories—verbs (conjugations), nouns etc.—and semantic categories. The findings show that the innovators are conscious of the semantic functions of both components of the word (root and pattern). For example, when someone did not know the accurate form of a certain action noun, he innovated a new form in a pattern denoting abstract ideas. The interdigiting derivation occupies a greater portion (83.15%) vis-à-vis the linear one, coinciding with the innovations made by preschool Hebrew speaking children.סטודנטים דוברי ערבית הלומדים עברית, יוצרים חידושי מילים כפיצוי על חוסר מילוני (כפי שעושה כל לומד לשון אחר). המאמר מנתח את החידושים הללו לפי קטגוריות מורפולוגיות - פעלים (בניינים), שמות וכו’ - וסמנטיות. הממצאים מראים שהמחדשים היו מודעים לתפקודים הסמנטיים של שני רכיבי המילה (שורש ומשקל). לדוגמה, כאשר אחד מהם לא הכיר את הצורה הנכונה של שם פעולה כלשהו, הוא חידש צורה חדשה במשקל המציין מושגים מופשטים. הגזירה הסירוגית הייתה גדולה מהגזירה הקווית (83.15%), בדומה לחידושים של ילדי גן דוברי עברית

A Nanofiber-embedded Microfluidic Platform for Studying Neurobiology

Due to their biomimetic properties, electrospun nanofibers have been widely used in neurobiology studies. However, mechanistic understanding of cell-nanofiber interactions is challenging based on the current in vitro culture systems due to the lack of control of spatiotemporal patterning of cells and difficulty in monitoring single cell behavior. To overcome these issues, we apply microfluidic technology in combination with electrospun nanofibers for in vitro studies of interactions between neurons and nanofiber materials. We demonstrate a unique nanofiber embedded microfluidic device which contains patterned aligned or random electrospun nanofibers as a new culture system. With this device, we test how different topographies affect axonal growth. Also, we conduct laser based axotomy on neurons cultured on our device to investigate axonal regeneration. The proposed device could be a useful tool for investigating nerve injury mechanisms and high-throughput screening of biomaterials or drugs for nerve repair. The knowledge obtained using this device can be applicable to design medical devices such as nerve conduits for effective nerve regeneration

A comparative analysis of the efficiency and productivity of selected food processing industries in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance and change in the technical as well as technological efficiency in the total factor productivity of the 34 food processing industries in Malaysia, and to investigate the changes in their efficiency from 2009 to 2010 by applying two recent methods of data analysis, namely order-m and Malmquist productivity index. The results show that almost all industries have experienced an efficient technological contribution in their respective production functions, but there are wide dissimilarities in the technical efficiency of the organic composition of each industry. Also, there are variations in the change in efficiency scores from 2009 to 2010