The Impact of Motivation and Conflict Escalation on the Five Zone Model for Preferred Conflict Handling and Managerial Decision Making

ABSTRACT THE IMPACT OF MOTIVATION AND CONFLICT ESCALATION ON THE FIVE ZONE MODEL FOR PREFERRED CONFLICT HANDLING AND MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING BY DEWEY WILSON TODD JULY 2005 Committee Chairmen: Dr. Peter Zhang and Dr. Craig Hill Major Department: Managerial Sciences (Decision Sciences) The Todd-Cambridge Preferred Conflict-Handling Mode (PCHM) Instrument is an example of a two-dimensional, five zone model, similar to the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, used to explain how individuals deal with situations in which their desires are in conflict with another individual or group. The instrument, developed for this research, was based on the Managerial Grid (Van de Vliert & Kabanoff, 1990). The two variables in the PCHM model are Assertiveness and Cooperativeness. Two additional interacting, independent variables (Motivation and Conflict Escalation) were posited to affect a sudden change in subject action under situations wherein there are different views of recommended decisions. The third variable being explored by this research is “Motivation”. This represents a measure of one’s degree of attachment with respect to a decision. Motivation may originate in compensation, personal regard or an emotional attachment. The primary theory was that while assertiveness and cooperativeness may be statistically uncorrelated, although interdependent for the purposes of categorization (Van de Vliert & Kabanoff, 1990), motivation creates an interaction effect with the other two variables and can be shown by inserting either a negative or positive motivational vignette between two administrations of the PCHM instrument. In other words, when one is highly motivated on a decision component there will be a predictable change in PCHM. Five of ten hypotheses were supported (null rejected) in investigating the effect of motivation. The fourth variable explored was “Conflict Escalation” – also introduced in the form of a vignette. The purpose was to determine the effect on PCHM when a normal group decision making environment suddenly intensified in conflict. Individuals are classified according to the five preference categories, with one primary preference generally emerging. The research question here was, “…as conflict escalates, does the dominant preference score of the individual change significantly?” This could potentially affect communication and make participants more disparate. In two of the five hypotheses, this theory was supported. The conclusion was that, although PCHM has traditionally been considered static, it can be affected suddenly and with a degree of predictability. This can be evidenced through motivation and conflict escalation

TCT-117 Quality of Life Outcomes Among High-Risk Patients Undergoing TAVR via the Transapical Approach: A PARTNER Continued Access Substudy

El fin de este artículo es realizar una comparación entre dos técnicas empleadas para la Resolución de Ambigüedades basándose en su expresión matemática más simple y en su aplicación a las medidas geodésicas

Financing Direct Democracy: Revisiting the Research on Campaign Spending and Citizen Initiatives

The conventional view in the direct democracy literature is that spending against a measure is more effective than spending in favor of a measure, but the empirical results underlying this conclusion have been questioned by recent research. We argue that the conventional finding is driven by the endogenous nature of campaign spending: initiative proponents spend more when their ballot measure is likely to fail. We address this endogeneity by using an instrumental variables approach to analyze a comprehensive dataset of ballot propositions in California from 1976 to 2004. We find that both support and opposition spending on citizen initiatives have strong, statistically significant, and countervailing effects. We confirm this finding by looking at time series data from early polling on a subset of these measures. Both analyses show that spending in favor of citizen initiatives substantially increases their chances of passage, just as opposition spending decreases this likelihood

Two-year outcomes after transcatheter or surgical aortic-valve replacement.

BACKGROUND: The Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) trial showed that among high-risk patients with aortic stenosis, the 1-year survival rates are similar with transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical replacement. However, longer-term follow-up is necessary to determine whether TAVR has prolonged benefits. METHODS: At 25 centers, we randomly assigned 699 high-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis to undergo either surgical aortic-valve replacement or TAVR. All patients were followed for at least 2 years, with assessment of clinical outcomes and echocardiographic evaluation. RESULTS: The rates of death from any cause were similar in the TAVR and surgery groups (hazard ratio with TAVR, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.71 to 1.15; P=0.41) and at 2 years (Kaplan-Meier analysis) were 33.9% in the TAVR group and 35.0% in the surgery group (P=0.78). The frequency of all strokes during follow-up did not differ significantly between the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.67 to 2.23; P=0.52). At 30 days, strokes were more frequent with TAVR than with surgical replacement (4.6% vs. 2.4%, P=0.12); subsequently, there were 8 additional strokes in the TAVR group and 12 in the surgery group. Improvement in valve areas was similar with TAVR and surgical replacement and was maintained for 2 years. Paravalvular regurgitation was more frequent after TAVR (P<0.001), and even mild paravalvular regurgitation was associated with increased late mortality (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A 2-year follow-up of patients in the PARTNER trial supports TAVR as an alternative to surgery in high-risk patients. The two treatments were similar with respect to mortality, reduction in symptoms, and improved valve hemodynamics, but paravalvular regurgitation was more frequent after TAVR and was associated with increased late mortality. (Funded by Edwards Lifesciences; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00530894.)

Transcatheter or surgical aortic-valve replacement in intermediate-risk patients

BACKGROUND: Previous trials have shown that among high-risk patients with aortic stenosis, survival rates are similar with transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aorticvalve replacement. We evaluated the two procedures in a randomized trial involving intermediate-risk patients. METHODS: We randomly assigned 2032 intermediate-risk patients with severe aortic stenosis, at 57 centers, to undergo either TAVR or surgical replacement. The primary end point was death from any cause or disabling stroke at 2 years. The primary hypothesis was that TAVR would not be inferior to surgical replacement. Before randomization, patients were entered into one of two cohorts on the basis of clinical and imaging findings; 76.3% of the patients were included in the transfemoral-access cohort and 23.7% in the transthoracic-access cohort. RESULTS: The rate of death from any cause or disabling stroke was similar in the TAVR group and the surgery group (P=0.001 for noninferiority). At 2 years, the Kaplan–Meier event rates were 19.3% in the TAVR group and 21.1% in the surgery group (hazard ratio in the TAVR group, 0.89; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73 to 1.09; P=0.25). In the transfemoralaccess cohort, TAVR resulted in a lower rate of death or disabling stroke than surgery (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.62 to 1.00; P=0.05), whereas in the transthoracic-access cohort, outcomes were similar in the two groups. TAVR resulted in larger aortic-valve areas than did surgery and also resulted in lower rates of acute kidney injury, severe bleeding, and new-onset atrial fibrillation; surgery resulted in fewer major vascular complications and less paravalvular aortic regurgitation. CONCLUSIONS: In intermediate-risk patients, TAVR was similar to surgical aortic-valve replacement with respect to the primary end point of death or disabling stroke. (Funded by Edwards Lifesciences; PARTNER 2 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01314313

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism

Philosophy of action

The philosophical study of human action begins with Plato and Aristotle. Their influence in late antiquity and the Middle Ages yielded sophisticated theories of action and motivation, notably in the works of Augustine and Aquinas.1 But the ideas that were dominant in 1945 have their roots in the early modern period, when advances in physics and mathematics reshaped philosophy

Genome-wide association analyses for lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease identify new loci and potential druggable targets

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by reduced lung function and is the third leading cause of death globally. Through genome-wide association discovery in 48,943 individuals, selected from extremes of the lung function distribution in UK Biobank, and follow-up in 95,375 individuals, we increased the yield of independent signals for lung function from 54 to 97. A genetic risk score was associated with COPD susceptibility (odds ratio per 1 s.d. of the risk score (∼6 alleles) (95% confidence interval) = 1.24 (1.20-1.27), P = 5.05 × 10‾⁴⁹), and we observed a 3.7-fold difference in COPD risk between individuals in the highest and lowest genetic risk score deciles in UK Biobank. The 97 signals show enrichment in genes for development, elastic fibers and epigenetic regulation pathways. We highlight targets for drugs and compounds in development for COPD and asthma (genes in the inositol phosphate metabolism pathway and CHRM3) and describe targets for potential drug repositioning from other clinical indications.This work was funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) strategic award to M.D.T., I.P.H., D.S. and L.V.W. (MC_PC_12010). This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource under application 648. This article presents independent research funded partially by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the UK Department of Health. This research used the ALICE and SPECTRE High-Performance Computing Facilities at the University of Leicester. Additional acknowledgments and funding details can be found in the Supplementary Note