At arm\u27s length? : commercial research agendas, academic science, and the construction of organizational boundaries.

Concepts of organizational boundary have played a long and integral role configuring the intellectual landscape of organizational theory. By and large, organizational-environmental frontiers are simply assumed to be there. The interpenetrated condition of contemporary organizations and environments, however, bids us to question theorizing which treats organizations and environments as ontologically distinct entities. In particular, a new generation of research alliances between a host of American research universities and multi-national corporations has provoked debate over the boundaries demarking university and industrial interests. Some (Traditionalists) fear that the separation between academic and commercial practices is breaking down, particularly as the commercial potential and shrinking developmental timeframes in some laboratory-driven fields place a premium on market-oriented research, entrepreneurship and exclusive claims to information ownership. Others (Instrumentalists) counter that the academy needs to update its internal system of values and priorities if universities are to effectively meet the needs of a contemporary knowledge-based society. Accordingly, this exploratory study attempts to address the substantivity of organizational boundary by examining how those who presumably construct frontiers--in this case select groups of university faculty--define the normative boundaries of their academic work. Using the oppositional modes characterizing the Traditionalist/Instrumentalist discourse as conceptual brick and mortar, faculty were invited to construct the social relationships of their professional work. Thirty-one (31) faculty members Q sorted 66 issue statements in a study designed to give numerical form to their normative boundaries, in order to test (1) the ontological status of organizational boundaries and (2) the claims of the Traditionalist-Instrumentalist antithesis. The indeterminacy of borders empirically elaborated in this study opens the literature\u27s core territorial assumptions to interpretation. If, in other words, the thingness (Weick, 1977) of borders can no longer be sustained unproblematically, how is the Archimedian point of the management science universe--the single-minded, factual organization --to be located? Without firm boundaries, insides and outsides are no longer knowable. The ambiguity surrounding the university\u27s location prompts a reconsideration of interpretive grammar that promotes organizations as sovereign and unified centre(s) of calculation and classification (Clegg, 1990)

“Challenge” and “Hindrance” Related Stress Among U.S. Managers

This study proposes that stress associated with two kinds of job demands or work circumstances, “challenges” and “hindrances,” are distinct phenomena that are differentially related to work outcomes. Specific hypotheses were derived from this general proposition and tested using a sample of 1,886 U.S. managers and longitudinal data. Regression results indicate that challenge related stress is positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to job search. In contrast, hindrance related stress is negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to job search and turnover

Visible and near infrared observation on the Global Aerosol Backscatter Experiment (GLOBE)

The Global Aerosol Backscatter Experiment (GLOBE) was intended to provide data on prevailing values of atmospheric backscatter cross-section. The primary intent was predicting the performance of spaceborne lidar systems, most notably the Laser Atmospheric Wind Sounder (LAWS) for the Earth Observing System (EOS). The second and related goal was to understand the source and characteristics of atmospheric aerosol particles. From the GLOBE flights, extensive data was obtained on the structure of clouds and the marine planetary boundary layer. A notable result for all observations is the consistency of the large increases in the aerosol scattering ratio for the marine boundary layer. Other results are noted

IceSat 2 ATLAS Photon-Counting Receiver - Initial On-Orbit Performance

Photon-counting receivers are deployed on the NASA Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat2) Advance Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS). The ATLAS laser altimeter design has total six ground tracks with three strong and three weak tracks. The strong track has nominally 4 times more laser power than the weak track. The receiver is operated in photon counting mode. There are 16 photon-counting channels for each strong track and 4 photon-counting channels for each weak track. Hamamatsu photomultiplier with a 4x4-array anode was used as photon counting detector. This receiver design has high counting efficiency (>15%) at 532 nm, low dark count rate (<400 counts per second), low jitter (less than 285ps), short dead time (<3 ns), long lifetime under large solar background radiation, radiation harden for space operation, and ruggedized for survives the harsh vibration during the launch. In this paper, we will present the initial on-orbit performance of this photon-counting receiver

Animal Research for Alzheimer Disease: Failures of Science and Ethics

This chapter addresses the epidemiology and current understanding of AD as a scientific and societal challenge, reviews the uses and results of animal research in basic science and drug development, and discusses risk factors and funding. Important follow-up topics, including current and in-development, human-relevant approaches for replacement of the failed animal research paradigm, deserve comparable treatment and hence are not addressed here. The reader is referred to the list of recommended readings at the end of the chapter for further discussion of these topics

High-resolution measurements of surface topography with airborne laser altimetry and the global positioning system

Recently, an airborne lidar system that measures laser pulse time-of-flight and the distortion of the pulse waveform upon reflection from earth surface terrain features was developed and is now operational. This instrument is combined with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and a two-axis gyroscope for accurate recovery of aircraft position and pointing attitude. The laser altimeter system is mounted on a high-altitude aircraft platform and operated in a repetitively-pulsed mode for measurements of surface elevation profiles at nadir. The laser transmitter makes use of recently developed short-pulse diode-pumped solid-state laser technology in Q-switched Nd:YAG operating at its fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm. A reflector telescope and silicon avalanche photodiode are the basis of the optical receiver. A high-speed time-interval unit and a separate high-bandwidth waveform digitizer under microcomputer control are used to process the backscattered pulses for measurements of terrain. Other aspects of the lidar system are briefly discussed