Blockchain, Leadership And Management: Business AS Usual Or Radical Disruption?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people's engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Comorbidities and Race/Ethnicity Among Adults with Stimulant Use Disorders in Residential Treatment

Comorbid physical and mental health problems are associated with poorer substance abuse treatment outcomes; however, little is known about these conditions among stimulant abusers at treatment entry. This study compared racial and ethnic groups on baseline measures of drug use patterns, comorbid physical and mental health disorders, quality of life, and daily functioning among cocaine and stimulant abusing/dependent patients. Baseline data from a multi-site randomized clinical trial of vigorous exercise as a treatment strategy for a diverse population of stimulant abusers (N = 290) were analyzed. Significant differences between groups were found on drug use characteristics, stimulant use disorders, and comorbid mental and physical health conditions. Findings highlight the importance of integrating health and mental health services into substance abuse treatment and could help identify potential areas for intervention to improve treatment outcomes for racial and ethnic minority groups

BLOCKCHAIN, LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT: BUSINESS AS USUAL OR RADICAL DISRUPTION?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people’s engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Chemosensation in the marine annelid Platynereis dumerilii : anatomy, physiology, behaviour

Chemical stimuli are omnipresent in driving all kinds of animal behaviours. The comparative study of chemosensory systems has revealed a wide variety of organs, neuronal circuits, and above all of receptor proteins. Despite some conserved features, no clear picture has emerged yet about the origins of chemoreception, and new animal models are needed to understand its evolutionary history. The marine worm Platynereis dumerilii (Nereididae, Polychaeta, Annelida, Lophotrochozoa) is a model system for evolutionary developmental biology, and recent achievements have revealed its potential for neurobiology. The head of marine annelids is generally equipped with abundant sensory appendages, chemosensory based on numerous morphological descriptions. Surprising as it may seem for this ecologically important phylum, there exists still no direct physiological proof of chemosensitivity in these prominent organs. Moreover, in the absence of appropriate assay systems, physiological experiments in Platynereis have so far concentrated on photic and mechanical stimuli. The aim of this thesis was the description and physiological study of chemosensory systems in Platynereis, as well as the establishment of microfluidics-based methods to enable functional imaging and behavioural assays upon chemical stimulations. The 6-days-post-fertilisation larval stage (6dpf), at which most adult anatomical structures are already present, has emerged as a powerful stage for cross-species comparisons of cell types, thanks notably to a unique whole-body atlas of gene expression. It was thus chosen as a target stage for the study of chemosensation. An anatomical investigation of Platynereis head appendages at various stages has allowed to better understand how the hemispheric head of larvae transforms into the complex, appendage-rich head of juveniles and adults. Neuroanatomical stainings have confirmed the presence already at 6dpf of different architectures, innervation patterns, and sensory cell types across appendages. A reference anatomical description has been established at 6dpf to characterise the position of nerves and sensory ganglia, which constitutes a useful basis for in vivo studies. After having developed a microfluidic setup for confocal calcium imaging of the whole head upon chemical stimulations, I have tested the physiology of candidate chemosensory organs in 6dpf animals. These experiments have revealed that antennae, not nuchal organs as thought previously, are probably the main chemosensory organ in Platynereis, that nuchal organs and palps are endowed with chemosensitivity, and that so are tentacular cirri though to a lesser extent. Prominent fluctuating apical organ activity was seen, though not obviously related to chemosensation. Finally, new components of the chemosensory systems have been described based on their activity patterns, including sensory cells and probably interneurons. Based on these results, a first understanding of chemical stimulus detection has emerged. Partial evidence was given that Mushroom Bodies may play a role in these systems at 6dpf, which motivates the study of associative learning in relation with chemical cues. To link chemical stimuli to larval behaviours, additional microfluidic devices have been developed in which freely-moving larvae can be exposed to controlled spatial and temporal patterns of chemical stimuli and their behaviour monitored. In the perspective of establishing an assay for chemosensory associative learning, aversive compounds such as quinine have been tested and found to produce stereotypical avoidance behavioural responses, thus they could be used as unconditioned stimuli in pavlovian assays. A neutral cue identified in functional imaging, 1-butanol, was shown to be a valid candidate as a conditioned stimulus. Thanks to these preliminary results, an experimental setup for quantitative studies of behavioural modifications is now available. Overall, this work has laid a basis for the study of chemosensation in Platynereis, informed about sensory organ physiology in polychaetes, and shown the suitability of microfluidic setups for physiological and behavioural assays at larval stages. It suggests a possibly broad chemosensory repertoire in marine invertebrate larvae. Chemical stimuli in annelids are worth new attention for comparative studies of sensory systems, and in the search for associative learning abilities

ALDH2*2 and peer drinking in East Asian college students

Background: The ALDH2*2 allele (A-allele) at rs671 is more commonly carried by Asians and is associated with alcohol-related flushing, a strong adverse reaction to alcohol that is protective against drinking. Social factors, such as having friends who binge drink, also contribute to drinking in Asian youth. Objectives: This study examined the interplay between ALDH2*2, peer drinking, and alcohol consumption in college students. We hypothesized that the relationship between ALDH2*2 and standard grams of ethanol per month would vary based on the level of peer drinking. Methods: Subjects (N = 318, 63.25% female) were East Asian college students in the United States who reported drinking alcohol. Data were from the freshman year of a university survey that included a saliva DNA sample. ALDH2*2 status was coded ALDH2*2(+) (A/G and A/A genotypes) and ALDH2*2(−) (G/G genotype). Peer drinking was students’ perception of how many of their friends “got drunk”. Results: Main effects of ALDH2*2(−) and having more friends who got drunk were associated with greater alcohol consumption. The ALDH2*2 × peer drunkenness interaction showed a stronger positive association with alcohol consumption for ALDH2*2(−) versus ALDH2*2(+) at increasing levels of peer drunkenness. Follow-up comparisons within each peer drunkenness level identified significantly higher alcohol consumption for ALDH2*2(−) compared to ALDH2*2(+) at the all friends got drunk level. Conclusion: There was evidence of a stronger effect for ALDH2*2(−) compared to ALDH2*2(+) with greater alcohol use when students were more exposed to peer drinking. Findings contribute to a growing literature on the interrelationships between genetic influences and more permissive environments for alcohol consumption

Men and women from the STRIDE clinical trial: An assessment of stimulant abstinence symptom severity at residential treatment entry

Background and Objectives Gender‐specific factors associated with stimulant abstinence severity were examined in a stimulant abusing or dependent residential treatment sample (N = 302). Method Bivariate statistics tested gender differences in stimulant abstinence symptoms, measured by participant‐reported experiences of early withdrawal. Multivariate linear regression examined gender and other predictors of stimulant abstinence symptom severity. Results Women compared to men reported greater stimulant abstinence symptom severity. Anxiety disorders and individual anxiety‐related abstinence symptoms accounted for this difference. African American race/ethnicity was predictive of lower stimulant abstinence severity. Discussion and Conclusions Women were more sensitive to anxiety‐related stimulant withdrawal symptoms. Scientific Significance Clinics that address anxiety‐related abstinence symptoms, which more commonly occur in women, may improve treatment outcome. (Am J Addict 2015;XX:XX –XX

Long-distance Propagation of 162 MHz Shipping Information Links Associated with Sporadic E

This is a study of anomalous long-distance (\u3e1000 km) radio propagation that was identified in United States Coast Guard monitors of automatic identification system (AIS) shipping transmissions at 162 MHz. Our results indicate this long-distance propagation is caused by dense sporadic E layers in the daytime ionosphere, which were observed by nearby ionosondes at the same time. This finding is surprising because it indicates these sporadic E layers may be far more dense than previously thought

Coloring Problems

This thesis considers several coloring problems all of which have a combinatorial flavor. We review some results on the chromatic number of the plane, and improve a bound on the value of regressive Ramsey numbers. The main work of this thesis considers the problem of whether given any n ≥ 1; one can color Z+ in such a way that for all a ϵ Z+ the numbers a, 2a, 3a, ..., na are assigned different colors. Such colorings are referred to as satisfactory. We provide a sufficient condition for guaranteeing the existence of satisfactory colorings and analyze the resulting structure. Explicit constructions are given for n ≤ 54: The thesis concludes with some suggestions towards a general argument

First observation of 55,56Zn

In an experiment at the SISSI/LISE3 facility of GANIL, the most proton-rich zinc isotopes 55,56Zn have been observed for the first time. The experiment was performed using a high-intensity 58Ni beam at 74.5 MeV/nucleon impinging on a nickel target. The identification of 55,56Zn opens the way to 54Zn, a good candidate for two-proton radioactivity according to theoretical predictions.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.