Seeking sunlight: rapid phototactic motility of filamentous mat-forming cyanobacteria optimize photosynthesis and enhance carbon burial in Lake Huron’s submerged sinkholes

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Biddanda, Bopaiah A.; McMillan, Adam C.; Long, Stephen A.; Snider, Michael J.; Weinke, Anthony D.

2015-01-01

We studied the motility of filamentous mat-forming cyanobacteria consisting primarily of Oscillatoria-like cells growing under low-light, low-oxygen, and high-sulfur conditions in Lake Huron’s submerged sinkholes using in situ observations, in vitro measurements and time-lapse microscopy. Gliding movement of the cyanobacterial trichomes (100–10,000 μm long filaments, composed of cells ∼10 μm wide and ∼3 μm tall) revealed individual as well as group-coordinated motility. When placed in a petri dish and dispersed in ground water from the sinkhole, filaments re-aggregated into defined colonies within minutes, then dispersed again. Speed of individual filaments increased with temperature from ∼50 μm min-1 or ∼15 body lengths min-1 at 10°C to ∼215 μm min-1 or ∼70 body lengths min-1 at 35°C – rates that are rapid relative to non-flagellated/ciliated microbes. Filaments exhibited precise and coordinated positive phototaxis toward pinpoints of light and congregated under the light of foil cutouts. Such light-responsive clusters showed an increase in photosynthetic yield – suggesting phototactic motility aids in light acquisition as well as photosynthesis. Once light source was removed, filaments slowly spread out evenly and re-aggregated, demonstrating coordinated movement through inter-filament communication regardless of light. Pebbles and pieces of broken shells placed upon intact mat were quickly covered by vertically motile filaments within hours and became fully buried in the anoxic sediments over 3–4 diurnal cycles – likely facilitating the preservation of falling debris. Coordinated horizontal and vertical filament motility optimize mat cohesion and dynamics, photosynthetic efficiency and sedimentary carbon burial in modern-day sinkhole habitats that resemble the shallow seas in Earth’s early history. Analogous cyanobacterial motility may have played a key role in the oxygenation of the planet by optimizing photosynthesis while

Sharks modulate their escape behavior in response to predator size, speed and approach orientation.

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Seamone, Scott; Blaine, Tristan; Higham, Timothy E

2014-12-01

Escape responses are often critical for surviving predator-prey interactions. Nevertheless, little is known about how predator size, speed and approach orientation impact escape performance, especially in larger prey that are primarily viewed as predators. We used realistic shark models to examine how altering predatory behavior and morphology (size, speed and approach orientation) influences escape behavior and performance in Squalus acanthias, a shark that is preyed upon by apex marine predators. Predator models induced C-start escape responses, and increasing the size and speed of the models triggered a more intense response (increased escape turning rate and acceleration). In addition, increased predator size resulted in greater responsiveness from the sharks. Among the responses, predator approach orientation had the most significant impact on escapes, such that the head-on approach, as compared to the tail-on approach, induced greater reaction distances and increased escape turning rate, speed and acceleration. Thus, the anterior binocular vision in sharks renders them less effective at detecting predators approaching from behind. However, it appears that sharks compensate by performing high-intensity escapes, likely induced by the lateral line system, or by a sudden visual flash of the predator entering their field of view. Our study reveals key aspects of escape behavior in sharks, highlighting the modulation of performance in response to predator approach. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Conceptualizing psychological processes in response to globalization: Components, antecedents, and consequences of global orientations.

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Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Lam, Ben C P; Hui, Bryant P H; Ng, Jacky C K; Mak, Winnie W S; Guan, Yanjun; Buchtel, Emma E; Tang, Willie C S; Lau, Victor C Y

2016-02-01

The influences of globalization have permeated various aspects of life in contemporary society, from technical innovations, economic development, and lifestyles, to communication patterns. The present research proposed a construct termed global orientation to denote individual differences in the psychological processes of acculturating to the globalizing world. It encompasses multicultural acquisition as a proactive response and ethnic protection as a defensive response to globalization. Ten studies examined the applicability of global orientations among majority and minority groups, including immigrants and sojourners, in multicultural and relatively monocultural contexts, and across Eastern and Western cultures. Multicultural acquisition is positively correlated with both independent and interdependent self-construals, bilingual proficiency and usage, and dual cultural identifications. Multicultural acquisition is promotion-focused, while ethnic protection is prevention-focused and related to acculturative stress. Global orientations affect individuating and modest behavior over and above multicultural ideology, predict overlap with outgroups over and above political orientation, and predict psychological adaptation, sociocultural competence, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnocultural groups over and above acculturation expectations/strategies. Global orientations also predict English and Chinese oral presentation performance in multilevel analyses and the frequency and pleasantness of intercultural contact in cross-lagged panel models. We discuss how the psychological study of global orientations contributes to theory and research on acculturation, cultural identity, and intergroup relations. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Responsive and Proactive Stakeholder Orientation in Public Universities: Antecedents and Consequences

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Alarcón-del-Amo, María-del-Carmen; Casablancas-Segura, Carme; Llonch, Joan

2016-01-01

This study, based on institutional theory, dynamic capabilities, and stakeholder theory, investigates the relationships between the antecedents of responsive and proactive stakeholder orientation and their consequences in the public university context. The results obtained mainly stress that the mimetic effect of copying successful university…

Responsibility/Threat Overestimation Moderates the Relationship Between Contamination-Based Disgust and Obsessive-Compulsive Concerns About Sexual Orientation.

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Ching, Terence H W; Williams, Monnica T; Siev, Jedidiah; Olatunji, Bunmi O

2018-05-01

Disgust has been shown to perform a "disease-avoidance" function in contamination fears. However, no studies have examined the relevance of disgust to obsessive-compulsive (OC) concerns about sexual orientation (e.g., fear of one's sexual orientation transforming against one's will, and compulsive avoidance of same-sex and/or gay or lesbian individuals to prevent that from happening). Therefore, we investigated whether the specific domain of contamination-based disgust (i.e., evoked by the perceived threat of transmission of essences between individuals) predicted OC concerns about sexual orientation, and whether this effect was moderated/amplified by obsessive beliefs, in evaluation of a "sexual orientation transformation-avoidance" function. We recruited 283 self-identified heterosexual college students (152 females, 131 males; mean age = 20.88 years, SD = 3.19) who completed three measures assessing disgust, obsessive beliefs, and OC concerns about sexual orientation. Results showed that contamination-based disgust (β = .17), responsibility/threat overestimation beliefs (β = .15), and their interaction (β = .17) each uniquely predicted OC concerns about sexual orientation, ts = 2.22, 2.50, and 2.90, ps contamination-based disgust accompanied by strong responsibility/threat overestimation beliefs predicted more severe OC concerns about sexual orientation, β = .48, t = 3.24, p contamination-based disgust, and exacerbated by responsibility/threat overestimation beliefs. Treatment for OC concerns about sexual orientation should target such beliefs.

Two Methods of Interpersonal Skills Training; Conceptual- versus Response-Oriented Approaches.

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Bohart, Arthur C.; And Others

1979-01-01

Training people in warmth, empathy, and genuineness might fulfill a specific helping role and increase their general social comfort for others. By using conceptual and response-oriented approaches, authors show that training individuals to be effective counselors also helped them be more interpersonally effective. (Author/BEF)

The Relationship Between Goal Orientation, Social Comparison Responses, Self-Efficacy, and Performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Carmona, Carmen; Buunk, Abraham P.; Dijkstra, Arie; Peiro, Jose M.

2008-01-01

The present study examined whether social comparison responses (identification and contrast in social comparison) mediated the relationship between goal orientation (promotion and prevention) and self-efficacy, and whether self-efficacy was subsequently related with a better performance. As

The political (and physiological) divide: Political orientation, performance monitoring, and the anterior cingulate response.

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Weissflog, Meghan; Choma, Becky L; Dywan, Jane; van Noordt, Stefon J R; Segalowitz, Sidney J

2013-01-01

Our goal was to test a model of sociopolitical attitudes that posits a relationship between individual differences in liberal versus conservative political orientation and differential levels of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) responsivity. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants who varied along a unidimensional liberal-conservative continuum engaged in a standard Go/NoGo task. We also measured component attitudes of political orientation in the form of traditionalism (degree of openness to social change) and egalitarianism (a preference for social equality). Generally, participants who reported a more liberal political orientation made fewer errors and produced larger ACC-generated ERPs (the error-related negativity, or ERN and the NoGo N2). This ACC activation, especially as indicated by a larger NoGo N2, was most strongly associated with greater preference for social equality. Performance accuracy, however, was most strongly associated with greater openness to social change. These data are consistent with a social neuroscience view that sociopolitical attitudes are related to aspects of neurophysiological responsivity. They also indicate that a bidimensional model of political orientation can enhance our interpretation of the nature of these associations.

Transcription-Replication Conflict Orientation Modulates R-Loop Levels and Activates Distinct DNA Damage Responses.

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Hamperl, Stephan; Bocek, Michael J; Saldivar, Joshua C; Swigut, Tomek; Cimprich, Karlene A

2017-08-10

Conflicts between transcription and replication are a potent source of DNA damage. Co-transcriptional R-loops could aggravate such conflicts by creating an additional barrier to replication fork progression. Here, we use a defined episomal system to investigate how conflict orientation and R-loop formation influence genome stability in human cells. R-loops, but not normal transcription complexes, induce DNA breaks and orientation-specific DNA damage responses during conflicts with replication forks. Unexpectedly, the replisome acts as an orientation-dependent regulator of R-loop levels, reducing R-loops in the co-directional (CD) orientation but promoting their formation in the head-on (HO) orientation. Replication stress and deregulated origin firing increase the number of HO collisions leading to genome-destabilizing R-loops. Our findings connect DNA replication to R-loop homeostasis and suggest a mechanistic basis for genome instability resulting from deregulated DNA replication, observed in cancer and other disease states. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Polarized Raman anisotropic response of collagen in tendon: towards 3D orientation mapping of collagen in tissues.

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Leonardo Galvis

Full Text Available In this study, polarized Raman spectroscopy (PRS was used to characterize the anisotropic response of the amide I band of collagen as a basis for evaluating three-dimensional collagen fibril orientation in tissues. Firstly, the response was investigated theoretically by applying classical Raman theory to collagen-like peptide crystal structures. The theoretical methodology was then tested experimentally, by measuring amide I intensity anisotropy in rat tail as a function of the orientation of the incident laser polarization. For the theoretical study, several collagen-like triple-helical peptide crystal structures obtained from the Protein Data Bank were rotated "in plane" and "out of plane" to evaluate the role of molecular orientation on the intensity of the amide I band. Collagen-like peptides exhibit a sinusoidal anisotropic response when rotated "in plane" with respect to the polarized incident laser. Maximal intensity was obtained when the polarization of the incident light is perpendicular to the molecule and minimal when parallel. In the case of "out of plane" rotation of the molecular structure a decreased anisotropic response was observed, becoming completely isotropic when the structure was perpendicular to the plane of observation. The theoretical Raman response of collagen was compared to that of alpha helical protein fragments. In contrast to collagen, alpha helices have a maximal signal when incident light is parallel to the molecule and minimal when perpendicular. For out-of-plane molecular orientations alpha-helix structures display a decreased average intensity. Results obtained from experiments on rat tail tendon are in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions, thus demonstrating the high potential of PRS for experimental evaluation of the three-dimensional orientation of collagen fibers in biological tissues.

Orientation-specific contextual modulation of the fMRI BOLD response to luminance and chromatic gratings in human visual cortex.

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McDonald, J Scott; Seymour, Kiley J; Schira, Mark M; Spehar, Branka; Clifford, Colin W G

2009-05-01

The responses of orientation-selective neurons in primate visual cortex can be profoundly affected by the presence and orientation of stimuli falling outside the classical receptive field. Our perception of the orientation of a line or grating also depends upon the context in which it is presented. For example, the perceived orientation of a grating embedded in a surround tends to be repelled from the predominant orientation of the surround. Here, we used fMRI to investigate the basis of orientation-specific surround effects in five functionally-defined regions of visual cortex: V1, V2, V3, V3A/LO1 and hV4. Test stimuli were luminance-modulated and isoluminant gratings that produced responses similar in magnitude. Less BOLD activation was evident in response to gratings with parallel versus orthogonal surrounds across all the regions of visual cortex investigated. When an isoluminant test grating was surrounded by a luminance-modulated inducer, the degree of orientation-specific contextual modulation was no larger for extrastriate areas than for V1, suggesting that the observed effects might originate entirely in V1. However, more orientation-specific modulation was evident in extrastriate cortex when both test and inducer were luminance-modulated gratings than when the test was isoluminant; this difference was significant in area V3. We suggest that the pattern of results in extrastriate cortex may reflect a refinement of the orientation-selectivity of surround suppression specific to the colour of the surround or, alternatively, processes underlying the segmentation of test and inducer by spatial phase or orientation when no colour cue is available.

When the Research Design Matters in EFL Context: A Case of Different Responses to Open-response and Closed-response Questions on Motivational Orientation

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Ma‘ssoumeh Bemani Naeini

2012-11-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at investigating and exploring the degree of motivational orientation (i.e. instrumental and integrative motivation among sixty Iranian TEFL students. A survey research design was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, using a Likert-scale questionnaire containing six open-response items. Inferential analysis of quantitative data identified the subjects of the study with integrative orientation. However, descriptive analysis of open responses in terms of coded recurrent themes indicated contradictory results. In sum, the findings suggest a gap between Iranian TEFL students’ “desirable motivation” and “desired motivation”. The researcher attributes the contradictory results not only to the social context, but also to the type of questionnaire and the psychological status of respondents. Also, the findings provide support for other components of motivation other than just instrumentality and integrativeness, mainly “personal” aspects as proposed by Benson’s model of motivation.

Sorting mutual funds with respect to process-oriented social responsibility: A FLOWSORT application

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Tim Verheyden

2014-08-01

Full Text Available We establish a robust FLOWSORT-based tool to sort mutual funds with respect to process-oriented social responsibility and recommend the use of limiting profiles with open classes. The tool provides an alternative for the limited dichotomous classification of funds, i.e. socially responsible investing (SRI versus conventional funds. By allowing for more heterogeneity in social responsibility the sorting tool is promising for scholars to improve fund performance measurements, and useful for governments to better regulate the supply of SRI products.

Cardiac responses predict decisions: an investigation of the relation between orienting response and decisions in the ultimatum game.

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Osumi, Takahiro; Ohira, Hideki

2009-10-01

Emotion-based behaviors in humans cannot be fully explained by economic rationality. Particularly, in the ultimatum game, which incorporates conflict between self-interest and fairness, negative emotions evoked by an unfair offer seem to promote an economically irrational decision. In accordance with this suggestion, the previous studies have reported that physiological arousal is associated with rejecting unfair offers. In the present study, we investigated electrocardiogram and electrodermal activities in individuals which received fair, advantageously unfair, and disadvantageously unfair offers to specify the relations of the orienting and the defensive responses with these offers and with the decisions to accept and reject them. The results indicated that when an offer that would be rejected was presented, heart rate initially decelerated more than when an offer that would be accepted was presented. Additionally, there was a linear relationship between the deceleration and unfairness of offers. On the other hand, such different patterns were not seen in late cardiac acceleration or electrodermal response. The results suggest that because of perception of disadvantage and unpleasantness in a social context, the orienting response is evoked when an offer will be rejected. In addition, these results are discussed regarding the effect of the autonomic activity in decision-making.

Secondary school learners' perceptions of responsible citizenship as taught in the life orientation learning area: a case study

OpenAIRE

2008-01-01

In this study, secondary school learners perceptions of Responsible Citizenship as taught in the Life Orientation learning area are explored. Citizen Education, which is set out in Learning Outcome Two of the Life Orientation Curriculum, forms the basis of the programme used to conduct this study. An international as well as a national perspective of Responsible Citizenship and the teaching thereof is explicated with special reference being made to the Further Education and Training Band. The...

Sexual Orientation as a Peripheral Cue in Advertising: Effects of Models' Sexual Orientation, Argument Strength, and Involvement on Responses to Magazine Ads.

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Ivory, Adrienne Holz

2017-10-12

This study examines how sexual orientation of couples featured in magazine advertisements affects heterosexual viewers' responses using the elaboration likelihood model as a framework. A 3 × 2 × 2 × 3 experiment tested effects of sexual orientation, argument strength, involvement, and attitudes toward homosexuality on heterosexuals' attitudes toward the couple, advertisement, brand, and product, purchase intentions, and recall. Results indicate that consumers were accepting of ads with lesbian portrayals. Participants showed more negative attitudes toward gay male portrayals, but attitudes toward heterosexual and lesbian ads were similar. This effect was moderated by participants' attitudes toward homosexuals. Low-involvement consumers showed more negative attitudes toward homosexual portrayals than toward heterosexual portrayals, indicating that sexual orientation may have served as a peripheral cue negatively impacting attitudes toward the couple and ad under low elaboration. These effects were not observed for attitudes toward the brand and product, purchase intentions, or recall.

Orientation-Cue Invariant Population Responses to Contrast-Modulated and Phase-Reversed Contour Stimuli in Macaque V1 and V2

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An, Xu; Gong, Hongliang; Yin, Jiapeng; Wang, Xiaochun; Pan, Yanxia; Zhang, Xian; Lu, Yiliang; Yang, Yupeng; Toth, Zoltan; Schiessl, Ingo; McLoughlin, Niall; Wang, Wei

2014-01-01

Visual scenes can be readily decomposed into a variety of oriented components, the processing of which is vital for object segregation and recognition. In primate V1 and V2, most neurons have small spatio-temporal receptive fields responding selectively to oriented luminance contours (first order), while only a subgroup of neurons signal non-luminance defined contours (second order). So how is the orientation of second-order contours represented at the population level in macaque V1 and V2? Here we compared the population responses in macaque V1 and V2 to two types of second-order contour stimuli generated either by modulation of contrast or phase reversal with those to first-order contour stimuli. Using intrinsic signal optical imaging, we found that the orientation of second-order contour stimuli was represented invariantly in the orientation columns of both macaque V1 and V2. A physiologically constrained spatio-temporal energy model of V1 and V2 neuronal populations could reproduce all the recorded population responses. These findings suggest that, at the population level, the primate early visual system processes the orientation of second-order contours initially through a linear spatio-temporal filter mechanism. Our results of population responses to different second-order contour stimuli support the idea that the orientation maps in primate V1 and V2 can be described as a spatial-temporal energy map. PMID:25188576

Thermal and physiological responses of rats exposed to 2. 45-GHz radiofrequency radiation: A comparison of E and H orientation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frei, M.R.; Jauchem, J.R.; Padilla, J.M.; Merritt, J.H.

1989-07-01

Ketamine-anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed in both E and H orientations to far-field 2.45-GHz continuous-wave radiofrequency radiation (RFR) at a power density of 60 mW/cm/sup 2/ (wholebody average specific absorption rate of approx. = 14 W/kg). Intermittent exposures were performed in both orientations in the same animal to repeatedly increase colonic temperature from 38.5 to 39.5/sup 0/C. Tympanic, subcutaneous (sides toward and away from RFR source), and colonic temperature, ECG, arterial blood pressure, and respiratory rate were continuously recorded. The pattern of heat distribution within the animal and the physiological responses were significantly different between E- and H-orientation exposure. Irradiation in E orientation resulted in greater peripheral and tympanic heating, while irradiation in H orientation resulted in greater core heating. Heart rate and blood pressure increased significantly during irradiation and returned to baseline levels when exposure was discontinued; the increases were significantly greater in E than in H orientation. Respiratory rate increased significantly during irradiation in H, but not in E orientation. The physiological responses could have been influenced by the different levels or rates of subcutaneous and tympanic heating, or the differential between core and peripheral heating during E- and H-orientation irradiation. These results suggest that, when interpreting results of RFR exposure, animal orientation during irradiation must be considered.

Trajectory Orientation: A Technology-Enabled Concept Requiring a Shift in Controller Roles and Responsibilities

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Leiden, Ken; Green, Steven

2000-01-01

The development of a decision support tool (DST) for the en-route domain with accurate conflict prediction time horizons of 20 minutes has introduced an interesting problem. A 20 minute time horizon for conflict prediction often results in the predicted conflict occurring one or more sectors downstream from the sector controller who "owns" (i-e., is responsible for the safe separation of aircraft) one or both of the aircraft in the conflict pair. Based on current roles and responsibilities of today's en route controllers, the upstream controller would not resolve this conflict. In most cases, the downstream controller would wait until the conflicting aircraft entered higher sector before resolving the conflict. This results in a delay of several minutes from the time when the conflict was initially predicted. This delay is inefficient from both a controller workload and user's cost of operations perspective. Trajectory orientation, a new concept for facilitating an efficient, conflict-free flight path across several sectors while conforming to metering or miles-in-trail spacing, is proposed as an alternative to today's sector-oriented method. This concept necessitates a fundamental shift in thinking about inter-sector coordination. Instead of operating independently, with the main focus on protecting their internal airspace, controllers would work cooperatively, depending on each other for well-planned, conflict-free flow of aircraft. To support the trajectory orientation concept, a long time horizon (15 to 20 minutes) for conflict prediction and resolution would most likely be a primary requirement. In addition, new tools, such as controller-pilot data link will be identified to determine their necessity and applicability for trajectory orientation. Finally, with significant controller participation from selected Air Route Traffic Control Centers, potential shifts in R-side/D-side roles and responsibilities as well as the creation of a new controller position for

Contrasting motivational orientation and evaluative coding accounts: On the need to differentiate the effectors of approach/avoidance responses

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Julia eKozlik

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Several emotion theorists suggest that valenced stimuli automatically trigger motivational orientations and thereby facilitate corresponding behavior. Positive stimuli were thought to activate approach motivational circuits which in turn primed approach-related behavioral tendencies whereas negative stimuli were supposed to activate avoidance motivational circuits so that avoidance-related behavioral tendencies were primed (motivational orientation account. However, recent research suggests that typically observed affective stimulus–response compatibility phenomena might be entirely explained in terms of theories accounting for mechanisms of general action control instead of assuming motivational orientations to mediate the effects (evaluative coding account. In what follows, we explore to what extent this notion is applicable. We present literature suggesting that evaluative coding mechanisms indeed influence a wide variety of affective stimulus–response compatibility phenomena. However, the evaluative coding account does not seem to be sufficient to explain affective S–R compatibility effects. Instead, several studies provide clear evidence in favor of the motivational orientation account that seems to operate independently of evaluative coding mechanisms. Implications for theoretical developments and future research designs are discussed.

Contrasting motivational orientation and evaluative coding accounts: on the need to differentiate the effectors of approach/avoidance responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Kozlik, Julia; Neumann, Roland; Lozo, Ljubica

2015-01-01

Several emotion theorists suggest that valenced stimuli automatically trigger motivational orientations and thereby facilitate corresponding behavior. Positive stimuli were thought to activate approach motivational circuits which in turn primed approach-related behavioral tendencies whereas negative stimuli were supposed to activate avoidance motivational circuits so that avoidance-related behavioral tendencies were primed (motivational orientation account). However, recent research suggests that typically observed affective stimulus-response compatibility phenomena might be entirely explained in terms of theories accounting for mechanisms of general action control instead of assuming motivational orientations to mediate the effects (evaluative coding account). In what follows, we explore to what extent this notion is applicable. We present literature suggesting that evaluative coding mechanisms indeed influence a wide variety of affective stimulus-response compatibility phenomena. However, the evaluative coding account does not seem to be sufficient to explain affective S-R compatibility effects. Instead, several studies provide clear evidence in favor of the motivational orientation account that seems to operate independently of evaluative coding mechanisms. Implications for theoretical developments and future research designs are discussed.

Goal orientation profile differences on perceived motivational climate, perceived peer relationships, and motivation-related responses of youth athletes.

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Smith, Alan L; Balaguer, Isabel; Duda, Joan L

2006-12-01

The aims of this study were twofold: (a) to determine if dispositional achievement goal orientation profiles that are reported in the literature would be observed in a sample of youth athletes, and (b) to examine potential achievement goal orientation profile differences on perceptions of the motivational climate, perceptions of peer relationships, and motivation-related responses. Male soccer players (n=223) aged 9-12 years (mean=10.9, s=0.6) completed a multi-section questionnaire containing assessments of dispositional goal (task, ego) orientations, the perceived task- and ego-involving features of the motivational climate, perceived peer acceptance and friendship quality (positive friendship quality, conflict), perceived ability, soccer enjoyment, and satisfaction with one's performance and the team. Four profiles were observed that closely matched those observed by Hodge and Petlichkoff (2000), though in the present study a lower proportion of participants exhibited achievement goal profiles consisting of relatively high ego orientation. Achievement goal profile differences were found for all variables except positive friendship quality, with a general trend for those reporting relatively lower task goal orientation to exhibit less adaptive responses. Overall, the findings support achievement goal frameworks (e.g. Nicholls, 1989) and suggest that further examination of dispositional achievement goals may afford a deeper understanding of social relationships and motivational processes in youth sport.

Orientation and direction-of-motion response in the middle temporal visual area (MT of New World owl monkeys as revealed by intrinsic-signal optical imaging

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Peter M Kaskan

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Intrinsic-signal optical imaging was used to evaluate relationships of domains of neurons in visual area MT selective for stimulus orientation and direction of motion. Maps of activation were elicited in MT of owl monkeys by gratings drifting back-and-forth, flashed stationary gratings and unidirectionally drifting fields of random dots. Drifting gratings, typically used to reveal orientation preference domains, contain a motion component that may be represented in MT. Consequently, this stimulus could activate groups of cells responsive to the motion of the grating, its orientation or a combination of both. Domains elicited from either moving or static gratings were remarkably similar, indicating that these groups of cells are responding to orientation, although they may also encode information about motion. To assess the relationship between domains defined by drifting oriented gratings and those responsive to direction of motion, the response to drifting fields of random dots was measured within domains defined from thresholded maps of activation elicited by the drifting gratings. The optical response elicited by drifting fields of random dots was maximal in a direction orthogonal to the map of orientation preference. Thus, neurons in domains selective for stimulus orientation are also selective for motion orthogonal to the preferred stimulus orientation.

Anxiety-related biases in visual orienting and spatial motor response selection independently assessed by a probe-classification task

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schrooten, M.G.S.; Smulders, F.T.Y.; Mogg, K.; Bradley, B.P.

2012-01-01

This dot-probe study assessed anxiety-related biases in visual attentional orienting and spatial motor response selection (motor attention) in high- and low-trait-anxious adults, and whether anxiety-related biases depend on response speed. Emotional-neutral word pairs appeared for 14 or 500 ms, with

End-user comfort oriented day-ahead planning for responsive residential HVAC demand aggregation considering weather forecasts

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Erdinç, O.; Taşcikaraogυlu, A.; Paterakis, N.G.; Eren, Y.; Catalão, J.P.S.

2017-01-01

There is a remarkable potential for implementing demand response (DR) strategies for several purposes, such as peak load reduction, frequency regulation, etc., by using thermostatically controllable appliances. In this paper, an end-user comfort violation minimization oriented DR strategy for

Psychophysiological responses of junior orienteers under competitive pressure.

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Robazza, Claudio; Izzicupo, Pascal; D'Amico, Maria Angela; Ghinassi, Barbara; Crippa, Maria Chiara; Di Cecco, Vincenzo; Ruiz, Montse C; Bortoli, Laura; Di Baldassarre, Angela

2018-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine psychobiosocial states, cognitive functions, endocrine responses (i.e., salivary cortisol and chromogranin A), and performance under competitive pressure in orienteering athletes. The study was grounded in the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) and biopsychosocial models. Fourteen junior orienteering athletes (7 girls and 7 boys), ranging in age from 15 to 20 years (M = 16.93, SD = 1.77) took part in a two-day competitive event. To enhance competitive pressure, emphasis was placed on the importance of the competition and race outcome. Psychophysiological and performance data were collected at several points before, during, and after the races. Results showed that an increase in cortisol levels was associated with competitive pressure and reflected in higher perceived exertion (day 1, r = .32; day 2, r = .46), higher intensity of dysfunctional states (day 1, r = .59; day 2, r = .55), lower intensity of functional states (day 1, r = -.36; day 2, r = -.33), and decay in memory (day 1, r = -.27; day 2, r = -.35), visual attention (day 1, r = -.56; day 2, r = -.35), and attention/mental flexibility (day 1, r = .16; day 2, r = .26) tasks. The second day we observed better performance times, lower intensity of dysfunctional states, lower cortisol levels, improved visual attention and attention/mental flexibility (p competition days, chromogranin A levels were higher (p < .050) on the most difficult loops of the race in terms of both physical and psychological demands. Findings suggest emotional, cognitive, psychophysiological, and performance variables to be related and to jointly change across different levels of cognitive and physical load. Overall results are discussed in light of the IZOF and biopsychosocial models. The procedure adopted in the study also supports the feasibility of including additional cognitive load for possible practical applications.

Psychophysiological responses of junior orienteers under competitive pressure.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudio Robazza

Full Text Available The purpose of the study was to examine psychobiosocial states, cognitive functions, endocrine responses (i.e., salivary cortisol and chromogranin A, and performance under competitive pressure in orienteering athletes. The study was grounded in the individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF and biopsychosocial models. Fourteen junior orienteering athletes (7 girls and 7 boys, ranging in age from 15 to 20 years (M = 16.93, SD = 1.77 took part in a two-day competitive event. To enhance competitive pressure, emphasis was placed on the importance of the competition and race outcome. Psychophysiological and performance data were collected at several points before, during, and after the races. Results showed that an increase in cortisol levels was associated with competitive pressure and reflected in higher perceived exertion (day 1, r = .32; day 2, r = .46, higher intensity of dysfunctional states (day 1, r = .59; day 2, r = .55, lower intensity of functional states (day 1, r = -.36; day 2, r = -.33, and decay in memory (day 1, r = -.27; day 2, r = -.35, visual attention (day 1, r = -.56; day 2, r = -.35, and attention/mental flexibility (day 1, r = .16; day 2, r = .26 tasks. The second day we observed better performance times, lower intensity of dysfunctional states, lower cortisol levels, improved visual attention and attention/mental flexibility (p < .050. Across the two competition days, chromogranin A levels were higher (p < .050 on the most difficult loops of the race in terms of both physical and psychological demands. Findings suggest emotional, cognitive, psychophysiological, and performance variables to be related and to jointly change across different levels of cognitive and physical load. Overall results are discussed in light of the IZOF and biopsychosocial models. The procedure adopted in the study also supports the feasibility of including additional cognitive load for possible practical applications.

Using Audience Response Systems to Encourage Student Engagement and Reflection on Ethical Orientation and Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Micheletto, Melinda J.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to use an audience response system (ARS) to engage students in classroom discussions concerning sensitive and controversial topics (e.g., business ethics), assess student's ethical orientation and conduct in unethical behaviors, and encourage reflection on their personal level of ethicality. Students used ARS devices…

Pathways to Conscience: Early Mother-Child Mutually Responsive Orientation and Children's Moral Emotion, Conduct, and Cognition

Science.gov (United States)

Kochanska, Grazyna; Forman, David R.; Aksan, Nazan; Dunbar, Stephen B.

2005-01-01

Background: Associations between early mother-child mutually responsive orientation (MRO) and children's conscience have been previously established, but the mechanisms accounting for those links are not understood. We examined three such mediational mechanisms: (a) the child's enhanced enjoyment of interactions with the mother, (b) increased…

The Interaction of Pedagogical Approach, Gender, Self-Regulation, and Goal Orientation Using Student Response System Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Edens, Kellah M.

2008-01-01

This research compares a behaviorally based approach for using electronic student response system (SRS) technology with a metacognitive-oriented approach to determine effects on attendance, preparation for class, and achievement. Also examined are the interaction effects of pedagogical approach with self-regulatory and motivational characteristics…

The shark Chiloscyllium griseum can orient using turn responses before and after partial telencephalon ablation.

Science.gov (United States)

Fuss, Theodora; Bleckmann, Horst; Schluessel, Vera

2014-01-01

This study assessed spatial memory and orientation strategies in Chiloscyllium griseum. In the presence of visual landmarks, six sharks were trained in a fixed turn response. Group 1 started from two possible compartments approaching two goal locations, while group 2 started from and approached only one location, respectively. The learning criterion was reached within 9 ± 5.29 (group 1) and 8.3 ± 3.51 sessions (group 2). Transfer tests revealed that sharks had applied a direction strategy, possibly in combination with some form of place learning. Without visual cues, sharks relied solely on the former. To identify the underlying neural substrate(s), telencephalic were lesioned and performance compared before and after surgery. Ablation of the dorsal and medial pallia only had an effect on one shark (group 1), indicating that the acquisition and retention of previously gained knowledge were unaffected in the remaining four individuals. Nonetheless, the shark re-learned the task. In summary, C. griseum can utilize fixed turn responses to navigate to a goal; there is also some evidence for the use of external visual landmarks while orienting. Probably, strategies can be used alone or in combination. Neither the dorsal nor medial pallium seems to be responsible for the acquisition and processing of egocentric information.

How to control self-promotion among performance-oriented employees : The roles of task clarity and personalized responsibility

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Molleman, Eric; Emans, Ben; Turusbekova, Nonna

2012-01-01

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the performance orientation of employees and self-promotion in the form of overstating one's performance. It is hypothesized that this relationship depends on task clarity and personalized responsibility.

Improving Orientation Outcomes: Implementation of Phased Orientation Process in an Intermediate Special Care Nursery.

Science.gov (United States)

Rivera, Emily K; Shedenhelm, Heidi J; Gibbs, Ardyce L

2015-01-01

In response to changing needs of registered nurse orientees, the staff education committee in the Intermediate Special Care Nursery has implemented a phased orientation process. This phased process includes a mentoring experience postorientation to support a new nurse through the first year of employment. Since implementing the phased orientation process in the Intermediate Special Care Nursery, orientee satisfaction and preparation to practice have increased, and length of orientation has decreased.

Subcortical orientation biases explain orientation selectivity of visual cortical cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Vidyasagar, Trichur R; Jayakumar, Jaikishan; Lloyd, Errol; Levichkina, Ekaterina V

2015-04-01

The primary visual cortex of carnivores and primates shows an orderly progression of domains of neurons that are selective to a particular orientation of visual stimuli such as bars and gratings. We recorded from single-thalamic afferent fibers that terminate in these domains to address the issue whether the orientation sensitivity of these fibers could form the basis of the remarkable orientation selectivity exhibited by most cortical cells. We first performed optical imaging of intrinsic signals to obtain a map of orientation domains on the dorsal aspect of the anaesthetized cat's area 17. After confirming using electrophysiological recordings the orientation preferences of single neurons within one or two domains in each animal, we pharmacologically silenced the cortex to leave only the afferent terminals active. The inactivation of cortical neurons was achieved by the superfusion of either kainic acid or muscimol. Responses of single geniculate afferents were then recorded by the use of high impedance electrodes. We found that the orientation preferences of the afferents matched closely with those of the cells in the orientation domains that they terminated in (Pearson's r = 0.633, n = 22, P = 0.002). This suggests a possible subcortical origin for cortical orientation selectivity. © 2015 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society.

crab Sesarma catenata

African Journals Online (AJOL)

1988-01-15

Jan 15, 1988 ... of the mechanics of the shadow response is proposed which does not involve negative phototaxiS. The consequences of the phototactiC ~haviour of larvae for dispersal in the Swartkops .... with a Li-Cor Quantum Meter. Under this illumination larvae remained swimming just beneath the surface, more or ...

How to track protists in three dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

Drescher, Knut; Leptos, Kyriacos C.; Goldstein, Raymond E.

2009-01-01

We present an apparatus optimized for tracking swimming micro-organisms in the size range of 10-1000 μm, in three dimensions (3Ds), far from surfaces, and with negligible background convective fluid motion. Charge coupled device cameras attached to two long working distance microscopes synchronously image the sample from two perpendicular directions, with narrow band dark-field or bright-field illumination chosen to avoid triggering a phototactic response. The images from the two cameras can be combined to yield 3D tracks of the organism. Using additional, highly directional broad-spectrum illumination with millisecond timing control the phototactic trajectories in 3D of organisms ranging from Chlamydomonas to Volvox can be studied in detail. Surface-mediated hydrodynamic interactions can also be investigated without convective interference. Minimal modifications to the apparatus allow for studies of chemotaxis and other taxes.

Evaluation of trauma service orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Schott, Eric

2010-02-01

Orientation of residents to clinical services may be criticized as cumbersome, dull, and simplytoo much information. With the mandated resident-hour restrictions, the question arose: Do residents perceive the orientation to our trauma service as worthwhile? Residents attend a standardized orientation lecture on the first day of the rotation. Three weeks later, an eight-item, five-point Likert-scale survey is distributed to assess the residents' perceptions of the value of the orientation. Responses to each item were examined. Fifty-four (92%) of the residents completed the questionnaire between September 2005 and August 2006. Most indicated that orientation was helpful (85%), the Trauma Resuscitation DVD was informative (82%), the review of procedures was helpful (82%), and the instructor's knowledge was adequate (94%). Most (92%) disagreed with the statement that orientation should not be offered. Careful attention to orientation content and format is important to the perception that the orientation is worthwhile.

Assessment of sexual orientation using the hemodynamic brain response to visual sexual stimuli

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ponseti, Jorge; Granert, Oliver; Jansen, Olav

2009-01-01

in a nonclinical sample of 12 heterosexual men and 14 homosexual men. During fMRI, participants were briefly exposed to pictures of same-sex and opposite-sex genitals. Data analysis involved four steps: (i) differences in the BOLD response to female and male sexual stimuli were calculated for each subject; (ii......) these contrast images were entered into a group analysis to calculate whole-brain difference maps between homosexual and heterosexual participants; (iii) a single expression value was computed for each subject expressing its correspondence to the group result; and (iv) based on these expression values, Fisher...... response patterns of the brain to sexual stimuli contained sufficient information to predict individual sexual orientation with high accuracy. These results suggest that fMRI-based classification methods hold promise for the diagnosis of paraphilic disorders (e.g., pedophilia)....

Stakeholders' Responses to CSR Tradeoffs: When Other-Orientation and Trust Trump Material Self-Interest

Science.gov (United States)

Bridoux, Flore; Stofberg, Nicole; Den Hartog, Deanne

2016-01-01

When investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR), managers may strive for a win-win scenario where all stakeholders end up better off, but they may not always be able to avoid trading off stakeholders' interests. To provide guidance to managers who have to make tradeoffs, this study used a vignette-based experiment to explore stakeholders' intention to associate with a firm (i.e., buy from or become an employee) that trades off CSR directed at the stakeholders' own group (self-directed CSR) and CSR directed at another stakeholder group (other-directed CSR). Results show that stakeholders were not systematically more attracted to a firm that favors their own group over another stakeholder group. Specifically, stakeholders' other-orientation moderated their reaction to tradeoffs: stakeholders higher on other-orientation were willing to forego some material benefits to associate with a firm that treated suppliers in developing countries significantly better than its competitors, whereas stakeholders lower on other-orientation were more attracted to a firm favoring their own stakeholder group. Other-orientation also moderated reactions to tradeoffs involving the environment, although high CSR directed at the environment did not compensate for low self-directed CSR even for stakeholders higher on other-orientation. Second, the vignette study showed that trust mediated the relationship between tradeoffs and stakeholders' reactions. The study contributes first and foremost to the burgeoning literature on CSR tradeoffs and to the multimotive approach to CSR, which claims that other motives can drive stakeholders' reactions to CSR in addition to self-interest. First, it provides further evidence that studying CSR tradeoffs is important to understand both (prospective) employees' and customers' reactions to CSR-related activities. Second, it identifies other-orientation as a motive-related individual difference that explains heterogeneity in stakeholders' reactions to

Stakeholders' Responses to CSR Tradeoffs: When Other-Orientation and Trust Trump Material Self-Interest.

Science.gov (United States)

Bridoux, Flore; Stofberg, Nicole; Den Hartog, Deanne

2015-01-01

When investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR), managers may strive for a win-win scenario where all stakeholders end up better off, but they may not always be able to avoid trading off stakeholders' interests. To provide guidance to managers who have to make tradeoffs, this study used a vignette-based experiment to explore stakeholders' intention to associate with a firm (i.e., buy from or become an employee) that trades off CSR directed at the stakeholders' own group (self-directed CSR) and CSR directed at another stakeholder group (other-directed CSR). Results show that stakeholders were not systematically more attracted to a firm that favors their own group over another stakeholder group. Specifically, stakeholders' other-orientation moderated their reaction to tradeoffs: stakeholders higher on other-orientation were willing to forego some material benefits to associate with a firm that treated suppliers in developing countries significantly better than its competitors, whereas stakeholders lower on other-orientation were more attracted to a firm favoring their own stakeholder group. Other-orientation also moderated reactions to tradeoffs involving the environment, although high CSR directed at the environment did not compensate for low self-directed CSR even for stakeholders higher on other-orientation. Second, the vignette study showed that trust mediated the relationship between tradeoffs and stakeholders' reactions. The study contributes first and foremost to the burgeoning literature on CSR tradeoffs and to the multimotive approach to CSR, which claims that other motives can drive stakeholders' reactions to CSR in addition to self-interest. First, it provides further evidence that studying CSR tradeoffs is important to understand both (prospective) employees' and customers' reactions to CSR-related activities. Second, it identifies other-orientation as a motive-related individual difference that explains heterogeneity in stakeholders' reactions to

Stakeholders’ responses to CSR tradeoffs: When other-orientation and trust trump material self-interest

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Flore eBridoux

2016-01-01

Full Text Available When investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR, managers may strive for a win-win scenario where all stakeholders end up better off, but they may not always be able to avoid trading off stakeholders’ interests. To provide guidance to managers who have to make tradeoffs, this study used a vignette-based experiment to explore stakeholders’ intention to associate with a firm (i.e., buy from or become an employee that trades off CSR directed at the stakeholders’ own group (self-directed CSR and CSR directed at another stakeholder group (other-directed CSR. Results show that stakeholders were not systematically more attracted to a firm that favors their own group over another stakeholder group. Specifically, stakeholders’ other-orientation moderated their reaction to tradeoffs: stakeholders higher on other-orientation were willing to forego some material benefits to associate with a firm that treated suppliers in developing countries significantly better than its competitors, whereas stakeholders lower on other-orientation were more attracted to a firm favoring their own stakeholder group. Other-orientation also moderated reactions to tradeoffs involving the environment, although high CSR directed at the environment did not compensate for low self-directed CSR even for stakeholders higher on other-orientation. Second, the vignette study showed that trust mediated the relationship between tradeoffs and stakeholders’ reactions. The study contributes first and foremost to the burgeoning literature on CSR tradeoffs and to the multimotive approach to CSR, which claims that other motives can drive stakeholders’ reactions to CSR in addition to self-interest. First, it provides further evidence that studying CSR tradeoffs is important to understand both (prospective employees’ and customers’ reactions to CSR-related activities. Second, it identifies other-orientation as a motive-related individual difference that explains

MODIFICATION OF SEA ANEMONE BEHAVIOR BY SYMBIOTIC ZOOXANTHELLAE: PHOTOTAXIS.

Science.gov (United States)

Pearse, Vicki Buchsbaum

1974-12-01

The sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima, with and without endosymbiotic zooxanthellae, was tested for evidence of phototactic behavior. Anemones with zooxanthellae always displayed phototaxis, either positive or negative depending on the experimental light intensity and the light intensity of the habitat from which the animals were taken. Anemones without zooxanthellae-even those that had previously harbored zooxanthellae and that were genetically identical clone-mates of phototactic individuals-never displayed phototaxis, appearing completely indifferent to light and shade. The results indicate that phototaxis in this sea anemone depends directly on the presence of its symbiotic algae. It is suggested that the flexible phototactic behavior of the anemone may play an important role in favorably regulating the amount of light to which the zooxanthellae are exposed.

Patterns of Wildlife Value Orientations

Science.gov (United States)

Harry C. Zinn; Michael J. Manfredo; Susan C. Barro

2002-01-01

Public value orientations toward wildlife may be growing less utilitarian and more protectionist. To better understand one aspect of this trend, we investigated patterns of wildlife value orientations within families. Using a mail survey, we sampled Pennsylvania and Colorado hunting license holders 50 or older; obtaining a 54% response rate (n = 599). Males (94% of...

How does firm performance influence market orientation?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe; Stieglitz, Nils

This paper contributes by investigating how firm performance influences its market orientation. We draw on the aspiration-level model from the behavioral theory of the firm to develop testable propositions that substantiate and extend prior market orientation research. Specifically, we address how...... performance influences firms' market-oriented search behavior (responsive or proactive) and the allocation of attention (customer and competitor orientation) as well as the formation of aspiration levels. Research and managerial implications are discussed....

Fearful gaze cueing: gaze direction and facial expression independently influence overt orienting responses in 12-month-olds.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reiko Matsunaka

Full Text Available Gaze direction cues and facial expressions have been shown to influence object processing in infants. For example, infants around 12 months of age utilize others' gaze directions and facial expressions to regulate their own behaviour toward an ambiguous target (i.e., social referencing. However, the mechanism by which social signals influence overt orienting in infants is unclear. The present study examined the effects of static gaze direction cues and facial expressions (neutral vs. fearful on overt orienting using a gaze-cueing paradigm in 6- and 12-month-old infants. Two experiments were conducted: in Experiment 1, a face with a leftward or rightward gaze direction was used as a cue, and a face with a forward gaze direction was added in Experiment 2. In both experiments, an effect of facial expression was found in 12-month-olds; no effect was found in 6-month-olds. Twelve-month-old infants exhibited more rapid overt orienting in response to fearful expressions than neutral expressions, irrespective of gaze direction. These findings suggest that gaze direction information and facial expressions independently influence overt orienting in infants, and the effect of facial expression emerges earlier than that of static gaze direction. Implications for the development of gaze direction and facial expression processing systems are discussed.

Visual cells remember earlier applied target: plasticity of orientation selectivity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Narcis Ghisovan

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: A canonical proposition states that, in mature brain, neurons responsive to sensory stimuli are tuned to specific properties installed shortly after birth. It is amply demonstrated that that neurons in adult visual cortex of cats are orientation-selective that is they respond with the highest firing rates to preferred oriented stimuli. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In anesthetized cats, prepared in a conventional fashion for single cell recordings, the present investigation shows that presenting a stimulus uninterruptedly at a non-preferred orientation for twelve minutes induces changes in orientation preference. Across all conditions orientation tuning curves were investigated using a trial by trial method. Contrary to what has been previously reported with shorter adaptation duration, twelve minutes of adaptation induces mostly attractive shifts, i.e. toward the adapter. After a recovery period allowing neurons to restore their original orientation tuning curves, we carried out a second adaptation which produced three major results: (1 more frequent attractive shifts, (2 an increase of their magnitude, and (3 an additional enhancement of responses at the new or acquired preferred orientation. Additionally, we also show that the direction of shifts depends on the duration of the adaptation: shorter adaptation in most cases produces repulsive shifts, whereas adaptation exceeding nine minutes results in attractive shifts, in the same unit. Consequently, shifts in preferred orientation depend on the duration of adaptation. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The supplementary response improvements indicate that neurons in area 17 keep a memory trace of the previous stimulus properties, thereby upgrading cellular performance. It also highlights the dynamic nature of basic neuronal properties in adult cortex since repeated adaptations modified both the orientation tuning selectivity and the response strength to the preferred orientation. These

On the use of response surface methodology to predict and interpret the preferred c-axis orientation of sputtered AlN thin films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adamczyk, J.; Horny, N.; Tricoteaux, A.; Jouan, P.-Y.; Zadam, M.

2008-01-01

This paper deals with experimental design applied to response surface methodology (RSM) in order to determine the influence of the discharge conditions on preferred c-axis orientation of sputtered AlN thin films. The thin films have been deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering on Si (1 0 0) substrates. The preferred orientation was evaluated using a conventional Bragg-Brentano X-ray diffractometer (θ-2θ) with the CuKα radiation. We have first determined the experimental domain for 3 parameters: sputtering pressure (2-6 mTorr), discharge current (312-438 mA) and nitrogen percentage (17-33%). For the setup of the experimental design we have used a three factors Doehlert matrix which allows the use of the statistical response surface methodology (RSM) in a spherical domain. A four dimensional surface response, which represents the (0 0 0 2) peak height as a function of sputtering pressure, discharge current and nitrogen percentage, was obtained. It has been found that the main interaction affecting the preferential c-axis orientation was the pressure-nitrogen percentage interaction. It has been proved that a Box-Cox transformation is a very useful method to interpret and discuss the experimental results and leads to predictions in good agreement with experiments

On the use of response surface methodology to predict and interpret the preferred c-axis orientation of sputtered AlN thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Adamczyk, J.; Horny, N.; Tricoteaux, A. [IUT de Valenciennes, Departement Mesures Physiques, UVHC, Z.I. du Champ de l' Abbesse, 59600 Maubeuge (France); Jouan, P.-Y. [IUT de Valenciennes, Departement Mesures Physiques, UVHC, Z.I. du Champ de l' Abbesse, 59600 Maubeuge (France)], E-mail: pierre-yves.jouan@univ-valenciennes.fr; Zadam, M. [Electronic Department, Badji Mokhtar University, BP12 Annaba (Algeria)

2008-01-15

This paper deals with experimental design applied to response surface methodology (RSM) in order to determine the influence of the discharge conditions on preferred c-axis orientation of sputtered AlN thin films. The thin films have been deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering on Si (1 0 0) substrates. The preferred orientation was evaluated using a conventional Bragg-Brentano X-ray diffractometer ({theta}-2{theta}) with the CuK{alpha} radiation. We have first determined the experimental domain for 3 parameters: sputtering pressure (2-6 mTorr), discharge current (312-438 mA) and nitrogen percentage (17-33%). For the setup of the experimental design we have used a three factors Doehlert matrix which allows the use of the statistical response surface methodology (RSM) in a spherical domain. A four dimensional surface response, which represents the (0 0 0 2) peak height as a function of sputtering pressure, discharge current and nitrogen percentage, was obtained. It has been found that the main interaction affecting the preferential c-axis orientation was the pressure-nitrogen percentage interaction. It has been proved that a Box-Cox transformation is a very useful method to interpret and discuss the experimental results and leads to predictions in good agreement with experiments.

Long adaptation reveals mostly attractive shifts of orientation tuning in cat primary visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghisovan, N; Nemri, A; Shumikhina, S; Molotchnikoff, S

2009-12-15

In the adult brain, sensory cortical neurons undergo transient changes of their response properties following prolonged exposure to an appropriate stimulus (adaptation). In cat V1, orientation-selective cells shift their preferred orientation after being adapted to a non-preferred orientation. There are conflicting reports as to the direction of those shifts, towards (attractive) or away (repulsive) from the adapter. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying attractive shifts remain unexplained. In the present investigation we show that attractive shifts are the most frequent outcome of a 12 min adaptation. Overall, cells displaying selectivity for oblique orientations exhibit significantly larger shifts than cells tuned to cardinal orientations. In addition, cells selective to cardinal orientations had larger shift amplitudes when the absolute difference between the original preferred orientation and the adapting orientation increased. Conversely, cells tuned to oblique orientations exhibited larger shift amplitudes when this absolute orientation difference was narrower. Hence, neurons tuned to oblique contours appear to show more plasticity in response to small perturbations. Two different mechanisms appear to produce attractive and repulsive orientation shifts. Attractive shifts result from concurrent response depression on the non-adapted flank and selective response facilitation on the adapted flank of the orientation tuning curve. In contrast, repulsive shifts are caused solely by response depression on the adapted flank. We suggest that an early mechanism leads to repulsive shifts while attractive shifts engage a subsequent late facilitation. A potential role for attractive shifts may be improved stimulus discrimination around the adapting orientation.

A morphological basis for orientation tuning in primary visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Mooser, François; Bosking, William H; Fitzpatrick, David

2004-08-01

Feedforward connections are thought to be important in the generation of orientation-selective responses in visual cortex by establishing a bias in the sampling of information from regions of visual space that lie along a neuron's axis of preferred orientation. It remains unclear, however, which structural elements-dendrites or axons-are ultimately responsible for conveying this sampling bias. To explore this question, we have examined the spatial arrangement of feedforward axonal connections that link non-oriented neurons in layer 4 and orientation-selective neurons in layer 2/3 of visual cortex in the tree shrew. Target sites of labeled boutons in layer 2/3 resulting from focal injections of biocytin in layer 4 show an orientation-specific axial bias that is sufficient to confer orientation tuning to layer 2/3 neurons. We conclude that the anisotropic arrangement of axon terminals is the principal source of the orientation bias contributed by feedforward connections.

From Corporate Social Responsibility, through Entrepreneurial Orientation, to Knowledge Sharing: A Study in Cai Luong (Renovated Theatre) Theatre Companies

Science.gov (United States)

Tuan, Luu Trong

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the role of antecedents such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and entrepreneurial orientation in the chain effect to knowledge sharing among members of Cai Luong theatre companies in the Vietnamese context. Knowledge sharing contributes to the depth of the knowledge pool of both the individuals and the…

Measuring the Recovery Orientation of ACT

Science.gov (United States)

Salyers, Michelle P.; Stull, Laura G.; Rollins, Angela L.; McGrew, John H.; Hicks, Lia J.; Thomas, Dave; Strieter, Doug

2014-01-01

Background Approaches to measuring recovery orientation are needed, particularly for programs that may struggle with implementing recovery-oriented treatment. Objective A mixed methods comparative study was conducted to explore effective approaches to measuring recovery orientation of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams. Design Two ACT teams exhibiting high and low recovery orientation were compared using surveys, treatment plan ratings, diaries of treatment visits, and team-leader-reported treatment control mechanisms. Results The recovery-oriented team differed on one survey measure (higher expectations for consumer recovery), treatment planning (greater consumer involvement and goal-directed content), and use of control mechanisms (less use of representative payee, agency-held lease, daily medication delivery, and family involvement). Staff and consumer diaries showed the most consistent differences (e.g., conveying hope and choice) and were the least susceptible to observer bias, but had the lowest response rates. Conclusions Several practices differentiate recovery orientation on ACT teams, and a mixed-methods assessment approach is feasible. PMID:23690285

Coherence in product-oriented policies and environmental management systems in the car industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Smink, Carla Kornelia; Nielsen, Eskild Holm

more traditional process-oriented policies and are a challenge for companies. The article presents some of the authors  investigations on how the car industry has dealt with both process-oriented and product-oriented policies. [1] EPR refers to extending producer responsibility for products beyond......Over the last decade, product-oriented policies as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Integrated Product Policy (IPP) are more and more recognised as a target for both corporate environmental strategy and government environmental policy. These product-oriented policies are distinct from...

Knowing where is different from knowing what: Distinct response time profiles and accuracy effects for target location, orientation, and color probability.

Science.gov (United States)

Jabar, Syaheed B; Filipowicz, Alex; Anderson, Britt

2017-11-01

When a location is cued, targets appearing at that location are detected more quickly. When a target feature is cued, targets bearing that feature are detected more quickly. These attentional cueing effects are only superficially similar. More detailed analyses find distinct temporal and accuracy profiles for the two different types of cues. This pattern parallels work with probability manipulations, where both feature and spatial probability are known to affect detection accuracy and reaction times. However, little has been done by way of comparing these effects. Are probability manipulations on space and features distinct? In a series of five experiments, we systematically varied spatial probability and feature probability along two dimensions (orientation or color). In addition, we decomposed response times into initiation and movement components. Targets appearing at the probable location were reported more quickly and more accurately regardless of whether the report was based on orientation or color. On the other hand, when either color probability or orientation probability was manipulated, response time and accuracy improvements were specific for that probable feature dimension. Decomposition of the response time benefits demonstrated that spatial probability only affected initiation times, whereas manipulations of feature probability affected both initiation and movement times. As detection was made more difficult, the two effects further diverged, with spatial probability disproportionally affecting initiation times and feature probability disproportionately affecting accuracy. In conclusion, all manipulations of probability, whether spatial or featural, affect detection. However, only feature probability affects perceptual precision, and precision effects are specific to the probable attribute.

Mothers' power assertion; children's negative, adversarial orientation; and future behavior problems in low-income families: early maternal responsiveness as a moderator of the developmental cascade.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sanghag; Kochanska, Grazyna

2015-02-01

Parental power assertion, a key dimension of family environment, generally sets in motion detrimental developmental cascades; however, evidence suggests that other qualities of parenting, such as responsiveness, can significantly moderate those processes. Mechanisms that account for such moderating effects are not fully understood. We propose a conceptual model of processes linking parental power assertion, parental responsiveness, children's negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the parent, and behavior problems. We test that model in a short-term longitudinal design involving 186 low-income, ethnically diverse mothers and their toddlers. When children were 30 months, the dyads were observed in multiple, lengthy, naturalistic laboratory interactions to assess behaviorally mothers' responsiveness and their power-assertive control style. At 33 months, we observed behavioral indicators of children's negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the mothers in several naturalistic and standardized paradigms. At 40 months, mothers rated children's behavior problems. The proposed moderated mediation sequence, tested using a new approach, PROCESS (Hayes, 2013), was supported. The indirect effect from maternal power assertion to children's negative, adversarial orientation to future behavior problems was present when mothers' responsiveness was either low or average but absent when mothers were highly responsive. This study elucidates a potential process that may link parental power assertion with behavior problems and highlights how positive aspects of parenting can moderate this process and defuse maladaptive developmental cascades. It also suggests possible targets for parenting intervention and prevention efforts. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Orientation Programming for Graduate Students: An Institutional Imperative.

Science.gov (United States)

Vickio, Craig J.; Tack, Martha W.

1989-01-01

Orientation at the graduate level can serve many functions such as reducing anxiety, familiarizing students with new academic challenges, and orienting students' spouses. It can also improve student retention, satisfaction, and success. Guidelines for developing programs responsive to graduate students' diverse needs are offered. (Author/MSE)

[The development of the public health system between an increasing market orientation (commercialisation) and social responsibility].

Science.gov (United States)

Trabert, G

2008-02-01

The development of the public health system between an increasing market orientation (commercialisation) and social responsibility is critically reflected by examining the medical care of those who are deprived. Poverty in Germany is dramatically increasing. There are confirmed findings on the correlation of being poor and being ill. Poverty leads to an increased number of cases of illness and a higher mortality rate. And vice versa, chronic illnesses very often cause impoverishment. This correlation has largely been ignored not only by the public but also by experts, especially when public health-care issues are on the political agenda. With reference to the current discussion about public health-care and the widespread disregard of the living conditions of the poor, the categories of "reasonable behaviour" (Kant) and "communicative behaviour" (Habermas) are reflected on in a philosophical excursion. Further interest groups affecting the political sphere, such as the pharmaceutical industry, the medical profession, patients and scientists are also examined with regard to public health-care. What are the premises of a health-care discussion that is controlled by economic considerations, particularly when keeping in mind the humanistic and Christian ethics of our society? And what does this mean for our responsibility for those who are handicapped and are in need of our help? Do decision makers and participants of the health-care discussion satisfy these ethical challenges? And what are the effects of the so-called "social peace" on social cooperation and economic power of a country? The increasing market orientation (commercialisation) of the public health sector can only be accepted on the basis of practiced humanity and social responsibility. In the light of a human public health-care, deprived people are in need of our solidarity.

Role of inhibition in the specification of orientation selectivity of cells in the cat striate cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Bonds, A B

1989-01-01

Mechanisms supporting orientation selectivity of cat striate cortical cells were studied by stimulation with two superimposed sine-wave gratings of different orientations. One grating (base) generated a discharge of known amplitude which could be modified by the second grating (mask). Masks presented at nonoptimal orientations usually reduced the base-generated response, but the degree of reduction varied widely between cells. Cells with narrow orientation tuning tended to be more susceptible to mask presence than broadly tuned cells; similarly, simple cells generally showed more response reduction than did complex cells. The base and mask stimuli were drifted at different temporal frequencies which, in simple cells, permitted the identification of individual response components from each stimulus. This revealed that the reduction of the base response by the mask usually did not vary regularly with mask orientation, although response facilitation from the mask was orientation selective. In some sharply tuned simple cells, response reduction had clear local maxima near the limits of the cell's orientation-tuning function. Response reduction resulted from a nearly pure rightward shift of the response versus log contrast function. The lowest mask contrast yielding reduction was within 0.1-0.3 log unit of the lowest contrast effective for excitation. The temporal-frequency bandpass of the response-reduction mechanism resembled that of most cortical cells. The spatial-frequency bandpass was much broader than is typical for single cortical cells, spanning essentially the entire visual range of the cat. These findings are compatible with a model in which weak intrinsic orientation-selective excitation is enhanced in two stages: (1) control of threshold by nonorientation-selective inhibition that is continuously dependent on stimulus contrast; and (2) in the more narrowly tuned cells, orientation-selective inhibition that has local maxima serving to increase the slope of

Light-dependent magnetoreception: orientation behaviour of migratory birds under dim red light.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiltschko, Roswitha; Munro, Ursula; Ford, Hugh; Stapput, Katrin; Wiltschko, Wolfgang

2008-10-01

Magnetic compass orientation in migratory birds has been shown to be based on radical pair processes and to require light from the short wavelength part of the spectrum up to 565 nm Green. Under dim red light of 645 nm wavelength and 1 mW m(-2) intensity, Australian silvereyes and European robins showed a westerly tendency that did not change between spring and autumn, identifying it as a 'fixed direction' response. A thorough analysis revealed that this orientation did not involve the inclination compass, but was a response based on the polarity of the magnetic field. Furthermore, in contrast to the orientation under short-wavelength light, it could be disrupted by local anaesthesia of the upper beak where iron-containing receptors are located, indicating that it is controlled by these receptors. The similarity of the response under dim red light to the response in total darkness suggests that the two responses may be identical. These findings indicate that the observed 'fixed direction' response under dim red light is fundamentally different from the normal compass orientation, which is based on radical pair processes.

Market-oriented search in differentiated industries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe; Stieglitz, Nils

2009-01-01

  How is the success of a firm's market-oriented activities influenced by the marketing mix? This paper contributes to existing marketing research by advancing our understanding of the process by which market orientation transforms into superior performance. This process is investigated...... on the basis of appropriate organizational search models drawn from the behavioral theory of the firm. Specifically, we draw on the NK model to develop testable propositions that substantiate and extend prior theoretical market orientation research. Our results provide new insight into organizational...... characteristics and consequences of responsive and proactive marketing behaviors, as well as the allocation of attention towards customers and competitors....

Inhibitory Response Capacities of Bilateral Lower and Upper Extremities in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder in Endogenous and Exogenous Orienting Modes

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Chia-Liang; Yu, Yi-Kai; Chen, Yung-Jung; Wu, Sheng-Kuang

2009-01-01

This study was designed to investigate separately the inhibitory response capacity and the lateralization effect in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in the endogenous and exogenous modes of orienting attention. Children with DCD on the lower extremities (DCD-LEs), along with age-matched controls, completed four tasks that…

Effects of static orientation upon human optokinetic afternystagmus

Science.gov (United States)

Wall, C. 3rd; Merfeld, D. M.; Zupan, L.

1999-01-01

"Normal" human subjects were placed in a series of 5 static orientations with respect to gravity and were asked to view an optokinetic display moving at a constant angular velocity. The axis of rotation coincided with the subject's rostro-caudal axis and produced horizontal optokinetic nystagmus and afternystagmus. Wall (1) previously reported that these optokinetic afternystagmus responses were not well characterized by parametric fits to slow component velocity. The response for nose-up, however, was larger than for nose-down. This suggested that the horizontal eye movements measured during optokinetic stimulation might include an induced linear VOR component as presented in the body of this paper. To investigate this hypothesis, another analysis of these data has been made using cumulative slow component eye position. Some subjects' responses had reversals in afternystagmus direction. These reversals were "filled in" by a zero slow component velocity. This method of analysis gives a much more consistent result across subjects and shows that, on average, responses from the nose-down horizontal (prone) orientation are greatly reduced (p the responses to post-rotatory nystagmus after earth horizontal axis rotation. Ten of 11 subjects had larger responses in their supine than their prone orientation. Application of horizontal axis optokinetic afternystagmus for clinical otolith function testing, and implications for altered gravity experiments are discussed.

Contrast invariance of orientation tuning in the lateral geniculate nucleus of the feline visual system.

Science.gov (United States)

Viswanathan, Sivaram; Jayakumar, Jaikishan; Vidyasagar, Trichur R

2015-09-01

Responses of most neurons in the primary visual cortex of mammals are markedly selective for stimulus orientation and their orientation tuning does not vary with changes in stimulus contrast. The basis of such contrast invariance of orientation tuning has been shown to be the higher variability in the response for low-contrast stimuli. Neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), which provides the major visual input to the cortex, have also been shown to have higher variability in their response to low-contrast stimuli. Parallel studies have also long established mild degrees of orientation selectivity in LGN and retinal cells. In our study, we show that contrast invariance of orientation tuning is already present in the LGN. In addition, we show that the variability of spike responses of LGN neurons increases at lower stimulus contrasts, especially for non-preferred orientations. We suggest that such contrast- and orientation-sensitive variability not only explains the contrast invariance observed in the LGN but can also underlie the contrast-invariant orientation tuning seen at the level of the primary visual cortex. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dynamics of market orientation in Croatian economy

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Ivana First

2011-12-01

Full Text Available It was the goal of this research to examine the dynamics of Croatian transformation to market orientation and test whether the market orientation model changes with time as the business environment changes. Based on the literature analysis, we proposed a hypothetical model which relies on behavioural approach in understanding market orientation. To empirically test the hypothetical model, we used data previously collected for 2001, and by replicating the same questionnaire now collected data for 2011. Data was analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis on the two sets of data. Our findings reveal that Croatian organizations reached the level of moderate market orientation leaving space for improvement. Findings also reveal that higher level of market orientation correlates with higher business performance. Furthermore, with development of ICT, the model of market orientation modified in time in a way that in predicting successful market oriented reaction, specific information on consumer satisfaction gains importance, while general information from competitor and consumer databases lose importance. Despite the changes in the relationships among the elements of market orientation, the model itself similarly predicts performance today as it did ten years ago. Managers are advised to increase implementation of market orientation especially focusing on market responsiveness as such behaviour will lead to better performance.

Czech copreneur orientations to business and family responsibilities: A mixed embeddedness perspective

OpenAIRE

Jurik, N.; Křížková, A. (Alena); Pospíšilová, M. (Marie)

2016-01-01

This paper applies mixed-embeddedness approach to examine how state welfare policies, employment conditions and gender norms shape orientations to divisions of business and domestic labor among Czech copreneurs, i.e. romantic couples involved in businesses together. Twelve copreneur couples were interviewed. Women’s narratives are centered in analyzing motivations for business, divisions of labor, orientation to business/family and state policies. Female respondents expressed three orientatio...

Mothers’ Power Assertion, Children’s Negative, Adversarial Orientation, and Future Behavior Problems in Low-Income Families: Early Maternal Responsiveness as a Moderator of the Developmental Cascade

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sanghag; Kochanska, Grazyna

2014-01-01

Parental power assertion, a key dimension of family environment, generally sets in motion detrimental developmental cascades; however, evidence suggests that other qualities of parenting, such as responsiveness, can significantly moderate those processes. Mechanisms that account for such moderating effects are not fully understood. We propose a conceptual model of processes linking parental power assertion, parental responsiveness, children’s negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the parent, and behavior problems. We test that model in a short-term longitudinal design involving 186 low-income, ethnically diverse mothers and their toddlers. When children were 30 months, the dyads were observed in multiple, lengthy, naturalistic laboratory interactions to assess behaviorally mothers’ responsiveness and their power-assertive control style. At 33 months, we observed behavioral indicators of children’s negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the mothers in several naturalistic and standardized paradigms. At 40 months, mothers rated children’s behavior problems. The proposed moderated mediation sequence, tested using a new approach, PROCESS (Hayes, 2013), was supported. The indirect effect from maternal power assertion to children’s negative, adversarial orientation to future behavior problems was present when mothers’ responsiveness was either low or average but absent when mothers were highly responsive. This study elucidates a potential process that may link parental power assertion with behavior problems and highlights how positive aspects of parenting can moderate this process and defuse maladaptive developmental cascades. It also suggests possible targets for parenting intervention and prevention efforts. PMID:25401483

[Perinatal clomiphene citrate treatment changes sexual orientations of male mice].

Science.gov (United States)

He, Feng-Qin; Zhang, Heng-Rui

2013-10-01

Perinatal period and adolescence are critical for brain development, which is the biological basis of an individual's sexual orientation and sexual behavior. In this study, animals were divided into two groups and their sexual orientations were observed: one group experienced drug treatments during the perinatal period, and the other group was castrated at puberty. The results showed that estradiol treatment had no effect on mature male offspring's sexual orientations, but 9 days and 14 days of clomiphene citrate treatment significantly increased the chance of homosexuality and effeminized behavior. In addition, the sexual orientation of mature normal male offspring, which were castrated when they were 21 days old,was not significant different from the control animals. These findings suggest that the inhibition of perinatal estrogen activities could suppress individual male-typical responses, enhance female-typical responses and induce homosexual orientations. Moreover, the masculinizing effects of estrogen were more obvious during perinatal period than adolescence.

Feature-based attentional modulation of orientation perception in somatosensation

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Meike Annika Schweisfurth

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In a reaction time study of human tactile orientation detection the effects of spatial attention and feature-based attention were investigated. Subjects had to give speeded responses to target orientations (parallel and orthogonal to the finger axis in a random stream of oblique tactile distractor orientations presented to their index and ring fingers. Before each block of trials, subjects received a tactile cue at one finger. By manipulating the validity of this cue with respect to its location and orientation (feature, we provided an incentive to subjects to attend spatially to the cued location and only there to the cued orientation. Subjects showed quicker responses to parallel compared to orthogonal targets, pointing to an orientation anisotropy in sensory processing. Also, faster reaction times were observed in location-matched trials, i.e. when targets appeared on the cued finger, representing a perceptual benefit of spatial attention. Most importantly, reaction times were shorter to orientations matching the cue, both at the cued and at the uncued location, documenting a global enhancement of tactile sensation by feature-based attention. This is the first report of a perceptual benefit of feature-based attention outside the spatial focus of attention in somatosensory perception. The similarity to effects of feature-based attention in visual perception supports the notion of matching attentional mechanisms across sensory domains.

Alerting, Orienting or Executive Attention Networks: Differential Patters of Pupil Dilations

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Ronny eGeva

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Attention capacities, alerting responses, orienting to sensory stimulation, and executive monitoring of performance are considered independent yet interrelated systems. These operations play integral roles in regulating the behavior of diverse species along the evolutionary ladder. Each of the primary attention constructs—alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring— involves salient autonomic correlates as evidenced by changes in reactive pupil dilation (PD, heart rate, and skin conductance. Recent technological advances that use remote high-resolution recording may allow the discernment of temporo-spatial attributes of autonomic responses that characterize the alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring networks during free viewing, irrespective of voluntary performance. This may deepen the understanding of the roles of autonomic regulation in these mental operations and may deepen our understanding of behavioral changes in verbal as well as in non-verbal species.The aim of this study was to explore differences between psychosensory pupil dilation responses in alerting, orienting, and executive conflict monitoring tasks to generate estimates of concurrent locus coeruleus (LC noradrenergic input trajectories in healthy human adults using the attention networks test (ANT. The analysis revealed a construct-specific pattern of pupil responses: alerting is characterized by an early component (Pa, its acceleration enables covert orienting, and executive control is evidenced by a prominent late component (Pe. Pupil dilation characteristics seem to be task-sensitive, allowing exploration of mental operations irrespective of conscious voluntary responses. These data may facilitate development of studies designed to assess mental operations in diverse species using autonomic responses.

Determinants, Moderators and Consequences of Organizational Interaction Orientation

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Christian Hoops

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Interaction orientation reflects the ability of a company to interact with the individual customer and to gather information from successful interactions. Four dimensions of interaction orientation are identified in the literature: customer concept, interaction response capacity, customer empowerment and customer value management (Ramani and Kumar, 2008. This study shows that indeed a fifth dimension of interaction orientation exists and investigates the determinants, moderators and consequences of this construct. The first notable finding is that B2B companies exhibit a greater degree of interaction orientation than B2C firms. Ramani and Kumar hypothesized that in their study. We show that there are B2C industries such as financial services, whose companies also have a greater interaction orientation. This could be the reason why the authors could not prove their hypothesis. Furthermore, we examine the influence of strategic orientations on organizational performances and compare various orientations with each other.

Fathers' Orientation to their Children's Autism Diagnosis: A Grounded Theory Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hannon, Michael D; Hannon, LaChan V

2017-07-01

Sixteen fathers of individuals with autism were interviewed to develop a grounded theory explaining how they learned about their children's autism diagnosis. Results suggest the orientation process entails at least two phases: orienting oneself and orienting others. The orienting oneself phase entailed fathers having suspicion of developmental differences, engaging in research and education activities, having their children formally evaluated; inquiring about their children's prognosis, and having curiosities about autism's etiology. The orienting others phase entailed orientating family members and orienting members of their broader communities. Recommendations for responsive service provision, support for fathers, and future research are offered.

Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Willingness to Help Addicted Individuals: The Role of Responsibility Judgments

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Torleif Halkjelsvik

2014-02-01

Full Text Available We investigated how Social Dominance Orientation (SDO and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA were related to motivation to personally help addicted individuals and approval of public spending on addiction treatment. The study employs an attributional analysis based on Weiner’s theory of social motivation. SDO was associated with less approval of public spending on treatment and lower motivation to personally help. RWA was associated with less approval of public spending but exerted a direct positive effect on motivation to personally help. However, the latter effect was cancelled out by an indirect negative effect from an attributional process where addicted individuals were perceived as more responsible for their condition. An association between RWA and judgments of responsibility was further indicated in an investigation of positive vs. negative outcomes of addictions. RWA correlated with ratings of personal responsibility across the valence of outcomes, whereas SDO did not. In conclusion, the relation between RWA and (lack of motivation to help is partly explained by a greater emphasis on personal responsibility, and the relation between SDO and (lack of motivation to help is independent of responsibility judgments.

Kinematic responses to changes in walking orientation and gravitational load in Drosophila melanogaster.

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César S Mendes

Full Text Available Walking behavior is context-dependent, resulting from the integration of internal and external influences by specialized motor and pre-motor centers. Neuronal programs must be sufficiently flexible to the locomotive challenges inherent in different environments. Although insect studies have contributed substantially to the identification of the components and rules that determine locomotion, we still lack an understanding of how multi-jointed walking insects respond to changes in walking orientation and direction and strength of the gravitational force. In order to answer these questions we measured with high temporal and spatial resolution the kinematic properties of untethered Drosophila during inverted and vertical walking. In addition, we also examined the kinematic responses to increases in gravitational load. We find that animals are capable of shifting their step, spatial and inter-leg parameters in order to cope with more challenging walking conditions. For example, flies walking in an inverted orientation decreased the duration of their swing phase leading to increased contact with the substrate and, as a result, greater stability. We also find that when flies carry additional weight, thereby increasing their gravitational load, some changes in step parameters vary over time, providing evidence for adaptation. However, above a threshold that is between 1 and 2 times their body weight flies display locomotion parameters that suggest they are no longer capable of walking in a coordinated manner. Finally, we find that functional chordotonal organs are required for flies to cope with additional weight, as animals deficient in these proprioceptors display increased sensitivity to load bearing as well as other locomotive defects.

Aversive learning shapes neuronal orientation tuning in human visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

McTeague, Lisa M; Gruss, L Forest; Keil, Andreas

2015-07-28

The responses of sensory cortical neurons are shaped by experience. As a result perceptual biases evolve, selectively facilitating the detection and identification of sensory events that are relevant for adaptive behaviour. Here we examine the involvement of human visual cortex in the formation of learned perceptual biases. We use classical aversive conditioning to associate one out of a series of oriented gratings with a noxious sound stimulus. After as few as two grating-sound pairings, visual cortical responses to the sound-paired grating show selective amplification. Furthermore, as learning progresses, responses to the orientations with greatest similarity to the sound-paired grating are increasingly suppressed, suggesting inhibitory interactions between orientation-selective neuronal populations. Changes in cortical connectivity between occipital and fronto-temporal regions mirror the changes in visuo-cortical response amplitudes. These findings suggest that short-term behaviourally driven retuning of human visual cortical neurons involves distal top-down projections as well as local inhibitory interactions.

Fast Response Three Phase Induction Motor Using Indirect Field Oriented Control (IFOC Based On Fuzzy-Backstepping

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Rizana Fauzi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Induction Motor in Electrical drive system at a accelleration speed for example in electric cars have a hard speed setting is set on a wide range, causing an inconvenience for motorists and a fast response is required any change of speed. It is necessary for good system performance in control motor speed and torque at low speed or fast speed response, which is operated by Indirect Field Oriented Control (IFOC. Speed control on IFOC methods should be better to improving the performance of rapid response in the induction motor. In this paper presented a method of incorporation of Fuzzy Logic Controller and Backstepping (Fuzzy-Backstepping to improve the dynamically response speed and torque in Induction Motor on electric car, so we get smoothness at any speed change and braking as well as maximum torque of induction motor. Test results showed that Fuzzy-Backstepping can increase the response to changes speed in electric car. System testing is done with variations of the reference point setting speed control system, the simulation results of the research showed that the IFOC method is not perfect in terms of induction motor speed regulation if it’s not use speed control. Fuzzy-Backstepping control is needed which can improve the response of output, so that the induction motor has a good performance, small oscillations when start working up to speed reference. Keywords: Fuzzy-Backstepping, IFOC, induction motor

Entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and competitive environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe; Cadogan, John W.

This study sheds light on the role that the competitive environment plays in determining how elements of market orientation and elements of entrepreneurial orientation interact to influence business success. We develop a model in which we postulate that market orientation, entrepreneurial...... orientation, and competitive environment shape business performance via a three-way interaction. We test the model using primary data from the CEOs of 270 CEO of manufacturing firms, together with secondary data on these firms' profit performance. An assessment of the results indicates that customer...... orientation moderates the positive relationships between the competitiveness element of entrepreneurial orientation and market share and return on assets (ROA): the positive relationships between competitiveness and market share and competitiveness and ROA become stronger the greater the firms' customer...

Hand placement near the visual stimulus improves orientation selectivity in V2 neurons

Science.gov (United States)

Sergio, Lauren E.; Crawford, J. Douglas; Fallah, Mazyar

2015-01-01

Often, the brain receives more sensory input than it can process simultaneously. Spatial attention helps overcome this limitation by preferentially processing input from a behaviorally-relevant location. Recent neuropsychological and psychophysical studies suggest that attention is deployed to near-hand space much like how the oculomotor system can deploy attention to an upcoming gaze position. Here we provide the first neuronal evidence that the presence of a nearby hand enhances orientation selectivity in early visual processing area V2. When the hand was placed outside the receptive field, responses to the preferred orientation were significantly enhanced without a corresponding significant increase at the orthogonal orientation. Consequently, there was also a significant sharpening of orientation tuning. In addition, the presence of the hand reduced neuronal response variability. These results indicate that attention is automatically deployed to the space around a hand, improving orientation selectivity. Importantly, this appears to be optimal for motor control of the hand, as opposed to oculomotor mechanisms which enhance responses without sharpening orientation selectivity. Effector-based mechanisms for visual enhancement thus support not only the spatiotemporal dissociation of gaze and reach, but also the optimization of vision for their separate requirements for guiding movements. PMID:25717165

Gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, and psychological well-being.

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Gerulf; Savin-Williams, Ritch C

2012-06-01

Both a same-sex sexual orientation and gender nonconformity have been linked with poorer well-being; however, sexual orientation and gender nonconformity are also correlated. It is, therefore, critical to investigate their independent contributions to well-being. Based on survey responses of 230 female and 245 male high school seniors, the present study is one of the first to provide empirical data on this topic. Both childhood and adolescent gender nonconformity were negatively related to well-being. In the same analyses, neither sexual orientation nor biological sex was a significant predictor of well-being. These results suggest that gender-atypical traits may be more relevant for psychological health than a same-sex sexual orientation. Both environmental and biological influences may account for these findings.

Cross-Country Comparison of the Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation in Germany and Qatar: An Empirical Study among Business Students

OpenAIRE

Maria Anne Schmidt; Daniel Cracau

2015-01-01

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a phenomenon of increasing interest. Today, it is practiced in most countries around the globe and studied in various fields of academia. However, the focus still lies on Western developed countries, their understanding, and implementation of CSR. This paper focuses on the comparison of the orientation towards CSR in Germany and Qatar, thereby closing a research gap by providing insights from a Middle Eastern country. Based on a survey among 265 busine...

The impact of interference on short-term memory for visual orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Rademaker, Rosanne L; Bloem, Ilona M; De Weerd, Peter; Sack, Alexander T

2015-12-01

Visual short-term memory serves as an efficient buffer for maintaining no longer directly accessible information. How robust are visual memories against interference? Memory for simple visual features has proven vulnerable to distractors containing conflicting information along the relevant stimulus dimension, leading to the idea that interacting feature-specific channels at an early stage of visual processing support memory for simple visual features. Here we showed that memory for a single randomly orientated grating was susceptible to interference from a to-be-ignored distractor grating presented midway through a 3-s delay period. Memory for the initially presented orientation became noisier when it differed from the distractor orientation, and response distributions were shifted toward the distractor orientation (by ∼3°). Interestingly, when the distractor was rendered task-relevant by making it a second memory target, memory for both retained orientations showed reduced reliability as a function of increased orientation differences between them. However, the degree to which responses to the first grating shifted toward the orientation of the task-relevant second grating was much reduced. Finally, using a dichoptic display, we demonstrated that these systematic biases caused by a consciously perceived distractor disappeared once the distractor was presented outside of participants' awareness. Together, our results show that visual short-term memory for orientation can be systematically biased by interfering information that is consciously perceived. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal-frequency tuning of cross-orientation suppression in the cat striate cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, J D; Smith, K R; Bonds, A B

2001-01-01

A sinusoidal mask grating oriented orthogonally to and superimposed onto an optimally oriented base grating reduces a cortical neuron's response amplitude. The spatial selectivity of cross-orientation suppression (XOR) has been described, so for this paper we investigated the temporal properties of XOR. We recorded from single striate cortical neurons (n = 72) in anesthetized and paralyzed cats. After quantifying the spatial and temporal characteristics of each cell's excitatory response to a base grating, we measured the temporal-frequency tuning of XOR by systematically varying the temporal frequency of a mask grating placed at a null orientation outside of the cell's excitatory orientation domain. The average preferred temporal frequency of the excitatory response of the neurons in our sample was 3.8 (+/- 1.5 S.D.) Hz. The average cutoff frequency for the sample was 16.3 (+/- 1.7) Hz. The average preferred temporal frequency (7.0 +/- 2.6 Hz) and cutoff frequency (20.4 +/- 6.9 Hz) of the XOR were significantly higher. The differences averaged 1.1 (+/- 0.6) octaves for the peaks and 0.3 (+/- 0.4) octaves for the cutoffs. The XOR mechanism's preference for high temporal frequencies suggests a possible extrastriate origin for the effect and could help explain the low-pass temporal-frequency response profile displayed by most striate cortical neurons.

Chief Joseph Kokanee Enhancement Project; Strobe Light Deterrent Efficacy Test and Fish Behavior Determination at the Grand Coulee Dam Third Powerplant Forebay, 2002-2003 Annual Report.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, R.; McKinstry, C.; Simmons, C. (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

2003-01-01

-transducer splitbeam hydroacoustic system was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strobe lights in eliciting a negative phototactic response in fish. The transducers were deployed so they tracked fish entering and within the region illuminated by the strobe lights. Two of the seven transducers were mounted to the frame containing the strobe lights and were oriented horizontally. The remaining five transducers were spaced approximately 4 m apart on individual floating frames upstream of the barge, with the transducers looking vertically downward.

Fingering instabilities in bacterial community phototaxis

Science.gov (United States)

Vps, Ritwika; Man Wah Chau, Rosanna; Casey Huang, Kerwyn; Gopinathan, Ajay

Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 is a phototactic cyanobacterium that moves directionally in response to a light source. During phototaxis, these bacterial communities show emergent spatial organisation resulting in the formation of finger-like projections at the propagating front. In this study, we propose an analytical model that elucidates the underlying physical mechanisms which give rise to these spatial patterns. We describe the migrating front during phototaxis as a one-dimensional curve by considering the effects of phototactic bias, diffusion and surface tension. By considering the propagating front as composed of perturbations to a flat solution and using linear stability analysis, we predict a critical bias above which the finger-like projections appear as instabilities. We also predict the wavelengths of the fastest growing mode and the critical mode above which the instabilities disappear. We validate our predictions through comparisons to experimental data obtained by analysing images of phototaxis in Synechocystis communities. Our model also predicts the observed loss of instabilities in taxd1 mutants (cells with inactive TaxD1, an important photoreceptor in finger formation), by considering diffusion in mutually perpendicular directions and a lower, negative bias.

Effect of Exogenous Cues on Covert Spatial Orienting in Deaf and Normal Hearing Individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Seema Gorur; Patil, Gouri Shanker; Mishra, Ramesh Kumar

2015-01-01

Deaf individuals have been known to process visual stimuli better at the periphery compared to the normal hearing population. However, very few studies have examined attention orienting in the oculomotor domain in the deaf, particularly when targets appear at variable eccentricity. In this study, we examined if the visual perceptual processing advantage reported in the deaf people also modulates spatial attentional orienting with eye movement responses. We used a spatial cueing task with cued and uncued targets that appeared at two different eccentricities and explored attentional facilitation and inhibition. We elicited both a saccadic and a manual response. The deaf showed a higher cueing effect for the ocular responses than the normal hearing participants. However, there was no group difference for the manual responses. There was also higher facilitation at the periphery for both saccadic and manual responses, irrespective of groups. These results suggest that, owing to their superior visual processing ability, the deaf may orient attention faster to targets. We discuss the results in terms of previous studies on cueing and attentional orienting in deaf.

Does Androgen Hormone Influences Sexual Orientation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taufiqurrahman Nasihun

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Now days lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender are abbreviated as LGBT is the most popular word and being sensible in the world, especially in Indonesia. Based on human right principles, any person in the world including in Indonesia is free to express their gender identity and sexual orientation, even the same sex marriage, freely from unlawful discrimination and violations (Office of Personnel Management, 2015; Yogyakarta Principles, 2006. However, because of the culture and religion differences backgrounds, Indonesians have given this issue various responses. In general, Indonesian public opinion on LGBT are split into two different groups, one minority group is proponent to present of LGBT and any things related to it, and another majority groups are opponent. Objective of this editorial is to discuss how sexual orientation develop from prenatal until emerging of clinical manifestation in adulthood, by no mean to support either group. Otherwise, to give more insight about how male and female get their appropriate sexual orientations and why some of them get inappropriate sexual orientations.

Strobe Light Deterrent Efficacy Test and Fish Behavior Determination at Grand Coulee Dam Third Powerplant Forebay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simmons, Mary Ann; Johnson, Robert L.; McKinstry, Craig A.; Simmons, Carver S.; Cook, Chris B.; Brown, Richard S.; Tano, Daniel K.; Thorsten, Susan L.; Faber, Derrek M.; Lecaire, Richard; Francis, Stephen

2004-01-01

This report documents the third year of a four-year study to assess the efficacy of a prototype strobe light system to elicit a negative phototactic response in kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and rainbow trout (O. mykiss) in the forebay to the third powerplant at Grand Coulee Dam. This work was conducted for the Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville Confederated Tribes)

Strobe Light Deterrent Efficacy Test and Fish Behavior Determination at Grand Coulee Dam Third Powerplant Forebay

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simmons, Mary Ann; Johnson, Robert L.; McKinstry, Craig A.; Simmons, Carver S.; Cook, Chris B.; Brown, Richard S.; Tano, Daniel K.; Thorsten, Susan L.; Faber, Derrek M.; Lecaire, Richard; Francis, Stephen

2004-01-01

This report documents the third year of a four-year study to assess the efficacy of a prototype strobe light system to elicit a negative phototactic response in kokanee salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and rainbow trout (O. mykiss) in the forebay to the third powerplant at Grand Coulee Dam. This work was conducted for the Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation (Colville Confederated Tribes).

Orientational transitions in ferromagnetic liquid crystals with bistable coupling between colloidal particles and the matrix

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zakhlevnykh, A. N., E-mail: anz@psu.ru; Petrov, D. A. [Perm State National Research University (Russian Federation)

2016-10-15

We study the orientational response of a ferromagnetic liquid crystal that is induced by magnetic and electric fields. A modified form of the energy of the orientational interaction between magnetic impurity particles and the liquid crystal matrix that leads to bistable coupling is considered. It is shown that apart from magnetic impurity segregation, first-order orientational transitions can be due to the bistability of the potential of the orientational coupling between the director and the magnetization. The ranges of material parameters that lead to optical bistability are determined. The possibility of first-order orientational transitions is analyzed for the optical phase difference between the ordinary and extraordinary light rays transmitted through a ferronematic cell. It is shown that an electric field applied in the given geometry considerably enhances the magneto-orientational response of the ferronematic.

The Effects of Sex and Gender Role Orientation on Mentorship in Male-Dominated Occupations.

Science.gov (United States)

Scandura, Terri A.; Ragins, Belle Rose

1993-01-01

Responses from 608 certified public accountants who had mentors showed that biological sex was not related to mentoring, but gender role orientation was. Those with androgynous sex role orientation reported more mentoring functions than did those with masculine or feminine orientations. (SK)

Influence of turbulence, orientation, and site configuration on the response of buildings to extreme wind.

Science.gov (United States)

Aly, Aly Mousaad

2014-01-01

Atmospheric turbulence results from the vertical movement of air, together with flow disturbances around surface obstacles which make low- and moderate-level winds extremely irregular. Recent advancements in wind engineering have led to the construction of new facilities for testing residential homes at relatively high Reynolds numbers. However, the generation of a fully developed turbulence in these facilities is challenging. The author proposed techniques for the testing of residential buildings and architectural features in flows that lack fully developed turbulence. While these methods are effective for small structures, the extension of the approach for large and flexible structures is not possible yet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of turbulence in the response of tall buildings to extreme winds. In addition, the paper presents a detailed analysis to investigate the influence of upstream terrain conditions, wind direction angle (orientation), and the interference effect from the surrounding on the response of high-rise buildings. The methodology presented can be followed to help decision makers to choose among innovative solutions like aerodynamic mitigation, structural member size adjustment, and/or damping enhancement, with an objective to improve the resiliency and the serviceability of buildings.

Influence of Turbulence, Orientation, and Site Configuration on the Response of Buildings to Extreme Wind

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Atmospheric turbulence results from the vertical movement of air, together with flow disturbances around surface obstacles which make low- and moderate-level winds extremely irregular. Recent advancements in wind engineering have led to the construction of new facilities for testing residential homes at relatively high Reynolds numbers. However, the generation of a fully developed turbulence in these facilities is challenging. The author proposed techniques for the testing of residential buildings and architectural features in flows that lack fully developed turbulence. While these methods are effective for small structures, the extension of the approach for large and flexible structures is not possible yet. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of turbulence in the response of tall buildings to extreme winds. In addition, the paper presents a detailed analysis to investigate the influence of upstream terrain conditions, wind direction angle (orientation), and the interference effect from the surrounding on the response of high-rise buildings. The methodology presented can be followed to help decision makers to choose among innovative solutions like aerodynamic mitigation, structural member size adjustment, and/or damping enhancement, with an objective to improve the resiliency and the serviceability of buildings. PMID:24701140

Item response theory analysis of the life orientation test-revised: age and gender differential item functioning analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Steca, Patrizia; Monzani, Dario; Greco, Andrea; Chiesi, Francesca; Primi, Caterina

2015-06-01

This study is aimed at testing the measurement properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) for the assessment of dispositional optimism by employing item response theory (IRT) analyses. The LOT-R was administered to a large sample of 2,862 Italian adults. First, confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the theoretical conceptualization of the construct measured by the LOT-R as a single bipolar dimension. Subsequently, IRT analyses for polytomous, ordered response category data were applied to investigate the items' properties. The equivalence of the items across gender and age was assessed by analyzing differential item functioning. Discrimination and severity parameters indicated that all items were able to distinguish people with different levels of optimism and adequately covered the spectrum of the latent trait. Additionally, the LOT-R appears to be gender invariant and, with minor exceptions, age invariant. Results provided evidence that the LOT-R is a reliable and valid measure of dispositional optimism. © The Author(s) 2014.

Designing an orientation program for new faculty.

Science.gov (United States)

Holyfield, Lavern J; Berry, Charles W

2008-12-01

The Faculty Development Committee (FDC) at Baylor College of Dentistry (BCD) is charged with providing programs and activities that facilitate the success of existing faculty in the constantly changing environment of academia. In response to concerns regarding the challenges wrought by current and projected shortages of dental faculty across the nation, the FDC was prompted to assess development opportunities available to BCD faculty. A professional development resource that we found deficient was a formal, comprehensive orientation program for newly hired faculty. To guide the efforts of the committee in developing this program, a survey was designed and administered during an annual faculty retreat. Respondents were new and junior faculty, senior faculty, and some administrators. The results of the survey to determine requirements for new faculty orientation became the basis for formalizing BCD's new faculty orientation program. This article provides an overview of the new faculty orientation process from design to program implementation and describes the development and use of a faculty survey to determine the fundamental elements of a faculty development program, identification of essential individuals for designing/implementing the program, and implementation of a new faculty orientation program at BCD.

Beat map drawing method for large oriental bell based on operational deflection shape method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Joong Hyeok; Kim, Seock Hyun [Dept. of Advanced Mechanical Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon (Korea, Republic of); Park, In Seok [TB Tires Development 1 Team, R and D Center, Kumho Tire, Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

Oriental bells produce a peculiar sound in the form of beats, which are periodic repetitions of strong and weak sounds. A beating sound with a proper period gives the illusion of the bell being alive and breathing. To produce a good beating sound, appropriate modal parameters are required for beat tuning after casting the bell. Conventionally, modal parameters were extracted using frequency response functions of the excitation and response signals. However, a large oriental bell is usually struck by a heavy wooden hammer and hence, only the response signal can be measured. In this study, we extract the modal parameters using the response signal only and employ the data to predict the beat properties of the bell sound. Finally, the validity of the predicted beat properties is experimentally verified for a large oriental bell.

A multichip aVLSI system emulating orientation selectivity of primary visual cortical cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimonomura, Kazuhiro; Yagi, Tetsuya

2005-07-01

In this paper, we designed and fabricated a multichip neuromorphic analog very large scale integrated (aVLSI) system, which emulates the orientation selective response of the simple cell in the primary visual cortex. The system consists of a silicon retina and an orientation chip. An image, which is filtered by a concentric center-surround (CS) antagonistic receptive field of the silicon retina, is transferred to the orientation chip. The image transfer from the silicon retina to the orientation chip is carried out with analog signals. The orientation chip selectively aggregates multiple pixels of the silicon retina, mimicking the feedforward model proposed by Hubel and Wiesel. The chip provides the orientation-selective (OS) outputs which are tuned to 0 degrees, 60 degrees, and 120 degrees. The feed-forward aggregation reduces the fixed pattern noise that is due to the mismatch of the transistors in the orientation chip. The spatial properties of the orientation selective response were examined in terms of the adjustable parameters of the chip, i.e., the number of aggregated pixels and size of the receptive field of the silicon retina. The multichip aVLSI architecture used in the present study can be applied to implement higher order cells such as the complex cell of the primary visual cortex.

Dynamic differentiation of GABAA-sensitive influences on orientation selectivity of complex cells in the cat striate cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfleger, B; Bonds, A B

1995-01-01

The influence of GABAA receptors on orientation selectivity of cat complex cells was tested by iontophoresis of the GABAA receptor blockers bicuculline and N-methyl-bicuculline while stimulating with drifting sinusoidal gratings. Reduction of orientation tuning was markedly less than reported in previous studies that used drifting bars as visual stimuli. Only 3/31 cells lost orientation selectivity, with an average increase in bandwidth of 33%, as opposed to half the cells losing selectivity and a bandwidth increase for the remainder of 47% as reported previously. Infusion of GABAA blockers revealed a prominent stimulus onset transient response, lasting about 120 ms, that showed a broadening of orientation selectivity comparable to that found using drifting bars under similar circumstances. We believe that drifting gratings emphasize a steady-state response component that retains, in the presence of GABAA blockers, significant orientation selectivity. Because the onset transient is initially unselective for orientation, we suggest that the steady-state, orientation-selective response component develops from an alternate inhibitory mechanism, possibly mediated by GABAB receptors.

Piracetam and fish orientation during parabolic aircraft flight

Science.gov (United States)

Hoffman, R. B.; Salinas, G. A.; Homick, J. L.

1980-01-01

Goldfish were flown in parabolic Keplerian trajectories in a KC-135 aircraft to assay both the effectiveness of piracetam as an antimotion sickness drug and the effectiveness of state-dependent training during periods of oscillating gravity levels. Single-frame analyses of infrared films were performed for two classes of responses - role rates in hypogravity or hypogravity orienting responses (LGR) and climbing responses in hypergravity or hypergravity orienting responses (HGR). In Experiment I, preflight training with the vestibular stressor facilitated suppression of LGR by the 10th parabola. An inverse correlation was found between the magnitudes of LGR and HGR. Piracetam was not effective in a state-dependent design, but the drug did significantly increase HGR when injected into trained fish shortly before flight. In Experiment II, injections of saline, piracetam, and modifiers of gamma-aminobutyric acid - aminooxyacetic acid (AOAA) and isonicotinic acid did not modify LGR. AOAA did significantly increase HGR. Thus, the preflight training has a beneficial effect in reducing disorientation in the fish in weightlessness, but the drugs employed were ineffective.

Dynamic separation of nanomagnet sublattices by orientation of elliptical elements

Science.gov (United States)

Yahagi, Y.; Berk, C. R.; Harteneck, B. D.; Cabrini, S. D.; Schmidt, H.

2014-04-01

We report the separation of the magnetization dynamics of densely packed nanomagnets depending on their orientation. The arrays consist of interleaved sublattices of identical nickel elliptical disks. By controlling the orientation of the elliptic disks relative to the external field in each sublattice, we simultaneously analyzed the magnetization dynamics in each sublattice using a time-resolved magnetooptic Kerr effect (TR-MOKE) microscopy system. The Fourier spectra showed clearly separated precession modes for sublattices with different orientations. The spectra were shown to be robust against the error in applied field orientation. The sublattice response can be tuned to a single collective frequency by choosing a symmetric field orientation. We analyzed the effect of the interelement coupling with various spacing between nanomagnets and found a relatively weak dependence on dipolar interactions in good agreement with micromagnetic simulations.

Influence of Charge Shape and Orientation on the Response of Steel-Concrete Composite Panels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abraham Christian

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Blast design codes usually generalize the shape of the charge as spherical or hemispherical. However, it was found that the blast overpressure of cylindrical charges differ greatly when compared with relevant analytical results generated with the charges assumed to be spherical. The objective is to use fully coupled 3D multi-material arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (MMALE modelling technique in LS Dyna software to simulate the cylindrical charge blast loading. Comparison of spherical and cylindrical charge blast simulation was carried out to show the influence on peak overpressure and total impulse. Two steel-concrete composite specimens were subjected to blast testing under cylinder charges for benchmarking against numerical results. It was found that top detonated, vertical cylinder charge could give much higher blast loading compared to horizontal cylinder charge. The MMALE simulation could generate the pressure loading of various charge shape and orientation to be used for predicting the response of the composite panel.

Three-dimensional shape perception from chromatic orientation flows

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Qasim; Li, Andrea

2010-01-01

The role of chromatic information in 3-D shape perception is controversial. We resolve this controversy by showing that chromatic orientation flows are sufficient for accurate perception of 3-D shape. Chromatic flows required less cone contrast to convey shape than did achromatic flows, thus ruling out luminance artifacts as a problem. Luminance artifacts were also ruled out by a protanope’s inability to see 3-D shape from chromatic flows. Since chromatic orientation flows can only be extracted from retinal images by neurons that are responsive to color modulations and selective for orientation, the psychophysical results also resolve the controversy over the existence of such neurons. In addition, we show that identification of 3-D shapes from chromatic flows can be masked by luminance modulations, indicating that it is subserved by orientation-tuned neurons sensitive to both chromatic and luminance modulations. PMID:16961963

Sustainable Entrepreneurship Orientation: A Reflection on Status-Quo Research on Factors Facilitating Responsible Managerial Practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sascha Kraus

2018-02-01

Full Text Available With the global financial system having undergone vast changes since the financial crisis of 2007, scientific research concerning the investor’s point of view on sustainable investments has drastically increased. However, there remains a lack of research focused on the entrepreneur’s angle regarding sustainable oriented investments. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of sustainable financial markets by bringing together entrepreneurial and financial research. This paper provides a structured literature review, based on which the authors identify three relevant levels that they believe have an effect on the successful implementation of managerial sustainable practices; these are the individual, the firm, and the contextual levels. The results show that on the individual level sustainable entrepreneurs tend to derive their will to act more sustainably from their personal values or traits. On the organizational level, though, it can be concluded that an small and medium sized enterprise’s internal culture and the reconfiguration of resources are critical determinants for adopting a sustainable entrepreneurial orientation. Finally, on the contextual level, researchers have focused on a better understanding of how entrepreneurs can help society and the environment through sustainable entrepreneurship, and how they can act as role models or change agents in light of the fact that the choice of investing or financing based on sustainability is still in its infancy. By providing an overview on facilitating factors for responsible managerial practices on the entrepreneur’s side, this research contributes to a better understanding for both theory and practice on how sustainable practices can be implemented and facilitated.

Influence of crystallographic orientation on the response of copper crystallites to nanoindentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Korchuganov, Aleksandr V., E-mail: avkor@ispms.tsc.ru [Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS, Tomsk, 634055 (Russian Federation); Kryzhevich, Dmitrij S., E-mail: kryzhev@ispms.tsc.ru, E-mail: kost@ispms.tsc.ru; Zolnikov, Konstantin P., E-mail: kryzhev@ispms.tsc.ru, E-mail: kost@ispms.tsc.ru [Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS, Tomsk, 634055, Russia and National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, 634050 (Russian Federation); Psakhie, Sergey G., E-mail: sp@ispms.tsc.ru [Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS, Tomsk, 634055, Russia and National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk, 634050 (Russian Federation)

2014-11-14

Molecular dynamics simulation was performed to study the features of nucleation and development of plastic deformation in copper crystallites in nanoindentation with different crystallographic orientations of their loaded surface: (011), (001), and (111). Atomic interaction was described by a potential constructed in terms of the embedded atom method. It is shown that behavior of the crystallite reaction force correlates well with a change in the fraction of atoms involved in local structural rearrangements. The generation of local structural changes decreases the slope of the crystallite reaction force curve or results in an extremum due to internal stress relaxation. Analysis of structural changes in the material being indented demonstrates that the orientation of its loaded surface greatly affects the features of nucleation and development of plastic deformation.

Preference for orientations commonly viewed for one's own hand in the anterior intraparietal cortex.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Regine Zopf

Full Text Available Brain regions in the intraparietal and the premotor cortices selectively process visual and multisensory events near the hands (peri-hand space. Visual information from the hand itself modulates this processing potentially because it is used to estimate the location of one's own body and the surrounding space. In humans specific occipitotemporal areas process visual information of specific body parts such as hands. Here we used an fMRI block-design to investigate if anterior intraparietal and ventral premotor 'peri-hand areas' exhibit selective responses to viewing images of hands and viewing specific hand orientations. Furthermore, we investigated if the occipitotemporal 'hand area' is sensitive to viewed hand orientation. Our findings demonstrate increased BOLD responses in the left anterior intraparietal area when participants viewed hands and feet as compared to faces and objects. Anterior intraparietal and also occipitotemporal areas in the left hemisphere exhibited response preferences for viewing right hands with orientations commonly viewed for one's own hand as compared to uncommon own hand orientations. Our results indicate that both anterior intraparietal and occipitotemporal areas encode visual limb-specific shape and orientation information.

What Does It Mean To Be Responsible? Addressing the Missing Responsibility Dimension in Ethical Leadership

OpenAIRE

Voegtlin Christian

2016-01-01

International audience; This paper extends research on ethical leadership by proposing a responsibility orientation for leaders. Responsible leadership is based on the concept of leaders who are not isolated from the environment, who critically evaluate prevailing norms, are forward-looking, share responsibility, and aim to solve problems collectively. Adding such a responsibility orientation helps to address critical issues that persist in research on ethical leadership. The paper discusses ...

Relationship between BOLD amplitude and pattern classification of orientation-selective activity in the human visual cortex

Science.gov (United States)

Tong, Frank; Harrison, Stephenie A.; Dewey, John A.; Kamitani, Yukiyasu

2012-01-01

Orientation-selective responses can be decoded from fMRI activity patterns in the human visual cortex, using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA). To what extent do these feature-selective activity patterns depend on the strength and quality of the sensory input, and might the reliability of these activity patterns be predicted by the gross amplitude of the stimulus-driven BOLD response? Observers viewed oriented gratings that varied in luminance contrast (4, 20 or 100%) or spatial frequency (0.25, 1.0 or 4.0 cpd). As predicted, activity patterns in early visual areas led to better discrimination of orientations presented at high than low contrast, with greater effects of contrast found in area V1 than in V3. A second experiment revealed generally better decoding of orientations at low or moderate as compared to high spatial frequencies. Interestingly however, V1 exhibited a relative advantage at discriminating high spatial frequency orientations, consistent with the finer scale of representation in the primary visual cortex. In both experiments, the reliability of these orientation-selective activity patterns was well predicted by the average BOLD amplitude in each region of interest, as indicated by correlation analyses, as well as decoding applied to a simple model of voxel responses to simulated orientation columns. Moreover, individual differences in decoding accuracy could be predicted by the signal-to-noise ratio of an individual's BOLD response. Our results indicate that decoding accuracy can be well predicted by incorporating the amplitude of the BOLD response into simple simulation models of cortical selectivity; such models could prove useful in future applications of fMRI pattern classification. PMID:22917989

Organizational search and market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe; Stieglitz, Nils

2008-01-01

  Market orientation has evolved into a key construct in the marketing and strategy literature. While much progress has been made in empirical research, the concept lacks a coherent theoretical foundation. Essentially, much prior research has pointed to the role of market-sensing capabilities...... to explain performance differentials among firms (Day, 1994). We open up the black box of market-sensing capabilities by treating the issue of choosing marketing attributes of products as a problem of organizational search. Despite much robust research on organizational search in the strategy......, with their effectiveness depending on organizational and environmental factors. We provide an elaborate outline of the multidimensional aspect of firms' responsive and proactive search processes. First, we highlight the role of organizational aspiration-levels for market orientation. We then investigate the mechanisms...

Understanding voter orientation in the context of political market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Henneberg, Stephan C.

2010-01-01

This article develops a conceptual framework and measurement model of political market orientation. The relationships between different behavioural aspects of political market orientation and the attitudinal influences of such behaviour are analysed, and the study includes structural equation...... modelling to test several hypotheses. While the results show that political parties focus on several different aspects of market-oriented behaviour, especially using an internal and societal orientation as cultural antecedents, a more surprising result is the inconclusive effect of a voter orientation...... on political market orientation. This lends support to the argument of 'looking beyond the customer' in political marketing research and practice. The article discusses the findings in the context of the existing literature on political marketing and commercial market orientation....

Spatial confinement governs orientational order in patchy particles

Science.gov (United States)

Iwashita, Yasutaka; Kimura, Yasuyuki

2016-06-01

Orientational order in condensed matter plays a key role in determining material properties such as ferromagnetism, viscoelasticity or birefringence. We studied purely orientational ordering in closely-packed one-patch colloidal particles confined between flat substrates, where the particles can only rotate and are ordered via the sticky interaction between the patches. For the first time, we experimentally realized a rich variety of mesoscopic patterns through orientational ordering of colloids by controlling patch size and confinement thickness. The combination of experiment and numerical simulation reveals the decisive role of confinement: An ordered state(s) is selected from the (meta)stable options in bulk when it is commensurate with the system geometry and boundary conditions; otherwise, frustration induces a unique order. Our study offers a new means of systematic control over mesoscopic structures via orientational ordering in patchy particles. The system would also possess unique functionalities through the rotational response of the particles to external stimuli.

Strength and deformation of shocked diamond single crystals: Orientation dependence

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, J. M.; Winey, J. M.; Gupta, Y. M.

2018-03-01

Understanding and quantifying the strength or elastic limit of diamond single crystals is of considerable scientific and technological importance, and has been a subject of long standing theoretical and experimental interest. To examine the effect of crystalline anisotropy on strength and deformation of shocked diamond single crystals, plate impact experiments were conducted to measure wave profiles at various elastic impact stresses up to ˜120 GPa along [110] and [111] crystal orientations. Using laser interferometry, particle velocity histories and shock velocities in the diamond samples were measured and were compared with similar measurements published previously for shock compression along the [100] direction. Wave profiles for all three orientations showed large elastic wave amplitudes followed by time-dependent inelastic deformation. From the measured wave profiles, the elastic limits were determined under well characterized uniaxial strain loading conditions. The measured elastic wave amplitudes for the [110] and [111] orientations were lower for higher elastic impact stress (stress attained for an elastic diamond response), consistent with the result reported previously for [100] diamond. The maximum resolved shear stress (MRSS) on the {111}⟨110⟩ slip systems was determined for each orientation, revealing significant orientation dependence. The MRSS values for the [100] and [110] orientations (˜33 GPa) are 25%-30% of theoretical estimates; the MRSS value for the [111] orientation is significantly lower (˜23 GPa). Our results demonstrate that the MRSS depends strongly on the stress component normal to the {111} planes or the resolved normal stress (RNS), suggesting that the RNS plays a key role in inhibiting the onset of inelastic deformation. Lower elastic wave amplitudes at higher peak stress and the effect of the RNS are inconsistent with typical dislocation slip mechanisms of inelastic deformation, suggesting instead an inelastic response

Health-oriented electronic oral health record: development and evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Wongsapai, Mansuang; Suebnukarn, Siriwan; Rajchagool, Sunsanee; Beach, Daryl; Kawaguchi, Sachiko

2014-06-01

This study aims to develop and evaluate a new Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record that implements the health-oriented status and intervention index. The index takes the principles of holistic oral healthcare and applies them to the design and implementation of the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record. We designed an experiment using focus groups and a consensus (Delphi process) method to develop a new health-oriented status and intervention index and graphical user interface. A comparative intervention study with qualitative and quantitative methods was used to compare an existing Electronic Oral Health Record to the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record, focusing on dentist satisfaction, accuracy, and completeness of oral health status recording. The study was conducted by the dental staff of the Inter-country Center for Oral Health collaborative hospitals in Thailand. Overall, the user satisfaction questionnaire had a positive response to the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record. The dentists found it easy to use and were generally satisfied with the impact on their work, oral health services, and surveillance. The dentists were significantly satisfied with the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record compared to the existing Electronic Oral Health Record (p health information recorded using the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record were 97.15 and 93.74 percent, respectively. This research concludes that the Health-oriented Electronic Oral Health Record satisfied many dentists, provided benefits to holistic oral healthcare, and facilitated the planning, managing, and evaluation of the healthcare delivery system.

Thermoregulatory behavior and orientation preference in bearded dragons.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Ian R G; Tattersall, Glenn J

2017-10-01

The regulation of body temperature is a critical function for animals. Although reliant on ambient temperature as a heat source, reptiles, and especially lizards, make use of multiple voluntary and involuntary behaviors to thermoregulate, including postural changes in body orientation, either toward or away from solar sources of heat. This thermal orientation may also result from a thermoregulatory drive to maintain precise control over cranial temperatures or a rostrally-driven sensory bias. The purpose of this work was to examine thermal orientation behavior in adult and neonatal bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps), to ascertain its prevalence across different life stages within a laboratory situation and its interaction with behavioral thermoregulation. Both adult and neonatal bearded dragons were placed in a thermal gradient and allowed to voluntarily select temperatures for up to 8h to observe the presence and development of a thermoregulatory orientation preference. Both adult and neonatal dragons displayed a non-random orientation, preferring to face toward a heat source while achieving mean thermal preferences of ~ 33-34°C. Specifically, adult dragons were more likely to face a heat source when at cooler ambient temperatures and less likely at warmer temperatures, suggesting that orientation behavior counter-balances local selected temperatures but contributes to their thermoregulatory response. Neonates were also more likely to select cooler temperatures when facing a heat source, but required more experience before this orientation behavior emerged. Combined, these results demonstrate the importance of orientation to behavioral thermoregulation in multiple life stages of bearded dragons. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Orientation selectivity of synaptic input to neurons in mouse and cat primary visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Andrew Y Y; Brown, Brandon D; Scholl, Benjamin; Mohanty, Deepankar; Priebe, Nicholas J

2011-08-24

Primary visual cortex (V1) is the site at which orientation selectivity emerges in mammals: visual thalamus afferents to V1 respond equally to all stimulus orientations, whereas their target V1 neurons respond selectively to stimulus orientation. The emergence of orientation selectivity in V1 has long served as a model for investigating cortical computation. Recent evidence for orientation selectivity in mouse V1 opens cortical computation to dissection by genetic and imaging tools, but also raises two essential questions: (1) How does orientation selectivity in mouse V1 neurons compare with that in previously described species? (2) What is the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity in mouse V1? A comparison of orientation selectivity in mouse and in cat, where such measures have traditionally been made, reveals that orientation selectivity in mouse V1 is weaker than in cat V1, but that spike threshold plays a similar role in narrowing selectivity between membrane potential and spike rate. To uncover the synaptic basis for orientation selectivity, we made whole-cell recordings in vivo from mouse V1 neurons, comparing neuronal input selectivity-based on membrane potential, synaptic excitation, and synaptic inhibition-to output selectivity based on spiking. We found that a neuron's excitatory and inhibitory inputs are selective for the same stimulus orientations as is its membrane potential response, and that inhibitory selectivity is not broader than excitatory selectivity. Inhibition has different dynamics than excitation, adapting more rapidly. In neurons with temporally modulated responses, the timing of excitation and inhibition was different in mice and cats.

A method for determining the actual rate of orientation switching of DNA self-assembled monolayers using optical and electrochemical frequency response analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Casanova-Moreno, J; Bizzotto, D

2015-02-17

Electrostatic control of the orientation of fluorophore-labeled DNA strands immobilized on an electrode surface has been shown to be an effective bioanalytical tool. Modulation techniques and later time-resolved measurements were used to evaluate the kinetics of the switching between lying and standing DNA conformations. These measurements, however, are the result of a convolution between the DNA "switching" response time and the other frequency limited responses in the measurement. In this work, a method for analyzing the response of a potential driven DNA sensor is presented by calculating the potential effectively dropped across the electrode interface (using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) as opposed to the potential applied to the electrochemical cell. This effectively deconvolutes the effect of the charging time on the observed frequency response. The corrected response shows that DNA is able to switch conformation faster than previously reported using modulation techniques. This approach will ensure accurate measurements independent of the electrochemical system, removing the uncertainty in the analysis of the switching response, enabling comparison between samples and measurement systems.

The multicultural orientation framework: A narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Don E; DeBlaere, Cirleen; Owen, Jesse; Hook, Joshua N; Rivera, David P; Choe, Elise; Van Tongeren, D R; Worthington, Everett L; Placeres, Vanessa

2018-03-01

After several decades of slow progress, researchers are beginning to make advances in linking constructs based on the multicultural competencies tradition-especially those focused on qualities of the therapist-to therapy outcomes. The multicultural orientation framework was developed in response to several trends within the multicultural competencies tradition, with a particular emphasis on integrating the multicultural competencies tradition into research on psychotherapy process. We provide a narrative review of studies that include one of the three constructs (i.e., cultural humility, cultural opportunities, and cultural comfort) articulated by the multicultural orientation framework. Results indicate initial evidence linking multicultural orientation constructs to therapy outcomes (e.g., perceived improvement, racial/ethnic disparities in termination, and therapy alliance). Results also supported the social bond and social oil hypotheses from theorizing on humility. Implications for future research and therapy practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Two-stage magnetic orientation of uric acid crystals as gout initiators

Science.gov (United States)

Takeuchi, Y.; Miyashita, Y.; Mizukawa, Y.; Iwasaka, M.

2014-01-01

The present study focuses on the magnetic behavior of uric acid crystals, which are responsible for gout. Under a sub-Tesla (T)-level magnetic field, rotational motion of the crystals, which were caused by diamagnetic torque, was observed. We used horizontal magnetic fields with a maximum magnitude of 500 mT generated by an electromagnet to observe the magnetic orientation of the uric acid microcrystals by a microscope. The uric acid crystals showed a perpendicular magnetic field orientation with a minimum threshold of 130 mT. We speculate that the distinct diamagnetic anisotropy in the uric acid crystals resulted in their rotational responses.

Human cortical activity evoked by contextual processing in attentional orienting.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Shuo; Li, Chunlin; Uono, Shota; Yoshimura, Sayaka; Toichi, Motomi

2017-06-07

The ability to assess another person's direction of attention is paramount in social communication, many studies have reported a similar pattern between gaze and arrow cues in attention orienting. Neuroimaging research has also demonstrated no qualitative differences in attention to gaze and arrow cues. However, these studies were implemented under simple experiment conditions. Researchers have highlighted the importance of contextual processing (i.e., the semantic congruence between cue and target) in attentional orienting, showing that attentional orienting by social gaze or arrow cues could be modulated through contextual processing. Here, we examine the neural activity of attentional orienting by gaze and arrow cues in response to contextual processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results demonstrated that the influence of neural activity through contextual processing to attentional orienting occurred under invalid conditions (when the cue and target were incongruent versus congruent) in the ventral frontoparietal network, although we did not identify any differences in the neural substrates of attentional orienting in contextual processing between gaze and arrow cues. These results support behavioural data of attentional orienting modulated by contextual processing based on the neurocognitive architecture.

The Impact of Market Orientation on Patient Safety Climate Among Hospital Nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Rhay-Hung; Chen, Jung-Chien; Pong, Li-Jung; Chen, Li-Mei; Lin, Tzu-Chi

2016-03-01

Improving market orientation and patient safety have become the key concerns of nursing management. For nurses, establishing a patient safety climate is the key to enhancing nursing quality. This study explores how market orientation affects the climate of patient safety among hospital nurses. We proposed adopting a cross-sectional research design and using questionnaires to collect responses from nurses working in two Taiwanese hospitals. Three-hundred and forty-three valid samples were obtained. Multiple regression and path analyses were conducted to test the study. Market orientation was defined as the combination of customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination. Customer orientation directly affects the climate of patient safety. Although the findings only supported Hypothesis 1, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination positively affected the patient safety climate through the mediating effects of hospital support for staff. Health care managers could encourage nurses to adopt customer-oriented perspectives to enhance their nursing care. In addition, to enhance competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, and the patient safety climate, hospital managers could strengthen their support for staff members. © The Author(s) 2014.

Visual orienting and attention deficits in 5- and 10-month-old preterm infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Ross-Sheehy, Shannon; Perone, Sammy; Macek, Kelsi L; Eschman, Bret

2017-02-01

Cognitive outcomes for children born prematurely are well characterized, including increased risk for deficits in memory, attention, processing speed, and executive function. However, little is known about deficits that appear within the first 12 months, and how these early deficits contribute to later outcomes. To probe for functional deficits in visual attention, preterm and full-term infants were tested at 5 and 10 months with the Infant Orienting With Attention task (IOWA; Ross-Sheehy, Schneegans and Spencer, 2015). 5-month-old preterm infants showed significant deficits in orienting speed and task related error. However, 10-month-old preterm infants showed only selective deficits in spatial attention, particularly reflexive orienting responses, and responses that required some inhibition. These emergent deficits in spatial attention suggest preterm differences may be related to altered postnatal developmental trajectories. Moreover, we found no evidence of a dose-response relation between increased gestational risk and spatial attention. These results highlight the critical role of postnatal visual experience, and suggest that visual orienting may be a sensitive measure of attentional delay. Results reported here both inform current theoretical models of early perceptual/cognitive development, and future intervention efforts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The equivalent internal orientation and position noise for contour integration.

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Baldwin, Alex S; Fu, Minnie; Farivar, Reza; Hess, Robert F

2017-10-12

Contour integration is the joining-up of local responses to parts of a contour into a continuous percept. In typical studies observers detect contours formed of discrete wavelets, presented against a background of random wavelets. This measures performance for detecting contours in the limiting external noise that background provides. Our novel task measures contour integration without requiring any background noise. This allowed us to perform noise-masking experiments using orientation and position noise. From these we measure the equivalent internal noise for contour integration. We found an orientation noise of 6° and position noise of 3 arcmin. Orientation noise was 2.6x higher in contour integration compared to an orientation discrimination control task. Comparing against a position discrimination task found position noise in contours to be 2.4x lower. This suggests contour integration involves intermediate processing that enhances the quality of element position representation at the expense of element orientation. Efficiency relative to the ideal observer was lower for the contour tasks (36% in orientation noise, 21% in position noise) compared to the controls (54% and 57%).

Nano-sensing of the orientation of fluorescing molecules with active coated nano-particles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arslanagic, Samel; Ziolkowski, Richard W.

2015-01-01

The potential of using active coated nano-particles to determine the orientation of fluorescing molecules is reported. By treating each fluorescing molecule as an electric Hertzian dipole, single and multiple fluorescing molecules emitting coherently and incoherently in various orientations...... are considered in the presence of active coated nano-particles. It is demonstrated that in addition to offering a means to determine the orientation of a single molecule or the over-all orientation of the molecules surrounding it, the nature of the far-field response from the active coated nano...

Inactivation of the infragranular striate cortex broadens orientation tuning of supragranular visual neurons in the cat.

Science.gov (United States)

Allison, J D; Bonds, A B

1994-01-01

Intracortical inhibition is believed to enhance the orientation tuning of striate cortical neurons, but the origin of this inhibition is unclear. To examine the possible influence of ascending inhibitory projections from the infragranular layers of striate cortex on the orientation selectivity of neurons in the supragranular layers, we measured the spatiotemporal response properties of 32 supragranular neurons in the cat before, during, and after neural activity in the infragranular layers beneath the recorded cells was inactivated by iontophoretic administration of GABA. During GABA iontophoresis, the orientation tuning bandwidth of 15 (46.9%) supragranular neurons broadened as a result of increases in response amplitude to stimuli oriented about +/- 20 degrees away from the preferred stimulus angle. The mean (+/- SD) baseline orientation tuning bandwidth (half width at half height) of these neurons was 13.08 +/- 2.3 degrees. Their mean tuning bandwidth during inactivation of the infragranular layers increased to 19.59 +/- 2.54 degrees, an increase of 49.7%. The mean percentage increase in orientation tuning bandwidth of the individual neurons was 47.4%. Four neurons exhibited symmetrical changes in their orientation tuning functions, while 11 neurons displayed asymmetrical changes. The change in form of the orientation tuning functions appeared to depend on the relative vertical alignment of the recorded neuron and the infragranular region of inactivation. Neurons located in close vertical register with the inactivated infragranular tissue exhibited symmetric changes in their orientation tuning functions. The neurons exhibiting asymmetric changes in their orientation tuning functions were located just outside the vertical register. Eight of these 11 neurons also demonstrated a mean shift of 6.67 +/- 5.77 degrees in their preferred stimulus orientation. The magnitude of change in the orientation tuning functions increased as the delivery of GABA was prolonged

ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ORIENTED POLICY IN BANKING INSTITUTIONS OF UKRAINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lunkina Tatyana

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. In today’s globalized conditions, the question of socially responsible business and the formation of an appropriate concept and policies for managing it are more relevant. Scientists are investigating this issue in two aspects, namely, from a theoretical and practical point of view. The first aspect is the study of the essence of CSR, the conduct of entrepreneurial activity, the functioning mechanism of the market principles in this concept, the definition of the place of social orientation in modern conditions. The second aspect is the study of practical positions, the separation of this concept from the standpoint of warning and risk management, assessment of the level of social responsibility and summing up the rating, summarizing all the results, as well as the establishment of a standard that will regulate such relationships. But, in our opinion, the implementation of such socially-oriented moments is not possible without identifying a certain number of indicators, reflecting the real situation and the impact of social factors on the banking institutions. This explains the relevance of studying the assessment of socially-oriented policies of banking institutions. Purpose. The purpose of this article is to determine the approaches to the assessment of socially-oriented policies of banking institutions, as well as to determine the place of rating assessment in the current conditions of the functioning of institutions and organizations. Results. The article describes approaches of socially-oriented banking policy in Ukraine. A quantitative approach is drawn, which directly includes the assessment of the level of social investment through the conduct of socially responsible activities by banking institutions. The qualitative approach according to which social reports and social ratings are compiled is investigated. The social indicators that influence the formation of a socially oriented political management system by business

Cooperative synchronized assemblies enhance orientation discrimination.

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Samonds, Jason M; Allison, John D; Brown, Heather A; Bonds, A B

2004-04-27

There is no clear link between the broad tuning of single neurons and the fine behavioral capabilities of orientation discrimination. We recorded from populations of cells in the cat visual cortex (area 17) to examine whether the joint activity of cells can support finer discrimination than found in individual responses. Analysis of joint firing yields a substantial advantage (i.e., cooperation) in fine-angle discrimination. This cooperation increases to more considerable levels as the population of an assembly is increased. The cooperation in a population of six cells provides encoding of orientation with an information advantage that is at least 2-fold in terms of requiring either fewer cells or less time than independent coding. This cooperation suggests that correlated or synchronized activity can increase information.

[Action-oriented versus state-oriented reactions to experimenter-induced failures].

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Brunstein, J C

1989-01-01

The present study assessed different effects of action-oriented versus state-oriented styles of coping with failure on achievement-related performance and cognition. In a learned helplessness experiment, students were exposed to an academic failure situation and were then tested on a series of problem-solving tasks, either immediately after the pretreatment or after a delay of 24 hours. Performance and cognitive concomitants were measured during both experimental periods. Results demonstrated that action orientation was associated with self-immunizing cognitions during helplessness training. Action-oriented participants improved their performance level even after repeated failure feedbacks. Moreover, action-oriented students assigned to the delayed test condition responded with increased striving for success and showed performance increments, even in comparison with control subjects. In contrast, state-oriented participants developed symptoms of helplessness and showed impaired performance during failure inductions. In later tests on problem-solving tasks, state-oriented groups responded with increased fear of failure. Independent of immediate or delayed test conditions, they soon lapsed into new performance decrements.

Orienting of attention via observed eye gaze is head-centred.

Science.gov (United States)

Bayliss, Andrew P; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe; Tipper, Steven P

2004-11-01

Observing averted eye gaze results in the automatic allocation of attention to the gazed-at location. The role of the orientation of the face that produces the gaze cue was investigated. The eyes in the face could look left or right in a head-centred frame, but the face itself could be oriented 90 degrees clockwise or anticlockwise such that the eyes were gazing up or down. Significant cueing effects to targets presented to the left or right of the screen were found in these head orientation conditions. This suggests that attention was directed to the side to which the eyes would have been looking towards, had the face been presented upright. This finding provides evidence that head orientation can affect gaze following, even when the head orientation alone is not a social cue. It also shows that the mechanism responsible for the allocation of attention following a gaze cue can be influenced by intrinsic object-based (i.e. head-centred) properties of the task-irrelevant cue.

Cultural value orientations, internalized homophobia, and accommodation in romantic relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Gaines, Stanley O; Henderson, Michael C; Kim, Mary; Gilstrap, Samuel; Yi, Jennifer; Rusbult, Caryl E; Hardin, Deletha P; Gaertner, Lowell

2005-01-01

In the present study, we examined the impact of cultural value orientations (i.e., the personally oriented value of individualism, and the socially oriented values of collectivism, familism, romanticism, and spiritualism) on accommodation (i.e., voice and loyalty, rather than exit and neglect, responses to partners' anger or criticism) in heterosexual and gay relationships; and we examined the impact of internalized homophobia (i.e., attitudes toward self, other, and disclosure) on accommodation specifically in gay relationships. A total of 262 heterosexuals (102 men and 162 women) and 857 gays (474 men and 383 women) participated in the present study. Consistent with hypotheses, among heterosexuals and gays, socially oriented values were significantly and positively related to accommodation (whereas the personally oriented value of individualism was unrelated to accommodation); and among gays in particular, internalized homophobia was significantly and negatively related to accommodation. Implications for the study of heterosexual and gay relationships are discussed.

Neurobiology of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Roselli, Charles E

2017-12-06

Sexual identity and sexual orientation are independent components of a person's sexual identity. These dimensions are most often in harmony with each other and with an individual's genital sex, but not always. This review discusses the relationship of sexual identity and sexual orientation to prenatal factors that act to shape the development of the brain and the expression of sexual behaviors in animals and humans. One major influence discussed relates to organizational effects that the early hormone environment exerts on both gender identity and sexual orientation. Evidence that gender identity and sexual orientation are masculinized by prenatal exposure to testosterone and feminized in it absence is drawn from basic research in animals, correlations of biometric indices of androgen exposure and studies of clinical conditions associated with disorders in sexual development. There are, however, important exceptions to this theory that have yet to be resolved. Family and twin studies indicate that genes play a role, but no specific candidate genes have been identified. Evidence that relates to the number of older brothers implicates maternal immune responses as a contributing factor for male sexual orientation. It remains speculative how these influences might relate to each other and interact with postnatal socialization. Nonetheless, despite the many challenges to research in this area, existing empirical evidence makes it clear that there is a significant biological contribution to the development of an individual's sexual identity and sexual orientation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Adaptive behavior of neighboring neurons during adaptation-induced plasticity of orientation tuning in V1

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shumikhina Svetlana

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Sensory neurons display transient changes of their response properties following prolonged exposure to an appropriate stimulus (adaptation. In adult cat primary visual cortex, orientation-selective neurons shift their preferred orientation after being adapted to a non-preferred orientation. The direction of those shifts, towards (attractive or away (repulsive from the adapter depends mostly on adaptation duration. How the adaptive behavior of a neuron is related to that of its neighbors remains unclear. Results Here we show that in most cases (75%, cells shift their preferred orientation in the same direction as their neighbors. We also found that cells shifting preferred orientation differently from their neighbors (25% display three interesting properties: (i larger variance of absolute shift amplitude, (ii wider tuning bandwidth and (iii larger range of preferred orientations among the cluster of cells. Several response properties of V1 neurons depend on their location within the cortical orientation map. Our results suggest that recording sites with both attractive and repulsive shifts following adaptation may be located in close proximity to iso-orientation domain boundaries or pinwheel centers. Indeed, those regions have a more diverse orientation distribution of local inputs that could account for the three properties above. On the other hand, sites with all cells shifting their preferred orientation in the same direction could be located within iso-orientation domains. Conclusions Our results suggest that the direction and amplitude of orientation preference shifts in V1 depend on location within the orientation map. This anisotropy of adaptation-induced plasticity, comparable to that of the visual cortex itself, could have important implications for our understanding of visual adaptation at the psychophysical level.

CUSTOMER PERCEPTION ON ONLINE PURCHASE INTENTION: THE IMPACT OF ONLINE SHOPPING ORIENTATIONS ON ONLINE BUYING INTENTION

OpenAIRE

Ghouri, Arsalan Mujahid; Ul Haq, Mirza Amin; Khan, Naveed R

2017-01-01

This paper endeavorsto recognize the customer perception on online purchase intention among theyouth of Pakistan. Customer perception on online purchase intention, thus ourresearch variables are impulse purchase orientation, brand orientation,and quality orientation were considered along with online trust andprior online purchase experience. The results are focused 292 responses gotfrom the online study. The exploration made that impulse purchase orientation;prior o...

'Fixed-axis' magnetic orientation by an amphibian: non-shoreward-directed compass orientation, misdirected homing or positioning a magnetite-based map detector in a consistent alignment relative to the magnetic field?

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, John B; Borland, S Chris; Freake, Michael J; Brassart, Jacques; Kirschvink, Joseph L

2002-12-01

Experiments were carried out to investigate the earlier prediction that prolonged exposure to long-wavelength (>500 nm) light would eliminate homing orientation by male Eastern red-spotted newts Notophthalmus viridescens. As in previous experiments, controls held in outdoor tanks under natural lighting conditions and tested in a visually uniform indoor arena under full-spectrum light were homeward oriented. As predicted, however, newts held under long-wavelength light and tested under either full-spectrum or long-wavelength light (>500 nm) failed to show consistent homeward orientation. The newts also did not orient with respect to the shore directions in the outdoor tanks in which they were held prior to testing. Unexpectedly, however, the newts exhibited bimodal orientation along a more-or-less 'fixed' north-northeast-south-southwest magnetic axis. The orientation exhibited by newts tested under full-spectrum light was indistinguishable from that of newts tested under long-wavelength light, although these two wavelength conditions have previously been shown to differentially affect both shoreward compass orientation and homing orientation. To investigate the possibility that the 'fixed-axis' response of the newts was mediated by a magnetoreception mechanism involving single-domain particles of magnetite, natural remanent magnetism (NRM) was measured from a subset of the newts. The distribution of NRM alignments with respect to the head-body axis of the newts was indistinguishable from random. Furthermore, there was no consistent relationship between the NRM of individual newts and their directional response in the overall sample. However, under full-spectrum, but not long-wavelength, light, the alignment of the NRM when the newts reached the 20 cm radius criterion circle in the indoor testing arena (estimated by adding the NRM alignment measured from each newt to its magnetic bearing) was non-randomly distributed. These findings are consistent with the earlier

Assessment of orientation practices for ethics consultation at Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, Danish; Kesselheim, Jennifer C

2018-02-01

Few studies have been conducted to assess the quality of orientation practices for ethics advisory committees that conduct ethics consultation. This survey study focused on several Harvard teaching hospitals, exploring orientation quality and committee members' self-evaluation in the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) ethics consultation competencies. We conducted a survey study that involved 116 members and 16 chairs of ethics advisory committees, respectively (52% and 62.5% response rates). Predictor variables included professional demographics, duration on committees and level of training. Outcome variables included familiarity with and preparedness in the ASBH competencies and satisfaction with orientations. We hypothesised that responses would be associated with both the aforementioned predictors and whether or not participants had encountered the ASBH competencies in training. A majority of respondents found their orientation curricula to be helpful (62%), although a significant portion of respondents did not receive any orientation (24%) or were unsatisfied with their orientation (14%). Familiarity with ASBH competencies was a statistically significant predictor of respondents' self-evaluation in particular categories (54% had heard of the competencies). Standard educational materials were reported as offered during orientation, such as readings (50%) and case studies (41%); different medium resources were less evidenced such as videos on ethics consultation (19%). Institutions should re-evaluate orientation practices for ethics committee members that perform ethics consultation. Integrating ASBH competencies and useful methods into a resourceful pedagogy will help improve both member satisfaction with orientation and preparation in consultation. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing Control

CERN Document Server

Thomas, André; Trentesaux, Damien

2012-01-01

Service orientation is emerging nowadays at multiple organizational levels in enterprise business, and it leverages technology in response to the growing need for greater business integration, flexibility and agility of manufacturing enterprises. This book gathers contributions from scientists, researchers and industrialists on concepts, methods, frameworks and implementing issues addressing trends in the service orientation of control technology and management applied to manufacturing enterprise. It analyzes a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) representing a technical architecture, a business modelling concept, a type of infrastructure, an integration source and a new way of viewing units of automation within the enterprise. The presents how SOA aligns the business world with the world of information technology in a way that makes both more effective.  

Market Orientation Capabilities: A Study of Learning Processes in Market-Oriented Companies

OpenAIRE

Silkoset, Ragnhild

2009-01-01

The literature operates with three perspectives on market orientation. These include market orientation as behavior (Kohli and Jaworski 1990; Narver and Slater 1990), market orientation as a unique resource (Hunt and Morgan 1995) and market orientation as a dynamic learning capability (Sinkula 1994; Day 1994b). A company's level of market orientation will vary with regard to the perspectives, including factors affecting a company’s degree of market orientation and the effect...

Market orientation at industry and value chain levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grunert, Klaus G.; Jeppesen, Lisbeth Fruensgaard; Jespersen, Kristina Risom

2002-01-01

The term market orientation, defined as sets of activities dealing with the generation and dissemination of, and response to, market intelligence , is extended from the organisational level to the industry and value chain levels. By drawing on theories from industrial economics, neo......-institutional theory, transaction cost economics, network theory and the political-economic approach to the analysis of marketing channels, we try to find potential determinants of market orientation at the industry and value chain levels. We summarise these determinants and their possible interaction in two...... conceptual models, which may serve as guiding principles for empirical research....

AN INVESTIGATION OF CSR ORIENTATIONS AMONG GREEK UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

OpenAIRE

Robyn Walker; Charalambos Kanellopoulos; Maria Papanayiotou; Antonios Vitalis

2003-01-01

This paper presents the results of a survey of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations of commerce students at the University of Piraeus. The study utilised the instrument developed by Aupperle (1982, cited in Aupperle, Carroll, & Hatfield, 1985) based on Carroll's (1979) social responsibility framework. Comparisons are made with the results of other surveys that have used the same method.

"Magnetic" termite mound surfaces are oriented to suit wind and shade conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Jacklyn, Peter M

1992-09-01

The termites Amitermes meridionalis and A. laurensis construct remarkable meridional or "magnetic" mounds in northern Australia. These mounds vary geographically in mean orientation in a manner that suggests such variation is an adaptive response to local environmental conditions. Theoretical modelling of solar irradiance and mound rotation experiments show that maintenance of an eastern face temperature plateau during the dry season is the most likely physical basis for the mound orientation response. Subsequent heat transfer analysis shows that habitat wind speed and shading conditions also affect face temperature gradients such as the rate of eastern face temperature change. It is then demonstrated that the geographic variation in mean mound orientation follows the geographic variation in long-term wind speed and shading conditions across northern Australia such that an eastern face temperature plateau is maintained in all locations.

Monocular channels have a functional role in endogenous orienting.

Science.gov (United States)

Saban, William; Sekely, Liora; Klein, Raymond M; Gabay, Shai

2018-03-01

The literature has long emphasized the role of higher cortical structures in endogenous orienting. Based on evolutionary explanation and previous data, we explored the possibility that lower monocular channels may also have a functional role in endogenous orienting of attention. Sensitive behavioral manipulation was used to probe the contribution of monocularly segregated regions in a simple cue - target detection task. A central spatially informative cue, and its ensuing target, were presented to the same or different eyes at varying cue-target intervals. Results indicated that the onset of endogenous orienting was apparent earlier when the cue and target were presented to the same eye. The data provides converging evidence for the notion that endogenous facilitation is modulated by monocular portions of the visual stream. This, in turn, suggests that higher cortical mechanisms are not exclusively responsible for endogenous orienting, and that a dynamic interaction between higher and lower neural levels, might be involved. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception between organizational citizenship behaviors and satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Ching Sheng; Chang, Hae Ching

2010-08-01

This study investigates whether organizational citizenship behaviors enhance job satisfaction among nursing personnel, while exploring whether customer-oriented perception has a moderating effect between nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction.The authors used a cross-sectional survey sent to 500 nurses with 232 valid responses. According to the research findings, nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors have a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. Results also indicated that the moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception on the relationship between their organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction was stronger for high customer-oriented perception than it was low customer-oriented perception.

The relationship between parenting and the economic orientation and behavior of Norwegian adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Nyhus, Ellen K; Webley, Paul

2013-01-01

Little is known about the economic socialization of children and adolescents and the role of parents in this process. The authors' purpose was to explore the role of parenting in the intergenerational transfer of economic orientation and economic behavior. More specifically, they studied the link between four parenting dimensions (parental warmth-responsiveness, behavioral control, psychological control, autonomy granting), three parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, and neglectful) and adolescents' conscientiousness, future time perspective, and present hedonistic orientation. The authors also studied the relationships between these dispositions and the adolescents' spending preferences and ability to control spending. They used data collected from 14-16-year-olds (n = 597) and their parents (n = 469) in Norway. Results showed that adolescents who perceived their parents as psychologically controlling were less future oriented and conscientious, and were more present hedonistic oriented than others, while adolescents who perceived their parents as responsive, autonomy granting, and controlling of behavior were more future orientated and conscientious than others. Adolescents' scores for conscientiousness and future orientation were negatively associated with preferences for spending and positively with the ability to control spending, while the opposite relationships were found with respect to a present hedonistic orientation. Parental style was also found to be important for the future educational plans of adolescents, and plans for higher education were more frequent among adolescents who characterized their parents as authoritative than among those who perceived their parents as neglectful. Implications of the findings for economic socialization are discussed.

Sexual Orientation (For Parents)

Science.gov (United States)

... Staying Safe Videos for Educators Search English Español Sexual Orientation KidsHealth / For Parents / Sexual Orientation What's in this ... orientation is part of that process. What Is Sexual Orientation? The term sexual orientation refers to the gender ( ...

Application of the critical pathway and integrated case teaching method to nursing orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Goodman, D

1997-01-01

Nursing staff development programs must be responsive to current changes in healthcare. New nursing staff must be prepared to manage continuous change and to function competently in clinical practice. The orientation pathway, based on a case management model, is used as a structure for the orientation phase of staff development. The integrated case is incorporated as a teaching strategy in orientation. The integrated case method is based on discussion and analysis of patient situations with emphasis on role modeling and integration of theory and skill. The orientation pathway and integrated case teaching method provide a useful framework for orientation of new staff. Educators, preceptors and orientees find the structure provided by the orientation pathway very useful. Orientation that is developed, implemented and evaluated based on a case management model with the use of an orientation pathway and incorporation of an integrated case teaching method provides a standardized structure for orientation of new staff. This approach is designed for the adult learner, promotes conceptual reasoning, and encourages the social and contextual basis for continued learning.

Performance satisfaction, shareholder and stakeholder orientations: Managers´ perceptions in three countries across continents

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgios Angelopoulos

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Managers working in South Africa, Peru and the United States were classified as stakeholder- and/or shareholder-oriented along the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility (PRESOR scale. The relationship between stakeholder/shareholder orientation and perceptions of organisational performance was further explored. In South Africa and overall, respondents with both high stakeholder and low shareholder orientations reported the greatest performance satisfaction. In Peru, managers with a high stakeholder orientation reported the greatest satisfaction with organisational performance. A significant link between stakeholder or shareholder orientation and performance satisfaction was not found in the United States, however. Directions for future research are outlined.

The relationships between market orientation and alternative strategic orientations : A meta-analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grinstein, A.

2008-01-01

Purpose - One of the strongest convictions in marketing is that market orientation contributes to firms' performance substantially more than alternative strategic orientations such as innovation and entrepreneurial orientations. Still, some studies show that alternative orientations can also

Strong orientational coordinates and orientational order parameters for symmetric objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haji-Akbari, Amir; Glotzer, Sharon C

2015-01-01

Recent advancements in the synthesis of anisotropic macromolecules and nanoparticles have spurred an immense interest in theoretical and computational studies of self-assembly. The cornerstone of such studies is the role of shape in self-assembly and in inducing complex order. The problem of identifying different types of order that can emerge in such systems can, however, be challenging. Here, we revisit the problem of quantifying orientational order in systems of building blocks with non-trivial rotational symmetries. We first propose a systematic way of constructing orientational coordinates for such symmetric building blocks. We call the arising tensorial coordinates strong orientational coordinates (SOCs) as they fully and exclusively specify the orientation of a symmetric object. We then use SOCs to describe and quantify local and global orientational order, and spatiotemporal orientational correlations in systems of symmetric building blocks. The SOCs and the orientational order parameters developed in this work are not only useful in performing and analyzing computer simulations of symmetric molecules or particles, but can also be utilized for the efficient storage of rotational information in long trajectories of evolving many-body systems. (paper)

The Role of New Hire Orientation Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Dunn, Steven; Jasinski, Dale

2009-01-01

A vital component of a firm's human resource management is its new hire orientation (NHO) program. The authors' review of extant literature suggests that NHO programs can be organized based on a reconceptualization of human capital. Using their typology, a firm can organize the role and scope of its NHO program, assign responsibility for the…

The Service Orientation and Employee’s Customer Orientation in Public Services Organizations

OpenAIRE

Andrada Iacob

2015-01-01

This paper explores the relationships between service orientation and employees’ customer orientation in public services organizations. First, we will review the relevant literature on service orientation and employee’s customer orientation. Based on this theory, the research hypothesis is formulated. The research results will be followed by conclusions, limitations and future directions. At the construct level, we found positive direct relationships between service orientation and employees’...

THE MARKET ORIENTATION AND PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP: THE EMPIRICAL LINK IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sefnedi Sefnedi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This study examines the empirical link between three dimensions of market orientation, namely, stu­dent orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination, and overall private uni­ver­sity per­formance in Kopertis X. It was based on an empirical investigation of private universities located in In­do­nesia’s provinces of West Sumatera, Riau, Jambi, and Kepulauan Riau. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 237 questionnaires from the private university re­sul­­ting in a sample of 114 usable responses being returned. From the application of the multiple re­gres­sion ana­lysis it was concluded that all three dimensions of market orientation had a significant impact on private un­iversity performance. Student orientation as a predictor variable is the strongest predictor of pri­vate uni­ver­­sity performance and followed by competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination.

Visual orientation in hospitalized boys with early onset conduct disorder and borderline intellectual functioning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Meere, Jacob; Börger, Norbert; Pirila, Silja

2012-01-01

The aim of the present study is to investigate visual orientation in hospitalized boys with severe early onset conduct disorder and borderline intellectual functioning. It is tested whether boys with the dual diagnosis have a stronger action-oriented response style to visual-cued go signals than the

Emotional responses to work-family conflict: an examination of gender role orientation working men and women.

Science.gov (United States)

Livingston, Beth A; Judge, Timothy A

2008-01-01

The present study tested the effect of work-family conflict on emotions and the moderating effects of gender role orientation. On the basis of a multilevel design, the authors found that family-interfering-with- work was positively related to guilt, and gender role orientation interacted with both types of conflict (work-interfering-with-family and family-interfering-with-work) to predict guilt. Specifically, in general, traditional individuals experienced more guilt from family-interfering-with-work, and egalitarian individuals experienced more guilt from work-interfering-with-family. Additionally, a higher level interaction indicated that traditional men tended to experience a stronger relationship between family-interfering-with-work and guilt than did egalitarian men or women of either gender role orientation. 2008 APA

German Orientalism

OpenAIRE

Margaret Olin

2011-01-01

Review of: Suzanne L. Marchand, German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race and Scholarship, Cambridge and Washington, D.C.: Cambridge University Press, 2009. This analysis of Suzanne L. Marchand’s German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race and Scholarship reads her contribution in part against the background of Edward Said’s path breaking book Orientalism. Differences lie in her more expansive understanding of the term ‘Oriental’ to include the Far East and her conce...

Sexual orientation modulates endocrine stress reactivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Juster, Robert-Paul; Hatzenbuehler, Mark L; Mendrek, Adrianna; Pfaus, James G; Smith, Nathan Grant; Johnson, Philip Jai; Lefebvre-Louis, Jean-Philippe; Raymond, Catherine; Marin, Marie-France; Sindi, Shireen; Lupien, Sonia J; Pruessner, Jens C

2015-04-01

Biological sex differences and sociocultural gender diversity influence endocrine stress reactivity. Although numerous studies have shown that men typically activate stronger stress responses than women when exposed to laboratory-based psychosocial stressors, it is unclear whether sexual orientation further modulates stress reactivity. Given that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals frequently report heightened distress secondary to stigma-related stressors, we investigated whether cortisol stress reactivity differs between LGB individuals and heterosexual individuals in response to a well-validated psychosocial stressor. The study population comprised 87 healthy adults (mean age, 25 years) who were grouped according to their biological sex and their gendered sexual orientation: lesbian/bisexual women (n = 20), heterosexual women (n = 21), gay/bisexual men (n = 26), and heterosexual men (n = 20). Investigators collected 10 salivary cortisol samples throughout a 2-hour afternoon visit involving exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test modified to maximize between-sex differences. Relative to heterosexual women, lesbian/bisexual women showed higher cortisol stress reactivity 40 min after exposure to the stressor. In contrast, gay/bisexual men displayed lower overall cortisol concentrations throughout testing compared with heterosexual men. Main findings were significant while adjusting for sex hormones (estradiol-to-progesterone ratio in women and testosterone in men), age, self-esteem, and disclosure status (whether LGB participants had completed their "coming out"). Our results provide novel evidence for gender-based modulation of cortisol stress reactivity based on sexual orientation that goes beyond well-established between-sex differences. This study raises several important avenues for future research related to the physiologic functioning of LGB populations and gender diversity more broadly. Copyright © 2015 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published

Sexual Orientation Modulates Endocrine Stress Reactivity

Science.gov (United States)

Juster, Robert-Paul; Hatzenbuehler, Mark L.; Mendrek, Adrianna; Pfaus, James G.; Smith, Nathan Grant; Johnson, Philip Jai; Lefebvre-Louis, Jean-Philippe; Raymond, Catherine; Marin, Marie-France; Sindi, Shireen; Lupien, Sonia J.; Pruessner, Jens C.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND Biological sex differences and sociocultural gender diversity influence endocrine stress reactivity. Although numerous studies have shown that men typically activate stronger stress responses than women when exposed to laboratory-based psychosocial stressors, it is unclear whether sexual orientation further modulates stress reactivity. Given that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals frequently report heightened distress secondary to stigma-related stressors, we investigated whether cortisol stress reactivity differs between LGB individuals and heterosexual individuals in response to a well-validated psychosocial stressor. METHODS The study population comprised 87 healthy adults (mean age, 25 years) who were grouped according to their biological sex and their gendered sexual orientation: lesbian/bisexual women (n = 20), heterosexual women (n = 21), gay/bisexual men (n = 26), and heterosexual men (n = 20). Investigators collected 10 salivary cortisol samples throughout a 2-hour afternoon visit involving exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test modified to maximize between-sex differences. RESULTS Relative to heterosexual women, lesbian/bisexual women showed higher cortisol stress reactivity 40 min after exposure to the stressor. In contrast, gay/bisexual men displayed lower overall cortisol concentrations throughout testing compared with heterosexual men. Main findings were significant while adjusting for sex hormones (estradiol-to-progesterone ratio in women and testosterone in men), age, self-esteem, and disclosure status (whether LGB participants had completed their “coming out”). CONCLUSIONS Our results provide novel evidence for gender-based modulation of cortisol stress reactivity based on sexual orientation that goes beyond well-established between-sex differences. This study raises several important avenues for future research related to the physiologic functioning of LGB populations and gender diversity more broadly. PMID:25444167

Color perception influences microhabitat selection of refugia and affects monitoring success for a cryptic anuran species.

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Cohen, Bradley S; MacKenzie, Michelle L; Maerz, John C; Farrell, Christopher B; Castleberry, Steven B

2016-10-01

Perceptual-biases are important for understanding an animal's natural history, identifying potential ecological traps, and for developing effective means to monitor individuals and populations. Despite research demonstrating anurans having a positive phototactic response towards blue colors, we do not yet understand if color cues are used functionally beyond sexual selection. The aim of our study was to determine if color cues are used in selecting microhabitat, and if anuran's blue-positive phototactic response could increase selection of artificial PVC refugia used to monitor cryptic camouflaging anuran species. We captured 32 Cope's Gray Treefrogs and placed them in mesh enclosures with three PVC tubes painted blue, brown, and white. Concurrently, we placed blue, brown, or unpainted white PVC tubes in stratified arrays around a treefrog breeding pond, and counted the number of occasions treefrogs occupied different colored PVC tubes. In the confined choice experiment, treefrogs selected blue tubes (48.3%) significantly more often than brown (28.5%) or white (23.2%) tubes. Our field experiment mirrored these findings (52.0% of capture events in blue, 29.0% in brown, and 19.0% in unpainted white tubes). Our results suggest color influences Cope's Gray Treefrog microhabitat selection, and they utilize color vision when choosing refugia. We demonstrate simple, small changes based on perceptual-biases can induce behaviors that may in turn have large impacts on sampling techniques used in monitoring and inventorying. Incorporating non-traditional physiological measures into animal inventorying and monitoring programs can be used in the future to improve conservation efforts. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CSR orientations as a guiding principle for innovativeness : a supply chain perspective

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Kibbeling, M.I.; Bij, van der J.D.; Weele, van A.J.; Benedetto, Di A.C.

2010-01-01

A central debate in literature today concerns the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and firm competitiveness. We advance this debate by proposing a sense-and-response mechanism in which CSR acts as a strategic orientation for developing within firm capabilities, in

Effects of visual and chemical cues on orientation behavior of the Red Sea hermit crab Clibanarius signatus

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Tarek Gad El-Kareem Ismail

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Directional orientation of Clibanarius signatus toward different targets of gastropod shells was studied in a circular arena upon exposure to background seawater, calcium concentrations and predatory odor. Directional orientation was absent when crabs were presented with the white background alone. Each shell was tested in different positions (e.g., anterior, posterior, upside-down, lateral. Adult crabs were tested without their gastropod shells, and orientation varied with concentration and chemical cue. With calcium, orientation increased as concentration increased up to a maximum attraction percentage and then attraction became stable. In the case of predator cues, some individuals swim away from the target toward the opposite direction representing a predator avoidance response. Whenever, the blind hermit crab C. signatus was exposed to a shell target combined with calcium or predator cues, the majority of them stop moving or move in circles around the arena center. The others exhibited uniform orientation distribution. The responsiveness was higher with calcium cues than predator cues. Thus in the absence of vision, individual hermit crabs were able to detect both calcium and predator cues and have different response regarding them.

Applications of the rotating orientation XRD method to oriented materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Zhenqi; Li Fei; Jin Li; Bai Yu

2009-01-01

The rotating orientation x-ray diffraction (RO-XRD) method, based on conventional XRD instruments by a modification of the sample stage, was introduced to investigate the orientation-related issues of such materials. In this paper, we show its applications including the determination of single crystal orientation, assistance in crystal cutting and evaluation of crystal quality. The interpretation of scanning patterns by RO-XRD on polycrystals with large grains, bulk material with several grains and oriented thin film is also presented. These results will hopefully expand the applications of the RO-XRD method and also benefit the conventional XRD techniques. (fast track communication)

Understanding political market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Henneberg, Stephan C.

influences of such behavior. The study includes structural equation modeling to investigate several propositions. While the results show that political parties need to focus on several different aspects of market-oriented behavior, especially using an internal and external orientation as cultural antecedents......This article develops a conceptual framework and measurement model of political market orientation that consists of attitudinal and behavioural constructs. The article reports on perceived relationships among different behavioral aspects of political market orientation and the attitudinal......, a more surprising result is the inconclusive effect of a voter orientation on market-oriented behaviours. The article discusses the findings in the context of the existing literature in political marketing and commercial market orientation....

3D topology of orientation columns in visual cortex revealed by functional optical coherence tomography.

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Nakamichi, Yu; Kalatsky, Valery A; Watanabe, Hideyuki; Sato, Takayuki; Rajagopalan, Uma Maheswari; Tanifuji, Manabu

2018-04-01

Orientation tuning is a canonical neuronal response property of six-layer visual cortex that is encoded in pinwheel structures with center orientation singularities. Optical imaging of intrinsic signals enables us to map these surface two-dimensional (2D) structures, whereas lack of appropriate techniques has not allowed us to visualize depth structures of orientation coding. In the present study, we performed functional optical coherence tomography (fOCT), a technique capable of acquiring a 3D map of the intrinsic signals, to study the topology of orientation coding inside the cat visual cortex. With this technique, for the first time, we visualized columnar assemblies in orientation coding that had been predicted from electrophysiological recordings. In addition, we found that the columnar structures were largely distorted around pinwheel centers: center singularities were not rigid straight lines running perpendicularly to the cortical surface but formed twisted string-like structures inside the cortex that turned and extended horizontally through the cortex. Looping singularities were observed with their respective termini accessing the same cortical surface via clockwise and counterclockwise orientation pinwheels. These results suggest that a 3D topology of orientation coding cannot be fully anticipated from 2D surface measurements. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the utility of fOCT as an in vivo mesoscale imaging method for mapping functional response properties of cortex in the depth axis. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We used functional optical coherence tomography (fOCT) to visualize three-dimensional structure of the orientation columns with millimeter range and micrometer spatial resolution. We validated vertically elongated columnar structure in iso-orientation domains. The columnar structure was distorted around pinwheel centers. An orientation singularity formed a string with tortuous trajectories inside the cortex and connected clockwise and counterclockwise

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations in the competitive context: an examination of person-situation interactions.

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Abuhamdeh, Sami; Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

2009-10-01

The current study examined Intrinsic Motivation Orientation and Extrinsic Motivation Orientation (Work Preference Inventory; Amabile, Hill, Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994) as potential trait-level moderators of the way Internet chess players responded to the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of the chess games they played. On the basis of the defining characteristics of these 2 types of motivational orientations, we predicted that (a) Intrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a stronger curvilinear relationship between challenge and enjoyment and (b) Extrinsic Motivation Orientation would be associated with a heightened affective responsivity to competitive outcome (i.e., winning vs. losing). Results supported the predictions. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Computational and experimental investigation of local stress fiber orientation in uniaxially and biaxially constrained microtissues

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Obbink - Huizer, C.; Foolen, J.; Oomens, C.W.J.; Borochin, M.A.; Chen, C.S.; Bouten, C.V.C.; Baaijens, F.P.T.

2014-01-01

The orientation of cells and associated F-actin stress fibers is essential for proper tissue functioning. We have previously developed a computational model that qualitatively describes stress fiber orientation in response to a range of mechanical stimuli. In this paper, the aim is to quantitatively

Facing the Heat: Does Desiccation and Thermal Stress Explain Patterns of Orientation in an Intertidal Invertebrate?

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Fraser, Clarissa M. L.; Seebacher, Frank; Lathlean, Justin; Coleman, Ross A.

2016-01-01

A key challenge for ecologists is to quantify, explain and predict the ecology and behaviour of animals from knowledge of their basic physiology. Compared to our knowledge of many other types of distribution and behaviour, and how these are linked to individual function, we have a poor level of understanding of the causal basis for orientation behaviours. Most explanations for patterns of animal orientation assume that animals will modify their exposure to environmental factors by altering their orientation. We used a keystone grazer on rocky shores, the limpet Cellana tramoserica, to test this idea. Manipulative experiments were done to evaluate whether orientation during emersion affected limpet desiccation or body temperature. Body temperature was determined from infrared thermography, a technique that minimises disturbance to the test organism. No causal relationships were found between orientation and (i) level of desiccation and (ii) their body temperature. These results add to the growing knowledge that responses to desiccation and thermal stress may be less important in modifying the behaviour of intertidal organisms than previously supposed and that thermoregulation does not always reflect patterns of animal orientation. Much of what we understand about orientation comes from studies of animals able to modify orientation over very short time scales. Our data suggests that for animals whose location is less flexible, orientation decisions may have less to do with responses to environmental factors and more to do with structural habitat properties or intrinsic individual attributes. Therefore we suggest future studies into processes affecting orientation must include organisms with differing levels of behavioural plasticity. PMID:26959815

Facing the Heat: Does Desiccation and Thermal Stress Explain Patterns of Orientation in an Intertidal Invertebrate?

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Clarissa M L Fraser

Full Text Available A key challenge for ecologists is to quantify, explain and predict the ecology and behaviour of animals from knowledge of their basic physiology. Compared to our knowledge of many other types of distribution and behaviour, and how these are linked to individual function, we have a poor level of understanding of the causal basis for orientation behaviours. Most explanations for patterns of animal orientation assume that animals will modify their exposure to environmental factors by altering their orientation. We used a keystone grazer on rocky shores, the limpet Cellana tramoserica, to test this idea. Manipulative experiments were done to evaluate whether orientation during emersion affected limpet desiccation or body temperature. Body temperature was determined from infrared thermography, a technique that minimises disturbance to the test organism. No causal relationships were found between orientation and (i level of desiccation and (ii their body temperature. These results add to the growing knowledge that responses to desiccation and thermal stress may be less important in modifying the behaviour of intertidal organisms than previously supposed and that thermoregulation does not always reflect patterns of animal orientation. Much of what we understand about orientation comes from studies of animals able to modify orientation over very short time scales. Our data suggests that for animals whose location is less flexible, orientation decisions may have less to do with responses to environmental factors and more to do with structural habitat properties or intrinsic individual attributes. Therefore we suggest future studies into processes affecting orientation must include organisms with differing levels of behavioural plasticity.

Facing the Heat: Does Desiccation and Thermal Stress Explain Patterns of Orientation in an Intertidal Invertebrate?

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Clarissa M L; Seebacher, Frank; Lathlean, Justin; Coleman, Ross A

2016-01-01

A key challenge for ecologists is to quantify, explain and predict the ecology and behaviour of animals from knowledge of their basic physiology. Compared to our knowledge of many other types of distribution and behaviour, and how these are linked to individual function, we have a poor level of understanding of the causal basis for orientation behaviours. Most explanations for patterns of animal orientation assume that animals will modify their exposure to environmental factors by altering their orientation. We used a keystone grazer on rocky shores, the limpet Cellana tramoserica, to test this idea. Manipulative experiments were done to evaluate whether orientation during emersion affected limpet desiccation or body temperature. Body temperature was determined from infrared thermography, a technique that minimises disturbance to the test organism. No causal relationships were found between orientation and (i) level of desiccation and (ii) their body temperature. These results add to the growing knowledge that responses to desiccation and thermal stress may be less important in modifying the behaviour of intertidal organisms than previously supposed and that thermoregulation does not always reflect patterns of animal orientation. Much of what we understand about orientation comes from studies of animals able to modify orientation over very short time scales. Our data suggests that for animals whose location is less flexible, orientation decisions may have less to do with responses to environmental factors and more to do with structural habitat properties or intrinsic individual attributes. Therefore we suggest future studies into processes affecting orientation must include organisms with differing levels of behavioural plasticity.

Auditory orientation in crickets: Pattern recognition controls reactive steering

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Poulet, James F. A.; Hedwig, Berthold

2005-10-01

Many groups of insects are specialists in exploiting sensory cues to locate food resources or conspecifics. To achieve orientation, bees and ants analyze the polarization pattern of the sky, male moths orient along the females' odor plume, and cicadas, grasshoppers, and crickets use acoustic signals to locate singing conspecifics. In comparison with olfactory and visual orientation, where learning is involved, auditory processing underlying orientation in insects appears to be more hardwired and genetically determined. In each of these examples, however, orientation requires a recognition process identifying the crucial sensory pattern to interact with a localization process directing the animal's locomotor activity. Here, we characterize this interaction. Using a sensitive trackball system, we show that, during cricket auditory behavior, the recognition process that is tuned toward the species-specific song pattern controls the amplitude of auditory evoked steering responses. Females perform small reactive steering movements toward any sound patterns. Hearing the male's calling song increases the gain of auditory steering within 2-5 s, and the animals even steer toward nonattractive sound patterns inserted into the speciesspecific pattern. This gain control mechanism in the auditory-to-motor pathway allows crickets to pursue species-specific sound patterns temporarily corrupted by environmental factors and may reflect the organization of recognition and localization networks in insects. localization | phonotaxis

Object-oriented analysis and design for information systems Modeling with UML, OCL, IFML

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Wazlawick, Raul Sidnei

2014-01-01

Object-Oriented Analysis and Design for Information Systems clearly explains real object-oriented programming in practice. Expert author Raul Sidnei Wazlawick explains concepts such as object responsibility, visibility and the real need for delegation in detail. The object-oriented code generated by using these concepts in a systematic way is concise, organized and reusable. The patterns and solutions presented in this book are based in research and industrial applications. You will come away with clarity regarding processes and use cases and a clear understand of how to expand a use case.

A severe capacity limit in the consolidation of orientation information into visual short-term memory.

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Becker, Mark W; Miller, James R; Liu, Taosheng

2013-04-01

Previous research has suggested that two color patches can be consolidated into visual short-term memory (VSTM) via an unlimited parallel process. Here we examined whether the same unlimited-capacity parallel process occurs for two oriented grating patches. Participants viewed two gratings that were presented briefly and masked. In blocks of trials, the gratings were presented either simultaneously or sequentially. In Experiments 1 and 2, the presentation of the stimuli was followed by a location cue that indicated the grating on which to base one's response. In Experiment 1, participants responded whether the target grating was oriented clockwise or counterclockwise with respect to vertical. In Experiment 2, participants indicated whether the target grating was oriented along one of the cardinal directions (vertical or horizontal) or was obliquely oriented. Finally, in Experiment 3, the location cue was replaced with a third grating that appeared at fixation, and participants indicated whether either of the two test gratings matched this probe. Despite the fact that these responses required fairly coarse coding of the orientation information, across all methods of responding we found superior performance for sequential over simultaneous presentations. These findings suggest that the consolidation of oriented gratings into VSTM is severely limited in capacity and differs from the consolidation of color information.

Neural Basis of Visual Attentional Orienting in Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders.

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Murphy, Eric R; Norr, Megan; Strang, John F; Kenworthy, Lauren; Gaillard, William D; Vaidya, Chandan J

2017-01-01

We examined spontaneous attention orienting to visual salience in stimuli without social significance using a modified Dot-Probe task during functional magnetic resonance imaging in high-functioning preadolescent children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and age- and IQ-matched control children. While the magnitude of attentional bias (faster response to probes in the location of solid color patch) to visually salient stimuli was similar in the groups, activation differences in frontal and temporoparietal regions suggested hyper-sensitivity to visual salience or to sameness in ASD children. Further, activation in a subset of those regions was associated with symptoms of restricted and repetitive behavior. Thus, atypicalities in response to visual properties of stimuli may drive attentional orienting problems associated with ASD.

Visual mismatch negativity for changes in orientation--a sensory memory-dependent response.

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Astikainen, Piia; Lillstrang, Elina; Ruusuvirta, Timo

2008-12-01

It remains unclear whether the mismatch negativity of event-related potentials (ERPs) in vision resembles its auditory counterpart in terms of memory relatedness. We recorded ERPs to visual bars in adult humans engaged in an auditory task. In one condition, a bar ('standard') repeated at 400- or 1100-ms non-stimulated intervals was rarely (P = 0.1) replaced by another bar of a different orientation ('deviant'). In the other condition (400-ms intervals), the occurrences of the standards were replaced by 10 (P = 0.1 each) bars of different orientations, including that of the deviant ('control-deviant'). Deviants shifted ERPs towards negative polarity relative to standards in occipital electrodes and towards positive polarity in frontal electrodes at 185-205 ms post-stimulus but only when 400-ms non-stimulated intervals were applied. Furthermore, the shift existed even relative to ERPs to control-deviants. The findings suggest that, as in audition, vision supports the detection of voluntarily unattended changes per se within the constraints of sensory memory. The findings also pave the way for the future exploration of both intact and impaired memory-based visual processing and memory capacity.

TQM and market orientation's impact on SMEs' performance

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Hadi Abdollahi

2014-05-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impact of total quality management (TQM as well as market orientation on organizational performance on some Iranian small and medium enterprises (SMEs. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts in city of Shiraz, Iran. Using structural equation modeling, the study determines that three components of market orientation including intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness through TQM influences on organizational performance components including financial and non-financial performance as well as efficiency. In addition, TQM components including training, process management, supplier quality management, employee relationships, quality of data and reports and top management commitment influence positively on organizational performance in SMEs.

Modeling the Infrared Reverberation Response of the Circumnuclear Dusty Torus in AGNs: The Effects of Cloud Orientation and Anisotropic Illumination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Almeyda, Triana; Robinson, Andrew; Richmond, Michael; Vazquez, Billy; Nikutta, Robert

2017-01-01

The obscuring circumnuclear torus of dusty molecular gas is one of the major components of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The torus can be studied by analyzing the time response of its infrared (IR) dust emission to variations in the AGN continuum luminosity, a technique known as reverberation mapping. The IR response is the convolution of the AGN ultraviolet/optical light curve with a transfer function that contains information about the size, geometry, and structure of the torus. Here, we describe a new computer model that simulates the reverberation response of a clumpy torus. Given an input optical light curve, the code computes the emission of a 3D ensemble of dust clouds as a function of time at selected IR wavelengths, taking into account light travel delays. We present simulated dust emission responses at 3.6, 4.5, and 30 μ m that explore the effects of various geometrical and structural properties, dust cloud orientation, and anisotropy of the illuminating radiation field. We also briefly explore the effects of cloud shadowing (clouds are shielded from the AGN continuum source). Example synthetic light curves have also been generated, using the observed optical light curve of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418 as input. The torus response is strongly wavelength-dependent, due to the gradient in cloud surface temperature within the torus, and because the cloud emission is strongly anisotropic at shorter wavelengths. Anisotropic illumination of the torus also significantly modifies the torus response, reducing the lag between the IR and optical variations.

Modeling the Infrared Reverberation Response of the Circumnuclear Dusty Torus in AGNs: The Effects of Cloud Orientation and Anisotropic Illumination

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Almeyda, Triana; Robinson, Andrew; Richmond, Michael; Vazquez, Billy [School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623 (United States); Nikutta, Robert, E-mail: tra3595@rit.edu [National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 N Cherry Ave, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)

2017-07-01

The obscuring circumnuclear torus of dusty molecular gas is one of the major components of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The torus can be studied by analyzing the time response of its infrared (IR) dust emission to variations in the AGN continuum luminosity, a technique known as reverberation mapping. The IR response is the convolution of the AGN ultraviolet/optical light curve with a transfer function that contains information about the size, geometry, and structure of the torus. Here, we describe a new computer model that simulates the reverberation response of a clumpy torus. Given an input optical light curve, the code computes the emission of a 3D ensemble of dust clouds as a function of time at selected IR wavelengths, taking into account light travel delays. We present simulated dust emission responses at 3.6, 4.5, and 30 μ m that explore the effects of various geometrical and structural properties, dust cloud orientation, and anisotropy of the illuminating radiation field. We also briefly explore the effects of cloud shadowing (clouds are shielded from the AGN continuum source). Example synthetic light curves have also been generated, using the observed optical light curve of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 6418 as input. The torus response is strongly wavelength-dependent, due to the gradient in cloud surface temperature within the torus, and because the cloud emission is strongly anisotropic at shorter wavelengths. Anisotropic illumination of the torus also significantly modifies the torus response, reducing the lag between the IR and optical variations.

The neural code for face orientation in the human fusiform face area.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, Fernando M; Cichy, Radoslaw M; Allefeld, Carsten; Haynes, John-Dylan

2014-09-03

Humans recognize faces and objects with high speed and accuracy regardless of their orientation. Recent studies have proposed that orientation invariance in face recognition involves an intermediate representation where neural responses are similar for mirror-symmetric views. Here, we used fMRI, multivariate pattern analysis, and computational modeling to investigate the neural encoding of faces and vehicles at different rotational angles. Corroborating previous studies, we demonstrate a representation of face orientation in the fusiform face-selective area (FFA). We go beyond these studies by showing that this representation is category-selective and tolerant to retinal translation. Critically, by controlling for low-level confounds, we found the representation of orientation in FFA to be compatible with a linear angle code. Aspects of mirror-symmetric coding cannot be ruled out when FFA mean activity levels are considered as a dimension of coding. Finally, we used a parametric family of computational models, involving a biased sampling of view-tuned neuronal clusters, to compare different face angle encoding models. The best fitting model exhibited a predominance of neuronal clusters tuned to frontal views of faces. In sum, our findings suggest a category-selective and monotonic code of face orientation in the human FFA, in line with primate electrophysiology studies that observed mirror-symmetric tuning of neural responses at higher stages of the visual system, beyond the putative homolog of human FFA. Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3412155-13$15.00/0.

Study on the Electronic Magnetic Field Oriented Control Based on D-axis Current

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Hongyu Feng

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the magnetic field orientation accuracy and system performance, the electronic field oriented control has been a hot research field of the induction motor speed control. Although the vector control of AC machines has many excellent properties, the researchers have been attempting to simplify the calculating steps and the structure of the control system to improve the accuracy of filed-oriented and the performance of AC machine drives. Based on the analysis of the conventional induction motor magnetic field oriented control, this paper puts forward a novel method of stator magnetic field orientation control. By analytical methods, the given current of d-axis can be calculated directly, and the stator flux can be controlled precisely. This method has a fast flux and torque response, and the control performance is unaffected by the rotor parameters.

Justice orientation as a moderator of the framing effect on procedural justice perception.

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Sasaki, Hiroyuki; Hayashi, Yoichiro

2014-01-01

Justice orientation is a justice-relevant personality trait, which is referred to as the tendency to attend to fairness issues and to internalize justice as a moral virtue. This study examined the moderating role of justice orientation in the relationship between justice perception and response to a decision problem. The authors manipulated procedural justice and the outcome valence of the decision frame within a vignette, and measured justice orientation of 174 Japanese participants. As hypothesized, the results indicated an interaction between procedural justice and framing manipulation, which was moderated by individual differences in justice orientation. In negative framing, justice effects were larger for individuals with high rather than low justice orientation. The results are explained from a social justice perspective, and the contributions and limitations of this study are also discussed with respect to our sample and framing manipulation.

The Study of Object-Oriented Motor Imagery Based on EEG Suppression.

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Lili Li

Full Text Available Motor imagery is a conventional method for brain computer interface and motor learning. To avoid the great individual difference of the motor imagery ability, object-oriented motor imagery was applied, and the effects were studied. Kinesthetic motor imagery and visual observation were administered to 15 healthy volunteers. The EEG during cue-based simple imagery (SI, object-oriented motor imagery (OI, non-object-oriented motor imagery (NI and visual observation (VO was recorded. Study results showed that OI and NI presented significant contralateral suppression in mu rhythm (p 0.05. Compared with NI, OI showed significant difference (p < 0.05 in mu rhythm and weak significant difference (p = 0.0612 in beta rhythm over the contralateral hemisphere. The ability of motor imagery can be reflected by the suppression degree of mu and beta frequencies which are the motor related rhythms. Thus, greater enhancement of activation in mirror neuron system is involved in response to object-oriented motor imagery. The object-oriented motor imagery is favorable for improvement of motor imagery ability.

People with chemical addiction and the features of their life orientations

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Makashova O.V.

2017-06-01

Full Text Available according to the author, modern rehabilitation facilities do not have psychological tool that helps people with chemical addictions to optimize their life orientations. The research methods: analysis of psychological literature on this subject; testing; method of mathematical data processing (Mann-Whitney U test, correlation analyses of data. Dependent persons have lowered indicators of reason to live and meaningful orientations. Their personal development is hampered because of a lower level of perception of the integral time of their life. They have higher level of such destructive orientations as confrontational coping, running away from a problem and higher level of constructive orientations – orientation on the solution of the problem, acceptance of responsibility and a positive reassessment of the situation. Sometimes constructive coping is associated with indicators related to the difficulties of personal development. Addicted persons’ tendency toward prosocial behavior is high. At the same time, the helping behavior is more pronounced, when the respondents believe in themselves and in people less. Based on the findings, the Program of Measures, accompanying the rehabilitation of dependent persons, has been compiled.

Parenting and Politics: Exploring Early Moral Bases of Political Orientation

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Ronnie Janoff-Bulman

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Based on Lakoff’s (2002 Strict Father and Nurturant Parent metaphors for political conservatism and liberalism respectively, two studies explored parenting styles, political ideology, and the moral orientations that might link the two. Restrictive parenting (by both mother and father predicted political conservatism, and this path was mediated by a strong Social Order orientation (Study 1 reflecting, more broadly, an inhibition-based proscriptive morality (Study 2. Political liberalism was associated with a Social Justice orientation, but was not predicted by nurturant parenting in either study. Study 1 included mothers’ reports of their own parenting, and these were correlated with the students’ responses. Findings support a restrictive moral underpinning for conservatism, but raise questions about the assumed unique association between parental nurturance and political liberalism, which is addressed in the discussion.

Modern approaches to forming value orientations of junior pupils nowadays

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Liudmyla Matsuk

2017-04-01

Full Text Available A number of approaches to the formation of value orientations of primary school children today is outlined in the article. One of the most important tasks of the school in terms of national revival of Ukraine appears education of harmonious, spiritually rich and nationally conscious personality. Educating of the current generation needs serious updating of educational content, development of a wide spectrum of problems associated with the formation of ideological orientations of a personality, development and activity, independence, consciousness, self-consciousness. The solution of the abovementioned problem is possible subject to optimize management of process education through the humanization of education that will ensure the establishment of priority of human values in society.Key words: values, value orientations, training and education, junior pupils, patriotism, identity, dignity, courage, duty, responsibility, tolerance.

Goal-Oriented Ethics: Framing the Goal-Setting Concretely

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Mathew Illathuparampil

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Joseph Selling, professor emeritus from KU Leuven, Belgium, recently made a significant contribution towards ethical methodology. It is in fact a continuation of the in-house conversations that have been in vogue about methods in moral reasoning since Vatican II in the discipline called theological ethics. What is specific about Selling’s attempt is that he re-orients or reframes the evaluation of the moral event to consider human intentionality or motivation before considering human behavior or human acts. He convincingly establishes his method by a meticulous reading of Thomas Aquinas. This paper is a response to the goal-oriented ethics that he has posited. As illustrated below, this paper evaluates the goal-oriented approach as solid and sufficient. While fully endorsing this approach, this paper argues that the process of ethical goal-setting is to be framed concretely. In a concrete historical context, so that a goal-oriented approach fully serves its purpose, this paper proposes that it is to be reinforced by four supportive pillars, which are in fact assumed by Selling in his work. They are openness to human sciences, conversation among various narratives, positing a theological frame for ethical reasoning, and recourse to non-discursive reasoning.

Lipid Bilayer Composition Affects Transmembrane Protein Orientation and Function

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katie D. Hickey

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Sperm membranes change in structure and composition upon ejaculation to undergo capacitation, a molecular transformation which enables spermatozoa to undergo the acrosome reaction and be capable of fertilization. Changes to the membrane environment including lipid composition, specifically lipid microdomains, may be responsible for enabling capacitation. To study the effect of lipid environment on proteins, liposomes were created using lipids extracted from bull sperm membranes, with or without a protein (Na+ K+-ATPase or -amylase. Protein incorporation, function, and orientation were determined. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET confirmed protein inclusion in the lipid bilayer, and protein function was confirmed using a colourometric assay of phosphate production from ATP cleavage. In the native lipid liposomes, ATPase was oriented with the subunit facing the outer leaflet, while changing the lipid composition to 50% native lipids and 50% exogenous lipids significantly altered this orientation of Na+ K+-ATPase within the membranes.

Orienteering injuries

OpenAIRE

Folan, Jean M.

1982-01-01

At the Irish National Orienteering Championships in 1981 a survey of the injuries occurring over the two days of competition was carried out. Of 285 individual competitors there was a percentage injury rate of 5.26%. The article discusses the injuries and aspects of safety in orienteering.

Orienteering club

CERN Multimedia

Club d'orientation

2015-01-01

Course d'orientation La reprise des courses d’orientation était attendue dans la région puisque près de 150 coureurs ont participé à la première épreuve automnale organisée par le club d’orientation du CERN sur le site de La Faucille. Les circuits ont été remportés par Yann Locatelli du club d’Orientation Coeur de Savoie avec 56 secondes d’avance sur Damien Berguerre du club SOS Sallanches pour le parcours technique long, Marie Vuitton du club CO CERN (membre également de l’Equipe de France Jeune) pour le parcours technique moyen avec presque 4 minutes d’avance sur Jeremy Wichoud du club Lausanne-Jorat, Victor Dannecker pour le circuit technique court devant Alina Niggli, Elliot Dannecker pour le facile moyen et Alice Merat sur le facile court, tous membres du club O’Jura. Les résultats comp...

Transformation Strategies between Block-Oriented and Graph-Oriented Process Modelling Languages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mendling, Jan; Lassen, Kristian Bisgaard; Zdun, Uwe

2006-01-01

Much recent research work discusses the transformation between different process modelling languages. This work, however, is mainly focussed on specific process modelling languages, and thus the general reusability of the applied transformation concepts is rather limited. In this paper, we aim...... to abstract from concrete transformation strategies by distinguishing two major paradigms for representing control flow in process modelling languages: block-oriented languages (such as BPEL and BPML) and graph-oriented languages (such as EPCs and YAWL). The contribution of this paper are generic strategies...... for transforming from block-oriented process languages to graph-oriented languages, and vice versa....

Transformation Strategies between Block-Oriented and Graph-Oriented Process Modelling Languages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mendling, Jan; Lassen, Kristian Bisgaard; Zdun, Uwe

to abstract from concrete transformationstrategies by distinguishing two major paradigms for process modelling languages:block-oriented languages (such as BPEL and BPML) and graph-oriented languages(such as EPCs and YAWL). The contribution of this paper are generic strategiesfor transforming from block......Much recent research work discusses the transformation between differentprocess modelling languages. This work, however, is mainly focussed on specific processmodelling languages, and thus the general reusability of the applied transformationconcepts is rather limited. In this paper, we aim......-oriented process languages to graph-oriented languages,and vice versa. We also present two case studies of applying our strategies....

Experimental investigation of strain, damage and failure of hydrided zircaloy-4 with various hydride orientations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Racine, A; Catherine, C.S.; Cappelaere, C.; Bornert, M.; Caldemaison, D.

2005-01-01

This experimental investigation is devoted to the influence of the orientation of hydrides on the mechanical response of Zircaloy-4. Ring tensile tests are performed on unirradiated CWSR Zircaloy-4, charged with about 200 or 500wppm hydrogen. Hydrides are oriented either parallel ('tangential'), or perpendicular ('radial') to the circumferential tensile direction. Tangential hydrides are usually observed in cladding tubes, however, hydrides can be reoriented after cooling under stress to become radial and then trigger brittle behavior. In this investigation, we perform, 'macroscopic' or SEM in-situ tensile tests on smooth rings, at room temperature. We get the mechanical response of the material as a function of hydride orientation and hydrogen content and we investigate the deformation, damage and failure mechanisms. In both cases, digital image correlation techniques are used to estimate local and global strain distributions. The results lead to the following conclusions: neither the tensile stress-strain response nor the strain modes are affected by hydrogen content or hydride orientation, but the failure modes are. Indeed, only 200wppm radial hydrides embrittle Zy-4: sample fails in the elastic domain at about 350 MPa before strain bands could develop; whereas in other cases samples reach at least 750 MPa before failure, with ductile or brittle mode. (authors)

Protection as care: moral reasoning and moral orientation among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse older women.

Science.gov (United States)

Dakin, Emily

2014-01-01

This study examined moral reasoning among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse older women based on the care and justice moral orientations reflecting theoretical frameworks developed by Carol Gilligan and Lawrence Kohlberg, respectively. A major gap in this area of research and theory development has been the lack of examination of moral reasoning in later life. This study addressed this gap by assessing socioeconomically and ethnically diverse older women's reasoning in response to ethical dilemmas showing conflict between autonomy, representative of Kohlberg's justice orientation, and protection, representative of Gilligan's care orientation. The dilemmas used in this study came from adult protective services (APS), the U.S. system that investigates and intervenes in cases of elder abuse and neglect. Subjects were 88 African American, Latina, and Caucasian women age 60 or over from varying socioeconomic status backgrounds who participated in eight focus groups. Overall, participants favored protection over autonomy in responding to the case scenarios. Their reasoning in responding to these dilemmas reflected an ethic of care and responsibility and a recognition of the limitations of autonomy. This reasoning is highly consistent with the care orientation. Variations in the overall ethic of care and responsibility based on ethnicity and SES also are discussed. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Oriented Poly(dialkylstannane)s

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Choffat, Fabien; Fornera, Sara; Smith, Paul

2008-01-01

The inorganic (or 'organometallic') polymers poly(dibutylstannane), poly(dioctylstannane), and poly(didodecylstannane) have been oriented by shear forces, the tensile drawing of blends with polyethylene, and deposition from solution onto glass slides coated with all oriented, friction-deposited p......The inorganic (or 'organometallic') polymers poly(dibutylstannane), poly(dioctylstannane), and poly(didodecylstannane) have been oriented by shear forces, the tensile drawing of blends with polyethylene, and deposition from solution onto glass slides coated with all oriented, friction......-deposited poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) layer. Orientation of the polystannanes has been examined by polarization microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy with polarized light, and X-ray diffraction and their direction is found to depend on the length of the alkyl side groups and the method of orientation. Remarkably...

Orientation phenomena in chromophore DR1-containing polymer films and their non-linear optical response

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moencke, Doris; Mountrichas, Grigoris; Pispas, Stergios; Kamitsos, Efstratios I.

2011-01-01

The effectiveness of chromophore alignment in polymer films following corona poling can be assessed by the generated second harmonic signal. Optimization of the stability and strength of this nonlinear optical response may improve with a better understanding of the underlying principal order phenomena. Structural analysis by vibrational, optical, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy reveals side chain tacticity, aggregation effects, and changes in orientation as a function of temperature. Co-polymers with the functionalized chromophore Disperse Red 1 methacrylate (MDR1) were prepared for three different methacrylate types. High side chain polarity and short side chain length increase generally chromophore aggregation in films, whereas the very long poly-ether side chains in PMEO based co-polymers are wrapped separately around the DR1 entities. Side chain tacticity depends on space requirements, but also on the capacity of side groups to form OH-bridges. Side chain tacticity might present an additional parameter for the assessment of chromophore aggregation and poling induced alignments. Stepwise heating of co-polymer films causes an increase in the number of random over ordered side chain arrangements. Cross-linking by anhydride formation is observed after heating the methacrylic acid based co-polymer.

Analysis of key factors influencing the evaporation performances of an oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felt

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Minqiang; Zhong, Yujian

2018-01-01

Porous structure can effectively enhance the heat transfer efficiency. A kind of micro vaporizer using the oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felt is proposed in this work. Multiple long cutting copper fibers are firstly fabricated with a multi-tooth tool and then sintered together in parallel to form uniform thickness metal fiber sintered felts that provided a characteristic of oriented microchannels. The temperature rise response and thermal conversion efficiency are experimentally investigated to evaluate the influences of porosity, surface structure, feed flow rate and input power on the evaporation characteristics. It is indicated that the temperature rise response of water is mainly affected by input power and feed flow rate. High input power and low feed flow rate present better temperature rise response of water. Porosity rather than surface structure plays an important role in the temperature rise response of water at a relatively high input power. The thermal conversion efficiency is dominated by the input power and surface structure. The oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felts for three kinds of porosities show better thermal conversion efficiency than that of the oriented linear copper wire sintered felt when the input power is less than 115 W. All the sintered felts have almost the same performance of thermal conversion at a high input power.

Gender roles, illness orientation and use of medical services.

Science.gov (United States)

Hibbard, J H; Pope, C R

1983-01-01

The study investigates illness orientation as a factor which may account for sex differences in the utilization of medical care. First, sex differences in the way symptoms are perceived, evaluated and acted upon (illness orientation) are analyzed. Then gender role factors which may account for sex differences in illness orientation are examined. Finally, the degree to which gender role factors and illness orientation account for sex differences in medical care utilization are assessed. The study population includes 1648 adults between the ages of 18 and 59. Medical record data covering 7 years of outpatient services are linked with survey data on the respondents. The findings show that while females are more likely to perceive symptoms than males, there is no apparent sex difference in a tendency to adopt the sick role when ill. In addition, results indicate that gender role factors such as level and type of role responsibility and concern with health are related to female though not male symptom reports. Illness orientation variables are related to rates of medical utilization for both sexes. However, it is primarily the perception of symptoms and an interest and concern with health which contributes to sex differences in utilization rates. When examining respondents who report either a very low or very high number of symptoms, sex differences in utilization rates fall below statistical significance.

Beyond the line: exploring the HRM responsibilities of line managers, project managers and the HRM department in four project-oriented companies in the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and the USA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Keegan, A.; Huemann, M.; Turner, J.R.

2012-01-01

The topic of what human resource management (HRM) responsibilities are devolved from the HRM department to line managers has attracted much interest in recent years. We report findings from a study on the devolution of HRM practices in four project-oriented companies (POCs) and argue that although

Orientalism/Occidentalism

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Minca, C.; Ong, C.E.

2017-01-01

Orientalism and Occidentalism are interrelated concepts. Orientalism is defined in three keys ways: (i) as a study of “the Orient”; (ii) as a cultural and aesthetic concern with “the Orient”; and (iii) as a critical approach to understanding the construction of “the Orient” by European and American

The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Rieger, Gerulf; Savin-Williams, Ritch C.

2012-01-01

Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research. PMID:22870196

Comparison of Buildings\\' Thermal Loads against Building Orientations for Sustainable Housing in Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arif Khan

2012-07-01

Full Text Available As the sustainable settlements have been included as a vital end product of all planning exercises, the architectural layouts should be well integrated with the sun path charts and the orientations of windows. Appropriate orientations can offer thermally indoor conditions besides physical and psychological comfort in any settlement at lesser energy demand. This investigation uses a vast number of computer simulations to visualize and make better decisions about heating and cooling requirements of a building and facades as a function of window orientation in composite climatic condition of Lahore. This study in particular evaluates the solar load in residential buildings responsive to the objective of sustainable new housing leading to thoughtful integration of architecture. The orientation of the buildings could then be essentially integrated to the current architectural and urban design practices in order to optimize the relationship between the given site ant the orientations for sustainable developments.

Sexual health behaviors and sexual orientation in a U.S. national sample of college students.

Science.gov (United States)

Oswalt, Sara B; Wyatt, Tammy J

2013-11-01

Many studies have examined differences in sexual behavior based on sexual orientation with results often indicating that those with same-sex partners engage in higher risk sexual behavior than people with opposite sex partners. However, few of these studies were large, national sample studies that also include those identifying as unsure. To address that gap, this study examined the relationship of sexual orientation and sexual health outcomes in a national sample of U.S. college students. The Fall 2009 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment was used to examine sexual health related responses from heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unsure students (N = 25,553). Responses related to sexual behavior, safer sex behaviors, prevention and screening behaviors, and diagnosis of sexual health related conditions were examined. The findings indicated that sexual orientation was significantly associated with engaging in sexual behavior in the last 30 days. Sexual orientation was also significantly associated with the number of sexual partners in the previous 12 months, with unsure men having significantly more partners than gay, bisexual and heterosexual men and heterosexual men having significantly less partners than gay, bisexual and unsure men. Bisexual women had significantly more partners than females reporting other sexual orientations. Results examining the associations between sexual orientation and safer sex, prevention behaviors, and screening behaviors were mixed. Implications for practice, including specific programmatic ideas, were discussed.

Relationship among achievement goal orientations and multidimensional situational motivation in physical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Standage, Martyn; Treasure, Darren C

2002-03-01

Contemporary research suggests that task and ego achievement goal orientations affect students' intrinsic motivation in physical education. This research has assessed intrinsic motivation as a unidimensional contruct, however, which is inconsistent with the more contemporary postulates of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991) which states that intrinsic motivation is only one type of motivation. To date, research has not addressed whether different types of motivation at the situational level are influenced by the proneness to adopt task or ego involvement. To examine the relationship between achievement goal orientations and multidimensional situational motivation in PE. Middle school children (182 male, 136 female; M age = 13.2 years). Responded to questionnaires assessing their dispositional goal orientation (POSQ; Roberts, Treasure, & Balague, 1998) and situational motivation (SIMS; Guay, Vallerand, & Blanchard, 2000) in PE. Task orientation was found to be positively associated with more self-determined types of situational motivation. Ego orientation was weakly related to less self-determined motivation. An extreme group split was conducted to create four goal groups and goal profile analyses conducted. A significant MANOVA was followed by univariate analyses, post hoc comparisons, and calculated effect sizes, which revealed that groups high in task orientation reported more motivationally adaptive responses than groups low in task orientation. The results suggest that a high level of task orientation singularly or in combination with ego orientation fosters self-determined situational motivation in the context of PE.

[Customer orientation in ambulant medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Heinrich, M

2014-07-01

customer orientation, especially the changing relevance of ethical responsibility. An enlargement or comparison with other control samples (n>20, other medical subfields, structurally weak areas) could be illuminating. The results of this qualitative study can be used to develop quantitative inquiries. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Association of goal orientation with work engagement and burnout in emergency nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Adriaenssens, Jef; De Gucht, Veronique; Maes, Stan

2015-01-01

Goal orientation is a mindset towards the achievement of work-related goals, and it has been found to be related to occupational well-being. This study explored to what extent the 4-dimensional model of goal orientation adds additional variance to the explanation of burnout and work engagement in emergency nurses, after controlling for demographics, job characteristics and organizational variables. Self-report questionnaires including the Leiden Quality of Work Questionnaire for Nurses, Goal Orientation Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were completed by 170 out of 274 emergency nurses from 13 secondary Belgian hospitals (response rate 62%). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted. Goal orientation explained 14 and 13% of the variance in burnout and work engagement respectively. Job control was predictive of both outcomes. Job demands was a predictor of burnout, and social support predicted work engagement. Reward was related to work engagement. The mastery-approach goal orientation was strongly related to an increase in work engagement and to a decrease in burnout. The performance-avoidance goal orientation was strongly related to a decrease in work engagement and to an increase in burnout. The performance-approach and mastery-avoidance goal orientations were not predictive for the two outcome variables. Goal orientation explains additional variance in burnout and work engagement over and above work characteristics and organizational variables. A mastery-approach goal orientation appears to be beneficial while a performance-avoidance goal orientation is not. Hospital management should therefore invest in personal involvement and growth of ER-nurses and in a rewarding organizational culture.

Commitment to Sustainability in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises : The Influence of Strategic Orientations and Management Values

OpenAIRE

Jansson, Johan; Nilsson, Jonas; Modig, Frida; Hed Vall, Gabriella

2017-01-01

Ecosystem degradation and social sustainability have become important issues in the corporate sphere during the last few decades. However, research discussing corporate social responsibility and related concepts has often focused on larger companies, sometimes neglecting the specifics of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between two common strategic orientations, market orientation (MO) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO...

Orienting hypnosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hope, Anna E; Sugarman, Laurence I

2015-01-01

This article presents a new frame for understanding hypnosis and its clinical applications. Despite great potential to transform health and care, hypnosis research and clinical integration is impaired in part by centuries of misrepresentation and ignorance about its demonstrated efficacy. The authors contend that advances in the field are primarily encumbered by the lack of distinct boundaries and definitions. Here, hypnosis, trance, and mind are all redefined and grounded in biological, neurological, and psychological phenomena. Solutions are proposed for boundary and language problems associated with hypnosis. The biological role of novelty stimulating an orienting response that, in turn, potentiates systemic plasticity forms the basis for trance. Hypnosis is merely the skill set that perpetuates and influences trance. This formulation meshes with many aspects of Milton Erickson's legacy and Ernest Rossi's recent theory of mind and health. Implications of this hypothesis for clinical skills, professional training, and research are discussed.

Reshock and release response of aluminum single crystal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, H.; Asay, J. R.

2007-01-01

Reshock and release experiments were performed on single crystal aluminum along three orientations and on polycrystalline 1050 aluminum with 50 μm grain size at shock stresses of 13 and 21 GPa to investigate the mechanisms for previously observed quasielastic recompression behavior. Particle velocity profiles obtained during reshocking both single crystals and polycrystalline aluminum from initial shock stresses of 13-21 GPa show similar quasielastic recompression behavior. Quasielastic release response is also observed in all single crystals, but the magnitude of the effect is crystal orientation dependent, with [111] and [110] exhibiting more ideal elastic-plastic release for unloading from the shocked state than for the [100] orientation and polycrystalline aluminum. The quasielastic response of 1050 aluminum is intermediate to that of the [100] and [111] orientations. Comparison of the wave profiles obtained for both unloading and reloading of single crystals and polycrystalline 1050 aluminum from shocked states suggests that the observed quasielastic response of polycrystalline aluminum results from the averaging response of single crystals for shock propagation along different orientations, and that the response of 1050 aluminum with large grain boundaries is not significantly different from the results obtained on single crystal aluminum. The yield strength of the single crystals and 1050 aluminum is found to increase with shock stress, which is consistent with previous results [H. Huang and I. R. Asay, J. Appl. Phys. 98, 033524 (2005)

Spatial frequency-dependent feedback of visual cortical area 21a modulating functional orientation column maps in areas 17 and 18 of the cat.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Luoxiu; Chen, Xin; Shou, Tiande

2004-02-20

The feedback effect of activity of area 21a on orientation maps of areas 17 and 18 was investigated in cats using intrinsic signal optical imaging. A spatial frequency-dependent decrease in response amplitude of orientation maps to grating stimuli was observed in areas 17 and 18 when area 21a was inactivated by local injection of GABA, or by a lesion induced by liquid nitrogen freezing. The decrease in response amplitude of orientation maps of areas 17 and 18 after the area 21a inactivation paralleled the normal response without the inactivation. Application in area 21a of bicuculline, a GABAa receptor antagonist caused an increase in response amplitude of orientation maps of area 17. The results indicate a positive feedback from high-order visual cortical area 21a to lower-order areas underlying a spatial frequency-dependent mechanism.

Transient molecular orientation and rheology in flow aligning thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ugaz, Victor M.; Burghardt, Wesley R.; Zhou, Weijun; Kornfield, Julia A.

2001-01-01

Quantitative measurements of molecular orientation and rheology are reported for various transient shear flows of a nematic semiflexible copolyether. Unlike the case of lyotropic liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs), whose structure and rheology in shear are dominated by director tumbling, this material exhibits flow aligning behavior. The observed behavior is quite similar to that seen in a copolyester that we have recently studied [Ugaz and Burghardt (1998)], suggesting that flow aligning dynamics may predominate in main-chain thermotropes that incorporate significant chain flexibility. Since the flow aligning regime has received little attention in previous attempts to model the rheology of textured, polydomain LCPs, we attempt to determine whether available models are capable of predicting the orientation and stress response of this class of LCP. We first examine the predictions of the polydomain Ericksen model, an adaptation of Ericksen's transversely isotropic fluid model which accounts for the polydomain distribution of director orientation while neglecting distortional elasticity. This simple model captures a number of qualitative and quantitative features associated with the evolution of orientation and stress during shear flow inception, but cannot cope with reversing flows. To consider the possible role of distortional elasticity in the re-orientation dynamics upon reversal, we evaluate the mesoscopically averaged domain theory of Larson and Doi [Larson and Doi (1991)], which incorporates a phenomenological description of distortional elastic effects. To date, their approach to account for polydomain structure has only been applied to describe tumbling LCPs. We find that it captures the qualitative transient orientation response to flow reversals, but is less successful in describing the evolution of stresses. This is linked to the decoupling approximation adopted during the model's development. Finally, a modified polydomain Ericksen model is introduced

THE LIMITED EFFECT OF COINCIDENT ORIENTATION ON THE CHOICE OF INTRINSIC AXIS (.).

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Jing; Su, Wei

2015-06-01

The allocentric system computes and represents general object-to-object spatial relationships to provide a spatial frame of reference other than the egocentric system. The intrinsic frame-of-reference system theory, which suggests people learn the locations of objects based upon an intrinsic axis, is important in research about the allocentric system. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the effect of coincident orientation on the choice of intrinsic axis was limited. Two groups of participants (24 men, 24 women; M age = 24 yr., SD = 2) encoded different spatial layouts in which the objects shared the coincident orientation of 315° and 225° separately at learning perspective (0°). The response pattern of partial-scene-recognition task following learning reflected different strategies for choosing the intrinsic axis under different conditions. Under the 315° object-orientation condition, the objects' coincident orientation was as important as the symmetric axis in the choice of the intrinsic axis. However, participants were more likely to choose the symmetric axis as the intrinsic axis under the 225° object-orientation condition. The results suggest the effect of coincident orientation on the choice of intrinsic axis is limited.

Object-orientated DBMS techniques for time-oriented medical record.

Science.gov (United States)

Pinciroli, F; Combi, C; Pozzi, G

1992-01-01

In implementing time-orientated medical record (TOMR) management systems, use of a relational model played a big role. Many applications have been developed to extend query and data manipulation languages to temporal aspects of information. Our experience in developing TOMR revealed some deficiencies inside the relational model, such as: (a) abstract data type definition; (b) unified view of data, at a programming level; (c) management of temporal data; (d) management of signals and images. We identified some first topics to face by an object-orientated approach to database design. This paper describes the first steps in designing and implementing a TOMR by an object-orientated DBMS.

Implementation of life orientation programmes in the new curriculum ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The curriculum of the Life Orientation (LO ) learning area forms an excellent basis for equipping learners to respond positively to social demands, assume responsibilities, and optimize their life chances. I report on a qualitative study that focused on the extent to which schools and LO teachers succeeded in achieving the ...

How Epistemological Beliefs Relate to Values and Gender Orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Kessels, Ursula

2013-01-01

In response to the current literature on possible systematic differences in the epistemological beliefs of men and women and between members of different cultures, this paper examines the way psychological constructs associated with gender (i.e. gender orientation) and culture (i.e. values) are related to individual's epistemological beliefs.…

Who takes more sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial actions? The role of entrepreneurs' values, beliefs and orientations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jahanshahi, Asghar Afshar; Brem, Alexander; Bhattacharjee, Amitab

2017-01-01

We examine the relationships between entrepreneurs' values, beliefs and orientations with their firms' engagement in sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial actions, using a sample of 352 newly established businesses from two Asian countries (Bangladesh and Iran). Our results reveal a dual role o...... of sustainable entrepreneurship, by providing answers for recent calls for better understanding which entrepreneurial ventures engage more in sustainability-oriented actions.......We examine the relationships between entrepreneurs' values, beliefs and orientations with their firms' engagement in sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial actions, using a sample of 352 newly established businesses from two Asian countries (Bangladesh and Iran). Our results reveal a dual role...... of entrepreneurs' values, beliefs and orientations when taking sustainability-oriented actions. We confirm that individual differences in the set of values, beliefs and orientations can foster or hinder the sustainability-oriented actions across organizations. Our paper contributes to the growing literature...

Prenatal Influences on Human Sexual Orientation: Expectations versus Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Breedlove, S Marc

2017-08-01

In non-human vertebrate species, sexual differentiation of the brain is primarily driven by androgens such as testosterone organizing the brains of males in a masculine fashion early in life, while the lower levels of androgen in developing females organize their brains in a feminine fashion. These principles may be relevant to the development of sexual orientation in humans, because retrospective markers of prenatal androgen exposure, namely digit ratios and otoacoustic emissions, indicate that lesbians, on average, were exposed to greater prenatal androgen than were straight women. Thus, the even greater levels of prenatal androgen exposure experienced by fetal males may explain why the vast majority of them grow up to be attracted to women. However, the same markers indicate no significant differences between gay and straight men in terms of average prenatal androgen exposure, so the variance in orientation in men cannot be accounted for by variance in prenatal androgen exposure, but may be due to variance in response to prenatal androgens. These data contradict several popular notions about human sexual orientation. Sexual orientation in women is said to be fluid, sometimes implying that only social influences in adulthood are at work, yet the data indicate prenatal influences matter as well. Gay men are widely perceived as under-masculinized, yet the data indicate they are exposed to as much prenatal androgen as straight men. There is growing sentiment to reject "binary" conceptions of human sexual orientations, to emphasize instead a spectrum of orientations. Yet the data indicate that human sexual orientation is sufficiently polarized that groups of lesbians, on average, show evidence of greater prenatal androgen exposure than groups of straight women, while groups of gay men have, on average, a greater proportion of brothers among their older siblings than do straight men.

Sustainability Orientation and Entrepreneurship Orientation: Is There a Tradeoff Relationship between Them?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Soo Sung

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Sustainability and entrepreneurship are often regarded as binary concepts that have a tradeoff relationship, meaning that the higher the social and environmental consideration, the lower the private and economic benefits. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of individual sustainability orientation on opportunity recognition and sustainable entrepreneurship intention, and examine whether it has a tradeoff relationship with entrepreneurship orientation. The result of this study shows that sustainability orientation has a positive relationship with opportunity recognition and entrepreneurship intention related to sustainability. Analysis of the moderating effects of entrepreneurship orientation reveals the positive effect with sustainability orientation but negative effect with opportunity recognition on sustainable entrepreneurship intention. This study would suggest implications to entrepreneurs on how to balance sustainability and entrepreneurship and promote sustainability entrepreneurship.

LGB within the T: Sexual Orientation in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey and Implications for Public Policy

OpenAIRE

Herman, Jody

2016-01-01

This book chapter examines sexual orientation and discrimination experienced by transgender people, using data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey. This study explores how respondents to the NTDS identified their sexual orientation, how those responses differ based on demographic variables (e.g. age, race, and gender), and how respondents’ experiences of discrimination and outcomes differ based on sexual orientation. The study finds that only 22% of transgender respondents ide...

Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs and Pharmacist Orientation Toward Dispensing Controlled Substances.

Science.gov (United States)

Fendrich, Michael; Bryan, Janelle K; Hooyer, Katinka

2018-01-03

We sought to understand how pharmacists viewed and used a newly implemented prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). We also sought to understand pharmacist orientation toward dispensing of controlled substances and the people who obtain them. We conducted three mini focus groups. The focus group findings were used to inform the design of a structured survey. We emailed a survey to 160 pharmacists who were employed in one statewide community chain store; we obtained 48 survey responses. Focus groups findings suggested that, in relation to the dispensing of scheduled prescription medication, pharmacists were either "healthcare" oriented, "law-enforcement" oriented, or an orientation that combined these two perspectives. Surveys suggested that pharmacists found PDMPs easy to use and that they used them frequently - often to contact physicians directly. Surveys suggested that pharmacists were typically either "healthcare" oriented or "mixed" (combined perspectives). Pharmacist orientation was associated with the frequency with which they counseled patients about medication risk and the frequency with which they used the PDMP as the basis for contacting prescribers. Ongoing tracking of pharmacists' use of PDMPs is important both at the implementation stage and as PDMPs develop over time. The orientation construct developed here is useful in understanding pharmacist behavior and attitudes towards patients potentially at risk for misuse of controlled substance medications. Further research on this construct could shed light on barriers and incentives for pharmacist PDMP participation and use and provide guidance for pharmacist training, ultimately enhancing patient care.

Customer Orientation vs. Customer Orientation Perception : Case J & J Lakkapää Oy Tornio

OpenAIRE

Angeria, Heli

2011-01-01

Heli, Angeria 2011. Customer Orientation vs. Customer Orientation Perception. Case: J & J Lakkapää Oy Tornio. Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences. Business and Culture. Pages 51. Appendices 5. The objective of this thesis is to study customer orientation with the help of a widely adapted Selling-Orientation-Customer Orientation (SOCO) scale, in order to find out what is the extent to which J & J Lakkapää Oy Tornio and its consumer customers agree or disagree about the company’s cus...

Liquid crystal elastomer coatings with programmed response of surface profile

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Babakhanova, G.; Turiv, T.; Guo, Y.; Hendrikx, M.; Wei, Q.H.; Schenning, A.P.H.J.; Broer, D.J.; Lavrentovich, O.D.

2018-01-01

Stimuli-responsive liquid crystal elastomers with molecular orientation coupled to rubber-like elasticity show a great potential as elements in soft robotics, sensing, and transport systems. The orientational order defines their mechanical response to external stimuli, such as thermally activated

Control of gravitropic orientation. I. Non-vertical orientation by primary roots of maize results from decay of competence for orthogravitropic induction

Science.gov (United States)

LaMotte, Clifford E.; Pickard, Barbara G.

2004-01-01

Plant organs may respond to gravity by vertical (orthogravitropic), oblique (plagiogravitropic) or horizontal (diagravitropic) growth. Primary roots of maize (Zea mays L.) provide a good system for studying such behaviours because they are reportedly capable of displaying all three responses. In current work using maize seedlings of the Silver Queen cultivar, stabilisation of growth at an oblique orientation was commonplace. Hypothetically, plagiogravitropism may be accomplished either by a process we call graded orthogravitropism or by hunting about a sensed non-vertical setpoint. In graded orthotropism primary bending is unidirectional and depends on facilitative stimuli that determine its extent. The hallmark of the setpoint mechanism is restorative curvature of either sign following a displacement; both diagravitropism and orthogravitropism are based on setpoints. Roots settled in a plagiogravitropic orientation were tested with various illumination and displacement protocols designed to distinguish between these two hypotheses. The tests refuted the setpoint hypothesis and supported that of graded orthotropism. No evidence of diagravitropism could be found, thus, earlier claims were likely based on inadequately controlled observations of graded orthotropism. We propose that orthotropism is graded by the sequential action of dual gravity receptors: induction of a vectorial gravitropic response requires gravitational induction of a separate facilitative response, whose decay in the absence of fresh stimuli can brake gravitropism at plagiotropic angles.

The effect of hand position on perceived finger orientation in left- and right-handers.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraser, Lindsey E; Harris, Laurence R

2017-12-01

In the absence of visual feedback, the perceived orientation of the fingers is systematically biased. In right-handers these biases are asymmetrical between the left and right hands in the horizontal plane and may reflect common functional postures for the two hands. Here we compared finger orientation perception in right- and left-handed participants for both hands, across various hand positions in the horizontal plane. Participants rotated a white line on a screen optically superimposed over their hand to indicate the perceived position of the finger that was rotated to one of seven orientations with the hand either aligned with the body midline, aligned with the shoulder, or displaced by twice the shoulder-to-midline distance from the midline. We replicated the asymmetric pattern of biases previously reported in right-handed participants (left hand biased towards an orientation ~30° inward, right hand ~10° inward). However, no such asymmetry was found for left-handers, suggesting left-handers may use different strategies when mapping proprioception to body or space coordinates and/or have less specialization of function between the hands. Both groups' responses rotated further outward as distance of the hand from the body midline increased, consistent with other research showing spatial orientation estimates diverge outward in the periphery. Finally, for right-handers, precision of responses was best when the hand was aligned with the shoulder compared to the other two conditions. These results highlight the unique role of hand dominance and hand position in perception of finger orientation, and provide insight into the proprioceptive position sense of the upper limbs.

Low-temperature nuclear orientation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stone, N.J.; Postma, H.

1986-01-01

This book comprehensively surveys the many aspects of the low temperature nuclear orientation method. The angular distribution of radioactive emissions from nuclei oriented by hyperfine interactions in solids, is treated experimentally and theoretically. A general introductory chapter is followed by formal development of the theory of the orientation process and the anisotropic emission of decay products from oriented nuclei, applied to radioactive decay and to reactions. Five chapters on applications to nuclear physics cover experimental studies of alpha, beta and gamma emission, nuclear moment measurement and level structure information. Nuclear orientation studies of parity non-conservation and time reversal asymmetry are fully described. Seven chapters cover aspects of hyperfine interactions, magnetic and electric, in metals, alloys and insulating crystals, including ordered systems. Relaxation phenomena and the combined technique of NMR detection using oriented nuclei are treated at length. Chapters on the major recent development of on-line facilities, giving access to short lived nuclei far from stability, on the use of nuclear orientation for thermometry below 1 Kelvin and on technical aspects of the method complete the main text. Extensive appendices, table of relevant parameters and over 1000 references are included to assist the design of future experiments. (Auth.)

Do bacteria, not fish, produce 'fish kairomone'?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ringelberg, J.; Van Gool, E.

1998-01-01

Fish-associated chemicals enhance phototactic downward swimming in Daphnia. If perch were treated with the antibiotic ampicillin, this enhancement was significantly decreased. Therefore, not fish, but bacteria associated with fish, seem to produce this kairomone. [KEYWORDS: Diel vertical migration;

Structural stigma and sexual orientation disparities in adolescent drug use.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatzenbuehler, Mark L; Jun, Hee-Jin; Corliss, Heather L; Bryn Austin, S

2015-07-01

Although epidemiologic studies have established the existence of large sexual orientation disparities in illicit drug use among adolescents and young adults, the determinants of these disparities remain understudied. This study sought to determine whether sexual orientation disparities in illicit drug use are potentiated in states that are characterized by high levels of stigma surrounding sexual minorities. State-level structural stigma was coded using a previously established measure based on a 4-item composite index: (1) density of same-sex couples; (2) proportion of Gay-Straight Alliances per public high school; (3) 5 policies related to sexual orientation discrimination (e.g., same-sex marriage, employment non-discrimination); and (4) public opinion toward homosexuality (aggregated responses from 41 national polls). The index was linked to individual-level data from the Growing Up Today Study, a prospective community-based study of adolescents (2001-2010). Sexual minorities report greater illicit drug use than their heterosexual peers. However, for both men and women, there were statistically significant interactions between sexual orientation status and structural stigma, such that sexual orientation disparities in marijuana and illicit drug use were more pronounced in high-structural stigma states than in low-structural stigma states, controlling for individual- and state-level confounders. For instance, among men, the risk ratio indicating the association between sexual orientation and marijuana use was 24% greater in high- versus low-structural stigma states, and for women it was 28% greater in high- versus low-structural stigma states. Stigma in the form of social policies and attitudes may contribute to sexual orientation disparities in illicit drug use. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Internationalisation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Decker, Arnim; Rollnik-Sadowska, Ewa; Servais, Per

Entrepreneurial orientation is a multidimensional construct that determines the strategic posture of a firm. In this study we investigate a sample of six manufacturing firms which are located both in a remote area and in a transition economy. Through interpreting the construct of entrepreneurial...... orientation as an attitude held by principals we investigate how entrepreneurial orientation affected the behaviour of these firms, specifically in terms of their internationalisation. Despite the fact that all firms have identical roots we find that entrepreneurial orientation held by their principals affect...

Orientation-crowding within contours.

Science.gov (United States)

Glen, James C; Dakin, Steven C

2013-07-15

We examined how crowding (the breakdown of object recognition in the periphery caused by interference from "clutter") depends on the global arrangement of target and distracting flanker elements. Specifically we probed orientation discrimination using a near-vertical target Gabor flanked by two vertical distractor Gabors (one above and one below the target). By applying variable (opposite-sign) horizontal offsets to the positions of the two flankers we arranged the elements so that on some trials they formed contours with the target and on others they did not. While the presence of flankers generally elevated orientation discrimination thresholds for the target we observe maximal crowding not when flanker and targets were co-aligned but when a small spatial offset was applied to flanker location, so that contours formed between flanker and targets only when the target orientation was cued. We also report that observers' orientation judgments are biased, with target orientation appearing either attracted or repulsed by the global/contour orientation. A second experiment reveals that the sign of this effect is dependent both on observer and on eccentricity. In general, the magnitude of repulsion is reduced with eccentricity but whether this becomes attraction (of element orientation to contour orientation) is dependent on observer. We note however that across observers and eccentricities, the magnitude of repulsion correlates positively with the amount of release from crowding observed with co-aligned targets and flankers, supporting the notion of fluctuating bias as the basis for elevated crowding within contours.

A case of complex regional pain syndrome with agnosia for object orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, Gail; Cohen, Helen; Goebel, Andreas

2011-07-01

This systematic investigation of the neurocognitive correlates of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in a single case also reports agnosia for object orientation in the context of persistent CRPS. We report a patient (JW) with severe long-standing CRPS who had no difficulty identifying and naming line drawings of objects presented in 1 of 4 cardinal orientations. In contrast, he was extremely poor at reorienting these objects into the correct upright orientation and in judging whether an object was upright or not. Moreover, JW made orientation errors when copying drawings of objects, and he also showed features of mirror reversal in writing single words and reading single letters. The findings are discussed in relation to accounts of visual processing. Agnosia for object orientation is the term for impaired knowledge of an object's orientation despite good recognition and naming of the same misoriented object. This defect has previously only been reported in patients with major structural brain lesions. The neuroanatomical correlates are discussed. The patient had no structural brain lesion, raising the possibility that nonstructural reorganisation of cortical networks may be responsible for his deficits. Other patients with CRPS may have related neurocognitive defects. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developing Agent-Oriented Video Surveillance System through Agent-Oriented Methodology (AOM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cheah Wai Shiang

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Agent-oriented methodology (AOM is a comprehensive and unified agent methodology for agent-oriented software development. Although AOM is claimed to be able to cope with a complex system development, it is still not yet determined up to what extent this may be true. Therefore, it is vital to conduct an investigation to validate this methodology. This paper presents the adoption of AOM in developing an agent-oriented video surveillance system (VSS. An intruder handling scenario is designed and implemented through AOM. AOM provides an alternative method to engineer a distributed security system in a systematic manner. It presents the security system at a holistic view; provides a better conceptualization of agent-oriented security system and supports rapid prototyping as well as simulation of video surveillance system.

Customizable Time-Oriented Visualizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuhail, Mohammad Amin; Pantazos, Kostas; Lauesen, Søren

2012-01-01

Most commercial visualization tools support an easy and quick creation of conventional time-oriented visualizations such as line charts, but customization is limited. In contrast, some academic visualization tools and programming languages support the creation of some customizable time......-oriented visualizations but it is time consuming and hard. To combine efficiency, the effort required to develop a visualization, and customizability, the ability to tailor a visualization, we developed time-oriented building blocks that address the specifics of time (e.g. linear vs. cyclic or point-based vs. interval......-based) and consist of inner customizable parts (e.g. ticks). A combination of the time-oriented and other primitive graphical building blocks allowed the creation of several customizable advanced time-oriented visualizations. The appearance and behavior of the blocks are specified using spreadsheet-like formulas. We...

Comparing market orientation culture of businesses and schools of business: an extension and refinement.

Science.gov (United States)

Webster, Robert L; Hammond, Kevin L; Harmon, Harry A

2005-04-01

This study extends previous work concerning the market orientation culture within specialty businesses and schools of business. Specifically, member schools of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International are separated into public and private universities. Data were collected via a mailed survey to business schools holding membership. 106 public school deans and 35 private school deans responded, for a 23% response rate. Input from the deans was sought on their perceptions of the market orientation culture within the schools. Respondents' perceptions, rated on a 7-point scale, measured four dimensions of market orientation: customer orientation, competitor orientation, organizational coordination, and overall market orientation. Data for specialty businesses were drawn from a previous study. Comparison testing between the public and private business schools' deans and business managers was conducted. Analysis indicated perceived market orientation was significantly higher for deans of private business schools than public business schools. Compared with business managers, private school deans were statistically different on only one of the four dimensions, whereas public business school deans' scores were significantly different from those of business managers on all four. Compared with each other, business school deans were statistically different on three dimensions, with private school deans reporting greater market orientation.

Development of eddy current probe for fiber orientation assessment in carbon fiber composites

Science.gov (United States)

Wincheski, Russell A.; Zhao, Selina

2018-04-01

Measurement of the fiber orientation in a carbon fiber composite material is crucial in understanding the load carrying capability of the structure. As manufacturing conditions including resin flow and molding pressures can alter fiber orientation, verification of the as-designed fiber layup is necessary to ensure optimal performance of the structure. In this work, the development of an eddy current probe and data processing technique for analysis of fiber orientation in carbon fiber composites is presented. A proposed directional eddy current probe is modeled and its response to an anisotropic multi-layer conductor simulated. The modeling results are then used to finalize specifications of the eddy current probe. Experimental testing of the fabricated probe is presented for several samples including a truncated pyramid part with complex fiber orientation draped to the geometry for resin transfer molding. The inductively coupled single sided measurement enables fiber orientation characterization through the thickness of the part. The fast and cost-effective technique can be applied as a spot check or as a surface map of the fiber orientations across the structure. This paper will detail the results of the probe design, computer simulations, and experimental results.

Highly oriented poly(di-n-alkylsilylene) films on oriented PTFE substrates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frey, H.H.; Frey, Holger; Sheiko, Sergej; Sheiko, S.; Moller, M.; Möller, Martin; Wittmann, Jean-Claude; Lot, Bernard

1993-01-01

Highly oriented polysilylene layers have potential applications in electrophotography, nonlinear optics, display fabrication, and microlithography. The preparation of such layers by crystallization on a highly oriented PTFE substrate is reported, and their assessment by optical birefringence,

Strain hardening and its relation to Bauschinger effects in oriented polymers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Senden, D.J.A.; Dommelen, van J.A.W.; Govaert, L.E.

2010-01-01

The nature of strain hardening in glassy polymers is investigated by studying the mechan-ical response of oriented polycarbonate in uniaxial extension and compression. The yieldstress in extension is observed to increase strongly with pre-deformation, whereas it slightlydecreases in compression (the

"All of My Lovers Fit Into This Scale": Sexual Minority Individuals' Responses to Two Novel Measures of Sexual Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Galupo, M Paz; Lomash, Edward; Mitchell, Renae C

2017-01-01

Previous qualitative research on traditional measures of sexual orientation raise concerns regarding how well these scales capture sexual minority individuals' experience of sexuality. The present research focused on the critique of two novel scales developed to better capture the way sexual and gender minority individuals conceptualize sexuality. Participants were 179 sexual minority (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, queer, asexual) individuals who identified as cisgender (n = 122) and transgender (n = 57). Participants first completed the new scales, then provided qualitative responses regarding how well each scale captured their sexuality. The Sexual-Romantic Scale enabled the measurement of sexual and romantic attraction to each sex independently (same-sex and other-sex). Participants resonated with the way the Sexual-Romantic scale disaggregated sexual and romantic attraction. Although cisgender monosexual (lesbian/gay) individuals positively responded to the separation of same- and other-sex attraction, individuals with either plurisexual (bisexual, pansexual, or fluid) or transgender identities found the binary conceptualization of sex/gender problematic. The Gender-Inclusive Scale incorporated same- and other-sex attraction as well as dimensions of attraction beyond those based on sex (attraction to masculine, feminine, androgynous, and gender non-conforming individuals). The incorporation of dimensions of sexual attraction outside of sex in the Gender-Inclusive Scale was positively regarded by participants of all identities. Findings indicate that the Sexual-Romantic and Gender-Inclusive scales appear to address some of the concerns raised in previous research regarding the measurement of sexual orientation among sexual minority individuals.

Neuropsychological development of cognitive abilities: a new research strategy and some preliminary evidence for a sexual orientation model.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanders, G; Ross-Field, L

1987-09-01

The organizing action that prenatal sex hormones exert on the brain has been implicated in the aetiology of sex differences in cognitive abilities and cerebral asymmetries. Prenatal sex hormones are known to determine neuroendocrine responses and subsequent adult sexual behaviour in nonhuman animals and these hormones may also influence human sexual orientation. To unify these observations, we elaborate a sexual orientation model of neuropsychological development which predicts that sex differences in neuroendocrine responses, cerebral asymmetries, and cognitive abilities are related to sexual orientation rather than to sex per se. A common problem in the study of sex differences is that biological and sociocultural explanations are confounded. The sexual orientation model suggests a new research strategy, the comparison of homosexual and heterosexual groups, for which explanations in terms of sociocultural factors would be more difficult to sustain. The available evidence supports the model: In terms of a neuroendocrine response, cerebral asymmetry, and cognitive abilities, homosexual males resemble heterosexual females rather than heterosexual males. Our conclusions lead to questions that further research in this area should address, and to a consideration of problems which such research may have to face.

Macroscopic optical constants of a cloud of randomly oriented nonspherical scatterers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borghese, F.; Denti, P.; Saija, R.; Toscano, G.; Sindoni, O.I.

1984-01-01

A method to calculate the macroscopic optical constants of a low-density medium consisting of a cloud of identical nonspherical scatterers is presented. The scatterers in the medium are clusters of dielectric spheres and the electromagnetic field scattered by each of the clusters is obtained as a superposition of multipole fields, as previously proposed by the authors. The transformation properties of the spherical multipoles under rotation allow the orientation-dependent terms in the expression for the forward-scattering amplitude of each of the clusters to be factored out. In this way the sum of the scattering amplitudes of the clusters with different orientations, needed to calculate the optical response of the medium, is greatly facilitated and admits a simple analytic expression in the case of randomly oriented clusters. Results of calculations of the optical constants for a few model media are presented

Postdictive modulation of visual orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawabe, Takahiro

2012-01-01

The present study investigated how visual orientation is modulated by subsequent orientation inputs. Observers were presented a near-vertical Gabor patch as a target, followed by a left- or right-tilted second Gabor patch as a distracter in the spatial vicinity of the target. The task of the observers was to judge whether the target was right- or left-tilted (Experiment 1) or whether the target was vertical or not (Supplementary experiment). The judgment was biased toward the orientation of the distracter (the postdictive modulation of visual orientation). The judgment bias peaked when the target and distracter were temporally separated by 100 ms, indicating a specific temporal mechanism for this phenomenon. However, when the visibility of the distracter was reduced via backward masking, the judgment bias disappeared. On the other hand, the low-visibility distracter could still cause a simultaneous orientation contrast, indicating that the distracter orientation is still processed in the visual system (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that the postdictive modulation of visual orientation stems from spatiotemporal integration of visual orientation on the basis of a slow feature matching process.

Uranium project in Cerro Largo south orientation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pradier, B.

1982-01-01

This study of orientation was realized with the purpose of recognizing the extension of the anomalies from a known source , and of being able to determine the choice of the places and the quality of the material to sampling to obtain an ideal response. We have chosen the introduction of this study in a place that offers a source in power of Uranium located accurately and that presents a sequence pedology that group the main types of soils

Design of an Autonomous Social Orienting Training System (ASOTS) for Young Children With Autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Zhi; Fu, Qiang; Zhao, Huan; Swanson, Amy R; Weitlauf, Amy S; Warren, Zachary E; Sarkar, Nilanjan

2017-06-01

Social communication is among the core areas of impairment for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The training of social orientation is important for improving social communication of children with ASD. In recent years, technology-assisted ASD intervention had gained momentum due to its potential advantages in terms of precision, sustainability, flexibility and cost. In this paper, we propose a closed-loop autonomous computer system, named ASOTS, for training social orientation skills to young children with ASD. This system is designed to detect and track a child's attention in response to social orientation bids and help the child towards appropriate social orientation when needed. Response to name, an important social orientation skill, was used to demonstrate the functionality of the proposed system. Ten toddlers with ASD participated in a pilot user study to show whether the system could be used on young children who have been diagnosed with ASD. Another pilot user study with 10 TD infants tested whether this system has a potential to be applied for early detection for infants who were younger than the age when ASD diagnoses can be done. This was done intentionally to separately demonstrate utility and functionality for the clinical population of interest and to demonstrate functionality beyond current clinical identification capacity (i.e., infants). The results showed that the proposed system and the protocol were well tolerated by both groups, successfully captured young children's attention, and elicited the desired behavior.

Crystal orientation dependent thermoelectric properties of highly oriented aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films

KAUST Repository

Abutaha, Anas I.; Sarath Kumar, S. R.; Alshareef, Husam N.

2013-01-01

We demonstrate that the thermoelectric properties of highly oriented Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films can be improved by controlling their crystal orientation. The crystal orientation of the AZO films was changed by changing the temperature

Column-oriented database management systems

OpenAIRE

Možina, David

2013-01-01

In the following thesis I will present column-oriented database. Among other things, I will answer on a question why there is a need for a column-oriented database. In recent years there have been a lot of attention regarding a column-oriented database, even if the existence of a columnar database management systems dates back in the early seventies of the last century. I will compare both systems for a database management – a colum-oriented database system and a row-oriented database system ...

Interaction between endogenous and exogenous orienting in crossmodal attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xiaoxi; Chen, Qi; Gao, Dingguo; Yue, Zhenzhu

2012-08-01

Using a cue-target paradigm, we investigated the interaction between endogenous and exogenous orienting in cross-modal attention. A peripheral (exogenous) cue was presented after a central (endogenous) cue with a variable time interval. The endogenous and exogenous cues were presented in one sensory modality (auditory in Experiment 1 and visual in Experiment 2) whereas the target was presented in another modality. Both experiments showed a significant endogenous cuing effect (longer reaction times in the invalid condition than in the valid condition). However, exogenous cuing produced a facilitatory effect in both experiments in response to the target when endogenous cuing was valid, but it elicited a facilitatory effect in Experiment 1 and an inhibitory effect in Experiment 2 when endogenous cuing was invalid. These findings indicate that endogenous and exogenous cuing can co-operate in orienting attention to the crossmodal target. Moreover, the interaction between endogenous and exogenous orienting of attention is modulated by the modality between the cue and the target. © 2012 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2012 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

A second-order orientation-contrast stimulus for population-receptive-field-based retinotopic mapping.

Science.gov (United States)

Yildirim, Funda; Carvalho, Joana; Cornelissen, Frans W

2018-01-01

Visual field or retinotopic mapping is one of the most frequently used paradigms in fMRI. It uses activity evoked by position-varying high luminance contrast visual patterns presented throughout the visual field for determining the spatial organization of cortical visual areas. While the advantage of using high luminance contrast is that it tends to drive a wide range of neural populations - thus resulting in high signal-to-noise BOLD responses - this may also be a limitation, especially for approaches that attempt to squeeze more information out of the BOLD response, such as population receptive field (pRF) mapping. In that case, more selective stimulation of a subset of neurons - despite reduced signals - could result in better characterization of pRF properties. Here, we used a second-order stimulus based on local differences in orientation texture - to which we refer as orientation contrast - to perform retinotopic mapping. Participants in our experiment viewed arrays of Gabor patches composed of a foreground (a bar) and a background. These could only be distinguished on the basis of a difference in patch orientation. In our analyses, we compare the pRF properties obtained using this new orientation contrast-based retinotopy (OCR) to those obtained using classic luminance contrast-based retinotopy (LCR). Specifically, in higher order cortical visual areas such as LO, our novel approach resulted in non-trivial reductions in estimated population receptive field size of around 30%. A set of control experiments confirms that the most plausible cause for this reduction is that OCR mainly drives neurons sensitive to orientation contrast. We discuss how OCR - by limiting receptive field scatter and reducing BOLD displacement - may result in more accurate pRF localization as well. Estimation of neuronal properties is crucial for interpreting cortical function. Therefore, we conclude that using our approach, it is possible to selectively target particular neuronal

Arousal and attention re-orienting in autism spectrum disorders: evidence from auditory event-related potentials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena V Orekhova

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The extended phenotype of autism spectrum disorders (ASD includes a combination of arousal regulation problems, sensory modulation difficulties, and attention re-orienting deficit. A slow and inefficient re-orienting to stimuli that appear outside of the attended sensory stream is thought to be especially detrimental for social functioning. Event-related potentials (ERPs and magnetic fields (ERFs may help to reveal which processing stages underlying brain response to unattended but salient sensory event are affected in individuals with ASD. Previous research focusing on two sequential stages of the brain response - automatic detection of physical changes in auditory stream, indexed by mismatch negativity (MMN, and evaluation of stimulus novelty, indexed by P3a component, - found in individuals with ASD either increased, decreased or normal processing of deviance and novelty. The review examines these apparently conflicting results, notes gaps in previous findings, and suggests a potentially unifying hypothesis relating the dampened responses to unattended sensory events to the deficit in rapid arousal process. Specifically, ‘sensory gating’ studies focused on pre-attentive arousal consistently demonstrated that brain response to unattended and temporally novel sound in ASD is already affected at around 100 ms after stimulus onset. We hypothesize that abnormalities in nicotinic cholinergic arousal pathways, previously reported in individuals with ASD, may contribute to these ERP/ERF aberrations and result in attention re-orienting deficit. Such cholinergic dysfunction may be present in individuals with ASD early in life and can influence both sensory processing and attention re-orienting behavior. Identification of early neurophysiological biomarkers for cholinergic deficit would help to detect infants at risk who can potentially benefit from particular types of therapies or interventions.

Organic Photovoltaic Devices Based on Oriented n-Type Molecular Films Deposited on Oriented Polythiophene Films.

Science.gov (United States)

Mizokuro, Toshiko; Tanigaki, Nobutaka; Miyadera, Tetsuhiko; Shibata, Yousei; Koganezawa, Tomoyuki

2018-04-01

The molecular orientation of π-conjugated molecules has been reported to significantly affect the performance of organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) based on molecular films. Hence, the control of molecular orientation is a key issue toward the improvement of OPV performance. In this research, oriented thin films of an n-type molecule, 3,4,9,10-Perylenetetracarboxylic Bisbenzimida-zole (PTCBI), were formed by deposition on in-plane oriented polythiophene (PT) films. Orientation of the PTCBI films was evaluated by polarized UV-vis spectroscopy and 2D-Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. Results indicated that PTCBI molecules on PT film exhibit nearly edge-on and in-plane orientation (with molecular long axis along the substrate), whereas PTCBI molecules without PT film exhibit neither. OPVs composed of PTCBI molecular film with and without PT were fabricated and evaluated for correlation of orientation with performance. The OPVs composed of PTCBI film with PT showed higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) than that of film without PT. The experiment indicated that in-plane orientation of PTCBI molecules absorbs incident light more efficiently, leading to increase in PCE.

Neuroethological validation of an experimental apparatus to evaluate oriented and non-oriented escape behaviours: Comparison between the polygonal arena with a burrow and the circular enclosure of an open-field test.

Science.gov (United States)

Biagioni, Audrey Francisco; dos Anjos-Garcia, Tayllon; Ullah, Farhad; Fisher, Isaac René; Falconi-Sobrinho, Luiz Luciano; de Freitas, Renato Leonardo; Felippotti, Tatiana Tocchini; Coimbra, Norberto Cysne

2016-02-01

Inhibition of GABAergic neural inputs to dorsal columns of the periaqueductal grey matter (dPAG), posterior (PH) and dorsomedial (DMH) hypothalamic nuclei elicits distinct types of escape behavioural reactions. To differentiate between the variety and intensity of panic-related behaviours, the pattern of defensive behaviours evoked by blockade of GABAA receptors in the DMH, PH and dPAG were compared in a circular open-field test and in a recently designed polygonal arena. In the circular open-field, the defensive behaviours induced by microinjection of bicuculline into DMH and PH were characterised by defensive alertness behaviour and vertical jumps preceded by rearing exploratory behaviour. On the other hand, explosive escape responses interspersed with horizontal jumps and freezing were observed after the blockade of GABAA receptors on dPAG neurons. In the polygonal arena apparatus, the escape response produced by GABAergic inhibition of DMH and PH neurons was directed towards the burrow. In contrast, the blockade of GABAA receptors in dPAG evoked non-oriented escape behaviour characterised by vigorous running and horizontal jumps in the arena. Our findings support the hypothesis that the hypothalamic nuclei organise oriented escape behavioural responses whereas non-oriented escape is elaborated by dPAG neurons. Additionally, the polygonal arena with a burrow made it easy to discriminate and characterise these two different patterns of escape behavioural responses. In this sense, the polygonal arena with a burrow can be considered a good methodological tool to discriminate between these two different patterns of escape behavioural responses and is very useful as a new experimental animal model of panic attacks. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The paradox of managing a project-oriented matrix: establishing coherence within chaos.

Science.gov (United States)

Greiner, L E; Schein, V E

1981-01-01

Projects that require the flexible coordination of multidisciplinary teams have tended to adopt a matrix structure to accomplish complex tasks. Yet these project-oriented matrix structures themselves require careful coordination if they are to realize the objectives set for them. The authors identify the basic organizational questions that project-oriented matrix organizations must face. They examine the relationship between responsibility and authority; the tradeoffs between economic efficiency and the technical quality of the work produced; and the sensitive issues of managing individualistic, highly trained professionals while also maintaining group cohesiveness.

Making The Most of Medical orientation; A New Approach.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr Jonathan Taitz

2004-02-01

Full Text Available Orientating new junior medical staff can be a complex and time consuming task. Traditional models have typically involved a day or longer of lectures. This involves a large number of senior staff being available on the first day of term. It also means that junior staff not present on the first day had any access to an orientation program at all. Evaluation of our program confirmed the belief that the day was dull and that there was simply too much information for new staff to absorb. As a result of this feedback we extensively updated our orientation program. Pre-reading of the junior staff manual became compulsory. We departed from the traditional lecture style program and devised a new ten- station scenario based interactive program. The stations were designed to cover aspects of the hospital’s mandatory education and key educational requirements in order to function effectively on our campus. Station leaders were selected and trained in the goals of the new process. Several of our secondment sites were engaged in the development of the project topics. We hoped that our secondment sites would be relieved of some orientation responsibility if core material was delivered centrally. The strength of the new orientation is that it is portable, reproducible and uniform. It is also available via video conferencing. A single person can educate new staff in three hours if the need arises. Most importantly all new staff will have access to the program within a week of starting a term at our hospital.

Wildlife value orientations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gamborg, Christian; Jensen, Frank Søndergaard

2016-01-01

This article examined value orientations toward wildlife among the adult general Danish public in relation to age, sex, past and present residence, education, and income, using a U.S. survey instrument on Wildlife Value Orientations (WVO). The study used an Internet-based questionnaire sent...

Phototaxis during the slug stage of Dictyostelium discoideum: a model study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marée, A.F.M.; Panfilov, A.V.; Hogeweg, P.

1999-01-01

During the slug stage, the cellular slime mould Dictyostelium discoideum moves towards light sources. We have modelled this phototactic behaviour using a hybrid cellular automata/partial differential equation model. In our model, individual amoebae are not able to measure the direction from which

A face detection bias for horizontal orientations develops in middle childhood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin J Balas

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Faces are complex stimuli that can be described via intuitive facial features like the eyes, nose, and mouth, configural features like the distances between facial landmarks, and features that correspond to computations performed in the early visual system (e.g. oriented edges. With regard to this latter category of descriptors, adult face recognition relies disproportionately on information in specific spatial frequency and orientation bands: Many recognition tasks are performed more accurately when adults have access to mid-range spatial frequencies (8-16 cycles/face and horizontal orientations (Dakin & Watt, 2009. In the current study, we examined how this information bias develops in middle childhood. We recruited children between the ages of 5-10 years old to participate in a simple categorization task that required them to label images according to whether they depicted a face or a house. Critically, children were presented with face and house images comprised either of primarily horizontal orientation energy, primarily vertical orientation energy, or both horizontal and vertical orientation energy. We predicted that any bias favoring horizontal information over vertical should be more evident in faces than in houses, and also that older children would be more likely to show such a bias than younger children. We designed our categorization task to be sufficiently easy that children would perform at near-ceiling accuracy levels, but with variation in response times that would reflect how they rely on different orientations as a function of age and object category. We found that horizontal bias for face detection (but not house detection correlated significantly with age, suggesting an emergent category-specific bias for horizontal orientation energy that develops during middle childhood. These results thus suggest that the tuning of high-level recognition to specific low-level visual features takes take place over several years of visual

Machine Learning and Infrared Thermography for Fiber Orientation Assessment on Randomly-Oriented Strands Parts.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Henrique; Zhang, Hai; Figueiredo, Alisson; Malheiros, Fernando; Ignacio, Luis Henrique; Sfarra, Stefano; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Guimaraes, Gilmar; Maldague, Xavier

2018-01-19

The use of fiber reinforced materials such as randomly-oriented strands has grown in recent years, especially for manufacturing of aerospace composite structures. This growth is mainly due to their advantageous properties: they are lighter and more resistant to corrosion when compared to metals and are more easily shaped than continuous fiber composites. The resistance and stiffness of these materials are directly related to their fiber orientation. Thus, efficient approaches to assess their fiber orientation are in demand. In this paper, a non-destructive evaluation method is applied to assess the fiber orientation on laminates reinforced with randomly-oriented strands. More specifically, a method called pulsed thermal ellipsometry combined with an artificial neural network, a machine learning technique, is used in order to estimate the fiber orientation on the surface of inspected parts. Results showed that the method can be potentially used to inspect large areas with good accuracy and speed.

Postdictive modulation of visual orientation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takahiro Kawabe

Full Text Available The present study investigated how visual orientation is modulated by subsequent orientation inputs. Observers were presented a near-vertical Gabor patch as a target, followed by a left- or right-tilted second Gabor patch as a distracter in the spatial vicinity of the target. The task of the observers was to judge whether the target was right- or left-tilted (Experiment 1 or whether the target was vertical or not (Supplementary experiment. The judgment was biased toward the orientation of the distracter (the postdictive modulation of visual orientation. The judgment bias peaked when the target and distracter were temporally separated by 100 ms, indicating a specific temporal mechanism for this phenomenon. However, when the visibility of the distracter was reduced via backward masking, the judgment bias disappeared. On the other hand, the low-visibility distracter could still cause a simultaneous orientation contrast, indicating that the distracter orientation is still processed in the visual system (Experiment 2. Our results suggest that the postdictive modulation of visual orientation stems from spatiotemporal integration of visual orientation on the basis of a slow feature matching process.

Magnetic-Field-Orientation Dependent Magnetoelectric Effect in FeBSiC/PZT/FeBSiC Composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jun-Xian Ye

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We investigate the magnetic-field-orientation dependent magnetoelectric (ME effect in the FeBSiC/Pb(Zr,TiO3(PZT/FeBSiC laminates. It is shown that, by only using the bias-magnetic-field dependent ME response measured with the magnetic-field parallel to the surface plane of PZT slab, the magnetic-field-orientation dependent ME coefficient upon magnetic-fields of various amplitudes can be obtained via computer simulations. The simulation results match well the experimental measurements, demonstrating the applicability of the ME laminates-based sensors in detecting magnetic-fields with uncertain amplitudes and/or orientations in environment.

The individual-oriented and social-oriented Chinese bicultural self: testing the theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Luo

2008-06-01

The author proposes a bicultural self theory for contemporary Chinese individuals, encompassing 2 main components: the individual-oriented self and the social-oriented self. The social orientation is rooted in traditional Chinese conceptualization of the self, whereas the individual orientation has evolved and developed under Western influences along with recent societal modernization. The author conducted a series of 5 studies to test the theory and relate the model to important issues in current personality and social psychological research, such as cultural individualism-collectivism, self-construals, motivation, cognition, emotion, and well-being. A total of 977 university students in Taiwan participated. The author found that contrasting self-aspects were differentially associated with the aforementioned constructs, as theoretically predicted. This evidence thus generally supported the bicultural self model.

Orientation decoding: Sense in spirals?

Science.gov (United States)

Clifford, Colin W G; Mannion, Damien J

2015-04-15

The orientation of a visual stimulus can be successfully decoded from the multivariate pattern of fMRI activity in human visual cortex. Whether this capacity requires coarse-scale orientation biases is controversial. We and others have advocated the use of spiral stimuli to eliminate a potential coarse-scale bias-the radial bias toward local orientations that are collinear with the centre of gaze-and hence narrow down the potential coarse-scale biases that could contribute to orientation decoding. The usefulness of this strategy is challenged by the computational simulations of Carlson (2014), who reported the ability to successfully decode spirals of opposite sense (opening clockwise or counter-clockwise) from the pooled output of purportedly unbiased orientation filters. Here, we elaborate the mathematical relationship between spirals of opposite sense to confirm that they cannot be discriminated on the basis of the pooled output of unbiased or radially biased orientation filters. We then demonstrate that Carlson's (2014) reported decoding ability is consistent with the presence of inadvertent biases in the set of orientation filters; biases introduced by their digital implementation and unrelated to the brain's processing of orientation. These analyses demonstrate that spirals must be processed with an orientation bias other than the radial bias for successful decoding of spiral sense. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Crystal orientation dependent thermoelectric properties of highly oriented aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films

KAUST Repository

Abutaha, Anas I.

2013-02-06

We demonstrate that the thermoelectric properties of highly oriented Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films can be improved by controlling their crystal orientation. The crystal orientation of the AZO films was changed by changing the temperature of the laser deposition process on LaAlO3 (100) substrates. The change in surface termination of the LaAlO3 substrate with temperature induces a change in AZO film orientation. The anisotropic nature of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the AZO films showed a favored thermoelectric performance in c-axis oriented films. These films gave the highest power factor of 0.26 W m−1 K−1 at 740 K.

An Adaptable Neuromorphic Model of Orientation Selectivity Based On Floating Gate Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Priti eGupta

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The biggest challenge that the neuromorphic community faces today is to build systems that can be considered truly cognitive. Adaptation and self-organization are the two basic principles that underlie any cognitive function that the brain performs. If we can replicate this behavior in hardware, we move a step closer to our goal of having cognitive neuromorphic systems. Adaptive feature selectivity is a mechanism by which nature optimizes resources so as to have greater acuity for more abundant features. Developing neuromorphic feature maps can help design generic machines that can emulate this adaptive behavior. Most neuromorphic models that have attempted to build self-organizing systems, follow the approach of modeling abstract theoretical frameworks in hardware. While this is good from a modeling and analysis perspective, it may not lead to the most efficient hardware. On the other hand, exploiting hardware dynamics to build adaptive systems rather than forcing the hardware to behave like mathematical equations, seems to be a more robust methodology when it comes to developing actual hardware for real world applications. In this paper we use a novel time-staggered Winner Take All circuit, that exploits the adaptation dynamics of floating gate transistors, to model an adaptive cortical cell that demonstrates Orientation Selectivity, a well-known biological phenomenon observed in the visual cortex. The cell performs competitive learning, refining its weights in response to input patterns resembling different oriented bars, becoming selective to a particular oriented pattern. Different analysis performed on the cell such as orientation tuning, application of abnormal inputs, response to spatial frequency and periodic patterns reveal close similarity between our cell and its biological counterpart. Embedded in a RC grid, these cells interact diffusively exhibiting cluster formation, making way for adaptively building orientation selective maps

Why competitors matter for market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe

2009-01-01

  Purpose - This paper investigates whether it is meaningful to decompose market orientation into customer orientation and competitor orientation and what possible implications this decomposition may have for researchers and business practitioners.   Design - Through a review of existing market...... orientation research, two of its salient dimensions, customer orientation and competitor orientation, are theoretically investigated. Then, two symmetric component measures are developed and tested on 308 manufacturing firms in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, supplemented with census data.   Findings...... - Empirical evidence reveals that, while competitor orientation is positively related to a firm's market share, a customer orientation is detrimental to a firm's return on assets for firms in less competitive environments.   Research implications and limitations - The study advocates moving beyond ‘global...

Why competitors matter for market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe

2009-01-01

and empirically tests two novel symmetric component measures of customer orientation and competitor orientation. Academicians are provided with insights with respect to the content and symmetry of component measures of the market orientation construct and their relation to firm performance. Furthermore, business......  Purpose - This paper investigates whether it is meaningful to decompose market orientation into customer orientation and competitor orientation and what possible implications this decomposition may have for researchers and business practitioners.   Design - Through a review of existing market...... - Empirical evidence reveals that, while competitor orientation is positively related to a firm's market share, a customer orientation is detrimental to a firm's return on assets for firms in less competitive environments.   Research implications and limitations - The study advocates moving beyond ‘global...

Aspect-Oriented Programming

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergmans, Lodewijk; Videira Lopes, Cristina; Moreira, Ana; Demeyer, Serge

1999-01-01

Aspect-oriented programming is a promising idea that can improve the quality of software by reduce the problem of code tangling and improving the separation of concerns. At ECOOP'97, the first AOP workshop brought together a number of researchers interested in aspect-orientation. At ECOOP'98, during

Fabrication of highly oriented reduced graphene oxide microbelts array for massive production of sensitive ammonia gas sensors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Jia; Zhang, Rongfu; Wang, Xiaona; Feng, Wei; Hu, PingAn; Wang, Zhenlong; O’Neill, William

2013-01-01

Patterning oriented reduced graphene oxide (rGO) into functional structures is significant for its application in electronics and sensors. A large array of highly oriented rGO microbelts are prepared by a soft lithography process. These rGO microbelts have a uniform structure that enables the massive production of graphene electronics using a simple mask shielding process. A high performance NH 3 sensor array which was fabricated from rGO microbelts exhibits a reproducible performance with the relative resistance response (ΔR/R 0 ) reaching 0.35, whilst offering a large concentration range response of 10 ppm ∼38%, showing these sensors to be both highly sensitive and responsive. The impact of working temperature on the response to NH 3 in low and high concentration ranges of NH 3 is also discussed. (paper)

Machine Learning and Infrared Thermography for Fiber Orientation Assessment on Randomly-Oriented Strands Parts

Science.gov (United States)

Maldague, Xavier

2018-01-01

The use of fiber reinforced materials such as randomly-oriented strands has grown in recent years, especially for manufacturing of aerospace composite structures. This growth is mainly due to their advantageous properties: they are lighter and more resistant to corrosion when compared to metals and are more easily shaped than continuous fiber composites. The resistance and stiffness of these materials are directly related to their fiber orientation. Thus, efficient approaches to assess their fiber orientation are in demand. In this paper, a non-destructive evaluation method is applied to assess the fiber orientation on laminates reinforced with randomly-oriented strands. More specifically, a method called pulsed thermal ellipsometry combined with an artificial neural network, a machine learning technique, is used in order to estimate the fiber orientation on the surface of inspected parts. Results showed that the method can be potentially used to inspect large areas with good accuracy and speed. PMID:29351240

OOAspectZ and aspect-oriented UML class diagrams for Aspect-oriented software modelling (AOSM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian Vidal Silva

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Regarding modularised software development, Aspect-oriented programming (AOP identifies and represents individually crosscutting concerns during the software development cycle’s programming stage. This article proposes and applies OOAspectZ to formal Aspect-oriented requirement specifications for prior stages of the software development cycle. It particularly concerns requirement specification and the structural design of data and behaviour, along with describing and applying Aspect-oriented UML class diagrams to designing classes, aspects and associations among classes and aspects during Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD.OOAspectZ is a language integrating both Object-Z and AspectZ formal languages whereas Aspect-oriented UML class diagrams represent AOP code, object class and crosscutting concern class structure by means of stereotypes. This article shows and applies the main OOAspectZ and AO UML class diagram characteristics to Aspect-oriented software modelling (AOSM using a classic example of AOP. Ideas for future work concerning an actual AOP version are also indicated.

Other-Orientation in Nonnative Spanish and Its Effect on Direct Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Peace, Meghann M.

2015-01-01

Other-orientation (Linell, 2009) is an essential element of language in that all speakers dialogue with an "other" when communicating. They take into consideration the other's assumed perspective, knowledge, and needs, and manipulate their language in response to these assumptions. This study investigated the extent to which…

Functional Connectivity of Resting Hemodynamic Signals in Submillimeter Orientation Columns of the Visual Cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Vasireddi, Anil K; Vazquez, Alberto L; Whitney, David E; Fukuda, Mitsuhiro; Kim, Seong-Gi

2016-09-07

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging has been increasingly used for examining connectivity across brain regions. The spatial scale by which hemodynamic imaging can resolve functional connections at rest remains unknown. To examine this issue, deoxyhemoglobin-weighted intrinsic optical imaging data were acquired from the visual cortex of lightly anesthetized ferrets. The neural activity of orientation domains, which span a distance of 0.7-0.8 mm, has been shown to be correlated during evoked activity and at rest. We performed separate analyses to assess the degree to which the spatial and temporal characteristics of spontaneous hemodynamic signals depend on the known functional organization of orientation columns. As a control, artificial orientation column maps were generated. Spatially, resting hemodynamic patterns showed a higher spatial resemblance to iso-orientation maps than artificially generated maps. Temporally, a correlation analysis was used to establish whether iso-orientation domains are more correlated than orthogonal orientation domains. After accounting for a significant decrease in correlation as a function of distance, a small but significant temporal correlation between iso-orientation domains was found, which decreased with increasing difference in orientation preference. This dependence was abolished when using artificially synthetized orientation maps. Finally, the temporal correlation coefficient as a function of orientation difference at rest showed a correspondence with that calculated during visual stimulation suggesting that the strength of resting connectivity is related to the strength of the visual stimulation response. Our results suggest that temporal coherence of hemodynamic signals measured by optical imaging of intrinsic signals exists at a submillimeter columnar scale in resting state.

fMRI orientation decoding in V1 does not require global maps or globally coherent orientation stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Alink, Arjen; Krugliak, Alexandra; Walther, Alexander; Kriegeskorte, Nikolaus

2013-01-01

The orientation of a large grating can be decoded from V1 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, even at low resolution (3-mm isotropic voxels). This finding has suggested that columnar-level neuronal information might be accessible to fMRI at 3T. However, orientation decodability might alternatively arise from global orientation-preference maps. Such global maps across V1 could result from bottom-up processing, if the preferences of V1 neurons were biased toward particular orientations (e.g., radial from fixation, or cardinal, i.e., vertical or horizontal). Global maps could also arise from local recurrent or top-down processing, reflecting pre-attentive perceptual grouping, attention spreading, or predictive coding of global form. Here we investigate whether fMRI orientation decoding with 2-mm voxels requires (a) globally coherent orientation stimuli and/or (b) global-scale patterns of V1 activity. We used opposite-orientation gratings (balanced about the cardinal orientations) and spirals (balanced about the radial orientation), along with novel patch-swapped variants of these stimuli. The two stimuli of a patch-swapped pair have opposite orientations everywhere (like their globally coherent parent stimuli). However, the two stimuli appear globally similar, a patchwork of opposite orientations. We find that all stimulus pairs are robustly decodable, demonstrating that fMRI orientation decoding does not require globally coherent orientation stimuli. Furthermore, decoding remained robust after spatial high-pass filtering for all stimuli, showing that fine-grained components of the fMRI patterns reflect visual orientations. Consistent with previous studies, we found evidence for global radial and vertical preference maps in V1. However, these were weak or absent for patch-swapped stimuli, suggesting that global preference maps depend on globally coherent orientations and might arise through recurrent or top-down processes related to the perception of

Deconstructing sexual orientation: understanding the phenomena of sexual orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, T S

1997-01-01

The very terms of a debate about whether or not sexual orientation is primarily a biological phenomenon fail to consider the complex origins of the phenomenon. Deconstruction of the term "homosexuality" shows that it refers to multiple factors which cannot be studied as or subsumed under a unitary concept. Adequate understanding of sexual orientation must consider the developmental, interpersonal, experiential, and cultural dimensions of sexuality, as well as any biological contributions to sexual attraction, behavior, and identity.

The effects of market orientation

OpenAIRE

Sandvik, Kåre

1998-01-01

This research is designed to accomplish three goals. The first goal is to revisit the market orientation construct in order to define the different facets of it. A review of the market orientation literature is made to assess and synthesize the stock of accumulated knowledge regarding the market orientation construct. The second goal of the research is to develop a theory of the effects ofmarket orientation. Using the literature concerning resource-based theory and organization...

An UML Statechart Diagram-Based MM-Path Generation Approach for Object-Oriented Integration Testing

OpenAIRE

Ruilian Zhao; Ling Lin

2008-01-01

MM-Path, an acronym for Method/Message Path, describes the dynamic interactions between methods in object-oriented systems. This paper discusses the classifications of MM-Path, based on the characteristics of object-oriented software. We categorize it according to the generation reasons, the effect scope and the composition of MM-Path. A formalized representation of MM-Path is also proposed, which has considered the influence of state on response method sequences of messages. .Moreover, an au...

Neuroticism and social comparison orientation as moderators of affective responses to social comparison at work

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Abraham P.; Van der Zee, K.I.; Van Yperen, N.W.

2001-01-01

In a study among 72 nurses, the affective consequences of social comparison were examined and related to neuroticism, (N) and to social comparison orientation (SCO). Participants were confronted with a bogus interview with an upward versus a downward comparison target. Positive affect and

Neuroticism and social comparison orientation as moderators of affective responses to social comparison at work

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Bram P.; Van der Zee, K.I.; VanYperen, Nico W.

2001-01-01

In a study among 72 nurses, the affective consequences of social comparison were examined and related to neuroticism (N) and to social comparison orientation (SCO). Participants were confronted with a bogus interview with an upward versus a downward comparison target. Positive affect and

Orienteering Club

CERN Multimedia

Club d'orientation

2013-01-01

Courses d’orientation ce printemps Le Club d’orientation du CERN vous invite à venir découvrir la course d’orientation et vous propose, en partenariat avec d’autres clubs de la région, une dizaine de courses populaires. Celles-ci ont lieu les samedis après-midi, elles sont ouvertes à tous, quel que soit le niveau, du débutant au sportif confirmé, en famille ou en individuel, en promenade ou en course. Si vous êtes débutant vous pouvez profiter d’une petite initiation offerte par l’organisateur avant de vous lancer sur un parcours. Divers types de parcours sont à votre choix lors de chaque épreuve : facile court (2-3 km), facile moyen (3-5 km), technique court (3-4 km), technique moyen (4-5 km) et technique long (5-7 km). Les dates à retenir sont les suivantes : Samedi 23 mars: Pully (Vd) Samedi 13 avril: Pougny...

Kinetics of oriented crystallization of polymers in the linear stress-orientation range in the series expansion approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Jarecki

2018-04-01

Full Text Available An analytical formula is derived for the oriented crystallization coefficient governing kinetics of oriented crystallization under uniaxial amorphous orientation in the entire temperature range. A series expansion approach is applied to the free energy of crystallization in the Hoffman-Lauritzen kinetic model of crystallization at accounting for the entropy of orientation of the amorphous chains. The series expansion coefficients are calculated for systems of Gaussian chains in linear stress-orientation range. Oriented crystallization rate functions are determined basing on the ‘proportional expansion’ approach proposed by Ziabicki in the steady-state limit. Crystallization kinetics controlled by separate predetermined and sporadic primary nucleation is considered, as well as the kinetics involving both nucleation mechanisms potentially present in oriented systems. The involvement of sporadic nucleation in the transformation kinetics is predicted to increase with increasing amorphous orientation. Example computations illustrate the dependence of the calculated functions on temperature and amorphous orientation, as well as qualitative agreement of the calculations with experimental results.

Individual differences in regulatory focus predict neural response to reward.

Science.gov (United States)

Scult, Matthew A; Knodt, Annchen R; Hanson, Jamie L; Ryoo, Minyoung; Adcock, R Alison; Hariri, Ahmad R; Strauman, Timothy J

2017-08-01

Although goal pursuit is related to both functioning of the brain's reward circuits and psychological factors, the literatures surrounding these concepts have often been separate. Here, we use the psychological construct of regulatory focus to investigate individual differences in neural response to reward. Regulatory focus theory proposes two motivational orientations for personal goal pursuit: (1) promotion, associated with sensitivity to potential gain, and (2) prevention, associated with sensitivity to potential loss. The monetary incentive delay task was used to manipulate reward circuit function, along with instructional framing corresponding to promotion and prevention in a within-subject design. We observed that the more promotion oriented an individual was, the lower their ventral striatum response to gain cues. Follow-up analyses revealed that greater promotion orientation was associated with decreased ventral striatum response even to no-value cues, suggesting that promotion orientation may be associated with relatively hypoactive reward system function. The findings are also likely to represent an interaction between the cognitive and motivational characteristics of the promotion system with the task demands. Prevention orientation did not correlate with ventral striatum response to gain cues, supporting the discriminant validity of regulatory focus theory. The results highlight a dynamic association between individual differences in self-regulation and reward system function.

Biological origins of sexual orientation and gender identity: Impact on health.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Hanlan, Katherine A; Gordon, Jennifer C; Sullivan, Mackenzie W

2018-04-01

Gynecologic Oncologists are sometimes consulted to care for patients who present with diverse gender identities or sexual orientations. Clinicians can create more helpful relationships with their patients if they understand the etiologies of these diverse expressions of sexual humanity. Multidisciplinary evidence reveals that a sexually dimorphic spectrum of somatic and neurologic anatomy, traits and abilities, including sexual orientation and gender identity, are conferred together during the first half of pregnancy due to genetics, epigenetics and the diversity of timing and function of sex chromosomes, sex-determining protein secretion, gonadal hormone secretion, receptor levels, adrenal function, maternally ingested dietary hormones, fetal health, and many other factors. Multiple layers of evidence confirm that sexual orientation and gender identity are as biological, innate and immutable as the other traits conferred during that critical time in gestation. Negative social responses to diverse orientations or gender identities have caused marginalization of these individuals with resultant alienation from medical care, reduced self-care and reduced access to medical care. The increased risks for many diseases, including gynecologic cancers are reviewed. Gynecologic Oncologists can potentially create more effective healthcare relationships with their patients if they have this information. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Personality Patterns of Physicians in Person-Oriented and Technique-Oriented Specialties

Science.gov (United States)

Borges, Nicole J.; Gibson, Denise D.

2005-01-01

This study investigated differences in personality patterns between person-oriented and technique-oriented physicians. It tested an integrative framework by converting the scores on the Personality Research Form (PRF) to the Big-Five factors and built a predictive model of group membership in clinical specialty area. PRF scores from 238 physicians…

The relationships among social capital, organisational commitment and customer-oriented prosocial behaviour of hospital nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Chiu-Ping; Chang, Chia-Wen; Huang, Heng-Chiang; Chiang, Chi-Yun

2011-05-01

This study examines the perceptions of registered nurses of social capital, organisational commitment and customer-oriented prosocial behaviour. Additionally, this study also addresses a conceptual model for testing how registered nurses' perceptions of three types of social capital influence their organisational commitment, in turn intensifying customer-oriented prosocial behaviour, including role-prescribed customer service and extra-role customer service. Customer-oriented prosocial behaviour explains differences in job satisfaction and job performance. However, the critical role of customer orientation in the hospital setting has yet to be explored. Survey. The survey was conducted to obtain data from registered nurses working for a large Taiwanese medical centre, yielding 797 usable responses and a satisfactory response rate of 86.7%. The partial least squares method was adopted to obtain parameter estimates and test proposed hypotheses. The study measurements display satisfactory reliability, as well as both convergent and discriminant validities. All hypotheses were supported. Empirical results indicate that registered nurses' perceptions of social capital were significantly impacted the extent of organisational commitment, which in turn significantly influenced customer-oriented prosocial behaviour. By stimulating nursing staff commitment, health care providers can urge them to pursue organisational goals and provide high quality customer service. To enhance organisational commitment, health care managers should endeavour to create interpersonal interaction platforms in addition to simply offering material rewards. Nurses act as contact employees for their patient customers in the hospital, and they are required to provide patient safety and service quality. This study shows that nurses with high organisational commitment are willing to provide customer-oriented prosocial activities, which in turn enhances patient satisfaction. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing

Characterization of the crystal orientation in mono-oriented films of HDPE/LLDPE blends by IR dichroism

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Canevarolo, Sebastião V., E-mail: caneva@ufscar.br; Ravazzi, Camila; Silva, Jorge, E-mail: jorge.silva@ufscar.br [Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, Universidade Federal de São Carlos Rod. Washington Luiz Km 235, 13565-905, SãoCarlos, SP - Brazil (Brazil); Elias, Marcelo [Motechfilm Produtos Plásticos, Estrada Municipal do Bonfim, 100, Pinhal, Cabreúva, SP - Brazil (Brazil)

2016-03-09

Polyethylene films are a common packaging material. The level and type of chain orientation in these films are a very important property which is of great care and concern of the converter personnel during the conformation process. Usually bi-orientation is the conventional procedure but when easy tear in one direction is needed mono-orientation is sought. This paper deal with the characterization of the crystalline orientation in films of polyethylene blends (HDPE/LLDPE) which have being oriented in two steps: initially the polymer was bi-oriented via extrusion-blown, cooled, and then in a second process hot stretched along the machine direction in order to produce mono-oriented films. In order to evaluate the orientation of the film, the polarization of the FT-IR beam was rotated 360° in steps of 5° by rotating the polarizer. In each step the absorbance spectrum was recorded and the corresponding dichroic ratio (DR) calculated after subtracting the baseline. With differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was possible to infer about the changes in the morphology caused by the stretching.

Fast coding of orientation in primary visual cortex.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oren Shriki

Full Text Available Understanding how populations of neurons encode sensory information is a major goal of systems neuroscience. Attempts to answer this question have focused on responses measured over several hundred milliseconds, a duration much longer than that frequently used by animals to make decisions about the environment. How reliably sensory information is encoded on briefer time scales, and how best to extract this information, is unknown. Although it has been proposed that neuronal response latency provides a major cue for fast decisions in the visual system, this hypothesis has not been tested systematically and in a quantitative manner. Here we use a simple 'race to threshold' readout mechanism to quantify the information content of spike time latency of primary visual (V1 cortical cells to stimulus orientation. We find that many V1 cells show pronounced tuning of their spike latency to stimulus orientation and that almost as much information can be extracted from spike latencies as from firing rates measured over much longer durations. To extract this information, stimulus onset must be estimated accurately. We show that the responses of cells with weak tuning of spike latency can provide a reliable onset detector. We find that spike latency information can be pooled from a large neuronal population, provided that the decision threshold is scaled linearly with the population size, yielding a processing time of the order of a few tens of milliseconds. Our results provide a novel mechanism for extracting information from neuronal populations over the very brief time scales in which behavioral judgments must sometimes be made.

Community Orientation and Media Use.

Science.gov (United States)

Neuwirth, Kurt; And Others

1989-01-01

Examines the relationship among media use, participation in local shopping and leisure activities, and orientation toward the local community. Reexamines Robert Merton's Cosmopolitan scale, finding it to have both localite (exclusively local orientation) and cosmopolite (orientation to events outside the local community) dimensions. (MM)

Medical teachers' attitudes towards science and motivational orientation for medical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Cvek, Mario; Hren, Darko; Sambunjak, Dario; Planinc, Mislav; Macković, Maja; Marusić, Ana; Marusić, Matko

2009-01-01

Research is an important motivating factor for pursuing a career in academic medicine, but the relation between motivation and other factors involved in scientific research are not clear. To explore the motivational orientation for doing research and its relation with attitudes towards science and publication practice among members of faculty at a medical school. We used a Science Attitude Survey and the Work Preference Inventory (intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientation using 4 Likert-type scales of motivation, possible range 1-5) to survey two groups of teachers at the Zagreb University School of Medicine (n = 327, 66% response rate): professors, elected to tenure-track positions (n = 150), and instructor/research fellows working on or just completing their thesis (n = 177). Overall, teachers scored highest on the Enjoyment subscale of intrinsic motivational orientation (mean score +/- standard deviation 4.3 +/- 0.42 for professors vs 4.1 +/- 0.42 for instructors/research fellows, P = 0.001, t-test). Professors also scored higher than instructors/research fellows on the Challenge subscale of intrinsic motivational orientation (3.8 +/- 0.55 vs. 3.5 +/- 0.64, P motivational orientation (3.5 +/- 0.74 vs. 3.1 +/- 0.71, P motivation, and negatively associated with scores on the Compensation subscale of extrinsic motivation. Members of the medical faculty differ in motivational orientation for research depending on their academic status, and their motivation is associated more with requirements for academic advancement than with research. These findings have important implications for developing strategies for enhancing academic research production.

Influence of gravity on the orientation of vestibular induced quick phases.

Science.gov (United States)

Pettorossi, V E; Errico, P; Ferraresi, A; Draicchio, F

1995-01-01

In rabbits and cats the orientation of the quick phases (QPs) of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) was studied varying the head position in space. At different head tilt positions, QPs induced by step vestibular stimulation disaligned with respect to the stimulus toward the orientation of the earth's horizontal axis. The rabbits' QPs were horizontal during yaw stimulation and remained horizontal in a range of head pitch of +/- 90 degrees (reorientation gain = 1). Therefore, the slow compensatory responses (CSPs) progressively disaligned compared with the QPs. QPs induced by roll stimulation also showed horizontal orientation, although these were rare in the upright position and occurred more frequently when the head was pitched. In cats only the yaw-induced QPs were coplanar with the stimulus, while QPs induced by pitching were mostly oblique. It followed that in either yawing or pitching, the QPs had their end point scattered within a horizontally elongated area of the visual field. When tilting cats in the frontal plane, the orientation of QP trajectories changed with respect to the stimulus so that the end point distribution tended to remain aligned toward the horizontal instead of being fixed in the orbit. The reorientation gain decreased from 1 to 0.5 by increasing the head tilt. On the basis of difference regarding eye implantation and motility it was suggested that the effect of gravity on the orientation of QPs could be aimed at maintaining the interocular axis aligned with the horizon in the rabbit and at orientating the visual scanning system in the horizontal plane in the cat.

Object oriented programming

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunz, P.F.

1990-01-01

This paper is an introduction to object oriented programming techniques. It tries to explain the concepts by using analogies with traditional programming. The object oriented approach not inherently difficult, but most programmers find a relatively high threshold in learning it. Thus, this paper will attempt to convey the concepts with examples rather than explain the formal theory

Organizing for Customer and Competitor Orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe; Slater, Stanley F.

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of structural liaison devices, specialization, the presence of a marketing function, and competitive intensity as antecedents to firms' customer and competitor orientation. Results based on a sample of 99 medium-sized (50-250 employees......) manufacturing firms indicate, that while specialization and liaison devices facilitate customer orientation only liaison devices facilitate competitor orientation. Competitive intensity has no effects on customer orientation but influence competitor orientation. The results also indicate that the presence...... of a marketing function has no influence on the level of firms' customer and competitor orientation....

Modification of response functions of cat visual cortical cells by spatially congruent perturbing stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Kabara, J F; Bonds, A B

2001-12-01

Responses of cat striate cortical cells to a drifting sinusoidal grating were modified by the superimposition of a second, perturbing grating (PG) that did not excite the cell when presented alone. One consequence of the presence of a PG was a shift in the tuning curves. The orientation tuning of all 41 cells exposed to a PG and the spatial frequency tuning of 83% of the 23 cells exposed to a PG showed statistically significant dislocations of both the response function peak and center of mass from their single grating values. As found in earlier reports, the presence of PGs suppressed responsiveness. However, reductions measured at the single grating optimum orientation or spatial frequency were on average 1.3 times greater than the suppression found at the peak of the response function modified by the presence of the PG. Much of the loss in response seen at the single grating optimum is thus a result of a shift in the tuning function rather than outright suppression. On average orientation shifts were repulsive and proportional (approximately 0.10 deg/deg) to the angle between the perturbing stimulus and the optimum single grating orientation. Shifts in the spatial frequency response function were both attractive and repulsive, resulting in an overall average of zero. For both simple and complex cells, PGs generally broadened orientation response function bandwidths. Similarly, complex cell spatial frequency response function bandwidths broadened. Simple cell spatial frequency response functions usually did not change, and those that did broadened only 4% on average. These data support the hypothesis that additional sinusoidal components in compound stimuli retune cells' response functions for orientation and spatial frequency.

Response of the Pre-oriented Goal-directed Attention to Usual and Unusual Distractors: A Preliminary Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Golnaz Baghdadi

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Introduction: In this study, we investigated the distraction power of the unusual and usual images on the attention of 20 healthy primary school children. Methods: Our study was different from previous ones in that the participants were asked to fix the initial position of their attention on a pre-defined location after being presented with unusual images as distractors. The goals were presented in locations, which were far from the attraction basin of distractors. Our expectation was that the pre-orienting of the attention to the position of targets can reduce the attractive effect of unusual images compared to the usual ones. The percentage of correct responses and the reaction time have been measured as behavioral indicators of attention performance. Results: Results showed that using the goal-directed attention, subjects ignored both kinds of distractors nearly the same way. Conclusion: With regard to previous reports about the more attraction towards the unusual images, it is suggested that the dynamics of the visual attention system be sensitive to the initial condition. That is, changing the initial position of the attention can lead to the decrement of the unusual images’ effects. However, several other possibilities such as a probable delay in processing unusual features could explain this observation, too. 

Veteran satisfaction and treatment preferences in response to a posttraumatic stress disorder specialty clinic orientation group.

Science.gov (United States)

Schumm, Jeremiah A; Walter, Kristen H; Bartone, Anne S; Chard, Kathleen M

2015-06-01

To maximize accessibility to evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has widely disseminated cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure (PE) therapy to VA clinicians. However, there is a lack of research on veteran preferences when presented with a range of psychotherapy and medication options. This study uses a mixed-method approach to explore veteran satisfaction with a VA PTSD specialty clinic pre-treatment orientation group, which provides education about available PTSD treatment options. This study also tested differences in treatment preference in response to the group. Participants were 183 US veterans. Most were White, male, and referred to the clinic by a VA provider. Results indicated high satisfaction with the group in providing an overview of services and helping to inform treatment choice. Most preferred psychotherapy plus medications (63.4%) or psychotherapy only (30.1%). Participants endorsed a significantly stronger preference for CPT versus other psychotherapies. PE was significantly preferred over nightmare resolution therapy and present-centered therapy, and both PE and cognitive-behavioral conjoint therapy were preferred over virtual reality exposure therapy. Results suggest that by informing consumers about evidence-based treatments for PTSD, pre-treatment educational approaches may increase consumer demand for these treatment options. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Red orientalism: Mikhail Pavlovich and Marxist Oriental studies in early Soviet Russia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kemper, M.

2010-01-01

Marxist Oriental Studies in early Soviet Russia emerged in opposition to the 'bourgeois' Russian tradition of classical Oriental scholarship; rather than studying texts and history, Bolshevik Orientalists saw their task in providing the Soviet government with the necessary political and

Inculcation of Values across the School Curriculum: Development and Validation of Teachers' Orientation Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Sahari

1999-12-01

Full Text Available Teacher orientation to the inculcation of values across school curriculum-a function of the teacher knowledge and attitudes-has been conceptualised as his or her (1 identification with the goals of the curriculum, and (2 conformity with the predetermined instructional behaviours. Based on this framework, the study explored the construct of teacher orientation to the inculcation of values across school subjects. More specifically, the study examined the likelihood of two underlying dimensions explaining the presence of variability in teacher orientation and the reliability of the dimensions. Using a 15-item instrument developed earlier for a descriptive inquiry, the present study measured and analysed responses from 103 secondary school teachers from two randomly selected schools. To arrive at the conclusions, the study applied principal component analysis and Cronbach's alpha procedures. The results suggested that teacher orientation to value inculcation is a multidimensional construct. The more reliable dimensions of Teacher Orientation were found to be goal identification, conformity to planning tasks, and conformity to delivery tasks. The results add new information to, and may serve as a guide for future research.

Institutional Entrepreneurship and CSR within international SME’s : the added value for SMEs of employee-oriented CSR in foreign subsidiaries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, Dirk Johan; de Graaf, Frank Jan

2011-01-01

This paper develops propositions on the added value of normatively-based, employee-oriented corporate social responsibility, specifically on the issue whether an individual owner-manager can add value within a foreign subsidiary by means of normatively-based, employee-oriented CSR. We suggest that

Functional MRI as a tool for investigating networks underlying the orienting reflex

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lagopoulos, J.; Ward, P.B.; Rennie, C.; University of Sydney,; Williams, L.; Gordon, E.

2001-01-01

Full text: The 'Orienting Reflex' (OR) indexed by skin conductance response (SCR) is a physiological response to novel stimuli, orienting the organism to examine the stimulus in detail. The OR is also associated with lowering of thresholds in sensory-motor networks and preparation for action. The specific anatomical origins of the OR have long been speculated upon, and have primarily been derived from lesion studies on animals. Our group have developed a system to simultaneously acquire a measure of electrodermal orienting (SCR) with fMRI whilst the subject is undertaking an auditory oddball paradigm. The spatial and temporal resolution achievable with fMRI allows elucidation of the networks underlying the generation of ORs and their consequent inhibition with stimulus repetition. We tested five right handed healthy volunteers on an event related FMR paradigm using echoplanar MR images acquired on a 1.5T MRI scanner retrofitted with advanced NMR hardware using a standard head coil. The auditory oddball paradigm was delivered to the volunteers using a Silent Scan system with a button press response for target detection. SCR data was acquired simultaneously using an SCR device specifically designed for use in an MR environment. The significance (p<0.001)activation maps for the targets associated with an OR vs targets which did not elicit an OR, indicate a unilateral activation in the anterior thalamus, anterior cingulate gyrus and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Target stimuli with no OR (versus background stimuli) revealed activations bilaterally in the supramarginal gyrus, the right thalamus and the anterior cingulate gyrus. Copyright (2001) Australian Neuroscience Society

Centimetre-scale micropore alignment in oriented polycrystalline metal-organic framework films via heteroepitaxial growth.

Science.gov (United States)

Falcaro, Paolo; Okada, Kenji; Hara, Takaaki; Ikigaki, Ken; Tokudome, Yasuaki; Thornton, Aaron W; Hill, Anita J; Williams, Timothy; Doonan, Christian; Takahashi, Masahide

2017-03-01

The fabrication of oriented, crystalline films of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is a critical step toward their application to advanced technologies such as optics, microelectronics, microfluidics and sensing. However, the direct synthesis of MOF films with controlled crystalline orientation remains a significant challenge. Here we report a one-step approach, carried out under mild conditions, that exploits heteroepitaxial growth for the rapid fabrication of oriented polycrystalline MOF films on the centimetre scale. Our methodology employs crystalline copper hydroxide as a substrate and yields MOF films with oriented pore channels on scales that primarily depend on the dimensions of the substrate. To demonstrate that an anisotropic crystalline morphology can translate to a functional property, we assembled a centimetre-scale MOF film in the presence of a dye and showed that the optical response could be switched 'ON' or 'OFF' by simply rotating the film.

Influence of hydrides orientation on strain, damage and failure of hydrided zircaloy-4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Racine, A.

2005-09-01

In pressurized water reactors of nuclear power plants, fuel pellets are contained in cladding tubes, made of Zirconium alloy, for instance Zircaloy-4. During their life in the primary water of the reactor (155 bars, 300 C), cladding tubes are oxidized and consequently hydrided. A part of the hydrogen given off precipitates as Zirconium hydrides in the bulk material and embrittles the material. This embrittlement depends on many parameters, among which hydrogen content and orientation of hydrides with respect to the applied stress. This investigation is devoted to the influence of the orientation of hydrides with respect to the applied stress on strain, damage and failure mechanisms. Macroscopic and SEM in-situ ring tensile tests are performed on cladding tube material (unirradiated cold worked stress-relieved Zircaloy-4) hydrided with about 200 and 500 wppm hydrogen, and with different main hydrides orientation: either parallel or perpendicular to the circumferential tensile direction. We get the mechanical response of the material as a function of hydride orientation and hydrogen content and we investigate the deformation, damage and failure mechanisms. In both cases, digital image correlation techniques are used to estimate local and global strain distributions. Neither the tensile stress-strain response nor the global and local strain modes are significantly affected by hydrogen content or hydride orientation, but the failure modes are strongly modified. Indeed, only 200 wppm radial hydrides embrittle Zy-4: sample fail in the elastic domain at about 350 MPa before strain bands could develop; whereas in other cases sample reach at least 750 MPa before necking and final failure, in ductile or brittle mode. To model this particular heterogeneous material behavior, a non-coupled damage approach which takes into account the anisotropic distribution of the hydrides is proposed. Its parameters are identified from the macroscopic strain field measurements and a

What other's disappointment may do to selfish people: Emotion and social value orientation in a negotiation context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Kleef, G.A.; van Lange, P.A.M.

2008-01-01

The authors examined whether individual differences in social value orientation moderate responses to other’s expressions of disappointment in negotiation. The literature suggested competing hypotheses: First, prosocials are more responsive to other’s disappointment because they have a greater

Student-on-Student Sexual Orientation Harassment: Legal Protections for Sexual Minority Youth

Science.gov (United States)

Stader, David L.; Graca, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

Like all teens, sexual minority youths (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) face many challenges, including student-on-student sexual orientation harassment. The authors examine recent research into the relative frequency, the potential impact, and school district responsibility to protect sexual minority youths from ongoing…

Personal and Social Responsibility Among Athletes: the Role of Self-Determination, Achievement Goals and Engagement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martins Paulo

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between motivation, engagement and personal and social responsibility among athletes. Based on the literature, a survey was conducted including measures of motivation, considering task orientation and ego orientation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. We also measured the components of engagement (dedication, confidence, vigor and enthusiasm and the components of personal and social responsibility. A total of 517 athletes from different types of sports participated in the study. The results gathered through a structural equation model revealed that task orientation had the strongest relationship with personal responsibility and social responsibility, followed by engagement. Self-determination levels were not associated with personal and social responsibility. These results suggest that monitoring of task orientation and engagement levels should be performed by coaches as a strategy to develop personal and social responsibility among their athletes. Moreover, findings from this study provide scholars with a tool to aid them in managing athletes’ levels of personal and social responsibility.

Personal and Social Responsibility among Athletes: the Role of Self-Determination, Achievement Goals and Engagement

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Paulo; Rosado, António; Ferreira, Vítor; Biscaia, Rui

2017-01-01

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between motivation, engagement and personal and social responsibility among athletes. Based on the literature, a survey was conducted including measures of motivation, considering task orientation and ego orientation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. We also measured the components of engagement (dedication, confidence, vigor and enthusiasm) and the components of personal and social responsibility. A total of 517 athletes from different types of sports participated in the study. The results gathered through a structural equation model revealed that task orientation had the strongest relationship with personal responsibility and social responsibility, followed by engagement. Self-determination levels were not associated with personal and social responsibility. These results suggest that monitoring of task orientation and engagement levels should be performed by coaches as a strategy to develop personal and social responsibility among their athletes. Moreover, findings from this study provide scholars with a tool to aid them in managing athletes’ levels of personal and social responsibility. PMID:28713457

Personal and Social Responsibility among Athletes: the Role of Self-Determination, Achievement Goals and Engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Martins, Paulo; Rosado, António; Ferreira, Vítor; Biscaia, Rui

2017-06-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between motivation, engagement and personal and social responsibility among athletes. Based on the literature, a survey was conducted including measures of motivation, considering task orientation and ego orientation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. We also measured the components of engagement (dedication, confidence, vigor and enthusiasm) and the components of personal and social responsibility. A total of 517 athletes from different types of sports participated in the study. The results gathered through a structural equation model revealed that task orientation had the strongest relationship with personal responsibility and social responsibility, followed by engagement. Self-determination levels were not associated with personal and social responsibility. These results suggest that monitoring of task orientation and engagement levels should be performed by coaches as a strategy to develop personal and social responsibility among their athletes. Moreover, findings from this study provide scholars with a tool to aid them in managing athletes' levels of personal and social responsibility.

Orientational imaging of a single plasmonic nanoparticle using dark-field hyperspectral imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Mehta, Nishir; Mahigir, Amirreza; Veronis, Georgios; Gartia, Manas Ranjan

2017-08-01

Orientation of plasmonic nanostructures is an important feature in many nanoscale applications such as catalyst, biosensors DNA interactions, protein detections, hotspot of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET) experiments. However, due to diffraction limit, it is challenging to obtain the exact orientation of the nanostructure using standard optical microscope. Hyperspectral Imaging Microscopy is a state-of-the-art visualization technology that combines modern optics with hyperspectral imaging and computer system to provide the identification and quantitative spectral analysis of nano- and microscale structures. In this work, initially we use transmitted dark field imaging technique to locate single nanoparticle on a glass substrate. Then we employ hyperspectral imaging technique at the same spot to investigate orientation of single nanoparticle. No special tagging or staining of nanoparticle has been done, as more likely required in traditional microscopy techniques. Different orientations have been identified by carefully understanding and calibrating shift in spectral response from each different orientations of similar sized nanoparticles. Wavelengths recorded are between 300 nm to 900 nm. The orientations measured by hyperspectral microscopy was validated using finite difference time domain (FDTD) electrodynamics calculations and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The combination of high resolution nanometer-scale imaging techniques and the modern numerical modeling capacities thus enables a meaningful advance in our knowledge of manipulating and fabricating shaped nanostructures. This work will advance our understanding of the behavior of small nanoparticle clusters useful for sensing, nanomedicine, and surface sciences.

Object-Oriented Type Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schwartzbach, Michael Ignatieff; Palsberg, Jens

a type system that generalizes and explains them. The theory is based on an idealized object-oriented language called BOPL (Basic Object Programming Language), containing common features of the above languages. A type system, type inference algorithm, and typings of inheritance and genericity......Object-Oriented Type Systems Jens Palsberg and Michael I. Schwartzbach Aarhus University, Denmark Type systems are required to ensure reliability and efficiency of software. For object-oriented languages, typing is an especially challenging problem because of inheritance, assignment, and late...... are provided for BOPL. Throughout, the results are related to the languages on which BOPL is based. This text offers advanced undergraduates and professional software developers a sound understanding of the key aspects of object-oriented type systems. All algorithms are implemented in a freely available...

Resource specialization, customer orientation, and firm performance: an empirical investigation of valuable resources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Hans Eibe

2011-01-01

This study contributes to the strategic marketing research by empirically investigating the role of customer orientation in explaining how firms leverage their specialized but vulnerable resources. The aim is thus to explore a subset of the means by which resources become valuable to the firm...... – the first criterion for a strategic resource. Hypotheses are developed and tested using CEO questionnaire responses from a sample of manufacturing firms and census accounting data. The results show that there is a strong link between industry-specific resources and return on assets for firms with high...... levels of customer orientation. We also report that firm-specific resources are unrelated to firm performance and that a customer orientation – investigated in isolation, may be detrimental to firm performance. Research and managerial implications are discussed....

Exploring relationship between value- and life-orientation and job satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Louw

2012-12-01

manageability and comprehensibility were more important to managers than meaningfulness. A significant difference was found between meaningfulness and gender. In terms of cultural groups, significant differences between the average African and Indian and White and Indian meaningfulness scale scores were found. With regard to job satisfaction, there was generally a highly satisfied response to co-workers and a moderate satisfaction with work and supervisors. However, respondents were dissatisfied with pay and promotion. Additionally, significant relationships were found between some of the life- and value-orientation scales; the value-orientation and job satisfaction scales; and life-values and job satisfaction scales. Originality and/or value of research: This paper is based on original research and contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between value- and life-orientation and job satisfaction in a South African organisational context, as well as contributing towards empirical evidence of such relationships. Even though there seems to be a theoretical relationship between value and life-orientation, no empirical evidence to support this assertion has been found, highlighting the importance of this exploratory research. It has also been found that value-orientation is related to job satisfaction, and that life-orientation is related to job satisfaction. However, the theoretical link between life-orientation and job satisfaction has received relatively little research attention in South Africa, and empirical evidence to support this within a South African perspective is required. The findings of this exploratory research will also be of value to the selected organisation, and will provide information that can be used to develop intervention strategies. Conclusion: Managers in this parastatal highly value socially orientated values, indicating a strong in-group, mutual support and a concern for society, reflecting the vision and nature of the organisation

Development of symptoms-oriented operating procedures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colquhoun, R.

1984-01-01

Until recently, the formal treatment of control room procedures for upset conditions in nuclear power plants has been event-oriented. This orientation was not so much a reflection of power plant operating practice as it was a reflection of design-oriented thinking - design-basis events, therefore event-oriented procedures. Event orientation is not common in other professions. In the medical profession, for example, the stabilization of vital functions through a symptoms-oriented approach has priority over diagnosis and prognosis. The American nuclear power industry has initiated programs for the development and application of a symptoms-oriented approach for handling upset conditions. Canadian programs have independently paralleled the US programs. This article describes the rationale and current applications of the Canadian programs and identifies the relevance of a generic symptoms-based emergency procedure to current operating practices

Theories of Sexual Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Storms, Michael D.

1980-01-01

Results indicated homosexuals, heterosexuals, and bisexuals did not differ within each sex on measures of masculinity and femininity. Strong support was obtained for the hypothesis that sexual orientation relates primarily to erotic fantasy orientation. (Author/DB)

Orientation Club

CERN Multimedia

Club d'orientation

2014-01-01

COURSE ORIENTATION Résultats de samedi 10 mai    C’est sur une carte entièrement réactualisée dans les bois de Versoix, que plus de 100 coureurs sont venus participer à la course d’orientation, type longue distance, préparée par des membres du club du CERN. Le terrain plutôt plat nécessitait une orientation à grande vitesse, ce qui a donné les podiums suivants :  Technique long avec 17 postes : 1er Jurg Niggli, O’Jura en 52:48, 2e Beat Muller, COLJ Lausanne-Jorat en 58:02, 3e Christophe Vuitton, CO CERN en 58:19 Technique moyen avec 13 postes : 1er Jean-Bernard Zosso, CO CERN, en 46:05 ; 2e Yves Rousselot, Balise 25 Besançon, en 55:11 ; 3e Laurent Merat, O'Jura, en 55:13 Technique court avec 13 postes : 1er Julien Vuitton, CO CERN en 40:59, 2e Marc Baumgartner, CO CERN en 43:18, 3e Yaelle Mathieu en 51:42 Su...

Orientation masking and cross-orientation suppression (XOS): implications for estimates of filter bandwidth.

Science.gov (United States)

Meese, Tim S; Holmes, David J

2010-10-01

Most contemporary models of spatial vision include a cross-oriented route to suppression (masking from a broadly tuned inhibitory pool), which is most potent at low spatial and high temporal frequencies (T. S. Meese & D. J. Holmes, 2007). The influence of this pathway can elevate orientation-masking functions without exciting the target mechanism, and because early psychophysical estimates of filter bandwidth did not accommodate this, it is likely that they have been overestimated for this corner of stimulus space. Here we show that a transient 40% contrast mask causes substantial binocular threshold elevation for a transient vertical target, and this declines from a mask orientation of 0° to about 40° (indicating tuning), and then more gently to 90°, where it remains at a factor of ∼4. We also confirm that cross-orientation masking is diminished or abolished at high spatial frequencies and for sustained temporal modulation. We fitted a simple model of pedestal masking and cross-orientation suppression (XOS) to our data and those of G. C. Phillips and H. R. Wilson (1984) and found the dependency of orientation bandwidth on spatial frequency to be much less than previously supposed. An extension of our linear spatial pooling model of contrast gain control and dilution masking (T. S. Meese & R. J. Summers, 2007) is also shown to be consistent with our results using filter bandwidths of ±20°. Both models include tightly and broadly tuned components of divisive suppression. More generally, because XOS and/or dilution masking can affect the shape of orientation-masking curves, we caution that variations in bandwidth estimates might reflect variations in processes that have nothing to do with filter bandwidth.

Moral Orientation, Gender, and Salary.

Science.gov (United States)

Manning, Roger W.

A study examined the relationship among gender, moral orientation, and pay. Although the participants were about equal in terms of gender, 48 males and 53 females, males tended to hold higher degrees. The researcher hypothesized that salaries would be differentiated based on gender and moral orientation. Assumptions were that care-oriented males…

Volitional Mechanisms Mediate the Cuing Effect of Pitch on Attention Orienting: The Influences of Perceptual Difficulty and Response Pressure.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiou, Rocco; Rich, Anina N

2015-02-01

Our cognitive system tends to link auditory pitch with spatial location in a specific manner (ie high-pitched sounds are usually associated with an upper location, and low sounds are associated with a lower location). Recent studies have demonstrated that this cross-modality association biases the allocation of visual attention and affects performance despite the auditory stimuli being irrelevant to the behavioural task. There is, however, a discrepancy between studies in their interpretation of the underlying mechanisms. Whereas we have previously claimed that the pitch-location mapping is mediated by volitional shifts of attention (Chiou & Rich, 2012, Perception, 41: , 339-353), other researchers suggest that this cross-modal effect reflects automatic shifts of attention (Mossbridge, Grabowecky, & Suzuki, 2011, Cognition, 121: , 133-139). Here we report a series of three experiments examining the effects of perceptual and response-related pressure on the ability of nonpredictive pitch to bias visual attention. We compare it with two control cues: a predictive pitch that triggers voluntary attention shifts and a salient peripheral flash that evokes involuntary shifts. The results show that the effect of nonpredictive pitch is abolished by pressure at either perceptual or response levels. By contrast, the effects of the two control cues remain significant, demonstrating the robustness of informative and perceptually salient stimuli in directing attention. This distinction suggests that, in contexts of high perceptual demand and response pressure, cognitive resources are primarily engaged by the task-relevant stimuli, which effectively prevents uninformative pitch from orienting attention to its cross-modally associated location. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the link between pitch and location affects attentional deployment via volitional rather than automatic mechanisms. © 2015 SAGE Publications.

Different facets of market orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ormrod, Robert P.; Henneberg, Stephan C.

2009-01-01

the UK parties generally exhibited similar levels of market orientation on each of the relevant construct dimensions, the German parties had more distinct profiles; thus the applied dimensions of political market orientation show discriminatory power within and across electoral systems. In the UK......In this study we employ the concept of political market orientation to better understand how the main political parties in the UK and Germany relate to other stakeholders in the political sphere through an exploratory content analysis of their core election offering, the manifesto. This study has...... two aims: firstly, we will discuss the different facets of the market orientation of the main UK and German parties in their respective 2005 General Elections through an exploratory content analysis, and secondly, we will compare characteristics of market orientation between the two countries. Whilst...

Integrating traditional nursing service orientation content with electronic medical record orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Harton, Brenda B; Borrelli, Larry; Knupp, Ann; Rogers, Necolen; West, Vickie R

2009-01-01

Traditional nursing service orientation classes at an acute care hospital were integrated with orientation to the electronic medical record to blend the two components in a user-friendly format so that the learner is introduced to the culture, processes, and documentation methods of the organization, with an opportunity to document online in a practice domain while lecture and discussion information is fresh.

Problem-Oriented Project Work

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Poul Bitsch; Pedersen, Nils Kaare

This book is meant to support problem-oriented learning activities. Problem-orientation concerns the reasoning about lack of knowledge, while project work includes the ethnomethods that are practiced when collectives produce scientific knowledge. This book reflects particular methods related...

Western Image of the Orient and Oriental in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile: A Postcolonial Reading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mevlüde ZENGİN

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to read Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile (1937, a Hercule Poirot detective novel from a postcolonial stand in general but in particular it seeks traces of Orientalism in it. Expertly plotted and set in Egypt, an exotic background, Death on the Nile is analyzed in this study, through Edward W. Said’s critique of Orientalism, to detect the novel’s projection of the Orient and oriental. Orientalism is defined by Edward Said in his groundbreaking book Orientalism (1978 as a scholarly discipline involving the negative portrayal of the East and eastern people, values and culture by westerners and as western construction of the Orient in occidental discourse through western perspective. Composed of two sections the essay begins with a brief introduction to postcolonial criticism and the critique of Orientalism. Next Death on the Nile is analyzed in the light of the criticism of Orientalism in the second section. The projection of the Orient and oriental people, places, values, concepts and so forth detected in the novel are presented in two subsections of this part. The study concludes that Death on the Nilebeing a detective novel has an orientalist quality when it comes to the reflection of the Orient and oriental though Christie does not foreground this quality of the novel. Another conclusion reached at the end of this study is that for Christie, the Queen of detective fiction has been considered to be a best-selling novelist of all time, her novel, Death on the Nile with its orientalist attitude to the East and easterner, must have contributed to the construction of a negative and false image of the Orient in western mind and discourse

Gender orientation and alcohol-related weight control behavior among male and female college students.

Science.gov (United States)

Peralta, Robert L; Barr, Peter B

2017-01-01

We examine weight control behavior used to (a) compensate for caloric content of heavy alcohol use; and (b) enhance the psychoactive effects of alcohol among college students. We evaluate the role of gender orientation and sex. Participants completed an online survey (N = 651; 59.9% women; 40.1% men). Weight control behavior was assessed via the Compensatory-Eating-and-Behaviors-in Response-to-Alcohol-Consumption-Scale. Control variables included sex, race/ethnicity, age, and depressive symptoms. Gender orientation was measured by the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The prevalence and probability of alcohol-related weight control behavior using ordinal logistic regression are reported. Men and women do not significantly differ in compensatory-weight-control-behavior. However, regression models suggest that recent binge drinking, other substance use, and masculine orientation are positively associated with alcohol-related weight control behavior. Sex was not a robust predictor of weight control behavior. Masculine orientation should be considered a possible risk factor for these behaviors and considered when designing prevention and intervention strategies.

Report of the Orientation Workshop

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nunez, Heilyn Camacho; Buus, Lillian; Ogange, Betty

2014-01-01

This Orientation Workshops is part of MAAGART project. The workshop is divided in three parts: 1) pre-Orientation Workshop stage, 2) Face-to-Face stage and 3) post-Orientation stage. Pre and post stages will be developed online. All the activities will take place in a virtual learning environment...... created for this purpose. Participants will receive all the information about how to access the virtual learning environment (Moodle) prior to the pre-orientation workshop. In this report we cover only the two first stages. Jørgen Bang, as a part of the Community of Practice activity, will be facilitating...

The primary visual cortex in the neural circuit for visual orienting

Science.gov (United States)

Zhaoping, Li

The primary visual cortex (V1) is traditionally viewed as remote from influencing brain's motor outputs. However, V1 provides the most abundant cortical inputs directly to the sensory layers of superior colliculus (SC), a midbrain structure to command visual orienting such as shifting gaze and turning heads. I will show physiological, anatomical, and behavioral data suggesting that V1 transforms visual input into a saliency map to guide a class of visual orienting that is reflexive or involuntary. In particular, V1 receives a retinotopic map of visual features, such as orientation, color, and motion direction of local visual inputs; local interactions between V1 neurons perform a local-to-global computation to arrive at a saliency map that highlights conspicuous visual locations by higher V1 responses. The conspicuous location are usually, but not always, where visual input statistics changes. The population V1 outputs to SC, which is also retinotopic, enables SC to locate, by lateral inhibition between SC neurons, the most salient location as the saccadic target. Experimental tests of this hypothesis will be shown. Variations of the neural circuit for visual orienting across animal species, with more or less V1 involvement, will be discussed. Supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Dipolar particles in a double-trap confinement: Response to tilting the dipolar orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Bjerlin, J.; Bengtsson, J.; Deuretzbacher, F.; Kristinsdóttir, L. H.; Reimann, S. M.

2018-02-01

We analyze the microscopic few-body properties of dipolar particles confined in two parallel quasi-one-dimensional harmonic traps. In particular, we show that an adiabatic rotation of the dipole orientation about the trap axes can drive an initially nonlocalized few-fermion state into a localized state with strong intertrap pairing. With an instant, nonadiabatic rotation, however, localization is inhibited and a highly excited state is reached. This state may be interpreted as the few-body analog of a super-Tonks-Girardeau state, known from one-dimensional systems with contact interactions.

Synaptic Mechanisms Generating Orientation Selectivity in the ON Pathway of the Rabbit Retina.

Science.gov (United States)

Venkataramani, Sowmya; Taylor, W Rowland

2016-03-16

Neurons that signal the orientation of edges within the visual field have been widely studied in primary visual cortex. Much less is known about the mechanisms of orientation selectivity that arise earlier in the visual stream. Here we examine the synaptic and morphological properties of a subtype of orientation-selective ganglion cell in the rabbit retina. The receptive field has an excitatory ON center, flanked by excitatory OFF regions, a structure similar to simple cell receptive fields in primary visual cortex. Examination of the light-evoked postsynaptic currents in these ON-type orientation-selective ganglion cells (ON-OSGCs) reveals that synaptic input is mediated almost exclusively through the ON pathway. Orientation selectivity is generated by larger excitation for preferred relative to orthogonal stimuli, and conversely larger inhibition for orthogonal relative to preferred stimuli. Excitatory orientation selectivity arises in part from the morphology of the dendritic arbors. Blocking GABAA receptors reduces orientation selectivity of the inhibitory synaptic inputs and the spiking responses. Negative contrast stimuli in the flanking regions produce orientation-selective excitation in part by disinhibition of a tonic NMDA receptor-mediated input arising from ON bipolar cells. Comparison with earlier studies of OFF-type OSGCs indicates that diverse synaptic circuits have evolved in the retina to detect the orientation of edges in the visual input. A core goal for visual neuroscientists is to understand how neural circuits at each stage of the visual system extract and encode features from the visual scene. This study documents a novel type of orientation-selective ganglion cell in the retina and shows that the receptive field structure is remarkably similar to that of simple cells in primary visual cortex. However, the data indicate that, unlike in the cortex, orientation selectivity in the retina depends on the activity of inhibitory interneurons. The

THE MEDIATING EFFECT OF PROACTIVE MARKET ORIENTATION CAPABILITY IN ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND SERVICE INNOVATION

OpenAIRE

CANTALEANO, KAREN RAPHAELE; RODRIGUES, GRAZIELA PERRETTO; MARTINS, TOMAS SPARANO

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of this article is to verify the mediating effect of a proactive market orientation capability in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and service innovation in micro and small companies in the food-away from home sector. We analyzed the mediating effect of a marketing capability (proactive market capability) because, according to Morgan et al. (2009), a capability is an ability developed from a strategic orientation, and capabilities and or...

Response of oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), eggs to gamma radiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silva, W.D., E-mail: weliton.silva@usp.b [Department of Entomology and Acarology, Laboratory of Chemical Ecology and Insect Behavior, University of Sao Paulo, ' Luiz de Queiroz' College of Agriculture, Padua Dias Avenue, 11, 13418-900 Piracicaba (Brazil); Arthur, V.; Mastrangelo, T. [Food Irradiation and Radioentomology Laboratory, Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA/USP), Centenario Avenue 303, 13400-970 Piracicaba (Brazil)

2010-10-15

As insects increase in radiotolerance as they develop and usually several developmental stages of the pest may be present in the fresh shipped commodity, it is important to know the radiation susceptibility of the stages of the target insect before the establishment of ionizing radiation quarantine treatments. This study was performed to determine the radiotolerance of eggs of the oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), to gamma radiation. This species is considered as one of the most serious worldwide pests for temperate fruits, especially peaches. Eggs (12 h old) were exposed to 0 (control), 25, 35, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 Gy of gamma radiation. Surviving larvae were allowed to feed on an artificial diet. Three days after irradiation, it was verified that larvae's cephalic capsules were significantly affected by gamma radiation, and the estimated mean LD{sub 90} and LD{sub 99} were 66.3 Gy and 125.8 Gy, respectively. Oriental fruit moth eggs revealed to be quite radiosensitive and very low doses as 50 Gy were sufficient to disrupt G. molesta embryogenesis. At 25 Gy, only male adults originated from the surviving larvae and, after mating with untreated fertile females, shown to be sterile.

Wildlife value orientations among hunters, landowners and the general public

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gamborg, Christian; Jensen, Frank Søndergaard

2016-01-01

This article examined wildlife value orientations among hunters (n = 1,130) and landowners (n = 1,207) in comparison to the general public (n = 1,001 adults) in Denmark, a highly urbanized European country. Respondents were categorized into four value types based on their responses to 19 statements....... Significant differences in wildlife value orientations were found. Mutualists and distanced dominated in the public; most landowners and hunters were utilitarian followed by pluralist. Male hunters were more utilitarian than female. More active hunters were more utilitarian; hunters belonging to a hunting...... association were more utilitarian than those who did not belong to associations. Full-time farmers were more utilitarian than part-time farmers, and conventional farmers were more utilitarian than organic farmers. No significant difference with regard to residence for all three groups was found. Future...

Market Orientation and Innovators’ Success: an Exploration of the Influence of Customer and Competitor Orientation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Lewrick

2011-08-01

Full Text Available The concepts of market orientation and innovation and their interrelationship with business success have been explored from a number of perspectives. However, research in this area has not explored the differences between start-up and mature companies. The research study acquired data from over two hundred Chief Operating Officers (CEO’s and Managing Directors from both start-up and mature companies. The results illustrate the differences in both types of company and reveals new insights with regard to market orientation and its constituent elements and its relationship with both incremental and radical innovations. Key research results are that strong competitor orientation, a key ingredient of market orientation, has positive relationship to incremental innovation for start-up companies but it is contra productive for mature companies. In mature organizations a strong customer orientation is associated with radical innovation.

The influence of preferred orientation and poling temperature on the polarization switching current in PZT thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xiao, Mi; Zhang, Weikang; Zhang, Zebin; Zhang, Ping [Tianjin University, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin (China); Lan, Kuibo [Tianjin University, School of Microelectronics, Tianjin (China)

2017-07-15

In this paper, Pb(Zr{sub 0.52}Ti{sub 0.48})O{sub 3} (PZT) thin films with different preferred orientation were prepared on platinized silicon substrates by a modified sol-gel method. Our results indicate that the polarization switching current in PZT thin films is dependent on preferred orientation and poling temperature. In our measurements, (111)-oriented PZT has a larger polarization switching current than randomly oriented PZT, and with the increase of the degree of (111) preferred orientation and the poling temperature, the polarization switching current gradually increase. Considering the contact of PZT thin film with electrodes, the space-charged limited conduction (SCLC) combined with domain switching mechanism may be responsible for such phenomena. By analyzing the conduction data, we found the interface-limited Schottky emission (ES) and bulk-limited Poole-Frenkel hopping (PF) are not suitable for our samples. (orig.)

Attitudes vs. Purchase Behaviors as Experienced Dissonance: The Roles of Knowledge and Consumer Orientations in Organic Market.

Science.gov (United States)

Hidalgo-Baz, María; Martos-Partal, Mercedes; González-Benito, Óscar

2017-01-01

This research focuses on the incongruity between positive attitudinal responses but a lack of purchase behavior in organic markets. According to cognitive dissonance theory, consumer orientations toward the benefits attributed to organic products (environmental protection, health, hedonic) relieve the dissonance that results from this attitude-behavior incongruity. Knowledge also functions as a transmitter, from positive attitudes to purchase behaviors, thereby reducing the incongruity. Using quota sampling in a survey study, this paper tests the hypotheses from linear regression models. The results show that orientations and knowledge improve the congruity between attitudes and purchase behaviors toward organic products. Moreover, interaction effects arise between the environmental protection orientation and knowledge and between the hedonic orientation and knowledge. Increasing knowledge mitigates the difference between attitudes and purchase behaviors, especially for consumers with environmental protection or hedonic orientations. These findings have several important implications for research and practice.

Attitudes vs. Purchase Behaviors as Experienced Dissonance: The Roles of Knowledge and Consumer Orientations in Organic Market

Science.gov (United States)

Hidalgo-Baz, María; Martos-Partal, Mercedes; González-Benito, Óscar

2017-01-01

This research focuses on the incongruity between positive attitudinal responses but a lack of purchase behavior in organic markets. According to cognitive dissonance theory, consumer orientations toward the benefits attributed to organic products (environmental protection, health, hedonic) relieve the dissonance that results from this attitude–behavior incongruity. Knowledge also functions as a transmitter, from positive attitudes to purchase behaviors, thereby reducing the incongruity. Using quota sampling in a survey study, this paper tests the hypotheses from linear regression models. The results show that orientations and knowledge improve the congruity between attitudes and purchase behaviors toward organic products. Moreover, interaction effects arise between the environmental protection orientation and knowledge and between the hedonic orientation and knowledge. Increasing knowledge mitigates the difference between attitudes and purchase behaviors, especially for consumers with environmental protection or hedonic orientations. These findings have several important implications for research and practice. PMID:28286489

The Market Orientation and Performance Relationship: An Empirical Study in Private Universities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sefnedi Sefnedi

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study examines the empirical link between three dimensions of market orientation, namely, student orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination, and private university performance in Kopertis X. The study was based on an empirical investigation of private universities located in Indonesia’s provinces of West Sumatera, Riau, Jambi, and Riau Islands. The primary data for the study were collected from a self-administered mail survey of 237 questionnaires from the private university resulting in a sample of 114 usable responses being returned. From the application of the multiple regression analysis it was concluded that all three dimensions of market orientation had a significant impact on private university performance. Student orientation as a predictor variable is the strongest predictor of private university performance then followed by competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination. Bahasa Indonesia Abstrak: Penelitian ini menguji hubungan empiris antara tiga dimensi orientasi pasar, yaitu, orientasi mahasiswa, orientasi pesaing dan koordinasi antar-fungsional dan kinerja perguruan tinggi swasta di Kopertis X. Penelitian ini didasarkan pada penyelidikan empiris pada universitas swasta yang berada di provinsi Sumatera Barat, Riau, Jambi, dan Kepulaian Riau. Data primer dikumpulkan dari survei dimana dari 237 kuesioner yang disebarkan pada universitas swasta, diperoleh 114 kuesioner yang dikembalikan dan dapat digunakan sebagai sampel. Berdasarkan hasil analisis regresi berganda dapat disimpulkan bahwa ketiga dimensi orientasi pasar memiliki dampak yang signifikan terhadap kinerja perguruan tinggi swasta. Orientasi mahasiswa sebagai variabel prediktor terkuat terhadap kinerja perguruan tinggi swasta kemudian diikuti oleh orientasi pesaing, dan koordinasi antar-fungsional.

Future-Oriented LCA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Stig Irving; Borup, Mads; Andersen, Per Dannemand

2018-01-01

LCA is often applied for decision-making that concerns actions reaching near or far into the future. However, traditional life cycle assessment methodology must be adjusted for the prospective and change-oriented purposes, but no standardised way of doing this has emerged yet. In this chapter some...... challenges are described and some learnings are derived. Many of the future-oriented LCAs published so far perform relatively short-term prediction of simple comparisons. But for more long-term time horizons foresight methods can be of help. Scenarios established by qualified experts about future...... technological and economic developments are indispensable in future technology assessments. The uncertainties in future-oriented LCAs are to a large extent qualitative and it is important to emphasise that LCA of future technologies will provide a set of answers and not ‘the’ answer....

The theory of experience orientation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Legaard

2012-01-01

This paper describes the theory of experience orientation, which builds on the division of experiences in two categories: Goal-oriented and Omni-oriented. The theory comes from preliminary studies of userexperiences in a work-context, where I have found this distinction to be beneficial....... In this paper I explain the theory behind it and the practical application of such a distinction when designing for an experience....

Supporting parent-child interactions: music therapy as an intervention for promoting mutually responsive orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pasiali, Varvara

2012-01-01

Music therapists working with families address relationship and interpersonal communication issues. Few controlled studies exist in the literature but a growing body of documented practice is emerging. This study makes a contribution by documenting how music therapy supports mutuality and reciprocity in parent-child interactions. This study investigated mutually responsive orientation (MRO) behaviors of young children (aged 3-5) and their family members during music therapy. Participants were 4 families with low income and history of maternal depression as common risk factors. Data were collected by videotaping sessions, creating field notes and analytic memos, conducting parent interviews and reviewing parent journals. A cross-case analysis using MRO theory as a conceptualizing framework was used for the purpose of data reduction. Greeting and farewell rituals, and the flexibility of music-based therapeutic applications facilitated development of coordinated routines. Therapist's actions (e.g., encouraging and modeling musical interactions) and bidirectional parent-child actions (e.g., joint attention, turn-taking, being playful) facilitated harmonious communication. Behaviors promoting mutual cooperation were evident when adults attempted to scaffold a child's participation or when children sought comfort from parents, engaged in social referencing and made requests that shaped the direction of the session. The novelty of musical tasks captivated attention, increasing impulse inhibition. Parent actions (e.g., finding delight in watching their child participate, acting silly) and parent-child interactions (e.g., play exploration, shared excitement, cuddling) contributed to positive emotional ambiance. Music therapy assisted development of MRO within parent-child dyads by providing opportunities to rehearse adaptive ways of connecting with each other. Results of this study may serve as an archetypal model guiding clinical treatment planning.

The Impact of Alternative Market Orientation Strategies on Firm Performance: Customer versus Competitor Orientation

OpenAIRE

Micheels, Eric T.; Gow, Hamish R.

2010-01-01

Research studies have differed over the importance of the relative emphasis of a customer versus competitor orientation in the development of a market orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Tajeddini, 2010). In this study, we assess whether the emphasis of one component over another of a market orientation is an important determinant of firm performance within the Illinois beef industry, specifically the cow-calf sector. Using a series of OLS regressions, we examine the importance of a market ...

EDITORIAL: Optical orientation Optical orientation

Science.gov (United States)

SAME ADDRESS *, Yuri; Landwehr, Gottfried

2008-11-01

priority of the discovery in the literature, which was partly caused by the existence of the Iron Curtain. I had already enjoyed contact with Boris in the 1980s when the two volumes of Landau Level Spectroscopy were being prepared [2]. He was one of the pioneers of magneto-optics in semiconductors. In the 1950s the band structure of germanium and silicon was investigated by magneto-optical methods, mainly in the United States. No excitonic effects were observed and the band structure parameters were determined without taking account of excitons. However, working with cuprous oxide, which is a direct semiconductor with a relative large energy gap, Zakharchenya and his co-worker Seysan showed that in order to obtain correct band structure parameters, it is necessary to take excitons into account [3]. About 1970 Boris started work on optical orientation. Early work by Hanle in Germany in the 1920s on the depolarization of luminescence in mercury vapour by a transverse magnetic field was not appreciated for a long time. Only in the late 1940s did Kastler and co-workers in Paris begin a systematic study of optical pumping, which led to the award of a Nobel prize. The ideas of optical pumping were first applied by Georges Lampel to solid state physics in 1968. He demonstrated optical orientation of free carriers in silicon. The detection method was nuclear magnetic resonance; optically oriented free electrons dynamically polarized the 29Si nuclei of the host lattice. The first optical detection of spin orientation was demonstrated by with the III-V semiconductor GaSb by Parsons. Due to the various interaction mechanisms of spins with their environment, the effects occurring in semiconductors are naturally more complex than those in atoms. Optical detection is now the preferred method to detect spin alignment in semiconductors. The orientation of spins in crystals pumped with circularly polarized light is deduced from the degree of circular polarization of the recombination

Judgment of Line Orientation Depends on Gender, Education, and Type of Error

Science.gov (United States)

Caparelli-Daquer, Egas M.; Oliveira-Souza, Ricardo; Filho, Pedro F. Moreira

2009-01-01

Visuospatial tasks are particularly proficient at eliciting gender differences during neuropsychological performance. Here we tested the hypothesis that gender and education are related to different types of visuospatial errors on a task of line orientation that allowed the independent scoring of correct responses ("hits", or H) and one type of…

The implementation of process orientation at a Swedish hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Fältholm, Ylva; Jansson, Anna

2008-01-01

During the last decade, as a response to the need for inter- as well as intra-organizational integration, management models initially developed for industry have been spread to health care organizations. Based on 62 in-depth interviews, this qualitative study aims at describing and analyzing the limited success of implementation of process orientation at a Swedish hospital and in doing so, the traditional and the critical approaches are combined. Applying a traditional approach, the limited success of the implementation of process orientation is explained in terms of difficulties to challenge deeply institutionalized organizational routines and the inter-disciplinary boundaries. This might be condensed to the dilemma of how to maintain and develop the specialization of the medical profession while focusing process rather than function and how to enhance inter-organizational integration without hampering intra-organizational collaboration. Applying a critical approach, the limited success is explained in terms of a differentiated translation process and in terms of separation of talk and practice. This means that process orientation, notwithstanding that it might be an efficient tool for the type of integration needed, might be regarded as part of a change discourse, aiming at conveying a picture of an efficient and modern organization.

Pro-Social Goals in Achievement Situations: Amity Goal Orientation Enhances the Positive Effects of Mastery Goal Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Levontin, Liat; Bardi, Anat

2018-04-01

Research has neglected the utility of pro-social goals within achievement situations. In this article, four studies demonstrate that amity goal orientation, promoting mutual success of oneself together with others, enhances the utility of mastery goal orientation. We demonstrate this in longitudinally predicting performance (Studies 1 and 2) and in maintaining motivation after a disappointing performance (Studies 3 and 4). The studies demonstrate the same interaction effect in academic and in work achievement contexts. Specifically, whereas amity goal orientation did not predict achievement on its own, it enhanced the positive effect of mastery goal orientation. Together, these studies establish the importance of amity goal orientation while also advancing our understanding of the effects of other achievement goal orientations. We suggest future directions in examining the utility of amity goals in other contexts.

Orientation aspects of growth during recrystallization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Juul Jensen, D.

1997-04-01

Recrystallization of heavily cold rolled aluminium and copper is studied with the aim of achieving information about effects of crystallography orientation on the growth process. The potentials of several experimental techniques are analysed, and a method well suited for characterizing growth rates of grains with different orientations is developed. This method, which is referred to as the extended Cahn-Hagel method, is used for growth rate determinations in aluminium and copper deformed and annealed under five different conditions. In all the investigated cases, preferential growth of cube oriented grains is observed. Recrystallization models, which simulates the orientational as well as microstructural development, are described. selected models are applied for studies of recrystallization in aluminium and copper under specific deformation and annealing conditions as well as for more general studies of the effects of orientation dependent growth rates on the recrystallization microstructure and texture. Finally, reasons for the observed orientation dependent growth rates are discussed. A new mechanism, orientation pinning, is suggested and it is shown that this mechanism is necessary for the understanding of experimental results. (au) 4 tabs., 41 ills., 153 refs

Orientation aspects of growth during recrystallization

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Juul Jensen, D.

1997-04-01

Recrystallization of heavily cold rolled aluminium and copper is studied with the aim of achieving information about effects of crystallography orientation on the growth process. The potentials of several experimental techniques are analysed, and a method well suited for characterizing growth rates of grains with different orientations is developed. This method, which is referred to as the extended Cahn-Hagel method, is used for growth rate determinations in aluminium and copper deformed and annealed under five different conditions. In all the investigated cases, preferential growth of cube oriented grains is observed. Recrystallization models, which simulates the orientational as well as microstructural development, are described. selected models are applied for studies of recrystallization in aluminium and copper under specific deformation and annealing conditions as well as for more general studies of the effects of orientation dependent growth rates on the recrystallization microstructure and texture. Finally, reasons for the observed orientation dependent growth rates are discussed. A new mechanism, orientation pinning, is suggested and it is shown that this mechanism is necessary for the understanding of experimental results. (au) 4 tabs., 41 ills., 153 refs.

Factors associated with students' orientations to nursing.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanhanen, L; Janhonen, S

2000-05-01

Factors associated with students' orientations to nursing This paper presents the results of a study focusing on the factors associated with orientations to nursing. Students' orientations to nursing have not as yet been a focus of nursing research. In some other professions, however, professional orientation has been associated with learning motivation and study performance, and has been seen as a predictor of work satisfaction. In this study, students' orientations to nursing were defined in terms of caring, nursing expertise and life orientation. The hypothesis of whether students' pre-educational experiences of nursing, gender, choice of nursing specialty, problems with nursing studies and intention to stay in nursing were associated with different orientations was tested. The extent to which students were orientated to caring, nursing expertise and their own life was also examined. The orientation to nursing measurement tool, which has been developed on the basis of a qualitative study, was used to collect the data. Nurse teachers collected the data from nursing students (n=184) who were studying in three different nursing programmes in Finland. Non-parametric assessments (Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test) of the differences between the students' orientations were carried out. A majority of the students were highly life-orientated, and two-thirds had average nursing expertise or caring orientation scores. The results supported the study hypothesis of an association between students' orientations and their gender, choice of nursing speciality, problems with nursing studies and intention to stay in nursing. However, the hypothesis of an association between students' pre-educational nursing experiences and orientation to nursing was not supported. The contradictions between students' orientation to nursing and the philosophy of nursing underlying the study programme may be a source of motivational problems and dissatisfaction with nursing education

TBV 361 RESOLUTION ANALYSIS: EMPLACEMENT DRIFT ORIENTATION

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, M.; Kicker, D.C.; Sellers, M.D.

1999-01-01

The purpose of this To Be Verified/To Be Determined (TBX) resolution analysis is to release ''To Be Verified'' (TBV)-361 related to the emplacement drift orientation. The system design criterion in ''Subsurface Facility System Description Document'' (CRWMS M andO 1998a, p.9) specifies that the emplacement drift orientation relative to the dominant joint orientations should be at least 30 degrees. The specific objectives for this analysis include the following: (1) Collect and evaluate key block data developed for the repository host horizon rock mass. (2) Assess the dominant joint orientations based on available fracture data. (3) Document the maximum block size as a function of drift orientation. (4) Assess the applicability of the drift orientation/joint orientation offset criterion in the ''Subsurface Facility System Description Document'' (CRWMS M andO 1998a, p.9). (5) Consider the effects of seepage on drift orientation. (6) Verify that the viability assessment (VA) drift orientation complies with the drift orientation/joint orientation offset criterion, or provide justifications and make recommendations for modifying the VA emplacement drift layout. In addition to providing direct support to the System Description Document (SDD), the release of TBV-361 will provide support to the Repository Subsurface Design Department. The results from this activity may also provide data and information needs to support the MGR Requirements Department, the MGR Safety Assurance Department, and the Performance Assessment Organization

The importance of a servant leader orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Jenkins, Marjorie; Stewart, Alice C

2010-01-01

Ensuring a quality nursing workforce for the future in a time of increasing labor shortage and declining nurse satisfaction is a key challenge to the health care industry. Understanding what impacts job satisfaction is vital to solving the problem of nurse attrition. We suggest that the approach to supporting staff in the care giving role requires additional expectations of managers who supervise inpatient nursing staff. This study empirically tested the impact of nurse managers' servant leadership orientation on nurse job satisfaction. Nurses providing direct bedside patient care within inpatient departments of a five-hospital system were asked to respond to four questionnaires. Seventeen departments participated. There were 346 available nurses across the departments. The average response rate was 73% across all of the units surveyed. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression analysis of the nurse-nurse manager dyad. Statistical findings of this study provided evidence that behaviors and attitudes of the nurse manager do impact employee job satisfaction. Departments where staff perceived that managers had higher servant leadership orientation demonstrated significant positive impact on individual employee job satisfaction. Nursing is a unique occupation in that it requires both competence in professional service and compassion in patient caregiving. Hospitals are not factories dealing with inanimate objects or data. The results of this research suggested that the management approach in a health care environment might be enhanced by a more servant-oriented management approach. Specific policy changes that may be implied on the basis of findings of this research include key areas of management selection, management development, and management reward/evaluation.

Watch out! Magnetoencephalographic evidence for early modulation of attention orienting by fearful gaze cueing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fanny Lachat

Full Text Available Others' gaze and emotional facial expression are important cues for the process of attention orienting. Here, we investigated with magnetoencephalography (MEG whether the combination of averted gaze and fearful expression may elicit a selectively early effect of attention orienting on the brain responses to targets. We used the direction of gaze of centrally presented fearful and happy faces as the spatial attention orienting cue in a Posner-like paradigm where the subjects had to detect a target checkerboard presented at gazed-at (valid trials or non gazed-at (invalid trials locations of the screen. We showed that the combination of averted gaze and fearful expression resulted in a very early attention orienting effect in the form of additional parietal activity between 55 and 70 ms for the valid versus invalid targets following fearful gaze cues. No such effect was obtained for the targets following happy gaze cues. This early cue-target validity effect selective of fearful gaze cues involved the left superior parietal region and the left lateral middle occipital region. These findings provide the first evidence for an effect of attention orienting induced by fearful gaze in the time range of C1. In doing so, they demonstrate the selective impact of combined gaze and fearful expression cues in the process of attention orienting.

Intact reflexive but deficient voluntary social orienting in autism spectrum disorder

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan Anne Kirchgessner

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Impairment in social interactions is a primary characteristic of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD. Although these individuals tend to orient less to naturalistic social cues than do typically developing (TD individuals, laboratory experiments testing social orienting in ASD have been inconclusive, possibly because of a failure to fully isolate reflexive (stimulus-driven and voluntary (goal-directed social orienting processes. The purpose of the present study was to separately examine potential reflexive and/or voluntary social orienting differences in individuals with ASD relative to TD controls. Subjects (ages 7-14 with high-functioning ASD and a matched control group completed three gaze cueing tasks on an iPad in which individuals briefly saw a face with averted gaze followed by a target after a variable delay. Two tasks were 100% predictive with either all congruent (target appears in gaze direction or all incongruent (target appears opposite from gaze direction trials, respectively. Another task was non-predictive with these same trials (half congruent and half incongruent intermixed randomly. Response times (RTs to the target were used to calculate reflexive (incongruent condition RT – congruent condition RT and voluntary (non-predictive condition RT – predictive condition RT gaze cueing effects. Subjects also completed two additional non-social orienting tasks (ProPoint and AntiPoint. Subjects with ASD demonstrate intact reflexive but deficient voluntary gaze following. Similar results were found in a separate test of non-social orienting. This suggests problems with using social cues, but only in a goal-directed fashion, in our sample of high-functioning individuals with ASD. Such findings may not only explain inconclusive previous findings but more importantly be critical for understanding social dysfunctions in ASD and for developing future interventions.

Orientation damage in the Christchurch cemeteries generated during the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010

Science.gov (United States)

Martín-González, Fidel; Perez-Lopez, Raul; Rodrigez-Pascua, Miguel Angel; Martin-Velazquez, Silvia

2014-05-01

The intensity scales determined the damage caused by an earthquake. However, a new methodology takes into account not only the damage but the type of damage "Earthquake Archaeological Effects" EAE's, and its orientation (e.g. displaced masonry blocks, impact marks, conjugated fractures, fallen and oriented columns, dipping broken corners, etc.). It focuses not only on the amount of damage but also in its orientation, giving information about the ground motion during the earthquake. In 2010 an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 took place in Christchurch (New Zealand) (22-2-2010), 185 casualties, making it the second-deadliest natural disaster in New Zealand. Due to the magnitude of the catastrophe, the city centre (CBD) was closed and the most damaged buildings were closed and later demolished. For this reason it could not be possible to access to sampling or make observations in the most damaged areas. However, the cemeteries were not closed and a year later still remained intact since the financial means to recover were used to reconstruct infrastructures and housing the city. This peculiarity of the cemeteries made measures of the earthquake effects possible. Orientation damage was measured on the tombs, crosses and headstones of the cemeteries (mainly on falling objects such as fallen crosses, obelisks, displaced tombstones, etc.). 140 data were taken in the most important cemeteries (Barbadoes, Addington, Pebleton, Woodston, Broomley and Linwood cemeteries) covering much of the city area. The procedure involved two main phases: a) inventory and identification of damages, and b) analysis of the damage orientations. The orientation was calculated for each element and plotted in a map and statistically in rose diagrams. The orientation dispersion is high in some cemeteries but damage orientation S-N and E-W is observed. However, due to the multiple seismogenic faults responsible for earthquakes and damages in Christchurch during the year after the 2010 earthquake, a

The Management of the Citizen Oriented Applications

OpenAIRE

Ion IVAN; Bogdan VINTILĂ

2010-01-01

The context of the knowledge based society is presented. The new user requirements in the context of the new society are analyzed. Basic concepts regarding the citizen oriented applications are presented. Issues specific to the citizen oriented applications are presented. The development cycle of the citizen oriented applications is analyzed. The particular elements for developing citizen oriented applications are described. The quality concept for the citizen oriented applications is defined...

When Does Salespeople’s Customer Orientation Lead to Customer Loyalty? : The Differential Effects of Relational and Functional Customer Orientation

OpenAIRE

Homburg, Christian; Müller, Michael; Klarmann, Martin

2010-01-01

Is a customer orientation universally effective for salespeople? Or does its effectiveness depend on the selling situation? While previous research has largely neglected this question, this study investigates contextual influences on the link between customer-oriented behaviors and customer loyalty. To do so, it takes a role theory perspective on salesperson customer orientation by distinguishing functional customer orientation and relational customer orientation. It then investigates which t...

Characteristics of leadership-oriented women

OpenAIRE

Htun, Tin Tin; Yamamoto, Mariko

2001-01-01

The present study explores within-gender differences between high leadership-oriented women and low leadership-oriented women regarding their characteristics and attitudes. One hundred and ninety-two Japanese ...

A New Approach for New Demands: The Promise of Learning-Oriented School Leadership

Science.gov (United States)

Drago-Severson, Eleanor; Blum-DeStefano, Jessica

2013-01-01

In response to the complexity and mounting adaptive challenges of teaching, learning and leadership today, this article presents an overview of a new "learning-oriented model of school leadership," which is composed of four pillar practices--teaming, mentoring, collegial inquiry, and providing leadership roles--that support internal…

Monetary rewards influence retrieval orientations.

Science.gov (United States)

Halsband, Teresa M; Ferdinand, Nicola K; Bridger, Emma K; Mecklinger, Axel

2012-09-01

Reward anticipation during learning is known to support memory formation, but its role in retrieval processes is so far unclear. Retrieval orientations, as a reflection of controlled retrieval processing, are one aspect of retrieval that might be modulated by reward. These processes can be measured using the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by retrieval cues from tasks with different retrieval requirements, such as via changes in the class of targeted memory information. To determine whether retrieval orientations of this kind are modulated by reward during learning, we investigated the effects of high and low reward expectancy on the ERP correlates of retrieval orientation in two separate experiments. The reward manipulation at study in Experiment 1 was associated with later memory performance, whereas in Experiment 2, reward was directly linked to accuracy in the study task. In both studies, the participants encoded mixed lists of pictures and words preceded by high- or low-reward cues. After 24 h, they performed a recognition memory exclusion task, with words as the test items. In addition to a previously reported material-specific effect of retrieval orientation, a frontally distributed, reward-associated retrieval orientation effect was found in both experiments. These findings suggest that reward motivation during learning leads to the adoption of a reward-associated retrieval orientation to support the retrieval of highly motivational information. Thus, ERP retrieval orientation effects not only reflect retrieval processes related to the sought-for materials, but also relate to the reward conditions with which items were combined during encoding.

How can a tour guide robot’s orientation influence visitors’ orientation and formations?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Karreman, Daphne Eleonora; Ludden, Geke Dina Simone; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Evers, Vanessa

2015-01-01

In this paper, we describe a field study with a tour guide robot that guided visitors through a historical site. Our focus was to determine how a robot’s orientation behaviour influenced visitors’ orientation and the formations groups of visitors formed around the robot. During the study a

Electric fields control the orientation of peptides irreversibly immobilized on radical-functionalized surfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Lewis J; Akhavan, Behnam; Bilek, Marcela M M

2018-01-24

Surface functionalization of an implantable device with bioactive molecules can overcome adverse biological responses by promoting specific local tissue integration. Bioactive peptides have advantages over larger protein molecules due to their robustness and sterilizability. Their relatively small size presents opportunities to control the peptide orientation on approach to a surface to achieve favourable presentation of bioactive motifs. Here we demonstrate control of the orientation of surface-bound peptides by tuning electric fields at the surface during immobilization. Guided by computational simulations, a peptide with a linear conformation in solution is designed. Electric fields are used to control the peptide approach towards a radical-functionalized surface. Spontaneous, irreversible immobilization is achieved when the peptide makes contact with the surface. Our findings show that control of both peptide orientation and surface concentration is achieved simply by varying the solution pH or by applying an electric field as delivered by a small battery.

Time orientation, planning horizons and responsibility into the future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Svenson, O.; Nilsson, G.

1988-01-01

Subjects of four categories (social science students, engineering students, retired people and nuclear waste experts) were asked about past events, planning, risks and future time with emphasis on energy related issues and in particular questions concerning spent nuclear waste. Among, the results reported it was found that events in the past were located more or less correctly and that events further back systematically too close to the present. Today's responsibility into the future was judged to cover 3 to 6 generations ahead and an adequate planning horizon for a local community to be on the average 11 to 14 years. Adequate planning horizons for the handling of spent nuclear fuel were judged to be from 100 to 500 years. The responsibility for effects of today's decisions was judged to be from about 100 to 300 years into the future for environmental pollution and from about 50 to 600 years for nuclear waste. However, non-negliqable proportions of the subjects choose a more moral standpoint and gave answers indicating that responsibility had to be unlimited. Some sex differences were found and an interaction with age offered as a hypothesis to be investigated in the future. Interrelations between clusters of questions revealed some links from past time and planning to judgements of environmental and nuclear power related risks. (orig.)

Responses of Cells to Flow in Vitro

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shigehiro Hashimoto

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The response of cells to a flow has been studied in vitro. The response of cells was examined in two types of flow channels: a circumnutating flow in a donut-shaped open channel in a culture dish, and a one-way flow in a parallelepiped rhombus flow channel. Variation was made on the material of the parallelepiped channel to study on adhesion of cells to the plates: glass and polydimethylsiloxane. Behavior of cells on the plate was observed under a flow of a medium with an inverted phase-contrast-microscope. The shear stress on the plate is calculated with an estimated parabolic distribution of the velocity between the parallel plates. The adhesion of cells was evaluated with the cumulated shear, which is a product of the shear stress and the exposure time. The experimental results show that cells are responsive to the flow, which governs orientation, exfoliation, and differentiation. The response depends on the kinds of cells: endothelial cells orient along the stream line, although myocytes orient perpendicular to the stream line. The adhesion depends on the combination between scaffold and cell: myocytes are more adhesive to glass than cartilage cells, and fibroblasts are more adhesive to oxygenated polydimethylsiloxane than glass.

The Effects of Object Orientation and Object Type on Children's Interpretation of the Word BIG.

Science.gov (United States)

Coley, John D.; Gelman, Susan A.

1989-01-01

Investigated the interpretation of the word "big" by 40 children of 3 to 5 years. The type and orientation of objects used in the study were varied. Results demonstrated that contextual factors influenced children's responses. (RJC)

Aesthetic Judgement of Orientation in Modern Art

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

George Mather

2012-01-01

Full Text Available When creating an artwork, the artist makes a decision regarding the orientation at which the work is to be hung based on their aesthetic judgement and the message conveyed by the piece. Is the impact or aesthetic appeal of a work diminished when it is hung at an incorrect orientation? To investigate this question, Experiment 1 asked whether naïve observers can appreciate the correct orientation (as defined by the artist of 40 modern artworks, some of which are entirely abstract. Eighteen participants were shown 40 paintings in a series of trials. Each trial presented all four cardinal orientations on a computer screen, and the participant was asked to select the orientation that was most attractive or meaningful. Results showed that the correct orientation was selected in 48% of trials on average, significantly above the 25% chance level, but well below perfect performance. A second experiment investigated the extent to which the 40 paintings contained recognisable content, which may have mediated orientation judgements. Recognition rates varied from 0% for seven of the paintings to 100% for five paintings. Orientation judgements in Experiment 1 correlated significantly with “meaningful” content judgements in Experiment 2: 42% of the variance in orientation judgements in Experiment 1 was shared with recognition of meaningful content in Experiment 2. For the seven paintings in which no meaningful content at all was detected, 41% of the variance in orientation judgements was shared with variance in a physical measure of image content, Fourier amplitude spectrum slope. For some paintings, orientation judgements were quite consistent, despite a lack of meaningful content. The origin of these orientation judgements remains to be identified.

The effects of temperature on service employees' customer orientation: an experimental approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolb, Peter; Gockel, Christine; Werth, Lioba

2012-01-01

Numerous studies have demonstrated how temperature can affect perceptual, cognitive and psychomotor performance (e.g. Hancock, P.A., Ross, J., and Szalma, J., 2007. A meta-analysis of performance response under thermal stressors. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 49 (5), 851-877). We extend this research to interpersonal aspects of performance, namely service employees' and salespeople's customer orientation. We combine ergonomics with recent research on social cognition linking physical with interpersonal warmth/coldness. In Experiment 1, a scenario study in the lab, we demonstrate that student participants in rooms with a low temperature showed more customer-oriented behaviour and gave higher customer discounts than participants in rooms with a high temperature - even in zones of thermal comfort. In Experiment 2, we show the existence of alternative possibilities to evoke positive temperature effects on customer orientation in a sample of 126 service and sales employees using a semantic priming procedure. Overall, our results confirm the existence of temperature effects on customer orientation. Furthermore, important implications for services, retail and other settings of interpersonal interactions are discussed. Practitioner Summary: Temperature effects on performance have emerged as a vital research topic. Owing to services' increasing economic importance, we transferred this research to the construct of customer orientation, focusing on performance in service and retail settings. The demonstrated temperature effects are transferable to services, retail and other settings of interpersonal interactions.

Age and Value Orientations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asya Kh. Kukubayeva

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The present article deals with value orientations and their role in men’s lives, particularly, in young people’s lives. This notion was introduced by the American theoretical sociologist T. Parsons, one of the creators of modern theoretical sociology. The scientist made an attempt to construct the structural and analytical theory of social action, combining personal interests (needs and aims and situation, it takes place in. The issue of value orientations remains acute for psychology. Herein we have considered several most important works, relating to the considered issue. Age aspects of young people’s value orientations are of peculiar interest to us. When analyzing this phenomenon, one should take into consideration the psychological formations, inhere for a certain age. In fact every age has its unique structure, which may change when passing from one development stage to another. Basing on this fact, we’ve considered the values, depending on the age features of the youth, relying upon the works of the scientists, working with different categories of the youth, such as: teenagers, students, children of different nationalities. It is not surprising that most scientists have come to the conclusion that the chief role in value orientation belongs to a family, originates in relations with parents and teachers. The positive reinforcement to the future develops throughout life in accordance with a lifestyle of a family, society and political situation in a state.Life orientations as a type of value orientations show different types of young people’s preferences. Value structure of its consciousness has its own specific character, depending on the age peculiarities. The dynamics of the transition from one age to another is accompanied with the reappraisal of values, eventually, influencing the life strategy of the future generation

Edward Said and "Orientalism"

Science.gov (United States)

Chronicle of Higher Education, 2007

2007-01-01

In the nearly 30 years since Edward Said published the hugely influential Orientalism, his indictment of racism and imperialism in Western scholarship on the Orient has had its share of plaudits and condemnations. Now Robert Irwin, the Middle East editor of The Times Literary Supplement, has reignited the controversy with his broadside against the…

Distribution of orientation selectivity in recurrent networks of spiking neurons with different random topologies.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh, Sadra; Rotter, Stefan

2014-01-01

Neurons in the primary visual cortex are more or less selective for the orientation of a light bar used for stimulation. A broad distribution of individual grades of orientation selectivity has in fact been reported in all species. A possible reason for emergence of broad distributions is the recurrent network within which the stimulus is being processed. Here we compute the distribution of orientation selectivity in randomly connected model networks that are equipped with different spatial patterns of connectivity. We show that, for a wide variety of connectivity patterns, a linear theory based on firing rates accurately approximates the outcome of direct numerical simulations of networks of spiking neurons. Distance dependent connectivity in networks with a more biologically realistic structure does not compromise our linear analysis, as long as the linearized dynamics, and hence the uniform asynchronous irregular activity state, remain stable. We conclude that linear mechanisms of stimulus processing are indeed responsible for the emergence of orientation selectivity and its distribution in recurrent networks with functionally heterogeneous synaptic connectivity.

Birth weight and two possible types of maternal effects on male sexual orientation: a clinical study of children and adolescents referred to a Gender Identity Service.

Science.gov (United States)

VanderLaan, Doug P; Blanchard, Ray; Wood, Hayley; Garzon, Luisa C; Zucker, Kenneth J

2015-01-01

This study tested predictions regarding two hypothesized maternal immune responses influencing sexual orientation: one affecting homosexual males with high fraternal birth order and another affecting firstborn homosexual individuals whose mothers experience repeated miscarriage after the birth of the first child. Low birth weight was treated as a marker of possible exposure to a maternal immune response during gestation. Birth weight was examined relative to sibship characteristics in a clinical sample of youth (N = 1,722) classified as heterosexual or homosexual based on self-reported or probable sexual orientation. No female sexual orientation differences in birth weight were found. Homosexual, compared to heterosexual, males showed lower birth weight if they had one or more older brothers--and especially two or more older brothers--or if they were an only-child. These findings support the existence of two maternal immune responses influencing male sexual orientation and possibly also cross-gender behavior and identity. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Club d'orientation

CERN Multimedia

Club d'orientation

2014-01-01

Courses d’orientation ce printemps Le Club d’orientation du CERN vous invite à venir découvrir la course d’orientation et vous propose, en partenariat avec d’autres clubs de la région, une dizaine de courses populaires. Celles-ci ont lieu les samedis après-midi, elles sont ouvertes à tous, quel que soit le niveau, du débutant au sportif confirmé, en famille ou en individuel, en promenade ou en course. Si vous êtes débutant vous pouvez profiter d’une petite initiation offerte par l’organisateur avant de vous lancer sur un parcours. Divers types de parcours sont à votre choix lors de chaque épreuve: facile court (2-3 km), facile moyen (3-5 km), technique court (3-4 km), technique moyen (4-5 km) et technique long (5-7 km). Les dates à retenir sont les suivantes pour la coupe genevoise de printemps: Samedi 22 mars: Apples (...

Oriental upper blepharoplasty.

Science.gov (United States)

Weng, Chau-Jin

2009-02-01

Aesthetic surgery of the upper eyelids is a very common procedure performed in cosmetic practices around the world. The word blepharoplasty, however, has a different meaning in Asia than it does elsewhere. Orientals have different periorbital anatomic characteristics, their motivations for seeking eyelid treatment are different, and operative techniques have been adapted consequently. There are also many eyelid shapes among Orientals, mostly with regard to the presence and location of the supratarsal fold and/or presence of an epicanthal fold. The surgeon must therefore master a range of surgical procedures to treat these variations adequately. It is critical to know the indications for each blepharoplasty technique as well as their complications to select the right surgery and avoid unfavorable results. Epicanthoplasty performed on the right patient can greatly improve aesthetic results while retaining ethnic characteristics. This article will discuss Oriental eyelid characteristics, preoperative patient assessment, commonly used corrective techniques for the "double-eyelid" creation, and complications and how to avoid them.

Barriers to increased market-oriented activity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bisp, Søren

1999-01-01

and related activities still seem to attract relatively few resources is not answered by supplying another checklist or package of facilitators. Based on published conceptual writings and empirical studies this article makes an account of what the intra-organizational barriers may be to increased market......Most research on market orientation has dealt with assessing how market orientation behaviour is related to business performance. This work has established an intense market-oriented activity as significantly and positively related to business performance under most circumstances. In a maturing......-oriented activity. A framework of six generic domains is suggested: Organizational structure, human resource management, market-oriented activity competence, psychological climate, managers' personality characteristics, and individually held beliefs. A model is suggested inter-relating the domains....

The Management of the Citizen Oriented Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion IVAN

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The context of the knowledge based society is presented. The new user requirements in the context of the new society are analyzed. Basic concepts regarding the citizen oriented applications are presented. Issues specific to the citizen oriented applications are presented. The development cycle of the citizen oriented applications is analyzed. The particular elements for developing citizen oriented applications are described. The quality concept for the citizen oriented applications is defined. Quality characteristics and the costs of quality are defined and analyzed. A system of indicators for the quantification of the quality of the citizen oriented applications is developed. Ways of increasing the quality of the applications are analyzed. Issues as improving the users’ training level, implementing new development techniques, advanced testing techniques and the requirement of audit are approached. The concept of optimization is defined. Optimum criteria are defined and analyzed. Ways of optimizing applications are described. Security requirements are enumerated and described. The particularities of the security requirements for the citizen oriented applications are analyzed. Measures for ensuring the security of the citizen oriented applications are described. A citizen oriented application for the analysis of the structured entities is developed. The application collects data regarding the behavior of the users. The collected data are used for verifying the hypotheses regarding the quality characteristics if the citizen oriented informatics applications.

Service-oriented product development strategies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tan, Adrian Ronald

Manufacturing companies have traditionally focused their efforts on designing, developing and producing physical products for the market. Today, global competition, outsourcing and legislation commend that companies take greater responsibility of their products. This is driving some manufacturers...... to shift their business strategies from selling products (e.g. photocopying machines) to the provision of services (e.g. document services). Instead of the product itself, the activity and knowledge associated with the use of the product is perceived to be of more value to customers. In the research...... community, service-oriented approaches that embrace this change of business focus from individual products to total integrated customer solutions are termed Product/Service-Systems (PSS). The research in this thesis addresses the systematic design and development of PSS solutions in manufacturing firms...

Relationship Between Market Orientation and Business Performance in Czech and German High-Tech Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrik Jangl

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this paper is to find out an index of market orientation, and explore the relationship between four components of market orientation in high-tech firms and their business performance. Business performance was studied as a one-dimensional construct. Market orientation in this study is defined as a process of intelligence generation about customers and competitors, intelligence dissemination and integration within the company across teams, and responsiveness to market intelligence in the form of coordinated action. The statistical sample was represented by 164 Czech and 187 German high-tech firms in the manufacturing industry. Respondents (sales and marketing managers completed a questionnaire and marked their rate of approval with individual statements on a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 7. Market orientation and business performance level was determined as the arithmetic mean (x̄ of the measured values. Depending on the size of the total market orientation index (MOI, Czech (x̄=5.2 and German (x̄=5.14 high-tech firms are medium market-oriented. The business performance index (BPI reached a slightly higher value in Germany (x̄=5.22 as compared to the Czech Republic (x̄=5.13. The main method to reach the target was correlation and regression analysis. This study confirmed a hypothesis about the existence of a correlation between components of market orientation and business performance. Three of the four relationships in the multiple regression model were significant. On the other hand, the study found no positive significant correlation between competitor intelligence generation and business performance.

Variations on agent-oriented programming

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalia Baziukė

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Occurrence of the agent paradigm and its further applications have stimulated the emergence of new concepts and methodologies in computer science. Today terms like multi-agent system, agent-oriented methodology, and agent-oriented programming (AOP are widely used. The aim of this paper is to clarify the validity of usage of the terms AOP and AOP language. This is disclosed in two phases of an analysis process. Determining to which concepts, terms like agent, programming, object-oriented analysis and design, object-oriented programming, and agent-oriented analysis and design correspond is accomplished in the first phase. Analysis of several known agent system engineering methodologies in terms of key concepts used, final resulting artifacts, and their relationship with known programming paradigms and modern tools for agent system development is performed in the second phase. The research shows that in most cases in the final phase of agent system design and in the coding stage, the main artifact is an object, defined according to the rules of the object-oriented paradigm. Hence, we say that the computing society still does not have AOP owing to the lack of an AOP language. Thus, the term AOP is very often incorrectly assigned to agent system development frameworks that in most cases, transform agents into objects.DOI: 10.15181/csat.v5i1.1361

Effect of neurolinguistic programming training on self-actualization as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Duncan, R C; Konefal, J; Spechler, M M

1990-06-01

Neurolinguistic programming training is based on principles that should enable the trainee to be more "present"-oriented, inner-directed, flexible, self-aware, and responsive to others, that is, more self-actualized. This study reports within-person changes on self-actualization measures of the Personal Orientation Inventory following a 24-day residential training in neurolinguistic programming. Significant positive mean changes were found for 18 master practitioners on nine of the 12 scales and for 36 practitioners on 10 of the 12 scales. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that training increases individual self-actualization scores.

Open Issues in Object-Oriented Programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Ole Lehrmann

1995-01-01

We discuss a number of open issues within object-oriented programming. The central mechanisms of object-oriented programming appeared with Simula, developed more than 30 years ago; these include class, subclass, virtual function, active object and the first application framework, Class Simulation....... The core parts of object-oriented programming should be well understood, but there are still a large number of issues where there is no consensus. The term object-orientation has been applied to many subjects, such as analysis, design implementation, data modeling in databases, and distribution...

Programming in an object-oriented environment

CERN Document Server

Ege, Raimund K

1992-01-01

Programming in an Object-Oriented Environment provides an in-depth look at the concepts behind the technology of object-oriented programming.This book explains why object-oriented programming has the potential to vastly improve the productivity of programmers and how to apply this technology in a practical environment. Many programming examples are included, focusing on how different programming languages support the core of object-oriented concepts. C++ is used as the main sample language throughout this text.This monograph consists of two major parts. Part I provides an introduction to objec

Physiological and biomechanical aspects of orienteering.

Science.gov (United States)

Creagh, U; Reilly, T

1997-12-01

Orienteering is an endurance running event which differs from other running sports both in its cognitive element and in the type of terrain encountered. The demands of overcoming this terrain are not manifest in significant differences between orienteers and road runners in somatotype, though elite female orienteers have consistently been shown to have higher levels of adiposity (> 19%) than elite road runners. High aerobic power in orienteers (up to 63 and 76 ml/kg/min in women and men, respectively) is coupled with lower anaerobic performance. While leg strength is generally not high when compared with other athletic specialties, female orienteers have relatively good leg flexion strength. The energy cost of running is greatly increased in rough terrain. Oxygen cost was 26% higher while running in a forest when compared with road running. Biomechanical differences in stride pattern contribute towards this increased demand. Despite the high energy demands during competition, orienteers pace themselves such that their mean heart rate remains within the range of 167 to 172 beats/min, despite large fluctuations. The rough terrain encountered in orienteering results not only in a high energy cost but also in a higher incidence of sport-specific injuries, particularly to the ankle. Minor injuries such as cuts and bruises are common during competition.

The Development of Citizen Oriented Informatics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion IVAN

2010-01-01

Full Text Available We define the concept of citizen-oriented computer application. Quality characteristics are set for computer applications developed in the conditions of citizen-oriented computing and outline the development cycle for these applications. It defines the conditions of existence for citizen-oriented applications. Average and long-term strategies are elaborated.

Anisotropy model for modern grain oriented electrical steel based on orientation distribution function

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fan Jiang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Accurately modeling the anisotropic behavior of electrical steel is mandatory in order to perform good end simulations. Several approaches can be found in the literature for that purpose but the more often those methods are not able to deal with grain oriented electrical steel. In this paper, a method based on orientation distribution function is applied to modern grain oriented laminations. In particular, two solutions are proposed in order to increase the results accuracy. The first one consists in increasing the decomposition number of the cosine series on which the method is based. The second one consists in modifying the determination method of the terms belonging to this cosine series.

Influence of hydrides orientation on strain, damage and failure of hydrided zircaloy-4; Influence de l'orientation des hydrures sur les modes de deformation, d'endommagement et de rupture du zircaloy-4 hydrure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Racine, A

2005-09-15

In pressurized water reactors of nuclear power plants, fuel pellets are contained in cladding tubes, made of Zirconium alloy, for instance Zircaloy-4. During their life in the primary water of the reactor (155 bars, 300 C), cladding tubes are oxidized and consequently hydrided. A part of the hydrogen given off precipitates as Zirconium hydrides in the bulk material and embrittles the material. This embrittlement depends on many parameters, among which hydrogen content and orientation of hydrides with respect to the applied stress. This investigation is devoted to the influence of the orientation of hydrides with respect to the applied stress on strain, damage and failure mechanisms. Macroscopic and SEM in-situ ring tensile tests are performed on cladding tube material (unirradiated cold worked stress-relieved Zircaloy-4) hydrided with about 200 and 500 wppm hydrogen, and with different main hydrides orientation: either parallel or perpendicular to the circumferential tensile direction. We get the mechanical response of the material as a function of hydride orientation and hydrogen content and we investigate the deformation, damage and failure mechanisms. In both cases, digital image correlation techniques are used to estimate local and global strain distributions. Neither the tensile stress-strain response nor the global and local strain modes are significantly affected by hydrogen content or hydride orientation, but the failure modes are strongly modified. Indeed, only 200 wppm radial hydrides embrittle Zy-4: sample fail in the elastic domain at about 350 MPa before strain bands could develop; whereas in other cases sample reach at least 750 MPa before necking and final failure, in ductile or brittle mode. To model this particular heterogeneous material behavior, a non-coupled damage approach which takes into account the anisotropic distribution of the hydrides is proposed. Its parameters are identified from the macroscopic strain field measurements and a

Freely oriented portable superconducting magnet

Science.gov (United States)

Schmierer, Eric N [Los Alamos, NM; Prenger, F Coyne [Los Alamos, NM; Hill, Dallas D [Los Alamos, NM

2010-01-12

A freely oriented portable superconducting magnet is disclosed. Coolant is supplied to the superconducting magnet from a repository separate from the magnet, enabling portability of the magnet. A plurality of support assemblies structurally anchor and thermally isolate the magnet within a thermal shield. A plurality of support assemblies structurally anchor and thermally isolate the thermal shield within a vacuum vessel. The support assemblies restrain movement of the magnet resulting from energizing and cooldown, as well as from changes in orientation, enabling the magnet to be freely orientable.

Oriented Shape Index Histograms for Cell Classification

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Anders Boesen Lindbo; Dahl, Anders Bjorholm; Larsen, Rasmus

2015-01-01

We propose a novel extension to the shape index histogram feature descriptor where the orientation of the second-order curvature is included in the histograms. The orientation of the shape index is reminiscent but not equal to gradient orientation which is widely used for feature description. We...... evaluate our new feature descriptor using a public dataset consisting of HEp-2 cell images from indirect immunoflourescence lighting. Our results show that we can improve classification performance significantly when including the shape index orientation. Notably, we show that shape index orientation...

ORGANIC PRODUCTION IN UKRAINE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS IN CONTEXT OF SOCIAL ORIENTED ENTEPRENEURSHIP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Chornous

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Practical realization of sustainable development general conception is passing to the organic production, that allows to satisfy society problems, not putting health and future generations' existence under a threat. At this entrepreneurs, which work in the consumer products' field, must displace accents from economic oriented to social oriented entrepreneurship. The article is dedicated to research negative and positive factors that influence on social oriented Ukrainian enterprises in the sphere of organic goods production. The special attention is attended to the analysis of foodstuffs producers' activity, the results of which have considerable direct influence on consumers' health. The value of informative influences on consumers and producers is analyzed. State support directions of organic goods production, creation of internal market ecologically safe products infrastructure are defined. Recommendations are given according to research results in relation to stimulation social responsibility of businessmen and model forming, which combines interests of consumers and producers, environmental preservation, population health refinement and ecological situation improvement.

Experimental Object-Oriented Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Klaus Marius

through, e.g., technical prototyping and active user involvement. We introduce and examine “experimental object-oriented modelling” as the intersection of these practices. The contributions of this thesis are expected to be within three perspectives on models and modelling in experimental system...... development: Grounding We develop an empirically based conceptualization of modelling and use of models in system development projects characterized by a high degree of uncertainty in requirements and point to implications for tools and techniques for modelling in such a setting. Techniques We introduce......This thesis examines object-oriented modelling in experimental system development. Object-oriented modelling aims at representing concepts and phenomena of a problem domain in terms of classes and objects. Experimental system development seeks active experimentation in a system development project...

Cultural Orientation and Interdisciplinarity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Sofie Søndergaard

2004-01-01

I begin the article with an account of the background to the German debate on ‘Literaturwissenschaft als Kulturwissenschaft’, including the introduction of the concept of ’cultural orientation’ as a strategy for achieving interdisciplinarity. This is followed by a consideration of the discussion ...... of the object of literary studies as a way of defining the disciplinarity or identity of literary studies. Finally I summarize some of the characteristics of culturally orientated literary studies.......I begin the article with an account of the background to the German debate on ‘Literaturwissenschaft als Kulturwissenschaft’, including the introduction of the concept of ’cultural orientation’ as a strategy for achieving interdisciplinarity. This is followed by a consideration of the discussion...

Analysis of corporate volunteering in internal market orientation and its effect on job satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Ruizalba, Jose; Vallespín, María; González Porras, José Luis

2015-01-01

This study analyses some of the factors comprising Internal Market Orientation (IMO) in family businesses in Andalusia (Spain): Management Concern, Training and Work-Family-Balance. Corporate Volunteering (CV) has been incorporated for the first time in IMO. A statistical analysis shows that CV can be inserted within the dimension of response to internal market intelligence and, its incorporation is proposed for future IMO models as a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The impact ...

Perceived Sexual Orientation Based on Vocal and Facial Stimuli Is Linked to Self-Rated Sexual Orientation in Czech Men

Science.gov (United States)

Valentova, Jaroslava Varella; Havlíček, Jan

2013-01-01

Previous research has shown that lay people can accurately assess male sexual orientation based on limited information, such as face, voice, or behavioral display. Gender-atypical traits are thought to serve as cues to sexual orientation. We investigated the presumed mechanisms of sexual orientation attribution using a standardized set of facial and vocal stimuli of Czech men. Both types of stimuli were rated for sexual orientation and masculinity-femininity by non-student heterosexual women and homosexual men. Our data showed that by evaluating vocal stimuli both women and homosexual men can judge sexual orientation of the target men in agreement with their self-reported sexual orientation. Nevertheless, only homosexual men accurately attributed sexual orientation of the two groups from facial images. Interestingly, facial images of homosexual targets were rated as more masculine than heterosexual targets. This indicates that attributions of sexual orientation are affected by stereotyped association between femininity and male homosexuality; however, reliance on such cues can lead to frequent misjudgments as was the case with the female raters. Although our study is based on a community sample recruited in a non-English speaking country, the results are generally consistent with the previous research and thus corroborate the validity of sexual orientation attributions. PMID:24358180

Perceived sexual orientation based on vocal and facial stimuli is linked to self-rated sexual orientation in Czech men.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaroslava Varella Valentova

Full Text Available Previous research has shown that lay people can accurately assess male sexual orientation based on limited information, such as face, voice, or behavioral display. Gender-atypical traits are thought to serve as cues to sexual orientation. We investigated the presumed mechanisms of sexual orientation attribution using a standardized set of facial and vocal stimuli of Czech men. Both types of stimuli were rated for sexual orientation and masculinity-femininity by non-student heterosexual women and homosexual men. Our data showed that by evaluating vocal stimuli both women and homosexual men can judge sexual orientation of the target men in agreement with their self-reported sexual orientation. Nevertheless, only homosexual men accurately attributed sexual orientation of the two groups from facial images. Interestingly, facial images of homosexual targets were rated as more masculine than heterosexual targets. This indicates that attributions of sexual orientation are affected by stereotyped association between femininity and male homosexuality; however, reliance on such cues can lead to frequent misjudgments as was the case with the female raters. Although our study is based on a community sample recruited in a non-English speaking country, the results are generally consistent with the previous research and thus corroborate the validity of sexual orientation attributions.

Structure and properties of highly oriented polyoxymethylene produced by hot stretching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Xiaowen; Ye Lin

2011-01-01

Research highlights: → Highly oriented POM was fabricated through solid hot stretching technology → Tensile strength and modulus of POM increased remarkably with draw ratio. → The crystal structure of POM changed from spherulite to mat texture by drawing. → Crystallinity and orientation factor of POM increased remarkably by drawing. → The mechanical structure model of microfibril of POM was established. - Abstract: Highly oriented self-reinforced polyoxymethylene (POM) was successfully fabricated through solid phase hot stretching technology. The tensile strength and modulus increased with draw ratio, which reached 900 MPa and 12 GPa, respectively at a high draw ratio of 900% without remarkable drop of the elongation at break. The structure and morphology of the drawn products were studied and the mechanical structure model of microfibril of POM was established. Raman spectral exhibited a low-frequency shift, which indicated two types of molecular chains with different response to the stress. During drawing, the spherulitic structure of POM was broken up and the mat texture crystals were formed. With the increase of draw ratio, the melting peak moved to high temperature and an additional shoulder peak ascribed to melting of highly chain-extended and oriented crystalline blocks was observed. X-ray diffraction showed that the crystallinity and orientation factor increased, while the grain size perpendicular to (1 0 0) crystal plane of POM decreased by drawing. The α relaxation peak corresponding to the glass transition temperature of POM (T g ) moved to high temperature with draw ratio. The section morphology of drawn POM exhibited a fibrillar structure which contributed to the significantly high tensile strength and modulus of the product.

Market orientation vs. inovativeness of SMEs of Podlaskie province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Ejdys

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This research aims to examine the impact of marketing orientation on the innovation level among Small and Medium Size (SMEs from Podlaskie Province. A survey utilizing a questionnaire was conducted among 137 companies in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Altogether 3 hypotheses concerning marketing orientation and innovativeness level have been examined with the use of the hierarchical regression techniques. The relation between three types of marketing orientation and innovativeness has been analysed: customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination. The research results show that marketing orientation has a positive total effect on improving innovativeness. The conclusions suggest, contrary to the marketing orientation sources, that customer orientation hinder marketing innovation. A positive interrelation between customer orientation and competitor orientation, as a component of marketing orientation and innovation was supported. The positive interrelationships between inter-functional orientation and innovativeness was rejected. The study explores the relationship between marketing orientation and innovativeness, thus theoretically contributing to marketing orientation literature. Moreover, relevant ramifications are provided for management, concerning the ways to boost the level of innovativeness.

Orienteering World Cup hosted by CERN Club

CERN Multimedia

Katarina Anthony

2010-01-01

Elite runners took to the streets of Geneva for the last leg of the Orienteering World Cup, from 8-10 October. The Geneva finals were hosted by the CERN Orienteering Club and concluded months of competitions held across 5 countries.   Women's World-Cup winner, Simone Niggli (centre).  © Ilknur Colak The final events of the Orienteering World Cup took place in the Old Town of Geneva and Saint-Cergue, with runners following routes prepared by the CERN Orienteering Club. Orienteering is a sport of navigation, using only a compass, map and your sense of direction. The objective is to get to all the points on the map as quickly as possible, choosing your own paths as you run. This was the CERN club’s first successful participation in the World Cup, cementing its reputation as a fixture in the international orienteering world. Orienteering is not your typical Swiss pastime. Developed in Scandinavia, the sport has been gaining popularity internationally. “...

Laser Controlled Molecular Orientation Dynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atabek, O.

2004-01-01

Molecular orientation is a challenging control issue covering a wide range of applications from reactive collisions, high order harmonic generation, surface processing and catalysis, to nanotechnologies. The laser control scenario rests on the following three steps: (i) depict some basic mechanisms producing dynamical orientation; (ii) use them both as computational and interpretative tools in optimal control schemes involving genetic algorithms; (iii) apply what is learnt from optimal control to improve the basic mechanisms. The existence of a target molecular rotational state combining the advantages of efficient and post-pulse long duration orientation is shown. A strategy is developed for reaching such a target in terms of a train of successive short laser pulses applied at predicted time intervals. Each individual pulse imparts a kick to the molecule which orients. Transposition of such strategies to generic systems is now under investigation

The Synaptic and Morphological Basis of Orientation Selectivity in a Polyaxonal Amacrine Cell of the Rabbit Retina.

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy-Baum, Benjamin L; Taylor, W Rowland

2015-09-30

Much of the computational power of the retina derives from the activity of amacrine cells, a large and diverse group of GABAergic and glycinergic inhibitory interneurons. Here, we identify an ON-type orientation-selective, wide-field, polyaxonal amacrine cell (PAC) in the rabbit retina and demonstrate how its orientation selectivity arises from the structure of the dendritic arbor and the pattern of excitatory and inhibitory inputs. Excitation from ON bipolar cells and inhibition arising from the OFF pathway converge to generate a quasi-linear integration of visual signals in the receptive field center. This serves to suppress responses to high spatial frequencies, thereby improving sensitivity to larger objects and enhancing orientation selectivity. Inhibition also regulates the magnitude and time course of excitatory inputs to this PAC through serial inhibitory connections onto the presynaptic terminals of ON bipolar cells. This presynaptic inhibition is driven by graded potentials within local microcircuits, similar in extent to the size of single bipolar cell receptive fields. Additional presynaptic inhibition is generated by spiking amacrine cells on a larger spatial scale covering several hundred microns. The orientation selectivity of this PAC may be a substrate for the inhibition that mediates orientation selectivity in some types of ganglion cells. Significance statement: The retina comprises numerous excitatory and inhibitory circuits that encode specific features in the visual scene, such as orientation, contrast, or motion. Here, we identify a wide-field inhibitory neuron that responds to visual stimuli of a particular orientation, a feature selectivity that is primarily due to the elongated shape of the dendritic arbor. Integration of convergent excitatory and inhibitory inputs from the ON and OFF visual pathways suppress responses to small objects and fine textures, thus enhancing selectivity for larger objects. Feedback inhibition regulates the

The Moderating Effects of Internal Orientation and Market Orientation on the Relationships between Commitment and Transportation Service: An Approach to International Freight Forwarders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hee-sung Bae

2014-08-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this research are to develop the variables which moderate the relationship between commitment and transportation services and to analyze the moderating effects of the variables. The conceptual and operational definitions of the variables were ascertained from prior research. The reliability and validity of collected data were tested by various methods and hypotheses are tested by a moderated regression analysis. The results are as follows. First, the moderating variables on the relationship between commitment and transportation services are identified as internal orientation and market orientation. The former has three sub-dimensions such as collaboration between departments, work standardization and process improving and the latter has three sub-dimensions such as intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, and responsiveness. Second, work standardization is ascertained to enhance the relationship between commitment and trust. Third, process improving is verified as enhancing the relationship between commitment and trust. Fourth, work standardization is ascertained to enhance the relationship between commitment and flexibility. Fifth, intelligence generation is identified as enhancing the relationship between commitment and trust. Sixth, intelligence generation is verified as enhancing the relationship between commitment and flexibility. Therefore, forwarders can supply superior transportation services for customers when they achieve commitment and orientation such as work standardization, improvement of their service processes, and activities concerned with intelligence generation.

Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mailund, Thomas

2017-01-01

Learn how to write object-oriented programs in R and how to construct classes and class hierarchies in the three object-oriented systems available in R. This book gives an introduction to object-oriented programming in the R programming language and shows you how to use and apply R in an object......-oriented manner. You will then be able to use this powerful programming style in your own statistical programming projects to write flexible and extendable software. After reading Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R, you'll come away with a practical project that you can reuse in your own analytics coding...... of data being manipulated. You will: Define and use classes and generic functions using R Work with the R class hierarchies Benefit from implementation reuse Handle operator overloading Apply the S4 and R6 classes...

Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mailund, Thomas

Learn how to write object-oriented programs in R and how to construct classes and class hierarchies in the three object-oriented systems available in R. This book gives an introduction to object-oriented programming in the R programming language and shows you how to use and apply R in an object......-oriented manner. You will then be able to use this powerful programming style in your own statistical programming projects to write flexible and extendable software. After reading Advanced Object-Oriented Programming in R, you'll come away with a practical project that you can reuse in your own analytics coding...... of data being manipulated. You will: Define and use classes and generic functions using R Work with the R class hierarchies Benefit from implementation reuse Handle operator overloading Apply the S4 and R6 classes...

Parallel object-oriented specification language

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Florescu, O.; Voeten, J.P.M.; Theelen, B.D.; Geilen, M.C.W.; Corporaal, H.; Burns, Alan

2008-01-01

The Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language (POOSL) is an expressive modelling language for hardware/software systems [10]. It was originally defined in [7] as an object-oriented extension of process algebra CCS [6], supporting (conditional) synchronous message passing between

Consumers' health-related motive orientations and ready meal consumption behaviour.

Science.gov (United States)

Geeroms, Nele; Verbeke, Wim; Van Kenhove, Patrick

2008-11-01

Based on a multidimensional perspective on the meaning of health, this study explores associations between consumers' health-related motive orientations (HRMO) and ready meal consumption behaviour. Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 1934 Flemish consumers through an on-line survey. The respondents rated 45 health statements referring to people's motives for pursuing health. The survey also assessed information on several aspects of ready meal consumption, i.e. consumption frequency, beliefs and attitudes toward ready meals and ready meal buying criteria. Based on a two-step cluster analysis, we identified five distinct subgroups in the sample, according to their HRMO: health is about energy (Energetic Experimenters), emotional well-being/enjoying life (Harmonious Enjoyers), social responsibility/physical well-being (Normative Carers), achievement/outward appearance (Conscious Experts) and autonomy (Rationalists). Ready meal consumption patterns differed between these segments, with Energetic Experimenters and Conscious Experts showing significantly more positive attitudes, stronger beliefs and both higher penetration and consumption frequency related to ready meals, compared to Harmonious Enjoyers, Normative Carers and Rationalists. These findings may relate to the individualistic versus altruistic health orientation perspective of the identified segments, and are valuable in the context of improving consumer-oriented product development, positioning and marketing of ready meals.

Sexual orientation and diurnal cortisol patterns in a cohort of U.S. young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, S Bryn; Rosario, Margaret; McLaughlin, Katie A; Roberts, Andrea L; Gordon, Allegra R; Sarda, Vishnudas; Missmer, Stacey; Anatale-Tardiff, Laura; Scherer, Emily A

2016-07-01

Sexual minorities in the United States are at elevated risk of bullying, discrimination, and violence victimization, all stressors that have been linked to psychological and behavioral stress responses including depressive and anxious symptoms and substance use. Acute and chronic stressors may also elicit physiologic stress responses, including changes in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between minority sexual orientation and diurnal cortisol patterns. The present study included 1670 young adults ages 18-32 years (69% female, 31% male) from the Growing Up Today Study, a prospective cohort of U.S. youth. Participants provided five saliva samples over one day to estimate diurnal cortisol patterns. Sexual orientation groups included: completely heterosexual with no same-sex partners (referent), completely heterosexual with same-sex partners/mostly heterosexual, and gay/lesbian/bisexual. Covariates included perceived stress and stressful life events in the past month. Sex-stratified multilevel models of log-transformed cortisol values were used to model diurnal cortisol patterns, and generalized estimating equations were used to model area under the curve (AUC), both with respect to ground (AUCg) and increase (AUCi). Among females, sexual minorities reported significantly more stressful life events in the past month than their heterosexual counterparts. In adjusted multilevel models, sexual orientation was not significantly associated with diurnal cortisol patterns or with AUCg or AUCi in either females or males. There were no significant interactions between sexual orientation and stressful life events. Time-varying negative mood was significantly associated with higher cortisol levels across the day for both female and male participants, after adjusting for all covariates. This study from a large cohort of U.S. young adults did not detect a relationship between sexual

Structural and dielectric properties of (001) and (111)-oriented BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 epitaxial thin films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ventura, J.; Fina, I.; Ferrater, C.; Langenberg, E.; Coy, L.E.; Polo, M.C.; Garcia-Cuenca, M.V.; Fabrega, L.; Varela, M.

2010-01-01

We have grown and characterized BaZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 (BZT) epitaxial thin films deposited on (001) and (111)-oriented SrRuO 3 -buffered SrTiO 3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Structural and morphological characterizations were performed using X-ray diffractometry and atomic force microscopy, respectively. A cube-on-cube epitaxial relationship was ascertained from the θ-2θ and φ diffractograms in both (001) and (111)-oriented films. The (001)-oriented films showed a smooth granular morphology, whereas the faceted pyramid-like crystallites of the (111)-oriented films led to a rough surface. The dielectric response of BZT at room temperature was measured along the growth direction. The films were found to be ferroelectric, although a well-saturated hysteresis loop was obtained only for the (001)-oriented films. High leakage currents were observed for the (111) orientation, likely associated to charge transport along the boundaries of its crystallites. The remanent polarization, coercive field, dielectric constant, and relative change of dielectric permittivity (tunability) of (111)-oriented BZT were higher than those of (001)-oriented BZT.

Market Orientation Practices and Effects on Organizational Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haim Hilman

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Today’s organizations need market orientation practices to strive and generate superior performance and competitive advantage in the modern turbulent marketplace. Thus, this research inspects the respective links between the dimensions of (a competitor orientation and (b customer orientation and performance in the context of hotels in Malaysia. Data were gathered through self-administrated mail questionnaires directed to the top- and middle-level managers of three- to five-star-rated hotels in Malaysia. The findings indicated that hotels in Malaysia practiced competitor orientation and customer orientation as their core marketing strategy. Specifically, both competitor orientation and customer orientation positively linked to organizational performance. Few studies have investigated the practices and effects of market orientation on performance in the Malaysian hotel setting. Therefore, this study provided new insights into the understanding of market orientation practices in the hotel industry, particularly in Malaysia. In addition, the significance of this study, potential limitations, and future examination directions are highlighted.

Object-Oriented Econometrics with Ox

OpenAIRE

Kulaksizoglu, Tamer

2015-01-01

This article reviews the object-oriented features of the Ox matrix programming language. We discuss object-oriented programming in general and give econometric examples coded in Ox. We also discuss some useful built-in classes that come with the Ox distribution.

Molecule-oriented programming in Java

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bergstra, J.A.

2002-01-01

Molecule-oriented programming is introduced as a programming style carrying some perspective for Java. A sequence of examples is provided. Supporting the development of the molecule-oriented programming style several matters are introduced and developed: profile classes allowing the representation

Inverse gender gap in Germany: social dominance orientation among men and women.

Science.gov (United States)

Küpper, Beate; Zick, Andreas

2011-02-01

Across cultures studies show that men score higher on social dominance orientation than women. This gender gap is considered invariant, but conflicting explanations are discussed: Some authors refer to evolutionary psychology and perceive the gender gap to be driven by sociobiological factors. Other authors argue that social roles or gender-stereotypical self-construals encouraged by intergroup comparisons are responsible for attitudinal gender difference. In Study 1 we analyzed sex differences in social dominance orientation in three German probability surveys (each n > 2300). Unexpectedly, the analyses yielded an inverse gender gap with higher values for social dominance orientation in women than in men. Interactions with age, education, political conservatism, and perceived inequity indicated that the inverse gender gap can be mainly attributed to older, conservative, (and less educated) respondents, and those who feel they get their deserved share. In Study 2 we replicated the well-known gender gap with men scoring higher than women in social dominance orientation among German students. Results are interpreted on the basis of biocultural interaction, which integrates the sociobiological, social role, and self-construal perspectives. Our unusual findings seem to reflect a struggle for status by members of low-status groups who consider group-based hierarchy the most promising option to improve their status. While younger women take advantage of a relational, feminine self-construal that leads to lower social dominance orientation in young women than in young men, older women are supposed to profit from an agentic self-construal that results in stronger social dominance orientation values. Specific characteristics of the culture in Germany seem to promote this strategy. Here, we discuss the female ideal of the national socialist period and the agentic female social role in the post-war era necessitated by the absence of men.

The Analysis of Elementary Mathematics Preservice Teachers' Spatial Orientation Skills with SOLO Model

Science.gov (United States)

Özdemir, Ahmet Sükrü; Göktepe Yildiz, Sevda

2015-01-01

Problem Statement: The SOLO model places responses provided by students on a certain level instead of placing students there themselves. SOLO taxonomy, including five sub-levels, is used for determining observed structures of learning outcomes in various disciplines and grade levels. On the other hand, the spatial orientation skill is the ability…

Orientation of Germ Tubes of Puccinia hordei on the Hordeum chilense Leaf Surface

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vaz Patto, M.C.; Niks, R.E.

2000-01-01

The directional growth of urediospores germ tubes along the transverse axis of a cereal's leaf is considered to be a response to stimuli from the plant surface. In order to find out if the germ tube growth is directed towards stomata, and if the cuticular wax layer plays a role in this orientated

Effect of crystal orientation on the phase diagrams, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huaping Wu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The influence of crystal orientations on the phase diagrams, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films has been investigated using an expanded nonlinear thermodynamic theory. The calculations reveal that crystal orientation has significant influence on the phase stability and phase transitions in the misfit strain-temperature phase diagrams. In particular, the (110 orientation leads to a lower symmetry and more complicated phase transition than the (111 orientation in BaTiO3 films. The increase of compressive strain will dramatically enhance the Curie temperature TC of (110-oriented BaTiO3 films, which matches well with previous experimental data. The polarization components experience a great change across the boundaries of different phases at room temperature in both (110- and (111-oriented films, which leads to the huge dielectric and piezoelectric responses. A good agreement is found between the present thermodynamics calculation and previous first-principles calculations. Our work provides an insight into how to use crystal orientation, epitaxial strain and temperature to tune the structure and properties of ferroelectrics.

Ostracism and attachment orientation: Avoidants are less affected in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Yaakobi, Erez; Williams, Kipling D

2016-03-01

Ostracism--being excluded and ignored--is painful and threatens needs for belonging, self-esteem, control and meaningful existence. Many studies have shown that immediate responses to ostracism tend to be resistant to moderation. Once ostracized individuals are able to reflect on the experience, however, personality and situational factors moderate recovery speed and behavioural responses. Because attachment orientation is grounded in perceptions of belonging, we hypothesized that attachment orientation would moderate both immediate and delayed reactions to laboratory-induced ostracism. Participants from individualistic or collectivistic cultures were either included or ostracized in a game of Cyberball, a virtual ball-toss game. In both cultures, we found that compared to more securely attached individuals, more avoidant participants were less distressed by ostracism, but more distressed by inclusion. It is suggested that over and beyond differences in culture, individuals who avoid meaningful attachment may be less affected by ostracism. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Object-Oriented Type Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schwartzbach, Michael Ignatieff; Palsberg, Jens

binding. Existing languages employ different type systems, and it can be difficult to compare, evaluate and improve them, since there is currently no uniform theory for such languages. This book provides such a theory. The authors review the type systems of Simula, Smalltalk, C++ and Eiffel and present......Object-Oriented Type Systems Jens Palsberg and Michael I. Schwartzbach Aarhus University, Denmark Type systems are required to ensure reliability and efficiency of software. For object-oriented languages, typing is an especially challenging problem because of inheritance, assignment, and late...... a type system that generalizes and explains them. The theory is based on an idealized object-oriented language called BOPL (Basic Object Programming Language), containing common features of the above languages. A type system, type inference algorithm, and typings of inheritance and genericity...

Position and orientation tracking system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burks, B.L.; DePiero, F.W.; Armstrong, G.A.; Jansen, J.F.; Muller, R.C.; Gee, T.F.

1998-01-01

A position and orientation tracking system presents a laser scanning apparatus having two measurement pods, a control station, and a detector array. The measurement pods can be mounted in the dome of a radioactive waste storage silo. Each measurement pod includes dual orthogonal laser scanner subsystems. The first laser scanner subsystem is oriented to emit a first line laser in the pan direction. The second laser scanner is oriented to emit a second line laser in the tilt direction. Both emitted line lasers scan planes across the radioactive waste surface to encounter the detector array mounted on a target robotic vehicle. The angles of incidence of the planes with the detector array are recorded by the control station. Combining measurements describing each of the four planes provides data for a closed form solution of the algebraic transform describing the position and orientation of the target robotic vehicle. 14 figs

Development of probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools for probability materials at junior high school students

Science.gov (United States)

Sari, Dwi Ivayana; Hermanto, Didik

2017-08-01

This research is a developmental research of probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools for probability materials at ninth grade students. This study is aimed to produce a good probabilistic thinking-oriented learning tools. The subjects were IX-A students of MTs Model Bangkalan. The stages of this development research used 4-D development model which has been modified into define, design and develop. Teaching learning tools consist of lesson plan, students' worksheet, learning teaching media and students' achievement test. The research instrument used was a sheet of learning tools validation, a sheet of teachers' activities, a sheet of students' activities, students' response questionnaire and students' achievement test. The result of those instruments were analyzed descriptively to answer research objectives. The result was teaching learning tools in which oriented to probabilistic thinking of probability at ninth grade students which has been valid. Since teaching and learning tools have been revised based on validation, and after experiment in class produced that teachers' ability in managing class was effective, students' activities were good, students' responses to the learning tools were positive and the validity, sensitivity and reliability category toward achievement test. In summary, this teaching learning tools can be used by teacher to teach probability for develop students' probabilistic thinking.

Failure Behaviour of Aluminium/CFRP Laminates with Varying Fibre Orientation in Quasi-static Indentation Test

Science.gov (United States)

Romli, N. K.; Rejab, M. R. M.; Bachtiar, D.; Siregar, J.; Rani, M. F.; Salleh, Salwani Mohd; Merzuki, M. N. M.

2018-03-01

The response of the aluminium/carbon laminate was examined by an experimental work. The investigation on fibre metal laminate behaviour was done through an indentation test in a quasi-static loading. The hybrid laminate was fabricated by a compression moulding technique and used two types of carbon fibre orientations; plain weave and unidirectional. The plain weave orientation is dry fibre, and unidirectional orientation is prepreg type fibre. The plain weave carbon fibre and aluminium alloy 2024-0 was laminated by using thermoset epoxy while the unidirectional carbon fibre was pressed by using a hot press machine and cured under a specific temperature and pressure. A compression moulding technique was used for the FML fabrication. The aluminium sheet metal has been roughening by a metal sanding method which to improve the bonding between the fibre and metal layer. The main objective of this paper is to determine the failure response of the laminate under five variation of the crosshead speeds in the quasi-static loading. Based on the experimental data of the test, the result of 1 mm/min in the plain weave CFRP has lower loading than unidirectional fibre which the value of both was 4.11 kN and 4.69 kN, respectively.

Object-oriented communications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chapman, L.J.

1989-01-01

OOC is a high-level communications protocol based on the object-oriented paradigm. OOC's syntax, semantics, and pragmatics balance simplicity and expressivity for controls environments. While natural languages are too complex, computer protocols are often insufficiently expressive. An object-oriented communications philosophy provides a base for building the necessary high-level communications primitives like I don't understand and the current value of X is K. OOC is sufficiently flexible to express data acquisition, control requests, alarm messages, and error messages in a straightforward generic way. It can be used in networks, for inter-task communication, and even for intra-task communication

Service orientation of the restaurant employees

OpenAIRE

Gagić, Snježana; Vuković-Jovičić, Ana; Petrović, Marko D.

2017-01-01

The service orientation program developed for restaurant employees can be a competitive advantage for a restaurant operation. Service orientation has been characterized as the disposition of employees to be helpful, thoughtful, considerate, and co-operative towards customers. Customer-oriented behaviors include: helping customers; helping customers to assess their needs; offering service that will satisfy those needs; describing services accurately; avoiding deceptive manipulations; and avoid...

The axiological orientation of students’ personalities

OpenAIRE

Sergey I. Kudinov; Stanislav S. Kudinov; Irina B. Kudinova; Sofia S. Belousova

2018-01-01

Background. Our empirical research and analysis revealed characteristics of the axiological orientation of students’ personalities. Objective.We identified the principal types of orientation, dominant values, and attitudes of the personality in the motivational-needs sphere through a variety of validated and reliable techniques and methods. Design We understand the axiological orientation of the personality as a relatively stable set of values, motivations, needs, and moral structure...

Safety leadership at construction sites: the importance of rule-oriented and participative leadership.

Science.gov (United States)

Grill, Martin; Pousette, Anders; Nielsen, Kent; Grytnes, Regine; Törner, Marianne

2017-07-01

Objectives The construction industry accounted for >20% of all fatal occupational accidents in Europe in 2014. Leadership is an essential antecedent to occupational safety. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented, participative, and laissez-faire leadership on safety climate, safety behavior, and accidents in the Swedish and Danish construction industry. Sweden and Denmark are similar countries but have a large difference in occupational accidents rates. Methods A questionnaire study was conducted among a random sample of construction workers in both countries: 811 construction workers from 85 sites responded, resulting in site and individual response rates of 73% and 64%, respectively. Results The results indicated that transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented and participative leadership predict positive safety outcomes, and laissez-faire leadership predict negative safety outcomes. For example, rule-oriented leadership predicts a superior safety climate (β=0.40, Pleadership on workers' safety behavior was moderated by the level of participative leadership (β=0.10, Pleadership behaviors on safety outcomes were largely similar in Sweden and Denmark. Rule-oriented and participative leadership were more common in the Swedish than Danish construction industry, which may partly explain the difference in occupational accident rates. Conclusions Applying less laissez-faire leadership and more transformational, active transactional, participative and rule-oriented leadership appears to be an effective way for construction site managers to improve occupational safety in the industry.

From service-oriented architecture to service-oriented enterprise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Sinderen, Marten J.; Cordeiro, J.; Ivanov, I.; Shishkov, Boris

2009-01-01

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) was originally motivated by enterprise demands for better business-technology alignment and higher flexibility and reuse. SOA evolved from an initial set of ideas and principles to Web services (WS) standards now widely accepted by industry. The next phase of SOA

Outer-shell excitation and capture processes: Alignment and orientation effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andersen, N.; Dowek, D.; Dubois, A.; Hansen, J.P.; Nielsen, S.E.

1990-01-01

This contribution outlines some ongoing activities within a joint programme of experimental and theoretical studies of outer-shell excitation and charge transfer processes in atomic collisions. The main emphasis is presently on alignment and orientation phenomena. The aim is to reveal the shape and dynamics of the electronic charge cloud as it develops in time along the trajectory, and to understand these phenomena in terms of the underlying, basic mechanisms responsible for collisional excitation and transfer. (orig.)

Effects of stimulus pair orientation and hand switching on reaction time estimates of interhemispheric transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Leblanc-Sirois, Yanick; Braun, Claude M J; Elie-Fortier, Jonathan

2018-03-26

Two behavioral estimates of interhemispheric transfer time, the crossed-uncrossed difference (CUD) and the unilateral field advantage (UFA), are thought to, respectively, index transfer of premotor and visual information across the corpus callosum in neurotypical participants. However, no attempt to manipulate visual and motor contingencies in a set of tasks while measuring the CUD and the UFA has yet been reported. In two go/no-go comparison experiments, stimulus pair orientations were manipulated. The hand of response changed after each correct response in the second, but not the first experiment. No correlation was found between the CUD and the UFA, supporting the hypothesis that these two measures index different types of information transfer across hemispheres. An effect of manipulation of stimulus pair orientation on UFAs was attributed to the homotopy of callosal fibers transferring visual information, while an effect of hand switching on CUDs was attributed mostly to spatial compatibility.

Beginning C# Object-Oriented Programming

CERN Document Server

Clark, Dan

2011-01-01

Beginning C# Object-Oriented Programming brings you into the modern world of development as you master the fundamentals of programming with C# and learn to develop efficient, reusable, elegant code through the object-oriented programming (OOP) methodology. Take your skills out of the 20th century and into this one with Dan Clark's accessible, quick-paced guide to C# and object-oriented programming, completely updated for .NET 4.0 and C# 4.0. As you develop techniques and best practices for coding in C#, one of the world's most popular contemporary languages, you'll experience modeling a "real

The Consequences of Market Orientation on Business Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luminiţa Ştefania Bodea

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The present research aims to develop a conceptual model to test the market orientation dimensions: customer orientation, competitor orientation, interfunctional coordination, and their effects on organizational performance. The most common question found in marketing studies refers to the role assigned to the marketing concept to achieve performance. Often, companies are forced to undertake different strategic approaches to be competitive, but few companies manage to become market oriented and meet difficulties in implementing the marketing concept, because the environment in which they operate are extremely dynamic. The present empirical study utilized the results obtained by processing 121 completed questionnaires containing data from large firms that operate in Romanian. The presence of the following market orientation dimensions: customer orientation, competitor orientation and interfunctional coordination, and their consequences on organizational performance were tested using simple linear regression. The results show that the surveyed firms are market oriented and the positive consequences of this orientation dimensions on performance. The major contribution of the study is that it provides empirical proof of the effect of marketing on firm performance.

Secondary recrystallization behavior in a twin-roll cast grain-oriented electrical steel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, Hong-Yu; Liu, Hai-Tao, E-mail: liuht@ral.neu.edu.cn; Wang, Yin-Ping; Wang, Guo-Dong

2017-04-15

The microstructure and texture evolution along the processing was investigated with a particular focus on the secondary recrystallization behavior in a 0.23 mm-thick twin-roll cast grain-oriented electrical steel. A striking feature is that Goss orientation originated during twin-roll casting as a result of shear deformation and it was further enhanced during hot rolling and normalizing. After primary recrystallization annealing, a homogeneous microstructure associated with a sharp γ-fiber texture was produced. During secondary recrystallization annealing, the γ-fiber texture was first strengthened and weakened with increasing temperature prior to the onset of secondary recrystallization. Goss grains always exhibited more 20–45° misoriented boundaries than the matrix. The matrix was quite stable during secondary recrystallization with the aid of dense inhibitors. Finally, a complete secondary recrystallization microstructure consisting of large Goss grains was produced. The grain boundary characteristics distribution indicated that the high energy model was responsible for the abnormal growth of Goss grains under the present conditions. - Highlights: • A 0.23 mm twin-roll cast grain-oriented silicon steel sheet was produced. • Goss orientation originated during twin-roll casting. • Secondary recrystallization behavior was briefly investigated. • γ-fiber texture was enhanced prior to the onset of secondary recrystallization. • A complete secondary recrystallization microstructure was produced.

What Reader-Oriented Literary and Cognitive Theories Have to Give to Composing Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Liebman-Kleine, JoAnne

In developing an interactive model of composing, this paper discusses three groups of reader-oriented theories, each of which provides composing theorists with some research and theory to use in developing such a model. First the paper discusses the main principle of the literary reader-response theorists--that the meaning and value of texts do…

Broader visual orientation tuning in patients with schizophrenia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ariel eRokem

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Reduced gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA levels in cerebral cortex are thought to contribute to information processing deficits in patients with schizophrenia (SZ, and we have previously reported lower in vivo GABA levels in the visual cortex of patients with SZ. GABA-mediated inhibition plays a role in sharpening orientation tuning of visual cortical neurons. Therefore, we predicted that tuning for visual stimulus orientation would be wider in SZ. We measured orientation tuning with a psychophysical procedure in which subjects performed a target detection task of a low-contrast oriented grating, following adaptation to a high-contrast grating. Contrast detection thresholds were determined for a range of adapter-target orientation offsets. For both SZ and healthy controls, contrast thresholds decreased as orientation offset increased, suggesting that this tuning curve reflects the selectivity of visual cortical neurons for stimulus orientation. After accounting for generalized deficits in task performance in SZ, there was no difference between patients and controls for detection of target stimuli having either the same orientation as the adapter or orientations far from the adapter. However, patients’ thresholds were significantly higher for intermediate adapter-target offsets. In addition, the mean width parameter of a Gaussian fit to the psychophysical orientation tuning curves was significantly larger for the patient group. We also present preliminary data relating visual cortical GABA levels, as measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and orientation tuning width. These results suggest that our finding of broader orientation tuning in SZ may be due to diminished visual cortical GABA levels.

Orientation selectivity in inhibition-dominated networks of spiking neurons: effect of single neuron properties and network dynamics.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh, Sadra; Rotter, Stefan

2015-01-01

The neuronal mechanisms underlying the emergence of orientation selectivity in the primary visual cortex of mammals are still elusive. In rodents, visual neurons show highly selective responses to oriented stimuli, but neighboring neurons do not necessarily have similar preferences. Instead of a smooth map, one observes a salt-and-pepper organization of orientation selectivity. Modeling studies have recently confirmed that balanced random networks are indeed capable of amplifying weakly tuned inputs and generating highly selective output responses, even in absence of feature-selective recurrent connectivity. Here we seek to elucidate the neuronal mechanisms underlying this phenomenon by resorting to networks of integrate-and-fire neurons, which are amenable to analytic treatment. Specifically, in networks of perfect integrate-and-fire neurons, we observe that highly selective and contrast invariant output responses emerge, very similar to networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. We then demonstrate that a theory based on mean firing rates and the detailed network topology predicts the output responses, and explains the mechanisms underlying the suppression of the common-mode, amplification of modulation, and contrast invariance. Increasing inhibition dominance in our networks makes the rectifying nonlinearity more prominent, which in turn adds some distortions to the otherwise essentially linear prediction. An extension of the linear theory can account for all the distortions, enabling us to compute the exact shape of every individual tuning curve in our networks. We show that this simple form of nonlinearity adds two important properties to orientation selectivity in the network, namely sharpening of tuning curves and extra suppression of the modulation. The theory can be further extended to account for the nonlinearity of the leaky model by replacing the rectifier by the appropriate smooth input-output transfer function. These results are robust and do not

Orientation selectivity in inhibition-dominated networks of spiking neurons: effect of single neuron properties and network dynamics.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sadra Sadeh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The neuronal mechanisms underlying the emergence of orientation selectivity in the primary visual cortex of mammals are still elusive. In rodents, visual neurons show highly selective responses to oriented stimuli, but neighboring neurons do not necessarily have similar preferences. Instead of a smooth map, one observes a salt-and-pepper organization of orientation selectivity. Modeling studies have recently confirmed that balanced random networks are indeed capable of amplifying weakly tuned inputs and generating highly selective output responses, even in absence of feature-selective recurrent connectivity. Here we seek to elucidate the neuronal mechanisms underlying this phenomenon by resorting to networks of integrate-and-fire neurons, which are amenable to analytic treatment. Specifically, in networks of perfect integrate-and-fire neurons, we observe that highly selective and contrast invariant output responses emerge, very similar to networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons. We then demonstrate that a theory based on mean firing rates and the detailed network topology predicts the output responses, and explains the mechanisms underlying the suppression of the common-mode, amplification of modulation, and contrast invariance. Increasing inhibition dominance in our networks makes the rectifying nonlinearity more prominent, which in turn adds some distortions to the otherwise essentially linear prediction. An extension of the linear theory can account for all the distortions, enabling us to compute the exact shape of every individual tuning curve in our networks. We show that this simple form of nonlinearity adds two important properties to orientation selectivity in the network, namely sharpening of tuning curves and extra suppression of the modulation. The theory can be further extended to account for the nonlinearity of the leaky model by replacing the rectifier by the appropriate smooth input-output transfer function. These results are

Towards "Bildung"-Oriented Chemistry Education

Science.gov (United States)

Sjöström, Jesper

2013-01-01

This paper concerns "Bildung"-oriented chemistry education, based on a reflective and critical discourse of chemistry. It is contrasted with the dominant type of chemistry education, based on the mainstream discourse of chemistry. "Bildung"-oriented chemistry education includes not only content knowledge in chemistry, but also…

Social Dominance Orientation, Language Orientation, and Deaf Identity

Science.gov (United States)

Marschark, Marc; Zettler, Ingo; Dammeyer, Jesper

2017-01-01

The notion of the Deaf community as a linguistic-cultural minority has been increasingly recognized and studied over the last two decades. However, significant differences of opinion and perspective within that population typically have been neglected in the literature. Social dominance orientation (SDO), a theoretical construct, typically…

Dermatoglyphics, handedness, sex, and sexual orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Mustanski, Brian S; Bailey, J Michael; Kaspar, Sarah

2002-02-01

Both handedness and dermatoglyphic asymmetry reflect early, prenatal influences and both have been reported to be associated with male sexual orientation; handedness has been related to female sexual orientation as well. Neurohormonal and developmental perturbation are two competing hypothesis that attempt to explain these connections. We attempted to replicate these associations and to extend dermatoglyphic asymmetry findings to women. Dermatoglyphic directional asymmetry and fluctuating asymmetry were unrelated to sexual orientation. Homosexual women, but not homosexual men, had highly significant increases in non-right-handedness compared with same-sex heterosexual controls. Although this pattern of results does not allow resolution of the two competing models, it does lend additional support to a biological basis of sexual orientation.

Facile Fabrication of Electrically Conductive Low-Density Polyethylene/Carbon Fiber Tubes for Novel Smart Materials via Multiaxial Orientation.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yijun; Nie, Min; Wang, Qi

2018-01-10

Electromechanical sensors are indispensable components in functional devices and robotics application. However, the fabrication of the sensors still maintains a challenging issue that high percolation threshold and easy failure of conductive network are derived from uniaxial orientation of conductive fillers in practical melt processing. Herein, we reported a facile fabrication method to prepare a multiaxial low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/carbon fibers (CFs) tube with bidirectional controllable electrical conductivity and sensitive strain-responsive performance via rotation extrusion technology. The multidimensional helical flow is confirmed in the reverse rotation extrusion, and the CFs readily respond to the flow field leading to a multiaxial orientation in the LDPE matrix. In contrast to uniaxial LDPE/CF composites, which perform a "head to head" conjunction, multiaxial-orientated CF networks exhibit a unique multilayer structure in which the CFs with distinct orientation direction intersect in the interface, endowing the LDPE/CF composites with a low percolation threshold (15 wt %) to those of the uniaxial ones (∼35 wt %). The angles between two axes play a vital role in determining the density of the conductive networks in the interface, which is predominant in tuning the bending-responsive behaviors with a gauge factor range from 12.5 to 56.3 and the corresponding linear respond region from ∼15 to ∼1%. Such a superior performance of conductive LDPE/CF tube confirms that the design of multiaxial orientation paves a novel way to facile fabrication of advanced cost-effective CF-based smart materials, shedding light on promising applications such as smart materials and intelligent engineering monitoring.

Aspect-Oriented Change Realizations and Their Interaction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vranić, Valentino; Menkyna, Radoslav; Bebjak, Michal

2009-01-01

With aspect-oriented programming, changes can be treated explicitly and directly at the programming language level. An approach to aspect-oriented change realization based on a two-level change type model is presented in this paper. In this approach, aspect-oriented change realizations are mainly...

An object-oriented approach to energy-economic modeling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wise, M.A.; Fox, J.A.; Sands, R.D.

1993-12-01

In this paper, the authors discuss the experiences in creating an object-oriented economic model of the U.S. energy and agriculture markets. After a discussion of some central concepts, they provide an overview of the model, focusing on the methodology of designing an object-oriented class hierarchy specification based on standard microeconomic production functions. The evolution of the model from the class definition stage to programming it in C++, a standard object-oriented programming language, will be detailed. The authors then discuss the main differences between writing the object-oriented program versus a procedure-oriented program of the same model. Finally, they conclude with a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the object-oriented approach based on the experience in building energy-economic models with procedure-oriented approaches and languages.

Electroluminescence from completely horizontally oriented dye molecules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Komino, Takeshi [Education Center for Global Leaders in Molecular System for Devices, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Adachi Molecular Exciton Engineering Project, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Sagara, Yuta [Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Tanaka, Hiroyuki [Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601 (Japan); Oki, Yuji [Japan Science and Technology Agency, ERATO, Adachi Molecular Exciton Engineering Project, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Department of Electronics, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Nakamura, Nozomi [Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER), Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Fujimoto, Hiroshi [Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi, Fukuoka 819-0395 (Japan); Fukuoka i" 3-Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (i3-OPERA), Fukuoka 819-0388 (Japan); and others

2016-06-13

A complete horizontal molecular orientation of a linear-shaped thermally activated delayed fluorescent guest emitter 2,6-bis(4-(10Hphenoxazin-10-yl)phenyl)benzo[1,2-d:5,4-d′] bis(oxazole) (cis-BOX2) was obtained in a glassy host matrix by vapor deposition. The orientational order of cis-BOX2 depended on the combination of deposition temperature and the type of host matrix. Complete horizontal orientation was obtained when a thin film with cis-BOX2 doped in a 4,4′-bis(N-carbazolyl)-1,1′-biphenyl (CBP) host matrix was fabricated at 200 K. The ultimate orientation of guest molecules originates from not only the kinetic relaxation but also the kinetic stability of the deposited guest molecules on the film surface during film growth. Utilizing the ultimate orientation, a highly efficient organic light-emitting diode with the external quantum efficiency of 33.4 ± 2.0% was realized. The thermal stability of the horizontal orientation of cis-BOX2 was governed by the glass transition temperature (T{sub g}) of the CBP host matrix; the horizontal orientation was stable unless the film was annealed above T{sub g}.

The market orientation: competitive organizational strategy

OpenAIRE

Rivera Camino, Jaime

1995-01-01

This article reports a definition of Market Orientation whieh supported from a perspeetive of strategy implementation. It is different from the studies that eonsider the identity of Market Orientation as the adoption of the marketing eoncept or the implementation of a business culture. The results obtained from two eountries provide empirical support to our definition of Market Orientation as competitive strategy. This is reported independent from the marketing department and is capable of be...

Agile service oriented shipping companies in the container terminal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Liu

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Agility is regarded as one of the core capabilities and the developing trend of supply chains and their enterprises. Along with the development of economical globalization, supply chain management and containerization as well as container ports as a part of supply chain take more roles like logistics or distribution centers. Under this background, the container terminal should have superior response and develop agility. The main goal of this paper is to emphasize and illustrate the importance and imminence of implementing agility in container terminals. To achieve this goal, the analysis of the economies of scale in the container terminal is presented. In this paper, however, more attention will be paid to agile service oriented shipping companies. The concept and characters of agile service in the container terminal is illustrated. The paper also focuses on the agile organizational structure of the container terminal. Finally, the fuzzy quality synthetic evaluation method is given to evaluate the performance level of agile service in container terminal oriented shipping companies.

Effect of crystal orientation on the phase diagrams, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of epitaxial BaTiO{sub 3} thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Huaping, E-mail: wuhuaping@gmail.com, E-mail: hpwu@zjut.edu.cn [Key Laboratory of E& M (Zhejiang University of Technology), Ministry of Education & Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310014 (China); State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024 (China); Ma, Xuefu; Zhang, Zheng; Zeng, Jun; Chai, Guozhong [Key Laboratory of E& M (Zhejiang University of Technology), Ministry of Education & Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310014 (China); Wang, Jie [Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)

2016-01-15

The influence of crystal orientations on the phase diagrams, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of epitaxial BaTiO{sub 3} thin films has been investigated using an expanded nonlinear thermodynamic theory. The calculations reveal that crystal orientation has significant influence on the phase stability and phase transitions in the misfit strain-temperature phase diagrams. In particular, the (110) orientation leads to a lower symmetry and more complicated phase transition than the (111) orientation in BaTiO{sub 3} films. The increase of compressive strain will dramatically enhance the Curie temperature T{sub C} of (110)-oriented BaTiO{sub 3} films, which matches well with previous experimental data. The polarization components experience a great change across the boundaries of different phases at room temperature in both (110)- and (111)-oriented films, which leads to the huge dielectric and piezoelectric responses. A good agreement is found between the present thermodynamics calculation and previous first-principles calculations. Our work provides an insight into how to use crystal orientation, epitaxial strain and temperature to tune the structure and properties of ferroelectrics.

The effects of acute alcohol exposure on the response properties of neurons in visual cortex area 17 of cats

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Bo; Xia Jing; Li Guangxing; Zhou Yifeng

2010-01-01

Physiological and behavioral studies have demonstrated that a number of visual functions such as visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and motion perception can be impaired by acute alcohol exposure. The orientation- and direction-selective responses of cells in primary visual cortex are thought to participate in the perception of form and motion. To investigate how orientation selectivity and direction selectivity of neurons are influenced by acute alcohol exposure in vivo, we used the extracellular single-unit recording technique to examine the response properties of neurons in primary visual cortex (A17) of adult cats. We found that alcohol reduces spontaneous activity, visual evoked unit responses, the signal-to-noise ratio, and orientation selectivity of A17 cells. In addition, small but detectable changes in both the preferred orientation/direction and the bandwidth of the orientation tuning curve of strongly orientation-biased A17 cells were observed after acute alcohol administration. Our findings may provide physiological evidence for some alcohol-related deficits in visual function observed in behavioral studies.

Perceptions of Sexual Orientation From Minimal Cues.

Science.gov (United States)

Rule, Nicholas O

2017-01-01

People derive considerable amounts of information about each other from minimal nonverbal cues. Apart from characteristics typically regarded as obvious when encountering another person (e.g., age, race, and sex), perceivers can identify many other qualities about a person that are typically rather subtle. One such feature is sexual orientation. Here, I review the literature documenting the accurate perception of sexual orientation from nonverbal cues related to one's adornment, acoustics, actions, and appearance. In addition to chronicling studies that have demonstrated how people express and extract sexual orientation in each of these domains, I discuss some of the basic cognitive and perceptual processes that support these judgments, including how cues to sexual orientation manifest in behavioral (e.g., clothing choices) and structural (e.g., facial morphology) signals. Finally, I attend to boundary conditions in the accurate perception of sexual orientation, such as the states, traits, and group memberships that moderate individuals' ability to reliably decipher others' sexual orientation.

Connecticut – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Documentation of Discrimination

OpenAIRE

Sears, Brad

2009-01-01

A Connecticut statute bans employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. No Connecticut statutes prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. In November 2000, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities – the agency responsible for administering the anti-discrimination statutes and for processing discrimination complaints – ruled that statutes prohibiting sex discrimination also banned discrimination on the basis of gender identity. ...