Understanding hybrid roles: the role of identity processes amongst physicians

Increasing attention has been paid in both public administration and organizational theory to understanding how physicians assume a ‘hybrid’ role as they take onmanagerial responsibilities. Limited theoretical attention has been devoted to the processes involved in negotiating, developing, and maintaining such a role.We draw on identity theory, using a qualitative, five-year longitudinal case study, to explore how hybrid physician–managers in the English National Health Service and the organizations they are situated in achieve this. We highlight the importance of saliency – how central an identity is to an individual’s values and beliefs – in managing new identities.We found three differing responses to taking on a hybrid physician–manager role, with identity emerging as a mitigating factor for negotiating potentially conflicting roles. We discuss the implications for existing theory and practice in the management of public organizations and identify an agenda for further research.

A new hybrid BCI paradigm based on P300 and SSVEP

Background: P300 and steady-state visual evoked potential(SSVEP) approaches have been widely used for brain–computer interface (BCI) systems. However, neither of these approaches can work for all subjects. Some groups have reported that a hybrid BCI that combines two or more approaches might provide BCI functionality to more users. Hybrid P300/SSVEP BCIs have only recently been developed and validated, and very few avenues to improve performance have been explored. New method: The present study compares an established hybrid P300/SSVEP BCIs paradigm to a new paradigm in which shape changing, instead of color changing, is adopted for P300 evocation to decrease the degradation on SSVEP strength. Result: The result shows that the new hybrid paradigm presented in this paper yields much better performance than the normal hybrid paradigm. Comparison with existing method: A performance increase of nearly 20% in SSVEP classification is achieved using the new hybrid paradigm in comparison with the normal hybrid paradigm.Allthe paradigms except the normal hybrid paradigm used in this paper obtain 100% accuracy in P300 classification. Conclusions: The new hybrid P300/SSVEP BCIs paradigm in which shape changing, instead of color changing, could obtain as high classification accuracy of SSVEP as the traditional SSVEP paradigm and could obtain as high classification accuracy of P300 as the traditional P300 paradigm. P300 did not interfere with the SSVEP response using the new hybrid paradigm presented in this paper, which was superior to the normal hybrid P300/SSVEP paradigm.

Identifying, mapping, and monitoring the impact of hybrid firms

There is growing recognition that hybrid organizations can play a critical role in tackling intractable global sustainable development challenges. At the same time, acute social, environmental, and economic challenges are opening up “opportunity” spaces for hybrids. Different institutional contexts are also leading to variable hybrid forms linked to the focus of their mission and their profit-oriented status. This article presents a process for identifying, mapping, and building impact indicators based on a study of 20 hybrid organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The logic of ideas in Christopher Hill's English revolution

This article examines the role played by ideas and their thinkers in Christopher Hill's histories of the English Revolution. Hill protested against a reductionist economic determinism with no place for the intrinsic power of ideas, but his account of ideas gave them a progressive logic parallel to, if not always easy to link with, that of economic development, and threatened to divorce them from their muddled and imperfect thinkers. This account of the logic of ideas had a striking impact on the way in which the more mainstream radicals of the English Revolution appeared in Hill's work, with both the Levellers and James Harrington being half assimilated to, and half pushed aside in favor of, the more thoroughgoing economic radicals who expressed, in however ragged a way, the intrinsic potential of their ideas. However, Hill's writings also betray a surprising attraction to religious over secular forms of radicalism.

Hybrid materials through linkage of chalcogenide tetrahedral clusters

Tetrahedral chalcogenide clusters, with their well-defined molecular structures and interesting properties, are attractive building blocks for hybrid materials, in which porosity may be integrated with electronic or optical properties. Linkage of tetrahedral clusters often occurs through bridging chalcogenolate ligands, and results in extended structures of inorganic connectivity. However, linkage of tetrahedral clusters via organic ligands is also possible and a number of coordination polymers have already been reported. Recent advances on the synthesis and crystal structures of extended hybrid structures based on tetrahedral clusters are described here.

Key bioactive reaction products of the NO/H2S interaction are S/N-hybrid species, polysulfides, and nitroxyl

Experimental evidence suggests that nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) signaling pathways are intimately intertwined, with mutual attenuation or potentiation of biological responses in the cardiovascular system and elsewhere. The chemical basis of this interaction is elusive. Moreover, polysulfides recently emerged as potential mediators of H2S/sulfide signaling, but their biosynthesis and relationship to NO remain enigmatic. We sought to characterize the nature, chemical biology, and bioactivity of key reaction products formed in the NO/sulfide system. At physiological pH, we find that NO and sulfide form a network of cascading chemical reactions that generate radical intermediates as well as anionic and uncharged solutes, with accumulation of three major products: nitrosopersulfide (SSNO−), polysulfides, and dinitrososulfite N-nitrosohydroxylamine-N-sulfonate (SULFI/NO), each with a distinct chemical biology and in vitro and in vivo bioactivity. SSNO− is resistant to thiols and cyanolysis, efficiently donates both sulfane sulfur and NO, and potently lowers blood pressure. Polysulfides are both intermediates and products of SSNO− synthesis/decomposition, and they also decrease blood pressure and enhance arterial compliance. SULFI/NO is a weak combined NO/nitroxyl donor that releases mainly N2O on decomposition; although it affects blood pressure only mildly, it markedly increases cardiac contractility, and formation of its precursor sulfite likely contributes to NO scavenging. Our results unveil an unexpectedly rich network of coupled chemical reactions between NO and H2S/sulfide, suggesting that the bioactivity of either transmitter is governed by concomitant formation of polysulfides and anionic S/N-hybrid species. This conceptual framework would seem to offer ample opportunities for the modulation of fundamental biological processes governed by redox switching and sulfur trafficking.

Energy consistent discontinuous Galerkin methods for a quasi-incompressible diffuse two phase flow model

We design consistent discontinuous Galerkin finite element schemes for the approximation of a quasi-incompressible two phase flow model of Allen–Cahn/Cahn–Hilliard/Navier–Stokes–Korteweg type which allows for phase transitions. We show that the scheme is mass conservative and monotonically energy dissipative. In this case the dissipation is isolated to discrete equivalents of those effects already causing dissipation on the continuous level, that is, there is no artificial numerical dissipation added into the scheme. In this sense the methods are consistent with the energy dissipation of the continuous PDE system.

Organically-functionalised supertetrahedra as building blocks for hybrid materials

The crystal structures of gallium sulfides prepared under solvothermal conditions, using 4-picoline as a solvent, are described. These materials contain [Ga10S16(NC6H7)4]2− clusters, in which the terminal S2− anions have been replaced by covalently bonded 4-picoline molecules. Whilst these phases contain isolated supertetrahedral clusters separated by organic moieties, linkage of such clusters via organic ligands is possible under suitable reaction conditions. These organically-functionalised supertetrahedra could therefore be used to design novel Metal-Organic frameworks (MOFs) in which the normally-encountered metal centers are replaced by supertetrahedral clusters.

[Ga10S16(NC7H9)4]2-: a hybrid supertetrahedral nanocluster

The synthesis and characterisation of a hybrid supertetrahedral nanocluster, [Ga10S16(NC7H9)4]2−, in which the terminal S2− anions have been replaced by covalently bonded amine molecules, is described.

Quasi-sure existence of Gaussian rough paths and large deviation principles for capacities

We construct a quasi-sure version (in the sense of Malliavin) of geometric rough paths associated with a Gaussian process with long-time memory. As an application we establish a large deviation principle (LDP) for capacities for such Gaussian rough paths. Together with Lyons' universal limit theorem, our results yield immediately the corresponding results for pathwise solutions to stochastic differential equations driven by such Gaussian process in the sense of rough paths. Moreover, our LDP result implies the result of Yoshida on the LDP for capacities over the abstract Wiener space associated with such Gaussian process.

Generalized convective quasi-equilibrium principle

A generalization of Arakawa and Schubert's convective quasi-equilibrium principle is presented for a closure formulation of mass-flux convection parameterization. The original principle is based on the budget of the cloud work function. This principle is generalized by considering the budget for a vertical integral of an arbitrary convection-related quantity. The closure formulation includes Arakawa and Schubert's quasi-equilibrium, as well as both CAPE and moisture closures as special cases. The formulation also includes new possibilities for considering vertical integrals that are dependent on convective-scale variables, such as the moisture within convection. The generalized convective quasi-equilibrium is defined by a balance between large-scale forcing and convective response for a given vertically-integrated quantity. The latter takes the form of a convolution of a kernel matrix and a mass-flux spectrum, as in the original convective quasi-equilibrium. The kernel reduces to a scalar when either a bulk formulation is adopted, or only large-scale variables are considered within the vertical integral. Various physical implications of the generalized closure are discussed. These include the possibility that precipitation might be considered as a potentially-significant contribution to the large-scale forcing. Two dicta are proposed as guiding physical principles for the specifying a suitable vertically-integrated quantity.

The combined influences of westerly phase of the quasi biennial oscillation and 11-year solar maximum conditions on the Northern Hemisphere extratropical winter circulation

The combined influences of the westerly phase of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO-W) and solar maximum (Smax) conditions on the Northern Hemisphere extratropical winter circulation are investigated using reanalysis data and Center for Climate System Research/National Institute for Environmental Studies chemistry climate model (CCM) simulations. The composite analysis for the reanalysis data indicates strengthened polar vortex in December followed by weakened polar vortex in February–March for QBO-W during Smax (QBO-W/Smax) conditions. This relationship need not be specific to QBO-W/Smax conditions but may just require strengthened vortex in December, which is more likely under QBO-W/Smax. Both the reanalysis data and CCM simulations suggest that dynamical processes of planetary wave propagation and meridional circulation related to QBO-W around polar vortex in December are similar in character to those related to Smax; furthermore, both processes may work in concert to maintain stronger vortex during QBO-W/Smax. In the reanalysis data, the strengthened polar vortex in December is associated with the development of north–south dipole tropospheric anomaly in the Atlantic sector similar to the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) during December–January. The structure of the north–south dipole anomaly has zonal wavenumber 1 (WN1) component, where the longitude of anomalous ridge overlaps with that of climatological ridge in the North Atlantic in January. This implies amplification of the WN1 wave and results in the enhancement of the upward WN1 propagation from troposphere into stratosphere in January, leading to the weakened polar vortex in February–March. Although WN2 waves do not play a direct role in forcing the stratospheric vortex evolution, their tropospheric response to QBO-W/Smax conditions appears to be related to the maintenance of the NAO-like anomaly in the high-latitude troposphere in January. These results may provide a possible explanation for the mechanisms underlying the seasonal evolution of wintertime polar vortex anomalies during QBO-W/Smax conditions and the role of troposphere in this evolution.