A Note About the Nowicki Conjecture on Weitzenböck Derivations

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 13N15, 13A50, 16W25.

Matching human resource and corporate strategies

Increasing use of the term, Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), reflects the recognition of the interdependencies between corporate strategy, organization and human resource management in the functioning of the firm. Dyer and Holder (1988) proposed a comprehensive Human Resource Strategic Typology consisting of three strategic types--inducement, investment and involvement. This research attempted to empirically validate their typology and also test the performance implications of the match between corporate strategy and HR strategy. Hypotheses were tested to determine the relationships between internal consistency in HRM sub-systems, match between corporate strategy and HR strategy, and firm performance. Data were collected by a mail survey of 998 senior HR executives of whom 263 returned the completed questionnaire. Financial information on 909 firms was collected from secondary sources like 10-K reports and CD-Disclosure. Profitability ratios were indexed to industry averages. Confirmatory Factor Analysis using LISREL provided support in favor of the six-factor HR measurement model; the six factors were staffing, training, compensation, appraisal, job design and corporate involvement. Support was also found for the presence of a second-order factor labeled "HR Strategic Orientation" explaining the variations among the six factors. LISREL analysis also supported the congruence hypothesis that HR Strategic Orientation significantly affects firm performance. There was a significant associative relationship between HR Strategy and Corporate Strategy. However, the contingency effects of the match between HR and Corporate strategies were not supported. Several tests were conducted to show that the survey results are not affected by non-response bias nor by mono-method bias. Implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed. ^

Social and seasonal plasticity of the electric fish, Brachyhypopomus gauderio

The South American electric knifefish, Brachyhypopomus gauderio, uses weakly electric fields to see and communicate in the dark. Only one study to date has investigated natural behavior in this species during the breeding season; this study proposed that B. guarerio has an exploded lek polygyny breeding system. To test this hypothesis, artificial marshes simulating the native vegetation, temperature, and water conductivities of the South American subtropics were created to study seasonal variation in associative behavior of B. gauderio during the breeding and non-breeding seasons. Mark/recapture methods were used to keep track of individual fish and their dispersion inside the experimental designs. The experimental design proved to be extremely successful at eliciting reproduction. Differences were found in seasonal variations of social behaviors between adult and juvenile populations. Although no apparent sex. differences in movement patterns were found during the breeding season; a trend for male-male aversion was found, suggesting male-male avoidance as a possible strategy guiding aspects of social behaviors in this species. Further, movement may be a tactic for mate seeking as the individuals who moved the most during the breeding season obtained the most opposite sex interactions. These findings support the exploded lek polygyny model. Social interactions are subject to complex regulation by social, physiologic and ecological factors; the extent to which these associations are repeatable may provide novel insights on the evolution of sociality as it has been shaped by natural selection.

Determination of signature volatile odor chemicals emanating from novel biological specimens by non-invasive analytical techniques for the potential use in forensic identifications

Human scent, or the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by an individual, has been recognized as a biometric measurement because of the distinct variations in both the presence and abundance of these VOCs between individuals. In forensic science, human scent has been used as a form of associative evidence by linking a suspect to a scene/object through the use of human scent discriminating canines. The scent most often collected and used with these specially trained canines is from the hands because a majority of the evidence collected is likely to have been handled by the suspect. However, the scents from other biological specimens, especially those that are likely to be present at scenes of violent crimes, have yet to be explored. Hair, fingernails and saliva are examples of these types of specimens. ^ In this work, a headspace solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) technique was used for the identification of VOCs from hand odor, hair, fingernails and saliva. Sixty individuals were sampled and the profiles of the extracted VOCs were evaluated to assess whether they could be used for distinguishing individuals. Preliminary analysis of the biological specimens collected from an individual (intra-subject) showed that, though these materials have some VOCs in common, their overall chemical profile is different for each specimen type. Pair-wise comparisons, using Spearman Rank correlations, were made between the chemical profiles obtained from each subject, per a specimen type. Greater than 98.8% of the collected samples were distinguished from the subjects for all of the specimen types, demonstrating that these specimens can be used for distinguishing individuals. ^ Additionally, field trials were performed to determine the utility of these specimens as scent sources for human scent discriminating canines. Three trials were conducted to evaluate hair, fingernails and saliva in comparison to hand odor, which was considered the standard source of human odor. It was revealed that canines perform similarly to these alternative human scent sources as they do to hand odor implying that, though there are differences in the chemical profiles released by these specimens, they can still be used for the discrimination of individuals by trained canines.^

Dinâmicas de reprodução do comércio e os novos papéis urbanos de pequenas cidades norte-rio-grandenses: um olhar a partir das redes associativistas de supermercados

The work presented here aims to make an analysis of the socio-spatial dynamics of associative supermarket chains and their importance in redefining the roles of small urban North Rio Grande cities. The theoretical approach gives priority to business as a city constituent whose understanding allows us to seize the new socio-spatial dynamics of small towns in the face of globalization and which caused changes in the scope of its commercial forms. In this sense, we understand that trade, as an essentially urban activity has a very specific characteristic, with respect to its ability to transform the content and meaning of places. Another important factor in the construction work was the context of changes in the capitalist production system with the advent of flexible production and the determinations of the economic globalization process that brought new ways of organizing trade. The empirical analysis of the research includes two associative supermarket chains, the “Rede 10” and the “Rede Seridó”, bringing together basic elements for understanding the genesis and evolution of this new organizational model of trade in small towns of the state, as well as allowed -In understand the main changes in this segment of commercial activity. The methodology we used literature in books and periodicals, collected mainly secondary data collection with the SEBRAE and the ABRAS and was still a field research where interviews were conducted forwarded along to the associative network managers to supermarkets, owners of associated facilities and with consumers of the surveyed networks .Finally, we conclude that the formation and expansion of associative supermarket chains in the context of small cities potiguares is essentially in a survival alternative traditional small traders, that sharing the associative principles albeit somewhat rigidly guided by the training cooperation networks can not only stay in the market , but to impose as a new agent in the capital of the reproduction process. Thus, the associative supermarket chains in the search for new spaces, particularly within small towns end up promoting new momentum in these cities providing different flows and interconnections with different places, giving new content and urban roles. By taking not only the condition of the place of living, but also the place to reproduce the capital, small towns offer their population better able to make purchases, thus avoiding the mandatory population shifts to other urban centers in order to meet their consumption needs.

Utilização de mapas conceituais como ferramenta de ensino para o desenvolvimento do raciocínio clínico no curso de medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

BACKGROUND: Among the wide range of skills displayed by a medical doctor is undoubtedly the need to use cohesive and well grounded clinical reasoning in order for medical care to be indeed effective. It is in this respect that conceptual maps emerge; these are a methodological innovation that allows a comprehensive, panoramic and associative outlook of theoretical content, making it more practical and applicable to the reality of clinical observation. Promoting learning, learning resources and a feedback system between professor and students, as well as assessing and monitoring the performance of students during their academic training, are the main features of this tool. OBJETIVE: Assess the use of conceptual maps as a teaching-learning tool in the training of undergraduate medical students at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). METHODOLOGY: Interventional, randomized, cross-sectional study conducted with students from the 3rd and 5th periods of the medical course at UFRN, during the second semester of 2014, totaling 86 participants, divided into two groups: GI (intervention – clinical case resolution with a conceptual map) and GII (control – clinical case resolution without a conceptual map) in each period. RESULTS: The use of conceptual maps to teach liver failure syndrome resulted in a statistically significant cognitive gain for G1 students from the 5th period (GI: 6.8±1.6 and 8.0±1.5, p = 0.024; GII: 7.2±2.1 and 8.0±1.7, p = 0.125, pre and post-intermediate means, respectively), a result not observed in the period 3rd (GI: 7.7±1.3 and 8.0±1.4, p = 0.501; GII: 6.7±1.8 and 7.8±1.8; p=0.068, pre and post-intermediate means, respectively). Students in the 3 rd period gave better responses to the first clinical case, with a larger number of suitable concepts and crosslinks, when they used conceptual maps (GI: 91.3±13.15 and GII: 64.84±22.84, p=0,002). Students in the 5th period exhibited better clinical reasoning and more complete responses using the tool (p=0,01). Most of the students were not aware of the tool (53.8% from the 3rd period and 65.3% from the 5th period). Among those who knew about conceptual maps, most (59.3%) had only used them during high school, 14.8% had never used them and only seven students (25.9%) used them during the medical course. Analysis of open responses, obtained in process assessment showed clear satisfaction and enthusiasm with learning about the new tool, and frequent suggestions to use it at other moments in the course. Assessment of learning profile, using the VARK questionnaire, showed that most students from both periods exhibited a multimodal style. CONCLUSION: Despite their scant knowledge regarding the tool, good acceptability and understanding was observed in the study participants. The conceptual maps allowed cognitive gains, better responses and clinical reasoning in teaching liver failure syndrome to 5th period students.

Síntese, caracterização e estudo da associação em meio aquoso de copolímeros responsivos de carboximetilcelulose-g-Jeffamine®

This thesis presents the synthesis, characterization and study of the associative behaviour in aqueous media of new responsive graft copolymers, based on carboxymethylcellulose as the water-soluble backbone and Jeffamine® M-2070 e Jeffamine® M-600 (commercial polyetheramines) as the thermoresponsive grafts with high cloud point temperatures in water. The synthesis was performed on aqueous medium, by using 1-ethyl-3- (3-(dimethylamino)-propyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxysuccinimide as activators of the reaction between carboxylategroupsfrom carboxymethylcellulose and amino groups from polyetheramines. The grafting reaction was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and the grafting percentage by 1H NMR. The molar mass of the polyetheramines was determined by 1H NMR, whereas the molar mass of CMC and graft copolymers was determined by static light scattering. The salt effect on the association behaviour of the copolymers was evaluated in different aqueous media (Milli-Q water, 0.5M NaCl, 0.5M K2CO3 and synthetic sea water), at different temperatures, through UV-vis, rheology and dynamic light scattering. None of the copolymers solutions, at 5 g/L, turned turbid in Milli-Q water when heated from 25 to 95 °C, probably because of the increase in hydrophibicity promoted by CMC backbone. However, they became turbid in the presence of salts, due to the salting out effect, where the lowest cloud point was observed in 0.5M K2CO3, which was attributed to the highest ionic strength in water, combined to the ability of CO3 2- to decrease polymer-solvents interactions. The hydrodynamic radius and apparent viscosity of the copolymers in aqueous medium changed as a function of salts dissolved in the medium, temperature and copolymer composition. Thermothickening behaviour was observed in 0.5M K2CO3 when the temperature was raised from 25 to 60°C. This performance can be attributed to intermolecular associations as a physical network, since the temperature is above the cloud point of the copolymers in this solvent.

Noradrenergic modulatoins of odor learning and odor representation in the rat

How experience alters neuronal ensemble dynamics and how locus coeruleus-mediated norepinephrine release facilitates memory formation in the brain are the topics of this thesis. Here we employed a visualization technique, cellular compartment analysis of temporal activity by fluorescence in situ hybridization (catFISH), to assess activation patterns of neuronal ensembles in the olfactory bulb (OB) and anterior piriform cortex (aPC) to repeated odor inputs. Two associative learning models were used, early odor preference learning in rat pups and adult rat go-no-go odor discrimination learning. With catFISH of an immediate early gene, Arc, we showed that odor representation in the OB and aPC was sparse (~5-10%) and widely distributed. Odor associative learning enhanced the stability of the rewarded odor representation in the OB and aPC. The stable component, indexed by the overlap between the two ensembles activated by the rewarded odor at two time points, increased from ~25% to ~50% (p = 0.004-1.43E⁻4; Chapter 3 and 4). Adult odor discrimination learning promoted pattern separation between rewarded and unrewarded odor representations in the aPC. The overlap between rewarded and unrewarded odor representations reduced from ~25% to ~14% (p = 2.28E⁻⁵). However, learning an odor mixture as a rewarded odor increased the overlap of the component odor representations in the aPC from ~23% to ~44% (p = 0.010; Chapter 4). Blocking both α- and β-adrenoreceptors in the aPC prevented highly similar odor discrimination learning in adult rats, and reduced OB mitral and granule ensemble stability to the rewarded odor. Similar treatment in the OB only slowed odor discrimination learning. However, OB adrenoceptor blockade disrupted pattern separation and ensemble stability in the aPC when the rats demonstrated deficiency in discrimination (Chapter 5). In another project, the role of α₂-adrenoreceptors in the OB during early odor preference learning was studied. OB α2-adrenoceptor activation was necessary for odor learning in rat pups. α₂-adrenoceptor activation was additive with β-adrenoceptor mediated signalling to promote learning (Chapter 2). Together, these experiments suggest that odor representations are highly adaptive at the early stages of odor processing. The OB and aPC work in concert to support odor learning and top-down adrenergic input exerts a powerful modulation on both learning and odor representation.

Técnicas en análisis lineal (y no lineal) y aplicaciones

La presente tesis est a centrada en dos temas principales: el primero abarca el primer cap tulo y el segundo se divide entre los cap tulos dos y tres. En el primer cap tulo estudio un problema que apareci o como tal hace relativamente poco tiempo (aunque ya en la segunda mitad del pasado siglo se publicaron una serie de resultados que, con la terminolog a adecuada, estar an englobados dentro de esta teor a). Nos interesaremos en la b usqueda de estructuras algebraicas (como espacios vectoriales, algebras, espacios de Banach) contenidas en subconjuntos de funciones cuyos elementos (con la posible excepci on del elemento nulo) veri can ciertas propiedades anti-intuitivas (propiedades de dif cil visualizaci on). Ello nos puede conducir a la idea de c omo la intuci on puede enga~narnos, y sugerir que, aunque se haya dedicado una ingente cantidad de esfuerzo y tiempo para encontrar un unico ejemplo que veri que tales propiedades, y dicho trabajo pueda dar la idea de que no existen muchos m as espec menes de similares caracter sticas, de hecho existen ejemplares su cientes como para construir espacios \grandes" cuyos elementos (salvo el cero) satisfacen las mismas propiedades. M as espec camente, decimos que un subconjunto de un espacio vectorial topol ogico es -lineable (dado un numero cardinal ) si podemos garantizar la existencia de un espacio vectorial de dimensi on contenido en el conjunto (uni on el elemento cero, en caso de que cero no forme parte del conjunto de partida). Si el espacio vectorial es cerrado, nos referiremos a este conjunto como - espaciable (y la propiedad que trataremos ser a la de -espaciabilidad) y si la estructura en cuesti on es un algebra de Banach, entonces diremos que el conjunto es ( ; )-algebrable (donde aqu es la cardinalidad de un conjunto minimal de generadores del algebra)...

Direct and indirect genetic and fine-scale location effects on breeding date in song sparrows

Peer reviewed

Stimulus Integration and Parsing in the Primate Auditory Midbrain

Integrating information from multiple sources is a crucial function of the brain. Examples of such integration include multiple stimuli of different modalties, such as visual and auditory, multiple stimuli of the same modality, such as auditory and auditory, and integrating stimuli from the sensory organs (i.e. ears) with stimuli delivered from brain-machine interfaces.

The overall aim of this body of work is to empirically examine stimulus integration in these three domains to inform our broader understanding of how and when the brain combines information from multiple sources.

First, I examine visually-guided auditory, a problem with implications for the general problem in learning of how the brain determines what lesson to learn (and what lessons not to learn). For example, sound localization is a behavior that is partially learned with the aid of vision. This process requires correctly matching a visual location to that of a sound. This is an intrinsically circular problem when sound location is itself uncertain and the visual scene is rife with possible visual matches. Here, we develop a simple paradigm using visual guidance of sound localization to gain insight into how the brain confronts this type of circularity. We tested two competing hypotheses. 1: The brain guides sound location learning based on the synchrony or simultaneity of auditory-visual stimuli, potentially involving a Hebbian associative mechanism. 2: The brain uses a ‘guess and check’ heuristic in which visual feedback that is obtained after an eye movement to a sound alters future performance, perhaps by recruiting the brain’s reward-related circuitry. We assessed the effects of exposure to visual stimuli spatially mismatched from sounds on performance of an interleaved auditory-only saccade task. We found that when humans and monkeys were provided the visual stimulus asynchronously with the sound but as feedback to an auditory-guided saccade, they shifted their subsequent auditory-only performance toward the direction of the visual cue by 1.3-1.7 degrees, or 22-28% of the original 6 degree visual-auditory mismatch. In contrast when the visual stimulus was presented synchronously with the sound but extinguished too quickly to provide this feedback, there was little change in subsequent auditory-only performance. Our results suggest that the outcome of our own actions is vital to localizing sounds correctly. Contrary to previous expectations, visual calibration of auditory space does not appear to require visual-auditory associations based on synchrony/simultaneity.

My next line of research examines how electrical stimulation of the inferior colliculus influences perception of sounds in a nonhuman primate. The central nucleus of the inferior colliculus is the major ascending relay of auditory information before it reaches the forebrain, and thus an ideal target for understanding low-level information processing prior to the forebrain, as almost all auditory signals pass through the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus before reaching the forebrain. Thus, the inferior colliculus is the ideal structure to examine to understand the format of the inputs into the forebrain and, by extension, the processing of auditory scenes that occurs in the brainstem. Therefore, the inferior colliculus was an attractive target for understanding stimulus integration in the ascending auditory pathway.

Moreover, understanding the relationship between the auditory selectivity of neurons and their contribution to perception is critical to the design of effective auditory brain prosthetics. These prosthetics seek to mimic natural activity patterns to achieve desired perceptual outcomes. We measured the contribution of inferior colliculus (IC) sites to perception using combined recording and electrical stimulation. Monkeys performed a frequency-based discrimination task, reporting whether a probe sound was higher or lower in frequency than a reference sound. Stimulation pulses were paired with the probe sound on 50% of trials (0.5-80 µA, 100-300 Hz, n=172 IC locations in 3 rhesus monkeys). Electrical stimulation tended to bias the animals’ judgments in a fashion that was coarsely but significantly correlated with the best frequency of the stimulation site in comparison to the reference frequency employed in the task. Although there was considerable variability in the effects of stimulation (including impairments in performance and shifts in performance away from the direction predicted based on the site’s response properties), the results indicate that stimulation of the IC can evoke percepts correlated with the frequency tuning properties of the IC. Consistent with the implications of recent human studies, the main avenue for improvement for the auditory midbrain implant suggested by our findings is to increase the number and spatial extent of electrodes, to increase the size of the region that can be electrically activated and provide a greater range of evoked percepts.

My next line of research employs a frequency-tagging approach to examine the extent to which multiple sound sources are combined (or segregated) in the nonhuman primate inferior colliculus. In the single-sound case, most inferior colliculus neurons respond and entrain to sounds in a very broad region of space, and many are entirely spatially insensitive, so it is unknown how the neurons will respond to a situation with more than one sound. I use multiple AM stimuli of different frequencies, which the inferior colliculus represents using a spike timing code. This allows me to measure spike timing in the inferior colliculus to determine which sound source is responsible for neural activity in an auditory scene containing multiple sounds. Using this approach, I find that the same neurons that are tuned to broad regions of space in the single sound condition become dramatically more selective in the dual sound condition, preferentially entraining spikes to stimuli from a smaller region of space. I will examine the possibility that there may be a conceptual linkage between this finding and the finding of receptive field shifts in the visual system.

In chapter 5, I will comment on these findings more generally, compare them to existing theoretical models, and discuss what these results tell us about processing in the central nervous system in a multi-stimulus situation. My results suggest that the brain is flexible in its processing and can adapt its integration schema to fit the available cues and the demands of the task.

City dweller aspirations for cities of the future: How do environmental and personal wellbeing feature?

This paper explores city dweller aspirations for cities of the future in the context of global commitments to radically reduce carbon emissions by 2050; cities contribute the vast majority of these emissions and a growing bulk of theworld's population lives in cities. The particular challenge of creating a carbon reduced future in democratic countries is that the measures proposed must be acceptable to the electorate. Such acceptability is fostered if carbon reduced ways of living are also felt to bewellbeing maximising. Thus the objective of the paper is to explore what kinds of cities people aspire to live in, to ascertain whether these aspirations align with or undermine carbon reduced ways of living, as well as personal wellbeing. Using a novel free associative technique, city aspirations are found to cluster around seven themes, encompassing physical and social aspects. Physically, people aspire to a city with a range of services and facilities, green and blue spaces, efficient transport, beauty and good design. Socially, people aspire to a sense of community and a safe environment. An exploration of these themes reveals that only a minority of the participants' aspirations for cities relate to lowering carbon or environmental wellbeing. Far more consensual is emphasis on, and a particular vision of, aspirations that will bring personal wellbeing. Furthermore, city dweller aspirations align with evidence concerning factors that maximise personal wellbeing but, far less, with those that produce lowcarbonways of living. In order to shape a lower carbon future that city dwellers accept the potential convergence between environmental and personal wellbeing will need to be capitalised on: primarily aversion to pollution and enjoyment of communal green space.

Classifying Rational G-Spectra for Finite G

We give a new proof that for a finite group G, the category of rational G-equivariant spectra is Quillen equivalent to the product of the model categories of chain complexes of modules over the rational group ring of the Weyl group of H in G, as H runs over the conjugacy classes of subgroups of G. Furthermore, the Quillen equivalences of our proof are all symmetric monoidal. Thus we can understand categories of algebras or modules over a ring spectrum in terms of the algebraic model.

Spectrally isometric elementary operators

We present criteria for unital elementary operators (of small length) on unital semisimple Banach algebras to be spectral isometries. The surjective ones among them turn out to be algebra automorphisms.

The proof of Kontsevich's periodicity conjecture on noncommutative birational transformations

For an arbitrary associative unital ring RR, let J1J1 and J2J2 be the following noncommutative, birational, partly defined involutions on the set M3(R)M3(R) of 3×33×3 matrices over RR: J1(M)=M−1J1(M)=M−1 (the usual matrix inverse) and J2(M)jk=(Mkj)−1J2(M)jk=(Mkj)−1 (the transpose of the Hadamard inverse).

We prove the surprising conjecture by Kontsevich that (J2∘J1)3(J2∘J1)3 is the identity map modulo the DiagL×DiagRDiagL×DiagR action (D1,D2)(M)=D−11MD2(D1,D2)(M)=D1−1MD2 of pairs of invertible diagonal matrices. That is, we show that, for each MM in the domain where (J2∘J1)3(J2∘J1)3 is defined, there are invertible diagonal 3×33×3 matrices D1=D1(M)D1=D1(M) and D2=D2(M)D2=D2(M) such that (J2∘J1)3(M)=D−11MD2(J2∘J1)3(M)=D1−1MD2.