Layoffs and tradeoffs: Production, quality, and safety demands under the threat of job loss.

Employees often face a conflict between production targets, quality assurance, and adherence to safety policies. In a time when layoffs are on the rise, it is important to understand the effects of employee job insecurity on these potentially competing demands. A laboratory experiment manipulated the threat of layoffs in a simulated organization and assessed its effect on employee productivity, product quality, and adherence to safety policies. Results suggest that student participants faced with the threat of layoffs were more productive, yet violated more safety rules and produced lower quality outputs, than participants in the control condition. Implications for organizations contemplating layoffs and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Production of Carbon Nanotubes and Other Nanostructures Via Continuous 3-Phase AC Plasma Processing

The highly flexible plasma system allows the independent flow control of plasma gas, carbonaceous feedstock and metal catalyst. Further important control parameters include current intensity and product quenching rate yielding in an excellent control of the thermal history of the carbon products. Temperature profiles measured along the reactive flow of carbon particles are presented, mapping time-temperature relations for typical operating conditions. In addition, the principle product families are presented. From the characteristics observed and NT product analysis, it is concluded that the AC plasma technology shows a significant potential for the continuous production of bulk quantities of carbon-based nanotubes of controlled properties and novel tube-like nanostructures.     

Radical scavenging activity, anti-bacterial and mutagenic effects of cocoa bean Maillard reaction products with degree of roasting

Raw, pre-roasted and roasted Cocoa samples were separated into four different molecular weight fractions (> 30, 30-10, 10-5 and < 5 kDa) with ultrafiltration and tested for their antibacterial, mutagenic, as well as their radical-scavenging effects. Radical-scavenging effects were tested with electro paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, anti-mutagenicity in the Salmonella microsome assay (with and without metabolic activation), and antibacterial effects by incubating the fractions with several strains of Bifidobacteria, Enterobacter and Escherichia, and observing their growth. The radical-scavenging activity and reducing substance concentrations increased, particularly in the 5-10-kDa roasted fraction. Chromaticity testing elucidated that the 10-5-kDa fraction was one of the darkest fractions. The Salmonella microsome assay showed neither mutagenic nor anti-mutagenic effects in any of the samples at any of the different concentrations applied when using TA98, TA100 and TA102. All fractions reduced the growth of pathogenic bacteria, in particular at the highest concentration of 100 microg/mL; however, the same trends were also observed for Bifidobacteria.     

Increased scent marking in male Mongolian gerbils by urinary polypeptides of female conspecifics

Male Mongolian gerbils scent mark during a standardized openfield test on an individually different but more-or-less constant level in the absence of females. The presence of females in the same room but without direct contact to the males increases the marking frequencies of the males to an individually different higher level. A similar increase in marking frequency is obtained by application of female urine directly to the nostrils of the males, but not by male gerbil urine or female laboratory mouse urine. This indicates that substances present in female gerbil urine are responsible for the increase in male marking behavior. Using this bioassay, various fractions of female urine were tested for their influence on marking behavior. Our results to date show that the component increasing male scent-marking behavior is hydrophilic and nonvolatile and is contained in the nondialyzable, high-molecular-weight polypeptide fraction of female gerbil urine.     

Herstellung von Copolymeren mit definierter Zusammensetzungsverteilung im Zulaufverfahren

The possibility of the computation of binary and ternary copolymerization for semi-batch reactions is demonstrated. For that purpose the conversion must be known as a function of time and length of the monomer feed program. The computer simulations are successfully applied to the binary system methacrylic acid (N-dimethylaminoethyl)ester/styrene and to the ternary systems methacrylic acid (N-dimethylaminoethyl)ester/styrene/acrylonitrile as well as to methacrylic acid (2-hydroxyethyl)ester/styrene/acrylic acid n-butylester. The computation of the chemical conversion heterogeneity is possible with these simulations. Furthermore by these computations it is possible to find monomer feed programs by which copolymers with defined distribution of the chemical composition are generated. This procedure allows to generate a more homogeneous terpolymer methacrylic acid (2-hydroxylethyl)ester/styrene/acrylic acid butylester by computed monomer feed programs instead of the normally very heterogeneous terpolymer system. It is shown for the ternary system methacrylic acid (N-dimethylaminoethyl)ester/styrene/acrylonitrile which initial monomer compositions must be chosen in order to generate chemically homogenous terpolymers. In the latter system an internal ternary azeotropic region supposedly exists.     

Experimental verification of microbending theory using modecoupling to discrete cladding modes

The existence of discrete cladding modes in single-mode fibers is illustrated by inducing periodically repeated microbends along the fiber axis and performing spectral measurements of the loss are performed. In order to explain the results of the measurements, it is necessary to apply a microbending theory in which coupling between the guided mode and a number of discrete cladding modes is considered. Very good agreement between theory and measurement is achieved. The consequences of the existence of discrete cladding modes with regard to the proper choice of artificial microbending spectrum used for fiber characterization are also discussed     

Countering the Negative Effects of Job Insecurity Through Participative Decision Making: Lessons From the Demand-Control Model.

This study examined the effectiveness of increased organizational participative decision making in attenuating the negative consequences of job insecurity. Data were collected from 807 employees in 6 different companies. Analyses suggest that job insecurity is related to lower coworker, work, and supervisor satisfaction and higher turnover intentions and work withdrawal behaviors. However, employees with greater participative decision-making opportunities reported fewer negative consequences of job insecurity compared with employees with fewer participative decision-making opportunities. Results are interpreted using the demand-control model and suggest that organizations that allow greater employee participative decision making may experience fewer negative side effects from today's rising levels of employee job insecurity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)