Leadership Profiles,Situation and Effectiveness

The paper provides a research report on leadership styles studied in a range of countries, industry types and organization levels. Unequivocal evidence has been found for a three factor model of style, incorporating the well-known, task-oriented/people-oriented factors, and a change-oriented factor. The new factor is presumed to be a consequence of more turbulent environments. Further analysis of the leader reports (supplied by 3,857 respondent ‘followers’) found ten clusters of ‘blends’ of style, of which three - labelled super-leaders, gardeners and MBO leaders - were consistently rated more effective and most liked by subordinates. A significant theoretical implication is that the results showed no evidence of contingency effects, i.e. variations in effectiveness, across broad contexts such as branch, function or hierarchic level, although the clusters differed with regard to representation in the different contexts.     

An exploratory study of the behaviour of crude oil spills under ice

An experimental spill of 0.38 m³ of warm (55°C) crude oil under the ice cover of a fresh water pond with an underwater viewing port is described. Temperatures, dissolved hydrocarbon concentrations and oil slick behaviour and areas were determined. Some oil recovery and disposal methods were tested. An attempt has been made to quantify the rates of heat and mass transfer from the oil using reported values for transfer coefficients. The results indicate that the oil slick adopted a thickness of about 2 cm under the ice, that heat transfer from the oil was relatively fast and complete, that dissolution mass transfer is slow resulting in oil concentrations in the water of only 18 to 287 μg/l in the vicinity of the spill. Some recommendations are made for further studies to elucidate the nature and rates of the relevant physical processes and thus assist in assessing the environmental impact of under-ice oil spills.     

Increase of N2O Fluxes in Agricultural Peat and Sandy Soil under Elevated CO2 Concentration: Concomitant Changes in Soil Moisture, Groundwater Table and Biomass Production of Phleum pratense

The effects of elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration on soil moisture, N₂O fluxes, and biomass production of Phleum pratense were studied in the laboratory. Farmed peat and sandy soil mesocosms sown with P. pratense were fertilized with a commercial fertilizer. In peat soil 10 g N m⁻² of commercial fertilizer were added and in sandy soil 15 g N m⁻². In both experiments, soil moisture was regulated with deionized water; 18 mesocosms were tended to keep equally moist, and the other 18 were watered with equal amounts of water. Nine mesocosms from both watering treatments were grown under ambient (360 μmol mol⁻¹) CO₂ concentration and the remaining nine under doubled (720 μmol mol⁻¹) CO₂. N₂O efflux was monitored using a closed chamber technique and a gas chromatograph. The elevated supply of CO₂ increased production of above- and belowground biomass, soil moisture and N₂O fluxes, but decreased the total N content in the aboveground biomass, especially for the sandy soil. In similar water levels, N₂O efflux from the sandy soil was the same magnitude as that from the peat soil. In addition to moisture, N availability was the main limiting factor for N₂O production, but C availability also seemed to regulate the denitrification activity. In addition to an increase in C availability the increase in the N₂O efflux under the raised CO₂ concentration also required a simultaneous increase in soil moisture.     

On Definability in Dependence Logic

We study the expressive power of open formulas of dependence logic introduced in Väänänen [Dependence logic (Vol. 70 of London Mathematical Society Student Texts), 2007]. In particular, we answer a question raised by Wilfrid Hodges: how to characterize the sets of teams definable by means of identity only in dependence logic, or equivalently in independence friendly logic.     

Temporal Kohonen Map and the Recurrent Self-Organizing Map: Analytical and Experimental Comparison

This paper compares two Self-Organizing Map (SOM) based models for temporal sequence processing (TSP) both analytically and experimentally. These models, Temporal Kohonen Map (TKM) and Recurrent Self-Organizing Map (RSOM), incorporate leaky integrator memory to preserve the temporal context of the input signals. The learning and the convergence properties of the TKM and RSOM are studied and we show analytically that the RSOM is a significant improvement over the TKM, because the RSOM allows simple derivation of a consistent learning rule. The results of the analysis are demonstrated with experiments.     

The use of (green field) biomass pretreatment liquor for fermentative butanol production and the catalytic oxidation of biobutanol

In this study, pretreatment liquor of acid-stored green and yellowish barley silage was used for fermentative acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) production. Further, the catalytic oxidation of biobutanol over Pt catalysts was studied to investigate the behaviour of butanol as a fuel in the combustion engine. After the hydrothermal treatment of green and yellowish barley silage followed by enzymatic hydrolysis, approximately 88% and 100% of the available sugars were recovered, respectively. Batch fermentations of pretreatment barley silage liquor, supplemented with gelatinised barley grain, showed good fermentability with total ABE concentrations of 9.0 g/L and 10.9 g/L. Butanol yields of 0.20, 0.17 and ABE yields of 0.28, 0.26 (g/g monosaccharide) were obtained, respectively. In catalytic activity measurements, the conversion of biobutanol became appreciable in the 120–140 °C range, whereas conversions greater than 95% were obtained over 200 °C. Selectivities were also high, although formation of by-products, such as butyraldehyde, was observed.     

Effects of Ospemifene on Drug Metabolism Mediated by Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in Humans in Vitro and in Vivo

The objective of these investigations was to determine the possible effects of the novel selective estrogen receptor modulator, ospemifene, on cytochrome P450 (CYP)-mediated drug metabolism. Ospemifene underwent testing for possible effects on CYP enzyme activity in human liver microsomes and in isolated human hepatocytes. Based on the results obtained in vitro, three Phase 1 crossover pharmacokinetic studies were conducted in healthy postmenopausal women to assess the in vivo effects of ospemifene on CYP-mediated drug metabolism. Ospemifene and its main metabolites 4-hydroxyospemifene and 4′-hydroxyospemifene weakly inhibited a number of CYPs (CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2C8, and CYP2D6) in vitro. However, only CYP2C9 activity was inhibited by 4-hydroxyospemifene at clinically relevant concentrations. Induction of CYPs by ospemifene in cultured human hepatocytes was 2.4-fold or less. The in vivo studies showed that ospemifene did not have significant effects on the areas under the plasma concentration-time curves of the tested CYP substrates warfarin (CYP2C9), bupropion (CYP2B6) and omeprazole (CYP2C19), demonstrating that pretreatment with ospemifene did not alter their metabolism. Therefore, the risk that ospemifene will affect the pharmacokinetics of drugs that are substrates for CYP enzymes is low.     

A state machine approach in modelling the heating process of a building

Process models and their applications have gradually become an integral part of the design, maintenance and automation of modern buildings. The following state machine model outlines a new approach in this area. The heating power described by the model is based on the recent inputs as well as on the past inputs and outputs of the process, thus also representing the states of the system. Identifying the model means collecting, assorting and storing observations, but also effectively utilizing their inherent relationships and nearest neighbours. The last aspect enables to create a uniform set of data, which forms the characteristic, dynamic behaviour of the HVAC process. The state machine model is non-parametric and needs no sophisticated algorithm for identification. It is therefore suitable for small microprocessor devices equipped with a larger memory capacity. The first test runs, performed in a simulated environment, were encouraging and showed good prediction capability.