Understanding organizational diversity management programs: A theoretical framework and directions for future research

With the changing demographic composition of the workforce, managing diversity in organizations is an important organizational function. Organizations have employed varying approaches to diversity management (DM), resulting in varying organizational outcomes. Meanwhile, researchers have called for more theoretical development within the DM area. We present a framework rooted in social and cross‐cultural psychological research, to foster theory development and empirical testing in the area of DM. We also derive several propositions to guide future research on DM and note some boundary conditions that suggest research opportunities of their own. Our framework contributes a theoretical conceptualization that enhances our understanding of organizations' DM efforts, integrates current typologies, and suggests new directions of inquiry for management scholars as well as guidelines for practitioners in the area. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Isolation and characterization of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa from a virgin Brazilian Amazon region with potential to degrade atrazine

The use of pesticides to increase agricultural production can result in the contamination of the environment, causing changes in the genetic structure of organisms and in the loss of biodiversity. This practice is also inducing changes in the rainforest ecosystem. In this work, a Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from a preservation soil area of the Brazilian Amazon Forest, without usage of any pesticide, was evaluated for its potential to degrade atrazine. This isolate presented all responsible genes (atzA, atzB, atzC, atzD, atzE, and atzF) for atrazine mineralization and demonstrated capacity to use atrazine as a nitrogen source, having achieved a reduction of 44 % of the initial concentration of atrazine after 24 h. These results confirm gene dispersion and/or a possible contamination of the area with the herbicide, which reinforces global concern of the increase and intensive use of pesticides worldwide.     

Eliciting cognitive processes underlying patterns of human-wildlife interactions for agent-based modelling

Integrating humans in our perception of ecosystems is of critical importance to adequately protect natural resources. This poses the challenge of understanding human decision making in the context of decisions potentially threatening nature's integrity. We developed a spatially explicit agent-based model that simulates commercial whale-watching vessel movements based on a representation of the captains’ decision making process when observing marine mammals in and around the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park in Québec, Canada. We focus here on the human part of the global model, the submodel of whale movements having been developed and validated independently (Lamontagne, 2009). The objective of this study is to select and validate a model of whale-watching captains’ decision making using the pattern-oriented modelling approach (POM): three models of cognitive heuristics (satisficing, tallying and Take The Best) along with a null model (random choice) were tested. These concurrent decision making models were built upon knowledge extracted from data collected during field investigations, including interviews with whale-watching captains and park wardens, onboard and shore-based observations, and analyses of a multi-year dataset of sampled whale-watching excursions. Model selection is performed by statistically comparing simulated and real patterns of boat trajectories (excursion length), spatial hotspots (kernel home range 50%), and excursion content (species observed, time allocated to different activities). The selection process revealed that the Take The Best heuristic was the best performing model. We used the distribution of the number of whale-watching boats in the vicinity (2000 m) of each vessel as a secondary pattern to validate the ability of each decision making model to reproduce real observations. Given the prevalence of the species attribute in the choice of which whale to observe, the Take The Best heuristic's ability to deal with non-compensatory information partly explains its overall best performance. Moreover, implementation of communication abilities between modelled captains led to the emergence of persistent observation sites in the park, which is a well-known collective spatiotemporal characteristic of the whale-watching industry; thus validating the fundamental assumption that cooperation is an important mechanism behind the pattern of whale-watching boat dynamics. The relatively good performance of the satisficing and tallying heuristics supports both field evidence and literature on bounded rationality in that humans likely use collections of heuristics (adaptive toolbox) to solve decision problems in different contexts. The POM strategy appears suitable to build up an informative ABM regarding the management of human activities in a natural environment so that further developments will be assessed following the same approach.     

Single-stroke mechanical joining of sheet panels to tubular profiles

This paper proposes an innovative mechanical joining process for fixing sheet panels against tubular profiles with a single ram stroke.The presentation includes independent determination of the mechanical properties of sheets and tubes, finite element modelling and experimentation under laboratory conditions. The aim is to identify the key parameters of the process, to diagnose possible sources of failure and to understand the routes for selecting the most appropriate joining conditions.Results and observations show that fixing sheet panels to tubular profiles by tube forming with a single ram stroke is a flexible and cost-effective mechanical joining process that can be easily industrialized in a small capacity press. Applications may span for a wide range of engineering applications where conventional technologies based on fasteners, glueing with structural adhesives, brazing and soldering or welding cannot be employed due to technical, aesthetical or economic constraints.     

Recovery of metals and polymers from coaxial cables using different configurations of electrostatic separators

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Technological development has led to a growing generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment, including cables. This work concerns the...     

Health impact assessment of air pollution in an area of the largest coal mine in Brazil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Coal exploration and burning activities are among the activities with the greatest potential to cause atmospheric pollution due to the combustion...     

Factors driving sediment compositional change in the distal area of the Ria de Vigo (NW Spain): oceanographic processes vs. paleopollution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - We analyze potential Late Holocene metal contamination along a sediment core collected in the distal zone of Ria de Vigo (North Spain). Statistical...     

Absorption and translocation of sulfometuron-methyl in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) at different growth stages

ABSTRACT

In Brazil, weed management in sugarcane fields is mainly done with the use of selective herbicide formulations. For many years, diuron+hexazinone was one of the main herbicide mixture formulations used in sugarcane. Later, sulfometuron-methyl was included in the same mixture, which was marketed as a new herbicide formulation for residual in-season weed control in sugarcane. The mixture diuron+hexazinone+sulfometuron-methyl has been widely used in commercial sugarcane fields in Brazil. However, recent field observations have shown that sugarcane plants at different growth stages varied in their phytotoxicity levels after treatment with diuron+hexazinone+sulfometuron-methyl. Greenhouse and laboratory studies were conducted to determine ¹⁴Csulfometuron-methyl absorption and translocation, as well as ¹⁴C distribution in sugarcane at two growth stages, 2 to 3 leaves and 5 to 6 leaves. ¹⁴Csulfometuron-methyl absorption by sugarcane did not differ between the two growth stages. Different patterns of ¹⁴C accumulation were observed, which may explain variations in sulfometuron-methyl phytotoxic responses observed in the field.