Dynamic Process Of Interaction Research Articles

A Dynamic Process Model of Contentious Politics: Corporate Receptivity to Activist Challenges

This paper explores why certain companies become more receptive to social activists over time. We propose a three-step, dynamic process of interaction between activists and companies. A firms’ past openness to activist challenges shapes which firms are targeted by activism. This opportunity structure subsequently evolves as firms seek to defend themselves when challenged by adopting what we call social management devices, which are structures or practices meant to aid the firm in managing and promoting its social image. In turn, we contend that these devices alter firms’ internal political agenda and provide leverage to external activists, making firms more receptive to future activist advances. In this way, social management devices moderate the relationship between a firm’s past contentious interactions and its future receptivity to activist challenges. We test our theory using a unique longitudinal dataset that tracks the activist interactions and responses of three hundred large US firms from 1993-2009.

Numerical Simulation of Dynamic Processes of Elastoplastic Interaction Between Three-Dimensional Heterogeneous Bodies on the Basis of Semi-Analytical Finite Element Method. Part 2. A Study of the Dynamic Deformation of Complex-Shaped Three-Dimensional Structures

Possibilities of the semi-analytical finite element method in the investigation of transient processes of the three-dimensional deformation of heterogeneous bodies of revolution and complex-shaped prismatic bodies by the action of pulsed stressing with allowance for contact interaction zones and nonlinear work of material are shown by calculations of real structures.

Visualizing hepatitis B virus with biarsenical labelling in living cells

Study on viruses has greatly benefited from visualization of viruses tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in living cells. But GFP tag, as a large inserted fragment, is not suitable for labelling Hepatitis B virus (HBV) that is a compact virion with limited internal space. To visualize HBV in living cells, we constructed several recombinant HBV fluorescently labelled with biarsenical dye to track the behaviour of HBV in the cytoplasm of infected cells. By mutagenesis, a smaller size tetracysteine (TC) tag (C-C-P-G-C-C) that could be bound with a biarsenical fluorescent dye was genetically inserted at different cell epitopes of HBV core protein expressed in transfected cells. Confocal microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations showed that TC-tagged core proteins bound with biarsenical dye could specifically fluoresce in cells and be incorporated into nucleocapsid to form fluorescent virions. The recombinant fluorescent HBV virions retained their infectivity as wild-type ones. Moreover, tracking of fluorescent HBV particles in living cells reveals microtubule-dependent motility of the intracellular particles. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time to generate fluorescent HBV virions with biarsenical labelling and to visualize their trafficking in living cells. The fluorescent HBV may become one highly valuable tool for further studying detailed dynamic processes of HBV life cycle and interaction of HBV with host in live-imaging approach.

Cultural consultation as a model for training multidisciplinary mental healthcare professionals in cultural competence skills: preliminary results

Lack of cultural competence in care contributes to poor experiences and outcomes from care for migrants and racial and ethnic minorities. As a result, health and social care organizations currently promote cultural competence of their workforce as a means of addressing persistent poor experiences and outcomes. At present, there are unsystematic and diverse ways of promoting cultural competence, and their impact on clinician skills and patient outcomes is unknown. We developed and implemented an innovative model, cultural consultation service (CCS), to promote cultural competence of clinicians and directly improve on patient experiences and outcomes from care. CCS model is an adaptation of the McGill model, which uses ethnographic methodology and medical anthropological knowledge. The method and approach not only contributes both to a broader conceptual and dynamic understanding of culture, but also to learning of cultural competence skills by healthcare professionals. The CCS model demonstrates that multidisciplinary workforce can acquire cultural competence skills better through the clinical encounter, as this promotes integration of learning into day-to-day practice. Results indicate that clinicians developed a broader and patient-centred understanding of culture, and gained skills in narrative-based assessment method, management of complexity of care, competing assumptions and expectations, and clinical cultural formulation. Cultural competence is defined as a set of skills, attitudes and practices that enable the healthcare professionals to deliver high-quality interventions to patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Improving on the cultural competence skills of the workforce has been promoted as a way of reducing ethnic and racial inequalities in service outcomes. Currently, diverse models for training in cultural competence exist, mostly with no evidence of effect. We established an innovative narrative-based cultural consultation service in an inner-city area to work with community mental health services to improve on patients' outcomes and clinicians' cultural competence skills. We targeted 94 clinicians in four mental health service teams in the community. After initial training sessions, we used a cultural consultation model to facilitate 'in vivo' learning. During cultural consultation, we used an ethnographic interview method to assess patients in the presence of referring clinicians. Clinicians' self-reported measure of cultural competence using the Tool for Assessing Cultural Competence Training (n = 28, at follow-up) and evaluation forms (n = 16) filled at the end of each cultural consultation showed improvement in cultural competence skills. We conclude that cultural consultation model is an innovative way of training clinicians in cultural competence skills through a dynamic interactive process of learning within real clinical encounters.

Analiza koncepta rezilientnosti v kontekstu vzgoje in izobraževanja

V prispevku predstavljamo rezilientnost kot raziskovalni fenomen, ki se v literaturi pojavlja v povezavi z dobro življenjsko prilagodljivostjo in prožnostjo ljudi v različnih težkih, prelomnih življenjskih situacijah. V ospredje postavljamo preskok, ki so ga pionirske študije naredile v raziskovalni paradigmi, ko so namesto modela, usmerjenega v problem, prevzele model rezilientnosti, ki se tesno navezuje na sodobne principe vseživljenjskega učenja. Iz pregleda različne literature sintetiziramo glavna spoznanja, opredelimo ločnice štirih raziskovalnih valov in poudarimo sodobno pojmovanje rezilientnosti. To nam služi tudi kot podlaga za utemeljitev slovenskega termina »življenjska odpornost in prožnost«. Raziskave s področja rezilientnosti jasno zarisujejo smernice za preventivno ekosistemsko delovanje. V prispevku se omejujemo na kontekst vzgoje in izobraževanja, saj so možnosti za preventivno krepitev posameznika tesno povezane s formalnimi in neformalnimi oblikami učenja. V tem konceptualnem okviru poudarjamo ključne varovalne dejavnike in kompetence, ki za posameznika pomenijo zunanje in notranje vire moči za rezilienten odziv v življenjskih preizkušnjah. Prispevek strnemo z orisom značilnosti »rezilientne« osebe.

Sediment-water interactions of pharmaceutical residues in the river environment

To assess the environmental fate and risks of pharmaceuticals, the determination of their distributions between sediment and water is crucial as a controlling process. In this paper, the concentrations of 9 selected pharmaceuticals were determined in water and sediment samples from the River Medway, Kent, UK between December 2009 and December 2010. In the water phase, there was a spatial variation of concentration with the highest concentrations being detected in the sewage outfall, indicating it being an important point source in the river. In terms of seasonal variations, the highest concentrations (13–878 ng L−1) were detected in June 2010. In the surface sediment phase, the highest concentrations (5.3–33.6 ng g−1 dry weight) were observed at the sewage outfall, although in February 2010 the highest concentrations were detected downstream of the sewage outfall indicating a delayed response in sediment accumulation of pharmaceuticals in relation to the water phase. The partition coefficient of pharmaceuticals between surface sediment and water was variable, reflecting a dynamic process of sediment-water interaction and the varying nature of sediments. Overall the partition coefficient was shown to decrease with an increase in suspended sediment concentration. The organic carbon normalized partition coefficient of the pharmaceuticals was shown to be positively related to their molecular weight (MW), suggesting that sediment-water interactions were partly a partition process favoring large molecules.

Numerical Simulation of Dynamic Processes of Elastoplastic Interaction between Three-Dimensional Heterogeneous Bodies on the basis of Semi-Analytical Finite Element Method. Part 1. Computational Relationships of the Semi-Analytical Finite Element Method and Algorithms for the Study of Transient Processes of Dynamic Deformation of Heterogeneous Prismatic Bodies and Bodies of Revolution

On the basis of a semi-analytical finite element method, an effective approach has been developed for studying transient processes of dynamic deformation of three-dimensional heterogeneous bodies of revolution and prismatic bodies of complex shape and structure by the action of time-and space-varying pulsed stressing with allowance for the plastic properties of the material and time-varying contact interaction conditions. New types of finite elements have been created, on the basis of which computational relationships of the semi-analytical finite element method (SAFEM) for problems of dynamics have been constructed. Modified relationships of the Newmark method have been obtained, which have been formulated for the amplitude subsystems of SAFEM. Effective block iteration algorithms for the solution of large systems of nonlinear equations of SAFEM have been developed and realized.

The Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility in Network Societies: A Communication View

The paper introduces the communication view on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which regards CSR as communicatively constructed in dynamic interaction processes in today’s networked societies. Building on the idea that communication constitutes organizations we discuss the potentially indeterminate, disintegrative, and conflictual character of CSR. We hereby challenge established mainstream views on CSR such as the instrumental view, which regards CSR as an organizational instrument to reach organizational aims such as improved reputation and financial performance, and the political-normative view on CSR, which highlights the societal conditions and role of corporations in creating norms. We argue that both the established views, by not sufficiently acknowledging communication dynamics in networked societies, remain biased in three ways: control-biased, consistency-biased, and consensus-biased. We discuss implications of these biases and propose a future research agenda for the communication view on CSR.

Study of Hybrid Photovoltaic Materials with Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) and CdS Nanoparticles by Spectroscopic Techniques

Poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was synthesized via chemical oxidative reaction at room temperature with anhydrous ferric chloride as oxidant. The hybrid films of P3HT were prepared by doping inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles of CdS. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum, UV-vis, fluorescence and resonance light scattering (RLS) spectra were applied to characterize the photophysical properties of P3HT and doped polymer. The results indicated that the infrared absorbance of hybrid films increased with the increase of doped CdS content. The intensity of UV absorption presented a slight increase, the blend spectra were simply the sum of the absorptions of the constituent parts of the composite solution. With the addition of CdS nanoparticles, the emission peak of P3HT was shifted to longer wavelengths. The shift from 543 to 567 nm was due to the fluorescence resonance energy transfer between CdS nanoparticles and P3HT, and then the red-shift from 567 to 573 nm was caused by the agglomeration of CdS nanoparticles. RLS spectra revealed that the maximum scattering wavelength of systems initially showed a blue-shift, and then exhibited a pronounced red-shift with the addition of CdS nanoparticles. These findings provided insights into the role of spectroscopic techniques in studying the photophysical properties of composites. Our further work is toward investigating the mechanism and dynamic process of exciton interaction between polymers and inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles.

Voice, object and listening in the sound installations of Laurie Anderson

ABSTRACTThrough discussion of the sound installations created by media artist Laurie Anderson, this article explores the inherent relationships between disembodied sound and materiality, and the mediated object and the perceiving subject. The focus here is on how these artworks engage participants in various forms of listening situations and what kind of aesthetic and cultural connotations are disclosed and communicated by the installations. It is argued that Anderson not only takes advantage of the characteristics of materiality and the emanation of sound to integrate her modified voices seamlessly with ordinary objects but also appropriates the object-ness of the instruments themselves and habitual bodily contact with them to bring participants into various sensory engagements. Instead of analysing the installation from a visual symbolic perspective, or conceiving voice as a language carrier, this article considers sound installation as a perceptible entity with an emphasis on dislocated sensory experiences and the dynamic process of interaction. This approach helps our understanding of the multiple nature of hybrid media artworks and enables us to rethink the ‘taken-for-granted’ relations between the disembodied and the re-embodied, between objects, ourselves and the world.

Business Network Simulation: Combining Research Cases and Agent-Based Models in a Robust Methodology

This paper describes the use of an agent-based model (ABM) with the purpose of simulating interaction processes in business networks. Such an ABM must be able to capture time and process in networks while retaining a level of comprehension and overview. The ABM rests on the assumption that business networks can be viewed as complex adaptive systems (CAS) and draws on the opportunities to build and use ABMs to simulate processes in such systems. This paper outlines the conceptual foundations and the methodological challenges and opportunities associated with such an endeavor with special reference to issues concerning the modeling of the complexities of business networks. Specifically it discusses the use of ABM and research case in combination in an effort to produce a robust methodology. It contributes with suggestions on how one concretely can handle these issues and challenges when using ABMs to model non-linear dynamic interaction processes in networks.

Dynamics of a Cylindrical Pile in a Transversely Isotropic Half-Space under Axial Excitations

For the first time, a theoretical formulation is presented for the load-transfer analysis of an elastic cylindrical thin-walled pile immersed in a transversely isotropic half-space under axisymmetric excitations. By generating a set of weakly singular Green’s functions for the embedding medium and using a shell theory for the pile, it is shown that similar to the related interaction analysis in isotropic medium, the soil-structure interaction problem under consideration is reducible to two coupled Fredholm integral equations. Regarding the singular nature of stress transfer, a newly developed adaptive-gradient elements family is employed in the development of an accurate numerical scheme. The effect of soil material anisotropy on the dynamic interaction process is explored by presenting a set of numerical results for various material and geometrical conditions and various excitation frequencies. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed analytical and numerical scheme, numerical results are compared with benchmark solutions for the corresponding isotropic problem.

Scaling up alternative food networks: farmers’ markets and the role of clustering in western Canada

Farmers’ markets, often structured as non-profit or cooperative organizations, play a prominent role in emerging alternative food networks of western Canada. The contribution of these social economy organizations to network development may relate, in part, to the process of regional clustering. In this study we explore the nature and significance of farmers’ market clustering in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, focusing on the possible connection between clustering and a “scaling up” of alternative food networks. Survey and interview results from four regional clusters indicate that in addition to spatial agglomeration, dynamic processes of interaction and knowledge exchange are occurring and are shaped by vendor mobility as well as collaborative and competitive forces. Horizontal and vertical collaborations are resulting in innovative strategies to address challenges of scale, scope, infrastructure, and organizational capacity that are prevalent in alternative food networks. Government support for market clustering has been modest to date but, we argue, could play a more prominent role in facilitating cluster development as part of a broader collaborative strategy involving public, private, and social economy sectors in the scaling up of alternative food networks.

Facilitating SME Innovation Capability through Business Networking

Innovation processes can be regarded as complex, dynamic, and a result of cumulative dynamic interaction and learning processes involving many actors. In this setting, private small‐ and medium‐sized businesses (SMEs) can be considered a key factor – as generators of new ideas, as entrepreneurs carrying out new ventures, and as partners for other local actors. This study focuses on the SME networks and their ability to participate in innovative processes directed at new value creation. We present a case study of the development of a young innovation network. Our focus in the case study is on the SME's ability to carry out innovation and new value creation in a network. The key contribution of the study centers on the new understanding of the way SME innovation could be promoted through facilitated network development.

Talking with goddesses: Ovid's Fasti and Botticelli's Primavera

The many ancient sources of Botticelli's Primavera have long been recognized, among them a passage in Ovid's calendar poem, the Fasti; the painting quotes Ovid's version of a Roman origin legend, the story of Flora. The poem is however more crucial to the development of the imagery than hitherto suspected, in that the Primavera is marked by an intertextual engagement with the poem as a literary work, even at the level of specific rhetorical, expressive, and even ideological functions. A crucial example is apostrophe, a familiar trope involving direct address, often unexpected, on the part of an orator or poet to a relevant figure or personification. In the Fasti,Flora acts as an active presence conversing directly with the poet-as-character, while in the Primavera she challenges the separation of pictorial space and the viewers' space. Further, both painter and poet exploit the legal associations of apostrophe, giving emphasis to a dynamic process of interaction, even contestation. Finally, Botticelli's appeal to Ovid, the poet of exile, is not innocent. Ovid — like Seneca, also an important presence in the Primavera— was recognized in the Renaissance as a symbol of the difficult relationship between intellectuals and power, between culture and the state. The multiple Ovidian resonances of the Primavera raise the issue of the political character of literary and visual art, whether supportive and even propagandistic or, as in the case of Ovid, also subtly skeptical in its relation to authority.

Symmetrizing object and meta levels organizes thinking

We present a single non-cellular finite automaton model first shown to exhibit self-organizing behavior with intermittency and criticality, through a self-referential process. We propose a method to make self-referential contradiction a dynamic process of interaction with the selves in first person and third person description. The process represents thinking as inner dialogue with the self in second person. The dynamic effect of the rewrite shows characters proper to internal measurement, disequilibration by equilibration and transfer of inconsistency to the neighborhood by local resolution of the inconsistency. As the result, the advent of contradiction is postponed by the rewrite. The duality of internal measurement subject prevents inner dialogue in second person from lapsing into monologue. Criticality of thinking process is expressed. A probabilistic interpretation of non-determinacy weakening oracle is the key.

Next challenges in protein–protein docking: from proteome to interactome and beyond

AbstractAdvances in biophysics and biochemistry have pushed back the limits for the structural characterization of biomolecular assemblies. Large efforts have been devoted to increase both resolution and accuracy of the methods, probe into the smallest biomolecules as well as the largest macromolecular machineries, unveil transient complexes along with dynamic interaction processes, and, lately, dissect whole organism interactomes using high‐throughput strategies. However, the atomic description of such interactions, rarely reached by large‐scale projects in structural biology, remains indispensable to fully understand the subtleties of the recognition process, measure the impact of a mutation or predict the effect of a drug binding to a complex. Mixing even a limited amount of experimental and/or bioinformatic data with modeling methods, such as macromolecular docking, presents a valuable strategy to predict the three‐dimensional structures of complexes. Recent developments indicate that the docking community is seething to tackle the greatest challenge of adding the structural dimension to interactomes. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.This article is categorized under: Molecular and Statistical Mechanics > Molecular Dynamics and Monte-Carlo Methods

An investigation of moisture buffering performance of wood paneling at room level and its buffering effect on a test room

The concept of moisture buffering value based on material level tests has been widely adopted in current room level moisture buffering studies. However, the characterization of the material buffering properties may not be directly representative of the material buffering performance at room level because the room factors influence the moisture behavior of the materials. The moisture buffering is a dynamic moisture interaction process between the indoor humidity air and the hygroscopic finishing materials. The buffering effect is the amount by which the variation of the indoor humidity is dampened both by the hygroscopic materials and by the room factors. Hence, the magnitude of the buffering effect is related to the characteristics of the building structure. This paper presents an experimental study on the moisture buffering performance of wood paneling at room level and its buffering effects on the indoor environment. The data presented include the buffering effect values of several test scenarios on a full scale test hut in a large-scale environmental chamber. The data analysis shows that the moisture response of the hygroscopic material at room level varies in different test scenarios. This variation is influenced by room factors, including ventilation conditions and the amount of moisture generation, and to a lesser degree by the indoor initial humidity conditions. Hence, the buffering effect cannot be predicted based on the material performance alone.

9 Educational returns over the life course

Pillar 5 of the German National Educational Panel Study focuses on various returns to education over the life course. The longitudinal design allows us to study the complex and dynamic interaction processes when qualifications, competencies, and educational certificates are turned into economic and noneconomic returns. In this chapter, we outline the central theoretical concepts for analyzing returns to education and describe how they are implemented within the National Educational Panel Study. We discuss economic returns such as income and other labor-market-related outcomes with an emphasis on expected income as an innovative concept. Noneconomic returns may come in the form of better health, increased subjective well-being, reduced crime, increased social and political participation, and changing processes of family formation. Over the life cycle, returns related to health and subjective well-being will tend to accrue from early childhood through adulthood, whereas returns related to crime and political participation will tend to set in during late adolescence. In order to identify causal relationships, it is necessary to avoid considerable bias in the estimation of returns to education. One crucial source of biased estimators is the omission of the financial restrictions faced by the parents’ household. Thus, pillar 5 implements several measures to control for the economic situation of the household such as household income and wealth.

The nursing progress of percutaneous coronary intervention therapy of coronary heart disease

This article based on analysis of the current situation of nursing about coronary artery interventional tl()erapy, to establish a standardized, quantitative, dynamic interactive process of nursing intervention, and expand nursing field, explore new coronary artery interventional therapy nursing model Key words: Percutaneous coronary intervention ( PCI ); Status of nursing