Preferred Arrangement Research Articles

A Generational Preference for Preferred Work Arrangement and the Relationship With Employee Engagement and Turnover Intention

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of generational preferred work arrangements and the impact on employee engagement and turnover intent. Through analysis of 252 participant responses, this study examined differences between generational cohorts currently in the workforce with regard to engagement, preferred work arrangement and turnover intention. Results indicated a difference in employee engagement among Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Generation Z workers, but no differences in preferred work arrangement and intent to stay with the organization. However, there was a difference in Generation X employees’ preferred work arrangement and intent to stay.

Green marvel: Harnessing spinach leaves' power for enhanced photodegradation of various effluents with biogenic ZnO nanoparticles

This study investigates the use of ZnO NPs (Zinc oxide nanoparticles) derived from spinach leaf extracts in a sustainable photocatalytic technology to enhance the decomposition of hazardous effluents from refineries and paper mills. The biosynthesized ZnO NPs were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The XRD analysis reveals that ZnO NPs possess a hexagonal wurtzite structure, exhibiting a preferred arrangement of (101) planes. The synthesized ZnO NPs have a spherical shape, as seen in the SEM images. TEM analysis detected the size of the ZnO NPs to be between 35 and 40 nm. The results indicate that ZnO NPs produced via biosynthesis have photocatalytic activity in efficiently decomposing the organic chemicals found in gasoline refining effluent when exposed to light. At a pH of 8, the ZnO NPs exhibited the highest rate of degradation for toluene (84.26 %) and xylene (90.36 %) after being exposed to simulated sunlight for 240 min. In the context of the photocatalytic treatment of paper mill effluents, it has been shown that the subsequent cycles resulted in a reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD) levels of 81.24 %, 74.14 %, 68.92 %, 60.24 %, and 53.82 %, respectively.

Preferences for Remote and Hybrid Work: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for many American workers to work from home. Did the rapid and widespread adoption of remote work arrangements influence workers’ preferences? This study analyzes the early pandemic work experiences of 52 participants (20 men and 32 women) in dual-earner households with children through in-depth interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 via Zoom. The study explores respondents’ desire for remote and hybrid work, considering job satisfaction as well as job characteristics, family structure, and household organization. Unless their jobs were poorly suited to remote work, most workers with pandemic-era remote work opportunities—and even some who had not worked remotely—wished to keep remote access in their post-pandemic work arrangements. Respondents reported enhanced job satisfaction and productivity from remote work, as a result of greater schedule control and flexibility. We found that some workers were willing to change jobs to maintain their preferred work arrangement, while others acquiesced to employers’ return-to-work policies. The study highlights the need to understand workers’ preferences in supporting flexible work arrangements and contributes to the understanding of remote work on family dynamics during the pandemic and afterwards.

Do Health and Housing Attributes Motivate Residential Moves Among Older Chinese Adults? Evidence From an 8‑Year Follow‑up Study.

Despite the widespread belief in aging-in-place as the preferred housing arrangement for older adults, they are increasingly embracing moving. The person-environment fit theory explains that environmental changes due to residential moves can pose health risks, discouraging older people from moving. However, it also suggests that moves may be suitable when living conditions no longer meet their physical needs. The correlation between older people's health, housing, and their subsequent moving or staying actions in China remains underexplored. Using alternative operating variables of key concepts and the China Family Panel Studies 2012-2018 data sets, this study examines the effects of health and housing status on older people's residential moves in China. The study outlines changes in health indicators and housing characteristics during multiple moves, as well as examines the relationship between the health and housing status of older adults and moving over a relatively long period of time using both regression models with lagged explanatory variables and fixed effects binary choice models. The results reveal that: (1) higher rates of subsequent moves were observed among older adults with better self-rated health, positive self-rated health changes, and no ADL impairment, but no significant associations were found between most health variables and moving; and (2) the correlation between older persons' house ownership/type and their residential moves was significant and consistent over time, steady and lasting. Potential mechanisms explaining the association between specific housing types and ownership statuses on moving are discussed. The findings encourage a focus on the positive benefits of moving in later life and how to provide additional housing options for older individuals.

Polyamorous and ambiamorous adolescents: a first empirical look at mental health in an LGBTQ+ sample

ABSTRACT Polyamory has become increasingly visible in American culture, but the relationship arrangement or structure (i.e. one in which an individual has ongoing romantic, sexual, and/or emotional relationships with multiple partners) remains stigmatised. No known research has examined adolescents’ experiences with polyamory, though adolescents are in a stage of developing romantic and sexual relationship preferences. The current study uses a repeated-measures survey design to analyse the mental health of 323 LGBTQ+ adolescents (ages 12 to 17), including 54 polyamorous and ambiamorous (poly/ambi) adolescents, in the context of an affirming summer camp. Ambiamory refers to when a person’s preferred relationship arrangement varies depending on their situation. At baseline, poly/ambi adolescents had higher levels of depressive symptoms than their peers. All adolescents experienced reduced depressive symptoms and anxiety during camp. Thematic analysis of written responses to open-ended questions revealed that poly/ambi adolescents tended to not feel safe to disclose their identity in their home community due to stigmatization of polyamory, people’s lack of understanding of polyamory, and uncertainty or fear about people’s reactions. Poly/ambi adolescents who did feel safe in their home community tended to report supportive or indifferent community attitudes toward polyamory, knowing other polyamorous community members, and comfort with one’s identity.

Oriented Molecular Bridge Constructs Homogeneous Buried Interface for Perovskite Solar Cells with Efficiency Over 25.3.

Buried interface optimization matters the efficiency improvement of planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs), and the molecular bridge is reported to be an effective approach. Herein, a molecular bridge is constructed at buried interface using 4-chloro-3-sulfamoylbenzoic acid (CSBA), and its preferred arrangement is systematically investigated. It is elucidated that the CSBA molecular is prone to be orientationally absorbed on TiO2 surface through COOH-Ti, and then connect with perovskite through S═O-Pb, resulting in a feasible oriented molecular bridge. Contributing to the passivated interfacial defects, optimized interfacial energy level, and released perovskite tensile stress, resulting from the oriented CSBA molecular bridge, the PSCs with an active area of 0.08 cm2 achieve a certified power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 25.32%, the highest among the TiO2-based planar PSCs. Encouragingly, the PSCs with an active area of 1 cm2 achieve a champion PCE of 24.20%, significantly promoting the efficiency progress of large-area PSCs. In addition, the PSCs with oriented CSBA molecular bridge possess enhanced stability, the unencapsulated PSCs can maintain ≈91% and ≈85% of their initial PCE after 3000 h aging under ambient condition and 1200 h aging under exposure to UV irradiation.

Wolfium bonds in homodimers of MX4Y (M = Mo, W; X = F, Cl, Br; Y = O, S, Se).

The term "wolfium bond" has been recently introduced to describe the noncovalent attraction between an atom of group 6 and a nucleophile via a σ-hole binding site. Crystal structures commonly contain a motif wherein two MX4Y units are arranged in close proximity, where M represents either Mo or W, and X and Y refer to halogen and chalcogen atoms respectively. DFT calculations were thus applied to a wide range of homodimers of these molecules so as to assess their preferred arrangements, and to characterize the types of bonding that are present in each in a systematic manner. The most stable Dual-X configuration is symmetric and contains a pair of equivalent M⋯X bonds. The interaction energies range from -8 to -29 kcal mol-1, and are largest for X = F, Y = O, and M = W. The X electron donor is replaced by Y, and the two wolfium bonds are reduced to one, in the less stable Mono-Y structure, with interaction energies between -2 and -10 kcal mol-1. There is some question as to whether the weaker bonds of this type constitute true wolfium bonds.

Nonadditivity in interactions between three membrane-wrapped colloidal spheres

Many cell functions require a concerted effort from multiple membrane proteins, for example, for signaling, cell division, and endocytosis. One contribution to their successful self-organization stems from the membrane deformations that these proteins induce. While the pairwise interaction potential of two membrane-deforming spheres has recently been measured, membrane-deformation-induced interactions have been predicted to be nonadditive, and hence their collective behavior cannot be deduced from this measurement. We here employ a colloidal model system consisting of adhesive spheres and giant unilamellar vesicles to test these predictions by measuring the interaction potential of the simplest case of three membrane-deforming, spherical particles. We quantify their interactions and arrangements and, for the first time, experimentally confirm and quantify the nonadditive nature of membrane-deformation-induced interactions. We furthermore conclude that there exist two favorable configurations on the membrane: (1) a linear and (2) a triangular arrangement of the three spheres. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we corroborate the experimentally observed energy minima and identify a lowering of the membrane deformation as the cause for the observed configurations. The high symmetry of the preferred arrangements for three particles suggests that arrangements of many membrane-deforming objects might follow simple rules.

Modelling and multi-objective optimisation of sustainable solar-biomass-based hydrogen and electricity co-supply hub using metaheuristic-TOPSIS approach

The utilisation of biomass and solar energy for green hydrogen production offers potential benefits in reducing carbon emissions and enhancing energy security, aligning with global sustainability efforts. However, research is still limited in optimising hybrid renewable energy systems that leverage biomass and solar energy for a balanced co-supply of hydrogen and electricity in industrial settings. In addition, the identification of optimal capacity configurations for these systems can be challenging, due to supply–demand variations and conflicting design objectives. For the first time, we demonstrate the use of a two-stage multi-objective metaheuristic-Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS) method for the design of a solar-biomass-based hydrogen and electricity co-supply hub (HECH), based on the consideration of economic, supply stability, and waste energy generation aspects. Through a proposed case study in Felda Taib Andak, Malaysia, the best-compromised solution for capacity setup is successfully determined. Among the metaheuristics screened, the TOPSIS-assisted multi-objective mayfly algorithm (MMA) provides the most preferred capacity arrangement, minimising the total annualised cost (TAC) to USD 9.43 mil./yr and hydrogen and power supply probabilities (LHSP and LPSP) to 0.188 and 0.328, respectively. The MMA-TOPSIS approach also reduces the potential energy waste probability (PEWP) of HECH down to 0.09. The study also discusses the feasibility of battery and hydrogen storage during critical periods such as low and high biomass feed supplies. Overall, the outcomes of this research offer guidance to the engineers in optimising HECH designs, which sets the groundwork for low-carbon energy development in biomass-related industrial ecosystems.

Deconstructing allostery by computational assessment of the binding determinants of allosteric PTP1B modulators

Fragment-based drug discovery is an established methodology for finding hit molecules that can be elaborated into lead compounds. However it is currently challenging to predict whether fragment hits that do not bind to an orthosteric site could be elaborated into allosteric modulators, as in these cases binding does not necessarily translate into a functional effect. We propose a workflow using Markov State Models (MSMs) with steered molecular dynamics (sMD) to assess the allosteric potential of known binders. sMD simulations are employed to sample protein conformational space inaccessible to routine equilibrium MD timescales. Protein conformations sampled by sMD provide starting points for seeded MD simulations, which are combined into MSMs. The methodology is demonstrated on a dataset of protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B ligands. Experimentally confirmed allosteric inhibitors are correctly classified as inhibitors, whereas the deconstructed analogues show reduced inhibitory activity. Analysis of the MSMs provide insights into preferred protein-ligand arrangements that correlate with functional outcomes. The present methodology may find applications for progressing fragments towards lead molecules in FBDD campaigns.

Finland's NATO membership: Continuous shelter‐seeking strategy

AbstractThis article offers a challenge, in the form of an illustrative case study, to the notion that Finland's NATO membership is a radical reversal in security policy. With the use of shelter theory, it examines how Finland (as a small state), beginning in the Cold War, has actively sought to achieve political, economic and societal shelter from Western organizations. However, due to geopolitical restraints, the country has at various times been unable to fully adopt preferred shelter arrangements, especially within the military security sphere. The analysis indicates that the institutionalisation of Finland's shelter strategy has often been a tedious, diplomatic quest to integrate with the West, contingent upon opportunistically taking advantage of external ‘critical junctures’ to solidify its own interests. The article posits that Finland's pursuit of Western economic and societal shelter during the Cold War transformed into further Western political shelter‐seeking in its aftermath and, finally, membership of NATO in 2023. The case of Finland indicates that shelter theory captures the foreign policy strategy of a small neutral/nonaligned state. Nevertheless, our specific case also indicates that the theory ought to take a closer look at four features regarding relations between small and large states, that is how an agressive neighbour can restrict a small state's foreign policy choices, how economic and societal shelter relations may precede political shelter relations (or vice versa), the role of critical junctures within shelter theory, and, finally, how a history of cooperation may be transitioned into full‐fledged shelter.

Investigating the impact of working arrangements and lifestyle factor importance on environmental consciousness

This study investigates the impact of people’s demographics, preferred working arrangements and utilization of their free time on environmental consciousness. Such an investigation is timely because of the changing expectations around working, and the rising popularity of work-from-home arrangements leading to increased flexibility. Although the link between income and environmental impact is well understood, the mediating factors between working arrangements and environmental concerns remain unclear. Through the analysis of a nationally representative survey conducted in Japan, we clarify people’s desire to work shorter hours, subject to the maintenance of income levels, along with a desire to consider revised working arrangements if environmental improvements can be anticipated as a result. One important finding of this research is that those who prioritize their free time for family and friends have a much higher probability of valuing the environment and thus reducing their carbon footprint. These findings have implications for policy design which encourages low impact working arrangements, the sharing economy and a family friendly society.

Preferred intermolecular cation···anion interactions within the [EMIM][DCA] ionic liquid and its interaction with a water co-solvent molecule

A theoretical study intended to investigate the preferred geometry arrangement of the cation/anion units within the 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium dicyanamide ([EMIM][DCA]) ionic liquid (IL) and its geometry arrangement and energetic properties upon interaction with a water co-solvent molecule has been performed for the first time. DFT and MP2 methods have been selected for the investigation in order to compare the performance of the methods. The standard 6-31++G(d,p) basis set was utilised for the geometry optimisation while the 6-311++g(3d2f,3p2d)//6-31++G(d,p) was utilised to estimate the energy and to eliminate the basis set superposition error on the energies. The result of the investigation suggests that the cation/anion units within the ionic liquids are preferably held through a combination of hydrogen bonding and dispersion interactions. This confirmed through the use of energetic and bond distance parameters as well as the H1 NMR analysis of the available geometries. Geometries held solely by hydrogen bonding are minimally preferred. The explicit co-solvent water molecule preferably interact with [EMIM][DCA] in which the cation/anion units are stabilised predominantly by the presence of dispersion interactions. The inclusion of the implicit solvation is associated with significant decrease in the magnitude of the cation⋯anion interaction energy, largely due to the increased separation distance between the units. A comparison of the ionic liquid – co-solvent interaction energy estimated by different calculation methods suggests minimal differences among the methods in the estimated energy values.

Evolution of Solute-Water Interactions in the Benzaldehyde-(H2O)1-6 Clusters by Rotational Spectroscopy.

The investigation on the preferred arrangement and intermolecular interactions of gas phase solute-water clusters gives insights into the intermolecular potentials that govern the structure and dynamics of the aqueous solutions. Here, we report the investigation of hydrated coordination networks of benzaldehyde-(water)n (n = 1-6) clusters in a pulsed supersonic expansion using broadband rotational spectroscopy. Benzaldehyde (PhCHO) is the simplest aromatic aldehyde that involves both hydrophilic (CHO) and hydrophobic (phenyl ring) functional groups, which can mimic molecules of biological significance. For the n = 1-3 clusters, the water molecules are connected around the hydrophilic CHO moiety of benzaldehyde through a strong CO···HO hydrogen bond and weak CH···OH hydrogen bond(s). For the larger clusters, the spectra are consistent with the structures in which the water clusters are coordinated on the surface of PhCHO with both the hydrophilic CHO and hydrophobic phenyl ring groups being involved in the bonding interactions. The presence of benzaldehyde does not strongly interfere with the cyclic water tetramer and pentamer, which retain the same structure as in the pure water cluster. The book isomer instead of cage or prism isomers of the water hexamer is incorporated into the microsolvated cluster. The PhCHO molecule deviates from the planar structure upon sequential addition of water molecules. The PhCHO-(H2O)1-6 clusters may serve as a simple model system in understanding the solute-water interactions of biologically relevant molecules in an aqueous environment.

Elucidating the liquid structure within biomolecular condensates.

Biomolecular condensates are liquid-like membrane-less organelles where essential biochemistry occurs, including ribosome and spliceosome biogenesis. Many studies posit that to carry out biochemical processes, the condensate preferentially enriches or excludes specific molecules. Unlike gases, condensates are liquid-like phases and thus can have locally correlated structure. Such liquid structure may facilitate long-range conformational changes (i.e., allostery) between biomolecules, spatiotemporally coordinating interactions that direct binding, processing, and folding of biomolecules. Measurement of structure is classically obtained through diffraction-based methods, which is not conducive to condensates in cells. We instead turned to a different approach using live cell fluorescent microscopy to extract the strength driving molecules into condensates, quantified by their partitioning (i.e., free energy of transfer). To accomplish this, we employed a construct with two domains separated by a variable-sized linker. We surmised that its partitioning would depend on the exact length of the linker. For example, if the linker is too short or too long the transfer free energy would weaken as the domains are infrequently capable of “reaching” their preferred interaction partners within the condensate. Based on this intuition and other thermodynamic considerations, we converted these free energies into a measure of the degree of correlation between the two domains, known as the pair correlation function. Employing this scheme on common condensate driver proteins (e.g., NPM1 and G3BP1) allowed us to elucidate general principles underlying preferred molecular arrangements within biological condensates. Furthermore, by perturbing nucleolar composition and identifying how the degree of its structure is impacted, we gain insights into the connection between nucleolar form and ribosome biogenesis. Overall, this novel methodology opens the door to understanding the liquid structure of condensates, how they mechanistically facilitate function, and how they may change during development, aging, and disease.

Outcome-based contracts – Linking technology, ownership and reputations

Outcome-based contracts (OBC) in information technology outsourcing have attracted much attention, but literature is relatively scarce on this topic. Though firm theories prefer hierarchy as the most protective form of governance for such transactions, the practice moves forward with many hybrid governance structures underpinned by automation and digital transformation technologies. The objective of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework that explains the preference for inter-firm arrangements in OBCs and exhibits the capabilities of these technologies in mitigating contract inefficiencies. The proposed framework narrows the gap in the literature for a concurrent view of the latitudinal (ex-post, ex-ante) and longitudinal (reputation) dimensions of the contract. We represent the OBC as a concurrent stochastic game in a probabilistic model checker. Testing of our propositions revealed that these technology assets are complementary and joint ownership is desirable under reputation effects, reputation transfers take place between the contracting parties in the same direction, and continuous reallocation of ownership is required to maintain joint ownership. Rapid technological advancement and industry maturity can gravitate the transaction towards common ownership. The reputation function using Fermi probability distribution in our model is a novel performance measure for the industry.

Nanoencapsulation-Induced Second Harmonic Generation in Pillararene-Based Host-Guest Complex Cocrystals.

The features of molecularly preferable centrosymmetric arrangements exclude organic nonlinear optical (NLO) materials for second harmonic generation (SHG) when used in the solid and crystalline states, which greatly limits their applications in optoelectronic devices. Herein, a pillar[5]arene (BrP5) is used as the macrocyclic host to encapsulate NLO molecules, 4-[4'-methoxystyryl]-1-methylpyridinium iodide (OM), 4-[2'-(5'-(dimethylamino)thiophen-2'-yl)vinyl]-1-methylpyridinium iodide (DAST), and 4-methoxy-β-nitrostyrene (MNS), to alter the solid-state packing of these NLO molecules and manipulate their centrosymmetric arrangements. BrP5 forms 2:1 host-guest complexes with OM and DAST, while it forms a 1:1 host-guest complex with MNS. Experimental results show that the pillar[5]arene and each of these three NLO guests form a nanocapsule architecture along with an overall centrosymmetric crystal structure. However, the random orientation of OM and DAST molecules inside the 2:1 host-guest complex nanocapsules breaks the local centrosymmetric arrangement of the NLO molecules, resulting in strong SHG. On the contrary, for BrP5⊃MNS, the MNS molecules inside the pillar[5]arene cavities are unable to break the centrosymmetry. They have only one determined orientation in the one-dimensional (1D) channels of BrP5, while other MNS molecules in adjacent channels have the opposite direction. The centrosymmetry of the dipolar chains is strictly maintained with the cancellation of nonlinear polarization, resulting in the quenching of SHG. Furthermore, an ultrasound-induced host-guest crystallization method is developed for the fast preparation of these host-guest composite materials with NLO activity. This work opens a new way to construct solid-state organic NLO materials, which have potential in high-power lasers, optical switches, and imaging applications.

Leftward biases in poke bowl plating aesthetics

Chefs attempt to plate food in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Current plating practices demonstrate spatial biases, and these biases will aid researchers in learning what plating style creates the most appetizing appearance to the average diner. Previous literature in artwork and laterality suggests that a leftward bias is commonly the most pleasing arrangement. This implies that plating the largest, most caloric heavy component of the meal on the left-side of the dishware would be the most aesthetically pleasing organization. Canadian participants were presented photographs of asymmetrically plated poke bowls and their mirror image concurrently and asked to select the preferred arrangement. Participants favoured poke bowls which had the highlighted elements of the meal plated on the left side of the bowl. This finding of a leftward bias in food plating aesthetics helps with optimizing plating techniques, which can benefit a variety of professions such as chefs, photographers, social media users, advertisers, and marketers in promoting ideal food images.

Outcomes Of Aortobifemoral Bypass Based On Configuration Of The Proximal Anastomosis

Aortobifemoral bypass (ABF) remains an important treatment modality in the revascularization of aortoiliac occlusive disease. Despite ABF being performed for decades, questions remain regarding the preferred arrangement of the proximal anastomosis, specifically whether an end-to-end (EE) or an end-to-side (ES) configuration is superior. The goal of this study was to compare the outcomes of ABF based on proximal configuration.

Experimental Research of the Impact of Ship’s Rolling on the Performance of PV Panels

Abstract The aim of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce by half the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by marine ships by 2050, and its vision of the fastest total decarbonisation in the maritime shipping industry within the present century, calls for implementation with various means of decarbonisation. The IMO approaches the process of decarbonisation in two phases. Firstly, short-term, compact projects are to be considered, next, more complex, medium- and long-term solutions should be aimed at. The preferred arrangements to be applied are photovoltaic systems. Their performance depends to a high degree on the solar incidence angle. In the case of a ship swinging as a result of its course in relation to the wave and incidence direction, the incidence angle undergoes significant periodic changes with a significant effect on the power generated by the PV panels. As a result, the total amount of energy produced by the PV panels diminishes. The paper presents experimental research results obtained on the stand that allowed the investigation of PV panels in simulated marine conditions. Two characteristic positions of a PV panel’s rotation axis in relation to the solar rays’ incidence direction were investigated. It was proved for both variants that the rolling period and solar incidence angle affected the power generated by the PV panel.