Social actors who move across categories are typically disadvantaged relative to their more focused peers. Yet candidates who compile experiences across disparate areas can either be appreciated as ...renaissance individuals or penalized as dilettantes. Extant literature has focused on the comparison between single versus multiple category members and on skill assessment, hindering its applicability. To discriminate between more versus less successful category spanners, I suggest that the order of accumulated experiences matters, because it serves as an indicator of commitment. I propose the concept of erraticism and predict that employers will prefer candidates who demonstrate some erraticism, by moving incrementally between similar jobs, over candidates who do not move and also over those with highly erratic job histories. Furthermore, I suggest this relationship holds for more complex jobs, less experienced freelancers, and is attenuated through working together. These issues are particularly salient given the rise of external labor markets where careers are increasingly marked by moves across traditional boundaries. I test and find support for these hypotheses with data from an online crowd-sourced labor market for freelancing services, Elance. com. I discuss how virtual mediated labor markets may alter hiring processes.
Cigarette smoke is a representative source of toxic chemical exposures to humans, and the adverse consequences of cigarette smoking are mediated by its effect on both neuronal and immune–inflammatory ...systems. Cigarette smoking also is a major risk factor for intestinal disorders, such as Crohn’s disease and peptic ulcer. On the other hand, cigarette smoking is protective against developing ulcerative colitis. The effects of cigarette smoking on intestinal disorders include changes in intestinal irrigation and microbiome, increases in permeability of the mucosa, and impaired mucosal immune responses. However, the underlying mechanism linking cigarette smoking with intestinal microbiota dysbiosis is largely unknown. In this communication, we first review the current knowledge about the mechanistic interaction between cigarette smoke and intestinal microbiota dysbiosis, which include the likely actions of nicotine, aldehydes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and toxic gases, and then reveal the potential mechanisms of the lung–gut cross talk and skin-gut cross talk in regulating the balance of intestinal microbiota and the interrelation of intestinal microbiota dysbiosis and systemic disorders.
Smoking is a well-documented risk factor in various cancers, especially lung cancer. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that abnormal DNAm loci associated with smoking are enriched in ...genes and pathways that convey a risk of cancer by determining whether smoking-related methylated genes led to enrichment in cancer-related pathways. We analyzed two sets of smoking-related methylated genes from 28 studies originating from blood and buccal samples. By analyzing 320 methylated genes from 26 studies on blood samples (N = 17,675), we found 57 enriched pathways associated with different types of cancer (FDR < 0.05). Of these, 11 were also significantly overrepresented in the 661 methylated genes from two studies of buccal samples (N = 1,002). We further found the aryl hydrocarbon receptor signaling pathway plays an important role in the initiation of smoking-attributable cancer. Finally, we constructed a subnetwork of genes important for smoking-attributable cancer from the 48 non-redundant genes in the 11 oncogenic pathways. Of these, genes such as DUSP4 and AKT3 are well documented as being involved in smoking-related lung cancer. In summary, our findings provide robust and systematic evidence in support of smoking's impact on the epigenome, which may be an important contributor to cancer.
We know a job applicant’s social category affects an employer’s likelihood of hiring the applicant, but we do not know whether, or how, employers update their beliefs regarding these social ...categories. I portray hiring as a cognitive decision and examine how prior negative and positive hiring experiences of employees from particular countries affect an employer’s subsequent likelihood of hiring applicants from those countries. I hypothesize that employer reactions will reflect loss aversion—that employers will react more strongly to negative hiring experiences than positive ones. Furthermore, I expect that the similarity of the prior job will moderate this effect. Analyses of 3.9 million applications, from freelancers worldwide, for over 290,000 jobs on an online labor market demonstrate that employers are 15% less likely (versus 8% more likely) to hire freelancers from a country following a prior negative (versus positive) experience. Prior negative experiences with similar jobs (versus dissimilar jobs) lead employers to be 82% less likely (versus 8% less likely) to hire from that country. Conversely, positive experiences with similar jobs (versus dissimilar jobs) lead employers to be 25% more likely (versus 3% more likely) to subsequently hire from that country. The consequences for switching countries, following negative experiences, are analyzed and wage differences to compensate for employer reactions, are calculated. Contributions to the hiring discrimination, impression formation, and gig-economy literatures are discussed.
This paper was accepted by Olav Sorenson, organizations.
The Wet Chemistry Laboratory on the Phoenix Mars Lander performed aqueous chemical analyses of martian soil from the polygon-patterned northern plains of the Vastitas Borealis. The solutions ...contained approximately 10 mM of dissolved salts with 0.4 to 0.6% perchlorate (ClO₄) by mass leached from each sample. The remaining anions included small concentrations of chloride, bicarbonate, and possibly sulfate. Cations were dominated by Mg²⁺ and Na⁺, with small contributions from K⁺ and Ca²⁺. A moderately alkaline pH of 7.7 ± 0.5 was measured, consistent with a carbonate-buffered solution. Samples analyzed from the surface and the excavated boundary of the approximately 5-centimeter-deep ice table showed no significant difference in soluble chemistry.
King Saul was a privileged man. He was especially privileged to be the first king of Israel. Samuel was opposed to the idea of having a king as he saw this as a rejection of himself and of God's rule ...over Israel. However, God instructed Samuel to comply with the people's request to have a king, but to inform them of how the king would conduct himself. Nevertheless, the people had made up their minds, and they would not let anything stop them from getting what they wanted (1 Samuel 8:11-20). God was not surprised by this. Saul was crowned king of Israel by Samuel. Saul was taller and handsomer than all of the Israelites. He seemed to be doing well until he started making mistakes. These mistakes led to his rejection by God, and to his suicide at Mount Gilboa during the fight against the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:4). Saul's leadership may be an example of a failure of leadership for church pastors of today. This article aims to describe the failure of Saul in leading the nation of Israel and to provide an example for church leaders of today. Through the analysis of Saul's leadership, a reflective analysis may be formed so that a transformation leadership model can be developed for pastors and church leaders. The study follows a descriptive qualitative approach, with a literature study. After observing the results of the leadership practice of Saul as a failure of leadership, researchers can develop a constructive reflection for the transformation leadership model: 1) to manage a vision for the church pastors of today, 2) to transform an interaction with God, and 3) to be persistent in mission for church pastors of today.
In 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars to assess its potential as a habitat for past life and investigate the paleoclimate record preserved by sedimentary rocks inside the ...~150-kilometer-diameter Gale impact crater. Geological reconstructions from Curiosity rover data have revealed an ancient, habitable lake environment fed by rivers draining into the crater. We synthesize geochemical and mineralogical data from lake-bed mudstones collected during the first 1300 martian solar days of rover operations in Gale. We present evidence for lake redox stratification, established by depth-dependent variations in atmospheric oxidant and dissolved-solute concentrations. Paleoclimate proxy data indicate that a transition from colder to warmer climate conditions is preserved in the stratigraphy. Finally, a late phase of geochemical modification by saline fluids is recognized.
Literature to date has demonstrated that producers and products spanning multiple categories have inferior market performance. However, two related but distinct explanations exist as to the source of ...such a discount. One explanation suggests that “actual” skills are degraded when producers attempt to engage across diverse categories. Another explanation involves perceptual fit to category representations held by an audience as the cause. These two explanations tend to be confounded in archival studies because external observers, responsible for the evaluation of market performance, are often aware of both the identity of producers and the underlying characteristics of their products. This leaves researchers unable to empirically separate effects. We present an analysis conducted in a setting in which it was possible to distinguish the two mechanisms: critics’ ratings of the same wines through “blind” and “nonblind” tastings. The findings indicate that after controlling for the value of ratings assigned blindly, the wines made by wineries spanning styles continue to receive lower ratings in the nonblind situation.
The gut microbiota are being called the human "second brain," as they play a key role in the regulation of the central nervous system (CNS). Recent findings provide strong evidence for the presence ...of bidirectional communication networks between the gut microbiota and the CNS, and such crosstalk has been correlated with alterations in major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Further, germ-free animal models have been used to investigate the effect of the microbiota on MDD and other psychiatric disorders, which have greatly expanded our knowledge of the role of the microbiota in the etiology of MDD and promoted causality studies of this psychiatric disorder and others as well. In this review, we first introduce the methodological approaches used for microbiota research and then provide an overview of current research progress on the modulatory function and composition of the gut microbiota in MDD and the therapeutic effect of probiotics that has been gained using data from human studies as well as animal experiments. Future research should focus on identification and characterization of specific bacterial strains involved in MDD with the hope of applying these findings in the prevention and treatment of MDD.
Drug addiction is a common brain disorder that is extremely costly to the individual and to society. Genetics contributes significantly to vulnerability to this disorder, but identification of ...susceptibility genes has been slow. Recent genome-wide linkage and association studies have implicated several regions and genes in addiction to various substances, including alcohol and, more recently, tobacco. Current efforts aim not only to replicate these findings in independent samples but also to determine the functional mechanisms of these genes and variants.