Personality,Relationship Conflict,and Teamwork-Related Mental Models

This study seeks to explore whether neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness moderate the influence of relationship conflict experienced in groups on changes in group members'' evaluative cognitions related to teamwork quality (teamwork-related mental models). Data from 216 students, nested in 48 groups were analyzed using a multilevel modeling approach. Our results show that the experience of relationship conflict leads to a negative shift from the pre-task to the post-task teamwork-related mental models. Moreover, the results indicate that conscientiousness buffered the negative association between relationship conflict and the change in teamwork-related mental models. Our results did not support the hypothesized moderating effect of agreeableness and show that the detrimental effect of relationship conflict on the shift in teamwork-related mental models is accentuated for group members scoring low rather than high on neuroticism. These findings open new research venues for exploring the association between personality, coping styles and change in teamwork-related mental models.     

Palynological evaluation of selected honeys from Romania

Fifty-four honey samples collected over two consecutive harvest seasons (2009–2010) from different floristic areas of Romania were analysed. A melissopalynological analysis including qualitative and quantitative analyses was carried out in order to identify the principal pollen types in Romanian honeys and therefore, the important plants exploited by Apis mellifera in this country. Seventy-seven pollen types from 35 botanical families were identified. The main pollen forms were: Brassica napus-type, Tilia, Helianthus annuus, Robinia pseudoacacia, Prunus, Castanea sativa, Fragaria-type and Plantago-type. Honey samples were classified as: acacia honey (Robinia pseudoacacia), lime honey (Tilia), rape honey (Brassica napus-type), sunflower honey (Helianthus annuus), cherry honey (Prunus). Three of them were honeydew honeys whereas the others were all polyfloral. The results from this study can be used as a palynological baseline data of Romanian artisanal honeys.     

Bet‐hedging germination in annual plants: a sound empirical test of the theoretical foundations

Seed dormancy is thought to be a key mechanism allowing annual plants to spread extinction risk in unpredictably varying environments. Theory predicts increasing germination fractions with increasing probability of reproductive success but solid empirical evidence is scarce and often confounded with environmental factors. Here we provide an empirical test of bet‐hedging via delayed germination for three annual plant species along a ‘predictability gradient’ in Israel. We excluded confounding environmental and maternal effects by raising inbred seed families and germinating them under controlled conditions. Additionally, we germinated field‐collected seeds in three consecutive seasons to compare their germination with inbred families where maternal effects were removed. Risk of reproductive failure was quantified using demographic data from the field and from second‐generation inbred lines raised in a rainfall gradient in the greenhouse. Our findings were consistent with bet‐hedging theory in that germination fraction was negatively related to species‐ and site‐specific risk of reproductive failure. Both field and hand‐raised seeds of one species exhibited higher dormancy with increasing risk of reproductive failure across sites, and hand‐raised seeds of another species showed the same pattern. The third species exhibited a rather random pattern of germination between years and sites, corresponding to the lack of site‐specific risk of reproductive failure. Species‐specific patterns of dormancy and risk could be related to alternative risk‐spreading strategies such as high adult survival, but were also affected by phylogeny. We provide strong empirical evidence for seed dormancy being a mechanism to reduce the risk of reproductive failure in highly variable environments, but a larger number of rigorous experimental tests of bet hedging germination are needed. Specifically, the genetic basis of bet‐hedging must be shown in species with different life histories, for demonstrating that dormancy is adaptive and how it is modified by other risk‐spreading traits.     

Decision Rules and Group Rationality: Cognitive Gain or Standstill?

Recent research in group cognition points towards the existence of collective cognitive competencies that transcend individual group members’ cognitive competencies. Since rationality is a key cognitive competence for group decision making, and group cognition emerges from the coordination of individual cognition during social interactions, this study tests the extent to which collaborative and consultative decision rules impact the emergence of group rationality. Using a set of decision tasks adapted from the heuristics and biases literature, we evaluate rationality as the extent to which individual choices are aligned with a normative ideal. We further operationalize group rationality as cognitive synergy (the extent to which collective rationality exceeds average or best individual rationality in the group), and we test the effect of collaborative and consultative decision rules in a sample of 176 groups. Our results show that the collaborative decision rule has superior synergic effects as compared to the consultative decision rule. The ninety one groups working in a collaborative fashion made more rational choices (above and beyond the average rationality of their members) than the eighty five groups working in a consultative fashion. Moreover, the groups using a collaborative decision rule were closer to the rationality of their best member than groups using consultative decision rules. Nevertheless, on average groups did not outperformed their best member. Therefore, our results reveal how decision rules prescribing interpersonal interactions impact on the emergence of collective cognitive competencies. They also open potential venues for further research on the emergence of collective rationality in human decision-making groups.     

Cell ultrastructure and chlorophyll pigments in hyperhydric and non-hyperhydric <Emphasis Type="Italic">Beta vulgaris</Emphasis> var. Conditiva plantlets,treated with deuterium depleted water

Hyperhydricity can cause significant loss in the in vitro propagated plantlets. In order to predict and control its occurrence, a better understanding of the structural aspects and physiological features of hyperhydric plantlets is required. In this study, the ultrastructural and physiological changes associated with hyperhydric red beet plantlets were investigated. Our objective was to establish a correlation between the ultrastructural aspects of Beta vulgaris var. Conditiva leaflets and hypocotyls and the content of chlorophyll pigments extracted in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) of two type of plantlets: hyperhydric from a basal culture medium Murashige and Skoog (JAMA 15:473–497, 1962) prepared with distilled water (DW—155 ppm Deuterium) and non-hyperhydric, cultivated on identical medium where distilled water was replaced with deuterium depleted water (DDW- 25 ppm Deuterium) as a method of preventing hyperhydricity. Cell ultrastructure in hyperhydricity, both from the leaves, but especially from hypocotyls, showed denatured chloroplasts in a myxoplasm mass formed by the damage of the tonoplast and the mixing of the cytoplasm with the vacuolar juice. The nuclei were picnotic, presenting paranucleolar corpuscles. The amount of assimilating pigments was significantly reduced in the plantlets grown on medium prepared with DW as compared to the normal, non-hyperhydric ones from medium prepared with DDW. Both evaluations showed that, in red beet, DDW also prevents the appearance of hyperhydricity.     

Exploring dependence with data on spatial lattices

Summary .  The application of Markov random field models to problems involving spatial data on lattice systems requires decisions regarding a number of important aspects of model structure. Existing exploratory techniques appropriate for spatial data do not provide direct guidance to an investigator about these decisions. We introduce an exploratory quantity that is directly tied to the structure of Markov random field models based on one-parameter exponential family conditional distributions. This exploratory diagnostic is shown to be a meaningful statistic that can inform decisions involved in modeling spatial structure with statistical dependence terms. In this article, we develop the diagnostic, illustrate its use in guiding modeling decisions with simulated examples, and reexamine a previously published application.     

Preparation of D-galactofuranosyl nitromethanes: a revision and a new approach

Sodium methoxide-promoted methanolysis of 7-deoxy-7-nitro-L-glycero-L-galacto-heptitol peracetate rapidly and nearly quantitatively accumulates 7-deoxy-6-O-methyl-7-nitro-L-glycero-L-galacto-heptitol. The prolonged treatment then provides 76% of D-galactofuranosyl nitromethanes and finally results in the equilibrium of 77% of β-D-galactopyranosyl nitromethane and 7-9% of three other tautomeric D-galactosyl nitromethanes. Thermal treatment of 7-deoxy-7-nitro-L-glycero-L-galacto-heptitol in boiling water peaks at a 58% content of D-galactofuranosyl nitromethanes and ends in a similar equilibrium mixture of four D-galactosyl tautomers. The relevant kinetic parameters of the latter transformation are determined by a curve fitting using the nonlinear least-squares Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm.