Born to adapt, but not in your dreams

The brain adapts to changes that take place in the body. Deprivation of input results in size reduction of cortical representations, whereas an increase in input results in an increase of representational space. Amputation forms one of the most dramatic disturbances of the integrity of the body. The brain adapts in many ways to this breakdown of the afferent–efferent equilibrium. However, almost all studies focus on the sensorimotor consequences. It is not known whether adaptation takes place also at other “levels” in the system. The present study addresses the question whether amputees dream about their intact body, as before the amputation, or about the body after the amputation and whether the dream content was a function of time since the amputation and type of amputation. The results show that the majority of the dreamers reported dreams about their intact body although the mean time that elapsed since the amputation was twelve years. There is no clear relation with the type of amputation. The results give modest evidence for the existence of a basic neural representation of the body that is, at least, partly genetically determined and by this relatively insensitive for changes in the sensory input.     

Individuals with first‐ever clinical presentation of a lacunar infarction syndrome: Is there an increased likelihood of developing mild cognitive impairment in the first 12 months after stroke?

Patients who have suffered a single clinical lacunar syndrome, in the absence of any previous clinical stroke, have a varying neuroradiological profile. We examined general cognition in 30 nonaphasic first‐ever lacunar syndrome participants, using a battery of standard clinical neuropsychological measures. At a group level, stroke participants did not demonstrate any cognitive impairment relative to well‐matched community‐based controls up to 12 months after stroke. There was also no evidence of increased frequencies of mild cognitive impairment after a single clinical lacunar syndrome relative to matched control participants within the first year post‐stroke. The current findings represent the first investigation of the cognitive outcome of nonaphasic individuals who have a first‐ever clinical lacunar syndrome. It was concluded that a clinically diagnosed first ever stroke event, presenting as a lacunar syndrome, was not associated with an elevated risk of developing mild cognitive impairment 12 months post‐stroke.     

Mom Matters: Maternal Influence on the Choice of Academic Major

Using High School and Beyond data and multinomial logit modeling, this analysis explores the parental impact on a student's choice of academic major. Family measures that have traditionally been used in status attainment models have focused primarily on father. This analysis includes measures for both the mother and the father to gauge their individual impact. Results indicate that mothers influence students' choice of academic major most readily through emotional and normative channels. In addition, mothers generally encourage the pursuit of nontechnical majors, whereas fathers encourage the pursuit of technical majors. The implications of this analysis are that mothers ought to be included more systematicly in status attainment models.     

The role of individual differences in employee adoption of TQM orientation

While total quality management (TQM) has emphasized organizational-level factors in achieving successful implementation, human capital theory and person-environmental fit models suggest individual difference factors may also be useful. Accordingly, the ability of organizational commitment, trust in colleagues, and higher order need strength to explain variation in TQM adoption, after inclusion of organizational-level factors, is assessed using longitudinal data from a manufacturing setting. These three individual differences collectively explain 7-19% of incremental variation in TQM adoption and are found to be relatively better predictors of TQM adoption than organizational-level factors. The findings support increased consideration of individual differences in order to implement TQM and other forms of organizational change more effectively.     

Association of Behavioral Self-Regulation with Concurrent Functional Capacity Among Stroke Rehabilitation Patients

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS), a measure of the executive cognitive capacity to use an intention to guide purposeful, goal-directed activity would be strongly associated with concurrent functional status after controlling for age, sex, education, severity of pain, medical comorbidity, depression, and general mental status, in a sample of 246 elderly inpatients receiving rehabilitation services following hospitalization for stroke. Functional status was assessed by rehabilitation nurses' ratings of patients on 11 ADL items and on the Barthel Index. The BDS was the strongest predictor for 11 of the 12 dependent variables. Although it correlated significantly with all outcomes, the MMSE entered only one of the regression models. Of the other covariates, only age and severity of pain made an additional contribution to the prediction of functional ability for more than 1 dependent variable. Consistent with prior results in several other samples, the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful behavior appears to be an important contributor to everyday functioning among older adults.     

Intelligence and persisting with medication for two years: Analysis in a randomised controlled trial

The study examined whether verbal intelligence is associated with persisting to take medication for up to two years. The design is a prospective follow-up of compliance with taking medication in high-risk individuals participating in a randomised, placebo-controlled trial set in Central Scotland. Participants were 1993 people aged between 50 and 77 years with an ankle brachial index ≤ 0.95. The medication was 100 mg aspirin or placebo daily.The principal outcome measure was continuing with taking medication or stopping it due to having ‘changed one's mind’. Higher verbal intelligence was associated with a greater likelihood of continuing to take medication up to two years after randomisation. For a standard deviation increase in Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale score, risk of stopping medication in the first two years of the study was 0.75 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.87, p < 0.001). Comparing the highest and lowest quartiles of IQ, the lowest IQ group's relative rate of stopping medication was 2.51 (95% CI 1.52 to 4.22). The effect was not attenuated after adjustment for sex, smoking, or level of deprivation. Verbal intelligence is associated with continuing, medium-to-long term engagement with health self-care, even in the face of uncertainty about whether active treatment is being received, whether the treatment is known to be effective in general, and whether it will be helpful to the individual taking it. Such persisting with potentially helpful health behaviours in the face of uncertainty might partly explain why people with higher intelligence live longer and suffer less morbidity from chronic diseases.     

Leadership and Organizational Culture: Linking CEO Characteristics to Cultural Values

Purpose  The purpose of this study was to empirically examine organizational culture theorists’ assertions about the linkages between leadership and the cultures that emerge in the organizations they lead. Specific hypotheses were developed and tested regarding relationships between chief executive officers’ (CEO’s) personality traits, and the cultural values that are shared among their organization’s members. Design/Methodology/Approach  Thirty-two CEOs completed measures of the Big-Five personality traits and personal values. A total of 467 employees across the 32 organizations completed a competing values measure of organizational culture. Findings  Results indicate support for several hypothesized relationships between CEO personality and cultural values. Exploratory analyses indicated that several CEO personal values were related to culture values. Implications  Organizations need to seriously consider the “fit” between the current or desired organizational culture and CEO characteristics. Organizations attempting to change fundamental aspects of its functioning may need significant behavioral—or personnel—changes at the top of the organization in order to achieve those changes. Originality/Value  This is the first empirical study to establish a link between specific CEO characteristics and the cultural values of their organizations. This study provides evidence that CEO characteristics are felt throughout the organization by impacting the norms that sanction or discourage member behavior and decision making, and the patterns of behavior and interaction among members.     

Gender role orientation,ethical and interpersonal conflicts,and conflict handling styles of female managers

This study examines the influences of socialization and structural variables on relations among gender role orientations, interpersonal and ethical conflicts, and conflict handling styles. The data were collected from 134 female federal and provincial government supervisors and managers (Mage 40.1). Results of multivariate analyses of variance indicated that managers with high-instrumental traits are likely to indicate that they would use a dominating conflict handling style, and androgynous managers (high-expressive and high-instrumental traits) are more likely to indicate that they would use an integrating style. Managers did not report that they would use different conflict handling styles for ethical and interpersonal conflicts. Moreover, nonsignificant interaction effects indicated that the nature of the conflict did not moderate the gender role orientation and conflict handling style relationship.