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In today's "war for talent," effectively managing the salesperson lifecycle is more crucial than ever. This process, which encompasses hiring, onboarding, managing, developing, retaining, and terminating salespeople, is fraught with many challenges that have been neglected by academic research. This special issue helps to close the prevailing research gaps through six high-quality articles about salesperson lifecycle management, answering important research questions related to the stages of hiring, onboarding, managing, and retaining. In addition, this editorial outlines key managerial challenges and emerging research priorities, laying the foundation for future research on salesperson lifecycle management. It also presents the results of a survey conducted with sales managers, confirming the challenges they face and the importance of the proposed research priorities. Future articles can draw on these statistics to find and motivate research topics worthy of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In male-dominated industries, organizations face considerable pressure to enhance women's representation in top leadership roles. Firms respond to this pressure by increasing gender diversity in senior positions, but often fail to achieve a critical mass of senior women at the top. This raises a key question: What impact does greater gender diversity at the top have on junior women's career opportunities? We develop an attention-based perspective on gender diversity and theorize that firms with relatively more women in senior management compared to their industry peers are likely to allocate fewer attentional resources, time, and effort toward internal diversity practices. This inadvertently hurts the recruitment of women at lower levels. We propose that one way to mitigate these adverse cross-level spillover effects is to ensure women's substantive representation on committees responsible for overseeing and monitoring the firm's diversity and hiring-related decision-making processes. We test our contentions and find support for our model using a panel dataset on the largest U.S. law firms. We conduct several supplemental analyses to provide insights into our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla (L.)) is a unique catadromous euryhaline fish and the only anguillid eel species classified as 'critically endangered'. The Baltic Lakeland area contains naturally recruited and introduced eels. There is great uncertainty regarding a baseline for the location and number of naturally dispersed eels in the region. Little is known about the genetic structure of the European eel populations in Baltic countries. The estimation of population genetic structure is important for the efficient management of naturally recruited and introduced eels. Two mitochondrial regions were used to investigate the genetic structure within and between eel samples from 11 waterbodies. In this study, new, unique, and widely distributed haplotypes were revealed. The studied eel population in the Baltic Lakeland shows high genetic diversity, which is possibly a result of intensive restocking programs. Sequences characterized for Anguilla rostrata were revealed in both mitochondrial regions. Understanding the genetic structure of eel populations worldwide is crucial for conservation efforts. Eel restocking in waterbodies where natural migration is restricted contributes to diversity loss for the world gene pool of eels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand how political behaviors by a sport organization's leader impact aspirant sport professionals. This qualitative study utilized criterion-based and snowball sampling methods to gather data from 202 aspirant sport professionals (46.5% male, 53.5% female). Participants were given a hypothetical employment scenario and responded to four questions regarding how a leader's political behavior might impact their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors toward the sport employer. Utilizing thematic analysis, the following themes were discovered: Discomfort and Indifference (Question 1), Expectancy Violation and Power Divide (Question 2), Visceral Thinking and Calculated Thinking (Question 3), as well as Reconciliation and Balance and Withdrawal (Question 4). Although sport leagues and sport leaders taking political stances has become more commonplace in recent years, the current results provide evidence that this shift may not be beneficial to sport employers as they look to recruit and retain high-quality personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power motive is an important predictor of leader emergence and effectiveness. However, theory and research suggest that the power motive is a distal predictor of effective leadership that functions through social competencies. Given that political skill is a social competency with a prominent role in leadership research, we have examined whether it acts as a mediator between the power motive and leadership behavior, as we argue that the power motive is a theoretically meaningful addition to the active influence personality theme of political skill antecedents. We have conducted two cross-sectional studies done via online surveys. For the first study, we have recruited a sample of management students (N = 349) and their knowledgeable others (N = 629). We have conducted the second study on a sample of managers (N = 85) working for different organizations. Results across two studies show that the power motive has an indirect effect on transformational leadership (Study 1 and 2), as well as on other-reported leadership potential (Study 1) through political skill. These results have theoretical and practical value as they present a proof of concept that the power motive is an important antecedent in activating and developing political skill that translates into successful leadership behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is thought that the internal jugular veins (IJV) are the primary route for cranial venous outflow in supine position and the vertebral venous plexus when upright. Previous studies have noted a greater increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) when subjects turn their head in one direction compared to the other, but no clear cause had been investigated. We hypothesised that in the supine position, head turning and consequently obstructing the IJV draining the dominant transverse sinus (TVS) would lead to a greater rise in ICP compared to turning to the non-dominant side. Methods: A prospective study in a large-volume neurosurgical centre. Patients undergoing continuous ICP monitoring as part of their standard clinical management were recruited. Immediate ICP was measured in different head positions (neutral, rotated to the right and left) when supine, seated, and standing. TVS dominance was established by consultant radiologist report on venous imaging. Results: Twenty patients were included in the study, with a median age of 44 years. Venous system measurements revealed 85% right-sided vs 15% left-sided dominance. Immediate ICP rose more when head turning from neutral to the dominant TVS (21.93mmHg ± 4.39) vs non-dominant side (16.66mmHg ± 2.71) (p= <0.0001). There was no significant relationship in the sitting (6.08mmHg ± 3.86 vs 4.79mmHg ± 3.81, p = 0.13) or standing positions (8.74mmHg ± 4.30 vs 6.76mmHg ± 4.14, p =0.07). Conclusion: This study has provided further evidence that the transverse venous sinus to internal jugular system pathway is the likely primary venous drainage when supine; and quantified its effect when head turning on ICP. It may guide patient-specific nursing care and advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporatization has great potential for public service provision, but governments face severe challenges in recruiting executive directors (EDs) with relevant human capital. Debates arise about the roles of sector‐switching and politicization in public corporation governance, but a critical research gap exists. ED pay (EDP) is a crucial governance factor and signifies the valuation of ED human capital. This study links debates on sector‐switching and politicization with human capital theory discourses and analyzes a panel dataset of 1832 ED observations in 291 German public corporations. Political mandate holders and former private‐sector EDs receive significantly higher EDP, whereas political human capital is valued even higher. Operating in a profit context strengthens the pay effects for political mandate holders but, contrary to widespread assumptions, not for former private‐sector EDs. This study enhances the theoretical understanding of the valuation of human capital factors in public corporation governance and provides important research perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 pushed organizations towards the adoption of new ways of organizing the workplace, to contrast the diffusion of the virus as well as to ensure the production of goods and services. Many workers and employers were suddenly forced to switch to forms of remote work, quite often without any real preparation to successfully deal with these changes. This exploratory study aimed to investigate the point of view of Italian HR managers on the introduction of these new ways of working in Italian SMEs, to underline both the advantages and risks of remote work and to provide a shared list of best and worst practices related to remote work adoption. A Panel of 19 Italian experts of HR management was recruited in April 2022 to perform a Delphi study. They were asked to take part in an anonymous and asynchronous discussion started with stimulus questions, on their remote working experience during the pandemic. A mixed-methods approach was adopted for data collection and analysis. Results: Five principal themes emerged, related to both the positive and negative implications of the adoption of hybrid and remote work, namely: work-life balance, environmental sustainability, impact of working life on individual wellbeing and health, and technological improvement. The content analysis was realized with the use of the T-Lab software, stressing the risks of inaccurate planning and management of these new ways of work. Conclusions: This is the first application of a Delphi study in the Italian context on the impact of COVID-19 on work-life transformative processes. The results highlight the importance of clear communication, transparency, trust, and technology in successfully implementing remote and hybrid forms of work. By implementing these best practices, organizations can create a work environment that supports remote and hybrid work, fosters collaboration, and maintains productivity. The findings of this study can serve as a useful guide for organizations that are transitioning to remote or hybrid work models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insights into the opportunities and risks that the technological transformation of Human Resource Development (HRD) presents in the context of early career talent in the accounting, banking, and finance sector. Three research questions are explored. (1) What opportunities exist for organizations investing in technology as a talent management strategy for recruiting early career talent? (2) What are the risks or threats to organizations from investing in technology as a strategy for recruiting early career talent? (3) What role do meso‐level actors play in recruiting early career talent? More specifically, to what extent do the views of graduate recruiters and career advisors as agents of organizations and higher education institutions align or diverge? Thirty‐six semi‐structured interviews were conducted with graduate recruiters and career advisors. Thematic analysis was subsequently applied, identifying three themes (i) employer branding, (ii) virtual recruitment, and (iii) diversity and social inclusion agendas, each presented opportunities and risks. The theoretical contribution comes from advancing career ecosystems and the new psychological contract as a theoretical framework by focusing on technological transformation and capturing the dyadic relationship between the meso‐level actors. Our paper integrates three topic clusters of HRD interventions and outcomes, national HRD, and career development, while manifesting the role and importance of under‐represented career actors. Practical implications aim to help shape talent management strategies for recruiting early career talent. Capturing the views of career advisors in this study can help organizations identify blind spots and inform policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projects create value and capabilities for organizations and beneficiaries of their outcomes and must be managed by implementing quality processes to assure an execution compliant with plans, activities, and applicable standards, and to accomplish the defined requirements and objectives in an efficient and effective manner. This study analyzed the frequency of use of quality management practices by companies with R&D units and compared them with project management students' expectations of implementing quality project management practices as a professional. The data was collected using an online survey, and twenty-six quality management practices have been analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, following standard procedures, and using the Independent-samples T-test. For twelve out of the twenty-six practices, significant differences have been found between the two samples, five referring to quality planning practices and seven referring to quality control practices. For the twelve quality management practices, project management students had greater expectations of implementing them, in contrast to the actual frequency of use among the surveyed companies. The results can provide inputs to improve project management practices among companies, reinforcing the importance of training and recruiting project management professionals that have the required training, talent, and aligned expectations on how to successfully manage projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In reinforcement learning (RL) experiments, participants learn to make rewarding choices in response to different stimuli; RL models use outcomes to estimate stimulus–response values that change incrementally. RL models consider any response type indiscriminately, ranging from more concretely defined motor choices (pressing a key with the index finger), to more general choices that can be executed in a number of ways (selecting dinner at the restaurant). However, does the learning process vary as a function of the choice type? In Experiment 1, we show that it does: Participants were slower and less accurate in learning correct choices of a general format compared with learning more concrete motor actions. Using computational modeling, we show that two mechanisms contribute to this. First, there was evidence of irrelevant credit assignment: The values of motor actions interfered with the values of other choice dimensions, resulting in more incorrect choices when the correct response was not defined by a single motor action; second, information integration for relevant general choices was slower. In Experiment 2, we replicated and further extended the findings from Experiment 1 by showing that slowed learning was attributable to weaker working memory use, rather than slowed RL. In both experiments, we ruled out the explanation that the difference in performance between two condition types was driven by difficulty/different levels of complexity. We conclude that defining a more abstract choice space used by multiple learning systems for credit assignment recruits executive resources, limiting how much such processes then contribute to fast learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofits are critical partners in the delivery of government‐funded human services in the US, but there is evidence of a persistent racial leadership gap in the sector, whereby Black and Latino Executive Directors are dramatically under‐represented. Why does this gap persist despite increased attention to this issue in recent years? And what organizational and community‐level factors do shape the likelihood that nonprofits will hire a Black or Latino Executive Director (ED)? We answer these questions through a mixed‐methods sequential design, drawing on survey data from 606 nonprofit organizations across the US, along with interview data from 12 nonprofit executives representing expert informants in the Chicago metro area. Consistent with theories of representation and publicness, we find demographic representation at the board level positively linked to the hiring of a Black or Latino ED, but government funding has inconsistent effects. We further elaborate on these findings through our qualitative data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraversion is the best and most consistent predictor of important leadership outcomes. However, there has been little exploration and examination of the mechanisms underlying the effects of extraverted leadership on performance. Drawing on distal-proximal motivational theory and situational strength theory, the present study proposes and examines a moderated mediation model that explains how leader extraversion affects team performance and how situational characteristics strengthen or constrain this relationship. Respondents were recruited through management team training courses run by the eight Chinese companies. We conducted two rounds of electronic questionnaire collection. The first round of data was collected during the training session. Four weeks later, we collected the data through the training courses' WeChat groups. Data collected from 226 Chinese team leaders was analyzed using SPSS 26 and Mplus 7. We find that leader extraversion predicts team performance through a motivational mechanism operationalized as leader work engagement. We further find that goal clarity and process clarity play an important role in strengthening the positive effect of leader extraversion on leader work engagement as well as the motivational mechanism, providing an empirical explanation of how leader extraversion affects team performance through a motivational mechanism operationalized as leader work engagement. We also explore how two potential situational characteristics, operationalized as goal clarity and process clarity of leaders, affect the relationship between leader extraversion and leader work engagement as well as the motivational mechanism. Addionally, the findings suggest important practical implications for the organizations seeking to identify effective team leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarly attention to authoritarian legislatures is steadily growing, and recent research suggests that there is substantial lawmaking activity and deliberation within these bodies. Does such activity matter for legislators themselves? Can it improve their career prospects? I examine the career paths of Russian national legislators, using a newly collected data set on biographies and parliamentary performance of politicians who served in the Russian State Duma in 2004–2016. I find that members who apply more effort in legislative work are more likely to keep their parliamentary seats, but legislative effort does not increase the probability of executive appointment. Rather, legislators appear to be recruited into executive offices on the basis of previous work experience or personal ties. Parliamentary service, however, may still help legislators get ahead by making them more visible to government leadership. My research highlights that legislatures may be used by authoritarian governments to improve the management of political careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search for partners in open innovation settings often consumes substantial time and managerial attention. Yet, organizations tend to get trapped in local search, which typically leads to collaboration with partners already known to them. To improve the search for partners, this article develops a tool that exploits the power of state-of-the-art information technology. In a sample of 33 search queries conducted in six innovation intermediaries, it studies differences between search with and without the use of our tool. The tests confirm the tool’s effectiveness and efficiency, and highlight the importance of searching with keywords that represent the core roles and activities of a firm, next to keywords referring to market and technology characteristics. Network visualization and semantic algorithms thus appear to facilitate the effort to identify distant partners. The article also finds that local partners are not that easy to find as commonly assumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the transition of leadership within the Molecular Imaging and Biology journal. Dr. Ray Gibson, the previous Editor-in-Chief, is praised for his dedication and efforts in maintaining the journal's high standards. Dr. Jason Lewis succeeded Dr. Gibson and made significant contributions to the journal, including raising its awareness and accessibility. Dr. Marty Pagel has now taken over as the new Editor-in-Chief, with the task of recruiting a new Deputy Editor for future succession. The article emphasizes the importance of editors in bridging the gap between scientific research and the public, and highlights the commitment of these individuals to maintaining the integrity of scholarship. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on new laws predicated on the COVID-19 pandemic, there is significant activity throughout the country regarding restrictive covenants specifically, noncompete agreements. It mentions mobility gives workers the option to look for other higher-paying opportunities elsewhere and increases aggressive headhunting expeditions. It also mentions employee mobility creates tension with an employer's incentive to invest resources in an employee.

Executive leadership changes are critical turning points for organizations. Over the past five decades, management scholars have generated many insights into the predictors, consequences, and contingencies of CEO succession. We first provide an overview of this research, integrating strategic management, corporate governance, strategic leadership, and organizational behavior research findings into a comprehensive framework. We find that empirical research has frequently adopted an event-based perspective on CEO succession, which is contrary to the practical evidence regarding CEO succession as a continuous process. In the second part of our paper, we develop a future research agenda for the CEO succession process. We specifically address the role of board–CEO collaborations and potential frictions during the CEO succession process. Our suggestions will help researchers gain a better understanding of boards' governance of executive succession processes. These suggestions also have implications for directors responsible for CEO succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Finger movements (key-pressing and key-releasing) with relatively faster reaction times can elicit stronger midfrontal delta-theta (1–7 Hz) neural oscillatory activity and stronger contralateral delta-theta functional connectivity compared to movements with slower reaction times, which reflects differences in movement difficulty, as simpler movements typically entail better motor control. • Movement difficulty modulates the impact of mind wandering on motor control, as evidenced by mind wandering only attenuating the midfrontal delta-theta activity (1–7 Hz) and contralateral delta-theta functional connectivity of relatively simple movements while not affecting more relatively difficult movements. • Mind wandering results in larger alpha ERD (8–13 Hz) during movement execution compared to on-task states regardless of movement difficulty, which may reflect the inefficiency of generating movement. It has been found that mind wandering can impair motor control. However, it remains unclear whether the impact of mind wandering on motor control is modulated by movement difficulty and its associated neural mechanisms. To address this issue, we manipulated movement difficulty using handedness and finger dexterity separately in two signal-response tasks with identical experiment designs, in which right-handed participants performed key-pressing and key-releasing movements with the specified fingers, and they had to intermittently report whether their attention was "On task" or "Off task." Key-releasing with the right index finger (RI) had a faster reaction time and stronger contralateral delta-theta (1–7 Hz) functional connectivity than with the left index (LI) in Experiment 1, and mind wandering only reduced the contralateral delta-theta functional connectivity and midfrontal delta-theta activity for key-releasing with RI. Key-pressing with right index and middle fingers (RIR) had a faster reaction time and stronger midfrontal delta-theta activity than with right index and ring fingers (RIR) in Experiment 2, and mind wandering only reduced the midfrontal delta-theta activity for key-pressing with RIM. Theta oscillations are vital in motor control. These findings suggest that mind wandering only impairs the motor control of relatively simple movements without affecting the difficult ones. It supports the notion that mind wandering competes for executive resources with the primary task. Moreover, the quantity of executive resources recruited for a task and how these resources are allocated is contingent upon the task difficulty, which may determine whether mind wandering would interfere with motor control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces appointments at the Utah State Bar that include Stephanie Arroyo as receptionist, Aubrey Schade as assistant executive director, and Mary Turville as continuing learning education events manager and outreach coordinator.

Role congruity theory postulates that traditionally there is a mismatch between the communal qualities associated with women and the masculine or agentic qualities considered necessary in a good leader. Thus, female candidates are presumed to be less suitable for leadership roles. The purpose of this study is to discover the conditions under which this (in)congruity may fluctuate. In a hypothetical manager recruitment process done in Spain, two profiles (agentic and communal) were associated with female and male candidates to explore variations according to the organizational setting (profit-oriented or civic-minded company) and the value attributed to candidates' qualities (high or low). Results showed congruity between candidates' profile and organizational setting when their trait value was high: agentic candidates were preferred over communal candidates for the profit-oriented company, with the reverse occurring for the civic-minded company. However, candidates' sex apparently played no significant role in participants' decision making; additionally, when the value of candidates' traits was low, congruity was only found for the profit-oriented company. We conclude that, overall, the agentic construal of management, with its good and bad features, still has the upper hand in the current vision of leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the following question: What do executives gain from serving on boards? We propose that board service benefits non-CEO-level executives in the executive labor market by acting as a certification mechanism and by providing access to unique knowledge, skills, and connections. We argue that non-CEO executives who gain directorships will be more likely to be promoted to CEO both inside and outside their home firm, will be more likely to be promoted internally, and will receive higher pay from their home firms. To test our ideas, we employ propensity score matching to construct a longitudinal sample of 2,104 top executives of large, publicly traded companies in the United States over the period 1996 to 2012. The results provide consistent support for our theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a model in which firms compete for scarce managerial talent ("alpha") and managers are risk averse. When managers cannot move across firms after being hired, employers learn about their talent, efficiently allocate them to projects, and provide insurance to low-quality managers. When, instead, managers can move across firms, firmlevel coinsurance is no longer feasible, but managers may self-insure by switching employer to delay the revelation of their true quality. However, this results in inefficient project assignment, with low-quality managers handling projects that are too risky for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the scope of the immense growth of corporate frauds and scandals, reporting unethical practices could be considered as an important mechanism to control them and ultimately improve organizational quality. To this end, this study proposes the conceptual framework comprising the enablers impacting employees' tendencies and behaviors to reporting misdemeanor in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach: Systematic review of literature has been carried out. To understand the complexities among various enablers and to analyze their driving power and contingencies, a modified total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach has been adopted. Findings: The findings indicate that enablers such as moral identity (MI) and job satisfaction (JS) having higher driving power (come at the bottom of the hierarchy) are relatively more important. Furthermore, perceived personal cost (PC), moral courage (MC), self-efficacy (SE) and anger have high dependent power of factors. Finally, the paper provides two paths that can lead to whistleblower's ethical decision. Research limitations/implications: A conceptual framework delivered in this paper requires to test against the field data. However, the conceptual understanding of driving enablers paves the way to top management in recruiting and hiring people in the workplace. Originality/value: This study represents the first attempt to apply TISM for whistleblowing phenomenon. It provides a comprehensive conceptual framework in order to address the relative importance of various individual enablers in developing reporting tendencies against misdemeanors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The gastrointestinal helminth, Teladorsagia circumcincta, is one of the major health risks and production-limiting diseases in small ruminant populations, particularly in temperate regions. With the increasing importance of disease management and recruited anthelmintic resistant types, accurate approaches are needed for the diagnosis of the infection in the host. Due to uncertain results using faecal examinations, the ELISA method was indicated for the detection of nematode antigenic materials. Despite some promising results, problems were described in terms of test specificity and cross-reactions. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the IgG response to worm somatic and excretory/secretory (ES) products using western blot analysis and an indirect ELISA for the detection of T. circumcincta infection in sheep. Results: Based on the immuno-reactivity analysis, immunogenic fractions with molecular weights (MWs) of approximately 60, 75 and 100 kDa were detected in somatic content and two antigens of about 63 and 75 kDa in ES material. Accordingly, a specific product at 75 kDa had the strongest reaction and appeared as the most common antigenic protein. In ELISA, all the sera from the infected sheep revealed the OD rates above the calculated cut-off value with about two-fold greater average. Negative control samples were also specifically recognized with the mean OD rate of about 1/3 of the estimated cut-off value. The cross-reaction test, using rabbit anti-T. circumcincta IgG, did not show reactivity with the ES antigens of other prevalent nematodes including Haemonchus contortus, Protostrongylus rufescens and Marshallagia marshalli. In contrast, a strong positive reaction was observed with the somatic antigens of M. marshalli. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that the indirect ELISA method using the ES content enables distinguishing the T. circumcincta infected sheep with high specificity. Those antigenic ES peptides with 63 and particularly 75 kDa MWs should be further investigated due to the potential for serological diagnostic methods and immunoprotective targets in the host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates Dutch colonial practices on the Moluccan island of Seram in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Seram's mountainous interior was the domain of ungoverned, peripatetic Alfurs who engaged in headhunting. For a long time, they were rendered untouched by colonialism and administered through coastal intermediaries. After 1900, renewed imperial-civilizational vigour demanded the direct incorporation and 'civilization' of Seram's stateless spaces. A series of expeditions subjected the Alfurs to registration, categorization, and taxation, which this article argues were seen as pivotal, moralizing tools of colonial social-engineering, used to inscribe subjected people into the state and instil compliant and 'productive' behaviour. However, rather than a replacement of indigenous orders with European modernity, colonization produced a hybrid fusion of colonial strategies of domination with indigenous cultural practices of state-evasion. This article demonstrates that colonial governance was a site of interaction, in which colonial developmentalism and modernity were actively negotiated and challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies showed that the onset age of second language acquisition (AoA-L2) can modulate brain structure of bilinguals. However, the underlying mechanism of anatomical plasticity induced by AoA-L2 is still a question in debate. In order to explore the issue, we recruited two groups of native Cantonese–Mandarin speakers, the early group began to speak in Mandarin at about 3.5 and the late group at about 6.5 years old. In addition, the early group had earlier experience in reading Chinese characters than the late group did. Through estimating the cortical thickness (CT), we found that (1) compared with the late group, the early group had thicker CT in the lateral occipital region, left middle temporal gyrus, and left parahippocampal region, which are all involved in visuospatial processing, probably reflecting the effect induced by the earlier or later experiences in processing the characters of Chinese for the two groups; and (2) compared with the late group, the early group had thicker CT in left superior parietal region, which is believed to be involved in language switching, maybe for the early group had the earlier experience in switching back and forth between Cantonese and Mandarin and therefore recruited the executive control network earlier. Our findings revealed the effects of the AoA-L2 in oral language acquisition as well as in written language acquisition as the main determinants of bilingual language structural representation in human brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the accountability of selected District Assembly executives to the Assembly members and local stakeholders. A total of 39 participants across three district assemblies were interviewed, including assembly members, presiding members, MMDCEs and other senior officials. We found major accountability gaps within all the three assemblies. We observed low citizen participation, lack of financial accountability and transparency in procurement and general non-compliance with the provisions for accountable local governance. These gaps were due to capacity deficiencies of the local legislators, appointment of MMDCEs by the country's president, and the inability of the assemblies to recruit executive personnel. Our recommendations include District Assemblies having control over MMDCE personnel hiring and firing decisions so that they are more accountable to local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes an analysis of micro-intentional and macro-structural actions in the field of long-term care services in Romania, with emphasis on human resources training at the top level. The individual’s ability to choose, the resources, behavior, and social and physical structuring are four social constructs launched by Marshal (2005) in his research on the old course, with an extension of the possible choices of human resources in long-term care. These are highlighted both as self-declared training needs and from the perspective of legal and administrative regulations. The analysis correlates the changes that have led, in the last decades, to a significant change of the traditional Romanian model of intergenerational care of the family with the care in institutional public or private services. The article highlights realities, but is and can be a reference document for people or institutions involved in (re) thinking about the training offer. An innovative model for leading human resources at European level is presented to obtain the Certificate recognized by the European Network on Aging. The conclusions converge on the need to update both the procedures and criteria for recruiting management staff and the use of a European training offer in the initial and in-service training of top managers in long-term care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Siganus rivulatus is considered one of the most successful Lessepsian migrant fish, yet the scarce of studies about its population structure in new habitats of Suez Canal is clearly realized. In the present study, the yield per recruit of S. rivulatus was estimated in Suez Canal based on investigation of growth parameters, mortality coefficients and exploitation rate for 581 individuals collected seasonally from Ismailia during the period from autumn 2017 to summer 2018. Otolith was used for aging and estimation of the growth rates. Four years was the maximum attained age. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters were L∞= 25.356 cm, K= 0.288 y-1 and to= -0.81 y. Total mortality coefficient (Z) was 1.57 y-1, natural mortality (M)= 0.573 y-1 and fishing mortality (F)= 1. 002 y-1. The length at the first capture (Lc= 12.838 cm) was found to be smaller than the lengths of first maturation (Lm= 14.5 and 15.15 cm for male and female, respectively). This may cause a great reduction in the stock due to harvesting small pre-spawning fish. Hence, the exploitation level was estimated recording a value of (E)= 0.636 y-1, which indicated that the stock of Siganus rivulatus in Suez Canal is currently overexploited. Therefore, conservation of this stock is a must, which can be achieved by increasing the allowable mesh size to give a chance to each individual to reproduce at least once, and reducing the exploitation rate from 0.636 to 0.355 y-1 to maintain a sufficient (50%) of the spawning stock biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]