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Ethical leadership with regards to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and stakeholder management impacts institutional and departmental culture. Formalized leadership ethics and compliance initiatives improve institutional structures. The importance of graduate leadership that embraces ethics and compliance programs ensures adherence to policies set forth by institutions and mitigates bias. Stakeholder management is key because adherence allows leadership to develop strategic plans with stakeholders in mind, while decreasing quality issues. As a result, there is value to executing stakeholder management plans within graduate education.

This chapter will examine the importance of mitigating bias in training and development, which provides internal and external scanning, thus mitigating bias in selection, promotion, compensation, information sharing, and implicit biases. Further, bias in training and development arises when training participants are intentionally or unintentionally targeted because of individual aspects of the “Big 8,” consisting of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, religion/spirituality, nationality, and socioeconomic status. Akin to research, information bias results from misleading training participants by providing incomplete information or showing imaging that is not representative of a diverse group of people. Additionally, DEIB training and development leadership and risk factors are addressed.

There are critical issues identified with reconciling parity in supplier diversity initiatives. Supplier diversity programs (SDP) are an instrument utilized to facilitate the process. This endeavor analyzes the best techniques to develop diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) strategy to develop manufacturing suppliers. Moreover, quality control frameworks for developing supplier diversity programs in manufacturing necessitates strategic planning, which is necessary to support supplier diversity initiatives. For instance, questions that supplier diversity managers must ask include, Does the company have an existing minority supplier program? If so, what are its pros, cons, and evaluative measures? If not, why hasn't there been a supplier diversity program or why is it now defunct? Moreover, supplier diversity managers must develop, safeguard, and sustain supplier diversity programs by gaining support from leadership, create policy (institutionalize), and tie the SDP to organizational performance metrics.

Graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were introduced as conductive additives in the lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) composite cathode material through a facile slurry approach to study the effect on battery performance at high current rates (C-rates). The incorporation of GNPs helps to create a flexible three-dimensional conductive network through a plane-to-point connection with the LiFePO4 particles. Comparison electrochemical testing showed that the LiFePO4/GNP cathode exhibited a high specific discharge capacity of ~ 153 mAh g−1 at 0.1C, improved high C-rate performance, and enhanced electrochemical reactivity. The enhanced LiFePO4/GNP battery performance can be attributed to the better electronic transport properties facilitated by the capability of GNP to bridge multiple LFP particles owing to its larger surface area. Our results inform the ongoing effort in finding LiFePO4 cathodes that can perform at high current rates as the demand increases for lithium-ion battery usage.

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were incorporated into LiFePO4 composite cathode through conventional slurry formulation. Pristine LiFePO4 and modified LiFePO4 cathode samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements, and cyclic voltammetry. Electrochemical measurements at room temperature showed LiFePO4/CNF composite to exhibit a higher specific discharge capacity of ~ 150 mAh g−1 at 0.1C, excellent high rate performance at > 5C capability rates, and better cycling stability with 98.4% capacity retention at 5C after 200 cycles. The improved high C-rate performance of the LiFePO4/CNF composite cathode can be attributed to long-range conductive networks formed through bridges created by the CNFs. The enhanced battery performance indicates promise for high-power applications.

Type sorted metallic (m) and semiconducting (s) single-walled carbon nanotubes (xSWNT) are incorporated into carbon coated LiFePO4 (cLFP) cathodes to study their effects on charging time and energy capacity. The SWNTs form a 3D conductive network which is expected to enhance the electronic mobility through percolation. Comparison tests show that the cLFP/mSWNTs cathode material delivers a slightly faster charging time than batteries made using sSWNTs. Conversely, the energy capacity is found to be higher for batteries made using sSWNTs than for those made using mSWNTs. Both battery types exhibit good cycle stability performance relative to each other.

The focus of this deliberation is to analyse how educational leaders intentionally implement the politics of organisational decision-making. Leadership decision-making affects organisational effect...

The number of new drugs identified by traditional, in vitro screens has waned, reducing the success of this approach in the search for new weapons to combat multiple drug resistance. This has led to the conclusion that researchers do not only need to find new drugs, but also need to develop new ways of finding them. Amongst the most promising candidate methods are whole-organism, in vivo assays that use high-throughput, phenotypic readouts and hosts that range from Caenorhabditis elegans to Danio rerio. These hosts have several powerful advantages, including dramatic reductions in false positive hits, as compounds that are toxic to the host and/or biounavailable are typically dropped in the initial screen, prior to costly follow up. Here we show how our assay has been used to interrogate host variation in the well-documented C. elegans—Pseudomonas aeruginosa liquid killing pathosystem. We also demonstrate several extensions of this well-worked out technique. For example, we are able to carry out high-throughput genetic screens using RNAi in 24- or 96-well plate formats to query host factors in this host-pathogen interaction. Using this assay, whole genome screens can be completed in only a few months, which can dramatically simplify the task of identifying drug targets, potentially without the need for laborious biochemical purification approaches. We also report here a variation of our method that substitutes the gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus faecalis for the gram-negative pathogen P. aeruginosa. Much as is the case for P. aeruginosa, killing by E. faecalis is time-dependent. Unlike previous C. elegans—E. faecalis assays, our assay for E. faecalis does not require preinfection, improving its safety profile and reducing the chances of contaminating liquid-handling equipment. The assay is highly robust, showing ~95% death rates 96 h post infection.

The number of new drugs identified by traditional, in vitro screens has waned, reducing the success of this approach in the search for new weapons to combat multiple drug resistance. This has led to the conclusion that researchers do not only need to find new drugs, but also need to develop new ways of finding them. Amongst the most promising candidate methods are whole-organism, in vivo assays that use high-throughput, phenotypic readouts and hosts that range from Caenorhabditis elegans to Danio rerio. These hosts have several powerful advantages, including dramatic reductions in false positive hits, as compounds that are toxic to the host and/or biounavailable are typically dropped in the initial screen, prior to costly follow up. Here we show how our assay has been used to interrogate host variation in the well-documented C. elegans-Pseudomonas aeruginosa liquid killing pathosystem. We also demonstrate several extensions of this well-worked out technique. For example, we are able to carry out high-throughput genetic screens using RNAi in 24- or 96-well plate formats to query host factors in this host-pathogen interaction. Using this assay, whole genome screens can be completed in only a few months, which can dramatically simplify the task of identifying drug targets, potentially without the need for laborious biochemical purification approaches. We also report here a variation of our method that substitutes the gram-positive bacterium Enterococcus faecalis for the gram-negative pathogen P. aeruginosa. Much as is the case for P. aeruginosa, killing by E. faecalis is time-dependent. Unlike previous C. elegans-E. faecalis assays, our assay for E. faecalis does not require preinfection, improving its safety profile and reducing the chances of contaminating liquid-handling equipment. The assay is highly robust, showing ~95% death rates 96 h post infection.