University of Houston

About: University of Houston is a education organization based out in Houston, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 23074 authors who have published 53903 publications receiving 1641968 citations.

Symmetry in locomotor central pattern generators and animal gaits.

Abstract: Animal locomotion is controlled, in part, by a central pattern generator (CPG), which is an intraspinal network of neurons capable of generating a rhythmic output1,2,3,4. The spatio-temporal symmetries of the quadrupedal gaits walk, trot and pace5,6,7,8 lead to plausible assumptions about the symmetries of locomotor CPGs9,10,11. These assumptions imply that the CPG of a quadruped should consist of eight nominally identical subcircuits, arranged in an essentially unique matter. Here we apply analogous arguments to myriapod CPGs. Analyses based on symmetry applied to these networks lead to testable predictions, including a distinction between primary and secondary gaits, the existence of a new primary gait called ‘jump’, and the occurrence of half-integer wave numbers in myriapod gaits. For bipeds, our analysis also predicts two gaits with the out-of-phase symmetry of the walk and two gaits with the in-phase symmetry of the hop. We present data that support each of these predictions. This work suggests that symmetry can be used to infer a plausible class of CPG network architectures from observed patterns of animal gaits.

The Role of Leaders in Internal Marketing

Abstract: There is little empirical research on internal marketing despite its intuitive appeal and anecdotal accounts of its benefits. Adopting a social identity theory perspective, the authors propose that internal marketing is fundamentally a process in which leaders instill into followers a sense of oneness with the organization, formally known as “organizational identification” (OI). The authors test the OI-transfer research model in two multinational studies using multilevel and multisource data. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses show that the OI-transfer process takes place in the relationships between business unit managers and salespeople and between regional directors and business unit managers. Furthermore, both leader–follower dyadic tenure and charismatic leadership moderate this cascading effect. Leaders with a mismatch between their charisma and OI ultimately impair followers' OI. In turn, customer-contact employees' OI strongly predicts their sales performance. Finally, both employees' ...

Business Advertising Appeals as a Mirror of Cultural Dimensions: A Study of Eleven Countries

Abstract: Across cultures, do systematic differences in advertising content mirror predictable differences in the cultures themselves? The authors designed a study to shed light on that question, using Hofstede's cultural model as a tool for analyzing cultures and using advertising appeals identified by Pollay. After coding advertisements in business publications from 11 countries for the appeals employed, they computed correlation coefficients relating the proportional use of each appeal and Hofstede's cultural dimensions: individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. The culture-reflecting quality of advertising was supported for 10 of 30 hypothesized relationships, and for an additional eight after removal of outliers from the data.

Breast Implant–Associated Anaplastic Large-Cell Lymphoma: Long-Term Follow-Up of 60 Patients

Abstract: Purpose Breast implant‐associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a recently described clinicopathologic entity that usually presents as an effusion-associated fibrous capsule surrounding an implant. Less frequently, it presents as a mass. The natural history of this disease and long-term outcomes are unknown.