University of Nebraska–Lincoln

About: University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a education organization based out in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 28059 authors who have published 61544 publications receiving 2139104 citations. The organization is also known as: Nebraska & UNL.

A Content Analysis of Environmental Advertising Claims: A Matrix Method Approach

Abstract: As organizations seek to communicate with consumers who are concerned about the environment, advertisements containing environmental claims are becoming more prominent. While much has been written about environmental advertising, this phenomenon has seldom been examined systematically. This paper presents an empirical study which combines two classification schemes to create a matrix that identifies different types of environmental claims and the likelihood that such claims will be judged as misleading and/or deceptive. Results suggest that those claims which extol the environmental benefits of products and those that are designed to enhance the environmental image of an organization are most prone to be considered misleading and/or deceptive. Methods for improving environmental advertising are suggested.

Drought in the Anthropocene

Abstract: Drought management is inefficient because feedbacks between drought and people are not fully understood. In this human-influenced era, we need to rethink the concept of drought to include the human role in mitigating and enhancing drought.

Exploring social constructions of followership: A qualitative study

Abstract: This study adopts a qualitative approach to deconstruct the meaning of followership. Interviews were conducted with employees in various industries to examine how individuals socially construct their roles as followers and to explore followership schemas and contextual influences that relate to these constructions. Results sug gest that while some individuals socially construct definitions around passivity, deference and obedience, others emphasize the importance of constructively questioning and challenging their leaders. With regard to personal qualities that are thought to make followers effective, major themes such as obedience, expressing opinions, and taking initiative were found to be most disparate across different groups of followers. Results also revealed that contextual factors may affect both followership constructions and behavior in the follower role. These findings have important implications regarding a need to examine the construct of followership in leadership research, as well as raise interesting possibilities for advancing an “expanded” view of leadership in organizations.

Computation Rate Maximization in UAV-Enabled Wireless-Powered Mobile-Edge Computing Systems

Abstract: Mobile-edge computing (MEC) and wireless power transfer are two promising techniques to enhance the computation capability and to prolong the operational time of low-power wireless devices that are ubiquitous in Internet of Things. However, the computation performance and the harvested energy are significantly impacted by the severe propagation loss. In order to address this issue, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled MEC wireless-powered system is studied in this paper. The computation rate maximization problems in a UAV-enabled MEC wireless powered system are investigated under both partial and binary computation offloading modes, subject to the energy-harvesting causal constraint and the UAV’s speed constraint. These problems are non-convex and challenging to solve. A two-stage algorithm and a three-stage alternative algorithm are, respectively, proposed for solving the formulated problems. The closed-form expressions for the optimal central processing unit frequencies, user offloading time, and user transmit power are derived. The optimal selection scheme on whether users choose to locally compute or offload computation tasks is proposed for the binary computation offloading mode. Simulation results show that our proposed resource allocation schemes outperform other benchmark schemes. The results also demonstrate that the proposed schemes converge fast and have low computational complexity.

Integrative modelling reveals mechanisms linking productivity and plant species richness

Abstract: How ecosystem productivity and species richness are interrelated is one of the most debated subjects in the history of ecology. Decades of intensive study have yet to discern the actual mechanisms behind observed global patterns. Here, by integrating the predictions from multiple theories into a single model and using data from 1,126 grassland plots spanning five continents, we detect the clear signals of numerous underlying mechanisms linking productivity and richness. We find that an integrative model has substantially higher explanatory power than traditional bivariate analyses. In addition, the specific results unveil several surprising findings that conflict with classical models. These include the isolation of a strong and consistent enhancement of productivity by richness, an effect in striking contrast with superficial data patterns. Also revealed is a consistent importance of competition across the full range of productivity values, in direct conflict with some (but not all) proposed models. The promotion of local richness by macroecological gradients in climatic favourability, generally seen as a competing hypothesis, is also found to be important in our analysis. The results demonstrate that an integrative modelling approach leads to a major advance in our ability to discern the underlying processes operating in ecological systems.