High performing teams consistently fare better than their competitors, especially when the pressure is on.

Taking all the risk out of inherently risky situations has never been an easy task and probably never will be. (And no, I’m not talking about the Seahawks throwing a pass at the goal line instead of just running it in Super Bowl XLIX.) But for some industries and businesses, managing risk more successfully than others has become almost second nature.

A study co-written by a University of Illinois labor and employment relations professor shows that clocking extra hours at the office while juggling family demands takes a toll on the body mass index of individuals in dual-earner families.

Barbara Silver says that research has repeatedly shown that flexible work schedules and employer support for work/life issues results in improvements in employee productivity, job satisfaction and job retention and decreases in absenteeism. It also benefits employee physical and mental health.

In business today, effective influence is essential. Want your ideas implemented? You must influence others to act on them. Want more clients? You must influence people to buy from you. Want more advancement or responsibility? You must influence executives to see the value you offer. And to be an effective leader you must be able to influence others. In all respects, being able to influence others is the ultimate power tool.

It has been over 40 months since President Obama signed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) into law in September 2011, climaxing years of feverish legislative wrangling. AIA was heralded as a game-changer, the dawning of an equitable intellectual property (IP) regimen that rewarded research scientists and innovators beset by ineffectual patent processes and procedures.

Sample preparation can be a labor-intensive and expensive process. What are the factors that should be considered when evaluating the possible transition from manual to semi-automated or fully automated systems? How do they impact your return on investment?

Now that we have your attention, we have to dash your hopes. This is not a column about Vegas and “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” kind of fun. It is going to provide vital safety information on one of the most widely used laboratory solvents. The title is derived from what is probably the best-known common use of the term outside laboratories— i.e., a chemical stripper or stripping agent.

Do you work in customer services? If you do, it is better to express your positive interpersonal  feelings naturally. Suppressing the benevolent interpersonal emotions of employees for customers has a negative impact on customer satisfaction, as indicated for the first time in a new study conducted by Prof. Dana Yagil of the Department of Human Services at the University of Haifa. The study was published in the journal Motivation and Emotion. “Suppression of positive interpersonal emotions is contrary to natural behavior in social interactions,” said the researcher.

Putting oneself in the customer's shoes makes managers even more likely let their own feelings get in the way