Exploring Appreciative Inquiry and Its Link to Creativity

The purpose of this project was to gain a deeper insight into Appreciative Inquiry and to understand possible connections between this philosophy of change and creativity in general and the creative process in particular. The intention of combining a literature research with a practical application was fourfold: Firstly, this approach would provide insight into the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its methods and tools. Secondly, equipped with the background knowledge on creativity available to me from the creative studies program and beyond, I expected to discover some parallels and links from AI to creativity during my literature research. Thirdly, the actual application of the AI process as a novice in this field, relying on experience from the creativity area, would allow me to adapt the AI process according to my own judgment. Fourthly it would amplify my knowledge immensely to experience the whole AI process for myself. I found various commonalities between the Appreciative Inquiry and the Creative Problem solving process, ranging from their relation to change, their person focused position and their productive, constructive tenor, to more specific similarities as e.g. both covering comparable steps in their processes, like gathering data and designing certain steps to attain a goal. In sum for me these two processes go hand in hand very well, their strengths combine to a wholesome approach that is more productive and energetic than each of them alone. I found that I want to explore this combination in much more depth, as I saw great potential in taking a more optimistic view on creativity and using creative tools to bolster AI, one of the most effective know change methods today

Polonaise Pathtique

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1151/thumbnail.jp

Democracy Causes Terrorism: Methodological Flaws, a New Approach, and a New Answer

A critical analysis of the dominant quantitative methodologies used to analyze international terrorism reveals serious flaws in the conceptualization of key terms, the measurement of key variables and the statistical estimation of key relationships, all of which lead to unsubstantiated results. I deconstruct these issues, and extend the literature on the relationship of regime type and acts of terrorism in the following ways: I add to the quantitative literature on the subject; I use an updated database on global terrorist events (START--Global Terrorism Database) which includes domestic and international events; and I analyze rates of terrorism by a variety of categories of system types across both space and time (all countries, 1970-2012). I demonstrate that democracies are not the primary targets of terrorists, and that much more work needs to be done to understand the causes of extreme political violence, given its non-random, yet highly stochastic nature

Dynamic Light Scattering from Semidilute Actin Solutions: A Study of Hydrodynamic Screening, Filament Bending Stiffness and the Effect of Tropomyosin/Troponin-Binding

Quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS) is applied to investigate the effect of the tropomyosin/troponin complex (Tm/Tn) on the stiffness of actin filaments. The importance of hydrodynamic screening in semidilute solutions is demonstrated. A new concentration dependent expression for the dynamic structure factor $g(\bm k,t)$ of semiflexible polymers in semidilute solutions is used to analyze the experimental QELS data. A concentration independent value for the bending modulus $\kappa$ is thus obtained. It increases by 50\% as a consequence of Tm/Tn binding in a 7:1:1 molar ratio of actin/Tm/Tn. In addition a new expression for the initial slope of the dynamic structure factor of a semiflexible polymer is used to determine the effective hydrodynamic diameter of the actin filament. Our results confirm the general relevance of the concept of (intrinsic) semiflexibility to polymer dynamics.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, 9 figures, all uuencoded gzipe

Ueber die Pathogenese der gonorrhoischen Epididymitis und über Versuche, dieselbe durch Punktion zu behandeln

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Neumann’s enigmatic gazelle (Gazella erlangeri) Threatened taxon or domesticated gazelle?

One of the most challenging questions in regard to Arabian gazelles is the status of G. erlangeri Neumann, 1906 (Fig. 1). Gazelles currently kept in captivity at King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre in Saudi Arabia and Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation in Qatar (Fig. 2) show the described combination of diagnostic features, and thus, were considered to represent G. erlangeri, even though the exact provenance of these gazelles remains obscure. However, captive ‘G. erlangeri’ may have also originated from eastern Oman and could be therefore assigned to G. muscatensis (Fig. 3). Both taxa are considered ‘extinct in the wild’ by the IUCN Red List. Past conservation efforts have been plagued by confusion about the phylogenetic relationship among various—phenotypically discernable—populations (e.g., G. erlangeri, G. muscatensis), and even the question of species boundaries was far from being certain. This lack of knowledge had a direct impact on conservation measures, especially ex situ breeding programmes, hampering the assignment of captive stocks to potential conservation units

Dark grey gazelles Gazella (Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) in Arabia: Threatened species or domestic pet?

True gazelles (genus Gazella) are a prime example of a mammalian group with considerable taxonomic confusion. This includes the descriptions of several dark grey taxa of questionable validity. Here, we examined captive dark grey putative Neumann’s gazelle Gazella erlangeri. Our concerted efforts to retrieve mitochondrial sequence information from old museum specimens of two dark grey gazelles, putative G. erlangeri and putative Muscat gazelle G. muscatensis, were unsuccessful. We did, however, find the mtDNA haplotypes of extant putative G. erlangeri to be nested within the haplotype variation of the Arabian gazelle G. arabica. The observed population genetic divergence between G. arabica and putative G. erlangeri (based on 11 nuclear microsatellites) was driven by genetic impoverishment of putative G. erlangeri. These results, along with morphological signatures of domestication (e.g., reduced brain case size), suggest genetic bottle necks and domestication effects as a consequence of prolonged captive breeding. Three hypotheses are discussed: (a) G. erlangeri and/or G. muscatensis are valid species but are now extinct; (b) one or both taxa represent phenotypic variation within G. arabica and, therefore, are synonyms of G. arabica; and (c) captive stocks, exhibiting the effects of domestication and inbreeding, are the sources for the descriptions of G. erlangeri and G. muscatensis. As concerns the conservation of gazelles, based on current knowledge, we strongly advise against using putative G. erlangeri for any introduction initiative but recommend the continued captive management of putative G. erlangeri