Knowledge transfer and management consulting: A look at “The firm”

In the authors 'view, a firm's competitive advantage comes from the value it can develop for its customers. Most successful firms today can be considered „intelligent enterprises” because they transform intellectual assets into product and service outputs. It follows that knowledge transfer is especially critical for the functioning of a management consulting firm, because knowledge is the cornerstone of the services such a firm offers its clients

A Multilevel Model of Collaboration and Creativity

The progress of science requires the growth of understanding in both directions, downward from the whole to the parts and upward from the parts to the whole. —FREEMAN DYSON, 1996, p.2 Creativity does not occur in a vacuum. An enabling environment must exist. Whether creativity is at the breakthrough level or a cluster of micro-level events, it requires environments with special facets—especially collaboration that enables knowledge sharing and idea synthesis

The Effect of Shared Leadership on Team Processes and Performance

Purpose - This study examined the effect of shared leadership on student project team processes and outcomes. We focused on shared leadership and its association with team processes (coordination, goal commitment, and knowledge sharing) and team performance. Design/methodology/approach - To examine the shared leadership, team processes, and performance model, we conducted two separate surveys of 158 graduate and undergraduate students working in project teams at a large southwestern university. Findings - Results showed that shared leadership positively affected coordination activities, goal commitment, and knowledge sharing, which in turn, positively affect team performance, even though shared leadership had no direct effect on team performance. Research limitations/implications - Our research adds to the knowledge of important team process factors through which shared leadership indirectly affects team performance. Practical implications - Based on our findings, we provided implications for students and instructors that shared leadership can facilitate team performance by enabling team members to coordinate activities, commit to goals, and share knowledge effectively. Originality/value - This study presents an initial understanding of the shared leadership-team performance relationship by introducing influential variables, such as coordination activities, goal commitment, and knowledge sharing in a team

Knowledge Sharing and Human Resource Development in Innovative Organizations

Global competition and rapid changes in technology demand more innovation in organizations. Such an increase in innovation depends on developing the capabilities of employees and providing them with knowledge management support that accelerates learning and discovery. Leading companies have been creating work environments that emphasize learning and knowledge management since the turn of the century. This chapter presents profiles of practices in five such companies and draws conclusions that result in a model that ties human resource development (HRD) practices to knowledge management practices as a guide for other organizations

Radiation damage tolerant nanomaterials

Designing a material from the atomic level to achieve a tailored response in extreme conditions is a grand challenge in materials research. Nanostructured metals and composites provide a path to this goal because they contain interfaces that attract, absorb and annihilate point and line defects. These interfaces recover and control defects produced in materials subjected to extremes of displacement damage, impurity implantation, stress and temperature. Controlling radiation-induced-defects via interfaces is shown to be the key factor in reducing the damage and imparting stability in certain nanomaterials under conditions where bulk materials exhibit void swelling and/or embrittlement. We review the recovery of radiation-induced point defects at free surfaces and grain boundaries and stabilization of helium bubbles at interphase boundaries and present an approach for processing bulk nanocomposites containing interfaces that are stable under irradiation.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Sciences (Award 2008LANL1026

Chapter Biocytin-Based Contrast Agents for Molecular Imaging: An Approach to Developing New In Vivo Neuroanatomical Tracers for MRI

Geology & the lithospher

Biocytin-Based Contrast Agents for Molecular Imaging: An Approach to Developing New In Vivo Neuroanatomical Tracers for MRI

One of the most striking characteristic of the brain is its profuse neuronal connectivity. Not surprisingly, the function of the nervous system critically depends on the spatiotemporal pattern of intercommunication between different regions of the brain. Both macro- and microscopic aspects of the wiring diagrams of brain circuits are relevant and need to be understood in order to cope with the complexity of the brain function. In this way, for instance, the long-range connections that carry the functional specification of cortical territories need to be studied together with the detailed microcircuits inside a cortical column. Moreover, the temporal dimension of these wiring diagrams must be investigated since neuronal networks are dynamic structures exhibiting context-dependent changes in synaptic weights (Canals et al., 2009) and numbers (Chklovskii et al., 2004). Investigations over the last decades strongly suggest that stimulus or task related neural activity is distributed over large parts of the brain, covering different cortical and sub-cortical areas. For a detailed understanding of brain function, it is of prime importance to understand the organization of the neuronal connections. To chart the anatomical connections between the various components of brain networks, the neuronal tract tracing technique has been proved to be very useful. Thus, experimental tools that allow the exploration of brain circuits at diverse organizational levels are mandatory for the understanding of brain intercommunication and information processing

Double-flow focused liquid injector for efficient serial femtosecond crystallography

Serial femtosecond crystallography requires reliable and efficient delivery of fresh crystals across the beam of an X-ray free-electron laser over the course of an experiment. We introduce a double-flow focusing nozzle to meet this challenge, with significantly reduced sample consumption, while improving jet stability over previous generations of nozzles. We demonstrate its use to determine the first room-temperature structure of RNA polymerase II at high resolution, revealing new structural details. Moreover, the double flow- focusing nozzles were successfully tested with three other protein samples and the first room temperature structure of an extradiol ring-cleaving dioxygenase was solved by utilizing the improved operation and characteristics of these devices

Bridging Alone: Religious Conservatism, Marital Homogamy, and Voluntary Association Membership

This study characterizes social insularity of religiously conservative American married couples by examining patterns of voluntary associationmembership. Constructing a dataset of 3938 marital dyads from the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, the author investigates whether conservative religious homogamy encourages membership in religious voluntary groups and discourages membership in secular voluntary groups. Results indicate that couples’ shared affiliation with conservative denominations, paired with beliefs in biblical authority and inerrancy, increases the likelihood of religious group membership for husbands and wives and reduces the likelihood of secular group membership for wives, but not for husbands. The social insularity of conservative religious groups appears to be reinforced by homogamy—particularly by wives who share faith with husbands