Assessing Perceptions of Knowledge Management Maturity/Capabilitites: A Case Study of SAF/FM

Knowledge is an essential organizational resource that is required at all echelons to accomplish processes, to make decisions, and to improve efficiency and effectiveness. In order to take advantage of the benefits of knowledge, organizations must harvest and leverage the collective knowledge of the entire workforce through effective knowledge management (KM). The Air Force Center of Excellence for Knowledge Management recognized SAF/FM as having an exemplar KM program within the Air Force. This research used the Knowledge Management Capability Assessment (KMCA) framework to assess the overall KM maturity and capabilities of the seemingly mature SAF/FM KM program. The results indicate that the SAF/FM KM program is at an overall KM maturity of level 2; the organization recognizes the value of knowledge assets, its culture encourages activities associated with knowledge sharing, and the senior leadership communicates the value of and shows commitment to knowledge sharing. The organization’s KM maturity is inhibited by its lack of a KM strategy and lack of formal mechanisms and processes to acquire and store its knowledge assets

Soy foods have low glycemic and insulin response indices in normal weight subjects

BACKGROUND: Foods with a low glycemic index (GI) may provide a variety of health benefits. The objective of the present study was to measure the GI and insulin index (II) of select soy foods. METHODS: The study was conducted in two parts with low-carbohydrate products being tested separately. In Experiment 1, subjects averaged 23.2 years of age with BMI = 22.0 kg/m(2), while subjects in Experiment 2 averaged 23.9 years of age with BMI = 21.6 kg/m(2). The reference (glucose) and test foods were served in portions containing 10 g of carbohydrates in Experiment 1 (two test foods) and 25 g of carbohydrates in Experiment 2 (four test foods). Subjects consumed the reference food twice and each test food once. For each test, subjects were instructed to consume a fixed portion of the reference food or test food together with 250 g of water within 12 min. Blood samples were collected before each test and at 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min after consumption of reference or test foods to quantify glucose and insulin. Two-hour blood glucose and plasma insulin curves were constructed and areas under the curves were calculated. GI and II values for each subject and test food were calculated. RESULTS: In Experiment 1, both low-carbohydrate soy foods were shown to have significantly (P < 0.05) lower GI and II values than the reference food. In Experiment 2, three of the four test foods had significantly (P < 0.05) lower GI and II values than the reference food. CONCLUSION: All but one of the soy foods tested had a low GI, suggesting that soy foods may be an appropriate part of diets intended to improve control of blood glucose and insulin levels

The role of heparan sulfate proteoglycans and heparanase in the control of vascular remodeling

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-148).Arterial remodeling is a major pathophysiological mechanism underlying clinical cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, atherosclerosis and restenosis. We examined heparan sulfate proteoglycan homeostasis as a mechanism of regulation of arterial vascular remodeling in response to altered mechanical environments such as hypertension and injury. We first studied the effect of in-vitro mechanical strain on the ability of endothelial cells to inhibit vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Under these conditions we found mechanical strain increased endothelial inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation through increased production of heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Using inhibitors to p38 MAPK and ERK, we showed that activation of both of these pathways was essential for load-induced heparan sulfate production, TGF-,f1 activation, smad-2 activation and increased FGF-2 uptake. Further, we exposed cells to strain in the presence of a neutralizing antibody to TGF-P 1 and demonstrated that autocrine TGF-1l signaling was essential for load-induced HSPG production and sustained p38 MAPK and ERK activation.(cont.) We also examined the endothelium of spontaneously hypertensive rats using immunohistochemical staining for heparan sulfate proteoglycan core proteins, TGF-31 and phosphorylated signaling intermediates and found results that correlated well with our in-vitro experiments. Taken together these results imply a novel paradigm of vascular remodeling to mechanical stimuli in which net arterial remodeling is controlled by the dynamic interplay between pro-growth signals from vascular smooth muscle cells and anti-growth signals from endothelial cells. In a second portion of this work, we examined the role of heparanase in vascular remodeling. Using siRNA gene silencing and overexpression techniques, we showed that alterations in heparanase expression lead to a profound modulation in endothelial inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. In vivo, we quantified heparanase expression in animal models of hypertension, vascular disease and injury. Immunohistochemical analysis of the aortae of hypertensive rats revealed an increase in endothelial production of heparanase that strongly correlated with increased aortic structural remodeling.(cont.) Studies of vascular injury with stenting in the Zucker rat model of diabetes showed a relationship between neointimal heparanase expression and lesion thickness. Our results define a new role for heparanase as a key molecular controller of vascular remodeling in diverse disease states.by Aaron B. Blair.Ph.D

The Forward Edge of the Fifth US Army War College

The US Army War College recognizes the requirements for continued adaptation during periods of systemic and technological change. Currently on the forward edge of its fifth evolution, the college is adapting to provide assessment-based, tailorable education to its students and deliver impactful leader-development programs, research, and war gaming to inform strategic leaders about critical national security choices. Adapting strategic education to keep pace with the needs of the future operational force is essential to maintain the war-fighting edge for the Army of 2040 and beyond. This fifth evolution of the Army War College reinvigorates education requirements in the global application of Landpower. In a testament to the quality of adaptive curricular processes and design, the college is envisioning new means and methods to answer the call that Secretary of War Root issued more than a century ago, “[n]ot to promote war but to preserve peace through intelligent and adequate preparation to repel aggression.

Physical Activity and Stroke Risk: A Meta-Analysis

Background and Purpose - Whether physical activity reduces stroke risk remains controversial. We used a meta-analysis to examine the overall association between physical activity or cardiorespiratory fitness and stroke incidence or mortality. Methods - We searched MEDLINE from 1966 to 2002 and identified 23 studies (18 cohort and 5 case-control) that met inclusion criteria. We estimated the overall relative risk (RR) of stroke incidence or mortality for highly and moderately active individuals versus individuals with low levels of activity using the general variance-based method. Results - The meta-analysis documented that there was a reduction in stroke risk for active or fit individuals compared with inactive or unfit persons in cohort, case-control, and both study types combined. For cohort studies, highly active individuals had a 25% lower risk of stroke incidence or mortality (RR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.82) compared with low-active individuals. For case-control studies, highly active individuals had a 64% lower risk of stroke incidence (RR=0.36; 95% CI, 0.25 to 0.52) than their low-active counterparts. When we combined both the cohort and case-control studies, highly active individuals had a 27% lower risk of stroke incidence or mortality (RR=0.73; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.79) than did low-active individuals. We observed similar results in moderately active individuals compared with inactive persons (RRs were 0.83 for cohort, 0.52 for case-control, and 0.80 for both combined). Furthermore, moderately and highly active individuals had lower risk of both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes than low-active individuals. Conclusions - We conclude that moderate and high levels of physical activity are associated with reduced risk of total, ischemic, and hemorrhagic strokes

KM Capability Assessment: A Qualitative Approach

The knowledge management (KM) literature highlights both the desire of organizations to assess KM capability and the need to create better methodologies and tools to do so. Although some progress has been made in developing valid assessment tools, the topic still remains inadequately explored. Answering a call for the exploration of KM capability maturity assessment across a variety of organizations (Kulkarni & St Louis, 2003), this research uses the Knowledge Management Capability Assessment (KMCA) methodology (Kulkarni & Freeze, 2004) and Freeze & Kulkarni (2005; 2006) as a guiding framework to qualitatively assess the KM capability of the Secretary of the Air Force Financial Management and Comptroller (SAF/FM) organization—a military organization recognized for exceptional KM efforts. The research resulted in rich, contextual findings with regard to the specific KM efforts underway within SAF/FM. Interestingly, the nature of these efforts translated into KM capability levels lower than expected; however, precise areas for improvement were identified