The Christian Body at Work

Ein Großteil der arbeitenden Bevölkerung weltweit gilt als christlich affiliiert, doch was bedeutet Christsein am Arbeitsplatz? Die Studie beleuchtet dazu Forschung aus Management- und Organisationswissenschaften und Theologie, präsentiert Feldforschung zu ManagerInnen in der Schweiz und entwickelt eine Verkörperungsperspektive. Der Autor benennt Schwierigkeiten der vorherrschenden Verwendung von Begriffen wie Glaube, Spiritualität oder Religion am Arbeitsplatz und plädiert dafür, Framing-Praktiken und die Körperhaftigkeit christlicher Existenz zu berücksichtigen. Indem ChristInnen in körperlicher Form an Christi Tod und Auferstehung teilhaben und so Christus verkörpern, finden sie sich an einer existentiellen Schaltstelle für die Gestaltung von Arbeitsaktivitäten. Die Studie zeigt, wie der Fokus auf „Christinnen und Christen“ einen Raum für relevante organisations- und managementbezogene, soziologische, ethische und theologische Aspekte zeitgenössischer Arbeitskontexte eröffnet. Abstract A large part of the global workforce is said to be Christians, but what does it mean to be a Christian at work? This study offers a review of relevant research from management and organisation studies as well as from theology; it reports on fieldwork among business managers in Switzerland and proposes an embodiment perspective on Christians at work. The author identifies difficulties relating to the predominant uses of terms such as faith, spirituality and religion at work, and argues for the importance of taking Christians’ framing practices and bodily forms of existence into account. By participating in a bodily form in Christ’s death and resurrection, and by thus practising Christ’s body, Christians find themselves located at an existential nerve centre for carrying out work activities. This study shows how the notion of ‘Christians’ can open up conceptual space for relevant organisational, managerial, sociological, ethical and theological aspects concerning contemporary work settings

Integrating Christian living and international management

AbstractThis article investigates how Christian living and international management practice can be integrated. We argue that dualistic and reductionist conceptions of the relationship of faith and work can be observed in international management theory, and in some Christian-theological approaches to business ethics. Similarly, a separation between faith and work is adopted by certain management practitioners. However, such dualistic and reductionist conceptions are inadequate in the light of actual practice of international management. A case study revealed that international management theory and practitioners can be critiqued because of a lack of consideration of the connection between faith and management practice. A re-thinking of international management practice without the artificial separation of faith and practice is needed. This requires the development of a non-dualistic approach to Christian living and a combination of conceptual and empirical research to explore actual practice in international management contexts.OpsommingHierdie artikel ondersoek die moontlikheid hoe ‘n Christelike lewenswyse en internasionale bestuurspraktyk geïntegreer kan word. Ons redeneer dat dualistiese en onderwerpende opvattinge oor die verhouding tussen geloof en werk in internasionale bestuursteorie en in sommige Christelike Teologiese benaderinge tot sake-etiek waargeneem kan word. Net so word ‘n skeiding tussen geloof en werk deur sekere bestuurspraktisyns ingeneem. Sulke dualistiese en onderwerpende opvattinge is egter onvoldoende in die lig van die werklike beoefening van internasionale bestuur. ‘n Gevallestudie het geopenbaar dat internasionale bestuursteorie en praktisyns gekritiseer kan word vanweë ‘n gebrek aan die inagneming van die verbintenis tussen geloof en die bestuurspraktyk. ‘n Heroorweging van internasionale bestuurspraktyk sonder die kunsmatige skeiding van geloof en beoefening is noodsaaklik. Dit vereis die ontwikkeling van ‘n nie-dualistiese benadering tot die Christelike lewenstyl en ‘n kombinasie van konsepsuele en empiriese navorsing om die feitelike praktyk in internasionale bestuurskontekste te ondersoek.https://doi.org/10.19108/KOERS.80.1.220

Variability and reproducibility of multi-echo T2 relaxometry: Insights from multi-site, multi-session and multi-subject MRI acquisitions

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) can increase the specificity and sensitivity of conventional weighted MRI to underlying pathology by comparing meaningful physical or chemical parameters, measured in physical units, with normative values acquired in a healthy population. This study focuses on multi-echo T2 relaxometry, a qMRI technique that probes the complex tissue microstructure by differentiating compartment-specific T2 relaxation times. However, estimation methods are still limited by their sensitivity to the underlying noise. Moreover, estimating the model's parameters is challenging because the resulting inverse problem is ill-posed, requiring advanced numerical regularization techniques. As a result, the estimates from distinct regularization strategies are different. In this work, we aimed to investigate the variability and reproducibility of different techniques for estimating the transverse relaxation time of the intra- and extra-cellular space (T2IE) in gray (GM) and white matter (WM) tissue in a clinical setting, using a multi-site, multi-session, and multi-run T2 relaxometry dataset. To this end, we evaluated three different techniques for estimating the T2 spectra (two regularized non-negative least squares methods and a machine learning approach). Two independent analyses were performed to study the effect of using raw and denoised data. For both the GM and WM regions, and the raw and denoised data, our results suggest that the principal source of variance is the inter-subject variability, showing a higher coefficient of variation (CoV) than those estimated for the inter-site, inter-session, and inter-run, respectively. For all reconstruction methods studied, the CoV ranged between 0.32 and 1.64%. Interestingly, the inter-session variability was close to the inter-scanner variability with no statistical differences, suggesting that T2IE is a robust parameter that could be employed in multi-site neuroimaging studies. Furthermore, the three tested methods showed consistent results and similar intra-class correlation (ICC), with values superior to 0.7 for most regions. Results from raw data were slightly more reproducible than those from denoised data. The regularized non-negative least squares method based on the L-curve technique produced the best results, with ICC values ranging from 0.72 to 0.92

The surfactant protein C mutation A116D alters cellular processing, stress tolerance, surfactant lipid composition, and immune cell activation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Surfactant protein C (SP-C) is important for the function of pulmonary surfactant. Heterozygous mutations in <it>SFTPC</it>, the gene encoding SP-C, cause sporadic and familial interstitial lung disease (ILD) in children and adults. Mutations mapping to the BRICHOS domain located within the SP-C proprotein result in perinuclear aggregation of the proprotein. In this study, we investigated the effects of the mutation A116D in the BRICHOS domain of SP-C on cellular homeostasis. We also evaluated the ability of drugs currently used in ILD therapy to counteract these effects.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>SP-C^A116Dwas expressed in MLE-12 alveolar epithelial cells. We assessed in vitro the consequences for cellular homeostasis, immune response and effects of azathioprine, hydroxychloroquine, methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Stable expression of SP-C^A116Din MLE-12 alveolar epithelial cells resulted in increased intracellular accumulation of proSP-C processing intermediates. SP-C^A116Dexpression further led to reduced cell viability and increased levels of the chaperones Hsp90, Hsp70, calreticulin and calnexin. Lipid analysis revealed decreased intracellular levels of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and increased lyso-PC levels. Treatment with methylprednisolone or hydroxychloroquine partially restored these lipid alterations. Furthermore, SP-C^A116Dcells secreted soluble factors into the medium that modulated surface expression of CCR2 or CXCR1 receptors on CD4⁺lymphocytes and neutrophils, suggesting a direct paracrine effect of SP-C^A116Don neighboring cells in the alveolar space.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We show that the A116D mutation leads to impaired processing of proSP-C in alveolar epithelial cells, alters cell viability and lipid composition, and also activates cells of the immune system. In addition, we show that some of the effects of the mutation on cellular homeostasis can be antagonized by application of pharmaceuticals commonly applied in ILD therapy. Our findings shed new light on the pathomechanisms underlying SP-C deficiency associated ILD and provide insight into the mechanisms by which drugs currently used in ILD therapy act.</p

Public Perceptions of Climate Change in the Peruvian Andes

How people subjectively perceive climate change strongly influences how they respond to its challenges. To date, relatively little is known about such perceptions in the Global South. This research examines public perceptions of climate change in the Peruvian Andes, a semi-arid high-mountain region that is highly exposed and vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change. Based on questionnaire data collected through face-to-face interviews (N = 1316), we found that respondents identify various climate-related issues as the most important challenges for their country. Many of these issues are related to water. Respondents also noticed more subtle changes and expected them to continue (e.g., extreme temperatures, food shortages). Climate impacts were clearly seen as negative, which was also reflected in the presence of emotions. When compared to previous research, more respondents had personally experienced extreme weather events (80%) and they were more certain that the climate is already changing, is caused by human activity, and is affecting distant and close places similarly. A comparison of the perceptions along different socioeconomic characteristics suggests that more vulnerable groups (e.g., rural, low income and education levels) tended to perceive climate change as more consequential, closer, and as a more natural (vs. anthropogenic) phenomenon than those from less vulnerable groups. The salience of water-related problems and personal experiences of climate-related events, as well as differences between various subgroups, could be used to improve measures to adapt to the consequences of climate change by correcting misconceptions of the population and of decisionmaker

A replication and Extension of the socio-psychological model of climate Change risk perceptions

Van der Linden (2015) recently introduced a model that combines cognitive, experiential, and socio-cultural factors as predictors of climate change risk perceptions. Our study built on this model and had two major goals. The first goal was to test the socio-psychological model of climate change risk perceptions in a socio-cultural context that is different from the context where the model was originally developed and tested (United Kingdom). More specifically, we tested the model with a large sample of the general population of Peru. The second goal was to extend van der Linden’s model by including additional concepts such as climate change scepticism. Data were collected by means of tablet-assisted structured face-to-face interviews with adults from the general public in the Cuzco region (Peru). Participants were selected by a random route procedure and interviews lasted between 50 and 90 minutes. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the original and the extended model. We report findings on how well the model works in Peru and how well it can explain variance in people’s willingness to respond to climate change risks. We then discuss the applicability and generalizability of the socio-psychological model of climate change risk perception to a Latin American country. Directions for future research and implications for theory are also discussed