For organisations that tackle grand societal challenges, hope can be a double-edged sword

Non-profit organisations, medical institutions, think tanks, and companies’ corporate social responsibility teams many times attempt to tackle big challenges such as climate change, social inequity, and finding the cure for illnesses. In these situations, emotions are likely to mount when setbacks are encountered. Katina Sawyer and Judith Clair write that propagating hopeful thoughts and behaviours may help organisations tackle big challenges. But when hope cultures start to wane in strength, they can act as a double-edged sword

In Our Own Backyard: When a Less Inclusive Community Challenges Organizational Inclusion

Purpose: This paper aims to build insight into how the local community impacts an organization’s ability to develop an inclusive culture. The paper offers a framework of inclusion discontinuities between an organization and its community, then using the case of teaching hospitals, aims to empirically demonstrate how individuals and organizations perceive and deal with inconsistencies in responses to diversity at the organizational-and community-levels. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-method qualitative study was conducted in hospitals located in the same city. Focus groups were conducted with 11 medical trainees from underrepresented backgrounds and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 hospital leaders involved with diversity efforts at two hospitals. Data analysis followed an iterative approach built from Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings: The findings demonstrate how discontinuity between the organizations efforts to create an inclusive environment and the community’s response to diversity and difference creates challenges for leaders in retaining and supporting minority individuals, and for trainees in feeling like they could build a life within, and outside of, their organizations. Based on findings from the data, the paper offers insights into how organizations can build their capacity to address these challenges. Research limitations/implications: Future research should build upon this work by further examining how inclusion discontinuities between communities and organizations impact individuals and organizations. Practical implications: The paper includes in-depth insight into how organizations can build their capacity to address such a deep-rooted challenge that comes from a less inclusive community. Originality/value: This paper contributes to an understanding of how forces from the community outside an organization can shape internal efforts toward fostering inclusion

Institutional Response to Crisis

The Institutional Response to Crisis panel focuses on analyzing and understanding institutions and the crises they might face, more specifically the limits and opportunities for preparing for a crisis, responding to crises, and the long-term consequences of crises. The panelists provide both theoretical analyses and specific, personal experiences to discuss these points. As panel moderator Noah Pickus, the director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University stated in his opening: Crises are no rare thing in human history and it seems as if of late we turn around everyday and there\u27s another one that stares us in the face. Questions/themes/discussion topics Should institutions respond to crises? How do institutions respond to crises? Response to crisis as a springboard for long term change within an institution Leadership opportunities within a crisi

Seeking structural repetitivity in systems with interaction interference: crystal engineering in the gem-alkynol family

Synthon repetitivity has been demonstrated in a pair of gem-alkynols, despite the high degree of interaction interference typical of this family of compounds

When is a polymorph not a polymorph? Helical trimeric O-H···O synthons in trans-1,4-diethynylcyclohexane-1,4-diol

Two polymorphs (A and B) of trans-1,4-diethynylcyclohexane-1,4-diol represent a unique example of the simultaneous occurrence of both conformational polymorphism and conformational isomorphism, while a pseudopolymorphic monohydrate is closely related

Subjecting Elite Athletes to Inspiratory Breathing Load Reveals Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Optimal Performers in Extreme Environments

Background: It is unclear whether and how elite athletes process physiological or psychological challenges differently than healthy comparison subjects. In general, individuals optimize exercise level as it relates to differences between expected and experienced exertion, which can be conceptualized as a body prediction error. The process of computing a body prediction error involves the insular cortex, which is important for interoception, i.e. the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Thus, optimal performance may be related to efficient minimization of the body prediction error. We examined the hypothesis that elite athletes, compared to control subjects, show attenuated insular cortex activation during an aversive interoceptive challenge. Methodology/Principal Findings: Elite adventure racers (n = 10) and healthy volunteers (n = 11) performed a continuous performance task with varying degrees of a non-hypercapnic breathing load while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results indicate that (1) non-hypercapnic inspiratory breathing load is an aversive experience associated with a profound activation of a distributed set of brain areas including bilateral insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulated; (2) adventure racers relative to comparison subjects show greater accuracy on the continuous performance task during the aversive interoceptive condition; and (3) adventure racers show an attenuated right insula cortex response during and following the aversive interoceptive condition of non-hypercapnic inspirator

Localization of type 1 diabetes susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on chromosome 6 is associated with susceptibility to more common diseases than any other region of the human genome, including almost all disorders classified as autoimmune. In type 1 diabetes the major genetic susceptibility determinants have been mapped to the MHC class II genes HLA-DQB1 and HLA-DRB1 (refs 1-3), but these genes cannot completely explain the association between type 1 diabetes and the MHC region. Owing to the region's extreme gene density, the multiplicity of disease-associated alleles, strong associations between alleles, limited genotyping capability, and inadequate statistical approaches and sample sizes, which, and how many, loci within the MHC determine susceptibility remains unclear. Here, in several large type 1 diabetes data sets, we analyse a combined total of 1,729 polymorphisms, and apply statistical methods - recursive partitioning and regression - to pinpoint disease susceptibility to the MHC class I genes HLA-B and HLA-A (risk ratios >1.5; Pcombined = 2.01 × 10-19 and 2.35 × 10-13, respectively) in addition to the established associations of the MHC class II genes. Other loci with smaller and/or rarer effects might also be involved, but to find these, future searches must take into account both the HLA class II and class I genes and use even larger samples. Taken together with previous studies, we conclude that MHC-class-I-mediated events, principally involving HLA-B*39, contribute to the aetiology of type 1 diabetes. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Genome sequence of the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans):Vector of African trypanosomiasis

Tsetse flies are the sole vectors of human African trypanosomiasis throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Both sexes of adult tsetse feed exclusively on blood and contribute to disease transmission. Notable differences between tsetse and other disease vectors include obligate microbial symbioses, viviparous reproduction, and lactation. Here, we describe the sequence and annotation of the 366-megabase Glossina morsitans morsitans genome. Analysis of the genome and the 12,308 predicted protein-encoding genes led to multiple discoveries, including chromosomal integrations of bacterial (Wolbachia) genome sequences, a family of lactation-specific proteins, reduced complement of host pathogen recognition proteins, and reduced olfaction/chemosensory associated genes. These genome data provide a foundation for research into trypanosomiasis prevention and yield important insights with broad implications for multiple aspects of tsetse biology.IS