Cytological changes related to Brucella canis variants uptake in vitro

In this study, evidence for in vitro uptake, invasion, and cytopathogonomic effects of normal and variant strains of B. canis on tissue culture, is presented. B. canis L-phase were penicillin-induced and these microorganisms produced revertants on penicillin-free media. Tissue culture (LLC-MK 2 ) cells were divided into different normal and variant-infected groups (I–IV), including controls. Bright-field and electron microscopic observations indicated uptake of all the strains and recognizable host cell damage (CPE) to varying degrees. At 72 h after infection, the extent of damage by L-phase was the least (55.5% CPE). The L-phase-derived revertants resulted in 80% damage; this approximates the adverse effect of normal B. canis (85%). In addition to these gross changes, various structural abnormalities, including pyknosis, nuclear disorganization, vacuolation, and karyorrhexis, were apparent. The implications of these findings and the indirect role of the L-phase in brucellosis due to B. canis are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47529/1/430_2005_Article_BF02123560.pd

Controls of knowledge production, sharing and use in bureaucratized Professional Service Firms

One of the main obstacles to the current bureaucratization trend in large professional service firms (PSFs) is the organic nature of professional knowledge production, sharing and use. Centralized knowledge management (KM) systems aimed at codifying ‘best practice’ solutions to recurrent client questions for large-scale reuse are a common strategy increasingly employed to overcome this obstacle. Using a socio-ethnographic case study of a business law firm in Paris, this research examines whether the use of centralized KM systems in bureaucratized PSFs contributes to a shift in power from professionals to managers. More specifically, are administrative controls over knowledge resources increasing, or do professionals retain power (i.e. some level of social and self-control) over knowledge production, sharing and use? The results of this study indicate that, far from losing ground, professionals’ social and self-controls have been reinvented and reformed in a bureaucratized context