Exposing practical, psychological and pedagogical shadow sides of experiential learning

This paper is based first-person experience with Experiential Learning (EL) practices in an undergraduate introductory management course. We consider how a challenging EL activity, based on volunteering during recovery from a catastrophic flood event, exposed three shadow sides of EL. These shadow sides of EL, that often remain hidden to educators, are practical, psychological and pedagogical. We provide a characterisation of each of these shadow sides and outline strategies for managing them. We also discuss the general applicability of our insights, including tentative theoretical extensions to Kolb’s (1984) EL theory. We conclude by considering the potential for the shadow sides of EL to emerge in circumstances that are less confronting and extreme than those encountered by our students.PostprintPeer reviewe

Assessment and Revision of Clinical Pharmacy Practice Internet Websites

Background: Health care professionals, trainees, and patients use the Internet extensively. Editable Web sites may contain inaccurate, incomplete, and/or outdated information that may mislead the public’s perception of the topic. Objective: To evaluate the editable, online descriptions of clinical pharmacy and pharmacist and attempt to improve their accuracy. Methods: The authors identified key areas within clinical pharmacy to evaluate for accuracy and appropriateness on the Internet. Current descriptions that were reviewed on public domain Web sites included: (1) clinical pharmacy and the clinical pharmacist, (2) pharmacy education, (3) clinical pharmacy and development and provision for reimbursement, (4) clinical pharmacists and advanced specialty certifications/training opportunities, (5) pharmacists and advocacy, and (6) clinical pharmacists and interdisciplinary/interprofessional content. The authors assessed each content area to determine accuracy and prioritized the need for updating, when applicable, to achieve consistency in descriptions and relevancy. The authors found that Wikipedia, a public domain that allows users to update, was consistently the most common Web site produced in search results. Results: The authors’ evaluation resulted in the creation or revision of 14 Wikipedia Web pages. However, rejection of 3 proposed newly created Web pages affected the authors’ ability to address identified content areas with deficiencies and/or inaccuracies. Conclusions: Through assessing and updating editable Web sites, the authors strengthened the online representation of clinical pharmacy in a clear, cohesive, and accurate manner. However, ongoing assessments of the Internet are continually needed to ensure accuracy and appropriateness

Concert recording 2016-04-19a

[Track 01]. Canzon duodecimi toni / Giovanni Gabrieli -- [Track 02]. Divertissement. Andante - allegro ; [Track 03]. Allegro vivace ; [Track 04]. Andante / Emile Bernard -- [Track 05]. March for military music in F major, Yorck march WoO 18 / Ludwig van Beethoven -- [Track 06]. Sept danses. Le jeu de la poupée ; [Track 07]. Funérailles de la poupée ; [Track 08]. La présentation des petits amis ; [Track 09]. Variation de Paul ; [Track 10]. Pas de deux entre Sophie et Paul ; [Track 11]. La goûter ; [Track 12]. Danse des filets à papillons / Jean Françaix

Coral disease outbreak at the remote Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico

East and West Flower Garden Bank (FGB) are part of Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) in the northwest Gulf of Mexico. This geographically-isolated reef system contains extensive coral communities with the highest coral cover (>50%) in the continental United States due, in part, to their remoteness and depth, and have historically exhibited low incidence of coral disease and bleaching despite ocean warming. Yet in late August 2022, disease-like lesions on seven coral species were reported during routine monitoring surveys on East and West FGB (2.1–2.6% prevalence). A series of rapid response cruises were conducted in September and October 2022 focused on 1) characterizing signs and epidemiological aspects of the disease across FGB and within long-term monitoring sites, 2) treating affected coral colonies with Base 2B plus amoxicillin, and 3) collecting baseline images through photostations and photomosaics. Marginal and/or multi-focal lesions and tissue loss were observed, often associated with substantial fish and invertebrate predation, affecting the dominant coral species Pseudodiploria strigosa (7–8% lesion prevalence), Colpophyllia natans (11–18%), and Orbicella spp. (1%). Characterizing this disease event during its early epidemic phase at East and West FGB provides a critical opportunity to observe how coral disease functions in a relatively healthy coral ecosystem versus on reefs chronically affected by various stressors (e.g., Caribbean reefs adjacent to urban centers). Insights into the etiology, spread, and impacts of the disease can ultimately inform efforts to mitigate its effects on coral communities

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Employee Responses to Wrongdoing in Organisations: The Role of Psychological Processes in Employee Silence and Whistle-blowing

For more than two decades, researchers have sought to identify the factors that influence how employees respond to wrongdoing in work settings. Although investigations into whistle-blowing suggest that organisational, contextual and individual-level factors can play important roles, a growing body of work into the nature of employees' decision-making suggests that psychological processes (including perceptions, appraisals and emotions) may also exert an important effect. Additionally, researchers have generally neglected to explore alternative responses to wrongdoing, particularly employees' decisions to withhold their concerns from management (i.e., silence). In this thesis, I sought to explore how and why employees respond to wrongdoing in work settings in certain ways, and particularly to understand why people choose to remain silent or engage in whistle-blowing. This thesis consists of seven chapters. In Chapter 1, I provide an overview of the research, define key constructs of interest, and present my research questions. I also explain my methodological approach and provide a summary of the studies. In Chapter 2, I provide a review of the literature, first considering the nature of wrongdoing in organisations and then focusing on how employees respond to wrongdoing. I review the history of whistle-blowing and silence in organisations and then consider recent work into the potential role of emotion in encouraging these behaviours. In Chapter 3, I present a case study (Study 1) of a series of adverse events that occurred in an Australian healthcare setting. Using a modified approach to grounded theory, I explored the nature of the adverse events, how employees responded behaviourally to the adverse events, and focused in particular on how organisational and contextual factors helped to shape key perceptions that encouraged silence. Results indicated that employees responded to the adverse events using different behavioural strategies over time, and that shared sensemaking and critical events influenced their decision-making. The analyses revealed further that employees' emotional responses may have influenced their decisions to engage in silence and whistle-blowing, and I investigated this proposition in the following study. Specifically, in Chapter 4 (Study 2), I present the results of interviews with participants who observed or experienced various forms of wrongdoing in work settings. In this study I sought to investigate more deeply the nature of employees' decision-making following wrongdoing, particularly the role of emotions, and identify any additional behavioural responses to wrongdoing. The results revealed that people experienced a range of emotional responses immediately following an episode of wrongdoing, most frequently anger, fear and distress. Consistent with the results of the case study, key perceptions encouraged people to withhold their concerns from management, including the danger and futility of reporting wrongdoing, perpetrator power and uncertainty; whereas perceived personal responsibility for reporting, perpetrator intentionality, and personal values (e.g., addressing injustice) were among perceptions and appraisals that encouraged formal reporting to management. Additionally, the analysis indicated that certain perceptions appeared to encourage anticipated emotions about silence and whistle-blowing, which in turn influenced participants' behaviour. I also identified a broader range of behavioural responses to wrongdoing, including two distinct forms of confrontation. In Chapter 5 (Study 3), I developed a scale measuring two individual-level perceptions about formally reporting wrongdoing in one's organisation: that it is dangerous and that it is futile to report wrongdoing to management (i.e., a psychological climate of silence). In Chapter 6 (Study 4), I integrated the findings of the previous three studies and conducted a quantitative study to determine the role of psychological processes and a psychological climate of silence in shaping responses to wrongdoing. Here, I developed a continuous scale to measure level of reporting behaviour, ranging from silence to formal reporting outside of the organisation (i.e., external whistle-blowing). The results of a survey of 119 employees from a range of organisations revealed that, consistent with hypotheses, anticipated fear and anticipated regret associated with whistle-blowing inconsistently mediated relationships between perpetrator power and level of reporting. Additionally, anticipated guilt associated with remaining silent mediated the relationships between the moral intensity of the wrongdoing and level of reporting, and perpetrator intentionality and level of reporting. Further, a psychological climate of silence was found to moderate the relationship between anticipated regret and level of reporting, such that anticipated regret had a stronger effect on level of reporting behaviour when a climate of silence was stronger rather than weaker. In Chapter 7, I present the findings with respect to each research question, and consider the contributions and limitations of these studies, as well as directions for future research. Taken together, I hope that the results presented in this thesis will offer major theoretical and practical contributions to our understanding of how people respond to wrongdoing in organisational settings and provide evidence that perceptions, appraisals and anticipated emotions play important roles in determining employees' behaviour

On not blowing the whistle: quiescent silence as an emotion episode

The growth of research into whistle-blowing has produced some compelling insights into this important organizational phenomenon, but a number of areas remain under-explored, particularly the role of emotion and our understanding of the far more common response to wrongdoing, namely inaction. In this chapter we seek to problematize current conceptualizations of whistle-blowing and wrongdoing, as a basis for examining employee silence in the face of wrongdoing. We suggest that quiescent silence can be viewed as an emotion episode, and draw upon the feedback theory and the sensemaking paradigm to develop this proposition, illustrated through an analysis of accounts of quiescent silence in a clinical setting. We propose a new concept of “cues for inaction” which offers insights into the way quiescent silence arises and persists