The social construction of leadership studies: Representations of rigour and relevance in textbooks

Considerations of rigour and relevance rarely acknowledge students, learning or the textbooks many of the academic community use to frame education. Here we explore the construction of meaning around rigour and relevance in four leadership studies textbooks – the two most globally popular leadership textbooks and two recent additions to the field – to explore how these ideas are represented. We read the four texts narratively for structure, purpose, style and application. We further embed the analysis by considering the cultural positioning of the textbook-as-genre within leadership studies as a field more generally. This exploration of the textbook raises critical questions about rigour, relevance and the relationship constructed between them. From this, we argue for a re-commitment to the genuine ‘text-book’ written to engage students in understanding leadership as a continuing conversation between practices, theories and contexts, rather than as a repository of rigorous and/or relevant content that lays claim to represent an objective science of leadership studies

Computational Methods Used in Hit-to-Lead and Lead Optimization Stages of Structure-Based Drug Discovery

GPCR modeling approaches are widely used in the hit-to-lead (H2L) and lead optimization (LO) stages of drug discovery. The aims of these modeling approaches are to predict the 3D structures of the receptor-ligand complexes, to explore the key interactions between the receptor and the ligand and to utilize these insights in the design of new molecules with improved binding, selectivity or other pharmacological properties. In this book chapter, we present a brief survey of key computational approaches integrated with hierarchical GPCR modeling protocol (HGMP) used in hit-to-lead (H2L) and in lead optimization (LO) stages of structure-based drug discovery (SBDD). We outline the differences in modeling strategies used in H2L and LO of SBDD and illustrate how these tools have been applied in three drug discovery projects

Leading through agonistic conflict: Contested sense-making in national political arenas

This article examines the social processes of political leadership in situations of contest and conflict, taking place within a key and long-established democratic institution, the UK Parliament. The empirical focus is on leadership in House of Commons select committees, which are concerned with holding the government to account. Headlines and media scrutiny, combined with internal challenge from the cross-party mix of politicians on the committees and a range of external stakeholders, create leadership challenges for committee chairs. The study is of two committee inquiries led by the same committee chair, which occurred concurrently and in real time, thereby providing a rare comparative study of leadership through the same leader at the same time but with different leadership challenges. Rather than shying away from conflict, as does much of the leadership literature, this research highlights how leaders who actively engage in challenge and conflict can build a degree of shared purpose among diverse groups of stakeholders. It examines and combines, in theory elaboration, two theories relevant to understanding these leadership processes: agonistic pluralism with its role in creating respectful conflictual consensus, and the theory of sense-making and sense-giving. The two cases (the two inquiries) had different trajectories and reveal how the chair recognised and dealt with conflict to achieve sense-making outcomes across divergent interests and across political parties. There are implications not only for understanding political leadership but also more widely for leadership where there are diverse and sometimes conflicting interests

Identification of ejaculated proteins in the house mouse (Mus domesticus) via isotopic labeling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Seminal fluid plays an important role in successful fertilization, but knowledge of the full suite of proteins transferred from males to females during copulation is incomplete. The list of ejaculated proteins remains particularly scant in one of the best-studied mammalian systems, the house mouse (<it>Mus domesticus</it>), where artificial ejaculation techniques have proven inadequate. Here we investigate an alternative method for identifying ejaculated proteins, by isotopically labeling females with ¹⁵N and then mating them to unlabeled, vasectomized males. Proteins were then isolated from mated females and identified using mass spectrometry. In addition to gaining insights into possible functions and fates of ejaculated proteins, our study serves as proof of concept that isotopic labeling is a powerful means to study reproductive proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified 69 male-derived proteins from the female reproductive tract following copulation. More than a third of all spectra detected mapped to just seven genes known to be structurally important in the formation of the copulatory plug, a hard coagulum that forms shortly after mating. Seminal fluid is significantly enriched for proteins that function in protection from oxidative stress and endopeptidase inhibition. Females, on the other hand, produce endopeptidases in response to mating. The 69 ejaculated proteins evolve significantly more rapidly than other proteins that we previously identified directly from dissection of the male reproductive tract.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study attempts to comprehensively identify the proteins transferred from males to females during mating, expanding the application of isotopic labeling to mammalian reproductive genomics. This technique opens the way to the targeted monitoring of the fate of ejaculated proteins as they incubate in the female reproductive tract.</p

Divergence in transcriptional and regulatory responses to mating in male and female fruitflies

Mating induces extensive physiological, biochemical and behavioural changes in female animals of many taxa. In contrast, the overall phenotypic and transcriptomic consequences of mating for males, hence how they might differ from those of females, are poorly described. Post mating responses in each sex are rapidly initiated, predicting the existence of regulatory mechanisms in addition to transcriptional responses involving de novo gene expression. That post mating responses appear different for each sex also predicts that the genome-wide signatures of mating should show evidence of sex-specific specialisation. In this study, we used high resolution RNA sequencing to provide the first direct comparisons of the transcriptomic responses of male and female Drosophila to mating, and the first comparison of mating-responsive miRNAs in both sexes in any species. As predicted, the results revealed the existence of sex- and body part-specific mRNA and miRNA expression profiles. More genes were differentially expressed in the female head-thorax than the abdomen following mating, whereas the opposite was true in males. Indeed, the transcriptional profile of male head-thorax tissue was largely unaffected by mating, and no differentially expressed genes were detected at the most stringent significance threshold. A subset of ribosomal genes in females were differentially expressed in both body parts, but in opposite directions, consistent with the existence of body part-specific resource allocation switching. Novel, mating-responsive miRNAs in each sex were also identified, and a miRNA-mRNA interactions analysis revealed putative targets among mating-responsive genes. We show that the structure of genome-wide responses by each sex to mating is strongly divergent, and provide new insights into how shared genomes can achieve characteristic distinctiveness