An Industry-University Response to Global Competition

In 1998, representatives of New Mexico\u27s chile pepper industry approached New Mexico State University\u27s College of Agriculture and Home Economics for help in gaining the edge on new global competition. The result was the New Mexico Chile Task Force, which brought together industry, university, and government partners to apply the most up-to-date knowledge and technology to industry problems. Key to the task force\u27s success is the search conference format used in the initial strategic planning phase. This method, pioneered by Emery and Trist in the 1960s, brought together parties with divergent opinions and empowered them to develop strategies to manage change

The Fifth Epoch: Socio-Economic Approach to Sustainable Capitalism

The purpose of this conceptual essay is to challenge the inevitability of living with the destructive beast of speculative market economics in the 4th epoch of global capitalism. We are facing an existential socio-ecological threat from the short-term excesses of financial capitalism, a socially irresponsible form that consumes without producing value and without bearing entrepreneurial risk, benefitting only the few. The fate of roughly 90% of humanity hangs in the balance. The primary contribution of this paper proposes a 5th epoch of capitalism, inspired by Savall and Zardet’s socio-economic and sustainable approach that restores human potential and value creation to spacetimemattering. Applying their conceptual innovation moves capitalism to a Bernácer-Perroux economic universe, with a different curvature capable of reconfiguring organizational story spacetime and resituating the antenarrative of global capitalism

Business Leadership Education: A Virtual Storytellers Exercise

Online courses are becoming popular in business education and require creative strategies to maintain students’ engagement and facilitate contextual and complex understanding of class concepts and theories. In this paper, we are proposing an exercise for online undergraduate Organizational Behavior courses to motivate students and enhance their understanding of class concepts through the use of storytelling. In this exercise, students work in teams to narrate stories that describe with rich detail different concepts and theories pertaining to team management in general and virtual team management in particular. The results suggest that students develop a higher level of critical thinking in virtual team management by storytelling and develop strong relations with other members of their virtual teams

Project-based strategic management education: A client perspective on key challenges

This paper explores the benefits of project-based learning from the small business client perspective. The reflections of a sample of small businesses were collected through a feedback survey after participating in a semester-long project-based learning process developed for the Strategic Management curriculum in the College of Business at Western Carolina University (WCU). The clients that participated in projects are primarily local and regional businesses in Western North Carolina; they were sourced through the Small Business Centers (SBC) located at the area community colleges and the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) located at WCU. Most participating organizations are existing small businesses or start-ups with a high probability and capacity for growth that will enhance the economic development of the region. Literature review of both small business and project-based pedagogy challenges demonstrated the potential for co-creation of value. This study laid out the steps we took to organize a project-based Strategic Management pedagogy. Our analysis of both close- and open-ended client feedback revealed four key success factor themes for developing a mutually beneficial project-based pedagogy: communication and interaction, project organization and student preparation, quality of work, and co-creation of value; the specific priority actions for each theme are detailed in the paper

The influence of propanolol on portosystemic shunting

We investigated the role of early portal hypotensive pharmacotherapy in preventing the development of portal-systemic shunting in a portal hypertensive model of chronic murine schistosomiasis induced by infecting C3H mice with 60 cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Propranolol was administered in drinking water to 20 animals for a period of 6 wk at a dose of 10 mg · kg −1 d −1 , starting at 5 wk of schistosomal infection. 32 age-matched mice with chronic schistosomal infection served as controls. All animals were studied 11 wk after the infection. Compared with controls the portal pressure (10.8 ± 0.40 mm Hg) was significantly lower ( P < 0.001) in the propranolol-treated animals (7.9 ± 0.80 mm Hg). Portal-systemic shunting was decreased by 79%, from 12.2 ± 3.34% in controls to 2.5 ± 0.99% in the propranolol group ( P < 0.05). Portal venous inflow was reduced by 38% in the propranolol treated animals (2.50 ± 0.73 ml/min; n = 6) compared with controls (4.00 ± 0.34 ml/min; n = 8; P < 0.05). The worm burden, the granulomatous reaction, the collagen content of the liver, and the serum bile acid levels were not significantly different between the two groups of animals. These results demonstrate that in chronic liver disease induced by schistosomiasis, the development of portal-systemic shunting can be decreased or prevented by the reduction of flow and pressure in the portal system.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38367/1/1840140531_ftp.pd

Quantification of the visceral and subcutaneous fat by computed tomography: Interobserver correlation of a single slice technique

AbstractPurposeTo assess the interobserver reproducibility of the quantification of the visceral and subcutaneous fat by computed tomography from an umbilical slice and study the effect of the level of the slice (slice going through the navel versus a slice going through disc L3–L4).Materials and methodsForty-four breast cancer patients who had a CT-scan were included in this study. This is a double blind (junior versus senior) retrospective study to determine the interobserver reproducibility. A junior observer studied the variation between two levels of slice by selecting an image going through L3–L4 and the navel.ResultsThe measurement of the fat obtained from an umbilical slice seemed to be well correlated and consistent with that obtained from a slice with a disc reference (L3–L4). The interobserver reproducibility is good for the quantification of the umbilical fat (Spearman and Lin at 0.9921 and 0.985 [P<0.001] for the visceral fat).ConclusionThe interobserver reproducibility of the single slice CT-scan measurement going through the navel (easily detected) is excellent and may therefore be used in oncology as a predictive tool to measure a characteristic of the host and not the tumor

Arrozales en el Espinal-Tolima: Un análisis geoespacial de su expansión.

En el municipio de Espinal, Tolima se desarrolla una de las principales actividades agrícolas del país, que es la siembra basada en cultivos de arroz. Cuenta con una de las seccionales más grandes del territorio, con cerca de 25 mil hectáreas sembradas. (Revista Semana, 2023) El Espinal posee los tres complejos agroindustriales más capacitados para los procesos de secado, almacenamiento y trilla. Además, el Centro de Gestión del Recurso Hídrico es una de las obras de máxima importancia para el país, porque se dedica a la investigación de la caracterización del suelo y su correcto manejo, a la implementación de Programas de Ahorro y Uso Eficiente del Agua de acuerdo a las variables climáticas y sus condiciones ambientales. Para este gremio que cumplió 76 años de trayectoria es de vital importancia que se considere necesario la implementación de modelos para determinar su expansión a lo largo del tiempo y la utilización de herramientas de información geográfica QGIS para poder determinar las variables de crecimiento, abordada desde los análisis de los mapas y los datos vectoriales. Palabras claves: arrozal, SIG, condiciones ambientales, expansión, análisis de mapasIn the municipality of Espinal, Tolima, one of the country's main agricultural activities is the cultivation of rice crops. It boasts one of the largest sections of territory with nearly 25,000 hectares cultivated. (Semana Magazine, 2023) Espinal has the three most capable Agro-industrial complexes for drying, storage, and threshing processes. Additionally, the Water Resource Management Center is one of the most important works for the country. It's dedicated to soil characterization research and its proper management, implementing Water Saving and Efficient Use Programs based on climate variables and environmental conditions. For this sector, which has had a 76-year trajectory, it's crucial to consider the implementation of models to determine its expansion over time. Also, the utilization of QGIS geographic information tools is vital to determine growth variables, approached through map analyses and vector data

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray structural studies of a Melan-A pMHC-TCR complex

Melanocytes are specialized pigmented cells that are found in all healthy skin tissue. In certain individuals, diseased melanocytes can form malignant tumours, melanomas, which cause the majority of skin-cancer-related deaths. The melanoma-associated antigenic peptides are presented on cell surfaces via the class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Among the melanoma-associated antigens, the melanoma self-antigen A/melanoma antigen recognized by T cells (Melan-A/MART-1) has attracted attention because of its wide expression in primary and metastatic melanomas. Here, a preliminary X-ray crystal structural study of a soluble cognate T-cell receptor (TCR) in complex with a pMHC presenting the Melan-A peptide (ELAGIGILTV) is reported. The TCR and pMHC were refolded, purified and mixed together to form complexes, which were crystallized using the sitting-drop vapour-diffusion method. Single TCR–pMHC complex crystals were cryocooled and used for data collection. Diffraction data showed that these crystals belonged to space group P4(1)/P4(3), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 120.4, c = 81.6 Å. A complete data set was collected to 3.1 Å and the structure is currently being analysed