The role of law and ethics in developing business management as a profession

Currently, business management is far from being recognised as a profession. This paper suggests that a professional spirit should be developed which could function as a filter of commercial reasoning. Broadly, management will not be organised within the framework of a well-established profession unless formal knowledge, licensing, professional autonomy and professional codes of conduct are developed sufficiently. In developing business management as a profession, law may play a key role. Where the idea is that business management should be more professsionalised, managers must show that they are willing to adopt ethical values, while arriving at business decisions. The paper argues that ethics cannot survive without legal regulation, which, in turn, will not be supported by law unless lawyers can find alternative solutions to the large mechanisms of the official society, secured by the monopolised coercion of the nation state. From a micro perspective of law and business ethics, communities can be developed with their own conventions, rules and standards that are generated and sanctioned within the boundaries of the communities themselves

The slow professor: challenging the culture of speed in the academy, by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber

This paper explores the principles of the Slow Movement to counter work-stress among university and college teachers. We believe that a Slow approach to teaching and learning may be the most effective way to counter the erosion of humanistic education by the corporate ethos of consumerism, efficiency, accountability, and standardisation We explore the principles of Slow not only to counter the consumer model of education but also to foster better teachers and learners. It is well-documented that changes in academic work have created significant stress among academic teachers (Catano, Francis, Haines, Kirpalani, Shannon, Stringer, & Lozanksi, 2007; Miller, Buckholdt & Shaw, 2008), and students (Dabney, 1995; Brown & Ralph 1999; Rowbotham and Julian 2006), but what requires further attention is the link between the corporate reliance on efficiency and the problem of lack of time in learning and teaching. Corporatisation has sped up the clock. The Slow Movement—originating in the Slow Food Movement—has gained recognition as a way to resist both globalization and the frantic pace of contemporary life. While slowness has been lauded in architecture, business, urban life and interpersonal relations, among others, it has yet to be applied to academia. Yet, if there is one sector of society that should be cultivating deep thought in themselves and others it is academic teachers. The consumerism that has taken hold in higher education propels the belief that time is money, resulting in superficial learning (Coté & Allahar, 2011b; Readings, 1996). Perhaps the most damaging effect of corporatisation in the universities is that individual educators feel paralysed in the face of overwhelming odds. Our focus on individuals and their own professional practice is conceived as political resistance to corporatisation

Toxoplasma effectors targeting host signaling and transcription

Early electron microscopy studies revealed the elaborate cellular features that define the unique adaptations of apicomplexan parasites. Among these were bulbous rhoptry (ROP) organelles and small, dense granules (GRAs), both of which are secreted during invasion of host cells. These early morphological studies were followed by the exploration of the cellular contents of these secretory organelles, revealing them to be comprised of highly divergent protein families with few conserved domains or predicted functions. In parallel, studies on host-pathogen interactions identified many host signaling pathways that were mysteriously altered by infection. It was only with the advent of forward and reverse genetic strategies that the connections between individual parasite effectors and the specific host pathways that they targeted finally became clear. The current repertoire of parasite effectors includes ROP kinases and pseudokinases that are secreted during invasion and that block host immune pathways. Similarly, many secretory GRA proteins alter host gene expression by activating host transcription factors, through modification of chromatin, or by inducing small noncoding RNAs. These effectors highlight novel mechanisms by whichhas learned to harness host signaling to favor intracellular survival and will guide future studies designed to uncover the additional complexity of this intricate host-pathogen interaction

Translanguaging and Public Service Encounters: Language Learning in the Library

This article explores the information desk of a city library as a site for language learning. Using a linguistic ethnographic approach, the interactions between a customer experience and information assistant and the many library users who approach her information desk were analysed. Findings are that, in addition to providing information about library resources, information desks are sites at which bits and pieces of different languages are taught and learned. Such language teaching and learning episodes created interactions of inclusion and welcome that went far beyond purely transactional information. Rather, language‐related episodes created moments of human contact and engagement, which were upheld through the translanguaging practices of interactants, the disposition and workplace competence of library staff, and the spatial ecology of the information desk. Furthermore, the article contributes to ongoing theoretical debates about translanguaging by noting that normativity and pressure toward uniformity are as much a part of languaging processes as creativity and flexibility. Our definition of translanguaging recognises the opposing pull of centrifugal and centripetal forces. The article ends by asking what schools, and language education, might learn from public libraries in creating arenas that maintain communitarianism, diversity of expression, and the development of civic skills

Attempting to distinguish between endogenous and contaminating cytokeratins in a corneal proteomic study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The observation of cytokeratins (CK's) in mass spectrometry based studies raises the question of whether the identified CK is a true endogenous protein from the sample or simply represents a contaminant. This issue is especially important in proteomic studies of the corneal epithelium where several CK's have previously been reported to mark the stages of differentiation from corneal epithelial stem cell to the differentiated cell.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here we describe a method to distinguish very likely endogenous from uncertain endogenous CK's in a mass spectrometry based proteomic study. In this study the CK identifications from 102 human corneal samples were compared with the number of human CK identifications found in 102 murine thymic lymphoma samples.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It was anticipated that the CK's that were identified with a frequency of <5%, <it>i.e. </it>in less than one spot for every 20 spots analysed, are very likely to be endogenous and thereby represent a 'biologically significant' identification. CK's observed with a frequency >5% are uncertain endogenous since they may represent true endogenous CK's but the probability of contamination is high and therefore needs careful consideration. This was confirmed by comparison with a study of mouse samples where all identified human CK's are contaminants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CK's 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 23 are very likely to be endogenous proteins if identified in a corneal study, whilst CK's 1, 2e, 5, 6A, 9, 10, 14 and 16 may be endogenous although some are likely to be contaminants in a proteomic study. Further immunohistochemical analysis and a search of the current literature largely supported the distinction.</p

Endocardial Approach for Substrate Ablation in Brugada Syndrome

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in Brugada syndrome (BrS) has been performed by both endocardial and epicardial. The substrate in BrS is not completely understood. We investigate the functional endocardial substrate and its correlation with clinical, electrophysiological and ECG findings in order to guide an endocardial ablation. Two patients agreed to undergo an endocardial biopsy and the samples were examined with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the correlation between functional and ultrastructural alterations. About 13 patients (38.7 ± 12.3 years old) with spontaneous type 1 ECG BrS pattern, inducible VF with programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) and syncope without prodromes were enrolled. Before endocardial mapping, the patients underwent flecainide testing with the purpose of measuring the greatest ST-segment elevation for to be correlated with the size and location of substrate in the electro-anatomic map. Patients underwent endocardial bipolar and electro-anatomic mapping with the purpose of identify areas of abnormal electrograms (EGMs) as target for RFA and determine the location and size of the substrate. When the greatest ST-segment elevation was in the third intercostal space (ICS), the substrate was located upper in the longitudinal plane of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) and a greatest ST-segment elevation in fourth ICS correspond with a location of substrate in lower region of longitudinal plane of RVOT. A QRS complex widening on its initial and final part, with prolonged transmural and regional depolarization time of RVOT corresponded to the substrate located in the anterior-lateral region of RVOT. A QRS complex widening rightwards and only prolonged transmural depolarization time corresponded with a substrate located in the anterior, anterior-septal or septal region of RVOT. RFA of endocardial substrate suppressed the inducibility and ECG BrS pattern during 34.7 ± 15.5 months. After RFA, flecainide testing confirmed elimination of the ECG BrS pattern. Endocardial biopsy showed a correlation between functional and ultrastructural alterations. Endocardial RFA can eliminate the BrS phenotype and inducibility during programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS)

Predictors of post-operative mortality following treatment for non-ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm

The aim of this prospective study of patients undergoing repair of non-ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm between 1999 and 2003 was to evaluate and compare risk factors for mortality after surgery, to determine a complex of informative factors for lethal outcome, and to define patient risk groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed a complex of informative factors, including female gender, previous myocardial infarction, age greater than 75 years, and clinical course of abdominal aortic aneurysm as important indicators for lethal outcome. A risk score model identified low-, moderate- and high-risk groups with mortality rates of 2.9%, 8.0% and 44.4%, respectively

Impact of microvascular disease on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes: Results from the LEADER and SUSTAIN 6 clinical trials

The randomized, double-blind, cardiovascular outcomes trials LEADER (NCT01179048) and SUSTAIN 6 (NCT01720446) showed cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with liraglutide and semaglutide, respectively, compared with placebo. This post hoc analysis examined the impact of microvascular disease at baseline on cardiovascular outcomes in these trials, and the efficacy of liraglutide (1.8 mg) and once-weekly semaglutide (0.5-1.0 mg) in patients with and without microvascular disease. In total, 9340 patients from LEADER and 3297 patients from SUSTAIN 6 were included in this analysis; of these, 5761 and 2356 had a history of microvascular disease at baseline and 3835 and 1640 had a history of both microvascular and macrovascular disease, respectively. Patients with microvascular disease were shown to have an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events compared with patients without microvascular disease (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] in LEADER: 1.15 [1.03; 1.29], P =.0136; SUSTAIN 6: 1.56 [1.14; 2.17], P =.0064). Liraglutide and semaglutide consistently reduced cardiovascular risk in patients with and without microvascular disease