Blending practice worlds: Impact assessment as a transdisciplinary practice

Organisations with explicit social missions such as social enterprises, impact investors, nonprofits, and foundations are under increasing pressure to illustrate their impact on the social problems they claim to be addressing. These trends have resulted in an increasing sophistication of attempts to measure and report social impact across sectors. Despite the emerging literature on impact assessment, there is little research on how the growing emphasis on, and drive for, impact assessment is experienced in everyday organisational activities. This paper draws on practice theory to understand the purposes of impact assessment and how it influences, and is enacted in, everyday organisational activities. A multiple case design studies the purpose of impact assessment through qualitative interviews with over 90 practitioners within the Australian and United Kingdom impact investment ecosystems. The findings suggest that impact assessment should be understood as a transdisciplinary practice evolving from, and blending together with, multiple practice worlds such as strategy, accounting, marketing, and organisational learning. The main contributions of the paper are the development of the concept of impact assessment as a transdisciplinary practice and an empirical understanding of how impact assessment links to, and blends with, diverse practice worlds

Why Social Enterprises Resist or Collectively Improve Impact Assessment: The Role of Prior Organizational Experience and “Impact Lock-In”

This article examines how organizational experience influences social enterprise responses to impact assessment practices. Limited attention has been paid to why organizations resist or challenge impact assessment practices or how prior experience with impact assessment may shape organizational responses. The study draws on interviews with practitioners involved in social enterprise–impact investor dyads in Australia and the United Kingdom. The findings reveal that social enterprises enact either combative or collaborative responses in their relationships with impact investors based on past experiences with impact assessment. The study shows how more experienced social enterprises reach a state of impact lock-in—where they become committed to particular approaches to understanding, measuring, and reporting impact. The article contributes to the literature on impact assessment and impact investment by showing how organizational experience shapes divergent reactions to the demands imposed by impact investors, creating complementary forces of institutionalization and contestation of impact assessment practice. </jats:p

Viewing entrepreneurship “in motion”: Exploring current uses and future possibilities of video-based entrepreneurship research

Video research methods provide a powerful yet accessible way for researchers to observe and theorize entrepreneurial phenomena by analyzing entrepreneurship “in motion.” Despite the growing uptake of video data in entrepreneurship research, there is no available overview or analysis of current uses of video research methods, which makes it difficult for interested researchers to grasp its value and possibilities. Our systematic review of 142 entrepreneurship research articles published in leading journals reveals three dominant video research methods: (a) videography of entrepreneurship “in the wild” (such as pitching and other naturally occurring practices); (b) video content analysis using entrepreneur-generated videos (such as crowdfunding and archival videos); and (c) video elicitation in “manufactured” contexts (such as interviews and focus groups, experiments and interventions). Building on these studies, we put forward a research agenda for video-based entrepreneurship research that capitalizes on the unique affordances of video to understand the interactional, embodied, material, and emotional nature of entrepreneurial practice

Rotary-Wing Aeroelasticity: Current Status and Future Trends

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76177/1/AIAA-9022-592.pd

Transcript analysis reveals a specific HOX signature associated with positional identity of human endothelial cells.

The endothelial cell has a remarkable ability for sub-specialisation, adapted to the needs of a variety of vascular beds. The role of developmental programming versus the tissue contextual environment for this specialization is not well understood. Here we describe a hierarchy of expression of HOX genes associated with endothelial cell origin and location. In initial microarray studies, differential gene expression was examined in two endothelial cell lines: blood derived outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs) and pulmonary artery endothelial cells. This suggested shared and differential patterns of HOX gene expression between the two endothelial lines. For example, this included a cluster on chromosome 2 of HOXD1, HOXD3, HOXD4, HOXD8 and HOXD9 that was expressed at a higher level in BOECs. Quantative PCR confirmed the higher expression of these HOXs in BOECs, a pattern that was shared by a variety of microvascular endothelial cell lines. Subsequently, we analysed publically available microarrays from a variety of adult cell and tissue types using the whole "HOX transcriptome" of all 39 HOX genes. Using hierarchical clustering analysis the HOX transcriptome was able to discriminate endothelial cells from 61 diverse human cell lines of various origins. In a separate publically available microarray dataset of 53 human endothelial cell lines, the HOX transcriptome additionally organized endothelial cells related to their organ or tissue of origin. Human tissue staining for HOXD8 and HOXD9 confirmed endothelial expression and also supported increased microvascular expression of these HOXs. Together these observations suggest a significant involvement of HOX genes in endothelial cell positional identity

Mitral annular disjunction in myxomatous mitral valve disease: a relevant abnormality recognizable by transthoracic echocardiography

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mitral annular disjunction (MAD) consists of an altered spatial relation between the left atrial wall, the attachment of the mitral leaflets, and the top of the left ventricular (LV) free wall, manifested as a wide separation between the atrial wall-mitral valve junction and the top of the LV free wall. Originally described in association with myxomatous mitral valve disease, this abnormality was recently revisited by a surgical group that pointed its relevance for mitral valve reparability. The aims of this study were to investigate the echocardiographic prevalence of mitral annular disjunction in patients with myxomatous mitral valve disease, and to characterize the clinical profile and echocardiographic features of these patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated 38 patients with myxomatous mitral valve disease (mean age 57 ± 15 years; 18 females) and used standard transthoracic echocardiography for measuring the MAD. Mitral annular function, assessed by end-diastolic and end-systolic annular diameters, was compared between patients with and without MAD. We compared the incidence of arrhythmias in a subset of 21 patients studied with 24-hour Holter monitoring.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MAD was present in 21 (55%) patients (mean length: 7.4 ± 8.7 mm), and was more common in women (61% vs 38% in men; p = 0.047). MAD patients more frequently presented chest pain (43% vs 12% in the absence of MAD; p = 0.07). Mitral annular function was significantly impaired in patients with MAD in whom the mitral annular diameter was paradoxically larger in systole than in diastole: the diastolic-to-systolic mitral annular diameter difference was -4,6 ± 4,7 mm in these patients vs 3,4 ± 1,1 mm in those without MAD (p < 0.001). The severity of MAD significantly correlated with the occurrence of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) on Holter monitoring: MAD›8.5 mm was a strong predictor for (NSVT), (area under ROC curve = 0.74 (95% CI, 0.5-0.9); sensitivity 67%, specificity 83%). There were no differences between groups regarding functional class, severity of mitral regurgitation, LV volumes, and LV systolic function.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MAD is a common finding in myxomatous mitral valve disease patients, easily recognizable by transthoracic echocardiography. It is more prevalent in women and often associated with chest pain. MAD significantly disturbs mitral annular function and when severe predicts the occurrence of NSVT.</p