The evolution of a learning organization: the evaluation of corporate learning groups in a knowledge management effort

There exists considerable interest in the development of successful knowledge management program initiatives across every industry. This research aims to improve the overall discipline of knowledge management within the context of a corporate environment, so that competitive advantages can be realized from cultivating and sharing tacit knowledge routinely among a company\u27s employees. The analysis of a well-resourced knowledge management program will allow guidelines to be developed to prescribe successful future knowledge management programs. Prior studies may have missed the human factors elements related to how employees learn and build knowledge in the workplace. Specifically, the learning group (LG) portion of this company\u27s knowledge management program was studied to understand if this tool made advancements in the human behavior change needed for a successful knowledge management effort. Three main research questions focused on the communication, support, and evidence of successful collaboration were studied through a qualitative evaluation. LG focus, maturity, and connection to the business processes were considered. This provided evidence of patterns in the infrastructure, scope of the effort, focus of curriculum and workflows that were considered in the LG establishment. For technological companies, LGs are a good vehicle to augment knowledge management efforts. These drive awareness of the effort, help produce content, and establish an atmosphere of collaboration for ongoing professional development and education. The LGs are a compulsory tool to take an organization through the change management needed to generate and utilize the appropriate content of a knowledge management system. Leadership style is a key factor to evolve into a learning organization. A strong organization centric leader seems to provide the interconnectivity to the overarching knowledge management effort. Strategies that connect the LGs to the knowledge database provided a catalyst to change the standard behavior with how information about tacit knowledge was stored/shared. This provided awareness to begin using the knowledge management database as a resource. The LGs are the people based infrastructure required to break down the barriers of collaboration in a corporate setting. The human and social aspects are the most important considerations to address for organizations trying to evolve into learning organizations for strategic benefit

Kwashiorkor in the United States Secondary to a Rice Milk Diet

Kwashiorkor is a Ghanaian word that literally translates into the phrase “the disease of the disposed child.” It is a disease that is classical seen is an infant who was weaned form the breast milk when a new child is born. Kwashiorkor is characterized by symmetric pitting edema that begins in the lower extremities and spreads to the rest of the body as the disease progressively worsens. Other symptoms include hepatomegaly, thin peeling skin with hyperkeratosis, hyperpigmentation and bradycardia with hypotension. The major pathological insult sustained in Kwashiorkor is believed to be a dietary lack of protein. Lack of dietary proteins leads to decrease albumin and lipoprotein synthesis, causing the characteristic signs of edema and fatty liver that are seen in the disease

Linking Health, Place and Healthy Communities

This paper poses the question of what comprises a healthy community. In addressing the question, we explore the common ground lying between the subdiscipline of health geography and the philosophies of health promotion. Building on the ideas of Maori academic Mason Durie, we propose a framework for conceptualising healthy communities. We provide some context to the New Zealand origins of our thinking, then illustrate the essentially integrative character of the framework through offering a case study drawn from our research in New Zealand dealing with suburban parenting. We conclude that the challenge to researchers, planners and policy makers is to find ways to translate the holism of such frameworks from policy into practice. Notwithstanding this challenge, we contend that there is merit in seeking to reaggregate, rather than disaggregate, the diverse influences upon healthy communities

Sensitive SERS nanotags for use with 1550 nm (retina-safe) laser excitation

Chalcogenopyrylium nanotags demonstrate an unprecedented SERS performance with a retina safe, 1550 nm laser excitation. These unique nanotags consisting of chalcogenopyrylium dyes and 100 nm gold nanoparticles produce exceptional SERS signals with picomolar detection limits obtained at this extremely red-shifted and eye-safe laser excitation

Sensitive SERS nanotags for use with a hand-held 1064 nm Raman spectrometer

This is the first report of the use of a hand-held 1064 nm Raman spectrometer combined with red shifted surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanotags to provide an unprecedented performance in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) region. A library consisting of 17 chalcogenopyrylium nanotags produce extraordinary SERS responses with femtomolar detection limits being obtained using the portable instrument. This is well beyond previous SERS detection limits at this far red shifted wavelength and opens up new options for SERS sensors in the SWIR region of the electromagnetic spectrum (between 950-1700 nm)

Associations between the neighbourhood built environment and out of school physical activity and active travel : An examination from the Kids in the City study

This study's aim was to examine selected objectively-measured and child specific built environment attributes in relation to proportion of out-of-school time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (%MVPA) and active travel in a group of ethnically and socio-economically diverse children (n=236) living in Auckland, New Zealand. Street connectivity and distance to school were related to the proportion of trips made by active modes. Ratio of high speed to low speed roads and improved streetscape for active travel were related to %MVPA on weekdays only. Inconsistent results were found for destination accessibility. Local destinations (particularly schools) along a safe street network may be important for encouraging children's activity behaviours

Correction: Surface enhanced Raman scattering for the multiplexed detection of pathogenic microorganisms: towards point-of-use applications

Correction for 'Surface enhanced Raman scattering for the multiplexed detection of pathogenic microorganisms: towards point-of-use applications' by Matthew E. Berry et al., Analyst, 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D1AN00865J

Heritage, health and place:The legacies of local community-based heritage conservation on social wellbeing

Geographies of health challenge researchers to attend to the positive effects of occupying, creating and using all kinds of spaces, including 'green space' and more recently 'blue space'. Attention to the spaces of community-based heritage conservation has largely gone unexplored within the health geography literature. This paper examines the personal motivations and impacts associated with people's growing interest in local heritage groups. It draws on questionnaires and interviews from a recent study with such groups and a conceptual mapping of their routes and flows. The findings reveal a rich array of positive benefits on the participants' social wellbeing with/in the community. These include personal enrichment, social learning, satisfaction from sharing the heritage products with others, and less anxiety about the present. These positive effects were tempered by needing to face and overcome challenging effects associated with running the projects thus opening up an extension to health-enabling spaces debates

Effect of glycine on aggregation of citrate-functionalised gold nanoparticles and SERS measurements

Surface enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) can be used as a novel way of probing local liquid composition and structure at solid-liquid interfaces. This is particularly important for understanding the mechanism of heterogeneous nucleation from solution, where solutes are present at relatively high concentrations. To obtain information about the solution composition and structure near a gold nanoparticle (AuNP) surface, which facilitates SERS, it is thus necessary to understand the role of the analyte in AuNP aggregation, and its effect on the SERS signal and the Raman signal from the bulk. We have used dynamic light scattering and UV-Vis spectroscopy to investigate how glycine influences the aggregation of citrate-functionalised gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and thus the SERS response, in glycine aqueous solutions. At pH 4 the AuNP suspensions in aqueous solutions (without glycine) did not aggregate due to the electrostatic stabilisation by negatively charged citrate functional groups. However, the addition of glycine promoted aggregation of the AuNPs, concomitantly increasing the strength of the SERS signal. Under these conditions glycine is zwitterionic, and its effect on the colloidal stability of AuNPs is most likely due to its association with citrate, affecting its charge state, resulting in reduction of the electrostatic stabilisation of the AuNPs. Using SERS as a solid-liquid interface probe provides a window into an interplay of interfacial and colloidal phenomena in the AuNP suspensions

Organoimido-Polyoxometalate Nonlinear Optical Chromophores: A Structural, Spectroscopic, and Computational Study

Ten organoimido polyoxometalate (POM) based chromophores have been synthesized and studied by hyperRayleigh Scattering (HRS), Stark and Resonance Raman spectroscopies and DFT calculations. HRS β0 values for chromophores with resonance electron donors are significant (up to 139 × 10-30 esu, ca. 5 × that of the DAS+ cation), but systems with no donor, or the –NO2 acceptor show no activity, in some cases despite large DFT-predicted β-values. In active systems with short (phenyl) π-bridges, β0-values comfortably exceed that of the purely organic structural analogue N,N-dimethyl-4-nitroaniline (DMPNA), and intrinsic β-values, β0/N3/2 (N = number of bridge π-electrons) thus appear to break empirical performance limits (β0/N3/2 vs λmax) for planar organic systems. However, β0-values obtained for extended systems with a diphenylacetylene bridge are comparable to or lower than that of their nitro analogue N,N-dimethyl-4-[(4-nitrophenyl)ethynyl]-aniline (DMNPEA). Resonance Raman spectroscopy confirms involvement of the POM in the electronic transitions whether donor groups are present or not, but Stark spectroscopy indicates that in their absence the transitions have little dipolar character (hence NLO inactive), consistent with DFT-calculated frontier orbitals which extend over both POM and organic group. Stark and DFT also suggest that β is enhanced in the short compounds because extension of charge transfer (CT) onto the POM increases excited state dipole moment changes. With extended π-systems this effect does not increase CT distances relative to a –NO2 acceptor, so β0-values do not exceed that of DMNPEA. Overall, our results show that: (i) the organoimido–POM unit is an efficient acceptor for 2nd order NLO, but an ineffective donor; (ii) the nature of electronic transitions in arylimido-POMs is strongly influenced by the substituents of the aryl group; and (iii) organoimido-POMs outperform organic acceptors with short π-bridges, but lose their advantage with extended π-conjugation