Implementing an Innovation Project in an Irish Multinational Subsidiary: A Dialogical Action Research Study

This paper presents an action research (AR) study based in APC by Schneider Electric, formerly APC Ireland, an Irish subsidiary of the Schneider Electric Corporation. The two-year study was carried out during a time of significant change in the Irish economy and in the multinational corporation. The research presents the reflections and findings of a dialogical action research study in the manufacturing operations group of the subsidiary. The work tells the story of how the project began, how the AR developed and how it was carried out. The study contributes to the debate for increasing academic–practitioner engagement within a rigorous framework and provides suggestions for further development of this recently proposed variant of action research. Consequently, we conclude that dialogical AR is a promising approach that provides a collaborative and supportive environment to facilitate organisational change and a practitioner’s professional development

Reflections on ‘reflection’ in Action Research

There is wide agreement in the literature that “reflection” is a critical component of any good research, but certainly in the methodology of action research (AR). Despite consensus regarding its importance, this paper argues that there is little practical guidance for management researchers on how to carry out the process of reflection. The work is presented in the context of a case study of innovation in APC Ireland, a subsidiary of the critical power and cooling services division of the Schneider Electric Corporation. The study proposes to make a contribution by providing a questionnaire to assist the process of reflection in the course of AR cycles. The questionnaire provides a structured mechanism to assist both the practitioner and researcher. The instrument was developed from engagement with the psychology literature and it is suggested as a methodological plug-in to Davison et al’s Principles of Canonical Action Research

Antigen stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from Mycobacterium bovis infected cattle yields evidence for a novel gene expression program

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) caused by <it>Mycobacterium bovis </it>continues to cause substantial losses to global agriculture and has significant repercussions for human health. The advent of high throughput genomics has facilitated large scale gene expression analyses that present a novel opportunity for revealing the molecular mechanisms underlying mycobacterial infection. Using this approach, we have previously shown that innate immune genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from BTB-infected animals are repressed <it>in vivo </it>in the absence of exogenous antigen stimulation. In the present study, we hypothesized that the PBMC from BTB-infected cattle would display a distinct gene expression program resulting from exposure to <it>M. bovis</it>. A functional genomics approach was used to examine the immune response of BTB-infected (<it>n </it>= 6) and healthy control (<it>n </it>= 6) cattle to stimulation with bovine tuberculin (purified protein derivative – PPD-b) <it>in vitro</it>. PBMC were harvested before, and at 3 h and 12 h post <it>in vitro </it>stimulation with bovine tuberculin. Gene expression changes were catalogued within each group using a reference hybridization design and a targeted immunospecific cDNA microarray platform (BOTL-5) with 4,800 spot features representing 1,391 genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>250 gene spot features were significantly differentially expressed in BTB-infected animals at 3 h post-stimulation contrasting with only 88 gene spot features in the non-infected control animals (<it>P </it>≤ 0.05). At 12 h post-stimulation, 56 and 80 gene spot features were differentially expressed in both groups respectively. The results provided evidence of a proinflammatory gene expression profile in PBMC from BTB-infected animals in response to antigen stimulation. Furthermore, a common panel of eighteen genes, including transcription factors were significantly expressed in opposite directions in both groups. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that many innate immune genes, including components of the TLR pathway and cytokines were differentially expressed in BTB-infected (<it>n </it>= 8) versus control animals (<it>n </it>= 8) after stimulation with bovine tuberculin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The PBMC from BTB-infected animals exhibit different transcriptional profiles compared with PBMC from healthy control animals in response to <it>M. bovis </it>antigen stimulation, providing evidence of a novel gene expression program due to <it>M. bovis </it>exposure.</p

A General Business Model for Marine Reserves

Marine reserves are an effective tool for protecting biodiversity locally, with potential economic benefits including enhancement of local fisheries, increased tourism, and maintenance of ecosystem services. However, fishing communities often fear short-term income losses associated with closures, and thus may oppose marine reserves. Here we review empirical data and develop bioeconomic models to show that the value of marine reserves (enhanced adjacent fishing + tourism) may often exceed the pre-reserve value, and that economic benefits can offset the costs in as little as five years. These results suggest the need for a new business model for creating and managing reserves, which could pay for themselves and turn a profit for stakeholder groups. Our model could be expanded to include ecosystem services and other benefits, and it provides a general framework to estimate costs and benefits of reserves and to develop such business models

Innate gene repression associated with Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle: toward a gene signature of disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine tuberculosis is an enduring disease of cattle that has significant repercussions for human health. The advent of high-throughput functional genomics technologies has facilitated large-scale analyses of the immune response to this disease that may ultimately lead to novel diagnostics and therapeutic targets. Analysis of mRNA abundance in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from six <it>Mycobacterium bovis </it>infected cattle and six non-infected controls was performed. A targeted immunospecific bovine cDNA microarray with duplicated spot features representing 1,391 genes was used to test the hypothesis that a distinct gene expression profile may exist in <it>M. bovis </it>infected animals <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 378 gene features were differentially expressed at the <it>P </it>≤ 0.05 level in bovine tuberculosis (BTB)-infected and control animals, of which 244 were expressed at lower levels (65%) in the infected group. Lower relative expression of key innate immune genes, including the Toll-like receptor 2 (<it>TLR2</it>) and <it>TLR4 </it>genes, lack of differential expression of indicator adaptive immune gene transcripts (<it>IFNG, IL2, IL4</it>), and lower <it>BOLA </it>major histocompatibility complex – class I (<it>BOLA</it>) and class II (<it>BOLA-DRA</it>) gene expression was consistent with innate immune gene repression in the BTB-infected animals. Supervised hierarchical cluster analysis and class prediction validation identified a panel of 15 genes predictive of disease status and selected gene transcripts were validated (<it>n </it>= 8 per group) by real time quantitative reverse transcription PCR.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that large-scale expression profiling can identify gene signatures of disease in peripheral blood that can be used to classify animals on the basis of <it>in vivo </it>infection, in the absence of exogenous antigenic stimulation.</p

Likes, dislikes, supports and barriers: the experience of students with disabilities in university in Ireland

There are more students with disabilities going to college than ever before. It is important that colleges understand the experiences of students with disabilities when in university. This research project was carried out by 12 students with intellectual disabilities who are enrolled in an Irish university,under the guidance of their lecturers. The project looked at four research questions: (1) what do we like about going to college; (2) what do we dislike about going to college; (3) what supports do students with disabilities experience to participation in college; and (4) what barriers do students withdisabilities experience to participation in college? The results show many interesting findings about what students with disabilities experience in college and this information can be used to help colleges better support students with disabilities

Maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner

Objective Prenatal stress influences fetal developmental trajectories, which may implicate glucocorticoid mechanisms. There is also emerging evidence that effects of prenatal stress on offspring development are sex-dependent. However, little is known about the prospective relationship between maternal prenatal cortisol levels and infant behaviour, and whether it may be different in male and female infants. We sought to address this question using data from a prospective longitudinal cohort, stratified by risk. Method The Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) cohort (n = 1233) included a stratified random sub-sample (n = 216) who provided maternal saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, at home over two days at 32 weeks of pregnancy (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and a measure of infant negative emotionality from the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) at five weeks-of-age. General population estimates of associations among measures were obtained using inverse probability weights. Results Maternal prenatal cortisol sampled on waking predicted infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner (interaction term, p = 0.005); female infants exposed to high levels of prenatal cortisol were more negative (Beta = 0.440, p = 0.042), whereas male infants were less negative (Beta = − 0.407, p = 0.045). There was no effect of the 30-min post-waking measure or evening cortisol. Discussion Our findings add to an emerging body of work that has highlighted sex differences in fetal programming, whereby females become more reactive following prenatal stress, and males less reactive. A more complete understanding of sex-specific developmental trajectories in the context of prenatal stress is essential for the development of targeted prevention strategies

Genome-wide transcriptional profiling of peripheral blood leukocytes from cattle infected with Mycobacterium bovis reveals suppression of host immune genes

Background Mycobacterium bovis is the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (BTB), a pathological infection with significant economic impact. Recent studies have highlighted the role of functional genomics to better understand the molecular mechanisms governing the host immune response to M. bovis infection. Furthermore, these studies may enable the identification of novel transcriptional markers of BTB that can augment current diagnostic tests and surveillance programmes. In the present study, we have analysed the transcriptome of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from eight M. bovis-infected and eight control non-infected age-matched and sex-matched Holstein-Friesian cattle using the Affymetrix® GeneChip® Bovine Genome Array with 24,072 gene probe sets representing more than 23,000 gene transcripts. Results Control and infected animals had similar mean white blood cell counts. However, the mean number of lymphocytes was significantly increased in the infected group relative to the control group (P = 0.001), while the mean number of monocytes was significantly decreased in the BTB group (P = 0.002). Hierarchical clustering analysis using gene expression data from all 5,388 detectable mRNA transcripts unambiguously partitioned the animals according to their disease status. In total, 2,960 gene transcripts were differentially expressed (DE) between the infected and control animal groups (adjusted P-value threshold ≤ 0.05); with the number of gene transcripts showing decreased relative expression (1,563) exceeding those displaying increased relative expression (1,397). Systems analysis using the Ingenuity® Systems Pathway Analysis (IPA) Knowledge Base revealed an over-representation of DE genes involved in the immune response functional category. More specifically, 64.5% of genes in the affects immune response subcategory displayed decreased relative expression levels in the infected animals compared to the control group. Conclusions This study demonstrates that genome-wide transcriptional profiling of PBL can distinguish active M. bovis-infected animals from control non-infected animals. Furthermore, the results obtained support previous investigations demonstrating that mycobacterial infection is associated with host transcriptional suppression. These data support the use of transcriptomic technologies to enable the identification of robust, reliable transcriptional markers of active M. bovis infection.This work was supported by Investigator Grants from Science Foundation Ireland (Nos: SFI/01/F.1/B028 and SFI/08/IN.1/B2038), a Research Stimulus Grant from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (No: RSF 06 405) and a European Union Framework 7 Project Grant (No: KBBE-211602-MACROSYS). KEK is supported by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET) funded Bioinformatics and Systems Biology PhD Programme http://bioinfo-casl.ucd.ie/PhD

Building a dolmen: an ISD approach to the management of innovation

This paper addresses a ¿challenge in practice¿ by describing the initial stage of an information systems development (ISD) project to support the management of innovation within a subsidiary of APC-MGE. To begin with, a review is presented of relevant literature on the management of innovation and on information systems development. The background of the case study is outlined and the advantages of a dialogical action research approach to ISD are discussed. Then the development of a conceptual model using the organizational analysis approach of Multiview2 is described. The work proposes to make a contribution in a number of areas. Firstly it provides empirical evidence of the role of innovation in an organizational transformation and the challenge of designing an information system to support this objective. Secondly it presents an example of using dialogical action research, recently introduced to the MIS discipline by Mårtensson & Lee, to develop an information system. Future work will involve tracking the implementation of the concept in order to evaluate its impact on the organization