159 research outputs found

    Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: Helping Others Become More Strategic, Conceptual, and Creative: A Cooperative Inquiry

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    How can we be more effective in helping others become more strategic, conceptual, and creative in their thinking? This group was motivated by the realization that as organizers, they could teach organizing, but were not good at getting people to think strategically. Doing cooperative inquiry gave them a space to challenge each other's assumptions about organizing, ask provocative questions and learn from one another. During their inquiry, the group started to change the way they worked in their organizations, trying new methods to engage people, such as story telling, metaphors, and other methods that allowed them to encourage participation and reflective practices. In the words of the group ""a gradual, but profound, shift occurred in our assumptions about developing leaders for our organizations."" Through their inquiry the group began to understand that the key issue is to engage others in the experience of strategic thinking. ""We realized that...in order to help people learn to be more strategic, creative, and conceptual, we would have to be intentional about being more strategic, creative, and conceptual in our relationship with them

    TEEAL and AGORA: Off-and online access to the scientific literature of agriculture for the developing world

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    TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library) and AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) are digital collections of scientific agricultural literature for the developing world. Through both, the agricultural research cycle in the developing world functions more effectively, including in areas where access to the internet is limited, slow, or unreliable, thanks to TEEAL's offline access. This paper discusses the programs' training, outreach, and usage and barriers to it, and the international partnerships that make them possible. Also profiled is the new AgriKnowledge database, which provides access to key unpublished agricultural content, including reports from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's programs and projects

    Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases: An Update on the Classification from the International Union of Immunological Societies Expert Committee for Primary Immunodeficiency

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    We report the updated classification of primary immunodeficiency diseases, compiled by the ad hoc Expert Committee of the International Union of Immunological Societies. As compared to the previous edition, more than 15 novel disease entities have been added in the updated version. For each disorders, the key clinical and laboratory features are provided. This updated classification is meant to help in the diagnostic approach to patients with these diseases

    Efficacy and Safety of a New 20% Immunoglobulin Preparation for Subcutaneous Administration, IgPro20, in Patients With Primary Immunodeficiency

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    Subcutaneous human IgG (SCIG) therapy in primary immunodeficiency (PID) offers sustained IgG levels throughout the dosing cycle and fewer adverse events (AEs) compared to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). A phase I study showed good local tolerability of IgPro20, a new 20% liquid SCIG stabilized with L-proline. A prospective, open-label, multicenter, single-arm, phase III study evaluated the efficacy and safety of IgPro20 in patients with PID over 15 months. Forty-nine patients (5–72 years) previously treated with IVIG received weekly subcutaneous infusions of IgPro20. The mean serum IgG level was 12.5 g/L. No serious bacterial infections were reported. There were 96 nonserious infections (rate 2.76/patient per year). The rate of days missed from work/school was 2.06/patient per year, and the rate of hospitalization was 0.2/patient per year. Ninety-nine percent of AEs were mild or moderate. No serious, IgPro20-related AEs were reported. IgPro20 effectively protected patients with PID against infections and maintained serum IgG levels without causing unexpected AEs

    Meiotic chromosomes and nucleolar behavior in testicular cells of the grassland spittlebugs Deois flavopicta, Mahanarva fimbriolata and Notozulia entreriana (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha)

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    Spittlebugs annually infest pastures and cause severe damage, representing a serious problem for the tropical American beef cattle industry. Spittlebugs are an important biotic constraint to forage production and there is a lack of cytogenetic data for this group of insects. For these reasons, we conducted this work, in which the spermatogenesis and nucleolar behavior of Deois flavopicta, Mahanarva fimbriolata and Notozulia entreriana were studied. The males possessed testes in the shape of a “bunch of grapes”; a variable number of testicular lobes per individual and polyploid nuclei composed of several heteropycnotic bodies. A heteropycnotic area was located in the periphery of the nucleus (prophase I); the chiasmata were terminal or interstitial; metaphases I were circular or linear and anaphase showed late migration of the sex chromosome. The chromosome complement had 2n = 19, except for N. entreriana (2n = 15); the spermatids were round with heteropycnotic material in the center and elongated with conspicuos chromatin. The analysis of testes after silver nitrate staining showed polyploid nuclei with three large and three smaller nucleolar bodies. Early prophase cells had an intensely stained nucleolar body located close to the chromatin and another less evident body located away from the chromatin. The nucleolar bodies disintegrated during diplotene. Silver staining occurred in two autosomes, in terminal and subterminal locations, the latter probably corresponding to the nucleolus organizer regions (NORs). The spermatids were round with a round nucleolar body and silver staining was observed in the medial and posterior region of the elongated part of the spermatid head

    Between Will and Thought: Individualism and Social Responsiveness in Amazonian Child Rearing

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    This essay provides an ethnographic account of how moral dispositions towards independence and social responsiveness are forged during infancy and toddlerhood among the Runa, an indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. I will show how two local concepts, munay (will) and yuyay (thought) shape children’s early experiences of the self and the self in relation to others. In particular, I will argue that, unlike middle class Anglo-Americans who repute paternal responsiveness to be necessary for a “healthy” child development, Runa adults strategically chose not to respond to children’s will in order to make them “thoughtful”. Such state of thoughtfulness, I argue, emerges from socialization practices which stress a child’s unique will while at the same time forcefully encourage the development of social responsiveness

    Disruption of Mitochondrial DNA Replication in Drosophila Increases Mitochondrial Fast Axonal Transport In Vivo

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    Mutations in mitochondrial DNA polymerase (pol γ) cause several progressive human diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alper's syndrome, and progressive external ophthalmoplegia. At the cellular level, disruption of pol γ leads to depletion of mtDNA, disrupts the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and increases susceptibility to oxidative stress. Although recent studies have intensified focus on the role of mtDNA in neuronal diseases, the changes that take place in mitochondrial biogenesis and mitochondrial axonal transport when mtDNA replication is disrupted are unknown. Using high-speed confocal microscopy, electron microscopy and biochemical approaches, we report that mutations in pol γ deplete mtDNA levels and lead to an increase in mitochondrial density in Drosophila proximal nerves and muscles, without a noticeable increase in mitochondrial fragmentation. Furthermore, there is a rise in flux of bidirectional mitochondrial axonal transport, albeit with slower kinesin-based anterograde transport. In contrast, flux of synaptic vesicle precursors was modestly decreased in pol γ−α mutants. Our data indicate that disruption of mtDNA replication does not hinder mitochondrial biogenesis, increases mitochondrial axonal transport, and raises the question of whether high levels of circulating mtDNA-deficient mitochondria are beneficial or deleterious in mtDNA diseases
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