Será possível o desenvolvimento organizacional em culturas de poder?

Poder, desenvolvimento organizacional e a variedade de culturas organizacionais, são consideradas em termos de construção e reconstrução da realidade. As possiblidades para O. D. em culturas de poder e em culturas centradas no papel, são descritas como fundamentalmente diferentes. Descreve-se em pormenor um projecto O. D. numa cultura de poder. Argumenta-se a necessidade de compreender melhor a relação entre O poder e O. D., o que envolve necessariamente uma reavaliação do papel do poder em mudança organizacional. Consideram-se as implicações que isto pode ter para a teoria e prática O. D., levantando-se algumas questões aos profissionais de O. D. ------- ABSTRACT ------- Power, organization development and the variety organizational cultures are considered in terms of the construction and reconstruction of reality. Possibilities for OD in power cultures and in role cultures are compared and described as fundamentally different. An attempt to develop an OD project in one power culture is described in detail. It is argued that we need to better understand the relaition between power and 0D, which necessarily involves a radical reassessment of the role of power in organizational change. The implications for the theory and practice of OD are considerd, and some questions for OD practitioners are posed

Voicing Rivers Launch

Theme: Postqualitative Research (Voicing Places): Basic Skills and Good Practic

Living Waters Inquiry

What would it be like to live in a world of sentient beings rather than inert objects? How would we relate to such a world? And if we invoke such a world of sentient presence, calling to more than human beings as persons, might we elicit a response?’ These key questions inform the ‘Living Waters’ inquiry, in which co-inquirers participate in communicative ways with their rivers or wetlands. In this presentation, we provide ‘tasters’ of the ‘Living Waters Inquiry’. We sample panpsychism as a philosophical approach to living places; overview Cooperative Inquiry, meet Gaia thinking and practice; and offer examples of co-researchers hearing places. Please be ready with your questions after the presentation

The simulation of action disorganisation in complex activities of daily living

Action selection in everyday goal-directed tasks of moderate complexity is known to be subject to breakdown following extensive frontal brain injury. A model of action selection in such tasks is presented and used to explore three hypotheses concerning the origins of action disorganisation: that it is a consequence of reduced top-down excitation within a hierarchical action schema network coupled with increased bottom-up triggering of schemas from environmental sources, that it is a more general disturbance of schema activation modelled by excessive noise in the schema network, and that it results from a general disturbance of the triggering of schemas by object representations. Results suggest that the action disorganisation syndrome is best accounted for by a general disturbance to schema activation, while altering the balance between top-down and bottom-up activation provides an account of a related disorder - utilisation behaviour. It is further suggested that ideational apraxia (which may result from lesions to left temporoparietal areas and which has similar behavioural consequences to action disorganisation syndrome on tasks of moderate complexity) is a consequence of a generalised disturbance of the triggering of schemas by object representations. Several predictions regarding differences between action disorganisation syndrome and ideational apraxia that follow from this interpretation are detailed

A globally occurring indel polymorphism in the promoter of the IFNA2 gene is not associated with severity of malaria but with the positivity rate of HCV

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Type I Interferons (IFNs) are well known cytokines which exert antiviral activity, antitumor activity and immunomodulatory effects. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) and deletions in the gene coding for <it>IFNA2 </it>have been shown to influence the level of expression <it>in vitro</it>. The indel polymorphism -305_-300delAACTTT showed the strongest effect <it>in vitro</it>. To analyse the worldwide distribution of this polymorphism we analyzed five different populations (586 Vietnamese, 199 Central Africans, 265 Brazilians, 108 Kaingang and 98 Guarani). To investigate a possible association with susceptibility to infectious diseases we determined the polymorphism in malaria patients suffering either mild or severe malaria and in a cohort of hepatitis C virus infected individuals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We could detect the indel polymorphism in all populations analysed. There was no association with this polymorphism and the outcome of malaria but we found an increase of this indel polymorphism in hepatitis C virus positive individuals compared to healthy controls (p = 0.014).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Polymorphisms in genes involved in the interferon pathway have been implicated in the resistance or susceptibility against cerebral malaria and HBV. Here we show that an indel polymorphism, which mediates a disadvantageous effect in HBV patients, may also play a disadvantageous role in HCV infections stressing the importance of a fully functional interferon pathway.</p

Haplotype specific-sequencing reveals MBL2 association with asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mannose binding lectin (MBL) has an important role in the activation of the complement system and opsonization of pathogenic microorganisms. Frequent polymorphisms found in the <it>MBL2 </it>gene affect the concentration and functionality of the protein and are associated with enhanced susceptibility to severe malaria in African children. Most <it>MBL2 </it>typing strategies were designed to the analysis of selected variants, the significance of whole haplotypes is poorly known. In this work, a new typing strategy was developed and validated in an association analysis of <it>MBL2 </it>with adult asymptomatic infection.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>MBL2 </it>allele-specific fragments of 144 healthy Gabonese adults were amplified by using haplotype-specific sequencing (HSS), a new strategy that combines sequence-specific PCR and sequence-based typing. The Gabonese were investigated for the presence of <it>Plasmodium falciparum </it>parasitaemia by the amplification of parasite genes, immunochromatographic antigen detection and microscopic analysis. HSS results were also compared with a previously used real-time PCR (RT-PCR) method in 72 Euro-Brazilians.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Fourteen polymorphisms were identified beside the commonly investigated promoter (<it>H, L</it>; <it>X, Y</it>; <it>P, Q</it>) and exon 1 (<it>A, O</it>; <it>O </it>= <it>B</it>, <it>C </it>or <it>D</it>) variants. The <it>MBL2*LYPA/LYPA </it>genotype was associated with the absence of asymptomatic infection (P = 0.017), whereas the <it>MBL2*LYQC </it>haplotype and <it>YA/YO </it>+ <it>YO/YO </it>genotypes were associated with positive parasite counts in asymptomatic adults (P = 0.033 and 0.018, respectively). The associations were specific to <it>LYPA </it>(identical to the reference sequence Y16577) and <it>LYQC </it>(Y16578) and would not have been revealed by standard genotyping, as there was no association with <it>LYPA </it>and <it>LYQC </it>haplotypes carrying new polymorphisms defined by sequence-based typing. In contrast, HSS and RT-PCR produced very similar results in the less diverse European-derived population.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this work, a new typing strategy for a highly polymorphic gene was developed and validated focusing on the asymptomatic status of <it>P. falciparum-</it>infected adults. In populations with high nucleotide diversity, it allowed for the identification of associations with fine-scaled haplotypes that would not have been found using common typing techniques. In this preliminary study, <it>MBL2 </it>haplotypes or SNPs linked to them were found associated with susceptibility to infection and parasitaemia control of asymptomatic adults.</p

Phylogenetic nomenclature and evolution of mannose-binding lectin (MBL2) haplotypes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Polymorphisms of the mannose-binding lectin gene (<it>MBL2</it>) affect the concentration and functional efficiency of the protein. We recently used haplotype-specific sequencing to identify 23 <it>MBL2 </it>haplotypes, associated with enhanced susceptibility to several diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this work, we applied the same method in 288 and 470 chromosomes from Gabonese and European adults, respectively, and found three new haplotypes in the last group. We propose a phylogenetic nomenclature to standardize <it>MBL2 </it>studies and found two major phylogenetic branches due to six strongly linked polymorphisms associated with high MBL production. They presented high Fst values and were imbedded in regions with high nucleotide diversity and significant Tajima's D values. Compared to others using small sample sizes and unphased genotypic data, we found differences in haplotyping, frequency estimation, Fu and Li's D* and Fst results.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using extensive testing for selective neutrality, we confirmed that stochastic evolutionary factors have had a major role in shaping this polymorphic gene worldwide.</p

Recreational fish-finders - an inexpensive alternative to scientific echo-sounders for unravelling the links between marine top predators and their prey

Studies investigating how mobile marine predators respond to their prey are limited due to the challenging nature of the environment. While marine top predators are increasingly easy to study thanks to developments in bio-logging technology, typically there is scant information on the distribution and abundance of their prey, largely due to the specialised nature of acquiring this information. We explore the potential of using single-beam recreational fish-finders (RFF) to quantify relative forage fish abundance and draw inferences of the prey distribution at a fine spatial scale. We compared fish school characteristics as inferred from the RFF with that of a calibrated scientific split-beam echo-sounder (SES) by simultaneously operating both systems from the same vessel in Algoa Bay, South Africa. Customized open-source software was developed to extract fish school information from the echo returns of the RFF. For schools insonified by both systems, there was close correspondence between estimates of mean school depth (R 2 = 0.98) and school area (R 2 = 0.70). Estimates of relative school density (mean volume backscattering strength; S v ) measured by the RFF were negatively biased through saturation of this system given its smaller dynamic range. A correction factor applied to the RFF-derived density estimates improved the comparability between the two systems. Relative abundance estimates using all schools from both systems were congruent at scales from 0.5 km to 18 km with a strong positive linear trend in model fit estimates with increasing scale. Although absolute estimates of fish abundance cannot be derived from these systems, they are effective at describing prey school characteristics and have good potential for mapping forage fish distribution and relative abundance. Using such relatively inexpensive systems could greatly enhance our understanding of predator-prey interactions

Coastally Trapped Wind Reversals: Progress toward Understanding

Coastally trapped wind reversals along the U.S. west coast, which are often accompanied by a northward surge of fog or stratus, are an important warm-season forecast problem due to their impact on coastal maritime activities and airport operations. Previous studies identified several possible dynamic mechanisms that could be responsible for producing these events, yet observational and modeling limitations at the time left these competing interpretations open for debate. In an effort to improve our physical understanding, and ultimately the prediction, of these events, the Office of Naval Research sponsored an Accelerated Research Initiative in Coastal Meteorology during the years 1993â 98 to study these and other related coastal meteorological phenomena. This effort included two field programs to study coastally trapped disturbances as well as numerous modeling studies to explore key dynamic mechanisms. This paper describes the various efforts that occurred under this program to provide an advancement in our understanding of these disturbances. While not all issues have been solved, the synoptic and mesoscale aspects of these events are considerably better understood.Most of the authors were supported through the Office of Naval Research Coastal Meteorology Accelerated Research Initiative, one of the authors (WTT) was supported by Program Element 0601153N, Naval Research Laboratory