Exploring inter-departmental barriers between production and quality

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of adopting an organizational ecological perspective to explore behavioural barriers in a UK operations & production management (OPM) setting. Design/methodology/approach – An ethnographic case study approach was adopted with a narrative ecological stance to deconstruct the perceived realities and the origins of the inter‐departmental barriers applying Scott‐Morgan's unwritten rules methodology. Findings – Despite an improvement in the physical proximity of the production and quality control departments, the qualitative approach revealed that latent, socially constructed drivers around management, interaction and communication reinforced inter‐departmental barriers. Conflicting enablers were ultimately responsible derived from the organizational structure, which impacted the firm's production resources. Research limitations/implications – As a case study approach, the specificity of the findings to this OPM setting should be explored further. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates the use of theoretical frameworks in a production and manufacturing organization to provide insights for maximising process effectiveness. Using the organizational ecological perspective to uncover the socially constructed unwritten rules of the OPM setting beneficially impacted on operational effectiveness. Originality/value – The paper contributes to organization ethnography literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis of manufacturing and services behaviour using an organizational ecology perspective. The example demonstrates that “qualitative” research can have real world impact in an advanced operational context. It also contributes to an ecological or complex adaptive systems view of organizations and, inter alia, their supply chains

Re-engineering unwritten rules: an ethnographic study of an intra-organizational ecology

We discuss a behavioural study into the departmental barriers uncovered by qualitative research in ‘Medico’, the UK subsidiary of a market-leading, global supplier of products and services for medical devices for whom sophisticated operations and supply chain management is paramount. An ethnographic investigation of Medico’s production operations, informed by an ontologically realist, narrative ecology, perspective, revealed, and appeared to explain, socially constructed, and emergent rather than intended, inter-departmental barriers. The research revealed latent drivers for production improvement that Medico’s vice-president was able to act on significantly increasing the company’s key measure of operational effectiveness. The example demonstrates that ‘qualitative’ research can have real world impact in an advanced operational context. It also contributes to an ecological or complex adaptive systems, view of organizations and, inter alia, their supply chains. Keywords: unwritten rules, memes, applied ethnography, organizational ecology, silos, throughput improvement

The Development of Cai Programs for Teaching Music Fundamentals to Undergraduate Elementary Education Music Methods Classes.

The purpose of this project was to develop a sequence of computer-assisted instruction programs in the area of music fundamentals designed for the non-music major in an elementary music methods class. First, the sequence of concepts was defined; secondly, specific programs needed to enhance the understanding of the concepts were defined. A Xitan Z-80 microcomputer, with 32 K and cassette bulk storage, Hitachi 12-inch CRT video monitor, and an ASCII keyboard were the hardware employed in programming. System software included BASIC and assembly language. Programs were then tested for accuracy and logic by sample runs, often revised, and finally stored on magnetic tape. The musical abilities and knowledge of music fundamentals possessed by elementary education majors upon entering a music methods class are varied. A few students are musically literate, but most have limited or little background in the rudiments of music. For the majority of the students, repetitions in practice with fundamentals, such as scales and key signatures, are necessary. Time spent on these numerous drills, often boring to the musically talented student, could be more efficiently used in musical activities. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has been utilized in many fields of education to solve the repetition drill problem. Drill-and-practice computer programs have been found to be successful in helping students meet their individual needs. The individualized instruction, along with immediate feedback and increased student motivation have been positive learning tools. In constructing CAI materials, an attribute surfaced for the educator enhancing the learning experience for the student: the educator had to rethink and reformulate the educational practice and specify the conditions of learning in a precise manner. Rhythm, melody, harmony, and terminology were the four major subdivisions of music theory chosen for development. Most programs are random, give a score following each run, are in a question and answer format, and some use graphics. The programs constructed are as follows: Rhythm--Fill in the missing note in various meters, rhythm values and equivalents, concepts of rhythm, syncopation, and rhythm syllables. Melody. Pitch Notation--Pitch names (treble clef, bass clef, grand staff, and keyboard), half and whole steps and enharmonic pitches. Key signatures--Major, minor, and major and minor combined: sharps, flats, sharps and flats combined (name the key, how many sharps or flats, name the sharps or flats in order {easy and difficult versions}). Scales--Major (sharps, flats, sharps and flats combined {easy and difficult versions}), natural minor (sharps, flats, and sharps and flats combined {easy and difficult versions}), harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Harmony--Intervals, major and minor thirds, major and minor chords, primary chords (I, IV, and V(\u277)). Terminology--Randomly and non-randomly sequenced question and answer format questions. Music educators should become aware of the current state of technology in CAI and also of the studies on the subject of CAI in music. Those musicians already engaged in research and programming should conduct accurate statistical studies involving a large population. Some projects have been documented and reported, but many more statistical studies are needed to fully document CAI\u27s benefits to students, as well as to discover and report its disadvantages and misconceptions

Development of a Faculty Learning Community to support Scholarship and Feedback

In an effort to explore the ideas of Scholarship of Learning and Teaching, and to comply with Glasgow’s University’s career development programme, a small group of academics from the College of Medicine, Veterinary and Life Sciences established a Learning Community. The LC has several aims: • To create and design a Learning Community to support scholarship and progression for lecturers on learning & teaching track • To understand how a Learning Community can be used to support staff on career development pathways • To empower participants to engage in the University’s career development programme through peer support and peer mentorship within the Learning Community • provide practical support for scholarship projects (it is hoped that all members will be supported to drive their scholarship ‘from idea to manuscript’) It is hoped that through the sharing of ideas, and collaboration between schools, the LC hope to publish and disseminate scholarship, and provide a series of recommendations regarding scholarship support. Planned scholarship outputs include papers in educational journals, conference abstracts and presentations, and a significant ambition to influence policy within the university regarding scholarship and career development

Engaging the already engaged, or letting people into politics? experts respond to Ed Miliband’s proposal for a ‘Public PMQs’

Ed Miliband recently announced his desire for a new kind of Prime Ministers Questions, in which members of the public were invited to put the PM under scrutiny. Democratic Audit asked experts to respond to the proposal, with a seeming consensus that the idea isn’t necessarily a bad one, but doesn’t particularly amount to much of a change

Polyandry in nature: a global analysis

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordA popular notion in sexual selection is that females are polyandrous and their offspring are commonly sired by more than a single male. We now have large-scale evidence from natural populations to be able to verify this assumption. Although we concur that polyandry is a generally common and ubiquitous phenomenon, we emphasise that it remains variable. In particular, the persistence of single paternity, both within and between populations, requires more careful consideration. We also explore an intriguing relation of polyandry with latitude. Several recent large-scale analyses of the relations between key population fitness variables, such as heterozygosity, effective population size (Ne), and inbreeding coefficients, make it possible to examine the global effects of polyandry on population fitness for the first time.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC

Patient reported burden of asthma on resource use and productivity across 11 countries in europe

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sponsorship for this study and article processing charges were funded by Mundipharma International Limited (Cambridge, UK). All named authors meet the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) criteria for authorship of this manuscript, take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, and have given final approval to the version to be published. We thank Emily Taylor, Incite Marketing Planning Limited (London, UK) for assistance in data analysis and Caoimhe McKerr (Adelphi Values, Bollington, UK) for editorial assistance. Support for this assistance was funded by Mundipharma International Limited. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Candida CYP52: Alkane and fatty acid metabolism.

Cytochromes P450 are a superfamily of haem-thiolate proteins found in all kingdoms of life. To date 11294 enzymes have been identified and have been shown to be involved in the metabolism of a wide variety of substrates, including hydrocarbons and xenobiotics. In yeast and fungi the hydroxylation of alkanes is associated with a family of cytochromes P450 enzymes known as CYP52s. These enzymes are involved in the terminal hydroxylation of long-chain alkanes resulting in the production of alcohols, which can be further converted to form fatty acids and diacids. In vivo such hydrocarbons can be subjected to beta-oxidation for use in growth. Alternatively, the products formed by CYP52 catalysed hydroxylation in vitro can be used in biotechnological applications. They can be used as platform chemicals in the production of a number of industrial products, including plastics, fragrances and antibiotics. The p-oxidation of fatty acids has been less well documented for Candida albicans than for other Candida species, therefore it was the aim of this study to investigate a) did cytochromes P450 exist in C. albicans that could possibly fulfil this function and b) to definitively assign function to a single cytochrome P450. Using a bioinformatic approach, five putative CYP52s were identified in C. albicans. Of these CYP52s, Alk1 was shown to have the greatest homology to the archetypal alkane-assimilating CYP52, CYP52A3 from C. maltosa. ALK1 heterologous gene expression in the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae allowed growth on hexadecane (C16:0) as the sole carbon source. This showed for the first time that Alk1 is involved in the hydroxylation of long-chain alkanes as normally S. cerevisiae is unable to utilise alkanes for growth. This study has also shown that Alk1 is able to interact with sterol substrates suggesting a possible role for CYP52s in sterol metabolism, which was previously unknown