Understanding collaborative governance and leadership

Purpose: to critically examine the strategic role of ‘collaboration’ in enabling good governance and effective leadership in the UK third sector. In order to achieve this research aim/purpose, the following research question was constructed: RQ – What are the essential characteristics of collaborative governance and leadership effectiveness for UK third sector organisations? As this research progressed, the RQ became supported by two interconnected propositions, notably: Proposition 1 – collaborative thinking is now essential for (intra-and-inter) organisational governance within the UK third sector, and; Proposition 2 – third sector leaders should recognise the need to cooperate further for improved governance and shared leadership effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach: the research question was investigated using an interpretive-qualitative research design and methodology. The research design involved three interlinked field-work stages. Stage 1 consisted of a three-hour exploratory focus group discussion, involving eight leading UK third sector organisations, hosted at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU). Stage 2 followed-up via eleven separate (face-to-face) semi-structured interviews, involving senior third sector leader-managers in the (UK) South East. These interviews helped to develop key thesis ideas, linking collaborative governance and leadership approaches with the two supporting propositions (outlined above). Stage 3 finished off by comparing two organisational case studies, thus helping to triangulate initial interpretations and propositional ideas within different third sector research settings. The first third sector organisational case study involved four semi-structured interviews with social enterprise stakeholders (i.e. both senior leaders and employees from the same social enterprise); the second included five telephone interviews with trustees from the same volunteer run charity. Findings/Discussion: a new conceptual grid/framework was developed, depicting the complexities involved in realising collaborative governance and shared leadership strategies in the UK third sector. Specifically, the grid conceptualises 4 different types/categories of third sector organisation, relative to their governance circumstances and leadership style, ranging from: (a) new entrants (novices); (b) founders syndrome (individualised identity); (c) hybridised (multi-agency), and; (d) quasi-autonomous (reformed public sector/traditional). A critique of each quadrant was developed, along with analyses of emerging collaborative governance and leadership themes. Whilst there is an abundance of standalone governance and leadership research pertaining the third sector, this PhD study contributes by investigating their theoretical interdependence. Originality/Value: this PhD thesis contributes to the existing body of third sector leadership and management knowledge by contributing fresh insight into the complexities of (intra-and-inter) organisational governance and leadership effectiveness. In particular, the relatively unexplored, yet combined terrains of good governance, collaborative governance and shared leadership offers interesting lenses for theoretical discussion(s) among UK third sector scholars, policy-makers and practitioners

Input window size and neural network predictors

Neural network approaches to time series prediction are briefly discussed, and the need to specify an appropriately sized input window identified. Relevant theoretical results from dynamic systems theory are briefly introduced, and heuristics for finding the correct embedding dimension, and hence window size, are discussed. The method is applied to two time series and the resulting generalisation performance of the trained feedforward neural network predictors is analysed. It is shown that the heuristics can provide useful information in defining the appropriate network architectur

Development and analysis of trapped field magnets in electromechanical devices

High temperature superconducting trapped field magnets (TFM) offer great potential as an alternative to 2>d generation YBCO wire, both in cost and performance. Attention is given to the calculation of current distribution within YBCO disks at partial and full activation and comparing this to experimental values. The best results are obtained by treating the current as a sequence of nested current rings. The fields are computed by integrating the elliptic integrals representing the fields from these rings and using variable metric optimization to choose the ring radii to best match the activation field over the on-activated material. A technique for treating the sub-regions of the TFM as voltage fed coils appears most expeditious for computing forces.Center for Electromechanic

Global and Feature Based Gender Classification of Faces: A Comparison of Human Performance and Computational Models

Original paper can be found at: http://eproceedings.worldscinet.com/9789812701886/9789812701886_0036.html Copyright World Scientific Publishing Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/9789812701886_0036Most computational models for gender classification use global information (the full face image) giving equal weight to the whole face area irrespective of the importance of the internal features. Here, we use a global and feature based representation of face images that includes both global and featural information. We use dimensionality reduction techniques and a support vector machine classifier and show that this method performs better than either global or feature based representations alone.Peer reviewe

High Performance Associative Memories and Structured Weight Dilution

Copyright SpringerThe consequences of two techniques for symmetrically diluting the weights of the standard Hopfield architecture associative memory model, trained using a non-Hebbian learning rule, are examined. This paper reports experimental investigations into the effect of dilution on factors such as: pattern stability and attractor performance. It is concluded that these networks maintain a reasonable level of performance at fairly high dilution rates

A neural network model of visual object recognition impairment after brain damage

Dysfunction of the visual object recognition system in humans is briefly discussed and a basic connectionist model of visual object recognition is introduced. Experimentation in which two variants of this model are lesioned is undertaken. The results suggest that the well documented phenomenon of superordinate preservation is model independent. Differential category specific recognition deficits are also observed in this model, however these are sensitive to each particular variant

A systematic review of genes involved in the inverse resistance relationship between cisplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy: role of BRCA1

A systematic review of cell models of acquired drug resistance not involving genetic manipulation showed that 80% of cell models had an inverse resistance relationship between cisplatin and paclitaxel. Here we systematically review genetically modified cell lines in which the inverse cisplatin/paclitaxel resistance phenotype has resulted. This will form a short list of genes which may play a role in the mechanism of the inverse resistance relationship as well as act as potential markers for monitoring the development of resistance in the clinical treatment of cancer. The literature search revealed 91 genetically modified cell lines which report toxicity or viability/apoptosis data for cisplatin and paclitaxel relative to their parental cell lines. This resulted in 26 genes being associated with the inverse cisplatin/paclitaxel phenotype. The gene with the highest number of genetically modified cell lines associated with the inverse resistance relationship was BRCA1 and this gene is discussed in detail with reference to chemotherapy response in cell lines and in the clinical treatment of breast, ovarian and lung cancer. Other genes associated with the inverse resistance phenotype included dihydrodiol dehydrogenase (DDH) and P-glycoprotein. Genes which caused cross resistance or cross sensitivity between cisplatin and paclitaxel were also examined, the majority of these genes were apoptosis associated genes which may be useful for predicting cross resistance. We propose that BRCA1 should be the first of a panel of cellular markers to predict the inverse cisplatin/paclitaxel resistance phenotype

ERCC1 expression and RAD51B activity correlate with cell cycle response to platinum drug treatment not DNA repair

Background: The H69CIS200 and H69OX400 cell lines are novel models of low-level platinum-drug resistance. Resistance was not associated with increased cellular glutathione or decreased accumulation of platinum, rather the resistant cell lines have a cell cycle alteration allowing them to rapidly proliferate post drug treatment. Results: A decrease in ERCC1 protein expression and an increase in RAD51B foci activity was observed in association with the platinum induced cell cycle arrest but these changes did not correlate with resistance or altered DNA repair capacity. The H69 cells and resistant cell lines have a p53 mutation and consequently decrease expression of p21 in response to platinum drug treatment, promoting progression of the cell cycle instead of increasing p21 to maintain the arrest. Conclusion: Decreased ERCC1 protein and increased RAD51B foci may in part be mediating the maintenance of the cell cycle arrest in the sensitive cells. Resistance in the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 cells may therefore involve the regulation of ERCC1 and RAD51B independent of their roles in DNA repair. The novel mechanism of platinum resistance in the H69CIS200 and H69OX400 cells demonstrates the multifactorial nature of platinum resistance which can occur independently of alterations in DNA repair capacity and changes in ERCC1