An Exploration of the Metaphors and Images Used to Describe Leadership in Two Different Cultural Contexts

© Copyright © 2020 Randell and Yerbury. This paper is developed from qualitative data exploring the metaphors used to describe women’s leadership in differing cultural contexts. Metaphors are a useful communication tool, allowing us to understand an idea or concept through some other phenomenon. Understandably, studies of metaphor tend to focus on metaphors deriving from the English language and from Western cultures. Our everyday language literature abounds with metaphors that evoke images of the masculine – including of machines, war and fighting, competition, games and sport. Leadership is generally thought of as “a good thing,” as something important, carried out by people with desirable attributes, such as courage and insight, or with attractive personalities and good communication skills. Metaphors used in discussing women’s leadership in many countries may support this approach, but they do so by highlighting the obstacles women face, for example, the glass ceiling, glass cliff, sticky floors, and the labyrinth. This study attempts to break the mold, investigating the understanding of women’s leadership as expressed in metaphors that is contextualized differently across the continents. Taking an interpretive approach, this study seeks to present leadership through the understanding of female leaders involved in the field of education broadly defined, from Rwanda and Bangladesh, who gave accounts of their metaphorical conceptualisation of leadership. Using narrative analysis, these accounts were analyzed to identify and interpret the metaphors emerging from descriptions of leadership experiences. The analysis shows that these leaders used metaphors determined by a dynamic interplay of personal, situational, and cultural factors. Somewhat surprisingly, the metaphors used to present leadership are not always based on a local cultural context, with some explicitly including references to European plants, which could be considered exotic. However, they are not metaphors that fit neatly into the taxonomies recognized in the literature. This study makes an important contribution to the literature on leadership, especially leadership in education. It is one of the few studies focussing on the stories of women from a non-Western background. The pool of case studies presented here is limited, but these metaphors represent thinking tools enabling a scholarly and imaginative understanding of women’s leadership in education

Complements of hypersurfaces, variation maps and minimal models of arrangements

We prove the minimality of the CW-complex structure for complements of hyperplane arrangements in $\mathbb C^n$ by using the theory of Lefschetz pencils and results on the variation maps within a pencil of hyperplanes. This also provides a method to compute the Betti numbers of complements of arrangements via global polar invariants

GRHL2 coordinates regeneration of a polarized mucociliary epithelium from basal stem cells

Pseudostratified airway epithelium of the lung is composed of polarized ciliated and secretory cells maintained by basal stem/progenitor cells. An important question is how lineage choice and differentiation are coordinated with apical–basal polarity and epithelial morphogenesis. Our previous studies indicated a key integrative role for the transcription factor Grainyhead-like 2 (Grhl2). In this study, we present further evidence for this model using conditional gene deletion during the regeneration of airway epithelium and clonal organoid culture. We also use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in primary human basal cells differentiating into organoids and mucociliary epithelium in vitro. Loss of Grhl2 inhibits organoid morphogenesis and the differentiation of ciliated cells and reduces the expression of both notch and ciliogenesis genes ( Mcidas , Rfx2 , and Myb ) with distinct Grhl2 regulatory sites. The genome editing of other putative target genes reveals roles for zinc finger transcription factor Znf750 and small membrane adhesion glycoprotein in promoting ciliogenesis and barrier function as part of a network of genes coordinately regulated by Grhl2

Chamber basis of the Orlik-Solomon algebra and Aomoto complex

We introduce a basis of the Orlik-Solomon algebra labeled by chambers, so called chamber basis. We consider structure constants of the Orlik-Solomon algebra with respect to the chamber basis and prove that these structure constants recover D. Cohen's minimal complex from the Aomoto complex.Comment: 16 page

Self-repair ability of evolved self-assembling systems in cellular automata

Self-repairing systems are those that are able to reconfigure themselves following disruptions to bring them back into a defined normal state. In this paper we explore the self-repair ability of some cellular automata-like systems, which differ from classical cellular automata by the introduction of a local diffusion process inspired by chemical signalling processes in biological development. The update rules in these systems are evolved using genetic programming to self-assemble towards a target pattern. In particular, we demonstrate that once the update rules have been evolved for self-assembly, many of those update rules also provide a self-repair ability without any additional evolutionary process aimed specifically at self-repair

Factors supporting and constraining the implementation of robot-assisted surgery: a realist interview study

YesTo capture stakeholders’ theories concerning how and in what contexts robot-assisted surgery becomes integrated into routine practice. A literature review provided tentative theories that were revised through a realist interview study. Literature-based theories were presented to the interviewees, who were asked to describe to what extent and in what ways those theories reflected their experience. Analysis focused on identifying mechanisms through which robot-assisted surgery becomes integrated into practice and contexts in which those mechanisms are triggered. Nine hospitals in England where robot-assisted surgery is used for colorectal operations. Forty-four theatre staff with experience of robot-assisted colorectal surgery, including surgeons, surgical trainees, theatre nurses, operating department practitioners and anaesthetists. Interviewees emphasised the importance of support from hospital management, team leaders and surgical colleagues. Training together as a team was seen as beneficial, increasing trust in each other’s knowledge and supporting team bonding, in turn leading to improved teamwork. When first introducing robot-assisted surgery, it is beneficial to have a handpicked dedicated robotic team who are able to quickly gain experience and confidence. A suitably sized operating theatre can reduce operation duration and the risk of de-sterilisation. Motivation among team members to persist with robot-assisted surgery can be achieved without involvement in the initial decision to purchase a robot, but training that enables team members to feel confident as they take on the new tasks is essential. We captured accounts of how robot-assisted surgery has been introduced into a range of hospitals. Using a realist approach, we were also able to capture perceptions of the factors that support and constrain the integration of robot-assisted surgery into routine practice. We have translated these into recommendations that can inform future implementations of robot-assisted surgery

Lung development and repair: Contribution of the ciliated lineage

The identity of the endogenous epithelial cells in the adult lung that are responsible for normal turnover and repair after injury is still controversial. In part, this is due to a paucity of highly specific genetic lineage tools to follow efficiently the fate of the major epithelial cell populations: the basal, secretory, ciliated, neuroendocrine, and alveolar cells. As part of a program to address this problem we have used a 1-kb FOXJ1 promoter to drive CreER in the ciliated cells of the embryonic and adult lung. Analysis of FOXJ1-GFP transgenic lungs shows that labeled cells appear in a proximal-distal pattern during embryogenesis and that the promoter drives expression in all ciliated cells. Using FOXJ1CreER adult mice, we have followed the fate of ciliated cells after epithelial injury by naphthalene or sulfur dioxide. From quantitative analysis and confocal microscopy we conclude that ciliated cells transiently change their morphology in response to lung injury but do not proliferate or transdifferentiate as part of the repair process

Applying spatial reasoning to topographical data with a grounded geographical ontology

Grounding an ontology upon geographical data has been pro- posed as a method of handling the vagueness in the domain more effectively. In order to do this, we require methods of reasoning about the spatial relations between the regions within the data. This stage can be computationally expensive, as we require information on the location of points in relation to each other. This paper illustrates how using knowledge about regions allows us to reduce the computation required in an efficient and easy to understand manner. Further, we show how this system can be implemented in co-ordination with segmented data to reason abou

IL-6/STAT3 promotes regeneration of airway ciliated cells from basal stem cells

The airways of the lungs are lined by ciliated and secretory epithelial cells important for mucociliary clearance. When these cells are damaged or lost, they are replaced by the differentiation of basal stem cells. Little is known about how this repair is orchestrated by signaling pathways in the epithelium and underlying stroma. We present evidence using cultured airway cells and genetic manipulation of a mouse model of airway repair that the cytokine IL-6 promotes the differentiation of ciliated vs. secretory cells. This process involves direct Stat3 regulation of genes controlling both cell fate (Notch1) and the differentiation of multiciliated cells (Multicilin and forkhead box protein J1). Moreover, the major producer of IL-6 appears to be mesenchymal cells in the stroma rather than immune cells

Molecular characterization of gene regulatory networks in primary human tracheal and bronchial epithelial cells

Background: Robust methods to culture primary airway epithelial cells were developed several decades ago and these cells provide the model of choice to investigate many diseases of the human lung. However, the molecular signature of cells from different regions of the airway epithelium has not been well characterized. Methods: We utilize DNase-seq and RNA-seq to examine the molecular signatures of primary cells derived from human tracheal and bronchial tissues, as well as healthy and diseased (cystic fibrosis (CF)) donor lung tissue. Results: Our data reveal an airway cell signature that is divergent from other epithelial cell types and from common airway epithelial cell lines. The differences between tracheal and bronchial cells are clearly evident as are common regulatory features. Only minor variation is seen between bronchial cells from healthy or CF donors. Conclusions: These data are a valuable resource for functional genomics analysis of airway epithelial tissues in human disease