Organisational dystopia : surrealist paintings for critical management studies

This thesis responds to a call to bring humanities into organisation studies. The researcher analyses and interprets contemporary Surrealist paintings for understanding organisational dystopia. While organisational dystopia is not new to the field of Critical Management Studies (CMS), it is a concept enriched by a variety of imaginative stances addressing marginalised or silenced experiences of work life. One such area of imagination is painting. Paintings have historically examined work as a subject of art, yet art has been missed in organisation studies. To address this issue, as well as contribute further to an understanding of organisational dystopia, this thesis presents a case for expanding the field of culture studies in CMS by looking into Surrealism and paintings. This thesis is one of the first of its kind to analyse and interpret paintings in the discipline of organisation studies. The researcher formulates an original framework for examining the contemporary Surrealist paintings by the artist Tetsuya Ishida, who represents the dark, gloomy dystopia of Japanese salarymen. The framework is a system to analyse form (material) and content (meaning), and to interpret paintings. Through this devised framework, paintings are analysed and interpreted in response to two research questions: What are qualities of organisational dystopia? and What are themes of organisational dystopia? The researcher elaborates on organisational dystopia in two ways. First, in the identification of qualities of organisational dystopia, including objectification of labour. Second, in the recognition of themes of organisational dystopia, such as a totalitarian control of private space and complexities of escaping or enduring a dystopia. By addressing organisational dystopia, the researcher presents a warning about the darkness of progress. This research contributes in the two main ways: adding to knowledge on organisational dystopia and arguing that paintings are a valuable method to research design. Thus, this thesis presents a way forward for organisation studies to investigate concepts and criticisms via imagination and art

Monitoring student engagement and learning in a virtual learning environment using badges

A monitoring system embedded into a virtual learning environment (VLE) can assess student progress to ensure no student is left behind. This is significant to support student engagement and learning in a blended transferrable skills and research methods module delivered to over 1,200 students from 15 different postgraduate engineering and business courses at a UK university. Therefore, this short paper addresses the question, “How can a monitoring system for student progress be implemented in the VLE?”, through a reflexive evaluation of a monitoring system that recognises individual student’s weekly progress using a series of badges. A badge is awarded to a student when they have successfully completed or passed a set of required learning activities, and it enables students to self-monitor their progress. As a work in progress, this short paper presents a way to implement a monitoring system using badges in a large class VLE, along with an initial discussion about the challenges for implementing this system and the use of this system to prompt interventions. Further research will advance this short paper by examining the impact of badges to motivate student engagement and learnin

Technical and pedagogical challenges for implementing feedback strategies in a virtual learning environment

Pedagogical developments in the virtual learning environment (VLE) are constrained by technical expertise which impacts the design and delivery of online learning, including the implementation of varied feedback strategies. In recognising this dilemma, the paper addresses the question, “What are the technical and pedagogical challenges of implementing feedback strategies in a VLE?” This short paper presents an initial critical, reflexive account on the challenges to embed and manage feedback strategies, including automatic feedback, peer feedback, and tutor-led feedback, on the VLE of a blended module provided to over 1,200 engineering and business students at a UK university. As a result, the authors recognise the importance of upskilling engineering educators to technically innovate their VLEs to enhance student learning and connections through feedback. Further investigations to evaluate the impact of the varied feedback strategies on student learning will occur at a later stage in order to advance this work in progress

The ‘Engineering First Year’: Step Up To Success

The nuanced nature of engineering as a profession is highlighted in a recent statement by the EPC (2023) in response to the UCAS publication ‘The Future of Undergraduate Admissions’ (2023). Focusing on the value of Personal Statements within the University Selection System, the EPC asks UCAS to provide more practical information to prospective students about the nature of engineering and what prerequisite qualifications are needed to study engineering. Such clarity is particularly important when considering Engineering Degree Apprentices. Starting with the research question “How can the gap between school and university be bridged in engineering education?” the paper critically discusses a project currently being undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of colleagues working together to enhance the student experience. Located in one the UK’s largest Engineering Education Departments, the “Step Up” Project analyses the barriers and drivers to engineering education faced by first-year Degree Apprenticeship students from three distinctive engineering and computing science disciplines. This paper represents a small part of a much larger project where the student experience is being prioritised and high-quality learning and teaching is expected. The paper is built upon the emergent findings of a three focus groups with engineering degree apprentices. Whilst the findings are relevant to all years of study, the recommendations and conclusion highlight the importance of ‘getting the first year right’ and empowering students to ‘step up to success’ in university and in work. This evidences a demand for clearer explanations of the knowledge and skills expected of incoming students

Recurrent, Delayed Hemorrhage Associated with Edoxaban after Deep Brain Stimulation Lead Placement

Factor-Xa inhibitors like edoxaban have been shown to have comparable or superior rates of stroke and systemic embolization prevention to warfarin while exhibiting lower clinically significant bleeding rates. The authors report a case of a man who presented with delayed, recurrent intracranial hemorrhage months after successful deep brain stimulator placement for Parkinson disease while on edoxaban for atrial fibrillation. Further reports on the use of novel anticoagulants after intracranial surgery are acutely needed to help assess the true relative risk they pose

Student wellbeing in the teaching and learning environment : a study exploring student and staff perspectives

Internationally and in the UK universities are facing a crisis of student wellbeing. In this context, it is important to research the impact of the teaching and learning environment and experiences, including the relationships between students and staff, on student wellbeing. While separate pieces of research on students’ wellbeing have addressed student and teacher perspectives on the role of learning experiences, we identified an opportunity to address the perspectives of both students and staff, including non-academics, in the same study. This study advances work on student wellbeing, recognising an interdependency between staff and student wellbeing. It adds to current research in identifying student-centred learning and assessment, intercultural awareness, international integration, and emotional intelligence as enablers of positive student wellbeing. The findings of this research also demonstrate the crucial role of the teacher-student relationship in impacting students’ (and staff) wellbeing and suggest solutions and areas for development that reflect the complexity of the Higher Education environment in which they are located

Characterization of prion protein function by focal neurite stimulation

The cellular prion protein (PrPC), encoded by the PRNP gene, is a ubiquitous glycoprotein, which is highly expressed in the brain. This protein, mainly known for its role in neurodegenerative diseases, is involved in several physiological processes including neurite outgrowth. By using a novel focal stimulation technique, we explored the potential function of PrPC, in its soluble form, as a signaling molecule. Thus, soluble recombinant prion proteins (recPrP) encapsulated in micro-vesicles were released by photolysis near the hippocampal growth cones. Local stimulation of wild-type growth cones with full-length recPrP induced neurite outgrowth and rapid growth cone turning towards the source. This effect was shown to be concentration dependent. Notably, PrPC-knockout growth cones were insensitive to recPrP stimulation, but this property was rescued in PrPknockout growth cones expressing GFP-PrP. Taken together, our findings indicate that recPrP functions as a signaling molecule, and that its homophilic interaction with membrane-anchored PrPC might promote neurite outgrowth and facilitate growth cone guidance. \ua9 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd

The Evolution of Primate Short-Term Memory.

Short-term memory is implicated in a range of cognitive abilities and is critical for understanding primate cognitive evolution. To investigate the effects of phylogeny, ecology and sociality on short-term memory, we tested the largest and most diverse primate sample to date (421 non-human primates across 41 species) in an experimental delayed-response task. Our results confirm previous findings that longer delays decrease memory performance across species and taxa. Our analyses demonstrate a considerable contribution of phylogeny over ecological and social factors on the distribution of short-term memory performance in primates; closely related species had more similar short-term memory abilities. Overall, individuals in the branch of Hominoidea performed better compared to Cercopithecoidea, who in turn performed above Platyrrhini and Strepsirrhini. Interdependencies between phylogeny and socioecology of a given species presented an obstacle to disentangling the effects of each of these factors on the evolution of short-term memory capacity. However, this study offers an important step forward in understanding the interspecies and individual variation in short-term memory ability by providing the first phylogenetic reconstruction of this trait’s evolutionary history. The dataset constitutes a unique resource for studying the evolution of primate cognition and the role of short-term memory in other cognitive abilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Evolution of Primate Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory is implicated in a range of cognitive abilities and is critical for understanding primate cognitive evolution. To investigate the effects of phylogeny, ecology and sociality on short-term memory, we tested the largest and most diverse primate sample to date (421 non-human primates across 41 species) in an experimental delayed-response task. Our results confirm previous findings that longer delays decrease memory performance across species and taxa. Our analyses demonstrate a considerable contribution of phylogeny over ecological and social factors on the distribution of short-term memory performance in primates; closely related species had more similar short-term memory abilities. Overall, individuals in the branch of Hominoidea performed better compared to Cercopithecoidea, who in turn performed above Platyrrhini and Strepsirrhini. Interdependencies between phylogeny and socioecology of a given species presented an obstacle to disentangling the effects of each of these factors on the evolution of short-term memory capacity. However, this study offers an important step forward in understanding the interspecies and individual variation in short-term memory ability by providing the first phylogenetic reconstruction of this trait’s evolutionary history. The dataset constitutes a unique resource for studying the evolution of primate cognition and the role of short-term memory in other cognitive abilities