THOSE WITH THE MOST FIND IT HARDEST TO SHARE: EXPLORING LEADER RESISTANCE TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEAM-BASED EMPOWERMENT

We use a convergent parallel mixed methods approach to explore barriers to the successful implementation of a team-based empowerment initiative within the Veterans Health Administration. Although previous research has suggested that leaders often actively obstruct empowerment initiatives, little is known about the reasons behind and effects of such hindering. Using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design, we support a hypothesis that higher-status physician leaders are less successful than lower-status nonphysician leaders in implementing team-based empowerment. In parallel, we analyze qualitative data obtained through interviews conducted during early months of the teambased empowerment initiative to identify common themes for why and how leaders facilitated or obstructed implementation. Leader identity work and leader delegation were identified as themes explaining (1) why higher-status leaders struggled with the new empowering role and (2) how specific leader actions either facilitated or inhibited sharing of tasks and leadership. Results suggest that team-based empowerment creates a status threat for high-status leaders who then struggle to protect their old identity as someone with distinct professional capabilities, which in turn leads to improper delegation behavior. Therefore, in order for team-based empowerment to succeed, leaders may need to change their perceptions of who they are before they will change what they do

Predicting Chemical Ocular Toxicity Using a Combinatorial QSAR Approach

Regulatory agencies require testing of chemicals and products to protect workers and consumers from potential eye injury hazards. Animal screening, such as the rabbit Draize test, for potential environmental toxicants is time-consuming and costly. Therefore, virtual screening using computational models to tag potential ocular toxicants is attractive to toxicologists and policy makers. We have developed quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for a set of small molecules with animal ocular toxicity data compiled by the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods. The data set was initially curated by removing duplicates, mixtures, and inorganics. The remaining 75 compounds were used to develop QSAR models. We applied both k nearest neighbor and random forest statistical approaches in combination with Dragon and Molecular Operating Environment descriptors. Developed models were validated on an external set of 34 compounds collected from additional sources. The external correct classification rates (CCR) of all individual models were between 72 and 87%. Furthermore, the consensus model, based on the prediction average of individual models, showed additional improvement (CCR = 0.93). The validated models could be used to screen external chemical libraries and prioritize chemicals for in vivo screening as potential ocular toxicants

Ageing, masculinity and Parkinson's disease: Embodied perspectives

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) presents as an illness which predominantly affects older men. However older men’s lived experiences of PD, including how they are influenced by age and gender relations has seen little empirical study. Drawing on Watson’s (2000) male body schema, this paper explores PD’s effects on men’s bodies, alongside how men engage with masculinities and ageing in order to make meaning from these experiences. Data is presented from 30 narrative and semi structured interviews with 15 men of various ages who were living with PD. Findings suggest that PD threatens a pragmatic embodiment expressed through men’s everyday occupations; a visceral embodiment located in difficulties with the body’s basic movements and intimate functions and an experiential embodiment concerned with emotions and sensations within and about the body. In addition, each dimension of men’s embodiment also intersected with the ageing process, a process also shaped in turn by broader social and cultural concerns regarding the positions and possibilities of men’s lives as they move through the life course. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of gender and ageing in understanding men’s experiences of PD

Framework per l'analisi dinamica di vulnerabilità e penetration testing di App iOS

La sicurezza dell'informazione è ormai attore principale nell'era digitale in cui viviamo. Le tecnologie mobili (e.g. smartphone, tablet, etc) sono pervasive nella vita di tutti i giorni, manipolando ogni sorta di dati: da semplici foto, a delicati dati come quelli bancari. Le Mobile App, gli applicativi software che animano i device mobili, sono i principali vettori di questi dati: la sicurezza attorno ad esse è fondamentale. iOS è tra i principali sistemi operativi mobili, ma nonostante ciò non può contare su molti strumenti di analisi ai fini della sicurezza: questo a causa sia dell'erronea idea di immunità del sistema, sia a causa di sfide tecniche in cui si può incorrere, come il jailbreak, la procedura per acquisire i diritti di amministratore nel sistema operativo. Questa procedura diviene giorno dopo giorno più difficile e la maggioranza dei tool di analisi esistenti si basano su di essa. Il lavoro di tesi presenta lo sviluppo di MAD-IOS, un framework per l'analisi dinamica di vulnerabilità e penetration testing, il quale, pur sfruttando strumenti tipici di ambienti jailbroken, esegue su dispositivi iOS puri, liberandosi in questo modo dalla dipendenza dal jailbreak

Bolivian migrants and pregnancy: public health at east zone, trajectory and specificities

\"Migrantes Bolivianas e a Gravidez: Saúde Pública na Zona Leste, Trajetórias e Especificidades\" é uma pesquisa dos estudos culturais, que tem como eixo norteador entrevistas realizadas com gestantes migrantes bolivianas nos bairros da Penha e Cangaíba.O foco da pesquisa são mulheres bolivianas gestantes e seu relacionamento com as políticas públicas de maternidade dentro das Unidades Básicas de Saúde -UBS. O objetivo é conhecer as experiências vividas pelas mulheres bolivianas desde sua trajetória, o momento que se reconhece como migrante e como a sua condição de gênero interfere nesse processo. Bem como assimilar os padrões da inserção territorial desse grupo específico, sendo fundamental para interpretar os processos de exclusão e segregação da cidade. Pretende-se compreender as especificidades da experiência de migrar sendo mulher e como as diferenças culturais e identitárias afetam esse processo. Para isto, realizou-se uma análise qualitativa de 15 entrevistas, tendo resultados que sinalizam sobre a inserção das bolivianas na Penha e o quanto as diferenças de gênero redefinem o processo da imigração\"Bolivian Migrants and Pregnancy: Public Health at East Zone, Trajectory and Specificities\" is a research in Cultural Studies which is guided by interviews with Bolivian pregnant migrants at Penha and Cangaíba neighborhood. The focus of the research is Bolivian pregnant migrant and their relationship with health public policies inside the health Basic Health Units, so called UBS. The objective is to get to know the experience lived by those Bolivian women since their trajectories, the moment they recognize themselves as migrants and how the gender condition interfere in this process, as well as to comprehend the stands insertion conditions at this specific territory, fundamental to understand the segregation and exclusion processes of the city. The research intent to understand the specificities of the experience of migration being a woman and how cultural and identity differences affects this process. For that, 15 qualitative interviews were made and obtained results that indicate about Bolivian women insertion and how gender differences redefine the immigration proces

Bolivian migrants and pregnancy: public health at east zone, trajectory and specificities

\"Migrantes Bolivianas e a Gravidez: Saúde Pública na Zona Leste, Trajetórias e Especificidades\" é uma pesquisa dos estudos culturais, que tem como eixo norteador entrevistas realizadas com gestantes migrantes bolivianas nos bairros da Penha e Cangaíba.O foco da pesquisa são mulheres bolivianas gestantes e seu relacionamento com as políticas públicas de maternidade dentro das Unidades Básicas de Saúde -UBS. O objetivo é conhecer as experiências vividas pelas mulheres bolivianas desde sua trajetória, o momento que se reconhece como migrante e como a sua condição de gênero interfere nesse processo. Bem como assimilar os padrões da inserção territorial desse grupo específico, sendo fundamental para interpretar os processos de exclusão e segregação da cidade. Pretende-se compreender as especificidades da experiência de migrar sendo mulher e como as diferenças culturais e identitárias afetam esse processo. Para isto, realizou-se uma análise qualitativa de 15 entrevistas, tendo resultados que sinalizam sobre a inserção das bolivianas na Penha e o quanto as diferenças de gênero redefinem o processo da imigração\"Bolivian Migrants and Pregnancy: Public Health at East Zone, Trajectory and Specificities\" is a research in Cultural Studies which is guided by interviews with Bolivian pregnant migrants at Penha and Cangaíba neighborhood. The focus of the research is Bolivian pregnant migrant and their relationship with health public policies inside the health Basic Health Units, so called UBS. The objective is to get to know the experience lived by those Bolivian women since their trajectories, the moment they recognize themselves as migrants and how the gender condition interfere in this process, as well as to comprehend the stands insertion conditions at this specific territory, fundamental to understand the segregation and exclusion processes of the city. The research intent to understand the specificities of the experience of migration being a woman and how cultural and identity differences affects this process. For that, 15 qualitative interviews were made and obtained results that indicate about Bolivian women insertion and how gender differences redefine the immigration proces

Good manufacturing practices and the validation process in the development and production of an Immunodiagnostic kit

A produção de kits para diagnóstico in vitro deve ser feita seguindo-se a legislação vigente de Boas Práticas de Fabricação e Controle (BPF). O objetivo deste trabalho foi elaborar um procedimento para desenvolvimento, produção e validação de um produto para diagnóstico in vitro, de acordo com a legislação vigente. Adotamos como modelo um kit imunoenzimático para Doença de Chagas. Dentro dos requisitos de BPF, a validação é uma etapa importante, pois tem por objetivos, dentre outros: auxiliar no estabelecimento de procedimentos de produção e controle de qualidade, avaliar desvios e dimensionar possíveis erros, avaliar o desempenho quanto à utilidade médica dos resultados obtidos e estabelecer condições ideais de uso. No estabelecimento dos requisitos para validação devem-se considerar as características do método utilizado, a utilidade clínica e diagnóstica dos resultados e as condições de uso do kit. Os parâmetros para validação devem ser definidos considerando a finalidade do uso do produto. Os resultados obtidos em três lotes pilotos demonstraram que o kit pode ser utilizado tanto com soro como com plasma, as amostras podem ser congeladas e descongeladas antes do uso por até 5 ciclos, o índice de concordância com kit comercial é de 0,9 (ótimo) e o kit mantém-se estável por pelo menos 7 dias à 37ºC, o que neste trabalho foi equivalente a pelo menos um ano na sua condição ideal de armazenamento de 2 a 8ºC. Além disso, o kit apresentou 100% de sensibilidade, 99% de especificidade, com coeficiente de variação 15,2% tanto na repetitividade como na reprodutibilidade de amostras positivas. Quanto à análise de interferentes, amostras hemolisadas e a presença de fator reumatóide podem interferir nos resultados e anticorpos anti-Leishmania na amostra podem dar reação cruzada. Conclui-se que o procedimento elaborado e o kit desenvolvido e validado atenderam aos requisitos pré-estabelecidos, de acordo com as regras de BPF vigentes.The production of an in vitro diagnostic kit should be done following current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The objective of this work was to establish a procedure for the development, production and validation of an in vitro diagnostic product in accordance with current regulations governing Medical Devices. An enzyme-linked immunoassay kit for Chagas\' disease was used as a model. Validation is a very important step contained within GMP requirements. Validation provides documented evidence that processes and product batches are consistent, it aids in the establishment of production and quality control procedures, evaluate deviations and identify possible mistakes, evaluate the performance and medical usefulness of the product based on the obtained results, and establish ideal conditions of use and storage. In order to establish validation requirements for product development, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the assay method, the clinical and diagnostic usefulness of the results and the conditions of use of the kit. The parameters for validation should be defined considering the purpose of the use of the product. In the case of this Chagas assay, results obtained in three pilot lots demonstrated that the kit could be used with both serum and plasma, samples could be frozen and thawed before use for up to 5 cycles. The agreement index when compared with a commercially licensed kit is 0,9 (optimum correlation). The kit remained stable for at least 7 days at 37ºC, which is equivalent to at least one year stability in its ideal storage condition of 2 to 8ºC. The kit presented 100% sensitivity and 99% specificity, with variation coefficient of 15,2% for both repeatability and reproducibility of the positive samples. Interference analysis indicated that: hemolyzed samples and the presence of reumathoid factor could interfere with test results. Antibodies anti-Leishmania in the test sample can cross react with T. cruzi proteins. In conclusion: the established procedure for development and validation of chagas kit, and the actual developed and validated kit are in accordance with pre-established current GMP requirements