LEAN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS AN EXAMPLE OF A POSITIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

In this article the attributes of Lean organizational culture, as an example of a positive organizational culture, are presented. It accompanies applying the concept of Lean Management on a high professional level in a company. An additional goal of the article is to describe the ways of this culture’s creation in a company, together with the author’s original tool to measure it. As a lot of empirical research proves, Lean Management and thus Lean organizational culture positively contribute to the increase of competitiveness level of a contemporary enterprise and its economic and fi nancial performance

Myocardial necrosis due to vitamin D3 overdose - scanning electron microscopic observations

Our studies were carried out on the hearts of virgin female Wistar rats treated with 100.000 i.u. of vitamin D3 (calciol) per os for 3 consecutive days. Multifocal cardionecrosis was established macroscopically in 70% of the vitamin D-treated rats on the 7th day of the experiment when the rats were in the acute phase of intoxication. Using a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we received three-dimensional information about the structural changes to the rat myocardium damaged by high doses of vitamin D3. The images of necrotic hearts revealed significant disruption of the structural integrity of the myocardium linked to fragmentation of the cardiac muscle bundles and a visible disruption of the extracellular matrix (ECM) components. In healthy hearts, the structural integrity of the myocardium and the dense network of the extracellular matrix were well preserved. In parallel, the effect of an increasing concentration of free Ca2+ on the total proteolytic activity of the heart muscle homogenate of the healthy and necrotic rats was investigated at neutral pH. These data showed that following vitamin D3 intoxication, the proteolytic processes in the rat hearts occurred in Ca2+ overload or saturation. On the basis of our morphological and biochemical results we can suggest that calcium-activated neutral proteinases may have contributed to the structural alteration of the extracellular matrix components and were in this way involved in vitamin D-induced cardionecrosis

Internal Determinants of Firms' Innovativeness

This article presents an analysis of the determinants of a firm's innovativeness deriving from its internal potential and characteristics. The analysis is based on research carried out on 1355 firms that applied for public subsidies from the Innovative Economy Operational Program in 2014. The methods applied are logit regression, comparative analysis and literature review. The analysis is structured according to Bielski's model of an organization indicating the following subsystems: management, goals and values, people, technology and structure. This analysis shows that firms' innovativeness depends mainly on the following factors: their level of cooperation with academia, longer presence on the market, being highly equipped with modern technologies, being a medium-sized or large firm, as well as being an industrial rather than a service firm. All of the organizational subsystems play a role in determining innovativeness, but the most important ones are the technical subsystem, psycho-social subsystem and the subsystem of structure. (original abstract

Tumour-derived CSF2/granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor controls myeloid cell accumulation and progression of gliomas

BACKGROUND: Malignant tumours release factors, which attract myeloid cells and induce their polarisation to pro-invasive, immunosuppressive phenotypes. Brain-resident microglia and peripheral macrophages accumulate in the tumour microenvironment of glioblastoma (GBM) and induce immunosuppression fostering tumour progression. Macrophage colony stimulating factors (CSFs) control the recruitment of myeloid cells during peripheral cancer progression, but it is disputable, which CSFs drive their accumulation in gliomas. METHODS: The expression of CSF2 (encoding granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor) was determined in TCGA datasets and five human glioma cell lines. Effects of stable CSF2 knockdown in glioma cells or neutralising CSF2 or receptor CSF2Rα antibodies on glioma invasion were tested in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: CSF2 knockdown or blockade of its signalling reduced microglia-dependent glioma invasion in microglia-glioma co-cultures. CSF2-deficient human glioma cells encapsulated in cell-impermeable hollow fibres and transplanted to mouse brains, failed to attract microglia, but stimulated astrocyte recruitment. CSF2-depleted gliomas were smaller, attracted less microglia and macrophages, and provided survival benefit in tumour-bearing mice. Apoptotic microglia/macrophages were detected in CSF2-depleted tumours. CONCLUSIONS: CSF2 is overexpressed in a subset of mesenchymal GBMs in association with high immune gene expression. Tumour-derived CSF2 attracts, supports survival and induces pro-tumorigenic polarisation of microglia and macrophages

Nocebo and pain: an overview of the psychoneurobiological mechanisms

Introduction: Nocebo effects are defined as adverse events related to negative expectations and learning processes that are involved in the modulation of the descending pain pathways. Research over the last couple of decades has illustrated that behavioral, psychoneurobiological, and functional changes occur during nocebo-induced pain processing. Objectives: We aimed to review published human and nonhuman research on algesia and hyperalgesia resulting from negative expectations and nocebo effects. Methods: Herein, we searched and comprehensively reviewed scientific literature providing informative knowledge about the psychoneurobiological bases of the nocebo effect in the field of pain with an emphasis on how pain processes are shaped by both cognitive and noncognitive factors. Results: Negative expectations are formed through verbal suggestions of heightened pain, prior nociceptive and painful experiences, and observation of pain in others. Susceptibility to the nocebo effect can be also influenced by genetic variants, conscious and nonconscious learning processes, personality traits, and psychological factors. Moreover, providers\u2019 behaviors, environmental cues and the appearance of medical devices can induce negative expectations that dramatically influence pain perception and processing in a variety of pain modalities and patient populations. Conclusion: Importantly, we concluded that nocebo studies outline how individual expectations may lead to physiological changes underpinning the central integration and processing of magnified pain signaling. Further research is needed to develop strategies that can identify patients with nocebo-vulnerable pain to optimize the psychosocial and therapeutic context in which the clinical encounter occurs, with the ultimate purpose of improving clinical outcomes

Gendered self-views across 62 countries: a test of competing models

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries (N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings

Psychometric Properties and Correlates of Precarious Manhood Beliefs in 62 Nations

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions (N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role

Repression of the Russian Empire against the participants of the Kościuszko Uprising

Po drugim rozbiorze Polski w 1793 roku nastroje powstańcze przybrały na sile – odczuwano potrzebę chwycenia za broń. W artykule przedstawiono metody działania machiny represyjnej Imperium Rosyjskiego, stosowanej na Polakach w trakcie Insurekcji Kościuszkowskiej i po jej klęsce. Po przegranej bitwie pod Maciejowicami na jeńców polskich zapadł okrutny wyrok deportacji na wschód celem odbycia srogiej kary. Najwybitniejszych przywódców wywieziono do Twierdzy Pietropawłowskiej do Petersburga. Około 20 tysięcy uczestników powstania oraz osoby podejrzane o jego wspieranie zesłano w głąb Rosji. Po trzecim – ostatecznym – rozbiorze Rzeczypospolitej skazanym powstańcom skonfiskowano majątki na rzecz dygnitarzy carskich. Represje wobec Polaków trwały do śmierci Katarzyny II.After the second partition of Poland in 1793, the insurgent mood reached the moment of the greatest need to take up arms. The article presents the methods of operation of the repressive machine of the Russian Empire, used on Poles during and after the defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising. After the lost battle of Maciejowice, the Polish captives of war were handed a cruel sentence, deportation to the East in order to serve a further punishment. The most prominent leaders were deported to the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. About twenty thousand participants of the uprising and people suspected of supporting it, were exiled deep into the interior of Russia. After the third and final partition of the Republic of Poland, the convicted insurgents had their property confiscated on behalf of the tsarist dignitaries. Repressions against Poles continued until the death of Catherine the Great

Influence the higher temperature of the cooling liquid on operational parameter of the piston combustion engine

The results of selected research of the results of the combustion engine cooling system which works with higher coolant temperatures are presented in this paper. The temperature of this liquid was increased to a higher level than the temperature of boiling water in normal conditions, by decreasing of heat transfer intensity. This presented system was designed for the four cylinder 4CT90 diesel engine with indirect fuel injection. Research was done on the engine dynamometer stand which was equipped with standard measure devices (for measuring: speed, torque, temperatures, and flow) and exhaust gas analyzers. By applying a pressure cooling system it was possible to maintain a stable, increased ca. 20 centigrade, coolant temperature for a standard engine cooling system at low overpressure 0.2 MPa. The results of increasing the cooler temperature were lower friction of unburned products during the combustion process (CO and HC) in the exhaust gas (up to 50%) at low torque and engine speed. This is the area where the catalytic reactor does not work because the exhaust gas temperature is too low. It was found that engine efficiency was increased up to 7% at maximum load and high engine speed. It is possible to achieve a temperature between 130 –140 centigrade for an overpressure of 0.3 MPa in the cooling system. It needs a special cooler, however, and leak proof pipes