213 research outputs found
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Sensemaking from the body: an enactive ethnography of rowing the Amazon
Drawing on real-time video, an audio journal, interviews and field notes from the first-ever attempt to scull the navigable Amazon, we explore the promise of carnal sociology to enrich our understanding of embodied organizational sensemaking. We investigate the body’s role in sensemaking from two vantage points: “of the body” and “from the body”. Using methodological and conceptual anchors provided in Wacquant’s carnal sociology, we contrast what each approach tells us about the nature and process of sensemaking. Doing so helps us outline a complementary approach to embodied sensemaking that attends to (1) how a “new way of seeing” the body as sentient, sedimented, situated, and capable of suffering enables a more holistic understanding of the role of embodiment in sensemaking; (2) the importance this then places on the “who” of sensemaking; and (3) carnal sociology’s broader methodological implications for organizational sensemaking
Good night, and good luck: perspectives on luck in management scholarship
It is not insignificant that seminal contributions to management scholarship have highlighted luck as an alternative explanation for performance differences between individuals and organizations. Yet it has rarely taken center-stage in scholarship. The principal purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of the application of luck in the management literature and in such foundation disciplines as economics, sociology, and psychology. Our analysis finds five common perspectives on luck: (a) luck as Attribution; (b) luck as Randomness; (c) luck as Counterfactual; (d) luck as Undeserved; and (e) luck as Serendipity. We outline various ways in which research on luck may be advanced along each of these perspectives, and develop an underexplored, sixth, perspective on (f) luck as Leveler to provide a possible solution to such issues as social inequality and (unwarranted) executive compensation.The first author is also grateful for financial support received from Cambridge Overseas Trust, Jesus College (Oxford), the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and the Ministry of Education (Taiwan) that sponsored his PhD dissertation
Timing of infection and prior immunization with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in RSV-enhanced allergic inflammation
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection has been shown to be a risk factor for the development of allergy in humans and mice. The allergy-enhancing properties of RSV may be dependent on atopic background and an individual's history of RSV infection. We examined the influence of the timing of infection and prior inoculation with RSV in a mouse model of allergic asthma. Mice were sensitized to and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) and were inoculated with RSV either before or during the sensitization or challenge period. One group of mice was inoculated with RSV both before sensitization to OVA and during challenge with OVA. Increased pulmonary expression of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, and IL-13 mRNA and aggravated alveolitis and hypertrophy of mucus-producing cells were observed only when OVA-sensitized mice were inoculated with RSV shortly before or during challenge with OVA. Despite protection against viral replication, prior inoculation with RSV did not abrogate RSV-enhanced, OVA-induced expression of T helper 2 (Th2) cytokines in the lung. In conclusion, inoculation with RSV enhances allergic disease only when the immune system has already been Th2-primed by the allergen (i.e., OVA). This RSV-enhanced allergy is not completely abrogated by prior inoculation with RSV
Serum IgA Responses against Pertussis Proteins in Infected and Dutch wP or aP Vaccinated Children: An Additional Role in Pertussis Diagnostics
BACKGROUND: Whooping cough is a respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis, which induces mucosal IgA antibodies that appear to be relevant in protection. Serum IgA responses are measured after pertussis infection and might provide an additional role in pertussis diagnostics. However, the possible interfering role for pertussis vaccinations in the induction of serum IgA antibodies is largely unknown. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We compared serum IgA responses in healthy vaccinated children between 1 and 10 years of age with those in children who despite vaccinations recently were infected with Bordetella pertussis. All children have been vaccinated at 2, 3, 4 and 11 months of age with either the Dutch whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccine or an acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine and additionally received an aP booster vaccination at 4 years of age. Serum IgA responses to pertussis toxin (PT), filamentous heamagglutinin (FHA) and pertactin (Prn) were measured with a fluorescent multiplex bead-based immuno-assay. An ELISPOT-assay was used for the detection of IgA-memory B-cells specific to these antigens. Serum IgA levels to all pertussis vaccine antigens were significantly higher in infected children compared with healthy children. High correlations between anti-PT, anti-FHA or anti-Prn IgA and IgG levels were found in infected children and to some degree in wP primed children, but not at all in aP primed children. Highest numbers of IgA-pertussis-specific memory B-cells were observed after infection and generally comparable numbers were found after wP and aP vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides new insight in the diagnostic role for serum IgA responses against PT in vaccinated children. Since aP vaccines induce high serum IgG levels that interfere with pertussis diagnostics, serum IgA-PT levels will provide an additional diagnostic role. High levels of serum IgA for PT proved specific for recent pertussis infection with reasonable sensitivity, whereas the role for IgA levels against FHA and Prn in diagnosing pertussis remains controversial
Resilience of beach grasses along a biogeomorphic successive gradient:Resource availability vs. clonal integration
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213623.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access
Producing persuasive findings: Demystifying ethnographic textwork in strategy and organization research
Despite the importance and proliferation of ethnography in strategy and organization research, the central issue of how to present ethnographic findings has rarely been discussed. Yet, the narratives we craft to share our experience of the field are at the heart of ethnographic papers and provide the primary basis for our theorizing. In this article, we explain the “textwork” involved in writing persuasive findings. We provide an illustrative example of ethnographic data as it is recorded within fieldnotes and explain the necessary conceptual and writing work that must be done to render such data persuasive, drawing on published exemplars of ethnographic articles. This allows us to show how such texts, through various forms of writing and data representation, are transformed from raw fieldnotes to comprehensible findings. We conclude by asserting the value of these specifically ethnographic ways of presenting evidence, which are at odds with the canonical methods of data presentation in management studies
How Academic Biologists and Physicists View Science Outreach
Scholars and pundits alike argue that U.S. scientists could do more to reach out to the general public. Yet, to date, there have been few systematic studies that examine how scientists understand the barriers that impede such outreach. Through analysis of 97 semi-structured interviews with academic biologists and physicists at top research universities in the United States, we classify the type and target audiences of scientists’ outreach activities. Finally, we explore the narratives academic scientists have about outreach and its reception in the academy, in particular what they perceive as impediments to these activities. We find that scientists’ outreach activities are stratified by gender and that university and disciplinary rewards as well as scientists’ perceptions of their own skills have an impact on science outreach. Research contributions and recommendations for university policy follow
Differential effects of Cytomegalovirus carriage on the immune phenotype of middle-aged males and females
The elderly population is more susceptible to infections as a result of an altered immune response, commonly referred to as immunosenescence. Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-infection associated changes in blood lymphocytes are known to impact this process, but the interaction with gender remains unclear. Therefore, we analysed the effects and interaction of gender and CMV on the absolute numbers of a comprehensive set of naive and memory T- and B-cell subsets in people between 50 and 65 years of age. Enumeration and characterisation of lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry was performed on fresh whole blood samples from 255 middle-aged persons. CMV-IgG serostatus was determined by ELISA. Gender was a major factor affecting immune cell numbers. CMV infection was mainly associated with an expansion of late-differentiated T-cell subsets. CMV+ males carried lower numbers of total CD4+, CD4+ central memory (CM) and follicular helper T-cells than females and CMV- males. Moreover, CMV+ males had significantly lower numbers of regulatory T (Treg)-cells and memory B-cells than CMV+ females. We here demonstrate an interaction between the effects of CMV infection and gender on T- and B-cells in middle-aged individuals. These differential effects on adaptive immunity between males and females may have implications for vaccination strategies at middle-age
Differential effects of Cytomegalovirus carriage on the immune phenotype of middle-aged males and females
The elderly population is more susceptible to infections as a result of an altered immune response, commonly referred to as immunosenescence. Cytomegalovirus (CMV)-infection associated changes in blood lymphocytes are known to impact this process, but the interaction with gender remains unclear. Therefore, we analysed the effects and interaction of gender and CMV on the absolute numbers of a comprehensive set of naive and memory T- and B-cell subsets in people between 50 and 65 years of age. Enumeration and characterisation of lymphocyte subsets by flow cytometry was performed on fresh whole blood samples from 255 middle-aged persons. CMV-IgG serostatus was determined by ELISA. Gender was a major factor affecting immune cell numbers. CMV infection was mainly associated with an expansion of late-differentiated T-cell subsets. CMV+ males carried lower numbers of total CD4+, CD4+ central memory (CM) and follicular helper T-cells than females and CMV-males. Moreover, CMV+ males had significantly lower numbers of regulatory T (Treg)-cells and memory B-cells than CMV+ females. We here demonstrate an interaction between the effects of CMV infection and gender on T-and B-cells in middle-aged individuals. These differential effects on adaptive immunity between males and females may have implications for vaccination strategies at middle-age
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