Ruin and organization studies

In this paper we offer a preliminary study of the various ways in which 'ruin' has significance for organization studies. One important motif associated with both modern and romantic treatments of the ruin is the revelatory impressions ruins make. In this respect the traditions of ruin writing will talk of their ?beauty?, their ?strangeness? or their capacity to ?intimidate?. In order to attend to this elusive phenomenon we must necessarily breach some of the self-imposed boundaries of our ?discipline?. Central to our strategy is the use of ?contiguity? as both method and textual structuring device that allows us to drift across iconic ruin images, ruin theories, and our own ruinous research experiences. This helps us learn how to ?dwell? in ruins without any impatient reaching after fact or explaining away ruins in the terms of any established tradition of theorizing in organization. In this way we hope to be able to open up new analytic spaces and associations for organizational researchers. These concern specifically a) a distinctive approach to time, history and memory; b) an increased awareness of the multiplicity of forces impinging on organization, but from which we so easily retreat behind the cordon sanitaire of organization-studies-as-usual; and c) a cognizance of how the very way we write is a mode of doing organization that is crucial for our ability and willingness to look into 'all corners of reality' so that we might better grasp organizational phenomena

Management as an Academic Discipline?

To study something like 'management' as an 'academic discipline' inevitably leads to the question: What is disciplinary about management? In this chapter we put in play various meanings of 'discipline' and the effects these produce. An important reference is the work of Michel Foucault who reminds us of the importance of a vigilant and permanent questioning of 'discipline'. One response is to linger - in a somewhat irreverent fashion - on certain issues that management scholars may have ignored in their corpus of knowledge. In what is a rather peculiar body of literature and practices that makes up ?business and management studies?, we show that discipline is far from disciplined. As a practice it is best characterised as promiscuous and eclectic. Yet, the clarion call of discipline remains. In a final twist, this chapter argues it is important to retain this legacy so that its constant re-invention remains a possibility

Protecting privacy of users in brain-computer interface applications

Machine learning (ML) is revolutionizing research and industry. Many ML applications rely on the use of large amounts of personal data for training and inference. Among the most intimate exploited data sources is electroencephalogram (EEG) data, a kind of data that is so rich with information that application developers can easily gain knowledge beyond the professed scope from unprotected EEG signals, including passwords, ATM PINs, and other intimate data. The challenge we address is how to engage in meaningful ML with EEG data while protecting the privacy of users. Hence, we propose cryptographic protocols based on secure multiparty computation (SMC) to perform linear regression over EEG signals from many users in a fully privacy-preserving(PP) fashion, i.e., such that each individual's EEG signals are not revealed to anyone else. To illustrate the potential of our secure framework, we show how it allows estimating the drowsiness of drivers from their EEG signals as would be possible in the unencrypted case, and at a very reasonable computational cost. Our solution is the first application of commodity-based SMC to EEG data, as well as the largest documented experiment of secret sharing-based SMC in general, namely, with 15 players involved in all the computations

PIN15 CHRONIC HEPATITIS B (CHB) MANAGEMENT COSTS IN SWEDEN

L'edifici fou construït l'any 1860, aproximadament.Primer pla, contrapicat d'un edifici d'habitatges entre mitgeres, en cantonada. Consta de planta baixa, cinc plantes pis i terrat. La façana és uniforme, de marcat estil academicista, amb un pòrtic amb pilars i arcs de mig punt a la planta baixa

The HIV-associated tuberculosis epidemic--when will we act?

Despite policies, strategies, and guidelines, the epidemic of HIV-associated tuberculosis continues to rage, particularly in southern Africa. We focus our attention on the regions with the greatest burden of disease, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and concentrate on prevention of tuberculosis in people with HIV infection, a challenge that has been greatly neglected. We argue for a much more aggressive approach to early diagnosis and treatment of HIV infection in affected communities, and propose urgent assessment of frequent testing for HIV and early start of antiretroviral treatment (ART). This approach should result in short-term and long-term declines in tuberculosis incidence through individual immune reconstitution and reduced HIV transmission. Implementation of the 3Is policy (intensified tuberculosis case finding, infection control, and isoniazid preventive therapy) for prevention of HIV-associated tuberculosis, combined with earlier start of ART, will reduce the burden of tuberculosis in people with HIV infection and provide a safe clinical environment for delivery of ART. Some progress is being made in provision of HIV care to HIV-infected patients with tuberculosis, but too few receive co-trimoxazole prophylaxis and ART. We make practical recommendations about how to improve this situation. Early HIV diagnosis and treatment, the 3Is, and a comprehensive package of HIV care, in association with directly observed therapy, short-course (DOTS) for tuberculosis, form the basis of prevention and control of HIV-associated tuberculosis. This call to action recommends that both HIV and tuberculosis programmes exhort implementation of strategies that are known to be effective, and test innovative strategies that could work. The continuing HIV-associated tuberculosis epidemic needs bold but responsible action, without which the future will simply mirror the past

New strategies for HIV surveillance in resource-constrained settings: an overview.

Additional funding recently became available to help resource-constrained countries scale up their HIV treatment and prevention activities. This increased funding is accompanied by an increased demand for accountability from stakeholders. Many countries will need to make substantial improvements in their current HIV surveillance methods to monitor the collective national impact of these treatment and prevention initiatives. However, whereas most resource-constrained countries have monitored the prevalence of HIV, they have collected little information on other events in the HIV disease process, such as HIV incidence, rate of HIV drug resistance, number of deaths due to AIDS and only modest emphasis has been placed on AIDS reporting in generalized epidemics, resulting in severe underreporting. In addition, data on mortality trends are often not gathered. Furthermore, less than half of the countries with low-level/concentrated epidemics have tailored their surveillance systems to the local epidemic, behavioral surveillance is often not present, an integrated analysis of data is not widespread, and data are rarely used to inform policy. In January 2004, a conference was convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to examine new strategies for surveillance in resource-constrained countries, and their use in monitoring and evaluating HIV activities. This supplement summarizes the newest approaches and lessons learned for HIV/AIDS surveillance, based on presentations and discussions from that conference. This article provides an overview of HIV/AIDS surveillance in resource-constrained settings and discusses the history, current approaches, and future directions for HIV/AIDS surveillance in generalized and low-level/concentrated epidemics

Flipping the classroom:an effective approach to deal with diversity at higher education

Even though the flipped classroom is an increasingly popular method in education, a literature search shows a gap in research on this method in higher education. This article describes an experiment with two central questions: (1) How do students and lecturers assess the effectiveness of the FC method? And (2) What are crucial design elements? To be able to answer these questions we designed an experiment within a large-size, interdisciplinary, course. For three years we carefully monitored and evaluated the course. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Our findings show a positive contribution of the FC approach to the learning experience of students. We also found that a strong link between theory and practice is essential in the course design; combined with active learning we were able to involve students and stimulate them to reach a deeper level of understanding. Moreover, we believe that the FC approach offers opportunities to have a large interdisciplinary group, with different learning needs, work together on higher attainment levels

Financial phantasmagoria: corporate image-work in times of crisis

Our purpose in this article is to relate the real movements in the economy during 2008 to the ?image-work? of financial institutions. Over the period January?December 2008 we collected 241 separate advertisements from 61 financial institutions published in the Financial Times. Reading across the ensemble of advertisements for themes and evocative images provides an impression of the financial imaginaries created by these organizations as the global financial crisis unfolded. In using the term ?phantasmagoria? we move beyond its colloquial sense of a set of strange images designed to dazzle towards the more technical connotation used by Ranci�re (2004) who suggested that words and images can offer a trace of an overall determining set-up if they are torn from their obviousness so they become phantasmagoric figures. The key phantasmagoric figure we identify here is that of the financial institution as timeless, immortal and unchanging; a coherent and autonomous entity amongst other actors. This notion of uniqueness belies the commonality of thinking which precipitated the global financial crisis as well as the limited capacity for control of financial institutions in relation to market events. It also functions as a powerful naturalizing force, making it hard to question certain aspects of the recent period of ?capitalism in crisis?