Responding to Complexity with Humility: A Systems-oriented Approach to Strategic Communication

Systemic design has emerged as both a theory and a practice that integrates design thinking and systems thinking to work with complex issues. It acts as a platform for design disciplines to develop and evolve according to the scope of complexity that needs to be addressed. This Major Research Project (MRP) looks at how systemic design influences an organization’s communication practice. It explores how the practice of strategic communication – the planned process of delivering a relevant message to a specific audience to achieve an objective – can be adapted to help organizations better reflect and respond to the real-world complexity of their issues (wicked problems) and stakeholders. Using a case study focused on the Canadian news media ecosystem, a strategic communication plan is developed to reflect and respond to the interconnected problems and stakeholders across business, technology, regulatory, and cultural contexts. The paper identifies the first set of learnings on how the principles of systemic design can inform the development of “systems communications” and how this practice is distinguished from strategic communication. It offers future research areas to explore systems communications further and discover the potential value for organizations

Post Covid-19 Vaccine (Sinovac) Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis

SINOVAC is an inactivated virus COVID 19 vaccine given emergency authorization for COVID-19 Pandemic. Different adverse reactions have been seen in after-marketing of COVID-19 vaccines. Here we present a case of patient who developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis two weeks after the first dose of SINOVAC vaccine

Obesity-linked genes' regulation in Drosophila melanogaster

There are several serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity in this modern world. Insects are mostly used to investigate the functions of neuropeptides in regulation of feeding behavior and starvation. In D. melanogaster the regulation of Twz, TfAp2, Hmgcr and G9a were significantly affected by different periods of starvation. The expression of Twz and TfAP-2 in adult flies controls the secretion and production of octopamine that regulates the function of Drosulfakinin (DSK) and Drosophila cholecystokinin (CCK). In D. melanogaster Hmgcr is produced in the pars intercerbralis (PI) region of the brain and was supposed to regulate feeding behavior but the regulation of feeding was not affected either by Hmgcr nor G9a on different nutrient condition. Hmgcr catalyzes the production of mevalonate; the precursors of juvenile hormone (JH) component

Characterization of protein kinase D PKD in the regulation of Drosophila melanogaster homeostasis

Insulin signaling is one of the master keys for performing proper regulation of energy metabolism. Serious diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and obesity occur due to mis-regulation of insulin pathway. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the factors that function in the production of insulin and it’s signaling. Drosophila melanogaster is the model organism used for this study in order to explore the function of Protein kinase D (PKD), which is a serine-threonine kinase. D. melanogaster has shown lower lipid content when PKD expression is reduced. The knockdown of PKD on transcription level in the D. melanogaster flies did not affect the transcription levels of both the insulin-like peptides (ILPs) and Adipokinetic hormone Akh. Starvation has affected the expression of different Ilps in the fly brain and high protein rich diets have affected the expression of PKD and Ilp3 in the fly brain

Post Covid-19 Vaccine Guillain Barre Syndrome

The Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) is an acute immune-mediated progressive polyneuropathy having an acute monophasic illness leading to paralysis. The clinical features are progressive ascending symmetrical muscle weakness that may lead to respiratory failure. Diagnosis is based upon clinical presentation and is supported by a lumbar puncture with CSF analysis demonstrating albumin-cytological dissociation, and electrophysiological studies. Our patient presented to us with progressive ascending paralysis after receiving COVID 19 vaccine

Surgical Treatment of Spinal Stenosis in Achondroplasia:Literature Review Comparing Results in Adults and Paediatrics

BACKGROUND: This study aims to assess the quantity and quality of available literature on surgical treatment outcomes of spinal stenosis in adult and paediatric achondroplasia patients through a systematic review of literature and to investigate the suitability of conducting a meta-analysis on outcomes of surgical treatment. METHODS: Online databases were searched according to PRISMA guidelines. No restrictions regarding study design, sample size, previous treatment, or publication date were implemented. The following terms: “Spinal stenosis”, “Spinal Decompression”, “Spinal fusion”, each term separately combined with the term “Achondroplasia” were used. Quality of the included studies were assessed used the Modified Coleman method. RESULTS: Five adult and four paediatric single-sample non-comparative studies were identified for inclusion (176 adult and 102 paediatric patients). Meta-analyses assessed the proportion of patients achieving full resolution of symptoms to be 0.51 (95% CI 0.00 to 1.00); the proportion of patients achieving full or partial resolution of symptoms to be 0.90 (95% CI 0.84 to 0.97); the proportion of procedures requiring re-operation to be 0.42 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.50; and the proportion of procedures involving dural tears to be 0.20 (95% CI 0.02 to 0.39). Statistical heterogeneity was very high for full resolution of symptoms and requirement for dural repair; and very low for other outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: The available literature on this population and condition is sparse, highly heterogenous, and is generally of low quality limiting the value of meta-analysis. Overall, outcomes of surgical decompression of symptomatic spinal stenosis in achondroplasia patients show consistent degree of resolution of symptoms. Duration of symptoms prior to surgical treatment appears to play an important role in the overall outcome of treatment. Therefore, a delay in diagnosis and treatment can potentially be detrimental in achieving a better outcome

Farmers’ social networks’ effects on the sustainable production of fresh apples in China’s Shaanxi province

Introduction: Recently, the public and policymakers have acquired knowledge of the detrimental effects of pesticide use in agriculture. These include the threat to the health of chemical applicators and the threat that pesticide residues pose to the safety of food. The present study focuses on the farmers’ social networks from a new perspective, along with the farmers’ concurrent agricultural business and their impact on the farmer’s safe production behavior.Methodology: The Endogenous Switching Probit Regression model and Binary Probit Group Regression model were employed for the empirical analysis of survey data collected from 585 households in the Xianyang, Yan’an, and Weinan districts of Shaanxi province, China.Results and Discussion: The results revealed that farmers’ social networks can greatly affect farmers’ safe production behavior. Additionally, we noted that the farmers’ social networks may play a positive role in promoting the farmers’ safe production behaviors of both concurrent agricultural business and non-concurrent agricultural business farmers. Moreover, their correlation coefficients were found significant at a confidence level of 5%. Our findings suggest that the government needs to construct social networks among farmers by setting up a communication platform and promoting the acquaintance of safe production through reciprocal culture

The Limits of Lawyering: Legal Opinions in Structured Finance

Significant controversy surrounds the issuance of legal opinions in structured finance transactions, particularly where accountants separately use these opinions, beyond their traditional primary use, for determining whether to characterize the transactions as debt. Reflecting at its core the unresolved boundaries between public and private in financial transactions, this controversy raises important issues of first impression: To what extent, for example, should lawyers be able to issue legal opinions that create negative externalities? Furthermore, what should differentiate the roles of lawyers and accountants in disclosing information to investors? Resolution of these issues not only helps to demystify the mystique, and untangle the morass, of legal-opinion giving but also affects the very viability of the securitization industry, which dominates American, and increasingly global, financing