A practitioner inquiry project to develop an emerging framework for conversational consulting through personal and collaborative inquiry and practice

This project is a practitioner inquiry into the practice of a form of organisational consulting that uses conversation as its primary contracting and change process. To provide a backdrop I begin by locating the practice in the management consulting domain, and specifically in an emerging field becoming popularly known as Dialogic Organisation Development. Conversation with the literature opens up the historical and theoretical assumptions that have shaped the field to date. Using this broad context I outline my consulting practice as an employee of the Office for Public Management Ltd (OPM). My interest in using conversation as a process in consulting relationships is described and my inquiry aims are outlined: 1. To develop my understanding of conversational consulting and the skills I need to practice it effectively. 2. To explore the potential of conversational inquiry approaches to support the development of conversational consulting skills amongst a group of management consultants (including myself). 3. To combine the learning from both individual and collective strands of research to offer management consultants an emerging framework that defines ‘Conversational Consulting’ more accurately, describes the practice in greater depth and helps them understand some of the ways in which they can develop the necessary skills to practice confidently and effectively. To support the achievement of these aims I begin by engaging in a conversation with the literature and focus particularly on social constructionist texts. This work reshapes my understanding of the potential of conversational consulting. I explain my rationale for selecting a participatory action research method called Co-operative inquiry. This is a framework involving consulting colleagues at OPM in a shared inquiry into the role of conversation in our practice. This report describes the inquiry process and how thematic analysis processes are applied to group meeting transcripts. My approach uses the first two inquiry aims as the lens through which I interpret the material. In parallel, I continue my own individual inquiry by maintaining a learning log and engaging in conversation with a client. This material is subject to a similar thematic analysis. The learning themes identified across all three elements contribute to an emerging framework with recommended activities to support the development of practice. The framework consists of three main elements, individual consulting practice development, collaborative development and learning with clients. I discuss how my original definition and understanding of conversational consulting has changed as a result of the project. My on-going commitment to inquiry and sharing my learning with others in the field is outlined alongside closing reflections on the experience and personal practice impact of the project

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic burst and its relevant consequences in dental practice

N/

Validation of a sectional soot model based on a constant pressure tabulated chemistry approach for PM, PN and PSDF estimation in a GDI research engine

Findings from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified particulate matter (PM) as carcinogenic to humans. While being a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and increase engine fuel economy, Gasoline Direct Injected (GDI) engines produce a number of particles (PN) of fine size higher than Port Fuel Injected (PFI) ones. As a consequence, the EU commission significantly tightened the emission standards for passenger cars, following which all gasoline engines will have to meet the euro-6d regulation coming into force in 2020. Efforts are made by the research community to understand the root causes leading to soot formation and possibly identify technical solutions to lower it. An important piece of the puzzle is the investigation of soot formation via 3D-CFD. To this aim, relevant efforts have been and are still being paid to adapt soot emissions models, originally developed for Diesel combustion, for GDI units. Among the many available models, one of the most advanced is the so-called Sectional Method. So far, studies presented in literature were not able to formulate a methodology to quantitatively match experimental PM, PN and PSDF without a dedicated soot model tuning. In the present work, a Sectional Method-based methodology to quantitatively predict GDI soot is presented and validated against PM, PN and PSDF measurements on a optically accessible GDI research unit. While adapting the model to GDI soot, attention is devoted to the modelling of soot precursor chemistry: a customized version of a pre-existing chemical kinetics mechanism, used to predict the formation of the key PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) species, is presented and validated via 1D numerical simulations on a premixed flat flame burner dataset available in literature. The present work demonstrates that a Sectional Method-based approach can be a powerful tool to quantitatively predict engine-out soot emissions

Editorial: Advances in Endocrinology: Stem Cells and Growth Factors

Stem Cells investigation in Endocrinology: leading stem cell scientists and developmental endocrinologists, critically review both cutting-edge approaches to stem cell biology and the application of stem cells and their secretome to translational/precision medicine, endocrine diseases, including diabetes, tissue/organ repairs, energy metabolism, and metabolic disorders

Evidence-Based Dentistry: What's New?

The importance of evidence for every branch of medicine in teaching in order to orient the practitioners among the great amount of most actual scientific information's, and to support clinical decisions, is well established in health care, including dentistry

Universities and stakeholders: an historical organisational study of evolution and change towards a multi-helix model

Research of the main university stakeholders has only been of a cross-sectional or short-term nature thereby limiting our understanding of how universities have evolved as a result of stakeholder influence. Indeed, neglect of stakeholders in strategic planning may result in both companies and universities becoming less successful and less competitive. For this reason, a temporal perspective was adopted to enable a consideration of events, their antecedents and subsequent effects thereby identifying emerging evolutionary trends and responding to them so that there can be appropriate decision making and accountability. This paper uses historical organisational studies to provide a longitudinal overview of internal and external stakeholder influence on university evolution and change from their foundations in the early Medieval period. Five university generations are described: Medieval, Humboldtian, Civic / Land Grant, Mass, and Stakeholder. This investigation reveals a number of strategic shifts in stakeholders as their voices have become increasingly prominent or have declined. Over time, the number of stakeholders have grown as their salience has been acknowledged through concepts such as the third mission; corporate social responsibility and helix structure; and, although some of the main stakeholders have remained constant such as learners and faculty, their influence has fluctuated

Characterization of fluorescent pseudomonads responsible for the yellowing of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Fluorescent pseudomonads isolated from different lesions on caps and/or stipes of cultivated Pleurotus ostreatus were identified as strains of Pseudomonas tolaasii or showed the White Line Assay (WLA) feature of P. ‘reactans’ or were WLA-negative fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. Pseudomonas tolaasii was consistently associated with brown-reddish blotches on P. ostreatus pseudo-tissues, and in the pathogenicity assays caused depressed dark brown lesions with deliquescence on Agaricus bisporus pseudo-tissues blocks and brown-reddish blotches and yellow discoloration on P. ostreatus sporocarps. Pseudomonas ‘reactans’ and the WLA-negative fluorescent Pseudomonas spp. were mostly associated with superficial yellow lesions on P. ostreatus sporocarps, and in pathogenicity assays caused light or dark brown discoloration, depending on the isolates, on A. bisporus pseudo-tissues blocks and the yellow discoloration of P. ostreatus sporocarps. The results of this study indicate that the aetiology of lesions on cultivated P. ostreatus involves a complex composed of interactions between P. tolaasii, P. ‘reactans’ and Pseudomonas spp., but that individually these bacteria cause different symptoms. This is the first report where the pathogenicity features of these pathogens has been clearly ascertained, and that has fully satisfied Koch’s postulates for the bacteria on the host mushroom. On the basis of virulence, biochemical and physiological characters, the isolates of P. ‘reactans’ and Pseudomonas spp. responsible for yellowing of oyster mushroom belong to several species of Pseudomonas

Efficacy of a Non-addictive Nasal Irrigation Based on Sea Salt Enriched with Natural Enzymes among Patients with Sinusitis: An In Vivo, Randomized, Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common condition that is defined as inflammation of the nose and paranasal sinuses. Nasal irrigation plays an important role in the treatment of CRS. Evidence from basic research favors hypertonic saline over isotonic saline for mucociliary clearance, but evidence from clinical studies is controversial. AIM: This study aims to investigate the hypothesis that the use of daily nasal irrigation based on sea salt, enriched with natural enzymes and lysozyme, may be useful in patients with CRS. PATIENT AND METHODS: Patients (30 men and 30 women) 18–55 years old (mean age 41 ± 3 y.o.), with two episodes of acute sinusitis or one episode of chronic sinusitis per year for 2 consecutive years, were enrolled stratified by sex and age and randomly divided into two groups supplementation: Group A (test) and Group B (control/ placebo). Moreover, an exit questionnaire was asked to Group A subjects to report whether their sinus-related quality of life has gotten worse, stayed the same, or improved (scale from 0 to ±100%). RESULTS: The result showed that in the test group (A) from T0 to T1, a reduction of 17.65% for the symptoms related headache and/or facial pressure and a reduction of the 18.18%, for the symptoms relates to congestion and/ or nasal discharge. On the other hand, the control group (B) shown less difference between T0 and T1. CONCLUSIONS: This study strengthens the argument that the tested formulation is a safe, well-tolerated, long-term therapy that patients with chronic sinonasal complaints can and will use at home with minimal training and follow-up