Resistant Self in Leadership: A Hermeneutical Conundrum

Autoethnography offers leadership study opportunities as it allows the texts to move between the self of the subject and the researcher who can themselves be a co-researched subject. In this sense texts moving between 'selves' represents a hermeneutical concern (or ‘language game’); that is it is possible to see the self as a text, in a context, and moving between selves, although not to gain access to the ‘original intent’ of the author; the text in this instance is in ‘our’ hands and as such transforming from the author in a new direction. As such, in this domain: “all understanding is interpretation, and all interpretation takes place in the medium of language which would allow the object to come into words and yet is at the same time the interpreter’s own language” (Gadamer, 1975: 350)

Our future city

As well as repairing the physical damage caused by last December's storms, our 'divided city' should re-imagine itself and re-invest, writes Dr Stephen Gibbs, a senior lecturer in global leadership and change and chair of Carlisle Flood Action Grou

Is it really so bad to have a business mogul as president?

Donald Trump’s image as a street fighter offering a voice to the disenfranchised propelled him to victory in the US election. But beyond the artifice of political stage management, it just might be possible that an executive business brain will cut through Washington’s House of Cards. Trump has never held public office so he’s a total newcomer to the Washington bear pit that scuppered much of Obama’s agenda. His experience as a business mogul, however, comes with some transferable skills. Executive and global leadership are wholly interlinked and so there are some important lessons to be learned from business. This can be seen in the way that the crisis in America’s auto industry was handled

Outline working proposal: Cumbria River Catchments Authority

Proposal and presentation to Cumbria Floods Partnership, 22 April 2016, Hallmark Hotel, Carlisle, Cumbria, UK. The proposal responds to the DEFRA modernisation agenda, arguing for restructuring of both national and local government bodies and agencies in response to December 2015 flooding. It adopts a strategic management ethos, mapping capabilities of existing structures as the basis of forming new strategic architecture

UK Resilience: A Question of Governance

Governance of UK institutions is at the heart of UK Plc performance. The management, leadership and structures underpinning delivery of central government policy when tracked through to the point of delivery offer revealing and challenging findings. This paper uses the experience of UK Winter '15/'16 storms and the performance of critical infrastructure to explore existing governance architecture surrounding delivery of UK resilience

Revelation, Verisimilitude and ‘Drama’ in Modern Strategic Leadership

Autoethnography offers leadership study unique opportunities as it allows the leader to become central to the research process; satisfying both an ontological and epistemological argument for an increased focus on the ‘self’ (Spry, 2001; Humphreys, 2005). It therefore differs from ethnography in its ability to move on from the wide-angle view of the organisational context (‘other’) to the “focus on the inner, vulnerable and often resistant self” (Boyle and Parry, 2007: 186). This has the ability to place the individual leader as a central figure within the story of leadership experience (Kempster, 2010). Co-produced autoethnography places a further emphasis on the subject by requiring the researcher to write about themselves and then be open to interrogation by themselves, reflectively, as well as their co-author, creating a co-produced narrative ‘sandwich’ (Ellis, 2004; Ellis and Bochner, 2000). The potential is to allow the organisational leader to “reveal a discovery” through their narrative (Saldana, 2003: 224)

The floods: Where do we go from here?

"Support, recovery and lessons learned" from 2015 Cumbria floods. Two months on from devastating flooding in the county various key figures and leaders give their responses to the next stage of recovery, including looking towards strategic solutions for flood prevention

The Effect of Selection for Desiccation Resistance on Cold Tolerance of Drosophila Melanogaster

Low Temperature and Desiccation Stress Are Thought to Be Mechanistically Similar in Insects, and Several Studies Indicate that There is a Degree of Cross-Tolerance between Them, such that Increased Cold Tolerance Results in Greater Desiccation Tolerance and Vice Versa. This Assertion is Tested at an Evolutionary Scale by Examining Basal Cold Tolerance, Rapid Cold-Hardening (RCH) and Chill Coma Recovery in Replicate Populations of Drosophila Melanogaster Selected for Desiccation Resistance (With Controls for Both Selection and Concomitant Starvation) for over 50 Generations. All of the Populations Display a RCH Response, and There is No Effect of Selection Regime on RCH or Basal Cold Tolerance, Although There Are Differences in Basal Cold Tolerance between Sampling Dates, Apparently Related to Inter-Individual Variation in Development Time. Flies Selected for Desiccation Tolerance Recover from Chill Coma Slightly, But Significantly, Faster Than Control and Starvation-Control Flies. These Findings Provide Little Support for Cross-Tolerance between Survival of Near-Lethal Cold and Desiccation Stress in D. Melanogaster. © 2007 the Authors

Chelator free gallium-68 radiolabelling of silica coated iron oxide nanorods via surface interactions

The commercial availability of combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/positron emission tomography (PET) scanners for clinical use has increased demand for easily prepared agents which offer signal or contrast in both modalities. Herein we describe a new class of silica coated iron–oxide nanorods (NRs) coated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and/or a tetraazamacrocyclic chelator (DO3A). Studies of the coated NRs validate their composition and confirm their properties as in vivo T₂ MRI contrast agents. Radiolabelling studies with the positron emitting radioisotope gallium-68 (t1/2 = 68 min) demonstrate that, in the presence of the silica coating, the macrocyclic chelator was not required for preparation of highly stable radiometal-NR constructs. In vivo PET-CT and MR imaging studies show the expected high liver uptake of gallium-68 radiolabelled nanorods with no significant release of gallium-68 metal ions, validating our innovation to provide a novel simple method for labelling of iron oxide NRs with a radiometal in the absence of a chelating unit that can be used for high sensitivity liver imaging

Synchrotron X-Ray Visualisation of Ice Formation in Insects during Lethal and Non-Lethal Freezing

Although the biochemical correlates of freeze tolerance in insects are becoming well-known, the process of ice formation in vivo is subject to speculation. We used synchrotron x-rays to directly visualise real-time ice formation at 3.3 Hz in intact insects. We observed freezing in diapausing 3rd instar larvae of Chymomyza amoena (Diptera: Drosophilidae), which survive freezing if it occurs above −14°C, and non-diapausing 3rd instar larvae of C. amoena and Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae), neither of which survive freezing. Freezing was readily observed in all larvae, and on one occasion the gut was seen to freeze separately from the haemocoel. There were no apparent qualitative differences in ice formation between freeze tolerant and non-freeze tolerant larvae. The time to complete freezing was positively related to temperature of nucleation (supercooling point, SCP), and SCP declined with decreasing body size, although this relationship was less strong in diapausing C. amoena. Nucleation generally occurred at a contact point with the thermocouple or chamber wall in non-diapausing larvae, but at random in diapausing larvae, suggesting that the latter have some control over ice nucleation. There were no apparent differences between freeze tolerant and non-freeze tolerant larvae in tracheal displacement or distension of the body during freezing, although there was markedly more distension in D. melanogaster than in C. amoena regardless of diapause state. We conclude that although control of ice nucleation appears to be important in freeze tolerant individuals, the physical ice formation process itself does not differ among larvae that can and cannot survive freezing. This suggests that a focus on cellular and biochemical mechanisms is appropriate and may reveal the primary adaptations allowing freeze tolerance in insects