Nutrition of Sheep Grazing Foothill Big Game Range in Spring

Sheep with esophageal fistulas were used to determine the daily intake, nutritive content and digestibility of forage at three periods and two stocking intensities during the spring of 1972 on a typical foothill range in northern Utah. Heavy grazing under a season-long regime did not influence the concentrations of dietary chemical components when compared to moderate grazing; however, it did depress the digestibility of cellulose and organic matter. There was a significant decline in the dietary chemical components due to forage maturation. Digestibility of organic matter and cellulose were significantly higher in the early spring as compared to late spring. Daily intake was depressed as a result of the heavy grazing only in early spring. Heavy grazing intensities on short-term pastures influenced the content of lignin, cellulose and protein in the diet. Digestibility of cellulose and organic matter was depressed during early and late spring as a result of the heavy grazing intensities while protein digestibility was depressed throughout the season. Intake was significantly lower under heavy grazing in the intermediate period than it was under moderate grazing

Culture change in a professional sports team: Shaping environmental contexts and regulating power

Although high performing cultures are crucial for the enduring success of professional sport performance teams, theoretical and practical understanding of how they are established and sustained is lacking. To develop knowledge in this area, a case study was undertaken to examine the key mechanisms and processes of a successful culture change programme at English Rugby Union’s Leeds Carnegie. Exploring the change process from a 360 degree perspective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with team management, one specialist coach, six players, and the CEO. Analysed and explained through decentred theory, results revealed that culture change was effectively facilitated by team management: a) subtly and covertly shaping the physical, structural, and psychosocial context in which support staff and players made performance-impacting choices, and b) regulating the ‘to and fro’ of power which characterises professional sport performance teams. Decentred theory is also supported as an effective framework for culture change study

Change management: The case of the elite sport performance team

The effective and efficient implementation of change is often required for both successful performance and management survival across a host of contemporary domains. However, although of major theoretical and practical significance, research to date has overlooked the application of change management (hereafter CM) knowledge to the elite sport performance team environment. Considering that the success of ‘off-field’ sports businesses are largely dependent on the performances of their ‘on-field’ team, this article explores the application of current CM theorizing to this specific setting and the challenges facing its utility. Accordingly, we identify the need and importance of developing theory specific to this area, with practical application in both sport and business, through examination of current knowledge and identification of the domain's unique, dynamic and contested properties. Markers of successful change are then suggested to guide initial enquiry before the article concludes with proposed lines of research which may act to provide a valid and comprehensive theoretical account of CM to optimize the research and practice of those working in the field

On Beneficial Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Services

A number of studies have investigated the possibility of extending Electric Vehicle (EV) Lithium-ion battery life by deliberately choosing to store the battery at a low to moderate state of charge. Recently, there has been considerable interest shown in the scheme of a deliberate discharge and subsequent recharge of a battery to yield an overall reduction in battery degradation whilst carrying out Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) services (so-called `beneficial V2G'). This paper presents an investigation of the conditions permitting successful operation of this method by examining incremental time variation of the relevant parameters for two types of cells from results of the same physical size and chemistry, and similar capacity. These two types of cells are found in this present analysis to offer differing degrees of suitability for beneficial V2G

Pre-defined and Optional Staging for the Deployment of Enterprise Systems: a case study and a framework

The effective deployment of enterprise systems has been a major challenge for many organisations. Customising the new system, changing business processes, and integrating multiple information sources are all difficult tasks. As such, they are typically done in carefully planned stages in a process known as phased implementation. Using ideas from Option Theory, this article critiques aspects of phased implementation. One customer relationship management (CRM) project and its phased implementation are described in detail and ten other enterprise system deployments are summarised as a basis for the observation that almost all deployment stages are pre-defined operational steps rather than decision points. However, Option Theory suggests that optional stages, to be used only when risk materialises, should be integral parts of project plans. Although such optional stages are often more valuable than pre-defined stages, the evidence presented in this article shows that they are only rarely utilised. Therefore, a simple framework is presented; it first identifies risks related to the deployment of enterprise systems, then identifies optional stages that can mitigate these risks, and finally compares the costs and benefits of both pre-defined and optional stages

Tamoxifen accelerates the repair of demyelinated lesions in the central nervous system.

Enhancing central nervous system (CNS) myelin regeneration is recognized as an important strategy to ameliorate the devastating consequences of demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Previous findings have indicated that myelin proteins, which accumulate following demyelination, inhibit remyelination by blocking the differentiation of rat oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) via modulation of PKCα. We therefore screened drugs for their potential to overcome this differentiation block. From our screening, tamoxifen emerges as a potent inducer of OPC differentiation in vitro. We show that the effects of tamoxifen rely on modulation of the estrogen receptors ERα, ERβ, and GPR30. Furthermore, we demonstrate that administration of tamoxifen to demyelinated rats in vivo accelerates remyelination. Tamoxifen is a well-established drug and is thus a promising candidate for a drug to regenerate myelin, as it will not require extensive safety testing. In addition, Tamoxifen plays an important role in biomedical research as an activator of inducible genetic models. Our results highlight the importance of appropriate controls when using such models.This work was supported by grants from Wings for Life and the UK Multiple Sclerosis Society. M.R.N.K. holds an NIHR CL award and a Sir David and Isobel Walker fellowship. G.A.G. was supported by CONICYT (Becas Chile) scholarship, and M.P.H. was supported by a Sir David and Isobel Walker studentship. Research in the author’s laboratory is supported by a core support grant from the Wellcome Trust and MRC to the Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institut

GPs are from Mars, Administrators are from Venus: The Role of Misaligned Occupational Dispositions in Inhibiting Mandated Role Change

Research on mandated occupational role change focuses on jurisdictional conflict to explain change failure. Our study of the English National Health Service highlights the role of occupational dispositions in shaping how mandated role change is implemented by members of multiple occupational groups. We find that tension stemming from misaligned dispositions may emerge as members of different occupations interact during their role change implementation efforts. Depending on dispositional responses to tension, change may fail as members of the different occupations avoid interactions. This suggests that effective role change can be elusive even in the initial absence of conflicting occupational interests