The domain of organizational cognitive neuroscience:theoretical and empirical challenges

In this editorial, the authors respond to the 2011 article in the Journal of Management by Becker, Cropanzano, and Sanfey, titled “Organizational Neuroscience: Taking Organizational Theory Inside the Neural Black Box.” More specifically, the authors build on the ideas of Becker et al. first to clarify and extend their work and then to explore the critical philosophical issues involved in drawing inferences from neuroscientific research. They argue that these problems are yet to be solved and that organizational researchers who wish to incorporate neuroscientific advances into their work need to engage with them.

Decolonising Barclays Bank DCO? Corporate Africanisation in Nigeria, 1945-69

The reaction of British business to the decolonisation of the Empire has been the focus of much recent research, but few studies have shed light on the continued presence of commercial activities after independence. Barclays Bank DCO in Nigeria began indigenising its staff during decolonisation, but this process was far from complete at independence. African managers at Barclays were supposed to continue British banking traditions, while the post-colonial state hoped to gain more influence on foreign investment through the Nigerianisation of management. By the time the Nigerian civil war effectively ended in 1969 Barclays was only just beginning to come to terms with the ability and ‘character’ of its Nigerian managers, while the Nigerian state was moving towards more radical policies to control foreign business. This article aims to highlight the importance of Africanisation programmes for the structure and control of a major British bank trying to adapt first to the end of Empire and then to the post-colonial world.

Topic continuity in informal conversations between native and non-native speakers of English

Topic management by non-native speakers (NNSs) during informal conversations has received comparatively little attention from researchers, and receives surprisingly little attention in second language learning and teaching. This article reports on one of the topic management strategies employed by international students during informal, social interactions with native-speaker peers, exploring the process of maintaining topic continuity following temporary suspensions of topics. The concept of side sequences is employed to illustrate the nature of different types of topic suspension, as well as the process of jointly negotiating a return to the topic. Extracts from the conversations show that such sequences were not exclusively occasioned by language difficulties, and that the non-native speaker participants were able to effect successful returns to the main topic of the conversations.

Managing the threat of terrorism in British travel and leisure organizations

Purpose - To study how the threats of terrorism are being handled by a variety of UK companies in the travel and leisure sector in the UK in the post 9/11 era. Design/methodology/approach - A review of the literature of risk management in a world that is perceived to be more risky as a result of the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 (9/11) is presented. Describes the application of theories of organizational resilience and institutions to frame an understanding of how managers make sense of terrorism risk and comprehend uncertainty. Reports a qualitative analysis of themes in interviews conducted with 25 managers from 6 unnamed organizations in the aviation industry (3 organizations) and the UK travel and leisure industry (3 organizations), representing a catering supplier, an airport, an airline, a tour company, a convention centre, and an arts and entertainment centre. Findings - The results indicated that the three organizations in the aviation industry prioritize threats from terrorism, whilst the three organizations in the leisure and travel sector do not, suggesting that the managers in the travel and leisure industry apply a probabilistic type of thinking and believe the likelihood of terrorism to be low. Reports that they give precedence to economic concerns and numerous other threats to the industry. Concludes that managers fall prey to the 'ludic fallacy', which conceives all odds as being calculable and hence managers conceive the terrorism risk as low while also expecting institutional factors to pre-empt and control terrorism threats, a reaction which the authors believe to be rather complacent and dangerous. Originality/value - Contributes to the research literature on risk management by revealing the gap in the ability of existing management tools and methodologies to deal with current and uncertain threats facing organizations due to terrorism.

Scaling up question-answering to linked data

Linked Data semantic sources, in particular DBpedia, can be used to answer many user queries. PowerAqua is an open multi-ontology Question Answering (QA) system for the Semantic Web (SW). However, the emergence of Linked Data, characterized by its openness, heterogeneity and scale, introduces a new dimension to the Semantic Web scenario, in which exploiting the relevant information to extract answers for Natural Language (NL) user queries is a major challenge. In this paper we discuss the issues and lessons learned from our experience of integrating PowerAqua as a front-end for DBpedia and a subset of Linked Data sources. As such, we go one step beyond the state of the art on end-users interfaces for Linked Data by introducing mapping and fusion techniques needed to translate a user query by means of multiple sources. Our first informal experiments probe whether, in fact, it is feasible to obtain answers to user queries by composing information across semantic sources and Linked Data, even in its current form, where the strength of Linked Data is more a by-product of its size than its quality. We believe our experiences can be extrapolated to a variety of end-user applications that wish to scale, open up, exploit and re-use what possibly is the greatest wealth of data about everything in the history of Artificial Intelligence. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Low gravity rotational culture and the integration of immunomodulatory stem cells reduce human islet allo-reactivity

Modification of human islets prior to transplantation may improve long-term clinical outcome in terms of diabetes management, by supporting graft function and reducing the potential for allo-rejection. Intragraft incorporation of stem cells secreting beta (β)-cell trophic and immunomodulatory factors represents a credible approach, but requires suitable culture methods to facilitate islet alteration without compromising integrity. This study employed a three-dimensional rotational cell culture system (RCCS) to achieve modification, preserve function, and ultimately influence immune cell responsiveness to human islets. Islets underwent intentional dispersal and rotational culture-assisted aggregation with amniotic epithelial cells (AEC) exhibiting intrinsic immunomodulatory potential. Reassembled islet constructs were assessed for functional integrity, and their ability to induce an allo-response in discrete T-cell subsets determined using mixed islet:lymphocyte reaction assays. RCCS supported the formation of islet:AEC aggregates with improved insulin secretory capacity compared to unmodified islets. Further, the allo-response of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) and purified CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets to AEC-bearing grafts was significantly (p < 0.05) attenuated. Rotational culture enables pre-transplant islet modification involving their integration with immunomodulatory stem cells capable of subduing the allo-reactivity of T cells relevant to islet rejection. The approach may play a role in achieving acute and long-term graft survival in islet transplantation.

Organisational learning, climate change and the tragedy of the commons in China

This paper ends with a brief discussion of climate change and suggests that a practical solution would be to transfer much of the current air, sea and long-haul trucking of intercontinental freight between China and Europe (and the USA) to maglev systems. First we review the potential of Asian knowledge management and organisational learning and contrast this against Western precepts finding that there seems to be little incentive to 'look after one's fellows' in China (and perhaps across Asia) outside of tight personal guanxi networks. This is likely to be the case in the intense production regions of China where little time is allowed for 'organisational learning' by the staff and there is little incentive to initiate 'knowledge management' by senior managers. Thus the 'tragedy of the commons' will be enacted by individuals, township, and provincial leaders upwards to top ministers - no one will care for the climate or pollution, only for their own group and their wealth creation prospects. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

A conceptual framework for understanding resilience of construction SMEs to extreme weather events

Purpose Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), which form a significant portion in many economies, are some of the most vulnerable to the impact of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs). This is of particular importance to the construction industry, as an overarching majority of construction companies are SMEs who account for the majority of employment and income generation within the industry. In the UK, previous research has identified construction SMEs as some of the worst affected by EWEs. Design/methodology/approach Given the recent occurrences of EWEs and predictions suggesting increases in both the intensity and frequency of EWEs in the future, improving the resilience of construction SMEs is vital for achieving a resilient construction industry. A conceptual framework is first developed which is then populated and expanded based on empirical evidence. Positioned within a pragmatic research philosophy, case study research strategy was adopted as the overall research strategy in undertaking this investigation. Findings Based on the findings of two in-depth case studies of construction SMEs, a framework was developed to represent EWE resilience of construction SMEs, where resilience was seen as a collective effect of vulnerability, coping strategies and coping capacities of SMEs, characteristics of the EWE and the wider economic climate. Originality/value The paper provides an original contribution towards the overarching agenda of the resilience of SMEs, and policy making in the area of EWE risk management by presenting a novel conceptual framework depicting the resilience of medium-sized construction companies.

Innovációs kalandozások az elmélettől a stratégiáig = Innovation adventuring from theory to strategy

A cikk célja, hogy közelebb vigye az olvasót az innováció és az innovációmenedzsment kérdésköréhez. A tanulmány az innováció témakörének feldolgozását a vállalatelméleti alapoktól kezdi, majd konkrét stratégiai megfontolásokig jut el a cikk végére. A tanulmány széles körű hazai és nemzetközi szakirodalom alapján tárja fel az innováció vállalatelméleti gyökereit. A felhasznált irodalom nem ragad meg elméleti szinten, hiszen a tanulmány lefordítja ezeket az elméleti koncepciókat valós, gyakorlatorientált üzleti nyelvre. Célja, hogy a nagyvilágban szétszórt elméleteket letisztítsa, és a modern kori menedzsmentelvekkel szintetizálja. A cikk az innovációt a vállalati értékteremtés szemszögéből vizsgálja. Megállapítja, hogy az innováció számos vállalatelmélet tanait integrálja egybe, aminek következtében a stratégiai implikációk is széles spektrumon mozoghatnak. Ahogy az innováció változást indukál a szervezetben, úgy bukkannak fel komplex optimalizálási dilemmák, amelyek a turbulens gazdasági környezetben, a rövidülő reakcióidők miatt, egyre nagyobb kihívást okoznak a menedzserek számára. A cikk ezeket a dilemmákat mutatja be vitaindító attitűddel, valamint az elmélet és a gyakorlat szintetizálásával. ____ The aim of the article is to bring the reader closer to the topic of innovation management through several company theories and strategic implications. This study is based on a wide range of international literature which is interpreted in a practice oriented way. This article is summarizing the sporadic information on innovation as well as makes an effort on synthesizing this knowledge. The aspect of observation is mainly based on corporate value creation. As innovation causes changes into the organization company leaders have to face complex economic optimization questions. These management dilemmas are not easy to solve in this turbulent business environment. This article tries to highlight these strategic level issues around innovation management by synthesizing theoretical knowledge with business implications.

Incorporação do resíduo de cascalho de perfuração de poços de petróleo em formulações cerâmicas

During its operations, the oil industry generates a lot of waste, including gravel from drilling. Control of environmental impacts caused by this waste represents a major challenge. Such impacts can be minimized when it is given an appropriate management by being properly treated and properly disposed or recycled. The properties of these materials can be greatly influenced when a waste is added to its composition. This work aims to study the incorporation of gravel waste oil-well drilling in the standard body for production of red ceramic from a ceramic industry in São Gonçalo do Amarante / RN. The success of the incorporation can minimize costs in the production of ceramic pieces and reduce the environmental impacts caused by waste. The raw materials used were collected, characterized, and formulated with the percentages of 0%, 20% and 40% by weight of substitution of residue were synthesized at temperatures of 900, 1.010 and 1.120 °C using 30 minute firing intervals, 1 hour and 30min and 2 hours and 30 minutes, based on a factorial design 2³. Samples were then subjected to the tests of Water Absorption, Linear Retraction Firing, Flexural Rupture Strength, Apparent Porosity and Apparent Specific mass and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of break section. The results showed that the use of the residue for the manufacture of the ceramic products is possible (tiles, bricks and massive hollow bricks) replacing the clay to 40%, meeting the requirements of the standard and the literature for the technological properties of the final product.

Gestão educativa gerencial: superação do modelo burocrático?

The study discusses the changes in public management and their impacts on the educational field from the adoption of the flexible model production. It is based on the assumption that the changes incontemporary societies were influenced by the need to reorganize the capital that, in crisis, tried to overcome the Taylor/Ford production model, by implementing a more agile, more flexible one to meet the current demands of the market. For the implementation of the new public management, the Latin American countries started to use strategies based on the business model and the criteria of efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. This new management paradigm advocated replacing the bureaucratic model of management by a decentralized model, with focus on customer service. These guidelines have a broad impact on the educational management and were disseminated by international organizations. Studies show that the management model has been unable to overcome the bureaucratic model of management that existed within the school, which is found in the transformation of a bureaucratic flexibility, consistent with the new model of production.

Análise da variabilidade climática sobre a produtividade da soja no município de Bom Jesus (PI)

The climate is still main responsible for the variations soybean productivity (Glycine max (L.) Merrill), exerting a limiting action on these agricultural systems. The bomjesuense cerrado, this culture has proved, over the years, an increase of cultivated areas, however, productivity does not keep the same pace, going through periods of oscillations. Thus, although the crop is added to high technology, culture has great vulnerability to climatic adversities. Thus, the present study aims to analyze possible trends in meteorological variables, which can influence the soybean yield in Bom Jesus. For this purpose, different datasets were used, as follows: i) two periods of daily data (1984-2014 and 1974-2014), both obtained from the National Meteorological Institute (INMET); ii) climate normals from 1961-1990 as defined by INMET; iii) local agricultural production data of soybean-year (1997/1998 to 2012/2013) obtained from the Municipal Agricultural Production (PAM) dataset, which is management by Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The analysis procedures included calculations of climate normals for 1984 to 2014 period and some statistical applications, as follows: i) the Wilcoxon test, used to evaluate differences between climate normals (1961 to 1990 and 1984 to 2014); ii) the Mann-Kendall nonparametric test, in order to analyze the linear trend of agrometeorological variables (rainfall, maximum temperature, minimum temperature and diurnal range of temperature; iii) cluster analysis by Ward method and the Spearman correlation test (rs) to identify the relationship between agrometeorological variable and soybean annual productivity. We adopted a statistical significance level of 5%. The results indicate changes in seasonality of the 1984-2014 climatology with respect to past climatology for all variables analyzed, except for insolation and precipitation. However, the monthly analysis of precipitation indicate negative trend during October and positive trend in December, causing a delay in start of rainy season. If this trend is persistent this result must be considered in futures definitions of the soybean crop sowing date over the region studied. With Mann-Kendall test was possible to identify positive trends with statistical significance in maximum temperature for all month forming part of soybean cycle (from November to April), which in turn tends to cause adverse effects on crop physiology, and consequently impacts on the final yield. Was identified a significant positive correlation between soybean yield and precipitation observed in March, thus precipitation deficit in this month is harmful to the soybean crop development. No statistically significant correlation was identified among maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and DTR with annual soybean productivity due these range of meteorological variables are not limiting factors in the final soybean yield in Bom Jesus (PI). It is expected that this study will contribute to propose planning strategies considering the role of climate variability on soybean crop final yield.

A gestão educacional das secretarias municipais de educação de municípios maranhenses a partir do plano de ações articuladas 2007-2011

The main purpose of this thesis was to analyze educational management of Municipal Departments of Education (SEMED’s) of cities in Maranhão inserted in the Plan of Articulated Actions (2007- 2011). We evidence the role of Union in that public policy. The leading argument is that Brazilian federal government is not demos constraining in relation to its national sub-governments, what makes the central government to enforce, primarily, educational politics like PAR. This kind of politics interferes in the educational management by national sub-governments, turning them into mere executors. By turning them into mere executors, PAR limits their autonomy and over imposes the results-based management as a parameter to improve the education quality. In order to develop the hypothesis, we adopted Political Science as theoretical basis, represented by Federalism Theory as pact which premise is the cooperative pattern of federalism as being the best form of government because it allows a joint decision-making process from the idea of no centralization of power. The methodology was historical materialism, which assumes the totality and contradiction as a form to understand the phenomenon that does not express in direct way its existence, but can be analyzed from such categories that made possible to interpret the reality. So, we used as tools the semistructured interview and documental analyses with triangulation of data. The empirical basis of the research is 04 (four) cities in Maranhão that obey the following criteria: 1. The municipality has to be assigned on the FNDE Resolution nº 29/2007; 2. To present the lowest educational management indexes from the diagnosis made in loco by PAR; 3. To present the lowest financial management indexes based on the diagnosis in loco by PAR. The results suggest that PAR does not effect a resultbased management which are proposed in its legal rules neither the SEMEDs can propose their conception of educational management. That situation creates a hybridism that sometimes turns to managerialism and performativity, sometimes to bureaucracy, sometimes to a total uncoordinated and unarticulated action. In relation to SEMEDs management, this thesis shows that these institutions have no own conception about educational management and end up acting in an uncoordinated and unarticulated way. The thesis concludes that PAR is an over imposition by federal government towards national sub-governments that conflicts with management patterns of those institutions that are used to a less managerial logic. This over imposition makes the Central government to be the center of Brazilian federalism, which is in reality an incomplete pact.

The potential for pharmacists to manage children attending emergency departments

AIM: There have been concerns about maintaining appropriate clinical staff levels in Emergency Departments in England.1 The aim of this study was to determine if Emergency Department attendees aged from 0-16 years could be managed by community pharmacists or hospital independent prescriber pharmacists with or without further advanced clinical practice training. METHOD: A prospective, 48 site, cross-sectional, observational study of patients attending Emergency Departments (ED) in England, UK was conducted. Pharmacists at each site collected up to 400 admissions and paediatric patients were included in the data collection. The pharmacist independent prescribers (one for each site) were asked to identify patient attendance at their Emergency Department, record anonymised details of the cases-age, weight, presenting complaint, clinical grouping (e.g. medicine, orthopaedics), and categorise each presentation into one of four possible categories: CP, Community Pharmacist, cases which could be managed by a community pharmacist outside an ED setting; IP-cases that could be managed at ED by a hospital pharmacist with independent prescriber status; IPT, Independent Prescriber Pharmacist with additional training-cases which could be managed at ED by a hospital pharmacist independent prescriber with additional clinical training; and MT, Medical Team only-cases that were unsuitable for the pharmacist to manage. An Impact Index was calculated for the two most frequent clinical groupings using the formula: Impact index=percentage of the total workload of the clinical grouping multiplied by the percentage ability of pharmacists to manage that clinical group. RESULTS: 1623 out of 18,229 (9%) attendees, from 45 of the 48 sites, were children aged from 0 to 16 years of age (median 8 yrs, range 0-16), 749 were female and 874 were male. Of the 1623 admissions, 9% of the cases were judged to be suitable for clinical management by a community pharmacist (CP), 4% suitable for a hospital pharmacist independent prescriber (IP), 32% suitable for a hospital independent pharmacist prescriber with additional training (IPT); and the remaining 55% were only suitable for the Medical Team (MT). The most frequent clinical groups and impact index for the attendees were General Medicine=10.78 and orthopaedics=10.60. CONCLUSION: Paediatric patients attending Emergency Departments were judged by pharmacists to be suitable for management outside a hospital setting in approximately 1 in 11 cases, and by hospital independent prescriber pharmacists in 4 in 10 cases. With further training, it was found that the total proportion of cases that could be managed by a pharmacist was 45%. The greatest impact for pharmacist management occurs in general medicine and orthopaedics.

Investigation into a best practice model for providing an integrated user experience with mobile cloud applications

Mobile Cloud Computing promises to overcome the physical limitations of mobile devices by executing demanding mobile applications on cloud infrastructure. In practice, implementing this paradigm is difficult; network disconnection often occurs, bandwidth may be limited, and a large power draw is required from the battery, resulting in a poor user experience. This thesis presents a mobile cloud middleware solution, Context Aware Mobile Cloud Services (CAMCS), which provides cloudbased services to mobile devices, in a disconnected fashion. An integrated user experience is delivered by designing for anticipated network disconnection, and low data transfer requirements. CAMCS achieves this by means of the Cloud Personal Assistant (CPA); each user of CAMCS is assigned their own CPA, which can complete user-assigned tasks, received as descriptions from the mobile device, by using existing cloud services. Service execution is personalised to the user's situation with contextual data, and task execution results are stored with the CPA until the user can connect with his/her mobile device to obtain the results. Requirements for an integrated user experience are outlined, along with the design and implementation of CAMCS. The operation of CAMCS and CPAs with cloud-based services is presented, specifically in terms of service description, discovery, and task execution. The use of contextual awareness to personalise service discovery and service consumption to the user's situation is also presented. Resource management by CAMCS is also studied, and compared with existing solutions. Additional application models that can be provided by CAMCS are also presented. Evaluation is performed with CAMCS deployed on the Amazon EC2 cloud. The resource usage of the CAMCS Client, running on Android-based mobile devices, is also evaluated. A user study with volunteers using CAMCS on their own mobile devices is also presented. Results show that CAMCS meets the requirements outlined for an integrated user experience.