Natural preference of zebrafish (Danio rerio) for a dark environment

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has been used as a model in neuroscience but knowledge about its behavior is limited. The aim of this study was to determine the preference of this fish species for a dark or light environment. Initially we used a place preference test and in a second experiment we applied an exit latency test. A two-chamber aquarium was used for the preference test. The aquarium consisted of a black chamber and a white chamber. In the first experiment the animal was placed in the aquarium and the time spent in the two compartments was recorded for 10 min. More time was spent in the black compartment (Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test, T = 7, N1 = N2 = 18, P = 0.0001). In the second experiment the animal was placed in the black or white compartment and the time it took to go from the initial compartment to the opposite one was recorded. The test lasted a maximum of 10 min. The results showed that the animal spent more time to go from the black to the white compartment (Mann-Whitney rank sum test, T = 48, N1 = 9, N2 = 8, P<0.0230). These data suggest that this fish species has a natural preference for a dark environment and this characteristic can be very useful for the development of new behavioral paradigms for fish.

Potential and Challenges of Analog Reconfigurable Computation in Modern and Future CMOS

In this work, the feasibility of the floating-gate technology in analog computing platforms in a scaled down general-purpose CMOS technology is considered. When the technology is scaled down the performance of analog circuits tends to get worse because the process parameters are optimized for digital transistors and the scaling involves the reduction of supply voltages. Generally, the challenge in analog circuit design is that all salient design metrics such as power, area, bandwidth and accuracy are interrelated. Furthermore, poor flexibility, i.e. lack of reconfigurability, the reuse of IP etc., can be considered the most severe weakness of analog hardware. On this account, digital calibration schemes are often required for improved performance or yield enhancement, whereas high flexibility/reconfigurability can not be easily achieved. Here, it is discussed whether it is possible to work around these obstacles by using floating-gate transistors (FGTs), and analyze problems associated with the practical implementation. FGT technology is attractive because it is electrically programmable and also features a charge-based built-in non-volatile memory. Apart from being ideal for canceling the circuit non-idealities due to process variations, the FGTs can also be used as computational or adaptive elements in analog circuits. The nominal gate oxide thickness in the deep sub-micron (DSM) processes is too thin to support robust charge retention and consequently the FGT becomes leaky. In principle, non-leaky FGTs can be implemented in a scaled down process without any special masks by using “double”-oxide transistors intended for providing devices that operate with higher supply voltages than general purpose devices. However, in practice the technology scaling poses several challenges which are addressed in this thesis. To provide a sufficiently wide-ranging survey, six prototype chips with varying complexity were implemented in four different DSM process nodes and investigated from this perspective. The focus is on non-leaky FGTs, but the presented autozeroing floating-gate amplifier (AFGA) demonstrates that leaky FGTs may also find a use. The simplest test structures contain only a few transistors, whereas the most complex experimental chip is an implementation of a spiking neural network (SNN) which comprises thousands of active and passive devices. More precisely, it is a fully connected (256 FGT synapses) two-layer spiking neural network (SNN), where the adaptive properties of FGT are taken advantage of. A compact realization of Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP) within the SNN is one of the key contributions of this thesis. Finally, the considerations in this thesis extend beyond CMOS to emerging nanodevices. To this end, one promising emerging nanoscale circuit element - memristor - is reviewed and its applicability for analog processing is considered. Furthermore, it is discussed how the FGT technology can be used to prototype computation paradigms compatible with these emerging two-terminal nanoscale devices in a mature and widely available CMOS technology.

The brain decade in debate: VI. Sensory and motor maps: dynamics and plasticity

This article is an edited transcription of a virtual symposium promoted by the Brazilian Society of Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC). Although the dynamics of sensory and motor representations have been one of the most studied features of the central nervous system, the actual mechanisms of brain plasticity that underlie the dynamic nature of sensory and motor maps are not entirely unraveled. Our discussion began with the notion that the processing of sensory information depends on many different cortical areas. Some of them are arranged topographically and others have non-topographic (analytical) properties. Besides a sensory component, every cortical area has an efferent output that can be mapped and can influence motor behavior. Although new behaviors might be related to modifications of the sensory or motor representations in a given cortical area, they can also be the result of the acquired ability to make new associations between specific sensory cues and certain movements, a type of learning known as conditioning motor learning. Many types of learning are directly related to the emotional or cognitive context in which a new behavior is acquired. This has been demonstrated by paradigms in which the receptive field properties of cortical neurons are modified when an animal is engaged in a given discrimination task or when a triggering feature is paired with an aversive stimulus. The role of the cholinergic input from the nucleus basalis to the neocortex was also highlighted as one important component of the circuits responsible for the context-dependent changes that can be induced in cortical maps.

Forming i barnehagen i lys av Reggio Emilias atelierkultur

Forming (Arts and crafts) and children’s creative action with materials and tools are less in use in the kindergarten than before. Political focus on children’s early learning has led to shifts in kindergartens toward other specific disciplines, and requirements for individual testing also of the smallest children’s competencies within these. Kindergarten teachers, educators, researchers and participants in social debate have pointed out that there are epistemological contradictions in descriptions of kindergarten quality as well as between current kindergarten policy documents and requirements for the kindergartens’ staff. Meanwhile, the content and methods in many kindergartens are inspired by practice and philosophy in the municipal kindergartens in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Correlation between kindergartens’ formingprojects and experiences from Reggio Emilia is actualized in particular through the workshop and the studio’s role in children’s learning processes. One starting point for the thesis’ problem area is a documented need for more knowledge about kindergarten’s educational content. The overarching goal of the thesis is to develop new knowledge about how learning takes place in kindergarten through examining the field of forming in kindergartens inspired by Reggio Emilia’s atelier culture. The thesis is theoretically anchored within pragmatism, and ties kindergarten’s aesthetic operations with materials and tools to socio-cultural perspective, social constructivism and post humanistic theory. The empirical material is obtained through a qualitative study with ethnography as methodological approach. The fieldwork is conducted in kindergarten, with two leading research questions: 1) How is atelierism perceived and unfolded in Norwegian Reggio Emilia-inspired kindergartens, and 2) how is forming perceived and unfolded in Norwegian Reggio Emilia-inspired kindergartens. A comprehensive and multifaceted material is analyzed, and the results are presented in the form of three themes: The physical environment, Relations and actions in interplay, and Expression forms and forms of expression. Each of these topics are supported by examples from kindergartens’ adult voices and the constructed empirical material. Insights into how learning takes place in the kindergarten subject of forming with inspiration from the Reggio Emilia atelier culture is discussed in the tension between educational philosophy, Nordic kindergarten tradition and neoliberal trends that kindergarten teachers must adhere to. Learning potentials in children’s opportunities for action in forming in light of the atelier appears in the results of the empirical study. The educational context described is characterized by experimental and playful actions where children’s sensations, curiosity and resistance are interacting with the identity of materials and tools. The results imply aesthetic, ethical, democratic and ecological reflections, which are also valid on a practical action level. The thesis contributes to description and understanding of kindergarten’ content and young children’s learning, the importance of atelier culture as inspiration for the kindergarten, and the further development of methodology and documentation of knowledge expressions.

Inhibition of return, gap effect and saccadic reaction time to a visual target

Simple manual reaction time (MRT) to a visual target (S2) is shortened when a non-informative cue (S1) is flashed at the S2 location shortly before the onset of S2 (early facilitation). Afterwards, MRT to S2 appearing at the S1 location is lengthened (inhibition of return - IOR). Similar results have been obtained for saccadic reaction time (SRT). Moreover, when there is a temporal gap between offset of the fixation point (FP) and onset of a target (gap paradigm), SRT is shorter than SRT in an overlap paradigm (FP remains on). In the present study, we determined SRT to S2 (10º) after presenting S1 at the same eccentricity (10º) or at a parafoveal position (2º) in the same or in the opposite hemifield. In addition, we employed both gap and overlap paradigms. Twelve subjects were asked not to respond to S1 (2º or 10º) to the right or to the left of FP, but to respond by making a saccadic movement in response to S2. We obtained the following results: 1) a 40-ms gap effect, 2) an interaction between gap effect and IOR, 3) a 39-ms delay (IOR) when S2 appeared at the cued (S1) position, and 4) a smaller (17 ms) but significant inhibition when S1 occurred at 2º in the ipsilateral hemifield. Thus, a parafoveal (2º) S1 elicits an inhibition of SRT towards ipsilateral peripheral targets. Since an inhibition of the ipsilateral hemifield by a 1º eccentric cue has been reported to occur when manual responses are employed, we suggest that the postulated functional link between covert and overt orienting of attention is also valid for parafoveal cues.

Involvement of glutamate and reactive oxygen species in methylmercury neurotoxicity

This review addresses the mechanisms of methylmercury (MeHg)-induced neurotoxicity, specifically examining the role of oxidative stress in mediating neuronal damage. A number of critical findings point to a central role for astrocytes in mediating MeHg-induced neurotoxicity as evidenced by the following observations: a) MeHg preferentially accumulates in astrocytes; b) MeHg specifically inhibits glutamate uptake in astrocytes; c) neuronal dysfunction is secondary to disturbances in astrocytes. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by MeHg has been observed in various experimental paradigms. For example, MeHg enhances ROS formation both in vivo (rodent cerebellum) and in vitro (isolated rat brain synaptosomes), as well as in neuronal and mixed reaggregating cell cultures. Antioxidants, including selenocompounds, can rescue astrocytes from MeHg-induced cytotoxicity by reducing ROS formation. We emphasize that oxidative stress plays a significant role in mediating MeHg-induced neurotoxic damage with active involvement of the mitochondria in this process. Furthermore, we provide a mechanistic overview on oxidative stress induced by MeHg that is triggered by a series of molecular events such as activation of various kinases, stress proteins and other immediate early genes culminating in cell damage.

Engagement of multifocal neural circuits during recall of autobiographical happy events

Happy emotional states have not been extensively explored in functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using autobiographic recall paradigms. We investigated the brain circuitry engaged during induction of happiness by standardized script-driven autobiographical recall in 11 healthy subjects (6 males), aged 32.4 ± 7.2 years, without physical or psychiatric disorders, selected according to their ability to vividly recall personal experiences. Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) changes were recorded during auditory presentation of personal scripts of happiness, neutral content and negative emotional content (irritability). The same uniform structure was used for the cueing narratives of both emotionally salient and neutral conditions, in order to decrease the variability of findings. In the happiness relative to the neutral condition, there was an increased BOLD signal in the left dorsal prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, thalamus bilaterally, left hypothalamus, left anterior cingulate gyrus, and midportions of the left middle temporal gyrus (P < 0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). Relative to the irritability condition, the happiness condition showed increased activity in the left insula, thalamus and hypothalamus, and in anterior and midportions of the inferior and middle temporal gyri bilaterally (P < 0.05, corrected), varying in size between 13 and 64 voxels. Findings of happiness-related increased activity in prefrontal and subcortical regions extend the results of previous functional imaging studies of autobiographical recall. The BOLD signal changes identified reflect general aspects of emotional processing, emotional control, and the processing of sensory and bodily signals associated with internally generated feelings of happiness. These results reinforce the notion that happiness induction engages a wide network of brain regions.

Ischemia preconditioning is neuroprotective in a rat cerebral ischemic injury model through autophagy activation and apoptosis inhibition

Sublethal ischemic preconditioning (IPC) is a powerful inducer of ischemic brain tolerance. However, its underlying mechanisms are still not well understood. In this study, we chose four different IPC paradigms, namely 5 min (5 min duration), 5×5 min (5 min duration, 2 episodes, 15-min interval), 5×5×5 min (5 min duration, 3 episodes, 15-min intervals), and 15 min (15 min duration), and demonstrated that three episodes of 5 min IPC activated autophagy to the greatest extent 24 h after IPC, as evidenced by Beclin expression and LC3-I/II conversion. Autophagic activation was mediated by the tuberous sclerosis type 1 (TSC1)-mTor signal pathway as IPC increased TSC1 but decreased mTor phosphorylation. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) and hematoxylin and eosin staining confirmed that IPC protected against cerebral ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Critically, 3-methyladenine, an inhibitor of autophagy, abolished the neuroprotection of IPC and, by contrast, rapamycin, an autophagy inducer, potentiated it. Cleaved caspase-3 expression, neurological scores, and infarct volume in different groups further confirmed the protection of IPC against I/R injury. Taken together, our data indicate that autophagy activation might underlie the protection of IPC against ischemic injury by inhibiting apoptosis.

Bilateral repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for treatment-resistant depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

There has been concern regarding the use of controversial paradigms for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to manage treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This meta-analysis assessed the efficacy of bilateral rTMS compared with unilateral and sham rTMS in patients with TRD. PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, EAGLE and NTIS databases were searched to identify relevant studies, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on bilateral rTMS for TRD patients were included. The response was defined as the primary outcome, and remission was the secondary outcome. Ten RCTs that included 634 patients met the eligibility criteria. The risk ratio (RRs) of both the primary and secondary outcomes of bilateral rTMS showed non-significant increases compared to unilateral rTMS (RR=1.01, P=0.93; odds ratio [OR]=0.77, P=0.22). Notably, the RR of the primary bilateral rTMS outcome was significantly increased compared to that for sham rTMS (RR=3.43, P=0.0004). The results of our analysis demonstrated that bilateral rTMS was significantly more effective than sham rTMS but not unilateral rTMS in patients with TRD. Thus, bilateral rTMS may not be a useful paradigm for patients with TRD.

Yliopiston yrittäjämäisyyden sosiaalinen rakentuminen: case Aalto-yliopisto

Keskustelu yrittäjyyden sijoittumisesta yliopistojen tehtäväkenttään on muodostunut 2000-luvun aikana osaksi yhteiskunnallista ja maailmanlaajuista korkeakoulutuksen muutosta. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on lisätä ymmärrystä yliopiston yrittäjämäisyyden sosiaalisesta rakentumisesta. Lähestyn yliopiston sisällä tuotettua moniäänistä yrittäjyyspuhetta yliopiston yrittäjämäisyyden todellisuuden representaationa, ja pyrin tekemään siitä selkoa kommunikaatioon kohdistuvan analyysin avulla. Ilmiön empiirinen tarkastelu pohjautuu Aalto-yliopistossa ja sitä edeltäneessä Teknillisessä korkeakoulussa vuosina 2006–2013 kerättyihin tekstiaineistoihin. Aineistojen tulkinta tuottaa monikerroksellista tietoa ilmiöstä niin yksilö- kuin organisaatiotasolla. Tarkastelen tutkimuksessani millaisia merkityksenantoja yrittäjyydelle ja yrittäjämäisyydelle annetaan yliopiston sisällä eri näkökulmista katsottuna, kun yliopisto käy läpi merkittävää organisaatiorakenteellista ja institutionaalista muutosta. Tutkimusasetelman neljä näkökulmaa perustuvat tekniikan alan jatko-opiskelijoiden puheeseen, TKK:n opetussuunnitelmatekstiin, Aalto-yliopiston opettajien puheeseen ja johdon tuottamaan strategiatekstiaineistoon. Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan käynnissä on ollut akateemisten arvojen ja arvojärjestelmien laajentumisen aika ja tila, jossa yrittäjämäisyys astuu areenalle, mutta sen suppeat tulkinnat eivät tarjoa mahdollisuuksia ruohonjuuritason kiinnittymiseen akateemisesta kulttuurista käsin. Yrittäjyyden ja yrittäjämäisyyden saamat taloudelliskaupalliset merkitykset koetaan uhkaksi, eikä tilannetta helpota yleisesti uuvuttavaksi koettu rakenteellinen ja yhteiskunnallinen yliopiston muutosvaihe. Hallitsevat tarinalinjat kuten puhe kilpailukyvystä ja kilpailutilanteen kovenemisesta tuottavat odotusten viitekehyksen, joilla yliopiston toimintaa raamitetaan ulkoapäin. Yrittäjyyteen laajassa merkityksessä sisältyvät mahdollisuudet jäävät niin ikään hyödyntämättä, ja lukuisat edistämistoiminnot kilpistyvät sosiaalisesti rakentuviin esteisiin. Tässä tutkimuksessa rakentuva laajennettu yliopiston yrittäjämäisyyden viitekehys pyrkii palvelemaan moniäänistymisen tarkoitusta käsitteellisellä tasolla ja avaamaan uusia mahdollisuuksia yliopiston yrittäjämäisyyden edistämiselle.

Lipase and esterase: to what extent can this classification be applied accurately?

Enzyme technology is an ever-growing field of knowledge and, in recent years, this technology has raised renewed interest, due to the search for new paradigms in several productive processes. Lipases, esterases and cutinases are enzymes used in a wide range of processes involving synthesis and hydrolysis reactions. The objective of this work was to investigate and compare the specific lipase and esterase activities of five enzymes - four already classified as lipases and one classified as cutinase - in the presence of natural and synthetic substrates. All tested enzymes presented both esterase and lipase specific activities. The highest specific esterase activity was observed for Aspergillus 1068 lipase in natural substrate and for F. oxysporum cutinase in synthetic substrate, while the highest specific lipase activity was observed for Geotrichum sp. lipase in natural substrate and for F. oxysporum cutinase in synthetic substrate. These results display some interface-independent lipolytic activity for all lipases tested. This is in accordance with the rationale that a new and broader definition of lipases may be necessary.

Collectiveness within startup teams – Leading the way to initiating and managing collective pursuit of opportunities in organizational contexts

While traditional entrepreneurship literature addresses the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities to a solo entrepreneur, scholars increasingly agree that new ventures are often founded and operated by entrepreneurial teams as collective efforts especially in hightechnology industries. Researchers also suggest that team ventures are more likely to survive and succeed than ventures founded by the individual entrepreneur although specific challenges might relate to multiple individuals being involved in joint entrepreneurial action. In addition to new ventures, entrepreneurial teams are seen central for organizing work in established organizations since the teams are able to create major product and service innovations that drive organizational success. Acknowledgement of the entrepreneurial teams in various organizational contexts has challenged the notion on the individual entrepreneur. However, considering that entrepreneurial teams represent a collective-level phenomenon that bases on interactions between organizational members, entrepreneurial teams may not have been studied as indepth as could be expected from the point of view of the team-level, rather than the individual or the individuals in the team. Many entrepreneurial team studies adopt the individualized view of entrepreneurship and examine the team members’ aggregate characteristics or the role of a lead entrepreneur. The previous understandings might not offer a comprehensive and indepth enough understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams and team venture performance that often relates to the team-level issues in particular. In addition, as the collective-level of entrepreneurial teams has been approached in various ways in the existing literatures, the phenomenon has been difficult to understand in research and practice. Hence, there is a need to understand entrepreneurial teams at the collective-level through a systematic and comprehensive perspective. This study takes part in the discussions on entrepreneurial teams. The overall objective of this study is to offer a description and understanding of collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams beyond individual(s). The research questions of the study are: 1) what collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for, what constitutes the basic elements of it, and who are included in it, 2) why, how, and when collectiveness emerges or reinforces within entrepreneurial teams, and 3) why collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams matters and how it could be developed or supported. In order to answer the above questions, this study bases on three approaches, two set of empirical data, two analysis techniques, and conceptual study. The first data set consists of 12 qualitative semi-structured interviews with business school students who are seen as prospective entrepreneurs. The data is approached through a social constructionist perspective and analyzed through discourse analysis. The second data set bases on a qualitative multiplecase study approach that aims at theory elaboration. The main data consists of 14 individual and four group semi-structured thematic interviews with members of core entrepreneurial teams of four team startups in high-technology industries. The secondary data includes publicly available documents. This data set is approached through a critical realist perspective and analyzed through systematic thematic analysis. The study is completed through a conceptual study that aims at building a theoretical model of collective-level entrepreneurship drawing from existing literatures on organizational theory and social-psychology. The theoretical work applies a positivist perspective. This study consists of two parts. The first part includes an overview that introduces the research background, knowledge gaps and objectives, research strategy, and key concepts. It also outlines the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature, presents and justifies the choices of paradigms and methods, summarizes the publications, and synthesizes the findings through answering the above mentioned research questions. The second part consists of five publications that address independent research questions but all enable to answer the research questions set for this study as a whole. The findings of this study suggest a map of relevant concepts and their relationships that help grasp collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams. The analyses conducted in the publications suggest that collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams stands for cognitive and affective structures in-between team members including elements of collective entity, collective idea of business, collective effort, collective attitudes and motivations, and collective feelings. Collectiveness within entrepreneurial teams also stands for specific joint entrepreneurial action components in which the structures are constructed. The action components reflect equality and democracy, and open and direct communication in particular. Collectiveness emerges because it is a powerful tool for overcoming individualized barriers to entrepreneurship and due to collectively oriented desire for, collective value orientation to, demand for, and encouragement to team entrepreneurship. Collectiveness emerges and reinforces in processes of joint creation and realization of entrepreneurial opportunities including joint analysis and planning of the opportunities and strategies, decision-making and realization of the opportunities, and evaluation, feedback, and sanctions of entrepreneurial action. Collectiveness matters because it is relevant for potential future entrepreneurs and because it affects the ways collective ventures are initiated and managed. Collectiveness also matters because it is a versatile, dynamic, and malleable phenomenon and the ideas of it can be applied across organizational contexts that require team work in discovering or creating and realizing new opportunities. This study further discusses how the findings add to the existing knowledge of entrepreneurial team literature and how the ideas can be applied in educational, managerial, and policy contexts.

Organizational creativity – Hegemonic and alternative discourses

SUMMARY Organizational creativity – hegemonic and alternative discourses Over the course of recent developments in the societal and business environment, the concept of creativity has been brought into new arenas. The rise of ‘creative industries’ and the idea of creativity as a form of capital have attracted the interests of business and management professionals – as well as academics. As the notion of creativity has been adopted in the organization studies literature, the concept of organizational creativity has been introduced to refer to creativity that takes place in an organizational context. This doctoral thesis focuses on organizational creativity, and its purpose is to explore and problematize the hegemonic organizational creativity discourse and to provide alternative viewpoints for theorizing about creativity in organizations. Taking a discourse theory approach, this thesis, first, provides an outline of the currently predominant, i.e. hegemonic, discourse on organizational creativity, which is explored regarding themes, perspectives, methods and paradigms. Second, this thesis consists of five studies that act as illustrations of certain alternative viewpoints. Through these exemplary studies, this thesis sheds light on the limitations and taken-for-granted aspects of the hegemonic discourse and discusses what these alternative viewpoints could offer for the understanding of and theorizing for organizational creativity. This study leans on an assumption that the development of organizational creativity knowledge and the related discourse is not inevitable or progressive but rather contingent. The organizational creativity discourse has developed in a certain direction, meaning that some themes, perspectives, and methods, as well as assumptions, values, and objectives, have gained a hegemonic position over others, and are therefore often taken for granted and considered valid and relevant. The hegemonization of certain aspects, however, contributes to the marginalization of others. The thesis concludes that the hegemonic discourse on organizational creativity is based on an extensive coverage of certain themes and perspectives, such as those focusing on individual cognitive processes, motivation, or organizational climate and their relation to creativity, to name a few. The limited focus on some themes and the confinement to certain prevalent perspectives, however, results in the marginalization of other themes and perspectives. The negative, often unintended, consequences, implications, and side effects of creativity, the factors that might hinder or prevent creativity, and a deeper inquiry into the ontology and epistemology of creativity have attracted relatively marginal interest. The material embeddedness of organizational creativity, in other words, the physical organizational environment as well as the human body and its non-cognitive resources, has largely been overlooked in the hegemonic discourse, although thereare studies in this area that give reason to believe that they might prove relevant for the understanding of creativity. The hegemonic discourse is based on an individual-centered understanding of creativity which overattributes creativity to an individual and his/her cognitive capabilities, while simultaneously neglecting how, for instance, the physical environment, artifacts, social dynamics and interactions condition organizational creativity. Due to historical reasons, quantitative as well as qualitative yet functionally- oriented studies have predominated the organizational creativity discourse, although studies falling into the interpretationist paradigm have gradually become more popular. The two radical paradigms, as well as methodological and analytical approaches typical of radical research, can be considered to hold a marginal position in the field of organizational creativity. The hegemonic organizational creativity discourse has provided extensive findings related to many aspects of organizational creativity, although the con- ceptualizations and understandings of organizational creativity in the hegemonic discourse are also in many respects limited and one-sided. The hegemonic discourse is based on an assumption that creativity is desirable, good, necessary, or even obligatory, and should be encouraged and nourished. The conceptualiza- tions of creativity favor the kind of creativity which is useful, valuable and can be harnessed for productivity. The current conceptualization is limited to the type of creativity that is acceptable and fits the managerial ideology, and washes out any risky, seemingly useless, or negative aspects of creativity. It also limits the possible meanings and representations that ‘creativity’ has in the respective discourse, excluding many meanings of creativity encountered in other discourses. The excessive focus on creativity that is good, positive, productive and fits the managerial agenda while ignoring other forms and aspects of creativity, however, contributes to the dilution of the notion. Practices aimed at encouraging the kind of creativity may actually entail a risk of fostering moderate alterations rather than more radical novelty, as well as management and organizational practices which limit creative endeavors, rather than increase their likelihood. The thesis concludes that although not often given the space and attention they deserve, there are alternative conceptualizations and understandings of organizational creativity which embrace a broader notion of creativity. The inability to accommodate the ‘other’ understandings and viewpoints within the organizational creativity discourse runs a risk of misrepresenting the complex and many-sided phenomenon of creativity in organizational context. Keywords: Organizational creativity, creativity, organization studies, discourse theory, hegemony

A complexidade e o construtivismo na economia

Complexity and constructivism in economics. This paper attempts to show and summarize the concept of rules, order and complexity introduced around the mid-twentieth century by Friedrich August von Hayek. It also attempts to create a current parallel between those concepts and the field of complexity economics. At the time of his writings, the author sought to present arguments against the Cartesian rationality. Nowadays, the concepts presented by him could also serve as arguments against the way of thought used in mainstream microeconomics. A debate can now be seen between the mainstream microeconomics and the authors of the complexity theory applied to the economy, which can be understood as explanations guided by generic assumptions versus natural explanations guided in a computational approach.

Collaborative reflection : supporting one practitioner's development of online learning communities /

This is a study of one participant's reflective practice as she worked to develop online communities in a face-to-face science course. Her process of reflective practice was examined in order to address factors that influenced her learning path, and the benefits and challenges of collaborative action research. These research goals were pursued using a collaborative action research methodology, initially chosen for its close match with Schon's (1983) model of reflective practice. The participant's learning fit vnth Mezirow's (1991) model of transformative learning. She began with beliefs that matched her goals, and she demonstrated significant learning in three areas. First, she demonstrated instrumental learning around the constraints of workload and time, and achieving online learning community indicators. Second, she demonstrated communicative learning that helped her to see her own needs for feedback and communication more clearly, and how other process partners had been a support to her. Third, her emancipatory learning saw her revisiting and questioning her goals. It was through the reflective conversation during the planned meetings and the researcher's reframing and interrogation of that reflection that the participant was able to clarify and extend her thinking, and in so doing, critically reflect on her practice as she worked to develop online learning communities. In this way, the collaborative action research methodology was an embodiment of co-constructivism through collaborative reflective practice. Schon's (1983) model of reflective practice positions a lone practitioners moving through cycles ofplan-act-observe-reflect. The results fi"om this study suggest that collaboration is an important piece of the reflective practice model.