Organizing

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Kinds of Organizing

  • community organizing

  • Terms modified by Organizing

  • organizing center
  • organizing committee
  • organizing framework
  • organizing pneumonia
  • organizing principle

  • Selected Abstracts


    ,GLOCAL' MOVEMENTS: PLACE STRUGGLES AND TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZING BY INFORMAL WORKERS

    GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2009
    Ilda Lindell
    ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the scalar practices of collectively organized informal workers and the political implications of such practices. It illustrates how the studied group organizes across scales , hence, a ,glocal movement', and stresses the importance of an analysis that integrates these multiple scales of collective organizing, as they may have a bearing on each other. In so doing, it contests a common tendency to analytically privilege one or other scale of resistance and agency. In particular, I argue that networking across scales may be of significance for local struggles and thus play a role in local politics. The transnational activities of the studied group assist it in challenging local power relations and dominant place projects that repress informal livelihood activities. This paper comprises a conceptual discussion of notions of scale, of conceptions of the spatialities and scales of resistance as well as of place, followed by an empirical illustration that refers to an association of informal vendors in Maputo, Mozambique, and its international connections. The analysis is based on interviews with vendors, leaders of the association and with the international partners of the association. [source]


    ORGANIZING THE CORE EXECUTIVE FOR EUROPEAN UNION AFFAIRS: COMPARING FINLAND AND SWEDEN

    PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2010
    KARL MAGNUS JOHANSSON
    Examining core executive organization for EU affairs in Finland and Sweden, this article uncovers how change agents used European integration deliberately to strengthen their role in the domestic settings through taking control of EU policy co-ordination. In both countries, EU membership was an exogenous factor that enabled the offices of the PM to secure a more powerful position and advance their own institutional agendas. This strengthened their leadership role and weakened the respective foreign ministries, whose legitimacy in EU co-ordination was undermined by the discourse that matters pertaining to this co-ordination should be treated as domestic policy instead of foreign policy. This discourse proved instrumental in the organizational reforms and core executive restructuring. Both countries also provide evidence of intra-Nordic organizational learning since the Finnish co-ordination system was based on lessons drawn from Denmark whereas the subsequent Swedish reform was inspired and legitimized by changes in Finland. [source]


    Organizing for Continuous Innovation: On the Sustainability of Ambidextrous Organizations

    CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2005
    Bart Van Looy
    Organizing for innovation does not present itself as a straightforward exercise. The complexities entailed when implementing an innovation strategy can be related directly to the multitude of objectives it comprises. Recently, several scholars have advanced the notions of semi- or quasi-structures and ambidextrous organizations to handle these multiple requirements. These organizational forms imply the simultaneous presence of different activities, exhibiting differences in technology and market maturation. As a consequence, financial returns will reflect this diversified resource allocation pattern. Moreover, as higher levels of complexity are being introduced; ambidextrous organizations will encounter additional, organizational, costs. Compared to organizations that focus on the most profitable part of the portfolio, ambidextrous organizations , ceteris paribus , tend to be inferior in terms of financial returns. Within this contribution we explore under which conditions ambidextrous organizations can outperform focused firms; considered a prerequisite for their sustainability. In order to do so, we develop an analytical framework depicting the differential value dynamics, focused and ambidextrous firms can enact. Our findings reveal the relevancy of adopting extended time frames as well as introducing interface management practices aimed at cross-fertilization. Finally, the synergetic potential of (underlying) technologies comes to the forefront as necessary in order for ambidextrous organizations to become sustainable. [source]


    Challenges to Farmworker Organizing in the South: From the Southern Tenant Farmers Union to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee's Mt. Olive Campaign

    CULTURE, AGRICULTURE, FOOD & ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1-2 2004
    Professor David Griffith
    First page of article [source]


    Computational physiology and the physiome project

    EXPERIMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 1 2004
    Edmund J. Crampin
    Bioengineering analyses of physiological systems use the computational solution of physical conservation laws on anatomically detailed geometric models to understand the physiological function of intact organs in terms of the properties and behaviour of the cells and tissues within the organ. By linking behaviour in a quantitative, mathematically defined sense across multiple scales of biological organization , from proteins to cells, tissues, organs and organ systems , these methods have the potential to link patient-specific knowledge at the two ends of these spatial scales. A genetic profile linked to cardiac ion channel mutations, for example, can be interpreted in relation to body surface ECG measurements via a mathematical model of the heart and torso, which includes the spatial distribution of cardiac ion channels throughout the myocardium and the individual kinetics for each of the approximately 50 types of ion channel, exchanger or pump known to be present in the heart. Similarly, linking molecular defects such as mutations of chloride ion channels in lung epithelial cells to the integrated function of the intact lung requires models that include the detailed anatomy of the lungs, the physics of air flow, blood flow and gas exchange, together with the large deformation mechanics of breathing. Organizing this large body of knowledge into a coherent framework for modelling requires the development of ontologies, markup languages for encoding models, and web-accessible distributed databases. In this article we review the state of the field at all the relevant levels, and the tools that are being developed to tackle such complexity. Integrative physiology is central to the interpretation of genomic and proteomic data, and is becoming a highly quantitative, computer-intensive discipline. [source]


    ,In the Company of Men': A Reflexive Tale of Cultural Organizing in a Small Organization

    GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2002
    Denise Fletcher
    A tale of fieldwork in a small organization is discussed in this article with a view to highlighting how social processes, cultural understandings and expressions of gender are produced during fieldwork interaction. The tale is told reflexively and retrospectively, recording an ongoing conversation about fieldwork experience. Central to the tale is discussion of how the researcher is drawn into ,culture,making' within the organization and the ways in which fieldwork interaction creates a ,space' through which organizational members engage with, work through and realize work,place values. In this article there are multiple levels of reflection. At one level it is examined how the organizational,researcher role of ,emotional nurturer' was constructed during fieldwork. At the same time some cultural insights drawn from ethnographic inquiry and intensive interviewing within the small organization are presented. The analysis is also shaped by a further layer of post,fieldwork reflection and interpretation which draws in emotional issues and expressions of gender. It is argued that a close scrutiny of fieldwork roles is important to organizational research in that it makes explicit how the researcher,,native' interaction is central to the theorizing process and how the researcher can become a participant in organizational culture,making. [source]


    Organizing and personalizing intelligence gathering from the web

    INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2002
    Hwee-Leng Ong
    In this paper, we describe how an integrated web-based application, code-named FOCI (Flexible Organizer for Competitive Intelligence), can help the knowledge worker in the gathering, organizing, tracking and dissemination of competitive intelligence (CI). It combines the use of a novel user-configurable clustering, trend analysis and visualization techniques to manage information gathered from the web. FOCI allows its users to define and personalize the organization of the information clusters according to their needs and preferences into portfolios. These personalized portfolios created are saved and can be subsequently tracked and shared with other users. The paper runs through an example to show how the use of a predefined domain template coupled with personalization can greatly enhance an organization and tracking of CI gathered from the web. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Two Logics of Labor Organizing in the Global Apparel Industry

    INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2009
    Mark Anner
    What factors account for labor strategies in global industries? While some scholars point to economic factors and others look to political opportunity structures, an examination of union actions in the Central American apparel export industry over a 14-year period suggests that activists' historical experiences and ideological orientations also strongly influence union dynamics. Left-oriented unions tend to form unions through transnational activism whereas conservative unions most often turn to plant-level cross-class collaboration. Moreover, these two union strategies are interconnected. Successful transnational activism facilitates conservative union formation through a "radical flank" mechanism; the threat of left-union organizing motivates employers to accept unionization by conservative unions to block left unions from gaining influence in the plant. To examine these arguments, this article employs pooled time-series statistical analysis, structured interviews with labor organizers, and process tracing that draws on nine months of field research in Honduras and El Salvador. [source]


    Transnational Organizing in Agrarian Central America: Histories, Challenges, Prospects

    JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 2-3 2008
    MARC EDELMAN
    Central America was one of the principal regions where transnational peasant organizing emerged and from which it spread in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Yet by the late 1990s the seemingly powerful transnational peasant coalitions were in disarray. Their successors have had only a modest impact since 2001. The article points to two main sources of weakness in Central America's transnational peasant coalitions: first, a variety of intra-organizational problems, including political differences, disputes over resources, over-funding by cooperation agencies, and an emphasis on networking activity, rather than concrete gains, as a measure of success; and second, an external political, economic and demographic environment that has become increasingly unfavourable. Elements of the latter include the long-term declines in maize and coffee prices, only recently reversed in 2006; the declining importance of agriculture and the imposition of a new economic model centred around industrial and financial activities; and the rapidly growing levels of out-migration and of dependence of those remaining in the countryside on family remittances and non-agricultural activities. The article concludes not with definitive arguments, but rather with a series of questions about what might constitute effective strategies for transnational peasant organizing in an extremely problematic context, such as contemporary Central America. [source]


    Organizing and delivering training for acute mental health services: a discussion paper

    JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 2 2005
    P. E. BEE phd bsc
    Recent policy statements that address the quality of care provided by acute mental health services have highlighted an urgent need for specialist nurse education and training. However, examples of how to design and implement such training initiatives are sparse. Drawing on recent experience of developing an innovative training programme for acute psychiatric settings, this paper seeks to examine some of the key issues associated with current training provision for acute inpatient mental health workers. The methodological and practical concerns surrounding this type of initiative are discussed with the main aspects of programme content, service user participation, team training and organizational challenges being explored. Resulting from this work, several recommendations regarding the content, organization and delivery of future training initiatives are made. [source]


    The Obama Victory, Asset-Based Development and the Re-Politicization of Community Organizing

    NORTH AMERICAN DIALOGUE (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2008
    Susan B. Hyatt
    Abstract: In this commentary, I argue that Obama's victory in the recent Democratic primary was largely a consequence of his early experiences as an Alinsky-style community organizer in Chicago. I compare the nature of the broad-based organizing that Obama was trained in to a newer model of "community building" called Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD). ABCD promotes the belief that communities suffering the effects of economic restructuring, such as abandoned housing, crime, and deindustrialization among others, can "heal themselves" by looking within for resources,or "assets",rather than by making demands on the state, a stance its proponents stigmatize as evidence of a "client" mentality. I argue that however chimerical its promises of redemption are, ABCD illustrates an important shift in contemporary understandings of citizenship, away from the possibilities for collective action that characterize Alinsky-style organizing and toward a view that is both radically neoliberal and potentially totalitarian in its homogenizing notions of its two key concepts,"community" and "assets." I suggest that the grassroots nature of the Obama campaign may have the potential to reanimate an interest in broad-based organizing toward the end of creating a more just distribution of resources. [source]


    Organizing for Radical Innovation: An Exploratory Study of the Structural Aspects of RI Management Systems in Large Established Firms

    THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2006
    Gina Colarelli O'Connor
    To escape the intense competition of today's global economy, large established organizations seek growth options beyond conventional new product development that leads to incremental changes in current product lines. Radical innovation (RI) is one such pathway, which results in organically driven growth through the creation of whole new lines of business that bring new to the world performance features to the market and may result in the creation of entirely new markets. Yet success is elusive, as many have experienced and scholars have documented. This article reports results of a three-year, longitudinal study of 12 large established firms that have declared a strategic intent to evolve their RI capabilities. In contrast to other academic research that has analyzed specific projects to understand management practices appropriate for RI, the present research reported explores the evolution of management systems for enabling radical innovation to occur repeatedly in large firms and reports on one aspect of this management system: organizational structures for enabling and nurturing RI. To consider organizational structure as a venue for capability development is new in the management of innovation and dynamic capabilities literatures. Conventional wisdom holds that RIs should be incubated outside the company and assimilated once they have gained traction in the marketplace. Numerous experiments with organizational structures were observed that instead work to manage the interfaces between the RI management system and the mother organization. These structures are described here, and insights are drawn out regarding radical innovation competency requirements, transition challenges, senior leadership mandates, and business-unit ambidexterity. The centerpiece of this research is the explication of the Discovery,Incubation,Acceleration framework, which details three sets of necessary, though not sufficient competencies, for building an RI capability. [source]


    Creating a Shared Formulary in 7 Critical Access Hospitals

    THE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2010
    Douglas S. Wakefield PhD
    Abstract Purpose: This paper reports a case study of 7 Critical Access Hospitals' (CAH) and 1 rural referral hospital's successful collaboration to develop a shared formulary. Methods: Study methods included document reviews, interviews with key informants, and use of descriptive statistics. Findings: Through a systematic review and decision process, CAH formularies ranging in size from 667 to 1,351 items were compared, rationalized, and consolidated resulting in an 803-item shared formulary. While the individual CAHs were generally expected to list and stock the same 803 items in the shared formulary's pharmacy information system, they could individually determine the amount to be stocked for each item, as well as stock additional items not included on the shared formulary to reflect local provider preferences and services provided. Final stocked formulary items ranged from 592 to 786 items among the 7 CAHs. Major challenges and lessons learned in the course of developing a shared formulary related to: Meeting Logistics, Facilitator to Manage the Process, Organizing the Review Process, Management Support, Stakeholder Participation, Working Collaboratively, Decision-Making Process, Clarity of Charge, Meeting the Needs of Unique Services, Communicating with Providers, and Adjusting to a Shared Formulary. Conclusions: Collaborating in the development of a shared formulary allows for a greater range of decision-making expertise, shared workload, and an improved formulary. An organized and well-managed group decision-making process is essential to a successful collaboration. [source]


    Commercial Insurance vs Community-based Health Plans: Time for a Policy Option With Clinical Emphasis to Address the Cost Spiral

    THE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2005
    Bruce Amundson MD
    ABSTRACT: The nation continues its ceaseless struggle with the spiraling cost of health care. Previous efforts (regulation, competition, voluntary action) have included almost every strategy except clinical. Insurers have largely failed in their cost-containment efforts. There is a strong emerging body of literature that demonstrates the relationship between various clinical strategies and reductions in utilization and costs. This article describes the organization of health services, including integration of delivery and financing systems, at the community level as a model that effectively addresses the critical structural flaws that have frustrated control of costs. Community-based health plans (CHPs) have been developed and have demonstrated viability. The key elements of CHPs are a legal organizational structure, a full provider network, advanced care-management systems, and the ability to assume financial risk. Common misconceptions regarding obstacles to CHP development are the complexity of the undertaking, difficulty assuming the insurance function, and insured pools that are too small to be viable. The characteristics of successful CHPs and 2 case studies are described, including the types of advanced care-management systems that have resulted in strong financial performance. The demonstrated ability of CHPs to establish financial viability with small numbers of enrollees challenges the common assumption that there is a fixed relationship between health plan enrollment size and financial performance. Organizing the health system at the community/regional level provides an attractive alternative model in the health-reformdebate. There is an opportunity for clinical systems and state and federal leaders to support the development of community-based integrated delivery and financing system models that, among other advantages, have significant potential to modulate the pernicious cost spiral. [source]


    Organizing Our Thoughts: "Global Systems" and the Challenge of Writing a More Complex History

    THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2010
    David Hancock
    First page of article [source]


    Unions without Borders: Organizing and Enlightening Immigrant Farm Workers

    ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 2 2009
    David Griffith
    Abstract Farm workers pose special problems for union organizing due to their legal status, their high rates of turnover, their employment through subcontracts, and the temporary and seasonal dimensions of farm work. Yet by organizing farm workers, unions have developed and refined strategies that point to methods of meeting the challenges of contemporary work environments in and out of agriculture. This includes organizing workers across fragmented space, whether transnational or transregional, and organizing workers who are sifted into production regimes via subcontractual relationships. This paper examines two farm worker unions , the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers , in terms of their successes and failures with farm labor organizing. It finds that boycotts, the use of fine arts, balancing local and transnational interests, and building relationships based on confianza (trust) are critical to the formation and maintenance of effective union organization. [source]


    The Promises and the Challenges of Social Movement Unionism

    ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK REVIEW, Issue 1 2007
    Spencer L. Cowles
    The Voice of Southern Labor: Radio, Music, and Textile Strikes, 1929,1934. Vincent J. Roscigno and William F. Danaher. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Reorganizing the Rust Belt: An Inside Study of the American Labor Movement. Steven Henry Lopez. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement. Ruth Milkman and Kim Voss editors. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. [source]


    Cleaners' Organizing in Britain from the 1970s: A Personal Account

    ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2006
    Sheila Rowbotham
    In the early 1970s the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain set out to unionize night cleaners. A long and intensive campaign resulted in two strikes and a greater awareness in the trade union movement about this neglected group of workers. But though the publicity generated by newspaper articles, meetings, and the making of two documentary films on cleaners focused attention on their conditions, organization proved very difficult. This was compounded by the economic and political climate from the late 1970s and the impact of privatization, which contributed to the growth in inequality in British society. This article outlines a disregarded history of attempts to organize cleaners, a history which is gaining a new-found relevance in the wake of the "Justice for Janitors" campaign in the US and the awareness that low-paid service work plays a key part in the global economy. [source]


    The Canadian Prehospital Evidence-based Protocols Project: Knowledge Translation in Emergency Medical Services Care

    ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 7 2009
    Jan L. Jensen ACP
    Abstract Objectives:, The principles of evidence-based medicine are applicable to all areas and professionals in health care. The care provided by paramedics in the prehospital setting is no exception. The Prehospital Evidence-based Protocols Project Online (PEP) is a repository of appraised research evidence that is applicable to interventions performed in the prehospital setting and is openly available online. This article describes the history, current status, and potential future of the project. Methods:, The primary objective of the PEP is to catalog and grade emergency medical services (EMS) studies with a level of evidence (LOE). Subsequently, each prehospital intervention is assigned a class of recommendation (COR) based on all the appraised articles on that intervention, in an effort to organize the evidence so it may be put into practice efficiently. An LOE is assigned to each article by the section editor, based on the study rigor and applicability to EMS. The section editor committee consists of EMS physicians and paramedics from across Canada, and two from Ireland and a paramedic coordinator. The evidence evaluation cycle is continuous; as the section editors send back appraisals, the coordinator updates the database and sends out another article for review. Results:, The database currently has 182 individual interventions organized under 103 protocols, with 933 citations. Conclusions:, This project directly meets recent recommendations to improve EMS by using evidence to support interventions and incorporating it into protocols. Organizing and grading the evidence allows medical directors and paramedics to incorporate research findings into their daily practice. As such, this project demonstrates how knowledge translation can be conducted in EMS. [source]


    Transforming a Trade Union?

    BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2009
    An Assessment of the Introduction of an Organizing Initiative
    In 1995 Unison implemented a National Recruitment Plan, and, in 1997, a National Organizing and Recruitment Strategy, with the objective of reversing the decline in union density in the public sector. This article traces the development of these initiatives and assesses their results. The article shows that there is limited involvement of lay representatives in the National Organizing and Recruitment Plan, but that there is a positive relationship between participation in union programmes intended to promote organizing and the performance of individual branches. [source]


    Cross-constituency Organizing in Canadian Unions

    BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 2 2008
    Linda Briskin
    This article explores cross-constituency organizing inside three Canadian unions that involves dual, parallel and integrated structures. It assesses these approaches with reference to the conceptual frame of intersectional political practice. In particular, this study highlights the institutionalization of intersectionality through constitutional, organizational and representational intersectionality. The paradigm of autonomy and integration is used to identify effective mechanisms for cross-constituency vehicles. Cross-constituency organizing is a form of coalition-building inside unions It is a vehicle for building solidarities across identities and advancing equity organizing in Canadian unions that supports, at one and the same time, union revitalization and the union equity project. [source]


    Information Technology, US Union Organizing and Union Effectiveness

    BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 4 2002
    Jack Fiorito
    This paper examines the effects of information technology (IT) on organizing and union effectiveness in US national unions. Original survey data and data from government and independent sources are combined to model outcomes including membership growth, success in representation elections, and union leaders' assessments of effectiveness as a product of environmental and organizational characteristics. The results suggest that the practical impact of IT use on organizing outcomes can be quite important. Evidence regarding the impact of IT on overall effectiveness (i.e. organizational or union effectiveness) is more mixed. [source]


    Charity Basket or Revolution: Beliefs, Experiences, and Context in Preservice Teachers' Service Learning

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 4 2000
    David M. Donahue
    Given what one observer calls the "vast disparity of definitions that faculty can bring to service learning,from what is basically the charity basket approach to the revolutionary," service learning can varytremendously, from reading to elderly residents of a nursing home to organizing a boycott of a sneaker company. With such diversity before teachers, what influences them in the way they design service learning? How do preservice teachers, for whom so many ideas about teaching are emerging, make such choices? Two case studies suggest that preservice teachers' beliefs, experiences, and the context where they teach play an important role related to if and how they use service learning. Beliefs and experiences are especially important because, although service learning is often presented as supporting apolitical values,empowerment and responsibility, for example,for which broad consensus exists, such values are also ambiguous and open to interpretation. Teacher educators and advocates of service learning need to acknowledge the ambiguous political nature of service and service learning. By doing so, they have an opportunity to make the political context of teaching explicit for preservice teachers. Such education in service learning for new teachers goes beyond "training" in the logistical and technical details of implementing a new pedagogy to thoughtful reflection on the value-laden act of teaching. [source]


    Basolateral junctions are sufficient to suppress epithelial invasion during Drosophila oogenesis

    DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS, Issue 2 2007
    Przemyslaw Szafranski
    Abstract Epithelial junctions play crucial roles during metazoan evolution and development by facilitating tissue formation, maintenance, and function. Little is known about the role of distinct types of junctions in controlling epithelial transformations leading to invasion of neighboring tissues. Discovering the key junction complexes that control these processes and how they function may also provide mechanistic insight into carcinoma cell invasion. Here, using the Drosophila ovary as a model, we show that four proteins of the basolateral junction (BLJ), Fasciclin-2, Neuroglian, Discs-large, and Lethal-giant-larvae, but not proteins of other epithelial junctions, directly suppress epithelial tumorigenesis and invasion. Remarkably, the expression pattern of Fasciclin-2 predicts which cells will invade. We compared the apicobasal polarity of BLJ tumor cells to border cells (BCs), an epithelium-derived cluster that normally migrates during mid-oogenesis. Both tumor cells and BCs differentiate a lateralized membrane pattern that is necessary but not sufficient for invasion. Independent of lateralization, derepression of motility pathways is also necessary, as indicated by a strong linear correlation between faster BC migration and an increased incidence of tumor invasion. However, without membrane lateralization, derepression of motility pathways is also not sufficient for invasion. Our results demonstrate that spatiotemporal patterns of basolateral junction activity directly suppress epithelial invasion by organizing the cooperative activity of distinct polarity and motility pathways. Developmental Dynamics 236:364,373, 2007. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Respiratory units of motor production and song imitation in the zebra finch

    DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2002
    Michele Franz
    Abstract Juvenile male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn a stereotyped song by imitating sounds from adult male tutors. Their song is composed of a series of syllables, which are separated by silent periods. How acoustic units of song are translated into respiratory and syringeal motor gestures during the song learning process is not well understood. To learn about the respiratory contribution to the imitation process, we recorded air sac pressure in 38 male zebra finches and compared the acoustic structures and air sac pressure patterns of similar syllables qualitatively and quantitatively. Acoustic syllables correspond to expiratory pressure pulses and most often (74%) entire syllables are copied using similar air sac pressure patterns. Even notes placed within different syllables are generated with similar air sac pressure patterns when only segments of syllables are copied (9%). A few of the similar syllables (17%) are generated with a modified pressure pattern, typically involving addition or deletion of an inspiration. The high similarity of pressure patterns for like syllables indicates that generation of particular sounds is constrained to a narrow range of air sac pressure conditions. Following presentation of stroboscope flashes, song was typically interrupted at the end of an expiratory pressure pulse, confirming that expirations and, therefore, syllables are the smallest unit of motor production of song. Silent periods, which separate syllables acoustically, are generated by switching from expiration to inspiration. Switching between respiratory phases, therefore, appears to play a dominant role in organizing the stereotyped motor program for song production. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol 51: 129,141, 2002 [source]


    The metabolic syndrome and the clinician

    DRUG DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH, Issue 7 2006
    Daniel Einhorn
    Abstract The diagnosis of the Metabolic Syndrome is somewhat controversial, with many definitions and some arguments as to the need for a diagnosis. From the viewpoint of clinical medicine, however, the concept is highly useful in organizing our interest in prevention of the consequences of this condition. Drug Dev. Res. 600,601, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Geographic Scale and Grass-Roots Internationalism: The Liverpool Dock Dispute, 1995,1998,

    ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2000
    Noel Castree
    Abstract: In the context of ongoing debates over the effects of "globalization" on organized labor and, specifically, recent experiments in labor internationalism, this paper examines the geography of the Liverpool dock dispute, 1995,98. The dispute has rarely been subject to a serious analysis of its causes and trajectory. This is surprising since it was not only the most protracted industrial dispute in recent British history but also the hub of a relatively novel form of transnational labor organizing: namely, a form of grass-roots internationalism organized largely outside the formal apparatuses of national and international unionism. In the paper I focus on the nature and dynamics of this "grass-roots internationalism" with a view to making two claims that have a wider thematic and theoretical relevance to the study of labor geographies. First, contrary to an emerging new orthodoxy in labor geography (and labor studies more generally), the Liverpool case in fact suggests that the necessity for labor to "up-scale" solidarity and struggle in the 1990s is much overstated. Second, the Liverpool case suggests that international labor organizing is only efficacious when considered in relation to two scales of struggle often thought increasingly irrelevant or ineffectual in a globalizing world: the local and the national. Thus, while those few analysts who have cited the Liverpool dispute, basing their assessments on secondhand knowledge, have held the dockers up as exemplars of a new form of labor internationalism, in this paper I suggest the need for a more complex and contingent appreciation of the multiscalar dynamics of labor struggles. In short, we have not yet reached the stage, even in a globalizing world, where labor's "spatial fixes" must be preeminently supranational. [source]


    Anorexia nervosa and psychological control: a reexamination of selected theoretical accounts

    EUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW, Issue 2 2002
    Lois J. Surgenor
    Psychological control has been hypothesized to play a central role in the aetiology and maintenance of anorexia nervosa (AN). Indeed, by positioning psychological control as an important organizing or underlying causal mechanism, theoretical accounts typically rely on this construct. This paper reviews three strategically important accounts of the hypothesized relationship between psychological control and AN. These theoretically articulated relationships are complex and diverse. The implications of this situation for current clinical practice, and future research questions, are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [source]


    Effects of agrin on the expression and distribution of the water channel protein aquaporin-4 and volume regulation in cultured astrocytes

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 8 2007
    Susan Noell
    Abstract Agrin is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan of the extracellular matrix and is known for organizing the postsynaptic differentiation of the neuromuscular junction. Increasing evidence also suggests roles for agrin in the developing CNS, including the formation and maintenance of the blood,brain barrier. Here we describe effects of agrin on the expression and distribution of the water channel protein aquaporin-4 (AQP4) and on the swelling capacity of cultured astrocytes of newborn mice. If astrocytes were cultured on a substrate containing poly dl -ornithine, anti-AQP4 immunoreactivity was evenly and diffusely distributed. If, however, astrocytes were cultured in the presence of agrin-conditioned medium, we observed an increase in the intensity of AQP4-specific membrane-associated staining. Freeze-fracture studies revealed a clustering of orthogonal arrays of particles, representing a structural equivalent of AQP4, when exogenous agrin was present in the astrocyte cultures. Neuronal and non-neuronal agrin isoforms (agrin A0B0 and agrin A4B8, respectively) were able to induce membrane-associated AQP4 staining. Water transport capacity as well as the density of orthogonal arrays of intramembranous particles was increased in astrocytes cultured with the neuronal agrin isoform A4B8, but not with the endothelial and meningeal isoform A0B0. RT-PCR demonstrated that agrin A4B8 increased the level of the M23 splice variant of AQP4 and decreased the level of the M1 splice variant of AQP4. Implications for the regulation and maintenance of the blood,brain barrier including oedema formation under pathological conditions are discussed. [source]


    The Swedish Welfare State and the Emergence of Female Welfare State Occupations

    GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2000
    Lars Evertsson
    The Swedish welfare state has, during the twentieth century, developed into the primary guarantor of health and social services as well as economic security. As the welfare state has developed, a new group of professions has emerged which can be described as welfare state professions. In this paper I will point out a few central aspects of how female-dominated welfare state professions have emerged and developed within the framework of the Swedish welfare state's expansion. These ideas will then be demonstrated on two female-dominated occupations, nurses and occupational therapists, which have developed in close association with the expansion of the welfare state. The results indicate that the emergence of a centrally planned welfare state and the occupational groups' organizational resources have been of crucial importance for the professional development of female-dominated health and care occupations in Sweden. The welfare state has opened up new professional fields and created a stable labour market, which has provided good conditions for professional organizing. The state has also been quick to establish relationships with occupational groups whose professional competence has been deemed to be suited to the welfare political context. However, the state's interests in professional matters have often been in conflict with those of the professions themselves, regarding, for example, education, sub-specialization and certification. One conclusion that can be drawn is that the Swedish welfare state has acted both as an engine and a brake regarding professional development and status. [source]