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Organizing Principle (organizing + principle)
Selected AbstractsCatchment Classification and Hydrologic SimilarityGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2007Thorsten Wagener Hydrology does not yet possess a generally agreed upon catchment classification system. Such a classification framework should provide a mapping of landscape form and hydro-climatic conditions on catchment function (including partition, storage, and release of water), while explicitly accounting for uncertainty and for variability at multiple temporal and spatial scales. This framework would provide an organizing principle, create a common language, guide modeling and measurement efforts, and provide constraints on predictions in ungauged basins, as well as on estimates of environmental change impacts. In this article, we (i) review existing approaches to define hydrologic similarity and to catchment classification; (ii) discuss outstanding components or characteristics that should be included in a classification scheme; and (iii) provide a basic framework for catchment classification as a starting point for further analysis. Possible metrics to describe form, hydro-climate, and function are suggested and discussed. We close the discussion with a list of requirements for the classification framework and open questions that require addressing in order to fully implement it. Open questions include: How can we best represent characteristics of form and hydro-climatic conditions? How does this representation change with spatial and temporal scale? What functions (partition, storage, and release) are relevant at what spatial and temporal scale? At what scale do internal structure and heterogeneity become important and need to be considered? [source] Genetic redundancy in human cervical carcinoma cells: Identification of cells with "normal" propertiesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 10 2007Anastasia Bachmann Abstract Although it is generally assumed that cancer arises from a singular cell, a tumor must be considered as a dynamic and emergent biological structure, whose organizing principle is determined by genetic and epigenetic modifications, occurring variably in response to microenvironmental selection conditions. As previously shown, HPV-positive cervical carcinoma cells have lost their ability to induce IFN-, upon TNF-, treatment. However, regarding cancer as a non-linear system, which may, even in the absence of an apparent selection pressure, fluctuate between different "metastable" phenotypes, we demonstrate that TNF-, mediated IFN-, induction is not irreversibly disturbed in all cells. Using the IFN-, sensitive Encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) as a tool to monitor antiviral activity in long-term established malignant HeLa cells, rare IFN-, expressing clones were rescued from a population of non-responsive and EMCV-sensitive cells. Antiviral activity was mediated by the re-expression of IRF-1 and p48 (IRF-9), both key regulatory molecules normally found to be suppressed in cervical carcinoma cells. Upon inoculating of selected clones into immunocompromised animals, a reduced or even an absence of tumorigenicity of initially highly malignant cells could be discerned. These data indicate that both the absence of interferon signaling and the ability to form tumors were reversed in a minority of cells. We provide a paradigm for the existence of innate genetic redundancy mechanisms, where a particular phenotype persists and can be isolated without application of drugs generally changing the epigenetic context. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Peasants Make Their Own History, But Not Just as They Please . . .JOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 2-3 2008PHILIP MCMICHAEL This essay employs contemporary peasant mobilizing discourses and practices to evaluate the terms in which we understand agrarian movements today, through an exercise of historical specification. First, it considers why the terms of the original agrarian question no longer apply to agrarian change today. The shift in the terms corresponds to the movement from the late-nineteenth century and twentieth century, when states were the organizing principle of political-economy, to the twenty-first century, when capital has become the organizing principle. Second, and related, agrarian mobilizations are viewed here as barometers of contemporary political-economic relations. In politicizing the socio-ecological crisis of neoliberalism, they problematize extant categories of political and sociological analysis, re-centring agriculture and food as key to democratic and sustainable relations of social production. [source] THE POWER EQUITY GUIDE: ATTENDING TO GENDER IN FAMILY THERAPYJOURNAL OF MARITAL AND FAMILY THERAPY, Issue 2 2000Shelley A. Haddock In the past two decades, feminist scholars have challenged the field of family therapy to incorporate the organizing principle of gender in its theory, practice, and training. In this paper, we introduce a training, research, and therapeutic tool that provides guidance for addressing or observing gender and power differentials in the practic of family therapy. As a training tool, the Power Equity Guide helps trainees to translate their theoretical understanding of feminist principles into specific behaviors in therapy. Researchers and supervisors can use the Power Equity Guide to evaluate the practice of gender-informed family therapy. We also provide specific suggestions for its use by trainers, supervisors, therapists, and researchers. [source] A cell-biological model of p75NTR signalingJOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2007A. Blöchl Abstract Neurotrophin stimulation of tropomyosin-related kinase (Trk) and p75 receptors influences cellular processes such as proliferation, growth, differentiation, and other cell-specific functions, as well as regeneration. In contrast to Trk receptors, which have a well-defined trophic role, p75 has activities ranging from trophism to apoptosis. Continued neurotrophin stimulation of differentiating neurons transforms the initially trophic character of p75 signaling into negative growth control and overstimulation leads to apoptosis. This function shift reflects the signaling effects of ceramide that is generated upon stimulation of p75. The use of ceramide signaling by p75 may provide a key to understanding the cell-biological role of p75. The review presents arguments that the control of cell shape formation and cell selection can serve as an organizing principle of p75 signaling. Concurrent stimulation by neurotrophins of p75 and Trk receptors constitutes a dual growth control with antagonistic and synergistic elements aimed at optimal morphological and functional integration of cells and cell populations into their context. [source] Promoting eco manufacturing: an Australian caseJOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2008Roumen Dimitrov This paper analyses the communication campaign of a small industry plant, the Fuji Xerox Eco Manufacturing Center in Sydney, Australia. Disproportionably to its size, it has become a national and world leader in the push for waste free, sustainable manufacturing. The rarity of the case,a resource-poor for-profit organization taking the role of an influential advocate,helps to highlight the centrality of public relations in the promotional mix. I examine ,remanufacturing' not as a one-off technical innovation, but as prolonged internal and external communication campaign. I also stress on the public character of internal communication, where public relations is instrumental from the start. I draft and discuss an alternative model of integrated marketing communications for small businesses and nonprofits. Integration happens here on personnel rather than organizational (interdepartmental) level. The more such organizations turn towards external causes and multiple publics,as in this case of industrial advocacy and public affairs,the more likely public relations transforms from a component into the organizing principle of the communication strategy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The ecology of information: an overview on the ecological significance of making informed decisionsOIKOS, Issue 2 2010Kenneth A. Schmidt Information is characterized as the reduction of uncertainty and by a change in the state of a receiving organism. Thus, organisms can acquire information about their environment that reduces uncertainty and increases their likelihood of choosing a best-matching strategy. We define the ecology of information as the study of how organisms acquire and use information in decision-making and its significance for populations, communities, landscapes and ecosystems. As a whole, it encompasses the reception and processing of information, decision-making, and the ecological consequences of making informed decisions. The first two stages constitute the domains of, e.g. sensory ecology and behavioral ecology. The exploration of the consequences of information use at larger spatial and temporal scales in ecology has lagged behind these other disciplines. In our overview we characterize information, discuss statistical decision theory as a quantitative framework to analyze information and decision-making, and discuss potential ecological ramifications. Rather than attempt a cursory review of the enormity of the scope of information we highlight information use in development, breeding habitat selection, and interceptive eavesdropping on alarm calls. Through these topics we discuss specific examples of ecological information use and the emerging ecological consequences. We emphasize recurring themes: information is collected from multiple sources, over varying temporal and spatial scales, and in many cases links heterospecifics to one another. We conclude by breaking from specific ecological contexts to explore implications of information as a central organizing principle, including: information webs, information as a component of the niche concept, and information as an ecosystem process. With information having such an enormous reach in ecology we further cast a spotlight on the potential harmful effects of anthropogenic noise and info-disruption. [source] Social Citizenship Rights and the Welfare Circle Dilemma: Attitudinal Findings of Two Chinese SocietiesASIAN SOCIAL WORK AND POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Chack-Kie Wong This paper places social citizenship momentum into the context of squaring the welfare circle for examination. Citizenship is a powerful world-level organizing principle especially by the minority groups for their claim of equal treatment. The squaring of welfare circle refers to the need of the governments to constrain their budgets but also meet the rising demands from and needs of their people. This comparative study looks at the attitudinal findings of two Chinese societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan to see whether or not the cultural factor can mitigate the momentum of social citizenship rights and the demand side of the welfare circle. Implications for social policy are also discussed. [source] A new basis for governance effectiveness researchBOARD LEADERSHIP: POLICY GOVERNANCE IN ACTION, Issue 67 2003John Carver Most governance research to date has consisted of descriptions of various types of governance arrangements. Absent from the literature is an underlying organizing principle, a conception of the fundamental purpose of governance. Without this underlying principle, attempts to assess effectiveness will fail. In this article, John Carver proposes a succinct definition of the purpose of governance and draws out some necessary consequences of this definition. This conception of the purpose of governance can serve as an underlying principle to guide research on the effectiveness of governance. [source] English, literacy, rhetoric: changing the project?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 1 2006Bill Green Abstract In this paper I begin to trace two movements in the curriculum history and cultural politics of English teaching: on the one hand, a shift from ,literature' to ,literacy', as organizing principles for the field, and on the other, from ,language' to ,rhetoric'. I do so within a particular understanding of history, as embracing past present and future dimensions. My aim is two-fold: to open up questions about the subject's historical legacy, and to draw attention to some of the emerging challenges and prospects for English teaching today and tomorrow. [source] Crossing Age and Generational Boundaries: Exploring Intergenerational Research EncountersJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 4 2007Amanda M. Grenier Academics and professionals who aim to understand and plan for aging societies are most often younger than study participants and the benefactors of social programs themselves. However, the appropriateness of such intergenerational practice is beginning to be questioned. It has been suggested that only older people should conduct research, consult on and plan programs for older people. To understand the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach, research encounters between younger and older people will be used as examples from which to explore the question: what happens when individuals attempt to reach across age and generational boundaries? Situating age and generation as organizing principles, insights will be gleaned from the anthropological insider,outsider debate, linguistic work on age-based differences, and emotional associations and identification across age and generational boundaries. This paper argues that the ways older and younger people relate to each other may hold the potential for connection and/or conflict between the generations. Results suggest that age and generation be considered one of the many social locations that may impact the research process and outcomes. Researchers and policy makers of all ages must begin to reflect on their involvement with age and generational boundaries. [source] "Actually, I Don't Feel That Bad": Managing Diabetes and the Clinical EncounterMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2000Steve Ferzacca A major issue for persons treating and managing adult-onset diabetes (NIDDM) is the "problem of compliance." I consider the clinical encounter in the overall context of diabetes management as a punctuated experience focused on the cultivation of an ideal self whose "technologies" and "ethics of self-care" mimic a capitalist logic that links self-discipline, productivity, and health. Both clinicians and their patients share and identify with many of the cultural referents and social values that circulate through medical advice and practice. However, using individual examples, I show how this shared logic can produce idiosyncratic regimes of self-care and clinical practice that result in hybrid medical practices incorporating differing objectives and emphases concerned with a tolerable present or an ideal future. Rather than organizing principles for research and medical practice, I suggest that medical compliance and noncompliance should be considered part of the rhetoric to be explained within the regimes of a pursuit of health. [NIDDM, the clinical encounter, cultivations of self, hybridity] [source] D2 receptors receive paracrine neurotransmission and are consistently targeted to a subset of synaptic structures in an identified neuron of the crustacean stomatogastric nervous systemTHE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY, Issue 3 2010Max F. Oginsky Dopamine (DA) modulates motor systems in phyla as diverse as nematodes and arthropods up through chordates. A comparison of dopaminergic systems across a broad phylogenetic range should reveal shared organizing principles. The pyloric network, located in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG), is an important model for neuromodulation of motor networks. The effects of DA on this network have been well characterized at the circuit and cellular levels in the spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus. Here we provide the first data about the physical organization of the DA signaling system in the STG and the function of D2 receptors in pyloric neurons. Previous studies showed that DA altered intrinsic firing properties and synaptic output in the pyloric dilator (PD) neuron, in part by reducing calcium currents and increasing outward potassium currents. We performed single cell reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) experiments to show that PD neurons exclusively expressed a type 2 (D2,Pan) DA receptor. This was confirmed by using confocal microscopy in conjunction with immunohistochemistry (IHC) on STG wholemount preparations containing dye-filled PD neurons. Immunogold electron microscopy showed that surface receptors were concentrated in fine neurites/terminal swellings and vesicle-laden varicosities in the synaptic neuropil. Double-label IHC experiments with tyrosine hydroxylase antiserum suggested that the D2,Pan receptors received volume neurotransmissions. Receptors were further mapped onto three-dimensional models of PD neurons built from Neurolucida tracings of confocal stacks from the IHC experiments. The data showed that D2,Pan receptors were selectively targeted to approximately 40% of synaptic structures in any given PD neuron, and were nonuniformly distributed among neurites. J. Comp. Neurol. 518:255,276, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Mapping of direction and muscle representation in the human primary motor cortex controlling thumb movementsTHE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 9 2009W. J. Z'Graggen Larger body parts are somatotopically represented in the primary motor cortex (M1), while smaller body parts, such as the fingers, have partially overlapping representations. The principles that govern the overlapping organization of M1 remain unclear. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine the cortical encoding of thumb movements in M1 of healthy humans. We performed M1 mapping of the probability of inducing a thumb movement in a particular direction and used low intensity TMS to disturb a voluntary thumb movement in the same direction during a reaction time task. With both techniques we found spatially segregated representations of the direction of TMS-induced thumb movements, thumb flexion and extension being best separated. Furthermore, the cortical regions corresponding to activation of a thumb muscle differ, depending on whether the muscle functions as agonist or as antagonist for flexion or extension. In addition, we found in the reaction time experiment that the direction of a movement is processed in M1 before the muscles participating in it are activated. It thus appears that one of the organizing principles for the human corticospinal motor system is based on a spatially segregated representation of movement directions and that the representation of individual somatic structures, such as the hand muscles, overlap. [source] Towards the development of a minimal cell model by generalization of a model of Escherichia coli: Use of dimensionless rate parametersBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 3 2001Samuel T. Browning Abstract A model of a minimal cell would be a valuable tool in identifying the organizing principles that relate the static sequence information of the genome to the dynamic functioning of the living cell. Our approach for developing a minimal cell model is to first generalize an existing model of Escherichia coli by expressing reaction rates as ratios to a set of reference parameters. This generalized model is a prototype minimal cell model that will be developed by adding detail to explicitly include each chemical species. We tested the concept of a generalized model by testing the effect of scaling all enzyme-catalyzed reactions in the E. coli model. The scaling has little effect on cellular function for a wide range of kinetic ratios, where the kinetic ratio is defined as the rate of all enzyme-catalyzed reactions in a given model relative to those in the E. coli model. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 76: 187,192, 2001. [source] | ||||||||||||||||