Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Complex Context (complex + context)
Selected AbstractsA model of treatment decision making when patients have advanced cancer: how do cancer treatment doctors and nurses contribute to the process?EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 4 2010L. MCCULLOUGH msc, nurse leader clinical support services MCCULLOUGH L., MCKINLAY E., BARTHOW C., MOSS C. & WISE D. (2010) European Journal of Cancer Care A model of treatment decision making when patients have advanced cancer: how do cancer treatment doctors and nurses contribute to the process? This qualitative study describes how doctors and nurses report their contribution to treatment decision-making processes when patients have advanced cancer. Thirteen nurses and eight doctors involved in cancer treatment and palliation in one geographical location in New Zealand participated in the study. Data were collected using qualitative in-depth, face-to-face interviews. Content analysis revealed a complex context of decision making influenced by doctors and nurses as well as the patient and other factors. A model of clinician and patient decision making emerged with a distinct and cyclical process as advanced cancer remits and progresses. When patients have advanced cancer, nurses and doctors describe a predictable model of decision making in which they both contribute and that cycles through short- and long-term remissions; often nowadays to the point of the patient dying. In conclusion, the findings suggest doctors and nurses have different but complementary roles in what, when and how treatment choices are negotiated with patients, nevertheless within a distinct model of decision making. [source] Environmental complexity affects contextual fear conditioning following hippocampal lesions in ratsHIPPOCAMPUS, Issue 5 2007Sandra N. Moses Abstract Contextual fear conditioning has become a benchmark measure for hippocampal function, even though several studies report successful acquisition in hippocampal-damaged rodents. The current study examined whether environmental complexity may account for these discrepancies. We directly compared single-session contextual fear conditioning in rats in a simple vs. complex environment. Hippocampal lesions led to reduced fear conditioning in both contexts, as measured by freezing, but the effect was significantly greater in the complex context. As well, lesions led to generalized fear when the complex context was paired with shock, but not when the simple context was paired. We suggest that the representation of the simple context formed by rats with hippocampal lesions was adequate to support associative learning, but the representation of the complex context, which depended to a greater extent on relational learning, was not. The results were interpreted as consistent with theories of hippocampal function that emphasize its role in integrating multiple stimulus elements in a memory trace. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Responsibilities of Criminal Justice OfficialsJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2010KIMBERLEY BROWNLEE abstract In recent years, political philosophers have hotly debated whether ordinary citizens have a general pro tanto moral obligation to follow the law. Contemporary philosophers have had less to say about the same question when applied to public officials. In this paper, I consider the latter question in the morally complex context of criminal justice. I argue that criminal justice officials have no general pro tanto moral obligation to adhere to the legal dictates and lawful rules of their offices. My claim diverges not only from the commonsense view about such officials, but also from the positions standardly taken in legal theory and political science debates, which presume there is some general obligation that must arise from legal norms and be reconciled with political realities. I defend my claim by highlighting the conceptual gap between the rigid, generalised, codified rules that define a criminal justice office and the special moral responsibilities of the various moral roles that may underpin that office (such as guard, guardian, healer, educator, mediator, counsellor, advocate, and carer). After addressing four objections to my view, I consider specific contexts in which criminal justice officials are obligated not to adhere to the demands of their offices. Amongst other things, the arguments advanced in this paper raise questions about both the distribution of formal discretion in the criminal justice system and the normative validity of some of the offices that presently exist in criminal justice systems. [source] THE MINOAN FALLACY: CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND MORTUARY BEHAVIOUR ON CRETE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BRONZE AGEOXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2009BORJA LEGARRA HERRERO Summary We are becoming increasingly aware of regional data patterning in the archaeological record of Prepalatial Crete, yet a theoretically informed and methodologically systematic study assessing the significance of such differences is still lacking. This article investigates variation through the rich mortuary record of the period and explores the significance of such diversity for our understanding of Prepalatial Crete. A detailed analysis using mortuary data reveals a complex spatial and temporal variation in the record which raises questions about social, political and ideological differences between communities on the island during the early periods of the Early Bronze Age. Prepalatial Crete emerges from this analysis as a complex context resulting from an intricate combination of local and regional histories and trajectories and far from the unified culture that the term ,Minoan' implies. [source] Communication Flows in International Product Innovation TeamsTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2000Rudy K. Moenaert Recently, we have witnessed a strong growth in the internationalization of many firms' product development activities. However, the lack of attention devoted by scientific research to the management of international innovation contrasts sharply with the importance attached to it as a cornerstone of international business success. Although several empirical studies and normative theories have specified the communication requirements in innovation teams, an empirically based insight is definitely needed on the communication requirements and requirements that prevail in the complex context of international innovation teams, in which the participants are located in different company units, countries, and cultures. This article addresses the following research question: viewing international innovation as an interfunctional activity, what are the communication requirements an international innovation team is facing, and what are the communication capabilities (interface mechanisms) that may be adopted to initiate, develop, and launch the new product effectively and efficiently? An extensive case study research project was designed to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework. Over a two year time period, the research team has investigated selected innovation projects in four European multinational corporations. The analysis of the case study data suggests five requirements that determine the effectiveness and efficiency of communication in international product development teams: network transparency, knowledge codification, knowledge credibility, communication cost, secrecy. To cope with these communication requirements, organizations may create firm level capabilities (parallel structures, cross-functional and inter-unit climate, communication infrastructure, goal congruence) and team level capabilities (core team, team leadership, formalization, procedural justice). The evidence from the in-depth case study research indicates that these mechanisms provide a parsimonious and powerful approach to address the communication requirements in international product innovation teams. After the information processing framework proposed by Tushman and Nadler [124], the adoption of these mechanisms is expected to improve innovation effectiveness. This holds important consequences for the management of international product innovation projects. First, the innovating firm must balance centralization and decentralization, employ formal as well as informal strategies, and integrate ad-hoc and permanent strategies. Second, it highlights the critical role of the project leader. Given the fact that companies often select the most available person, rather than the best person for the job, the allocation of light weight project leaders may create heavyweight problems in international teams. Third, following the argument in favor of procedural justice, the absence of involvement may severely hinder cross-functional commitment to international innovation projects. Fourth, the innovating firm must also actively manage the communication flows with external parties. Failure to do so may result in flawed specifications, and a limited understanding about product design and market strategies. [source] Using knowledge within small and medium-sized firms: A systematic review of the evidenceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 4 2005Richard Thorpe This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use and acquire knowledge. The review was undertaken as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Evolution of Business Knowledge Programme. The paper describes the systematic review protocol and provides a detailed explanation of the methods used. From the review, it is evident that SME knowledge research concentrates primarily on the acquisition and use of knowledge, treating it as an asset that is transferred by routines. The findings suggest that research is focused in three main areas. First, on the influence and abilities of the entrepreneur to extract, use and develop knowledge resources. Secondly, on firm-wide systems and the social capital that facilitates knowledge exploration and exploitation. Thirdly, on the provision of knowledge and learning experiences through government policy. From a practical perspective, the review concludes that policies encouraging entrepreneurship and economic regeneration need to be more flexible and sensitive to the often complex contexts within which knowledge is used by SMEs. From a research perspective, and given the flexible, opportunity-oriented and often novel nature of SMEs identified in these studies, there is a need to consider the relational and embedded qualities of knowledge by which these characteristics are framed; qualities that resist conceptualization as some form of separable, material asset. [source] Research into literacy and technology in primary classrooms: an exploration of understandings generated by recent studiesJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2009Cathy Burnett While much has been written about the implications for ,literacy' of practices surrounding digital technologies, there has been surprisingly little research investigating new literacies in primary classrooms. This review examines the kinds of understandings that have been generated through studies of primary literacy and technology reported during the period 2000,2006. It uses Green's distinction between ,operational', ,cultural' and ,critical' dimensions of primary literacy to investigate the focus and methodology of 38 empirical studies. It explores ways in which research may be informed by assumptions and practices associated with print literacy, but also highlights the kinds of studies which are beginning to investigate the implications of digital texts for primary education. The paper concludes by arguing for further ethnographic and phenomenological studies of classroom literacy practices in order to explore the complex contexts which surround and are mediated by digital texts. [source] Science and culture around the Montessori's first "Children's Houses" in Rome (1907,1915)JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2008Renato Foschi Between 1907 and 1908, Maria Montessori's (1870,1952) educational method was elaborated at the Children's Houses of the San Lorenzo district in Rome. This pioneering experience was the basis for the international fame that came to Montessori after the publication of her 1909 volume dedicated to her "Method." The "Montessori Method" was considered by some to be scientific, liberal, and revolutionary. The present article focuses upon the complex contexts of the method's elaboration. It shows how the Children's Houses developed in relation to a particular scientific and cultural eclecticism. It describes the factors that both favored and hindered the method's elaboration, by paying attention to the complex network of social, institutional, and scientific relationships revolving around the figure of Maria Montessori. A number of "contradictory" dimensions of Montessori's experience are also examined with a view to helping to revise her myth and offering the image of a scholar who was a real early-twentieth-century prototype of a "multiple" behavioral scientist. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] | |||||||||||||