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Initial Decision (initial + decision)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting50%
Medical Sciences33%

Selected Abstracts

The T-cell receptor repertoire of regulatory T cells

IMMUNOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
Rafal Pacholczyk
Summary The CD4+ CD25+ regulatory population of T cells (Treg cells), which expresses the forkhead family transcription factor (Foxp3), is the key component of the peripheral tolerance mechanism that protects us from a variety of autoimmune diseases. Experimental evidence shows that Treg cells recognize a wide range of antigenic specificities with increased reactivity to self antigens, although the affinity of these interactions remains to be further defined. The Treg repertoire is highly diverse with a distinct set of T-cell receptors (TCRs), and yet is overlapping to some extent with the repertoire of conventional T cells (Tconv cells). The majority of Treg cells are generated in the thymus. However, the role of the TCR specificity in directing thymic precursors to become Treg or Tconv cells remains unclear. On the one hand, the higher self reactivity of Treg cells and utilization of different TCRs in Treg and Tconv repertoires suggest that in TCR interactions an initial decision is made about the ,suitability' of a developing thymocyte to become a Treg cell. On the other hand, as Treg cells can recognize a wide range of foreign antigens, have a diverse TCR repertoire, and show some degree of overlap with Tconv cells, the signals through the TCR may be complementary to the TCR-independent process that generates precursors of Treg cells. In this review, we discuss how different features of the Treg repertoire influence our understanding of Treg specificities and the role of self reactivity in the generation of this population. [source]

On the Review Process and Journal Development

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 3 2006
Timothy Clark
abstract This paper describes the editorial and review process currently operating at JMS and offers the Editors' perspective on the journal's growth over the past three years. We first outline what we think is the essence of a JMS article. Then, we describe the review process from the editor's initial decision, to the reviewers' comments, to the editor's final editorial decisions, and including the process of accepting a paper. We suggest four main reasons for rejecting a paper: lack of contribution, failure to develop a theoretical contribution, fatal flaws in methods and deficiencies in analysis. With respect to the journal's progress, we show that JMS has significantly increased its position in the ISI rankings to 19th and its impact factor to 1.180. In addition, the journal experienced a 222 per cent increase in submissions from 2003 to 2005. [source]

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Can sugammadex save a patient in a simulated ,cannot intubate, cannot ventilate' situation?

ANAESTHESIA, Issue 9 2010
M. M. A. Bisschops
Summary Recent studies have shown that the use of high dose rocuronium followed by sugammadex provides a faster time to recovery from neuromuscular blockade following rapid sequence induction than suxamethonium. In a manikin-based ,cannot intubate, cannot ventilate' simulation, we studied the total time taken for anaesthetic teams to prepare and administer sugammadex from the time of their initial decision to use the drug. The mean (SD) total time to administration of sugammadex was 6.7 (1.5) min, following which a further 2.2 min (giving a total 8.9 min) should be allowed to achieve a train-of-four ratio of 0.9. Four (22%) teams gave the correct dose, 10 (56%) teams gave a dose that was lower than recommended, four (22%) teams gave a dose that was higher than recommended, six (33%) teams administered sugammadex in a single dose, and 12 (67%) teams gave multiple doses. Our simulation highlights that sugammadex might not have saved this patient in a ,cannot intubate, cannot ventilate' situation, and that difficulties and delays were encountered when identifying, preparing and administering the correct drug dose. [source]

Initial Crisis Agent-Response Impact Syndrome (ICARIS)

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2006
Tobin Hensgen
There has been a dramatic shift in attitude among organizations regarding the probabilities of crisis occurring. Once crises were considered the domain of the contingency management team that sought the fastest means to recovery, now the entire organization is compelled to take steps intended to mitigate conditions leading to a crisis. In this paper, the authors consider the organization's ,first responders' i.e., those who become involuntarily placed in the decision making process because they are the first to become aware of the conditions which indicate impending crisis simply because they are ,on scene.' As agents of the organization, these persons will make initial decisions well before the implementation of any formal contingency plan and because their decisions will be based on incomplete assumptions, they are likely to be in error. The impact of these initial crisis-agent responses can cause irreparable damage to the organization, to the individuals within the organization, and to the surrounding environment. This tendency toward error is referred to as the initial crisis-agent response impact syndrome: ICARIS. Exercising a program that prepares all employees for the initial decisions that need to be made at the moment of crisis can mitigate problems related to this issue. [source]

The Urge to Merge: A Multiple-Case Study

NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 2 2002
Martha Golensky
The authors undertook a comparative study of three recent mergers of nonprofit organizations in a Midwestern urban center, within the context of political-economy theory. The research explored the impact of the same environmental factor, managed care, on the initial decisions by organizational leaders and the effects of these early decisions on subsequent actions taken to implement the merger. The study tested the authors' model of the motivations for merging, which proposes that the relationship between the decision-making style of the leadership and the internal and external resources of the prospective partners determines whether the merger is driven primarily by mission, practicality, stability, or fear. Although the findings provide initial support for the hypotheses derived from the model, a demonstration of the differences in the approach to the merger by each organization indicated that other factors emerged as important driving forces during the various phases of the process. [source]

TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION CLAIMING: AN INTEGRATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORIES

PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2001
BARRY M. GOLDMAN
This research examines predictors of actual discrimination claiming among terminated workers by investigating a number of variables suggested by organizational justice and social information processing theories. This study investigated initial decisions to claim in a sample of 439 terminated workers who were surveyed at several unemployment offices. Logistic regression was used to examine how the decision to claim for discrimination was affected by procedural and distributive justice, social guidance, minority status, gender, age, tenure, and education. All of the variables except education and gender were found to be significant. Thus, the results support variables from each of the theories. Social guidance was found to have a major influence on discrimination-claiming. A counter-intuitive finding for minority status was found such that Whites were more likely to claim than minorities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [source]