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Organization Level (organization + level)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	33%

Selected Abstracts

Persistent isolationist or collaborator?

JOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2010
The nurse's role in interprofessional collaborative practice
orchard ca. (2010) Journal of Nursing Management18, 248,257 Persistent isolationist or collaborator? The nurse's role in interprofessional collaborative practice Aim, The present study explores current understanding about interprofessional collaborative client-centred practice and nursing's role in this form of care delivery. Background, A profession-only focus on nursing practice has been challenged at professional, national governmental and World Health Organization levels stressing for more interprofessional patient-centred collaborative teamwork. Evaluation, Moving to patient-centred collaborative practice is fraught with barriers. Enablers can result in building trust, power sharing and shared decision-making. Changing current workplace environments requires institutional commitments to support collaborative team development. Key issue(s), Nurses can become collaborative members of teams through: (1) re-socialize; (2) understanding and articulating nurses roles, knowledge and skills to others; (3) other health providers sharing the same to nurses; (4) identifying where shared roles, knowledge and skills exist; and (5) learning to work in collaborative teams. Nurses must address some fundamental issues about practice that negate collaboration and patient-centred care. Conclusions, All professionals, including nurses, must move away from a service-oriented delivery to a patient-centred collaborative approach to care. Implications for nursing management, The values within health organizations need to be underpinned by collaborative interprofessional patient-centred practice. To accomplish this goal, administrators and managers must support assessment of employees and visiting physicians as to their conformance with agency established expectations for such practice. [source]

Identifying meta-clusters of students' interest in science and their change with age

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 9 2009
Ayelet Baram-Tsabari
Abstract Nearly 6,000 science questions collected from five different web-based, TV-based and school-based sources were rigorously analyzed in order to identify profiles of K-12 students' interest in science, and how these profiles change with age. The questions were analyzed according to their topic, thinking level, motivation for and level of autonomy in raising the question, the object of interest and its magnitude, and psychological distance of the object in question from the asker. Characteristics of the asker, such as gender, grade level, and country of origin were also considered, alongside characteristics of the data source, such as language, setting (Internet, school, TV), and the potential science-attentiveness of the users. Six meta-clusters of children's and adolescents' interest in science were identified using cluster analysis of their self-generated science questions. A developmental shift in interest from non-classical to classical school science subjects was noted. Other age-related developments, such as an increase in thinking level as reflected by the questions, a decrease in organization level and the psychological distance of the object in question with age were also explored. Advantages and shortcomings of web-based data collection for educational research are discussed, as are the implications of the results obtained using this methodology for formal science education. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 999,1022, 2009 [source]

Protein,Inorganic Array Construction: Design and Synthesis of the Building Blocks

CHEMISTRY - A EUROPEAN JOURNAL, Issue 7 2010
Niculina
Abstract Herein we describe the design and synthesis of the first series of di-functional ligands for the directed construction of inorganic-protein frameworks. The synthesized ligands are composed of a metal-ion binding moiety (terpyridine-based) conjugated to an epoxysuccinyl peptide, known to covalently bind active cysteine proteases through the active-site cysteine. We explore and optimize two different conjugation chemistries between the di-functionalized metal-ion ligand and the epoxysuccinyl-containing peptide moiety: peptide-bond formation (with limited success) and CuI -catalysed click chemistry (with good results). Further, the complexation of the synthesized ligands with FeII and NiII ions is investigated: the di-functional ligands are confirmed to behave similarly to the parent terpyridine. As designed, the peptidic moiety does not interfere with the complexation reaction, in spite of the presence of two triazole rings that result from the click reaction. ES-MS together with NMR and UV/Vis studies establish the structure, the stoichiometry of the complexation reactions, as well as the conditions under which chemically sensitive peptide-containing polypyridine ligands can undergo the self-assembly process. These results establish the versatility of our approach and open the way to the synthesis of di-functional ligands containing more elaborated polypyridine ligands as well as affinity labels for different enzyme families. As such, this paper is the first step towards the construction of robust supramolecular species that cover a size-regime and organization level previously unexplored. Im Folgenden beschreiben wir das gezielte Design und die Synthese di-funktionaler Liganden zum erstmaligen Aufbau supramolekularer Metall-Protein-Hybridarchitekturen. Die synthetisierten Liganden enthalten eine Metallionen-Bindungsstelle (auf Terpyridin-Basis), die mit einem Epoxysuccinyl-Peptid konjugiert wurde. Diese Peptide binden bekannterweise an die aktiven Cysteine im katalytischen Zentrum von Cystein-Proteasen. Wir untersuchen und optimieren zwei verschiedene Arten chemischer Konjugations-Systeme zwischen den di-funktionalen Metallionen-Liganden und dem Epoxysuccinyl-enthaltenden Peptidrest: Bildung einer Peptid-Bindung (mit geringem Erfolg) und CuI -katalysierte click Chemie (mit signifikantem Erfolg). Wie beabsichtigt, erfolgt die Komplexierung von FeII - und NiII -Ionen an den synthetisierten Liganden hochselektiv am Terpyridylrest und nicht an den Triazol-Ringen des Peptidrests, die aus der click Reaktion resultieren. Struktur, Stöchiometrie der Komplexbildung und Bedingungen für den Selbstorganisationsprozess der empfindlichen poly-Pyridyl-Peptid-Liganden wurden durch ESI-MS-, NMR- und UV-VIS-Untersuchungen dokumentiert. Diese Ergebnisse demonstrieren die Vielseitigkeit unseres neuartigen Ansatzes zur Synthese maßgeschneiderter di-funktionaler Liganden mit poly-Pyridyl-Resten und Affinity Label für unterschiedliche Enzymfamilien. Die Arbeit repräsentiert somit den ersten Schritt in der Entwicklung einer stabilen, supramolekularen Architektur in bisher unerreichter Größenordnung und Organisationsgrad. [source]

Reasoning across ontologically distinct levels: Students' understandings of molecular genetics

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 7 2007
Ravit Golan Duncan
Abstract In this article we apply a novel analytical framework to explore students' difficulties in understanding molecular genetics,a domain that is particularly challenging to learn. Our analytical framework posits that reasoning in molecular genetics entails mapping across ontologically distinct levels,an information level containing the genetic information, and a physical level containing hierarchically organized biophysical entities such as proteins, cells, tissues, etc. This mapping requires an understanding of what the genetic information specifies, and how the physical entities in the system mediate the effects of this information. We therefore examined, through interview and written assessments, 10th grade students' understandings of molecular genetics phenomena to uncover the conceptual obstacles involved in reasoning across these ontologically distinct levels. We found that students' described the genetic instructions as containing information about both the structure and function of biological entities across multiple organization levels; a view that is far less constrained than the scientific understandings of the genetic information. In addition, students were often unaware of the different functions of proteins, their relationship to genes, and the role proteins have in mediating the effects of the genetic information. Students' ideas about genes and proteins hindered their ability to reason across the ontologically distinct levels of genetic phenomena, and to provide causal mechanistic explanations of how the genetic information brings about effects of a physical nature. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 938,959, 2007 [source]

Towards an integrated environmental assessment for wetland and catchment management

THE GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, Issue 2 2003
R Kerry Turner
This paper develops a decision support system for evaluation of wetland ecosystem management strategy and examines its, so far partial, application in a case study of an important complex coastal wetland known as the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads, in the east of England, UK. Most managed ecosystems are complex and often poorly understood hierarchically organized systems. Capturing the range of relevant impacts on natural and human systems under different management options will be a formidable challenge. Biodiversity has a hierarchical structure which ranges from the ecosystem and landscape level, through the community level and down to the population and genetic level. There is a need to develop methodologies for the practicable detection of ecosystem change, as well as the evaluation of different ecological functions. What is also required is a set of indicators (environmental, social and economic) which facilitate the detection of change in ecosystems suffering stress and shock and highlight possible drivers of the change process. A hierarchical classification of ecological indicators of sustainability would need to take into account existing interactions between different organization levels, from species to ecosystems. Effects of environmental stress are expressed in different ways at different levels of biological organization and effects at one level can be expected to impact other levels, often in unpredictable ways. The management strategy, evaluation methodologies and indicators adopted should also assess on sustainability grounds whether any given management option is supporting, or reducing, the diversity of functions which are providing stakeholders with the welfare benefits they require. [source]

The value of formative investment in organizational federations

HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001
AJ Flanagin
Public goods theories highlight an incentive system that rewards ,free riding' on the contributions of early contributors toward collective actions. However, because such theories focus on creation of the good, they may underestimate returns that accrue to early contributors subsequent to the good's realization. The concept of formative investment is introduced here to describe the extent to which organizations help to create public goods such as interorganizational linkages like participatory federations. Data from the CEOs of 48 organizations involved in a participatory federation were used to assess how an organization's level of formative investment is related to later patterns of dependency and interaction among federation members. Findings suggest that from a long-term perspective, and for goods that involve communication and interaction, the incentive structure may not be so favorable for free riders. To the extent that organizations with high formative investment have the capability to envision the future and communicate that vision to potential federation partners, they may be able to both reduce free riding and secure for themselves advantageous positions in the subsequent network of relations. [source]