Developmental Conversion Research Articles

Developmental Conversations: Mentoring as a Pervasive Cultural Practice

Developmental Conversations: Mentoring as a Pervasive Cultural Practice

Developmental conversion of thymocyte-attracting cells into self-antigen-displaying cells in embryonic thymus medulla epithelium

Thymus medulla epithelium establishes immune self-tolerance and comprises diverse cellular subsets. Functionally relevant medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) include a self-antigen-displaying subset that exhibits genome-wide promiscuous gene expression promoted by the nuclear protein Aire and that resembles a mosaic of extrathymic cells including mucosal tuft cells. An additional mTEC subset produces the chemokine CCL21, thereby attracting positively selected thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. Both self-antigen-displaying and thymocyte-attracting mTEC subsets are essential for self-tolerance. Here, we identify a developmental pathway by which mTECs gain their diversity in functionally distinct subsets. We show that CCL21-expressing mTECs arise early during thymus ontogeny in mice. Fate-mapping analysis reveals that self-antigen-displaying mTECs, including Aire-expressing mTECs and thymic tuft cells, are derived from CCL21-expressing cells. The differentiation capability of CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs is verified in reaggregate thymus experiments. These results indicate that CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs carry a developmental potential to give rise to self-antigen-displaying mTECs, revealing that the sequential conversion of thymocyte-attracting subset into self-antigen-displaying subset serves to assemble functional diversity in the thymus medulla epithelium.

Developmental conversion of thymocyte-attracting cells into self-antigen-displaying cells in embryonic thymus medulla epithelium.

Thymus medulla epithelium establishes immune self-tolerance and comprises diverse cellular subsets. Functionally relevant medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) include a self-antigen-displaying subset that exhibits genome-wide promiscuous gene expression promoted by the nuclear protein Aire and that resembles a mosaic of extrathymic cells including mucosal tuft cells. An additional mTEC subset produces the chemokine CCL21, thereby attracting positively selected thymocytes from the cortex to the medulla. Both self-antigen-displaying and thymocyte-attracting mTEC subsets are essential for self-tolerance. Here, we identify a developmental pathway by which mTECs gain their diversity in functionally distinct subsets. We show that CCL21-expressing mTECs arise early during thymus ontogeny in mice. Fate-mapping analysis reveals that self-antigen-displaying mTECs, including Aire-expressing mTECs and thymic tuft cells, are derived from CCL21-expressing cells. The differentiation capability of CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs is verified in reaggregate thymus experiments. These results indicate that CCL21-expressing embryonic mTECs carry a developmental potential to give rise to self-antigen-displaying mTECs, revealing that the sequential conversion of thymocyte-attracting subset into self-antigen-displaying subset serves to assemble functional diversity in the thymus medulla epithelium.

On Respectful Inquiry and Seeing Human: The Case of Technology-mediated Developmental Conversation

On Respectful Inquiry and Seeing Human: The Case of Technology-mediated Developmental Conversation

Trusting Judgements: A new approach to progression without a numeric scale.

Medical education has undergone significant reforms since the 1990s when there were multiple regulators with patronage, inequalities and unreliability for postgraduate training. Modernising Medical Careers was implemented from 2005 to ensure all training posts and equivalents were assimilated into programmes with a defined curriculum and national selection. However, this brought its own problems, with a more rigid route, much control and training not linked to workforce planning. In addition, Workplace-based assessments (WBAs), which had been intended as formative tools to support personal development, morphed into summative assessments together with the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) becoming high stakes rather than a light-touch review of progression as had been intended. Alternative models of competence progression were explored, and initial poll results suggested that from the perspective of trainee/students, 46% would prefer judgements of competence to be decided on team observations/comments. Initial discussion was based on the challenge of “compassionate, collaborative, competent, confident doctors” and the role of WBAs where the current assessment tools were not considered to be the key to improving them. The role of the educator and their relationship with trainees was explored in depth including how to enable practitioners to prioritise education and feedback within busy work environments which requires a change in organisational culture. However, some specialties (psychiatry and general practice) have an expectation that dedicated time will be allocated for trainee and trainer to meet together as a recognition of the importance of high-quality training and celebrating excellent educators. If this could be extended to all specialties, it would provide an opportunity for trainers to review and discuss progress with their trainee, thus ensuring that advancement is maintained and any fall off in improvement is identified early and corrected. However, this requires protected time and the service is often under strain. The flip side of this approach is if there is a breakdown in trainer/trainee relationships, degrees of mistrust, this may cause problems. There could also be a possible power imbalance since feedback should be in both directions. Other key themes included ARCP reform to promote a progressive approach with no surprises rather than summative decisions and a clearer recognition of educational growth within appraisal and revalidation. The way forward should include developmental conversations with a greater coaching and mentoring style rather than tick boxing, more near peer conversations and more focus on programmatic assessment aggregated across a variety of sources. Additional tools may be required to support his approach. It is important to celebrate good training and improve the skills of trainers in developing doctors we want for the future which means going beyond what we do now.

The Importance of Leadership Development in Medical Curricula: A UK Perspective (Stars are Aligning).

“Medical leadership and management” describes the engagement of doctors in the leadership and management of both individual patient care and of the departments, organizations and systems within which they work. Around the world, doctors are generally accepted as the leaders of clinical teams, holding ultimate accountability for individual patient care. However, the role of doctors as organizational and system leaders within healthcare, despite evidence of benefit, shows considerable variation. In this article, we briefly explore the history of leadership development for doctors, and then, taking a UK perspective on recent developments in undergraduate education and postgraduate training, consider the opportunities and challenges for medical schools, educators and doctors in implementing these. The future of medical leadership and management development is promising although there is still a lack of evidence on the longer-term outcomes and impact on patients of current interventions. It is clear, however, that faculty need to be skilled in holding effective developmental conversations and structuring formative experiences for those they educate, and that leadership development must be integrated longitudinally throughout a doctor’s career, with undergraduate development being a critical stage for helping medical students recognize and understand their wider responsibility to the system, as well as the patient in front of them.

Развивающая беседа как метод работы с обучающимися современных образовательных организаций

The modern education system is characterised by a constant search for new forms and methods of motivating, educating, teaching, and developing schoolchildren. Federal state educational standards require educational organisations to focus on the spiritual and moral education of the students, the preservation of their health, and the development of personal qualities of high-school graduates. In this context, we find that the experience of European countries, and, in particular, Estonia where developmental conversation is used in working with schoolchildren, deserves our attention. The paper discusses the methodology of preparing for and conducting developmental conversations. The authors formulate the main goal of the developmental conversation, which is to increase and maintain the joint efforts made by the schoolchildren, their parents and the school to help the children to achieve the educational goals set before them by the curriculum. The researchers also define the objectives of the developmental conversation, which include joint assessment of a child’s achievements, conducted by the teacher and the child’s parents, planning future goals and activities necessary to achieve them, focusing the parents’ and the school’s efforts on maintaining the child’s development, informing parents on the school’s expectations, and providing feedback on the child’s development. It should be noted that, while in Estonia activities associated with developmental conversations are regulated by the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act, in Russia they will have to be conducted in the framework of initiative projects. The article provides an example of the questionnaire to be filled out by the schoolchildren before a developmental conversation. The authors describe the training program for Russian teachers, its goals, and its main modules. The program content includes basic training (development of the teacher’s congruence), content preparation (provisions for developing interviews and questionnaires for schoolchildren), organisational and psychological training, ways to overcome communication barriers, key rules of conducting educational talks, establishing and maintaining rapport with the schoolchildren during the conversation, common mistakes when asking questions to schoolchildren, active listening techniques, effective discussion skills, motivating schoolchildren during and after the conversation, control of the teacher’s emotional tension. The authors present the results of testing the program in a number of educational organisations in Moscow.

Drebrin Isoforms Critically Regulate NMDAR- and mGluR-Dependent LTD Induction.

Drebrin is an actin-binding protein that is preferentially expressed in the brain. It is highly localized in dendritic spines and regulates spine shapes. The embryonic-type (drebrin E) is expressed in the embryonic and early postnatal brain and is replaced by the adult-type (drebrin A) during development. In parallel, NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent long-term depression (LTD) of synaptic transmission, induced by low-frequency stimulation (LFS), is dominant in the immature brain and decreases during development. Here, we report that drebrin regulates NMDAR-dependent and group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR)-dependent LTD induction in the hippocampus. While LFS induced NMDAR-dependent LTD in the developing hippocampus in wild-type (WT) mice, it did not induce LTD in developing drebrin E and A double knockout (DXKO) mice, indicating that drebrin is required for NMDAR-dependent LTD. On the other hand, LFS induced robust LTD dependent on mGluR5, one of group 1 mGluRs, in both developing and adult brains of drebrin A knockout (DAKO) mice, in which drebrin E is expressed throughout development and adulthood. Agonist-induced mGluR-dependent LTD was normal in WT and DXKO mice; however, it was enhanced in DAKO mice. Also, mGluR1, another group 1 mGluR, was involved in agonist-induced mGluR-dependent LTD in DAKO mice. These data suggest that abnormal drebrin E expression in adults promotes group 1 mGluR-dependent LTD induction. Therefore, while drebrin expression is critical for NMDAR-dependent LTD induction, developmental conversion from drebrin E to drebrin A prevents robust group 1 mGluR-dependent LTD.

Human memory CD8 T cell effector potential is epigenetically preserved during in vivo homeostasis

Abstract Maintenance of memory CD8 T cell quantity and quality through antigen-independent homeostatic proliferation is vital for sustaining long-lived T cell-mediated immunity, yet the underlying mechanisms that preserve memory T cell functions during homeostasis remain largely unexplored. Here we show that preservation of effector-potential among human memory CD8 T cells during in vitro and in vivo homeostasis is coupled to maintenance of memory-associated DNA methylation programs. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of primary human naïve, short-lived effector memory (Tem), and longer-lived central memory (Tcm) and stem cell memory (Tscm) CD8 T cells identified demethylated promoters of effector molecules that are poised for rapid expression among all memory cell subsets. Effector-loci demethylation was heritably preserved during IL-7 and IL-15 mediated in vitro cell proliferation. In contrast to the effector-potential, antigen-independent proliferation induced a phenotypic conversion of Tcm and Tscm memory cells into Tem cells that was coupled to increased methylation of the CCR7 locus. Furthermore, in vivo proliferation of haploidentical donor memory CD8 T cells in lymhodepleted recipients resulted in a similar preservation of effector-associated methylation programs while enriching for Tem-associated programs. These data demonstrate that long-lived human memory CD8 T cells retain the ability to undergo antigen-independent epigenetic reprogramming during their developmental conversion into other memory subsets while at the same time preserving the poised effector state utilized by all memory T cells.

Opposing Transcriptional Mechanisms Regulate Toxoplasma Development.

The Toxoplasma biology that underlies human chronic infection is developmental conversion of the acute tachyzoite stage into the latent bradyzoite stage. We investigated the roles of two alkaline-stress-induced ApiAP2 transcription factors, AP2IV-3 and AP2IX-9, in bradyzoite development. These factors were expressed in two overlapping waves during bradyzoite development, with AP2IX-9 increasing expression earlier than AP2IV-3, which peaked as AP2IX-9 expression was declining. Disruption of the AP2IX-9 gene enhanced, while deletion of AP2IV-3 gene decreased, tissue cyst formation, demonstrating that these factors have opposite functions in bradyzoite development. Conversely, conditional overexpression of FKBP-modified AP2IX-9 or AP2IV-3 with the small molecule Shield 1 had a reciprocal effect on tissue cyst formation, confirming the conclusions of the knockout experiments. The AP2IX-9 repressor and AP2IV-3 activator tissue cyst phenotypes were borne out in gene expression studies that determined that many of the same bradyzoite genes were regulated in an opposite manner by these transcription factors. A common gene target was the canonical bradyzoite marker BAG1, and mechanistic experiments determined that, like AP2IX-9, AP2IV-3 regulates a BAG1 promoter-luciferase reporter and specifically binds the BAG1 promoter in parasite chromatin. Altogether, these results suggest that the AP2IX-9 transcriptional repressor and the AP2IV-3 transcriptional activator likely compete to control bradyzoite gene expression, which may permit Toxoplasma to better adapt to different tissue environments and select a suitable host cell for long-term survival of the dormant tissue cyst. IMPORTANCEToxoplasma infections are lifelong because of the development of the bradyzoite tissue cyst, which is effectively invisible to the immune system. Despite the important clinical consequences of this developmental pathway, the molecular basis of the switch mechanisms that control tissue cyst formation is still poorly understood. Significant changes in gene expression are associated with tissue cyst development, and ApiAP2 transcription factors are an important mechanism regulating this developmental transcriptome. However, the molecular composition of these ApiAP2 complexes and the operating principles of ApiAP2 mechanisms are not well defined. Here we establish that competing ApiAP2 transcriptional mechanisms operate to regulate this clinically important developmental pathway.

Insufficient developmental excitatory neuronal activity fails to foster establishment of normal levels of inhibitory neuronal activity

The nervous system is composed of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. One major class of inhibitory neurons release the neurotransmitter γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA). GABAergic inhibitory activity maintains the balance that is disrupted in conditions such as epilepsy. At least some GABAergic neurons are initially excitatory and undergo a developmental conversion to convert to inhibitory neurons. The mechanism(s) behind this conversion are thought to include a critical developmental increase in excitatory activity.To test this hypothesis, we subjected ex vivo developing neuronal networks on multi-electrode arrays to various stimulation and pharmacological regimens. Synaptic activity of networks initially consists of epileptiform-like high-amplitude individual “spikes”, which convert to organized bursts of activity over the course of approximately 1 month. Stimulation of networks with a digitized synaptic signal for 5days hastened the decrease of epileptiform activity. By contrast, stimulation for a single day delayed the appearance of bursts and instead increased epileptiform signaling.GABA treatment reduced total signals in unstimulated networks and networks stimulated for 5days, but instead increased signaling in networks stimulated for 1day. This increase was prevented by co-treatment with (2R)-amino-5-phosphonopentanoate and 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione, confirming that GABA invoked excitatory activity in networks stimulated for 1day. Glutamate increased signals in networks subjected to all stimulation regimens; the GABA receptor antagonist bicuculline prevented this increase only in networks stimulated for 1day. These latter findings are consistent with the induction of so-called “mixed” synapses (which release a combination of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters) in networks stimulated for 1day, and support the hypothesis that a critical level of excitatory activity fosters the developmental transition of GABAergic neurons from excitatory to inhibitory.

“Which hat do I say I'm wearing?”: identity work of independent coaching practitioners

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an insight into the complexities of the identity work performed by independent coaches, based on an investigation into their “lived experiences”. The emerging coaching industry has created opportunities for individuals wishing to pursue a career as independent executive/career coaches. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory investigation was conducted using the principles of grounded theory, drawing on insights from “knowledgeable informants” (18 in total) gained through interviews and focus group discussion. Findings – Despite the attractiveness of pursuing an independent career, the findings surfaced a number of tensions in the way that independent coaches transform and perform their identity. One tension involves balancing notions of self-identity and “ideal work” with presenting a credible self to different client groups, the purchasers of their services. Research limitations/implications – As the research focused on a specific category of independent practitioners, more research is required to assess the generalizability of the findings to other categories of practitioners. Practical implications – A framework illuminating the processual nature of identity work among independent coaches is presented. This could be used to inform developmental conversations with aspiring independent coaches, or to support the content on formal coaching programmes. Originality/value – In drawing attention to the complexities of identity work performed by independent coaches, given the contingencies affecting their work, this research offers a different contribution to the coaching literature.

Improving Faculty Feedback to Resident Trainees during a Simulated Case

Although feedback conversations are an essential component of learning, three challenges make them difficult: the fear that direct task feedback will harm the relationship with the learner, overcoming faculty cognitive biases that interfere with their eliciting the frames that drive trainees' performances, and time pressure. Decades of research on developmental conversations suggest solutions to these challenges: hold generous inferences about learners, subject one's own thinking to test by making it public, and inquire directly about learners' cognitive frames. The authors conducted a randomized, controlled trial to determine whether a 1-h educational intervention for anesthesia faculty improved feedback quality in a simulated case. The primary outcome was an analysis of the feedback conversation between faculty and a simulated resident (actor) by using averages of six elements of a Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale and an objective structured assessment of feedback. Seventy-one Harvard faculty anesthesiologists from five academic hospitals participated. The intervention group scored higher when averaging all ratings. Scores for individual elements showed that the intervention group performed better in maintaining a psychologically safe environment (4.3 ± 1.21 vs. 3.8 ± 1.16; P = 0.001), identifying and exploring performance gaps (4.1 ± 1.38 vs. 3.7 ± 1.34; P = 0.048), and they more frequently emphasized the professionalism error of failing to call for help over the clinical topic of anaphylaxis (66 vs. 41%; P = 0.008). Quality of faculty feedback to a simulated resident was improved in the interventional group in a number of areas after a 1-h educational intervention, and this short intervention allowed a group of faculty to overcome enough discomfort in addressing a professionalism lapse to discuss it directly.

The 21st-Century Syllabus

While the scholarship of teaching and learning literature has made great advances in our understanding of how learning might best occur, the syllabus as a teaching and learning tool appears to have been almost completely left out of the developmental conversation. Overwhelmingly, extant literature about syllabi and their use focuses on operational course norms—what to include, policies to be delineated, structural aspects to be covered. However, the student development literature and in particular, the Generation Y age cohort literature, indicates that information processing norms may increasingly degrade students’ ability to use course syllabi for their intended purpose. In this article, we explore how and why the role of a course syllabus has changed, particularly in the management education realm, using the andragogy literature to frame the discussion. Employing four analytic frames from the current syllabus development literature—syllabus as contract, as power, as communication or signaling device, and as collaboration—we offer current and andragogically revised excerpts from our own syllabi as part of the conversation.

Surveillance and silence

Studies to date have highlighted a number of key factors in the assessment of difficult social work placements including the need for adequate professional formation; communication; the changing social work education framework; and the influence of the wider social work context. Factors less widely examined are the perceptions of some practice educators that the assessment of placement students operates in a wider context of surveillance and scrutiny by a range of stakeholders. We argue that such perceptions of surveillance can cause a discursive anxiety for practice educators and can inhibit key developmental conversations between assessor and student. Drawing on interviews with ten practice educators, we examine the tendency of practice educators reflecting on a failed placement to rehearse or even enact those key developmental conversations post hoc, broaching previously unstated or tacit aspects of the placement experience. We argue for the need to create a safe discursive space for these conversations to take place in situ during the challenging placement and suggest that a diminution in perceptions of surveillance and enhanced outcomes for students and practice educators will result.

Communicative action: the Habermasian and Freirean dialogical approach to participatory communication for social change in a post-1994 South Africa

Despite its almost four decade mainstay, the field of parti-cipatory communication for social change still experiences a definitional and pragmatic problem regarding what exactly participation is (cf. Jacobson & Storey, 2004; Chambers, 1994; Melkote & Steeves, 2001; Rogers, 1976; Lerner, 1964; Schramm, 1964; Servaes, 1995). What remains is a vastly under-theorised field of participatory communication for social change. This article examines the possibility of participatory communication approaching the Habermasian “ideal speech situation” in which people, as communicators, are seen as having a value in their own right and not simply regarded as a means to an end (cf. Habermas, 1984; 1987; 1989). Consistent with the Freirean “liberal pedagogy”, the praxis of dialogical communication or intersubjective communication is seen as putting right the “participative” quality of participatory com-munication (cf. Freire, 1970). For both theorists, transformative action can only occur if reflective and collective learning occurs in linguistically constructed settings where the normative dimensions of truth (logos), rightfulness (ethos) and truthfulness (pathos) are raised and met in the developmental conversation. This is especially significant in a globalised world and fragmented, post-bourgeois public sphere where debate among developmental stakeholders is becoming more marginal, in-strumentalist, and less public. Based on available analyses of development communication literature, this article proposes that the chosen dialogical approaches share a type of communi-cative behaviour (i.e. action theoretic), rather than representing a particular paradigm or school of thought. This could offer further definitional clarification of proper participatory communi-cation for social change in a post-1994 South Africa.

Plenary: Plenary 1: Nicotinic synapse formation and the regulation of neural development

Nicotinic cholinergic signaling uses the transmitter acetylcholine (ACh) to activate ligand-gated ion channels termed nicotinic ACh receptors (nAChRs). It provides the main form of excitation to autonomic neurons in the periphery and exerts modulatory control over many non-nicotinic signaling pathways in the CNS. In both cases nicotinic signaling drives the early developmental conversion of GABAergic signaling from excitation to inhibition with important consequences for network function. Recent results indicate a more fundamental role for nicotinic signaling during development: it can accelerate glutamate synapse formation in the CNS and determine the location of synapses formed. Signaling through the two major classes of nAChRs exerts distinct but complementary and convergent effects to fashion functional glutamatergic contacts. Both in the autonomic nervous system and in the CNS, members of the PSD-95 family of PDZ-containing scaffold proteins shape the nature of nicotinic input a neuron receives. On autonomic neurons this includes transsynaptic indirect regulation by PDZ-proteins from the postsynaptic side to control separately synchronous and asynchronous ACh release from terminals contacting the neuron. Moreover, recent single-particle-tracking studies with Quantum Dots reveal that the PDZ-scaffold, along with cytoskeletal elements and the lipid environment, regulate the lateral mobility of nAChRs in ways that are both domain-specific and receptor subtype-dependent. These mechanisms may enable neurons to recruit appropriate receptors for location-specific tasks and thereby determine the kinds of nicotinic signaling that will occur.

Media and Metanoia: Documentary ‘Impact’ Through the Lens of Conversion

How do contemporary understandings of religious conversion and formation shed light on the “impact” and “effectiveness” of social change media? This paper evaluates three case studies, public television documentaries produced in the mid-1990s, to reflect on their social effect. Contemporary conversion theory provides a nuanced perspective with which to interpret the nature and circumstances under which social documentary—media created specifically so as to have a social effect—may in fact be said to have an “impact.” Innumerable media theorists have discredited market models where the uncritical television viewer gets off her couch straightaway and goes out to join a social movement in the same manner as she might buy a new brand of toothpaste, and yet an expectation of being able to demonstrate (often quantifiable) “results” insistently follows documentarians and public television outreach professionals. This “high-impact” model may be seen to be analogous to a “Road to Damascus” view of instant and permanent religious conversion, likewise discounted yet tenacious. It is an illuminating exercise to consider the operations of documentary media from the perspective of developmental conversion theorists such as Rambo, Tippett, Fowler, Lovland and Stark, and others. In this light, it is possible to understand both how these documentary case studies did create certain very particular kinds of change, as well as why most social documentaries, in truth, do not.

Case Study: Henrico County, Virginia: Succession Management: A Developmental Approach

Henrico County General Government borders the city of Richmond, Va., to the west, north and east. It constitutes approximately one-third of the Richmond metropolitan area and employs more than 3,900 full-time employees working in more than 30 agencies. Department heads are appointed by the county manager, with the exception of the elected constitutional officers. In 2001, the county achieved recognition as having the lowest overall tax rates of 13 urban cities and counties in Virginia. It was also one of the first counties in the nation to achieve a triple-A rating on water and sewer bonds. The county has always been progressive and consistently innovative, having earned numerous National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Awards through the years. Henrico County, Va., implemented a succession management initiative to address two concerns: 1) the loss of intellectual capital in positions as upper managers become eligible to retire in record numbers, and 2) the decreasing number of younger adults in the workforce available to develop the skills necessary to move into higher-level positions. The program consisted of two phases. Phase One taught supervisors how to guide employees through a professional development process using individualized learning plans. Phase Two provided information to upper managers on strategies for developing subordinate managers for the purpose of planning for succession. In both phases, the individualized learning plan form was offered as a practical developmental tool. It includes sections for identification of strengths, weaknesses, goals and strategies. Supervisors were taught how to guide developmental conversations with their employees. Upper managers were taught the five steps of an effective succession management program: 1) identifying positions for succession; 2) identifying competencies of positions; 3) developing employees; 4) assessing results of development; and 5) evaluating the program. They were given tools for employee development that addressed the unique learning needs of managers. Using a developmental approach, a learning culture emerged with dramatic evidence that managers were effectively supervising the developmental activities of their employees, and that the managers themselves were involved in activities critical to the possession of the skills necessary to take over higher levels of responsibility. One important goal of this initiative was to have a pool of internal candidates, organization-wide, who would be competitive in an external recruitment process. The results have been spectacular. In the two years leading up to the implementation of the succession management initiative, only two of seven upper manager positions were filled with internal candidates. During the first two years of this initiative, internal candidates filled all eight upper management position vacancies. This trend continues, with a total of 15 of 16 appointments of internal candidates to upper management county positions since the initiative was introduced. In November 2003, the county widened the impact of this initiative when middle managers were identified as key position holders. These middle managers are now beginning the process of knowledge transfer and development of subordinate managers. The Need for Managing Succession in Henrico County National statistics tell us that our society is aging. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the population in the age groups of 16-24 and 25-34 will decline over the next decade, while the 55-plus age group will increase dramatically. In the workforce, we are seeing parallel demographics, with the percentage of younger employees decreasing while the percentage of older workers is increasing. In Henrico County, workers age 40 and under represented 44 percent of the workforce in the year 2000, while in 1983 they were the majority with 66 percent. Retirements in Henrico County continue to climb--76 retirees in 2000 compared with only 46 one decade earlier in 1990. …

Reverse development in Cnidaria

Cnidarians have long been considered simple animals in spite of the variety of their complex life cycles and developmental patterns. Several cases of developmental conversion are known, leading to the formation of resting stages or to offspring proliferation. Besides their high regenerative and asexual-reproduction potential, a number of cnidarians can undergo ontogeny reversal, or reverse development: one or more stages in the life cycle can reactivate genetic programs specific to earlier stages, leading to back-transformation and morph rejuvenation. The switch is achieved by a variable combination of cellular processes, such as transdifferentiation, programmed cell death, and proliferation of interstitial cells. The potential for ontogeny reversal has limited ecological meaning and is probably just an extreme example of a more general strategy for withstanding unfavourable periods and allowing temporal persistence of species in the environment.