Reflexive Position Research Articles

Functional recovery after transplantation of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stromal cells in a rat model of spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a medically untreatable condition for which stem cells have created hope. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have established that these cells are safe for transplantation. The dose dependency, survivability, route of administration, cell migration to injury site and effect on sensory and motor behavior in an SCI-induced paraplegic model were studied. A spinal cord contusion injury model was established in rats. Bone marrow (BM) mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) were tagged to facilitate tracing in vivo. Two different doses (2 and 5 million cells/kg body weight) and two different routes of infusion (site of injury and lumbar puncture) were tested during and after the spinal shock period. The animals were tested post-transplantation for locomotor capacity, motor control, sensory reflex, posture and body position. Stem cell migration was observed 1 month post-transplantation in spinal cord sections. The overall results demonstrated that transplantation of BM MSC significantly improved the locomotor and sensory behavior score in the experimental group compared with the sham control group, and these results were dose dependent. All the infused stem cells could be visualized at the site of injury and none was visualized at the injected site. This indicated that the cells had survived in vivo, were probably chemoattracted and had migrated to the lesion site. MSC transplanted with a lumbar puncture method migrate to the site of injury and are the most suitable for SCI healing. These cells demonstrate a dose-dependent effect and promote functional recovery when injected during or after the spinal shock period.

Clinical predictors for testicular torsion as seen in the pediatric ED

Objective The aim of the study was to identify clinical findings associated with increased likelihood of testicular torsion (TT) in children. Design This study used a retrospective case series of children with acute scrotum presenting to a pediatric emergency department (ED). Results Five hundred twenty-three ED visits were analyzed. Mean patient age was 10 years 9 months. Seventeen (3.25%) patients had TT. Pain duration of less than 24 hours (odds ratio [OR], 6.66; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.54-33.33), nausea and/or vomiting (OR, 8.87; 95% CI, 2.6-30.1), abnormal cremasteric reflex (OR, 27.77; 95% CI, 7.5-100), abdominal pain (OR, 3.19; 95% CI, 1.15-8.89), and high position of the testis (OR, 58.8; 95% CI, 19.2-166.6) were associated with increased likelihood of torsion. Conclusions Testicular torsion is uncommon among pediatric patients presenting to the ED with acute scrotum. Pain duration of less than 24 hours, nausea or vomiting, high position of the testicle, and abnormal cremasteric reflex are associated with higher likelihood of torsion.

Participation Cartography: The Presentation of Self in Spatio-Temporal Terms

In this paper, I focus on disclosures by one participant as enabled by a kind of artistic practice that I term “participation cartography.” By using “participation cartography” as a framework for the analysis of Running Stitch (2006), a piece by Jen Southern (U.K.) and Jen Hamilton (Canada), I demonstrate that disclosures by participants in this practice are to be seen as a form of self-mapping that positions the self in relation to a given performance space. These self-positionings present the self in spatio-temporal terms and by means of performative narratives that re-define the subject from an isolated individual into a participant within an unfolding live process.

Evolução histórica e impacto da tecnologia na área da saúde e da enfermagem

This study it is of exploratory and descriptive character. One is about bibliographical research carried through on the basis of the analysis and interpretation of articles, dissertations and thesis produced between 1994 the 2004. We investigate the contributions of researchers that had focused the historical evolution of the technology in the area of the health and the nursing. Of a total of 39 articles, 03 selected dissertations and 02 thesis, we construct for analysis two categories: Technological evolution in the area of the health: hard technology e; Technological evolution in the Nursing: technology leavening and has led. This study it allowed to affirm us that a critical and reflexive position is necessary on the use of the technology, searching an adequacy to the necessities of the patient as a whole and that, independent of the use of the high technology, fits to the nurse to keep this together humanized presence to the sick people.

Beyond the End of History: The Need for a `Radical Historicisation' of Democracy in International Relations

To properly comprehend democracy's present and future role in politics, particularly in regards to processes of democratisation and democracy promotion, we must cultivate a more nuanced reading of democracy's past. Needed is `a radical historicisation of democracy', in Frank Ankersmit's words, which foregrounds that democracy is a contingent historical fact, necessarily conditioned by its past. This position is contrasted to the standard account of democracy and its history provided by liberalism. Rather than comfortably accepting the current prominence of liberal democracy and the widespread normative agreement on this form of rule, this article instead considers the much longer tradition of thought which regarded democracy as something negative and very distinct from liberalism. In so doing, a sensitive reading of democracy's past promotes a much more reflexive position, which opens space for considering whether the present state of affairs is actually much less secure and more fragile than many liberal proponents of democracy tend to suggest. At the same time, this approach also points the way towards a more considered case for democracy.

Capital negotiation and identity practices: investigating symbolic capital from the ‘ground up’

This study explores the circulation of Bourdieu's symbolic capital at the level of face-to-face interactions. Recounting a single interaction between three individuals, this study provides an example of (1) the negotiated nature of capital articulation and (2) the relationship between identity practice and capital articulation, when addressed at the microlevel of interaction. Given a group task which forced participants to negotiate at an explicit level symbolic capital affordances, one participant – a non-native speaker of English in an English conversation – was able to articulate cultural capital by way of her links to academic institutions. However, later in the group task her attempt to index capital by way of her reflexive positioning as Asian was rebuked, leading her to disengage from the group task. This study emphasizes the need to analyze symbolic capital from the ‘ground-up’ for that is where its distribution is reproduced but also potentially transformed.

Reflexive Positioning in a Politically Sensitive Situation

For the past 7 years, the author has conducted qualitative research projects revolving around the experiences of West Bank settlers. The political situation in Israel in general, and the West Bank in particular, has undergone rapid and dramatic political, military, and social changes during this period. In highly politically sensitive situations such as this, the researcher is faced with physical, professional, emotional, and ethical threats. This article presents a conceptual discussion and case illustration of the use of four types of reflexive positioning: (a) identification with respondents, (b) emotional enmeshment, (c) personal associations, and (d) auto-ethnography. These reflexive positions reduce risks to the trustworthiness of the research and transform threats into opportunities to enrich qualitative data analysis.

BEING “EAST GERMAN” OR BEING “AT HOME IN EASTERN GERMANY”? IDENTITY AS EXPERIENCE AND AS RHETORIC

An apparent resurgence of East German identity aroused much scholarly interest in recent years whilst it is contested in the German public discourse. Scholars see the phenomenon as based in experiences of domination and cultural devaluation; German scholars focus on East-West German differences, and the public discourse refers to the continuation of the “[Berlin] Wall in people's minds.” When conducting field research in Saxony-Anhalt in 2001, I found, however, that my informants would consciously and carefully negotiate their senses of belonging. Many avoided claims to an exclusive identity category and instead emphasised more local senses of attachment which nevertheless encompassed the whole of eastern Germany. This article seeks to highlight the interplay of these two kinds of belonging. Its central argument is that they are two aspects of the same phenomenon. The article therefore explores how identity is based in the mundane and quotidian forms of everyday life leading to senses of belonging that allow for a reflexive positioning of the self and the other. This belonging is at certain times also voiced explicitly. The article also explores how and when identity rhetoric comes into play.

Managing Dualities in Planned Change Initiatives

Dualities play an important role in creating the conditions for change and managing planned change initiatives. Building on Seo, Putnam, and Bartunek's (2003) work, this study focuses on the dualities associated with managing change processes. A case study of a planned change process called the Circle of Prosperity Initiative, a multi-stakeholder dialogue designed to bring information technology to Indian country, was analyzed. Three dualities emerged regarding the structuring and management of the change initiative: (1) inclusion–exclusion, (2) preservation–change, and (3) centrality–parity. The findings suggested that these dualities were managed using Seo et al.'s (2003) strategy of connection. Notably, the strategy of connection relied heavily on the ability of change agents to set context within and between the different phases of the initiative and involved three specific practices for setting context setting: (1) commonplacing, (2) bounded mutuality, and (3) reflexive positioning.

So!apbox: editorial essays: Strategy as practice?

Strategy is supposed to lead an organization through changes and shifts to secure its future growth and sustainable success, and it has become the master concept with which to address CEOs of contemporary organizations and their senior managers. Its talismanic importance can hardly be overstated. Thus, strategic management is increasingly understood as the task of the top management team. While seminal works on strategy bear the imprint of modernist rationality (Ansoff, 1965; Porter, 1980), there have been numerous contributions to the strategy literature that can be characterized as more reflexive and critical (e.g. Clegg et al., 2004). More expressly sociological in nature, they have placed emphasis on, inter alia, how power and politics shape the strategies that emerge (Mintzberg, 1987; Pettigrew, 1985); the strategic choices made (Child, 1972); the language games that constitute strategy (Barry and Elmes, 1997); as well as how strategy is best understood through interpretative approaches (Schwenk, 1989), structuration theory (Whittington, 1992) or epistemology (Knights and Morgan, 1991). Such works set out an alternative to the neat assumptions of ubiquitous rationality underpinning orthodox strategy. Most recently, the so-called strategy as practice approach has claimed to integrate earlier epistemologically and ontologically more reflexive positions into a new orthodoxy. The new approach is one that is very much couched in European characters ( Jarzabkowski, 2003, 2004; Samra-Fredericks, 2003; Whittington, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2004), and is clearly to be understood as a systematic critique of orthodox, hegemonic, and mainly North American, or North American-inspired, strategy research. In this essay, we seek to advance the current debate in the field of strategy in several respects: first, we discuss the intellectual genesis of the strategy as practice STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION Vol 6(1): 83–99 DOI: 10.1177/1476127007087154 Copyright ©2008 Sage Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) http://so.sagepub.com

Space for GRRAACCEESS: some reflections on training for cultural competence

This article is focused on a particular exercise that helped to reinforce the learning about social difference on the Relate Institute's Systemic Practice Year 1 course. This exercise helped move students into a reflexive position in their learning. Positive outcomes were shown from course feedback, and the subsequent application of learning into written assignments.

ORIENTATION OF THE FUTURE DESIGNERS OF THE BOOK TO A SELF-ESTIMATION O F PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AS A CONDUCTING CONDITION OF PREPARATION OF EXPERTS IN HIGH SCHOOLS.

The article to the issue of devoted to the future book-designers' guidance for the professional competence self-appraisal as a leading term of the specialists' training in the institutes of higher education. Such a training contributes to the reflexive position development of the future specialists in book-design, what in it’s turn influences the students' critical analysis and constructive perfection of their professional competence level. Thus, a progressive correlation of the students' knowledge about themselves in the context «I am a student» and «I am a competent specialist» forms a life philosophy of the future book-designers, the public value of themselves is being realized. The subject develops its personality in balance, inventively realizing.

High Resolution Light Microscopic Evaluation of Boar Semen Quality Sperm Cytoplasmic Droplet Retention in Relationship with Boar Fertility Parameters

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between fertility and quantitative measures of boar semen quality, including various patterns of sperm cytoplasmic droplet (CD) retention, as determined by high power differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. A total of 116 ejaculates were collected from a nucleus herd of 18 Large White boars over an eight month period. Semen quality parameters were analyzed for each ejaculate by calculating the percentage of normal spermatozoa, spermatozoa possessing a CD in the proximal, distal, or distal midpiece reflex position, total spermatozoa with an attached cytoplasmic droplet, spermatozoa with non-CD related aberrations and total spermatozoa with abnormalities. Of the 116 ejaculates received, 71 ejaculates from 13 boars had corresponding fertility data from single-sire inseminations of multiparous sows. The fertility data included farrowing rate (FR) and total number born (TNB). The monthly FR encompassed one month before and one month after the date of semen collection. Detection of differences for fertility and semen quality parameters was performed by separating the boars into either an above-average or below-average group based on the mean FR (74.01 +/- 1.43%) or TNB (12.34 +/- 0.17) for the study. For FR, the boars in the below-average group had a significantly lower percentage of normal spermatozoa and significantly higher percentage of spermatozoa possessing distal CDs, total attached CDs and total abnormalities compared to the boars in the above-average group. Conversely, for TNB there were no significant differences between the above- and below-average groups for the semen quality parameters. These data suggest that the attached CD may negatively affect FR, but not TNB. The detection of relationships between the boar fertility parameters and the retention of the sperm CD after ejaculation, document the advantage of high power DIC microscopy in conventional semen evaluation.

A multiculturalist approach to discourse theory

The present article advocates a multiculturalist approach to theoretical rearticulation of language and communication. It does so by arguing why this approach is needed and showing how it can be achieved. The first part of the essay takes up aculturalist tendencies in the case of discourse studies and examines their theoretical and political consequences. The second part proposes a multicultural-epistemological stance, i.e., a reflexive and critical position of meaning making in between Eastern and Western, North and South, and local and global regimes of knowledge/power. Finally, the article explicates how the multiculturalist theorist can construct a historically conscious and local-global-minded theory of culture-specific discourse.

Reconsidering Citizenship in the Light of the Concerns of the UK Disability Movement

Perhaps largely due to the successful campaigning of a number of pressure groups and social movements, but also due to the established position of related subjects within academia, there is a now almost routine consideration of class, ethnicity, gender and sexuality in relation to citizenship. Disability and the position of disabled people as “citizens” has not, however, received as much attention. It is the assertion of this article that this is a significant fact, for a consideration of disability in relation to citizenship provides useful insights into the strengths and weaknesses of some important theories of citizenship. Further, it demonstrates the need for an approach that takes account of the increasing uncertainty of groups such as disabled people towards their own identities and that conceives citizenship as being a process of “proactive engagement” towards a “reflexive position”.

ACUTE, SUBCHRONIC AND CHRONIC TOXICITY STUDIES OF A SYNTHETIC ANTIOXIDANT, 2,2'-ISOBUTYLIDENEBIS(4,6-DIMETHYLPHENOL) IN RATS

General toxicity studies on 2,2'-isobutylidenebis(4,6-dimethylphenol)(IBBMP) were conducted using male and female Wistar rats. In the acute test, the oral LD50 values were 119 mg/kg BW in males and 103 mg/kg BW in females. Hypersensitivity, loss of righting reflex and abdominal position were observed. In the subchronic test, rats were fed a diet containing IBBMP at levels of 0, 20, 100 or 500 ppm for 13 weeks with interim sacrifice at 4 weeks (equal to 0, 1.1, 5.5 or 27.9 mg/kg BW/day in males and 0, 1.1, 5.9 or 29.6 mg/kg BW/day in females). In both sexes, there were no changes in general condition, body weight gains and food intakes in all groups. No deaths were observed in all groups. Significant increase in AST was observed in 500 ppm males at Week 4. However, the change was not observed at Week 13. Slight but significant decreases in creatinine were also observed in 100 ppm females at Week 13 and 500 ppm males and females at Weeks 4 and 13. Total cholesterol (T-CHO) was significantly elevated in females of the 500 ppm group at Weeks 4 and 13. Absolute and relative liver weights were increased in 500 ppm of both sexes at Week 4. In females, the increases were also observed at Week 13. However, no remarkable histopathological findings were observed in all treated groups. In the chronic test, rats were fed a diet containing IBBMP at levels of 0, 100, 500 and 1500 ppm for 18 months with interim sacrifices at 6 and 12 months (equal to 0, 3.8, 19.4 or 59.4 mg/kg BW/day in males and 0, 4.3, 20.9 or 67.5 mg/kg BW/day in females). No remarkable changes in general appearance were observed in any rats. Body weight gains, food intakes and survival rates in all treated animals were comparable to those of the control. No remarkable changes in the hematological parameters were observed. T-CHO was significantly elevated in females of the 1500 ppm groups throughout the experiment. Significant increases or tendencies for increase in relative liver weights were observed in the 500 and 1500 ppm animals of both sexes. Increased incidences of swelling in liver cells were observed in 1500 ppm males at 6 months and 1500 ppm females at 12 and 18 months. At 18 months, dose-dependent increases in thickness of basement membrane of renal tubules and Bowman's capsule and cell infiltration to the interstitium of the kidney were observed in males. Significant increases of hyaline cast and basophilic change were also observed in 1500 ppm males. In females, increased incidences of hyaline cast were observed at 500 ppm and higher at 18 months. No other toxicity was apparent. No neoplastic lesions that could be attributed to IBBMP were observed in any organs of either sex. From the result of the chronic toxicity test, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for IBBMP was concluded to be 100 ppm in the diet (4.26 mg/kg BW/day) in female rats on the basis of induction of hyaline cast in renal tubules at 500 ppm, whereas, in males, only a lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (LOAEL) was given as 100 ppm (3.84 mg/kg BW/day) on the basis of induction of thickening of basement membrane in renal tubules at 100 ppm.

Croyances de professeurs stagiaires d’éducation physique et sportive à propos de trois approches de l'évaluation

Three types of approach concerning evaluation understood by P. E. apprentice teachers. Taking into consideration the results of a recent research undertaken by the National Institute of Pedagogical Research on the ability of future P. E. teachers to evaluate pupils, the following report will try to show the evolution of attitudes concerning that problem among 179 apprentice P. E. teachers in four teacher training colleges. The project tackles three classical models of evaluation by means of a questionnaire, spanning from beginning to end of an academic year. The evolution in the response among the apprentice teachers shows that if part of them still feel secure with a traditional docimological conception centred on measure, the majority enter into a reflexive position revealed by an attitude of doubt towards the conceptions displayed in the evaluation established in the questionnaire. The meaning and the underlining values of the conceptions is then discussed in the sense that they can be understood as elements of a “ professional culture” anchored in the recent history of the P. E. discipline, which is currently going through an approach seen in the past or even to day in the general field of education as well.

Towards a feminist–queer alliance: a paradigmatic shift in the research process

Building on the advances made by feminist reconsiderations of methods, methodology and epistemology, this paper calls for an alliance between feminist social science and the emerging field of queer theory. By challenging traditional scientific approaches to research on sexual minority groups, a distinctly ‘queer’ approach is advocated that adopts a reflexive position on subjectivity and sexuality. While essentialist approaches privilege gay/lesbian, man/woman, and object/subject, this approach advances a framework of critical sexualities that moves social science into an arena of inclusivity and multiple identities, rather than reductionistic categorical thought. The implications are clear: a rethinking of identity categories that transcend stagnant dualisms.

Exploring Signs and Voices in the Therapeutic Space

The recent social constructionist and narrative approaches to subjectivity and psychotherapy tend to exclude psychoanalysis as essentialist and reductionist. This paper revisits psychoanalytic theory, and particularly Lacanian psychoanalysis, and discusses its relevance for a semiotic understanding of subjectivity. It draws upon Lacan's and Bakhtin's theories to outline a theory of subjectivity as a constellation of linguistically produced and enacted positions and of transference as a semiotic articulation in the therapeutic setting of dialogical patterns deriving from the client's past. The therapeutic exchange is theorized as a process of shared exploration and mutual appropriation of positions, voices and languages. These processes are illustrated through a micro-analysis of extracts from one session of a long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The analysis traces the movement of the encounter from the articulation of a transferential dialogical pattern to the development of increasingly strong reflexive positions. It focuses on the interplay of utterances between therapist and client, demonstrating the micro-processes through which subjectivity is articulated and transformed in psychotherapy practice.

Researching teacher-consultancy via Exploratory Practice

This paper provides much of the theoretical background to Exploratory Practice (EP) that it was not possible to cover in the introductory paper to this collection. It also illustrates how the framework of EP can be invoked in the context of doctoral research. I report and comment on my reflexive doctoral study, which focuses on my own professional development as an EP teacher-consultant (Miller, 2001). I added an academic investigative dimension to my already reflexive practitioner research with a view to creating opportunities for working towards enriched understandings of the unfolding of two longitudinal teacher-consultancy encounters in which I worked, within EP (Allwright, 1992-2002), individually, as an EFL consultant to/with two practising EFL teachers.I claim that my paradoxically reflexive positioning in both my practitioner and academic research practices combined to enhance my understandings of the ‘unrepresentable’ management of reflection in the sessions. I captured the interactional delicacy of the evolving teacher-consultant relationship through longitudinal topic-footing frame micro-analyses.