Theoretical Diversity Research Articles

Designed Armadillo Repeat Proteins: Library Generation, Characterization and Selection of Peptide Binders with High Specificity

Designed Armadillo repeat proteins (ArmRPs) are a novel class of binding proteins intended for general modular peptide binding and have very favorable expression and stability properties. Using a combination of sequence and structural consensus analyses, we generated a 42-amino-acid designed Armadillo repeat module with six randomized positions, having a theoretical diversity of 9.9×10(6) per repeat. Structural considerations were used to replace cysteine residues, to define less conserved positions and to decide where to introduce randomized amino acid residues for potential interactions with the target peptide. Based on these concepts, combinatorial libraries of designed ArmRPs were assembled. The most stable version of designed ArmRP in library format was the N5C format, with three randomized library repeat modules flanked by full consensus repeat modules on either side and, in turn, flanked by N- and C-terminal capping repeats. Unselected members of this library were well expressed in the Escherichia coli cytoplasm, monomeric and showed the expected CD spectra and cooperative unfolding. N5C libraries were used in ribosome display selections against the peptide neurotensin. Highly specific peptide binders were enriched after four rounds of selections using ribosome display. Four peptide side chains were shown to contribute most of the interaction energy, and single alanine mutants could be discriminated. Thus, designed ArmRP libraries can become valuable sources for peptide binding molecules because of their favorable biophysical properties and with a potential for application in general modular peptide recognition.

Feminism, gender and global higher education: women's learning lives

In this invited commentary, I offer a critique of two lacunae in the emerging field. I consider how aspects of research on the transformations of global higher education constitute an emergent sociology of higher education, and I also review how the dominant tendencies occlude gender and feminist perspectives. By way of enticing readers to consider these absences, I present research evidence from a feminist and sociological perspective about the innovative and refreshing critiques of transformations in HE and the future of universities. I also contend that women's learning lives on in feminist scholarship and emergent new knowledge that may contribute to the university of the future. First, I present some recent feminist and sociological research that was published in a special issue of a new Routledge journal for the UK's Academy of Social Sciences, Contemporary Social Science, which drew on a seminar series about Imagining the University of the Future. All the contributors presented critiques of the current dominant perspectives in research on global higher education. They also presented narratives that constitute new knowledge created with new methodologies and gendered or feminist frames of reference. Second, I present evidence from another Routledge journal, but this time the long-standing British Journal of Sociology of Education, to develop a sociology of higher education through a recent virtual special issue which brings together articles over the last five years. This demonstrates the rich theoretical diversity of sociological studies of the transformations of global higher education, including from a gender and feminist perspective. Finally, I conclude with offering a comment about the vitality and vibrancy of women's learning across their lives, especially through the contributions of generations of feminist scholars to these new fields of endeavour. Feminist knowledge and scholarship are important to understanding global HE and the university of the future.

Research paradigms, theoretical pluralism and the practical relevance of management accounting knowledge

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how practical relevance of management accounting knowledge relates to research paradigms and theoretical pluralism.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual in nature.FindingsAs the management accounting discipline is considered to be an applied discipline, a number of authors claim that management accounting research should develop relevant theory that can be used in practice. This call for increased practical relevance of management accounting knowledge interrelates with a debate on the desirability of theoretical pluralism and paradigm diversity in management accounting research. Drawing on the work of Nicolai and Seidl, the paper distinguishes different forms of practical relevance, and analyses the effects of theoretical pluralism on these different forms. The paper argues how theoretical pluralism particularly enhances relevance in a conceptual sense rather than an instrumental sense. The conceptual relevance of research may further be enhanced by interpretive research that acknowledges complexity and that has the potential to challenge the performativity of mainstream management accounting knowledge, without challenging the pursuit of efficiency as such. This is different from critical research. The instrumental relevance stemming from mainstream management accounting research entails de‐contextualization and simplification, and might create unintended self‐fulfilling prophecies.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper broadens the concept of relevance so that it includes conceptual relevance and legitimative relevance. It links these concepts of relevance to three research paradigms: a mainstream paradigm, an interpretive paradigm and a critical paradigm. For each paradigm, relevance is related to the use of theory.Originality/valueThe paper broadens the concept of relevance and advocates the pursuit of conceptual relevance, particularly through interpretive research.

Customer loyalty to a commercial website: Descriptive meta-analysis of the empirical literature and proposal of an integrative model

The growing number of academic studies about online customer loyalty shows that diversity, if not divergence, exists regarding the measurement and conceptualization of online loyalty. By multiplying the theoretical foundations for the study of online loyalty, researchers have identified different determinants of online loyalty and different impacts on business relationships. Considering this theoretical and conceptual diversity, the purpose of this paper is to systematically review and summarize the literature dealing with loyalty to a commercial website. Specifically, the goal is to realize a descriptive meta-analysis of the empirical literature focusing on the conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, and consequences of e-loyalty, and to provide an integrative model for these antecedents and consequences. This framework provides us with a cohesive view of online customer loyalty and helps identify potential unexplored research opportunities in this area. The paper ends with a research agenda for future studies.

Ecology and Collaboration

Ecology and Collaboration

Rigour in phenomenological research: reflections of a novice nurse researcher

This paper is intended to explore conflicts and doubts that novice researchers face when using phenomenological research methods, especially with regard to methodological rigour. There is an increasing interest in different qualitative approaches. The best way to evaluate the quality of qualitative studies has been debated intensively. The great theoretical and methodological diversity of qualitative approaches suggests that a single set of criteria may not be appropriate for all types of research. This is a methodological paper that discusses a personal experience of addressing rigour in a phenomenological study, supported by literature on the topic. Generic qualitative criteria may not be the most adequate to ensure rigour in phenomenological research. The different poles of discussion about the best way to ensure validity of phenomenological research puzzle novice nurse researchers. Focusing on integrative validity that addresses experiential and methodological concerns ensures that researchers will respect the philosophical assumptions underlying a method and allows them to recognise study soundness in the findings and the research process. Phenomenological research must demonstrate methodological congruence and provide meaningful results about lived experiences in a balanced way. Novice researchers need support to understand the articulation between philosophical and methodological foundations that guide the methods they use.

Construction of synthetic protein‐based library by combinatorial approach

Protein‐capture reagents have been shown to be a useful tool for scientific studies and clinical applications. We have constructed a repeat protein‐based combinatorial library for further structural and functional study of membrane proteins. This library was constructed by an ordered assembly of repeat DNA fragments containing random amino acid codons at certain positions. Theoretically, it should contain a diversity of ~2 × 1022. We obtained 45 % error‐free full‐length proteins, reducing the theoretic diversity to ~1 × 1022. Although feasible diversity size is limited by a screening method, a fraction of such library is still sufficient for many applications. By DNA sequencing analysis, 48 out of 49 correct clones are unique in protein sequence; among them, 90 % individuals have >10 positions that are different with one and another. Biophysical analyses of purified proteins from four randomly selected clones suggested correct Mr values and protein folding. Thermostability study using circular dichroism spectroscopy revealed that the melting temperatures for all four proteins are > 95 °C. Taken together, the diversity and stability of this library provide a pool of candidates for further screening of capture reagents that specifically bind to a protein of interest with high affinity.This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants R01 GM095538 to LG.

Democratic Theory and the ‘Anomaly’ of Leadership

Democratic theory and leadership studies are closely related. Yet, the idea of democratic leadership is inherently paradoxical. Whereas the concept of democracy rests on the idea of popular sovereignty, that is self-government by an autonomous citizenry, and is based on a strong egalitarian ethos, the concept of leadership necessarily encompasses hierarchy and hence inequality. In a truly democratic society, the leader is the odd one out. Thus, at their theoretical extremes, political leadership and democracy are on rather bad terms with each other. This paradox is broadly recognized, both theoretically and empirically (e.g. Kellerman & Webster, 2001; Kane & Patapan, 2008; Ruscio, 2008; Kane, Patapan & 't Hart, 2009a). Political leaders must walk a thin line between offering the necessary guidance and imposing authoritarian rule. Several scholars have provided insightful studies that have shaped our understanding of the leadership-democracy nexus (e.g. Brooker, 2005; Ruscio, 2008; Kane, Patapan & Wong, 2008).However, most of these have not yet incorporated the theoretical diversity of understandings of democracy and the empirical variety in democratic systems. Discussions on the relationship between democracy and leadership tend to be rather one-dimensional because they tend to concentrate on the conflicting aspects of the relationship between leadership and ‘the’ idea of democracy. Consequently, democratic leadership scholars run the risk of overlooking the affinity between particular types of political leadership on the one hand and forms of democracy on the other and how it develops in changing socio-political contexts. In contrast, this chapter, in the tradition of Aaron Wildavsky (1984), aims to elaborate on the theoretical and empirical kinship between different styles of leadership and different models of democracy. The focal question is: what does democratic leadership amount to in different types of democracy? It finds a starting point in Keane’s (2009) three-stage model of democratic transformation (moving from classic ‘assembly democracy’, to modern ‘representative democracy’, to present-day ‘monitory democracy’), which is combined with Hendriks’ (2010) four ideal typical models of democracy (pendulum, consensus, voter and participatory democracy). We argue that political leaders increasingly operate in more hybrid forms of democracy, that is democratic regimes in which characteristics of different forms of democracy are combined, and for that reason are required to develop innovative political repertoires that could be characterized as ‘kaleidoscopic leadership’.

OmniChange: The Sequence Independent Method for Simultaneous Site-Saturation of Five Codons

Focused mutant library generation methods have been developed to improve mainly “localizable” enzyme properties such as activity and selectivity. Current multi-site saturation methods are restricted by the gene sequence, require subsequent PCR steps and/or additional enzymatic modifications. Here we report, a multiple site saturation mutagenesis method, OmniChange, which simultaneously and efficiently saturates five independent codons. As proof of principle, five chemically cleaved DNA fragments, each carrying one NNK-degenerated codon, were generated and assembled to full gene length in a one-pot-reaction without additional PCR-amplification or use of restriction enzymes or ligases. Sequencing revealed the presence of up to 27 different codons at individual positions, corresponding to 84.4% of the theoretical diversity offered by NNK-degeneration. OmniChange is absolutely sequence independent, does not require a minimal distance between mutated codons and can be accomplished within a day.

Kaleidoscopic Leadership in Contemporary Democracies

Democratic theory and leadership studies are closely related. Yet, the idea of democratic leadership is inherently paradoxical. Whereas the concept of democracy rests on the idea of popular sovereignty, that is self-government by an autonomous citizenry, and is based on a strong egalitarian ethos, the concept of leadership necessarily encompasses hierarchy and hence inequality. In a truly democratic society, the leader is the odd one out. Thus, at their theoretical extremes, political leadership and democracy are on rather bad terms with each other. This paradox is broadly recognized, both theoretically and empirically (e.g. Kellerman & Webster, 2001; Kane & Patapan, 2008; Ruscio, 2008; Kane, Patapan & 't Hart, 2009a). Political leaders must walk a thin line between offering the necessary guidance and imposing authoritarian rule. Several academic scholars have provided insightful studies that have shaped our understanding of the leadership-democracy nexus (e.g. Kane, Patapan & Wong, 2008) . However, most of these have not yet incorporated the theoretical diversity of understandings of democracy and the empirical variety in democratic systems. Discussions on the relationship between democracy and leadership tend to be rather one-dimensional because they tend to concentrate on the conflicting aspects of the relationship between leadership and ‘the’ idea of democracy. Consequently, democratic leadership scholars run the risk of overlooking the affinity between particular types of political leadership on the one hand and forms of democracy on the other and how it develops in changing socio-political contexts.In contrast, this paper, in the tradition of Aaron Wildavsky, aims to elaborate on the theoretical and empirical kinship between different styles of leadership and different models of democracy. The focal question is: what does democratic leadership amount to in different types of democracy? It finds a starting point in Keane’s (2009) three-stage model of democratic transformation (moving from classic ‘assembly democracy’, to modern ‘representative democracy’, to present-day ‘monitory democracy’), which is combined with Hendriks’ (2010) four archetypical models of democracy (pendulum, consensus, voter and participatory democracy). We argue that political leaders increasingly operate in more hybrid forms of democracy, that is democratic regimes in which characteristics of different forms of democracy are combined, and for that reason are required to develop innovative political repertoires that could be characterized as ‘kaleidoscopic leadership’.

New directions, new questions? Social theory, education and embodiment

This paper introduces the contents of the special issue whose authors, in our view, together demonstrate the need for transdisciplinary study of body pedagogies focussed on embodiment, emplacement, enactment and subjectivity. We celebrate theoretical and methodological diversity in the social sciences while calling for border crossings between the disciplines and perspectives of the social and bio-physical sciences in the interest of better understanding how social and cultural reproduction occurs both within schools and beyond them.

International Relations in the US Academy1

Using two new data sources to describe trends in the international relations (IR) discipline since 1980—a database of every article published in the 12 leading journals in the field and three surveys of IR faculty at US colleges and universities—we explore the extent of theoretical, methodological, and epistemological diversity in the American study of IR and the relationship between IR scholarship and the policy-making community in the United States. We find, first, that there is considerable and increasing theoretical diversity. Although US scholars believe and teach their students that the major paradigms—realism, liberalism, Marxism, and constructivism—define and divide the discipline, most peer-reviewed research does not advance a theoretical argument from one of these theoretical traditions. There is no evidence, moreover, that realism and its focus on power relations among states dominate, or since 1980 ever has dominated, the literature. Second, although three times as many IR scholars report using qualitative methods as their primary approach, more articles published in the top journals currently employ quantitative tools than any other methodological approach. Third, there exists little epistemological diversity in the field: American IR scholars share a strong and growing commitment to positivism. Finally, there is a disjuncture between what American scholars of IR think about the value of producing policy-relevant work and the actual research they generate: few articles in top journals offer explicit policy advice, but scholars believe that their work is both prescriptive and useful to policymakers.

Franchise branding: an organizational identity perspective

Despite the call for increased theoretical diversity in franchising research, the incorporation of organizational theory into this literature has been minimal. In response, we examine how aspects of organizational identity are represented in franchisee recruitment Web sites. We develop the concept of franchise branding to understand how franchisors position franchise opportunities to attract potential franchisees. We find that firms in the Franchise 500 use more language associated with market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and charismatic rhetoric when compared to a sample of lower-performing franchises. We also examine the impact of franchisor size and age to examine how liabilities of size and newness impact language use. We find that larger firms tend to use more rhetoric but detect no significant differences based on age. We conclude by discussing future possibilities for incorporating additional theoretical perspectives into the franchising literature.

Where do we go...! A meta-theoretical analysis of learning and the small firm

The subject area of organisational learning have seen important growth in both business and academic worlds, however, the literature-based faces various problems, the most striking of these problems is the theoretical confusion and diversity of perspectives on the subject. This makes finding a point of departure in the literature base highly problematic. The paper seeks to provide an amalgamation of literature in order to develop a coherent and more practical understanding of the related concepts, setting out to develop an understanding of the field in the context of the small firm. The analysis seeks to highlight current theoretical and empirical gaps from the epistemological and ontological principles which underpin the small firms understanding of learning, knowledge and the relationship between them.

Vector Perturbation Precoding Revisited

We consider the downlink of a multiuser system with multiple antennas at the base station. Vector perturbation (VP) precoding is a promising variant of transmit-side channel inversion allowing the users to detect their data in a simple, noncooperative manner. VP precoding has so far been developed and analyzed under the assumptions that the transmitter has perfect channel state information (CSI) and that the receivers know perfectly a channel-dependent transmit power normalization factor and have infinite dynamic range. We demonstrate that the violation of any of these idealizing assumptions degrades the performance of VP significantly and almost always results in an error floor. Motivated by this observation, we propose a novel scheme which we term transmit outage precoding (TOP). With TOP, the transmitter uses a prearranged power scaling known by the receivers and refrains from transmitting when channel conditions are poor. We further show how to augment TOP and conventional VP to deal with a finite dynamic range at the receiver. The performance of the proposed schemes under various levels of transmit CSI is studied in terms of a theoretical diversity analysis and illustrated by numerical results.

Wrestling with Intellectual Diversity in Public Administration: Avoiding Disconnectedness and Fragmentation while Seeking Rigor, Depth, and Relevance

Public Administration (PA) is a field characterized by great diversity in theoretical approaches and methodological tactics. This wide scope lends itself to potential epistemological and methodological fragmentation, which prevents scholars from adequately appreciating and building on each other's work. Although many scholars value PA's theoretical and methodological diversity, this intellectual diversity brings some important trade-offs that must be acknowledged. We see three future challenges for the field as (1) supporting the application of diverse and rigorous methodological approaches, (2) continuing to encourage theoretical diversity and theoretical depth, and (3) promoting relevance without compromising methodological rigor and theoretical depth. We believe that a self-conscious, deliberate focus on balancing these goals will strengthen and connect public administration. In this article, we suggest several practical strategies for accomplishing this, such as embracing the public focus of our research, working in interdisciplinary teams, and being more explicit about methodological assumptions and approaches in our writing.

Theoretical Communities and Theory & Psychology: A Decade Review

As we have reached a full 20 years of publication I take the opportunity to review developments in the last decade and look forward to potentially new movements both within and on the boundaries of psychology. Here I discuss the most pressing issues that have found their way into Theory & Psychology as well as promoting the epistemological and theoretical diversity that continues to be represented in our pages. While noting the presence of institutional pressures on theory development both within and from without psychology, theory continues to thrive and we are its beneficiaries. Our authors in this special issue demonstrate a wide set of concerns that are both critical and reflect the broad theoretical communities which support the journal.

Paradigmas, eixos temáticos e tensões na PTO no Brasil

O panorama de abordagens da psicologia do trabalho e das organizações (PTO) no Brasil mostra grande diversidade teórica e metodológica que reflete a presença de distintos paradigmas científicos na delimitação e organização desse campo. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar esses paradigmas e relacioná-los com três eixos temáticos da PTO no Brasil: o do comportamento, o da subjetividade e o clínico. Investiga-se os fundamentos epistemológicos e metodológicos, alguns trabalhos e autores de cada um desses eixos, discutindo sua contribuição para o campo da PTO no Brasil. O artigo desenvolve uma discussão sobre as tensões existentes entre esses eixos, derivadas da pressão de corresponderem, ao mesmo tempo, a critérios de rigor acadêmico e relevância organizacional. O artigo, por fim, mostra a diversificação do campo da PTO no Brasil e os desafios disso decorrentes.

Conceito(s) de burnout: questões atuais da pesquisa e a contribuição da clínica

Considerando o crescente interesse científico no fenômeno burnout, apresentamos uma amostra da diversidade teórica que forma o campo de pesquisa neste tema a partir de algumas questões atuais de discussão sobre o seu conceito. Discutimos aparentes limitações da abordagem empírica à compreensão da natureza conceitual do burnout, apontando uma possível contribuição da clínica (dentro do campo da Psiquiatria) a este debate.

On Space–Frequency Correlation of UWB MIMO Channels

Conventional multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel correlation models focus on describing the complex amplitude correlation of resolvable multipath components (MPCs). It has recently been shown that the time-of-arrival (ToA) correlation of resolvable MPCs, which has largely been ignored in the literature so far, is important for characterizing the space-frequency (SF) correlation of MIMO channels in the ultrawideband (UWB) regime. The proposal of ToA correlation brings forth the following open questions: What is the fundamental difference between amplitude and ToA correlations? Are they mutually replaceable? What impact do they have on system performance? Is this impact related to channel bandwidth? This paper systematically answers the above questions. We demonstrate that, compared with a conventional model that only considers amplitude correlation, a UWB MIMO channel model taking into account both amplitude and ToA correlations leads to different theoretical maximum diversity order, numerical structure of the SF channel covariance matrix, spatial correlation function, and diversity performance. We conclude that ToA correlation is a necessary complement to amplitude correlation when the channel bandwidth exceeds 500 MHz, i.e., UWB channels. This new insight serves as the motivation for more realistic modeling of UWB MIMO channels and the inspiration for designing advanced UWB MIMO systems to fully exploit the SF channel correlation properties.