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Biomedical subjects

J Flower

Publications and source records attributed to J Flower.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Rhetoric or reality? The participation of disabled people in NGO planning.

User involvement in planning is now well established in the fields of both health and development. This study looks at one particular client group, namely disabled people, and addresses the question: How do selected European-based international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) facilitate the participation of disabled people in their planning process? The study was exploratory in nature, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to answer the research question. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire with 18 INGOs, which was supported by five semi-structured interviews and 20 'e-mail dialogues' with key informants. The findings indicate that the INGOs involve disabled people's organizations (DPOs) in their planning of services and projects in a variety of ways. Most commonly this is through sharing information with them, but consulting them, including them in decision-making or supporting action initiated by them are other less frequent methods of involvement. INGOs with a specific disability focus involve disabled people in the ways described above more frequently than other INGOs. Although most INGOs regularly provide information and consult DPOs, if there is no assurance that ideas raised will be implemented, then there is no guarantee of DPOs' participation in the planning process of these INGOs. The focus of an INGO and the nature of its projects affect how disabled people are involved in planning, whereas the size of an INGO has little effect. INGOs thus far have failed to match their expressed intentions about participation, but as they help to strengthen DPOs, encourage their formation and move to make disability an issue that cuts across sectoral boundaries, INGOs are changing. There is still a lot of rhetoric about participation, but the participation of disabled people in the planning process of INGOs is a growing reality.

Community Participation↗
PubMed2000

Collaboration in disability policies--collaboration between stakeholders of disability policies in the South and in the North.

Four studies have been recently undertaken at the Centre for International Child Health on the collaboration between the stakeholders of disability policies, in Southern and Northern countries. Informed by the literature, the authors have explored the roles disabled people's organizations, non-governmental organizations, government and professionals play in the design, provision and evaluation of services for disabled people. They also highlight the different forms participation can take and their most relevant features. The main factors influencing collaboration processes are then classified in three different categories: social factors, ideology-related factors and project-related factors. They are subsequently analysed. The first group encompasses the societal framework in which collaboration may take place, while the identity of the stakeholders is reflected in the ideology-related factors. The nature of the activities undertaken by stakeholders is characterized by the third group of factors. In the conclusion it is suggested that stakeholders, and especially disabled people's counterparts, should increase their awareness of the social model of disability, adopt participatory practices and promote participation at higher levels. However, they should acknowledge that it implies more trust between partners and an alteration of their structures.

Community Networks↗
PubMed2000

Technological advances and the next 50 years of cardiology.

The fiftieth anniversary of the ACC and the end of the twentieth century are arbitrary points in time, yet they seem to coincide with a true watershed. The last 50 years have brought a rush of new techniques and understandings that have, for the first time, given cardiovascular specialists real tools to prevent and fight cardiovascular disease. Only now, for the first time, has science begun to understand exactly what happens when plaque forms in an artery, when heart muscle fibers cross-link and weaken, when an atrial chamber fibrillates, and when heart muscle cells die en masse after a heart attack. We are beginning to track down the actual chemical, mechanical, and electrical pathways by which the heart is damaged or dies. When we can interfere with those pathways and stop the chain of events, we will have defeated heart disease. Imagination is rapid, but progress is often both uncertain and slow because of the many constraints of cost, regulation, and time needed to test and evaluate new developments. Yet we can now foresee a future in which medical science might actually defeat cardiovascular disease the way it has defeated polio, smallpox, and other serious scourges of the past.

Cardiology↗
PubMed1997

Where can we learn about change?

Presented here are some resources--books, consultants, and personal growth practices--that you might find useful in the struggle to become adept at dealing with change. Mastering change is a long process, but unlike building a cathedral or growing apples, as soon as you start you will have something that you can use--some insight, a different way of looking at what is confronting you, something to help jar you to a more creative strategy.

Bibliographies as Topic↗
PubMed1997

Touching what is, touching what might be.

How do you master change? You have to master the paradox of changing while staying grounded. To make use of the power living inside any new thing that comes your way, you first have to touch it--not tentatively but profoundly--at the same time that you maintain a firm connection with that which is deepest and most fundamental within you. Here, some ideas on how to create "touch points," the ability to look at a problem or impending change from many different angles, thus broadening your understanding and possible response. A key tactic in creating a variety of touch points is quite simple: Ask a lot of questions. Ask especially the questions that have difficult answers, or for which you suspect there is no answer.

Decision Making, Organizational↗
PubMed1997

Running toward the roar.

How do you embrace paradox, changing and growing without losing your sense of who you are? We talked last time about the paradox of reaching for the new, without losing your ground in the old. Paradox is the place of insight. Accepting paradox, not as a momentary distraction but as a place to live, lies at the heart of dealing successfully with change. We can see this most clearly if we ask ourselves, "What business am I in? What am I about?" In health care, this did not used to be a meaningful question. Today, it is a critical one. But to really develop, we have to seek out the situations that are the most difficult for us, work them through, hang out with them long enough to begin to be at home in the paradoxical, ambiguous, and strange circumstance.

Australia↗
PubMed1997

Head for open space.

Is it possible that the herd mentality, the "Follow The Other Guy" idea is not the golden road to transformation? In fact, the three questions that are most helpful in deciding your path, as a person or an organization, lie almost completely in the other direction: (1) "What am I really good at?" (2) "What am I afraid of?" and (3) "What is no one else doing?" Heading for the open space means looking for the hole in the market, searching for what no one else is doing. Only by going toward open space can you or your organization stay ahead of the pack in a turbulent health care environment. Get out in front of the pack, either as a leader or quarry, and you have a measure of control. How does the quarry control the pack that is hunting it? By choosing the terrain, choosing the ground on which the chase will take place.

Computer Communication Networks↗
PubMed1996

Change happens.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

The root ideas in dealing with change.

Is there a prototype for dealing with change, a fixed and reliable strategy? Although the answer to this question is no, there are certain fundamental ideas that can help us think about our situations. These ideas come from a wide variety of sources, including: theories dealing with chaos and complexity; systems thinking and complex adaptive systems theory; family dynamics, and organizational development. None of these are simple ideas, easily implemented to make us masters of change. But we have to start somewhere, and the best place might well be a quick discussion of some of these fundamental ideas,

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

The skills of the change master.

What are the fundamental skills for dealing with change? Presented here are nine skills that can help you become a change master in an uncertain and turbulent health care environment. These skills range from active listening to seeing the big picture. Managing change--whether solving a problem immediately or knowing that the best decision is to wait--will be fundamental for success.

Humans↗
PubMed1996

More skills of the change master.

What are the skills of the change master? How can you become better prepared to deal with the change and ambiguity that has become the trademark of the health care industry? From shifting focus, to being able to act in uncertainty, to having a capacity for paradox, here are nine skills to help you deal with change effectively. These are not easy skills to acquire if they are not a natural part of your tool kit already. You can't pick them up in a few hours at a conference, or by reading a few books. It calls for a long-term, passionate commitment to becoming a learning organization, and a willingness on the part of everyone in management to follow that path even when it gets uncomfortable, difficult, and surprising.

Humans↗
PubMed1993

Lipocortin 1 mediates an early inhibitory action of glucocorticoids on the secretion of ACTH by the rat anterior pituitary gland in vitro.

Lipocortin 1 (LC1), a mediator of anti-inflammatory steroid action in some peripheral tissues, may contribute to the acute inhibitory effects of these steroids on hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. Accordingly, in the present study we have used an in vitro model to examine the potential role of this protein in the regulation of the release of corticotrophin (ACTH) from the anterior pituitary gland. Hypothalamic extracts (0.05-0.4 HE/ml), the 41 amino acid corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF-41, 1-100 nM), the adenyl cyclase stimulator, forskolin (0.1 microM-10 mM), and the L-Ca2+ channel opener, BAY K8644 (0.01-10 mM), all caused concentration-dependent increases in the release in vitro of immunoreactive (ir)-ACTH from segments of rat anterior pituitary tissue. The secretory responses to submaximal concentrations of these secretagogues were overcome by preincubation of the tissue with dexamethasone (0.1 and 1 microM). LC1 was readily detectable by Western blotting in protein extracts of freshly excised pituitary tissue; a small proportion of the protein was found to be attached to the outer surface of the cell membranes where it was retained by a Ca(2+)-dependent mechanism. Exposure to dexamethasone (0.1 microM) in vitro did not affect the total LC1 content of the pituitary tissue but, over a 2-hour period, it caused a progressive two- to fivefold increase in the amount of LC1 attached to the outer surface of the cell; this response developed in parallel with the inhibitory effects of the steroid on ir-ACTH release. Both the dexamethasone-induced 'externalization' of LC1 by the pituitary tissue and the concomitant steroid-induced inhibition of peptide release were blocked by cycloheximide (1.0 microgram/ml) but not by actinomycin D (0.5 microgram/ml). A stable N-terminal lipocortin 1 fragment, LC1(1-188) (10 pg-10 ng/ml), attenuated (p < 0.01) the release of ir-ACTH evoked by HE (0.1 HE/ml), CRF-41 (1 nM), forskolin (1 mM) and BAY K8644 (1 nM). Conversely, inclusion of the anti-LC1 antibody in the medium substantially overcame the inhibitory effects of dexamethasone (0.1 microM) on the release of ir-ACTH evoked by the secretagogues whilst a control isotype matched antibody was without effect. The results suggest that LC1 plays a key role in effecting the acute inhibitory actions of glucocorticoids on the secretion of ir-ACTH by the rat anterior pituitary gland.

3-Pyridinecarboxylic acid, 1,4-dihydro-2,6-dimethy↗