Nottingham Trent University

About: Nottingham Trent University is a education organization based out in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 4702 authors who have published 12862 publications receiving 307430 citations. The organization is also known as: NTU & Trent Polytechnic.

Strategizing as Lived Experience and Strategists' Everyday Efforts to Shape Strategic Direction

Abstract: This paper draws together the ethnographic and ethnomethodological/conversation analytic traditions to outline an innovative and multidisciplinary approach for researching strategists-at-work. Ethnography is premised upon close-up observation of naturally occuring routines over time/space dimensions and ethnomethodology/conversation analysis, upon a study of people's practices and inherent tacit 'methods' for doing social and political life, much of which is accomplished through talk. Through the observation and recording of strategists talk-based interactive routines and from drawing upon seminal studies within the social sciences, the paper aims to map out a number of analytical routes for a fine-grained analysis of strategists' linguistic skills and forms of knowledge for strategizing. This includes their speaking of morals and the assembly of emotion as they construct a shared definition of the future. To illustrate the approach and its scope, the paper draws upon one ethnomethodologically informed ethnography. It will specifically focus upon aspects of the relational-rhetorical basis of strategic effectiveness as constituted by one strategist who was judged, from amongst a group of six, to have influenced strategic processes.

A model of granular data: a design problem with the Tchebyschev FCM

Abstract: In this study, we propose a model of granular data emerging through a summarization and processing of numeric data. This model supports data analysis and contributes to further interpretation activities. The structure of data is revealed through the FCM equipped with the Tchebyschev (l∞) metric. The paper offers a novel contribution of a gradient-based learning of the prototypes developed in the l∞-based FCM. The l∞ metric promotes development of easily interpretable information granules, namely hyperboxes. A detailed discussion of their geometry is provided. In particular, we discuss a deformation effect of the hyperbox-shape of granules due to an interaction between the granules. It is shown how the deformation effect can be quantified. Subsequently, we show how the clustering gives rise to a two-level topology of information granules: the core part of the topology comes in the form of hyperbox information granules. A residual structure is expressed through detailed, yet difficult to interpret, membership grades. Illustrative examples including synthetic data are studied.

MicroRNA signatures predict oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and HER2/ neu receptor status in breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease encompassing a number of phenotypically diverse tumours. Expression levels of the oestrogen, progesterone and HER2/neu receptors which characterize clinically distinct breast tumours have been shown to change during disease progression and in response to systemic therapies. Mi(cro)RNAs play critical roles in diverse biological processes and are aberrantly expressed in several human neoplasms including breast cancer, where they function as regulators of tumour behaviour and progression. The aims of this study were to identify miRNA signatures that accurately predict the oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu receptor status of breast cancer patients to provide insight into the regulation of breast cancer phenotypes and progression. Expression profiling of 453 miRNAs was performed in 29 early-stage breast cancer specimens. miRNA signatures associated with ER, PR and HER2/neu status were generated using artificial neural networks (ANN), and expression of specific miRNAs was validated using RQ-PCR. Stepwise ANN analysis identified predictive miRNA signatures corresponding with oestrogen (miR-342, miR-299, miR-217, miR-190, miR-135b, miR-218), progesterone (miR-520g, miR-377, miR-527-518a, miR-520f-520c) and HER2/neu (miR-520d, miR-181c, miR-302c, miR-376b, miR-30e) receptor status. MiR-342 and miR-520g expression was further analysed in 95 breast tumours. MiR-342 expression was highest in ER and HER2/neu-positive luminal B tumours and lowest in triple-negative tumours. MiR-520g expression was elevated in ER and PR-negative tumours. This study demonstrates that ANN analysis reliably identifies biologically relevant miRNAs associated with specific breast cancer phenotypes. The association of specific miRNAs with ER, PR and HER2/neu status indicates a role for these miRNAs in disease classification of breast cancer. Decreased expression of miR-342 in the therapeutically challenging triple-negative breast tumours, increased miR-342 expression in the luminal B tumours, and downregulated miR-520g in ER and PR-positive tumours indicates that not only is dysregulated miRNA expression a marker for poorer prognosis breast cancer, but that it could also present an attractive target for therapeutic intervention.

Problem gambling worldwide: An update and systematic review of empirical research (2000–2015)

Abstract: Background and aims Problem gambling has been identified as an emergent public health issue, and there is a need to identify gambling trends and to regularly update worldwide gambling prevalence rates This paper aims to review recent research on adult gambling and problem gambling (since 2000) and then, in the context of a growing liberalization of the gambling market in the European Union, intends to provide a more detailed analysis of adult gambling behavior across European countries Methods A systematic literature search was carried out using academic databases, Internet, and governmental websites Results Following this search and utilizing exclusion criteria, 69 studies on adult gambling prevalence were identified These studies demonstrated that there are wide variations in past-year problem gambling rates across different countries in the world (012-58%) and in Europe (012-34%) However, it is difficult to directly compare studies due to different methodological procedures, instruments, cut-offs, and time frames Despite the variability among instruments, some consistent results with regard to demographics were found Discussion and conclusion The findings highlight the need for continuous monitoring of problem gambling prevalence rates in order to examine the influence of cultural context on gambling patterns, assess the effectiveness of policies on gambling-related harms, and establish priorities for future research