A new evacuation method for emergencies, the Follow Me method, in which each leader takes only one evacuee to an exit without gesturing or loudly directing many evacuees toward the exit, was compared, in two field experiments, with a traditional method, the Follow Directions method, in which each leader indicates the direction with a loud voice and vigorous gestures. Results showed that the Follow Me method was more effective when the leader-to-evacuee ratio was relatively small, such as 1:4, and less effective when the ratio was large, such as 1:8. Effective evacuation by the Follow Me method was shown to be caused by the drawing power of emergent small groups. Generating from around a leader, other evacuees rapidly formed a collective stream toward the exit. Small groups can be used as a lever in moving a larger collectivity in an emergency, as well as in activating a large formal organization.
The understanding of pathological processes is based on the comparison between physiological and pathological conditions, and transcriptomic analysis has been extensively applied to various diseases for this purpose. However, the way in which the transcriptomic data of pathological cells relate to the transcriptomes of normal cellular counterparts has not been fully explored, and may provide new and unbiased insights into the mechanisms of these diseases. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop a method to simultaneously analyse components across different levels, namely genes, normal cells, and diseases. Here we propose a multidimensional method that visualises the cross-level relationships between these components at three different levels based on transcriptomic data of physiological and pathological processes, by adapting Canonical Correspondence Analysis, which was developed in ecology and sociology, to microarray data (CCA on Microarray data, CCAM). Using CCAM, we have analysed transcriptomes of haematological disorders and those of normal haematopoietic cell differentiation. First, by analysing leukaemia data, CCAM successfully visualised known relationships between leukaemia subtypes and cellular differentiation, and their characteristic genes, which confirmed the relevance of CCAM. Next, by analysing transcriptomes of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), we have shown that CCAM was effective in both generating and testing hypotheses. CCAM showed that among MDS patients, high-risk patients had transcriptomes that were more similar to those of both haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitors (MEP) than low-risk patients, and provided a prognostic model. Collectively, CCAM reveals hidden relationships between pathological and physiological processes and gene expression, providing meaningful clinical insights into haematological diseases, and these could not be revealed by other univariate and multivariate methods. Furthermore, CCAM was effective in identifying candidate genes that are correlated with cellular phenotypes of interest. We expect that CCAM will benefit a wide range of medical fields.
Collaborative practices that bring researchers and community participants together are favored by a social constructionist meta-theory. Specific features of research activity in the human sciences are discussed relevant to the contributions of theory to collaborative practice. It is argued that collaborative practice consists of alternating movements between two modes of action. In the first mode, the present, the past and the future of a local field are grasped and problem-solving is initiated. In this mode, action is largely based on tacit forms of understanding. In the second mode, the tacit assumptions are recognized in the past tense and thus become explicit. In the first mode, a theory helps facilitate the movement by deepening the understanding of a field and developing a policy or a plan. In the second mode, a theory can logically express the tacit assumptions, relocate recognition and practice in the previous or first mode, and reveal useful new directions for action in a newly emerging first mode. It is further argued that collaborative practice in a local field can be linked with action in other local fields, thus giving rise to inter-local practices. Theoretical abstractions can be used to translate concrete activities in such a way that activities in spatially and temporally removed situations are illuminated.
Studies in group dynamics in Japan, which started just after the Second World War, are reviewed. This review categorizes the studies into two classes: those conducted in the first generation (up to the 1970s) which still remain influential today, and those which represent the current major research trends in the area. The first generation is characterized by a strenuous catching up of studies conducted in the U.S. The second generation has been a theoretical and empirical expansion of the area, and has emphasized the bilateral, dynamic relations between the nature of human collectivities (including culture) and the individuals' psychological state. It has been increasingly recognized that what was regarded as an individual psychological phenomenon in the past should be re-examined from the viewpoint of group dynamics. This goes beyond the traditional definition of small groups research in the laboratory setting. Group dynamics is developing as a field of study in which any kind and size of human collectivity is investigated regarding its dynamic nature and functions that provide a life-world appearing in front of each individual in the collectivity.During the half-century since the Second World War, group dynamics in Japan have taken a course similar to that of the Japanese economy. The first half of this course was devoted to the intensive learning from and the strenuous catching up of the Western countries, mainly the U.S. The second half, beginning in the 1980s, has been characterized by an increasing emphasis on originality and creativity in our own research activities. This paper will review both the works that were carried out in the first half of this period, which still contribute to current research in various ways, and the work that has emerged since the 1980s, which continues to advance further this area.In this paper, group dynamics is defined as a field of study in which the dynamic nature of human collectivities or groups is investigated by examining the collectivities as wholes on the one hand, and the dynamic bilateral relations between the collectivity and the lives, or the psychological states, of the individuals who belong to these collectivities on the other. It should be stressed here that group dynamics defined as such is not restricted to studies of small groups in laboratory settings, which is likely to be assumed by many people. Such an expansion of the research frontier beyond traditional group dynamics is a result of attempts by researchers in the current scene of group dynamics in Japan (e.g., Sugiman, 1997).
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