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Task 1

THE UNIVERSITY AS AN ORGANIZATION

Elements of University Management

The modern university of today may be considered to have undergone an institutional evolution. In comparison to the academic establishment of yesteryear, the contemporary university must counterbalance its academic interests with financial responsibility and political obligations. This entails the formation of a highly systematic organizational structure that no longer functions under the premises of merely a growing institution. A university now must additionally be managed as a so-called enterprising agency. This requires the instalment and involvement of an administrative structure. Often democratically governed, a university’s administration resolves, manages and supervises various ongoing institutional activities. This often includes both relevant on and off campus endeavours. To begin, the activities themselves shall be broken down and explained. Then, exactly how these activities are managed by an administration shall be more directly introduced.

University Activities: Theory and Reality

A university involves a great deal of operative activities on a day-to-day basis. On the theoretical level, such activities are split into three progressive segments: input, process, and output. The first segment is the input, which refers to the resource(s) and supplies necessary to instigate a particular activity. Such resources entail anything from funding to on-campus equipment logistics (capital plant) to attaining a minimum student enrolment.

The next segment is the process itself, or means by which an activity may be conducted and maintained on a consistent basis towards the overall goal. The process may exist as a new course, a symposium, or extracurricular activity being conducted, or commencing the employment of a new work-study international graduate student in the campus library, installing a new computer lab in the student career centre, opening a new campus restaurant for vegetarians, or instigating a better transit system for off campus students. All these activities require some or several kinds of input in which to maintain the consistency to endure a perpetual process.

The last segment is the output, which pertains to the resulting outcomes of the input-supported process. Some outputs are successful on a small scale, but may require further processing. Some outputs may be considered the finale of a process whether a success or not. Usually, most successful outputs serve as a justifiable means to repeat the entire segmented process. A graduation ceremony, publishing a thesis, hosting an exchange program, or holding a book donation drive are all examples of campus activities that follow this segmented theory. It is stated that the best outcomes involve a certain level of self-sustainability. This means that the process, should it be repeated, will not require any additional or outside input. Instead, the final output has (in addition to attaining its overall goal) produced enough of its own inputs to recycle into another round of process.

This theory is commonly put into practice in multiple ways within every university. But it is shaped accordingly to curricula standards, the overlying mission, commitment priorities, and capital plant capability. How university systems parallel each other is the means by which the theory is converted into practice. This refers to the decision makers, or administration of an institution. Whatever the case, processes and activities draw upon and expend resources. This requires an administration to make rational decisions about which resources to use, how much of them may be used at a time, for how long, and for which activities.

A University’s Administration System

As already mentioned, a university is generally operated as a democratic institution. This means that decisions are made not by a single authority from within a rigid administrative hierarchy. Rather, a university’s administration is established and broken down into various legislative branches much like an egalitarian government or business. For example, at the University of Cambridge, there is the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor, who handle official public relations as representatives of the university. There are also Pro-Vice-Chancellors who are in charge of various areas such as planning and resources, personnel, research, education, and others. Additionally, there is the Registrar, which handles academics, estate building, finance, health and safety, management information services, legal services, and others.

There is also a Regent House and a Senate, which includes all department heads, amongst other individuals including students who discuss and vote on university matters much like a government or business would.

The key word is equality, or more so equilibrium amongst all those involved in, employed by, and dependent upon the institution. This converges two main aspects: (1) that a systematic governing body may exist, (2) while at the same time allowing for equal opportunity in the decision-making process. This means that at any one time a decision may be made that involves several players, such as students, parents, faculty, other institutional workers, grant donors, ministry or department of education representatives, cooperating institutions, etc. The theoretical definitions given to this democratic operative are “bounded rationality” and “boundaryless cooperation.”

All in all, a decision must be properly weighed in terms of who it affects, whether it falls within the university’s capabilities, whether it coincides with the university’s mission and other priorities, whether it serves a specific purpose, will the results have political significance affecting the university’s reputation and image, and will the consequences be a means to a positive and productive ends. Often such aspects are interdependent, meaning they are intertwined, related, and often affect and serve one another.

How much influence one player may yield depends upon their own degree of authority within the institution and their proportion of involvement in the activity itself. In a simplified example, the dean or chancellor of a university may have the most authority in a university, meaning that his decision carries the most influence above all others. But, the students of a university may have equal amount of influence if the activity they are planning directly affects and involves them. The students are under the dean’s authority, but without the students the dean has no university to manage. At the same time, there may be additional interest groups involved such as the Department of Education representative, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), or local Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) supplying funding or additional logistics. Due to their significant input value, these parties will also carry a certain level of influence over both the dean and the students.

Assume that the same group of students are planning a “Take Back the Night” rally, which carries political significance symbolizing women’s rights. This directly affects the students, as they are the potential participants. But it also involves capital plant, as there must be some space and technical equipment provided for the demonstration. It also reflects an unalienable constitutional right of freedom of speech. This carries political consequence affecting the university’s reputation and image should permission to hold the rally not be permitted. However, it can also affect the university’s reputation and image should the peaceful march turn into a campus riot and be reported by the media to the surrounding city area.

Suppose the rally is being sponsored by local businesses and staffed by volunteers that include students’ parents and local NGOs that support women’s rights. At the same time, the march is planned to take place at night and the university alone does not have enough security personnel to control and protect a large crowd of over 1,000 students. It would seem that the university would need to ask for additional outside assistance, such as from the local police department. The university dean, amongst other decision-making parties involved including the students representing the activity, must discuss these pros and cons to reach a final decision based upon rational and compromise.

From here, the complexity of a university’s activities and its administrative duties may begin to be understood. The discussion now turns to what inputs a university may utilize as inputs and to what avail. In terms of processes, concentration is designated to its most fundamental and orthodox practice of academic programs and research. Consideration is also given to the resulting outputs of such processes in terms of consequences and their affects on university image and reputation.

University Inputs and Management

Resource inputs may take several forms. Essentially a resource may be considered “a useful or valuable possession or quality of a country, organization or person.” The most common inputs in terms of a university are money and equipment, though personnel may also be included.

What may be considered representative of input constants are equipment and personnel. The equipment, meaning capital plant, is the basis of a university. Indeed, in order to harbour and manage personnel, moreover to establish itself and grow, a university must retain even a basic level of capital plant. This includes even online correspondence courses, which allow one to earn a degree at home. These types of universities must invest and retain some level of resources in order to accommodate students. For example, they may maintain an online library, audio or video correspondence package downloads, teacher-to-student chat rooms, and official degrees or certificates upon graduation or course completion.

University personnel are the heart of an institution. Upper-administrative workers, tenured professors, and some specialized capital plant management are the originators of a university’s mission, image, and reputation. They are the means by which a university may be managed and promoted, publish and instigate original research, provide academic knowledge and experience, and arrange for capital plant recourses to be utilized and maintained. Secondary personnel, meaning non-fixed or continuous individuals of the university, are also of relevance to mention here. These include university students (full- and part-time), assistant or non-tenured professors, and temporary or part-time administrative or maintenance workers. Although their involvement or affiliation with the university is of interim, their contribution to the maintenance and growth of the institution as a whole is deemed significant. This is particularly applicable in the case of students for their provisions of experience, academic, and financial inputs to the university.

Another case of a temporary but necessary input advocating a university’s success is funding. Universities attain funds from multiple sources, whether indirectly (such as from students via tuition payments), or direct payment to the university itself. The most common funding sources are derived from government-sponsored programs and from outside endowments (NGOs, alumni, public and private corporations, local businesses, etc.). A university’s administration is often under acute budgetary constraints as to how it may distribute its funds. Government-sponsored programs are often the main source of financial supplement to an institution. Some examples are student loans, contracted work-study fellowships, military education agreements, competitive scholarships, research grants for a specific governmental department/ministry, civil service advancements, scholarships for minorities, subcontracted tuition waivers for departmental graduate student assistantships.

When a university is granted, donated, or supplied with a fund, the administration must first consider whether the funds are available to distribute generally, or are under certain restriction. General distribution funds are considered the most convenient, since they may be applied in any way the administration itself deems fit. For example, if a university wishes to host the city’s annual botanical garden exhibition, it may without any other outside consideration. Restricted funding is just as important, but limits the terms under which the funds may be distributed. Here, there are certain interest groups involved that may predetermine how the funding may be used. So, the university may wish to host the same exhibition, but because of the restricted funding, it may only be allowed to utilize its donation to display tulips and orchids.

Hence, a university may choose to mix its general and restricted funding, or attain funding from more than one donor that has different restrictions. Again, a self-sustaining project is the most efficient. However, in terms of instigation or in the case where a project cannot produce its own funding surplus, attaining funds from various sources is one of the most essential inputs to university engagements. Therefore, funding must be attained and re-attained on a constant basis in accordance with some timeline. This may be yearly, quarterly, semester-to-semester, or otherwise. The following paragraphs discuss to what avail funding may be managed, distributed, and later re-attained. This draws attention to funding management on the theoretical level, with a follow-up case study. Keep an open mind to other case studies to follow in subsequent units!

The Distribution of Funds: Theory of Processes

An administration essentially has four options towards which funding may be distributed. The first is to secure a minimal amount of inputs so as to ensure that the university may persevere on a regular basis. The second option for funding distribution is an investment into the supervision of the present infrastructure of the university in which to observe and record potential and suggested improvements. The third option is to improve the university’s infrastructure so as to expand the university’s programs or campus. This includes a subsequent and probable increase in a university’s complexity and efficiency. The fourth and last option refers to the matter of to which processes funding should be distributed based upon precedence. Over time, certain processes within a university may be promoted, downplayed, or replaced by others. It depends on which processes are considered of high or low priority in accordance with a university’s mission, evolving image, changing interest groups, and budgetary constraints.

A general overview of this theoretical approach reveals that a university may distribute funding into its present state to ensure its maintenance and attain feedback (first and second options). It may also simultaneously utilize funds in which to promote and build on its future (third and fourth options). Before proceeding on to the next paragraphs, see if you can brainstorm on specific ways that a university might draw on as sources for funding.

Task 2

Kidney transplantation could be made more efficient by simply cooling the body of a deceased organ donor by just 2°C from normal body temperature, according to the findings of a new study.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, revealed that inducing a mild state of hypothermia in deceased organ donors reduced the likelihood of delayed graft function - whereby dialysis is required within 7 days of transplantation - in patients receiving kidney transplants by 38%.

At present, around 40% of kidney transplant recipients are reported to experience delayed graft function, which is linked with both increased medical costs and reduced long-term organ function.

"This is a free intervention that can be done at any hospital in the world, and tens of thousands of patients worldwide can benefit from it," states lead author Dr. Claus Niemann, professor of anesthesia and surgery at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Niemann believes their findings could have a major impact on global health and provide significant cost savings in the US through shorter hospital stays, less dialysis and potentially reducing the need for expensive interventions.

"In addition, it may allow us to consider organs we may otherwise reject, especially at the extremes of age, which would result in more patients benefiting from kidney transplantation," he adds. "This is of critical importance given we have a complete mismatch of transplant need and organ supply in the United States."

At present, an estimated 101,144 patients are awaiting kidney transplants, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Targeted temperature management, also referred to as therapeutic hypothermia, is already used in the treatment of patients with stroke, asphyxia and certain types of cardiac arrest to preserve the function of the nervous system.

The researchers state that the effect of therapeutic hypothermia on protecting kidney function in transplantation has been uncertain, yet some studies have suggested that mild-to-moderate hypothermia could preserve renal function to some extent.

However, current transplantation protocols stipulate that the bodies of organ donors should be at normal body temperature, often leading to the bodies being actively warmed to ensure this.

Method could increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation

Dr. Niemann and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial involving a total of 370 organ donors. Of these, 190 were assigned to a group kept at normal body temperature and 180 were assigned to a hypothermia group, the bodies kept at around 2°C lower than the body temperature group.

A total of 572 patients received kidney transplants from the donors in the study - 287 from donors in the body temperature group and 285 from donors in the hypothermia group.

The researchers found that delayed graft function developed in 112 (39%) of patients receiving transplants from the body temperature group, compared with only 79 (28%) of patients receiving transplants from the hypothermia group.

As the intervention was demonstrated to be so successful, an independent data and safety monitoring board recommended an early end to the trial.

In particular, kidneys donated from older donors or donors with health issues that may have compromised their acceptance - also referred to as extended criteria donors - benefited from therapeutic hypothermia.

"From these findings, potentially more organs could be available for transplantation since we can push the limits with these 'marginal donors,'" explains Dr. Niemann. "This is critical because the number of available deceased organ donors has been stagnant, but the demand has dramatically increased. In the United States alone, about 101,000 patients wait for kidney transplantation."

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Ina Jochmans and Dr. Christopher Watson identify some limitations of the study, noting that it does not provide any information on the potential longer-term effects on graft survival or what the effects on other organs are.

However, they state that the study's results will be welcomed, "not least of all because they have shown that, in this era of high-technology medicine and targeted drug therapy, it is still possible to identify a simple, cheap intervention that can have dramatic therapeutic effects."

Earlier this month, Medical News Today reported on a mouse study that found the body's "immune memory" of a rejected transplant may not be a permanent state, suggesting that subsequent transplants can be successful.

The first human head transplant: 'it will be a success'

It may sound like something from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but the possibility of the world's first human head transplant is very real. In December 2017, Italian neuroscientist Dr. Sergio Canavero plans to perform the procedure alongside a team of Chinese surgeons, led by Dr. Xiaoping Ren - who to date, has performed around 1,000 head transplants on mice.

The procedure - named HEAVEN-GEMINI - will take around 150 surgeons and nurses approximately 36 hours to complete and will cost around $11 million.

Dr. Canavero, of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group (TANG) in Italy, first announced his proposal for the HEAVEN-GEMINI project back in July 2013.

Unsurprisingly, his proposal has been met with much criticism, with some scientists branding Dr. Canavero as "nuts."

However, Dr. Canavero is not the first surgeon to delve into the world of head transplants. In 1970, the late American neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White was the first to transplant a monkey's head onto another monkey's body.

While the recipient monkey had the ability to see, hear, taste and smell following the procedure, lack of sufficient technology meant the animal's spinal cord nerves were not properly fused to its head, leaving it paralyzed. In addition, the animal's immune system rejected the donor head, causing it to die 9 days later.

While Dr. Canavero admits that spinal cord fusion (SCF) and the possibility of head rejection are still key challenges for the HEAVEN-GEMINI project, he claims that recent animal studies indicate they can be overcome.

"The greatest technical hurdle to such endeavor is of course the reconnection of the donor's and recipient's spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage," he said in a paper published in Surgical Neurology International.

Even if the procedure itself is feasible - as Dr. Canavero believes - some questions remain: what would be the benefits of a head transplant? And is the body able to fully recover from such a traumatic event? Medical News Today spoke to Dr. Canavero to get some answers.

Removing a healthy head from a 'body without hope'

"We're going to remove one head under deep hypothermia and reinstall it on a new body. Of course, we are talking about a head with a perfectly healthy brain, but with an alien body - so a body without hope," Dr. Canavero told MNT.

Both the recipient's head and donor body will be put into hypothermia mode for around 45 minutes in order to limit any neurological damage that may occur from oxygen deprivation.

The head will be removed from the donor body using an "ultra-sharp blade" in order to minimize spinal cord damage - a process the Italian surgeon says is key for successful SCF.

Then comes the trickiest part: attaching the recipient's head to the donor body, which involves the complex SCF process. In his original paper, Dr. Canavero explained that the chemicals polyethylene glycol or chitosan will be utilized to encourage the fusion, before the muscles and blood supply are sutured.

Linguistics Science: Structure of Linguistics

The science of Linguistics has taken a new form in recent times. It is the scientific study of human language. This science has several subfields of study such as language form and language meaning as well as language in context. Linguistics is an in-depth study of language in accordance with human behaviour. It studies and examines language from the psychological and socio-cultural aspects of human behaviour. There are characteristics of a language which are unique and some which are universal and this aspect is also studied in linguistics.

The structure of linguistics covers the morphology and syntax of languages, phonology which is the study of sounds and semantics which is the study of meanings. A student of Linguistics is also expected to study the history of languages and their relation to each other as well as the cultural place of language in human behaviour. On the other hand, phonetics, which is the sounds of speech, is considered a separate field from linguistics, though they are closely related.

Linguistics is defined as the study of the structure and development of languages. It includes a comparative analysis of modern languages with ancient parent languages. It also traces the origin and evolution of words.

Subjects such as morphology, semantics, phonology, accent, grammar and literature are all part of linguistic science. This subject studies words and their structural characteristics. Obscure languages, both ancient and modern are identified and classified according to their family and origin. Through the study of linguistics one can also decipher and reconstruct ancient languages from archaeological remains of ancient civilizations.

Linguistic sciences also develop improved methods in translation with modern technology and they prepare a description of sounds, forms and vocabulary of the language. Teaching and translation methods are improved by preparing descriptions of comparative languages and aptitude tests for language learning and proficiency are prepared. Through the science of linguistics, language teaching materials such as dictionaries, lexicons and handbooks are prepared.

Linguistics can be studied from different points of view. Some of these tiers into which language has been divided are as follows:

• Sociolinguistics

• Language acquisition

• Linguistic theory

• Contrastive linguistics

• Language and the brain

• Language change

The nature of the human language can be explained through the history of linguistics and its various theories. These theories are categorized according to historical eras. The period before the 19^th.century was known as the age of non-theoretical studies. The 19^th century was known as the period of historical linguistics. The first half of the 20^th century was devoted to structuralism and the second half to generative grammar.

General linguistics is about concepts of the language while descriptive linguistics is about describing and investigating languages. Models of language competence are developed through theoretical linguistics. On the other hand, applied linguistics deals with the practical aspect of language teaching and the uses to which linguistics can be put.

Language continuously evolves and is adapted to the needs of the people at each time. Language is the most complex system of communication and a study of linguistics science can help a student appreciate the cross-cultural variation of languages.