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The current case study investigated how intentional, systematic planning can help organizations harness the energy of these willing allies who may be motivated to support change. The focus of the study is the development of a peer-to-peer approach, involving “Equity Leaders (ELs),” that was part of a larger, multi-level organization change initiative that addressed personal, interpersonal and structural considerations at a mid-sized public university in northeastern USA.

The authors used multiple methods to collect data for the current study, including observations and interviews. Over the course of four years, the authors attended more than 50 EL meetings. In these meetings, the authors took notes regarding ELs' discussions on workshop development and planning, debates on workshop substances and ELs' personal reflections on these workshops. Following the fourth year of the program, the first two authors invited all current ELs to participate in semi-structured, open-ended interviews about their experience.

The case study shows that through careful planning, peer change can play multiple roles in pushing organizational changes. By embracing their formal responsibilities and yielding their informal power, change agents are able to cause radiating impact across as organizations. Organizations can also capitalize on the fact that employees are more likely to be engaged in the change effort when it is promoted by peers. Finally, the support and resources from the organizational leaders is important because these inputs not only legitimize change agents' roles but they also signify the importance of the actions.

This study has limitations. First, the authors recognize that this was a qualitative study grounded in a single context. Although the study explored a novel context for understanding change agents—a deliberately planned initiative targeting social norms through addressing subtle biases like microaggressions—the authors recognize that additional examination would be necessary to understand how implementation may work in different contexts or organization types. Second, the authors also acknowledge that the authors’ positionality, as females studying a change initiative targeting gendered and intersectional microaggressions, may have shaped the role as researchers.

The findings underscore the notion that allies can serve as organized peer change agents to affect organizational culture. In alignment with the principles in the social ecological framework, the approach involved selecting change agents who are internal to the organization, have informal influence or power and can broaden the impact to other parts of the organization. Moreover, the results underscore the need for organizations to provide essential support and resources that can assist change agents to bridge organizational goals and individual actions.

This paper aims to explore teachers’ shifts in pedagogy and practice as they implemented a project-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching English Language Arts (ELA) for the first time.

The authors interviewed 10 ninth-grade ELA teachers in three schools after their first year enacting PBL. Initial codes were developed deductively from the interview questions and others emerged from the data. The authors also used memos to contextualize the interviews and triangulate findings.

Teachers described embracing new, expansive approaches to teaching ELA as they shifted from focusing on skills to big questions, and from literary analysis to “real-world” writing and assessment. These data illuminated three tensions around “traditional” versus PBL approaches to ELA: What counts as ELA? What counts as student success? And is PBL for everyone?

Few studies have explored teacher perceptions of PBL in secondary ELA classrooms. This paper uniquely illuminates some pathways for addressing the tension between “traditional” and PBL approaches. The authors call for deliberate, ongoing and gradualistic approaches to engaging in PBL routines that support educators to make meaningful shifts in instruction.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate six different fruits from the Cerrado as to their chemical and bioactive properties.

Six different fruits from the Cerrado (araticum, baru, jatoba-do-cerrado, lobeira, macauba and pequi) were characterized regarding moisture, ash, lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, carotenoids, chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, flavonoids, phenolic compounds and their antioxidant activities.

The highest flavonoid content, which was found in araticum pulp, was significantly different from the ones of other fruit pulps. The carotenoid content of pequi pulp was 12-fold the one of lobeira pulp. The vitamin C content of baru pulp was five-fold the Reference Daily Intake (RDI). In relation to the antioxidant activity, araticum (5.7 µM/g) and jatoba (5.2 µM/g) pulps exhibited the highest values (p < 0.01). Both baru and araticum pulps were capable of capturing the radical with mean percentage of discoloration of 68.7 and 67.4%, respectively (p < 0.01).

Native fruits of the Cerrado have been poorly described in the literature, even though they are highly consumed in the region. Publicizing their nutritional characteristics can increase the commercial value of these fruits, which have been traditionally devalued. In addition, knowledge of new sources of nutrients contributes to their use by pharmaceutical and food industries.

This paper aims to investigate the wear behaviour of different materials for cylinder liners and piston rings in a linear reciprocating tribometer with special focus on the wear of the cylinder liner in the boundary lubrication regime.

Conventional nitrided steel, as well as diamond-like carbon and chromium nitride-coated piston rings, were tested against cast iron, AlSi and Fe-coated AlSi cylinder liners. The experiments were carried out with samples produced from original engine parts to have the original surface topography available. Radioactive tracer isotopes were used to measure cylinder liner wear continuously, enabling separation of running-in and steady-state wear.

A ranking of the material pairings with respect to wear behaviour of the cylinder liner was found. Post-test inspection of the cylinder samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed differences in the wear mechanisms for the different material combinations. The results show that the running-in and steady-state wear of the liners can be reduced by choosing the appropriate material for the piston ring.

The use of original engine parts in a closely controlled tribometer environment under realistic loading conditions, in conjunction with continuous and highly sensitive wear measurement methods and a detailed SEM analysis of the wear mechanisms, forms an intermediate step between engine testing and laboratory environment testing.