Examining the Experiences of Six Women on their Personal Journeys to Becoming Deans of Agriculture: A Qualitative Study

Understanding one’s own personal journey provides for effective learning, growth, and development of self (Madsen, 2010). Reflection on the influences and experiences of successful women leaders is essential to understanding the factors that have enabled them to obtain and sustain leadership positions in nontraditional career fields. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lives of women deans in agriculture in an attempt to conceptualize the leadership styles they have developed as a result of their positions as deans in a predominantly male field, as well as their upbringing and life experiences. Six women deans of agriculture were interviewed and observed in an attempt to recognize the impact their personal journeys have had in developing their leadership styles and sustaining their leadership role. Reflection on the influences and experiences of the women deans produced five overall conclusions: 1) the women deans were essentially all first-born children; 2) encouragement from parents and mentors as well as spousal support were crucial factors in obtaining and sustaining their role as deans of agriculture; 3) challenges imposed by gender discrimination motivated these ambitious women to achieve their leadership goals; 4) each of the women deans exhibited traits of The Big Five Personality Trait Model such as surgency, conscientiousness, agreeableness, adjustment, and intellectance which correspond to specific characteristics found relevant for leadership emergence, advancement, or effectiveness; and 5) participants lead with a transformational leadership style, an asset which has been valuable to their success as deans

Evidence for multiple structural genes for the γ chain of human fetal hemoglobin

A sequence with a specific residue at each position was proposed for the γ chain of human fetal hemoglobin by Schroeder et al. (1) after a study in which hemoglobin from a number of individual infants was used. We have now examined in part the fetal hemoglobin components of 17 additional infants and have observed that position 136 of the γ chain may be occupied not only by a glycyl residue, as previously reported, but also by an alanyl residue

Clinical potential for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis through detection of fetal cells in maternal blood

Summary Fetal cells circulate in maternal blood and are considered a suitable means by which to detect fetal genetic and chromosomal abnormalities. This approach has the advantage of being noninvasive. Since the early 1990s, nucleated erythrocytes (NRBCs) have been considered good target cells for a number of techniques, including fluorescence-activated cell sorting and magnetic cell sorting, using antibodies such as anti-transferrin receptor and anti-?-hemoglobin antibodies, followed by analysis with fluorescence in situ hybridization or polymerase chain reaction. In the late 1990s, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Fetal Cell Isolation Study assessed the reliability of noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal aneuploidy using NRBCs isolated from maternal circulation. This study revealed the limitations of NRBC separation using antibodies specific for NRBC antigens. A more recent study has demonstrated the efficiency and success of recovery of NRBCs using a galactose-specific lectin, based on the observation that erythroid precursor cells have a large quantity of galactose molecules on their cell surface. Thus, recent advances in this field enhance the feasibility of this diagnostic method. This review article focuses on various methods of detection of fetal cells within the maternal circulation, as well as the status of previous and current studies and the prospective view for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis using fetal cells from the maternal circulation

The unwritten creed of the Disciples of Christ

Abstract not availabl