Are Principals Prepared to Lead in Schools with Diverse Student Populations Using Invitational Leadership?

This inquiry sought to create meaning via an invitational leadership lens about how principals are prepared to lead in schools with diverse student populations. Data revealed principals’ perceptions about preparation related to invitational leadership emphasized contradictions between principals’ inviting-oriented rhetoric and their underlying beliefs regarding diverse student populations. Implications include opportunities that principal preparation programs include invitational leadership at the forefront of social justice leadership, as they prepare leaders working with diverse student populations

Prophylactic Acupuncture Treatment during Chemotherapy in Patients with Breast Cancer – Results of a Qualitative Study nested in a Randomized Pragmatic Trial

Background: In a randomized controlled trial, compared with standard care alone in breast cancer, acupuncture as a prophylactic treatment did not show better quality of life or fewer side effects of chemotherapy (NCT01727362 [clinicaltrials.gov]). The aim of the qualitative part of this mixed methods study was to better understand the subjective perspectives of the patients regarding quality of life during chemotherapy and the perceived effects of acupuncture. Methods: In a nested retrospective qualitative study, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 5 responders and 5 non-responders (defined by the outcome of the primary parameter FACT-B) who were randomly selected from both study arms. The interviews were digitally recorded, pseudonymized, transcribed, and then deductively and inductively analyzed according to Qualitative Content Analysis using MAXQDA® software. Results: A total of 20 patients were included in the qualitative part of the study. In both groups, most women stated that their quality of life was surprisingly better than what they had expected before starting the chemotherapy. All patients of the acupuncture group experienced the acupuncture treatments as relaxing and beneficial, mentioning a friendly setting, and empathic attitude of the therapist. Most of these patients stated that the acupuncture treatment reduced chemotherapy-induced side effects. The patients reported that acupuncture was supportive for coping with the disease in a salutogenic way. For all patients, finding strategies to cope with life-threatening cancer and the side effects of chemotherapy was essential, for example, keeping a positive attitude toward life, selecting social contacts, and staying active as much as possible. Conclusions: Patients in the acupuncture group reported positive effects on psychological and physical well-being after receiving the study intervention. For all patients, having coping strategies for cancer seemed to be more important than reducing side effects. Therefore, further studies should focus more on coping strategies and reducing acute side effects

Homopolymeric tracts represent a general regulatory mechanism in prokaryotes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While, traditionally, regulation of gene expression can be grouped into transcriptional, translational, and post-translational mechanisms, some mechanisms of rapid genetic variation can also contribute to regulation of gene expression, e.g., phase variation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show here that prokaryotes evolved to include homopolymeric tracts (HTs) within coding genes as a system that allows for efficient gene inactivation. Analyses of 81 bacterial and 18 archaeal genomes showed that poly(A) and poly(T) HTs are overrepresented in these genomes and preferentially located at the 5' end of coding genes. Location of HTs at the 5' end is not driven by a preferential placement of aminoacids encoded by the AAA and TTT codons at the N-terminal of proteins. The <it>inlA </it>gene of the pathogen <it>L. monocytogenes </it>was used as a model to further study the role of HTs in reversible gene inactivation. In a number of <it>L. monocytogenes </it>strains, <it>inlA </it>harbors a 5' poly(A) HT, which regularly shows frameshift mutation leading to expression of a truncated 8 aa InlA protein. Translational fusions of the <it>inlA </it>5' end allowed us to estimate that the frequency of variation in this HT is about 1,000 fold higher than the estimated average point mutation frequency.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>As frameshift mutations in HTs can occur at high frequencies and enable efficient gene inactivation, hypermutable HTs appear to represent a universal system for regulation of gene expression in prokaryotes. Combined with other studies indicating that HTs also enable rapid diversification of both coding and regulatory genetic sequences in eukaryotes, our data suggest that hypermutable HTs represent a general and rapid evolutionary mechanism facilitating adaptation and gene regulation across diverse organisms.</p

Modeling cancer metabolism on a genome scale

Cancer cells have fundamentally altered cellular metabolism that is associated with their tumorigenicity and malignancy. In addition to the widely studied Warburg effect, several new key metabolic alterations in cancer have been established over the last decade, leading to the recognition that altered tumor metabolism is one of the hallmarks of cancer. Deciphering the full scope and functional implications of the dysregulated metabolism in cancer requires both the advancement of a variety of omics measurements and the advancement of computational approaches for the analysis and contextualization of the accumulated data. Encouragingly, while the metabolic network is highly interconnected and complex, it is at the same time probably the best characterized cellular network. Following, this review discusses the challenges that genome‐scale modeling of cancer metabolism has been facing. We survey several recent studies demonstrating the first strides that have been done, testifying to the value of this approach in portraying a network‐level view of the cancer metabolism and in identifying novel drug targets and biomarkers. Finally, we outline a few new steps that may further advance this field

Humor Works: Communication Style and Humor Functions in Manager/Subordinate Relationships

This study explored humor production and communicator style within the dyadic communicative relationship between organizational managers and subordinates. Research questions considered positive, expressive, and negative humor functions and manager-subordinate relational style, communication style, sex, and dyad characteristics. Results indicated that both organizational managers and subordinates report using conversational humor, mostly positive and expressive humor. Results also indicate communicator image, dominant or affiliative communication style, and sex are related to the type of conversational humor initiated by organizational managers and subordinates. It appears that organizational power/dominance and sex are better predictors of humor usage than other characteristics. Overall, results suggest that relational factors, such as one\u27s humor, may be important to the enactment of organizational citizenship behaviors among subordinates

Jeder Fehler zählt : das Frankfurter Fehlerberichts- und Lernsystem für Hausarztpraxen

Anderer Fehler sind gute Lehrer « – so lautet ein nur wenig bekanntes altes deutsches Sprichwort. Für medizinische Fehler galt das die längste Zeit nicht: entweder totgeschwiegen oder als »Kunstfehler « in das Licht der Öffentlichkeit gezerrt, entzogen sich ärztliche Fehler einer systematischen Analyse. Damit hat die Medizin lange eine wichtige Chance vertan. Am Institut für Allgemeinmedizin der Universität Frankfurt beschäftigt sich seit einigen Jahren ein Team unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Gerlach intensiv mit der Fehlerforschung. ..

Effect of Cattail (Typha domingensis) Extracts, Leachates, and Selected Phenolic Compounds on Rates of Oxygen Production by Salvinia (Salvinia minima)

Salvinia (Salvinia minima Willd.) is a water fern found in Florida waters, usually associated with Lemna and other small free-floating species. Due to its buoyancy and mat-forming abilities, it is spread by moving waters. In 1994, salvinia was reported to be present in 247 water bodies in the state (out of 451 surveyed public waters, Schardt 1997). It is a small, rapidly growing species that can become a nuisance due to its explosive growth rates and its ability to shade underwater life (Oliver 1993). Any efforts toward management of salvinia populations must consider that, in reasonable amounts, its presence is desirable since it plays an important role in the overall ecosystem balance. New management alternatives need to be explored besides the conventional herbicide treatments; for example, it has been shown that the growth of S. molesta can be inhibited by extracts of the tropical weed parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus) and its purified toxin parthenin (Pande 1994, 1996). We believe that cattail, Typha spp. may be a candidate for control of S. minima infestations. Cattail is an aggressive aquatic plant, and has the ability to expand over areas that weren't previously occupied by other species (Gallardo et al. 1998a and references cited there). In South Florida, T. domingensis is a natural component of the Everglades ecosystem, but in many cases it has become the dominant marsh species, outcompeting other native plants. In Florida public waters, this cattail species is the most dominant emergent species of aquatic plants (Schardt 1997). Several factors enable it to accomplish opportunistic expansion, including size, growth habits, adaptability to changes in the surroundings, and the release of compounds that can prevent the growth and development of other species. We have been concerned in the past with the inhibitory effects of the T. domingensis extracts, and the phenolic compounds mentioned before, towards the growth and propagation of S. minima (Gallardo et al. 1998b). This investigation deals with the impact of cattail materials on the rates of oxygen production of salvinia, as determined through a series of Warburg experiments (Martin et al. 1987, Prindle and Martin 1996)

Effective Constraints for Quantum Systems

An effective formalism for quantum constrained systems is presented which allows manageable derivations of solutions and observables, including a treatment of physical reality conditions without requiring full knowledge of the physical inner product. Instead of a state equation from a constraint operator, an infinite system of constraint functions on the quantum phase space of expectation values and moments of states is used. The examples of linear constraints as well as the free non-relativistic particle in parameterized form illustrate how standard problems of constrained systems can be dealt with in this framework.Comment: 40 page