Gender and Leadership

The topic of leadership has been addressed and applied for millennia. Yet, it is only within the past 80 years that leadership has been a topic of serious discussion. It is important to understand variables relevant to effective leadership. Gender is one such variable that must be examined with regard to optimizing leadership effectiveness. The topic of gender and leadership deserves serious and thoughtful consideration and discussion because of professional, political, cultural, and personal realities of the twenty‐first century. Women and men have been, are, and should be leaders. Gender must be considered to determine how each leader can reach maximum potential and effectiveness. The FourCe‐PITO conceptual framework of leadership is designed to help guide leadership development and education. The present chapter uses this conceptual framework of leadership to discuss how consideration of gender may affect and optimize leadership development and effectiveness. It is the goal of this chapter to lay out the issues that educators of leaders, potential leaders, and “practicing” leaders should be aware of, to achieve success for the good of the groups and individuals they have the responsibility to lead

From Empathy to the Aggression–Compassion Continuum

Empathy is relevant to but not sufficient to fully understand relationships. Recent research has proposed that empathy is part of a continuum—from pity to sympathy to empathy to compassion—and that compassion is the key to building good relationships because it includes actions. We offer an extension of this concept to include neutrality (apathy) and add four constructs of opposition—from antipathy to animosity to hostility to aggression. We describe all nine constructs with regard to cognitive, emotional, and behavioral support or opposition. Further, we propose that it is useful to consider these constructs in terms of character, competence, context, and communication at four psychosocial levels—personal, interpersonal, team, and organizational. We believe that relationships can be best addressed with these concepts in mind and that application of the support versus oppose poles of the aggression-compassion continuum are not equivalent to good and bad

Molecular mechanisms of increased cerebral vulnerability after repeated mild blast-induced traumatic brain injury

AbstractThe consequences of a mild traumatic brain injury can be especially severe if it is repeated within the period of increased cerebral vulnerability (ICV) that follows the initial insult. To better understand the molecular mechanisms that contribute to ICV, we exposed rats to different levels of mild blast overpressure (5 exposures; total pressure range: 15.54–19.41psi or 107.14–133.83kPa) at a rate of 1 per 30min, monitored select physiological parameters, and assessed behavior. Two days post-injury or sham, we determined changes in protein biomarkers related to various pathologies in behaviorally relevant brain regions and in plasma. We found that oxygen saturation and heart rate were transiently depressed following mild blast exposure and that injured rats exhibited significantly increased anxiety- and depression-related behaviors. Proteomic analyses of the selected brain regions showed evidence of substantial oxidative stress and vascular changes, altered cell adhesion, and inflammation predominantly in the prefrontal cortex. Importantly, these pathological changes as well as indications of neuronal and glial cell loss/damage were also detected in the plasma of injured rats. Our findings illustrate some of the complex molecular changes that contribute to the period of ICV in repeated mild blast-induced traumatic brain injury. Further studies are needed to determine the functional and temporal relationship between the various pathomechanisms. The validation of these and other markers can help to diagnose individuals with ICV using a minimally invasive procedure and to develop evidence-based treatments for chronic neuropsychiatric conditions

Optimizing Innovative Leadership and Followership

Leadership and followership development are increasingly recognized as important in all fields of the workforce. The Innovative Leadership Model helps leaders increase self-understanding and optimize the performance of organizations by focusing on Leader Type, Developmental Perspective, Resilience, Situational Analysis, and Leadership Behaviors and Mindsets. The Leader-Follower Framework identifies key elements – Character, Competence, Communication, Context – to guide the development of individual leaders and followers across four psychosocial levels – Personal, Interpersonal, Team, Organizational. Each of these approaches has value and has been applied in various settings and contexts. The present chapter offers a new insight relevant to leadership by combining these two perspectives and their component elements. Understanding and developing each of these elements will optimize effective leadership and followership in a wide range of situations and settings

Well-being at a Military Medical School and Implications for Military Retention.

INTRODUCTION: Physical and psychological well-being play a critical role in the academic and professional development of medical students and can alter the trajectory of a student\u27s quality of personal and professional life. Military medical students, given their dual role as officer and student, experience unique stressors and issues that may play a role in their future intentions to continue military service, as well as practice medicine. As such, this study explores well-being across the 4 years of medical school at Uniformed Services University (USU) and how well-being relates to a student\u27s likelihood to continue serving in the military and practicing medicine. METHODS: In September 2019, 678 USU medical students were invited to complete a survey consisting of three sections-the Medical Student Well-being Index (MSWBI), a single-item burnout measure, and six questions regarding their likelihood of staying in the military and medical practice. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and contingency table analysis. Additionally, thematic analysis was conducted on open-ended responses included as part of the likelihood questions. RESULTS: Our MSWBI and burnout scores suggest that the overall state of well-being among medical students at USU is comparable to other studies of the medical student population. ANOVA revealed class differences among the four cohorts, highlighted by improved well-being scores as students transitioned from clerkships to their fourth-year curriculum. Fewer clinical students (MS3s and MS4s), compared to pre-clerkship students, indicated a desire to stay in the military. In contrast, a higher percentage of clinical students seemed to reconsider their medical career choice compared to their pre-clerkship student counterparts. Medicine-oriented likelihood questions were associated with four unique MSWBI items, whereas military-oriented likelihood questions were associated with one unique MSWBI item. CONCLUSION: The present study found that the overall state of well-being in USU medical students is satisfactory, but opportunities for improvement exist. Medical student well-being seemed to have a stronger association with medicine-oriented likelihood items than with military-oriented likelihood items. To obtain and refine best practices for strengthening engagement and commitment, future research should examine if and how military and medical contexts converge and diverge throughout training. This may enhance the medical school and training experience and, ultimately, reinforce, or strengthen, the desire and commitment to practice and serve in military medicine

T1DBase: integration and presentation of complex data for type 1 diabetes research

T1DBase () [Smink et al. (2005) Nucleic Acids Res., 33, D544–D549; Burren et al. (2004) Hum. Genomics, 1, 98–109] is a public website and database that supports the type 1 diabetes (T1D) research community. T1DBase provides a consolidated T1D-oriented view of the complex data world that now confronts medical researchers and enables scientists to navigate from information they know to information that is new to them. Overview pages for genes and markers summarize information for these elements. The Gene Dossier summarizes information for a list of genes. GBrowse [Stein et al. (2002) Genome Res., 10, 1599–1610] displays genes and other features in their genomic context, and Cytoscape [Shannon et al. (2003) Genome Res., 13, 2498–2504] shows genes in the context of interacting proteins and genes. The Beta Cell Gene Atlas shows gene expression in β cells, islets, and related cell types and lines, and the Tissue Expression Viewer shows expression across other tissues. The Microarray Viewer shows expression from more than 20 array experiments. The Beta Cell Gene Expression Bank contains manually curated gene and pathway annotations for genes expressed in β cells. T1DMart is a query tool for markers and genotypes. PosterPages are ‘home pages’ about specific topics or datasets. The key challenge, now and in the future, is to provide powerful informatics capabilities to T1D scientists in a form they can use to enhance their research

Exposure of Egyptian Rousette Bats (\u3ci\u3eRousettus aegyptiacus\u3c/i\u3e) and a Little Free-Tailed Bat (\u3ci\u3eChaerephon pumilus\u3c/i\u3e) to Alphaviruses in Uganda

The reservoir for zoonotic o’nyong-nyong virus (ONNV) has remained unknown since this virus was first recognized in Uganda in 1959. Building on existing evidence for mosquito bloodfeeding on various frugivorous bat species in Uganda, and seroprevalence for arboviruses among bats in Uganda, we sought to assess if serum samples collected from bats in Uganda demonstrated evidence of exposure to ONNV or the closely related zoonotic chikungunya virus (CHIKV). In total, 652 serum samples collected from six bat species were tested by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) for neutralizing antibodies against ONNV and CHIKV. Forty out of 303 (13.2%) Egyptian rousettes from Maramagambo Forest and 1/13 (8%) little free-tailed bats from Banga Nakiwogo, Entebbe contained neutralizing antibodies against ONNV. In addition, 2/303 (0.7%) of these Egyptian rousettes contained neutralizing antibodies to CHIKV, and 8/303 (2.6%) contained neutralizing antibodies that were nonspecifically reactive to alphaviruses. These data support the interepidemic circulation of ONNV and CHIKV in Uganda, although Egyptian rousette bats are unlikely to serve as reservoirs for these viruses given the inconsistent occurrence of antibody-positive bats

Oncolysis of malignant human melanoma tumors by Coxsackieviruses A13, A15 and A18

Many RNA viruses are displaying great promise in the field of oncolytic virotherapy. Previously, we reported that the picornavirus Coxsackievirus A21 (CVA21) possessed potent oncolytic activity against cultured malignant melanoma cells and melanoma xenografts in mice. In the present study, we demonstrate that three additional Group A Coxsackieviruses; Coxsackievirus A13 (CVA13), Coxsackievirus A15 (CVA15) and Coxsackievirus A18 (CVA18), also have similar oncolytic activity against malignant melanoma. Each of the viruses grew quickly to high titers in cancer cells expressing ICAM-1 and intratumoral injection of preformed subcutaneous SK-Mel-28 xenografts in mice with CVA13, CVA15 and CVA18 resulted in significant tumor volume reduction

Creating a National Specimen Referral System in Guinea: Lessons From Initial Development and Implementation

In the wake of the 2014–2016, West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, the Government of Guinea recognized an opportunity to strengthen its national laboratory system, incorporating capacity and investments developed during the response. The Ministry of Health (MOH) identified creation of a holistic, safe, secure, and timely national specimen referral system as a priority for improved detection and confirmation of priority diseases, in line with national Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response guidelines. The project consisted of two parts, each led by different implementing partners working collaboratively together and with the Ministry of Health: the development and approval of a national specimen referral policy, and pilot implementation of a specimen referral system, modeled on the policy, in three prefectures. This paper describes the successful execution of the project, highlighting the opportunities and challenges of building sustainable health systems capacity during and after public health emergencies, and provides lessons learned for strengthening national capabilities for surveillance and disease diagnosis