What are Alternatives to Traditional Performance Rating Cycles and Processes?

The dominant format for performance appraisal systems in large U.S. industrial companies continues to be an objective-based approach such as management by objectives (MBO). Most companies conduct formal performance ratings annually or semi-annually. However, the traditional way of performance rating is receiving more and more doubt. With the development of HR theories, practices and technology, many companies are trying to manage employee performance in new ways

How do we Bridge the Gap between the Five Generations in the Workforce and Reduce Biases around Age?

In today’s organizations, as many as four to five generations work together. The multigenerational workplace is vulnerable to age biases that can lead to lower job and organizational satisfaction. These biases are of particular harm to older employees, whose performance suffers the most under biased managers. However, gaps between generations may be smaller than perceived, with many generations sharing similarities in values and organizational commitment. Even if the “generation gap” is small, eliminating bias and creating a diverse work environment is important for organizational success

Studying the role of cell competition in tumor progression via a two-dimensional vertex model

Tumor progression fate relies on the cell competition between tumorous cells and the surrounding regular cells. Studies on the Drosophila wing imaginal disc illustrate that cell competition can act either as a tumor suppressing or as a tumor promoting mechanism. However, how cell competition alters its role in tumor development via underlying molecular mechanisms as well as the role played by mechanical effects is still poorly understood. Here we study the role of cell competition in the early stage of tumor progression, using a simulation code of epithelial tissue (TiFoSi), which allows to include feedback between tissue growth, mechanics and gene regulation. Cells with inactivating mutations of tumor suppressor gene scrib always show hallmarks of carcinomas3,6. Multiple simulations show: 1) the clone of scrib mutant cells can be outcompeted and eliminated from the tissue, when surrounded by a wild-type tissue, even though they can proliferate infinitely on their own. 2) the initial size of the mutant clone can escape from the fate of elimination and expand, by protecting the inside cells from the range of cell competition, depending on the size of the initial tumorous clone. The results fits with experimental results and sheds light on how and why cell competition regulates tumor progression

Strategy Use Awareness in Academic Listening Practices Relative to L2 Motivation among Chinese Tertiary Students

Academic listening has been widely studied from the perspective of note-taking, attention to discourse markers, and schematic knowledge. Learner variables, such as motivation, degree of anxiety, and learner beliefs, have all received increasingly attention from researchers, but have not yet been sufficiently explored in second language (L2) listening. This paper investigates the correlations between second language learning motivation and learners’ strategy use awareness in academic listening practices. Quantitative data was obtained using questionnaires issued to 79 second year English-major students after a TOEFL lecture listening practice. The results suggest that teacher classroom instruction and feedback, task significance, and learners’ commitment encourage the listeners to apply more listening strategies. Pedagogical implications drawn from the results are discussed, concluding that L2 listening teachers should develop motivation-based strategy instruction with emphasis on creating a learner-centred constructivist learning environment. In addition, a skill-oriented approach is proposed in order to improve course design in L2 listening instruction. This would train students to consciously use strategies to improve their listening comprehension in an EFL ( English as a Foreign Language) context. Suggestions are provided at the end for future research

Educator-Targeted Bullying: Cross-Cultural Perspective

Past research normally focused on students bullying their peers. Systematic research has not been conducted targeting students’ various bullying behaviors against teachers. The current study focused on understanding the issue which teachers are bullied by students. Both quantitative survey and qualitative focus group/interviews were conducted. American and Chinese teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools, were recruited for a self-created survey study. A pilot study was conducted regarding the survey, to ensure the clarity and understandability of the survey, by collecting reviewers’ feedback on the survey. Revisions were made on the survey after the pilot study. The survey included teachers’ experiences with students bullying teachers, teachers’ perception on the reasons for students bullying teachers, bullying policy, school safety. Further, focus group meeting was conducted with Chinese teachers, and individual interviews were conducted for American teachers to study further about their experiences with students bullying teachers, and to understand the cultural reasoning for students bullying teachers. Survey results showed that American teachers experienced mainly relational, verbal, physical, discriminatory bullying; Chinese teachers mainly experienced relational, verbal bullying. The majority of American teachers reported the bullying behavior to school administrators. But that was not the case for Chinese teachers. Both American and Chinese teachers showed concern regarding students imitating their parents’ negative behaviors against teachers. Qualitative results showed that both American and Chinese teachers reported they experienced or witnessed bullying behaviors from students, parents, administrators, or teachers. Both American and Chinese participants reported teachers are not highly respected in current teaching environment

THE DIFFERENTIAL EXPRESSION OF CELL WALL PROTEINS IN THE HUMAN FUNGAL PATHOGEN CANDIDA ALBICANS

Candida albicans is a prevalent opportunistic fungal pathogen which can cause serious diseases from deep mucosal infections to fatal systemic infection. The cell wall of C. albicans is the initial point of interaction with the host during infection and it has an internal polysaccharide layer and an external protein layer. The cell wall proteins are mainly attached to the external layer through GPI anchors and have various functions in nutrient capture, virulence and adhesion. Additionally, the cell wall has three copper-only superoxide dismutases (SOD) SOD4, SOD5 and SOD6 that can protect the yeast from oxidative damage. The rationale for why C. albicans has three unique extracellular SOD enzymes was unknown. Our hypothesis is that each extracellular SOD is expressed under unique environmental conditions, allowing the fungus to survive in many different host niches. To begin to test this hypothesis, we analyzed the expression of the three SODs in comparison to 42 other cell wall proteins by qRT-PCR under four stress conditions differing in metal (iron and copper) content, glucose content and cell morphologies. We found that SOD5 is upregulated in the hyphal morphogenetic state together with some hyphal-induced genes involved in cell adhesion and iron uptake (RBT5, HWP1, ALS3, and HYR1). SOD4 is specifically induced during iron starvation with heme-uptake genes RBT5 and CSA1. The expression of SOD6 is unique and only expressed in yeast-form cells and under iron replete conditions; SOD6 is co-expressed with the adhesion molecule RHD3. The only common pattern with the three SODs is their induction by glucose starvation together with cell wall remodeling genes. In copper starvation, the expression of SODs does not change, although we observe for the first time the induction of heme-uptake genes RBT5, CSA1 and PGA10 with low copper. Overall the three extracellular SODs are induced under very different conditions. Each SOD may be expressed under distinct conditions to protect crucial cell wall proteins from oxidative damage and help C. albicans adapt to different environments in the host

Influence of aging and hemorrhage injury on Sirt1 expression: Possible role of myc-Sirt1 regulation in mitochondrial function

AbstractTrauma–hemorrhage (T–H) causes hypoxia and organ dysfunction. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major factor for cellular injury due to T–H. Aging also has been known to cause progressive mitochondrial dysfunction. In order to study the effect of aging on T–H-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, we recently developed a rodent mitochondrial genechip with probesets representing mitochondrial and nuclear genes contributing to mitochondrial structure and function. Using this chip we recently identified signature mitochondrial genes altered following T–H in 6 and 22month old rats; augmented expression of the transcription factor c-myc was the most pronounced. Based on reports of c-myc-IL6 collaboration and c-myc-Sirt1 negative regulation, we further investigated the expression of these regulatory factors with respect to aging and injury. Rats of ages 6 and 22months were subjected to T–H or sham operation and left ventricular tissues were tested for cytosolic cytochrome c, mtDNA content, Sirt1 and mitochondrial biogenesis factors Foxo1, Ppara and Nrf-1. We observed increased cardiac cytosolic cytochrome c (sham vs T–H, p<0.03), decreased mitochondrial DNA content (sham vs T–H, p<0.05), and decreased Sirt1 expression (sham vs TH, p<0.05) following T–H and with progressing age. Additionally, expression of mitochondrial biogenesis regulating transcription factors Foxo1 and Nrf-1 was also decreased with T–H and aging. Based upon these observations we conclude that Sirt1 expression is negatively modulated by T–H causing downregulation of mitochondrial biogenesis. Thus, induction of Sirt1 is likely to produce salutary effects following T–H induced injury and hence, Sirt1 may be a potential molecular target for translational research in injury resolution

Optimization of Protein-Protein Interaction Measurements for Drug Discovery Using AFM Force Spectroscopy

Increasingly targeted in drug discovery, protein-protein interactions challenge current high throughput screening technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. Developing an effective and efficient method for screening small molecules or compounds is critical to accelerate the discovery of ligands for enzymes, receptors and other pharmaceutical targets. Here, we report developments of methods to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for screening protein-protein interactions using atomic force microscopy (AFM) force spectroscopy. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of these developments on detecting the binding process between focal adhesion kinases (FAK) with protein kinase B (Akt1), which is a target for potential cancer drugs. These developments include optimized probe and substrate functionalization processes and redesigned probe-substrate contact regimes. Furthermore, a statistical-based data processing method was developed to enhance the contrast of the experimental data. Collectively, these results demonstrate the potential of the AFM force spectroscopy in automating drug screening with high throughput

Aging Influences Cardiac Mitochondrial Gene Expression and Cardiovascular Function following Hemorrhage Injury

Cardiac dysfunction and mortality associated with trauma and sepsis increase with age. Mitochondria play a critical role in the energy demand of cardiac muscles, and thereby on the function of the heart. Specific molecular pathways responsible for mitochondrial functional alterations after injury in relation to aging are largely unknown. To further investigate this, 6- and 22-month-old rats were subjected to trauma-hemorrhage (T-H) or sham operation and euthanized following resuscitation. Left ventricular tissue was profiled using our custom rodent mitochondrial gene chip (RoMitochip). Our experiments demonstrated a declined left ventricular performance and decreased alteration in mitochondrial gene expression with age following T-H and we have identified c-Myc, a pleotropic transcription factor, to be the most upregulated gene in 6- and 22-month-old rats after T-H. Following T-H, while 142 probe sets were altered significantly (39 up and 103 down) in 6-month-old rats, only 66 were altered (30 up and 36 down) in 22-month-old rats; 36 probe sets (11 up and 25 down) showed the same trend in both groups. The expression of c-Myc and cardiac death promoting gene Bnip3wereincreased, and Pgc1-α and Ppar-a a decreased following T-H. Eleven †RNA transcripts on mtDNA were upregulated following T-H in the aged animals, compared with the sham group. Our observations suggest a c-myc-regulated mitochondrial dysfunction following T-H injury and marked decrease in age-dependent changes in the transcrip-tional profile of mitochondrial genes following T-H, possibly indicating cellular senescence. To our knowledge, this is the first report on mitochondrial gene expression profile following T-H in relation to aging

Effects of parsley supplementation on the seminal quality, blood lipid profile and oxidant status of young and old male rabbits

[EN] The high unsaturation levels of spermatozoal membrane make it very susceptible to oxidative damage and this problem increases with advancing age. In this study, the aim is to investigate whether parsley seed (PS) has a protective effect on semen quality, serum lipid profile and antioxidative status of old and young bucks. Male rabbits (n= 36) (18 young 9-12 mo old and 18 old 36-42 mo old) were each assigned to 3 dietary treatments (a control and 2 levels of PS: 0.3 and 0.6 kg/100 kg diet) to evaluate the ability of parsley to enhance bucks’ reproductive status. Most of the studied traits were adversely affected by age of rabbit bucks. On the other hand, the inclusion of PS significantly boosted ejaculate volume and improved mass motility concentration and total sperm output. Seminal plasma and blood serum total antioxidant capacity increased, while serum lipid peroxidase decreased with parsley treatments. 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