Winners Announced for Inaugural Essay Competition

[Excerpt] On the afternoon of April 22, the Cornell HR Review held an awards ceremony for its annual essay competition. Open to all Cornell students, this year’s competition challenged students to respond to one of three prompts, which addressed such topics as talent management, the right to organize, and the essentiality of HR

A Heroic Profession

[Excerpt] Last week, Archer Daniels Midland Company SVP of HR Michael D’Ambrose spoke at Cornell University’s ILR School to professor Lisa Dragoni’s introductory class on HR management. In a presentation titled “HR Heroes: The Impact of Effective HR,” D’Ambrose contended that HR is a “heroic” profession that merits increased consideration, especially among the rising generation

Single-System Expatriate Compensation

[Excerpt] Traveling from his office in The Hague, Netherlands, for the speaking engagement, Mr. Reiff discussed how the world’s largest energy company compensates its more than 8,000 expatriate employees—a number second only to the U.S. Army—using a single compensation system

Comparison of regulatory regions in the mitochondrial genomes of grasses

Abstract only availableRegulation of transcription in plant mitochondria is not well understood. The recent sequencing of the mitochondrial genomes of 10 closely related grasses allowed a comparative analysis of regulatory regions. To look for conserved regions and potential “swapped” regulatory regions, we have performed a comparative analysis of the upstream and downstream regions of all of the protein-coding genes in the mitochondrial genomes of eleven grasses: five mitochondrial types of maize (two fertile and three cytoplasmic male sterile), three other taxa within the genus (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, Z. luxurians, Z. perennis), two close relatives (Tripsacum dactyloides, Sorghum bicolor), and an outgroup, rice. These genomes contain an average of 35 protein-coding genes, composed of 40 transcriptional units. Our analyses examined 1000 base pairs (bp) upstream of the first exon of each transcriptional unit and 1000 bp downstream of its last exon. The reference genome was NB, the most common fertile maize mitochondrial genotype. Compared with the genes from NB, more than half of the mitochondrial genes in the other genomes contain sequences that flank different genes in NB; we refer to these as “swapped” regions. More than 25% of the translocated sequences are longer than 100 bp, and 21 are greater than 500 bp. The longer sequences are more likely to have a regulatory function. In addition, some of these regions were found multiple times: 12 of the translocated gene-flanking regions were found flanking five or more other genes; four had sequences that were flanking ten or more. Furthermore, in Z. luxurians, Z. perennis and T. dactyloides, the co-transcribed 18S and 5S ribosomal RNA genes have been translocated immediately upstream of the start of cox1, with the 5S rRNA 3' end only 80 bp from the start of cox1 exon 1. This is a position that is difficult to rectify with the divergent transcriptional needs of the two types of genes.Plant Genomics Internship @ M

The Changing Environment of Professional HR Associations

[Excerpt] This paper examines how the landscape of HR associations has changed over the past few decades, and it suggests what association leaders and practitioners can do to ensure the long-term success of the industry and its stakeholders.2_21_2010_THE_CHANGING_ENVIRONMENT.pdf: 1047 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

A Heroic Profession

[Excerpt] Last week, Archer Daniels Midland Company SVP of HR Michael D’Ambrose spoke at Cornell University’s ILR School to professor Lisa Dragoni’s introductory class on HR management. In a presentation titled “HR Heroes: The Impact of Effective HR,” D’Ambrose contended that HR is a “heroic” profession that merits increased consideration, especially among the rising generation.9_6_2010_A_Heroic_Profession.pdf: 222 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Loss of Sh3gl2/Endophilin A1 Is a Common Event in Urothelial Carcinoma that Promotes Malignant Behavior

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) causes substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying urothelial cancer development and tumor progression are still largely unknown. Using informatics analysis, we identified Sh3gl2 (endophilin A1) as a bladder urothelium-enriched transcript. The gene encoding Sh3gl2 is located on chromosome 9p, a region frequently altered in UC. Sh3gl2 is known to regulate endocytosis of receptor tyrosine kinases implicated in oncogenesis, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and c-Met. However, its role in UC pathogenesis is unknown. Informatics analysis of expression profiles as well as immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays revealed Sh3gl2 expression to be decreased in UC specimens compared to nontumor tissues. Loss of Sh3gl2 was associated with increasing tumor grade and with muscle invasion, which is a reliable predictor of metastatic disease and cancer-derived mortality. Sh3gl2 expression was undetectable in 19 of 20 human UC cell lines but preserved in the low-grade cell line RT4. Stable silencing of Sh3gl2 in RT4 cells by RNA interference 1) enhanced proliferation and colony formation in vitro, 2) inhibited EGF-induced EGFR internalization and increased EGFR activation, 3) stimulated phosphorylation of Src family kinases and STAT3, and 4) promoted growth of RT4 xenografts in subrenal capsule tissue recombination experiments. Conversely, forced re-expression of Sh3gl2 in T24 cells and silenced RT4 clones attenuated oncogenic behaviors, including growth and migration. Together, these findings identify loss of Sh3gl2 as a frequent event in UC development that promotes disease progression