The relationship between transformational leadership and customer-orientated boundary-spanning behaviours:examining the role of compassion

Customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviours (COBSBs) are critical to the success of service organisations. Transformational leadership, with its emphasis on the social elements of the leader-subordinate dyad, is a likely antecedent to COBSBs. Similarly, the interpersonal nature of services suggests leader compassion could have a significant effect on the saliency of the relationship between transformational leadership and COBSBs. This paper reports on a study of the moderating effect of leader compassion on the relationship between transformational leadership and COBSBs (service delivery behaviours, internal influence and external representation). Transformational leadership and compassion both have significant and positive influences on COBSBs. However, compassion plays no moderating role. These findings are discussed and avenues for further research are proposed

Activating KIR2DS4 Is Expressed by Uterine NK Cells and Contributes to Successful Pregnancy

Tissue-specific NK cells are abundant in the pregnant uterus and interact with invading placental trophoblast cells that transform the maternal arteries to increase the fetoplacental blood supply. Genetic case-control studies have implicated killer cell Ig-like receptor (KIR) genes and their $\textit{HLA}$ ligands in pregnancy disorders characterized by failure of trophoblast arterial transformation. Activating $\textit{KIR2DS1}$ or $\textit{KIR2DS5}$ (when located in the centromeric region as in Africans) lower the risk of disorders when there is a fetal $\textit{HLA-C}$ allele carrying a C2 epitope. In this study, we investigated another activating $\textit{KIR, KIR2DS4}$, and provide genetic evidence for a similar effect when carried with $\textit{KIR2DS1. KIR2DS4}$ is expressed by ∼45% of uterine NK (uNK) cells. Similarly to KIR2DS1, triggering of KIR2DS4 on uNK cells led to secretion of GM-CSF and other chemokines, known to promote placental trophoblast invasion. Additionally, XCL1 and CCL1, identified in a screen of 120 different cytokines, were consistently secreted upon activation of KIR2DS4 on uNK cells. Inhibitory $\textit{KIR2DL5A}$, carried in linkage disequilibrium with $\textit{KIR2DS1}$, is expressed by peripheral blood NK cells but not by uNK cells, highlighting the unique phenotype of uNK cells compared with peripheral blood NK cells. That KIR2DS4, KIR2DS1, and some alleles of KIR2DS5 contribute to successful pregnancy suggests that activation of uNK cells by KIR binding to HLA-C is a generic mechanism promoting trophoblast invasion into the decidua.This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust, the Centre for Trophoblast Research, the British Heart Foundation, and the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Connectivity in the Deep: Phylogeography of the Velvet Belly Lanternshark

PublishedThe velvet belly lanternshark, Etmopterus spinax, is a deep-sea bioluminescent squaloid shark, found predominantly in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. It has been exposed to relatively high levels of mortality associated with by-catch in some regions. Its late maturity and low fecundity potentially renders it vulnerable to over-exploitation, although little remains known about processes of connectivity between key habitats/regions. This study utilised DNA sequencing of partial regions of the mitochondrial control region and nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 to investigate population structure and phylogeography of this species across the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean Basin. Despite the inclusion of samples from the range edges or remote locations, no evidence of significant population structure was detected. An important exception was identified using the control region sequence, with much greater (and statistically significant) levels of genetic differentiation between the Mediterranean and Atlantic. This suggests that the Strait of Gibraltar may represent an important bathymetric barrier, separating regions with very low levels of female dispersal. Bayesian estimation of divergence time also places the separation between the Mediterranean and Atlantic lineages within the last 100,000 years, presumably connected with perturbations during the last Glacial Period. These results demonstrate population subdivision at a much smaller geographic distance than has generally been identified in previous work on deep-sea sharks. This highlights a very significant role for shallow bathymetry in promoting genetic differentiation in deepwater taxa. It acts as an important exception to a general paradigm of marine species being connected by high levels of gene-flow, representing single stocks over large scales. It may also have significant implications for the fisheries management of this species.We would like to thank Trude Thangstad, Merete Kvalsund (Institute of Marine Research, Norway), Cecilia Pinto, Eleonora de Sabata and the scientists and crew of the RV Celtic Explorer for assistance in the collection of samples. Funding for this project was provided by the University of Salford and the University of Bristol. We are grateful to all those who helped with sample collection, including the MEDITS survey programme, the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research (DFMR) of Cyprus, the Annual Demersal and Deep Water Fish Monitoring Surveys financed by the Azores Government and the CONDOR project (supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism (PT0040/2008)

D-cycloserine-augmented one-session treatment of specific phobias in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: D-Cycloserine has potential to enhance exposure therapy outcomes. The current study presents a preliminary randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind pilot trial of DCS-augmented one-session treatment (OST) for youth (7-14 years) with specific phobia. A secondary aim of this pilot study was to explore the effects of youth age and within-session fear reduction as potential moderators of DCS outcomes in order to generate hypotheses for a larger trial. It was hypothesized that DCS would be associated with greater improvements than placebo, that children (7-10 years) would have greater benefits than adolescents (11-14 years), and that DCS effects would be stronger for participants with the greater within-session fear reduction during the OST. METHODS: Thirty-five children and adolescents were randomized to either OST combined with DCS (n = 17), or OST combined with placebo (PBO; n = 18) and assessed at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 month following treatment. RESULTS: There were no significant pre- to post-treatment or follow-up benefits of DCS relative to placebo. Secondary analyses of age indicated that relative to PBO, DCS was associated with greater improvements for children (but not adolescents) on measures of severity at 1-month follow-up. Children in the DCS condition also showed significantly greater improvement to 1 month on global functioning relative to other groups. Conversely, adolescents had significant post-treatment benefits in the PBO condition on symptom severity measures relative to DCS, and adolescents in the DCS condition had significantly poorer functioning at 3 months relative to all other groups. Finally, there was a trend for within-session fear reduction to be associated with moderating effects of DCS, whereby greater reduction in fear was associated with greater functioning at one-month follow-up for children who received DCS, relative to PBO. LIMITATIONS: The study sample was small and therefore conclusions are tentative and require replication. CONCLUSIONS: Age and within-session fear reduction may be important moderators of DCS-augmented one-session exposure therapy, which requires testing in a fully powered randomized controlled trial

Sea-level constraints on the amplitude and source distribution of Meltwater Pulse 1A.

During the last deglaciation, sea levels rose as ice sheets retreated. This climate transition was punctuated by periods of more intense melting; the largest and most rapid of these—Meltwater Pulse 1A—occurred about 14,500 years ago, with rates of sea-level rise reaching approximately 4 m per century1, 2, 3. Such rates of rise suggest ice-sheet instability, but the meltwater sources are poorly constrained, thus limiting our understanding of the causes and impacts of the event4, 5, 6, 7. In particular, geophysical modelling studies constrained by tropical sea-level records1, 8, 9 suggest an Antarctic contribution of more than seven metres, whereas most reconstructions10 from Antarctica indicate no substantial change in ice-sheet volume around the time of Meltwater Pulse 1A. Here we use a glacial isostatic adjustment model to reinterpret tropical sea-level reconstructions from Barbados2, the Sunda Shelf3 and Tahiti1. According to our results, global mean sea-level rise during Meltwater Pulse 1A was between 8.6 and 14.6 m (95% probability). As for the melt partitioning, we find an allowable contribution from Antarctica of either 4.1 to 10.0 m or 0 to 6.9 m (95% probability), using two recent estimates11, 12 of the contribution from the North American ice sheets. We conclude that with current geologic constraints, the method applied here is unable to support or refute the possibility of a significant Antarctic contribution to Meltwater Pulse 1A

Paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder and depressive symptoms: clinical correlates and CBT treatment outcomes.

Depression frequently co-occurs with paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), yet the clinical correlates and impact of depression on CBT outcomes remain unclear. The prevalence and clinical correlates of depression were examined in a paediatric specialist OCD-clinic sample (N = 295; Mean = 15 [7 - 18] years, 42 % female), using both dimensional (Beck Depression Inventory-youth; n = 261) and diagnostic (Development and Wellbeing Assessment; n = 127) measures of depression. The impact of depressive symptoms and suspected disorders on post-treatment OCD severity was examined in a sub-sample who received CBT, with or without SSRI medication (N = 100). Fifty-one per-cent of patients reported moderately or extremely elevated depressive symptoms and 26 % (95 % CI: 18 - 34) met criteria for a suspected depressive disorder. Depressive symptoms and depressive disorders were associated with worse OCD symptom severity and global functioning prior to CBT. Individuals with depression were more likely to be female, have had a psychiatric inpatient admission and less likely to be attending school (ps < 0.01). OCD and depressive symptom severity significantly decreased after CBT. Depressive symptoms and depressive disorders predicted worse post-treatment OCD severity (βs = 0.19 and 0.26, ps < 0.05) but became non-significant when controlling for pre-treatment OCD severity (βs = 0.05 and 0.13, ns). Depression is common in paediatric OCD and is associated with more severe OCD and poorer functioning. However, depression severity decreases over the course of CBT for OCD and is not independently associated with worse outcomes, supporting the recommendation for treatment as usual in the presence of depressive symptoms

Predicting cell types and genetic variations contributing to disease by combining GWAS and epigenetic data

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are enriched in individuals suffering from a given disease. Most disease-associated SNPs fall into non-coding regions, so that it is not straightforward to infer phenotype or function; moreover, many SNPs are in tight genetic linkage, so that a SNP identified as associated with a particular disease may not itself be causal, but rather signify the presence of a linked SNP that is functionally relevant to disease pathogenesis. Here, we present an analysis method that takes advantage of the recent rapid accumulation of epigenomics data to address these problems for some SNPs. Using asthma as a prototypic example; we show that non-coding disease-associated SNPs are enriched in genomic regions that function as regulators of transcription, such as enhancers and promoters. Identifying enhancers based on the presence of the histone modification marks such as H3K4me1 in different cell types, we show that the location of enhancers is highly cell-type specific. We use these findings to predict which SNPs are likely to be directly contributing to disease based on their presence in regulatory regions, and in which cell types their effect is expected to be detectable. Moreover, we can also predict which cell types contribute to a disease based on overlap of the disease-associated SNPs with the locations of enhancers present in a given cell type. Finally, we suggest that it will be possible to re-analyze GWAS studies with much higher power by limiting the SNPs considered to those in coding or regulatory regions of cell types relevant to a given disease

Rapid tests and urine sampling techniques for the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) in children under five years: a systematic review

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common sources of infection in children under five. Prompt diagnosis and treatment is important to reduce the risk of renal scarring. Rapid, cost-effective, methods of UTI diagnosis are required as an alternative to culture. Methods: We conducted a systematic review to determine the diagnostic accuracy of rapid tests for detecting UTI in children under five years of age. Results: The evidence supports the use of dipstick positive for both leukocyte esterase and nitrite (pooled LR+ = 28.2, 95% CI: 17.3, 46.0) or microscopy positive for both pyuria and bacteriuria (pooled LR+ = 37.0, 95% CI: 11.0, 125.9) to rule in UTI. Similarly dipstick negative for both LE and nitrite (Pooled LR- = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.26) or microscopy negative for both pyuria and bacteriuria (Pooled LR- = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.23) can be used to rule out UTI. A test for glucose showed promise in potty-trained children. However, all studies were over 30 years old. Further evaluation of this test may be useful. Conclusion: Dipstick negative for both LE and nitrite or microscopic analysis negative for both pyuria and bacteriuria of a clean voided urine, bag, or nappy/pad specimen may reasonably be used to rule out UTI. These patients can then reasonably be excluded from further investigation, without the need for confirmatory culture. Similarly, combinations of positive tests could be used to rule in UTI, and trigger further investigation

End points for sickle cell disease clinical trials: patient-reported outcomes, pain, and the brain

To address the global burden of sickle cell disease (SCD) and the need for novel therapies, the American Society of Hematology partnered with the US Food and Drug Administration to engage the work of 7 panels of clinicians, investigators, and patients to develop consensus recommendations for clinical trial end points. The panels conducted their work through literature reviews, assessment of available evidence, and expert judgment focusing on end points related to: patient-reported outcomes (PROs), pain (non-PROs), the brain, end-organ considerations, biomarkers, measurement of cure, and low-resource settings. This article presents the findings and recommendations of the PROs, pain, and brain panels, as well as relevant findings and recommendations from the biomarkers panel. The panels identify end points, where there were supporting data, to use in clinical trials of SCD. In addition, the panels discuss where further research is needed to support the development and validation of additional clinical trial end points