Educational Materials for Implementation of Cognitive Interventions Across Practice Settings

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop educational materials for the UND occupational therapy (OT) program to address cognitive strategies for intervention across populations. Methods: A literature review was conducted to determine the need for our product. The review of literature included the role of OT in functional cognition, use of cognitive intervention strategies with populations, and specific frames of references used in OT practice settings. It was found that new OT practitioners did not feel prepared to address cognitive deficits across populations when moving from one setting to another. Results: The Adult Learning Theory was used to create our product, Educational Materials for Implementation of Cognitive Interventions Across Practice Settings, for the UND OT program. These education materials include PowerPoint presentations, case studies, and discussion questions. The educational materials provide students with an intuitive, organized system designed to increase understanding of concepts. The result is an enhanced ability to implement cognitive intervention strategies in practice. Conclusions & Significance: The literature has shown a lack of consensus amongst occupational therapists regarding the application of cognitive strategies in interventions for individuals of varying of diagnoses. By providing a product with detailed guidelines and easy to use lesson plans, students will effectively learn to tailor cognitive interventions to each individual client, regardless of their diagnosis. This product will enhance the UND OT program by equipping students with evidence-based skills in cognitive intervention. One limitation of this product is that it has not been implemented in a classroom setting

En Casestudie som baserer seg på prestasjonsbasert belønning og innovasjon

Mastergradsoppgave i innovasjon, med fordypning i ledelse og organisasjonSalg er en bransje som er preget av prestasjonsbasert belønning og det varierer ofte i bruk av individuell og kollektiv belønning. Salgsbransjen er ofte preget av ytre motivasjon, og enkle-, målbare- og individuelle arbeidsoppgaver, samt et høyt arbeidspress som gjør at innovasjon ikke blir et fokus. Likevel ligger det et potensial hos selgere som har direkte kontakt med kunden for å komme med innovative ideer. Tidligere litteratur virker uenige i om individuell og kollektiv belønning er fremmende for innovasjon. Individuell og kollektiv belønning kan ha ulike effekter på jobbdesign, ledelse, sorteringseffekten, motivasjon og samarbeid. Disse organisatoriske variablene kan potensielt ha betydning for om selgerne er innovative, selv om salg ikke blir ansett som den mest innovative bransjen. Gjennom en eksplorerende studie har vi forsøkt å gå dypere i casebedriften for å belyse problemstillingen. Ved innsamling av datamaterialet studere vi teori og funn i casebedriften om hverandre for å være sikker på at vi fikk med de mest sentrale organisatoriske variablene. Innsamlingen av dataene ble gjort gjennom semistrukturerte dybdeintervju. Informantene vi intervjuet besto av ansatte på ulike nivå i casebedriften. Disse dataene ble videre kategorisert og sammenlignet med tidligere litteratur som hovedsakelig baserte seg på andre kontekster. Gjennom datainnhenting og analyse kom vi frem til at jobbdesign, ledelse, sorteringseffekten, motivasjon og samarbeid var sentrale variabler som påvirket relasjonen mellom individuell og kollektiv belønning og innovasjon hos selgerne. Våre funn viser at kollektiv belønning er den belønningsformen som er å foretrekke fremfor individuell belønning når det kommer til å tilrettelegge for innovasjon. Jo større kollektiv belønning selgerne hadde, jo større var den potensielle effekten for innovative selgere. Ved individuell belønning hadde vi ikke noen tydelige funn som virket fremmende for innovasjon. Dette virket å komme av mangelen på et belønningssystem som gav insentiv til innovasjon

Single Cell Genome Amplification Accelerates Identification of the Apratoxin Biosynthetic Pathway from a Complex Microbial Assemblage

Filamentous marine cyanobacteria are extraordinarily rich sources of structurally novel, biomedically relevant natural products. To understand their biosynthetic origins as well as produce increased supplies and analog molecules, access to the clustered biosynthetic genes that encode for the assembly enzymes is necessary. Complicating these efforts is the universal presence of heterotrophic bacteria in the cell wall and sheath material of cyanobacteria obtained from the environment and those grown in uni-cyanobacterial culture. Moreover, the high similarity in genetic elements across disparate secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathways renders imprecise current gene cluster targeting strategies and contributes sequence complexity resulting in partial genome coverage. Thus, it was necessary to use a dual-method approach of single-cell genomic sequencing based on multiple displacement amplification (MDA) and metagenomic library screening. Here, we report the identification of the putative apratoxin. A biosynthetic gene cluster, a potent cancer cell cytotoxin with promise for medicinal applications. The roughly 58 kb biosynthetic gene cluster is composed of 12 open reading frames and has a type I modular mixed polyketide synthase/nonribosomal peptide synthetase (PKS/NRPS) organization and features loading and off-loading domain architecture never previously described. Moreover, this work represents the first successful isolation of a complete biosynthetic gene cluster from Lyngbya bouillonii, a tropical marine cyanobacterium renowned for its production of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites

Tumor Functional Heterogeneity Unraveled by scRNA-seq Technologies

Effective cancer treatment has been precluded by the presence of various forms of intratumoral complexity that drive treatment resistance and metastasis. Recent single-cell sequencing technologies are significantly facilitating the characterization of tumor internal architecture during disease progression. New applications and advances occurring at a fast pace predict an imminent broad application of these technologies in many research areas. As occurred with next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, once applied to clinical samples across tumor types, single-cell sequencing technologies could trigger an exponential increase in knowledge of the molecular pathways involved in cancer progression and contribute to the improvement of cancer treatment