A foundation assessment of the influence of IT management practices on customer relationship management (CRM) in a large Australian federal government agency

There is currently a thrust in Australia to move to whole of e-government. At the centre of this initiative is the need to ensure high quality customer relationship management (CRM). There is a paucity of research into CRM in the public sector and this research breaks new ground by exploring the level of customer relationship management (CRM) implementation in a large Australian Federal Government agency. Using a quantitative survey approach, data were collected through the distribution of an electronic questionnaire to IT heads of 23 departments in one large Australian Federal Government agency. The main finding of the research is that although a few of the departments have implemented CRM at the highest level, the majority of the departments are still in the lower levels of CRM implementation. Differences in IT management practices and their impact on CRM status are also measured and their impact on CRM implementation is discussed. Finally, recommendations for moving to more advanced stages of CRM implementations are made

Late presentation of a mucinous ovarian adenocarcinoma which was initially diagnosed as a primary pancreatic carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Adenocarcinoma of the ovary is an aggressive neoplasm which often metastasizes to the lung or liver. Metastases rarely occur to the pancreas, but a tissue diagnosis is required to confirm this event. Although most tumors of the pancreas are primary pancreatic neoplasms, metastatic lesions have been reported most commonly as arising from renal cell carcinoma.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of a 51-year-old Caucasian woman with ovarian mucinous adenocarcinoma with metastasis to the head of the pancreas that was originally misdiagnosed as a pancreatic primary tumor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mucinous ovarian adenocarcinomas rarely metastasize to the pancreas. New pancreatic lesions should be investigated through tissue biopsy and tumor markers, while keeping an open-minded differential diagnosis to avoid a misdiagnosis or a delay in treatment.</p

Profiling allele-specific gene expression in brains from individuals with autism spectrum disorder reveals preferential minor allele usage.

One fundamental but understudied mechanism of gene regulation in disease is allele-specific expression (ASE), the preferential expression of one allele. We leveraged RNA-sequencing data from human brain to assess ASE in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). When ASE is observed in ASD, the allele with lower population frequency (minor allele) is preferentially more highly expressed than the major allele, opposite to the canonical pattern. Importantly, genes showing ASE in ASD are enriched in those downregulated in ASD postmortem brains and in genes harboring de novo mutations in ASD. Two regions, 14q32 and 15q11, containing all known orphan C/D box small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), are particularly enriched in shifts to higher minor allele expression. We demonstrate that this allele shifting enhances snoRNA-targeted splicing changes in ASD-related target genes in idiopathic ASD and 15q11-q13 duplication syndrome. Together, these results implicate allelic imbalance and dysregulation of orphan C/D box snoRNAs in ASD pathogenesis

Non-contrast cardiac computed tomography can accurately detect chronic myocardial infarction: Validation study

BackgroundThis study evaluates whether non-contrast cardiac computed tomography (CCT) can detect chronic myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with irreversible perfusion defects on nuclear myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI).MethodsOne hundred twenty-two symptomatic patients with irreversible perfusion defect (N = 62) or normal MPI (N = 60) underwent coronary artery calcium (CAC) scanning. MI on these non-contrast CCTs was visually detected based on the hypo-attenuation areas (dark) in the myocardium and corresponding Hounsfield units (HU) were measured.ResultsNon-contrast CCT accurately detected MI in 57 patients with irreversible perfusion defect on MPI, yielding a sensitivity of 92%, specificity of 72%, negative predictive value (NPV) of 90%, and a positive predictive value (PPV) of 77%. On a per myocardial region analysis, non-contrast CT showed a sensitivity of 70%, specificity of 85%, NPV of 91%, and a PPV of 57%. The ROC curve showed that the optimal cutoff value of LV myocardium HU to predict MI on non-contrast CCT was 21.7 with a sensitivity of 97.4% and specificity of 99.7%.ConclusionNon-contrast CCT has an excellent agreement with MPI in detecting chronic MI. This study highlights a novel clinical utility of non-contrast CCT in addition to assessment of overall burden of atherosclerosis measured by CAC

All-linear time reversal by a dynamic artificial crystal

The time reversal of pulsed signals or propagating wave packets has long been recognized to have profound scientific and technological significance. Until now, all experimentally verified time-reversal mechanisms have been reliant upon nonlinear phenomena such as four-wave mixing. In this paper, we report the experimental realization of all-linear time reversal. The time-reversal mechanism we propose is based on the dynamic control of an artificial crystal structure, and is demonstrated in a spin-wave system using a dynamic magnonic crystal. The crystal is switched from an homogeneous state to one in which its properties vary with spatial period a, while a propagating wave packet is inside. As a result, a linear coupling between wave components with wave vectors k≈π/a and k′=k−2ππ/a≈−π/a is produced, which leads to spectral inversion, and thus to the formation of a time-reversed wave packet. The reversal mechanism is entirely general and so applicable to artificial crystal systems of any physical nature

A Genome-Wide Survey of Imprinted Genes in Rice Seeds Reveals Imprinting Primarily Occurs in the Endosperm

Genomic imprinting causes the expression of an allele depending on its parental origin. In plants, most imprinted genes have been identified in Arabidopsis endosperm, a transient structure consumed by the embryo during seed formation. We identified imprinted genes in rice seed where both the endosperm and embryo are present at seed maturity. RNA was extracted from embryos and endosperm of seeds obtained from reciprocal crosses between two subspecies Nipponbare (Japonica rice) and 93-11 (Indica rice). Sequenced reads from cDNA libraries were aligned to their respective parental genomes using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Reads across SNPs enabled derivation of parental expression bias ratios. A continuum of parental expression bias states was observed. Statistical analyses indicated 262 candidate imprinted loci in the endosperm and three in the embryo (168 genic and 97 non-genic). Fifty-six of the 67 loci investigated were confirmed to be imprinted in the seed. Imprinted loci are not clustered in the rice genome as found in mammals. All of these imprinted loci were expressed in the endosperm, and one of these was also imprinted in the embryo, confirming that in both rice and Arabidopsis imprinted expression is primarily confined to the endosperm. Some rice imprinted genes were also expressed in vegetative tissues, indicating that they have additional roles in plant growth. Comparison of candidate imprinted genes found in rice with imprinted candidate loci obtained from genome-wide surveys of imprinted genes in Arabidopsis to date shows a low degree of conservation, suggesting that imprinting has evolved independently in eudicots and monocots

Sequence comparison of prefrontal cortical brain transcriptome from a tame and an aggressive silver fox (Vulpes vulpes)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Two strains of the silver fox (<it>Vulpes vulpes</it>), with markedly different behavioral phenotypes, have been developed by long-term selection for behavior. Foxes from the tame strain exhibit friendly behavior towards humans, paralleling the sociability of canine puppies, whereas foxes from the aggressive strain are defensive and exhibit aggression to humans. To understand the genetic differences underlying these behavioral phenotypes fox-specific genomic resources are needed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>cDNA from mRNA from pre-frontal cortex of a tame and an aggressive fox was sequenced using the Roche 454 FLX Titanium platform (> 2.5 million reads & 0.9 Gbase of tame fox sequence; >3.3 million reads & 1.2 Gbase of aggressive fox sequence). Over 80% of the fox reads were assembled into contigs. Mapping fox reads against the fox transcriptome assembly and the dog genome identified over 30,000 high confidence fox-specific SNPs. Fox transcripts for approximately 14,000 genes were identified using SwissProt and the dog RefSeq databases. An at least 2-fold expression difference between the two samples (p < 0.05) was observed for 335 genes, fewer than 3% of the total number of genes identified in the fox transcriptome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Transcriptome sequencing significantly expanded genomic resources available for the fox, a species without a sequenced genome. In a very cost efficient manner this yielded a large number of fox-specific SNP markers for genetic studies and provided significant insights into the gene expression profile of the fox pre-frontal cortex; expression differences between the two fox samples; and a catalogue of potentially important gene-specific sequence variants. This result demonstrates the utility of this approach for developing genomic resources in species with limited genomic information.</p

Distinct physiological and behavioural functions for parental alleles of imprinted Grb10

Imprinted genes, defined by their preferential expression of a single parental allele, represent a subset of the mammalian genome and often have key roles in embryonic development1, but also postnatal functions including energy homeostasis2 and behaviour3, 4. When the two parental alleles are unequally represented within a social group (when there is sex bias in dispersal and/or variance in reproductive success)5, 6, imprinted genes may evolve to modulate social behaviour, although so far no such instance is known. Predominantly expressed from the maternal allele during embryogenesis, Grb10 encodes an intracellular adaptor protein that can interact with several receptor tyrosine kinases and downstream signalling molecules7. Here we demonstrate that within the brain Grb10 is expressed from the paternal allele from fetal life into adulthood and that ablation of this expression engenders increased social dominance specifically among other aspects of social behaviour, a finding supported by the observed increase in allogrooming by paternal Grb10-deficient animals. Grb10 is, therefore, the first example of an imprinted gene that regulates social behaviour. It is also currently alone in exhibiting imprinted expression from each of the parental alleles in a tissue-specific manner, as loss of the peripherally expressed maternal allele leads to significant fetal and placental overgrowth. Thus Grb10 is, so far, a unique imprinted gene, able to influence distinct physiological processes, fetal growth and adult behaviour, owing to actions of the two parental alleles in different tissues