The Relationships Among Gender, Work Experience, and Leadership Experience in Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is an organizational leadership theory centered around the ability to inspire and motivate followers to achieve results greater than originally planned and for internal reward The investigation into transformational leadership began in the mid-1980s with a number of influential publications by Bass (1985), Bennis and Nanus (1985), Kouzes and Posner (1987) and Tichy and Devanna (1986). In the 1980s, the study of transformational leadership was focused on case-based research (Conger, 1999). By late 1990s, a substantial body of empirical investigations on transformational leadership had been conducted

Agreement between arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide and saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen values obtained by direct arterial blood measurements versus noninvasive methods in conscious healthy and ill foals

Objective—To determine agreement between indirect measurements of end-tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Petco2) and saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen as measured by pulse oximetry (Spo2) with direct measurements of Paco2 and calculated saturation of hemoglobin with oxygen in arterial blood (Sao2) in conscious healthy and ill foals. Design—Validation study. Animals—10 healthy and 21 ill neonatal foals. Procedures—Arterial blood gas analysis was performed on healthy and ill foals examined at a veterinary teaching hospital to determine direct measurements of Paco2 and Pao2 along with Sao2. Concurrently, Petco2 was measured with a capnograph inserted into a naris, and Spo2 was measured with a reflectance probe placed at the base of the tail. Paired values were compared by use of Pearson correlation coefficients, and level of agreement was assessed with the Bland-Altman method. Results—Mean ± SD difference between Paco2 and Petco2 was 0.1 ± 5.0 mm Hg. There was significant strong correlation (r = 0.779) and good agreement between Paco2 and Petco2. Mean ± SD difference between Sao2 and Spo2 was 2.5 ± 3.5%. There was significant moderate correlation (r = 0.499) and acceptable agreement between Sao2 and Spo2. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Both Petco2 obtained by use of nasal capnography and Spo2 obtained with a reflectance probe are clinically applicable and accurate indirect methods of estimating and monitoring Paco2 and Sao2 in neonatal foals. Indirect methods should not replace periodic direct measurement of corresponding parameters

Identification of Mycobacterium species following growth detection with the BACTEC MGIT 960 system by DNA line probe assay

AbstractBackgroundThe tuberculosis and infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) species are increasing in patients presented with respiratory illness, and it is crucial to document the epidemiology of these infections.ObjectivesTo study the mycobacterial species and in vitro drug susceptibility trends of Mycobacterium tuberculosis found in the respiratory specimens.Materials and methodsA prospective descriptive study from July 2009 to December 2012. The BACTEC MGIT system tubes with growth were used in the study. GenoType Mycobacterium (Hain Diagnostika, Nehren, Germany) assays were used to identify the mycobacteria. The drug susceptibility testing was performed by the MGIT 960 system.ResultsA total of 1745 MGIT 960 system positive tubes were included. M. tuberculosis complex (MTC) constituted 67.45% of the yield isolated, 30.83% were nontuberculous mycobacterial species, 0.17% were Mycobacterium bovis BCG and 1.55% were not interpretable to species levels. Mycobacterium fortuitum (45.71%), Mycobacterium abscessus (26.21%) and Mycobacterium intracellulare (10.41%) were major NTM identified. The drug susceptibility study showed that 6.88% (81/1177) of MTC were drug-resistant TB, 56 isolates were resistant to one of the first-line anti-TB drugs, 25 isolates were found to be resistant to 2 or more first-line anti-TB drugs, of which 19 (20.46%) were MDR-TB and one of the isolates in the year 2011 was confirmed XDR-TB.ConclusionM. tuberculosis, M. fortuitum, M. abscessus and M. intracellulare were major mycobacterial species detected in the respiratory samples. The drug susceptibility testing showed that the majority of MTC were sensitive to first-line anti-TB drugs

Patterns and impact of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and glucose variability on inpatients with insulin-treated cystic fibrosis-related diabetes

Introduction: Mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) is higher than that in patients with cystic fibrosis without diabetes. Hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and glucose variability confer excess mortality and morbidity in the general inpatient population with diabetes. Methods: We investigated patterns of hypoglycemia and the association of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and glucose variability with mortality and readmission rate in inpatients with CFRD. All capillary blood glucose (CBG) readings (measured using the Abbott Precision web system) of patients with insulin-treated CFRD measured within our health board between January 2009 and January 2015 were. Frequency and timing of hypoglycemia (<4 mmol/L) and was recorded. The effect of dysglycemia on readmission and mortality was investigated with survival analysis. Results: Sixty-six patients were included. A total of 22,711 CBG results were included in the initial analysis. Hypoglycemia was common with 1433 episodes (6.3%). Hypoglycemia ascertainment was highest between 2400 and 0600 h. Hypoglycemia was associated with a significantly higher rate of readmission or death over the 3.5-year follow-up period (P = 0.03). There was no significant association between hyperglycemia or glucose variability and the rate of readmission and mortality. Conclusion: Among inpatients with CFRD hypoglycemia is common and is associated with an increased composite endpoint of readmission and death. As with previously reported trends in general inpatient population this group shows a peak incidence of hypoglycemic during the night

Tile size selection for low-power tile-based architectures

In this paper, we investigate the power implications of tile size selection for tile-based processors. We refer to this investigation as a tile granularity study. This is accomplished by distilling the architectural cost of tiles with different computational widths into a system metric we call the Granularity Indicator (GI). The GI is then compared against the communications exposed when algorithms are partitioned across multiple tiles. Through this comparison, the tile granularity that best fits a given set of algorithms can be determined, reducing the system power for that set of algorithms. When the GI analysis is applied to the Synchroscalar tile architecture[1], we find that Synchroscalar\u27s already low power consumption can be further reduced by 14% when customized for execution of the 802.11a receiver. In addition, the GI can also be a used to evaluate tile size when considering multiple applications simultaneously, providing a convenient platform for hardware-software co-design

Board Capital and Firm Performance

This study examines the influence of board capital on firm performance. Annual reports are used as the main sources for data collection. This study finds that firm performance decreases with gender diversity. Next, the interlocking directorate is not associated with firm performance. The findings would be useful to Malaysian policy-makers in deliberating the board’s role as a governance mechanism in strengthening the board structure. The results suggest selecting a director with relevant knowledge and perspective rather than simply meeting the number of board seats

The use of microperimetry in assessing visual function in age-related macular degeneration

Microperimetry is a novel technique for assessing visual function and appears particularly suitable for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Compared to standard automated perimetry (SAP), microperimetry offers several unique features. It simultaneously images the fundus, incorporates an eye tracking system to correct the stimulus location for fixation loss and identifies any preferred retinal loci. A systematic review of microperimetry in the assessment of visual function in AMD identified 680 articles; of these, 52 met the inclusion criteria. Microperimetry and AMD is discussed in relation to: disease severity; structural imaging outcomes; other measures of visual function; and evaluation of the efficacy of surgical and/ or medical therapies in clinical trials. The evidence for the use of microperimetry in the functional assessment of AMD is encouraging. Disruptions of the ellipsoid zone (EZ) band and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) are clearly associated with reduced differential light sensitivity (DLS) despite the maintenance of good visual acuity (VA). Reduced DLS is also associated with outer segment thinning and RPE thickening in early AMD and with both a thickening and a thinning of the whole retina in CNV. However, microperimetry lacks the robust diffuse and focal loss age-corrected probability analyses associated with SAP and the technique is currently limited by this omission

Identification of genes expressed by immune cells of the colon that are regulated by colorectal cancer-associated variants.

A locus on human chromosome 11q23 tagged by marker rs3802842 was associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) in a genome-wide association study; this finding has been replicated in case-control studies worldwide. In order to identify biologic factors at this locus that are related to the etiopathology of CRC, we used microarray-based target selection methods, coupled to next-generation sequencing, to study 103 kb at the 11q23 locus. We genotyped 369 putative variants from 1,030 patients with CRC (cases) and 1,061 individuals without CRC (controls) from the Ontario Familial Colorectal Cancer Registry. Two previously uncharacterized genes, COLCA1 and COLCA2, were found to be co-regulated genes that are transcribed from opposite strands. Expression levels of COLCA1 and COLCA2 transcripts correlate with rs3802842 genotypes. In colon tissues, COLCA1 co-localizes with crystalloid granules of eosinophils and granular organelles of mast cells, neutrophils, macrophages, dendritic cells and differentiated myeloid-derived cell lines. COLCA2 is present in the cytoplasm of normal epithelial, immune and other cell lineages, as well as tumor cells. Tissue microarray analysis demonstrates the association of rs3802842 with lymphocyte density in the lamina propria (p = 0.014) and levels of COLCA1 in the lamina propria (p = 0.00016) and COLCA2 (tumor cells, p = 0.0041 and lamina propria, p = 6 × 10(-5)). In conclusion, genetic, expression and immunohistochemical data implicate COLCA1 and COLCA2 in the pathogenesis of colon cancer. Histologic analyses indicate the involvement of immune pathways