on the effect of supervisors on group performance: a human relations thesis confirmed for academic research units

summary: the literature on leadership in organizations is dominated by the human relations thesis that good leadership should lead to high morale and high morale should lead to increased productivity of group members. while the moral and cooperativenature of organizations presupposed by this thesis must be rejected for industrial settings, university organizations may warrant a description in those terms because of their special structural characteristics. in the present paper it is shown thatthe above relationship between supervisory quality, group climate and performance does indeed hold for academic institutions; additionally, planning and integrating functions of the supervisor emerge as important intervening variables. as compared to natural sciences, the relationship is significantly stronger in technological science groups, pointing to the fact that more integrated production technologies may be more dependent on leadership functions and group morale than technologies associated with a higher degree of uncertainty and variability as present in natural sciences. finally, the attempt is made to estimate the amount of response bias due to using perceptive rating scales with the help of the lisrel technique. while this results in a reduction of variance explained in performance, in general the variables used remain of substantial explanatory value.

Glucocorticoid-induced alterations in mitochondrial membrane properties and respiration in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Mitochondria are signal-integrating organelles involved in cell death induction. Mitochondrial alterations and reduction in energy metabolism have been previously reported in the context of glucocorticoid (GC)-triggered apoptosis, although the mechanism is not yet clarified. We analyzed mitochondrial function in a GC-sensitive precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) model as well as in GC-sensitive and GC-resistant T-ALL model systems. Respiratory activity was preserved in intact GC-sensitive cells up to 24h under treatment with 100 nM dexamethasone before depression of mitochondrial respiration occurred. Severe repression of mitochondrial respiratory function was observed after permeabilization of the cell membrane and provision of exogenous substrates. Several mitochondrial metabolite and protein transporters and two subunits of the ATP synthase were downregulated in the T-ALL and in the precursor B-ALL model at the gene expression level under dexamethasone treatment. These data could partly be confirmed in ALL lymphoblasts from patients, dependent on the molecular abnormality in the ALL cells. GC-resistant cell lines did not show any of these defects after dexamethasone treatment. In conclusion, in GC-sensitive ALL cells, dexamethasone induces changes in membrane properties that together with the reduced expression of mitochondrial transporters of substrates and proteins may lead to repressed mitochondrial respiratory activity and lower ATP levels that contribute to GC-induced apoptosis

Scoring the risk of having systemic mastocytosis in adult patients with mastocytosis in the skin

We examined 1145 patients with MIS from the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis Registry who underwent a bone marrow biopsy. A total of 944 patients had SM and 201 patients had cutaneous mastocytosis; 63.7% were female, and 36.3% were male. Median age was 44 ± 13.3 years. The median serum tryptase level amounted to 29.3 ± 81.9 ng/mL. We established a multivariate regression model using the whole population of patients as a training and validation set (bootstrapping). A risk score was developed and validated with receiver-operating curves. In the multivariate model, the tryptase level (P < .001), constitutional/cardiovascular symptoms (P = .014), and bone symptoms/osteoporosis (P < .001) were independent predictors of SM (P < .001; sensitivity, 90.7%; specificity, 69.1%). A 6-point risk score was established (risk, 10.7%-98.0%) and validated. Using a large data set of the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis Registry, we created a risk score to predict the presence of SM in patients with MIS. Although the score will need further validation in independent cohorts, our score seems to discriminate safely between patients with SM and with pure cutaneous mastocytosis

Applied Design Thinking LAB Vienna: INTERACCT. Interdisciplinary Technology Education in the 21st Century In cooperation with students: Staff involved

Abstract INTERACCT is a project where two universities in Vienna (University of Applied Arts Vienna: Institute of Art Sciences and Art Education, Department of Design, Architecture and Environment for Education; University of Vienna: Faculty of Informatics, Computer Science Didactics and Learning Research, and Research Group Entertainment Computing), CCRI (Childrens´ Cancer Research Institute), children of an Austrian high school (Schulschiff Bertha von Suttner) and Tsystems (a division of Deutsche Telekom, systems integration, computing and network services and e-business) have been involved within the Applied Design Thinking LAB Vienna from 2009 until today. Aim of the project is to enhance interdisciplinary and participatory approaches in design and technology education. Case study is design of an interactive web based communication platform for improving quality of life for the patients of the stemcell-lab department (SCT-INTERACT) and to improve medical communication and education in outpatient care after pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Spin-off is design of a serious game where healthy and malignant children are participatory involved as well as the students of different teaching subjects (informatics, art and design education), the caring medical staff and the industry partner. 31

Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α Persistently Activates Nuclear Factor-κB Signaling through the Type 2 TNF Receptor in Chromaffin Cells: Implications for Long-Term Regulation of Neuropeptide Gene Expression in Inflammation

Chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla elaborate and secrete catecholamines and neuropeptides for hormonal and paracrine signaling in stress and during inflammation. We have recently documented the action of the cytokine TNF-α on neuropeptide secretion and biosynthesis in isolated bovine chromaffin cells. Here, we demonstrate that the type 2 TNF-α receptor (TNF-R2) mediates TNF-α signaling in chromaffin cells via activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB. Microarray and suppression subtractive hybridization have been used to identify TNF-α target genes in addition to those encoding the neuropeptides galanin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, and secretogranin II in chromaffin cells. TNF-α, acting through the TNF-R2, causes an early up-regulation of NF-κB, long-lasting induction of the NF-κB target gene inhibitor κB (IκB), and persistent stimulation of other NF-κB-associated genes including mitogen-inducible gene-6 (MIG-6), which acts as an IκB signaling antagonist, and butyrate-induced transcript 1. Consistent with long-term activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway, delayed induction of neuropeptide gene transcription by TNF-α in chromaffin cells is blocked by an antagonist of NF-κB signaling. TNF-α-dependent signaling in neuroendocrine cells thus leads to a unique, persistent mode of NF-κB activation that features long-lasting transcription of both IκB and MIG-6, which may play a role in the long-lasting effects of TNF-α in regulating neuropeptide output from the adrenal, a potentially important feedback station for modulating long-term cytokine effects in inflammation