Total quality management: Strengths and barriers to implementation and cultural adaptation

NASA/Langley Research Center (LaRC) is in the process of implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) throughout the organization in order to improve productivity and make the Center an even better place to work. The purpose of this project was to determine strengths and barriers to TQM being implemented and becoming a part of the organizational culture of the Human Resources Management Division (HRMD) at Langley. The target population for this project was both supervisory and nonsupervisory staff of the HMRD. In order to generate data on strengths and barriers to TQM implementation and cultural adaptation, a modified nominal group technique was used

Role for the fission yeast RecQ helicase in DNA repair in G2.

Members of the RecQ helicase subfamily are mutated in several human genomic instability syndromes, such as Bloom, Werner, and Rothmund-Thomson syndromes. We show that Rqh1, the single Schizosaccharomyces pombe homologue, is a 3'-to-5' helicase and exists with Top3 in a high-molecular-weight complex. top3 deletion is inviable, and this is suppressed by concomitant loss of rqh1 helicase activity or loss of recombination functions. This is consistent with RecQ helicases in other systems. By using epistasis analysis of the UV radiation sensitivity and by analyzing the kinetics of Rhp51 (Rad51 homologue), Rqh1, and Top3 focus formation in response to UV in synchronized cells, we identify the first evidence of a function for Rqh1 and Top3 in the repair of UV-induced DNA damage in G(2). Our data provide evidence that Rqh1 functions after Rad51 focus formation during DNA repair. We also identify a function for Rqh1 upstream of recombination in an Rhp18-dependent (Rad18 homologue) pathway. The model that these data allow us to propose helps to reconcile different interpretations of RecQ family helicase function that have arisen between work based on the S. pombe system and models based on studies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae SGS1 suggesting that RecQ helicases act before Rad51

Which outcome expectancies are important in determining young adults intentions to use condoms with casual sexual partners?: A cross-sectional study

Background: The prevalence of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection amongst young adults represents an important public health problem in the UK. Individuals attitude towards the use of condoms has been identified as an important determinant of behavioural intentions and action. The Theory of Planned Behaviour has been widely used to explain and predict health behaviour. This posits that the degree to which an individual positively or negatively values a behaviour (termed direct attitude) is based upon consideration of the likelihood of a number of outcomes occurring (outcome expectancy) weighted by the perceived desirability of those outcomes (outcome evaluation). Outcome expectancy and outcome evaluation when multiplied form indirect attitude. The study aimed to assess whether positive outcome expectancies of unprotected sex were more important for young adults with lower safe sex intentions, than those with safer sex intentions, and to isolate optimal outcomes for targeting through health promotion campaigns. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Data was collected from 1051 school and university students aged 16-24 years. Measures of intention, direct attitude and indirect attitude were taken. Participants were asked to select outcome expectancies which were most important in determining whether they would use condoms with casual sexual partners. Results: People with lower safe sex intentions were more likely than those with safer sex intentions to select all positive outcome expectancies for unprotected sex as salient, and less likely to select all negative outcome expectancies as salient. Outcome expectancies for which the greatest proportion of participants in the less safe sex group held an unfavourable position were: showing that I am a caring person, making sexual experiences less enjoyable, and protecting against pregnancy. Conclusions: The findings point to ways in which the attitudes of those with less safe sex intentions could be altered in order to motivate positive behavioural change. They suggest that it would be advantageous to highlight the potential for condom use to demonstrate a caring attitude, to challenge the potential for protected sex to reduce sexual pleasure, and to target young adults risk appraisals for pregnancy as a consequence of unprotected sex with casual sexual partners

A Special Education Teacher\u27s Use of Progress Monitoring

This study explored my use of progress monitoring in order to find the most effective ways to organize and gather data to support two of my students\u27 literacy development. I investigated the purpose and reliability of my use of assessment. I have chosen the three participants based on their individual needs for literacy instruction and their quality of attendance, yet two of the three students participated. The design of this study enabled me to authentically and systematically reflect on my use of progress monitoring and the impact it had my individual students

Grimstone v Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust: (it's not) hip to be square

In Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11 the Supreme Court redefined the standard of disclosure in informed consent to medical treatment, rejecting the application of the doctor-focused Bolam standard in favour of one focused on what was significant to patients. In Grimstone v Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust [2015] EWHC 3756 (QB), despite acknowledging a new standard now applied, McGowan J nevertheless used the Bolam test to determine liability for non-disclosure. This illustrates ongoing judicial deference to the medical profession and this case commentary explores that decision and its implication

(SNP083) Louise Long interviewed by Darwin and Eileen Lambert, transcribed by Peggy C. Bradley

Records an interview with Louise Long, (née Varner), whose family owned several tracts of grazing land in Rappahannock County, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, prior to the founding of Shenandoah National Park. Describes the extensive cattle industry existing in the Shenandoah Valley from colonial times until the late 1930s. Mrs. Long and her husband, Arthur Long, Jr., oversaw the annual movement of hundreds of head of cattle from surrounding Valley communities to their fertile summer pastures in the mountains.https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/snp/1125/thumbnail.jp

Cancer cell lines show high heritability for motility but not generation time

Tumour evolution depends on heritable differences between cells in traits affecting cell survival or replication. It is well established that cancer cells are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous; however, the extent to which this phenotypic variation is heritable is far less well explored. Here, we estimate the broad-sense heritability (H2) of two cell traits related to cancer hallmarks––cell motility and generation time––within populations of four cancer cell lines in vitro and find that motility is strongly heritable. This heritability is stable across multiple cell generations, with heritability values at the high end of those measured for a range of traits in natural populations of animals or plants. These findings confirm a central assumption of cancer evolution, provide a first quantification of the evolvability of key traits in cancer cells and indicate that there is ample raw material for experimental evolution in cancer cell lines. Generation time, a trait directly affecting cell fitness, shows substantially lower values of heritability than cell speed, consistent with its having been under directional selection removing heritable variation

Isoform-level gene signature improves prognostic stratification and accurately classifies glioblastoma subtypes.

Molecular stratification of tumors is essential for developing personalized therapies. Although patient stratification strategies have been successful; computational methods to accurately translate the gene-signature from high-throughput platform to a clinically adaptable low-dimensional platform are currently lacking. Here, we describe PIGExClass (platform-independent isoform-level gene-expression based classification-system), a novel computational approach to derive and then transfer gene-signatures from one analytical platform to another. We applied PIGExClass to design a reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) based molecular-subtyping assay for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive primary brain tumors. Unsupervised clustering of TCGA (the Cancer Genome Altas Consortium) GBM samples, based on isoform-level gene-expression profiles, recaptured the four known molecular subgroups but switched the subtype for 19% of the samples, resulting in significant (P = 0.0103) survival differences among the refined subgroups. PIGExClass derived four-class classifier, which requires only 121 transcript-variants, assigns GBM patients' molecular subtype with 92% accuracy. This classifier was translated to an RT-qPCR assay and validated in an independent cohort of 206 GBM samples. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of PIGExClass in the design of clinically adaptable molecular subtyping assay and have implications for developing robust diagnostic assays for cancer patient stratification