Human resource allocation management in multiple projects using sociometric techniques

This article describes a new application of key psychological concepts in the area of Sociometry for the selection of workers within organizations in which projects are developed. The project manager can use a new procedure to determine which individuals should be chosen from a given pool of resources and how to combine them into one or several simultaneous groups/projects in order to assure the highest possible overall work efficiency from the standpoint of social interaction. The optimization process was carried out by means of matrix calculations performed using a computer or even manually, and based on a number of new ratios generated ad-hoc and composed on the basis of indices frequently used in Sociometry

Secondary radiation-induced bone tumours demonstrate a high degree of genomic instability predictive of a poor prognosis.

Secondary bone tumours arising in the field of a preceding radiotherapy are a serious late effect, in particular considering the increasing survival times in patients treated for paediatric malignancies. In general, therapy associated tumours are known to show a more aggressive behaviour and a limited response to chemotherapy compared with their primary counterparts. It is not clear however whether this less favourable outcome is caused by inherent genetic factors of the tumour cells or by a general systemic condition of the patient. To elucidate this we analysed a series of bone sarcomas with a history of prior irradiation for the presence of genomic alterations and compared them with the alterations identified earlier in primary osteosarcomas. We analysed seven radiation induced bone sarcomas for genome-wide losses of heterozygosity (LOH) using Affymetrix 10K2 high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. Additionally, copy number changes were analysed at two distinct loci on 10q that were recently found to be of major prognostic significance in primary osteosarcomas. All the investigated tumours showed a LOH at 10q21.1 with 86% of cases (6/7) revealing a total genome-wide LOH score above 2400 and more than 24% of the genome being affected. Our results indicate similar genetic alterations in radiation induced sarcomas of bone and primary osteosarcomas with a poor prognosis. We speculate that the high degree of genomic instability found in these tumours causes the poor prognosis irrespective of the initiating event