Weiser Carrots and Sticks: Motivation Beyond Money at the Shakedown Café

It is generally assumed that monetary incentivization is the most effective means of motivating organizationally-beneficial behaviors. Individuals, under this line of thought, pursue their own objective self-interest above all else. However, evidence is being uncovered that indicates that human motivation may be a much more complicated facet of the human psyche. The purpose of this study is to examine the deeper underpinnings that drive people work that might lie beyond financial rewards. In order to do this, the Shakedown Café, a student-run restaurant on Pitzer College’s campus, will be examined. This specific organization is of particular interest because it does not have the ability to reward employees in the manner that most businesses are able to employ. In looking at the Shakedown, the author\u27s direct experiences while working in the restaurant, observations, a variety or intra-organizational correspondences, and modern organizational behavior theories will be utilized. The findings of this research indicate that the human drives to learn, bond with others, and defend oneself and one\u27s surroundings are all just as important aspects of motivation as is the drive to acquire money. Within the organization of interest, these drives manifest themselves through organizational purpose, group learning, and shared leadership. From this example of the Shakedown Café, it is suggested that proliferation of financial rewards in today\u27s organizations may well be an outdated model of motivating which could be prohibiting organizations and the people within them from reaching their full potentials

Is Lactate an Oncometabolite? Evidence Supporting a Role for Lactate in the Regulation of Transcriptional Activity of Cancer-Related Genes in MCF7 Breast Cancer Cells.

Lactate is a ubiquitous molecule in cancer. In this exploratory study, our aim was to test the hypothesis that lactate could function as an oncometabolite by evaluating whether lactate exposure modifies the expression of oncogenes, or genes encoding transcription factors, cell division, and cell proliferation in MCF7 cells, a human breast cancer cell line. Gene transcription was compared between MCF7 cells incubated in (a) glucose/glutamine-free media (control), (b) glucose-containing media to stimulate endogenous lactate production (replicating some of the original Warburg studies), and (c) glucose-containing media supplemented with L-lactate (10 and 20 mM). We found that both endogenous, glucose-derived lactate and exogenous, lactate supplementation significantly affected the transcription of key oncogenes (MYC, RAS, and PI3KCA), transcription factors (HIF1A and E2F1), tumor suppressors (BRCA1, BRCA2) as well as cell cycle and proliferation genes involved in breast cancer (AKT1, ATM, CCND1, CDK4, CDKN1A, CDK2B) (0.001 < p < 0.05 for all genes). Our findings support the hypothesis that lactate acts as an oncometabolite in MCF7 cells. Further research is necessary on other cell lines and biopsy cultures to show generality of the findings and reveal the mechanisms by which dysregulated lactate metabolism could act as an oncometabolite in carcinogenesis

Benchmarking International Food Safety Performance in the Fresh Produce Sector

The objective of this paper is to assess food systems performance in Mediterranean countries to deliver safe food (fresh produce), and to demonstrate the capacity to the satisfaction of private customers and public regulators. To that end, an international benchmarking exercise was developed to assess the quality performance gap in food standards across countries and food systems. The study was carried out in three Mediterranean countries: Spain, Morocco and Turkey and involved an audit of the citrus and tomatoes supply chains, and a comparison with existing "best practice" in infrastructure and management practices at both firm and industry level. The aim was to identify the gaps between fresh produce exporters and a best practice company. To that end, the Spanish fresh produce supply chain was used as the benchmark since in many areas it is more advanced than elsewhere.benchmarking, performance, quality and safety, fresh produce, Mediterranean countries, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Stem Cell Niche Dynamics: From Homeostasis to Carcinogenesis

The stem cell microenvironment is involved in regulating the fate of the stem cell with respect to self-renewal, quiescence, and differentiation. Mathematical models are helpful in understanding how key pathways regulate the dynamics of stem cell maintenance and homeostasis. This tight regulation and maintenance of stem cell number is thought to break down during carcinogenesis. As a result, the stem cell niche has become a novel target of cancer therapeutics. Developing a quantitative understanding of the regulatory pathways that guide stem cell behavior will be vital to understanding how these systems change under conditions of stress, inflammation, and cancer initiation. Predictions from mathematical modeling can be used as a clinical tool to guide therapy design. We present a survey of mathematical models used to study stem cell population dynamics and stem cell niche regulation, both in the hematopoietic system and other tissues. Highlighting the quantitative aspects of stem cell biology, we describe compelling questions that can be addressed with modeling. Finally, we discuss experimental systems, most notably Drosophila, that can best be used to validate mathematical predictions

Budgetary impact analysis of buprenorphinenaloxone combination (Suboxone®) in Spain

Background: Opioid addiction is a worldwide problem. Agonist opioid treatment (AOT) is the most widespread and frequent pharmacotherapeutic approach. Methadone has been the most widely used AOT, but buprenorphine, a partial kappa-opiod agonist and a my-opiod antagonist, is fast gaining acceptance. The objective was to assess the budgetary impact in Spain of the introduction of buprenorphine-naloxone (B/N) combination. Methods: A budgetary impact model was developed to estimate healthcare costs of the addition of B/N combination to the therapeutic arsenal for treating opioid dependent patients, during a 3-year period under the National Health System perspective. Inputs for the model were obtained from the specialized scientific literature. Detailed information concerning resource consumption (drug cost, logistics, dispensing, medical, psychiatry and pharmacy supervision, counselling and laboratory test) was obtained from a local expert panel. Costs are expressed in euros ( , 2010). Results: The number of patients estimated to be prescribed B/N combination was 2,334; 2,993 and 3,589 in the first, second and third year respectively. Total budget is 85,766,129; 79,855,471 and 79,137,502 in the first, second and third year for the scenario without B/N combination. With B/N combination the total budget would be 86,589,210; 80,398,259 and 79,708,964 in the first, second and third year of the analyses. Incremental cost/ patient comparing the addition of the B/N combination to the scenario only with methadone is 10.58; 6.98 and 7.34 in the first, second and third year respectively. Conclusion: Addition of B/N combination would imply a maximum incremental yearly cost of 10.58 per patient compared to scenario only with methadone and would provide additional benefits

Interaction between differentiating cell- and niche-derived signals in hematopoietic progenitor maintenance

Maintenance of a hematopoietic progenitor population requires extensive interaction with cells within a microenvironment or niche. In the Drosophila hematopoietic organ, niche-derived Hedgehog signaling maintains the progenitor population. Here, we show that the hematopoietic progenitors also require a signal mediated by Adenosine deaminase growth factor A (Adgf-A) arising from differentiating cells that regulates extracellular levels of adenosine. The adenosine signal opposes the effects of Hedgehog signaling within the hematopoietic progenitor cells and the magnitude of the adenosine signal is kept in check by the level of Adgf-A secreted from differentiating cells. Our findings reveal signals arising from differentiating cells that are required for maintaining progenitor cell quiescence and that function with the niche-derived signal in maintaining the progenitor state. Similar homeostatic mechanisms are likely to be utilized in other systems that maintain relatively large numbers of progenitors that are not all in direct contact with the cells of the niche

Microscopic evidence for liquid-liquid separation in supersaturated CaCO3 solutions

Recent experimental observations of the onset of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) mineralization suggest the emergence of a population of clusters that are stable rather than unstable as predicted by classical nucleation theory. This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to probe the structure, dynamics, and energetics of hydrated CaCO3 clusters and lattice gas simulations to explore the behavior of cluster populations before nucleation. Our results predict formation of a dense liquid phase through liquid-liquid separation within the concentration range in which clusters are observed. Coalescence and solidification of nanoscale droplets results in formation of a solid phase, the structure of which is consistent with amorphous CaCO3. The presence of a liquid-liquid binodal enables a diverse set of experimental observations to be reconciled within the context of established phase-separation mechanisms

Il6 gene promoter polymorphism (-174G/C) influences the association between fat mass and cardiovascular risk factors

During the last decades, the prevalence of obesity has increased rapidly among young people. A polymorphism in the promoter region of the IL6 gene (-174G/C), has been previously reported to be involved in obesity and metabolic syndrome development. Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine whether the IL6 -174G/C polymorphism influence the association of body fat with low-grade inflammatory markers and blood lipids and lipoproteins in Spanish adolescents. 504 Spanish adolescents participating in the AVENA study were genotyped for the -174G/C polymorphism of the IL6 gene. Anthropometric and body composition measurements were taken and blood samples were collected for plasma molecules determinations. No differences between genotypes were observed in anthropometric values, body composition measurements and plasma markers concentration. Physical activity level differ between genotypes with subjects carrying the C allele of the polymorphism being significantly (p<0.05) more active than GG subjects. The association between body fat mass and plasma glucose was influenced by the -174G/C polymorphism of the IL6 gene. Subjects carrying the C allele of the mutation seem to have higher values of lipoprotein (a) and C-reactive protein as their percentage of body fat mass increase. Our results suggest that this promoter polymorphism influences the association between adiposity and some plasma markers

Towards Quantum Telescopes: Demonstration of a Two-Photon Interferometer for Quantum-Assisted Astronomy

Classical optical interferometery requires maintaining live, phase-stable links between telescope stations. This requirement greatly adds to the cost of extending to long baseline separations, and limits on baselines will in turn limit the achievable angular resolution. Here we describe a novel type of two-photon interferometer for astrometry, which uses photons from two separate sky sources and does not require an optical link between stations. Such techniques may make large increases in interferometric baselines practical, even by orders of magnitude, with corresponding improvement in astrometric precision benefiting numerous fields in astrophysics. We tested a benchtop analogue version of the two-source interferometer and unambiguously observe correlated behavior in detections of photon pairs from two thermal light sources, in agreement with theoretical predictions. This work opens new possibilities in future astronomical measurements

Una aproximación a la generación automática de código en un contexto MDD sobre modelos BPMN

Este trabajo expone los esfuerzos realizados para lograr una transformación entre modelos, en un contexto de desarrollo dirigido por modelos (MDD), mediante la elaboración de un prototipo, partiendo desde la especificación del metamodelo del lenguaje BPMN, UML (diagramas de actividades) y las reglas de transformación pertinentes. El prototipo se implementó como un plugin para la plataforma de desarrollo Eclipse. El resultado obtenido es un prototipo de herramienta visual que provee al desarrollador los recursos necesarios para poder definir un metamodelo origen, un metamodelo destino y las correspondientes reglas de transformación entre uno y otro, las cuales serán aplicadas para la generación automática de un modelo final a partir de otro inicial. Gracias al enfoque dirigido por modelos que pretende cubrir este plugin, se favorece ampliamente la fabricación de software, brindando al encargado del desarrollo más tiempo para preocuparse por cuestiones relacionadas al diseño y la captura fiable de requisitos estrechamente relacionadas con el dominio, en detrimento del tiempo que debería utilizar en cuestiones más tecnológicas que no afectan directamente con la resolución del problema.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ