Track A Basic Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138319/1/jia218438.pd

Measuring Creativity in Organizations

In response to a growing understanding that creativity and innovation are critical for organizational survival and success, researchers and practitioners are looking for ways to improve the innovative capabilities of organizations and the creative capacity of their workforce. Research that aims to evaluate the success of an intervention must include an effective measure of the outcome of interest, but no single measure of creativity exists, leading to inconsistencies in results and conclusions. To investigate which interventions organizations are using and how, we conducted a review of empirical studies in organizations that evaluated creativity and innovation. We identified empirical papers though PsycInfo and Business Source Complete that included a measure of creative performance as an outcome variable. Only studies that included data collected from individuals or teams in organizations were retained. The resulting sample of 536 articles were categorized into the main measurement categories common for creative performance across the individual, team, and organizational levels, reflecting the multi-level nature of creativity research. Analyses showed self-report of creativity at the individual level was most common, followed by supervisory report of individual level creativity. The results indicate a reliance on self-report measures, composing close to 60% of papers across all levels, and an insufficiency of multi-method approaches. The most used measures included those by Scott and Bruce (1994), George and Zhou (2001) and Janssen (2000). Recommendations that practitioners and researchers can adopt to evaluate the complex nature of creativity and innovation in organizations effectively and appropriately are discussed

Cardiac morbidity in HIV infection is associated with checkpoint inhibitor LAG-3 on CD4 T cells

Recent findings point to a role of Checkpoint Inhibitor (CPI) receptors at the tissue level in immune homeostasis. Here we investigated the role of CPI molecules on immune cells in relation to cardiac function. Participants recruited in Chennai, India consisted of HIV+ ART naive viremic (Gp1 n = 102), HIV+ on ART, virologically suppressed (Gp2, n = 172) and HIV negative healthy controls (Gp3, n = 64). A cross-sectional analysis of cardiac function, arterial resistance and immunologic assessment of CPI expressing T cells was performed. Data indicate that ART naive exhibited cardiac function impairment and greater arterial stiffness than the other groups. Frequencies of CD4+ T cells expressing LAG-3 and PD1 were higher in ART naïve while TIGIT and TIM3 were similar among the patient groups. LAG-3+, PD1+ and dual LAG-3+PD1+ CD4 T cells were inversely correlated with cardiac function and arterial elasticity and directly with arterial stiffness in ART naïve participants and with arterial elasticity in virally suppressed group on ART. We conclude that HIV induced upregulation of LAG-3 singly or in combination with PD1 in immune cells may regulate cardiac health and warrant mechanistic investigations. The implications of these findings have bearing for the potential utility of anti-LAG-3 immunotherapy for cardiac dysfunction in chronic HIV infection

A rapid and low-cost microscopic observation drug susceptibility assay for detecting TB and MDR-TB among individuals infected by HIV in South India.

BACKGROUND: The converging epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) pose one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. Rapid diagnosis of TB is essential in view of its infectious nature, high burden of cases, and emergence of drug resistance. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this present study was to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the microscopic observation drug susceptibility (MODS) assay, a novel assay for the diagnosis of TB and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) directly from sputum specimens, in the Indian setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study involved a cross-sectional, blinded assessment of the MODS assay on 1036 suspected cases of pulmonary TB in HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients against the radiometric method, BD-BACTEC TB 460 system. RESULTS: Overall, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the MODS assay in detecting MTB among TB suspected patients were 89.1%, 99.1%, 94.2%, 95.8%, respectively. In addition, in the diagnosis of drug-resistant TB, the MODS assay was 84.2% sensitive for those specimens reporting MDR, 87% sensitivity for those specimens reporting INH mono-resistance, and 100% sensitive for specimens reporting RIF mono-resistance. The median time to detection of TB in the MODS assay versus BACTEC was 9 versus 21 days (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Costing 5 to 10 times lesser than the automated culture methods, the MODS assay has the potential clinical utility as a simple and rapid method. It could be effectively used as an alternative method for diagnosing TB and detection of MDR-TB in a timely and affordable way in resource-limited settings