Ways that Team Leaders of Virtual Teams Cultivate Team Learning

Corporations have become increasingly global over the past number of years. The rapid development and usage of communication technology has allowed global corporations to more readily form virtual teams to take advantage of the skills of its global workforce. Having skilled workers on teams helps to make them more productive. Productive teams tend to reach their objectives and ultimately drive the success of corporations. Team learning has long been linked with a team’s ability to reach its objectives. The team leader is seen as a key to enabling learning for the team. This qualitative study of 13 virtual teams sought to find ways that the leaders of these virtual teams cultivated team learning in the IT department of a leading global financial services firm. The study was especially focused on applications development project teams that were geographically and temporally dispersed and had an off-shore component as team members. Using the Dechant, Marsick, and Kasl (1993) model of team learning as a foundation, the researcher conducted critical incident interviews with the leaders of the virtual teams followed by administering the Dechant and Marsick (1993) Team Learning Survey to the team members. The study yielded insights that could be valuable to organizations that employ virtual team leaders as well as human resource development professionals who create training programs to enhance the skills of this group. Among the most prevalent skills identified included group facilitation, meeting management, process documentation, artifact creation, practicing learning agility, and soliciting input. The virtual team leader exhibited learning leadership by building relationships within the team and with other constituents; utilizing appropriate technology to enable learning; and conducting productive reflection sessions with the team to evaluate the team’s actions. Where team leaders needed to improve their efforts was around the monitoring and measuring of their learning efforts in order to gauge their full effectiveness

Molecular biology of B vitamin metabolism genes and their regulation in Phaeodactylum tricornutum

Thiamine (Vitamin B1) in its diphosphate form is an essential cofactor for virtually all organisms. Thiamine biosynthesis is an expensive metabolic process involving suicidal and low-turnover enzymes, and many organisms have lost the ability to synthesise thiamine and depend on an exogenous source. Those prototrophs that synthesise thiamine, including species of bacteria, fungi, green algae and plants, have been shown to tightly regulate their thiamine-related genes in response to exogenous thiamine. In many cases this is via riboswitches, sequences in mRNA that fold into a tertiary structure (aptamer) able to specifically recognise a ligand and mediate a change of genetic expression in response. In diatoms, marine algae responsible for ~20 % of net primary productivity, THIC, which encodes one of the first enzymes in the thiamine biosynthetic pathway, has been predicted to have a thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitch in the 3’UTR. Additionally, THIC has been previously observed to be downregulated by cobalamin (vitamin B12) supplementation in diatoms reflecting the interconnectedness and co-regulation of different B vitamin metabolisms. The aim of this thesis is to investigate different aspects of the regulation of thiamine and cobalamin-related genes and the transport and metabolism of thiamine and cobalamin in diatoms. Homology-based bioinformatic tools confirmed that all available diatom genomes contain homologues of THIC encoding the first enzyme in the pyrimidine branch of the thiamine biosynthesis pathway in bacteria, and/or NMT1, which catalyses the equivalent step in fungi. Additionally, it was found that many of these genes, and those coding for SSSP, a putative thiamine transporter, had predicted TPP aptamers in their 3’UTRs. A conserved polyadenylation site was found overlapping the diatom TPP aptamer sequences, which might be involved in a hypothetical mechanism of action. However, experiments using RT-qPCR and 3’-RACE showed that the THIC and SSSP genes in Phaeodactylum tricornutum did not respond to thiamine supplementation at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level, even though thiamine is taken up by the cells. Furthermore, unlike in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which has experimentally characterised TPP riboswitches, the diatoms P. tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana were insensitive to pyrithiamine, a thiamine antimetabolite that primarily inhibits growth by binding TPP riboswitches and downregulating thiamine biosynthesis genes. Reporter constructs confirmed that the PtTHIC regulatory sequences (promoter, 5’UTR, 3’UTR) could not regulate heterologous genes in response to thiamine supplementation. Nor did the PtTHIC aptamer respond in C. reinhardtii chimeric constructs. Finally, site-directed mutagenesis of the PtTHIC aptamer did not alter endogenous thiamine levels in P. tricornutum, in contrast to equivalent mutations in other organisms with confirmed riboswitches. Together, these results demonstrate that the predicted TPP aptamer in the PtTHIC gene does not act as a riboswitch. RT-qPCR experiments suggested that PtTHIC is downregulated by cobalamin supplementation similarly to cobalamin-independent methionine synthase (PtMETE). A motif-prediction algorithm revealed a conserved 14 bp motif in the promoters of THIC, METE and other cobalamin-downregulated genes in diatoms that could indicate the co-regulation of cobalamin and thiamine metabolism. Reporter construct experiments confirmed that the PtTHIC promoter could downregulate a reporter in response to cobalamin and that the PtMETE promoter with a mutation in the motif did not drive the expression of a reporter, demonstrating that the conserved motif is necessary for gene expression. Finally, a CRISPR/Cas9 method was developed in collaboration with other members of the group to generate knock-out mutants of several genes in P. tricornutum. The THIC knock-out did not require thiamine for growth in f/2 minimal media, suggesting P. tricornutum can obtain thiamine or its pyrimidine moiety from an alternative source or pathway. A knock-out of SSSP demonstrated that this gene is required for thiamine uptake. The METE knock-out was auxotrophic for cobalamin and the Cobalamin Acquisition Protein 1 (CBA1) knock-out confirmed it is necessary for cobalamin uptake. Taken together, the results in this thesis provide new insights into thiamine and cobalamin metabolism, transport and genetic regulation in diatoms. Unexpected results such as the unaltered growth of the THIC knock-out and the lack of function of the P. tricornutum predicted TPP riboswitches stand in contrast with existing knowledge of thiamine metabolism in other organisms. This raises important questions to understand the role of thiamine in the physiology, ecology and evolution of an algal group with global ecological relevance

From isolation of adult adipose tissue derived stem cells ADAS to labelling with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles: first approaches to unleash the potential

The use of adult adipose-derived stem cells (ADAS) as a treatment for neurological diseases is in promising development. Extracellular vesicles such as exosomes (EXO), which impact surrounding cells, are the main biological agents of ADAS. Exosome localization and tracking techniques need to be effective and non-invasive in the current development of exosome therapies. Exosomes must be labeled with contrast agents, such as ferrous superparamagnetic nanoparticles (NPs). The current research project aims to validate the therapeutic efficacy of ADAS-derived EXOs labelled with different NPs in models of neurodegenerative diseases, capable of providing an imaging and cell therapy approach

Análisis de la motivación empresarial enfocada en la calidad de servicio del Banco de América Central, período septiembre 2004 a abril 2005

Tesis (Licenciatura en Mercadeo y Publicidad)--Universidad Americana, Managua, 2005La investigación efectuada se puede establecer que el modelo de motivación actual del Banco se encuentra regido por las normas de la ISO 9001- 2000, está estructurado por un sistema de consecuencias que tiene como punto focal el servicio, por tanto se establecieron parámetros tomando en cuenta las insatisfacciones de los clientes y de los empleados de cara al público demostrando este estudio cuales eran los puntos en los que se tenía que reforzar el sistema de motivación laboral del Banco de América Central, para poder elaborar una propuesta de mejoramiento al modelo actual de motivación del Banco de América Central a fin de mejorar la calidad del servicio al cliente e incrementar la motivación al personal de la empresa durante el 2OO6

The political ecology of oil and gas corporations : TotalEnergies and post-colonial exploitation to concentrate energy in industrial economies

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABUnidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MIndustrial economies require a steady supply of energy to reproduce and grow. Oil and gas companies fulfil that socio-economic function by constantly finding, extracting and transporting energy sources. The steady extraction and concentration of fossil resources in industrialised centres requires the constant expansion of extraction frontiers and the exploitation of the environment and local communities in unindustrialised areas. This leads to conflicts where local environmental justice organisations fight for the preservation of their lives, livelihood and culture, while companies defend their profits. Thus, oil companies become vectors of an oppression that links the societies enjoying the benefits of lavish energy with those that suffer the impacts of extraction. In this work, based on the Environmental Justice Atlas database, we systematically analyse 50 environmental conflicts related to one of such companies - the French oil major TotalEnergies. Our research reveals the social and environmental cost of the energy resources that power industrial economies. We find that, despite a recent narrative focused on the company's 'greening', TotalEnergies' extraction and concentration functions remain inextricably linked to fossil fuels. Furthermore, the interests and operations of TotalEnergies and the French State are inextricably intertwined and reproduce colonial relationships of power. Our findings support theories of change based on the abandonment of colonial and extractive State models, rather than pursuing fiscal and regulatory measures alone

Chemical shift imaging at 4.7 tesla of brown adipose tissue.

In vivo distinction between small deposits of brown adipose tissue (BAT) and surrounding tissues may be difficult. In this article, we propose an experiment paradigm, based on techniques of chemical shift magnetic resonance imaging (CSI), which can improve the methods presently available for the study of BAT. Male rats were examined in an imager-spectrometer equipped with a 4.7 T magnet. Proton spectra of isolated BAT deposits showed that both fat and water protons contributed significantly to the genesis of the magnetic resonance signal. An equivocal definition of BAT deposits was obtained by three (respectively, spin-echo, water-selective, and fat-selective) images. The spin-echo (SE), T1-weighted image provided the best anatomical description of the structures. The images selective for fat-protons displayed the degree of lipid accumulation in each area. The images selective for water-protons provided an internal control of adipose tissue localization. The proposed paradigm allows an unequivocal definition of BAT deposits and appears particularly useful in studies where experimental manipulation (i.e., cold acclimation or drug treatment) produces changes in this issue

Heterogeneous enhancement pattern in DCE-MRI reveals the morphology of normal lymph nodes: an experimental study

Purpose: To investigate the heterogeneous enhancement pattern in normal lymph nodes of healthy mice by different albumin-binding contrast agents. Methods: The enhancement of normal lymph nodes was assessed in mice by dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) after the administration of two contrast agents characterized by different albumin-binding properties: gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) and gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA). To take into account potential heterogeneities of the contrast uptake in the lymph nodes, k-means cluster analysis was performed on DCE-MRI data. Cluster spatial distribution was visually assessed. Statistical comparison among clusters and contrast agents was performed on semiquantitative parameters (AUC, wash-in rate, and wash-out rate) and on the relative size of the segmented clusters. Results: Cluster analysis of DCE-MRI data revealed at least two main clusters, localized in the outer portion and in the inner portion of each lymph node. With both contrast agents, AUC (p < 0.01) and wash-in (p < 0.05) rates were greater in the inner cluster, which also showed a steeper wash-out rate than the outer cluster (Gd-BOPTA, p < 0.01; Gd-DTPA, p=0.056). The size of the outer cluster was greater than that of the inner cluster by Gd-DTPA (p < 0.05) and Gd-BOPTA (p < 0.01). The enhancement pattern of Gd-DTPA was not significantly different from the enhancement pattern of Gd-BOPTA. Conclusion: DCE-MRI in normal lymph nodes shows a characteristic heterogeneous pattern, discriminating the periphery and the central portion of the lymph nodes. Such a pattern deserves to be investigated as a diagnostic marker for lymph node staging

In vivo quantitative lipidic map of brown adipose tissue by chemical shift imaging at 4.7 tesla

In the present paper, chemical shift imaging techniques are applied to quantitative in vivo evaluation of fat and water content in interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT). The experiments have been carried out on five female Sprague-Dawley rats after calibration and testing with suitable phantoms containing known amounts of water and oil. We found that, in the interscapular BAT, the fat is about 50% at the surface (mainly unilocular) region, but its percentage drops to 20–30% in the deepest (mainly multilocular) portion. The perirenal deposits of white adipose tissue (WAT) contained significantly higher amount of fat with large areas ranging from 70 to 90%. Later the rats were killed and the same procedure was repeated with dead animals. Experiments performed in dead rats show a modification of the hydro-lipidic ratio more evident in the multilocular portions of the deposit. The present work demonstrates that MRI-based methods allow a non-invasive, in vivo quantitative mapping of the lipid content which can be applied to investigation of brown adipose tissue deposits in small experiment animals.—Lunati, E., P. Marzola, E. Nicolato, M. Fedrigo, M. Villa, and A. Sbarbati. In vivo quantitative lipidic map of brown adipose tissue by chemical shift imaging at 4.7 tesla. J. Lipid Res. 1999. 40: 1395–1400

Turbinate Surgery in Chronic Rhinosinusitis: Techniques and Ultrastructural Outcomes

Chronic nasal obstruction due to hypertrophic rhinitis is commonly associated with perennial allergic and nonallergic rhinitis. It is not a simple enlargement of mucosal and submucosal tissues, but it is characterized by deep histological modifications. This pathology, a very frequent condition encountered in rhinological practice, has a significant impact on quality of life. Patients usually complain about sneezing, rhinorrhea, frontal headache, postnasal drip, snoring, blocked nasal ducts, and sleep disorders. When medical therapy fails, surgical reduction of inferior turbinates is mandatory. A large variety of surgical techniques in literature exist, but there is a lack of consensus about which is the proper technique to perform. In this chapter, we describe the most important techniques of inferior turbinate reduction with advantages and disadvantages of each one