The Effects Of Leadership Training On Inter-Personal And Intra-Personal Development

This study was designed to assess the impact of leadership training on inter-personal and intra-personal development of middle management in the banking and financial sector. The population under study was chosen from the bank and savings and loan industry in greater California. Sixty-six middle management personnel constituted the sample under study, with 51 branch managers of one financial holding company making up the experimental group and 15 branch managers of another association making up the control group. Both groups were asked to participate in the study and there was no random assignment. The instruments used to assess the effects of the leadership training were the Individualized Management/Leadership Profile (IMLP) Self- and Supervisor-Rating Scales; the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS); and the Dogmatism Scale (D-Scale). Pre and post data from the IMLP Self-Rating Scale, the IMLP Supervisor-Rating Scale, and the TSCS were gathered from the experimental and control groups. The Dogmatism Scale data was gathered from the experimental group to control for rigidity, and closed-mindedness. The leadership training program, the Perry Leadership Training Course (PLTC), a four-day, six-hour per day, one-day per month author-composed program, was administered by the author and another independent professional in order to control for experimenter bias. The program rested on the assumption that as leadership skills improve, so does the quality of the leader/follower relationship and also the level of the leader\u27s self-concept. The hypotheses of the study tested this assumption by measuring leadership skills as self-perceptions and perceptions of the leaders\u27 respective supervisors, and measuring self-perceptions of self-concept. Data analysis was performed using three two-way analyses of covariance with treatment and sex being the independent variables. The post-test scores of the IMLP Self-Rating Scale, the IMLP Supervisor-Rating Scale, and the TSCS were considered the dependent variables, while the pre-tests on those instruments were used as covariates. Analysis of the data of the D-Scale was performed using a one-way ANCOVA with a mean split of high and low dogmatics. The results of the study showed no significant difference in self-perceptions or supervisor-perceptions on the IMLP Scale. Further, there were no significant differences between self-concept scores on the TSCS. However, there was a significant difference between males and females self-concept scores on the TSCS. The findings suggested that males in this study had a significantly higher self-concept than females, although there was no evidence that the PLTC had any direct effect upon these differences. The findings of the data analysis on the D-Scale showed a significant difference in the experimental group between high and low dogmatics as measured by the IMLP Self-Rating Scale. A conclusion might be drawn that would suggest that high levels of dogmatism might inhibit possible treatment effectiveness that might be more evident should the subjects be more open-minded and more susceptible to change. While there were differences between high and low dogmatics as reflected in the self-ratings of the IMLP Scale, there were no similar differences between high and low dogmatics as reflected by the IMLP Supervisor-Rating Scale or the TSCS. This would suggest that dogmatism had no effect on supervisor-ratings of participants\u27 qualities nor on self-rated self-concept of the subjects. It appears that the PLTC had no overall effect on changing leadership qualities or improving self-concept but there were differences between males and females self-concept and high and low dogmatics which might inhibit effectiveness

Are Non-Pharmacological Interventions Effective in Reducing Drug Use and Criminality? : A Systematic and Meta-Analytical Review with an Economic Appraisal of These Interventions

Background: The numbers of incarcerated people suffering from drug dependence has steadily risen since the 1980s and only a small proportion of these receive appropriate treatment. A systematic review to evaluate the effectiveness and economic evidence of non-pharmacological interventions for drug using offenders was conducted. Methods: Cochrane Collaboration criteria were used to identify trials across 14 databases between 2004 and 2014. A series of meta-analyses and an economic appraisal were conducted. Results: 43 trials were identified showing to have limited effect in reducing re-arrests RR 0.97 (95% CI 0.89-1.07) and drug use RR 0.90 (95% CI 0.80-1.00) but were found to significantly reduce re-incarceration RR 0.70 (95% CI 0.57-0.85). Therapeutic community programs were found to significantly reduce the number of re-arrests RR 0.70 (95% CI 0.56-0.87). 10 papers contained economic information. One paper presented a cost-benefit analysis and two reported on the cost and cost effectiveness of the intervention. Conclusions: We suggest that therapeutic community interventions have some benefit in reducing subsequent re-arrest. We recommend that economic evaluations should form part of standard trial protocols

Deep-coverage whole genome sequences and blood lipids among 16,324 individuals.

Large-scale deep-coverage whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is now feasible and offers potential advantages for locus discovery. We perform WGS in 16,324 participants from four ancestries at mean depth >29X and analyze genotypes with four quantitative traits-plasma total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. Common variant association yields known loci except for few variants previously poorly imputed. Rare coding variant association yields known Mendelian dyslipidemia genes but rare non-coding variant association detects no signals. A high 2M-SNP LDL-C polygenic score (top 5th percentile) confers similar effect size to a monogenic mutation (~30 mg/dl higher for each); however, among those with severe hypercholesterolemia, 23% have a high polygenic score and only 2% carry a monogenic mutation. At these sample sizes and for these phenotypes, the incremental value of WGS for discovery is limited but WGS permits simultaneous assessment of monogenic and polygenic models to severe hypercholesterolemia

De Novo Mutations across 1,465 Diverse Genomes Reveal Mutational insights and Reductions in the amish Founder Population

De novo mutations (DNMs), or mutations that appear in an individual despite not being seen in their parents, are an important source of genetic variation whose impact is relevant to studies of human evolution, genetics, and disease. Utilizing high-coverage whole-genome sequencing data as part of the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) Program, we called 93,325 single-nucleotide DNMs across 1,465 trios from an array of diverse human populations, and used them to directly estimate and analyze DNM counts, rates, and spectra. We find a significant positive correlation between local recombination rate and local DNM rate, and that DNM rate explains a substantial portion (8.98 to 34.92%, depending on the model) of the genome-wide variation in population-level genetic variation from 41K unrelated toPMed samples. Genome-wide heterozygosity does correlate with DNM rate, but only explain

Should I trust you? Learning and memory of social interactions in dementia

Social relevance has an enhancing effect on learning and subsequent memory retrieval. The ability to learn from and remember social interactions may impact on susceptibility to financial exploitation, which is elevated in individuals with dementia. The current study aimed to investigate learning and memory of social interactions, the relationship between performance and financial vulnerability and the neural substrates underpinning performance in 14 Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls. On a “trust game” task, participants invested virtual money with counterparts who acted either in a trustworthy or untrustworthy manner over repeated interactions. A non-social “lottery” condition was also included. Participants’ learning of trust/distrust responses and subsequent memory for the counterparts and nature of the interactions was assessed. Carer-rated profiles of financial vulnerability were also collected. Relative to controls, both patient groups showed attenuated learning of trust/distrust responses, and lower overall memory for social interactions. Despite poor learning performance, both AD and bvFTD patients showed better memory of social compared to non-social interactions. Importantly, better memory for social interactions was associated with lower financial vulnerability in AD, but not bvFTD. Learning and memory of social interactions was associated with medial temporal and temporoparietal atrophy in AD, whereas a wider network of frontostriatal, insular, fusiform and medial temporal regions was implicated in bvFTD. Our findings suggest that although social relevance influences memory to an extent in both AD and bvFTD, this is associated with vulnerability to financial exploitation in AD only, and is underpinned by changes to different neural substrates. Theoretically, these findings provide novel insights into potential mechanisms that give rise to vulnerability in people with dementia, and open avenues for possible interventions

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes