Perspectives on the Use of Multiple Sclerosis Risk Genes for Prediction

Objective: A recent collaborative genome-wide association study replicated a large number of susceptibility loci and identified novel loci. This increase in known multiple sclerosis (MS) risk genes raises questions about clinical applicability of genotyping. In an empirical set we assessed the predictive power of typing multiple genes. Next, in a modelling study we explored current and potential predictive performance of genetic MS risk models. Materials and Methods: Genotype data on 6 MS risk genes in 591 MS patients and 600 controls were used to investigate the predictive value of combining risk alleles. Next, the replicated and novel MS risk loci from the recent and largest international genome-wide association study were used to construct genetic risk models simulating a population of 100,000 individuals. Finally, we assessed the required numbers, frequencies, and ORs of risk SNPs for higher discriminative accuracy in the future. Results: Individuals with 10 to 12 risk alleles had a significantly increased risk compared to individuals with the average population risk for developing MS (OR 2.76 (95% CI 2.02-3.77)). In the simulation study we showed that the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for a risk score based on the 6 SNPs was 0.64. The AUC increases to 0.66 using the well replicated 24 SNPs and to 0.69 when including all replicated and novel SNPs (n = 53) in the risk model. An additional 20 SNPs with allele frequency 0.30 and ORs 1.1 would be needed to increase the AUC to a slightly higher level of 0.70, and at least 50 novel variants with allele frequency 0.30 and ORs 1.4 would be needed to obtain an AUC of 0.85. Conclusion: Although new MS risk SNPs emerge rapidly, the discriminatory ability in a clinical setting will be limited

Die Wirkung von Work-Life Balance Initiativen auf das Mitarbeitercommitment : eine empirische Untersuchung in der Unternehmensberatungsbranche

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die Wirkung von unternehmerischen Work-Life Balance Initiativen für die emotionale Bindung der Mitarbeiter zum Unternehmen, d. h. das organisationale Commitment von Mitarbeitern im Kontext der Unternehmensberatung. Dazu wurde eine Untersuchung mit insgesamt 275 Unternehmensberaterinnen und -beratern durchgeführt. Die Datenanalyse erfolgte anhand eines PLSStrukturgleichungsmodells (Partial-Least-Squares-Ansatz). Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass auch in Beratungsorganisationen ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Nutzung von Work-Life Balance Initiativen und dem affektiven Commitment von Mitarbeitern besteht und zwar sowohl direkt als auch über den Einfluss der Initiativennutzung auf einen so reduzierten Work-Life Conflict. Darüber hinaus konnte ein positiver Einfluss der Unterstützung durch den Vorgesetzten für die Inanspruchnahme von Work-Life Balance Initiativen gezeigt werden.This paper focuses on the impact of corporate work-life balance initiatives on the emotional attachment of employees to their organization, i.e. organisational commitment in consultancies, based on a study of 275 female and male consultants. The results which were analyzed using a structural equation modelling approach (PLS partialleast- squares) support the notion that the use of work-life balance initiatives is related to affective employee commitment, both directly, and indirectly by reducing perceived work-life conflict. A significant positive relationship between supervisor support and the use of work-life balance initiatives was also supported by the data