Toward Strategy Implementation Success: An Empirical Study of the Role of Senior-Level Leaders in the Nevada Gaming Industry

The study is an investigation of the relationship between effective leadership behavior and successful strategy implementation in the Nevada casino industry. The study\u27s findings mostly agree with earlier research on the concept of strategy implementation and reaffirm the role that strategic consensus plays in the strategy implementation process. The study also reinforces findings that frequent communication up and down the organization structure enhances strategic consensus through the fostering of shared attitudes and values. In addition, it reaffirms the concept that an organization which ties rewards to the success of the strategy employed is rewarded with higher levels of organizational performance and concludes that strategy implementation plans must be clearly developed, indicating particular tasks for individuals, with clear-cut time frames, and identifying the people responsible for task completion

Are the mission statements of two large U.S. public business university systems inspiring? You decide!

Mission statements have become increasingly important for the accreditation of business universities and colleges. Thus, understanding similarities and differences in the content of business school mission statements is especially timely. The mission statement is also the first component of the strategic management process. It provides the framework or context within which strategies are formulated. This descriptive/informative study aims to present a background that describes and explains institutional mission statements and removes the so-called uncertainty encompassing the foci while preserving exceptional quality—a necessary quality for a compelling mission statement. We question whether all California State University (CSU) and The State University of New York (SUNY) business colleges/schools have developed enduring and inspiring mission statements for their employees and students? While no specific rule regarding length exists, we examined the word count length of these two school system mission statements. Institutions must not make their mission statements too long or too short, or they will risk losing focus and missing essential elements to guide their organization. The mission statement must be long enough to achieve its purpose. Based on our findings, we recommend that all CSU and SUNY campuses embrace a more straightforward, easy-to-understand, hard-hitting, lasting, and inspirational mission statement for their business colleges/schools, one directly relevant to faculty, staff, students, and their families

Maintaining The Integrity Of Turnover Measurements When There Are Layoffs

Bonuses for improvements in employee retention rates should be calculated on the actual savings due to fewer terminations and reduced replacement costs. Permanent layoffs and hiring freezes distort the turnover rate and make the normal bonus calculations invalid. A new method for calculating a manager’s bonus for reducing the turnover rate is illustrated. It isolates the number of terminations due to changes in the size of the workforce from the terminations due to the improved retention rate. The size of the savings in terminations due to the improved retention rate can be accurately measured in situations where hiring freezes negate normal calculations

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Assuring the integrity of offshore carbon dioxide storage

Carbon capture and storage is a key mitigation strategy proposed for keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C. Offshore storage can provide up to 13% of the global CO2 reduction required to achieve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals. The public must be assured that potential leakages from storage reservoirs can be detected and that therefore the CO2 is safely contained. We conducted a controlled release of 675 kg CO2 within sediments at 120 m water depth, to simulate a leak and test novel detection, quantification and attribution approaches. We show that even at a very low release rate (6 kg day−1), CO2 can be detected within sediments and in the water column. Alongside detection we show the fluxes of both dissolved and gaseous CO2 can be quantified. The CO2 source was verified using natural and added tracers. The experiment demonstrates that existing technologies and techniques can detect, attribute and quantify any escape of CO2 from sub-seabed reservoirs as required for public assurance, regulatory oversight and emissions trading schemes

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide mediates circadian rhythmicity and synchrony in mammalian clock neurons

The mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a master circadian pacemaker. It is not known which SCN neurons are autonomous pacemakers or how they synchronize their daily firing rhythms to coordinate circadian behavior. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and the VIP receptor VPAC(2) (encoded by the gene Vipr2) may mediate rhythms in individual SCN neurons, synchrony between neurons, or both. We found that Vip(−/−) and Vipr2(−/−) mice showed two daily bouts of activity in a skeleton photoperiod and multiple circadian periods in constant darkness. Loss of VIP or VPAC(2) also abolished circadian firing rhythms in approximately half of all SCN neurons and disrupted synchrony between rhythmic neurons. Critically, daily application of a VPAC(2) agonist restored rhythmicity and synchrony to VIP(−/−) SCN neurons, but not to Vipr2(−/−) neurons. We conclude that VIP coordinates daily rhythms in the SCN and behavior by synchronizing a small population of pacemaking neurons and maintaining rhythmicity in a larger subset of neurons

Omecamtiv mecarbil in chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, GALACTIC‐HF: baseline characteristics and comparison with contemporary clinical trials

Aims: The safety and efficacy of the novel selective cardiac myosin activator, omecamtiv mecarbil, in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is tested in the Global Approach to Lowering Adverse Cardiac outcomes Through Improving Contractility in Heart Failure (GALACTIC‐HF) trial. Here we describe the baseline characteristics of participants in GALACTIC‐HF and how these compare with other contemporary trials. Methods and Results: Adults with established HFrEF, New York Heart Association functional class (NYHA) ≥ II, EF ≤35%, elevated natriuretic peptides and either current hospitalization for HF or history of hospitalization/ emergency department visit for HF within a year were randomized to either placebo or omecamtiv mecarbil (pharmacokinetic‐guided dosing: 25, 37.5 or 50 mg bid). 8256 patients [male (79%), non‐white (22%), mean age 65 years] were enrolled with a mean EF 27%, ischemic etiology in 54%, NYHA II 53% and III/IV 47%, and median NT‐proBNP 1971 pg/mL. HF therapies at baseline were among the most effectively employed in contemporary HF trials. GALACTIC‐HF randomized patients representative of recent HF registries and trials with substantial numbers of patients also having characteristics understudied in previous trials including more from North America (n = 1386), enrolled as inpatients (n = 2084), systolic blood pressure < 100 mmHg (n = 1127), estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 (n = 528), and treated with sacubitril‐valsartan at baseline (n = 1594). Conclusions: GALACTIC‐HF enrolled a well‐treated, high‐risk population from both inpatient and outpatient settings, which will provide a definitive evaluation of the efficacy and safety of this novel therapy, as well as informing its potential future implementation

Propranolol Restricts the Mobility of Single EGF-Receptors on the Cell Surface before Their Internalization

The epidermal growth factor receptor is involved in morphogenesis, proliferation and cell migration. Its up-regulation during tumorigenesis makes this receptor an interesting therapeutic target. In the absence of the ligand, the inhibition of phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase activity by propranolol treatment leads to internalization of empty/inactive receptors. The molecular events involved in this endocytosis remain unknown. Here, we quantified the effects of propranolol on the mobility of single quantum-dot labelled receptors before the actual internalization took place. The single receptors showed a clear stop-and-go motion; their diffusive tracks were continuously interrupted by sub-second stalling events, presumably caused by transient clustering. In the presence of propranolol we found that: i) the diffusion rate reduced by 22 %, which indicates an increase in drag of the receptor. Atomic force microscopy measurements did not show an increase of the effective membrane tension, such that clustering of the receptor remains the likely mechanism for its reduced mobility. ii) The receptor got frequently stalled for longer periods of multiple seconds, which may signal the first step of the internalization process