Enterprise gamification systems and employment legislation: a systematic literature review

A recent innovation in employee motivation systems is the introduction of ‘gamification’, which refers to the use of game design mechanics and principles to influence behaviour to enhance staff motivation and engagement. Enterprise gamification systems aggravate the differences in information availability between employers and employees, and employees who may be forced to adopt such systems may be placed under stress, worsening employment relationships in the workplace. Therefore, this research examines the potential legal implications of gamified employee motivation systems. This study undertook a systematic review of enterprise gamification and then used thematic analysis coupled with a review of legislation to examine whether gamification in workplaces meets the legal obligations of employers under their ‘duty of good faith’ in the New Zealand context. We find that carefully designed enterprise gamification systems should provide sufficient information and clarity for employees and support positive employment relationships. Deployments of enterprise gamification systems should be carefully planned with employee consultation and feedback supporting the introduction of an enterprise gamification system. Future research should look beyond the ‘good faith’ obligation and examine the relationship between gamification systems and the law on personal grievances

Reviving ghost alleles: Genetically admixed coyotes along the American Gulf Coast are critical for saving the endangered red wolf

The last known red wolves were captured in southwestern Louisiana and eastern Texas in 1980 to establish a captive breeding population. Before their extirpation, gene flow with coyotes resulted in the persistence of endangered red wolf genetic variation in local coyote populations. We assessed genomic ancestry and morphology of coyotes in southwestern Louisiana. We detected that 38 to 62% of the coyote genomes contained red wolf ancestry acquired in the past 30 years and have an admixture profile similar to that of the canids captured before the extirpation of red wolves. We further documented a positive correlation between ancestry and weight. Our findings highlight the importance of hybrids and admixed genomes as a reservoir of endangered species ancestry for innovative conservation efforts. Together, this work presents an unprecedented system that conservation can leverage to enrich the recovery program of an endangered species

Community engagement practices at research centers in U.S. minority institutions: Priority populations and innovative approaches to advancing health disparities research

This paper details U.S. Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Community Engagement Cores (CECs): (1) unique and cross-cutting components, focus areas, specific aims, and target populations; and (2) approaches utilized to build or sustain trust towards community participation in research. A mixed-method data collection approach was employed for this cross-sectional study of current or previously funded RCMIs. A total of 18 of the 25 institutions spanning 13 U.S. states and territories participated. CEC specific aims were to support community engaged research (94%); to translate and disseminate research findings (88%); to develop partnerships (82%); and to build capacity around community research (71%). Four open-ended questions, qualitative analysis, and comparison of the categories led to the emergence of two supporting themes: (1) establishing trust between the community-academic collaborators and within the community and (2) building collaborative relationships. An overarching theme, building community together through trust and meaningful collaborations, emerged from the supporting themes and subthemes. The RCMI institutions and their CECs serve as models to circumvent the historical and current challenges to research in communities disproportionately affected by health disparities. Lessons learned from these cores may help other institutions who want to build community trust in and capacities for research that addresses community-related health concerns

A comprehensive assessment of somatic mutation detection in cancer using whole-genome sequencing.

As whole-genome sequencing for cancer genome analysis becomes a clinical tool, a full understanding of the variables affecting sequencing analysis output is required. Here using tumour-normal sample pairs from two different types of cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and medulloblastoma, we conduct a benchmarking exercise within the context of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. We compare sequencing methods, analysis pipelines and validation methods. We show that using PCR-free methods and increasing sequencing depth to ∼ 100 × shows benefits, as long as the tumour:control coverage ratio remains balanced. We observe widely varying mutation call rates and low concordance among analysis pipelines, reflecting the artefact-prone nature of the raw data and lack of standards for dealing with the artefacts. However, we show that, using the benchmark mutation set we have created, many issues are in fact easy to remedy and have an immediate positive impact on mutation detection accuracy.We thank the DKFZ Genomics and Proteomics Core Facility and the OICR Genome Technologies Platform for provision of sequencing services. Financial support was provided by the consortium projects READNA under grant agreement FP7 Health-F4-2008-201418, ESGI under grant agreement 262055, GEUVADIS under grant agreement 261123 of the European Commission Framework Programme 7, ICGC-CLL through the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and the Generalitat de Catalunya. Additional financial support was provided by the PedBrain Tumor Project contributing to the International Cancer Genome Consortium, funded by German Cancer Aid (109252) and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, grants #01KU1201A, MedSys #0315416C and NGFNplus #01GS0883; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research to PCB and JDM through funding provided by the Government of Ontario, Ministry of Research and Innovation; Genome Canada; the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Prostate Cancer Canada with funding from the Movember Foundation (PCB). PCB was also supported by a Terry Fox Research Institute New Investigator Award, a CIHR New Investigator Award and a Genome Canada Large-Scale Applied Project Contract. The Synergie Lyon Cancer platform has received support from the French National Institute of Cancer (INCa) and from the ABS4NGS ANR project (ANR-11-BINF-0001-06). The ICGC RIKEN study was supported partially by RIKEN President’s Fund 2011, and the supercomputing resource for the RIKEN study was provided by the Human Genome Center, University of Tokyo. MDE, LB, AGL and CLA were supported by Cancer Research UK, the University of Cambridge and Hutchison-Whampoa Limited. SD is supported by the Torres Quevedo subprogram (MI CINN) under grant agreement PTQ-12-05391. EH is supported by the Research Council of Norway under grant agreements 221580 and 218241 and by the Norwegian Cancer Society under grant agreement 71220-PR-2006-0433. Very special thanks go to Jennifer Jennings for administrating the activity of the ICGC Verification Working Group and Anna Borrell for administrative support.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1000

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

COVID-19 symptoms at hospital admission vary with age and sex: results from the ISARIC prospective multinational observational study

Background: The ISARIC prospective multinational observational study is the largest cohort of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. We present relationships of age, sex, and nationality to presenting symptoms. Methods: International, prospective observational study of 60 109 hospitalized symptomatic patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 recruited from 43 countries between 30 January and 3 August 2020. Logistic regression was performed to evaluate relationships of age and sex to published COVID-19 case definitions and the most commonly reported symptoms. Results: ‘Typical’ symptoms of fever (69%), cough (68%) and shortness of breath (66%) were the most commonly reported. 92% of patients experienced at least one of these. Prevalence of typical symptoms was greatest in 30- to 60-year-olds (respectively 80, 79, 69%; at least one 95%). They were reported less frequently in children (≤ 18 years: 69, 48, 23; 85%), older adults (≥ 70 years: 61, 62, 65; 90%), and women (66, 66, 64; 90%; vs. men 71, 70, 67; 93%, each P &lt; 0.001). The most common atypical presentations under 60 years of age were nausea and vomiting and abdominal pain, and over 60 years was confusion. Regression models showed significant differences in symptoms with sex, age and country. Interpretation: This international collaboration has allowed us to report reliable symptom data from the largest cohort of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Adults over 60 and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms. Nausea and vomiting are common atypical presentations under 30 years. Confusion is a frequent atypical presentation of COVID-19 in adults over 60 years. Women are less likely to experience typical symptoms than men

Apathetic Engagement: a Substantive Theory of Gamification in New Zealand Contact Centres

When considering sectors of business and industry frequently constrained by operational inefficiencies, it is widely accepted that the contact centre industry is one of the leading protagonists. Contact centres routinely report the highest staff churn of all sectors, with around one-third of all staff employed in technical support and customer service roles leaving their employment annually. This high level of employee turnover is indicative of an industry propagated by factors that promote high stress and diminishing motivation within the workforce. In an attempt to reduce the stress of contact centre roles and improve employee engagement some sectors of the industry have introduced the use of game-like elements or ‘gamification’ into frontline contact centre work. While interest in gamification has surged over the past decade, there remains a lack of in-depth research investigation into its use and influence throughout the New Zealand service work industry. To overcome this void, this study examines the means by which gamification is used throughout the New Zealand contact centre industry and explores its motivational influence towards frontline contact centre agents. To facilitate the research objective, a constructivist grounded theory approach is used. Data generation was through twenty-four in-depth interviews conducted in eight New Zealand organisations. With participants compiled from a variety of multifunction roles, including customer service, technical support, team leaders, developers and managers. The analysis reveals that the nature of gamification is a fusion between key performance indicator systems and game-like reward initiatives, and highlights the conflicting and contradictory beliefs and behaviours of employees that emerge as a consequence of implementing gamified systems. Moreover, this study identifies the dissipating effectiveness and apathy of agents towards contact centre gamification systems, as they struggle to reconcile the cognitive trade-offs inherent to their adoption, application and use