The Savvy CEO: Advice From Those Who Have Been There

Shares practical advice from among philanthropy's most experienced leaders and attempts to establish a set of critical skills for CEOs as well as recommendations for board members through a series of hypothetical case studies

Critical Thinking Skills in Allied Health Students

This study examines the critical thinking skills of allied health students(AHS) at a southeastern university. A survey methodology was utilizted to investigate the critical thinking skills of AHS in cytotechnology, dental hygiene, health informatics and information management, and medical technology disciplines. The Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT) was the survey instrument used to measure students\u27 critical thinking skill level. The survey was administered to 57 graduating seniors in the College of Allied Health Sciences class of 2011. Five research questions guided the study: 1. What is the critical thinking skill level of allied health students at a southeastern university (strong, moderate, or weak)? 2. Are there differences in critical thinking skills based onprogramof allied health students?3. Are there differences in critical thinking skills based on gender of allied health students?4. Are there differences in critical thinking skills between programs taught at different academic levels (baccalaureate, entry-level masters, and masters)? 5. What is the impact of academic level, age, gender, grade point average and program on critical thinking skills of allied health students?Results indicated that 64.9% of the participants in the study had weak critical thinking skills, 31.6% of the participants had moderate critical thinking skills and 3.5% of the participants had strong critical thinking skills. Additionally, an independent t-test indicated that male participants scored higher on the HSRT than females. ANOVAanalysis indicated differences in critical thinking based on academic level. Bachelor participants\u27 critical thinking skills were lower than master\u27s and entry-level master\u27s participants. Surprisingly, entry-level master\u27s students scored higher than master\u27s level students. Finally, multiple regression results indicated that 31.7% of the variance in total critical thinking skills can be explained by gender, age, program, GPA, and academic level. One important contribution of this research is that it adds to the body of literature surrounding critical thinking skills of allied health students. This study is also the first study to investigate multiple allied health disciplines at a single time. The study provides new information to deans, administrators, and educators that may be useful when evaluating critical thinking skills of allied health students

Leading by Example

Leading by example, three nonprofits faced tough decisions and significant organizational changes to ensure the sustainability and growth of successful leadership programs in Maine. Lessons shared provide insights that may be useful to other nonprofits facing similar challenges

Segmental Duplication Implicated in the Genesis of Inversion 2Rj of Anopheles gambiae

The malaria vector Anopheles gambiae maintains high levels of inversion polymorphism that facilitate its exploitation of diverse ecological settings across tropical Africa. Molecular characterization of inversion breakpoints is a first step toward understanding the processes that generate and maintain inversions. Here we focused on inversion 2Rj because of its association with the assortatively mating Bamako chromosomal form of An. gambiae, whose distinctive breeding sites are rock pools beside the Niger River in Mali and Guinea. Sequence and computational analysis of 2Rj revealed the same 14.6 kb insertion between both breakpoints, which occurred near but not within predicted genes. Each insertion consists of 5.3 kb terminal inverted repeat arms separated by a 4 kb spacer. The insertions lack coding capacity, and are comprised of degraded remnants of repetitive sequences including class I and II transposable elements. Because of their large size and patchwork composition, and as no other instances of these insertions were identified in the An. gambiae genome, they do not appear to be transposable elements. The 14.6 kb modules inserted at both 2Rj breakpoint junctions represent low copy repeats (LCRs, also called segmental duplications) that are strongly implicated in the recent (∼0.4Ne generations) origin of 2Rj. The LCRs contribute to further genome instability, as demonstrated by an imprecise excision event at the proximal breakpoint of 2Rj in field isolates

Differential Function of Lip Residues in the Mechanism and Biology of an Anthrax Hemophore

To replicate in mammalian hosts, bacterial pathogens must acquire iron. The majority of iron is coordinated to the protoporphyrin ring of heme, which is further bound to hemoglobin. Pathogenic bacteria utilize secreted hemophores to acquire heme from heme sources such as hemoglobin. Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax disease, secretes two hemophores, IsdX1 and IsdX2, to acquire heme from host hemoglobin and enhance bacterial replication in iron-starved environments. Both proteins contain NEAr-iron Transporter (NEAT) domains, a conserved protein module that functions in heme acquisition in Gram-positive pathogens. Here, we report the structure of IsdX1, the first of a Gram-positive hemophore, with and without bound heme. Overall, IsdX1 forms an immunoglobin-like fold that contains, similar to other NEAT proteins, a 310-helix near the heme-binding site. Because the mechanistic function of this helix in NEAT proteins is not yet defined, we focused on the contribution of this region to hemophore and NEAT protein activity, both biochemically and biologically in cultured cells. Site-directed mutagenesis of amino acids in and adjacent to the helix identified residues important for heme and hemoglobin association, with some mutations affecting both properties and other mutations affecting only heme stabilization. IsdX1 with mutations that reduced the ability to associate with hemoglobin and bind heme failed to restore the growth of a hemophore-deficient strain of B. anthracis on hemoglobin as the sole iron source. These data indicate that not only is the 310-helix important for NEAT protein biology, but also that the processes of hemoglobin and heme binding can be both separate as well as coupled, the latter function being necessary for maximal heme-scavenging activity. These studies enhance our understanding of NEAT domain and hemophore function and set the stage for structure-based inhibitor design to block NEAT domain interaction with upstream ligands

Redefining the Roles of Health Information Management Professionals in Health Information Technology

Health information technology (HIT) is being sought as one of the key elements to streamline the process of providing healthcare to improve quality and harness cost. It is hoped that HIT will lead to a more cost-efficient healthcare system than the current one. Surprisingly, there is no agreed definition of HIT in academic literature or government documentation. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act (a provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) defines health information technology as "hardware, software, integrated technologies or related licenses, intellectual property, upgrades, or packaged solutions sold as services that are designed for or support the use by health care entities or patients for the electronic creation, maintenance, access, or exchange of health information." It could refer to a broad base of information technologies used in healthcare from robotics surgery to chronic disease home monitoring devices. However, there is a consensus on the purpose of HIT as the use of devices for the management of information in order to ensure that it is available to the right person at the right time and place. HIT is the basis for a more patient-centered and evidence-based medicine with the real-time availability of high-quality information. Despite the various interpretations of the scope of HIT, all healthcare stakeholders agree that it is the premise on which a 21st-century healthcare system in the United States must be based. HIT experts concur that the U.S healthcare system must widely adopt interoperable electronic health records (EHRs) with important components such as computerized physician/provider order entry (CPOE) and e-prescriptions to build a cost-efficient healthcare system. Originally published Perspectives in Health Information Management, Vol. 6, No. 1f, Sep 200

Number and counting skills in kindergarten as predictors of grade 1 mathematical skills

The present study focused on the role of number skills assessed in kindergarten with regard to their ability to predict mathematical outcomes in grade 1. Number skills included those involving written symbols (symbolic number identification and symbolic number comparison) and counting (procedural and conceptual). Their contributions were contextualized against domain general (working memory, phonological awareness, and behavioral inattention) factors. Both types of kindergarten domain specific skills were strongly correlated with each math outcome in first grade. However, hierarchical regression showed that written symbolic number skills accounted for variance over and above counting predictors. In final models, domain general factors had unique effects (verbal working memory for math fluency, phonological awareness for computation, verbal working memory and phonological awareness for applied problems, and spatial working memory and phonological awareness for story problems). Results highlight the interplay among math precursors and math related domain general factors and their differential roles for different mathematical outcomes

The Role of Formative Evaluation in Implementation Research and the QUERI Experience

This article describes the importance and role of 4 stages of formative evaluation in our growing understanding of how to implement research findings into practice in order to improve the quality of clinical care. It reviews limitations of traditional approaches to implementation research and presents a rationale for new thinking and use of new methods. Developmental, implementation-focused, progress-focused, and interpretive evaluations are then defined and illustrated with examples from Veterans Health Administration Quality Enhancement Research Initiative projects. This article also provides methodologic details and highlights challenges encountered in actualizing formative evaluation within implementation research