A Knowledge Assimilation Schema for Acquiring Technical Knowledge

It has always been a challenge for business students to acquire technical knowledge. Such challenges are more pronounced at urban minority universities where many returning students often have additional obstacles that prevent them from learning as traditional students do. In response to the situation, we have developed a learning tool, called the Knowledge Assimilation Schema (KAS), that guides students to focus on the development of their knowledge structures rather than the collection of isolated knowledge entities. The learning tool has two major components: a knowledge representation framework that facilitates structural understanding and a knowledge acquisition process that steers deeper learning. Initial feedback and results from KAS have shown a noticeable improvement in conceptual learning of technical subjects, especially among nontraditional students

Strategic Decision Support For Information Protection: A Facilitation Framework For Small And Medium Enterprises

Information security seriously concerns Corporate America but the soaring cost on protecting information assets raises equal concerns. These concerns appear to be more threatening to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the percentage of their IT budgets spent on information security protection sharply surpasses those percentages budgeted by large enterprises. In light of these concerns, we propose an integrated and attainable framework that could heuristically promote strategic decision thinking on protecting information assets for the SMEs.  In comparison to other approaches that aim at reaching an optimal decision through complex mathematical models, our framework requires no such computations. The goal of our approach is to help a SME reach such decisions with a framework that takes business, technological and managerial issues into account. The proposed framework fosters strategic thinking of security issues with simple and practical steps to achieve a balanced, consistent, and efficient protection with total involvement from all stakeholders of the information assets that need to be protected

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Impact of common genetic determinants of Hemoglobin A1c on type 2 diabetes risk and diagnosis in ancestrally diverse populations: A transethnic genome-wide meta-analysis

Background: Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to diagnose type 2 diabetes (T2D) and assess glycemic control in patients with diabetes. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 18 HbA1c-associated genetic variants. These variants proved to be classifiable by their likely biological action as erythrocytic (also associated with erythrocyte traits) or glycemic (associated with other glucose-related traits). In this study, we tested the hypotheses that, in a very large scale GWAS, we would identify more genetic variants associated with HbA1c and that HbA1c variants implicated in erythrocytic biology would affect the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. We therefore expanded the number of HbA1c-associated loci and tested the effect of genetic risk-scores comprised of erythrocytic or glycemic variants on incident diabetes prediction and on prevalent diabetes screening performance. Throughout this multiancestry study, we kept a focus on interancestry differences in HbA1c genetics performance that might influence race-ancestry differences in health outcomes. Methods & findings Using genome-wide association meta-analyses in up to 159,940 individuals from 82 cohorts of European, African, East Asian, and South Asian ancestry, we identified 60 common genetic variants associated with HbA1c. We classified variants as implicated in glycemic, erythrocytic, or unclassified biology and tested whether additive genetic scores of erythrocytic variants (GS-E) or glycemic variants (GS-G) were associated with higher T2D incidence in multiethnic longitudinal cohorts (N = 33,241). Nineteen glycemic and 22 erythrocytic variants were associated with HbA1c at genome-wide significance. GS-G was associated with higher T2D risk (incidence OR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.04–1.06, per HbA1c-raising allele, p = 3 × 10−29); whereas GS-E was not (OR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.99–1.01, p = 0.60). In Europeans and Asians, erythrocytic variants in aggregate had only modest effects on the diagnostic accuracy of HbA1c. Yet, in African Americans, the X-linked G6PD G202A variant (T-allele frequency 11%) was associated with an absolute decrease in HbA1c of 0.81%-units (95% CI 0.66–0.96) per allele in hemizygous men, and 0.68%-units (95% CI 0.38–0.97) in homozygous women. The G6PD variant may cause approximately 2% (N = 0.65 million, 95% CI 0.55–0.74) of African American adults with T2D to remain undiagnosed when screened with HbA1c. Limitations include the smaller sample sizes for non-European ancestries and the inability to classify approximately one-third of the variants. Further studies in large multiethnic cohorts with HbA1c, glycemic, and erythrocytic traits are required to better determine the biological action of the unclassified variants. Conclusions: As G6PD deficiency can be clinically silent until illness strikes, we recommend investigation of the possible benefits of screening for the G6PD genotype along with using HbA1c to diagnose T2D in populations of African ancestry or groups where G6PD deficiency is common. Screening with direct glucose measurements, or genetically-informed HbA1c diagnostic thresholds in people with G6PD deficiency, may be required to avoid missed or delayed diagnoses

Multi-ancestry genetic study of type 2 diabetes highlights the power of diverse populations for discovery and translation

We assembled an ancestrally diverse collection of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 180,834 affected individuals and 1,159,055 controls (48.9% non-European descent) through the Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies (DIAMANTE) Consortium. Multi-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identified 237 loci attaining stringent genome-wide significance (P &lt; 5 × 10), which were delineated to 338 distinct association signals. Fine-mapping of these signals was enhanced by the increased sample size and expanded population diversity of the multi-ancestry meta-analysis, which localized 54.4% of T2D associations to a single variant with &gt;50% posterior probability. This improved fine-mapping enabled systematic assessment of candidate causal genes and molecular mechanisms through which T2D associations are mediated, laying the foundations for functional investigations. Multi-ancestry genetic risk scores enhanced transferability of T2D prediction across diverse populations. Our study provides a step toward more effective clinical translation of T2D GWAS to improve global health for all, irrespective of genetic background

T2D prediction, glycemic genetic score.

<p>Forest plot of association between glycemic genetic score with incident T2D over a decade-long follow-up period, by ancestry. MESA (European and Asian ancestry) and the <i>G6PD</i> variant (rs1050828) in ARIC (European and African American) were not included in the discovery GWAS analysis. Effect estimates were combined in a fixed effects meta-analysis. Overall effect estimate: 1.05, 95% CI 1.04–1.06, <i>p</i> = 2.5 × 10⁻²⁹. ARIC, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study; ES, Effect Size; FHS, Framingham Heart Study; GWAS, genome-wide association study; G6PD, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; I-Squared, Higgin's I-squared statistic, a measure of heterogeneity; MESA, Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis; SCHS, Singapore Chinese Health Study; T2D, type 2 diabetes.</p

Manhattan plot of HbA1c associated variants.

<p>Manhattan plot of the transethnic meta-analysis results in MANTRA. The dashed grey line indicates log₁₀BF = 6. Grey and green points denote known/novel loci, respectively. The lead HbA1c-associated variants identified through the ancestry-specific/transethnic analyses are circled in purple (the <i>G6PD</i> variant was not included in the MANTRA analysis, but the locus on the X-chromosome is indicated in the figure). Lines joining the plot & SNP number denote known loci (black), novel loci (green), and loci with a secondary distinct signal (red). MANTRA, Meta-Analysis of Transethnic Association.</p

Table of HbA1c associated variants.

<p>Table with results and classification of the 60 HbA1c-associated variants. SNP number corresponds to number in <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002383#pmed.1002383.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>.</p

T2D prediction, erythrocytic genetic score adjusted for HbA1c as a binary variable.

<p>Forest plot of association between erythrocytic genetic score with incident T2D over a decade-long follow-up period adjusted for HbA1c as a binary variable (≥5.7% versus <5.7%), by ancestry. HbA1c at baseline was not available in SCHS and was excluded from the meta-analysis. MESA (European and Asian ancestry) and the <i>G6PD</i> variant (rs1050828) in ARIC (European and African American) were not included in the discovery GWAS analysis. Effect estimates were combined in a fixed effects meta-analysis. Overall effect estimate: 0.95, 95% CI 0.94–0.96, <i>p</i> = 3.3 × 10⁻¹⁶. ARIC, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study; ES, Effect Size; GWAS, genome-wide association study; FHS, Framingham Heart Study; G6PD, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin; I-Squared, Higgin's I-squared statistic, a measure of heterogeneity; MESA, multiethnic study of atherosclerosis; SCHS, Singapore Chinese Health Study; T2D, type 2 diabetes.</p

Reclassification of individuals with discordant T2D status based on prevailing diagnostic thresholds for FG and HbA1c before and after accounting for the effect of erythrocytic variants.

<p>Reclassification of individuals with discordant T2D status based on prevailing diagnostic thresholds for FG and HbA1c before and after accounting for the effect of erythrocytic variants.</p