ILR Impact Brief - Deconstructing Absenteeism: Satisfaction, Commitment, and Unemployment

[Excerpt] Group attitudes about satisfaction and commitment are negatively associated with absenteeism and interact in predicting absenteeism at the unit level. The effects are particularly strong in areas where jobs are plentiful but fade away where jobs are scarce. In other words, higher levels of absenteeism in a work group are associated with lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment in labor markets with low unemployment, and vice versa. Organizational commitment is the crucial factor: absenteeism is higher in work units with low levels of commitment regardless of the level of satisfaction. Group norms about absenteeism and other contextual factors, such as work processes, contribute to the variance among work units. Satisfaction and commitment are not related to changes in absenteeism over time

Cardiac performance, biomarkers and gene expression studies in previously sedentary men participating in half-marathon training

BACKGROUND: The mechanisms through which exercise reduces cardiovascular disease are not fully understood. We used echocardiograms, cardiac biomarkers and gene expression to investigate cardiovascular effects associated with exercise training. METHODS: Nineteen sedentary men (22-37 years) completed a 17-week half-marathon training program. Serial measurements of resting heart rate, blood pressure, maximum oxygen consumption, lipids, C-reactive protein, cardiac troponin T, echocardiograms and blood for gene expression were obtained from baseline to peak training. Controls included 22 sedentary men who did not exercise. RESULTS: Among the training group, VO2 max increased from 37.1 to 42.0 ml/kg/min (p \u3c 0.001). Significant changes were seen in left ventricular wall thickness and mass, stroke volume, resting heart rate and blood pressure (p \u3c 0.001). The control group demonstrated no significant changes. Expression profiling in the training group identified 10 significantly over-expressed and 53 significantly under-expressed loci involved in inflammatory pathways. Dividing the training group into high and low responders based on percent change in VO2 max identified loci that differentiated these two groups at baseline and after training. CONCLUSION: Intensive exercise training leads to significant increase in cardiac and hemodynamic performance, and significant changes in expression of genes involved in immune and inflammatory response.

Chromatin interaction maps identify Wnt responsive cis-regulatory elements coordinating Paupar-Pax6 expression in neuronal cells

Central nervous system-expressed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are often located in the genome close to protein coding genes involved in transcriptional control. Such lncRNA-protein coding gene pairs are frequently temporally and spatially co-expressed in the nervous system and are predicted to act together to regulate neuronal development and function. Although some of these lncRNAs also bind and modulate the activity of the encoded transcription factors, the regulatory mechanisms controlling co-expression of neighbouring lncRNA-protein coding genes remain unclear. Here, we used high resolution NG Capture-C to map the cis-regulatory interaction landscape of the key neuro-developmental Paupar-Pax6 lncRNA-mRNA locus. The results define chromatin architecture changes associated with high Paupar-Pax6 expression in neurons and identify both promoter selective as well as shared cis-regulatory-promoter interactions involved in regulating Paupar-Pax6 co-expression. We discovered that the TCF7L2 transcription factor, a regulator of chromatin architecture and major effector of the Wnt signalling pathway, binds to a subset of these candidate cis-regulatory elements to coordinate Paupar and Pax6 co-expression. We describe distinct roles for Paupar in Pax6 expression control and show that the Paupar DNA locus contains a TCF7L2 bound transcriptional silencer whilst the Paupar transcript can act as an activator of Pax6. Our work provides important insights into the chromatin interactions, signalling pathways and transcription factors controlling co-expression of adjacent lncRNAs and protein coding genes in the brain

Cleared to Land: Pilot Visual Detection of Small Unmanned Aircraft During Final Approach

Sighting reports of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by pilots, air traffic controllers, and other aviation stakeholders have continued to rise since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began tracking in 2014. In 2018, the FAA received 2,307 such reports, with 22.8% (n = 526) occurring during the final approach phase of flight. The threat of a midair collision between a manned aircraft and UAS is heightened during the final approach phase of flight, as the aircraft transitions from higher-altitude airspace to the low-altitude arena, now shared with drones. Absent UAS sense and avoid systems, pilots are forced to rely on visual senses and scanning techniques to ensure the approach path remains clear of UAS incursions. This research evaluated the effectiveness of pilot visual detection of a multirotor UAS during five approach to landing scenarios in which an unmanned aircraft created an incursion into the approach path. During the scripted approach scenarios, the UAS either remained stationary or maneuvered laterally. Both aircraft and UAS were separated by established vertical safety margins and protocols to avoid an actual collision. Overall, participants detected the UAS during 30% of the approaches. The static UAS was only detected during 13.6% of the approaches, at a mean range of 647 ft. The detection rate improved to 50% when the drone was in motion, with a mean detection range of 1,593 ft. Vector data was calculated to determine the detection angle of UAS sightings, with the majority of successful detections occurring within 5˚ laterally and 10˚ vertically of center. Qualitative comments were solicited from the participants and evaluated for trends. Forty percent of the participants indicated that moving UAS are easier to spot. Other trends related to UAS contrast, object misidentification, and detection aspect angle were also identified by the participants. The authors emphasized that based on the recorded detection distance, pilots would only have a limited margin of error to successfully execute evasive maneuvers, based on the FAA’s Recommended Minimum Reaction Time Required for Evasion criteria. Full-text will be available October 30, 2019 at approximately 10:00 AM Eastern

Using A Damper Seal To Eliminate Subsynchronous Vibrations In Three Back-To-Back Compressors.

LecturePg. 59-72A new type of labyrinth seal that reduces cross coupled rotor forces and produces a remarkable amount of damping has been invented at Texas A&M University. Laboratory tests have shown complete elimination of critical speeds under some conditions and orders of magnitude more damping than conventional labyrinth seals. The new seal acts as a damper by dynamic variations of gas pressure in large pockets around the shaft that always oppose the rotor vibratory motion. The pocket walls also serve to block the gas swirl that produces the cross coupling in conventional seals. The background is described of the invention of the new seal along with two case histories of its design, installation, and use for solving subsynchronous vibration problems in back-to-hack centrifugal compressors. In Case 1, the seal construction is of conventional metallic materials, while in Case 2, the seal is made of an amorphous copolymer with engineered properties to produce a better tolerance of shaft rubs during surge events. The subsynchronous vibration problems were solved in both cases by retrofitting the new type of seal. In Case 2, a small number of seal blades was used in order to produce large pockets with a very large damping value, and the use of engineered plastic as a seal material allowed the machine to tolerate surge and remain stable, which had not been possible with conventional labyrinth seals

The Otterbein Miscellany - May 1972

https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/miscellany/1016/thumbnail.jp

The Antimicrobial Scrub Contamination and Transmission (ASCOT) Trial: A Three-Arm, Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial With Crossover Design to Determine the Efficacy of Antimicrobial-Impregnated Scrubs in Preventing Healthcare Provider Contamination

OBJECTIVE To determine whether antimicrobial-impregnated textiles decrease the acquisition of pathogens by healthcare provider (HCP) clothing. DESIGN We completed a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of 2 types of antimicrobial-impregnated clothing compared to standard HCP clothing. Cultures were obtained from each nurse participant, the healthcare environment, and patients during each shift. The primary outcome was the change in total contamination on nurse scrubs, measured as the sum of colony-forming units (CFU) of bacteria. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Nurses working in medical and surgical ICUs in a 936-bed tertiary-care hospital. INTERVENTION Nurse subjects wore standard cotton-polyester surgical scrubs (control), scrubs that contained a complex element compound with a silver-alloy embedded in its fibers (Scrub 1), or scrubs impregnated with an organosilane-based quaternary ammonium and a hydrophobic fluoroacrylate copolymer emulsion (Scrub 2). Nurse participants were blinded to scrub type and randomly participated in all 3 arms during 3 consecutive 12-hour shifts in the intensive care unit. RESULTS In total, 40 nurses were enrolled and completed 3 shifts. Analyses of 2,919 cultures from the environment and 2,185 from HCP clothing showed that scrub type was not associated with a change in HCP clothing contamination ( P =.70). Mean difference estimates were 0.118 for the Scrub 1 arm (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.206 to 0.441; P =.48) and 0.009 for the Scrub 2 rm (95% CI, −0.323 to 0.342; P =.96) compared to the control. HCP became newly contaminated with important pathogens during 19 of the 120 shifts (16%). CONCLUSIONS Antimicrobial-impregnated scrubs were not effective at reducing HCP contamination. However, the environment is an important source of HCP clothing contamination. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT 02645214 Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1147–115