781 research outputs found
TmaDB: a repository for tissue microarray data
Background: Tissue microarray (TMA) technology has been developed to facilitate large, genome-scale molecular pathology studies. This technique provides a high-throughput method for analyzing a large cohort of clinical specimens in a single experiment thereby permitting the parallel analysis of molecular alterations ( at the DNA, RNA, or protein level) in thousands of tissue specimens. As a vast quantity of data can be generated in a single TMA experiment a systematic approach is required for the storage and analysis of such data.
Description: To analyse TMA output a relational database ( known as TmaDB) has been developed to collate all aspects of information relating to TMAs. These data include the TMA construction protocol, experimental protocol and results from the various immunocytological and histochemical staining experiments including the scanned images for each of the TMA cores. Furthermore the database contains pathological information associated with each of the specimens on the TMA slide, the location of the various TMAs and the individual specimen blocks ( from which cores were taken) in the laboratory and their current status i.e. if they can be sectioned into further slides or if they are exhausted. TmaDB has been designed to incorporate and extend many of the published common data elements and the XML format for TMA experiments and is therefore compatible with the TMA data exchange specifications developed by the Association for Pathology Informatics community. Finally the design of the database is made flexible such that TMA experiments from several types of cancer can be stored in a single database, which incorporates the national minimum data set required for pathology reports supported by the Royal College of Pathologists (UK).
Conclusion: TmaDB will provide a comprehensive repository for TMA data such that a large number of results from the numerous immunostaining experiments can be efficiently compared for each of the TMA cores. This will allow a systematic, large-scale comparison of tumour samples to facilitate the identification of gene products of clinical importance such as therapeutic or prognostic markers. In addition this work will contribute to the establishment of a standard for reporting TMA data analogous to MIAME in the description of microarray dat
Natural antisense transcripts with coding capacity in Arabidopsis may have a regulatory role that is not linked to double-stranded RNA degradation
BACKGROUND:
Overlapping transcripts in antisense orientation have the potential to form double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a substrate for a number of different RNA-modification pathways. One prominent route for dsRNA is its breakdown by Dicer enzyme complexes into small RNAs, a pathway that is widely exploited by RNA interference technology to inactivate defined genes in transgenic lines. The significance of this pathway for endogenous gene regulation remains unclear.
RESULTS:
We have examined transcription data for overlapping gene pairs in Arabidopsis thaliana. On the basis of an analysis of transcripts with coding regions, we find the majority of overlapping gene pairs to be convergently overlapping pairs (COPs), with the potential for dsRNA formation. In all tissues, COP transcripts are present at a higher frequency compared to the overall gene pool. The probability that both the sense and antisense copy of a COP are co-transcribed matches the theoretical value for coexpression under the assumption that the expression of one partner does not affect the expression of the other. Among COPs, we observe an over-representation of spliced (intron-containing) genes (90%) and of genes with alternatively spliced transcripts. For loci where antisense transcripts overlap with sense transcript introns, we also find a significant bias in favor of alternative splicing and variation of polyadenylation.
CONCLUSION:
The results argue against a predominant RNA degradation effect induced by dsRNA formation. Instead, our data support alternative roles for dsRNAs. They suggest that at least for a subgroup of COPs, antisense expression may induce alternative splicing or polyadenylation
Environmental Certification as a Buffer Against the Liabilities of Newness and Smallness: Firm Performance Benefits
Sustainable entrepreneurship encourages a focus on innovation, efficiency and environmentally-friendly actions. Certification enables firms to accumulate legitimacy that enables stakeholders to know of, and understand, a firm’s activities: it is a mechanism to buffer against the liabilities of newness and smallness. Building on insights from the resource-based view of the firm, institutional theory and signalling theory, this article conceptualises environmental certification as an observable high-quality resource investment signal. This resource fosters innovation and encourages certified firms to accumulate and mobilise legitimacy. Regression analysis detected that very young and micro firms who cited the compounded signal of certification reported significantly higher levels of effectiveness. Micro firms that cited the compounded signal of certification reported weakly significantly higher levels profitability. Certification enables very young, rather than young firms, to address the liabilities of newness, and enables micro, rather than small firms, to address the liabilities of smallness
Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention: Do female students benefit?
This article explores links between entrepreneurship education (EE) participation, alertness and risk-taking skills and the intensity of entrepreneurial intention relating to becoming an entrepreneur. Guided by insights from human capital and socially learned stereotypes theories, we conceptualize and test novel hypotheses that consider the potential moderating effect of gender and participation in EE. Business students participating in EE modules were compared with engineering students excluded from such programmes. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that EE students reported high intensity of intention; however, EE did not generate equal benefits for all students. Women were significantly less likely to report high intensity of intention; however, those citing the alertness skill were more likely to report high intensity of intention than non-EE women students. Both male EE and non-EE students citing the risk perception skill reported higher intention, whereas women EE students citing the risk perception skill reported lower intention
Internationalization Of Management Buyouts
Multivariate statistical analysis is utilized to explore the association between firm
strategies, contributions made by venture capitalists and incentives for owners and
employees and three exporting variables in a stratified random sample of 147 management
buyouts and buyins. Firms focusing upon a diversified product/ service range and/or
advertising were significantly more likely to be exporters. Firms focusing upon product/
service quality and financial efficiency and those with high proportions of employees
receiving performance related pay were significantly less likely to be exporters.
Manufacturing firms and firms focusing upon a diversified product/ service range and/or
advertising were significantly more likely to report high percentages of sales exported.
Variations in the proportion of sales exported over time were associated with strategies
focused upon product/service quality and a diversified product/ service range
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Waves of Professionalization Before, During and After Management Buyouts and Buy-ins of Private Family Firms
YesWe explore the process of professionalization pre- and post- buyout (MBO)
or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence
from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization
behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have
conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We
demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in
waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves
of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide
a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be
standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process
reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses
on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency
control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs.
Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the
professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once for all
development stage.The Enterprise Research Centre is an independent research centre which focusses on SME growth and productivity. ERC is a partnership between Warwick Business School, Aston Business School, Imperial College Business School, Strathclyde Business School and Birmingham Business School. The Centre is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS); Innovate UK; and, through the British Bankers Association (BBA), by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; HSBC Bank PLC; Barclays Bank PLC and Lloyds Bank PLC. The support of the funders is acknowledged. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders
A Pilot Evaluation of an Online Tool Designed to Aid Development of Basic Laboratory Skills
A pilot study was conducted using a cohort of 18 students, studying for their Bioscience Masters, and carrying out project work throughout the summer. On arrival for a laboratory class the students were asked to complete a baseline confidence log and answer a knowledge quiz. The confidence log and quiz were developed from ideas suggested in Draper et al., (1996). The forms assessed confidence and knowledge in terms of specific, basic laboratory skills which would be able to be practised on the UEL Virtual Lab (http://www.uelconnect.org.uk/hab/UELVirtualLab.html). The confidence log used a visual analogue scale and students were asked to rate how confident they felt in performing a basic laboratory procedures or calculations formulated from each of the sections in the UEL Virtual Lab. The quiz paper had 10 questions testing knowledge of basic laboratory skills
Strengthening approaches to respond to the social and emotional well-being needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: the Cultural Pathways Program
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander holistic health represents the interconnection of social, emotional, spiritual and cultural factors on health and well-being. Social factors (education, employment, housing, transport, food and financial security) are internationally described and recognised as the social determinants of health. The social determinants of health are estimated to contribute to 34% of the overall burden of disease experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Primary health care services currently ‘do what it takes’ to address social and emotional well-being needs, including the social determinants of health, and require culturally relevant tools and processes for implementing coordinated and holistic responses. Drawing upon a research-setting pilot program, this manuscript outlines key elements encapsulating a strengths-based approach aimed at addressing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander holistic social and emotional well-being. The Cultural Pathways Program is a response to community identified needs, designed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and informed by holistic views of health. The program aims to identify holistic needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the starting point to act on the social determinants of health. Facilitators implement strengths-based practice to identify social and cultural needs (e.g. cultural and community connection, food and financial security, housing, mental health, transport), engage in a goal setting process and broker connections with social and health services. An integrated culturally appropriate clinical supervision model enhances delivery of the program through reflective practice and shared decision making. These embedded approaches enable continuous review and improvement from a program and participant perspective. A developmental evaluation underpins program implementation and the proposed culturally relevant elements could be further tailored for delivery within primary health care services as part of routine care to strengthen systematic identification and response to social and emotional well-being needs.Tina Brodie, Odette Pearson, Luke Cantley, Peita Cooper, Seth Westhead, Alex Brown and Natasha J Howar
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