Functional Analysis of MicroRNA Pathway Genes in the Somatic Gonad and Germ Cells During Ovulation in \u3cem\u3eC. Elegans\u3c/em\u3e

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play critical roles in animal development and physiology, though functions for most miRNAs remain unknown. Worms with reduced miRNA biogenesis due to loss of Drosha or Pasha/DGCR8 activity are sterile and fail to ovulate, indicating that miRNAs are required for the process of oocyte maturation and ovulation. Starting with this penetrant sterile phenotype and using new strains created to perform tissue specific RNAi, we characterized the roles of the C. elegans Pasha, pash-1, and two miRNA-specific Argonautes, alg-1 and alg-2, in somatic gonad cells and in germ cells in the regulation of ovulation. Conditional loss of pash-1activity resulted in a reduced rate of ovulation and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Similarly, knockdown of miRNA-specific Argonautes in the cells of the somatic gonad by tissue-specific RNAi results in a reduction of the ovulation rate and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Reduced miRNA pathway gene activity resulted in a range of defects, including oocytes that were pinched upon entry of the oocyte into the distal end of the spermatheca in about 42% of the ovulation events observed following alg-1 RNAi. This phenotype was not observed on worms exposed to control RNAi. In contrast, knockdown of alg-1 and alg-2 in germ cells results in few defects in oocyte maturation and ovulation. These data identify specific steps in the process of ovulation that require miRNA pathway gene activity in the somatic gonad cells

Integrating the Arts into Organization Development: Using Improvisational Theatre to Enhance Personal and Interpersonal Effectiveness at Work

The use of an experiential, arts-based curriculum that is centered around theatrical improvisation (or improv ), when utilized for corporate employee training and development purposes, has the potential to have a transformational effect on individuals and organizations if planned and implemented in a thoughtful and purposeful manner. This interpretive case study explored the use of an improv-based training program for employee development purposes in order to understand the experiences of the study’s ten participants relative to the perceived impact and effectiveness of this training methodology, at both the individual and group levels. Five major themes arose from the findings, including: (1) learning at the individual level was more pronounced than at the group level, (2) potential gaps were identified in the ability of the participants to apply the training back at work, (3) the opportunity for long-term sustainability of the training method, in this particular case, was tenuous, (4) the world-view of the participants may have contributed to their inability to apply certain of the training principles, and (5) the potential that this training approach has relative to the ability to transformation behaviors and beliefs, at both the individual and the organizational levels. The findings also indicated that organizational leaders play an important role in the adoption and infusion of the improv mindset into the long-term culture of the organization, and that these improv tools must be supported, encouraged, and reinforced in the workplace by management consistently, over a long period of time in order for them to become integrated into the fabric of the organization

A Review of Supply Chain Data Mining Publications

The use of data mining in supply chains is growing, and covers almost all aspects of supply chain management. A framework of supply chain analytics is used to classify data mining publications reported in supply chain management academic literature. Scholarly articles were identified using SCOPUS and EBSCO Business search engines. Articles were classified by supply chain function. Additional papers reflecting technology, to include RFID use and text analysis were separately reviewed. The paper concludes with discussion of potential research issues and outlook for future development

Business Analytics Course Development at UNL

The experience of a Big Ten US University in implementing business analytics at the undergraduate and master’s levels is reviewed, to include motivation, curriculum design, and course delivery. Each program element is described, to include motivating factors impinging on curricular design. Course content in each of these programs is summarily presented, along with problems encountered and the solutions implemented. Comparison with other Big Ten institutions is briefly reviewed. The impact in terms of current enrollments will be discussed

On Simulating Concurrent Flame Spread in Reduced Gravity by Reducing Ambient Pressure

The flammability of combustible materials in spacecraft environments is of importance for fire safety applications because the environmental conditions can greatly differ from those on earth, and a fire in a spacecraft could be catastrophic. Moreover, experimental testing in spacecraft environments can be difficult and expensive, so using ground-based tests to inform microgravity tests is vital. Reducing buoyancy effects by decreasing ambient pressure is a possible approach to simulate a spacecraft environment on earth. The objective of this work is to study the effect of pressure on material flammability, and by comparison with microgravity data, determine the extent to which reducing pressure can be used to simulate reduced gravity. Specifically, this work studies the effect of pressure and microgravity on upward/concurrent flame spread rates and flame appearance of a burning thin composite fabric made of 75% cotton and 25% fiberglass (Sibal). Experiments in normal gravity were conducted using pressures ranging between 100 and 30 kPa and a forced flow velocity of 20 cm/s. Microgravity experiments were conducted during NASAs Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire), on board of the Orbital Corporation Cygnus spacecraft at 100 kPa and an air flow velocity of 20 cm/s. Results show that reductions of ambient pressure slow the flame spread over the fabric. As pressure is reduced, flame intensity is also reduced. Comparison with the concurrent flame spread rates in microgravity show that similar flame spread rates are obtained at around 30 kPa. The normal gravity and microgravity data is correlated in terms of a mixed convection non-dimensional parameter that describes the heat transferred from the flame to the solid surface. The correlation provides information about the similitudes of the flame spread process in variable pressure and reduced gravity environments, providing guidance for potential on-earth testing for fire safety design in spacecraft and space habitats

Mental Health Consequences of Romantic Betrayal: An Investigation of Depression and Anxiety

A report submitted by Laurie L. Couch and David R Olson to the Research and Creative Productions Committee in 2001 on the role of one\u27s personality characteristics in the experience of depressive and anxious symptomology after romantic betrayal

Supply Chain Management and Management Science: A Successful Marriage

The last century has witnessed extant studies on the applications of Management Science (MS) to a diverse set of Supply Chain Management (SCM) issues. This paper provides an overview of the contribution of MS within SCM. A framework is developed in this paper with a sampling of MS contributions to major SCM dimensions. Future research directions are presented

Artificial Intelligence in Engineering Risk Analytics

Risks exist in every aspect of our lives, and can mean different things to different people. While negative in general they always cause a great deal of potential damage and inconvenience for stakeholders. Recent engineering risks include the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster from the 2011 tsunami, a year that also saw earthquakes in New Zealand, tornados in the US, and floods in both Australia and Thailand. Earthquakes, tornados (not to mention hurricanes) and floods are repetitive natural phenomenon. But the October 2011 floods in Thailand were the worst in 50 years, impacting supply chains including those of Honda, Toyota, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Nippon Steel, Tesco, and Canon. Human-induced tragedies included a clothing factory fire in Bangladesh in 2012 that left over 100 dead. Wal-Mart and Sears supply chains were downstream customers. The events of Bhopal in 1984, Chernobyl in 1986, Exxon Valdez in 1989, and the Gulf oil spill of 2010 were tragic accidents. There are also malicious events such as the Tokyo Sarin attach in 1995, The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in 2001, and terrorist attacks on subways in Madrid (2004), London (2005), and Moscow (2010). The news brings us reports of such events all too often. The next step up in intensity is war, which seems to always be with us in some form somewhere in the world. Complex human systems also cause problems. The financial crisis resulted in recession in all aspects of the economy. Risk and analytics has become an important topic in today’s more complex, interrelated global environment, replete with threats from natural, engineering, economic, and technical sources (Olson and Wu, 2015)

Flagellar membrane association via interaction with lipid rafts

The eukaryotic flagellar membrane has a distinct composition from other domains of the plasmalemma. Our work shows that the specialized composition of the trypanosome flagellar membrane reflects increased concentrations of sterols and saturated fatty acids, correlating with direct observation of high liquid order by laurdan fluorescence microscopy. These findings indicate that the trypanosome flagellar membrane possesses high concentrations of lipid rafts: discrete regions of lateral heterogeneity in plasma membranes that serve to sequester and organize specialized protein complexes. Consistent with this, a dually acylated Ca(2+) sensor that is concentrated in the flagellum is found in detergent-resistant membranes and mislocalizes if the lipid rafts are disrupted. Detergent-extracted cells have discrete membrane patches localized on the surface of the flagellar axoneme, suggestive of intraflagellar transport particles. Together, these results provide biophysical and biochemical evidence to indicate that lipid rafts are enriched in the trypanosome flagellar membrane, providing a unique mechanism for flagellar protein localization and illustrating a novel means by which specialized cellular functions may be partitioned to discrete membrane domains