Engaging Interdisciplinary Students in an Environmental Scan of Governance Models for a Non-Profit Aging Agency: An Evaluation of Interdisciplinary Learning

Interdisciplinary student members from a non-profit interdisciplinary gerontology association, guided by an academic board member, conducted a scan of the literature and other non-profit organizations bylaws for the purpose of supporting the board in reviewing their governance structure. The environmental scan elucidated five components of organizations that critically affect the non-profit organizational governance of non-for profit agencies - the governance model, how policy is developed, the role of executives, and how both finances and risks are managed. During the project students increased their capacity and knowledge of: how to work in a team environment within a research context, the research process, and the interdisciplinary gerontological association for which the research was performed. Students recommend that this method of using student volunteers to assist with research as a way for non-profit associations to engage students and complete research projects. This project was completed April 30, 2016&nbsp

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead