Managing Performance [in Child Welfare Supervision]

One of the primary roles of a supervisor is to manage worker performance. Performance management is the continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization (Aguinis, 2007, p. 2). Supervisors must regularly assess current performance levels and take steps to improve performance in a way that is congruent with agency goals. The ultimate goal is to achieve agency objectives through individual and team performance. To effectively manage performance, supervisors must know what the performance expectations are for workers and clearly communicate these expectations to workers. They must regularly monitor and document performance while taking steps to facilitate and improve performance. In the event of unsatisfactory performance patterns, supervisors must analyze and address performance problems, sometimes using disciplinary measures. Finally, formalized performance management systems may include standardized performance evaluations, which supervisors will be expected to complete. In carrying out these multiple responsibilities, supervisors must be aware of and operate within legal guidelines for performance management. Child welfare supervisors with case management experience will find themselves well prepared to manage worker performance. The responsibilities are not unlike those required to help families ensure the safety and well-being of their children. Case management skills related to assessment, collaborative planning, goal setting, problem solving, progress evaluation, and documentation are valuable assets for evaluating and facilitating worker performance. Child welfare supervisors should capitalize on these strengths as they seek to help workers succeed

Managing Performance [in Child Welfare Supervision]

One of the primary roles of a supervisor is to manage worker performance. Performance management is the continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the organization (Aguinis, 2007, p. 2). Supervisors must regularly assess current performance levels and take steps to improve performance in a way that is congruent with agency goals. The ultimate goal is to achieve agency objectives through individual and team performance. To effectively manage performance, supervisors must know what the performance expectations are for workers and clearly communicate these expectations to workers. They must regularly monitor and document performance while taking steps to facilitate and improve performance. In the event of unsatisfactory performance patterns, supervisors must analyze and address performance problems, sometimes using disciplinary measures. Finally, formalized performance management systems may include standardized performance evaluations, which supervisors will be expected to complete. In carrying out these multiple responsibilities, supervisors must be aware of and operate within legal guidelines for performance management. Child welfare supervisors with case management experience will find themselves well prepared to manage worker performance. The responsibilities are not unlike those required to help families ensure the safety and well-being of their children. Case management skills related to assessment, collaborative planning, goal setting, problem solving, progress evaluation, and documentation are valuable assets for evaluating and facilitating worker performance. Child welfare supervisors should capitalize on these strengths as they seek to help workers succeed

Clinical Evaluation of a Line-Probe Assay for Tuberculosis Detection and Drug-Resistance Prediction in Namibia.

Treatment of tuberculosis requires rapid information about Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) drug susceptibility to ensure effective therapy and optimal outcomes. At the tuberculosis referral hospital in Windhoek, Namibia, a country of high tuberculosis incidence, we evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a line-probe-assay (LPA), GenID, for the molecular diagnosis of Mtb infection and drug resistance in patients with suspected tuberculosis (cohort 1) and confirmed rifampin (RIF)-resistant tuberculosis (cohort 2). GenID test results were compared to Xpert MTB/RIF and/or Mtb culture and antimicrobial suceptibilty testing. GenID LPA was applied to 79 and 55 samples from patients in cohort 1 and cohort 2, respectively. The overall sensitivity of GenID LPA for the detection of Mtb DNA in sputum from patients with detectable and undetectable acid-fast bacilli by sputum smear microscopy was 93.3% (56/60; 95% confidence interval = 83.8-98.2) and 22.7% (5/22; 7.8-45.4). The sensitivity/specificity for the detection of drug resistance was 84.2% (32/38; 68.7-94.0)/100% (19/19; 82.4-100.0) for RIF, 89.7% (26/29; 72.6-97.8)/91.7% (22/24; 73.0-99.0) for isoniazid, and 85.7% (6/7; 42.1-99.6)/94.7% (18/19; 74.0-99.9) for fluoroquinolones; 23.6% of tests for second-line injectable resistance were invalid despite repeat testing. The diagnosis of tuberculosis by detection of Mtb DNA in sputum by GenID LPA depends strongly on the detection of acid-fast bacilli in sputum specimen. Prediction of drug resistance by GenID did not reach the World Health Organization (WHO) target product profile. IMPORTANCE Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) drug-resistance detection is crucial for successful control of tuberculosis. Line-probe assays (LPA) are frequently used to detect resistance to rifampin, isoniazid, fluoroquinolones (FQs), and second-line injectables (SLIs). GenID RIF/isoniazid (INH), FQ, and SLI LPA have not been widely tested and used so far. This study tested the diagnostic performance of the GenID LPA in a high-incidence TB/HIV, real-world setting in Namibia. The LPA demonstrates only an acceptable diagnostic performance for Mtb and drug-resistance detection. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity fall short of the WHO suggested target product profiles for LPA

Knowledge-based semantic annotation and retrieval of multimedia content

aceMedia is a 4 year EC part-funded FP6 Integrated Project, ending in December 2007. The project has developed tools to enable users to manage and share both personal and purchased content across PC, STB and mobile platforms. Knowledge-based analysis and ontologies have been successfully exploited in an end-to-end system to enable automated semantic annotation and retrieval of multimedia content. The paper briefly describes the objectives of aceMedia and the application of knowledge-based analysis in the project

X-ray and optical monitoring of the December 2017 outburst of the Be/X-ray binary AX J0049.4-7323

AX J0049.4-7323 is a Be/X-ray binary that shows an unusual and poorly understood optical variability that consists of periodic and bright optical outbursts, simultaneous with X-ray outbursts, characterised by a highly asymmetric profile. The periodicity of the outbursts is thought to correspond to the orbital period of the neutron star. To understand the behaviour shown by this source, we performed the first multi-wavelength monitoring campaign during the periastron passage of December 2017. The monitoring lasted for ~37 days and consisted of X-ray, near-ultraviolet, and optical data from the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the optical I band from the OGLE survey, and spectroscopic observations of the H-alpha line performed with the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope. These observations revealed AX J0049.4-7323 during an anomalous outburst having remarkably different properties compared to the previous ones. In the I band, it showed a longer rise timescale (~60 days instead of 1-5 days) and a longer decay timescale. At the peak of the outburst, it showed a sudden increase in luminosity in the I band, corresponding to the onset of the X-ray outburst. The monitoring of the H-alpha emission line showed a fast and highly variable profile composed of three peaks with variable reciprocal brightness. We interpreted these results as a circumstellar disc warped by tidal interactions with the neutron star in a high eccentricity orbit during its periastron passage. The fast jump in optical luminosity at the peak of the outburst and the previous asymmetric outbursts might be caused by the reprocessing of the X-ray photons in the circumstellar disc or the tidal displacement of a large amount of material from the circumstellar disc or the outer layers of the donor star during the periastron passage of the neutron star, which led to an increase in size of the region emitting in the I band.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Genetic Resources for the Improvement of Switchgrass (\u3cem\u3ePanicum virgatum\u3c/em\u3e L.) for Biomass and Forage

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is an important forage and biomass species for many parts of the USA. Switchgrass can be of several ploidies. Octoploid cultivars are most often used in forage and conservation settings, while the tetraploid cultivars are mostly targeted for bioenergy end-uses, due to their higher biomass yields. Switchgrass populations also occur as upland and lowland ecotypes, and constitute different heterotic groups. Switchgrass is mostly an obligate outcrosser resulting in substantial genotypic and phenotypic variation within populations. In the last ~15 years, significant resources have been dedicated to both breeding and understanding the genomic makeup of this plant, with a focus on bioenergy. This investment has resulted in the development of elite lines as well as a considerable increase in available genetic, physiological, and biomass-related information. The United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service has been a major player in these developments (Mitchell and Schmer, 2012; Vogel et al., 2011). With significant improvements in DNA-sequencing technologies (High Throughput Sequencing, HTS), it has become possible to undertake large-scale analysis of both the genomic and functional genomic components of switchgrass. One such undertaking by the United States Department of Energy-Joint Genomics Institute has provided a draft assembly and annotation of the switchgrass genome (www.phytozome.org). This remarkable resource has permitted a complete utilization of HTS to analyze gene expression using RNA-Seq and related bioinformatic pipelines. Large-scale studies that are performed using field-grown plants and populations with well-characterized phenotypic traits, it increases the likelihood of discovering molecular events that underpin phenomena of interest. Even though lowland tetraploid cultivars have higher biomass yields than upland tetraploid cultivars, they can suffer significant winter-kill in more northern locations (Central Great Plains of the USA). Winter-kill is associated with the loss of rhizomes and other perenniating structures resulting in a complete or partial loss of tillering ability in the following seasons. Partial attrition of tiller production serves to limit new rhizome growth in successive years. One or more cycles of winter kill will ultimately kill the plant. We are trying to understand the cellular metabolism associated with the onset of rhizome dormancy and to connect the links between tiller/leaf senescence and rhizome metabolism using field grown plants from diverse populations, HTS and RNA-Seq

Heterogeneous ice nucleation activity of bacteria: new laboratory experiments at simulated cloud conditions

The ice nucleation activities of five different <i>Pseudomonas syringae</i>, <i>Pseudomonas viridiflava</i> and <i>Erwinia herbicola</i> bacterial species and of Snomax™ were investigated in the temperature range between −5 and −15°C. Water suspensions of these bacteria were directly sprayed into the cloud chamber of the AIDA facility of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe at a temperature of −5.7°C. At this temperature, about 1% of the Snomax™ cells induced immersion freezing of the spray droplets before the droplets evaporated in the cloud chamber. The living cells didn't induce any detectable immersion freezing in the spray droplets at −5.7°C. After evaporation of the spray droplets the bacterial cells remained as aerosol particles in the cloud chamber and were exposed to typical cloud formation conditions in experiments with expansion cooling to about −11°C. During these experiments, the bacterial cells first acted as cloud condensation nuclei to form cloud droplets. Then, only a minor fraction of the cells acted as heterogeneous ice nuclei either in the condensation or the immersion mode. The results indicate that the bacteria investigated in the present study are mainly ice active in the temperature range between −7 and −11°C with an ice nucleation (IN) active fraction of the order of 10<sup>−4</sup>. In agreement to previous literature results, the ice nucleation efficiency of Snomax™ cells was much larger with an IN active fraction of 0.2 at temperatures around −8°C

No anomalous supersaturation in ultracold cirrus laboratory experiments

High-altitude cirrus clouds are climatically important: their formation freeze-dries air ascending to the stratosphere to its final value, and their radiative impact is disproportionately large. However, their formation and growth are not fully understood, and multiple in situ aircraft campaigns have observed frequent and persistent apparent water vapor supersaturations of 5 %–25 % in ultracold cirrus (T<205 K), even in the presence of ice particles. A variety of explanations for these observations have been put forth, including that ultracold cirrus are dominated by metastable ice whose vapor pressure exceeds that of hexagonal ice. The 2013 IsoCloud campaign at the Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere (AIDA) cloud and aerosol chamber allowed explicit testing of cirrus formation dynamics at these low temperatures. A series of 28 experiments allows robust estimation of the saturation vapor pressure over ice for temperatures between 189 and 235 K, with a variety of ice nucleating particles. Experiments are rapid enough (∼10 min) to allow detection of any metastable ice that may form, as the timescale for annealing to hexagonal ice is hours or longer over the whole experimental temperature range. We show that in all experiments, saturation vapor pressures are fully consistent with expected values for hexagonal ice and inconsistent with the highest values postulated for metastable ice, with no temperature-dependent deviations from expected saturation vapor pressure. If metastable ice forms in ultracold cirrus clouds, it appears to have a vapor pressure indistinguishable from that of hexagonal ice to within about 4.5 %

Hookworm Infection and Environmental Factors in Mbeya Region, Tanzania: A Cross-sectional, Population-based study.

Hookworm disease is one of the most common infections and cause of a high disease burden in the tropics and subtropics. Remotely sensed ecological data and model-based geostatistics have been used recently to identify areas in need for hookworm control. Cross-sectional interview data and stool samples from 6,375 participants from nine different sites in Mbeya region, south-western Tanzania, were collected as part of a cohort study. Hookworm infection was assessed by microscopy of duplicate Kato-Katz thick smears from one stool sample from each participant. A geographic information system was used to obtain remotely sensed environmental data such as land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, rainfall, and elevation, and combine them with hookworm infection data and with socio-demographic and behavioral data. Uni- and multivariable logistic regression was performed on sites separately and on the pooled dataset. Univariable analyses yielded significant associations for all ecological variables. Five ecological variables stayed significant in the final multivariable model: population density (odds ratio (OR) = 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.63-0.73), mean annual vegetation density (OR = 0.11; 95% CI = 0.06-0.18), mean annual LST during the day (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.75-0.88), mean annual LST during the night (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.44-1.64), and latrine coverage in household surroundings (OR = 1.02; 95% CI = 1.01-1.04). Interaction terms revealed substantial differences in associations of hookworm infection with population density, mean annual enhanced vegetation index, and latrine coverage between the two sites with the highest prevalence of infection. This study supports previous findings that remotely sensed data such as vegetation indices, LST, and elevation are strongly associated with hookworm prevalence. However, the results indicate that the influence of environmental conditions can differ substantially within a relatively small geographic area. The use of large-scale associations as a predictive tool on smaller scales is therefore problematic and should be handled with care

Comment on "Missing Transverse-Doppler Effect in Time-Dilation Experiments with High-Speed Ions"

In an article "Missing Transverse-Doppler Effect in Time-Dilation Experiments with High-Speed Ions" by S. Devasia [arXiv:1003.2970v1], our recent Doppler shift experiments on fast ion beams are reanalyzed. Contrary to our analysis, Devasia concludes that our results provide an "indication of Lorentz violation". We argue that this conclusion is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of our experimental scheme and reiterate that our results are in excellent agreement with Special Relativity