44 research outputs found
Lederutvikling : En kvalitativ studie om virkningen av lederutvikling
Fenomenet lederutvikling har vist seg Ä vÊre av stor verdi, ikke bare for den enkelte leder, men ogsÄ for medarbeidere og organisasjoner som helhet. I vÄr masteroppgave forsÞker vi Ä gi Þkt forstÄelse for virkningen av lederutvikling, og fenomenets positive sider. Det mangler imidlertid empirisk forskning pÄ feltet, og stadig flere stiller spÞrsmÄl ved virkningen av lederutvikling. Denne studien har derfor til hensikt Ä undersÞke om ledere som deltar pÄ lederutviklingsprogram endrer lederatferd, kommunikasjon og lederferdigheter, som resultat av deltakelsen.Vi dykker dypere inn i dokumenterte endringer som er fremkommet, og undersÞker nÊrmere om endringene skyldes selve deltakelsen pÄ lederutviklingsprogrammet. Denne studien tar utgangspunkt i fÞlgende problemstilling: PÄ hvilken mÄte har lederne i Tech Consulting opplevd endringer i lederatferd, kommunikasjon og lederferdigheter som fÞlge av deltakelsen pÄ Share Lederutvikling?
Studien bestĂ„r av data samlet inn blant ledere i Tech Consulting, fra perioden 25. januar 2020 til 11. mars 2020. Ă
ret 2018 deltok flere ledere fra teknologiselskapet Tech Consulting pÄ lederutviklingsprogrammet Share Lederutvikling, i regi av konsulentselskapet Danielsen & Hoff. Resultatene fra denne studien viser at lederne som deltok pÄ programmet har opplevd endringer i deres selvopplevde atferd og ferdigheter. Videre viser resultatene at lederne har forbedret sine kommunikasjonsferdigheter, samt Þkt samarbeidsevnene som fÞlge av programmet. Et interessant funn er at ledernes grunnleggende holdning, innstilling og forventinger til lederutvikling har spilt en viktig rolle for hvorvidt de har oppnÄdd utvikling og tilegnet seg nye ferdigheter. Resultatet i sin helhet indikerer at lederne iTech Consulting har oppnÄdd positiv effekt, og at de har hatt stor nytte av Ä delta pÄ Danielsen & Hoffs program.
Det er viktig Ä presisere at slike virkninger av lederutvikling ikke er en forutsetning for alle organisasjoner. Endringene i ledernes atferd, ferdigheter ogkommunikasjon kan begrunnes i at Danielsen & Hoff tok utgangspunkt i Tech Consultings mÄl, og designet programmet etter ledernes styrker, svakheter og utviklingsbehov. I teorien anses dette som et suksesskriterium. Studien konkluderer med at lederutvikling er et velfungerende organisatorisk tiltak for oppnÄelse avendring og utvikling av ledere
Prevalence and Clinical Features of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Associated With Monogenic Variants, Identified by Whole-Exome Sequencing in 1000 Children at a Single Center
BACKGROUND & AIMS: A proportion of infants and young children with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) have subtypes associated with a single gene variant (monogenic IBD). We aimed to determine the prevalence of monogenic disease in a cohort of pediatric patients with IBD.
METHODS: We performed whole-exome sequencing analyses of blood samples from an unselected cohort of 1005 children with IBD, aged 0-18 years (median age at diagnosis, 11.96 years) at a single center in Canada and their family members (2305 samples total). Variants believed to cause IBD were validated using Sanger sequencing. Biopsies from patients were analyzed by immunofluorescence and histochemical analyses.
RESULTS: We identified 40 rare variants associated with 21 monogenic genes among 31 of the 1005 children with IBD (including 5 variants in XIAP, 3 in DOCK8, and 2 each in FOXP3, GUCY2C, and LRBA). These variants occurred in 7.8% of children younger than 6 years and 2.3% of children aged 6-18 years. Of the 17 patients with monogenic Crohn\u27s disease, 35% had abdominal pain, 24% had nonbloody loose stool, 18% had vomiting, 18% had weight loss, and 5% had intermittent bloody loose stool. The 14 patients with monogenic ulcerative colitis or IBD-unclassified received their diagnosis at a younger age, and their most predominant feature was bloody loose stool (78%). Features associated with monogenic IBD, compared to cases of IBD not associated with a single variant, were age of onset younger than 2 years (odds ratio [OR], 6.30; P = .020), family history of autoimmune disease (OR, 5.12; P = .002), extra-intestinal manifestations (OR, 15.36; P \u3c .0001), and surgery (OR, 3.42; P = .042). Seventeen patients had variants in genes that could be corrected with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
CONCLUSIONS: In whole-exome sequencing analyses of more than 1000 children with IBD at a single center, we found that 3% had rare variants in genes previously associated with pediatric IBD. These were associated with different IBD phenotypes, and 1% of the patients had variants that could be potentially corrected with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Monogenic IBD is rare, but should be considered in analysis of all patients with pediatric onset of IBD
Mutation spectrum of NOD2 reveals recessive inheritance as a main driver of Early Onset Crohnâs Disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), clinically defined as Crohnâs disease (CD), ulcerative colitis (UC), or IBD-unclassified, results in chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract in genetically susceptible hosts. Pediatric onset IBD represents â„ 25% of all IBD diagnoses and often presents with intestinal stricturing, perianal disease, and failed response to conventional treatments. NOD2 was the first and is the most replicated locus associated with adult IBD, to date. However, its role in pediatric onset IBD is not well understood. We performed whole-exome sequencing on a cohort of 1,183 patients with pediatric onset IBD (ages 0â18.5 years). We identified 92 probands with biallelic rare and low frequency NOD2 variants accounting for approximately 8% of our cohort, suggesting a Mendelian inheritance pattern of disease. Additionally, we investigated the contribution of recessive inheritance of NOD2 alleles in adult IBD patients from a large clinical population cohort. We found that recessive inheritance of NOD2 variants explains ~ 7% of cases in this adult IBD cohort, including ~ 10% of CD cases, confirming the observations from our pediatric IBD cohort. Exploration of EHR data showed that several of these adult IBD patients obtained their initial IBD diagnosis before 18 years of age, consistent with early onset disease. While it has been previously reported that carriers of more than one NOD2 risk alleles have increased susceptibility to Crohnâs Disease (CD), our data formally demonstrate that recessive inheritance of NOD2 alleles is a mechanistic driver of early onset IBD, specifically CD, likely due to loss of NOD2 protein function. Collectively, our findings show that recessive inheritance of rare and low frequency deleterious NOD2 variants account for 7â10% of CD cases and implicate NOD2 as a Mendelian disease gene for early onset Crohnâs Disease
Novel CARMIL2 loss-of-function variants are associated with pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
CARMIL2 is required for CD28-mediated co-stimulation of NF-kappa B signaling in T cells and its deficiency has been associated with primary immunodeficiency and, recently, very early onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here we describe the identification of novel biallelic CARMIL2 variants in three patients presenting with pediatric-onset IBD and in one with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS). None manifested overt clinical signs of immunodeficiency before their diagnosis. The first patient presented with very early onset IBD. His brother was found homozygous for the same CARMIL2 null variant and diagnosed with APS. Two other IBD patients were found homozygous for a nonsense and a missense CARMIL2 variant, respectively, and they both experienced a complicated postoperative course marked by severe infections. Immunostaining of bowel biopsies showed reduced CARMIL2 expression in all the three patients with IBD. Western blot and immunofluorescence of transfected cells revealed an altered expression pattern of the missense variant. Our work expands the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of CARMIL2 deficiency, which can present with either IBD or APS, aside from classic immunodeficiency manifestations. CARMIL2 should be included in the diagnostic work-up of patients with suspected monogenic IBD
Human ALPI deficiency causes inflammatory bowel disease and highlights a key mechanism of gut homeostasis
Herein, we report the first identification of biallelic-inherited mutations in ALPI as a Mendelian cause of inflammatory bowel disease in two unrelated patients. ALPI encodes for intestinal phosphatase alkaline, a brush border metalloenzyme that hydrolyses phosphate from the lipid A moiety of lipopolysaccharides and thereby drastically reduces Toll-like receptor 4 agonist activity. Prediction tools and structural modelling indicate that all mutations affect critical residues or inter-subunit interactions, and heterologous expression in HEK293T cells demonstrated that all ALPI mutations were loss of function. ALPI mutations impaired either stability or catalytic activity of ALPI and rendered it unable to detoxify lipopolysaccharide-dependent signalling. Furthermore, ALPI expression was reduced in patientsâ biopsies, and ALPI activity was undetectable in ALPI-deficient patient\u27s stool. Our findings highlight the crucial role of ALPI in regulating hostâmicrobiota interactions and restraining host inflammatory responses. These results indicate that ALPI mutations should be included in screening for monogenic causes of inflammatory bowel diseases and lay the groundwork for ALPI-based treatments in intestinal inflammatory disorders
Natural History of Very Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease in North America: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Background: The incidence of very early onset inflammatory bowel disease (VEOIBD) is increasing, yet the phenotype and natural history of VEOIBD are not well described. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with VEOIBD (6 years of age and younger) between 2008 and 2013 at 25 North American centers. Eligible patients at each center were randomly selected for chart review. We abstracted data at diagnosis and at 1, 3, and 5 years after diagnosis. We compared the clinical features and outcomes with VEOIBD diagnosed younger than 3 years of age with children diagnosed with VEOIBD at age 3 to 6 years. Results: The study population included 269 children (105 [39%] Crohn\u27s disease, 106 [39%] ulcerative colitis, and 58 [22%] IBD unclassified). The median age of diagnosis was 4.2 years (interquartile range 2.9-5.2). Most (94%) Crohn\u27s disease patients had inflammatory disease behavior (B1). Isolated colitis (L2) was the most common disease location (70% of children diagnosed younger than 3 years vs 43% of children diagnosed 3 years and older; P = 0.10). By the end of follow-up, stricturing/penetrating occurred in 7 (6.6%) children. The risk of any bowel surgery in Crohn\u27s disease was 3% by 1 year, 12% by 3 years, and 15% by 5 years and did not differ by age at diagnosis. Most ulcerative colitis patients had pancolitis (57% of children diagnosed younger than 3 years vs 45% of children diagnosed 3 years and older; P = 0.18). The risk of colectomy in ulcerative colitis/IBD unclassified was 0% by 1 year, 3% by 3 years, and 14% by 5 years and did not differ by age of diagnosis. Conclusions: Very early onset inflammatory bowel disease has a distinct phenotype with predominantly colonic involvement and infrequent stricturing/penetrating disease. The cumulative risk of bowel surgery in children with VEOIBD was approximately 14%-15% by 5 years. These data can be used to provide anticipatory guidance in this emerging patient population
Host-Derived Angiopoietin-2 Affects Early Stages of Tumor Development and Vessel Maturation but Is Dispensable for Later Stages of Tumor Growth
Angiopoietin-2 Is Critical for Cytokine-Induced Vascular Leakage
<div><p>Genetic experiments (loss-of-function and gain-of-function) have established the role of Angiopoietin/Tie ligand/receptor tyrosine kinase system as a regulator of vessel maturation and quiescence. Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) acts on Tie2-expressing resting endothelial cells as an antagonistic ligand to negatively interfere with the vessel stabilizing effects of constitutive Ang-1/Tie-2 signaling. Ang-2 thereby controls the vascular response to inflammation-inducing as well as angiogenesis-inducing cytokines. This study was aimed at assessing the role of Ang-2 as an autocrine (i.e. endothelial-derived) regulator of rapid vascular responses (within minutes) caused by permeability-inducing agents. Employing two independent <i>in vivo</i> assays to quantitatively assess vascular leakage (tracheal microsphere assay, 1â5 min and Miles assay, 20 min), the immediate vascular response to histamine, bradykinin and VEGF was analyzed in Ang-2-deficient (Ang-2<sup>â/â</sup>) mice. In comparison to the wild type control mice, the Ang2<sup>â/â</sup> mice demonstrated a significantly attenuated response. The Ang-2<sup>â/â</sup> phenotype was rescued by systemic administration (paracrine) of an adenovirus encoding Ang-2. Furthermore, cytokine-induced intracellular calcium influx was impaired in Ang-2<sup>â/â</sup> endothelioma cells, consistent with reduced phospholipase activation <i>in vivo</i>. Additionally, recombinant human Ang-2 (rhAng-2) alone was unable to induce vascular leakage. In summary, we report here in a definite genetic setting that Ang-2 is critical for multiple vascular permeability-inducing cytokines.</p></div