SURFACE WARFARE OFFICER SCHOOL 360-DEGREE ASSESSMENT TOOL: EVALUATION OF THE CURRENT PROGRAM FOR SURFACE WARFARE OFFICERS

The Surface Warfare Officer School Command’s (SWOSCOM) current 360-degree feedback assessment was constructed using a civilian commercial off-the-shelf product and has not undergone a rigorous review since its creation in 2008. Some of the current assessment’s focus areas are not germane to the Surface Warfare Community and have been found to be limited in fully measuring a Naval Surface Warfare Officer’s (SWO) leadership through this and previous studies. This thesis examines potential modifications to significantly improve the assessment to better measure and support the SWO community. The research identified the relevance of existing questions to provide feedback on skills and behaviors that affect leadership performance. Using data collected from SWOSCOM consisting of 100 individual redacted feedback reports, an analysis of variance to determine distinctiveness in perspectives of self, bosses, peers, and subordinates regarding early-career SWOs was conducted. Machine learning techniques were applied to identify skills that might be more effective at providing valuable feedback to young officers. This research provides SWOSCOM with specific areas to target and revise in the current assessment by removing or modifying questions that contribute relatively little to the overall assessment and replacing them with questions that are more tailored to the skills and abilities necessary for a SWO and the community to develop a competitive advantage.Surface Warfare Officer SchoolLieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Genotypic resistance testing in HIV by arrayed primer extension

The analysis of mutations that are associated with the occurrence of drug resistance is important for monitoring the antiretroviral therapy of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Here, we describe the establishment and successful application of Arrayed Primer Extension (APEX) for genotypic resistance testing in HIV as a rapid and economical alternative to standard sequencing. The assay is based on an array of oligonucleotide primers that are immobilised via their 5′-ends. Upon hybridisation of template DNA, a primer extension reaction is performed in the presence of the four dideoxynucleotides, each labelled with a distinct fluorophore. The inserted label immediately indicates the sequence at the respective position. Any mutation changes the colour pattern. We designed a microarray for the analysis of 26 and 33 codons in the HIV protease and reverse transcriptase, respectively, which are of special interest with respect to drug resistance. The enormous genome variability of HIV represents a big challenge for genotypic resistance tests, which include a hybridisation step, both in terms of specificity and probe numbers. The use of degenerated oligonucleotides resulted in a significant reduction in the number of primers needed. For validation, DNA of 94 and 48 patients that exhibited resistance to inhibitors of HIV protease and reverse transcriptase, respectively, were analysed. The validation included HIV subtype B, prevalent in industrialised countries, as well as non-subtype B samples that are more common elsewhere

Epigallocatechin-3-gallate: a useful, effective and safe clinical approach for targeted prevention and individualised treatment of neurological diseases?

Neurodegenerative disorders show an increasing prevalence in a number of highly developed countries. Often, these diseases require life-long treatment mostly with drugs which are costly and mostly accompanied by more or less serious side-effects. Their heterogeneous manifestation, severity and outcome pose the need for individualised treatment options. There is an intensive search for new strategies not only for treating but also for preventing these diseases. Green tea and green tea extracts seem to be such a promising and safe alternative. However, data regarding the beneficial effects and possible underlying mechanism, specifically in clinical trials, are rare and rather controversial or non-conclusive. This review outlines the existing evidence from preclinical studies (cell and tissue cultures and animal models) and clinical trials regarding preventive and therapeutic effects of epigallcatechin-3-gallate in neurodegenerative diseases and considers antioxidative vs. pro-oxidative properties of the tea catechin important for dosage recommendations

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Tangible around-device interaction using rotatory gestures with a magnetic ring

The majority of mobile applications use built-in touchscreens and/or accelerometers to provide direct ways for user inputs. Yet, the need to manipulate the device itself (e.g. touch, tilt) poses usability issues such as occlusion and inaccuracy. To address these issues, research proposed using the built-in magnetometer and magnets to facilitate around-device interactions. However, there is little evaluation in how this technique impacts performance and user experience beyond simple docking tasks. To fill this gap, we explored the mobile gameplay context by implementing an interface that uses rotatory gestures from a magnetic ring as input, and compared two control mappings (angular and linear) with touch and tilt in a usability study using a mobile game. We found that rotatory gestures with the ring, when mapped to angular controls, were on par with touch and superior over tilt, and engendered greater gameplay experience and sense of mapping. Based on our findings, we discuss implications of using this technique for gameplay, as well as other applications

Reply to Garner et al.

The letter by Garner et al. [1] continued an important discussion regarding the role genomics might play in conservation biology. In general, we do not see a dichotomy between our point of view [2] and that put forth by Garner et al. [1]. At the heart of the issue is how to define an actual impact of genomics on applied conservation and find suitable ways to remove existing barriers limiting the use of genomics for managing wild populations. The promised gains of identifying adaptive loci and the genes underlying phenotypes 3, 4 have in most systems not yet been realized and recent empirical work further highlights the challenges 5, 6. Thus, our take-home message boiled down to the application of genomics in wild populations being at an early developmental stage that is far from straightforward and far from regularly applied [2].N