Positional Candidate Research Articles

Societies to genes: can we get there from here?

Understanding the organization and evolution of social complexity is a major task because it requires building an understanding of mechanisms operating at different levels of biological organization from genes to social interactions. I discuss here, a unique forward genetic approach spanning more than 30 years beginning with human-assisted colony-level selection for a single social trait, the amount of pollen honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) store. The goal was to understand a complex social trait from the social phenotype to genes responsible for observed trait variation. The approach combined the results of colony-level selection with detailed studies of individual behavior and physiology resulting in a mapped, integrated phenotypic architecture composed of correlative relationships between traits spanning anatomy, physiology, sensory response systems, and individual behavior that affect individual foraging decisions. Colony-level selection reverse engineered the architecture of an integrated phenotype of individuals resulting in changes in the social trait. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies combined with an exceptionally high recombination rate (60 kb/cM), and a phenotypic map, provided a genotype–phenotype map of high complexity demonstrating broad QTL pleiotropy, epistasis, and epistatic pleiotropy suggesting that gene pleiotropy or tight linkage of genes within QTL integrated the phenotype. Gene expression and knockdown of identified positional candidates revealed genes affecting foraging behavior and confirmed one pleiotropic gene, a tyramine receptor, as a target for colony-level selection that was under selection in two different tissues in two different life stages. The approach presented here has resulted in a comprehensive understanding of the structure and evolution of honey bee social organization.

A combination of genome-wide association study and selection signature analysis dissects the genetic architecture underlying bone traits in chickens

The bones of chicken play an important role in supporting and protecting the body. The growth and development of bones have a substantial influence on the health and production performance in chickens. However, genetic architecture underlying chicken bone traits is not well understood. The objectives of this study are to dissect the genetic basis of bone traits in chickens and to identify valuable genes and genetic markers for chicken breeding. We performed a combination of genome-wide association study (GWAS) and selection signature analysis (fixation index values and nucleotide diversity ratios) in an F2 crossbred experimental population with different genetic backgrounds (broiler × layer) to identify candidate genes and significant variants related to femur, shank, keel length, chest width, metatarsal claw weight, metatarsal length, and metatarsal circumference. A total of 545 individuals were genotyped based on the whole genome re-sequencing method (26 F0 individuals were re-sequenced at 10 × coverage; 519 F2 individuals were re-sequenced at 3 × coverage). A total of 2 028 112 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) remained to carry out analysis after quality control and imputation. The integration of GWAS and selection signature analysis indicated that all significant SNPs responsible for bone traits were mainly localized on chicken chromosomes 1, 4, and 27. Finally, we identified 21 positional candidate genes that might regulate chicken bone growth and development, including LRCH1, RB1, FNDC3A, MLNR, CAB39L, FOXO1, LHFP, TRPC4, POSTN, SMAD9, RBPJ, PPARGC1A, SLIT2, NCAPG, NKX3-2, CPZ, SPOP, NGFR, SOST, ZNF652, and HOXB3. Additionally, an array of uncharacterized genes was identified. The findings provide an in-depth understanding of the genetic architecture of chicken bone traits and offer a molecular basis for applying genomics in practical chicken breeding.

Incremental Validity of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire in the Preemployment Assessment of Police Officer Candidates

Guidelines for screening public safety personnel candidates, including law enforcement positions, incorporate the use of separate psychological tests for assessing normal and abnormal functioning. We evaluated the incremental validity of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)—a measure of normal personality traits—beyond the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), a measure of psychopathology, using a sample of 1,687 candidates for law enforcement positions. They were clinically rated on 10 psychological suitability dimensions. For a subset of those who were subsequently hired as police officers ( n = 397), we also had post-hire outcome data. Using hierarchical nonlinear regression analyses, we found that the MPQ scales incremented the MMPI-2-RF scales in the prediction of 17 of 19 variables in this study. Our results indicate that the MPQ, as a measure of normal personality, provides unique information about psychological suitability and predicts negative post-hire outcomes in police candidates.

Harnessing multivariate, penalized regression methods for genomic prediction and QTL detection of drought-related traits in grapevine

Viticulture has to cope with climate change and to decrease pesticide inputs, while maintaining yield and wine quality. Breeding is a key lever to meet this challenge, and genomic prediction a promising tool to accelerate breeding programs. Multivariate methods are potentially more accurate than univariate ones. Moreover, some prediction methods also provide marker selection, thus allowing quantitative trait loci (QTLs) detection and the identification of positional candidate genes. To study both genomic prediction and QTL detection for drought-related traits in grapevine, we applied several methods, interval mapping (IM) as well as univariate and multivariate penalized regression, in a bi-parental progeny. With a dense genetic map, we simulated two traits under four QTL configurations. The penalized regression method Elastic Net (EN) for genomic prediction, and controlling the marginal False Discovery Rate on EN selected markers to prioritize the QTLs. Indeed, penalized methods were more powerful than IM for QTL detection across various genetic architectures. Multivariate prediction did not perform better than its univariate counterpart, despite strong genetic correlation between traits. Using 14 traits measured in semi-controlled conditions under different watering conditions, penalized regression methods proved very efficient for intra-population prediction whatever the genetic architecture of the trait, with predictive abilities reaching 0.68. Compared to a previous study on the same traits, these methods applied on a denser map found new QTLs controlling traits linked to drought tolerance and provided relevant candidate genes. Overall, these findings provide a strong evidence base for implementing genomic prediction in grapevine breeding.

A KRT71 Loss-of-Function Variant Results in Inner Root Sheath Dysplasia and Recessive Congenital Hypotrichosis of Hereford Cattle.

Genodermatoses, such as heritable skin disorders, mostly represent Mendelian conditions. Congenital hypotrichosis (HY) characterize a condition of being born with less hair than normal. The purpose of this study was to characterize the clinicopathological phenotype of a breed-specific non-syndromic form of HY in Hereford cattle and to identify the causative genetic variant for this recessive disorder. Affected calves showed a very short, fine, wooly, kinky and curly coat over all parts of the body, with a major expression in the ears, the inner part of the limbs, and in the thoracic-abdominal region. Histopathology showed a severely altered morphology of the inner root sheath (IRS) of the hair follicle with abnormal Huxley and Henle’s layers and severely dysplastic hair shafts. A genome-wide association study revealed an association signal on chromosome 5. Homozygosity mapping in a subset of cases refined the HY locus to a 690 kb critical interval encompassing a cluster of type II keratin encoding genes. Protein-coding exons of six positional candidate genes with known hair or hair follicle function were re-sequenced. This revealed a protein-changing variant in the KRT71 gene that encodes a type II keratin specifically expressed in the IRS of the hair follicle (c.281delTGTGCCCA; p.Met94AsnfsX14). Besides obvious phenocopies, a perfect concordance between the presence of this most likely pathogenic loss-of-function variant located in the head domain of KRT71 and the HY phenotype was found. This recessive KRT71-related form of hypotrichosis provides a novel large animal model for similar human conditions. The results have been incorporated in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) database (OMIA 002114-9913).

Genome‐wide association analysis of drought adaptive traits in common bean

AbstractGenome‐wide association study (GWAS) was conducted to determine the genetic architecture of yield component and photosynthetic (PS) traits in 256 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes from the Andean gene pool. The panel was evaluated under drought stress (DS) and non‐stress (NS) conditions at two locations for two seasons in Uganda and genotyped with 260K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Significant association signals were detected for yield component and PS traits on chromosomes Pv02, Pv03, Pv04, Pv06, Pv09, Pv10, and Pv11. Colocalized GWAS signals were detected for pod weight per plant (PW) and seed yield per plant (SY) on Pv06 with ten significant markers and for PhiNPQ, LEF, Phi2, and PhiNO on Pv11 under DS. Positional candidate genes were identified within the 1.76 Mb common region for PW and SY under DS on Pv06 including Phvul.006G117500, Phvul.006G119800, and Phvul.006G130500 annotated as plant invertase/pectin methylesterase inhibitor (INH/PMEI) superfamily protein, involved in sucrose metabolism and signaling. Phvul.006G121200, 14.9Kb upstream of marker S06_23021418 (23.02Mb) on Pv06, encodes Protein phosphatase 2C family protein involved in ABA signaling pathway. Positional candidate genes for PS traits PhiNPQ, LEF, Phi2, and PhiNO on Pv11 under DS were identified including Phvul.011G178200, Phvul.011G178250, Phvul.011G178300, and Phvul.011G178500 between 48.94–49.96 Mb annotated as “RING/U‐BOX SUPERFAMILY PROTEIN”, ubiquitin ligase (E3) involved in ABA‐mediated responses. Significant markers associated with colocalized GWAS signal for SY and PW on Pv06 identified in this study can be validated for marker assisted breeding to improve drought tolerance in large‐seeded Andean beans.

Response to Oxidative Burst-Induced Hypoxia Is Associated With Macrophage Inflammatory Profiles as Revealed by Cellular Genome-Wide Association

BackgroundIn mammalian species, hypoxia is a prominent feature of inflammation. The role of hypoxia in regulating macrophage responses via alteration in metabolic pathways is well established. Recently, oxidative burst-induced hypoxia has been shown in murine macrophages after phagocytosis. Despite the available detailed information on the regulation of macrophage function at transcriptomic and epigenomic levels, the association of genetic polymorphism and macrophage function has been less explored. Previously, we have shown that host genetics controls approximately 80% of the variation in an oxidative burst as measured by nitric oxide (NO-). Further studies revealed two clusters of transcription factors (hypoxia-related and inflammatory-related) are under the genetic control that shapes macrophages’ pro-inflammatory characteristics.Material and MethodsIn the current study, the association between 43,066 autosomal Single Nucleic Polymorphism (SNPs) and the ability of MDMs in production of NO- in response to E. coli was evaluated in 58 Holstein cows. The positional candidate genes near significant SNPs were selected to perform functional analysis. In addition, the interaction between the positional candidate genes and differentially expressed genes from our previous study was investigated.ResultsSixty SNPs on 22 chromosomes of the bovine genome were found to be significantly associated with NO- production of macrophages. The functional genomic analysis showed a significant interaction between positional candidate genes and mitochondria-related differentially expressed genes from the previous study. Further examination showed 7 SNPs located in the vicinity of genes with roles in response to hypoxia, shaping approximately 73% of the observed individual variation in NO- production by MDM. Regarding the normoxic condition of macrophage culture in this study, it was hypothesized that oxidative burst is responsible for causing hypoxia at the cellular level.ConclusionThe results suggest that the genetic polymorphism via regulation of response to hypoxia is a candidate step that perhaps shapes macrophage functional characteristics in the pathway of phagocytosis leading to oxidative burst, hypoxia, cellular response to hypoxia and finally the pro-inflammatory responses. Since all cells in one individual carry the same alleles, the effect of genetic predisposition of sensitivity to hypoxia will likely be notable on the clinical outcome to a broad range of host-pathogen interactions.

Meta-Analysis of Heifer Traits Identified Reproductive Pathways in Bos indicus Cattle.

Fertility traits measured early in life define the reproductive potential of heifers. Knowledge of genetics and biology can help devise genomic selection methods to improve heifer fertility. In this study, we used ~2400 Brahman cattle to perform GWAS and multi-trait meta-analysis to determine genomic regions associated with heifer fertility. Heifer traits measured were pregnancy at first mating opportunity (PREG1, a binary trait), first conception score (FCS, score 1 to 3) and rebreeding score (REB, score 1 to 3.5). The heritability estimates were 0.17 (0.03) for PREG1, 0.11 (0.05) for FCS and 0.28 (0.05) for REB. The three traits were highly genetically correlated (0.75–0.83) as expected. Meta-analysis was performed using SNP effects estimated for each of the three traits, adjusted for standard error. We identified 1359 significant SNPs (p-value < 9.9 × 10−6 at FDR < 0.0001) in the multi-trait meta-analysis. Genomic regions of 0.5 Mb around each significant SNP from the meta-analysis were annotated to create a list of 2560 positional candidate genes. The most significant SNP was in the vicinity of a genomic region on chromosome 8, encompassing the genes SLC44A1, FSD1L, FKTN, TAL2 and TMEM38B. The genomic region in humans that contains homologs of these genes is associated with age at puberty in girls. Top significant SNPs pointed to additional fertility-related genes, again within a 0.5 Mb region, including ESR2, ITPR1, GNG2, RGS9BP, ANKRD27, TDRD12, GRM1, MTHFD1, PTGDR and NTNG1. Functional pathway enrichment analysis resulted in many positional candidate genes relating to known fertility pathways, including GnRH signaling, estrogen signaling, progesterone mediated oocyte maturation, cAMP signaling, calcium signaling, glutamatergic signaling, focal adhesion, PI3K-AKT signaling and ovarian steroidogenesis pathway. The comparison of results from this study with previous transcriptomics and proteomics studies on puberty of the same cattle breed (Brahman) but in a different population identified 392 genes in common from which some genes—BRAF, GABRA2, GABR1B, GAD1, FSHR, CNGA3, PDE10A, SNAP25, ESR2, GRIA2, ORAI1, EGFR, CHRNA5, VDAC2, ACVR2B, ORAI3, CYP11A1, GRIN2A, ATP2B3, CAMK2A, PLA2G, CAMK2D and MAPK3—are also part of the above-mentioned pathways. The biological functions of the positional candidate genes and their annotation to known pathways allowed integrating the results into a bigger picture of molecular mechanisms related to puberty in the hypothalamus–pituitary–ovarian axis. A reasonable number of genes, common between previous puberty studies and this study on early reproductive traits, corroborates the proposed molecular mechanisms. This study identified the polymorphism associated with early reproductive traits, and candidate genes that provided a visualization of the proposed mechanisms, coordinating the hypothalamic, pituitary, and ovarian functions for reproductive performance in Brahman cattle.

Identification of quantitative trait loci associated with calmness and gentleness in honey bees using whole-genome sequences.

SummaryThe identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) through genome‐wide association studies (GWAS) is a powerful method for unravelling the genetic background of selected traits and improving early‐stage predictions. In honey bees (Apis mellifera), past genetic analyses have particularly focused on individual queens and workers. In this study, we used pooled whole‐genome sequences to ascertain the genetic variation of the entire colony. In total, we sampled 216 Apis mellifera mellifera and 28 Apis mellifera carnica colonies. Different experts subjectively assessed the gentleness and calmness of the colonies using a standardised protocol. Conducting a GWAS for calmness on 211 purebred A. m. mellifera colonies, we identified three QTL, on chromosomes 8, 6, and 12. The two first QTL correspond to LOC409692 gene, coding for a disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain‐containing protein 10, and to Abscam gene, coding for a Dscam family member Abscam protein, respectively. The last gene has been reported to be involved in the domestication of A. mellifera. The third QTL is located 13 kb upstream of LOC102655631, coding for a trehalose transporter. For gentleness, two QTL were identified on chromosomes 4 and 3. They are located within gene LOC413669, coding for a lap4 protein, and gene LOC413416, coding for a bicaudal C homolog 1‐B protein, respectively. The identified positional candidate genes of both traits mainly affect the olfaction and nervous system of honey bees. Further research is needed to confirm the results and to better understand the genetic and phenotypic basis of calmness and gentleness.

Optimization of the University Staff: Obtained Results and Designated Tasks

The article (a case) highlights the experience of the regional university in staff optimization caused by the requirements of federal legislation to improve the quality of higher education and to outline the personnel strategy prospects for the future.The methodological basis of the study is the systematic approach, which made it possible to comprehensively assess the qualitative changes in the university staff; the use of the method of situational analysis largely contributed to an increase in the objectivity of the results obtained. Besides, the researchers used the following methods: the study of legislative documents that determine the activities of a higher educational institution; the analysis of theoretical papers on the management of educational institutions and on human resource management; the method of mathematical modelling and the analysis of statistical data, the method of social forecasting.The study comes to be theoretically significant, as it clarifies the concept of «staff optimization» and introduces the concept of «university staff optimization» as a new scientific term. The research also distinguishes the basic principles of university staff optimization and substantiates the reasons that caused this process, mainly related to the demographic, social and economic situation in our country and the tasks of reforming the higher education system. The article also examines the concept of «university personnel strategy» and highlights its components, focused on preserving academic traditions, on creating conditions for increasing the staff competency and on encouraging the faculty to intensify their activity. On the example of the regional university, there is carried out an analysis of quantitative and qualitative changes in the educational process staffing (in terms of academic degrees and titles, faculty compliance with the profile of the disciplines taught, etc.); the effectiveness of a number of new mechanisms introduced into the universities’ practice in order to update the requirements for the selection of candidates for teaching positions is studied. Thus appearing to be scientifically significant, the paper presents a regional university staff optimization model, which includes several logically related stages, allowing this process to be carried out most effectively: scientific, normative, practical and social. The recommendations to improve the personnel strategy and systematically enhance the quality of personnel in the educational process are formulated.The work is original, as it shows the systemic nature of work with the faculty when optimizing the staff in accordance with the university’s personnel strategy. The article might be of use for university leaders and researchers working on personnel issues and personnel management.

Intern retrieval from community question answering websites: A new variation of expert finding problem

In recent years, with the advent of new scientific and technical areas, hiring suitable interns has become very important for large companies. In internship programs, to reduce the risk of unsuccessful recruitment, companies are actively seeking those candidates who are ready to become skillful experts, and also incur the least financial costs. Therefore, generalists (i.e. Hyphen-shaped people) are the most suitable candidates for such positions. These candidates have general knowledge in the required skills of the position and do not have expertise in any other area. One of the environments that accurately reflect the knowledge of people is community question answering (CQA). This study is the first that focuses on retrieving interns from CQA websites. It uses the concepts of generalist and shape of expertise to identify suitable candidates for the internship programs of companies. Specifically, in this paper, we define the intern retrieval problem, in which given a set of required skills of an internship position, a ranking of candidates is generated so that the generalists who have general knowledge in those skills are retrieved in top ranks. We propose two retrieval models to address the problem. In order to evaluate the performance of these models, we introduce two specific measures (i.e. coverage and optimality). Our experiments on three test collections extracted from StackOverflow demonstrate the effectiveness of our models in comparison with several baselines.

Assessment of the resistance to stress of candidates for the position of a manager based on modelling the stress factor “Lack of time”

The article discusses the problem of psychological assessment of respondents' stress resistance during professional selection. A theoretical analysis of the currently known methods for assessing stress resistance, their positive and negative sides is carried out. The problem of assessing stress resistance by psychological questionnaires is noted, in a situation where respondents are interested in inflated results (for example, during professional selection for leadership positions). The article proposes a method for assessing stress resistance based on modeling the stress factor “Time shortage”, which minimises the possibility of respondents' conscious distortion of the results during testing. The technique was tested during the selection of candidates for managerial positions in the Recruitment Agency “OKO” in Kirov.

Variants at the ASIP locus contribute to coat color darkening in Nellore cattle

BackgroundNellore cattle (Bos indicus) are well-known for their adaptation to warm and humid environments. Hair length and coat color may impact heat tolerance. The Nellore breed has been strongly selected for white coat, but bulls generally exhibit darker hair ranging from light grey to black on the head, neck, hump, and knees. Given the potential contribution of coat color variation to the adaptation of cattle populations to tropical and sub-tropical environments, our aim was to map positional and functional candidate genetic variants associated with darkness of hair coat (DHC) in Nellore bulls.ResultsWe performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for DHC using data from 432 Nellore bulls that were genotyped for more than 777 k single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A single major association signal was detected in the vicinity of the agouti signaling protein gene (ASIP). The analysis of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data from 21 bulls revealed functional variants that are associated with DHC, including a structural rearrangement involving ASIP (ASIP-SV1). We further characterized this structural variant using Oxford Nanopore sequencing data from 13 Australian Brahman heifers, which share ancestry with Nellore cattle; we found that this variant originates from a 1155-bp deletion followed by an insertion of a transposable element of more than 150 bp that may impact the recruitment of ASIP non-coding exons.ConclusionsOur results indicate that the variant ASIP sequence causes darker coat pigmentation on specific parts of the body, most likely through a decreased expression of ASIP and consequently an increased production of eumelanin.

A Nonsense Variant in Hephaestin Like 1 (HEPHL1) Is Responsible for Congenital Hypotrichosis in Belted Galloway Cattle.

Genodermatosis such as hair disorders mostly follow a monogenic mode of inheritance. Congenital hypotrichosis (HY) belong to this group of disorders and is characterized by abnormally reduced hair since birth. The purpose of this study was to characterize the clinical phenotype of a breed-specific non-syndromic form of HY in Belted Galloway cattle and to identify the causative genetic variant for this recessive disorder. An affected calf born in Switzerland presented with multiple small to large areas of alopecia on the limbs and on the dorsal part of the head, neck, and back. A genome-wide association study using Swiss and US Belted Galloway cattle encompassing 12 cases and 61 controls revealed an association signal on chromosome 29. Homozygosity mapping in a subset of cases refined the HY locus to a 1.5 Mb critical interval and subsequent Sanger sequencing of protein-coding exons of positional candidate genes revealed a stop gain variant in the HEPHL1 gene that encodes a multi-copper ferroxidase protein so-called hephaestin like 1 (c.1684A>T; p.Lys562*). A perfect concordance between the homozygous presence of this most likely pathogenic loss-of-function variant and the HY phenotype was found. Genotyping of more than 700 purebred Swiss and US Belted Galloway cattle showed the global spread of the mutation. This study provides a molecular test that will permit the avoidance of risk matings by systematic genotyping of relevant breeding animals. This rare recessive HEPHL1-related form of hypotrichosis provides a novel large animal model for similar human conditions. The results have been incorporated in the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) database (OMIA 002230-9913).

Systems genetic analysis of nicotine withdrawal deficits in hippocampus-dependent learning.

Cognitive deficits, such as disrupted learning, are a major symptom of nicotine withdrawal. These deficits are heritable, yet their genetic basis is largely unknown. Our lab has developed a mouse model of nicotine withdrawal deficits in learning, using chronic nicotine exposure via osmotic minipumps and fear conditioning. Here, we utilized the BXD genetic reference panel to identify genetic variants underlying nicotine withdrawal deficits in learning. Male and female mice (n = 6-11 per sex per strain, 31 strains) received either chronic saline or nicotine (6.3 mg/kg per day for 12 days), and were then tested for hippocampus-dependent learning deficits using contextual fear conditioning. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping analyses using GeneNetwork identified a significant QTL on Chromosome 4 (82.13 Mb, LRS = 20.03, p < 0.05). Publicly available hippocampal gene expression data were used to identify eight positional candidates (Snacpc3, Mysm1, Rps6, Plaa, Lurap1l, Slc24a2, Hacd4, Ptprd) that overlapped with our behavioral QTL and correlated with our behavioral data. Overall, this study demonstrates that genetic factors impact cognitive deficits during nicotine withdrawal in the BXD recombinant inbred panel and identifies candidate genes for future research.

Sequence-based GWAS and post-GWAS analyses reveal a key role of SLC37A1, ANKH, and regulatory regions on bovine milk mineral content

The mineral composition of bovine milk plays an important role in determining its nutritional and cheese-making value. Concentrations of the main minerals predicted from mid-infrared spectra produced during milk recording, combined with cow genotypes, provide a unique opportunity to decipher the genetic determinism of these traits. The present study included 1 million test-day predictions of Ca, Mg, P, K, Na, and citrate content from 126,876 Montbéliarde cows, of which 19,586 had genotype data available. All investigated traits were highly heritable (0.50–0.58), with the exception of Na (0.32). A sequence-based genome-wide association study (GWAS) detected 50 QTL (18 affecting two to five traits) and positional candidate genes and variants, mostly located in non-coding sequences. In silico post-GWAS analyses highlighted 877 variants that could be regulatory SNPs altering transcription factor (TF) binding sites or located in non-coding RNA (mainly lncRNA). Furthermore, we found 47 positional candidate genes and 45 TFs highly expressed in mammary gland compared to 90 other bovine tissues. Among the mammary-specific genes, SLC37A1 and ANKH, encoding proteins involved in ion transport were located in the most significant QTL. This study therefore highlights a comprehensive set of functional candidate genes and variants that affect milk mineral content.

Are CEOs Different?

ABSTRACTUsing 2,603 executive assessments, we study how CEO candidates differ from candidates for other top management positions, particularly CFOs. More than half of the variation in the 30 assessed characteristics is explained by four factors that we interpret as general ability, execution (vs. interpersonal), charisma (vs. analytical), and strategic (vs. managerial). CEO candidates have more extreme factor scores that differ significantly from those of CFO candidates. Conditional on being considered, candidates with greater general ability and interpersonal skills are more likely to be hired. These and our previous results on CEO success suggest that boards overweight interpersonal skills in hiring CEOs.

A MODEL OF TECHNOLOGICALLY CHOOSING EMPLOYEES IN AN AEROSPACE INDUSTRY PROJECT

The challenges of interviewing candidates for positions in cybersecure communications of aerospace industry. Data and experiments conducted as evidence that the improvements to the current model of selecting employees are needed in the real-world applications. A proposal of a newly developed method of selecting job candidates using information technology.

Targeted Sequencing Approach to Identifying Rare Genetic Variants Associated with Atrial Fibrillation

Purpose Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Multiple genes and genetic loci affecting AF susceptibility have been identified using positional cloning and candidate gene approaches The extent to which such polymorphisms contribute to AF is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine the spectrum and prevalence of rare amino acid coding (AAC) variants in candidate AF genes in a cohort of unrelated AF patients from Kazakhstan. Methods We sequenced 96 candidate genes in 102 Kazakhstani patients with AF using customized targeted gene panel (Haloplex, Agilent Technologies). Variants detected were compared with variants observed in the Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) to identify very rare (minor allele frequency 0.04%) AAC variants. ACMG/AMP guidelines were applied for variant interpretation of clinical significance - pathogenic (P), possibly pathogenic (PP), variant of uncertain significance (VUS), possibly benign (PB), benign (B). The ClinVar, Varsome and HGMD databases were also used. Results Median age at AF onset was 47.0 years, and 31.3% had a family history of AF. Totally 456 variants were identified in 74 genes for the overall study group. Variants included one in/del variant, four splice-site variants and 451 single-nucleotide variants (SNV) within the coding exonic regions. 168 HGMD mutations (61 unique) were observed in 37 genes. Classification of 456 variants according to ACMG guidelines showed that 13(2.9%) variants were classified as pathogenic, 13(2.9%) - likely pathogenic, 145 (31.9%) - uncertain significance, 109 (23.8%) likely benign and 175 (38.4%) benign. 31 rare AAC variants were identified in 20 of 102 AF patients. Among them three pathogenic variants KCNQ1 c.477+1G>A, KCNJ2 R218Q and KCNE2 T10K C29A (PP) were identified. Conclusion Our study shows that individuals presenting with AF carry rare mutations and potentially pathogenetic sequence variants in classical cardiac risk genes in almost 20%. No very rare AAC variants were identified in 80% of AF patients. Potential reasons for the lack of very rare AAC variants include a complex pattern of inheritance, variants in as yet unidentified AF genes or in noncoding regions, and environmental factors.

A Survey of Arizona Pharmacists to Identify Opportunities to Enhance Pharmacists’ Competitiveness in a Tightening Labor Market

Background: The pharmacy profession has experienced dramatic shifts in scopes of practice, services offered, and employment opportunities over the last couple decades. At the same time, the number of students graduating from pharmacy school each year has steadily increased. The combined effect of these factors is a tightening labor market. Identification of potential knowledge and skill deficits in the applicant pool will create opportunity for pharmacists to tailor their personal development and educators to design content to address contemporary needs. Objective: To determine if the current pharmacist pool meets employment needs in Arizona with respect to specific skills and knowledge. Methods: In a cross-sectional survey design, Arizona licensed pharmacists were asked to provide their perspective of the knowledge and skills of candidates for pharmacist positions within 8 skill & knowledge domains. Descriptive statistics were used for respondents’ characteristics. A multivariate logistic regression was used for association between respondent characteristics and responses. Free responses were assessed using a qualitative thematic analysis. Results: Among 685 respondents, 88% were employed, 48% had precepting experience, and 44% were involved with hiring. The majority were from chain community pharmacies (33%) and inpatient settings (22%). Management and conflict resolution skills were reported as lacking by 35% and 28% of respondents respectively; 24% reported insufficient compounding knowledge. Conclusion: Our findings suggest knowledge deficits in management, conflict resolution, and compounding. This information can be used for career planning and for educational program development or curricular enhancements. Similar studies in other regions will provide data on national needs.