Top Line Research Articles

Research on the CNC incremental forming method of the special-shaped sheet metal part with the 3D top edge lines

Research on the CNC incremental forming method of the special-shaped sheet metal part with the 3D top edge lines

Regulation of epidermal differentiation through KDF1-mediated deubiquitination of IKKα.

Progenitor cells at the basal layer of skin epidermis play an essential role in maintaining tissue homeostasis and enhancing wound repair in skin. The proliferation, differentiation, and cell death of epidermal progenitor cells have to be delicately regulated, as deregulation of this process can lead to many skin diseases, including skin cancers. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in skin homeostasis remain poorly defined. In this study, with quantitative proteomics approach, we identified an important interaction between KDF1 (keratinocyte differentiation factor 1) and IKKα (IκB kinase α) in differentiating skin keratinocytes. Ablation of either KDF1 or IKKα in mice leads to similar but striking abnormalities in skin development, particularly in skin epidermal differentiation. With biochemical and mouse genetics approach, we further demonstrate that the interaction of IKKα and KDF1 is essential for epidermal differentiation. To probe deeper into the mechanisms, we find that KDF1 associates with a deubiquitinating protease USP7 (ubiquitin-specific peptidase 7), and KDF1 can regulate skin differentiation through deubiquitination and stabilization of IKKα. Taken together, our study unravels an important molecular mechanism underlying epidermal differentiation and skin tissue homeostasis.

Key Account Management: Decisions Sciences in Practice

Key Account Management (KAM) has been vastly misunderstood, in not just in Indian companies but in many western companies too. India has a slew of multinationals, but they have also fallen into the trap of classifying key accounts by just sorting their accounts in a descending order and drawing a line based just on the contribution of the account to the top line. This paper will examine an alternate method of identifying and categorizing accounts and not just in the form of labels like A, B, C or platinum, gold, silver etc. Procedure: It will be our effort to examine various factors that, in addition to the value contribution to the supplier, that can be consolidated under two main criteria viz: 1) Attractiveness of the account to the supplier and 2) how attractive is the supplier to the buyer(account) under consideration. For this, we will be using a ‘modified’ GE/Shell matrix. An area, which will discuss en passant, is how do we evaluate the key accounts based on the above matrix and the way resources should be allocated for each category as a whole, and subsequently drill down to individual accounts. Implication: This paper should provide an insight to the students of management to understand an alternate way to classify their key accounts and also to the practitioners in industry to have a new look at how key accounts can be redefined.

Virulence/avirulence patterns among Leptosphaeria maculans isolates determines expression of resistance, senescence and yellowing in cotyledons of Brassica napus

Blackleg, (stem canker, Leptosphaeria maculans), is the most economically important disease on oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Studies were undertaken to determine the effect of three different L. maculans isolates with different virulence/avirulence patterns on the expression of qualitative resistance and senescence on cotyledons of 11 B. napus genotypes. There were significant differences between genotypes (P Scotia > Amber x Commanche DH Line. Westar, Drummonds Purple Top, and Parkside were the most susceptible. L. maculans isolates D5 and D13 were the most pathogenic, showing the greatest disease index and lesion diameters. Genotypes such as LSF0530, Scotia, Duell and Barrel responded with a distinct hypersensitive response, whereas Parkside, Drummonds Purple Top, Amber x Commanche DH Line and Westar all showed a distinct yellow halo around the lesions, indicative of cotyledon senescence likely involving programmed cell death (PCD). However, expression of the distinct yellow halo symptom was not observed in all B. napus genotypes infected by one specific L. maculans isolate nor in one specific B. napus genotype challenged with all the isolates. We believe that this is the first report, i), showing the involvement of a distinct yellow halo (senescence/PCD) associated with both ‘typical’ lesions and with an expression of HR in cotyledons of winter-type B. napus genotypes challenged with L. maculans isolates and, ii), that expression of the distinct yellow halo is clearly dependent on the interaction between particular isolate virulence(s) x particular winter-type B. napus genotype combinations.

T1 Top Line Results of the DETECT Enzymatic Debridement Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract Introduction Bromelain Based Debridement (BBD) of deep burns is approved for use in Europe, Argentina, Russia, South Korea, Peru and Israel. In the United States it is an investigational product and currently there are 2 multicenter RCTs (DETECT – adults, CIDS – children). Patient enrollment in the DETECT adult trial has been completed. The aim of this abstract is to present the acute stage top line results of the DETECT trial. Methods 175 adult patients suffering from deep burns were included in a phase III multicenter, multinational, randomized, controlled, assessor blinded trial. Patients were randomized to 3 arms – BBD, Standard of Care (SOC), or Gel vehicle (Placebo control) in a 3:3:1 ratio (75 BBD, 75 SOC, 25 Gel). The primary endpoint was the incidence of complete eschar removal (BBD vs Gel). Additional acute stage endpoints included the time to complete eschar removal, incidence of surgical eschar removal and eschar removal associated blood loss.Time to complete wound closure (BBD vs SOC) was assessed as a safety endpoint. Following the acute stage, a long-term follow up period of 2 years is being conducted. Results Patient demographics and wound baseline characteristics were comparable across study arms.The incidence of complete eschar removal was significantly higher for BBD vs Gel patients (93.3% vs 4%, p< 0.0001). The incidence of surgical eschar removal was significantly lower for BBD vs SOC patients (4% vs 72%, p< 0.0001). The median time to complete eschar removal was significantly shorter for BBD vs SOC patients (1 day vs 3.8 days, p< 0.0001). Calculated eschar removal associated blood loss was significantly lower for BBD vs SOC patients (14ml vs 815ml, p< 0.0001). The median time to complete wound closure was similar for BBD and SOC patients (27 and 28 days). The overall safety profile of BBD treated patients was good and consistent with the safety data known from previous studies.The results of the long term follow up period are not yet available. Conclusions The acute stage results of this robust phase III RCT demonstrate the safety and efficacy of BBD and are in line with previous trial results. Applicability of Research to Practice The results of this trial may help pave the way for US approval of BBD.

Comparative Analysis of In Vitro Responses and Regeneration between Diverse Bioenergy Sorghum Genotypes.

Sorghum has been considered a recalcitrant plant in vitro and suffers from a lack of regeneration protocols that function broadly and efficiently across a range of genotypes. This study was initiated to identify differential genotype-in vitro protocol responses across a range of bioenergy sorghum parental lines and the common grain sorghum genotype Tx430 in order to characterize response profiles for use in future genetic studies. Two different in vitro protocols, LG and WU, were used for comparisons. Distinct genotype-protocol responses were observed, and the WU protocol performed significantly better for plantlet regeneration. Most bioenergy genotypes performed as well, if not better than Tx430, with Rio and PI329311 as the top regenerating lines. Genotypes displayed protocol-dependent, differential phenolic exudation responses, as indicated by medium browning. During the callus induction phase, genotypes prone to medium browning exhibited a response on WU medium which was either equal or greater than on LG medium. Genotype- and protocol-dependent albino plantlet regeneration was also noted, with three of the bioenergy genotypes showing albino plantlet regeneration. Grassl, Rio and Pink Kafir were susceptible to albino plantlet regeneration, with the response strongly associated with the WU protocol. These bioenergy parental genotypes, and their differential responses under two in vitro protocols, provide tools to further explore and assess the role of genetic loci, candidate genes, and allelic variants in the regulation of in vitro responsiveness in sorghum.

A study on liquidity risk management of selected commercial and private banks in India

The study aims to know the financial performance is analyze using ROA, ROE, ROAA and ROAE. The study on financial performance , liquidity risk management and impact of liquidity risk in both top line and bottom line for selected commercial and private banks in India using e-view software & to know the performance of Indian banks during demonetization and how it has effect the financial performances of banks .The banks need to control and closely monitor the NPL in order to reduce the NPLR with the purpose for better performance of the banks and there is a timely need for the management of the commercial & private banks to maintain their liquidity gap at a safe level in order to avoid the negative impact on the performance of the banks. The risk on bottom line is effect by having low net income earned by banks .The top line performance is effected by more non performing ratio in banks because ROA , ROAE and ROE is showing significant to NPL with P value less than 5 %.

Prácticas de gestión del conocimiento y rasgos de liderazgo transformacional: predicción de la innovación de procesos en la industria de bienes de consumo

Organizations in the current competitive and challenging situation considered organizational process innovation to sustain themselves with competitive advantage and provisioning of high value products to consumers. The current study investigates the role of transformational leadership traits and knowledge management practices on predicting the process innovation in FMCG companies. Data has been collected from the 10 FMCG companies located in major two cities i.e. Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan. Sample of 200 top line managers have been selected by convenience sampling method and adapted itemized questionnaire has been presented to the top management after a brief session of face to face interviews. Response of 170 top line employees has been registered and statistical testing has been done on SPSS 22. Results indicated that the transformational leadership traits has significantly positive impact on process innovation which effectively expedites the production efficiency of manufacturing units. The knowledge management practices such as acquisition, transfer and application has strong and positively significant association with process innovation. The knowledge management practices positively mediates with transformational leadership traits and resultantly lays foundation for continuous process improvement to survive in market. This conceptual model practically helps the production and manufacturing companies to nurture positive change management attitudes, decreasing production time, expanding products range, development of skills needed to advocate and adopt change, employee involvement, commitment and benefits of large scale economy. This study is limited to FMCGs in major cities and can be expanded to services industry and test the conceptual model.

Partition of rainfall variation effect on crop productivity into amount and distribution effects

Rainfall is the most influential factor of rainfed agricultural production in semi-arid Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan environments. While effects of rainfall amount and distribution are confounded, their partition will help developing strategies to manage green water in these environments. A series of 39 years of country average cereal yield and rainfall data was used (1981-2019). Cumulated rainfall over months of November, Rainfall of the month of January, February and March of Central location of Marchouch (33.5613° N, 6.6919° W) taken as a representative of agricultural land, were used because of high correlations with yield. Regression of cereal yields on rainfall showed scattered points below a top frontier line representing highest water productivity (yield/rainfall), accounting for effect of amount independent from distribution. Regression of all 39 yields on rainfall accounts for both confounded effects of amount and distribution. Difference indicates effectofdistribution of rainfall. Cumulated rainfall over the 4 months, varied from 64.20 mm to 447 mm with an average of 219 mm. Yields ranged from 3.59 q/ha to 22.88 q/ha with an average of 12.29 q/ha. Top water productivity indicating effect of amount was 3.98 kg/mm. Distribution of rainfall reduced actual yields by 13% to50% depending on season and cereal crop. The model can be adapted to rainfed crops in semiarid environments.

Health-Saving Technologies in Education

In terms of the negative impact on children's health, education is one of the top lines. Introducing health-saving methods into educational practice will help to remedy this situation. The leading method is the longitudinal one, characterized by three features: integrity, collective creativity, and duration: 1) when examining a particular problem, we do not pay less attention to other aspects of education, which creates favorable conditions for an in-depth analysis of the nature, interrelation, interdependence of pedagogical phenomena; 2) first, the most experienced teachers are involved in the experiment; the obvious effectiveness of innovations applied by them attracts other teachers to the study; 3) long-term work in the same school creates favorable conditions for a long experiment, which ensures high reliability and validity of the results obtained. We also used observation and content analysis, extrapolation methods and simulation, methods of systematization and generalization, evaluation of the results obtained in the retrospective and the perspective. We investigated the work of several educational institutions and innovator teachers, who made a definite contribution to the solution of the problem of saving the schoolchildren’s health, we gave a work definition of the concept of health-saving educational technologies, disclosed their nature. The use of health-saving educational technologies ensures not only high academic achievements but also excludes overload in the education activities, which allows for all children to learn well without harming their health.

Compact microstrip lowpass filter with high harmonics suppression using defected structures

A compact microstrip lowpass filter with sharp selectivity and wide stopband designed on the basis of dual-plane, is presented. Initially, a basic one pole defected ground structure (DGS) filter is modified so as to achieve sharp selectivity as well as compact size. The modified DGS reduces the circuit size of the filter by 68.8%. To suppress the higher order harmonics, mirrored symmetrical uniform impedance stubs are designed in the top surface of the substrate, thereby wide stopband up to 20 GHz is achieved. The stopband suppression level of the filter is improved by incorporating a spurline resonator which acts as a defected microstrip structure (DMS) in the top microstrip line. The designed filter has 3 dB cutoff frequency of 2.11 GHz with high relative stopband bandwidth of 159.2% within the rejection level of 18 dB. The wide passband frequency range of the proposed filter covers the GSM, GPS, Wi-Fi communications and various L-band applications such as aircraft surveillance etc.

The Paracaspase MALT1 Acts Independently of Pre-B-Cell Receptor Signaling As a Key Factor in Leukemic Cell Survival in Precursor B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Despite a central role for B-cell receptor precursor (pre-BCR) pathway in precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), there is limited available data on therapies that aim to disrupt this pathway. Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) is a para-caspase required for BCR-mediated NF-κB activation. We recently showed that targeting MALT1 with the small molecule inhibitor MI2 is effective in CLL, including drug-resistant clones (Saba Can Res 2017). We sought to examine the role of MALT1 in B-ALL and determine the biological consequences of inhibiting its activity. First, we tested MALT1 expression by immunoblot in B-ALL using 17 cell lines representing the disease spectrum (7 pro-B: REH, SEMK2, TOM1, RS4;11, NALM21, Z119, BV173; 8 pre-B: HB11;19, NALM6, RCH-ACV, SMS-SB, 697, KASUMI2, KOPN8, HPB-NULL; and 2 mature/Burkitt: 2F7, RAJI), and found that MALT1 was expressed in all cell lines at different levels. To determine sensitivity to MALT1 inhibition we used two molecules: Z-VRPR-fmk, a highly selective MALT1 blocking peptide, and MI2, a small molecule MALT1 inhibitor. Z-VRPR-fmk resulted in a dramatic cell growth inhibition in most of our B-ALL cell lines, with appropriate positive (TMD8) and negative (K562) controls, independent of the cell-of-origin (pro, pre, mature) or the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome. We did not observe a clear correlation between MALT1 level and degree of sensitivity to Z-VRPR-fmk. Interestingly, the two ibrutinib-resistant cell lines RS4;11 and 697, were amongst the top sensitive cell lines to MALT1 inhibition. A similar pattern of cell sensitivity was observed when these cell lines were treated with MI2, resulting in an IC50 at 48h of 0.2 µM in RS4;11 and < 0.5 µM in other sensitive cell lines, which is consistent with published data in sensitive DLBCL cell lines (IC50, 0.2-0.5 µM), and our data on the CLL cell line MEC1 (IC50, 0.2 µM). We then tested freshly collected PBMCs from patients with various blood cancers presenting with a leukemic phase against serial dilutions of MI2 for 48h (7 B-ALL, 24 CLL, and 4 CML). In addition, we included normal B-cells collected from five volunteers. Interestingly, B-ALL samples showed the highest sensitivity to MI2, followed by CLL, while the rest were resistant. The proteolytic activity of MALT1 can be studied by measuring its ability to cleave its targets such as A20, CYLD, BCL10, Roquin, Regnase and RelB. Surprisingly, with the exception of the Burkitt cell line 2F7, we did not detect cleavage of these targets at baseline, nor after proteasomal inhibition with MG-132 or following crosslinking of pre-BCR with anti-IgM in pre-B ALL, the latter successfully increased AKT phosphorylation. The constitutive activation of MALT1 in 2F7 was effectively inhibited by Z-VRPR-fmk as determined by a marked reduction in targets cleavage concomitant with an increase in full length proteins. We are expanding the mature B-ALL cell line cohort to include TANOUE, BALL-1, DAUDI, GA-10, and NC-37 cell lines to further explore to role of MALT1 in this disease subset. Collectively, these data highly suggest distinct roles for MALT1 in B-ALL: pro and pre-B-ALL vs. mature B-ALL. To explore the possibility of distinct role for MALT1 in B-ALL, arguably independent of BTK and of signaling through BCR, we used RNA sequencing to determine the changes in gene expression profiling following a 24h treatment with Z-VRPR-fmk in 3 highly sensitive B-ALL cell lines (RS4;11, HPB-NULL, and 697). Out of 39,514 tested genes, there were 160 genes whose expression changed ≥ 2-fold at P < 0.05 (84 down- and 76 up-regulated). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) identified 34 Hallmark and Oncogenic Signatures gene sets relevant to B-ALL that were all downregulated by Z-VRPR-fmk (FDR < 10%, and normalized enrichment score (NES) ≥ 1.50). Among those gene sets, mTOR-S6K and TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1)-dependent gene signatures stood out as the most affected. MALT1 was shown to be involved in the ribosomal protein S6 phosphorylation through activation of mTOR/AKT signaling. Indeed, treatment with MI2 and Z-VRPR resulted in a significant decrease in S6 phosphorylation in RS4;11 and SEMK2. In conclusion, MALT1 plays a critical role in B-ALL survival likely through a novel mechanism that involves mTOR-S6K pathway, independently from pre-BCR/BCR signaling. Supported by a grant from the Ladies Leukemia League, Inc., of the Gulf South Region. Disclosures Saba: Kyowa Kirin: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Melnick:Epizyme: Consultancy; Janssen: Research Funding; Constellation: Consultancy. Wiestner:Merck: Research Funding; Nurix: Research Funding; Pharmayclics: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding. Burger:AstraZeneca: Honoraria; Aptose Biosciences, Inc: Research Funding; Gilead Sciences: Research Funding; Janssen Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie company: Research Funding; BeiGene: Research Funding. Safah:Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Incyte: Speakers Bureau; Verastem: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Jazz: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau.

Automated Road Curb Break Lines Extraction from Mobile LiDAR Point Clouds

In last decades, Mobile Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) systems were revealed to be an efficient and reliable method to collect dense and precise point clouds. The challenge now faced by researchers is the automatic object extraction from those point clouds, such as the curb break lines, which are essential to road rehabilitation projects and autonomous driving. Throughout this work, an efficient method to extract road curb break lines from mobile LiDAR point clouds is presented. The proposed method was based on the system working principles instead of an algorithmic application over the cloud as a mass of points. The point cloud was decomposed in the original sensor scan profiles. Then, a GPS epoch versus trajectory distance was used to eliminate most non-ground points. Finally, through a vertical monotone chain decomposition, candidate point arrays were created and the curb break lines are formed. The proposed method was shown to be able to avoid the occlusion effect caused by undergrowth. The method allows for distinguishing between right and left curbs and works on curved curbs. Both top and bottom tridimensional break lines were extracted. When compared with a reference manual method, in the tested dataset, the proposed method allowed for a decrease in the curb break lines extraction time from 25 min to less than 30 s. The extraction method provided completeness and correctness rates above 95% and 97%, respectively, and a quality value higher than 93%.

Triple top line-based identification of sustainable water distribution system conservation targets and pipe replacement timing

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces a simulation-based sustainable life of pipe (SLP) determination for a water distribution system (WDS) using a triple top line (TTL) sustainability index (SI). SLP is the pipe replacement time maximizing SI. The approach is applied to the U-City system, a hypothetical urban WDS. Two case studies were conducted: (1) SLP to identify a conservation goal and (2) optimal SLP analysis using revised harmony search (ReHS) to discover replacement timing. The results show conservation targeting a 1% annual rate of demand growth maximizes the SI. And after optimizing the SLP, earlier pipe replacement and higher benefits result from the maximum SI approach compared to the least cost approach. In conclusion, the demonstrations show that using the TTL-based SI can guide demand management and pipe replacement strategies to maximize a comprehensive set of sustainability benefits.

A Compact Plus Shaped Carpet Fractal Antenna with an I-Shaped DGS for C-band/X-band/UWB/WIBAN applications

This article presents the design and development of a compact broadband “+” shaped aperture coupled carpet fractal antenna with a defected ground structure (I shaped slot in the ground) for broadband/ultra wideband (UWB) and a multiband characteristics. The antenna has overall dimensions of 8.4 cm × 5.5 cm × 3.2 mm and is fed using aperture coupled feeding mechanism. It shows an impedance bandwidth (< 10 dB) of 4460 MHz from 6.93 to 11.39 GHz with fractional bandwidth of 0.48 at the center resonant frequency of 9.16 GHz. A multiband behavior is also exhibited by this antenna from 3.9–4.08 GHz, 4.8–5.06 GHz and 6.1–6.4 GHz with impedance bandwidths of 180 MHz, 260 MHz and 300 MHz respectively. It therefore supports the wireless applications of Wi-MAX (3.8–4.1 GHz), Wi-BAN/long distance radio telecommunication (4.8–5.06 GHz), wireless sensor networks (6.1–6.4 GHz), satellite (7.4–7.8 GHz) and UWB (6.9–11.03 GHz). The antenna is designed as a ‘+’ shaped patch with fractal rectangular slots cut out from it up to iterations of second order that allow the antenna to support multiband characteristics. The bandwidth at these bands is improved by using I shaped defected ground structure (DGS) and a parasitic feeding method i.e. aperture coupled feeding (Karur et al., in: ICMARS (IEEE), Jodhpur, India, pp. 266–270, 2014).The antenna has a compact structure with two layers of FR4 substrate, the ‘+’ shaped carpet fractal printed on the upper substrate layer and the lower substrate has a ground layer printed on its top and feed line on its bottom layer respectively. It shows a simulated peak gain of 4 dB at an operation frequency of 7.95 GHz. The antenna design and simulations are done using CST MWS V14. The Simulation results in terms of impedance bandwidth, smith chart, gain are presented in this article. To validate the impedance bandwidth results, the proposed carpet fractal antenna is experimentally tested using a vector network analyzer and the measured results are found to be closely matching with the simulated ones, allowing the antenna to be practically suitable for the afore mentioned wireless applications.

Attenuation constant and characteristic impedance calculation of top metal-covered CPW transmission line using neural networks

A technique for calculating the characteristic impedance of top metal-covered coplanar waveguide (TCPW) transmission lines using a neural network is presented in this paper. Additionally, the technique is extended to calculate their attenuation constant. Analytical expressions based on conformal mapping techniques are not applicable when the top cover height is < 3 µm. Further, there are no analytical expressions available to calculate their attenuation constant. We used a feed-forward artificial neural network to calculate the characteristic impedance and attenuation constant of TCPWs. The results are compared with those obtained using ANSYS HFSS full-wave simulation software, which shows good agreement. This technique will be useful for equivalent circuit modeling of RF-MEMS.

Composite Films of Polydimethylsiloxane and Micro-Graphite with Tunable Optical Transmittance

In this paper we introduce a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite fabricated using a simple production process and demonstrate the optical transmittance properties of this composite in the 300–1000 nm wavelength region. We control the material’s transmittance by varying the microcrystalline graphite powder concentration or the composite film’s thickness. In addition, we tailor the specimens into various trapezoidal shapes and load these specimens by mechanically stretching them in the direction perpendicular to both their base lines and their top lines. The advantage of this method is that a wide range of transmittance properties can be obtained for a given specimen. Furthermore, samples with different trapezoidal shapes have different transmittance tuning capabilities.

Impact of liquidity risk on the performances of Sri Lankan commercial banks

This study investigates the impact of liquidity risk on the performance of commercial banks in Sri Lanka by analysing secondary panel data of six systemically important banks in the Sri Lankan financial system from 2006 to 2016. The objective of this study is to identify the significant liquidity risk factors and the impact of them on both top line and bottom line performance indicators of commercial banks. Researchers find that liquidity gap and non-performing loan ratio are the significant proxies for liquidity risk. Multiple regression analysis reveals that liquidity risk negatively and significantly affects bottom lines Return on Average Assets (ROAA) and Return on Average Equity (ROAE), whilst positively affects the top line Net Interest Margin (NIM) of the commercial banks. The findings of this study suggest that expenses of the banks should be controlled with better liquidity management to enhance bottom line performances.

Conflict and conflict management in hospitals

PurposeHospitals are complex and complicated organizations and are prone to the conflict. The purpose of this paper is to identify the intensity and type of conflict experienced by hospital managers and explore their conflict management strategies in hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences.Design/methodology/approachThis quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from top, middle and front line managers. In total, 563 managers from 14 hospitals responded to the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 19.FindingsHospital managers reported average level of conflict (2.73 score out of 5). Organizational factors produced more conflict for managers than personal factors. High workload, resource shortage, bureaucracy and differences in managers’ personality, knowledge, capabilities and skills were the main causes of organizational and personal conflict. Top managers experienced more conflict than middle and front line managers. Conflict was higher in specialized hospitals compared to general hospitals. Less conflict was observed in administrative and support departments than diagnostic and therapeutic departments. Conflict was meaningfully associated with management level, education, size of hospital, number of employees and willingness to leave the hospital. The dominant conflict management style of managers was collaborating. There were significant relationships between collaborating style and management level, manager’s age, work experience and management experience.Practical implicationsThe nature of hospitals requires that managers use collaborating, compromising and accommodating styles to interact better with different stakeholders. Managers by acquiring necessary training and using the right conflict resolution strategies should keep the conflict in a constructive level in hospitals.Originality/valueThis is the first study conducted in Iran examining the level of conflict, its types and identifying managers’ dominant conflict resolution strategies at front line, middle and top management levels.

The IPANEMA Study: Top Line Results from an Investigator-Initiated Multi-site Late-onset Pompe Disease Prevalence Study (P5.4-005)

The IPANEMA Study: Top Line Results from an Investigator-Initiated Multi-site Late-onset Pompe Disease Prevalence Study (P5.4-005)