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The study's purpose was to determine Extension agents' (n= 111) perceived level of importance, knowledge, and training needs for leadership skills. Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores were calculated to determine training needs. Participants' perceived responses were average to above average importance for all skills; however, the participants' perceived responses were varied concerning knowledge for most skills. The five highest rated training needs were resolve conflict, efficiently manage time, assess community needs, effectively lead a team, and prioritize tasks. The only common training need by Agriculture & Natural Resources (ANR), Family & Consumer Sciences (FCS), and 4-H agents was resolve conflict. Create vision was a training need only identified by FCS agents. The 4-H role needs were handle emotions and handle criticism.

Leadership and music are two topics that are rarely mentioned together. However, their universal, intriguing, and complex nature allows a unique framework for helping individuals learn leadership concepts. In this paper several songs have been selected from various music genres. Each demonstrates elements of leadership. Aspects of popular culture such as music can create opportunities to learn about leadership and contribute to the development of one's leadership style. General leadership concepts, along with the transformational approach and emotional intelligence, will be explained as we study each song. Additionally, the paper will discuss effective teaching methods and applications for using music to teach leadership.

The past few years have seen a surge of interconnectedness between the independent fields of ultrasensitive spectroscopy, ultrastable lasers, ultrafast lasers, and nonlinear optics. The focus here is the field of optical frequency measurement.

Abstract Background Preclinical studies demonstrated that small chain RNA fragments accelerate the recovery of platelets numbers in animals exposed to high doses of chemotherapeutic drugs. There is anecdotal data supporting the same application in humans. The Phase I clinical trial described here was designed to investigate the relationship between the administration of small chain RNA fragments and the recovery in platelets following Chemotherapy-Induced Thrombocytopenia (CIT). Methods Cancer patients with solid tumors that experienced post chemotherapy thrombocytopenia with a nadir of < = 80,000 platelets/ml were eligible for this clinical trial. There were no exclusions based on ECOG status, tumor type, tumor burden or chemotherapeutic agents. Patients received a unique preparation of RNA derived from either E. coli or yeast. Ten patients per group received 20, 40, or 60 mg as a starting dose. Subjects self-administered RNA fragments sublingually on an every other day schedule while undergoing chemotherapy. The dose was escalated in 20 mg increments to a maximum dose of 80 mg if the nadir was < 80,000 platelets/ml at the start of the next cycle. Subjects were treated for three cycles of chemotherapy with the maximum effective dose of RNA fragments. Subjects continued on planned chemotherapy as indicated by tumor burden without RNA fragment support after the third cycle. Subjects kept a diary indicating RNA fragment and magnesium administration, and any experienced side effects. Results Patients receiving E. coli RNA fragments demonstrated a more rapid recovery in platelet count and higher nadir platelet count. None of the patients receiving the E. coli RNA fragments required a chemotherapy dose reduction due to thrombocytopenia. The optimal dose for minimizing CIT was 80 mg. Conversely, subjects receiving yeast RNA fragments with dose escalation to 80 mg required a chemotherapy dose reduction per American Society of Clinical Oncology guidelines for grade 3 and 4 thrombocytopenia. Conclusions Patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy experienced an improvement in the platelet nadir and shorter recovery time when receiving concurrent E coli RNA fragments, when compared to patients who received yeast RNA fragments. These data indicate that 60 and 80 mg doses of E. coli RNA accelerated platelet recovery. Further clinical investigations are planned to quantify the clinical benefits of the E. coli RNA at the 80 mg dose in patients with chemotherapy induced thrombocytopenia. Trial Registration Clinical Trials.gov Identifier: NCT01163110

The development of the 'Optical Frequency Comb' enabled by the Great Laser Technology Synthesis of 1999-2000 is discussed on the occasion of the award of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physics. The synthesis of independent developments in four fields of laser technology resulted in a surge of accurate frequency measurements in the standards field, with future research possible in the time-stability of principles such as speed of light and the equivalence of time-keeping by clocks based on different physics.

Progress in femtosecond pulse generation has made it possible to generate optical pulses that are only a few cycles in duration (1-4). This has resulted in rapidly growing interest in [...], We stabilized the carrier-envelope phase of the pulses emitted by a femtosecond mode-locked laser by using the powerful tools of frequency-domain laser stabilization. We confirmed control of the pulse-to-pulse carrier-envelope phase using temporal cross correlation. This phase stabilization locks the absolute frequencies emitted by the laser, which we used to perform absolute optical frequency measurements that were directly referenced to a stable microwave clock.