The structural basis for the association of eukaryotic and prokaryotic protein receptors and their triple-helical collagen ligand remains poorly understood. Here, we present the crystal structures of a high affinity subsegment of the Staphylococcus aureus collagen-binding CNA as an apo-protein and in complex with a synthetic collagen-like triple helical peptide. The apo-protein structure is com...

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the certified nurse aides' (CNAs) perception that "training is always available when needed" and the CNAs' performance, turnover, attitudes, burnout, and empowerment. The data came from a larger study where a self-administered survey instrument was completed by 359 CNAs working in 11 nursing homes in the North Texas region. The d...

PURPOSE This study introduces the first National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS), a major advance in the data available about certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and a rich resource for evidence-based policy, practice, and applied research initiatives. We highlight potential uses of this new survey using select population estimates as examples of how the NNAS can be used to inform new policy di...

PURPOSE This article describes the progress of our study to examine the advantages and costs of using self-managed nurse aide teams in nursing homes, steps that are being taken to implement such teams, and management strategies being used to manage the teams. DESIGN AND METHODS A quasi-experimental design is underway where certified nurse aide (CNA) teams are being established in five nursing...

Copy number alteration (CNA) is known to induce gene expression changes mainly through dosage effect, and therefore affect the initiation and progression of tumor. However, tumor samples exhibit heterogeneity in gene dosage sensitivity due to the complicated mechanisms of transcriptional regulation. Currently, no high-throughput method has been available for identifying the regulatory factors a...

OBJECTIVE This study seeks to understand what role managers and the work setting they create play in a nursing facility that seeks to make a transition to person-centered care. DESIGN The study uses a human-relations framework to test 3 propositions: Managers play a critical role in the satisfaction, loyalty and commitment (ie, the engagement) of their staff; managers construct a person-cente...

CNAnorm is a package for the analysis of Copy Number Alteration (CNA) of tumor samples using low coverage (around 0.01 0.5X) high throughput sequencing[1]. In particular, CNAnorm aims to perform a meaningful normalization of the sample by estimation of the underlying tumor’s ploidy. CNAnorm allows both a fully automated as well as an interactive approach to the normalization step. If the user h...

OBJECTIVES This randomized controlled study tested the effectiveness of individualized activities, led by certified nursing assistants (CNAs), to increase positive and reduce negative affect and behavior among nursing home residents with dementia. METHOD Nursing home residents with mild to advanced dementia (N = 180) were randomly assigned to usual care (UC, n = 93) or 1 of 2 experimental con...

Due to advances in 10GBASE-T technology, faster interconnects are now more affordable. This gives organizations the opportunity of deploying a cost-effective, high performance Hadoop cluster based on 10 GbE interconnects. As part of this paper, we have partnered with the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) to examine how their unique implementation of Hadoop can benefi t from Intel’s cutting...

In this analysis, the effects of empowerment were examined among a sample of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) representing a wide range of empowerment levels. On the basis of survey responses from 298 CNAs and 136 nurses in five nursing homes where CNA-empowered work teams had been implemented and five nursing homes with more traditional management approaches, the results indicated that CNA ...