Douglas M. Stewart

An empirical investigation of the metrics alignment process

Purpose – To understand the use of metrics to attain alignment between the needs of the customer, strategic objectives, and the execution system. This paper examines the process by which metrics at the various levels are developed and the factors affecting this process.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a series of “deep” case studies and 45 interviews of key managers at various levels within three related businesses. Open and axial coding on the data was performed and themes reported.Findings – The findings show how metrics can generate two types of synergy, financial, and strategic and that numerous factors affect metrics deployment and alignment. There also exists a tension between those metrics that encourage sales growth through innovation and market development (i.e. the so‐called top line metrics) and those metrics that reduce costs or asset investments (i.e. bottom line metrics).Research limitations/implications – Selective coding of the data to develop theoretical insight has yet to...

Analysis of essential histidine residues of maize branching enzymes by chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis

Incubation of maize branching enzyme, mBEI and mBEII, with 100 µM diethylpyrocarbonate (DEPC) rapidly inactivated the enzymes. Treatment of the DEPC-inactivated enzymes with 100–500 mM hydroxylamine restored the enzyme activities. Spectroscopic data indicated that the inactivation of BE with DEPC was the result of histidine modification. The addition of the substrate amylose or amylopectin retarded the enzyme inactivation by DEPC, suggesting that the histidine residues are important for substrate binding. In maize BEII, conserved histidine residues are in catalytic regions 1 (His320) and 4 (His508). His320 and His508 were individually replaced by Ala via site-directed mutagenesis to probe their role in catalysis. Expression of these mutants inE. coli showed a significant decrease of the activity and the mutant enzymes hadKm values 10 times higher than the wild type. Therefore, residues His320 and His508 do play an important role in substrate binding.

Speaking the Right Language: The Scientific Method as a Framework for a Continuous Quality Improvement Program Within Academic Medical Research Compliance Units

The authors developed a novel continuous quality improvement (CQI) process for academic biomedical research compliance administration. A challenge in developing a quality improvement program in a nonbusiness environment is that the terminology and processes are often foreign. Rather than training staff in an existing quality improvement process, the authors opted to develop a novel process based on the scientific method—a paradigm familiar to all team members. The CQI process included our research compliance units. Unit leaders identified problems in compliance administration where a resolution would have a positive impact and which could be resolved or improved with current resources. They then generated testable hypotheses about a change to standard practice expected to improve the problem, and they developed methods and metrics to assess the impact of the change. The CQI process was managed in a “peer review” environment. The program included processes to reduce the incidence of infections in animal colonies, decrease research protocol-approval times, improve compliance and protection of animal and human research subjects, and improve research protocol quality. This novel CQI approach is well suited to the needs and the unique processes of research compliance administration. Using the scientific method as the improvement paradigm fostered acceptance of the project by unit leaders and facilitated the development of specific improvement projects. These quality initiatives will allow us to improve support for investigators while ensuring that compliance standards continue to be met. We believe that our CQI process can readily be used in other academically based offices of research.

IBC Quality Improvement

The University of New Mexico (UNM) BioHazard Compliance (BHC) office in the Health Science Center (HSC) Office of Research (OR) has tested a quality improvement initiative that might be valuable to other institutions that have an Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC). In conjunction with other OR compliance units, we have implemented a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) program based on the scientific method (Nolte et al., 2008) and designed to improve administrative processes. An area that needed improvement was our ability to concisely translate IBC protocol review contingencies into formalized written response letters to investigators in an expeditious manner. Our IBC is responsible for reviewing recombinant DNA, BSL-2, and BSL-3 research. As a CQI initiative, the IBC administrators wanted to streamline the protocol review process to decrease the turnaround time. A long protocol review process adversely impacts the ability of investigators to initiate research and affects their satisfaction with our office. A retrospective analysis of protocol review times led us to focus on drafting protocol contingency letters during the IBC meetings. Protocol contingencies are concerns that the reviewers have with the submitted research protocols. These must be reconciled before the investigator is allowed to proceed with the proposed experiments. Previously, the IBC administrators would document the concerns of the protocol reviewers and other committee members during committee meetings and collate their findings after the meeting. This process led to interpretive differences