Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hydras can regenerate their heads and feet—and that's good, somehow

UC Irvine finishes [sequencing] genome vital to improving people’s health (Gary Robbins; OC Reg’s ScienceDude)

An international team of researchers led by UC Irvine is today publishing the genome of the Hydra, a primitive organism that’s been important in medical research since the 1740s, when Abraham Trembley discovered that the freshwater polyp could regenerate its head and feet.

Researchers found that the Hydra, which is less than a half-inch tall, has roughly as many genes as humans (about 24,000) and that some of its genes are linked to two of the most dreaded illnesses in humans — Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

The genome is being published online today in Nature, one of the world’s most influential scientific journals.

“This could potentially open up Hydra as a model system for Irvine researchers,” said Rob Steele, chairman of biological chemistry at Irvine and one of the leaders of UCI’s first major sequencing effort….(Continued)

The always-fabulous OC Reg readership has already commented on the news. For instance, "BoogerBoy" says:
Yay for science! Old timer’s disease just weirds me out....
Good Lord. It's too bad BB can't regenerate his head. —Oh yeah. It would be the same head, wouldn't it? Never mind.

SOCCCD HEAD REGENERATION:

I haven't heard anything new about the SOCCCD's efforts to regenerate, or replace, its Chancellor. [See 2nd comment below.] Now, if a professional consultant does the hiring, then there's no need for a search committee, right? One of the reasons that one might be assured that everything's on the up and up is that the right (honest) people are on the search committee. And groups can hold each other in check.

I'm not sure what stays and what goes now that we're taking the consultant route. [See below.] But can Don Wagner continue with his assurances that the process will be transparent and honest, etc., if it's being done by some professional organization?

Do you have any ideas on the matter? [See first comment below.]

UPDATE:

Board Policy 4011.6 ("employment procedure for chancellor”) can be found here at the district website (a pdf file) or HERE on this blogsite (as a blog post).

The term “consultant” is mentioned only once in the policy, in the section concerning “recruitment”:
SECTION II: RECRUITMENT
. . .
2. The Board of Trustees may consider employment of a professional consultant to assist with the Chancellor search process.
. . .
It seems to me that the policy is not explicit about the consultant’s relationship to the rest of the process defined by 4011.6. I suppose that the policy implies that the consultant would assist during the recruitment process only since consultants are mentioned only in the "recruitment" section and since the rest of the policy outlines a formal process involving such entities as the search committee, etc., that mentions no role, or possible role, for a consultant. <END UPDATE>

Comments:

Anonymous‬ said...
Roy, you've provided links to the chancellor hire policy. Read it. The consultant helps with the job description and recruiting, and brings objectivity to the process. But the policy is clear that the committee does the screening once the search is completed and the board does the hiring. The consultant doesn't do any hiring.
12:36 AM, March 15, 2010

Anonymous said...
Apparently the *special* meeting last week was quite the heated affair, with Fuentes coming down hard on Padberg at every turn. He is not a happy camper at the moment.
8:06 AM

Anonymous said...
The hiring policy remains intact and will be implemented under the oversight of a consultant who will be charged with keeping Raghu out of manipulating or stalling the process. The hiring of a consultant is an excellent move and happens routinely in hiring college presidents in single college districts as well as chancellors in mutlicollege districts.
9:23 AM

Anonymous said...
Consultants are routinely hired to oversee important search processes such as the hiring of a chancellor. This is a GOOD thing. The consultant will oversee the entire process ensuring that the entire policy is implemented in a fair and objective manner. These are companies that specialize in implementing hiring procedures across the state. Go online and google these companies for a clearer picture of what they do. This is a sign that the board majority wants to ensure a fair and open process. Without a consultant, Raghu and Fuentes would make sure that no one is hired. Fuentes has made it public and clear that he is going to bring Mathur back the minute the board changes. If there is no permenant chancellor in place when the board changes, Fuentes will bring Mathur back. The board majority is doing everything they can to make sure there is a permenant chancellor in place, hired through a fair and open process. This is the first great thing that has happened in the district for a long time. Let's get on board.
3:37 PM

Anonymous said...
Baron: Did they film the Special Meeting for our entertainment?
4:16 PM

B. von Traven said...
The special meeting was, I fear, a closed session. Hence there will be no record, aside from the memories of those who attended. And those are feeble. Feel free to put on puppet shows of what likely occurred. Fuentes is the ugly puppet in the corner.
10:53 PM

Anonymous said...
The meeting was public and recorded. It'll be on the district's web site. And well worth the watching.
11:04 PM

B. von Traven said...
If video will be made available, it will appear here. Usually, it takes 4 or 5 days (the meeting was 4 days ago).
12:15 AM, March 16, 2010

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...