20 Years of Inspiring, Empowering, and Advancing Women!

20 Years of Inspiring, Empowering, and Advancing Women! Over the last two decades, we have witnessed tremendous local, national, and international changes. The world is more accessible as a result of technology and the global economy. Terrorism and the resulting war on terror are now part of our world. We have had four presidents elected to office, and our country rebounded from an economic downturn with the stock market now reaching record highs. During the past 20 years, Bryant has experienced transformational changes in its academic curriculum, its physical appearance, the number of facilities on campus, and in its athletic and cultural programs. Bryant changed from a college to a university, with a College of Business, a College of Arts and Sciences, and a School of Health Sciences. The U.S.-China Institute and Confucius Institute were established in Smithfield, while a new Bryant campus was founded in Zhuhai, China. As a nation, we still struggle to achieve wage parity. When the Women’s Summit began in 1997, women were paid 75 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Since then, the overall ratio has climbed by only four cents. There is some encouraging news, according to an article by Sheryl Sandberg in The Wall Street Journal: “Women are now negotiating for raises and promotions as often as their male peers – defying the conventional wisdom that women don’t ask.“ Sandberg writes that women who ask for a promotion are more likely to get one than women who don’t, but are still less likely than men to be promoted. Today, a higher percentage of women can be found in legal, medical, and veterinary professions. In a Wall Street Journal article by Joann S. Lublin, 19 percent of C-suite executives are female – a slight increase from 17 percent in 2015, according to an analysis by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. “The more women who are in positions of power visibly, the better it is for women lower in the organization,” says Robin Ely, a Harvard Business School professor and gender researcher. And companies with higher proportions of women in upper management achieve higher profits, as noted in a recent study of 21,980 firms in 91 countries by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Another big change is that 71 percent of mothers now work outside of the home. A 2013 Pew Research study reveals that four out of every 10 mothers with children under the age of 18 are the breadwinners in their families. All women deserve equal pay for equal work, and mothers need to be supported with child care as they strive to achieve work-life balance that includes their own mental and physical health. When the breadwinner/caregiver isn’t healthy, the whole family feels the effects. For all of us, finding balance continues to be an ongoing process. We keep moving forward, but sometimes we need to tap the brakes to reassess our direction and reevaluate our situation. We hope that you enjoy the 20th anniversary of the Women’s Summit at Bryant University, and that our day together inspires and empowers you – both personally and professionally. By attending the Women’s Summit, your ongoing journey to create a better life for you and your family will be enriched by the knowledge that you will gain today. Sincerely, Kati Machtley Director, The Women’s Summit® Bryant Universit

The Globalization of Labor Standards: Managing Risk in a Challenging World Economy (Summary)

[Excerpt] In-house counsel representing a range of U.S. corporations turned out for a full-day Baker & McKenzie conference addressing globalization of labor standards and the impact on multinationals in today’s economy. Corporate attorneys are facing labor issues that span the interpretation of foreign hiring practices and workplace rules to the development of compliance standards and the shifting role of organized labor. Throughout the day, specialists tackled a host of thorny topics: the role of influential policy groups such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, human rights issues, corporate social responsibility, the changing nature of labor unions throughout the world, and the regulatory landscape in major world markets, including fast-growing economies such as China and Latin America

Health-related quality of life in KEYNOTE-010 : a phase II/III study of pembrolizumab versus docetaxel in patients with previously treated advanced, programmed death ligand 1-expressing NSCLC

Introduction: In the phase II/III KEYNOTE-010 study (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01905657), pembrolizumab significantly prolonged overall survival over docetaxel in patients with previously treated, programmed death ligand 1-expressing (tumor proportion score >= 1%), advanced NSCLC. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) results are reported here. Methods: Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to pembrolizumab 2 or 10 mg/kg every 3 weeks or docetaxel 75 mg/m(2) every 3 weeks. HRQoL was assessed using European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLC) Core 30 (C30), EORTC QLQ-Lung Cancer 13 (LC13), and EuroQoL-5D. Key analyses included mean baseline-to-week-12 change in global health status (GHS)/quality of life (QoL) score, functioning and symptom domains, and time to deterioration in a QLQ-LC13 composite endpoint of cough, dyspnea, and chest pain. Results: Patient reported outcomes compliance was high across all three instruments. Pembrolizumab was associated with better QLQ-C30 GHS/QoL scores from baseline to 12 weeks than docetaxel, regardless of pembrolizumab dose or tumor proportion score status (not significant). Compared with docetaxel, fewer pembrolizumab-treated patients had "deteriorated" status and more had "improved" status in GHS/QoL. Nominally significant improvement was reported in many EORTC symptom domains with pembrolizumab, and nominally significant worsening was reported with docetaxel. Significant prolongation in true time to deterioration for the QLQ-LC13 composite endpoint emerged for pembrolizumab 10 mg/kg compared to docetaxel (nominal two-sided p = 0.03), but not for the 2-mg/kg dose. Conclusions: These findings suggest that HRQoL and symptoms are maintained or improved to a greater degree with pembrolizumab than with docetaxel in this NSCLC patient population. (C) 2019 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Is Corporate Communications A Strategic Function?

Corporate communications, or public relations (PR) as hitherto it has largely been known, has become an increasingly important function in business organisations. Yet little has been published on the role and function of communication executives. This paper reports an empirical study conducted in 20 British organisations with a focus on the director of corporate communications. It examines the role and tasks of corporate communication executives and discusses their status within organisational structure and the impact of corporate communications upon the strategic planning process

Qualitative outcome assessment and research on chronic disease management in general practice : highlights from a keynote lecture, EGPRN May 2011, Nice

At its 2011 conference in Nice, France, the European General Practice Research Network (EGPRN), considered the issue of Relevant Outcome Measures in General Practice Research into Chronic Diseases. This paper, which is adapted from a keynote lecture given during that conference, considers the role of qualitative outcome assessments in research. Such assessments have a great deal in common with the patient-centred approach of general practice as they can capture the overall state of a patient rather than capturing only certain aspects. Research suggests that patients can be categorized, based on qualitative outcome assessment, and over time might change category. This approach to assessment brings to our attention alternative ways of considering the future: future as currently being made or future as predictable, at least to some extent. Although general practice needs the evidence from research that predicts the future, it also needs to engage in research that seeks to understand patients as they make their future, and to understand the impact of clinical interventions on this process

Use of archival versus newly collected tumor samples for assessing PD-L1 expression and overall survival : an updated analysis of KEYNOTE-010 trial

Background: In KEYNOTE-010, pembrolizumab versus docetaxel improved overall survival (OS) in patients with programmed death-1 protein (PD)-L1-positive advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A prespecified exploratory analysis compared outcomes in patients based on PD-L1 expression in archival versus newly collected tumor samples using recently updated survival data. Patients and methods: PD-L1 was assessed centrally by immunohistochemistry (22C3 antibody) in archival or newly collected tumor samples. Patients received pembrolizumab 2 or 10 mg/kg Q3W or docetaxel 75 mg/m2 Q3W for 24 months or until progression/intolerable toxicity/other reason. Response was assessed by RECIST v1.1 every 9 weeks, survival every 2 months. Primary end points were OS and progression-free survival (PFS) in tumor proportion score (TPS) 50% and 1%; pembrolizumab doses were pooled in this analysis. Results: At date cut-off of 24 March 2017, median follow-up was 31 months (range 23-41) representing 18 additional months of follow-up from the primary analysis. Pembrolizumab versus docetaxel continued to improve OS in patients with previously treated, PD-L1-expressing advanced NSCLC; hazard ratio (HR) was 0.66 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.57, 0.77]. Of 1033 patients analyzed, 455(44%) were enrolled based on archival samples and 578 (56%) on newly collected tumor samples. Approximately 40% of archival samples and 45% of newly collected tumor samples were PD-L1 TPS 50%. For TPS 50%, the OS HRs were 0.64 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.91) and 0.40 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.56) for archival and newly collected samples, respectively. In patients with TPS 1%, OS HRs were 0.74 (95% CI: 0.59, 0.93) and 0.59 (95% CI: 0.48, 0.73) for archival and newly collected samples, respectively. In TPS 50%, PFS HRs were similar across archival [0.63 (95% CI: 0.45, 0.89)] and newly collected samples [0.53 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.72)]. In patients with TPS 1%, PFS HRs were similar across archival [0.82 (95% CI: 0.66, 1.02)] and newly collected samples [0.83 (95% CI: 0.68, 1.02)]. Conclusion: Pembrolizumab continued to improve OS over docetaxel in intention to treat population and in subsets of patients with newly collected and archival samples

Central Banks and Different Policies Implemented in Response to the Recent Financial Crisis.

Rescue cases involving guarantees (contrasted with restructuring cases) during the recent Financial Crisis, have illustrated the prominent position which the goal of promoting financial stability has assumed over that of the prevention or limitation of possible distortions of competition which may arise when granting State aid. The recent Financial Crisis has also illustrated how the traditional role of central banks has been extended to incorporate more innovative roles. The reduction of interest rates by central banks to all time lows – along with other unprecedented actions which have been undertaken by central banks, as evidenced by the recent Financial Crisis, have been regarded as „extensions of traditional methods of operation which have resulted in a new territory in which tools have been implemented in very new ways.“ As well as providing an analysis of how the traditional role of central banks has evolved through the duration of the Financial Crisis, this paper attempts to highlight how far central banks and governments should intervene and how far distortions of competition should be permitted during periods of financial crise