Postmodern Views of Work: The Effects of Narrative on the Perceived Value of Work

Abstract As a result of the changing landscape of the world of work and the reduction of stability in occupations over the last few decades, many in the field of vocational psychology have suggested a reconceptualization in the way we view and think about work in the lives of people. These changes have prompted a shift to a contextual, constructionist view of work, and an expansion of the definition of work to include additional domains like personal care work, or unpaid work that is done for care of self, others and/or community. This particular work domain is typically genderized and thought to be largely devalued. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study examined the value placed on work activities evident in vignettes, in both market (work done for pay) and personal care work domains by having participants rate work activity descriptions on multiple positive and negative characteristics through the use of semantic differential pairings. Second, by employing tenets from narrative theory, this study examined the effects of reconstructing the narrative of personal care work by implementing positive changes in language in the personal care work descriptions, and having participants rate these descriptions on the same semantic differential pairings. In addition to evaluating the ratings of the work descriptions, this study also examined the relationship between value placed on work activities and gender of worker by varying the gender of the individuals in the descriptions. Relationships between the participants’ salient identities, as measured by the Salience Inventory, and values placed on different work activities were also examined. Analyses in this study indicated that the participant pool, in part, behaved in ways anticipated given societal beliefs and existing literature documenting the decreased value given to personal care work (Richardson, 2010). Further, data provided quantitative support for the benefits of a contextualization, which incorporates the relational nature of work by evidencing greater value attributions given work narratives emphasizing relationships. Finally, data revealed that the participants' own identification of social status and their identification with a salient work identity had no bearing on the value ratings they ascribed to the vignettes, regardless of language

lbrutinib (lmbruvica™) for Treatment of Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare and moderately aggressive form of non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphoma (NHL) that predominantly presents at an advanced stage in older males. Patients often present with multiple involvement in the lymph nodes, blood, spleen, bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Some patients may be asymptomatic in early stages or present with an incurable, indolent (slow progressing) form, while other patients display rapid growth of more aggressive lymphomas. Overall survival for patients diagnosed with MCL is four to five years and treatment should be initiated in those who are symptomatic. Mantle cell lymphoma responds well to first-line treatment, but recurrent relapses are common, and no regimen has been proven superior for relapsed or refractory MCL. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved ibrutinib (lmbruvica™) as breakthrough MCL therapy. lbrutinib is a Bruton\u27s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor that interferes with malignant B-cell proliferation and survival. In a recent clinical study, ibrutinib proved to be a highly active monotherapy with a favorable toxicity profile in 111 patients with relapsed or refractory MCL. As an oral chemotherapy drug, ibrutinib has the potential to improve patient compliance. Additionally, specialty pharmacies dispensing ibrutinib will be able to play an important role in patient counseling and monitoring

Integrin α6β4 Promotes Autocrine Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Signaling to Stimulate Migration and Invasion toward Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF)

Integrin α6β4 is up-regulated in pancreatic adenocarcinomas where it contributes to carcinoma cell invasion by altering the transcriptome. In this study, we found that integrin α6β4 up-regulates several genes in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway, including amphiregulin (AREG), epiregulin (EREG), and ectodomain cleavage protease MMP1, which is mediated by promoter demethylation and NFAT5. The correlation of these genes with integrin α6β4 was confirmed in The Cancer Genome Atlas Pancreatic Cancer Database. Based on previous observations that integrin α6β4 cooperates with c-Met in pancreatic cancers, we examined the impact of EGFR signaling on hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)-stimulated migration and invasion. We found that AREG and EREG were required for autocrine EGFR signaling, as knocking down either ligand inhibited HGF-mediated migration and invasion. We further determined that HGF induced secretion of AREG, which is dependent on integrin-growth factor signaling pathways, including MAPK, PI3K, and PKC. Moreover, matrix metalloproteinase activity and integrin α6β4 signaling were required for AREG secretion. Blocking EGFR signaling with EGFR-specific antibodies or an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor hindered HGF-stimulated pancreatic carcinoma cell chemotaxis and invasive growth in three-dimensional culture. Finally, we found that EGFR was phosphorylated in response to HGF stimulation that is dependent on EGFR kinase activity; however, c-Met phosphorylation in response to HGF was unaffected by EGFR signaling. Taken together, these data illustrate that integrin α6β4 stimulates invasion by promoting autocrine EGFR signaling through transcriptional up-regulation of key EGFR family members and by facilitating HGF-stimulated EGFR ligand secretion. These signaling events, in turn, promote pancreatic carcinoma migration and invasion

Intraocular pressure is a poor predictor of hydration status following intermittent exercise in the heat

Current hydration assessments involve biological fluids that are either compromised in dehydrated individuals or require laboratory equipment, making timely results unfeasible. The eye has been proposed as a potential site to provide a field-based hydration measure. The present study evaluated the efficacy and sensitivity of intraocular pressure (IOP) to assess hydration status. Twelve healthy males undertook two 150 min walking trials in 40°C 20% relative humidity. One trial matched fluid intake to body mass loss (control, CON) and the other had fluid restricted (dehydrated, DEH). IOP (rebound tonometry) and hydration status (nude body mass and serum osmolality) were determined every 30 min. Body mass and serum osmolality were significantly (p<0.05) different between trials at all-time points following baseline. Body mass losses reached 2.5±0.2% and serum osmolality 299±5 mOsmol.kg-1 in DEH. A significant trial by time interaction was observed for IOP (p = 0.042), indicating that over the duration of the trials IOP declined to a greater extent in the DEH compared with the CON trial. Compared with baseline measurements IOP was reduced during DEH (150 min: -2.7±1.9 mm Hg; p<0.05) but remained stable in CON (150 min: -0.3±2.4 mm Hg). However, using an IOP value of 13.2 mm Hg to predict a 2% body mass loss resulted in only 57% of the data being correctly classified (sensitivity 55% and specificity 57%). The use of ΔIOP (-2.4 mm Hg) marginally improved the predictive ability with 77% of the data correctly classified (sensitivity: 55%; specificity: 81%). The present study provides evidence that the large inter-individual variability in baseline IOP and in the IOP response to progressive dehydration, prevents the use of IOP as an acute single assessment marker of hydration status

Intraocular pressure is a poor predictor of hydration status following intermittent exercise in the heat

Current hydration assessments involve biological fluids that are either compromised in dehydrated individuals or require laboratory equipment, making timely results unfeasible. The eye has been proposed as a potential site to provide a field-based hydration measure. The present study evaluated the efficacy and sensitivity of intraocular pressure (IOP) to assess hydration status. Twelve healthy males undertook two 150 min walking trials in 40°C 20% relative humidity. One trial matched fluid intake to body mass loss (control, CON) and the other had fluid restricted (dehydrated, DEH). IOP (rebound tonometry) and hydration status (nude body mass and serum osmolality) were determined every 30 min. Body mass and serum osmolality were significantly (p<0.05) different between trials at all-time points following baseline. Body mass losses reached 2.5±0.2% and serum osmolality 299±5 mOsmol.kg-1 in DEH. A significant trial by time interaction was observed for IOP (p = 0.042), indicating that over the duration of the trials IOP declined to a greater extent in the DEH compared with the CON trial. Compared with baseline measurements IOP was reduced during DEH (150 min: -2.7±1.9 mm Hg; p<0.05) but remained stable in CON (150 min: -0.3±2.4 mm Hg). However, using an IOP value of 13.2 mm Hg to predict a 2% body mass loss resulted in only 57% of the data being correctly classified (sensitivity 55% and specificity 57%). The use of ΔIOP (-2.4 mm Hg) marginally improved the predictive ability with 77% of the data correctly classified (sensitivity: 55%; specificity: 81%). The present study provides evidence that the large inter-individual variability in baseline IOP and in the IOP response to progressive dehydration, prevents the use of IOP as an acute single assessment marker of hydration status

Daily dynamics of contrasting spring algal blooms in Santa Monica Bay (central Southern California Bight)

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Ollison, G., Hu, S., Hopper, J., Stewart, B., Smith, J., Beatty, J., Rink, L., & Caron, D. Daily dynamics of contrasting spring algal blooms in Santa Monica Bay (central Southern California Bight). Environmental Microbiology. (2022), https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16137.Protistan algae (phytoplankton) dominate coastal upwelling ecosystems where they form massive blooms that support the world's most important fisheries and constitute an important sink for atmospheric CO2. Bloom initiation is well understood, but the biotic and abiotic forces that shape short-term dynamics in community composition are still poorly characterized. Here, high-frequency (daily) changes in relative abundance dynamics of the metabolically active protistan community were followed via expressed 18S V4 rRNA genes (RNA) throughout two algal blooms during the spring of 2018 and 2019 in Santa Monica Bay (central Southern California Bight). A diatom bloom formed after wind-driven, nutrient upwelling events in both years, but different taxa dominated each year. Whereas diatoms bloomed following elevated nutrients and declined after depletion each year, a massive dinoflagellate bloom manifested under relatively low inorganic nitrogen conditions following diatom bloom senescence in 2019 but not 2018. Network analysis revealed associations between diatoms and cercozoan putative parasitic taxa and syndinean parasites during 2019 that may have influenced the demise of the diatoms, and the transition to a dinoflagellate-dominated bloom.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation #1136818 (David A. Caron)