The Future of Meetings: The Case for Face-to-Face

The recent economic crisis has created a maelstrom of inquiry about effective business practices with regard to business meetings and travel. With travel budgets slashed due both to the economy and concerns over the public perception of corporate spending, business leaders are trying to determine when any business travel, let alone large-group meetings and events, constitute a good investment of their limited time and resources. Virtual technologies have expanded the choices available for large-group meetings and events. Our goal is to simplify the decision-making process by proposing a set of decision criteria for when an investment in large-group face-to-face meetings and events will have the greatest impact

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act: Its Scope, History, and Prospects

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is a proposed federal bill that would prohibit discrimination in hiring and employment based on an individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity by civilian, nonreligious employers who employ at least 15 employees. Advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their congressional allies have fought for the passage of some form of ENDA for more than four decades, including the 113th Congress, which commenced in January 2013. Although ENDA’s passage is still far from certain, this chapter will discuss in greater detail the impact ENDA would have on both employers and their employees if—and perhaps when—it becomes law. • The chapter begins by analyzing the specific terms of the bill, with a particular focus on the employers ENDA covers, what exactly is prohibited, and what exemptions exist. • The chapter next provides a brief legislative history of ENDA, including a summary of congressional hearings, to give the reader a sense of how the legislation has evolved and been shaped by the political process. As of April 30, 2014, Congress had held 11 hearings and issued three reports regarding ENDA. The full Senate had voted twice on ENDA, and the full House of Representatives had voted once on the legislation. • Finally, the chapter examines the past and present controversies and challenges facing ENDA, as a means of providing insight into ENDA’s prospects for passage and potential changes in future drafts of the bill. Given that ENDA’s history has roots going back 40 years, this chapter can provide only a broad overview of its history, but through this history, it also aims to offer enough details to provide insight into its future

Surveillance of cancer among sexual and gender minority populations: Where are we and where do we need to go?

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153075/1/cncr32384_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153075/2/cncr32384.pd

An 8-month longitudinal exploration of body image and disordered eating in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic

Research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is negatively impacting mental health, with rates of eating disorder referrals in particular rising steeply during the pandemic. This study aimed to examine 8-month changes in body image and disordered eating during the COVID-19 pandemic, and explore whether any changes were moderated by gender, age, or eating disorder history. This study used a longitudinal survey design in which 587 adults living in the UK (85 % women; mean age = 32.87 years) completed assessments every two months over five timepoints from May/June 2020 to January/February 2021. Measures included body esteem, disordered eating, and psychological distress. Mixed effect models showed small but significant improvements in body esteem and disordered eating symptoms from May/June 2020 to January/February 2021. These improvements were independent of changes in psychological distress, and did not vary by gender, age or eating disorder history. Whilst poor body image and disordered eating may have been elevated in the early period of the pandemic, this study suggests improvements, rather than worsening, of these outcomes over time. This may reflect adaptation to this changing context

The soil and plant biogeochemistry sampling design for The National Ecological Observatory Network

Human impacts on biogeochemical cycles are evident around the world, from changes to forest structure and function due to atmospheric deposition, to eutrophication of surface waters from agricultural effluent, and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) will contribute to understanding human effects on biogeochemical cycles from local to continental scales. The broad NEON biogeochemistry measurement design focuses on measuring atmospheric deposition of reactive mineral compounds and CO2 fluxes, ecosystem carbon (C) and nutrient stocks, and surface water chemistry across 20 eco‐climatic domains within the United States for 30 yr. Herein, we present the rationale and plan for the ground‐based measurements of C and nutrients in soils and plants based on overarching or “high‐level” requirements agreed upon by the National Science Foundation and NEON. The resulting design incorporates early recommendations by expert review teams, as well as recent input from the larger natural sciences community that went into the formation and interpretation of the requirements, respectively. NEON\u27s efforts will focus on a suite of data streams that will enable end‐users to study and predict changes to biogeochemical cycling and transfers within and across air, land, and water systems at regional to continental scales. At each NEON site, there will be an initial, one‐time effort to survey soil properties to 1 m (including soil texture, bulk density, pH, baseline chemistry) and vegetation community structure and diversity. A sampling program will follow, focused on capturing long‐term trends in soil C, nitrogen (N), and sulfur stocks, isotopic composition (of C and N), soil N transformation rates, phosphorus pools, and plant tissue chemistry and isotopic composition (of C and N). To this end, NEON will conduct extensive measurements of soils and plants within stratified random plots distributed across each site. The resulting data will be a new resource for members of the scientific community interested in addressing questions about long‐term changes in continental‐scale biogeochemical cycles, and is predicted to inspire further process‐based research

Application of hierarchical clustering to identify high risk pests to Sitka spruce: Ireland as a case study

Invertebrate forest pests and pathogens can cause considerable economic losses and modern patterns of trade have facilitated the international movement of pest species on an unprecedented level. This upsurge in trade has increased the pathways available to high risk species, facilitating entry and potential establishment in nations where they were previously absent. To support policy and pest prioritization, pest risk analyses are conducted to decide ‘if’ and ‘how’ pests should be regulated in order to prevent entry or establishment; however, they cannot be carried out for every potential pest. This paper utilizes a hierarchical clustering (HC) approach to analyse distribution data for pests of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) in order to identify species of high risk to Ireland, as well as potential source regions of these pests. The presence and absence of almost a 1000 pests across 386 regions globally are clustered based on their similarity of pest assemblages, to provide an objective examination of the highest risk pests to Irish forestry. Regional clusters were produced for each taxon analysed including the Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Nematoda, Lepidoptera and the Fungi. The results produced by the HC analysis were interpreted with regard to biological realism and climate. Biologically meaningful clusters were produced for each of the groups, except for the Diptera and Nematoda, and each of the species analysed were ranked within their group by a quantitative risk index specific to the island of Ireland. The impact of uncertainty in the distribution data is also examined, in order to assess its influence over the final groupings produced. The outputs from this analysis suggest that the highest risk pests for Ireland’s Sitka spruce plantations will originate from within Europe. Ultimately, Ireland could benefit from seeking regulation for some of the higher ranking pests identified in this analysis. This analysis provides the first of its type for Sitka spruce, as well as its application in Ireland. It also serves to highlight the potential utility of HC as a ‘first approach’ to assessing the risk posed by alien species to hitherto novel regions

Technical specifications for the monitoring and reporting of VTEC on animals and food

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A systematic review of the subjective wellbeing outcomes of engaging with visual arts for adults (“working-age”, 15-64 years) with diagnosed mental health conditions

The importance of the visual arts in contributing to the wellbeing of adults with mental health conditions has been little documented beyond some insightful and influential interventions and exploratory studies. Initiatives such as Arts on Prescription projects have, in the UK provided examples of the positive effects that engagement in artistic and creative activity can have, and some of these have been documented in small-scale studies of interventions. Most of the evidence has been perceived as positive but of limited scale. In this context, this review was carried out to examine in a more focused way the ‘subjective wellbeing’ (SWB) outcomes of engagement with the visual arts for adults with a background history of mental health conditions. SWB embraces both the positive and negative feelings that arise in individuals based on their view of the world, how they think about themselves and others, and what they do in the interactions and practices of everyday life. Adult subjects in the studies included in this review were of ‘working-age’ (15-64 years). The focus of the review and the precise research question were agreed at inception sessions of the research team, and in collaborative engagement with stakeholders in the areas of policy, service-delivery, project and evaluation commissioning, and research and scholarship in the spheres of the visual arts and mental health. Published studies from the past 10 years were studied for the review, and their findings synthesised and integrated into an evaluation of the state of knowledge in the field, in terms of the specifics of the research questions. We found that there is limited high-quality evidence, though case studies from the UK have provided important and consistent findings, corroborated by grey literature that has reported on interventions and projects. The review includes published findings based on data on/from 163 participants across four countries – Australia, Sweden, the UK, and the USA. Overall, female respondents outnumbered male respondents. A wide variety of wellbeing measures were used in some quantitative, statistical studies. In-depth interviews dominated the qualitative studies, giving voice to the experiences of individual subjects. The visual arts practices that featured in the studies included forms of painting or drawing, art appreciation with selected art forms, artmaking culminating in an exhibition, and more general creative and craft activities that included visual artefacts such as ceramics or sculpture. Evidence we include from recent unpublished reports (grey literature) was produced by or for visual arts organisations since 2014. Participants in the evaluations were both male and female and were engaged in UK-based arts interventions, many via community arts or ‘Arts on Prescription’ types of intervention. Overall, the evidence available in this review has shown that engagement in the visual arts for adults with mental health conditions can reduce reported levels of depression and anxiety; increase self-respect, self-worth and self-esteem; encourage and stimulate re-engagement with the wider, everyday social world; and support in participants a potential renegotiation of identity through practice-based forms of making or doing. The most effective ‘working ways to wellbeing’ are also confirmed in processes of implementation that ensure provision of secure safe-space and havens for interventions; that recognise the value of non-stigmatising settings; and that support and sustain collaborative facilitation of programmes and sessions. 4 Some negative dimensions of engagement with the visual arts were also identified, including stress and pressure felt to complete activities or commit to artmaking, and the very real fear that the end of an intervention would mean the return to a world of anxiety, decreasing confidence and social isolation. The review shows that for adults starting visual arts activities or programmes, the subjective wellbeing outcomes are, for the majority of participants, positive. This applies to men and women alike across the studies. The most convincing evidence has emerged from focused qualitative research designs, and makes clear that the most effective work in the field continues to lack the necessary resources and infrastructure that would ensure sustainable practices and interventions. Overall, there is some evidence of benefit in a weak field that could be strengthened by fuller monitoring of cohorts to evaluate the long-term effects of participants’ engagement with the visual arts

Parastrongylus cantonensis in a Nonhuman Primate, Florida

Parastrongylus (= Angiostrongylus) cantonensis is a parasitic nematode of Norway rats throughout tropical regions. This parasite is neurotropic and causes disease and death in humans and other mammals. We report the first identification of P. cantonensis as the cause of a debilitating neurologic disease in a captive primate in Florida