A descriptive study of workplace attributes : environmental preference index examined through organizational system preference typologies

Creating an effective workplace to fit each setting can be useful in changing social cognitive behavior, increasing employee retention, providing effective work environments, increasing company profits, and attracting new employees. Corporate businesses are in a heightened pressure state to adapt to changing world economies. The margin for error of a faulty space plan grows increasingly all the while the cost of doing business skyrockets. Businesses are being asked to adapt, realign, and alter their practices in order to promote greater profits and maintain a stable workforce. Traditional planning methods are being found ineffective in today's changing environment. Most space planning practices use past ideas and intuitive guesses to create what is needed for a satisfactory space plan. A deeper level of understanding is needed that capitalizes on management decisions and promotes employee satisfaction. The level of understanding would benefit from the development of a precise manner for determining workplace environmental preferences. It is a common understanding within the architectural and business research fields that office employees are highly affected by the setting in which they conduct their work (Becker & Steele, 1995). The integration of two scaled indices to ascertain environmental preferences is an important area of study for today's research, design practice, and educational training which provide the opportunity to create patterns for creating environments that truly support the unique set of workers found within. The Environment Preference Index (EPI) measures an office worker's built environment preferences which include the physical facility, furniture and equipment, the opportunity to control their surroundings, the organizational culture's integration into the surrounding built environment, and the amenity spaces provided within the space. The Organizational System Assessment Scale index provides the ability to determine the organization's unique work type as a group or individual. The index provides the fundamental understanding to categorize all the workers within the studied organization by the way the worker views its current work setting and also their ideal way to work. The final integration between the two indices provides insight to contribute to future research seeking to create work patterns to improve design and space planning. The need for this type of planning precision is profound and while many ideas seem to be common sense, many of the white paper resources currently available have not had formal testing that would lead to causal theory application. The research also has the opportunity to create a unifying bridge between different university colleges such as organizational studies found in the nation's business schools and architecture and design college institutions. Shared information would also be made available to further the link between education/research and private design planning practices. The University of Missouri convenience study with a sample size of 411 respondents provides the opportunity to test out previously developed scaled indices, create a process to collect, study, and analyze survey data. As the University of Missouri Extension group sought to understand its workforce, they felt it important to know what areas in their overall physical structures could be enhanced to create a better work experience for its staff and faculty. The outcome for the study provides valuable insight into the organization's aggregate that previously would have been unavailable to researchers and practitioners alike as well as providing the opportunity for the contribution of improving the person and environment congruency. The research findings concluded that when considering the eight demographic variables, the results create a sample profile - the typical individual would be a 50 year old female who has worked for the University of Missouri Extension for 13.5 years on the Columbia campus in the same office for the past eight and a half years, working through Human Environmental Sciences under the current title of Specialist and has either moved only once and more commonly never has moved. Survey results also concluded that the organization comprised the highest mean group of open and that the EPI pattern connections were aligned with the constructs of the physical facility and the culture construct. In a climate of cultural change on the campus of the University of Missouri, this is a significant outcome for future design and business studies. The study's conclusions are significant as the design profession seeks ways to effectively manage and predict the link between employee engagement, attraction, and retention. With a process and beginning pattern development that can be associated between people and the built environment, architects, interior designers, and organizational analysts can more fully consider the connection for buildings and people as they seek to create future healthy building projects

Preseason Lower Extremity Functional Test Scores Are Not Associated With Lower Quadrant Injury - A Validation Study With Normative Data on 395 Division III Athletes

Background: Preseason performance on the lower extremity functional test (LEFT), a timed series of agility drills, has been previously reported to be associated with future risk of lower quadrant (LQ = low back and lower extremities) injury in Division III (D III) athletes.Validation studies are warranted to confirm or refute initial findings. Hypothesis/Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to examine the ability of the LEFT to discriminate injury occurrence in D III athletes, in order to validate or refute prior findings. It was hypothesized that female and male D III athletes slower at completion of the LEFT would be at a greater risk for a non-contact time-loss injury during sport. Secondary purposes of this study are to report other potential risk factors based on athlete demographics and to present normative LEFT data based on sport participation. Methods: Two hundred and six (females = 104; males = 102) D III collegiate athletes formed a validation sample. Athletes in the validation sample completed a demographic questionnaire and performed the LEFT at the start of their sports preseason. Athletic trainers tracked non-contact time-loss LQ injuries during the season. A secondary analysis of risk based on preseason LEFT performance was conducted for a sample (n = 395) that consisted of subjects in the validation sample (n = 206) as well as athletes from a prior LEFT related study (n = 189). Study Design: Prospective cohort Results: Male athletes in the validation sample completed the LEFT [98.6 (± 8.1) seconds] significantly faster than female athletes [113.1 (± 10.4) seconds]. Male athletes, by sport, also completed the LEFT significantly faster than their female counterparts who participated in the same sport. There was no association between preseason LEFT performance and subsequent injury, by sex, in either the validation sample or the combined sample. Females who reported starting primary sport participation by age 10 were two times (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.2, 4.9; p = 0.01) more likely to experience a non-contact time-loss LQ injury than female athletes who started their primary sport at age 11 or older. Males who reported greater than three hours per week of plyometric training during the six-week period prior to the start of the preseason were four times more likely (OR = 4.0, 95% CI: 1.1, 14.0; p = 0.03) to experience a foot or ankle injury than male athletes who performed three or less hours per week. Conclusions: The LEFT could not be validated as a preseason performance measure to predict future sports injury risk. The data presented in this study may aid rehabilitation professionals when evaluating an injured athlete’s ability to return to sport by comparing their LEFT score to population norms

Medical student attitudes to mental health and psychiatry: the use of a patient-experience short film

Background: Medical student attitudes to mental illness are significantly influenced by their undergraduate educational experience. Medical education therefore has a key role to play in challenging the stigma associated with mental illness. We developed a short educational film aimed at challenging stigmatising attitudes to mental illness and explored its effects on undergraduate medical student attitudes. We hypothesised that levels of stigmatising attitudes in medical students would reduce after students viewed the educational film. Method: We used a validated scale (Mental Illness: Clinician Attitudes, MICA) to examine undergraduate medical student attitudes to mental illness at two time points - prior to (T1) and following (T2) viewing the short film. The film focused on patient experiences and was designed to highlight personal experiences of mental illness. Results: 92 students completed the MICA before the film and 73 students at both time points. Having a personal history of mental illness was associated with less stigmatising attitudes (t=2.4, df=87, p=0.019). Stigma scores were reduced following the film viewing (t=7.101, df=72, p<0.001). Discussion: This study suggests that patient experience films, used as educational tools, can challenge student perceptions of mental illness and lead to a reduction in stigmatising attitudes, at least in the short term. Future studies are required to examine the longer-term effects of such educational interventions in terms of student perceptions and attitudes towards mental health and psychiatry

Femoral Artery Atherosclerosis Is Associated With Physical Function Across the Spectrum of the Ankle-Brachial Index: The San Diego Population Study.

BackgroundThe ankle-brachial index (ABI) is inadequate to detect early-stage atherosclerotic disease, when interventions to prevent functional decline may be the most effective. We determined associations of femoral artery atherosclerosis with physical functioning, across the spectrum of the ABI, and within the normal ABI range.Methods and resultsIn 2007-2011, 1103 multiethnic men and women participated in the San Diego Population Study, and completed all components of the summary performance score. Using Doppler ultrasound, superficial and common femoral intima media thickness and plaques were ascertained. Logistic regression was used to assess associations of femoral atherosclerosis with the summary performance score and its individual components. Models were adjusted for demographics, lifestyle factors, comorbidities, lipids, and kidney function. In adjusted models, among participants with a normal-range ABI (1.00-1.30), the highest tertile of superficial intima media thickness was associated with lower odds of a perfect summary performance score of 12 (odds ratio=0.56 [0.36, 0.87], P=0.009), and lower odds of a 4-m walk score of 4 (0.34 [0.16, 0.73], P=0.006) and chair rise score of 4 (0.56 [0.34, 0.94], P=0.03). Plaque presence (0.53 [0.29, 0.99], P=0.04) and greater total plaque burden (0.61 [0.43, 0.87], P=0.006) were associated with worse 4-m walk performance in the normal-range ABI group. Higher superficial intima media thickness was associated with lower summary performance score in all individuals (P=0.02).ConclusionsFindings suggest that use of femoral artery atherosclerosis measures may be effective in individuals with a normal-range ABI, especially, for example, those with diabetes mellitus or a family history of peripheral artery disease, when detection can lead to earlier intervention to prevent functional declines and improve quality of life

Improving the person-environment congruence for an office setting

"December 2013.""A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri--Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science."Thesis supervisor: Dr. Ronald Phillips.Creating an effective workplace to fit each unique setting can be useful to change social cognitive behavior, increase employee retention, provide effective work environments, increase company profits and attract new employees. Corporate businesses are in a heightened pressure state to adapt to changing world economies. The margin for error of a faulty space plan is diminishing as the cost of doing business skyrockets. Businesses are being asked to adapt, realign and alter their practices in order to promote greater profits and maintain a stable workforce. Traditional planning methods are being found ineffective in today's changing environment. Most space planning practices use past ideas and intuitive guesses to create what is needed to for a satisfactory space plan. A level of internal understanding is needed to capitalize on management decisions and promote employee satisfaction. The level of understanding would benefit from a precise manner of determining workplace environmental preferences. It is a common understanding within the architectural and business research fields that office employees are highly affected by the setting in which they conduct their work (Becker, 1995). Not only are workers users of spaces within the workplace, but also today's worker recognizes, responds to and is motivated by aesthetically pleasing places and useful spaces that are meaningful and congruent in supporting their work activities (Wicker, 1992). Past research has studied the person-environment relationship and studies have shown that the person-environment (P-E) congruence heavily influences the level of job satisfaction, employee retention and motivation (Caplan, 1987). The P-E congruence model seeks to understand the nature of how the environments that people use or experience have an effect upon their behaviors as well as the manner that peopleIncludes bibliographical references (pages 90-96)

MicroRNA expression profiling of human breast cancer identifies new markers of tumor subtype.

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of short non-coding RNAs found in many plants and animals, often act post-transcriptionally to inhibit gene expression. RESULTS: Here we report the analysis of miRNA expression in 93 primary human breast tumors, using a bead-based flow cytometric miRNA expression profiling method. Of 309 human miRNAs assayed, we identify 133 miRNAs expressed in human breast and breast tumors. We used mRNA expression profiling to classify the breast tumors as luminal A, luminal B, basal-like, HER2+ and normal-like. A number of miRNAs are differentially expressed between these molecular tumor subtypes and individual miRNAs are associated with clinicopathological factors. Furthermore, we find that miRNAs could classify basal versus luminal tumor subtypes in an independent data set. In some cases, changes in miRNA expression correlate with genomic loss or gain; in others, changes in miRNA expression are likely due to changes in primary transcription and or miRNA biogenesis. Finally, the expression of DICER1 and AGO2 is correlated with tumor subtype and may explain some of the changes in miRNA expression observed. CONCLUSION: This study represents the first integrated analysis of miRNA expression, mRNA expression and genomic changes in human breast cancer and may serve as a basis for functional studies of the role of miRNAs in the etiology of breast cancer. Furthermore, we demonstrate that bead-based flow cytometric miRNA expression profiling might be a suitable platform to classify breast cancer into prognostic molecular subtypes.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Jealousy, Transmission and Recovery

Recovery is a performance project by Natalie Cursio and Shannon Bott that premiered in Melbourne, Australia in late 2015. In the credits I am listed as ‘Director / Choreographer’ but I was not involved at the beginning of the project and nor did I see the premiere. My relative absence from Recovery has led me to conceive of my relationship to it as being that of a jealous lover. In turn, I ask how the experience of jealousy may be useful in re-negotiating the role of the choreographer—and choreography—through time. The writing evokes the biological metaphor of 'spillover' to help imagine a work's persistence beyond performance (and related considerations of annotation and archive), and proposes that the idea of stewardship helps to recognize the limited role of the director/choreographer in how performance is transmitted through time. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor &amp; Francis in Performance Research on 26 November 2015 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/13528165.2015.111106

Evidence-Based Practice Education for Nurses Caring for Oncology Patients with Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Quality improvement Project.

BACKGROUND: Nurses are one of the primary sources of information for patients during their healthcare journey. Patient education can mean the difference between a positive and negative outcome. Oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy are an especially vulnerable population and education and preparation for potential side-effects related to chemotherapy is important. There are several ways to control chemotherapy-induced side effects (CISE). One of the debilitating side effects can be chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). While difficult to manage, the support of nursing staff to encourage patients to take an active role in their care could help decrease the risk of CIPN and improve quality of life. LOCAL PROBLEM: The setting of this quality improvement project was a hospital outpatient oncology clinic located in the southeastern United States. The purpose of the quality improvement project was to improve chemotherapy patient education concerning neurological effects of chemotherapy and effective ways to manage the symptoms with a specific focus on the use of self-administered cryotherapy (SAC) while receiving taxane-based chemotherapy as a treatment option for CIPN. METHODS: The Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice to Promote Quality Care was used for this project. Using PDSA (plan-do-study-act) cycles, a pre-and post-survey was created and provided to nursing staff to measure their knowledge before education was implemented and knowledge gained after education was complete. INTERVENTIONS: Evidence-based education was provided to 15 clinic chemotherapy- certified nursing staff through an oral and printed presentations. Patient scenarios were shared to demonstrate practicality of the nursing role during a patient’s SAC journey. RESULTS: Nearly all participants gained some level of knowledge about CIPN. Most nurses expressed incorporating the knowledge into their practice. Survey questions were not identical between pre-and-post surveys prohibiting the collection of a p value. CONCLUSIONS: Optimizing patient education begins with assuring that nurses have the knowledge when caring for specific patients

Drug use monitoring in Australia: An expansion into the Pilbara

The relationship between alcohol, illicit drugs and offending is complex and dynamic. Substance misuse both nationally and internationally has been found to be prevalent in detained populations (Bennett & Holloway 2007, Pernanen, Cousineau, Brochu & Sun 2002, Sweeney & Payne 2012). With the cost of crime in Australia estimated to be $36 billion per annum (AIC 2009), it is important to establish some of the links that, if addressed, may reduce the level of commissions of crime and increase the wellbeing of Australians