High performance workplaces and skill development: Updating the map of the territory

The impact of High Performance Workplace Systems (HPWS) on workers and unions is a contentious area for debate in the fields of industrial relations and social science in general. Proponents of HPWS claim that one of the benefits for workers is that they enable workers to develop and raise their skill levels. This paper offers a preliminary evaluation of that claim by sketching an updated map of the territory. It concludes that the HPWS literature contains significant weaknesses concerning the definition of skill in explaining what skill development means for workers, individually and collectively

Testing, training and tensions: a persistently disappointing picture of 'health' in secondary physical education?

Despite government attention to PE and school sport as important in helping young people to become independently active for life (e.g. Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2008), some consider that PE has not maximized its potential in this area (Cale & Harris, 2005; Trost, 2006), making this an important topic of study to better understand why this is. This particular study explored the micro-level of individual PE teachers’ philosophies, policies and practices with respect to the expression of health in secondary school PE curricula in England and Wales (see Harris & Leggett, 2013a, 2013b for further details of the study). At the time of the study, a ‘new’ version of the National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) had been introduced and, for the first time, this differed for state schools in England (Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)/Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), 1999) and Wales (Awdurdod Cwricwlwm Ac Asesu Cymry (ACAAC), 1999). Table 1 summarises the health-related requirements of the two NCPE and their overall approaches

Testing, training and tensions: the expression of health within physical education curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales

This paper utilises critical discourse analysis to explore and discuss the expression of health within physical education (PE) curricula in secondary schools in England and Wales. The study adopted a case study approach, involving three state secondary schools in England and two in Wales. Data were drawn from interviews with PE teachers and health-related school documentation in the five schools, plus observation of a health-related unit of work in one of the schools. The expression of health in PE broadly reflected ideologies associated with promoting ‘fitness for life’ and ‘fitness for performance’. The extent to which teachers could express their favoured discourses in policy and practice was partly determined by their position of power, relative to others within the department, although they could find ways of privileging their favoured discourse in their own lessons. Curiously, rhetorical ‘fitness for life’ discourses were commonly expressed through ‘fitness for performance’ practices in the form of testing and training activities. These were found to be the most common contexts for the delivery of health-related learning. In terms of Bernstein’s location of discourses within contexts of educational systems, the findings suggest that recontextualisation of statutory PE curricula occurred at the site of the relocation of discourse (in this case, within physical education departments in secondary state schools), resulting in the privileging of discourses heavily influenced by sport and fitness-related ideologies. Improved awareness of the expression of health in secondary school PE curricula should help to better understand and address the complex tensions between health-related policies and practices in schools

System-level intersectoral linkages between the mental health and non-clinical support sectors: a qualitative systematic review

Objectives: Concerns about fragmented mental health service delivery persist, particularly for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The objective was to review evidence regarding outcomes attributed to system-level intersectoral linkages involving mental health services and non-clinical support services, and to identify barriers and facilitators to the intersectoral linkage process

Right Here Right Now (RHRN) pilot study: testing a method of near-real-time data collection on the social determinants of health

Background: Informing policy and practice with up-to-date evidence on the social determinants of health is an ongoing challenge. One limitation of traditional approaches is the time-lag between identification of a policy or practice need and availability of results. The Right Here Right Now (RHRN) study piloted a near-real-time data-collection process to investigate whether this gap could be bridged. Methods: A website was developed to facilitate the issue of questions, data capture and presentation of findings. Respondents were recruited using two distinct methods – a clustered random probability sample, and a quota sample from street stalls. Weekly four-part questions were issued by email, Short Messaging Service (SMS or text) or post. Quantitative data were descriptively summarised, qualitative data thematically analysed, and a summary report circulated two weeks after each question was issued. The pilot spanned 26 weeks. Results: It proved possible to recruit and retain a panel of respondents providing quantitative and qualitative data on a range of issues. The samples were subject to similar recruitment and response biases as more traditional data-collection approaches. Participants valued the potential to influence change, and stakeholders were enthusiastic about the findings generated, despite reservations about the lack of sample representativeness. Stakeholders acknowledged that decision-making processes are not flexible enough to respond to weekly evidence. Conclusion: RHRN produced a process for collecting near-real-time data for policy-relevant topics, although obtaining and maintaining representative samples was problematic. Adaptations were identified to inform a more sustainable model of near-real-time data collection and dissemination in the future

The use of social media as a 'leadership behaviour' in medicine

In this dissertation, I examined how seed dispersal relationships are modified by the presence of multiple introduced species on the islands of Tahiti and Moorea in the Society archipelago of French Polynesia. Additionally, I evaluated the risks associated with one of my research methods; the use of mist nets to capture wild birds. I first evaluated how the local abundance of the invasive Miconia calvescens modifies seed dispersal relationships between birds and plants. The species is an invasive fruit-bearing tree that currently covers much of the island of Tahiti and is present at much lower densities on Moorea. I found that while the overall size of networks was similar across sites, networks on the highly invaded island of Tahiti were less diverse and less even because birds concentrated a greater proportion of their foraging on Miconia calvescens. There were fewer links between birds and native plants at highly invaded sites where birds switched their diets away from a broader range of fruit and insects. The endemic Grey-green Fruit Dove ( Ptilinopus purpuratus) consumed native fruit in larger quantities and more total species than two introduced frugivores. This study demonstrates that the impacts of invasive fruit-bearing plants on seed dispersal networks depends in part on their abundance, and are likely to increase as a species becomes increasingly dominant in a community. Additionally, the dispersal of native plants continues to depend heavily on the single extant native fruit dove on these islands despite the presence of multiple introduced frugivores. The impact of invasive plants on seed dispersal networks is the result of the cumulative effects of foraging decisions by birds. The available evidence suggests that birds choose which fruit to consume based on the complementarity between fruit traits and their own preferences as well as the relative abundance of fruit in a community. I used fruit choice experiments with captive Red-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus cafer) to uncouple fruit preferences from the effects of abundance to determine which operates more strongly on foraging decisions in birds. Birds showed both reliable and consistent preferences for some fruits over others and a strong response to abundance. However, when included simultaneously in the same experiment, the patterns of preference remained intact while the effect of abundance disappeared. Data suggest that foraging decisions are highly context-dependent, and neutral models that consider only the relative abundance of fruit in the community are unlikely to provide reliable predictions about how seed dispersal networks will change in response to invasion. In the final study of my thesis, I evaluated the risks associated with one of my primary research methods; the use of mist nets to capture birds. Mist nets are used widely for monitoring avian populations. While the method is assumed to be safe, very few studies have addressed how frequently injuries and mortalities occur, and no large-scale comprehensive evaluation has been conducted to determine the associated risks. In collaboration with several banding organizations, I quantified the rates of mortality and injury at 22 banding organizations in the United States and Canada and used capture data from five organizations to determine what kinds of incidents occur most frequently. I compiled a dataset including nearly 350,000 records of capture over a 22 year period and evaluated what makes birds most at risk to incident. I found that the risks varied among species and factors such as body mass and the number of previous captures were related to the probability of an incident. Additionally, I found that birds that were released back into the wild after an injury were recaptured at similar rates compared to birds that were released without an injury, indicating that injured birds survived in similar numbers as those released uninjured. This study fills a gap by providing the first comprehensive evaluation of the risks associated with mist netting and concludes that while overall risks are low, species and traits can predict a bird's susceptibility to incident. These results can be useful for organizations that use mist netting, and should be incorporated into protocols aimed at minimizing injury and mortality. Finally, I emphasize that projects using mist nets should monitor their performance and compare their results to those of other organizations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.

Interferon gamma replacement as salvage therapy in chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: effects on frequency of acute exacerbation and all-cause hospital admission.

Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is often poorly responsive to antifungal treatment; secondary infections increase morbidity/mortality, particularly in progressive cases. Interferon gamma (IFNγ) has been implicated in not only Aspergillus control but also bacterial clearance. Clinical notes of patients with CPA treated with IFNγ (2011-2018) were retrospectively hand-searched. In patients treated for >12 months (n=20), the frequency of acute exacerbation reduced from 3.1 to 1.4 episodes/year (p=0.006) in the 12 months after treatment initiation compared with the 12 months before. A significant reduction in the frequency of hospital admissions/year was also observed (0.8 to 0.3, p=0.04). These findings support further prospective studies

Conformation and aggregation of selectively PEGylated and lipidated gastric peptide hormone human PYY3–36

The gastric peptide hormone human PYY3–36 is a target for the development of therapeutics, especially for treatment of obesity. The conformation and aggregation behavior of PEGylated and lipidated derivatives of this peptide are examined using a combination of fluorescence dye assays, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) measurements, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The behavior of two PYY3–36 derivatives lipidated (with octyl chains) in different positions is compared to that of two derivatives with PEG attached at different residues and to that of the native peptide. We find that, unexpectedly, PYY3–36 forms amyloid fibril structures above a critical aggregation concentration. Formation of these structures is suppressed by PEGylation or lipidation. PEGylation significantly reduces the (reversible) loss of α-helix content observed on heating PYY3–36. The PEG conjugates form mainly monomeric structures in solution- coiled-coil formation, and other aggregation presumably being sterically hindered by swollen PEG chains. However, some small aggregates are detected by AUC. In complete contrast, both of the two lipidated peptides show the formation of spherical micelle-like structures which are small oligomeric aggregates. Our findings show that PEGylation and lipidation are complementary strategies to tune the conformation and aggregation of the important gastric peptide hormone human PYY3–36

Expression of CD74 is increased in neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by progressive memory loss. Pathological markers of AD include neurofibrillary tangles, accumulation of amyloid-β plaques, neuronal loss, and inflammation. The exact events that lead to the neuronal dysfunction and loss are not completely understood. However, pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor α, are increased in AD, along with gene expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). MHC class II molecules are found in microglia of the brain, while MIF is found in both microglia and neurons of the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and cortex. MIF is not only a lymphocyte mediator but also a pituitary factor with endocrine properties and can mediate phosphorylation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 MAP kinases pathway. In this study, we looked at CD74, an integral membrane protein that acts as both a chaperone for MHC class II molecules as well as a receptor binding site for MIF. CD74 was recently found to be increased in microglia in AD cases compared to age-matched controls, but has not been reported in neurons. In our analysis, immunohistochemistry revealed a significant increase in CD74 primarily in neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid-β plaques, and microglia. This is the first finding to our knowledge that CD74 is increased in neurons of AD cases compared to age-matched control cases

A multipronged approach to understanding the form and function of hStaufen protein

Staufen is a dsRNA binding protein that plays an essential role in many aspects of RNA regulation, such as mRNA transport, Staufen-mediated mRNA decay and the regulation of mRNA translation. Staufen is a modular protein characterized by the presence of conserved consensus amino acid sequences that fold into double-stranded RNA binding domains (RBDs) as well as degenerated RBDs that maintain the α-β-β-β-α fold but are unable to bind RNA and are instead involved in protein-protein interactions. The variety of biological processes in which Staufen participates in the cell suggests that this protein associates with many diverse RNA targets, some of which have been identified experimentally. Staufen binding mediates the recruitment of effectors via protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions. The structural determinants of a number of these interactions, as well as the structure of full-length Staufen, remain unknown. Here, we present the first solution structure models for full-length human Staufen155, showing that its domains are arranged as beads-on-a-string in the absence of RNA