Co-op Survival Rates in British Columbia

This is the final report of the British Columbia component of research that was conducted by the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA), the Alberta Community and Co-operative Association (ACCA) and the British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA) on survival rates for newly incorporated co-operatives in both provinces and factors which influenced survival. The research found that co-ops experience significantly higher survival rates than other forms of business start-ups. The 5-year survival rate in B.C. was 66.6%. By contrast, Industry Canada figures show a 43% and 39% 5-year survival rate for conventional business start-ups in 1984 and 1993 respectively. In BC, business start-ups in 1984 experienced a 38% 5-year survival rate. Successful co-ops identified the following factors as being key to their development and survival: • Acquisition of capital & strong financial planning & management • Member engagement & board involvement & expertise • Training & enlisting outside consultant expertise and support • Business planning and clarity of purpose. The report includes recommendations for ways to enhance support to co-operative development and survival.BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) ; British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA) ; Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC

Electronic Health Records (EHR): Developing a New \u27Healthcare Information Needs\u27 Model from Multiple Stakeholders\u27 Perspectives

To supply effective patient management and care, healthcare professionals must manage an ever-increasing amount of patient data. Generally, these data are distributed across numerous sources and involve mainly paper-based systems. Poorly organised patient information can cause confusion for healthcare professionals, resulting in medical errors and patient frustration. The Australian government is addressing this issue by investing in new information systems to capture patient data electronically. For these projects to succeed it is essential that the information needs of multiple stakeholders are met. This research will investigate the information needs of various stakeholders in the aged care sector with the aim of developing a new information needs model

A cluster randomised control trial of a multi-component weight management programme for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity

There have been few published controlled studies of multi-component weight management programmes that include an energy deficit diet (EDD), for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. The objective of this study was to conduct a single-blind, cluster randomised controlled trial comparing a multi-component weight management programme to a health education programme. Participants were randomised to either TAKE 5, which included an EDD or Waist Winners Too (WWToo), based on health education principles. Outcomes measured at baseline, 6 months (after a weight loss phase) and 12 months (after a 6-month weight maintenance phase), by a researcher blinded to treatment allocation, included: weight; BMI; waist circumference; physical activity; sedentary behaviour and health-related quality of life. The recruitment strategy was effective with fifty participants successfully recruited. Both programmes were acceptable to adults with intellectual disabilities, evidenced by high retention rates (90 %). Exploratory efficacy analysis revealed that at 12 months there was a trend for more participants in TAKE 5 (50·0 %) to achieve a clinically important weight loss of 5-10 %, in comparison to WWToo (20·8 %) (OR 3·76; 95 % CI 0·92, 15·30; 0·064). This study found that a multi-component weight management programme that included an EDD, is feasible and an acceptable approach to weight loss when tailored to meet the needs of adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity

Exacerbation of CNS inflammation and neurodegeneration by systemic LPS treatment is independent of circulating IL-1β and IL-6

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chronic neurodegeneration comprises an inflammatory response but its contribution to the progression of disease remains unclear. We have previously shown that microglial cells are primed by chronic neurodegeneration, induced by the ME7 strain of prion disease, to synthesize limited pro-inflammatory cytokines but to produce exaggerated responses to subsequent systemic inflammatory insults. The consequences of this primed response include exaggerated hypothermic and sickness behavioural responses, acute neuronal death and accelerated progression of disease. Here we investigated whether inhibition of systemic cytokine synthesis using the anti-inflammatory steroid dexamethasone-21-phosphate was sufficient to block any or all of these responses.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>ME7 animals, at 18-19 weeks post-inoculation, were challenged with LPS (500 μg/kg) in the presence or absence of dexamethasone-21-phosphate (2 mg/kg) and effects on core-body temperature and systemic and CNS cytokine production and apoptosis were examined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LPS induced hypothermia and decreased exploratory activity. Dexamethasone-21-phosphate prevented this hypothermia, markedly suppressed systemic IL-1β and IL-6 secretion but did not prevent decreased exploration. Furthermore, robust transcription of cytokine mRNA occurred in the hippocampus of both ME7 and NBH (normal brain homogenate) control animals despite the effective blocking of systemic cytokine synthesis. Microglia primed by neurodegeneration were not blocked from the robust synthesis of IL-1β protein and endothelial COX-2 was also robustly synthesized. We injected biotinylated LPS at 100 μg/kg and even at this lower dose this could be detected in blood plasma. Apoptosis was acutely induced by LPS, despite the inhibition of the systemic cytokine response.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that LPS can directly activate the brain endothelium even at relatively low doses, obviating the need for systemic cytokine stimulation to transduce systemic inflammatory signals into the brain or to exacerbate existing pathology.</p

A single-blind, pilot randomised trial of a weight management intervention for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity: study protocol

Background: The prevalence of obesity in adults with intellectual disabilities has consistently been reported to be higher than the general population. Despite the negative impact of obesity on health, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of weight management interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. Preliminary results from a single-stranded feasibility study of a multi-component weight management intervention specifically designed for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity (TAKE 5) and that satisfied clinical recommendations reported that it was acceptable to adults with intellectual disabilities and their carers. This study aims to determine the feasibility of a full-scale clinical trial of TAKE 5.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Methods: This study will follow a pilot randomised trial design. Sixty-six obese participants (body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2) will be randomly allocated to the TAKE 5 multi-component weight management intervention or a health education ‘active’ control intervention (Waist Winners Too (WWToo)). Both interventions will be delivered over a 12-month period. Participants’ anthropometric measures (body weight, BMI, waist circumference, percentage body fat); indicators of activity (levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour) and well-being will be measured at three time points: baseline, 6 and 12 months. The researcher collecting outcome measures will be blind to study group allocation.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Conclusions: The data from this study will generate pilot data on the acceptability of randomisation, attrition rates and the estimates of patient-centred outcomes of TAKE 5, which will help inform future research and the development of a full-scale randomised clinical trial

Exploring Applications of the Nova Scotia Co-op Development System in B.C. and Alberta

This research proposal outlines planned research examining how to strengthen the co-operative development systems in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. It builds upon earlier research of the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) that examined the recent history of successful innovation and development in the co-operative sector in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been unparalleled in other parts of Anglophone Canada.BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) ; British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA); Alberta Community and Co-operative Association (ASCCA) ; Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (CCCR) ; Rural and Co-operatives Secretaria

The TyrA family of aromatic-pathway dehydrogenases in phylogenetic context

BACKGROUND: The TyrA protein family includes members that catalyze two dehydrogenase reactions in distinct pathways leading to L-tyrosine and a third reaction that is not part of tyrosine biosynthesis. Family members share a catalytic core region of about 30 kDa, where inhibitors operate competitively by acting as substrate mimics. This protein family typifies many that are challenging for bioinformatic analysis because of relatively modest sequence conservation and small size. RESULTS: Phylogenetic relationships of TyrA domains were evaluated in the context of combinatorial patterns of specificity for the two substrates, as well as the presence or absence of a variety of fusions. An interactive tool is provided for prediction of substrate specificity. Interactive alignments for a suite of catalytic-core TyrA domains of differing specificity are also provided to facilitate phylogenetic analysis. tyrA membership in apparent operons (or supraoperons) was examined, and patterns of conserved synteny in relationship to organismal positions on the 16S rRNA tree were ascertained for members of the domain Bacteria. A number of aromatic-pathway genes (hisH(b), aroF, aroQ) have fused with tyrA, and it must be more than coincidental that the free-standing counterparts of all of the latter fused genes exhibit a distinct trace of syntenic association. CONCLUSION: We propose that the ancestral TyrA dehydrogenase had broad specificity for both the cyclohexadienyl and pyridine nucleotide substrates. Indeed, TyrA proteins of this type persist today, but it is also common to find instances of narrowed substrate specificities, as well as of acquisition via gene fusion of additional catalytic domains or regulatory domains. In some clades a qualitative change associated with either narrowed substrate specificity or gene fusion has produced an evolutionary "jump" in the vertical genealogy of TyrA homologs. The evolutionary history of gene organizations that include tyrA can be deduced in genome assemblages of sufficiently close relatives, the most fruitful opportunities currently being in the Proteobacteria. The evolution of TyrA proteins within the broader context of how their regulation evolved and to what extent TyrA co-evolved with other genes as common members of aromatic-pathway regulons is now feasible as an emerging topic of ongoing inquiry

Black Assimilationism in Neoliberal Globalization

This article, using Mocombeian phenomenological structural theory, argues that since their arrival on North American soil, the constitution of black American identity has been the product of their relations to the means and mode of production within the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism. As such, black Americans, and this includes the so-called black radical tradition, have never been agents in the constitution of their own identities. They have always been and remain (reactionary) pawns of capital seeking, dialectically or negative dialectically, to assimilate in the American social structure. Their assimilation takes place within the social practices of two social class language games (the black bourgeoisie and the underclass) that were historically constituted by different ideological apparatuses, the church and education on the one hand and the streets, prisons, and the athletic and entertainment industries on the other, respectively, of the global capitalist racial-class structure of inequality under American hegemony, which replaced African ideological apparatuses as found in Haiti, for example. Contemporarily, given both groups’ overrepresentation in the ideological superstructures of the American empire, they, antagonistically, have become the bearers of ideological and linguistic domination for all black youth the world-over, especially in the United Kingdom, which have tremendous consequences for their assimilation process. Under the assimilationist imperatives of the black bourgeoisie, the aim is integration and assimilation along the lines of traditional white Protestant agents of the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism with an emphasis on bourgeois prosperity, the black nuclear family, entrepreneurialism, and individualism. Conversely, the black underclass seeks integration and assimilation through the pathologies of their structural differentiation within the Protestant Ethic and the spirit of capitalism with an emphasis on identity politics, glorification of the self, wealth via sports and entertainment, and the communal thinking of the street life as the basis of black identity and culture