Ratcheting labor standards : regulation for continuous improvement in the global workplace

Ratcheting Labor Standards (RLS) is a regulatory alternative that aims to improve the social performance of firms in the global economy. Under RLS, firms disclose to a certified monitor, information on their social performance, minimally including working conditions, hours, and wages. The monitors rank firms on the basis of their current social performance, and their rates of improvement, and make these rankings, and the methods on which they are based, accessible to the public. This process, it is argued, encourages leading firms to strive towards superior social practices. Competition among firms, and monitors will help establish two kinds of standards:"best practices"defined by the most advanced firms, and"rates of improvement", shown to be feasible at various levels of development. Both continually"ratchet"upward as the best practices get better still, and firms find ways to accelerate improvement, in a race to the top. These, and other RLS mechanisms, would create incentives for firms to dedicate a portion of the ingenuity, and resources now devoted to product development to the continuous improvement of labor practices.Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Labor Standards,Children and Youth,Work&Working Conditions

Multi-Institutional FASTQ File Exchange as a Means of Proficiency Testing for Next-Generation Sequencing Bioinformatics and Variant Interpretation

Next-generation sequencing is becoming increasingly common in clinical laboratories worldwide and is revolutionizing clinical molecular testing. However, the large amounts of raw data produced by next-generation sequencing assays and the need for complex bioinformatics analyses present unique challenges. Proficiency testing in clinical laboratories has traditionally been designed to evaluate assays in their entirety; however, it can be alternatively applied to separate assay components. We developed and implemented a multi-institutional proficiency testing approach to directly assess custom bioinformatics and variant interpretation processes. Six clinical laboratories, all of which use the same commercial library preparation kit for next-generation sequencing analysis of tumor specimens, each submitted raw data (FASTQ files) from four samples. These 24 file sets were then deidentified and redistributed to five of the institutions for analysis and interpretation according to their clinically validated approach. Among the laboratories, there was a high rate of concordance in the calling of single-nucleotide variants, in particular those we considered clinically significant (100% concordance). However, there was significant discordance in the calling of clinically significant insertions/deletions, with only two of seven being called by all participating laboratories. Missed calls were addressed by each laboratory to improve their bioinformatics processes. Thus, through our alternative proficiency testing approach, we identified the bioinformatic detection of insertions/deletions as an area of particular concern for clinical laboratories performing next-generation sequencing testing

Targeting Epigenetic Regulation of miR-34a for Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer by Inhibition of Pancreatic Cancer Stem Cells

MicroRNA-34a (miR-34a) is a transcriptional target of p53 and is down-regulated in pancreatic cancer. This study aimed to investigate the functional significance of miR-34a in pancreatic cancer progression through its epigenetic restoration with chromatin modulators, demethylating agent 5-Aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-dC) and HDAC inhibitor Vorinostat (SAHA).Re-expression of miR-34a in human pancreatic cancer stem cells (CSCs) and in human pancreatic cancer cell lines upon treatment with 5-Aza-dC and SAHA strongly inhibited the cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, self-renewal, epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and invasion. In pancreatic CSCs, modulation of miR-34a induced apoptosis by activating caspase-3/7. Treatment of pancreatic CSCs with the chromatin-modulating agents resulted in the inhibition of Bcl-2, CDK6 and SIRT1, which are the putative targets of miR-34a. MiR-34a upregulation by these agents also induced acetylated p53, p21(WAF1), p27(KIP1) and PUMA in pancreatic CSCs. Inhibition of miR-34a by antagomiR abrogates the effects of 5-Aza-dC and SAHA, suggesting that 5-Aza-dC and SAHA regulate stem cell characteristics through miR-34a. In CSCs, SAHA inhibited Notch pathway, suggesting its suppression may contribute to inhibition of the self-renewal capacity and induction of apoptosis. Interestingly, treatment of pancreatic CSCs with SAHA resulted in the inhibition of EMT with the transcriptional up-regulation of E-Cadherin and down-regulation of N-Cadherin. Expression of EMT inducers (Zeb-1, Snail and Slug) was inhibited in CSCs upon treatment with SAHA. 5-Aza-dC and SAHA also retard in vitro migration and invasion of CSCs.The present study thus demonstrates the role of miR-34a as a critical regulator of pancreatic cancer progression by the regulating CSC characteristics. The restoration of its expression by 5-Aza-dC and SAHA in CSCs will not only provide mechanistic insight and therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer but also promising reagents to boost patient response to existing chemotherapies or as a standalone cancer drug by eliminating the CSC characteristics

The science of sustainable supply chains.

Recent advances in the science and technology of global supply chain management offer near-real-time demand-response systems for decision-makers across production networks. Technology is helping propel "fast fashion" and "lean manufacturing," so that companies are better able to deliver products consumers want most. Yet companies know much less about the environmental and social impacts of their production networks. The failure to measure and manage these impacts can be explained in part by limitations in the science of sustainability measurement, as well as by weaknesses in systems to translate data into information that can be used by decision-makers inside corporations and government agencies. There also remain continued disincentives for firms to measure and pay the full costs of their supply chain impacts. I discuss the current state of monitoring, measuring, and analyzing information related to supply chain sustainability, as well as progress that has been made in translating this information into systems to advance more sustainable practices by corporations and consumers. Better data, decision-support tools, and incentives will be needed to move from simply managing supply chains for costs, compliance, and risk reduction to predicting and preventing unsustainable practices

The science of sustainable supply chains.

Recent advances in the science and technology of global supply chain management offer near-real-time demand-response systems for decision-makers across production networks. Technology is helping propel "fast fashion" and "lean manufacturing," so that companies are better able to deliver products consumers want most. Yet companies know much less about the environmental and social impacts of their production networks. The failure to measure and manage these impacts can be explained in part by limitations in the science of sustainability measurement, as well as by weaknesses in systems to translate data into information that can be used by decision-makers inside corporations and government agencies. There also remain continued disincentives for firms to measure and pay the full costs of their supply chain impacts. I discuss the current state of monitoring, measuring, and analyzing information related to supply chain sustainability, as well as progress that has been made in translating this information into systems to advance more sustainable practices by corporations and consumers. Better data, decision-support tools, and incentives will be needed to move from simply managing supply chains for costs, compliance, and risk reduction to predicting and preventing unsustainable practices

Locally accountable good governance : strengthening non-governmental systems of labor regulation

This paper evaluates leading non-governmental labor regulation initiatives in the US and Europe. It comparatively assesses the codes of conduct and monitoring systems within these initiatives, discusses their different models of regulation and proposes criteria for evaluating their effectiveness. It identifies critical factors which appear to support more effective non-governmental regulation, such as: substantive participation of local stakeholders; public transparency of methods and findings; and mechanisms that bring market pressures to bear on multinational corporations, and simultaneously support processes of multi-stakeholder problem solving within factories and global supply chains

Environment and Society

This page is a course overview for Massachusetts Institute of Technologyâs (MIT) course 11.122, Environment and Society.  The course examines the effects of industrialization on the environment and society and the regulatory response to these changes. Projects produced by students in the course, including a study of the environmental impact of the Boston Marathon, are included. The site also provides a syllabus, calendar, references for readings, and assignments.  The production and distribution of this resource is part of MIT OpenCourseWare, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate and graduate-level courses online and make them freely accessible

Economics, Environment, and Equity: Policy Integration During Development in Vietnam

Conflicts between economic development, environmental protection and social equity underlie efforts to promote sustainable development. The author proposes a simplified framework for integrating economic, environmental, and social policies in order to foster development that is ecologically and socially more sustainable. The paper analyzes the specific forms these policy areas are assuming in Vietnam, and the underlying political forces (both internal and external) driving policy implementation. An examination of how these policies are currently integrated and balanced follows. The analysis shows that contrary to government pronouncements, development patterns are unlikely to be altered toward more sustainable ends under existing institutions and laws. Finally, the article discusses the potential for integrating current policies to achieve sustainability goals