31 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Office design and health: a systematic review
Aim: To carry out a systematic review of recent research into the effects of workplace design, comparing individual with shared workspaces, on the health of employees.
Methods: The research question was "Does workplace design (specifically individual offices compared with shared workspaces) affect the health of workers?" A literature search limited to articles published between 2000 and 2017 was undertaken. A systematic review was carried out, and the findings of the reviewed studies grouped into themes according to the primary outcomes measured in the studies.
Results: The literature search identified 15 relevant studies addressing health effects of shared or open-plan offices compared with individual offices. Our systematic review found that, compared with individual offices, shared or open-plan office space is not beneficial to employees' health, with consistent findings of deleterious effects on staff health, wellbeing and productivity. Our findings are also consistent with those of earlier reviews.
Conclusion: These findings have public health implications for the New Zealand workforce. Decisions about workplace design should include weighing the short-term financial benefits of open-plan or shared workspaces against the significant harms, including increased sickness absence, lower job satisfaction and productivity, and possible threats to recruitment and retention of staff
Recommended from our members
Aotearoa/New Zealand early childhood education: moving forward with intention
Recommended from our members
Partnership with families in early childhood education: New Zealand's policy and professional content
Effective, authentic and meaningful relationships between early childhood teachers, parents, caregivers and extended family members is positioned as a central tenet of the Aotearoa/ New Zealand early childhood curriculum framework, Te Wha Ìriki. The introduction to Te Wha Ìriki declares the critical importance of such relationships. âEach child is on a unique journey. They come into the world eager to learn and into family, wha Ìnau or âaigaâ 1 that have high hopes for them. Teachers, educators and kaiako 2 in ECE settings work together in partnership with the family to realise these hopesâ (Ministry of Education, 2017, p. 6). This chapter explores the way in which partnership with parents/ wha Ìnau is embedded as a core aspiration for early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa/ New Zealand, and how partnership with parents/ wha Ìnau is enacted in ways that are individually, contextually and culturally appropriate. It further explores how shifts in funding and policy have infl uenced both initial teacher education (ITE) for student teachers and continued provision of professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities for teachers, recognising that ITE and PLD are key drivers in teachersâ development of beliefs and practices in relation to engagement and partnership with parents/ wha Ìnau. In presenting the current policy and practice landscape in the Aotearoa/ New Zealand context, implications, challenges and possibilities for future practice are highlighted
31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two
Background
The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd.
Methods
We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background.
Results
First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001).
Conclusions
In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival
The effects of an in-service course to develop early childhood teachers' skill in positive behaviour strategies
Early childhood teachers report that childrenâs disruptive behaviour is one of the major challenges they face as teachers. The aim of this study was to identify the current behaviour management strategies used by seven teachers at a preschool and to examine the effects of training these teachers in the effective use of positive teaching strategies to increase appropriate behaviour and decrease disruptive behaviour in three and a half to five year old children. A variety of methodologies were employed including direct observation, the use of a rating scale and reflective teacher questionnaires. The results indicate that the teachersâ initial understanding of strategies such as contingent praise and attention were limited and that they would benefit from an in-service training programme focused on teaching positive behavioural strategies. After training, all teachers increased their use of descriptive praise and they increased their contingent responses following child requests. This increase in teacher behaviour was accompanied by an increase in child appropriate behaviour and a decrease in child disruptive behaviour. These results raise a number of important implications for teachers. These implications will be discussed and audience involvement at this time is actively encouraged
Recommended from our members
Inclusive education through a neoliberal lens: the hierarchal differences between rural and urban China
Recommended from our members