Effects of Elevated Salinity and Oxidative Stress on the Physiology of the Toxigenic Cyanobacterium Microcystis Aeruginosa

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are found worldwide, particularly in places where warm, well-lit, and stagnant waters are common. HABs can have negative effects on aquatic plants and wildlife due to the reduction in light availability associated with turbidity, decrease in O2 availability, and the production of secondary metabolites that can harm or even prove lethal. Aquatic ecosystems are regularly being affected by elevated salinity because of recent water management strategies, episodes of drought, and salt water intrusion. This research focused on how salinity levels ranging from 0-10ppt affected physiological attributes such as cellular growth and abundance, cell mortality, toxin release, and oxidative stress in the toxigenic cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa. It was determined that salinity treatments of 7ppt and above caused a decrease in both cellular growth and abundance, as well as an increase in toxin release due to cell mortality. M. aeruginosa was able to survive in salinities up to 7ppt. A pattern of caspase activity in response to elevated salinity was shown, but whether cellular mortality was due solely to programmed cell death (PCD) was not definitive. A strong antioxidant response, measured through catalase activity, was noted when salinity was enhanced to 7ppt. Above this value, the damaging effects of salinity caused elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cell death. It was determined that the maximum amount of hydrogen peroxide that M. aeruginosa could withstand without significant impact to growth and abundance was below 250µM. Salinities of 7ppt and above had a negative impact on the physiology of M. aeruginosa, leading to cell death and an increase in microcystin release into the environment. These two factors can lead to fish kills, poor drinking water, and other recreational and commercial problems for an aquatic ecosystem. By determining the precise salinity that HAB cellular mortality is imminent, predictive models can be employed to predict the impacts of salt intrusion and groundwater management

Occupations, the missing link? A new theoretical and methodological approach to product markets, skill and pay

Drawing on research of Australian cafes, this article examines the link between product market strategies, skill and pay. Addressing the methodological problems within existing research, the findings not only suggest a new methodology for future research examining these linkages but also a new theoretical proposition about the linkages based on occupation rather than firm, industry or sector

Skills utilisation : definition, theories, approaches and measures

Skills have become a major competitive factor for many countries and have been emphasised in national economic and social policies (OECD, 2011). It is therefore not surprising that governments at all levels in the EU – supra - national, national and sub - national – have skills strategies. These strategies have typically centred on boosting the supply and stock of skills in the labour market. The European Commission’s Agenda for New Skills and Jobs (2012) is one such example, arguing for a higher - skilled workforce across the EU through investment in training and education. However, for most companies, skills, in the form of workforce development is a third - order consideration after business development and organisational development (Warhurst and Findlay, 2012). As a consequence, whilst many companies have business strategies that include skills, few have skill s strategies per se. Boosting the supply of skills on the labour market is therefore important but not sufficient: these skills need to be put to use within companies. Without considering how skills are used, the potential exists for creating a mismatch between skills supply and demand (Keep and Mayhew, 1999; Warhurst and Thompson, 1999). Indeed, this problem seems evident in the context of ongoing ‘over - qualification’ amongst the workforces of the advanced economies (Felstead et al, 2017; Livingstone, 2017) resulting in ‘untapped talent’ at best (Skills Australia, 2012b) or, at worst, a waste of human resources (OECD, 2011) within companies. As governments refresh their skill s strategies, there is an increasingly pressing need for a framework to assist the design and implementation of new policies that encompass both skill s supply and demand (OECD, 2011; EC, 2012). Understanding skill s utilisation has become important in this context. Skill s utilisation refers to the way that employers use the skills of their employees (Ashton and Sung, 2011). Employees’ use of skills is shaped not only by their own abilities but also by the human resource practices adopted by companies, which in turn are shaped by the choices that managers, as employers in loco, make about how to manage and organise their workplaces (Ashton et al, 2017). These choices can lever or impede skill s utilisation and can have negative and positive outcomes for companies. Skill s under - utilisation can lead to a loss of human capital and reduced productivity and job satisfaction (OECD, 2011). Unused skills can also degrade or be lost over time (Clark, 1995). By contrast, better use of skills can improve companies’ innovation, profitability and productivity as well as employee s’ job satisfaction, engagement and retention (Skills Australia, 2012b). Significantly, skill use is not predetermined; choices exist and there is policy scope for government s to help support better skill s utilisation within companies (Warhurst and Findlay, 2012; OECD, 2017). Good information about skill s utilisation is therefore needed. Generating this information requires addressing two key tasks: defining and measuring skill s utilisation. This background paper focuses on these tasks. Its aim is to inform how the European Company Survey (ECS) 2019 can capture skill s utilisation at the company level in the EU. The paper has four main sections. The first focuses on the definition of skills utilisation. The second section identifies the theoretical drivers of skill use within companies. The third section reviews existing survey measures of skill s in companies, including in the ECS 2013. The fourth section offers recommendations for including measures of skills utilisation in the ECS 2019. Annex A lists the surveys analysed for this paper; Annex B lists possible questions about skill s utilisation for inclusion in the ECS 2019

Manifesto for a new Quality of Working Life

Poor quality jobs and their negative consequences for worker wellbeing are frequently associated with Taylorised work and rising non-standard, often precarious, employment. Our manifesto offers a new approach to Quality of Working Life to improve worker wellbeing. In doing so, it outlines the need for a new measure of job quality that pays due attention to employment as well as work problems, and a new approach to practical reform that involves statutory minimum standards rather than just voluntary firm action. Significantly, a receptive political-economic context currently exists to enable the implementation of this manifesto

Education as the underpinning system : understanding the propensity for learning across the lifetime (Future of Skills & Lifelong Learning Evidence Review)

There is much debate about labour market and other changes, for example technological and demographic. Within this context, the support from the education and skills system still has a role in supporting individuals to make important decisions about their engagement in education and investment in skills, as well as helping individuals make informed choices and decisions about their transitions into and through the labour market. Individuals need to continuously adapt their skills and competencies whilst acquiring new and/or specialist skills to cope with demographic and labour market shifts. This is achieved by engaging with learning across the life-course. Recent frameworks for understanding the life-course, such as career adaptability, have focused on the attributes and competences needed of individuals to manage these labour market changes and transitions that they now face during their life. These frameworks take account of individual’s engagement in learning throughout their life and how career and life decisions might be made. Career adaptability is viewed as necessary to build career resilience and career management as well as offering a fresh perspective on the challenges and opportunities presented by the changing labour market. If the education and skills system is to further affect an individual’s resilience then it needs to encourage and support the development of career adaptability attributes and behaviours across the life-course. The benefits of engaging with education and learning across the life-course is that it enables people to: up-skill for a particular career path; reskill for a career change; catch up on learning; respond to changing circumstances; remain in the labour market longer; be productive; and engage in further learning. Importantly, those engaged in learning are more likely to remain in the labour market and are better able to cope with change and multiple transitions. Policies should be aimed at helping individuals develop, maintain and improve their learning and skills to support an extended working life. This aim could be achieved through the provision of personalised and tailored skills development programmes, which could be delivered within educational institutions, workplaces or online, all underpinned by the provision of effective careers guidance throughout the life-course and the support for individual engagement with learning, in all forms, across the life-course. The outcome will be a system that facilitates a workforce that is more resilient and better able to manage and positively respond to labour market – and other – changes

Report of the West Midlands Productivity & Skills Commission

The report brings together a range of analysis on the Industrial Strategy's Foundations of Productivity. It provides an analysis of productivity and business trends in the West Midlands, and combines with commissioned research to propose actions for the West Midlands Combined Authority via its Local Industrial Strategy

Humanizing work in the digital age : lessons from socio-technical systems and quality of working life initiatives

New and residual challenges related to digital technology, COVID-19, precarious employment and scientific management are a reminder of research published in the early years of Human Relations that laid the foundation for socio-technical systems (STS) theory and its later conceptual offspring, the Quality of Working Life (QWL). Analysing the evolution, challenges, legacy and lessons of STS and QWL, we develop guiding principles for the theoretical development and practical implementation of STS and QWL for the twenty-first century. These principles are needed to optimise the benefits of new technology and improve job quality. They would enable an effective and sustained humanisation of work through stakeholder involvement, inter-disciplinary partnerships and institutional support, producing positive outcomes for employees and employers as well as wider society

Green jobs and the Green economy in York

For a number of years, a purist definition of green jobs has been used. This definition is proving to be problematic and more inclusive definitions are gaining policy traction. One broader definition has been developed by IER and adopted within the UK – the GreenSOC. This broader definition offers three types of green jobs, one of which aligns loosely with the purist definition. On the purist definition, there are around 1,800 people working in green sector jobs in York TTWA, this figure represents 1% of the current workforce. Analysis of job vacancy postings that ask for purist green skill terms in their vacancy adverts suggests that 2% of current vacancies ask for such skills. This latter figure has fluctuated between 1% and 4% of total job vacancy postings in York over the past three years. Employing the inclusive definition, our estimates suggest that there are 28% of people in the York TTWA, and one quarter of York City residents, who are currently working in green jobs. These jobs are mostly green increased demand jobs, which comprise around 45% of green jobs in both areas or 12% of total employment. The next largest green jobs category are green enhanced skills and knowledge jobs, which constitute around one third of green jobs or 9% of all jobs. Finally, green new and emerging jobs (which is closest to the purist definition) account for about one in five green jobs or 6% of total jobs. The nature of green jobs varies across broad occupational groups. Green enhanced skills and knowledge jobs are most prevalent in plant and machine process operative occupations, associate professional and technical, and managerial occupations. Green new and emerging are more significant in skilled trades, and professional occupations. Green increased demand jobs are sizeable in most broad occupations. Analysis of occupations at a more detailed level shows that many of these jobs are currently green increased demand, and in occupations that concern the distribution, logistics and financing of the green economy (i.e. service sector jobs), as well as the manufacture, installation and maintenance of green products. The job vacancy postings data calculates that just over one third of vacancies are for green jobs, and that two thirds of these jobs are green enhanced skills and knowledge (23% of all job postings), one quarter are green increased demand jobs (9%), and 6% are green new and emerging jobs (2%). Most green jobs, in both York TTWA and York City, are in skilled trades, associate professional and technical, and plant and machine process operative occupations. The job vacancy postings data indicates that skilled trades, and process, plant and machine operative occupations account for the largest proportion of green jobs in York TTWA. Both the current employment and job vacancy postings data indicate that there are few green jobs in administrative and secretarial, and caring, leisure and service occupations. 38 A number of the top ten green detailed occupations in the employment and job vacancy postings data are the same. Green job postings tend to include more IT detailed occupations rather than skilled trades, especially in the construction sector. Analysis of current employment and job vacancy postings by sector shows that it is the public administration, education and health, distribution, hotels and restaurants, and banking, finance and insurance sectors where most green jobs are located. However, as a proportion of jobs within sectors, agriculture, forestry and fishing, construction, and transport and communication have the largest proportion of green jobs. The skills and knowledge requirements of green jobs are very similar to non-green jobs. This similarity is apparent when examining the skills and knowledge of specific green and non-green occupations as well as the skills, knowledge and skills terms in broader occupation groupings. Analysis of the skills, knowledge and skills terms of green jobs within broad occupation groups shows that there are a number of skills and knowledge requirements that are the same across green and non-green jobs, as well as different types of green jobs. The reasons for the similarities between green and non-green jobs is because a number of key functional, transferable and technical skills are necessary to perform most jobs. It also reflects the fact that most green jobs are green increased demand jobs or green enhanced skills and knowledge jobs requiring no or incremental changes respectively in the tasks undertaken