228 research outputs found
Social Partnership - From Lemass to Cowen
The 2008 Countess Markievicz Memorial Lecture of the Irish Association for Industrial Relations. Delivered at Trinity College, Dublin, on 25 November 2008.
âCollaborative Productionâ and the Irish Boom - Work Organisation, Partnership and Direct Involvement in Irish Workplaces
A significant strand of recent social-scientific writing on Ireland has assigned great importance to various forms of âcollaborative productionâ: new forms of work organisation, partnership and direct employee involvement â even suggesting that their growing diffusion might have played a major role in Irelandâs exceptional economic performance during the 1990s. This paper draws on the University College Dublin national workplace survey of employee relations to present an assessment of the degree to which new modes of collaborative production have gained ground in Ireland during the 1990s. While collaborative production is undoubtedly significant in many Irish workplaces, âexclusionaryâ forms of decision-making are shown to dominate the postures of establishments towards the handling of change. Arguments pointing to the âtransformationâ, actual or imminent, of work practices and employment relations in Ireland are rejected. Change in Ireland is shown to have much in common with developments in other economies, particularly those characterised by âAnglo-Americanâ institutional systems, which are not readily permeable to collaborative production in its various modes.
Determining the effects of cattle grazing treatments on Yosemite toads (Anaxyrus [=Bufo] canorus) in montane meadows.
Amphibians are experiencing a precipitous global decline, and population stability on public lands with multiple uses is a key concern for managers. In the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California, USA), managers have specifically identified livestock grazing as an activity that may negatively affect Yosemite toads due to the potential overlap of grazing with toad habitat. Grazing exclusion from Yosemite toad breeding and rearing areas and/or entire meadows have been proposed as possible management actions to alleviate the possible impact of cattle on this species. The primary objective of this study was to determine if different fencing treatments affect Yosemite toad populations. We specifically examined the effect of three fencing treatments on Yosemite toad breeding pool occupancy, tadpoles, and young of the year (YOY). Our hypothesis was that over the course of treatment implementation (2006 through 2010), Yosemite toad breeding pool occupancy and early life stage densities would increase within two fencing treatments relative to actively grazed meadows due to beneficial changes to habitat quality in the absence of grazing. Our results did not support our hypothesis, and showed no benefit to Yosemite toad presence or early life stages in fenced or partially fenced meadows compared to standard USDA Forest Service grazing levels. We found substantial Yosemite toad variation by both meadow and year. This variation was influenced by meadow wetness, with water table depth significant in both the tadpole and YOY models
Decentralised Collective Bargaining in Ireland - National Report
The institutional framework for collective bargaining in Ireland is underpinned by the
principle of voluntarism. Employers and trade unions voluntarily engage in collective
bargaining, and their agreed terms and conditions of employment are not legally binding.
Workers have the right to form and join a trade union. However, unions cannot force
employers to enter collective bargaining, meaning that there is no legal right to bargaining in
Ireland. There is only one trade union confederation, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Equally, there is one major cross-sectoral employersâ association, the Irish Business and
Employers Confederation. These two organisations played a very significant role in the
regulation of the economy during the national social partnership in Ireland between 1987 and
2009, negotiating wage rates for all unionised workers.
Since the collapse of the national social partnership in 2009, the main levels at which
collective bargaining takes place are the company and the workplace levels. Sectoral
bargaining still occurs in a number of low-paid and weakly unionised sectors and in
construction and allied sectors. Sectoral bargaining also takes place in public services.
Recently, employers and unions have called for a deepening of tripartite social dialogue, and
this has occurred in several areas central to Irelandâs response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, this emerging forum cannot be considered as a precursor to a new form of national
social partnership. Neither unions nor employers favour the alignment of social dialogue
directly with pay bargaining in a renewal of the social partnership-type centralised pay
agreements of the 1987â2009 era.
The main actors involved in decentralised bargaining are, on the side of the union, full-time
trade union officials, organising workers at the sector level alongside shop stewards working
in companies, and, on the side of the employer, Human Resource (HR) Directors and their
delegation of managers, variously composed of the HR Manager(s), Head of Finance, and
Operations Manager(s). In the largest companies, which are considered to be pattern setters in
collective bargaining, the employersâ association also takes part in the negotiations. There are
no works councils within companies in Ireland, and only trade unions with a licence are
authorised to sign a collective agreement with their management counterpart. In some
companies, particular industrial relations arrangements, whereby trade unions and
management collaborate in various areas, such as information sharing, training, and work
organisation, can be found. These are called workplace partnerships and are supported by
formal workplace participation forums that are used by both management and shop stewards
to voice their concerns as well as to discuss any issue that is relevant to the workers and the
company. These forums, however, are never the locus of collective negotiations
Intraoperative electrocochleographic characteristics of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder in cochlear implant subjects
Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is characterized by an apparent discrepancy between measures of cochlear and neural function based on auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing. Clinical indicators of ANSD are a present cochlear microphonic (CM) with small or absent wave V. Many identified ANSD patients have speech impairment severe enough that cochlear implantation (CI) is indicated. To better understand the cochleae identified with ANSD that lead to a CI, we performed intraoperative round window electrocochleography (ECochG) to tone bursts in children (n = 167) and adults (n = 163). Magnitudes of the responses to tones of different frequencies were summed to measure the âtotal responseâ (ECochG-TR), a metric often dominated by hair cell activity, and auditory nerve activity was estimated visually from the compound action potential (CAP) and auditory nerve neurophonic (ANN) as a ranked âNerve Scoreâ. Subjects identified as ANSD (45 ears in children, 3 in adults) had higher values of ECochG-TR than adult and pediatric subjects also receiving CIs not identified as ANSD. However, nerve scores of the ANSD group were similar to the other cohorts, although dominated by the ANN to low frequencies more than in the non-ANSD groups. To high frequencies, the common morphology of ANSD cases was a large CM and summating potential, and small or absent CAP. Common morphologies in other groups were either only a CM, or a combination of CM and CAP. These results indicate that responses to high frequencies, derived primarily from hair cells, are the main source of the CM used to evaluate ANSD in the clinical setting. However, the clinical tests do not capture the wide range of neural activity seen to low frequency sounds
Inhibiting the oncogenic translation program is an effective therapeutic strategy in multiple myeloma
Published in final edited form as: Sci Transl Med. 2017 May 10; 9(389). https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aal2668.Multiple myeloma (MM) is a frequently incurable hematological cancer in which overactivity of MYC plays a central role, notably through up-regulation of ribosome biogenesis and translation. To better understand the oncogenic program driven by MYC and investigate its potential as a therapeutic target, we screened a chemically diverse small-molecule library for anti-MM activity. The most potent hits identified were rocaglate scaffold inhibitors of translation initiation. Expression profiling of MM cells revealed reversion of the oncogenic MYC-driven transcriptional program by CMLD010509, the most promising rocaglate. Proteome-wide reversion correlated with selective depletion of short-lived proteins that are key to MM growth and survival, most notably MYC, MDM2, CCND1, MAF, and MCL-1. The efficacy of CMLD010509 in mouse models of MM confirmed the therapeutic relevance of these findings in vivo and supports the feasibility of targeting the oncogenic MYC-driven translation program in MM with rocaglates
Changes in undergraduate student alcohol consumption as they progress through university
BACKGROUND:
Unhealthy alcohol use amongst university students is a major public health concern. Although previous studies suggest a raised level of consumption amongst the UK student
population there is little consistent information available about the pattern of alcohol consumption as they progress through university. The aim of the current research was to describe drinking patterns of UK full-time undergraduate students as they progress through their degree course.
METHOD:
Data were collected over three years from 5895 undergraduate students who began their studies in either 2000 or 2001. Longitudinal data (i.e. Years 1â3) were available from 225 students. The remaining 5670 students all responded to at least one of the three surveys (Year 1
n = 2843; Year 2 n = 2219; Year 3 n = 1805).
Results: Students reported consuming significantly more units of alcohol per week at Year 1 than at Years 2 or 3 of their degree. Male students reported a higher consumption of units of alcohol than their female peers. When alcohol intake was classified using the Royal College of Physicians
guidelines [1] there was no difference between male and females students in terms of the percentage exceeding recommended limits. Compared to those who were low level consumers students who reported drinking above low levels at Year 1 had at least 10 times the odds of continuing to consume above low levels at year 3. Students who reported higher levels of drinking were more likely to report that alcohol had a negative impact on their studies, finances and physical health. Consistent with the reduction in units over time students reported lower levels of negative
impact during Year 3 when compared to Year 1.
CONCLUSION:
The current findings suggest that student alcohol consumption declines over their undergraduate studies; however weekly levels of consumption at Year 3 remain high for a substantial number of students. The persistence of high levels of consumption in a large population
of students suggests the need for effective preventative and treatment interventions for all year
groups
Early experience with targeted therapy as a first-line adjuvant treatment for pediatric low-grade glioma.
OBJECTIVE: Pediatric low-grade gliomas (pLGGs) frequently exhibit dysregulation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. Targeted therapies, including mutant BRAF inhibitors (dabrafenib) and MEK inhibitors (trametinib), have shown promise in patients in whom conventional chemotherapy has failed. However, few studies have investigated the use of targeted therapy as a first-line treatment for pLGG. Here, the authors reviewed their institutional experience with using a personalized medicine approach to patients with newly diagnosed pLGGs.
METHODS: All pediatric patients at the authors\u27 institution who had been treated with dabrafenib or trametinib for pLGG without first receiving conventional chemotherapy or radiation were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic, clinical, and radiological data were collected.
RESULTS: Eight patients underwent targeted therapy as a first-line treatment for pLGG. Five patients had a BRAF alteration (1 with a BRAFV600E mutation, 4 with a KIAA1549:BRAF fusion), and 3 patients had an NF1 mutation. One of the 8 patients was initially treated with dabrafenib, and trametinib was added later. Seven patients were initially treated with trametinib; of these, 2 later transitioned to dual therapy, whereas 5 continued with trametinib monotherapy. Six patients (75%) demonstrated a partial response to therapy during their treatment course, whereas stable disease was identified in the remaining 2 patients (25%). One patient experienced mild disease progression after completing a course of trametinib monotherapy, but ultimately stabilized after a period of close observation. Another patient experienced tumor progression while on dabrafenib, but subsequently responded to dual therapy with dabrafenib and trametinib. The most common adverse reactions to targeted therapy were cutaneous toxicity (100%) and diarrhea (50%).
CONCLUSIONS: Targeted therapies have the potential to become a standard treatment option for pLGG due to their favorable toxicity profile and oral route of administration. This case series provides preliminary evidence that targeted therapies can induce an early disease response as a first-line adjuvant treatment; however, large-scale studies are required to assess long-term durability and safety
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