The influence of organizational subcultures in health organizations

This study investigates the mediating role of organizational subculture and its antecedents of organizational commitment namely leadership, culture and job satisfaction. Structural equation analysis is used to examine our model in which organizational subculture mediated the influence of leadership style and organizational culture on commitment, and in which job satisfaction is an antecedent of commitment. The results of this study highlight the important role of local leadership and subculture in determining employees’ job satisfaction and commitment. The findings in this study could also provide managers with a new lens to examine organizational culture via three perspectives: bureaucratic, supportive and innovative. Furthermore, the results could renew interests in developing other organizational subculture models that could determine the relationship between organizational subculture and commitmen

‘We treat them all the same’: the attitudes, knowledge and practices of staff concerning old/er lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans residents in care homes

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Paul Simpson, Kathrynn Almack, and Pierre Walthery, ‘ “We treat them all the same”: the attitudes, knowledge and practices of staff concerning old/er lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans residents in care homes’, Ageing and Society, first published online 29 December 2016, available online at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X1600132X Copyright: © Cambridge University Press 2016. Content in the UH Research Archive is made available for personal research, educational, and non-commercial purposes only. Unless otherwise stated, all content is protected by copyright, and in the absence of an open license, permissions for further re-use should be sought from the publisher, the author, or other copyright holder.The distinct needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) residents in care homes accommodating older people have been neglected in scholarship. On the basis of a survey of 187 individuals, including service managers and direct care staff, we propose three related arguments. First, whilst employees’ attitudes generally indicate a positive disposition towards LGBT residents, this appears unmatched by the ability to recognise such individuals and knowledge of the issues and policies affecting LGBT people. Statements such as, ‘We don’t have any [LGBT residents] at the moment’ and ‘I/we treat them all the same’ were common refrains in responses to open-ended questions. They suggest the working of heteronormativity which could deny sexual and identity difference. Second, failure to recognise the distinct health and social care needs of LGBT residents means that they could be subject to a uniform service, which presumes a heterosexual past and cisgender status (compliance with ascribed gender), which risks compounding inequality and invisibility. Third, LGBT residents could be obliged to depend largely on the goodwill, knowledge and reflexivity of individual staff (including people of faith) to meet care and personal needs, though such qualities were necessary but not sufficient conditions for inclusion and no substitute for collective practices (involving commitment to learn about LGBT issues) that become integral to care homes’ everyday functioning. A collective approach is key to advancing inclusion, implementation of legal rights to self-expression and securing equality through differentiated provision.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

A Proteomic Approach to Analyze the Aspirin-mediated Lysine Acetylome

This work is supported by Cancer Research UK Grant C434/A13067 (M.H.T & R.T.H) and Wellcome Trust Grant 098391/Z/12/7 (R.T.H.).Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid is widely used to control pain, inflammation and fever. Important to this function is its ability to irreversibly acetylate cyclooxygenases at active site serines. Aspirin has the potential to acetylate other amino-acid side-chains, leading to the possibility that aspirin-mediated lysine acetylation could explain some of its as-yet unexplained drug actions or side-effects. Using isotopically labeled aspirin-d3, in combination with acetylated lysine purification and LC-MS/MS, we identified over 12000 sites of lysine acetylation from cultured human cells. Although aspirin amplifies endogenous acetylation signals at the majority of detectable endogenous sites, cells tolerate aspirin mediated acetylation very well unless cellular deacetylases are inhibited. Although most endogenous acetylations are amplified by orders of magnitude, lysine acetylation site occupancies remain very low even after high doses of aspirin. This work shows that while aspirin has enormous potential to alter protein function, in the majority of cases aspirin-mediated acetylations do not accumulate to levels likely to elicit biological effects. These findings are consistent with an emerging model for cellular acetylation whereby stoichiometry correlates with biological relevance, and deacetylases act to minimize the biological consequences non-specific chemical acetylations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Metal triflates for the production of aromatics from lignin

This work was funded by the European Union (Marie Curie ITN ‘SuBiCat’ PITN-GA-2013-607044, PJD, CWL, NJW, PCKL, KB, JGdeV) as well as EP/J018139/1, EP/K00445X/1 grants (NJW and PCJK) and an EPSRC Doctoral Prize Fellowship (CSL).The depolymerization of lignin into valuable aromatic chemicals is one of the key goals towards establishing economically viable biorefineries. In this contribution we present a simple approach for converting lignin to aromatic monomers in high yields, under mild reaction conditions. The methodology relies on the use of catalytic amounts of easy to handle metal triflates (M(OTf)x). Initially, we evaluated the reactivity of a broad range of metal triflates using simple lignin model compounds. More advanced lignin model compounds were also used to study the reactivity of different lignin linkages. The product aromatic monomers were either phenolic C2-acetals obtained by stabilization of the aldehyde cleavage products by reaction with ethylene glycol, or methyl aromatics obtained by catalytic decarbonylation. Notably, when the former method was ultimately tested on lignin, especially Fe(OTf)3 proved very effective and the phenolic C2-acetal products were obtained in an excellent, 19.3±3.2 wt % yield.PostprintPeer reviewe

Electronic and bite angle effects in catalytic C-O bond cleavage of a lignin model compound using ruthenium xantphos complexes

The authors would like to thank the EPSRC (Global Engagement grant EP/K00445X/1 and critical mass grant EP/J018139/1) and the European Union (Marie Curie ITN ‘SuBiCat’ PITN-GA-2013-607044) for financial support. NMSF-Swansea and Mr. Stephen Boyer are kindly acknowledged for mass spectrometry and elemental analysis, respectively.Bite angle and electronic effects on the ruthenium-diphosphine catalysed ether bond cleavage of the lignin β-O-4 model compound 2-phenoxy-1-phenethanol were tested. Enhanced conversion of the substrate was observed with increasing σ-donor capacity of the ligands. Kinetic and thermodynamic data suggest oxidative addition of the dehydrogenated model compound to the diphosphine Ru(0) complex to be rate-limiting.PostprintPeer reviewe

Context-specific economic evaluation for molecular pathology tests: An application in colorectal cancer in the West of Scotland.

The cost-effectiveness of molecular pathology testing is highly context dependent. The field is fast-moving, and national health technology assessment may not be relevant or timely for local decision makers. This study illustrates a method of context-specific economic evaluation that can be carried out in a limited timescale without extensive resources. We established a multi-disciplinary group including an oncologist, pathologists and a health economist. We set out diagnostic and treatment pathways and costs using registry data, health technology assessments, guidelines, audit data, and estimates from the group. Sensitivity analysis varied input parameters across plausible ranges. The evaluation setting was the West of Scotland and UK NHS perspective was adopted. The evaluation was assessed against the AdHopHTA checklist for hospital-based health technology assessment. A context-specific economic evaluation could be carried out on a timely basis using limited resources. The evaluation met all relevant criteria in the AdHopHTA checklist. Health outcomes were expected to be at least equal to the current strategy. Annual cost savings of £637,000 were estimated resulting primarily from a reduction in the proportion of patients receiving intravenous infusional chemotherapy regimens. The result was not sensitive to any parameter. The data driving the main cost saving came from a small clinical audit. We recommended this finding was confirmed in a larger population. The method could be used to evaluate testing changes elsewhere. The results of the case study may be transferable to other jurisdictions where the organization of cancer services is fragmented