Thinking About LGBT Diversity in the Workplace

[Excerpt] Today, according to a May 13, 2011 report by the PEW Research Center, “a majority of Americans, 58%, now say that homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged by society.” There are many reasons for this more inclusive shift in attitudes. Inclusion of sexual orientation, and increasingly gender identity, in workplace inclusion initiatives and diversity awareness dialogue is likely one. The workplace, driven by the pragmatic need for improved productivity, talent recruitment, and retention of a motivated workforce, has become a powerful environment for social change and learning

Keeping Members United in Contentious Times

[Excerpt] In contentious times, members often don’t see eye to eye, generating division and rivalries that undermine solidarity. Increasing membership diversity can lead to misunderstandings, which can escalate to disrespect. As a steward, you play a critical rol

Thinking About Five Strategies for Making Diversity Work

Greater diversity in the workplace introduces the possibility for increased misunderstanding and conflict at the same time as it holds out the promise of creativity and innovation. Workplace diversity change leaders have learned that making diversity work cannot be taken for granted. We cannot automatically assume that people will engage well with others across differences. Our history with bias, inequity and exclusion remains too much a part of how we understand one another. Making diversity work represents a mindset shift in the way people interact and engage. Organizations that are serious about creating inclusive work environments—where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and valued for who they are—recognize the importance of how people work together. Relationship building across differences needs to be developed and nurtured. Inclusive organizations focus on creating internal culture change to build people skills and promote shared expectations for mutual respect— an evolving endeavor. I’d like to add to the conversation by offering several observations for what this mindset shift might entail

Workplace Conflict and Relationships

[Excerpt] Not all conflict that stewards handle is with management. Conflict can arise within the union, too —within leadership circles, disputes with members, clashes among different constituency groups within the union. How a steward responds can strengthen or undermine confidence in his or her leadership and affect membership solidarity

Resources for Workplace Diversity: An Annotated Practitioner Guide to Information

[Excerpt] We are pleased to offer this updated edition of Resources for Workplace Diversity: An Annotated Practitioner Guide to Information, a unique offering of The Workplace Diversity Network. Our goal is to assemble a selected, annotated list of compelling and useful resources available to help diversity practitioners create organizations that are diverse and productive. As a working group, we agreed that useful resources would include newly published books as well as historic, seminal works that provide insight and illumination irrelevant of their age. In the updated edition, we’ve expanded existing sections, added new ones and referenced online access where possible. Designed with practitioner needs in mind, Resources for Workplace Diversity is meant to be an evolving document, one that will grow according to the needs and recommendations of its users. To capture the advantage of networking, we invite you to suggest additional resources that you have found to be valuable

Breaking the habit: a qualitative exploration of barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation in people with enduring mental health problems

BACKGROUND: Smoking in people with mental health problems (MHPs) is an important public health concern as rates are two to three times higher than in the general population. While a strong evidence base exists to encourage and support smoking cessation in the wider population, there is limited evidence to guide the tailoring of interventions for people with MHPs, including minimal understanding of their needs. This paper presents findings from theoretically-driven formative research which explored the barriers and facilitators to smoking cessation in people with MHPs. The aim, guided by the MRC Framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions, was to gather evidence to inform the design and content of smoking cessation interventions for this client group. METHODS: Following a review of the empirical and theoretical literature, and taking a critical realist perspective, a qualitative approach was used to gather data from key stakeholders, including people with enduring MHPs (n = 27) and professionals who have regular contact with this client group (n = 54). RESULTS: There was a strong social norm for smoking in participants with MHPs and most were heavily addicted to nicotine. They acknowledged that their physical health would improve if they stopped smoking and their disposable income would increase; however, more important was the expectation that, if they attempted to stop smoking, their anxiety levels would increase, they would lose an important coping resource, they would have given up something they found pleasurable and, most importantly, their mental health would deteriorate. Barriers to smoking cessation therefore outweighed potential facilitators and, as a consequence, impacted negatively on levels of motivation and self-efficacy. The potential for professionals to encourage cessation attempts was apparent; however, they often failed to raise the issue of smoking/cessation as they believed it would damage their relationship with clients. The professionals’ own smoking status also appeared to influence their health promoting role. CONCLUSIONS: Many opportunities to encourage and support smoking cessation in people with MHPs are currently missed. The increased understanding provided by our study findings and literature review have been used to shape recommendations for the content of tailored smoking cessation interventions for this client group

Multi-omics studies demonstrate Toxoplasma gondii-induced metabolic reprogramming of murine dendritic cells

Toxoplasma gondii is capable of actively invading almost any mammalian cell type including phagocytes. Early events in phagocytic cells such as dendritic cells are not only key to establishing parasite infection, but conversely play a pivotal role in initiating host immunity. It is now recognized that in addition to changes in canonical immune markers and mediators, alteration in metabolism occurs upon activation of phagocytic cells. These metabolic changes are important for supporting the developing immune response, but can affect the availability of nutrients for intracellular pathogens including T. gondii. However, the interaction of T. gondii with these cells and particularly how infection changes their metabolism has not been extensively investigated. Herein, we use a multi-omics approach comprising transcriptomics and metabolomics validated with functional assays to better understand early events in these cells following infection. Analysis of the transcriptome of T. gondii infected bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) revealed significant alterations in transcripts associated with cellular metabolism, activation of T cells, inflammation mediated chemokine and cytokine signaling pathways. Multivariant analysis of metabolomic data sets acquired through non-targeted liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LCMS) identified metabolites associated with glycolysis, the TCA cycle, oxidative phosphorylation and arginine metabolism as major discriminants between control uninfected and T. gondii infected cells. Consistent with these observations, glucose uptake and lactate dehydrogenase activity were upregulated in T. gondii infected BMDC cultures compared with control BMDCs. Conversely, BMDC mitochondrial membrane potential was reduced in T. gondii-infected cells relative to mitochondria of control BMDCs. These changes to energy metabolism, similar to what has been described following LPS stimulation of BMDCs and macrophages are often termed the Warburg effect. This metabolic reprogramming of cells has been suggested to be an important adaption that provides energy and precursors to facilitate phagocytosis, antigen processing and cytokine production. Other changes to BMDC metabolism are evident following T. gondii infection and include upregulation of arginine degradation concomitant with increased arginase-1 activity and ornithine and proline production. As T. gondii is an arginine auxotroph the resultant reduced cellular arginine levels are likely to curtail parasite multiplication. These results highlight the complex interplay of BMDCs and parasite metabolism within the developing immune response and the consequences for adaptive immunity and pathogen clearance

Better reporting of interventions : template for intervention description and replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Development of Scientific Writing Skills Through Activities Embedded into Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory Courses

Scientific writing skills are important for a career in science and need to be developed. Rather than design courses solely focused on writing, we embedded writing activities into two bioscience laboratory courses at third year undergraduate level, where students wrote about their own data. Students completed writing exercises during breaks in experimental procedures and received feedback during the session. These activities focused on data presentation, data analysis and writing results and discussion paragraphs. These exercises provided a model to assist students in writing the remainder of the report. We probed student opinions regarding scientific writing and the exercises by anonymous pre- and post-course surveys using both closed and open questions. Confidence towards scientific writing and performing simple writing tasks significantly improved after experiencing the writing activities in the first course. Students related that undertaking writing activities in more than one class helped to further improve their writing skills. Independent assessors, with no knowledge of when the reports were written, evaluated reports that originated from the same course held in years before and after writing activities were incorporated. There was a significant improvement in scientific writing quality that correlated with the increase in students’ self-efficacy towards performing various writing tasks

Shaping a mental health curriculum for Canada\u27s teacher education programs: Rationale and brief overview

It is a well-known and accepted statistic that one in five Canadian children will experience a significant mental health challenge prior to their 18th birthday; this is a conservative estimate given the many who suffer ‘under the radar’ with transient sadness, depression, and anxiety (Flett & Hewitt, 2013). And if we have yet to be sensitized to this critical period of childhood and adolescence, longitudinal studies indicate that 70% of adults who experience an emotional disorder report having their first onset episode prior to the age of 18 (Kessler et al., 2009)