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Understanding stakeholder viewpoints for foodservice localization: the potential of the leadership viewpoint
Get PDFLocalization has been identified as an area to improve foodservice sustainability. We asked the research question “What are the dominant shared stakeholder viewpoints about local food in a college foodservice and how might an understanding of these be used to help management localize the foodservice?” We used Q methodology to group stakeholders (students, foodservice manager and staff, college staff and food suppliers) into four dominant shared stakeholder viewpoints. “The Leadership Viewpoint” showed the capacity to drive foodservice change. The study explores “The Leadership Viewpoint” of stakeholders in a college foodservice setting, which other dietetic professionals can compare to their own organizations
Distinct Patterns of Internalization of Different Calcitonin GeneRelated Peptide Receptors
Get PDFCalcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a neuropeptide that is involved in the transmission of pain. Drugs targeting CGRP or a CGRP receptor are efficacious in the treatment of migraine. The canonical CGRP receptor is a complex of a G protein-coupled receptor, the calcitonin-like receptor (CLR), with an accessory protein, receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (RAMP1). A second receptor, the AMY1 receptor, a complex of the calcitonin receptor with RAMP1, is a dual high-affinity receptor for CGRP and amylin. Receptor regulatory processes, such as internalization, are crucial for controlling peptide and drug responsiveness. Given the importance of CGRP receptor activity in migraine we compared the internalization profiles of both receptors for CGRP using novel fluorescent probes and a combination of live cell imaging, fixed cell imaging, and ELISA. This revealed stark differences in the regulation of each receptor with the AMY1 receptor unexpectedly showing little internalization.Peer Reviewe
‘JacindaBabyMania’: Media Representations of Jacinda Ardern & Women’s Perspectives of the ‘Working Mother’ in Aotearoa New Zealand
No full textIn January 2018, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s third female Prime Minister, made history when she announced that she and her partner, Clarke Gayford, were expecting their first child. This child would make Ardern the second woman in history to give birth while being the government’s elected head, and news coverage on both a national and global scale exploded. News media narratives are an accessible, popular medium where dominant cultural values and ideologies are portrayed to populations on a mass scale. Media narratives full of ideologies that perpetuate widely held cultural beliefs around work and motherhood, hidden behind the facade of Ardern’s superstar image, were disseminated to the masses. This research is a mixed-methods study, consisting of a narrative analysis of news articles related to Ardern’s motherhood image over a 24 month period (August 2017 - July 2019), and a survey of over 249 New Zealand women. The narrative analysis identified two primary narratives employed in news media articles about Ardern: the Wonder Woman narrative, the sub-narrative of Catalyst for Change, and the Part-Time PM narratives. Key findings suggest that both the newspaper narratives and survey responses articulate western notions of the ‘ideal’ mother. However, survey results show that participants' understanding of and interactions with media narratives of motherhood are complex and varied. This complexity was evident through participants expressing frustration with the media’s representation of motherhood and them pushing back against the narratives in the data, despite their descriptions of the ‘ideal’ mother being consistent with dominant ideals of motherhood
Uncertainty, Precaution & Perception: Communicating the Risk of Heading in Football
Get PDFConcerns regarding the short and long-term effects of sport-related head injury have grown in recent decades. The damage incurred by mild traumatic brain injury in the context of collision sports has thus received significant attention in both the media and in scientific research. Although this field of enquiry largely concerns the neurological impact of acute head injury (including concussion), a recent proliferation of research considering more subtle mechanisms of brain damage has also taken place. General observations from the study of “subconcussion” suggest a potential link between repeated head impacts of a subclinical nature and increased risk of neurodegeneration.
The act of intentionally playing the ball with one’s head, or “heading”, is an integral part of football gameplay, and has since been identified as a potential vehicle of subconcussive injury. Despite the lack of conclusive evidence for a link between the act of heading and increased risk of brain injury, both the United States and the United Kingdom have recently taken precautionary measures by introducing regulations on junior heading exposure. To date, no empirical study has investigated public perceptions of heading as a possible health risk.
The present study explored attitudes of the New Zealand public towards heading in an effort to gauge how the factors of scientific uncertainty and precautionary information influence heading-related risk perceptions. A sample of domestic players and parents of junior players (n= 89) was recruited to take part in an online survey. Participants were presented with information regarding subconcussion research and the notion of a link between heading and neurodegenerative disease.
Individuals presented with a disclosure of scientific uncertainty tended to report a higher level of risk attributable to heading compared to controls. Conversely, information regarding precautionary measures generally resulted in slightly lower risk perceptions than controls. Analysis revealed a medium-large interaction effect between the factors of uncertainty and precautionary information (p<.05), illustrating significantly higher risk perceptions when uncertainty was paired with a “strong” example of precaution (banning junior heading) compared to when uncertainty was associated with an example of weaker precaution (limiting junior heading exposure).
The findings show that information on precautionary heading guidelines may act to attenuate concerns regarding heading as a possible health risk. Moreover, acknowledgment of the uncertainty inherent to current heading research may combine with information on strong precautionary measures to prompt a more intuitive and perhaps pessimistic assessment of risk. These findings have significant implications for the communication of current and future heading guidelines to the public, as transparent risk communication demands honest appraisals of the scientific uncertainty and value-laden precautionary judgments that underpin regulatory decisions. Considering the potential health risk posed by heading, alongside the general health benefits of physical activity; the communication of heading guidelines must take care in promoting the safety of at-risk populations while also avoiding the risk of escalating public concerns and reducing participation in football
Research on the influence of the government department's unfair behavior on social investor's performance in the process of PPP project
No full textHow to enhance social investor’s partnership with government departments and improve its economic and social performance in PPP(Public-Private Partnership) projects has been the focus of research. Based on the equity theory and risk perception theory, this study attempts to find the path to improve social investor’s economic and social performance from the perspective of government unfair behaviors in PPP projects. Firstly, this paper forms a conceptual model according to social investor’s logic of "Unfair Behavior-Perceived risk- Performance (Moderator: Transaction Specific Assets)" in PPP projects. Then, based on the relevant literature, the measurement scale of each variable is designed and the questionnaire survey is formed. Finally, the questionnaire survey is sent out via “wenjuanxing”(a crowdsourcing platform) and 306 valid data is collected, and the structural model and multiple linear regression are used to verify related hypotheses by using SPSS25 & AMOS26 software. The empirical results indicate that：
First, the three unfair behaviors (procedural unfairness, distributive unfairness, interactive unfairness) of government departments in PPP projects have different influence on social investor’s performance, and social investor usually places more emphasis on social performance rather than economic performance. However, although the influence of unfair behaviors on performance in PPP projects is significant, the correlation coefficient is low, especially the influence of distributive unfairness on social performance is the lowest. According to the distribution status of unfair behaviors, the score of distributive unfairness is relatively the highest, while the score of procedural unfairness is relatively the lowest. Government departments are in a relatively strong position in the actual development of Chinese PPP projects, and their attitudes, communication forms and trust relationships with social investors will have substantial influences on the progress of the PPP project, which will directly affect social investor’s performance of construction and operation stage.
Second, all the three unfair behaviors of government departments have significant influence on the perceived risk of social investors. First of all, the partnership between government in PPP projects and social investors should be based on the premise of equality and mutual benefit, but this does not deny that the government exercises its public administration power in the emergency and special circumstances (such as natural disasters, serious damage to public interests, etc.) in order to ensure the stable and safe supply of public services, while the utilization scope of this power will be more extensive in Chinese government departments. Moreover, the partnership between government and social investors not only means mutual benefit but also means risk sharing, In PPP projects that comply with the rules of market economy, benefits and risks are matched, so risk sharing is another basis of partnership besides benefit sharing.
Third, there are two types of perceived risks (relationship perceived risk, performance perceived risk) that have significant effects on the performance of social investor in PPP projects. Perceived risk plays a mediating role in the influence of the government’s unfair behaviors on different types of social investor’s performance, but the mediating effect of two different perceived risks is also different to some extent. In fact, neither government nor social investor obtain high economic returns in PPP projects. They pay more attention to the long-term social influence and public satisfaction brought by PPP projects. Therefore, both relationship perceived risk and performance perceived risk have a more significant influence on social performance. In the process of equal cooperation of PPP projects, social investors through perceived risks to judge the possibility of various risks and harmful consequences, from the perspective of risk prevention to adjust cooperation attitude and working mode in order to reach a consensus with the government and continue to promote cooperation, of course, may also terminate the cooperation due to serious differences between the two sides.
Fourth, transaction specific assets play a moderating role between perceived risk and performance. This moderating effect is particularly evident in the relationship between the two perceived risks with social performance. In PPP projects, the amount of financing is closely related to the income of the project itself and the policy support. It is related to whether the project company can smoothly promote the project implementation in the future, and affects the stability of cash flow and the excess of asset value of the project company. However, the responsibility and risk of project financing is usually borne by the social investors. In a PPP project, if the financing volume is not high but the social investor has invested too much transaction specific assets in the early stage, the social investor’s risk protection consciousness for the invested transaction specific assets will play a significant moderating role in the negative influence of perceived risk on project performance
Managing the demand for elective orthopaedic surgery:Challenges, strategies and results in New Zealand
Get PDFIntroduction. There is increasing demand for orthopaedic surgery and public health
systems, in NZ and around the world, are struggling to manage. In New Zealand emphasis
has been placed on fairness, timeliness, and giving the patient certainty which has led to the
development of prioritisation systems and explicit rationing. This thesis of publications is
based on research undertaken in Dunedin over the past 20 years. During this period there
has been an increasing mismatch between demand and capacity for orthopaedic surgery in
general, and hip and knee arthroplasty in particular. A variety of strategies have been
employed to try to improve access to elective orthopaedic surgery.
Methods
The thesis is divided into chapters examining various aspects of the problem.
1) Drivers for the increasing demand for elective orthopaedic surgery, and competing
demands for resource including acutes.
2) Carpal tunnel syndrome. What we can achieve with good access.
3) Prevention. Neonatal screening for developmental hip dysplasia
4) Alternatives to surgery. Improving non-operative management and comparing results
with surgery.
5) Scoring, prioritisation and consequences of rationing with respect to total joint
replacement (TJR).
6) Improving the perioperative management of patients.
7) Results of surgical treatment. Getting it right first time and improving the outcomes
of surgery
Results.
There is not equity of publicly funded provision of total joint replacement (TJR) across the
country. The demand for surgery in Otago has been quantified and is increasing. There is
little that can be done to prevent the demand. However, screening for Developmental
Dysplasia of Hip (DDH) can reduce late presenting hip dislocation and its long-term
6
sequelae. Alternative models of care have been effective in managing CTS. There is a high
incidence of CTS in the elderly with good results from surgery.
Non-operative management through a dedicated physiotherapy led clinic can be helpful for
patients with hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA). Patients with knee OA are more likely to
benefit than those with hip OA. However, the functional results at long term follow up are
poorer than those who have undergone surgery. The scoring tools used to prioritise TJR
have been validated but they are not discriminatory around the threshold. Declining surgery
and returning patients to their General practitioner (GP) achieves little especially for
patients with hip OA who are more likely to deteriorate. The long-term effects of rationing
and under provision leads to worsening severity of patients qualifying for public surgery.
Gains in health related quality of life are related to severity at presentation but those most
severely affected may not get as good a final result. Hip and knee replacement are highly
cost-effective procedures by three years.
Enhanced recovery protocols have resulted in improved efficiency and shorter patient stays
despite older and sicker patients. Excellent long term results have been achieved following
Total Hip Replacement (THR) with up to 95% revision free survival at 18 to 20 years which
match or surpass published international results. Choice of implant fixation is important
with hybrid fixation in THR having the lowest risk of revision surgery.
Conclusions Elective orthopaedic interventions such as carpal tunnel decompression and
total joint replacement are highly effective. There is a limited role for non-operative
treatment in end stage hip and knee OA. Scoring and rationing may be effective up to a
point. There have been gains in efficiency despite older and sicker patients presenting for
surgery. Despite these efforts, there remains a significant mismatch between demand and
capacity and there is a clear need for increased investment in elective orthopaedic surgery
Calcium calmodulin dependent protein kinase II in the development of atherosclerosis
Get PDFAtherosclerosis is the leading cause of death in the developed world. The accumulation of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in the arterial wall leads to the formation of foam cell lesions. The growth of lesions is influenced by a number of genetic and lifestyle factors. Over-time, lesions encroach the vessel lumen, impeding blood flow and increasing risk of cardiovascular events including myocardial infarction and stroke. Statins have been effective at reducing risk for cardiovascular events, however, even when target LDL-C levels are met there remains a significant residual risk. Clearly, a detailed investigation into the mechanism of foam cell lesion growth is required to explore new drug targets to ease the burden on the health care system.
Calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is a nodal signalling protein in endothelial cell (EC) and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) physiology. In vascular disease, CaMKII has been shown to promote endothelial dysfunction and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. Both of these pathologies are involved in the early stages of atherosclerosis so it is intriguing to speculate that CaMKII also contributes to atherosclerosis. We have previously shown systemic inhibition of CaMKII in an atherosclerotic model (ApoE-/- mice) reduces foam cell lesion development. However, there are multiple isoforms of CaMKII and associated splice variants. These sub-types are differentially expressed in the tissues of the body and have shown contrasting roles. A global inhibition of CaMKII is not a feasible target due to the important physiological functions of these multiple isoforms. Therefore, it is crucial we identify the isoform(s) contributing to foam cell lesion growth so a more specific therapeutic target can be explored.
Firstly, the predominant isoforms of CaMKII were identified in the major cell types of the vasculature. The aortic tree was dissected from ApoE-/- mice at 13- (early atherosclerosis) and 20-weeks (mid-atherosclerosis). In addition, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) and human coronary artery smooth muscle cells (HCASMCs) were cultured. PCR and Western blotting was run for CaMKII delta and gamma isoforms. Results showed CaMKII delta as the predominant isoform in human and mouse vascular cells. In addition, at the mRNA level, delta splice variants 2, 3 and 6 were detected. CaMKII delta expression was high at 13-weeks in the ApoE-/- mouse and levels persisted at 20-weeks, suggesting the delta isoform is the most likely isoform contributing to atherosclerosis.
To investigate if CaMKII signalling contributed to foam cell lesion development, we next employed a genetic approach. ApoE-/-‑mice were crossed with CaMKIIdelta-/- to generate a novel ApoE-/-CaMKIIdelta-/- (dKO) mouse model. At 20-weeks there was extensive atherosclerosis in the aortic sinus of female, but not male groups. Histological analysis showed there was a strikingly significant reduction in foam cell lesion content in female ApoE-/-CaMKIIdelta-/-, compared to ApoE-/-CaMKIIdelta+/+ litter mate controls. This indicates the CaMKII isoform is a critical player in the early development of atherosclerosis.
To further test the mechanistic role of CaMKII delta in foam cell lesion development, an opposite strategy was performed whereby an AAV-mediated overexpression approach was utilised. ApoE-/-CaMKIIdelta-/- mice were put on a high-fat diet at 12-weeks to accelerate atherogenesis. At 16-weeks of age, the left carotid arteries of ApoE-/-CaMKII-/- mice were ligated to increase shear stress and further promote foam cell lesion growth in a localised area. AAV-particles harbouring the CaMKIIdelta2 or control (scrambled) gene sequence were then introduced to the ligated left carotid artery. Ligation of the carotid artery led to a range of variation in foam cell lesion progression. Histological analysis of the carotid artery revealed the foam cell lesion area and stenosis from CaMKIIdelta2-mCherry mice showed a trend towards an increase, despite low n numbers due to adverse complications in 20% of the ligated mice.
In summary, a number of genetic and molecular biological techniques have been used to provide evidence to show CaMKII contributes to the early stages of atherosclerosis. Importantly, there is still work that needs to be done to further validate this mechanism and the potential contribution of other delta variants and/or other isoforms. This novel study has provided foundation evidence of CaMKII as a specific target for treatment. The results provide impetus to continue the investigation of CaMKII that ultimately, could lead to a pharmacological intervention to treat the early progression of atherosclerosis
NZDep2018 analysis of census 2018 variables - DHB09: Taranaki
No full textFor further information about data sources, interpretation of the graphs, and cautions, please see the separate Introduction Chapter
All data relating to the 2018 census is provided by Stats NZ, https://www.stats.govt.nz/
NZDep2018 analysis of census 2018 variables - DHB13: Hutt Valley
No full textFor further information about data sources, interpretation of the graphs, and cautions, please see the separate Introduction Chapter
All data relating to the 2018 census is provided by Stats NZ, https://www.stats.govt.nz/