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New Zealand policymakers have to date paid scant attention to the disclosure of financial information to employees and unions. However, there are signs this could change. Current trends under the Employment Contracts Act towards enterprise and productivity bargaining may well see access to financial information emerge as a domain of increasing interest and significance. The Labour Party's policies for industrial relations reform incorporate proposals for a good faith bargaining requirement, including a statutory duty to supply relevant information. Should any future government contemplate action on industrial democracy, this would also have implications for disclosure. This paper examines existing legislative requirements in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. It is suggested that these provide a useful starting point for those interested in pursuing some New Zealand disclosure iniliatives and that so1ne valuable lessons can be drawn from overseas experiences.

In New Zealand the disclosure of accounting information to employees and/or trade unions is comparatively rare and is not required by law or encouraged by Government. Although there has been little debate, there is evidence of developing interest. This paper examines the rationales for and objections to labour-oriented disclosures.

Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Democracy as a lead concept in dealing with sustainable development / Peter Söderbaum -- Fundamentals of sustainability economics and positional analysis / Peter Söderbaum -- Mainstream economics and alternative perspectives in a political power game / Peter Söderbaum -- Positional analysis as an approach to decision-making, accounting and democracy / Peter Söderbaum -- On the need for broadening out and opening up accounting / Judy Brown -- Positional analysis in relation to other pluralistic accounting practices / Judy Brown -- Sustainability, ethics, and democracy: a pluralistic approach to the navigation of disagreements / Malgorzata Dereniowska -- Positional analysis and practical ethics / Malgorzata Dereniowska -- Democracy, sustainability and positional analysis : an interview with Peter Söderbaum (with introduction by Judy Brown) -- Philosophy, ethics and positional analysis : an interview with Peter Söderbaum (with introduction by Malgorzata Dereniowska) -- Appendix: the early history of positional analysis / Peter Söderbaum -- Index

In both the United States and Canada, the environment in which physicians practice is becoming increasingly constrained. The understanding of how physicians respond to economic incentives is still relatively crude. In this article, the authors use physician-specific data for physicians in four specialties in the province of Ontario, Canada, to examine utilization trends during the 1983-1990 period and relate these utilization changes to physician, practice, and market-area characteristics. The analysis of trends in utilization reveals marked variation across specialties in the degree of change, its distribution among physicians within each specialty, and the way in which utilization growth was achieved. The physician, practice, and market-area characteristics explained a substantial amount of variation in the levels of utilization across physicians and over time; they were less able to explain year-to-year changes in utilization.

Career experts have long advocated the use of special assignment programs for spurring the career progress of talented individuals. While these programs have existed for many years in the private sector, within the past two decades they have also emerged in the public domain as well. Although special assignment programs generally receive enthusiastic endorsement from the organizations that employ them, there have been few empirical attempts to examine their effects. This article examines participants' reactions to a special assignment program that had operated in the executive branch of the federal government for twenty years. A survey was sent to all 275 individuals who had participated in the special assignment program during any point in its twenty year existence. A total of 131 participants (48%) completed the survey. Results indicated that participants generally react favorably to their experiences and suggested ways to further increase the favorability of such reactions. The article suggests that program administrators, applicants, and sponsoring agencies be aware of the factors that contribute to the success of special assignment programs.

Social and environmental accounting (SEA) is currently going through a period of critical selfanalysis.Challenging questions are being raised about how SEA should be defined, who should be doing the defining, and what the agenda should be. We attempt to engage and enrich these debates from both a process and content perspective by drawing on the political philosophy of agonistic pluralism and a set of debates within the environmental movement - "the death of environmentalism" debates. The contribution of the paper is twofold: to set forth the death of environmentalism debates in the accounting literature and, in doing so, to contextualize and theorize the contested nature of SEA using agonistic pluralism. In contrast to consensually oriented approaches to SEA, the desired outcome is not necessarily resolution of ideological differences but to imagine, develop, and support democratic processes wherein these differences can be recognized and engaged. We construe the "Death" debates as illustrative of the contestable practical and political issues facing both SEA and progressive social movements generally, demonstrating the context and content of the deliberations necessary in contemplating effective programs of engagement. The SEA community, and civil society groups, can benefit from the more overtly political perspective provided by agonistic pluralism. By surfacing and engaging with various antagonisms in this wider contested civic sphere, SEA can more effectively respond to, and move beyond, traditional politically conservative, managerialist approaches to sustainability.

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-2 (IL-2) has an essential role in the expansion and function of CD4+ regulatory T cells (Tregs). Tregs reduce tissue damage by limiting the immune response following infection and regulate autoreactive CD4+ effector T cells (Teffs) to prevent autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D). Genetic susceptibility to T1D causes alterations in the IL-2 pathway, a finding that supports Tregs as a cellular therapeutic target. Aldesleukin (Proleukin; recombinant human IL-2), which is administered at high doses to activate the immune system in cancer immunotherapy, is now being repositioned to treat inflammatory and autoimmune disorders at lower doses by targeting Tregs. METHODS AND FINDINGS: To define the aldesleukin dose response for Tregs and to find doses that increase Tregs physiologically for treatment of T1D, a statistical and systematic approach was taken by analysing the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of single doses of subcutaneous aldesleukin in the Adaptive Study of IL-2 Dose on Regulatory T Cells in Type 1 Diabetes (DILT1D), a single centre, non-randomised, open label, adaptive dose-finding trial with 40 adult participants with recently diagnosed T1D. The primary endpoint was the maximum percentage increase in Tregs (defined as CD3+CD4+CD25highCD127low) from the baseline frequency in each participant measured over the 7 d following treatment. There was an initial learning phase with five pairs of participants, each pair receiving one of five pre-assigned single doses from 0.04 × 106 to 1.5 × 106 IU/m2, in order to model the dose-response curve. Results from each participant were then incorporated into interim statistical modelling to target the two doses most likely to induce 10% and 20% increases in Treg frequencies. Primary analysis of the evaluable population (n = 39) found that the optimal doses of aldesleukin to induce 10% and 20% increases in Tregs were 0.101 × 106 IU/m2 (standard error [SE] = 0.078, 95% CI = -0.052, 0.254) and 0.497 × 106 IU/m2 (SE = 0.092, 95% CI = 0.316, 0.678), respectively. On analysis of secondary outcomes, using a highly sensitive IL-2 assay, the observed plasma concentrations of the drug at 90 min exceeded the hypothetical Treg-specific therapeutic window determined in vitro (0.015-0.24 IU/ml), even at the lowest doses (0.040 × 106 and 0.045 × 106 IU/m2) administered. A rapid decrease in Treg frequency in the circulation was observed at 90 min and at day 1, which was dose dependent (mean decrease 11.6%, SE = 2.3%, range 10.0%-48.2%, n = 37), rebounding at day 2 and increasing to frequencies above baseline over 7 d. Teffs, natural killer cells, and eosinophils also responded, with their frequencies rapidly and dose-dependently decreased in the blood, then returning to, or exceeding, pretreatment levels. Furthermore, there was a dose-dependent down modulation of one of the two signalling subunits of the IL-2 receptor, the β chain (CD122) (mean decrease = 58.0%, SE = 2.8%, range 9.8%-85.5%, n = 33), on Tregs and a reduction in their sensitivity to aldesleukin at 90 min and day 1 and 2 post-treatment. Due to blood volume requirements as well as ethical and practical considerations, the study was limited to adults and to analysis of peripheral blood only. CONCLUSIONS: The DILT1D trial results, most notably the early altered trafficking and desensitisation of Tregs induced by a single ultra-low dose of aldesleukin that resolves within 2-3 d, inform the design of the next trial to determine a repeat dosing regimen aimed at establishing a steady-state Treg frequency increase of 20%-50%, with the eventual goal of preventing T1D. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN27852285; ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01827735. ; JDRF (Grant ID: 9-2011-253), Wellcome Trust (Grant IDs: 091157, 089989, 097997/Z/11/Z), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, European Union's 7th Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) (Grant ID: 241447 (NAIMIT)), Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust (Grant ID: 13/JTA), Medical Research Council (Grant ID: G0800860), The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) is in receipt of a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (Grant ID: 100140) ; This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Public Library of Science via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002139