THE ESSENTIAL OFFICE RULE WHICH CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR BUSINESS

Dress code. You’re probably familiar with the idea from some activity throughout your life. Perhaps you were in a sport where you had to wear a certain uniform or maybe your school enforced certain dress standards. Did you know that the proper dress code can be crucial to the success of a business? Not only is it important to first impressions of customers and clients, but it is also key to maintaining proper employee attitudes. This article explains the reasons for dress code importance and suggests what you should implement in your workplace!

The Human Equation reveals…

First impressions of your workplace, and your employees, can have a significant impact on the success of your business. Image may not be everything, but it does speak volumes about your organization’s values, achievements, work ethic, and professionalism. In fact, approximately 55 percent of first impressions are based on overall appearance, and people often decide whether or not they like you, and will do business with you, within 10 seconds of a first encounter. What does your workplace say about you?

Regardless of the industry, every business can project a professional image and turn a first impression into increased profits and growth. This article presents information on how to assess and improve your business image, focusing on two main areas: 1) dress code and personal appearance and 2) workstations and overall workplace conditions.

it is essential that every company create and enforce a policy that outlines an appropriate standard of dress and grooming. Make compliance mandatory, and update and redistribute the policy as trends or company culture changes.

Whether your type of business warrants business suits, uniforms, or khakis, your dress code policy should include a statement such as:

ABC COMPANY expects that each employee’s dress, personal appearance, and personal hygiene project a professional image. Good grooming and appropriate dress inspire customer confidence and help to create a pleasant work environment for all. We ask that you observe and practice conservative good taste in dress and appearance, and that you keep in mind you are representing the company at all times.

Your policy should go on to explain what type of dress is acceptable, such as in the statement below:

Professional business attire is appropriate Monday through Friday, during business hours. You are expected to present an authoritative, conservative, and competent image. Professional business attire includes business suits and polished shoes. It does not include casual attire in any manner, such as blue jeans, cotton leggings, shorts, sandals, sneakers, sundresses, lycra or spandex clothing, or t-shirts.

The organization has a right to be clear about what an employee can and cannot wear to work, so you may even decide to create an explicit dress chart.

Acceptable Attire For Men	Acceptable Attire For Women
Business suits	Business suits, dress suits
Pleated dress slacks and no-iron pants	Pleated dress slacks and no-iron pants
Lightweight blazers worn over fitted, button-down shirts in solid colors	Lightweight blazers worn over fitted, button-down shirts or blouses
Ties with simple patterns and neutral or toned-down colors	Elegant sweater sets
Cuff links	Hosiery, not including patterned tights, and simple, elegant jewelry
Polished shoes	Polished shoes

Get the full story at The Human Equation!

Researchers study aging’s effect on the brain

 by Biomechanism 

"Their findings have strong implications for neuronal function as brains age, and will add significantly to our understanding of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease."

Research by biologists at the University of York and Hull York Medical School has revealed important new information about the way the brain is affected by age.

Working with scientists at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth, they have studied responses to stress in synapses — neuronal connections.

The researchers discovered that under stressful conditions, such as neuro-degeneration, resulting high energy forms of damaging oxygen cause synapses to grow excessively, potentially contributing to dysfunction.

Such stresses occur during neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.

The research, which was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, is published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Laboratory modelling was carried out using Drosophila, but similar pathways are present in humans. The scientists studied the responses using a model of lysosomal storage disease, an inherited incurable childhood neurodegeneration where enlarged synapses have been observed, but the role that growth has in disease progression and brain function is not yet clear.

Co-author Dr Sean Sweeney, of the Department of Biology at the University of York, said: “The findings have strong implications for neuronal function as brains age, and will add significantly to our understanding of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.”

Co-author Dr Iain Robinson, of the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, added: “Neuronal contacts in the brain are constantly changing. These changes in the brain enable us to form short term memories such as where we parked the car, or longer term memories, such as what is our pin number for the cash point machine. Our work sheds light on how our brain becomes less able to make these changes in neuronal contacts as we age and helps explain the loss of neuronal contacts seen in several neurodegenerative diseases.”

Seeking superior stem cells

 by Biomechanism 

“100-fold increase in efficiency in reprogramming human cells to induced stem cells”

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have announced a new technique to reprogramme human cells, such as skin cells, into stem cells. Their process increases the efficiency of cell reprogramming by one hundred-fold and generates cells of a higher quality at a faster rate.

Until now cells have been reprogrammed using four specific regulatory proteins. By adding two further regulatory factors, Liu and co-workers brought about a dramatic improvement in the efficiency of reprogramming and the robustness of stem cell development. The new streamlined process produces cells that can grow more easily.

“This research is a milestone in human stem cells,” explains Wei Wang, first author on the research from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. “Our technique provides a foundation to unlock the full potential of stem cells.”

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that are able to renew themselves through cell division and can be induced to become functional tissue- or organ-specific cells. It is hoped that stem cells will be used to replace dying or damaged cells with healthy, functional cells. This could have wide-ranging uses in medicine such as organ replacement, bone replacement and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

With more than 20 years of research, gold standard stem cells are derived from mice, largely because they are easy to work with and provide accurate and reproducible results. The team’s aim was to develop human cells of equivalent quality to mouse stem cells.

“The reprogrammed cells developed by our team have proved to have the same capabilities as mouse stem cells,” states Pentao Liu, senior author from the Sanger Institute. “Our approach will enable researchers to easily engineer and reprogramme human stem cells to generate cell types for cell replacement therapies in humans.”

Retinoic acid receptor gamma (RAR-γ) and liver receptor homolog (Lrh-1), the additional regulatory factors used by Liu and co-workers, were introduced into the skin cells along with the four other regulatory proteins. The team’s technology produced reprogrammed cells after just four days, compared to the seven days required for the four-protein approach. Key indicators of successfully reprogrammed cells, Oct4 and Rex-1 genes, were seen to be switched on much faster in a much higher number of cells, demonstrating increased efficiency in reprogramming.

“This is the most promising and exciting development in our attempt to develop human stem cells that lend themselves in practical applications. It bears comparison to other technologies as it is simple, robust and reliable,” says Allan Bradley, Senior Group Leader and Director of Emeritus at Sanger Institute.

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Publication Details:

Wang et al. (2011) Rapid and efficient reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells by retinoic acid receptor gamma and liver receptor homolog 1 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1100893108