Women Scientists in the Leaking Pipeline: Barriers to the Commercialisation of Scientific Knowledge by Women

The modern literature explaining the under-representation of women in science often relate to the shortage of women ‘in the pipeline’. The pipeline flows from one stage to another, and the flow of women diminishes over the stages. Speaking of the stages of career during which women scientists ‘leak’ the most, the commercialisation of science as one of the ultimate stages should be taken into consideration. The primary objective of this paper is to discuss barriers to the commercialisation of scientific knowledge by women. The collected extensive literature allows to pinpoint the reason why scientific career or success fail to provide a springboard for the practical use of knowledge. Analysed research, indicate only some of the barriers, meanwhile this paper collects most of ‘experienced’ obstacles and shows them in ‘leaking pipeline’ context. Barriers originate in at least two sources: women themselves and external factors beyond women’s control

Men in the private sphere – a fiction or reality?

Problem godzenia życia zawodowego z rodzinnym od zawsze był problemem kobiet. To one częściej rezygnowały z pracy, korzystały z bezpłatnych urlopów wychowawczych lub ograniczały swoją pracę zawodową. Czy w tej sfeminizowanej sferze prywatnej jest miejsce dla mężczyzn? Stereotypy, które zamykają kobiety w domu, wypychają z niego mężczyzn – czyniąc szkodę zarówno jednym, jak i drugim. Dostępne dane i analizy pokazują, że mężczyźni mają formalnie takie same jak kobiety możliwości wejścia do sfery prywatnej (o czym świadczy np. dostępność elastycznych form zatrudnienia), ale w dalszym ciągu niewielu z nich to robi. Z tego powodu mężczyzna wciąż częściej jest postrzegany jako żywiciel rodziny (breadwinner) niż rodzic-opiekun (carer). Sytuację pogarsza jeszcze fakt, że w większości przypadków ojcostwo w miejscu pracy jest niewidoczne. Pracodawcy zakładają, że życie rodzinne pracowników (mężczyzn) nie powinno w żaden sposób zakłócać przebiegu pracy w firmie.The problem of reconciling work and family life has always been the women’s problem. They often gave up work, stayed home on maternity leave or found only part-time employment. Is there a place for men in the feminised private sphere? Stereotypes that lock women at home and push men out of home cause damage to both groups. As the available data and results of earlier analyses show that men, at least officially, do have the same opportunities as women to take advantage of, for example: the availability of flexible forms of employment, but still very few of them do that. For this reason, men are still more likely to be seen as breadwinners than carers. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that in most cases fatherhood in the workplace is not to be openly demonstrated. Employers assume that the family life of workers (men) should not interfere with their work in the company

Does the App Contribute to the Precarization of Work? The Case of Uber Drivers in Poland

As new forms of employment like the work in the gig economy become a norm around the world, it becomes necessary to study the nature of this employment and its impact on workers. The aim of this article is to describe the individual experiences of Uber drivers in the context of precarious work, and to examine the impact of this online platform on their work. It is based on individual in-depth interviews conducted among Uber drivers in Poland in 20181. The results of the study show that the work they perform can be characterized as precarious: they work long hours (also at night and on holidays), they have low income (especially in relation to the number of working hours) and lack social or trade union protection; they also often work without employment contracts. On the other hand, however, they have a positive view of their working situation using the app

Global Space Security and Counter-space Capabilities: the Legal and Political Challenges

This article undertakes a very sensitive issue: space security and counterspace capabilities and arms control. Those issues come under the sovereignty of each state and are strictly connected to national defense and policy. Counterspace, also known as space control, is the set of capabilities or techniques that are used to gain space superiority. Space superi-ority is the ability to use space for one`s own purposes while denying it to an adversary. These issues are so important now in the era of fast-growing state activities in space and under such a big dependence on space. Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are a subset of offensive counterspace capabilities, although the satellite itself is only one part of the system that can be attacked. That is the reason why protecting space infrastructure, in the absence of stabilized international space control cooperation and difficulties in reaching an agreement on PPWT treaty and lack of progress of international space law in this matter, is crucial by building the Space Situational Awareness system. Collaboration of states in this matter seems to be a priority

Effect of maternal deprivation on the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and GnRH-associated peptide neurobiology in lambs during the transition from infancy to prepuberty.

Using morphological criteria we describe the effect of maternal deprivation on the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and GnRH-associated peptide (GAP) of the GnRH prohormone (proGnRH) in the preoptic area (POA)-hypothalamus during the weaning period. The immunohistochemical GnRH- and GAP-neuroanatomy was investigated in female 12-week-old weanling and maternally deprived lambs and 15-week-old weaned lambs. The GnRH-immunoreactive (ir) nerve elements in the POA were more numerous in weanling and weaned lambs in comparison with maternally deprived lambs, whereas the nerve elements ir for GAP were numerous in weanlings and scarce in remaining lambs. In the hypothalamus, GnRH-ir fibers were more numerous in weaned lambs in comparison with others. Immunoreactive GnRH in the median eminence was scarce in weanlings and comparable greater in maternally deprived and weaned lambs. In contrast to ir GnRH, the GAP-ir fibers and nerve terminals in the hypothalamus and median eminence were numerous in weanlings and maternally deprived lambs and scarce in weaned lambs. In conclusion, maternal deprivation affects the intraneuronal locations involved in the maturation of GnRH from proGnRH in the POA-hypothalamus of weanlings. The described effect involves the increase in the GnRH posttranslational processing and terminal accumulation in the median eminence, which reflects the maturational increase from the low infantile terminal storage to the high prepubertal one

Effects of maternal deprivation on the somatotrophic axis and neuropeptide Y in the hypothalamus and pituitary in female lambs. The histomorphometric study.

The effects of maternal deprivation on the somatotrophic axis and neuropeptide Y (NPY) neuronal system in the hypothalamus of female lambs were evaluated. Twelve-week-old lambs were divided into two groups: the control (lambs stayed with mothers) and maternally deprived (MD; lambs separated for 3 days from mothers). The expression of immunoreactive (ir) somatostatin in the neurons of the periventricular nucleus (PEV) and in nerve terminals of the median eminence (ME), growth hormone (GH) in the adenohypophyseal cells and NPY in the neurons of the PEV and arcuate (ARC) nuclei of the hypothalamus using immunohistochemistry followed by the image analysis were estimated. Concentrations of GH in the blood plasma were determined by radioimmunoassay. The expression of ir somatostatin in the PEV and ME, ir NPY in the ARC and PEV, ir GH in adenohypophyseal cells, and blood plasma GH concentrations were greater (

Occurrence of Surface Active Agents in the Environment

Due to the specific structure of surfactants molecules they are applied in different areas of human activity (industry, household). After using and discharging from wastewater treatment plants as effluent stream, surface active agents (SAAs) are emitted to various elements of the environment (atmosphere, waters, and solid phases), where they can undergo numerous physic-chemical processes (e.g., sorption, degradation) and freely migrate. Additionally, SAAs present in the environment can be accumulated in living organisms (bioaccumulation), what can have a negative effect on biotic elements of ecosystems (e.g., toxicity, disturbance of endocrine equilibrium). They also cause increaseing solubility of organic pollutants in aqueous phase, their migration, and accumulation in different environmental compartments. Moreover, surfactants found in aerosols can affect formation and development of clouds, which is associated with cooling effect in the atmosphere and climate changes. The environmental fate of SAAs is still unknown and recognition of this problem will contribute to protection of living organisms as well as preservation of quality and balance of various ecosystems. This work contains basic information about surfactants and overview of pollution of different ecosystems caused by them (their classification and properties, areas of use, their presence, and behavior in the environment)

Processes and the Resulting Water Quality in the Medium-Size Turawa Storage Reservoir after 60-Year Usage

The characteristics of water in the Turawa reservoir, one of the important storage reservoirs in Poland, were thoroughly studied. The reservoir and also the rivers flowing into the reservoir were monitored in the period 2004–2006 with respect to the basic physico-chemical parameters determining the quality of water such as water temperature, specific conductance, pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), water hardness, content of typical ions (sodium, potassium, sulphates, phosphates and chlorides), heavy metals, and so on. The observed seasonal and long-term changes of the parameters measured were discussed and the processes responsible for the changes suggested. The causes of the observed deterioration of the ecological status of the Turawa reservoir were given and the remedial operations proposed. The latter included improvement in the management of solid wastes and wastewater in the area, reducing the runoff of nutrients in the catchment, decrease in discharge of pollutants into the rivers flowing into the reservoir, removal of bottom sediments and also increasing the average water table and decreasing its fluctuations. The effect of the remedial operations will be further studied