141 research outputs found
New perspectives on language and gender: Linguistic prescription and compliance in call centres
Despite a shift to service-based economies, male-dominated, high-status workplaces have been the predominant focus of research into language and gender in the workplace. This study redresses this shortcoming by considering one female-dominated, low-status, highly regimented workplace that is emblematic of the globalized service economy: call centres. Drawing on 187 call centre service interactions, institutional documents, interviews, and observations from call centres in two national contexts, the study employs an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative discourse-analytic techniques to compare rule compliance of male and female workers. Female agents in both national contexts are found to comply more with the linguistic prescriptions despite managers and agents emphatically denying the relevance of gender. The study offers a new perspective on language and gender, pointing to the need to expand the methodologies and theories currently favoured to understand how language perpetuates occupational segregation in twenty-first-century workplaces
The Transit Light Curve Project. V. System Parameters and Stellar Rotation Period of HD 189733
We present photometry of HD 189733 during eight transits of its close-in
giant planet, and out-of-transit photometry spanning two years. Using the
transit photometry, we determine the stellar and planetary radii and the
photometric ephemeris. Outside of transits, there are quasiperiodic flux
variations with a 13.4 day period that we attribute to stellar rotation. In
combination with previous results, we derive upper limits on the orbital
eccentricity, and on the true angle between the stellar rotation axis and
planetary orbit (as opposed to the angle between the projections of those axes
on the sky).Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ [21 pages]; minor change
Testing a hypothesis of the \nu Octantis planetary system
We investigate the orbital stability of a putative Jovian planet in a compact
binary \nu Octantis reported by Ramm et al. We re-analyzed published radial
velocity data in terms of self-consistent Newtonian model and we found stable
best-fit solutions that obey observational constraints. They correspond to
retrograde orbits, in accord with an earlier hypothesis of Eberle & Cuntz, with
apsidal lines anti-aligned with the apses of the binary. The best-fit solutions
are confined to tiny stable regions of the phase space. These regions have a
structure of the Arnold web formed by overlapping low-order mean motion
resonances and their sub-resonances. The presence of a real planet is still
questionable, because its formation would be hindered by strong dynamical
perturbations. Our numerical study makes use of a new computational Message
Passing Interface (MPI) framework MECHANIC developed to run massive numerical
experiments on CPU clusters.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, accepted to Monthly Notices of the RA
Ascertaining invasive breast cancer cases; the validity of administrative and self-reported data sources in Australia
Background: Statutory State-based cancer registries are considered the ‘gold standard’ for researchers identifying cancer cases in Australia, but research using self-report or administrative health datasets (e.g. hospital records) may not have linkage to a Cancer Registry and need to identify cases. This study investigated the validity of administrative and self-reported data compared with records in a State-wide Cancer Registry in identifying invasive breast cancer cases. Methods: Cases of invasive breast cancer recorded on the New South Wales (NSW) Cancer Registry between July 2004 and December 2008 (the study period) were identified for women in the 45 and Up Study. Registry cases were separately compared with suspected cases ascertained from: i) administrative hospital separations records; ii) outpatient medical service claims; iii) prescription medicines claims; and iv) the 45 and Up Study baseline survey. Ascertainment flags included diagnosis codes, surgeries (e.g. lumpectomy), services (e.g. radiotherapy), and medicines used for breast cancer, as well as self-reported diagnosis. Positive predictive value (PPV), sensitivity and specificity were calculated for flags within individual datasets, and for combinations of flags across multiple datasets. Results: Of 143,010 women in the 45 and Up Study, 2039 (1.4%) had an invasive breast tumour recorded on the NSW Cancer Registry during the study period. All of the breast cancer flags examined had high specificity (\u3e97.5%). Of the flags from individual datasets, hospital-derived ‘lumpectomy and diagnosis of invasive breast cancer’ and ‘(lumpectomy or mastectomy) and diagnosis of invasive breast cancer’ had the greatest PPV (89% and 88%, respectively); the later having greater sensitivity (59% and 82%, respectively). The flag with the highest sensitivity and PPV ≥ 85% was \u27diagnosis of invasive breast cancer\u27 (both 86%). Self-reported breast cancer diagnosis had a PPV of 50% and sensitivity of 85%, and breast radiotherapy had a PPV of 73% and a sensitivity of 58% compared with Cancer Registry records. The combination of flags with the greatest PPV and sensitivity was ‘(lumpectomy or mastectomy) and (diagnosis of invasive breast cancer or breast radiotherapy)’ (PPV and sensitivity 83%). Conclusions: In the absence of Cancer Registry data, administrative and self-reported data can be used to accurately identify cases of invasive breast cancer for sample identification, removing cases from a sample, or risk adjustment. Invasive breast cancer can be accurately identified using hospital-derived diagnosis alone or in combination with surgeries and breast radiotherapy
Validity of a Sham Dry Needling Technique on a Healthy Population
# Background
Various methods of sham procedures have been used in controlled trials evaluating dry needling efficacy although few have performed validation studies of the sham procedure.
# Hypothesis/Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a sham dry needling technique on healthy, active subjects.
# Study Design
Validation study
# Methods
Runners capable of completing a half-marathon or marathon race and were randomized to receive true (using an introducer and needle) or sham (using an introducer and fixed, blunted needle) dry needling. Blinded subjects were asked to identify if they received sham or true dry needling following the procedure. Proportions of those who correctly identified their needling were also examined on the basis of past experience of receiving dry needling.
# Results
Fifty-three participants were included in this study, with 25 receiving the true dry needling procedure and 28 receiving the sham. Of those who had received dry needling in the past (n = 16), 11 (68.8%) correctly identified their respective groups. For those who had not previously received dry needling (n = 37), 13 (35.1%) accurately identified their group. Most importantly, 94.1% of dry needling-naïve participants were unable to identify they received the sham procedure (p < 0.001).
# Conclusions
This study shows that a fixed needle in an introducer tube is a simple, inexpensive, effective sham procedure in patients who have never received dry needling before. This technique may be useful for randomized controlled trials in the future.
# Levels of Evidence
A restatement of the natural science evidence concerning catchment-based "natural” flood management in the United Kingdom
Flooding is a very costly natural hazard in Great Britain and is expected to increase further
under future climate change scenarios. Flood defences are commonly deployed to protect
communities and property from flooding, but in recent years flood management policy has
looked towards solutions that seek to mitigate flood risk at flood-prone sites through targeted
interventions throughout the catchment, sometimes using techniques which involve working
with natural processes. This paper describes a project to provide a succinct summary of the
natural science evidence base concerning the effectiveness of catchment-based “natural” flood
management in the United Kingdom. The evidence summary is designed to be read by an
informed but not technically-specialist audience. Each evidence statement is placed into one
of four categories describing the nature of the underlying information. The evidence summary
forms the appendix to this paper and an annotated bibliography is provided in the electronic
supplementary material
Measurement of the Spin-Orbit Alignment in the Exoplanetary System HD 189733
We present spectroscopy of a transit of the exoplanet HD 189733b. By modeling
the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect (the anomalous Doppler shift due to the partial
eclipse of the rotating stellar surface), we find the angle between the sky
projections of the stellar spin axis and orbit normal to be lambda = -1.4 +/-
1.1 deg. This is the third case of a ``hot Jupiter'' for which lambda has been
measured. In all three cases lambda is small, ruling out random orientations
with 99.96% confidence, and suggesting that the inward migration of hot
Jupiters generally preserves spin-orbit alignment.Comment: ApJ Letters, in pres
Resistance to natural and synthetic gene drive systems
Scientists are rapidly developing synthetic gene drive elements intended for release into natural populations. These are intended to control or eradicate disease vectors and pests, or to spread useful traits through wild populations for disease control or conservation purposes. However, a crucial problem for gene drives is the evolution of resistance against them, preventing their spread. Understanding the mechanisms by which populations might evolve resistance is essential for engineering effective gene drive systems. This review summarizes our current knowledge of drive resistance in both natural and synthetic gene drives. We explore how insights from naturally occurring and synthetic drive systems can be integrated to improve the design of gene drives, better predict the outcome of releases and understand genomic conflict in general
Retrospective harm benefit analysis of pre-clinical animal research for six treatment interventions
The harm benefit analysis (HBA) is the cornerstone of animal research regulation and is considered to be a key ethical safeguard for animals. The HBA involves weighing the anticipated benefits of animal research against its predicted harms to animals but there are doubts about how objective and accountable this process is.i. To explore the harms to animals involved in pre-clinical animal studies and to assess these against the benefits for humans accruing from these studies; ii. To test the feasibility of conducting this type of retrospective HBA.Data on harms were systematically extracted from a sample of pre-clinical animal studies whose clinical relevance had already been investigated by comparing systematic reviews of the animal studies with systematic reviews of human studies for the same interventions (antifibrinolytics for haemorrhage, bisphosphonates for osteoporosis, corticosteroids for brain injury, Tirilazad for stroke, antenatal corticosteroids for neonatal respiratory distress and thrombolytics for stroke). Clinical relevance was also explored in terms of current clinical practice. Harms were categorised for severity using an expert panel. The quality of the research and its impact were considered. Bateson's Cube was used to conduct the HBA.The most common assessment of animal harms by the expert panel was 'severe'. Reported use of analgesia was rare and some animals (including most neonates) endured significant procedures with no, or only light, anaesthesia reported. Some animals suffered iatrogenic harms. Many were kept alive for long periods post-experimentally but only 1% of studies reported post-operative care. A third of studies reported that some animals died prior to endpoints. All the studies were of poor quality. Having weighed the actual harms to animals against the actual clinical benefits accruing from these studies, and taking into account the quality of the research and its impact, less than 7% of the studies were permissible according to Bateson's Cube: only the moderate bisphosphonate studies appeared to minimise harms to animals whilst being associated with benefit for humans.This is the first time the accountability of the HBA has been systematically explored across a range of pre-clinical animal studies. The regulatory systems in place when these studies were conducted failed to safeguard animals from severe suffering or to ensure that only beneficial, scientifically rigorous research was conducted. Our findings indicate a pressing need to: i. review regulations, particularly those that permit animals to suffer severe harms; ii. reform the processes of prospectively assessing pre-clinical animal studies to make them fit for purpose; and iii. systematically evaluate the benefits of pre-clinical animal research to permit a more realistic assessment of its likely future benefits
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