Queering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities in human resource development and management education contexts

Taking human resource development as its primary context, this article asks, ‘How can scholars mobilise queer theory concepts to move beyond treating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identities as binaried, bounded and stable categories?’ While human resource development scholarship has made important, albeit limited, progress here, this article provides a review of queer theory to help scholars engage more deeply with some of its key concepts and theoretical resources to that end. In particular, one of this article’s main contributions is advancing the nascent in-roads Judith Butler’s writing has made into human resource development, management education and learning by linking her theory of gender performativity with the notion of cultural intelligibility. The aim of the article is to show how lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender identity categories can be destabilised so that they can be examined queerly: performatively constituted and permanently open to contestation and resignification. Crucially, the wider applications and implications of queer theory are drawn out, such as how queer pedagogy can inform management education. This article also highlights possibilities for management learning scholars to queer other identities (e.g. heterosexual), organisations and modes of organising

Oscillations of aqueous PEDOT:PSS fluid droplets and the properties of complex fluids in drop-on-demand inkjet printing

Shear-thinning aqueous poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulphonate) (PEDOT:PSS) fluids were studied under the conditions of drop-on-demand inkjet printing. Ligament retraction caused oscillation of the resulting drops, from which values of surface tension and viscosity were derived. Effective viscosities of <4 mPa s at drop oscillation frequencies of 13–33 kHz were consistent with conventional high-frequency rheometry, with only a small possible contribution from viscoelasticity with a relaxation time of about 6 μs. Strong evidence was found that the viscosity, reduced by shear-thinning in the printhead nozzle, recovered as the drop formed. The low viscosity values measured for the drops in flight were associated with the strong oscillation induced by ligament retraction, while for a weakly perturbed drop the viscosity remained high. Surface tension values in the presence of surfactant were significantly higher than the equilibrium values, and consistent with the surface age of the drops. [Graphical abstract - see article]This work was supported by EPSRC and a consortium of industrial partners (EPSRC Grant no. EP/H018913/1: Innovation in industrial inkjet technology). The high-speed camera and high power flash lamp were provided by the EPSRC Engineering Instrument Pool and we thank Adrian Walker for his help.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnnfm.2015.05.00

Troubling "understanding mathematics-in-depth": Its role in the identity work of student-teachers in England

Copyright @ The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.In this paper, we focus on an initiative in England devised to prepare non-mathematics graduates to train as secondary mathematics teachers through a 6-month Mathematics Enhancement Course (MEC) to boost their subject knowledge. The course documentation focuses on the need to develop “understanding mathematics in-depth” in students in order for them to become successful mathematics teachers. We take a poststructural approach, so we are not interested in asking what such an understanding is, about the value of this approach or about the effectiveness of the MECs in developing this understanding in their participants. Instead we explore what positions this discourse of “understanding mathematics in-depth” makes available to MEC students. We do this by looking in detail at the “identity work” of two students, analysing how they use and are used by this discourse to position themselves as future mathematics teachers. In doing so, we show how even benign-looking social practices such as “understanding mathematics in-depth” are implicated in practices of inclusion and exclusion. We show this through detailed readings of interviews with two participants, one of whom fits with the dominant discourses in the MEC and the other who, despite passing the MEC, experiences tensions between her national identity work and MEC discourses. We argue that it is vital to explore “identity work” within teacher education contexts to ensure that becoming a successful mathematics teacher is equally available to all.King’s College Londo

Do critical thinkers drink too much alcohol, forget to do class assignments, or cheat on exams? Using a critical thinking measure to predict college students’ real-world outcomes

Critical thinking is a higher-order way of reasoning composed of the skill and will to use cognitive abilities and knowledge on a daily basis. It is identified as essential by higher education institutions, corporations, and society in general. To analyze whether college students are critical thinkers in their daily lives, the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA; Halpern in Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (Measurement instrument), Schuhfried, Mödling, 2012) and the real-world outcomes inventory (RWO; Butler in Appl Cogn Psychol 26(5):721–729, 2012) were administered to 238 students. We performed a cluster analysis (K-means-constrained clustering method), and ANOVAs for each cluster solution tested to identify the most suitable clustering solution, taking the RWO inventory dimensions as dependent variables and cluster membership as an independent variable. Four separate clusters emerged, each representing a different profile related to students’ everyday negative outcomes resulting from a lack of critical thinking. We performed multinomial logistic regression to examine which dimensions of the HCTA test, as well as gender, age, and disciplinary area, predicted the four singular groups of students that emerged: “Mature,” “Risk-taking,” “Lost in translation,” and “Reflective.” Results indicate that: (1) age is a relevant predictor of slackness, rashness, and health neglect, all characteristics of “Mature” students; (2) students who are particularly skilled in hypothesis testing tend to be “Risk-taking,” while it is less likely that students who are specifically competent in argument analysis will be in this group; (3) gender is relevant to predict “Lost in translation” students, while argument analysis is negatively related to the chances of being in this group. Our study supports the relevance of critical thinking in daily decisions and everyday outcomes.FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(Advanced Training)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biological monitoring of pesticide exposures in residents living near agricultural land

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is currently a lack of reliable information on the exposures of residents and bystanders to pesticides in the UK. Previous research has shown that the methods currently used for assessing pesticide exposure for regulatory purposes are appropriate for farm workers <abbrgrp><abbr bid="B1">1</abbr></abbrgrp>. However, there were indications that the exposures of bystanders may sometimes be underestimated. The previous study did not collect data for residents. Therefore, this study aims to collect measurements to determine if the current methods and tools are appropriate for assessing pesticide exposure for residents living near agricultural fields.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>The study will recruit owners of farms and orchards (hereafter both will be referred to as farms) that spray their agricultural crops with certain specified pesticides, and which have residential areas in close proximity to these fields. Recruited farms will be asked to provide details of their pesticide usage throughout the spray season. Informed consenting residents (adults (18 years and over) and children(aged 4-12 years)) will be asked to provide urine samples and accompanying activity diaries during the spraying season and in additionfor a limited number of weeks before/after the spray season to allow background pesticide metabolite levels to be determined. Selected urine samples will be analysed for the pesticide metabolites of interest. Statistical analysis and mathematical modelling will use the laboratory results, along with the additional data collected from the farmers and residents, to determine systemic exposure levels amongst residents. Surveys will be carried out in selected areas of the United Kingdom over two years (2011 and 2012), covering two spraying seasons and the time between the spraying seasons.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The described study protocol was implemented for the sample and data collection procedures carried out in 2011. Based on experience to date, no major changes to the protocol are anticipated for the 2012 spray season although the pesticides and regional areas for inclusion in 2012 are still to be confirmed.</p

Alternative organizing in times of crisis : resistance assemblages and socio-spatial solidarity

This paper draws on research conducted in Greece, where, during the last seven years, an acute socio-economic crisis has led to the emergence of a number of alternative organizational forms. By foregrounding the term drasis, the unexpected unfolding of an event in a specific space and time, we discuss how these alternative forms assemble differential capacities in order to resist the neoliberal ordering of socio-spatial and economic relations. In particular, we focus on two self-organized spaces, namely, a social centre and a squatted public garden and discuss two concrete instances of drasis. We propose that drasis instigates the establishment and evolution of transformative, prefigurative organizing through three interrelated processes, namely, the formation of resistance assemblages, social learning and socio-spatial solidarity. The paper offers three propositions, suggesting that drasis provides the socio-material conditions through which new resistance formations challenge the established productive forces of society and co-produce alternative forms of civic life.© 2017 published by SAGE. This is an author produced version of a paper published in European Urban and Regional Studies, uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0969776416683001. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it

English language proficiency and the accommodations for language non-concordance amongst patients utilizing chiropractic college teaching clinics

Background: The number of households in the United States that are not proficient in the English language is growing and presenting a challenge to the health care system. Over nineteen percent of the US population speak a language other than English in the home. This increase in language discordance generates a greater need to find and implement accommodations in the clinical setting to insure accurate and efficient diagnosis and treatment as well as provide for patient safety. Aim: The purpose of this study is to determine the percentage of patients accessing the chiropractic college teaching clinics who are not proficient in the English language and to what extent the colleges provide accommodations for that language disparity. Methods: The clinic directors and deans of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges were surveyed via an on-line survey engine. The survey queried the percentage of the patient population that is not English language proficient, the accommodations the college currently has in place, if the college has a language specific consent to treat document and if the college has a written policy concerning patients without English proficiency. Results: Fifty percent of the contacted chiropractic colleges responded to the survey. In the respondent college clinics 16.5% of the patient population is not proficient in English, with over 75% speaking Spanish. All but one of the respondents provide some level of accommodation for the language non-concordance. Forty five percent of the responding colleges employ a language specific consent to treat form. The implementation of accommodations and the use of a language specific consent to treat form is more prevalent at colleges with a higher percentage of non-English speaking patients. Conclusions: The percentage of patients with limited English proficiency accessing services at the teaching clinics of the chiropractic colleges mirrors the numbers in the general population. There is a wide disparity in the accommodations that the individual colleges make to address this language discordance. There is a need to further develop accurate and meaningful accommodations to address language disparity in the chiropractic teaching clinics.https://doi.org/10.1186/2045-709X-21-

High-Risk Cervical Human Papillomavirus Infections among Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Positive Women in the Bahamas

Background\ud \ud High-risk (HR) HPV genotypes other than 16 and 18 have been detected in a significant proportion of immunocompromised females. We aim to evaluate the frequency of HR HPV genotypes in a population of HIV-positive Caribbean women.\ud Methods\ud \ud One hundred sixty-seven consecutive, non-pregnant, HIV-positive females ≥18 years were recruited in this study. Each participant received a vaginal examination, PAP smear, and completed a questionnaire. DNA was extracted for HPV testing in 86 patients.\ud Results\ud \ud Mean age was 39.1 years for women positive for HR HPV and 43.1 years for women negative for HR HPV (P value = 0.040). 78% (130/167) of the women had HR HPV infections; the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology was 38% among women who were HR HPV-positive compared to women who were HR HPV-negative (22%). Fifty-one percent of the 86 women with available genotype carried infections with HPV 16 and/or HPV 18; genotypes of unknown risk were also frequently observed. Women who had a CD4+ count of ≤200 had 7 times increased odds of carrying HR HPV infection in comparison to women with CD4+>200.\ud Conclusions\ud \ud HR HPV infections in HIV infected females may consist of more than just HPV 16 and 18, but also HPV 52 and 58. Further studies are needed to determine whether HPV 52 and 58 play a significant role in the development of cervical cytological abnormalities in HIV+ women