African-American Accountants Then and Now: A Longitudinal Study of Factors Influencing Perceptions of the Workplace

This study addresses the question of whether African-American accounting professionals perceive levels of job satisfaction and other work attributes differently over time as they gain experience in accounting practice. We examine how the elements that influence job satisfaction and perceptions of the workplace have changed over time for these accounting professionals. We contend that the evolution of the workforce and work itself have set forth contemporary workplace attitudes challenging Herzbergs (1959, 1966) Two-Factor Theory. Archival and newly collected data are combined to generate a longitudinal perspective on the African-Americans perception of job satisfaction and other work attributes specific to the field of accounting. The results reveal significant increases in the level of workload job stress and the overall level of job satisfaction, countered with significant decrease in professional-family conflict and discrimination applied to promotion

Determinants Of Job Satisfaction And Retention Of Mexican-American Accounting Professionals

This study examines differences in work-related values (e.g., compensation, coworkers, and supervisors) between the Mexican-American and the Non-Hispanic White Accounting Professional. Using a survey research design, questionnaires are sent to accounting alumnae of two universities: (1) a primarily Mexican-American public university and (2) a primarily Non-Hispanic White private college. Tests indicate that while Mexican-American respondents are less satisfied with compensation, benefits, and supervisors, they have greater overall job satisfaction than the Non-Hispanic White respondent. This result is also statistically significant when the two groups are compared by gender and age. One explanation is that the Mexican-American culture includes values such as loyalty to one’s employer and job longevity that are not as appreciated by Non-Hispanic Whites

The Use of Self-Expanding Plastic Stents in the Management of Oesophageal Leaks and Spontaneous Oesophageal Perforations

Leakage after oesophageal anastomosis or perforation remains a challenge for the surgeon. Traditional management has been operative repair or intensive conservative management. Both treatments are associated with prolonged hospitalisation and high morbidity and mortality rates. Self-expanding metallic stents have played an important role in the palliation of malignant oesophageal strictures and the treatment of tracheoesophageal fistulae. However, self-expanding metal stents in benign oesophageal disease are associated with complications such as bleeding, food bolus impaction, stent migration, and difficulty in retrieval. The Polyflex stent is the only commercially available self-expanding plastic stent which has been used in the management of malignant oesophageal strictures with good results. This review will consider the literature concerning the use of self-expanding plastic stents in the treatment of oesophageal anastomotic leakage and spontaneous perforations of the oesophagus

Is the Utility of the GLIM Criteria Used to Diagnose Malnutrition Suitable for Bicultural Populations? Findings from Life and Living in Advanced Age Cohort Study in New Zealand (LiLACS NZ).

OBJECTIVES: To investigate associations between nutrition risk (determined by SCREEN-II) and malnutrition (diagnosed by the GLIM criteria) with five-year mortality in Māori and non-Māori of advanced age. DESIGN: A longitudinal cohort study. SETTING: Bay of Plenty and Lakes regions of New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS: 255 Māori; 400 non-Māori octogenarians. MEASUREMENTS: All participants were screened for nutrition risk using the Seniors in the Community: Risk Evaluation for Eating and Nutrition (SCREEN-II). Those at high nutrition risk (SCREEN-II score 0.05) but was for non-Māori. This association remained significant after adjustment for other predictors of death (OR (95% CI); 0.50 (0.29, 0.86), P< 0.05). Reduced food intake was the only GLIM criterion predictive of five-year mortality for Māori (HR (95% CI); 10.77 (4.76, 24.38), P <0.001). For non-Māori, both aetiologic and phenotypic GLIM criteria were associated with five-year mortality. CONCLUSION: Nutrition risk, but not malnutrition diagnosed by the GLIM criteria was significantly associated with mortality for Māori. Conversely, both nutrition risk and malnutrition were significantly associated with mortality for non-Māori. Appropriate phenotypic criteria for diverse populations are needed within the GLIM framework.Publishe

Successive use of shared space by badgers and cattle: implications for Mycobacterium bovis transmission

Managing infectious disease demands understanding pathogen transmission. In Britain, transmission of Mycobacterium bovis from badgers (Meles meles) to cattle hinders the control of bovine tuberculosis (TB), but the mechanism of such transmission is uncertain. As badgers and cattle seldom interact directly, transmission might occur in their shared environment through contact with contamination such as faeces, urine and saliva. We used concurrent GPS collar tracking of badgers and cattle at four sites in Cornwall, southwest Britain, to test whether each species used locations previously occupied by the other species, within the survival time of M. bovis bacteria. Although analyses of the same data set showed that badgers avoided cattle, we found no evidence that this avoidance persisted over time: neither GPS-collared badgers nor cattle avoided space which had been occupied by the other species in the preceding 36 h. Defining a contact event as an animal being located <5 m from space occupied by the other species within the previous 36 h, we estimated that a herd of 176 cattle (mean herd size in our study areas) would contact badgers at least 6.0 times during an average 24-h period. Similarly, we estimated that a social group of 3.5 badgers (mean group size in our study areas) would contact cattle at least 0.76 times during an average night. Such frequent successive use of the same shared space, within the survival time of M. bovis bacteria, could potentially facilitate M. bovis transmission via the environment

A new malaria vector in Africa: Predicting the expansion range of Anopheles stephensi and identifying the urban populations at risk

In 2012, an unusual outbreak of urban malaria was reported from Djibouti City in the Horn of Africa and increasingly severe outbreaks have been reported annually ever since. Subsequent investigations discovered the presence of an Asian mosquito species; Anopheles stephensi, a species known to thrive in urban environments. Since that first report, An. stephensi has been identified in Ethiopia and Sudan, and this worrying development has prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to publish a vector alert calling for active mosquito surveillance in the region. Using an up-to-date database of published locational records for An. stephensi across its full range (Asia, Arabian Peninsula, Horn of Africa) and a set of spatial models that identify the environmental conditions that characterize a species’ preferred habitat, we provide evidence-based maps predicting the possible locations across Africa where An. stephensi could establish if allowed to spread unchecked. Unsurprisingly, due to this species’ close association with man-made habitats, our maps predict a high probability of presence within many urban cities across Africa where our estimates suggest that over 126 million people reside. Our results strongly support the WHO’s call for surveillance and targeted vector control and provide a basis for the prioritization of surveillance

Identification of citrullinated α-enolase as a candidate autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis

Antibodies against citrullinated proteins are highly specific for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but little is understood about their citrullinated target antigens. We have detected a candidate citrullinated protein by immunoblotting lysates of monocytic and granulocytic HL-60 cells treated with peptidylarginine deiminase. In an initial screen of serum samples from four patients with RA and one control, a protein of molecular mass 47 kDa from monocytic HL-60s reacted with sera from the patients, but not with the serum from the control. Only the citrullinated form of the protein was recognised. The antigen was identified by tandem mass spectrometry as α-enolase, and the positions of nine citrulline residues in the sequence were determined. Serum samples from 52 patients with RA and 40 healthy controls were tested for presence of antibodies against citrullinated and non-citrullinated α-enolase by immunoblotting of the purified antigens. Twenty-four sera from patients with RA (46%) reacted with citrullinated α-enolase, of which seven (13%) also recognised the non-citrullinated protein. Six samples from the controls (15%) reacted with both forms. α-Enolase was detected in the RA joint, where it co-localised with citrullinated proteins. The presence of antibody together with expression of antigen within the joint implicates citrullinated α-enolase as a candidate autoantigen that could drive the chronic inflammatory response in RA