Gender Discrimination and Ageist Perceptions:

This report presents the findings from an ESF Objective 3 Project “Gender Discrimination and Ageist Perceptions”. The project is based at Liverpool John Moores University, in the Faculty of Education, Community and Leisure. Context Older age groups have consistently been undervalued and often discarded by employers, for being too old. They are now being encouraged to re-enter the workplace through schemes such as New Deal 50 plus and Pathways to Work, or to take up volunteering through the promotion of “Active Citizenship”. In addition, the concept of lifelong learning has been advocated by New Labour as an attempt to move away from the traditional notions of education, towards a vision in which education forms a lifelong process, which can be accessed at any time during the life course. Yet, despite the lower labour market attachment of the over fifties, people of this age group in higher education account for only around 1% of the student population. There is a variety of ways in which people approaching their mid life would, on the face of it, be able to access work, education or volunteering experiences. However, past research and current data suggest that there appear to be barriers to the take up of such opportunities. The Aim This study set out to investigate the experiences and perceptions of women and men aged over fifty and the organisations which impact upon their lives, in an effort to understand more fully the potential barriers this age group may face when accessing opportunities, employment, training or education. Background Gender disadvantages in the world of work have been well documented. Increasingly, age perceptions are thought to be a factor in older peoples’ access to employment and training opportunities. Data shows that the and only a tenth of those are on employer and government training programmes (TAEN, 2006). The demographic change, with more people living longer, coupled with low birth rates, is creating an expanding older population and fuelling oncerns over labour shortages. There is, therefore, an economic imperative to draw workers back into work via a variety of avenues. Despite over 70% of women now participating in the workforce, the employment patterns of men and women show that only 21% of women over 40 are in full-time employment, compared with 46% of men. Women have not had the same opportunities as men to build a career or to earn the equivalent of males due to their child-rearing and caring responsibilities, with many continuing to be concentrated in traditionally low paid sectors. The pay gap between some men and women is widening,despite the long history of legislation on equal pay. To compound the situation, older women are now said to be facing a double jeopardy of age and gender discrimination. Tackling discrimination has been at the heart of equal opportunities legislation designed to prevent unequal treatment regardless of gender,race and disability. The Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) and Equal Pay Act (EPA) both came into force in 1975. Each Act attempted to redress the inequalities suffered by (mainly) women in terms of employment and education. The Bill to establish the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) received Royal Assent on 16th February 2006 and will provide an integrated approach to all forms of discrimination including that on the grounds of age

Impact of respiratory muscle training on respiratory muscle strength, respiratory function and quality of life in individuals with tetraplegia: A randomised clinical trial

Background Respiratory complications remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in people with acute and chronic tetraplegia. Respiratory muscle weakness following spinal cord injury-induced tetraplegia impairs lung function and the ability to cough. In particular, inspiratory muscle strength has been identified as the best predictor of the likelihood of developing pneumonia in individuals with tetraplegia. We hypothesised that 6 weeks of progressive respiratory muscle training (RMT) increases respiratory muscle strength with improvements in lung function, quality of life and respiratory health. Methods Sixty-two adults with tetraplegia participated in a double-blind randomised controlled trial. Active or sham RMT was performed twice daily for 6 weeks. Inspiratory muscle strength, measured as maximal inspiratory pressure (PImax) was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included lung function, quality of life and respiratory health. Between-group comparisons were obtained with linear models adjusting for baseline values of the outcomes. Results After 6 weeks, there was a greater improvement in PImax in the active group than in the sham group (mean difference 11.5 cmH 2 O (95% CI 5.6 to 17.4), p<0.001) and respiratory symptoms were reduced (St George Respiratory Questionnaire mean difference 10.3 points (0.01-20.65), p=0.046). Significant improvements were observed in quality of life (EuroQol-Five Dimensional Visual Analogue Scale 14.9 points (1.9-27.9), p=0.023) and perceived breathlessness (Borg score 0.64 (0.11-1.17), p=0.021). There were no significant improvements in other measures of respiratory function (p=0.126-0.979). Conclusions Progressive RMT increases inspiratory muscle strength in people with tetraplegia, by a magnitude which is likely to be clinically significant. Measurement of baseline PImax and provision of RMT to at-risk individuals may reduce respiratory complications after tetraplegia. Trial registration number Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN 12612000929808)

Soy consumption and risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms: a case-control study in Japan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To investigate the relationship between soy consumption, COPD risk and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, a case-control study was conducted in Japan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 278 eligible patients (244 men and 34 women), aged 50–75 years with COPD diagnosed within the past four years, were referred by respiratory physicians, while 340 controls (272 men and 68 women) were recruited from the community. All participants underwent spirometric measurements of respiratory function. Information on demographics, lifestyle characteristics and habitual food consumption was obtained using a structured questionnaire.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Total soy consumption was positively correlated with observed lung function measures. The mean soy intake was significantly higher among controls (59.98, SD 50.23 g/day) than cases (44.84, SD 28.5 g/day). A significant reduction in COPD risk was evident for highest versus lowest quartile of daily intake of total soybean products, with adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.392, 95% CI 0.194–0.793, <it>p </it>for trend 0.001. Similar decreases in COPD risk were associated with frequent and higher intake of soy foods such as tofu and bean sprouts, whereas respiratory symptoms were inversely associated with high consumption of soy foods, especially for breathlessness (OR 0.989, 95% CI 0.982–0.996).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Increasing soy consumption was associated with a decreased risk of COPD and breathlessness.</p

Unusually Long Palindromes Are Abundant in Mitochondrial Control Regions of Insects and Nematodes

BACKGROUND: Palindromes are known to be involved in a variety of biological processes. In the present investigation we carried out a comprehensive analysis of palindromes in the mitochondrial control regions (CRs) of several animal groups to study their frequency, distribution and architecture to gain insights into the origin of replication of mtDNA. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Many species of Arthropoda, Nematoda, Mollusca and Annelida harbor palindromes and inverted repeats (IRs) in their CRs. Lower animals like cnidarians and higher animal groups like chordates are almost devoid of palindromes and IRs. The study revealed that palindrome occurrence is positively correlated with the AT content of CRs, and that IRs are likely to give rise to longer palindromes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The present study attempts to explain possible reasons and gives in silico evidence for absence of palindromes and IRs from CR of vertebrate mtDNA and acquisition and retention of the same in insects. Study of CRs of different animal phyla uncovered unique architecture of this locus, be it high abundance of long palindromes and IRs in CRs of Insecta and Nematoda, or short IRs of 10–20 nucleotides with a spacer region of 12–14 bases in subphylum Chelicerata, or nearly complete of absence of any long palindromes and IRs in Vertebrata, Cnidaria and Echinodermata

Why is cheating wrong?

Since cheating is obviously wrong, arguments against it (it provides an unfair advantage, it hinders learning) need only be mentioned in passing. But the argument of unfair advantage absurdly takes education to be essentially a race of all against all; moreover, it ignores that many cases of unfair (dis)advantages are widely accepted. That cheating can hamper learning does not mean that punishing cheating will necessarily favor learning, so that this argument does not obviously justify sanctioning cheaters. -- Keywords: academic dishonesty, academic integrity, academic misconduct, education, ethics, homework, plagiarismComment: 8 pages; new (completely rewritten) version; in Studies in Philosophy and Education (2009

The transcriptional response of Caenorhabditis elegans to ivermectin exposure identifies novel genes involved in the response to reduced food intake

We have examined the transcriptional response of Caenorhabditis elegans following exposure to the anthelmintic drug ivermectin (IVM) using whole genome microarrays and real-time QPCR. Our original aim was to identify candidate molecules involved in IVM metabolism and/or excretion. For this reason the IVM tolerant strain, DA1316, was used to minimise transcriptomic changes related to the phenotype of drug exposure. However, unlike equivalent work with benzimidazole drugs, very few of the induced genes were members of xenobiotic metabolising enzyme families. Instead, the transcriptional response was dominated by genes associated with fat mobilization and fatty acid metabolism including catalase, esterase, and fatty acid CoA synthetase genes. This is consistent with the reduction in pharyngeal pumping, and consequential reduction in food intake, upon exposure of DA1316 worms to IVM. Genes with the highest fold change in response to IVM exposure, cyp-37B1, mtl-1 and scl-2, were comparably up-regulated in response to short–term food withdrawal (4 hr) independent of IVM exposure, and GFP reporter constructs confirm their expression in tissues associated with fat storage (intestine and hypodermis). These experiments have serendipitously identified novel genes involved in an early response of C. elegans to reduced food intake and may provide insight into similar processes in higher organisms

IFNAR1-Signalling Obstructs ICOS-mediated Humoral Immunity during Non-lethal Blood-Stage Plasmodium Infection

Funding: This work was funded by a Career Development Fellowship (1028634) and a project grant (GRNT1028641) awarded to AHa by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC). IS was supported by The University of Queensland Centennial and IPRS Scholarships. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Study of Zγ events and limits on anomalous ZZγ and Zγγ couplings in pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV

We present a measurement of the Zγ production cross section and limits on anomalous ZZγ and Zγγ couplings for form-factor scales of Λ=750 and 1000 GeV. The measurement is based on 138 (152) candidates in the eeγ (μμγ) final state using 320(290)pb-1 of pp̄ collisions at s=1.96TeV. The 95% C.L. limits on real and imaginary parts of individual anomalous couplings are |h10,30Z|<0.23, |h20,40Z|<0.020, |h10,30γ|<0.23, and |h20,40γ|<0.019 for Λ=1000GeV. © 2005 The American Physical Society