Ethnic differences in women's employment: the changing role of qualifications

We pool eight Spring QLFS quarters for 1992-1995 and 2000-2003 to examine female employment changes by ethnic group. We find that employment has significantly increased for all women except Black Caribbean/Other women. We show that qualifications have played an increasingly important role and there has been increased polarisation between the employment of women with a degree compared to those without. This is especially large for Pakistani/Bangladeshi women. Our decomposition analysis shows that employment changes between the early 1990s and the 2000s are mainly a consequence of changes in characteristics. However, decomposing white/non-white mean employment differences demonstrates a fall in the unexplained discriminatory component for most ethnic groups. Hence differences in white and non-white characteristics explain more of the 2000-3 employment differential than in 1993-5. Furthermore, significant unexplained ethnic penalties of up to 50 percent still exist for South Asian women

Factors that influence health service utilization for emotional or mental health reasons among university students

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence university students’ use of health services for mental or emotional reasons. Currently accepted models of health service use may not apply to university students due to their unique socio-demographic characteristics and health challenges. The Andersen and Newman model of health service utilization was used as a conceptual framework. The first hypothesis was that many factors that influence use of services in the general population would also apply to the university student population. The second hypothesis was that some student-specific factors would also influence health service utilization for mental or emotional reasons. Data for this study was collected in a survey designed for a larger health needs assessment of University of Saskatchewan undergraduate students. The dependant variable was the use of services for mental or emotional reasons within the past year. Information was also collected for 26 independent variables. A logistic regression was used to determine which of these were related to the dependant variable. The final model of health service utilization for mental/emotional reasons among university students included six independent variables: 1) perceived need for professional help (for emotional problems), 2) previous depression diagnosis, 3) past/present suicide ideation, 4) sexual assault victimization, 5) presence of a family doctor, and 6) gender.The results of this study indicate that many of the factors that influence service use for mental/emotional reasons in the student population are the same as those that exist in the general population. The results also suggest that student-specific factors, such as college, years in university, or academic performance do not influence health service use for mental/emotional reasons. Implications of these findings are discussed

A Graphical, Orbital Gravity Simulator for Planetarium

The planetarium director at Kutztown University has expressed interest in having a way to allow public attendees to control a game-like, graphical gravity simulation on the dome. The present project is the design and implementation of that system, with attendees using hand-held Android tablets as controllers for the projected graphical simulator. Novel aspects of this proposal include the creation of an interdisciplinary team project from two or more disciplines, and design, construction, deployment, and support of a set of graphical applications to be used in a planetarium or similar immersive environment. The poster illustrates the animated orbit of planets around their star and highlights the graphical Android user interface and the user experience. The presentation also includes an interactive demo using a laptop and an Android tablet

Ethnic differences in physical activity, diet and obesity - research findings

Research findings report of ETHNIC DIFFERENCES IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY, DIET AND OBESITY project. A project in the ESRC Understanding Population Trends and Processes Programme, maintained by the ReStore repository and archived to NCRM Eprints 2022

Precursors To and Pathways Through Conversion: Catalytic Experiences of Born Again Christian College Students

Born again Christians are a significant religious population in the United States, and throughout the world. The process by which a born again identity is assumed is not clearly described in the research literature. Therefore, we asked 18 born again Christian college students a series of questions designed to uncover what led to their identity of being born again. Responses fell into three overarching themes. First, participants described exposure within relationships to God’s principles. Second, participants noted the influence of introspection and reflection on their lives apart from the influence of God. Third, participants had an active response in which they reported such things as recognizing conviction by the Holy Spirit, that they decided to act on that conviction, and that they took action to follow Jesus. Findings are discussed within the framework of Cohen and Hill’s (2007) theory of religion as culture

Neutrophils and the calcium-binding protein MRP-14 mediate carrageenan-induced antinociception in mice.

BACKGROUND: We have previously shown that the calcium-binding protein MRP-14 secreted by neutrophils mediates the antinociceptive response in an acute inflammatory model induced by the intraperitoneal injection of glycogen in mice. AIM: In an attempt to broaden the concept that neutrophils and MRP-14 controls inflammatory pain induced by different type of irritants, in the present study, after demonstrating that carrageenan (Cg) also induces atinociception in mice, we investigated the participation of both neutrophils and MRP-14 in the phenomenon. METHODS: Male Swiss mice were injected intraperitoneally with Cg and after different time intervals, the pattern of cell migration of the peritoneal exudate and the nociceptive response of animals submitted to the writhing test were evaluated. The participation of neutrophils and of the MRP-14 on the Cg effect was evaluated by systemic inoculation of monoclonal antibodies anti-granulocyte and anti-MRP-14. RESULTS: Our results demonstrate that the acute neutrophilic peritonitis evoked by Cg induced antinociception 2, 4 and 8 h after inoculation of the irritant. Monoclonal antibodies anti-granulocyte or anti-MRP-14 reverts the antinociceptive response only 2 and 8 h after Cg injection. The antibody anti-MRP-14 partially reverts the antinociception observed after 4 h of Cg injection while the anti-granulocyte antibody enhances this effect. This effect is reverted by simultaneous treatment of the animals with both antibodies. After 4 h of Cg injection in neutrophil-depleted mice a significant expression of the calcium-binding protein MRP-14 was detected in the cytoplasm of peritoneal macrophages. This suggests that the enhancement of the effect observed after treatment with the anti-neutrophil antibody may be due to secretion of MRP-14 by macrophages. It has also been demonstrated that endogenous opioids and glucocorticoids are not involved in the antinociception observed at the 4th hour after Cg injection. CONCLUSION: These data support the hypothesis that neutrophils and the calcium-binding protein MRP-14 are participants of the endogenous control of inflammatory pain in mice despite the model of acute inflammation used

Genome sequences of six Phytophthora species threatening forest ecosystems

AbstractThe Phytophthora genus comprises of some of the most destructive plant pathogens and attack a wide range of hosts including economically valuable tree species, both angiosperm and gymnosperm. Many known species of Phytophthora are invasive and have been introduced through nursery and agricultural trade. As part of a larger project aimed at utilizing genomic data for forest disease diagnostics, pathogen detection and monitoring (The TAIGA project: Tree Aggressors Identification using Genomic Approaches; http://taigaforesthealth.com/), we sequenced the genomes of six important Phytophthora species that are important invasive pathogens of trees and a serious threat to the international trade of forest products. This genomic data was used to develop highly sensitive and specific detection assays and for genome comparisons and to make evolutionary inferences and will be useful to the broader plant and tree health community. These WGS data have been deposited in the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (DDBJ/ENA/GenBank) under the accession numbers AUPN01000000, AUVH01000000, AUWJ02000000, AUUF02000000, AWVV02000000 and AWVW02000000

Census of the Local Universe (CLU) Narrow-Band Survey I: Galaxy Catalogs from Preliminary Fields

We present the Census of the Local Universe (CLU) narrow-band survey to search for emission-line (\ha) galaxies. CLU-\ha~has imaged $\approx$3$\pi$ of the sky (26,470~deg$^2$) with 4 narrow-band filters that probe a distance out to 200~Mpc. We have obtained spectroscopic follow-up for galaxy candidates in 14 preliminary fields (101.6~deg$^2$) to characterize the limits and completeness of the survey. In these preliminary fields, CLU can identify emission lines down to an \ha~flux limit of $10^{-14}$~$\rm{erg~s^{-1}~cm^{-2}}$ at 90\% completeness, and recovers 83\% (67\%) of the \ha~flux from catalogued galaxies in our search volume at the $\Sigma$=2.5 ($\Sigma$=5) color excess levels. The contamination from galaxies with no emission lines is 61\% (12\%) for $\Sigma$=2.5 ($\Sigma$=5). Also, in the regions of overlap between our preliminary fields and previous emission-line surveys, we recover the majority of the galaxies found in previous surveys and identify an additional $\approx$300 galaxies. In total, we find 90 galaxies with no previous distance information, several of which are interesting objects: 7 blue compact dwarfs, 1 green pea, and a Seyfert galaxy; we also identified a known planetary nebula. These objects show that the CLU-\ha~survey can be a discovery machine for objects in our own Galaxy and extreme galaxies out to intermediate redshifts. However, the majority of the CLU-\ha~galaxies identified in this work show properties consistent with normal star-forming galaxies. CLU-\ha~galaxies with new redshifts will be added to existing galaxy catalogs to focus the search for the electromagnetic counterpart to gravitational wave events.Comment: 28 pages, 22 figures, 4 tables (Accepted to ApJ