Human Resource Issues in the Gaming Industry

The gaming industry is currently experiencing unprecedented growth and with this growth, a myriad of business concerns have emerged. Perhaps the single greatest priority is to understand the needs of our most important industry asset: our employees. As with any service business, success is predicated on the quality of the product delivered by workers and employee performance often has it roots and can be traced to the degree of job satisfaction and training realized by the workforce

Gambling in a Fantasy World: An Exploratory Study of Rotisserie Baseball Games

The purpose of this article is to map the social landscape of the burgeoning fantasy baseball gaming phenomenon. This study relies upon two approaches: an analysis of the existing gambling literature to look for useful theory and research applications, and observations of fantasy baseball players to better understand their behaviors. The authors seek to provide an exploratory framework that will aid in the development of future theory and research on these phenomena

Poles Apart? EU Enlargement and the Labour Market Outcomes of immigrants in the UK

The UK was one of only three countries to allow migrants from accession countries to enter their labour markets more or less without restriction following EU enlargement in May 2004. Therefore, it is important to establish the characteristics and labour market performance of migrants from these countries who have subsequently entered the UK. We principally analyse Labour Force Survey data to compare the labour market outcomes of recent migrants from Poland and other accession countries to those of earlier migrant cohorts from these countries as well as to those of other recent migrants to the UK. We find that the majority of post-enlargement migrants from accession countries have found employment in low paying jobs, despite some (especially Poles) having relatively high levels of education. It follows that recent Polish migrants typically have lower returns to their education than other recent arrivals. Migrants from the new entrants who arrived immediately prior to enlargement possess similar characteristics and labour market outcomes, apart from having a higher propensity to be self-employed. These results are discussed in the context of policy changes, migration strategies, assimilation effects and possible impacts on the sending countries.Migration, EU Enlargement, Labour Market Outcomes

Characterization Of Innate Immunity In The Female Reproductive Tract For The Prevention Of Hiv Acquisition

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects 30 million people worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by HIV, women comprise 60% of the infected population. Heterosexual transmission is a major mode of viral acquisition, mandating further research of the process and prevention of HIV acquisition via the female reproductive tract (FRT). The FRT is a dynamic environment, protected by host immune mechanisms and commensal microbes. The disruption of either of these elements can increase susceptibility to HIV. Accordingly, one common risk factor for HIV acquisition is the microbial shift condition known as bacterial vaginosis (BV), which is characterized by the displacement of healthy lactobacilli by an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. As the bacteria responsible for BV pathogenicity and their interactions with host immunity are not understood, we sought to evaluate the effects of BV-associated bacteria on reproductive epithelia. Here we have characterized the interaction between BV-associated bacteria and the female reproductive tract by measuring cytokine and defensin induction in FRT epithelial cells following bacterial inoculation. Four BV-associated bacteria were evaluated alongside six lactobacilli for a comparative assessment. Our model showed good agreement with clinical BV trends; we observed a distinct cytokine and human β- defensin-2 response to BV-associated bacteria, especially Atopobium vaginae, compared to most lactobacilli. One lactobacillus species, Lactobacillus vaginalis, induced an immune response similar to that elicited by BV-associated bacteria. These iii data provide an important prioritization of BV-associated bacteria and support further characterization of reproductive bacteria and their interactions with host epithelia. We next evaluated the effect of this interaction on HIV infection by investigating the soluble effectors secreted when FRT epithelial cells were cocultured with A. vaginae. We observed increased proviral activity mediated by secreted low molecular weight effectors, and determined that this activity was not likely mediated by cytokine responses. Instead, we identified a complex mixture containing several upregulated host proteins. Selected individual proteins from the mixture exhibited HIV-enhancing activity only when applied with the complex mixture of proviral factors, suggesting that HIV enhancement might be mediated by synergistic effects. In addition to characterizing the immune interactions that mediate the enhanced HIV acquisition associated with BV, we also evaluated the safety and efficacy of RC- 101, a candidate vaginal microbicide being developed for the prevention of HIV transmission. RC-101 has been effective and well tolerated in preliminary cell culture and macaque models. However, the effect of RC-101 on primary vaginal tissues and resident vaginal microflora requires further evaluation. Here, we treated primary vaginal tissues and vaginal bacteria, both pathogenic and commensal, with RC-101 to investigate compatibility of this microbicide with FRT tissue and microflora. RC-101 was well tolerated by host tissues and commensal vaginal bacteria, while BV-associated bacteria were inhibited by RC-101. By establishing vaginal microflora, the specific antibacterial activity of RC-101 may provide a dual mechanism of HIV protection

Extreme multi-decadal trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation

Stochastic processes are shown to be useful tools for quantifying extreme trends in climate indices. The variance of the trend distribution is shown to generally increase with autocorrelation, with an increase in extreme trend exceedance probabilities. The winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index has weak autocorrelation which is underestimated in historical climate models and helps to explain the underestimation of extreme trends. The maximum observed 31-year NAO trend occurred in 1963-1993 and is estimated to have a 1 in 20 chance of being exceeded in the 144-year historical record using fitted stochastic models. Climate models and stochastic models without autocorrelation underestimate this probability as a 1 in 200 chance. The NAO trend in the 1963-1993 window was identified due to its unusual nature. If this window is wrongly treated as a randomly chosen single window, the exceedance probability is further reduced (a 1 in 1000 chance). Post-processing methods are proposed to increase the low autocorrelation in climate models and are shown to improve the simulation of extreme trends and also increase the variance of ensemble mean trends. Future projections show a small systematic increase in end-of-century NAO ensemble mean trends relative to the magnitude of the radiative forcing. The probability of a maximum 31-year trend greater than that observed is 3 7% in the next 75-years (under the higher “business as usual” radiative forcing scenario), which is similar to the historical model probability for the last 75-years. Near-term projections of the next 31 years (2024-2054) are relatively insensitive to the scenario, showing no forced trend in the models but a large ensemble range due to internal variability ( 7.41 to 7.68 hPa/decade) which could increase or decrease regional climate change signals in the Northern Hemisphere by magnitudes that are underestimated when using raw climate model output

Considerations of Context in Response to ‘International Migrations: from economy to affinity’ by Hervé Le Bras

An outline of the key developments which provide a context for the presentation on International Migrations: from economy to affinity given by Hervé Le Bras

The 2020 Pandemic and Cities: London as a Case Study

This article analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 on London’s socio-economic structure. After outlining the history of health crises in London during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the city’s demographic decline and resurgence, it describes the 2020 pandemic’s impact on London’s socio-economic inequalities and the role of home working. Context is provided by describing my own locality and experience while the wider context is discussed through comparison with other highly globalised cities such as Singapore. The article concludes by placing London’s 2020 pandemic within a historical perspective as infections increase after the summer holidays and the beginning of the teaching term