Bone metabolic activity in hyperostosis cranialis interna measured with 18F-fluoride PET

F-18-Fluoride PET/CT is a relatively undervalued diagnostic test to measure bone metabolism in bone diseases. Hyperostosis cranialis interna (HCI) is a (hereditary) bone disease characterised by endosteal hyperostosis and osteosclerosis of the skull and the skull base. Bone overgrowth causes entrapment and dysfunction of several cranial nerves. The aim of this study is to compare standardised uptake values (SUVs) at different sites in order to quantify bone metabolism in the affected anatomical regions in HCI patients. Nine affected family members, seven non-affected family members and nine non-HCI non-family members underwent F-18-fluoride PET/CT scans. SUVs were systematically measured in the different regions of interest: frontal bone, sphenoid bone, petrous bone and clivus. Moreover, the average F-18-fluoride uptake in the entire skull was measured by assessing the uptake in axial slides. Visual assessment of the PET scans of affected individuals was performed to discover the process of disturbed bone metabolism in HCI. F-18-Fluoride uptake is statistically significantly higher in the sphenoid bone and clivus regions of affected family members. Visual assessment of the scans of HCI patients is relevant in detecting disease severity and the pattern of disturbed bone metabolism throughout life. F-18-Fluoride PET/CT is useful in quantifying the metabolic activity in HCI and provides information about the process of disturbed bone metabolism in this specific disorder. Limitations are a narrow window between normal and pathological activity and the influence of age. This study emphasises that F-18-fluoride PET/CT may also be a promising diagnostic tool for other metabolic bone disorders, even those with an indolent course

Studying user income through language, behaviour and affect in social media

Automatically inferring user demographics from social media posts is useful for both social science research and a range of downstream applications in marketing and politics. We present the first extensive study where user behaviour on Twitter is used to build a predictive model of income. We apply non-linear methods for regression, i.e. Gaussian Processes, achieving strong correlation between predicted and actual user income. This allows us to shed light on the factors that characterise income on Twitter and analyse their interplay with user emotions and sentiment, perceived psycho-demographics and language use expressed through the topics of their posts. Our analysis uncovers correlations between different feature categories and income, some of which reflect common belief e.g. higher perceived education and intelligence indicates higher earnings, known differences e.g. gender and age differences, however, others show novel findings e.g. higher income users express more fear and anger, whereas lower income users express more of the time emotion and opinions

can we call it a revolution women the labour market and european policy

In the USA the change in women's role in the economy over the last quarter-century has been likened to 'a quiet revolution'. Can we also talk of a quiet 'revolution' in Europe? The present article addresses this question by reviewing key developments in women's labour market position at EU level over the last 20 years. Full integration of women in the labour market was a focal point of European Employment Strategy, based on the understanding that it is an essential ingredient of gender equality; but it recently lost priority in favour of human rights and anti-discrimination goals. Policy responses to the financial crisis accelerated this change in priorities together with the perception that men are the real losers of the crisis. However, a stock-taking of women's integration into the labour market at EU level shows that two large obstacles stand in the way of full integration: regional imbalances and the secondary earner question. Female employment recently outperformed male employment, but fiscal consolidation policies currently hinder advancement in countries like the so-called GIPSI group, where progress is needed most. Meanwhile differences with respect to men in pension income or total earnings remain high at around forty percent. Reconciliation policy at EU level – leave design and care service provisioning in particular – had not consistently helped rebalance the gender division of labour within households. It needs recasting for a truly revolutionary change in women's role in the economy to materialize

Exploring the pastiche hegemony of men

In this article I explore the continued hegemony of certain men. I use interview extracts to help think through the notion of pastiche hegemony as a means of understanding how men, and narratives about them, have changed, but unequal power relations persist. In particular, I explore this process within men’s understandings of how they were able to gain and maintain influence and power at work. Through their reflexive reading of the changing shape of late modern Western society, these men believed they were able to craft selves and employ social scripts to produce social influence and power in situational and contingent forms. I argue that it is within this interactional process that the increasingly undermined ideological and material legacy of patriarchy might still be reified. As such, while there is clear evidence highlighting the undermining of men’s ability to assume power, within this article I theoretically unpack how certain men might be able to produce a localized, pastiche hegemony. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on gender studies

Equal pay by gender and by nationality: a comparative analysis of Switzerland's unequal equal pay policy regimes across time

What explains the adoption of two different policies on equal pay by gender (EPG) and by nationality (EPN) in Switzerland? And why is the liberal, litigation-based, equal pay policy regime set up by the Gender Equality Act of 1996 much less effective than the neocorporatist ‘accompanying measures' to the Bilateral European Union-Switzerland Agreement on Free Movement of Persons adopted in 1999 to ensure equal pay for workers of different national origins? The formation of two different policy regimes cannot be explained by different levels of political will. Equally, different ‘varieties of capitalism' cannot explain the setup of the two different equal pay policy regimes within the very same country. Instead, our qualitative comparative analysis across time suggests that the differences can be best explained by a particular constellation of attributes, namely the use of different policy frames—i.e. ‘anti-discrimination' in the EPG and ‘unfair competition' in the EPN case—and the different setting of interest politics epitomised by the opposite stances adopted by Switzerland's employer associations in the two case

Ambivalence toward men: comparing sexism among Polish, South African and British university students

This study extends the literature on attitudes toward gender roles by exploring whether the nature of sexism (i.e., benevolence and hostility directed at men) differs among university students from two under-researched countries, Poland (n = 190) and South Africa (n = 188), in a comparison with students in the United Kingdom (n = 166). Based on empirical literature applying Ambivalent Sexism Theory, and in the light of the socio-political context, it was hypothesized that: (1) both hostile and benevolent attitudes toward men in Poland would be more liberal than in South Africa and more conservative than in the United Kingdom, and (2), women would exhibit more hostile but less benevolent attitudes than men in relatively more conservative South Africa. The Ambivalence to Men Inventory was used to measure the two types of sexist attitudes about men. Findings supported the first hypothesis for hostile attitudes and partially for benevolent attitudes. South African and Polish students were more benevolent and hostile to men than British students, and students from South Africa were more hostile than those from Poland. Moreover, as predicted, a significant country-by-gender interaction revealed that South African women had more hostile and less benevolent attitudes to men than South African men. No such gender gap was present in the case of hostile attitudes in Poland and benevolent attitudes in the United Kingdom. Findings are discussed in terms of Ambivalent Sexism Theory and the countries’ socio-cultural context

Mutual trust between leader and subordinate and employee outcomes

Stable and enduring cooperative relationships among people are primarily based on mutual trust. However, little evidence exists about the effects of mutual trust between supervisor and subordinate on work outcomes. To understand better the dynamics of trust in supervisor–subordinate relationships, we examined how mutual trust between supervisor and subordinate is associated with work outcomes. Based on a sample of 247 subordinate–supervisor pairs, multilevel analyses revealed a positive effect of perceived mutual trust on task performance and interpersonal facilitation after controlling for trust in leader and felt trust. In addition, task performance and interpersonal facilitation increased as trust in leader and felt trust or trust in subordinate both increased