68 research outputs found
Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks
Against the declining trend of Australian employees to join unions, unionisation of part-time female employees in the banking industry is relatively strong. For the finance and insurance industry in 2001, 30.3% of total part-time female employees were unionised compared to 25% of full-time female employees and 17.2% of full-time male employees. Overall, 22.3% of employees from this industry were members (ABS, 2002). Under freedom of association, what can influence an individual's decision to unionise? A survey was conducted on three major Australian banks in August 2000. We use a binary choice regression model to analyse personal and union-organising characteristics that significantly influence individual's decision to unionise. Previous membership under union preference provisions and earning relatively high wages would lead to a higher probability to join the union. Union's role in enterprise bargaining and whether union did anything to recruit have significant impact on individual decisions. Thus, part-time female employees are not unwilling to join when they recognise the need for job protection.
Determinants Of Unionisation For Part-Time Women Employees In Australian Banks
Against the declining trend of Australian employees to join unions, unionisation of part-time female employees in the banking industry is relatively strong. For the finance and insurance industry in 2001, 30.3% of total part-time female employees were unionised compared to 25% of full-time female employees and 17.2% of full-time male employees. Overall, 22.3% of employees from this industry were members (ABS, 2002). Under freedom of association, what can influence an individual's decision to unionise? A survey was conducted on three major Australian banks in August 2000. We use a binary choice regression model to analyse personal and union-organising characteristics that significantly influence individual's decision to unionise. Previous membership under union preference provisions and earning relatively high wages would lead to a higher probability to join the union. Union's role in enterprise bargaining and whether union did anything to recruit have significant impact on individual decisions. Thus, part-time female employees are not unwilling to join when they recognise the need for job protection
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âOur Relationship? Itâs the Odd Mucky Weekend, Not a One Night Standâ: Journalists and aid agencies in the UK, and the current challenges to sourcing in humanitarian disasters
In humanitarian crises, the sources that journalists employ have always helped determine which stories achieve a high media profile, as well as play a part in framing the story. In particular, aid agencies acted as powerful gatekeepers to disaster zones, providing flights, transport, fixers and translators to journalistsâand more recently, text, images and resources for the social web. Questions have been raised around transparency and objectivity in such reporting as a result. This paper draws on 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with UK national journalists (broadcast, print and online) and aid agencies belonging to the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee. As a result, this paper builds on journalism studies looking at boundary (re)negotiations in journalism and the source-media relationship to show the current patterns in what has been described as a âmutually exploitativeâ relationship. It compares and contrasts what assistance journalists say they accept from aid agencies and what aid agencies report. It examines how both sides are often unwilling to acknowledge the close association. It will also look at how the increasing professionalisation of NGO operations including the employment of former journalists and producing their own content may be affecting the power dynamics. Finally, it asks whether the slow emergence of scandals means this relationship has not only affected stories that are covered but those that are not
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Beyond the Refugee Crisis how the UK news media represent asylum seekers across national boundaries
Migration is one of the most pressing, divisive issues in global politics today, and media play a crucial role in how communities understand and respond. This study examines how UK newspapers (n = 974) and popular news websites (n = 1044) reported on asylum seekers throughout 2017. It contributes to previous literature in two important ways. First, by examining the ânew normalâ of daily news coverage in the wake of the 2015 ârefugee crisisâ in Europe. Second, by looking at how asylum seekers from different regions are represented. The content analysis finds significant variations in how asylum seekers are reported, including terminology use and topics they are associated with. The paper also identifies important commonalities in how all asylum seekers are represented - most notably, the dominance of political elites as sources across all media content. It argues that Entmanâs âcascade network modelâ can help to explain this, with elites in one country able to influence transnational reports
Contraceptive Use and Method Preference among Women in Soweto, South Africa: The Influence of Expanding Access to HIV Care and Treatment Services
Objective: Preventing unintended pregnancy among HIV-positive women constitutes a critical and cost-effective approach to primary prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and is a global public health priority for addressing the desperate state of maternal and child health in HIV hyper-endemic settings. We sought to investigate whether the prevalence of contraceptive use and method preferences varied by HIV status and receipt of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) among women in Soweto, South Africa. Methods: We used survey data from 563 sexually active, non-pregnant women (18â44 years) recruited from the Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Soweto (MayâDecember, 2007); 171 women were HIV-positive and receiving HAART (median duration of use = 31 months; IQR = 28, 33), 178 were HIV-positive and HAART-naĂŻve, and 214 were HIV-negative. Medical record review was conducted to confirm HIV status and clinical variables. Logistic regression models estimated adjusted associations between HIV status, receipt of HAART, and contraceptive use. Results: Overall, 78 % of women reported using contraception, with significant variation by HIV status: 86 % of HAART users, 82 % of HAART-naĂŻve women, and 69 % of HIV-negative women (p,0.0001). In adjusted models, compared with HIVnegativ
Trophic factors differentiate dopamine neurons vulnerable to Parkinson's disease
Recent studies suggest a variety of factors characterize substantia nigra neurons vulnerable to Parkinson's disease, including the transcription factors pituitary homeobox 3 (Pitx3) and orthodenticle homeobox 2 (Otx2) and the trophic factor receptor deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC), but there is limited information on their expression and localization in adult humans. Pitx3, Otx2, and DCC were immunohistochemically localized in the upper brainstem of adult humans and mice and protein expression assessed using relative intensity measures and online microarray data. Pitx3 was present and highly expressed in most dopamine neurons. Surprisingly, in our elderly subjects no Otx2 immunoreactivity was detected in dopamine neurons, although Otx2 gene expression was found in younger cases. Enhanced DCC gene expression occurred in the substantia nigra, and higher amounts of DCC protein characterized vulnerable ventral nigral dopamine neurons. Our data show that, at the age when Parkinson's disease typically occurs, there are no significant differences in the expression of transcription factors in brainstem dopamine neurons, but those most vulnerable to Parkinson's disease rely more on the trophic factor receptor DCC than other brainstem dopamine neurons
TMEM106B is a genetic modifier of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansions
Hexanucleotide repeat expansions in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72) have recently been linked to frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and may be the most common genetic cause of both neurodegenerative diseases. Genetic variants at TMEM106B influence risk for the most common neuropathological subtype of FTLD, characterized by inclusions of TAR DNA-binding protein of 43 kDa (FTLD-TDP). Previous reports have shown that TMEM106B is a genetic modifier of FTLD-TDP caused by progranulin (GRN) mutations, with the major (risk) allele of rs1990622 associating with earlier age at onset of disease. Here, we report that rs1990622 genotype affects age at death in a single-site discovery cohort of FTLD patients with C9orf72 expansions (n = 14), with the major allele correlated with later age at death (p = 0.024). We replicate this modifier effect in a 30-site international neuropathological cohort of FTLD-TDP patients with C9orf72 expansions (n = 75), again finding that the major allele associates with later age at death (p = 0.016), as well as later age at onset (p = 0.019). In contrast, TMEM106B genotype does not affect age at onset or death in 241 FTLD-TDP cases negative for GRN mutations or C9orf72 expansions. Thus, TMEM106B is a genetic modifier of FTLD with C9orf72 expansions. Intriguingly, the genotype that confers increased risk for developing FTLD-TDP (major, or T, allele of rs1990622) is associated with later age at onset and death in C9orf72 expansion carriers, providing an example of sign epistasis in human neurodegenerative disease
Targeting and Vaccine Durability Are Key for Population-level Impact and Cost-Effectiveness of a Pox-Protein HIV Vaccine Regimen in South Africa
Background: RV144 is to date the only HIV vaccine trial to demonstrate efficacy, albeit rapidly waning
over time. The HVTN 702 trial is currently evaluating in South Africa a similar vaccine formulation to that
of RV144 for subtype C HIV with additional boosters (pox-protein regimen). Using a detailed stochastic
individual-based network model of disease transmission calibrated to the HIV epidemic, we investigate
population-level impact and maximum cost of an HIV vaccine to remain cost-effective.
Methods: Consistent with the original pox-protein regimen, we model a primary series of five vaccinations
meeting the goal of 50% cumulative efficacy 24 months after the first dose and include twoyearly
boosters that maintain durable efficacy over 10 years. We simulate vaccination programs in
South Africa starting in 2027 under various vaccine targeting and HIV treatment and prevention assumptions.
Results: Our analysis shows that this partially effective vaccine could prevent, at catch-up vaccination
with 60% coverage, up to 941,000 (15.6%) new infections between 2027 and 2047 assuming current
trends of antiretroviral treatment. An impact of up to 697,000 (11.5%) infections prevented could be
achieved by targeting age cohorts of highest incidence. Economic evaluation indicates that, if treatment
scale-up was achieved, vaccination could be cost-effective at a total cost of less than 62 per 10-
year series (cost-effectiveness thresholds of 750).
Conclusions: While a partially effective, rapidly waning vaccine could help to prevent HIV infections, it
will not eliminate HIV as a public health priority in sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccination is expected to be
most effective under targeted delivery to age groups of highest HIV incidence. Awaiting results of trial,
the introduction of vaccination should go in parallel with continued innovation in HIV prevention, including
studies to determine the costs of delivery and feasibility and further research into products with
greater efficacy and durability
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Refugee and Asylum News Coverage in UK Print and Online Media
The representation of asylum is important, yet there is little research of how this topic is reported online. This article addresses this gap through a study of UK print and online media (Nâ=â2018). Articles were examined for their soft and hard news focus. Results show both partisanship and the medium play an important role. Online news covered more soft and hard news topics regardless of partisanship. However, examining the focus and style, right-leaning print and online publications focused more on criminality, while left-leaning publications focused on victimisation. These findings question the received wisdom that partisanship is the most significant variable shaping when reporting asylum. We purport that both the medium and partisanship are important to consider
Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome
The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers âŒ99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of âŒ1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead
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