Event-based transitional narratives of female officers in the Finnish Defence Forces : a gender-nuanced approach to military organizations and identities

Gender in the military is a critical yet controversial topic both socially and scholastically. However, in review of the literature regarding servicemembers’ transitions out of the military organization, the experience of women is often excluded or generalized from the experience of their male peers. This thesis applies a gender constructivist lens to military sociology and explores the narratives of women officers who have served in the Finnish Defence Forces. It adapted the Critical Incident Technique, as well as graphic elicitation, to conduct qualitative interviews with five respondents. Subsequent analysis revealed four types of critical events that illustrate entry into and exit from the Finnish Defence Forces during a career: prompting, retaining, bridging, and affirming events. These events, as well as participants’ descriptions of identity work, cannot be understood merely through factors relating to the Institutional/Occupational Thesis, but necessitate an understanding of the negotiation of gender throughout a career in the Finnish Defence Forces. The conclusions of this work refute the simplified perspective of gender equality in Finland and demand a gender-nuanced approach to future theoretical conceptualizations of military organizations, as well as the identities of individual servicemembers

The Effect of Competence, Likeability, and Sex on Performance Evaluations of Managers

The effects of competence, likeability, and sex of an upper-level manager on his or her performance evaluation and the work relationship with his or her subordinates were examined in the present study. Given that women in leadership positions are frequent victims of prejudice and discrimination, it was of a particular interest to examine how female managers would be evaluated. In a survey of 228 undergraduate students, competence was found to be an important attribute when it came to performance evaluation, whereas likeability was found to be an important attribute when it came to the work relationship. Female managers were found not to be necessarily devalued; when women managers were clearly described as competent, they were evaluated more positively than their male counterparts, regardless of their likeability levels. The results of the present study indicate that competence and likeability are more important attributes than sex to determine performance evaluation and the work relationship between supervisor and subordinate

Clinical history and diagnostic performance of cone beam computed tomography and digital periapical radiography in endodontic disease detection

Aims: 1) To assess and compare the diagnostic performance of digital periapical (PA) radiography and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) in endodontic disease detection. 2) To assess the effect of clinical history on the interpretation of endodontic disease in dental cone beam computed tomography. 3) To assess the effect of clinical history on incidental abnormality detection and diagnostic confidence in endodontic CBCT imaging. Methods: A free-response, factorial study design was used to account for changes in the independent variables: case type (disease or non-disease), case severity (subtle, moderate or obvious), reader type (high or low level of clinical experience and monthly CBCT reading volume) and reading modality (digital periapical radiography, cone beam computed tomography with and without clinical history). Readers interpreted 60 PA and 60 CBCT images divided into five categories: diseased – subtle, diseased – moderate, diseased – obvious, non-diseased – subtle, and non-diseased – obvious. The 60 CBCT images were read twice over two reading sessions using a balanced design, once with access to clinical history and once without, where 30 in each session included history. Readers were not told about the double reading nature of the CBCT component of the study and were informed that all 120 CBCT cases were different imaging modalities. Lesion localisation fraction, specificity, false positive marks, diagnostic confidence (rating 2, 3 or 4) of correctly localised incidental abnormalities and the weighted alternative free-response receiver operating characteristic (wAFROC1) figure of merit were calculated

The SCI Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES): development and psychometric properties

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rising prevalence of secondary conditions among persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) has focused recent attention to potential health promotion programs designed to reduce such adverse health conditions. A healthy lifestyle for people with SCI, including and specifically, the adoption of a vigorous exercise routine, has been shown to produce an array of health benefits, prompting many providers to recommend the implementation of such activity to those with SCI. Successfully adopting such an exercise regimen however, requires confidence in one's ability to engage in exercise or exercise self-efficacy. Exercise self-efficacy has not been assessed adequately for people with SCI due to a lack of validated and reliable scales, despite self efficacy's status as one of the most widely researched concepts and despite its broad application in health promotion studies. Exercise self efficacy supporting interventions for people with SCI are only meaningful if appropriate measurement tools exist. The objective of our study was to develop a psychometrically sound exercise self-efficacy self-report measure for people with SCI.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on literature reviews, expert comments and cognitive testing, 10 items were included and made up the 4-point Likert SCI Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) in its current form. The ESES was administered as part of the first wave of a nationwide survey (n = 368) on exercise behavior and was also tested separately for validity in four groups of individuals with SCI. Reliability and validity testing was performed using SPSS 12.0.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cronbach's alpha was .9269 for the ESES. High internal consistency was confirmed in split-half (EQ Length Spearman Brown = .8836). Construct validity was determined using principal component factor analysis by correlating the aggregated ESES items with the Generalised Self Efficacy Scale (GSE). We found that all items loaded on one factor only and that there was a statistically significant correlation between Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES) and Generalised Self Efficacy Scale (GSE) (Spearman RHO = .316; p < .05; n = 53, 2-sided).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Preliminary findings indicate that the ESES is a reliable instrument with high internal consistency and scale integrity. Content validity both in terms of face and construct validity is satisfactory.</p

Inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus type-1 by cdk inhibitors

Current therapy for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection relies primarily on the administration of anti-retroviral nucleoside analogues, either alone or in combination with HIV-protease inhibitors. Although these drugs have a clinical benefit, continuous therapy with the drugs leads to drug-resistant strains of the virus. Recently, significant progress has been made towards the development of natural and synthetic agents that can directly inhibit HIV-1 replication or its essential enzymes. We previously reported on the pharmacological cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (PCI) r-roscovitine as a potential inhibitor of HIV-1 replication. PCIs are among the most promising novel antiviral agents to emerge over the past few years. Potent activity on viral replication combined with proliferation inhibition without the emergence of resistant viruses, which are normally observed in HAART patients; make PCIs ideal candidates for HIV-1 inhibition. To this end we evaluated twenty four cdk inhibitors for their effect on HIV-1 replication in vitro. Screening of these compounds identified alsterpaullone as the most potent inhibitor of HIV-1 with activity at 150 nM. We found that alsterpaullone effectively inhibits cdk2 activity in HIV-1 infected cells with a low IC50 compared to control uninfected cells. The effects of alsterpaullone were associated with suppression of cdk2 and cyclin expression. Combining both alsterpaullone and r-roscovitine (cyc202) in treatment exhibited even stronger inhibitory activities in HIV-1 infected PBMCs

Design of a Planar Array of Low Profile Horns at 28 GHz

This article belongs to the Section Physical SensorsA planar array of low profile horns fed by a transverse slotted waveguide array in the low millimeter-wave regime (28 GHz) is presented. The array of transverse slots cannot be directly used as antenna as it has grating lobes due to the fact that slot elements must be spaced a guided wavelength. However, these slots can be transformed into low profile horns that with their radiation patterns attenuate the grating lobes. To this aim, low profile horns with less than 0.6λ0 height were designed. The horns include a couple of chips that contribute to further reduce the grating lobes especially in the H-plane. The good performance of the designed array was demonstrated by both simulations and experiments performed on a manufactured prototype. A 5 × 5 array was designed that has a measured realized gain of 26.6 dBi with a bandwidth below 2%, still useful for some applications such as some radar systems. The total electrical size of the array is 6.63λ0× 6.63λ0. The radiation efficiency is very high and the aperture efficiency is above 80%. This all-metal solution is advantageous for millimeter-wave applications where losses sustained by dielectric materials become severe and it can be easily scaled to higher frequencies.This work was partially supported by the "Center for mmWave Smart Radar Systems and Technologies" under the Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan and partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan under Grant numbers MOST 107-3017-F-009-001 and 107-2221-E-009-051-MY2. This work was also partially supported by the Spanish Government with grant numbers: TEC2016-79700-C2-2-R and PID2019-107688RB-C21

The Heterogeneity of Victim Impact Statements: A Content Analysis of Capital Trial Sentencing Penalty Phase Transcripts

Victim impact statements (VISs) are controversial in capital sentencing proceedings largely due to their questionable relevance to sentencing, the concern that characterizations of the victim may lead to arbitrary sentencing judgments, and the belief that the emotional nature of this evidence may be inflammatory. A sample of 192 capital trial VIS transcripts was analyzed for content as well as a linguistic analysis of emotionality. The findings reveal that these statements are highly varied, including their format, length, and relation between the witness and the victim. Despite a legislative mandate that they address the emotional, financial, and physical suffering experienced by victim survivors, testimony of this nature occurs in a minority of the cases. Most commonly, these statements tend to characterize the victim and their qualities, relay the witness’ shock at first learning of the victim’s death (i.e., trauma narratives), and address the significance of the deceased to the family unit. In approximately one third of the transcripts reviewed, the witness made mention of the defendant, but this rarely included any mention of a desire for vengeance or recommended punishment. Linguistic analysis revealed that emotional content was prevalent throughout the testimony, with sadness emerging as more pervasive than anger. However, the degree of emotional language contained in these statements was not particularly high—and was comparable to that typically encountered in everyday life (e.g., newspapers, novels). Implications, particularly with regard to the potential for VISs to be considered inflammatory, are discussed

Array of Horns Fed by a Transverse Slotted Groove Gap Waveguide at 28 GHz

This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors.An array of low profile horns fed by transverse slots on a groove gap waveguide (GGWG) is presented. The GGWG is implemented with glide symmetrical holes and the design frequency is 28 GHz. The low profile horns are integrated in the same waveguide wall as the slots. The designed antenna is a linear array of these horns but the solution can be easily extended to a planar array. Experimental results support this work. The designed antenna is a good candidate for applications related to 5G technologies where medium to high gains as well as high efficiencies are required and reasonable manufacturing costs are demanded.This work has been supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan: Grant Nos. 109-2634-F-009-030 and 107-2221-E-009-051-MY2 and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy under projects TEC2016-79700-C2-2-R and PID2019-107688RB-C21

Enhancing the efficiency of compact patch antennas composed of split ring resonators by using lumped capacitors

A new type of small patch antenna with low profile and enhanced radiation efficiency is proposed in this letter. The antenna is realized with a double layer of low-permittivity material (polypropylene, εr = 2.2). The lower layer is used for the feeding of the antenna, and split ring resonators (SRRs) are printed on top of the upper layer acting as radiating elements. The compactness is provided by shorting the rings to the ground plane with two metal pins. Although this antenna presented initially a dual band of operation, it has been demonstrated how the use of a lumped capacitor in the inner ring can increase the total radiation efficiency of the antenna performing a single-band response. Therefore, when the two original operation frequency bands coincide, a manufactured prototype of the antenna demonstrated a measured radiation efficiency of 73% that can be provided at the operation frequency of 1.29 GHz