4,795 research outputs found
Grapes in Oklahoma
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The Promise and Perils of Private Voluntary Regulation: Labor Standards and Work Organization in Two Mexican Garment Factories
This paper is part of a larger project on globalization and labor standards organized by Professor Richard
Locke of M.I.T.. In addition to the results presented in this paper (some of which appear as well in Monica Romis,
"Beneath Corporate Codes of Conduct: What Drives Compliance in Two Mexican Garment Factories," (Masters
Thesis, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, M.I.T., 2005)), the project entailed field research in China, Turkey, Europe and the United States as well as systematic analysis of Nike’s factory audits of working conditions in over 800 factories in 51 countries.What role can private voluntary regulation play in improving labor standards and working conditions in global supply chain factories? How does this system relate to and interact with other systems of labor regulation and work organization? This paper seeks to address these questions through a structured comparison of two factories supplying Nike, the world’s largest athletic footwear and apparel company. These two factories have many similarities - both are in Mexico, both are in the apparel industry, both produce more or less the same products for Nike (and other brands) and both are subject to the same code of conduct. On the surface, both factories appear to have similar employment (i.e., recruitment, training, remuneration) practices and they receive comparable scores when audited by Nike’s compliance staff. However, underlying (and somewhat obscured by) these apparent similarities, significant differences in actual labor conditions exist between these two factories. What drives these differences in working conditions? What does this imply for traditional systems of monitoring and codes of conduct? Field research conducted at these two factories reveals that beneath the code of conduct and various monitoring efforts aimed at enforcing it, workplace conditions and labor standards are shaped by very different patterns of work organization and human resource management policies
A randomized control trial evaluating fluorescent ink versus dark ink tattoos for breast radiotherapy.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this UK study was to evaluate interfraction reproducibility and body image score when using ultraviolet (UV) tattoos (not visible in ambient lighting) for external references during breast/chest wall radiotherapy and compare with conventional dark ink. METHODS: In this non-blinded, single-centre, parallel group, randomized control trial, patients were allocated to receive either conventional dark ink or UV ink tattoos using computer-generated random blocks. Participant assignment was not masked. Systematic (∑) and random (σ) setup errors were determined using electronic portal images. Body image questionnaires were completed at pre-treatment, 1 month and 6 months to determine the impact of tattoo type on body image. The primary end point was to determine that UV tattoo random error (σsetup) was no less accurate than with conventional dark ink tattoos, i.e. <2.8 mm. RESULTS: 46 patients were randomized to receive conventional dark or UV ink tattoos. 45 patients completed treatment (UV: n = 23, dark: n = 22). σsetup for the UV tattoo group was <2.8 mm in the u and v directions (p = 0.001 and p = 0.009, respectively). A larger proportion of patients reported improvement in body image score in the UV tattoo group compared with the dark ink group at 1 month [56% (13/23) vs 14% (3/22), respectively] and 6 months [52% (11/21) vs 38% (8/21), respectively]. CONCLUSION: UV tattoos were associated with interfraction setup reproducibility comparable with conventional dark ink. Patients reported a more favourable change in body image score up to 6 months following treatment. Advances in knowledge: This study is the first to evaluate UV tattoo external references in a randomized control trial
Novel colours and the content of experience
I propose a counterexample to naturalistic representational theories of phenomenal character. The counterexample is generated by experiences of novel colours reported by Crane and Piantanida. I consider various replies that a representationalist might make, including whether novel colours could be possible colours of objects and whether one can account for novel colours as one would account for binary colours or colour mixtures. I argue that none of these strategies is successful and therefore that one cannot fully explain the nature of the phenomenal character of perceptual experiences using a naturalistic conception of representation
He II 4686 emission from the massive binary system in Car: constraints to the orbital elements and the nature of the periodic minima
{\eta} Carinae is an extremely massive binary system in which rapid spectrum
variations occur near periastron. Most notably, near periastron the He II
line increases rapidly in strength, drops to a minimum value,
then increases briefly before fading away. To understand this behavior, we
conducted an intense spectroscopic monitoring of the He II
emission line across the 2014.6 periastron passage using ground- and
space-based telescopes. Comparison with previous data confirmed the overall
repeatability of EW(He II ), the line radial velocities, and the
timing of the minimum, though the strongest peak was systematically larger in
2014 than in 2009 by 26%. The EW(He II ) variations, combined
with other measurements, yield an orbital period d. The observed
variability of the EW(He II ) was reproduced by a model in which
the line flux primarily arises at the apex of the wind-wind collision and
scales inversely with the square of the stellar separation, if we account for
the excess emission as the companion star plunges into the hot inner layers of
the primary's atmosphere, and including absorption from the disturbed primary
wind between the source and the observer. This model constrains the orbital
inclination to -, and the longitude of periastron to
-. It also suggests that periastron passage occurred on
d. Our model also reproduced EW(He II )
variations from a polar view of the primary star as determined from the
observed He II emission scattered off the Homunculus nebula.Comment: The article contains 23 pages and 17 figures. It has been accepted
for publication in Ap
The Impact of Sensitive Research on the Researcher: Preparedness and Positionality
There is currently limited research exploring the impact of undertaking sensitive or challenging research on the researcher, although some textbooks explore researcher preparedness. This article presents a discussion of the findings from a research project which engaged with the seldom heard voices of researchers themselves. The aim was to explore researchers’ experiences of undertaking research on sensitive topics, or with marginalized groups, as this can expose researchers to emotionally disturbing situations throughout data collection and analysis, which can be psychologically challenging. Although ethical codes of practice include discussion around protection of both the researcher and the participant, in practice, the ethics approval process rarely considers the impact of the proposed research on the researcher. Their experiences are therefore seldom acknowledged or heard, resulting in potential distress for the researcher. Semistructured interviews were undertaken with social science researchers from a range of discipline backgrounds and at different points in their research careers (n = 10). This article explores two themes emerging from the data: preparedness and positionality. It considers what these themes mean in terms of supporting researchers who encounter challenging research data, and issues related to supporting researcher reflexivity and the requirements for institutional support offered to researchers will also be considered
Robustness of circadian clocks to daylight fluctuations: hints from the picoeucaryote Ostreococcus tauri
The development of systemic approaches in biology has put emphasis on
identifying genetic modules whose behavior can be modeled accurately so as to
gain insight into their structure and function. However most gene circuits in a
cell are under control of external signals and thus quantitative agreement
between experimental data and a mathematical model is difficult. Circadian
biology has been one notable exception: quantitative models of the internal
clock that orchestrates biological processes over the 24-hour diurnal cycle
have been constructed for a few organisms, from cyanobacteria to plants and
mammals. In most cases, a complex architecture with interlocked feedback loops
has been evidenced. Here we present first modeling results for the circadian
clock of the green unicellular alga Ostreococcus tauri. Two plant-like clock
genes have been shown to play a central role in Ostreococcus clock. We find
that their expression time profiles can be accurately reproduced by a minimal
model of a two-gene transcriptional feedback loop. Remarkably, best adjustment
of data recorded under light/dark alternation is obtained when assuming that
the oscillator is not coupled to the diurnal cycle. This suggests that coupling
to light is confined to specific time intervals and has no dynamical effect
when the oscillator is entrained by the diurnal cycle. This intringuing
property may reflect a strategy to minimize the impact of fluctuations in
daylight intensity on the core circadian oscillator, a type of perturbation
that has been rarely considered when assessing the robustness of circadian
clocks
Research lives of physical education teacher educators
peer-reviewed.This paper aims to provide insights into the research worlds of an international group of mid- and late-career physical education teacher educators. Specifically, it explores participants’ motives for research engagement and choices, and investigates what challenges and facilitates their research efforts. Two rounds of individual in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 physical education teacher educators across 7 countries. Findings point to a distinction between research motives. Embarking on formal theses or specific funded projects was often motivated by practical and contextual drivers, such as job requirements or a wish for promotion, and was associated with feelings of frustration and stress. Motives for engaging in research in general, on the other hand, tended to be more personal or altruistic and elicited feelings such as enjoyment and passion. Time constraints, skill gaps and language barriers were all seen as challenges to research endeavours, while learning through doing, seeing and reading, and collaboration with others were seen as the main facilitators.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe
Initial operation of the International Gravitational Event Collaboration
The International Gravitational Event Collaboration, IGEC, is a coordinated
effort by research groups operating gravitational wave detectors working
towards the detection of millisecond bursts of gravitational waves. Here we
report on the current IGEC resonant bar observatory, its data analysis
procedures, the main properties of the first exchanged data set. Even though
the available data set is not complete, in the years 1997 and 1998 up to four
detectors were operating simultaneously. Preliminary results are mentioned.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables; Proceeding of the GWDAW'99. Submitted
to the International Journal of Modern Physic
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