143 research outputs found
An Analysis of Factors Associated With Older Workers’ Employment Participation and Preferences in Australia
Australian government and organizational age-management policies continue to target employment participation among older workers in light of an aging population. Typically, efforts to reduce early retirement among older workers have focused on well-established factors, including the promotion of worker health, reducing injury, supporting caregivers, reducing age discrimination and enhancing skill development. This research extends on the former approach by examining established factors along with important emerging factors, namely work-life conflict, work centrality and person-job fit. Additionally, the research analyses the effects of gender and financial pressure on older workers’ employment participation and preferences. Logistic regression analysis of cross-sectional survey data involving 1,504 Australians aged 45–65, revealed that two established factors, physical health and caregiving, and all three emerging factors were associated with employment participation and preferences to be employed. However, important variations on the basis of gender and financial pressure were also identified. Caregiving was more strongly associated with the preference to remain employed for men (OR = 0.2.54, p < 0.01) than women (OR = 1.03, ns) and person-job fit was more strongly associated with the preference to remain employed for women (OR = 1.64, p < 0.001) than men (OR = 0.91, ns). Work-life conflict was more strongly associated with the preference to leave employment for those reporting limited financial pressure (OR = 0.60, p < 0.001) compared to those in poorer financial circumstances (OR = 0.87, ns). These findings suggest that organizational age management policies should focus on both established and emerging factors, particularly the provision of flexible working conditions and improving the psychosocial work environment. However, such efforts should carefully consider the different needs of men and women, and those under varying levels of financial stress. With respect to government policy to promote employment participation, the findings support a stronger focus on improving physical and psychosocial work conditions rather than increasing the pension eligibility age. This may require further collaboration between government and employers
The non-Abelian gauge theory of matrix big bangs
We study at the classical and quantum mechanical level the time-dependent
Yang-Mills theory that one obtains via the generalisation of discrete
light-cone quantisation to singular homogeneous plane waves. The non-Abelian
nature of this theory is known to be important for physics near the
singularity, at least as far as the number of degrees of freedom is concerned.
We will show that the quartic interaction is always subleading as one
approaches the singularity and that close enough to t=0 the evolution is driven
by the diverging tachyonic mass term. The evolution towards asymptotically flat
space-time also reveals some surprising features.Comment: 29 pages, 8 eps figures, v2: minor changes, references added: v3
small typographical changes
Aspects of Plane Wave (Matrix) String Dynamics
We analyse two issues that arise in the context of (matrix) string theories
in plane wave backgrounds, namely (1) the use of Brinkmann- versus
Rosen-variables in the quantum theory for general plane waves (which we settle
conclusively in favour of Brinkmann variables), and (2) the regularisation of
the quantum dynamics for a certain class of singular plane waves (discussing
the benefits and limitations of regularisations of the plane-wave metric
itself).Comment: 29 page
Resistance to pirimiphos-methyl in West African Anopheles is spreading via duplication and introgression of the Ace1 locus
Vector population control using insecticides is a key element of current strategies to prevent
malaria transmission in Africa. The introduction of effective insecticides, such as the organophosphate
pirimiphos-methyl, is essential to overcome the recurrent emergence of resistance
driven by the highly diverse Anopheles genomes. Here, we use a population genomic
approach to investigate the basis of pirimiphos-methyl resistance in the major malaria vectors
Anopheles gambiae and A. coluzzii. A combination of copy number variation and a single
non-synonymous substitution in the acetylcholinesterase gene, Ace1, provides the key
resistance diagnostic in an A. coluzzii population from Coˆte d’Ivoire that we used for
sequence-based association mapping, with replication in other West African populations.
The Ace1 substitution and duplications occur on a unique resistance haplotype that evolved
in A. gambiae and introgressed into A. coluzzii, and is now common in West Africa primarily
due to selection imposed by other organophosphate or carbamate insecticides. Our findings
highlight the predictive value of this complex resistance haplotype for phenotypic resistance
and clarify its evolutionary history, providing tools to for molecular surveillance of the current
and future effectiveness of pirimiphos-methyl based interventions
Short bowel syndrome results in increased gene expression associated with proliferation, inflammation, bile acid synthesis and immune system activation: RNA sequencing a zebrafish SBS model
How explicable are differences between reviews that appear to address a similar research question? A review of reviews of physical activity interventions
Evolutionary origins of invasive populations
What factors shape the evolution of invasive populations? Recent theoretical and empirical studies suggest that an evolutionary history of disturbance might be an important factor. This perspective presents hypotheses regarding the impact of disturbance on the evolution of invasive populations, based on a synthesis of the existing literature. Disturbance might select for life-history traits that are favorable for colonizing novel habitats, such as rapid population growth and persistence. Theoretical results suggest that disturbance in the form of fluctuating environments might select for organismal flexibility, or alternatively, the evolution of evolvability. Rapidly fluctuating environments might favor organismal flexibility, such as broad tolerance or plasticity. Alternatively, longer fluctuations or environmental stress might lead to the evolution of evolvability by acting on features of the mutation matrix. Once genetic variance is generated via mutations, temporally fluctuating selection across generations might promote the accumulation and maintenance of genetic variation. Deeper insights into how disturbance in native habitats affects evolutionary and physiological responses of populations would give us greater capacity to predict the populations that are most likely to tolerate or adapt to novel environments during habitat invasions. Moreover, we would gain fundamental insights into the evolutionary origins of invasive populations
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