‘Leading’ by example? Gendered language in Human Resource job adverts

While there has been an increase of women in the workplace, why do they remain underrepresented at the senior level, even in women-dominated occupations such as human resources (HR)? This article examines gendered wording in UK HR job adverts and the extent to which job adverts are a gendered practice contributing to women’s underrepresentation in senior roles - even within a women-dominated profession. We analysed 158 HR job adverts to identify the use of gendered language, traits and behaviours, equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI), and flexible working practices. Findings show that as the salary or title seniority increases, the proportion of masculine words in the job adverts increases, the prevalence of EDI statements, and flexible working practices decreases. We theorise how job adverts are a hidden gendered barrier to women’s progress in HR, contributing to the (re)production of patriarchy, the masculine discourse of leadership and a negative cycle sustaining hierarchical segregation where men dominate in senior roles. HR is not leading by example in reducing systemic inequality practices and is complicit in reinforcing gender stereotypes

Adaptation of the MacNew quality of life questionnaire after myocardial infarction in an Iranian population

BACKGROUND: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment is an important measure of the impact of a wide range of disease process on an individual. To date, no HRQL tool has been evaluated in an Iranian population with cardiovascular disorders, specifically myocardial infarction, a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The MacNew Heart Disease Health-related Quality of Life instrument is a disease-specific HRQL questionnaire with satisfactory validity and reliability when applied cross-culturally. METHOD: A Persian version of MacNew was prepared by both forward and backward translation by bilinguals after which a feasibility test was performed. Consecutive patients (n = 51) admitted to a coronary care unit with acute myocardial infarction were recruited for measurement of their HRQL with retest one month after discharge in the follow-up clinic. Principal components analysis, intra-class correlation reliability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability were assessed. RESULTS: Trivial rates of missing data confirmed the acceptability of the tool. Principal component analysis revealed that the three domains, emotional, social and physical, performed as well as in the original studies. Internal consistency was high and comparable to other studies, ranging from 0.92 for the emotional and physical domains, to 0.94 for the social domain, and to 0.95 for the Global score. Domain means of 5, 5.3 and 4.9 for emotional, physical and social respectively indicate that our Iranian population has similar emotional and physical but worse social HRQL scores. Test-retest analysis showed significant correlation in emotional and physical domains (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The Persian version of the MacNew questionnaire is comparable to the English version. It has high internal consistency and reasonable reproducibility, making it an appropriate specific quality of life tool for population-based studies and clinical practice in Iran in patients who have survived an acute myocardial infraction. Further studies are needed to confirm its validity in larger populations with cardiovascular diseas

The Polish MacNew heart disease heath-related quality of life questionnaire: A validation study

Background: The MacNew health-related quality of life questionnaire was designed to assess feelings about how heart disease affects their daily physical, emotional and social functioning in patients with 1 of the 3 major coronary artery diagnoses, stable coronary artery disease (CAD) with angina, ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), and ischemic heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of the Polish version of the MacNew in patients with CAD. Methods: Patients with CAD completed a self-report sociodemographic and clinical ques­tionnaire: the MacNew, the Short-Form 36 Health Survey, and HADS at baseline; 10% of the patients completed each questionnaire 2 weeks later. Results: We studied patients with stable CAD with angina (n = 115), with STEMI (n = 112), and with ischemic HF (n = 105). Internal consistency reliability was demonstrated with Cronbach’s a from 0.86 to 0.95 for the MacNew global scale and subscales. The original 3-factor structure was confirmed for the Polish version of the MacNew explaining 53.5% of the variance. Convergent validity of similar MacNew and SF-36 subscales was confirmed in the total group and in each diagnosis. Discriminant validity with the SF-36 health transition was fully confirmed in the total group and in patients with HF and partially confirmed in patients with stable CAD with angina or myocardial infarction. Conclusions: The Polish MacNew health-related quality of life questionnaire can be recommended in patients with stable CAD with angina, myocardial infarction and HF

Translation and validation of two Chinese health-related quality of life instruments in patients with coronary heart disease

The prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) is increasing in Asia, including Hong Kong and mainland China, where it is a major cause of death and disability.1 Patients with CHD are typically diagnosed by physician with one or more of three inter-related (but clinically distinct) conditions: myocardial infarction (MI), angina pectoris, or heart failure. This diagnostic conceptualisation has led to important increases in specific treatments with researchers increasingly focusing their attention on comparing the efficacy of one treatments with another among homogeneous groups of patients meeting explicit diagnostic criteria. Comparing the burden of illness and treatment effectiveness for CHD across the spectrum of patients with frequently co-occurring conditions, such as MI, angina pectoris or heart failure, requires a common outcome measure. Yet, a major limitation of existing condition-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) instruments is that they are not suitable for making comparisons across different CHD diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to translate the MacNew health-related quality of life questionnaire2 (MacNew) and the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment Scale3 (MIDAS) into Chinese, and to examine their psychometric properties in Chinese patients with differential diagnoses of CHD, including MI, angina pectoris or heart failure

Relationships between cognition and literacy in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder:A systematic review and meta-analysis

Evidence suggests that cognitive and literacy difficulties are common for children with Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The current systematic review and meta‐analysis investigated the relationship between cognition and literacy in children with ADHD. Ten thousand and thirty‐eight articles were screened against the inclusion criteria and six eligible studies were retained for final review. Where two or more studies used comparable measures of cognition and literacy, a meta‐analysis of the relationship between these measures was undertaken. A narrative synthesis of all included studies was also completed. There were medium effect sizes between working memory and aspects of reading, and small effect sizes between processing speed and reading. Inhibition and attention had differential relationships with aspects of literacy with varying effect sizes. This systematic review demonstrates differential relationships between aspects of literacy and cognition in children with ADHD. Further examination of these relationships is warranted to support intervention development

Cognitive profiles are better predictors of literacy attainment than diagnostic outcomes in children with high ADHD symptoms

We examined whether cognitive profiles or diagnostic outcomes are better predictors of literacy performance for children being considered for an ADHD diagnosis. Fifty-five drug naïve children (Mage = 103.13 months, SD = 18.65; 29.09% girls) were recruited from an ADHD clinical referral waiting list. Children underwent assessment of IQ, Executive Functions (EF) and literacy attainment. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to generate subgroups of children using EF scores. Data were then grouped based on presence of a clinical ADHD diagnosis and the results compared. Grouping participants by profiles of cognitive test scores led to groups which also differed on literacy scores. However, categorising by whether children had received an ADHD diagnosis or not did not differentiate either cognitive tests scores or literacy scores. Cognitive performance, rather than children’s diagnostic outcomes, is more informative for identifying groups who differ in their literacy attainment which has important implications for remedial support.</p

The deleted in brachydactyly B domain of ROR2 is required for receptor activation by recruitment of Src

The transmembrane receptor 'ROR2' resembles members of the receptor tyrosine kinase family of signalling receptors in sequence but its' signal transduction mechanisms remain enigmatic. This problem has particular importance because mutations in ROR2 are associated with two human skeletal dysmorphology syndromes, recessive Robinow Syndrome (RS) and dominant acting Brachydactyly type B (BDB). Here we show, using a constitutive dimerisation approach, that ROR2 exhibits dimerisation-induced tyrosine kinase activity and the ROR2 C-terminal domain, which is deleted in BDB, is required for recruitment and activation of the non-receptor tyrosine kinase Src. Native ROR2 phosphorylation is induced by the ligand Wnt5a and is blocked by pharmacological inhibition of Src kinase activity. Eight sites of Src-mediated ROR2 phosphorylation have been identified by mass spectrometry. Activation via tyrosine phosphorylation of ROR2 receptor leads to its internalisation into Rab5 positive endosomes. These findings show that BDB mutant receptors are defective in kinase activation as a result of failure to recruit Src

Potential gene conversion and source genes for recently integrated Alu elements

Alu elements comprise \u3e10% of the human genome. We have used a computational biology approach to analyze the human genomic DNA sequence databases to determine the impact of gene conversion on the sequence diversity of recently integrated Alu elements and to identify Alu elements that were potentially retroposition competent. We analyzed 269 Alu Ya5 elements and identified 23 members of a new Alu subfamily termed Ya5a2 with an estimated copy number of 35 members, including the de novo Alu insertion in the NFI gene. Our analysis of Alu elements containing one to four (Ya1-Ya4) of the Ya5 subfamily-specific mutations suggests that gene conversion contributed as much as 10%-20% of the variation between recently integrated Alu elements. In addition, analysis of the middle A-rich region of the different Alu Ya5 members indicates a tendency toward expansion of this region and subsequent generation of simple sequence repeats. Mining the databases for putative retroposition-competent elements that share 100% nucleotide identity to the previously reported de novo Alu insertions linked to human diseases resulted in the retrieval of 13 exact matches to the NF1 Alu repeat, three to the Alu element in BRCA2, and one to the Alu element in FGFR2 (Apert syndrome). Transient transfections of the potential source gene for the Apert\u27s Alu with its endogenous flanking genomic sequences demonstrated the transcriptional and presumptive transpositional competency of the element