Detecting Gender Discrimination in University Salaries: A Case Study

To assess sex discrimination in university salary allocation accurately, one must determine whether gender explains the salary difference in and of itself, or exerts its influence through other variables, such as rank and departmental affiliation, that themselves affect salary and may correlate with gender. Using members of the Faculty of Social Science (N = 133) of a large Canadian university as a case sample, we assessed gender discrimination in promotion and gender differences in departmental affiliation as related to salary before including these two variables in statistical analyses predicting salary. No evidence was found for discrimination in promotion and women were not morie under-represented in the higher-salaried departments. Several regression models recommended in the literature for assessing gender discrimination in salaries were conducted and yielded convergent findings : male and female faculty similar on salary-relevant variables were equivalently paid. While these results should be reassuring, they would not go very far toward resolving salary discrimination disputes in the university studied or in most other academic institutions. The difficulties of applying the results of statistical analyses within a politically-charged arena are discussed.Afin d'évaluer avec précision le degré de discrimination sexuelle dans l'allocation des salaires universitaires, on doit déterminer si le sexe en soi explique la différence salariale ou s'il exerce son influence par l'intermédiaire d'autres variables, telles le rang et les affiliations départementales, qui influencent elles-mêmes les salaires et qui pourraient être en corrélation avec le sexe. Prenant comme échantillon représentatif le corps professoral de la faculté des sciences sociales (TV = 133) d'une grande université canadienne, on a évalué la discrimination sexuelle dans l'avancement et les différences sexuelles dans les affiliations départementales se rapportant aux salaires avant d'inclure ces deux variables dans les analyses statistiques pouvant predire les salaires. On n'apporte aucun appui à l'existence de discrimination dans /'avancement et le nombre de femmes affiliées aux départements dont les salaires sont plus élevés n'est pas inférieur. Plusieurs modèles de régression recommandés dans la documentation concernant l'évaluation de la discrimination sexuelle ont été effectués et ont produit des résultats convergents: qu'il s'agisse d'hommes ou de femmes, les professeurs qui correspondaient de façon semblable aux variables se rapportant aux salaires étaient rémunérés de façon égale. Tandis que ces résultats devaient être rassurants, on observe qu'ils n'aideront pas beaucoup à résoudre les disputes sur la discrimination salariale dans la plupart des institutions académiques y compris la nôtre. Sont abordées les difficultés d'appliquer les résultats d'analyses statistiques dans un milieu très politisé

A brief haemophilia pain coping questionnaire

Development and psychometric assessment of a questionnaire measuring pain coping for people with haemophiliaPain coping strategies are important influences on outcomes among people with painful chronic conditions. The pain coping strategies questionnaire (CSQ) was reviously adapted for sickle cell disease and haemophilia, but those versions have 80 items, and a briefer version with similar psychometric properties would facilitate research on pain coping. The full-length haemophilia-adapted CSQ, plus measures of pain frequency and intensity, pain acceptance, pain readiness to change, and health-related quality of life were completed by 190 men with haemophilia. Items were selected for a 27-item short form, which was completed 6 months later by 129 (68%) participants. Factor structure, reliability and concurrent validity were the same in the long and short forms. For the short form, internal reliabilities of the three composite scales were 0.86 for negative thoughts, 0.80 for active coping and 0.76 for passive adherence. Test–retest reliabilities were 0.73 for negative thoughts, 0.70 for active coping and 0.64 for passive adherence. Negative thoughts were associated with less readiness to change, less acceptance of pain and more impaired health-related quality of life, whereas active coping was associated with greater readiness to change and more acceptance of pain. The short form is a convenient brief measure of pain coping with good psychometric properties, and could be used to extend research on pain coping in haemophilia

The PAL1 gene product is a peroxisomal ATP-binding cassette transporter in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Abstract. The PAL1 gene was isolated using PCR and degenerate oligonucleotide primers corresponding to highly conserved amino acid sequence motifs diagnostic of the ATP-binding cassette domain of the superfamily of membrane-bound transport proteins typified by mammalian multidrug resistance transporter 1 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ste6. The deduced PAL1 gene product is similar in length to, has the same predicted topology as, and shares the highest degree of amino acid sequence identity with two human proteins, adrenoleukodyatrophy protein and peroxisomal membrane protein (70 kD), which are both presumptive ATP-binding cassette transporters thought to be constituents of the peroxisomal membrane. As judged by hybridization of a PAL1 probe to isolated RNA and b

Emotion recognition in psychotherapy: impact of therapist level of experience and emotional awareness

Accurately identifying another person’s emotional state is an ability that may be necessary for a psychotherapist to empathize with a patient and that may be required for obtaining valid and reliable psychotherapy process ratings in research. Accuracy of identifying emotions and of rating emotional intensity expressed by a patient was studied in a comparison of 36 experienced therapists and 36 undergraduate psychology students who intended to become psychotherapists. Representative segments of a psychotherapy session were presented in one of three ways to tease apart the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in making accurate ratings. Accuracy was judged against ratings supplied by two experienced and prestigious clinicians based on the same therapy sample. Results indicated that although therapists were more accurate than nontherapists in identifying emotions, they did not differ in the accuracy of rating emotional intensity. Moreover, accuracy of ratings was found to be less reliant on verbal cues among psychotherapists than among nontherapists. Finally, levels of participants’ personal awareness of their own emotions had a positive impact on the accuracy of identifying specific emotions but not on the accuracy of rating their intensity.Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica - BD/1112/90/ID. American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award

Environmental Risk Factors for Pneumocystis Pneumonia Hospitalizations in HIV Patients

Background. Pneumocystis pneumonia (PcP) is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected patients in the United States. Although the host risk factors for the development of PcP are well established, the environmental (climatological, air pollution) risk factors are poorly understood. The major goal of this study was to determine the environmental risk factors for admissions of HIV-positive patients with PcP to a single medical center. / Methods. Between 1997 and 2008, 457 HIV-positive patients with microscopically confirmed PcP were admitted to the San Francisco General Hospital. A case-crossover design was applied to identify environmental risk factors for PcP hospitalizations. Climatological and air pollution data were collected from the Environmental Protection Agency and Weather Warehouse databases. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of each environmental factor and PcP hospital admission. / Results. Hospital admissions were significantly more common in the summer than in the other seasons. Increases in temperature and sulfur dioxide levels were independently associated with hospital admissions for PcP, but the effects of sulfur dioxide were modified by increasing carbon monoxide levels. / Conclusions. This study identifies both climatological and air pollution constituents as independent risk factors for hospitalization of HIV-positive patients with PcP in San Francisco. Thus, the environmental effects on PcP are more likely complex than previously thought. Further studies are needed to understand how these factors exert their effects and to determine if these factors are associated with PcP in other geographic locations

On the formation of oxygen-neon white dwarfs in close binary systems

The evolution of a star of initial mass 10 $M_{\odot}$, and metallicity $Z = 0.02$ in a Close Binary System (CBS) is followed from its main sequence until an ONe degenerate remnant forms. Restrictions have been made on the characteristics of the companion as well as on the initial orbital parameters in order to avoid the occurrence of reversal mass transfer before carbon is ignited in the core. The system undergoes three mass loss episodes. The first and second ones are a consequence of a case B Roche lobe overflow. During the third mass loss episode stellar winds may play a role comparable to, or even more important than Roche lobe overflow. In this paper, we extend the previously existing calculations of stars of intermediate mass belonging to close binary systems by following carefully the carbon burning phase of the primary component. We also propose different possible outcomes for our scenario and discuss the relevance of our findings. In particular, our main result is that the resulting white dwarf component of mass $1.1 M_\odot$ more likely has a core composed of oxygen and neon, surrounded by a mantle of carbon-oxygen rich material. The average abundances of the oxygen-neon rich core are $X({\rm O}^{16})=0.55$, $X({\rm Ne}^{20})=0.28$, $X({\rm Na}^{23})=0.06$ and $X({\rm Mg}^{24})=0.05$. This result has important consequences for the Accretion Induced Collapse scenario. The average abundances of the carbon-oxygen rich mantle are $X({\rm O}^{16})=0.55$, and $X({\rm C}^{12})=0.43$. The existence of this mantle could also play a significant role in our understanding of cataclysmic variables.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Deception in Research on the Placebo Effect

A common feature of research investigating the placebo effect is deception of research participants about the nature of the research. Miller and colleagues examine the ethical issues surrounding such deception