3,298 research outputs found
The Accord and Strikes: An International Perspective
This paper examines the relationship between Australian and world strike activity between 1960 and 1998. Appropriate indices are constructed for which evidence of a long-run equilibrium relation is found between Australian and world strike activity. The evidence suggests Australian and world strike rate indices are cointegrated with a breakpoint in that relation occurring sometime in the very late 1960s or early 1970s. No breakpoints are in evidence before, during or after the period (1983-96) of the Accord. This result is consistent with the view that the decline in strike activity in Australia during the period of the Accord was not a singularly Australian experience.The Accord, strikes, strike activity, Australia
Insecticide resistance in the major coleopterous pests of stored grain in southern Queensland
The extent and level of resistance to insecticides in the tenebrionid Tribolium castaneum, the curculionid Sitophilus oryzae and the bostrichid Rhyzopertha dominica was assessed using individuals collected from central storages, grain merchants and farms in Queensland in 1983-84. The beetles were initilly screened with a discriminating dose of insecticide; T. castaneum and S. oryzae with fenitrothion at 0.08 and 0.02 g/litre, respectively, and R. dominica with carbaryl at 0.02 g/litre or bioresmethrin at 0.02 g/litre. If this indicated the presence of resistance, the insects were subjected to a full dose-mortality bioassay to determine the level of resistance. Low level resistance to fenitrothion was found in a few strains of T. castaneum ( x 2-3) and in many strains of S. oryzae ( x 2-4). Low level resistance was found to carbaryl in R. dominica ( x 2-4), but there was no resistance to bioresmethrin. Resistance to fenitrothion in T. castaneum and S. oryzae was not economically significant, but as some resistant individuals of R. dominica will survive in carbaryl-treated grain, resistance to this chemical will result in an increased proportion of control failures. Resistant and susceptible reference strains of these 3 coleopterans reared in the laboratory for several years, were found to be similar to resistant and susceptible field populations in their response to these insecticides
Elite male Flat jockeys display lower bone density and lower resting metabolic rate than their female counterparts: implications for athlete welfare
To test the hypothesis that daily weight-making is more problematic to health in male compared with female jockeys, we compared the bone-density and resting metabolic rate (RMR) in weight-matched male and female Flat-jockeys. RMR (kcal.kg-1 lean mass) was lower in males compared with females as well as lower bone-density Z-scores at the hip and lumbar spine. Data suggest the lifestyle of male jockeys’ compromise health more severely than females, possibly due to making-weight more frequently
Penetration of human skin by the cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni : an investigation of the effect of multiple cercarial applications
It has previously been postulated that L-arginine emitted by penetrating Schistosoma mansoni cercariae serves as an intraspecific signal guiding other cercariae to the penetration site. It was suggested that penetrating in groups offers a selective advantage. If this hypothesis is correct and group penetration at one site on the host offers an advantage, it would follow that at such a site, successive groups of cercariae would be able to penetrate skin in either greater numbers or at a faster rate. This prediction was tested by the use of an in vitro model of cercarial penetration based on the Franz cell and using human skin. It was demonstrated that there was no increase in the percentage of cercariae able to penetrate the skin with subsequent exposures. Consequently, it seems unlikely that the release of L-arginine by cercariae during penetration could have evolved as a specific orientation system based on a selective advantage offered by group penetration.Peer reviewe
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The impact of social influences on a woman's sense of self
Western society arguably contains contradictory and confusing social and political discourses regarding the role of women and the construction of motherhood. This study explores the lived experience of women who have decided to be full time stayat- home mothers and have experienced identity challenges as a result. Through the interpretative phenomenological analysis of interviews with eight full-time stay-athome mothers this study seeks to understand how the decision to be a stay-at-home mother may impact upon a woman's identity and how identity challenges are managed. As a result of this analysis it is proposed that identity challenges may be experienced and managed through social comparison processes, both within and between groups. It is further postulated that the decision to take and hold the identity occurs via a process of continuous re-evaluation and re-commitment to the role, which appears to be influenced by both traditional and feminist ideologies. This model is discussed in relation to the literature on social identity, and in particular Breakwell's (1986) theory of identity threat. It is suggested that a greater understanding of both the challenges and the coping strategies available to women at the personal, interpersonal and intergroup levels, and how these are contextualised within a social framework, may be beneficial for counselling psychologists working with this population
Disentangling effective temperatures of individual eclipsing binary components by means of color-index constraining
Eclipsing binary stars are gratifying objects because of their unique
geometrical properties upon which all important physical parameters such as
masses, radii, temperatures, luminosities and distance may be obtained in
absolute scale. This poses strict demand on the model to be free of systematic
effects that would influence the results later used for calibrations, catalogs
and evolution theory. We present an objective scheme of obtaining individual
temperatures of both binary system components by means of color-index
constraining, with the only requirement that the observational data-set is
acquired in a standard photometric system. We show that for a modest case of
two similar main-sequence components the erroneous approach of assuming the
temperature of the primary star from the color index yields temperatures which
are systematically wrong by ~100K.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to appear in proceedings of the Close
Binaries in the 21st Century conference in Syros, Greec
Stoke-on-Trent: a geological background for planning and development
This study, carried out between 1988 and 1990, was commissioned by the Department of the Environment (DOE)
and funded jointly by the Department and the British
Geological Survey (BGS). Its main aim was to make a synthesis of geological data relevant to planning of land-use and development in the Stoke-on-Trent area. This report is specifically written for planners and there has been an
attempt to avoid complex geological terms. Besides text
illustrations the report includes ten thematic maps at a common scale of 1 :25 000. An additional volume concentrates
on engineering geology for site investigation companies.
Seven further short reports feature geological details of separate 1: 10 000 sheets, couched in more technical language
Changes in the capacity of visual working memory in 5- to 10-year-olds
Using the Luck and Vogel change detection paradigm, we sought to investigate the capacity of visual working memory in 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds. We found that performance on the task improved significantly with age and also obtained evidence that the capacity of visual working memory approximately doubles between 5 and 10 years of age, where it reaches adult levels of approximately three to four items
Emergence of Bulk CsCl Structure in (CsCl)nCs+ Cluster Ions
The emergence of CsCl bulk structure in (CsCl)nCs+ cluster ions is
investigated using a mixed quantum-mechanical/semiempirical theoretical
approach. We find that rhombic dodecahedral fragments (with bulk CsCl symmetry)
are more stable than rock-salt fragments after the completion of the fifth
rhombic dodecahedral atomic shell. From this size (n=184) on, a new set of
magic numbers should appear in the experimental mass spectra. We also propose
another experimental test for this transition, which explicitely involves the
electronic structure of the cluster. Finally, we perform more detailed
calculations in the size range n=31--33, where recent experimental
investigations have found indications of the presence of rhombic dodecahedral
(CsCl)32Cs+ isomers in the cluster beams.Comment: LaTeX file. 6 pages and 4 pictures. Accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
Malaria and Irrigated Crops, Accra, Ghana
We investigated the prevalence of malaria and associated risk factors in children living in urban Ghana. Malaria prevalence was associated with low hemoglobin concentration, low socioeconomic status, and higher age. Our findings indicate that African urban poor are seriously affected by malaria and that irrigated agriculture may increase this risk
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