306 research outputs found
‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions
Graduate outcomes – including rates of employment and earnings – are marked by persistent
inequalities related to social class, as well as gender, ethnicity and institution. Despite national
policy agendas related to social mobility and ‘fair access to the professions’, high-status occupations
are disproportionately composed of those from socially privileged backgrounds, and evidence
suggests that in recent decades many professions have become less socially representative.
This article makes an original contribution to sociological studies of inequalities in graduate
transitions and elite reproduction through a distinct focus on the ‘pre-hiring’ practices of graduate
employers. It does this through a critical analysis of the graduate recruitment material of two
popular graduate employers. It shows how, despite espousing commitments to diversity and
inclusion, constructions of the ‘ideal’ graduate privilege individuals who can mobilise and embody
certain valued capitals. Using Bourdieusian concepts of ‘social magic’ and ‘institutional habitus’, the
article argues that more attention must be paid to how graduate employers’ practices constitute
tacit processes of social exclusion and thus militate against the achievement of more equitable
graduate outcomes and fair access to the ‘top jobs
Rapid reduction versus abrupt quitting for smokers who want to stop soon: a randomised controlled non-inferiority trial
Background: The standard way to stop smoking is to stop abruptly on a quit day with no prior reduction in consumption of cigarettes. Many smokers feel that reduction is natural and if reduction programmes were offered, many more might take up treatment. Few trials of reduction versus abrupt cessation have been completed. Most are small, do not use pharmacotherapy, and do not meet the standards necessary to obtain a marketing authorisation for a pharmacotherapy.\ud
Design/Methods: We will conduct a non-inferiority andomised trial of rapid reduction versus standard abrupt cessation among smokers who want to stop smoking. In the reduction arm,participants will be advised to reduce smoking consumption by half in the first week and to 25% of baseline in the second, leading up to a quit day at which participants will stop smoking completely.This will be assisted by nicotine patches and an acute form of nicotine replacement therapy. In the abrupt arm participants will use nicotine patches only, whilst smoking as normal, for two weeks prior to a quit day, at which they will also stop smoking completely. Smokers in either arm will have standard withdrawal orientated behavioural support programme with a combination of nicotine patches and acute nicotine replacement therapy post-cessation.\ud
Outcomes/Follow-up: The primary outcome of interest will be prolonged abstinence from smoking, with secondary trial outcomes of point prevalence, urges to smoke and withdrawal\ud
symptoms. Follow up will take place at 4 weeks, 8 weeks and 6 months post-quit day
How different are the British in their willingness to move? Evidence from International Social Survey Data
Our paper analyses people's willingness to move (WTM) using data from the 1995 British Social Attitudes Survey and International Social Survey Programme. We identify the personal characteristics and sub-regional indicators that are important in explaining the WTM within Britain. We also find that the WTM is only higher in a few other countries, including the United States. The equivalent desire to move is found to be much lower in Eastern European countries and in several other European Union member states. Compositional effects, such as age and education, are generally important in explaining differences in attitudes towards migration in comparison to other Western economies. However, structural effects such as institutions, history and culture tend to play a more dominant role in explaining differences compared to countries in Central and Eastern Europe
Stacked Search for Gravitational Waves from the 2006 SGR 1900+14 Storm
We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational
waves (GWs) associated with the 2006 March 29 SGR 1900+14 storm. A new search
method is used, "stacking'' the GW data around the times of individual
soft-gamma bursts in the storm to enhance sensitivity for models in which
multiple bursts are accompanied by GW emission. We assume that variation in the
time difference between burst electromagnetic emission and potential burst GW
emission is small relative to the GW signal duration, and we time-align GW
excess power time-frequency tilings containing individual burst triggers to
their corresponding electromagnetic emissions. We use two GW emission models in
our search: a fluence-weighted model and a flat (unweighted) model for the most
electromagnetically energetic bursts. We find no evidence of GWs associated
with either model. Model-dependent GW strain, isotropic GW emission energy
E_GW, and \gamma = E_GW / E_EM upper limits are estimated using a variety of
assumed waveforms. The stacking method allows us to set the most stringent
model-dependent limits on transient GW strain published to date. We find E_GW
upper limit estimates (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) of between 2x10^45 erg
and 6x10^50 erg depending on waveform type. These limits are an order of
magnitude lower than upper limits published previously for this storm and
overlap with the range of electromagnetic energies emitted in SGR giant flares.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Toxic torts: arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and the legal geographies of responsibility
Tubewells have been so popular in rural Bangladesh that about 12 million have been installed, yielding water that is convenient, free and low in bacteria. But every fourth well is polluted with arsenic, with the result that millions of people are exposed to a severe environmental hazard. We explore this crisis from the viewpoint of legal geographies. The case of Sutradhar v NERC is taken as an exemplar of a debate about 'proximity' between scientific consultants and aid donors on the one hand, and their clients in poor countries on the other. In short, the article is about the desirability of bringing responsibility into line with supposed generosity
Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA
We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5– 20 deg2 requires at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ∼2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. When all detectors, including KAGRA and the third LIGO detector in India, reach design sensitivity, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone
Directional Limits on Persistent Gravitational Waves from Advanced LIGO’s First Observing Run
We employ gravitational-wave radiometry to map the stochastic gravitational wave background
expected from a variety of contributing mechanisms and test the assumption of isotropy using data
from the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory’s (aLIGO) first observing run.
We also search for persistent gravitational waves from point sources with only minimal assumptions
over the 20–1726 Hz frequency band. Finding no evidence of gravitational waves from either point
sources or a stochastic background, we set limits at 90% confidence. For broadband point sources, we
report upper limits on the gravitational wave energy flux per unit frequency in the range Fα;ΘðfÞ <
ð0.1–56Þ × 10−8 erg cm−2 s−1 Hz−1ðf=25 HzÞα−1 depending on the sky location Θ and the spectral
power index α. For extended sources, we report upper limits on the fractional gravitational wave energy
density required to close the Universe of Ωðf; ΘÞ < ð0.39–7.6Þ × 10−8 sr−1ðf=25 HzÞα depending on Θ
and α. Directed searches for narrowband gravitational waves from astrophysically interesting objects
(Scorpius X-1, Supernova 1987 A, and the Galactic Center) yield median frequency-dependent limits on
strain amplitude of h0 < ð6.7; 5.5; and 7.0Þ × 10−25, respectively, at the most sensitive detector frequencies
between 130–175 Hz. This represents a mean improvement of a factor of 2 across the band compared
to previous searches of this kind for these sky locations, considering the different quantities of strain
constrained in each case
Safety and efficacy of oral DMSA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders: Part A - Medical results
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COVID-19, systemic crisis, and possible implications for the wild meat trade in sub-Saharan Africa
Wild animals play an integral and complex role in the economies and ecologies of many
countries across the globe, including those of West and Central Africa, the focus of this
policy perspective. The trade in wild meat, and its role in diets, have been brought into
focus as a consequence of discussions over the origins of COVID-19. As a result, there
have been calls for the closure of China’s “wet markets”; greater scrutiny of the wildlife
trade in general; and a spotlight has been placed on the potential risks posed by growing human populations and shrinking natural habitats for animal to human transmission of
zoonotic diseases. However, to date there has been little attention given to what the consequences of the COVID-19 economic shock may be for the wildlife trade; the people who
rely on it for their livelihoods; and the wildlife that is exploited. In this policy perspective,
we argue that the links between the COVID-19 pandemic, rural livelihoods and wildlife
are likely to be more complex, more nuanced, and more far-reaching, than is represented in
the literature to date. We develop a causal model that tracks the likely implications for the
wild meat trade of the systemic crisis triggered by COVID-19. We focus on the resulting
economic shockwave, as manifested in the collapse in global demand for commodities such
as oil, and international tourism services, and what this may mean for local African economies and livelihoods. We trace the shockwave through to the consequences for the use
of, and demand for, wild meats as households respond to these changes. We suggest that
understanding and predicting the complex dynamics of wild meat use requires increased
collaboration between environmental and resource economics and the ecological and conservation sciences
GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs
We present the results from three gravitational-wave searches for coalescing compact binaries with component masses above 1 M⊙ during the first and second observing runs of the advanced gravitational-wave detector network. During the first observing run (O1), from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, gravitational waves from three binary black hole mergers were detected. The second observing run (O2), which ran from November 30, 2016 to August 25, 2017, saw the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral, in addition to the observation of gravitational waves from a total of seven binary black hole mergers, four of which we report here for the first time: GW170729, GW170809, GW170818, and GW170823. For all significant gravitational-wave events, we provide estimates of the source properties. The detected binary black holes have total masses between 18.6−0.7+3.2 M⊙ and 84.4−11.1+15.8 M⊙ and range in distance between 320−110+120 and 2840−1360+1400 Mpc. No neutron star-black hole mergers were detected. In addition to highly significant gravitational-wave events, we also provide a list of marginal event candidates with an estimated false-alarm rate less than 1 per 30 days. From these results over the first two observing runs, which include approximately one gravitational-wave detection per 15 days of data searched, we infer merger rates at the 90% confidence intervals of 110−3840 Gpc−3 y−1 for binary neutron stars and 9.7−101 Gpc−3 y−1 for binary black holes assuming fixed population distributions and determine a neutron star-black hole merger rate 90% upper limit of 610 Gpc−3 y−1
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