19,747 research outputs found
The women in IT (WINIT) final report
The Women in IT (WINIT) project was funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) from March 2004 until April 2006 under
HE ESF Objective 3: Research into equal opportunities in the labour market. Specifically the project came under Policy Field
2, Measure 2: Gender discrimination in employment. The project was run in the Information Systems Institute of the
University of Salford. One of the Research Associates has an information systems (IS) background, the other has a
background in sociology. We begin this report with an overview of the current situation with regards women in the UK IT
sector.
Whilst gender is only recently being recognised as an issue within the mainstream IS academic community, thirty years of
female under-representation in the ICT field in more general terms has received more attention from academics, industry
and government agencies alike. Numerous research projects and centres (such as the UK Resource Centre for Women in
Science, Engineering and Technology) exist to tackle the under-representation of women in SET careers, although the
figures for womenâs participation in the ICT sector remain disheartening, with current estimates standing at around 15%
(EOC 2004). Various innovative initiatives, such as e-Skillsâ Computer Clubs for Girls, appear to have had little impact on
these low female participation rates. Additionally, these and other initiatives have been interpreted as a means to fill the
skills gap and âmake up the numbersâ to boost the UK economy (French and Richardson 2005), resulting in âadd more
women and stirâ solutions to the âproblemâ of gender in relation to inclusion in IS and ICT (Henwood 1996).
Given that there have been decades of equal opportunity and related policies as well as many government initiatives
designed to address the gender imbalance in IT employment patterns, sex segregation in IT occupations and pay and
progression disparity in the IT sector (including the latest initiative- a one million pound DTI funded gender and SET project),
we could be forgiven for assuming that these initiatives have had a beneficial effect on the position and number of women
in the IT workforce, and that even if we have not yet achieved gender equity, we can surely argue that there are positive
moves in the right direction. Although we do not wish to make definitive claims about the success or failure of specific
initiatives, our research, backed up by recent major surveys, paints a picture that remains far from rosy. Indeed a recent
comparative survey of the IT workforce in Germany, Holland and the UK indicates that women are haemorrhaging out of
the UK IT workforce (Platman and Taylor 2004). From a high point of 100,892 women in the UK IT workforce in 1999,
Platman and Taylor (ibid., 8) report a drop to 53,759 by 2003. As the IT industry was moving into recession anyway, the
number of men in the industry has also declined, but by nothing like as much, so the figures for women are stark.
When it comes to number crunching who is employed in the UK IT sector and when trying to make historical comparisons,
the first obstacle is defining the sector itself. Studies vary quite substantially in the number of IT workers quoted suggesting
there is quite a bit of variation in what is taken to be an IT job. The IT industry has experienced considerable expansion over
the past twenty years. In spring 2003 in Britain, it was estimated that almost 900,000 people worked in ICT firms, and there
were over 1 million ICT workers, filling ICT roles in any sector (e-Skills UK, 2003). This growth has resulted in talk of a âskills
shortageâ requiring the âmaximizationâ of the workforce to its full potential: âYou donât just need pale, male, stale guys in
the boardroom but a diversity of viewsâ (Stone 2004).
In spring 2003 the Equal Opportunities Commission estimated there to be 151,000 women working in ICT occupations
compared with 834,000 men (clearly using a different, much wider job definition from that of Platman and Taylor (2004))
, whilst in the childcare sector, there were less than 10,000 men working in these occupations, compared with 297,000
women (EOC 2004). It is estimated that the overall proportion of women working in ICT occupations is 15% (EOC 2004).
In the UK, Office of National Statistics (ONS) statistics indicate that women accounted for 30% of IT operations technicians,
but a mere 15% of ICT Managers and only 11% of IT strategy and planning professionals (EOC 2004). Although women
are making inroads into technical and senior professions there remains a âfeminisationâ of lower level jobs, with a female
majority in operator and clerical roles and a female minority in technical and managerial roles (APC 2004).
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Adolescent smoking: behavioural risk factors and health beliefs
The study extends previous research on adults by assessing the role of cognitive factors of smoking behaviour in 885 teenagers
Global aspects of accelerating and rotating black hole space-times
The complete family of exact solutions representing accelerating and rotating
black holes with possible electromagnetic charges and a NUT parameter is known
in terms of a modified Plebanski-Demianski metric. This demonstrates the
singularity and horizon structure of the sources but not that the complete
space-time describes two causally separated black holes. To demonstrate this
property, the metric is first cast in the Weyl-Lewis-Papapetrou form. After
extending this up to the acceleration horizon, it is then transformed to the
boost-rotation-symmetric form in which the global properties of the solution
are manifest. The physical interpretation of these solutions is thus clarified.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Class. Quantum Gra
The C-metric as a colliding plane wave space-time
It is explicitly shown that part of the C-metric space-time inside the black
hole horizon may be interpreted as the interaction region of two colliding
plane waves with aligned linear polarization, provided the rotational
coordinate is replaced by a linear one. This is a one-parameter generalization
of the degenerate Ferrari-Ibanez solution in which the focussing singularity is
a Cauchy horizon rather than a curvature singularity.Comment: 6 pages. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Health systems analysis of eye care services in Zambia: evaluating progress towards VISION 2020 goals.
BACKGROUND: VISION 2020 is a global initiative launched in 1999 to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020. The objective of this study was to undertake a situation analysis of the Zambian eye health system and assess VISION 2020 process indicators on human resources, equipment and infrastructure. METHODS: All eye health care providers were surveyed to determine location, financing sources, human resources and equipment. Key informants were interviewed regarding levels of service provision, management and leadership in the sector. Policy papers were reviewed. A health system dynamics framework was used to analyse findings. RESULTS: During 2011, 74 facilities provided eye care in Zambia; 39% were public, 37% private for-profit and 24% owned by Non-Governmental Organizations. Private facilities were solely located in major cities. A total of 191 people worked in eye care; 18 of these were ophthalmologists and eight cataract surgeons, equivalent to 0.34 and 0.15 per 250,000 population, respectively. VISION 2020 targets for inpatient beds and surgical theatres were met in six out of nine provinces, but human resources and spectacles manufacturing workshops were below target in every province. Inequalities in service provision between urban and rural areas were substantial. CONCLUSION: Shortage and maldistribution of human resources, lack of routine monitoring and inadequate financing mechanisms are the root causes of underperformance in the Zambian eye health system, which hinder the ability to achieve the VISION 2020 goals. We recommend that all VISION 2020 process indicators are evaluated simultaneously as these are not individually useful for monitoring progress
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Prevalence of pathological Internet use among university students and correlations with self-esteem, the general health questionnaire (GHQ), and disinhibition
Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in the addictive potential of the Internet. The current study was an attempt to replicate common findings in the literature and provide more evidence for the existence of Internet addiction among studentsâa population considered to be especially vulnerable. A total of 371 British students responded to the questionnaire, which included the Pathological Internet Use (PIU) scale, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), a self-esteem scale, and two measures of disinhibition. Results showed that 18.3% of the sample were considered to be pathological Internet users, whose excessive use of the Internet was causing academic, social, and interpersonal problems. Other results showed that pathological Internet users had lower self-esteem and were more socially disinhibited. However, there was no significant difference in GHQ scores. These results are discussed in relation to the methodological shortcomings of research in the area as a whole
Quantifying the vertical fusion range at four distances of fixation in a normal population.
Aim: To compare the vertical fusional amplitudes in
isometropic participants with normal binocular
single vision at four distances of fixation: 33 cm,
1 m, 4 m, 6 m.
Methods: Vertical fusion ranges (break point and
recovery point) were measured with a Gulden
vertical prism bar with the participant fixing a 6/12
Snellen equivalent letter, twice at each distance.
Order effects were controlled with randomisation of
both fixation distance and prism direction.
Results: Twenty-seven participants were examined
(aged 20.4 ± 1.05 years). Base up and base down
measurements were similar, therefore measurements
were combined to give a total vertical range. Median
values for the break points were: 33 cm, 6(Î) ; 1 m, 6(Î);
4 m, 5.5(Î); 6 m, 5.5(Î); and for the recovery points were:
33 cm, 4(Î); 1 m, 4(Î); 4 m, 3.5(Î); 6 m, 3.5(Î). The
difference was significant between either of the near
measures (i.e. 33 cm and 1 m) and either of the far
measures (i.e. 4 m and 6 m).
Conclusions: The vertical fusion range appears to be
slightly greater at near than distance. However, the
difference is not clinically significant. Measurements
for distance, in a normal population, appear to be the
same whether a fixation distance of 4 m or 6 m is
used
Image charge effects in single-molecule junctions: Breaking of symmetries and negative differential resistance in a benzene transistor
Both experiments and theoretical studies have demonstrated that the
interaction between the current carrying electrons and the induced polarization
charge in single-molecule junctions leads to a strong renormalization of
molecular charging energies. However, the effect on electronic excitations and
molecular symmetries remain unclear. Using a theoretical framework developed
for semiconductor nanostructure based single-electron transistors (SETs), we
demonstrate that the image charge interaction breaks the molecular symmetries
in a benzene based single-molecule transistor operating in the Coulomb blockade
regime. This results in the appearance of a so-called blocking state, which
gives rise to negative differential resistance (NDR). We show that the
appearance of NDR and its magnitude in the symmetry-broken benzene SET depends
in a complicated way on the interplay between the many-body matrix elements,
the lead tunnel coupling asymmetry, and the bias polarity. In particular, the
current reducing property of the blocking state causing the NDR, is shown to
vanish under strongly asymmetric tunnel couplings, when the molecule is coupled
stronger to the drain electrode. The calculated IV characteristic may serve as
an indicator for image charge broken molecular symmetries in experimental
situations.Comment: Accepted version (Phys. Rev. B), 16 pages, 8 figure
Theories of Technological Progress and the British Textile Industry from Kay to Cartwright
Editada en la FundaciĂłn Empresa PĂșblicaLa industria textil britĂĄnica continĂșa en el centro del debate sobre la revoluciĂłn industrial. Las innovaciones tĂ©cnicas en el perĂodo produjeron una aceleraciĂłn extraordinaria del crecimiento del output y una considerable reducciĂłn de los precios de los tejidos. En este trabajo presentamos un estudio de la comunidad de los inventores responsables de la transformaciĂłn tecnolĂłgica, lo que nos permite alcanzar una serie de conclusiones nuevas sobre el ritmo y direcciĂłn de la actividad innovadora durante la revoluciĂłn industrialThe cotton textile industry remains central to all accounts of the first industrial revolution. Innovations in this period precipitated an extraordinary acceleration in the growth of output and a steep decline in the cost of producing all varieties of cloth. In this paper we outline an explanation through an analysis of the community of inventors responsible for the technological transformation, which enables us to offer some generalizations of the pace and pattern of the inventive activity in this period.Publicad
The disappearing women: North West ICT project final report
Project Context
The Disappearing Women: Northwest ICT project was embarked upon to further understand why more women leave the sector than are being recruited, 36% of new ICT recruits in the UK (in the first quarter of 2002) were women, yet in the same period, women accounted for 46% of all leavers or âdisappearingâ women (The DTI Women in IT Champions report 2003, Grey and Healy 2004). This continuing trend shows a decline from 27% of women making up the ICT workforce in 1997 with a drop to 21% in 2004 (The DTI Women in IT Industry report 2005b). The number of women in the ICT sector remains disappointingly small considering that women make up around 50% of the total UK workforce and significantly this figure has gradually continued to fall despite numerous initiatives to attract more women into the sector (see Griffiths and Moore 2006 for a list of high profile âwomen in ICTâ initiatives).
The research teamâs first gender research project - Women in IT (WINIT) - ran for two years from January 2004 until March 2006 at the Information Systems Institute at The University of Salford and dealt solely with women who worked in the ICT sector in England. The WINIT Project via an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews gathered the stories and experiences of up to 500 participants and 19 interviewees respectively. The project enabled these womenâs voices to be heard but the research team were constantly aware that a certain part of the female ICT workforce - the âdisappearingâ women who had left ICT vowing never to return - had been overlooked and effectively silenced. It was these women who once found, may be able to facilitate a more in-depth understanding of why women were leaving the ICT sector. Having amassed skills and expertise, qualifications in ICT and crossed ICT recruitment barriers (DTI 2005a) the âdisappearingâ women for whatever reasons decided to change their career trajectories and leave the sector. What âchillyâ (Falkner 2004) workplaces, disinterested organisational cultures and indifferent working conditions had these women encountered that became determining factors in leaving the ICT sector? There has been little (if any) research conducted involving this specific cohort of women and The Disappearing Women: North West ICT (DW: NW ICT) project seeks to make a research contribution to what is a continuing statistical and symbolic under-representation of women in the ICT labour market.
The DW: NW ICT project was partly funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) from April 2006 until December 2006 under ESF Objective 3, Policy Field 5.1: Improving the Participation of Women. The DW: NW ICT project contributes research to priority 5 and its strategic objective to reduce the level of disadvantage faced by women in the labour market. The project was run in the Information Systems Group, Salford Business School of The University of Salford, Greater Manchester, UK.
The report is structured as follows. The first section presents the backdrop for the research, looking in general at women in the ICT labour market in England and then women leaving the ICT sector focussing on the North West of England and more explicitly women leaving ICT employment in the North West of England. The research aims of the project form the following section; they have been loosely classified in to two groupings, the push and pull factors that are contributing to the high attrition rate of women leaving ICT. The methodology follows with the route taken in how this âhard to reachâ target sample were finally located, once contacted the life history interview process and procedures adopted is explained in full. The vignettes of the âdisappearingâ women are included to allow the reader an opportunity to âget to knowâ these women a little more closely. Key themes that have naturally emerged throughout the interview data analysis process are presented, including hostilities in the ICT workplace, significant events and the process of leaving ICT workplaces and finally stories of the âappearingâ women and their current situations are heard. A discussion regarding the findings of the DW: NW ICT project concludes this report
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