Research and Development in Computing at CERN

CERN is evaluated as working environment for researchers in computingsciences. For this purpose the main computing activities and research and development work in computing are surveyed from a computer sciencepoint of view

Organizational reforms and gender: Feminization of middle management in Finnish and German banking

In this article, we analyze the longitudinal relationship between organizational reforms (with downsizing elements) and feminization of a specific managerial position. We maintain that two dominant contemporary approaches to reforms and change, i.e. the managerialist literature and its socio-political criticisms, have predominantly been gender-blind. We argue that the unfolding of organizational reforms in bureaucratic business firms cannot fully be understood without reference to how managerial jobs are redefined in relation to each other, and to what are the gendered connotations involved and the type of workforce sought for the newly defined jobs. These gendered demands of reforms must, moreover, be addressed in association with what comes to be seen as the adequate (female and male) supply by top decision-makers. We contend that the gendered patterns inherent in organisational reform can only be discerned if the research takes into account the ways in which reforming is intertwined with developments in the division of labour between men and women, power and authority relations, and norms and values prevalent in the proximate business environment and the society at large. This leads us to suggest analysis which identifies processes of organising as constructed under, but not fully determined by, specific spatial and temporal conditions of gendered social practice. We present in-depth evidence from organizational reforming in two banks, located in societies with significantly divergent gender cultures and gender orders (i.e. Finland and Germany). Through a detailed cross-national comparison, we propose a common fundamental operating mechanism for the reformgender link, and specify a number of societal differences in form. In general, our evidence supports the argument that specific forms of restructuring - even with reductive elements - in fact promote feminization of middle management positions, albeit as a reflection of a development that reproduces gender segregation in new forms. -- In diesem Beitrag wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Organisationsreformen und der Feminisierung einer spezifischen Managementposition aus einer Langzeitperspektive analysiert. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet eine Kritik an derzeit dominierenden Erklärungsansätzen zum Organisationswandel. Sowohl die managementorientierte Literatur als auch ihre sozialwissenschaftliche Kritik schenken deren geschlechtsspezifischen Implikationen zumeist keine Aufmerksamkeit. Wir gehen hingegen davon aus, daß der Verlauf von Organisationsreformen in bürokratischen Unternehmen nicht ohne Einbezug der Neudefinition des Verhältnisses von Leitungspositionen zueinander einschließlich der damit verbundenen geschlechtsspezifischen Konnotationen und des von SpitzenmanagerInnen gewünschten Typus von (weiblichem und männlichem) Personal für die neu-definierten Positionen verstanden werden kann. Eine Untersuchung der sich im Verlauf von Organisationsreformen entwikkelnden geschlechtsspezifischen Muster erfordert die Berücksichtigung der Arbeitsteilung zwischen Männern und Frauen, der Beziehungen zwischen Macht und Autorität sowie der Normen und Werte innerhalb der Unternehmen und der Gesellschaft insgesamt. Notwendig werden Analysen, die Organisationsveränderungen als durch räumlich und zeitlich definierte, geschlechtsspezifische soziale Praktiken konstruiert, aber nicht völlig determiniert, begreifen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung basiert auf Fallstudien in zwei Banken, die in Ländern - Deutschland und Finnland - mit sehr unterschiedlichen Geschlechtersystemen angesiedelt sind. Die Ergebnisse des Vergleichs deuten darauf hin, daß Organisationsreform und geschlechtsspezifische Implikationen in beiden Ländern durch einen ähnlichen Mechanismus miteinander verknüpft sind. Hingegen werden Form und Verlauf der Reformprozesse durch das jeweilige länderspezifische Geschlechtersystem geprägt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß spezifische Formen der Restrukturierung - und zwar auch im Kontext einer Personalreduktion - durchaus die Feminisierung einer Managementposition fördern können. Dies geht aber mit der Herausbildung neuer Formen der Geschlechtersegregation einher.

Ljusternik–Schnirelmann Theorem for the Generalized Laplacian

AbstractLet m:[0, ∞[→[0, ∞[ be an increasing continuous function with m(t)=0 if and only if t=0, m(t)→∞ as t→∞ and Ω⊂RN a bounded domain. In this paper we show that for every r>0 the problem [formula]has an infinite number of eigenfunctions on the level set ∫ΩM(|∇u|)=r, where M(t)=∫|t|0m(s)ds and g:R→R is odd satisfying some growth condition. Moreover, we show that the sequence of associated eigenvalues tends to infinity. We emphasize that no ▵2-condition is needed for M or for its conjugate, so the associated functionals are not continuously differentiable, in general

Recontacting biobank participants to collect lifestyle, behavioural and cognitive information via online questionnaires : lessons from a pilot study within FinnGen

Objectives To recontact biobank participants and collect cognitive, behavioural and lifestyle information via a secure online platform. Design Biobank-based recontacting pilot study. Setting Three Finnish biobanks (Helsinki, Auria, Tampere) recruiting participants from February 2021 to July 2021. Participants All eligible invitees were enrolled in FinnGen by their biobanks (Helsinki, Auria, Tampere), had available genetic data and were >18 years old. Individuals with severe neuropsychiatric disease or cognitive or physical disabilities were excluded. Lastly, 5995 participants were selected based on their polygenic score for cognitive abilities and invited to the study. Among invitees, 1115 had successfully participated and completed the study questionnaire(s). Outcome measures The primary outcome was the participation rate among study invitees. Secondary outcomes included questionnaire completion rate, quality of data collected and comparison of participation rate boosting strategies. Results The overall participation rate was 18.6% among all invitees and 23.1% among individuals aged 18-69. A second reminder letter yielded an additional 9.7% participation rate in those who did not respond to the first invitation. Recontacting participants via an online healthcare portal yielded lower participation than recontacting via physical letter. The completion rate of the questionnaire and cognitive tests was high (92% and 85%, respectively), and measurements were overall reliable among participants. For example, the correlation (r) between self-reported body mass index and that collected by the biobanks was 0.92. Conclusion In summary, this pilot suggests that recontacting FinnGen participants with the goal to collect a wide range of cognitive, behavioural and lifestyle information without additional engagement results in a low participation rate, but with reliable data. We suggest that such information be collected at enrolment, if possible, rather than via post hoc recontacting.Peer reviewe

Aivojen vanhenemisen »geneettinen koodi»

Teema: Terveet aivot 100 vuotta. English summaryNon peer reviewe

Englishization and the politics of knowledge production in management studies

Concerns have been voiced in recent years about the widespread use of U.S.-dominated journal rankings in business schools. Such practice is seen to have the effect of spreading globally a U.S.-style scholarly monoculture and reconstituting other forms of scholarship as marginal and inferior. In this essay, we explore the ways in which the English language is implicated in these processes. Drawing on language-sensitive studies of academic work and our own experiences as nonnative speakers of English, we argue that the use of U.S.-dominated rankings is not just hierarchizing and homogenizing the global field of management but also contributing to its Englishization. This, we contend, furthers the homogenization of the field while also producing significant language-based inequalities and inducing demanding quasi-colonial forms of identity work by those being Englishized

Response to the letter by de Boer et al. (2022)

Non peer reviewe