On Becoming a Social Housing Manager: Work Identities in an ‘Invisible’ Occupation

Social housing in Britain is managed by a large grouping of ‘housing managers’, an occupational label which is viewed as unproblematic by most housing academics, and therefore, is largely taken for granted. Urban sociologists posit that a collective identity is crucial to professional status, and hence have been sceptical of housing managers' prospects of furthering their aims collectively. The paper departs from this focus on the collective endeavours of housing management as a profession to examine how housing managers themselves create and present self-identities. Specifically, it argues that housing managers use the lack of a collective identity as an opportunity to manage the ‘spoiled identity’ of being in an ‘invisible’ and marginalised profession. In doing so, they construct individualised occupational trajectories which bear little relation to the domain professionalism of more established occupations.     

Akt and Erk signal transduction pathways are early markers of differentiation in dominant and subordinate ovarian follicles in cattle

Dominant follicles are those that continue to develop and have the potential to ovulate while subordinate follicles regress. Characteristics of dominant follicles include a larger diameter, higher intrafollicular estradiol, and lower IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-4 concentrations compared with other cohort follicles. Follicle development is regulated by endocrine hormones that act via intracellular signaling pathways. Here, we show the differences in Akt, Erk, c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase, and p-38 signaling pathways between dominant and subordinate follicles at the dominance stage of the follicle wave. However, earlier in the follicle wave (dominant follicle selection), there were only differences in the levels of Akt and Erk signal transduction proteins among dominant and subordinate follicles. Using this profile of Akt and Erk protein expression in granulosa and theca cells of selected dominant follicles compared with subordinate follicles, we suggest a predictive model to identify future dominant and subordinate follicles from the pool of otherwise similar cohort follicles at the time of follicle wave emergence. We conclude that the Erk and Akt signal transduction pathways are important for dominant follicle selection and development and, furthermore, that the observed differences in these pathways mark the future dominant follicle from subordinate follicles before differences in follicular diameter, follicular fluid estradiol, and IGFBP-4 concentrations are apparent.     

EFFECTIVE TRANSPORTATION OF BREWER'S YEAST SLURRY

A yeast shipment method suitable (depending on vessel size) for 1 to 20 litres of slurried yeast is described. The method was investigated primarily assuming transit (storage) temperature at approximately 21°C. Under these conditions, the contained yeast was stable over 116 h at temperatures well under 16°C, and maintained its viability, fermentability and vigour to reinitiate new fermentations. Under more vigorous climatic conditions, shipment time would have to be reduced, but adequate protection time was afforded for all but the most extreme sub-zero situations.     

Elihu Thomson's jumping ring in a levitated closed-loop controlexperiment

A conducting nonmagnetic ring is levitated above a coil excited by an AC source, using the same principle as that of the well-known jumping ring experiment, originally discovered by Elihu Thomson. The AC source is amplitude modulated to ensure that the ring stays in a stationary levitated position. The circuit is analyzed using a simple electrical/magnetic treatment, and the parameters of the system are found. A control strategy is derived for the system, after it has been linearized for small perturbations about an operating point. A simple low-voltage implementation is also shown, with results     

Posttraumatic stress disorder and intimate relationship problems: A meta-analysis.

Objective: The authors conducted a meta-analysis of empirical studies investigating associations between indices of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intimate relationship problems to empirically synthesize this literature. Method: A literature search using PsycINFO, Medline, Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (PILOTS), and Dissertation Abstracts was performed. The authors identified 31 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Results: True score correlations (ρ) revealed medium-sized associations between PTSD and intimate relationship discord (ρ = .38, N = 7,973, K = 21), intimate relationship physical aggression perpetration (ρ = .42, N = 4,630, K = 19), and intimate relationship psychological aggression perpetration (ρ = .36, N = 1,501, K = 10). The strength of the association between PTSD and relationship discord was higher in military (vs. civilian) samples, and when the study was conducted in the United States (vs. other country), and the study represented a doctoral dissertation (vs. published article). The strength of the association between PTSD and physical aggression was higher in military (vs. civilian) samples, males (vs. females), community (vs. clinical) samples, studies examining PTSD symptom severity (vs. diagnosis), when the physical aggression measure focused exclusively on severe violence (vs. a more inclusive measure), and the study was published (vs. dissertation). For the PTSD–psychological aggression association, 98% of the variance was accounted for by methodological artifacts such as sampling and measurement error; consequently, no moderators were examined in this relationship. Conclusions: Findings highlight a need for the examination of models explaining the relationship difficulties associated with PTSD symptomatology and interventions designed to treat problems in both areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Observation of NMR Signals from a Thin 3He Slab

NMR free precession signals from a slab of normal ³ He of thickness comparable to the superfluid coherence length have been observed using a SQUID NMR spectrometer at a frequency of 880 kHz. This spectrometer is based on a SQUID with Additional Positive Feedback, directly coupled to a low noise room temperature amplifier, and operated in flux locked loop mode using the direct offset integration technique, with a bandwidth of several MHz. The sensitivity is such that the signal from a 100 nm slab on a 1 cm ² surface, corresponding to 2×10 ¹⁷ spins, is clearly resolved.     

Individual differences in selective attention among prereaders: A key to mirror-image confusions.

Exp I investigated the position that mirror-image confusions reflect an inability to attend to low-salient cues. 84 3–5 yr olds were given 3 problems: mirror-image matching, shape-detail matching, and consistent left–right ordering on a picture-naming task. With nonlearners, performance was reassessed following explicit instructions. This rendered Ss divisible into levels: spontaneous, instructed learners, and nonlearners. As predicted, most 3-yr-olds fell into identical categories across all low-salient problems, either instructed learners or nonlearners. The 4–5 yr olds were spontaneous or instructed learners but did not exhibit concordance across all problems. It is suggested that for these Ss, level differences reflected differences between nonreaders already attending to reading cues and those not yet attending. Exp II, with the 4–5 yr olds from Exp I, identified the nonreaders, who were given a letter-series and letter-writing task. Significant-levels agreement occurred among the prereading tasks involving attention to individual shape details. The ordering problem showed level concordance only with tasks involving left–right scanning. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thrombospondin-1 expression in human myometrium before and during pregnancy, before and during labor, and in human myometrial cells in culture

The activation of latent transforming growth factor beta (L-TGFbeta) is essential for the action of TGFbeta, which, in turn, is involved in the regulation of expression of some progesterone-responsive genes. One mechanism by which TGFbeta is activated involves thrombospondin (TSP), a protein that binds extracellular proteins. Immunoreactive TSP (irTSP) protein and TSP-1 mRNA in myometrial tissues of ovulatory and pregnant women were localized by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. IrTSP and TSP-1 mRNA were randomly distributed in myometrial smooth muscle cells of some, but not all, tissues of pregnant women at term before labor; but in some areas of most of these tissues, irTSP was intense and commonly localized extracellularly. Intense irTSP and TSP-1 mRNA in myocytes were more common in myometrium during labor. In myometrium from ovulatory women (n = 26), irTSP was localized primarily in vascular smooth muscle cells and was detected occasionally in scattered myocytes. Little TSP-1 mRNA was demonstrable by in situ hybridization in vessels or myocytes of myometrial tissue from ovulatory women (n = 7). By Northern analysis of total RNA, TSP-1 mRNA was detected in myometrial tissue of pregnant women and in human myometrial smooth muscle cells in culture. The levels of TSP-1 mRNA in myometrial tissues of pregnant women during labor (n = 18) were greater than those in myometrium at > 37 wk gestation before labor began (n = 25, p < 0.001). The ratios of TSP-1 to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase mRNAs in 3 myometrial tissues during oxytocin-induced labor were not statistically different from those in myometrium during spontaneous labor but were greater than those in myometrium before labor (p < 0.05). The level of TSP-1 mRNA in confluent human myometrial cells in culture was relatively high, was increased by treatment with fetal bovine serum, and was decreased by treatment with platelet-derived growth factor or activators of adenylyl cyclase or protein kinase C. Myometrial cells in culture constitute a useful model for studying the regulation of TSP-1 gene expression in human myometrium.