Investing in the Care Economy. A gender analysis of employment stimulus in seven OECD countries

Our findings show that governments seeking to expand employment would do well to increase public investment in the economy and that there are strong arguments for more of this investment being in the caring infrastructure than is currently the case. Investment in the care industry, in addition to creating a higher number of jobs, would also address the care deficit and reduce gender inequality. Such a policy would contribute towards creating a more inclusive model of development as well as lifting economies out of recession

Accumulation of streptococci on teeth in a laboratory microcosm (artificial mouth)

The accumulation on teeth of three strains of oral bacteria, ‘Streptococcus mitior’ LPA-1, Streptococcus mutans C67-1, and Streptococcus rattus BHT, was studied from 8 to 90 hours after inoculation. Direct and viable counts demonstrated that strains BHT and C67-1 accumulated more rapidly than strain LPA-1, with fastest growth during the first 16 hours (td8-16h 3.6-4.8 h). In older cultures, S. mutans and S. rattus continued to accumulate and a high proportion of the cells were viable. In contrast, ‘S. mitior’ cultures contained many non-viable organisms, possibly due to hydrogen peroxideinduced death. When S. rattus was co-cultured with ‘S. mitior’ it was strongly inhibited during the first 24 hours, but increased in proportion after 66 and 90 hours. It was concluded that in the interaction between ‘S. mitior’ and S. rattus during initial plaque development, a potentially rapid initial growth rate was of less importance than the ability to antagonise the other organism

Social theory, economic geography, space and place: reflections on the work of Ray Hudson

Economic geography, at its best, deploys economic and social theory to make sense of the economic, political and social transformation of regions and their impact on people’s lives and opportunities. Nowhere is this approach more evident than in the work of Ray Hudson, who has consistently focused on analysing the processes of combined and uneven development to explain the broad changes in the capitalist economy together with middle-level theories to account for the complexity of regional development in practice. In so doing he has created a powerful Geographical Political Economy that provides a deep understanding of the last four decades of economic restructuring and industrial transformation of the North-East Region of England and its impact on the lives of people living there. This article reflects on this aspect of Ray Hudson’s work in the context of his broader contributions to the academy

Using Big Data to manage safety-related risk in the upstream oil & gas industry: a research agenda

Despite considerable effort and a broad range of new approaches to safety management over the years, the upstream oil & gas industry has been frustrated by the sector’s stubbornly high rate of injuries and fatalities. This short communication points out, however, that the industry may be in a position to make considerable progress by applying ‘‘Big Data’’ analytical tools to the large volumes of safety-related data that have been collected by these organizations. Toward making this case, we examine existing safety-related information management practices in the upstream oil & gas industry, and specifically note that data in this sector often tends to be highly customized, difficult to analyze using conventional quantitative tools, and frequently ignored. We then contend that the application of new Big Data kinds of analytical techniques could potentially reveal patterns and trends that have been hidden or unknown thus far, and argue that these tools could help the upstream oil & gas sector to improve its injury and fatality statistics. Finally, we offer a research agenda toward accelerating the rate at which Big Data and new analytical capabilities could play a material role in helping the industry to improve its health and safety performance

New economy, care work and inequality

Why do the costs of care tend to rise and how is it possible to account for three relatively universal features of the labour market: low financial rewards, gender and migrant composition? By contrasting the economics of care with those of ‘knowledge’ goods this paper addresses this question in the context of widening global and enduring gender inequality

Gender, foundation degrees and the knowledge economy

This article questions the concept of ‘education for employment’, which constructs a discourse of individual and societal benefit in a knowledge‐driven economy. Recent policy emphasis in the European Union promotes the expansion of higher education and short‐cycle vocational awards such as the intermediate two‐year Foundation Degree recently introduced into England and Wales. Studies of vocational education and training (VET) and the knowledge economy have focused largely on the governance of education and on the development and drift of policy. Many VET programmes have also been considered for their classed, raced and gendered take‐up and subsequent effect on employment. This article builds on both fields of study to engage with the finer cross‐analyses of gender, social class, poverty, race and citizenship. In its analysis of policy texts the article argues that in spite of a discourse of inclusivity, an expanded higher education system has generated new inequalities, deepening social stratification. Drawing on early analyses of national quantitative data sets, it identifies emerging gendered, classed and raced patterns and considers these in relation to occupationally and hierarchically stratified labour markets, both within and without the knowledge economy

Make-buy decisions in the face of radical innovations.

Some research in the area of make-buy decisions for new technologies suggests that it is a good idea for a company to pursue a fairly rigorous “make” policy in the early days of a potentially disruptive innovation. Other studies prescribe exactly the opposite, promoting instead a “buy” strategy. This lack of convergence points to the fact that the scheme of categorization used to analyze make-buy decisions in the face of radical innovations is not yet complete. Accordingly, this thesis builds upon prior work on make-buy decisions and disruptive technologies, and constructs two new hypotheses by introducing evidence from research in the areas of (1) supplier relationships and (2) industry clockspeed. Using a three-phase research design involving both case studies and a survey, this research shows that close relationships between customer firms and principal suppliers that are built on trust and personal relationships do not play an important long-term role in the development of radical innovations. Thus, while previous research in this area underlines the value of these relationships during the day-to-day operations of a business, this evidence draws into question whether they are helpful in the face of a radical innovation. The results also show that an industry’s clockspeed has no significant bearing on the success or failure of any particular make-buy strategy for a radical innovation. Because many of the prescriptive frameworks and strategic formulas put forward in the literature for make-buy decisions involving radical innovations are based on observations from fast clockspeed industries, this conclusion effectively broadens the potential applicability of prior research in this area

Papovaviruses in humans

Papovaviruses are a family of small, non-enveloped viruses of similar morphology that contain circular double-stranded DNA. They are divided into the two genera polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses on the basis of genome size and biological properties. Human polyomaviruses comprise two agents, JC virus (JCV) and BK virus (BKV). After initial infection both persist indefinitely but are usually only associated with disease in immunosuppressed patients. JCV and BKV, together with simian polyomavirus simian virus 40 (SV40), have been associated with central nervous system disease. In particular JCV is associated with the demyelinating disease progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), once considered a rare complication of immunosuppression in transplant recipients. With the advent of the AIDS pandemic, PML became of increasing importance in HIV-infected individuals. Human papillomaviruses (HPV) comprise a large group of inter-related but different viral genotypes. Some of these are termed low risk, causing warts at various sites in the body. Others, termed high risk, are aetiologically linked with squamous cell carcinoma, principally being implicated in the development of cervical carcinoma. This thesis describes molecular methods developed for investigation of human papovaviruses. The initial part describes the development of molecular techniques for the detection and analysis of neurotropic polyomavirus sequences in samples from immunosuppressed patients. These methods were used to examine the correlation between polyomaviruses and clinical disease and to evaluate the use of molecular techniques in the diagnosis of PML. Nested PCR assays for JCV, BKV and SV40 were developed to determine the prevalence of polyoma sequences in CSF and brain samples. JCV was the only polyomavirus to have a direct correlation with PML. Detection of JCV DNA in the CSF of patients with a clinical diagnosis of PML was found to be 100% specific and 83% sensitive. Studies also looked at polyomaviruses present at other sites of the body and a comparison made of their genome sequences. The use of molecular techniques were shown to be of great value in diagnosis of PML and the possible monitoring of the treatment of PML. However the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the treatment of HIV-infected individuals has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of cases of PML in the UK and as a consequence, the intended study of clinical intervention was aborted. The later parts of this thesis describes the development and application of similar molecular techniques for the detection and typing of HPV. PCR amplification was used to determine the prevalence of HPV at the cervix and amplicons were typed using a reverse hybridisation line probe assay. HPV DNA was detected in 80% of cervical smears taken from patients, often with multiple infection, attending a routine colposcopy clinic. Twenty one genotypes were identified in these samples confirming a need for methods to distinguish not only between high risk and low risk types but also between different genotypes infecting patients in this clinic