Demographic faultlines in boards : impact of diversity and board size

Negative board diversity-organizational outcomes research findings have highlighted the importance of studying board demographic faultlines. Based on research gaps, this study focuses on gender diversity, age diversity, board size and faultlines formation in corporate boards. It proposes a positive linear diversity-faultlines relationship based on self-categorization and social identity theories, interaction effects of gender diversity and age diversity on faultlines based on contingency theories, and a U-shaped board size-faultlines strength relationship. The hypotheses were tested in 288 large companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange using archival data. The results provided partial support for the interaction effects relationships and support to the U-shaped board size-faultlines strength relationship. The findings indicate that boards with low levels of age diversity experience a negative linear relationship between gender diversity and faultlines such that higher representation of women leads to weaker faultlines. The results also suggest that small- and large-sized boards experience stronger faultlines strength than medium-sized board. These results inform practice and underline implications of board demographic diversity and board size.

Escherichia coli isolates causing asymptomatic bacteriuria in catheterized and noncatheterized individuals possess similar virulence properties

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infectious diseases of humans, with Escherichia coli being responsible for >80% of all cases. Asymptomatic bacteriuria (ABU) occurs when bacteria colonize the urinary tract without causing clinical symptoms and can affect both catheterized patients (catheter-associated ABU [CA-ABU]) and noncatheterized patients. Here, we compared the virulence properties of a collection of ABU and CA-ABU nosocomial E. coli isolates in terms of antibiotic resistance, phylogenetic grouping, specific UTI-associated virulence genes, hemagglutination characteristics, and biofilm formation. CA-ABU isolates were similar to ABU isolates with regard to the majority of these characteristics; exceptions were that CA-ABU isolates had a higher prevalence of the polysaccharide capsule marker genes kpsMT II and kpsMT K1, while more ABU strains were capable of mannose-resistant hemagglutination. To examine biofilm growth in detail, we performed a global gene expression analysis with two CA-ABU strains that formed a strong biofilm and that possessed a limited adhesin repertoire. The gene expression profile of the CA-ABU strains during biofilm growth showed considerable overlap with that previously described for the prototype ABU E. coli strain, 83972. This is the first global gene expression analysis of E. coli CA-ABU strains. Overall, our data suggest that nosocomial ABU and CA-ABU E. coli isolates possess similar virulence profiles.

Young People and Crime in Rural Communities

Because childhood and adolescence are crucial phases in psycho-social development and the formation of responsible citizens, an unusual degree of attention and supervision is directed at the young (Bittner, 1976; Rose, 1989). Such is the moral frailty of youth that mere presence or 11 doing nothing" (Corrigan, 1979) can, under certain circumstances, excite adult anxieties as a harbinger of immediate or later danger. Delinquency and adolescent antisocial behaviour are not, therefore, a matter of objective, positivistic measurement and control, but are bound up with larger patterns of intergenerational relationships. These relationships are also conditioned by social and spatial environments.

Predictive models for water sources with high susceptibility for bromine-containing disinfection by-product formation: Implications for water treatment

This study examines a matrix of synthetic water samples designed to include conditions that favour brominated disinfection by-product (Br-DBP) formation, in order to provide predictive models suitable for high Br-DBP forming waters such as salinity-impacted waters. Br-DBPs are known to be more toxic than their chlorinated analogues, in general, and their formation may be favoured by routine water treatment practices such as coagulation/flocculation under specific conditions; therefore, circumstances surrounding their formation must be understood. The chosen factors were bromide concentration, mineral alkalinity, bromide to dissolved organic carbon (Br/DOC) ratio and Suwannee River natural organic matter concentration. The relationships between these parameters and DBP formation were evaluated by response surface modelling of data generated using a face-centred central composite experimental design. Predictive models for ten brominated and/or chlorinated DBPs are presented, as well as models for total trihalomethanes (tTHMs) and total dihaloacetonitriles (tDHANs), and bromide substitution factors for the THMs and DHANs classes. The relationships described revealed that increasing alkalinity and increasing Br/DOC ratio were associated with increasing bromination of THMs and DHANs, suggesting that DOC lowering treatment methods that do not also remove bromide such as enhanced coagulation may create optimal conditions for Br-DBP formation in waters in which bromide is present.

Identity, image, and sexuality in young adults with cancer

The impact of disease and treatment on a young adult's self-image and sexuality has been largely overlooked. This is surprising given that establishing social and romantic relationships is a normal occurrence in young adulthood. This article describes three female patients' cancer journeys and demonstrates how their experiences have impacted their psychosocial function and self-regard. The themes of body image, self-esteem, and identity formation are explored, in relation to implications for relationship-building and moving beyond a cancer diagnosis. This article has been written by young cancer survivors, Danielle Tindle, Kelly Denver, and Faye Lilley, in an effort to elucidate the ongoing struggle to reconcile cancer into a normal young adult's life.

William James, Sciences of Mind, and Anti-imperial Discourse

In the past few decades, the humanities and social sciences have developed new methods of reorienting their conceptual frameworks in a “world without frontiers.” In this book, Bernadette M. Baker offers an innovative approach to rethinking sciences of mind as they formed at the turn of the twentieth century, via the concerns that have emerged at the turn of the twenty-first. The less-visited texts of Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James provide a window into contemporary debates over principles of toleration, anti-imperial discourse, and the nature of ethics. Baker revisits Jamesian approaches to the formation of scientific objects including the child mind, exceptional mental states, and the ghost to explore the possibilities and limits of social scientific thought dedicated to mind development and discipline formation around the construct of the West.

Food security in welfare capitalism: Comparing social entitlements to food in Australia and Norway

The concept of food security is often anchored in popular understandings of the challenge to produce and supply enough food. However, decades of policies for intensive agriculture have not alleviated hunger and malnutrition, with an absence of food security featuring in both economically developing and developed nations. Despite perceptions that the economic growth in advanced, capitalist societies will ensure freedom from hunger, this is not universal across so-called ‘wealthy nations’. To explore the dynamics of food security in economically developed countries, this paper considers institutional approaches to domestic food security primarily through responses to poverty and welfare entitlements, and, secondarily, through food relief. Through the lens of social entitlements to food and their formation under various expressions of welfare capitalism, we highlight how the specific institutional settings of two economically developed nations, Australia and Norway, respond to uncertain or insufficient access to food. Whilst Norway's political agenda on agricultural support, food pricing regulation and universal social security support offers a robust, although indirect, safety net in ensuring entitlements to food, Australia's neoliberal trajectory means that approaches to food security are ad hoc and rely on a combination of self-help, charitable and market responses. Despite its extensive food production Australia appears less capable of ensuring food security for all its inhabitants compared to the highly import-dependent Norway.

A Story of Organized Crime: Constructing Criminality and Building Institutions

This is a narrative about the way in which a category of crime-to-be-combated is constructed through the discipline of criminology and the agents of discipline in criminal justice. The aim was to examine organized crime through the eyes of those whose job it is to fight it (and define it), and in doing so investigate the ways social problems surface as sites for state intervention. A genealogy of organized crime within criminological thought was completed, demonstrating that there are a range of different ways organized crime has been constructed within the social scientific discipline, and each of these were influenced by the social context, political winds and intellectual climate of the time. Following this first finding, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals who had worked at the apex of the policing of organized crime in Australia, in order to trace their understandings of organized crime across recent history. It was found that organized crime can be understood as an object of the discourse of the politics of law and order, the discourse of international securitization, new public management in policing business, and involves the forging of outlaw identities. Therefore, there are multiple meanings of organized crime that have arisen from an interconnected set of social, political, moral and bureaucratic discourses. The institutional response to organized crime, including law and policing, was subsequently examined. An extensive legislative framework has been enacted at multiple jurisdictional levels, and the problem of organized crime was found to be deserving of unique institutional powers and configurations to deal with it. The social problem of organized crime, as constituted by the discourses mapped out in this research, has led to a new generation of increasingly preemptive and punitive laws, and the creation of new state agencies with amplified powers. That is, the response to organized crime, with a focus on criminalization and enforcement, has been driven and shaped by the four discourses and the way in which the phenomenon is constructed within them. An appreciation of the nexus between the emergence of the social problem, and the formation of institutions in response to it, is important in developing a more complete understanding of the various dimensions of organized crime.

Fabrication and characterization of plasma polymer thin films from monoterpene alcohols for applications in organic electronics and biotechnology

After more than twenty years of basic and applied research, the use of nanotechnology in the design and manufacture of nanoscale materials is rapidly increasing, particularly in commercial applications that span from electronics across renewable energy areas, and biomedical devices. Novel polymers are attracting significant attention for they promise to provide a low−cost high−performance alternative to existing materials. Furthermore, these polymers have the potential to overcome limitations imposed by currently available materials thus enabling the development of new technologies and applications that are currently beyond our reach. This work focuses on the development of a range of new low−cost environmentally−friendly polymer materials for applications in areas of organic (flexible) electronics, optics, and biomaterials. The choice of the monomer reflects the environmentally−conscious focus of this project. Terpinen−4−ol is a major constituent of Australian grown Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) oil, attributed with the oil's antimicrobial and anti−inflammatory properties. Plasma polymerisation was chosen as a deposition technique for it requires minimal use of harmful chemicals and produces no hazardous by−products. Polymer thin films were fabricated under varied process conditions to attain materials with distinct physico−chemical, optoelectrical, biological and degradation characteristics. The resultant materials, named polyterpenol, were extensively characterised using a number of well−accepted and novel techniques, and their fundamental properties were defined. Polyterpenol films were demonstrated to be hydrocarbon rich, with variable content of oxygen moieties, primarily in the form of hydroxyl and carboxyl functionalities. The level of preservation of original monomer functionality was shown to be strongly dependent on the deposition energy, with higher applied power increasing the molecular fragmentation and substrate temperature. Polyterpenol water contact angle contact angle increased from 62.7° for the 10 W samples to 76.3° for the films deposited at 100 W. Polymers were determined to resist solubilisation by water, due to the extensive intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonds present, and other solvents commonly employed in electronics and biomedical processing. Independent of deposition power, the surface topography of the polymers was shown to be smooth (Rq <0.5 nm), uniform and defect free. Hardness of polyterpenol coatings increased from 0.33 GPa for 10 W to 0.51 GPa for 100 W (at 500 μN load). Coatings deposited at higher input RF powers showed less mechanical deformation during nanoscratch testing, with no considerable damage, cracking or delamination observed. Independent of the substrate, the quality of film adhesion improved with RF power, suggesting these coatings are likely to be more stable and less susceptible to wear. Independent of fabrication conditions, polyterpenol thin films were optically transparent, with refractive index approximating that of glass. Refractive index increased slightly with deposition power, from 1.54 (10 W) to 1.56 (100 W) at 500 nm. The optical band gap values declined with increasing power, from 2.95 eV to 2.64 eV, placing the material within the range for semiconductors. Introduction of iodine impurity reduced the band gap of polyterpenol, from 2.8 eV to 1.64 eV, by extending the density of states more into the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Doping decreased the transparency and increased the refractive index from 1.54 to 1.70 (at 500 nm). At optical frequencies, the real part of permittivity (k) was determined to be between 2.34 and 2.65, indicating a potential low-k material. These permittivity values were confirmed at microwave frequencies, where permittivity increased with input RF energy – from 2.32 to 2.53 (at 10 GHz ) and from 2.65 to 2.83 (at 20 GHz). At low frequencies, the dielectric constant was determined from current−voltage characteristics of Al−polyterpenol−Al devices. At frequencies below 100 kHz, the dielectric constant varied with RF power, from 3.86 to 4.42 at 1 kHz. For all samples, the resistivity was in order of 10⁸−10⁹ _m (at 6 V), confirming the insulating nature of polyterpenol material. In situ iodine doping was demonstrated to increase the conductivity of polyterpenol, from 5.05 × 10⁻⁸ S/cm to 1.20 × 10⁻⁶ S/cm (at 20 V). Exposed to ambient conditions over extended period of time, polyterpenol thin films were demonstrated to be optically, physically and chemically stable. The bulk of ageing occurred within first 150 h after deposition and was attributed to oxidation and volumetric relaxation. Thermal ageing studies indicated thermal stability increased for the films manufactured at higher RF powers, with degradation onset temperature associated with weight loss shifting from 150 ºC to 205 ºC for 10 W and 100 W polyterpenol, respectively. Annealing the films to 405 °C resulted in full dissociation of the polymer, with minimal residue. Given the outcomes of the fundamental characterisation, a number of potential applications for polyterpenol have been identified. Flexibility, tunable permittivity and loss tangent properties of polyterpenol suggest the material can be used as an insulating layer in plastic electronics. Implementation of polyterpenol as a surface modification of the gate insulator in pentacene-based Field Effect Transistor resulted in significant improvements, shifting the threshold voltage from + 20 V to –3 V, enhancing the effective mobility from 0.012 to 0.021 cm²/Vs, and improving the switching property of the device from 10⁷ to 10⁴. Polyterpenol was demonstrated to have a hole transport electron blocking property, with potential applications in many organic devices, such as organic light emitting diodes. Encapsulation of biomedical devices is also proposed, given that under favourable conditions, the original chemical and biological functionality of terpinen−4−ol molecule can be preserved. Films deposited at low RF power were shown to successfully prevent adhesion and retention of several important human pathogens, including P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, and S. epidermidis, whereas films deposited at higher RF power promoted bacterial cell adhesion and biofilm formation. Preliminary investigations into in vitro biocompatibility of polyterpenol demonstrated the coating to be non−toxic for several types of eukaryotic cells, including Balb/c mice macrophage and human monocyte type (HTP−1 non-adherent) cells. Applied to magnesium substrates, polyterpenol encapsulating layer significantly slowed down in vitro biodegradation of the metal, thus increasing the viability and growth of HTP−1 cells. Recently, applied to varied nanostructured titanium surfaces, polyterpenol thin films successfully reduced attachment, growth, and viability of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus.

Plasma polymer and biomolecule modification of 3-D scaffolds for tissue engineering

Plasma polymerization was used to coat a melt electrospun polycaprolactone scaffold to improve cell attachment and organization. Plasma polymerization was performed using an amine containing monomer, allylamine, which then allowed for the subsequent immobilization of biomolecules i.e. heparin and fibroblast growth factor-2. The stability of the plasma polymerized amine-coating was demonstrated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis and imaging time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry revealed that a uniform plasma amine-coating was deposited throughout the scaffold. Based upon comparison with controls it was evident that the combination scaffold aided cell ingress and the formation of distinct fibroblast and keratinocyte layers.

Position preference and diffusion path of an oxygen ion in apatite-type lanthanum silicate La9.33Si6O26: A density functional study

Using density functional theory, we investigated the position preference and diffusion mechanisms of interstitial oxygen ions in lanthanum silicate La9.33Si6O26, which is an apatite-structured oxide and a promising candidate electrolyte material for solid oxide fuel cells. The reported lanthanum vacancies were explicitly taken into account by theoretically determining their arrangement with a supercell model. The most stable structures and the formation energies of oxygen interstitials were determined for each charged state. It was found that the double-negatively charged state is stable over a wide range of the Fermi level, and that the excess oxygen ions form split interstitials with the original oxygen ions, while the neutral and the single-negatively charged states preferably form molecular oxygen. These species were found near the lanthanum vacancy site. The theoretically determined migration pathway along the c-axis essentially follows an interstitialcy mechanism. The obtained migration barrier is sensitive to the charge state, and is also affected by the lanthanum vacancy. The barrier height of the double-negatively charged state was calculated to be 0.58 eV for the model structure, which is consistent with the measured activation energy.