The emotional costs of caring incurred by men and women in the British labour market

This study investigates whether men and women in caring occupations experience more negative job-related feelings at the end of the day compared to the rest of the working population. The data are from Wave Nine of the British Household Panel Survey (1999) where respondents were asked whether, at the end of the working day, they tended to keep worrying or have trouble unwinding, and the extent to which work left them feeling exhausted or “used up.” Their responses to these questions were used to develop ordinal dependent variables. Control variables in the models include: number of children, age, hours worked per week, managerial responsibilities and job satisfaction, all of which have been shown in previous research to be significantly related to “job burnout.” The results are that those in caring occupations are more likely to feel worried, tense, drained and exhausted at the end of the working day. Women in particular appear to pay a high emotional cost for working in caring occupations. Men do not emerge unscathed, but report significantly lower levels of worry and exhaustion at the end of the day than do women.

[Book review] Colour: Art and Science

Tony Mann provides a review of the book: Trevor Lamb & Janine Bourriau (Eds.) Colour: Art and Science, 1995. (Darwin College Lectures), Cambridge University Press, 237pp. ISBN: 0521-49645-4 (hbk.) 0521-49963-1 (pbk.)

[Book review] Peter Reimann and Hans Spada (eds), Learning in Humans and Machines: Towards an Interdisciplinary Learning Science

Review of: Peter Reimann and Hans Spada (eds), Learning in Humans and Machines: Towards an Interdisciplinary Learning Science, Pergamon. (1995). ISBN: 978-0080425696

[Book Review] Noel Starkey (ed), Connectionist Natural Language Processing: Readings from 'Connection Science'

Review of: Noel Starkey (ed), Connectionist Natural Language Processing: Readings from 'Connection Science'

Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests: a centre for European forest science! – Some missing catalytic elements?

The Symposium, “Towards the sustainable use of Europe’s forests”, with sub-title “Forest ecosystem and landscape research: scientific challenges and opportunities” lists three fundamental substantive areas of research that are involved: Forest management and practices, Ecosystem processes and functional ecology, and Environmental economics and sociology. This paper argues that there are essential catalytic elements missing! Without these elements there is great danger that the aimed-for world leadership in the forest sciences will not materialize. What are the missing elements? All the sciences, and in particular biology, environmental sciences, sociology, economics, and forestry have evolved so that they include good scientific methodology. Good methodology is imperative in both the design and analysis of research studies, the management of research data, and in the interpretation of research finding. The methodological disciplines of Statistics, Modelling and Informatics (“SMI”) are crucial elements in a proposed Centre of European Forest Science, and the full involvement of professionals in these methodological disciplines is needed if the research of the Centre is to be world-class. Distributed Virtual Institute (DVI) for Statistics, Modelling and Informatics in Forestry and the Environment (SMIFE) is a consortium with the aim of providing world-class methodological support and collaboration to European research in the areas of Forestry and the Environment. It is suggested that DVI: SMIFE should be a formal partner in the proposed Centre for European Forest Science.

[Review] M. Feistauer, J. Felcman, I. Straskbraba, Mathematical and Computational Methods for Compressible Flow, Oxford Science Publication, Oxford, ISBN 0198505884, 2004 (535pp.)

The growth of computer power allows the solution of complex problems related to compressible flow, which is an important class of problems in modern day CFD. Over the last 15 years or so, many review works on CFD have been published. This book concerns both mathematical and numerical methods for compressible flow. In particular, it provides a clear cut introduction as well as in depth treatment of modern numerical methods in CFD. This book is organised in two parts. The first part consists of Chapters 1 and 2, and is mainly devoted to theoretical discussions and results. Chapter 1 concerns fundamental physical concepts and theoretical results in gas dynamics. Chapter 2 describes the basic mathematical theory of compressible flow using the inviscid Euler equations and the viscous Navier–Stokes equations. Existence and uniqueness results are also included. The second part consists of modern numerical methods for the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations. Chapter 3 is devoted entirely to the finite volume method for the numerical solution of the Euler equations and covers fundamental concepts such as order of numerical schemes, stability and high-order schemes. The finite volume method is illustrated for 1-D as well as multidimensional Euler equations. Chapter 4 covers the theory of the finite element method and its application to compressible flow. A section is devoted to the combined finite volume–finite element method, and its background theory is also included. Throughout the book numerous examples have been included to demonstrate the numerical methods. The book provides a good insight into the numerical schemes, theoretical analysis, and validation of test problems. It is a very useful reference for applied mathematicians, numerical analysts, and practice engineers. It is also an important reference for postgraduate researchers in the field of scientific computing and CFD.

Discourse and soul: Jung, literature, science and tragedy as mythical writing

This paper will propose that literature and science, far from being discrete spheres of cultural activity, are, in fact, the cultural expressions of interlocking myths. They therefore overlap and even take each other’s places, as examination of the ‘science’ of C.G. Jung and the ‘art’ of a writer such as John Cowper Powys, will show. ‘Dis-course’, I argue, is the material aspect of the mythical structuring of psychic experience. In the work of Jung and Powys, discourse is the articulation of the soul in the world that spans personal, social, natural and cosmic space. [From the Author]

'Bowing from the heart': an investigation into discourses of professionalism and the work of caring for students in further education

Since their incorporation in 1993, further education (FE) colleges in England have been responsible for their own staffing and, faced with funding constraints as well as recruitment and retention targets, some have introduced a new category of staff referred to here as 'learning support workers' (LSWs). Though their employment conditions and specific duties vary considerably, LSWs' work often includes providing individual care for students. In this small-scale study, using semi-structured interviews, the perceptions of some teachers and LSWs about the nature of their relationships with each other and with students are investigated. The study is set broadly in the context of debates about the impact of public sector reform on FE colleges and teachers. A discourse analysis approach is adopted in discussion of the data. The authors conclude that although they are differently positioned in relation to traditional discourses of professionalism, both teachers and LSWs are perceived to be carrying out what Hochschild termed 'emotional labour'. The contradictory nature of emotional labour is also highlighted. Some of the implications of employing a new group of workers in FE are discussed.

Environmental science and sustainability: some critical thoughts

Environmental science is often described as an interdisciplinary subject, but one firmly grounded in positivist science. Less well recognized is the idea that interdisciplinarity actually challenges fundamental conceptions concerning how reality is understood from an orthodox science perspective. Drawing on recent non-dualism (or post-natural) literature, it is suggested in this paper that there is a need for greater awareness and debate concerning the underlying challenges that ideas of interdisciplinarity and holism present for environmental science. It is argued by aligning environmental science more strongly with non-dualistic traditions (spanning the sciences, arts and religion), fundamental issues are raised concerning how reality is understood and what constitutes valid research methodologies. The concept of intrinsic value is used as one example of the way non-dualistic theory can open up new territories for exploring reality.

Conference report: 7th Annual Congress of International Drug Discovery Science and Technology

This is a report on the 7th Annual Congress of International Drug Discovery Science and Technology held in Shanghai, China from 22–25 October, 2009. The conference, organized by BIT Life Sciences, comprised several parallel sessions, keynote presentations and a selection of selection of 20-minute presentations covering a range of therapeutic areas, including general medicinal chemistry, oncology, inflammation, receptors and ion channels, drug, metabolism and pharmokinetics, and fragment-based drug discovery. There were also sessions devoted to genomics, biomarkers, immunology, cell biology, molecular imaging and biochips. Supported by an exhibition of services/products and posters, the conference underlined the marked presence of Asian CROs.