Work-place social capital and smoking cessation: The Finnish Public Sector Study

AIMS:
To examine whether high social capital at work is associated with an increased likelihood of smoking cessation in baseline smokers.
DESIGN:
Prospective cohort study.
SETTING:
Finland.
PARTICIPANTS:
A total of 4853 employees who reported to be smokers in the baseline survey in 2000-2002 (response rate 68%) and responded to a follow-up survey on smoking status in 2004-2005 (response rate 77%).
MEASUREMENTS:
Work-place social capital was assessed using a validated and psychometrically tested eight-item measure. Control variables included sex, age, socio-economic position, marital status, place of work, heavy drinking, physical activity, body mass index and physician-diagnosed depression.
FINDINGS:
In multi-level logistic regression models adjusted for all the covariates, the odds for being a non-smoker at follow-up were 1.26 [95% confidence interval (CI)=1.03-1.55] times higher for baseline smokers who reported high individual-level social capital than for their counterparts with low social capital. In an analysis stratified by socio-economic position, a significant association between individual-level social capital and smoking cessation was observed in the high socio-economic group [odds ratio (OR) (95% CI)=1.63 (1.01-2.63)], but not in intermediate [(OR=1.10 (0.83-1.47)] or low socio-economic groups [(OR=1.28 (0.86-1.91)]. Work unit-level social capital was not associated with smoking cessation.
CONCLUSIONS:
If the observed associations are causal, these findings suggest that high perceived social capital at work may facilitate smoking cessation among smokers in higher-status jobs.

The importance that community pharmacists in Malta place on the introduction of pharmaceutical care

The results from a study to assess the importance Maltese pharmacists placed on various aspects of pharmaceutical care and their willingness to provide such care are reported. A modified version of the Behavioural Pharmaceutical Care Scale (BPCS) questionnaire (consisting of three dimensions and 14 domains) was mailed to the 198 privately owned community pharmacies in Malta. A total of 99 questionnaires were returned following two reminder telephone calls.

The birth place of the type Ic supernova 2007gr

We report our attempts to locate the progenitor of the peculiar Type Ic SN 2007gr in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) preexplosion images of the host galaxy, NGC 1058. Aligning adaptive optics Altair/NIRI imaging of SN 2007gr from the Gemini ( North) Telescope with the preexplosion HST WFPC2 images, we identify the supernova (SN) position on the HST frames with an accuracy of 20 mas. Although nothing is detected at the SN position, we show that it lies on the edge of a bright source 134 +/- 23 mas (6.9 pc) from its nominal center. On the basis of its luminosity, we suggest that this object is possibly an unresolved, compact, and coeval cluster and that the SN progenitor was a cluster member, although we note that model profile fitting favors a single bright star. We find two solutions for the age of this assumed cluster: 7 -/+ 0.5 Myr and 20 - 30 Myr, with turnoff masses of 28 +/- M-circle dot and 12 - 9 M-circle dot, respectively. Preexplosion ground-based K- band images marginally favor the younger cluster 4 age/higher turnoff mass. Assuming the SN progenitor was a cluster member, the turnoff mass provides the best estimate for its initial mass. More detailed observations, after the SN has faded, should determine whether the progenitor was indeed part of a cluster and, if so, allow an age estimate to within similar to 2 Myr, thereby favoring either a high-mass single star or lower-mass interacting binary progenitor.

Revolt and Revolution: the place of Islamism

The outbreak of revolt and revolution in the Middle East has given rise to a re-consideration of threat and security analyses as they pertain to the region and beyond. The resilience of some authoritarian regimes and the rapid collapse of others signal a significant transition within the region to which jihadi Islamist groups form one part of a powerful matrix. This article analyses the part and place of jihadi Islamism and Islamisms more generally in the revolts and revolutions. The article contends that events provide both opportunities and threats in strategies aimed at countering terrorism in the Middle East.

Sexing up the city in the international beauty contest: the performative nature of spatial planning and the fictive spectacle of place branding

This paper responds to recent calls for more academic research and critical discussion on the relationship between spatial planning and city branding. Through the lens of Liverpool, the article analyses how key planning projects have delivered major transformations in the city's built environment and cultural landscape. More specifically, in concentrating on the performative nature of spatial planning it reveals the physical, symbolic and discursive re-imaging of Liverpool into a 'world class city'. Another aspect of the paper presents important socioeconomic datasets and offers a critical reading of the re-branding in showing how it presents an inaccurate representation of Liverpool. The evidence provided indicates that a more accurate label for Liverpool is a polarised and divided city, thereby questioning the fictive spectacle of city branding. Finally, the paper ends with some critical commentary on the role of spatial planning as an accessory to the sophistry of city branding.

A Place Apart

Interview for website

Montserrat Place and Monsrat neaga:An Example of Impressionistic Autoethnography

This is an impressionistic tale from the field. It is a composite of fieldwork days, the dramatic recall of ethnographic work on Montserrat, a British Dependent Territory in the Eastern Caribbean. At the tail-end of my fieldwork research period, I was evacuated from the island as a volcano erupted, eventually destroying almost all of where this piece is set - where the ethnography was practised. Though this is not salvage ethnography, there is thus an element of reconstruction to this piece, of paradise regained. On Montserrat, neaga is a term with derogatory connotations, but it is also an inclusive term referring to folk. This experimental insight into doing ethnography, autoethnography in this case, is dedicated to Pippa and those who have been killed and displaced by the volcano.