Social rules for managing attempted interpersonal domination in the workplace: Influence of status and gender.

The present study utilized a social rules approach to investigate the relative influence of gender and status on managers' self-evaluations of their effectiveness in handling a dominating subordinate. In the first study 84 White middle-class participants identified the prescriptive and proscriptive rules for socially appropriate responding to a stimulus situation involving a pushy subordinate. Four rule sets were identified for female and male managers and subordinates, respectively. Rule-sets shared a number of common rules and showed some variation according to gender roles. In the second study, 91 White middle-class participants rated the individual rules for importance and also rated their personal and managerial effectiveness when responding to the stimulus situation using gender- and status-consistent and gender-and status-inconsistent response strategies. Both men and women rated the female gender and status- consistent strategy as most effective, and rated the status-inconsistent strategy as less effective than a gender-inconsistent response. Results were interpreted as providing more support for a situational gender-related theory of workplace behavior, rather than a traditional gender role perspective.

Impact of osteoarthritis on individuals and society: how much disability? Social consequences and health economic implications

Osteoarthritis is a major cause of disability in both the developed and developing world. With the population aging, the prevalence of osteoarthritis is increasing and its consequences are impacting significantly on society. This is one of the reasons why osteoarthritis has been adopted as a major focus (along with osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, back pain, and musculoskeletal trauma) by the global initiative-the Decade of Bone and Joint Disease. Adequate studies on the costs of osteoarthritis are urgently required so that cogent arguments can be made to governments to appropriately fund prevention and treatment programs for this condition. Its recognition as a major cause of disability, particularly in the aging population, should increase community focus on this important condition. (C) 2002 Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Inc.

Divorce, dispersal and incest avoidance in the cooperatively breeding superb fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus

1. Between 1988 and 2001, we studied social relationships in the superb fairy-wren Malurus cyaneus (Latham), a cooperative breeder with male helpers in which extra-group fertilizations are more common than within-pair fertilizations. 2. Unlike other fairy-wren species, females never bred on their natal territory. First-year females dispersed either directly from their natal territory to a breeding vacancy or to a foreign 'staging-post' territory where they spent their first winter as a subordinate. Females dispersing to a foreign territory settled in larger groups. Females on foreign territories inherited the territory if the dominant female died, and were sometimes able to split the territory into two by pairing with a helper male. However, most dispersed again to obtain a vacancy. 3. Females dispersing from a staging post usually gained a neighbouring vacancy, but females gaining a vacancy directly from their natal territory travelled further, perhaps to avoid pairing or mating with related males. 4. Females frequently divorced their partner, although the majority of relationships were terminated by the death of one of the pair. If death did not intervene, one-third of pairings were terminated by female-initiated divorce within 1000 days. 5. Three divorce syndromes were recognized. First, females that failed to obtain a preferred territory moved to territories with more helpers. Secondly, females that became paired to their sons when their partner died usually divorced away from them. Thirdly, females that have been in a long relationship divorce once a son has gained the senior helper position. 6. Dispersal to avoid pairing with sons is consistent with incest avoidance. However, there may be two additional benefits. Mothers do not mate with their sons, so dispersal by the mother liberates her sons to compete for within-group matings. Further, divorcing once their son has become a breeder or a senior helper allows the female to start sons in a queue for dominance on another territory. Females that do not take this option face constraints on their ability to recruit more sons into the local neighbourhood.

Relations between high and low power groups: The importance of legitimacy

Using a social identity perspective, two experiments examined the effects of power and the legitimacy of power differentials on intergroup bias. In Experiment 1, 125 math-science students were led to believe that they had high or low representation in a university decision-making body relative to social-science students and that this power position was either legitimate or illegitimate. Power did not have an independent effect on bias; rather, members of both high and low power groups showed more bias when the power hierarchy was illegitimate than when it was legitimate. This effect was replicated in Experiment 2 (N =105). In addition, Experiment 2 showed that groups located within an unfair power hierarchy expected the superordinate power body to be more discriminatory than did those who had legitimately high or low power. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for group relations.

Measuring range of active cervical rotation in a position of full head flexion using the 3D Fastrak measurement system: an intra-tester reliability study

Most external assessments of cervical range of motion assess the upper and lower cervical regions simultaneously. This study investigated the within and between days reliability of the clinical method used to bias this movement to the upper cervical region, namely measuring rotation of the head and neck in a position of full cervical flexion. Measurements were made using the Fastrak measurement system and were conducted by one operator. Results indicated high levels of within and between days repeatability (range of ICC2,1 values: 0.85-0.95). The ranges of axial rotation to right and left, measured with the neck positioned in full flexion, were approximately 56% and 50%, respectively of total cervical rotation, which relates well to the proportional division of rotation in the upper and lower cervical regions. These results suggest that this method of measuring rotation would be appropriate for use in subject studies where movement dysfunction is present in the upper cervical region, such as those with cervicogenic headache. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Respiratory health effects of cannabis: Position statement of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand

Both the gaseous and the particulate phases of tobacco and cannabis smoke contain a similar range of harmful chemicals. However, differing patterns of inhalation mean that smoking a 'joint' of cannabis results in exposure to significantly greater amounts of combusted material than with a tobacco cigarette. The histopathological effects of cannabis smoke exposure include changes consistent with acute and chronic bronchitis. Cellular dysplasia has also been observed, suggesting that, like tobacco smoke, cannabis exposure has the potential to cause malignancy. These features are consistent with the clinical presentation. Symptoms of cough and early morning sputum production are common (20-25%) even in young individuals who smoke cannabis alone. Almost all studies indicate that the effects of cannabis and tobacco smoking are additive and independent. Public health education should dispel the myth that cannabis smoking is relatively safe by highlighting that the adverse respiratory effects of smoking cannabis are similar to those of smoking tobacco, even although it remains to be confirmed that smoking cannabis alone leads to the development of chronic lung disease.