Accent accommodation in the job interview - Impact of interviewer accent and gender

Using the framework of Communication Accommodation Theory, this study investigated the extent to which job applicants objectively and subjectively altered their accents to converge to or diverge from the speech style of the interviewer Forty-eight male and 48 female job applicants participated in two interviews for a casual research assistant position. In one interview, the interviewer had a broad Australian English accent, and in the other one, the interviewer had a cultivated accent. Applicants showed broader accents with broad-accented interviewers than with cultivated-accented interviewers. Applicants did not converge to the cultivated-accented interviewers, however and male job applicants were more likely than mere females to diverge from the cultivated-accented interviewers. There were also discrepancies between objectively rated changes to applicants' accents and their subjective judgments about the extent of accent accommodation.

Growth hormone-binding protein in normal and pathologic gestation: Correlations with maternal diabetes and fetal growth

To date, measurements of GH-binding protein (GHBP) during human pregnancy have been carried out using;assays susceptible to interference by the elevated levels of human placental GH typical of late gestation. We recruited a large cohort of pregnant women (n = 140) for serial measurements of GHBP and used the ligand immunofunctional assay for GHBP. For normal gravidas, GHBP levels fell throughout gestation. Mean levels were 1.07 nmol/L (SE = 0.18) in the first trimester, 0.90 nmol/L (SE = 0.08) at 18-20 weeks, 0.73 nmol/L (SE = 0.05) at 28-30 weeks, and 0.62 nmol/L (SE = 0.06) at 36-38 weeks. GHBP levels in the first trimester correlated significantly with maternal body mass index (r = 0.58; P < 0.01). GHBP levels in pregnancies complicated by noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) were substantially elevated at all gestational ages. The mean value in the first quarter (2.29 nmol/L) was more than double the normal mean (P < 0.01). In contrast, patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) showed reduced GHBP concentrations at 36-38 weeks. The correlation between body mass index and GHBP is consistent with a metabolic role for GHBP during pregnancy, as is the dramatic elevation in GHBP observed in cases of NIDDM. At 36 weeks gestation, GHBP was significantly elevated (P < 0.01) in those women whose neonates had low birth weight (

Gender equality and participation in housework: A cross-national perspective

This paper examines men's and women's participation in housework in the United States, Sweden, Norway, Canada and Australia. While there has been considerable research into the factors relating to the division of housework between husbands and wives within countries, very little research has examined the way in which housework patterns vary across countries. The results show that women continue to undertake the bulk of domestic labor in all five countries, and that the factors determining men's and women's participation in housework do not vary markedly across countries. This suggests that variations across countries in levels of gender equality at a broader level have only very limited effects on levels of gender equality in the home.