Gender, Professional Networks, and Subjective Career Success within Early Academic Science Careers: The Role of Gender Composition in Inside and Outside Departmental Support Networks

The present study analyzed (a) gender differences in the gender composition (i.e., the proportion of male to female contacts) of professional support networks inside and outside an individual’s academic department and (b) how these differences in gender composition relate to subjective career success (i.e., perceived career success and perceived external marketability). Results showed that the networks’ gender composition is associated with subjective career success. Men’s networks consist of a higher proportion of male to female supporters, which, in turn, was positively related to subjective career success. Additional analyses revealed that the findings could not be accounted for by alternative factors, such as network size, networking behaviors, and career ambition.

The relationship between competencies acquired through Swiss academic sports science courses and the job requirements

In view of the changes in and growing variety of sports-related occupations, it is highly relevant for educational institutions 10 to know how well the educational contents of their sport science courses meet the professional requirements. This study analyses the relationship between the competencies acquired through academic sports science courses and the requirements of the relevant jobs in Switzerland. The data for this empirical analysis were drawn from a sample of n = 1054 graduates of different academic sport science programmes at all eight Swiss universities. The results show that academic sport science courses primarily communicate sports-specific expertise and practical sports skills. On the other hand, most graduates consider that the acquisition of interdisciplinary competencies plays a comparatively minor role in sport science education, even though these competencies are felt to be an important requirement in a variety of work-related environments and challenges.

Validation of the Valve Academic Research Consortium Bleeding Definition in Patients With Severe Aortic Stenosis Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

BACKGROUND The Valve Academic Research Consortium (VARC) has proposed a standardized definition of bleeding in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve interventions (TAVI). The VARC bleeding definition has not been validated or compared to other established bleeding definitions so far. Thus, we aimed to investigate the impact of bleeding and compare the predictivity of VARC bleeding events with established bleeding definitions. METHODS AND RESULTS Between August 2007 and April 2012, 489 consecutive patients with severe aortic stenosis were included into the Bern-TAVI-Registry. Every bleeding complication was adjudicated according to the definitions of VARC, BARC, TIMI, and GUSTO. Periprocedural blood loss was added to the definition of VARC, providing a modified VARC definition. A total of 152 bleeding events were observed during the index hospitalization. Bleeding severity according to VARC was associated with a gradual increase in mortality, which was comparable to the BARC, TIMI, GUSTO, and the modified VARC classifications. The predictive precision of a multivariable model for mortality at 30 days was significantly improved by adding the most serious bleeding of VARC (area under the curve [AUC], 0.773; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.706 to 0.839), BARC (AUC, 0.776; 95% CI, 0.694 to 0.857), TIMI (AUC, 0.768; 95% CI, 0.692 to 0.844), and GUSTO (AUC, 0.791; 95% CI, 0.714 to 0.869), with the modified VARC definition resulting in the best predictivity (AUC, 0.814; 95% CI, 0.759 to 0.870). CONCLUSIONS The VARC bleeding definition offers a severity stratification that is associated with a gradual increase in mortality and prognostic information comparable to established bleeding definitions. Adding the information of periprocedural blood loss to VARC may increase the sensitivity and the predictive power of this classification.