Factors associated with educational aspirations among adolescents: cues to counteract socioeconomic differences?

Our study aims to follow this effort and to explore the association between health, socioeconomic background, school-related factors, social support and adolescents' sense of coherence and educational aspirations among adolescents from different educational tracks and to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the role of educational aspirations in the social reproduction of health inequalities. We expect that socioeconomic background will contribute to the development of educational aspirations, but this association will be modified by available social and individual resources, which may be particularly favourable for the group of adolescents who are on lower educational tracks, since for them such resources may lead to gaining a higher educational level.

Gender Stereotypes and Gendered Vocational Aspirations among Secondary School Students

Research Topic/Aim: Horizontal gender inequalities appear to be rather stable, with girls more often choosing ‘female' service professions, and boys choosing career paths related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics, since measures to bring more women into typical ‘male' jobs and more men into typical ‘female' jobs did not turn out to be sustainable. This paper focuses on gender stereotypes, namely non-egalitarian patriarchal gender-role orientations and gender associations of the school subjects German and mathematics. Dealing with and abolishing such gender stereotypes may be key strategy to reach sustainability regarding more equal vocational choices. Thus, gender stereotypes will be theorised and empirically analysed as a major predictor of gender-typical vocational perspectives considering interest in these school subjects as a mediating factor. Furthermore, we focus on structural patriarchy as a root of gender-role orientations, and teacher gender regarding its impact on gendered images of subjects. Theoretical and methodology framework: Our analyses of gender segregation in vocational aspirations and vocational choice center on Gottfredson's (2002; Gottfredson and Becker, 1981) Theory of Circumscription, Compromise and Self-Creation. One of the main assumptions of this theory is that people associate jobs with particular sexes and those jobs that do not fit particular gender roles are not considered. Empirical analyses are based on survey data of eighth-graders in the Swiss canton of Bern (N = 672). Structural Equation Models (SEM) for male and female students are estimated. Conclusions/Findings: Results reveal different patterns for boys and girls; for boys, gender-typical (male) vocational perspective could be explained via gender role orientations, interest in mathematics and gender associations of the school subjects, for girls, the factors under consideration could be empirically linked to ‘atypical vocational perspective'. Relevance to Nordic educational research: The study focuses on gender relations in society and how they are reproduced. Gender segregation in vocational choice and at the labour market is a universal issue - affecting both egalitarian and non-egalitarian gender regimes in similar ways. Although in general Northern countries appear to be more equal regarding gender inequality, gender segregation is rather persistent (Jarman, Blackburn and Brooks, 2012) and therefore remains a relevant topic.

Swiss Adolescents' Career Aspirations: Influence of Context, Age, and Career Adaptability

This study investigated the content, realism, stability, and coherence of the career aspirations of 262 students in seventh grade in Switzerland (ages 13-15 years). The content analysis revealed that 82% of the participants named at least one realistic career aspiration, and aspirations showed clear resemblance to existing opportunities in the environment. Quantitative analyses confirmed the hypotheses that realism and stability of aspirations over a 10-month period could better be predicted by individual degree of career adaptability as measured by planfulness and exploration than by chronological age when grade level was controlled for. Coherence of aspirations was not related to age or adaptability. Students attending basic scholastic requirements school tracks reported more adaptability but not more realistic, stable, or coherent aspirations compared to students in advanced requirements tracks.

Poor performance of microbiological sampling in the prediction of recurrent arthroplasty infection

During a two-stage revision for prosthetic joint infections (PJI), joint aspirations, open tissue sampling and serum inflammatory markers are performed before re-implantation to exclude ongoing silent infection. We investigated the performance of these diagnostic procedures on the risk of recurrence of PJI among asymptomatic patients undergoing a two-stage revision. A total of 62 PJI were found in 58 patients. All patients had intra-operative surgical exploration during re-implantation, and 48 of them had intra-operative microbiological swabs. Additionally, 18 joint aspirations and one open biopsy were performed before second-stage reimplantation. Recurrence or persistence of PJI occurred in 12 cases with a mean delay of 218 days after re-implantation, but only four pre- or intraoperative invasive joint samples had grown a pathogen in cultures. In at least seven recurrent PJIs (58%), patients had a normal C-reactive protein (CRP, < 10 mg/l) level before re-implantation. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values of pre-operative invasive joint aspiration and CRP for the prediction of PJI recurrence was 0.58, 0.88, 0.5, 0.84 and 0.17, 0.81, 0.13, 0.86, respectively. As a conclusion, pre-operative joint aspiration, intraoperative bacterial sampling, surgical exploration and serum inflammatory markers are poor predictors of PJI recurrence. The onset of reinfection usually occurs far later than reimplantation.

Swiss residents' speciality choices--impact of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goals

BACKGROUND: The medical specialties chosen by doctors for their careers play an important part in the development of health-care services. This study aimed to investigate the influence of gender, personality traits, career motivation and life goal aspirations on the choice of medical specialty. METHODS: As part of a prospective cohort study of Swiss medical school graduates on career development, 522 fourth-year residents were asked in what specialty they wanted to qualify. They also assessed their career motivation and life goal aspirations. Data concerning personality traits such as sense of coherence, self-esteem, and gender role orientation were collected at the first assessment, four years earlier, in their final year of medical school. Data analyses were conducted by univariate and multivariate analyses of variance and covariance. RESULTS: In their fourth year of residency 439 (84.1%) participants had made their specialty choice. Of these, 45 (8.6%) subjects aspired to primary care, 126 (24.1%) to internal medicine, 68 (13.0%) to surgical specialties, 31 (5.9%) to gynaecology & obstetrics (G&O), 40 (7.7%) to anaesthesiology/intensive care, 44 (8.4%) to paediatrics, 25 (4.8%) to psychiatry and 60 (11.5%) to other specialties. Female residents tended to choose G&O, paediatrics, and anaesthesiology, males more often surgical specialties; the other specialties did not show gender-relevant differences of frequency distribution. Gender had the strongest significant influence on specialty choice, followed by career motivation, personality traits, and life goals. Multivariate analyses of covariance indicated that career motivation and life goals mediated the influence of personality on career choice. Personality traits were no longer significant after controlling for career motivation and life goals as covariates. The effect of gender remained significant after controlling for personality traits, career motivation and life goals. CONCLUSION: Gender had the greatest impact on specialty and career choice, but there were also two other relevant influencing factors, namely career motivation and life goals. Senior physicians mentoring junior physicians should pay special attention to these aspects. Motivational guidance throughout medical training should not only focus on the professional career but also consider the personal life goals of those being mentored.

Let’s collaborate, but I will be the first author! Exploring the importance of the first authorship for IS researchers

Collaboration among researchers is typically seen as the quintessence of academic excellence, leading to improvements in the research quality, capitalization on the diversity of perspectives and gains in productivity. Despite these benefits, many research teams find themselves torn by competition, antagonism and resentment. Desire to be the first author and resultant underperformance of non-first co-authors is often at the root of these conflicts. At the same time little is known about what motivates researchers in general and IS researchers in particular to engage as first authors. To fill this gap, this study uses survey methodology to explore the attitudes of IS researchers and their resulting behavior when it comes to authors order. Qualitative and quantitative evidence collected from 398 IS researchers is used to support our analysis. We find that researchers’ desire to be the first authors is mainly driven by such determinants as career aspirations, visibility, leadership and sense of ownership, and less so by the desire to satisfy their self-esteem and self-actualization needs. In addition, the value placed on being the first author appears to be the function of researchers’ career level, with Ph.D. students attaching significantly higher value to it than senior scholars.

The Swiss Schools have been Governed by Local Lay Authorities

After the introduction of the liberal-democratic constitutions in the Swiss cantons in the first half of the 1830ies the grid of existing schools has been systemized and broadly expanded. The school systems have ever since been characterized by one key element: a special local authority type called „Schulkommission“ or „Schulpflege“. They take the form of committees consisting of laymen that are appointed by democratic elections like all the other executive bodies on the different federal levels in Switzerland. When it comes to their obligations and activities these community level school committees conform very much to the school boards in the American and Canadian school systems. They are accountable for the selection and supervision of the teachers. They approve decisions about the school careers of pupils and about curricular matters like the choice of school books. Normally their members are elected by the local voters for four year terms of office (reelection remains possible) and with regard to pedagogics they normally are non-professionals. The board members are responsible for classes and teachers assigned to them and they have to go to see them periodically. These visitations and the board meetings each month together with the teachers enable the board members to attain a deep insight into what happens in their schools over the course of their term of office. But they are confronted as laymen with a professional teaching staff and with educational experts in the public administration. Nevertheless this form of executive power by non-professionals is constitutive for the state governance in the Swiss as well as in other national political environments. It corresponds to the principles of subsidiarity and militia and therefore allows for a strong accentuation of liberty and the right of self-determination, two axioms at the very base of democratic federalist ideology. This governance architecture with this strong accent on local anchorage features substantial advantages for the legitimacy and acceptability of political and administrative decisions. And this is relevant especially in the educational area because the rearing of the offspring is a project of hope and, besides, quite costly. In the public opinion such supervision bodies staffed by laymen seem to have certain credibility advances in comparison with the professional administration. They are given credit to be capable of impeding the waste of common financial resources and of warranting the protection and the fostering of the community’s children at once. Especially because of their non-professional character they are trusted to be reliably immune against organizational blindness and they seem to be able to defend the interests of the local community against the standardization and centralization aspirations originating from the administrational expertocracy. In the paper these common rationales will be underpinned by results of a comprehensive historical analysis of the Session protocols of three Bernese school commissions from 1835 to 2005.

Statistical Methods and the Meaning of Probabilities. A Philosopher Looks at Statistics

The talk starts out with a short introduction to the philosophy of probability. I highlight the need to interpret probabilities in the sciences and motivate objectivist accounts of probabilities. Very roughly, according to such accounts, ascriptions of probabilities have truth-conditions that are independent of personal interests and needs. But objectivist accounts are pointless if they do not provide an objectivist epistemology, i.e., if they do not determine well-defined methods to support or falsify claims about probabilities. In the rest of the talk I examine recent philosophical proposals for an objectivist methodology. Most of them take up ideas well-known from statistics. I nevertheless find some proposals incompatible with objectivist aspirations.

Trade and Culture : Keep the Border Fuzzy, Please

The relationship between trade and culture can be singled-out and deservedly labelled as unique in the discussion of 'trade and ...' issues. The reasons for this exceptional quality lie in the intensity of the relationship, which is indeed most often framed as 'trade versus culture' and has been a significant stumbling block, especially as audiovisual services are concerned, in the Uruguay Round and in the subsequent developments. The second specificity of the relationship is that the international community has organised its efforts in a rather effective manner to offset the lack of satisfying solutions within the framework of the WTO. The legally binding UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions is a clear sign of the potency of the international endeavour, on the one hand, and of the (almost desperate) desire to contest the existing WTO norms in the field of trade and culture, on the other. A third distinctive characteristic of the pair 'trade and culture', which is rarely mentioned and blissfully ignored in any Geneva or Paris talks, is that while the pro-trade and pro-culture opponents have been digging deeper in their respective trenches, the environment where trade and cultural issues are to be regulated has radically changed. The emergence and spread of digital technologies have modified profoundly the conditions for cultural content creation, distribution and access, and rendered some of the associated market failures obsolete, thus mitigating to a substantial degree the 'clash' nature of trade and culture. Against this backdrop, the present paper analyses in a finer-grained manner the move from 'trade and culture' towards 'trade versus culture'. It argues that both the domain of trade and that of culture have suffered from the aspirations to draw clearer lines between the WTO and other trade-related issues, charging the conflict to an extent that leaves few opportunities for practical solutions, which in an advanced digital setting would have been feasible.

The European Union, the World Trade Organization and Cultural Diversity

The chapter maps these trade versus culture developments in the WTO and the positions of the European Union (EU or the Union) and its member states, which were not always coherent. It also looks at the actual results of the trade versus culture contestation – that is, the rules on trade in goods and services in the WTO and how they reflect the need for more policy space in matters of cultural policy, which the EU so ardently pressed for. The chapter further analyses the evolution of both the international trade regulation and the discourse on cultural policy. This discourse has in fact undergone a major transformation in the last two decades, as it has moved from the ‘exception culturelle’ rhetoric, which dominated the Uruguay trade talks, towards a more positive but also more pro-active agenda under the slogan of cultural diversity. The EU has been a major driver of this transformation, which has succeeded in mobilising the international community and ultimately led to the adoption of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The chapter concludes by appraisal of the current state of the debate situating it into the broader picture of contemporary global governance. It asks how the EU could effectively pursue its cultural policy aspirations and endorse its cultural diversity agenda in a world of complexity and rapid technological change, in particular in view of the affordances of digital media.

Suitability of Common Collagen Scaffolds for Anterior Cruciate Ligament Repair

Introduction: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are very common; in Germany incidence of ACL ruptures is estimated at 32 per 100 000 in the general population and in the sports community this rate more than doubles. Current gold standard for anterior cruciate lig- ament repair is reconstruction using an autograft [1]. However, this approach has shown some limitations. A new method has been her- alded by the Knee Team at the Bern University Hospital (Inselspital) and the Sonnenhof clinic called Dynamic Intraligamentary Stabilization (DIS), which keeps ACL remnants in place in order to promote biologi- cal healing and makes use of a dynamic screw system [2]. The aim of this study was to investigate the cytocompatibility of collagen patches in combination with DIS to support regeneration of the ACL. The spe- cific hypothesis we tested was whether MSCs would differentiate towards TCs in co-culture. Materials and methods: Primary Tenocytes (TCs) and human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were harvested from ACL removed during knee prothesis or from bone marrow aspirations (Ethical Permit 187/10). Cells were seeded on two types of three dimensional carriers currently approved for cartilage repair, Novocart (NC, B. Brown) and Chondro-Gide (CG, Geistlich). These scaffolds comprise collagen structures with interconnecting pores originally developed for seeding of chondrocytes in the case of CG. ~40k cells were seeded on punched zylindrical cores of 8 mm in Ø and cultured on CG or NC patches for up to 7 days. The cells were either cultured as TC only, MSC only or co-cultured in a 1:1 mix on the scaffolds and on both sides of culture inserts (PET, high density pore Ø 0.4 mm, BD, Fal- con) with cell-cell contact. We monitored DNA content, GAG and HOP-content, tracked the cells using DIL and DIO fluorescent dyes (Molecular Probes, Life technologies) and confocal laser scanning and SEM microscopy as well as RT-PCR of tenocyte specific markers (i.e. col 1 and 3, TNC, TNMD, SCXA&B, and markers of dedifferentiation ACAN, col2, MMP3, MMP13). Finally, H&E stain was interpreted on cryosections and SEM images of cells on the scaffold were taken. Results: ThecLSMimagesshowedcellproliferationoverthe7dayson both matrices, however, on CG there were much fewer MSCs attached than on NC. SEM images showed a roundish chondrocyte-like pheno- type of cells on CG whereas on NC the phenotype was more teno- cyte-like (Fig. 1). Gene expression of both, MSC and TC seem to confirm a more favorable environment in 3D for both patches rather than monolayer control.

Using Accuracy of Self-Estimated Interest-Type as a Sign of Career Choice Readiness in Career Assessment of Secondary Students

A frequent applied method in career assessment to elicit clients’ self-concepts is asking them to predict their interest assessment results. Accuracy in estimating one’s interesttype is commonly taken as a sign of more self-awareness and career choice readiness. The study evaluated the empirical relation of accuracy of self-estimation to career choice readiness within a sample of 350 Swiss secondary students in seventh grade. Overall, accuracy showed only weak relations to career choice readiness. However, accurately estimating one’s first interest-type in a three-letter RIASEC interests-code emerged as a sign of more vocational identity and total career choice readiness. Accuracy also correlated positively with interest profile consistency, differentiation, and congruence to career aspirations. Implications of the results for career counseling and assessment practice are presented.

Holland's secondary constructs of vocational interests and career choice readiness of secondary students

The study examined the relationship between the secondary constructs of Holland’s (1997) theory of vocational interests and career choice readiness [career maturity] attitudes with 358 Swiss secondary students. The hypothesis was tested that the secondary constructs consistency, coherence, differentiation, and congruence are measures for the degree of vocational interest development. Thus, they should belong to the content domain in career choice readiness and should show meaningful relations to career choice readiness attitudes. The hypothesis was confirmed for congruence, coherence, and differentiation. Interest profile consistency showed no relation to career choice readiness attitudes. Vocational identity emerged as a direct measure for career choice readiness attitudes. Realism of career aspirations was related to career choice readiness attitudes and coherence of career aspirations. Profile elevation was positively connected to more career planning and career exploration. Differences between gender, ethnicity, and school-types are presented. Implications for career counselling and assessment practice are discussed.

Geschlechtsspezifische Berufswünsche und Ausbildungsentscheidungen

Dass es geschlechtstypische Berufe gibt, und dass die Berufsaspirationen und die Wahl der Berufsausbildung nach der Pflichtschulzeit zwischen den Geschlechtern deutlich differieren, ist eine vielfach empirisch belegte Tatsache. Diese geschlechtstypische Segregation bei der Berufswahl und der zum ausgewählten Beruf führenden schulischen und beruflichen Ausbildung wird bei der Erklärung oftmals (pauschal) auf die geschlechtsspezifische Sozialisation und darin vermittelte Geschlechterstereotype zurückgeführt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden aus strukturell-individualistischer Sicht Mechanismen der geschlechtstypischen Berufsaspiration und Berufsbildungsentscheidung beschrieben, die theoriegeleitet empirisch aufgedeckt werden sollen. Für die Analysen werden Daten der drei Wellen des DAB-Panels verwendet, die für die Deutschschweiz Informationen von 203 Schulklassen mit rund 3.300 Schülerinnen und Schüler zur Verfügung stellen. Mittels dieser Paneldaten wird für Jugendliche der Deutschschweiz gezeigt, dass der sozioökonomische Status des Elternhauses, das damit einhergehende Motiv des intergenerationalen Statuserhalts sowie der Lebenslaufplanungen wichtige Beiträge zur Erklärung der Segregation der Berufswahl nach Geschlecht liefern. Diese mit dem Sozialstatus des Elternhauses verbundenen Mechanismen sind weitaus einflussreicher als die geschlechtsspezifische Sozialisation.