Does gender-fair language pay off? The social perception of professions from a cross-linguistic perspective

In many languages, masculine forms (e.g., German Lehrer, “teachers, masc.”) have traditionally been used to refer to both women and men, although feminine forms are available, too. Feminine-masculine word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) are recommended as gender-fair alternatives. A large body of empirical research documents that the use of gender-fair forms instead of masculine forms has a substantial impact on mental representations. Masculine forms activate more male representations even when used in a generic sense, whereas word pairs (e.g., German Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, “teachers, fem. and teachers, masc.”) lead to a higher cognitive inclusion of women (i.e., visibility of women). Some recent studies, however, have also shown that in a professional context word pairs may be associated with lesser status. The present research is the first to investigate both effects within a single paradigm. A cross-linguistic (Italian and German) study with 391 participants shows that word pairs help to avoid a male bias in the gender-typing of professions and increase women's visibility; at the same time, they decrease the estimated salaries of typically feminine professions (but do not affect perceived social status or competence). This potential payoff has implications for language policies aiming at gender-fairness.

Drinking water quality perception along the U.S.-Mexico border

Drinking water-related exposures within populations living in the United States-Mexico border region, particularly among Hispanics, is an area that is largely unknown. Specifically, perceptions that may affect water source selection is an issue that has not been fully addressed. This study evaluates drinking water quality perceptions in a mostly Hispanic community living along the United States-Mexico border, a community also facing water scarcity issues. Using a survey that was administered during two seasons (winter and summer), data were collected from a total of 608 participants, of which 303 were living in the United States and 305 in Mexico. A (random) convenience sampling technique was used to select households and those interviewed were over 18 years of age. Statistically significant differences were observed involving country of residence (p=0.002). Specifically, those living in Mexico reported a higher use of bottled water than those living in the United States. Perception factors, especially taste, were cited as main reasons for not selecting unfiltered tap water as a primary drinking water source. Understanding what influences drinking water source preference can aid in the development of risk communication strategies regarding water quality. ^

The relationship between risk perception and ethnicity as an explanation for late stage skin cancer diagnosis in Black and Hispanic populations: An analysis using data from the 2005 Health Information and National Trends Survey

Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between ethnicity and skin cancer risk perception while controlling for other risk factors: education, gender, age, access to healthcare, family history of skin cancer, fear, and worry. ^ Methods. This study utilized the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) dataset, a nationally representative sample of 5,586 individuals 18 years of age or older. One third of the respondents were chosen at random and asked questions involving skin cancer. Analysis was based on questions that identified skin cancer risk perception, fear of finding skin cancer, and frequency of worry about skin cancer and a variety of sociodemographic factors. ^ Results. Ethnicity had a significant impact on risk perception scores while controlling for other risk factors. Other risk factors that also had a significant impact on risk perception scores included family history of skin cancer, age, and worry. ^

Residents' risk perception due to operations of a copper smelter located near residential communities in El Paso, Texas

A face to face survey addressing environmental risk perception was conducted in January through March 2010. The 35 question survey was administered to a random sample of 73 households in El Paso, Texas. The instrument, administered in two adjacent residential communities neighboring an inactive copper smelter solicited responses about manmade and naturally occurring health risks and sources of health information that might utilized by respondents. The objective of the study was to determine if intervention which occurred in one of the communities increased residents' perception of risk to themselves and their families. The study was undertaken subsequent to increased attention from news media and public debate surrounding the request to reopen the smelter's operations. Results of the study indicated that the perception of environmental related health concerns were not significantly correlated with residence in a community receiving outreach and intervention. Both communities identified sun exposure as their greatest perceived environmental risk followed by cigarette smoking. Though industrial by products and chemical pollution were high ranking concerns, respondents indicated they felt that the decision not to reopen the smelter reduced risk in these areas. Residents expressed confidence in information received from the local health district though most indicated they received very little information from that source indicating an opportunity for public health education in this community as a strategy to address future health concerns.^

The relationship between surgical residents' perception of leadership and patient safety culture

Introduction. Patient safety culture is the integration of interrelated practices that once developed is supported by both the culture and leadership of the organization (Sagan, 1993). The purpose of this study is to describe and examine the relationship between surgical residents’ perception of their leadership and the resulting organizational safety culture within their clinical setting. This assessment is important to understanding the extent that leadership style affects the perception of the safety culture.^ Methods. A secondary dataset was used which included data from 68 surgical residents from two survey instruments, Organizational Description Questionnaire (ODQ) and Patient Safety Climate In Healthcare Organizations (PSCHO) Survey. Multiple regressions followed by hierarchical regressions with the introduction of the Post Graduate Year (PGY) variable examined the association between the leadership styles, Transactional and Transformational and the organizational safety culture variables, Overall Emphasis on Safety, Senior management engagement, Organizational resources for safety. Independent t-tests were conducted to assess whether males and females differ among the organizational safety culture variables and either leadership style.^ Results. The surgical residents perceived their organizational leadership to have greater emphasis placed on transformational leadership culture style relative to transactional leadership culture style. The only significant association found was between Transformational leadership and Organizational resources for safety. PGY had no significant effect on the leadership or the safety culture perceived. No significant difference was found between females and males in regards to the safety culture or the leadership style.^ Discussion. These results have implications as they support the premise for the study which is surgical residents perceive their existing leadership and organizational culture to be more transformational in nature than transactional. Significance was found between the leadership perceived and one of the safety culture variables, Organizational resources for safety. The foundation for this association lies in the fact that surgical residents are the personnel which are a part of the organizational resources. Although PGY differentiation did not seem to play a difference in the leadership perceived this could be attributed to the small sample size. No gender difference were found which supports the assumption that within such a highly specialized group such as surgical residents there is no gender differences since the highly specialized field draws a certain type of person with distinct characteristics. In future research these survey tools can be used to gauge the survey audiences’ perception and safety interventions can be developed based on the results. ^

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTITUDE ASSESSMENT/ROLE PERCEPTION AND THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF HOSPITAL DEPARTMENT MANAGERS

Much of the current healthcare financial literature addresses the concern of government officials, the public, and healthcare providers regarding the need for control of health care costs. The literature suggests that attitudes of hospital department managers toward their role in financial management affects their ability to effect favorable financial results.^ There were several objectives of the dissertation: (1) To identify whether or not there exists a relationship between the attitude/role perception of hospital managers and the financial performance of their departments. (2) To compile a descriptive survey data base of key factors identified in the financial literature from individual hospitals. (3) To compile a brief descriptive survey of hospital managers' financial management background and training (both formal and informal). (4) To conduct an attitude assessment/role perception survey regarding the importance or relevance of a suggested financial management role set (i.e., issues discussed in the current literature) as viewed by the selected hospital managers and their matched administrators. (5) To propose plausible theoretical models and statistical tests of seven proposed hypotheses.^ The statistical results of a variety of methods generally suggested, for the sample population, that the null hypothesis should not be rejected concerning the relationships between a department manager's financial attitudes and role perceptions and the resultant financial performance.^ The fact that the results of this study did not suggest that there was a significant relationship which existed between role perception and financial performance does not necessarily indicate that the theories supporting such a relationship in literature are false, not that such a relationship does not exist. Several alternative theories were postulated to explain the apparent lack of statistical relationship, and suggestions for refinement and/or improvement of further research were discussed. ^

Exploring the perception and production of weak and strong forms in English

Como profesoras de Fonética y Fonología Inglesa hemos percibido que nuestros alumnos –hispano-hablantes- enfrentan una serie de dificultades en relación con la percepción y producción de las formas débiles de las palabras estructurales. En consecuencia, evaluamos la percepción y producción de las formas débiles y fuertes en nuestros alumnos, a través de una prueba de escucha y otra de habla, una vez que los estudiantes de primer año de la Facultad de Filosofía, Humanidades y Artes, Universidad Nacional de San Juan (UNSJ), habían finalizado el período de entrenamiento en estas formas. Para la recolección de datos utilizamos dos tipos de tests: uno de percepción y otro de producción. En general, los resultados corroboraron nuestra percepción: los alumnos continuaron teniendo mayor dificultad en la percepción y producción de las formas débiles de las palabras estructurales que en la de las formas fuertes, aún después de haber estado expuestos al entrenamiento explícito.

Work instability perception in a sample of psychologists

Considering work instability as a contextual stressor we designed a specific instrument to assess how it is perceived by a group of psychologists: The Perceived Uneasiness in Work Instability - Psychologists Inventory (in Spanish, IMPIL-PS). The data were collected from a 44-subject sample, both male and female, residents of the City of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires. We present data referring to sample characteristics and the areas with the greatest impact of the stressor are indicated. Recent research on work instability as a contextual stressor point out its influence on subjects' performance and behaviour.

Work instability perception in a sample of psychologists

Considering work instability as a contextual stressor we designed a specific instrument to assess how it is perceived by a group of psychologists: The Perceived Uneasiness in Work Instability - Psychologists Inventory (in Spanish, IMPIL-PS). The data were collected from a 44-subject sample, both male and female, residents of the City of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires. We present data referring to sample characteristics and the areas with the greatest impact of the stressor are indicated. Recent research on work instability as a contextual stressor point out its influence on subjects' performance and behaviour.

Work instability perception in a sample of psychologists

Considering work instability as a contextual stressor we designed a specific instrument to assess how it is perceived by a group of psychologists: The Perceived Uneasiness in Work Instability - Psychologists Inventory (in Spanish, IMPIL-PS). The data were collected from a 44-subject sample, both male and female, residents of the City of Buenos Aires and Greater Buenos Aires. We present data referring to sample characteristics and the areas with the greatest impact of the stressor are indicated. Recent research on work instability as a contextual stressor point out its influence on subjects' performance and behaviour.

Unimanual and Bimanual Weight Perception of Virtual Objects with a new Multi-finger Haptic Interface

Accurate weight perception is important particularly in tasks where the user has to apply vertical forces to ensure safe landing of a fragile object or precise penetration of a surface with a probe. Moreover, depending on physical properties of objects such as weight and size we may switch between unimanual and bimanual manipulation during a task. Research has shown that bimanual manipulation of real objects results in a misperception of their weight: they tend to feel lighter than similarly heavy objects which are handled with one hand only [8]. Effective simulation of bimanual manipulation with desktop haptic interfaces should be able to replicate this effect of bimanual manipulation on weight perception. Here, we present the MasterFinger-2, a new multi-finger haptic interface allowing bimanual manipulation of virtual objects with precision grip and we conduct weight discrimination experiments to evaluate its capacity to simulate unimanual and bimanual weight. We found that the bimanual ‘lighter’ bias is also observed with the MasterFinger-2 but the sensitivity to changes of virtual weights deteriorated.

Perception of employers and employees regarding the attitude of businesses toward the environment: a qualitative analysis

Commitment and involvement from the different members of an organization are two key elements for an organization to achieve its environmental excellence. Firstly, businesses are aware of the close relationship between their activities and the environment, for they are not only polluting agents but also agents with the capacity to reduce adverse environmental impacts. Secondly, the fact that employees can play a relevant role in terms of the socially responsible measures to be taken by organizations has started to become an irrefutably important issue. This piece of research is intended to help gain knowledge concerning the attitude of the two main actors in productive activity toward the environmental, that is, employers and employees; as well, this research intends to identify factors determining behaviour towards the environmental. For this, we have gathered the ideas and assessments contained in the discourse of a group of small and medium-sized businesses, large company owners and officers, employees, and work related risk prevention representatives. Qualitative work consisted of in-depth interviews and the creation of discussion groups.

Crop row detection in maize fields inspired on the human visual perception

This paper proposes a new method, oriented to image real-time processing, for identifying crop rows in maize fields in the images. The vision system is designed to be installed onboard a mobile agricultural vehicle, that is, submitted to gyros, vibrations, and undesired movements. The images are captured under image perspective, being affected by the above undesired effects. The image processing consists of two main processes: image segmentation and crop row detection. The first one applies a threshold to separate green plants or pixels (crops and weeds) from the rest (soil, stones, and others). It is based on a fuzzy clustering process, which allows obtaining the threshold to be applied during the normal operation process. The crop row detection applies a method based on image perspective projection that searches for maximum accumulation of segmented green pixels along straight alignments. They determine the expected crop lines in the images. The method is robust enough to work under the above-mentioned undesired effects. It is favorably compared against the well-tested Hough transformation for line detection.

Texture perception determined by doy protein isolate and inulin addition in potato puree: links with mechanical and microstructural features

This study evaluated the effect of adding soy protein isolate (SPI) and long-chain perception, trained and untrained panel inulin (INL) blends with 10 different SPI : INL ratios on the textural, rheological and 17 microstructural properties of freshly made and frozen/thawed potato puree. All the potato puree samples were subjected to a sensory texture pro?le analysis and a 21 trained panel rated the intensity of six descriptors, while an untrained panel did the same on six selected frozen/thawed products. The main SPI : INL ratio effect remained signi?cant for all the descriptors evaluated, when the analysis of variance was applied considering the untrained assessors as random effects. However, only trained panel scores for creaminess corresponded well with untrained assessor. Rheological ?ow index values were linked with variations in perceived consistency, and geometric and surface textural attributes were explained by structural features such as the presence of INL crystallites and SPI coarse strands.

A new method to analyse the perception of size

In living bodies, the correct perceptual representation of size constancy requires that an object's size appear the same when it changes its location with respect to the observer. At the same time, it is necessary that objects at different locations appear to be the same size if they are. In order to do that, the perceptual system must recover from the stimuli impinging on the individual, from the light falling on the retina, a representation of the relative sizes of objects in the environment. Moreover, at the same time, image perception is related to another type of phenomena. It corresponds to the well known perceptual illusions. To analyze this facts, we propose a system based on a particular arrays of receptive points composed by optical fibers and dummy fibers. The structure is based on the first layers of the mammalians primary visual cortex. At that part of the brain, the neurons located at certain columns, respond to particular directions. This orientation changes in a systematic way as one moves across the cortical surface. In our case, the signals from the above-mentioned array are analyzed and information concerning orientation and size of a particular line is obtained. With this system, the Muelle-Lyer illusion has been studied and some rules to interpret why equal length objects give rise to different interpretations are presented.