bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Workers’ Participation in Work Organisation: The Banking Industry in the United Kingdom
Authors: Terry Michael , Newell Helen 
Published: March 2013

AbstractEmployee representation in decisions affecting work organisation in the UK has traditionally been handled through collective bargaining although the reluctance of employers to negotiate such issues, combined with the reactive and economistic nature of decentralised unions has limited the scope and significance of such bargaining. In the 1980s the decline of collective bargaining, with no growth in effective alternative means of employee representation, reduced this already limited involvement. At the same time employer strategies were directed at recovering unilateral control over work organisation in their drive for flexibility. A case study of a major bank reveals employer indifference or hostility to significant union involvement in work reorganisation and serious union problems in translating general national policies on job protection and technological change into effective bargaining strategies. A conclusion suggests that a stronger voice for employees can only come via guaranteed rights with companies, which may require legislative action.
Retrenchment and Labour Market Flows in Australia
Authors: Campbell Iain , Webber Michael 
Published: March 2013

AbstractRetrenchment is a significant element of current labour restructuring in Australia. This article situates retrenchment and the experiences of retrenchees since the late 1980s within a broader context of labour market flows. The article refers to labour flows at the level of the individual enterprise but it concentrates on the aggregate level ofthe national economy, drawing mainly on official Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data. It points to several important factors that are neglected in contemporary discussion of the experience of retrenchment — the effects of periods of job expansion and job contraction, industry patterns of retrenchment and labour turnover, enterprise-level retrenchment and recruitment practices, and the place of ‘precarious’ employment as an increasingly significant point of departure and destination in labour flows.
The 1995 ACTU Congress: Recruitment and Retention
Authors: Davis Edward M 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe 1995 Congress was unusual. It was considerably shorter than all recent Congresses and there was only one substantial policy item: the recruitment and retention of union members. Nonetheless, the Congress provided the platform for important speeches from government and ACTU leaders. These reaffirmed the Accord process and, with an election looming, contrasted it with the Opposition’s approach. The Congress also provided for a smooth transition, with Jennie George endorsed as President-elect to replace Martin Ferguson on his anticipated departure to Federal Parliament.
Determining the Minimum Wage: A Household Expenditure Approach
Authors: Plowman D.H. , Taplin J. , Henstridge J. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe establishment of a minimum wage, a wage below which no employer can pay able bodied full-time employees, is a common feature in most industrialised societies. In many of these societies the minimum wage is determined by government fiat. In Australia, the prevailing method of minimum wage determination has been by way of industrial tribunals. In their minimum wage role both governments and industrial tribunals need to determine minimum wage criteria as well as mechanisms for operationalising the criteria This paper proposes ‘reasonable living’ needs criteria for minimum wage determination. By analysing the Household Expenditure Survey it also suggests the amount which would constitute a ‘reasonable living’ minimum wage for labourers in Australia.
Participation in Labour Adjustment Assistance: The TCF Labour Adjustment Package
Authors: Webber Michael , Weller Sally , O’Neill Phillip 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe 1988 sector-based industry plan for restructuring of the Australian Textiles Clothing and Footwear industries accelerated the decline of employment in the TCF sector. Many of those thrown out of work by TCF plant closures were women, older workers, and workers from non-English speaking backgrounds who would find it difficult to re-establish themselves in the labour market. The Hawke government provided a package of labour adjustment assistance designed to help the retrenched TCF workers find jobs in other industries. This paper examines the rates of participation by retrenched TCF workers in the TCF Labour Adjustment Package. Drawing on both statistical and case study evidence it explores the different take-up rates by different subgroups of retrenched TCF workers. The paper concludes by exploring the implications for labour market interventions more generally.
The Living Wage Case: How Tight were the Economic Constraints on Equity?
Authors: Jones Suzie , Harcourt Tim 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) brought down the first stage of the ‘Living Wage’ Case decisions on 22 April 1997. For the first time in nearly 30 years the decision was split. This article analyses the economic rationale for both majority and minority decisions and argues that the majority decision was overly cautious and conservative in its assessment of the economic constraints on the Commission’s capacity to award a pay increase to low paid workers.
The German Automobile Industry in Transition
Authors: Schumann Michael 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper describes the new approaches the German automobile industry has developed during the last four years. It deals with product strategy, production concepts, work organization, industrial relations and technology. In the automobile industry, team concepts and groupwork have been the most important innovations in increasing efficiency. There are two fundamentally different approaches to team work The concept of ‘structurally conservative groupwork’ is a more or less modernized version of Taylorism. The job descriptions of production workers remain narrow, there is not much work autonomy and no reprofessionalization. By contrast, ‘structurally innovative groupwork’ builds on the specific assets of the German industrial order: the tradition of craft work (Facharbeiter), the strong focus on qualified, self-directed work, and the consensus orientation in the field of industrial relations.
Financial System Reform: Regulatory Structure, Financial Safety, Systemic Stability and Competition Policy
Authors: Hogan Warren , Sharpe Ian G. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe paper provides an assessment of the recommendations of the Financial System Inquiry and the Government’s reform proposals relating to the regulatory structure, financial safety and the mega-prudential regulator, systemic stability, and competition policy in the financial sector. It is argued that key reform proposals are based on explicit or implicit assumptions relating to the workings of financial markets and institutions. The Report fails to test those assumptions against contemporary and prospective circumstances to determine the practical worth of the recommendations.
Factors Associated with Casual Employment: Evidence from the AWIRS
Authors: Wooden Mark , Hawke Anne 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis article uses data from the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys conducted in 1989/90 and 1995 to examine the related questions of: (i) what are the characteristics of workers who accept casual employment; and (ii) what types of workplaces and firms are most likely to employ workers on a casual basis. The evidence presented suggests that while supply-side characteristics are not unimportant, demand-side factors appear to provide more likely explanations for changes in the overall level of casual employment.
The Economics of the Australian Waterfront Dispute
Authors: Harcourt Tim 
Published: March 2013

AbstractIndustrial Relations returned to the forefront of the Australian public debate in 1998 with the dispute between the Federal Government and Patrick Stevedores on the one hand and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) on the other. This article, which was written in April 1998 at the height of the dispute, concentrates on the economic issues involved and the facts about ‘waterfront reform’. The article analyses the economic aspects of the dispute in terms of employment issues, productivity issues, industrial relations and the relationship between waterfront reform and Australia’s international trade. It concludes that economic issues must be understood carefully in order to distinguish between genuine practical concerns about waterfront efficiency and purely political points made by those who oppose the MUA and trade unionism in general.
An Economic Analysis of the 1998 Patrick Dispute
Authors: Sloan Judith 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis article considers some of the policy issues at stake in the waterfront dispute, including an analysis of the factors that led to the dispute and a discussion of the likely outcomes of the new negotiated agreements. It concludes that the introduction of another competitor into the Australian stevedoring industry is relatively unlikely. Without such competition and in the face of 100 percent unionisation, it is not clear whether the short-run gains in productivity from the latest round of enterprise agreements will necessarily be sustained.
Inter-Firm Networks and Industrial Development in the Global Manufacturing System: Lessons from Taiwan
Authors: Poon Teresa Shuk-ching 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe link between inter-firm networks and industrial development in Taiwan has rarely been conspicuously identified in the extant literature. This paper highlights the existence of such a link, first in the labour-intensive phase of industrialisation from early 1960s to late 1970s, and then in the current phase of technology-intensive industrial development in Taiwan. However, established forms of inter-firm networks within and across the Taiwanese border have structural limitations to generate innovation from within the networks. This impedes further development of Taiwan’s industries, in particular those which are more technology-intensive. Using the information technology industry as a case study, this paper examines the role of the state and the private businesses in fostering the formation of newer forms of inter-firm networks which contribute to Taiwan’s further industrial development.
Outsourcing and the Use of Contractors: Evidence from the AWIRS
Authors: Wooden Mark 
Published: March 2013

AbstractData from the two rounds of the Australian Workplace Relations Survey conducted in 1989/90 and 1995 are used to examine the extent of growth in outsourced labour (or contracting out), the characteristics of workplaces which are intensive users of outsourced labour, and the sources of growth in contractor-based employment. A key conclusion reached is that growth in the incidence of outsourcing is not a function of employment growth being most rapid in those types of firms and industries which have traditionally used contractors, but instead has taken place across a wide range of workplaces.
Macroeconomic Evaluations of Labour Market Programs
Authors: Webster Elizabeth 
Published: March 2013

AbstractLabour market programs are time honoured microeconomic policies, which offer different solutions to different policy makers. Some advocate them to moderate wage inflation and thus complement macroeconomic demand expansion. For others, they are advanced as a second-best, but politically feasible, substitute for reducing real wages. For many, they are regarded as an equity measure to assist the very long-term unemployed. All these goals are macroeconomic, for the policy maker is interested in the number and type of people displaced from employment as a result of the labour market programs. However, despite this, the macroeconomic field of labour market program evaluations is surprisingly thin. Few direct measures exist in Australia and overseas on the aggregate employment effects of such programs and the inference from related works finds little consistent evidence that they increase aggregate employment. Furthermore, there is a lack of macroeconomic assessments of the equity effects.
Breakaway Unions: A Study of the Australian Entertainment Industry
Authors: Michelson Grant 
Published: March 2013

AbstractPrevious research reveals that failure to resolve intra-union conflict may lead to the emergence of breakaways. Drawing on evidence from the Australian entertainment industry, this study examines the more unusual case of an attempt to secede by elements of the leadership (rather than membership) from the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees Association. Following secession, the breakaway group merged with a different union. The paper argues that the country’s system of industrial relations shaped the form of the breakaway and ultimately provided the legal vehicle for the disaffected group to split from its parent union. It further shows how union breakaways are not necessarily caused by union merger activity although it often appears that they are.
Financial Crises and Globalisation
Authors: Grenville Stephen 
Published: March 2013

AbstractDrawing on lessons learnt from an analysis of why Australia was not subject to the same degree of contagion from the Asian crisis as were our near neighbours, this paper looks at what elements of reform to the international economic architecture are desirable and why. These include: wider representation in the economic councils of the world, in part to give more legitimacy to the rules of the game; bailing in the private sector both for equity reasons and to reduce moral hazard as well as to contribute to solving the immediate problem; far reaching prudential rules e.g. restrictions on banks’ short term borrowing and on foreign currency denominated borrowing; the possibility of controls on short term capital inflow; and greater transparency with increased disclosure by all major participants including hedge funds.
The expressions of MIF and CXCR4 protein in tumor microenvironment are adverse prognostic factors in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Zhang Lin , Ye Shu-Biao , Ma Gang , Tang Xiao-Feng , Chen Shi-Ping , He Jia , Liu Wan-Li , Xie Dan , Zeng Yi-Xin , Li Jiang 
Published: March 2013

Abstract

Background
Tumor-derived cytokines and their receptors usually take important roles in the disease progression and prognosis of cancer patients. In this survey, we aimed to detect the expression levels of MIF and CXCR4 in different cell populations of tumor microenvironments and their association with survivals of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

Methods
MIF and CXCR4 levels were measured by immunochemistry in tumor specimens from 136 resected ESCC. Correlation analyses and independent prognostic outcomes were determined using Pearson’s chi-square test and Cox regression analysis.

Results
The expression of CXCR4 in tumor cells was positively associated with tumor status (P = 0.045) and clinical stage (P = 0.044); whereas the expression of CXCR4 in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and the expression of MIF in tumor cells and in TILs were not associated with clinical parameters of ESCC patients. High MIF expression in tumor cells or in TILs or high CXCR4 expression in tumor cells was significantly related to poor survival of ESCC patients (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the expression of MIF or CXCR4 in tumor cells and the expression of MIF in TILs were adverse independent factors for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in the whole cohort of patients (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the expression of MIF and CXCR4 in tumor cells were independent factors for reduced DFS and OS in metastatic/recurrent ESCC patients (P < 0.05). Interestingly, the expressions of MIF and CXCR4 in tumor cells and in TILs were significantly positively correlated (P < 0.05), and the combined MIF and CXCR4 expression in tumor cells was an independent adverse predictive factor for DFS and OS (P < 0.05).

Conclusion
The expressions of MIF and CXCR4 proteins in tumor cells and TILs have different clinically predictive values in ESCC.
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome accompanied by severe skeletal abnormalities in two Chinese siblings: two case reports
Authors: Xiong Zhimin , Lu Yanmei , Xue Jinjie , Luo Sanchuan , Xu Xiaojuan , Zhang Lusi , Peng Hao , Li Wei , Chen Dengming , Hu Zhengmao , Xia Kun 
Published: March 2013

Abstract

Introduction
Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is a rare pediatric genetic syndrome with an incidence of one per eight million live births. The disorder is characterized by premature aging, generally leading to death due to myocardial infarction or stroke at approximately 13.4 years of age. The genetic diagnosis and special clinical manifestation in two Han Chinese siblings observed at our clinic for genetic counseling are described in this report. We screened the LMNA gene in these two siblings as well as in their unaffected parents. A homozygous mutation R527C was identified in the affected siblings, and both parents were heterozygous for this variant.

Case presentation
In case 1, the elder 10-year-old female sibling showed the classic physical and radiological changes of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome in addition to a considerable overlap with the phenotype of mandibuloacral dysplasia.
In case 2, the younger male sibling had begun to show some early physical changes at age six months.

Conclusion
The phenotypic findings in the patients we describe here widen the clinical spectrum of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome symptoms, providing further recognition of the phenotypic range of LMNA-associated diseases.
Equilibrium and kinetic studies of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions biosorption onto Ficus carcia leaves
Authors: Farhan Ahlam M , Al-Dujaili Ammar H , Awwad Akl M 
Published: March 2013

Abstract

Background

Ficus carcia leaves (fig leaves) for the removal of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions from aqueous solutions have been investigated.

Results
The biosorption of cadmium(II) and lead(II) ions was found to be dependent on the solution pH, initial metal ion concentrations, biosorbent dose, contact time, and temperature. The experimental equilibrium biosorption data were analyzed by two widely used two parameters, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.

Conclusions
Langmuir isotherm model provided a better fit with the experimental data than Freundlich model by high correlation coefficients R
2. Kinetic studies showed that pseudo-second-order described the biosorption experimental data better than the pseudo-first-order kinetic model.
Oestrogen increases the activity of oestrogen receptor negative breast cancer stem cells through paracrine EGFR and Notch signalling
Authors: Harrison Hannah , Simões Bruno M , Rogerson Lynsey , Howell Sacha J , Landberg Göran , Clarke Robert B 
Published: March 2013

Abstract
Introduction
Although oestrogen is essential for the development of the normal breast, adult mammary stem cells are known to be oestrogen receptor alpha (ER) negative and rely on paracrine signals in the mammary epithelium for mediation of developmental cues. However, little is known about how systemic oestrogen regulates breast cancer stem cell (CSC) activity.

Methods
Here, we tested the effects of oestrogen on CSC activity in vitro and in vivo and investigated which paracrine signalling pathways locally mediate oestrogen effects.

Results
CSC-enriched populations (ESA+CD44+CD24low) sorted from ER positive patient derived and established cell lines have low or absent ER expression. However, oestrogen stimulated CSC activity demonstrated by increased mammosphere and holoclone formation in vitro and tumour formation in vivo. This effect was abrogated by the anti-oestrogen tamoxifen or ER siRNA. These data suggest that the oestrogen response is mediated through paracrine signalling from non-CSCs to CSCs. We have, therefore, investigated both epidermal growth factor (EGF) and Notch receptor signals downstream of oestrogen. We demonstrate that gefitinib (epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor) and gamma secretase inhibitors (Notch inhibitor) block oestrogen-induced CSC activity in vitro and in vivo but GSIs more efficiently reduce CSC frequency.

Conclusions
These data establish that EGF and Notch receptor signalling pathways operate downstream of oestrogen in the regulation of ER negative CSCs.
Gender differences in mental health expectancies in early- and midlife in six European countries
Authors: Brugha Traolach S. , Matthews Ruth , Alonso Jordi , Vilagut Gemma , Fouweather Tony , Bruffaerts Ronny , de Girolamo Giovanni , de Graaf Ron , Haro Josep M. , Kovess Viviane , Jagger Carol 
Published: March 2013

BackgroundHealth expectancies, taking into account both quality and quantity of life, have generally been based on disability and physical functioning.AimsTo compare mental health expectancies at age 25 and 55 based on common mental disorders both across countries and between males and females.MethodMental health expectancies were calculated by combining mortality data from population life tables and the age-specific prevalence of selected common mental disorders obtained from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD).ResultsFor the male population aged 25 (all countries combined) life expectancy was 52 years and life expectancy spent with a common mental disorder was 1.8 years (95% CI 0.7-2.9),3.4% of overall life expectancy. In comparison, for the female population life expectancy at age 25 was higher (57.9 years) as was life expectancy spent with a common mental disorder (5.1 years, 95% CI 3.6-6.6) and as a proportion of overall life expectancy, 8.8%. By age 55 life expectancy spent with a common mental disorder had reduced to 0.7 years (males) and 2.3 years (females).ConclusionsAge and gender differences underpin our understanding of years spent with common mental disorders in adulthood. Greater age does not mean living relatively more years with common mental disorder. However, the female population spends more years with common mental disorders and a greater proportion of their longer life expectancy with them (and with each studied separate mental disorder).