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The objectives of this study were two-fold. Firstly we wished to investigate the segmental anatomy, geometry and gross innervation patterns of selected shoulder joint musculature (pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi and deltoid) to establish if these muscles could be anatomically subdivided according to predetermined criteria. We then wished to use this information to help determine if a segments activation pattern was reliant on an efficient line of action and a large moment arm for the intended movement. Surface electromyography was used for this purpose whilst manipulating the independent variable of contraction intensity (% MVC) during two shoulder joint flexion tasks. For the anatomical portion of the study the dissection of ten cadaveric shoulders revealed the deltoid to consist of seven segments whilst the pectoralis major and the latissimus dorsi were both ascribed six segments according to predetermined anatomical/functional criteria. Primary nerve branching was evident in each muscle but no apparent relationship existed between the designated anatomical segments and the primary nerve branches. Differences were evident in the geometry of each segment in regard to moment arms and orientations of each segments line of action. The functional portion of this study, which utilized miniature bipolar surface electrodes during the performance of a static shoulder joint flexion task at 75% and 25% MVC, showed significant differences (p

Within the existing literature, call centre work is defined as a combination of taylorism, emotional labour and surveillance. Yet call centres also involve new forms of customer relationship. Call centre work is abstracted from any geographical location, it can involve many people separate in time and space and the customer can often monitor it directly. We term such work ‘virtual’, ‘poly-authored’ and ‘market supervised’. These new forms of work are now spreading beyond conventional call centres, partly because of the new expectations of customers, partly because of the migration of call centre employees into other areas of the enterprise.

This article seeks to examine the division of women into committed and uncommitted workers by gender theorists. The article uses interview data from a study of women in service sector employment in Ireland to ask how (or even if) women actually make the decision to enter the workforce and why they stay there. Moreover, we explore how some Irish women themselves experience these changes.

This paper looks at mergers with an explicit gender focus to see if and how mergers are or might be gendered. Little previous work has examined the impact of mergers on employees, as opposed to on management. Of the work that has studied the impact of mergers on workers, none has taken a gender focus. This paper seeks to correct both oversights and bring the experience of women workers center stage in the analysis of mergers. The paper also argues for a “bottom-up” examination of mergers rather than the “top-down” examination that exists in the literature. It does this by drawing on qualitative longitudinal and case study data of research conducted in eight EU countries between 1999 and 2001.

Isolated chondral defects have a limited capacity to heal and predispose to the development of osteoarthritis. Current surgical management can be unpredictable in outcome. Improved understanding of the action of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has seen renewed interest in their role in cartilage repair. A 26-year-old athlete presented with a post-traumatic, isolated patella chondral defect. The patient underwent an arthroscopy with removal of a chondral loose body. After failure to symptomatically improve 12 months following surgery, the patient received intra-articular autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cell (ADMSC) therapy.

Europe needs to create more jobs but, at the same time, it strives to preserve its social values and its commitment to social protection. This paper explores the thinking behind the European Commission's strategy, as set out in the Green Paper on Partnership for a New Organisation of Work, to protect and develop this social model while, at the same time, promoting workplace flexibility. It uses the EPOC survey results to examine the connections, if any, between organisational flexibility, innovation and employment. To establish the extent of innovation in European workplaces the paper draws on the survey to evaluate the link between participation and innovation and, finally, the relationship between participation, innovation and growth in employment. This analysis of the EPOC data shows that these relationships are, in reality, very complicated and an attempt is made to explain these complexities.

Immigration in Europe is still understood in terms of the ‘Gastarbeiter’ immigration of the post-World War II boom: the permanent movement of unskilled workers from one country to another. A study of young educated Polish migrants in Dublin shows the limited contemporary relevance of this model: this was mobility rather than traditional migration, with journeys understood in terms of autonomy and self-development. Some contemporary Irish emigration is similar. The mass emigration of young people from Poland at the start of this century was prototypical for the individualistic forms of mobility of young Europeans today.

Scapular dyskinesis, characterised by drooping scapulae and reduced upward rotation, has been implicated in the presentation of a number of shoulder disorders. Traditionally, in shoulder rehabilitation programmes, the shrug exercise has been prescribed to facilitate upward rotation of the scapula by strengthening the upper trapezius muscle. The aim of this research was to compare muscle activation levels during the standard shrug and the upward rotation shrug in a normal and pathological population.Surface electrodes recorded electromyographical activity from upper trapezius, middle trapezius, lower trapezius and serratus anterior muscles in 23 normal participants and 14 participants with multi-directional shoulder instability. Participants completed 10 trials of the standard shrug exercise at 0° of shoulder abduction and the upward rotation shrug exercise at 30° of shoulder abduction in the coronal plane. Muscle activity was expressed as a percentage of maximum voluntary isometric contraction.The four muscles tested performed at a higher intensity during the modified shrug than the standard shrug. Upper trapezius and lower trapezius activity was significantly greater (P0.05) in both populations. Though for middle trapezius and serratus anterior muscles, the modified shrug was statistically significant only in the normal population, P = 0.031 and P =0.001 respectively.The upward rotation shrug is a more effective exercise for eliciting muscle activity of the upper and lower trapezius than the standard shrug in a normal and multi-directional instability population. Clinically, the upward rotation shrug might be useful to address scapular dyskinesis involving drooping shoulders and reduced scapula upward rotation.

Introduction Prevention of falls and promotion of physical activity are essential for maximising well-being in older age. However, there is evidence that promoting physical activity among older people without providing fall prevention advice may increase fall rates. This trial aims to establish the impact of a physical activity and fall prevention programme compared with a healthy eating programme on physical activity and falls among people aged 60+ years. Methods and analysis This cluster randomised controlled trial will involve 60 groups of community-dwelling people aged 60+ years. Participating groups will be randomised to: (1) a physical activity and fall prevention intervention (30 groups), involving written information, fall risk assessment and prevention advice, a pedometer-based physical activity tracker and telephone-based health coaching; or (2) a healthy eating intervention (30 groups) involving written information and telephone-based dietary coaching. Primary outcomes will be objectively measured physical activity at 12 months post-randomisation and self-reported falls throughout the 12-month trial period. Secondary outcomes include: the proportion of fallers, the proportion of people meeting the Australian physical activity guidelines, body mass index, eating habits, mobility goal attainment, mobility-related confidence, quality of life, fear of falling, risk-taking behaviour, mood, well-being, self-reported physical activity, disability, and health and community service use. The between-group difference in the number of falls per person-year will be analysed using negative binomial regression models. For the continuously scored primary and secondary outcome measures, linear regression adjusted for corresponding baseline scores will assess the effect of group allocation. Analyses will be preplanned, conducted while masked to group allocation, will take into account cluster randomisation, and will use an intention-to-treat approach. Ethics and dissemination Protocol has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at The University of Sydney, Australia (number 2015/517). Results will be disseminated via peer-reviewed journal articles, international conference presentations and participants' newsletters. Trial registration number ACTRN12615001190594.

Background&Aims: In recent years there has been considerable growth in the public health research area investigating the influence of the built environment on physical activity. Simultaneously, env...

The purpose of this experiment was to obtain electromyographic (EMG) activity from a sample of healthy shoulders to allow a reference database to be developed and used for comparison with pathological shoulders. Temporal and intensity shoulder muscle activation characteristics during a coronal plane abduction/adduction movement were evaluated in the dominant healthy shoulder of 24 subjects. Surface and intramuscular fine wire electrodes recorded EMG activity from 15 shoulder muscles (deltoid x 3, trapezius x 3, subscapularis x 2, latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, serratus anterior and rhomboids) at 2000 Hz for 10s whilst each subject performed 10 dynamic coronal plane abduction/adduction movements from 0 degrees to 166 degrees to 0 degrees with a light dumbbell. Results revealed that supraspinatus (-.102 s before movement onset) initiated the movement with middle trapezius (-.019 s) and middle deltoid (-.014 s) also activated before the movement onset. Similar patterns were also found in the time of peak amplitude and %MVC with a pattern emerging where the prime movers (supraspinatus and middle deltoid) were among the first to reach peak amplitude or display the highest %MVC values. In conclusion, the most reproducible patterns of activation arose from the more prime mover muscle sites in all EMG variables analysed and although variability was present, there emerged 'invariant characteristics' that were considered 'normal' for this group of non pathological shoulders. The authors believe that the methodology and certain parts of the analysis in this study can be duplicated and used by future researchers who require a reference database of muscle activity for use as a control group in comparisons to their respective pathological shoulder group.

It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be less important. A critique of this widely held belief is the starting point of this book. It is often overlooked that many of the current innovation activities are linked to developments inside the realm of low-tech. Thus the general objective of the book is to contribute to a discussion concerning the relevance of low-tech industries for industrial innovativeness in the emerging knowledge economy.

This paper argues that the skills shortage in the Irish software industry is socially produced by a range of domestic factors, especially the education and training system. It also contends that immigration reinforces rather than resolves skills shortages. © Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Some feminist writings have claimed that ‘bureaucracy’ is inherently ‘patriarchal’. This paper challenges this argument by comparing the experience of women in Ireland in a state sector organization and in a cluster of software firms. While the bureaucratic state company has been reformed to incorporate equal opportunities, in the individualised or ‘marketized’ software companies women’s progress is at the whim of individual managers and motherhood and a career are largely incompatible. If bureaucratic organizations can be reformed in this way, it cannot be claimed that there is any inherent link between bureaucracy and patriarchy. Instead organizations can be either bureaucratic or marketized, and either patriarchal or woman-friendly. These are two separate dimensions which change independently of each other. On this basis the paper suggests that the contemporary ‘remasculinization’ of management occurs because earlier reforms in bureaucratic organizations are now being eroded.

The authors have observed in their clinical practice patients presenting with chronic retromalleolar pain following lateral ankle injuries. It has been hypothesized that persistent retromalleolar pain following a supination sprain may be due to peroneus brevis (PB) tendon tears (Boruta et al. 1990). The aims of this study were to investigate whether an anatomical relationship exists between the calcaneofibular ligament (CFL) and PB, and if so, the significance of this relationship in the positions of supination sprain and talar tilt test. Seven out of eight cadaveric ankles demonstrated fibrous connecting tissue between the tendon of PB and CFL. Four of the eight ankles demonstrated PB tendon abnormalities. The presence of connecting tissue between CFL and PB suggests an anatomical basis for concomitant damage to the PB tendon with a supination sprain, thus supporting the hypothesis that there may be an anatomical basis for persistent retromalleolar pain subsequent to injury to the lateral ankle complex.

A fuzzy decision analysis method for integrating ecological indicators was developed. This was a combination of a fuzzy ranking method and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The method was capable of ranking ecosystems in terms of environmental conditions and suggesting cumulative impacts across a large region. Using data on land cover, population, roads, streams, air pollution, and topography of the Mid-Atlantic region, we were able to point out areas that were in relatively poor condition and/or vulnerable to future deterioration. The method offered an easy and comprehensive way to combine the strengths of fuzzy set theory and the AHP for ecological assessment. Furthermore, the suggested method can serve as a building block for the evaluation of environmental policies.

The aim of this investigation was to anatomically identify, and then determine the function of, individual segments within the human deltoid muscle. The anatomical structure of the deltoid was determined through dissection and/or observation of the shoulder girdles of 11 male cadavers (aged 65–84 years). These results indicate that the deltoid consists of seven anatomical segments (D1–D7) based upon the distinctive arrangement of each segment's origin and insertion. Radiographic analysis of a cadaveric shoulder joint suggested that only the postero-medial segment D7 has a line of action directed below the shoulder joint's axis of rotation. The functional role of each individual segment was then determined utilising an electromyographic (EMG) technique. Seven miniature (1 mm active plate; 7 mm interelectrode distance) bipolar surface electrodes were positioned over the proximal portion of each segment's muscle belly in 18 male and female subjects (18–30 years). EMG waveforms were then recorded during the production of rapid isometric shoulder abduction and adduction force impulses with the shoulder joint in 40 degrees of abduction in the plane of the scapula. Each subject randomly performed 15 abduction and 15 adduction isometric force impulses following a short familiarisation period. All subjects received visual feed back on the duration and amplitude of each isometric force impulse produced via a visual force-time display which compared subject performance to a criterion force-time curve. Movement time was 400 ms (time-to-peak isometric force) at an intensity level of 50% maximal voluntary contraction. Temporal and intensity analyses of the EMG waveforms, as well as temporal analysis of the isometric force impulses, revealed the neuromotor control strategies utilised by the CNS to control the activity of each muscle segment. The results showed that segmental neuromotor control strategies differ across the breadth of the muscle and that individual segments of the deltoid can be identified as having either “prime mover”, “synergist”, “stabiliser” or “antagonist” functions; functional classifications normally associated with whole muscle function. Therefore, it was concluded that the CNS can “fine tune” the activity of at least six discrete segments within the human deltoid muscle to efficiently meet the demands of the imposed motor task.

How could the working class movement split when confronted by the obvious menace of Nazism? This paper argues that this split, represented by the 'social fascism' line of the European communist parties in the late 1920s, cannot be adequately assessed by a political critique of the workers parties or by a sociological analysis of the composition of the working class . Instead it develops an historical analysis of the formal and informal institutions of the German working class movement which breaks down the artificial dichotomy between 'organisation' and 'spontaneity' . This analysis reveals how the decline of informal class organisations in the mid-1920s created a situation in which the 'social fascism' line could become a self-fulfilling prophecy .

In the general election of 1928 the German social democratic party, the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) polled 9 i million votes, 29-8 per cent of the total, while the communist party, the KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands) polled 3 3 million votes, i o6 per cent of the total. In the same year the SPD claimed goo,ooo members, the KPD 130,000.1 Such figures alone show the strength of the working-class movement in Weimar Germany. In addition to these parties there also existed a range of left-wing sporting and cultural organizations, such as the German workers' singing clubs, the DAS (Deutsche Arbeitersanger-Bund) and the workers' sporting movement, the ATUS (ArbeiterTurnund Sportbund), with in I 928 270,000 and 770,000 members respectively.2 Impressive as they are, such numbers tell us little about the relationship between these organizations and the social class they claimed to represent. The first part of this paper uses Gramsci's concept of 'organic intellectuals' to pose in general terms the ways in which left-wing organizations could be seen as rooted in the working class. From this discussion there follow three stages of empirical analysis, using a case-study of the city of Frankfurt am Main: the social composition of the local leadership of the SPD, USPD and KPD; the relationship between these political organizations and what will be termed the 'working-class movement' as a whole; the ideological influence of this 'working-class movement' on workingclass everyday life.

There is a growing understanding amongst researchers that traditionally defined linear housing career paths are becoming more difficult to follow, especially for young people. This seems to be part...

This chapter analyzes the relationships between management and employees in the Irish electronics industry. It is based on case-studies of two electronics factories, both of which are wholly-owned subsidiaries of US corporations and both of which employ predominantly female assembly workers.1

It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be less important. A critique of this widely held belief is the starting point of this book. It is often overlooked that many of the current innovation activities are linked to developments inside the realm of low-tech. Thus the general objective of the book is to contribute to a discussion concerning the relevance of low-tech industries for industrial innovativeness in the emerging knowledge economy.

This accessible new text introduces students to contemporary European societies by examining structures of inequality, making sense of the empirical and historical contexts. Focusing on seven differing European societies (France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK), it examines the different ways in which sociology and political economy understand the social structure of contemporary Europe. Separate chapters outline key aspects of inequality, beginning with income, wealth and poverty, followed by occupation and social class, gender, regional inequality, ethnicity, and migration. By focusing on the role of the national welfare states of Europe in restraining economic inequality, the book enables a realistic appraisal of the ‘European Social Model’. Key features: Examines European ‘distinctiveness’ and difference; Visual presentation of data accessibly informs the reader about distinctive features of specific societies; Comparative approach extends to evaluate the extent to which Europe differs from the USA; Illustrates how the UK’s half-hearted relationship to ‘Europe’ is not just a matter of history or politics but also of contemporary social structure; Key in-text features include discussion topics and key readings. This textbook will be essential reading for students of European studies, European politics, European societies, social inequality/structure, European welfare and policy and more broadly to sociology and public policy and administration.