In a large population-based study among adults in northern Europe the relation between occupational exposure and new-onset asthma was studied. The study comprised 13 284 subjects born between 1945 and 1973, who answered a questionnaire 19891992 and again 19992001. Asthma was defined as Asthma diagnosed by a physician with reported year of diagnose. Hazard ratios (HR), for new-onset adult asthma during 19802000, were calculated using a modified job-exposure matrix as well as high-risk occupations in Cox regression models. The analyses were made separately for men and women and were also stratified for atopy. During the observation period there were 429 subjects with new-onset asthma with an asthma incidence of 1.3 cases per 1000 person-years for men and 2.4 for women. A significant increase in new-onset asthma was seen for men exposed to plant-associated antigens (HR 3.6; 95% CI [confidence interval] 1.49.0), epoxy (HR 2.4; 95% CI 1.34.5), diisocyanates (HR 2.1; 95% CI 1.23.7) and accidental peak exposures to irritants (HR 2.4; 95% CI 1.34.7). Both men and women exposed to cleaning agents had an increased asthma risk. When stratifying for atopy an increased asthma risk were seen in non-atopic men exposed to acrylates (HR 3.3; 95% CI 1.47.5), epoxy compounds (HR 3.6; 95% CI 1.67.9), diisocyanates and accidental peak exposures to irritants (HR 3.0; 95% CI 1.27.2). Population attributable risk for occupational asthma was 14% for men and 7% for women. This population-based study showed that men exposed to epoxy, diisocyanates and acrylates had an increased risk of new-onset asthma. Non-atopics seemed to be at higher risk than atopics, except for exposure to high molecular weight agents. Increased asthma risks among cleaners, spray painters, plumbers, and hairdressers were confirmed.

L'évolution des paysages provençaux (sud Luberon, Vaucluse, France) depuis la dernière glaciation est analysée au travers de la dynamique couplée des formations alluviales et des systèmes travertineux, en relation avec les changements climatiques et l'anthropisation. Des analyses géomorphologiques, sedimento-stratigraphiques et physico-chimiques, dont les résultats sont incrémentés par des études archéologiques et paléoécologiques (malacologie et anthracologie) ainsi qu'une cinquantaine de datations 14C, constituent les fondements d'une étude à vocation pluridisciplinaire sur les relations Homme/milieu en France méditerranéenne.<br /> Aux environs de 50 Ka BP, les vallons du piémont sud du Grand Luberon sont colmatés par de puissants glacis d'accumulation dépassant fréquemment les 30 mètres d'épaisseur et remaniant un abondant matériel torrentiel caillouteux contenant des gélifracts. A leur base, plusieurs « sols rouges » et leur contenu paléontologique, indiquent le caractère plus tempéré des épisodes interstadiaires du Stade Isotopique 3 en domaine méditerranéen.<br />Entre le Dernier Maximum Glaciaire et le Tardiglaciaire (18000-17000 cal BP. ?), période charnière au niveau bioclimatique, une incision majeure intervient, surprenante par son ampleur et sa rapidité. Dès 15500 cal. BP, la tendance morphogénique s'inverse et l'on assiste à une reprise de l'accumulation sédimentaire dans les fonds de vallons. Au sein de cette nouvelle dynamique, de puissantes formations travertineuses se développent aux débouchés d'exsurgences karstiques et signent le réchauffement climatique engagé. Celles-ci constituent jusqu'à présent le plus ancien témoignage du « redémarrage » postglaciaire de la travertinisation dans le sud de la France. Par la suite, et dans l'ensemble des formations détritiques et carbonatées, deux incisions principales se produisent vers 9000 et 6000 cal. BP en alternance avec des phases de remblaiements. Les fluctuations morphogéniques de cette première partie du Postglaciaire s'accordent, et semblent principalement inféodées, aux variations des paramètres bioclimatiques. <br />Dès le Néolithique Final, dans un contexte d'augmentation des occupations humaines, les séquences enregistrent une série de ruptures (incisions) de haute fréquence et de faible amplitude. Ces perturbations sont accompagnées de changements de faciès dans les systèmes carbonatés et d'ouvertures fortes du milieu végétal déterminées par les analyses paléoécologiques. Le caractère particulièrement sensible des ensembles travertineux aux modifications d'origine climato-anthropique du biotope est ainsi souligné. <br />Entre le XIème et le XIIIème siècle après Jésus Christ, on note l'interruption, de l'accumulation des travertins et le démantèlement des formations l.s. (et non entre la fin du Néolithique et la période antique comme il était communément admis). C'est également dans le même intervalle que s'instaure la dynamique majeure d'incision linéaire des talwegs bien connue dans le sud de la France, mais jusqu'à présent rangée dans une chronologie incertaine. Postérieurement au XVIIème siècle, au cours du Petit Age Glaciaire, une dernière période de remblaiement détritique plus modeste débute. A terme, celle-ci est interrompue par une ultime phase d'incision toujours effective aujourd'hui. L'action conjuguée des oscillations climatiques et des modes d'occupation des sociétés humaines sur le milieu « naturel » apparaît comme le principal moteur d'une morphogenèse mouvementée au cours de la deuxième partie du Postglaciaire.

Disputats, Umeå 2007. / Sammanfattning på engelska.

São Paulo is considered to be the hub of technology in Brazil and many Brazilian women are finding jobs in the growing technology industry there. While questions about women‟s low involvement in technical careers in the United States are being researched by organizations such as the National Center for Women & Information Technology, the American Association of University Women, and the Anita Borg Institute, research on this topic in Brazil is considerably more limited. In January 2011, 10 interviews were conducted with women in São Paulo, Brazil working in information technology (IT) careers. In an effort to understand how they got to their current careers interviewees were asked for their personal stories, perceptions, views, and opinions on career choice, work/personal life balance, employment history, and education. The majority of the responses in these interviews revealed a similar situation and similar perceptions to those expressed in the United States. Participation by females in the male-dominated IT sector in Brazil has been decreasing over the past decades and reasons for low female participation in IT are complex. Interviews revealed that 1) women working in technical careers believe that IT jobs are considered appropriate for Brazilian women, but that technical programs and workplaces are mainly occupied by men, 2) Brazilian women feel constrained by the expectation for women to be primary caretakers of domestic responsibilities even when both partners work full time, and 3) women are considered to be better communicators in Brazil, but most upper-level leadership positions in IT are held by men. This study is meant to be an initial effort on which further research can expand. / text

The relationship between the Swedish state’s welfare political commitments and the emergence and development of three female-dominated welfare state occupational groups - nurses, home relief helpers and occupational therapists - is at the heart of this thesis. The primary aim is to study the professional possibilities and limitations created by the state’s welfare political commitments in health care, family policy and rehabilitation. The thesis emphasises the importance of regarding the state as a historically conditioned actor and as an organisation of organisations. The state is not a unified and static actor and this makes it difficult to speak of the state’s relationship to different welfare occupations in general terms. Nurses, home relief helpers and occupational therapists have encountered the state in different historical contexts and established ties to different parts of the state. Abbott’s (1988) term jurisdiction is used to characterise the area within welfare politics that nurses, home relief helpers and occupational therapists have made claims on or been allotted. The struggle for jurisdiction takes place on three, analytically separate but in reality interconnected arenas. These arenas are the workplace, the media arena and the legal arena. The thesis limits itself to the legal arena, that is, the state’s administrative, planning and legislative structures. At the centre of the analysis of the legal arena are the Swedish Government Commission and the welfare political reform work that to a large degree has been formed by these institutions’ function and work. An important conclusion from these three case studies is that the state’s welfare political commitments have been central for the emergence of nurses, home relief helpers and occupational therapists and their development into welfare state occupational groups. The state’s welfare political ambitions have contributed considerably to the transformation of nurse, home relief helpers and occupational therapists into modern occupational groups. Dependency on the state has not always been easy to handle however. The state’s welfare political interests have often contradicted the wishes of the professions regarding the content, length and organisation of training programmes, as well as regarding continuing education and licensing. The state has been unwilling to provide more training than deemed necessary from a welfare political perspective. An important conclusion from this study is that it is difficult for welfare state occupational groups to steer their professional project in a direction that falls outside of the state’s welfare political commitments.

The study examines the formation and development of Chinese American populations in Augusta, Savannah, and Atlanta, Georgia from the beginnings of Chinese Exclusion period through the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Although people of Chinese ancestry were in an ambiguous position upon their arrival in the 1880s within the black-white dyad that defined southern race relations, they were able to negotiate this system, transforming themselves from being perceived as “outsiders” before the 1940s to being treated as “honorary whites” by the late 1960s. To explore this transition, this project analyzes generational differences between immigrants and their children. Before the 1920s, the mostly Chinese immigrant male population concerned themselves with establishing viable businesses for sending remittances back to family in China and creating social institutions that helped the men cope with decades of separation from their families. The men avoided possible conflict with Jim Crow by having their businesses and residences in black or immigrant areas. Some men cultivated better relations with whites by attending Sunday schools that catered to Chinese immigrants. The mutation from “outsider” to “honorary white” status began when prosperous Chinese men started sending for wives to join them in the 1910s, thus ushering in a new pattern of planned long-term settlement in the state. Families successfully challenged the older perception by joining white churches, enrolling their children in white schools, and building social ties with white community leaders. Second generation Chinese Americans reaped the benefits of this strategy in the 1950s and 1960s by gaining access to housing in white neighborhoods, employment opportunities in white-collar occupations, and acceptance as partners in marriages with European Americans.

The study examines the formation and development of Chinese American populations in Augusta, Savannah, and Atlanta, Georgia from the beginnings of Chinese Exclusion period through the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Although people of Chinese ancestry were in an ambiguous position upon their arrival in the 1880s within the black-white dyad that defined southern race relations, they were able to negotiate this system, transforming themselves from being perceived as “outsiders” before the 1940s to being treated as “honorary whites” by the late 1960s. To explore this transition, this project analyzes generational differences between immigrants and their children. Before the 1920s, the mostly Chinese immigrant male population concerned themselves with establishing viable businesses for sending remittances back to family in China and creating social institutions that helped the men cope with decades of separation from their families. The men avoided possible conflict with Jim Crow by having their businesses and residences in black or immigrant areas. Some men cultivated better relations with whites by attending Sunday schools that catered to Chinese immigrants. The mutation from “outsider” to “honorary white” status began when prosperous Chinese men started sending for wives to join them in the 1910s, thus ushering in a new pattern of planned long-term settlement in the state. Families successfully challenged the older perception by joining white churches, enrolling their children in white schools, and building social ties with white community leaders. Second generation Chinese Americans reaped the benefits of this strategy in the 1950s and 1960s by gaining access to housing in white neighborhoods, employment opportunities in white-collar occupations, and acceptance as partners in marriages with European Americans.

Univ., Diss.--Mainz, 2004. / Literaturverz. S. [285] - 303.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Melbourne, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-114).

Nas ultimas décadas, a sociologia começou a mudar a sua analise sobre o mundo rural e a repensar os temas da sociedade rural latino-americana. Uma das razões, é que o espaço rural não pode mais ser caracterizado exclusivamente pelas atividades agropecuárias. A análise territorial não deixa de lado as dinâmicas sociais e de produção agrária que se desenvolvem no território, mas não faz delas o seu eixo exclusivo. A ruptura entre o rural e o agrário que permite esta analise, possibilita redescobrir fenômenos existentes na sociedade rural latino-americana, para, assim, pensar nos desafios atuais. Então, a unidade de analise desta tese é a ocupação não agrícola, de famílias que vivem em municípios inseridos em territórios de baixa densidade populacional. Nesses municípios, analisam-se os dados acerca da dinâmica das ocupações, a organização produtiva local, os dados da situação do desenvolvimento social e as formas de ocupação do território. O estudo da dinâmica das ocupações nos territórios de baixa densidade populacional, apresentado possibilita compreender as relações com o desenvolvimento social do território e a diversificação das ocupações como expressão da dinâmica do modelo produtivo desenvolvido no mesmo. O qual é capaz de integrar as demandas do mercado externo, de articular os diferentes interesses dos atores produtivos, criando redes institucionais capazes de gerar espaços de interação com o Estado, que desenvolve política pública, promove o contexto material (infra-estrutura) e institucional (organizacional), para produzir as condições para o dinamismo produtivo e a diversificação das ocupações. / During the last decades, the sociology has begun to change the analysis about the rural world and rethink its issues upon the rural society in Latin America. One of the reasons is that the rural space cannot be characterized only by the agricultural activities. The territorial analysis does not leave aside the social dynamics and agricultural production that is developed inside the territory, but doesn’t make them its unique axis. The break down between the rural and the agrarian matter that gives this review, allows the rediscovering of the phenomena that exists in the Latin American rural society, and then think about the current challenges. So, the analysis unit of this thesis is the non-agricultural occupation of families living in municipalities included in areas of low population density. In these municipalities we analyze the data about the dynamics of occupations, the local productive organization, the data of the situation of social development and the forms of occupation of the territory. The study of the dynamics of occupation in the territories of low population density presented, allows the understanding of the relationship between the social development of the territory and the diversification of the occupations as an expression of the dynamics of the productive model developed on it. This view is valid to integrate the demands of the external market, to articulate the interests of different productive actors, creating institutional networks capable of generating spaces for interaction with the state that develops public policy, promotes the material background (infrastructure) and institutional (organizational), all together to produce the conditions for a productive dynamics and diversification of productive occupations.