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Session 8A-8C 13:00-14:30 // day one

8A - Understanding Human Performance University of Warwick and Monash University South Africa

It could be argued that one of the industries with the most challenging management control and motivational environment is the accountancy professional services industry as professionals are motivated by a mix of personal matters and public interest. However, understanding the current systems of performance management and their relation to what motivates professionals in the target industry is a relatively under-researched area, and existing research hints at mismatches originating from time pressure and the work-life balance of employees.
Sleep has been shown to be beneficial to the acquisition of novel words into the mental lexicon, with different stages of sleep playing vital roles in the consolidation of new words. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, has proved to reduce overall cognitive performance and be a risk factor for poor performance across various domains of cognitive functioning. Our novel experiment, comparing performance of sleep-deprived versus normal sleeping participants is different from previous work, because previous work has not used our design with sleep-deprived participants. Here we show that as well as sleep playing a protective role in maintaining newly learned words and strengthening the representations of the memories of words that are starting to decay, sleep deprivation causes performance to deteriorate. 23 students at the University of Warwick, obtained through opportunity sampling, were randomly allocated into either a normal sleep and sleep deprived condition, and were taught novel words in an evening test session. These novel words were presented to participants in a Phoneme Monitoring task, and recall was tested using Free Recall, Cued Recall and Old-New Categorisation measures. Participants were tested on their ability to recall these words during the evening test session, and were then re-tested 12 hours later the following day on their recall ability. Words learned between 6-8pm in the evening were better remembered after a 12 hour interval including a night’s sleep, while in comparison a night of sleep deprivation led to fewer words being recalled at re-test than at the initial test phase. Both positive and negative mood were found to be mediators of these results. This finding once again highlights the fact that sleep helps strengthen weaker representations of newly-learned words to make them more available the next day, and that sleep deprivation does not allow for efficient acquisition of novel words, possibly due to low mood and therefore lack of motivation. Our research could be applied in educational settings, advising for the best learning conditions. It also highlights sleep as a public health issue.
Purpose: Globally, the use of tobacco is responsible for approximately 6 million preventable deaths, annually. It is also a risk factor for diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes as well as obstructive pulmonary disease. The prevalence of tobacco use has been worsened due to the use of the water-pipe or hookah. This literature review aims to determine the prevalence, risk factors and health outcomes of hookah in South Africa. Methods: A literature search was conducted using the Monash library database and the following databases were used; Scopus, ScienceDirect and PubMed. The key search terms used for this search were ‘water-pipe tobacco smoking’ or ‘hookah’ and ‘South Africa’ or ‘Africa’. In addition, a manual search was conducted in Google for any relevant reports as well as dissertations and thesis. Results: Our findings indicate that there is minimum literature in South Africa and available literature focuses on the youth as well as health science students. The prevalence of hookah among the youth is between 40 to 60 percent. Those who smoked believed that smoking hookah is socially acceptable and cool. Hookah is also perceived as less harmful compared to cigarette smoking. Furthermore hookah is used as a mean of socializing and it is relatively cheap and accessible. Hookah has the same health effects as cigarettes. Conclusion: The use of hookah is a growing public health issue and interventions such as stricter tobacco regulation policies, including hookah, and raising awareness of the dangers should be implemented.
This study has looked at the impact that uncertainties have on charitable giving, where uncertainty is defined as a situation which involves imperfect or incomplete information, which everyday life is full of. This was done by conducting a survey on students. The results of this survey were rather interesting to analyse. The survey put the individuals into two hypothetical scenarios with approximately the same expected income, the only difference being the presence of uncertainties, in the later individual did not know with certainty how much he will earn. In each of the scenarios the individuals were asked how much of their income would they donate to charity. A large proportion of individuals donated substantially less in the scenario in which uncertainties were present, although their income was at least as high as in the complete information case (no uncertainties present).This paper shows that these results, obtained in the survey, can not be explained by the most commonly used theory on charitable giving and decision-making under uncertainties. Alternatively it offeres a brief explanation of the possible theory that could be used to explain it. Furthermore, it uses a simple econometric model to show that gender has no effect on how the altruistic behaviour changes upon the introduction of uncertainties. Finally, the paper offers an explanation to why charitable giving levels took longer time to rise back to the pre-Financial crisis level when compared to GDP. (looking at the charitable giving and GDP data gathered in the US over the 2006-2011 period).

8B - Culture and Identity University of Warwick and University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Football hooliganism remains a powerful term and conjures up images of violence and lawlessness to this day. Impressions of hooligans have been built by a hostile media and establishment figures who castigated those defying the norms of acceptable behaviour. However, a gap in our understandings of hooliganism that this research addresses lies in how hooligan fans saw themselves in relation to their social alienation and vilification. This study incorporates history and sociology, contributing to the wider understandings of marginalised groups in society, and how hooligan fans saw themselves as pitted against a society which ostracised them. Analysis of chants demonstrates this as they defiantly opposed the establishment, “We Hate Humans!” responded fans to accusations of bestial behaviour, whilst the contemporary letters of hooligans provide personal insights into their alienation. This presents how fans’ self-perceptions understood their estrangement from society and embraced it, revelling in their opposition. This study also considers condemning statements following violent behaviour, from their own clubs (press releases), government speeches, and media- considering hostile attitudes presented in The Guardian, The Times, The Sun, and television portrayals (Panorama) of football as synonymous with violence. Examining how these condemnations became badges of respect, as rivalries developed over which club had the most fearsome fans, provides understandings of how self-perceptions of hooligans as outlaws formed. This study provides a novel insight into the self-perception of hooligan fans in recent British history and furthers understandings of how outsider groups formed distinct sub-cultures in opposition to a society which rejected them.
In October 2015, a New York Times article highlighted a disparity between the proportion of black versus non-black drivers pulled over in traffic stops in Greensboro, NC. In response to these allegations, we examined 563 individual officers in the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) to determine if bias against blacks played a role in their traffic stops. We used propensity score weighting, which compared an officer’s particular stops to similar stops made by peers. This method was based on RAND Corporation’s study for the Cincinnati Police Department. For our purposes, two stops were similar if they occurred for the same reason at a similar time of day and at a similar location in town. After applying our propensity score weights, we conducted a false discovery rate (fdr) analysis. In this analysis, 10 out of the 563 officers had z-statistics that indicated racial bias against black drivers. These results are based off of 295,228 stops that occurred between January 1, 2009 and September 30, 2015.
Black political movements and radical activity have often become synonymous to the iconic Afro and particular expressions of dress/style. As a result, representations in media such as film and magazines situate black political leadership in discourse surrounding the notion of a black aesthetic. Specifically, black women in political spaces are illustrated with a particular look that is assumed to articulate the breadth of their political agenda. This paper will examine issues that arise when associating dress/style with black women's radical activism. Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl performance will be used as a site to introduce this problem within larger conversations of race, gender, and politics. Additionally, the Angela Y. Davis Reader and Tanisha Ford’s Liberated Threads will be used along with other sources to expand upon these problematic assumptions based on one’s choice of dress/style. The core of this paper will argue the ways in which dress/style are used to suture black women to radical affiliations they may or may not identify with, and why they should not operate as indicators of black female political ideology and radicalism.
The Igbo, one of the largest ethnic groups of Southeastern Nigeria, have experienced modifications to, and the elimination of, aspects of their history and culture due to foreign colonialism and slavery. The tribe predominantly lives in what is referred to as Igboland, the Igbo population is approximately 32 million people. The Igbo people speak the Igbo language and are known as the “Ndi Igbo”. The researcher will travel to Onitsha, Nigeria to conduct historical and archival research on the culture of the Nigerian Igbos. The goal for the study is to have first-hand knowledge of the Igbo people, by going to the Igbo community in Nigeria and studying their cultural traditions such as ceremonial rites of passage, chiefdom societies and marriage ceremonies. This study will critically examine key aspects of Igbo history and culture from precolonial to colonial, and independence era. The researcher (Tiera Moore) will use Nigeria’s cultural and historical sources-University archives, museums, and cultural centers, along with Igbo scholars, to gather qualitative data regarding the Igbo. In addition, the researcher will compile a research paper that will descriptively reveal the historical and cultural findings of the Igbo people, with an analysis of colonial impact on their (Igbo) culture. At the 4th Annual International Conference of Undergraduate Research, the researcher will orally present her data, using a visual display board on the Nigerian Igbos’ historical and cultural significance. For this project, Ms. Moore is being primarily advised by Professor and African Diaspora Historian, Dr. Omar H. Ali, and by a secondary Nigerian-native, Professor Frances O. Walson of North Carolina A&T State University.

8C - Ageing, Health, and New Technologies University of Warwick, University of Leeds, and Baruch College, CUNY

One can hardly go on their computer or phone these days without seeing an update on their social media news feed. From Facebook to Twitter, the way we store and interact with our memories and objects of memory are constantly shifting. There is a vast quantity of research on the matter from the fields of psychology and sociology, however the discipline of history has taken some time to catch up.

This project therefore asks how historians should begin to approach social media as a source, particularly in social media’s presentation of the past, and the way it changes people’s interactions with objects of the past. It will explore the shifting concept of ‘Collective Memory’ first put forward by Maurice Halbwachs, and how social media has reshaped the meaning of this phrase, exploring the way in which social media is increasingly breaking down the difference between an individual’s memory and the way we remember together.

In order to explore social media’s appropriation of memory, this study will focus on representations of the Holocaust in social media responses to the European ‘refugee crisis’ as a case study. Using this case study as a precedent, the project will finish by discussing the wider ideas of necessary future approaches historians must take when analyzing Social media as a historical source.

Antimicrobial Stewardship: a concept promoting appropriate use of antimicrobials, encompassing antibiotics, antivirals and antifungal treatments. It reduces instances of microbial and multi-drug resistance, improving patient outcomes. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) states patients should be prescribed antibiotics in accordance with antibiotic formularies and recommends an annual audit of compliance to antimicrobial guidelines, forming the basis for my research.

The focus was the Department of Paediatrics, Leeds General Infirmary. The topic was treatment of Meningitis. The aim was to measure compliance to guidelines within the Trust. Specifically:

  • improve documentation of indication
  • improve culture collection prior to commencement of antibiotics
  • identifying cases where protocol has not been followed and ascertain why

The methodology entailed identification of 10 patients receiving antibiotics. 8 were used due to availability but this was sufficient sample size given the scope of the audit. In each case, the audit toolkit was used as a framework to complete data and compare results.

The results demonstrated 100% compliance to:

  1. Allergy Box completion
  2. Guidance for empirical antibiotics - choice, route, dose, frequency and cultures
  3. Acting upon culture results within 24 hours
  4. 83% compliance with indication documentation

The conclusions and recommended changes were to:

  1. Remain vigilant in documenting indication
  2. Completion of another audit to ensure the recommended changes are implemented and to complete the audit cycle

Audits continue to shape day-to-day clinical practice, identifying areas for improvement and highlighting excellent practice. This re-enforces a positive working environment within the NHS.

Background. One of the main reasons for poor survival for patients with metastatic bladder cancer (BCa) is the onset of cisplatin resistance and associated toxicity. Cisplatin is the standard of care chemotherapy, which unfortunately seems to be resisted by the BCa cells after some time of treatment. Thus, there is a need to understand why resistance occurs and how to sensitize BCa tumors to acceptable levels of chemotherapy. While several human BCa cell lines exist, such 2D systems may not accurately reflect (1) the complexity of human BCa and (2) adaptation to treatments due to divergent evolution during the long-term in-vitro culture. To overcome this challenge, we have developed a novel mouse model of cisplatin resistant BCa capable of in-vivo tumorigenesis, ex-vivo 3-D organoid culture and having pathology similar to advanced human BCa.

Methods. Donor mice were treated with a carcinogen OH-BBN (0.1%, N-Butyl-N-4-hydroxybutyl nitrosamine) for 20-24 weeks. Following resection and dissociation, tissues were injected subcutaneously to immune incompetent nude/nude mice and propagated for 2-4 months. Successful transplantable tumors were assayed for human BCa progression signaling markers using immunohistochemistry. Allografts were implanted as chunks for 4-6 weeks before subsequent passage. Cisplatin response was determined by two approaches: in-vivo, mice were treated with cisplatin over 3-4 weeks and measured with respect to control untreated tumors; ex-vivo, cisplatin sensitivity was assayed using escalating dosages of cisplatin in organoid culture.

Preliminary results and conclusions. We derived novel OH-BBN induced BCa models that are amenable to studying cisplatin resistance. Using transplantable tumors and ex-vivo organoid cultures, we determined that: (1) tumors maintain high grade pathology and high expression of markers common to human disease including p63, cytokeratin 5, and Ki67, and (2) the responsiveness of tumors are dependent on the different dosages of cisplatin.

Total Hip Arthroplasty is one of the most common orthopaedic surgical procedures performed each year in the UK. There are several surgical approaches that can be used to gain access to the hip joint but there is no unanimous agreement as to which approach is the optimal technique. This cadaveric study aims to display the anatomy relevant to the posterior and anterolateral surgical approaches, highlighting anatomical areas of concern and risk. The results of this study were used conjointly with the published literature to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. This study depicts the anatomical structures involved in the respective surgical approaches regarding the learning curve, the intra-operative risks, other complications, and the duration of operation and its associated costs. Data show that the posterior approach has a higher incidence of post-operative dislocation than the anterolateral approach, although the difference is reduced by the use of posterior soft tissue repair. However, the posterior approach is regarded as superior, in offering a reduced risk of post-operative gait abnormalities which are associated with the anterolateral approach. Expertise and preference of the surgeon and individual patient requirements should be considered when making a decision as to which approach should be adopted.