Interrelations among gender-role conflict, typicality of occupations, and self-esteem

The present study was conducted with 549 women and men who were employed in gender-typical occupations or who were in vocational training, further qualification, or retraining for one of these job. We examined whether a gender-typical occupation is related to gender-role conflicts of women and men in work settings and whether self-esteem moderates the experiences of conflict. Generally, we cannot confirm influence of gender-typical jobs on experience of conflict. The results, however, supply evidence for the fact that women experience higher gender-role conflicts than men in all occupations. Women and men of low self-esteem engaged in typically female occupations experience especially high gender-role conflict.

Jealousy within the perspective of a self-evaluation maintenance theory

We dealt with jealousy in the perspective of a self-evaluation maintenance theory which emphasizes the importance of rivals and their characteristics in view of the self-concept of individuals. If our study replicates 1996 results of DeSteno and Salovey, the finding would support the hypothesis that jealousy is a specific process for maintenance of self-evaluation. Thus, a participant should report greater jealousy when the domain of a rival's achievements was one of high self-relevance for the participant. Support for this hypothesis was found under one condition. The relevance of a rival's domain to the participant's self-definition influenced intensity of experienced jealousy only if the domain was a central professional skill (of prospective teachers, namely, "the ability to handle children well"). Consequently, the relevance of the other domains used by DeSteno and Salovey (1996)--intelligence, popularity, athleticism--is not of unlimited validity. In contrast to DeSteno and Salovey, sex differences were significant.

[Low-dosage dental CT]

PURPOSE

The intention of this study was to reduce patient dose during dental CT in the planning for osseointegrated implants.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Dental CTs were performed with a spiral CT (Somatom Plus 4, Siemens) and a dental software package. Use of the usual dental CT technique [1] (120 kVp; 165 mA, 1 s rotation time, 165 mAs; pitch factor 1) was compared with a new protocol (120 kVp; 50 mA; 0.7 s rotation time; 35 mAs; pitch factor 2) which delivered the best image quality at the lowest possible radiation dose, as tested in a preceding study. Image quality was analysed using a human anatomic head preparation. Four radiologists analysed the images independently. A Wilcoxon rank pair-test was used for statistic evaluation. The doses to the thyroid gland, the active bone marrow, the salivary glands, and the eye lens were determined in a tissue-equivalent phantom (Alderson-Rando Phantom) with lithium fluoride thermoluminescent dosimeters at the appropriate locations.

RESULTS

By mAs reduction from 165 to 35 and using a pitch factor of 2, the radiation dose could be reduced by a factor of nine (max.) (e.g., the bone marrow dose could be reduced from 23.6 mSv to 2.9 mSv, eye lens from 0.5 mSv to 0.3 mSv, thyroid gland from 2.5 mSv to 0.5 mSv, parotid glands from 2.3 mSv to 0.4 mSv). The dose reduction did not lead to an actual loss of image quality or diagnostic information.

CONCLUSION

A considerable dose reduction without loss of diagnostic information is achievable in dental CT. Dose-reducing examination protocols like the one presented may further expand the use of preoperative dental CT.