The structure of occupational health nurses' support for return-to-work to workers with depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatanaka, Junko

2016-07-29

The present study aimed to explore the structure of occupational health nurses' support for return-to-work to workers with depression. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 occupational health nurses who support workers returning to work. Data were analyzed using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach. The qualitatively analyzed data was grouped into 9 categories. The support for return-to-work was divided into 3 periods: (1) the first priority for recovery, (2) preparation for return-to-work, and (3) adaptation to work. There were indirect supports to workers such as "environmental arrangement for medical treatment," "connection," and "support form parties concerned about workers," and direct supports such as "readiness for medical treatment," "overcoming social and psychological problems," and "working life independence. " Direct support was facilitated by "construction of the relationship. " The occupational health nurses' philosophy was to support "profitable return-to-work for both the worker and the employer. " These processes were "support of confidence recovery process " to regain confidence lost through absence from work because of depression and to accomplish a smooth return-to-work. There were problems in each period corresponding to the return-to-work conditions, and occupational health nurses supported the employees in overcoming each problem. Moreover, it was said that cooperation with the parties concerned in the office would greatly influence the success or failure in the return-to-work support, and it was thought that direct supports and indirect supports to employees with respect to adjustment with the parties concerned in the office were necessary. The structure of occupational health nurses' supports was to support the confidence recovery process of workers by indirect and direct support at each period of return-to-work.

Relations of occupational stress to occupational class in Japanese civil servants : analysis by two occupational stress models

OpenAIRE

Kawaharada, Mariko; Saijo, Yasuaki; Yoshioka, Eiji; Sato, Tetsuro; Sato, Hirokazu; Kishi, Reiko

2007-01-01

The aim of the present study was to identify relations between occupational stress and occupational class in Japanese civil servants, using two occupational stress models – the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) Model and the Job Demand-Control (JDC) Model. The subjects were employees of three local public organizations. We distributed self-administered questionnaires and assessed occupational stress by ERI and JDC. We used seven occupational categories based on the Standard Occupational Classific...

Occupational Structure in European Countries: What do Forecasts Predict?

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Nina Vishnevskaya

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper analyzes the future occupational structure of the labour force in European members of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development (OECD. Occupational structure forecasts allow researchers to evaluate the quality of job openings and, consequently, overall future labour market performance. Identification of demand for certain occupations in Europe can facilitate assessment of whether processes occurring in the Russian labour market are consistent with global trends. The paper discusses the methodology of labour force forecasting and basic research approaches to the prediction of occupational structure changes. It emphasizes the dynamics of demand for representatives of certain occupations in Europe by identifying the fastest growing and declining occupations and suggests possible reasons for changing demand. The paper demonstrates that the main occupational trend over the next decade will consist in the increasing importance of professionals, as well as technicians and associate professionals. The increase in demand for health professionals and representatives of occupations providing scientific and technological innovation will be most significant. At the same time, it is expected that demand for elementary occupations will also rise. This process will evolve simultaneously with the decrease in the total number of skilled and semi-skilled blue-collar occupations due to globalization and the reduction of industrial production in developed economies. The ongoing “mechanization” of many job functions will not eliminate the need for occupations such as cleaners, labourers, domestic servants or personal workers. The need for these jobs allow employees with low levels of education to enter the labour market rather than depending on the social benefit system. Another tendency for all countries with developed economies will be reduced demand for many whitecollar occupations as modern computer technologies and the automation of many

Analysis of structural relationship among the occupational dysfunction on the psychological problem in healthcare workers: a study using structural equation modeling

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Mutsumi Teraoka

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the hypothetical model based on structural relationship with the occupational dysfunction on psychological problems (stress response, burnout syndrome, and depression in healthcare workers.Method. Three cross sectional studies were conducted to assess the following relations: (1 occupational dysfunction on stress response (n = 468, (2 occupational dysfunction on burnout syndrome (n = 1,142, and (3 occupational dysfunction on depression (n = 687. Personal characteristics were collected through a questionnaire (such as age, gender, and job category, opportunities for refreshment, time spent on leisure activities, and work relationships as well as the Classification and Assessment of Occupational Dysfunction (CAOD. Furthermore, study 1 included the Stress Response Scale-18 (SRS-18, study 2 used the Japanese Burnout Scale (JBS, and study 3 employed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, exploratory factor analysis (EFA, and path analysis of structural equation modeling (SEM analysis were used in all of the studies. EFA and CFA were used to measure structural validity of four assessments; CAOD, SRS-18, JBS, and CES-D. For examination of a potential covariate, we assessed the correlation of the total and factor score of CAOD and personal factors in all studies. Moreover, direct and indirect effects of occupational dysfunction on stress response (Study 1, burnout syndrome (Study 2, and depression (Study 3 were also analyzed.Results. In study 1, CAOD had 16 items and 4 factors. In Study 2 and 3, CAOD had 16 items and 5 factors. SRS-18 had 18 items and 3 factors, JBS had 17 items and 3 factors, and CES-D had 20 items and 4 factors. All studies found that there were significant correlations between the CAOD total score and the personal factor that included opportunities for refreshment, time spent on leisure

Analysis of structural relationship among the occupational dysfunction on the psychological problem in healthcare workers: a study using structural equation modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Teraoka, Mutsumi; Kyougoku, Makoto

2015-01-01

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the hypothetical model based on structural relationship with the occupational dysfunction on psychological problems (stress response, burnout syndrome, and depression) in healthcare workers. Method. Three cross sectional studies were conducted to assess the following relations: (1) occupational dysfunction on stress response (n = 468), (2) occupational dysfunction on burnout syndrome (n = 1,142), and (3) occupational dysfunction on depression (n = 687). Personal characteristics were collected through a questionnaire (such as age, gender, and job category, opportunities for refreshment, time spent on leisure activities, and work relationships) as well as the Classification and Assessment of Occupational Dysfunction (CAOD). Furthermore, study 1 included the Stress Response Scale-18 (SRS-18), study 2 used the Japanese Burnout Scale (JBS), and study 3 employed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and path analysis of structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were used in all of the studies. EFA and CFA were used to measure structural validity of four assessments; CAOD, SRS-18, JBS, and CES-D. For examination of a potential covariate, we assessed the correlation of the total and factor score of CAOD and personal factors in all studies. Moreover, direct and indirect effects of occupational dysfunction on stress response (Study 1), burnout syndrome (Study 2), and depression (Study 3) were also analyzed. Results. In study 1, CAOD had 16 items and 4 factors. In Study 2 and 3, CAOD had 16 items and 5 factors. SRS-18 had 18 items and 3 factors, JBS had 17 items and 3 factors, and CES-D had 20 items and 4 factors. All studies found that there were significant correlations between the CAOD total score and the personal factor that included opportunities for refreshment, time spent on leisure

Earning differentials by occupational categories: Gender, race and regions

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Ronaldo de Albuquerque e Arraes

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Analyzing the income differentials amongst the Brazilian workers’ occupations is the focus of this paper. Due to the wide diversity of occupations cataloged by the IBGE (around 800, a theoretical procedure is applied to reduce them to only seven in order to allow statistical treatment of the data. The methodological approach is based on Mincerian quantile equations to be estimated in various strata of the workers’ income distribution, on which a breakdown is made to check the gap among the individuals’ income with distinct inherent attributes and between those living in both more and less developed regions. The estimation results ensure the importance of breakdown analysis for occupational strata as well as for quantiles, since the effects of explanatory variables are distinct along the income distribution and vary among occupations. Regarding the gaps in this distribution, there is a glass ceiling effect in some occupations, that is, the gap is greater at the top of distribution, although in most cases the wider gap occurs at the bottom of the distribution – sticky floor effect, which makes this a distinguished result from other studies. Moreover, contrary to the gap in gender, which is due to the compensation characteristics of individuals only (discrimination, income differentials between regions and races also occur from the heterogeneous characteristics of workers.

Human development, occupational structure and physical inactivity among 47 low and middle income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, Kaitlin; Lowe, Samantha; Moore, Spencer

2016-06-01

This study aimed to (a) assess the relationship between a person's occupational category and their physical inactivity, and (b) analyze the association among country-level variables and physical inactivity. The World Health Survey (WHS) was administered in 2002-2003 among 47 low- and middle-income countries (n = 196,742). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to collect verbal reports of physical activity and convert responses into measures of physical inactivity. Economic development (GDP/c), degree of urbanization, and the Human Development Index (HDI) were used to measure country-level variables and physical inactivity. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association among country-level factors, individual occupational status, and physical inactivity. Overall, the worldwide prevalence of physical inactivity in 2002-2003 was 23.7%. Individuals working in the white-collar industry compared to agriculture were 84% more likely to be physically inactive (OR: 1.84, CI: 1.73-1.95). Among low- and middle-income countries increased HDI values were associated with decreased levels of physical inactivity (OR: 0.98, CI: 0.97-0.99). This study is one of the first to adjust for within-country differences, specifically occupation while analyzing physical inactivity. As countries experience economic development, changes are also seen in their occupational structure, which result in increased countrywide physical inactivity levels.

Is better beautiful or is beautiful better? Exploring the relationship between beauty and category structure.

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Sanders, Megan; Davis, Tyler; Love, Bradley C

2013-06-01

We evaluate two competing accounts of the relationship between beauty and category structure. According to the similarity-based view, beauty arises from category structure such that central items are favored due to their increased fluency. In contrast, the theory-based view holds that people's theories of beauty shape their perceptions of categories. In the present study, subjects learned to categorize abstract paintings into meaningfully labeled categories and rated the paintings' beauty, value, and typicality. Inconsistent with the similarity-based view, beauty ratings were highly correlated across conditions despite differences in fluency and assigned category structure. Consistent with the theory-based view, beautiful paintings were treated as central members for categories expected to contain beautiful paintings (e.g., art museum pieces), but not in others (e.g., student show pieces). These results suggest that the beauty of complex, real-world stimuli is not determined by fluency within category structure but, instead, interacts with people's prior knowledge to structure categories.

The composition of category conjunctions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hutter, Russell R C; Crisp, Richard J

2005-05-01

In three experiments, the authors investigated the impression formation process resulting from the perception of familiar or unfamiliar social category combinations. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to generate attributes associated with either a familiar or unfamiliar social category conjunction. Compared to familiar combinations, the authors found that when the conjunction was unfamiliar, participants formed their impression less from the individual constituent categories and relatively more from novel emergent attributes. In Experiment 2, the authors replicated this effect using alternative experimental materials. In Experiment 3, the effect generalized to additional (orthogonally combined) gender and occupation categories. The implications of these findings for understanding the processes involved in the conjunction of social categories, and the formation of new stereotypes, are discussed.

Lexical categories and argument structure : a study with reference to Sakha

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vinokurova, N.

2005-01-01

This dissertation presents a model of lexical category determination based on properties of argument structure. To start with, there are two types of lexicons – functional and conceptual. Members of the conceptual lexicon are category-less roots which encode concepts. For each concept its thematic

Pragmatism and structuralism in occupational therapy: the long conversation.

Science.gov (United States)

Hooper, Barb; Wood, Wendy

2002-01-01

The history of occupational therapy may be understood as a continual transaction between two cultural discourses: pragmatism and structuralism. Pragmatism is a way of thinking that presupposes humans are agentic by nature and knowledge is tentative and created within particular contexts. Structuralism is a way of thinking that assumes humans are composites of recurring general frameworks and that knowledge is objective and can be generalized to multiple contexts. Early in the field's history, both pragmatist and structuralist assumptions about the human and knowledge produced different readings, or interpretations, of what constituted the appropriate tools, methods, and outcomes for occupational therapy. Consequently, occupational therapy adopted an interesting mix of pragmatist language regarding the human and structuralist approaches to knowledge, resulting in professional identity problems still experienced today. However, recent developments offer an opportunity for occupational therapists to correct old identity problems through critically evaluating incompatible assumptions and carefully reading the prevailing cultural ethos.

Occupational structure and socioeconomic inequality: a comparative study between Brazil and the United States

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Alexandre Gori Maia

2015-08-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACTThis paper explores how occupational structure is associated with economic inequality in Brazil in comparison to the United States. Changes in the Brazilian and American occupational structures between 1983 and 2011 are investigated in order to assess how closely they generate high socioeconomic inequalities. The effects of education, age, gender and race on occupational attainment are taken into account. Highlights of the results include: (1 a higher level of socioeconomic development in the American occupational structure, reflecting huge socioeconomic differences between these countries; (2 a tenuous convergence between the Brazilian and American occupational structures; (3 a significant decrease in the net impacts of education, age, gender and race on occupational attainment (i.e., reduced social stratification in both countries. These results suggest the analytical worth of considering occupational structure as a significant intermediate variable affecting the level of socioeconomic inequality within a country over time, as well as between two countries at a given point in time.

Endogenous sunk costs and the geographic differences in the market structures of CPG Categories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bronnenberg, B.J.; Dhar, S.; Dube, J.P.

2011-01-01

We describe the industrial market structure of CPG categories. The analysis uses a unique database spanning 31 consumer package goods (CPG) categories, 39 months, and the 50 largest US metropolitan markets. We organize our description of market structure around the notion that firms can improve

The tensor structure on the representation category of the Wp triplet algebra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsuchiya, Akihiro; Wood, Simon

2013-01-01

We study the braided monoidal structure that the fusion product induces on the Abelian category W p -mod, the category of representations of the triplet W-algebra W p . The W p -algebras are a family of vertex operator algebras that form the simplest known examples of symmetry algebras of logarithmic conformal field theories. We formalize the methods for computing fusion products, developed by Nahm, Gaberdiel and Kausch, that are widely used in the physics literature and illustrate a systematic approach to calculating fusion products in non-semi-simple representation categories. We apply these methods to the braided monoidal structure of W p -mod, previously constructed by Huang, Lepowsky and Zhang, to prove that this braided monoidal structure is rigid. The rigidity of W p -mod allows us to prove explicit formulae for the fusion product on the set of all simple and all projective W p -modules, which were first conjectured by Fuchs, Hwang, Semikhatov and Tipunin; and Gaberdiel and Runkel. (paper)

Probability-based load combinations for design of category I structures - overview of research program and recent results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reich, M.; Hwang, H.

1984-01-01

This paper discusses the probability-based load combinations for the program dealing with the design of Category I structures, currently being worked on at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The objective of this program is to develop a probabilistic approach for the safety evaluations of reactor containments and other seismic Category I structures subjected to multiple static and dynamic loadings. Furthermore, on the basis of the developed probabilistic approach, a load combination methodology for the design of seismic Category I structures will also be established. The major tasks of this program are: (1) establish probabilistic representations for various loads and structural resistance, (2) select appropriate structural analysis methods and identify limit states of structures, (3) develop a reliability analysis method applicable to nuclear structures, (4) apply the developed methodology to existing Category I structures in order to evaluate the reliability levels implied in the current design criteria, and (5) recommend load combination design criteria for Category I structures. When the program is completed, it will be possible to (1) provide a method that can evaluate the safety margins of existing containment and other Category I structures and (2) recommended probability-based load combinations and load factors for the design of Category I structures. At the present time, a reliability analysis method for seismic Category I concrete structures has been completed. By utilizing this method, it is possible to evaluate the safety of structures under various static and dynamic loads. In this paper, results of a reliability analysis of a realistic reinforced concrete containment structure under dead load, accidental pressure, and earthquake ground acceleration are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the methodology. (orig.)

Occupational radiation exposures in Canada - 1980

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashmore, J.P.; Fujimoto, K.R.; Wilson, J.A.; Grogan, D.

1981-08-01

This report is the third in a series of annual reports on Occupational Radiation Exposures in Canada. The data is derived from the Radiation Protection Bureau's National Dose Registry which includes dose records for radiation workers. The report presents average yearly doses by region and occupational category, dose distributions, and variation of average doses with time. Statistical data concerning investigations of high exposures reported by the National Dosimetry Services are included and individual cases are briefly summarized where the maximum permissible dose is exceeded. The decrease in the overall average doses established over the last 20 years appears to be changing. In some occupational categories a consistent upward trend is observed

CAUSES OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES

NARCIS (Netherlands)

KINGMA, J

1994-01-01

The causes of occupational injuries (N = 2,365) were investigated. Accidents with machinery and hand tools were the two main causes (49.9%). 89% of the patients with occupational injuries were male. The highest risk group were in the age category of 19 years or less (51.9%). This age group also

Latest results from the Seismic Category I Structures Program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bennett, J.G.; Dove, R.C.; Dunwoody, W.E.; Farrar, C.

1985-01-01

With the use of scale models, the Seismic Category I Structures Program has demonstrated consistent results for measured values of stiffness at working loads. Furthermore, the values are well below the theoretical stiffnesses calculated from an uncracked strength-of-materials approach. The scale model structures, which are also models of each other, have demonstrated scalability between models. The current effort is to demonstrate that the use of microconcrete and other modeling effects do not introduce significant distortions that could drastically change conclusions regarding prototype behavior for these very stiff, shear dominated structures. 3 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab

I Ain't Gonna Make It. Comparing Job Demands-Resources and Attrition Intention Between Senior Teachers and Senior Employees of Six Other Occupational Categories in Flanders.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Droogenbroeck, Filip; Spruyt, Bram

2016-07-01

Teachers are often thought to retire early and have more stress and burnout than other human service professionals. In this article, we investigate attrition intention amongst senior teachers and senior employees of six other blue- and white-collar occupational categories using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. We followed a two-step approach. First, analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis was used to assess differences in the level of job demands, resources, and attrition intention between occupations for male and female employees separately. Subsequently, multiple group path analysis was used to assess the invariance of the JD-R model across occupational groups and genders. We used representative data gathered in Flanders among 6,810 senior employees (45 years or older). Results indicate that there are differences in the determinants of attrition intention between men and women. The differences in attrition intention are minimal between occupations once controlled for job demands and resources. In addition, the JD-R model is largely invariant across white-collar occupations and gender. We provide support for both the energetic and motivational process of the JD-R model. © The Author(s) 2016.

Relationships of occupational and non-occupational physical activity to abdominal obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Steeves, J A; Bassett, D R; Thompson, D L; Fitzhugh, E C

2012-01-01

Physically active occupations may protect against the risk of abdominal obesity. This study assessed the interaction between non-occupational physical activity (NOA) (leisure-time, transport and domestic activity) and occupational activity (OA) in relation to abdominal obesity. A total of 3539 adults over the age of 20, with no work limitations, employed in one of the 17 occupations classified as low OA (LOA) or high OA (HOA) were identified in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Waist circumference (WC) was used to categorize individuals into either non-obese or abdominally obese (WC>88 cm in women and >102 cm in men) categories. NOA was divided into three categories based upon physical activity guidelines: (1) no NOA; (2) insufficient NOA; and (3) sufficient NOA. Logistic regression was used to examine possible associations between NOA, OA and abdominal obesity. In those who are sedentary outside of work, a high-activity occupation reduces the odds risk ratio of being categorized with abdominal obesity to 0.37 in comparison with those who work in low-activity occupations. For people working in low-activity occupations, there was a clear association with activity outside of work and the odds risk ratio of being categorized with abdominal obesity. In these adults, a reduced odds ratio was found only among those who met the physical activity guidelines through NOA (odds ratio=0.55; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.40-0.75). HOA is associated with a reduced risk of abdominal obesity. Thus, it is important to include OA in studies seeking to understand the association between physical activity and abdominal adiposity.

Computing color categories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yendrikhovskij, S.N.; Rogowitz, B.E.; Pappas, T.N.

2000-01-01

This paper is an attempt to develop a coherent framework for understanding, modeling, and computing color categories. The main assumption is that the structure of color category systems originates from the statistical structure of the perceived color environment. This environment can be modeled as

Data for occupancy internal heat gain calculation in main building categories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahmed, Kaiser; Kurnitski, Jarek; Olesen, Bjarne W.

2017-01-01

, kinder gardens and schools compared to other building categories (Tables 2 and 3) and these variations need to be accounted, otherwise in these building categories heat gains, CO2 and humidity generation are overestimated. Indoor temperature, humidity level, air velocity, and clothing insulation have...

Job-related diseases and occupations within a large workers' compensation data set.

Science.gov (United States)

Leigh, J P; Miller, T R

1998-03-01

The objective of this report is to describe workers' job-related diseases and the occupations associated with those diseases. The methods include aggregation and analysis of job-related disease and occupation data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Supplementary Data System (SDS) for 1985 and 1986--the last years of data available with workers' compensation categories: death, permanent total, permanent partial, and temporary total and partial. Diseases are ranked according to their contribution to the four workers' compensation (WC) categories and also ranked within occupations according to the number of cases. Occupations are ranked according to their contribution to specific diseases within one of the four categories. The following diseases comprise the greatest numbers of deaths: heart attacks, asbestosis, silicosis, and stroke. Within the permanent total category, the diseases with the greatest contributions are heart attack, silicosis, strokes, and inflammation of the joints. For the permanent partial category, they are hearing loss, inflammation of joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, and heart attacks. For the temporary total and partial category, they are: inflammation of joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, dermatitis, and toxic poisoning. Hearing loss or inflammation of joints are associated with more than 300 occupations. Circulatory diseases comprise a larger share of job-related diseases than is generally acknowledged. Occupations contributing the most heart attack deaths are truck drivers, managers, janitors, supervisors, firefighters, and laborers. Ratios of numbers of deaths to numbers of disabilities are far higher for illnesses than injuries. Occupations that are consistent in their high ranking on most lists involving a variety of conditions include nonconstruction laborers, janitors, and construction laborers. The large SDS, though dated, provides a tentative national look at the broad spectrum of occupational diseases as defined by WC and the

Occupational Therapy Employers’ Perceptions of Professionalism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vicki C. Mason

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS patient satisfaction survey, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative in the Affordable Care Act (ACA are affecting expectations of professionalism in health care. These initiatives and shifts in expectations are especially concerning for occupational therapists whose services historically have not been well understood. Method: Eighteen supervisory and managerial occupational therapy practitioners were interviewed regarding perceptions of professionalism in occupational therapy employees. The semi-structured interview guide explored professionalism in occupational therapists’ interactions with patients and co-workers and in an employer’s organization. Results: The participants identified three categories: patient or client-centeredness; collaboration and teamwork; and respect for the profession, department, and company. Conclusion: Data indicate that occupational therapy employers desire therapists who can effectively explain and demonstrate the value of OT, advocate for a patient, and understand the importance of communication and respect in interactions with patients, families, and co-workers. Investigating employers’ perceptions can yield a more complete picture of the specific behaviors associated with professionalism; enhance the process and product of professional development education; and contribute to the goals of patient-centered care, quality, patient safety, and improved reimbursement under the ACA’s value-based purchasing.

The Gender Pay Gap, Fringe Benefits, and Occupational Crowding.

Science.gov (United States)

Solberg, Eric; Laughlin, Teresa

1995-01-01

In estimating earnings equations for seven occupations, when fringe benefits are excluded, women receive significantly lower wages in all but the most female-dominated occupation. Including fringe benefits makes gender significant in only one occupational category. Crowding of one gender into an occupation appears the primary determinant of the…

Occupant traffic estimation through structural vibration sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Shijia; Mirshekari, Mostafa; Zhang, Pei; Noh, Hae Young

2016-04-01

The number of people passing through different indoor areas is useful in various smart structure applications, including occupancy-based building energy/space management, marketing research, security, etc. Existing approaches to estimate occupant traffic include vision-, sound-, and radio-based (mobile) sensing methods, which have placement limitations (e.g., requirement of line-of-sight, quiet environment, carrying a device all the time). Such limitations make these direct sensing approaches difficult to deploy and maintain. An indirect approach using geophones to measure floor vibration induced by footsteps can be utilized. However, the main challenge lies in distinguishing multiple simultaneous walkers by developing features that can effectively represent the number of mixed signals and characterize the selected features under different traffic conditions. This paper presents a method to monitor multiple persons. Once the vibration signals are obtained, features are extracted to describe the overlapping vibration signals induced by multiple footsteps, which are used for occupancy traffic estimation. In particular, we focus on analysis of the efficiency and limitations of the four selected key features when used for estimating various traffic conditions. We characterize these features with signals collected from controlled impulse load tests as well as from multiple people walking through a real-world sensing area. In our experiments, the system achieves the mean estimation error of +/-0.2 people for different occupant traffic conditions (from one to four) using k-nearest neighbor classifier.

(In)Flexibility of Constituency in Japanese in Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology

Science.gov (United States)

Kubota, Yusuke

2010-01-01

This dissertation proposes a theory of categorial grammar called Multi-Modal Categorial Grammar with Structured Phonology. The central feature that distinguishes this theory from the majority of contemporary syntactic theories is that it decouples (without completely segregating) two aspects of syntax--hierarchical organization (reflecting…

Structure of coastal community occupational in responsible environmental quality at Tanjung Burung village, Tangerang regency

Science.gov (United States)

Syahdanul, Darul; Sumabrata, Jachrizal; Darmajanti, Linda

2018-03-01

Tanjung Burung Village is an area located on the river mouth. The position makes the occupational structure of the community has a relationship with the environmental conditions of the river mouth. The occupational structure of the estuary community tends to be in the primary sector. However, at present, the environmental condition of the Cisadane River estuary has a quality degradation in terms of the intensity of river water pollution, the frequency of flooding, and the intensity of groundwater contamination. This study aims to analyze the relationship between environmental degradation and changes in occupational structure, and analysis on the quality of life of the community. In collecting and processing data, this research uses sequential exploratory strategy. This process refers to the geographical map of Tanjung Burung Village in 1996, 2006, 2016; Population data of 1995, 2000, 2005, 2011, 2016; as well as environmental quality data from 1995 to 2017. The results of this study show that within 20 years the community has strengthened occupational structure in the tertiary sector. Furthermore, the strengthening of occupational structure in the tertiary sector has not been able to improve the quality of life of Tanjung Burung villagers.

More than a boundary shift: Perceptual adaptation to foreign-accented speech reshapes the internal structure of phonetic categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Xin; Theodore, Rachel M; Myers, Emily B

2017-01-01

The literature on perceptual learning for speech shows that listeners use lexical information to disambiguate phonetically ambiguous speech sounds and that they maintain this new mapping for later recognition of ambiguous sounds for a given talker. Evidence for this kind of perceptual reorganization has focused on phonetic category boundary shifts. Here, we asked whether listeners adjust both category boundaries and internal category structure in rapid adaptation to foreign accents. We investigated the perceptual learning of Mandarin-accented productions of word-final voiced stops in English. After exposure to a Mandarin speaker's productions, native-English listeners' adaptation to the talker was tested in 3 ways: a cross-modal priming task to assess spoken word recognition (Experiment 1), a category identification task to assess shifts in the phonetic boundary (Experiment 2), and a goodness rating task to assess internal category structure (Experiment 3). Following exposure, both category boundary and internal category structure were adjusted; moreover, these prelexical changes facilitated subsequent word recognition. Together, the results demonstrate that listeners' sensitivity to acoustic-phonetic detail in the accented input promoted a dynamic, comprehensive reorganization of their perceptual response as a consequence of exposure to the accented input. We suggest that an examination of internal category structure is important for a complete account of the mechanisms of perceptual learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

You’re a good structure, Charlie Brown: The distribution of narrative categories in comic strips

Science.gov (United States)

Cohn, Neil

2014-01-01

Cohn’s (2013) theory of “Visual Narrative Grammar” argues that sequential images take on categorical roles in a narrative structure, which organizes them into hierarchic constituents analogous to the organization of syntactic categories in sentences. This theory proposes that narrative categories, like syntactic categories, can be identified through diagnostic tests that reveal tendencies for their distribution throughout a sequence. This paper describes four experiments testing these diagnostics to provide support for the validity of these narrative categories. In Experiment 1, participants reconstructed unordered panels of a comic strip into an order that makes sense. Experiment 2 measured viewing times to panels in sequences where the order of panels was reversed. In Experiment 3 participants again reconstructed strips, but also deleted a panel from the sequence. Finally, in Experiment 4 participants identified where a panel had been deleted from a comic strip, and rated that strip’s coherence. Overall, categories had consistent distributional tendencies within experiments and complementary tendencies across experiments. These results point toward an interaction between categorical roles and a global narrative structure. PMID:24646175

You're a good structure, Charlie Brown: the distribution of narrative categories in comic strips.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohn, Neil

2014-01-01

Cohn's (2013) theory of "Visual Narrative Grammar" argues that sequential images take on categorical roles in a narrative structure, which organizes them into hierarchic constituents analogous to the organization of syntactic categories in sentences. This theory proposes that narrative categories, like syntactic categories, can be identified through diagnostic tests that reveal tendencies for their distribution throughout a sequence. This paper describes four experiments testing these diagnostics to provide support for the validity of these narrative categories. In Experiment 1, participants reconstructed unordered panels of a comic strip into an order that makes sense. Experiment 2 measured viewing times to panels in sequences where the order of panels was reversed. In Experiment 3, participants again reconstructed strips but also deleted a panel from the sequence. Finally, in Experiment 4 participants identified where a panel had been deleted from a comic strip and rated that strip's coherence. Overall, categories had consistent distributional tendencies within experiments and complementary tendencies across experiments. These results point toward an interaction between categorical roles and a global narrative structure. © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Directory of Academic Programs in Occupational Safety and Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Weis, William J., III; And Others

This booklet describes academic program offerings in American colleges and universities in the area of occupational safety and health. Programs are divided into five major categories, corresponding to each of the core disciplines: (1) occupational safety and health/industrial hygiene, (2) occupational safety, (3) industrial hygiene, (4)…

Occupational balance of women with rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Stamm, Tanja; Wright, Jon; Machold, Klaus; Sadlo, Gaynor; Smolen, Josef

2004-01-01

Occupational balance has been shown to be an important factor in maintaining health. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) reduces functional ability and quality of life and may thus reduce occupational balance. The aim of this qualitative pilot study was to explore occupational balance in women who have RA. Nine women with RA with past, but not current, paid work experience, no other confounding neuro-motor disease and with disease duration of 0.75-31 years were selected from an Austrian rheumatology outpatient clinic. Age range of the participants was 28-68 years. A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed by the constant comparative method from an occupational perspective. Three main categories emerged: (1) The participants experienced a process of change that affected their occupational balance. (2) This new state of occupational balance was characterized by changed levels of involvement in physical, mental, social and rest occupations and by a certain level of unpredictability of symptoms. (3) Overall, the new state of occupational balance was valued differently: positively, indifferently or negatively. RA was found to have a considerable impact on occupational balance. The experience is not invariably seen as negative as previous literature would suggest. Further research should explore the longitudinal dimension of occupational balance in people with RA. Copyright (c) 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.

From groups to categorial algebra introduction to protomodular and mal’tsev categories

CERN Document Server

Bourn, Dominique

2017-01-01

This book gives a thorough and entirely self-contained, in-depth introduction to a specific approach to group theory, in a large sense of that word. The focus lie on the relationships which a group may have with other groups, via “universal properties”, a view on that group “from the outside”. This method of categorical algebra, is actually not limited to the study of groups alone, but applies equally well to other similar categories of algebraic objects. By introducing protomodular categories and Mal’tsev categories, which form a larger class, the structural properties of the category Gp of groups, show how they emerge from four very basic observations about the algebraic litteral calculus and how, studied for themselves at the conceptual categorical level, they lead to the main striking features of the category Gp of groups. Hardly any previous knowledge of category theory is assumed, and just a little experience with standard algebraic structures such as groups and monoids. Examples and exercises...

Human development, occupational structure and physical inactivity among 47 low and middle income countries

OpenAIRE

Atkinson, Kaitlin; Lowe, Samantha; Moore, Spencer

2016-01-01

This study aimed to (a) assess the relationship between a person's occupational category and their physical inactivity, and (b) analyze the association among country-level variables and physical inactivity. The World Health Survey (WHS) was administered in 2002?2003 among 47 low- and middle-income countries (n?=?196,742). The International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to collect verbal reports of physical activity and convert responses into measures of physical inactivity. ...

Occupancy and Occupants’ Actions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schweiker, Marcel; Carlucci, Salvatore; Andersen, Rune

2018-01-01

to study, measure, and ultimately model. The categories are physiological, individual, environmental, and spatial adjustments. Third, a list of adaptive and non-adaptive triggers together with contextual factors that could influence occupant behavior is presented. Individual elements are further grouped...... into physical environmental, physiological, psychological, and social aspects. Finally, a comprehensive table of studies related to occupant behavior and the corresponding significant and non-significant predictors, based on an extensive literature review, is shown. This table highlights areas of research where......Occupants’ presence and actions within the built environment are crucial aspects related to understanding variations in energy use. Within this chapter, first, a nomenclature for the field of research dealing with occupants in buildings is defined. This nomenclature distinguishes between occupants...

Predicting prosodic structure by morphosyntactic category: A case study of Blackfoot

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Joseph W. Windsor

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This study examines phonetic correlates to three prosodic categories in Blackfoot: the syllable (σ, the prosodic word (ω, and the phonological phrase (φ. I provide evidence that the Blackfoot σ is recognizable by an obligatory process of vowel coalescence and the φ is recognizable by an obligatory process of right edge aspiration. The ω can be distinguished from these other two prosodic constituents by an optional phonetic process which mimics intersyllabic vowel coalescence, but does not apply obligatorily. The prosodic categories investigated in this study are then correlated to three morphosyntactic categories: morphological agreement suffixes, lexical morphemes (adjectives and nouns, and demonstratives. This correlation is used to argue that morphological and syntactic processes function differently at the interface with phonology (cf. Russell 1999, ultimately raising questions with “word-internal syntax” analyses of Blackfoot suffixation which are derived through cyclic head movement (Bliss 2013; Wiltschko 2014 using the Mirror Principle (Baker 1985. This article is part of theSpecial Collection: Prosody and costituent structure

The structure and formation of natural categories

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Douglas; Langley, Pat

1990-01-01

Categorization and concept formation are critical activities of intelligence. These processes and the conceptual structures that support them raise important issues at the interface of cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence. The work presumes that advances in these and other areas are best facilitated by research methodologies that reward interdisciplinary interaction. In particular, a computational model is described of concept formation and categorization that exploits a rational analysis of basic level effects by Gluck and Corter. Their work provides a clean prescription of human category preferences that is adapted to the task of concept learning. Also, their analysis was extended to account for typicality and fan effects, and speculate on how the concept formation strategies might be extended to other facets of intelligence, such as problem solving.

Validity of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles for Assessing Upper Extremity Work Demands

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Opsteegh, Lonneke; Soer, Remko; Reinders-Messelink, Heleen A.; Reneman, Michiel F.; van der Sluis, Corry K.

2010-01-01

Objectives The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) is used in vocational rehabilitation to guide decisions about the ability of a person with activity limitations to perform activities at work. The DOT has categorized physical work demands in five categories. The validity of this categorization is unknown. Aim of this study was to investigate whether the DOT could be used validly to guide decisions for patients with injuries to the upper extremities. Four hypotheses were tested. Methods A database including 701 healthy workers was used. All subjects filled out the Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, from which an Upper Extremity Work Demands score (UEWD) was derived. First, relation between the DOT-categories and UEWD-score was analysed using Spearman correlations. Second, variance of the UEWD-score in occupational groups was tested by visually inspecting boxplots and assessing kurtosis of the distribution. Third, it was investigated whether occupations classified in one DOT-category, could significantly differ on UEWD-scores. Fourth, it was investigated whether occupations in different DOT-categories could have similar UEWD-scores using Mann Whitney U-tests (MWU). Results Relation between the DOT-categories and the UEWD-score was weak (rsp = 0.40; p<.01). Overlap between categories was found. Kurtosis exceeded ±1.0 in 3 occupational groups, indicating large variance. UEWD-scores were significantly different within one DOT-category (MWU = 1.500; p<.001). UEWD scores between DOT-categories were not significantly different (MWU = 203.000; p = .49). Conclusion All four hypotheses could not be rejected. The DOT appears to be invalid for assessing upper extremity work demands. PMID:21151934

Cultural order and participatory local development: structure for the occupational therapist practice

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Ricardo Lopes Correia

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The Cultural Order is understood as the expression of a game of interdependencies determinations between local and global social groups, pairs identified by productions, values and behavior that consciously guide the life projects and the expansion of a collective freedom. Based on a Social Science research and with theoretical mark of Nobert Elias and Amartya Sen, this article aims to present a theoretical-practice structure of the approach in participatory local development- PLD to the occupational therapist surround by the construction of collective life projects, in order to operationalize in the practice of the community question, understood as the strengths that singularize the participation. We discuss the use of the PLD approach to the occupational therapist in a flexible structure, aiming to guarantee its domain, the Human Occupation, and the set of interventions, technologies, sustained in the management of the activities of daily living. The approach in participatory local development presents itself as an important structural outline to the community actions, and it is the occupational therapist role to be an articulator of the Local Cultural Order dimensions, to deal with the target population their work processes of continuity in collective life projects and expansion of freedom.

Occupational Stress and Hypertension among Railway Loco Pilots and Section Controllers

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Jayakumar, Devasigamoney

2017-01-01

Introduction: A cross-sectional study on occupational stress was conducted on loco pilots in 2008, in view of loco pilots being one of the high strain jobs in Indian Railways. Subsequently, a comparative cross-sectional study on occupational stress was conducted among section controllers in 2011, which is another high strain job of Indian Railways. Objective: The studies were conducted to analyze and compare occupational stress and hypertension. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study on occupational stress and hypertension was conducted among 230 loco pilots in 2008, and subsequently, a comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 82 section controllers in 2011. Materials and Methods: A closed end 24 item questionnaire on occupational stress was administered. Systolic blood pressure above 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure above 90 mmHg were considered as hypertension as per the VII Joint National Committee. Chi-square test and t-test were used for testing significance at P < 0.05. Results: The mean stress score was 8.56 in loco pilots and 7.32 in section controllers. The number of loco pilots with more than 12 stress factors was 49 (21.3%) and the number of section controllers with more than 12 stress factors was 7 (8.5%). The number employees with more than 12 stress factors in different categories of loco pilots were 30 (32%) in the goods category, 12 (12%) in the mail/passenger category, and 7 (19%) in the shunter category, and 3 (11%) in the supervisory category and 4 (7%) in the on-board category of section controllers. The prevalence of hypertension in loco pilots was 36.52% (84) and in the section controllers was 53.66% (44). The prevalence of hypertension in the category with more than 12 stress factors was 30.61% (15) in the loco pilots and 28.57% (2) in the section controllers. The prevalence of hypertension in the both the study groups were higher in the older age, with a family history of hypertension, and with a body mass index of

Occupational Stress and Hypertension among Railway Loco Pilots and Section Controllers.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayakumar, Devasigamoney

2017-01-01

A cross-sectional study on occupational stress was conducted on loco pilots in 2008, in view of loco pilots being one of the high strain jobs in Indian Railways. Subsequently, a comparative cross-sectional study on occupational stress was conducted among section controllers in 2011, which is another high strain job of Indian Railways. The studies were conducted to analyze and compare occupational stress and hypertension. A cross-sectional study on occupational stress and hypertension was conducted among 230 loco pilots in 2008, and subsequently, a comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 82 section controllers in 2011. A closed end 24 item questionnaire on occupational stress was administered. Systolic blood pressure above 140 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure above 90 mmHg were considered as hypertension as per the VII Joint National Committee. Chi-square test and t -test were used for testing significance at P stress score was 8.56 in loco pilots and 7.32 in section controllers. The number of loco pilots with more than 12 stress factors was 49 (21.3%) and the number of section controllers with more than 12 stress factors was 7 (8.5%). The number employees with more than 12 stress factors in different categories of loco pilots were 30 (32%) in the goods category, 12 (12%) in the mail/passenger category, and 7 (19%) in the shunter category, and 3 (11%) in the supervisory category and 4 (7%) in the on-board category of section controllers. The prevalence of hypertension in loco pilots was 36.52% (84) and in the section controllers was 53.66% (44). The prevalence of hypertension in the category with more than 12 stress factors was 30.61% (15) in the loco pilots and 28.57% (2) in the section controllers. The prevalence of hypertension in the both the study groups were higher in the older age, with a family history of hypertension, and with a body mass index of more than 25 kg/m 2 . The mean occupational stress and employees with more than 12 stress

Sleep Benefits Memory for Semantic Category Structure While Preserving Exemplar-Specific Information.

Science.gov (United States)

Schapiro, Anna C; McDevitt, Elizabeth A; Chen, Lang; Norman, Kenneth A; Mednick, Sara C; Rogers, Timothy T

2017-11-01

Semantic memory encompasses knowledge about both the properties that typify concepts (e.g. robins, like all birds, have wings) as well as the properties that individuate conceptually related items (e.g. robins, in particular, have red breasts). We investigate the impact of sleep on new semantic learning using a property inference task in which both kinds of information are initially acquired equally well. Participants learned about three categories of novel objects possessing some properties that were shared among category exemplars and others that were unique to an exemplar, with exposure frequency varying across categories. In Experiment 1, memory for shared properties improved and memory for unique properties was preserved across a night of sleep, while memory for both feature types declined over a day awake. In Experiment 2, memory for shared properties improved across a nap, but only for the lower-frequency category, suggesting a prioritization of weakly learned information early in a sleep period. The increase was significantly correlated with amount of REM, but was also observed in participants who did not enter REM, suggesting involvement of both REM and NREM sleep. The results provide the first evidence that sleep improves memory for the shared structure of object categories, while simultaneously preserving object-unique information.

Measuring Positive and Negative Occupational States (PNOSI: Structural Confirmation of a New Belgian Tool

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Marie Barbier

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This article reports on the validation of the Positive and Negative Occupational States Inventory (PNOSI, a new tool for measuring positive and negative occupational states. Three goals were defined: testing the structural validity of the PNOSI, testing its stability, and testing its convergent and discriminant validity with engagement, burnout, commitment, and workaholism. Data were collected in seven different companies (more than 16,000 participants. The factorial validity of the PNOSI was demonstrated using covariance structure analyses. A two-factor model with a negative occupational state factor and a positive occupational state factor fitted the data better than an alternative one-factor model. The two corresponding scales demonstrated good internal consistency. The results confirmed that positive and negative occupational states are distinct constructs and should be measured with different items. Convergent and discriminant validity with related constructs, namely engagement, burnout, commitment, and workaholism, were also demonstrated. The conclusion is that the PNOSI has good psychometric properties.

Perspective on occupational mortality risks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, B.L.

1981-01-01

Occupational risks to radiation workers are compared with other occupational risks on the basis of lost life expectancy (LLE) in a full working lifetime. Usual comparisons with National Safety Council accident death statistics for various industry categories are shown to be unfair because the latter average over a variety of particular industries and occupations within each industry. Correcting for these problems makes some common occupations in some industries 20-50 times more dangerous due to accidents alone than being a radiation worker. If more exposed subgroups of radiation workers are compared with more dangerous subgroups of other occupations, these ratios are maintained. Since radiation causes disease rather than acute injury, a wide range effort is made to estimate average loss of life expectancy from occupational disease; the final estimate for this is 500 days. The average American worker loses more than an order of magnitude more life expectancy from occupational disease than the average radiation worker loses from radiation induced cancer. (author)

Occupational segregation, selection effects and gender wage differences: evidence from urban Colombia

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Jairo Guillermo Isaza Castro

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This paper assesses the effects of occupational segregation on the gender wage gap in urban Colombia between 1986 and 2000. The empirical methodology involves a two step procedure where by the occupational distributions ofworkers by gender aremodelled using a multinomial logit model in the first stage. In the second stage, the multinomial logit estimates are used not only to derive a counterfactual occupational distribution of women in the absence of workplace discrimination but also to correct for selectivity bias in thewage equations for each occupational category using the procedure suggested by Lee (1983. Besides the explained and unexplained components in conventional decompositions of the gender wage gap, this methodology differentiates between the justified and unjustified effects of the gender allocation ofworkers across occupational categories. The results for urban Colombia indicate that controlling for selectivity bias at the occupational category level is found to be relevant in all years reviewed in this study. They also suggest that a changing composition of the female labour supply in terms of un observables (i.e., ability and motivation is playing a role in the dramatic reduction of the observed wage gap.

Attributable risk of carpal tunnel syndrome according to industry and occupation in a general population.

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Roquelaure, Yves; Ha, Catherine; Nicolas, Guillaume; Pélier-Cady, Marie-Christine; Mariot, Camille; Descatha, Alexis; Leclerc, Annette; Raimbeau, Guy; Goldberg, Marcel; Imbernon, Ellen

2008-09-15

An epidemiologic surveillance network for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) was set up in the general population of a French region to assess the proportion of CTS cases attributable to work in high-risk industries and occupations. Cases of CTS occurring among patients ages 20-59 years living in the Maine and Loire region were included prospectively from 2002 to 2004. Medical and occupation history was gathered by mailed questionnaire for 815 women and 320 men. Age-adjusted relative risks of CTS and the attributable risk fractions of CTS among exposed persons (AFEs) were computed in relation to industry sectors and occupation categories. Twenty-one industry sectors and 8 occupational categories for women and 10 sectors and 6 occupational categories for men were characterized by a significant excess risk of CTS. High AFE values were observed in the manufacturing (42-93% for both sexes), construction (66% for men), and personal service industries (66% for women) and in the trade and commerce sectors (49% for women). High AFE values were observed in lower-grade white-collar occupations for women (43-67%) and blue-collar occupations for men (60-74%) and women (48-88%). The attributable proportions of CTS cases among workers employed in industry sectors and occupation categories identified at high risk of CTS varied between 36% and 93%.

Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data Do Not Help Support DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder Category

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Pina-Camacho, Laura; Villero, Sonia; Boada, Leticia; Fraguas, David; Janssen, Joost; Mayoral, Maria; Llorente, Cloe; Arango, Celso; Parellada, Mara

2013-01-01

This systematic review aims to determine whether or not structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data support the DSM-5 proposal of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic category, and whether or not classical DSM-IV autistic disorder (AD) and Asperger syndrome (AS) categories should be subsumed into it. The most replicated sMRI findings…

A Framework for Occupancy Tracking in a Building via Structural Dynamics Sensing of Footstep Vibrations

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Jeffrey D. Poston

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Counting the number of occupants in building areas over time—occupancy tracking—provides valuable information for responding to emergencies, optimizing thermal conditions or managing personnel. This capability is distinct from tracking individual building occupants as they move within a building, has lower complexity than conventional tracking algorithms require, and avoids privacy concerns that tracking individuals may pose. The approach proposed here is a novel combination of data analytics applied to measurements from a building’s structural dynamics sensors (e.g., accelerometers or geophones. Specifically, measurements of footstep-generated structural waves provide evidence of occupancy in a building area. These footstep vibrations can be distinguished from other vibrations, and, once identified, the footsteps can be located. These locations, in turn, form the starting point of estimating occupancy in an area. In order to provide a meaningful occupancy count, however, it is first necessary to associate discrete footsteps with individuals. The proposed framework incorporates a tractable algorithm for this association task. The proposed algorithms operate online, updating occupancy count over time as new footsteps are detected. Experiments with measurements from a public building illustrate the operation of the proposed framework. This approach offers an advantage over others based on conventional technologies by avoiding the cost of a separate sensor system devoted to occupancy tracking.

An overview of occupational voice disorders in Poland

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Ewa Niebudek-Bogusz

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Occupational voice disorders make the most frequently certified category of occupational diseases in Poland, making up approximately 20% of all cases. This study presents the current knowledge of the etiopathogenesis of occupational voice disorders. It stresses the importance of the evaluation of vocal loading by means of objective measurements. Furthermore, this study discusses the medico-legal aspects of the procedure of certifying occupational voice disorders in Poland. The paper also describes the preventive programs addressed particularly to teachers, including multidisciplinary and holistic management of occupational dysphonia. Their role in the improvement of occupational safety and health (OSH arrangement for vocally demanding professions is emphasized.

Occupational radiation exposures in Canada - 1979

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashmore, J.P.; Fujimoto, K.R.; Wilson, J.A.; Grogan, D.

1980-12-01

This report is the second in a series of annual reports on Occupational Radiation Exposures in Canada. The data is derived from the Radiation Protection Bureau's National Dose Registry which includes dose records for radiation workers in Canada. The report presents average yearly doses by region and occupational category, dose distributions, and variation of average doses with time. Statistical data concerning investigations of high exposures are included and individual cases are briefly summarized where the maximum permissible dose is exceeded. The 1979 data indicate that the gradually decreasing trend of the last two decades may be changing. In a number of areas the overall average doses and the averages for some job categories have increased over the corresponding values for 1977 and 1978

Occupational radiation exposures in Canada - 1978

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ashmore, J.P.; Fujimoto, K.R.; Wilson, J.A.; Grogan, D.

This 1978 report is the first in a series of annual reports on occupational radiation exposures in Canada. The data are derived from the Radiation Protection Bureau's National Dose Registry which includes dose records for radiation workers in Canada. The report presents average yearly doses by region and occupational category, dose distributions, and variation of average doses with time. Statistical data concerning investigations of overexposures are included and individual cases are briefly summarized where the maximum permissible dose is exceeded. The 1978 data indicate that the gradually decreasing trend of the last two decades may have changed. In a number of areas the overall average doses and the averages for some job categories have increasd over the corresponding values for 1977

Industrial distributions of severe occupational injuries among workers in Thailand.

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Yamakawa, Michiyo; Sithisarankul, Pornchai; Yorifuji, Takashi; Hengpraprom, Sarunya; Hiransuthikul, Narin; Doi, Hiroyuki; Takao, Soshi

2014-01-01

In industrializing countries, occupational safety and health have been affected by globalization. However, a lack of reliable data prevents evaluation of this situation. Therefore, we examined industrial distributions and risks of severe occupational injuries among workers in Thailand, which is one of the few industrializing countries that compiles nationwide data. Data on workers who made claims for occupational injuries from 2007 to 2009 were extracted from the Workmen's Compensation Fund records in Thailand. Among 501,334 claimants, we evaluated the industrial distributions of severe occupational injuries (i.e., permanent disability and death). We then examined the associations between industry and those injuries, using proportionate ratios (PRs) between each industrial category and the overall distribution of occupational injuries. The number of workers in manufacturing making claims for severe occupational injuries was the largest among all industrial categories (319,114/501,334 injuries), although the total number of occupational injuries recently declined. Additionally, workers in manufacturing experienced severe occupational injuries more often compared with the overall distribution of occupational injuries. The PRs (95% confidence interval) for manufacturing were 1.17 (1.14-1.20) in men and 1.33 (1.27-1.38) in women. After adjusting for individual characteristics, the results did not substantially change. Manufacturing seems to have the largest burden of occupational injuries in industrializing countries like Thailand.

Reading fiction during sick leave, a multidimensional occupation.

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Mårtensson, Lena; Andersson, Christina

2015-01-01

In bibliotherapy, the therapeutic gains of reading fiction are ascribed to the literature. Viewing reading fiction as an occupation may give other explanations of its therapeutic function. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of reading fiction among women during a period of sick leave. A qualitative approach was applied. Eight women who had been reading fiction during sick leave were interviewed. An overarching theme: Supporting one's active self, comprised five categories of experiences: a prospect of ordinary life, a place of refuge, a life together with others, a source of power, and as supporting an active life. Based on the categories, reading fiction is seen to comprise intentional, functional, mental, relational, and personal dimensions. A tentative model of supporting one's active self is proposed, which may be helpful in clarifying the mechanisms of the process of change. The health-related dimensions of reading fiction suggest that reading fiction should be regarded as a significant occupation comparable with other, more highlighted ones. Understood in this way, it is argued that the results add to the knowledge base in occupational therapy focusing on how meaningful occupations connect to occupational life trajectories.

Modeling patient safety incidents knowledge with the Categorial Structure method.

Science.gov (United States)

Souvignet, Julien; Bousquet, Cédric; Lewalle, Pierre; Trombert-Paviot, Béatrice; Rodrigues, Jean Marie

2011-01-01

Following the WHO initiative named World Alliance for Patient Safety (PS) launched in 2004 a conceptual framework developed by PS national reporting experts has summarized the knowledge available. As a second step, the Department of Public Health of the University of Saint Etienne team elaborated a Categorial Structure (a semi formal structure not related to an upper level ontology) identifying the elements of the semantic structure underpinning the broad concepts contained in the framework for patient safety. This knowledge engineering method has been developed to enable modeling patient safety information as a prerequisite for subsequent full ontology development. The present article describes the semantic dissection of the concepts, the elicitation of the ontology requirements and the domain constraints of the conceptual framework. This ontology includes 134 concepts and 25 distinct relations and will serve as basis for an Information Model for Patient Safety.

Health effects of risk-assessment categories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kramer, C.F.; Rybicka, K.; Knutson, A.; Morris, S.C.

1983-10-01

Environmental and occupational health effects associated with exposures to various chemicals are a subject of increasing concern. One recently developed methodology for assessing the health impacts of various chemical compounds involves the classification of similar chemicals into risk-assessment categories (RACs). This report reviews documented human health effects for a broad range of pollutants, classified by RACs. It complements other studies that have estimated human health effects by RAC based on analysis and extrapolation of data from animal research

Health effects of risk-assessment categories

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kramer, C.F.; Rybicka, K.; Knutson, A.; Morris, S.C.

1983-10-01

Environmental and occupational health effects associated with exposures to various chemicals are a subject of increasing concern. One recently developed methodology for assessing the health impacts of various chemical compounds involves the classification of similar chemicals into risk-assessment categories (RACs). This report reviews documented human health effects for a broad range of pollutants, classified by RACs. It complements other studies that have estimated human health effects by RAC based on analysis and extrapolation of data from animal research.

Studying entrepreneurial occupations in the Terman women.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmitt-Rodermund, Eva; Schröder, Elke; Obschonka, Martin

2017-07-16

To achieve a better understanding of entrepreneurship development in women, longitudinal data on 672 individuals collected from 1922 to 1959 were analysed in a secondary investigation of the Terman Longitudinal Study. Women's reports on their occupations during 10 different years were assigned to one of two categories: work for pay (0/1), and work allowing for self-employment (0/1) in the respective year. Structural equation modelling supported earlier results concerning male entrepreneurial activity. Personality and aspects of the parenting context the women had experienced by the average age of 12 predicted early entrepreneurial competencies (inventions, leadership) and occupational interests by age 13, which related to an entrepreneurship-related career goal in 1936, when the participants were about 27 years of age on average. Such a career goal in turn predicted a higher number of occasions of entrepreneurship-prone work. Surprisingly, we also found a relationship to divorce. Women who had experienced the failure of a marriage were in occupations with a potential for entrepreneurship more often. Reasons are discussed against a backdrop of historical timing and current findings to identify general aspects of entrepreneurship development. © 2017 International Union of Psychological Science.

Occupational therapy practice in emergency care: Occupational therapists' perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Spang, Lisa; Holmqvist, Kajsa

2015-01-01

Emergency care takes place in a complex work environment that is characterized by critically ill patients, short hospital stays, and a wide variety of different healthcare professionals. Studies of occupational therapists' (OTs) experiences of working within emergency care have shown that they often experience difficulties in explaining the essence of occupational therapy and have to justify their approaches. Much effort has been made in Sweden to help OTs dispel the notion that occupational therapy is difficult to explain, and the aim of this study was to describe how Swedish OTs perceive their work in emergency care. A qualitative descriptive approach was taken, and 14 interviews were conducted with OTs working in emergency care. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The overall theme that emerged was "Feeling established through deliberate occupation-based work". The underlying categories showed different strategies used by the OTs to provide occupational therapy in an emergency care context. Deliberate strategies were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of occupational therapy and its approaches to patients and other health care professionals, and this resulted in the OTs feeling both established and needed. Unlike the OTs in previous studies, the Swedish OTs experienced no difficulties in explaining occupational therapy and could make convincing arguments for their interventions. Parallel to their clinical work, the OTs worked with on-going development to find ways to improve their approaches. In summary, these Swedish OTs seem to have been provided with a professional language and the knowledge required to establish themselves in an emergency care setting.

Cognitive structure of occupational risks represented by a perceptual map.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardoso-Junior, M M; Scarpel, R A

2012-01-01

The main focus of risk management is technical and rational analysis about the operational risks and by those imposed by the occupational environment. In this work one seeks to contribute to the risk perception study and to better comprehend how a group of occupational safety students assesses a set of activities and environmental agents. In this way it was used theory sustained by psychometric paradigm and multivariate analysis tools, mainly multidimensional scaling, generalized Procrustes analysis and facets theory, in order to construct the perceptual map of occupational risks. The results obtained showed that the essential characteristics of risks, which were initially splited in 4 facets were detected and maintained in the perceptual map. It was not possible to reveal the cognitive structure of the group, because the variability of the students was too high. Differences among the risks analyzed could not be detected as well in the perceptual map of the group.

Occupational structure in the Czech lands under the second serfdom

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Klein, Alexander; Ogilvie, S.

2016-01-01

Roč. 69, č. 2 (2016), s. 493-521 ISSN 0013-0117 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-13848S Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : occupational structure * Czech lands * Bohemia Subject RIV: AH - Economics OBOR OECD: Applied Economics, Econometrics Impact factor: 1.233, year: 2016

Integrating occupations: Changing occupational sex segregation in the U.S. from 2000 to 2014

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Patricia Roos

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Declining occupational sex segregation in the late 20th century helped to usher in unprecedented occupational and economic advancement for women. As the 21st century dawned, that advancement stalled. Objective: We examine how occupational integration occurred in the early decades of the 21st century by focusing on (1 the extent of occupational feminization and masculinization and (2 occupational succession. More broadly we examine how the representation of women in detailed occupational categories changed between 2000 and 2014, regardless of whether they were historically 'male' or 'female,' and how sociodemographic characteristics contributed to uneven shifts in occupational integration. Methods: We use Integrated Public Use Microdata Series data to estimate the percentage point female at the detailed occupation level, specifically the 5Š census microdata sample for 2000, and two 1Š American Community Survey (ACS samples for 2013 and 2014. Results: Despite a stall in overall integration, there was much fluctuation within detailed occupations. Moreover, occupational inroads have been uneven in the post-2000 period. Women gained entry into the same types of professional and managerial occupations they entered between 1970 and 2000, especially in the health professions. Men increased their representation in lower-level, nonprofessional occupations. Contribution: Rather than focus solely on predominantly male or female occupations, we focus more broadly on how occupations feminize and masculinize. More occupations masculinized than previously. Moreover, those in feminizing occupations are more likely to be advantaged (e.g., white, citizens, and educated, while those in masculinizing occupations are more likely to be disadvantaged (e.g., black, Hispanic, and poor English speakers.

The Seismic Category I Structures Program results for FY 1987

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farrar, C.R.; Bennett, J.G.; Dunwoody, W.E.; Baker, W.E.

1990-10-01

The accomplishments of the Seismic Category I Structures Program for FY 1987 are summarized. These accomplishments include the quasi-static load cycle testing of large shear wall elements, an extensive analysis of previous data to determine if equivalent linear analytical models can predict the response of damaged shear wall structures, and code committee activities. In addition, previous testing and results that led to the FY 1987 program plan are discussed and all previous data relating to shear wall stiffness are summarized. Because separate reports have already summarized the experimental and analytical work in FY 1987, this report will briefly highlight this work and the appropriate reports will be references for a more detailed discussion. 12 refs., 23 figs., 18 tabs

1999 report on occupational radiation exposures in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sont, W.; Ashmore, J.P.

1999-01-01

The report provides statistics on occupational radiation exposures for use by regulatory authorities, organizations and private individuals. Out of a total of 125,883 monitored workers, 4 annual doses exceeded the regulatory limit of 50 mSv in 1998. Out of 43 specified job categories, 18 had a smaller annual average in 1998 than in 1997, 17 had a higher average, and 8 had the same average rounded to 0.01 mSv. The uranium mining job categories are not in this list because the conversion factor for radon progeny exposure to effective dose was changed from 10 to 5 mSv/WLM, precluding a valid comparison of the averages. In all categories of workers, from 1996 to 1997, 19 average annual doses went up, 33 went down, and 4 stayed the same. The figures reflect a sustained effort in keeping the occupational doses low. (author)

Using multi-species occupancy models in structured decision making on managed lands

Science.gov (United States)

Sauer, John R.; Blank, Peter J.; Zipkin, Elise F.; Fallon, Jane E.; Fallon, Frederick W.

2013-01-01

Land managers must balance the needs of a variety of species when manipulating habitats. Structured decision making provides a systematic means of defining choices and choosing among alternative management options; implementation of a structured decision requires quantitative approaches to predicting consequences of management on the relevant species. Multi-species occupancy models provide a convenient framework for making structured decisions when the management objective is focused on a collection of species. These models use replicate survey data that are often collected on managed lands. Occupancy can be modeled for each species as a function of habitat and other environmental features, and Bayesian methods allow for estimation and prediction of collective responses of groups of species to alternative scenarios of habitat management. We provide an example of this approach using data from breeding bird surveys conducted in 2008 at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland, evaluating the effects of eliminating meadow and wetland habitats on scrub-successional and woodland-breeding bird species using summed total occupancy of species as an objective function. Removal of meadows and wetlands decreased value of an objective function based on scrub-successional species by 23.3% (95% CI: 20.3–26.5), but caused only a 2% (0.5, 3.5) increase in value of an objective function based on woodland species, documenting differential effects of elimination of meadows and wetlands on these groups of breeding birds. This approach provides a useful quantitative tool for managers interested in structured decision making.

Occupational chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic literature review.

Science.gov (United States)

Omland, Oyvind; Würtz, Else Toft; Aasen, Tor Brøvig; Blanc, Paul; Brisman, Jonas Brisman; Miller, Martin Reginald; Pedersen, Ole Find; Schlünssen, Vivi; Sigsgaard, Torben; Ulrik, Charlotte Suppli; Viskum, Sven

2014-01-01

Occupational-attributable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) presents a substantial health challenge. Focusing on spirometric criteria for airflow obstruction, this review of occupational COPD includes both population-wide and industry-specific exposures. We used PubMed and Embase to identify relevant original epidemiological peer-reviewed articles, supplemented with citations identified from references in key review articles. This yielded 4528 citations. Articles were excluded for lack of lung function measurement, insufficient occupational exposure classification, lack of either external or internal referents, non-accounting of age or smoking effect, or major analytic inadequacies preventing interpretation of findings. A structured data extraction sheet was used for the remaining 147 articles. Final inclusion was based on a positive qualitative Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) score (≥2+) for study quality, yielding 25 population-wide and 34 industry/occupation-specific studies, 15 on inorganic and 19 on organic dust exposure, respectively. There was a consistent and predominantly significant association between occupational exposures and COPD in 22 of 25 population-based studies, 12 of 15 studies with an inorganic/mineral dust exposure, and 17 of 19 studies on organic exposure, even though the studies varied in design, populations, and the use of measures of exposure and outcome. A nearly uniform pattern of a dose-response relationship between various exposures and COPD was found, adding to the evidence that occupational exposures from vapors, gas, dust, and fumes are risk factors for COPD. There is strong and consistent evidence to support a causal association between multiple categories of occupational exposure and COPD, both within and across industry groups.

Development of a reliability-analysis method for category I structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shinozuka, M.; Kako, T.; Hwang, H.; Reich, M.

1983-01-01

The present paper develops a reliability analysis method for category I nuclear structures, particularly for reinforced concrete containment structures subjected to various load combinations. The loads considered here include dead loads, accidental internal pressure and earthquake ground acceleration. For mathematical tractability, an earthquake occurrence is assumed to be governed by the Poisson arrival law, while its acceleration history is idealized as a Gaussian vector process of finite duration. A vector process consists of three component processes, each with zero mean. The second order statistics of this process are specified by a three-by-three spectral density matrix with a multiplying factor representing the overall intensity of the ground acceleration. With respect to accidental internal pressure, the following assumptions are made: (a) it occurs in accordance with the Poisson law; (b) its intensity and duration are random; and (c) its temporal rise and fall behaviors are such that a quasi-static structural analysis applies. A dead load is considered to be a deterministic constant

[Financing of regional occupational health service centers: structure and financial criteria in years 2000-2001].

Science.gov (United States)

Rydlewska-Liszkowska, Izabela

2003-01-01

The rational planning and financing of occupational health services at the national level have to be based on an appropriate system of information about individual units and their financial status that could illustrate their financial administration. This is required not only in view of the internal needs of public money management, but also in view of the national health accounts. The major task in this regard is to assess the level and structure of financing to individual units and to check the soundness of criteria used in the process of supplying financial means. The results of such an analysis can be a valuable source of information for planning carried out also by the institutions which provide funds to cover the cost of tasks performed by individual units. The aim of the project implemented by the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine was to collect, process and analyze data on the level and structure of financing of provincial occupational medicine centers. In this paper, the objectives, methodology and analytical tools are discussed. The results and structural data on the level and structure of financing of regional occupational health services centers covering a two-year period are presented. At the same time, the criteria for allocating funds were identified, which made it possible to evaluate the situation and to propose new solutions.

Occupational risk for Legionella infection among dental healthcare workers: meta-analysis in occupational epidemiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Petti, Stefano; Vitali, Matteo

2017-07-13

The occupational risk for Legionella infection among dental healthcare workers (DHCWs) is conjectured because of the risk of routine inhalation of potentially contaminated aerosols produced by the dental instruments. Nevertheless, occupational epidemiology studies are contrasting. This meta-analysis assessed the level of scientific evidence regarding the relative occupational risk for Legionella infection among DHCWs. Literature search was performed without time and language restrictions, using broad data banks (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, GOOGLE Scholar) and generic keywords ('legionella' AND 'dent*'). Analytical cross-sectional studies comparing prevalence of high serum Legionella antibody levels in DHCWs and occupationally unexposed individuals were considered. The relative occupational risk was assessed through prevalence ratio (PR) with 95% CI. Between-study heterogeneity was assessed (Cochran's Q test) and was used to choose the meta-analytic method. Study quality (modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale) and publication bias (Begg and Mazumdar's test, Egger and colleagues' test, trim and fill R 0 method) were assessed formally and considered for the sensitivity analysis. Sensitivity analysis to study inclusion, subgroup analyses (dental staff categories; publication year, before vs after 1998, ie, 5 years after the release by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the infection control guidelines in dental healthcare setting) were performed. Seven studies were included (2232 DHCWs, 1172 occupationally unexposed individuals). No evidence of publication bias was detected. The pooled PR estimate was statistically non-significant at 95% level (1.7; 95% CI 0.8 to 3.2), study-quality adjustment did not change the PR considerably (PR, 1.5; 95% CI 0.5 to 4.1). PR was statistically significant before 1998 and no longer significant after 1998. Subgroup analysis according to DHCW categories was inconclusive. There is no scientific evidence that DHCWs are

Occupational radiation exposures in Canada - 1982

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujimoto, K.R.; Wilson, J.A.; Ashmore, J.P.; Grogan, D.

1983-12-01

This report is the fifth in a series of annual reports in Occupational Radiation Exposures in Canada. The data is derived from the Radiation Protection Bureau's National Dose Registry which contains dose records for radiation workers. The report presents average yearly doses by region and occupational category, dose distributions, and variation of average doses with time. Statistical data concerning investigations of high exposures reported by the National Dosimetry Services are included, and individual cases are briefly summarized where the maximum permissible dose is exceeded

Occupancy schedules for energy simulation in new prEN16798-1 and ISO/FDIS 17772-1 standards

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ahmed, Kaiser; Akhondzada, Ali; Kurnitski, Jarek

2017-01-01

This study reports the development of occupancy, lighting and appliance hourly schedules for new energy calculation input data standards. Developed schedules apply for 10 building categories which are described by one to three space categories, and include the separation between weekdays and week......This study reports the development of occupancy, lighting and appliance hourly schedules for new energy calculation input data standards. Developed schedules apply for 10 building categories which are described by one to three space categories, and include the separation between weekdays......-1 standards, supported by appliances and lighting schedules which are similarly needed as energy calculation input data. Hourly schedules allow to model occupant behaviour effects, for instance the peak cooling load in an office room was increased by factor of 1.1–1.3 compared to the use of constant average...

Occupation and lung cancer in two industrialized areas of northern Italy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ronco, G.; Ciccone, G.; Mirabelli, D.; Troia, B.; Vineis, P.

1988-03-15

A population-based case-control study on lung cancer was conducted in 2 industrialized areas of northern Italy. Cases (126) were all males who died from lung cancer between 1976 and 1980. Controls (384) were a random sample of males dying from other causes during the same period. Jobs held during working life have been analyzed according to a list of occupations already known to be causally associated with lung cancer (list A) and a list of occupations suspected of being so (list B). Attributable risk percentages in the population for occupations included in either list A or B were about 36% and 12% in the 2 areas. Welders or workers in industries in which welding is common showed elevated odds ratios: 2.9 for welders (95% CI 0.9-9.8); 4.9 (1.1-22.9) for structural metal workers; 11.4 (2.6-49.9) for workers in structural metal production. Other job categories associated with lung cancer included: electricians and workers in electrical machine production, woodworkers (in furniture or cabinet making, but not in carpentry or joinery) and cleaning services. Smoking did not seem to exert a substantial confounding effect. Attributable risk percentages for tobacco smoking were about 78% and 76% in the population of the 2 areas.

Occupation and lung cancer in two industrialized areas of northern Italy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ronco, G; Ciccone, G; Mirabelli, D; Troia, B; Vineis, P

1988-03-15

A population-based case-control study on lung cancer was conducted in 2 industrialized areas of northern Italy. Cases (126) were all males who died from lung cancer between 1976 and 1980. Controls (384) were a random sample of males dying from other causes during the same period. Jobs held during working life have been analyzed according to a list of occupations already known to be causally associated with lung cancer (list A) and a list of occupations suspected of being so (list B). Attributable risk percentages in the population for occupations included in either list A or B were about 36% and 12% in the 2 areas. Welders or workers in industries in which welding is common showed elevated odds ratios: 2.9 for welders (95% CI 0.9-9.8); 4.9 (1.1-22.9) for structural metal workers; 11.4 (2.6-49.9) for workers in structural metal production. Other job categories associated with lung cancer included: electricians and workers in electrical machine production, woodworkers (in furniture or cabinet making, but not in carpentry or joinery) and cleaning services. Smoking did not seem to exert a substantial confounding effect. Attributable risk percentages for tobacco smoking were about 78% and 76% in the population of the 2 areas.

On the (un)suitability of semantic categories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rijkhoff, Jan

2009-01-01

Since Greenberg’s groundbreaking publication on universals of grammar, typologists have used semantic categories to investigate (constraints on) morphological and syntactic variation in the world’s languages and this tradition has been continued in the WALS project. It is argued here that the emp......Since Greenberg’s groundbreaking publication on universals of grammar, typologists have used semantic categories to investigate (constraints on) morphological and syntactic variation in the world’s languages and this tradition has been continued in the WALS project. It is argued here...... that the employment of semantic categories has some serious drawbacks, however, suggesting that semantic categories, just like formal categories, cannot be equated across languages in morphosyntactic typology. Whereas formal categories are too narrow in that they do not cover all structural variants attested across...... languages, semantic categories can be too wide, including too many structural variants. Furthermore, it appears that in some major typological studies semantic categories have been confused with formal categories. A possible solution is pointed out: typologists first need to make sure that the forms...

Structural and effective connectivity reveals potential network-based influences on category-sensitive visual areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicholas eFurl

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Visual category perception is thought to depend on brain areas that respond specifically when certain categories are viewed. These category-sensitive areas are often assumed to be modules (with some degree of processing autonomy and to act predominantly on feedforward visual input. This modular view can be complemented by a view that treats brain areas as elements within more complex networks and as influenced by network properties. This network-oriented viewpoint is emerging from studies using either diffusion tensor imaging to map structural connections or effective connectivity analyses to measure how their functional responses influence each other. This literature motivates several hypotheses that predict category-sensitive activity based on network properties. Large, long-range fiber bundles such as inferior fronto-occipital, arcuate and inferior longitudinal fasciculi are associated with behavioural recognition and could play crucial roles in conveying backward influences on visual cortex from anterior temporal and frontal areas. Such backward influences could support top-down functions such as visual search and emotion-based visual modulation. Within visual cortex itself, areas sensitive to different categories appear well-connected (e.g., face areas connect to object- and motion sensitive areas and their responses can be predicted by backward modulation. Evidence supporting these propositions remains incomplete and underscores the need for better integration of DTI and functional imaging.

Artistic occupations are associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Haaxma, Charlotte A; Borm, George F; van der Linden, Dimitri; Kappelle, Arnoud C; Bloem, Bastiaan R

2015-09-01

Parkinson's disease (PD) is preceded by a premotor phase of unknown duration. Dopaminergic degeneration during this phase may lead to subtle cognitive and behavioural changes, such as decreased novelty seeking. Consequently, premotor subjects might be most comfortable in jobs that do not require optimal dopamine levels, leading to an overrepresentation in structured and predictable occupations, or an underrepresentation in artistic occupations. In a case-control study, 750 men with PD (onset ≥40 years) and 1300 healthy men completed a validated questionnaire about their lifetime occupational status. Occupations were classified using the RIASEC model. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for the conventional and artistic categories, both for the most recent occupation before symptom onset, and for the very first occupation. Because farming has been associated with a PD risk, ORs were calculated separately for farming. A reduced risk of PD was found for men with an artistic occupation late in life (OR 0.14, 95% CI 0.04-0.53), while an artistic first occupation did not prevent PD (OR 0.72, CI 0.32-1.59). Conventional occupations showed no increased risk (recent: OR 1.07, CI 0.70-1.64; first: OR 1.14, CI 0.77-1.71). In support of previous reports, farming was associated with an increased risk of PD (recent: OR 2.6, CI 1.4-4.6; first: OR 2.7, CI 1.6-4.5). PD patients were older than controls, but various statistical corrections for age all lead to similar results. Artistic occupations late in life are associated with a reduced risk of subsequent PD, perhaps because this reflects a better preserved dopaminergic state. No initial occupation predicted PD, suggesting that the premotor phase starts later in life.

Occupational therapists' experiences of career progression following promotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Helen; Giles, Susan; McInnes, Heather; Hitch, Danielle

2015-12-01

The recruitment and retention of a skilled occupational therapy workforce is highlighted as a key issue for the profession, and yet there have been relatively few studies into the career progression of occupational therapists. A qualitative, naturalistic approach was adopted to answer the research question, using semi-structured interviews to gather data. Eleven purposefully selected participants at an Australian health service were interviewed as part of this study. Categories representing the most common themes and topics supplied by participants within their individual interviews were identified and consolidated by the research team. The trustworthiness of this study was supported by strategies to maximise its credibility, dependability and confirmability. Four main themes were elicited from the data - (i) Readiness for progression, (ii) Tools and processes, (iii) Expectations and (iv) What I wish I had known first. Within these themes, related findings were also identified by both Grade 2 and Grade 3 staff. This study indicates that the readiness of occupational therapists to climb the career ladder is influenced by the tools and processes they can utilise, and the expectations they have around the realities of their new position. With hindsight, participants highlighted some things they wish they had known at the time of transition, which appeared to have been implicit. This study is the first to address the common issues for occupational therapy staff around progression between grade levels. It therefore provides a basis for further research in other practice settings and for the development of supports for therapists climbing the career ladder. © 2015 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Occupational Risk for Oral Cancer in Nordic Countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Tarvainen, Laura; Suojanen, Juho; Kyyronen, Pentti; Lindqvist, Christian; Martinsen, Jan Ivar; Kjaerheim, Kristina; Lynge, Elsebeth; Sparen, Par; Tryggvadottir, Laufey; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Pukkala, Eero

2017-06-01

To evaluate occupational risk for cancer of the tongue, oral cavity or pharynx after adjustment for alcohol and tobacco use. The data covered 14.9 million people and 28,623 cases of cancer of the tongue, oral cavity and pharynx in the Nordic countries 1961-2005. Alcohol consumption by occupation was estimated based on mortality from liver cirrhosis and incidence of liver cancer. Smoking by occupation was estimated based on the incidence of lung cancer. Only few occupations had relative risks of over 1.5 for cancer of the tongue, oral cavity and pharynx. These occupations included dentists, artistic workers, hairdressers, journalists, cooks and stewards, seamen and waiters. Several occupational categories, including dentists, had an increased relative risk of tongue cancer. This new finding remains to be explained but could be related to occupational chemical exposures, increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco products, or infection with human papilloma virus. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

[Appraisal of occupational stress and work ability].

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xinwei; Wang, Zhiming; Lan, Yajia; Wang, Mianzhen

2004-01-01

This study was conducted to assess occupational stress and work ability. A test of occupational stress and work ability was carry out with revised occupational stress inventory (OSI-R) and work ability index(WAI) for 2270 workers. (1) The occupational stress and strain in male was significantly higher than those in female, but self-care and social support in female werehigher than in male(P < 0.01). The level of occupational stress, strain except interpersonal strain increased with age, while work ability decreased(P < 0.05). (2) Among 6 items of occupational role questionnaire, the score of role boundary and responsibility were obviously higher in college education (P < 0.05). The score of occupational role, psychological strain, physical strain was higher in maried, divorce than unmarried(P < 0.05). (3) The score of occupational role, strain in good work ability category was significantly lower than others, but personal resources were higher(P < 0.05). (4) The correlation of work ability and occupational stress, strain, personal resources were significant(P < 0.01), occupational role and personal strain were positively correlated, both of which correlated negatively to the personal resources(P < 0.01). (5) The major influential factors of personal strain were age, recreation, self-care, social support, rational/cognitive, role insufficiency, role ambiguity and role boundary.

Models as Relational Categories

Science.gov (United States)

Kokkonen, Tommi

2017-11-01

Model-based learning (MBL) has an established position within science education. It has been found to enhance conceptual understanding and provide a way for engaging students in authentic scientific activity. Despite ample research, few studies have examined the cognitive processes regarding learning scientific concepts within MBL. On the other hand, recent research within cognitive science has examined the learning of so-called relational categories. Relational categories are categories whose membership is determined on the basis of the common relational structure. In this theoretical paper, I argue that viewing models as relational categories provides a well-motivated cognitive basis for MBL. I discuss the different roles of models and modeling within MBL (using ready-made models, constructive modeling, and generative modeling) and discern the related cognitive aspects brought forward by the reinterpretation of models as relational categories. I will argue that relational knowledge is vital in learning novel models and in the transfer of learning. Moreover, relational knowledge underlies the coherent, hierarchical knowledge of experts. Lastly, I will examine how the format of external representations may affect the learning of models and the relevant relations. The nature of the learning mechanisms underlying students' mental representations of models is an interesting open question to be examined. Furthermore, the ways in which the expert-like knowledge develops and how to best support it is in need of more research. The discussion and conceptualization of models as relational categories allows discerning students' mental representations of models in terms of evolving relational structures in greater detail than previously done.

Impact of occupational stress on stroke across occupational classes and genders.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsutsumi, Akizumi; Kayaba, Kazunori; Ishikawa, Shizukiyo

2011-05-01

The aims of the present study were to analyze the association between incident stroke, occupational class and stress and to examine whether the association is found in both men and women in a prospective study of Japanese male and female workers. A total of 3190 male and 3363 female Japanese community-dwelling workers aged 65 or under with no history of cardiovascular disease were followed. Occupational stress was evaluated using a demand-control questionnaire. The impact on stroke was examined in stratified analyses of occupational classes. We identified 147 incident strokes (91 in men and 56 in women) during the 11-year follow-up period. Men with high strain jobs (combination of high job demand and low job control) were nearly three times more likely to suffer from a stroke than men with low strain jobs (combination of low job demand and high job control). Among male workers in low occupational classes (blue-collar and non-managerial work), job strain was associated with a higher risk of stroke. In contrast, there was no association between job strain and incident stroke among male workers in high occupational classes (white-collar and managerial work). No statistically significant differences were found for stroke incidence among the job characteristic categories in all the female participants. However, significant, over five-fold excess risks were found among white-collar and managerial female workers exposed to high job strain, compared with their counterparts with low strain jobs. Our study of Japanese workers provided supportive evidence for vulnerability to occupational stress among lower occupational class workers in males but not in females. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proportion of categories of associates and structure of the mental lexicon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Savić Irena

2008-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a systematic distinction between associate pairs that constitute categories of lexical relations (e.g. synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms etc. and categories of associate pairs that have no obvious lexical relation. Proportion of categories of associates were estimated on 80 nouns from "Associative Dictionary of Serbian Language" (Piper, Dragićević & Stefanović, 2005, while frequencies of associates were estimated from "Frequency Dictionary of Contemporary Serbian Language" (Kostić, Đ., 1999. Categories of associates were divided into two groups: group of categories that included standard lexical relations and group that included idiosyncratic associates. Proportions of categories were analyzed with respect to a frequency of a noun to which associates were generated and b whether it was an abstract or concrete noun. Three measures were used to estimate proportion of categories: a number of associates, b sum frequency of associates and c the average frequency per associate. When estimated with respect to number of associates and sum frequency of associates proportion of categories that included standard lexical relations were negligible (6% and 18%, but they become dominant when estimated with respect to the average frequency per associate. Such an outcome suggests that categories that include standard lexical relations are characterized by small number of associates (due to the fact that they are closed classes with high frequency associates. Distinction between abstract and concrete nouns did not affect number of associates per category, which was not the case when proportions were estimated with respect to sum frequency of associates. Frequency of a noun to which associates were generated has no effect on productivity of associates, nor does it affects sum frequency per category. However, it has significant effect on the average frequency per associate within a given category.

Does Occupational Mobility Influence Health among Working Women? Comparing Objective and Subjective Measures of Work Trajectories

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Lindsay R.; Shippee, Tetyana P.; Ferraro, Kenneth F.

2012-01-01

Occupational mobility is highly valued in American society, but is it consequential to women's health? Previous studies have yielded inconsistent results, but most measured occupational mobility by identifying transitions across occupational categories. Drawing from cumulative inequality theory, this study (1) compares objective and subjective…

Occupation recorded on certificates of death compared with self-report: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolf Susanne H

2007-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Death certificates are a potential source of sociodemographic data for decedents in epidemiologic research. However, because this information is provided by the next-of-kin or other proxies, there are concerns about validity. Our objective was to assess the agreement of job titles and occupational categories derived from death certificates with that self-reported in mid and later life. Methods Occupation was abstracted from 431 death certificates from North Carolina Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study participants who died between 1987 and 2001. Occupations were coded according to 1980 Bureau of Census job titles and then grouped into six 1980 census occupational categories. This information was compared with the self-reported occupation at midlife as reported at the baseline examination (1987–89. We calculated percent agreement using standard methods. Chance-adjusted agreement was assessed by kappa coefficients, with 95% confidence intervals. Results Agreement between death certificate and self-reported job titles was poor (32%, while 67% of occupational categories matched the two sources. Kappa coefficients ranged from 0.53 for technical/sales/administrative jobs to 0.68 for homemakers. Agreement was lower, albeit nonsignificant, for women (kappa = 0.54, 95% Confidence Interval, CI = 0.44–0.63 than men (kappa = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.54–0.69 and for African-Americans (kappa = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.34–0.61 than whites (kappa = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.57–0.69 but varied only slightly by educational attainment. Conclusion While agreement between self- and death certificate reported job titles was poor, agreement between occupational categories was good. This suggests that while death certificates may not be a suitable source of occupational data where classification into specific job titles is essential, in the absence of other data, it is a reasonable source for constructing measures such as occupational SES that are based on

SUSTAIN: a network model of category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Love, Bradley C; Medin, Douglas L; Gureckis, Todd M

2004-04-01

SUSTAIN (Supervised and Unsupervised STratified Adaptive Incremental Network) is a model of how humans learn categories from examples. SUSTAIN initially assumes a simple category structure. If simple solutions prove inadequate and SUSTAIN is confronted with a surprising event (e.g., it is told that a bat is a mammal instead of a bird), SUSTAIN recruits an additional cluster to represent the surprising event. Newly recruited clusters are available to explain future events and can themselves evolve into prototypes-attractors-rules. SUSTAIN's discovery of category substructure is affected not only by the structure of the world but by the nature of the learning task and the learner's goals. SUSTAIN successfully extends category learning models to studies of inference learning, unsupervised learning, category construction, and contexts in which identification learning is faster than classification learning.

Category structure determines the relative attractiveness of global versus local averages.

Science.gov (United States)

Vogel, Tobias; Carr, Evan W; Davis, Tyler; Winkielman, Piotr

2018-02-01

Stimuli that capture the central tendency of presented exemplars are often preferred-a phenomenon also known as the classic beauty-in-averageness effect . However, recent studies have shown that this effect can reverse under certain conditions. We propose that a key variable for such ugliness-in-averageness effects is the category structure of the presented exemplars. When exemplars cluster into multiple subcategories, the global average should no longer reflect the underlying stimulus distributions, and will thereby become unattractive. In contrast, the subcategory averages (i.e., local averages) should better reflect the stimulus distributions, and become more attractive. In 3 studies, we presented participants with dot patterns belonging to 2 different subcategories. Importantly, across studies, we also manipulated the distinctiveness of the subcategories. We found that participants preferred the local averages over the global average when they first learned to classify the patterns into 2 different subcategories in a contrastive categorization paradigm (Experiment 1). Moreover, participants still preferred local averages when first classifying patterns into a single category (Experiment 2) or when not classifying patterns at all during incidental learning (Experiment 3), as long as the subcategories were sufficiently distinct. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, we mapped our empirical results onto predictions generated by a well-known computational model of category learning (the Generalized Context Model [GCM]). Overall, our findings emphasize the key role of categorization for understanding the nature of preferences, including any effects that emerge from stimulus averaging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Female-Male Earnings Differentials and Occupational Structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Terrell, Katherine

1992-01-01

A review of econometric literature on female-male wage differences and asymmetrical distribution in occupations shows that differences in returns to human capital (i.e., discrimination) explains far more of the wage gap than differences in education and experience. Crowding of women into few occupations depresses wages. (SK)

Occupational contact urticaria and protein contact dermatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Doutre, Marie-Sylvie

2005-01-01

Irritant dermatitis and eczema are the most prevalent occupational skin diseases. Less common are immediate contact reactions such as contact urticaria and protein contact dermatitis. Occupational contact urticaria can be subdivided into two categories, immunological and non immunological. However, some agents can induce these two types of reactions. Contact urticaria to natural rubber latex is particularly frequent among health care personnel, but contact urticaria to a wide variety of other substances occurs in many other occupations. Among those at risk are cooks, bakers, butchers, restaurant personnel, veterinarians, hairdressers, florists, gardeners, and forestry workers. Protein contact dermatitis in some of these occupations is caused principally by proteins of animal or plant origin, especially among individuals with a history of atopic dermatitis. Diagnosis requires careful interrogation, clinical examination and skin tests (open tests and prick tests with immediate lecture) to identify a particular contact allergen.

Predictors for return to work for those with occupational respiratory disease: clinical and structural factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoeckler, Jeanette M; Cibula, Donald A; Morley, Christopher P; Lax, Michael B

2013-12-01

Few occupational researchers have examined "return to work" among patients with work-related respiratory diseases. In addition, prior studies have emphasized individual patient characteristics rather than a more multi-dimensional approach that includes both clinical and structural factors. A retrospective chart review identified patients with occupational respiratory diseases in the Occupational Health Clinical Center, Syracuse, NY between 1991 and 2009. We assessed predictors of work status using an exploratory, sequential mixed methods research design, multinomial (n = 188) and Cox regressions (n = 130). The findings suggest that patients with an increased number of diagnoses, non-union members, and those who took more than a year before clinical presentation had significantly poorer work status outcomes, after adjusting for age, education level, and relevant diagnoses. Efforts to prevent slow return to work after developing occupational respiratory disease should recognize the importance of timely access to occupational health services, disease severity, union membership, and smoking status. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Basic level category structure emerges gradually across human ventral visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Iordan, Marius Cătălin; Greene, Michelle R; Beck, Diane M; Fei-Fei, Li

2015-07-01

Objects can be simultaneously categorized at multiple levels of specificity ranging from very broad ("natural object") to very distinct ("Mr. Woof"), with a mid-level of generality (basic level: "dog") often providing the most cognitively useful distinction between categories. It is unknown, however, how this hierarchical representation is achieved in the brain. Using multivoxel pattern analyses, we examined how well each taxonomic level (superordinate, basic, and subordinate) of real-world object categories is represented across occipitotemporal cortex. We found that, although in early visual cortex objects are best represented at the subordinate level (an effect mostly driven by low-level feature overlap between objects in the same category), this advantage diminishes compared to the basic level as we move up the visual hierarchy, disappearing in object-selective regions of occipitotemporal cortex. This pattern stems from a combined increase in within-category similarity (category cohesion) and between-category dissimilarity (category distinctiveness) of neural activity patterns at the basic level, relative to both subordinate and superordinate levels, suggesting that successive visual areas may be optimizing basic level representations.

Paternal occupational exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields and risk of adverse pregnancy outcome

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mjoen, Geir; Saetre, Dag Ottar; Lie, Rolv T.; Tynes, Tore; Blaasaas, Karl Gerhard; Hannevik, Merete; Irgens, Lorentz M.

2006-01-01

Background:During the last decades, public concern that radiofrequency radiation (RFR) may be related to adverse reproductive outcomes has been emerging. Our objective was to assess associations between paternal occupational exposure to RFR and adverse pregnancy outcomes including birth defects using population-based data from Norway.Methods:Data on reproductive outcomes derived from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway were linked with data on paternal occupation derived from the general population censuses. An expert panel categorized occupations according to exposure. Using logistic regression, we analyzed 24 categories of birth defects as well as other adverse outcomes.Results:In the offspring of fathers most likely to have been exposed, increased risk was observed for preterm birth (odds ratio (OR): 1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.15). In this group we also observed a decreased risk of cleft lip (OR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.41, 0.97). In the medium exposed group, we observed increased risk for a category of ,other defects' (OR: 2.40, 95% CI: 1.22, 4.70), and a decreased risk for a category of ,other syndromes' (OR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.99) and upper gastrointestinal defects (OR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.93).Conclusion:The study is partly reassuring for occupationally exposed fathers

Innovative Strategies to Develop Chemical Categories Using a Combination of Structural and Toxicological Properties

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Monika Batke

2016-09-01

Full Text Available 1.AbstractInterest is increasing in the development of non-animal methods for toxicological evaluations. These methods are however, particularly challenging for complex toxicological endpoints such as repeated dose toxicity. European Legislation, e.g. the European Union´s Cosmetic Directive and REACH, demands the use of alternative methods. Frameworks, such as the Read-across Assessment Framework or the Adverse Outcome Pathway Knowledge Base, support the development of these methods. The aim of the project presented in this publication was to develop substance categories for a read-across with complex endpoints of toxicity based on existing databases. The basic conceptual approach was to combine structural similarity with shared mechanisms of action. Substances with similar chemical structure and toxicological profile form candidate categories suitable for read-across. We combined two databases on repeated dose toxicity, RepDose database and ELINCS database to form a common database for the identification of categories. The resulting database contained physicochemical, structural and toxicological data, which were refined and curated for cluster analyses. We applied the Predictive Clustering Tree (PCT approach for clustering chemicals based on structural and on toxicological information to detect groups of chemicals with similar toxic profiles and pathways/mechanisms of toxicity. As many of the experimental toxicity values were not available, this data was imputed by predicting them with a multi-label classification method, prior to clustering. The clustering results were evaluated by assessing chemical and toxicological similarities with the aim of identifying clusters with a concordance between structural information and toxicity profiles/mechanisms. From these chosen clusters, seven were selected for a quantitative read-across, based on a small ratio of NOAEL of the members with the highest and the lowest NOAEL in the cluster (<5. We discuss

Discrimination of artificial categories structured by family resemblances: a comparative study in people (Homo sapiens) and pigeons (Columba livia).

Science.gov (United States)

Makino, Hiroshi; Jitsumori, Masako

2007-02-01

Adult humans (Homo sapiens) and pigeons (Columba livia) were trained to discriminate artificial categories that the authors created by mimicking 2 properties of natural categories. One was a family resemblance relationship: The highly variable exemplars, including those that did not have features in common, were structured by a similarity network with the features correlating to one another in each category. The other was a polymorphous rule: No single feature was essential for distinguishing the categories, and all the features overlapped between the categories. Pigeons learned the categories with ease and then showed a prototype effect in accord with the degrees of family resemblance for novel stimuli. Some evidence was also observed for interactive effects of learning of individual exemplars and feature frequencies. Humans had difficulty in learning the categories. The participants who learned the categories generally responded to novel stimuli in an all-or-none fashion on the basis of their acquired classification decision rules. The processes that underlie the classification performances of the 2 species are discussed.

Human rights in occupational therapy education: A step towards a more occupationally just global society.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawford, Emma; Aplin, Tammy; Rodger, Sylvia

2017-04-01

Education on human rights will place occupational therapists in a strong position to address societal inequities that limit occupational engagement for many client groups. The imminent changes to the Minimum Standard for the Education of Occupational Therapists engender efforts towards social change and will require university-level human rights education. This education might enhance the profession's influence on disadvantaging social structures in order to effect social change. To contribute to the evidence base for social change education in occupational therapy, this research aims to understand the knowledge, skills, confidence and learning experiences of occupational therapy students who completed a human rights course. Final year occupational therapy students responded to questionnaires which included listing human rights, a human rights scale measuring knowledge and confidence for working towards human rights, and open questions. Numbers of rights listed, knowledge scores and confidence scores were calculated. Responses to the open questions were thematically analysed. After completing a human rights course, students had good knowledge and moderate confidence to work with human rights. Three themes were identified including 'learning about human rights', 'learning about structural, societal and global perspectives on occupational engagement' and 'learning how occupational therapists can work with groups, communities and populations: becoming articulate and empowered'. Human rights education fosters the development of occupational therapists who are skilled, knowledgeable, confident and empowered to address occupational injustices, according to these research findings. To develop a more occupationally just global society, education that considers iniquitous social structures and human rights is necessary. © 2016 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Risk of occupational injuries in the industry of Japan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iwaski, Tamiko; Kobayashi, Sadayoshi; Takeda, Atsuhiko

1988-01-01

The ICRP Committee stated in their publications that it is important to compare the total harm that may be caused by the radiation with the total harm involved in other occupations, with respect to fatal or minor injury, occupational disease, or the effects of mutagenesis in the working environment. Death has commonly been used as an index of the comparative safety or harm of different industries, and the frequency of death attributable to occupational causes already has a certain validity. In this way, assessment was made on the yearly trend of change in the fatality rates due to occupational work in seven categories of industry in Japan during the period from 1975 to 1984. furthermore, the frequency of injuries of defined severity in occupational hazards, fatality rates of accidents and diseases due to occupational work, and also commuting accidents to and from work were examined

Occupational Therapy Interventions Effect on Visual-Motor Skills in Children with Learning Disorders

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Batoul Mandani

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Objective: Visual-motor skill is a part of visual perception which can integrate visual processing skills to fine movements. Visual-motor dysfunction is often to cause problems in copying and writing. The purpose of this study is investigation of occupational therapy interventions effect on the visual-motor skill in children with learning disorders. Materials & Methods: In this interventional and experimental study, 23 students with learning disorders (2nd, 3rd, 4th grade were selected and they were divided (through Randomized Block Method into two groups, 11 persons as intervention group and the others as the control group (12 people. Both groups were administered the “Test of Visual-Motor Skills- Revised” (TVMS-R. Then case group received occupational therapy interventions for 16 sessions and two groups were administered by TVMS-R again. Data was analyzed by using paired T-test and independent T-test. Results: Total mark of TVMS-R demonstrated statistically significant difference in visual-motor skills between case and control groups (P<0/001. This test has 8 categories. Total mark of 1, 3,4,6,8 categories demonstrated that occupational therapy had significant effect on visual analysis skills (P<0/005. Total mark of 2, 5, 7 categories demonstrated that occupational therapy had significant effect on visual-spatial skills (P<0/001. Conclusion: Occupational therapy interventions had significant effect on the visual-motor skills and its items (visual-spatial, visual analysis, visual-motor integration and eye fixation skills.

Associations of Work Hours, Job Strain, and Occupation with Endothelial Function: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Science.gov (United States)

Charles, Luenda E.; Fekedulegn, Desta; Landsbergis, Paul; Burchfiel, Cecil M.; Baron, Sherry; Kaufman, Joel D.; Stukovsky, Karen Hinckley; Fujishiro, Kaori; Foy, Capri G.; Andrew, Michael E.; Roux, Ana V. Diez

2014-01-01

Objective To investigate associations of work hours, job control, job demands, job strain, and occupational category with brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in 1,499 MESA participants. Methods FMD was obtained using high-resolution ultrasound. Mean values of FMD were examined across categories of occupation, work hours, and the other exposures using regression analyses. Results Occupational category was significantly associated with FMD overall, with blue-collar workers showing the lowest mean values: Management/professional=4.97±0.22%; sales/office=5.19±0.28%; services=4.73 ± 0.29%; and blue-collar workers=4.01±0.26% (adjusted P <0.001). There was evidence of effect modification by gender (interaction P=0.031): significant associations were observed among women (adjusted P =0.002) and nearly significant results among men (adjusted P=0.087). Other exposures were not significantly associated with FMD. Conclusions Differences in endothelial function may account for some of the variation in cardiovascular disease across occupational groups. PMID:25376409

Suicide Risk by Military Occupation in the DoD Active Component Population

Science.gov (United States)

Trofimovich, Lily; Reger, Mark A.; Luxton, David D.; Oetjen-Gerdes, Lynne A.

2013-01-01

Suicide risk based on occupational cohorts within the U.S. military was investigated. Rates of suicide based on military occupational categories were computed for the Department of Defense (DoD) active component population between 2001 and 2010. The combined infantry, gun crews, and seamanship specialist group was at increased risk of suicide…

The role of occupational participation and environment among Icelandic women with breast cancer: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Palmadottir, Gudrun

2010-12-01

Breast cancer diagnosis generally causes a disruption of occupational life. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of occupational participation and environment in the perception of health and well-being of Icelandic women with breast cancer. Eighteen women were interviewed using the main areas from the Occupational Performance History Interview as a guideline. An inductive analysis revealed seven categories that were organized under two main headings: occupational participation and environment. The categories were labelled "maintaining control and stability", "experiencing sense of self-worth", "enhancing self development", "access to information", "support and care", "refuge in community", and "rehabilitative opportunities". Through occupational participation the women were able to regain control of life and a sense of competence and development. Information, emotional support, safety, and stimulating environments were crucial in alleviating distress and facilitate satisfactory coping with the cancer experience. The results support that occupational participation in a safe and supportive environment has powerful restorative properties. Rehabilitative and supportive services should be based on a holistic perspective and emphasize the healthy aspects of a women's life. Furthermore, occupational therapists need to widen their approach when working with women with breast cancer and focus on their needs as occupational beings.

[Attitudes of Polish occupational medicine physicians towards a proposal of requirements for occupational medicine training in Europe].

Science.gov (United States)

Indulski, J A; Boczkowski, A; Mikulski, M

1998-01-01

In order to determine key competences required of occupational medicine specialists, common throughout Europe, a questionnaire has been developed and distributed among several European countries. The questionnaire contained 115 subjects related to 8 fields of activities carried out by occupational medicine physicians (occupational hazards to health, assessment of disability and fitness for work, communications, research methods, management, environmental medicine, occupational health law and ethics, and health promotion). In each of these fields, competences were classified into three following categories: knowledge, experience and skills. Respondents were asked to allocate a score from 0 to 5 for each subject, where 0 = not necessary; 1 = of minimum importance, and 5 = most important or essential. In Poland the questionnaire was distributed among two groups of specialists: group I--experienced specialists in occupational medicine (leading representatives of occupational health care management), and group II--relatively younger and less experienced occupational medicine physicians, participating in the specialist training, organised by The Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine. A comprehensive analysis of the completed questionnaires was carried out in two dimensions: substantive (the importance of individual competences as perceived by Polish specialists in occupational medicine), and comparative (evaluation and interpretation of similarities and differences between two groups of respondents). A hierarchy of requirements, occupational medicine training in Poland is to satisfy, was reconstructed with two sets of competences, one recognised by respondents as needless and the other recognised as useful with different grades of importance. Some characteristic differences in opinions between two groups studies were highlighted.

The relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences: A structural equation modelling approach

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Mark Bussin

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Reward has links to employee attraction and retention and as such has a role to play in managing talent. However, despite a range of research, there is still lack of clarity on employee preferences relating to reward. Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to recommend and appraise a theoretical model of the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and reward preferences of specific occupational groups in the South African context. Motivation for the study: The motivation for this study was to address the gap that exists with reward preferences and occupational culture with a view to identifying and gaining insight into individual preferences. Research design, approach and method: A structural equation modelling approach was adopted in exploring the proposed relationships. A South African Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT organisation served as the population, and a web-based survey assisted in gathering study data (n = 1362. Main findings: The findings provided support for the relationship between occupational culture dimensions and certain reward preferences. In particular, statistically significant results were obtained with the inclusion of the Environment, Team, and Time occupational culture dimensions as independent variables. Practical implications and value-add: The study provides workable input to organisations and reward professionals in the design of their reward strategies and programmes. Keywords: compensation; employee preferences; occupational culture; remuneration; reward preferences

European studies on occupational radiation exposure - ESOREX

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Petrova, K.; Frasch, G.

2005-01-01

Full text: The ESOREX project was initiated by the European Commission in 1997. The objectives of this European study are: to provide the European Commission and the national competent radiation protection authorities with reliable information on how personal radiation monitoring, reporting and recording of dosimetric results is organized in European countries; to collect reliable and directly comparable data on individual and collective radiation exposure in all occupational sectors where radiation workers are employed. The information about the monitoring of occupational radiation exposure, the levels of individual personal doses of workers in the different work sectors, the changes and trends of these doses over a period of several years and the international comparison of these data are useful information for many stakeholders. The survey consists of two parts. Part I surveys how radiation protection monitoring, recording and reporting is arranged within each of the 30 European countries. Part II collects doses from occupational exposure of classified workers in the participating countries. For each country, information is provided on the number of workers in defined work categories and how annual individual personal doses are distributed. The summary and the conclusions provide tentative recommendations for harmonizing modifications of some of the national monitoring, reporting and recording arrangements. In all ESOREX studies a beneficial, effective and extensive information base about thirty European states has been created. The studies resulted in country reports describing the legislative, administrative, organizational and technical aspects of the national dose monitoring and recording systems for occupationally radiation exposed workers. These reports are standardized, i.e. they have as far as possible an internationally comparable structure. The dose distributions of the radiation workers and the annual average and collective doses in the various work

WP 121 - Occupational segregation and gender inequality in job quality

OpenAIRE

Haya Stier; Yaish, M. (Meir)

2012-01-01

We examine gender differences in perceived quality of employment (achievement, content, job insecurity, job flexibility, and physical and emotional conditions). We ask whether women’s occupations provide better conditions in areas that facilitate their dual role in society, such as flexible working schedule, as a tradeoff for low monetary rewards. Specifically, we examine how closely women’s concentration in broader occupational categories, embedded in particular national contexts, is associa...

[Current status and issues in development of occupational physicians in Japan].

Science.gov (United States)

Mori, Koji

2013-10-01

Training systems for occupational physicians (OPs) have existed since the Industrial Safety and Health Act was enacted in 1972. However, it is necessary to enhance them because of changes in the business environment of Japanese corporations and working patterns have brought about new needs of occupational health (OH) activities. In this paper, OPs were classified into three categories; doctors who spend a part of working time on OH activities, i.e. "non-specialist OPs", doctors who engage in OH activities full-time, i.e. "specialists OPs", and doctors who manage corporate-wide occupational health programs or lead programs at OH service institutes, i.e. "lead OPs", and the status and the issues were reviewed. The major concern identified for each of the three categories in training were found to be quality management for non-specialist OPs, short supply for specialists OPs, and development of competencies such as leadership and management skills for lead OPs, respectively. Current efforts and ideas to improve the training systems were discussed.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by patients in the acute hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Grill, Eva; Huber, Erika Omega; Stucki, Gerold; Herceg, Malvina; Fialka-Moser, Veronika; Quittan, Michael

To describe functioning and health of patients in the acute hospital and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of neurological, musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary patients requiring rehabilitation in the acute hospital. The second level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems. For the ICF components Body Functions, Body Structures and Activities and Participation absolute and relative frequencies of impairments/limitations in the study population were reported. For the component Environmental Factors absolute and relative frequencies of perceived barriers or facilitators were reported. The mean age in the sample was 57.6 years with a median age of 60.5, 49% of the patients were female. In 101 patients with neurological conditions, 115 ICF categories had a prevalence of 30% and more: 32 categories of Body Functions, 13 categories of Body Structures, 32 categories of Activities and Participation and 38 categories of Environmental Factors. In 105 patients with cardiopulmonary conditions, 80 categories had a prevalence of 30% and more: 36 categories of Body Functions, eight categories of Body Structures, 10 categories of Activities and Participation and 26 categories of Environmental Factors. In 90 patients with musculoskeletal conditions, 61 categories had a prevalence of 30% and more: 14 categories of Body Functions, five categories of Body Structures, 16 categories of Activities and Participation and 26 categories of Environmental Factors. This study is a first step towards the development of ICF Core Sets for patients in the acute hospital.

ERP Responses to Violations in the Hierarchical Structure of Functional Categories in Japanese Verb Conjugation

Science.gov (United States)

Kobayashi, Yuki; Sugioka, Yoko; Ito, Takane

2018-01-01

An event-related potential experiment was conducted in order to investigate readers' response to violations in the hierarchical structure of functional categories in Japanese, an agglutinative language where functional heads like Negation (Neg) as well as Tense (Tns) are realized as suffixes. A left-lateralized negativity followed by a P600 was…

Occupation and risk of upper aerodigestive tract cancer: the ARCAGE study.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Richiardi, Lorenzo

2012-05-15

We investigated the association between occupational history and upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) cancer risk in the ARCAGE European case-control study. The study included 1,851 patients with incident cancer of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, larynx or esophagus and 1,949 controls. We estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for ever employment in 283 occupations and 172 industries, adjusting for smoking and alcohol. Men (1,457 cases) and women (394 cases) were analyzed separately and we incorporated a semi-Bayes adjustment approach for multiple comparisons. Among men, we found increased risks for occupational categories previously reported to be associated with at least one type of UADT cancer, including painters (OR = 1.74, 95% CI: 1.01-3.00), bricklayers (1.58, 1.05-2.37), workers employed in the erection of roofs and frames (2.62, 1.08-6.36), reinforced concreters (3.46, 1.11-10.8), dockers (2.91, 1.05-8.05) and workers employed in the construction of roads (3.03, 1.23-7.46), general construction of buildings (1.44, 1.12-1.85) and cargo handling (2.60, 1.17-5.75). With the exception of the first three categories, risks both increased when restricting to long duration of employment and remained elevated after semi-Bayes adjustment. Increased risks were also found for loggers (3.56, 1.20-10.5) and cattle and dairy farming (3.60, 1.15-11.2). Among women, there was no clear evidence of increased risks of UADT cancer in association with occupations or industrial activities. This study provides evidence of an association between some occupational categories and UADT cancer risk among men. The most consistent findings, also supported by previous studies, were obtained for specific workers employed in the construction industry.

Attentional Bias in Human Category Learning: The Case of Deep Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanson, Catherine; Caglar, Leyla Roskan; Hanson, Stephen José

2018-01-01

Category learning performance is influenced by both the nature of the category's structure and the way category features are processed during learning. Shepard (1964, 1987) showed that stimuli can have structures with features that are statistically uncorrelated (separable) or statistically correlated (integral) within categories. Humans find it much easier to learn categories having separable features, especially when attention to only a subset of relevant features is required, and harder to learn categories having integral features, which require consideration of all of the available features and integration of all the relevant category features satisfying the category rule (Garner, 1974). In contrast to humans, a single hidden layer backpropagation (BP) neural network has been shown to learn both separable and integral categories equally easily, independent of the category rule (Kruschke, 1993). This "failure" to replicate human category performance appeared to be strong evidence that connectionist networks were incapable of modeling human attentional bias. We tested the presumed limitations of attentional bias in networks in two ways: (1) by having networks learn categories with exemplars that have high feature complexity in contrast to the low dimensional stimuli previously used, and (2) by investigating whether a Deep Learning (DL) network, which has demonstrated humanlike performance in many different kinds of tasks (language translation, autonomous driving, etc.), would display human-like attentional bias during category learning. We were able to show a number of interesting results. First, we replicated the failure of BP to differentially process integral and separable category structures when low dimensional stimuli are used (Garner, 1974; Kruschke, 1993). Second, we show that using the same low dimensional stimuli, Deep Learning (DL), unlike BP but similar to humans, learns separable category structures more quickly than integral category structures

Attentional Bias in Human Category Learning: The Case of Deep Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catherine Hanson

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Category learning performance is influenced by both the nature of the category's structure and the way category features are processed during learning. Shepard (1964, 1987 showed that stimuli can have structures with features that are statistically uncorrelated (separable or statistically correlated (integral within categories. Humans find it much easier to learn categories having separable features, especially when attention to only a subset of relevant features is required, and harder to learn categories having integral features, which require consideration of all of the available features and integration of all the relevant category features satisfying the category rule (Garner, 1974. In contrast to humans, a single hidden layer backpropagation (BP neural network has been shown to learn both separable and integral categories equally easily, independent of the category rule (Kruschke, 1993. This “failure” to replicate human category performance appeared to be strong evidence that connectionist networks were incapable of modeling human attentional bias. We tested the presumed limitations of attentional bias in networks in two ways: (1 by having networks learn categories with exemplars that have high feature complexity in contrast to the low dimensional stimuli previously used, and (2 by investigating whether a Deep Learning (DL network, which has demonstrated humanlike performance in many different kinds of tasks (language translation, autonomous driving, etc., would display human-like attentional bias during category learning. We were able to show a number of interesting results. First, we replicated the failure of BP to differentially process integral and separable category structures when low dimensional stimuli are used (Garner, 1974; Kruschke, 1993. Second, we show that using the same low dimensional stimuli, Deep Learning (DL, unlike BP but similar to humans, learns separable category structures more quickly than integral category

Electronic Health Record in Occupational Medicine: Specific Aspects and Requirements of Data Structuring and Standardization

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Dorin TRIFF

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The service of occupational medicine of a specific economic agent, as integrated part of the System of Labor Health and Safety, requires efficient, well-organized information management through standardized and computerized data processing and exploitation. Legal requirements and practical aspects of information management in occupational medicine trigger necessary operational modifications in the Electronic Health File. The goal of the paper is to present basic requirements of structuring the electronic health file and the necessary standards in recording specific data.

Optimisation of occupational exposures during site remediation at WISMUT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmidt, P.; Wolf, F.

2004-01-01

Since 1991 the national corporation WISMUT GmbH has been charged with the rehabilitation of the sites of former Uranium mining and milling in East Germany. Since decommissioning and site remediation are carried out at places with enhanced dose rates and high concentrations of airborne radioactivity (Rn-222, long-lived alpha emitters), a large part of the employees is classified as occupationally exposed radiation workers. Thus, in 2002, 1,073 workers were engaged with relevant works in radiation protection areas aboveground (radiation exposed workers of category B; mean effective dose: 0.3 mSv; maximum dose: 2.2 mSv), and 514 workers still prepared by underground activities the flooding of the Uranium mines (category A; mean effective dose: 0.9 mSv; maximum effective dose: 4.9 mSv). The paper presents the measures taken by WISMUT to optimise the occupational exposure. The need for implementing appropriate ALARA methods in the field of occupational exposure is last but not least caused by the fact that for a number of employees the integral exposure over the total working life time has exceeded already the 400 mSv figure. (orig.)

The values of occupational therapy: Perceptions of occupational therapists in Quebec.

Science.gov (United States)

Drolet, Marie-Josée; Désormeaux-Moreau, Marjorie

2016-07-01

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the values of occupational therapy and the values held by occupational therapists. A wide range of values has been reported in the literature. Furthermore, despite the fact that values are an important part of professional identity, empirical studies have demonstrated that several occupational therapists possess an ambiguous professional identity. This study was undertaken to explore the values of Canadian occupational therapists, specifically French-speaking occupational therapists in Quebec. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 occupational therapists. Their narratives were subject to hermeneutic analysis, a method of textual analysis common in philosophical research. A total of 16 values were identified in the discourses of the occupational therapists interviewed: autonomy; human dignity; occupational participation; social justice and equity; professionalism; holism; partnership, environment, or ecological approach; quality of life; solicitude; honesty; integrity; health; creativity; professional autonomy; effectiveness; and spirituality. The results of this study are, in general, consistent with those reported in the few other empirical studies that have documented the values perceptions of occupational therapists. Finally, the explanation of the values of occupational therapists may reinforce their professional identity and favour best, or at least desirable, professional practices related to ethics and culture.

Differences in stroke and ischemic heart disease mortality by occupation and industry among Japanese working-aged men

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Koji Wada

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Occupation- and industry-based risks for stroke and ischemic heart disease may vary among Japanese working-aged men. We examined the differences in mortality rates between stroke and ischemic heart disease by occupation and industry among employed Japanese men aged 25–59 years. In 2010, we obtained occupation- and industry-specific vital statistics data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare dataset. We analyzed data for Japanese men who were aged 25–59 years in 2010, grouped in 5-year age intervals. We estimated the mortality rates of stroke and ischemic heart disease in each age group for occupation and industry categories as defined in the national census. We did not have detailed individual-level variables. We used the number of employees in 2010 as the denominator and the number of events as the numerator, assuming a Poisson distribution. We conducted separate regression models to estimate the incident relative risk for stroke and ischemic heart disease for each category compared with the reference categories “sales” (occupation and “wholesale and retail” (industry. When compared with the reference groups, we found that occupations and industries with a relatively higher risk of stroke and ischemic heart disease were: service, administrative and managerial, agriculture and fisheries, construction and mining, electricity and gas, transport, and professional and engineering. This suggests there are occupation- and industry-based mortality risk differences of stroke and ischemic heart disease for Japanese working-aged men. These differences in risk might be explained to factors associated with specific occupations or industries, such as lifestyles or work styles, which should be explored in further research. The mortality risk differences of stroke and ischemic heart disease shown in the present study may reflect an excessive risk of Karoshi (death from overwork. Keywords: Occupation, Industry, Mortality

Formation of halo-structures in oxygen isotopes through change of occupancy of levels near Fermi surface

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhattacharya, Rupayan

2000-01-01

Recently a new parametrisation of Skyrme interaction has been formulated in order to study the level inversions of A=9 isobars. The role of occupancy of 2s 1/2 level in determining the halo structures of O, N, C, B and Be nuclei was shown. A thorough investigation on the binding energies, rms charge, neutron and matter distribution and occupation probabilities of levels near the Fermi surface has been done in the present work

Ascribing Meaning to Occupation: An Example From Healthy, Working Mothers.

Science.gov (United States)

Avrech Bar, Michal; Forwell, Susan; Backman, Catherine L

2016-07-01

Ascribing meaning to occupation is a multifaceted process. Understanding this process is illusive, yet fundamental to theory and practice. The objective is to describe the meaning that mothers ascribe to their occupations. A secondary analysis was conducted with data from a convenience sample of 35 Israeli mothers, ages 25 to 45 years. Data were collected using the Occupational Performance History Interview as part of a larger study. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and content analysis applied. Two main categories emerged: the meaning of "giving" (investing values) and the meaning of "receiving" (ensuring needs are met). Values such as responsibility require mothers to do occupations they find less desirable than others associated with the mothering role. The study illustrates how values and needs are intertwined to contribute to the meaning of occupation. Moreover, meaningful occupations can be undesirable but doing them arises from the values that drive mothers to fulfill this role. © The Author(s) 2016.

Career Exploration and Occupational Knowledge in Italian Children

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrari, Lea; Ginevra, Maria Cristina; Santilli, Sara; Nota, Laura; Sgaramella, Teresa Maria; Soresi, Salvatore

2015-01-01

We explored the perception and actual occupational knowledge of jobs on career exploration across Holland's categories in 60 elementary and 60 middle school students. Results showed a closer relationship between career exploration and actual knowledge than children's perception of knowledge. We found higher levels of actual knowledge and…

Occupational radiation exposures in Canada, 1981

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujimoto, K.R.; Wilson, J.A.; Ashmore, J.P.; Grogan, D.

1983-12-01

This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports on Occupational Radiation Exposures in Canada. The data is derived from the Radiation Protection Bureau's National Dose Registry which includes those records for radiation workers. The report presents average yearly doses by region and occupational category, dose distributions, and variation of average doses with time. Statistical data concerning investigations of high exposures reported by the National Dosimetry Services are included and individual cases are briefly summarized where the maximum permissible dose is exceeded. The decrease in the overall average doses established over the last 20 years appears to have resumed after an interruption during 1979 to 1980. A brief summary of extremity dose data is also included

Content comparison of occupation-based instruments in adult rheumatology and musculoskeletal rehabilitation based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health.

Science.gov (United States)

Stamm, Tanja A; Cieza, Alarcos; Machold, Klaus P; Smolen, Josef S; Stucki, Gerold

2004-12-15

To compare the content of clinical, occupation-based instruments that are used in adult rheumatology and musculoskeletal rehabilitation in occupational therapy based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Clinical instruments of occupational performance and occupation in adult rehabilitation and rheumatology were identified in a literature search. All items of these instruments were linked to the ICF categories according to 10 linking rules. On the basis of the linking, the content of these instruments was compared and the relationship between the capacity and performance component explored. The following 7 instruments were identified: the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills, the Sequential Occupational Dexterity Assessment, the Jebson Taylor Hand Function Test, the Moberg Picking Up Test, the Button Test, and the Functional Dexterity Test. The items of the 7 instruments were linked to 53 different ICF categories. Five items could not be linked to the ICF. The areas covered by the 7 occupation-based instruments differ importantly: The main focus of all 7 instruments is on the ICF component activities and participation. Body functions are covered by 2 instruments. Two instruments were linked to 1 single ICF category only. Clinicians and researchers who need to select an occupation-based instrument must be aware of the areas that are covered by this instrument and the potential areas that are not covered at all.

Central automatic control or distributed occupant control for better indoor environment quality in the future

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toftum, Jørn

2008-01-01

of adverse symptoms and building related symptoms than the ventilation mode per se. This result indicates that even though the development and application of new indoor environment sensors and HVAC control systems may allow for fully automated IEQ control, such systems should not compromise occupants...... in the degree of perceived control. The database was composed of 1353 responses obtained in 25 buildings of which 15 had mechanical ventilation (997 responses) and 9 had natural ventilation (275 responses). Analysis of occupant responses, after grouping according to categories determined by the degree...... of satisfaction with the perceived control, showed that the degree of control satisfaction, but rarely building category (natural vs. mechanical ventilation), affected the prevalence of adverse perceptions and symptoms. Thus, the degree of control, as perceived by occupants, was more important for the prevalence...

Kuranishi spaces as a 2-category

OpenAIRE

Joyce, Dominic

2015-01-01

This is a survey of the author's in-progress book arXiv:1409.6908. 'Kuranishi spaces' were introduced in the work of Fukaya, Oh, Ohta and Ono in symplectic geometry (see e.g. arXiv:1503.07631), as the geometric structure on moduli spaces of $J$-holomorphic curves. We propose a new definition of Kuranishi space, which has the nice property that they form a 2-category $\\bf Kur$. Thus the homotopy category Ho$({\\bf Kur})$ is an ordinary category of Kuranishi spaces. Any Fukaya-Oh-Ohta-Ono (FOOO)...

Coordinated experimental/analytical program for investigating margins to failure of Category I reinforced concrete structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Endebrock, E.; Dove, R.; Anderson, C.A.

1981-01-01

The material presented in this paper deals with a coordinated experimental/analytical program designed to provide information needed for making margins to failure assessments of seismic Category I reinforced concrete structures. The experimental program is emphasized and background information that lead to this particular experimental approach is presented. Analytical tools being developed to supplement the experimental program are discussed. 16 figures

[Evaluation and prognosis of occupational risk in workers of nonferrous metallurgy enterprises].

Science.gov (United States)

Shliapnikov, D M; Kostarev, V G

2014-01-01

The article deals with results of a priori and a posteriori evaluation of occupational risk for workers' health. Categories of a priori occupational risk for workers are estimated as high to very high (intolerable) risk. Findings are that work conditions in nonferrous metallurgy workshop result in upper respiratory tract diseases (medium degree of occupational conditionality). Increased prevalence of such diseases among the workers is connected with length of service. The authors revealed priority factors for occupationally conditioned diseases. A promising approach in occupational medicine is creation of methods to evaluate and forecast occupational risk, that enable to specify goal parameters for prophylactic measures. For example, modelling the risk of occupationally conditioned diseases via changes in exposure to occupational factor and length of service proved that decrease of chemical concentrations in air of workplace to maximally allowable ones lowers risk of respiratory diseases from 14 to 6 cases per year, for length of service of 5 years and population risk.

Differences in stroke and ischemic heart disease mortality by occupation and industry among Japanese working-aged men.

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Koji; Eguchi, Hisashi; Prieto-Merino, David

2016-12-01

Occupation- and industry-based risks for stroke and ischemic heart disease may vary among Japanese working-aged men. We examined the differences in mortality rates between stroke and ischemic heart disease by occupation and industry among employed Japanese men aged 25-59 years. In 2010, we obtained occupation- and industry-specific vital statistics data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare dataset. We analyzed data for Japanese men who were aged 25-59 years in 2010, grouped in 5-year age intervals. We estimated the mortality rates of stroke and ischemic heart disease in each age group for occupation and industry categories as defined in the national census. We did not have detailed individual-level variables. We used the number of employees in 2010 as the denominator and the number of events as the numerator, assuming a Poisson distribution. We conducted separate regression models to estimate the incident relative risk for stroke and ischemic heart disease for each category compared with the reference categories "sales" (occupation) and "wholesale and retail" (industry). When compared with the reference groups, we found that occupations and industries with a relatively higher risk of stroke and ischemic heart disease were: service, administrative and managerial, agriculture and fisheries, construction and mining, electricity and gas, transport, and professional and engineering. This suggests there are occupation- and industry-based mortality risk differences of stroke and ischemic heart disease for Japanese working-aged men. These differences in risk might be explained to factors associated with specific occupations or industries, such as lifestyles or work styles, which should be explored in further research. The mortality risk differences of stroke and ischemic heart disease shown in the present study may reflect an excessive risk of Karoshi (death from overwork).

Public, environmental, and occupational health research activity in Arab countries: bibliometric, citation, and collaboration analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sweileh, Waleed M; Zyoud, Sa'ed H; Al-Jabi, Samah W; Sawalha, Ansam F

2015-01-01

The objective of this study was to analyze quantity, assess quality, and investigate international collaboration in research from Arab countries in the field of public, environmental and occupational health. Original scientific articles and reviews published from the 22 Arab countries in the category "public, environmental & occupational health" during the study period (1900 - 2012) were screened using the ISI Web of Science database. The total number of original and review research articles published in the category of "public, environmental & occupational health" from Arab countries was 4673. Main area of research was tropical medicine (1862; 39.85%). Egypt with 1200 documents (25.86%) ranked first in quantity and ranked first in quality of publications (h-index = 51). The study identified 2036 (43.57%) documents with international collaboration. Arab countries actively collaborated with authors in Western Europe (22.91%) and North America (21.04%). Most of the documents (79.9%) were published in public health related journals while 21% of the documents were published in journals pertaining to prevention medicine, environmental, occupational health and epidemiology. Research in public, environmental and occupational health in Arab countries is in the rise. Public health research was dominant while environmental and occupation health research was relatively low. International collaboration was a good tool for increasing research quantity and quality.

Contact allergy to preservatives in patients with occupational contact dermatitis and exposure analysis of preservatives in registered chemical products for occupational use

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schwensen, Jakob Ferløv; Friis, Ulrik Fischer; Menné, Torkil

2017-01-01

PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to investigate risk factors for sensitization to preservatives and to examine to which extent different preservatives are registered in chemical products for occupational use in Denmark. METHODS: A retrospective epidemiological observational analysis of data from...... a university hospital was conducted. All patients had occupational contact dermatitis and were consecutively patch tested with 11 preservatives from the European baseline series and extended patch test series during a 5-year period: 2009-2013. Information regarding the same preservatives in chemical products...... in several product categories, e.g., 'paints and varnishes', 'cleaning agents', 'cooling agents', and 'polishing agents'. Formaldehyde and isothiazolinones were extensively registered in PROBAS. CONCLUSIONS: The extensive use of formaldehyde and isothiazolinones in chemical products for occupational use may...

Psychometric properties and factor structure of the 13-item satisfaction with daily occupations scale when used with people with mental health problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Eklund, Mona; Bäckström, Martin; Eakman, Aaron M

2014-12-24

In mental health care practice and research it is increasingly recognized that clients' subjective perceptions of everyday occupations, such as satisfaction, are important in recovery from mental illness. Instruments thus need to be developed to assess satisfaction with everyday occupations. The aim of the present study was to assess psychometric properties of the 13-item Satisfaction with Daily Occupation (SDO-13) when used with people with mental health problems, including its internal consistency, factor structure, construct validity and whether the scale produced ceiling or floor effects. An additional question concerned if the factor structure varied whether the participants were, or were not, presently engaged in the activity they rated. The interview-based SDO-13 includes items pertaining to work/studies, leisure, home maintenance, and self-care occupations. Whether the person currently performs an occupation or not, he/she is asked to indicate his/her satisfaction with that occupation. The SDO-13 was completed with 184 persons with mental illness. Residual variables were created to remove the variation linked with currently performing the targeted occupation or not and to assess the factor structure of the SDO-13. The indicators of general satisfaction with daily occupations, self-esteem and global functioning were used to assess construct validity. The statistical methods included tests of homogeneity, confirmatory factor analysis and Pearson correlations. The internal consistency was satisfactory at 0.79. A three-factor solution indicated that the construct behind the SDO-13 was composed of three facets; Taking care of oneself and the home, Work and studies, and Leisure and relaxation. The same factor structure was valid for both original scores and the residuals. An expected pattern of correlations with the indicators was mainly found, suggesting basic construct validity. No ceiling or floor effects were found. Taken together, the findings suggest the

Occupational exposures and doses thereform: a synoptic view of worldwide scenario (summary of UNSCEAR 1993 data)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagaratham, A.; Jain, S.C.; Gupta, M.M.

1995-01-01

The present review paper is a summary of the extensive data reported by UNSCEAR 1993 on occupational exposure levels worldwide. The data are based mainly on responses to a UNSCEAR survey on occupational exposures. Worldwide extrapolation was done from the reported data based on GNP. Data have been analysed for three 5-year periods, 1975-79, 1980-84 and 1985-89. Values are given for the total number of monitored workers, the average annual individual doses (related to average individual risk), annual collective dose (related to the impact of the practice), and certain other parameters. Exposures have been evaluated for 5 broad categories, viz., nuclear fuel cycle, defence activities, industrial uses, medical uses, and enhanced occupational exposure to natural sources. The annual collective doses for these categories are respectively 2500, 250, 510, 1000 and 8600 man-Sv for a total of 9.2 million workers. Average individual doses were respectively 2.9, 0.7, 0.9, 0.5 and 1.7 mSv respectively. Data for India are discussed separately for each category. (author). 3 refs., 4 tabs

Category-specificity in visual object recognition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerlach, Christian

2009-01-01

Are all categories of objects recognized in the same manner visually? Evidence from neuropsychology suggests they are not: some brain damaged patients are more impaired in recognizing natural objects than artefacts whereas others show the opposite impairment. Category-effects have also been...... demonstrated in neurologically intact subjects, but the findings are contradictory and there is no agreement as to why category-effects arise. This article presents a Pre-semantic Account of Category Effects (PACE) in visual object recognition. PACE assumes two processing stages: shape configuration (the...... binding of shape elements into elaborate shape descriptions) and selection (among competing representations in visual long-term memory), which are held to be differentially affected by the structural similarity between objects. Drawing on evidence from clinical studies, experimental studies...

A Second Look at the Process of Occupational Feminization and Pay Reduction in Occupations.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandel, Hadas

2018-04-01

Using the IPUMS-USA data for the years 1960-2015, this study examines trends in the effect of occupational feminization on occupational pay in the U.S. labor market and explores some of the mechanisms underlying these trends. The findings show that the (negative) association between occupational feminization and occupational pay level has declined, becoming insignificent in 2015. This trend, however, is reversed after education is controlled for at the individual as well as the occupational level. The two opposite trends are discussed in light of the twofold effect of education: (1) the entry of women into occupations requiring high education, and (2) the growing returns to education and to occupations with higher educational requirements. These two processes have concealed the deterioration in occupational pay following feminization. The findings underscore the significance of structural forms of gender inequality in general, and occupational devaluation in particular.

Occupational stress among Thai emergency department nurses : Development and validation of an instrument for measuring stressors in emergency departments

OpenAIRE

Yuwanich, Nuttapol

2017-01-01

Working at an emergency department has some characteristics, which may generate stress. In this thesis, the stressors for emergency nurses were evaluated and an instrument was developed for measuring their impact. In order to gain a deeper understanding regarding the occupational stress among emergency nurses, a descriptive qualitative design with semi-structured interviews were used in two studies (I, II), one at a private and the other at a public hospital in Thailand. Three main categories...

From Perceptual Categories to Concepts: What Develops?

Science.gov (United States)

Sloutsky, Vladimir M.

2010-01-01

People are remarkably smart: they use language, possess complex motor skills, make non-trivial inferences, develop and use scientific theories, make laws, and adapt to complex dynamic environments. Much of this knowledge requires concepts and this paper focuses on how people acquire concepts. It is argued that conceptual development progresses from simple perceptual grouping to highly abstract scientific concepts. This proposal of conceptual development has four parts. First, it is argued that categories in the world have different structure. Second, there might be different learning systems (sub-served by different brain mechanisms) that evolved to learn categories of differing structures. Third, these systems exhibit differential maturational course, which affects how categories of different structures are learned in the course of development. And finally, an interaction of these components may result in the developmental transition from perceptual groupings to more abstract concepts. This paper reviews a large body of empirical evidence supporting this proposal. PMID:21116483

Occupational toxicant inhalation injury: the World Trade Center (WTC) experience.

Science.gov (United States)

de la Hoz, Rafael E; Shohet, Michael R; Chasan, Rachel; Bienenfeld, Laura A; Afilaka, Aboaba A; Levin, Stephen M; Herbert, Robin

2008-02-01

Clinical descriptive data is presented on a group of 554 former workers and volunteers (with more than 90 different occupations) at the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster site. A subsample of 168 workers (30% of the group) was selected to examine lower airway disease risk in relation to smoking and WTC exposure variables. Five diagnostic categories clearly predominate: upper airway disease (78.5%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (57.6%), lower airway disease (48.9%), psychological (41.9%) and chronic musculoskeletal illnesses (17.8%). The most frequent pattern of presentation was a combination of the first three of those categories (29.8%). Associations were found between arrival at the WTC site within the first 48 h of the terrorist attack and lower airway and gastroesophageal reflux disease, and between past or present cigarette smoking and lower airway disease. Occupational exposures at the WTC remain consistently associated with a disease profile, which includes five major diagnostic categories. These conditions often coexist in different combinations, which (as expected) mutually enhances their clinical expression, complicates medical management, and slows recovery. Cigarette smoking and early arrival at the WTC site appear to be risk factors for lower airway disease diagnosis.

Occupational, social and medical characteristics of early prenatal leave in France.

Science.gov (United States)

Vigoureux, Solène; Blondel, Béatrice; Ringa, Virginie; Saurel-Cubizolles, Marie-Josèphe

2016-12-01

In France, most women of childbearing age work. The prenatal leave law in France protects women during pregnancy and their employment. We aimed to describe how long before delivery women stopped working and analyse the association between occupational, social and medical factors and early prenatal leave (before 24 weeks' gestation). The sample was extracted from the 2010 French National Perinatal Survey. Women were interviewed in French maternity units during a 1-week period. We focused on all women with a singleton live birth who were working during pregnancy (n = 10 149). Women were interviewed between delivery and discharge to collect information on employment, date of leave, sociodemographic and medical characteristics. Among women who worked during pregnancy, 27.5% reported early occupational leave (before 24 weeks' gestation). Early occupational leave was more frequent among women with unstable jobs (fixed-term vs. non-fixed-term contract: adjusted odds ratio aOR = 1.60 [95% confidence interval 1.40-1.84]) and with less-qualified occupational categories (manual workers vs. managers and upper-intellectual positions: aOR = 2.96 [2.30-3.82]), even after adjusting for sociodemographic and other employment characteristics. Women with a pathological or at risk pregnancy left work earlier than other women. After stratification on type of pregnancy there was still a higher rate of early leave for women with less qualified occupational group. In France, social vulnerability of pregnant women, linked to low sociodemographic situation or low occupational categories, is associated with early leave during pregnancy, even after stratification on type of pregnancy. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

Dose level of occupational exposure in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian, Y.; Zhang, L.; Ju, Y.

2008-01-01

This paper discusses the dose level of Chinese occupational exposures during 1986-2000. Data on occupational exposures from the main categories in nuclear fuel cycle (uranium enrichment and conversion, fuel fabrication, reactor operation, waste management and research activity, except for uranium mining and milling because of the lack of data), medical uses of radiation (diagnostic radiation, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy) and industrial uses of radiation (industrial radiography and radioisotope production) are presented and summarised in detail. These are the main components of occupational exposures in China. In general, the average annual effective doses show a steady decreasing trend over periods: from 2.16 to 1.16 mSv in medical uses of radiation during 1990-2000; from 1.92 to 1.18 mSv in industrial radiography during 1990-2000; from 8.79 to 2.05 mSv in radioisotope production during the period 1980-2000. Almost all the average annual effective doses in discussed occupations were lower than 5 mSv in recent years (except for well-logging: 6.86 mSv in 1999) and no monitored workers were found to have received the occupational exposure exceeding 50 mSv in a single year or 100 mSv in a five-year period. So the Chinese protection status of occupation exposure has been improved in recent years. However, the average annual effective doses in some occupations, such as diagnostic radiology and coal mining, were still much higher than that of the whole world. There are still needs for further improvement and careful monitoring of occupational exposure to protect every worker from excessive occupational exposure, especially for the workers who were neglected before. (authors)

Occupational Therapy Students’ Perspectives of Professionalism: An Exploratory Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Theresa M. Sullivan

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Professionalism is a dynamic, socially constructed idea, rendering it difficult to comprehend. Though characterized by the demonstration of values and behaviors, its meaning has not been fully explored and remains tacit. To explore how first- and second-year master’s of occupational therapy students conceptualize professionalism. Method: This qualitative pilot study evolved from an interpretivist theoretical perspective. Convenience sampling yielded four first-year and seven second-year students from one entry-level master’s program to participate in two separate focus groups. Line-by-line constant comparison methods were used to analyze the data and identify categories. An audit trail, peer debriefing, and member checking were employed. Results: Data analysis of the first-year focus group generated three categories: Searching for explicit examples, Responsibility to the profession, and Building and fulfilling societal responsibility. Analysis of the second-year focus group yielded two categories: Professional values and behaviors and Professionalism as socially constructed. Conclusion: Professionalism is a dynamic concept requiring nuanced understandings specific to context. Students should be encouraged to develop reflective abilities allowing them to analyze and act in a way that is most appropriate for the situation. Understanding students’ conceptualizations of professionalism may better allow occupational therapy regulators, managers, and academic and fieldwork educators to identify teaching and research priorities.

Occupational deprivation in an asylum centre:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Morville, Anne-Le; Erlandsson, Lena-Karin

2013-01-01

This article presents a study of three asylum-seeking men from Iran and Afghanistan. It aimed to explore how and if they experienced occupations as occupations in a Danish asylum centre and how their life experience shaped their choice and value of current occupations. In-depth narrative interviews...... explored the participants’ occupational history and its influence on their occupations in the asylum centre. A thematic analysis showed that the participants had been subjected to occupational disruption and deprivation by politically oppressive systems even before their flight. Their occupations...... in Denmark were to a certain extent influenced by their earlier occupations and the current occupational deprivation they all experienced was due to limited possibilities in the centre. Although they tried their best to fill their days and create structure, there was a loss of valued occupations...

Hygienic assessment of working conditions and occupational risk for workers health at railway transport objects

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V.A. Loginova

2017-06-01

Full Text Available We performed hygienic assessment of working conditions at railway transport over 2011–2015. We detected a decreasing trend in specific weight of working places where physical factors were higher than hygienic standards and where steam and gases content in working area air was higher than maximum permissible concentrations (MPC. Working conditions of locomotive teams remain most unfavorable as per risk factors. We detected that a priori occupation risk for locomotive teams was characterized with parameters varying from moderate to considerable ones. Occupational noise was determined as a priority risk factor making working conditions category a hazardous one and it corresponded to occupational morbidity structure. We detected that sensorineural hearing loss took a leading place in morbidity both in the branch in general and among locomotive team workers. We also clarified that such workers as engine drivers and their assistants (up to 43 % had the greatest specific weight among railway workers with occupational diseases; occupational morbidity among locomotive team workers amounted to 3.0 per 10,000 workers in 2015 while average morbidity among all railway workers amounted to only 1.32 per 10,000 workers. We revealed that occupational diseases were most frequently detected in workers aged 51–60 (51.9 % in 2014 who had worked under hazardous occupational factors influence for longer than 15 years. While there was an overall decreasing trend in occupa-tional morbidity in the branch in 2011–2015 from 1.68 to 1.32 per 10,000 workers, we detected a brunch peculiarity in the risk group, namely, an unsatisfactory trend for growing share of workers with occupational diseases aged 31–40 (from 2.6 % in 2011 to 12 % in 2014 and it requires special attention in terms of risk management.

Occupational and environmental risk factors for chronic rhinosinusitis: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Sundaresan, Agnes S; Hirsch, Annemarie G; Storm, Margaret; Tan, Bruce K; Kennedy, Thomas L; Greene, J Scott; Kern, Robert C; Schwartz, Brian S

2015-11-01

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a prevalent and disabling paranasal sinus disease, with a likely multifactorial etiology potentially including hazardous occupational and environmental exposures. We completed a systematic review of the occupational and environmental literature to evaluate the quality of evidence of the role that hazardous exposures might play in CRS. We searched PubMed for studies of CRS and following exposure categories: occupation, employment, work, industry, air pollution, agriculture, farming, environment, chemicals, roadways, disaster, and traffic. We abstracted information from the final set of articles across 6 primary domains: study design; population; exposures evaluated; exposure assessment; CRS definition; and results. We identified 41 articles from 1080 manuscripts: 37 occupational risk papers, 1 environmental risk paper, and 3 papers studying both categories of exposures. None of the 41 studies used a CRS definition consistent with current diagnostic guidelines. Exposure assessment was generally dependent on self-report or binary measurements of exposure based on industry of employment. Only grain, dairy, and swine operations among farmers were evaluated by more than 1 study using a common approach to defining CRS, but employment in these settings was not consistently associated with CRS. The multiple other exposures did not meet quality standards for reporting associations or were not evaluated by more than 1 study. The current state of the literature allows us to make very few conclusions about the role of hazardous occupational or environmental exposures in CRS, leaving a critical knowledge gap regarding potentially modifiable risk factors for disease onset and progression. © 2015 ARS-AAOA, LLC.

Beyond the Categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Weeks, Jeffrey

2015-07-01

Shushu is a Turkish Cypriot drag performance artist and the article begins with a discussion of a short film about him by a Greek Cypriot playwright, film maker, and gay activist. The film is interesting in its own right as a documentary about a complex personality, but it is also relevant to wider discussion of sexual and gender identity and categorization in a country divided by history, religion, politics, and military occupation. Shushu rejects easy identification as gay or transgender, or anything else. He is his own self. But refusing a recognized and recognizable identity brings problems, and I detected a pervasive mood of melancholy in his portrayal. The article builds from this starting point to explore the problematic nature of identities and categorizations in the contemporary world. The analysis opens with the power of words and language in defining and classifying sexuality. The early sexologists set in motion a whole catalogue of categories which continue to shape sexual thinking, believing that they were providing a scientific basis for a more humane treatment of sexual variations. This logic continues in DSM-5. The historical effect, however, has been more complex. Categorizations have often fixed individuals into a narrow band of definitions and identities that marginalize and pathologize. The emergence of radical sexual-social movements from the late 1960s offered new forms of grassroots knowledge in opposition to the sexological tradition, but at first these movements worked to affirm rather than challenge the significance of identity categories. Increasingly, however, identities have been problematized and challenged for limiting sexual and gender possibilities, leading to the apparently paradoxical situation where sexual identities are seen as both necessary and impossible. There are emotional costs both in affirming a fixed identity and in rejecting one. Shushu is caught in this dilemma, leading to the pervasive sense of loss that shapes the

Managing occupations in everyday life for people with advanced cancer living at home.

Science.gov (United States)

Peoples, Hanne; Brandt, Åse; Wæhrens, Eva E; la Cour, Karen

2017-01-01

People with advanced cancer are able to live for extended periods of time. Advanced cancer can cause functional limitations influencing the ability to manage occupations. Although studies have shown that people with advanced cancer experience occupational difficulties, there is only limited research that specifically explores how these occupational difficulties are managed. To describe and explore how people with advanced cancer manage occupations when living at home. A sub-sample of 73 participants from a larger occupational therapy project took part in the study. The participants were consecutively recruited from a Danish university hospital. Qualitative interviews were performed at the homes of the participants. Content analysis was applied to the data. Managing occupations were manifested in two main categories; (1) Conditions influencing occupations in everyday life and (2) Self-developed strategies to manage occupations. The findings suggest that people with advanced cancer should be supported to a greater extent in finding ways to manage familiar as well as new and more personally meaningful occupations to enhance quality of life.

The Sources of Life Chances: Does Education, Class Category, Occupation, or Short-Term Earnings Predict 20-Year Long-Term Earnings?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ChangHwan Kim

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In sociological studies of economic stratification and intergenerational mobility, occupation has long been presumed to reflect lifetime earnings better than do short-term earnings. However, few studies have actually tested this critical assumption. In this study, we investigate the cross-sectional determinants of 20-year accumulated earnings using data that match respondents in the Survey of Income and Program Participation to their longitudinal earnings records based on administrative tax information from 1990 to 2009. Fit statistics of regression models are estimated to assess the predictive power of various proxy variables, including occupation, education, and short-term earnings, on cumulative earnings over the 20-year time period. Contrary to the popular assumption in sociology, our results find that cross-sectional earnings have greater predictive power on long-term earnings than occupation-based class classifications, including three-digit detailed occupations for both men and women. The model based on educational attainment, including field of study, has slightly better fit than models based on one-digit occupation or the Erikson, Goldthorpe, and Portocarero class scheme. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for the sociology of stratification and intergenerational mobility.

Categories of relations as models of quantum theory

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Chris Heunen

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Categories of relations over a regular category form a family of models of quantum theory. Using regular logic, many properties of relations over sets lift to these models, including the correspondence between Frobenius structures and internal groupoids. Over compact Hausdorff spaces, this lifting gives continuous symmetric encryption. Over a regular Mal'cev category, this correspondence gives a characterization of categories of completely positive maps, enabling the formulation of quantum features. These models are closer to Hilbert spaces than relations over sets in several respects: Heisenberg uncertainty, impossibility of broadcasting, and behavedness of rank one morphisms.

Learning and transfer of category knowledge in an indirect categorization task.

Science.gov (United States)

Helie, Sebastien; Ashby, F Gregory

2012-05-01

Knowledge representations acquired during category learning experiments are 'tuned' to the task goal. A useful paradigm to study category representations is indirect category learning. In the present article, we propose a new indirect categorization task called the "same"-"different" categorization task. The same-different categorization task is a regular same-different task, but the question asked to the participants is about the stimulus category membership instead of stimulus identity. Experiment 1 explores the possibility of indirectly learning rule-based and information-integration category structures using the new paradigm. The results suggest that there is little learning about the category structures resulting from an indirect categorization task unless the categories can be separated by a one-dimensional rule. Experiment 2 explores whether a category representation learned indirectly can be used in a direct classification task (and vice versa). The results suggest that previous categorical knowledge acquired during a direct classification task can be expressed in the same-different categorization task only when the categories can be separated by a rule that is easily verbalized. Implications of these results for categorization research are discussed.

Occupational diseases in Murmansk Oblast: 1980–2010

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexey A. Dudarev

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Background. Official statistics tend to underestimate the incidence of occupational disease (OD nationally and regionally in Russia. Objectives. The general aim was to obtain an accurate estimate of ODs in Murmansk Oblast in 1980–2010 and to determine the rate of specific types of ODs among cohorts of workers who had been exposed to the hazardous factors causing the disease. Materials and methods. Data were retrieved from the Murmansk Oblast ODs database for the oblast and 2 enterprises – Apatite JSC and Kolskaya MSC – which contributed to more than half of the ODs in the oblast in 1980–2010. The total number of ODs and 5 specific categories (musculoskeletal, respiratory, nervous diseases, hearing loss and vibration disease were analysed. Results. The total rate of ODs among workers of main shops in both enterprises who were actually exposed to harmful factors were extremely high: the rate for Apatite JSC was 25 times higher than in Russia and 15 times higher than in Murmansk Oblast, while the rate for Kolskaya MSC was about 30 and 20 times greater than in Russia and in Murmansk Oblast, respectively; in the 2000s the difference reached 100–150 times. The rise in reported ODs in both enterprises corresponded to the time when intensive medical examinations were conducted by the Kola Research Laboratory for Occupational Health (KRLOH in Kirovsk. A similar pattern was also observed for the sub-categories of musculoskeletal, respiratory, nervous diseases, hearing loss and vibration disease. It is likely that the true burden of OD is even higher due to misdiagnosis, reluctance of workers concerned about job security to present for care and the lack of reliable information on working conditions needed to establish a causal link between disease and occupational exposure. Conclusions. As with many other regions across Russia, ODs in Murmansk Oblast are grossly underestimated. Serious problems exist in the Russian occupational health care system

Resilience in Daily Occupations of Indonesian Mothers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Santoso, Tri Budi; Ito, Yuko; Ohshima, Nobuo; Hidaka, Mikiyo; Bontje, Peter

2015-01-01

This qualitative study investigated how resilience functions in the context of daily occupations for mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Fourteen mothers of children with ASD participated in two focus groups that were used to elicit stories of the mothers' resilience in daily occupations. A constant comparative method was used for data analysis. A model of resilience in daily occupations of mothers of children with ASD was developed consisting of four categories: (1) creating and re-creating accepting conditions, (2) finding solutions, (3) striving for balance among daily occupations, and (4) thinking about the child's future. Sources of resilience were found to reside in both the mothers themselves and their social environments. Occupational therapy practitioners can use these findings in developing supportive approaches aimed at mothers, family members, and other people in the lives of children with ASD. Copyright © 2015 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.

LexGram - a practical categorial grammar formalism -

OpenAIRE

Koenig, Esther

1995-01-01

We present the LexGram system, an amalgam of (Lambek) categorial grammar and Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG), and show that the grammar formalism it implements is a well-structured and useful tool for actual grammar development.

Costs of occupational injuries and illnesses in Croatia.

Science.gov (United States)

Bađun, Marijana

2017-03-01

Apart from influencing the quality of life, occupational injuries and illnesses can pose a large economic burden to a society. There are many studies that estimate the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses in highly developed economies, but the evidence for other countries is scarce. This study aimed to estimate the financial costs of occupational injuries and illnesses to Croatian government and employers in 2015. Workers were excluded due to the lack of data. Costs were estimated by analysing available data sources on occupational health and safety. Financial costs were grouped in several categories: medical costs, productivity losses, disability pensions, compensation for physical impairment, administrative costs, and legal costs. Unlike in other studies, the costs of compliance with occupational safety and health regulations were also investigated. In 2015, financial costs to employers were twice higher than costs to the government (HRK 604.6 m vs HRK 297 m). Employers additionally covered around HRK 300 m of compliance costs. Taking into account that financial costs of occupational injuries and illnesses are significant, even without including the costs to workers, policy makers should put additional efforts into their prevention. A prerequisite is transparency in Croatian Health Insurance Fund's expenditures, as well as more detailed data on lost days from work by industries, causes of injury etc. Organisations in charge of occupational health and safety and policy makers should observe relevant statistics in monetary terms too.

Effects of task structure on category priming in patients with Parkinson's disease and in healthy individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Gregory G; Brown, Sandra J; Christenson, Gina; Williams, Rebecca E; Kindermann, Sandra S; Loftis, Christopher; Olsen, Ryan; Siple, Patricia; Shults, Clifford; Gorell, Jay M

2002-05-01

Lexical decision tasks have been used to study both shifts of attention and semantic processing in Parkinson's Disease (PD). Whereas other laboratories have reported normal levels of semantic priming among PD patients, our laboratory has reported abnormally large levels. In this study, two experiments were performed to determine the influence of task structure on the extent of semantic priming during lexical decision-making and pronunciation tasks among PD patients and neurologically healthy controls. In Experiment 1, the effect of Prime Dominance (the ratio of category to neutral trials) on lexical decision-making was studied. Although equal numbers of word and nonword trials were presented, half of the PD patients and controls were studied under Category Prime Dominance (category : neutral prime ratio of 2:1) and half were studied under Neutral Prime Dominance (category : neutral prime ratio of 1:2). In Experiment 2, PD and control participants were studied on lexical decision-making and pronunciation tasks where twice as many words as nonword trials were presented, consistent with other studies from our laboratory. In Experiment 1, we found no group differences in the magnitude of priming and no effect of Prime Dominance. Moreover, the findings were similar in pattern and magnitude to results published by Neely (1977). In Experiment 2, we observed larger priming effects among PD patients than among controls, but only on the lexical decision (LD) task. These results support the hypothesis that abnormally large category-priming effects appear in LD studies of PD patients when the number of word trials exceeds the number of nonword trials. Furthermore, increased lexical priming in PD appears to be due to processes operating during the decision-making period that follows presentation of the lexical target.

Classification versus inference learning contrasted with real-world categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Erin L; Ross, Brian H

2011-07-01

Categories are learned and used in a variety of ways, but the research focus has been on classification learning. Recent work contrasting classification with inference learning of categories found important later differences in category performance. However, theoretical accounts differ on whether this is due to an inherent difference between the tasks or to the implementation decisions. The inherent-difference explanation argues that inference learners focus on the internal structure of the categories--what each category is like--while classification learners focus on diagnostic information to predict category membership. In two experiments, using real-world categories and controlling for earlier methodological differences, inference learners learned more about what each category was like than did classification learners, as evidenced by higher performance on a novel classification test. These results suggest that there is an inherent difference between learning new categories by classifying an item versus inferring a feature.

Overview of UNSCEAR re-evaluation of occupational exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melo, Dunstana

2008-01-01

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) has re-evaluated the levels of occupational radiation exposure for two broad categories of sources: natural sources of radiation and man-made source of radiation. The latter one includes the practices from the nuclear fuel cycle, medical uses of radiation, industrial uses, military activities, and miscellaneous sources. The evaluation has been performed based on the data provided in response to the UNSCEAR Survey of Occupational Radiation Exposures and also data from the literature. In general, the reporting of exposures arising in the commercial nuclear fuel cycle is more complete than that of exposures arising from other uses of radiation. The figure for occupational exposure, for the periods 1995-1999 and 2000-2002, has changed compared to the estimates in the UNSCEAR 2000 Report. The collective effective dose resulting from exposures to natural sources (in excess of average levels of natural background) is estimated to be about 37 260 man Sv, about 3 times higher than the value estimated in the UNSCEAR 2000 Report. The worldwide average annual collective effective dose for the workers involved in the use of man-made sources of radiation is around 4 730 man Sv, about 2 times higher than the value estimated in the UNSCEAR 2000 Report. The medical uses of radiation contributes with about 75% of the collective effective dose; nuclear fuel cycles contributes with about 17% and industrial uses, military activities and all other categories of worker contribute with about 8% of the collective dose for man-made sources of radiation. In general the levels of occupational exposure have decreased: the average effective doses are decreasing over time for all practices, the collective effective doses have fallen for most of the practices; except for medical uses which is now estimated based on more realistic data of number of monitored workers. (author)

Feature-Based versus Category-Based Induction with Uncertain Categories

Science.gov (United States)

Griffiths, Oren; Hayes, Brett K.; Newell, Ben R.

2012-01-01

Previous research has suggested that when feature inferences have to be made about an instance whose category membership is uncertain, feature-based inductive reasoning is used to the exclusion of category-based induction. These results contrast with the observation that people can and do use category-based induction when category membership is…

When more is less: Feedback effects in perceptual category learning ☆

Science.gov (United States)

Maddox, W. Todd; Love, Bradley C.; Glass, Brian D.; Filoteo, J. Vincent

2008-01-01

Rule-based and information-integration category learning were compared under minimal and full feedback conditions. Rule-based category structures are those for which the optimal rule is verbalizable. Information-integration category structures are those for which the optimal rule is not verbalizable. With minimal feedback subjects are told whether their response was correct or incorrect, but are not informed of the correct category assignment. With full feedback subjects are informed of the correctness of their response and are also informed of the correct category assignment. An examination of the distinct neural circuits that subserve rule-based and information-integration category learning leads to the counterintuitive prediction that full feedback should facilitate rule-based learning but should also hinder information-integration learning. This prediction was supported in the experiment reported below. The implications of these results for theories of learning are discussed. PMID:18455155

[Associations of occupational safety atmosphere and behaviors with unintentional injuries].

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Ya-ni; Huang, Zhi-xiong; Huang, Shao-bin; Cao, Xiao-ou; Chen, Xia-ming; Liu, Xu-hua; Chen, Wei-qing

2012-07-01

To evaluate the associations of perception of safety atmosphere at workplace, occupational safety attitude and behaviors with occupational unintentional injury among manufacturing workers. A cross-sectional study was performed and a self-administered questionnaire was used to inquire socio-demographic characteristics, perceived safety atmosphere, occupational safety attitudes, occupational safety behaviors and occupational unintentional injuries among 10585 manufacturing workers selected from 46 enterprises in Guangdong. Structural equation modeling was applied to assess the relationship of the perception of safety atmosphere at workplace, occupational safety attitude, and occupational safety behaviors with occupational unintentional injury. Among 24 pathways supposed in structural equation model, 20 pathways (except for the attitude toward occupational safety, the attitude toward managers' support, the work posture and individual protection) were significantly related to the occupational unintentional injuries. The further analysis indicated that the perceived safety atmosphere might impact the occupational unintentional injuries by the attitude toward occupational safety and occupational safety behaviors. Workers' perception of safety atmosphere indirectly influenced on occupational unintentional injuries through occupational safety attitudes and occupational safety behaviors.

The ICF and Postsurgery Occupational Therapy after Traumatic Hand Injury

Science.gov (United States)

Fitinghoff, Helene; Lindqvist, Birgitta; Nygard, Louise; Ekholm, Jan; Schult, Marie-Louise

2011-01-01

Recent studies have examined the effectiveness of hand rehabilitation programmes and have linked the outcomes to the concept of ICF but not to specific ICF category codes. The objective of this study was to gain experience using ICF concepts to describe occupational therapy interventions during postsurgery hand rehabilitation, and to describe…

The trend of occupational injuries in Korea from 2001 to 2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhee, Kyung Yong; Choe, Seong Weon; Kim, Young Sun; Koo, Kwon Ho

2013-03-01

This study is planned to assess the trend of occupational injuries in Korea from 2001 to 2010. Ten years of occupational injuries, from 2001 to 2010, were analyzed in order to investigate the changing profiles according to the various characteristics of injuries; economic sectors, age of the injured, and type of injuries. The changing profile of occupational injuries was investigated by comparison with an index-created relative value based on the number of cases of reference category. The fatalities of construction, forest, agriculture, and service show the increasing trend. The nonfatal occupational injuries of the manufacturing sector were higher than those of other sectors in every year but the fatal occupational injuries of construction workers were higher than those of the manufacturing sector. Occupational injuries occurring due to amputation and those of slip and trip increased. The number of occupational injuries for the worker groups of 24 years old and below decreased and 45 years old and above increased. In comparison to the figure of fall from height, the figures of slip and trip or caught in equipment are higher in every calendar year. This study find out construction, forest, agriculture, and service sectors, aged worker with 45 years old and over can be target population for the strategies of occupational safety.

Occupational rhinitis and occupational asthma; one airway two diseases?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seed, M J; Gittins, M; De Vocht, F; Agius, R M.

2009-01-01

The concept of 'one airway, one disease' refers to the frequent comorbidity of asthma and rhinitis. However, only limited research has been done on this association for the diverse range of occupational respiratory sensitisers. The relative frequency of rhinitis was determined for the 15 respiratory sensitisers reported to cause at least 10 cases of rhinitis or asthma to The Health and Occupation Reporting (THOR) network between 1997 and 2006. Of 1408 cases, 1190 were sole diagnoses of asthma, 138 sole diagnoses of rhinitis and in 80 cases asthma coexisted with rhinitis. The six sensitisers for which rhinitis featured in over 15% of cases were all particulates and known to cause release of mast cell mediators, either directly or through IgE antibodies. Four of the other nine sensitisers often exist as vapours and only two have been consistently associated with IgE-mediated disease mechanisms. Particle size did not appear to correlate with the relative frequency of rhinitis. Despite its limitations this study would support the hypothesis that there are at least two mechanistic categories of respiratory sensitisation with rhinitis being relatively more common where the mechanism is IgE-mediated. Particulate nature may be another important factor to consider in future studies.

Changes in structure and preferential cage occupancy of ethane hydrate and ethane-methane mixed gas hydrate under high pressure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirai, H; Takahara, N; Kawamura, T; Yamamoto, Y; Yagi, T

2010-01-01

Structural changes and preferential cage occupancies were examined for ethane hydrate and ethane-methane mixed gas hydrates with five compositions in a pressure range of 0.2 to 2.8 GPa at room temperature. X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy showed the following structural changes. The initial structure, structure I (sI), of ethane hydrate was retained up to 2.1 GPa without any structural change. For the mixed hydrates, sI was widely distributed throughout the region examined except for the methane-rich and lower pressure regions, where sII and sH appeared. Above 2.1 GPa ethane hydrate and all of the mixed hydrates decomposed into ice VI and ethane fluid or methane-ethane fluid, respectively. The Raman study revealed that occupation of the small cages by ethane molecules occurred above 0.1 GPa in ethane hydrate and continued up to decomposition at 2.1 GPa, although it was thought that ethane molecules were contained only in the large cage.

Analysis of third-party certification approaches using an occupational health and safety conformity-assessment model.

Science.gov (United States)

Redinger, C F; Levine, S P

1998-11-01

The occupational health and safety conformity-assessment model presented in this article was developed (1) to analyze 22 public and private programs to determine the extent to which these programs use third parties in conformity-assessment determinations, and (2) to establish a framework to guide future policy developments related to the use of third parties in occupational health and safety conformity-assessment activities. The units of analysis for this study included select Occupational Safety and Health Administration programs and standards, International Organization for Standardization-based standards and guidelines, and standards and guidelines developed by nongovernmental bodies. The model is based on a 15-cell matrix that categorizes first-, second-, and third-party activities in terms of assessment, accreditation, and accreditation-recognition activities. The third-party component of the model has three categories: industrial hygiene/safety testing and sampling; product, equipment, and laboratory certification; and, occupational health and safety management system registration/certification. Using the model, 16 of the 22 programs were found to have a third-party component in their conformity-assessment structure. The analysis revealed that (1) the model provides a useful means to describe and analyze various third-party approaches, (2) the model needs modification to capture aspects of traditional governmental conformity-assessment/enforcement activities, and (3) several existing third-party conformity-assessment systems offer robust models that can guide future third-party policy formulation and implementation activities.

Occupational exposures and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): comparison of a COPD-specific job exposure matrix and expert-evaluated occupational exposures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kurth, Laura; Doney, Brent; Weinmann, Sheila

2017-03-01

To compare the occupational exposure levels assigned by our National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-specific job exposure matrix (NIOSH COPD JEM) and by expert evaluation of detailed occupational information for various jobs held by members of an integrated health plan in the Northwest USA. We analysed data from a prior study examining COPD and occupational exposures. Jobs were assigned exposure levels using 2 methods: (1) the COPD JEM and (2) expert evaluation. Agreement (Cohen's κ coefficients), sensitivity and specificity were calculated to compare exposure levels assigned by the 2 methods for 8 exposure categories. κ indicated slight to moderate agreement (0.19-0.51) between the 2 methods and was highest for organic dust and overall exposure. Sensitivity of the matrix ranged from 33.9% to 68.5% and was highest for sensitisers, diesel exhaust and overall exposure. Specificity ranged from 74.7% to 97.1% and was highest for fumes, organic dust and mineral dust. This COPD JEM was compared with exposures assigned by experts and offers a generalisable approach to assigning occupational exposure. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Occupational radiation exposure in Korea: 2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jeong, Je Ho; Kwon, Jeong Wan; Lee, Jai Ki

2005-01-01

Dose distribution of Korean radiation workers classified by occupational categories was analyzed. Statistics of the Occupational Radiation Exposure(ORE) in 2002 of the radiation workers in diagnostic and dental radiology were obtained from the Korea Food and Drug Agency(KFDA) who maintains the database for individual radiation dose records. Corresponding statistics for the rest of radiation workers were obtained by processing the individual annual doses provided by the Korea RadioIsotope Association(KRIA) after deletion of individual information. The ORE distribution was classified in term of 28 occupational categories, annual individual dose levels, age groups and gender of 52733 radiation workers as of the year of 2002. The total collective dose was 66.4 man-Sv and resulting average individual ORE was 1.26 mSv. Around 80% of the workers were exposed to minimal doses less than 1.2 mSv. However, it appeared that the recorded doses exceeded 20 mSv for 43 workers in the industrial radiography and for 147 workers in the field of radiology. Particularly, recorded doses of 23 workers in radiology exceeded the annual dose limits of 50 mSv, which is extraordinary when the working environment is considered. It is uncertain whether those doses are real or caused by careless placing of dosimeters in the imaging rooms while the X-ray units are in operation. No one in the workforce of 16 operating nuclear power plant units was exposed over 20 mSv in 2002. Number of workers was the largest in their 30's of age and the mean individual dose was the highest in their 20's. Women were around 20% of the radiation workers and their average dose was around one half of that of man workers

Mapping the Social Class Structure

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toubøl, Jonas; Grau Larsen, Anton

2017-01-01

This article develops a new explorative method for deriving social class categories from patterns of occupational mobility. In line with Max Weber, our research is based on the notion that, if class boundaries do not inhibit social mobility then the class categories are of little value. Thus...

Goguen categories a categorical approach to l-fuzzy relations

CERN Document Server

Winter, Michael; Mundici, Daniele

2007-01-01

Goguen categories extend the relational calculus and its categorical formalization to the fuzzy world. Starting from the fundamental concepts of sets, binary relations and lattices this book introduces several categorical formulations of an abstract theory of relations such as allegories, Dedekind categories and related structures. It is shown that neither theory is sufficiently rich to describe basic operations on fuzzy relations. The book then introduces Goguen categories and provides a comprehensive study of these structures including their representation theory, and the definability of norm-based operations. The power of the theory is demonstrated by a comprehensive example. A certain Goguen category is used to specify and to develop a fuzzy controller. Based on its abstract description as well as certain desirable properties and their formal proofs, a verified controller is derived without compromising the - sometimes - intuitive choice of norm-based operations by fuzzy engineers.

Some confounding factors in the study of mortality and occupational exposures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gilbert, E.S.

1982-01-01

With the recent interest in the study of occupational exposures, the impact of certain selective biases in the groups studied is a matter of some concern. In this paper, data from the Hanford nuclear facility population (southeastern Washington State, 1947-1976), which includes many radiation workers, are used to illustrate a method for examining the effect on mortality of such potentially confounding variables as calendar year, length of time since entering the industry, employment status, length of employment, job category, and initial employment year. The analysis, which is based on the Mantel-Haenszel procedure as adapted for a prospective study, differs from most previous studies of occupational variables which have relied primarily on comparing standardized mortality ratios (utilizing an external control) for various subgroups of the population. Results of this analysis confirm other studies in that reduced death rates are observed for early years of follow-up and for those with higher socioeconomic status (as indicated by job category). In addition, workers employed less than two years and especially terminated workers are found to have elevated death rates as compared with the remainder of the study population. It is important that such correlations be taken into account in planning and interpreting analyses of the effects of occupational exposure

Task profile and risk of occupational hepatitis A infection in sewerage workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nuebling, M; Hofmann, F

2001-10-01

The aim of the study was to assess to what extent parameters of task-related occupational exposure influence anti-hepatitis A virus (anti-HAV) seroprevalence in sewerage workers, using a new instrument for classification of exposure. A new instrument for the assessment of work-related infection hazards was developed based on expert interviews, evaluation of literature and theoretical considerations. It was included in a questionnaire for collecting detailed information on occupational exposure, safety awareness, safety behaviour and socio-demography. Anti-HAV status was assessed for all (n = 343) (non-vaccinated) study participants. Marked differences in task profile and task-related exposure within the group of sewerage workers were found, underlining the necessity of a detailed exposure analysis. In a multivariate model three risk factors that were related significantly to anti-HAV positivity were identified: age, country of origin and task-related exposure. Since task profiles and occupational exposure differ strongly within the job category of sewerage workers. evaluation of endangerment has to reflect individual task-related exposure. The task-exposure matrix developed and presented in this study is a practicable and valid instrument for exposure assessment and may be used for the exposure analysis of further biological agents in this working environment. Besides the known risk parameters age and origin, our study demonstrates a dose-response relationship between the degree of occupational exposure and the anti-HAV seroprevalence. Therefore, an effective worksite HAV-prevention programme should consider all technical, structural and educational measures that help to reduce individual exposure.

Can Semi-Supervised Learning Explain Incorrect Beliefs about Categories?

Science.gov (United States)

Kalish, Charles W.; Rogers, Timothy T.; Lang, Jonathan; Zhu, Xiaojin

2011-01-01

Three experiments with 88 college-aged participants explored how unlabeled experiences--learning episodes in which people encounter objects without information about their category membership--influence beliefs about category structure. Participants performed a simple one-dimensional categorization task in a brief supervised learning phase, then…

1996 structural integrity assessments for the Category C Liquid Low-Level Waste Tank Systems at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-09-01

This document provides a report of the efforts made to satisfy the Federal Facility Agreement for the structural integrity certification of ten Category C Liquid Low Level Waste (LLLW) tank systems on the Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Within this document, each Category C tank system is described including the associated pipeline segments evaluated as a part of those tank systems. A separate structural integrity assessment was conducted for each of the LLLW Tank Systems, four of which are located in Melton Valley, and six of which are located in Bethel Valley. The results of the structural integrity assessments are reported herein. The assessments are based on (1) a review of available tank design drawings, (2) a qualitative assessment of corrosion on the tank and pipelines, and primarily (3) leak testing program results

1996 structural integrity assessments for the Category C Liquid Low-Level Waste Tank Systems at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-09-01

This document provides a report of the efforts made to satisfy the Federal Facility Agreement for the structural integrity certification of ten Category C Liquid Low Level Waste (LLLW) tank systems on the Oak Ridge Reservation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Within this document, each Category C tank system is described including the associated pipeline segments evaluated as a part of those tank systems. A separate structural integrity assessment was conducted for each of the LLLW Tank Systems, four of which are located in Melton Valley, and six of which are located in Bethel Valley. The results of the structural integrity assessments are reported herein. The assessments are based on (1) a review of available tank design drawings, (2) a qualitative assessment of corrosion on the tank and pipelines, and primarily (3) leak testing program results.

Occupational health services in PR China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Youxin; Xiang Quanyong

2004-01-01

In China, the origin of occupational health started in the mid 1950s soon after the founding of the People's Republic of China. However, more complete concept and practice of occupational health was defined after the early 1980s, when China started her full-scale drive for economic reform and policy of openness. The integrity intends to cover occupational health, occupational medicine, industrial toxicology, industrial hygiene, occupational ergonomics, and occupational psychology as theoretical and practical components of occupational health. As a result, occupational health in China has undergone many changes and has improved over the past decades. These changes and improvements came about, most likely due to a new scheme, where a holistic approach of the recognition, regulation, and provision of occupational health services in a wider coverage is gradually formed and brought into effect. This presentation provides the current status of occupational health and safety problems, the latest legislative to occupational health and safety, and a general scenario of the organizational structure and function of occupational health services in China. It attempts to share with participants both our experience and lessons learned towards creating a more open and effective channel of ideas and information sharing

Procedural-Based Category Learning in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Impact of Category Number and Category Continuity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Vincent eFiloteo

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Previously we found that Parkinson's disease (PD patients are impaired in procedural-based category learning when category membership is defined by a nonlinear relationship between stimulus dimensions, but these same patients are normal when the rule is defined by a linear relationship (Filoteo et al., 2005; Maddox & Filoteo, 2001. We suggested that PD patients' impairment was due to a deficit in recruiting ‘striatal units' to represent complex nonlinear rules. In the present study, we further examined the nature of PD patients' procedural-based deficit in two experiments designed to examine the impact of (1 the number of categories, and (2 category discontinuity on learning. Results indicated that PD patients were impaired only under discontinuous category conditions but were normal when the number of categories was increased from two to four. The lack of impairment in the four-category condition suggests normal integrity of striatal medium spiny cells involved in procedural-based category learning. In contrast, and consistent with our previous observation of a nonlinear deficit, the finding that PD patients were impaired in the discontinuous condition suggests that these patients are impaired when they have to associate perceptually distinct exemplars with the same category. Theoretically, this deficit might be related to dysfunctional communication among medium spiny neurons within the striatum, particularly given that these are cholinergic neurons and a cholinergic deficiency could underlie some of PD patients’ cognitive impairment.

Contested Categories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Drawing on social science perspectives, Contested Categories presents a series of empirical studies that engage with the often shifting and day-to-day realities of life sciences categories. In doing so, it shows how such categories remain contested and dynamic, and that the boundaries they create...

Coronary heart disease prevalence and occupational structure in U.S. metropolitan areas: a multilevel analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Michimi, Akihiko; Ellis-Griffith, Gregory; Nagy, Christine; Peterson, Tina

2013-05-01

This research explored the link between coronary heart disease (CHD) prevalence and metropolitan-area level occupational structure among 137 metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas (MMSA) in the United States. Using data from the 2006-2008 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and 2007 County Business Patterns, logistic mixed models were developed to estimate CHD prevalence between MMSAs controlling for individual-level socioeconomic characteristics and various types of occupational structure. Results showed that CHD prevalence was lower in MMSAs where their economy was dominated by 'tourism and resort' and 'the quaternary sector' and higher in MMSAs dominated by 'manufacturing', 'transportation and warehousing', and 'mining'. MMSA-level effects on CHD were found in 'tourism and resort' and 'the quaternary sector' having lower risk and 'mining' having higher risk of CHD. Although these effects prevailed in many MMSAs, some MMSAs did not fit into these effects. Additional analysis indicated a possible link between metropolitan population loss and higher CHD prevalence especially in the coal mining region of the Appalachian Mountains. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How to Do Things with Categories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krabbe, Anders Dahl

Consumers and other audiences draw upon cognitive categories when evaluating technological products (Clark, 1985; Kaplan and Tripsas, 2008). Categories such as “mini-van” or “computer” provide labels and conceptual meaning structures that consumers and other market actors draw upon in making sense...... the majority of archival data was collected. Finally, to trace consumer reception of innovations in the design of products and technological innovations, I constructed a data set based on posts from an online hearing aid consumer forum. The initial analysis each spawned into three distinct trajectories...

Occupational injury among full-time, part-time and casual health care workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Alamgir, Hasanat; Yu, Shicheng; Chavoshi, Negar; Ngan, Karen

2008-08-01

Previous epidemiological studies have conflicting suggestions on the association of occupational injury risks with employment category across industries. This specific issue has not been examined for direct patient care occupations in the health care sector. To investigate whether work-related injury rates differ by employment category (part time, full time or casual) for registered nurses (RNs) in acute care and care aides (CAs) in long-term facilities. Incidents of occupational injury resulting in compensated time loss from work, over a 1-year period within three health regions in British Columbia (BC), Canada, were extracted from a standardized operational database. Detailed analysis was conducted using Poisson regression modeling. Among 8640 RNs in acute care, 37% worked full time, 24% part time and 25% casual. The overall rates of injuries were 7.4, 5.3 and 5.5 per 100 person-years, respectively. Among the 2967 CAs in long-term care, 30% worked full time, 20% part time and 40% casual. The overall rates of injuries were 25.8, 22.9 and 18.1 per 100 person-years, respectively. In multivariate models, having adjusted for age, gender, facility and health region, full-time RNs had significantly higher risk of sustaining injuries compared to part-time and casual workers. For CAs, full-time workers had significantly higher risk of sustaining injuries compared to casual workers. Full-time direct patient care occupations have greater risk of injury compared to part-time and casual workers within the health care sector.

On Anaphora and the Binding Principles in Categorial Grammar

Science.gov (United States)

Morrill, Glyn; Valentín, Oriol

In type logical categorial grammar the analysis of an expression is a resource-conscious proof. Anaphora represents a particular challenge to this approach in that the antecedent resource is multiplied in the semantics. This duplication, which corresponds logically to the structural rule of contraction, may be treated lexically or syntactically. Furthermore, anaphora is subject to constraints, which Chomsky (1981) formulated as Binding Principles A, B, and C. In this paper we consider English anaphora in categorial grammar including reference to the binding principles. We invoke displacement calculus, modal categorial calculus, categorial calculus with limited contraction, and entertain addition of negation as failure.

Occupational Health Screenings of U.S. Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft (Drone) Operators

Science.gov (United States)

2014-04-01

Worsened by Their Unit Assignment and Occupational Stress, Proportion Comparisons Medical Condition ACCa ANGb AFSOCc % ACC/ANG p...Proportion Comparisons Self-Reported Reasons (per coded category) ACCa ANGb AFSOCc % ACC/ANG p % AFSOC/ANG p % AFSOC/ACC p n % n % n

International Service Learning: Occupational Therapists' Perceptions of Their Experiences in Guatemala

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason C. Lawson

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The U.S. is fast becoming more culturally diverse, creating a greater need for entry-level occupational therapists to be culturally competent. In order to increase students’ cultural competence, there is a growing support for international service learning (ISL. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the perspectives of occupational therapy practitioners who engaged in ISL as occupational therapy students. Interviews were conducted with nine practicing occupational therapists, all of whom graduated from the same occupational therapy program in the U.S. and participated in an ISL experience in Guatemala. Phenomenological methods were used to analyze the transcribed interviews for codes, categories, and themes. The three themes that emerged were: Participants reported encountering many new experiences that led to experiencing a variety of emotions, their experiences in the Guatemalan culture further contributed to a deeper level of understanding about culture, and all of the participants reported that their ISL experiences allowed them to practice occupational therapy skills and interventions with limited resources, which facilitated creativity and resourcefulness. The findings of this study support that completing ISL as students contributes to occupational therapists’ personal and professional lives and offers a glimpse of potential long-term effects of completing an ISL experience.

Identifying educational priorities for occupational therapy students to prepare for mental health practice in Australia and New Zealand: Opinions of practising occupational therapists.

Science.gov (United States)

Scanlan, Justin Newton; Pépin, Geneviève; Haracz, Kirsti; Ennals, Priscilla; Webster, Jayne S; Meredith, Pamela J; Batten, Rachel; Bowman, Siann; Bonassi, Marianne; Bruce, Rosie

2015-10-01

The effective preparation of occupational therapy students for mental health practice is critical to facilitate positive consumer outcomes, underpin optimal practice and support new graduates' professional identity. This project was established to determine a set of 'educational priorities' for occupational therapy students to prepare them for current (and future) entry-level practice in mental health, from the perspective of mental health occupational therapists in Australia and New Zealand. The study included two phases. In Phase One, participants identified what they considered to be important educational priorities for occupational therapy students to prepare them for practice in mental health. For Phase Two, an 'expert panel' was assembled to review and rank these using a Policy Delphi approach. Eighty-five participants provided educational priorities in Phase One. These were grouped into a total of 149 educational themes. In Phase Two, the expert panel (consisting of 37 occupational therapists from diverse locations and practice settings) prioritised these themes across three Delphi rounds. A final priority list was generated dividing educational themes into three prioritised categories: 29 'Essential', 25 'Important' and 44 'Optional' priorities. Highest-ranked priorities were: clinical reasoning, client-centred practice, therapeutic use of self, functional implications of mental illness, therapeutic use of occupation and mental health fieldwork experience. The priority list developed as part of this project provides additional information to support the review of occupational therapy curricula across Australia and New Zealand to ensure that new graduates are optimally prepared for mental health practice. © 2015 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Occupational mobility among individuals in entry-level healthcare jobs in the USA.

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Cyndy R; Dahal, Arati; Frogner, Bianca K

2018-07-01

The aim of this study was to explore career transitions among individuals in select entry-level healthcare occupations. Entry-level healthcare occupations are among the fastest growing occupations in the USA. Public perception is that the healthcare industry provides an opportunity for upward career mobility given the low education requirements to enter many healthcare occupations. The assumption that entry-level healthcare occupations, such as nursing assistant, lead to higher-skilled occupations, such as Registered Nurse, is under-explored. We analysed data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which is a nationally representative and publicly available longitudinal survey of US households. Using longitudinal survey data, we examined the job transitions and associated characteristics among individuals in five entry-level occupations at the aide/assistant level over 10 years timeline (2003-2013) to determine whether they stayed in health care and/or moved up in occupational level over time. This study found limited evidence of career progression in health care in that only a few of the individuals in entry-level healthcare occupations moved into occupations such as nursing that required higher education. While many individuals remained in their occupations throughout the study period, we found that 28% of our sample moved out of these entry-level occupations and into another occupation. The most common "other" occupation categories were "office/administrative" and "personal care/services occupations." Whether these moves helped individuals advance their careers remains unclear. Employers and educational institutions should consider efforts to help clarify pathways to advance the careers of individuals in entry-level healthcare occupations. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Occupational health in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Carreón, Tania; Santos-Burgoa, Carlos; Baron, Sherry; Hernández, Sendy

2002-01-01

The authors discuss the maquiladoras and child labor, and offer an overview of the history of occupational safety and health in Mexico that covers laws and regulations, social security, unions, and enforcement of legislation. The organization and structure of the various institutions responsible for occupational safety and health (OSH), as well as administrative procedures, are described. This article concludes with a list of the new challenges for OSH in Mexico.

Analysis of the occupational doses of female radiation workers in India

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pardasani, P B; Joshi, V D; Awari, J M; Kher, R K [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India). Radiation Protection Services Div.

1994-04-01

Basis for control of occupational exposures of women are same as that of men except for pregnant women. Analysis of annual and cumulative occupational doses of female radiation workers as a group has been done. The average annual dose data in the four broad categories and age wise dose distribution is presented. The average working period for female radiation workers is about 3 to 5 years which is same as that of all the radiation workers on our records. The average cumulative dose for female workers is about 3 mSv. (author). 4 refs., 4 tabs.

Analysis of the occupational doses of female radiation workers in India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pardasani, P.B.; Joshi, V.D.; Awari, J.M.; Kher, R.K.

1994-01-01

Basis for control of occupational exposures of women are same as that of men except for pregnant women. Analysis of annual and cumulative occupational doses of female radiation workers as a group has been done. The average annual dose data in the four broad categories and age wise dose distribution is presented. The average working period for female radiation workers is about 3 to 5 years which is same as that of all the radiation workers on our records. The average cumulative dose for female workers is about 3 mSv. (author). 4 refs., 4 tabs

Ethical Tensions Related to Systemic Constraints: Occupational Alienation in Occupational Therapy Practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Durocher, Evelyne; Kinsella, Elizabeth Anne; McCorquodale, Lisa; Phelan, Shanon

2016-09-03

Ethical tensions arise daily in health care practice and are frequently related to health care system structures or policies. Collective case study methodology was adopted to examine ethical tensions reported by occupational therapists practicing in different settings in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Inductive analysis involving multiple layers of coding was conducted. This article focuses on tensions related to systemic constraints. Participants reported ethical tensions related to balancing client priorities with those of health care services. Four themes related to systemic constraints were identified including imposed practices, ineffective processes, resource limitations, and lack of services. Therapists' aims could be seen to align with an "ethic of care" and were seen to be in tension in light of systemic constraints. The findings raise issues related to occupational justice, particularly related to occupational alienation in occupational therapy practice, and open conversations related to neoliberalist health care agendas. © The Author(s) 2016.

Contact allergy to preservatives in patients with occupational contact dermatitis and exposure analysis of preservatives in registered chemical products for occupational use.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwensen, Jakob Ferløv; Friis, Ulrik Fischer; Menné, Torkil; Flyvholm, Mari-Ann; Johansen, Jeanne Duus

2017-05-01

The aim of the study is to investigate risk factors for sensitization to preservatives and to examine to which extent different preservatives are registered in chemical products for occupational use in Denmark. A retrospective epidemiological observational analysis of data from a university hospital was conducted. All patients had occupational contact dermatitis and were consecutively patch tested with 11 preservatives from the European baseline series and extended patch test series during a 5-year period: 2009-2013. Information regarding the same preservatives in chemical products for occupational use ('substances and materials') registered in the Danish Product Register Database (PROBAS) was obtained. The frequency of preservative contact allergy was 14.2% (n = 141) in 995 patients with occupational contact dermatitis. Patients with preservative contact allergy had significantly more frequently facial dermatitis (19.9 versus 13.1%) and age > 40 years (71.6 versus 45.8%) than patients without preservative contact allergy, whereas atopic dermatitis was less frequently observed (12.1 versus 19.8%). Preservative contact allergy was more frequent in painters with occupational contact dermatitis as compared to non-painters with occupational contact dermatitis (p contact allergy to methylisothiazolinone and contact allergy to formaldehyde. Analysis of the registered substances and materials in PROBAS revealed that preservatives occurred in several product categories, e.g., 'paints and varnishes', 'cleaning agents', 'cooling agents', and 'polishing agents'. Formaldehyde and isothiazolinones were extensively registered in PROBAS. The extensive use of formaldehyde and isothiazolinones in chemical products for occupational use may be problematic for the worker. Appropriate legislation, substitution, and employee education should be prioritized.

IDENTITY AS A PHENOMENON AND A CATEGORY OF THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

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Yuzhakova, Ju.A.

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Linguists often use the notion of “identity”. It is used either in relation to structural peculiarities of constructions or in relation to semantics. In most cases, linguistic units have one identical (i.e. equivalent, similar, resembling distinctive feature: category, grammatical or lexical meaning, structural component, syntactic function. If within one unit we come across functional, structural, and semantic equivalence, we can speak about the linguistic category of identity. Modern science requires more than explication of the term, it calls for a detailed study of constituting phenomena, their interrelationships and interpenetration, their semantic and structural peculiarities, the means of their realization and actualization. The subject of our research is, on the one hand, special “markers” of identity, and, on the other hand, syntactic constructions in which the category of identity is realized.

Categories and Commutative Algebra

CERN Document Server

Salmon, P

2011-01-01

L. Badescu: Sur certaines singularites des varietes algebriques.- D.A. Buchsbaum: Homological and commutative algebra.- S. Greco: Anelli Henseliani.- C. Lair: Morphismes et structures algebriques.- B.A. Mitchell: Introduction to category theory and homological algebra.- R. Rivet: Anneaux de series formelles et anneaux henseliens.- P. Salmon: Applicazioni della K-teoria all'algebra commutativa.- M. Tierney: Axiomatic sheaf theory: some constructions and applications.- C.B. Winters: An elementary lecture on algebraic spaces.

THE CATEGORY OF COUNTABILITY IN THE CROATIAN LANGUAGE

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Marija Znika

2005-01-01

Full Text Available This paper considers the category of countability as a category established on the lexical meaning of nouns. The lexical meaning of nouns can be dually structured, in a unit and mass forms, relative to the opposition one ≠ many. The category of countability has its content and expression. The content of the category of countability consists of the feature [± countable], and its marker [+ countable] and [- countable]. A noun is countable if its content can be conceived as a unit opposed to mass (table, apple. A noun is uncoutable if its content cannot be perceived as a unit that could be opposed to mass (water, sugar. The expression of the category of countability depends on its content. In the Croatian language the category of countability has its expression in the grammatical category of number and its grammems: singular and plural. These two grammems are formally, and frequently accentually, distinctive from the majority of nouns. The analysis focuses on the meaning of nouns, while their expression is considered as a possible indicator of semantic relationships the category of countability is based on. The paper analyses pluralia tantum and singularia tantum, and their different status countability-wise. It points out the possibility of semantic recategorization of nouns and thus demonstrates a dynamic quality of the category of countability. It also analyses the process of appelativisation (eponomisation of personal names, and the process of appelative deappelativisation. It shows the relationship between the category of countability and the category of definiteness, when definiteness is expressed by an adjectival aspect.

Concept Analysis of Occupational Therapy Handling in the Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Hybrid Model

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Hamid Dalvand

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Objective: This study aimed to analyze the concept of occupational therapy handling in the children with cerebral palsy from the perspective of occupational therapy instructors and clinicians in Iran. Materials & Methods: In this qualitative study, using hybrid model to clarify the concept of handling through three phases. For the theoretical phase, attributes of handling were recognized through a review of the literature (until February 2014, and six in-depth semi - structured interviews, two observations and one panel of experts were conducted for the fieldwork to develop attributes from the data and to verify those identified from the literature review. In the third phase attributes and final analysis of handling were extracted from the first and second phase. Results: The results were classified in five main categories that were identified as: (1 care of child, (2 management of treatment, (3 manual techniques, (4 education of activities of daily living (ADL, and (5 lifting and carrying. Core attributes of handling include "control, safety, transfer and positioning". Conclusion: It seems that the results of this study may help in clarifying the concept of handling in children with CP. In addition, by identifying the process, barriers and facilitative factors, and the concept of handling, occupational therapy instructors and therapists will be able to design and run their educational activities based on scientific findings which can provide them with the necessary conditions for education, learning and proper execution of handling in occupational therapy.

Managing occupations in everyday life for people with advanced cancer at home

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Peoples, Hanne; Brandt, Åse; Wæhrens, Eva Elisabet Ejlersen

“Everyday life under change” and two sub-categories 1) Appling strategies to manage occupations in everyday life and 2) Preserving a meaningful everyday life. Significance: The findings suggest that people with advanced cancer, to a greater extent, should be supported in exploring familiar as well as new...

Quantum logic in dagger kernel categories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heunen, C.; Jacobs, B.P.F.

2009-01-01

This paper investigates quantum logic from the perspective of categorical logic, and starts from minimal assumptions, namely the existence of involutions/daggers and kernels. The resulting structures turn out to (1) encompass many examples of interest, such as categories of relations, partial

Quantum logic in dagger kernel categories

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heunen, C.; Jacobs, B.P.F.; Coecke, B.; Panangaden, P.; Selinger, P.

2011-01-01

This paper investigates quantum logic from the perspective of categorical logic, and starts from minimal assumptions, namely the existence of involutions/daggers and kernels. The resulting structures turn out to (1) encompass many examples of interest, such as categories of relations, partial

Validity of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles for Assessing Upper Extremity Work Demands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Opsteegh, L.; Soer, R.; Reinders-Messelink, H.A.; Reneman, M.F.; van der Sluis, C.K.

2010-01-01

Objectives: The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) is used in vocational rehabilitation to guide decisions about the ability of a person with activity limitations to perform activities at work. The DOT has categorized physical work demands in five categories. The validity of this categorization

Relationships between bat occupancy and habitat and landscape structure along a savanna, woodland, forest gradient in the Missouri Ozarks

Science.gov (United States)

Clarissa A. Starbuck; Sybill K. Amelon; Frank R. III. Thompson

2015-01-01

Many land-management agencies are restoring savannas and woodlands using prescribed fire and forest thinning, and information is needed on how wildlife species respond to these management activities. Our objectives were to evaluate support for relationships of bat site occupancy with vegetation structure and management and landscape composition and structure across a...

Effectiveness of occupational injury prevention policies in Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Benavides, Fernando G; García, Ana M; Lopez-Ruiz, Maria; Gil, Josep; Boix, Pere; Martinez, José Miguel; Rodrigo, Fernando

2009-01-01

We examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions against occupational injuries (preferential action plans [PAPs]) developed by Spanish regional governments starting in 2000. We included 3,252,028 occupational injuries with sick leave due to mechanical causes occurring between 1994 and 2004 in manufacturing and private service companies. Time trends for occupational injury rates were estimated before and after implementation of PAPs in each region, with a control group defined for those regions in which no PAPs were implemented (e.g., Galicia, Madrid, and Cataluña). We determined annual change percentages and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) through a negative binomial regression model. Regions were grouped into three categories according to formal quality of their PAPs. The regions with the best PAPs (Andalucia, Aragon, Valencia, and Murcia) showed annually increasing occupational injury rates (2.3%, 95% CI -2.5, 7.4) before implementation of PAPs. After PAPs were implemented, occupational injury rates decreased significantly to -7.4% (95% CI -10.2, -4.5). Similar results were also found for regions with PAPs of lower quality and even for regions that didn't implement a PAP (control group). These results did not vary substantially in stratified analysis by gender, age, type of contract, or length of sick leave. PAPs are not related to a general decline in occupational injury rates in Spain starting in 2000. Reinforcement of Spanish health and safety regulations and labor inspection activities since 2000, resulting from a social agreement between central government and social agents, remains an alternative hypothesis requiring additional research.

Danger zone: Men, masculinity and occupational health and safety in high risk occupations

OpenAIRE

Stergiou-Kita, Mary; Mansfield, Elizabeth; Bezo, Randy; Colantonio, Angela; Garritano, Enzo; Lafrance, Marc; Lewko, John; Mantis, Steve; Moody, Joel; Power, Nicole; Theberge, Nancy; Westwood, Eleanor; Travers, Krista

2015-01-01

The workplace is a key setting where gender issues and organizational structures may influence occupational health and safety practices. The enactment of dominant norms of masculinity in high risk occupations can be particularly problematic, as it exposes men to significant risks for injuries and fatalities. To encourage multi-disciplinary collaborations and advance knowledge in the intersecting areas of gender studies, men’s health, work and workplace health and safety, a national network of...

Climacteric women at work: What lurks behind poor occupational quality of life?

Science.gov (United States)

Gazibara, Tatjana; Rancic, Biljana; Radovanovic, Sanja; Kurtagic, Ilma; Nurkovic, Selmina; Kovacevic, Nikolina; Dotlic, Jelena

2018-04-18

Physical and psychological changes during menopausal transition may affect various aspects of everyday functioning including women's work ability and work productivity. Presence of menopausal symptoms has been well-acknowledged to negatively affect quality of life (QOL). However, data on factors associated with occupational QOL among women at this period of life are lacking. The authors' purpose in this study was to evaluate factors affecting occupational QOL in a sample of employed mid-life women who are experiencing menopause. The authors performed a cross-sectional study among 335 employed women aged 40 to 65 years from Serbia. Socio-demographic questionnaire, Utian's Quality of Life Scale, and Beck's Depression Inventory were used in data collection. Women's average monthly household income and educational level were positively correlated, while having uterine prolapse was negatively associated with occupational QOL. Significant regression models assessing impact of gynecological illnesses and menopause-specific symptoms on occupational QOL (direct value and categories-below vs. above mean) showed that having insomnia, uterine prolapse, and genital inflammations may differentiate "good" from "poor" occupational QOL. Uterine prolapse, genital inflammation, and insomnia were associated with worse occupational QOL among working women in menopausal transition.

[Structure of Relationships Formed by Occupational Health Nurses for Co-operating with Managers to Support Workers with Mental Health Concerns].

Science.gov (United States)

Hatanaka, Junko; Takasaki, Masako; Hatanaka, Michiyo

2018-05-31

Occupational health staff and managers play important roles in supporting workers with mental health concerns and mutual co-operation among them is a necessary element. However, when co-operating with other professionals, several problems arise that often make such co-operation a challenge. Effective mutual actions are needed to promote such co-operation, and relationships must be formed for this purpose. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify how occupational health nurses form relationships for facilitating co-operation with managers to provide support to workers with mental health concerns. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 11 occupational health nurses who provide individualized mental health support and who have at least 5 years of experience as occupational health nurses. Analysis of the recorded interviews was performed using a qualitative statistical method (KJ method). Six elements that constitute the formation of relationships were identified. When occupational health nurses form relationships for facilitating co-operation with a manager to provide support to workers, they "form relationships through strategic communication" with them and when co-operation is required, they form a relationship by "acting in a manner that suits the manager," such as his/her character and the situation. To support this relationship, occupational health nurses "provide mental support to the manager" by listening to his/her anxiety or real intention about supporting the subordinate with mental health concerns and provide relief while understanding their burdens during the co-operation. Occupational health nurses even "provide support to the manager in their activities," which assessed the situation at the workplace as the specialist and advised the manager to understand how to concern to the subordinate specifically. In addition, they "indirectly support the manager" which included coordinating with the concerned persons so as to not excessively

Occupational hearing loss in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kyoo Sang

2010-12-01

In this article, current status of noise exposure in workplaces, trend of workers with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), and prevalence of NIHL in workers by industry and job category in Korea were reviewed. In addition, trends of research on the audiological effects such as hearing loss from noise and occupational hearing loss from non-noise in Korea were addressed through reports in industrial audiology. Though noise exposure level has improved, noise still shows the highest rate of cases exceeding exposure limit among workplace hazards. NIHL is the most common occupational disease except work-related disease such as musculoskeletal disorders and cerebrovascular diseases, and NIHL prevalence is thought to be much higher than reported in official publications. Noise affecting hearing comes from various sources such as workplaces, military settings, areas with exposure to high noise, and specific noise sources. There is also occupational hearing loss by non-noise including chemicals such as organic solvents and heavy metals, barotrauma, and trauma due to welding spark. Noise affects daily life through audiological effects such as hearing loss and tinnitus, non-audiological physical effects (e.g., cardiovascular), and psychosocial and behavioral effects. Development of systematic and comprehensive hearing conservation programs for lowering the noise level in workplaces and preventing the NIHL, and preparation of technological, administrative system for its settlement at workplace are urgently needed.

The use of biomarkers in occupational health research, practice, and policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schulte, P A; Hauser, J E

2012-08-13

Biomarkers are potentially useful tools for occupational health and safety research, practice, and policy. However, the full realization of this potential has not been achieved. In this paper, the progress made in these three usage areas is reviewed to identify what efforts can be taken to realize the full promise of biomarkers. Biomarker uses are described by a diverse taxonomy that builds on the categories of exposure, effect and susceptibility, and the continuum between exposure and disease prognosis. The most significant uses of biomarkers in occupational health have been in biological monitoring of workers. Other important uses have been in enhancing research and assessing mechanisms of action of occupational toxicants at low exposures. Seven critical areas will influence the extent to which the potential of biomarkers in occupational health and safety is realized. These include: (1) adequate investment in validation; (2) obtaining international agreement on exposure guidelines; (3) exploring the utility of biomarkers in regulation; (4) applying biomarkers to critical occupational safety and health questions; (5) developing the exposome; (6) utilizing biomarkers to address emerging occupational health issues; and (7) continuing to address the ethical and social justice issues related to biomarkers. Overall, if biomarkers are to make a major contribution to occupational health and safety then a more holistic approach to bringing them from the laboratory to practice will be needed. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Observation versus classification in supervised category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Levering, Kimery R; Kurtz, Kenneth J

2015-02-01

The traditional supervised classification paradigm encourages learners to acquire only the knowledge needed to predict category membership (a discriminative approach). An alternative that aligns with important aspects of real-world concept formation is learning with a broader focus to acquire knowledge of the internal structure of each category (a generative approach). Our work addresses the impact of a particular component of the traditional classification task: the guess-and-correct cycle. We compare classification learning to a supervised observational learning task in which learners are shown labeled examples but make no classification response. The goals of this work sit at two levels: (1) testing for differences in the nature of the category representations that arise from two basic learning modes; and (2) evaluating the generative/discriminative continuum as a theoretical tool for understand learning modes and their outcomes. Specifically, we view the guess-and-correct cycle as consistent with a more discriminative approach and therefore expected it to lead to narrower category knowledge. Across two experiments, the observational mode led to greater sensitivity to distributional properties of features and correlations between features. We conclude that a relatively subtle procedural difference in supervised category learning substantially impacts what learners come to know about the categories. The results demonstrate the value of the generative/discriminative continuum as a tool for advancing the psychology of category learning and also provide a valuable constraint for formal models and associated theories.

Cycle Commuting and Perceptions of Barriers: Stages of Change, Gender and Occupation

Science.gov (United States)

van Bekkum, Jennifer E.; Williams, Joanne M.; Morris, Paul Graham

2011-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate perceptions of cycle commuting barriers in relation to stage of change, gender and occupational role. Stage of change is a key construct of the transtheoretical model of behaviour change that defines behavioural readiness (intentions and actions) into five distinct categories.…

25 CFR 256.11 - What are the occupancy and square footage standards for a dwelling provided with Category C...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... dwelling provided with Category C assistance? 256.11 Section 256.11 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS... footage standards for a dwelling provided with Category C assistance? A modest dwelling provided with... bedrooms Total dwelling square footage 1 (maximum) 1-3 2 2 900 4-6 2 3 1050 7 or more 2 4 31350 1 Total...

Grammatical categories in the brain: the role of morphological structure.

Science.gov (United States)

Longe, O; Randall, B; Stamatakis, E A; Tyler, L K

2007-08-01

The current study addresses the controversial issue of how different grammatical categories are neurally processed. Several lesion-deficit studies suggest that distinct neural substrates underlie the representation of nouns and verbs, with verb deficits associated with damage to left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and noun deficits with damage to left temporal cortex. However, this view is not universally shared by neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies. We have suggested that these inconsistencies may reflect interactions between the morphological structure of nouns and verbs and the processing implications of this, rather than differences in their neural representations (Tyler et al. 2004). We tested this hypothesis using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, to scan subjects performing a valence judgment on unambiguous nouns and verbs, presented as stems ('snail, hear') and inflected forms ('snails, hears'). We predicted that activations for noun and verb stems would not differ, whereas inflected verbs would generate more activation in left frontotemporal areas than inflected nouns. Our findings supported this hypothesis, with greater activation of this network for inflected verbs compared with inflected nouns. These results support the claim that form class is not a first-order organizing principle underlying the representation of words but rather interacts with the processes that operate over lexical representations.

Site occupancy, composition and magnetic structure dependencies of martensitic transformation in Mn2Ni1+xSn1-x.

Science.gov (United States)

Kundu, Ashis; Ghosh, Subhradip

2017-11-14

A delicate balance between various factors such as site occupancy, composition and magnetic ordering seems to affect the stability of the martensitic phase in Mn₂Ni_1+xSn_1-x. Using first-principles DFT calculations, we explore the impacts of each one of these factors on the martensitic stability of this system. Our results on total energies, magnetic moments and electronic structures upon changes in the composition, the magnetic configurations and the site occupancies show that the occupancies at the 4d sites in the Inverse Heusler crystal structure play the most crucial role. The presence of Mn at the 4d sites originally occupied by Sn and its interaction with the Mn atoms at other sites decide the stability of the martensitic phases. This explains the discrepancy between the experiments and earlier DFT calculations regarding phase stability in Mn₂NiSn. Our results qualitatively explain the trends observed experimentally with regard to martensitic phase stability and the magnetisations in Ni-excess, Sn-deficient Mn₂NiSn system. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.

African American Fathers' Occupational Participation: "Keeping the Mothers in a Positive Vibe".

Science.gov (United States)

Pizur-Barnekow, Kris; Pate, David; Lazar, Katie; Paul, Nelly; Pritchard, Kathleen; Morris, George

2017-10-01

Infant mortality is a major public health issue in the United States that disproportionally affects African Americans. Evidence suggests reducing stress on African American women and engaging African American fathers may improve health and social outcomes for families. This study sought to understand the experiences of African American fathers through a positivistic lens and to inform future interventions that support father engagement. A descriptive, qualitative study using the Person, Environment, Occupation-Performance (PEO-P) model as a framework for analysis was conducted involving 45 fathers participating in four focus groups and one member-checking group. An initial content analysis was followed by constant comparative methods to identify categories related to the PEO-P model. Transcripts revealed a range of factors that enable or inhibit fathers' occupational performance and engagement including environmental barriers such as societal expectations and perceptions. Occupational therapy practitioners may utilize population health approaches to support African American fathers' occupational engagement.

Expanding beyond individualism: Engaging critical perspectives on occupation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerlach, Alison J; Teachman, Gail; Laliberte-Rudman, Debbie; Aldrich, Rebecca M; Huot, Suzanne

2018-01-01

Perspectives that individualize occupation are poorly aligned with socially responsive and transformative occupation-focused research, education, and practice. Their predominant use in occupational therapy risks the perpetuation, rather than resolution, of occupational inequities. In this paper, we problematize taken-for-granted individualistic analyses of occupation and illustrate how critical theoretical perspectives can reveal the ways in which structural factors beyond an individual's immediate control and environment shape occupational possibilities and occupational engagement. Using a critically reflexive approach, we draw on three distinct qualitative research studies to examine the potential of critical theorizing for expanding beyond a reliance on individualistic analyses and practices. Our studies highlight the importance of addressing the socio-historical and political contexts of occupation and demonstrate the contribution of critical perspectives to socially responsive occupational therapy. In expanding beyond individualistic analyses of occupation, critical perspectives advance research and practices towards addressing socio-political mediators of occupational engagement and equity.

Requirements for occupational medicine training in Europe postulated by Polish professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Indulski, J A; Boczkowski, A; Mikulski, M

1998-01-01

In order to determine common key competences required for occupational medicine specialists across Europe, a questionnaire has been developed and disseminated in several European countries. The questionnaire contained 115 subjects relating to eight fields of activity of an occupational medicine physician (occupational hazards to health, assessment of disability and fitness for work, communications, research methods, management, environmental medicine, occupational health law and ethics, and health promotion). Items in each part were classified into three categories: knowledge, experience and skills. For each of the subjects respondents were asked to allocate a score from 0 to 5, where 0 = not necessary, 1 = of minimal importance and 5 = most important or essential. In Poland the questionnaire was distributed between two groups of specialists: group I--chief administrators of occupational health services, and group II--relatively younger occupational medicine physicians participating in a specialist training. A comprehensive analysis of the completed questionnaires had three dimensions: (a) substantive (classification of the importance of particular key competences, as perceived by Polish specialists in occupational medicine), (b) personal (differences in opinions among occupational medicine physicians and an attempt to explain these differences in sociological terms), (c) comparative (evaluation and interpretation of similarities and differences between two groups). A hierarchy of requirements for occupational medicine training in Poland was constructed, with one set of competences recognized by the respondents as needless and others as useful with different grade of importance. Surprisingly, a wide diversity of opinions among respondents has given rise to the explanation hypotheses, some of them being verified using the material gathered.

Integrated Approaches to Occupational Health and Safety: A Systematic Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooklin, A; Joss, N; Husser, E; Oldenburg, B

2017-09-01

The study objective was to conduct a systematic review of the effectiveness of integrated workplace interventions that combine health promotion with occupational health and safety. Electronic databases (n = 8), including PsychInfo and MEDLINE, were systematically searched. Studies included were those that reported on workplace interventions that met the consensus definition of an "integrated approach," published in English, in the scientific literature since 1990. Data extracted were occupation, worksite, country, sample size, intervention targets, follow-up period, and results reported. Quality was assessed according to American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine Practice Guidelines. Heterogeneity precluded formal meta-analyses. Results were classified according to the outcome(s) assessed into five categories (health promotion, injury prevention, occupational health and safety management, psychosocial, and return-on-investment). Narrative synthesis of outcomes was performed. A total of 31 eligible studies were identified; 23 (74%) were (quasi-)experimental trials. Effective interventions were most of those aimed at improving employee physical or mental health. Less consistent results were reported from integrated interventions targeting occupational health and safety management, injury prevention, or organizational cost savings. Integrated approaches have been posed as comprehensive solutions to complex issues. Empirical evidence, while still emerging, provides some support for this. Continuing investment in, and evaluation of, integrated approaches are worthwhile.

Comparing two K-category assignments by a K-category correlation coefficient

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gorodkin, Jan

2004-01-01

Predicted assignments of biological sequences are often evaluated by Matthews correlation coefficient. However, Matthews correlation coefficient applies only to cases where the assignments belong to two categories, and cases with more than two categories are often artificially forced into two...... categories by considering what belongs and what does not belong to one of the categories, leading to the loss of information. Here, an extended correlation coefficient that applies to K-categories is proposed, and this measure is shown to be highly applicable for evaluating prediction of RNA secondary...

College for some to college for all: social background, occupational expectations, and educational expectations over time.

Science.gov (United States)

Goyette, Kimberly A

2008-06-01

The educational expectations of 10th-graders have dramatically increased from 1980 to 2002. Their rise is attributable in part to the changing educational composition of students' parents and related to the educational profiles of their expected occupations. Students whose parents have gone to college are more likely to attend college themselves, and students expect occupations that are more prestigious in 2002 than in 1980. The educational requirements of particular occupation categories have risen only slightly. These analyses also reveal that educational expectations in recent cohorts are more loosely linked to social background and occupational plans than they were in 1980. The declining importance of parents' background and the decoupling of educational and occupational plans, in addition to a strong and significant effect of cohort on educational expectations, suggest that the expectation of four-year college attainment is indeed becoming the norm.

Carcinogens, Teratogens and Mutagens: Their Impact on Occupational Health, Particularly for Women in Veterinary Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Milligan, J. E.; And Others

1983-01-01

Pregnant women, especially those working in veterinary medicine, face occupational health/disease risks from mutagens, teratogens, and carcinogens. These hazards can be placed into three categories: physical, chemical, and biological. Each of these hazards is discussed with examples. (Author/JN)

Case-Control Study on Occupational Exposure to Extremely Low-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields and the Association with Meningioma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Carlberg

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. Exposure to extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF was in 2002 classified as a possible human carcinogen, Group 2B, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer at WHO based on an increased risk for childhood leukemia. In case-control studies on brain tumors during 1997–2003 and 2007–2009 we assessed lifetime occupations in addition to exposure to different agents. The INTEROCC ELF-EMF Job-Exposure Matrix was used for associating occupations with ELF-EMF exposure (μT with meningioma. Cumulative exposure (μT-years, average exposure (μT, and maximum exposed job (μT were calculated. Results. No increased risk for meningioma was found in any category. For cumulative exposure in the highest exposure category 8.52+ μT years odds ratio (OR = 0.9, 95% confidence interval (CI = 0.7–1.2, and p linear trend = 0.45 were calculated. No statistically significant risks were found in different time windows. Conclusion. In conclusion occupational ELF-EMF was not associated with an increased risk for meningioma.

Final report : Occupational gap analysis, volume 2 Wood Buffalo region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-06-01

The general economy of the Wood Buffalo region of Alberta has improved in recent years due to the expansion of the oil sand industry. Many of the oil sands projects are situated in the southern part of the region and are serviced out of Lac LaBiche. This paper examines the implications of this economic growth for the regional supply and demand of workers in key occupational categories. In particular, it projects employment opportunities that are directly attributed to the regional economic expansion, and assesses whether there will be an adequate supply of workers to meet the demand for new and replacement employees. The report includes: an overview of the regional economy; a population forecast for the region and the demand for workers in selected occupations; an analysis of whether or not the new labour force entrants will choose the selected occupations; and, a supply and demand analysis. 7 tabs., 2 figs., 5 appendices

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MINIMUM ASSORTMENT OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL ORGANIZATION

OpenAIRE

I. F. Samoshchenkova; R. Y. Garankina

2017-01-01

The main principle of the category management is the management of product category as a separate business unit. Category management directs the activities of the pharmaceutical organization to meet the consumer requirements and to provide customers with maximum benefits, which are expressed in the improved assortment,the attractive prices, the reduction of cases of lack of necessary goods, the simplifiedpurchase process. In article the structure of the category management and its role inthe ...

Category management dětské výživy

OpenAIRE

Wotřelová, Eva

2014-01-01

This thesis deals with category management of baby food on the Czech market. The goal of the thesis is to determine the theoretical basis of category management and define the category management process. Subsequently, based on the analysis of primary and secondary data, will be characterized the change in current shopping behaviour of mothers. Next goal is to design a general model structure of baby food exposure and through this model to determine whether the current situation on the baby f...

Categories from scratch

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Poss, R.

2014-01-01

The concept of category from mathematics happens to be useful to computer programmers in many ways. Unfortunately, all "good" explanations of categories so far have been designed by mathematicians, or at least theoreticians with a strong background in mathematics, and this makes categories

Occupational risk and chronic kidney disease: a population-based study in the United States adult population.

Science.gov (United States)

Rubinstein, Sofia; Wang, Chengwei; Qu, Wenchun

2013-01-01

Previous studies on occupational risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD) have analyzed a limited range of occupations and focused on nephrotoxins. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relative risk for the occurrence of CKD between different occupations in the US adult population. This was a population-based survey study of 91,340 participants in the US, who completed the National Health Interview Survey, 2004 through 2008. The outcome variable, CKD, was defined as having weakening/failing kidneys in the past 12 months, as diagnosed by a physician. The predictor variable, occupation, was obtained using the census occupational codes, regrouped according to North American Industrial Classification System. After controlling for age, gender, hypertension, and education, and with the category Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations as a reference group, the likelihood of developing CKD was 4.3 times higher in respondents working in Building, Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations, 4.4 times higher in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations, 4.7 times higher in Transportation and Material Moving Occupations and in Computer and Mathematical Occupations, 4.8 times higher in Production Occupations, 5.3 times higher in Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations, and 6.1 times higher in Healthcare Support Occupations and in Legal Occupations. This study identified occupation groups in US adult population with increased risk for CKD. Alleviation of workplace stress is suggested as a goal for behavioral intervention in high-risk occupations.

Are female healthcare workers at higher risk of occupational injury?

Science.gov (United States)

Alamgir, Hasanat; Yu, Shicheng; Drebit, Sharla; Fast, Catherine; Kidd, Catherine

2009-05-01

Differential risks of occupational injuries by gender have been examined across various industries. With the number of employees in healthcare rising and an overwhelming proportion of this workforce being female, it is important to address this issue in this growing sector. To determine whether compensated work-related injuries among females are higher than their male colleagues in the British Columbia healthcare sector. Incidents of occupational injury resulting in compensated days lost from work over a 1-year period for all healthcare workers were extracted from a standardized operational database and the numbers of productive hours were obtained from payroll data. Injuries were grouped into all injuries and musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs). Detailed analysis was conducted using Poisson regression modelling. A total of 42 332 employees were included in the study of whom 11% were male and 89% female. When adjusted for age, occupation, sub-sector, employment category, health region and facility, female workers had significantly higher risk of all injuries [rate ratio (95% CI) = 1.58 (1.24-2.01)] and MSIs [1.43 (1.11-1.85)] compared to their male colleagues. Occupational health and safety initiatives should be gender sensitive and developed accordingly.

Effects of the new radiation protection act on the radiation protection register and the monitoring of occupational radiation exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frasch, G.

2016-01-01

The implementation of DIRECTIVE 2013/59 / EURATOM (EURATOM Basic Safety Standards) is via the new radiation protection law and brings in the monitoring of occupational radiation among others two significant new features and changes: - Introduction of a unique personal identifier, - update of the occupational categories. Both require technical and organizational changes in the data transmission of the licensees to the dosimetry services and the radiation protection register.

Occupational Therapy in Multidisciplinary Residency in Family and Community Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luzianne Feijó Alexandre Paiva

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In this study, we report the experiences of occupational therapist during the Multidisciplinary Residency Program in Family and Community Health in Fortaleza, Ceará state, Brazil. With the creation of the Support Center for Family Health – NASF, occupational therapists began to participate more effectively in the Family Health Strategy of the Brazilian National Health System. Given this rocess, the category, which historically has trained its professionals following the biomedical model, is faced with the challenge to build a new field of knowledge. Objective: To analyze the inclusion of occupational therapy in the Family Health Strategy within the scope of Multidisciplinary Residency. Methodology: This is a descriptive study of qualitative approach, which was based on the experience of four occupational therapy resident students, performed through the documental analysis of field diaries, scientific papers, and case studies produced between 2009 and 2011. Results: The occupational therapists as well as the other NASF professionals operated the logic of Matrix Support to the Family Health teams, sharing their knowledge and assisting in resolving complex cases of the families, groups, and communities served. In this context, we found people with different relationships with their doings and a reduced repertoire of activities. The occupational therapists invested in the creation or consolidation of groups in the Family Health Centers and in the territory, which also stood as living and socializing spaces, focusing on prevention and health promotion.

Site occupancy, composition and magnetic structure dependencies of martensitic transformation in Mn2Ni1 + x Sn1-x.

Science.gov (United States)

Kundu, Ashis; Ghosh, Subhradip

2017-11-29

A delicate balance between various factors such as site occupancy, composition and magnetic ordering seems to affect the stability of the martensitic phase in [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]. Using first-principles DFT calculations, we explore the impacts of each one of these factors on the martensitic stability of this system. Our results on total energies, magnetic moments and electronic structures upon changes in the composition, the magnetic configurations and the site occupancies show that the occupancies at the 4d sites in the inverse Heusler crystal structure play the most crucial role. The presence of Mn at the 4d sites originally occupied by Sn and its interaction with the Mn atoms at other sites decide the stability of the martensitic phases. This explains the discrepancy between the experiments and earlier DFT calculations regarding phase stability in [Formula: see text]NiSn. Our results qualitatively explain the trends observed experimentally with regard to martensitic phase stability and the magnetisations in Ni-excess, Sn-deficient [Formula: see text]NiSn system.

Occupational health crossing borders part 2: Comparison of 18 occupational health systems across the globe.

Science.gov (United States)

Radon, Katja; Ehrenstein, Vera; Nowak, Dennis; Bigaignon-Cantineau, Janine; Gonzalez, Maria; Vellore, Arun Dev; Zamora, Veronica Enzina; Gupta, Neeraj; Huang, Lirong; Kandkers, Salamat; Lanza, Ana María Menchú; Garcia, Leila Posenato; Patsis, Keti Stylianos; Rojas, Ana Maria Sanchez; Shoma, Ashraf; Verbeek, Jos

2010-01-01

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is considered one of the most important factors for a sustainable development; however, it is often considered a luxury by decision-makers. This article compares OHS systems of 18 countries at different stages of development. In an international summer school, structure of the national OHS system, definition of occupational accidents and diseases, procedures for compensation claims, outcome (expressed as incidence of occupational accidents) and training opportunities were presented. National OHS systems ranged from non-existent to systems implemented almost 200 years ago. Priorities, incidence of occupational accidents and training opportunities varied. Common problems included the lack of OHS service for small enterprises and in rural areas. International training programs like this summer school might enhance the exchange about OHS opportunities around the globe and contribute to improved workers health. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The structured-objective rorschach test (sort occupational profile for state accountants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. J. Gouws

1996-06-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to provide an occupational profile of performance on the Structured-Objective Rorschach Test (SORT by state accountants for use in guidance, election and placement of personnel. The sample comprised accountants and auditors from the financial sections in various state institutions who were selected for the Senior Financial Management Course at the University of Stellenbosch. As all participants were considered successful in their occupation and no significant differences were found between the profiles of various age and year groups, the SORT profile obtained for the total group can be used as a predictor to determine and evaluate the personality traits that are important in the profession of state accountant. Opsomming Die doel van hierdie studie was die daarstelling van 'n beroepsprofiel van staatsrekenmeesters se prestasie op die Gestruktureerd-Objektiewe Rorschachtoets (SORT wat vir voorligting/ keuring en plasing van personeel gebruik kan word. Die steekproef is saamgestel uit rekenmeesters en ouditeure van die finansiele afdelings in verskeie staatsinstansies wat geselekteer is vir die Senior Finansiele Bestuurskursus by die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Aangesien alle deelnemers as suksesvol in hulle beroep beskou is en geen beduidende verskille in die profiele van verskillende ouderdomsgroepe en jaargroepe gevind is nie, kan die SORT profiel van die totale groep as 'n voorspeller gebruik word vir die bepaling en evaluering van die persoonlikheidseienskappe wat belangrik is in die beroep van staatsrekenmeester.

Functional categories in agrammatism: evidence from Greek.

Science.gov (United States)

Stavrakaki, Stavroula; Kouvava, Sofia

2003-07-01

The aim of this study is twofold. First, to investigate the use of functional categories by two Greek agrammatic aphasics. Second, to discuss the implications of our findings for the characterization of the deficit in agrammatism. The functional categories under investigation were the following: definite and indefinite articles, personal pronouns, aspect, tense, subject-verb agreement, wh-pronouns, complementizers and the mood marker na (=to). Based on data collected through different methods, it is argued that the deficit in agrammatism cannot be described in terms of a structural account but rather by means of difficulties in the implementation of grammatical knowledge.

On Learning Natural-Science Categories That Violate the Family-Resemblance Principle.

Science.gov (United States)

Nosofsky, Robert M; Sanders, Craig A; Gerdom, Alex; Douglas, Bruce J; McDaniel, Mark A

2017-01-01

The general view in psychological science is that natural categories obey a coherent, family-resemblance principle. In this investigation, we documented an example of an important exception to this principle: Results of a multidimensional-scaling study of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks (Experiment 1) suggested that the structure of these categories is disorganized and dispersed. This finding motivated us to explore what might be the optimal procedures for teaching dispersed categories, a goal that is likely critical to science education in general. Subjects in Experiment 2 learned to classify pictures of rocks into compact or dispersed high-level categories. One group learned the categories through focused high-level training, whereas a second group was required to simultaneously learn classifications at a subtype level. Although high-level training led to enhanced performance when the categories were compact, subtype training was better when the categories were dispersed. We provide an interpretation of the results in terms of an exemplar-memory model of category learning.

Forecasting supply and demand in nursing professions: impacts of occupational flexibility and employment structure in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background In light of Germany's ageing society, demand for nursing professionals is expected to increase in the coming years. This will pose a challenge for policy makers to increase the supply of nursing professionals. Methodology To portray the different possible developments in the supply of nursing professionals, we projected the supply of formally trained nurses and the potential supply of persons who are able to work in a nursing profession. This potential supply of nursing professionals was calculated on the basis of empirical information on occupational mobility provided by the German Microcensus 2005 (Labour Force Survey). We also calculated how the supply of full-time equivalents (FTEs) will develop if current employment structures develop in the direction of employment behaviour in nursing professions in eastern and western Germany. We then compared these different supply scenarios with two demand projections ('status quo' and 'compression of morbidity' scenarios) from Germany's Federal Statistical Office. Results Our results show that, even as early as 2005, meeting demand for FTEs in nursing professions was not arithmetically possible when only persons with formal qualification in a nursing profession were taken into account on the supply side. When additional semi-skilled nursing professionals are included in the calculation, a shortage of labour in nursing professions can be expected in 2018 when the employment structure for all nursing professionals remains the same as the employment structure seen in Germany in 2005 (demand: 'status quo scenario'). Furthermore, given an employment structure as in eastern Germany, where more nursing professionals work on a full-time basis with longer working hours, a theoretical shortage of nursing professionals could be delayed until 2024. Conclusions Our analysis of occupational flexibility in the nursing field indicates that additional potential supply could be generated by especially training more young people

Forecasting supply and demand in nursing professions: impacts of occupational flexibility and employment structure in Germany.

Science.gov (United States)

Maier, Tobias; Afentakis, Anja

2013-06-05

In light of Germany's ageing society, demand for nursing professionals is expected to increase in the coming years. This will pose a challenge for policy makers to increase the supply of nursing professionals. To portray the different possible developments in the supply of nursing professionals, we projected the supply of formally trained nurses and the potential supply of persons who are able to work in a nursing profession. This potential supply of nursing professionals was calculated on the basis of empirical information on occupational mobility provided by the German Microcensus 2005 (Labour Force Survey). We also calculated how the supply of full-time equivalents (FTEs) will develop if current employment structures develop in the direction of employment behaviour in nursing professions in eastern and western Germany. We then compared these different supply scenarios with two demand projections ('status quo' and 'compression of morbidity' scenarios) from Germany's Federal Statistical Office. Our results show that, even as early as 2005, meeting demand for FTEs in nursing professions was not arithmetically possible when only persons with formal qualification in a nursing profession were taken into account on the supply side. When additional semi-skilled nursing professionals are included in the calculation, a shortage of labour in nursing professions can be expected in 2018 when the employment structure for all nursing professionals remains the same as the employment structure seen in Germany in 2005 (demand: 'status quo scenario'). Furthermore, given an employment structure as in eastern Germany, where more nursing professionals work on a full-time basis with longer working hours, a theoretical shortage of nursing professionals could be delayed until 2024. Our analysis of occupational flexibility in the nursing field indicates that additional potential supply could be generated by especially training more young people for a nursing profession as they tend to

Tangent mappings and convergent sequences in the lipschitz category

OpenAIRE

Hyman, Daniel M.

2012-01-01

The standard definition of a derivative in linear spaces is extended to a definition of tangency in the Lipschitz category, without any assumed algebraic structure on the underlying spaces.  Tangency is characterized topologically, that is, solely in terms of continuity, without using any algebraic concepts or other analytical concepts. The mappings in the Lipschitz category are characterized as the class of functions that preserve topologically convergent sequences of finite variation.

The competences postulated as requirements for occupational medicine training in Europe as viewed by Polish specialists.

Science.gov (United States)

Boczkowski, A

2001-01-01

A questionnaire has been developed and disseminated in several European countries to determine common key competences required of occupational medicine specialists. The questionnaire contained 115 subjects relating to eight fields of activity of an occupational medicine physician (occupational hazards to health, assessment of disability and fitness for work, communications, research methods, management, environmental medicine, occupational health law and ethics, and health promotion). Items in each part were classified into three categories: knowledge, skills and experience. For each of the subjects respondents were asked to allocate a score from 0 (not necessary) to 5 (most important or essential). In Poland the questionnaire was distributed among two groups of specialists: (1) chief administrators of occupational health services, and (2) relatively young occupational medicine physicians attending a specialist training. A comprehensive analysis of the completed questionnaires had three dimensions: (a) substantive (classification of the importance of particular key competences, as perceived by Polish specialists in occupational medicine); (b) personal (differences in opinions among occupational medicine physicians and an attempt to explain these differences in sociological terms); and (c) comparative (evaluation and interpretation of similarities and differences between two groups).

COGNITIVE-COMMUNICATIVE PERSONALITY CATEGORY IN THE KAZAKH LANGUAGE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Orynay Sagingalievna Zhubaeva

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the research is to reveal the character of anthropocentricity of grammatical categories in their meaning and functioning. Materials and methods. According to the research objectives and goals, the methods used were as follows: the descriptive method, general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, cognitive analysis, method of experiment, contextual analysis, structural-semantic analysis, transformation technique, comparative analysis. Results. For the first time in the Kazakh linguistics the substantial aspect of grammatical categories is characterized being a result of both conceptualization and categorization processes. Based on generalization and the comparative analysis of nature and forms of the human factor reflection in the Kazakh grammatical categories there has been revealed the national-cultural specific character of grammatical categories. Practical implications. The research materials can be used in theoretical courses onf grammar and linguistics, as well as in the development of special courses on cognitive linguistics, cognitive grammar, etc.

Categories of fruit and vegetables: Attributes and definitions in Serbian

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dilparić Branislava M.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available According to the results of an empirical investigation performed by E. Rosch and K. Mervis (1975, the prototype structures of the categories FRUIT and VEGETABLES, the two superordinate and neighbouring categories with no clear-cut boundaries between them, are formed by family resemblances. Each category has only two attributes ('(part of a plant' and 'edible' which are common to all its members and yet not sufficient to define the category and separate it from other categories of edible (parts of plants. Through the analysis and comparison of a number of definitions for FRUIT and VEGETABLES (obtained in a questionnaire-based survey from a hundred native speakers of Serbian; taken from Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis by A. Wierzbicka; taken from five general dictionaries of the Serbian language, the author of this paper attempts to determine the group of attributes that could play a key role in differentiating the observed categories and to search for the most appropriate way to define the two categories in Serbian which would hopefully be acceptable to both modern (prototype semantics and practical lexicography.

76 FR 66071 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2011-10-25

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to...

75 FR 63495 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-15

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to...

78 FR 30306 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-22

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to...

Category-length and category-strength effects using images of scenes.

Science.gov (United States)

Baumann, Oliver; Vromen, Joyce M G; Boddy, Adam C; Crawshaw, Eloise; Humphreys, Michael S

2018-06-21

Global matching models have provided an important theoretical framework for recognition memory. Key predictions of this class of models are that (1) increasing the number of occurrences in a study list of some items affects the performance on other items (list-strength effect) and that (2) adding new items results in a deterioration of performance on the other items (list-length effect). Experimental confirmation of these predictions has been difficult, and the results have been inconsistent. A review of the existing literature, however, suggests that robust length and strength effects do occur when sufficiently similar hard-to-label items are used. In an effort to investigate this further, we had participants study lists containing one or more members of visual scene categories (bathrooms, beaches, etc.). Experiments 1 and 2 replicated and extended previous findings showing that the study of additional category members decreased accuracy, providing confirmation of the category-length effect. Experiment 3 showed that repeating some category members decreased the accuracy of nonrepeated members, providing evidence for a category-strength effect. Experiment 4 eliminated a potential challenge to these results. Taken together, these findings provide robust support for global matching models of recognition memory. The overall list lengths, the category sizes, and the number of repetitions used demonstrated that scene categories are well-suited to testing the fundamental assumptions of global matching models. These include (A) interference from memories for similar items and contexts, (B) nondestructive interference, and (C) that conjunctive information is made available through a matching operation.

Claim rates of compensable back injuries by age, gender, occupation, and industry. Do they relate to return-to-work experience?

Science.gov (United States)

Gluck, J V; Oleinick, A

1998-07-15

A retrospective cohort study of Michigan workers' compensation cases involving back injuries in 1986 and 1987 with incidence and outcome data. To determine claim rates by age, gender, and industry or occupation for compensable back injuries and to investigate the relation between occupation and return to work. The cohort of 24,094 Michigan workers' compensation cases from 1986 and 1987 in which claimants were compensated for back injuries was reviewed. Compensation eligibility requires more than 7 days' disability after injury. Claim rates for back injuries by age, gender, and industry or occupation using employment data interpolated from 1980 and 1990 Census 1% Public Use Microdata Samples. Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed for return to work in the first 8 weeks after injury, with occupation coded at the three-digit level. All-age claim rates for Michigan compensable back injuries by occupation ranged between 0.03% and 1.7% annually (0.39% for all cases) and were generally higher in women in white collar occupations and in men in blue collar occupations. The claim rate peaked in men in the 25-34 year range, with the highest rates in manual labor occupations. The peak claim rates by age were less marked in women, tending to occur broadly throughout the 25-44-year range. Similar all-age values were recorded by industry. The male-to-female risk ratio over all occupations does not vary by age and is approximately 1.4:1. As the classification of occupation became more detailed, large differences in risk were documented within major occupation groups. The highest risk in this study was approximately 6% annually for 25-44 year old men in driver-sales (beverage truck drivers and delivery workers). Only 7 of 40 occupation categories showed a significant relative hazard for return to work in the first 8 weeks after injury, and these were blue collar occupations with earlier return than the reference sales category. For Michigan compensable back injuries, a

Modeling of Individual and Organizational Factors Affecting Traumatic Occupational Injuries Based on the Structural Equation Modeling: A Case Study in Large Construction Industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Mohammadfam, Iraj; Soltanzadeh, Ahmad; Moghimbeigi, Abbas; Akbarzadeh, Mehdi

2016-09-01

Individual and organizational factors are the factors influencing traumatic occupational injuries. The aim of the present study was the short path analysis of the severity of occupational injuries based on individual and organizational factors. The present cross-sectional analytical study was implemented on traumatic occupational injuries within a ten-year timeframe in 13 large Iranian construction industries. Modeling and data analysis were done using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and the IBM SPSS AMOS statistical software version 22.0, respectively. The mean age and working experience of the injured workers were 28.03 ± 5.33 and 4.53 ± 3.82 years, respectively. The portions of construction and installation activities of traumatic occupational injuries were 64.4% and 18.1%, respectively. The SEM findings showed that the individual, organizational and accident type factors significantly were considered as effective factors on occupational injuries' severity (P accidents' severity in large construction industries.

Occupational accidents involving biological material among public health workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiodi, Mônica Bonagamba; Marziale, Maria Helena Palucci; Robazzi, Maria Lúcia do Carmo Cruz

2007-01-01

This descriptive research aimed to recognize the occurrence of work accidents (WA) involving exposure to biological material among health workers at Public Health Units in Ribeirão Preto-SP, Brazil. A quantitative approach was adopted. In 2004, 155 accidents were notified by means of the Work Accident Communication (WAC). Sixty-two accidents (40%) involved exposure to biological material that could cause infections like Hepatitis and Aids. The highest number of victims (42 accidents) came from the category of nursing aids and technicians. Needles were responsible for 80.6% of accidents and blood was the biological material involved in a majority of occupational exposure cases. This subject needs greater attention, so that prevention measures can be implemented, which consider the peculiarities of the activities carried out by the different professional categories.

Occupational radiation exposure. Annual report No. 11 for 1978

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brooks, B.; McDonald, S.; Richardson, E.

1981-01-01

This report summarizes the information reported for calendar year 1978 by all NRC licensees to the Commission's centralized repository of personnel occupational radiation exposure information. The bulk of the information in the report is derived from annual reports that were required to be submitted by all NRC licensees pursuant to 10CFR 20.407. Previously only certain categories - commercial nuclear power reactors, industrial radiographers, fuel fabricators and processors and commercial distributors of byproduct materials - of NRC licensees had submitted such reports. The requirement of 10CFR 20.408 for the submission of termination reports continued to apply to only these four categories, and some analysis of the data contained in these reports is also presented. A brief description of personnel overexposures reported by NRC licensees is included as well

The occupational health status of African-American women health care workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, C W

1996-01-01

Race, ethnicity, and gender are significant indicators of occupational status, general health status, and thus, occupational health status. Although African-American women constitute only 6.8% of the total U.S. labor force, they hold 20% of the jobs in the health care industry and are disproportionately represented in those jobs that have the highest levels of workplace exposure to hazards. As a result, they are therefore more likely to be at greater exposure and risk to the spectrum of occupational health problems. In order to gain insight into the effects of race and gender on the occupational health status of African-American women health care workers, this article uses three data sources that provide different but complementary sources of information on the demographic characteristics of workers, location of categories of occupations, working conditions of jobs, and other job and worker characteristics. Given the concentration of African-American women in health care positions where there exists a greater likelihood of being exposed to occupational hazards, it is therefore both logical and appropriate for primary care physicians, especially those engaged in office-based practices, to identify this target population for special services and to be more aware of the type of health issues with which these patients are more likely to present and to experience during their working lives. Health care providers have a responsibility to assess occupational factors related to a patient's health problems and to incorporate this information into their treatment protocols and into the design and explanation of each patient's care plan.

Occupational Lung Disease: Clinical-Pathological-Radiological Correlation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carrillo Bayona, Jorge Alberto; Rivera Bernal, Aura Lucia; Ojeda Paulina; Paez Garcia, Diana Sofia

2008-01-01

People are exposed to hundreds of substances daily, some of which may induce pulmonary injury. Occupational Lung Disease diagnosis requires 4 elements: Exposure to the harmful agent, adequate latency between exposure and beginning of the symptoms, syndrome with post-exposure abnormalities, and exclusion of other conditions which may otherwise explain signs and symptoms. Several occupational lung disease classifications based on structural or functional injury, type of agent, or both have been proposed. Generally, 5 groups are considered: Pneumoconiosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, toxic fumes exposure, asthma, and occupational lung infections. Conventional radiographs and in specific situations, CT, are crucial elements for the diagnosis of Occupational Lung Disease. In the patient with respiratory symptoms and altered imaging studies, the possibility of Occupational Lung Disease should be considered. Radiologist should be familiar the variety of substances that cause these entities and their radiological features. In this article Occupational Lung diseases are reviewed, including diagnostic criteria, classification, physiopathology, clinical and radiological manifestations as well as their corresponding histopathological features.

Personality and the perception of transformational leadership: The impact of extraversion, neuroticism, personal need for structure, and occupational self efficacy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Felfe, Jörg; Schyns, Birgit

2006-01-01

This experimental study examined the influence of followers' personal characteristics on their perception of leadership. Participants were 175 students who self-rated several personality scales (extraversion, neuroticism, personal need for structure, and occupational self-efficacy) at Time 1. Two

Characteristics of Occupational Exposure to Benzene during Turnaround in the Petrochemical Industries.

Science.gov (United States)

Chung, Eun-Kyo; Shin, Jung-Ah; Lee, Byung-Kyu; Kwon, Jiwoon; Lee, Naroo; Chung, Kwang-Jae; Lee, Jong-Han; Lee, In-Seop; Kang, Seong-Kyu; Jang, Jae-Kil

2010-09-01

The level of benzene exposure in the petrochemical industry during regular operation has been well established, but not in turnaround (TA), where high exposure may occur. In this study, the characteristics of occupational exposure to benzene during TA in the petrochemical companies were investigated in order to determine the best management strategies and improve the working environment. This was accomplished by evaluating the exposure level for the workers working in environments where benzene was being produced or used as an ingredient during the unit process. From 2003 to 2008, a total of 705 workers in three petrochemical companies in Korea were studied. Long- and short-term (< 1 hr) samples were taken during TAs. TA was classified into three stages: shut-down, maintenance and start-up. All works were classified into 12 occupation categories. The long-term geometric mean (GM) benzene exposure level was 0.025 (5.82) ppm (0.005-42.120 ppm) and the short-term exposure concentration during TA was 0.020 (17.42) ppm (0.005-61.855 ppm). The proportions of TA samples exceeding the time-weighted average, occupational exposure level (TWA-OEL in Korea, 1 ppm) and the short-term exposure limit (STEL-OEL, 5 ppm) were 4.1% (20 samples of 488) and 6.0% (13 samples of 217), respectively. The results for the benzene exposure levels and the rates of exceeding the OEL were both statistically significant (p < 0.05). Among the 12 job categories of petrochemical workers, mechanical engineers, plumbers, welders, fieldman and scaffolding workers exhibited long-term samples that exceeded the OEL of benzene, and the rate of exceeding the OEL was statistically significant for the first two occupations (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that the periodic work environment must be assessed during non-routine works such as TA.

Can height categories replace weight categories in striking martial arts competitions? A pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubnov-Raz, Gal; Mashiach-Arazi, Yael; Nouriel, Ariella; Raz, Raanan; Constantini, Naama W

2015-09-29

In most combat sports and martial arts, athletes compete within weight categories. Disordered eating behaviors and intentional pre-competition rapid weight loss are commonly seen in this population, attributed to weight categorization. We examined if height categories can be used as an alternative to weight categories for competition, in order to protect the health of athletes. Height and weight of 169 child and adolescent competitive karate athletes were measured. Participants were divided into eleven hypothetical weight categories of 5 kg increments, and eleven hypothetical height categories of 5 cm increments. We calculated the coefficient of variation of height and weight by each division method. We also calculated how many participants fit into corresponding categories of both height and weight, and how many would shift a category if divided by height. There was a high correlation between height and weight (r = 0.91, p<0.001). The mean range of heights seen within current weight categories was reduced by 83% when participants were divided by height. When allocating athletes by height categories, 74% of athletes would shift up or down one weight category at most, compared with the current categorization method. We conclude that dividing young karate athletes by height categories significantly reduced the range of heights of competitors within the category. Such categorization would not cause athletes to compete against much heavier opponents in most cases. Using height categories as a means to reduce eating disorders in combat sports should be further examined.

Designation of facility usage categories for Hanford Site facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wodrich, D.; Ellingson, D.; Scott, M.; Schade, A.

1991-01-01

This report summarizes the Hanford Site methodology used to ensure facility compliance with the natural phenomena design criteria set forth in the US Department of Energy orders and guidance. In particular, the Hanford Site approach to designating a suitable facility open-quotes Usage Category,close quotes is presented. The current Hanford Site methodology for Usage Category designation is based on an engineered feature's safety function and on the feature's assigned Safety Class. At the Hanford Site, Safety Class assignments are deterministic in nature and are based on the consequences of failure, without regard to the likelihood of occurrence. The report also proposes a risk-based approach to Usage Category designation, which is being considered for future application at the Hanford Site. To establish a proper Usage Category designation, the safety analysis and engineering design processes must be coupled. This union produces a common understanding of the safety function(s) to be accomplished by the design feature(s) and a sound basis for the assignment of Usage Categories to the appropriate systems, structures, and components

Identification and Hierarchy of Main Electronic Health Record Components in Occupational Medicine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorin TRIFF

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Starting from the legal requirements relating to structuring of medical records in occupational medicine and international requirements regarding the certification of electronic health records we have focused on structuring and then evaluating an EHR model in occupational medicine that integrates the main functions and certification criteria required by the European and US certification bodies. The application we designed, called Medmun, structured for use in occupational medicine practices based on the model of medical file provided by the Romanian legislation, integrates both necessary components of occupational medicine practice for administration of characteristic information related to socio-economic unit, work place, health surveillance as well as components of specific EHR functionality. The application has been submitted for free evaluation by specialist physicians of five counties over a period of nine months and subsequently assessed using a questionnaire on the usefulness of specific functional components in the EHR occupational medicine practice. The model was positively evaluated after experimental employment by occupational health practitioners. They consider that absence of legislative support for EHR implementation in medical practice is the main obstacle to the use of such applications in occupational medicine practice.

Landscape matrix mediates occupancy dynamics of Neotropical avian insectivores

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Christina M.; Campbell Grant, Evan H.; Neel, Maile C.; Fagan, William F.; Marpa, Peter P.

2011-01-01

In addition to patch-level attributes (i.e., area and isolation), the nature of land cover between habitat patches (the matrix) may drive colonization and extinction dynamics in fragmented landscapes. Despite a long-standing recognition of matrix effects in fragmented systems, an understanding of the relative impacts of different types of land cover on patterns and dynamics of species occurrence remains limited. We employed multi-season occupancy models to determine the relative influence of patch area, patch isolation, within-patch vegetation structure, and landscape matrix on occupancy dynamics of nine Neotropical nsectivorous birds in 99 forest patches embedded in four matrix types (agriculture, suburban evelopment, bauxite mining, and forest) in central Jamaica. We found that within-patch vegetation structure and the matrix type between patches were more important than patch area and patch isolation in determining local colonization and local extinction probabilities, and that the effects of patch area, isolation, and vegetation structure on occupancy dynamics tended to be matrix and species dependent. Across the avian community, the landscape matrix influenced local extinction more than local colonization, indicating that extinction processes, rather than movement, likely drive interspecific differences in occupancy dynamics. These findings lend crucial empirical support to the hypothesis that species occupancy dynamics in fragmented systems may depend greatly upon the landscape context.

Occupational exposures in industrial application of radiation during 1999-2008

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanaye, S.S.; Baburajan, Sujatha; Pawar, S.G.; Nalawade, S.K.; Sapra, B.K.

2012-01-01

Application of radiation in industry, medicine and research sector has increase significantly over the years. In industry main applications are industrial radiography, industrial fluoroscopy, radiation processing, luminizing, nucleonic gauges. Since the strength of the source used is generally high compared to other applications as well as the operating conditions prevailing during the exposure, radiological protection plays important role in this sector. Analysis of dose data, available with National Occupational Dose Registry of RPAD, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, provides some insight into trends in occupational exposures received by industrial radiation workers. This helps in providing information on adequateness of radiation protection practices followed in the industry. This paper presents the trends in occupational exposure received by radiation workers in the industry during past 10 years (1999 to 2008). It is observed that there is a gradual increase in the occupational radiation workers during the period. The number of persons monitored as well as exposed is highest in industrial radiography compared to other sub-categories. Major contribution to collective dose is also from industrial radiography. The highest annual average as well as exposed average doses are contributed by industrial radiography. The monitored persons receiving dose d 5 mSv is 96.9% industry

The impact of occupational therapy and lifestyle interventions on older persons' health, well-being, and occupational adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Johansson, Ann; Björklund, Anita

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a four-month occupational based health-promoting programme for older persons living in community dwellings could maintain/improve their general health and well-being. Further, the aim was to explore whether the programme facilitated the older persons' occupational adaptation. The study had a quasi-experimental design, with a non-equivalent control group combined with semi-structured interviews. The intervention group comprised 22 participants, and the control group 18. Outcomes were measured using the Short Form 36, Life Satisfaction Index-Z and Meaningful Activity Participation Assessment. Content analysis, based on concepts from the Model of Occupational Adaptation, was used to analyse the interviews. The intervention group showed statistically significant improvements in general health variables such as vitality and mental health, and positive trends for psychological well-being. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention group and the control group, but the groups were not fully matched. The qualitative analysis based on Occupational Adaptation pointed out social aspects as a compliment to the overall results. Participating in meaningful, challenging activities in different environments stimulates the occupational adaptation process; this is something occupational therapists could use to empower older persons to find their optimal occupational lives.

Occupational Therapy Students' Perceptions of Spirituality in Training.

Science.gov (United States)

Mthembu, Thuli Godfrey; Ahmed, Firdous; Nkuna, Thembi; Yaca, Khalipha

2015-12-01

Spirituality is recognized as an essential and integral component of a holistic approach in occupational therapy practice. However, little is known about occupational therapy students' perceptions regarding spirituality in learning context. This study used qualitative exploratory, descriptive design to explore the occupational therapy students' perceptions about spirituality in training. Using purposive sampling, four semi-structured interviews were conducted with two students, a lecturer and an occupational therapist. In addition, two focus groups were conducted with students in order to collect data. Data collected were audio-taped; transcribed and thematic analysis was used to identify themes. The analysis resulted in emergence of four themes: "Unique to every individual," "Spirituality in occupational therapy," "To be or not to be taught," and "The Real world." Participants perceived spirituality as an individually experienced. The study contributes to the body of knowledge base of occupational therapy education regarding spirituality. However, there is a need for guidelines to integrate spirituality in occupational therapy training.

Occupational Clusters.

Science.gov (United States)

Pottawattamie County School System, Council Bluffs, IA.

The 15 occupational clusters (transportation, fine arts and humanities, communications and media, personal service occupations, construction, hospitality and recreation, health occupations, marine science occupations, consumer and homemaking-related occupations, agribusiness and natural resources, environment, public service, business and office…

Grammatical Constructions as Relational Categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldwater, Micah B

2017-07-01

This paper argues that grammatical constructions, specifically argument structure constructions that determine the "who did what to whom" part of sentence meaning and how this meaning is expressed syntactically, can be considered a kind of relational category. That is, grammatical constructions are represented as the abstraction of the syntactic and semantic relations of the exemplar utterances that are expressed in that construction, and it enables the generation of novel exemplars. To support this argument, I review evidence that there are parallel behavioral patterns between how children learn relational categories generally and how they learn grammatical constructions specifically. Then, I discuss computational simulations of how grammatical constructions are abstracted from exemplar sentences using a domain-general relational cognitive architecture. Last, I review evidence from adult language processing that shows parallel behavioral patterns with expert behavior from other cognitive domains. After reviewing the evidence, I consider how to integrate this account with other theories of language development. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

The Hall module of an exact category with duality

OpenAIRE

Young, Matthew B.

2012-01-01

We construct from a finitary exact category with duality a module over its Hall algebra, called the Hall module, encoding the first order self-dual extension structure of the category. We study in detail Hall modules arising from the representation theory of a quiver with involution. In this case we show that the Hall module is naturally a module over the specialized reduced sigma-analogue of the quantum Kac-Moody algebra attached to the quiver. For finite type quivers, we explicitly determin...

What are the short-term and long-term effects of occupation-focused and occupation-based occupational therapy in the home on older adults' occupational performance?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Tove Lise; Petersen, Kirsten Schultz; Nielsen, Claus Vinther

2016-01-01

critically appraised 13 of 995 detected papers. Extracted data were presented and summarised descriptively. Results Eight high-quality papers showed that occupation-focused and occupation-based occupational therapy using cognitive, behavioural and environmental strategies may significantly improve......Abstract Title What are the short-term and long-term effects of occupation-focused and occupation-based occupational therapy in the home on older adults’ occupational performance? A systematic review Background There is a lack of evidence-based knowledge about the effectiveness of home......-based occupational therapy for older adults aimed at improving occupational performance by practicing activities and tasks. Aim This review synthesizes and discusses evidence for the effectiveness of occupation-focused and occupation-based occupational therapy for older adults at home. Material and methods Peer...

Designation of facility usage categories for Hanford Site facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodrich, D.D.; Ellingson, D.R.; Scott, M.A.; Schade, A.R.

1991-10-01

This report summarizes the Hanford Site methodology used to ensure facility compliance with the natural phenomena design criteria set forth in the US Department of Energy Orders and guidance. The current Hanford Site methodology for Usage Category designation is based on an engineered feature's safety function and on the feature's assigned Safety Class. At the Hanford Site, Safety Class assignments are deterministic in nature and are based on teh consequences of failure, without regard to the likelihood of occurrence. The report also proposes a risk-based approach to Usage Category designation, which is being considered for future application at the Hanford Site. To establish a proper Usage Category designation, the safety analysis and engineering design processes must be coupled. This union produces a common understanding of the safety function(s) to be accomplished by the design feature(s) and a sound basis for the assignment of Usage Categories to the appropriate systems, structures, and components. 4 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab

Monoidal categories and the Gerstenhaber bracket in Hochschild cohomology

CERN Document Server

Hermann, Reiner

2016-01-01

In this monograph, the author extends S. Schwede's exact sequence interpretation of the Gerstenhaber bracket in Hochschild cohomology to certain exact and monoidal categories. Therefore the author establishes an explicit description of an isomorphism by A. Neeman and V. Retakh, which links \\mathrm{Ext}-groups with fundamental groups of categories of extensions and relies on expressing the fundamental group of a (small) category by means of the associated Quillen groupoid. As a main result, the author shows that his construction behaves well with respect to structure preserving functors between exact monoidal categories. The author uses his main result to conclude, that the graded Lie bracket in Hochschild cohomology is an invariant under Morita equivalence. For quasi-triangular bialgebras, he further determines a significant part of the Lie bracket's kernel, and thereby proves a conjecture by L. Menichi. Along the way, the author introduces n-extension closed and entirely extension closed subcategories of abe...

Psychometric properties of the Slovenian adaptation of the Revised Generic Occupational Stress Index Questionnaire (RG-OSI

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nataša Sedlar

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The Revised Generic Occupational Stress Index questionnaire (RG-OSI employs the cognitive ergonomics approach that quantifies the burden of stressors on cognitive resources of the employee. The model is structured as a 2-dimensional matrix, where each element is scored from 0 to 2 (sometimes with intermediate values of 0.5, 1.5 or 1.75 as a combination of various items based on multiple criteria. Due to uncommon scoring system of the questionnaire, our study aimed to explore the appropriateness of the existing scoring system and to get some information on validity of the scale on a Slovenian sample. The questionnaire has been applied on 349 Slovenian employees from different occupational groups and the data were analysed by means of correspondence analysis, classical reliability and item analysis and item response theory analysis. The results of correspondence analysis demonstrate that the response categories on individual variables are not always ordered. Furthermore, we conducted reliability analysis for scales, developed short versions of the scales, and obtained some preliminary information on their validity. The current study provides evidence that the described original scoring system in psychological measures may not be appropriate from the psychometric viewpoint.

Radiation protection standards for the occupational workers and the public

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Minkin, S.C.; Dickson, R.L.; Halford, D.K.

1987-01-01

Federal Regulations concerning radiation protection standards have been undergoing significant changes within the last decade. In addition to these changes, a proliferation in the number of Federal radiation standards has also occurred. A tabulation of these regulations aids in the understanding of which current standards apply to the nuclear industry with respect to environmental contamination and exposure to workers, and the public. Furthermore, most of the current regulations, proposed revisions, and proposed new rulings fall into several major categories. A tabulation of these categories illustrates common public, occupational, and environmental needs for which the DOE, NRC, and EPA have developed their specific radiation standards. Finally, risk based systems for radiation protection have been proposed by the DOE, NRC, and EPA, although these agencies are not entirely consistent in the application of this methodology. 2 tables

The effect of category learning on attentional modulation of visual cortex.

Science.gov (United States)

Folstein, Jonathan R; Fuller, Kelly; Howard, Dorothy; DePatie, Thomas

2017-09-01

Learning about visual object categories causes changes in the way we perceive those objects. One likely mechanism by which this occurs is the application of attention to potentially relevant objects. Here we test the hypothesis that category membership influences the allocation of attention, allowing attention to be applied not only to object features, but to entire categories. Participants briefly learned to categorize a set of novel cartoon animals after which EEG was recorded while participants distinguished between a target and non-target category. A second identical EEG session was conducted after two sessions of categorization practice. The category structure and task design allowed parametric manipulation of number of target features while holding feature frequency and category membership constant. We found no evidence that category membership influenced attentional selection: a postero-lateral negative component, labeled the selection negativity/N250, increased over time and was sensitive to number of target features, not target categories. In contrast, the right hemisphere N170 was not sensitive to target features. The P300 appeared sensitive to category in the first session, but showed a graded sensitivity to number of target features in the second session, possibly suggesting a transition from rule-based to similarity based categorization. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Is midlife occupational physical activity related to disability in old age? The SNAC-Kungsholmen study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisabeth Rydwik

Full Text Available OBJECTIVES: Leisure-time physical activity (PA has been established to be related to more years lived without disability. However, less is known about the relationship between occupational PA and disability in old age. The aim of the study was 1 to investigate whether midlife occupational PA is related to late-life disability, and 2 to test the hypothesis that the association differs according to the occupational categories of blue and white collar work. METHODS: The study population was derived from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care, and consisted of a random sample of 1804 subjects aged 72 and above. The association of occupational PA during the longest held occupation with disability in old age was determined using logistic regression. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between occupational PA and disability in personal or instrumental activities of daily living (ADL after controlling for demographic and health-related factors. However, in stratified analyses moderate levels of occupational PA was associated with a lower odds ratio of dependency in personal ADL amongst white collar workers, compared to low level of occupational PA (OR = 0.34 95% C1 0.12-0.98. CONCLUSIONS: Moderate levels of midlife occupational PA were associated with a decreased risk of personal ADL disability in old age among white collar workers, but not among blue collar workers. Our results highlight the importance of encouraging white collar workers to engage in physical activity during or outside work hours.

Occupational risk and chronic kidney disease: a population-based study in the United States adult population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rubinstein S

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Sofia Rubinstein,1 Chengwei Wang,1 Wenchun Qu2 1Department of Medicine, Nassau University Medical Center, East Meadow, NY, USA; 2Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA Objective: Previous studies on occupational risk for chronic kidney disease (CKD have analyzed a limited range of occupations and focused on nephrotoxins. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relative risk for the occurrence of CKD between different occupations in the US adult population. Materials and methods: This was a population-based survey study of 91,340 participants in the US, who completed the National Health Interview Survey, 2004 through 2008. The outcome variable, CKD, was defined as having weakening/failing kidneys in the past 12 months, as diagnosed by a physician. The predictor variable, occupation, was obtained using the census occupational codes, regrouped according to North American Industrial Classification System. Results: After controlling for age, gender, hypertension, and education, and with the category Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations as a reference group, the likelihood of developing CKD was 4.3 times higher in respondents working in Building, Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations, 4.4 times higher in Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations, 4.7 times higher in Transportation and Material Moving Occupations and in Computer and Mathematical Occupations, 4.8 times higher in Production Occupations, 5.3 times higher in Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations, and 6.1 times higher in Healthcare Support Occupations and in Legal Occupations. Conclusion: This study identified occupation groups in US adult population with increased risk for CKD. Alleviation of workplace stress is suggested as a goal for behavioral intervention in high-risk occupations. Keywords: CKD, risk factors, occupations

Alternative approach to analyzing occupational mortality data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gilbert, E.S.; Buchanan, J.A.

1984-01-01

It is widely recognized that analyzing occupational mortality by calculating standardized mortality ratios based on death rates from the general population is subject to a number of limitations. An alternative approach described in this report takes advantage of the fact that comparisons of mortality by subgroups and assessments of trends in mortality are often of equal or greater interest than overall assessments and that such comparisons do not require an external control. A computer program MOX (Mortality and Occupational Exposure) is available for performing the needed calculations for several diseases. MOX was written to asses the effect of radiation exposure on Hanford nuclear workers. For this application, analyses have been based on cumulative exposure computed (by MOX) from annual records of radiation exposure obtained from personal dosimeter readings. This program provides tests for differences and trends among subcategories defined by variables such as length of employment, job category, or exposure measurements and also provides control for age, calendar year, and several other potentially confounding variables. 29 references, 2 tables

Muslim Middle Eastern clients' reflections on their relationship with their occupational therapists in mental health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Pooremamali, Parvin; Eklund, Mona; Östman, Margareta; Persson, Dennis

2012-07-01

Persons with a Middle Eastern background represent a minority in Sweden which has significantly increased in size over recent years. The purpose of the present study was to explore the elements that shape the experiences and perceptions of clients with a Middle Eastern background living by Muslim norms who received occupational therapy in mental health care at the time of participating in the study. The study included interviews with 11 clients who received occupational therapy in mental health care. Data collection and analysis were carried out in accordance with the grounded theory approach. One core category, desiring a union, described the clients' desire for an alliance with the therapists that encompassed the realities and truths embedded in their values, preferences, world-views, and belief systems, as well as a wish to reconstruct their abilities to function and perform daily life tasks within their cultural contexts. The core category included sub-categories: desiring relationship, desiring affiliation, and desiring affirmation as well as some related components. The overall findings showed a tentative model in which the notion of mahram affinity was embedded. The results demonstrated that the clients' views regarding desiring a union had their support in collectivistic world-views that often clash with those of the therapists.

77 FR 16840 - Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-22

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to advance...

75 FR 30044 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-28

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to advance NORA...

76 FR 25694 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-05

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to advance...

77 FR 66619 - Partnerships To Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-06

... Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) AGENCY: The National Institute for Occupational... following public meeting: ``Partnerships to Advance the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA... Research Agenda (NORA) has been structured to engage partners with each other and/or with NIOSH to advance...

Categorial compositionality: a category theory explanation for the systematicity of human cognition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Phillips

Full Text Available Classical and Connectionist theories of cognitive architecture seek to explain systematicity (i.e., the property of human cognition whereby cognitive capacity comes in groups of related behaviours as a consequence of syntactically and functionally compositional representations, respectively. However, both theories depend on ad hoc assumptions to exclude specific instances of these forms of compositionality (e.g. grammars, networks that do not account for systematicity. By analogy with the Ptolemaic (i.e. geocentric theory of planetary motion, although either theory can be made to be consistent with the data, both nonetheless fail to fully explain it. Category theory, a branch of mathematics, provides an alternative explanation based on the formal concept of adjunction, which relates a pair of structure-preserving maps, called functors. A functor generalizes the notion of a map between representational states to include a map between state transformations (or processes. In a formal sense, systematicity is a necessary consequence of a higher-order theory of cognitive architecture, in contrast to the first-order theories derived from Classicism or Connectionism. Category theory offers a re-conceptualization for cognitive science, analogous to the one that Copernicus provided for astronomy, where representational states are no longer the center of the cognitive universe--replaced by the relationships between the maps that transform them.

Categorial compositionality: a category theory explanation for the systematicity of human cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Steven; Wilson, William H

2010-07-22

Classical and Connectionist theories of cognitive architecture seek to explain systematicity (i.e., the property of human cognition whereby cognitive capacity comes in groups of related behaviours) as a consequence of syntactically and functionally compositional representations, respectively. However, both theories depend on ad hoc assumptions to exclude specific instances of these forms of compositionality (e.g. grammars, networks) that do not account for systematicity. By analogy with the Ptolemaic (i.e. geocentric) theory of planetary motion, although either theory can be made to be consistent with the data, both nonetheless fail to fully explain it. Category theory, a branch of mathematics, provides an alternative explanation based on the formal concept of adjunction, which relates a pair of structure-preserving maps, called functors. A functor generalizes the notion of a map between representational states to include a map between state transformations (or processes). In a formal sense, systematicity is a necessary consequence of a higher-order theory of cognitive architecture, in contrast to the first-order theories derived from Classicism or Connectionism. Category theory offers a re-conceptualization for cognitive science, analogous to the one that Copernicus provided for astronomy, where representational states are no longer the center of the cognitive universe--replaced by the relationships between the maps that transform them.

A comparison of safety belt use between commercial and noncommercial light-vehicle occupants.

Science.gov (United States)

Eby, David W; Fordyce, Tiffani A; Vivoda, Jonathon M

2002-05-01

The purpose of this study was to conduct an observational survey of safety belt use to determine the use rate of commercial versus noncommercial light-vehicle occupants. Observations were conducted on front-outboard vehicle occupants in eligible commercial and noncommercial vehicles in Michigan (i.e.. passenger cars, vans/minivans, sport-utility vehicles, and pickup trucks). Commercial vehicles that did not fit into one of the four vehicle type categories, such as tractor-trailers, buses, or heavy trucks, were not included in the survey. The study found that the restraint use rate for commercial light-vehicle occupants was 55.8% statewide. The statewide safety belt use rate for commercial light-vehicles was significantly lower than the rate of 71.2% for noncommercial light-vehicles. The safety belt use rate for commercial vehicles was also significantly different as a function of region, vehicle type, seating position, age group, and road type. The results provide important preliminary data about safety belt use in commercial versus noncommercial light-vehicles and indicate that further effort is needed to promote safety belt use in the commercial light-vehicle occupant population. The study also suggests that additional research is required in order to develop effective programs that address low safety belt use in the commercial light-vehicle occupant population.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LUNG PROBLEMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihir Kumar

2015-11-01

Full Text Available INTRODCUTION: WHO’s definition of Physical, social and mental well - being is explained below. A positive mental health state indicates that the individual enjoys his routine; there are no undue conflicts. Health reiteration become s more imperative than health maintenanc e, where society’s responsibility is paramount. Health economics enables us to examine the burden caused by illness. In India, 620 million people live in rural area; only 9% of every one billion populatio n is covered under health schemes. Only 2% of GDP is spent on health, where the recommended percentage is 5%. In addition to this only 5% of annual family income is spent on curative health care. In the recent past rapid deterioration in the quality of environment has over - burdened the health problem. Occu pational Health is one of the environmental health sciences, concerned broadly with the health effects of work and of working conditions. Occupational illnesses and injuries have long been a preventable blight to health. A part from occupational diseases t here are some hazards which will impair health of employees in industries. Workers in every Occupation are faced with a multitude of hazards in the work place. Ronald Blake has classified occupational hazards into the following four categories. The most pr essing environmental health problems today, in terms of death and illness worldwide are those associated with poor households and communities in the development countries. According to WHO and the World Bank, environmental improvement at the household and community level would make the greatest difference for global health. This Article also focuses on the lung disease mainly occurring du e to hazards caused by the patient occupation. A good number of diseases like COAD, asthma and pneumoconiosis afflict the concerned population. Discussion has been made in threadbare about these problems in this article

Physical Workload and Work Capacity across Occupational Groups

Science.gov (United States)

Brighenti-Zogg, Stefanie; Mundwiler, Jonas; Schüpbach, Ulla; Dieterle, Thomas; Wolfer, David Paul; Leuppi, Jörg Daniel; Miedinger, David

2016-01-01

This study aimed to determine physical performance criteria of different occupational groups by investigating physical activity and energy expenditure in healthy Swiss employees in real-life workplaces on workdays and non-working days in relation to their aerobic capacity (VO2max). In this cross-sectional study, 337 healthy and full-time employed adults were recruited. Participants were classified (nine categories) according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 and merged into three groups with low-, moderate- and high-intensity occupational activity. Daily steps, energy expenditure, metabolic equivalents and activity at different intensities were measured using the SenseWear Mini armband on seven consecutive days (23 hours/day). VO2max was determined by the 20-meter shuttle run test. Data of 303 subjects were considered for analysis (63% male, mean age: 33 yrs, SD 12), 101 from the low-, 102 from the moderate- and 100 from the high-intensity group. At work, the high-intensity group showed higher energy expenditure, metabolic equivalents, steps and activity at all intensities than the other groups (pphysical activity between the occupational groups on non-working days. VO2max did not differ across groups when stratified for gender. The upper workload limit was 21%, 29% and 44% of VO2max in the low-, moderate- and high-intensity group, respectively. Men had a lower limit than women due to their higher VO2max (26% vs. 37%), when all groups were combined. While this study did confirm that the average workload limit is one third of VO2max, it showed that the average is misrepresenting the actual physical work demands of specific occupational groups, and that it does not account for gender-related differences in relative workload. Therefore, clinical practice needs to consider these differences with regard to a safe return to work, particularly for the high-intensity group. PMID:27136206

APPROACHING THE ECONOMIC COSTS ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES AND DISEASES: PRINCIPLES, CONCEPTS AND STRUCTURE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ROLAND IOSIF MORARU

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Occupational Health and Safety management is more and more strongly related to the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses, as a top priority in most companies. The present article presents a synthesis of authors’ attempts to identify the elements which should be taken into account in determining the cost of occupational injuries and diseases at the national level, with a focus on basic influence factors. Our aim is to help companies managers to emphasize the economic costs of not improving workplace safety and health – to employers, to workers and to society as a whole – and to inform decision-makers on further developments to be considered in the occupational risk management processes.

Task-relevant perceptual features can define categories in visual memory too.

Science.gov (United States)

Antonelli, Karla B; Williams, Carrick C

2017-11-01

Although Konkle, Brady, Alvarez, and Oliva (2010, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(3), 558) claim that visual long-term memory (VLTM) is organized on underlying conceptual, not perceptual, information, visual memory results from visual search tasks are not well explained by this theory. We hypothesized that when viewing an object, any task-relevant visual information is critical to the organizational structure of VLTM. In two experiments, we examined the organization of VLTM by measuring the amount of retroactive interference created by objects possessing different combinations of task-relevant features. Based on task instructions, only the conceptual category was task relevant or both the conceptual category and a perceptual object feature were task relevant. Findings indicated that when made task relevant, perceptual object feature information, along with conceptual category information, could affect memory organization for objects in VLTM. However, when perceptual object feature information was task irrelevant, it did not contribute to memory organization; instead, memory defaulted to being organized around conceptual category information. These findings support the theory that a task-defined organizational structure is created in VLTM based on the relevance of particular object features and information.

Differences in the association between sickness absence and long-term sub-optimal health by occupational position: a 14-year follow-up in the GAZEL cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrie, Jane E; Kivimäki, Mika; Westerlund, Hugo; Head, Jenny; Melchior, Maria; Singh-Manoux, Archana; Zins, Marie; Goldberg, Marcel; Alexanderson, Kristina; Vahtera, Jussi

2011-10-01

Although sickness absence is a strong predictor of health, whether this association varies by occupational position has rarely been examined. The aim of this study was to investigate overall and diagnosis-specific sickness absence as a predictor of future long-term sub-optimal health by occupational position. This was a prospective occupational cohort study of 15 320 employees (73% men) aged 37-51. Sickness absences (1990-1992), included in 13 diagnostic categories, were examined by occupational position in relation to self-rated health measured annually during 1993-2006. 60% of employees in higher occupational positions and 22% in lower positions had no sickness absence. Conversely, 9.5% of employees in higher positions and 40% in lower positions had over 30 sick-leave days. Repeated-measures logistic regression analyses adjusted for age, sex and chronic disease showed employees with over 30 days absence, compared to those with no absence, had approximately double the risk of sub-optimal health over the 14-year follow-up in all occupational positions. 1-30 days sick-leave was associated with greater odds of sub-optimal health in the high (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.27 to 1.72) and intermediate (1.29; 1.15 to 1.45) but not lower occupational positions (1.06; 0.82 to 1.38). Differences by occupational position in the association between sickness absence in 13 specific diagnostic categories and sub-optimal health over the ensuing 14 years were limited to stronger associations observed with cancer and mental disorders in the higher occupational positions. The association between sickness absence of more than 30 days over 3 years and future long-term self-rated health appears to differ little by occupational position.

The spectrosome of occupational health problems

Science.gov (United States)

de Gaudemaris, Régis; Bicout, Dominique J.

2018-01-01

Given the increased prevalence of cancer, respiratory diseases, and reproductive disorders, for which multifactorial origins are strongly suspected, the impact of the environment on the population represents a substantial public health challenge. Surveillance systems have become an essential public health decision-making tool. Networks have been constructed to facilitate the development of analyses of the multifactorial aspects of the relationships between occupational contexts and health. The aim of this study is to develop and present an approach for the optimal exploitation of observational databases to describe and improve the understanding of the (occupational) environment–health relationships, taking into account key multifactorial aspects. We have developed a spectral analysis (SA) approach that takes into account both the multi-exposure and dynamic natures of occupational health problems (OHPs) and related associations. The main results of this paper are to present the construction method of the “spectrum” and “spectrosome” of OHPs (range and structured list of occupational exposures) and describe the information contained therein with an illustrative example. The approach is illustrated using the case of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from the French National Occupational Diseases Surveillance and Prevention Network database as a working example of an occupational disease. We found that the NHL spectrum includes 40 sets of occupational exposures characterized by important multi-exposures, especially solvent combinations or pesticide combinations, but also specific exposures such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde and ionizing radiation. These findings may be useful for surveillance and the assessment of occupational exposure related to health risks. PMID:29304043

Encoding tasks dissociate the effects of divided attention on category-cued recall and category-exemplar generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Andrew; Dagnall, Neil; Munley, Gary

2012-01-01

The combined effects of encoding tasks and divided attention upon category-exemplar generation and category-cued recall were examined. Participants were presented with pairs of words each comprising a category name and potential example of that category. They were then asked to indicate either (i) their liking for both of the words or (ii) if the exemplar was a member of the category. It was found that divided attention reduced performance on the category-cued recall task under both encoding conditions. However, performance on the category-exemplar generation task remained invariant across the attention manipulation following the category judgment task. This provides further evidence that the processes underlying performance on conceptual explicit and implicit memory tasks can be dissociated, and that the intentional formation of category-exemplar associations attenuates the effects of divided attention on category-exemplar generation.

Optimization of radiation protection in the control of occupational exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

One of the three main principles on which protection against ionizing radiation is based is the principle of the optimization of radiological protection. The principle of the optimization of protection was first enunciated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in the 1960s. A principal requirement for the optimization of protection and safety has been incorporated into the International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (Basic Safety Standards) from the first edition in 1962 up to the current (1996) edition. The principle of optimization, that all reasonable efforts be made to reduce doses (social and economic factors being taken into account), necessitates considerable effort to apply in practice. The requirement of the Basic Safety Standards to apply the principle of optimization applies to all categories of exposure: occupational, public and medical. The categories of public and medical exposure are rather specific and are covered in other publications. This Safety Report concentrates on the application of the principle to what is probably the largest category, that of occupational exposure. This Safety Report provides practical information on how to apply the optimization of protection in the workplace. The emphasis throughout is on the integration of radiation protection into the more general system of work management, and on the involvement of management and workers in setting up a system of radiation protection and in its implementation. This Safety Report was drafted and finalized in three consultants meetings held in 1999 and 2000. The draft was sent for review and comment to a number of experts, which yielded valuable comments from a number of reviewers whose names are included in the list of contributors to drafting and review

Optimization of radiation protection in the control of occupational exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

One of the three main principles on which protection against ionizing radiation is based is the principle of the optimization of radiological protection. The principle of the optimization of protection was first enunciated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in the 1960s. A principal requirement for the optimization of protection and safety has been incorporated into the International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (Basic Safety Standards) from the first edition in 1962 up to the current (1996) edition. The principle of optimization, that all reasonable efforts be made to reduce doses (social and economic factors being taken into account), necessitates considerable effort to apply in practice. The requirement of the Basic Safety Standards to apply the principle of optimization applies to all categories of exposure: occupational, public and medical. The categories of public and medical exposure are rather specific and are covered in other publications; this Safety Report concentrates on the application of the principle to what is probably the largest category, that of occupational exposure. This Safety Report provides practical information on how to apply the optimization of protection in the workplace. The emphasis throughout is on the integration of radiation protection into the more general system of work management, and on the involvement of management and workers in setting up a system of radiation protection and in its implementation. This Safety Report was drafted and finalized in three consultants meetings held in 1999 and 2000. The draft was sent for review and comment to a number of experts, which yielded valuable comments from a number of reviewers whose names are included in the list of contributors to drafting and review

Optimization of radiation protection in the control of occupational exposure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

One of the three main principles on which protection against ionizing radiation is based is the principle of the optimization of radiological protection. The principle of the optimization of protection was first enunciated by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in the 1960s. A principal requirement for the optimization of protection and safety has been incorporated into the International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources (Basic Safety Standards) from the first edition in 1962 up to the current (1996) edition. The principle of optimization, that all reasonable efforts be made to reduce doses (social and economic factors being taken into account), necessitates considerable effort to apply in practice. The requirement of the Basic Safety Standards to apply the principle of optimization applies to all categories of exposure: occupational, public and medical. The categories of public and medical exposure are rather specific and are covered in other publications. This Safety Report concentrates on the application of the principle to what is probably the largest category, that of occupational exposure. This Safety Report provides practical information on how to apply the optimization of protection in the workplace. The emphasis throughout is on the integration of radiation protection into the more general system of work management, and on the involvement of management and workers in setting up a system of radiation protection and in its implementation. This Safety Report was drafted and finalized in three consultants meetings held in 1999 and 2000. The draft was sent for review and comment to a number of experts, which yielded valuable comments from a number of reviewers whose names are included in the list of contributors to drafting and review

Trends in compensation for deaths from occupational cancer in Canada: a descriptive study.

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Del Bianco, Ann; Demers, Paul A

2013-09-01

Occupational cancer is the leading cause of work-related deaths, yet it is often unrecognized and under reported, and associated claims for compensation go unfiled. We sought to examine trends in deaths from occupational cancer, high-risk industries and exposures, and commonly compensated categories of occupational cancers. In addition, we compared deaths from occupational lung cancer for which compensation had been given with total deaths from lung cancer. We used data from the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada pertaining to the nature and source of the injury or disease and the industry in which it occurred (by jurisdiction) to describe trends in compensated claims for deaths from occupational cancer in Canada for the period 1997-2010. We used data published by the Canadian Cancer Society in Canadian Cancer Statistics to compare compensated occupational lung cancer deaths with total estimated lung cancer deaths for the period between 2006 and 2010. Compensated claims for deaths from occupational cancer have increased in recent years and surpassed those for traumatic injuries and disorders in Canada, particularly in Ontario. Between 1997 and 2010, one-half of all compensated deaths from occupational cancer in Canada were from Ontario. High-risk industries for occupational cancer include manufacturing, construction, mining and, more recently, government services. Deaths from lung cancer and mesothelioma comprise most of the compensated claims for deaths from occupational cancer in Ontario and Canada. These diseases are usually the result of asbestos exposure. The burden of other occupational carcinogens is not reflected in claims data. Although the number of accepted claims for deaths from occupational cancers has increased in recent years, these claims likely only represent a fraction of the true burden of this problem. Increased education of patients, workers at high risk of exposure and health care providers is needed to ensure that people

A functorial model theory newer applications to algebraic topology, descriptive sets, and computing categories topos

CERN Document Server

Nourani, Cyrus F

2014-01-01

IntroductionCategorical PreliminariesCategories and FunctorsMorphismsFunctorsCategorical ProductsNatural TransformationsProducts on Models Preservation of LimitsModel Theory and Topoi More on Universal ConstructionsChapter ExercisesInfinite Language CategoriesBasicsLimits and Infinitary Languages Generic Functors and Language String ModelsFunctorial Morphic Ordered Structure ModelsChapter ExercisesFunctorial Morphic Ordered Structure ModelsFunctorial Fragment M

The integration of occupational therapy into primary care: a multiple case study design

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background For over two decades occupational therapists have been encouraged to enhance their roles within primary care and focus on health promotion and prevention activities. While there is a clear fit between occupational therapy and primary care, there have been few practice examples, despite a growing body of evidence to support the role. In 2010, the province of Ontario, Canada provided funding to include occupational therapists as members of Family Health Teams, an interprofessional model of primary care. The integration of occupational therapists into this model of primary care is one of the first large scale initiatives of its kind in North America. The objective of the study was to examine how occupational therapy services are being integrated into primary care teams and understand the structures supporting the integration. Methods A multiple case study design was used to provide an in-depth description of the integration of occupational therapy. Four Family Health Teams with occupational therapists as part of the team were identified. Data collection included in-depth interviews, document analyses, and questionnaires. Results Each Family Health Team had a unique organizational structure that contributed to the integration of occupational therapy. Communication, trust and understanding of occupational therapy were key elements in the integration of occupational therapy into Family Health Teams, and were supported by a number of strategies including co-location, electronic medical records and team meetings. An understanding of occupational therapy was critical for integration into the team and physicians were less likely to understand the occupational therapy role than other health providers. Conclusion With an increased emphasis on interprofessional primary care, new professions will be integrated into primary healthcare teams. The study found that explicit strategies and structures are required to facilitate the integration of a new professional group

Falls risk and hospitalization among retired workers with occupational noise-induced hearing loss.

Science.gov (United States)

Girard, Serge André; Leroux, Tony; Verreault, René; Courteau, Marilène; Picard, Michel; Turcotte, Fernand; Baril, Julie

2014-03-01

This study sought to ascertain whether occupational noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) increased the risk of falls requiring hospitalization among retired workers. The study population consisted of males (age ≥ 65) with an average occupational noise exposure of 30.6 years and whose mean bilateral hearing loss was 42.2 dB HL at 3, 4, and 6 kHz. Seventy-two retired workers admitted to hospitals after a fall were matched with 216 controls from the same industrial sectors. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate the risk (odds ratio; [OR]) of falls leading to hospitalization by NIHL categories. Results showed a relationship between severe NIHL (≥ 52.5 dB HL) and the occurrence of a fall (OR: 1.97, CI95%: 1.001-3.876). Reducing falls among seniors fosters the maintenance of their autonomy. There is a definite need to acquire knowledge about harmful effects of occupational noise to support the prevention of NIHL and ensure healthier workplaces.

Occupational stress among the staffs of health centers in Yazd in 2016

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Mozhgan Modarresi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Occupational stress is a kind of stress that a person undergoes doing certain jobs, and it is caused by the interaction between working conditions and demographic characteristics of the employee. Given the role of the health professionals in preventive care services in our health system, decision was made to determine the occupational stress among the staffs of the health centers in Yazd. Methods: In the present cross-sectional descriptive study, staffs of the health centers in Yazd were studied following census method and making use of standard Occupational Stress Questionnaire of Health and Safety Executive (HSE. A total of 237 questionnaires were collected and the obtained data was analyzed using SPSS software 16 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA. Results: The mean score of occupational stress in individuals was calculated as 91.5±13.51. Findings of the study indicated that 54.1% of the participants were very undesirable and undesirable in terms of occupational stress. There was no statistically significant relationship between the occupational stress and age (P=0.7, gender (P=0.24, marital status (P=0.08, and educational level (P=0.19. On the other hand, the rate of occupational stress was significantly associated with work experience (P=0.04. A greater percentage was observed in unfavourable category regarding communication and change sub-scale. Conclusion: According to the results of the current study, it seems that health care workers have a high level of occupational stress. Therefore, the reformation ideas such as stress reduction techniques, supervisor support, staff training on working conditions, and how to manage tasks and participate in decision-making are among the necessities of making an environment enabling so that managers can use the potential capabilities of the staffs in providing services to the community.

Occupation and Risk of Bladder Cancer in Nordic Countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hadkhale, Kishor; Martinsen, Jan Ivar; Weiderpass, Elisabete

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to describe the variation of bladder cancer incidence according to occupational categories in the Nordic countries. METHODS: The study cohort comprised 15 million individuals older than 30 years who participated in one or more population censuses in 1960......% CI 1.33 to 1.53), hairdressers (1.28; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.40), seamen (1.22; 95% CI 1.16 to 1.30), printers (1.21; 95% CI 1.14 to 1.30), and plumbers (1.20; 95% CI 1.13 to 1.30). A significantly decreased risk of bladder cancer was observed among gardeners (0.78, 0.75 to 0.80), forestry workers (0.......74; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.78), and farmers (0.70; 95% CI 0.68 to 0.71). CONCLUSIONS: The SIR of bladder cancer was overall similar across the Nordic countries. The study suggests that occupation is evidently associated with bladder cancer risk....

The effect of occupational meaningfulness on occupational commitment

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Itai Ivtzan

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Existing research lacks a scholarly consensus on how to define and validly measure ‘meaningful work’ (e.g., Rosso, Dekas & Wrzesniewski, 2010. The following correlational study highlights the value of investigating meaningfulness in the context of occupational commitment. The study hypothesizes that occupational commitment is positively correlated with occupational meaningfulness, where meaningfulness is defined as the extent to which people’s occupations contribute to personal meaning in life. One-hundred and fifty-six full-time office based UK workers completed an online questionnaire including 18 questions measuring levels of occupational commitment (Meyer, Allen & Smith, 1993, in addition to six novel items measuring occupational meaningfulness. The results supported the hypothesis and also showed that the affective sub-type of occupational commitment had the highest correlation with occupational meaningfulness. Such results exhibit the importance of finding meaning at work, as well as the relevance of this to one’s level of commitment to his or her job. This paper argues that individuals should consider OM before choosing to take a specific role, whereas organizations ought to consider the OM of their potential candidates before recruiting them into a role. Possible directions for future research directions are also discussed.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by geriatric patients in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility.

Science.gov (United States)

Grill, Eva; Stucki, Gerold; Boldt, Christine; Joisten, Susanne; Swoboda, Walter

To describe functioning and health of elderly patients in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of elderly patients requiring rehabilitation in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility. The second-level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems. For the ICF components Body Functions, Body Structures and Activities and Participation, absolute and relative frequencies of impairments/limitations in the study population were reported. For the component Environmental Factors absolute and relative frequencies of perceived barriers or facilitators were reported. The mean age in the sample was 79.9 years. Sixty-nine percent of the patients were female. In 150 patients, 82 ICF categories (34%) had a prevalence of 30% or above. The 82 categories included 22 categories (45%) of the component Body Functions, six categories (15%) of the component Body Structures, 25 categories (34%) of the component Activities and Participation and 29 (57%) categories of the component Environmental Factors. This study is a first step towards the development of ICF Core Sets for geriatric patients in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Occupational medical prophylaxis for the musculoskeletal system: A function-oriented system for physical examination of the locomotor system in occupational medicine (fokus(C

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Schwarze Sieglinde

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Occupational physicians are very often confronted with questions as to the fitness of the postural and locomotor systems, especially the spinal column. Occupational medical assessment and advice can be required by patients with acute symptoms, at routine check-ups, by persons who have problems doing certain jobs, and for expert medical reports as to the fitness of persons with chronic disorders or after operations. Therefore, for occupational medical purposes a physical examination must aim primarily to investigate functions and not structures or radiologic evidence. The physical examination should be structured systematically and according to regions of the body and, together with a specific (pain anamnesis should provide a basis for the medical assessment. This paper presents a function-oriented system for physical examination of the locomotor system, named fokus(C (Funktionsorientierte Koerperliche Untersuchungssystematik, also available on DVD. fokus(C has been developed with a view to its relevance for occupational medical practice and does not aim primarily to provide a precise diagnosis. Decisive for an occupational medical assessment of disorders of the musculoskeletal system is rather information about functional disorders and any impairment of performance or mobility which they can cause. The division of the physical examination into a rapid screening phase and a subsequent more intensive functional diagnostic phase has proved its practicability in many years of day-to-day use. Here, in contrast to the very extensive measures recommended for orthopaedic and manual diagnosis, for reasons of efficiency and usability of the system in routine occupational medical examinations the examination is structured according to the findings. So it is reduced to that which is most necessary and feasible.

ROLE ATTRIBUTED TO WOMEN IN ROMANIAN SOCIETY: THE PERSPECTIVE OF BOTH GENDER CATEGORIES

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Stefania Cristina STANCIU

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Both nationally and internationally the woman is regarded as a vulnerable group. The causes are multiple - from the roles attributed to women during their evolution, their low professional integration with that of the man, the differences in the occupational categories occupied by women and men, their dependence on the man, at least in the past, but also her need to be defended. Women's roles in society have been different from one history to another, from one society to another, but they have had something in common - they have always put the woman in vulnerable groups. This was also the reason behind the development of special programs and aids for women. The programs aimed at either its professional integration or educational development, or even aids in cases of physical violence or other special cases. At national level, things did not differ from other countries. Also in Romania the woman is regarded as a vulnerable group, her evolution was ascending, occupying different roles from time to time. The purpose of this article is to analyze the current role of women in Romanian society and the professional evolution of women in Romanian society. As research methods, the quantitative ones were used: sociological inquiry based on questionnaire and qualitative methods: semi-structured interview and legislation analysis. The importance of the article results from the fact that it provides new recommendations on the implementation of measures to reduce violence among women, their professional integration and giving them the necessary support for the problems encountered. As novelty items we find: the problem addressed - the role of women in the Romanian society from a professional and social perspective, the application of interviews and the interpretation of the comparative results - on two different categories of people, both women and men.

Occupational cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alderson, M.

1986-01-01

This book aims to review the occurrence and causes of occupational cancer and is aimed at assisting medical and safety staff, management and health and safety representatives. It is presented in the following chapters: 1) Epidemiological method 2) Agents causing occupationally induced cancer, including radiation 3) Occupations associated with risk of cancer 4) Aetiology of cancer 5) Control of occupationally induced cancer, research, prevention, legislation, national and international bodies, control of specific occupational carcinogens, including irradiation. (U.K.)

Tensor categories and the mathematics of rational and logarithmic conformal field theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Yi-Zhi; Lepowsky, James

2013-01-01

We review the construction of braided tensor categories and modular tensor categories from representations of vertex operator algebras, which correspond to chiral algebras in physics. The extensive and general theory underlying this construction also establishes the operator product expansion for intertwining operators, which correspond to chiral vertex operators, and more generally, it establishes the logarithmic operator product expansion for logarithmic intertwining operators. We review the main ideas in the construction of the tensor product bifunctors and the associativity isomorphisms. For rational and logarithmic conformal field theories, we review the precise results that yield braided tensor categories, and in the rational case, modular tensor categories as well. In the case of rational conformal field theory, we also briefly discuss the construction of the modular tensor categories for the Wess–Zumino–Novikov–Witten models and, especially, a recent discovery concerning the proof of the fundamental rigidity property of the modular tensor categories for this important special case. In the case of logarithmic conformal field theory, we mention suitable categories of modules for the triplet W-algebras as an example of the applications of our general construction of the braided tensor category structure. (review)

Characterization of changes in commercial building structure, equipment, and occupants: End-Use Load and Consumer Assessment Program

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lucas, R.G.; Taylor, Z.T.; Miller, N.E.; Pratt, R.G.

1990-12-01

Changes in commercial building structure, equipment, and occupants result in changes in building energy use. The frequency and magnitude of those changes have substantial implications for conservation programs and resource planning. For example, changes may shorten the useful lifetime of a conservation measure as well as impact the savings from that measure. This report summarizes the frequency of changes in a commercial building sample that was end-use metered under the End-Use Load and Consumer Assessment Program (ELCAP). The sample includes offices, dry good retails, groceries, restaurants, warehouses, schools, and hotels. Two years of metered data, site visit records, and audit data were examined for evidence of building changes. The observed changes were then classified into 12 categories, which included business type, equipment, remodel, vacancy, and operating schedule. The analysis characterized changes in terms of frequency of types of change; relationship to building vintage and floor area; and variation by building type. The analysis also examined the energy impacts of various changes. The analysis determined that the rate of change in commercial buildings is high--50% of the buildings experienced one type of change during the 2 years for which monitoring data were examined. Equipment changes were found to be most frequent in offices and retail stores. Larger, older office buildings tend to experience a wider variety of changes more frequently than the smaller, newer buildings. Key findings and observations are presented in Section 2. Section 3 provides the underlying motivation and objectives. In Section 4, the methodology used is documented, including the commercial building sample and the data sources used. Included are the definitions of change events and the overall approach taken. Results are analyzed in Section 5, with additional technical details in Appendixes. 2 refs., 46 figs., 22 tabs. (JF)

Forming insights: assessment of the occupational therapy practice in a cultural context from experience with indigenous people

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Daniela Corrêa de Macedo

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article is the result of a reflection process on the issue of occupational therapy and culture through analysis of practical experiences of a extension project. It aimed to increase knowledge and reflections of occupational therapy and its technical actions in cultural contexts from the perspective of ethnicity issues. It is a documental and qualitative research was aiming to report the experience of students and an occupational therapist, obtained through their written reports between 2012 and 2014. Data were analyzed using the categorizations proposed by Bardin. The categories of analysis found are related to technical activities in occupational therapy, namely: cultural and ethnic action. The results showed that, in the experiences with the Guarani community, there are already significant and consolidated actions of occupational therapy in cultural contexts. The technical actions already performed confirm the relevance of the occupational therapist role in the cultural context and in the ethnicity context. These practices are, in turn, relevant for the production of knowledge, the theoretical and methodological scope and professional training in social and cultural contexts of occupational therapy. It is emphasized that technical procedures coherent with the ethnicity issues in a joint relationship, articulated by cultural mediation, can strengthen human doings and identity claims.

Detailed Occupation and Years of School Completed by Age, for the Civilian Labor Force by Sex, Race, and Spanish Origin: 1980 Census of Population Supplementary Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Priebe, John A.; And Others

The report presents tabular data on occupation and years of school completed by age for the civilian labor force, by sex, race and Spanish origin, obtained from the 1980 Census/Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Special File. All tables list males and females separately for each category. Table 1 lists totals for 613 labor force categories, then…

Violent Deaths Among Georgia Workers: An Examination of Suicides and Homicides by Occupation, 2006-2009.

Science.gov (United States)

Lavender, Antionette; Ramirez-Irizarry, Viani; Bayakly, A Rana; Koplan, Carol; Bryan, J Michael

2016-11-01

Workers in certain occupations may be at an increased risk of a violent-related death such as homicide or suicide. The purpose of this study is to describe rates of violent deaths among Georgia workers by occupation, including cases occurring at work and outside of the workplace, and identify leading circumstances surrounding suicides and homicides for the occupations most at risk. Data from the 2006-2009 Georgia Violent Death Reporting System were used. Occupational text fields were recoded into 23 major occupation categories based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification system. Crude rates and standardized mortality ratios for violent deaths (suicides and homicides) were calculated by occupation among Georgia workers aged ≥16 years. The leading circumstances precipitating violent deaths among the high-risk occupations were described. Analyses were conducted during 2012-2013 and 2015. A total of 4,616 Georgia resident workers were victims of a violent death during 2006-2009. Of these deaths, 2,888 (62.6%) were suicides and 1,728 (37.4%) were homicides. Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had the highest rate of violent deaths at 80.5 per 100,000 workers followed by construction and extraction occupations at 65.5 per 100,000. The most common suicide circumstances among workers were having a current depressed mood, a current mental health problem, and an intimate partner problem. Use of the Violent Death Reporting System provides a unique opportunity to explore violent deaths among workers. This analysis shows the need to ensure that workers have access to workplace and community-based suicide and violence prevention services. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differential impact of relevant and irrelevant dimension primes on rule-based and information-integration category learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimm, Lisa R; Maddox, W Todd

2013-11-01

Research has identified multiple category-learning systems with each being "tuned" for learning categories with different task demands and each governed by different neurobiological systems. Rule-based (RB) classification involves testing verbalizable rules for category membership while information-integration (II) classification requires the implicit learning of stimulus-response mappings. In the first study to directly test rule priming with RB and II category learning, we investigated the influence of the availability of information presented at the beginning of the task. Participants viewed lines that varied in length, orientation, and position on the screen, and were primed to focus on stimulus dimensions that were relevant or irrelevant to the correct classification rule. In Experiment 1, we used an RB category structure, and in Experiment 2, we used an II category structure. Accuracy and model-based analyses suggested that a focus on relevant dimensions improves RB task performance later in learning while a focus on an irrelevant dimension improves II task performance early in learning. © 2013.

Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Towards Occupational Injuries Infections of Healthcare Workers at Tertiary Care Hospital

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Poonam Gupta

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs deliver their duties at greater risk of occupationally acquired viral infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, which transmit by direct exposure either with the infected sharps or the body fluids. However, most of such incidents remains unreported and hence pose a high risk to HCWs life. Aim: The timely investigation and interventions can change the fate of infection. In the present study, the knowledge, approach, awareness, and actions need to be taken post exposure were assessed among different categories of HCWs. Methods and materials: A cross sectional self-structured and responsive questionnaire was provided to HCWs and who furnished all information were included in analysis. Results and conclusions: Out of 138 questionnaires evaluated who acquired injury, 61 were resident doctors, 42 interns, 27 nursing staff, 8 were other paramedical staff. Only 19.6% HCWs have completed hepatitis B vaccination and maximum (93.5% have post exposure prophylaxis for less than 24 h. Post exposure, only 42% HCWs reported to HIV screening center. After injury, spirit application and squeezing was done by 44.2% HCWs. 24% HCWs did not followed the universal precautions at work and 38.4% showed ignorance towards standard precautions. The results indicate ignorance and casual approach towards the universal precautions after occupational injuries which might be due to overworked or lack of resources/awareness. It necessitates the continuous education, monitoring, training, and disciplinary measures to control occupation infection hazards to HCWs.

Burnout and work-related stress in Italian rehabilitation professionals: A comparison of physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists.

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Bruschini, Marco; Carli, Antonella; Burla, Franco

2018-01-01

Healthcare workers are exposed to work related stresses that significantly increase their risk of burnout. To evaluate and compare burnout and work related stress levels in three categories of health professionals: physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists. A convenience sample of 391 health professionals participated, including 210 physiotherapists, 101 speech therapists and 80 occupational therapists. We collected general socio-demographic information and administered the standardized Italian version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards Indicator Tool. We found the proportion of professionals with high-risk scores in the three dimensions of the MBI to be as follows: Emotional Exhaustion 32%, Depersonalisation 13% and Personal Accomplishment 9%. Overall, 14% of participants were at high risk of burnout. No significant differences were found between the three professional categories. Five subscales of the HSE were associated with burnout: Control (p < 0.01), Management support (p < 0.01), Relationship (p < 0.05), Role (p < 0.01), and Change (p < 0.05). Like all health care workers, rehabilitation professionals are at a high risk of burnout. There are common mechanisms underlying burnout in the different professional groups investigated. Further research in occupational health in rehabilitation settings is needed to prevent burnout.

[Risk and features of occupational diseases in nonferrous metallurgy workers of Kolsky Transpolar area].

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Siurin, S A; Chashchin, V P; Frolova, N M

2015-01-01

The study covered data on 977 cases of occupational diseases in 615 workers of nonferrous metallurgy in Kolsky Transpolar area. Findings are high risk of occupational diseases in workers engaged into electrolysis production of aluminium, all nickel reprocessing and pyrometallic copper reprocessing (GR 7.02-10.0). Electrolysis operators and anode operators of aluminium production are more prone to occupational diseases, with bone and muscular disorders (46.8%) prevalent in the morbidity structure. Respiratory diseases are more prevalent (68.2-100%) in the occupational morbidity structure of copper-nickelindustry workers. Conclusion is made on mandatory improvement of the work conditions and more effective individual protective means against occupational hazards in workers of nonferrous metallurgy in Kolsky Transpolar area.

G+C content dominates intrinsic nucleosome occupancy

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Hughes Timothy R

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The relative preference of nucleosomes to form on individual DNA sequences plays a major role in genome packaging. A wide variety of DNA sequence features are believed to influence nucleosome formation, including periodic dinucleotide signals, poly-A stretches and other short motifs, and sequence properties that influence DNA structure, including base content. It was recently shown by Kaplan et al. that a probabilistic model using composition of all 5-mers within a nucleosome-sized tiling window accurately predicts intrinsic nucleosome occupancy across an entire genome in vitro. However, the model is complicated, and it is not clear which specific DNA sequence properties are most important for intrinsic nucleosome-forming preferences. Results We find that a simple linear combination of only 14 simple DNA sequence attributes (G+C content, two transformations of dinucleotide composition, and the frequency of eleven 4-bp sequences explains nucleosome occupancy in vitro and in vivo in a manner comparable to the Kaplan model. G+C content and frequency of AAAA are the most important features. G+C content is dominant, alone explaining ~50% of the variation in nucleosome occupancy in vitro. Conclusions Our findings provide a dramatically simplified means to predict and understand intrinsic nucleosome occupancy. G+C content may dominate because it both reduces frequency of poly-A-like stretches and correlates with many other DNA structural characteristics. Since G+C content is enriched or depleted at many types of features in diverse eukaryotic genomes, our results suggest that variation in nucleotide composition may have a widespread and direct influence on chromatin structure.

Blocking in Category Learning

OpenAIRE

Bott, Lewis; Hoffman, Aaron B.; Murphy, Gregory L.

2007-01-01

Many theories of category learning assume that learning is driven by a need to minimize classification error. When there is no classification error, therefore, learning of individual features should be negligible. We tested this hypothesis by conducting three category learning experiments adapted from an associative learning blocking paradigm. Contrary to an error-driven account of learning, participants learned a wide range of information when they learned about categories, and blocking effe...

Structural changes of the brain in relation to occupational stress.

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Savic, Ivanka

2015-06-01

Despite mounting reports about the negative effects of chronic occupational stress on cognitive functions, it is still uncertain whether and how this type of stress is associated with cerebral changes. This issue was addressed in the present MRI study, in which cortical thickness (Cth) and subcortical volumes were compared between 40 subjects reporting symptoms of chronic occupational stress (38 ± 6 years) and 40 matched controls (36 ± 6 years). The degree of perceived stress was measured with Maslach Burnout Inventory. In stressed subjects, there was a significant thinning of the mesial frontal cortex. When investigating the correlation between age and Cth, the thinning effect of age was more pronounced in the stressed group in the frontal cortex. Furthermore, their amygdala volumes were bilaterally increased (P = 0.020 and P = 0.003), whereas their caudate volumes were reduced (P = 0.040), and accompanied by impaired fine motor function. The perceived stress correlated positively with the amygdala volumes (r = 0.44, P = 0.04; r = 0.43, P = 04). Occupational stress was found to be associated with cortical thinning as well as with selective changes of subcortical volumes, with behavioral correlates. The findings support the hypothesis that stress-related excitotoxicity might be an underlying mechanism, and that the described condition is a stress related illness. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Occupational dose trends in Tanzania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muhogora, W.E.; Nyanda, A.M.; Ngaile, J.E.; Lema, U.S.

1998-01-01

This paper describes the present status of occupational radiation exposure of monitored workers in Tanzania from 1986 to 1997. The analysis of dose records observes over this period, a fluctuating trend both in the individual and collective doses. The trend is more related to the fluctuations of the number of radiation workers than to the possible radiation safety changes of the working conditions. It has been found that, the maximum annual dose for the worker in all work categories was about 18 mSv y -1 . This suggests that the occupational radiation exposure in all practices satisfies the current dose limitation system. The national exposure summary shows that, the highest collective dose of 12.8 man-Sv which is 90% of the total collective dose, was due to medical applications. The applications in industry and research had a contribution of nearly 0.8 and 0.7 man-Sv respectively. From the professional point of view, the medical diagnostic radiographers received the highest collective dose of 11.2 man-Sv. Although the medical physicists recorded the minimum collective dose of nearly 0.07 man-Sv, the data shows that this profession received the highest mean dose of about 33 mSv in 12 years. Some achievements of the personnel monitoring services and suggestions for future improvement are pointed out. (author)

Work engagement and occupational stress in nurses and other healthcare workers: the role of organisational and personal factors.

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Fiabane, Elena; Giorgi, Ines; Sguazzin, Cinzia; Argentero, Piergiorgio

2013-09-01

The aims of this study were to: (1) identify the role of organisational and personal factors in predicting work engagement in healthcare workers and (2) compare work engagement and occupational stress perceptions of healthcare professional categories. Healthcare professionals, with particular regard to nurses, are exposed to several job stressors that can adversely affect both their mental and physical health and also decrease work engagement. Work engagement can be considered as the positive opposite of burnout, and it is characterised by energy, involvement and professional efficacy. A cross-sectional survey research was conducted with self-report questionnaires. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, the Areas of Worklife Scale and four scales from the Occupational Stress Indicator were administered to a sample of 198 hospital staff (registered nurses, nurse aides, physicians and physiotherapists), of which 110 participated in the study. The most significant predictors of energy were workload, mental health and job satisfaction; the best predictors of involvement were community, workload, mental health and job satisfaction; professional efficacy was best predicted by values and job satisfaction. In relation to the second aim, physiotherapists had the highest levels of occupational stress and disengagement from their work, while nurse aides were the most work-engaged and job-satisfied professional category, with positive perceptions of the work environment. Both organisational and personal factors were found to be significantly associated with work engagement. In this study, physiotherapists were the category with the highest risk of work-related psychological problems, whereas nurse aides had the lowest risk. Interventions aimed at improving clinical practice and psychological health of nurses and hospital staff should focus on workload, workers' personal expectations and job satisfaction. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Language categories in Russian morphology

OpenAIRE

زهرایی زهرایی

2009-01-01

When studying Russian morphology, one can distinguish two categories. These categories are “grammatical” and “lexico-grammatical”. Grammatical categories can be specified through a series of grammatical features of words. Considering different criteria, Russian grammarians and linguists divide grammatical categories of their language into different types. In determining lexico-grammatical types, in addition to a series of grammatical features, they also consider a series of lexico-semantic fe...

Risk of injury for occupants of motor vehicle collisions from unbelted occupants.

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MacLennan, P A; McGwin, G; Metzger, J; Moran, S G; Rue, L W

2004-12-01

Unbelted occupants may increase the risk of injury for other occupants in a motor vehicle collision (MVC). This study evaluated the association between occupant restraint use and the risk of injury (including death) to other vehicle occupants. A population based cohort study. United States. MVC occupants (n = 152 191 unweighted, n = 18 426 684 weighted) seated between a belted or unbelted occupant and the line of the principal direction of force in frontal, lateral, and rear MVCs were sampled from the 1991-2002 National Automotive Sampling System General Estimates System. Offset MVCs were not included in the study. Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals for injury (including death) for occupants seated contiguous to unbelted occupants compared to occupants seated contiguous to belted occupants. Risk ratios were adjusted for at risk occupant's sex, age, seating position, vehicle type, collision type, travel speed, crash severity, and at risk occupants' own seat belt use. Exposure to unbelted occupants was associated with a 40% increased risk of any injury. Belted at risk occupants were at a 90% increased risk of injury but unbelted occupants were not at increased risk. Risks were similar for non-incapacitating and capacitating injuries. There was a 4.8-fold increased risk of death for exposed belted occupants but no increased risk of death for unbelted occupants. Belted occupants are at an increased risk of injury and death in the event of a MVC from unbelted occupants.

Internal Homogeneity, Descriptiveness, and Halo: Resurrecting Some Answers and Questions About the Structure of Job Performance Rating Categories.

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Cooper, William H.

1983-01-01

Assessed the effects of two rating category attributes on halo in job performance ratings. Results suggested reducing halo by using rating categories that do not force raters to rely on their overall evaluation of the ratee, or use the same salient observations for rating job performance on multiple categories. (JAC)

Managing dysphonia in occupational voice users.

Science.gov (United States)

Behlau, Mara; Zambon, Fabiana; Madazio, Glaucya

2014-06-01

Recent advances with regard to occupational voice disorders are highlighted with emphasis on issues warranting consideration when assessing, training, and treating professional voice users. Findings include the many particularities between the various categories of professional voice users, the concept that the environment plays a major role in occupational voice disorders, and that biopsychosocial influences should be analyzed on an individual basis. Assessment via self-evaluation protocols to quantify the impact of these disorders is mandatory as a component of an evaluation and to document treatment outcomes. Discomfort or odynophonia has evolved as a critical symptom in this population. Clinical trials are limited and the complexity of the environment may be a limitation in experiment design. This review reinforced the need for large population studies of professional voice users; new data highlighted important factors specific to each group of voice users. Interventions directed at student teachers are necessities to not only improving the quality of future professionals, but also to avoid the frustration and limitations associated with chronic voice problems. The causative relationship between the work environment and voice disorders has not yet been established. Randomized controlled trials are lacking and must be a focus to enhance treatment paradigms for this population.

Danger zone: Men, masculinity and occupational health and safety in high risk occupations.

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Stergiou-Kita, Mary; Mansfield, Elizabeth; Bezo, Randy; Colantonio, Angela; Garritano, Enzo; Lafrance, Marc; Lewko, John; Mantis, Steve; Moody, Joel; Power, Nicole; Theberge, Nancy; Westwood, Eleanor; Travers, Krista

2015-12-01

The workplace is a key setting where gender issues and organizational structures may influence occupational health and safety practices. The enactment of dominant norms of masculinity in high risk occupations can be particularly problematic, as it exposes men to significant risks for injuries and fatalities. To encourage multi-disciplinary collaborations and advance knowledge in the intersecting areas of gender studies, men's health, work and workplace health and safety, a national network of thirteen researchers and health and safety stakeholders completed a critical literature review examining the intersection between masculinities and men's workplace health and safety in order to: (i) account for research previously undertaken in this area; (ii) identify themes that may inform our understanding of masculinity and workplace health and safety and; (iii) identify research and practice gaps in relation to men's workplace health and safety. In this paper we present key themes from this review. Recommendations are made regarding: (i) how to define gender; (ii) how to attend to and identify how masculinities may influence workers' identities, perceptions of occupational risks and how institutionalized practices can reinforce norms of masculinity; (iii) the importance of considering how masculinities may intersect with other variables (e.g. historical context, age, class, race, geographical location) and; (iv) the added significance of present-day labour market forces on men's occupational health and safety.

Urban economies and occupation space: can they get "there" from "here"?

Science.gov (United States)

Muneepeerakul, Rachata; Lobo, José; Shutters, Shade T; Goméz-Liévano, Andrés; Qubbaj, Murad R

2013-01-01

Much of the socioeconomic life in the United States occurs in its urban areas. While an urban economy is defined to a large extent by its network of occupational specializations, an examination of this important network is absent from the considerable body of work on the determinants of urban economic performance. Here we develop a structure-based analysis addressing how the network of interdependencies among occupational specializations affects the ease with which urban economies can transform themselves. While most occupational specializations exhibit positive relationships between one another, many exhibit negative ones, and the balance between the two partially explains the productivity of an urban economy. The current set of occupational specializations of an urban economy and its location in the occupation space constrain its future development paths. Important tradeoffs exist between different alternatives for altering an occupational specialization pattern, both at a single occupation and an entire occupational portfolio levels.

Identifying Spatial Units of Human Occupation in the Brazilian Amazon Using Landsat and CBERS Multi-Resolution Imagery

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Maria Isabel Sobral Escada

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Every spatial unit of human occupation is part of a network structuring an extensive process of urbanization in the Amazon territory. Multi-resolution remote sensing data were used to identify and map human presence and activities in the Sustainable Forest District of Cuiabá-Santarém highway (BR-163, west of Pará, Brazil. The limits of spatial units of human occupation were mapped based on digital classification of Landsat-TM5 (Thematic Mapper 5 image (30m spatial resolution. High-spatial-resolution CBERS-HRC (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite-High-Resolution Camera images (5 m merged with CBERS-CCD (Charge Coupled Device images (20 m were used to map spatial arrangements inside each populated unit, describing intra-urban characteristics. Fieldwork data validated and refined the classification maps that supported the categorization of the units. A total of 133 spatial units were individualized, comprising population centers as municipal seats, villages and communities, and units of human activities, such as sawmills, farmhouses, landing strips, etc. From the high-resolution analysis, 32 population centers were grouped in four categories, described according to their level of urbanization and spatial organization as: structured, recent, established and dependent on connectivity. This multi-resolution approach provided spatial information about the urbanization process and organization of the territory. It may be extended into other areas or be further used to devise a monitoring system, contributing to the discussion of public policy priorities for sustainable development in the Amazon.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORD CLASSES AND PHRASAL CATEGORIES

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Mevlüt ERDEM

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Phrasal categories in traditional studies increase because of the structural and semantic connection between the head and complements. However, the syntactic category of the head identifies the type of a phrasal category. The lexical classes which act as a head are nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs and postpositions. Therefore, the phrasal categories are noun phrases, adjectival phrases, adverbial phrases, verb phrases and postpositional phrases. Modern linguistic studies evaluate phrasal categories differently. In modern linguistic studies, the essential part of the sentence is verb phrase. Verb phrase reflects lexical categories as well as grammatical relations (subject, object etc.. The arguments which belong to verb phrase express certain semantic roles. Moreover, according to modern linguistic approach, even one word is enough to constitute a phrasal category Geleneksel çalışmalarda sözcük öbekleri ana ve yardımcı unsurlar arasında kurulan çeşitli anlam ilgisi ve yapısal ilgilerden dolayı sayıca fazlalaşır. Fakat sözcük öbeklerinin türünü başın sentaktik kategorisi belirler. Ana unsur olan sözlüksel türler ad, sıfat, zarf, fiil ve edattır ve öbekler de AÖ, SÖ, ZÖ, FÖ ve EÖ’dür. Modern dilbilimsel çalışmalar öbek yapılarını da farklı değerlendirir. Modern çalışmalarda cümlenin temelini fiil öbeği oluşturur. Fiil öbeği, sözlüksel kategorilerle birlikte cümlenin gramatik ilişkilerini (özne, nesne vb. de yansıtır. Fiil öbeğine ait unsurlar belli anlamsal roller de ifade eder. Modern anlayışa göre bir sözcük tek başına bir öbek kurabilir.

Building International Sustainable Partnerships in Occupational Therapy: A Case Study.

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Tupe, Debra Ann; Kern, Stephen B; Salvant, Sabrina; Talero, Pamela

2015-09-01

Occupational therapy practitioners frequently identify opportunities for international practice. The World Health Organization and the World Federation of Occupational Therapists have encouraged occupational therapists to address transnational issues, social inclusion, and equal access to opportunities grounded in meaningful occupation (WFOT, 2012). This case study describes a partnership between two U.S. schools of occupational therapy and a Cuban community based pediatric clinic. It examines the dynamics that have sustained the partnership despite political, economic, and logistical barriers. The literature is scrutinized to show how this case study fits into other accounts of collaborative international partnerships. Particularly, it investigates structural and institutional conditions that shape international sustainable partnerships. In doing so, we answer the following questions: (1) Under which circumstances do international partnerships emerge and flourish? (2) What structural and institutional conditions shape international sustainable partnerships? And (3) How do partners perceive and experience the bilateral international partnership? It also discusses and illustrates the foundations and development of international partnerships that succeed. Through the use of a case study we illustrate the development of this partnership. Finally, we consider the next steps of this particular sustainable and collaborative international partnership. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Extending Beyond Qualitative Interviewing to Illuminate the Tacit Nature of Everyday Occupation: Occupational Mapping and Participatory Occupation Methods.

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Huot, Suzanne; Rudman, Debbie Laliberte

2015-07-01

The study of human occupation requires a variety of methods to fully elucidate its complex, multifaceted nature. Although qualitative approaches have commonly been used within occupational therapy and occupational science, we contend that such qualitative research must extend beyond the sole use of interviews. Drawing on qualitative methodological literature, we discuss the limits of interview methods and outline other methods, particularly visual methods, as productive means to enhance qualitative research. We then provide an overview of our critical ethnographic study that used narrative, visual, and observational methods to explore the occupational transitions experienced by immigrants to Canada. We describe our use of occupational mapping and participatory occupation methods and the contributions of these combined methods. We conclude that adopting a variety of methods can enable a deeper understanding of the tacit nature of everyday occupation, and is key to advancing knowledge regarding occupation and to informing occupational therapy practice.

Organizational Categories as Viewing Categories

OpenAIRE

Mik-Meyer, Nanna

2005-01-01

This paper explores how two Danish rehabilitation organizations textual guidelines for assessment of clients’ personality traits influence the actual evaluation of clients. The analysis will show how staff members produce institutional identities corresponding to organizational categories, which very often have little or no relevance for the clients evaluated. The goal of the article is to demonstrate how the institutional complex that frames the work of the organizations produces the client ...

The Category of Definiteness Indefiniteness through the Prism of Functional Approach to Language Studies

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Labetova Victoria

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: The studying of language phenomena with the emphasis on their functional component is topical for modern linguistics. This approach gives a boost to thinking over various (semantic, morphological, syntactic forms through the prism of their functional-semantic load. The analysis of the category of definiteness/indefiniteness from this point of view allows defining the actual theoretical categorial model and the system of its expressive means. Purpose: The aim of the article is to define the essence and the bounds of the category of definiteness/indefiniteness in the Ukrainian language and reveal its expressive potential. Results: The category of definiteness/indefiniteness is a universal category that is based on the symbiosis of psychic, cognitive and lingual spheres. Its functional potential is accumulated in cognitive and communicative fields so it is not restricted only to defining spheres of definiteness or indefiniteness. Not only do things or objects appear definite or indefinite in the process of communication or its interpretation but also their characteristics or properties may acquire these senses. The category of definiteness/indefiniteness correlates with other functional-semantic categories, which leads to its complicated and ramified field structure with diffuse and peripheral zones. Discussion: The studying of the widened structure of the functional-semantic field of definiteness/indefiniteness and organizing all possible (regular, typical, occasional, etc. means of its expression is a perspective approach. It is important to study the category of definiteness/indefiniteness in different types of discourse to reveal the logic of its functioning.

A Bayesian Model of Category-Specific Emotional Brain Responses

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Wager, Tor D.; Kang, Jian; Johnson, Timothy D.; Nichols, Thomas E.; Satpute, Ajay B.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2015-01-01

Understanding emotion is critical for a science of healthy and disordered brain function, but the neurophysiological basis of emotional experience is still poorly understood. We analyzed human brain activity patterns from 148 studies of emotion categories (2159 total participants) using a novel hierarchical Bayesian model. The model allowed us to classify which of five categories—fear, anger, disgust, sadness, or happiness—is engaged by a study with 66% accuracy (43-86% across categories). Analyses of the activity patterns encoded in the model revealed that each emotion category is associated with unique, prototypical patterns of activity across multiple brain systems including the cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and other structures. The results indicate that emotion categories are not contained within any one region or system, but are represented as configurations across multiple brain networks. The model provides a precise summary of the prototypical patterns for each emotion category, and demonstrates that a sufficient characterization of emotion categories relies on (a) differential patterns of involvement in neocortical systems that differ between humans and other species, and (b) distinctive patterns of cortical-subcortical interactions. Thus, these findings are incompatible with several contemporary theories of emotion, including those that emphasize emotion-dedicated brain systems and those that propose emotion is localized primarily in subcortical activity. They are consistent with componential and constructionist views, which propose that emotions are differentiated by a combination of perceptual, mnemonic, prospective, and motivational elements. Such brain-based models of emotion provide a foundation for new translational and clinical approaches. PMID:25853490

Inference for occupancy and occupancy dynamics

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O'Connell, Allan F.; Bailey, Larissa L.; O'Connell, Allan F.; Nichols, James D.; Karanth, K. Ullas

2011-01-01

This chapter deals with the estimation of occupancy as a state variable to assess the status of, and track changes in, species distributions when sampling with camera traps. Much of the recent interest in occupancy estimation and modeling originated from the models developed by MacKenzie et al. (2002, 2003), although similar methods were developed independently (Azuma et al. 1990; Bayley and Petersen 2001; Nichols and Karanth, 2002; Tyre et al. 2003), all of which deal with species occurrence information and imperfect detection. Less than a decade after these publications, the modeling and estimation of species occurrence and occupancy dynamics have increased significantly. Special features of scientific journals have explored innovative uses of detection–nondetection data with occupancy models (Vojta 2005), and an entire volume has synthesized the use and application of occupancy estimation methods (MacKenzie et al. 2006). Reviews of the topical concepts, philosophical considerations, and various sampling designs that can be used for occupancy estimation are now readily available for a range of audiences (MacKenzie and Royle 2005; MacKenzie et al. 2006; Bailey et al. 2007; Royle and Dorazio 2008; Conroy and Carroll 2009; Kendall and White 2009; Hines et al. 2010; Link and Barker 2010). As a result, it would be pointless here to recast all that these publications have so eloquently articulated, but that said, a review of any scientific topic requires sufficient context and relevant background information, especially when relatively new methodologies and techniques such as occupancy estimation and camera traps are involved. This is especially critical in a digital age where new information is published at warp speed, making it increasingly difficult to stay abreast of theoretical advances and research developments.

Site occupancies in ternary C15 ordered Laves phases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kotula, P.G.; Chu, F.; Thoma, D.J.; Mitchell, T.E.; Anderson, I.M.; Bentley, J.

1996-01-01

Site occupancies in three C15-structured AB 2 (X) Laves phases have been determined by Atom Location by CHanneling Enhanced MIcroanalysis (ALCHEMI). In NbCr 2 (V), the results were consistent with exclusive site occupancies of Nb for the A sublattice and Cr and V for the B sublattice. The B-site occupancy of V is not expected from atom size effects alone. In NbCr 2 (Ti), the results were consistent with Ti partitioning mostly to the A sites with some anti-site defects likely. In HfV 2 (Nb), the results were consistent with Nb partitioning between the A and B sites. The results of the ALCHEMI analyses of these ternary C15 Laves phase materials will be discussed with respect to previously determined phase diagrams and first-principles total energy and electronic structure calculations

Occupation and the relevance of primatology to occupational therapy.

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Wood, W

1993-06-01

The adaptive functions of occupation during the phylogenetic history of the human species and the ontogenetic development of individual primates re examined through a review of relevant research of wild and captive nonhuman primates. This review suggests that the effectiveness of occupation as a therapeutic medium throughout life span development is fundamentally tied to humankind's phylogenetic history. It is accordingly argued that there is considerable justification to maintain occupational therapy's historical commitment to therapeutic occupation as the profession's primary treatment modality. To support this commitment, questions to guide practice and research are identified that emanate from the primate literature and that are highly germane to the therapeutic process in occupational therapy. These questions address: (a) the relationship between the press of the various environments in which occupational therapists practice and subsequent opportunities availed to patients for engagement in occupation; (b) the relationship between the extent to which patients are or are not empowered to exert real control over their use of time and their eventual development of disabling conditions; and (c) the therapeutic efficacy of occupation as compared with other treatment approaches that are not comparably holistic.

The neurological basis of occupation.

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Gutman, Sharon A; Schindler, Victoria P

2007-01-01

The purpose of the present paper was to survey the literature about the neurological basis of human activity and its relationship to occupation and health. Activities related to neurological function were organized into three categories: those that activate the brain's reward system; those that promote the relaxation response; and those that preserve cognitive function into old age. The results from the literature review correlating neurological evidence and activities showed that purposeful and meaningful activities could counter the effects of stress-related diseases and reduce the risk for dementia. Specifically, it was found that music, drawing, meditation, reading, arts and crafts, and home repairs, for example, can stimulate the neurogical system and enhance health and well-being, Prospective research studies are needed to examine the effects of purposeful activities on reducing stress and slowing the rate of cognitive decline.

Subject categories and scope descriptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

This document is one in a series of publications known as the ETDE/INIS Joint Reference Series. It defines the subject categories and provides the scope descriptions to be used for categorization of the nuclear literature for the preparation of INIS and ETDE input by national and regional centres. Together with the other volumes of the INIS Reference Series it defines the rules, standards and practices and provides the authorities to be used in the International Nuclear Information System and ETDE. A complete list of the volumes published in the INIS Reference Series may be found on the inside front cover of this publication. This INIS/ETDE Reference Series document is intended to serve two purposes: to define the subject scope of the International Nuclear Information System (INIS) and the Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) and to define the subject classification scheme of INIS and ETDE. It is thus the guide to the inputting centres in determining which items of literature should be reported, and in determining where the full bibliographic entry and abstract of each item should be included in INIS or ETDE database. Each category is identified by a category code consisting of three alphanumeric characters. A scope description is given for each subject category. The scope of INIS is the sum of the scopes of all the categories. With most categories cross references are provided to other categories where appropriate. Cross references should be of assistance in finding the appropriate category; in fact, by indicating topics that are excluded from the category in question, the cross references help to clarify and define the scope of the category to which they are appended. A Subject Index is included as an aid to subject classifiers, but it is only an aid and not a means for subject classification. It facilitates the use of this document, but is no substitute for the description of the scope of the subject categories

Occupational health and safety issues among nurses in the Philippines.

Science.gov (United States)

de Castro, A B; Cabrera, Suzanne L; Gee, Gilbert C; Fujishiro, Kaori; Tagalog, Eularito A

2009-04-01

Nursing is a hazardous occupation in the United States, but little is known about workplace health and safety issues facing the nursing work force in the Philippines. In this article, work-related problems among a sample of nurses in the Philippines are described. Cross-sectional data were collected through a self-administered survey during the Philippine Nurses Association 2007 convention. Measures included four categories: work-related demographics, occupational injury/illness, reporting behavior, and safety concerns. Approximately 40% of nurses had experienced at least one injury or illness in the past year, and 80% had experienced back pain. Most who had an injury did not report it. The top ranking concerns were stress and overwork. Filipino nurses encounter considerable health and safety concerns that are similar to those encountered by nurses in other countries. Future research should examine the work organization factors that contribute to these concerns and strengthen policies to promote health and safety.

Occupational Health and Safety Issues Among Nurses in the Philippines

Science.gov (United States)

de Castro, A. B.; Cabrera, Suzanne L.; Gee, Gilbert C.; Fujishiro, Kaori; Tagalog, Eularito A.

2009-01-01

Nursing is a hazardous occupation in the United States, but little is known about workplace health and safety issues facing the nursing work force in the Philippines. In this article, work-related problems among a sample of nurses in the Philippines are described. Cross-sectional data were collected through a self-administered survey during the Philippine Nurses Association 2007 convention. Measures included four categories: work-related demographics, occupational injury/illness, reporting behavior, and safety concerns. Approximately 40% of nurses had experienced at least one injury or illness in the past year, and 80% had experienced back pain. Most who had an injury did not report it. The top ranking concerns were stress and overwork. Filipino nurses encounter considerable health and safety concerns that are similar to those encountered by nurses in other countries. Future research should examine the work organization factors that contribute to these concerns and strengthen policies to promote health and safety. PMID:19438081

Occupational exposure of medical radiation workers in Lithuania, 1950-2003

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Samerdokiene, V.; Atkocius, V.; Kurtinaitis, J.; Valuckas, K.P.

2008-01-01

This study presents the summary of historical exposures, measurement practice and evolution of the recording of the individual doses of medical radiation workers during 1950-2003 in Lithuania. The aim of this study is to present occupational exposure of medical radiation workers in Lithuania since the earliest appearance period. Data from publications have been used for the earliest two periods prior to 1969; data from the archives of the largest hospitals, for the period 1970-1990 and data from Lithuanian Subdivision of Individual Dosimetry of Radiation Protection Center, for the period 1991-2003. The analysis of the data obtained from personal records allows to conclude that the average annual effective dose of Lithuanian medical radiation workers was greatly reduced in radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine in all occupational categories from 1950 to 2003. During the last period 1991-2003 extremity doses clearly decreased and after 1994 were no longer present in Lithuania. (authors)

Color categories only affect post-perceptual processes when same- and different-category colors are equally discriminable.

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xun; Witzel, Christoph; Forder, Lewis; Clifford, Alexandra; Franklin, Anna

2014-04-01

Prior claims that color categories affect color perception are confounded by inequalities in the color space used to equate same- and different-category colors. Here, we equate same- and different-category colors in the number of just-noticeable differences, and measure event-related potentials (ERPs) to these colors on a visual oddball task to establish if color categories affect perceptual or post-perceptual stages of processing. Category effects were found from 200 ms after color presentation, only in ERP components that reflect post-perceptual processes (e.g., N2, P3). The findings suggest that color categories affect post-perceptual processing, but do not affect the perceptual representation of color.

Sampling scales define occupancy and underlying occupancy-abundance relationships in animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Steenweg, Robin; Hebblewhite, Mark; Whittington, Jesse; Lukacs, Paul; McKelvey, Kevin

2018-01-01

Occupancy-abundance (OA) relationships are a foundational ecological phenomenon and field of study, and occupancy models are increasingly used to track population trends and understand ecological interactions. However, these two fields of ecological inquiry remain largely isolated, despite growing appreciation of the importance of integration. For example, using occupancy models to infer trends in abundance is predicated on positive OA relationships. Many occupancy studies collect data that violate geographical closure assumptions due to the choice of sampling scales and application to mobile organisms, which may change how occupancy and abundance are related. Little research, however, has explored how different occupancy sampling designs affect OA relationships. We develop a conceptual framework for understanding how sampling scales affect the definition of occupancy for mobile organisms, which drives OA relationships. We explore how spatial and temporal sampling scales, and the choice of sampling unit (areal vs. point sampling), affect OA relationships. We develop predictions using simulations, and test them using empirical occupancy data from remote cameras on 11 medium-large mammals. Surprisingly, our simulations demonstrate that when using point sampling, OA relationships are unaffected by spatial sampling grain (i.e., cell size). In contrast, when using areal sampling (e.g., species atlas data), OA relationships are affected by spatial grain. Furthermore, OA relationships are also affected by temporal sampling scales, where the curvature of the OA relationship increases with temporal sampling duration. Our empirical results support these predictions, showing that at any given abundance, the spatial grain of point sampling does not affect occupancy estimates, but longer surveys do increase occupancy estimates. For rare species (low occupancy), estimates of occupancy will quickly increase with longer surveys, even while abundance remains constant. Our results

Central automatic control or distributed occupant control for better indoor environment quality in the future

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Toftum, Joern [International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, DTU, Building 402, DK-2800 Lyngby (Denmark)

2010-01-15

Based on a database accumulated from several recent surveys of office buildings located in a temperate climate (Denmark), the effect on occupant perceptions and symptom prevalence was compared in buildings with natural and with mechanical ventilation in which earlier studies have shown a discrepancy in the degree of perceived control. The database was composed of 1272 responses obtained in 24 buildings of which 15 had mechanical ventilation (997 responses) and nine had natural ventilation (275 responses). The number of occupant-reported control opportunities was higher in buildings with natural ventilation. Analysis of occupant responses, after grouping according to categories determined by the degree of satisfaction with the perceived control, showed that it was more likely the degree of control satisfaction that affected the prevalence of adverse perceptions and symptoms. Thus, the degree of control, as perceived by occupants, seemed more important for the prevalence of adverse symptoms and building-related symptoms than the ventilation mode per se. This result indicates that even though the development and application of new indoor environment sensors and HVAC control systems may allow for fully automated IEQ control, such systems should not compromise occupants' perception of having some degree of control of their indoor environment. (author)

Strategies to facilitate professional development of the occupational health nurse in the occupational health setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolene de Jager

2016-10-01

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the needs for professional development of the OHN in the occupational health setting. Method: An explorative, descriptive, contextual generic and qualitative research method was used in this study. The purposive sampling method was used as the OHNs surveyed described their personal need for professional development in the occupational health setting. Data was collected by means of semi-structured individual interviews. Eight interviews were done by an interviewer who held a doctoral degree in community health nursing and a qualification in occupational health and was affiliated with a private occupational health institution at the time of the study. The interviews were conducted during August 2012. Results: The OHNs reported that professional development needs have to be identified by the OHNs. Short courses need to be designed by training institutions and should be attended by the OHNs to improve their operational functioning on a day-to-day basis in the occupational health setting. The OHNs experienced that their role and function in the workplace were not valued by their managers. The results of this study revealed four major themes, namely constraints hindering the OHN in developing professionally, positive aspects identified by the OHNs regarding the need for professional development, professional development needs of the OHN and suggestions of how to meet the OHNs' professional development needs. Conclusion: There is a need for OHNs to identify their professional development needs and recommendations were made to meet these needs.

Urban economies and occupation space: can they get "there" from "here"?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachata Muneepeerakul

Full Text Available Much of the socioeconomic life in the United States occurs in its urban areas. While an urban economy is defined to a large extent by its network of occupational specializations, an examination of this important network is absent from the considerable body of work on the determinants of urban economic performance. Here we develop a structure-based analysis addressing how the network of interdependencies among occupational specializations affects the ease with which urban economies can transform themselves. While most occupational specializations exhibit positive relationships between one another, many exhibit negative ones, and the balance between the two partially explains the productivity of an urban economy. The current set of occupational specializations of an urban economy and its location in the occupation space constrain its future development paths. Important tradeoffs exist between different alternatives for altering an occupational specialization pattern, both at a single occupation and an entire occupational portfolio levels.

Third generation of Thyssen tailored tubes - a new category of tubular products

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Flehmig, T.; Brueggenbrock, M.; Kibben, M.; Schwenecke, S. [ThyssenKrupp Stahl, Duisburg (Germany)

2005-07-01

Further weight saving goals have prompted the automotive industry to design lighter car body structures in order to reduce fuel consumption, while maintaining the high safety standards for occupants. Body structures developed with large portions of closed profiles have a so-called ''profile intensive design.'' Particularly in the case of large scale production, it is necessary to have cost effective manufacturing methods. Therefore, production and processing require short process chains as well as the latest techniques. New forming technologies, combined with laser-beam welding and hydroforming processes is one strategy to save costs. A further way to shorten the process chain is the joining and combining of process steps at first and then later fitting the tailored tubes with the new features. The result of these efforts led to a new category of tubular products the so called ''3{sup rd} generation Thyssen Tailored Tubes {sup registered} TTT {sup registered} ''. These nearly finished parts are manufactured by a new forming technology the so called ''Thyssen Tube Curling Process''. This technique permits the direct forming from flat blanks into welded longitudinal beams, for example from the NewSteelBody {sup registered} car, without a hydroforming step, all within a single machine. The paper points out a further forming method with similar results. Compared to processes like roll or roller forming in combination with hydroforming, these new methods cause only minimal plastic strains. The paper shows some parts, manufactured by these methods. The pre-bending of Thyssen Tailored Tubes {sup registered} is also a newly developed process. (orig.)

Physical Workload and Work Capacity across Occupational Groups.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanie Brighenti-Zogg

Full Text Available This study aimed to determine physical performance criteria of different occupational groups by investigating physical activity and energy expenditure in healthy Swiss employees in real-life workplaces on workdays and non-working days in relation to their aerobic capacity (VO2max. In this cross-sectional study, 337 healthy and full-time employed adults were recruited. Participants were classified (nine categories according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 and merged into three groups with low-, moderate- and high-intensity occupational activity. Daily steps, energy expenditure, metabolic equivalents and activity at different intensities were measured using the SenseWear Mini armband on seven consecutive days (23 hours/day. VO2max was determined by the 20-meter shuttle run test. Data of 303 subjects were considered for analysis (63% male, mean age: 33 yrs, SD 12, 101 from the low-, 102 from the moderate- and 100 from the high-intensity group. At work, the high-intensity group showed higher energy expenditure, metabolic equivalents, steps and activity at all intensities than the other groups (p<0.001. There were no significant differences in physical activity between the occupational groups on non-working days. VO2max did not differ across groups when stratified for gender. The upper workload limit was 21%, 29% and 44% of VO2max in the low-, moderate- and high-intensity group, respectively. Men had a lower limit than women due to their higher VO2max (26% vs. 37%, when all groups were combined. While this study did confirm that the average workload limit is one third of VO2max, it showed that the average is misrepresenting the actual physical work demands of specific occupational groups, and that it does not account for gender-related differences in relative workload. Therefore, clinical practice needs to consider these differences with regard to a safe return to work, particularly for the high-intensity group.

Triangulated categories (AM-148)

CERN Document Server

Neeman, Amnon

2014-01-01

The first two chapters of this book offer a modern, self-contained exposition of the elementary theory of triangulated categories and their quotients. The simple, elegant presentation of these known results makes these chapters eminently suitable as a text for graduate students. The remainder of the book is devoted to new research, providing, among other material, some remarkable improvements on Brown''s classical representability theorem. In addition, the author introduces a class of triangulated categories""--the ""well generated triangulated categories""--and studies their properties. This

Survey dataset on occupational hazards on construction sites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patience F. Tunji-Olayeni

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The construction site provides an unfriendly working conditions, exposing workers to one of the harshest environments at a workplace. In this dataset, a structured questionnaire was design directed to thirty-five (35 craftsmen selected through a purposive sampling technique on various construction sites in one of the most populous cities in sub-Saharan Africa. The set of descriptive statistics is presented with tables, stacked bar chats and pie charts. Common occupational health conditions affecting the cardiovascular, respiratory and musculoskeletal systems of craftsmen on construction sites were identified. The effects of occupational health hazards on craftsmen and on construction project performance can be determined when the data is analyzed. Moreover, contractors’ commitment to occupational health and safety (OHS can be obtained from the analysis of the survey data. Keywords: Accidents, Construction industry, Craftsmen, Health, Occupational hazards

Infants can use distributional cues to form syntactic categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Gerken, LouAnn; Wilson, Rachel; Lewis, William

2005-05-01

Nearly all theories of language development emphasize the importance of distributional cues for segregating words and phrases into syntactic categories like noun, feminine or verb phrase. However, questions concerning whether such cues can be used to the exclusion of referential cues have been debated. Using the headturn preference procedure, American children aged 1;5 were briefly familiarized with a partial Russian gender paradigm, with a subset of the paradigm members withheld. During test, infants listened on alternate trials to previously withheld grammatical items and ungrammatical items with incorrect gender markings on previously heard stems. Across three experiments, infants discriminated new grammatical from ungrammatical items, but like adults in previous studies, were only able to do so when a subset of familiarization items was double marked for gender category. The results suggest that learners can use distributional cues to category structure, to the exclusion of referential cues, from relatively early in the language learning process.

Occupational Therapy and Sexual and Reproductive Health Promotion in Adolescence: A Case Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gontijo, Daniela Tavares; de Sena e Vasconcelos, Anna Carolina; Monteiro, Rosana Juliet Silva; Facundes, Vera Lúcia Dutra; Trajano, Maria de Fátima Cordeiro; de Lima, Luciane Soares

2016-03-01

Occupational therapy can contribute to sexual and reproductive health through health education. The purpose of this study was to describe an occupational therapy intervention aimed at sexual and reproductive health promotion in adolescents. Fifty-eight adolescents were involved in the study, before, during and after the interventions. Educative activities such as puzzles, storytelling, mime and board games were used, which occupational therapy faculty and students had constructed. The games were employed as mediators for gaining knowledge in sexual and reproductive health. Outcome was measured using a questionnaire, audio recordings and field diaries. The data were analysed by descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis. The results showed the adolescents' increased knowledge of sexual and reproductive health information immediately after the intervention. The thematic analysis was grouped into three categories: the adolescents' initial expectations regarding the project, reflections on the process experienced during the interventions and use of educational games by occupational therapists. The importance of rapport and dialogue was highlighted in the construction of interventions based on participatory methods. The absence of a longitudinal follow-up is a limitation in this study. Further research is important to systematically assess sexual health promotion strategies in adolescence. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Education and Occupational Outcomes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johnes, Geraint; Freguglia, Ricardo; Spricigo, Gisele

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamic relationship between policies related to educational provision and both educational participation and occupational outcomes in Brazil, using PNAD and RAIS-Migra data. Design/methodology/approach: Outcomes are examined using: static...... multinomial logit analysis, and structural dynamic discrete choice modelling. The latter approach, coupled with the quality of the RAIS-Migra data source, allows the authors to evaluate the education policy impacts over time. Findings: The main results show that the education level raises the propensity...... that the individual will be in formal sector work or still in education, and reduces the probability of the other outcomes. Transition into non-manual formal sector work following education may, however, occur via a spell of manual work. Originality/value: This is the first study of occupational destination...

The role of occupational attributes in gender earnings inequality, 1970-2010.

Science.gov (United States)

Mandel, Hadas

2016-01-01

Grounded in the research on the important role of social structures in forming gender inequalities, this study examines the effect of occupational attributes on the gender earnings gap over four decades. Using the IPUMS-USA from 1970 to 2010, the paper shows that occupational attributes cannot be reduced to the aggregate attributes of their individual incumbents. Rather, the effect of occupations on the gender earnings gap goes far beyond both the distributive role of occupational segregation and the effect of individual wage-related characteristics. Furthermore, occupations not only explain a significant portion of net gender pay gaps, but have also contributed to the narrowing of the gaps over the past several decades, as occupational attributes that favor women's pay have become more dominant over time. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

THEORETICAL-METHODOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE CATEGORIES OF LAW, MORALITY AND POLITICS IN SOCIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE

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Yu. V. Krasilnikova

2010-01-01

Full Text Available We consider the category of law, morality and politics in the sociological knowledge in the context of theoretical and methodological aspects. We give a detailed and incomplete, structural and content characteristics of these categories in the interpretation of their manifestation in thepolitical and social dimension of society.

[Experience of international cooperation among Baltic countries in occupational health and security].

Science.gov (United States)

Miloutka, E V; Andronova, E R; Dedkova, L E

2013-01-01

The article covers longstanding experience of international cooperation in occupational health and security with Baltic countries. The authors describe history of information network creation, its structure, objectives, importance for occupational health services and safety in the region.

The Impact of Occupational Status on Household Chore Hours among Dual Earner Couples

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megumi Omori

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Previous studies on the who does what about routine chores in the household have tended to neglect the occupational structure and its influence on the amount of time spent on housework. Using NSFH data, it is found that married couples' household chore hours vary by their occupational status: couples in higher status occupations spend significantly fewer hours on household chores as compared to their counterparts in lower status occupations.

Analysis of occupational doses of workers on the dose registry of the Federal Radiation Protection Service in 2000 and 2001

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogundare, F.O.; Balogun, F.A.

2003-01-01

In 2000 and 2001 about 279 and 221 radiation workers, respectively, were monitored by the Federal Radiation Protection Service, University of Ibadan, in Nigeria. The distribution of the occupational doses shows that the majority of workers received doses below 4 mSv in each of the two years. The radiation workers in the two years are classified into two occupational categories: medicine and industry. The mean annual effective doses, collective doses and the collective dose distribution ratios for workers in each category and the entire monitored workers were calculated. The mean annual effective doses were compared with their corresponding worldwide values quoted by UNSCEAR. In each of the two years, a few workers in industry received doses higher than 50 mSv. The collective dose distribution ratio was found to be about 0.49, which is very close to the highest value of 0.5 in the range of values considered by UNSCEAR as normal for this parameter. This suggests that extra measures have to be taken, particularly in industry, to ensure that the proportion of workers at risk does not go outside this normal range. The occupational doses were also modelled by both the log-normal and Weibull distributions. Both distributions were found to describe the data in almost the same way. (author)

Concerning the structure of occupational accidents involving construction workers in the erection of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nowak, B.; Roebenack, K.D.

1991-01-01

An investigation of 561 occupational accidents involving construction workers which took place during the construction of nuclear power plants failed to show any significant deviation in comparison with general construction as regards process classification, classification of accidents according to occupation and situation, and accidents severity. Occupational accidents which are typial for nuclear power plant construction are a rare exception. (orig.) [de

Analyzing occupational cohort data: application to US uranium miners

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whittemore, A.S.; McMillan, A.

1982-01-01

This paper presents methodological issues concerning the analysis of occupational mortality data. It summarizes pros and cons of three types of analysis: the person-years method, the cohort method, and the case-control method, and notes the common theoretical basis underlying cohort and case-control methods. Both these methods assume that occupational exposures act multiplicatively on either: (a) age-specific mortality rates; or (b) odds-ratios of death during follow-up. Both methods allow relative risk estimation by maximizing a partial or conditional likelihood under assumption (a), and an unconditional likelihood under assumption (b). the case-control method involves less data handling and computation than does the cohort method. This feature, useful when dealing with very large cohorts whose exposures vary with time, is purchased at the price of some decreased sensitivity to detect moderate to large relative risks associated with infrequently occurring exposure categories. The paper illustrates the utility and limitations of the case-control approach by applying it to lung cancer mortality versus exposures to radon-daughters and cigarette smoke among US uranium miners

Preference-based segmentation : a study of food category and meal preferences among Vietnamese teenagers

OpenAIRE

Vu, Thi Hoa

2010-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of preference-based segmentation for a broad array of meals and food categories in the context of teenagers in Vietnam. A convenience sample of 413 Vietnamese teenagers in secondary and high schools provided an evaluation on the preference of 30 items of food categories and 36 common meals was collected based on structured questionnaires and then used as inputs for the analyses. A five-cluster solution for the food category segmentati...

The Survival Processing Effect with Intentional Learning of Ad Hoc Categories

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Anastasiya Savchenko

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have shown that memory is adapted to remember information when it is processed in a survival context. This study investigates how procedural changes in Marinho (2012 study might have led to her failure to replicate the survival mnemonic advantage. In two between-subjects design experiments, participants were instructed to learn words from ad hoc categories and to rate their relevance to a survival or a control scenario. No survival advantage was obtained in either experiment. The Adjusted Ratio of Clustering (ARC scores revealed that including the category labels made the participants rely more on the category structure of the list. Various procedural aspects of the conducted experiments are discussed as possible reasons underlying the absence of the survival effect.

CATEGORY MANAGEMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MINIMUM ASSORTMENT OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL ORGANIZATION

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I. F. Samoshchenkova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The main principle of the category management is the management of product category as a separate business unit. Category management directs the activities of the pharmaceutical organization to meet the consumer requirements and to provide customers with maximum benefits, which are expressed in the improved assortment,the attractive prices, the reduction of cases of lack of necessary goods, the simplifiedpurchase process. In article the structure of the category management and its role inthe minimum pharmaceutical assortment, a complex of the theoretical and practical issues affecting interrelation of the list of vital and essential medicines and the minimum range of medicines are considered. A number of the new elements supplementing the concept of category management is offered, and the corresponding generalizations are made. The objective of the research is to study the influence of category management on the structure in management of the minimum assortment of medicines of the pharmaceutical organization. Materials and methods. In the course of the solution of the set tasks, the methods of marketing and economic-mathematical analysis were used. Results and discussion. In the analysis of the assortment list of medicines for medical application, which is obligatory for the pharmaceutical enterprises of all forms of ownership, it was revealed that this assortment list is based on the List of Vital Essential and Necessary (VEN Drugs. The results of the analysis of the obligatory assortment list from the position of internal category management showed that 77.45% are medicines of the list of VEN Drugs; 46.08% are medicines of non-prescription dispensing. Proceeding from this it follows that the worthy, profitable price policy can be conducted only with 22.55% of the list; to develop standards of merchandising with 46.05%. The category management gives an opportunity to the pharmaceutical organization to specify its competitive strategy and to

Social Structures and the Occupational Composition of Skilled Worker Immigrants to Canada

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heather Dryburgh

2005-12-01

structures that influence the composition of the economic immigrant population over time. Over the last 20 years, economic immigrants to Canada have faced changing selection policies, cycles of economic recession and growth, increased demand for information technology skills, women’s increased labour force participation and an aging labour force. Using data from Statistics Canada’s Longitudinal Immigration Database (IMDB, this paper examines the flow of economic immigrants to Canada by their occupational composition from 1980 to 2000. Relative to Canadians, when all immigrants from this period are grouped together, their economic integration is slow and does not reach parity with Canadians before 16 years. Among skilled worker immigrants, whereas the earlier cohorts did well but did not improve much over time, later cohorts started off in a relatively worse position, but early indications show a fairly steep slope to better relative average earnings. These differences support the need to examine immigrant integration by both the class of immigrant and the context at the time of immigration.

Self-care under the perspective of Occupational Therapy: analysis of scientific production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Regina Célia Titotto Castanharo

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This is an exploratory descriptive study aiming to explain how self-care has been addressed by Occupational Therapy (OT. Data collection was carried out by consulting LILACS, SciELO databases and national journals of Occupational Therapy. From 1994 to 2012, twelve articles published by occupational therapists were selected considering the following keywords on abstracts or full texts: occupational therapy, self-care, daily activities or daily life activities. The results were submitted to integrative review and thematic analysis. The categories evidenced were self-care and activities of daily life; autonomy and independence for self-care; and intervention of OT favoring self-care by the individual. The results showed different dimensions of self-care when associated with the individual and private autonomy as well as with professional interdisciplinary practices of OT. The intervention in this area is directed to human performance in the cycles of life, faced with situations of vulnerability, such as disease and social exclusion. Adaptations, modifications, assistive technology resources and/or functional rehabilitation are used to promote the independence of individuals, favoring autonomy and recovery routines. We observed similarities between the conceptions of self-care found in the scientific production of OT and in the Orem’s concepts (1971-2001. In general, health professionals can achieve benefits to the systematization of knowledge that underlie their practice when they articulate them with the knowledge systematized by other areas.

Enacting Fit in Work Organization and Occupational Structure Design : The Case of Intermediary Occupations in a Dutch Hospital

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Offenbeek, M.A.G.; Sorge, A.; Knip, Marrig

2009-01-01

We report and interpret findings from an investigation of work redesign and the introduction of a new occupational position, nurse practitioner (NP), in four different subunits in a large Dutch university hospital. Full development of the new position and its contribution to performance crucially

How categories come to matter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Leahu, Lucian; Cohn, Marisa; March, Wendy

2013-01-01

In a study of users' interactions with Siri, the iPhone personal assistant application, we noticed the emergence of overlaps and blurrings between explanatory categories such as "human" and "machine". We found that users work to purify these categories, thus resolving the tensions related to the ...... initial data analysis, due to our own forms of latent purification, and outline the particular analytic techniques that helped lead to this discovery. We thus provide an illustrative case of how categories come to matter in HCI research and design.......In a study of users' interactions with Siri, the iPhone personal assistant application, we noticed the emergence of overlaps and blurrings between explanatory categories such as "human" and "machine". We found that users work to purify these categories, thus resolving the tensions related...

14 CFR 23.3 - Airplane categories.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Airplane categories. 23.3 Section 23.3... STANDARDS: NORMAL, UTILITY, ACROBATIC, AND COMMUTER CATEGORY AIRPLANES General § 23.3 Airplane categories. (a) The normal category is limited to airplanes that have a seating configuration, excluding pilot...

Journalists’ salary structure in Spain during the crisis

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Sergio Roses, Ph.D.

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Media companies are implementing staff cost reduction strategies as a way to confront the current economic crisis. This article describes the salary structure of Spanish Journalists during the 2009 crisis, based on data collected through a phone survey applied to a sample of one thousand Spanish journalists. The description of the data is based on a set of social and occupational variables. The study is accompanied by a bivariate analysis of the relation between the salary level of the surveyed journalists and the aforementioned variables.The results show that the salary level of Spanish journalists depends on such variables as sex, age, professional experience, the type, size, and geographic location of the employing media company, occupational category, contract type, and seniority in employment. However, journalists’ income is independent of education level, or the completion of graduate or postgraduate degrees in Journalism, Communication or Media studies. The findings of our study –of interest to scholars and media organisations- will help monitoring in the near future the effects of the media’s cost-cutting policies on the salaries of Spanish journalists.

Bundles of C*-categories and duality

OpenAIRE

Vasselli, Ezio

2005-01-01

We introduce the notions of multiplier C*-category and continuous bundle of C*-categories, as the categorical analogues of the corresponding C*-algebraic notions. Every symmetric tensor C*-category with conjugates is a continuous bundle of C*-categories, with base space the spectrum of the C*-algebra associated with the identity object. We classify tensor C*-categories with fibre the dual of a compact Lie group in terms of suitable principal bundles. This also provides a classification for ce...

Worker radiological protection: occupational medical aspects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cardenas Herrera, Juan; Fernandez Gomez, Isis Maria

2008-01-01

Radiation exposures experienced by workers are widely explained. The first evidences of biological effects, the implications for human health and the radiological protection have been covered. The conceptual structure that covers the radiological protection and adequate protection without limiting benefits, the scientific basis of radiology, the benefits and risks of the radiological protection are specified. The effective per capita doses are exposed in medical uses both for Latin America and for other regions in the average radiology, dental radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. The manners of occupational exposures in the medicine are presented. Industrial uses have also its average effective dose in the industrial irradiation, industrial radiography and radioisotopes production. Within the natural radiation the natural sources can significantly contribute to occupational exposure and have their average effective dose. Occupational medical surveillance to be taken into industrial sites is detailed. In addition, the plan of international action for the solution of dilemmas of occupational exposures is mentioned and the different dilemmas of radioactive exposure are showed. The external irradiation, the acute diseases by radiations, the cutaneous syndrome of the chronic radiation, the radioactive contamination, the internal radioactive contamination, the combined lesion and accidental exposures are also treated [es

Training of occupational safety and health: knowledge among healthcare professionals in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lugah, V; Ganesh, B; Darus, A; Retneswari, M; Rosnawati, M R; Sujatha, D

2010-07-01

Awareness of occupational safety and health (OSH) plays an important role in the prevention of occupational injuries and diseases. Following the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1994, various programmes have been implemented by different agencies to increase awareness and knowledge of OSH in the workplace, including among healthcare workers. The objective of this study was to determine the level of OSH awareness and knowledge among healthcare professionals in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a 21-item self-administered questionnaire addressing information on demographics, general OSH issues, OSH legislations, occupational hazards in the healthcare setting and personal protective equipment (PPE). The response rate was 93.1 percent (284 healthcare professionals). The overall level of knowledge on OSH was moderate, with a mean score of 62.0 percent. A larger proportion of doctors showed good OSH knowledge compared to other categories of healthcare workers, with administrative staff scoring the poorest marks. Participants were most knowledgeable about PPE, with a mean score of 72.0 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI] 68.3, 75.6), compared to other sections such as general OSH, legislations and occupational hazards, with mean scores of 58.0 percent (95 percent CI 56.1, 60.1), 57.0 percent (95 percent CI 54.1, 60.8) and 64.0 percent (95 percent CI 61.7, 66.2), respectively. Although the OSHA 1994 has existed in Malaysia for more than ten years, awareness of OSH remains relatively poor. This warrants a greater effort to promote OSH knowledge and principles among the professionals.

Off the top of my head: Malleability and stability in natural categories.

Science.gov (United States)

Palma, Tomás A; Santos, Ana Sofia; Garcia-Marques, Leonel

2018-04-01

Previous research has found that category representations are highly malleable knowledge structures, varying widely across different contexts and individuals. However, it has also been found that such malleability does not apply equally to all types of category information. The present research further investigates the representational malleability versus stability of natural taxonomic categories. Using perceptual fluency as means to induce malleability, we explored whether malleability is moderated by the degree of typicality of category information. In the first experiment, we found that fluency-based malleability only occurs for non-typical category information. In follow-up experiments, we investigated the boundary conditions under which such fluency-based malleability occurs. Namely, in Experiment 2, we showed that the effect of fluency on non-typical features disappeared when there is a sensory modality mismatch between study and test phases. Finally, in Experiment 3, we demonstrated that this effect reappears in the modality mismatch condition when participants are given a response deadline. The implications of these findings to current theories of category representation and the perceptual fluency literature are discussed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Racial disparities in short sleep duration by occupation and industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Chandra L; Redline, Susan; Kawachi, Ichiro; Williams, Michelle A; Hu, Frank B

2013-11-01

Short sleep duration, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, has been shown to vary by occupation and industry, but few studies have investigated differences between black and white populations. By using data from a nationally representative sample of US adult short sleepers (n = 41,088) in the National Health Interview Survey in 2004-2011, we estimated prevalence ratios for short sleep duration in blacks compared with whites for each of 8 industry categories by using adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance. Participants' mean age was 47 years; 50% were women and 13% were black. Blacks were more likely to report short sleep duration than whites (37% vs. 28%), and the black-white disparity was widest among those who held professional occupations. Adjusted short sleep duration was more prevalent in blacks than whites in the following industry categories: finance/information/real estate (prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.44, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30, 1.59); professional/administrative/management (PR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.44); educational services (PR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.54); public administration/arts/other services (PR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.41); health care/social assistance (PR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.32); and manufacturing/construction (PR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.20). Short sleep generally increased with increasing professional responsibility within a given industry among blacks but decreased with increasing professional roles among whites. Our results suggest the need for further investigation of racial/ethnic differences in the work-sleep relationship.

Occupational stress in the armed forces: An Indian army perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sakshi Sharma

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to explore factors influencing occupational stress faced by Indian army soldiers and evaluate applicability of the scale used for measuring occupational stressors. Structured interview schedules were used to collect first hand data from a sample of 415 soldiers. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA highlights lack of control at work, role conflict, inadequate awareness about profession, workload and job pressure, and indifferent organisational attitude as the major occupational stressors in the Indian army. In addition, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA confirms occupational stressor as an eight factor model in the army. The study recommends implementing commitment-based management approach and techniques such as Sahaja Yoga meditation in the army.

Bayesian decision support for coding occupational injury data.

Science.gov (United States)

Nanda, Gaurav; Grattan, Kathleen M; Chu, MyDzung T; Davis, Letitia K; Lehto, Mark R

2016-06-01

Studies on autocoding injury data have found that machine learning algorithms perform well for categories that occur frequently but often struggle with rare categories. Therefore, manual coding, although resource-intensive, cannot be eliminated. We propose a Bayesian decision support system to autocode a large portion of the data, filter cases for manual review, and assist human coders by presenting them top k prediction choices and a confusion matrix of predictions from Bayesian models. We studied the prediction performance of Single-Word (SW) and Two-Word-Sequence (TW) Naïve Bayes models on a sample of data from the 2011 Survey of Occupational Injury and Illness (SOII). We used the agreement in prediction results of SW and TW models, and various prediction strength thresholds for autocoding and filtering cases for manual review. We also studied the sensitivity of the top k predictions of the SW model, TW model, and SW-TW combination, and then compared the accuracy of the manually assigned codes to SOII data with that of the proposed system. The accuracy of the proposed system, assuming well-trained coders reviewing a subset of only 26% of cases flagged for review, was estimated to be comparable (86.5%) to the accuracy of the original coding of the data set (range: 73%-86.8%). Overall, the TW model had higher sensitivity than the SW model, and the accuracy of the prediction results increased when the two models agreed, and for higher prediction strength thresholds. The sensitivity of the top five predictions was 93%. The proposed system seems promising for coding injury data as it offers comparable accuracy and less manual coding. Accurate and timely coded occupational injury data is useful for surveillance as well as prevention activities that aim to make workplaces safer. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and National Safety Council. All rights reserved.

Occupational radiation exposure. Twelfth annual report, 1979

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brooks, B.; McDonald, S.; Richardson, E.

1982-08-01

This report summarizes the occupational exposure data that is maintained in the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Radiation Exposure Information and Reports System (REIRS). This report is usually published on an annual basis and is available at all NRC public document rooms. The bulk of the information contained in the report was extracted from annual statistical reports submitted by all NRC licensees subject to the reporting requirements of 10 CFR 20.407. Four categories of licensees - operating nuclear power reactors, fuel fabricators and reprocessors, industrial radiographers, and manufacturers and distributors of specified quantities of byproduct materials - also submit personal identification and exposure information for terminating employees pursuant to 10 CFR 20.408, and some analysis of this data is also presented in this report

Identification of relevant ICF categories by patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Grill, Eva; Lipp, Berthold; Boldt, Christine; Stucki, Gerold; Koenig, Eberhard

To describe functioning and health of patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of patients with neurological conditions requiring rehabilitation in early post-acute facilities. The second-level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems. For the ICF components Body Functions, Body Structures and Activities and Participation absolute and relative frequencies of impairments/limitations in the study population were reported. For the component Environmental Factors absolute and relative frequencies of perceived barriers or facilitators were reported. The mean age in the sample was 56.6 years with a median age of 60 years. Forty percent of the patients were female. In 292 neurological patients 125 categories (51%) had a prevalence of 30% and above: 39 categories (49%) of Body Functions, 11 categories (28%) of Body Structures, 64 categories (88%) of Activities and Participation and 10 (20%) categories of Environmental Factors. This study is a first step towards the development of ICF Core Sets for of patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Analysing ESL Students’ Perceptions towards Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fauzilah Md Husain

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Fundamental principles of public speaking and appropriate organisational structure of ideas for occupational and social communication are vital aspects for undergraduates as a pathway to overcome employers’ grievances on graduates’ lack of communication skills (Malaysia Education Blueprint, 2015. This study was undertaken to explore the perceptions of a group of ten students at a tertiary institution in Malaysia to see how they utlise the theories and practice of effective communication skills beyond their course entitled “Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes”. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The study found that these students gained knowledge about effective communication for social and occupational purposes. The findings also indicate that students have benefitted in relation to communication in a formal way especially to higher authorities, and sharpening their communication and presentation skills. However, there were shortcomings that need to be addressed, particularly related to methods of teaching Oral Communication for Social and Occupational Purposes, time constraint in preparing for the tutorial sessions and producing a good quality video. Keywords: Social and Occupational, Communication, Oral skills, Theories and Practice

Historical review of the List of Occupational Diseases recommended by the International Labour organization (ILO)

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

The list of occupational diseases established in the international and national legal system has played important roles in both prevention of and compensation for workers’ diseases. This report reviewed the historical development in the ILO list of occupational diseases and suggested implications of the trends. Since the first establishment of the ILO list of occupational diseases in 1925, the list has played a key role in harmonizing the development of policies on occupational diseases at the international level. The three occupational diseases (anthrax, lead poisoning, and mercury poisoning) in the first ILO list of occupational diseases, set up in 1925 as workmen’s compensation convention represented an increase of occupational diseases from the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1960s, 10 occupational diseases had been representative compensable occupational diseases listed in Convention No. 121, which implies that occupational diseases in this era were equated to industrial poisoning. Since 1980, with advancements in diagnostic techniques and medical science, noise-induced hearing loss, and several bronchopulmonary diseases have been incorporated into the ILO occupational list. Since 2002, changes in the structure of industries, emerging new chemicals, and advanced national worker’s compensation schemes have provoked the ILO to revise the occupational disease list. A new format of ILO list appended in Recommendation 194 (R194) was composed of two dimensions (causes and diseases) and subcategories. Among 50 member states that had provided their national lists of occupational diseases, until 2012 thirty countries were found to have the list occupational diseases having similar structure to ILO list in R194. PMID:24472440

Historical review of the List of Occupational Diseases recommended by the International Labour organization (ILO).

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Eun-A; Kang, Seong-Kyu

2013-08-05

The list of occupational diseases established in the international and national legal system has played important roles in both prevention of and compensation for workers' diseases. This report reviewed the historical development in the ILO list of occupational diseases and suggested implications of the trends. Since the first establishment of the ILO list of occupational diseases in 1925, the list has played a key role in harmonizing the development of policies on occupational diseases at the international level. The three occupational diseases (anthrax, lead poisoning, and mercury poisoning) in the first ILO list of occupational diseases, set up in 1925 as workmen's compensation convention represented an increase of occupational diseases from the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1960s, 10 occupational diseases had been representative compensable occupational diseases listed in Convention No. 121, which implies that occupational diseases in this era were equated to industrial poisoning. Since 1980, with advancements in diagnostic techniques and medical science, noise-induced hearing loss, and several bronchopulmonary diseases have been incorporated into the ILO occupational list. Since 2002, changes in the structure of industries, emerging new chemicals, and advanced national worker's compensation schemes have provoked the ILO to revise the occupational disease list. A new format of ILO list appended in Recommendation 194 (R194) was composed of two dimensions (causes and diseases) and subcategories. Among 50 member states that had provided their national lists of occupational diseases, until 2012 thirty countries were found to have the list occupational diseases having similar structure to ILO list in R194.

Study of hepatitis b among different categories of health care workers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shrestha, S.K.; Bhattarai, M.D.

2006-01-01

Objective: To estimate the frequency of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among different categories of health care workers (HCWs) so as to identify groups and areas requiring special attention for the prevention of occupational transmission of blood borne infections. Design: A cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in Bir Hospital, the central referral hospital of Nepal from December 2001 to February 2002. Patients and Methods: A total of 145 HCWs were selected by random allocation and blood samples were tested for HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), surface antibody (anti-HBs) and core antibody (anti-HBc). Multivariate analysis was done, including calculation of odd ratios for HBV infection by each variable of interest, like age, sex, HCW category, history of blood transfusion and vaccination status. Results: Anti-HBc was positive in 14.5% and HBsAg in 1.4% of HCWs. 20.9% of non-professional staff, 19.2% of nurses, 5.6% of laboratory workers and 3.1 % of doctors had evidence of past or present HBV infection. 48.9% of HCWs, with only 16.7% of laboratory workers and 27.9% of non-professional staff, had received a full course of HBV vaccination. The significant risk factors associated with past or present HBV infection were lack of hepatitis B vaccination (p<0.05) and two HCW categories-nurses (p<0.05) and non-professional staff, who clean the used instruments (p<0.05). Conclusion: Apart from lack of hepatitis B vaccination, nurses and non-professional staff on their own were found to be significantly more susceptible to HBV infection than others. This highlights the need to implement the internationally recommended measures to protect HCWs from blood borne infections. (author)

Occupational therapy students' contribution to occasions of service during practice placements in health settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodger, Sylvia; Stephens, Elizabeth; Clark, Michele; Ash, Susan; Graves, Nicholas

2011-12-01

Currently in the Australian higher education sector, the productivity benefits of occupational therapy clinical education placements are a contested issue. This article will report results of a study that developed a methodology for documenting time use during placements and investigated the productivity changes associated with occupational therapy clinical education placements in Queensland, Australia. Supervisors' and students' time use during placements and how this changed for supervisors compared to pre- and post-placement is also presented. Using a cohort survey design, participants were students from two Queensland universities, and their supervisors employed by Queensland Health. Time use was recorded in 30 minute blocks according to particular categories. There was a significant increase in supervisors' time spent in patient care activities (F = 94.011(2,12.37 df) , P increasing between pre- and during placement (P = 0.028). There was a significant decrease in supervisors' time spent in placement activities (F = 5.133(2,19.18 df) , P = 0.016) from during to post-placement. Students spent more time than supervisors in patient care activities while on placement. A novel method for reporting productivity and time-use changes during clinical education programs for occupational therapy has been applied. Supervisors spent considerable time in assessing and managing students and their clinical education role should be seen as core business in standard occupational therapy practice. This paper will contribute to future assessments of the economic impact of student placements for allied health disciplines. © 2011 The Authors. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2011 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Survey of studies of occupational populations exposed to low-level radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marks, S.

1980-04-01

Studies of occupational populations exposed to large doses of radiation, principally from the ingestion of radium by dial painters and inhalation of radon and its daughters by miners, have provided important information on the health effects of those radioisotopes. Studies of medical radiologists, military personnel exposed to nuclear tests, and factory workers exposed to thorium are in progress. Employees of DOE-contractor facilities and of naval shipyards are also under study. Personnel dosimetry data are generally available for the latter category of occupational populations. Reasons for conducting the studies include interest in exploring the verification at low exposure levels of results of studies of heavily exposed populations and the responsibility of the employer to maintain adequate surveillance of the health of his workers by conducting appropriate epidemiologic studies. The low level of exposure of workers in facilities where adequate personnel dosimetry records are available make it unlikely that the results of such studies can be used to provide health risk estimates in the near future

Categories and logical syntax

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klev, Ansten Morch

2014-01-01

The notions of category and type are here studied through the lens of logical syntax: Aristotle's as well as Kant's categories through the traditional form of proposition `S is P', and modern doctrines of type through the Fregean form of proposition `F(a)', function applied to argument. Topics

Data categories for marine planning

Science.gov (United States)

Lightsom, Frances L.; Cicchetti, Giancarlo; Wahle, Charles M.

2015-01-01

The U.S. National Ocean Policy calls for a science- and ecosystem-based approach to comprehensive planning and management of human activities and their impacts on America’s oceans. The Ocean Community in Data.gov is an outcome of 2010–2011 work by an interagency working group charged with designing a national information management system to support ocean planning. Within the working group, a smaller team developed a list of the data categories specifically relevant to marine planning. This set of categories is an important consensus statement of the breadth of information types required for ocean planning from a national, multidisciplinary perspective. Although the categories were described in a working document in 2011, they have not yet been fully implemented explicitly in online services or geospatial metadata, in part because authoritative definitions were not created formally. This document describes the purpose of the data categories, provides definitions, and identifies relations among the categories and between the categories and external standards. It is intended to be used by ocean data providers, managers, and users in order to provide a transparent and consistent framework for organizing and describing complex information about marine ecosystems and their connections to humans.

The ethno-racial segmentation jobs: The impacts of the occupational stereotypes on hiring decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ndobo, André; Faure, Alice; Boisselier, Jeanne; Giannaki, Stella

2017-10-12

This paper considers both the division of the labor market and the occupational stereotyping as explanatory mechanisms of discrimination in hiring decisions. It hypothesized that recruiters would favor candidates applying for a position that is stereotypically identified with their ethnic category. We solicited 146 recruiters in order to evaluate the hireability of either a native-born or an immigrant candidate, either competent or not competent, for either a prestigious or a low-skill occupation, and to justify their decision in writing. As predicted, both the hireability ratings and the narrative comments produced by recruiters showed that native-born applicants were preferred for prestigious jobs while immigrants tended to be selected more often for low-skill positions.The discussion addresses various issues related to decision-making in recruitment settings.

Occupational rhinitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Petrick, Maria M; Slavin, Raymond G

2003-05-01

This article aims to define occupational rhinitis, classify its various causes, review the steps in its diagnosis, and describe its nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic principles of management. Occupational rhinitis frequently coexists with asthma but also occurs alone. Although it does not have the same impact as occupational asthma, occupational rhinitis causes distress, discomfort, and work inefficiency. By concentrating on the patient's workplace, the clinician has an opportunity to practice preventive medicine: to recognize substances in the patient's micro- and macroenvironment that are causing the problems and then to intervene by altering the environment or removing the patient from the environment.

An Exploration of the Role of Occupation in School-Based Occupational Therapy Practice

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Benson, Jeryl DiSanti

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of occupation in school-based occupational therapy practice. The research questions were (1) How do school-based occupational therapists describe the role of occupation during intervention? (2) Which theories of occupation do school-based occupational therapists associate with their own practice?…

Occupational and demographic factors associated with violence in the emergency department.

Science.gov (United States)

Gates, Donna; Gillespie, Gordon; Kowalenko, Terry; Succop, Paul; Sanker, Maria; Farra, Sharon

2011-01-01

Violence against health care workers is a serious and growing problem. The objectives of this cross-sectional study were to (a) describe the frequency of workplace violence (WPV) against emergency department (ED) workers; (b) identify demographic and occupational characteristics related to WPV; and (c) identify demographic and occupational characteristics related to feelings of safety and level of confidence when dealing with WPV. Survey data were collected from 213 workers at 6 hospital EDs. Verbal and physical violence was prevalent in all 6 EDs. There were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of violence for age, job title, patient population, and hospital location. Sexual harassment was the only category of violence affected by gender with females having a greater frequency. Feelings of safety were positively related to the frequency of WPV. Females were significantly more likely to feel unsafe and have less confidence in dealing with WPV. The study findings indicate that all ED workers are at risk of violence, regardless of personal and occupational characteristics. Feelings of safety are related to job satisfaction and turnover. Violence has serious consequences for the employers, employees, and patients. It is recommended that administration, managers, and employees collaborate to develop and implement prevention strategies to reduce and manage the violence.

Occupational exposure to the municipal solid waste workers in Chandigarh, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Ravindra, Khaiwal; Kaur, Kamalpreet; Mor, Suman

2016-11-01

Manual handling of municipal solid waste is of serious concern owing to emerging occupational risks. Considering this, health risks of municipal solid waste workers involved in street sweeping, waste collection, waste processing and rag picking were assessed in Chandigarh, India, using an interview schedule as a study tool. Result shows that the waste worker profession is mainly dominated by males, except in rag pickers, and with a lower literacy rate. Age distribution shows that 16% of waste collectors and 11% of rag pickers were below 18 years of age. Daily income of the waste workers ranges from ₹100 to ₹200. It was observed that 22.2% of waste collectors, 43.2% of street sweepers and 25.5% of rag pickers do not use any type of protective gears owing to their casual attitude, which results in various types of injuries. The major occupational health issues reported by various categories of waste workers were respiratory disorders, injuries and allergies having prevalence of 12.3%-17.6%, 4.9%-44.4% and 35.3%-48.9%, respectively. Waste workers are vulnerable to occupational health hazards and hence there is a need to safeguard them through formulation of new laws and policies. © The Author(s) 2016.

Anxiety, depression and impaired health-related quality of life in patients with occupational hand eczema.

Science.gov (United States)

Boehm, Dana; Schmid-Ott, Gerhard; Finkeldey, Florence; John, Swen Malte; Dwinger, Christine; Werfel, Thomas; Diepgen, Thomas L; Breuer, Kristine

2012-10-01

Occupational hand eczema is one of the most frequent occupational diseases. Few data about the prevalence of mental comorbidities are available. Objectives. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of anxiety, depression symptoms, the impairment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and their correlates in patients with occupational hand eczema. A test battery consisting of the German versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) as a specific instrument and the Short Form Health Survey-36 (SF-36) as a generic instrument for HRQoL was applied in 122 patients. The severity of hand eczema was assessed with the Osnabrueck Hand Eczema Severity Index (OHSI). Twenty per cent of patients had a positive anxiety score, and 14% had a positive depression score. Higher anxiety levels, a greater impairment in the SF-36 mental component summary score and a higher DLQI category score for symptoms and feelings was detected in females than in males. The OHSI correlated with the impairment in HRQoL, and an association of severe hand eczema with symptoms of anxiety and depression was found in males. We found a high prevalence of anxiety and depression in our study population of patients with occupational hand eczema. Preventive measures should consider the psychosocial implications of occupational hand eczema. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

Occupation and multiple myeloma: an occupation and industry analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gold, Laura S; Milliken, Kevin; Stewart, Patricia; Purdue, Mark; Severson, Richard; Seixas, Noah; Blair, Aaron; Davis, Scott; Hartge, Patricia; De Roos, Anneclaire J

2010-08-01

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy with a poorly understood etiology. The purpose of our research was to examine the relationships between lifetime occupations and MM in a relatively large case-control study. MM cases (n = 180) were identified through cancer registries in the Seattle-Puget Sound area and Detroit. Population-based controls (n = 481) were identified using random digit dialing and Medicare and Medicaid Services files. In-person interviews were conducted to ascertain occupational histories. Standard occupational classification (SOC) and standard industrial classification (SIC) codes were assigned to each job held by each participant. Unconditional logistic regression was used to generate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between MM and having ever worked in each occupation/industry and according to duration of employment in an occupation/industry. The risk of MM was associated with several manufacturing occupations and industries, including machine operators and tenders, not elsewhere classified (SOC 76) (OR = 1.8, CI = 1.0-3.3); textile, apparel, and furnishing machine operators and tenders (SOC 765) (OR = 6.0, CI = 1.7-21); and machinery manufacturing, except electrical (SIC 35) (OR = 3.3, CI = 1.7-6.7). Several service occupations and industries, such as food and beverage preparation (SOC 521) (OR = 2.0, CI = 1.1-3.8), were also associated with MM. One occupation that has been associated with MM in several previous studies, painters, paperhangers, and plasterers (SOC 644) was associated with a non-significantly elevated risk (OR = 3.6, CI = 0.7-19). We found associations between the risk of MM and employment in several manufacturing and service-related occupations and industries. Copyright 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Occupational exposures and risk of pancreatic cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santibanez, Miguel; Vioque, Jesus; Alguacil, Juan; Hera, Manuela Garcia de la; Moreno-Osset, Eduardo; Carrato, Alfredo; Porta, Miquel; Kauppinen, Timo

2010-01-01

The objective was to analyze the relationship between occupation (and specific occupational exposures) and risk of exocrine pancreatic cancer (EPC). We conducted a multicenter hospital-based case-control study in Eastern Spain. We included 161 incident cases of EPC (59.6% men, 94 with histological confirmation, of whom 80% had ductal adenocarcinoma). Cases were frequency-matched with 455 controls by sex, age and province of residence. Information was elicited using structured questionnaires. Occupations were coded according to the Spanish version of the International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988. Occupational exposure to a selection of carcinogenic substances was assessed with the Finnish Job-Exposure Matrix (FINJEM). Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by multiple logistic regression, adjusting for sex, age, province, education, alcohol and smoking. A higher risk of EPC was associated with having worked as 'Miners, shotfirers, stone cutters and carvers', 'Machinery mechanics and fitters', 'Building trades workers' and 'Motor vehicle drivers' in men, 'Office Clerks' in women, and 'Waiters' in both sexes. Cases with ductal adenocarcinomas were more likely to have been exposed to chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents (OR = 4.1, 95% CI: 1.1-15.2, p-trend = 0.04). We also observed significant associations with exposure to 'synthetic polymer dust exposure' and 'ionizing radiation'. Suggestive increases in risk were observed for 'pesticides', 'diesel and gasoline engine exhaust', and 'hydrocarbon solvents'. Results support the hypothesis that occupational exposure to chlorinated hydrocarbon solvents is associated with exocrine pancreatic cancer.

Can the type of organisational structure affect individual well-being in health and social welfare occupations?

Science.gov (United States)

Zotti, A M; Omarini, G; Ragazzoni, P

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyse the perceived stress and individual resources of people involved in health and social welfare occupations, and evaluate whether belonging to different organisational structures leads to different reactions. To this end, we used the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations, and the Team Climate Inventory. The sample consisted of 327 subjects (67% females) with a mean age of 35.9 +/- 8.8 years; most had a middle or high school diploma (63%), and they had been employed in the same place for about four years (47.5 +/- 7.3 months): 103 worked for health and social welfare cooperatives, and 224 for a local health authority. The results showed average burnout values and coping strategies prevalently aimed at directly solving the stressing situation in both working contexts. In comparison with the variables expressing the perceived organisational climate, sociodemographic characteristics did not seem to have a determining influence on the perception of individual stress. Comparison of the subjects employed in the two settings showed that organisational vision and a sense of belonging significantly determined subjective well-being, with the healthcare workers showed greater individual ill-being and a worse vision (i.e. an unclear perception of hospital choices and objectives). Our findings confirm that subjective well-being in high-touch occupations may be determined by the organisational culture: a mutual aid culture such as that of a cooperative has a protective effect despite the fact that the employment situation of the workers is more precarious and flexible than that of workers employed in highly structured environments such as that of a hospital.

Class categories and the subjective dimension of class: the case of Denmark.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrits, Gitte Sommer; Pedersen, Helene Helboe

2018-03-01

Class relations have been proven to affect various aspects of social life, even in modern individualized societies. However, following claims on individualization and the so-called 'death of class' thesis, studying the subjective dimension of class - that is, the way individuals perceive of class relations and their own position within them - has gone out of style. We argue that even in equalized societies, subjective class perceptions may still influence attitudes and behaviour as they evolve to fit modern class relations. To explore the existence as well as structure and content of perceived social classes, this article investigates how people describe society and social groups in focus group discussions. We find that groups in different positions in terms of education and economy all tend to apply hierarchical class categories to describe Danish society, which is normally seen as one of the most equal societies and political systems in the world. In addition, we find that economic resources serve as a baseline for the hierarchical ordering, often supplemented with notions of education, lifestyle and/or occupational profile. Even though people are somewhat uncomfortable with the notion of class, their descriptions of Danish society and classes are surprisingly similar within and across groups. We conclude that not only do class relations matter; people are also highly aware of the existing classes and able to position themselves and others according to their notion of classes. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2017.

Towards inclusive occupational therapy: Introducing the CORE approach for inclusive and occupation-focused practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Pereira, Robert B

2017-12-01

Occupation is a human right and a social determinant of health. It is also taken for granted. Having access to, and participating in, occupation, is intricately linked to positive health and wellbeing. Despite theory and evidence to support the link between occupation, health and wellbeing, occupational therapists can struggle with applying an occupation focus in practice and knowing how to use occupational frameworks to enable occupation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Capabilities, Opportunities, Resources and Environments (CORE) approach for inclusive and occupation-focused practice. It provides occupational therapists with a means of operationalising occupational enablement and facilitating social inclusion. The CORE approach is introduced by linking its main ideas to Economist and Nobel Prize Laureate Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, as well as findings from the author's doctoral research into entrenched disadvantage and social inclusion. Practical questions guided by the CORE approach's acronym are given to explore how the approach can be utilised alongside other occupational models and frameworks to encourage strategies for effective enablement through occupation for social inclusion. As experts in enabling occupation, occupational therapists can use the CORE approach to design occupation-focused interventions and promote inclusive occupational therapy. © 2017 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Play and play occupation: a survey of paediatric occupational therapy practice in Ireland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alice Moore

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose - Play occupation has been identified as an essential part of children’s lives, and it subsequently features in paediatric occupational therapy. However, few studies address the current place of play and play occupation in occupational therapy practice. This study aims to address this gap in knowledge by exploring paediatric occupational therapists’ perspectives on the place of play and play occupation in occupational therapy practice in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to gather data about the current use of play in the occupational therapy for children under 12 years. Convenience sampling and snowball recruitment techniques were used to recruit paediatric occupational therapists. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. Findings - In total, 65 therapists responded to the survey (estimated response rate, 32%. Results are organised into four sections: demographics and practice context, play assessment practices, use of play in practice and perceived barriers to play-centred practice. Respondents reported that they valued play as a childhood occupation. However, the survey findings identified that the primary focus was on play as a means to an end. Lack of education on play (research, theory and interventions and pressures in the workplace have been identified as barriers to play-centred practice. Research limitations/implications - Findings indicate that there is a mismatch between therapists valuing play as an occupation and how play is used in occupational therapy practice. Unless clarifications are made about play occupation as being different to skills acquisition in childhood, play occupation will continue to get overlooked as an authentic concern of occupation-centred practice. Thus, play as occupation deserves further attention from educators, researchers and practitioners as a means of strengthening occupation-centred practice, in

An Elective Course Exploring Occupational Justice Through Occupational Storytelling and Story Making

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Julie Bednarski

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to examine whether second-year Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT students who enroll in the elective course “Occupation in Long-Term Care (LTC” would be able to apply concepts of occupational justice in the nursing home environment through engaging residents in occupational storytelling and story making in order to facilitate resident self-advocacy for participation in a valued occupation. The occupational therapy elective course was developed and implemented with students alternating between the classroom and the nursing home environments. Outcome evaluation measurements included analysis of student reflective journaling to obtain qualitative data. The researcher found that students are able to understand the concepts and issues of occupational justice in the nursing home population and apply knowledge to facilitate the resident’s participation in meaningful occupations.

The occupational health and safety of flight attendants.

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Griffiths, Robin F; Powell, David M C

2012-05-01

In order to perform safety-critical roles in emergency situations, flight attendants should meet minimum health standards and not be impaired by factors such as fatigue. In addition, the unique occupational and environmental characteristics of flight attendant employment may have consequential occupational health and safety implications, including radiation exposure, cancer, mental ill-health, musculoskeletal injury, reproductive disorders, and symptoms from cabin air contamination. The respective roles of governments and employers in managing these are controversial. A structured literature review was undertaken to identify key themes for promoting a future agenda for flight attendant health and safety. Recommendations include breast cancer health promotion, implementation of Fatigue Risk Management Systems, standardization of data collection on radiation exposure and health outcomes, and more coordinated approaches to occupational health and safety risk management. Research is ongoing into cabin air contamination incidents, cancer, and fatigue as health and safety concerns. Concerns are raised that statutory medical certification for flight attendants will not benefit either flight safety or occupational health.

Influence of heat cost allocation on occupants' control of indoor environment in 56 apartments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Søren; Andersen, Rune Korsholm; Olesen, Bjarne W.

2016-01-01

-structured interviews showed a strong influence of the heat cost allocation plan on the occupants' control strategies. Occupants whose heating bills were based on floor area focused on a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. Occupants whose heating bills were based on meter readings focused on energy conservation...... of this paper was to study the indoor environment in buildings with collective and individual heat cost allocation plans, to investigate how the heat cost allocation influenced occupant behaviour and how occupants controlled the indoor environment. The effects of the heat cost allocation type were studied...

Power and confidence in professions: lessons for occupational therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Clark, Florence A

2010-12-01

Powerful professions have the capacity to obtain leadership positions, advocate successfully in the policy arena, and secure the resources necessary to achieve their professional goals. Within the occupational therapy profession, cultivating power and confidence among our practitioners is essential to realize our full capacity for meeting society's occupational needs. Drawing from a historical analysis of the medical and nursing professions, this paper discusses the implications of power and disempowerment among health professions for their practitioners, clients, and public image. Theoretical perspectives on power from social psychology, politics, organizational management, and post-structuralism are introduced and their relevance to the profession of occupational therapy is examined. The paper concludes with recommendations for occupational therapy practitioners to analyze their individual sources of power and evaluate opportunities to develop confidence and secure power for their professional work--in venues both in and outside the workplace.

Epidemiology of occupational injury among cleaners in the healthcare sector.

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Alamgir, Hasanat; Yu, Shicheng

2008-09-01

The cleaning profession has been associated with multiple ergonomic and chemical hazards which elevate the risk for occupational injury. This study investigated the epidemiology of occupational injury among cleaners in healthcare work settings in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Incidents of occupational injury among cleaners, resulting in lost time from work or medical care, over a period of 1 year in two healthcare regions were extracted from a standardized operational database and with person-years obtained from payroll data. Detailed analysis was conducted using Poisson regression modeling. A total of 145 injuries were identified among cleaners, with an annual incidence rate of 32.1 per 100 person-years. After adjustment for age, gender, subsector, facility, experience and employment status, Poisson regression models demonstrated that a significantly higher relative risk (RR) of all injury, musculoskeletal injury and cuts was associated with cleaning work in acute care facilities, compared with long-term care facilities. Female cleaners were at a higher RR of all injuries and contusions than male cleaners. A lower risk of all injury and allergy and irritation incidents among part-time or casual workers was found. Cleaners with >10 years of experience were at significantly lower risk for all injury, contusion and allergy and irritation incidents. Cleaners were found to be at an elevated risk of all injury categories compared with healthcare workers in general.

The Portrayal of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science in Canadian Newspapers: A Content Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsing-Yee (Emily Chai

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities of everyday life. The demand for occupational therapists in Canada is expected to grow sharply at an annual growth rate of 3.2%, compared to 0.7% for all occupations. At the same time, it is believed by occupational therapists in Canada that the Canadian public does not understand the role of occupational therapy. Occupational science is an emerging basic science field that supports the practice of occupational therapy. Given that newspapers are one source the public uses to obtain information and that newspapers are seen to shape public opinions, the purpose of this study is to investigate how “occupational therapy” is covered in Canadian newspapers from the term’s first appearance in 1917 until 2016 and how “occupational science” is covered from the term’s first appearance in 1989 to 2016. We interrogated the findings through the lens of three non-newspaper sources—two academic journals: Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy (CJOT and Journal of Occupational Science (JOS; and one Canadian magazine: Occupational Therapy Now (OTN. We found that medical terms were prevalent in the newspaper articles covering occupational therapy similar to the presence of medical terms in the CJOT and OTN. However, the newspapers missed contemporary shifts in occupational therapy as evident in the CJOT, OTN and JOS—such as the increased engagement with enablement, occupational justice and other occupational concepts. The newspapers also failed to portray the societal issues that occupational therapy engages with on behalf of and with their clients, and the newspapers did not cover many of the client groups of occupational therapy. Occupational science was only mentioned in n = 26 articles of the nearly 300 Canadian newspapers covered with no concrete content linked to occupational science. The scope of occupational therapy presented in Canadian

Berkson error adjustment and other exposure surrogates in occupational case-control studies, with application to the Canadian INTEROCC study.

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Oraby, Tamer; Sivaganesan, Siva; Bowman, Joseph D; Kincl, Laurel; Richardson, Lesley; McBride, Mary; Siemiatycki, Jack; Cardis, Elisabeth; Krewski, Daniel

2018-05-01

Many epidemiological studies assessing the relationship between exposure and disease are carried out without data on individual exposures. When this barrier is encountered in occupational studies, the subject exposures are often evaluated with a job-exposure matrix (JEM), which consists of mean exposure for occupational categories measured on a comparable group of workers. One of the objectives of the seven-country case-control study of occupational exposure and brain cancer risk, INTEROCC, was to investigate the relationship of occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) in different frequency ranges and brain cancer risk. In this paper, we use the Canadian data from INTEROCC to estimate the odds of developing brain tumours due to occupational exposure to EMF. The first step was to find the best EMF exposure surrogate among the arithmetic mean, the geometric mean, and the mean of log-normal exposure distribution for each occupation in the JEM, in comparison to Berkson error adjustments via numerical approximation of the likelihood function. Contrary to previous studies of Berkson errors in JEMs, we found that the geometric mean was the best exposure surrogate. This analysis provided no evidence that cumulative lifetime exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields increases brain cancer risk, a finding consistent with other recent epidemiological studies.

Effects of the new radiation protection act on the radiation protection register and the monitoring of occupational radiation exposure; Auswirkungen des neuen Strahlenschutzgesetzes auf das Strahlenschutzregister und die berufliche Strahlenueberwachung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frasch, G. [Bundesamt fuer Strahlenschutz (Germany)

2016-07-01

The implementation of DIRECTIVE 2013/59 / EURATOM (EURATOM Basic Safety Standards) is via the new radiation protection law and brings in the monitoring of occupational radiation among others two significant new features and changes: - Introduction of a unique personal identifier, - update of the occupational categories. Both require technical and organizational changes in the data transmission of the licensees to the dosimetry services and the radiation protection register.

Psychometric properties of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure in home-dwelling older adults

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Tuntland, Hanne; Aaslund, Mona Kristin; Langeland, Eva; Espehaug, Birgitte; Kjeken, Ingvild

2016-01-01

Background The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) is an occupational therapy instrument designed to help participants identify, prioritize, and evaluate performance of important occupations. Objective To investigate the validity, responsiveness, interpretability, and feasibility of the COPM when used by various health professions in home-dwelling older adults receiving reablement. Reablement is a new form of multidisciplinary home-based rehabilitation for older adults experiencing functional decline. Participants and methods The sample of 225 participants, mean age 80.8 years, who were in need of rehabilitation for various health conditions were included in the study. Data collection was conducted at baseline and at 10 weeks follow-up. The COSMIN guidelines and recommendations for evaluating methodological quality were followed. Results Content validity, construct validity, and feasibility were found to be adequate. Responsiveness, however, was moderate. Functional mobility was the most frequently prioritized occupational category of all. Regarding interpretability, the minimal important change was 3.0 points and 3.2 points for performance and satisfaction, respectively. The older adults reported that COPM was a useful and manageable instrument. The majority of the occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and nurses reported that they had the required expertise to conduct the COPM assessments. Conclusion The results support the multidisciplinary use of the COPM in clinical practice and research in a home-dwelling, heterogeneous population of older adults. Based on the findings, 3 points are recommended as a cutoff point to distinguish between older adults who have a minimal important change in COPM performance and COPM satisfaction and those who have not. PMID:27621647

The interaction of short-term and long-term memory in phonetic category formation

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Harnsberger, James D.

2002-05-01

This study examined the role that short-term memory capacity plays in the relationship between novel stimuli (e.g., non-native speech sounds, native nonsense words) and phonetic categories in long-term memory. Thirty native speakers of American English were administered five tests: categorial AXB discrimination using nasal consonants from Malayalam; categorial identification, also using Malayalam nasals, which measured the influence of phonetic categories in long-term memory; digit span; nonword span, a short-term memory measure mediated by phonetic categories in long-term memory; and paired-associate word learning (word-word and word-nonword pairs). The results showed that almost all measures were significantly correlated with one another. The strongest predictor for the discrimination and word-nonword learning results was nonword (r=+0.62) and digit span (r=+0.51), respectively. When the identification test results were partialed out, only nonword span significantly correlated with discrimination. The results show a strong influence of short-term memory capacity on the encoding of phonetic detail within phonetic categories and suggest that long-term memory representations regulate the capacity of short-term memory to preserve information for subsequent encoding. The results of this study will also be discussed with regards to resolving the tension between episodic and abstract models of phonetic category structure.

Perceptual category learning and visual processing: An exercise in computational cognitive neuroscience.

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Cantwell, George; Riesenhuber, Maximilian; Roeder, Jessica L; Ashby, F Gregory

2017-05-01

The field of computational cognitive neuroscience (CCN) builds and tests neurobiologically detailed computational models that account for both behavioral and neuroscience data. This article leverages a key advantage of CCN-namely, that it should be possible to interface different CCN models in a plug-and-play fashion-to produce a new and biologically detailed model of perceptual category learning. The new model was created from two existing CCN models: the HMAX model of visual object processing and the COVIS model of category learning. Using bitmap images as inputs and by adjusting only a couple of learning-rate parameters, the new HMAX/COVIS model provides impressively good fits to human category-learning data from two qualitatively different experiments that used different types of category structures and different types of visual stimuli. Overall, the model provides a comprehensive neural and behavioral account of basal ganglia-mediated learning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[History of occupational health physician and industrial safety and health law].

Science.gov (United States)

Horie, Seichi

2013-10-01

In Japan, an employer of a workplace with 50 or more employees is legally required to assign an occupational health physician. The assignment rate in 2010 was reported as 87.0%. This policy started with the provision of "factory physician"in the Factory Law in 1938, then the Labour Standard Law stipulated "physician hygienist" in 1947, and finally the Industrial Safety and Health Law defined "occupational health physician" in 1972. In 1996, a revision of the law then required those physicians to complete training courses in occupational medicine, as designated by an ordinance. Historically, an on-site physician was expected to cure injuries and to prevent communicable diseases of factory workers. The means of occupational hygienic management by working environment measurements, etc., and of health management by health examinations, etc., were developed. Localized exhaust ventilation and personal protection equipment became widely utilized. Qualification systems for non-medical experts in occupational hygiene were structured, and relationships between employers and occupational health physicians were stipulated in the legislative documents. Currently, the Japan Medical Association and the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan educate and train occupational health physicians, and the Japan Society for Occupational Health maintains a specialized board certification system for these physicians. In the future, additional efforts should be made to strengthen the expertise of occupational health physicians, to define and recognize the roles of non-medical experts in occupational hygiene, to incorporate occupational health services in small enterprises, to promote occupational health risk assessment in the workplace, and to reorganize the current legislation, amended repeatedly over the decades.

Right away: A late, right-lateralized category effect complements an early, left-lateralized category effect in visual search.

Science.gov (United States)

Constable, Merryn D; Becker, Stefanie I

2017-10-01

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, learned semantic categories can influence early perceptual processes. A central finding in support of this view is the lateralized category effect-namely, the finding that categorically different colors (e.g., blue and green hues) can be discriminated faster than colors within the same color category (e.g., different hues of green), especially when they are presented in the right visual field. Because the right visual field projects to the left hemisphere, this finding has been popularly couched in terms of the left-lateralization of language. However, other studies have reported bilateral category effects, which has led some researchers to question the linguistic origins of the effect. Here we examined the time course of lateralized and bilateral category effects in the classical visual search paradigm by means of eyetracking and RT distribution analyses. Our results show a bilateral category effect in the manual responses, which is combined of an early, left-lateralized category effect and a later, right-lateralized category effect. The newly discovered late, right-lateralized category effect occurred only when observers had difficulty locating the target, indicating a specialization of the right hemisphere to find categorically different targets after an initial error. The finding that early and late stages of visual search show different lateralized category effects can explain a wide range of previously discrepant findings.

Industrial occupational exposure in the Taiwan province of the Republic of China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weng, P.-S.; Li, S.-Y.

1982-01-01

This paper contains a summary of occupational radiation exposure for industry in the Taiwan Province of the Republic of China over the past two decades. Also included is a survey of radiation sources, radiation workers by age and sex, the category of industry, the accumulated dose equivalent range, and the average dose equivalent. A radiation safety training program was developed to educate radiation workers in the effects of radiation and to prepare them to take a licensing examination. The licensing examination and the status of licensees are also discussed. (author)

Self-perceived Occupational Prestige among Romanian Teaching Staff: Organisational Explicative Factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Valeriu FRUNZARU

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Most studies discuss occupational prestige by stressing out the macro-social aspects related to specific social stratification models. This paper aims to address the impact of organizational aspects on how teachers perceive the prestige of their occupational group, moving the focus on the micro-social context of their daily activity. The way teaching staff evaluate the social prestige of their profession fulfils normative and motivational functions and is, hence, reflected in how they actually perform their professional roles, serving both explicative and prospective purposes. In trying to identify the main factors that can explain the self-perceived level of occupational prestige among educators and teachers, we conducted a national level study among Romanian teachers (N=2165 from preschool to high school educational stages. Within the explicative model (R²=0.38, we were able to group the factors in three main categories: material conditions, bureaucratic and relational aspects. The findings reveal that teachers’ involvement in bureaucratic activities such as elaborating different reports, as well as a lower level of satisfaction regarding the relation they have with students, parents and representatives of the school's management end up decreasing the self-perceived occupational prestige. Our study lays emphasis on the fact that organizational factors influence teachers' selfperceived prestige and, thus, can affect the overall quality of the educational act. Therefore, to improve this, a greater involvement of national and local authorities in providing better material conditions in schools, in supporting the debureaucratization of the educational system and re-evaluating the role of teacher-student-parent communication triad is needed.

Occupational variation in incidence of bladder cancer: a comparison of population-representative cohorts from Nordic countries and Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Hadkhale, Kishor; MacLeod, Jill; Demers, Paul A; Martinsen, Jan Ivar; Weiderpass, Elisabete; Kjaerheim, Kristina; Lynge, Elsebeth; Sparen, Pär; Tryggvadottir, Laufey; Anne Harris, M; Tjepkema, Michael; Peters, Paul A; Pukkala, Eero

2017-08-04

The objective of this study was to compare occupational variation of the risk of bladder cancer in the Nordic countries and Canada. In the Nordic Occupational Cancer study (NOCCA), 73 653 bladder cancer cases were observed during follow-up of 141.6 million person-years. In the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC), 8170 cases were observed during the follow-up of 36.7 million person-years. Standardised incidence ratios with 95% CI were estimated for 53 occupations in the NOCCA cohort and HR with 95% CIs were estimated for 42 occupations in the CanCHEC. Elevated risks of bladder cancer were observed among hairdressers, printers, sales workers, plumbers, painters, miners and laundry workers. Teachers and agricultural workers had reduced risk of bladder cancer in both cohorts. Chimney-sweeps, tobacco workers and waiters had about 1.5-fold risk in the Nordic countries; no risk estimates for these categories were given from the CanCHEC cohort. We observed different occupational patterns in risk of bladder cancer in Nordic countries and Canada. The only occupation with similarly increased risk was observed among sales workers. Differences in smoking across occupational groups may explain some, but not all, of this variation. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Structural similarity causes different category-effects depending on task characteristics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gerlach, Christian

2001-01-01

difference was found on easy object decision tasks. In experiment 2 an advantage for natural objects was found during object decisions performed under degraded viewing conditions (lateralized stimulus presentation). It is argued that these findings can be accounted for by assuming that natural objects...... it is in difficult object decision tasks). However, when viewing conditions are degraded and performance tends to depend on global shape information (carried by low spatial frequency components), natural objects may fare better than artefacts because the global shape of natural objects reveals more of their identity......It has been suggested that category-specific impairments for natural objects may reflect that natural objects are more globally visually similar than artefacts and therefore more difficult to recognize following brain damage [Aphasiology 13 (1992) 169]. This account has been challenged...

Occupational Health Impacts Due to Exposure to Organic Chemicals over an Entire Product Life Cycle.

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Kijko, Gaël; Jolliet, Olivier; Margni, Manuele

2016-12-06

This article presents an innovative approach to include occupational exposures to organic chemicals in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) by building on the characterization factors set out in Kijko et al. (2015) to calculate the potential impact of occupational exposure over the entire supply chain of product or service. Based on an economic input-output model and labor and economic data, the total impacts per dollar of production are provided for 430 commodity categories and range from 0.025 to 6.6 disability-adjusted life years (DALY) per million dollar of final economic demand. The approach is applied on a case study assessing human health impacts over the life cycle of a piece of office furniture. It illustrates how to combine monitoring data collected at the manufacturing facility and averaged sector specific data to model the entire supply chain. This paper makes the inclusion of occupational exposure to chemicals fully compatible with the LCA framework by including the supply chain of a given production process and will help industries focus on the leading causes of human health impacts and prevent impact shifting.

The Micro-Category Account of Analogy

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Green, Adam E.; Fugelsang, Jonathan A.; Kraemer, David J. M.; Dunbar, Kevin N.

2008-01-01

Here, we investigate how activation of mental representations of categories during analogical reasoning influences subsequent cognitive processing. Specifically, we present and test the central predictions of the "Micro-Category" account of analogy. This account emphasizes the role of categories in aligning terms for analogical mapping. In a…

Consequences of the new radiation protection law on the radiation protection register and the occupational radiation protection; Auswirkungen des neuen Strahlenschutzgesetzes auf das Strahlenschutzregister und die berufliche Strahlenueberwachung

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frasch, Gerhard

2017-08-01

The implementation of the guideline 2013/59/EURATOM has been performed in the new radiation protection law. The most important consequences of the new radiation protection law for the occupational radiation protection are the following: the introduction of an explicit personal indicator and the actualization of occupational categories for employees. These facts require technical and administrative reorganization in data transmission of the licensee to the regulatory monitoring executive and the radiation protection register.

Monoidal categories and topological field theory

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Turaev, Vladimir

2017-01-01

This monograph is devoted to monoidal categories and their connections with 3-dimensional topological field theories. Starting with basic definitions, it proceeds to the forefront of current research. Part 1 introduces monoidal categories and several of their classes, including rigid, pivotal, spherical, fusion, braided, and modular categories. It then presents deep theorems of Müger on the center of a pivotal fusion category. These theorems are proved in Part 2 using the theory of Hopf monads. In Part 3 the authors define the notion of a topological quantum field theory (TQFT) and construct a Turaev-Viro-type 3-dimensional state sum TQFT from a spherical fusion category. Lastly, in Part 4 this construction is extended to 3-manifolds with colored ribbon graphs, yielding a so-called graph TQFT (and, consequently, a 3-2-1 extended TQFT). The authors then prove the main result of the monograph: the state sum graph TQFT derived from any spherical fusion category is isomorphic to the Reshetikhin-Turaev surgery gr...