Factors contributing to job satisfaction following rehabilitation for musculoskeletal impairments

The study investigates whether changing jobs is related to work-related well-being of people with musculoskeletal impairments. In order to assess this relationship subjects who began new jobs after rehabilitation (N=52) were compared with subjects who returned to their former employment (N=63). Work-related well-being was measured by means of the scales job satisfaction and need to recover after work. After controlling for individual characteristics (gender, age, working hours per week, and pain complaints) and job characteristics (job demands and decision latitude), job satisfaction could be predicted by job change. Recovery need after work was predicted by pain complaints, job demands, and decision latitude, but not by job change.     

Dimensionen der Zufriedenheit im Alter

Zusammenfassung In einer Interview-Studie von 480 Betagten in städtischen Verhältnissen wurden neben anderen Fragen auch solche zur Zufriedenheit gestellt. Eine Faktoranalyse der Antworten erlaubt die Unterscheidung eines Faktors Depressivität von einem Faktor Zufriedenheit mit Sozial-kontakten und einer gesundheitlichen Dimension.

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Dimensions of satisfaction among old people

Summary In an interview study of 480 aged persons, questions on satisfaction with several aspects of life were included. A factor analysis allows to distinguish a factor relating to depressivity from a factor satisfaction with social contacts and a health-related dimension.

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Dimensions de la satisfaction des personnes âgées

Résumé Das une enquête d'un échantillon de 480 personnes âgées, des questions concernant leur satisfaction ont été inclues dans l'interview. Une analyse factorielle permet de distinguer un facteur associé à la dépressivité d'un facteur satisfaction avec les contactes sociaux et d'une dimension santé.

     

Hard hats vs. soft hearts: The conflict between principles and reality in child and adolescent care and treatment programs

Much of child care in volves quick reactions based on one's automatic pilot derived from how we were parented. This paper is about two seemingly universal automatic pilot systems—the hard hats and the soft hearts. Hard hats are behavior management and modification oriented, while soft hearts are psychodynamically and counselling oriented. Typically, the hard hats tend to have the upper hand due to the nature of our culture, and they therefore have the effect of preventing the contributions of the soft hearts from being realized. That all too frequently sets up a dominant culture and a resentful minority situation. To correct this imbalance, a value orientation from the top which emphasizes mutual respect and utilization is suggested.Grateful acknowledgement is made to Ray Peterson for his helpful suggestions in the preparation of this paper.     

Chronic toxicity and bioaccumulation of 2,5,2′,5′- and 3,4,3′,4′-tetrachlorobiphenyl and Aroclor® 1242 in the amphipodHyalella azteca

The addition of 100 (g/L of Aroclor^® 1242 (A1242) or 2,5,2,5-tetrachlorobiphenyl (TeCB) during 10 week chronic toxicity tests withHyalella azteca resulted in complete mortality. There were no effects on survival, growth, or reproduction after addition of 30 g/L. Toxic effects were observed at tissue levels of between 30 and 180 g/g on a wet weight basis, and tissue levels appear to be a better indicator of toxicity than levels in water. No toxic effects were observed after additions of up to 2,700 g/L of the coplanar congener 3,4,3,4-TeCB.H. azteca has the ability to avoid accumulating in excess of 140 g/g 3,4,3,4-TeCB. The amount taken up was proportional to the amount added in water up to 100 g/L, but was constant at higher additions, possibly accounting for its relatively low toxicity. The low toxicity of the coplanar congener, as compared to the non-coplanar 2,5,2,5-TeCB, is in direct contrast to the high toxicity of coplanar PCB congeners to mammals and may be associated with slower rates of aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism in amphipods. Polychlorinated biphenyl levels measured in amphipods from Lake Ontario are approximately 100-fold below levels associated with toxicity inH. azteca, but are above levels which, through biomagnification up the food chain, lead to salmonid residues in excess of 2 g/g, a tolerance limit for human consumption.     

An evolutionary perspective of sex-typed toy preferences: pink,blue, and the brain

Large sex differences in children's toy preferences are attributed to gender group identification and social learning. The proposal outlined in this paper is that contemporary conceptual categories of masculine or feminine toys are also influenced by evolved perceptual categories of male-preferred and female-preferred objects. Research on children exposed prenatally to atypical levels of androgens and research on typically developing infants suggest sex-dimorphic preferences exist for object features, such as movement or color/form. The evolution and neurobiology of mammalian visual processing—and recent findings on sex-dimorphic toy preferences in nonhuman primates—suggest further that an innate bias for processing object movement or color/form may contribute to behaviors with differential adaptive significance for males and females. In this way, preferences for objects such as toys may indicate a biological preparedness for a masculine or feminine gender role—one that develops more fully as early perceptual preferences are coupled with object experiences imposed by contemporary gender socialization.     

Internal exposure to organic substances in a municipal waste incinerator

Summary Fifty-three persons occupied in a municipal waste incinerator were examined with respect to their internal exposure to organic substances which may be produced during pyrolysis of organic matter. For this purpose the levels of benzene in blood, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in plasma, and mono- (MCPs), di- (DCPs), tri- (TCPs), tetra-(TECPs) and pentachlorophenol (PCP) and hydroxypyrene in urine were determined. For control purposes, 431 men and women were examined. Significantly higher values for the workers were found for the excretion of hydroxypyrene [median (m): 0.24vs 0.11 g/l; non-smokers], 2,4/2,5-DCP (m: 10.5 vs 3.9 g/l) and 2,4,5-TCP (m: 1.2 vs 0.8 g/l) and for the HCB level in plasma (m: 4.4 vs 2.8 g/l). For the concentrations of 4-MCP and 2,3,4,6/2,3,5,6-TECP, the controls had significantly higher concentrations in urine than did the workers in the incineration plant (m: 4-MCP 1.7 vs 1.2; 2,3,4,6/2,3,5,6-TECP: 1.2 vs 0.3 g/l). No significant differences between workers and controls were detected with respect to benzene in blood (m: 0.20 vs 0.28 g/l; non-smokers), 2,4,6-TCP and PCPs in urine (m: 0.85 vs 0.60 and 2.2 vs 2.2 g/l) or the levels of PCB congeners in plasma (m: 138, 153, 180: 5.6 vs 4.1 g/l). The elevated levels of hydroxypyrene, 2,4/2,5-DCP, 2,4,5-TCP and HCB in biological material may be related to the incineration of the waste. These elevations, however, are very small and are of interest more from the environmental than from the occupational point of view.     

The need for “psychological parents” by children in residential treatment

The literature on the socialization of children is reviewed. It is concluded that a major factor contributing to conduct problems in children is the lack of effective child caring at home. The special adult-child relationship which differentiates biological from psychological parenting is described. Implications for the residential treatment of children are discussed.     

Effect of aflatoxin B and rubratoxin B on bacteriophage and rabbit cornea cells

Summary Rabbit cornea cells exhibited a sensitivity to 1 g aflatoxin b₁ and 5 g rubratoxin B per ml of growth medium. No changes were observed in the bacteriophages tested in the presence of 25 g aflatoxin b₁ or 100 g rubratoxin B per ml of medium by the plaque-forming unit method or single-step growth curves.     

“I never thought I'd make it quite this far”: A personal journey in international understanding

The author provides a brief account of her travel and experiences in several developing countries and explores some of the resulting personal transformations in her attitudes, assumptions and understandings. Persons working with children and youth can learn much from those countries which are economically under-developed, but which retain a simplicity in daily life and a commitment to the central importance of family and community.     

Severity, timing, and structure of disability

Summary Objectives: Severity and timing are key aspects of disability experience for individuals. They also generate a populations disability structure (prevalence, counts, patterns). We study links among severity, duration, and structure for community-dwelling adults in the US.Methods: The data source is the National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement. Disabilities in personal care (ADL), household management (IADL), and physical functions (PLIM) are analyzed.Results: Many combinations of disabilities are possible, but just a few are frequent; the top-10 patterns cover 70% of ADL, 89% of IADL, and 47% of PLIM disabled adults. Hierarchical patterns are common for ADLs and IADLs. People with many disabilities also have more-severe ones, and their disabilities often started at the same time.Conclusions: Disability structure reflects severity and timing of specific disabilities, sometimes strongly, and other times weakly due to exit processes from the community. Assumptions that disability occurs in hard tasks first and easy ones last, and that hard-and-early connotes mild disability whereas easy-and-late connotes severe, need direct empirical testing.     

Sexuality,Fertility, and Danger: Twentieth-Century Images of Women with Cognitive Disabilities

Historically, women with cognitive disabilities in the United States have been portrayed as sexually and socially threatening, and in need of professional management and control. Expressions of concern over the sexual nature of this group are still present in medical, legal, and popular cultural discourse. This presentation considers five examples (four nonfiction and one fictional) where the sexual identities of women with cognitive disabilities received national scrutiny: the sterilization of Carrie Buck; the institutionalization of Deborah Kallikak the Glen Ridge sexual assault case; the sterilization of Cindy Wasiek; and the movie The Other Sister. These examples reveal that implicit cultural assumptions (modern fairy tales) about the sexuality and fertility of women with cognitive disabilities are embedded in United States history, and still very much in evidence today.     

Employment status and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Objectives: Recently, the conditions for disability benefits were redefined in several countries, stimulating employees to participate on the labour market as long as reasonably possible. Little is known of labour participation and quality of life (QoL) of employees with chronic diseases. This study examines the associations between employment status and QoL in COPD patients. Additionally, the role of lung function, and work-related symptoms and exposures on QoL were explored. Methods: Secondary analyses were conducted on baseline data from a randomized control trail. Patients were categorized as: paid-workers; voluntary non-paid workers (e.g., early retired, house wives) or disabled for work. QoL was assessed by the Chronic Respiratory Questionnaire (CRQ). Between-group differences in CRQ scores, and associations between work-related symptoms or irritants and CRQ scores were uni- and multivariately analysed. Results: Two hundred and ten patients with COPD were included [mean age 53.9 (SD 6.8) years, FEV₁ %predicted 63.5 (SD 18.5)]. No statistically significant differences in lung function between the employment status subgroups were observed. Multivariable analysis showed that the disabled had lower CRQ scores as compared with paid workers (0.52 point difference, p<0.001). The CRQ scores of voluntary non-paid workers were not significantly different from paid workers. Within the group paid workers, patients with many work-related clinical symptoms and being susceptible to various work-related irritants experienced a lower QoL than patients who had respectively no symptoms, or who were not susceptible to these factors. Conclusions: Patients with COPD who were disabled for work showed equal severity of airflow limitation but worse QoL, as compared with paid workers.     

Polychlorobiphenyls, ΣDDT,and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers in the western North Pacific ecosystem

Polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), DDT (p,p-DDT,p,p-DDD, andp,p-DDE and HCH isomers (hexachlorocyclohexanes including , , and isomers) were determined in a marine food chain, including seawater, zooplankton, myctophid, squid and striped dolphin collected from the western North Pacific waters. The concentrations of these pollutants increased in higher trophic levels, where the highest bioconcentration factors (concentration ratio in organisms to water), as much as 10⁷, were obtained from both PCBs and DDT in striped dolphin. The proportions of highly chlorinated biphenyls,p,p-DDE and -HCH increased in higher-ranking predators. These observations suggest that the bioaccumulation mechanisms in lower trophic levels depend primarily on the physicochemical properties of pollutants, whereas those in higher trophic levels are affected by the biodegradability of the pollutants and the metabolic capacity and life-span of the organisms.     

Phase shift in temperature rhythm ffter transmeridian flight,as related to pre-flight phase angle

Summary Further analysis of temperature rhythms obtained in an earlier study of 38 subjects subjected to an 8-h eastward transmeridian flight showed that the extent to which the phase of the rhythm was shifted after the flight was related to the phase angle of the pre-flight rhythm. Late peakers shifted more than early peakers, and this difference between the two types was still as large after 12 days in the new time zone as on the first day. Because the phase-shift was an advance one, this meant that the pre-flight individual differences in phase-angle were abolished by the flight, and had not re-appeared by the end of the observation period. It is suggested that this may have been due to an increase in the rigidity of the routine in the post-flight stage of the study, and that a similar effect may also occur in a switch from day to shiftwork.     

Managing for health: why health care?

Health and health care are increasingly big business. The challenge is to apply our knowledge and skills to meet people's needs, if not their demands as efficiently, effectively and beneficially as possible. Value for money is the slogan. For those who deliver the goods as required, the converse, money for value should equally apply, and not only in a market driven system. This paper offers a very personal view of these issues in the light of recent UK policy developments.     

Chromatographic determination of dicofol and metabolites in egg yolks

Egg yolk was spiked withp,p-dicofol (p,p-DCF) (0.1–2.0 g/gm),p,p-dichlorobenzophenone (p,p-DCBP) (0.1–2.0 (g/gm), and 1,1-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-2,2-dichloroethylene (p,p- DDE) (0.05–1.0 g/gm). The fortified egg yolk (2–5 g) was mixed with acetonitrile to extract non-fat organic materials. After removal of acetonitrile, the spiked chemicals were separated with a column chromatograph packed with acid alumina. Recovery efficiencies forp,p-DCBP andp,p-DDE were determined by gas chromatography, and forp,p-dicofol by high performance liquid chromatography. The recovery efficiencies forp,p-dicofol,p,p-DCBP andp,p-DDE were 77.2–93.8%, 84.1–101.1%, and 88.5–96.0%, respectively.     

DDT Residues in samples of human milk,and in mothers' and cord blood serum,in a continental town in Croatia (Yugoslavia)*

Summary Concentrations of p,p'-DDE, p,p-DDD, and p,p-DDT were determined in 34 samples of human milk obtained 3–5 days after delivery and in 37 samples obtained at later times of lactation (up to 55 weeks). All samples contained p,p-DDE, but only several contained p,p-DDD and p,p-DDT. The concentrations of p,p-DDE were 31 g/l in the beginning of lactation and 53 g/l at later time intervals. The concentration ranges in both groups overlap almost completely and the difference in the mean values is not significant.Serum samples from 35 mothers and cord blood were also analyzed. All samples contained p,p-DDE, the concentrations being 18 g/l and 6.8 g/l in the mothers' and cord blood serum, respectively. Serum samples of 24 nonpregnant women contained the same amount of p,p-DDE (20 pg/1) as mothers' sera.All samples were collected in a continental town of Croatia (Yugoslavia) between 1977 and 1979. The concentrations of DDT residues were determined by gas chromatography, and two methods for extraction from milk were used and compared.This work was supported in part by the Environmental Protection Agency (USA) and the World Health Organization (Geneva)     

Strategic adaptation of US rural hospitals during an era of limited financial resources: a longitudinal study, 1983 to 1993

This research investigated the competing effects of environmental and organizational pressures on rural hospitals' revenueenhancing and costcontainment strategies from 1983 to 1993. In general, organizational pressures (multihospital system membership and nongovernment control) exerted more influence than environmental ones. Also, strategies generally were sustained over time and were particularly interdependent with hospitals' maintenance of staffed beds. Strategies did respond to environmental pressures, however, with revenue enhancement associated with local market competition and munificence, and cost containment associated with pressures from Medicare reimbursement.     

Disability and Delight: Staring Back at the Devotee Community

Disability and Delight: Staring Back at the Devotee Community is the most recent incarnation of an ongoing research project originally began as an undergraduate thesis in the English department at the University of California at Berkeley. Using first-hand accounts of both people with disabilities and self-identified devotees, the nature of sexual attraction to people with disabilities, as well as the responses to that attraction, are examined. In addition, a critical eye is cast toward some of the existing scholarship on the subject. Ultimately, the question raised is if the attraction of devotees is exploitation or empowerment of people with disabilities.     

Clinical and prognostic characteristics associated with age and gender in acute myocardial infarction: A multihospital perspective in the Murcia region of Spain

Age and female gender have been associated with poor prognosis in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Data currently available about the prognostic significance of gender in AMI might well have led to inappropriate/incomplete conclusions. A multicenter, prospective study on 1239 patients with AMI was conducted. Clinical characteristics, complications during the acute phase and one-year follow-up were monitored. Women constituted 24.1% of all patients. Female patients were older with more prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and previous congestive heart failure. Compared with men, the following complications were more frequently found in women: heart failure, 43% vs. 22% (p<0.001); reinfarction, 5% vs. 2% (p<0.05); use of pacemaker, 7% vs. 4% (p<0.05). Women had higher mortality: early, during the first 24 hours post-admission, 10.7 vs. 3.1%; in-hospital, 23% vs. 8.1%; and 1-year, 33.7% vs. 16% (p<0.001 for all the 3 cases of mortality). In the age-groups considered (<65, 65–74, and 75 years), 1-year mortality increased exponentially with ageing in men: 7.8%, 21.3%, and 38.9%, whereas in women the figures were: 15.3%, 41.5%, and 38.8%. Multivariate analysis showed that, among other variables, age and female gender had independent prognostic value for in-hospital mortality whereas gender lost its prognostic significancy for 1-year mortality. Multivariate analysis restricted to those patients aged over 75 years showed that age but not gender had independent prognostic value. In conclusion, age and female sex have independent prognostic value for predicting mortality in patients with AMI. Mortality increases exponentially with ageing in men whereas it stabilises in the case of women over 65 years. Female gender loses its independent value for predicting mortality in patients over 75 years.