The Dangerous Middle: Situational Awareness and Worker Perception of Beetle Kill

ABSTRACT

Forest workers, including loggers, foresters, and wildland firefighters, are regularly exposed to some of the most fatal occupational environments in the United States. These hazardous work environments may become even more complex and dynamic when subject to bark beetle outbreaks that have resulted in significant tree mortality. The impacts of tree death from bark beetles are significant, with the cumulative 17-year (2000–2016) footprint for bark beetle caused tree mortality estimated at 54 million acres. However, how workers think about and act in these environments is understudied. This study, therefore, approaches the issue of beetle kill and forest worker safety by examining the perspectives or workers themselves. Its contribution is to leverage ethnographic research to provide insights that can generate new research questions, better inform outreach, and ultimately improve worker safety outcomes. The resulting insights show that beetle kill was understood by workers as a hazard that increased the complexity and dynamism of the work environment, making situational awareness both more necessary and more difficult to maintain. While much research about situational awareness focuses on hazardous situations, it is suggested that building adequate situational awareness should also include broader considerations of organizational communication, as well as training and experience considered over the course of entire careers.     

Contextualizing the lived experience of quality of life for persons with spinal cord injury: A mixed-methods application of the response shift model

Objective: The objective of this study was to gain greater insight into individuals’ quality of life (QOL) definitions, appraisals, and adaptations following spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: A mixed-methods design, applying the Schwartz and Sprangers response shift (RS) model. RS is a cognitive process wherein, in response to a change in health status, individuals change internal standards, values, or conceptualization of QOL

Setting: Community-dwelling participants who receive medical treatment at a major Midwestern medical system and nearby Veterans’ Affairs hospital.

Participants: A purposive sample of participants with SCI (N?=?40) completed semi-structured interviews and accompanying quantitative measures.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Outcome Measures: Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis to identify themes. Analysis of variance were performed to detect differences based on themes and QOL, well-being, and demographic and injury characteristics.

Results: Four RS themes were identified, capturing the range of participant perceptions of QOL. The themes ranged from complete RS, indicating active engagement in maintaining QOL, to awareness and comparisons redefining QOL, to a relative lack of RS. Average QOL ratings differed as a function of response shift themes. PROMIS Global Health, Anxiety, and Depression also differed as a function of RS themes.

Conclusion: The RS model contextualizes differences in QOL definitions, appraisals, and adaptations in a way standardized QOL measures alone do not.     

Instrument-based Tests for Measuring Anterior Chamber Cells in Uveitis: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

Purpose

New instrument-based techniques for anterior chamber (AC) cell counting can offer automation and objectivity above clinician assessment. This review aims to identify such instruments and its correlation with clinician estimates.     

Endothelial function,regulation of angiogenesis and embryonic central hemodynamics in ART-conceived pregnancies

Abstract

This study was undertaken to compare the concentrations of pro- and anti-angiogenic growth factors, nitric oxide (NO) stable metabolites in maternal serum and embryonic left ventricular (LV) isovolumic relaxation time (IRT, ms) during the first trimester in two groups of women: with pregnancy conceived by assisted reproductive technologies (ART, n?=?39) and normally conceived (control group, n?=?68) pregnancy. The concentration of vasoconstrictor endothelin 1 was 45.5 times more in ART than in control group. On the contrary, the concentrations of NO stable metabolites in ART were 1.9 times less than in control women. The assessment of angiogenic suppressors in ART women demonstrates the decrease in s-endoglin concentration was 1.6 times and in soluble receptor to vascular endothelial growth factor concentration was 2.0 times in comparison with control group. There was a significant increase in LV IRT in ART embryos in comparison to control ones. These data suggest significant changes in pro- anti-angiogenic factors balance and increase in vascular impedance in ART-conceived embryos.