Organization specific predictors of job satisfaction: findings from a Canadian multi-site quality of work life cross-sectional survey

Background: Organizational features can affect how staff view their quality of work life. Determining staff perceptions about quality of work life is an important consideration for employers interested in improving employee job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to identify organization specific predictors of job satisfaction within a health care system that consisted of six independent health care organizations.

Methods: 5,486 full, part and causal time (non-physician) staff on active payroll within six organizations (2 community hospitals, 1 community hospital/long-term care facility, 1 long-term care facility, 1 tertiary care/community health centre, and 1 visiting nursing agency) located in five communities in Central West Ontario, Canada were asked to complete a 65-item quality of work life survey. The self-administered questionnaires collected staff perceptions of: co-worker and supervisor support; teamwork and communication; job demands and decision authority; organization characteristics; patient/resident care; compensation and benefits; staff training and development; and impressions of the organization. Socio-demographic data were also collected.

Results: Depending on the organization, between 15 and 30 (of the 40 potential predictor) variables were found to be statistically associated with job satisfaction (univariate analyses). Logistic regression analyses identified the best predictors of job satisfaction and these are presented for each of the six organizations and for all organizations combined.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that job satisfaction is a multidimensional construct and although there appear to be some commonalities across organizations, some predictors of job satisfaction appear to be organization and context specific.

Genetic organization of the O7-specific lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis cluster of Escherichia coli VW187 (O7:K1)

In previous studies the authors cloned and characterized the DNA sequence of the regions at both ends of the O7-specific lipopolysaccharide (LPS) biosynthesis cluster of Escherichia coli VW187 (O7:K1), and identified the biosynthetic genes for dTDP-rhamnose and GDP-mannose, as well as one of the candidate glycosyltransferases. In this work the complete DNA sequence of a 6.9 kb intervening region is presented. Seven new ORFs were identified. All the functions required for the synthesis and transfer of the O7 LPS were assigned on the basis of complementation experiments of transposon insertion mutants, and amino acid sequence homology to proteins involved in LPS synthesis of other bacteria. Of the seven ORFs, two encoded membrane proteins that were homologous to the O-antigen translocase (Wzx) and polymerase (Wxy), two were involved in the biosynthesis of dTDP-N-acetylviosamine, and the remaining three showed homologies to sugar transferases. The O antigen chain length regulator gene wzz was also identified in the vicinity of the O7 polysaccharide cluster. O7-specific DNA primers were designed and tested for serotyping of O7 E. coli strains.

Application of halohydrocarbons for the re-dispersion of gold particles

Methods to control the dispersion of gold in supported heterogeneous catalysts are very valuable due to the strong nanoparticle size dependence on their activity and selectivity towards many reactions. Additionally, the ability to disperse large, inactive gold nanoparticles to smaller nanoparticles provides an opportunity to reactivate, stabilise and increase the lifetime of gold catalysts making them more practical for industrial applications. Previously it has been demonstrated that the use of gas phase iodomethane (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 6973; Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2011, 50, 8912) was able to re-disperse gold from >20 nm particles to dimers and trimers. In the current work, we show that this technique can be applied using less hazardous halohydrocarbons treatments, both in the gas phase and the liquid phase. The ability of these individual halohydrocarbons to re-disperse gold as well as the extent to which leaching occurs is assessed.

Πολιτικες ασύλου της ΕΕ- A critical review of the European policies of asylum: The re-positioning of asylum seekers from refugees/victims in need of protection to criminals (illegal immigrants)

This publication traces how asylum seekers are repositioned in the existing European asylum legislation from asylum seekers as victims in need of protection, to criminals . It is argued that this is due to the European legislation concerning the area of freedom, security and justice. The latest asylum legislation seems to undermine the refugee status which -as it is widely known- is safeguarded by the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its relevant 1967 Protocol. Additionally, in this paper the role of social workers and other social scientists to protect the rights of asylum seekers and question the existing legislation is presented.

Re-dispersion of gold supported on a ‘mixed’ oxide support

The ability to reactivate, stabilize and increase the lifetime of gold catalysts by dispersing large, inactive gold nanoparticles to smaller nanoparticles provides an opportunity to make gold catalysts more practical for industrial applications. Previously it has been demonstrated that mild treatment with iodomethane (CH3I) (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 6973; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2011, 50, 8912) was able to re-disperse gold on carbon and metal oxide supports. In the current work, we show that this technique can be applied to re-disperse gold on a ‘mixed’ metal oxide, namely a mechanical mixture of ceria, zirconia and titania. Characterization was conducted to gage the impact of the iodomethane (CH3I) treatment on a previously sintered catalyst.

What counts and what is being counted – The social organization of knowledge on the front lines of emergency medical services.

Paramedics are trained to use specialized medical knowledge and a variety of medical procedures and pharmaceutical interventions to “save patients and prevent further damage” in emergency situations, both as members of “health-care teams” in hospital emergency departments (Swanson, 2005: 96) and on the streets – unstandardized contexts “rife with chaotic, dangerous, and often uncontrollable elements” (Campeau, 2008: 3). The paramedic’s unique skill-set and ability to function in diverse situations have resulted in the occupation becoming ever more important to health care systems (Alberta Health and Wellness, 2008: 12).
Today, prehospital emergency services, while varying, exist in every major city and many rural areas throughout North America (Paramedics Association of Canada, 2008) and other countries around the world (Roudsari et al., 2007). Services in North America, for instance, treat and/or transport 2 million Canadians (over 250,000 in Alberta alone ) and between 25 and 30 million Americans annually (Emergency Medical Services Chiefs of Canada, 2006; National EMS Research Agenda, 2001). In Canada, paramedics make up one of the largest groups of health care professionals, with numbers exceeding 20,000 (Pike and Gibbons, 2008; Paramedics Association of Canada, 2008). However, there is little known about the work practices of paramedics, especially in light of recent changes to how their work is organized, making the profession “rich with unexplored opportunities for research on the full range of paramedic work” (Campeau, 2008: 2).

This presentation reports on findings from an institutional ethnography that explored the work of paramedics and different technologies of knowledge and governance that intersect with and organize their work practices. More specifically, my tentative focus of this presentation is on discussing some of the ruling discourses central to many of the technologies used on the front lines of EMS in Alberta and the consequences of such governance practices for both the front line workers and their patients. In doing so, I will demonstrate how IE can be used to answer Rankin and Campbell’s (2006) call for additional research into “the social organization of information in health care and attention to the (often unintended) ways ‘such textual products may accomplish…ruling purposes but otherwise fail people and, moreover, obscure that failure’ (p. 182)” (cited in McCoy, 2008: 709).

The Re-Enchantment of Surrealism: Remedios Varo’s Visionary Artists

The visionary prowess of the artist was established, in both the visual and verbal arts, by the Symbolists in Fin de siècle France. This article asserts a continuity between the avowed spiritual dimension of their work and the visionary power of surrealist art asserted—despite strong resistance from the centre—by a group of renegade surrealists in the 1920s and beyond. To do so, it explores the artists that Spanish-born Mexican painter Remedios Varo (1908 – 1963) depicts in her work, demonstrating how they might be better understood when analysed in relation to Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff’s (1866?-1949) esoteric aesthetics. In doing so, it reveals a neglected, postsecular trajectory in the history of surrealism.