High self-esteem prospectively predicts better work conditions and outcomes

We examined the reciprocal prospective relations between self-esteem and work conditions and outcomes, including justice at work, support at work, work stressors, job satisfaction, job success, and counterproductive work behavior. Data came from two independent longitudinal studies, including five assessments over an 8-month period (N = 663, age 16–62 years) and three assessments over a 2-year period (N = 600, age 22–51 years), respectively. Across both studies, high self-esteem prospectively predicted better work conditions and outcomes, whereas nearly all of the reverse effects (i.e., work conditions and outcomes predicting self-esteem) were nonsignificant. The results held for both male and female participants. If future research supports the causality of the self-esteem effects, interventions aimed at improving self-esteem might be useful in increasing an individual’s well-being and success at work, which consequently might be beneficial for employers.

[Psychosomatic medicine and arterial hypertension - love it or leave it?]

Over the last two decades modern psychosomatic research has found multiple evidence for an impact of psychosocial factors on the control of arterial blood pressure as well as the development of arterial hypertension. This narrative review focuses first on the current stress concept and factors that influence the degree of blood pressure change following a psychosocial stressor. Second, relevant psychosocial factors associated with blood pressure are presented such as marital status, social support, socioeconomic status and work conditions. In addition, the influence of personality and cognition on blood pressure will be discussed. The second part focuses on the outcome of cognitive-behavioral therapies and relaxation techniques as a means to effectively control blood pressure. In conclusion, there is now good evidence showing that psychosocial factors and stressors may increase blood pressure. The working environment, the socioeconomic status as well as aspects of personality and cognitive factors like rumination may also impact blood pressure with to an extent that is clinically relevant. With respect to therapeutic options, cognitive-behavioral interventions, combined with relaxation techniques all fitting the needs of the individual patient best can offer a clinically meaningful contribution of an effective blood pressure control.

Comparison of pain-resilient working individuals to population-based case controls with/without momentary low back pain

Background: Few studies have examined the 20% of individuals who never experience an episode of low back pain (LBP). To date, no investigation has been undertaken that examines a group who claim to have never experienced LBP in their lifetime in comparison to two population-based case–control groups with and without momentary LBP. This study investigates whether LBP-resilient workers between 50 and 65 years had better general health, demonstrated more positive health behaviour and were better able to achieve routine activities compared with both case–control groups. Methods: Forty-two LBP-resilient participants completed the same pain assessment questionnaire as a population-based LBP sample from a nationwide, large-scale cross-sectional survey in Switzerland. The LBP-resilient participants were pairwise compared to the propensity score-matched case controls by exploring differences in demographic and work characteristics, and by calculating odds ratios (ORs) and effect sizes. A discriminant analysis explored group differences, while the multiple logistic regression analysis specified single indicators which accounted for group differences. Results: LBP-resilient participants were healthier than the case controls with momentary LBP and achieved routine activities more easily. Compared to controls without momentary LBP, LBP-resilient participants had a higher vitality, a lower workload, a healthier attitude towards health and behaved more healthily by drinking less alcohol. Conclusions: By demonstrating a difference between LBP-resilient participants and controls without momentary LBP, the question that arises is what additional knowledge can be attained. Three underlying traits seem to be relevant about LBP-resilient participants: personality, favourable work conditions and subjective attitudes/attributions towards health. These rationales have to be considered with respect to LBP prevention.

Expectation-based types of volunteers in Swiss sports clubs

Volunteer research in sports clubs has paid hardly any attention to the individual expectations even though matching conditions to the specific volunteer’s expectations represents a major management challenge. This article presents a person-oriented approach to the expectation profiles of volunteers that delivers the basis for identifying different volunteer segments. The approach assumes explicitly that volunteers in sports clubs develop specific expectations regarding their working conditions. These expectations were determined in a sample of 441 members of 45 selected sports clubs. Proximately, a cluster analysis revealed that volunteers vary in their expectations regarding voluntary work. Four different types of volunteers could be identified: (1) recognition seekers, (2) material incentive seekers, (3) participation and communication seekers, and (4) support seekers. These “expectation-based volunteer types” could also be characterized in socioeconomic, membershiprelated, and volunteer-work-related terms. These types could serve as a basis for designing specific voluntary work conditions in sports clubs.

Immunophenotyping of acute leukemia and lymphoproliferative disorders: a consensus proposal of the European LeukemiaNet Work Package 10

The European LeukemiaNet (ELN), workpackage 10 (WP10) was designed to deal with diagnosis matters using morphology and immunophenotyping. This group aimed at establishing a consensus on the required reagents for proper immunophenotyping of acute leukemia and lymphoproliferative disorders. Animated discussions within WP10, together with the application of the Delphi method of proposals circulation, quickly led to post-consensual immunophenotyping panels for disorders on the ELN website. In this report, we established a comprehensive description of these panels, both mandatory and complementary, for both types of clinical conditions. The reason for using each marker, sustained by relevant literature information, is provided in detail. With the constant development of immunophenotyping techniques in flow cytometry and related software, this work aims at providing useful guidelines to perform the most pertinent exploration at diagnosis and for follow-up, with the best cost benefit in diseases, the treatment of which has a strong impact on health systems.

Work Experiences and Well-Being in the First Years of Professional Work in Switzerland: A Ten-Year Follow-Up Study

The ÆQUAS (a German acronym for “Work Experiences and Quality of Life in Switzerland”) study followed young workers in five occupations over their first ten years in the labor market. Participants of the study reported on working conditions and well-being at five occasions. Overall, resources at work as well as well-being, health and personal resources remained stable or increased. Concurrently, task-related stressors increased as well. This result may reflect career progress (e.g., gaining more responsibilities may be accompanied by increasing time pressure) but development in task-related stressors as well as resources may also be related to specific occupations. Several trajectories had their turning point after the first or second year of being in the labor market, which may reflect a successful professional socialization. Even though a substantial number of participants did change their occupation over these ten years (with benefits for their well-being), development over the first ten years after vocational training implies a successful transition into labor market.

Social Stress at Work and Change in Women's Body Weight

Social stressors at work (such as conflict or animosities) imply disrespect or a lack of appreciation and thus a threat to self. Stress induced by this offence to self might result, over time, in a change in body weight. The current study investigated the impact of changing working conditions--specifically social stressors, demands, and control at work--on women's change in weighted Body-Mass-Index over the course of a year. Fifty-seven women in their first year of occupational life participated at baseline and thirty-eight at follow-up. Working conditions were assessed by self-reports and observer-ratings. Body-Mass-Index at baseline and change in Body-Mass-Index one year later were regressed on self-reported social stressors as well as observed work stressors, observed job control, and their interaction. Seen individually, social stressors at work predicted Body-Mass-Index. Moreover, increase in social stressors and decrease of job control during the first year of occupational life predicted increase in Body-Mass-Index. Work redesign that reduces social stressors at work and increases job control could help to prevent obesity epidemic.

Alpine Common Property Institutions under Change: Conditions for Successful and Unsuccessful Collective Action by Alpine Farmers in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland

The protection and sustainable management of alpine summer pastures has been stated as a goal in Swiss national law since 1996, and direct payments from the state for summer pasturing have been tied to sustainability criteria since 2000. This reflects the increasing value of the alpine cultural landscape as a public good. However, provision of this public good remains in the hands of local farmers and their local common pool resource (CPR) institutions for managing alpine pastures. These institutions are increasingly struggling to maintain their institutional arrangements, particularly regarding the work needed to maintain the pastures. This paper examines two cases of local CPR institutions for managing alpine pastures in the Swiss Canton of Grisons that manifest different institutional developments in light of changing conditions. The differences in how these institutions reacted to change and the impacts this has had on the provision of the CPR are explained by focusing on relative prices, bargaining power, and ideology as drivers of institutional change that are often neglected within common property research. Key words: summer pasture management, institutional change, bargaining power, ideology

Long-term trends in invertebrate–habitat relationships under protected and fished conditions

Few studies examine the long-term effects of changing predator size and abundance on the habitat associations of resident organisms despite that this knowledge is critical to understand the ecosystem effects of fishing. Marine reserves offer the opportunity to determine ecosystem-level effects of manipulated predator densities, while parallel monitoring of adjacent fished areas allows separating these effects from regional-scale change. Relationships between two measures of benthic habitat structure (reef architecture and topographic complexity) and key invertebrate species were followed over 17 years at fished and protected subtidal rocky reefs associated with two southern Australian marine reserves. Two commercially harvested species, the southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) and blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) were initially weakly associated with habitat structure across all fished and protected sites. The strength of association with habitat for both species increased markedly at protected sites 2 years after marine reserve declaration, and then gradually weakened over subsequent years. The increasing size of rock lobster within reserves apparently reduced their dependency on reef shelters as refuges from predation. Rising predation by fish and rock lobster in the reserves corresponded with weakening invertebrate–habitat relationships for H. rubra and sea urchins (Heliocidaris erythrogramma). These results emphasise that animal–habitat relationships are not necessarily stable through time and highlight the value of marine reserves as reference sites. Our work shows that fishery closures to enhance populations of commercially important and keystone species should be in areas with a range of habitat features to accommodate shifting ecological requirements with ontogenesis.

Comparison of Mixed and Kinematic Uniform Boundary Conditions in Homogenized Elasticity of Femoral Trabecular Bone Using Microfinite Element Analyses

Mechanical properties of human trabecular bone play an important role in age-related bone fragility and implant stability. Micro-finite element (microFE) analysis allows computing the apparent elastic properties of trabecular bone biopsies, but the results depend on the type of applied boundary conditions (BCs). In this study, 167 femoral trabecular cubic biopsies with a side length of 5.3 mm were analyzed using microFE analysis to compare their stiffness systematically with kinematic uniform boundary conditions (KUBCs) and periodicity-compatible mixed uniform boundary conditions (PMUBCs). The obtained elastic constants were then used in the volume fraction and fabric-based orthotropic Zysset-Curnier model to identify their respective model parameters. As expected, PMUBCs lead to more compliant apparent elastic properties than KUBCs, especially in shear. The differences in stiffness decreased with bone volume fraction and mean intercept length. Unlike KUBCs, PMUBCs were sensitive to heterogeneity of the biopsies. The Zysset-Curnier model predicted apparent elastic constants successfully in both cases with adjusted coefficients of determination of 0.986 for KUBCs and 0.975 for PMUBCs. The role of these boundary conditions in finite element analyses of whole bones and bone-implant systems will need to be investigated in future work.

EMAS recommendations for conditions in the workplace for menopausal women.

Women form a large part of many workforces throughout Europe. Many will be working throughout their menopausal years. Whilst the menopause may cause no significant problems for some, for others it is known to present considerable difficulties in both their personal and working lives. During the menopausal transition women report that fatigue and difficulties with memory and concentration can have a negative impact on their working lives. Furthermore, hot flushes can be a source of embarrassment and distress. Some consider that these symptoms can impact on their performance. Greater awareness among employers, together with sensitive and flexible management can be helpful for women at this time. Particular strategies might include: fostering a culture whereby employees feel comfortable disclosing health problems, allowing flexible working, reducing sources of work-related stress, providing easy access to cold drinking water and toilets, and reviewing workplace temperature and ventilation.