Work ability among hospital food service professionals: multiple associated variables require comprehensive intervention

The work of hospital food service is characterized by demands that can be associated with work ability - WA. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with WA among hospital food service professionals and recommend intervention measures. This is a cross sectional study carried out in 2009, conducted in a hospital of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Participants were 76 (96.2%) of the eligible. They filled out a questionnaire including socio-demographic data, life styles, working conditions and WA. Multivariate linear regression analyses were performed. Factors associated with WA were age (p=0.051), over commitment (p=0.011), effort-reward ratio (p=0.002) and work injuries (p<0.001). In spite was a young population, age was associated with WA. Association with work injuries is consistent with the theoretical model that demonstrated that health status is the basis to maintain the WA. The association of effort-reward imbalance shows that issues related with work organization are relevant for these workers. The association of overcommittment suggests that workers recognize their responsibility with the therapeutic processes of patients. Results showed a number of features of different nature that should be taken into account when implementing measures to improve the WA, to be applied at different levels: individual, task and institutional.

Selection of compositions with high glass forming ability in the Ni-Nb-B alloy system

A combination of an extension of the topological instability "λ criterion" and the "average electronegativity" has been recently reported in the literature to predict compositions with high glass-forming ability (GFA). In the present work, both criteria have been applied to select the Ni61.0Nb36.0B3 alloy with a high glass-forming ability. Ingots were prepared by arc-melting and were used to produce ribbons processed by the melt-spinning technique further characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Ni61.0Nb36.0B3 alloy revealed a complete amorphization and supercooled liquid region ΔTx = 68 K. In addition, wedge-shaped samples were prepared using copper mold casting in order to determine the critical thickness for amorphous formation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that fully amorphous samples could be obtained, reaching up to ~800 µm in thickness.

Different levels of MT-I/II between patients with MTLE with or without seizure generalization: does hippocampal MT-I/II affects seizure spread, or does seizure spread promotes differential expression of MT-I/II?

In the central nervous system, zinc is released along with glutamate during neurotransmission and, in excess, can promote neuronal death. Experimental studies have shown that metallothioneins I/II (MT-I/II), which chelate free zinc, can affect seizures and reduce neuronal death after status epilepticus. Our aim was to evaluate the expression of MT-I/II in the hippocampus of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Hippocampi from patients with pharmacoresistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) were evaluated for expression of MT-I/II and for neuronal, astroglial, and microglial populations. Compared to control cases, MTLE group displayed widespread increase in MT-I/II expression, astrogliosis and reduced neuronal population. MT-I/II levels did not correlate with any clinical variables, but patients with secondary generalized seizures (SGS) had less MT-I/II than patients without SGS. In conclusion, MT-I/II expression was increased in hippocampi from MTLE patients and our data suggest that it may be associated with different seizure spread patterns.

Genetic divergence of tanaidaceans (Crustacea: Peracarida) with low dispersal ability

[EN] In this study, the phylogeographic patterns of nuclear, ribosomal and mtDNA gene fragments of five tanaidacean species (Zeuxo, Tanaidae) from the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean Sea were investigated.

A generalization of the Moore-Penrose inverse related to matrix subspaces of C(nxm)

[EN]A natural generalization of the classical Moore-Penrose inverse is presented. The so-called S-Moore-Penrose inverse of a m x n complex matrix A, denoted by As, is defined for any linear subspace S of the matrix vector space Cnxm. The S-Moore-Penrose inverse As is characterized using either the singular value decomposition or (for the nonsingular square case) the orthogonal complements with respect to the Frobenius inner product. These results are applied to the preconditioning of linear systems based on Frobenius norm minimization and to the linearly constrained linear least squares problem.

A generalization of the optimal diagonal approximate inverse preconditioner

[EN ]The classical optimal (in the Frobenius sense) diagonal preconditioner for large sparse linear systems Ax = b is generalized and improved. The new proposed approximate inverse preconditioner N is based on the minimization of the Frobenius norm of the residual matrix AM − I, where M runs over a certain linear subspace of n × n real matrices, defined by a prescribed sparsity pattern. The number of nonzero entries of the n×n preconditioning matrix N is less than or equal to 2n, and n of them are selected as the optimal positions in each of the n columns of matrix N. All theoretical results are justified in detail…

Predictive Ability of NGAL as a Marker of Renal Damage: evaluation of Multiple Clinical Settings

Introduction. Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin (NGAL) belongs to the family of lipocalins and it is produced by several cell types, including renal tubular epithelium. In the kidney its production increases during acute damage and this is reflected by the increase in serum and urine levels. In animal studies and clinical trials, NGAL was found to be a sensitive and specific indicator of acute kidney injury (AKI). Purpose. The aim of this work was to investigate, in a prospective manner, whether urine NGAL can be used as a marker in preeclampsia, kidney transplantation, VLBI and diabetic nephropathy. Materials and methods. The study involved 44 consecutive patients who received renal transplantation; 18 women affected by preeclampsia (PE); a total of 55 infants weighing ≤1500 g and 80 patients with Type 1 diabetes. Results. A positive correlation was found between urinary NGAL and 24 hours proteinuria within the PE group. The detection of higher uNGAL values in case of severe PE, even in absence of statistical significance, confirms that these women suffer from an initial renal damage. In our population of VLBW infants, we found a positive correlation of uNGAL values at birth with differences in sCreat and eGFR values from birth to day 21, but no correlation was found between uNGAL values at birth and sCreat and eGFR at day 7. systolic an diastolic blood pressure decreased with increasing levels of uNGAL. The patients with uNGAL <25 ng/ml had significantly higher levels of systolic blood pressure compared with the patients with uNGAL >50 ng/ml ( p<0.005). Our results indicate the ability of NGAL to predict the delay in functional recovery of the graft. Conclusions. In acute renal pathology, urinary NGAL confirms to be a valuable predictive marker of the progress and status of acute injury.

Predictability in Social Science, The statistical mechanics approach.

The subject of this work concerns the study of the immigration phenomenon, with emphasis on the aspects related to the integration of an immigrant population in a hosting one. Aim of this work is to show the forecasting ability of a recent finding where the behavior of integration quantifiers was analyzed and investigated with a mathematical model of statistical physics origins (a generalization of the monomer dimer model). After providing a detailed literature review of the model, we show that not only such a model is able to identify the social mechanism that drives a particular integration process, but it also provides correct forecast. The research reported here proves that the proposed model of integration and its forecast framework are simple and effective tools to reduce uncertainties about how integration phenomena emerge and how they are likely to develop in response to increased migration levels in the future.

Micropollutants affect the ability of phytoplankton communities to track environmental changes

Human activities strongly influence environmental processes, and while human domination increases, biodiversity progressively declines in ecosystems worldwide. High genetic and phenotypic variability ensures functionality and stability of ecosystem processes through time and increases the resilience and the adaptive capacity of populations and communities, while a reduction in functional diversity leads to a decrease in the ability to respond in a changing environment. Pollution is becoming one of the major threats in aquatic ecosystem, and pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) in particular are a relatively new group of environmental contaminants suspected to have adverse effects on aquatic organisms. There is still a lake of knowledge on the responses of communities to complex chemical mixtures in the environment. We used an individual-trait-based approach to assess the response of a phytoplankton community in a scenario of combined pollution and environmental change (steady increasing in temperature). We manipulated individual-level trait diversity directly (by filtering out size classes) and indirectly (through exposure to PPCPs mixture), and studied how reduction in trait-diversity affected community structure, production of biomass and the ability of the community to track a changing environment. We found that exposure to PPCPs slows down the ability of the community to respond to an increasing temperature. Our study also highlights how physiological responses (induced by PPCPs exposure) are important for ecosystem processes: although from an ecological point of view experimental communities converged to a similar structure, they were functionally different.

Perceived functional ability assessed with the spinal function sort: is it valid for European rehabilitation settings in patients with non-specific non-acute low back pain?

The aim of this study involving 170 patients suffering from non-specific low back pain was to test the validity of the spinal function sort (SFS) in a European rehabilitation setting. The SFS, a picture-based questionnaire, assesses perceived functional ability of work tasks involving the spine. All measurements were taken by a blinded research assistant; work status was assessed with questionnaires. Our study demonstrated a high internal consistency shown by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.98, reasonable evidence for unidimensionality, spearman correlations of >0.6 with work activities, and discriminating power for work status at 3 and 12 months by ROC curve analysis (area under curve = 0.760 (95% CI 0.689-0.822), respectively, 0.801 (95% CI 0.731-0.859). The standardised response mean within the two treatment groups was 0.18 and -0.31. As a result, we conclude that the perceived functional ability for work tasks can be validly assessed with the SFS in a European rehabilitation setting in patients with non-specific low back pain, and is predictive for future work status.

[Driving ability and daytime sleepiness]

Daytime sleepiness is a complaint of about 5-10% in a normal population. The consequences, such as impaired performance and accidents at the workplace and while driving, have major impact on the affected and on society. According to Swiss federal statistics only 1-3% of all motor vehicle accidents are due to excessive daytime sleepiness, which is in great contrast to a figure of 10 to 20% of all accidents derived from scientific studies. Due to the inadequate statistical representation of the problem, insufficient countermeasures have been realized, and the state of drivers breaching traffic regulations is not adequately investigated in this respect. The most prevalent cause of microsleep induced accidents is certainly lack of sleep due to social or professional reasons. A treating physician must also consider sedating drugs and various diseases. The typical characteristics of accidents due to falling asleep at the wheel and the risk factors involved are well established, so that informing the general public, taking prophylactic countermeasures and a targeted investigation in this respect of drivers who have breached the law are all feasible. Since symptoms of sleepiness can be recognized well before any impairment of performance occurs, the most important countermeasure is information of the drivers on the risk factors and on efficient countermeasures against sleepiness at the wheel. Besides correct diagnosis and treatment, the primary goal of physicians treating patients with pathological daytime sleepiness is to inform them at an early stage about the risks of sleepiness and the large responsibility they bear while driving. This information should be written down in the patients' records. Professional drivers suffering from daytime sleepiness, drivers who have already had an accident due to microsleep and unreasonable drivers should be referred to a centre of sleep disorders for objective measurements of sleepiness.

Predictive ability of a modified Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire in an acute/subacute low back pain working population

The original 'Örebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire' (original-ÖMPQ) has been shown to have limitations in practicality, factor structure, face and content validity. This study addressed these concerns by modifying its content producing the 'Örebro Musculoskeletal Screening Questionnaire' (ÖMSQ). The ÖMSQ and original-ÖMPQ were tested concurrently in acute/subacute low back pain working populations (pilot n = 44, main n = 106). The ÖMSQ showed improved face and content validity, which broadened potential application, and improved practicality with two-thirds less missing responses. High reliability (0.975, p < 0.05, ICC: 2.1), criterion validity (Spearman's r = 0.97) and internal consistency (α = 0.84) were achieved, as were predictive ability cut-off scores from ROC curves (112-120 ÖMSQ-points), statistically different ÖMSQ scores (p < 0.001) for each outcome trait, and a strong correlation with recovery time (Spearman's, r = 0.71). The six-component factor structure reflected the constructs originally proposed. The ÖMSQ can be substituted for the original-ÖMPQ in this population. Further research will assess its applicability in broader populations.

The ability of the Gaussian-2, Gaussian-3, Complete Basis Set–QB3, and Complete Basis Set–APNO model chemistries to model the geometries of small water clusters

The Gaussian-2, Gaussian-3, Complete Basis Set-QB3, and Complete Basis Set-APNO methods have been used to calculate geometries of neutral clusters of water, (H2O)n, where n = 2–6. The structures are in excellent agreement with those determined from experiment and those predicted from previous high-level calculations. These methods also provide excellent thermochemical predictions for water clusters, and thus can be used with confidence in evaluating the structures and thermochemistry of water clusters.