Assessing occupational stress in psychiatric nurses using the full job strain model the value of social support to nurses

The present research examined the effects of occupational stress in psychiatric nursing on employee well!being using the full Job Strain Model.The Job Strain Model was assessed for its ability to predict employee well!being in terms of job satisfaction and mental health. The original Job Strain Model was expanded to include social support based on previous research concerning the impact of social support on well!being[ In the present study\ both work support and non-work were assessed for their contribution to wellbeing.The results of this study indicate that the full Job Strain Model can be used to significantly predict job satisfaction and mental health in this sample of Australian psychiatric nurses. Furthermore social support was shown to be an important component of the Job Strain Model.

Occupational Access and Wage Discrimination

This article presents a study on the quantification of the level of occupational access and wage discrimination in Great Britain. The traditional approach to quantifying the level of sex discrimination is to distinguish gender differences in productive characteristics from the unequal treatment of characteristics according to gender. The role of inter- versus intra-occupational effects in determining the magnitude of wage differences between men and women was examined. The econometric results provided estimates of the wage differential in six broad occupational classifications together with an aggregate picture of how important the occupational distribution of females is in explaining their lower average wage. In summary, the results of the study suggest that the vast majority of the male and female wage differential arises from intra-occupation effects. The results provide evidence to suggest that occupational segregation is not a major contributor to the observed male/female wage differential.

Does occupational aggregation matter in determining the size of the gender wage gap?

The traditional decomposition of the gender wage gap distinguishes between a component attributable to gender differences in productivity-related characteristics and a residual component that is often taken as a measure of discrimination. This study of data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey shows that when occupation is treated as a productivity-related characteristic, the proportion of the gender wage gap labeled explained increases with the number of occupational classifications distinguished. However, on the basis of evidence that occupational differences reflect the presence of barriers faced by women attempting to enter male-dominated occupations, the authors conclude that occupation should not be treated as a productivity-related characteristic; and in a decomposition of the gender wage gap that treats occupation as endogenously determined, they find that the level of occupational aggregation has little effect on the size of the "explained" component of the gap.

Measurements of particle emissions from nanotechnology processes, with assessment of measuring techniques and workplace controls

The overall aim of this project was to contribute to existing knowledge regarding methods for measuring characteristics of airborne nanoparticles and controlling occupational exposure to airborne nanoparticles, and to gather data on nanoparticle emission and transport in various workplaces. The scope of this study involved investigating the characteristics and behaviour of particles arising from the operation of six nanotechnology processes, subdivided into nine processes for measurement purposes. It did not include the toxicological evaluation of the aerosol and therefore, no direct conclusion was made regarding the health effects of exposure to these particles. Our research included real-time measurement of sub, and supermicrometre particle number and mass concentration, count median diameter, and alveolar deposited surface area using condensation particle counters, an optical particle counter, DustTrak photometer, scanning mobility particle sizer, and nanoparticle surface area monitor, respectively. Off-line particle analysis included scanning and transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry, and thermal optical analysis of elemental carbon. Sources of fibrous and non-fibrous particles were included.

History behind the egg: Women's comprehensive histories and IVF outcomes, Australia, 2008-2009 [abstract]

The individual history of infertile women, as well as their age, may influence their response to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycles. This study examined the associations between women’s histories and two IVF outcomes: eggs aspirated (EA) and proportion with normal, two-pronuclei (2PN), fertilisation. This is a cross-sectional survey of infertile women (n=141, 27-46 years) from a multi-centre clinical sample. Participants completed a survey of socio-demographic, relationship, lifestyle, reproductive and fertility factors, medical conditions and recurrent symptoms. Among participants with heterosexual partners (n=122), associations between women’s histories and EA or 2PN fertilisation were analysed using linear and logistic modelling, respectively, adjusted for age at EA and accounting for multiple IVF cycles (n=313 cycles). Participants aged 35+ years had reproductive histories of miscarriage only (16.9%), termination only (9.9%) or birth+termination (5.6%) that were 2-, 3- and 4-fold higher, respectively, than those aged <35 years (7.1%, 2.9%, 1.4%). More years of oral contraceptive use were associated with a lower mean EA: never used, 14.6 EA; 0-2 years, 11.7 EA; 3-5 years, 8.6 EA; 6þ years, 8.2 EA (p=.04). Participants with polycystic ovary syndrome had a higher mean EA (11.5) than those without the condition (8.3 EA, p<.01). Participants in trade or service occupations had lower proportions of 2PN fertilisation (51.7%) than participants in other occupations (professional, 58.6%; manual/other, 63.6%, p<.02). Increasing women’s age and prolonged used of oral contraceptives were associated with lower EA from IVF cycles; PCOS was associated with higher EA. Occupational exposures may have a detrimental effect on normal fertilisation rates.

One-year delayed effect of fog on malaria transmission : a time-series analysis in the rain forest area of Mengla County, south-west China

Background: Malaria is a major public health burden in the tropics with the potential to significantly increase in response to climate change. Analyses of data from the recent past can elucidate how short-term variations in weather factors affect malaria transmission. This study explored the impact of climate variability on the transmission of malaria in the tropical rain forest area of Mengla County, south-west China. Methods: Ecological time-series analysis was performed on data collected between 1971 and 1999. Auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models were used to evaluate the relationship between weather factors and malaria incidence. Results: At the time scale of months, the predictors for malaria incidence included: minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and fog day frequency. The effect of minimum temperature on malaria incidence was greater in the cool months than in the hot months. The fog day frequency in October had a positive effect on malaria incidence in May of the following year. At the time scale of years, the annual fog day frequency was the only weather predictor of the annual incidence of malaria. Conclusion: Fog day frequency was for the first time found to be a predictor of malaria incidence in a rain forest area. The one-year delayed effect of fog on malaria transmission may involve providing water input and maintaining aquatic breeding sites for mosquitoes in vulnerable times when there is little rainfall in the 6-month dry seasons. These findings should be considered in the prediction of future patterns of malaria for similar tropical rain forest areas worldwide.

Socioeconomic status and health outcomes in a developing country

Although the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health is well documented for developed countries, less evidence has been presented for developing countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse this relationship at the household level for Fiji, a developing country in the South Pacific, using original household survey data. To allow for the endogeneity of SES status in the household health production function, we utilize a simultaneous equation approach where estimates are achieved by full information maximum likelihood. By restricting our sample to one, relatively small island, and including area and district hospital effects, physical geography effects are unpacked from income effects. We measure SES, as permanent income which is constructed using principal components analysis. An alternative specification considers transitory household income. We find that a 1% increase in wealth (our measure of permanent income) would lead to a 15% decrease in the probability of an incapacitating illness occurring intra-household. Although the presence of a strong relationship indicates that relatively small improvements in SES status can significantly improve health at the household level, it is argued that the design of appropriate policy would also require an understanding of the various mechanisms through which the relationship operates.

Spatial and temporal analysis of Barmah Forest virus disease in Queensland, Australia

Barmah Forest virus (BFV) disease is one of the most widespread mosquito-borne diseases in Australia. The number of outbreaks and the incidence rate of BFV in Australia have attracted growing concerns about the spatio-temporal complexity and underlying risk factors of BFV disease. A large number of notifications has been recorded continuously in Queensland since 1992. Yet, little is known about the spatial and temporal characteristics of the disease. I aim to use notification data to better understand the effects of climatic, demographic, socio-economic and ecological risk factors on the spatial epidemiology of BFV disease transmission, develop predictive risk models and forecast future disease risks under climate change scenarios. Computerised data files of daily notifications of BFV disease and climatic variables in Queensland during 1992-2008 were obtained from Queensland Health and Australian Bureau of Meteorology, respectively. Projections on climate data for years 2025, 2050 and 2100 were obtained from Council of Scientific Industrial Research Organisation. Data on socio-economic, demographic and ecological factors were also obtained from relevant government departments as follows: 1) socio-economic and demographic data from Australian Bureau of Statistics; 2) wetlands data from Department of Environment and Resource Management and 3) tidal readings from Queensland Department of Transport and Main roads. Disease notifications were geocoded and spatial and temporal patterns of disease were investigated using geostatistics. Visualisation of BFV disease incidence rates through mapping reveals the presence of substantial spatio-temporal variation at statistical local areas (SLA) over time. Results reveal high incidence rates of BFV disease along coastal areas compared to the whole area of Queensland. A Mantel-Haenszel Chi-square analysis for trend reveals a statistically significant relationship between BFV disease incidence rates and age groups (ƒÓ2 = 7587, p<0.01). Semi-variogram analysis and smoothed maps created from interpolation techniques indicate that the pattern of spatial autocorrelation was not homogeneous across the state. A cluster analysis was used to detect the hot spots/clusters of BFV disease at a SLA level. Most likely spatial and space-time clusters are detected at the same locations across coastal Queensland (p<0.05). The study demonstrates heterogeneity of disease risk at a SLA level and reveals the spatial and temporal clustering of BFV disease in Queensland. Discriminant analysis was employed to establish a link between wetland classes, climate zones and BFV disease. This is because the importance of wetlands in the transmission of BFV disease remains unclear. The multivariable discriminant modelling analyses demonstrate that wetland types of saline 1, riverine and saline tidal influence were the most significant risk factors for BFV disease in all climate and buffer zones, while lacustrine, palustrine, estuarine and saline 2 and saline 3 wetlands were less important. The model accuracies were 76%, 98% and 100% for BFV risk in subtropical, tropical and temperate climate zones, respectively. This study demonstrates that BFV disease risk varied with wetland class and climate zone. The study suggests that wetlands may act as potential breeding habitats for BFV vectors. Multivariable spatial regression models were applied to assess the impact of spatial climatic, socio-economic and tidal factors on the BFV disease in Queensland. Spatial regression models were developed to account for spatial effects. Spatial regression models generated superior estimates over a traditional regression model. In the spatial regression models, BFV disease incidence shows an inverse relationship with minimum temperature, low tide and distance to coast, and positive relationship with rainfall in coastal areas whereas in whole Queensland the disease shows an inverse relationship with minimum temperature and high tide and positive relationship with rainfall. This study determines the most significant spatial risk factors for BFV disease across Queensland. Empirical models were developed to forecast the future risk of BFV disease outbreaks in coastal Queensland using existing climatic, socio-economic and tidal conditions under climate change scenarios. Logistic regression models were developed using BFV disease outbreak data for the existing period (2000-2008). The most parsimonious model had high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy and this model was used to estimate and forecast BFV disease outbreaks for years 2025, 2050 and 2100 under climate change scenarios for Australia. Important contributions arising from this research are that: (i) it is innovative to identify high-risk coastal areas by creating buffers based on grid-centroid and the use of fine-grained spatial units, i.e., mesh blocks; (ii) a spatial regression method was used to account for spatial dependence and heterogeneity of data in the study area; (iii) it determined a range of potential spatial risk factors for BFV disease; and (iv) it predicted the future risk of BFV disease outbreaks under climate change scenarios in Queensland, Australia. In conclusion, the thesis demonstrates that the distribution of BFV disease exhibits a distinct spatial and temporal variation. Such variation is influenced by a range of spatial risk factors including climatic, demographic, socio-economic, ecological and tidal variables. The thesis demonstrates that spatial regression method can be applied to better understand the transmission dynamics of BFV disease and its risk factors. The research findings show that disease notification data can be integrated with multi-factorial risk factor data to develop build-up models and forecast future potential disease risks under climate change scenarios. This thesis may have implications in BFV disease control and prevention programs in Queensland.

Surveillance of dengue fever virus: a review of epidemiological models and early warning systems

Dengue fever is one of the world’s most important vector-borne diseases. The transmission area of this disease continues to expand due to many factors including urban sprawl, increased travel and global warming. Current preventative techniques are primarily based on controlling mosquito vectors as other prophylactic measures, such as a tetravalent vaccine are unlikely to be available in the foreseeable future. However, the continually increasing dengue incidence suggests that this strategy alone is not sufficient. Epidemiological models attempt to predict future outbreaks using information on the risk factors of the disease. Through a systematic literature review, this paper aims at analyzing the different modeling methods and their outputs in terms of accurately predicting disease outbreaks. We found that many previous studies have not sufficiently accounted for the spatio-temporal features of the disease in the modeling process. Yet with advances in technology, the ability to incorporate such information as well as the socio-environmental aspect allowed for its use as an early warning system, albeit limited geographically to a local scale.

A distributional analysis of the native-immigrant wage gap : the importance of employment discrimination

It is well documented that immigrants earn less than natives in the United States, and various attempts have been made to determine whether these earnings differentials reflect underlying differences in skill or ethnic discrimination in the labor market. The earnings of immigrants and ethnic minorities is an extensively studied area focusing on the economic integration of immigrants (e.g., Chiswick (1978), Lalonde and Topel (1993), Borjas (1995)). Yet, the role of occupational segregation as a mechanism for discrimination is yet to be addressed (to our knowledge). Discrimination can be effective at either of two stages in the earnings process – in the assignment of earnings to people within occupational groups (henceforth referred to as wage discrimination) or in the allocation of people to occupations (henceforth referred to as employment discrimination). While it would be premature to attribute the underlying cause to discriminatory hiring policies of employers, it would be of social-political and economic interest to investigate the possibility.

Productivity and time use during occupational therapy and nutrition/dietetics clinical education : a cohort study

Background: Currently in the Australian higher education sector higher productivity from allied health clinical education placements are a contested issue. This paper will report results of a study that investigated output changes associated with occupational therapy and nutrition/dietetics clinical education placements in Queensland, Australia. Supervisors’ and students’ time use during placements and how this changes for supervisors compared to when students are not present in the workplace is also presented. Methodology/Principal Findings: A cohort design was used with students from four Queensland universities, and their supervisors employed by Queensland Health. There was an increasing trend in the number of occasions of service delivered when the students were present, and a statistically significant increase in the daily mean length of occasions of service delivered during the placement compared to pre-placement levels. For project-based placements that were not directly involved in patient care, supervisors’ project activity time decreased during placements, with students undertaking considerably more time in project activities. Conclusions/Significance: A novel method for estimating productivity and time use changes during clinical education programs for allied health disciplines has been applied. During clinical education placements there was a net increase in outputs, suggesting supervisors engage in longer consultations with patients for the purpose of training students, while maintaining patient numbers. Other activities are reduced. This paper is the first time these data have been shown and form a good basis for future assessments of the economic impact of student placements for allied health disciplines.

Comparing the availability, price, variety and quality of fruits and vegetables across retail outlets and by area level socioeconomic position

Abstract Objective: To explore whether area-level socioeconomic position or the form of retail stream (conventional versus farmers’ market) are associated with differences in the price, availability, variety and quality of a range of fresh fruit and vegetables. Design: A multi-site cross-sectional pilot study of farmers’ markets, supermarkets and independent fruit and vegetable retailers. Each was surveyed to assess the price, availability, variety and quality of 15 fruit and 18 vegetable items. Setting: Retail outlets were located in South-East Queensland. Subjects: Fifteen retail outlets were surveyed (five of each retail stream). Results: Average basket prices were not significantly different across the socioeconomic spectrum however prices in low socioeconomic areas were cheapest. Availability, variety, and quality did not differ across levels of socioeconomic position however the areas with the most socioeconomic disadvantage scored poorest for quality and variety. Supermarkets had significantly better fruit and vegetable availability than farmers’ markets however price, variety and quality scores were not different across retail streams. Results demonstrate a trend to fruit and vegetable prices being more expensive at farmers’ markets, with the price of the Fruit basket being significantly greater at the organic farmer’s market compared with the non-organic farmers’ markets. Conclusions: Neither area-level socioeconomic position nor the form of retail stream was significantly associated with differences in the availability, price, variety and quality of fruit and vegetables, except for availability which was higher in supermarkets than farmers’ markets. Further research is needed to determine what role farmers’ markets can play in affecting fruit and vegetable intake.

Dynamic equivalent state estimation for multi-area power systems with synchronized phasor measurement units

This paper proposes a new approach for state estimation of angles and frequencies of equivalent areas in large power systems with synchronized phasor measurement units. Defining coherent generators and their correspondent areas, generators are aggregated and system reduction is performed in each area of inter-connected power systems. The structure of the reduced system is obtained based on the characteristics of the reduced linear model and measurement data to form the non-linear model of the reduced system. Then a Kalman estimator is designed for the reduced system to provide an equivalent dynamic system state estimation using the synchronized phasor measurement data. The method is simulated on two test systems to evaluate the feasibility of the proposed method.

An ingenuous Decision Support System (iDSS) approach for remote area pregnant women

This paper addresses development of an ingenious decision support system (iDSS) based on the methodology of survey instruments and identification of significant variables to be used in iDSS using statistical analysis. A survey was undertaken with pregnant women and factorial experimental design was chosen to acquire sample size. Variables with good reliability in any one of the statistical techniques such as Chi-square, Cronbach’s α and Classification Tree were incorporated in the iDSS. The ingenious decision support system was implemented with Visual Basic as front end and Microsoft SQL server management as backend. Outcome of the ingenious decision support system include advice on Symptoms, Diet and Exercise to pregnant women.