Sickness Absence: An International Comparison

Previous attempts to analyse international differences in patterns of worker absenteeism have not been convincing because of the difficulty in obtaining internationally comparable data. In this paper, we apply the technique described by Barmby, Ercolani and Treble(1999) to data on full-time workers in 9 countries who have deposited Labour Force Survey returns with the Luxembourg Employment Study. We use the resulting dataset to verify relationships between absence and age, gender and other socio-economic characteristics of workers. These relationships prove to be similar across countries with widely differing mean rates of absence. Since our dataset uses individual observations we are also able to carry out a multivariate analysis of absence and its correlates. The most revealing result of the analysis is that the gender difference in absence rates that is apparent in the raw data is shown to be entirely due to differences in the age structures of the male and female workforce and their marital status.

Betriebliche Fehlzeiten und Arbeitsverträge

"Der Beitrag zeigt, wie eine ökonomische Theorie der Fehlzeiten entwickelt werden könnte. Zunächst werden Fehlzeiten als Phänomen des Arbeitsangebots behandelt. Erörtert werden dabei die Struktur des Arbeitskräftepools, aus dem die Betriebe ihre Beschäftigten rekrutieren, die Gestaltung des Arbeitsvertrages und die Reaktion der Beschäftigten auf vertragliche Regelungen. Weiterhin werden betriebliche Entscheidungen über die Wahl der vertraglich festgelegten Arbeitszeit und die Kontrolle betrieblicher Fehlzeiten sowie die Reaktion der Arbeitskräfte auf die sich aus der Gestaltung der Arbeitsverträge und der betrieblichen Kontrollsysteme ergebenden Anreize analysiert. Schließlich werden Implikationen der theoretischen Überlegungen für empirische Studien und deren Interpretation entwickelt." (Autorenreferat)Fehlzeiten - Theorie, Arbeitsvertrag, Fehlzeiten - Determinanten, Arbeitskräfteangebot - Modell, Abwesenheit - Kontrolle, Leistungsanreiz, Lohnhöhe

Hydrological characterization of cave drip waters in a porous limestone: Golgotha Cave, Western Australia

Cave drip water response to surface meteorological conditions is complex due to the heterogeneity of water movement in the karst unsaturated zone. Previous studies have focused on the monitoring of fractured rock limestones that have little or no primary porosity. In this study, we aim to further understand infiltration water hydrology in the Tamala Limestone of SW Australia, which is Quaternary aeolianite with primary porosity. We build on our previous studies of the Golgotha Cave system and utilize the existing spatial survey of 29 automated cave drip loggers and a lidar-based flow classification scheme, conducted in the two main chambers of this cave. We find that a daily sampling frequency at our cave site optimizes the capture of drip variability with the least possible sampling artifacts. With the optimum sampling frequency, most of the drip sites show persistent autocorrelation for at least a month, typically much longer, indicating ample storage of water feeding all stalactites investigated. Drip discharge histograms are highly variable, showing sometimes multimodal distributions. Histogram skewness is shown to relate to the wetter-than-average 2013 hydrological year and modality is affected by seasonality. The hydrological classification scheme with respect to mean discharge and the flow variation can distinguish between groundwater flow types in limestones with primary porosity, and the technique could be used to characterize different karst flow paths when high-frequency automated drip logger data are available. We observe little difference in the coefficient of variation (COV) between flow classification types, probably reflecting the ample storage due to the dominance of primary porosity at this cave site. Moreover, we do not find any relationship between drip variability and discharge within similar flow type. Finally, a combination of multidimensional scaling (MDS) and clustering by k means is used to classify similar drip types based on time series analysis. This clustering reveals four unique drip regimes which agree with previous flow type classification for this site. It highlights a spatial homogeneity in drip types in one cave chamber, and spatial heterogeneity in the other, which is in agreement with our understanding of cave chamber morphology and lithology. © Author(s) 201

A post-wildfire response in cave dripwater chemistry

Surface disturbances above a cave have the potential to impact cave dripwater discharge, isotopic composition and solute concentrations, which may subsequently be recorded in the stalagmites forming from these dripwaters. One such disturbance is wildfire; however, the effects of wildfire on cave chemistry and hydrology remains poorly understood. Using dripwater data monitored at two sites in a shallow cave, beneath a forest, in southwest Australia, we provide one of the first cave monitoring studies conducted in a post-fire regime, which seeks to identify the effects of wildfire and post-fire vegetation dynamics on dripwater δ18O composition and solute concentrations. We compare our post-wildfire δ18O data with predicted dripwater δ18O using a forward model based on measured hydro-climatic influences alone. This helps to delineate hydro-climatic and fire-related influences on δ18O. Further we also compare our data with both data from Golgotha Cave – which is in a similar environment but was not influenced by this particular fire – as well as regional groundwater chemistry, in an attempt to determine the extent to which wildfire affects dripwater chemistry. We find in our forested shallow cave that δ18O is higher after the fire relative to modelled δ18O. We attribute this to increased evaporation due to reduced albedo and canopy cover. The solute response post-fire varied between the two drip sites: at Site 1a, which had a large tree above it that was lost in the fire, we see a response reflecting both a reduction in tree water use and a removal of nutrients (Cl, Mg, Sr, and Ca) from the surface and subsurface. Solutes such as SO4 and K maintain high concentrations, due to the abundance of above-ground ash. At Site 2a, which was covered by lower–middle storey vegetation, we see a solute response reflecting evaporative concentration of all studied ions (Cl, Ca, Mg, Sr, SO4, and K) similar to the trend in δ18O for this drip site. We open a new avenue for speleothem science in fire-prone regions, focusing on the geochemical records of speleothems as potential palaeo-fire archives. © Author(s) 2016