Secondary prevention of allergic symptoms in a dairy farmer by use of a milking robot

BACKGROUND: Animal-derived allergens include lipocalins which play an increasing role in occupational respiratory sensitizations. The prevention of sensitization in stock farming is often difficult due to intense exposure, with traditional milking still requiring close animal contact. Complete avoidance of allergen exposure is only possible if stock farming is abandoned. This is, however, often not feasible in small dairy plants because of the resulting loss of income. CASE PRESENTATION: In a 37-year-old female farmer daily asthmatic complaints appeared, associated with cow dust-derived allergen exposure by milking with a conventional device. Respiratory symptoms increased during a period of 12 years. Allergic bronchial asthma was diagnosed, caused by sensitization against cow dust-derived allergens, as demonstrated by positive skin prick test and by detection of IgE antibodies. In a separate specific inhalation challenge test using a 10% extract of cow dust-derived allergens a 330% increase of airway resistance was detected. To enable further dairy farming, a milking robot was installed in 1999, i.e., an automatic milking system. The novel milking technique reduced the daily exposure from over 2 hours to approximately 10 min. The clinical course after the installation of the milking robot was favourable, with less frequent allergic and asthmatic symptoms. Furthermore, asthma medication could be reduced. Improvement was noted also in terms of lung-function and decreased total serum IgE. CONCLUSION: The case presented and the evidence from the literature indicates that the strategy of exposure minimization to allergens at workplaces can be an effective alternative to total elimination. In farmers with cow dust allergy a milking robot is an appropriate technical measure to minimize allergen-exposure

How to evaluate digital leadership: a cross-sectional study

Background!#!With the increasing digitalization of the working environment, the demands on managers are changing fundamentally to the point of an emerging field of research in digital leadership. Municipal administrations are particularly affected by the digital transformation processes. Therefore, a score to measure the construct of digital leadership competence in the context of virtual-based workstation was developed and tested.!##!Methods!#!Based on an online survey with n = 546 employees at virtual-based workstations in municipal administrations in 2020, the instrument is tested regarding selectivity (coefficients), dimensionality (principal component analysis), homogeneity (inter-product-moment correlations), reliability (Cronbach's α) and construct validity (correlation with general leadership skills).!##!Results!#!The instrument can be considered selective, one-dimensional, homogeneous, reliable and constructively valid in the sense of the formulated hypotheses. By integrating the employees' perspective, the instrument aims to be one of the first of its kind to initiate a scientific further discourse. Among other things, the categorization of the co-determination component as either traditional or digital leadership can be discussed.!##!Conclusions!#!The developed instrument for measuring digital leadership performs well concerning the aspects of discriminatory power, one-dimensionality, homogeneity, reliability as well as construct validity. It aims to induce further research and a scientific discourse on the topic of health-oriented leadership within the world of work 4.0

Country Road

Song details a man's wish to return home to the West Virginia Countryside.Song was recorded by John Denver

Risk factors for digital stress in German public administrations

Objective!#!As the digitization of the working world progresses, the demands on employees change. Not least, this is true for the setting of public administrations in Germany, which is currently affected by the transformation to E-Government. This study aims to identify and describe a risk cluster of digitally stressed employees in public administrations.!##!Methods!#!An online sample of 710 employees from three public administrations in North Rhine-Westphalia were surveyed about digital stress (7 items) and several potential risk factors (19 items) derived from the current research. In the first step, a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis is used to detect the risk cluster. This is followed by a comparison to the group of the remaining employees regarding their risk profiles.!##!Results!#!The analysis states that the digitally stressed cluster accounts for approximately ten percent of the public administration's employees of the total sample. Employees in the risk cluster are less satisfied with on-site work overall, experience less collegial support on-site, experience less collegial support in the home office, resign more often, are more likely to feel overwhelmed, are less educated, are older in age and more often have relatives in need of care.!##!Conclusion!#!This work was able to identify and describe a group of digitally stressed rather than left-behind employees in public administrations to bring awareness to potentially destructive factors in the digital transformation process but eventually to social inequalities. The findings offer the basis for interventions to arise and evoke potential for further research