Work relations and the multiple dimensions of the work-life boundary: Hairstyling at home

This article proposes a multidimensional approach to analysis of the work-life boundary and examines the affects of particular social and organizational relations on the preservation or porous-ness of different dimensions. In line with Nippert-Eng (1996), it is suggested that different dimensions of the boundary are reinforced or weakened by different social and organizational pressures. Analysis describes a specific type of multidimensional breaching – instances when work is taken outside of the worksite (spatial breaching) and is carried out outside of work-time (temporal breaching). Empirical research was conducted among hairstylists working in salons and barbershops in a city in the North of England. Because of the nature of the tasks involved in hairstyling – that the skills involved are widely exchangeable and so may be employed in extra-work environments and temporalities – hairstylists provide a nice site for investigating the circumstances when this does (or does not) occur. Data collection involved a comprehensive self-completion survey of salons and barbershops in the city (response rate: 40%; N=132) and semi-structured interviews with 70 stylists working in 52 salons or barbershops. Findings demonstrate that work relations (hairstylists’ structural relations of production – whether a worker is an owner-proprietor, chair-renter, on-commission stylist, basic-only stylist, or trainee) are critical in determining both workers’ ability and desire to resist the seepage of work into their social lives as well as the particular dimensions of the boundary that are breached. This is because work relations affect the relative importance of four identified motivations for taking work out of the salon (income production; training; inter-personal reciprocity rooted in social relations; and inter-personal reciprocity rooted in the workplace)

Spirituality and end-of-life care in disadvantaged men dying of prostate cancer

Despite the positive influence of spiritual coping on the acceptance of a cancer diagnosis, higher spirituality is associated with receipt of more high intensity care at the end of life. The purpose of our study was to assess the association between spirituality and type of end-of-life care received by disadvantaged men with prostate cancer. We studied low-income, uninsured men in IMPACT, a state-funded public assistance program, who had died since its inception in 2001. Of the 60 men who died, we included the 35 who completed a spirituality questionnaire at program enrollment. We abstracted sociodemographic and clinical information as well as treatment within IMPACT, including zolendroic acid, chemotherapy, hospice use, and palliative radiation therapy. We measured spirituality with the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spiritual Well-Being questionnaire (FACIT-Sp) and compared end-of-life care received between subjects with low and high FACIT-Sp scores using chi-squared analyses. A higher proportion of men with high (33%) versus low (13%) spirituality scores enrolled in hospice, although our analysis was not adequately powered to demonstrate statistical significance. Likewise, we saw a trend toward increased receipt of palliative radiation among those with higher spirituality (37% vs. 25%, P = 0.69). The differences in end-of-life care received among those with low and high spirituality varied little by the FACIT-Sp peace and faith subscales. End-of-life care was similar between men with lower and higher spirituality. Men with higher spirituality trended toward greater hospice use, suggesting that they redirected the focus of their care from curative to palliative goals

Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Preceding Infection with Campylobacter, Influenza and Epstein-Barr Virus in the General Practice Research Database

BACKGROUND: A number of infectious agents have previously been suggested as risk factors for the development of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), but robust epidemiologic evidence for these associations is lacking. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a nested case-control study using data from the United Kingdom General Practice Research Database between 1991 and 2001. Controls were matched to cases on general practice clinic, sex, year of birth and date of outcome diagnosis in their matched case. We found positive associations between GBS and infection with Campylobacter, Epstein-Barr virus and influenza-like illness in the previous two months, as well as evidence of a protective effect of influenza vaccination. After correction for under-ascertainment of Campylobacter infection, the excess risk of GBS following Campylobacter enteritis was 60-fold and 20% of GBS cases were attributable to this pathogen. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate a far greater excess risk of GBS among Campylobacter enteritis patients than previously reported by retrospective serological studies. In addition, they confirm previously suggested associations between infection due to Epstein-Barr virus infection and influenza-like illness and GBS. Finally, we report evidence of a protective effect of influenza vaccination on GBS risk, which may be mediated through protection against influenza disease, or result from a lower likelihood of vaccination among those with recent infection. Cohort studies of GBS incidence in this population would help to clarify the burden of GBS due to influenza, and any potential protective effect of influenza vaccination

Phase II biomarker trial of a multimarker diagnostic for ovarian cancer

The primary hypothesis to be tested in this study was that the diagnostic performance (as assessed by the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, AUC) of a multianalyte panel to correctly identify women with ovarian cancer was significantly greater than that for CA-125 alone

Determinants of Dwell Time in Visual Search: Similarity or Perceptual Difficulty?

The present study examined the factors that determine the dwell times in a visual search task, that is, the duration the gaze remains fixated on an object. It has been suggested that an item’s similarity to the search target should be an important determiner of dwell times, because dwell times are taken to reflect the time needed to reject the item as a distractor, and such discriminations are supposed to be harder the more similar an item is to the search target. In line with this similarity view, a previous study shows that, in search for a target ring of thin line-width, dwell times on thin linewidth Landolt C’s distractors were longer than dwell times on Landolt C’s with thick or medium linewidth. However, dwell times may have been longer on thin Landolt C’s because the thin line-width made it harder to detect whether the stimuli had a gap or not. Thus, it is an open question whether dwell times on thin line-width distractors were longer because they were similar to the target or because the perceptual decision was more difficult. The present study de-coupled similarity from perceptual difficulty, by measuring dwell times on thin, medium and thick line-width distractors when the target had thin, medium or thick line-width. The results showed that dwell times were longer on target-similar than target-dissimilar stimuli across all target conditions and regardless of the line-width. It is concluded that prior findings of longer dwell times on thin linewidth-distractors can clearly be attributed to target similarity. As will be discussed towards the end, the finding of similarity effects on dwell times has important implications for current theories of visual search and eye movement control

Propentofylline Targets TROY, a Novel Microglial Signaling Pathway

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain cancer, with a median survival of less than 2 years after diagnosis with current available therapies. The tumor microenvironment serves a critical role in tumor invasion and progression, with microglia as a critical player. Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that propentofylline, an atypical methylxanthine with central nervous system glial modulating and anti-inflammatory actions, significantly decreases tumor growth in a GBM rodent model by preferentially targeting microglia. In the present study, we used the CNS-1 rat glioma model to elucidate the mechanisms of propentofylline. Here we demonstrate that propentofylline targets TROY, a novel signaling molecule up-regulated in infiltrating microglia, and not macrophages, in response to CNS-1 cells. We identify Pyk2, Rac1 and pJNK as the downstream signaling molecules of TROY through western blot analysis and siRNA transfection. We demonstrate that inhibition of TROY expression in microglia by siRNA transfection significantly inhibits microglial migration towards CNS-1 cells similar to 10 µM propentofylline treatment. These results identify TROY as a novel molecule expressed in microglia, involved in their migration and targeted by propentofylline. Furthermore, these results describe a signaling molecule that is differentially expressed between microglia and macrophages in the tumor microenvironment