Positive motherhood at work: the role of supervisor support in return to work after maternity leave

Cognitive factors can strongly influence mothers’ well-being. Maternal beliefs about societal expectations, role identity, maternal confidence, and concern about being a good or bad parent threaten maternal well-being, especially if these beliefs are irrational, inflexible, and strict. Moreover, they can negatively influence the critical time of returning to work after maternity leave. As stated by the conservation of resources theory, people may become more irrational when their resources are exhausted, with detrimental effects on individual well-being. To protect and enhance well-being, working mothers should draw upon additional resources, including their organizational contexts. In this regard, a key figure is the supervisor, whose positive behaviours and stable support can improve working mothers’ well-being and facilitate their effective return to work after maternity leave. This study aims at examining the relation between the rigidity of maternal beliefs and well-being (namely, general health, job satisfaction, and job performance), hypothesizing the mediation effect of perceived supervisor support during return to work after maternity leave. The Rigidity of Maternal Beliefs Scale, the measure for Supervisors to Support Return to Work, and the General Health Questionnaire were used together with a two-item measure for examining job performance and a single-item measure for measuring job satisfaction. The questionnaire was completed by 216 mothers. We tested the hypotheses by means of structural equation models with latent variables, using the Lisrel 8.80 software. Findings show that rigidity of maternal beliefs is associated with perceived supervisor support during return to work, which, in turn, is associated with working mothers’ general health, job satisfaction, and job performance. Consequently, perceived supervisor support during return to work totally mediates the relations between the rigidity of maternal beliefs and the outcomes considered. Results underline the centrality of supervisor perceived negative behaviors in sustaining working mothers after the long-term leave, when irrational beliefs regarding motherhood threaten their well-being. Practical implications for HR management are discussed

Quality of child healthcare in European countries: common measures across international databases and national agencies

BACKGROUND: The evaluation of child healthcare is not yet widely explored, especially from a cross-country comparison perspective. The routine adoption of measures by national assessment agencies is under-investigated. Though the guiding principles developed at international level call for a child-centric multi-dimensional evaluation of child care, its feasibility is hampered by the availability of robust and harmonized data. METHODS: To explore the data availability, international databases (IDBs) were scrutinized and measures dealing with child health-related issues were collated. In parallel, an ad hoc questionnaire was administrated to 30 Country Agents (CAs) to gather measures routinely adopted at local level. To facilitate the comparison of measures, a three-level conceptual map was developed. RESULTS: The IDBs yielded at 207 measures that pertained mainly to non-health determinants of health, whereas the 352 measures obtained from CAs focused on process and outcome. A set of 33 common measures that related to immunization, morbidity and mortality were identified. CONCLUSIONS: A limited set of measures used both in IDBs and at national level identify common areas of concerns that certainly capture crucial issues with child prevention and health outcomes. However, they are far from satisfying a child-centric multi-dimensional approach to the evaluation of child well-being and well-becoming. There is room for improvement at both international and national levels. IDBs should include and harmonize measures that concern the provision of child-centric services and encompass physical, social and mental development. At the national level, efforts towards the inclusion of measures that concern non-health determinants of health should be pursued

Assessment of the Nova StatSensor whole blood point-of-care creatinine analyser for the measurement of kidney function in screening for chronic kidney disease

Point-of-care testing for creatinine using a fingerprick sample and resultant estimated glomerular filtration rate has potential for screening for chronic kidney disease in community settings. This study assessed the applicability of the Nova StatSensor creatinine analyzer for this purpose. Fingerprick samples from 100 patients (63 renal, 37 healthy volunteers; range 46–962 mmol/L) were assayed using two StatSensor analyzers. Lithium heparin venous plasma samples collected simultaneously were assayed in duplicate using the isotope dilution mass spectrometryaligned Roche Creatinine Plus enzymatic assay on a Hitachi Modular P unit. Method comparison statistics and the ability of the StatSensor to correctly categorise estimated glomerular filtration rate above or below 60 mL/min were calculated pre- and post-alignment with the laboratory method. Isotope dilution mass spectrometry alignment of the StatSensor will identify most patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate -60 mL/min, but there will be many falsely low estimated glomerular filtration rate results that require laboratory validation. Creatinine results need improvement

Comparative Kinetic Analysis of OXA-438 with Related OXA-48-Type Carbapenem-Hydrolyzing Class D β-Lactamases

Novel variants of OXA-48-type enzymes with the ability to hydrolyze oxyimino-cephalosporins and carbapenems are increasingly reported. Since its first report in 2011, OXA-163 is now extensively spread throughout Argentina, and several variants like OXA-247 have emerged. Here, we characterized a new blaOXA-48-like variant, OXA-438, and we performed a comparative kinetic analysis with the local variants OXA-247 and OXA-163 and the internationally disseminated OXA-48. blaOXA-163, blaOXA-247, and blaOXA-438 were located in a 70 kb IncN2 conjugative plasmid. OXA-438 presented mutations in the vicinity of conserved KTG (214-216), with a 2-aa deletion (R220-I221) and a D224E shift (as in OXA-163) compared to OXA-48. Despite Kpn163 (OXA-163), Kpn247 (OXA-247) and Eco438 (OXA-438) were resistant to meropenem and ertapenem, and the transconjugants (TC) remained susceptible (however, the carbapenems minimum inhibitory concentrations were ≥3 times 2-fold dilutions higher than the acceptor strain). TC163 and Eco48 were resistant to oxyimino-cephalosporins, unlike TC247 and TC438. kcat/Km values for cefotaxime in OXA-163 were slightly higher than the rest of the variants that were accompanied by a lower Km for carbapenems. For OXA-163, OXA-247, and OXA-438, the addition of NaHCO3 improved kcat values for both cefotaxime and ceftazidime; carbapenems kcat/Km values were higher than for oxyimino-cephalosporins. Mutations occurring near the conserved KTG in OXA-247 and OXA-438 are probably responsible for the improved carbapenems hydrolysis and decreased inactivation of oxyimino-cephalosporins compared to OXA-163. Dichroism results suggest that deletions at the β5-β6 loop seem to impact the structural stability of OXA-48 variants. Finally, additional mechanisms are probably involved in the resistance pattern observed in the clinical isolates.Fil: de Belder, Denise Gisele. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Área de Antimicrobianos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Ghiglione, Barbara. Instituto de Investigaciones En Bacteriologia y Virologia Molecular (ibavim) ; Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquimica ; Universidad de Buenos Aires; . Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Pasteran, Fernando. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Área de Antimicrobianos; ArgentinaFil: de Mendieta, Juan Manuel. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Área de Antimicrobianos; ArgentinaFil: Corso, Alejandra. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Área de Antimicrobianos; ArgentinaFil: Curto, Lucrecia María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas "Prof. Alejandro C. Paladini". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Química y Físico-Química Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Di Bella, Adriana. Hospital Nacional Profesor Alejandro Posadas; ArgentinaFil: Gutkind, Gabriel Osvaldo. Instituto de Investigaciones En Bacteriologia y Virologia Molecular (ibavim) ; Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquimica ; Universidad de Buenos Aires; . Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Gómez, Sonia Alejandra. Dirección Nacional de Institutos de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas. Área de Antimicrobianos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay; ArgentinaFil: Power, Pablo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Departamento de Microbiología, Inmunología y Biotecnología. Cátedra de Microbiología; Argentina. Instituto de Investigaciones En Bacteriologia y Virologia Molecular (ibavim) ; Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquimica ; Universidad de Buenos Aires