Stuck in the middle: Generation Xers lived experiences in the workforce while navigating between Baby Boomers and Millennials, and perceived impact on their job satisfaction

2015 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Generation Xers are defined as those individuals born between the years of 1965-1980, and represent between 46-49 Million in the U.S. population, and are considered a much smaller cohort than Boomers (80 Million) and Millennials (78 Million). Gen Xers argue that they are overshadowed by the notable influence of the Boomers and a perceived anticipation of the Millennials to become "the next great generation" in the workforce and as such, describe themselves as "stuck in the middle" while waiting for Boomers to retire so they may advance in their careers. However, pronounced demographic trends may have exacerbated Gen Xers' perceptions of neglect and being stuck in the middle. These demographic trends include Boomers continuing to work and Millennials entering the workforce and bringing with them vastly different work preferences, values and expectations than the proceeding generational cohorts. These two dimensions --Boomers continuing to work, and Millennials entering and beginning to influence the workforce--suggest a potentially enigmatic challenge for the smaller but still relevant cohort of Gen Xers with the potential impact on Gen Xers being relatively unknown. This exploratory study was to examine the unique workforce experiences of Gen Xers as it related to being stuck between the Baby Boomers and Millennials and thereby, gain understanding of the perceived impact to their job satisfaction. To describe, understand and find meaning in the participants co-constructed findings, a hermeneutic phenomenology methodology was utilized that was grounded in a constructivist paradigm. The findings from this study represent the individual, shared and co-constructions of six participants which resulted in twelve global themes. The twelve themes include: 1: "Stuck in the middle" is experienced and expressed differently by Gen Xers; 2: Gen Xers have anxiety about their professional future; 3: There are challenges unique to Gen Xers; 4: Gen Xers have perceptions about themselves and their work role; 5: There are generational similarities and differences; 6: Unique work culture impacts generational issues; 7: There may be economic influences on their career; 8: Historical context shapes who Gen Xers are as adults; 9: Baby Boomer influences contribute to job dissatisfaction; 10: Extrinsic motivators; 11: Intrinsic motivators; 12: Job satisfaction or dissatisfaction can carry over to life. The global themes are further comprised of organizing and basic themes to provide additional breadth and depth of understanding of this phenomenon. The study concludes by acknowledging that the voices of the Generation X participants have been heard through the compilation of their personal stories. It is noted that their stories and experiences were largely influenced by three primary factors which include recognition of the individuality of Gen Xers, lack of mutual exclusivity between generational cohorts, and the significance of context in understanding one's lived experience. Finally, drawing from the findings, recommendations are provide to inform research, theory and practice

Impact of stress on metabolism and energy balance

The stress response mobilizes the body's energy stores in order to respond to a threatening situation. A striking observation is the diversity of metabolic changes that can occur in response to stress. On one hand acute intense stress is commonly associated with feeding suppression and reduced body weight gain. The activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and the release of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) might partially explain the anorexigenic effects of acute stress. CRH can also stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and catecholamine release, inducing hypophagia and weight loss, through their effects on the liver and on white and brown adipose tissue. On the other hand, chronic stress can lead to dietary over-consumption (especially palatable foods), increased visceral adiposity and weight gain. These obesogenic effects of stress are mainly explained by the chronic release of glucocorticoids and neuropeptide Y. Stressful situations can activate all of these systems together, and the metabolic outcome of stress exposure is determined by a host of intrinsic and external factors. If we are to find new ways to limit the development of stress-linked cardiometabolic diseases, we need to discover why, in some circumstances, the pro-obesogenic effects of stress outweigh its anorexigenic effects. The equilibrium between the different components of the stress response that accompany chronic stress situations could be crucial to understand and prevent the long-lasting adverse metabolic effects induced by stress

Reflecting on the methodological challenges of recruiting to a United Kingdom-wide, multi-centre, randomised controlled trial in gynaecology outpatient settings

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Using Video-Reflexive Ethnography on an Acute Medical Unit:Methodological Challenges, Solutions and Opportunities within a Complex and Busy Healthcare

Video-Reflexive Ethnography (VRE) is an innovative and participatory research and improvement methodology that involves videoing in-situ work practices and collaboratively analysing this footage with participants during reflexive sessions. This involves participants ‘slowing down’, engaging reflexively with their everyday working practices, and taking time out to discuss issues collectively. VRE has increasingly been used across a range of different healthcare settings. However, one setting that has received less attention is the Acute Medical Unit (AMU). AMUs are busy short-stay hospital departments with very high patient throughput and large multidisciplinary teams where patients receive initial assessment, diagnosis and treatment before being moved to other wards or settings. The aim of this study was to examine how VRE as a research and improvement methodology can be applied, in the busy and complex setting of an AMU. In this paper we outline some of the methodological challenges encountered in this setting and discuss how these were transformed into opportunities and solutions. Then, we evaluate our work by using the four guiding principles at the heart of VRE (care, collaboration, reflexivity and exnovation) to test if, and how, the methodology can be used in such a complex and busy setting without losing its methodological rigor and impact. We show how it is possible to initiate and achieve the core principles of VRE in the complex and busy AMU setting through careful planning, constant revision of data collection methods, remaining highly flexible and adaptable to the spatial and temporal rhythms of the ward and being sensitive to hierarchical inter- and intra-professional relationships and vulnerabilities. Finally, we share recommendations for using VRE in other busy and complex settings.Keywords Ethnography, Focus Groups, Observational Research, photovoice, Methods in Qualitative Inquiry<br/

Toward a consensus nomenclature for ghrelin, its non-acylated form, liver expressed antimicrobial peptide 2 and growth hormone secretagogue receptor

The stomach-derived octanoylated peptide ghrelin was discovered in 1999 and recognized as an endogenous agonist of the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR). Subsequently, ghrelin has been shown to play key roles in controlling not only growth hormone secretion, but also a variety of other physiological functions including, but not limited to, food intake, reward-related behaviors, glucose homeostasis and gastrointestinal tract motility. Importantly, a non-acylated form of ghrelin, desacyl-ghrelin, can also be detected in biological samples. Desacyl-ghrelin, however, does not bind to GHSR at physiological levels, and its physiological role has remained less well-characterized than that of ghrelin. Ghrelin and desacyl-ghrelin are currently referred to in the literature using many different terms, highlighting the need for a consistent nomenclature. The variability of terms used to designate ghrelin can lead not only to confusion, but also to miscommunication, especially for those who are less familiar with the ghrelin literature. Thus, we conducted a survey among experts who have contributed to the ghrelin literature aiming to identify whether a consensus may be reached. Based on the results of this consensus, we propose using the terms “ghrelin” and “desacyl-ghrelin” to refer to the hormone itself and its non-acylated form, respectively. Based on the results of this consensus, we further propose using the terms “GHSR” for the receptor, and “LEAP2” for liver-expressed antimicrobial peptide 2, a recently recognized endogenous GHSR antagonist/inverse agonist.Fil: Perello, Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celular; ArgentinaFil: Dickson, Suzanne L.. The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg; SueciaFil: Zigman, Jeffrey M.. UT Southwestern Medical Center; Estados UnidosFil: Leggio, Lorenzo. National Institutes of Health; Estados Unido

Rewarding behavior with a sweet food strengthens its valuation

Sweet foods are commonly used as rewards for desirable behavior, specifically among children. This study examines whether such practice may contribute to reinforce the valuation of these foods. Two experiments were conducted, one with children, the other with rats. The first study, conducted with first graders (n = 214), shows that children who receive a food reward for performing a cognitive task subsequently value the food more compared to a control group who received the same food without performing any task. The second study, conducted on rats (n = 64), shows that rewarding with food also translates into higher calorie intake over a 24-hour period. These results suggest that the common practice of rewarding children with calorie-dense sweet foods is a plausible contributing factor to obesity and might therefore be ill advised. © 2021 This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication

Behavioral consequences of exposure to a high fat diet during the post-weaning period in rats

AbstractWe explored the impact of exposure to an obesogenic diet (High Fat–High Sucrose; HFS) during the post-weaning period on sweet preference and behaviors linked to reward and anxiety. All rats were fed chow. In addition a HFS-transient group had access to this diet for 10days from post-natal (PN) day 22 and a HFS-continuous group continued access until adult. Behavioral tests were conducted immediately after PN 32 (adolescence) or after PN 60 (adult) and included: the condition place preference (CPP) test for chocolate, sugar and saccharin preference (anhedonia), the elevated plus maze (anxiety-like behavior) and the locomotor response to quinpirole in the open field. Behavior was unaltered in adult rats in the HFS-transient group, suggesting that a short exposure to this obesogenic food does not induce long-term effects in food preferences, reward perception and value of palatable food, anxiety or locomotor activity. Nevertheless, rats that continued to have access to HFS ate less chocolate during CPP training and consumed less saccharin and sucrose when tested in adolescence, effects that were attenuated when these rats became adult. Moreover, behavioral effects linked to transient HFS exposure in adolescence were not sustained if the rats did not remain on that diet until adult. Collectively our data demonstrate that exposure to fat and sucrose in adolescence can induce immediate reward hypofunction after only 10days on the diet. Moreover, this effect is attenuated when the diet is extended until the adult period, and completely reversed when the HFS diet is removed