Return to work, work productivity loss and activity impairment in Chinese breast cancer survivors 12-month post-surgery: a longitudinal study

Introduction: Existing evidence of returning-to-work (RTW) after cancer comes predominately from Western settings, with none prospectively examined since the initial diagnostic phase. This study prospectively documents RTW-rate, time-to-RTW, work productivity loss, and activity impairment, within the first-year post-surgery among Chinese women with breast cancer (BCW) and identify potential causal co-variants. Methods: This observational longitudinal study followed 371 Chinese BCW who were employed/self-employed at the time of diagnosis at 4-week post-surgery (baseline). RTW-status and time-to-RTW were assessed at baseline (T1), 4-month (T2), 6-month (T3), and 12-month (T4) post-baseline. WPAI work productivity loss and activity impairment were assessed at T4. Baseline covariates included demographics, medical-related factors, work satisfaction, perceived work demand, work condition, RTW self-efficacy, B-IPQ illness perception, COST financial well-being, EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 physical and psychosocial functioning, and HADS psychological distress. Results: A 68.2% RTW-rate (at 12-month post-surgery), prolonged delay in RTW (median = 183 days), and significant proportions of T4 work productivity loss (20%), and activity impairment (26%), were seen. BCW who were blue-collar workers with lower household income, poorer financial well-being, lower RTW self-efficacy, poorer job satisfaction, poorer illness perception, greater physical symptom distress, impaired physical functioning, and unfavorable work conditions were more likely to experience undesired work-related outcomes. Discussion: Using a multifactorial approach, effective RTW interventions should focus on not only symptom management, but also to address psychosocial and work-environmental concerns. An organizational or policy level intervention involving a multidisciplinary team comprising nurses, psychologists, occupational health professionals, and relevant stakeholders in the workplace might be helpful in developing a tailored organizational policy promoting work-related outcomes in BCW

A parametric study on supersonic/hypersonic flutter behavior of aero-thermo-elastic geometrically imperfect curved skin panel

In this paper, the effect of the system parameters on the flutter of a curved skin panel forced by a supersonic/hypersonic unsteady flow is numerically investigated. The aeroelastic model investigated includes the third-order piston theory aerodynamics for modeling the flow-induced forces and the Von Kármán nonlinear strain-displacement relation in conjunction with the Kirchhoff plate hypothesis for the panel structural modeling. Structural non-linearities are considered and are due to the non-linear coupling between out-of-plane bending and in-plane stretching. The effects of thermal degradation and Kelvin’s model of structural damping independent on time and temperature are also considered. The aero-thermo-elastic governing equations are developed from the geometrically imperfect non-linear theory of infinitely long two-dimensional curved panels. Computational analysis and discussion of the finding along with pertinent conclusions are presented.Aerospace Engineerin