Conflicts between employee preferences and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling: regulation based on consent is not sufficient

OBJECTIVE: Contribution to the discussion of the role of participation/consent of employees in working hours regulation. METHODS: Exploratory analysis of conflicts between preferences of employees and ergonomic recommendations in shift scheduling by analysing a large number of participative shift scheduling projects. RESULTS: The analysis showed that very often the pursuit of higher income played the major role in the decision making process of employees and employees preferred working hours in conflict with health and safety principles. CONCLUSIONS: First, the consent of employees or the works council alone does not ensure ergonomically sound schedules. Besides consent, risk assessment procedures seem to be a promising but difficult approach. Secondly, more research is necessary to check the applicability of recommendations under various settings, to support the risk assessment processes and to improve regulatory approaches to working hours.OBJETIVO: Contribuir para a discussão do papel da participação/consentimento dos empregados na regulamentação das horas de trabalho. MÉTODOS: Realizou-se um estudo exploratório dos conflitos existentes entre as preferências dos empregados e as recomendações ergonômicas no planejamento de esquemas de trabalho em turnos, analisando-se um grande número de projetos participativos de planejamento dos turnos. RESULTADOS: O estudo mostrou que, com freqüência, a busca por um rendimento maior teve um papel importante no processo de tomada de decisão dos empregados, quando estes optaram pelas horas de trabalho em oposição aos princípios de saúde e segurança. CONCLUSÕES: Em primeiro lugar, o consentimento dos empregados ou da comissão de trabalhadores por si só não garante horários salutares do ponto de vista ergonômico. Além do consentimento, processos de avaliação de risco parecem ser uma abordagem promissora embora complicada. Em segundo lugar, fazem-se necessários mais estudos para verificar a aplicabilidade das recomendações em diversas situações, respaldar os processos de avaliação de risco e melhorar as abordagens regulamentares para as horas de trabalho

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy: Clinical, biochemical and pathogenetic aspects

AbstractX-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) is a clinically heterogeneous disorder ranging from the severe childhood cerebral form to asymptomatic persons. The overall incidence is 1:16,800 including hemizygotes as well as heterozygotes. The principal molecular defect is due to inborn mutations in the ABCD1 gene encoding the adrenoleukodystrophy protein (ALDP), a transporter in the peroxisome membrane. ALDP is involved in the transport of substrates from the cytoplasm into the peroxisomal lumen. ALDP defects lead to characteristic accumulation of saturated very long-chain fatty acids, the diagnostic disease marker. The pathogenesis is unclear. Different molecular mechanisms seem to induce inflammatory demyelination, neurodegeneration and adrenocortical insufficiency involving the primary ABCD1 defect, environmental factors and modifier genes. Important information has been derived from the X-ALD mouse models; species differences however complicate the interpretation of results. So far, bone marrow transplantation is the only effective long-term treatment for childhood cerebral X-ALD, however, only when performed at an early-stage of disease. Urgently needed novel therapeutic strategies are under consideration ranging from dietary approaches to gene therapy

Amphritea atlantica gen. nov., sp. nov., a gammaproteobacterium from the Logatchev hydrothermal vent field

A novel Gram-negative, motile, aerobic rod-shaped bacterium was isolated from a Bathymodiolus sp. specimen collected from the Logatchev hydrothermal vent field at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The novel strain, M41(T), was catalase- and oxidase-positive and metabolised various carbohydrates and amino acids. It grew well in marine broth with an optimal growth temperature of 31 degrees C to 34 degrees C (range 4-40 degrees C and salinity requirement of 3% (range 0.3-9%). The pH range for growth was pH 4.6 to 9.5, with an optimum at pH 8.0. The predominant fatty acids were C-16: (1)omega 7c, C-16: 0 and C-18: 1 omega 7c. The DNA G + C content of strain M41(T) was 52.2 mol%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence was 94 % similar to that of the type strain of Oceanospirillum beijerinckii, the closest cultivated relative. Other related type strains were Oceanospirillum multiglobuliferum (93% gene sequence similarity), Neptunomonas naphthovorans (92%) and Marinobacterium jannaschii (92 %). According to phylogenetic analysis and physiological characteristics, it is suggested that strain M41(T) represents a new genus and novel species for which the name Amphritea atlantica gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is M41(T) (= DSM 18887(T) = LMG 24143(T))

Approach To Tactical Planning For Manufacturing Innovation Projects

Rapid technological developments, shortened product life cycles, and constant competitive pressure require continuous efficiency improvements in producing material goods. Innovation is necessary to achieve these efficiency gains in manufacturing. Therefore, companies generate manufacturing innovation as part of the continuous improvement process or by absorbing external stimuli. As a result, tactical planning of innovation projects in manufacturing must be carried out regularly to enable resource planning and operative project implementation. The use of planning methods helps to increase the planning quality and reduce the complexity in the planning process. However, only a few approaches methodically support this tactical planning for manufacturing innovation. Therefore, an approach is developed using literature- and expertbased methods to systematically describe an innovation project in manufacturing, to identify and specify the relevant work contents, and finally to bring them into a defined processing sequence. In addition, the possibilities of individual planning steps being supported using tools and methods are shown. Finally, an industrial application of the approach is carried out, and a critical reflection on the results is presented. In summary, the systematic structuring of the planning process and the identification of available methods and tools improve the tactical planning of innovation projects in manufacturing

Dauernachtarbeit: Eine Sichtung des vorhandenen Wissenstandes mit Thesen, Empfehlungen & Forschungsfragen

Im Falle der Dauernachtarbeit, also einer dauerhaften Schichtarbeit bei Nacht, ste-hen begründete Befürchtungen erheblicher Nachteile anderen Sichtweisen gegen-über. Dieser Artikel beruht auf einer umfassenden Literatursuche und einer breiten Diskussion in der Arbeitszeitgesellschaft. Es werden von Expertinnen und Experten konsensual abgestimmte Thesen zu der Wirkung von Dauernachtarbeit sowie zum Forschungsbedarf vorgestellt. Das Kernergebnis der Diskussion ist, dass Dauer-nachtarbeit in den meisten Fällen problematisch ist, aber auch Konstellationen exis-tieren, bei denen die Dauernachtarbeit wenig problematisch oder vielleicht sogar po-sitiv für manche Personen wirkt. Es besteht ein erheblicher Forschungsbedarf, um hier ein klares Bild zu gewinnen

Kiloniella laminariae, gen. nov., sp. nov., a new alphaproteobacterium from the marine macroalga Laminaria saccharina

A novel alphaproteobacterium, strain LD81(T), was isolated from the marine macroalga. Laminaria saccharina. The bacterium is mesophilic and shows a typical marine growth response. It is a chemoheterotrophic aerobe with the potential for denitrification. Growth optima are 25 degrees C, pH 5.5 and 3% NaCl. Strain LD81(T) has a unique phylogenetic position, not fitting any of the known families of the Alphaproteobacteria. The 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed a distant relationship to species of several orders of the Alphaproteobacteria, with less than 90% sequence similarity. Phylogenetically, strain LD81(T) is related to the type strains of Terasakiella pusilla (88.4% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity) and the three Thalassospira species (88.9-89.2%. It forms a cluster with these bacteria and a novel as-yet undescribed isolate (KOPRI 13522; 96.6% sequence similarity). Strain LD81(T) has a relatively low DNA G + C content (51.1 mol%) and, due to its distant phylogenetic position from all other alphaprotecibacteria, strain LD81(T) (=NCIMB 14374(T) =JCM 14845(T)) is considered as the type strain of a novel species within a new genus, for which the name Kiloniella laminariae gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The genus Kiloniella represents the type of the new family Kiloniellaceae fam. nov. and order Kiloniellales ord. nov

Levantilides A and B, 20-Membered Macrolides from a Micromonospora Strain Isolated from the Mediterranean Deep Sea Sediment

Two new 20-membered macrolides, levantilide A and B, were isolated from the Micromonospora strain M71-A77. Strain M71-A77 was recovered from an Eastern Mediterranean deep-sea sediment sample and revealed to produce the levantilides under in situ salinity of 38.6‰. The chemical structures of the levantilides were elucidated on the basis of different one- and two- dimensional NMR experiments. Levantilide A exhibits a moderate antiproliferative activity against several tumor cell lines

Random Sampling with Removal

Abstract Random sampling is a classical tool in constrained optimization. Under favorable conditions, the optimal solution subject to a small subset of randomly chosen constraints violates only a small subset of the remaining constraints. Here we study the following variant that we call random sampling with removal: suppose that after sampling the subset, we remove a fixed number of constraints from the sample, according to an arbitrary rule. Is it still true that the optimal solution of the reduced sample violates only a small subset of the constraints? The question naturally comes up in situations where the solution subject to the sampled constraints is used as an approximate solution to the original problem. We study random sampling with removal in a generalized, completely abstract setting where we assign to each subset R of the constraints an arbitrary set V (R) of constraints disjoint from R; in applications, V (R) corresponds to the constraints violated by the optimal solution subject to only the constraints in R. Furthermore, our results are parametrized by the dimension δ, i.e., we assume that every set R has a subset B of size at most δ with the same set of violated constraints. This is the first time this generalized setting is studied. In this setting, we prove matching upper and lower bounds for the expected number of constraints violated by a random sample, after the removal of k elements. For a large range of values of k, the new upper bounds improve the previously best bounds for LPtype problems, which moreover had only been known in special cases. We show that this bound on special LP-type problems can be derived in the much more general setting of violator spaces, and with very elementary proofs