Performance Pay and Multidimensional Sorting - Productivity, Preferences and Gender

This paper studies the impact of incentives on worker self-selection in a controlled laboratory experiment. Subjects face the choice between a fixed and a variable payment scheme. Depending on the treatment, the variable payment is a piece rate, a tournament or a revenue-sharing scheme. We find that output is higher in the variable pay schemes (piece rate, tournament, and revenue sharing) compared to the fixed payment scheme. This difference is largely driven by productivity sorting. In addition personal attitudes such as willingness to take risks and relative self-assessment as well as gender affect the sorting decision in a systematic way. Moreover, self-reported effort is significantly higher in all variable pay conditions than in the fixed wage condition. Our lab findings are supported by an additional analysis using data from a large and representative sample. In sum, our findings underline the importance of multi-dimensional sorting, i.e., the tendency for different incentive schemes to systematically attract people with different individual characteristics

Intimité, dialogue et santé : Réflexion sur le travail de proximité dans les milieux de socialisation fréquentés par les hommes gais et bisexuels

À partir des pratiques de l’organisme communautaire Action Séro Zéro, cet article propose une réflexion sur le travail de proximité à l’égard d’enjeux reliés à la vie privée. Sont prises en considération des conceptions de la prévention du VIH qui mettent en lumière les risques d’ingérence dans la vie privée. Le contexte des milieux de socialisation fréquentés par les hommes gais et bisexuels est ensuite présenté, ainsi que des exemples du travail de proximité réalisé dans ces milieux. Dans ces exemples d’intervention de proximité, le risque d’outrepasser les limites du respect de la vie privée des individus serait contrebalancé par l’utilisation de méthodes dialogiques et participatives, ainsi que par l’ancrage dans les démarches de démocratisation d’accès dans les services de santé.This article critically reflects on issues related to personal privacy raised by outreach work. It draws on examples of intervention practices used at Action Séro Zéro, a community-based organization. Theoretical conceptions of HIV prevention work are examined with regards to the possibility outreach work of this type leads to an infringement on private life. Social settings popular among gay and bisexual men are then considered alongside examples of outreach work undertaken in these settings. In these examples, the risk that outreach work might fail to respect personal privacy is countered by the dialogical and participative methods used within this work and its grounding in efforts to democratize access to health services

The conversant community : HIV health promotion work at Action Séro Zéro

This dissertation is a case study drawn from ethnographic research undertaken at Action Séro Zéro , a community-based health promotion organization in Montréal providing HIV prevention services to gay, bisexual and transgender men. The research focuses on how people working at this organization use conversation as a health promotion strategy. The use of conversation in Séro Zéro's work is examined in relation to idealized conceptions of community, common within the health promotion paradigm, as a self-organizing, grassroots civil sector well placed to address fundamental health issues. Such conceptions pose problems for undertaking prevention work within the complex, contested, and far-from-ideal terrain of 'the gay community.' Practices that encourage conversation, and the recurrence of face-to-face talk as a theme characterizing Séro Zéro's work, are analyzed as a significant way in which the organization deals with the discrepancies between the idealized community of health promotion and the constraints of community-based work. In response to calls by some theorists to abandon community as a frame of reference for social analysis and action, a theory of 'conversant community' is developed. This conception is used to argue that Séro Zéro's work develops the dialogic and ethical relations of interpersonal talk as a form of agency important to well-being and health, extending the dimensions of community produced and experienced through the act and the art of conversation

Distress, anxiety, and depression in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy for cancer is an intense and cyclic treatment associated with number of side-effects. The present study evaluated the effect of chemotherapy on distress, anxiety and depression. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 117 patients were evaluated by using distress inventory for cancer (DIC2) and hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS). Majority of the patients were taking chemotherapy for solid tumors (52; 44.4%). RESULTS: The mean distress score was 24, 18 (15.38%) were found to have anxiety while 19 (16.23%) had depression. High social status was the only factor found to influence distress while female gender was the only factor found to influence depression in the present study. CONCLUSION: The study highlights high psychological morbidity of cancer patients and influence of gender on depression. Construct of distress as evaluated by DIC 2 may have a possible overlap with anxiety

Beyond communication:The role of standardized protocols in a changing health care environment

Background: Communication errors have grave consequences in health care settings. The situationYbackgroundY assessmentYrecommendation (SBAR) protocol has been theorized to improve communication by creating a common language between nurses and physicians in acute care situations. This practice is gaining acceptance across the health care field. However, as yet, there has been little investigation of the ways in which SBAR may have an impact on how health care professionals operate beyond the creation of a common language. Purpose: The purposes of the study were to explore the implementation of the SBAR protocol and investigate the potential impact of SBAR on the day-to-day experiences of nurses. Methods: We performed a qualitative case study of 2 hospitals that were implementing the SBAR protocol. We collected data from 80 semistructured interviews with nurses, nurse manager, and physicians; observation of nursing and other hospital activities; and documents that pertained to the implementation of the SBAR protocol. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. Findings: Our analysis revealed 4 dimensions of impact that SBAR has beyond its use as a communication tool: schema formation, development of legitimacy, development of social capital, and reinforcement of dominant logics

The conservation genetics juggling act: integrating genetics and ecology, science and policy

The field of conservation genetics, when properly implemented, is a constant juggling act integrating molecular genetics, ecology, and demography with applied aspects concerning managing declining species or implementing conservation laws and policies. This young field has grown substantially since the 1980s following the development of polymerase chain reaction and now into the genomics era. Our laboratory has ‘grown up’ with the field, having worked on these issues for over three decades. Our multidisciplinary approach entails understanding the behavior and ecology of species as well as the underlying processes that contribute to genetic viability. Taking this holistic approach provides a comprehensive understanding of factors that influence species persistence and evolutionary potential while considering annual challenges that occur throughout their life cycle. As a federal laboratory, we are often addressing the needs of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their efforts to list, de-list, or recover species. Nevertheless, there remains an overall communication gap between research geneticists and biologists who are charged with implementing their results. Therefore, we outline the need for a National Center for Small Population Biology to ameliorate this problem and provide organizations charged with making status decisions firmer ground from which to make their critical decisions.Keywords: conservation genetics, annual cycle, inbreeding, migratory connectivity, pedigree analyses, endangered species, effective population size, cross-seasonal interaction

Internet-based medical education: a realist review of what works, for whom and in what circumstances

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The Self Model and the Conception of Biological Identity in Immunology

The self/non-self model, first proposed by F.M. Burnet, has dominated immunology for sixty years now. According to this model, any foreign element will trigger an immune reaction in an organism, whereas endogenous elements will not, in normal circumstances, induce an immune reaction. In this paper we show that the self/non-self model is no longer an appropriate explanation of experimental data in immunology, and that this inadequacy may be rooted in an excessively strong metaphysical conception of biological identity. We suggest that another hypothesis, one based on the notion of continuity, gives a better account of immune phenomena. Finally, we underscore the mapping between this metaphysical deflation from self to continuity in immunology and the philosophical debate between substantialism and empiricism about identity