Working with Persistent Pain: An Exploration of Strategies Utilised to Stay Productive at Work

Purpose: Maintaining productive employment for people with persistent pain conditions is challenging. This study aims to explore supports—work and non-work— used by employees to assist them in maintaining productive employment. Methods: An exploratory, mixed-methods study comprising a questionnaire battery followed by semi-structured interviews to collect in-depth qualitative data was undertaken. The questionnaires measured descriptive variables used to select participants for interviews based on maximum heterogeneity sampling. Thirty-five semi-structured interviews were undertaken (14 males; 21 females). The interview schedule covered: employment situation, workplace challenges, workplace supports, coping strategies, motivations, future employment options and any other resources utilised. Inductive content analysis was undertaken using a grounded theory approach to systematically explore the data. Results: Three key themes were identified: barriers to working productively, enablers to working productively, disclosing my condition at work. A key determinant of maintaining productive employment was a supportive employer. In addition, flexibility in the work organisation was also pivotal in maintaining sustainable, productive employment. An important issue emerged with regard to disclosure of one’s condition to an employer. For some, this was a significant barrier to employment. Conclusions: To ensure sustainable employment is attainable for those with persistent pain conditions, a good match is required between an employee and their work. Workplace accommodations may assist with improving job fit but this requires disclosure of a condition to an employer. Weighing up the risks and benefits of disclosure is difficult, and may be assisted by knowledge of available supports to assist with maintaining ongoing employment

The Efficient Market Hypothesis, Price Multiples, And The German Stock Market

One of the great exercises of financial research is to examine the efficiency of the stock markets. There are many reasons for this endeavor. One is due to the importance efficiency has on the allocation of capital and the impact on economic activity. Others center on the desire to find an exploitable anomaly for active investment management. This paper sought to do both. The paper explores the German stock market over a five year period ending December 31, 2007. The objective was to examine the value of price multiples in developing portfolios that would not only question the efficient market hypothesis for the market but provide an investment tool to achieve above market risk adjusted returns for an active investment style. The paper explored this by creating portfolios of (1) top ranked (low) price multiples and (2) bottom ranked (high) price multiples. Three multiples were chosen. These were (1) Price to Book (PBK); (2) Price to Current Earnings (PEC), and (3) Price to Normalized Earnings (PER). The hypotheses were that low price multiples would outperform, on a risk adjusted basis, high price multiples, and hedged (long/short) would likewise outperform the market on a risk adjusted basis. Support for either of these hypotheses questions the efficiency of the markets and could provide a pragmatic investment strategy. The results of the study suggest not only that the efficiency of the German stock market can be questioned but that a workable investment strategy involving price multiples could be implemented. The results noted that low price multiples outperformed high price multiples in all cases but not necessarily on a risk adjusted basis. Hedged portfolios likewise outperformed the universe and population. Hedged PBK had an Adjusted Sharpe Ratio of 0.50; the Hedged PEC had an Adjusted Sharpe Ratio of 0.30; and the Hedged PER had an Adjusted Sharpe Ratio of 0.23. These should be compared against an Adjusted Sharpe Ratio for the market of 0. Finally, an equally-weighted Hedged position of PBK, PEC, and PER had an Adjusted Sharpe Ratio of 0.44.  

Undertaking cause-specific mortality measurement in an unregistered population: an example from Tigray Region, Ethiopia

PKBackground: The lack of adequate documentation of deaths, and particularly their cause, is often noted in African and Asian settings, but practical solutions for addressing the problem are not always clear. Verbal autopsy methods (interviewing witnesses after a death) have developed rapidly, but there remains a lack of clarity as to how these methods can be effectively applied to large unregistered populations. This paper sets out practical details for undertaking a representative survey of cause-specific mortality in a population of several million, taking Tigray Region in Ethiopia as a prototype. Sampling: Sampling was designed around an expected level of maternal mortality ratio of 400 per 100,000 live births, which needed measuring within a 95% confidence interval of approximately 9100. Taking a stratified cluster sample within the region at the district level for logistic reasons, and allowing for a design effect of 2, this required a population of around 900,000 people, equating to six typical districts. Since the region is administered in six geographic zones, one district per zone was randomly selected. Implementation: The survey was implemented as a two-stage process: first, to trace deaths that occurred in the sampled districts within the preceding year, and second to follow them up with verbal autopsy interviews. The field work for both stages was undertaken by health extension workers, working in their normally assigned areas. Most of the work was associated with tracing the deaths, rather than undertaking the verbal autopsy interviews. Discussion: This approach to measuring cause-specific mortality in an unregistered Ethiopian population proved to be feasible and effective. Although it falls short of the ideal situation of continuous civil registration and vital statistics, a survey-based strategy of this kind may prove to be a useful intermediate step on the road towards full civil registration and vital statistics implementation

Persistent musculoskeletal pain and productive employment; a systematic review of interventions.

A systematic analysis of the literature was undertaken to determine which characteristics of workplace interventions are most effective in assisting people with persistent musculoskeletal pain (PMP) to remain productively employed. Databases of Medline, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Embase were searched using MeSH and other relevant terms. Studies that reported on interventions at, or involving, the workplace were included. Interventions were considered as either focused on the individual or multilevel. Outcome measures assessed included: job loss, productivity, sick leave, pain and cost benefit. A quality assessment was undertaken using GRADE criteria with development of impact statements to synthesise the results. Eighteen relevant articles (14 studies) were identified for inclusion in the review. No high-level evidence for workplace interventions to assist people with PMP were identified. Low numbers of participants and limited studies resulted in downgrading of evidence. However, individually focused interventions will probably reduce job loss and sick leave, but are unlikely to reduce pain. Multilevel focused interventions will probably result in decreased sick leave and provide some cost benefit. The evidence on productivity was limited and of poor quality. Further research is required because sustainable employment for individuals with PMP is important and understanding what works is necessary to ensure effective workplace interventions are developed

Matrix-assisted ionisation in vacuum mass spectrometry and imaging on a modified quadrupole-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer

Matrix-Assisted Ionisation in Vacuum (MAIV) is a new ionisation technique which ionises non-volatile compounds producing electrospray ionisation-like spectra. Its simple, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-like sample preparation allows for rapid analysis, with no requirement for external energy in the form of a laser or high voltage to produce ions. Ionisation occurs when the matrix (often 3-nitrobenzonitrile) is exposed to sub-ambient pressure. Here, the first use of this revolutionary new ionisation technique to image biological samples is reported. A commercial quadrupole-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer was modified to incorporate control of the ion source pressure and a reduced sampling cone orifice diameter. In initial experiments, optimisation of source pressure and matrix composition was carried out to increase the longevity of ion formation. It was noted during these experiments that ion production was only observed when the sample was directly under the sampling cone. Optimisation of sample extraction into the MAIV matrix by the addition of 5 % chloroform enabled MAIV mass spectrometry imaging of lipids in rat brain sections to be carried out in raster imaging mode. Modification of the size and position of the sampling cone improved the selectivity obtainable in these images. Although the quality of these initial images is relatively poor, work is underway to improve the spatial resolution by further modification of the ion source and progress is reported

Organic liquid mobility induced by smoldering remediation

Laboratory column experiments plus analytical and numerical modeling together suggest that, under certain conditions, downward organic liquid mobilization can occur and impact smoldering behavior. This applies for organic liquids mixed with inert sand subjected to smoldering as thermal treatment. The observed effects include increased peak temperatures (here by up to 35%) and increased treatment times (here by up to 30%). Downward organic liquid migration occurs when (i) injected Darcy air flux is less than a threshold value (here less than 3 cm/s), (ii) treatment systems are tall (here 90 cm, not 30 cm), and (iii) the organic liquid is temperature-sensitive (viscosity less than 0.01 Pa s at 150 °C). The developed analytical equation provides the applied air flux that can negate the downwards organic liquid gradient required for migration. Smoldering behavior is demonstrated to adjust to liquid migration and thereby still destroy all the organic waste in the system. Smoldering is a relatively new, energy-efficient thermal treatment for organic liquid waste and these results are important for designing field applications of smoldering treatment