Job Retention and Reintegration in People with Mental Health Problems: A Descriptive Evaluation of Supported Employment Routine Programs.

PURPOSE Striking evidence supports the effectiveness of supported employment (SE) in achieving competitive employment in individuals with mental health problems. Yet, little is known whether SE is effective to maintain employment in individuals at risk of job loss. We aimed to descriptively compare SE for employed clients (SE-retention) and unemployed clients (SE-integration) regarding competitive employment. METHODS We used administrative data from January 2017 to October 2021 provided by a vocational rehabilitation center in Switzerland including all individuals (≥ 18yrs.) with mental health problems who participated either in SE-retention or SE-reintegration. The outcome was the proportion with competitive employment at discharge. Logistic regression was used to assess time trends and to descriptively compare SE-treatments. We used propensity score weighting, including personal, clinical and program-specific information to reduce group differences. RESULTS A total of 556 participants primarily diagnosed with mood/stress-related, schizophrenia and personality disorders were included (n = 297 SE-retention, n = 259 SE-reintegration) with median age 41 years and 57% female gender. The overall weighted comparison favored SE-retention over SE-reintegration OR 4.85 (95%-CI 3.10 to 7.58, p < 0.001) with predicted employment of 67.3% and 29.9% for SE-retention and SE-reintegration, respectively. While success for SE-reintegration remained stable over time, SE-retention showed an increase in more recent years. CONCLUSION SE-retention provides an approach for early work-related support that can prevent labor market exclusion. In contrast, reintegration is likely to require more efforts to achieve employment and may result in less favorable outcomes. It is therefore necessary that further research includes appropriate comparison groups to evaluate the effectiveness of SE-retention programs as well as the economic and individual benefits

A 6.5 - 50 GHz battery-powered compact rotary joint for polarization ellipticity measurements

A simple, efficient, and compact rotary joint has been designed, realized, and measured. It has been used intensively to perform polarization ellipticity measurements on various circularly polarized antennas (e.g., helical antennas and circularly polarized horns, used either individually or feeding a lens antennas) operating in millimeter-wave band (similar to 30 GHz). (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:375-379, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.2569

TOLPA (Tripod Omnidirectional Low Profile Antenna): a vertically polarized antenna with 90% bandwidth

A new vertically polarized omnidirectional antenna, inspired by an old design, has been studied, optimized, realized and measured. With a radiation pattern similar to the classical monopole on a ground plane, the proposed antenna concept provides a much larger bandwidth and a very low profile. This antenna has numerous potential applications for mobile communications, UWB and others

Measuring Optical Properties On Rough And Liquid Metal Surfaces

For understanding and optimizing laser processing of metals and alloys the optical properties, especially the absorption of the work piece in function of the temperature up to the liquid phase have to be known [1]. There are several approaches to extend the Drude-Model [2] for optical properties of metal to temperature dependence [3, 4, 5]. However, a verification of these models is difficult due to the lack of sufficient experimental data. Even though measuring optical properties with ellipsometry is well established, such measurements on metals and alloys at elevated temperatures up to the liquid state are very challenging. To collect the optical properties of different metals and alloys like Al, Ti, Ag, Cu and steel in the solid and liquid state a custom-made high-temperature ellipsometer was used. The instrument is also used to investigate the influence of curved and rough surfaces which may occur due to the heating of the samples during the ellipsometric measurements

Why did Swiss citizens vote to ban tobacco advertising?

In February 2022, Swiss citizens agreed to modify the Swiss Constitution to ban tobacco advertising reaching children and adolescents. This case study analyses the arguments used by both opponents and supporters of the constitutional amendment. Opponents argued that the proposed regulation went too far, threatened the economy, restricted personal freedom, was superfluous as the current law already protected youth and that it opened the door to marketing bans of other harmful products. Proponents focused on youth protection and invoked the burden of smoking on public health and the fact that advertising bans are an effective evidence-based measure. A comparison with previous campaigns to ban tobacco advertising that had failed suggests factors accounting for the positive vote in 2022. These include the strategic framing of youth protection, the separation of tobacco from other issues (such as alcohol advertising), the deteriorating image of the tobacco industry and the ability of the proponents to mobilise a broad coalition of health and youth organisations, with improved funding and communication. The lessons may be instructive for other campaigns seeking to regulate commercial determinants of health

Soft and Flexible Antennas on Permittivity Adjustable PDMS Substrates

This work presents novel techniques for producing substrates for flexible antennas. The technique we propose is based on the use of an already existing and widely used substrate material Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), where the dielectric properties of the substrate are adjusted by loading the PDMS with low or high permittivity inclusions. The low adhesion characteristics of PDMS are overcome by immersing the conducting parts of the antenna inside the substrate, at the same time sealing the antenna against the influence of dust, or water. A patch antenna prototype is realized and characterized. The built antenna is soft and flexible and it shows good radiation characteristics in terms of input matching and total gain. Measurements are in a good compliance with the simulation results