87 research outputs found
Psychosocial burden among offshore drilling platform employees
Conditions of work on offshore drilling platforms are particularly hard due to extreme environmental
situations created both by nature and technological processes. Oil drilling workers employed
on the open sea are potentially exposed to permanently high stress. Apart from the
obvious objective factors affecting drilling platform employees, a great role in the general workrelated
stress level is played by the working conditions and work-related psychosocial factors,
defined according to Karask’s concept as demands, control, and social support. A total of 184
drill platform workers were examined using objective and subjective research methods.
The level of subjective stress among drilling platform workers is lower than the level of objective
stress and the stress resulting from prognoses related with specificity of work in extremely hard
conditions (audit). The examinations of drilling platform workers reveal a positive role of stress in
psychological adaptation, being a special case of the "work ethos" and attachment to the firm. In
such investigations of work-related stress on drilling platforms, which are very specific workplaces,
a multi-aspect character, sociological and economic aspects, organizational culture conditions
in the firm, and a tendency to conceal ailments and the stress experienced should be taken into
account. It is important to apply measures referring to at least three different types of evidence
(objective demands, subjective stress, health problems reported). Otherwise, the result reflecting
work-related stress may not be objective and far from the truth
Stress and fatigue at sea versus quality of life. Gdansk, 11 June 2012.II International Congress on Maritime, Tropical, and Hyperbaric Medicine
Hydrodynamic orienting of asymmetric microobjects under gravity
It is shown that nonsymmetric microobjects orient while settling under
gravity in a viscous fluid. To analyze this process, a simple shape is chosen:
a non-deformable `chain'. The chain consists of two straight arms, made of
touching solid spheres. In the absence of external torques, the spheres are
free to spin along the arms. The motion of the chain is evaluated by solving
the Stokes equations with the use of the multipole method. It is demonstrated
that the spinning beads speed up sedimentation by a small amount, and increase
the orientation rate significantly in comparison to the corresponding rigid
chain. It is shown that chains orient towards the V-shaped stable stationary
configuration. In contrast, rods and star-shaped microobjects do not rotate.
The hydrodynamic orienting is relevant for efficient swimming of non-symmetric
microobjects, and for sedimenting suspensions.Comment: 9 page
Equity in Maritime Health and Safety" - presentation of the 9th International Symposium on Maritime Health, Esbjerg, Denmark, 3-6 June 2007
Neuropsychiatric manifestations of some tropical diseases
Some tropical diseases are the direct cause of severe disturbances of cerebral function while others affect only finer cerebral systems controlling fears, anxiety and personality traits. The mechanisms by which psychiatric symptoms are produced in tropical disorders are not any different from the mechanisms that relate to any physical disorders. Neuropsychiatric symptoms may be caused by a number of different mechanisms including bacterial toxins, release of cytokines, hyperthermia, shock (poor perfusion), acute renal insufficiency, pulmonary failure (shock lung), coagulopathy, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, and/or the nest of pathogens into the central nervous system. The following tropical illnesses can be associated with neuropsychiatric symptoms: neurocysticercosis, malaria, trypanosomiasis, dengue, and schistosomiasis. Neurological and psychiatric impairments induced by tropical diseases both represent a major category of invalidating disorders, which cause profound changes in the nervous system functions, often associated with severe sequels or late-onset disturbances. It is therefore important to disseminate knowledge of the neuropsychiatric symptoms accompanying tropical diseases in order to increase the awareness of these problems and challenges
Work-related stress at sea. Possibilities of research and measures of stress
The present concept of stress is related with the necessity of triangulation in
research. Triangulation means collecting evidence of stress from at least three sources:
a) precursors – perception and feeling (moderating factors), b) direct consequences, c)
state of health. Is it possible to implement triangulation in the investigations of workrelated
stress at sea?
In the present paper, possibilities of collecting data on the work at sea are analyzed
as regards individual aspects – stages of triangulation. The employment of triangulation
principles to examine stress in persons working at sea requires both time and application
of certain corrections to methodology of examinations carried out in Poland. When
examining seafarers, we deal mainly with subjective information on perception of work
and individual feeling of work-related stress. A proposition to expand the
methodological workshop of examining stress at sea according to triangulation
principles has been presented
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