Do labor markets impact whether sick employees call in sick?

Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amp.2013.0106International audienceThe article reviews recent literature on the relationship between sickness absence and the conditions of the economy (i.e., recession or expansion). Two notions, notably the "employer selection" and the "worker disciplinary effect", can be useful in speculating on the relationship. The general idea is that recessions are linked with higher unemployment, which is in turn linked with heightened employment insecurity among the workforce. Such feelings of insecurity would then make employees reluctant to declare sickness absence for fear of losing their jobs. Indeed, this is what available empirical evidence generally suggests. However, it appears that there are a number of ramifications that make the relationship more complex. For example, it appears that the anxiety and stress caused by recessions per se harms physical and psychological health, hence, making it more likely for people to fall genuinely ill in the first place. This then leads to the grim "paradox" that at times of recession workers are more likely to be genuinely sick but simultaneously less likely to declare illness. This in essence means that at periods of recession many more people attend work when they are not in proper physical or psychological condition, which results in lower performance and heightened probability of accidents

A Resource Depletion Spiral? A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotional Exhaustion and Venting at Work

We investigate whether, why, and when emotionally exhausted employees may engage in venting, or discharging negative feelings to others at work. Drawing on emotion regulation research, we envision that emotionally exhausted employees engage in response-focused emotion regulation, which depletes regulatory resources and leads to emotion regulation failures (i.e., venting). We further examine employees’ core self-evaluation and turnover intention as boundary conditions for different stages of the mediated relationship. Moderated mediation analysis suggests that emotional exhaustion is positively related to venting only among employees with low core self-evaluation who reluctantly stay in organizations. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Strong enhancement of chlorophyll a concentration by a weak typhoon

Recent studies demonstrate that chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations in the surface ocean can be significantly enhanced due to typhoons. The present study investigated chl a concentrations in the middle of the South China Sea (SCS) from 1997-2007. Only the Category1 (minimal) Typhoon Hagibis (2007) had a notable effect on the chl a concentrations. Typhoon Hagibis had a strong upwelling potential due to its location near the equator, and the forcing time of the typhoon (>82 h) was much longer than the geostrophic adjustment time (~63 h). The higher upwelling velocity and the longer forcing time increased the depth of the mixed-layer, which consequently induced a strong phytoplankton bloom that accounted for about 30% of the total annual chl a concentration in the middle of the SCS. The implication is that the forcing time of a typhoon should be long enough to establish a strong upwelling and consequently for the induction of significant upper ocean responses.Comment: Typhoon-Ocean Environment interaction

Repression of histone H5 gene expression in chicken mature erythrocytes is correlated with reduced DNA-binding activities of transcription factors SP1 and GATA-1

AbstractDuring the final stages of erythroid maturation, the expression of the chicken histone H5 gene ceases. The histone H5 promoter has binding sites for Sp1 and UPE-binding protein. The 3' histone H5 enhancer has binding sites for Sp1, GATA-1 and NF1. Here, we show that the DNA-binding activities of transcription factors Sp1 and GATA-1 is reduced 5- to 10-fold in mature cells, while the activities of UPE-binding protein and NF1 remain the same in mature and immature erythrocytes. The reduced activities of Sp1 and GATA-1 may contribute to the inactivation of the histone H5 gene in mature erythrocytes

Proteomic changes in response to lipin1 overexpression in 293T human renal epithelial cells

466-474Lipin1, a member of the lipin family, serves as a phospholipid phosphatase or a co-transcriptional regulator in lipid metabolism. Recent studies also show that lipin1 is involved in many other cellular metabolism processes. However, the clear regulatory mechanism for lipin1 is unknown. The 293T human renal epithelial cell line represents a commonly used and well established expression system for recombinant proteins. Herein, we used two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) to explore the changes in protein expression induced by lipin1 overexpression in 293T cells. Western blotting was used to confirm one of the expression changes of related proteins. Subsequently, the function and relationship of these proteins were analyzed by bioinformatics approach. By using 2D-PAGE, approximately 152 proteins were separated and eleven proteins were found to be significantly affected by lipin1 overexpression compared to the control. Among them, three proteins (eEF-1B γ, CCT1 and CCT3) were up-regulated and other eight proteins (NDKA, Stathmin, HNRNP A1, TK, KRT1, PKM, RanBP1 and LDHB) were down-regulated. These proteins were successfully identified with peptide mass fingerprinting using MALDI-TOF-MS after in-gel trypsin digestion. The bioinformatic analysis showed that these proteins are classified into seven protein species, including transferase, cleavage enzyme, cytoskeleton protein, chaperone protein, regulatory protein, structural protein and oxidoreductase. The results highlight the potential roles of lipin1 involved in many cellular metabolism processes, including myelin synthesis, extracellular domain formation, membrane bound vesicle synthesis and companion protein T complex synthesis

Proteomic changes in response to lipin1 overexpression in 293T human renal epithelial cells

Lipin1, a member of the lipin family, serves as a phospholipid phosphatase or a co-transcriptional regulator in lipid metabolism. Recent studies also show that lipin1 is involved in many other cellular metabolism processes. However, the clear regulatory mechanism for lipin1 is unknown. The 293T human renal epithelial cell line represents a commonly used and well established expression system for recombinant proteins. Herein, we used two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-GE) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) to explore the changes in protein expression induced by lipin1 overexpression in 293T cells. Western blotting was used to confirm one of the expression changes of related proteins. Subsequently, the function and relationship of these proteins were analyzed by bioinformatics approach. By using 2D-PAGE, approximately 152 proteins were separated and eleven proteins were found to be significantly affected by lipin1 overexpression compared to the control. Among them, three proteins (eEF-1B γ, CCT1 and CCT3) were up-regulated and other eight proteins (NDKA, Stathmin, HNRNP A1, TK, KRT1, PKM, RanBP1 and LDHB) were down-regulated. These proteins were successfully identified with peptide mass fingerprinting using MALDI-TOF-MS after in-gel trypsin digestion. The bioinformatic analysis showed that these proteins are classified into seven protein species, including transferase, cleavage enzyme, cytoskeleton protein, chaperone protein, regulatory protein, structural protein and oxidoreductase. The results highlight the potential roles of lipin1 involved in many cellular metabolism processes, including myelin synthesis, extracellular domain formation, membrane bound vesicle synthesis and companion protein T complex synthesis