Gender gap in self-rated health: a cohort perspective in eastern European countries

Background: The relationship between self-rated health and gender differs across countries and generations. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of socioeconomic conditions on self-rated health from a generational perspective, its differential effect on gender, and its influence on the gender gap in order to explore health diversity using a multidisciplinary approach and considering policy implications in Eastern European countries. Methods: We used data drawn from the European Health Interview Survey for eight Eastern European countries and EUROSTAT from 2006 through to 2009. We conducted multilevel analyses to understand the individual and national health determinants of self-rated health by gender and to determine whether national differences remain after controlling for micro variables. In order to analyze the role of equity (Gini quartile) in gender differences, Oaxaca analyses were used. Results: The self-rated health gender gap increases with age. Individual characteristics, such as educational level or smoking, influence citizens’ perceived health, and have a stronger effect on women than on men. Knowing both the characteristics (endowment effects) and the effects of individual characteristics (coefficient effects) on health is important in order to understand gender gaps among people from the silent generation. Conclusions: Our research indicates that random effects are greater for men than for women. Moreover, random effects might be explained to a certain extent by economic equity (Gini index). The combined effects of gender, cohort, and geographical differences on self-rated health have to be taken into account to develop public health policies. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

The Cost of Loneliness: Assessing the Social Relationships of the Elderly via an Abbreviated Sociotype Questionnaire for inside and outside the Clinic

Gauging the social relationships of the elderly is a significant sociometric research subject and a deep biomedical concern-particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is imperative for facultatives in primary care, for geriatric clinics, and for social care services. In this respect, this article explores the validity of an abbreviated version of the Sociotype Questionnaire (SOCQ), a tool previously developed by the authors for assessing the social relationships of the general population, now specifically addressed to the elderly population. The aim is to construct a 4-item dichotomous scale (SOCG-4) out of the 12 items of the original scale of the SOCQ, so that it can serve to discriminate among the patients in primary care and the geriatric clinic, helping the facultative to find those in need of social care or of psychosocial intervention. The population data have been obtained from a series of previous studies on social relationships in different segments of the elderly population (Ntotal = 915). The resulting abbreviated version of SOCG-4 was extracted by means of confirmatory factor analysis, with the congruence, validity, and relationship with the determinants as close to optimal. The significant correlations with SOCQ (0.82), UCLA (-0.55), Barthel (0.40), and other relevant tests are obtained. The test was also put to trial in a pilot study, being applied to 150 subjects via phone surveys, home visiting, and geriatric clinic-it becomes particularly useful for assessing the social relationships in geriatric clinic use. The 4-item Geriatric Sociotype scale (SOCG-4) appears as a valid measurement instrument for use in the clinic and in other social care instances

Governança no Terceiro Setor: Estudo em Associações e Fundações Privadas Sem Fins Lucrativos do Segmento Meio Ambiente Com Atuação no Brasil

O objetivo deste trabalho de doutoramento foi investigar a influência da governança corporativa no recebimento de doações, em particular, de receitas operacionais vinculadas, no contexto das entidades do terceiro setor com atuação no Brasil, sob a perspectiva analítica da teoria da agência. Observou-se essa lacuna de pesquisa, apesar da inegável contribuição dos estudos anteriores, devido ao foco das investigações residir nos possíveis efeitos dos mecanismos de governança, e não na governança como construção latente, e à carência de estudos empíricos no contexto brasileiro. As unidades de análise escolhidas foram as associações e fundações privadas sem fins lucrativos do segmento meio ambiente com atuação no Brasil. Os dados foram coletados por meio de levantamento documental, sendo a amostra composta por 108 observações. Assumindo como proxy de governança a presença de 21 mecanismos de governança na estrutura organizacional das entidades, que emergiram da revisão da literatura, foi identificada por meio de análise de correspondência múltipla a estrutura subjacente de governança, composta por seis dimensões: Conselho de Administração, Gestão, Conselho Fiscal, Auditoria, Transparência e Prestação de Contas. A partir dessa estrutura subjacente foi verificado, por meio da técnica Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, que a governança, tomada como construto de 2ª ordem refletido pelos construtos de 1ª ordem que compõe essa estrutura subjacente de governança, impactou positivamente o recebimento de recursos vinculados. Adicionalmente verificou-se que a distinção da entidade (OS, OSCIP ou CEBAS) não moderou a relação entre governança e recebimento de recursos vinculados. Os resultados deste trabalho representam um avanço nos estudos sobre governança no terceiro setor ao evidenciar que a governança contribui para que as entidades do terceiro setor tenham acesso mais fácil a mercado de doação, especialmente considerando que as organizações doadoras não responderam favoravelmente à distinção da entidade

Corporate social responsibility and workplace health promotion: A systematic review

The complex situation that global society is facing as a result of COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of companies committing to the principles of social responsibility. Among the internal initiatives, those related to the health of workers are, obviously, highly topical. The objective of our research is to provide concise knowledge of the relationship between workplace health promotion (WHP) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) so that the relevant specialized research was gathered in a single document that lays the foundations of its applicability. A systematic review, following the PRISMA method, has been carried out. Twenty-seven articles have been selected from the main scientific databases. Their qualitative analysis concludes that CSR and WHP are linked, have beneficial reciprocal effects, need committed leadership respectful of autonomy and voluntariness, and require the establishment of specific goals within the framework of the organizations' sustainability policies. Future studies should establish the impact of the pandemic on these aspects

An Acheulean handaxe from Gladysvale Cave site, Gauteng, South Africa.

WE DESCRIBE A SINGLE HANDAXE FROM fossiliferous breccias at Gladysvale Cave, South Africa. The artefact is the only known tool so far discovered during the controlled excavations conducted at this site over the last decade, and was recovered from decalcified sediments near the stratigraphic interface of two breccia units, making it difficult to assign it with confidence to either. The morphology of the handaxe indicates a middle-late Acheulean industry, and preliminary electron spin resonance and palaeomagnetic dating suggest an age of greater than 780 000 years.NCS2016http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC9652

Analysis of educational leadership at rural early-childhood and primary schools: a case study in Teruel (Aragon, Spain)

Rural schools are a distinctive feature in the autonomous community of Aragon, as state-run rural schools are the main cultural institution in small towns. This research was conducted in four grouped rural schools (hereafter referred to by their Spanish acronym, CRAs) in the province of Teruel in 2017. Our objectives included analising the views of management team members and teachers on educational leadership with a special emphasis on the rural school’s differentiating elements. Four CRAs were chosen in the province of Teruel. Three teachers and six members of management teams participated and the study data were collected using a qualitative interview. The content analysis of the interview was conducted using the NVivo program and was organised into two fundamental areas: views of educational leadership and the skills this leadership includes. The general perception of management teams and teachers is positive; they value the effort put into performing the work and understand that both management and CRAs are complex. They also appreciate the management teams’ organisation of training and its contents. This analysis suggests a set of conditions that provides a qualitative insight into management possibilities and limitations in the CRA model

The response of Iberian rivers to the North Atlantic Oscillation

In this study we analyzed the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on the streamflow in 187 sub-basins of the Iberian Peninsula. Monthly and one-month lagged correlations were conducted to assess the spatio-temporal extent of the NAO influence on Iberian river discharges. Analysis of the persistence of the winter NAO throughout the year was also undertaken, together with analysis of streamflow anomalies during positive and negative NAO phases. Moving-window correlation analyses were conducted to assess potential changes in the temporal evolution of the NAO influence on Iberian streamflows. The results show that the NAO has a large impact on surface water resources throughout the Iberian Peninsula during winter, and in the Atlantic watershed during autumn. We showed that water resources management and snowmelt are causing the persistent dependence of streamflows on the previous winter NAO. We found that strongly positive streamflow anomalies occurred during winter, especially in the Atlantic watershed, and provide evidence of non-stationarity and spatial variability in the NAO influence on Iberian water resources

Fundamental, Quantitative Traits of the “Sociotype”

In whatever domain of life, from cells to organisms to societies, communicative exchanges underlie the formation and maintenance, and decay, of the emerging collective structures. It can be clearly seen in the human social world. The different classes of social bonds in a complex society revolve around, and are intimately related with, the communicative relationships that every individual entertains—essentially via face-to-face conversation. In the present work we have investigated the fundamental metrics of both social bonds and communicative exchanges along the development of the “sociotype” construct. It is a new approach developed by the authors within the genotype-phenotype-sociotype conceptual triad. The sociotype means the relative constancy, or better the similar fabric, of the social world in which each individual life is developed. In order to ascertain the metrics of the fundamental quantitative traits inherent in the sociotype, a fieldwork involving a total of 1475 individuals (68.59% female, and 49.79 mean age, SD = 21.47) was carried out. The four relational realms of family, friends, work/study, and acquaintances were investigated. The overall results about conversation time (an average of 220 min/day), and about the number of social bonds (an average of 98), differ from previous assumptions, such as Dunbar's number or Killworth's number. Other results about gender, age, and use of social media and Internet contribute to highlight significant differences among the different social segments, and particularly the diminished “sociotype” of the elderly. Finally, it is curious that a non-Gaussian distribution has been obtained for the specific population allotment of these metrics, and intriguingly the Planckian distribution equation (PDE) appears to be a most cogent fit

Positive Psychology: Supervisor Leadership in Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in Nurses

Introduction: In nursing, identifying factors encouraging positive work attitudes is ex-tremely important since a nurse’s performance directly impacts the quality of the care they provide, and, therefore, their patients’ health. Objective: The main objective of this research is to analyze whether the supervisor–nurse relationship is positively correlated with a nurse’s organizational citizenship behaviors. Thus, we established a main hypothesis as follows: the quality of the supervi-sor–nurse interpersonal relationship is positively related to the job satisfaction of the nurse, controlled by moderating the effects of psychological empowerment, the perceived organizational sup-port, and leader–leader exchange. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study with individuals as the units of analysis. The population studied comprised all the nurses and supervisors working in nine public hospitals in the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain). The sample con-sisted of 2541 nurses, 192 supervisors, and 2500 paired dyads. Self-report questionnaires were used to ensure workers’ anonymity. The dependent variable was the nurse’s organizational citizenship behaviors; the main independent variable was the supervisor’s leadership; the moderating variables were the nurse’s empowerment, the organizational support the nurse perceived, and the quality of the supervisor–superior relationship. Results: Empirical evidence demonstrates that the quality of the supervisor–nurse relationship is positively correlated with organizational citizenship behaviors. The results also confirm the moderating effect of nurses’ empowerment and of the organizational support they perceive. Discussion: Our research shows how important it is for organizations to es-tablish management practices promoting high-quality nurse–supervisor relationships; thus, hospital management should monitor both the supervisors’ performance and leadership. Conclusions: The quality of the relationship the supervisor establishes with their nurses is vitally important since it is a necessary requirement for beneficial results for the organization as a result of citizenship behavior practice