Leeway for the loyal: a model of employee discretion

This article examines the factors underlying task discretion from an economist's perspective. It argues that the key axis for understanding discretion is the trade-off between the positive effects of discretion on potential output per employee and the negative effects of greater leeway on work effort. In empirical analysis using matched employer-employee data, it is shown that discretion is strongly affected by the level of employee commitment. In addition, discretion is generally greater in high-skilled jobs, although not without exceptions, and lower where employees are under-skilled. Homeworking and flexitime policies raise employee discretion. The impact of teamworking is mixed. In about half of cases team members do not jointly decide about work matters, and the net effect of teams on task discretion in these cases is negative. In other cases, where team members do decide matters jointly, the impact is found to be neutral according to employees' perceptions, or positive according to managers' perceptions. There are also significant and substantial unobserved establishment-level factors which affect task discretion

A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production

Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance of species richness, abundance, and dominance for pollination; biological pest control; and final yields in the context of ongoing land-use change. Pollinator and enemy richness directly supported ecosystem services in addition to and independent of abundance and dominance. Up to 50% of the negative effects of landscape simplification on ecosystem services was due to richness losses of service-providing organisms, with negative consequences for crop yields. Maintaining the biodiversity of ecosystem service providers is therefore vital to sustain the flow of key agroecosystem benefits to society. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

A core curriculum for the continuing professional development of nurses: Developed by the Education Committee on behalf of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions of the ESC

Background: The European Society of Cardiology and the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions share a vision; to decrease the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe. Nurses represent the largest sector of the health professional workforce and have a significant contribution to make, which has not yet been fully realised. Recent evidence highlights an association between the level of nurse education and inpatient mortality making this an important topic, particularly as the provision of nurse education in Europe is variable. Aim: To develop a core curriculum to inform the education of nurses following initial qualification for work in cardiovascular settings. Method: A syllabus was developed using published literature, policy documents and existing curricula with expert input from service users, specialist nurses, cardiologists, educationalists and academics. The syllabus formed the framework for the development of the core curriculum. Results: Eight key themes characterise the core curriculum which are presented together with an account of the development process. While the curriculum is not intended to cover all aspects of the highly complex role of the cardiovascular nurse, the themes do exemplify the science and art of nursing and are transferable across different levels of clinical practice and settings. The curriculum functions both as a ‘map’, which identifies key themes to include in nurse education, and as a ‘tool’ to inform educational provision that bridges’ the gap between initial nurse education and advanced specialist practice. Content can be adapted for use to fit the national context and reflects the specific needs, health priorities, legislative and regulatory standards that govern safe nursing practice across different countries. Conclusion: The core curriculum can be used as a learning framework to guide nurse education, in particular the continuing professional education of post-qualifying nurses working in cardiovascular settings. This represents a significant step towards streamlining cardiovascular nurse education in Europ

Statistical characterisation of bio-aerosol background in an urban environment

In this paper we statistically characterise the bio-aerosol background in an urban environment. To do this we measure concentration levels of naturally occurring microbiological material in the atmosphere over a two month period. Naturally occurring bioaerosols can be considered as noise, as they mask the presence of signals coming from biological material of interest (such as an intentionally released biological agent). Analysis of this 'biobackground' was undertaken in the 1-10 um size range and a 3-9% contribution was found to be biological in origin - values which are in good agreement with other studies reported in the literature. A model based on the physics of turbulent mixing and dispersion was developed and validated against this analysis. The Gamma distribution (the basis of our model) is shown to comply with the scaling laws of the concentration moments of our data, which enables us to universally characterise both biological and non-biological material in the atmosphere. An application of this model is proposed to build a framework for the development of novel algorithms for bio-aerosol detection and rapid characterisation.Comment: 14 Pages, 8 Figure

Systematic evaluation of the efficacy-effectiveness gap of systemic treatments in extensive disease small cell lung cancer

Purpose The aim of this study is to assess how clinical outcomes in real-world (effectiveness) correspond to the outcomes in clinical trials (efficacy) of systemic treatments for extensive disease small cell lung cancer (ED SCLC). Methods All patients diagnosed with ED SCLC between 2008 and 2014 in six Dutch large teaching hospitals (Santeon network) were identified and followed-up from date of diagnosis until death or end of data collection. For every patient, an efficacy-effectiveness factor (EE factor) was calculated by dividing individual patients' overall survival (OS) by the pooled median OS assessed from clinical trials with the respective treatment. Results From 792 diagnosed patients, 568 (72%) started with first-line treatment. Overall, the median EE factor was 0.79 (P = 2) and a higher age at diagnosis (age >= 65 years) were independent predictors for a lower EE factor. The EE gap was 43% in patients with both age >= 65 years and ECOG >= 2 (EE factor 0.57). The mean age and the proportion of patients with ECOG >= 2 in real-world were different from those in clinical trials (mean age of 66 versus 62 years, and ECOG >= 2 25% versus 17%; both P <.001). Conclusion OS of patients with ED SCLC treated with systemic therapy in real-world practice is 21% shorter than for patients included in trials. Age at diagnosis and performance status partly explain this gap

Informal community support for parents of pre-school children: A comparative study investigating the subjective experience of parents attending community-based toddler groups in different socio-economic situations

"Within the United Kingdom, the importance of the appropriate parenting of children in their early years has received significant political support. However, it has been found that positive outcomes for young children, in terms of their present experience and future life chances, are often significantly weakened by the impact of poverty. A phenomenological scoping study was undertaken to explore the reasons why parents living in poverty access informal social support networks, in the form of community-based toddler groups. The study found that engagement with these networks has value for parents in terms of their mental well-being and their peer education, both of which support their ability to parent a young child appropriately.

Sixteen years of MOPITT satellite data strongly constrain Amazon CO fire emissions

Despite consensus on the overall downward trend in Amazon forest loss in the previous decade, estimates of yearly carbon emissions from deforestation still vary widely. Estimated carbon emissions are currently often based on data from local logging activity reports, changes in remotely sensed biomass as well as remote detection of fire hotspots, and burned area. Here, we use sixteen years of satellite-derived carbon monoxide (CO) columns to constrain fire CO emissions from the Amazon basin between 2003 and 2018. Through data assimilation, we produce 3-daily maps of fire CO emissions over the Amazon that we verified to be consistent with a long-term monitoring program of aircraft CO profiles over five sites in the Amazon. Our new product independently confirms a long-term decrease of 54 % in deforestation-related CO emissions over the study period. Interannual variability is large, with known anomalously dry years showing a more than fourfold increase in basin-wide fire emissions. At the level of individual Brazilian states, we find that both soil moisture anomalies and human ignitions determine fire activity, suggesting that future carbon release from fires depends on drought intensity as much as on continued forest protection. Our study shows that the atmospheric composition perspective on deforestation is a valuable additional monitoring instrument that complements existing bottom-up and remote sensing methods for land-use change. Extension of such a perspective to an operational framework is timely considering the observed increased fire intensity in the Amazon basin in 2019&ndash;2021.</p

Alteration in the plasma concentration of a DAAO inhibitor, 3-methylpyrazole-5-carboxylic acid, in the ketamine-treated rats and the influence on the pharmacokinetics of plasma d-tryptophan

A determination method for 3-methylpyrazole-5-carboxylic acid (MPC), an inhibitor of d-amino acid oxidase (DAAO), in rat plasma was developed by using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The structural isomer of MPC, 3-methylpyrazole-4-carboxylic acid, was used as an internal standard, and the intra- and inter-day accuracies and precisions were satisfactory for the determination of plasma MPC

Clinical Significance of Bronchodilator Responsiveness Evaluated by Forced Vital Capacity in COPD: SPIROMICS Cohort Analysis.

ObjectiveBronchodilator responsiveness (BDR) is prevalent in COPD, but its clinical implications remain unclear. We explored the significance of BDR, defined by post-bronchodilator change in FEV1 (BDRFEV1) as a measure reflecting the change in flow and in FVC (BDRFVC) reflecting the change in volume.MethodsWe analyzed 2974 participants from a multicenter observational study designed to identify varying COPD phenotypes (SPIROMICS). We evaluated the association of BDR with baseline clinical characteristics, rate of prospective exacerbations and mortality using negative binomial regression and Cox proportional hazards models.ResultsA majority of COPD participants exhibited BDR (52.7%). BDRFEV1 occurred more often in earlier stages of COPD, while BDRFVC occurred more frequently in more advanced disease. When defined by increases in either FEV1 or FVC, BDR was associated with a self-reported history of asthma, but not with blood eosinophil counts. BDRFVC was more prevalent in subjects with greater emphysema and small airway disease on CT. In a univariate analysis, BDRFVC was associated with increased exacerbations and mortality, although no significance was found in a model adjusted for post-bronchodilator FEV1.ConclusionWith advanced airflow obstruction in COPD, BDRFVC is more prevalent in comparison to BDRFEV1 and correlates with the extent of emphysema and degree of small airway disease. Since these associations appear to be related to the impairment of FEV1, BDRFVC itself does not define a distinct phenotype nor can it be more predictive of outcomes, but it can offer additional insights into the pathophysiologic mechanism in advanced COPD.Clinical trials registrationClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01969344T4