HSE Management Standards and burnout dimensions among rehabilitation professionals

Background The Health & Safety Executive Indicator Tool (HSE-IT) is a standard-based questionnaire commonly used to assess work-related stress in organizations. Although the HSE-IT validity has been well documented and significant relationships have been observed between its scales and several work-related outcomes, to date there is no evidence concerning the relationships between the HSE-IT and burnout among healthcare workers.Aims To investigate the relationships between the HSE-IT subscales and burnout dimensions as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) in a sample of Italian rehabilitation professionals employed in healthcare institutions.Methods An anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to a sample of Italian rehabilitation professionals including physical therapists, occupational therapists, psychiatric rehabilitation technicians and developmental psychomotor therapists. Associations between the HSE-IT and the MBI were analysed with multiple linear regression models.Results A total of 432 rehabilitation professionals completed the questionnaire and 14% of them showed high levels of burnout risk. Significant differences in the HSE-IT scores were found between workers at high risk of burnout and workers at low risk of burnout. Hierarchical regressions showed an association between the HSE-IT scales and the MBI factors: emotional exhaustion was associated with 'demands' and 'role', and both depersonalization and personal accomplishment were associated with 'control' and 'role'.Conclusions This preliminary study showed the HSE-IT subscales are sensitive to burnout risk as measured by the MBI. The association found between the HSE-IT 'demands', 'role' and 'control' subscales and the MBI dimensions is significant but small. These findings might inform targeted burnout prevention

Optical phase synchronization in coherent optical beamformers for phased array receive antennas

An optical phase synchronization system using a power feedback loop technique is experimentally demonstrated. The system allows coherent combining of signals modulated on the same optical carrier in a hybrid optical beam forming system setup

Multiwavelength optical beam forming network with ring resonator-based binary-tree architecture for broadband phased array antenna systems

Integrated optical beam forming networks (OBFNs) offer many advantages for phased array applications. ORR-based true-time-delay units can be cascaded in a binary tree topology and tuned for continuously-adjustable broadband time delay. Nonetheless, with large number of antenna elements, the OBFN may become very complex. A novel idea is proposed to exploit the frequency periodicity of the ORRs and the WDM technique to achieve multiple-signal-paths on a single beamformer, thus reducing complexity and costs. The use of high index contrast waveguides in Si-compatible technology further reduces chip footprint and allows the use of integrated OBFNs for large arrays and multi-beam applications

Organisation der Notfallstation: Umfeld und Leistungsauftrag bestimmen das Organisationskonzept

Zusammenfassung: Untersuchungsziel: Organisationsformen von Notfallstationen wurden analysiert, um Gestaltungsgrundsätze abzuleiten. Methoden: Organisation und Leistungsauftrag der klinischen Notfallmedizin wurden anhand einer Literaturrecherche verglichen. Dabei wurden organisatorische Grundmuster in Abhängigkeit von der Anwesenheit von Spezialisten (Spezialisierung) und der Einbindung in die Spitalorganisation (Integration) entwickelt und aufgrund etablierter Effizienzkriterien vergleichend bewertet. Ergebnisse: Klinische Notfallstationen unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich Autonomiegrad, Leistungsbreite und Leistungstiefe. Vier Archetypen wurden abgegrenzt: Das Profit-Center als ertragsorientierte Wirtschaftseinheit, das Service-Center als auftragserfüllende Organisationseinheit, die funktionelle Organisation als fachlich abgegrenzte Einheit und die modulare Organisation, die sich durch eine zentrale Notfalleinheit und rasch mobilisierbare Spezialistenteams auszeichnet. Schlussfolgerungen: Es gibt keinen Königsweg. Jede organisatorische Lösung bietet in Abhängigkeit von Umfeldbedingungen und Leistungsauftrag Vor- und Nachteile. Die organisatorischen Grundmuster bieten eine Orientierungshilfe, wobei Leistungsvolumen und -spektrum wichtige Determinanten darstelle

Analysis of phase noise and cnr degradation of externally generated lo signal in lnb for ku-band dvb-s systems by heterodyning two lasers

We investigate the externally generation of an LO signal by optical heterodyning, which is then distributed to each of the mixers at every antenna element of a phased array antenna used for standard DVB-S (digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite) reception system. The system1 is presented in Figure 1. The Ku-Band (10.7 GHz ~12.75 GHz) RF signal from the antenna array is amplified and then down converted to IF (950 MHz to 2150 MHz) at the mixer by a 9.75 GHz LO signal generated by optical heterodynin

Attitudes and perceptions of affected women towards endocrine endometriosis therapy: an international survey based on free-word association networks

STUDY QUESTION What are the attitudes and perceptions towards endocrine endometriosis therapy? SUMMARY ANSWER Among the study population, endocrine endometriosis therapies are associated with negative mental images and emotions and there seems to be a pre-therapeutic information deficit on the part of physicians. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Endocrine therapies, as the current standard of conservative endometriosis treatment, have good efficacy and improve symptoms and quality of life in most patients. Nevertheless, clinical practice repeatedly shows rejection on the part of patients, which may result in reduced compliance and discontinuation of therapy. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Cross-sectional study among endometriosis patients using a multilingual questionnaire distributed via the most popular social media channels between November 2020 and February 2021. A total of 3348 women participated in the study. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Based on a pilot phase, an international, multilingual online survey was conducted among women affected by endometriosis. The questionnaire included free-word associations and questions about personal medical history, source of information, and demographic data. Mental representations were detected based on modules of the co-occurrence network of associations. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Six modules with different dominant emotional labels emerged from the confluence of associations to endocrine endometriosis therapy mentioned by participants. Five modules reflected negative mental associations, with the most frequently mentioned words being ‘side effects’, ‘pain’, ‘ineffective’, ‘depression’, and ‘uncertainty’. Of the 12 most frequently selected emotions, only ‘optimistic’ was positive. Side effects affecting mental health are the most important reason for deciding against endocrine therapy in our survey population. Twenty-seven percent of respondents reported knowing little about endocrine therapies for endometriosis. Social media are the most frequently used sources of information and were rated as the most useful. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION By translating the questionnaire, questions might have been understood differently depending on the language. By using social media channels for distribution, digitally literate patients were targeted. The survey population might not be representative as patients who are critical/unhappy with therapy are more likely to seek advice from peer groups. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The findings of this study replicate the findings of a recent survey in three European countries. Given the prevalence of endometriosis and the few emerging pharmaceutical alternatives, these data point to a growing need for further research and development of non-hormonal drugs for treating endometriosis. Most endometriosis patients are young and digitally literate, and much information is obtained from alternative sources, such as social media. Careful education before starting therapy should be taken seriously, and patients’ concerns should be addressed individually by health care providers. This could help reduce misunderstanding and misinformation and improve treatment adherence and satisfaction. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) There is no funding or conflict of interest to declare. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER The trial is not registered at any trial registry

Interplay of the nuclear envelope with chromatin in physiology and pathology

The nuclear envelope compartmentalizes chromatin in eukaryotic cells. The main nuclear envelope components are lamins that associate with a panoply of factors, including the LEM domain proteins. The nuclear envelope of mammalian cells opens up during cell division. It is reassembled and associated with chromatin at the end of mitosis when telomeres tether to the nuclear periphery. Lamins, LEM domain proteins, and DNA binding factors, as BAF, contribute to the reorganization of chromatin. In this context, an emerging role is that of the ESCRT complex, a machinery operating in multiple membrane assembly pathways, including nuclear envelope reformation. Research in this area is unraveling how, mechanistically, ESCRTs link to nuclear envelope associated factors as LEM domain proteins. Importantly, ESCRTs work also during interphase for repairing nuclear envelope ruptures. Altogether the advances in this field are giving new clues for the interpretation of diseases implicating nuclear envelope fragility, as laminopathies and cancer

Automatic transmission parameters measurement and radiation pattern simulation for an RF photonic integrated beamformer

We present the implementation and demonstration of a software tool for the performance characterization of integrated N-by-1 photonic beamformers for phased array antennas. The software operates the automatic measurement of the transmission parameters of an equivalent N+1 ports microwave network, corresponding to the complex excitations of the individual antenna elements of the array. The measured excitations are used to simulate the array factor generated by the optical beamformer and to analyze it in terms of maximum directivity, sidelobe levels and wideband behaviour. The software provides a useful tool to test the wideband performance of the network, the effects of excitation inaccuracies, and a straightforward evaluation of the effects of amplitude and phase weighting for beam shaping

On-chip, CMOS-compatible, hardware-compressive integrated photonic beamformer based on WDM

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a novel, hardware-compressive architecture for broadband and continuously tunable integrated optical true-time-delay beamformers. The architecture is based on on-chip wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) that, in conjunction with the frequency-periodic response of optical ring resonator (ORR) filters, dramatically reduces the network complexity and, in turn, its area occupation on the wafer. This allows the integration of an unprecedented number of delay channels on a single chip, overcoming the main limitation of current integrated beamformers, that is, the limited capability to feed very large arrays when using a single chip. Based on this technique, a novel device is realized with TriPleXTM waveguide technology, using CMOScompatible fabrication equipment, and its functionality is demonstrated over the instantaneous 2-10 GHz bandwidth. At the best of our knowledge, this results represent at the same time the record instantaneous bandwidth (8 GHz) for an optical beamformer based on optical ring resonators(ORR), and the first demonstration of an integrated beamformer where signals from different antenna elements are processed simultaneously by individual delay lines, exploiting the periodic response of ORRs