Factors Affecting the Work-life Balance of Flight Instructors

In recent years, work-life balance has become a key area of concern for employees and organizations all over the world. Employees’ work-life balance has a direct impact on their quality of life, work, and personal well-being. While many researchers have conducted studies investigating the factors affecting work-life balance for various group of employees—e.g., remote workers, female bank employees, corporate managers, physicians and clinicians, etc., work-life balance for flight instructors has never been studied. Flight instructors provide critical service for the aviation industry by teaching students how to fly aircrafts through classroom, simulator, and live flight instruction. They are required to have a pilot\u27s license and instructor certification. Although flight instructors usually do not fly more than eight hours a day, their work schedules can be irregular and unpredictable. They may also be required to work during weekends and evening hours. Naturally, balancing work and family responsibilities is not easy for flight instructors. This research will investigate the factors affecting work-life balance for flight instructors. Data will be collected using an online questionnaire and respondents will be selected through convenience sampling. Data analysis will be carried out by using confirmatory factor analysis. This work-in-progress poster contributes to the aviation industry by providing valuable insight into how flight instructors perceive the quality of their work-life balance. Results of this paper should benefit readers better understand many critical aspects of flight instructors’ duties and responsibilities. Results should also help increasing flight instructors’ productivity, well-being, and engagement, and reducing their stress and absenteeism

Relationship identities among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults: An exploratory study

Relationship identities are established through romantic interactions and informed by sociohistorical context. The associations between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identities and identities in other domains, including relationship identities, has yet to receive sufficient attention by researchers. In this exploratory study, through a qualitative analysis of life history interviews from the Generations Study, we identified participants who described their identity in terms of a romantic relationship (e.g., partner, husband/wife). In describing their relationship identities, two themes emerged: 1) negotiation of a relationship identity with other identities, such as gender or race/ethnicity, and 2) navigating being visible or invisible within the LGB community and/or at the societal level. Together these themes suggest that relationships may be salient components of personal identity when sexual minority individuals in a couple either individually or jointly feel that they stand out (or that they become invisible)

Examining a staging model for anorexia nervosa: empirical exploration of a four stage model of severity.

Background: An illness staging model for anorexia nervosa (AN) has received increasing attention, but assessing the merits of this concept is dependent on empirically examining a model in clinical samples. Building on preliminary findings regarding the reliability and validity of the Clinician Administered Staging Instrument for Anorexia Nervosa (CASIAN), the current study explores operationalising CASIAN severity scores into stages and assesses their relationship with other clinical features. Method: In women with DSM-IV-R AN and sub-threshold AN (all met AN criteria using DSM 5), receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis (n = 67) assessed the relationship between the sensitivity and specificity of each stage of the CASIAN. Thereafter chi-square and post-hoc adjusted residual analysis provided a preliminary assessment of the validity of the stages comparing the relationship between stage and treatment intensity and AN sub-types, and explored movement between stages after six months (Time 3) in a larger cohort (n = 171). Results: The CASIAN significantly distinguished between milder stages of illness (Stage 1 and 2) versus more severe stages of illness (Stages 3 and 4), and approached statistical significance in distinguishing each of the four stages from one other. CASIAN Stages were significantly associated with treatment modality and primary diagnosis, and CASIAN Stage at Time 1 was significantly associated with Stage at 6 month follow-up. Conclusions: Provisional support is provided for a staging model in AN. Larger studies with longer follow-up of cases are now needed to replicate and extend these findings and evaluate the overall utility of staging as well as optimal staging models

Spatial heterogeneity and peptide availability determine CTL killing efficiency in vivo

The rate at which a cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) can survey for infected cells is a key ingredient of models of vertebrate immune responses to intracellular pathogens. Estimates have been obtained using in vivo cytotoxicity assays in which peptide-pulsed splenocytes are killed by CTL in the spleens of immunised mice. However the spleen is a heterogeneous environment and splenocytes comprise multiple cell types. Are some cell types intrinsically more susceptible to lysis than others? Quantitatively, what impacts are made by the spatial distribution of targets and effectors, and the level of peptide-MHC on the target cell surface? To address these questions we revisited the splenocyte killing assay, using CTL specific for an epitope of influenza virus. We found that at the cell population level T cell targets were killed more rapidly than B cells. Using modeling, quantitative imaging and in vitro killing assays we conclude that this difference in vivo likely reflects different migratory patterns of targets within the spleen and a heterogeneous distribution of CTL, with no detectable difference in the intrinsic susceptibilities of the two populations to lysis. Modeling of the stages involved in the detection and killing of peptide-pulsed targets in vitro revealed that peptide dose influenced the ability of CTL to form conjugates with targets but had no detectable effect on the probability that conjugation resulted in lysis, and that T cell targets took longer to lyse than B cells. We also infer that incomplete killing in vivo of cells pulsed with low doses of peptide may be due to a combination of heterogeneity in peptide uptake and the dissociation, but not internalisation, of peptide-MHC complexes. Our analyses demonstrate how population-averaged parameters in models of immune responses can be dissected to account for both spatial and cellular heterogeneity

Asymptomatic bacteriuria in type 2 Iranian diabetic women: a cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: The risk of developing infection in diabetic patients is higher and urinary tract is the most common site for infection. Serious complications of urinary infection occur more commonly in diabetic patients. To study the prevalence and associates of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) in women with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Iranian population, this study was conducted. METHODS: Between February 10, 2004 and October 15, 2004; 202 nonpregnant diabetic (type 2) women (range: 31 to 78 years old) with no abnormalities of the urinary tract system were included in this clinic based study. We defined ASB as the presence of at least 10(5 )colony-forming units/ml of 1 or 2 bacterial species, in two separated cultures of clean-voided midstream urine. All the participants were free from any symptoms of urinary tract infection (UTI). Associates for developing bacteriuria was assessed and compared in participants with and without bacteriuria. RESULTS: In this study, the prevalence of ASB was 10.9% among diabetic women. E. coli was the most prevalent microorganism responsible for positive urine culture. Most of the isolated microorganisms were resistant to Co-trimoxazole, Nalidixic acid and Ciprofloxacin. Pyuria (P < 0.001) and glucosuria (P < 0.05) had a meaningful relationship with bacteriuria but no association was evident between age (P < 0.45), duration of diabetes (P < 0.09), macroalbuminuria (P < 0.10) and HbA(1c )level (P < 0.75), and the presence of ASB. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of ASB is higher in women with type 2 diabetes, for which pyuria and glucosuria can be considered as associates. Routine urine culture can be recommended for diabetic women even when there is no urinary symptom