1,855 research outputs found
Towards a middle-range theory of mental health and well-being effects of employment transitions: Findings from a qualitative study on unemployment during the 2009-2010 economic recession.
This article builds upon previous theoretical work on job loss as a status passage to help explain how people's experiences of involuntary unemployment affected their mental well-being during the 2009-2010 economic recession. It proposes a middle-range theory that interprets employment transitions as status passages and suggests that their health and well-being effects depend on the personal and social meanings that people give to them, which are called properties of the transitions. The analyses, which used a thematic approach, are based on the findings of a qualitative study undertaken in Bradford (North England) consisting of 73 people interviewed in 16 focus groups. The study found that the participants experienced their job losses as divestment passages characterised by three main properties: experiences of reduced agency, disruption of role-based identities, for example, personal identity crises, and experiences of 'spoiled identities', for example, experiences of stigma. The proposed middle-range theory allows us to federate these findings together in a coherent framework which makes a contribution to illuminating not just the intra-personal consequences of unemployment, that is, its impact on subjective well-being and common mental health problems, but also its inter-personal consequences, that is, the hidden and often overlooked social processes that affect unemployed people's social well-being. This article discusses how the study findings and the proposed middle-range theory can help to address the theoretical weaknesses and often contradictory empirical findings from studies that use alternative frameworks, for example, deprivation models and 'incentive theory' of unemployment
Clustering, Order, and Collapse in a Driven Granular Monolayer
Steady state dynamics of clustering, long range order, and inelastic collapse
are experimentally observed in vertically shaken granular monolayers. At large
vibration amplitudes, particle correlations show only short range order like
equilibrium 2D hard sphere gases. Lowering the amplitude "cools" the system,
resulting in a dramatic increase in correlations leading either to clustering
or an ordered state. Further cooling forms a collapse: a condensate of
motionless balls co-existing with a less dense gas. Measured velocity
distributions are non-Gaussian, showing nearly exponential tails.Comment: 9 pages of text in Revtex, 5 figures; references added, minor
modifications Paper accepted to Phys Rev Letters. Tentatively scheduled for
Nov. 9, 199
Work characteristics and employee outcomes in local government
The overall objective of this study was to examine the work characteristics that make significant contributions to extra-role performance (as measured by the helping dimension of citizenship behaviour) and employee wellbeing (measured by job satisfaction and psychological health) in a local government. The work characteristics examined were based on the demand-control-support (DCS) model, augmented by organization-specific characteristics. The results indicate that characteristics described in the core DCS are just as relevant to extra-role performance as they are to more traditional indicators of job stress. Although the more situation-specific conditions were not predictive of citizenship behaviour, they made unique contributions to job satisfaction<br /
Non-Statistical Effects in Neutron Capture
There have been many reports of non-statistical effects in neutron-capture
measurements. However, reports of deviations of reduced-neutron-width
distributions from the expected Porter-Thomas (PT) shape largely have been
ignored. Most of these deviations have been reported for odd-A nuclides.
Because reliable spin (J) assignments have been absent for most resonances for
such nuclides, it is possible that reported deviations from PT might be due to
incorrect J assignments. We recently developed a new method for measuring spins
of neutron resonances by using the DANCE detector at LANSCE. Measurements made
with a 147Sm sample allowed us to determine spins of almost all known
resonances below 1 keV. Furthermore, analysis of these data revealed that the
reduced-neutron-width distribution was in good agreement with PT for resonances
below 350 eV, but in disagreement with PT for resonances between 350 and 700
eV. Our previous (n,alpha) measurements had revealed that the alpha strength
function also changes abruptly at this energy. There currently is no known
explanation for these two non-statistical effects. Recently, we have developed
another new method for determining the spins of neutron resonances. To
implement this technique required a small change (to record pulse-height
information for coincidence events) to a much simpler apparatus: A pair of C6D6
gamma-ray detectors which we have employed for many years to measure
neutron-capture cross sections at ORELA. Measurements with a 95Mo sample
revealed that not only does the method work very well for determining spins,
but it also makes possible parity assignments. Taken together, these new
techniques at LANSCE and ORELA could be very useful for further elucidation of
non-statistical effects.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, for proceedings of CGS1
The Importance of Time Congruity in the Organisation.
In 1991 Kaufman, Lane, and Lindquist proposed that time congruity in terms of an individual's time preferences and the time use methods of an organisation would lead to satisfactory performance and enhancement of quality of work and general life. The research reported here presents a study which uses commensurate person and job measures of time personality in an organisational setting to assess the effects of time congruity on one aspect of work life, job-related affective well-being. Results show that time personality and time congruity were found to have direct effects on well-being and the influence of time congruity was found to be mediated through time personality, thus contributing to the personâjob (PâJ) fit literature which suggests that direct effects are often more important than indirect effects. The study also provides some practical examples of ways to address some of the previously cited methodological issues in PâJ fit research
First identification of large electric monopole strength in well-deformed rare earth nuclei
Excited states in the well-deformed rare earth isotopes Sm and
Er were populated via ``safe'' Coulomb excitation at the Munich MLL
Tandem accelerator. Conversion electrons were registered in a cooled Si(Li)
detector in conjunction with a magnetic transport and filter system, the
Mini-Orange spectrometer. For the first excited state in Sm at
1099 keV a large value of the monopole strength for the transition to the
ground state of could be extracted. This confirms the interpretation of the lowest
excited state in Sm as the collective -vibrational
excitation of the ground state. In Er the measured large electric
monopole strength of clearly identifies the state at 1934 keV to be the
-vibrational excitation of the ground state.Comment: submitted to Physics Letters
Can health trainers make a difference with difficult-to-engage clients? A multisite case study
A political attempt in the United Kingdom to address health inequalities in the past decade has been the governmentâs initiative to employ local health trainers (HTs) or health trainer champions (HTCs) to support disadvantaged individuals with aspects of their health-related behaviors. HT/HTCs provide health-related information and support to individuals with healthy eating, physical activity, and smoking cessation. They undertake community engagement and direct individuals to relevant health services. They differ in that HTs are trained to provide health interventions to individuals or groups and to make referrals to specialist health care services when necessary. This article provides an evaluation of HT/HTCs interventions across three sites, including one prison, one probation service (three teams), and one mental health center. An evaluation framework combining process and outcome measures was employed that used mixed methods to capture data relating to the implementation of the service, including the context of the HT/HTCs interventions, the reactions of their clients, and the outcomes reported. It was found that HT/HTCs interventions were more effective in the prison and mental health center compared with the probation site largely as a result of contextual factors
Power law velocity fluctuations due to inelastic collisions in numerically simulated vibrated bed of powder}
Distribution functions of relative velocities among particles in a vibrated
bed of powder are studied both numerically and theoretically. In the solid
phase where granular particles remain near their local stable states, the
probability distribution is Gaussian. On the other hand, in the fluidized
phase, where the particles can exchange their positions, the distribution
clearly deviates from Gaussian. This is interpreted with two analogies;
aggregation processes and soft-to-hard turbulence transition in thermal
convection. The non-Gaussian distribution is well-approximated by the
t-distribution which is derived theoretically by considering the effect of
clustering by inelastic collisions in the former analogy.Comment: 7 pages, using REVTEX (Figures are inculded in text body)
%%%Replacement due to rivision (Europhys. Lett., in press)%%
Do divorcing couples become happier by breaking up?
Divorce is a leap in the dark. The paper investigates whether people who split up actually become happier. Using the British Household Panel Survey, we can observe an individual's level of psychological well-being in the years before and after divorce. Our results show that divorcing couples reap psychological gains from the dissolution of their marriages. Men and women benefit equally. The paper also studies the effects of bereavement, of having dependant children and of remarriage. We measure well-being by using general health questionnaire and life satisfaction scores
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