Neighbourhoods and self rated health: a comparison of public sector employees in London and Helsinki

Study objective: Mortality and morbidity vary across neighbourhoods and larger residential areas. Effects of area deprivation on health may vary across countries, because of greater spatial separation of people occupying high and low socioeconomic positions and differences in the provision of local services and facilities. Neighbourhood variations in health and the contribution of residents' characteristics and neighbourhood indicators were compared in London and Helsinki, two settings where inequality and welfare policies differ.Design: Data from two cohorts were used to investigate associations between self rated health and neighbourhood indicators using a multilevel approach.Setting: London and Helsinki.Participants: From the Whitehall II study (London, aged 39-63) and the Helsinki health study (aged 40-60).Main results: Socioeconomic segregation was higher in London than in Helsinki. Age and sex adjusted differences in self rated health between neighbourhoods were also greater in London. Independent of individual socioeconomic position, neighbourhood unemployment, proportion of residents in manual occupations, and proportion of single households were associated with health. In pooled data, residence in a neighbourhood with highest unemployment was associated with an odds ratio of less than good self rated health of 1.51 (95% CI 1.30 to 1.75). High rates of single parenthood were associated with health in London but not in Helsinki.Conclusions: Neighbourhood socioeconomic context was associated with health in both countries, with some evidence of greater neighbourhood effects in London. Greater socioeconomic segregation in London may have emergent effects at the neighbourhood level. Local and national social policies may reduce, or restrict, inequality and segregation between areas

Employment Retention Policy

This Report investigates the potential for a statutory model of employment retention leave. A Private Members Bill (HC Bill 2006-07) [79] currently in progress through Parliament would, if enacted, offer disabled employees the right to paid leave for employment assessment, rehabilitation or re-training

Building health: an epidemiological study of "sick building syndrome" in the Whitehall II study

Objectives: Sick building syndrome (SBS) is described as a group of symptoms attributed to the physical environment of specific buildings. Isolating particular environmental features responsible for the symptoms has proved difficult. This study explores the role and significance of the physical and psychosocial work environment in explaining SBS. Methods: Cross sectional data on the physical environment of a selection of buildings were added to individual data from the Whitehall II study—an ongoing health survey of office based civil servants. A self-report questionnaire was used to capture 10 symptoms of the SBS and psychosocial work stress. In total, 4052 participants aged 42–62 years working in 44 buildings were included in this study. Results: No significant relation was found between most aspects of the physical work environment and symptom prevalence, adjusted for age, sex, and employment grade. Positive (non-significant) relations were found only with airborne bacteria, inhalable dust, dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, and having some control over the local physical environment. Greater effects were found with features of the psychosocial work environment including high job demands and low support. Only psychosocial work characteristics and control over the physical environment were independently associated with symptoms in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions: The physical environment of office buildings appears to be less important than features of the psychosocial work environment in explaining differences in the prevalence of symptoms

How to measure the spreading width for decay of superdeformed nuclei

A new expression for the branching ratio for the decay via the E1 process in the normal-deformed band of superdeformed nuclei is given within a simple two-level model. Using this expression, the spreading or tunneling width Gamma^downarrow for superdeformed decay can be expressed entirely in terms of experimentally known quantities. We show how to determine the tunneling matrix element V from the measured value of Gamma^downarrow and a statistical model of the energy levels. The accuracy of the two-level approximation is verified by considering the effects of the other normal-deformed states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Designing Dental Student Portfolios to Assess Performance

The purpose of this poster is to share a project developed by Marquette University’s liaisons to the American Dental Education Association’s Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education with others interested in learning about the use of portfolios to assess the quality of student performance in dental school. Sample components from the pilot portfolios will be integrated into the poster to provide participants with a view from portfolio design to completion. Portfolios are becoming a more common method of assessing the quality of student performance in health professions education. Portfolios can assist in documenting evidence of specific competencies at the student level and also serve as a longitudinal measure of a student’s development

Simple model for decay of superdeformed nuclei

Recent theoretical investigations of the decay mechanism out of a superdeformed nuclear band have yielded qualitatively different results, depending on the relative values of the relevant decay widths. We present a simple two-level model for the dynamics of the tunneling between the superdeformed and normal-deformed bands, which treats decay and tunneling processes on an equal footing. The previous theoretical results are shown to correspond to coherent and incoherent limits of the full tunneling dynamics. Our model accounts for experimental data in both the A~150 mass region, where the tunneling dynamics is coherent, and in the A~190 mass region, where the tunneling dynamics is incoherent.Comment: 4 page

Application of Single-Station Sigma and Site-Response Characterization in a Probabilistic Seismic-Hazard Analysis for a New Nuclear Site

Aleatory variability in ground-motion prediction, represented by the standard deviation (sigma) of a ground-motion prediction equation, exerts a very strong influence on the results of probabilistic seismic-hazard analysis (PSHA). This is especially so at the low annual exceedance frequencies considered for nuclear facilities; in these cases, even small reductions in sigma can have a marked effect on the hazard estimates. Proper separation and quantification of aleatory variability and epistemic uncertainty can lead to defensible reductions in sigma. One such approach is the single-station sigma concept, which removes that part of sigma corresponding to repeatable site-specific effects. However, the site-to-site component must then be constrained by site-specific measurements or else modeled as epistemic uncertainty and incorporated into the modeling of site effects. The practical application of the single-station sigma concept, including the characterization of the dynamic properties of the site and the incorporation of site-response effects into the hazard calculations, is illustrated for a PSHA conducted at a rock site under consideration for the potential construction of a nuclear power plant.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Sexual Harassment Experiences and Harmful Alcohol Use in a Military Sample: Differences in Gender and the Mediating Role of Depression

The current investigation identified the genderspecific prevalence of sexual harassment and assault experienced during U.S. military service and the negative mental and physical health correlates of these experiences in a sample of former reservists. We surveyed a stratified random sample of 3,946 former reservists about their experiences during military service and their current health, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, somatic symptoms, and medical conditions. Prevalence estimates and confidence intervals of sexual harassment and assault were calculated. A series of logistic regressions identified associations with health symptoms and conditions. Both men and women had a substantial prevalence of military sexual harassment and assault. As expected, higher proportions of female reservists reported sexual harassment (60.0% vs 27.2% for males) and sexual assault (13.1% vs 1.6% for males). For both men and women, these experiences were associated with deleterious mental and physical health conditions, with sexual assault demonstrating stronger associations than other types of sexual harassment in most cases. This investigation is the first to document high instances of these experiences among reservists. These data provide further evidence that experiences of sexual harassment and assault during military service have significant implications for the healthcare needs of military veterans

Frontal theta band oscillations predict error correction and posterror slowing in typing

Performance errors are associated with robust behavioral and electroencephalography (EEG) effects. However, there is a debate about the nature of the relationship between these effects and implicit versus explicit error awareness. Our aim was to study the relationship between error related electrophysiological effects, such as spectral perturbations in fronto-medial theta band oscillations (FMT), and error awareness in typing. Typing has an advantage as an experimental paradigm in that detected errors are quickly and habitually signaled by the participant using backspace, allowing separation of detected from undetected errors without interruption in behavior. Typing is thought to be controlled hierarchically via inner and outer loops, which rely on different sources for error detection. Touch-typist participants were asked to copy-type 100 sentences as EEG was recorded in the absence of visual feedback. Continuous EEG data were analyzed using independent component analysis (ICA). Time-frequency and ERP analyses were applied to emergent independent components. The results show that single-trial FMT parameters and error related negativity (ERN) amplitude predict overt, adaptive posterror actions such as error correction via backspace; and, posterror slowing, reflecting implicit error awareness. In addition, we found that those uncorrected errors which were slowed down the most were also the ones associated with a high level of FMT activity. Our results as a whole show that FMT are related to neural mechanisms involved in explicit awareness of errors, and input from inner loop is sufficient for error correction in typing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved