Socio-cultural Aspects of the Significance of Higher Education in the Context of the Labour Market

The main purpose of the paper is analysing the significance ascribed to higher education and pointing out the shifts in social perception taking place under the influence of the situation on the labour market. The basic resource material is the results of the research project carried out by the author in the period 2000–2011 in the Region of Lublin among employers, students, employees, and selfemployed people. The concept of the research follows the cultural approach. It was assumed that culture plays a dominant role in forming the processes of valuating the sphere of labour and education and it orders the relations between the subjects of the labour market. However, the assessment of the value of education takes place also on the labour market. Therefore, the reflections concern the systems of values and norms attributed to the acquisition of higher education and the beliefs about its usefulness and utilitarian functions. The comparative analysis leads to the conclusion that both sides of market exchange highly acclaim education among social values, but the position one occupies on the market contributes to a divergent evaluation of the market value of education. For employees, the co-existence of the cultural and market context facilitates the polarization of views, which can be seen in various educational and professional strategies. Employers are critical about how poorly the educational effects are adjusted to the labour market. The research results, despite the uniqueness of the employment and economic situation, are coincident with the results of similar projects conducted in different regions of Poland

Satysfakcjonująca praca w warunkach indywidualnej działalności gospodarczej

The article is devoted to the issue of satisfaction with work – expectations and implementation – from the perspective of individual business activity. The results of three survey-type research projects carried out in the years 2002–2019 among persons conducting business activity in the Lubelskie Voivodeship (a total of 1696 respondents) were used as empirical material. Comparative analysis was based on the replication of variables and indicators. The study consists of two parts. The first presents the definition problems regarding self-employment, theoretical foundations and the subject of the analysis, an outline of the methodology and features of the examined communities. The second part contains the description of the research results. The analysis concerns the values and needs associated with work, determining the degree of their mapping in the work performed, and then the factors determining the chances of success of the business ventureIn order to obtain an image of structuralization of a comprehensive set of the valued aspects of work, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied. The extracted dimensions are used in the logistic regression models as predictors explaining the conditions of achievements: satisfaction with work and good economic condition of companies. The adopted perspective of the work situation allows, above all, to capture the multidimensional diversity of the population of people running a business, as well as strategies for self-employment.Artykuł został poświęcony zagadnieniu satysfakcjonującej pracy – oczekiwaniom i realizacji – z perspektywy indywidualnej działalności gospodarczej. Jako materiał empiryczny wykorzystano wyniki trzech projektów badawczych typu surveyowego, wykonanych w latach 2002–2019 wśród osób prowadzących działalność gospodarczą na terenie województwa lubelskiego (łącznie 1696 respondentów). Analizę porównawczą oparto na replikacji zmiennych i wskaźników. Opracowanie składa się z dwóch części. W pierwszej zostały przedstawione problemy definicyjne dotyczące pracy na własny rachunek, podstawy teoretyczne i przedmiot analizy badań własnych, zarys metodologii i cechy badanych zbiorowości. Druga część zawiera opis rezultatów badawczych. Przeprowadzona analiza dotyczy wartości i potrzeb łączonych z pracą, ustalenia stopnia ich odwzorowania w wykonywanej pracy, a następnie czynników określających szanse powodzenia przedsięwzięcia gospodarczego. W celu uzyskania obrazu strukturalizacji obszernego zbioru cenionych aspektów pracy zastosowano analizę głównych składowych (PCA). Wyodrębnione wymiary zostały wykorzystane w modelach regresji logistycznej jako predyktory objaśniające uwarunkowania osiągnięć: zadowolenia z pracy i dobrej kondycji ekonomicznej firm. Przyjęta perspektywa sytuacji pracy pozwala – poza wszystkim – uchwycić wielowymiarowe zróżnicowanie zbiorowości osób prowadzących działalność gospodarczą, podobnie jak strategii pracy na własny rachunek

Badania pracodawców jako źródło informacji o popycie na pracę – analiza wybranych zagadnień

The article contains the analysis of selected issues of cognitive problems and application research of employers; the issues concern the demand for work of people with higher education. The results of research project (conducted by the author in 2001–2011 on the territory of Lublin Province) constitute the source materials. The aim of the work which was based on the analysis of theoretical, methodological basis and empirical studies was to define the importance of the studies of employers during collecting information of the demand for work. Particular attention was focused on the description of the specificity of survey research. The author showed that there were many determinants of the process of projection and implementation of the studies of employers which played important role in formation their cognitive and application values. They include both methodological aspects (influence of social-professional features of respondents on the formed message) and the context of social problems. It is, mainly, the issue of increasing level of unemployment among people with higher education, especially among university or college graduates. Artykuł zawiera analizę wybranych problemów poznawczych i aplikacyjnych badań pracodawców, których przedmiotem jest zapotrzebowanie na pracę osób z wyższym wykształceniem. Zasadniczy materiał źródłowy stanowią rezultaty cyklu projektów badawczych wykonanych przez autorkę w latach 2001–2011 na terenie województwa lubelskiego. Celem rozważań, które oparto na analizie podstaw teoretycznych, metodologicznych i empirycznych badań własnych, było określenie znaczenia badań pracodawców w procesie budowania wiedzy na temat popytu na pracę. Szczególną uwagę poświęcono omówieniu specyfiki badań surveyowych. Wykazano, że występuje szereg determinant procesu projektowania i realizacji badań pracodawców, które odgrywają istotną rolę w kształtowaniu ich wartości poznawczej i aplikacyjnej. Należą do nich aspekty metodologiczne, w tym oddziaływanie cech społeczno-zawodowych respondentów na formowany przekaz, oraz kontekst problemów społecznych. Głównie jest to kwestia wzrastającego poziomu bezrobocia wśród osób z wyższym wykształceniem, zwłaszcza w wypadku absolwentów uczelni.

Model of Enterpreneurship and Social-cultural and Market Orientation of Small Business Owners in Poland

In the development of SMEs in Poland crucial meaning is legislation, steadily adapted to EU regulations, especially to the European Charter for Small Enterprises. Research conducted in Poland by many authors provide data for doing so, to confirm the hypothesis that among small businesses a vital role in shaping their work situation did not continue to play the market mechanisms and orientations, but mainly socio-cultural factors.W rozwoju MŚP w Polsce podstawowe znaczenie mają również uregulowania prawne, systematycznie dostosowywane do regulacji unijnych, zwłaszcza zaś do Europejskiej Karty Małych Przedsiębiorstw. Badania prowadzone w Polsce przez wielu autorów dostarczają danych ku temu, by potwierdzić tezę, że wśród drobnych przedsiębiorców decydującą rolę w kształtowaniu ich sytuacji pracy odgrywają nadal nie mechanizmy i orientacje rynkowe, ale przede wszystkim czynniki społeczno-kulturowe

Thread embedded into penile tissue over time as an unusual hair thread tourniquet injury to the penis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Hair thread tourniquet syndrome has been recognized since the 1960s. Since then, sporadic reports have appeared in the literature describing different degrees of strangulation and/or amputation of the penis caused by a hair thread being inadvertently tied around the penis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 9-year-old boy presented with a 3-year history of hair thread tourniquet injury to his penis. Instead of the usual strangulation or amputation, the tourniquet had become embedded into the penile tissue, manifesting with exuberant granulation tissue and a tight urethral stricture. At surgery, the intact tourniquet was still in place, embedded in dense fibrous tissue and associated with a dense urethral fibrosis which measured about 2 cm long. The tourniquet was divided and removed, the fibrotic urethra excised and a distal penile pedicled skin flap used to perform a single-stage substitution urethroplasty. The patient has been voiding well for 28 months.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case is unusual and is the first report of its kind. It is also the first report of a hair thread tourniquet as the cause of pediatric penile injury in Nigeria.</p

Food Acceptability in Field Studies with US Army Men and Women: Relationship with Food Intake and Food Choice After Repeated Exposures

Laboratory data with single exposures showed that palatability has a positive relationship with food intake. The question addressed in this study is whether this relationship also holds over repeated exposures in non-laboratory contexts in more natural environments. The data were collected in four field studies, lasting 4–11 days with 307 US Army men and 119 Army women, and comprised 5791 main meals and 8831 snacks in total. Acceptability was rated on the nine point hedonic scale, and intake was registered in units of 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or 1 or more times of the provided portion size. Correlation coefficients between individual acceptability ratings and intakes varied from 0.22 to 0.62 for the main meals (n=193–2267), and between 0.13 and 0.56 for the snacks (n=304–2967). The likelihood of choosing a meal for the second time was positively related to the acceptability rating of the meal when it was consumed for the first time. The results reinforce the importance of liking in food choice and food intake/choice behavior. However, the magnitude of the correlation coefficients between acceptability ratings and food intake suggest that environmental factors also have an important role in determining intake and choice

Signal transduction underlying the control of urinary bladder smooth muscle tone by muscarinic receptors and β-adrenoceptors

The normal physiological contraction of the urinary bladder, which is required for voiding, is predominantly mediated by muscarinic receptors, primarily the M3 subtype, with the M2 subtype providing a secondary backup role. Bladder relaxation, which is required for urine storage, is mediated by β-adrenoceptors, in most species involving a strong β3-component. An excessive stimulation of contraction or a reduced relaxation of the detrusor smooth muscle during the storage phase of the micturition cycle may contribute to bladder dysfunction known as the overactive bladder. Therefore, interference with the signal transduction of these receptors may be a viable approach to develop drugs for the treatment of overactive bladder. The prototypical signaling pathway of M3 receptors is activation of phospholipase C (PLC), and this pathway is also activated in the bladder. Nevertheless, PLC apparently contributes only in a very minor way to bladder contraction. Rather, muscarinic-receptor-mediated bladder contraction involves voltage-operated Ca2+ channels and Rho kinase. The prototypical signaling pathway of β-adrenoceptors is an activation of adenylyl cyclase with the subsequent formation of cAMP. Nevertheless, cAMP apparently contributes in a minor way only to β-adrenoceptor-mediated bladder relaxation. BKCa channels may play a greater role in β-adrenoceptor-mediated bladder relaxation. We conclude that apart from muscarinic receptor antagonists and β-adrenoceptor agonists, inhibitors of Rho kinase and activators of BKCa channels may have potential to treat an overactive bladder