La santé psychologique au travail : conceptualisation, instrumentation et facteurs organisationnels de développement

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Le lien entre les facteurs individuels, le port d’armes à feu et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu

Ce mémoire de maîtrise vise à identifier les liens réels et artificiels entre les facteurs individuels et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu. Plus spécifiquement, ce mémoire vise à identifier les liens directs et indirects entre les caractéristiques individuelles des délinquants les plus susceptibles d’utiliser criminellement leurs armes à feu lorsque le port d’armes à feu est intégré comme variable médiatrice. Pour ce faire, des analyses de régression logistique sont effectuées sur un échantillon de 235 délinquants auprès desquels un sondage a été réalisé. Trois analyses de régression logistique ont été effectuées afin de statuer sur la présence d’un effet médiateur du port d’armes à feu : d’abord, entre les caractéristiques individuelles et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu, ensuite entre les caractéristiques individuelles et le port d’armes à feu et, finalement, entre les caractéristiques individuelles et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu lorsque contrôlé par le port d’armes à feu. Les résultats d’analyses de régression logistique révèlent que le port d’armes à feu agit comme variable médiatrice auprès de la vente de cocaïne, de la consommation d’alcool, d’avoir déjà été la cible d’un coup de feu et du port d’armes à feu par les pairs. Les liens entre ces facteurs et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu sont donc indirects, sauf pour le port d’armes à feu par les pairs qui conserve des liens à la fois directs et indirects avec l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu. Par contre, les analyses de régression logistique révèlent également des changements dans les liens entre la consommation de cannabis et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu ainsi qu’entre le risque perçu d’être la cible d’un coup de feu de la part d’un policier et l’utilisation criminelle d’armes à feu lorsque contrôlé par le port d’armes à feu. Il est donc possible que le port d’armes à feu ait un rôle de modérateur auprès de ces variables. Ainsi, il agirait comme médiateur pour certaines variables et comme modérateur pour d’autres. Ces résultats appuient l’importance d’avoir une approche intégrative de la perspective situationnelle et des prédispositions individuelles, car certaines relations sont devenues statistiquement significatives seulement une fois que le port d’armes à feu est intégré dans les analyses, alors que d’autres se sont vu être grandement modifiées.This memoire aims to identify the real and artificial links between individual factors and the criminal use of firearms. More specifically, this memoire aims to identify the direct and indirect links between the individual characteristics of the offenders most likely to criminally use their firearms when the carrying of firearms is integrated as a mediating variable. Logistic regression analyzes are performed on a sample of 235 offenders from whom a survey was conducted. Three logistic regression analyzes were conducted to determine the presence of a mediating effect of the carrying of firearms: first, between individual characteristics and the criminal use of firearms, then between individual characteristics and the carrying of firearms and, ultimately, between individual characteristics and the criminal use of firearms when controlled by the carrying of firearms. Logistic regression results show that carrying a firearm acts as a mediating variable for cocaine sales, alcohol consumption, having been shot at and firearms carrying by peers. The links between these factors and the criminal use of firearms are therefore indirect, except for the carrying of firearms by peers who maintain both direct and indirect links to the criminal use of firearms. However, logistic regression analyzes also reveal changes in the links between cannabis use and the criminal use of firearms, as well as in the perceived risk of being shot at by a police officer and the criminal use of firearms when controlled by the carrying of firearms. It is therefore possible that the carrying of firearms has a moderating role with these variables. Thus, firearm carrying would act as a mediator for some variables and as moderator for others. These results support the importance of having an integrative approach to the situational perspective and individual predispositions, as some relationships have become statistically significant only once the carrying of firearms is incorporated into the analyzes, while others have been greatly modified

Switching off automatic pilot to promote wellbeing and performance in the workplace: the role of mindfulness and basic psychological needs satisfaction

Introduction and methodBuilding on self-determination theory, this study aims to advance the happy-productive worker thesis by examining a sequential mediation linking trait mindfulness to task performance through basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological wellbeing at work. Whereas most of the papers published on the topic stem from USA and Europe, we tested our model in a Canadian sample of 283 French-speaking workers.ResultsBased on structural equation modeling, results show that the three need satisfactions at work mediate the relationship between trait mindfulness and psychological wellbeing at work. Rather than observing a sequential mediation, we find an indirect effect of trait mindfulness on task performance through the satisfaction for one of the basic psychological need (i.e., competence).DiscussionThe present research goes beyond previous studies by exploring a new pair of happy construct-productive criteria alongside an emergent intrapersonal factor contributing to this relationship

Orthopedist involvement in the management of clinical activities : a case study

Background The rapid shift in hospital governance in the past few years suggests greater orthopedist involvement in management roles, would have wide-reaching benefits for the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery. This paper analyzes the dynamics of orthopedist involvement in the management of clinical activities for three orthopedic care pathways, by examining orthopedists’ level of involvement, describing the implications of such involvement, and indicating the main responses of other healthcare workers to such orthopedist involvement. Methods We selected four contrasting cases according to their level of governance in a Canadian university hospital center. We documented the institutional dynamics of orthopedist involvement in the management of clinical activities using semi-structured interviews until data saturation was reached at the 37th interview. Results Our findings show four levels (Inactive, Reactive, Contributory and Active) of orthopedist involvement in clinical activities. With the underlying nature of orthopedic surgeries, there are: (i) some activities for which decisions cannot be programmed in advance, and (ii) others for which decisions can be programmed. The management of unforeseen events requires a higher level of orthopedist involvement than the management of events that can be programmed. Conclusions Beyond simply identifying the underlying dynamics of orthopedists’ involvement in clinical activities, this study analyzed how such involvement impacts management activities and the quality-of-care results for patients

Bovine blood biomarkers as a way of processed animal proteins detection in feedingstuffs

peer reviewedThe prohibition of using animal by-products in feedingstuffs depends on two factors: their nature defined by the tissue/cell type and the species of origin, and on their destination (pets, fur animals or other farmed animals). Proteomics is particularly well-suited to the purpose of PAPs detection as it is a tissue and species-specific method. The aim of this study was the identification and the selection of specific peptide biomarkers using tandem mass spectrometry for the detection of bovine blood products and blood meals in animal feed. Twenty-nine samples of blood meals and blood products (plasma or haemoglobin powder) of porcine, poultry and bovine origin as well as three milk products and two fish meals were analysed using a Q TOF mass spectrometer. Vegetal feed samples adulterated with 1% or 10% of bovine plasma powder, haemoglobin powder or blood meal were also analysed to evaluate the applicability of the method. Four proteins of interest were highlighted: Alpha-2-macroglobulin, apolipoprotein A-1, serotransferrin and haemoglobin (α and β chains). From these proteins, sixteen peptides were identified as potential bovine blood biomarkers in feedingstuffs. Nine of them could be used for the detection of plasma powder and seven of them for haemoglobin powder or blood meal. The evaluation of these peptides by a search against NCBInr database revealed that some of them could also be used to detect other ruminant bloods such as ovine or caprine ones. These preliminary results are promising. Efforts are now focused to improve the protocol in order to increase the sensitivity of the method as regards the selected proteins

Organizational culture and leadership behaviors: is manager’s psychological health the missing piece?

BackgroundIn a context where organizations struggle to attract and retain highly qualified workers, organizations need to prioritize the psychological health of employees as a retention factor. To do so, they need to provide a healthy work environment. As an integral part of the employee experience, managers are an important factor in employee retention. In past studies, researchers have focused on the importance of leadership in boosting employees’ health without, however, considering factors encouraging such behavior in managers. Recently, some scholars have become interested in managers’ health as a resource allowing them to adopt good leadership behavior. Indeed, these studies reveal interesting links between managers’ emotional state and their behavior as leaders. Other studies, underscore the importance of considering the organizational context to better understand managers’ psychological health that may influence their leadership behaviors. This study proposes to examine the complex process by which organizational culture influences managers’ psychological health, which acts as a resource favoring the adoption of good leadership behaviors that are known to be constructive and have positive effects on employee.MethodsPath analyses with the CALIS procedure SAS software, version 9.4 were conducted on a sample of 522 managers in three healthcare facilities in the province of Quebec, Canada.ResultsThe results revealed that group culture is associated with the two indicators of managers’ psychological health at work. The results also demonstrated that managers’ psychological distress at work is positively related to transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles whereas psychological well-being at work is positively related to transformational and transactional leadership. Concerning indirect associations, there is a significant and positive indirect association between group culture and transformational leadership and there is also a significant and negative association between group culture and laissez-faire leadership. Finally, there is also an indirect association between hierarchical culture and transactional leadership.ConclusionOur study provides a more in-depth understanding of the relationship between organizational culture and leadership styles. More specifically, our findings highlight the benefits of implementing a group organizational culture to enhance psychological well-being, reduce psychological distress symptoms and promote good leadership behaviors

Progeny-testing of full-sibs IBD in a SSC2 QTL region highlights epistatic interactions for fatness traits in pigs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many QTL have been detected in pigs, but very few of them have been fine-mapped up to the causal mutation. On SSC2, the <it>IGF2</it>-intron3-G3072A mutation has been described as the causative polymorphism for a QTL underlying muscle mass and backfat deposition, but further studies have demonstrated that at least one additional QTL should segregate downstream of this mutation. A marker-assisted backcrossing design was set up in order to confirm the segregation of this second locus, reduce its confidence interval and better understand its mode of segregation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Five recombinant full-sibs, with genotype G/G at the <it>IGF2 </it>mutation, were progeny-tested. Only two of them displayed significant QTL for fatness traits although four inherited the same paternal and maternal chromosomes, thus exhibiting the same haplotypic contrast in the QTL region. The hypothesis of an interaction with another region in the genome was proposed to explain these discrepancies and after a genome scan, four different regions were retained as potential interacting regions with the SSC2 QTL. A candidate interacting region on SSC13 was confirmed by the analysis of an F2 pedigree, and in the backcross pedigree one haplotype in this region was found to mask the SSC2 QTL effect.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Assuming the hypothesis of interactions with other chromosomal regions, the QTL could be unambiguously mapped to a 30 cM region delimited by recombination points. The marker-assisted backcrossing design was successfully used to confirm the segregation of a QTL on SSC2 and, because full-sibs that inherited the same alleles from their two parents were analysed, the detection of epistatic interactions could be performed between alleles and not between breeds as usually done with the traditional Line-Cross model. Additional analyses of other recombinant sires should provide more information to further improve the fine-mapping of this locus, and confirm or deny the interaction identified between chromosomes 2 and 13.</p

Detection of quantitative trait loci for reproduction and production traits in Large White and French Landrace pig populations (Open Access publication)

A genome-wide scan was performed in Large White and French Landrace pig populations in order to identify QTL affecting reproduction and production traits. The experiment was based on a granddaughter design, including five Large White and three French Landrace half-sib families identified in the French porcine national database. A total of 239 animals (166 sons and 73 daughters of the eight male founders) distributed in eight families were genotyped for 144 microsatellite markers. The design included 51 262 animals recorded for production traits, and 53 205 litter size records were considered. Three production and three reproduction traits were analysed: average backfat thickness (US_M) and live weight (LWGT) at the end of the on-farm test, age of candidates adjusted at 100 kg live weight, total number of piglets born per litter, and numbers of stillborn (STILLp) and born alive (LIVp) piglets per litter. Ten QTL with medium to large effects were detected at a chromosome-wide significance level of 5% affecting traits US_M (on SSC2, SSC3 and SSC17), LWGT (on SSC4), STILLp (on SSC6, SSC11 and SSC14) and LIVp (on SSC7, SSC16 and SSC18). The number of heterozygous male founders varied from 1 to 3 depending on the QTL

Identification of QTL with effects on intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition in a Duroc × Large White cross

Research articl

Pan-HA antibodies confer protection in mice against influenza

The elderly population is one of the most vulnerable groups to influenza infection and influenza-related complications. Unfortunately, vaccination exhibits reduced efficacy in this population. Immunization and treatment with passive antibody transfer could therefore be a valuable alternative. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract